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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/35345-8.txt b/35345-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..53af976 --- /dev/null +++ b/35345-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,13876 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The International Monthly, Volume 5, No. 4, +April, 1852, by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The International Monthly, Volume 5, No. 4, April, 1852 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: February 21, 2011 [EBook #35345] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE INTERNATIONAL MONTHLY *** + + + + +Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, Josephine Paolucci and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net. +(This file was produced from images generously made +available by Cornell University Digital Collections.) + + + + + + + +THE INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE + +Of Literature, Art, and Science. + +Vol. V. NEW-YORK, APRIL 1, 1852. No. IV. + + + + +WILLIAM GILMORE SIMMS, LL.D. + +[Illustration] + + +A steadily growing reputation for almost twenty years, justified by the +gradually increasing evidence of those latent, exhaustless, +ever-unfolding energies which belong to genius, has inwoven the name of +Simms with the literature of America, and made it part of the heirloom +which our age will give to posterity. Asking and desiring nothing to +which he could not prove himself justly entitled, he has wrested a +reputation from difficulty and obstacle, and conquered an honorable +acknowledgment from opposition and indifference. Even if we had not +proofs of genius in the treasury of thought and imagination constituted +by his writings, still the nobility of the example of energy, +perseverance, and high-toned hopefulness, which he has given, would +deserve a grateful homage. + +William Gilmore Simms is the second, and only surviving, of three +brothers, sons of William Gilmore Simms, and Harriet Ann Augusta +Singleton. His father was of a Scotch-Irish family, and his mother of a +Virginia stock, her grandparents having removed to South Carolina long +before the Revolution, in which they took an active part on the Whig +side. He was born on the 17th of April, 1806. His mother died when he +was an infant. His father, failing in business as a merchant, removed +first to Tennessee, and then to Mississippi. While in Tennessee he +volunteered and held a commission in the army of Jackson (in Coffee's +brigade of mounted men), which scourged the Creeks and Seminoles after +the massacre of Fort Mims. Our author, left to the care of a +grandmother, remained in Charleston, where he received an education +which circumstances rendered exceedingly limited. He was denied a +classical training, but such characters stand little in need of the +ordinary aids of the schoolmaster, and, with indomitable application, he +has not only stored his mind with the richest literature, but has +received an unsolicited tribute to his diligence and acquisitions, in +the degree of Doctor of Laws, conferred upon him by the respectable +University of Alabama. + +At first it was designed that he should study medicine, but his +inclination led him to the law. He was admitted to the bar of South +Carolina when twenty-one, practised for a brief period, and became part +proprietor of a daily newspaper, which, taking ground against +nullification, ruined him--swallowing up a small maternal property, and +involving him in a heavy debt which hung upon and embarrassed him for a +long time after. In 1832, he first visited the North, where he published +Atalantis. Martin Faber followed in 1834, and periodically the long +catalogue of his subsequent performances. + +There are few writers who have exhibited such versatility of powers, +combined with vigor, originality of copious and independent ideas, and +that faculty of condensation which frequently by a single pregnant line +suggests an expansive train of reflection. As a poet, he unites high +imaginative powers with metaphysical thought--by which we mean that +large discourse of reason which generalizes, and which seizes the +universal, and perceives its relations to individual phenomena of nature +and psychology. His poems abound in appropriate, felicitous, and +original similes. His keen and fresh perception of nature, furnishes him +with beautiful pictures, the truthfulness and clearness of which are +admirably presented in the lucid language with which they are painted, +and, in his expression of deep personal feelings, we find a noble union +of sad emotion and manliness of tone. He draws from a full treasury of +varied experience, active thought, close observation, just and original +reflection, and a spirit which has drank deeply and lovingly from the +gushing founts of nature. His inspiration is often kindled by the sunny +and luxuriant scenery of the beautiful region to which he was born, and +besides the freshness and glow which this imparts to his descriptive +poetry, it makes him emphatically the poet of the South. Not only has he +sung her peculiar natural aspects with the appreciation of a poet and +the feeling of a son, but he has a claim to her gratitude for having +enshrined in melodious verse her ancient and fading traditions. + +Mr. Simms commenced writing verses at a very early period. At eight +years of age he rhymed the achievements of the American navy in the last +war with Great Britain. At fifteen, he was a scribbler of fugitive verse +for the newspapers, and before he was twenty-one he had published two +collections of miscellaneous poetry, which his better taste and prudence +subsequently induced him to suppress. Two other volumes of poems +followed, in a more ambitious vein, which are also now beyond the reach +of the collector, and were issued while he was engaged in the +occupations of a newspaper editor and a student and practitioner of law. +These volumes were followed by Atalantis, a poem which has been highly +praised by the best critics of our time. + +As a prose writer, his vigorous, copious, and original ideas are clothed +in a manly, flexible, pure, and lucid style. His first production, +Martin Faber, succeeded Atalantis. It was the initial of a series of +tales, which we may describe as of the metaphysical and passionate or +moral imaginative class. These, with two or more volumes of shorter +tales, are numerous, and perhaps among the most original of his +writings. They comprise Martin Faber and other Tales, Castle Dismal, +Confessions, or the Blind Heart, Carle Werner and other Tales, and the +Wigwam and Cabin. There are other compositions belonging to this +category, and, it may be, not inferior in merit to any of these, which +have appeared in periodicals and annuals, but have not yet been +collected by their author. + +The first novel of Mr. Simms belonged to our border and domestic +history. This was Guy Rivers; and to the same class he has contributed +largely, in Richard Hurdis, Border Beagles, Beauchampe, Helen Halsey, +and other productions. In historical romance, he has written The +Yemassee, the Damsel of Darien, Pelayo, and Count Julian, each in two +volumes. The scenes of the two last are laid in Europe. His romances +founded on our revolutionary history, are The Partisan, Mellichampe, and +The Kinsmen. In biography and history, he is the author of The Life of +Marion; The Life of Captain John Smith, founder of Virginia; a History +of South Carolina; a Geography of the same State; a Life of Bayard; and +a Life of General Greene. + +It is impossible to enumerate accurately his poetical productions, as +many, published in periodicals, have never been printed together; but +the collection of his poems now in course of publication at Charleston, +will supply a desideratum to the lovers of genuine American letters and +art. Atalantis, Southern Passages and Pictures, Donna Florida, Grouped +Thoughts and Scattered Fancies, Areytos, Lays of the Palmetto, The +Cassique of Accube and other Poems, Norman Maurice, and The City of the +Silent, constituting distinct volumes, are, however, well known. + +The orations of Mr. Simms, which have been published, comprise one +delivered before the Erosophic Society of the Alabama University, +entitled, The Social Principle--the true source of National Permanence; +another before the town council and citizens of Aiken, South Carolina, +on the Fourth of July, 1844, entitled, The Sources of American +Independence; and one delivered before literary societies in Georgia, +entitled Self-development. + +As a writer of criticism, Mr. Simms is known by numerous articles +contributed to periodicals; by a review of Mrs. Trolloppe, in the +American Quarterly, and of Miss Martineau in the Southern Literary +Messenger (both subsequently republished in pamphlets, and received with +general approval), as well as by many others of equal merit--a selection +from which, wholly devoted to American topics, has been published in two +volumes, under the title of Views and Reviews in American History and +Fiction. + +Scarcely a production of Mr. Simms has been unmarked by a cordial +reception from the best literary journals; and the praise of the London +_Metropolitan_ and _Examiner_--the former when under the conduct of +Thomas Campbell, the latter of Albany Fonblanque--was generously +bestowed, especially on _Atalantis_; of which the _Metropolitan_ said, +"What has the most disappointed us is, that it is so thoroughly English: +the construction, the imagery, and, with a very few exceptions, the +idioms of the language, are altogether founded on our own scholastic and +classical models;" and Fonblanque, in reviewing a tale by Simms, +entitled, _Murder will Out_, said, "But all we intended to say about the +originality displayed in the volume has been forgotten in the interest +of the last story of the book, _Murder will Out_. This is an American +ghost story, and, without exception, the best we ever read. Within our +limits, we could not, with any justice, describe the whole course of its +incident, and it is in that, perhaps, its most marvellous effect lies. +It is the _rationale_ of the whole matter of such appearances, given +with fine philosophy and masterly interest. We never read any thing more +perfect or more consummately told." + +But the testimony of the critical press, or even of the successful sale +of an author's works, is not so suggestive of merit as the fact that his +productions have entered into the popular mind; and this tribute Mr. +Simms has received in the fact that in regions which he has identified +with legends created for them by his own genius, localities of his +different incidents are pointed out with a sincere belief in their +historical verity. The dramatic powers manifested in his novels, have +been still more largely displayed in his _Norman Maurice_, a play of +singular originality, in design, character, and execution, the nervous +language and felicitous turns of expression in which remind us of the +best of the old dramatists. We have heretofore expressed in the +_International_ a conviction that Norman Maurice is the best American +drama that has yet been published--the most American, the most dramatic, +the most original. + +As a member of the Legislature of his native State, and on various +public occasions, Mr. Simms has vindicated a title to fame as an orator; +and a recent nomination for the presidency of the South Carolina +College, although he declined being a candidate, is an evidence of the +impression which his ability, information, and high character have +produced on his fellow citizens. + +His intense intellectual activity, united with a habitually reflective +and philosophical mode of thought, and unwearied laboriousness, enable +him to accomplish an almost incredible amount of literary labor. The +catalogue of his works which is subjoined, gives but an inadequate idea +of what he has really performed; for multifarious productions, many of +them of the highest order in their respective classes, are scattered in +the pages of periodicals, or still in manuscript; while the unceasing +demands on his pen, with his arduous editorship, prevent him from +accomplishing many fruitful designs, whose inception he has hinted in +various ways. To his intellectual gifts, he unites a brave, generous +nature, a kindly, and strong heart, a genial, impulsive, yet faithful +and determined disposition, warm affection and friendship, a spirit to +do and to endure, and a soul as much elevated above the petty envies and +jealousies which too often deform the _genus irritabile_, as it is in +large sympathy with the beautiful, the true, the just--with humanity and +with nature. P. + + * * * * * + +_CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF WORKS BY MR. SIMMS._ + + 1. Lyrical and other Poems: 18mo, pp. 208, Charleston, Ellis + & Noufvillle, 1827. + + 2. Early Lays: 12mo. pp. 108, Charleston, A. E. Miller, + 1827. + + 3. The Vision of Cortes, and other Poems: Charleston, J. S. + Burgess. + + 4. The Tri-Color, or Three Days of Blood in Paris, 1830: + Charleston. + + 5. Atalantis, a Story of the Sea: New-York, J. & J. Harper, + 1832. + + 6. Martin Faber, a Tale: New-York, J. & J. Harper, 1833. + + 7. The Book of My Lady, a Melange: Phila., Key & Biddle, + 1833. + + 8. Guy Rivers, a Tale of Georgia: 2 vols. 12mo., New-York, + Harper & Brothers, 1834. + + 9. The Yemassee, a Romance of Carolina: 2 vols., New-York, + Harper & Brothers, 1835. + + 10. The Partisan, a Tale of the Revolution: 2 vols., + New-York, Harper & Brothers, 1836. + + 11. Mellichampe, a Legend of the Santee: 2 vols., New-York, + Harper & Brothers, 1836. + + 12. Martin Faber, and other Tales: a new edition, 2 vols., + New-York, Harper & Brothers, 1836. + + 13. Pelayo, a Story of the Goth: 2 vols., New-York, Harper & + Brothers, 1838. + + 14. Carl Werner, an Imaginative Story, with other Tales of + the Imagination: 2 vols., New-York, George Adlard, 1838. + + 15. Richard Hurdis, or the Avenger of Blood, a Tale of + Alabama: 2 vols., Philadelphia, Carey & Hart, 1838. + + 16. Southern Passages and Pictures: 1 vol., New-York, G. + Adlard, 1839. + + 17. The Damsel of Darien: 2 vols., Philadelphia, Lea & + Blanchard. + + 18. Border Beagles, a Tale of Mississippi: 2 vols., + Philadelphia, Carey & Hart, 1840. + + 19. The Kinsman, or the Black Riders of the Congaree: 2 + vols., Philadelphia, Lea & Blanchard, 1841. + + 20. Confession, or the Blind Heart: 2 vols., Philadelphia, + Lea & Blanchard. + + 21. Beauchampe, or the Kentucky Tragedy, a Tale of Passion: + 2 vols., Philadelphia, Lea & Blanchard, 1842. + + 22. History of South Carolina: 1 vol. 12mo., Charleston, + Babcock & Co. + + 23. Geography of South Carolina: 1 vol. 12mo., Charleston, + Babcock. + + 24. Life of Francis Marion: 1 vol., New-York, J. & H. G. + Langley. + + 25. Life of Capt. John Smith, the Founder of Virginia: 1 + vol., New-York, Langley. + + 26. Count Julian: 2 vols. 8vo., New-York, Taylor & Co., + 1845. + + 27. The Wigwam and the Cabin: 2 vols., New-York, Wiley & + Putnam. + + 28. Views and Reviews in American History, Literature and + Art: 2 vols., New-York, Wiley & Putnam, 1846. + + 29. Life of Chev. Bayard: 1 vol., New-York, Harper & + Brothers, 1848. + + 30. Donna Florida: 1 vol. 18mo., Charleston, Burgess & + James, 1848. + + 31. Grouped Thoughts and Scattered Fancies, a Collection of + Sonnets: 1 vol. 18mo., Richmond, McFarlane. + + 32. Slavery in the South: 1 vol 8vo., Richmond, McFarlane, + 1831. + + 33. Araytos, or the Songs of the South: 1 vol, 12mo., + Charleston, John Russell, 1846. + + 34. Lays of the Palmetto, a Tribute to the South Carolina + Regiment in the War with Mexico: 12mo., Charleston, John + Russell, 1848. + + 35. Atalantis, a Story of the Sea, with the Eye and Wing + (Poems chiefly Imaginative): 1 vol. 12mo., Carey & Hart, + 1848. + + 36. Life of Nathaniel Greene: 12 mo., New-York, Coolidge & + Bro., 1849. + + 37. Supplement to Writings of Shakspeare, Edited with Notes: + (First collected edition) 1 vol. 8vo., New-York, Coolidge & + Brothers. + + 38. The Social Principle, the true Secret of National + Permanence, an Oration: 1842. + + 39. The Sources of American Independence, an Oration: 1844. + + 40. Self Development, an Oration: 1847. + + 41. Castle Dismal, a Novelette: 1 vol. 12mo., Burgess & + Stringer. + + 42. Helen Halsey, 1 vol, 12mo., New-York, Burgess & + Stringer. + + 43. Katherine Walton, or the Rebel of Dorchester, a Romance + of the Revolution: A. Hart, Philadelphia, 1851. + + 44. The Golden Christmas; a Chronicle of St. John's, + Berkeley: Charleston, Walker & Richards, 1852. + + + + +THE PALACES OF TRADE. + +[Illustration: PETERSON & HUMPHREY'S CARPET HOUSE.] + + +It were well if not only William B. Astor, Stephen Whitney, the heirs of +Peter Stuyvesant (of blessed memory), and others who own real estate in +this city, and likewise all mayors, common councilmen, and others in +authority, were endued with more taste, with a higher regard to the +general interest, and a juster sense of the matters that pertain to a +good administration, so that it might be said in after times that the +beneficence of the Creator (who in things natural has done more for ours +than for any other city), had been seconded by the pious wisdom of the +creature, and Manhattan pointed to as in all respects the metropolis of +the world. Why not? If the very stones in the streets of London, Paris, +and Vienna, were turned to pure gold, they would not purchase for those +cities advantages that should be compared with such as we already +possessed by our beautiful island--a giant mosaic, set in emerald, +studding the bosom of Nature. + +Whatever may be said by our excellent neighbor, the minister of the +dingy-looking red brick meeting-house round the corner, it is not less a +work of piety to create any work of beauty--a beautiful house, or shop, +or poem, for example--than to teach a class in the Sunday school,--which +doctrine may be incidentally fortified from Jonathan Edwards's Theory of +True Virtue, and more directly from the best philosophies of later +years. It is ordered that the dignity of human nature shall in a great +degree be dependent upon a sympathetic association with what is +admirable. It was Hazlitt, we believe,--certainly it was some one who +appreciatingly recognized the highest earthly ministry,--who said it was +impossible to entertain an angry feeling in the presence of a lovely +woman's portrait,--which, done fitly, is the highest accomplishment of +art. Whatever is beautiful or sublime has the same purifying and +ennobling tendency. The beggars do shrewdly who sit in _front_ of +Stewart's. The same person who would give a shilling there, would as +likely as not steal a penny from the hat of the blind man round the +corner, where those detestable red bricks so outrage every principle +known to a builder fit to handle the trowel. There is nothing more +offensive than this custom of making of different materials the various +fronts of the same edifice. It may be allowable to construct the _rear_ +of a house, or a side that is to be built against speedily, of a cheaper +stone; but to make the face upon one street of marble, and the face +around the corner of brick, as in the case of Stewart's store, and the +Society Library, is an outrage as ridiculous as it would be to make +alternate gores of a woman's skirt of Petersham and Brussels lace. +Bricks are very respectable; we say nothing in their dispraise; but to +any man of taste, an edifice is much more beautiful built entirely of +bricks than it is with but one of two exposed parts of marble; and let +us say to the affluent merchant to whom New-York is indebted for the +structure just mentioned, that until he paints his bricks on +Reade-street, so that they correspond as nearly as may be with his +fronts on Chambers-street and Broadway, his store will indicate but a +shabby gentility, an unnatural association of tow cloth and satin, +copper and silver, poverty and riches, which should blush in the face of +the most inferior exhibition of consistency. With the abolition of this +strong contrast, the observer who goes down Broadway will contemplate +with delight the classical air of this most imposing Palace of Trade +that has yet been erected in the cities of the United States. How easily +Broadway, for the money that its piles of brick and stone will have cost +in ten years, might be made the most splendid street in Christendom, by +a mere observance of the principles of taste and unity! + +[Illustration: PRINCIPAL HALL OF PETERSON & HUMPHREY'S CARPET HOUSE.] + +In a little hamlet of five or fifteen hundred inhabitants, great +buildings are out of place. In a city like ours, every thing should be +in keeping, and the predominant principle should be the _gigantesque_. +If the lot-holders from Bowling Green to the New Park would but consider +the matter, with intelligent reference not only to the glory of the city +but to their own profit; if each separate square were built as if it +were _one_ edifice (as, without any blending of property, it might be +very easily), though these squares were all of plain brick, and no more +costly than the well-known row of stores in William-street, what an +imposing spectacle they would present! But if one block were like the +Astor House, the next like Stewart's (except only the Reade street +front), the next a row of free-stone, the next one of brick, the next +one of granite,--here a Gothic, there a Byzantine, then a Corinthian, +then, if you please, as plain a front as that of the New-York +Hotel--with here and there a church, library, lyceum, or art gallery, of +a style less suitable for shops or dwellings,--and there would be +nothing in the world to compare with Broadway. But this running of +democracy into the ground, this whim of every vulgar fellow who owns a +front of twenty feet, that he must illustrate his independence by +building on it in his own peculiar way, is baulking Providence, and for +the full cost of magnificence confining us to tricksy meanness. Two or +three years ago rose the chaste and simple front of 349 Broadway, in a +row of decayed brick shops, which, it was hoped would give place to an +entire range in imitation of the initial structure. But since then, the +owner of a couple of adjoining lots--a Connecticut man probably--has +caused to be put up two stores of a different style, not of half the +value of continuations of the less expensive edifice which they join. If +instead of this patchwork, now planted here for half a century, there +had been an extension of uniform stores from corner to corner--though +either Beck's or the building we have mentioned had been the model--the +single splendid edifice would have been a pride and boast of the city, +and the separate stores would have been of much greater value than the +best can be now. It is as revolting (and much more vexatious, for its +publicity) as the worst case of Saxon and Congo amalgamation. A +magnificent pile has been erected in Wall-street on the corner west of +the Exchange; but some person, ignorant, it is to be hoped for his +soul's sake, of the true obligations of morality applicable in the case, +has built, at the same time, at the same cost, of the same height, and +without any conceivable justifying reason, an utterly incongruous basket +of offices, as if for the special purpose of vexing the eyes of men who +have instincts of decency. + +[Illustration: THOMPSON'S SALOON.] + +The imposing edifice on the corner of Broadway and White-street, of +which a view is presented on a preceding page, is one of the +improvements of the city made during the last year. In the great +carpet-house of Peterson & Humphrey are offered the productions of the +best looms in the world, in a variety and profusion probably unequalled +elsewhere in America. The principal saloon is like a street, and it is +almost always thronged with people. + +Not far from the store of Peterson & Humphrey--at 359 Broadway--is the +new and beautiful building erected by the well-known confectioners, +Thompson & Son. This was opened to the public but a few weeks ago, and +it is the most splendid establishment of the kind in America. The +several sales during the last three quarters of a century of the ground +upon which it is built, illustrate the rapid increase of value in real +estate in this city during that period. The lot formed a part of the De +Peyster farm, and was called pasture ground. On the death of Major De +Peyster, the farm was divided, and this lot, then thirty-two feet wide, +was on the 13th of December, 1784, sold for £100 New-York currency; in +1789 it was sold for £150; in 1805 for $1500; in 1820 for $4000; in 1825 +for $11,000; and in 1850 it was bought by Mr. Thompson for $60,000, and +he has expended $50,000 in the erection of the building with which it is +now occupied, and which is twenty-eight feet wide, one hundred and +ninety feet deep, and sixty-two feet high. It is built in a very rich +style, of Paterson stone, similar to that used in Trinity church. The +architects were Field and Correja, and the decorations in fresco are by +Rossini. Mr. Thompson, senior, has been a quarter of a century in the +business for which he has erected this new edifice, and in which he has +accumulated his fortune. In 1820 there were but one or two houses of +the kind in New-York, and these were of limited capacity and in every +way inferior to Taylor's, Weller's, or Thompson's, of the present day. +These are among the most luxurious and comfortable resorts for ladies +and gentlemen who visit the city but for a part of a day, or who have +not time or inclination to go to houses in distant parts of the town, to +lunch or dine, or for those who come down Broadway to do shopping, and +need a resting place, or enjoy an exchange for gossip. + +[Illustration: PRINCIPAL SALOON AT THOMPSON'S.] + +The next of the Palaces of Trade recently erected in the city, for which +we have now room for any description, is the great silk house of the +well-known merchants, Bowen & McNamee, constituting one of the most +attractive features of the lower part of Broadway. It is built of white +marble, and the style of architecture is Elizabethan, and peculiarly +elaborate and effective. The building is thirty-seven and a half feet +wide, one hundred and forty-seven deep, and four stories high; and each +story consists of a single unbroken hall, lined with the richest +English, German, French, Italian and Indian goods. The architect was Mr. +Joseph C. Wells, and his plans were used in all the minutest details of +ornament and furniture. It is regarded, we believe, as the greatest +triumph of its kind of which our commercial metropolis has to boast; +indeed in magnificence of design, beauty of execution, and perfect +adaptation to its purposes, there is nothing superior to it, probably, +among the buildings devoted to trade in all the world. + +It was said by Jefferson that the genius of Architecture would never +make her abode in America; but the new edifices in New-York, of which we +have described some prominent specimens, may lead others to a different +conclusion. And we are of opinion that the progress of this country, in +the last quarter of a century, has been less conspicuous in any thing +else than in this noble art, little as it is now understood, much as it +is still disregarded. In some recent speculations on the subject, the +_Tribune_ observes: + +"There is no American architecture, unless the Lowell factories may be +regarded as such. Our churches are small and imperfect imitations of a +miscellaneous Gothic, and our exchanges, colleges, lyceums, banks and +custom-houses affect the Greek, with as much propriety as our merchants, +professors and clerks would indue themselves with the Athenian costume. +There is no hope of the churches and banks. They are nothing if not +Gothic and Grecian. We shall not discuss the probable character of our +architecture. It is clear that New-York will build brick houses, and in +blocks. But beauty costs no more than ugliness, and although every man +has the right to build a house of that appearance which best pleases +himself, yet every citizen is bound to have at heart the beauty of the +city. He cannot escape it. His pride compels it; and therefore every man +who builds a house ought to consult, to some extent, the general effect +of his building, and as he would not paint it blue or black, he should +no less consider its form than its color. + +"Cheapness and convenience will, of course, be the first principles in +our building, beauty and picturesqueness will be secondary. The point is +to combine these without much compromising either. At present our cities +are the unhandsomest in the world. The street architecture is monotonous +and heavy. The houses, compared with those of other capitals, are low, +but they are not light. Paris and the Italian cities have always a +festal air. Vienna is brilliant. Even grim old Rome seems waiting to be +gay. You do not immediately see the reason of this. The houses are high, +the streets narrow, shutting out the sky, and the swarms of passengers +do not explain the charm. But if you look narrowly you will see that the +difference of effect produced, arises, not so much from any essential +architectural superiority; because the mass of building in any city is +of about the same general character--but that it is due to the "broken +and various lines which every where meet the eye, relieving the heavy +gravity of the smooth fronts which with us are entirely unrelieved. +Sometimes, indeed, a street is built with regard to its architectural +beauty, as the _Rue de Rivoli_, in Paris, of which the harmony is +uniformity and not monotony. One side of this street is the garden of +the Tuileries, and the other is like a prolonged palace front. The +northern side of the _Boulevards des Italiens_ is truly picturesque, but +for directly the contrary reason--the infinite variety of line +presented. + +[Illustration: BOWEN & M'cNAMME'S SILK HOUSE.] + +"It is to these lines of gallery and balcony which break and lighten the +mass of building, that we must look for a hint of very feasible +improvement. If any city reader wishes an illustration of this fact, let +him observe how the iron verandah upon the Collamore House redeems the +otherwise bald, dead weight of that building. Then let him cast his eye +up Broadway to the long front of Niblo's Hotel--unrelieved and +blank--and consider the cheerful effect of a continuous gallery along +each story, or separate balconies at every window, as on the beautiful +_Chiaja_ at Naples. On the other hand let him ask his Metropolitan pride +how it would like a street of such edifices as the City Assembly Rooms +on the site of Tattersalls? So, also, in dwelling-houses, the balcony +which is now confined to the parlor floor might occasionally be carried +up through the other stories, and this, in narrow streets, with a +peculiarly happy effect, as is seen in such streets of foreign cities, +where the style, if elaborated in lattices and bay-windows, becomes +romantic and poetic. + +"Greater variety in the mouldings of doors and windows, and in the +designs of porticoes, might easily be obtained, with an infinite gain of +grace to the city. The Broadway Theatre illustrates this, for it is +certainly one of the most impressive buildings upon that street. The +question, it must be remembered, is not one of art, so much as of +picturesqueness and effect. The galleries and balconies, &c., are only a +subterfuge. If an edifice is intrinsically beautiful and +well-proportioned, it claims no such accessories, as Stewart's building, +which, although a simple square mass, yet from the admirable proportion, +rather than the material, is as stately and imposing as many a foreign +palace. But where there is no regard--as is the usual case--to the +dignity or propriety of form, there we must take advantage of an +alleviation, and obtain lightness, gayety, and variety as we best can. + +"There is, however, one point peculiar to American, or more properly to +New-York building, which calls for the determined and constant censure +of every man who values human life. We mean the flimsy style of building +arising from the frenzied haste with which we do every thing. This has +long been our reproach. Scarcely a year passes that we do not record +some disaster of this kind, often involving a melancholy waste of life. +'_Is it strong?_' is a question constantly asked of a new building, and +a question which, in any civilized community, it should be as +unnecessary to ask, as whether the public wells are poisoned. + +"We know many who will not pass under buildings now going up or recently +erected. A friend walked down Broadway one morning, while a building +was in course of erection on the site of the present Waverly House, and +returning in the afternoon found that it had all tumbled down. Our +readers have not forgotten the frightful fall of a block in Twenty-first +street last spring. One is curious to know if nothing is ever to be +done--if the city means to take no security for the lives of the +citizens in this matter. It would be very easy to prevent this flimsy +building, and even were it very difficult it should be effectually done. +This, too, is a matter in which every citizen is interested. + +"Stores and Warehouses have their own proprieties. Warehouses properly +avoid even the _appearance_ of lightness. They are devoted to heavy +storage. No life, save of bales and boxes,--and not of the contents of +bales and boxes--is associated with them. Security is the first and only +thing we demand of them, provided the structures are not painfully +disproportioned. So with Prisons. In fact, in architecture, the ornament +must depend upon the use, must be developed from the use. For the same +reason that balconies become a dwelling-house they disfigure a +warehouse. Stores again should partake, in their appearance, of the +intrinsic character and associations of shops. When shop-keeping becomes +royal, it should be royally housed, as in Stewart's building. + +"The theme unravels itself endlessly. It is one of those common +interests of constantly recurring importance which it is always worth +while to talk about. Because there is no American architecture, there is +no occasion for making our buildings mere piles of brick and mortar, +punctured here and there for light--and because we are a commonsense, +go-ahead people, there is no need that our houses should offend the eye; +but--for that reason--great need that they should please it. + +"Lorenzo of Florence was the magnificent, not because he was rich, but +because he knew the use of riches." + +Despite all drawbacks, our city is growing wonderfully in splendor as +well as in size; and perhaps no previous season has promised so many +improvements in Broadway, uptown, or by the different parks, as the +present. Surpassing already any metropolis in the world in the number +and magnificence of our hotels, we are to have in occupancy within a few +weeks the splendid St. Nicholas and the gigantic Metropolitan, besides +half a dozen of inferior pretensions, which will yet surpass the best in +other cities; and new churches, and galleries, and public halls, are +talked of, in number and capacity, as in beauty, sufficient for all the +possible contingencies of a great capital, increasing in wealth, and +power, and beauty, with such unexampled rapidity. The power and +magnificence of New-York have been built up by her merchants, whose +private enterprise, public spirit, and intelligence and taste, are +especially conspicuous in the new edifices devoted to trade, of which we +have given descriptions. + +[Illustration: INTERIOR OF BOWEN & M'cNAMEE'S SILK HOUSE.] + + + + +HERMAN HOOKER, D.D. + +[Illustration] + + +Herman Hooker is one of the most able and peculiar writers in religion +and religious philosophy now living in America. Indeed, we are inclined +to doubt whether the Episcopal Church in the United States embraces +another author whose name will be as long or as respectfully remembered +in the Christian world. If he is not mentioned in "every day's report," +it is because he adds to genius an unobtrusive modesty, as rare as are +the admirable qualities with which in his case it is associated. + +Dr. Hooker is a native of Poultney, Rutland county, Vermont. He was +graduated at Middlebury College in 1825, and soon after entered upon the +study of divinity at the Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Princeton. +He subsequently took orders in the Episcopal Church, and acquired +considerable reputation as a preacher; but at the end of a few years ill +health compelled him to abandon the pulpit, and he has since resided in +Philadelphia. The distinction of Doctor in Divinity was conferred upon +him three or four years ago by Union College. + +Dr. Hooker published in 1835 _The Portion of the Soul, or Thoughts on +its Attributes and Tendencies as Indications of its Destiny_; in the +same year _Popular Infidelity_, which in later editions is entitled, +_The Philosophy of Unbelief, in Morals and Religion, as discernible in +the Faith and Character of Men_; in 1846, _The Uses of Adversity and the +Provisions of Consolation_; in 1848, _The Christian Life a Fight of +Faith_; and soon after, _Thoughts and Maxims_, a book worthy of +Rochefoucauld for point, of Herbert for piety, and Bacon for wisdom. + +Upon meeting with qualities like Dr. Hooker's in one not known among the +popular authors of the country, we are prompted to say with Wordsworth, +"Strongest minds are often those of whom the world hears least," or in +the bolder words of Henry Taylor, "The world knows nothing of its +greatest men." It is surprising that a voice like his should have +awakened no echoes. He deserves a place among the first religious +writers of the age: for he has been faithful to the great mission laid +upon the priesthood, which is, not to labor upon "forms, modes, shows," +of devotion, nor to dispute of systems, schools, and theories of faith, +but to be witnesses of a law above the world, and prophets of a +consolation that is not of mortality. When we take up one of his books, +we could imagine that we had fallen upon one of those great masters in +divinity, who in the seventeenth century illustrated the field of moral +relations and affections with a power and splendor peculiar to that age. +These great writers possessed an apprehension of spiritual subjects, +sensitive, yet profoundly rational; a vision on which the rays of a +higher consciousness streamed in lustre so transcending that the light +of earth seemed like a shadow thrown across its course; which differed +from inspiration in degree rather than in kind. The resemblance of Dr. +Hooker to these great authors is obviously not an affectation. It is not +confined to style, but reaches to the constitution and tone of the mind. +His productions indicate the same temper of deep thoughtfulness upon +man's estate and destiny; the same union of a personal sympathy with a +judicial superiority, which suffers in all the human weaknesses which it +detects and condemns; the same earnest sense of their subjects as +realities, clear, present and palpable; the same quick feeling, toned +into dignity by pervading, essential wisdom; and that direct cognizance +of the substances of religion, which does not deduce its great moral +truths as consequences of an assumed theory, but seizes them as primary +elements that verify themselves and draw the theories after them by a +natural connection. Fretted and wearied with metaphysical theologies; +vexed by the self-illustration, the want of candor, the fierceness, the +ungenial and unsatisfying hollowness of popular religionism, we turn +with a grateful relief to this soothing and impressive system which +speculates not, wrangles not, reviles not, but, while it every where +testifies of the degradation we are under, touches our spirits to power +and purity by the constant exhortation of "sursem corda!" + +The style of Dr. Hooker abounds in spontaneous interest and unexpected +graces. It seems to result immediately from his character, and to be an +inseparable part of it. It is free from all the commonplaces of fine +writing; has nothing of the formal contrivance of the rhetorician, the +balanced period, the pointed turn, the recurring cadence. Yet the charms +of a genuine simplicity, of a directness almost quaint, of primitive +gravity, and calm, native good sense, renders it singularly agreeable to +a cultivated taste. Undoubtedly there is in spiritual sensibility +something akin to genius, and like it tending to utterance in language +significant and beautiful. We meet at times in Dr. Hooker's writings +with phrases of the rarest felicity and of great delicacy and +expressiveness; in which we know not whether most to admire the vigor +which has conceived so striking a thought, or the refinement of art +which has fixed it in words so beautifully exact. + + + + +SUNSET. + +WRITTEN FOR THE INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE. + +BY R. S. CHILTON + + + See with what pomp the golden sun goes down + Behind yon purple mountain!--far and wide + His mellow radiance streams; the steep hill-side + Is clothed with splendor, and the distant town + Wears his last glory like a blazing crown. + We cannot see him now, and yet his fire + Still lingers on the city's tallest spire,-- + Chased slowly upward by the gathering frown + Of the approaching darkness. God of light! + Thou leavest us in gloom,--but other eyes + Watch thy faint coming now in distant skies:-- + There drooping flowers spring up, and streams grow bright, + And singing birds plume their moist wings for flight, + And stars grow pale and vanish from the sight! + + + + +NEW-YORK SOCIETY, BY THE LAST ENGLISH TRAVELLER. + + +The Hon. HENRY COPE has lately published in London a _Ride across the +Rocky Mountains, to California_--a book abounding in striking adventure +and description, and illustrating in its general tone the spirit of an +English gentleman. Its temper and good sense may be inferred from the +following specimen, on the never-failing subject of Society in New-York: + + "Any observations I might be tempted to make on New-York, or + even, I am inclined to think, on any of the civilized parts + of the states, would probably be neither novel nor + interesting. I am not ambitious of circulating more + 'American notes,' nor do I care to follow in the footsteps + of Mrs. Trollope. Enough has been written to illustrate the + singularities of second-rate American society. Good society + is the same all over the world. General remarks I hold to be + fair play. But to indulge in personalities is a poor return + for hospitality; and those Americans who are most willing to + be civil to foreigners, receive little enough encouragement + to extend that civility, when, as is too often the case, + those very foreigners afterwards attempt to amuse their + friends on one side of the Atlantic, at the expense of a + breach of good faith to their friends on the other. Every + one has his prejudices: I freely confess I have mine. I like + London better than New-York, but it does not, therefore, + follow that I dislike New-York, or Americans either. I have + a great respect for almost every thing American--I do not + mean to say that I have any affection for a thorough bred + Yankee, in our acceptation of the term; far from it, I think + him the most offensive of all bipeds in the known world. + Yankee snobs too I hate--such as infest Broadway, for + instance, genuine specimens of the genus, according to the + highest authorities. The worst of New-York is its + superabundance of snobbism. The snob here is a snob "_sui + generis_" quite beyond the capacities of the old world. + There is no mistaking him. He is cut out after the most + approved pattern. If he differs from the original, or + whatever that might have been, it must be in a surpassing + excellence of snobbism which does credit to the progressive + order of things. Tuft-hunting is a sport he pursues with + delight to himself, but without remorse or pity for his + victim. It is necessary for the object of his persecutions + to be constantly on the alert. He is frequently seen + prowling about in white kid gloves, patent leather boots, + and Parisian hat. Whenever this is the case, he must be + considered dangerous and bloody-minded, for in all + probability he is meditating a call. Often he has been known + to run his prey to ground in the Opera or other public + places, and there to worry them within less than an inch of + their good temper. Offensive as he is, generally speaking, + he sometimes acts on the defensive; for, not very well + convinced of his own infallibility, he is particularly + susceptible of affronts, to which his assumed consequence + not unfrequently makes him liable. Baits are often proffered + by these swell-catchers to lure the unwary. Such as an + introduction to the nymphs of the _corps de ballet_; the + _entré_ to all the theatres, private gambling-houses, &c., + &c. But beware of such seductions." + + + + +EMILIE DE COIGNY. + +WRITTEN FOR THE INTERNATIONAL MONTHLY MAGAZINE. + +BY RICHARD B. KIMBALL. + +[Illustration: EMILIE DE COIGNY AND THE STUDENTS.] + + +A morning at _Là Morgue_ is hardly as agreeable as a day at the Louvre, +yet it is not without a certain fascination. Let but the influence once +fasten on you, and it will be very hard to shake it off. At one period I +confess it was to me almost irresistible, and I shudder sometimes when I +recollect how punctually every morning at the same hour I took my place +on one side of that fearful room--not for the purpose of inspecting the +bodies of the suicides (I rarely turned to look at them), but to regard +the countenances of the anxious ones who came to realize the worst, or +to take hope till the morrow. Literally there are no spectators in that +dismal solitude--if we except an occasional visit from the foreign +sight-hunter, who comes in charge of a valet, and passes in and out and +away to the "next place." In London or in New-York, an establishment so +public would be thronged with persons eager to gratify a prurient +curiosity. Not so in Paris. The French possess a sensibility so +refined--it may be called a species of delicacy--that they cannot enjoy +such a spectacle, can scarcely endure it: and if the tourist will bring +the subject to mind, he will recollect that while his guide pointed out +the entrance, he himself declined going into the apartment. + +I know not how it happened, but, as I have remarked, the habit of +visiting this spot every morning, was fastened on me. Never shall I +forget some of the faces I encountered there. One image is impressed on +me indelibly; it is that of a woman of middle age, with a very pale +face, and having the appearance of one struggling with some wearing +sorrow, who for two weeks in succession came in daily, and walking +painfully up to the partition, looked intently through the lattice work, +and turned and went away. I never before felt so strong an impulse to +accost a person, without yielding to it. Indeed I had resolved to speak +to her on the morning of the fifteenth day, but she did not come and I +never saw her again. Who was she? did her fears prove groundless? what +became of her? An old man I remember to have seen--a very old man, +feeble and decrepit, who came once only, looked at the dead, shook his +head despairingly, and tottered away: I know not if he discovered the +object of his search. Young girls who had quarrelled with their lovers, +and lovers who in moments of jealousy had been cruel to their +sweethearts, would look anxiously in, and generally with relieved +spirits pass out, almost smilingly, resolving no doubt to make all up +before night should again tempt to suicide. Another incident I cannot +omit, although it is impossible to recall it without a dreadful pang. +One morning a pretty fair-haired child, not more than four years old, +came running in, and clasping the wooden bar with one hand, pointed with +her little finger through the opening, and with a tone of innocent +curiosity said, "There's mamma!" The same moment two or three rushed in, +and seizing the unconscious orphan, carried her hastily away. She had +wandered after some of the family, and heard enough as they came from +the fatal place to lead her to suppose her lost mamma was there, and so +she ran to see. What could be the circumstances so untoward, that even +the child could not bind the mother to life? + +A long chapter might be written of the occurrences at my singular +rendezvous, but I had no design, when I began, of alluding to them, and +I will only remark here that, leaving Paris some time after for the +south of Europe, I got rid of this nightmare impulse, and although I +returned the following season I never again entered _La Morgue_.... + +It was in the spring when I came back. The foliage was deep and green, +and in the _Jardin des Plants_, which was near my quarters, the various +flowers and shrubs and trees filled the atmosphere with fragrance, and +tempted us to frequent strolls along its avenues. + +"Come with me at six o'clock," said my friend Partridge, "and you shall +see an apparition." + +"Where?" + +"I will not tell you, till we are on the Spot." + +"I will go, but hope the rendezvous will be an agreeable one." Just +then, I know not why, I thought of _La Morgue_, and shuddered. + +"The most agreeable in all Paris." + +This conversation took place in the Hospital _de Notre Dame de Pitie_, +just as we were finishing our morning occupation of following the +celebrated LOUIS through the fever wards. Partridge was my room-mate, +and generally a fellow traveller, but I had left him behind in my late +tour, to devote himself more entirely to his medical pursuits, while I, +to my shame be it spoken, began to tire of the lectures of Broussais, +and the teachings of Majendie; and, even now that I had returned, was +tempted every day to slip across to the _Rue Vivienne_, where were +staying some fascinating strangers, whose acquaintance I had made _en +route_, and who had begun to engross me too much for any steady progress +in my studies; at least so thought Partridge, who shook his head and +said it would not do for a student to cross the Seine--he ought to stay +in his own _quartier_; that I had had too much recreation as it was--I +should forget the little I know, and as for the _Rue Vivienne_, and the +_Boulevard des Italiens_, the _Rue de la Paix_, &c., I must break off +all such associations or be read out of the community. I was glad, +therefore, to appease my friend by consenting to go with him--I knew not +where--and see an apparition. + +Accordingly a few minutes before six, we started together on the strange +adventure. We passed down the street which leads to the _Jardin des +Plants_, and entering through the main avenue, walked nearly its entire +length, when my companion turned into a narrow path, almost concealed by +the foliage, which brought us into a small open space. Here he motioned +me to stop, and pointing to a rustic bench we both sat down. At the same +moment, the chimes from a neighboring chapel pealed the hour of six, and +while I was still listening to them, my friend seized my arm and +exclaimed in a whisper, "Look!" I cast my eyes across to the other side, +and beheld a figure advancing slowly toward us. It was that of a young +girl, in appearance scarcely seventeen. Her form was light and graceful, +simply draped in a loose robe of white muslin. On her head she wore a +straw hat, in which were placed conspicuously a bunch of fresh spring +blossoms. The gloves and mantelet seemed to have been forgotten. Her +demeanor was one of gentleness and modesty. She cast her eyes around as +if expecting to meet a companion, and then quietly sat down on a rude +seat not very far from where we were. I remained for ten minutes +patiently waiting a demonstration of some kind, either from my companion +or the strange appearance near us. But now I began to yield to the +influence of the scene. The sun was declining, and cast a mellow and +saddening light over the various objects around. Gradually as I gazed on +the motionless form of the maiden, I felt impressed with awe, which was +heightened by the solemn manner of my friend, who appeared as much under +the charm as myself. At length I whispered to him, "For Heaven's sake +tell me what does all this mean?" A low "Hush," with an expressive +gesture to enforce quiet, was the only response. I made no further +attempt to interrupt the silence, but sat spell-bound, always looking at +the figure, until I was positively afraid to take my eyes from it. Again +the chimes began their peal for the completion of the last quarter. It +was seven o'clock. The moment they ceased, the girl rose from her seat, +glanced slowly, sadly, earnestly around, pressed her hand across her +eyes, and proceeded in the path toward us. We both stood up as she came +near; my friend lifted his hat from his head in the most respectful +manner as the maiden passed, while she in return gazed vacantly on him, +and walking slowly by, disappeared in the direction opposite that from +which she came. We did not remain, but proceeded with a quickened pace +to our lodgings. Arrived there, I asked for an explanation of what we +had witnessed. + +"Do you remember," said Partridge, "Alfred Dervilly?" + +"Perfectly well. He was your room-mate after I left you last summer, and +twenty times I have been on the point of inquiring for him, but +something at each moment prevented. Where is he?" + +"Dead." + +"Dead! How, when?" + +"Killed by the apparition yonder." + +"Nonsense! Do not talk any more in riddles. Out with what you have to +say about Dervilly and the apparition, as you call it, and this +afternoon's adventure." + +"_Bien_, let us light the candles, fasten the doors, close the windows, +and take a fresh cigar." + +This was soon done, and accommodating himself to his seat in a +comfortable manner, my companion commenced: + +"Yes--you recollect Dervilly of course, and must remember that before +you left us we used to joke him about a fair unknown, who was engaging +so much of his time." + +"I had forgotten--but I now recall the circumstance; I remember, I was +walking with him near the 'Garden,' and he made some trivial excuse to +leave me and turn into it. You afterwards told me he had an appointment +there, but I thought little of it." + +"Well, I will give you the story as I now have it, quite complete, for I +was partly in Dervilly's confidence, and was with him during his illness +and when he died. He was born in Louisiana, of French parents, who, +after spending some years in America, returned to their native country. +He spoke English fluently, as you know, and when you deserted me we +became very intimate. Then it was I learned how deeply the poor fellow +was in love, actually _in love_. No mere transitory emotion--no +momentary passion for an adventure--no affair of gallantry, was this: +his very being was absorbed--he became wholly changed--it seemed as if +he had bound himself, body and soul, to some spirit of another world. I +never saw, never read, of so engrossing a feeling. At last he confessed +to me. He said he had met, a few months before, at the house of a former +friend of his family, who had been of considerable consequence under the +previous reign, but was now reduced, and lived in obscurity, a creature +of most exquisite shape and feature, who proved on acquaintance to be +possessed with a loveliness of character, a modesty, an irresistible +charm of manner, which took him captive. Dervilly became completely +enamored with Emilie de Coigny. This he discovered to be her name, but +on inquiring of the persons at whose house he first met her, he could +get no satisfactory information; indeed a very singular reserve, as poor +Dervilly thought, was maintained whenever her name was mentioned, so +that he could not, in fact, glean the slightest particulars about her. +This did not prevent him from confessing his passion, for the girl came +frequently to this house, and their acquaintance ripened very fast. +Emilie de Coigny felt for the first time that her heart was occupied, +and all that restlessness of spirit caused by the unconscious longing of +the affections laid at rest, and Alfred Dervilly became the sole object +of her thoughts and of her hopes, if hopes she had. All this, I repeat, +Emilie de Coigny felt; but, singular to say, she hesitated to confess +what was in her heart, even when her lover passionately entreated; it +seemed as if something stood between her and happiness, to which she +feared to allude. It is not easy to deceive the _heart_, and Dervilly +knew, despite the apparent calmness of Emilie, despite her sometimes +cold demeanor, that he was loved in return. But one thing troubled and +perplexed him; one thing filled him with vague fears and apprehensions, +and checked the ecstatic feelings which were ready to overflow his +heart. A mystery hung about this beautiful girl; she claimed no one for +her friend, she spoke of no acquaintances, she never alluded to parents, +or to brother or sister, or other relation; she made no mention of her +home. Besides, a strange sadness, strange in one so young, seemed to +possess her, and to pervade her spirit, and while contemplating that +imperturbable countenance, Dervilly at times felt an awe come over him +for which he could not account, and which for moments subdued even the +force of his passion. It appeared to him then, as if he were under a +spell; but presently, when a gentle smile illumined her face, her eyes +would be turned on him so lovingly, and her look express, as plainly as +look could, that all her trust was in him and in him only. Dervilly +would forget every thing in the raptures of such moments; indeed in his +ecstasy he would be driven almost to madness; for of all characters," +continued Partridge, "hers was the one to set a youth of ardent +temperament absolutely crazy. So matters advanced, or rather I should +say, so time advanced, while affairs did not. It was at this period," +said my friend, "that Dervilly gave me his confidence. Our intimacy had +gradually increased from the hour of your leaving us, and at length he +unbosomed himself completely. My first impression, after hearing his +story, was that the pretty mademoiselle was no more nor less than an +arrant flirt; that her charms were magnified to a lover's vision, and +that the mystery which attended her would turn out to be no mystery at +all--so I treated the case lightly, laughed at his description, called +Mademoiselle Emilie a coquette, and added, a little seriously, that it +was a shame for her to trifle with so warm-hearted a fellow. You know +how grating are the disparaging remarks of a friend about one in whom we +confess to ourselves a deeper interest than we care to acknowledge. What +I had said was kindly intended, but it touched Dervilly to the quick. 'I +did not think you capable,' he exclaimed, 'of thus making light of my +confidence--I find I was deceived--you are at liberty to make as much +sport of me as you will. I have learned a lesson which I shall take care +to remember.' 'You must not speak so,' I said,' I really was not +serious. I take back every word. I would not wound you for the +world--forgive me.' Then we shook hands, and Dervilly assured me I had +misjudged his Emilie; he would ask her permission to introduce me, and I +should see for myself. The permission was never accorded, although +Dervilly urged to Mademoiselle de Coigny, that I was his best and almost +his only friend. She was unyielding; she would not see me. Meanwhile his +passion increased with every impediment--yet he gained no assurance of +its being returned, save what his heart whispered to him. In the +_Jardin des Plants_ they were accustomed to meet daily, when the weather +was propitious--so much Emilie yielded to her lover--and spend an hour +together; and if they could not meet in the open air, they repaired to +the house where they first became acquainted. On one occasion Dervilly, +unable to bear suspense any longer, seized her hand, and passionately +pledged himself, his existence, his soul, his all to Emilie de Coigny; +he swore his fate was indissolubly linked with hers, that their destiny +could not be severed, and he demanded from her an avowal of the truth of +what he said. The violence of Dervilly alarmed her; she drew her hand +from his, and looking him steadily in the face, inquired: + +"'What has prompted Monsieur to this sudden show of feeling?' + +"'Do you ask what?' exclaimed Dervilly; 'it is _you_. Are you not +answered? How can I resist what is inevitable? how curb myself when +_all_ hold is lost? Are you then so cruel? _Dieu merci!_ be not so +deadly calm--it means the worst for me--be angry, vexed, any thing, but +look not on me with that glazed look--it maddens me.' + +"'Monsieur Dervilly,' said Emilie, without change of tone or manner, +'what you have said, if it means any thing, means every thing; it means +all a maiden longs to hear from lips that are beloved. To respond, I +must be assured how far your judgment will confirm what now seems to be +a mere passionate ebullition. Excuse me,' she continued, as Dervilly +made an impatient gesture; 'I have heard and read of similar +protestations which had little true significance.' + +"'I accept any conditions,' interrupted the young man, 'and will bless +you from the depths of my soul for naming any, even the hardest; yes, +the hardest--I care not what, so that they are from you.' The girl +regarded Dervilly as if she would search his very nature. 'You are +silent--speak; I can no longer contain myself,' exclaimed he, wildly. + +"'Monsieur,' once more observed Mademoiselle de Coigny, 'you know not to +whom you address yourself; should I tell you, you would retract all +those strong words, and hasten to escape in the least humiliating way +possible.' + +"'Never. Heaven is my witness, never! I care not who you are; I will +never seek to know; when you choose, you shall inform me. You need never +tell me. I say, I care not, so that you are mine.' + +"'And you will be _mine_ for ever?' said the girl, slowly. + +"'For ever.' + +"'I am yours--yours,' and Emilie de Coigny sunk into the arms of her +lover. + +"In one instant the fortunes of Dervilly were changed--from despair he +was raised to a condition of delicious joy. His raptures were so +unnatural, that I cautioned him against such violent indulgence of them. +But he was too excited to listen to me. Indeed, I feared he would lose +his reason. It seemed as if more than ordinary passion had possession of +him, and that it was inspired by something unearthly; and, without ever +having seen the girl, I began to attribute to her a supernatural +influence. Besides, Dervilly confessed he knew as little of his +affianced as before, and that occasionally the same icy look would be +turned on him, as it were quite inadvertently, and hold him spell-bound +with horror, while it still served to increase his frenzy beyond all +bounds. Then, her endearing smiles, her truthful and confiding love, her +absolute reliance, her entire dependence, on Dervilly, made him so +frantic with happiness, that he lost all capacity to reason. + +"The summer passed away, but Dervilly had learned nothing more of the +history of his betrothed; she still avoided the subject, and, when he +alluded to it, she would beg him to desist, and hide her face in his +bosom and weep. + +"Strange thoughts at last found their way into his brain, fearful +surmises began to disturb his peace, and, when absent from Emilie, he +would resolve at their next interview, to insist on knowing all. But +when the time came, and he met, turned on him, the open and innocent +look of the maiden's clear eyes, which expressed so earnestly how +entirely her soul rested on his, all courage failed him, and he could +not go on..... + + * * * * * + +"One evening," continued Partridge, after a pause, and with the tone of +a person approaching an unpleasant subject, "One evening, after +dinner--I think it was the first week in September--when the day had +been excessively sultry, I strolled into the large garden, which you +recollect belonged to our old lodgings in the _Rue d' Enfer_ and after a +while sat down in the summer-house. Presently little Sophie Lecomte came +running out to me, and I remained amusing myself with the child's +prattle till it was dark. The moon shone brightly, and I did not +perceive how late it was, until reminded of the hour by finding that +Sophie was fast asleep in my lap. I rose and carried her into the house, +and went quietly to my room. I seated myself near the window without +lighting the candles, feeling that the glare would not just then +harmonize with my feelings. The truth is, I was thinking of you, and of +that romantic passage across the Apennines, and of the fair stranger, +and so forth. I sat by the window, the moonlight streaming across the +room, over the top of the old chapel, the windows and doors open, and +every thing still except the monotonous chirping of a single cricket, +louder than that of any French cricket I ever heard before, and which +sung the very same song I used to hear when a boy from under the large +kitchen hearthstone at home. I began to feel a little lonely, and so +started up, and stamped with my feet in order to silence the solitary +insect, or arouse the rest of the family, but the old one only sung the +harder, and the others would not wake, and I sat down again, and half +closed my eyes in order to lose myself, if I could, in some pleasant +revery. My eyes _were_ half closed, the perfume from the graperies +filled the room, and had a pleasant effect upon my senses, and thus I +began to forget where I was and what was about me. Presently I heard a +rapid unsteady step along the corridor; it grew more rapid and more +unsteady; I raised my head, and at that instant Dervilly hurried into +the room. 'I knew it--I knew it,' he exclaimed, wildly; 'one of the +sirens sent from hell! I have sold myself, body and soul!--I am +lost--lost. Ah! I knew it--I knew it.' Shocked and surprised as I was by +such an extraordinary scene, I did not forget that Dervilly was of a +most nervous and excitable temperament. I rose, took hold of him kindly, +and asked him what had happened. As I placed my hand on his head, I +perceived that the veins were distended, and that the carotid and +temporal arteries were throbbing violently. I hastened to strike a +light, while he continued to repeat nearly the words I have just +mentioned, in a wild and incoherent manner. I could now see his +countenance, and it seemed as if the destroyer had been ravaging it. His +cap was gone. His hair, which was usually so neatly arranged, was tossed +over his face in twisted locks; his eyes were fixed, and bloodshot, and +sparkling. + +"'My dear friend, you are ill--you are excited--let me bring you to your +bed' (we occupied the large room in common, with a small bedroom for +each, leading from it); with this I took his arm, and gently urged him +to his apartment. + +"'Not there, not there!' he cried vehemently; 'Have I not lain _there_, +night after night, thinking of her?--have I not dreamed there happy +dreams, and seen dear delightful visions? Not there--never--never +again!' + +"'You shall not,' I said, endeavoring to humor him; 'you shall lie in my +bed, and I will watch by you till you are better.' + +"The young man burst into tears. This action evidently relieved him, and +made him more rational, for he took my arm and I assisted him to bed, +and tried to soothe him; but he soon relapsed into an excited fever. +Shortly after, he called me to him, and throwing his arms closely around +me, exclaimed, 'Partridge, we were born in the same land; I implore you, +by that one common tie, not to leave me an instant; I am a doomed +wretch; but save me, save me from the fiend, as long as it is possible.' + +"I now became very much alarmed. My first impulse was to administer an +opiate; but the case seemed so critical that I determined to send at +once for Louis, whose sympathy for the students, you know, is universal. +I called to young Stabb, who occupied the next room, and he set off +immediately. After a few minutes Dervilly dozed a little; and then he +started up, and gazed around, as if attempting to discern some object. + +"'Do you wish for any thing?' I said. He took no notice of my question, +but continued to glance piercingly in every direction. + +"'What do you see?' I asked. + +"'_La Morgue!_' he exclaimed, with a shudder, and pointing into the +other room--'_La Morgue!_' + +"He continued to gaze madly in the same way, still holding his arm +outstretched, while his whole frame seemed convulsed with terror; but I +could gain no clue to the catastrophe which had fallen so terribly on +the ill-fated sufferer. + +"It seemed to me an age--it really was but an hour--before Stabb +returned. He was accompanied by Louis. It was the great Louis whose +skill as a physician, and especially in the treatment of fevers, is +world renowned. I had 'followed' him during the whole of your absence; +had become, as a matter of course, one of his warmest admirers; and was +fortunate enough to secure his friendship. He also knew Dervilly. +Hearing them enter, I stepped into the principal room, to meet him. +'_Mon Dieu! Monsieur Partridge, quel est le mal?_' said Louis, with +great feeling. 'Monsieur Dervilly was at the hospital in the morning, +and I met him as late as six o'clock this afternoon, passing into the +_Jardin des Plants_.' + +"'God only knows,' I replied. 'Something horrible has suddenly befallen +him.' And I gave an account of what had occurred since Dervilly came to +his rooms. Louis was silent for a moment, and then began to question me +very minutely about him, while Stabb went in to keep watch over the poor +fellow.--Among other things, I mentioned his love affair; and believing +it to be my duty to do so, I told Louis, briefly, all Dervilly had +confided to me. He listened with great attention, and after I had +concluded, we passed into the little chamber where Dervilly lay. He +started up with violence as we came in, as if a severe paroxysm were +about to follow. He stared wildly on seeing Louis, and seizing his hand, +he exclaimed, 'Ah, _mon Professeur_, you are a very great man, and you +are very kind to come to me, but your knowledge avails nothing here,' +touching his forehead. Suddenly he extended his finger, and cried again, +'_La Morgue--La Morgue._' + +"'What see you in _La Morgue_?' said Louis, tenderly. + +"'See? _Her, her!_' screamed Dervilly. + +"'Who, _mon enfant_? said the Professor, very gently. + +"'Who, but the fiend--the fiend! She has my soul--lost, lost for ever.' + +"'You should not speak so harshly of Mademoiselle de Coigny,' continued +Louis, in a soothing tone. + +"'Pronounce not that name: a bait, a trap, a wile of Satan; repeat it, +and I will tear you piecemeal!' cried the maniac. + +"'But, _mon pauvre enfant_, what does she at La Morgue?' + +"'_She?_ the fiend--the fiend--sits perched on the top of the wooden +rail all night, watching--watching--and when some of the corpses show +signs of life, sails down, and sits upon, and strangles them. Keep me +away from there. Ah, _mon Professeur_, do not let me go there, to lie on +the board, and have her bending over me, eyeing me, watching me, ready +to strangle me. There again! keep those glazed eyes away--keep them +away, I say--' + +"All this time Louis was making a minute examination of Dervilly's +symptoms. + +"The latter presently seemed aware of what he was doing, for he +exclaimed, 'The usual symptoms, _eh, mon Professeur_; strongly marked, +_n'est ce pas_? Act promptly and decisively, as you say sometimes. Let +blood--let blood--_appliquez des sangsues_--ha, ha, ha! that's what we +call bleeding, both general and local, ha, ha, ha! then come on with +your cold applications: ice, ice, a mountain of ice piled round about +the head! follow up with cathartics, refrigerant diaphoretics, after +depleting blister!--say you not so?--blisters to the nape of the +neck--blisters behind the ears--shave the scalp--I forgot that--shave +the scalp--strange I had not thought of it,--and the hair. _Mon +Professeur_, I know you will think me very foolish, but--save the +hair--I shan't have another growth--save the hair. Where was I?--ah, the +blisters--that will pretty nearly do for me--keep every thing quiet, +very quiet--after a while, digitalis and nitre--digitalis and nitre, +_mon Professeur_--have I not said my lesson well?' + +"Louis stood perfectly still, regarding the poor fellow with a mournful +interest. As Dervilly paused, he took off his spectacles, and wiped his +eyes. 'Ah, Monsieur Louis, you talk very eloquently about medical +science, but I baffle you; I am sure of it. Call the class +together--_Ah, Notre Dame de Pitie_--call the class together; _voila la +clinique_. Thus being thus, it must necessarily be thus. That's a wise +saying, _mon Professeur_. Call the class together; propound why of +necessity you can do nothing? because of a necessity nothing can be +done. Call the class together; be active--vigorously antiphlogistic; +time is precious--the patient in danger. Purgatives--I doubt as to +purgatives. What think you?' And Dervilly paused, and cast on Louis a +look so naturally inquiring, that the latter replied, as it were, +involuntarily, '_Moi aussi je doute._' And it was so; with all his +genius, all his knowledge, all his experience, and all his skill, the +great practitioner stood, while minute after minute was lost, apparently +hesitating what to do. At last he called me into the other room. 'Is it +not possible to find Mademoiselle de Coigny?' he inquired. + +"'I have no means of knowing where to seek her,' I replied. At the same +time I remembered she was in the habit of visiting the house in which +Dervilly first met her, and fortunately knew the street and number. + +"'Let her be sent for instantly,' said Louis. 'Do not go yourself; you +may be of service here.' Accordingly I gave Stabb the direction, and +instructed him to procure Mademoiselle de Coigny's address, if possible; +but if he were unsuccessful in this, to communicate the fact of +Dervilly's alarming illness, and beg that Mademoiselle might be +immediately summoned. + +"We returned to the sick room, and Louis, seating himself in a chair, +remained lost in thought for nearly a quarter of an hour, while I did +what I could, to pacify the sufferer. I could not help wondering that a +man, so prompt and so efficient, should lose a moment when the least +delay was to be avoided; and as I was reflecting on this, Louis rose so +suddenly from his seat that I was startled. 'There is but one course, +and the poor boy has very accurately defined it. Let his head be shaved, +and pillowed in ice; bleed him at once--if he faints, all the better.' +'No danger of that,' shouted Dervilly. 'No syncope with me but the +_last_ syncope--no syncope--ha, ha, ha! double the ounces--you are +timid--no syncope, I say--' He continued the whole time raving, much in +the manner I have described. The room was kept quite dark, and no one +was permitted to come in. Louis did not leave the bedside the entire +night. Dervilly never slept for an instant. On one occasion he threw +himself close on one side, and screamed, 'Take her away--take her away!' + +"'What is it?' I asked. + +"'Do you not see her?' he shrieked, 'sitting on the bed, looking into my +eyes; take her away, take her away!' + +"I need not detail to you," continued Partridge, "the whole of these +fearful scenes. Late in the evening Stabb returned; he had found the +house; and although he could not obtain Mademoiselle de Coigny's +address, he was promised that his message should be communicated early +in the morning. + +"'It will be too late,' said Louis, mournfully. + +"What a long night it was. The morning dawned at last, but it brought no +change to poor Dervilly. I had sent for his nearest relative, who lived +over on the _Boulevard Poissonnière_, and was awaiting his arrival with +considerable anxiety. It was not later than nine. Stabb, the good +fellow, had relieved me from my watch, and I was in the sitting-room, in +my large arm-chair, still anxious and fearful, when there came a slight +tap at the door; it opened--and Emilie de Coigny stood before me. Ah, +how beautiful she was, yet how terrified! It was not terror of +excitement--mere surface passion--but from the depths of her soul. She +was stirred by intense emotion. 'Tell me,' she said, coming earnestly up +to me, 'tell me where he is, and what has happened to him!' I put my +finger on my lips to prevent her from saying more, and led her to the +further corner of the room; but she would not sit down; she begged to be +told every thing at once; and I, in a low voice, gave Mademoiselle do +Coigny a minute account of all I had witnessed. When I came to +Dervilly's exclamation, '_La Morgue--La Morgue_,' the young girl became +suddenly very pale, her fortitude forsook her, and she murmured faintly, +'He saw me go in--he saw me go in.' I must admit I was, for the moment, +not a little tremulous. I recollected stories of devils taking +possession of the dead bodies of virgins, in order to lure young men to +perdition. I thought of the tale of the German student, who, on retiring +with his bride, beheld her head roll from her body (she had been +guillotined that morning), leaving him wedded to the foul fiend. In +spite of me, I looked on the pale stricken creature before me as in one +way or another connected with the adversary, and holding a commission +from the Prince of the Power of the Air. I had little time for thought +on the subject, for Mademoiselle de Coigny insisted on seeing Dervilly. +I hesitated, but she was decided. She threw aside her pretty straw hat, +and a light shawl, and stepped toward the apartment where her lover lay. +She passed the threshold before he saw her. She called him by his name, +'Alfred.' He turned, and as his eyes fell on her, he uttered mad +exclamations; crouching frantically in the furthest corner of the bed. +'Avaunt,' he screamed; 'vampyre--devil--owl of hell--come no nearer, +(she still advanced, calling to him tenderly); I know that syren voice; +it has damned and double damned me.--Partridge! Stabb! take her away, +or,' he continued, in a fierce tone, 'I will do second execution on +her.' + +"Poor girl--it was too much--she swooned away.... + +"You may imagine that it was a terrible scene," continued Partridge. "I +set to work immediately for her recovery, having first carried her out +of the room where Dervilly lay. She opened her eyes at last, but what a +look of anguish was in them! 'Is he better?' she asked in a faint tone. +I shook my head. 'Tell me,' she exclaimed, 'will he die? oh, will he, +_must_ he die?' + +"'He is very sick, Mademoiselle.' + +"'I have killed him, I have killed him,' she cried. + +"'Pardon me', said I, 'Monsieur Dervilly is in great danger; still if we +knew the cause of this dreadful attack we might gain some advantage by +it.' + +"'Ah, it is my work,' murmured the fair mystery to herself, without +heeding my observation; 'I have done it, and if he dies, I am a +murderer--_his_ murderer.' She appeared no way disposed to betray her +secret, and I did not press the subject. Presently Louis came in. He +made his inquiries of me, and then went to the patient. There was no +change, except in the increase of fatal symptoms. The delirium was more +furious, the pulse hard, full, frequent, and vibrating. The most +vigorous course was adopted; two other students were called in to assist +Stabb and myself, and every means used to give effect to the prescribed +treatment. + +"As for Mademoiselle de Coigny, she remained in the sitting-room, the +picture of intense anguish. I urged her to retire, but she shook her +head. I now begged her to tell me what had caused this strange attack, +but she was silent. At length I went and called Madame Lecomte--you +recollect what a kind-hearted creature she was--and told her briefly the +little I knew of the unfortunate girl. She answered the summons at once, +and in the most gentle manner endeavored to persuade Mademoiselle de +Coigny to go with her. It was in vain. She would not leave the room. +Occasionally, through the day, she would step to Dervilly's bedside, and +in the softest, sweetest, gentlest tone I ever heard, say, 'Alfred.' The +effect was always the same as at first--exciting the poor fellow to +still deeper paroxysms, and more violent exclamations. On the fourth day +he died; the symptoms becoming more and more aggravating, until _coma_ +supervened to delirium. During the whole period of his sickness +Mademoiselle de Coigny never left the house--scarcely the room--Madame +Lecomte on two or three occasions almost forcing the wretched girl away +to her own apartments. When poor Dervilly sunk into that deep lethargic +slumber, so much dreaded by the physician, because so fatal, she came +almost joyfully into his chamber, and threw her arms tenderly around +him, 'He sleeps at last,' she said, 'is it not well?' + +"I would have given the world for the freedom of bursting into tears, so +deeply was I affected by that hopeful, trustful question. What could I +do, but shake my head mournfully and hasten out of the place.... He +died, and made no sign; not a word, not a look, not the slightest +pressure of the hand, for the one he loved so tenderly, and who watched +so anxiously for some slight token. 'Oh,' I exclaimed to myself, as the +hardness of such a fate was impressed on me, 'God is just, there is a +hereafter, these two _must_ meet again.' ... Emilie de Coigny left the +room where her dead lover lay, only when he himself was borne to his +last resting-place. She followed him to the spot where he was buried in +_Pere la Chaise_, and remained standing by it after every one else had +come away. In this position she was found--standing over the grave--late +at night by her friends--some members of the family I have +mentioned--who sought her out. She left that splendid city of the dead +bereft of reason, and so she has ever since continued. When the day is +fine, she invariably keeps her fancied engagement with her lover at the +appointed place in the _Jardin des Plants_; she patiently sits the hour, +and retires sadly, as you saw her. When the weather is forbidding, she +goes to her friend's house and waits the same period, never showing the +least symptom of impatience, but, on the contrary, evincing the signs of +a bruised but most gentle spirit." ... + +Here Partridge paused, as if at the end of his story. + +"Is that all?" said I. + +"That is all," he responded. + +"Surely not," I continued; "you have said nothing about the strange +mystery which killed our poor friend, and which, as it seems to me, is +the main point, in the story." + +"True enough--it is singular I should have left it out, but it is +explained in a word. These same friends of Mademoiselle de Coigny gave +me the information. It appears that on one inclement night, as the +_keeper of the Morgue_ was returning from an official visit to the Chief +of Police, toward his own quarters, which are adjoining and over the +_dead room_--he stumbled over something which a flash of lightning at +the instant showed to be the body of a man. He was quite dead, but, +nestled down close by his side, with one of her little hands on his +face, was a child, about two years of age. Jean Maurice Sorel, although +long inured to repulsive sights, had not grown callous to misery. By +birth he was considerably above his somewhat ignominious office; he had +narrowly escaped with his life when Louis XVI. was brought to the +scaffold, for some indiscreet expressions that savored too much of +royalty; but in the tumults which succeeded, he had, he scarcely knew +how, through some influence with the chief of one of the departments, +been appointed to this repulsive duty. But as I have said, his heart was +just as kind as ever, after many years discharge of it; and Jean Maurice +Sorel, instead of repining at his lot, blessed God daily that he had the +means of supporting a wife and children, while so many of his old +friends had literally starved to death. Such was the person who stumbled +over the body of the dead man, and discovered the living child beside +it. He called at once for assistance, and had the corpse conveyed to his +house, while he carried the little girl in his arms. She was too young +to give any information about herself, but on searching the pockets of +the deceased, several papers were found which disclosed enough to +satisfy Jean Maurice Sorel that in the wasted, attenuated form before +him, he beheld his once friend and benefactor the Marquis de Coigny, +who, he supposed, had perished by the guillotine in the revolution. The +papers permitted no doubt of the fact that the little girl was his +granddaughter and only descendant, and she was commended to the care of +the kind-hearted when death should overtake him. + +"The old Marquis was buried, and the little Emilie adopted into the +family of the good Jean Maurice. Her education was conducted in a manner +far superior to that of his own children, and the choicest garments of +those which fell to him were selected to be made over for her. Perhaps +unwisely, her history was explained to her, so that she lived all her +life with the sense that she belonged in a different sphere--not that +she was ungrateful or unamiable--quite the contrary--she was sweet +tempered, affectionate and gentle, and loved by Jean Maurice and all his +family with a devoted fondness: but the world had charms for her which +the world withheld; she felt that she never could become an object of +love where she could love in return, and so she repined at her destiny. +By accident she made the acquaintance of the family where Dervilly first +met her. They had known her father and her grandfather, and she loved +them for that. She resisted for a long time the feeling for her lover +which she perceived was taking strong hold of her, and when she could +resist no longer, she yet delayed to tell him what a home she inhabited. +This was her pride--her weakness--and how terribly did she pay the +penalty! Day after day (so I was told), she resolved to explain all, but +she procrastinated, till her lover, no longer able to restrain his +anxiety, and full of excitements and fears and perturbations, followed +her at some little distance, just at twilight, and saw or fancied he saw +her enter _La Morgue_. It was too much for his nervous temperament. His +brain caught fire--he came home raving with delirium--and DIED! Now you +have the whole." + + + + +A LEGEND. + +TRANSLATED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL FROM THE SPANISH, + +BY MRS. M. E. HEWITT. + + "Sin vos, y sin Dios y mi." + + + The motto that with trembling hand I write, + And deep is traced upon this heart of mine, + In olden time a loyal Christian knight + Bore graven on his shield to Palestine. + + "_Sin vos_," it saith, "if I am without thee," + Beloved! whose thought surrounds me every where-- + "_Sin Dios_," I am without God, "_y mi_," + And in myself I have no longer share. + + Where pealed the clash of war, the mighty din, + Where trump and cymbal crashed along the sky; + High o'er the "Il Allah!" of the Moslemin, + "God and my lady!" rang his battle-cry. + + His white plume waved where fiercest raged the flight, + His arm was strong the Paynim's course to stem: + His foot was foremost on the sacred height, + To plant the Cross above Jerusalem. + + False proved the lady, and thenceforth the knight, + Casting aside the buckler and the brand, + Lived, an austere and lonely anchorite, + In a drear mountain-cave in Holy Land. + + There, bowed before the Crucifix in prayer, + He would dash madly down his rosary, + And cry "Beloved!" in tones of wild despair, + "I have lost God, and self, in losing thee!" + + And I, if thus my life's sweet hope were o'er, + An echo of the knight's despair must be; + Thus I were lost, if loved by thee no more, + For, ah! myself and heaven are merged in thee. + + + + +CAGLIOSTRO, THE MAGICIAN. + +WRITTEN FOR THE INTERNATIONAL MONTHLY MAGAZINE. + +BY CHARLES WYLLYS ELLIOT. + + +"Know, then, that in the year 1743, in the city of Palermo, the family +of Signor Pietro Balsamo, a shopkeeper, were exhilarated by the birth of +a boy. Such occurrences have now become so frequent, that, miraculous as +they are, they occasion little astonishment;" and, it may be well to +add, that, except in some curious cases, there is no longer that +exhilaration now felt, but, as in Ireland, a leaden sense of future woe. +We are not told by the parents that any strange or miraculous appearance +attended or preceded this advent, though one cannot but believe that the +future Archimagus and his followers must have had a more or less +distinct opinion upon this point. Not to lose time in speculation, we +learn that "we have here found in the Count Alessandro di Cagliostro +(the above-named boy), pupil of the sage, Altholas--foster-child of the +Scherif of Mecca--probable son of the last king of Trebizond; named also +Acharat, and unfortunate child of nature; by profession, healer of +diseases, abolisher of wrinkles, friend of the poor and impotent, +grand-master of the Egyptian Mason lodge of High Science, spirit +summoner, gold cork, grand cophta, prophet, priest, and thaurmaturgic +moralist and swindler; really a LIAR of the first magnitude; +thorough-paced in all provinces of lying, what one may call their king." + +Under the common tent, the great canopy of life, it would not be fair to +prejudge the mind of the reader upon so grave a thing as character, +which we are now considering--it might be best to let each come to an +after-thought respecting it--upon our caustic and noble author let the +blame, if any, hang, while we now proceed to dip in, here and there, to +his magic page. + +As the boy grows, we learn, that "as he skulks about there, plundering, +pilfering, playing dog's-tricks, with his finger in every mischief, he +already gains character. Shrill housewives of the neighborhood, whose +sausages he has filched, whose weaker sons maltreated, name him Beppo +Maldetto, and indignantly prophecy that he will be hanged--a prediction +which the issue has signally falsified." We also may learn, what, in the +treatment of our whole subject it is extremely important to remember, +that, in the "boy," a "brazen impudence developes itself, the crowning +gift," &c. "To his astonishment," though, "he finds that even here he is +in a conditional world, and if he will employ his capability of eating +(or enjoying) must first, in some measure, work and suffer. Contention +enough hereupon; but now dimly arises, or reproduces itself, the +question. Whether there were not a _shorter_ road--that of stealing!" + +But how he was entered into the convent, and under the convent +apothecary proceeded to learn certain arts and mysteries of the retorts +and alembics (which lucky knowledge, after that, came to use), while he +was learning his other trade of monkery and mass-chanting, we will omit. +It is enough to know, that he would not answer for the convent, and was +again afloat on the wide sea of existence. That he floated is certain; +for "he has a fair cousin living in the house with him, and she again +has a lover. Beppo stations himself as go-between; delivers letters; +fails not to drop hints that a lady to be won or kept must be generously +treated; that such and such a pair of ear-rings, watch, or sum of money, +would work wonders: which valuables, adds the wooden Roman biographer, +he then appropriated furtively." Slowly but certainly he makes his way: +"tries his hand at forging" theatre tickets--a will even, "for the +benefit of a certain religious house;" and, further on, can tell +fortunes, and show visions in a small way--all these inspirations are +vouchsafed him, or, rather, these things he is permitted to do, and +others not to be mentioned here. + +It is well to note, that in all times, and among all peoples, there is a +deep and profound conviction that there _is_ not only a "short and +certain" way of getting to heaven, and to know the eternal truths, but +also that these earthly treasures do exist, in untold quantity, in the +elements; and if one could only discover the secret by which the gases +could be condensed into solid gold, or the gnomes be persuaded or +compelled to give them up, ready solidified to hand, it would at least +save time and be satisfactory. It is only curious, as a matter of +speculation, to know what we shall eat when the lucky age arrives, and +spirits will do our bidding in this matter of gold and diamonds. The +"boy," as he grew, discovered this world-wide capacity; and who should +have this power of setting the "spirits" to work but he? + +"Walking one day in the fields with a certain ninny of a goldsmith, +named Marano, Beppo begins in his oily voluble way to hint that +treasures often lay hid; that a certain treasure lay hid there (as he +knew by some pricking of his thumbs, divining rod, or other talismanic +monition), which treasure might, by the aid of science, courage, +secrecy, and a small judicious advance of money, be fortunately lifted. +The gudgeon takes--advances, by degrees, to the length of 'sixty gold +ounces'--sees magic circles drawn in the wane or the full of the moon, +blue (phosphorous) flames arise--split twigs auspiciously quiver--and at +length demands, peremptorily, that the treasure be dug!" + +Alas! why is it that the "spirits" so often fail us at our sorest need? +Do _they_ deceive us; and, if not, who does? The treasure vanishes, or +does not appear, "the conditions are imperfect," and the "ninny of a +goldsmith" being roughly handled by these spiritual visitants, +threatens to stiletto the adept; who, overcome with the ingratitude of +the world, concludes to quit;--at least, in the words of his Inquisition +biographer, "he fled from Palermo, and overran the whole earth." + +We may see how he has grown--how, as in ordinary mortals, he advances +step by step--even he, the favorite son of the higher intelligences, +learns as he goes. How is it, then, that we can have no full-grown +inspiration; that we know of no perfection--that we only go on towards +it? Can it be that prophets and priests really do _learn_, and that even +now, men may grow into the future? Might not a more thorough and +scientific seminary for this purpose be established than any we now +have--theologic, thaumaturgic, theosophic, or other variety? It is a +question easier asked than answered. + +"The Beppic Hegira brings us down in European history to somewhere about +the period of the peace of Paris"--(A.D. ----), supervening upon which +is a portentous time--"the multitudinous variety of quacks that, along +with Beppo, overran all Europe during that same period--the latter half +of the last century. It was the very age of impostors, cut-purses, +swindlers, double gaugers, enthusiasts, ambiguous persons, quacks +simple, quacks compound, crack-brained or with deceit prepense, quacks +and quackeries of all colors and kinds. How many mesmerists (so speaks +this strange author), magicians, cabalists, Swedenborgians, illuminati, +crucified nuns, and devils of Loudun! To which the Inquisition +biographer adds vampyres, sylphs, rosicrucians, free-masons, and an _et +cetera_. Consider your Schropfers, Cagliostros, Casanovas, Saint +Germains, Dr. Grahams, the Chevalier d'Eon, Psalmanazar, Abbé Paris, and +the Ghost of Cock-lane!--as if Bedlam had broken loose!" + +The great, the inexplicable, the mysterious Beppo, being now fairly +afloat, let us try to comprehend how he has begun to touch upon the edge +of those trade winds, which shall drive him along toward the golden +Indies, Ophir, and the land of promise, for which the men of this world +do so hunger and thirst. + +He married a beautiful Seraphina, afterward countess, graceful and +lady-like, once the daughter of a girdle-maker, and named Lorenza +Feliciani. Every one, simple or sedate, knows that it is best to hunt in +couples. What one has not the other may have. So Seraphina had beauty, +lightness, buoyancy, and could float up her count when the demons and +harpies of a certain troublesome devil, called law or justice, seemed +bent upon his swift destruction. Could she not, too, "enlist the +sympathies of admiring audiences"--by her sweet smiles and "artless +ways," gain belief, and "a wish to believe?" More than that, could she +not turn the heads of young and old? "noble" perhaps, perhaps +"ignoble"--"moneyed do-nothings" (so says this writer), whereof in this +vexed earth there are many, ever lounging about such (?) places--scan +and comment on the foreign coat-of-arms--ogle the fair foreign woman, +who timidly recoils from their gaze, timidly responds to their +reverences, as in halls and passages they obsequiously throw themselves +in her way. Ere long, one moneyed do-nothing (from amid his tags, +tassels, sword-belts, fop-tackle, frizzled hair, without brains beneath +it) is heard speaking to another--"Seen the countess?--divine creature +that!" Indeed, one cannot but wonder that any should question the unity +of the race, at least, of those known as "civilized." In a small way, or +in a large way, how this thing ever goes on--on church steps, on +Broadways, in Metropolitan Halls, Congresses, the Palais-Royal, at home +and abroad! And men do yet call _this_ "reverence for the sex," and holy +sentiment; and indulge in hallelujahs to that hoary myth, "a gentleman +of the old school;" while women--God help us--women loving it, hate +those who, hating it, hate hollowness and hell. With slight imagination, +then, one may see how important an element this "divine creature" must +have become in any conjuration or mystic "renovation of the universe," +which the high mystagogue might be impressed to set on foot. Enough, +that _she_ helped and learned the arts of prophecy and perfection faster +than her master! But we read--alas! alas!--"As his seraphic countess +gives signs of withering, and one luxuriant branch of industry will die +and drop off, others must be pushed into budding." He, the indefatigable +count, is not idle. "Faded dames of quality (over all Europe, all +creation) have many wants: the count has not studied in the convent +laboratory, or pilgrimed to the Count St. Germain, in Westphalia, to no +purpose. With loftiest condescension he stoops to impart somewhat of his +supernatural secrets--for a _consideration_. Rowland's Kalydor is +valuable; but what to the beautifying water of Count Alessandro! He that +will undertake to smooth wrinkles, and make withered, green parchment +into a fair carnation skin, is he not one whom faded dames of quality +will delight to honor? Or, again, let the beautifying-water succeed or +not, have not such dames (if calumny may in aught be believed) another +want? This want, too, the indefatigable Cagliostro will supply--for a +consideration. For faded gentlemen of quality the count likewise has +help. Not a charming countess alone, but a "wine of Egypt" (Cantharides +not being unknown to him), sold in drops, more precious than nectar; +which, what faded gentlemen of quality will not purchase with any thing +short of life. Consider, too, what may be done with potions, washes, +charms, love-philters, among a class of mortals idle from their mother's +womb," &c., &c. + +It is well to know, once for all, that the count, chief-priest of his +order--which yet thrives, and if not great, deserves to be called for +its number, Legion--made money out of this his enterprising trade; that +he was enabled to pay his way; to ride post with the ever potent +"voucher of respectability, a coach-and-four," with out-riders and +beef-eaters, and couriers and lackeys, and the other paraphernalia which +the greedy tooth of man desires--which helps one forward so far toward +happiness, provided always that "there _is_ no heaven above and no hell +beneath," of which let each first make sure; and more than all, let such +as wish to travel this road, take great courage from the contemplation +of this one model. + +We must hasten to the year 1776, a year rather noted in our annals, and +in that of England, perhaps, independently of this the "first visit" of +the famed Count Cagliostro to its shores, which happened then. Should it +have so chanced that he had lived now, would he have stopped there does +the reader think? Having an insight into _their_ national character, and +finding "great greed and need," and but small heed, what might he not +have done on this transatlantic shore, whose free people can so nobly +cherish even its Barnum, its----, its----! But let names go. We make the +most of what we have, and if not equal to the greatest, the fault rests +not on our shoulders. We are not responsible for the past, if for the +present or future. + +'Twas in England that the master developed most bravely the art of +prophecy; perhaps finding there a demand for his supply--such, according +to some, being the only law of God or man. It is enough to know that he +does a trade in foretelling the lucky lottery numbers by means of his +"occult science," whereby at least he put money in _his_ purse, and +satisfied good-natured men that as there were gulls, and necessarily a +guller, he above all others deserved praise and not blame; the whole +thing, this life, being really a juggle, and the smartest fellow of +course the best juggler. As man goes on he developes, so many think--so +did Cagliostro, and in his growth he reaches to masonry--Egyptian +masonry--and in "sworn secrecy" finds a new Talisman, for which men will +pay five guineas each. He resolves to "free it from all vile +ingredients, and make it a new Evangile." "No religion is excluded from +the Egyptian society"--for is it not certain that religion _pays_? +Charity too, pays, as we shall see by-and-by. No religion is +tabooed--none--all who admit the existence of a God, and the immortality +of the soul, may, for the small sum of five guineas, be certain to gain +"perfection by means of a physical and moral regeneration." He promises +them by the former or physical to find the _prime matter_ or +philosopher's stone, and the _acacia_ which consolidates in man the +forces of the most vigorous youth, and renders him immortal; and by the +latter or moral, to procure them a Pentagon which shall restore man to +his primitive state of innocence, lost by his original sin. It must be +understood that this masonry was founded by Enoch and Elias, had been +corrupted by the Egyptian priests, but was now restored to its pristine +vigor by its last and greatest Grand Cophta, and includes not only men +but women, of whom the Countess Seraphina is Cophtess. + +We cannot do better than to gain some insight into the forms and +symbolic practices of these worshippers; and especially will those who +desire to practise this or any short and easy way to perfection or +happiness, be glad to learn what has been done, and thus be encouraged +to begin. + +In the _Essai sur les Illuminés_, printed in Paris in 1789, are the +following details quoted by this before-mentioned known author.[1] These +bear an air of truth and probability which will win for them easy +admission. Many of them are not unlike what we have seen amongst us +during the few past years. + +"They take a young lad or a girl who is in the state of innocence: such +they call the _Pupil_ or _Colomb_: the Venerable communicates to him the +power he would have had before the fall of man; which power consists +mainly in commanding the pure spirits: these spirits are to the number +of seven. It is said they surround the shrine, and that they govern the +seven planets. Their names are Arael, Michael, Raphael, Gabriel, Uriel, +Zobiachel, Anachiel." Nothing certainly can begin more favorably. We +learn that "she the Colomb," can act in two ways, either behind a +curtain, behind a hieroglyphically-painted screen with table and three +candles, or before the Caraffe and showing face. If the _miracle fail_ +it can only be because she is not "in the state of innocence." _An +accident must be guarded against._ Surely our mystic professors, both +clerical and lay, will take heed to these things. Much may be learned. + +Cagliostro accordingly (it is his own story) brought a little boy into +the lodge, son of a nobleman there. He placed him on his knees before a +table, whereon stood a bottle of pure water, and behind this some +lighted candles. He made an exorcism round the boy, put his hand on +head, and both in this attitude addressed their prayers to God for the +happy accomplishment of the work. Having then bid the child look into +the bottle, directly the child cried that he saw a garden. Knowing +hereby that Heaven assisted him [why this is so proven he does not +explain], Cagliostro took courage, and bade the child ask of God the +grace to see the Archangel Michael. At first the child said, "I see +something white; I know not what it is." Then he began jumping and +stamping like a possessed creature, and cried, "Now, I see a child like +myself, which seems to have something angelical (!)" _All the assembly +and Cagliostro himself remained speechless with emotion...._ [How like +this is to what we at this day have seen.] The child being anew +exorcised with the hands of the Venerable on his head, and the customary +prayers addressed to Heaven, he looked into the bottle, and said he saw +his sister at that moment coming down stairs, and embracing one of her +brothers. That appeared impossible, the brother in question being then +hundreds of miles off. However Cagliostro felt not disconcerted; said +they might send to the country-house, where the sister was, and see--if +they chose! + +Do some still doubt? Time nor paper will allow us to allay that doubt. +We must, as rapidly as we can, introduce what may yet be useful in +certain cases of the like kind, either in whole or in part. It is the +introduction of a novice into the holy Mysteries. + +"The recipiendary is led by a darksome path into a large hall, the +ceiling, the walls, the floor of which are covered by a black cloth, +sprinkled over with red flames and menacing serpents; three sepulchral +lamps emit from time to time a dying glimmer, and the eye half +distinguishes, in this lugubrious den, certain wrecks of mortality +suspended by funeral crapes; a heap of skeletons forms in the centre a +sort of altar; on both sides of it are piled books; some contain menaces +against the perjured; others the deadly narrative of the vengeance which +the invisible spirit has exacted; of the infernal evocations for a long +time pronounced in vain. + +"Eight hours elapse. Then phantoms, trailing mortuary vails, slowly +cross the hall and sink in caverns, without audible noise of trapdoors +or of falling. You notice only that they are gone by a fetid odor +exhaled from them. + +"The novice remains four and twenty hours in this gloomy abode, in the +midst of a freezing silence. A rigorous fast has already weakened his +thinking faculties. Liquors prepared for the purpose first weary and at +length wear out his senses. At his feet are placed three cups, filled +with a drink of a greenish color. Necessity lifts them to his lips: +involuntary fear repels them. + +"At last appear two men: looked upon as the ministers of Death. These +gird the pale brow of the recipiendary with an auroral-colored-ribbon +dipped in blood, and full of silvered characters mixed with our lady of +Loretto. He receives a copper crucifix, of two inches length: to his +neck are hung a sort of amulets wrapped in violet cloth. He is stripped +of his clothes; which two ministering brethren deposit on a funeral +pile, erected at the other end of the hall. With blood on his naked body +are traced crosses. In this state of suffering and humiliation, he sees +approaching with large strides five Phantoms armed with swords, and clad +in garments dropping blood. Their faces are vailed: they spread a velvet +carpet on the floor; kneel there, pray; and remain with outstretched +hands crossed on their breasts, and faces fixed on the ground in deep +silence. An hour passes in this painful attitude. After which fatiguing +trial, plaintive cries are heard; the funeral pile takes fire, yet casts +only a pale light; the garments are thrown on it and burnt. A colossal +and almost transparent figure rises from the very bosom of the pile. At +sight of it the five prostrated men fall into convulsions insupportable +to look on: the too faithful image of those foaming struggles wherein a +mortal, at hand-grips with a sudden pain, ends by sinking under it. + +"Then a trembling voice pierces the vault, and articulates the formula +of those execrable oaths that are to be sworn: my pen falters: I think +myself almost guilty to retrace them." + +Strange as it may seem, we stop here with Monsieur the Author. Strange +too that some deny the reality of all this--and tell of magic lanterns +and science--stranger still that men are who believe all--all--'tis to +them a spasmodic miracle, and he is an infidel of course who doubts. +Strange too is it, that men do not see here the monstrous power of what +is called Symbolism, and that they should not help nor hinder; who say, +Let the world go--who cares! Men live and women too who say, "There's +_something_ in it"--there must be! and is there not? Figure now all this +boundless cunningly devised agglomerate of royal arches, deaths' heads, +hieroglyphically painted screens, "columns in the state of innocence, +with spacious masonic halls--dark, or in the favorablest theatrical +light-and-dark: Kircher's magic lantern, Belshazzar handwritings (of +phosphorus), plaintive tones, gong-beatings, hoary head of a +supernatural Grand Cophta emerging through the gloom--and how it all +acts, not only directly through the foolish senses of men, but also +indirectly connecting itself with Enoch and Elias, with philanthropy, +immortality," &c. Let such as _will_ now say there is nothing in +it--something there is, for a thoughtful man to consider well of, asking +himself what also does this of clairvoyance, and spiritual knockings, +and Jenny-Lind manias, and Jerkers--truly mean? and what kind of a +person am _I who have had_ part and lot with these? + +But the lofty science of Egyptian Masonry flourishes, lodges are +established over Europe, and the Grand Master travels hither and +thither, "mounts to the seat of the Venerable, and holds high discourse, +hours long, on masonry, morality, universal science, divinity, and +things in general," with a "sublimity, and emphasis and unction," +proceeding it appears "from the special inspiration of the Holy Ghost." +He is received with shouts and exultation--every where the great heart +of man thrills at the coming of this mystic symbol, which +contains--cunningly enfolded, as their eyes can and do see--every +virtue, every greatness--is he not indeed the Incarnation of these, and +therefore to be worshipped; such gift of reverence is in the heart of +man, and to such things does he again and again bow down! + +To go on. Cheers, and the ravishment of thronging audiences can make him +maudlin; render him louder in eloquence of theory; and "philanthropy," +"divine science," "depth of unknown worlds," "finer feelings of the +heart"--and so shall draw tears from most asses of sensibility. "The few +reasoning mortals scattered here and there, that see through him, +deafened in the universal hub-bub, shut their lips in sorrowful disdain, +_confident in the grand remedy, Time_." So says our author, and can we +blame him? Will the reader allow the current of this prosperity to be +checked for one moment by a certain Count M.? One of the chosen few at +Warsaw, who having spent the night with the "dear Master," in conversing +with spirits, had returned to the country to transmute metals +perhaps--perhaps to do other mighty works. Count M. seems to have been +afflicted with doubts, to have supposed that by sleight-of-hand the +"sweet Master" had substituted the crucible with melted ducats, for the +other--carefully filled with red lead, "smelted and set to cool," "and +now found broken and hidden among these bushes"--the whole golden +crucible standing in its place. "Neither does the Plenagon or Elixir of +Life, or whatever it was, prosper better--our sweet master enters into +expostulation--swears by his great God, and his honor, that he will +finish the work and make us _happy_." In vain--"the shreds of the broken +crucible lie there before your eyes"--and the usurper has its place. +That "resemblance of a sleeping child, grown visible in the magic +cooking of our Elixir, proves to be an inserted rosemary leaf. The Grand +Cophta cannot be gone too soon." + +Already it has been said that "Charity pays," philanthropy, benevolence, +all these--sometimes? if one sows his bread on the waters shall he not +expect its return after many or after few days?--the sooner the better +for your Cagliostros, your Barnums. Shout it daily to an envious +world--"Am I not a charitable man? If I have done wrong myself (as who +has not?) has not a great deal of good _grown out_ of my wickedness? I +have therefore done my share, for which if the world has paid me in +'praise and pudding,' it is no more than it has done before, and will do +again!" Take courage! + +Cagliostro doctors--heals--the poor, for nothing!--even gives them +alms--does a great deal of good--who but he? At Strasburg in the year +1783 (year of our peace with England), he "appears in full bloom and +radiance, the envy and admiration of the world. In large hired +hospitals, he with open drug-box (containing 'Extract of Saturn'), and +even with open purse, relieves the suffering poor; unfolds himself +lamblike, angelic, to a believing few, of the rich classes. Medical +miracles have at all times been common, but what miracle is this of an +occidental or oriental Serene-highness that 'regardless of expense,' +employs himself in curing sickness, in illuminating ignorance?" We at +the present day know nothing like it; the mere giving of a few surplus +hundreds or thousands to certain Slavery, Anti-Slavery, Peace, +Temperance or other societies, is benevolence of the "rocking chair" +species--is not to be mentioned with this, of the self-denying +Cagliostro's diving into cellars, and mounting into garrets, to seek and +to save--at the risk of not only life but comfort--the first of which +happily was not thus sacrificed:--nor indeed on the whole was comfort +lost sight of, as the "coach-and-four with liveries and sumptuosities +bears witness." There is often profound wisdom in this thing called +_public_ or newspaper charity. Does it--or does it not--pay? + +The favorite of the gods, he who holds high discourse with spirits, and +to whom is opened the hidden secret of earth and heaven, finds ready +acceptance--backed as he is by charities, by elegancies: finds +acceptance with the poor, the ignorant to whom he ministers--but also +"with a mixture of sorrow and indignation" it is recorded, among the +great--and not only they, but among the learned, "even physicians and +naturalists." It does not seem worth while to expend sorrow and +indignation upon this fact, not at all new, as we now fifty years +farther along have discovered; for we can show our physicians and +naturalists, and also our priests and prophets, in small crowds with +whom marvels find acceptance. We shall see more of them by and by. + +But one among the rich and great, was the Cardinal Prince Count Rohan, +Archbishop of Strasburg. "Open-handed dupe," as some term him--now out +of favor with the Queen Marie Antoinette (after that beheaded and called +unfortunate). Banished from his beloved Paris and the sunshine of +royalty, what should he do but to regain his pedestal? necessary no +doubt, for the glory of God, and his church; necessary at least for the +Count Rohan. Cagliostro is all powerful--he will help the Cardinal +Prince--not only by philters and charms, but by prophecies from the +gods, who speaking through their earthly oracle, will of course (it +paying best), promise success and not failure. The Archbishop tries all +things, and at last the far-famed "diamond necklace," upon the queen, +which no woman's heart can withstand, not even the queen's. Sad to tell, +the miserable queen knew nothing of the necklace; and only the Md'lle De +la Motte, styled countess, by superior arts had outjuggled Cagliostro +himself, Cardinal Rohan, queen and all: the diamonds were gone--the +queen's character blackened, cardinal, cophta, and countess, all in the +Bastille, where they lay some nine months (year 1781), disastrous +months, when "high science" wasted itself in eating out its own heart. +Cagliostro escaped, was let go--but a plundered, banished, suspected +high priest, was quite another thing from a golden cophta, with the +foreign coat-of-arms, serene countess--and open purse relieving the +unfortunate. + +Cagliostro now flits to England, to Bale, to Brienne, to Aix, to Turin, +he wanders hither and thither; we cannot follow him. The end of all, the +lofty and the low, must come--that seems drawing near to Cagliostro +too--but how? not in ruddy splendor as of departing day, not quiet, +serene, as of nature sinking to rest--rather like the disastrous death +of the bleeding shark it seems: his brethren, his friends--- sharks of +his own kind, of all kinds, high and low--rush upon the wounded shark, +as to a banquet to which they were bidden. He is exiled here, he is +persecuted there--imprisonment, despair, degradation haunt him--the +houseless, unfortunate--now vagabond, once renovator of the human race, +and friend of lords and friend of gods and princes. Such is gratitude! +such is popular favor! a thing to be bought and bargained for, to be +given when _not needed_. Such, no doubt, Cagliostro decided! + +He is sore bested, and begins "to confess himself to priests," for a man +must do something in his extremity. It avails him not; he is at last in +the gripe of the holy Inquisition at Rome, "in the year of our Lord, +1789, December 29," and must match himself with a power which this world +knows something of: face to face, hand to hand, at last. Have they +juggles equal to his juggles, miracles equal to his--high science equal +to his--legions of angels equal to his?--enough that they have dungeons, +and sbirri--and in his case, hearts harder than the nether +mill-stone--not to be softened "by demands for religious +books"--assertions of the divinity of the Egyptian Masonry--promises of +wonderful revelations--oaths, flatteries, or any of the mystic +paraphernalia of the now powerless professor and prophet: they will not +let him out! but rather will introduce him to a new art, that of +becoming a Christian, and get him, the toughest in a tough time, into +heaven as they best can. Did they find Loyola's twenty days sufficient, +and was the article then turned out of hand complete for that other +state? The Inquisition biographer does not dwell upon this, it was +perhaps as well. We learn at last that he died in the year 1795, and +went, the writer says, "_Whither_ no man knows!" So ended a Magician! + +NEW HAVEN, Feb., 1852. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] T. Carlyle. + + + + +BITTER WORDS. + +WRITTEN FOR THE INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE, + +BY R. H. STODDARD. + + + Bitter words are easy spoken; + Not so easily forgot; + Hearts it may be can be broken-- + Mine cannot! + + When thou lovest me I adore thee; + Hating, I can hate thee too; + But I will not bow before thee-- + Will not sue! + + Even now, without endeavor, + Thou hast wounded so my pride, + I could leave thee, and for ever-- + Though I died! + + + + +THE MURDER OF LATOUR. + +WRITTEN FOR THE INTERNATIONAL MONTHLY MAGAZINE, + +BY HON. W. H. STILES.[2] + + +The cabinet remained in deliberation at the Ministry of War, situated at +the corner of the square called the Hof. The tide of insurrection now +rose to an unconquerable height. The nearest shots of the retiring +cannons, the advancing shouts of the infuriated people, warned the +ministers that all defence was rapidly becoming hopeless. The building +itself still offered some means of resistance, and there were two +cannons in the court; but at that crisis was issued a written order, +signed by Latour and Wessenberg, "to cease the fire at all points," and +given to officers for distribution.[3] It was in vain. The popular +torrent rolled on toward the seat of government, which was destined ere +long to be disgraced by atrocious crime. The minister of war, Count +Latour, prepared for defence. The military on guard in front of the war +office were withdrawn into the yards, with two pieces of artillery +loaded with grape. The gates were closed, the military distributed to +the different threatened points, and the cannons directed towards the +two gates; soon the scene of battle had reached the Bogner Gasse, +immediately under the windows of the war department; the ministers in +consultation heard the cry, "The military retreat." The great square of +the Hof was soon cleared, the soldiers retiring by the way of the +Freyung. The guards and academic legion pursuing; the military +commander's quarters in the Freyung are soon captured. The retiring +military not being able to escape through the Schotten-Thor, as they had +expected, that gate being closed and barricaded, they cut their way +through the Herrn Gasse. + +So intent were the respective combatants, either in retreat or pursuit, +that the whole tempest of war swept over the Hof, and left that square, +for a short time, deserted and silent. + +But that stillness was but of short duration; a few moments only had +elapsed, when a number of straggling guards, students, and people, came +stealing silently from the Graben, through the Bogner, Naglus, and +Glosken Gasse, on to the Hof, and removed the dead and the wounded into +the neighboring dwellings, and into the deserted guard-house in the war +department. These were soon followed by a fierce and noisy mob, armed +with axes, pikes, and iron bars, which halted before the war office, and +began to thunder at its massive doors. + +The officer of ordnance in vain attempted to communicate to the crowd +the order of the ministry, that all firing should cease. A member of the +academic legion, from the window, over the gateway, waved with a white +handkerchief to the tumultuous masses, and, exhibiting the order signed +by Latour and Wessenberg, read its contents to the crowd. + +But a pacification was not to be thought of; the people were too +excited, their fury could only be appeased by blood; that delayed +measure was not sufficient; they made negative gesticulations, and +summoned the student to come down and open the portals to their +admission. The tumult increased from minute to minute; the closed doors +at length gave way under the axes of the mob, and the people streamed +in, led by a man "in a light gray coat." + +The secretary of war, having by this time abandoned the idea of defence, +on the ground either that it was useless or impolitic, no shots were +fired or active resistance offered; but the orderlies with their horses +retired to the stables, and the grenadiers into an inner court. At first +only single individuals entered, and their course was not characterized +by violence; then groups, proceeding slowly, listening, and searching; +and, at last the tumultuous masses thundered in the rear. + +Ere long the cry rung on the broad staircase, "Where is Latour? he must +die!" At this moment the ministers and their followers in the building, +with the exception of Latour himself, found means to escape, or mingled +with the throng. The deputies, Smolka, Borrosch, Goldmark, and +Sierakowski, who had undertaken to guarantee protection to the +threatened ministers, arrived in the hope of restraining the mob. The +numerous corridors and cabinets of the war office (formerly a monastery +of the Jesuits) were filled with the crowd; the tide of insurrection now +rose to an uncontrollable height; and the danger of Latour became every +moment more imminent. + +The generals who were with him, perceiving the peril, entreated him to +throw himself upon the Nassau regiment or the Dutch Meister grenadiers, +and retreat to their barracks. He scorned the proposal, denied the +danger, and even refused, for some time, to change his uniform for a +civilian's dress, until the hazard becoming more evident, he put on +plain clothes, and went up into a small room in the roof of the +building, where he soon after signed a paper declaring that, with his +majesty's consent, he was ready to resign the office of minister of war. +A Tecnicker, named Ranch,[4] who, it was said, had come to relieve the +secretary of war, was seized and hung in the court by his own scarf, but +fortunately cut down by a National Guard before life was extinct. The +mob rushed into the private apartment of the minister, but plundered it +merely of the papers, which were conveyed to the university. They came +with a sterner purpose. The act of resignation, exhibited to the crowd +by the deputy Smolka, was scornfully received by the people, while the +freshness of the writing, the sand adhering still to the ink, betrayed +the proximity of the hand which had just traced it. Meanwhile, the crowd +had penetrated the corridors of the fourth story, and were not long in +discovering the place of Latour's concealment. Hearing their approach, +and recognizing the voice of Smolka, vice-president of the assembly, who +was doubtless anxious to protect him, Latour came out of his retreat. + +They descended together from the fourth story by a narrow stairway, on +the right-hand side of the building, and entered the yard by the pump. +At each successive landing place, the tumult and the crowd increased; +but the descent was slow, and rendered more and more difficult by the +numbers which joined the crowd at every turn of the stairs. At length +they reached the court below, and Count Latour, although he had been +severely pressed, was still unhurt; but here the populace, which awaited +them, broke in upon the group that still clustered around Latour, and +dispersed it. In vain did the deputies, Smolka and Sierakowski, endeavor +to protect the minister; in vain did the Count Leopold Gondrecourt +attempt to cover him by the exposure of his own body. A workman struck +the hat from his head; others pulled him by his gray locks, he defending +himself with his hands, which were already bleeding. At length a +ruffian, disguised as a Magyar, gave him, from behind, a mortal blow +with a hammer, the man in the gray coat cleft his face with a sabre, and +another plunged a bayonet into his heart. A hundred wounds followed, +and, with the words, "I die innocent!" he gave up his loyal and manly +spirit. A cry of exultation from the assembled crowd rent the air at +this event. Every indignity was offered to his body; before he had +ceased to breathe even, they hung him by a cord to the grating of a +window in the court of the war office. He had been suspended there but a +few minutes when, from the outrages committed on it, the body fell. + +They then dragged it to the Hof, and suspended it to one of the bronze +candelabras that adorn that extensive, and much frequented square, and +there treated it with every indignity; it remained for fourteen hours +exposed to the gaze of a mocking populace. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[2] A chapter from Mr. Stiles's forthcoming work on Austria, which we +have mentioned elsewhere in this number of the International. + +[3] The last order issued by the unfortunate Latour was instructed to +Colonel Gustave Schindler, of the imperial engineers, an efficient +officer, as well as a most amiable and accomplished gentleman, and one +well and favourably known in the United States, from his kind attention +to Americans who have visited the Austrian capital. The colonel was in +the act of passing out of the great door of the war office, which opens +on the Hof, when the mob reached that spot. Recognized by his imperial +uniform, he was instantly surrounded and attacked. He received many +blows on the head, inflicted by the crowd with clubs and iron bars; was +most severely wounded, and would probably have been killed but for the +timely interference of one of the rabble, who, riding up on horseback +between the colonel and the mob, shielded him from further blow, and +finally effected his escape. + +[4] A student of the Polytechnic school, for brevity, usually called +Tecnickers. + + + + +SOME SMALL POEMS. + +WRITTEN FOR THE INTERNATIONAL MONTHLY MAGAZINE, + +BY R. H. STODDARD. + + + SONG. + + I hung upon your breast in pain, + And poured my kisses there like rain; + A flood of tears, a cloud of fire, + That fed and stifled wild desire, + And lay like death upon my heart, + To think that we must learn to path; + For we must part, and live apart! + + Had I, that hour of dark unrest, + But plunged a dagger in your breast + And in mine own, it had been well; + For now I had been spared the hell + That racks my lone and loving heart, + To think that we must learn to part;-- + For we must part, and die apart! + + + LU LU. + + The shining cloud that broods above the hill, + Casts down its shadows over all the lawns, + The snowy swan is sailing out to sea, + Leaving behind a ruffled surge of light! + Lu Lu is like a cloud in memory, + And shades the ancient brightness of my mind: + A swan upon the ocean of my heart, + Floating along a path of golden thought! + + The light of evening slants adown the sky, + Poured from the inner folds of western cloud; + But in the cast there is a spot of blue, + And in that heavenly spot the evening star! + The tresses of Lu Lu are like the light, + Gushing from out her turban down her neck; + And like that Eye of heaven, her mild blue eye, + And in its deeps there hangs a starry tear! + + + THOSE WHO LOVE LIKE ME. + + Those who love like me, + When their meeting ends + Friends can hardly be, + But less or more than friends! + + With common words, and smiles, + We cannot meet, and part, + For something will prevent-- + Something in the heart! + + The thought of other days, + The dream of other years; + With other words, and smiles, + And other sighs and tears! + + For all who love like me, + When their parting ends, + Friends must never be, + But more or less than friends! + + + TO THE WINDS + + Blow fair to-day, ye changing Winds! + And smooth the story sea; + For now ye waft a sacred bark, + And bear a friend from me. + From you he flies, ye Northern Winds, + Your Southern mates to seek; + So urge his keel until he feels + Their kisses on his cheek: + And when their tropic kisses warm, + And tropic skies impart, + Their floods of sunshine to his veins, + Their gladness to his heart-- + Blow fair again, ye happy Winds! + And smooth again the sea, + For then ye'll waft the blessed bark, + And bear my friend to me! + + + "WIND OF SUMMER, MURMUR LOW." + + Wind of summer, murmur low, + Where the charméd waters flow, + While the songs of day are dying, + And the bees are homeward flying, + As the breezes come and go. + Come and go, hum and blow, + Winds of summer, sweet and low, + Ere my lover sinks to rest, + While he lies upon my breast, + Kiss his forehead, pale and fair, + Kiss the ringlets of his hair, + Kiss his heavy-lidded eyes, + Where the mist of slumber lies; + Kiss his throat, his cheek, his brow, + And his red, red lips, as I do now, + While he sleeps so sound and slow, + On the heart that loves him so, + Dreaming of the sad, and olden, + And the loving, and the golden + Wind of summers long ago! + + + + +THE LATE ELIOT WARBURTON. + + +The melancholy fate of the author of _The Crescent and the Cross_, +_Canada_, _Darien_, &c., has been stated in these pages. In Great +Britain, where he was well known and highly esteemed by literary men, +there have been many feeling and apparently just tributes to his memory, +one of the most interesting of which is a memoir in the _Dublin +University Magazine_, from which we transcribe the following paragraphs: + + "It was during an extended tour in the Mediterranean about + ten years ago, that Mr. Warburton sent some sheets of + manuscript notes to Mr. Lever, at that time Editor of the + _Dublin University Magazine_. These at once caught that + gentleman's attention, and he gladly gave them publicity, + under the title of "Episodes of Eastern Travel," in + successive numbers of the magazine, where they were + universally admired for the grace and liveliness of their + style. Mr. Lever, however, soon saw that though for the + purposes of his periodical these papers were extremely + valuable, the author was not consulting his own best + interests by continuing to give his travels to the world in + that form; and, with generous disinterestedness, advised him + to collect what he had already published, and the remainder + of his notes, and make a book of the whole. Mr. Warburton + followed his advice, entered into terms with Mr. Colburn, + and published his travels under the title of 'The Crescent + and the Cross.' + + "Of this book it is needless for us to speak. In spite of + the formidable rivalry of an 'Eothen,' which appeared about + the same time, it sprang at once into public favor, and is + one of the very few books of modern travels of which the + sale has continued uninterrupted through successive editions + to the present time. Were we to pronounce upon the secret of + its success, we should lay it to its perfect + _right-mindedness_. A changeful truth, a versatile propriety + of feeling initiates the author, as it were, into the heart + of each successive subject; and we find him as profoundly + impressed with the genius of the Holy Land, as he is + steeped, in the proper place, in the slumberous influences + of the dreamy Nile, upon whose bosom he rocks his readers + into a trance, to be awakened only by the gladsome + originality of these melodies which come mirthfully on their + ears from either bank. And, we may observe in passing, it is + precisely the _want_ of this, which prevents the + indisputable power and grace of 'Eothen' from having their + full effect with the public. + + "Passages of beauty, almost of sublimity, stand isolated + from our sympathies by the interposed cynicism of a few + caustic remarks; and scenes of the world's most ancient + reverence and worship become needlessly disenchanted under + the spell of some skeptical sneer. + + "But we must not turn aside to criticise. Since the + publication of the 'Crescent and the Cross,' Mr. Warburton + has written, or edited, a number of works, some historical, + others of fiction, of which his last romance, 'Darien,' only + appeared as he was on the eve of departing on the fatal + voyage. It has been remarked as a singular circumstance, + that in this tale has prefigured his own fate. A burning + ship is described in terms which would have served as a + picture of the frightful reality he was himself doomed to + witness. The coincidence, casual as it is, has imparted a + melancholy interest to that story, which will long be wept + over as the parting and presaging legacy of a gifted spirit, + prematurely snatched away. + + "These lighter effusions most probably grew out of the + craving of the publishers for the _prestige_ of his name, + already found to be valuable even on title-pages; and the + ready market they commanded could not but prove an + excitement to continue and multiply them. This might be + considered in an ulterior sense unfortunate; for we are + inclined to think that the true bent of Mr. Warburton's + mind, if not of his talents, was towards graver and less + imaginative studies; and we know that this propensity was + growing upon him with maturer years and soberer reflections. + + "It is not exclusively from the bearing of his researches + and the general drift of his correspondence that we infer + this; though both set latterly in that direction. He had for + some time been actually at work with definite objects in + view. One subject which he took up warmly was a _British_ + History of Ireland; that is, a history intended to deal + impartial justice between the Irish people on the one side, + and the British empire on the other; reviewing the politics + of successive periods, neither from the Irish nor the + English side of the question, but with reference to the + general interests of the whole. + + "The task, would have proved an arduous one, under any + circumstances--perhaps an invidious one; but what was worse, + even when accomplished, the book might have turned out a + dull affair. So, with a view to lightening the reading, he + had proposed to embody with it memoirs of the Viceroys, thus + keeping the British connection prominent, while enlivening + the pages with biographical touches. + + "Acting on these ideas, he had actually begun a 'History of + the Viceroys' in conjunction with a literary friend, and was + only deterred from prosecuting it by the apathy, or rather + discouragement, of the London publishers, who felt no + inclination to venture upon an Irish historical speculation. + Unfortunately, neither he nor his friend could afford to + pursue the task gratuitously, and it was accordingly + abandoned. + + "Still later, he employed himself in collecting materials + for a History of the Poor--a vast theme; perhaps too vast + for a single intellect to grasp. To him, however, it was a + labor of love; and he had succeeded in getting together a + considerable mass of curious and valuable material _pour + servir_. His last visit to his native country had researches + of this nature for one of its objects; and we are sure many + persons connected with the charitable institutions of + Dublin, will recollect the persevering zeal with which he + visited the haunts of poverty, as well as the asylums for + its relief, noting down every thing which might prove + afterwards serviceable on that suggestive topic. + + "With an upwelling of philanthropy so pure and perennial as + this, the preliminary investigations could have been only a + delight to him. Other men might be forced to them as a + revolting duty; he chose the inquiry, with very dubious + hopes of bettering himself by prosecuting it, because his + heart was full of compassion, and he thought he might do + good. We repeat, what we can state from personal knowledge, + that the bent of Mr. Warburton's mind was latterly towards + works of general utility; and it is with great satisfaction + we learn, what we had not been aware of until the public + papers announced it, that his projected visit to the New + World was a mission, in which the interests of humanity were + to have in him an advocate and champion. + + "Into his private life we feel that, under present + circumstances, it would be indelicate, as well as out of + place, to enter. Surrounded as he was with all the blessings + which the domestic relations can bestow, beloved by his + intimates, caressed by the gifted and the good, Eliot + Warburton lived the centre of a radiating circle of + happiness. His personal qualities were of no common order. + His society was eagerly sought after. With a fastidious + lassitude of air, and an apparent disinclination to + exertion, he possessed remarkable force of thought and + fluency of diction; and it was no uncommon thing to see him, + when he had begun to relate passages from his experience in + foreign countries, or adventures in his own, the centre of a + gradually increasing audience, amidst which he sat, + improvisating a sort of romantic recitation, until he was + completely carried away on the current of his own eloquence, + and lost every sense of where he was or what he was doing, + in the enthusiasm he had fanned up and saw reflected around + him. This power was a peculiar gift; and he loved to + exercise it. In this form many of his happiest effusions + have been given utterance to; and every body who has heard + him at such inspired moments has felt regret that the + brilliant bursts which so delighted him, should have been + stamped upon no more retentive tablets than the ears of + ordinary listeners. + + "Of this amiable, refined and gifted individual, we are + afraid to speak as warmly as our heart would dictate. Before + us lie the few hasty lines--but not too hurried to be the + channel of a parting kindness--scrawled to us on the first + day of this year--the last day the writer was ever to pass + in England. They are, perhaps, amongst the latest words he + ever wrote. 'I am off,' they run 'for the West Indies + to-morrow. _But I have accomplished your affair._' Oh, + vanity of human purpose! Man proposes--God disposes. We were + next to hear of him, standing on the deck of the burning + vessel in the Atlantic, alone with the captain, after every + other soul had disappeared, surveying--we feel convinced, + with a courage of a lion--the awful twofold death close + before him, and which he had in probability deliberately + preferred to an early relinquishment of his companions to + their fate. It is a fine picture--one that shall every hang + framed with his image in our memory; helping us to believe + that + + "'-----Lycidas our sorrow is not dead. + Sunk though he be beneath the watery flood,'-- + + But that he hath mounted to a higher sphere-- + + "'Through the dear might of Him that walked the waves.'" + + + + +AUTHOR OF "THE FOOL OF QUALITY." + + +Of the interesting papers in the February Dublin University Magazine, we +have read none with more satisfaction than the biographical sketch and +portrait of one of the most distinguished Irishmen of his own or any +age, the gifted and pure minded author of _Gustavus Vasa_ and _The Fool +of Quality_, HENRY BROOKE. Of his literary fate it might be said that +the most unfortunate thing he did was to assert the patriotism of Dean +Swift; and the most unfortunate thing was to be left out of Doctor +Johnson's "Lives of the Poets." Trials had he to undergo, although not +absolutely driven to the wall, like many children of "the fatal dowry," +and those of Irish complexion, in particular; but he bravely bore up +against them. Those who deem that relatives may live more happily apart, +and that friendship is best preserved in full dress, may look at the +picture of Henry Brooke, the poet and politician, and Robert Brooke, the +painter, with their wives and children, not less than twenty, living +together in perfect peace and amity at Daisy Park, in the flattest part +of Kildare, where, in those dull seats and distant times, a family +breeze might now and then have been looked on in the Irish sense as a +"convenience and a comfort." "While Henry wrote," says the biographer, +"Robert painted, and sold his pictures; and thus these two loving +brothers, having lost their property, made a right and manful use of +their intellectual gifts, and supported their large families by the +sweat of their brows." + + "In his politics, Brooke was of the old whig school; and, + had he lived in 1829, he would probably have been an + emancipator. He was a right-minded, ardent Irishman in his + love for fatherland; hated oppression; idolized liberty; + wrote most keenly against Poyning's infamous laws; mourned + over the misrule and misgovernment of his country, under the + tyranny and rapacity of the Stuart dynasty; admired King + William, and was an exulting Protestant; yet greatly loved + his Roman Catholic neighbors, and would preserve to them + their properties, though he disliked their principles, and + deprecated their ascendency." + +Dr. Johnson's feelings respecting Brooke are accounted for, not +improbably, as follows: + + "It may be asked why did Dr. Johnson exclude Brooke from his + 'Lives of the Poets,' where so many names of little note are + to be found? In 1739, Johnson had written in Brooke's praise + in his 'Complete Vindication,' and twenty years afterwards, + when the learned Dr. Campbell showed a spirited 'Prospectus + of a History of Ireland' written by him, to the great + moralist, he read it with much pleasure and praise, saying + that 'every line breathed the true fire of genius.' It is + recorded that, on this occasion, Johnson lamented that 'the + vanity of Irishmen, even if their patriotism were extinct, + did not enable Brooke to carry his design into execution.' + In Johnson's letter to Charles O'Connor we have his mind on + the subject. To Brooke he appears never to have written; + there had been an ancient quarrel between them. They had + argued and disagreed; and the traditionary story in Brooke's + family bears _so_ heavily on the manner of the philosopher, + and is _so_ flattering to the courtesy of the poet, that we + should prefer not to write it down. Brooke was at all times + strangely careless of fame; independent to a fault, and more + proud than vain; and though much urged by his friends to + humble himself, yet he could not be induced to 'bow down' to + the cap of this literary Gesler, much as he regarded his + learning and noble intellect. This dislike of the Doctor + continued during his life; and Boswell narrates that on the + occasion of a play being read to him (it was Brooke's + _Gustavus Vasa_) and a circle of friends, on coming to the + line-- + + "Who rules o'er free men should himself be free!' + + the company applauded, but Johnson said it might as well be + said-- + + "'Who drives fat oxen should himself be fat--' + + a stupid and inapt verbal sophism, and unworthy of his great + and good mind; but such was often his way. In this fashion + one might string endless parodies on the line, and equally + inapplicable; for example:-- + + "'Who keeps a madhouse should himself be mad!' + + "Mr. Brooke's elegant and honest mind probably had in view + that word of Scripture which saith, 'he that ruleth his own + spirit is better than he who taketh a city'--(Prov. xvi. + 32.) + +"By this unhappy difference Brooke lost his Johnsonian niche in the +temple of biographical fame. Yet we must remember that a better fate was +his,--'his record is on high,'--and his spirit with that Saviour who +loved him and made him what he was. Faults and inconsistency were in +him, no doubt, but still we know not of any of whom it could be so well +and suitably said-- + + "'His life was gentle, and the elements + So mixed him, that Nature might stand up + And say to all the world, 'This was a man.'" + + + + +BANCROFT'S AMERICAN REVOLUTION.[5] + +From the Westminster Review. + + +Among the historians who have attained a high and deserved reputation in +the United States, within the last few years, we are inclined to yield +the first place to George Bancroft. His great work on the history of the +United States has been brought down from the commencement of American +colonization to the opening of the Revolutionary War, to which subject +it is understood that he intends devoting the three succeeding volumes. +His researches in the public offices of England, while he was Minister +of the United States at the Court of St. James, have brought to light a +great mass of documentary evidence on the antecedents and course of the +Revolution, which have not yet been made public. With his critical +sagacity in sifting evidence, his hound-like instinct in scenting every +particle of testimony that can lead him on the right-track, and his +plastic skill in moulding the most confused and discordant materials +into a compact, symmetrical, and truthful narrative, he cannot fail to +present the story of that great historical drama with a freshness, +accuracy, and artistic beauty, worthy of the immortal events which it +commemorates. Mr. Bancroft is now exclusively occupied in the +completion of this work. He pursues it with the drudging fidelity of a +mechanical laborer, combined with the enthusiasm of a poet and the +comprehensive wisdom of a statesman. With strong social tastes, he gives +little time to society. His favorite post is in his library, where he +labors the live-long day in the spirit of the ancient artist, _Nulla +dies sine linea_. His experience in political and diplomatic life, no +less than his rare and generous culture, and his singular union of the +highest mental faculties, enable us to predict with confidence that this +work will be reckoned among the genuine masterpieces of historical +genius. The volumes of the History of the United States already +published, are well known to intelligent readers both in Great Britain +and America. They are distinguished for their compact brevity of +statement, their terse and vigorous diction, their brilliant panoramic +views, and the boldness and grace of their sketches of personal +character. A still higher praise may be awarded to this history for the +tenacity with which it clings to the dominant and inspiring idea of +which it records the development. Whoever reads it without comprehending +the standpoint of the author, is liable to disappointment. For it must +be confessed that as a mere narrative of events, the preference may be +given to the productions of far inferior authors. But it is to be +regarded as an epic in prose of the triumph of freedom. This noble +principle is considered by Mr. Bancroft as an essential attribute of the +soul, necessarily asserting itself in proportion to the spiritual +supremacy which has been achieved. The history, then, is devoted to the +illustration of the progress of freedom, as an out-birth of the +spontaneous action of the soul. It is in this point of view that the +remarkable chapters on the Massachusetts Pilgrims, the Pennsylvania +Quakers, and the North American Indians, were written; and their full +purport, their profound significance, can only be appreciated by readers +whose minds possess at least the seeds of sympathy and cognateness with +this sublime philosophy. The chapter on the Quakers is a pregnant +psychological treatise. Sparkling all over with the electric lights of a +rich humanitary philosophy, it invests the theologic visions of Fox and +Barclay with a radiance and beauty which have been ill-preserved in the +formal and lifeless organic systems of their successors. The parallel +run by the historian between William Penn and John Locke is one of the +most characteristic productions of his peculiar genius. Original, +subtle, suggestive, crowded with matter and frugal of words, it brings +out the distinctive features of the spiritual and mechanical schools in +the persons of two of their 'representative men,' with a breadth and +reality which is seldom found in philosophical portraitures. Mr. +Bancroft was the son of an eminent Unitarian clergyman in Worcester, +Massachusetts. He was born about the beginning of the present century, +and is consequently a little more than fifty years of age. He graduated +at Harvard University, with distinguished honors, before he had +completed his fifteenth year. Soon after he sailed for Europe, and +continued his studies at the German Universities, returning to his own +country just before the attainment of his majority. Devoting himself for +several years to literary and educational pursuits, he acquired a +brilliant reputation as a poet, critic, and essayist; and at a +subsequent period, entering the career of politics, he has signalized +himself by his attachment to democratic ideas, and the eloquence and +force with which on all occasions he has sustained the principles with +the prevalence of which he identifies the progress of humanity. + + * * * * * + +From the Athenæum. + +The further this work proceeds, the more do we feel that it must take +its place as an essentially satisfactory history of the United States. +Mr. Bancroft is thoroughly American in thought and in feeling, without +ceasing to have those larger views and nobler sympathies which result +from cosmopolitan rather than from local training. His style is original +and national. It breathes of the mountain and the prairie--of the great +lakes and wild savannahs of his native land. A strain of wild and +forest-like music swells up in almost every line. The story is told +richly and vividly. It has hitherto been thought by Americans +themselves, even more than by Europeans, that the story of the English +colonies presented but a dreary and lifeless succession of petty +squabbles between the settlers and the crown officers--of unintelligible +persecutions of each other on the ground of differences of opinion in +religion. Mr. Bancroft has shown how ill founded has been this +impression. In his hands American history is full of fine effects. +Steeped in the colors of his imagination, a thousand incidents hitherto +thought dull appear animated and pictorial. Between Hildreth and +Bancroft the difference is immense. In the treatment of the former, +dates, facts, events are duly stated--the criticism is keen, the +chronology indisputable,--but the figures do not live, the narrative +knows no march. The latter is all movement. His men glow with human +purposes,--his story sweeps on with the exulting life of a procession. + +Yet because Mr. Bancroft contrives to bring out the more romantic +aspects of his theme, it is not to be supposed that he fails in that +strict regard to truth--truth of character as well as of incident--which +is the historian's first duty, and without which all other qualities are +useless. Of all American writers who have written on the history of +their own country, we would pronounce him to be the most conscientious. +His former volumes were remarkable for the amplitude and accuracy of +their references. The authorities cited were often recondite and +obscure,--yet it was evident that they had been sifted carefully and +critically. The same may be said of the volume before us. + +Careful research had enabled Mr. Bancroft to throw new light on several +points connected with the settlement and early history of his country. +As his dates approach nearer to the present time, the sources of new +information open on him in abundance. The MS, additions to our knowledge +of the times treated of in these volumes are considerable; but they are +spread pretty fairly over the entire narrative--lending a new light to +the events and adding a new trait to the characters--rather than thrown +into masses. The effect produced is more that of greater roundness and +completion than of absolute change in old historical verdicts. We quote +one out of innumerable instances of these minute but characteristic +additions. The historian is speaking of the Duke of Newcastle,--whose +ignorant government of the colonies was one of the chief sources of +their discontent:-- + + "For nearly four-and-twenty years he remained minister for + British America; yet to the last, the statesman, who was + deeply versed in the statistics of elections, knew little of + the continent of which he was the guardian. He addressed + letters, it used to be confidently said, to 'the island of + New England,' and could not tell but that Jamaica was in the + Mediterranean. Heaps of colonial memorials and letters + remained unread in his office; and a paper was almost sure + of neglect unless some agent remained with him to see it + opened. His frivolous nature could never glow with + affection, or grasp a great idea, or analyze complex + relations. After long research, I cannot find that he ever + once attended seriously to an American question, or had a + clear conception of one American measure." + +Walpole had told us that Newcastle did not know where Jamaica was:--the +amusing address "Island of New England" Mr. Bancroft finds referred to +in a manuscript letter of J. Q. Adams. It serves to suggest that what is +usually thought to be a joke of Walpole's was probably the literal +truth:--the man who is sufficiently innocent of geography to make New +England an island, would have no difficulty in confounding the East and +West Indies. + +In this volume we first meet with the great character who is to be the +hero of the Revolution now looming before the reader. Mr. Bancroft +treats us to no full-length portrait of George Washington:--instead of a +picture he presents us with the man. Washington comes before us at +twenty-one,--in the chamber of Governor Dinwiddie, of Virginia; from +whom he is accepting a perilous but most important mission--to cross the +forests, rivers, and mountains which separate Williamsburg and Lake +Erie, in the depths of a severe winter, and there endeavor to detach the +Delaware Indians from the French alliance. All the elements of +Washington's greatness--his courage, hardihood, military prescience, and +merciful disposition--are stamped indelibly on this the first act of his +public life:-- + + "In the middle of November, with an interpreter and four + attendants, and Christopher Gist as a guide, he left Will's + Creek, and following the Indian trace through forest + solitudes, gloomy with the fallen leaves, and solemn sadness + of late autumn, across mountains, rocky ravines, and + streams, through sleet and snows, he rode in nine days to + the fork of the Ohio. How lonely was the spot, where, so + long unheeded of men, the rapid Allegheny met nearly at + right angles 'the deep and still' water of the Monongahela! + At once Washington foresaw the destiny of the place. 'I + spent some time,' said he, 'in viewing the rivers;' 'the + land in the Fork has the absolute command of both.' 'The + flat, well-timbered land all around the point lies very + convenient for building.' After creating in imagination a + fortress and a city, he and his party swam their horses + across the Allegheny, and wrapt their blankets around them + for the night, on its northwest bank. From the Fork the + chief of the Delawares conducted Washington through rich + alluvial fields to the pleasing valley at Logstown. There + deserters from Louisiana discoursed of the route from New + Orleans to Quebec, by way of the Wabash and the Maumee, and + of a detachment from the lower province on its way to meet + the French troops from Lake Erie, while Washington held + close colloquy with the half-king; the one anxious to gain + the west as a part of the territory of the ancient dominion, + the other to preserve it for the Red Men. 'We are brothers,' + said the half-king in council; 'we are one people; I will + send back the French speech-belt, and will make the Shawnees + and the Delawares do the same.' On the night of the + twenty-ninth of November, the council-fire was kindled an + aged orator was selected to address the French the speech + which he was to deliver was debated and rehearsed; it was + agreed that, unless the French would heed this third warning + to quit the land, the Delawares also would be their enemies; + and a very large string of black and white wampun was sent + to the Six Nations as a prayer for aid. After these + preparations, the party of Washington, attended by the + half-king, and envoys of the Delawares, moved onwards to the + post of the French at Venango. The officers there avowed the + purpose of taking possession of the Ohio; and they mingled + the praises of La Salle with boasts of their forts at Le + Boeuf and Erie, at Niagara, Toronto, and Frontenac. 'The + English,' said they, 'can raise two men to our one; but they + are too dilatory to prevent any enterprise of ours.' The + Delawares were intimidated or debauched; but the half-king + clung to Washington like a brother, and delivered up his + belt as he had promised. The rains of December had swollen + the creeks. The messengers could pass them only by felling + trees for bridges. Thus they proceeded, now killing a buck + and now a bear, delayed by excessive rains and snows, by + mire and swamps, while Washington's quick eye discerned all + the richness of the meadows. At Waterford, the limit of his + journey, he found Fort Le Boeuf defended by cannon. Around + it stood the barracks of the soldiers, rude log-cabins, + roofed with bark. Fifty birch-bark canoes, and one hundred + seventy boats of pine, were already prepared for the descent + of the river, and materials were collected for building + more. The Commander, Gardeur de St. Pierre, an officer of + integrity and experience, and, for his dauntless courage, + both feared and beloved by the Red Men, refused to discuss + questions of right. 'I am here,' said he, 'by the orders of + my general, to which I shall conform with exactness and + resolution.' And he avowed his purpose of seizing every + Englishman within the Ohio Valley. France was resolved on + possessing the great territory which her missionaries and + travellers had revealed to the world. Breaking away from + courtesies, Washington hastened homewards to Virginia. The + rapid current of French Creek dashed his party against + rocks; in shallow places they waded, the water congealing on + their clothes; where the ice had lodged in the bend of the + rivers, they carried their canoe across the neck. At + Venango, they found their horses, but so weak, the + travellers went still on foot, heedless of the storm. The + cold increased very fast; the paths grew 'worse by a deep + snow continually freezing.' Impatient to get back with his + despatches, the young envoy, wrapping himself in an Indian + dress, with gun in hand and pack on his back, the day after + Christmas quitted the usual path, and, with Gist for his + sole companion, by aid of the compass, steered the nearest + way across the country for the Fork. An Indian, who had lain + in wait for him, fired at him from not fifteen steps' + distance, but, missing him, became his prisoner. 'I would + have killed him,' wrote Gist, 'but Washington forbade.' + Dismissing their captive at night, they walked about half a + mile, then kindled a fire, fixed their course by the + compass, and continued travelling all night, and all the + next day, till quite dark. Not till then did the weary + wanderers 'think themselves safe enough to sleep,' and they + encamped, with no shelter but the leafless forest-tree. On + reaching the Allegheny, with one poor hatchet and a whole + day's work, a raft was constructed and launched. But before + they were half over the river, they were caught in the + running ice, expecting every moment to be crushed, unable to + reach either shore. Putting out the setting-pole to stop the + raft, Washington was jerked into the deep water, and saved + himself only by grasping at the raft-logs. They were obliged + to make for an island. There lay Washington, imprisoned by + the elements; but the late December night was intensely + cold, and in the morning he found the river frozen. Not till + he reached Gist's settlement, in January, 1754, were his + toils lightened." + +Washington reported the state of affairs on the Lakes,--and active +measures were consequently adopted. Of the rapid and brilliant +development of his military genius, we are not now to trace the +progress; but it is scarcely possible to read without a shudder of "the +hair-breadth 'scapes" of the young man whose life was of such +inestimable consequence to his country. Thus, in the battle fought by +Braddock--to whom Washington acted as aide-de-camp--against the French +and Indians in 1755, he appeared to others as well as to himself to bear +a charmed life. In this action, says Mr. Bancroft,-- + + "Of eighty-six officers, twenty-six were killed--among them, + Sir Peter Halket,--and thirty-seven were wounded, including + Gage and other field officers. Of the men, one half were + killed or wounded. Braddock braved every danger. His + secretary was shot dead; both his English aids were disabled + early in the engagement, leaving the American alone to + distribute his orders. 'I expected every moment,' said one + whose eye was on Washington, 'to see him fall.' Nothing but + the superintending care of Providence could have saved him. + An Indian chief--I suppose a Shawnee--singled him out with + his rifle, and bade others of his warriors do the same. Two + horses were killed under him; four balls penetrated his + coat. 'Some potent Manitou guards his life,' exclaimed the + savage. 'Death,' wrote Washington, 'was levelling my + companions on every side of me, but, by the all-powerful + dispensations of Providence, I have been protected.' 'To the + public,' said Davis, a learned divine, in the following + month, 'I point out that heroic youth, Colonel Washington, + whom I cannot but hope Providence has preserved in so signal + a manner for some important service to his country.' 'Who is + Mr. Washington?' asked Lord Halifax, a few months later. 'I + know nothing of him,' he added, 'but that they say he + behaved in Braddock's action as bravely as if he really + loved the whistling of bullets.'" + +Thus opened that career of glory, moderation, and success--thus, at the +period of nascent manhood were exhibited the marking traits of that +serene and devoted character--which have placed the name of Washington +on the noblest and loftiest pedestal in the Temple of Fame. + +Leaving for a while the only figure in that scene of miserable and +savage warfare on which the mind can dwell with any degree of trust and +satisfaction, we will move to the north-east of the English settlements, +and follow the story of the unhappy people of Acadia. Mr. Bancroft has +drawn a touching picture of the homely virtues and obscure happiness of +this rural population before the interference of the British officers +changed their joy into wailing, and endowed their simple annals with a +dark and tragic interest:-- + + "After repeated conquests and restorations, the treaty of + Utrecht conceded Acadia, or Nova Scotia, to Great Britain. + Yet the name of Annapolis, the presence of a feeble English + garrison, and the emigration of hardly five or six English + families, were nearly all that marked the supremacy of + England. The old inhabitants remained on the soil which they + had subdued, hardly conscious that they had changed their + sovereign. They still loved the language and the usages of + their forefathers, and their religion was graven upon their + souls. They promised submission to England; but such was the + love with which France had inspired them, they would not + fight against its standard or renounce its name. Though + conquered they were French neutrals. For nearly forty years + from the peace of Utrecht they had been forgotten or + neglected, and had prospered in their seclusion. No + tax-gatherer counted their folds, no magistrate dwelt in + their hamlets. The parish priests made their records and + regulated their successions. Their little disputes were + settled among themselves, with scarcely an instance of an + appeal to English authority at Annapolis. The pastures were + covered with their herds and flocks; and dikes, raised by + extraordinary efforts of social industry, shut out the + rivers and the tide from alluvial marshes of exuberant + fertility. The meadows, thus reclaimed, were covered by + richest grasses, or fields of wheat, that yielded fifty and + thirty fold at the harvest. Their houses were built in + clusters, neatly constructed and comfortably furnished, and + around them all kinds of domestic fowls abounded. With the + spinning-wheel and the loom, their women made, of flax from + their own fields, of fleeces from their own flock, coarse, + but sufficient clothing. The few foreign luxuries that were + coveted could be obtained from Annapolis or Louisburgh, in + return for furs, or wheat, or cattle. Thus were the Acadians + happy in their neutrality and in the abundance which they + drew from their native land. They formed, as it were, one + great family. Their morals were of unaffected purity. Love + was sanctified and calmed by the universal custom of early + marriages. The neighbors of the community would assist the + new couple to raise their cottage, while the wilderness + offered land. Their numbers increased, and the colony, which + had begun only as the trading station of a company, with a + monopoly of the fur trade, counted, perhaps, sixteen or + seventeen thousand inhabitants." + +The transfer of this colony from French to English rule could not fail +to be productive of some untoward results. The native priests feared the +introduction among them of heretical opinions:--the British officers +treated the people with insolent contempt. "Their papers and records" +says our historian, "were taken from them" by their new masters:-- + + "Was their property demanded for the public service? 'they + were not to be bargained with for the payment.' The order + may still be read on the Council records at Halifax. They + must comply, it was written, without making any terms, + 'immediately,' or 'the next courier would bring an order for + military execution upon the delinquents.' And when they + delayed in fetching firewood for their oppressors, it was + told them from the governor, 'If they do not do it in proper + time, the soldiers shall absolutely take their houses for + fuel.' The unoffending sufferers submitted meekly to the + tyranny. Under pretence of fearing that they might rise in + behalf of France, or seek shelter in Canada, or convey + provisions to the French garrisons, they were ordered to + surrender their boats and their firearms; and, conscious of + innocence, they gave up their barges and their muskets, + leaving themselves without the means of flight, and + defenceless. Further orders were afterwards given to the + English officers, if the Acadians behaved amiss to punish + them at discretion; if the troops were annoyed, to inflict + vengeance on the nearest, whether the guilty one or + not,--'taking an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.'" + +There is no reason to believe that these atrocious orders were not +executed in the spirit in which they had been conceived. But worse +remained to come:-- + + "The Acadians cowered before their masters, hoping + forbearance; willing to take an oath of fealty to England; + in their single-mindedness and sincerity, refusing to pledge + themselves to bear arms against France. The English were + masters of the sea, were undisputed lords of the country, + and could exercise clemency without apprehension. Not a + whisper gave a warning of their purpose till it was ripe for + execution. But it had been 'determined upon' after the + ancient device of Oriental despotism, that the French + inhabitants of Acadia should be carried away into captivity + to other parts of the British dominions. * * France + remembered the descendants of her sons in the hour of their + affliction, and asked that they might have time to remove + from the peninsula with their effects, leaving their lands + to the English; but the answer of the British Minister + claimed them as useful subjects, and refused them the + liberty of transmigration. The inhabitants of Minas and the + adjacent country pleaded with the British officers for the + restitution of their boats and their guns, promising + fidelity, if they could but retain their liberties, and + declaring that not the want of arms, but their conscience, + should engage them not to revolt. 'The memorial,' said + Lawrence in Council, 'is highly arrogant, insidious and + insulting.' The memorialists, at his summons, came + submissively to Halifax. 'You want your canoes for carrying + provisions to the enemy,' said he to them, though he knew no + enemy was left in their vicinity. 'Guns are no part of your + goods,' he continued, 'as by the laws of England all Roman + Catholics are restrained from having arms, and are subject + to penalties if arms are found in their houses. It is not + the language of British subjects to talk of terms with the + Crown, or capitulate about their fidelity and allegiance. + What excuse can you make for your presumption in treating + this government with such indignity as to expound to them + the nature of fidelity? Manifest your obedience by + immediately taking the oaths of allegiance in the common + form before the Council.' The deputies replied that they + would do as the generality of the inhabitants should + determine; and they merely entreated leave to return home + and consult the body of their people. The next day, the + unhappy men, foreseeing the sorrows that menaced them, + offered to swear allegiance unconditionally." + +But it was now too late. The savage purpose had been formed. That the +cruelty might have no excuse, it happened that while the scheme was +under discussion letters arrived leaving no doubt that all the shores of +the Bay of Fundy were in the possession of the British. It only remained +to be fixed how the exportation should be effected:-- + + "To hunt them into the net was impracticable; artifice was + therefore resorted to. By a general proclamation, on one and + the same day, the scarcely conscious victims, 'both old men + and young men, as well as all the lads of ten years of age,' + were peremptorily ordered to assemble at their respective + posts. On the appointed 5th of September, they obeyed. At + Grand Pré, for example, 418 unarmed men came together. They + were marched into the church, and its avenues were closed, + when Winslow, the American commander, placed himself in + their centre, and spoke:--'You are convened together to + manifest to you His Majesty's final resolution to the + French inhabitants of this his province. Your lands, and + tenements, cattle of all kinds, and live stock of all sorts, + are forfeited to the crown, and you yourselves are to be + removed from this his province. I am, through his Majesty's + goodness, directed to allow you liberty to carry off your + money and household goods, as many as you can, without + discommoding the vessels you go in.' And he then declared + them the King's prisoners. Their wives and families shared + their lot; their sons, 527 in number, their daughters, 576; + in the whole, women and babes and old men and children all + included, 1,923 souls. The blow was sudden; they had left + home but for the morning, and they never were to return. + Their cattle were to stay unfed in the stalls, their fires + to die out on their hearths. They had for that first day + even no food for themselves or their children, and were + compelled to beg for bread. The 10th of September was the + day for the embarkation of a part of the exiles. They were + drawn up six deep, and the young men, 161 in number, were + ordered to march first on board the vessel. They could leave + their farms and cottages, the shady rocks on which they had + reclined, their herds and their garners; but nature yearned + within them, and they would not be separated from their + parents. Yet of what avail was the frenzied despair of the + unarmed youth? They had not one weapon; the bayonet drove + them to obey; and they marched slowly and heavily from the + chapel to the shore, between women and children, who + kneeling, prayed for blessings on their heads, they + themselves weeping, and praying, and singing hymns. The + seniors went next; the wives and children must wait till + other transport vessels arrived. The delay had its horrors. + The wretched people left behind were kept together near the + sea, without proper food or raiment, or shelter, till other + ships came to take them away; and December with its + appalling cold had struck the shivering, half-clad, + broken-hearted sufferers before the last of them were + removed. 'The embarkation of the inhabitants goes on but + slowly,' wrote Monckton, from Fort Cumberland, near which he + had burned three hamlets, 'the most part of the wives of the + men we have prisoners are gone off with their children, in + hopes I would not send off their husbands without them.' + Their hope was vain. Near Annapolis, a hundred heads of + families fled to the woods, and a party was detached on the + hunt to bring them in. 'Our soldiers hate them,' wrote an + officer on this occasion, 'and if they can but find a + pretext to kill them, they will.' Did a prisoner seek to + escape, he was shot down by the sentinel. Yet some fled to + Quebec; more than 3,000 had withdrawn to Miramichi and the + region south of the Ristigouche; some found rest on the + banks of the St. John's and its branches; some found a lair + in their native forests; some were charitably sheltered from + the English in the wigwams of the savages. But 7,000 of + these banished people were driven on board ships, and + scattered among the English colonies, from New Hampshire to + Georgia alone; 1,020 to South Carolina alone. They were cast + ashore without resources; hating the poor-house as a shelter + for their offspring, and abhorring the thought of selling + themselves as laborers. Households, too, were separated; the + colonial newspapers contained advertisements of members of + families seeking their companions, of sons anxious to reach + and relieve their parents, of mothers mourning for their + children. The wanderers sighed for their native country; but + to prevent their return, their villages, from Annapolis to + the isthmus, were laid waste. Their old homes were but + ruins. In the district of Minas, for instance, 250 of their + houses, and more than as many barns, were consumed. The live + stock which belonged to them, consisting of great numbers of + horned cattle, hogs, sheep, and horses, were seized as + spoils and disposed of by the English officials. A beautiful + and fertile tract of country was reduced to a solitude. + There was none left round the ashes of the cottages of the + Acadians but the faithful watch-dog, vainly seeking the + hands that fed him. Thickets of forest-trees choked their + orchards; the ocean broke over their neglected dikes, and + desolated their meadows." + +Nor were the woes of this ill-treated people ended: + + "Relentless misfortune pursued the exiles whereever they + fled. Those sent to Georgia, drawn by a love for the spot + where they were born as strong as that of the captive Jews, + who wept by the side of the rivers of Babylon for their own + temple and land, escaped to sea in boats, and went coasting + from harbor to harbor; but when they had reached New + England, just as they would have set sail for their native + fields, they were stopped by orders from Nova Scotia. Those + who dwelt on the St. John's were torn once more from their + new homes. When Canada surrendered, hatred with its worst + venom pursued the 1,500 who remained south of the + Ristigouche. Once more those who dwelt in Pennsylvania + presented a humble petition to the Earl of Loudoun, then the + British Commander in-Chief in America; and the cold-hearted + peer, offended that the prayer was made in French, seized + their five principal men, who in their own land had been + persons of dignity and substance, and shipped them to + England, with the request that they might be kept from ever + again becoming troublesome by being consigned to service as + common sailors on board ships of war." + +And so it was throughout:--"We have been true," said they in one of +their petitions, "to our religion, and true to ourselves; yet nature +appears to consider us only as the objects of public vengeance."--"I +know not," writes Mr. Bancroft, "if the annals of the human race keep +the records of wounds so wantonly inflicted, so bitter and so perennial +as fell upon the French inhabitants of Acadia." + +American history has at least one element of peculiar character. The +voyage of the Pilgrim Fathers--the settlement of the Virginia +cavaliers--the foundation of Pennsylvania,--though all events of +profound moral interest, as well as productive of fine pictorial +effects, are not without parallels more or less close in the varied tale +of ancient and modern colonization. But that which is distinctive and +peculiar in the story of American civilization is, its struggle against +the Red Men. Settlers, it is true, have often found themselves in +strange company. In Africa the Greek colonizer elbowed the swarthy +Ethiop. In South America the Spaniard stood beside the Peruvian and the +Carib. Dutchmen have encountered the Malay and the Dyak. For two +centuries English settlers have had to deal with the uncivilized races +of the East and West--from the Bushmen of the Cape to the savages of New +Zealand. But none of these races present the same attractive features as +the brethren of the Iroquois and the Mohicans. About these latter there +are points of romantic and chivalric interest. Though not free from the +vices of the savage, they often exhibit virtues which might shame the +European. There is something of dignity in their aspect and bearing. +They are seldom without a natural and original poetic sense,--and their +language has a wild Ossianic music. They are bold in metaphor and apt in +natural illustration. A group of actors on the scene having +characteristics so peculiar and so attractive as the Red Skin is +invaluable to a historian whose tendency is to see events and note +character under their most pictorial aspects. + +The part taken by the Indians in that war between the French and English +in America which ended in the conquest of Quebec and the expulsion of +the Lilies from Canada is narrated at great length by Mr. Bancroft,--and +the atrocious nature of the conflict is well brought out. At the +commencement of the war, we are allowed a glimpse at a curious +war-council: + + "'Brothers,' said the Delawares to the Miamis, 'we desire + the English and the Six Nations to put their hands upon your + heads, and keep the French from hurting you. Stand fast in + the chain of friendship with the Government of Virginia.' + 'Brothers,' said the Miamis to the English, 'your country is + smooth; your hearts are good; the dwellings of your + governors are like the spring in its bloom.' 'Brothers,' + they added to the Six Nations, holding aloft a calumet + ornamented with feathers, 'the French and their Indians have + struck us, yet we kept this pipe unhurt;' and they gave it + to the Six Nations, in token of friendship with them and + with their allies. A shell and a string of black wampum were + given to signify the unity of heart; and that, though it was + darkness to the westward, yet towards the sun-rising it was + bright and clear. Another string of black wampum announced + that the war-chiefs and braves of the Miamis held the + hatchet in their hand, ready to strike the French. The + widowed Queen of the Piankeshaws sent a belt of black shells + intermixed with white. 'Brothers,' such were her words, 'I + am left a poor, lonely woman, with one son, whom I commend + to the English, the Six Nations, the Shawnees, and the + Delawares, and pray them to take care of him.' The Weas + produced a calumet. 'We have had this feathered pipe,' said + they, 'from the beginning of the world; so that when it + becomes cloudy, we can sweep the clouds away. It is dark in + the west, yet we sweep all clouds away towards the + sun-rising, and leave a clear and serene sky.' Thus, on the + alluvial lands of Western Ohio, began the contest that was + to scatter death broadcast through the world. All the + speeches were delivered again to the Deputies of the + Nations, represented at Logstown, that they might be + correctly repeated to the head Council at Onondaga. An + express messenger from the Miamis hurried across the + mountains, bearing to the shrewd and able Dinwiddie, the + Lieutenant-Governor of Virginia, a belt of wampum, the scalp + of a French Indian, and a feathered pipe, with letters from + the dwellers on the Maumee and on the Wabash. 'Our good + brothers of Virginia,' said the former, 'we must look upon + ourselves as lost, if our brothers, the English, do not + stand by us and give us arms.' 'Eldest brother,' pleaded the + Picts and Windaws, 'this string of wampum assures you, that + the French King's servants have spilled our blood, and eaten + the flesh of three of our men. Look upon us and pity us, for + we are in great distress. Our chiefs have taken up the + hatchet of war. We have killed and eaten ten of the French + and two of their negroes. We are your brothers; and do not + think this is from our mouth only; it is from our very + hearts.' Thus they solicited protection and revenge." + +The Duke of Newcastle was unequal to the task of driving the soldiers of +France from Canada or from the valley of the Mississippi. The North and +South were both in the hands of France. The route of the Ohio and the +Mississippi had been discovered by adventurers and missionaries of that +nation; and a few years of quiet possession of the territory would have +allowed French statesmen to consolidate their power in those regions, +and to draw a strong cordon around the entire group of English colonies +on the Atlantic sea-board. But Pitt's genius was brought to bear at a +critical moment on the arrangement of this great question--and he +conceived the project of breaking the Mississippi line and attacking the +enemy in their strongholds on the St. Lawrence. Three expeditions were +fitted out. Amherst and Wolfe were ordered to join the fleet under +Boscawen, destined to act against Louisburgh--Forbes was sent to the +Ohio Valley--Abercrombie was intrusted with the command against Crown +Point and Ticonderoga, though Lord Howe was sent out with the last named +as the real soul of the enterprise. Mr. Bancroft writes: + + "None of the officers won favor like Lord Howe and Wolfe. + Both were still young. To high rank and great connections + Howe added manliness, humanity, capacity to discern merit, + and judgment to employ it. As he reached America, he entered + on the simple austerity of forest warfare. James Wolfe, but + thirty-one years old, had already been eighteen years in the + army; was at Dettingen and Fontenoy, and had won laurels at + Laffeldt. Merit made him at two-and-twenty a + lieutenant-colonel, and his active genius improved the + discipline of his battalion. He was at once authoritative + and humane, severe, yet indefatigably kind; modest, but + aspiring and secretly conscious of ability. The brave + soldier dutifully loved and obeyed his widowed mother, and + his gentle nature saw visions of happiness in scenes of + domestic love, even while he kindled at the prospect of + glory, as 'gunpowder at fire.'" + +On the 28th of May the expedition reached Halifax.-- + + "For six days after the British forces on their way from + Halifax to Louisburgh, had entered Chapeau Rouge Bay, the + surf, under a high wind, made the rugged shore inaccessible, + and gave the French time to strengthen and extend their + lines. The sun still dashed heavily, when, before daybreak, + on the 8th of June, the troops, under cover of a random fire + from the frigates, attempted disembarking. Wolfe, the third + brigadier, who led the first division, would not allow a gun + to be fired, cheered on the rowers, and, on coming to shoal + water, jumped into the sea; and, in spite of the surf, which + broke several boats and upset more, in spite of the + well-directed fire of the French, in spite of their + breastwork and rampart of felled trees, whose interwoven + branches made one continued wall of green, the English + landed, took the batteries, drove in the French, and on the + same day invested Louisburgh. At that landing, none was more + gallant than young Richard Montgomery; just one-and-twenty; + Irish by birth; an humble officer in Wolfe's brigade; but + also a servant of humanity, enlisted in its corps of + immortals. The sagacity of Wolfe honored him with + well-deserved praise, and promotion to a lieutenancy. On the + morning of the 12th, an hour before dawn, Wolfe, with light + infantry and Highlanders, took by surprise the light-house + battery on the north-east side of the entrance to the + harbor; the smaller works were successively carried. On the + 23d, the English battery began to play on that of the French + on the island near the centre of the mouth of the harbor. + Science, sufficient force, union among the officers, + heroism, pervading mariners and soldiers, carried forward + the siege, during which Barre by his conduct secured the + approbation of Amherst and the confirmed friendship of + Wolfe. Of the French ships in the port, three were burned on + the 21st of July; in the night following the 25th, the boats + of the squadron, with small loss, set fire to the Prudent, a + seventy-four, and carried off the Bienfaisant. Boscawen was + prepared to send six English ships into the harbor. But the + town of Louisburgh was already a heap of ruins; for eight + days, the French officers and men had had no safe place for + rest; of fifty-two cannon opposed to the English batteries + forty were disabled. The French had but five ships of the + line and four frigates. It was time for the Chevalier de + Drucour to capitulate. The garrison became prisoners of war, + and, with the sailors and marines, in all 5,637, were sent + to England. On the 27th of July, the English took possession + of Louisburgh, and, as a consequence, of Cape Breton and + Prince Edward's Island. Thus fell the power of France on our + eastern coast. Halifax being the English naval station, + Louisburgh was deserted. The harbor still offers shelter + from storms; the coast repels the surge: but a few hovels + only mark the spot which so much treasure was lavished to + fortify, so much heroism to conquer. Wolfe, whose heart was + in England, returned home with the love and esteem of the + army. His country was full of exultation; the trophies were + deposited with pomp in the cathedral of St. Paul's; the + churches gave thanks; Boscawen, himself a member of + parliament, was honored by a unanimous tribute from the + House of Commons. New England, too, triumphed; for the + praises awarded to Amherst and Wolfe recalled the heroism of + her own sons." + +This success inspired Pitt to still greater efforts. He resolved to +annex the "boundless north," as it was then called, to the British +empire in America; and early in the spring Wolfe again went out,--this +time, to conquer Quebec and find a soldier's grave. Many of his +companions in arms were then and afterwards famous men:--Jervis, +afterwards the renowned Earl St. Vincent, James Cook, the navigator, +George Townshend, Barre, and Colonel Howe. + + "On the 26th of June, the whole armament arrived, without + the least accident, off the Isle of Orleans, on which, the + next day, they disembarked. A little south of west the cliff + of Quebec was seen distinctly, seemingly impregnable, rising + precipitously in the midst of one of the grandest scenes in + nature. To protect this guardian citadel of New France, + Montcalm had of regular troops no more than six wasted + battalions; of Indian warriors few appeared, the wary + savages preferring the security of neutrals; the Canadian + militia gave him the superiority in numbers; but he put his + chief confidence in the natural strength of the country. + Above Quebec, the high promontory on which the upper town is + built expands into an elevated plain, having towards the + river the steepest acclivities. For nine miles or more above + the city, as far as Cape Rouge, every landing-place was + intrenched and protected. The river St. Charles, after + meandering through a fertile valley, sweeps the rocky base + of the town, which it covers by expanding into sedgy + marshes. Nine miles below Quebec, the impetuous Montmorenci, + after fretting itself a whirlpool route, and leaping for + miles down the steps of a rocky bed, rushes with velocity + towards the ledge, over which, falling two hundred and fifty + feet, it pours its fleecy cataract into the chasm. As Wolfe + disembarked on the Isle of Orleans, what scene could be more + imposing? On his left lay at anchor the fleet with the + numerous transports; the tents of his army stretched across + the island; the intrenched troops of France, having their + centre at the village of Beanport, extended from the + Montmorenci to the St. Charles; the city of Quebec, + garrisoned by five battalions, bounded the horizon. At + midnight on the 28th, the short darkness was lighted up by a + fleet of fire-ships, that, after a furious storm of wind, + came down with the tide in the proper direction. But the + British sailors grappled with them and towed them free of + the shipping. The river was Wolfe's; the men-of-war made it + so; and, being master of the deep water, he also had the + superiority on the south-shore of the St. Lawrence. In the + night of the 29th, Monckton, with four battalions, having + crossed the south channel, occupied Point Levi; and where + the mighty current, which below the town expands as a bay, + narrows to a deep stream of but a mile in width, batteries + of mortars and cannon were constructed. The citizens of + Quebec, foreseeing the ruin of their houses, volunteered to + pass over the river and destroy the works; but, at the + trial, their courage failed them, and they retreated. The + English, by the discharge of red-hot balls and shells, set + on fire fifty houses in a night, demolished the lower town, + and injured the upper. But the citadel was beyond their + reach, and every avenue from the river to the cliff was too + strongly intrenched for an assault." + +The summer was going rapidly, and as yet no real progress had been made. +Wolfe was eager for action,--and he pursued his researches into the +nature of the formidable position with extraordinary eagerness:-- + + "He saw that the eastern bank of the Montmorenci was higher + than the ground occupied by Montcalm, and, on the 9th of + July, he crossed the north channel and encamped there; but + the armies and their chiefs were still divided by the river + precipitating itself down its rocky way in impassable eddies + and rapids. Three miles in the interior, a ford was found; + but the opposite bank was steep, woody, and well intrenched. + Not a spot on the line of the Montmorenci for miles into the + interior, nor on the St. Lawrence to Quebec, was left + unprotected by the vigilance of the inaccessible Montcalm. + The General proceeded to reconnoitre the shore above the + town. In concert with Saunders, on the 18th of July, he + sailed along the well-defended bank from Montmorenci to the + St. Charles: he passed the deep and spacious harbor, which, + at four hundred miles from the sea, can shelter a hundred + ships of the line; he neared the high cliff of Cape Diamond, + towering like a bastion over the waters, and surmounted by + the banner of the Bourbons; he coasted along the craggy wall + of rock that extends beyond the citadel; he marked the + outline of the precipitous hill that forms the north bank of + the river,--and every where he beheld a natural fastness, + vigilantly defended, intrenchments, cannon, boats, and + floating batteries guarding every access. Had a detachment + landed between the city and Cape Rouge, it would have + encountered the danger of being cut off before it could + receive support. He would have risked a landing at St. + Michael's Cove, three miles above the city, but the enemy + prevented him by planting artillery and a mortar to play + upon the shipping. Meantime, at midnight, on the 28th of + July, the French sent down a raft of five-stages, consisting + of nearly a hundred pieces; but these, like the fire-ships a + month before, did but light up the river, without injuring + the British fleet. Scarcely a day passed but there were + skirmishes of the English with the Indians and Canadians, + who were sure to tread stealthily in the footsteps of every + exploring party. Wolfe returned to Montmorenci. July was + almost gone, and he had made no effective advances. He + resolved on an engagement. The Montmorenci, after falling + over a perpendicular rock, flows for three hundred yards, + amidst clouds of spray and rainbow glories, in a gentle + stream to the St. Lawrence. Near the junction, the river + may, for a few hours of the tide, be passed on foot. It was + planned that two brigades should ford the Montmorenci at the + proper time of the tide, while Monckton's regiments should + cross the St. Lawrence in boats from Point Levi. The signal + was made, but some of the boats grounded on a ledge of rocks + that runs out into the river. While the seamen were getting + them off, and the enemy were firing a vast number of shot + and shells, Wolfe, with some of the navy officers as + companions, selected a landing-place; and his desperate + courage thought it not yet too late to begin the attack. + Thirteen companies of grenadiers, and two hundred of the + second battalion of the Royal Americans, who got first on + shore, not waiting for support, ran hastily towards the + intrenchments, and were repulsed in such disorder that they + could not again come into line; though Monckton's regiment + had arrived, and had formed with the coolness of invincible + valor. But hours hurried by; night was near; the clouds of + midsummer gathered heavily, as if for a storm; the tide + rose; and Wolfe, wiser than Frederic at Colin, ordered a + timely retreat." + +In this unsuccessful attempt Wolfe lost 400 men. On the tortures of a +body wasted by fever and a mind preyed on by its own restless energy, we +will not dwell. Wolfe reckoned on assistance from the corps of +Amherst,--but this did not arrive. At last he perceived that his fate +rested in his own hands alone,--and he conceived the daring plan of +attack which has given to his name the soldier's immortality. We extract +Mr. Bancroft's account of the brilliant attack which cost our young hero +his life and the French their dominions in Northern America:-- + + "Every officer knew his appointed duty, when, at one o'clock + in the morning of the 13th September, Wolfe, with Monckton + and Murray, and about half the forces, set off in boats, and + without sail or oars, glided down with the tide. In + three-quarters of an hour the ships followed, and, though + the night had become dark, aided by the rapid current, they + reached the cove just in time to cover the landing. Wolfe + and the troops with him leaped on shore; the light infantry, + who found themselves borne by the current a little below the + intrenched path, clambered up the steep hill, staying + themselves by the roots and boughs of the maple and spruce + and ash trees that covered the precipitous declivity, and, + after a little firing, dispersed the picket which guarded + the height. The rest ascended safely by the pathway. A + battery of four guns on the left was abandoned to Colonel + Howe. When Townshend's division disembarked, the English had + already gained one of the roads to Quebec, and, advancing in + front of the forest, Wolfe stood at daybreak with big + invincible battalions on the plains of Abraham, the + battle-field of empire. 'It can be but a small party come to + burn a few houses and retire,' said Montcalm, in amazement, + as the news reached him in his intrenchments the other side + of the St. Charles; but, obtaining better + information,--'Then,' he cried, 'they have at last got to + the weak side of this miserable garrison; we must give + battle and crush them before mid-day.' And before ten, the + two armies, equal in numbers, each being composed of less + than five thousand men, were ranged in presence of one + another for battle. The English, not easily accessible from + intervening shallow ravines, and rail fences, were all + regulars, perfect in discipline, terrible in their fearless + enthusiasm, thrilling with pride at their morning's success, + commanded by a man whom they obeyed with confidence and + love. The doomed and devoted Montcalm had what Wolfe had + called but 'five weak French battalions,' of less than two + thousand men, 'mingled with disorderly peasantry,' formed on + ground which commanded the position of the English. The + French had three little pieces of artillery, the English one + or two. The two armies cannonaded each other for nearly an + hour; when Montcalm, having summoned Bougainville to his + aid, and despatched messenger after messenger for De + Vaudreuil, who had fifteen hundred men at the camp, to come + up, before he should be driven from the ground, endeavored + to flank the British and crowd them down the high bank of + the river. Wolfe counteracted the movement by detaching + Townshend with Amherst's regiment, and afterwards a part of + the Royal Americans, who formed on the left with a double + front. Waiting no longer for more troops, Montcalm led the + French army impetuously to the attack. The ill-disciplined + companies broke by their precipitation and the unevenness of + the ground; and fired by platoons, without unity. The + English, especially the forty-third and forty-seventh, where + Monckton stood, received the shock with calmness; and after + having, at Wolfe's command, reserved their fire till their + enemy was within forty yards, their line began a regular, + rapid, and exact discharge of musketry. Montcalm was present + every where, braving danger, wounded, but cheering by his + example. The second in command, De Sennezergues, an + associate in glory at Ticonderoga, was killed. The brave but + untried Canadians, flinching from a hot fire in the open + field, began to waver; and, so soon as Wolfe, placing + himself at the head of the twenty-eighth and the Louisburgh + grenadiers, charged with bayonets, they every where gave + way. Of the English officers, Carleton was wounded; Barre, + who fought near Wolfe, received in the head a ball which + destroyed the power of vision of one eye, and ultimately + made him blind. Wolfe, also, as he led the charge, was + wounded in the wrist, but still pressing forward, he + received a second ball; and, having decided the day, was + struck a third time, and mortally, in the breast. 'Support + me,' he cried to an officer near him: 'let not my brave + fellows see me drop.' He was carried to the rear, and they + brought him water to quench his thirst. 'They run, they + run,' spoke the officer on whom he leaned. 'Who run?' asked + Wolfe, as his life was fast ebbing. 'The French,' replied + the officer, 'give way every where.' 'What,' cried the + expiring hero, 'do they run already? Go, one of you, to + Colonel Burton; bid him march Webb's regiment with all speed + to Charles River to cut off the fugitives.' Four days + before, he had looked forward to early death with dismay. + 'Now, God be praised, I die happy.' These were his words as + his spirit escaped in the blaze of his glory. Night, + silence, the rushing tide, veteran discipline, the sure + inspiration of genius had been his allies; his battle-field, + high over the ocean-river, was the grandest theatre on earth + for illustrious deeds; his victory, one of the most + momentous in the annals of mankind, gave to the English + tongue and the institutions of the Germanic race the + unexplored and seemingly infinite West and North. He crowded + into a few hours actions that would have given lustre to + length of life; and filling his day with greatness, + completed it before its noon." + +In that terrible action fell also "the hope of New France." In +attempting to rally a body of fugitive Canadians in a copse near St. +John's Gate, Montcalm was mortally wounded. + +We have quoted enough from this volume to show how varied and stirring +are the subjects with which Mr. Bancroft here deals. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[5] _History of the American Revolution._ By George Bancroft. Vol. I. +Boston, Little & Brown, 1852. + + + + +From the London Literary Gazette + +LIFE IN CANADA. + +BY MRS. MOODIE.[6] + + +If there be one of life's affairs in which woman has a peculiar right to +have her wishes considered and her veto respected, it is that of +emigration. For, in the arduous task of establishing a new home in a +half-settled country, let man do what he will to alleviate, on her fall +the burthen and heat of the day. Hers are the menial toils, the frequent +anxieties, the lingering home-sickness, the craving after dear friends' +faces and a beloved native land. Hers, too, the self-imposed duty and +unselfish effort to hide regret under cheerful smiles, when the weary +brother or husband returns at evening from toil in field and forest. +Blessed and beautiful are the smiles of the sad-hearted, worn to wile +away another's cares! + +Love in a cottage has long been jeered at, and depicted as flying out of +the window. It seems miraculous to behold the capricious little deity +steadfastly braving, for many a long year, the chilly atmosphere of a +log-hut in an American forest. In the year 1832, Mrs. Moodie (here +better remembered as Miss Susanna Strickland, sister of the well-known +historian of the English and Scottish Queens) accompanied her husband, a +half-pay subaltern, to the backwoods of Canada. Many were her +misgivings, and they did not prove unfounded. Long and cruel was the +probation she underwent, before finding comparative comfort and +prosperity in the rugged land where at first she found so much to +embitter her existence. Nobly did she bear up under countless +difficulties and sufferings, supported by an energy rare in woman, and +by her devoted attachment to the husband of her choice. For some years +her troubles were not occasional, but continual and increasing. Her +first installation in a forest home could hardly have been more +discouraging and melancholy than it was: + + "The place we first occupied was purchased of Mr. C----, a + merchant, who took it in payment of sundry large debts, + which the owner, a New England loyalist, had been unable to + settle. Old Joe H--, the present occupant, had promised to + quit it with his family at the commencement of sleighing; + and as the bargain was concluded in the month of September, + and we were anxious to plough for fall wheat, it was + necessary to be upon the spot. No house was to be found in + the immediate neighborhood save a small dilapidated log + tenement, on an adjoining farm (which was scarcely reclaimed + from the bush), that had been some months without an owner. + The merchant assured us that this could be made very + comfortable until such time as it suited H--to remove." + +With singular want of caution, Mr. and Mrs. Moodie neglected to visit +this "log tenement" before signing an agreement to rent it. On a rainy +September day they proceed to take possession: + + "The carriage turned into a narrow, steep path, overhung + with lofty woods, and after laboring up it with considerable + difficulty, and at the risk of breaking our necks, it + brought us at length to a rocky upland clearing, partially + covered with a second growth of timber, and surrounded on + all sides by the dark forest. 'I guess,' quoth our Yankee + driver, 'that at the bottom of this 'ere swell, you'll find + yourself _to hum_;' and plunging into a short path cut + through the wood, he pointed to a miserable hut, at the + bottom of a steep descent, and cracking his whip, exclaimed, + 'It's a smart location that. I wish you Britishers may enjoy + it.' I gazed upon the place in perfect dismay, for I had + never seen such a shed called a house before. 'You must be + mistaken; that is not a house, but a cattle-shed, or + pig-sty.' The man turned his knowing keen eye upon me, and + smiled, half humorously, half maliciously, as he said, 'You + were raised in the old country, I guess; you have much to + learn, and more perhaps than you'll like to know, before the + winter is over.'" + +The prophet of evil spoke truly. It was a winter of painful instruction +for the inexperienced young woman, and her not very prudent husband. We +might fill columns with a bare list of their vexations and disasters. +Amongst the former, not the least arose from the borrowing propensities +of their neighbors. They had 'located' in a bad neighborhood, in the +vicinity of a number of low Yankee squatters, "ignorant as savages, +without their courtesy and kindness." These people walked +unceremoniously at all hours into their wretched dwelling, to criticise +their proceedings, make impertinent remarks, and to borrow--or rather to +beg or steal, for what they borrowed they rarely returned. The most +extraordinary loans were daily solicited or demanded; and Mrs. Moodie, +strange and timid in her new home, and amongst, these +semi-barbarians--her husband, too, being much away at the farm--for some +time dared not refuse to acquiesce in their impudent extortions. Here is +a specimen of the style of these miscalled 'borrowings.' On the first +day of their arrival, whilst they were yet toiling to exclude wind and +rain from the crazy hovel, which their baggage and goods filled nearly +to the roof, a young Yankee 'lady' squeezed herself into the crowded +room: + + "Imagine a girl of seventeen or eighteen years of age, with + sharp, knowing-looking features, a forward impudent carnage, + and a pert flippant voice, standing upon one of the trunks, + and surveying all our proceedings in the most impertinent + manner. The creature was dressed in a ragged, dirty, purple + stuff gown, cut very low in the neck, with an old red cotton + handkerchief tied over her head; her uncombed, tangled locks + falling over her thin, inquisitive face in a state of + perfect nature. Her legs and feet were bare, and in her + coarse, dirty, red hands she swung to and fro an empty glass + decanter." + +The mission of this squalid nymph was not to borrow but to lend. She +"guessed the strangers were fixin' there," and that they'd want a glass +decanter to hold their whisky, so she had brought one over. "But +mind--don't break it," said she; "'tis the only one we have to hum, and +father says it's so mean to drink out of green glass"--a sentiment +worthy of a colonel of hussars. Although quite pleased by such +disinterested kindness and attention, Mrs. Moodie declined the decanter, +on the double ground of having some of her own, and of not drinking +whisky. The refusal was unavailing. The lady in ragged purple set down +the bottle on a trunk, as firmly as if she meant to plant it there, and +took herself off. The next morning cleared up the mystery of her +perseverance. "Have you done with that 'ere decanter I brought across +yesterday?" said the 'cute damsel, presenting herself before Mrs. Moodie +with her bare red knees peeping through her ragged petticoats, and with +face and hands innocent of soap. The English lady returned the bottle, +with the remark that she had never needed it. + + "'I guess you won't return it empty,' quoth the obliging + neighbor; 'that would be mean, father says. He wants it + filled with whisky.'" + +The hearty laugh which this solution of the riddle provoked from the +inmates of the log-house offended the female Yankee, who tossed the +decanter from hand to hand and glared savagely about her. But the +ridicule was insufficient to deter her from the whisky hunt. When +assured there was none in the place, she demanded rum, and pointed to a +keg, in which she said she smelt it. Her keen olfactories had not +deceived her. The rum, she was told, was for the workmen: + + "'I calculate,' was the reply, 'when you've been here a few + months, you'll be too knowing to give rum to helps. But + old-country folks are all fools, and that's the reason they + get so easily sucked in, and be so soon wound up. Cum, fill + the bottle, and don't be stingy. In this country we all live + by borrowing. If you want any thing, why, just send and + borrow from us.'" + +When the decanter was filled and delivered to this saucy mendicant, Mrs. +Moodie ventured to petition for a little milk for her infant, but +Impudence in purple laughed in her face, and named an exorbitant price +at which she would _sell_ it her, for cash on delivery. It seems +incredible that, after this ingratitude, Mrs. Moodie continued her +'lendings' to the family of which her new acquaintance was a +distinguished ornament. + + "The very day our new plough came home, the father of this + bright damsel, who went by the familiar name of _Old Satan_, + came over to borrow it (though we afterwards found out that + he had a good one of his own). The land had never been + broken up, and was full of rocks and stumps, and he was + anxious to save his own from injury; the consequence was, + that the borrowed implement came home unfit for use, just at + the very time we wanted to plough for fall wheat. The same + happened to a spade and trowel, bought in order to plaster + the house. Satan asked the loan of them for _one_ hour, for + the same purpose, and we never saw them again." + +The other neighbors were no better. One Yankee dame used to send over +her son, a hopeful youth, Philander by name, almost every morning, to +borrow the bake-kettle, in which hot cakes were cooked for breakfast. +One day, when Mrs. Moodie was later than usual in rising, she heard from +her bedroom the kitchen latch lifted. It was Philander, come for the +kettle. + + "_I (through the partition):_ 'You can't have it this + morning. We cannot get our breakfast without it,' + _Philander:_ 'No more can the old woman to hum,' and, + snatching up the kettle, which had been left to warm on the + hearth, he rushed out of the house, singing at the top of + his voice, 'Hurrah for the Yankee boys!' When James (the + servant) came home for his breakfast, I sent him across to + demand the kettle, and the dame very coolly told him, that + when she had done with it I might have it; but she defied + him to take it out of her house with her bread in it." + +Since the request of the drover who begged his comrade to lend him a +bark of his dog, we have not heard of queerer loans than some of those +solicited of Mrs. Moodie:-- + + "Another American squatter was always sending over to borrow + a small-tooth comb, which she called a _vermin destroyer_; + and once the same person asked the loan of a towel, as a + friend had come from the States to visit her, and the only + one she had, had been made into a best 'pinny' for the + child: she likewise begged a sight in the looking-glass, as + she wanted to try on a new cap, to see if it were fixed to + her mind. This woman must have been a mirror of neatness + when compared with her dirty neighbors. One night I was + roused up from my bed for the loan of a pair of + 'steelyards.' For what purpose, think you, gentle reader? To + weigh a new-born infant. The process was performed by tying + the poor squalling thing up in a small shawl, and suspending + it to one of the hooks. The child was a fine boy, and + weighed ten pounds, greatly to the delight of the Yankee + father. One of the drollest instances of borrowing I have + ever heard of was told me by a friend. A maid-servant asked + her mistress to go out on a particular afternoon, as she was + going to have a party of her friends, and _wanted the loan + of the drawing-room_." + +Traits such as these exhibit, more vividly than volumes of description, +the sort of savages amongst whom poor Mrs. Moodie's lot was cast. They +had all the worst qualities of Yankee and Indian--the good ones of +neither. They had neither manners, heart, nor honesty. The basest +selfishness, cunning, and malignity were their prominent +characteristics. A less patient and good-tempered person than Mrs. +Moodie would, however, have had little difficulty in getting rid of the +troublesome and intrusive borrowers. They could not bear a sharp rebuke, +and, more than once, a happy and pointed retort rid her, for weeks, or +even for ever, of the pestilent presence of one or other of them. An +English farmer, settled near at hand, to whom she mentioned her +annoyances, laughed--as well he might--at her easy-going toleration. +"Ask them sharply what they want," he said, "and, failing a satisfactory +answer, bid them leave the house. Or--a better way still--buy some small +article of them, and bid them bring the change." Mrs. Moodie tried the +latter plan, and with no slight success. + + "That very afternoon, Miss Satan brought me a plate of + butter for sale. The price was three and nine pence; twice + the sum, by-the-bye, that it was worth. 'I have no + change,'--giving her a dollar--'but you can bring it to me + to-morrow.' Oh! blessed experiment! for the value of one + quarter dollar I got rid of this dishonest girl for ever. + Rather than pay me, she never entered the house again." + +The strange names of some of the farmers and squatters in Mrs. Moodie's +neighborhood exceed belief. Amongst the substantial yeomen thereabouts +were Solomon Sly, Reynard Fox, and Hiram Dolittle. Ammon and Ichabod +were two hopeful Canadian youths, the former of whom--a child of tender +years--was in the habit of hideously swearing at his father, and then +scampering across the meadow, and defying the pursuit of his pursy +progenitor. This is another family of which Mrs. Moodie gives amusing +glimpses, in a style sufficiently masculine, but therefore all the +better adapted to the subject:-- + + "The conversation was interrupted by a queer-looking urchin + of five years old, dressed in a long-tailed coat and + trowsers, popping his black shock head in at the door and + calling out, 'Uncle Joe! You're wanted to hum.' 'Is that + your nephew?' 'No! I guess it's my woman's eldest son,' said + uncle Joe, rising; 'but they call me Uncle Joe. 'Tis a spry + chap that--as cunning as a fox. I tell you what it is--he + will make a smart man. Go home, Ammon, and tell your ma that + I am coming.' 'I won't,' said the boy; 'you may go hum and + tell her yourself. She has wanted wood cut this hour, and + you'll catch it!' Away ran the dutiful son, but not before + he had applied his forefinger significantly to the side of + his nose, and, with a knowing wink, pointed in the direction + of hum. Uncle Joe obeyed the signal, drily remarking that he + could not leave the barn door without the old hen clucking + him back. At this period we were still living in Old Satan's + log house, and anxiously looking out for the first snow to + put us in possession of the good substantial log dwelling + occupied by Uncle Joe and his family, which consisted of a + brown brood of seven girls and this highly-prized boy." + +The names of the squatter ladies were of a far superior description to +those to which their brothers answered. Looking down upon the Old +Testament, their godfathers had resorted for suggestions to the Italian +Opera, the heathen mythology, and the Minerva press. She of the purple +garment was called Emily. This was quiet enough. But her associates were +Cinderellas, Minervas, and Almerias; and Amanda was the baptismal +appellation of one of Ammon's sisters. + +Old Joe, it will be remembered, had agreed to quit, when winter set in, +the house belonging to the farm which Mr. Moodie had purchased. But even +in civilized and lawyer-ridden England possession is held to be nine +points of the law, and in Canada the other tenth is thrown in. Old Joe's +mother, an abominable Yankee Hecate, grinned like a whole bag-full of +monkeys when informed that her son was expected to dis-locate as soon as +sleighing began. + + "'Joe,' she guessed, 'would take his own time. The house was + not built which was to receive him; and he was not the man + to turn his back upon a warm hearth to camp in the + wilderness. It was neither the first snow nor the last frost + that would turn Joe out of his comfortable home.'" + +Mrs. Hecate spoke a true word. Frost came, sledges ran, thaw began--not +an inch budged Joe. The sun gained power, a soft south wind fanned the +frozen earth, the snow disappeared--still the reckless, dishonest scamp +made no sign of removing, and replied with abuse to the remonstrances of +those to whom his dwelling belonged. In the States, and with a brother +Yankee, his obstinacy might have led to revolver and rifle work. The +English emigrants patiently waited, to their own great inconvenience. +Joe reckoned he shouldn't move till his 'missus' was confined--an +interesting event which was expected to come off in May. About the +middle of that month the Joe family was increased by a sturdy boy, +whereupon its chief declared his intention of turning out in a +fortnight, if all went well. Mrs. Moodie did not believe him--he had +lied so often before; but he was determined to take her in at last, as +he had done at first, for this time he was as good as his word. On the +last day of May they went, bag and baggage, and Mrs. Moodie sent over +her Scotch maid-servant and Irish serving-man to clear out the dwelling, +which she justly expected would be in bad enough condition. But her +expectations were far exceeded by the reality. The malignity of these +people, who from her had received nothing but kindness and good offices, +was degrading to human nature. Presently the Irishman returned, panting +with indignation: + + "'The house,' he said, 'was more filthy than a pig-sty.' But + that was not the worst of it; Uncle Joe, before he went, had + undermined the brick chimney, and let all the water into the + house. 'Oh! but if he comes here agin,' he continued, + grinding his teeth and doubling his fist, 'I'll thrash him + for it. And thin, Ma'arm, he has girdled round all the best + graft apple-trees, the murtherin' owld villain, as if it + would spile his digestion our ating them.' + + "John and Bell scrubbed at the house all day, and in the + evening they carried over the furniture, and I went to + inspect our new dwelling. It looked beautifully clean and + neat. Bell had whitewashed all the black, smoky walls, and + boarded ceilings, and scrubbed the dirty window-frames, and + polished the fly-spotted panes of glass, until they actually + admitted a glimpse of the clear air and the blue sky. + Snow-white-fringed curtains, and a bed with furniture to + correspond, a carpeted floor, and a large pot of green + boughs on the hearthstone, gave an air of comfort and + cleanliness to a room which, only a few hours before, had + been a loathsome den of filth and impurity. This change + would have been very gratifying, had not a strong, + disagreeable odor almost deprived me of my breath as I + entered the room. It was unlike any thing I had ever smelt + before, and turned me so sick and faint, that I had to cling + to the door-post for support. + + "'Where does this dreadful smell come from?' + + "'The guidness knows, ma'am; John and I have searched the + house from the loft to the cellar, but we canna find out the + cause of the stink.' + + "'It must be in the room, Bell, and it is impossible to + remain here, or to live in the house, until it is removed.' + + "Glancing my eyes all round the place, I spied what seemed + to me a little cupboard, over the mantel-shelf, and I told + John to see if I was right. The lad mounted upon a chair, + and pulled open a small door, but almost fell to the ground + with the dreadful stench which seemed to rush from the + closet. + + "'What is it, John?' I cried from the open door. + + "'A skunk! ma'arm, a skunk! Sure, I thought the devil had + scorched his tail, and left the grizzled hair behind him. + What a strong perfume it has!' he continued, holding up the + beautiful but odious little creature by the tail. + + "'By dad! I know all about it now. I saw Ned Layton, only + two days ago, crossing the field with Uncle Joe, with his + gun on his shoulder, and this wee bit baste in his hand. + They were both laughing like sixty. 'Well, if this does not + stink the Scotchman out of the house,' said Joe, 'I'll be + content to be tarred and feathered;' and thin they both + laughed until they stopped to draw breath.' + + "I could hardly help laughing myself; but I begged Monaghan + to convey the horrid creature away, and putting some salt + and sulphur into a tin plate, and setting fire to it, I + placed it on the floor in the middle of the room, and closed + all the doors for an hour, which greatly assisted in + purifying the house from the skunkification. Bell then + washed out the closet with strong ley, and in a short time + no vestige remained of the malicious trick Uncle Joe had + played off upon us." + +The smell of skunk and Yankee eradicated, there still was much to be +done before the house could be deemed habitable. It swarmed with mice, +which all the night long performed fantastical dances over the faces and +pillows of the new comers. The old logs which composed the walls of the +dwelling were alive with bugs and large black ants, and the fleas upon +the floor were as thick as sand-grains in the desert. With the warm +weather, then just setting in, came legions of mosquitoes, that rose in +clouds from the numerous little streams intersecting the valley. But in +spite of all these discomforts, summer was felt to be a blessing, and +"roughing it" in the woods was far less painful than in the season of +snow, and frost, and storm. + + "The banks of the little streams abounded with wild + strawberries, which, although small, were of a delicious + flavor. Thither Bell and I, and the baby, daily repaired to + gather the bright red berries of nature's own providing. + Katie, young as she was, was very expert at helping herself, + and we used to seat her in the middle of a fine bed, whilst + we gathered farther on. Hearing her talking very lovingly to + something in the grass, which she tried to clutch between + her white hands, calling it 'pitty, pitty,' I ran to the + spot and found it was a large garter-snake that she was so + affectionately courting to her embrace. Not then aware that + this formidable looking reptile was perfectly harmless, I + snatched the child up in my arms, and ran with her home, + never stopping until I reached the house and saw her safely + seated in her cradle." + +Sixteen years elapsed after the departure of Joe and his brood from her +neighborhood before Mrs. Moodie heard any thing of their fate. A winter +or two ago, tidings of them reached her through one who had lived near +them. Hecate, almost a centenarian, occupied a corner of her son's barn. +She could not dwell in harmony under the same roof with her +daughter-in-law. The lady in purple and her sisters were married and +scattered abroad. Joe himself, who could neither read nor write, had +turned itinerant preacher. No account was given of the hopeful Ammon. + +Mrs. Moodie's work, unaffectedly and naturally written, though a little +coarse, will delight ladies, please men, and even amuse children. On our +readers' account we regret our inability to make further extracts from +its amusing pages. The book is one of great originality and interest. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[6] _Roughing it in the Bush; or, Life in Canada._ 2 vols. Bentley. + + + + +From the London Literary Gazette. + +MR. SQUIER ON NICARAGUA.[7] + + +Many causes are combining to give great importance to the States of +Central America. Their own fertility and natural advantages, the +commerce of the Pacific, and the gold of California, unite to attract +the earnest attention of enterprising men and politicians towards them. +At the present moment, the appearance of this full and able account of +Nicaragua is peculiarly well-timed. The writer of it describes himself +as "late _chargé d'affaires_ of the United States to the Republics of +Central America." His official position has evidently enabled him to get +at much information that would otherwise have been inaccessible. His +name is well and favorably known to ethnologists and antiquarians by his +researches into the history of the aboriginal monuments of the United +States, and by his very curious, though somewhat fanciful, essay on "The +Serpent Symbol, and the Worship of the Reciprocal Principles of Nature +in America." The bias and extent of his studies make him a very +competent person to investigate the antiquities of Nicaragua. The +chapters devoted to this subject in the work before us are full of +interest, and highly to be valued for the abundance of fresh +observations they contain. Like many American archæologists and +historians, Mr. Squier is inclined to over-estimate the peculiarities +and antiquity of the aborigines of the New World. If we understand +rightly, he claims for them an independent origin. His ethnology is of +the romantic school, and rather loose. His imagination gets the better +of his reasoning, and his "organ of wonder," to speak in the manner of +phrenologists, is over-developed. His habits of mind and training do not +seem to be such as to qualify him for strict scientific research. He is +more of the _littérateur_ than the philosopher. His writings are, in +consequence, very amusing, but require to be dealt with cautiously. The +facts must be winnowed from the fancies with which they are mingled, if +we wish to use them for scientific purposes. + +Imaginative men are usually warm lovers and fierce haters. Our American +envoy's appreciation of female charms is so intense, that he cannot pass +a pretty woman without inscribing a memorandum respecting her in his +note-book, afterwards to be printed more at length with additional +expressions of admiration. A pair of black eyes cannot sparkle behind a +lattice without being duly recorded. His affection for the ladies is +only equalled by his dislike of the "Britishers." The handsomest girl +and the ugliest idol could scarcely distract his thought from the vices +and crimes of England and the English. If he is to be trusted, the whole +population of Central America regards every Englishman as a bitter +enemy. He paints us in the blackest hues, and prophesies the fall of +England with undisguised delight. Bluster about Britain is the prominent +fault of the book, and one for which the writer will, when he knows more +about us, be ashamed of himself. Every day it is becoming more and more +the interest of Englishmen and Americans to pull together. Consanguinity +and the love of constitutional liberty are strong ties. They may be +forgotten for a time, but in the end must work uppermost. Recent events +have done much to remind us of our near relationship with our +transatlantic cousins, and them of the Anglo-Saxon blood to which they +owe their pre-eminence among the nations of the New World. The grasping +and interfering qualities that bring down upon us the unmitigated +censures of Mr. Squier are quite as prominently manifested in the doings +of his countrymen; and whilst in one chapter he censures our meddlings +with, and claims upon, the Mosquito shore, in another he anticipates +something very like the annexation of all Central America to the United +States. + +The Mosquito country, about which we have seen of late so many very +unsatisfactory paragraphs in our newspapers, is a thinly populated and +most unhealthy tract on the Atlantic sea-board of Central America. It is +inhabited by a mixed breed of Indians and Negroes, supposed to be ruled +by a semi-civilized individual, who rejoices in the entomological title +of King of the Mosquitoes, one by no means inappropriate, considering +the amount of small annoyance we have endured through disputes about his +territory. He is supposed to be under British protection; it is +difficult to understand exactly why. The main purpose we have in view +seems to be the securing a proper supply of the peculiar hard woods of +this region. Britons at home generally make peace over their mahogany; +abroad they seem to pick quarrels over it. + +Central America includes an era of 150,000 square miles. Under Spanish +dominion it was divided into the provinces of Guatemala, Honduras, San +Salvador, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. These became independent states in +1821, and subsequently united to form the "Republic of Central America." +They separated again, in 1839, into so many distinct republics. +Nicaragua, Honduras, and San Salvador have recently confederated. The +entire region of Central America presents very marked and important +physical features. These are the great plain, six thousand feet above +the sea, upon which stands the city of Guatemala; the high plain forming +the centre of Honduras and part of Nicaragua; and the elevated country +of Costa Rica. Between the two latter lies the basin of the Nicaraguan +Lakes, with broad and undulating verdant slopes broken by steep volcanic +cones, and a few ranges of hills along the shores of the Pacific, +intermingled with undulating plains. Of the two great lakes, the lesser, +Managua, is one hundred and fifty-six feet, and the larger, Nicaragua, +one hundred and twenty-eight feet above the Pacific ocean. The former is +fifty or sixty miles in length by thirty-five wide, the latter above a +hundred miles long by fifty wide. On or near their western borders are +the chief cities of the country. Enormous isolated volcanic cones rise +to the height of from 4000 to 7000 feet in their neighborhood or on the +islands that stud them. Numerous remains of antiquity, ruins of temples, +and deserted monolithic idols, give interest to their precincts, whilst +the scenery is described as being surpassingly grand and beautiful. The +sole outlet is the river San Juan, a magnificent stream flowing from the +southeastern extremity of Lake Nicaragua, for a length of about ninety +miles, into the Atlantic. The climate is generally healthy, more +especially towards the Pacific side. Nicaragua is inhabited by a +population of about 260,000, one-half of which, or more, is composed of +mixed breeds, Indians, in great part civilized, coming next in number, +then whites, of whom there are about 25,000, and, lastly, some 15,000 +Negroes. They live chiefly in towns, and cultivate the soil, which is +very productive, and capable of supporting a much larger population. The +natural resources of Nicaragua appear to be very great. Sugar, cotton, +coffee, indigo, tobacco, rice, and maize, are the chief productions. +There is, besides, great mineral wealth. In ancient times the aborigines +appear to have occupied considerable cities, and to have attained a +civilization comparable with that of the Mexicans. Indeed, Mr. Squier +has proved, by philological and other evidence, that a Mexican colony +did exist in Nicaragua at the period of the discovery of the country in +the fifteenth century. This had been surmised before, but not clearly +made out. + +Much interest attaches to the population of Nicaragua, on account of the +large proportion of families of Indian blood, pure and mixed, of whom it +is made up. The qualities which enabled the ancient Indian people of +Mexico, Central America, and Peru, to become civilized nations after a +peculiar fashion, are not extinct, and seem to be retained and +re-developed in proportion to the prevalence of Indian over Spanish +blood. The Indians of Nicaragua are remarkable for industry and +docility; they are unobtrusive, hospitable, and brave, although, +fortunately for themselves, not warlike. They make good soldiers, yet +have no morbid taste for the military profession. The men are +agriculturists; the women occupy themselves with the weaving of cotton, +and make fabrics of good quality and tasteful design. It is interesting +to find the Tyrian dye still employed in their manufactures. They +procure it from a species of _Murex_ inhabiting the shores of the +Pacific. They take the cotton thread to the sea-side, where, having +gathered together a sufficient quantity of shell-fish, they patiently +squeeze over the cotton the coloring fluid, at first pellucid and +colorless, from the animals, one by one. At first the thread is pale +blue, but on exposure to the atmosphere becomes of the desired purple. +This color is so prized that purple thread dyed by cheaper and speedier +methods, imported from Europe, cannot supplant the native product. With +mingled humanity and thrift they replace the whelks in their native +element, after these shell-fish have yielded up the precious liquor for +which they were originally gathered. The Indian population also +exclusively manufacture variegated mats and hammocks from the Pita, a +species of Agave, and are as skilful as their ancient ancestors in the +making of pottery. They do not use the potter's wheel. Politically they +enjoy equal privileges with the whites, and all positions in church and +state are open to them. Among them are men of decided talent. Physically +they are a smaller and paler race than the Indians of the United States, +but are well developed and muscular. Their women are not unfrequently +pretty, and when young are often very finely formed. + +Happily in Nicaragua no distinctions of caste are recognized, or, at any +rate, they have no influence. Such of the people as claim to be of pure +Spanish blood are, in most instances, evidently partly of Indian +descent. The Sambos, or offspring of Indian and Negro parents, are a +fine race of people, taller and stronger than the Indians. + +Mr. Squier's admiration for the gentler (in Nicaragua we can scarcely +say the _fair_) sex, has led him to picture very vividly the charms and +appearance of the ladies he encountered during his travels. The +following is a precise and tempting description: + + "The women of pure Spanish stock are very fair, and have the + _embonpoint_ which characterizes the sex under the tropics. + Their dress, except in a few instances where the stiff + costume of our own country had been adopted, was exceedingly + loose and flowing, leaving the neck and arms exposed. The + entire dress was often pure white, but generally the skirt, + or _nagua_, was of some flowered stuff, in which case the + _guipil_ (_anglicè_, vandyke) was white, heavily trimmed + with lace. Satin slippers, a red or purple sash wound + loosely round the waist, and a rosary sustaining a little + golden cross, with a narrow golden band or a string of + pearls extending around the forehead and binding the hair, + which often fell in luxuriant waves upon their shoulders, + completed a costume as novel as it was graceful and + picturesque. To all this, add the superior attractions of an + oval face, regular features, large and lustrous black eyes, + small mouth, pearly white teeth, and tiny hands and feet, + and withal a low but clear voice, and the reader has a + picture of a Central American lady of pure stock. Very many + of the women have, however, an infusion of other families + and races, from the Saracen to the Indian and the Negro, in + every degree of intermixture. And as tastes differ, so many + opinions as to whether the tinge of brown, through which the + blood glows with a peach-like bloom, in the complexion of + the girl who may trace her lineage to the caziques upon one + side, and the haughty grandees of Andalusia and Seville on + the other, superadded, as it usually is, to a greater + lightness of figure and animation of face,--whether this is + not a more real beauty than that of the fair and more + languid señora, whose white and almost transparent skin + bespeaks a purer ancestry. Nor is the Indian girl, with her + full, little figure, long, glossy hair, quick and + mischievous eyes, who walks erect as a grenadier beneath her + heavy water-jar, and salutes you in a musical, impudent + voice as you pass--nor is the Indian girl to be overlooked + in the novel contrasts which the 'bello sexo' affords in + this glorious land of the sun." + +The Nicaraguan ladies occupy themselves with smoking and displaying +little feet in satin slippers when daily they go to church and back. In +the early evening they occasionally pay visits, and if a number of both +sexes happen to assemble at the same house a dance is improvised, though +regular parties or balls are rare and ceremonial. + +At festival seasons the Nicaraguans have some curious customs, +apparently derived from their ancient heathen worship. + +In some of the Nicaraguan towns, especially in Leon, the pernicious +practice of burying the dead within the walls of city churches is +persisted in, even as in London, and, just as with us, against the +opposition of all sensible persons, including the government itself. +Fees to the church and attendant officials are at the root of the evil, +and give it a vitality that defies all attempts at eradication. The +priests of Leon have evaded all edicts about this nuisance, and have +improved upon the practice of our metropolitan parishes; for, not +content with the revenues they derive from funerals, they charge +according to the length of time (from ten to twenty-five years) the dead +are to be permitted by them to rest in their graves. When the purchased +time is up, the bones and the earth derived from the decomposed corpses +are removed and sold to the manufacturers of nitre! The least warlike of +citizens may thus in the end become a defender of his country, when +converted into a constituent of gunpowder. The most quiet and +unambitious of mortals may complete his career by making a noise in the +world, when fired off from a mortar. Assuredly this is a very novel and +original method of shooting churchyard rubbish, and we recommend a fair +consideration of it to our vested parochial authorities. + +Mr. Squier claims to be the first person who has described the ancient +monuments of Nicaragua, or, indeed, to have indicated their existence. +Excellent and numerous plates and cuts of these very interesting though +rather frightful relics are given in his work. Hitherto the antiquities +of the northern portion of Central America only have been explored, and +are familiar to us through the researches of Stephens and of Catherwood. +The Indians still reverence the shrines and statues of their ancient +gods, and are apt to conceal their knowledge about their localities and +existence. Those described by our traveller have mostly suffered +dilapidation through the religious zeal of the conquerors. They appear +to differ among themselves somewhat in degree of antiquity, but there is +no good reason--this is the conclusion to which Mr. Squier comes--for +supposing that they were not made by the nations found in possession of +the country. The structures in or about which, they were originally +placed were probably of wood, and great mounds and earthworks, like the +teocallis of Mexico, were associated with them. + +A section of Mr. Squier's work is devoted to an elaborate dissertation +on the proposed interoceanic canal, illustrated by an excellent map. We +recommend these chapters to the consideration of all who are interested +upon this important subject. Like most parts of his book it is defaced +by not a few sneers at, and misstatements about, the English. About the +bad taste of these outbursts we shall not say more. That they should +come from a man who is professionally a diplomatist, is evidence of his +indiscretion and unfitness for his political calling. As an amusing +traveller and diligent antiquarian, however, we can do Mr. Squier full +honor, and were glad to see the just compliment lately paid to him in +London, when our Antiquarian Society elected him an honorary member. + +[This interesting and important work of our countryman is reviewed in a +flattering manner in most of the great organs of critical opinion in +England, and its sale there, as well as in this country, has been very +large for one so costly.] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[7] Nicaragua; its People, Scenery, Monuments, and the Proposed +Inter-oceanic Canal. By E. G. Squier. New-York: Appletons. + + + + +From the Dublin University Magazine. + +THE HEIRS OF RANDOLPH ABBEY.[8] + +IV. THE MIDNIGHT VOICE AND ITS ANSWERED CALL. + + +Lady Randolph took leave of Lilias at the door of her room, and she +having, with infinite trepidation, declined the services of the lady's +maid, who seemed to her rather more awful and stately than the lady +herself, soon remained alone in the magnificent apartment which had been +assigned to her. She looked all around it with a glance of some +disquietude, for the vastness of the room, and the dark oak furniture, +made it look very gloomy. She contemplated the huge bed, which bore an +unpleasant resemblance to a hearse, with the utmost awe; it seemed to +her that there was room for a dozen concealed robbers within the massive +folds of the sombre curtains, and the reflection of her own figure in +the tall mirrors, looked strangely like a white ghost wandering +stealthily to and fro; the only gleam of comfort that shone in upon her, +was from the glimpse of the midnight sky that could be seen through the +chinks of the window-shutters. As the night was not cold she went and +threw the window open, feeling that the companionship of the stars would +destroy all these fantastic fancies; and very soon her sense of +loneliness and oppression passed away, for there came a soft wind that +lifted the curls of her long fair hair, and kissed her cheek +caressingly, and she could not help believing it was a breeze from the +Irish hills that bore to her the blessing of her kind old grandfather; +gayly as ever she closed the window and went to sit down, wondering if +ever she should feel inclined to sleep again after the excitement of the +last two days. She had unbound her hair and let it fall around her like +a golden veil, when, suddenly, a sound came floating towards her, on the +still night air, which irresistibly attracted her attention. + +It was a sound of music, deep solemn music, rising with a power and +richness of melody she had never heard before; whence it came, or how it +was produced, she could not conceive, for it seemed to her unpractised +ear not to proceed from one instrument, but from many, and yet there was +through it all a unity of harmony which could result from the influence +of a single mind alone: now, it swelled out into soft thunders that +vibrated through the long passages up to the very roof of her vaulted +room, and deep into her beating heart, then it died away to a whisper +faint as the sigh of a child, only to rise again more glorious than +before; and, over all, heard distinct as the lark in heaven at morning's +dawn, there thrilled a voice of such unearthly sweetness that she could +not believe it belonged to an inhabitant of this world. + +Lilias had one of those sensitive passionate souls over whom music has +an uncontrollable power; but as yet she had heard no other instrument +than an antique harpsichord of her grandmother's, and such singing as +the village girls regaled her with when they stood at work in the +fields. No wonder, then, that this wonderful strain had an effect upon +her like that of enchantment; it seemed to take possession of her whole +soul, and absorb every faculty. She became, as she listened, utterly +unconscious of all things, save that this entrancing melody drew her +towards it with an irresistible attraction; the sound was so distant, +yet so clear, she could not tell if even it were within the house at +all; but she did not ponder on its position, or on the nature of it; +only, like one who walks in sleep, she rose mechanically on her feet to +go to it. If her mind, steeped in that marvellous melody, could reflect +at all, it was to conclude that she had fallen asleep and was dreaming, +so that she had no thought but the longing not to awake from a dream so +beautiful. Slowly drawn by the sweet sounds, as by invisible chains, she +moved towards the door and opened it; then, sweeter, louder than before, +floating into her very soul, came that angel voice, with the full +swelling chords that seemed, as it were, to clothe it, filling her with +a sense of enjoyment so intense, that she would have felt constrained to +follow after it, even had she known it would lure her to some murderous +precipice, like the dangerous sirens in the haunted woods of Germany. + +Truly there was a strange fascination in this soft and sublime music, +filling the quiet night as with a soul, whose breathing was melody. And +Lilias yielded without a thought, or effort, to the entrancing power, +which, like a mesmeric influence, drew her imperiously towards it, +panting and breathless, as though she feared the sounds would die before +she reached them--every faculty concentrated in the sense of hearing. +She hastened rapidly along the passages down the wide staircase, and, +guided by the deepening, volume of the strain, reached the door of the +great hall, which stood open. She passed within it, and at once +discerned, that from this room proceeded the wonderful harmony, which +had so allured her, the instrument whose solemn tones formed the +accompaniment was evidently the magnificent organ, which stood at the +further end of the hall; and, as she had never heard one before, it is +not to be wondered at that now, when a hand endowed with extraordinary +skill drew forth its full power, she should have been enraptured; but it +was not so much the majesty of sound, swelling from the noblest +instrument in the world, that had so won the very soul within her as the +voice, sounding almost celestial to her ears, which still was thrilling +with unutterable sweetness through the echoing hall. However glorious +those deep low chords, it was yet only the metal which gave them forth; +but there was a spirit in that voice which touched her own spirit, and +never again could her young soul be free and independent as it had been +before that mysterious contact. + +A little while only does the new-created child of dust stand lonely upon +earth, as Adam stood in Eden before he woke from his deep sleep to meet +the living glance of Eve--a little while in the passionless ignorance of +youth, and then is the mortal being free--free from thought, from +affection, from desire; but soon, through all the wild tumult and +turmoil of the world, he hears the voice calling to him, which demands +the surrender of his whole being in one deep human love, and no sooner +is that whisper heard echoing in the depths of his heart than, +straightway, he yields up the sweet empire of his life's affections; and +henceforward, whether he is blest in close companionship, or divided by +some gulf impassable, over which, most vain and mournfully, he stretches +out the longing arms that only grasp the vacant air, still never more is +he alone, or free, for he must live in another's life, and, even in +death, desire another's grave. + +And was it to be thus with Lilias! the gentle, single-hearted child? + +As she stood at the door of the hall, the words which that angel voice +was breathing into music came with a strange, deep meaning on her ears. +There was no light save that of the moon, which streamed in long, soft +rays from the one large window, and reached even the gilded fluting of +the organ, yet, through the dim shadows, she could perceive that a +musician sat before it. The face only was visible to her in that half +light; the upturned face, with the dark hair falling round it, and the +deep gray eyes made luminous by the living soul that was shining through +them. Never had she looked on him who sat there before, nor could she +tell if in truth that countenance had any beauty; only there was upon it +now a spiritual loveliness emanating from the solemn thoughts that moved +him, which entered into her heart and there abode, to fade only when +itself should moulder beneath the coffin lid. + +And now, still drawn onwards by the voice, her noiseless feet went down +the hall, till, by the side of the unconscious musician, she knelt down +meekly, for it seemed to her as though adoring reverence were the +needful homage of one who could create such harmony; and there, in +breathless rapture, with parted lips, and folded hands, she remained all +motionless, till the soft music died away, as if those sounds had been +withdrawn again into the heaven to which they belonged. + +Then he turned, and his eyes fell upon the kneeling figure by his side; +he started violently, and remained mute with surprise, his heart well +nigh stopping in its beating with astonishment; almost it seemed to him +as if his music had drawn down an angel from the regions of perpetual +melody; so fair and spotless did she seem, the moonlight falling on her +soft white robes, and weaving her floating hair into a golden tissue +with the mingling of its own bright rays. Speechless he remained gazing +with the earnest wish that this pure vision might not pass away into a +dream. But meantime the cessation of music had unbound the chains that +held her young soul captive, and when the sweet face turned towards him +the childlike features, solemn with intensity of feeling, he saw that +they were human eyes which met his own, eyes that could weep for sorrow, +and grow beautiful with tenderness, for now a timid glance stole into +them, and a faint smile to the parted lips. Unconsciously, he let his +hands fall softly on her head and said: + +"Where have you come from? who are you?" + +"Lilias," she answered, simply, as a child that tells its name when +asked. + +"Lily, indeed," he said, "most fair and lovely as the snow-white lilies +are; but no such gentle vision ever came to me before in these dark +hours, though I have been here lonely, night by night. I thought at +first it was a spirit kneeling there; and it is scarce less marvellous +to me that a human being should visit me in my solitude, than that some +merciful angel should come to cheer me. How is it, then, that you are +here?" + +"The music seemed to call me and I came," she said; "it was so very +beautiful it drew my whole soul after it; but I know I should not have +ventured here at such an hour, and now I will go back, only----" + +She hesitated, and looked up pleadingly into the eyes that were turned +with such admiring wonder on her---- + +"You live in this house?" she asked. + +"I do," he replied, and then bowed his head as though the answer were +one of shame. + +"Then will you promise me," she said, "that I shall hear these glorious +sounds once more? I feel as though I could have no rest till I may +listen to them yet again, and to the voice that was as a soul within +them. May I come here to-morrow, and will you bestow on me the greatest +pleasure I have ever known, for, indeed, I never felt such deep +enjoyment as in hearing that solemn strain?" + +"Most gladly would I--most gladly see you again, sweet Lily; since that +is your sweet name; but do you know who I am?" + +"No, excepting that I think you will be my friend,--at least I shall +hope it,--for the soul that could utter that divine song must be so +worthy of all friendship." + +These gentle words seemed literally to make him tremble, as another +might to hear the ravings of passion. + +"Oh do not speak so softly to me," he said, "I am unused to kindness, +and it unmans me; besides, soon you will know all, and then you will +neither have the will nor power to befriend me, and it were better for +me not to have the hope of your future sympathy, thus given for a +moment and then withdrawn." + +"But why withdrawn?" she said, with her gaze of innocent surprise. + +"You are Sir Michael's niece, are you not, the child of his favorite +brother--his heiress probably?" + +"I am his niece, but not his heiress surely; there are so many worthier +heirs, are you not one of them?" + +"I! I am Hubert Lyle." He seemed to expect that at the sound of that +name she would recoil in fear or indignation, but she only repeated the +words "Hubert Lyle," and then shook her head gently to intimate that it +was an unknown sound to her; he smiled with pleasure to hear his name so +softly spoken by the lips of one who seemed to him the purest, sweetest +vision that ever had blest his eyes on earth. "I see you have not yet +learned all the secrets of this house," he said, "but it will not be +long before Sir Michael's niece shall have been taught that there is one +beneath this roof whom she must hate, hate even with a deadly animosity. +I think it will be a hard lesson for such a gentle nature;" he added +almost pityingly. A new light seemed to break in upon her. + +"Oh, is it possible?" she exclaimed; "was it then of you that my uncle +spoke with such a bitter animosity, as it makes me shiver to think one +human being should ever have the power to feel towards another?" + +"I am, indeed, the object of his abhorrence." + +"But unjustly," she exclaimed, fixing her candid eyes steadily on his +face. "I know, I feel, you have not deserved this cruel hatred." + +"Not at your uncle's hands, indeed, not, I think, at those of any human +being, for I know that wilfully I have injured none; but, doubtless, +this discipline is all too little for my deserts, as I must seem unto no +mortal sight, and so it must be borne patiently." This humanity touched +Lilias to the very heart, her voice trembled with eagerness as she said: + +"But do not speak as though I or any other could ever share in the wrong +he does you; rather is it our part to make you forget it, as you have +forgiven it, by our friendship justly and gladly granted to you." + +"Most innocent child," he said, "it is plain you never yet have listened +to the voice of your worldly interest; but when that world shall have +taught you the value of Sir Michael's favor, then will even this +guileless heart be moved to feel or simulate a due abhorrence for his +enemy." + +"Never!" she exclaimed, lifting up her childlike head with a noble +dignity, and throwing back the long hair that she might stand face to +face with him to whom she spoke. "Listen, I do not know you; as yet I +cannot tell if in very deed you are worthy of the loyal true-hearted +friendship, which it is a blessing to give and to receive from our +fellow-creatures; but my heart tells me you are so, even to the very +uttermost, for I think that none could be otherwise, and dare to sing +such solemn strains before high heaven at dead of night; and if it be +so--if indeed you are worthy of the esteem and sympathy of all who can +distinguish between right and wrong--then is it your lawful due, of +which I would not dare defraud you, for it were high treason against the +truth and majesty of goodness. If we are bound to adore perfection in +its eternal Source and Essence, so is it our very duty and service to +pay tribute to the faint reflection of that spirit in the frail human +creature; and neither my uncle, nor any other on this earth, has a right +to ask of me, or shall compel me, to act a lie against the sovereign +virtue I am sworn to worship loyally, by withholding the homage of my +friendship to all that are good and true of heart." + +"Pray heaven no taint from this bad world may ever reach your soul," +were the words that burst from the lips of Hubert Lyle. "Yes, keep--keep +your pure wisdom and your noble principle; blessed is he who taught them +to you; but, alas! if ever I were worthy of the gift of your esteem on +the basis of that rectitude of which you speak, could even your +beautiful philosophy stand the test to which it would be put before you +could give to _me_ the name of friend. The darkness covers me and you do +not yet know what I am--how smitten of heaven as well as hunted down of +men; how, by the very decree of nature, repugnant in their sight, not +less than hated for another's sake. But I will not deceive you; none +could look upon your face and hide one shadow of the bitterest truth: +come, and let me show you what I am, and do not fear to shrink away from +me when you have seen that sight. I hope for nothing else from any on +this earth, for the gentlest look that human eyes have ever had for me, +has been one of sorrowing pity." + +He took her by the hand, and led her slowly down the hall towards the +window, where the moonlight was streaming with a full clear radiance. +Through the shadows they went solemnly hand in hand, and a sensation of +awe took possession of her; she felt as if he were leading her to the +threshold of a new life; strange and unknown feelings were stirring at +her heart, and a deep instinct whispering there, seemed to tell her that +what he was about to reveal would have an influence on her whole future +existence. He dropped her hand when they passed within the circle of +light, and, placing himself where the beams fell brightest, he turned +and looked upon her. Then she saw that he was smitten indeed, and that +heaven had laid a load upon his mortal frame, heavy, as that which man +had built upon his shrinking soul. Hubert Lyle was hopelessly and +fearfully deformed. It would seem as though it were designed for him +that he should be crushed both in body and in spirit, for his neck was +bowed as by an iron power, and the sadness of a life's long humiliation +was stamped on that upturned face; unlike the countenance of many who +are deformed in body, there was no beauty on it save in the deep, +thoughtful eyes, and the pale forehead, whence dark masses of hair were +swept aside. + +Oh, how the heart of Lilias trembled as she looked upon him and read the +measure of his twofold suffering. An outcast, by deformity, from the +common race of man, and trodden down in soul by unmerited contumely or +hate. How to the very depths was stirred within her that well of +tenderness and pity for the oppressed which gushes in every woman's +heart, as she saw in his whole aspect the evidence of a resolute and +noble endurance, a patient meekness, untinged by a trace of bitterness! +She could have wept over him, for she was one of those unhappily gifted +whose soul is like a sensitive plant, and shrinks from the touch of +sufferings in others with an exquisite susceptibility. Her natural +delicacy, however, taught her that she must hide from him how deeply his +infirmity had moved her; he must see in her no evidence of the insulting +pity to which alone he seemed accustomed. He had spoken of her shrinking +away from him; she drew nearer, and lifting up her eyes, smiled one +quiet, gentle smile, as though in token that she had seen nought to +surprise or grieve her; that look was balm to him, used only to the +half-averted glance of sad repugnance which we are wont to cast on an +unsightly object. His voice shook with mingled eagerness and delight as +he said: + +"Could you indeed take such a deformed wretch as I am by the hand, and +stand forth before all the world to acknowledge him your friend?" + +"Is it, then, the perishable, mortal body that we love and hold +communion with, in those who are mercifully given to be our friends?" +she answered; "the frame that shall be a thing of dust and worms so +soon? Is it not the indestructible soul to which we give our sympathy, +and is not that sympathy immortal as itself? for nothing good and pure +that ever was created can have power to perish, though it be only the +subtle feeling of a human heart; and so the friendship which is given by +one deathless spirit to another is a link between them for their +eternity of life, and what has it to do with the outward circumstances +of our brief sojourn here?" She paused, and then anxious to dispel the +sort of solemnity which had gained on both of them, she said, playfully: + +"You have not yet found a good reason why I should not some day be your +friend; but I think I shall soon give you little cause to wish for my +acquaintance, if I keep you any longer in conversation at this strange +hour of the night. I must go; for, indeed, I have lingered too long; +but, no doubt, we shall meet again." He did not seek to detain her; he +felt that he ought not; but he knew that the smile so sweet and kindly +with which she had looked on his unsightly frame would linger like a +sunbeam in his memory; and that, yet more, the words of pure, calm +wisdom she had uttered would never depart from his sad heart; for the +faith she had shown in that one deep truth, that all things good, and +beautiful, and worth the having, are created for eternity, and in no +sense to be influenced by the accidents (so to speak) of this mere +outward life, had suddenly lightened the load of his deformity, which so +long had crushed down his entire being, and made him feel that it was +his undying soul which stood face to face with hers--no less +immortal--and that he, the actual _ego_ the very self, had nought to do +with this poor frame, the magnet, as he long had deemed it, of the +world's hate and scorn, but, in truth, only the temporary clothing, soon +to be put off, and now unworthy of a thought: he had felt this, as +regards the life which was to come, when he should be disembarrassed of +his mortal body; but he had not understood what a deep joy the truth of +this principle could cast even into this present existence. None had +taught him, by the sweet teaching of entire sympathy, that all true +affection is but planted in the germ here, and has its full fruition +only in eternity. + +These thoughts rose like morning light on his soul, as he stood gazing, +thoughtfully, upon her; whilst she, now that the enthusiasm, which had +been called forth by the expression of her own bright faith had died +away, had yielded to her womanly timidity, and stood half shy, half +embarrassed, not knowing how to take leave of the companion she had so +strangely encountered. He saw this, and, with a ready courtesy, opened +the door for her, and bade her good night, thanking her gently for the +sweet words of comfort she had spoken. She expressed a hope once more +that they should meet again, and so vanished from his sight. The white +figure passing away into the shadows, like some fair dream into the +darkness of a deeper sleep. He remained standing on the spot where she +left him, clasping his hands tightly on his breast. "Meet again!" he +repeated thoughtfully, echoing the words she had uttered. "I will not +desire it; I will not seek it: surely it were the greatest peril that +ever has crossed my path. How have I labored for peace these many years, +and have attained it only by stripping my life of every hope and wish +connected with this world. I have so veiled my eyes to its allurements, +from which I am for ever exiled, that all the living things within it +have become to me as moving shadows in the twilight; whilst my own soul +has been bathed in the sunlight of an eternal hope; but if the smile of +these sweet eyes came falling on my heart again--if the spirit that +looked through them be, indeed, as beautiful as I believe it--if, day +by day, I saw the outward loveliness, and felt the inward beauty, +infinitely fairer, it could not fail, but I should grow to love her. +I--I--the deformed outcast! Oh! could my worst enemy--could even he who +hates the very ground on which I walk, desire for me a deeper curse than +that I should bring upon myself, if ever I made room in this my soul for +human love. It must not be; I can and will avoid her. I will believe +that I have slept and woke again; and this night shall be to me but as +one in which I have dreamt a brighter dream than usual." + +He resumed his habitual composure as these thoughts passed through his +mind; the resolute calm, which was the habitual expression of his face, +returned to it, and quietly he left that old hall where the first scene +in the drama of Lilias Randolph's life had been enacted. + +She soon was lying in a tranquil slumber--the deep sleep of an innocent +heart that is altogether at rest; but through all her dreams that night, +there went a voice whose echo was to haunt her soul for evermore. + + +V. A MEETING FOR THE DISSECTION OF SOULS. + +Lilias, like most blythe young spirits, never could sleep after the +morning beams came to visit her eyelids; and, despite the unusual +excitement of the preceding night, she was roaming through the house at +a very early hour, looking bright and fresh as the day-dawn itself. She +passed through the old hall with timid steps, though it was now deserted +by the musician, with whom her thoughts had been busy ever since she +awoke. Deep was the pity that had sprung to life, never more to die in +her young heart for him: not a barren pity, but active, tender, +_woman-like_, that would take no rest till it had found some means of +ministering to his happiness. For the present it expended itself in an +earnest desire to discover all concerning him, and most especially +whether, amongst all the inhabitants of Randolph Abbey, he had no friend +to counterbalance the animosity of his one known enemy. To see him again +likewise, not once but often, was a determination which she could not +fail to form after the conversation she had held with him; her generous +spirit was in some sense bound to this, and it did but deepen her +longing to draw near to one so doubly stricken. Occupied with these +thoughts, Lilias passed through the drawing-room to a verandah which +opened from it, and where she could enjoy the fresh air whilst sheltered +from the sun. There were couches placed there, and as Lilias moved +towards one of them, she was startled by perceiving a motionless figure +extended upon it. + +It was Aletheia, apparently in a profound slumber; but to Lilias she +seemed like a corpse laid out for burial, so pale, so rigid was her +face. The cold, white hands were folded on her breast as in dumb +supplication, and they were scarce stirred by her slow breathing, or the +dull, heavy beating of her heart. Her countenance bore an expression of +extreme fatigue, and it seemed plain to Lilias that she had been walking +to a great distance. Her hair, matted with dew, was clinging wet to her +temples, and her bonnet lay on the ground beside her. Lilias gazed at +her with a feeling almost of awe, wondering what was the secret of this +strange cousin's life, and a slight movement which she made awoke +Aletheia. Slowly the eyelids rose over those sad eyes, and revealed, as +the power of thought stole into them, a depth of pain, of mute entreaty, +which seemed to indicate an imploring desire that she might not be +commanded to take up the burden of returning life. She tried to close +them again, but in vain; the light sleep was altogether broken, and, +raising herself up, with a heavy sigh she turned a look of involuntary +reproach on Lilias. + +"I am so sorry I awoke you," said the latter, breathlessly. "I did not +mean it, indeed; you were not resting well; but I am afraid you did not +wish to be awakened." + +"No," said the low voice of Aletheia, which seemed ever to come from her +lips without stirring them, "for it is the only injury any one can do to +me." + +"An injury!" said Lilias, in her innocent surprise, "to wake on this +bright morning and beautiful world." + +"Bright and beautiful," said Aletheia, musingly, "how these words are +like dreams of long, long ago. My days have no part in them now; but +think no more of having awakened me, it matters nothing; and it would +have been strange, indeed, if such as you had known how many are roused +to the morning light with the one cry in their heart--'must I, must I +live again?'" + +"I cannot conceive it," said Lilias; "I always wish there were no night, +it seems so sad to go away and shut one's eyes on all one loves and +admires." + +"Yet, believe me, to some sleep is precious--more precious even than +death, for all it seems so like an angel of rest and mercy; the brief +forgetfulness of sleep is certain, whilst in death the soul feels there +is no oblivion." + +It was to the gay, young Lilias, as though Aletheia were speaking in an +unknown tongue; her unclouded spirit understood none of these things; +but in spite of her prejudice against this strange person, she felt +struck with pity as she saw her sitting there with the wet hair clinging +to her cold, white cheek. + +"You are very tired; I am afraid," she said, "you have walked a long +distance." + +Aletheia started, and the pale lips grew paler, as she exclaimed, almost +passionately-- + +"You have been watching me!" + +"No, indeed," said Lilias, distressed at the idea, "how could you think +me capable of it? I did not see you until I came into the verandah; but +I guessed you had gone out early, because your clothes are all wet with +dew." + +Aletheia rose up. + +"Lilias, you are come to live in the same house with me, and therefore +is it necessary I should make to you one prayer. I do beseech you, as +you hope that men will deal mercifully with your life, grant me the only +mercy they can give to mine--leave me alone; forget that I exist; live +as if I did not, or were dead. I ask nothing but this, to be unmolested +and forgotten." + +She turned to go into the room as she spoke, but she was stopped by the +appearance of Gabriel, who was creeping, with his quiet, stealthy step, +towards her; his blue eyes, usually so soft, glowing with the intensity +of his ardent gaze. She paused and looked at him sadly. + +"Gabriel, you heard what I said to Lilias just now; it is nothing new to +you; you know well and deeply what is my one desire--the petition I make +to all. Why, then, will you live, as it were in my shadow--why will you +persecute me?" He made no answer, but by folding his hands in mute +appeal and bowing his head humbly over them. She passed him in silence, +and went into the house. He followed softly after her, and Lilias was +left alone. + +The poor child drew a long breath, and felt at the moment an intense +desire to be at liberty amongst the Connaught hills again, where the +thoughts and words of the rough country people seemed free and fresh as +the winds that blew there; all seemed so strange and mysterious in this +house; she had been brought suddenly into contact with that deep human +passion of which she knew nothing, and felt as if she were in the midst +of some entangled web, where nothing plain or regular was to be seen. +Her momentary wish to escape, however, died away, as the recollection +came upon her, borne as it were, by the wings of memory, of the one +sweet haunting voice, and solemn strain. Nor was she long left to her +own reflections; Sir Michael, who so rarely left his own rooms, came in +search of her, and fairly monopolized her during the whole of the day. +He persuaded her to stay with him in his laboratory, and seemed to take +infinite pleasure in hearing her talk of all that had been joy to her in +her past life. + +And truly it was a strange sight to see her in that dark little den, +with her innocent face and her fair white robes, sitting so fearlessly +at the feet of the old man, telling him stories of Irish banshees, and +sunny nooks in her native valley, where her nurse said the fairies +danced all night long. To hear her talk, and to have her sweet presence, +was to Sir Michael as though some fresh breeze were passing over his +withered soul; and the tones of her voice were so like those of his +long-lost brother, that at times he could dream they were side by side +again, both young, full of hope that was to bear fruit, for him at +least, in bitterest despair, and with passions yet unchained from the +depth of his heart. The first pleasure he had tasted for years was in +Lilias's society, and he inwardly determined to enjoy as much of it +henceforward as was possible--a resolution which we may so far +anticipate as to mention he rigidly kept, to the sore discomfiture of +poor little Lilias. + +He had a deeper motive for it in the movement of jealousy he had +witnessed in his beautiful wife, when he took his niece in his arms the +day before. Indifferent as she was to him, she was too thorough a woman +to relish the idea, that the sole and undivided dominion she had +maintained over his heart was to be diminished by the entrance even of +the most natural affection. She need have had no fears; the passion of a +life was not now to be tempered by any such influence. Lilias was to him +simply an occupation for his restless mind; she preserved him from +thinking, better than his chemical experiments, and, above all, she gave +him the exquisite delight of feeling that he had power to move his +scornful wife even yet; so Lilias was doomed from that day to be his +constant companion. + +He did not suppose she would like it, though he did not guess, as she +sat by his side, how restlessly her poor little feet were longing to be +away bounding on the soft, green grass; but he resolved to compensate +her for her daily imprisonment by making her his heiress: a +determination subject to any change of circumstances that might cause +him to alter it, which he did not conceal either from her or the rest of +the family. + +We are anticipating, however; the first day of Lilias's probation is not +yet over. Very wearily it passed, because her eager mind was bent on +seeing Hubert Lyle; and not only did her uncle never mention his name, +but she found no opportunity of asking any one who and what he was, and +where she could meet with him again. It was not till the evening that +she found the family once more assembled, and as she gazed round amongst +them all with this object in her thoughts, she felt there was but one +who inspired her with any confidence, or to whom she could speak freely. +This was Walter, with his fine frank countenance and winning smile; and +she was very glad when they found themselves accidentally alone in the +music-room, where Sir Michael left them, after listening, with evident +pleasure, to her sweet voice singing like a bird in the sky. + +Lilias turned round hastily to Walter, with such a pair of speaking +eyes, that he laughed gayly, and answered them at once---- + +"How can I help you? I see you have a great deal to say." + +"Oh, yes, cousin Walter; I have been longing to speak to you; you are +the only one in all this house I am not afraid of. I want you to tell me +so many things!" + +"And what things, dear Lilias? This is rather vague." + +"Oh, every thing about every body, they are all so mysterious." + +"Well, so they are," he said laughing: "I find them so myself. I can +quite fancy how you feel, like a poor little fly, caught in some great +web, and surrounded by spiders of all kinds and dimensions, each weaving +their separate snares." + +"Precisely; and now I want you to explain all the spiders to me; you +must classify them, and tell me which are venomous, and which are not," +she said, laughing along with him. + +"I wish I could," answered Walter, "but they are quite beyond me--they +are not in my line at all, I assure you. I never could keep a secret in +my life; but I will do my best to enlighten you. I can tell you certain +peculiarities at all events. Suppose we make a sort of catechism of it; +you shall question and I shall answer." + +"Very well," said Lilias, entering into the spirit of his gayety, "and +so to begin--Why does Lady Randolph look so strangely at Sir Michael, +and always seem anxious to go out of the room whenever he comes in?" + +"Because she hates him," replied Walter. + +"How very strange; people seem to hate a good deal at Randolph Abbey; +but is it always their nearest relations, as in this case?" + +"Why no; as you proceed in your catechism I doubt not we shall have +occasion to mention certain hatreds in this household, which are in no +sense affected by natural ties." + +"Well to proceed," said Lilias; "why does Gabriel hour after hour keep +his eyes fixed on Aletheia, with a strange look which makes me fancy he +thinks she would die if he were to cease gazing on her?" + +"Because he loves her," answered Walter. + +"But she does not love him," exclaimed Lilias, with a woman's instinct. + +"Most certainly not." + +"There is so much I have to ask about her. Tell me why it is that she +has such imploring eyes. I never, on a human face, saw an expression of +such mute entreaty; I saw it once in the wistful look of a poor deer +which they killed on our Irish hills. I remember so well when it lay +wounded, and the gamekeeper came near with the knife, it lifted up its +great brown eyes with just such a dumb beseeching gaze, but that was +only for a moment. It soon died, poor thing; and with Aletheia, that +mournful supplication seems stamped on her countenance, as though her +very life were to be spent in it." + +"Ah! if you ask me about Aletheia," said Walter, "I am powerless at +once. I can tell you nothing of her; she is a greater mystery in herself +than all the rest put together; this only seems plain to me, that her +existence is, for some unexplicable reason, one living agony." + +"If I thought so I should be so angry with myself for having felt +prejudiced against her, which, I confess, I have done, for a reason I +could not name to you. She is so cold and statue-like, I thought she +seemed lost to all human feeling; but if it be suffering, and not +insensibility, which makes her move about amongst us as if she had been +dead, and forced unwillingly to live again, I should try to overcome the +sort of awe with which she has inspired me." + +"I believe it matters little how you feel respecting her, for you will +never conquer her impenetrable reserve; even poor Gabriel, who seems +fascinated by her to a marvellous extent, has ever struggled vainly +against her implacable calm. It is seldom, I think, that one human being +can so lavish all his sympathies upon another, as he has done on her, +without gaining some sign of life at least; but he tells me it is as +though the living soul within her were cased in iron; he cannot draw it +out of the dungeon where she seems to have buried it, to meet even for a +moment his own ardent spirit." + +"But I hardly wonder at this, if she does not love him," said Lilias. + +"You mistake me," replied Walter: "I do not expect that she should +return his affection; but she seems utterly unaware of its existence; +she appears ever to be so intent in listening to some voice we cannot +hear, that all human words are unheeded by her; those deep, beseeching +eyes of hers are ever gazing out, as though the world and all the things +of it, were but moving shadows for her, because of the greatness of some +one thought which is alone reality to her; yet that there lives a most +burning soul within that statue of ice, I can no more doubt than that +the snows of Etna hide, but do not quench its fiery heart." + +"And does no one know the secret of her life?" asked Lilias. + +"No one, that I am aware of--none at least, now living; that her father +did, whose idol she was, I have reason to think from some remarks of Sir +Michael's; he himself knows possibly somewhat more than we do, though +assuredly not the real truth, nor more than some external peculiarities +of her position. I have heard, however, that before she would consent to +come here, even for six months, and that with the chance of being chosen +as the heiress, she made certain conditions with her uncle respecting +the liberty she was to be allowed. I presume this to refer chiefly to a +strange visit which she receives one day in every month, on which day +alone I believe has any human being seen her moved." + +"And who is this visitor?" exclaimed Lilias. + +"That is more than I can tell you; and all I know of him is that I have +heard his sharp quick step, which certainly is the step of a man, going +across the hall to the library, where Aletheia receives him; and an hour +or so later I have heard the same tread as he leaves the house; then +the galloping of his horse sounds for a moment on the gravel, and that +is all that any one at Randolph Abbey hears of the only friend she seems +to possess." + +"Does even Gabriel not know him?" + +"He may have seen him; but he does not know him, I am sure; it is quite +wonderful how little knowledge he has acquired concerning Aletheia, +considering the means he has taken to penetrate her secret--means which, +I confess to you, I should have scorned to employ, even though, like +him, my dearest interests were at stake; for instance, he has actually +more than once tracked her in her mysterious morning walks." + +"What! does she walk every day," said Lilias, in astonishment; "I found +her this morning lying quite exhausted in the verandah. She must have +been to a great distance; surely she does not do the same every day?" + +"Every day, so far as I know, she does walk to precisely the same spot, +and that several miles distance; it is certainly beyond her strength, +for she is often in a state of frightful exhaustion when she returns; +but even in the coldest spring mornings she used to leave the house, +long before it was light, to make this pilgrimage; it seems she wishes +to avoid the observation she would incur later in the day." + +"Then it was cruel of Gabriel to follow her." + +"It was; but I think he is often maddened to find how his great love +comes beating up against the rock of her impenetrable calm, like waves +upon the shore, leaving no trace behind." + +"Do you know," said Lilias, with a wondering look in her cloudless eyes, +"I think Gabriel has his mysteries too, like every one else in this +strange house. I can understand his watching Aletheia, if his whole +heart is for ever turning to her, as you describe; but it is not her +alone, for in the short time I have know him, I am sure he has managed +to find out more about me than ever I knew myself; those soft blue eyes +of his seem to look so stealthily into one's soul. I am convinced he +could tell you every thing I have done and said the whole of this day. +You know Sir Michael made me stay with him ever since morning, but I +never passed out of this room without meeting Gabriel in the passage." + +"That I can easily believe. I always feel as if Gabriel acted in this +delectable abode the part of a cat watching innumerable mice; he has an +anomalous sort of character; but one of his qualities is sufficiently +distinct, which is a very acute penetration; he can divine the most +intricate affairs from the smallest possible indications. For my own +part, I make not the slightest attempt to conceal my innermost thoughts +from him; happily I have nothing to hide, but if I had, I should let him +know it at once; it would save all trouble, as he would infallibly find +it out." + +"But what do you mean by an anomalous character?" asked Lilias. + +"A sort of double nature; he seems to me to have naturally good impulses +on which some guiding hand has ingrafted a calculating disposition that +sorely warps them; he has no control whatever over his passions, yet the +most perfect over his outward words and actions, whereby he effectually +conceals them when he so pleases. Certain it is, that he has an +indomitable will to which every thing else is subservient; but much of +this inconsistency of his character may be attributed to his position; +here he is the nephew of Sir Michael Randolph--the possible heir of +Randolph Abbey; but he was educated by a person whom we know to be of +low station, and I believe must be equally so in mind." + +"His mother?" asked Lilias. + +"Yes; I know nothing of her, nor does he ever allude to his past life. I +do not even know where she lives; he is simply ashamed of her, I +presume, and I sometimes think we should have the key-stone to Gabriel's +character in a violent ambition, were it not so neutralized by his not +less violent love for Aletheia. Dear Lilias, why do you start so, what +do you see?" + +"He is there," she said, half frightened, and glancing to the open door +through which, with his soft steps, Gabriel was gliding. + +"Of course, considering whom we were speaking of," said Walter, +laughingly, "it is an invariable rule, you know. Come along, Gabriel," +he added, turning to his cousin, "I need not mention that we were +discussing you, as by the simple rule of cause and effect, it was that +circumstance which produced your appearance." + +"Not by my overhearing you," said Gabriel, quickly. + +"My dear fellow, there was not the least occasion for that; you were +obeying a mysterious law, which is summarily stated in a proverb quite +unfit for ears polite; but your arrival is most opportune; your services +will be very available to Lilias and myself; allow me to offer you a +chair, and invest you at once with your office." + +"And how am I to be made useful?" said Gabriel, attempting, by a forced +smile, to sympathize in Walter's playful manner of viewing the subject. + +"Why, you must know," and he laid an emphasis on the word _must_, for +Lilias's behoof, "that Miss Lilias Randolph and I have begun a course of +moral dissection of the inhabitants of this house, in which she acts the +part of a young and very inexperienced surgeon, and I that of a most +grave and potent doctor. We had just finished you off, and were +proceeding to the dismemberment of the rest of the family; in this +interesting study I think you can materially assist us, seeing you have +some very sharp and subtle instrument for this species of anatomy." + +"I was not aware I possessed any such," said Gabriel; "it would ill +befit me in my position to make myself a judge of any here." + +"Now don't begin to be humble and make us ashamed of ourselves. I +consider it quite an important matter to Lilias that she should know her +ground here so far as possible; so let us parade the remainder of our +dear relations before her as fast as we can." + +A strange smile passed over Gabriel's face, as if he doubted that the +gentle Lilias, and the frank-hearted Walter, would discover much +concerning that intricate ground on which they stood; but he made no +remark, and simply said-- + +"And who stands next on the list after my unworthy self?" + +"That is for Lilias to determine; we wait your orders, lady dear." + +"You are learning to speak Irish," she said, smiling. + +"A most likely consummation," murmured Gabriel. + +"Oh! I could say better things than that in Irish," said Walter, +coughing off the slight confusion his cousin's remark had produced; "but +you must really tell us whom you mean to propose for our inspection, or +this council of war will last till midnight." + +"This council for the preliminaries of war," said the low voice of +Gabriel, giving an unpleasant aspect of truth to an expression which +Walter had carelessly used with no special meaning. + +For a moment Lilias made no answer; the thought which had been present +with her throughout the whole of this conversation, and that which had +alone, indeed, given it any interest for her, was, that she might obtain +some information respecting Hubert Lyle; yet now that the time was come +when she must name him or lose her opportunity, she felt, in a lower +degree, something of that unwillingness to broach the subject, which we +have to mention any secret act of self-devotion. The solemn music which +had been the means of leading her into his presence; the unearthly +serenity with which his soul had looked at her through those eyes that +reminded her of the still waters of some unruffled lake, where only the +glory of heaven is reflected; and above all, his infirmity, so meekly +borne, had invested him with a sacredness in her mind which made her +feel as if it was almost a profanation to speak of him to indifferent +ears. With a slight trembling in the voice, which did not escape the +quick perception of Gabriel, she said, "There is yet one of whom I would +inquire--Hubert Lyle." Both her cousins started at the name, but Gabriel +instantly repressed his astonishment, while Walter as freely gave vent +to his. + +"Is it possible you have heard of him already? who can have been bold +enough to mention him?" he said. + +"Why, I have not only heard of him, I have seen him." + +"Seen him!" even Gabriel exclaimed at this. Lilias looked up with a +smile. + +"I think he must be the most mysterious of all," she said, "you seem so +surprised." + +"You would not wonder at that if you knew more of the 'secrets of this +prison-house,'" said Walter, "which you must know is no inapt quotation +as regards Hubert Lyle, for he certainly acts, in some sense, the part +of Hamlet." + +"Without Hamlet's soul," said Gabriel, softly. + +"Without Hamlet's madness, rather, I should say; for I cannot doubt, +from all I have heard, that Hubert has a noble soul, though not one +which would lead him, like the Prince of Denmark, to make to himself an +idol of the principle of vengeance." + +"And Lilias is waiting meanwhile to tell us where she saw him," said +Gabriel. + +"Is it Lilias or you who are waiting?" said Walter, laughing; "for my +part, I frankly confess that my curiosity is greatly excited, so pray +tell us." + +And she did so at once, for there was not a thought of guile in this +young girl's heart. She told how, in the quiet night, she had heard a +solemn voice of music that had called her spirit with an irresistible +allurement; and how she had risen up and followed where it led, till it +had brought her into the presence of him of whom they spoke; but she +went no farther; she said nothing of the conversation which had drawn +those stranger souls more closely together than weeks of ordinary +intercourse could have done; for she felt that Lyle had been surprised +into speaking of his private feelings; and the subject of his infirmity +was one she could not have brought herself to mention; the sympathy with +which he had inspired her was of that nature which made her feel as +sensitive as she would have done had the affliction been her own. Yet, +though she did not enter into details, the deep interest she felt for +him gave a soft tremulousness to her voice, which was duly noticed by +Gabriel, as he sat looking intently at her with the keen gaze which his +meek eyes knew so well how to give from under their long lashes. + +"And now," said she, "tell me who and what he is, he seems to occupy so +strange a position in this house?" + +"Not more strange than cruel," said Walter; "he is the son of Lady +Randolph, by her first husband; she had been engaged to Sir Michael +before she met Mr. Lyle, who was his first cousin, but she had never +cared for him, and yielded at once to the intense passion which sprung +up between Mr. Lyle and herself; she married him, and from that hour Sir +Michael hated him with such a hate, I believe, as this world has rarely +seen. When his rival died, he transferred this miserable, bitter feeling +to the son, Hubert, simply because the widow had, in like manner, turned +all the deep love she had felt for the dead husband on the living +son--not for his own merits, for poor Hubert has few attractions, but +solely because he bears his father's name, and looks at her with his +father's eyes. I believe she has even the cruelty to tell him so. She +worships so the memory of her early love, that she will not have it +thought her heart could spare any affection, even to her child, were he +not his son also. It has always seemed to me the saddest fate for her +unhappy son, to be thus the object of such vehement hate, and no less +powerful love, and yet to feel that he has neither deserved the one, nor +gained the other, in his own person, but solely as the representative of +a dead man who can feel no more." + +"Miserable, indeed," said Lilias, folding her hands as though she would +have asked mercy for him; "how cruel! how cruel! but his mother, how +could she marry Sir Michael when she so loved, and still loves, another? +this seems to me a fearful thing." + +"Starvation is more so," muttered Gabriel. + +"Starvation!" exclaimed Lilias. + +"Yes," said Walter; "Mrs. Lyle and her son were actually left in such +destitution at her husband's death, that she certainly married Sir +Michael for no other purpose but to procure a home for herself and her +child. How it came to pass that she was in this extreme poverty, I know +not; report says that it was the result of Sir Michael's persecution of +Mr. Lyle in his lifetime; but I can hardly believe this of our uncle." + +"No, indeed," said Lilias. + +"One thing is certain, that it sorely diminished Sir Michael's delight +in marrying the woman he had loved so long, to find that he must submit +to the continual presence of her son in the house; but she forced him to +enter into a solemn agreement that Hubert was always to reside with +them, and he agreed, on condition that he crossed his path as seldom as +possible. This part of the arrangement is almost overdone by poor Lyle, +who is, I believe, like most persons afflicted with personal infirmity, +singularly sensitive and full of delicate feeling. He never leaves his +own rooms except to go to his mother's apartments, unless Sir Michael +happens to be absent, when Lady Randolph generally forces him to make +his appearance among us. I believe his only amusement is playing on the +organ half the night, as you found him." + +"And do none of you ever go to see him, and try to comfort him," +exclaimed Lilias; "do none befriend him in all this house?" + +"You forget," said Gabriel, hastily, evidently desirous to prevent +Walter from answering till he had spoken himself, "that any one who +sought out Hubert Lyle, and made a friend of him, would incur Sir +Michael's displeasure to such a degree that he would strike him at once +off the list of his heirs, and the penalty of his philanthropy would be +nothing less than the loss of Randolph Abbey." As he said this he bent +his eyes with the most ardent gaze on Lilias, that he might read to her +inmost soul the effect of his speech; but it needed not so keen a +scrutiny; the indignation with which it had filled her sent the color +flying to her cheek, and kindled a fire in her clear eyes seldom seen +within them. + +"And who," she exclaimed, "could dare withhold their due tribute of +charity and sympathy to a suffering fellow-creature for the sake of the +fairest lands that ever the world saw! who could be so base, for the +love of his own interest, as to pander to an unjust hatred, the evil +passion of another, and join with the oppressor in persecuting one who +is guiltless of all save deep misfortune! Can there be any such?" she +added, in her turn fixing her gaze upon Gabriel. A triumphant smile +passed over his lips; her answer seemed precisely what he had hoped it +would be; but Walter anxiously exclaimed: + +"Pray do me the justice to believe that I would not act so, Lilias; I +never should have thought of the motive Gabriel assigned as a reason for +not visiting Hubert; but, to tell the truth, I have no desire to do so, +because I believe him, from all I have heard, to be a poor morbid +visionary, who desires nothing so much as solitude, and with whom I +should not have an idea in common." + +"Nor should I be deterred from showing him any kindness for this reason, +I trust," said Gabriel, with his meekest voice; "I merely wished to +place you in possession of facts with which I thought it right you +should be acquainted in case Hubert should afford you the opportunity of +intercourse which he has not granted to us; for it is one of the noble +traits of his fine character, that he will not risk our incurring Sir +Michael's displeasure for his sake. He is the more generous in this, +that, from his relationship to our uncle, he would be heir-at-law after +us four. But in fact I believe there exists not a more high-minded and +amiable man than he is, in no sense meriting the misfortunes that have +fallen upon him; and his dignified, unmurmuring endurance of them could +never be attributed to insensibility, for he is singularly gifted; his +wonderful musical talent is the least of his powers." + +"Why, Gabriel," said Walter, looking round in great surprise, "I never +heard you say so much in praise of Hubert before;--or, indeed, of any +one," he added, _sotto voce_. + +"I know him, perhaps, better than you do," said Gabriel, watching, with +delight the softened expression of Lilias's face, which proved to him +how artfully his words had been calculated to produce the effect he +desired. He read in her thoughtful eyes, as easily as he would have done +in a page of fair writing, how she was quietly determining in that hour +that she would seek by every means in her power to become the friend of +this unfortunate man, and teach him how sweet a solace there may be even +in human sympathy, and that, all the more, because her worldly +prospects would be endangered thereby. It would prove to Hubert that her +friendship had at least the merit of sincerity, since, in her humility, +she imagined it could possess no other;--but Gabriel had no time to say +more, for Sir Michael at this moment joined them, and Lilias, rising up, +said she believed it was late, and turned to go into the other +drawing-room. Sir Michael looked sharply at the trio, and, as Walter +followed his cousin, he turned to Gabriel with considerable irritation-- + +"How came you here, sir; I left those two together?" + +"They invited me to join them, or I should not have intruded," said +Gabriel, with his customary meekness, but a smile curled his lips, which +he could not repress. Sir Michael saw and understood it at once; he +paused for a moment in thought, and then deciding, apparently like +Walter, that it was no use to conceal any thing from Gabriel, and more +advantageous to be open with him at once, he said-- + +"Gabriel, understand me, if your quick eyes have divined any of my +plans, it will work you no good to thwart them." + +"But, possibly, it might avail me were I to further them," said the +nephew, very softly. + +"It might," said Sir Michael; "the broad lands of Randolph Abbey could, +with little loss, furnish a handsome compensation to the person who +should assist me in placing therein, the heirs I desire to choose." + +Gabriel's reply was merely a significant look of acquiescence, and the +old man, bestowing on him a smile of approbation such as he had never +before vouchsafed him, went away well pleased. He was firmly convinced +that he had enlisted in support of the plan that was already a favorite +one with him, the individual amongst all his heirs who he was the most +positively resolved should never inherit the Abbey, both because he +rather disliked him personally, and because he could not forgive him his +mother's low birth. Could he have seen the sneer with which Gabriel +looked after him, he would have been somewhat unpleasantly enlightened +as to the real value of the ally he had obtained. + + +VI. THE DEAD FATHER IS MADE THE PERSECUTOR OF THE LIVING SON. + +Very strange was the contrast between the splendid drawing-room, blazing +with light and heat, where the Randolph family were assembled, and the +small room in the other wing of the house which was occupied by Hubert +Lyle. It contained barely the furniture necessary for his use, and this +was by his own desire, for it was already sufficiently bitter to him to +eat the bread dealt out so grudgingly, and at least he would not be +beholden to his stepfather for more than the actual necessaries of +existence. + +Sorely against his proud mother's wish, he had chosen for his +sitting-room one of the very meanest and poorest in the house, with a +single window, low and narrow, which looked out on a deserted part of +the grounds. Hubert liked it all the better for this, as there was no +flower-garden or green-house near to bring the head-gardener, with his +trim, mathematical mind, amongst the wild beauties of nature. The grass +was left in this part to come up against the very wall of the house, and +the ivy and honeysuckle which grew round the window were allowed to +penetrate almost into the room. Fortunately, the noble trees which +filled the park stood somewhat apart in this place, and their arching +branches formed at this moment a sort of framework to the most glorious +picture that ever is given to mortal eyes to look upon--the lucid sky of +night, filled as it were to overflowing with radiant worlds, each +hanging in its own atmosphere of glory. + +It was no wonder that Hubert turned from the low, dark room, so dimly +lit with its single candle, to look upon this the bright landscape of +the skies. Within, the scene was certainly uninviting. The heavy deal +table, the scanty supply of chairs, the plain writing-desk, evidently +many years in use, were the only objects on which the eye could rest, +excepting a few books and a small piano, the gift of Aletheia, with +which, greatly to his astonishment, she had presented him one day--for +she was as completely a stranger to him as she was to all the rest of +the family, and had always avoided intercourse with him as much as she +did with every one else. This thoughtful act of kindness on her part, +however, produced no increased acquaintance between them, as she shrank +from hearing his expressions of gratitude on that occasion, and, indeed, +they seldom met. Aletheia was never in Lady Randolph's rooms, where +alone Hubert was to be met, excepting at rare intervals, when Sir +Michael was absent. + +Hubert sat now at the window; he had laid down his heavy head upon the +wooden ledge, and his hands fell listlessly on his knee. He seemed full +of anxious thoughts, and sighed very deeply more than once. From time to +time, apparently with a violent effort, he looked up and gazed fixedly +on the tranquil stars, seeming to drink in their pure glory, as though +he sought to steep his soul in this light of higher spheres; but ever a +sort of trembling passed over his frame, and he would sink down again +oppressed and weary. This was most unlike Hubert Lyle's usual condition. +He was a man of the most ardent and sensitive feelings; but, at the +same, possessed of that moral strength and _truthfulness of soul_ which +can only belong to a great character--by this last expression, we mean +that he was what few are in this world, neither a deceiver nor deceived. +He did not deceive himself in any case, nor would he allow life to +deceive him; he saw things as they really were, and he permitted not the +bright coloring of hope or imagination to deck them with false apparel; +he did not live as most men do, figuring to himself that he was as it +were the centre of the universe, and that all around him thought of him +and felt for him as he did for himself. He weighed himself in the +balance not of his own self-love, but of other men's judgment, and rated +himself accordingly. Thus, in the earlier days of his maturity, he +constrained his spirit to rise up and look his position in the face. And +truly it was one which might have appalled a less feeling heart than +his. + +His outward circumstances were as bitter as could well be to a +high-minded man. He was a dependent on the grudging charity of one who +abhorred him; and though he would right thankfully have gone out from +these inhospitable doors, even to starve, in preference, yet was he +bound to endure existence within them, by a promise which his mother had +extorted from him as a condition of their marriage, that he never would +leave Randolph Abbey without her consent. This marriage he knew was to +save her from a blighting penury which was killing her; and, moreover, +she concealed from him that cruel hatred of Sir Michael, which was the +only heritage his dead father left him, and, thinking no evil, he had +given them the promise which bound him as with an iron chain to abide +under the roof of his unprovoked enemy. But heavier even than unjust +hatred was the weight upon soul and body of his own deformity; for if +the first shut up one human heart from him, and turned its power of +affection to gall for his sake, the other cast him out for ever from the +love of all human kind. He knew that his unsightly frame could call +forth no other feeling from them but a cold, most often a contemptuous +pity. + +And yet, when he looked out into the world--the dark, tumultuous, +agonizing world--that very sea of human hearts, all beating up upon the +stony shores of a life, against which they are for ever broken and +shattered, he saw passing through the midst of it all a soft, pure +light, shedding warmth and brightness even on the dreariest scenes, and +causing men to forget all pain, and privation, and misery--a light to +which the saddest eyes turned with a joyous greeting, and on which the +gaze of the dying lingered mournfully, till the coffin-lid for ever shut +it out from their fond longing. And he knew that this one blessed thing, +which could overcome the strong, fierce evils of life, like the maid in +the pride of her purity, before whom the lion would turn and flee, was +called Human Love in the doting hearts of men--Human Love--the one sole, +unfailing joy of our merely mortal existence. And was it for him? Should +he ever have any share in it? Was its sweetness ever to be for his +hungry and thirsty heart? Never! The seal was set upon him in his +repulsive appearance, that he was to be an outcast from his fellow-men; +his deformity was as a burden bound upon his back, with which he was +driven out into the wilderness, there to abide in utter solitude of +soul. The promise of life was abortive for him ere yet he had begun it. + +Hubert Lyle understood all this at once; he saw how it stood with him, +and how it was to be, on to the very door of the grave; so he folded his +hands upon his breast and bowed down his head; he accepted his destiny, +for he felt that this was not the all of existence. He knew how +strangely sweet beyond the tomb shall seem all the bitterness of this +life; he saw that the earth was to be to his soul what it is to the +outward eyes on a starry winter's night. We know what a contrast there +is in that hour between the world above and the world below: the one +lies so dark and cold, full only of black shadows and the howling of +mournful winds, while the lucid sky that overhangs it, replete with +brightness and glory, teems with radiant stars, which are the type of +those eternal and glorious hopes that cluster for us on the outskirts of +the heaven of revelation. And so it was to be for him: his spirit was to +walk in this world as in a bleak and sunless desert; but it was to be +for ever canopied over with one bright and boundless thought, wherein +were set immutable and numberless, the starlike hopes of one eternity. + +Thus was he to live, wholly independent of earth, and indifferent to it. +But no man can walk free while there are chains upon his hands and feet, +and he felt that he was bound to his fellow-creatures by two ropes, as +it were, of iron: the longing to love, and to be beloved. Of these he +must free himself, tearing them off his shrinking flesh as a prisoner +would his manacles. And he did so. He taught himself to look upon all +human beings as not of his kind. Even when every nerve and fibre in his +frame cried out that they were bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh, +he learned to consider them inaccessible for him as the angels in +heaven. Yes, even far more; for he trusted that yet a little while, and +these holy ones should be his dear companions; and so he held communion +with them now. But with men he dared not hazard so much as to give them +a place in his thoughts, for he knew that the dream of their friendship +would become the longing for it, and the longing in his case must turn +to agony; so it came to pass that his strong will, his stern +resignation, compassed that which one might have believed well nigh +unattainable to flesh and blood. He divested himself of all earthly +inclinations and desires, all natural wishes and sympathies, and lived +in this world as though he were utterly alone in it, and sole +representative of a race, differing from those angelic friends whom only +he consented to know as the living population of the universe--a +solitary being placed on this earth as in a desert place, where he was +commanded, for his own needful discipline, to abide, till the world of +spirits should be revealed to him, and he entering there should find a +home and loving friends. + +It was for this cause that Hubert shunned all intercourse with the +Randolph family, as he did with all others--a resolution strengthened in +their case by the generous motives Gabriel had assigned to him; for +whatever might have been the reasons of this latter for pronouncing his +eulogium, he had said no more than the truth in his account of his +character. + +When Hubert Lyle had gone through the mental process we have detailed, +very deep was the calm that entered into his soul. It became like the +pure waters of a deep still well, walled in and protected from all +sights and sounds of the world without, and with the light and the glory +of heaven alone mirrored within it. + +And why, then, was the quiet now gone from his heart, and the repose +from his eyes? Why did he look up with that earnest gaze to the evening +sky, as though some shadow had come over its brightness? It was because +the terror had come upon him, that the greatest enemy he ever could know +in this life was about to rise up from its deathlike torpor and assail +him--even his own human nature; he felt that all those natural feelings +and passions which he had crushed down deep into his heart as unto a +grave, were now stirring themselves like men that had been buried alive, +and were waking in torture; they _would_ live, they were bursting the +cerements of that strong heart. How were they to be beaten to death +again? There--rampant and fierce was the craving for sympathy, for love. +There, sickening in its intensity, was the yearning to give and to +receive that greatest of earthly gifts, the blessing of a mutual pure +affection; the heart moulded from dust reasserted its birthright, and +cried out for its kindred dust. It was not that these feelings were as +yet at work with any definite object within Hubert Lyle, it was but the +shadow and the prophecy of them that lay upon him, like a thick cloud +charged with lightning. + +And all this had been done by the murmur of one voice, one sweet voice, +speaking in the accents of that tender sympathy which never before had +sounded in the cold, joyless region of his life, whispering hope to him. +He was not so mad as to love Lilias Randolph, whom he had seen but for +one half-hour, but her tenderness, her generous, loving kindness, had +aroused the slumbering nature within him, and he felt that were he much +in contact with one so pure, so gentle, so noble, as she seemed to him, +he might come to love. Oh! how madly, how miserably to love! he, the +deformed cripple! Was not this a frenzy against which he had armed all +the powers of his being? what tyrant, what enemy could be more fearful +to him than an earthly love? what would it do for him but crush and +torture him, and hold up far off the cup of this world's joy, where his +parched lips could not reach, and he dying of thirst? Was it a +presentiment that made him feel as if the spirit he had so chained down +were rebelling against him, and required but the master-touch of some +kindly and winning child of earth to abandon itself to unutterable +madness? But, at all events, whatever were the source of this terror +which had come upon him, whether it were a foreshadowing of future evil, +or the warning of his good angel, it cannot pass unheeded. He must, with +a strong will, compel his spirit to realize in all the bitterness of +detail the truth of his exile from mankind, his needful isolation, as +decreed by the seal of that deformity which made him an unsightly object +in their eyes. + +He would force himself to remember that the music of human voices, +however softly they might greet him, must be for him like those melodies +of nature when wind and stream make the air musical, to which we listen +with pleasure, but in which we have no part; and the aspect of goodness +and gentleness, so lovely in the fallen child of Adam, must be to him +like the light of a star shining far off in regions unattainable. Yet, +while he felt within himself the courage thus to act, were he brought in +contact again with her, whose sweet face had come beaming in so +strangely on the darkness of his perpetual solitude, his very soul +shrank from the struggle, and the longing so often before experienced to +quit this house, where he was so unwelcome, returned upon him with +redoubled force. + +Whilst he was still sitting thinking on these things, his head resting +on his clasped hands, there was a sound of rustling silks in the +passage--the door opened, a measured, stately step went through the +room, and Lady Randolph stood by the side of her deformed son. He looked +up. + +"Dear mother, I am so glad you have come, I was wishing at this very +moment to speak to you." + +There was an expression of displeasure and annoyance on her beautiful +face as she looked at him. + +"It cost me no small effort to come, I can tell you, Hubert; it is so +wretched to find you here in this miserable room, with every thing so +mean and neglected round you. You seem ever to do what you can to render +your own appearance uninviting, crouching down there with your matted +hair and melancholy face." + +There was little of the accents of love in these words, and a slight +shiver seemed to agitate the frame of Hubert as he felt at that moment +that he was repulsive even to the mother who bore him; but he lifted his +dark gray eyes to her face with the sweet, patient smile which filled +his countenance at times with a spiritual beauty, and said gently: + +"I did not expect you at this hour, or I should have tried to make both +my little den and myself look more cheerful in your honor." + +There was something in his expression which touched with an intense +power a never-slumbering memory. She flung her arms round his neck and +bent over him. + +"Oh, my Henry--my Henry--it was his eyes that looked at me just now, as +they have often looked in their tenderness, for ever perished--his eyes +that I kissed in death with my poor heart broken--broken--as it is to +this day--his eyes sealed up now with the horrible clog of his deep +grave--oh, my Henry--my Henry--come back to me!" + +She pressed the head of her son close to her beating heart and wept. He +waited till she was more composed; then, gently disengaging himself, he +made her sit down beside him, and held her hand in both his own. + +"Dear mother," he said very gently, "it is my father whom you love in me +and not myself; when I do not wear this passing likeness of him, which +at times only draws your heart to me, there remains nothing in myself to +win your affections, and you do not love me." + +"It is true," she answered calmly; "living I loved him only--dead, it is +his memory alone which I adore." + +"Then I think you cannot refuse the prayer I have to make to you this +day," said Hubert, not the least flush of indignation tinging his pale +cheek at this unfeeling announcement; "I think it cannot in truth be any +pleasure to you to see in me the marred and hateful resemblance of that +which was so beautiful, and so dear; better surely to feed on his image +pure and unchanged in the depths of your heart, and never have it +brought so painfully before you in my miserable person." He paused a +moment whilst she looked wondering at him, and then, suddenly, he +exclaimed, with a passionate burst of feeling, "Mother, let me go--let +me go--from this house, where my presence is abhorred by some and sought +by none; nothing has kept me here but my fatal promise to you: I would I +had died ere I made it; but it will cost you nothing to part from me, +and you know not what it may cost me to stay here; it is cruel to keep +me--let me go." + +"Let you go! Hubert think what you are saying, you would go to starve!" + +"It matters not! better so than to live on here. Mother, you would have +had no power to detain me in this place but for that rash promise; not +even your wishes should have kept me. I beseech you release me from it." + +"Never!" + +He almost writhed as she spoke, yet he went on-- + +"Do not keep me because you fancy I should starve; no man does who has +energy and perseverance. I have a head and hands to labor with, and how +far sweeter were the worst of toil than the bitter bread of charity." + +"But do you know," said Lady Randolph almost fiercely, "that I could not +give you the means of buying that bread one day, I am so utterly in Sir +Michael's power. He succeeded in laying hold of me because I was +poverty-stricken beyond what flesh and blood could bear, and now by the +same means he binds me down; he never has relaxed his hold; every thing +is his; I could not command a shilling. These very baubles with which he +loads me are not my own." And she tore the bracelets from her arms and +flung them down. "He calls them family jewels on purpose to keep me to +the veriest trifle in his power. + +"Mother, mother," exclaimed Hubert, "do you think, though he placed the +wealth of millions in your hands, that I would not rather perish than +touch it; it is too much already that I have been so long indebted to +him for the roof that shelters me; but I do not fear that I could gain +enough for my own living, if only you will let me go from this Egyptian +bondage." + +"Hubert, what is it that has excited you in this manner? I never saw you +so unlike yourself; you are usually so calm and so enduring. Was it your +unfortunate meeting with Sir Michael last night? Was he more than +usually insulting?" + +"No, it was not that," said Hubert gently. "I am so used to his bitter +words that I could not feel more pained than I have ever been; but it +matters not that you should be wearied with the detail of all the +thoughts that have made me at this time so desirous to leave Randolph +Abbey; dear mother, let it suffice you that I do implore you to release +me from my promise." + +"Hubert, I tell you NO a thousand times. I will not see you starved to +death for any Quixotic fancy; and, besides, do you think any power on +this earth would induce me to gratify my worst enemy, my life-long +enemy, whom chiefly I hate because he has the power to call me +_wife_--that dear name I so loved to hear from the beloved lips that are +choked up with dust? Do you think I would gratify him by giving him that +which he has labored for, by the persecution of my own dearest husband, +even to the death, and of myself to worse than death, a life with him? +Do you know that the one thing he has always desired has been to obtain +possession of me without having you for ever before his eyes as the +living monument of that buried love which was his torturer, and to which +I am faithful still? And do you think that to brighten even your life, +much less to peril it, I would grant him this his heart's desire, and +put it out of my power to show him, in every caress I lavish upon you, +my poor deformed son, how I adored your father?" + +Hubert let her hand fall, and his features assumed an expression of +severity. + +"Mother, forgive me that as your son I venture to judge you; but this is +unworthy, most unworthy." + +She seemed almost awed by his rebuke, but hastily throwing her arms +round him, she said more gently: + +"Hubert, forgive me; but I cannot--cannot part with you, the last +shattered fragment of my ruined happiness. You do not know what it is to +me to see you; to hear your voice coming to me like an echo from the +grave, telling of departed love; to find in your eyes at times a glance +as from the light of the past. It was such joy, such deep, deep joy when +he lived, and my happiness was hid in his true heart, that often I think +I never, never could have been so blest: and in truth that it is all a +dream, too unutterably sweet to have been true; life seems to faint +within me at that thought, for it is something to feel, barren and +desolate as my existence is now, that I _have_ loved and been loved as +once I was; and, Hubert, it is your presence alone that makes all this +reality to me. His kiss has been upon your lips--his voice has called +you his dear son. Ah! take not from me those last relics of him." + +She laid her head upon his breast in a passion of weeping. He raised her +tenderly, and said with a calm voice: + +"Mother, it is not my vocation in this world to give pain to others for +the sake of my own will or pleasure: take comfort, I will never more +trouble you concerning this matter; I will not ask again to leave you." + +Silently she pressed her lips to his forehead, and then, as if ashamed +that even her own son should have seen her so moved, she rose up without +speaking and left the room. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[8] Continued from page 387. + + + + +From Bentley's Miscellany. + +SEQUEL TO THE JEWISH HEROINE. + + +A magnificent saloon, dazzling with oriental splendor, and brilliant +with Arabic decorations, was allotted to Sol's reception; and there she +was immediately attended by six Moorish damsels, who came to receive her +orders. Fatigued by the length of her journey, and covered with the dust +of the road, she begged for water to refresh herself, and a room where +she might repose. Scarcely were the words pronounced when she beheld +around her vessels of silver, brought to her by six other damsels, +clothed in white, and offering her that for which she had asked with +respect and humility. They brought her clothes of the finest cambric, +fragrant essences of Arabia, and exquisitely-worked garments of divers +colors, and of the highest value, all of which the humble Sol rejected, +scarcely accepting from them even those things which were indispensable +to her, and declining to change her dress. But one of the ladies of the +court, seeing this, told her that she had received orders to clothe her +according to the custom of the country, for which purpose she had +collected together these garments for her choice. Sol, nevertheless, +after expressing her gratitude, endeavored to excuse herself, but the +request was pressed upon her with so much urgency, that she found it +impossible to decline; and, at length, among the many varieties of dress +prepared for her express use, selected one of a black hue, bordered with +white, as indicative of the sadness of her heart; when, after a place of +rest had been pointed out to her, she was left alone. + +All the women who had been employed about the young Hebrew repeated to +the wives of the imperial prince the warmest praises of her extreme +beauty and amiability. The emperor himself visited the house of his son, +and inquiring with minute curiosity into all the incidents that have +been related, and listening with delight to the praises heaped upon his +young captive, he renewed his commands that she should be treated with +gentleness, that every thing which could flatter her sight, or gratify +her wishes, should be given her, and that nothing should be denied her +by which her mind could be favorably impressed previously to the +interview which he proposed to have with her on the day +following,--saying, as he departed, that the moment of her conversion by +his means would be an epoch in his life, which he would mark by the most +princely magnificence to all that had contributed to it. All promised +the most punctual compliance with the commands of the emperor and the +prince, and all vied with one another in inventing every expedient to +effect the object which the most subtle arts could have recourse to. +During the night the wearied maiden slept profoundly, while the Moorish +women in attendance watched her in silence, anxious not to disturb her +slumbers, and not venturing to move from their posts. + +Morning dawned at last. The nightingale, the goldfinch, and the +swift-flying bunting, announced the rising of the orb of day; the +flowers unclosed their buds in the transparent morning ray, wafting +forth their delicious odors, and perfuming with their fragrance the +tranquil abode where breathed this innocent and lovely maiden. This +abode was within a small gallery, decorated with crystal; and surrounded +by vast shrubberies of the laurel, cypress, and myrtle, whose dark +foliage mingled with the fragrant boughs of the citron and lemon. +Through occasional vistas might be remarked, amid these labyrinths of +eternal green, the deep mulberry-colored branches of the towering +spice-tree, while the rose, the jessamine, and the mallow, crowned the +raised terraces in sweet luxuriance, seeming to vie with the tall +cassia, and darkening the bowers where the sunlight had been allowed to +penetrate by the abundance of their white and crimson bloom. The +blue-bell, the white lily, and the lily of the valley, blossomed +beneath, shedding their perfume on the lower earth, as though too lowly +to mingle with the clouds of fragrance emitted by the loftier plants, +above which in their turn the ambitious woodbine exalted its gay +festoons; and in the more distant shades of the garden, the green sward +spread a soft and variegated carpet over the ground, spangled with +plants of the dwarf violet, and aromatic spikenard. It was upon these +scenes that the eyes of the fair Hebrew unclosed, after her long and +profound sleep. So fair a sight filled her with a tranquil and serene +pleasure; the warbling of the singing birds that fluttered amid the +branches around her, or flew here and there amid the flowery mazes of +the garden, were heard with delight, and while she watched them she +envied them their liberty. + +It was with surprise and admiration that the young Jewess examined the +embellishments of this gallery, which were, indeed, a triumph of art and +ingenuity. Again and again did she admire it, reclining on her couch. +One of the Moorish ladies, seeing her attention thus engaged, addressed +her, with an affectionate salutation. Sol replied in accents of +kindness, and entered into conversation with her, speaking with innocent +admiration of the picturesque beauty of the landscape she beheld from +this gallery. + +A black slave, clothed in white, came to give notice to Sol that the +kaidmia[9] waited to receive her. With haste, therefore, she took leave +of the Moorish ladies, and placed herself under the conduct of that +officer. She was at once conducted into the presence of the emperor, who +received her in a magnificent hall, sitting on an ottoman of crimson +velvet, richly fringed with gold. Opposite to him was a cushion, which +he desired the young Hebrew to occupy, and commanded his slaves to serve +_esfa_,[10] and tea with the herb _luisa_.[11] Having thus, by every +demonstration of kindness and affability, prepared her to converse with +him--the emperor told Sol, he had long since heard of her mental +acquirements and talents, and was not ignorant of the arguments she had +used in the palace of his son, nor of her obstinate refusal to embrace +the Law of the Prophet; but that he looked upon that merely as a morbid +feeling of her mind, arising from delusion, and trusted that when _he_ +should have argued awhile with her, she would not long continue in her +present opinion. + +"Thou art called Sol," proceeded the emperor, "is it not so?" + +The young Jewess replied in the affirmative. + +"Well, then, beloved Sol," said he, "I have prepared a boon beyond all +the powers of thine imagination to conceive. Since first I heard of thy +beauty and virtue from Arbi Esid, the governor of Tangier, I decided +that thou shouldst become the enchantress of my court. I saw thee enter +Fez; and was delighted with all I saw; I heard thee speak in the palace +of my son, and was charmed with all I heard. I was beside thee, though +unseen, and I rejoiced with the Prophet, over so fair a captive. This +morning, while thou wast conversing upon the state of men by birth, I +was in the garden; the Tolva,[12] who accompanied me, said to me, 'this +Jewess will indeed be a noble Mahometan!' At that moment, I had decided +to reward thy beauty by giving thee in marriage to my nephew,--a +handsome, rich, and brave youth; I had determined to bestow upon thee a +diamond, whose value exceeds all the riches that any prince can possess; +see, beautiful Sol, these are indeed gifts worthy to be appreciated, and +thou wilt not, I am certain, disappoint me." + +"My lord," replied Sol, "I must confess, that in my present condition, +nothing can attract or fix my attention: and my mind is tormented by the +remembrance of my parents and of my brother." + +"Thy parents and thy brother," said the emperor, "shall be sent for +immediately after thy recantation." + +"Say, rather," exclaimed Sol, "after my death, for never can I become a +Mahometan!" + +"Innocent creature!" said the emperor, "who has urged you to this +temerity? Reflect but for an instant; then consider if you would +renounce my favor, and embrace Death as an alternative! Resolve quickly; +or I would even grant delay, if you desire it." + +"My Lord," said Sol, "I am well aware that you have distinguished me in +a manner of which I am undeserving; the offers that you have made me +are, indeed, worthy of so great a prince; but I, a miserable Jewess, +cannot accept them. I have determined never to change my creed; if this +resolve should merit death, I will patiently submit; order, then, my +execution, and the God of justice, knowing my innocence, will avenge my +blood." + +"Unhappy girl!" exclaimed the emperor; "you were not born to be so +beautiful, yet so unfortunate! From this moment I abandon you: my pride +forbids me to persuade you further; yet I leave you with sorrow--the +laws of my realm must judge you, and already I foresee that your blood +will be poured out upon the earth!" + +So speaking, and casting a compassionate glance upon Sol, the monarch +departed with a measured and thoughtful step. + +The afflicted Sol remained immovable, but gave way to a torrent of +tears. Before long the kaidmia appeared and desired her to follow him, +which she did without opposition. The emperor, although he had decreed +that the cadi, as superior judge of the law, should try her cause, had +urged upon him to withhold the extreme penalties of the law till every +means had been tried that persuasion and mildness could suggest. To the +house of this magistrate she was now conducted, with this especial +recommendation from the emperor, in consequence of which, instead of +being sent to the prison, a room in the cadi's own house was set apart +for her, where he could be near her continually, and frequently engage +her in conversation; yet all these marks of kindness did the young Sol +receive as part of her martyrdom, and now thought on nothing but death, +as the means of her wished-for release. + +The Jew who had accompanied the captive maiden at the request of her +parents, had written news of all these events to Tangier. In Fez they +excited a very great sensation; and, especially among the resident Jews, +who showed their interest in all that passed whenever they could do so +without injuring the success of the means devised to save the victim, of +which they never lost sight for a moment. But they were now, although +they knew it not, engaged in a hopeless undertaking; for the Moors had +entered into a compact, having for its object the conversion of Sol, and +from this there was no escape. The cadi, a zealous servant of the +emperor, conducted his task with masterly subtlety; six hours were +almost daily occupied by him in arguments and entreaties to the young +Jewess; but all was vain, the steadfast maiden, firm in her resolution, +adhered to the law of her fathers, and listened with reluctance to all +the exhortations of the cadi. He admired her fortitude of spirit, while +he pitied her fate, knowing that unless she became a proselyte, her +sentence must inevitably be pronounced. In order to hasten the crisis, +however, he concerted a scheme to surprise her into a decision by which +she might either escape, or fall into his snare.[13] + +One morning early, after nine days had been spent in useless persuasion, +the cadi entered the apartment of Sol: "My daughter," said he, "I bring +you news of consolation; I, that have beheld you with eyes of +compassion, that would weep over your death as for that of a daughter, +have sought the Jajamins[14] of your creed; with them I have considered +your present position; they assure me that your fear of forfeiting the +glories which are to come, which causes you to reject the laws of the +Prophet, is groundless; they ensure you that future glory, on the word +of their conscience, provided that your life is not thus forfeited. I +wish the emperor to remain unacquainted with the step I have thus taken +for your sole benefit, my dear daughter, and from motives of kindness +and affection only. You will be visited by the Jajamins, who will repeat +what you now hear from my lips; and thus, convinced of the truth, you +will give me the delight of your conversion, and of your rescue from +death. But I perceive you are but little affected by this news!" + +Sol had not ceased, during this conversation, to regard the cadi with a +serious expression of countenance, which very clearly indicated the +state of mental vacillation produced by his words; nevertheless, she +answered only, that she was beyond measure anxious to speak to the +Jajamins, on whose judgment would probably depend her final +determination. + +Now this plot, so far from being undertaken without the knowledge of the +emperor, had been concerted between himself and the cadi; and by his +desire the latter informed the Jajamins, that unless they succeeded in +the conversion of the young Hebrew, she would suffer death, and they +would be exposed to the emperor's rigorous displeasure. This threat +produced the desired effect upon the Jajamins, who came to Sol prepared +by every means in their power to change her resolution. + +On the ensuing day, when she received their visit, they professed to her +their wish to console her in her affliction, and to hear from her own +lips the reasons why she had negatived the urgent wishes of the emperor; +adding, that this mission was a part of their duty, to which they much +desired to conform. + +The beautiful Jewess listened with attention to this exordium; and +replied, though with many sighs, in the following terms:--"God, who was +concealed from our view by the dense cloud which no human sight could +penetrate, delivered the Tables of the Law to Moses on the Mountain of +the Desert. He prompts my heart to remain faithful to those laws, +imposed on the people of Israel. More than once have I read in those +sacred books of the horrible persecutions endured by the Israelites who +violated that law; I have studied the prophecies of our Patriarchs, and +have observed their gradual fulfilment. Mahomet was but a false +innovator, a renegade from the primitive law;[15] neither to his laws +nor to the future pleasures of his paradise, can I lend an ear; faithful +to my own rites, the name of the only true God remains engraven on my +heart; to whom Abraham offered his son Isaac in sacrifice; and I, a +daughter of Abraham, would make sacrifice of my life to the same God. He +ordains fidelity, and I will keep His commandments as a faithful Hebrew +ought to keep them. Can any one on earth oppose the decree written by +the right hand of the Most High?" + +The Jajamins listened attentively to the reasons of the youthful Sol, +and urged, in reply, arguments full of hope; but perceiving that Sol, +with an indescribable firmness, set these all aside, one of them at +length addressed her as follows: "Our law imposes on us, as a duty, +after God, to respect the king. The king's will is that you should wear +the turban; and his will is sacred upon earth. I dare not advise +otherwise, for I should then lift up my counsel against the law of the +country that gives us a home. Besides, there are certain circumstances +of human life which are of such exigency, that the God of Abraham looks +upon them with leniency and toleration. As, for instance, young maiden, +the unforeseen and impending danger of your present situation. You have +parents--a brother; Jews, in great numbers, reside in this vast empire; +and all these will, on your account, be exiled, persecuted, and +ill-used. While, on the contrary, your conversion will not only liberate +yourself from death, but will avert these threatening ills to them, and +will bring down upon them honors and privileges; and we will, in the +name of God, insure your future glory, and save your conscience, by +taking on ourselves the responsibility of the act." + +The young Jewess listened in expressive silence, but without any visible +emotion, to the foregoing address. At the close of it she arose, and +expressed herself thus: + +"I respect your words, wise men of our faith; but if our laws impose +respect--after God, to the king--the king cannot violate the precepts of +the One God. I am resolved to sacrifice my life on the altar of my +faith. To myself only can this resolve be fatal: my parents and kindred +will be strengthened, and protected, and freed from the fury of that +fanaticism by which I suffer. I will not, even in outward appearance, +accede to the terms proposed. I will lay down my head to receive the axe +of the executioner, and the remembrance of my death and constancy will +excite only remorse in those who have oppressed me. Pardon me, if I have +offended you; and, I pray you, tell my parents that they live in my +heart. Entreat the cadi to molest me by no further importunities. My +determination is fixed, and all further attempts to shake it will be +vain." + +The tone of firmness in which she spoke convinced the jajamins that +there was no hope; and they left her, overwhelmed with surprise. + +The cadi, who had listened to the whole conference from another +apartment, went to meet the anxious and unsuccessful jajamins. + +"I know all," said he; "I have heard every thing. Your mission is +fulfilled, and I shall report your fidelity to the emperor. Fear +nothing, therefore, but rely upon my word." + +He then dismissed them, and going at once to his office, he took the +papers that related to the cause of the young Sol, and added to them a +transcript of her late contumelious expressions respecting the Law of +the Prophet, which he represented as being blasphemed by her, and +sentenced her, in consequence, to public execution. He next repaired to +the palace of the emperor, and after reporting to him the result of the +late conference with the jajamins, he handed to him the sentence of +death. The emperor was much moved, and showed symptoms of surprise and +concern. + +"How!" said he; "is there no remedy? Must this Jewess die?" + +"My lord," answered the cadi, "by the law she stands condemned; and +there is no remedy." + +"Well, then," said the emperor, "but one more hope remains. I command +that preparations for the execution be made with the utmost publicity; +that all the troops of Fez, and at the intermediate stations, be +assembled, and that nothing may be omitted which can make the spectacle +an imposing one. Let her be awe-stricken; let her even be partially +wounded before her head be finally severed. Perchance the sight of her +own blood, flowing down, may produce some effect upon her, and we may, +at the last moment, accomplish her conversion by intimidation. Leave me; +I am sorely displeased at the fate of this young Hebrew--lovely as her +name. And, mark me, strain every point, neglect nothing. We may yet gain +her over. Alas! may Alà protect her!" And the emperor turned away with +manifest signs of heavy displeasure. + +The cadi well perceived how greatly his royal master was grieved at the +idea of Sol's death: but there was now no remedy. The law, barbarous and +unjust as it was, was final; and her death was, therefore, inevitable. +Before her execution, nevertheless, he paid her a final visit, when he +found her kneeling in prayer, and displayed to her the writ of +execution. + +"Behold," said he, "your sentence. Your head will roll on the ground, +and the dust of the earth shall be dyed with your blood. Your tomb shall +be covered with maledictions, and amidst them will your last end be +remembered. Yet, fair Sol, there is a remedy; think yet upon it. +To-morrow, at this very hour, I will return, either to present you, +crowned with the jessamine flowers, to the emperor, or to lead you to +your death." + +With these words he departed, leaving the young Hebrew still in the +position in which he had found her upon his entrance, and from which she +stirred not, but remained in a contemplative ecstasy commending her soul +fervently to her Creator. + +It was soon publicly known in Fez that the day approached when the +beautiful young Jewess was to be beheaded for blaspheming the name of +the Prophet. The Moors, whose religious fanaticism is great beyond +comparison, looked upon this execution as an occasion for rejoicings. +The Jews, powerless to remedy it, were overcome by the deepest feelings +of despondency: unwilling to remain entirely passive, they commenced a +subscription, ready to be invested in any way that might best suit the +emergency. The parents and relations, who were in Tangier, whose efforts +to save this beloved victim would have been unavailing, even had they +been capable of devising any means for her rescue, were plunged into +despair; their hopes had suffered shipwreck upon the rock of a +relentless fatality, and they, like the young maiden herself, had no +consolation but those imparted from heaven. The afflicted Sol spent the +whole day in meditation, she refused all food, and looked anxiously for +the hour which would end her life. That fatal hour arrived at length. +With a trembling step, the cadi entered her apartment, and found her, as +before, in prayer. He was much agitated, and could speak to her only +with the utmost difficulty. At length he said:-- + +"Sol--beautiful Sol! the arbiters of life and death may meet together. +Behold me here! Know you wherefore I am come?" + +"I do know it," replied the maiden. + +"And have you determined upon your fate?" asked the cadi. + +Rising from the ground, and with firmness, Sol answered:--"I have +determined. Lead me to the place where I am to shed my blood." + +"Unhappy girl!" said the cadi, "never, till my death, will thine image +leave my memory!" He then desired a soldier to handcuff and lead her to +the prison. + +The authorities of Fez, at the emperor's desire, having determined to +give the scene as much publicity as possible, resolved that the +execution should take place upon the Soco--a large square in Fez, where +the market is held. The previous day, too, having been one of the weekly +market days, when the concourse of persons was always very considerable, +the news had circulated far and wide, and but little else was talked of. +Very early in the morning, a strong picquet of soldiers had been posted +on the Soco, in order to excite attention, and attract more spectators; +but so numerous was the crowd that this precaution was scarcely +necessary. The Jews who resided in Fez, when they saw that hope was at +an end, went to the emperor and proffered the large sum they had +collected, as was previously stated, in exchange for the permission to +inter the remains of the young Sol after her execution; to which the +emperor offered no opposition. + +The dreadful moment had now arrived, when the fair victim was to be +conducted from her prison to the place of execution. Till it arrived, +her devotions had been uninterrupted, and the executioners, sent to +fetch her, found her still praying to that Eternal Being in whom her +faith was centred, that He would endow her with strength and fortitude +to receive the bitter cup that awaited her. When the door of her prison +opened, she saw the executioners enter without manifesting any emotion +or surprise, but looked meekly towards them, waiting for the fulfilment +of their mission. But these men, whose nature is hardened to the most +savage cruelty, after intimating to her that they were come to conduct +her to death, tied around her neck a thick rope, by which they commenced +dragging her along as though she were a wild beast. The lovely young +girl, wrapped in her haïque,[16] her eyes fixed on the earth, which she +moistened with her bitter tears, followed them with faltering steps. As +she passed, compassion, grief, tenderness, and every painful emotion of +the heart, might be traced in the countenances of the Jews; but among +the Mahometans there were no visible relentings of humanity. The Moors, +of all sects and ages, who crowded the streets, rent the air with their +discordant rejoicings. "She comes!" they cried; "she comes, who +blasphemed the name of the Prophet. Let her die for her impiety!" + +From the prison to the Soco, the crowds every minute augmented, though +the square formed by the troops prevented their penetrating to the +scaffold. Every alley and lane was crowded, and amid the most extreme +confusion the executioner arrived with Sol at the appointed spot. The +pen refuses to describe the incidents of the few succeeding moments. +Some few, even amongst the Moors, were moved, and wept freely and +bitterly. The executioner[17] unsheathed his sharp scimetar, and whirled +it twice or thrice in the air, as a signal for silence, when the uproar +of the Moors was hushed. The beautiful Sol was then directed to kneel +down,--at which moment she begged for a little water to wash her hands. +It was immediately brought, when she performed the ablution required by +the Jewish custom before engaging in prayer. The spectators were +anxiously observant of all the actions of the victim. Lifting her eyes +to heaven, and amid many tears, she recited the Semà (the prayer offered +by those of her nation before death), and then, turning to the +executioners, "I have finished," said she, "dispose of my life;" and, +fixing her gaze upon the earth, she knelt to receive the fatal stroke. + +The scene had by this time begun to change its aspect. The vast +concourse of people, seeing Sol's meek gentleness, could not but be +moved; many wept, and all felt a degree of compassion for her faith. The +executioner, then, seizing the arms of the victim, and twisting them +behind her back, bound them with a rope, and whirling his sword in the +air, laid hold of the long hair of Sol's head, and wounded her slightly, +as he had been commanded, yet so that the blood flowed instantly from +the wound, dyeing her breast and garments. + +But Sol, turning her face to the cruel executioner, replied-- + +"There is yet time," said they to her; "be converted, your life may yet +be spared." + +"Slay me, and let me not linger in my sufferings; dying innocently, as I +do, the God of Abraham will judge my cause." + +These were her last words, at the close of them the scimetar descended +upon her fair neck, and the courageous maiden was no more. + +The Jews had paid six Moors to deliver to them the corpse with the +blood-stained earth on which it lay, immediately after the execution of +the sentence. This was accordingly done, and the remains, wrapped in a +fine linen cloth, were deposited in a deep sepulchre of the Jewish +cemetery by the side of those of a learned and honored sage of the law +of Moses. Amidst tears and sighs was the Hebrew martyr buried. Even some +of the Moors followed her, mourning to her grave, and still visit her +tomb, and venerate her resting place as that of a true and faithful +martyr to the creed she held. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[9] Or "captain of a hundred," centurion. From the Arabic _kaid_, a +leader or chief, _mia_, a hundred. The Kaidmia is adjutant of the +empire. + +[10] A kind of sweetmeat prepared for the emperor and persons of high +rank, composed of milk, sugar, butter, and cinnamon. + +[11] A herb like sweet marjoram, usually accompanying tea in Morocco. + +[12] A learned professor of the law. It is the common practice in Arabia +to have whispering-galleries and watch-rooms in most houses, so that +what passes in one apartment may be overheard in another. + +[13] It may here be mentioned, that the Moorish law cannot _force_ a Jew +to change his religion; this conversion must be voluntary. The cadi +could not, therefore, condemn Sol to death, because she refused to +become a Mahometan, unless she had made use of some expressions +impugning the law of Mahomet. This will be seen by the sequel. + +[14] The Jajamins or Hajamins are Jews invested with certain +dignities--_Anglicè_, "wise men," and respected as such. + +[15] On these words was the sentence of Sol framed, impeaching, as they +did, the Mahometan creed. + +[16] The _haïque_, a sort of bonded cloak, is worn in Africa by the Jews +as well as the Moors. + +[17] All Moorish executions are performed with a sword. + + + + +From Chambers's Edinburgh Journal. + +ADVENTURES OF AN ARMY PHYSICIAN. + +A REMINISCENCE OF THE BRITISH RULE IN NEW-YORK. + + +Robert Jackson, the son of a small landed proprietor of limited income +but respectable character in Lanarkshire, was born in 1750, at +Stonebyres, in that county. He received his education first at the +barony school of Wandon, and afterwards under the care of Mr. Wilson, a +teacher of considerable local celebrity at Crawford, one of the wildest +spots in the Southern Highlands. He was subsequently apprenticed to Mr. +William Baillie, in Biggar; and in 1766 proceeded, for the completion of +his professional training, to the university of Edinburgh, at that time +illustrated and adorned by the genius and learning of such men as the +Monros, the Cullens, and the Blacks. + +In pursuing his studies at this favored abode of science and literature, +young Jackson is said to have evinced all that purity of morals and +singleness of heart which characterised him in after-life, and to have +resisted the allurements of dissipation by which, in those days +especially, the youthful student was tempted to wander from the paths of +virtuous industry. His circumstances were, however, distressingly +narrow; and not only was he forced to forego the means of professional +improvement open only to the more opulent student; but in order to meet +the expenses of the winter-sessions, he was obliged to employ the +summer, not in the study but in the practice of his profession. He +engaged himself as medical officer to a Greenland whaler, and in two +successive summers visited, in that capacity, "the thrilling regions of +thick-ribbed ice;" returning on each occasion with a recruited purse and +a frame strengthened and invigorated by exposure and exercise. During +these expeditions he occupied his leisure with the study of the Greek +and Roman languages, and the careful and repeated perusal of the best +authors in both. + +His third winter-sessions at Edinburgh having passed away, he was +induced to go out and seek his fortune in Jamaica, and accordingly +proceeded thither in a vessel commanded by one Captain Cunningham, who +had previously been employed as master of a transport at the siege of +Havannah. It is far from improbable that it was from his conversations +with this individual that Jackson derived those hints, of which at a +future time he availed himself, respecting the transmission of troops by +sea without injury to their health; but it is quite certain his +conviction of the enormous value of cold-water affusions as a curative +agent in the last stage of febrile affections, was imbibed from this +source. + +Arriving in Jamaica, he in 1774 became assistant to an eminent general +practitioner at Savana-la-Mar, Dr. King, who was also in medical charge +of a detachment of the first battalion of the 50th regiment. This latter +he consigned to Jackson's care; and well worthy of the trust did our +young adventurer, though but twenty-four years of age, approve +himself--visiting three or four times a day the quarters of the troops +to detect incipient disease, and studying with ardor and intelligent +attention the varied phenomena of tropical maladies. Four years thus +passed profitably away, and they would have been as pleasant as +profitable, but for one circumstance. The existence of slavery and its +concomitant horrors, appears to have made a deep impression on Jackson's +mind, and, at last, to have produced in him such sentiments of disgust +and abhorrence, that he resolved on quitting the island altogether, and, +as the phrase is, trying his luck in North America, where the +revolutionary war was then raging. This resolution--due perhaps, as much +to his love of travel as to the motive assigned--was not altogether +unfortunate, for shortly after his departure, October 3, 1780, +Savana-la-Mar was totally destroyed, and the surrounding country for a +considerable distance desolated, by a terrible hurricane and sweeping +inroad of the sea, in which Dr. King, his family and partner, together +with numbers of others, unhappily perished. + +The law of Jamaica forbade any one to leave the island without having +given previous notice of his intention, or having obtained the bond of +some respectable person as security for such debts as he might have +outstanding. Jackson, when he embarked for America, had no debts +whatever, and was, moreover, ignorant of the law, with whose +requirements therefore he did not comply. Nor did he become aware of his +mistake until, when off the easternmost point of the island, the master +of the vessel approached him and said: "We are now, sir, off +Point-Morant; you will therefore have the goodness to favor me with your +security-bond. It is a mere legal form, but we are obliged to respect +it." Finding this "legal form" had not been complied with, the master +then, in spite of Jackson's protestations and entreaties, set him on +shore, and the vessel continued on her voyage. What was to be done? +Almost penniless, landed on a part of the coast where he knew not a +soul, Jackson well-nigh gave himself up to despair. There was a vessel +for New-York loading, it was true, at Lucea; but Lucea was 150 miles +distant, on the westernmost side of the island, and not to be reached by +sea, whilst our adventurer's purse would not suffer him to hire a horse. +No choice was left him but to walk, and that in a country where the +exigencies of the climate make pedestrianism perilous in the extreme to +the white man. Having reached Kingston, which was in the neighborhood, +in a boat, and obtained the necessary certificate, he started on his +dangerous expedition, and on the first day walked eighteen miles, being +sheltered at night in the house of a benevolent planter. The next day he +pushed on for Rio Bueno, which he had almost reached, when, overcome by +thirst, he stopped by the way to refresh himself, and imprudently +standing in an open piazza exposed to a smart easterly breeze, whilst +his lemonade was preparing, contracted a severe chill that almost took +from him the power of motion, and left him to crawl along the road +slowly and with pain, until he reached his destination. + +Having finally arrived, friendless and moneyless, in New-York, then in +the occupation of the British, he endeavored first to obtain a +commission in the New-York volunteers, and afterwards employment as mate +in the Naval Hospital. In his endeavors, he was kindly assisted by a +Jamaica gentleman, a fellow-passenger, whose regard during the voyage he +had succeeded in conciliating by his amiable manners and evident +abilities; but his efforts were all in vain, and poor Jackson, familiar +with poverty from childhood, began now to experience the misery of +destitution. In truth, starvation stared him in the face, and a sense of +delicacy withheld him from seeking from his Jamaica friend the most +trifling pecuniary assistance. In this, his state of desperation, he +determined upon passing the British lines, and endeavoring to obtain +amongst the insurgents the food he had hitherto sought in vain; +resolving, however, under no circumstances to bear arms against his +native country. Whilst moodily and slowly walking towards the British +outposts to carry into execution this scheme, having in one pocket a +shirt, and in another a Greek Testament and a Homer, he was met half-way +by a British officer, who fixed his eyes steadily on him in passing. +Jackson in his agitation thought he read in the glance a knowledge of +his purpose and a disapprobation of it. Struck by the incident, he +turned back, and, after a moment's reflection, resolved on offering +himself as a volunteer in the first battalion of the 71st regiment +(Sutherland Highlanders), then in cantonment near New-York. Arriving at +the place, he presented himself to the notice of Lieutenant-Colonel +(afterwards Sir Archibald) Campbell, who, having first ascertained that +he was a Scotsman, inquired to whom he was known at New-York. Jackson +replied, to no one; but that a fellow-passenger from Jamaica would +readily testify to his being a gentleman. "I require no testimony to +your being a gentleman," returned the kind-hearted colonel. "Your +countenance and address satisfy me on that head. I will receive you into +the regiment with pleasure; but then I have to inform you, Mr. Jackson, +that there are seventeen on the list before you, who are of course +entitled to prior promotion." The next day, at the instance of Colonel +Campbell, the regimental surgeon, Dr. Stuart, appointed Jackson acting +hospital or surgeon's mate--a rank now happily abolished in the British +army; for those who filled it, whatever might be their competency or +skill, were accounted and treated no better than drudges. Although +discharging the duties that now devolve on the assistant-surgeon, they +were not, like him, commissioned, but only warrant-officers, and +therefore had no title to half-pay. + +Dr. Stuart, who appears to have been a man superior to vulgar prejudice, +and to have appreciated at once the extent of Jackson's acquirements and +the vigor of his intellect, relinquished to him, almost without control, +the charge of the regimental hospital. Here it was that this able young +officer began to put in practice that amended system of army medical +treatment which since his time, but in conformity with his teachings, +has been so successfully carried out as to reduce the mortality amongst +our soldiery from what it formerly was--about fifteen per cent--to what +it is now, about two and a half per cent. + +In the army hospitals, at the period Jackson commenced a career that was +to eventuate so gloriously, there was no regulated system of diet, no +classification of the sick. What are now well known as "medical +comforts," were things unheard of; the sick soldier, like the healthy +soldier, had his ration of salt-beef or pork, and his allowance of rum. +The hospital furnished him with no bedding; he must bring his own +blanket. Any place would do for a hospital. That in which Jackson began +his labors had originally been a commissary's store; but happily its +roof was water-tight--an unusual occurrence--and its site being in close +proximity to a wood, our active surgeon's mate managed, by the aid of a +common fatigue party, to surround the walls with wicker-work platforms, +which served the patients as tolerably comfortable couches. A further +and still more important change he effected related to the article of +diet. He suggested, and the suggestion was adopted--honor to the +courageous humanity which did not shrink from so righteous an +innovation!--that instead of his salt ration and spirits, which he could +not consume, the sick soldier should be supplied with fresh meat, +broth, &c.; and that, as the quantity required for the invalid would be +necessarily small, the quarter-master should allow the saving on the +commuted ration to be expended in the common market on other comforts, +such as sago, &c., suitable for the patient. Thus proper hospital diet +was furnished, without entailing any additional expense on the +state.[18] + +Indefatigable in the discharge of his interesting duties, Mr. Jackson +speedily obtained the confidence of his military superiors, who remarked +with admiration not only his intelligent zeal in performing his hospital +functions, but his calmness, quickness of perception, and generous +self-devotion when in the field of battle. On one occasion, although +suffering at the time from severe indisposition, he remained, under a +heavy fire, succoring the wounded, in spite of the remonstrances of the +officers present. On another, having observed the British commander, +Colonel (afterwards General) Tarleton, in danger of falling into the +hands of the enemy, who had routed the royalist troops, he galloped up +to the colonel--whom a musket-ball had just dismounted-pressed him to +mount his own horse and escape, whilst he himself, with a white +handkerchief displayed, quietly proceeded in the direction of the +advancing foe, and surrendered himself at once. The American commander, +who did not know what to make of such conduct, asked him who he was? He +replied: "I am assistant surgeon in the 71st regiment. Many of the men +are wounded, and in your hands. I come, therefore, to offer my services +in attending them." He was accordingly sent to the rear as a prisoner; +but was well treated, and spent the first night of his captivity in +dressing his soldiers' wounds, taking off his shirt, and tearing it up +into bandages for the purpose. He afterwards did the same good office +for the American sufferers; and when the wounded English could be +exchanged, Washington sent him back, not only without exchange, but even +without requiring his parole. At a subsequent period during the same +unhappy war, when the British under Lord Cornwallis were in full +retreat, the sick and wounded were placed in a building--which the +colonists, on their approach, began to riddle with shot. Several +surgeons, not caring to incur the risk of entering so exposed an +edifice, agreed to cast lots who should go in and see to the invalids; +but Jackson, with characteristic nerve and simplicity, at once stepped +forward: "No, no," said he, "I will go and attend to the men!" He did +so, and returned unhurt. + +After this we find him a prisoner in the hands of the Americans and +French at Yorktown, Virginia. As on the former occasion, he was treated +with all imaginable kindness; and, being released on parole, returned to +Europe early in 1782, and proceeded by way of Cork, Dublin, and Greenock +to Edinburgh, where he abode for a short time. Thence he started for +London: and, desirous of testing the best way of sustaining physical +strength during long marches, and urged perhaps also by economical +considerations, he resolved to make the journey on foot. His West Indian +and American experience had taught him that spare diet consisted best +with pedestrian efficiency, and it was accordingly his practice, during +this long walk, to abstain from animal food until the close of day, nor +often then to partake of it. He would walk some fourteen miles before +breakfast--a meal of tea and bread; rest then for an hour or an hour and +a half; then pace on until bedtime--a salad, a tart, or sometimes tea +and bread, forming his usual evening fare. He found that on this diet he +arose every morning at dawn with alacrity, and could prosecute without +inconvenience his laborious undertaking. By way of experiment he twice +or thrice varied his plan--dining on the road off beefsteaks, and having +a draught of porter in the course of the afternoon; but the result +justified his anticipations. The stimulus of the beer soon passing off, +lassitude succeeded the temporary strength it had lent him; and, worse +than all, his disposition to early rising sensibly diminished. + +His stay in London, which he reached in this primitive fashion, was not +long. His kind friend Dr. Stuart, who had exchanged into the Royal +Horse-Guards, gave him the shelter of his roof; but so poor was Mr. +Jackson, that, although ardently desirous of improving himself in his +profession, he was unable to attend any one of the medical schools with +which London abounds. + +The peace of 1783 having opened the continent to the curiosity of the +British traveller, Jackson curtly announced to his friends, that "he was +going to take a walk." His poverty allowed him no other mode of +locomotion; so off he set on the grand tour, carrying with him a map of +France, a bundle of clothes, and a scanty supply of money. Crossing the +Channel, he reached Calais, a place which Horace Walpole, writing from +Rome, declared had astonished him more than any thing he had elsewhere +seen, but in which our adventurer found nothing more astonishing than a +superb Swiss regiment. He proceeded to Paris, and thence through +Switzerland, by Geneva and Berne, into Germany, at a town of which--Günz +in Suabia--he met with a comical enough adventure. + +On entering the town he was challenged by a soldier, who, having learned +he had no passport, carried him before a magistrate, by whom he was +forthwith condemned as a vagabond, and remitted to the custody of a +recruiting sergeant. This worthy, in turn, introduced him to the +commanding officer, who politely gave our traveller the choice of +serving his Imperial and Apostolic Majesty, the Emperor of Germany, +either in his cavalry or his infantry forces. But Jackson, strangely +insensible to the honor, flatly refused to serve his Majesty in these or +any other ways, and desired to be at once set free, and suffered to +continue his journey. The officer, doubtless, amazed at such +presumption, desired the sergeant to convey him to the barracks, where +he was placed in a large room, in which were congregated some two +hundred or so involuntary recruits like himself--harmless travellers, +who, being destitute of passports, the emperor forcibly enlisted into +his service. Jackson found his co-mates in misfortune very dirty, very +ragged, but perfectly civil and good-tempered. Having a little recovered +his serenity--for it is easy to see, though our hero is described as a +man of placid demeanor and somewhat Quakerly appearance, he could be not +a little fiery at times--he sat down and wrote to the commanding +officer, entreating leave to sleep at an inn, and proffering the deposit +of all his money as a pledge for his reappearance next morning. The +reply was an order that he should surrender his writing materials. At +seven o'clock, the appointed sleeping hour, the sergeant returned and +gave the signal for bed by rapping with his cane on the floor, which was +speedily covered by a number of dirty bags of mouldy straw--the +regulation mattresses, it would seem, for involuntary recruits. +Jackson--peppery again--refused to lie down, but was at last compelled +to do so, and between two of the dirtiest fellows of the lot, each of +whom had a leg chained to an arm. The next morning, at his own request, +he was brought before the commandant of the town, who had only arrived +late the preceding evening, and whom he found seated in his bedroom, +"with all his officers standing round him receiving orders," says +Jackson, "with more humility than orderly-sergeants." The commandant +repeated the offer of "cavalry or infantry;" adding that a war was about +to commence with the Turks, and that good-behavior would insure +promotion. However, finding Jackson obstinately persistent in his +refusal, he quietly observed, in conclusion, that the emperor, as a +matter of rule and of right, "impressed" into his army all such as +entered his dominions without certificates of character. "The order was +so tyrannical," declares our _détenu_, "that I could not contain myself. +'Put me in chains, if you please,' I said, 'but I tell you, all Germany +shall not make me carry a musket for the emperor.'" This impetuous burst +of indignation seems to have alarmed the pglegmatic commandant, who +accordingly let our adventurer go, counselling him, however, to write to +the English ambassador at Vienna for a passport, lest he should get into +further trouble. + +Jackson passed through the Tyrol into Italy, every where indulging his +love of scenery and still greater love of adventure; studying with all +the acuteness of his countrymen the varied characters of the people he +met with, and in his correspondence with home friends, sketching them in +language striking for its force, its propriety, and originality. Some of +his remarks on men and manners are conceived in a truly Goldsmithian +vein, whilst all testify at once to the goodness of his heart and the +quickness of his perceptions. At Venice he says that he felt it to be +"such a feast of enjoyment as seldom falls to the lot of man, and never +to the lot of any but a poor man, who has nothing conspicuous about him +to attract the notice of the crowd," to possess such facilities as he +did for learning what the people of foreign countries really were. + +At Albenga, in Piedmont, Jackson arrived one night, tired, hungry, and +drenched with rain. Intending to put up at the "Albergo di San +Dominico," which he had been informed was the best inn, he went by +accident to the convent of the same name, and entering, called loudly to +be shown to a private room. "Instead of telling me I was wrong," he +says, "the young brethren looked waggish, and began to laugh: when a man +is cold and hungry, he can ill brook being the sport of others;" so +accordingly--peppery again--he shook his stick angrily at the young +monks. And at last one of the most courteous and demure of the number, +coming forward, said that although theirs was not exactly a public +house, still the stranger was heartily welcome to walk in, rest, and +refresh himself. Discovering his mistake, Jackson of course lost no time +in making his bow, his apologies, and acknowledgments. + +He returned to England by way of France, having but six sous in his +pockets when he reached Bordeaux, where an English merchant, a total +stranger, advanced him a few pounds. On the road, he was frequently +taken for an Irishman, and not seldom for an Irish priest; under which +impression, many civilities were paid him by the simple inhabitants of +the country he traversed. Ultimately he landed at Southampton, with just +four shillings in his possession: his once black coat having turned a +rusty brown, his hat shovel-shaped by ill-usage, and his whole aspect so +comical, that the mob hooted him, under the belief that he was a +Methodist preacher. Proceeding inland on foot, in the direction of +Southampton, he overtook a poor man walking along the road, whose looks +of unutterable misery induced our traveller to stop and inquire what +ailed him. He told Jackson he had a son and daughter dying of a disorder +apparently contagious, and that no physician would attend them, as he +was too poor to pay the fees. Jackson at once offered his services, +which were gratefully accepted. He saw his patients, and prescribed for +them, and his heart was touched by their simple expressions of +gratitude. "Their thankfulness," he says, "for a thing that would +perhaps do them no good, gave me more pleasure than a fee of, I believe, +twenty guineas, much in need of it as I was." The night had gathered in +before he reached Winchester, where, at a respectable inn, he partook of +such refreshment as his means afforded, and then desired to be shown to +his bedroom. The answer was, that the house contained no bedroom for +such as he, and he was finally driven out with the coarsest abuse into +the streets. The hour was ten o'clock, the month December, and the +severity of the weather may be guessed from the fact, that the snow lay +deep on the ground. After wandering about for some time, he at last +obtained shelter in a small house in the outskirts of the city. The next +day he fared little better. "On Sunday morning," he relates, "I was +sixty-four miles from London, and had only one shilling in my pocket. I +was hungry, but durst not eat; thirsty, and I durst not drink, for fear +of being obliged to lie all night at the side of a hedge in a cold night +in December. After dark, I travelled over to Bagshot; was denied +admittance into some of the public-houses, ill used in others." He +sought in vain permission even to lie in a barn; but a laborer he +fortunately fell in with conducted him to a house, where, at the +sacrifice of his last shilling, he secured at length a bed. The next +day--foot-sore, penniless and starving--he entered London. After +remaining there a brief space--January, 1784--in spite of the inclement +season, he set off, again on foot, to Perth--a journey that occupied him +three weeks, as he was detained on the way by some friends whom he +visited. At Perth, where his old regiment then lay previous to its +disbandment, he amused himself by studying Gaelic, and the controversy +respecting Ossian and his poems. Quitting Perth, he travelled, still on +foot, through the Highlands, the inhabitants of which he was, in the +first instance, disposed to class with savages; but when he had observed +the originality of conception, the breadth of humor, and the elevated +sentiments which mark the Celt, his opinions underwent a total +revolution. He was especially delighted with a ragged old reiver or +cattle-lifter whom he encountered, and who had given shelter to the +Young Chevalier in the braes of Glenmoriston after the battle of +Culloden. + +On his return to Edinburgh, Jackson married a lady of fortune, the +daughter of Dr. Stephenson, and niece of his old friend Colonel Francis +Shelley, of the 71st regiment; and was enabled by this accession to his +means once again to visit Paris, where he not only resumed his medical +studies, but acquired the mastery of several languages, Arabic amongst +the rest. Having graduated M. D. at Leyden, he came back again to +England, and commenced practice at Stockton-upon-Tees, in Durham. +Although his reputation speedily became considerable, especially in +cases of fever, he seems scarcely to have liked his new avocation. He +found solace, however, in his favorite study of language, which he +pursued with unremitting ardor--constantly reading through the Greek and +Latin classics, and not only rendering himself familiar with the best +works of the modern continental authors, but also with the literature of +the Arabic, Persian, Hebrew, and Gaelic tongues. The _Bostan_ of Saadi +is said to have been one of his most favorite poems. + +On the war breaking out in 1793, Dr. Jackson--who, in 1791, had +published a valuable work on the fevers of Jamaica and continental +America--applied for employment as army-physician; but Mr. Hunter, the +director-general of the medical department of the army, considering none +eligible for such employment who had not served as staff or regimental +surgeon, or apothecary to the forces, Jackson agreed to accept, in the +first instance, the surgeoncy of the 3d Buffs, on the understanding, +that at a future time, he should be nominated physician as he desired. +Mr. Hunter, however, ever, died soon after this; and his promise was not +fulfilled by the Board which succeeded him in the medical direction of +the army, and which appears to have pursued Dr. Jackson with uniform +hostility. + +Returning to England with the troops, it was offered to him to +accompany, in the capacity of chief medical officer, Sir Ralph +Abercromby's expedition against some of the West India islands; and +although no employment could possibly have been more agreeable to his +taste, he, much to Sir Ralph's chagrin, declined the flattering +proposal, on the grounds, that lower terms had been offered to him than +to another professional man. Nothing but a sense of professional +delicacy, it is plain, governed him in this transaction, for he +immediately afterwards embarked (April, 1796) as _second_ medical +officer in another expedition to San Domingo. During his abode in this +island, he was unwearied in enlarging his acquaintance with tropical +diseases--observing the rule he had followed in Holland of noting down +by the patient's bedside the minutest particulars of every case he +attended, the effects of the treatment pursued, and whatever else might +shed light on the intricacies of pathological science. He also gave a +larger practical operation to the scheme he had years before devised of +amending the dietaries of military hospitals. + +After the evacuation of San Domingo in 1798, our physician paid a visit +to the United States, where he was received with signal distinction, his +reputation having preceded him. The latter part of the year found him +again at Stockton, publishing a work on contagious and endemic fevers, +"more especially the contagious fever of ships, jails, and hospitals, +vulgarly called the yellow-fever of the West Indies;" together with "an +explanation of military discipline and economy, with a scheme for the +medical arrangements of armies." He undertook, about this time, by +desire of Count Woronzow, the Russian ambassador, the medical charge of +seventeen hundred Russian soldiers, who were stationed in the Channel +Islands in a sad state of disease and disorganization; and so admirably +did he acquit himself, and so perfect were the hospital provisions he +made, that (1800) the commander-in-chief nominated him physician and +head of the army-hospital depôt at Chatham--as he says, "without any +application or knowledge on his part." This appointment was the cause of +his subsequent misfortunes. + +At Chatham, with the warm approbation of Major-General Hewett, +commanding the depôt, he introduced that system of hospital reform form +which had elsewhere operated so successfully. The changes he effected, +as soon as they were made, became known to the Medical Board, and were +publicly approved of by one of its members. However, shortly afterwards, +an epidemic broke out in the depôt (then removed to the Isle of Wight), +arising from the fact, that the barracks were overcrowded with young +recruits, but which the medical board ascribed to Jackson's innovations, +and reported so to the Horse-Guards. The commander-in-chief directed an +inquiry to take place before a medical board impannelled for the +purpose, and the result of that inquiry may be guessed from a +communication made by the War-Office to the commandant of the depôt. +This states "the unanimous opinion of the board to have exculpated Dr. +Jackson from all improper treatment of diseases in the sick," and the +commander-in-chief's gratification, "than an opportunity has thus been +given to that most zealous officer of proving his fitness for the +important situation in which he is placed." The result of this wretched +intrigue, however, was that Jackson, disgusted with the whole affair, +requested to be placed on half-pay, to which request the Duke of York, +with marked reluctance, at last (March 1803) acceded. + +In his retirement at Stockton, Jackson put forth two valuable works, one +on the medical economy of armies, and another on that of the British +army in particular, and was much gratified by an offer to accompany, as +military secretary, General Simcoe, just appointed commander-in-chief in +India. The general's sudden death, however, put an end to this plan; and +Jackson continued at Stockton, addressing frequent representations to +government on the defective medical arrangements in the military +service--representations the very receipt of which were not acknowledged +by Mr. Pitt, to whom they were forwarded. The Peninsular war commencing, +Dr. Jackson was again named Inspector of Hospitals, but was not, thanks +to the persevering enmity of the Medical Board, sent on foreign service, +although he volunteered to sink his rank, and go in any capacity. The +Board even succeeded, by calumnious statements, that he had purchased +his diploma--statements he readily confuted--in preventing his +appointment to the Spanish liberating army; although the British +government had formally requested him to accept such an appointment, and +agreed to give credentials testifying to his capacity and +trustworthiness. This last appointment led him, in an unguarded +moment--peppery to the last--to inflict a slight personal chastisement +on the surgeon-general, for which he was imprisoned six months in the +King's Bench. + +But the triumph of his enemies was not of long duration. In 1810 the +Board was dissolved, and the control of the medical department vested in +a director-general, with three principal inspectors subordinate to him. +Then did Jackson return to active service, and from 1811 to 1815 was +employed in the West Indies; his reports from whence embracing every +topic relating to medical topography, to sanitary arrangements, and to +the observed phenomena of tropical disease, are, it is not too much to +say, invaluable. His hints as to the choice of sites for barracks, the +propriety of giving to soldiers healthy employment and recreation, as a +means of averting sickness, his suggestions as to the treatment of +fevers and other endemic diseases, may be found in the various works he +has published, embodying the fruits of his West Indian experience. + +In 1819, he was sent by government to Spain, where the yellow-fever had +broken out, and his report upon its characteristics has been universally +admitted to supply the fullest information on the subject that had +hitherto been communicated to the public. He availed himself of his +presence in that part of Europe to pay a visit to Constantinople and the +Levant; and, retaining his energy to the last, when a British force was +sent to Portugal in 1827, he desired permission to accompany it. The +sands of his life, however, were then fast running out, and on the 6th +of April in the same year he died, after a short illness, at Thursby, +near Carlisle, in the seventy-seventh year of his age. Thus closed a +long career of usefulness; for it is not too much to say, that few men +of his time labored harder to benefit his fellow-creatures than did Dr. +Robert Jackson. + + * * * * * + +SPANISH NAMES.--A Spanish journal gives the following singular names as +those of two _employés_ in the Finance department at Madrid:--Don +Epifanio Mirurzururdundua y Zengotita, and Don Juan Nepomuceno de +Burionagonatotorecagogeazcoecha. The journal would have done well to +have given some directions as to the pronunciation. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[18] The late Admiral Sir Edward Codrington, when in command, during the +war, of a frigate on the coast of Calabria, finding sickness appear +amongst his crew, purchased on his own responsibility some bullocks, for +the purpose of supplying them with fresh meat. Lord Collingwood having +heard of this, and considering it a breach of discipline, sent for +Codrington, and addressed him: "Captain Codrington, pray have you any +idea of the price of a bullock In this place?" "No, my lord," was the +reply, "I have not; but I know well the value of a British sailor's +life!" + + + + +From Dicken's Household Words. + +STRINGS OF PROVERBS. + + +When a saying has passed into a national proverb, it is regarded as +having received the "hall-mark" of the people, with respect to its +prudence or practical wisdom. Proverbs deal only with realities, +generally of the most homely and every-day kind, and are always supposed +to comprise the most sage advice, or the most broad worldly truth, +within the least possible compass. + +Now, while we admit that proverbs are for the most part true, and useful +in their teaching, and that they very often inculcate excellent maxims, +we must at the same time enter our protest against the infallibility of +most of them. Numbers will be found, on the least examination (which is +seldom given to them) to be one-sided truths; others, inculcate an +utterly selfish conduct, under the guise of prudence or worldly wisdom; +and some of them are absolutely false, or only of the narrowest +application. The majority of the proverbs, of all modern nations, +originate with the people, and with the humbler classes (we must except +the Chinese and Arabic, which are evidently the product of their sages), +as witnessed by the homeliness of the allusions, and the frequent +vulgarity, but, in all cases, the actual experience of life and its +ordinary occurences with regard to men and things. They are full of +corn, with a proportionate quantity of chaff and straw. Let us no +longer, therefore, take all these "sayings" for granted; let us rather +take them to task a little, for their revision and our own good. + +Proverbs being the common property of all mankind, and often to be +traced to very remote geographical sources, we shall observe no national +classification; but string a few together now and then from Arabia and +China, from Spain, Italy, France, or England, just as they may occur. +So, now to our first string. + +_Honesty is the best policy._ This is true in the higher sense; but +doubtful in the sense usually intended. It is true as to the general +good, but not usually for the individual, except in the long run. (We +pass over the obvious truth, that it is better policy to earn a guinea, +than to steal one, because the proverb has a far wider range of meaning +than that.) To be a "politic," clever fellow, a vast deal more humoring +of prejudices, errors, and follies, is requisite, than at all assorts +with true honesty of character. If, however, we regard this proverb only +on its higher moral ground, then, of course, we must at once admit its +truth. The reader will probably be surprised, as we were, to find that +it comes from the Chinese, and will be found in the translation of the +novel of "_Iu-Kiao-Li_." + +_A leap from a hedge is better than a good man's prayer._ (Spanish.) The +leap (of a robber) from his lurking-place, being preferable to asking +charity, and receiving a blessing, is one of those proverbs, the +impudent immorality of which is of a kind that makes it impossible to +help laughing. Its frank atrocity amounts to the ludicrous. It is an old +Spanish proverb, and occurs in "Don Quixote"--of course in the mouth of +Sancho. + +_A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush._ The extreme caution +ridiculed by this proverb is of a kind which one would hardly have +expected to be popular in a commercial country. If this were acted upon, +there would be an end of trade and commerce, and all capital would lie +dead at the banker's--as a bird who was held safe. The truth is, our +whole practice is of a directly opposite kind. We regard a bird in the +hand as worth only a bird; and we know there is no chance of making it +worth two birds--not to speak of the hope of a dozen--without letting it +out of the hand. Inasmuch, however, as the proverb also means to exhort +us not to give up a good certainty for a tempting uncertainty, we do +most fully coincide in its prudence and good sense. It is identical with +the French "_Mieux vaut un_ 'tiens' _que deux_ 'tu l'auras,'"--one "take +this" is better than two "thou shalt have it;"--identical also with the +Italian: _E meglio un uovo oggi, che una gallina domani_; an egg to-day +is better than a hen to-morrow. It owes its origin to the Arabic--"A +thousand cranes in the air, are not worth one sparrow in the fist." + +_Enough is as good as a feast._ The best comment on this proverb that +occurs to us was the reply made by Rooke, the composer (a man who had a +fund of racy Irish wit in him), at a time when he was struggling with +considerable worldly difficulties. "How few are our real wants!" said a +consoling friend; "of what consequence is a splendid dinner? Enough is +as good as a feast."--"Yes," replied Rooke, "and therefore a feast is as +good as enough--and I think I prefer the former." + +_Love me, love my dog._ At first sight this has a kindly appearance, as +of one whose interest in a humble friend was as great as any he took in +himself; but, on looking closer into it, we fear it involves a curious +amount of selfish encroachment upon the kindness of others--a sort of +doubling of the individuality, with all its exactions. My dog (in +whatever shape) may be an odious beast; or, at best, one who either +makes himself, or, whose misfortune it is to be, very disagreeable to +certain people; but, never mind--what of that, if he is _my_ dog? +Society could not go on if this were persisted it. + +_Set a beggar on horseback, and he'll ride to the devil._ The direction +in which he will ride depends entirely on the character of the +beggar--or poor man suddenly risen to power. Some sink over the other +side of the horse, and drop into utter sloth and pampered sensualism; +but others do their best to ride well, and sometimes succeed. Masaniello +and Rienzi did not ride long in the best way; but several patriots, who +have rapidly risen from obscurity to power, have set noble examples. + +_Throw him into a river, and he will rise with a fish in his mouth._ +(Arabic.) Some men are so fortunate that nothing can sink them. Where +another man would drown they find fish or pearls. + +_The monkey feared transmigration, lest he should become a gazelle._ +(Arabic.) The matchless conceit of some people, and utter ignorance of +themselves, either as to appearance or abilities, are finely expressed +in the above. + +_The baker's wife went to bed hungry._ (Arabic.) How often is it seen, +that those who follow a profession or trade, are among the last to +display a special benefit from their calling! Our proverb, that +"Shoemakers' wives are the worst shod," seems to be derived from the +same source. + +_Chat échaudé craint l'eau froide_; the scalded cat fears (even) cold +water. This is a better version of the English proverb of "A burnt child +dreads the fire." That the proverb is by no means of general +application, the experience of every one can avouch. It would be the +saving of many a child, of whatever age, who having been burnt should +entertain a salutary dread of the fire ever after. But it is not so; +witness how many are burnt--_i.e._, ruined, wounded, shot, drowned, made +ridiculous, who had all been previously well warned by "burning their +fingers" with losses, injuries by land and sea, and failures in attempts +involving dangerous chances. + +_Crom a boo_; I will burn. This Irish proverb, or saying, may serve in +many respects as an adverse commentary on the preceding. There are +people who are never at rest when they are out of hot water--nor +contented when they are in. "I will burn" is the motto of the Duke of +Leinster. It would do capitally for Mr. Smith O'Brien. Perhaps, however, +it should not be read as a resolution to suffer, but as a threat to +inflict a burning. Still, the vagueness of this threat--a dreadful +announcement with no definite object--would render it equally +applicable. + +_Bis dat qui cito dat_; he gives double who gives promptly. The truth of +this is well illustrated by the converse it suggests; that he who long +delays and tantalizes before giving, earns less gratitude than scorn. It +requires more generosity and a finer mind to confer a favor in the best +way, than to confer double the amount of the favor in itself. + +_What I gain afore I lose ahint._ (Scotch.) To be engrossed with a fixed +object, is to forget what is going on all around us. I am closely +engaged with what is passing before my eyes, while I am deceived and +injured behind my back. This quaint old proverb has been ludicrously +illustrated by a characteristic story. A Highlander, in a somewhat +scanty kilt, was crossing a desolate moor one winter's night, and being +very cold, he hastened to a light he saw at no great distance. It turned +out to be a decomposed cod's head, which sent forth phosphoric gleams. +He stooped down to try and warm his hands at it; but finding the bleak +winds whistling all round his legs, he made the sage observation above, +which has passed into a proverb. + +_Entfloh'nes Wort, geworf'ner Stein, die kommen nimmermehr herein_; the +hasty word, and hasty stone, can never be recalled. How truthful, how +home to the mark, does this proverb fly; how excellent is the warning +and the self-command it inculcates! + +_To-day a fire, to-morrow ashes._ (Arabic.) Violent passions are the +soonest exhausted; to-day all-powerful, to-morrow nothing, or the +consequences. + +_Reading the psalms to the dead._ (Arabic.) This is the original of our +"Preaching to the dead," to express the fruitlessness of exhortations, +applications, or petitions, to certain insensible people. + +_Follow the owl, she will lead thee to ruin._ (Arabic.) A most +picturesque proverb, giving its own scenery with it. But it strikes one +as curious that this should come from the East which seems so familiar +to our apprehensions. Not only are the habits of the owl the same, but +the owl is equally regarded as the symbol of a purblind fool. Yet, on +the other hand, the owl of classic times was a type of wisdom. + +_Two of a trade can never agree._ It is curious, and, in most instances, +highly gratifying, to see how many of these sayings of our ancestors are +becoming falsified by the great advances made, of late years, in social +feelings and arrangements. Trades' unions, co-operative societies--in +fact, all our great companies prove how well two of a trade can agree; +and so do all combinations of masters or of workmen. Yes, it will be +said, but they "agree," and co-operate for their mutual interests, and +they do not agree with those opposed to them. Of course not; the +sensible thing, therefore, is obvious, to enlarge the sphere of good +understanding and reciprocal fair dealing in matters of business, and +thus to supersede the bad feeling and injury of greedy rivalries and +selfish antagonisms. + +_There was a wife who always took what she had, and never wanted._ +(Scotch.) A good practical advice, showing the importance of using what +you possess, instead of hoarding it, or reserving it, even when most +needed, for some possible contingency, which may never occur. It seems +to refer chiefly to articles of dress, clothing, domestic utensils, or +other household matters. + +_Dat Deus immiti cornua curta bovi_; God curtails the power to do evil +in those who desire to do it. + +_There is honor among thieves._ This is, no doubt, quite true, though +you must be a thief yourself to derive much benefit from it. They stand +by their order. The suggestion is--since there is honor towards each +other among the most unprincipled classes, surely Mr. Sweepstakes, and +Mr. Moses Battledore, who are both respectable members of society, and +belong to clubs, would not cheat me. But this does not logically follow; +for we by no means know how far the respectable individual makes his +view of his own interest an excuse to himself for an occasional +exception to the code of morality he professes. There's honor among +thieves; and there are thieves (here and there) among +honorably-connected men, "all honorable men." Life is a "mingled yarn" +of good and evil; and society is a motley aggregate of all sorts of +yarns. + +_A rose-bud fell to the lot of a monkey._ (Arabic.) The monkey +appreciated the rose-bud quite as much as swine appreciate the pearls +which are said to be cast before them. + +_Of what use to a fool is all the trouble he gives himself?_ (Chinese.) +None whatever; but his folly may cause a vast deal of trouble to people +of sense. One false move of an utterly incompetent man in office, and +the force of the saying becomes very expansive. + +_There are no lies so wicked as those which have some foundation._ +(Chinese.) A saying which is but too true, and which ought to be +universally understood in society, as some protection against slander. + +_Many preparations before the sour plum sweetens._ (Chinese.) Great +results do not hastily ripen; great and important changes must undergo a +gradual process. + +_Spare the rod and spoil the child._ This seems to be derived from the +old Spanish proverb, which we find in Don Quixote, "He loves thee well +who makes thee weep." They are unkindly and dangerous maxims, which tend +to inculcate severity, and to justify harsh treatment upon the plea of +future advantage. We readily admit that nothing can well be worse than a +"spoilt child," nor can a more injurious system exist than that of +pampering or spoiling--except the direct opposite, that of frequently +causing tears. + +_A tea-spoonful of honey is worth a pound of gall._ An indiscriminate +use of the sweets of life is a stupidity and an injury; but the +judicious use of them is of far more service in the production of good +results, than the bitter lessons which are often considered to be of +most advantage. It is better to soften the heart than to harden it. "A +soft word turneth away wrath." + +_What the ant collects in a year, the priest eats up in a night._ +(Arabic.) The tithe-taxes, and other revenues of the state-clergy, +derived from the industry of the working classes, are not very tenderly +dealt with in this proverb. + +_The walls have ears._ (Arabic.) This is one of the many instances of +our homeliest proverbs in every-day use, being derived from the East. No +doubt the saying, that "Little pitchers have great ears" (in allusion to +the sharpness of hearing in children), is also derived from the domestic +utensils of foreign countries in ancient times. The British Museum +contains many such little pitchers, as well as the Foundling Hospital. + +_The ox that ploughs must not be muzzled._ (Arabic.) The laborer ought +to be allowed freedom of speech, or at least free breathing. We have a +nautical saying akin to this--"A sailor never works well if he does not +grumble." + +_Three united men will ruin a town._ (Arabic.) The power of combination +was never more excellently expressed. + +_He begins the quarrel who gives the second blow._ (Spanish.) There are +but few who possess the requisite degree of wise and kindly forbearance +and magnanimous self-command implied in this saying. To strike again, or +rather (as the _blow_ is figurative) to retort an angry word, is natural +to most men; to preserve a reproving silence, or administer a dignified +rebuke, is in the power only of great characters, and not with them at +all times. But it is quite possible, as we live in a very pugnacious +world, that such forbearance should not be thrown away upon every one, +or the small majority of the magnanimous would soon be beaten out of +existence. The above proverb, we believe, is originally Spanish, and, +coming from a people so proverbially revengeful, seems very +extraordinary, and only to be accounted for as the result of an abstract +thought of some lofty-minded hidalgo, speculating on friendship. Don +Quixote might have said it. + +_A stitch in time saves nine._ One of the most sensible and practical of +all proverbs, as every body's experience can avouch. Yet, in defiance of +all their own experience, how many people we often see who constantly +neglect the stitch in time! They do not forget it, or overlook it; and +when they do, if you point it out to them, they still neglect it. + +_Chi non sa niente, non dubita di niente_; he who knows nothing, doubts +of nothing. The converse is equally true. He who knows much, is careful +how he doubts of any thing. This is peculiarly inculcated, at the +present time, by the extraordinary discoveries and success of science. + + + + +From the Ladies' Companion. + +A CHAPTER ON WATCHES. + + +We have no means of telling how long a period elapsed from that primal +time when the "evening and the morning made the first day," ere man's +ingenuity devised a means of calculating the passing by of those +precious moments of which his duration is composed, in order to +economize them to the purposes of life. Shadows by day and stars at +night appear to have indexed the flight of time for the ancient Hebrews; +though it is very evident that long before the sun-dial of Ahaz was made +memorable by the Prophet Isaiah, the Chaldeans, accustomed to calculate +eclipses, and other astronomical phenomena, must have been in possession +of some much more accurate instrument for its computation. + +Days, months, and years, are constantly referred to in the books of the +Old Testament, but nothing is said of more minute divisions of time, +save that of the day into the natural ones of morning, noon, eventide, +and night, until Judea became tributary to Rome, when three of the +Evangelists, in describing the crucifixion, and the supernatural +darkness subsequent to that event, remark that it lasted from the sixth +_hour_ to the ninth; and it is on record, that the Clepsydra, or +water-clock, (said by Vitrivius to have been invented by one Ctesibius +of Alexandria, in the reign of Ptolemy Evergetes), was introduced at +Rome by P. Cornelius Scipio Nasica, in the 595th year of the city, and +consequently many years before the birth of Christ. This simple +time-keeper was so constructed, that the water issued, drop by drop, +through a hole in the vessel, and fell into another, in which a light +floating body marked the height of the water as it rose, and by this +means the time that had elapsed. These instruments, we are told, were +set full of water in the courts of judicature, and by them the lawyers +pleaded; in order, as Phavorinus tells us, to prevent babbling, and +cause those who spoke to be brief in their speeches. Hour, or +sand-glasses, are also said to have originated at Alexandria, and to +have been introduced into domestic use amongst the Romans eight years +afterwards, or 158 years before the Christian era. + +The earliest attempt at measuring time in this country appears to have +been on the part of Alfred the Great, by means of waxen tapers. The +exact period when those direct ancestors of our subject, clocks, or, as +they were primitively called, horologes, came into use, is one of those +things over which time has cast so thick a veil, that not even the +researches of the encyclopædists can penetrate it. By some, the +invention of clocks with wheels is ascribed to Pacificus, archdeacon of +Verona, as early as the ninth century. And though we read that clocks +(without water) were set up in churches toward the end of the twelfth, +the author of the "Divina Commedia" is the first writer on record, who +distinctly applies the term horologium to a clock that struck the hours; +and he was born 1265, and died 1321. + +In 1288, during the reign of the 1st Edward, the _English Justinian_, as +he has been called, it is said that a fine levied on a lord chief +justice was applied to the purpose of furnishing the famous clock-house +near Westminster Hall with an horologe, which it is farther stated was +the work of an English artist. + +Mention is also made of the setting up of a clock in Canterbury +Cathedral about the same period, and in that of Wells in 1325. So that +those three Dutch horologiers, from Delft, who came over (as Rymer tells +us) at the invitation of Edward III. in 1368, were not, as some +imagined, the introducers of the art, though they very possibly helped +us to improve it. Up to the time when Henry de Wic astonished the +Emperor Charles V. with those seemingly living toys with which he was +wont to surround himself after dinner, and watch the beating and +revolving of their curious machinery, those rude prototypes of our +subject, which are said to have resembled small table clocks rather than +watches, and yet were true specimens, we imagine, since they continued +going in a horizontal position, which is the only mechanical distinction +between a watch and clock--up to this period, we were about to say, +clocks appear to have endured a very ascetic existence, living in tall +houses, built on purpose for them, or shut up in church towers and +monastic buildings-- + + "Fell sickerer[19] was his crowning in his loge, + As is a clock, or any _abbey orloge_," + +wrote Chaucer in the fourteenth century. And it is not until nearly the +end of the fifteenth that we find them domesticated in houses. + +From a description of some, which appear in an inventory of articles in +the king's palaces of Westminster and Hampton Court, copied by Strutt, +the pendules of the period must have been equally ornate with those in +modern drawing-rooms, and much more curious. Thus one, we are told, not +only showed the course of the planets, and the days of the year, but was +richly gilt, and enamelled, and ornamented with the king's (Henry the +Eighth's) coat of arms; it also possessed a chime. + +Speaking of this monarch reminds us, that previous to the scattering of +the treasures of Strawberry Hill, there was preserved in the library +there a little clock, of silver gilt, the gift of Henry, on the morning +of his marriage, to the ill-fated Anne Boleyn. It was elaborately chased +and engraved, and adorned with fleurs-de-lys, and other heraldic +devices, and had on the top a lion supporting the arms of England. The +gilded weights represented _true-lovers-knots_, inclosing the initials +of Henry and Anne; and one bore the inscription, "The most happye," the +other the royal motto. Though more than three hundred years had passed +since the tragic ending of time with its original possessor, it was +still going when the ivory hammer of the famous Robins struck it down to +another new and more fortunate owner, About this period watches are said +to have been in use; and in the Holbein chamber of the collection just +mentioned, a bust of the royal _wife-slayer_, carved in box-wood, +represented him with a dial suspended on his breast. The earliest watch +known was one in Sir Ashton Lever's Museum, which bore date 1541; but +from various imperfections in the workmanship, they were not very +generally used till towards the end of Elizabeth's reign. + +Shakspeare frequently mentions the clock, and in "Twelfth Night" he +makes Malvolio--"While exclaim, in his babblings of fancied greatness +I, perchance, _wind up my watch_, or play with some rich jewel," an +expression that would lead us to suppose that they were even then +regarded rather as toys or ornaments than things of necessary use. + +Archbishop Parker, in 1575, left by will to the Bishop of Ely his staff +of Indian cane, with a _watch_ in the top of it; a position that savors +more of whim than utility. Yet the excellence of some of these ancient +timekeepers is remarkable; for Derham, in his "Artificial Clockmaker," +mentions a watch of Henry VIII., which was in order in 1714, and of +which Dr. Demanbray had often heard Sir Isaac Newton and Demoivre speak; +and the old wooden-framed clock of Peterborough Cathedral, which, +instead of the usual key or winch, is wound up by long handles or +spikes--a sufficient proof of its antiquity--still strikes, says +Denison, upon a bell of considerable size. + +Guy Fawkes carried a watch in a more practical spirit than Malvolio or +Archbishop Parker; Stowe tells us, one was found upon him which he and +Percy had bought the day before, "to try conclusions for the long and +short burning of the touch-wood with which he had prepared to give fire +to the train of powder;" a proof that even in the third year of the +reign of James I. watches were not commonly worn, or the circumstance +would not have been mentioned. + +In the next reign, however, we find the London "Clock-Makers' Company," +incorporated 1631--a sign of the increased use of these instruments, and +the growing importance of their manufacture; and as this charter +prohibits the importation of clocks, watches, and alarms, it proves that +we had even then artists sufficiently skilful in the various +manipulations requisite in the construction of these articles, to render +us independent of foreign workmanship. + +It is a singular feature in the history of this branch of art, that it +has remained until very lately concentrated in the metropolis; besides +which, Liverpool and Coventry are said to be the only places in England +where a complete watch can be manufactured. At the latter place the +business has only been introduced since the commencement of the present +century, but the number of persons employed are said to equal the number +in London. + +But before passing from this event in the history of our subject (the +incorporation of a company for the protection of their manufacture in +the reign of Charles I.), we may as well describe a watch of the period, +which a few years before the publication of the "Encyclopædia +Londinensis" (in 1811) had been in the possession of the proprietor. It +was dug up but a few years previously, near the site of the ancient +castle of Winchester, where it had probably lain from the time of +Cromwell, who, it is well known, destroyed that edifice. It was of an +octagon form, and had no minute hand; a piece of catgut supplied the +place of a chain; it required winding up every twelve hours, had no +balance spring, and appeared never to have had one; and it shut like a +hunting-watch without any glass. + +But to compensate for this interior rudeness in its construction, the +lid and bottom of the case, as well as the dial-plate, were of silver, +very neatly engraved, with pieces of Scripture history in the centre, +and in the compartments the four Evangelists, and St. Peter, St. Paul, +St. James, and St. Jude: it had no date. + +The reign of Charles II., who (like his namesake the emperor, in whose +time they first appeared) is said to have been very partial to these +instruments, was remarkable for the improvements made in them. Spring +pocket-watches were invented by Hooke, 1658; and repeaters were +introduced, one of the first of which Charles sent as a present to Louis +XIV. of France. According to some authorities, _reproduced_ would be the +juster phrase here, for it is stated in "Memoirs of Literature," that +some of the most ancient watches were strikers, and that such having +been stolen both from Charles V. and Louis XI. whilst they were in a +crowd, the thief was detected by their striking the hour! + +Perhaps the most remarkable repeating watch extant, is that in the +Academy of Sciences at St. Petersburg, and which, like the old Nuremberg +watches, is about the size of an egg: within is represented the holy +sepulchre, with the sentinels, and the stone at the mouth; and while the +spectator is admiring this curious piece of mechanism, the stone is +suddenly removed, the sentinels drop down, the angels appear, the women +enter the tomb, and the same chant is heard which is performed in the +Greek Church on Easter Eve. + +Germany, by the way, has always been famous for the manufacture of +clocks and watches, these latter claiming Nuremberg for their +birthplace; and from this circumstance, and their oval shape, +Dopplemayer tells us they were originally known as Nuremberg _animated +eggs_. + +At present this branch of horometry is chiefly to be found on the other +side of the Alps, at or near Geneva, and at Chaux de Fond, in the +principality of Neufchatel, where vast numbers of watches are +manufactured. But the wooden clocks, which tick on every cottage wall, +and which are erroneously called Dutch, are in fact German, and are +nearly all made in the Black Forest, the village of Freyburg being the +centre of the manufacture, whence it is said 180,000 wooden clocks on an +average are yearly exported. + +The Swiss, or _Geneva_ watches, as they are commonly called, owing to +the poverty of the workmen, the employment of women, and the subdivision +of labor, which is carried to even a greater extent than with us, sell +at a much lower price than those made in England; but an English watch +has hitherto been a desideratum in every part of the world. Here, at +present, the term watch-maker is no longer applicable, every portion of +the instrument being the work of a different artisan, and the separate +parts are often sent hundreds of miles, to meet in the metropolis, and +make a whole of excellent workmanship. There are innumerable places in +which some branch or other of the manufacture is carried on; but the +best movements are made at Prescot, in Lancashire, while the town of +Whitchurch, in Hampshire, is employed wholly in making hands. In London, +Clerkenwall Green has long been the resort of artificers employed in the +various nice and delicate manipulations requisite in the construction of +our subject: here, slide-makers, jewellers, motion-makers, +wheel-cutters, cap-makers, dial-plate-makers, the painter, the +case-maker, the joint-finisher, the pendent-maker, the engraver, the +piercer, the escapement-maker, the spring-maker, the chain-maker, the +finisher, the gilder, the fusee-cutter, the hand-maker, the glass-maker, +and pendulum spring wire-drawer, are all located; for, owing to the +minute division of labor, which tends greatly to facilitate its +execution after the movements (which have previously passed through +thirteen workmen's hands in the provinces) are received in town, the +watch progresses through those of these other twenty-one artificers +before it comes forth complete. + +Owing to this delicate and varied workmanship, materials originally not +worth sixpence are frequently converted into watches worth a hundred +pounds and more, so costly may their appendages be made. But in all +these different branches of a business which maintains thousands of +families, the only part of it which falls to women in this country is +the polishing of the cases, which the casemakers' wives are sometimes +employed to do. + +Perhaps no object of man's ingenuity has been made the exponent of so +many grave morals as the _watch_. Poets and philosophers have managed +that its beatings should be only a little less gloomy to the imagination +than the associations of a passing bell; but Paley has thrown a glory +round this gloom, and aggrandized it from a peevish reminder of passing +time into a fair argument of a Creator's presence, in the delicate and +wonderful machinery of nature, which could no more come by chance than +could this little instrument have been formed without a contriver. + +What the author of the "Old Church Clock" has said of that branch of our +subject, may be equally applied to this--"there is no dead thing so like +a living one." Day by day, year by year, its iron heart throbs on, some +of them surviving, as we have seen, for centuries, though they are said +to beat 17,160 times in an hour. Well would it be for us if the +time-keeper in our bosoms, beating momently the escape of our allotted +term, acted as lightly on the frame; but all its emotions help to wear +this out. + +In the dawn of its appearance, in an age when every science that set men +wondering was in some degree regarded as the work of magic, what a +sensation must these "animated eggs" have occasioned, and how +suggestive! unless the fanciful belief of some of the early fathers of +the church, who averred that gems and precious metals were first made +known to mortals by fallen angels, who also inspired the desire to +profit by, and be adorned with them, had any thing to do with the +tabooing of evil by holy signatures--how suggestive are the quaint +gravings of saints and scriptural subjects on the cover of the watch dug +up at Winchester, of the antique custom of inscribing trinkets with +sacred symbols, and so converting them into amulets; a custom which the +Greeks and Romans borrowed from the Egyptians, and which the early +Christians perpetuated after them. + +We have seen the watch, originally oval, take an octagon form; after +which it subsided into its present shape, the only variation being in +size, and degrees of roundness. + +At present watches are frequently made not thicker than a crown piece, +and yet perform their functions with exactness; nay, there are some with +perfect works, compressed into a smaller compass than a shilling! A +friend of the writer's saw one, not long since, set in a ring, the hands +and figures being composed of brilliants, upon a dial of blue enamel; +and at the recent exhibition one filled the place usually occupied by a +seal at the end of a pencil-case, and another appeared as an appendage +to a lady's bracelet. There was also a large silver watch, such as +mariners are fond of wearing, immersed in a vase of water, and yet +impervious to any ill effects. + +Our subject is one which grows under our hands, and we might go on _ad +libitum_ describing their different idiosyncracies; for watches, like +individuals, have their several temperaments and ways of going. We have +all met with _fast watches_ and slow ones, and some (a disposition they +are apt to contract from their wearers) are very irregular--varieties of +character, which so puzzled their first owner, the Emperor Charles V., +who amused himself on his retirement to the monastery of St. John, by +endeavoring to keep in order these by-gone companions of his +dinner-table, that they produced a reflection on the absurdity of his +attempts to keep together the powers of Europe, when even these little +pieces of mechanism baffled him. + + * * * * * + +American women have less courtesy than any others in the world. A +thousand rules of deference are established by concessions of the other +sex, which they enforce with ungracious arrogance, as if they were but +recognitions of "inalienable rights." This is their offence to all +well-bred Europeans.--_Correspondent London Morning Post._ + +FOOTNOTES: + +[19] Sickerness--steady, secure. + + + + +From Sharpe's Magazine. + +FÊTE DAYS AT ST. PETERSBURG. + +TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH OF ALEXANDER DUMAS + +BY JANE STRICKLAND. + + +New-Year's day and the Benediction of the Waters provide the inhabitants +of St. Petersburg with two great national festivals, in which all +classes share in the pleasures and devotion of the sovereign. The first +is an imperial fête, the second an imposing religious ceremony. + +On New-Year's day, in virtue of an old and touching custom by which the +Emperor and Empress of Russia are designated by their poorest subjects +Father and Mother, these potentates at the commencement of the year +receive their children as their own invited guests. Their family being +too vast to invite by name, they adopt the simple but efficacious plan +of scattering about the streets of their capital twenty-five thousand +cards of invitation, indicative that they will be at home to such a +number of their children. These cards bear no address, but they give +admission to the bearers to the splendid saloons of the Winter Palace +without the slightest distinction of rank or wealth. + +It was thus that the Emperor Alexander, according to custom, kept the +first day of the year 1825, the last he was ever destined to see. The +rumor of the conspiracy that embittered the closing months of his life +and reign, though it had reached his ears and troubled his repose, did +not appear to him any reason for depriving his subjects of their annual +visit to their sovereign. From these unknown guests the Russian Autocrat +felt assured he had nothing to fear. With them he was not only popular +but adored. He therefore directed the Master of the Police to order no +alteration in the usual costume of the male part of the company, whom he +was to admit in masks according to custom on these occasions. In the +darkest annals of barbarism, despotic sovereigns dreaded and often found +the dagger of the assassin in the hands of some member of their own +family. Civilization, however limited, changes the objects of suspicion +to the aristocracy, who are always, under these unfortunate +constitutions, of the military profession. Now the want of the +counterpoise of the middle classes creates this secret but perpetual +warfare between the absolute monarch and the nobility--the nobility who +in free countries are the natural bulwark of the throne. In Russia the +Autocrat is never afraid of the multitude, with whom he holds a twofold +claim to their veneration, as supreme pontiff, or head of the Church, +and Czar. + +The cards of invitation, being transferable, are, as a matter of course, +purchaseable; and among his masked guests who were privileged to shake +hands with Alexander, some cowardly assassin might take that opportunity +to murder the sovereign; yet he, with a firm but touching reliance on +God, ordered at seven o'clock on the New-Year's evening, the gates of +the Winter Palace to be thrown open as usual, to his motley company. + +No extra precautions were taken by the police; the sentinels were on +duty, according to custom, at the palace gates, but the Emperor was +without any guards in the interior of the imperial residence, vast as +the Tuileries. In the absence of all precaution or even regulations for +the behavior of an undisciplined crowd, it was surprising what natural +politeness effected. Veneration for the presence of the sovereign was +alone sufficient to produce good breeding; there was no pushing nor +striving, nor clamor, and the entrance was made with as little noise as +if gratitude for the favor accorded to the guests had induced each to +give a precautionary admonition to his neighbor. + +While the thronging thousands were gaining admission to his palace, the +Emperor Alexander was seated by the Empress in the Hall of St. George in +the midst of the imperial family, when the door was opened to the sound +of music, for the saloons were filled with his visitors, and a grand +_coup d'oeil_ of grandees, peasants, princesses, and grisettes was +discerned. At this moment the Emperor advanced and gave his hand to the +English, French, Spanish, and Austrian ambassadors, the representatives +of their several sovereigns. He then moved alone to the door, that his +guests might behold in their sovereign and host the father of his +people. It was a moment anarchy was said to have dedicated to his +assassination, and that parricidal and regicidal act could have been +easily effected at such a juncture had it really been in contemplation. +Alexander was no longer in appearance a melancholy and suffering +invalid, he looked happy and smiling; and if his smile was +counterfeited, he wore the mask ably and well. The instant the Autocrat +appeared, the motley group made a forward movement, and then a +precipitate retreat. The danger vanished with them. The Emperor regarded +the retiring waves of this human sea with imperturbable serenity, a +remarkable feature in his character, a moral re-action, which a +courageous mind can alone bestow, and which he had shown on several +trying occasions. One of these was at a ball given by M. Caulincourt, +Duke of Vicenza, the French Ambassador; the other was at a fête at +Zakret, near Wilna. + +The ball was at its height, when the ambassador was informed that the +house was on fire; fearful that the news of the conflagration might +occasion more ill consequences than the fire itself, he posted an +aide-de-camp at every door, and ordered his people to keep the +misfortune a profound secret, after which he communicated the accident +in a low voice to the Emperor, and assured him that no one should be +permitted to withdraw till he and the imperial family were in perfect +safety; he was going to see the fire extinguished, and he hoped the +efforts made to get it under would be successful; adding, that even if a +report should circulate in the saloons as to this startling fact, no one +would credit it while they saw the Emperor and his family still there. + +"Very well, then, I will remain," coolly remarked the Emperor; and when +Caulincourt returned some time after to announce the extinction of the +fire, he found the Russian Autocrat dancing a polonaise. + +The guests of the ambassador heard on the morrow that their festivities +had been kept over the mouth of a volcano. + +At the fête held at Zakret not only the life but the empire of Alexander +was at stake. In the middle of the dance he was apprised that the +advanced guard of a guest he had forgotten to invite had passed the +Niemen. This was the Emperor Napoleon, his old host at Erfurth, who +might momentarily be expected to enter the hall, followed by six hundred +thousand dancers. Alexander gave his orders with great coolness, +chatting while he issued them with his aide-de-camps. He walked about, +praised the manner in which the saloons were lighted, which he declared +was only second to the beautiful moonlight, supped, and remained till +dawn. His gay manner and the serenity of his countenance prevented the +guests from even suspecting the nature of the communication he had +received, and the entrance of the French into the city was the first +intimation the inhabitants had received of their approach. + +He was in imminent peril in this Polish city, from which his great +self-command delivered him. His retreat at early morning was made before +the approach of an enemy he had hitherto found invincible. Very +different might have been the result of Napoleon's campaign in Russia, +if the inhabitants of Wilna had known during the fête of Zakret of his +vicinity. + +These incidents naturally occurred to the guests of the Emperor +Alexander, during this New-Year's day festival, when they beheld him +approach alone to show himself to the multitude, amongst whom he had +reason to believe many conspirators, or even assassins lurked. If such +indeed were there, the calm serenity of his countenance disarmed them, +and none dared raise an arm against the life he fearlessly trusted, if +not to their loyalty at least to their honor. + +Indeed the suffering and melancholy Emperor, the last time he received +his people, seemed to have shaken off his lassitude and depression, and +appeared full of life and energy, traversing with rapidity the immense +saloons of the Winter Palace. He led off the sort of galoppe peculiar to +the Russian Court, which, however, terminated about nine o'clock. + +At ten, the illuminations of the Hermitage being finished, those persons +who had cards for the spectacle went there. Twelve negroes, superbly +arrayed in rich oriental costumes, kept the doors of the theatre, to +admit or restrain the crowd, and examine the authenticity of the +vouchers of the guests. Here the admission was not promiscuous, a +certain number alone being allowed to be present at the banquet. + +Upon entering the theatre, the spectators found themselves in a land of +enchantment--a vast hall encircled with tubes of crystal, bent in every +possible way, meeting at top in order to form the ceiling, united by +silver threads of imperceptible fineness, behind which hung 10,000 +colored lamps, whose light, reflected and refracted by these transparent +columns, illuminated the gardens, groves, flowers, cascades, and +fountains, like an enchanted landscape, which seen across this veil of +light resembled the poetical phantasm of a dream. The splendid +illuminations cost twelve thousand roubles, and lasted two months. + +At eleven a flourish of musical instruments announced the arrival of the +Emperor, who entered with the Empress and the imperial family, the +ambassadors, the ambassadresses, the officers of the household, and the +ladies in waiting, who all took their places at the middle supper-table; +two other tables were filled by six hundred guests, mostly composed of +the first-class nobility. The Emperor alone remained standing, moving +about the tables, conversing by turns with his numerous guests. + +Nothing could exceed the magnificent effect produced by the banquet, and +the appearance of the court; the sovereign and his officers and nobility +covered with gold and embroidery, the Empress and her ladies glittering +with diamonds and splendid velvets, tissues, and satins. No other fête +in Europe could produce such a grand _coup d'oeil_ as the New-Year's +fête at the Hermitage. At the conclusion of the banquet the Court +returned to the Saloon of St. George, where the music struck up a +polonaise, which was led off by the Emperor. This dance was his farewell +to his guests, for as soon as it was finished he withdrew. The departure +of their sovereign gave pleasure to those loyal subjects who trembled +for his personal safety; but the courageous and ever paternal confidence +reposed in his subjects by Alexander, turned away from him every +murderous weapon. No one could resolve to assassinate a kind father in +the midst of his children, for as such the Emperor had received his +numerous guests. + +The second annual fête was of a religious character, "The Benediction of +the Waters," to which the recent disastrous calamity of the most +terrible inundation on record in Russia, the preceding year, had given +deeper solemnity. The preparations were made with an activity tempered +by care, which denoted the national character to be essentially +religious. Upon the Neva a great pavilion was erected of a circular +form, pierced with eight openings, decorated by four paintings, crowned +with a cross; to this pavilion access was given by a jetty forming the +hermitage. The temporary edifice, on the morning of the ceremony, was to +have its pavement of ice cut through in order to permit the Patriarch to +reach the water. The cold was already twenty degrees below zero, when at +nine o'clock in the morning the whole population of St. Petersburg +assembled themselves on the frozen waters of the Neva, then a solid mass +of crystal. At half-past eleven the Empress and Grand-Duchesses took +their places in the glass balcony of the Hermitage, and their appearance +announced to the crowd that the _Te Deum_ was concluded. The whole corps +of the Imperial Guards, amounting to forty thousand men, marched to the +sound of martial music and formed in line of battle on the river, from +the hotel of the French embassy to the fortress. The palace gates opened +as soon as this military evolution was effected, and the banners, sacred +pictures, and the choristers of the chapel, appeared preceding the +Patriarch and his clergy; then came the pages and the colors of the +different regiments of guards, borne by their proper officers; then the +Emperor, supported by the Grand-Dukes Nicholas and Michael, followed by +the officers of his household, his aide-de-camps and generals. As soon +as the Emperor reached the door of the pavilion, which was nearly filled +with priests and banners, the Patriarchs gave the signal, and the sweet +solemn chant of more than a hundred voices rose to heaven, unaccompanied +by music indeed, yet forming a divine harmony hardly to be surpassed on +earth. During the prayer, which lasted twenty minutes, the Emperor stood +bareheaded, dressed in his uniform, without fur or any defence from the +piercing cold, running more risk by this disregard to climate, than if +he had faced the fire of a hundred pieces of artillery in the front of +battle. The spectators, enveloped in fur mantles and caps, presented a +complete contrast to the religious imprudence of their rash sovereign, +who had been bald from his early youth. + +As soon as the second _Te Deum_ was concluded, the Patriarch took a +silver cross from the hand of the young chorister, and encircled by the +kneeling crowd, plunged it through the opening made in the ice into the +waters below. He then filled a vase up with the consecrated element, +which he presented to the Emperor. After this ceremonial of blessing the +waters, came the benediction of the standards, which were reverently +inclined towards the Patriarch for that purpose. A sky-rocket was +immediately let off from the pavilion, and its silvery smoke was +answered by a terrible explosion, for the whole artillery of the +fortress gave from their metallic throats a loud _Te Deum_, and these +salvos were heard three times during the benediction of the standards; +at the third, the Emperor commenced his return to the palace. + +He was more melancholy than usual, for during this religious ceremony he +felt no need of courage or presence of mind; he was secured by the +natural veneration of a superstitious people. He knew it, and, +therefore, wore no mask in the semblance of a joyless smile. + +On the same day, this imposing ceremonial is used at Constantinople, +only the winter is a mere name and the water has no ice. The Patriarch +stands on the deck of a vessel, and drops his silver cross into the calm +blue waves of the Bosphorus, which a skilful diver restores to him +before it reaches the bottom. To these religious ceremonies succeed +sports and pastimes of all kinds. Booths and barracks are erected on the +frozen Neva from quay to quay, Russian mountains, down which sledges +slide with inconceivable velocity, and the Carnival commences with as +much zest as in cities enjoying a southern temperature. Plays are +performed on the ice, and curious pantomimes, in which a marmot performs +the part of a baby very cleverly, while the man who shows him off under +the character of the good father of the family, finds resemblances in +this black-nosed imp to all his supposed human relatives, to the +infinite delight of the spectators. + +Sleighing on the ice is, as in Canada, a favorite diversion with the +Russians, whose sledges are lined with fur and ornamented with silver +bells and ribbons of every color. Sometimes a wind loaded with vapor +puts an end to these diversions by rendering the ice unsafe, in which +case they are interdicted by the police, and the sports and pastimes of +the people are transferred to _terra firma_; but the Carnival is +considered to come to an abrupt conclusion if this misfortune occurs at +its commencement, for the Neva is to the inhabitants of St. Petersburg +what Vesuvius is to the Neapolitans, and the absence of the ice robs +their Saturnalia of its greatest attraction. In countries where the +Greek religion is the national standard of faith, Lent is preceded by +the same unbounded festivity as in those which are Roman Catholic; but +the Court does not display in these days so much barbarous magnificence +as in those earlier times when civilization was unknown. The Carnival +was, however, held during the last century by Anna Ivanovna, in a style +surpassing that of her ancestors. This pleasure-loving princess, the +daughter of the elder brother of Peter the Great, covered her usurpation +of a throne she had snatched not only from the decendants of her mighty +uncle, but also from her own elder sister and niece, by conducing to the +popular amusements of her people, who in their turn forgot her defective +title to the throne. This popular female sovereign founded the largest +bell in the world, and gave the most magnificent Carnival ever held in +Russia. Thus she maintained her sway by the aid of pleasure and +devotion, a twofold cord her subjects never broke. In 1740 Anna +Ivanovna resolved to surpass every preceding Carnival by her unique +manner of providing her people with amusement during this merry season. +It was customary for the sovereign of Russia to be attended by a dwarf, +who united the privileged character of a jester to the tiny proportions +of a little child. This empress possessed two of these diminutive +personages, and she chose for her own amusement and that of her loving +subjects, that they should be married during this Carnival, and "whether +nature did this match contrive," or it was the consequence of her own +despotic will, cannot be known without a peep into the jealously guarded +archives of Russia; but the nuptials of these sports of nature was the +ostensible cause of the fête. This the Autocrat gave on a new and +splendid scale. She directed her governors to send her two natives of +the hundred districts they ruled in her name, clothed in their national +costume, and with the animals they were accustomed to use on their +journeys. The idea was certainly a brilliant one, and worthy of the +sovereign lady of so many nations, tongues, and languages. + +Anna Ivanovna was punctually obeyed, and at the appointed time a motley +procession, including the purest types of the Caucasian race and the +ugliest of the Mongolian, astonished the eyes of the Empress, who had +scarcely known the greater part of these distant tribes by name. There +she beheld the Kamtchadale with his sledge drawn by dogs, the Russian +Laplander with his reindeer, the Kalmuck with his cows, the Tartar on +his horse, and the native of Bochara with his camel, the Ostiak on his +clogs. Then for the first time, the beautiful Georgian and Circassian, +with their dark ringlets and unrivalled features, looked with +astonishment upon the red hair of the Finlander. The gigantic Cossack of +the Ukraine eyed with contempt the pigmy Samoiede--and in fact, for the +first time were brought into contact by the will of their sovereign +lady, who classed each race under one of four banners, representing +spring, summer, autumn, and winter; and these two hundred persons, +during eight days, paraded the streets of St. Petersburg, to the +infinite delight of the population, who had never seen the power of the +throne displayed in a manner so agreeable to their taste before. + +Upon the wedding day of her dwarfs, these important personages had been +attended to the altar by this singular national procession, where they +plighted their faith in the presence of the Empress and all her Court, +after which they heard Mass, and then, accompanied by their numerous +escort, took possession of the palace prepared for them by the direction +of their imperial mistress. This palace was not the least fanciful part +of the fête. It was entirely composed of ice, and resembled crystal in +its brilliancy and fine cutting and polish. This beautiful fabric was +fifty-two feet in length and twenty in width; the roof, the floor, the +furniture, chandeliers, and even the nuptial bed, were formed of the +same cold, glittering, and transparent materials. The doors, the +galleries, and the fortifications,--even the six pieces of cannon that +guarded this magical palace, were of ice; one of these, charged with a +single ice-bullet, and fired by the aid of a pound of powder, perforated +at seventy paces a plank of twelve inches thickness. This was done to +salute the bridal party, and welcome them home. The most curious piece +of mechanism, and which pleased the Russians the most, was a colossal +elephant, mounted by an armed Persian, and led by twelve slaves. This +gigantic beast threw from his trunk a column of water by day, and at +night a stream of fire, uttering from time to time roars which were +heard from one end of St. Petersburg to the other. These noble roars +were produced by twelve Russians concealed in the body and legs of the +phantom elephant, whose costly housings hid the men whose noise so +delighted their countrymen. This Carnival of the fête-loving feany male +usurper has never been surpassed by Russian sovereign, though, with the +exception of the assembly of her distant subjects, its taste was +barbarous enough. + + + + +From Household Words. + +RAINBOW MAKING. + + +It is a great idea--too large to be arrived at but by degrees--that the +fleece of sheep can clothe nations of men. The fleece of a sheep, when +pulled and spread out, looks much larger than while covering the mutton; +but still it is with a sort of despair that we think of the quantity +required, and of the dressing and preparation necessary, for clothing +fifteen million of men in one country, and double the number in another +(to say nothing of the women), and of the number of countries, each +containing its millions, which are incessantly demanding the fleeces of +sheep to clothe their inhabitants. We remember the hill-sides of our own +mountainous districts; and the wide grassy plains of Saxony; and the +boundless table lands of Thibet, and the valleys of Cashmere, all +speckled over with flocks; we think of the Australian sheep-walks, where +there are flocks of such unmanageable size, that the whole sheep is +boiled down for tallow; we think of Prince Esterhazy's reply to the +question of an English nobleman, when shown vast flocks, and asked how +his sheep in Hungary would compare in number with these,--that his +shepherds outnumbered the Englishman's sheep; we think of these things, +and by degrees begin to understand how wool enough may be produced to +furnish the broadcloths and flannels of the world. But the most strong +and agile imagination is confounded when the material of silk is +considered in the same way. Compare a caterpillar with a sheep; compare +the cocoon of a silkworm (the achievement of its life) with the annual +fleece of a sheep; and the supply of silk for the looms of Europe, Asia, +and America, seems a mere miracle. The marvel is the greater, not the +less, when one is in a silk-growing region, attending to the facts and +appearances, than when trying to conceive of them at home. In Lombardy, +we travel from day to day, during the whole month of May, between rows +of mulberry trees, where the peasants are busy providing food for the +worms; a man in the tree stripping off the leaves, and two women below +with sacks, to carry home the foliage. We see what tons of leaves per +mile must be thus gathered daily for weeks together; we go into houses +in every village to inspect the worm; we mount to the flat roofs of the +dwellings, and find in each countless multitudes of the worms; we pass +on, from country to country, till we mount to the hamlets, perched on +the rocky shelves of the Lebanon; and we find every where the insect +secreting its gum, or spinning it forth as silk; we remember that the +same process is going forward in the heart of our Indian Peninsula, and +throughout China; we look at the broad belt round the globe where the +little worm is forming its cocoons; and still we find it impossible to +imagine how enough silk is produced to supply the wants of the world, +from the brocade of the Asiatic potentate to the wedding ribbon of the +English dairy-maid. Nowhere is the speculation more difficult than in a +dye-house at Coventry. + +Probably there was as much wonder excited by the same thought, when King +Henry VIII. wore the first pair of silk stockings brought to England +from Spain; and when Francis I. looked after the mulberry trees in +France, and fixed some silk weavers at Lyons; and when our Queen Mary +passed a law forbidding servant-maids to wear ribbons on bonnets; and +when monarch after monarch passed acts to teach how silk should be +boiled, and whence it should be brought, and who should, and who should +not, wear it when wrought; but the perplexity and amazement of king, +lords, and commons could hardly, at any time, have exceeded that of the +humblest visitor of to-day in any dye-house at Coventry. We know +something of the fact of this astonishment; for we have been noting the +wonders that are to be found on the premises of Messrs. Leavesley and +Hands at Coventry. + +On entering, we see, ranged along the counters, half round the room, +bundles of glossy silk, of the most brilliant colors. Blues, +rose-colors, greens, lilacs, make a rainbow of the place. It is only two +days since this silk was brought in in a very different condition. The +throwster (to throw, means to twist or twine), after spinning the raw +silk, imported from Italy, Turkey, Bengal, and China, into thread fit +for the loom, sent it here in bundles, gummy, harsh, dingy; except, +indeed, the Italian, which looks, till washed, like fragments of Jason's +fleece. If bundles, and regiments of bundles, like these, come into one +dye-house every few days, to be prepared for the weaving of ribbons +alone, and for the ribbon-weaving of a single town, it is overwhelming +to think of the amount of production required for the broad silk-weaving +of England, of Europe, of the world. Of the silk dyed at Coventry, about +eighty per cent. is used for the ribbon-weaving of the city and +neighborhood; and the quantity averages six tons and a half weekly. Of +the remaining twenty per cent., half is used for the manufacture of +fringes; and the other half goes to Macclesfield, Congleton, and Derby. + +The harsh gummy silk that comes in from the throwing mills is boiled, +wrung out, and boiled again. If it wants bleaching, there is a sort of +open oven of a house; a vault in the yard where it is "sulphured." The +heat, and the sensation in the throat, inform us in a moment where we +have got to. When the hanks come forth from this process, every thread +is separated from its neighbor, and the whole bundle is soft, dry, and +glossy. Then follows the dyeing. To make the silk receive the colors, it +is dipped in a mordant in some diluted acid, or solution of metal which +enables the color to bite into the fibre. To make pinks of all shades, +the silk is dipped in diluted tartaric acid for the mordant, and then in +a decoction of safflower for the hue. To make plum-color or puce, indigo +is the dye, with a cochineal. To make black, nitrate of iron first; then +a washing follows; and then a dipping in logwood dye, mixed with soap +and water. For a white, pure enough for ribbons, the silk has to pass +through the three primary colors, yellow, red, and blue. The dipping, +wringing, splashing, stirring, boiling, drying, go on vigorously, from +end to end of the large premises, as may be supposed, when the fact is +mentioned that the daily consumption of water amounts to one hundred +thousand gallons. A reservoir, in the middle of the yard, formerly +supplied the water; but it proved insufficient, or uncertain; and now it +is about to be filled up, and an Artesian well is opened to the depth of +one hundred and ninety-five feet. The dyeing sheds are paved with +pebbles or bricks, crossed with gutters, and variegated with gay +puddles. Stout brick-built coppers are stationed round the place. Above +each copper are cocks, which let in hot and cold water from the pipes +that travel round the walls of the sheds. There are wooden troughs for +the dye; and to these troughs the water is conveyed by spouts. The silk +hangs down into the dye from poles, smoothly turned and uniform, which +are laid across the troughs by the dozen or more at once. These staves +are procured from Derby. They cost from six shillings to twenty-four +shillings per dozen, and constitute an independent subsidiary +manufacture. The silk hanks being suspended from those poles, two men, +standing on either side the trough, take up two poles, souse, and shake, +and plunge the silk, and turn that which had been uppermost under the +surface of the liquor, and pass on to the next two. When done enough, +the silk is wrung out and pressed, and taken to the drying-house. The +heat in that large chamber is about one hundred degrees. On entering it, +everybody begins to cough. The place is lofty and large. The staves, +which are laid across beams, to contain the suspended silk, make little +movable ceilings here and there. This chamber contains five or six +hundred-weights of silk at once. Our minds glance once more towards the +spinning insects on hearing this; and we ask again, how much of their +produce may be woven into fabrics in Coventry alone? We think we must +have made a mistake in setting down the weekly average at six tons and a +half. But there was no mistake. It is really so. + +While speaking of weight, we heard something which reminded us of King +Charles I.'s opinions about some practices which were going forward +before our eyes. It appears, that the silk which comes to the dye-house +is heavy with gum, to the amount of one-fourth of its weight. This gum +must be boiled out before the silk can be dyed. But the manufacturers of +cheap goods require that the material shall not be so light as this +process would leave it. It is dipped in well-sugared water, which adds +about eight per cent. to its weight. Many tons of sugar per year are +used as (what the proprietor called) "the silk-dyer's devil's dust." It +was this very practice which excited the wrath of our pious King +Charles, in all his horror of double-dealing. A proclamation of his, of +the date of 1630, declares his fears of the consequences of "a deceitful +handling" of the material, by adding to its weight in dyeing, and +ordains that the whole shall be done as soft as possible; that no black +shall be used but Spanish black, "and that the gum shall be fair boiled +off before dyeing." He found, in time, that he had meddled with a matter +that he did not understand, and had gone too far. Some of the fabrics of +his day required to be made of "hard silk;" and he took back his orders +in 1638, having become, as he said, "better-informed." + +From trough to trough we go, breathing steam, and stepping into puddles, +or reeking rivulets rippling over the stones of the pavement; but we are +tempted on, like children, by the charm of the brilliant colors that +flash upon the sight whichever way we turn. What a lilac this is! Is it +possible that such a hue can stand? It could not stand even the drying, +but for the alkali into which it is dipped. It is dyed in orchil first, +and then made bluer, and somewhat more secure, by being soused in a +well-soaped alkaline mixture. That is a good red brown. It is from +Brazil wood, with alum for its mordant. This is a brilliant blue; +indigo, of course? Yes, sulphate of indigo, with tartaric acid. Here are +two yellows: how is that? One is much better than the other; moreover, +it makes a better green; moreover, it wears immeasurably better. But +what is it? The inferior one is the old-fashioned turmeric, with +tartaric acid. And the improved yellow? Oh! we perceive. It is a secret +of the establishment, and we are not to ask questions about it. But +among all these men employed here, are there none accessible to a bribe +from a rival in the art? There is no saying; for the men cannot be +tempted. They do not know, any more than ourselves, what this mysterious +yellow is. But why does it not supersede the old-fashioned turmeric? It +will, no doubt; and it is gaining rapidly upon it; but it takes time to +establish improvements. The improvement in greens, however, is fast +recommending the new yellow. This deep amber is a fine color. We find it +is called California, which has a modern sound in it. This Napoleon blue +(not Louis Napoleon's) is a rich color. It gives a good deal of trouble. +There is actually a precipitation of metal, of tin, upon every fibre, to +make it receive the dye; and then it has to be washed; and then dipped +again, before it can take a darker shade; and afterwards washed again, +over and over, till it is dark enough; when it is finally soused in +water which has fuller's earth in it, to make it soft enough for working +and wear. What is doing with that dirty-white bundle? It is silk of a +thoroughly bad color. Whether it is the fault of the worm, or of the +worm's food, or what, there is no saying--that is the manufacturer's +affair. He sent it here. It is now to be sulphured, and dipped in a very +faint shade of indigo, curdled over with soap. This will improve it, but +not make it equal to a purer white silk. Next, the wet hanks have to be +squeezed in the Archimedean press, and then hung up in that large, hot +drying-room. + +One serious matter remains unintelligible to us. Plaid ribbons--that is, +all sorts of checked ribbons--have been in fashion so long now, that we +have had time to speculate (which we have often done), on how they can +possibly be made. About the colors of the warp (the long way of the +ribbon), we are clear enough. But how, in the weft, do the colors duly +return, so as to make the stripes, and therefore the checks, recur at +equal distances? We are now shown how this was done formerly, and how it +is done now. Formerly, the hanks were tied very tightly, at equal +distances, and the alternate spaces closely wrapped round with paper, or +wound round with packthread. This took up a great deal of time. We were +shown a much better plan. A shallow box is made, so as to hold within it +the halves of several skeins of silk; these halves being curiously +twisted, so as to alternate with the other halves when the hanks are +shaken back into their right position for winding. One half being +within the box, and the other hanging out, the lid is bolted down so +tight that the dye cannot creep into the box; and the out-hanging silk +is dipped. So much can be done at once, that the saving of time is very +great, and, judging by the prodigious array of plaid ribbons that we saw +in the looms afterwards, the value of the invention is no trifle. The +name of this novelty is the Clouding Box. + +We see a bundle of cotton. What has cotton to do here? It is from +Nottingham--very fine and well twisted. It is a pretty pink, and it +costs one shilling and sixpence per pound to dye. But what is it for? +Ah! that is the question! It is to mix in with silk, to make a cheap +ribbon. Another pinch of devil's dust! + +There is a calendering process employed in the final preparation of the +dried silk, by which, we believe, its gloss is improved; but it was not +in operation at the time of our visit. We saw, and watched with great +curiosity, a still later process--more pretty to witness than easy to +achieve--the making up of the hanks. This is actually the most difficult +thing the men have to learn in the whole business. Of course, therefore, +it is no matter for description. The twist, the insertion of the arm, +the jerk, the drawing of the mysterious knot, may be looked at for hours +and days, without the spectator having the least idea how the thing is +done. We went from workman to workman--from him who was making up the +blue, to him who was making up the red--we saw one of the proprietors +make up several hanks at the speed of twenty in four minutes and a half, +and we are no more likely to be able to do it, than if we had never +entered a dye-house. Peeping Tom might spy for very long before he would +be much the wiser; when done, the effect is beautiful. The snaky coils +of the polished silk throw off the light like fragments of mirrors. + +Another mysterious process is the marking of the silk which belongs to +each manufacturer. The hanks and bundles are tied with cotton string; +and this string is knotted with knots at this end, at that end, in the +middle, in ties at the sides, with knots numbering from one to fifteen, +twenty, or whatever number may be necessary; and the manufacturer's +particular system of knots is posted in the books with his name, the +quantity of silk sent in, the dye required, and all other particulars. + +We were amused to find that there is a particular twist and a particular +dye for the fringe of brown parasols. It is desired that there should be +a claret tint on this fringe, when seen against the light; and here, +accordingly, we find the claret tint. The silk is somewhat dull, from +being hard twisted; it is to be made more lustrous by stretching, and we +accompany it to the stretching machine. There it is suspended on a +barrel and movable pin; by a man's weight applied to a wheel, the pin is +drawn down, the hank stretches, and comes out two or more inches longer +than it went in, and looking perceptibly brighter. A hank of bad silk +snaps under this strain; a twist that will stand it is improved by it. + +Looking into a little apartment, as we return through the yard, we find +a man engaged in work which the daintiest lady might long to take out of +his hands. He is making pattern-cards and books. He arranges the shades +of all sorts of charming colors, named after a hundred pretty flowers, +fruits, and other natural productions,--his lemons, lavenders, corn +flowers, jonquils, cherries, fawns, pearls, and so forth; takes a pinch +of each floss, knots it in the middle, spreads it at the ends, pastes +down these ends, and, when he has a row complete, covers the pasted part +with slips of paper, so numbered as that each number stands opposite its +own shade of color. A pattern-book is as good as a rainbow for the +pocket. This looks like a woman's work; but there are no women here. The +men will not allow it. Women cannot be kept out of the ribbon-weaving; +but in the dye-house they must not set foot, though the work, or the +chief part of it, is far from laborious, and requires a good eye and +tact, more than qualities less feminine. We found many apprentices in +the works, receiving nearly half the amount of wages of their qualified +elders. The men earn from ten shillings to thirty shillings a week, +according to their qualifications. Nearly half of the whole number earn +about fifteen shillings a week at the present time. + +And, now, we are impatient to follow these pretty silk bundles to the +factory, and see the weaving. It is strange to see, on our way to so +thoroughly modern an establishment, such tokens of antiquity, or +reminders of antiquity, as we have to pass. We pass under St. Michael's +Church, and look up, amazed, to the beauty and loftiness of its tower +and spire; the spire tapering off at a height of three hundred and +twenty feet. The crumbling nature of the stone gives a richness and +beauty to the edifice, which we would hardly part with for such clear +outlines as those of the restored Trinity Church, close at hand. And +then, at an angle of the market-place, there is Tom, peeping past the +corner,--looking out of his window, through his spectacles, with a +stealthy air, which, however ridiculous, makes one thrill, as with a +whiff of the breeze which stirred the Lady Godiva's hair, on that +memorable day, so long ago. It is strange, after this, to see the +factory chimney, straight, tall, and handsome, in its way, with its +inlaying of colored bricks, towering before us, to about the height of a +hundred and thirty feet. No place has proved itself more unwilling than +Coventry to admit such innovations. No place has made a more desperate +resistance to the introduction of steam power. No place has more +perseveringly struggled for protection, with groans, menaces, and +supplications. Up to a late period, the Coventry weavers believed +themselves safe from the inroads of steam power. A Macclesfield +manufacturer said, only twenty years ago, before a Committee of the +House of Commons, that he despaired of ever applying power-looms to +silk. This was because so much time was employed in handling and +trimming the silk, that the steam power must be largely wasted. So +thought the weavers, in the days when the silk was given out in hanks or +bobbins, and woven at home, or, when the work was done by handloom +weavers in the factory--called the loom-shop. The day was at hand, +however, when that should be done of which the Macclesfield gentleman +despaired. A small factory was set up in Coventry by way of experiment, +in the use of steam power, in 1831. It was burned down during a quarrel +about wages,--nobody knows how or by whom. The weavers declared it was +not their doing; but their enmity to steam power was strong enough to +restrain the employers from the use of it. It was not till every body +saw that Coventry was losing its manufacture,--parting with it to places +which made ribbons by steam,--that the manufacturers felt themselves +able to do what must be done, if they were to save their trade. The +state of things now is very significant. About seventy houses in +Coventry make ribbons and trimmings, (fringes and the like.) Of these, +four make fringes and trimmings, and no ribbons; and six or eight make +both. Say that fifty-eight houses make ribbons alone. It is believed +that three-fourths of the ribbons are made by no more than twenty houses +out of these fifty-eight. There are now thirty steam powerloom factories +in Coventry, producing about seven thousand pieces of ribbons in the +week, and employing about three thousand persons. It seems not to be +ascertained how large a proportion of the population are employed in the +ribbon manufacture: but the increase is great since the year 1838, when +the number was about eight thousand, without reckoning the outlying +places, which would add about three thousand to the number. The total +population of the city was found, last March, to amount to nearly +thirty-seven thousand. So, if we reckon the numbers employed in +connection with the throwing-mills and dye-houses, we shall see what an +ascendency the ribbon manufacture has in Coventry. + +At the factory we are entering, the preparatory processes are going +forward at the top and the bottom of the building. In the yard is the +boiler fire, which sets the engine to work; and, from the same yard, we +enter workshops, where the machinery is made and repaired. The ponderous +work of the men at the forge and anvils contrasts curiously with the +delicacy of the fabric which is to be produced by the agency of these +masses of iron and steel. Passing up a step-ladder, we find ourselves in +a long room, where turners are at work, making the wooden apparatus +required, piercing the "compass boards," for the threads to pass +through, and displaying to us many ingenious forms of polished wood. +While the apparatus is thus preparing below, the material of the +manufacture is getting arranged, four stories overhead. There, under a +skylight, women and girls are winding the silk from the hanks, upon the +spools, for the shuttles. Here we see, again, the clouded silk, which is +to make plaid ribbons, and the bright hues which delighted our eyes at +the dyeing-house. This is easy work,--many of the women sitting at their +reels; and the air is pure and cool. The great shaft from the engine, +passing through the midst of the building, carries off the dust, and +affords excellent ventilation. Besides this, the whole edifice is +crowned by an observatory, with windows all round; and no complete +ceilings shut off the air between this chamber and the rooms of two +stories below. In clear weather, there is a fine view from this +pinnacle, extending from the house, gardens, and orchard of the Messrs. +Hamerton below, over the spires of Coventry, to a wide range of country +beyond. + +Descending from the long room, where the winding is going on, we find +ourselves in an apartment which it does one good to be in. It is +furnished with long narrow tables, and benches put there for the sake of +the work-people, who may like to have their tea at the factory, in peace +and quiet. They can have hot water, and make themselves comfortable +here. Against the door hangs a list of books, read, or to be read, by +the people: and a very good list it is. Prints, from Raffaelle's Bible, +plainly framed, are on the walls. In the middle of the room, on, and +beside, a table, are four men and boys, preparing the "strapping" of a +Jacquard loom for work. The cords, so called, are woven at Shrewsbury. +We next enter a room where a young man is engaged in the magical work of +"reading in from the draught." The draught is the pattern of the +intended ribbon, drawn and painted upon diced paper,--like the patterns +for carpets that we saw at Kendal, but a good deal larger, though the +article to be produced here is so much smaller. The young man sits, as +at a loom. Before him hangs the mass of cords he is to tie into pattern, +close before his face, like the curtain of a cabinet piano. Upreared +before his eyes is his pattern, supported by a slip of wood. He brings +the line he has to "read in" to the edge of this wood, and then, with +nimble fingers, separates the cords, by threes, by sevens, by fives, by +twelves, according to the pattern, and threads through them the string +which is to tie them apart. The skill and speed with which he feels out +his cords, while his eyes are fixed on his pattern, appear very +remarkable; but when we come to consider, it is not so complicated a +process as playing at sight on the piano. The reader has to deal thus +with one chapter, or series, or movement, of his pattern. A _da capo_ +ensues: in other words, the Jacquard cards are tied together, to begin +again; and there is a revolution of the cards, and a repetition of the +pattern, till the piece of ribbon is finished. In the same apartment is +the press in which the Jacquard cards are prepared; just in the way +which may be seen wherever silk or carpet weaving, with Jacquard looms, +goes forward. + +All the preparations having been seen--the making of the machinery, the +filling of the spools, the drawing and "reading in" of the pattern, and +the tying of the cords or strapping, we have to see the great process of +all, the actual weaving. We certainly had no idea how fine a spectacle +it might be. Floor above floor is occupied with a long room in each, +where the looms are set as close as they can work, on either hand, +leaving only a narrow passage between. It may seem an odd thing to say; +but there is a kind of architectural grandeur in these long lofty rooms, +where the transverse cords of the looms and their shafts and beams are +so uniform, as to produce the impression that symmetry, on a large +scale, always gives. Looking down upon the details, there is plenty of +beauty. The light glances upon the glossy colored silks, depending, like +a veil, from the backs of the looms, where women and girls are busy +piercing the imperfect threads with nimble fingers. There seems to be +plenty for one person to do; for there are thirteen broad ribbons, or a +greater number of narrow ones, woven at once, in a single loom; yet it +may sometimes be seen that one person can attend the fronts, and another +the backs of two looms. In the front we see the thirteen ribbons getting +made. Usually, they are of the same pattern, in different colors. The +shuttles, with their gay little spools, fly to and fro, and the pattern +grows, as of its own will. Below is a barrel, on which the woven ribbon +is wound. Slowly revolving, it winds off the fabric as it is finished, +leaving the shuttles above room to ply their work. + +The variety of ribbons is very great, though in this factory we saw no +gauzes, nor, at the time of our visit, any of the extremely rich ribbons +which made such a show at the Exhibition. Some had an elegant and +complicated pattern, and were woven with two shuttles (called the +double-batten weaving) which came forward alternately, as the details of +the rich flower or leaf required the one or the other. There were satin +ribbons, in weaving which only one thread in eight is taken up,--the +gloss being given by the silk loop which covers the other seven. On +entering, we saw some narrow scarlet satin ribbons, woven for the Queen. +Wondering what Her Majesty could want with ribbon of such a color and +quality, we were set at ease by finding that it was not for ladies, but +horses. It was to dress the heads of the royal horses. There were +bride-like, white-figured ribbons, and narrow flimsy black ones, fit for +the wear of the poor widow who strives to get together some mourning for +Sundays. There were checked ribbons, of all colors and all sizes in the +check. There were stripes of all varieties of width and hue. There were +diced ribbons, and speckled, and frosted. There were edges which may +introduce a beautiful harmony of coloring; as primrose with a lilac +edge, green with a purple edge, rose color and brown, puce and amber, +and so on. The loops of pearl or shell edges are given by the silk being +passed round horse-hairs, which are drawn out when the thing is done. +There are belts,--double ribbons,--which have other material than silk +in them; and there are a good many which are plain at one edge, and +ornamented at the other. These are for trimming dresses. One reason why +there are so few gauzes, is that the French beat us there. They grow the +kind of silk that is best for that fabric, and labor is cheap with them; +so that any work in which labor bears a large proportion to the +material, is peculiarly suitable for them. + +We have spent so much time among the looms, that it is growing dusk in +their shadows, though still light enough in the counting house for us to +look over the pattern-book, and admire a great many patterns, most, till +we see more. Young women are weighing ribbons in large scales; and a man +is measuring off some pieces, by reeling. He cuts off remnants, which he +casts into a basket, where they look so pretty that, lest we should be +conscious of any shop-lifting propensities, we turn away. There is a +glare now through the window which separates us from the noisy weaving +room. The gas is lighted, and we step in again, just to see the effect. +It is really very fine. The flare of the separate jets is lost behind +the screens of silken threads, which veil the backs of the looms, while +the yellow light touches the beams, and gushes up to the high ceiling in +a thousand caprices. Surely the ribbon manufacture is one of the +prettiest that we have to show. + +If the Coventry people were asked whether their chief manufacture was in +a flourishing state, the most opposite answers would probably be given +by different parties equally concerned. Some exult, and some complain, +at this present time. As far as we can make out, the state of things is +this. From the low price of provisions, multitudes have something more +to spare from their weekly wages than formerly, for the purchase of +finery: and the demand for cheap ribbons has increased wonderfully. As +always happens when any manufacture is prosperous, the operatives engage +their whole families in it. We may see the father weaving; his wife, on +the verge of her confinement, winding in another room, or, perhaps, +standing behind a loom, piecing the whole day long. The little girls +fill the spools; the boys are weaving somewhere else. The consequences +of this devotion of whole households to one business, are as bad here as +among the Nottingham lace-makers, or the Leicester hosiers. Not only is +there the misery before them of the whole family being adrift at once, +when bad times come, but they are doing their utmost to bring on those +bad times. Great as is the demand, the production has, thus far, much +exceeded it. The soundest capitalists may be heard complaining that +theirs is a losing trade. Less substantial capitalists have been obliged +to get rid of some of their stock at any price they could obtain: and +those ribbons, sold at a loss, intercept the sales of the fair-dealing +manufacturer. This cannot go on. Prosperous as the working-classes of +Coventry have been, for a considerable time, a season of adversity must +be within ken, if the capitalists find the trade a bad one for them. We +find the case strongly stated, and supported by facts, in a tract, on +the Census of Coventry, which has lately been published there. It might +save a repetition of the misery which the Coventry people brought upon +themselves formerly--by their tenacity about protective duties, and +their opposition to steam power--if they would, before it is too late, +ponder the facts of their case, and strive, every man in his way, to +yield respect to the natural demand for the great commodity of his city; +and to take care that the men of Coventry shall be fit for something +else than weaving ribbons. + + + + +From the Examiner. + +BARTHOLD NIEBUHR, THE HISTORIAN.[20] + + +Niebuhr was born pre-eminently gifted, was trained by intellectual and +tender parents, and his whole career is one story of the progress made +by a mind which united extraordinary powers with untiring industry. But +Niebuhr was not only born to achieve greatness. He achieved love and +friendship in every relation of his life, he was a high-minded and in +the purest sense of the word an earnest man. In intellect he was a giant +among us; but in him the intellect was not a statue raised above the +moral life, on which it trod as on a pedestal, a block of mere +stone-mason's work; his heart had not been used up in the making of his +brains, or his soul cleared out a sacrifice to make room for a new stock +of understanding. We may yield our minds up to admire Niebuhr +unreservedly, and it is pleasant therefore to get a _Life_ of him in +English, so full as this is of the actual man, as he poured out portions +thereof to his bosom friends, and wherein the large lumps of true +Niebuhr gold are contained in a biographic deposit which itself is a +long way removed from dross. The quiet, unaffected way in which this +work has been done by the English writer of the book before us, her +elegant simplicity of style, her thorough mastery of the subject, enable +us to pass from Life to Letters, and from Letters back to Life, without +any sense but of a perfect harmony between both. The two volumes are of +a kind that can be read through from the beginning to the end with +unremitting pleasure. We strongly suspect that Niebuhr, at the age of +twelve, would have bewildered with his knowledge some few of our +university professors. Here is part of a sketch, representing him when +he was not very far removed from long clothes: + + How keenly alive he was to poetical impressions appears from + a letter of Boje's written in 1783: "This reminds me of + little Niebuhr. His docility, his industry, and his devoted + love for me procure me many a pleasant hour. A short time + back I was reading 'Macbeth' aloud to his parents without + taking any notice of him, till I saw what an impression it + made upon him. Then I tried to render it all intelligible to + him, and even explained to him how the witches were only + poetical beings. When I was gone, he sat down (he is not yet + seven years old), and wrote it all out on seven sheets of + paper without omitting one important point, and certainly + without any expectation of receiving praise for it; for, + when his father asked to see what he had written, and showed + it to me, he cried for fear he had not done it well. Since + then he writes down every thing of importance that he hears + from his father or me. We seldom praise him, but just + quietly tell him where he has made any mistake, and he + avoids the fault for the future. + + "The child's character early exhibited a rare union of the + faculty of poetical insight with that of accurate practical + observation. The amusements he contrived for himself afford + an illustration of this. During the periods of his + confinement to the house, before he was old enough to have + any paper given him, he covered with his writings and + drawings the margins of the leaves of several copies of + Forskaal's works, which were used in the house as waste + paper. Then he made copy books for himself, in which he + wrote essays, mostly on political subjects. He had an + imaginary empire called Low-England, of which he drew maps, + and he promulgated laws, waged wars, and made treaties of + peace there. His father was pleased that he should occupy + himself with amusements of this kind, and his sister took an + active part in them. There still exist among his papers many + of his childish productions; among others, translations and + interpretations of passages of the New Testament, poetical + paraphrases from the classics, sketches of little poems, a + translation of Poncet's Travels in Ethiopia, an historical + and geographical description of Africa, written in 1787 (the + two last were undertaken as presents to his father on his + birth-day), and many other things mostly written during + these years." + +Here is Niebuhr, at the age of thirty-four, Professor in Berlin, after +he had retired from official trusts which had imposed as many toils upon +him as would have made an enormously active life for one of the most +ancient tenants of our English pension list to look back upon: + + "Niebuhr's relinquishment of office, in 1810, forms an + important epoch in his life. He was now thirty-four years of + age, and since his twentieth year (with the exception of the + sixteen months passed in England and Scotland), had been + actively engaged in the public service. During this period + he had indeed never lost sight of his philological + researches, but he had only been able to devote to them his + few hours of leisure; now, it was to be seen whether he + could find satisfaction in the life of a student, after + years passed in the midst of the great world, and surrounded + by exciting circumstances. How far he had, however, turned + these leisure hours to account, may be judged by the + following memorandum, found, with many others of a similar + kind, among his papers, and written most probably in + Copenhagen about 1803: + + "Works which I have to complete: 1. Treatise on Roman + Domains. 2. Translation of El Wakidi 3. History of Macedon. + 4. Account of the Roman Constitution at its various Epochs. + 5. History of the Achæan Confederation, of the Wars of the + Confederates, and of the Civil Wars of Marius and Sylla, 6. + Constitutions of the Greek States. 7. Empire of the + Caliphs." + +"No detailed outlines of these, or any of his other literary +undertakings are to be found; but it must not be inferred that such +memoranda contain mere projects, towards whose execution no steps were +ever taken. That Niebuhr proposed any such work to himself, was a +certain sign that he had read and thought deeply on the subject, but he +was able to trust so implicitly to his extraordinary memory, that he +never committed any portion of his essays to paper, till the whole was +complete in his own mind. His memory was so wonderfully retentive, that +he scarcely ever forgot any thing which he had once heard or read, and +the facts he knew remained present to him at all times, even in their +minutest details. + +"His wife and his sister once playfully took up Gibbon, and asked him +questions from the table of contents about the most trivial things, by +way of testing his memory. They carried on the examination till they +were tired, and gave up all hope of even detecting him in a momentary +uncertainty, though he was at the same time engaged in writing on some +other subject. He was once conversing with a party of Austrian officers +about Napoleon's Italian campaigns. Some dispute arose respecting the +position of different corps in the battle of Marengo. Niebuhr described +exactly how they were placed, and the progress of the action. The +officers contradicted him; but on maps being brought he was found to be +in the right, and to know more of the details of the conflict than the +very officers who had been present. One day, when he was talking with +Professor Welcker of Bonn, the conversation happened to turn on the +weather, and Niebuhr quoted the results of barometrical observations in +the different years, as far back as 1770, with perfect accuracy. This +power was not a merely mechanical faculty; it was intimately connected +with the power of instantaneously seizing on all the relations of any +fact placed before him, and with his wonderful imagination; his +imagination, however, was that of an historian, not of a poet--it was +not creative, but enabled him to form from the most various, and +apparently inadequate sources, distinct and truthful pictures of scenes, +actions, and characters. Hence his keen delight in travels: hence, too, +his habit of pronouncing judgment on the men of other countries and of +past times, with all the warmth of a fellow-countryman and a +contemporary. + +"With his warm affections, and clear-sighted moral sense, it was +impossible for him to form such opinions on past or present history, +coolly standing aloof, as it were, and regarding the subject with calm +superiority; he could not but condemn and despise all that was +pernicious and base; he could not but love and reverence, with his whole +heart, whatever was noble and beautiful. Such opinions and feelings he +expressed with the utmost frankness, sometimes even with vehemence, when +prudence would have counselled more guarded language." + +Here is Professor Niebuhr holding up a bright example to our friends who +fear to look ridiculous in rifle clubs: + + "On the evacuation of Berlin by the French in February, + 1813, Niebuhr shared in the national rejoicings, and not + less in the enthusiasm displayed in the preparations for the + complete re-conquest of freedom. When the Landwehr was + called out, he refused to evade serving in it, as he could + take no other part in the war. His wish was to act as + secretary to the general staff; but if this were not + possible, he meant to enter the service as a volunteer with + some of his friends. For this purpose he went through the + exercises, and when the time came for those of his age to be + summoned, sent in his name as a volunteer to the Landwehr. + He would have preferred entering a regular regiment, and + applied to the King for permission to do so; but this + request was refused by him, and he added that he would give + him other commissions more suited to his talents. + + "Niebuhr's friends in Holstein could hardly trust their eyes + when he wrote them word that he was drilling for the army, + and that his wife entered with equal enthusiasm into his + feelings. The greatness of the object had so inspired Madame + Niebuhr, who was usually anxious, even to a morbid extent, + at the slightest imaginable peril for the husband in whom + she might truly be said to live, that she was willing and + ready to bring even her most precious treasure as a + sacrifice to her country." + +Hitherto we have quoted the biography, but on this point, and at a time +when we are seeking to forearm ourselves against the chance of evil, it +may edify us to hear Niebuhr himself speak on the theme of ball +practice. Niebuhr, it should be remembered, writes at a time when two +volumes of his great work, the "History of Rome," had been appreciated +by the public: + + "I come from an employment in which you will hardly be able + to fancy me engaged--namely, exercising. Even before the + departure of the French, I began to go through the exercise + in private, but a man can scarcely acquire it without + companions. Since the French left, a party of about twenty + of us have been exercising in a garden, and we have already + got over the most difficult part of the training. When my + lectures are concluded, which they will be at the beginning + of next week, I shall try to exercise with regular recruits + during the morning, and as often as possible practice + shooting at a mark..... By the end of a month I hope to be + as well drilled as any recruit who is considered to have + finished his training. The heavy musket gave me so much + trouble at first, that I almost despaired of being able to + handle it; but we are able to recover the powers again that + we have only lost for want of practice. I am happy to say + that my hands are growing horny; for as long as they had a + delicate bookworm's skin, the musket cut into them + terribly." + +And now let us give a view of Niebuhr as Professor in Bonn, together +with a few well-written notes upon his character: + + "We have seen that, at Berlin, Niebuhr delivered his + lectures _verbatim_ from written notes. At Bonn, on the + contrary, his only preparation consisted in meditating for a + short time on the subject of his lecture, and referring to + authorities for his data, when he found it necessary, and he + brought no written notes with him to the lecture-room. His + success in imparting his ideas varied greatly at different + times, as it depended almost entirely on his mental and + physical condition at the moment. He always felt a certain + difficulty in expressing himself. He grasped his subject as + a whole, and it was not easy to him to retrace the steps by + which he had arrived at his results. Hence his style was + harsh and often disjointed; and yet he possessed a species + of eloquence whose value is of a high order--that of making + the expression the exact reflection of the thought--that of + embodying each separate idea in an adequate, but not + redundant form. The discourse was no dry, impersonal + statement of facts and arguments, or even opinions; the + whole man, with his conceptions, feelings, moral sentiments, + nay passions too, was mirrored forth in it. Hence Niebuhr + not merely informed and stimulated the minds of his hearers, + but attracted their affections. That he did this in an + eminent degree, was not indeed owing to his lectures alone, + but also to his kind and generous conduct. All who deserved + it were sure of his sympathy and assistance, whether + oppressed by intellectual difficulties, or pecuniary cares. + During the first year, he delivered his lectures without + remuneration; afterwards, on its being represented to him + that this would be injurious to other professors who could + not afford to do the same, he consented to take fees, but + employed them in assisting poor scholars and founding + prizes. He often, however, still remitted the fee privately, + when he perceived that a young man could not well afford it, + and never took any from friends. + + "But those who were admitted to his domestic circle were the + class most deeply indebted to him. His interest in all + subjects of scientific or moral importance was always + lively; and it was impossible to be in his company without + deriving some accession of knowledge and incentive to good. + From his associates he only required a warm and pure heart + and a sincere love of knowledge, with a freedom from + affectation or arrogance. Where he found these, he willingly + adapted himself to the wants and capacities of his + companions; would receive objections mildly, and take pains + to answer them, even when urged by mere youths, and weigh + carefully every new idea presented to him. He was fond of + society, and while his irritability not seldom gave rise to + slight misunderstandings and even temporary estrangements in + the circle of his acquaintance, there were some friends with + whom he always remained on terms of unbroken intimacy, among + whom may be named Professors Brandis, Arndt, Nitzsch, Bleek, + Näke, Welcker, and Hollweg. He enjoyed wit in others, and in + his lighter moods racy and pointed sayings escaped him not + unfrequently. + + "His intercourse was not confined to literary circles. In + all the civil affairs of the town and neighborhood he took + an active interest from principle as well as inclination, + for he considered a man as no good citizen who refused to + take his share of the public business of the neighborhood in + which he lived; and the loss which left so great a blank in + the world of letters, was also deeply regretted by his + fellow-townsmen of Bonn. Niebuhr's mode of life at Bonn was + very regular, and his habits simple. He hated show and + unnecessary luxury in domestic life. He loved art in her + proper place, but could not bear to see her degraded into + the mere minister of outward ease. His life in his own + family showed the erroneousness of the assertion that a + thorough devotion to learning is inconsistent with the + claims of family affection. He liked to hear of all the + little household occurrences, and his sympathy was as ready + for the little sorrows of his children as for the + misfortunes of a nation. He was in the habit of rising at + seven in the morning, and retiring at eleven. At the simple + one o'clock dinner, he generally conversed cheerfully upon + the contents of the newspapers which he had just looked + through. The conversation was usually continued during the + walk which he took immediately afterwards. The building of a + house, or the planting of a garden, had always an attraction + for him, and he used to watch the measuring of a wall, or + the breaking open of an entrance, with the same species of + interest with which he observed the development of a + political organization. The family drank tea at eight + o'clock, when any of his acquaintance were always welcome. + But during the hours spent in his library, his whole being + was absorbed in his studies, and hence he got through an + immense amount of work in an incredibly short time." + +Finally, here is the death of the immortal historian: + + "The last political occurrence in which Niebuhr was strongly + interested, was the trial of the ministers of Charles the + Tenth; it was indirectly the cause of his death. He read the + reports in the French journals with eager attention; and as + these newspapers were much in request at that time, from the + universal interest felt in their contents, he did not in + general go to the public reading-rooms where he was + accustomed to see the papers daily, until the evening. On + Christmas Eve and the following day, he was in better health + and spirits than he had been for a long while, but on the + evening of the 25th of December he spent a considerable time + waiting and reading in the hot news-room, without taking off + his thick fur cloak, and then returned home through the + bitter frosty night air, heated in mind and body. Still full + of the impression made on him by the papers, he went + straight to Classen's room, and exclaimed, 'That is true + eloquence! You must read Sauzet's speech; he alone declares + the true state of the case; that this is no question of law, + but an open battle between hostile powers! Sauzet must be no + common man! But,' he added immediately, 'I have taken a + severe chill, I must go to bed.' And from the couch which he + then sought, he never rose again, except for one hour, two + days afterwards, when he was forced to return to it quickly + with warning symptoms of his approaching end. + + "His illness lasted a week, and was pronounced, on the + fourth day, to be a decided attack of inflammation on the + lungs. His hopes sank at first, but rose with his increasing + danger and weakness; even on the morning of the last day he + said, 'I may still recover.' Two days before, his faithful + wife, who had exerted herself beyond her strength in nursing + him, fell ill and was obliged to leave him. He then turned + his face to the wall, and exclaimed with the most painful + presentiment, 'Hapless house! To lose father and mother at + once!' And to the children he said, 'Pray to God, children! + He alone can help us!' And his attendants saw that he + himself was seeking comfort and strength in silent prayer. + But when his hopes of life revived, his active and powerful + mind soon demanded its wonted occupation. The studies that + had been dearest to him through life, remained so in death; + his love to them was proved to be pure and genuine by its + unwavering perseverance to the last. While he was on his + sick bed, Classsen read aloud to him for hours the Greek + text of the Jewish History of Josephus, and he followed the + sense with such ease and attention, that he suggested + several emendations in the text at the moment; this may be + called an unimportant circumstance, but it always appeared + to us one of the most wonderful proofs of his mental powers. + The last learned work in which he was able to testify his + interest, was the description of Rome by Bunsen and his + friends, which had just been sent to him; the preface to the + first volume was read aloud to him, and called forth + expressions of pleasure and approbation. He also asked for + light reading to pass the time, but our attempts to satisfy + him were unsuccessful. A friend proposed the 'Briefe eines + Verstorbenen,' which was then making a great sensation; but + he declined it, faying he feared that its levity would jar + upon his feelings. One of Cooper's novels was recommended to + him, and excited his ridicule by its extraordinary verbiage; + he was much amused by trying an experiment he proposed, + which consisted in taking one period at hap-hazard on each + page; and by the discovery that this mode of reading did + little violence to the connection of the story. The + 'Colnishe Zeitung' was read aloud to him up to the last day, + with extracts from the French and other journals. He asked + for them expressly, only twelve hours before his death, and + gave his opinion half in jest about the change of ministry + in Paris. But on the afternoon of the 1st of January, 1831, + he sank into a dreamy slumber; once on awakening, he said + that pleasant images floated before him in sleep; now and + then he spoke French in his dreams; probably he felt himself + in the presence of his departed friend De Serre. As the + night gathered, consciousness gradually faded away; he woke + up once more about midnight, when the last remedy was + administered; he recognized in it a medicine of doubtful + operation, never resorted to but in extreme cases, and said + in a faint voice, 'What essential substance is this? Am I so + far gone?' These were his last words; he sank back on his + pillow, and within an hour his noble heart had ceased to + beat." + + "Niebuhr's wife died nine days after him, on the 11th of the + same month, about the same hour of the night. She died, in + fact, of a broken heart, though her disease was, like his, + an inflammation of the chest. She could shed no tears, + though she longed for them, and prayed God to send them; + once her eyes grew moist, when his picture was brought to + her at her own request, but they dried again, and her heavy + heart was not relieved. She had her children often with her, + particularly her son, and gave them her parting counsels. + And so her loving and pure soul went home to God. Both rest + in one grave, over which the present King of Prussia has + erected a monument to the memory of his former instructor + and counsellor. The children were placed under the care of + Madame Hensler, at Kiel." + +Our copious extracts from the biographic portion of the work will amply +satisfy the mind of any one who needs more than report to convince him +of the tact and good taste which have presided over the transformation +of Madame Hensler's _Lebensnachrichten_ into a readable and interesting +book, which is likely to be read for years as the best English record of +a life that will be looked back upon with interest by all posterity. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[20] The Life and Letters of Barthold George Niebuhr; with Essays on his +Character and Influence, by the Chevalier Bunsen and Professors Brandis +and Loebell. Two volumes. Chapman & Hall. + + + + +From Household Words. + +PICTURE ADVERTISING IN SOUTH AMERICA. + + +The concentrated wisdom of nations used formerly to be sought for in +their proverbs; we look for it now-a-days in their newspapers. Whether +we always find what we seek, in this respect, may be a question; but +something is sure to turn up in them that will repay the search, though +the leading article, the records of parliament and of law, or even the +letters of "our own correspondent," may fail to disclose it. The +"intelligent" reader will at once see that we point to the advertising +columns, but we are not going to inflict an epitome of the first and +second pages of the _Times_, or present an abstract of its Supplement, +characteristic of our country as the result might prove. We purpose to +go somewhat further afield, and tread upon ground hitherto unbroken. A +file of South American newspapers has suggested to us that it might +prove amusing, if not instructive, to describe the wants and wishes, the +habits of life, and something of the pervading tone of society, in +certain parts of that hemisphere, as shown in the advertisements of the +periodical journals. We have selected the city of Buenos Ayres for this +illustration, and turn at once to our file. + +The political feature is absent here, for where men have always arms in +their hands to establish a new "Constitution," or destroy an old one, +they look elsewhere than to a newspaper advertisement for the arena +wherein to exhibit their valor or patriotism. Their "London Tavern," +their "Town Hall," their "Copenhagen Fields," or "Bull-ring," are to be +found on their wide-spreading Pampas, or in the fastnesses of their +Sierras, with the _lasso_ at the saddle-bow, the sharp spur on the heel, +the _trabrigo_ (carbine) in the holster, and the lance or sabre in the +grasp. These politicians have no time for reading or writing +advertisements, nor would it answer any very useful purpose if they did. +The only attempt that is ever made to catch the patriotic eye, is where +a formal notice is issued by the authorities, touching taxes, or a +muster of militia for some peaceful end; on these occasions, a "_Viva la +Federation!_" (Long live the Confederation!) appears at the head of the +advertisement announcing the fact; and when it has a quasi-military +character attached to it, the portrait of an infantry soldier under +arms, in white tights, Hessian boots, crossbelts, stiff stock, and +ponderous chako (none of them very pleasant things to think of in +latitude thirty-four degrees south, with the thermometer ninety-six in +the shade), is invariably added. But the confederation is not appealed +to merely because the nature of the advertisement may seem to require +it; we find the same heart-stirring refresher associated with ass's +milk, live turtle, runaway slaves--with everything, indeed, that has an +interest for the community, portable or edible, necessary to its +comfort, or serviceable to its desires. + +But if liberty has very little claim on the advertising columns of a +newspaper in Buenos Ayres, there is a large set-off in favor of slavery. +The papers teem with notices concerning that portion of the people who +have the misfortune not to belong to themselves. And here it may be +desirable to advert to a feature which is essential to the success of an +advertisement in South America; it must be pictorial. Our own country +newspapers, and most of the continental ones,--those of our Parisian +friends in particular,--show us what can be done in this way; but they +do not elaborate their subject after the manner of the Buenos-Ayreans. +With them the advertisement must have a double chance; they who can read +may enjoy the advantages of a liberal education in plain type;--they who +have not been introduced to the schoolmaster may gather the meaning of +the "noticia" from the greater or less striking resemblance of the +object advertised to the woodcut which illustrates it. It is true, a +difficulty may sometimes arise in the latter case, owing to an +economical employment of the same block to represent a great variety of +actions; the same slave is always in the attitude of a fugitive, whether +he be described as running away with all his might, or quietly standing +still to be sold; the same horse is always in a high trotting condition, +whether he be supposed to career across the plain, or hold up a foot to +be shod; the same bull has always his head bent down, with the same +mischievous poke of the horns, whether he be advertised for slaughter or +recommended for sport. + +A cook who might make a pudding with quick-lime instead of flour, and +instead of a bath-brick send in a real one, would not accord with the +notions of an English housewife. Female slaves who are to be sold, are +represented as like to Atalanta, as the males are to Hippomenes. They, +too, attired in a long night-gown, which has very much the look of +impeding their flight, are always bolting with a bundle, which probably +contains the bonnet they never appear in, or the shoes they are not +supposed to wear. In like manner, if you wish to buy (_se desca +comprar_) a slave, of either sex, you do so with your eyes open; for the +great probability that the new purchase will vanish on the first +favorable opportunity, is vividly get forth in the woodcut that speaks +for all. The prices are tolerably high,--a boy, as we have seen, fetches +nine hundred dollars; a woman-servant (_una criada_), fifteen hundred; +and a man in the prime of his age,--for manual labor,--eighteen hundred, +or two thousand. What a fortune Louis Napoleon might make, if he could +establish a market-value for those whom he proscribes! M. Thiers would +then be worth four hundred pounds! + +The next step is to religion,--or, at least, to its forms and +ceremonies. We see the vignette of an altar-table, covered with a fair +cloth, whereon stand a crucifix, and a pair of long waxen tapers, in +full blaze, a holy-water pot, and a sprinkling-brush, are placed beside +the table, beneath which is spread a handsome carpet. So much for the +emblem; now for the text: + + "Doña Agustina Lopez de Rosas, the citizens Don Prudencio + and Don Gervacio Ortiz de Rosas, and others, brothers, wife, + and sons of the deceased Don Leon Ortiz de Rosas (Q.E.P.D.), + invite those gentlemen who, by accident, have not received + notes of invitation, to accompany them to pray to God for + mercy on the soul of the aforesaid deceased, in the + Cathedral Church, at ten o'clock of the 20th of March + current, by which they will feel under infinite obligation." + +The next is a more than half-obliterated impression of an image of the +sun, partly obscured by clouds, with the obligato crucifix in the midst, +headed "Ave Maria;"--it is the third advertisement (_tercer aviso_), and +is addressed by the Superiors (Mayordomos) of the most Holy Rosary to +all faithful and devout sons of the most holy Mary. + +The text of this address we need not give; the substance will be +sufficient. It tells the history of the completion of the two naves and +other parts of the church of the Patriarch San Domingo, which have been +painted, whitewashed, and otherwise decorated, in the sight of all the +faithful (_à la vista de todos los fieles_), and--to make a long story +short--money is wanted to make it what the priests wish it, and' +therefore the superiors intend to stand daily in the chief porch to +receive subscriptions, the smallest sums being--as in England, and every +where else--most gratefully received. + +The mortuary advertisements are not absolutely a transition "from +praying to purse-taking;" only a variety of the same general mode of +dealing. We select two of these:--In the first, we behold a lady in the +full-dress evening costume of the Empire, with a very short waist, and +very little drapery above it, leaning pensively against a funereal +monument; an embroidered pocket-handkerchief being placed beneath one +elbow, to protect it from the cold marble; in her left hand she carries +a substantial wooden cross, which is held so as to fall over the +shoulder; a weeping willow on the opposite side to the mourning lady +balances the composition. Below the picture is the announcement that +"Funereal letters (_Esquelas de Funerales_) of every tasteful +description, engraved as well as lithographic, and at a very moderate +price, are to be obtained at the printing-office of the Mercantile +Gazette, in the street of Cangallo, No. 75, where designs of all kinds +maybe seen." The second is more sombre in outward show, but less +applicable to the general business of the advertiser. It is headed, +"Interesting to all whom it may concern." (_Interesante à quienes +conguenga._) We have here a very black tree, a very black tombstone, and +a very black sky; the outline of the two former relieved by gleams of +light from a very full moon; and having gazed our fill on these +melancholy objects, are told that--"In the street of Victory, at No. +63-1/2, at all hours of the day, an individual is to be met with who +undertakes to supply every description of cards or notes of invitation, +whether for funerals or any other kind of entertainment; he undertakes +at the same time to serve those gentlemen who may honor him with their +orders, with the very best goods, &c.," after the approved fashion of +advertisers all over the globe. + +Natural history affords the Buenos-Ayreans great scope for their +artistical genius. Don Federico Costa announces a grand spectacle of +wild beasts; and that there may be no mistake about what he has to show, +he heralds his collections with the full-length portrait of an Uran-utan +(_Orangutan_), which he describes as a native of Africa. This +interesting animal is seated on a bank, with a large stick in one hand, +looking over his shoulder, and displays an endless amount of fingers and +toes; the greater the number, the nearer, in Don Federico's opinion, the +creature's approach to humanity. There is a wonderful bit of shadow +thrown from one of the Uran-utan's legs, which puts one in mind of the +footprint that so startled Robinson Crusoe; and, indeed, the general +appearance of the animal is not unlike some of the earlier portraits of +that renowned mariner, only nature has done for the Uran-utan what art +and goat-skins accomplished for the solitary of Juan Fernandez. + +The moral attributes of Don Federico's pet are strongly insisted upon in +the advertisement,--his excellent disposition, the ingenuity of his +mind, and (included in "_la moral_") the surprising dexterity with which +he scoops out the contents of a cocoa-nut "in a manner most pleasing +(_muy agradáble_) to the beholders." His companions in captivity are +porcupines, tiger-cats, ounces, armadillos, and a number of animals +bearing local names, besides divers snakes of different colors, two +thousand well-preserved insects, and, finally, (_por último_,) a +collection of antiquities from Mexico. The price of admission is two +_reales_--the universal shilling; and children, in Buenos Ayres, as in +London, are admitted for half-price. + +A livelier turtle than that which is figured for the edification of the +gourmands who frequent the Hotel of Liberty in the street of the 25th of +May, it would be difficult to find even in the celebrated cellars of +Leadenhall-street. If we were wholly unacquainted with the domestic +habits of these scaly delicacies, we might easily imagine, from the +picture here given, that the way a turtle gets over the ground is by +flying, his outstretched feet and flippers serving him for wings. This +advertisement is brief,--on the principle that good wine needs no bush. +We are merely informed that turtle-soup, cutlets, and broiled fins, are +to be had from mid-day till sunset. There is no occasion for the hotel +proprietor to waste his money in commending wares such as these. The +picture and the hour of consummation would have been enough. + +It is well that invalids should be told, that at No. 76, in the Street +of Maipú, the milk of an ass "recently confined" is always on sale; but +the woodcut attached to the advertisement makes the fact appear +doubtful; for a sturdier male animal than the "burro" there depicted, +was never painted by Morland or Gainsborough. This, however, may arise +from the necessity which exists for one of a sort doing duty for all. +But there is another singularity in this advertisement. With no line to +indicate a fresh subject, as is the case in every other instance, the +portrait of the ass is always followed by the words "Long live the +Confederation! Death to the Unitarians!" These lines have puzzled us; +and we hesitate to give the only explanation that strikes us: something +disrespectful, in short, to the Confederation of Buenos Ayres. + +It is not only the slaves that run away in that part of South America: +the infection extends to dogs, horses, and oxen, all of which, like +Caliban, seem for ever on the look out to "have a new master, get a new +man," to hunt, ride, or drive them. There is a daily column, headed +"Perdida," in which long-tailed horses, with flowing manes, pointers in +immovable attitudes, for ever pointing, and sinister-looking +bulls--thorough-paced gamblers, always ready for pitch-and-toss--are +advertised as having left their owners, who strive to win them back by +rewards varying twenty to fifty dollars. In all these cases the missing +animals are described as having "disappeared" (_desaparecido_)--a mild +term for "stolen;" it being the Spanish custom to refrain from "wounding +ears polite"--except when the blood is up; then, indeed, they may take +the field against Uncle Toby's army, that swore so terribly in Flanders. + +This delicate mode of appealing to the consciences of thieves--which, +carried fairly out, would probably bear a strong resemblance in the end +to the politeness of Mr. Chucks--is extended to property of all kinds. A +large watch, of the genus turnip, the hands pointing to half-past +eleven, the time, perhaps, when the robbery is supposed to have taken +place, and accompanied by the expressive word "Ojo" (look sharp) thrice +repeated, indicates, what the advertisement soon plainly tells, that +from No. 69, in Emerald-street, there have "disappeared" a valuable lot +of articles, which give a very good idea of the turn-out of a +well-mounted horseman in South America. There are, first, several pairs +of large silver spurs--and a pair of Spanish spurs, when melted down, +would make a decent service of plate,--quite enough for a "testimonial" +to ourselves; and then come braided headstalls and bridles, with twisted +chains and cavessons of silver; the reins hung with silver-bells, and +decorated with silver bosses, and the bits and curbs heavily mounted +with the same costly metal. This robbery has been evidently "a put-up +thing," for there is no word of housebreaking,--merely a disappearance; +and all silversmiths, pawnbrokers, and the public in general, are +entreated (_se suplica à los, &c._) to detain the article, if offered, +and a reward of two hundred dollars will be given. Perhaps the gentlemen +who caused the horses to disappear have taken this mode of procuring +caparisons! + +Quack-medicine vendors are not wanting in Buenos Ayres to render +important services to humanity. Two magnificent cut-glass decanters, +gigantic in proportion to a tree of wondrous virtues which stands +between them, are stated to be full of a healing medicine, which will do +the business of all whom the faculty have given up or are otherwise +incurable, as effectually as Parr's Life Pills or Holloway's Ointment. +The chief establishment for the sale of this elixir is very carefully +pointed out; and for the benefit of future travellers we may mention, +that it is to be found at No. 496 in the street of Cangallo, and in the +very last door on the left-hand side, behind the windmill; and that in +the court-yard of the house there is a garden filled with statues, of +which the originals are probably defunct; but whether the elixir out of +the two large decanters had any thing to do with this apotheosis, we +refrain from conjecturing. + +The preceding advertisements are the most noticeable for embellishment +and style. The ordinary kind of wants are set forth with woodcuts and +text of a less striking kind, but almost all are illustrated. Wine has a +barrel for its sign; music, a violin; travelling, a carriage; gardening, +a flower-pot; upholstery, a chair; the cobbler's mystery, a top-boot; +the hatter's, a beaver; and the letter of lodgings, a house full of +windows. Not all of them are confined to the Spanish language, for there +are many English merchants and traders; and to accommodate the last, a +notice like the following recommends the aforementioned Street of Piety: + + "To Det. To roms in altos one Squaz from the Place of + Victory." + +The author of this announcement certainly had not achieved a victory +over the English language. + + + + +From the London Examiner. + +GUIZOT AND MONTALEMBERT. + + +The greatest novelty now in Paris is a speech. Any specimen of oratory +that the police will first allow to be spoken, and then to be printed, +is quite an attraction. Indeed there is but one remaining chance of +perpetrating a speech, and that is by achieving your election as a +member of the Institute, or being appointed as an old member to welcome +the newly-elected academician. These are the only legitimate +opportunities for making one's voice heard in public that M. Bonaparte's +code has left to the Frenchman. + +In pursuance of this solitary permission on the part of the authorities, +the Paris journals have contained reports of two remarkable speeches, +the one uttered by Count Montalembert on his being elected to the seat +in the Academy, rendered vacant by the death of M. Droz; the other +spoken by M. Guizot, in the form of an address of welcome to the new +academician, M. de Montalembert. Now in the speeches of these, the first +authorized orators of the new despotic _regime_, we find so little to +awaken the susceptibilities of even M. Bonaparte's police, that we have +heard with unaffected wonder of the scissors of the censorship having +been applied even to them. The philosophy of the speeches is terribly +Conservative. M. Bonaparte himself could have desired no other. If his +highness the President had embraced the two academicians after their +speeches, and decorated them with the Grand Cordon of his new Order, it +would have been but a tribute justly due to these lay preachers of +absolutism. + +Eulogy of Droz was the theme which afforded Count Montalembert the +opportunity to ventilate his opinions, as M. Guizot's theme was the +eulogy of Montalembert. Montalembert depicted how Droz, who had reached +youth at the commencement of the great revolution, joined in all its +theories, its hopes, and its excesses, anathematizing kings and priests, +and believing in the happy and final reign of pure democracy; and how +all this the same Droz lived to unlearn and to correct, and to settle +down as quiet and as arrant a Conservative as ever supported monarchic +government and a restored church. This is the true path of repentance, +exclaimed Montalembert, and the only road to wisdom. + +The compliment to tergiversation, which M. Montalembert thus paid to +Droz, M. Guizot applied to Montalembert himself, whom he (M. Guizot) had +remembered commencing his political career in full opposition, +thundering against corrupt majorities, against kingly influence, and +even against that want of spirit which preferred being at peace with +neighbors to provoking them. But all that sort of constitutional +opposition leads, as the people have seen, to the triumph of socialism; +and so all wise people, like M. Montalembert, naturally become sick of +it, and abandon it, betaking themselves for a preference to the old +political religion of legitimacy and worship of absolutism. Of all the +national disgraces inflicted upon France by M. Bonaparte's triumph, we +know of none greater than such a hymn to servility, such anathemas and +farewells to constitutional freedom, uttered by these two Talleyrands of +the professorial and ecclesiastical schools, who have been changing +principles all their lives, and now proclaim at last that absolutism is +the only anchor to hold by. + +On one point M. Montalembert impugned the philosophy of M. Droz, and in +doing so impugned not less the opinion of M. Thiers, and most of the +eminent men who have written histories or judgments upon the great +events of the Revolution. Droz, relating these events in after life, saw +in their march and series the influence of stern necessity. Such was the +congregated mass of evils of all kinds produced by the long +misgovernment of the despotism and corrupt regime of the Bourbons, that +a catastrophe like that of the Great Revolution was, according to Droz, +not to be avoided. No human power could stop it, no moderation, no +wisdom. In its path men were like the mere vegetable growth of a valley +down which a torrent comes in inundation, sweeping all before it. + +But M. Montalembert, for his own part, has another way of viewing the +events of the Revolution. He denies the doctrine of fatalism or of +necessity. He will not allow that the follies of the monarchy drew down +after them the crimes of the Republic as a natural consequence. He sees +in all those events, on the contrary, a direct intervention of +Providence, who inflicted the sufferings of the Revolution upon the +French simply as retribution for their crimes and a punishment for their +sins. Providence, in the imagination of Count Montalembert, is a Nemesis +with sword and scourge in hand, exercising its chief duty in castigating +humanity; and thus doth the French Academy in the middle of the +nineteenth century proclaim the philosophy of history. + +M. Guizot avoided the recognition of any assertion so extravagant as +this, and so very unfair to poor Jaques Bonhomme. The crimes of the old +monarchy were confined to the court, the clergy, the aristocracy, and +the financiers; whereas the poor peasant was ground to poverty, yet a +proverbially honest and cheerful fellow amidst his ignorance and +privations. But, according to Montalembert, Providence sent the +Revolution to punish the crimes of duchesses; and this Revolution +decimated, arrested, and sent to perish all over the world poor Jaques +Bonhomme. Was this justice? M. Guizot did not, as we say, endorse this +portion of the Montalembert philosophy. But he warned the Count of +having in his early life made one grand mistake, in allying religion +with liberalism, and putting the names of both combined on the banners +of opposition. M. Guizot could hardly mean that religion, like fortune, +should be always on the side of the greatest number of battalions. For +should not this be the creed of M. Bonaparte, rather than of his +illustrious Academicians? + + + + +From Household Words. + +AN ACCOUNT OF SOME TREATMENT OF GOLD AND GEMS. + + +Those who visit the metal works of Birmingham naturally desire to know +where the metals come from; and especially the precious metals. Among +the materials shown to the visitor, are drawers full of the brightest +and cleanest gold; and ingots of silver, pure, or slightly streaked with +copper. We have handled to-day an ingot which contains, to ninety-two +ounces ten pennyweights of silver, seven ounces ten pennyweights of +copper. We ask whether the gold comes from California; but we find that +it has just arrived--from a much nearer place--from a refinery next +door. We hear high praises of the Californian gold. It is so pure that +some of it can be used, without refining, for second-rate articles. Some +small black specks may be detected in it, certainly, though they are so +few and so minute, that the native gold is wrought in large quantities. +But what _is_ this neighboring refinery? Whence does it obtain the +metals it refines? Let us go and see. + +It is a strange murky place; a dismal inclosure, with ugly sheds, and +yards not more agreeable to the eye. Its beauties come out by degrees, +as the understanding opens to comprehend the affairs of the +establishment. In the sheds, are ranges of musty-looking furnaces; some +cold and gaping, others showing, through crevices, red signs of fire +within. There are piles of blocks of coal, of burnt ladles and peels, +and rivulets of black refuse, which has flowed out from the furnaces +into safe beds of red sand. In a special shed, is a black moist-looking +heap of what appears to be filth, battened into the shape of a large +compost bed. A man is filling a barrow with this commodity, and +smoothing it down with loving care. And well he may; for this +despicable-looking dirt is the California of the concern! Here is their +gold mine, and their silver mine, and their copper mine. In another +shed, is a mill-stone on edge, revolving with the post to which it is +fixed, to crush the material which is to be calcined. In the yard, we +see heaps of scoriæ--the shining, heavy, glassy-looking fragments, which +tell tales of the prodigious heat to which they have been subjected. We +see picks, and more ladles, and lanterns, and a most sordid-looking +bonfire. A heap of refuse is burning on the stones; old rags, fragments +of shoes, cinders, dust, and nails--the veriest sweepings that can be +imagined. Something precious is there; but the mass must be burned to +become manageable. The ashes will be swept up for the refinery. + +But what is it that yields gold, and silver, and copper, and brass? What +is that heap of dirt in the special shed? It is the sweepings of the +Birmingham manufactories. + +What economy! In all goldsmiths' shops every effort is made to save all +the filings, and the minutest dust of the metals used. The floors are +swept, and every thing recoverable is picked up. Yet the imperceptible +loss is so valuable to the refiners, that they pay, and pay high, for +the scrapings, sweepings, and picking of the work-rooms. A cart load of +dirt is taken from a fork-and-spoon manufactory to the refinery, and +paid for on the instant; and the money thus received is one of the +regular items in the books of the concern. Perhaps it pays the wages of +one of the workmen. Another establishment receives two hundred pounds a +year for its sweepings. It is worth noting these methods in concerns +which are flourishing, and which have been raised to a prosperous +condition by pains and care; less flourishing people may be put in the +way of similar methods. For instance, how good it would be for farmers +if, instead of thinking there is something noble in disregard of +trifling economy, they could see the wisdom and beauty of an economy +which hurts nobody, but benefits every body! It would do no one any good +to throw away these scattered particles of precious metal, while their +preservation affords a maintenance to many families. In the same way, +the waste of dead leaves, of animal manure, of odds and ends of time, of +seed, of space in hedges, in the great majority of farms, does no good, +and gives no pleasure to any body; while the same thrift on a farm that +we see in a manufactory, would sustain much life, bestow much comfort, +narrow no hearts, and expand the enjoyment of very many. + +We must take care of our eyes when the ovens are opened--judging by the +scarlet rays that peep out, here and there, from any small crevice. +Prodigious! What a heat it is, when, by the turn of a handle, a door of +the furnace is raised! The roasting, or calcining, to get rid of the +sulphur, is going on here. The whole inside--walls, roof, embers, and +all--are a transparent salmon-color. As a shovel, inserted from the +opposite side, stirs and turns the burning mass, the sulphur appears +above--a little blue flame, and a great deal of yellow smoke. We feel +some of it in our throats. We exclaim about the intensity of the heat, +declaring it tremendous. But we are told that it is not so; that, in +fact, "it is very cold--that furnace;" which shows us that there is +something hotter to come. + +The Refiner's Test is pointed out to us;--a sort of shovel, with a +spout, lined throughout with a material of burnt bones, the only +substance which can endure unchanged the heat necessary for testing the +metals. Of this material are made the little crucibles that we see in +the furnaces, which our conductor admits to be "rather warm." There they +are, ranged in rows, so obscured by the mere heat, which confounds every +thing in one glow, that their circular rims are only seen by being +looked for. Yet, one little orifice, at the back of this furnace, shows +that even this heat can be exceeded. That orifice is a point of white +heat, revealed from behind. We do not see the metal in the crucibles; +but we know that it is simmering there. + +One more oven is opened for us--the assay furnace, which is at a white +heat. As the smallest quantities of metal serve for the assay, the +crucibles are here on the scale of dolls' tea-things. The whole concern +of that smallest furnace looks like a pretty toy; but it is a very +serious matter--the work it does, and the values it determines. + +The metals, which run down to the bottom, in the melting furnaces, are +separated (the gold and silver by aquafortis), and cast in moulds, +coming out as ingots; or, in fragments, of any shape they may have +pleased to run into. Some of the gold fragments are of the cleanest and +brightest yellow. Other, no less pure, are dark and brownish. They are +for gilding porcelain. Lastly, we see a pretty curiosity. In the +counting-house, a little glass chamber is erected upon a counter, with +an apparatus of great beauty--a pair of scales, thin and small to the +last degree, fastened by spider-like threads to a delicate beam, which +is connected with an index, sensitive enough to show the variation of +the hundredth part of a grain. The glass walls exclude atmospheric +disturbance. Behind the rusty-looking doors were the white glowing +crucibles; within the drawers was the yellow gold; and, hidden in its +glass house, was the fairy balance. + +Now, we will follow some of the gold and silver to a place where skilled +hands are ready to work it curiously. + +First, however, we may as well mention, in confidence to our readers, +that our feelings are now and then wounded by the injustice of the world +to the Birmingham manufacturers. We observe with pain, that the very +virtues of Birmingham manufacture are made matters of reproach. Because +the citizens have at their command extraordinary means of cheap +production, and produce cheap goods accordingly, the world jumps to the +conclusion that the work must be deceptive and bad. Fine gentlemen and +ladies give, in London shops, twice the price for Birmingham jewelry +that they would pay, if no middlemen stood, filling their pockets +uncommonly fast, between them and the manufacturer; and they admire the +solid value and great beauty of the work; but, as soon as they know +where the articles were wrought, they undervalue them with the term +"Brummagem." In the Great Exhibition there was a certain case of +gold-work and jewelry, rich and thorough in material and workmanship. +The contents of that case were worth many hundred pounds. A gentleman +and lady stopped to admire their contents. The lady was so delighted +with them that she supposed they must be French. The gentleman reminded +her that they were in the British department. After a while, they +observed the label at the top of the case, and instantly retracted their +admiration. "Oh!" said the gentleman, pointing to the label, "these are +Brummagem ware--shams!" Whatever may have been Brummagem-gold-beating in +ancient times, and in days of imperfect art when long wars impeded the +education of English taste, it is mere ignorance to keep up the censure +in these times. It is merely accepting and retailing vulgar phrases +without any inquiry, which is the stupidest form of ignorance. Perhaps +some of the prejudice may be removed by a brief account of what a +Birmingham manufacture of gold chains is at this day. + +Twenty years ago, the making of gold chains occupied a dozen or twenty +people in Birmingham. Now, the establishment we are entering, alone, +employs probably eight times that number. Formerly, a small master +undertook the business in a little back shop: drew out his wire with his +own hands; cut the devices himself; soldered the pieces himself; in +short, worked under the disadvantage of great waste of time, of effort, +and of gold. Into the same shop more and more machinery has been since +introduced as it was gradually devised by clever heads. This machinery +is made on the spot, and the whole is set to work by steam. Few things +in the arts can be more striking than the contrast between the murky +chambers where the forging and grinding--the Plutonic processes of +machine-making--are going on, and the upper chambers, light and quiet, +where the delicate fingers of women and girls are arranging and +fastening the cobweb links of the most delicate chain-work. The whole +establishment is most picturesque. While in some speculative towns in +our island great warehouses and other edifices have sprung up too +quickly, and are standing untenanted, a rising manufacture like this +cannot find room. In the case before us, more room is preparing. A large +steam-engine will soon be at work, and the processes will be more +conveniently connected. Mean time, house after house has been absorbed +into the concern. There are steps up here, and steps down there; and +galleries across courts; and long ranges of low-roofed chambers; and +wooden staircases, in yards;--care being taken, however, to preserve in +the midst an isolated, well-lighted chamber, where part of the stock is +kept, where some high officials abide, and where there are four counters +or hatches, where the people present themselves outside, to receive +their work. All this has grown out of the original little back-shop. + +Below, there is a refinery. It is for the establishment alone; but, just +like that we have already described--only on a smaller scale. First, the +rolling-mill shows us its powers by a speedy experiment;--it flattens a +halfpenny, making it oblong at the first turn, and, by degrees, with the +help of some annealing in the furnace, drawing it out into a long ribbon +of shining copper, which is rolled up, tied with a wire, and presented +to us as a curiosity. Next, we see coils of thick round wire, of a dirty +white, which we can hardly believe to be gold. It is gold, however, and +is speedily drawn out into wire. Then, there are cutting, and piercing, +and snipping machines--all bright and diligent; and the women and girls +who work them are bright and diligent too. Here, in this long room, +lighted with lattices along the whole range, the machines stand, and the +women sit, in a row--quiet, warm, and comfortable. Here we see sheets of +soft metal (for solder) cut into strips or squares; here, again, a woman +is holding such a strip to a machine, and snipping the metal very fine, +into minute shreds, all alike. These are to be laid or stuck on little +joins in the chain-work, or clasps, or swivel hinges, where soldering is +required. Next, we find a dozen workwomen, each at her machine, pushing +snips of gold into grooves, where they are pierced with a pattern, or +one or two holes of a pattern, and made to fall into a receiver below. +Each may take about a second of time. Farther on, slender gold wire is +twisted into links by myriads. At every seat the counter is cut out in a +semicircle, whereby room is saved, and the worker has a free use of her +arms. Under every such semicircle hangs a leathern pouch, to catch every +particle that falls, and to hold the tools. On shelves every where are +ranges of steel dies; and larger pieces of the metal, for massive links +or for clasps, or for watch-keys and other ornaments, are stamped from +these. On the whole, we may say, that in these lower rooms the separate +pieces are prepared for being put together elsewhere. + +That putting together appears to novices very blinding work; but, we are +assured that it becomes so easy, by practice, that the girls could +almost do it with their eyes shut. In such a case we should certainly +shut ours; for they ache with the mere sight of such poking and picking, +and ranging of the white rings--all exactly like one another. They are +ranged in a groove of a plate of metal, or on a block of pumice-stone. +When pricked into a precise row, they are anointed, at their points of +junction, with borax. Each worker has a little saucer of borax, wet, and +stirred with a camel-hair pencil. With this pencil she transfers a +little of the borax to the flattened point of a sort of bodkin, and then +anoints the links where they join. When the whole row is thus treated, +she turns on the gas, and, with a small blow-pipe, directs the flame +upon the solder. It bubbles and spreads in the heat, and makes the row +of links into a chain. There would be no end of describing the loops and +hoops, and joints and embossings, which are soldered at these gas-pipes, +after being taken up by tiny tweezers, and delicately treated by all +manner of little tools. Suffice it, that here every thing is put +together, and made ready for the finishing. In the middle of one room is +a counter, where is fixed the machine for twisting the chains--with its +cog-wheels, and its nippers, whereby it holds one end of a portion of +chain, while another is twisted, as the door-handle fixes the +schoolboy's twine, while he knots or loops his pattern, or twists his +cord. Here, a little girl stands, and winds a plain gold chain into this +or that pattern, which depends upon the twisting. + +These ornaments of precious metal do not look very ornamental at +present; being of the color of dirty soap-suds, and tossed together in +heaps on the counters. We are now to see the hue and brightness of the +gold brought out. We take up a chain, rather massive, and reminding us +of some ornament we have somewhere seen; but it is so rough! and its +flakes do not appear to fit upon each other. A man lays it along the +length of his left hand, and files it briskly; as he works, the soapy +white disappears, the polish comes out, the parts fit together, and it +is, presently, one of those flexible, scaly, smooth, glittering chains +that we have seen all our lives. Of course, the filings are dropped +carefully into a box, to go to the refinery. There is, here, a +home-invented and home-made apparatus for polishing and cutting topazes, +amethysts, bloodstones and the like, into shield shapes, for seals, +watch-keys, and ornaments of various kinds. The strongest man's arm must +tire; but steam and steel need no consideration--so there go the wheels +and the emery, smoothing and polishing infallibly; with a workman to +apply the article, and a boy to drop oil when screw or socket begins to +scream. This polishing and filing was such severe work, in the lapidary +department, in former days, that the nervous energy of a man's arm was +destroyed--a serious grief to both worker and employer. At this day, it +is understood that the lapidary is past work at forty, from the +contraction of the sinews of the wrist, consequent on the nature of his +labor. The period of disablement depends much on the habits of the men; +but, sooner or later, it is looked for as a matter of course. Here, the +wear and tear is deputed to that which has no nerve. As the proprietor +observes, it requires no sympathy. + +It may be asked how there comes to be any lapidary department here? Do +we never see gold chains the links whereof are studded with turquoises, +or garnets, or little specks of emerald? Are there no ruby drops to +ladies' necklaces?--no jewelled toys hanging from gentlemen's +watch-guards? We see many of these pretty things here; besides cameos +for setting. + +After the delicate little filings (which must be done by hand) are all +finished, the articles must be well washed, dried in box-wood sawdust, +and finally hand-polished with rouge. The people in one apartment look +grotesque enough--two women powdered over with rouge, and men of various +dirty hues, all dressed alike, in an over-all garment of brown holland. +A washerwoman is maintained on the establishment expressly to wash these +dresses on the spot--her soap-suds being preserved, like all the other +washes, for the sake of the gold-dust contained in them. Her wash-tubs +are emptied, like every thing else, into the refinery. + +In the final burnishing room, we observe a row of chemists's +globes--glass vases filled with water, ranged on a shelf. A stranger +might guess long before he would find out what these are for. They are +to reflect a concentrated blaze from the gas-lights in the evening, to +point out specks and dimnesses, to the eyes and fingers of the +burnishers. What curious finger-ends they have--those women who chafe +the precious metals into their last degree of polish! They are +broad--the joint so flexible that it is bent considerably backwards when +in use; and the skin has a peculiar smoothness: more mechanical, we +fancy, than vital. However that may be, the burnish they produce is +strikingly superior to any hitherto achieved by friction with any other +substance. + +In departing, the sense of contrast comes over us once more. We have +just seen all manner of elegancies in ornament, from the classical and +dignified to the minute, fanciful, and grotesque; in going out, we give +a look to the unfinished engine-house, and the smiths' shop. All this +hard work; all those many dwellings thrown into one establishment; all +these scores of men, and women, and children, busy from year's end to +year's end; all those diggers far away in California; all those +lapidaries in Germany; all those engineers in their studies; all those +ironmasters in their markets; all those miners in the bowels of the +earth--all are enlisted in making gold chains; and some of us have no +more knowledge and no more thought than to call the product "Brummagem +shams!" Well! the price charged for them in London shops, where they are +as good as French, is something real; and it is a real comfort to think +how swingingly some fine folks pay, though the bulk of the profit comes, +not to the manufacturer, but to the middlemen. Of these middlemen there +are always two; the factor and the shopkeeper--often more. Their +intervention is very useful, of course, or they would not exist; but +somebody or other makes a prodigious profit of Birmingham jewelry, after +it has left the manufacturer's hands. It was only yesterday that we saw, +among a rich heap of wonderful things, a pair of elegant +bracelets--foreign pebbles, beautifully set. We were told the wholesale +price they were to be sold for; which was half the shop price. The +transference to the London shop was to cost as much as the whole of the +previous processes: from the digging of the silver and the collecting of +the pebbles, through all the needful voyages and travels, to the +burnishing and packing at Birmingham! + +We have seen, however, something which may throw a little light on the +prejudice against Birmingham jewelry. It is not conceivable that any one +should despise such an establishment as we have been describing. But, we +found ourselves, the other day, passing through a little dwelling where +the housewife, with a baby on her arm, and where more than half-a-dozen +children were housed; and then crossing a little yard, and mounting a +flight of substantial brick steps with a stout hand-rail, and entering +the most curious little work-room we ever were in. It would just hold +four or five people, without allowing them room to turn round more than +one at a time. In one corner, was a very small stove. A lattice-window +ran along the whole front, and made it pleasant, light, and airy. A +work-bench or counter was scalloped out, in the same way as in larger +establishments, so as to accommodate three workers in the smallest +possible space. The three workers had each his stool, his leathern pouch +on his knees, and his gas-pipe. A row of tools bristled along the whole +length of the lattice; and there was another row on a shelf behind. The +principal workman was the father of those many children below. One son +was at work at his elbow, and the remaining workman was an apprentice. +This working jeweller was as thorough a gentleman, according to our +notions, as anybody we have seen for a long time past. Tall, stout, and +handsome; collar white and stiff; apron white and sound; his whole dress +in good repair; his voice cheerful as his face; his manner open and +courteous; his information exactly what we wanted. We could not help +wishing that some rural grandee, who avows that he hates all +manufacturers, could see this fair specimen of an English +handicraftsman. As for his work, he told us he supplies the factors to +order. It would not answer for him to keep a stock. The factors would +not buy what he should offer, but dictate to him what he shall make. +Fashions change incessantly, and he has only to keep up with them as +well as he can. It is not for him to invent new patterns and get steel +dies made for them; but to get the same steel dies that other makers are +procuring. These dies are, of course, for the metallic part of his work. +The boxes of lockets and hair brooches (now vehemently in fashion), and +devices, and colored stones, he procures at "the French shops" in the +town; and he showed us some variety of these, ready for setting. Then +came out the "Brummagem" feature of the case; showing us how the gold +setting that he was preparing--perforating and filing--was to be backed +by a blue stone. He observed that it was not thought worth while to get +costly stones for a purpose like that; for blue glass would do as well. +I certainly thought so, considering that the stone was to be only the +back-ground of his work. Of the specimens I saw in that airy little +workshop, some were in excellent taste, and all, I believe, of good +workmanship. These small masters are as punctilious about employing only +regularly qualified workmen, as any members of any guild in the country. +Their journeymen must all have served an apprenticeship; not only +because they are thus best fitted for their business, but because the +value of apprenticeship is thus kept up; and these small capitalists +will not part with the advantage of having journeymen, under the name of +apprentices, completely under their command during the last two or three +years of their term. + +One of the most remarkable sights, to those who knew Birmingham a +quarter of a century ago, is such a manufacture as that of Messrs. +Parker and Acott's ever-pointed pencils. Those of us whose fathers were +in business in the days of the war, when the arts were not flourishing, +may remember the bulky pocket-book, with its leather strap (always +shabby after the first month), and its thick cedar pencil, which always +wanted cutting; always blackening whatever came near it; always getting +used up; the lead turning to dust at the most critical point of a +memorandum. There was a fine trade in cedar pencils at Keswick in those +days. It seemed a tale too romantic to be true, when we were told of +ever-pointed pencils. First, we, of course, refused to believe in their +existence;--what improvement have we not refused to believe in? Then, +when we found there was a screw in the case, and that the pencil was not +ever-pointed by a vital action of its own, we were sure we should not +like it. We grew humble, and were certain we could never learn to manage +it. And now, what have we not arrived at? We are so saucy as to look +beyond our improved pencils; beyond pen and ink; beyond our present +need of a cumbrous apparatus to carry about with us; ink that will spill +and spot; leads that will break and use up; pens, paper, syllables, +letters, pot-hooks, dots and crossings, and all the process of writing. +Perhaps the electric telegraph has spoiled us: enabling us to imagine +some process by which thoughts may record themselves; some brief and +complete method of making "mems," without the complicated process of +writing down hundreds of letters, and scores of syllables, to preserve +one single idea. All this, however, is as romantic now as ever-pointed +pencils seemed to be at first; and instead of dreaming of what is not +yet achieved, let us look at the reality before our eyes. + +Here is something wonderful enough, on our very entrance. Here is a +silver pencil-case, neat and serviceable, though not of the most elegant +form; handsome enough to have been praised for its looks, thirty years +ago. This pencil-case carries two feet of lead. It is intended to be the +commercial traveller's joy and treasure. It will last him his life, +unless he take an unconscionable amount of orders. Unscrewing the top, +we see that the upper end of the tube is divided into +compartments,--which look like the mouth of a revolver; and here, +protected from each other, the leads are bestowed, safe--despite their +great length, through their owner's roughest travelling. + +Some drawers in a counter are pulled out. One is divided into +compartments, each of which holds a handful of something different from +all the rest. This drawer contains one hundred gross of pencil-cases in +parts; the tube, the rack and barrel, the propelling wire, the slide, +the top, the various chambers, and screws, and niceties. In another +drawer, there is a dazzling and beautiful heap of pure amethysts and +topazes from far countries, of vast aggregate value: and, farther on, we +see the elegant onyx and white cornelian from South America (a very +recent importation), and the sardonyx, now in high favor for seals and +the tops of pencil-cases. Its delicate layer of white upon red, (or the +reverse,) the undermost color coming out in the engraving, makes it +singularly fit for the purpose. Then, there is a paperful of small +turquoises, which are poured out and handled like a sample of lentils. +These are from Persia; and they have to be re-cut in England, the +Persian tools being of the roughest. Then, there are bloodstones, and +pebbles out of number, and pints of glittering fragments of Californian +gold; rich materials tossed together, to be drawn out for use at the +bidding of capricious fashion; for, fashion seems to be as capricious +here, among these stones and ores that have required cycles of ages to +compose, as in the milliner's shop, where the materials are drawn from +the pods of a season and the insects of a summer. On shelves against the +walls, are ranged rows and piles of steel dies,--that pretty and costly +piece of apparatus, which we find in almost all these +manufactories--together with the inexhaustible stamping and cutting +machines, the blow-pipe, the borax, and soft metal for solder, the +pumice-stone and wirebed, the turning wheel, the circular saw, and the +bath of diluted aquafortis, and the pan of box-wood sawdust, in which +the pretty things are dried when they come out of "pickle." From buttons +to epergnes, we find this apparatus every where. The steel dies are an +everlasting study: the block, like the conical weight of a pair of +warehouse scales, seeming very large for the little figure indented in +the upper surface. Here, in this manufactory, the figures are of the +bugle, a favorite form of watch-key--the deer's foot, (a pretty study +for the same purpose,) and a large variety of patterns--the tulip, the +acanthus, and other foliage, flowers or fruit, climbing up the summit of +the pencil-case, as if it were a little Corinthian capital. + +And now for the process. The silver or gold comes from the rolling-mill, +and is passed in slips through a series of draw-plates, each smaller +than the last, and finally through the one which is to give it its +fluted or other pattern. Soldering at the joint, filing away the +roughness left by the solder, washing in an aquafortis bath come next. A +slit for the slide is then made; the rims and screws and slides are +added, and you have a pencil-case complete. We observed that a large +proportion of the tops are hexagonal, or of some angular form, to +prevent their rolling off the table. + +Some of the pencil-cases are so small, and some of the watch-keys are so +elaborate, that it requires a moment's consideration to decide which is +which; and again, ladies' crochet-needles, of gold, diversely +ornamented, are very like pencil-cases. Some of each kind are specked +over with turquoise or garnets; and all appear to be designed for +ornament, rather than for use. It is quite a relief to turn the eye upon +a shovelful of the yellow sawdust, where substantial pencil-cases, fit +for manly fingers, are drying. On the whole, perhaps, the most striking +feature is the prodigious extent of the production. We ask where all +these can possibly go; for a pencil-case is a thing which lasts half a +century, as the manufacturer himself observes. These do not go to +America; for, in such things, the Americans are our chief rivals. They +supply their own wants, and a good deal more. We send our pencil-cases +and trinkets over a good part of the world, however; and the caprice of +fashion causes a great adventitious demand at home. In reply to our +remark about this vast production, the manufacturer observes, "Yes, we +cut up gold and silver as the year comes in, and as the year goes out." +Something of a change, this, since the old days of cedar pencils! + +Here is a steel die with an elegant pyramidal pattern; the half of a +watch-key. We see the inch of metal stamped; and then another inch, for +the other half: and then the filing and snipping of the edges; and then +the laying in of the solder inside; and the binding together of the two +halves with wire; and the repose on the bed of wire on the pumice-stone, +to be broiled red-hot; and the neat cleaning when cool; the polishing, +and the leaving certain parts of the pattern dead, while others are +burnished; and the firing of the steel cylinder at the point, and the +turning of the rims. All this for a watch-key! But, we are shown +another, which does not look like anything very studied; and we are +told, and are at once convinced, that it consists of no less than +thirteen parts. Other keys, which look more fanciful, consist of ten, +eight, or seven. None are the simple affair that a novice would suppose, +now that we require the convenience of being able to wind up our watches +without twisting the chain or ribbon with every turn of the key. + +But we must leave these niceties; the little pistols, the deers feet, +the bugle-horns, and all the dainty fancies embodied in watch-keys and +knick-knacks. Here, as elsewhere, every atom is saved, of sweeping and +wash; and we now find ourselves, writer and readers, like the materials +of which we have been speaking, brought back, after all these various +processes, to the refinery from which we set out. + + + + +MY NOVEL: + +OR, VARIETIES IN ENGLISH LIFE.[21] + +BY PISISTRATUS CAXTON. + + +BOOK X.-INITIAL CHAPTER. + +It is observed by a very pleasant writer--read now-a-days only by the +brave pertinacious few who still struggle hard to rescue from the House +of Pluto the souls of departed authors, jostled and chased as those +souls are by the noisy footsteps of the living--it is observed by the +admirable Charron, that "judgment and wisdom is not only the best, but +the happiest portion God Almighty hath distributed amongst men; for +though this distribution be made with a very uneven hand, yet nobody +thinks himself stinted or ill-dealt with, but he that hath never so +little is contented in _this_ respect."[22] + +And, certainly, the present narrative may serve in notable illustration +of the remark so drily made by the witty and wise preacher. For whether +our friend Riccabocca deduce theories for daily life from the great +folio of Machiavel; or that promising young gentleman, Mr. Randal +Leslie, interpret the power of knowledge into the art of being too +knowing for dull honest folks to cope with him; or acute Dick Avenel +push his way up the social ascent with a blow for those before, and a +kick for those behind him, after the approved fashion of your strong New +Man; or Baron Levy--that cynical impersonation of Gold--compare himself +to the Magnetic Rock in the Arabian tale, to which the nails in every +ship that approaches the influence of the loadstone fly from the planks, +and a shipwreck per day adds its waifs to the Rock: questionless, at +least, it is, that each of those personages believed that Providence had +bestowed on him an elder son's inheritance of wisdom. Nor, were we to +glance towards the obscurer parts of life, should we find good Parson +Dale deem himself worse off than the rest of the world in this precious +commodity--as, indeed, he had signally evinced of late in that shrewd +guess of his touching Professor Moss;--even plain Squire Hazeldean took +it for granted that he could teach Audley Egerton a thing or two worth +knowing in politics; Mr. Stirn thought that there was no branch of +useful lore on which he could not instruct the squire; and Sprott, the +tinker, with his bag full of tracts and lucifer matches, regarded the +whole framework of modern society, from a rick to a constitution, with +the profound disdain of a revolutionary philosopher. Considering that +every individual thus brings into the stock of the world so vast a share +of intelligence, it cannot but excite our wonder to find that Oxenstiern +is popularly held to be right when he said, "See, my son, how little +wisdom it requires to govern states;"--that is, men! That so many +millions of persons, each with a profound assurance that he is possessed +of an exalted sagacity, should concur in the ascendency of a few +inferior intellects, according to a few, stupid, prosy, matter-of-fact +rules as old as the hills, is a phenomenon very discreditable to the +spirit and energy of the aggregate human species! It creates no surprise +that one sensible watch-dog should control the movements of a flock of +silly grass-eating sheep; but that two or three silly grass-eating sheep +should give the law to whole flocks of such mighty sensible +watch-dogs--_Diavolo!_ Dr. Riccabocca, explain _that_, if you can! And +wonderfully strange it is, that notwithstanding all the march of +enlightenment, notwithstanding our progressive discoveries in the laws +of nature--our railways, steam-engines, animal magnetism, and +electro-biology--we have never made any improvement that is generally +acknowledged, since men ceased to be troglodytes and nomads, in the +old-fashioned gamut of flats and sharps, which attunes into irregular +social jog-trot all the generations that pass from the cradle to the +grave;--still, "_the desire for something we have not_" impels all the +energies that keep us in movement, for good or for ill, according to the +checks or the directions of each favorite desire. + +A friend of mine once said to a _millionaire_, whom he saw for ever +engaged in making money which he never seemed to have any pleasure in +spending, "Pray, Mr.----, will you answer me one question: You are said +to have two millions, and you spend £600 a-year. In order to rest and +enjoy, what will content you?" + +"A little more," answered the _millionaire_. + +That "little more" is the mainspring of civilization. Nobody ever gets +it! + +"Philus," saith a Latin writer, "was not so rich as Lælius; Lælius was +not so rich as Scipio; Scipio was not so rich as Crassus: and Crassus +was not so rich--as he wished to be!" If John Bull were once contented, +Manchester might shut up its mills. It is the "little more" that makes a +mere trifle of the National Debt!--Long life to it! + +Still, mend our law-books as we will, one is forced to confess that +knaves are often seen in fine linen, and honest men in the most shabby +old rags; and still, notwithstanding the exceptions, knavery is a very +hazardous game; and honesty, on the whole, by far the best policy. +Still, most of the Ten Commandments remain at the core of all the +Pandects and Institutes that keep our hands off our neighbors' throats, +wives, and pockets; still, every year shows that the parson's +maxim--_quieta non movere_--is as prudent for the health of communities +as when Apollo recommended his votaries not to rake up a fever by +stirring the Lake Camarina; still people, thank Heaven, decline to +reside in parallelograms; and the surest token that we live under a free +government is, when we are governed by persons whom we have a full right +to imply, by our censure and ridicule, are blockheads compared to +ourselves! Stop that delightful privilege, and, by Jove! sir, there is +neither pleasure nor honor in being governed at all! You might as well +be--a Frenchman! + + +CHAPTER II. + +The Italian and his friend are closeted together. + +"And why have you left your home in ----shire? And why this new change +of name?" + +"Peschiera is in England." + +"I know it." + +"And bent on discovering me; and, it is said, of stealing from me my +child." + +"He has the assurance to lay wagers that he will win the hand of your +heiress. I know that too; and therefore I have come to England--first to +baffle his design--for I do not think your fears are exaggerated--and +next to learn from you how to follow up a clue which, unless I am too +sanguine, may lead to his ruin, and your unconditional restoration. +Listen to me. You are aware that, after the skirmish with Peschiera's +armed hirelings sent in search of you, I received a polite message from +the Austrian government, requesting me to leave its Italian domains. +Now, as I hold it the obvious duty of any foreigner, admitted to the +hospitality of a state, to refrain from all participation in its civil +disturbances, so I thought my honor assailed at this intimation, and +went at once to Vienna to explain to the Minister there (to whom I was +personally known), that though I had, as became man to man, aided to +protect a refugee, who had taken shelter under my roof, from the +infuriated soldiers at the command of his private foe, I had not only +not shared in any attempt at revolt, but dissuaded, as far as I could, +my Italian friends from their enterprise; and that because, without +discussing its merits, I believed, as a military man and a cool +spectator, the enterprise could only terminate in fruitless bloodshed. I +was enabled to establish my explanation by satisfactory proof; and my +acquaintance with the Minister assumed something of the character of +friendship. I was then in a position to advocate your cause, and to +state your original reluctance to enter into the plots of the +insurgents. I admitted freely that you had such natural desire for the +independence of your native land, that, had the standard of Italy been +boldly hoisted by its legitimate chiefs, or at the common uprising of +its whole people, you would have been found in the van, amidst the ranks +of your countrymen; but I maintained that you would never have shared in +a conspiracy frantic in itself, and defiled by the lawless schemes and +sordid ambition of its main projectors, had you not been betrayed and +decoyed into it by the misrepresentations and domestic treachery of your +kinsman--the very man who denounced you. Unfortunately, of this +statement I had no proof but your own word. I made, however, so far an +impression in your favor, and, it may be, against the traitor, that your +property was not confiscated to the State, nor handed over, upon the +plea of your civil death, to your kinsman." + +"How, I do not understand. Peschiera has the property?" + +"He holds the revenues but of one half upon pleasure, and they would be +withdrawn, could I succeed in establishing the case that exists against +him. I was forbidden before to mention this to you; the Minister, not +inexcusably, submitted you to the probation of unconditional exile. Your +grace might depend upon your own forbearance from farther +conspiracies--forgive the word. I need not say I was permitted to return +to Lombardy. I found, on my arrival, that--that your unhappy wife had +been to my house, and exhibited great despair at hearing of my +departure." + +Riccabocca knit his dark brows, and breathed hard. + +"I did not judge it necessary to acquaint you with this circumstance, +nor did it much affect me. I believed in her guilt--and what could now +avail her remorse, if remorse she felt? Shortly afterwards I heard that +she was no more." + +"Yes," muttered Riccabocca, "she died in the same year that I left +Italy. It must be a strong reason that can excuse a friend for reminding +me even that she once lived!" + +"I come at once to that reason," said L'Estrange gently. "This autumn I +was roaming through Switzerland, and, in one of my pedestrian excursions +amidst the mountains, I met with an accident, which confined me for some +days to a sofa at a little inn in an obscure village. My hostess was an +Italian; and as I had left my servant at a town at some distance, I +required her attention till I could write to him to come to me. I was +thankful for her cares, and amused by her Italian babble. We became very +good friends. She told me she had been servant to a lady of great rank, +who had died in Switzerland; and that, being enriched by the generosity +of her mistress, she had married a Swiss innkeeper, and his people had +become hers. My servant arrived, and my hostess learned my name, which +she did not know before. She came into my room greatly agitated. In +brief, this woman had been servant to your wife. She had accompanied her +to my villa, and known of her anxiety to see me, as your friend. The +government had assigned to your wife your palace at Milan, with a +competent income. She had refused to accept of either. Failing to see +me, she had set off towards England, resolved upon seeing yourself; for +the journals had stated that to England you had escaped." + +"She dared!--shameless! And see, but a moment before, I had forgotten +all but her grave in a foreign soil--and these tears had forgiven her," +murmured the Italian. + +"Let them forgive her still," said Harley, with all his exquisite +sweetness of look and tone. "I resume. On entering Switzerland, your +wife's health, which you know was always delicate, gave way. To fatigue +and anxiety succeeded fever, and delirium ensued. She had taken with her +but this one female attendant--the sole one she could trust--on leaving +home. She suspected Peschiera to have bribed her household. In the +presence of this woman she raved of her innocence--in accents of terror +and aversion, denounced your kinsman--and called on you to vindicate her +name and your own." + +"Ravings indeed! Poor Paulina!" groaned Riccabocca, covering his face +with both hands. + +"But in her delirium there were lucid intervals. In one of these she +rose, in spite of all her servant could do to restrain her, took from +her desk several letters, and reading them over, exclaimed piteously, +'But how to get them to him?--whom to trust? And his friend is gone!' +Then an idea seemed suddenly to flash upon her, for she uttered a joyous +exclamation, sat down, and wrote long and rapidly; inclosed what she +wrote, with all the letters, in one packet, which she sealed carefully, +and bade her servant carry to the post, with many injunctions to take it +with her own hand, and pay the charge on it. 'For, oh!' said she (I +repeat the words as my informant told them to me)--'for, oh, this is my +sole chance to prove to my husband that, though I have erred, I am not +the guilty thing he believes me; the sole chance, too, to redeem my +error, and restore, perhaps, to my husband his country, to my child her +heritage.' The servant took the letter to the post; and when she +returned, her lady was asleep, with a smile upon her face. But from that +sleep she woke again delirious, and before the next morning her soul had +fled." Here Riccabocca lifted one hand from his face, and grasped +Harley's arm, as if mutely beseeching him to pause. The heart of the man +struggled hard with his pride and his philosophy; and it was long before +Harley could lead him to regard the worldly prospects which this last +communication from his wife might open to his ruined fortunes. Not, +indeed, till Riccabocca had persuaded himself, and half persuaded +Harley, (for strong, indeed, was all presumption of guilt against the +dead,) that his wife's protestations of innocence from all but error had +been but ravings. + +"Be this as it may," said Harley, "there seems every reason to suppose +that the letters inclosed were Peschiera's correspondence, and that, if +so, these would establish the proof of his influence over your wife, and +of his perfidious machinations against yourself. I resolved, before +coming hither, to go round by Vienna. There I heard with dismay that +Peschiera had not only obtained the imperial sanction to demand your +daughter's hand, but had boasted to his profligate circle that he should +succeed; and he was actually on his road to England. I saw at once that +could this design, by any fraud or artifice, be successful with +Violante, (for of your consent, I need not say, I did not dream,) the +discovery of this packet, whatever its contents, would be useless: his +end would be secured. I saw also that his success would suffice for ever +to clear his name; for his success must imply your consent, (it would be +to disgrace your daughter, to assert that she had married without it,) +and your consent would be his acquittal. I saw, too, with alarm, that to +all means for the accomplishment of his project he would be urged by +despair; for his debts are great, and his character nothing but new +wealth can support. I knew that he was able, bold, determined, and that +he had taken with him a large supply of money, borrowed upon usury;--in +a word, I trembled for you both. I have now seen your daughter, and I +tremble no more. Accomplished seducer as Peschiera boasts himself, the +first look upon her face, so sweet yet so noble, convinced me that she +is proof against a legion of Peschieras. Now, then, return we to this +all-important subject--to this packet. It never reached you. Long years +have passed since then. Does it exist still? Into whose hands would it +have fallen? Try to summon up all your recollections. The servant could +not remember the name of the person to whom it was addressed; she only +insisted that the name began with a B, that it was directed to England, +and that to England she accordingly paid the postage. Whom, then, with a +name that begins with B, or (in case the servant's memory here misled +her) whom did you or your wife know, during your visit to England, with +sufficient intimacy to make it probable that she would select such a +person for her confidant?" + +"I cannot conceive," said Riccabocca, shaking his head. "We came to +England shortly after our marriage. Paulina was affected by the climate. +She spoke not a word of English, and indeed not even French as might +have been expected from her birth, for her father was poor, and +thoroughly Italian. She refused all society. I went, it is true, +somewhat into the London world--enough to induce me to shrink from the +contrast that my second visit as a beggared refugee would have made to +the reception I met with on my first--but I formed no intimate +friendships. I recall no one whom she could have written to as intimate +with me." + +"But," persisted Harley, "think again. Was there no lady well acquainted +with Italian, and with whom, perhaps, for that very reason, your wife +became familiar?" + +"Ah, it is true. There was one old lady of retired habits, but who had +been much in Italy. Lady--Lady--I remember--Lady Jane Horton." + +"Horton--Lady Jane!" exclaimed Harley; "again! thrice in one day--is +this wound never to scar over?" Then, noting Riccabocca's look of +surprise, he said, "Excuse me, my friend; I listen to you with renewed +interest. Lady Jane was a distant relation of my own; she judged me, +perhaps harshly--and I have some painful associations with her name; but +she was a woman of many virtues. Your wife knew her?" + +"Not, however, intimately--still, better than any one else in London. +But Paulina would not have written to her; she knew that Lady Jane had +died shortly after her own departure from England. I myself was summoned +back to Italy on pressing business; she was too unwell to journey with +me as rapidly as I was obliged to travel; indeed, illness detained her +several weeks in England. In this interval she might have made +acquaintances. Ah, now I see; I guess. You say the name began with B. +Paulina, in my absence, engaged a companion; it was at my suggestion--a +Mrs. Bertram. This lady accompanied her abroad. Paulina became +excessively attached to her, she knew Italian so well. Mrs. Bertram left +her on the road, and returned to England, for some private affairs of +her own. I forget why or wherefore; if, indeed, I ever asked or learned. +Paulina missed her sadly, often talked of her, wondered why she never +heard from her. No doubt it was to this Mrs. Bertram that she wrote!" + +"And you don't know the lady's friends or address?" + +"No." + +"Nor who recommended her to your wife?" + +"No." + +"Probably Lady Jane Horton?" + +"It may be so. Very likely." + +"I will follow up this track, slight as it is." + +"But if Mrs. Bertram received the communication, how comes it that it +never reached--O, fool that I am, how should it! I, who guarded so +carefully my incognito!" + +"True. This your wife could not foresee; she would naturally imagine +that your residence in England would be easily discovered. But many +years must have passed since your wife lost sight of this Mrs. Bertram, +if their acquaintance was made so soon after your marriage; and now it +is a long time to retrace--long before even your Violante was born." + +"Alas! yes. I lost two fair sons in the interval. Violante was born to +me as the child of sorrow." + +"And to make sorrow lovely! how beautiful she is!" + +The father smiled proudly. + +"Where, in the loftiest house of Europe, find a husband worthy of such a +prize?" + +"You forget that I am still an exile--she still dowerless. You forget +that I am pursued by Peschiera; that I would rather see her a beggar's +wife--than--Pah, the very thought maddens me, it is so foul. _Corpo di +Bacco!_ I have been glad to find her a husband already." + +"Already! Then that young man spoke truly?" + +"What young man?" + +"Randal Leslie. How! You know him?" Here a brief explanation followed. +Harley heard with attentive ear, and marked vexation, the particulars of +Riccabocca's connection and implied engagement with Leslie. + +"There is something very suspicious to me in all this," said he. "Why +should this young man have so sounded me as to Violante's chance of +losing fortune if she married an Englishman?" + +"Did he? O, pooh! excuse him. It was but his natural wish to seem +ignorant of all about me. He did not know enough of my intimacy with you +to betray my secret." + +"But he knew enough of it--must have known enough to have made it right +that he should tell you I was in England. He does not seem to have done +so." + +"No--_that_ is strange; yet scarcely strange--for, when we last met, his +head was full of other things--love and marriage. _Basta!_ youth will +be youth." + +"He has no youth left in him!" exclaimed Harley, passionately. "I doubt +if he ever had any. He is one of those men who come into the world with +the pulse of a centenarian. You and I never shall be as old--as he was +in long-clothes. Ah, you may laugh; but I am never wrong in my +instincts. I disliked him at the first--his eye, his smile, his voice, +his very footstep. It is madness in you to countenance such a marriage; +it may destroy all chance of your restoration." + +"Better that than infringe my word once passed." + +"No, no," exclaimed Harley; "your word is not passed--it shall not be +passed. Nay, never look so piteously at me. At all events, pause till we +know more of this young man. If he be worthy of her without a dower, +why, then, let him lose you your heritage. I should have no more to +say." + +"But why lose me my heritage?" + +"Do you think the Austrian government would suffer your estates to pass +to this English jackanapes, a clerk in a public office? O, sage in +theory, why are you such a simpleton in action?" + +Nothing moved by this taunt, Riccabocca rubbed his hands, and then +stretched them comfortably over the fire. + +"My friend," said he, "the heritage would pass to my son--a dowry only +goes to the daughter." + +"But you have no son." + +"Hush! I am going to have one; my Jemima informed me of it yesterday +morning; and it was upon that information that I resolved to speak to +Leslie. Am I a simpleton now?" + +"Going to have a son," repeated Harley, looking very bewildered; "how do +you know it is to be a son?" + +"Physiologists are agreed," said the sage positively, "that where the +husband is much older than the wife, and there has been a long interval +without children before she condescends to increase the population of +the world--she (that is, it is at least as nine to four)--she brings +into the world a male. I consider that point, therefore, as settled, +according to the calculations of statistics and the researches of +naturalists." + +Harley could not help laughing, though he was still angry and disturbed. + +"The same man as ever; always the fool of philosophy." + +"_Cospetto!_" said Riccabocca, "I am rather the philosopher of fools. +And talking of that, shall I present you to my Jemima?" + +"Yes; but in turn I must present you to one who remembers with gratitude +your kindness, and whom your philosophy, for a wonder, has not ruined. +Some time or other you must explain that to me. Excuse me for a moment; +I will go for him." + +"For him;--for whom? In my position I must be cautious; and--" + +"I will answer for his faith and discretion. Meanwhile, order dinner, +and let me and my friend stay to share it." + +"Dinner? _Corpo di Bacco!_--not that Bacchus can help us here. What will +Jemima say?" + +"Henpecked man, settle that with your connubial tyrant. But dinner it +must be." + +I leave the reader to imagine the delight of Leonard at seeing once more +Riccabocca unchanged, and Violante so improved; and the kind Jemima, +too. And their wonder at him and his history, his books and his fame. He +narrated his struggles and adventures with a simplicity that removed +from a story so personal the character of egotism. But when he came to +speak of Helen, he was brief and reserved. + +Violante would have questioned more closely; but, to Leonard's relief, +Harley interposed. + +"You shall see her whom he speaks of, before long, and question her +yourself." + +With these words, Harley turned the young man's narrative into new +directions; and Leonard's words again flowed freely. Thus the evening +passed away, happily to all save Riccabocca. But the thought of his dead +wife rose ever and anon before him; and yet when it did, and became too +painful, he crept nearer to Jemima, and looked in her simple face, and +pressed her cordial hand. And yet the monster had implied to Harley that +his comforter was a fool--so she was, to love so contemptible a +slanderer of herself, and her sex. + +Violante was in a state of blissful excitement; she could not analyze +her own joy. But her conversation was chiefly with Leonard; and the most +silent of all was Harley. He sat listening to Leonard's warm, yet +unpretending eloquence--that eloquence which flows so naturally from +genius, when thoroughly at its ease, and not chilled back on itself by +hard, unsympathizing hearers--listened, yet more charmed, to the +sentiments less profound, yet no less earnest--sentiments so feminine, +yet so noble, with which Violante's fresh virgin heart responded to the +poet's kindling soul. Those sentiments of hers were so unlike all he +heard in the common world--so akin to himself in his gone youth! +Occasionally--at some high thought of her own, or some lofty line from +Italian song, that she cited with lighted eyes and in melodious +accents--occasionally he reared his knightly head, and his lips +quivered, as if he had heard the sound of a trumpet. The inertness of +long years was shaken. The Heroic, that lay deep beneath all the humors +of his temperament, was reached, appealed to; and stirred within him, +rousing up all the bright associations connected with it, and long +dormant. When he rose to take leave, surprised at the lateness of the +hour, Harley said, in a tone that bespoke the sincerity of the +compliment, "I thank you for the happiest hours I have known for +years." His eye dwelt on Violante as he spoke. But timidity returned to +her with his words--at his look; and it was no longer the inspired muse, +but the bashful girl that stood before him. + +"And when shall I see you again?" asked Riccabocca disconsolately, +following his guest to the door. + +"When? Why, of course, to-morrow. Adieu! my friend. No wonder you have +borne your exile so patiently,--with such a child!" + +He took Leonard's arm, and walked with him to the inn where he had left +his horse. Leonard spoke of Violante with enthusiasm. Harley was silent. + + +CHAPTER III. + +The next day a somewhat old-fashioned, but exceedingly patrician, +equipage stopped at Riccabocca's garden-gate. Giacomo, who, from a +bedroom window, had caught sight of it winding towards the house, was +seized with undefinable terror when he beheld it pause before their +walls and heard the shrill summons at the portal. He rushed into his +master's presence, and implored him not to stir--not to allow any one to +give ingress to the enemies the machine might disgorge. "I have heard," +said he, "how a town in Italy--I think it was Bologna--was once taken +and given to the sword, by incautiously admitting a wooden horse, full +of the troops of Barbarossa, and all manner of bombs and Congreve +rockets." + +"The story is differently told in Virgil," quoth Riccabocca, peeping out +of the window. "Nevertheless, the machine looks very large and +suspicious; unloose Pompey." + +"Father," said Violante, coloring, "it is your friend, Lord L'Estrange; +I hear his voice." + +"Are you sure?" + +"Quite. How can I be mistaken?" + +"Go, then, Giacomo; but take Pompey with thee--and give the alarm if we +are deceived." + +But Violante was right; and in a few moments Lord L'Estrange was seen +walking up the garden, and giving the arm to two ladies. + +"Ah," said Riccabocca, composing his dressing-robe round him, "go, my +child, and summon Jemima. Man to man; but, for Heaven's sake, woman to +woman." + +Harley had brought his mother and Helen, in compliment to the ladies of +his friend's household. + +The proud Countess knew that she was in the presence of Adversity, and +her salute to Riccabocca was only less respectful than that with which +she would have rendered homage to her sovereign. But Riccabocca, always +gallant to the sex that he pretended to despise, was not to be outdone +in ceremony; and the bow which replied to the curtsey would have edified +the rising generation, and delighted such surviving relicts of the old +Court breeding as may linger yet amidst the gloomy pomp of the Faubourg +St. Germain. These dues paid to etiquette, the Countess briefly +introduced Helen, as Miss Digby, and seated herself near the exile. In a +few moments the two elder personages became quite at home with each +other; and really, perhaps, Riccabocca had never, since we have known +him, showed to such advantage as by the side of his polished, but +somewhat formal visitor. Both had lived so little with our modern, +ill-bred age! They took out their manners of a former race with a sort +of pride in airing once more such fine lace and superb brocade. +Riccabocca gave truce to the shrewd but homely wisdom of his +proverbs--perhaps he remembered that Lord Chesterfield denounces +proverbs as vulgar;--and gaunt though his figure, and far from elegant +though his dressing-robe, there was that about him which spoke +undeniably of the _grand seigneur_--of one to whom a Marquis de Dangeau +would have offered a _fauteuil_ by the side of the Rohans and +Montmorencies. + +Meanwhile, Helen and Harley seated themselves a little apart, and were +both silent--the first from timidity; the second, from abstraction. At +length the door opened, and Harley suddenly sprang to his feet--Violante +and Jemima entered. Lady Lansmere's eyes first rested on the daughter, +and she could scarcely refrain from an exclamation of admiring surprise; +but then, when she caught sight of Mrs. Riccabocca's somewhat humble, +yet not obsequious mien--looking a little shy, a little homely, yet +still thoroughly a gentlewoman, (though of your plain rural kind of that +genus)--she turned from the daughter, and with the _savoir vivre_ of the +fine old school, paid her first respects to the wife; respects +literally, for her manner implied respect,--but it was more kind, +simple, and cordial than the respect she had shown to Riccabocca;--as +the sage himself had said, here "it was Woman to Woman." And then she +took Violante's hand in both hers, and gazed on her as if she could not +resist the pleasure of contemplating so much beauty. "My son," she said +softly, and with a half sigh--"my son in vain told me not to be +surprised. This is the first time I have ever known reality exceed +description!" + +Violante's blush here made her still more beautiful; and as the Countess +returned to Riccabocca, she stole gently to Helen's side. + +"Miss Digby, my ward," said Harley pointedly, observing that his mother +had neglected her duty of presenting Helen to the ladies. He then +reseated himself, and conversed with Mrs. Riccabocca; but his bright +quick eye glanced ever at the two girls. They were about the same +age--and youth was all that, to the superficial eye, they seemed to have +in common. A greater contrast could not well be conceived; and, what is +strange, both gained by it. Violante's brilliant lovelieness seemed yet +more dazzling, and Helen's fair gentle face yet more winning. Neither +had mixed much with girls of her own age; each took to the other at +first sight. Violante, as the less shy, began the conversation. + +"You are his ward--Lord L'Estrange's?" + +"Yes." + +"Perhaps you came with him from Italy?" + +"No, not exactly. But I have been in Italy for some years." + +"Ah! you regret--nay, I am foolish--you return to your native land. But +the skies in Italy are so blue--here it seems as if nature wanted +colors." + +"Lord L'Estrange says that you were very young when you left Italy; you +remember it well. He, too, prefers Italy to England." + +"He! Impossible!" + +"Why impossible, fair skeptic?" cried Harley, interrupting himself in +the midst of a speech to Jemima. + +Violante had not dreamed that she could be overheard--she was speaking +low; but, though visibly embarrassed, she answered distinctly-- + +"Because in England there is the noblest career for noble minds." + +Harley was startled, and replied with a slight sigh, "At your age I +should have said as you do. But this England of ours is so crowded with +noble minds, that they only jostle each other, and the career is one +cloud of dust." + +"So, I have read, seems a battle to the common soldier, but not to the +chief." + +"You have read good descriptions of battles, I see." + +Mrs. Riccabocca, who thought this remark a taunt upon her +daughter-in-law's studies, hastened to Violante's relief. + +"Her papa made her read the history of Italy, and I believe that is full +of battles." + +_Harley._--"All history is, and all women are fond of war and of +warriors. I wonder why." + +_Violante_, (turning to Helen, and in a very low voice, resolved that +Harley should not hear this time.)--"We can guess why--can we not?" + +_Harley_, (hearing every word, as if it had been spoken in St. Paul's +Whispering Gallery.)--"If you can guess, Helen, pray tell me." + +_Helen_, (shaking her pretty head, and answering with a livelier smile +than usual.)--"But I am not fond of war and warriors." + +_Harley_ to Violante.--"Then I must appeal at once to you, +self-convicted Bellona that you are. Is it from the cruelty natural to +the female disposition?" + +_Violante_, (with a sweet musical laugh.)--"From two propensities still +more natural to it." + +_Harley._--"You puzzle me: what can they be?" + +_Violante._--"Pity and admiration; we pity the weak, and admire the +brave." + +Harley inclined his head, and was silent. + +Lady Lansmere had suspended her conversation with Riccabocca to listen +to this dialogue. "Charming!" she cried. "You have explained what has +often perplexed me. Ah, Harley, I am glad to see that your satire is +foiled: you have no reply to that." + +"No; I willingly own myself defeated--too glad to claim the Signorina's +pity, since my cavalry sword hangs on the wall, and I can have no longer +a professional pretence to her admiration." + +He then rose, and glanced towards the window. "But I see a more +formidable disputant for my conqueror to encounter is coming into the +field--one whose profession it is to substitute some other romance for +that of camp and siege." + +"Our friend Leonard," said Riccabocca, turning his eye also towards the +widow. "True; as Quevedo says wittily, 'Ever since there has been so +great a demand for type, there has been much less lead to spare for +cannon-balls.'" + +Here Leonard entered. Harley had sent Lady Lansmere's footman to him +with a note, that prepared him to meet Helen. As he came into the room, +Harley took him by the hand, and led him to Lady Lansmere. + +"The friend of whom I spoke. Welcome him now for my sake, ever after for +his own;" and then, scarcely allowing time for the Countess's elegant +and gracious response, he drew Leonard towards Helen. "Children," said +he, with a touching voice, that thrilled through the hearts of both, "go +and seat yourselves yonder, and talk together of the past. Signorina, I +invite you to renewed discussion upon the abstruse metaphysical subject +you have started; let us see if we cannot find gentler sources for pity +and admiration than war and warriors." He took Violante aside to the +window. "You remember that Leonard, in telling you his history last +night, spoke, you thought, rather too briefly of the little girl who had +been his companion in the rudest time of his trials. When you would have +questioned more, I interrupted you, and said, 'You should see her +shortly, and question her yourself.' And now what think you of Helen +Digby? Hush, speak low. But her ears are not so sharp as mine." + +_Violante_--"Ah! that is the fair creature whom Leonard called his +child-angel? What a lovely innocent face!--the angel is there still." + +_Harley_, (pleased both at the praise and with her who gave it.)--"You +think so, and you are right. Helen is not communicative. But fine +natures are like fine poems--a glance at the first two lines suffices +for a guess into the beauty that waits you, if you read on." + +Violante gazed on Leonard and Helen as they sat apart. Leonard was the +speaker, Helen the listener; and though the former had, in his narrative +the night before, been indeed brief as to the episode in his life +connected with the orphan, enough had been said to interest Violante in +the pathos of their former position towards each other, and in the +happiness they must feel in their meeting again--separated for years on +the wide sea of life, now both saved from the storm and shipwreck. The +tears came into her eyes. "True," she said very softly, "there is more +here to move pity and admiration than in"--She paused. + +_Harley._--"Complete the sentence. Are you ashamed to retract? Fie on +your pride and obstinacy." + +_Violante._--"No; but even here there have been war and heroism--the war +of genius with adversity, and heroism in the comforter who shared it and +consoled. Ah! wherever pity and admiration are both felt, something +nobler than mere sorrow must have gone before: the heroic must exist." + +"Helen does not know what the word heroic means," said Harley, rather +sadly; "you must teach her." + +Is it possible, thought he as he spoke, that a Randal Leslie could have +charmed this grand creature? No "Heroic" surely, in that sleek young +placeman. "Your father," he said aloud, and fixing his eyes on her face, +"sees much, he tells me, of a young man, about Leonard's age, as to +date; but I never estimate the age of men by the parish register; and I +should speak of that so-called young man as a contemporary of my +great-grandfather; I mean Mr. Randal Leslie. Do you like him?" + +"Like him?" said Violante slowly, and as if sounding her own mind. "Like +him--yes." + +"Why?" asked Harley, with dry and curt indignation. + +"His visits seem to please my dear father. Certainly, I like him." + +"Hum. He professes to like you, I suppose?" + +Violante laughed, unsuspiciously. She had half a mind to reply, "Is that +so strange!" But her respect for Harley stopped her. The words would +have seemed to her pert. + +"I am told he is clever," resumed Harley. + +"O, certainly." + +"And he is rather handsome. But I like Leonard's face better." + +"Better--that is not the word. Leonard's face is as that of one who has +gazed so often upon heaven; and Mr. Leslie's--there is neither sunlight +nor starlight reflected there." + +"My dear Violante!" exclaimed Harley, overjoyed; and he pressed her +hand. + +The blood rushed over the girl's cheek and brow; her hand trembled in +his. But Harley's familiar exclamation might have come from a father's +lips. + +At this moment, Helen softly approached them, and looking timidly into +her guardian's face, said, "Leonard's mother is with him: he asks me to +call and see her. May I?" + +"May you! A pretty notion the Signorina must form of your enslaved state +of pupilage, when she hears you ask that question. Of course you may." + +"Will you take me there?" + +Harley looked embarrassed. He thought of the widow's agitation at his +name; of that desire to shun him, which Leonard had confessed, and of +which he thought he divined the cause. And, so divining, he too shrank +from such a meeting. + +"Another time, then," said he, after a pause. + +Helen looked disappointed, but said no more. + +Violante was surprised at this ungracious answer. She would have blamed +it as unfeeling in another. But all that Harley did was right in her +eyes. + +"Cannot I go with Miss Digby?" said she, "and my mother will go too. We +both know Mrs. Fairfield. We shall be so pleased to see her again." + +"So be it," said Harley; "I will wait here with your father till you +come back. Oh, as to my mother, she will excuse the--excuse Madame +Riccabocca, and you too. See how charmed she is with _your_ father. I +must stay to watch over the conjugal interests of _mine_." + +But Mrs. Riccabocca had too much good old country breeding to leave the +Countess; and Harley was forced himself to appeal to Lady Lansmere. When +he had explained the case in point, the Countess rose and said-- + +"But I will call myself, with Miss Digby." + +"No," said Harley, gravely, but in a whisper. "No--I would rather not. I +will explain later." + +"Then," said the Countess aloud, after a glance of surprise at her son, +"I must insist on your performing this visit, my dear Madam, and you, +Signorina. In truth, I have something to say confidentially to--" + +"To me," interrupted Riccabocca. "Ah, Madame la Comtesse, you restore me +to five-and-twenty. Go, quick--O jealous and injured wife; go, both of +you, quick; and you, too, Harley." + +"Nay," said Lady Lansmere, in the same tone, "Harley must stay, for my +design is not at present upon destroying your matrimonial happiness, +whatever it may be later. It is a design so innocent that my son will be +a partner in it." + +Here the Countess put her lips to Harley's ear, and whispered. He +received her communication in attentive silence; but when she had done, +pressed her hand, and bowed his head, as if an assent to a proposal. + +In a few minutes, the three ladies and Leonard were on their road to the +neighboring cottage. + +Violante, with her usual delicate intuition, thought that Leonard and +Helen must have much to say to each other; and ignorant, as Leonard +himself was, of Helen's engagement to Harley, began already, in the +romance natural to her age, to predict for them happy and united days in +the future. So she took her step-mother's arm, and left Helen and +Leonard to follow. + +"I wonder," she said, musingly, "how Miss Digby became Lord L'Estrange's +ward, I hope she is not very rich, nor very high-born." + +"La, my love," said the good Jemima, "that is not like you; you are not +envious of her, poor girl?" + +"Envious! Dear mamma, what a word! But don't you think Leonard and Miss +Digby seem born for each other? And then the recollections of their +childhood--the thoughts of childhood are so deep, and its memories so +strangely soft!" The long lashes drooped over Violante's musing eyes as +she spoke. "And therefore," she said after a pause "therefore I hoped +that Miss Digby might not be very rich, nor very high-born." + +"I understand you now, Violante," exclaimed Jemima, her own early +passion for match-making instantly returning to her; "for as Leonard, +however clever and distinguished, is still the son of Mark Fairfield the +carpenter, it would spoil all if Miss Digby was, as you say, rich and +high-born. I agree with you--a very pretty match--a very pretty match, +indeed. I wish dear Mrs. Dale were here now she is so clever in settling +such matters." + +Meanwhile Leonard and Helen walked side by side a few paces in the rear. +He had not offered her his arm. They had been silent hitherto since they +left Riccabocca's house. + +Helen now spoke first. In similar cases it is generally the woman, be +she ever so timid, who does speak first. And here Helen was the bolder: +for Leonard did not disguise from himself the nature of his feelings, +and Helen was engaged to another; and her pure heart was fortified by +the trust reposed in it. + +"And have you ever heard more of the good Dr. Morgan, who had powders +against sorrow, and who meant to be so kind to us--though," she added, +coloring, "we did not think so then?" + +"He took my child-angel from me," said Leonard, with visible emotion; +"and if she had not returned, where and what should I be now? But I have +forgiven him. No, I have never met him since." + +"And that terrible Mr. Burley?" + +"Poor, poor Burley! He, too, is vanished out of my present life. I have +made many inquiries after him; all I can hear is that he went abroad, +supposed as a correspondent to some journal. I should like so much to +see him again, now that perhaps I could help him as he helped me." + +"_Helped_ you--ah!" + +Leonard smiled with a beating heart, as he saw again the dear, prudent, +warning look, and involuntarily drew closer to Helen. She seemed more +restored to him and to her former self. + +"Helped me much by his instructions; more, perhaps, by his very faults. +You cannot guess, Helen--I beg pardon, Miss Digby--but I forgot that we +are no longer children: you cannot guess how much we men, and, more than +all perhaps, we writers, whose task it is to unravel the web of human +actions, owe even to our own past errors; and if we learn nothing by the +errors of others, we should be dull indeed. We must know where the roads +divide, and have marked where they lead to, before we can erect our +sign-posts; and books are the sign-posts in human life." + +"Books!--And I have not yet read yours. And Lord L'Estrange tells me you +are famous now. Yet you remember me still--the poor orphan child, whom +you first saw weeping at her father's grave, and with whom you burdened +your own young life, over-burdened already. No, still call me Helen--you +must always be to me--a brother! Lord L'Estrange feels _that_; he said +so to me when he told me that we were to meet again. He is so generous, +so noble. Brother!" cried Helen, suddenly, and extending her hand, with +a sweet but sublime look in her gentle face--"brother, we will never +forfeit his esteem; we will both do our best to repay him? Will we +not--say so?" + +Leonard felt overpowered by contending and unanalyzed emotions. Touched +almost to tears by the affectionate address--thrilled by the hand that +pressed his own--and yet with a vague fear, a consciousness that +something more than the words themselves was implied--something that +checked all hope. And this word "brother," once so precious and so dear, +why did he shrink from it now?--why could he not too say the sweet word +"sister?" + +"She is above me now and evermore," he thought, mournfully; and the +tones of his voice, when he spoke again, were changed. The appeal to +renewed intimacy but made him more distant; and to that appeal itself he +made no direct answer; for Mrs. Riccabocca, now turning round, and +pointing to the cottage which came in view, with its picturesque gable +ends, cried out-- + +"But is that your house, Leonard? I never saw any thing so pretty." + +"You do not remember it then," said Leonard to Helen, in accents of +melancholy reproach "there where I saw you last! I doubted whether to +keep it exactly as it was, and I said, No! the association is not +changed because we try to surround it with whatever beauty we can +create: the dearer the association, the more the Beautiful becomes to it +natural.' Perhaps you don't understand this--perhaps it is only we poor +poets who do." + +"I understand it," said Helen, gently. She looked wistfully at the +cottage. + +"So changed--I have so often pictured it to myself--never, never like +this; yet I loved it, commonplace as it was to my recollection; and the +garret, and the tree in the carpenter's yard." + +She did not give these thoughts utterance. And they now entered the +garden. + + +CHAPTER IV. + +Mrs. Fairfield was a proud woman when she received Mrs. Riccabocca and +Violante in her grand house; for a grand house to her was that cottage +to which her boy Lenny had brought her home. Proud, indeed, ever was +Widow Fairfield; but she thought then in her secret heart, that if ever +she could receive in the drawing-room of that grand house the great Mrs. +Hazeldean, who had so lectured her for refusing to live any longer in +the humble tenement rented of the Squire, the cup of human bliss would +be filled, and she could contentedly die of the pride of it. She did not +much notice Helen--her attention was too absorbed by the ladies who +renewed their old acquaintance with her, and she carried them all over +the house, yea, into the very kitchen; and so, somehow or other, there +was a short time when Helen and Leonard found themselves alone. It was +in the study. Helen had unconsciously seated herself in Leonard's own +chair, and she was gazing with anxious and wistful interest, on the +scattered papers, looking so disorderly (though, in truth, in that +disorder there was method, but method only known to the owner), and at +the venerable, well-worn books, in all languages, lying on the floor, on +the chairs--any where. I must confess that Helen's first tidy woman-like +idea was a great desire to arrange the latter. "Poor Leonard," she +thought to herself--"the rest of the house so neat, but no one to take +care of his own room and of him!" + +As if he divined her thought, Leonard smiled, and said, "It would be a +cruel kindness to the spider, if the gentlest hand in the world tried to +set its cobweb to rights." + +_Helen._--"You were not quite so bad in the old days." + +_Leonard._--"Yet even then, you were obliged to take care of the money. +I have more books now, and more money. My present housekeeper lets me +take care of the books, but she is less indulgent as to the money." + +_Helen_, (archly.)--"Are you as absent as ever?" + +_Leonard._--"Much more so, I fear. The habit is incorrigible, Miss +Digby--" + +_Helen._--"Not Miss Digby--sister, if you like." + +_Leonard_, (evading the word that implied so forbidden an +affinity.)--"Helen, will you grant me a favor? Your eyes and your smile +say 'yes.' Will you lay aside, for one minute, your shawl and bonnet? +What! can you be surprised that I ask it? Can you not understand that I +wish for one minute to think you are at home again under this roof?" + +Helen cast down her eyes, and seemed troubled; then she raised them, +with a soft angelic candor in their dovelike blue, and, as if in shelter +from all thoughts of more warm affection, again murmured "_brother_," +and did as he asked her. + +So there she sat, amongst the dull books, by his table, near the open +window--her fair hair parted on her forehead--looking so good, so calm, +so happy! Leonard wondered at his own self-command. His heart yearned to +her with such inexpressible love--his lips so longed to murmur--"Ah, as +now so could it be for ever! Is the home too mean?" But that word +"brother" was as a talisman between her and him. + +Yet she looked so at home--perhaps so at home she felt!--more certainly +than she had yet learned to do in that stiff stately house in which she +was soon to have a daughter's rights. Was she suddenly made aware of +this--that she so suddenly arose--and with a look of alarm and distress +on her face-- + +"But--we are keeping Lady Lansmere too long," she said, falteringly. "We +must go now," and she hastily took up her shawl and bonnet. + +Just then Mrs. Fairfield entered with the visitors, and began making +excuses for inattention to Miss Digby, whose identity with Leonard's +child-angel she had not yet learned. + +Helen received these apologies with her usual sweetness. "Nay," she +said, "your son and I are such old friends, how could you stand on +ceremony with me?" + +"Old friends!" Mrs. Fairfield stared amazed, and then surveyed the fair +speaker more curiously than she had yet done. "Pretty, nice spoken +thing," thought the widow; "as nice spoken as Miss Violante, and +humbler-looking-like--though, as to dress, I never see any thing so +elegant out of a picter." + +Helen now appropriated Mrs. Riccabocca's arm; and after a kind +leave-taking with the widow, the ladies returned towards Riccabocca's +house. + +Mrs. Fairfield, however, ran after them with Leonard's hat and gloves, +which he had forgotten. + +"'Deed, boy," said she kindly, yet scoldingly, "but there'd be no more +fine books, if the Lord had not fixed your head on your shoulders. You +would not think it, marm," she added to Mrs. Riccabocca, "but sin' he +has left you, he's not the 'cute lad he was; very helpless at times, +marm!" + +Helen could not resist turning round, and looking at Leonard, with a sly +smile. + +The widow saw the smile, and catching Leonard by the arm, whispered, +"But, where before have you seen that pretty young lady? Old friends!" + +"Ah, mother," said Leonard, sadly, "it is a long tale; you have heard +the beginning, who can guess the end?"--and he escaped. But Helen still +leant on the arm of Mrs. Riccobocca, and, in the walk back, it seemed to +Leonard as if the winter had resettled in the sky. + +Yet he was by the side of Violante, and she spoke to him with such +praise of Helen! Alas! it is not always so sweet as folks say, to hear +the praises of one we love. Sometimes those praises seem to ask +ironically, "And what right hast thou to hope because thou lovest? _All_ +love _her_." + + +CHAPTER V. + +No sooner had Lady Lansmere found herself alone with Riccabocca and +Harley than she laid her hand on the exile's arm, and, addressing him by +a title she had not before given him, and from which he appeared to +shrink nervously, said--"Harley, in bringing me to visit you, was forced +to reveal to me your incognito, for I should have discovered it. You may +not remember me, in spite of your gallantry. But I mixed more in the +world than I do now, during your first visit to England, and once sat +next to you at dinner at Carlton House. Nay, no compliments, but listen +to me. Harley tells me you have cause for some alarm respecting the +designs of an audacious and unprincipled--adventurer, I may call him; +for adventurers are of all ranks. Suffer your daughter to come to me, on +a visit, as long as you please. With me, at least, she will be safe; and +if you, too, and the--" + +"Stop, my dear madam," interrupted Riccabocca, with great vivacity, +"your kindness overpowers me. I thank you most gratefully for your +invitation to my child; but--" + +"Nay," in his turn interrupted Harley, "no buts. I was not aware of my +mother's intention when she entered this room. But since she whispered +it to me, I have reflected on it, and am convinced that it is but a +prudent precaution. Your retreat is known to Mr. Leslie--he is known to +Peschiera. Grant that no indiscretion of Mr. Leslie's betray the secret; +still I have reason to believe that the Count guesses Randal's +acquaintance with you. Audley Egerton this morning told me he had +gathered that, not from the young man himself, but from questions put to +himself by Madame di Negra; and Peschiera might, and would, set spies, +to track Leslie to every house that he visits--might and would, still +more naturally, set spies to track myself. Were this man an Englishman, +I should laugh at his machinations; but he is an Italian, and has been a +conspirator. What he could do, I know not; but an assassin can penetrate +into a camp, and a traitor can creep through closed walls to one's +hearth. With my mother, Violante must be safe; that you cannot oppose. +And why not come yourself?" + +Riccabocca had no reply to these arguments, so far as they affected +Violante; indeed, they awakened the almost superstitious terror with +which he regarded his enemy, and he consented at once that Violante +should accept the invitation proffered. But he refused it for himself +and Jemima. + +"To say truth," said he simply, "I made a secret vow, on re-entering +England, that I would associate with none who knew the rank I had +formerly held in my own land. I felt that all my philosophy was needed, +to reconcile and habituate myself to my altered circumstances. In order +to find in my present existence, however humble, those blessings which +make all life noble--dignity and peace--it was necessary for poor, weak +human nature, wholly to dismiss the past. It would unsettle me sadly, +could I come to your house, renew a while, in your kindness and +respect--nay, in the very atmosphere of your society--the sense of what +I have been; and then (should the more than doubtful chance of recall +from my exile fail me) to awake, and find myself for the rest of +life--what I am. And though, were I alone, I might trust myself perhaps +to the danger--yet my wife: she is happy and contented now; would she be +so, if you had once spoiled her for the simple position of Dr. +Riccabocca's wife? Should I not have to listen to regrets, and hopes, +and fears that would prick sharp through my thin cloak of philosophy? +Even as it is, since in a moment of weakness I confided my secret to +her, I have had 'my rank' thrown at me--with a careless hand, it is +true--but it hits hard, nevertheless. No stone hurts like one taken from +the ruins of one's own home; and the grander the home, why, the heavier +the stone! Protect, dear madam--protect my daughter, since her father +doubts his own power to do so. But--ask no more." + +Riccabocca was immovable here. And the matter was settled as he decided, +it being agreed that Violante should be still styled the daughter of Dr. +Riccabocca. + +"And now, one word more," said Harley. "Do not confide to Mr. Leslie +these arrangements; do not let him know where Violante is placed--at +least, until I authorize such confidence in him. It is sufficient +excuse, that it is no use to know unless he called to see her, and his +movements, as I said before, may be watched. You can give the same +reason to suspend his visits to yourself. Suffer me, meanwhile, to +mature my judgment on this young man. In the mean while also, I think +that I shall have means of ascertaining the real nature of Peschiera's +schemes. His sister has sought to know me; I will give her the occasion. +I have heard some things of her in my last residence abroad, which make +me believe that she cannot be wholly the Count's tool in any schemes +nakedly villanous; that she has some finer qualities in her than I once +supposed; and that she can be won from his influence. It is a state of +war; we will carry it into the enemy's camp. You will promise me, then, +to refrain from all further confidence to Mr. Leslie." + +"For the present, yes," said Riccabocca, reluctantly. + +"Do not even say that you have seen me, unless he first tell you that I +am in England, and wish to learn your residence. I will give him full +occasion to do so. Pish! don't hesitate; you know your own proverb-- + + 'Boccha chiusa, ed occhio aperto + Non fece mai nissun deserto.' + +'The closed mouth and the open eye,' &c." + +"That's very true," said the Doctor, much struck. "Very true. '_In +bocchac hiusa non c'entrano mosche_.' One can't swallow flies if one +keeps one's mouth shut. _Corpo di Bacco!_ that's very true!" + +Harley took aside the Italian. + +"You see if our hope of discovering the lost packet, or if our belief in +the nature of its contents, be too sanguine, still, in a few months it +is possible that Peschiera can have no further designs on your +daughter--possible that a son may be born to you, and Violante would +cease to be in danger, because she would cease to be an heiress. Indeed, +it may be well to let Peschiera know this chance; it would, at least, +make him delay all his plans while we are tracking the document that may +defeat them for ever." + +"No, no! for heaven's sake, no!" exclaimed Riccabocca, pale as ashes. +"Not a word to him. I don't mean to impute to him crimes of which he may +be innocent. But he meant to take my life when I escaped the pursuit of +his hirelings in Italy. He did not hesitate, in his avarice, to denounce +a kinsman; expose hundreds to the sword, if resisting--to the dungeon, +if passive. Did he know that my wife might bear me a son, how can I tell +that his designs might not change into others still darker, and more +monstrous, than those he now openly parades, though, after all, not more +infamous and vile? Would my wife's life be safe? Not more difficult to +convey poison into my house, than to steal my child from my hearth. +Don't despise me; but when I think of my wife, my daughter, and that +man, my mind forsakes me: I am one fear." + +"Nay, this apprehension is too exaggerated. We do not live in the age of +the Borgias. Could Peschiera resort to the risks of a murder, it is for +yourself that you should fear." + +"For myself!--I! I!" cried the exile, raising his tall stature to its +full height. "Is it not enough degradation to a man who has borne the +name of such ancestors, to fear for those he loves! Fear for myself! Is +it you who ask if I am a coward?" + +He recovered himself as he felt Harley's penitential and admiring grasp +of the hand. + +"See," said he, turning to the Countess with a melancholy smile, "how +even one hour of your society destroys the habits of years. Dr. +Riccabocca is talking of his ancestors!" + + +CHAPTER VI. + +Violante and Jemima were both greatly surprised, as the reader may +suppose, when they heard, on their return, the arrangements already made +for the former. The Countess insisted on taking her at once, and +Riccabocca briefly said, "Certainly, the sooner the better." Violante +was stunned and bewildered. Jemima hastened to make up a little bundle +of things necessary, with many a woman's sigh that the poor wardrobe +contained so few things befitting. But among the clothes she slipped a +purse, containing the savings of months, perhaps of years, and with it a +few affectionate lines, begging Violante to ask the Countess to buy her +all that was proper for her father's child. There is always something +hurried and uncomfortable in the abrupt and unexpected withdrawal of any +member from a quiet household. The small party broke into still smaller +knots. Violante hung on her father, and listened vaguely to his not very +lucid explanations. The Countess approached Leonard, and according to +the usual mode of persons of quality addressing young authors, +complimented him highly on the books she had not read, but which her son +assured her were so remarkable. She was a little anxious to know where +Harley had met with Mr. Oran, whom he called his friend; but she was too +high-bred to inquire, or to express any wonder that rank should be +friends with genius. + +She took it for granted that they had formed their acquaintance abroad. + +Harley conversed with Helen. "You are not sorry that Violante is coming +to us? She will be just such a companion for you as I could desire; of +your own years too." + +_Helen_, (ingenuously.)--"It is hard to think I am not younger than she +is." + +_Harley._--"Why, my dear Helen?" + +_Helen._--"She is so brilliant. She talks so beautifully. And I--" + +_Harley._--"And you want but the habit of talking, to do justice to your +own beautiful thoughts." + +Helen looked at him gratefully, but shook her head. It was a common +trick of hers, and always when she was praised. + +At last the preparations were made--the farewell was said. Violante was +in the carriage by Lady Lansmere's side. Slowly moved on the stately +equipage with its four horses and trim postillions, heraldic badges on +their shoulders, in the style rarely seen in the neighborhood of the +metropolis, and now fast vanishing even amidst distant counties. + +Riccabocca, Jemima, and Jackeymo continued to gaze after it from the +gate. + +"She is gone," said Jackeymo, brushing his eyes with his coat-sleeve. +"But it is a load off one's mind." + +"And another load on one's heart," murmured Riccabocca. "Don't cry, +Jemima; it may be bad for you, and bad for _him_ that is to come. It is +astonishing how the humors of the mother may affect the unborn. I should +not like to have a son who has a more than usual propensity to tears." + +The poor philosopher tried to smile; but it was a bad attempt. He went +slowly in and shut himself up with his books. But he could not read. His +whole mind was unsettled. And though, like all parents, he had been +anxious to rid himself of a beloved daughter for life, now that she was +gone but for a while, a string seemed broken in the Music of Home. + + +CHAPTER VII. + +The evening of the same day, as Egerton, who was to entertain a large +party at dinner, was changing his dress, Harley walked into his room. + +Egerton dismissed his valet by a sign, and continued his toilet. + +"Excuse me, my dear Harley, I have only ten minutes to give you. I +expect one of the royal dukes, and punctuality is the stern virtue of +men of business, and the graceful courtesy of princes." + +Harley had usually a jest for his friend's aphorisms; but he had none +now. He laid his hand kindly on Egerton's shoulder--"Before I speak of +my business, tell me how you are--better?" + +"Better--nay, I am always well. Pooh! I may look a little tired--years +of toil will tell on the countenance. But that matters little--the +period of life has passed with me when one cares how one looks in the +glass." + +As he spoke, Egerton completed his dress, and came to the hearth, +standing there, erect and dignified as usual, still far handsomer than +many a younger man, and with a form that seemed to have ample vigor to +support for many a year the sad and glorious burden of power. + +"So now to your business, Harley." + +"In the first place, I want you to present me, at the first opportunity, +to Madame di Negra. You say she wished to know me." + +"Are you serious?" + +"Yes." + +"Well, then, she receives this evening. I did not mean to go; but when +my party breaks up"-- + +"You can call for me at 'The Travellers.' Do! + +"Next--you knew Lady Jane Horton better even than I did, at least in the +last year of her life." Harley sighed, and Egerton turned and stirred +the fire. + +"Pray, did you ever see at her house, or hear her speak of, a Mrs. +Bertram?" + +"Of whom?" said Egerton, in a hollow voice, his face still turned +towards the fire. + +"A Mrs. Bertram; but heavens! my dear fellow, what is the matter? Are +you ill?" + +"A spasm at the heart--that is all--don't ring--I shall be better +presently--go on talking. Mrs.---- why do you ask?" + +"Why! I have hardly time to explain; but I am, as I told you, resolved +on righting my old Italian friend, if Heaven will help me, as it ever +does help the just when they bestir themselves; and this Mrs. Bertram is +mixed up in my friend's affairs." + +"His! How is that possible?" + +Harley rapidly and succinctly explained. Audley listened attentively, +with his eyes fixed on the floor, and still seeming to labor under great +difficulty of breathing. + +At last he answered, "I remember something of this Mrs.--Mrs.--Bertram. +But your inquiries after her would be useless. I think I have heard that +she is long since dead; nay, I am sure of it." + +"Dead!--that is most unfortunate. But do you know any of her relations +or friends? Can you suggest any mode of tracing this packet if it came +to her hands?" + +"No." + +"And Lady Jane had scarcely any friend that I remember, except my +mother, and she knows nothing of this Mrs. Bertram. How unlucky! I think +I shall advertise. Yet, no. I could only distinguish this Mrs. Bertram +from any other of the same name, by stating with whom she had gone +abroad, and that would catch the attention of Peschiera, and set him to +counterwork us." + +"And what avails it?" said Egerton. "She whom you seek is no more--no +more!" He paused, and went on rapidly--"The packet did not arrive in +England till years after her death--was no doubt returned to the +post-office--is destroyed long ago." + +Harley looked very much disappointed. Egerton went on in a sort of set +mechanical voice, as if not thinking of what he said, but speaking from +the dry practical mode of reasoning which was habitual to him, and by +which the man of the world destroys the hopes of an enthusiast. Then +starting up at the sound of the first thundering knock at the street +door, he said, "Hark! you must excuse me." + +"I leave you, my dear Audley. Are you better now?" + +"Much, much--quite well. I will call for you, probably between eleven +and twelve." + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +If any one could be more surprised at seeing Lord L'Estrange at the +house of Madame di Negra that evening than the fair hostess herself, it +was Randal Leslie. Something instinctively told him that this visit +threatened interference with whatever might be his ultimate projects in +regard to Riccabocca and Violante. But Randal Leslie was not one of +those who shrink from an intellectual combat. On the contrary, he was +too confident of his powers of intrigue, not to take a delight in their +exercise. He could not conceive that the indolent Harley could be a +match for his own restless activity and dogged perseverance. But in a +very few moments fear crept on him. No man of his day could produce a +more brilliant effect than Lord L'Estrange, when he deigned to desire +it. Without much pretence to that personal beauty which strikes at first +sight, he still retained all the charm of countenance, and all the grace +of manner which had made him in boyhood the spoiled darling of society. +Madame di Negra had collected but a small circle round her, still it was +of the _élite_ of the great world; not, indeed, those more precise and +reserved _dames du chateau_, whom the lighter and easier of the fair +dispensers of fashion ridicule as prudes; but, nevertheless, ladies were +there, as unblemished in reputation as high in rank; flirts and +coquettes, perhaps--nothing more; in short, "charming women"--the gay +butterflies that hover over the stiff parterre. And there were +ambassadors and ministers, and wits and brilliant debaters, and +first-rate dandies (dandies, when first-rate, are generally very +agreeable men). Amongst all these various persons, Harley, so long a +stranger to the London world, seemed to make himself at home with the +ease of an Alcibiades. Many of the less juvenile ladies remembered him, +and rushed to claim his acquaintance, with nods, and becks, and wreathed +smiles. He had ready compliments for each. And few indeed were there, +men or women, for whom Harley L'Estrange had not appropriate attraction. +Distinguished reputation as a soldier and scholar, for the grave; whim +and pleasantry for the gay; novelty for the sated; and for the more +vulgar natures, was he not Lord L'Estrange, unmarried, heir to an +ancient earldom, and some fifty thousand a-year? + +Not till he had succeeded in the general effect--which, it must be +owned, he did his best to create--did Harley seriously and especially +devote himself to his hostess. And then he seated himself by her side; +and as if in compliment to both, less pressing admirers insensibly +slipped away and edged off. + +Frank Hazeldean was the last to quit his ground behind Madame di Negra's +chair; but when he found that the two began to talk in Italian, and he +could not understand a word they said, he too--fancying, poor fellow, +that he looked foolish, and cursing his Eaton education that had +neglected, for languages spoken by the dead, of which he had learned +little, those still in use among the living, of which he had learned +naught--retreated towards Randal, and asked wistfully, "Pray, what age +should you say L'Estrange was? He must be devilish old, in spite of his +looks. Why, he was at Waterloo!" + +"He is young enough to be a terrible rival," answered Randal, with +artful truth. + +Frank turned pale, and began to meditate dreadful bloodthirsty thoughts, +of which hair-triggers and Lord's Cricket-ground formed the staple. + +Certainly there was apparent ground for a lover's jealousy. For Harley +and Beatrice now conversed in a low tone, and Beatrice seemed agitated, +and Harley earnest. Randal himself grew more and more perplexed. Was +Lord L'Estrange really enamored of the Marchesa? If so, farewell to all +hopes of Frank's marriage with her! Or was he merely playing a part in +Riccabocca's interest; pretending to be the lover, in order to obtain an +influence over her mind, rule her through her ambition, and secure an +ally against her brother? Was this _finesse_ compatible with Randal's +notions of Harley's character? Was it consistent with that chivalric and +soldierly spirit of honor which the frank nobleman affected, to make +love to a woman in a mere _ruse de guerre_? Could mere friendship for +Riccabocca be a sufficient inducement to a man, who, whatever his +weaknesses or his errors, seemed to wear on his very forehead a soul +above deceit, to stoop to paltry means, even for a worthy end? At this +question, a new thought flashed upon Randal--might not Lord L'Estrange +have speculated himself upon winning Violante?--would not that account +for all the exertions he had made on behalf of her inheritance at the +court of Vienna--exertions of which Peschiera and Beatrice had both +complained? Those objections which the Austrian government might take to +Violante's marriage with some obscure Englishman would probably not +exist against a man like Harley L'Estrange, whose family not only +belonged to the highest aristocracy of England, but had always supported +opinions in vogue amongst the leading governments of Europe. Harley +himself, it is true, had never taken part in politics, but his notions +were, no doubt, those of a high-born soldier, who had fought, in +alliance with Austria, for the restoration of the Bourbons. And this +immense wealth--which Violante might lose if she married one like Randal +himself--her marriage with the heir of the Lansmeres might actually tend +only to secure. Could Harley, with all his own expectations, be +indifferent to such a prize?--and no doubt he had learned Violante's +rare beauty in his correspondence with Riccabocca. + +Thus considered, it seemed natural to Randal's estimate of human nature, +that Harley's more prudish scruples of honor, as regards what is due to +women, could not resist a temptation so strong. Mere friendship was not +a motive powerful enough to shake them, but ambition was. + +While Randal was thus cogitating, Frank thus suffering, and many a +whisper, in comment on the evident flirtation between the beautiful +hostess and the accomplished guest, reached the ears both of the +brooding schemer and the jealous lover, the conversation between the two +objects of remark and gossip had taken a new turn. Indeed, Beatrice had +made an effort to change it. + +"It is long, my lord," said she, still speaking Italian, "since I have +heard sentiments like those you address to me; and if I do not feel +myself wholly unworthy of them, it is from the pleasure I have felt in +reading sentiments equally foreign to the language of the world in which +I live." She took a book from the table as she spoke: "Have you seen +this work?" + +Harley glanced at the title-page. "To be sure I have, and I know the +author." + +"I envy you that honor. I should so like also to know one who has +discovered to me deeps in my own heart which I had never explored." + +"Charming Marchesa, if the book has done this, believe me that I have +paid you no false compliment--formed no overflattering estimate of your +nature; for the charm of the work is but in its simple appeal to good +and generous emotions, and it can charm none in whom those emotions +exist not!" + +"Nay, that cannot be true, or why is it so popular?" + +"Because good and generous emotions are more common to the human heart +than we are aware of till the appeal comes." + +"Don't ask me to think that! I have found the world so base." + +"Pardon me a rude question; but what do you know of the world?" + +Beatrice looked first in surprise at Harley, then glanced round the room +with significant irony. + +"As I thought; you call this little room 'the world.' Be it so. I will +venture to say, that if the people in this room were suddenly converted +into an audience before a stage, and you were as consummate in the +actor's art as you are in all others that please and command--" + +"Well?" + +"And were to deliver a speech full of sordid and base sentiments, you +would be hissed. But let any other woman, with half your powers, arise +and utter sentiments sweet and womanly, or honest and lofty--and +applause would flow from every lip, and tears rush to many a worldly +eye. The true proof of the inherent nobleness of our common nature is in +the sympathy it betrays with what is noble wherever crowds are +collected. Never believe the world is base;--if it were so, no society +could hold together for a day. But you would know the author of this +book? I will bring him to you." + +"Do." + +"And now," said Harley rising, and with his candid winning smile, "do +you think we shall ever be friends?" + +"You have startled me so, that I can scarcely answer. But why would you +be friends with me?" + +"Because you need a friend. You have none?" + +"Strange flatterer!" said Beatrice, smiling, though very sadly; and +looking up, her eye caught Randal's. + +"Pooh!" said Harley, "you are too penetrating to believe that you +inspire friendship _there_. Ah, do you suppose that, all the while I +have been conversing with you, I have not noticed the watchful gaze of +Mr. Randal Leslie? What tie can possibly connect you together I know not +yet; but I soon shall." + +"Indeed! you talk like one of the old Council of Venice. You try hard to +make me fear you," said Beatrice, seeking to escape from the graver kind +of impression Harley had made on her, by the affectation, partly of +coquetry, partly of levity. + +"And I," said L'Estrange, calmly, "tell you already, that I fear you no +more." He bowed, and passed through the crowd to rejoin Audley, who was +seated in a corner, whispering with some of his political colleagues. +Before Harley reached the minister, he found himself close to Randal and +young Hazeldean. + +He bowed to the first, and extended his hand to the last. Randal felt +the distinction, and his sullen, bitter pride was deeply galled--a +feeling of hate towards Harley passed into his mind. He was pleased to +see the cold hesitation with which Frank just touched the hand offered +to him. But Randal had not been the only person whose watch upon +Beatrice the keen-eyed Harley had noticed. Harley had seen the angry +looks of Frank Hazeldean, and divined the cause. So he smiled +forgivingly at the slight he had received. + +"You are like me, Mr. Hazeldean," said he. "You think something of the +heart should go with all courtesy that bespeaks friendship-- + + "The hand of Douglas is his own." + +Here Harley drew aside Randal. "Mr. Leslie, a word with you. If I wished +to know the retreat of Dr. Riccabocca, in order to render him a great +service, would you confide to me that secret?" + +"That woman has let out her suspicions that I know the exile's retreat," +thought Randal; and with rare presence of mind, he replied at once-- + +"My Lord, yonder stands a connection of Dr. Riccabocca's. Mr. Hazeldean +is surely the person to whom you should address this inquiry." + +"Not so, Mr. Leslie; for I suspect that he cannot answer it, and that +you can. Well, I will ask something that it seems to me you may grant +without hesitation. Should you see Dr. Riccabocca, tell him that I am in +England, and so leave it to him to communicate with me or not; but +perhaps you have already done so?" + +"Lord L'Estrange," said Randal, bowing low, with pointed formality, +"excuse me if I decline either to disclaim or acquiesce in the knowledge +you impute to me. If I am acquainted with any secret intrusted to me by +Dr. Riccabocca, it is for me to use my own discretion how best to guard +it. And for the rest, after the Scotch earl, whose words your lordship +has quoted, refused to touch the hand of Marmion, Douglas could scarcely +have called him back in order to give him--a message!" + +Harley was not prepared for this tone in Mr. Egerton's _protégé_, and +his own gallant nature was rather pleased than irritated by a +haughtiness that at least seemed to bespeak independence of spirit. +Nevertheless, L'Estrange's suspicions of Randal were too strong to be +easily set aside, and therefore he replied, civilly, but with covert +taunt-- + +"I submit to your rebuke, Mr. Leslie, though I meant not the offence you +would ascribe to me. I regret my unlucky quotation yet the more, since +the wit of your retort has obliged you to identify yourself with +Marmion, who, though a clever and brave fellow, was an +uncommonly--tricky one." And so Harley, certainly having the best of it, +moved on, and joining Egerton, in a few minutes more both left the room. + +"What was L'Estrange saying to you?" asked Frank. "Something about +Beatrice, I am sure." + +"No; only quoting poetry." + +"Then, what made you look so angry, my dear fellow? I know it was your +kind feeling for me. As you say, he is a formidable rival. But that +can't be his own hair. Do you think he wears a _toupet_? I am sure he +was praising Beatrice. He is evidently very much smitten with her. But I +don't think she is a woman to be caught by _mere_ rank and fortune! Do +you? Why can't you speak?" + +"If you do not get her consent soon, I think she is lost to you," said +Randal slowly; and, before Frank could recover his dismay, glided from +the house. + + +CHAPTER IX. + +Violante's first evening at the Lansmeres, had seemed happier to her +than the first evening, under the same roof, had done to Helen. True +that she missed her father much--Jemima somewhat; but she so identified +her father's cause with Harley, that she had a sort of vague feeling +that it was to promote that cause that she was on this visit to Harley's +parents. And the Countess, it must be owned, was more emphatically +cordial to her than she had ever yet been to Captain Digby's orphan. But +perhaps the real difference in the heart of either girl was this, that +Helen felt awe of Lady Lansmere, and Violante felt only love for Lord +L'Estrange's mother. Violante, too, was one of those persons whom a +reserved and formal person, like the Countess, "can get on with," as the +phrase goes. Not so poor little Helen--so shy herself, and so hard to +coax into more than gentle monosyllables. And Lady Lansmere's favorite +talk was always of Harley. Helen had listened to such talk with respect +and interest. Violante listened to it with inquisitive eagerness--with +blushing delight. The mother's heart noticed the distinction between the +two, and no wonder that the heart moved more to Violante than to Helen. +Lord Lansmere, too, like most gentlemen of his age, clumped all young +ladies together, as a harmless, amiable, but singularly stupid class of +the genus-Petticoat, meant to look pretty, play the piano, and talk to +each other about frocks and sweethearts. Therefore this animated, +dazzling creature, with her infinite variety of look and play of mind, +took him by surprise, charmed him into attention, and warmed him into +gallantry. Helen sat in her quiet corner, at her work, sometimes +listening with mournful, though certainly unenvious, admiration at +Violante's vivid, yet ever unconscious, eloquence of word and +thought--sometimes plunged deep into her own secret meditations. And all +the while the work went on the same, under the small noiseless fingers. +This was one of Helen's habits that irritated the nerves of Lady +Lansmere. She despised young ladies who were fond of work. She did not +comprehend how often it is the resource of the sweet womanly mind, not +from want of thought, but from the silence and the depth of it. Violante +was surprised, and perhaps disappointed, that Harley had left the house +before dinner, and did not return all the evening. But Lady Lansmere, in +making excuse for his absence, on the plea of engagements, found so good +an opportunity to talk of his ways in general--of his rare promise in +boyhood--of her regret at the inaction of his maturity--of her hope to +see him yet do justice to his natural powers, that Violante almost +ceased to miss him. + +And when Lady Lansmere conducted her to her room, and kissing her cheek +tenderly, said, "But you are just the person Harley admires--just the +person to rouse him from melancholy dreams, of which his wild humors are +now but the vain disguise"--Violante crossed her arms on her bosom, and +her bright eyes, deepened into tenderness, seemed to ask, "He +melancholy--and why?" + +On leaving Violante's room, Lady Lansmere paused before the door of +Helen's; and, after musing a little while, entered softly. + +Helen had dismissed her maid; and, at the moment Lady Lansmere entered, +she was kneeling at the foot of the bed, her hands clasped before her +face. + +Her form, thus seen, looked so youthful and childlike--the attitude +itself was so holy and so touching, that the proud and cold expression +on Lady Lansmere's face changed. She shaded the light involuntarily, and +seated herself in silence, that she might not disturb the act of prayer. + +When Helen rose, she was startled to see the Countess seated by the +fire; and hastily drew her hand across her eyes. She had been weeping. + +Lady Lansmere did not, however, turn to observe those traces of tears, +which Helen feared were too visible. The Countess was too absorbed in +her own thoughts; and as Helen timidly approached, she said--still with +her eyes on the clear low fire--"I beg your pardon, Miss Digby, for my +intrusion; but my son has left it to me to prepare Lord Lansmere to +learn the offer you have done Harley the honor to accept. I have not yet +spoken to my lord; it may be days before I find a fitting occasion to do +so; meanwhile, I feel assured that your sense of propriety will make you +agree with me, that it is due to Lord L'Estrange's father, that +strangers should not learn arrangements of such moment in his family, +before his own consent be obtained." + +Here the Countess came to a full pause; and poor Helen, finding herself +called upon for some reply to this chilling speech, stammered out, +scarce audibly-- + +"Certainly, madam, I never dreamed of--" + +"That is right, my dear," interrupted Lady Lansmere, rising suddenly, +and as if greatly relieved. "I could not doubt your superiority to +ordinary girls of your age, with whom these matters are never secret for +a moment. Therefore, of course, you will not mention, at present, what +has passed between you and Harley, to any of the friends with whom you +may correspond." + +"I have no correspondents--no friends, Lady Lansmere," said Helen, +deprecatingly, and trying hard not to cry. + +"I am very glad to hear it, my dear; young ladies never should have. +Friends, especially friends who correspond, are the worst enemies they +can have. Good night, Miss Digby. I need not add, by the way, that, +though we are bound to show all kindness to this young Italian lady, +still she is wholly unconnected with our family; and you will be as +prudent with her as you would have been with your correspondents--had +you had the misfortune to have any." + +Lady Lansmere said the last words with a smile, and pressed a reluctant +kiss (the step-mother's kiss) on Helen's bended brow. She then left the +room, and Helen sat on the seat vacated by the stately unloving form, +and again covered her face with her hands, and again wept. But when she +rose at last, and the light fell upon her face, that soft face was sad +indeed, but serene--serene, as if with some inward sense of duty--sad, +as with the resignation which accepts patience instead of hope. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[21] Continued from page 411. + +[22] Translation of _Charron on Wisdom_. By G. Stanhope, D.D., late Dean +of Canterbury (1729). A translation remarkable for ease, vigor, and +(despite that contempt for the strict rules of grammar, which was common +enough amongst writers at the commencement of the last century) for the +idiomatic raciness of its English. + + + + +From Household Words. + +CHOICE SECRETS. + + +"Light a room with spermaceti, anoint your face with the same substance, +and you will seem to all beholders to have the head of a sperm whale +upon your shoulders." "When you would have men in the house seem to be +without heads: take yellow brimstone with oil, and put it in a lamp and +light it, and set it in the midst amongst men, and you shall see a +wonder." These are two out of a large mass of facts which form a compact +body of ancestral wisdom. They lie before us in a venerable volume, +whose grave frontispiece is adorned with the portraitures of Alexis, +Albertus Magnus, Dr. Reade, Raymond Lully, Dr. Harvey, Lord Bacon, and +Dr. John Wecker. John Wecker, Doctor in Physic, first compiled the book, +and Dr. R. Read augmented and enlarged it. "A like work never before was +in the English tongue." It was printed in the year 1661, for Simon +Miller, at the Starre in St. Paul's Church Yard, and it is entitled, +"Eighteen Books of the Secrets of Art and Nature, being the Summe and +Substance of Naturall Philosophy, Methodically Digested." The book is +one of considerable size and pretension, written by wise doctors in the +good old time, two hundred years ago. Let us not be conceited and harp +only on the strings provided to our fingers in the nineteenth century. +For a few minutes, at least, it will not do us harm to get a little +scientific information from our ancestors. We shall glean, therefore, +some random facts out of the harvest-field of Doctors Mead and Wecker, +selecting, of course, most characteristic, those which our forefathers +may call exclusively their own. + +The volume opens with scientific information on the subject of Angels +and Devils, including, of course, the fact that "Witches kill children, +and divers cattle, which we find by various experience, and by relation +of others that are worthy to be believed. But if you will say they are +mere delusions of the Devil, whereby he makes foolish women mad that are +entangled by him, that they believe they do those things which neither +they nor the devil can do; if we can so avoid it, we may as well deny +any thing else, be it never so evident. "--If you deny that, you may +deny any thing--is a phrase not yet dead. Applied two hundred years ago +to the experience concerning witches, it has been industriously employed +to the present day, and is employed still on behalf of a great many +fresh delusions. As for the gentleman, whom truth is said to shame, he +claimed his distinct chapter in the minds of old physicians, because, as +the book before us has it, he "can cause many diseases, of the reasons +whereof we are ignorant. Also he can do this, or that; being subtile, he +can easily pass through all parts of the body, which he can bind, pull +back, or torment otherwise." + +Passing on now, as we follow the march of high philosophy, to secrets of +the sun and moon; it may be worth while to understand, as our +forefathers taught, that "it is easie to guess at the fortune of every +year by the stars, if a man consider twelve, nineteen, eight, four, and +thirty." Somebody wants to know what luck he will have in 1853. Let him +consider 1841 (twelve years back), let him consider 1834 (nineteen years +back), and, for the eight, four, thirty, let him look back to the years +1845, 1849, and 1823. Let him reflect on the nature of his fortune in +each of those years, look up his old diaries, combine their results, and +that will give him the character of his fate in 1853. Jupiter is somehow +at the bottom of this, but we are too modern and ignorant to understand +the author's explanation. + +Among secrets concerning fire, are those two facts connected with +spermaceti and brimstone already stated. Any one living in the country, +whom the croaking of the frogs may trouble of a night, will doubtless +be glad to hear of a remedy: "Take the fat of a crocodile, and make it +up with wax while in the sun, and make a candle of it, and light it in +the place where frogs are, and when they see that they will presently +cease crying." Where crocodile's fat cannot be had, "the fat of a +dolphin" will do. Prescriptions abound, by the use of which men may +appear to wear the heads of asses, horses, dogs, or to resemble +elephants. There is a receipt also for making "a faire light, that the +house may seem all full of serpents so long as the wick doth burn." But +we pass over these pleasant methods of illumination, simply remarking, +that if our wise ancestors were right, the volume now before us would +procure a sudden fortune to the lessees of Vauxhall. By the use of some +dozen kinds of cunningly prepared lamps, the Royal Gardens might in good +faith be chronicled in its bills as a "scene of enchantment." At one +turn of a walk, all visitors would show their heads, and at another, +none; in another grove they would be elephants, and in another they +would look like angels. The Rotunda might be lighted for a diabolical +effect, and the Dark Walk illuminated brilliantly with dolphin's fat, +funeral cloth and Azemat, whose light makes every body invisible. This, +again, is no bad hint for a country tallow-chandler, who supplies light +to the ladies of a solemn village, where he is annoyed by the neglect of +any gayeties that would create large orders for composite or sperm: "_To +make women rejoice mightily._ Make candles of the fat of hares, and +light them, and let them stand awhile in the middle where women are: +they will not be so merry as to dance; yet sometimes that falls out +also." + +"It is a wonder that some report how that the tooth of a badger, or his +left foot bound to a man's right arm will strengthen the memory." Boys, +who have lessons to learn, may like to know that fact; and teachers, who +have idle pupils, must not flog, but feed them upon cresses. "Cresses +eaten make a man industrious." Young ladies, who believe in their +ancestors, will thank us for repeating their opinion that the use of a +ring, which was lain for a certain time in a sparrow's nest, will +procure love. Nor need any dread the penalties of matrimony, since the +man who carries with him a hartshorn "shall alwaies have peace with his +wife:" and also, "the heart of a male quail, carried by the man, and the +heart of a female quail, by the woman, will cause that no quarrels can +ever arise between them." The man who carries a quail's heart in his +pocket may face his wife, and never have to feel his own heart quailing +underneath his ribs. + +Old Parr dined probably upon serpents, not, as is commonly reported, +upon pills. "It is known that stags renew their age by eating serpents; +so the phoenix is restored by the nest of spices shee makes to burn +in. The pelican hath the same virtue, whose right foot, if it be put +under hot dung, after three months a pelican will be bred from it. +Wherefore some physicians, with some confections, made of a viper and +hellebore, and of some of the flesh of these creatures, do promise to +restore youth, and sometimes they do it." If the Zoological Society has +proper respect for our ancestors, they will not delay to sow a hot-bed +with pelicans' feet. Young shoots of pelican would be much more +appropriate beside the gravel-walks than your mere vegetable +pelargonium. + +In the way of practice of medicine, we moderns say that any thing like +scientific principles, on which one can depend, have only been attained +in our own lifetime. "Doctors differed," and bumped against each other, +only because all alike were feeling through the dark. In our own day +there is light enough to keep doctors from differing very +grossly,--gross difference springing generally more from the want of +knowledge in an individual, than in the profession generally. Although +there is yet a vast deal to be learned. In the first century, +Asclepiades dubbed the medical system of Hippocrates, "a cold meditation +of death." Under Nero there arose a Dr. Thessalus, who taught that +Nature was the guide to follow and obey in all diseases; and, therefore, +under his system patients were simply to be liberally and rapidly +supplied with every thing they fancied. Paracelsus, in the sixteenth +century, looked for a patient's symptoms in the stars; so we must not be +surprised if the "Secrets in Physic and Surgery," published among the +other secrets in this volume now before us, contain odd information. +Here is a nice cure for a quartan ague, which might tickle a patient's +stomach sooner than his fancy: "Seven wig-lice of the bed, wrapped in a +great grape husk, and swallowed down alive before the fit." Another cure +is effected when the patient eats the parings of his nails and toes, +mingled with wax. There are many remedies against the Plague; but that +one which is recommended as "_The Best Thing against the Plague_," is +for a man to wash his mouth with vinegar and water before he goes out, +drinking also a spoonful of the liquor; then to press his nose and stop +his breath, so that "by the vapor and steam held in your mouth, the +brain be moistened." In the following prescription we believe entirely: +"_For Melancholy._ It is no small remedy to cure melancholy, to rub your +body all over with nettles." + +Book Five contains secrets for beautifying the human body. The following +receipt, which comes first, for giving people a substantial look, seems +to be somewhat too efficacious to be often tried: "_To make men fat._ If +you mingle with the fat of a lizard, salt-petre and cummin and +wheat-meal, hens fatted with this meat will be so fat, that men that eat +of them, will eat until they burst." A degree of fatness in hens equal +to this will never be communicated by our degenerate modern +agriculturists. For the hair-dyes, favored by our forefathers, we +cannot, however, say much, for we must differ in taste very decidedly. +Recipes are given for obtaining, not only black, but white hair, yellow +hair, red hair, and "To make your hair seem GREEN." Nobody in these days +will use a course of the distilled water of capers to make his hair look +like a meadow; and even, if any body among us, too fastidious as we now +are, wanted yellow hair, we do _not_ think that he would consent to rub +into his head for that purpose honey and the yolk of eggs. There are +also in this part of the work some ungallant recommendations of +substances, which a man may chew in order that, presently breathing near +a lady's cheek, he may discolor it, and so detect her artifice, if she +should happen to be painted. Among "secrets for beautifying the body," +we cannot but think this also indicative of an odd taste; "If you would +change the color of children's eyes, you shall do it thus; with the +ashes of the small nut-shells, with oil you must anoint the forepart of +their head; _it will make the whites of children's eyes black_; DO IT +OFTEN!" + +Concerning wine, it is worth knowing, that to cure a man of drunkenness, +you should put eels into his wine. Delightful dreams will visit the +couch of him who has eaten moderately, for supper, of a horse's tongue, +and taken balm for salad. This is "A means to make a man sleep sweetly," +which we recommend to the attention of all restless people, who have +proper faith in their forefathers. As we have passed over a good many +pages, and come to the "secrets of asses," we may put down, _à propos_ +to nothing, that "If an ass have a stone bound to his tail he cannot +bray." + +The following may be tried in a few months by ladies in the country, who +rise early on a fine spring morning; they may thus earn the delight of +exhibiting to their friends one of the prettiest balloon ascents that +any body can conceive: "In May, fill an egg-shell with May-dew, and set +it in the hot sun at noon-day, and the sun will draw it up." + +The secrets of gardening, known to our forefathers, annihilate all claim +in Sir Joseph Paxton to the commonest consideration. They taught how to +get the blue roses by manuring with indigo, or green roses by digging +verdigris about the roots. They taught the whole art of perfuming fruit, +by steeping the seeds of the future tree in oil of spike, or rose-water +and musk. If, say our ancestors, you would have peaches, plums, or +cherries without any stone, you have only, when the tree is a twig, to +pick out all the pith before you set it. To get your filbert-trees to +bear you fruit all kernel, you have only to crack a nut, and sow the +kernel only, covered with a little wool. And very much more marvellous, +in the annals of gardening, is the receipt for getting peach-trees that +bear fruit covered with inscriptions: "When you have eaten the peach, +steep the stone two or three days in water, and open it gently, and +_take the kernal out of it(!)_ and write something within the shell with +an iron graver, what you please, yet not too deep, then wrap it in paper +and set it; whatever you write in the shell you shall find written in +the fruit." Such shrewd things mingled with the more ordinary knowledge +of our ancestors upon affairs of gardening. + +It will be seen that for many of these "facts" there was a "reason" +close at hand. Our forefathers were wise enough to know that every thing +required properly accounting for. Thus, for example, in "the secrets of +metals:" "Some report that a candle lighted of man's fat, and brought to +the place where the treasures are hid, will discover them with the +noise; and when it is near them it will go out. If this be true, it +ariseth from sympathy; for fat is made of blood, and blood is the seat +of the soul and spirits, and both these are held by the desire of silver +and gold, so long as a man lives; and therefore they trouble the blood; +so here is sympathy." + +If a man would prevent hail from coming down, he is to walk about his +garden, with a crocodile--stuffed, of course--and hang it up in the +middle. Pieces of the skin of a hippopotamus, wherever they are buried, +keep off storms. A thunder-storm also can be put to rout by firing +cannons at it; "for by the force of the sound moving the air, the +exhalations are driven upward." (In the same way, the plague was said to +yield before a cannonade.) "Some who observe hail coming on, bring a +huge looking-glass, and observe the largeness of the cloud, and by that +remedy,--whether objected against, or despised by it, or it is +displeased with it; or whether, being doubled, it gives way to the +other" (in some way or other one must find out a reason), "they suddenly +turn it off and remove it." An owl stuck up in the fields, with its +wings spread, served also as a scare-crow to the tempests. As lightning +conductor on a roof, it was thought wise to put an egg-shell, out of +which a chicken had been hatched on Ascension-day. Thunderbolt stones +were said to sweat during a storm, which was not thought a more +wonderful "fact" than the perspirations streaming out of glass windows +"in winter when the stove is hot." Our ancestors were far too wise to be +surprised at any thing. + +Secrets of alchemy, magic, and astrology are, of course, very profound; +we pass over these and many more; among secrets of cookery we pause, +shuddering. Whipping young pigs to death, to make them tender eating, +used to be quite bad enough; and some of our own hidden devices in the +meat trade are, even now, equally revolting; but here we meet with a +device of the wise ancestors, which may, perhaps, stand at the head of +all culinary horrors. Remembering that these cooks were also apt at +roasting men, we will inflict this illustration on our readers: "_To +roast a Goose alive._ Let it be a duck or goose, or some such lively +creature; but a goose is best of all for this purpose; leaving his neck, +pull off all the feathers from his body, then make a fire round about +him, not too wide, for that will not roast him; within the place set +here and there small pots full of water, with salt and honey mixed +therewith, and let there be dishes set full of roasted apples, and cut +in pieces in the dish, and let the goose be basted with butter all over, +and larded to make him better meat, and he may roast the better; put +fire to it; do not make too much haste, when he begins to roast, walking +about, and striving to fly away; the fire stops him in, and he will fall +to drink water to quench his thirst; this will cool his heart, and the +other parts of his body, and, by this medicament, he looseneth his belly +and grows empty. And when he roasteth and consumes inwardly, always wet +his head and heart with a wet sponge; but when you see him run madding +and stumble, his heart wants moisture, take him away, set him before +your guests, and he will cry as you cut off any part from him, and will +be almost eaten up before he be dead; it is very pleasant to behold." + +Degenerate moderns would most certainly be unable to enjoy such +hospitality, and would be cured as thoroughly of any appetite as if +their host had employed another of the secrets of our ancestors. "That +guests may not eat at table, do this: You must have a needle that dead +people are often sewed up in their winding-sheet; and at beginning of +supper secretly stick this under the table; this will hinder the guests +from eating, that they will rather be weary to sit, than desirous to +eat; take it away when you have laughed at them awhile." + +Take it away, we must say now to the old book. As we have said, our +specimens, drawn from an immense mass of the same kind, do not represent +the sole character of the volume. It states, also, a very large number +of facts, confirmed and explained in the present day, being a fair +transcript of the average standard of opinion among learned doctors upon +a great number of things. Have we not made a little progress since those +good old times, and would it be a pleasant thing to get them back again? +To come home to every man's breakfast-table, we may ask the public to +decide between the coffee now made, and the coffee of the good old +times. In a somewhat expensive book, addressed only to wealthy readers, +Drs. Read and Weckir disclose this secret of good coffee, for the ladies +and gentlemen of 1660:--"Take the berry, put it in a tin pudding-pan, +and when bread hath been in the oven about half-an-hour, put in your +coffee; there let it stand till you draw your bread; then beat it and +sift it; mix it thus: first boyl your water about half-an-hour; to every +quart of water put in a spoonful of the pouder of coffee; then let it +boyl one-third away; clear it off from the setlings; and the next day +put fresh water; and so add every day fresh water, so long as any +setlings remain. _Often Tryed._" + + + + +Authors and Books. + + +ARTHOR SCHOPENHAUER, of Berlin, has recently published _Parerga und +Paralipomena, or little Philosophical Writings_, in which, according to +a Leipsic reviewer, "the author asserts that _his_ philosophy is not +merely the _only_ advance in that department since the days of Kant, but +that _his_ system bears the same relation to all earlier philosophy, +that the New Testament bears to the Old. In addition to this, he +attempts to solve the problem, how can it be possible that he has ever +been as unknown to the literary and scientific world as the Man in the +Moon, while the absurdest and most ridiculous theories, such, for +example, as those of Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel, have been so +generally accepted. But as he, in spite of the most earnest endeavors, +can find no internal ground for this unaccountable blindness of the +public, he seeks it in another direction. These impudent sophists, it +seems, have had no other ground than simply _that of making money_! With +the hocus-pocus of common charlatans they have carried their wares to +market, and as _candidates_ and teachers of philosophy generally spring +up from the same effort, there resulted an alliance of charlatans whose +object it was on the one side to raise themselves to heaven, and on the +other to suppress all true thinking, so that the public might be +prevented, by a just consideration of their own worthlessness." "Such +accusations as those," continues our reviewer, "awaken an unfavorable +impression, which is not in the least diminished by continued boasting +and grandiloquence, and a clumsy roughness of style, which not +unfrequently falls into downright burlesque. The work itself is an odd +mixture of actual recollections and arbitrary fancies, of explanations +and superstitions, which force us to regret that many really admirable +thoughts which occasionally surprise the reader in an assembly of +trivialities and paradoxes, must inevitably be lost. Those philosophers +certainly provoke sharp criticism when we separate their truly +scientific contents from their visions and dispositions, and it would +perhaps be more in accordance with the spirit of the age to return more +earnestly to _Kant_ than most of the more recent philosophers are +accustomed to do. Still nothing is in the least gained for the negative +aim of criticism, when the critic makes it such an easy matter to cast +away, without further consideration, all of the latest advances in +philosophy, because he believes that he has detected errors in their +pretended fundamental thoughts, without first ascertaining whether these +fundamental thoughts are really the leading principle of the system, and +when he on his own side falls into suppositions which have certainly +received long since a satisfactory refutation from the later philosophy; +as, for example, in the Kantean opposition of things in themselves, and +their appearances. The _positive_, with which Herr Schopenhauer believes +that he has enriched science, the derivation of united spiritual +functions from the will, and the correction of the course of the world, +by the idea that the true aim of life is to scorn it, might with greater +propriety be classed in the sphere of 'visions and dispositions,' which +he so fiercely attacks, than in that of science. The discussions which +fill these two volumes, and are spread out over every imaginable +subject, even to ghosts, the possibility of whose existence is admitted, +have naturally a very varied character, and can only, by a continued +polemic, and a fragmentary system of examination harmonizing therewith, +be brought into unity." + + * * * * * + +The second part of WACHSMUTH'S _Allgemeine Culturgeschichte_ (History of +Civilization, for so we venture to translate the word Cultur), which +indicates more strictly all referring to those social influences which +refine, form, and educate society, has recently appeared. The volume +referred to contains _The Middle Ages_, and is highly spoken of for the +skilful manner in which the author has treated the influence exerted by +the Byzantine and Mohammedan races. Another historical work of +importance is the fourth and concluding volume containing the tenth and +twelfth books of HAMMER PURGSTALL'S _Life of Cardinal Khlesl_, compiled +from contemporary documents. In it we have the last diplomatic acts of +the Cardinal, of the intrigues of the Grand Dukes Ferdinand and +Maximilian relative to him, and of his consequent arrest and abduction. +The eleventh book details his imprisonment in Innspruck and in the Abbey +St. Georgenberg, the negotiations with the Pope relative to him, and his +delivery to the latter on the 24th October, 1622. In the twelfth we have +the details of his residence in Rome, of the part he took in instituting +the Propaganda, his return home after an absence of ten years, his +subsequent clerical exertions, and his testament. The conclusion gives a +parallel drawn between Khlesl, Wolsey, and Ximenes--a description of his +personal appearance and an explanation of the exertions of power brought +to bear against him, with the final judgment that those truly to blame +were the grand dukes and not Khlesl, and that the Cardinal, if not +entirely devoid of blame, was still a great character, and one of the +most illustrious statesmen of Austria. Another new historical work is +the _Laben des Herzogs von Sachsen-Gotha und Altenburg, Freiderich II. +Ein Bei trazzur Geschichte Gotha's beim Wechsel d. 17, und 18, Jahrh. +Herausgegeben nach dessen Tode von Dr._ AD. MORITZ SCHULZE, _Director d. +Burgerschule zu Gotha_ (or Life of the Duke of Saxe Gotha and Altenburg, +Frederic the II.) A contribution to the history of Gotha during the +changes of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Published after the +death of the author by Dr. Ad. Moritz Schulze, director of the Citizen +School of Gotha, this work appears to be well and warmly, though +impartially written. + + * * * * * + +In theology, we observe the publication, by ALBERT WESSEL VON HENGEL, of +_Commentarius Perpetuus in Prioris Pauli ad Corinthios Epistolæ Caput +Quintum Decimum cum Epistola ad Winerum, Theol. Lips. Haag._ (Boedeker +in Rotterdam). In this book we perceive that the important fifteenth +chapter of the Letter to the Corinthians is philologically treated with +true Dutch thoroughness and remarkable erudition, but that the results +to which he comes are often untenable, and that a satisfactory decision +as to the proposed dogmatic questions, such as advanced theological +science requires, is not given. The peculiar views of the author as to +the aim or object of the chapter have also had an effect on the +explanation of many passages. It is asserted, for instance, _a la_ Bush, +that Paul does not speak of the resurrection of the body, but that he +means by this resurrection the return of all men into life, or +immortality; and regarding this, has in view only those who admit +Christ, and their future happiness; and that even verse forty-nine +contains only a comparison of the _moral_ condition of Christians in +this and a better life. Yet notwithstanding this he finds himself +compelled to admit, by the fifty-second verse, that the same bodies +which we have here on earth, again return to life. By the [Greek: +parousia] of Christ (v. 23) he understands _earthly life_, and by +[Greek: oi tou Christou en tê parousia autou], those Christians who +already believed on him while yet on earth, and by the [Greek: telos], +not the end of the world with its universal resurrection and judgment, +but the resurrection of the later Christians. The oft-repeated [Greek: +speiretai] (v. 43) he translates by it is begotten or generated, and +understands it as referring to an entry into earthly life, and that the +[Greek: choikos] of the forty-seventh verse refers to the earthly +_disposition_ or _inclination_, and the [Greek: ex ournou] and [Greek: +epouranios] to that of the heavenly. + + * * * * * + +Among recent books of travel we have _A Journey to Persia and the +country of the Koords_, and the preceding sketch, _Souvenirs of the +Danube and Bosphorus_, by MORITZ WAGNER. The Journey to Persia contains +much curious information and observation of a country but little known +to the outer world, while in the Souvenirs we have bitter complaints and +merciless revelations relative to the Metternich policy in the East, and +the conduct and character of the Austrian diplomatic representative by +the Porte. Many curious facts are also given relative to the present +condition of Turkey, the personal appearance of the Sultan and divers +Constantinopolitan dignitaries and foreign ambassadors. The commendatory +characteristic of this work appears to consist in the fact, that the +author, unlike the great majority of those who are elevated to constant +familiarity with men of high standing and influence, is remarkably +independent and unselfish in his views, and invariably speaks bold plain +truth, even of individuals in whose power it actually lies to do him +very decided injury. No person desirous of being _au courant_ as to the +great political world of the present day, should be ignorant of this +work. + + * * * * * + +A work has recently been published at Ratisbon, entitled. _Die +Katholischon Missionen, Geschildert aus der Neuzeit, Miteinem Anhange, +Zwei Missionen in dem Jahr 1716 und 1718_ (Catholic Missions, Sketched +from recent times, with a supplement; Two Missions in the years 1716 and +1718). Of this performance a German review remarks, that it was once +believed that the power of the Jesuits was for ever broken, but lo! they +again lift their heads in power. "Missions are one of the means by which +they act upon the people--a number of Jesuits repair to a certain place, +and day after day its inhabitants are preached to, taught, confessions +heard, and mass read festally." The book is a eulogium of Catholicism, +and especially of the Jesuits, as its truest representatives, with +occasional passes at democracy, the unbelievers, the administration, and +bureaucracy. It praises Catholicism as the only means whereby the +revolution can be restrained; it tells of devotions to the heart of the +Virgin Mary and her medals, and of the plenary remission which the +missions bring. It exalts the obedience of the Jesuits to their +superiors, and praises the principle that they, without any will of +their own, should be _perinde ac cadaver_--like a corpse. According to +this book, the consequences of these missions are incalculable, and the +love bestowed upon them by the Jesuits truly affecting. It well-nigh +appears the same as if one were reading Chateaubriand's praises of the +_Patres_. Only that history, for the past three hundred years, has given +a somewhat strong contrast to this ideal. The best parts of the book are +sketches of life in the _Bagnos_ of Toulon and Brest. + + * * * * * + +At Berlin, the Scientific Society (_Winenschaftlicher Vereins_) have +been giving a course of lectures to a large and aristocratic audience, +invited by members of the society. Their success has brought out the +Evangelical Society, in another course of a more theological and +religious nature. In the first-named society, Professor Brandes lately +lectured upon the Mormons; but it seems that the majority of the elegant +gentlemen and ladies, did not fully appreciate his efforts for their +instruction, for want of the necessary elementary knowledge. "When the +doctor rose and announced his subject, the question was at once +whispered in all parts of the hall," "Who are the Mormons?" The ladies +in the most brilliant costume were generally the most eager in this +inquiry. But unfortunately they got no satisfaction; the common reply of +the gentleman appealed to being, "I am sorry to say I have forgotten." +Some, more learned than others, however, assured their lovely companions +that the Mormons were an Indian tribe of America, closely connected +with, if not directly descended from, the Hurons, so frequently +mentioned in Cooper's novels. Another amusing misunderstanding recently +occurred in the same course. The lectures are not generally announced +before-hand, but one day the newspapers got hold of the subject, and +informed all the world that Professor Diterici would read a lecture upon +_Pera and the desert festivals_. A great crowd of ladies was the +consequence, all agog to hear about the picturesque costumes and strange +ways of Pera, the national festivals of the Bedouins, and, perhaps, to +have a glimpse at the mysteries of the seraglio. How great was the +disappointment of the fashionable auditory when the learned doctor rose +and began his discourse upon _Petra, the Fastness of the Desert_. That +evening the ladies went home in very ill humor. + + * * * * * + +A work which political students and legislators may read, with +advantage, is the _Wesen und Verfassung der Laadgemeinde_ (Nature and +Constitution of the Country Towns, and of the tenure of Real Estate in +Lower Saxony and Westphalia, with special regard to the Kingdom of +Hanover.) It is by Mr. STUVE, recently the Prime Minister of Hanover, +and is interesting, especially as exhibiting the extent to which the +principle of local self-government obtains in Germany, and the +probabilities and methods of its extension. For its historical view of +the organization of the _commune_ or township in Germany, it is very +valuable. + + * * * * * + +The second part of the _System of Ethics_, by IMANUEL HERMANN (not +Johann Gottlieb) FICHTE, has recently appeared. The anticipations +awakened by the first historico-critical part of the work do not appear +to be satisfactorily realized by this second dogmatic division. + + * * * * * + +Among the most entertaining "books of autobiography must always be +reckoned _The Memoirs of the Margravine of Bayreuth_, daughter of +Frederic William I., and sister of Frederic the Great of Prussia. They +are among the chief sources of the history of the German states during +the last century, and they afford the most striking, if not the most +pleasing, view we have of aristocratic German manners for the same +period. In the London _Literary Gazette_ it is stated that-- + + "The revelations of the Princess, especially concerning the + King of Prussia and his court, if true, are at least not + flattering to the Prussian dynasty; and strenuous attempts + have for years past been making to represent the 'Memoirs of + the Margravine of Bayreuth' as a spurious work, concocted by + the enemies of Prussia, for the express purpose of + humiliating the descendants of Frederic William I. It so + happened, that at the first publication of the book, in + 1810, a rival edition was almost immediately given to the + world in another part of Germany. The publishers of either + book pretended to be in exclusive possession of the original + MS. of the unfortunate Princess. These conflicting claims + furnished the partisans of the court of Berlin with a very + plausible pretext for doubting the genuineness of either. + But of late, Dr. Pertz, of Berlin, when engaged in + collecting still further proofs of the 'literary imposition' + practised by the editors of the two MS., happened to stumble + on the original autograph copy of the Princess among the + books and papers of the Protonotarius Blanet, at Celle, in + Hanover. Herr Blanet had the MS. from Dr. E. Spangenberg, of + Celle, who died in 1833, and who bought it from Colonel + Osten, who, in his turn, had received the MS. from Dr. + Superville, physician to the Princess, to whom it had been + presented by that lady. From a paper read by Dr. Pertz, to + the Royal Academy of Sciences at Berlin, (Berlin: Keimer. + London: Williams and Norgate,) it appears that, of the two + existing editions, the one published at Brunswick, in 1810, + is a copy, though not a faithful or complete one, of the + original MS. This copy in particular wants several sheets. + At all events, the question as to the genuineness of the + 'Memoirs of the Margravine of Bayreuth' is now completely + set at rest; for although Dr. Pertz demonstrates at some + length that many important phrases and parts of phrases are + wanting in the Brunswick edition, he has not ventured to + affirm that any phrases or statements have been added by the + editor." + + * * * * * + +A recent book of travels published at Munich is not utterly devoid of +interest, though it appears to be far inferior to what we should have +expected from the subject. We refer to the _Errimerungen an Italien, +Sicilian and Grieohenland aus den Jahren, 1826-1844_ (Recollections of +Greece, Italy, and Sicily, in the Years 1826-1844), by HEINRICH +FARMBACHER. In company with the king of Bavaria, and as his secretary, +Herr Farmbacher travelled twice to Sicily, once to Greece, and +frequently through Italy. The descriptions of scenes and events appear +in no instance to rise above mediocrity, nor do we find any of that +artistic spirit and observation which might have been anticipated from +an intelligent attendant of the great royal connoisseur. His anecdotes +relative to the monarch himself are rare, trivial, and worthless, for it +does not seem to have occurred to the royal secretary that in such a +work his master to the general reader is a far more attractive +individual than himself. As regards style, the book gives from time to +time curious glimpses of that court lackey language so habitual to the +upper class _flunkies_ of Herr Farmbacher's description, and which it is +impossible for him to entirely suppress even in writing. + + * * * * * + +The distinguished and lamented orientalist KLAPROTH has left behind him +a large map of Central Asia, in four sheets, engraved at Paris by +Berthe, the geographer. This map is the product of ten years' +researches, and exhibits the topography of those vast regions, with the +cities it contains, many of which have hitherto been unknown, and the +names of the tribes inhabiting it. The map is based not only upon the +explorations of travellers, but on the Chinese maps made by order of the +Emperor Kiang-Long, and by missionaries in China and Tartary. It extends +on the north to the frontiers of Siberia, including the great lake +Balaton; on the south to Hindostan; on the west to the sea of Aral and +Persia; and on the east to China. + + * * * * * + +HAFIS is the title prefixed to a new collection of poems, by G. F. +DAUMER, just published at Nuremberg. Daumer is one of the most original +writers in the whole scope of the present German literature. His +_Evangelium_ is especially worthy of a far greater degree of attention +than it has received. It is a volume of brief poems, discussing the +gravest questions with as much warmth and freshness of imagination as +elevation and beauty of style. In this country Daumer is known but to +the few whose acquaintance with German literature extends beyond the +classic writers whose names are familiar to all the world. A Catholic +critic in Germany says of him, that the epitaph once proposed for the +gravestone of Voltaire will suit equally well that of Daumer. It is as +follows: + + "In poesi magnus, + In historia parvus, + In philosophia minimus, + In religione nullus." + + * * * * * + +GUTZKOW'S _Ritter vom Geiste_ has just appeared in a second edition in +Germany--no trifling success for a romance in nine stout volumes; +another German _litterateur_ has also dramatized a part of it. Gutzkow +is, beyond dispute, one of the foremost among the living writers of +Germany. His collected works, published some years since, in twelve +volumes, have lately been increased by a thirteenth, containing several +fugitive stories, and one or two plays that he has brought out at +various times. + + * * * * * + +We heard little of Scandinavian literature until the translations of +Tegner, Frederica Bremer, Oelenschlager, and Hans Christian Andersen, +called our attention to the rich treasures of intellectual activity +produced under that cold northern sky. Of course constant additions are +being made to this literature. Among its recent productions is a comedy +by ANDERSEN, based on a fairy story, called _Hyldemöer_, which has +lately been performed upon the Danish stage with not very brilliant +success. It is admitted to be inferior to his stories, as have been his +former attempts at dramatic composition. C. MOLBACH announces, at +Copenhagen, a Danish translation of DANTE'S _Divina Commedia_; the same +author has just published a volume of original poems under the title of +_Twilight_. A very industriously-prepared and useful work is J. H. +EOSLEN'S _General Literary Dictionary_, from the year 1814 to 1840, of +which the thirteenth part has just appeared. In Norway, F. M. BUGGE +announces a translation of the _Iliad_ into Norwegian hexameters, to be +published by subscription. A Norwegian dictionary, by IWAR AASEN is +highly commended. + + * * * * * + +A very sharp controversy is now being waged by the scholars of Denmark +and Schleswig. The Danes resort to philology in order to prove the right +of their country to extend its government over the Germans of that +Duchy, and the other party meet their onslaught with weapons equally +keen, drawn also from the arsenals of dictionaries and grammars. The +best of the quarrel hitherto seems to be on the side of the +Schleswigers, whose great champion is one Herr Clement, a man of as much +learning as talent. In a recent essay, he establishes that the original +inhabitants of Schleswig were not Danes but Angles, or Frieslanders, +essentially the same race as the original Saxon stock of England. In +illustration of this doctrine he adduces an immense list of names of +places which are the same in Schleswig and England--as, for instance, +Ripen and Ripon, Ellum and Elham, Rödding and Reading, Meldorp and +Milthorp, Wilstrup and Wilthorpe, &c., &c. This essay will probably be +expanded into a book. + + * * * * * + +The German critics are discussing with high encomiums a volume of poems +by ANNETTE VON DROSTE, a deceased poetess of Westphalia. It is entitled +_Das Religiöse Jahr_ (The Religious Year), and is inspired with that +absolute devotion which lends so great a charm to the poems of +Montgomery, the Moravians, and the mystical writers generally. + + * * * * * + +BYRON'S _Manfred_, with musical accompaniments, by R. Schumann, is about +to be produced at the Weimar theatre. + + * * * * * + +JAHN, the well-known Leipsic professor, is engaged in writing a life of +Beethoven. + + * * * * * + +RICHARD WAGNER, the revolutionist, musical composer, and writer upon +æsthetics, has published a new work, entitled _Oper und Drama_ (Opera +and Drama), which the German critics fall upon with considerable +ferocity. They complain that while he entirely rejects the old form of +the opera, he does not indicate what is the new kind of musical drama to +be substituted for it. Wagner has also published _Three Opera Poems_, +which the same critics cannot but praise for their originality, power, +and inspiration. If the music of these operas is adequate to the +_libretti_, say they, they are really new and grand productions. This +would seem, also, to be proved by the fact that one of them has been +brought out at Weimar, through the influence and under the direction of +Liszt. The author is living in exile in Switzerland, and is engaged upon +a dramatic trilogy with a prelude. He no longer professes to write +operas, but musical dramas. + + * * * * * + +An attempt has been made in Germany to register the enormous number of +books and pamphlets which the Germans themselves have published on their +two great poets, Goethe and Schiller. A catalogue of the Goethean +literature in Germany, from 1793 to 1851, has been published by Balde, +at Cassel, and in London by Williams and Norgate. The Schiller +literature, from 1781 to 1851, is likewise announced by the same firm. + + * * * * * + +A very excellent translation of sundry old Scottish and English ballads +has just made its appearance at Munich, from the pen of W. DOENNIGER. It +contains sixteen Scotch and seventeen English ballads, from the +fourteenth to the seventeenth centuries, all rendered with great +fidelity, and in the true spirit of the original. So successful is the +book that a second edition of it is about to appear, with illustrations +by Kaulbach, Voltzen, and other eminent artists. + + * * * * * + +The _Augsburg Gazette_ states that the Congregation of the Index has +just prohibited all the works of Eugene Sue and Proudhon; also a +clerical Turin paper, called the _Buona Novella_; a work on animal +magnetism, by Tomasi; a manual for schoolmasters, printed at Asti in +1850; and all the works of Gioberti. + + * * * * * + +A book to be read by the students of literature and by critics is +HETTNER'S _Moderne Drama_, just published at Brunswick. We do not know +of a profounder and keener discussion of the principles and laws of +dramatic writing, or of more just and striking dramatic criticisms than +it contains. + + * * * * * + +LAYARD'S popular account of his excavations and discoveries at Nineveh +has been translated into German by one of the Meissners (not the poet, +we believe), and is published at Leipsic. + + * * * * * + +FRAULEIN FRIEDERIKE FRIEDEMANN has published, at Leipsic, a metrical +version of Lord BYRON'S _Corsair_, which is worthy of all commendation. +The gloomy hue and passionate vehemence of the original are preserved in +the translation with surprising fidelity, and the rhythm is hardly less +perfect than in Byron's English itself. + + * * * * * + +The last number of the _Theologische Quartalschrift_ (Theological +Quarterly), published at Tübingen, by Laupp, contains an interesting +paper on the pretended objections to the historical truth of the +Pentateuch, by WELTE; the critical historical examination of the xxxi. +xxxii. Jeremiah, by REINKE; and the Aloge, with their relations to the +Montanists, by HEFELE. + + * * * * * + +MR. GEORGE STEPHENS, the translator of Tegner's _Frithiof's Saga_, and +whose intimate acquaintance with the early literature of Sweden has been +shown by the collection of legends of that country which he edited in +conjunction with Hylten-Cavallius, and by various works superintended by +him for the _Svenska Fornskrift-Salskapet_, (a sort of Stockholm Camden +Society,) has removed to Copenhagen in consequence of his having been +appointed Professor of the English Language and Literature in the +University there. The subject of his first course of lectures was +Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. We have in our possession the MS. +translations of some very interesting ancient Swedish poems made by Mr. +Stephens some five years ago, and not yet published. + + * * * * * + +The London _Leader_, socialist and avowedly and industriously infidel, +says of EUGENE SUE, not long ago the rage of half the world: + + "We have to announce the third and last volume of Eugene + Sue's _Fernand Duplessis_, wherein the memoirs of a husband + are recounted with a license which only a French public + could permit. Perhaps the worst thing in Sue is not his + positive passion for what is criminal and odious, so much as + the way in which he always contrives to render the good + people odious. Much as we reprobate his pictures of vice, we + think them less offensive than his pictures of virtue. How a + man so essentially vulgar-minded could ever have attained + the position he had once!" + + * * * * * + +M. ALFRED VILLEFORT has published at Paris a treatise on literary and +artistic property in an international point of view. It not only +discusses the question as a matter of principle, but gives the history +of the negotiations and treaties which France has made in that respect +with the nations. + + * * * * * + +Among the pleasant books recently published in France is ARSENE +HOUSSAYE'S volume of stories, _Les Filles d'Eve_, very piquant and +French in its treatment. A translation is announced in this city by +Redfield. + + * * * * * + +The literary event of the month at Paris is the publication of the third +volume of LOUIS BLANC'S _History of the French Revolution_. Of all the +works written upon that memorable epoch, none is more marked by +originality of thought and power of treatment than this, and we can only +hope that the present volume, which we have not yet seen, may prove +equal to its predecessors. Its table of contents is as follows: Attitude +of Property toward the Revolution, Attitude of the Gospel toward the +Revolution, Tableau of the Constituent Assembly, First Labors of the +Constituent Assembly, Administration of Necker, People Starving, +Treasury Empty, A New Power, Journalism, Faction of the Count de +Provence, The Fifteen Complots, The Women of Versailles, The King +brought to Paris, The Court at the Tuileries, Municipal and Military +Organization of the Bourgeoisie, The Wealth of the Clergy Denounced, War +of the Bourgeoisie on the Clergy, The Authority of the Parliaments +Discussed, War of the Bourgeoisie on the Parliaments, The Ambition of +Mirabeau, Complots of the Luxembourg, New Organization of the Kingdom. +The _Leader_ mentions that Mr. Blanc undertakes to _prove_ that Egalité +was not at the bottom of those conspiracies with which his name has been +associated, but that the real culprit was the Comte de Provence, +afterwards Louis XVIII. + + * * * * * + +M. EDMOND TEXIER, one of the most fresh and agreeable of that race of +literary butterflies, the _feuilletonists_ of Paris, is publishing a +large work upon that great capital, which promises to be as readable as +its exterior is splendid. It is to be ornamented with some two thousand +engravings on wood, representing all the prominent and famous public +edifices and places which not only figure so largely in history, but are +so splendid in themselves. The title of M. Texier's work is the _Tableau +de Paris_. It appears in parts. + + * * * * * + +The publication of the magnificent work, the _Catacombs de Rome_, for +which the French National Assembly voted $40,000, will shortly commence, +under the direction of a commission nominated by the Government, +consisting of Messrs. Ampere (now in the United States), Ingres, +Prosper, Merinice, and Vitel, all members of the Institute. The work +will contain exact copies of the architecture, mural paintings, +inscriptions, figures, symbols, sepulchres, lamps, vases, rings, +instruments, in a word, of every thing belonging to, or connected with, +the primitive Christians, which by the most diligent search, exercised +during many years, have been brought to light in the catacombs of +ancient Rome. Its enormous price, between $250 and $300, will, however, +keep it out of the hands of all but the wealthy. Another work on the +same subject and of similar character is announced in Rome, under the +direction of the ecclesiastical government. + + * * * * * + +A volume purporting to contain thirty hitherto unpublished Letters of +SHELLEY, appeared a few weeks ago from the press of Moxon, in London, +edited by Robert Browning. It appears from an article in the _Athenæum_ +that these--letters, and many others recently sold to publishers and +autograph collectors, are forgeries. The book referred to is of course +suppressed. The _Athenæum_ inquires: + + "From whom did Mr. Moxon buy these letters? They were bought + at Sotheby & Wilkinson's, at large prices. From whom did + Messrs. Sotheby and Wilkinson receive them for sale? 'We had + them from Mr. White, the bookseller in Pall Mall, over + against the Reform Club.' Off runs the gentle man-detective. + 'From whom did you, Mr. White, obtain these letters?' 'I + bought them of two women--I believed them to be genuine, and + I paid large prices for them in that belief.' Such are the + words supposed to have been spoken by Mr. White. The two + women would appear to have been like the man in a + clergyman's band, but with a lawyer's gown, who brought + Pope's letters to Curll. + + "It is proper to say thus early that there has been of late + years, as we are assured, a most systematic and wholesale + forgery of letters purporting to be written by Byron, + Shelley, and Keats,--that these forgeries carry upon them + such marks of genuineness as have deceived the entire body + of London collectors,--that they are executed with a skill + to which the forgeries of Chatterton and Ireland can lay no + claim,--that they have sold at public auctions, and by the + hands of booksellers, to collectors of experience and + rank--and that the imposition has extended to a large + collection of books bearing not only the signature of Lord + Byron, but notes in many of their pages--the matter of the + letters being selected with a thorough knowledge of Byron's + life and feelings, and the whole of the books chosen with + the minutest knowledge of his tastes and peculiarities. + + "But the 'marvel' of the forgery is not yet told. At the + same sale at which Mr. Moxon bought the Shelley letters were + catalogued for sale a series of (unpublished) letters from + Shelley to his wife, revealing the innermost secrets of his + heart, and containing facts, not wholly dishonorable facts + to a father's memory, but such as a son would wish to + conceal. These letters were bought in by the son of Shelley, + the present Sir Percy Shelley--and are now proved, we are + told, to be forgeries. To impose on the credulity of a + collector is a minor offence compared with the crime of + forging evidence against the dead, and still minor as, in + one instance, against the fidelity of a woman. + + "The forgery of Chatterton injured no one but an imaginary + priest; the forgery of Ireland made a great poet seem to + write worse than Settle could have written; but this forgery + blackens the character of a great man, and, worse still, + traduces female virtue. + + "Mr. Moxon is not the only publisher taken in. Mr. Murray + has been a heavy sufferer, though not to the same extent. + Mr. Moxon has printed his Shelley purchases; Mr. + Murray--wise through Mr. Moxon's example--_will not_ publish + his Byron acquisitions." + +These forgeries seem to us to have been very clumsily executed. + + * * * * * + +The London _Athenæum_ contains a very interesting letter from Mr. PAYNE +COLLIER, in which he gives an account of the discovery of a copy of the +second folio edition of Shakspeare, with numerous important corrections +of the text, apparently by some learned contemporary actor, whose memory +of parts, or access to original MSS., enabled him to restore all the +readings vitiated by careless transcription or printing. Mr. Collier has +such faith in these _errata_ that he does not hesitate to avow that he +would have adopted a large portion of them in his own edition of +Shakspeare, had they been known to him when that was printed. Of the +several instances he offers, this will serve as a specimen: + + "An embarrassment meets us in the very outset of _Measure + for Measure_,--where the Duke, addressing Escalus, observes, + in the ordinary reading: + + "'Of government the properties to unfold + Would seem in me t' affect speech and discourse; + Since I am put to know, that your own science + Exceeds, in that, the lists of all advice + My strength can give you: then, no more remains, + But that to your sufficiency as your worth is able, + And let them work.' + + --The meaning is pretty evident; but the expression of that + meaning is obscure and corrupt,--as indeed the measure alone + would establish. Various conjectural modes of setting the + passage right have been proposed; and perhaps what follows + from my corrected folio of 1632 has no better + foundation,--but, at all events, it restores both the sense + and the metre, and may, for aught we know, give the very + words of Shakspeare: + + "'Of government the properties to unfold + Would seem in me t' affect speech and discourse; + Since I am _apt_ to know, that your own science + Exceeds (in that) the lists of all advice + My strength can give you; Then, no more remains + But _add_ to your sufficiency your worth, + And let them work.' + + --How 'that' in the old editions came to be printed for + _add_ and how 'is able' came to be foisted in, most + unnecessarily and awkwardly, at the end of the same line, it + is not easy to explain. The third line is also much cleared + by the substitution of _apt_ for 'put,'--which was an easy + misprint: 'Apt to know' is an expression of every-day + occurrence." + + * * * * * + +SIR JAMES STEPHEN, whose excellent _Lectures on the History of France_ +have been so well received, proposes to deliver, at Cambridge, a series +of twenty lectures on the _Diplomatic History of France during the reign +of Louis XIV._, comprising a review of the treaties of Westphalia, of +the Pyrenees, of Breda, of the Triple Alliance, of Aix-la-Chapelle, of +Nimeguen, of Ryswick, and of Utrecht. + + * * * * * + +MISS CHARLOTTE VANDENHOFF, whose professional tour in the United States +will be remembered by old play-goers, has written a piece under the +title of _Woman's Heart_, possessing considerable poetical merits, and +herself sustained the character of the heroine in its representation. + + * * * * * + +MR. CARLYLE, is engaged upon a new work in history, but its subject is +not disclosed, nor its extent. + + * * * * * + +MRS. ROBINSON, who left New-York several months ago to visit her +relations in Germany, writes from Berlin to the _Athenæum_, under date +of February 2, as follows: + + "A work appeared in London last summer with the following + title: _Talvi's History of the Colonization of America_, + edited by William Hazlitt, in two volumes. It seems proper + to state that the original work was written under favorable + circumstances _in German_, and published in Germany. It + treated only of the colonization of _New England_: and that + only stood on its title-page. The above English publication, + therefore, is a mere translation, and it was made without + the consent or knowledge of the author. The very title is a + misnomer; all references to authorities are omitted; and the + whole work teems with errors, not only of the press, but + also of translation,--the latter such as could have been + made by no person well acquainted with the German and + English tongues. For the work in this form, therefore, the + author can be in no sense whatever responsible. + + TALVI." + + + +From a more recent number of the _Athenæum_ it appears that Mr. Hazlitt +is not himself the translator of the original work; and the +responsibility, not only of the translation, but of all the faults +charged which might seem more especially editorial, is transferred by +him to another. Mr. Hazlitt, we believe, is a son of the great critic of +the last age. + + * * * * * + +There are connected with the newspapers a considerable number of +weak-minded and absurd persons, who delight in strange coincidences and +the most inconceivable relations, and who, for a certain consciousness +they have of their own slight claims to consideration are anxious to +find on every occasion, some indication of regard for their vocation, as +if credit won by any journalist or writer were portion of a common fund +of respectability from which they could draw a dividend. In no other way +can we account for the thousand-and-one articles in which the +appointments of Dr. LAYARD and Mr. D'ISRAELI have been referred to as +"honor," "homage," &c., to literature. Dr. Layard was selected by Lord +Granville to be an Under-Secretary of State, because he had shown +himself in the admirable manner in which he discharged certain important +diplomatic functions in the East, better fitted, in Lord Granville's +opinion, than any other person for the new duties to which it was +proposed to summon him. Mr. D'Israeli has long been one of the most +conspicuous and astute politicians in England, and owes his present +office solely to his activity and eminence in affairs. There was as +little of "recognition of the claims of literature" in either case, as +there was praise of fiddlesticks or Carolina potatoes. It would not be a +whit more ridiculous to say that the French people, remembering the +happy genius displayed by Napoleon Bonaparte in his "Supper of +Beaucaire," chose him to be their emperor. + +In the new British ministry are an unusual number of book-makers. The +most conspicuous in authorship is the now Right Honorable Benjamin +D'Israeli, "the wondrous boy who wrote _Alroy_, in rhyme and prose, only +to show how long ago victorious Judah's lion banner rose." Sir Emerson +Tennent, Sir Edward Sugden, Lord John Manners, Mr. Whiteside, the Earl +of Malmesbury, Lord de Roos, are all known as authors, as well as +politicians. The Duke of Northumberland also is favorably known as a +zealous promoter of arts and learning. + + * * * * * + +The author of _Life in Bombay and the Neighboring Stations_, pays the +following testimony to the abilities of the manoeuvring mammas of +Bombay: "The bachelor civilians are always the grand aim; for, however +young in the service they may be, their income is always vastly above +that of the military man, to say nothing of the noble provision made by +the fund for their widows and children. We remember being greatly +amused, soon after our arrival in the country, at overhearing a lady +say, in reference to her daughter's approaching marriage with a young +civilian: 'Certainly, I could have wished my son-in-law to be a little +more steady; but then it is £300 a-year for my girl, dead or alive!'" + + * * * * * + +A volume of brilliant French criticism will be published in a few days +by Charles Scribner, under the title of _Anglo-American Literature and +Manners_, by PHILARETE CHASLES, Professor in the College of France. Mr. +Chasles, in a book of five hundred pages, considers the literature and +manners of the people of the United States--their institutions, capacity +for self-government, actual condition and probable future--with all the +sprightly grace of a Frenchman, and with a great deal of cleverness +prosecutes his industrious researches from the landing of the Mayflower +to the present day. He finds in the United States neither an Utopia, nor +a land worthy merely of ridicule. He does not simply condemn, like some +travellers, nor give us universal and unreasonable praise, as our +egotism and contentment lead us to desire, but takes a fair view of the +country, its claims, position, and prospects. In the beginning of his +performance he considers that the most essential thing for the founding +of a new commonwealth, is moral force; this he finds in the Puritans, +who possessed "sincerity, belief, perseverance, courage;" they could +"wait, fight, suffer." Their energy, he thinks, comes from their +Teutonic or Saxon blood; their indomitable perseverance is a fruit of +Calvinism, added to which they are clannish, or mutual helpers one of +another. This is the key to the philosophical, political and prophetic +portion of his work. The literary part is honest criticism, freely +spoken, by the aid of such light as happened to be around him. He begins +with the landing of the Pilgrims, speaks of their literature, which, +like all other American literature down to the present day, he regards +as destitute of originality. Franklin, Jonathan Edwards, and others, all +lack this quality. The author of the _American Cultivator_ has the most +of it; but Franklin is made up of Fénelon, Banyan, and Addison; Edwards +partakes of Hobbes, Priestley, and in his better moments of the close +reasoning Descartes. He gives us then a politician, a journalist, and a +gentleman, "the American Aristocrat" as he calls him, Gouverneur Morris, +our minister at Paris during the old revolution. Brockden Brown is +characterized as a copyist of Monk Lewis; and he comes then to +Washington Irving, but while all the charms of this delightful writer +are thoroughly appreciated and minutely described, it is denied that he +has originality. "In some square house in Boston, he sees in thought St. +James's Park: in reveries he is led through the umbrageous alleys of +Kensington--he talks with Sterne--he shakes hands with Goldsmith." "It +is a copy, somewhat timid, of Addison, of Steele, of Swift." You would +think of him as of "a young lady of good family, a slave to propriety, +never elevating her voice, never exaggerating the _ton_, never +committing the sin of eloquence;" "a refined continuation of the style +of Addison," &c. Nevertheless a dawn of freshness appears in his +writings when they treat of forest scenes. This dawn advances into day +in Cooper, upon whom we have an admirable critique. The author of _The +Spy_, M. Chasles thinks, has a native vigor unknown to Irving. Paulding +is dismissed with but very little consideration. Channing occupies the +critic longer, but is found to be an unsatisfactory and too general +reasoner. Audubon furnishes the most attractive chapter in the book, +which closes with what is called the First Literary Epoch of the United +States. + +The next division is of the _Literature of the People, and the falsely +popular Literature of England and the States_. One thoughtful chapter is +given to the infancy and future of America; the age and despair of +Europe, of emigration, and colonization. Then, the popular movements in +France and England are treated of, and the education of the masses. +Crabbe, Burns, Elliott, Thomas Cooper and others serve as a text. +Popular literature is found to be less anarchical in America than in +Europe. We have a chapter on Herman Melville; and then the Americans are +viewed through the spectacles of Marryatt, Trolloppe, Dickens, and their +exaggerations are noted. The force of public opinion and of the press +conclude the section. Our poets have two chapters: I. Barlow, Dwight, +Colton, Payne, Sprague, Dana, Drake, Pierrepont; Female Poets; and +Street and Halleck. II, Bryant, Emerson, and Longfellow. _Tom +Stapleton_, by an Irish Sunday newspaper reporter, and _Puffer Hopkins_, +by Mr. Cornelius Matthews, one chapter; Stephens, Silliman, and others +represent the travellers; a chapter is dedicated to Arnold and Andre; +Haliburton's _Sam Slick_ concludes the criticism; and the book ends with +_The Future of Septentrional America and the United States_--what a +"Bee" is, how an American village is got up, the aggregative principles +of Americans, the Lowell Lectures, Democrats and Whigs--and then, +far-seeing prophetic talking, conclude what the author has to say about +us. + + * * * * * + +The well-known school book publishers of Philadelphia, THOMAS, +COWPERTHWAIT, & CO., have just published a large duodecimo of five +hundred and fifty-eight pages. _The Standard Speaker, containing +Exercises in Prose and Poetry, for Declamation in Schools, Academies, +Lyceums, and Colleges, newly Translated or Compiled from celebrated +Orators, Authors, and Popular Debaters, Ancient and Modern; a Treatise +on Oratory and Elocution; and Notes Explanatory and Biographical_--by +EPES SARGENT. This book bears abundant evidences of editorial research +and labor. The original translations would form a volume of respectable +size, and they are all strikingly adapted to the purpose of elocutionary +practice. Some passages of fervid eloquence from Mirabeau, Robespierre +and Victor Hugo are given. Ancient eloquence is also well represented in +new and spirited translations. The department of British Parliamentary +oratory, shows extracts from Pym, Chatham, Barre, Wilkes, Thurlow, +Grattan, Pitt, Fox, Sheridan, Curran, Canning, Brougham, O'Connell, +Sheil, Macaulay, Croker, Talfourd, Palmerston, Cobden, and many others, +and in nine instances out of ten the exercises are compiled originally +for this volume. The American department is quite rich, and while the +old masterpieces of Patrick Henry, Ames, Randolph, Clay, Calhoun, +Webster, Hayne, and others are retained, a large number of fresh and +striking pieces are introduced from the eloquence of Congress and the +American lecture room. + +In its dramatic and poetical novelties the work is of course amply +supplied. Mr. Sargent's editorial experience here has enabled him to add +much that other compilers have entirely overlooked. In the adaptation of +the exercises, great discrimination has been shown. They are of the +right length, pithy, and calculated to engage the attention of the +young. A new and valuable feature of the work is the introduction of +notes, biographical and explanatory. In the instances of authors not +contemporary the dates of their birth and death are given. An +introductory treatise, comprising much practical information on the +subject of elocution, gives completeness to the volume. Such is the +Standard Speaker; and while it will be found to justify its title in the +retention of all the standard specimens of rhetoric suitable for its +purposes, it presents in its large proportion of new exercises of a high +character, fresh and enduring claims to popularity. + + * * * * * + +_The Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli_, by RALPH WALDO EMERSON, WILLIAM +ELLERY CHANNING, and JAMES FREEMAN CLARKE, published a few weeks ago by +Phillips, Sampson & Co., of Boston, are generally praised in the +critical journals, but in this country, where the subject was generally +known in literary circles, there is a common feeling of surprise at the +artistic and successful _exaggeration_ of her capacities and virtues. +The book, however, is in parts delightfully written, and the melancholy +fate of the heroine gives it a character of romance apart from its +merits as a biographical and critical composition. The _Athenæum_ thus +refers to some additional _material_ for her memoirs, which, it strikes +us, should have been communicated to the custodians of her reputation at +an earlier day: + + "We have received permission to state that poor Margaret + Fuller, on the eve of that visit to the Continent which was + to prove so eventful and disastrous, left in the hands of a + friend in London a sealed packet, containing, it is + understood, the journals which she kept during her stay in + England. Margaret Fuller--as they who saw her here all + know--contemplated at that time a return to England at no + very distant date;--and the deposit of these papers was + accompanied by an injunction that the packet should then be + restored with unbroken seal into her hands. No provision was + of course made for death:--and here we believe the lady in + possession feels herself in a difficulty, out of which she + does not clearly see her way. The papers are likely to be of + great interest, and were doubtless intended for publication; + but the writer had peremptorily reserved the right of + revision to herself, and forbidden the breaking of the + seals, on a supposition which fate has now made impossible. + It seems to us, that the equity of the case under such + circumstances demands only a reference to Margaret Fuller's + heir, whoever that may be; and with his or her concurrence, + the lady to whom these MSS. were intrusted--and who probably + knows something of the author's feeling as to their + contents--may very properly constitute herself literary + executor to her unfortunate friend." + + * * * * * + +Of BAYARD TAYLOR _The Tribune_ said a few days ago: + + "By the Niagara's mail we have had the pleasure of receiving + letters from our friend and associate Bayard Taylor,--or as + he his known among the Arabs, Taylor Bey,--dated at + Khartoum, the chief city of Sennaar, situated at the + confluence of the White and the Blue Nile, about half way + between Cairo and the Equator. He arrived there on the 12th + of January in excellent health and spirits, after a journey + on camels across the Nubian Desert, during which he had + sundry fortunate adventures, and received every friendly + attention from the native chieftains. He was the first + American ever seen so far toward Central Africa, and like a + good patriot never slept without the stars and stripes + floating above his tent. Every where good luck had attended + him,--in truth he seems to have been born to it,--but at + Khartoum especially he was received with unexpected honors. + The governor of the city had presented him with a horse, and + had entertained him in a banquet of genuine Ethiopic + magnificence, while the commander of the troops had + stationed a nightly guard of honor around his tent. In + company with Dr. Knoblecher, the venerable Catholic + missionary bound for the equatorial regions whom he had + overtaken at Khartoum, and of Dr. Deitz, the Austrian + Counsel, Mr. Taylor had also attended a banquet at the + palace of the daughter of the late king of Sennaar, a very + stately and ebon princess, who entertained her guests + chiefly upon sheep roasted whole. Others of the first + families among the Ethiopian aristocracy had also welcomed + the strangers with distinguished civilities. Mr. Taylor + expected to reach Cairo on his return about the 1st of + April, though we should not be surprised to learn that he + had changed his mind, and, in company with the Jesuit + mission, plunged still farther into the mysterious country + about the equator and the sources of the Nile." + + * * * * * + +Several new works by our literary women are on the eve of publication. +Redfield has nearly ready _Lyra and other Poems_, by ALICE CAREY--a book +containing more illustrations of unquestionable genius than any other +written by a woman in America; and he will also publish soon, _Isa, a +Pilgrimage_, a romance by Miss Caroline CHEESEBRO', which is likely to +attract a great deal of attention. Putnam has in press, _The Shield, a +Story of the New World_, by Miss FENIMORE COOPER, whose _Rural Hours_, +last year, commanded every where so much well-merited praise, and a new +story by Miss WARNER, of whose _Wide, Wide World_ (edited in London by a +"Clergyman of the Church of England"), a recent number of the _Literary +Gazette_ says: + + "This American tale has met with extraordinary success + across the Atlantic. Within a very short time several large + impressions were disposed of, and the sale still continues + to be rapid. Of the causes of this popularity, there is one + which will rather operate against a similar run of favor on + this side of the water. A large part of the book refers to + 'the old country,' and American readers eagerly seek what + pertains to English life or history. But the book has many + merits, apart from the incidents of its scenery and + character. The authoress writes with liveliness and + elegance; her power of discriminating and presenting + character is great; in describing the feelings and ways of + young people, she is especially happy, and an air of + cheerful piety pervades the whole work. We shall not attempt + to give any idea of the story, or of its principal + personages, but content ourselves with commending it as a + book which will please and instruct others than the young, + for whom it is chiefly intended. The authoress seems herself + young, and if so, we may expect other works from a spirit so + lively and communicative. Who the editor is we have no + knowledge, but he has taken liberties with the original not + always warranted, and to an extent greater than can be + approved without previous consultation. On the whole, + however, he has done his part well, and in his prefatory + note justly characterizes the merits of the writer, of whom + we shall gladly hear more." + +Miss Warner's new book is entitled _Queechy_--the name of its scene, we +suppose--and it is said to be very different in character from her first +production. + + * * * * * + +Dr. DUNGLISON'S _Medical Dictionary_, of which a new and much enlarged +edition has been published by Blanchard & Lea, is one of those +professional works which are almost indispensable in a gentleman's +library. Every person has sometimes occasion to consult a work of this +kind, and there is no other in English so masterly in treatment, or so +perspicuous in style. Dr. Dunglison keeps up with all the departments of +the literature of his science, and, through his quick, comprehensive, +and practical understanding, we have in this volume the best results of +the world's experiment and study in medicine down to the beginning of +the present half century. + + * * * * * + +A new and complete edition of the Poetical Works of GEORGE P. MORRIS +will be published in October, amply and most elaborately illustrated +with engravings after original designs by Robert W. Weir. The +distinction of Gen. Morris is, that he is a great song writer. The +naturalness, simplicity, unity, and pervading grace of his pieces, do +not so much constitute their characteristic, as the exquisite music of +their cadences, justifying the praise of Braham, that they sing +themselves. The new edition will surpass any other in completeness, and +in artistic execution will not be inferior to any volume ever published +in the United States. + + * * * * * + +Mr. C. L. BRACE, who has tasted in person the sweets of Austrian rule, +by his imprisonment in Hungary, has in press a book of Hungarian +travels, and observations upon the political situation and prospects of +that country. The personal history of an American in Hungary, who +enjoyed rare opportunities of intimate intercourse with the inhabitants, +will be a very valuable addition to our literature, and will make a most +readable and seasonable book. Of the quality of Mr. BRACE'S ability, and +of the faithfulness of his observation and record, his letters to the +New-York _Tribune_ are satisfactory evidence. (Scribner.) + + * * * * * + +Mr. TICKNOR'S admirable _History of Spanish Literature_ by no means +fails of the high consideration to which it is entitled from the best +critics of Europe. One of the best translations of it is in Spanish, by +Don PASCUAL DE GAYANGOS Y DON ENRIQUE DE VEDIA (_con adiciones y notas +criticas_), Mr. Ticknor having communicated some notes and corrections +to the two translators, who have added from their own store. A second +translation is coming out in Germany, also containing important +additions, in part from material and suggestions furnished by the +accomplished author. + + * * * * * + +ARVINE'S _Anecdotes of Literature and the Arts_ is an agreeable +miscellany; but the neglect of the editor to give credits in cases where +he adopts entire pages from well-known books, deserves rebuke. The +eighth number has been published by Gould & Lincoln of Boston, and it +completes the work. + + * * * * * + +The work of Mr. STILES, which we have noticed elsewhere in this number +of the _International_, we understand, will be published by the Harpers, +in two large octavo volumes, about the first of May. It contains a +complete history of the revolutionary proceedings in the Austrian empire +in 1848. Mr. Stiles witnessed much that he describes. Each section is +introduced by an historical survey of the country where the events +described occurred. Thus Venice, Prague, and Vienna are brought before +the reader in all their past glory and recent political vicissitudes. +The Hungarian war is amply chronicled. The work is moderate in tone, +authentic, fresh, and abounding in interesting facts. It will be +illustrated by engravings, executed in Germany, of the Emperor, Archduke +John, Kossuth, and other chief characters. + + * * * * * + +Dr. A. K. GARDINER, whose clever book about Paris, under the title of +_Old Wine in New Bottles_, is well known, has just published a +noticeable lecture, delivered before the College of Physicians and +Surgeons, on the _History of the Art of Midwifery_. It is most +conclusive upon the point of the unfitness of women for any of the more +delicate and important duties in obstetrics, and is a sufficient +argument for the immediate abolition of the so-called "Female Colleges." +We recommend it to the attention of readers who feel any interest in the +subject.--(Stringer & Townsend.) + + * * * * * + +Mrs. H. C. CONANT, wife of the learned Professor of Hebrew in the +Rochester University, has published (through Lewis Colby, Nassau-street) +another of NEANDER'S Commentaries, done into terse and vigorous +English--_The Epistle of James Practically Explained_. It is needless to +praise the great German, and it will readily be believed, by those who +are acquainted with the fine abilities and thorough scholarship of Mrs. +Conant, that this translation is in all respects admirable. + + * * * * * + +We are soon to have a new dramatic poem from Mr. GEORGE H. BOKER, whose +_Calaynos_, _Anne Bullen_, and _Ivory Carver and other Poems_, have +secured to him very high and well-deserved reputation as a literary +artist. We do not think any sonnets written in this country are to be +preferred to Mr. Boker's, and his _Ballad of Sir John Franklin_, +published a few months ago in this magazine, is full of imagination, and +is marked throughout with the nicest skill in execution. + + * * * * * + +The last work of the late Professor STUART, a _Commentary on the Book of +Proverbs_, has been published by M. W. DODD, in a large duodecimo +volume. It contains a full account of the principal commentaries written +on this book, and the translations and paraphrases made into different +languages, with a new version, and exegetical remarks. A memoir of +Professor Stuart is in preparation. + + * * * * * + +Mr. RICHARD B. KIMBALL, the accomplished author of _St. Leger_, leaves +New York in a few days for a tour through Europe. No one among our +younger authors has risen more rapidly in the public regard, or +established a good reputation in literature upon a surer basis. +Imagination, scholarship, and profound reflection, characterize nearly +all his performances. The admirable story written by him for the present +number of the _International_, we believe, is true in every essential +but the name of the heroine. It is a reminiscence of Mr. Kimball's +student life in Paris, where, for a time, he walked the hospitals with +his friend, the well-known Dr. O. H. Partridge, now one of the most +distinguished physicians of Philadelphia, who is one of the dramatis +personæ of _Emilie de Coigny_. + + * * * * * + +Mr. JOHN P. KENNEDY pronounced, in Baltimore, on the anniversary of the +birth of Washington, a very eloquent and wise discourse, in which the +state of the nation with respect to possible entanglements in foreign +affairs, and implications by needless artificial ties in the +vicissitudes of European politics, were treated in a manner worthy of a +statesman of the school of the Great Chief. The occasion was also +improved in Philadelphia by the Rev. Dr. BOARDMAN, who, in a discourse +entitled _Washington or Kossuth_ (published by Lippincott, Grambo, & +Co.), discusses the same great subjects in a masterly argument for the +observance of the principles of the Farewell Address. + + * * * * * + +An elaborate attack on the Society of Friends appeared lately in Dublin, +and has been republished in Philadelphia, under the title of _Quakerism, +or the Story of My Life_. It was written by a Mrs. GREER, the daughter +of an eminently respectable Irish Quaker, who was herself connected with +the society for forty years, and so had abundant opportunities of +becoming familiar with the peculiarities of the system. But the book is +vulgar, malignant, and evidently altogether undeserving of credit in +regard to facts. The points obnoxious to ridicule are broadly +caricatured, and the most distinguished and blameless characters are +introduced in the most offensive manner, as if to gratify personal +spleen or a disposition to slander. + + * * * * * + +The Neander Library, recently purchased by the University of Rochester, +consists of 4,500 volumes, and the price paid was only $2,300. About 350 +of the volumes are large folios, and many of the works in the collection +are of the choicest and rarest editions. We observe that an attempt to +show that there was even the slightest possible degree of unfairness on +the part of the Rochester faculty in obtaining this library, which was +much desired by a western college, has most signally failed. + + * * * * * + +We commend to our readers as the best literary journal in this country, +the _To Day_, recently established in Boston by CHARLES HALE, a +thoroughly educated and judicious editor. + + + + +_Recent Deaths_ + + +WILLIAM WARE was born at Hingham, in Massachusetts, on the third of +August, 1797. He was a descendant in the fifth generation from Robert +Ware, one of the earliest settlers of the colony, who came from England +about the year 1644. His father was Henry Ware, D. D., many years +honorably distinguished by his connection with the Divinity School at +Cambridge, and the late Henry Ware, jr., D. D., was his elder brother. +His only living brother is Dr. John Ware, who also shares of the +literary tastes and talents of his family, and has written its history. + +William Ware was graduated at Harvard University in 1816. After reading +theology the usual term he was on the 18th of December, 1821, settled +over the Unitarian society of Chambers street, New-York, where he +remained about sixteen years. He gave little to the press except a few +sermons, and four numbers of a religious miscellany called _The +Unitarian_, until near the close of this period, when he commenced the +publication in the Knickerbocker Magazine of those brilliant papers +which in the autumn of 1836 were given to the world under the title of +_Zenobia, or the Fall of Palmyra, an Historical Romance_. Before the +completion of this work he had resigned his pastoral office and removed +to Brookline, near Boston. The romance of Zenobia is in the form of +letters to Marcus Curtius, at Rome, from Lucius Manlius Piso, a senator, +who is supposed to have been led by circumstances of a private nature to +visit Palmyra toward the close of the third century, to have become +acquainted with the queen and her court, to have seen the City of the +Desert in its greatest magnificence, and to have witnessed its +destruction by the Emperor Aurelian. For the purposes of romantic +fiction the subject is perhaps the finest that had not been appropriated +in all ancient history; and the treatment of it, which is highly +picturesque and dramatic throughout, shows that the author had been a +successful student of the institutions, manners and social life of the +age he attempted to illustrate. + +Mr. Ware's second romance, _Probus, or Rome in the Third Century_, was +published in the summer of 1838. It is a sort of sequel to the Zenobia, +and is composed of letters purporting to be written by Piso from Rome to +Fausta, the daughter of Gracchus, one of the old Palmyrene ministers. In +the first work Piso meets with Probus, a Christian teacher, and is +partially convinced of the truth of his doctrine; he is now a disciple, +and a sharer of the persecutions which marked the last days of the reign +of Aurelian. The characters in Probus are skilfully drawn and +contrasted, and with a deeper moral interest, from the frequent +discussions of doctrine which it contains, the romance has the classical +style and spirit which characterized its predecessor. + +Mr. Ware's third work is entitled _Julian, or Scenes in Judea_, and was +published in 1841. The hero is a Roman, of Hebrew descent, who visits +the land of his ancestors, to gratify a liberal curiosity, during the +last days of the Saviour. Every thing connected with Palestine at this +period is so familiar that the ground might seem to be sacred to History +and Religion; but it has often been invaded by the romancer, and perhaps +never with more success than in the present instance. Although Julian +has less freshness than Zenobia, it has an air of truth and sincerity +that renders it scarcely less interesting. + +About the time of the publication of Julian, Mr. Ware was attacked with +Epilepsy, while in his pulpit, at Lexington, near Boston, and he +suffered all the residue of his life from disease and apprehension; but +his illness did not affect his intelligence or its activity, and he +continued to devote himself to congenial studies, for several years, +chiefly as editor of _The Christian Examiner_. For a short period he was +pastor of the Unitarian society at West Cambridge, but the condition of +his health did not permit a regular discharge of his functions, for +which, indeed, he was scarcely fitted in any thing but a spirit of +humility and piety. His tastes and capacities would have secured for him +greater triumphs in any department of pictorial or plastic art, to which +he was always insensibly drawn by instinct and congenial studies. + +In 1848 Mr. Ware passed several months abroad, and after his return he +delivered in _Lectures on European Capitals_ the best fruits of his +travel. These Lectures have recently been published in a very attractive +volume, which has been favorably received in this country and in +England. Among his unprinted writings is a series of Lectures on the +_Life, Works, and Genius of Washington Allston_. He died on the 19th of +February. + +The romances of Mr. Ware betray a familiarity with the civilization of +the ancients, and are written in a graceful, pure and brilliant style. +In our literature they are peculiar, and they will bear a favorable +comparison with the most celebrated historical romances relating to the +same scenes and periods which have been written abroad. They have passed +through many editions in Great Britain, and have been translated into +German and other languages of the continent. + + * * * * * + +JOHN FRAZEE, the sculptor, died at the age of sixty, on the--th of +March, at the house of his daughter, in New Bedford, Massachusetts. The +_Evening Post_ remarks that "he was a man of decided talent for +sculpture, but the necessity of employing himself in other occupations, +prevented his attaining that skill which, under more auspicious +circumstances, would have been within his reach." Mr. Frazee was born in +Brunswick, N.J., and in early life was a farmer and stone-cutter. One of +his first attempts at sculpture which attracted notice, was a clever +female bust, a likeness of one of his own family, exhibited in the +gallery of the Academy of Design. He afterwards, at the request of the +bar of New-York, was employed in the mural tablet and bust of John +Welles, which fills a conspicuous place in St Paul's Church. This +production, with others subsequently executed, attracted the attention +of the Trustees of the Boston Athenæum, and at their request, in 1834, +he proceeded to Boston, and modelled a series of busts of eminent men in +that city--Webster, Bowditch, Prescott, Story, J. Lowell, and T. H. +Perkins. Afterwards he went to Richmond, where he produced the likeness +of John Marshall, copies of which adorn the Court rooms of New York, +New-Orleans, and the Capitol of Virginia. On his return he visited +President Jackson, at whose house he executed an inimitable head of that +extraordinary man. Among his other productions were heads of General +Lafayette, in 1824, De Witt Clinton, John Jay, Bishop Hobart, Dr. +Milnor, Dr. Stearns, Nathaniel Prime, George Griswold, Eli Hart, &c. The +monument, however, which is destined to perpetuate his fame, is the New +York Custom-House. This edifice was commenced in 1834 by another +gentleman, who, when he had finished the base, abandoned the work and +withdrew his plans. Mr. Frazee was obliged to commence _de novo_, and in +1843 had completed the work. During the erection of the Custom-House, +from the dampness of its material and concomitant causes, he contracted +a disorder which caused paralysis, from which he never recovered. For +several years he held a subordinate post under the Collector. His last +effort with the chisel was in giving the finishing touch to the bust of +General Jackson, which had remained in his studio seventeen years, +without an order for completion. This was in November last, and while +assiduously at work, his mallet fell from his hand, and his worn-out +body followed it to the floor." + + * * * * * + +JOHN PARK, M. D., died in Worcester, Massachusetts, on the 2d of March, +aged seventy-eight. He was an active member of the old Federal party in +Massachusetts, during the administration of Jefferson and Madison, and +exerted a wide and important influence by his well-known journal, _The +Boston Repertory_. At a subsequent period, he established a private +school for young women, which acquired a celebrity second to that of no +similar educational institution in the old Commonwealth. He was +distinguished for his cultivated literary tastes, his uncommon purity of +character, his fine social qualities, and his cordial and attractive +manners. Dr. Park was the father of Mrs. L. G. Hall, wife of the Rev. +Dr. Hall, of Providence, the authoress of _Miriam_, and other successful +productions, and of Mr. John C. Park, an eminent lawyer in Boston. Mrs. +Osgood and several other distinguished literary women were among his +pupils. + + * * * * * + +WILLIAM THOMPSON, of Belfast, the naturalist of Ireland, died in London +on the 17th February. Mr. Thompson was born in 1805, and from earliest +youth was attached to scientific and literary studies. For the last +fifteen years his name has been before the world of science in +connection with arduous researches on the natural history of Ireland. +The numerous memoirs published by him, chiefly in scientific +periodicals, and latterly in the _Annals of Natural History_, of which +he was a warm supporter, extend in their subjects over all departments +of zoology, and several are devoted to botanical investigations. He was +constantly on the watch for new facts bearing on the natural history of +his native island, which could boast of no more truly patriotic son. At +the meeting of the British Association, at Cork, he read an elaborate +report on the _Fauna of Ireland_, since published _in extenso_ in the +Association _Transactions_; and it was his intention to communicate a +continuation of that report at the Belfast meeting. He did not confine +his inquiries to Irish subjects, but added considerably to the natural +history of several parts of England and Scotland; and when Professor +Forbes proceeded to the Ægean at the invitation of Captain Graves, Mr. +Thompson, himself an intimate friend of that distinguished officer, +accompanied him, and devoted the short time he was in the Archipelago to +zoological observations, since published, chiefly on the migration of +birds. His love of ornithology was intense, and the results of his +labors in that department are narrated with charming details in the +volumes that have been published of his great work on _The Natural +History of Ireland_. His name is associated with many discoveries, and +numerous species of new creatures have been named after him. His +reputation stood equally high on the Continent and in America, and he +had been elected an honorary member of several foreign societies. He +numbered among his intimate friends and correspondents all the eminent +naturalists of the day. His love of the fine arts was second only to his +love of science, and for many years he was one of the most active +promoters of tasteful pursuits, especially of painting, in Ireland. He +was a gentleman of independent means, and of no profession. + + * * * * * + +ROBERT REINICK, deservedly the most popular of recent song writers in +Germany, died at Dresden early in February. He was born at Dantzic, in +1805, and was educated an artist, but he never painted more than one +picture which attained any considerable reputation. His sketches were, +however, remarkable for great delicacy of feeling, and of touch, a +genial humor and an endless variety of fancy. But it was his songs that +first and most widely made him known to the public. Without any +surprising features of genius, they were so natural, so replete with +true and happy sentiment, and flowed so sweetly and melodiously in a +spontaneous beauty of language, that they were every where taken up, and +still remain the intimate favorites of the people, but especially of +artists, to whose peculiar life and customs many of them are devoted. +One of the most pleasing books ever published in Germany, was his _Songs +of a Painter_, which was illustrated with designs from all the prominent +artists of Düsseldorf. Its appearance made an epoch in the book trade, +and introduced the many splendid illustrated works that have succeeded +it. It is some years since we read these songs, but their naiveté, +tenderness, and frolic humor are still fresh in our memory. Reinick also +had a great skill in the writing of story books for children, and +illustrating them with his own drawings. One of these, the _Black Aunt_, +has been translated into English, and was published in this city some +three or four years since. The poet died quite suddenly, and was +snatched from a life full of happiness, amid constant artistic activity, +and the love of his family, and a boundless circle of friends. All +Dresden sorrowed at his death, and his funeral procession seemed to +embrace the entire city. + + * * * * * + +WILLIAM HENRY OXBERRY, comedian, was the son of the once eminent actor +Oxberry, and was born in Brownlow-street, Bloomsbury, on the 21st of +April, 1808. He was educated at Merchant Tailors' school; and +subsequently studied with an artist and in a lawyer's office. At length +he was apprenticed to a surgeon: and was asked by Sir Astley Cooper, +during an examination, whether, "when he saw his father convulse the +audience with laughter, he felt no ambition to tread in his shoes?" No +doubt he did, for he soon after made his essay at the Rawstone-street +private theatre, in the character of _Abel Day_, which he performed to +the _Captain Careless_ of Mr. F. Matthews. His public commencement was +deferred till the 17th March, 1825, for the Olympic, in the part of _Sam +Swipes_, in "The High Road to Marriage." He remained not long there, but +took a situation under Mr. Leigh Hunt, on the _Examiner_. Shortly +afterwards he returned to the stage, and went on a provincial tour, and +finally appeared in 1832 at the Strand Theatre, as _Fathom_, in "The +Hunchback." Since that period he was seen with credit in turn at every +theatre in the metropolis. On the 11th December, 1831, he married Ellen +Malcombe Lancaster. He also became manager of the English Opera-House, +but was not successful. The loss of his wife was a misfortune, and his +subsequent career was not prosperous. He died on the 28th of February. + + * * * * * + +The REV. CHRISTOPHER ANDERSON, died at Edinburgh, on the 7th of +February, aged seventy. He was best known as the author of _Annals of +the English Bible and The History of Irish Literature_. He was educated +at Bristol, at the college of which Dr. Ryland was president. He +intended in early life to accompany Drs. Carey, Marshman, and Ward, to +India, when the Baptist Societies' Mission was established in the east; +but being prevented by the state of his health he settled in Edinburgh, +where he has for nearly half a century been the respected pastor of a +Baptist church. In missionary work, both at home and abroad, he always +took deep and active interest. He travelled much through Ireland, and +knew well the state of the people. His historical narration of the +various attempts to educate the Irish in their own tongue is referred to +by all who are engaged in Irish education and missions. He visited +Copenhagen many years ago in order to obtain the protection of the +Danish Government for the Serampore mission. The king granted him an +interview, received him cordially, and granted a charter of +incorporation. It is from the Serampore press that the Scriptures first +began to be issued in the languages of the east, and the names of Carey +and the other superintendents of the Serampore mission are memorable in +the records of literature as well as of the church. He published in 1845 +the _Annals of the English Bible_, an historical account of the +different English translations and editions of the Bible, a work of +learning and research, lately reprinted in New-York by the Carters. + + * * * * * + +The mother of M. Thiers has expired at Batignolles, where she has long +resided on a pension allowed her by her son. M. Thiers was the only +child of this woman, although his father had other children by a former +marriage, one of whom keeps a restaurant in Paris. + + * * * * * + +The some time expected death of THOMAS MOORE occurred on the 26th of +February, at Sloperton Cottage, near Devizes. Like Southey and Scott, +the British Anacreon had for several years before his decease, quite +lost his intelligence, and he lingered in seclusion, and in half +slumbering unconsciousness, personally well nigh forgotten by the world. +His history is little more than a history of his writings. He was +deservedly popular in society, for his amiable qualities, and +fascinating manners; he shared the intimacy of the greatest men and +greatest writers of his age, more prolific of eminent characters than +any other since that of Shakspeare, Raleigh, and Sidney; and dividing +his time between the quiet charms of domestic ease, and the smiles of +the most elevated classes, he may be said to have been a fortunate and +happy man. As a song writer, he was doubtless unrivalled. His +versification is exquisitely finished, harmonious, and musically toned. +The sense is never obviously sacrificed to the sound; on the contrary, +he delighted in that species of antithetical and epigramatic turn, which +is generally held to excuse some roughness, and to be scarcely +compatible with perfect melody of rhythm. In grace, both of thought and +diction, in easy, fluent wit, in melody, in brilliancy of fancy, in +warmth (but scarcely depth) of sentiment, and even in purity and +simplicity, when he chose to be pure and simple, no one has been +superior to Moore; but in grandeur of conception, power of thought, and +above all, unity of purpose, and a high aim, he was singularly +deficient, and these are necessary to the character, not of a sweet +minstrel, but of a great poet. + +The London _Morning Chronicle_ furnishes a biography of Moore, which we +slightly abridge. With him, says the _Chronicle_, is snapped the last +tie, save perhaps one, represented by the veteran Rogers, which connects +the present generation with the outburst of "all the talents" which +signalized the opening of the century. That great kindling of +genius--embracing almost all sides of imaginative literature, of +criticism and philosophy--is becoming more a thing of history than of +fact. Year by year, the lights are going out. Wordsworth was the last +extinguished before Moore; and now, to all intents and purposes, the +great galaxy which poured such a flood of light on the literature of +fifty years ago--which extinguished Rosa Matilda fiction and Delia +Cruscan poetry--substituted true criticism for technical carping upon +philological points, and established new styles in every branch of the +_belles-lettres_--this great constellation may now be said to have +disappeared. One of the brightest, if not of the largest stars, has long +been obscured, and is now quite put out. The fame of Moore is fairly a +matter of discussion. It cannot, we believe, be denied that much of his +serious and more ambitious verse, founded on promptings of a more +luscious and florid fancy than the present tastes incline to admit, and +no inconsiderable portion even of his lyric pieces,--refined to +attenuation--are less read and admired than they were a score or thirty +years ago. A severer and sterner school of poetry has succeeded--one of +deeper feeling and more sober thought; and the representatives of those +who revelled in _Lalla Rookh_, and delighted in the strains of Mr. +Little, now generally address themselves to more staid and philosophic +musings. The _Irish Melodies_, too--exquisite as is their +word-music--fanciful as is their conception--delightful as is their +playfulness, and touching as is their pathos--even the _Irish Melodies_, +we believe are declining in popular estimation. The reasons are obvious. +In the first place, the _Irish Melodies_ are not particularly Irish; +they have grace, sparkling fancy, delicious feeling; but they are too +fine-spun to do the work-a-day duty of popular songs. As literary +performances, nine-tenths of Burns's are inferior to Moore's; and all +Dibdin's are immeasurably beneath them. Yet the probability is that +_When Willie Brewed_, and _Poor Tom Bowling_, will be in the full tide +of popularity, where _Rich and Rare_, and _Oh Breathe not His Name_, +will be unsung and forgotten. In a certain circle, and among people of a +certain reading and appreciation, Moore will live as long as the +language; but his genius was delicate and acute rather than catholic and +strong. He had a rich play of fancy, but none of the soaring imagination +of Shelley or Byron. His mind, in fact, was a first-class second-rate. +It had no pretensions to stand in the line of the giants of his time. +Brightly fanciful, rather than continuously imaginative--teeming with +poetic imagery--loving to sparkle along the floweriest paths, and +beneath the balmiest skies--revelling always in fays and flowers--in +love, and mingled intellectual and sensual pleasures--playful in the +extreme, and always ready to stop to make mirth as joyous and as +delightful as the passion--his muse, in his great romantic poems, is the +incarnation of a charming Epicureanism; and the mirth and jolity could +go a long step further. He had wit, which sparkled as brightly as it +could cut deeply; and humor, and sense of the ludicrous, which could be +as well, if not more effectually applied to living persons and actual +things than to the creations of his own fancy; and accordingly we find +him loving to turn from the etherealized voluptuousness of _Loves of the +Angels_, or the mystic imaginings of the _Epicurean_, to the sharp and +brilliant hittings of political and social squibs--the restless satire +with which, in the _Fudge Family_ and hundreds of ephemeral but not the +less clever lays, he quizzed his political and literary opponents, +abolished the Earl of Mountcashell, or shot stinging shafts through the +heart of the Benthamites. It is, indeed, far from probable that Moore's +political and satiric poetry, little perhaps as he thought of it at the +time, will live after his more ambitious works have sunk into that +chronic state of classicism, in which books are labelled with an +excellent character, and shelved--turned into the category of works +without which no gentleman's library is complete, and doomed, not to +actual obscurity, but to honorable retirement. The last of his political +squibs and short poems were given to the world in the columns of the +_Morning Chronicle_; and referred principally to the earlier struggles +of the Anti-Corn Law League--the verses having in most cases been +suggested by pasting political events. + +Thomas Moore died at the ripe age of seventy-two. He was born on the +28th of May, 1780, in Angier-street, Dublin, where his father, a strict +Roman Catholic, carried on a grocery and spirit business. As a child, he +is said to have been remarkable for personal beauty; but his appearance +in after life hardly carried out the promise of infancy. He was short, +with a heavy, expressive, but not handsome face, which, however, +lightened up wonderfully when conversing or singing his own ballads. He +was educated at Dublin, and one of big first noted peculiarities was a +fondness and a talent for private theatricals. Taking advantage of the +boon, as it was then considered, the young Roman Catholic was entered at +Trinity College. He could not, of course, obtain a degree; but some +English verses tendered at an examination, in lieu of the usual Latin +composition, procured a copy of the _Travels of Anacharsis_, as a +reward. The wild times of the Irish rebellion were approaching, and the +poet was naturally to be found in the ranks led by the Emmetts and +Arthur O'Connor; but his treasonable lucubrations, though, as his own +sister remarked, "rather strong," were passed over without any measures +against the enthusiastic young champion of liberty. Politics, however, +were by no means the only subject of his muse. At the age of fourteen he +published poetry in a Dublin magazine, and afterwards composed many +semi-burlesque pieces for private representation. + +In his twentieth year, giving up republicanism for ever, Moore came to +London to study at the Middle Temple, and publish his translations, or +rather paraphrases, of _Anacreon_. As may be imagined, he attended much +more to the Greek than to Coke upon Lyttleton, and permission, obtained +through the friendship of Lord Moira, to dedicate the work to the Prince +Regent, was the means of his introduction to those elevated circles in +which he was afterwards to move and shine. His _Anacreon_ was highly +successful, and was succeeded, in 1801, by _Poems and Songs, by Thomas +Little_. Whatever objections may be raised by the present generation to +either of these works, there can be no doubt of their vivid play of +fancy, their singular grace, even when verging on improprieties, and +their exquisite melody of versification. His translations of the _Old +Greek Lover_, and of _Women and Wine_, are probably the finest and +richest versions of these often rendered songs in the English +language--always excepting the rough but thoroughly racy version of the +last, by quaint old Mr. Donne. + +In the days of the regency, poets came in for patronage, and Mr. Moore, +made registrar to the Court of Admiralty at Bermuda--as singularly +appropriate an appointment as some we have seen in our own day--went out +to the islands, appointed a deputy, took a glance at the United States, +and came home again. He then published _Sketches of Travel and Society +beyond the Atlantic_--a satiric work in heroic verse, vigorously +written, but politically evincing a miserable short-sightedness. Soon +afterwards, a savage review in the _Edinburgh_, of a republication of +_Juvenile Songs, &c._, led to the celebrated rencontre between Moore and +Jeffrey, at Hampstead, when the great critic, as Byron asserted, stood +valiantly up: + + "When Little's leadless pistol met his eye + And Bow-street myrmidons stood laughing by." + +The affair was ultimately arranged, mainly through the intervention of +Mr. Rogers, and at his house Moore shortly afterwards made his first +acquaintance with Byron and Campbell. The long and affectionate intimacy +between Moore and the author of _Childe Harold_, we need here only +allude to. Moore had about this time married. His wife was a Miss Dyke, +a woman, of strong sense and character, as well as great beauty and +amiability. Their children are all dead. + +A couple of political satires of no great merit--one setting forth a +sober and earnest panegyric upon ignorance--were followed by the famous +_Two-penny Post Bag_, a bundle of rollicking satire and humor. It made a +great hit. Not so its author's next venture, a farce called the _Blue +Stocking_, damned at the Lyceum. Moore's intimacy with Byron and Hunt +was broken off by the outspoken tone of the _Liberal_, and especially by +the _Vision of Judgment_. Moore thought his friends had gone too far. +What would Carlton House say! For if, as Byron said, "Little Tommy +dearly loved a lord," with how much more affection did he worship a +prince of the blood royal? + +The _Melodies_ were his next, and perhaps most popular compositions. +Charming as they are, and exquisitely finished as is their lyrical +workmanship, we doubt whether they have the stamina and heart-rooted +earnestness, which are requisite to make songs immortal. Only the +strongest heart and the manliest brain produce offspring to suit all +tastes and to last all time. + +It was in 1812 that Moore determined to write an Indian poem. Mr. Perry, +of the _Morning Chronicle_, accompanied the poet to the Messrs. Longman, +and through his intervention the great sum of 3,000 guineas was settled +on as the price of a piece of which not one word was yet written. Moore +then retired to Mayfield Cottage, a desolate place in Derbyshire, and +after a long and hard struggle with a coquettish muse--after a three +years' retirement--he sent forth _Lalla Rookh_. Its success was immense; +the poem ran rapidly through several editions, and Moore's fame stood +upon a higher and surer pedestal than ever. The tales were the triumph +of poetic lusciousness; but not a few old judges stigmatized their taste +by preferring Fadladeen and his criticisms, even to the Fireworshippers, +or the tribulations of the Peri. We need hardly say that the judgment of +these tough critics has now a far greater number of adherents than it +once commanded. + +After a continental tour, Moore wrote the clever and popular _Fudge +Family_. In the following year he met Byron in Italy, and then the +latter intrusted to him his memoirs for publication. These memoirs Moore +sold to Murray for two thousand guineas; but, as is well known and a +good deal regretted, the purchase money was refunded, and the papers +regained, and destroyed. Pecuniary difficulties connected with the +misconduct of his Bermuda deputy, about this time, compelled Moore to +seek a temporary refuge in Paris, and there he led a pleasant social +life, such as he loved, and composed the _Loves of the Angels_, which is +not much more than an elaborate and carefully wrought repetition of all +his previous love-and-flower poetry. The whole thing is dreamy, lulling, +and beautiful, but vague and misty. The words tinkle like falling +fountains, and the essence of the closing fancy floats about one like +perfume; but this enervating species of composition is far from high or +true poetry, and accordingly the work is now far oftener alluded to than +it is read. In Paris he occupied the same hotel for a long time with his +intimate friend Washington Irving. + +In 1825 Moore paid a visit to Scott, who pronounced the Irish melodist +the "prettiest warbler" he had ever heard. One evening Scott and his +guest visited the theatre at Edinburgh. Soon after their unmarked +entrance, the attention of the audience, which had been engrossed by the +Duchess of St. Albans, was directed towards the new comers; and, +according to a newspaper report, copied and published by Mr. Moore in +one of his last prefaces, considerable excitement ensued. "Eh!" +exclaimed a man in the pit, "eh, yon's Sir Walter, wi' Lockhart and his +wife; and wha's the wee body wi' the pawkie een? Wow, but it's Tarn +Moore, just." "Scott, Scott! Moore, Moore!" immediately resounded +through the house. Scott would not rise; Moore did, and bowed several +times, with his hand on his heart. Scott afterwards acknowledged the +plaudits of his countrymen; and the orchestra, during the rest of the +evening, played alternately Scotch and Irish airs. + +Soon after this period, Moore was established, by the kind offices of +his old and stanch friend the Marquis of Lansdowne, in Sloperton +Cottage, where he passed the remainder of his days, and where he ended +them. It was here that he commenced his career as a biographer, and +produced successively the memoirs of Lord Edward Fitzgerald, Lord Byron, +and Sheridan. The two latter are well known and highly appreciated. It +was in the previous year that the poet first came out as a prose writer +in the _Memoirs of Captain Rock_, a bitter and unfair account of--or +rather commentary on--the English government of Ireland, and a curious +instance of warped and twisted views in a man of the world like Moore, +almost unavoidable in an Irishman writing of his country. His next +serious work--he continued his squibs and sparkles of occasional +verse--was the _Travels of an Irish Gentleman in Search of a +Religion_--in which he attempted to show that the doctrines and +practises of the Roman Catholic Church date from the apostolic period. +The last of his prose works, and that which has attained a greater sale, +we believe, than any of them, was the romance of _The Epicurean_. Here +Moore's style, always too florid, is occasionally redeemed by passages +of eloquence and natural feeling. There is much out-of-the-way learning +in the book, but a pompous and cumbrous ornament overlays every thing. +The book had great success, but of what Mr. Carlyle calls the "wind-bag" +nature. The wind inside was very highly perfumed, and sighed with very +pleasing murmurs, but it was only wind, and, as such, will ooze out +presently, and the Epicurean bag will be little regarded. + +From this time political and social squibs were the only literary +occupations to which Mr. Moore devoted himself until, gradually and +fitfully mental darkness came down on him. Of critical estimates of +Moore, we have seen none to which we more perfectly agree, than one +(sometimes attributed to Richard H. Dana, but) written by Professor +Edward T. Channing, for the _North American Review_ soon after that +Review was established. + +The best edition of Moore's works ever published in this country, is the +very beautiful one in octavo, from the press of the Appletons, embracing +all the revisions, introductions, notes, &c., of the author's recent ten +volume edition, printed in London. + + * * * * * + +The well-known artist, SAMUEL PROUT, died in London on the 10th of +February. The _Athenæum_ remarks that he was long and popularly known by +a style of Art which he may be said to have originated,--and to the +influence of his example may be ascribed the distinctive character and +the successes of the English school of painters of architectural +subjects. Born at Plymouth about the year 1784, like his townsmen +distinguished in art, he owed little to the patronage of his native +town, unless their share in the praises which he ultimately commanded +may be counted to them as encouragement. In the metropolis his first +patron, was Mr. Palser, the printseller, who used to take all his water +color drawings at low prices, and had a ready sale for them. When Mr. +Prout had arrived at distinction, he never omitted grateful mention of +the advantages he had derived from the acquaintance and transactions. +Mr. Prout early gained the notice of the late Mr. Ackermann; and the +many drawing-books for learners, and other prints which he undertook for +that gentleman, soon gave currency to his name. His transcripts of +Gothic architecture at home it is superfluous to commend; and when the +allied armies had made it safe to venture to the Continent, he was among +the earliest of the English to travel there. His love of the picturesque +was gratified amid the new and remarkable combinations of form which met +his eye at Nürnberg and in many of the adjacent cities. He was among the +first English artists to add to what had been already made known of +Venice by Canaletto. Nor must it be forgotten that he was among the +first when Senefelder's newly discovered process was imported to try his +hand at it. The powers of the art of Lithography, though its processes +may have been improved and amplified since,--were never better exhibited +than in Mr. Prout's broad and vigorous touch. The _Landscape Annual_ is +another record of his powers. Other books of the class testify to his +unwearied industry and graphic skill. For many years suffering from +ill-health, Mr. Prout, in convalescent intervals, labored cheerfully at +the vocation which he had so illustrated in better times. + + * * * * * + +The venerable Dr. MURRAY, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, died at +his residence in that city on the 25th of February. The death of this +excellent prelate, whose life has been a model of Christian forbearance +in a country where such an example is invaluable, the journals say is +deeply regretted by moderate men of all the religious denominations of +the country. + + * * * * * + +Dr. M'NICHOLAS, titular Bishop of Achonry, died about the middle of +February. He was regarded as one of the ripest scholars among the Roman +Catholic hierarchy of Ireland, and belonged to the advanced school of +"educationists." + + * * * * * + +The London papers announce the death of Mr. HOLCROFT, son of the more +famous Thomas Holcroft, the dramatist,--who was for many years connected +with the press, and, perhaps, in that capacity most prominently known as +the musical and dramatic critic of one of the leading daily papers. + + * * * * * + +M. BENCHOT, the editor of Voltaire's works, lately died at Paris. He +devoted thirty years to studies preparatory to the execution of his +undertaking, which he finally completed in 1834. He also published in +1811 a laborious work on French bibliography, which is still a standard +manual. + + * * * * * + +JOHANN KOLLAR, Professor of Slavonian antitiquities at the University of +Vienna, died on January 24th, last, in his sixtieth year. He was born at +Mursotz, in Hungary, and was educated as a Protestant clergyman; he was +appointed Professor in 1849. He contributed greatly to the intellectual +movement of recent years among the Austrian and Prussian Slavonians. His +literary reputation was first established by _Slavy dcera_ (The Daughter +of Fame) a lyrical epic poem, published in 1824. His ideal end was the +creation of an independent Slavonic literature, which should preserve +his race from the ever increasing influence of German culture, by which +he foresaw that it must be absorbed, unless it could be aroused to a +development strictly its own. During the Hungarian war he remained an +adherent of the Austrian side. He leaves two nearly finished works; the +one is _Slavonic Italy in Early Times_; the other is upon Slavonic +Mythology, and is entitled _The Gods of Retra_. They are written in the +Bohemian or Tschechic language. + + * * * * * + +The widow of VON KOTZEBUE, the author of _The Stranger_ and _Pizarro_ +(the former of which still keeps possession of the German provincial +stage), who was assassinated at Mannheim by the student Sand, died at +Heidelberg, on the 4th of February, at the age of 73. She was Kotzebue's +third wife, and had lived for many years in strict retirement. + + * * * * * + +BARON KRUDENER, Russian Minister in Stockholm since 1844, died early in +February. + + * * * * * + +M. LUCAS DE MONTIGNY, the adopted son of Mirabeau, died in Paris, early +in February. On his death-bed Mirabeau took him in his arms, and called +on his friends to protect him. He left him all his papers and +correspondence, and some years ago M. Lucas compiled from them eight +volumes of _Mémoires Biographiques_ of _le grand homme_. He naturally +entertained a profound veneration for the memory of his benefactor; and, +it is said, spent not less than 100,000 francs ($20,000), of his private +fortune, in buying up letters and documents calculated to cast dishonor +upon it. These papers he of course destroyed, and it does not appear +that he left behind him any calculated to throw new light on the +character or career of the tribune. + + * * * * * + +Belgian journals announce the death of a M. SMITS, a great compiler of +statistics, and a poet: two vocations rather dissimilar. He wrote three +tragedies, called _Marie de Bourgogne_, _Jeanne de Flandre_, _Elfrida, +ou la Vengeance_, which were applauded by his countrymen; also several +poems on different subjects, and especially on the rising of the +Spaniards and Greeks for liberty. + + * * * * * + +DR. EYLERT, first Bishop of Prussia, died a short time since at Potsdam, +aged eighty-two. He was the author of several works on theology, and on +the sciences. For a long time he was a member of the Ministry of Public +Worship and Instruction. + + * * * * * + +VICTOR FALCK, a distinguished French ornithologist, has just died at +Stockholm. + + + + +_Ladies Fashions for April._ + + +[Illustration: LA VIVANDIERE] + +The spring has brought to the several departments of fashion the usual +amount of changes, but at our last advices there were many points of +some consequence undecided, as for example, the length of dresses, which +some authorities make greater than ever in recent years, and others +less, by a few inches. Among the chief novelties we notice _La +Vivandiere_, which, with various styles of the _gilet_, or waist, has +been introduced into New-York by Bulpin of Broadway. The waistcoat will +remain in vogue. The Parisiennes, who had begun to turn it into +ridicule, still patronize it; and the provinciales need not fear to +adopt it. But some conditions are necessary in order to render it +becoming and stylish. The figure of the wearer should be thin, tall, and +sylph-like; all others should avoid the style. Rounded, white shoulders +appear to much more advantage in toilette Pompadour than in toilet Louis +XIII. The corsage Louis XIII., and the waistcoat accord so well together +that they are scarcely ever separated. However, some bodies a basquines +are made to be worn without the waistcoat. They are then trimmed with +velvet or ribbon bands, which cross the chest and fasten with buttons; +the chemisette being composed of frills of English point or +Valenciennes, separated by embroidered insertion. + +[Illustration: INFANT'S STRAW BEDFORD HAT.] + +[Illustration: THE BATEMAN CAP.] + +[Illustration: THE CLEMENTINE RIDING HAT.] + +[Illustration: THE ST. NICHOLAS CAP.] + +[Illustration: BOY'S STRAW BRUSSELS HAT.] + +[Illustration: MISSES LEGHORN HATS.] + +The recent fine bright weather has brought out many very elegant spring +bonnets. The most fashionable are of Leghorn, which, during the +approaching season, is likely to recover the favor it enjoyed some years +ago. The shape of new Leghorn bonnets is elegant and becoming--the brim +is wide and circular, and the crown gently sloping backwards. The +_bavolet_ at the back is made of the Leghorn itself, instead of being +composed of silk or ribbon, as in bonnets of straw or other materials. +The favorite style of trimming Leghorns is with fancy straw, tastefully +intermingled with velvet or ribbon, of some dark rick color. On one side +may be placed a small ostrich feather, of the color of the Leghorn, or +shaded in the hues of the bird of Paradise. As the season advances, +flowers will be employed for trimming these bonnets. Genin has +introduced a great variety of new and fanciful styles from the recent +Paris modes, for children, and for ladies' riding dresses. They are of +Leghorn, felt, and beaver, all of which will be in vogue through April, +and they are generally very tasteful and elegant. + +[Illustration] + +In the above figure we have a _Promenade or Carriage Costume_, of rich +figured silk; the sleeves open at the ends, with under sleeves of white +muslin; with a Leghorn bonnet, trimmed with fancy straw and +violet-colored ribbon, tastefully intermingled; on one side a Leghorn +colored feather, waving spirally. Under-trimming, loops of narrow ribbon +in various shades of violet; and gloves of pale yellow kid. The +_taffetas d'Athenes_ is appropriate for ball dresses, and obtains +generally; the ground is white, blue, or pale pink, brochees in silk of +all colors in wreaths, or bouquets, forming undulating festoons round +the bottoms of the triple skirts. The upper skirt is flowered over in +small designs to the waist, as is also the body and sleeves. The +_taffetas flore_ has a white ground, covered with small bouquets of wild +field flowers. The _taffetas rose_ has wreaths of large roses, brochees +in white silk round each skirt, and rose-buds over the top skirt and +body. This toilet should be accompanied with a coiffure, of a wreath of +white roses, fixed behind by a bow and long floating ends of satin +ribbon, forming an elegant evening toilette for a bride. The manteaux, +with hoods, continue in fashion; they are generally made of cloth. The +mantelet-echarpe has been cited for its elegance and taste. It is more +dressy than the manteaux, marking the waist, and descending in front in +square ends. Sorties de bal, are very fanciful. Some of white cachemire, +trimmed with beads, silk, and jet, with magnificent lace or deep fringe. +Others of white or pink satin, edged with ruches of guipure lace, or +rouleaux of marabouts. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The International Monthly, Volume 5, No. 4, April, 1852 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: February 21, 2011 [EBook #35345] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE INTERNATIONAL MONTHLY *** + + + + +Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, Josephine Paolucci and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net. +(This file was produced from images generously made +available by Cornell University Digital Collections.) + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_433" id="Page_433">[Pg 433]</a></span></p> + +<h1>THE INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE</h1> + +<h2>Of Literature, Art, and Science.</h2> + +<h3>Vol. V. NEW-YORK, APRIL 1, 1852. No. IV.</h3> + +<p class="notes">Transcriber's Note: Minor typos have been corrected and footnotes moved +to the end of the article. Table of contents has been created for the HTML version.</p> + +<h2>Contents</h2> + +<!-- Autogenerated TOC. Modify or delete as required. --> +<p> +<a href="#WILLIAM_GILMORE_SIMMS_LLD"><b>WILLIAM GILMORE SIMMS, LL.D.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#THE_PALACES_OF_TRADE"><b>THE PALACES OF TRADE.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#HERMAN_HOOKER_DD"><b>HERMAN HOOKER, D.D.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#SUNSET"><b>SUNSET.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#NEW-YORK_SOCIETY_BY_THE_LAST_ENGLISH_TRAVELLER"><b>NEW-YORK SOCIETY, BY THE LAST ENGLISH TRAVELLER.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#EMILIE_DE_COIGNY"><b>EMILIE DE COIGNY.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#A_LEGEND"><b>A LEGEND.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CAGLIOSTRO_THE_MAGICIAN"><b>CAGLIOSTRO, THE MAGICIAN.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#BITTER_WORDS"><b>BITTER WORDS.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#THE_MURDER_OF_LATOUR"><b>THE MURDER OF LATOUR.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#SOME_SMALL_POEMS"><b>SOME SMALL POEMS.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#THE_LATE_ELIOT_WARBURTON"><b>THE LATE ELIOT WARBURTON.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#AUTHOR_OF_THE_FOOL_OF_QUALITY"><b>AUTHOR OF "THE FOOL OF QUALITY."</b></a><br /> +<a href="#BANCROFTS_AMERICAN_REVOLUTION5"><b>BANCROFT'S AMERICAN REVOLUTION.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#LIFE_IN_CANADA"><b>LIFE IN CANADA.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#MR_SQUIER_ON_NICARAGUA7"><b>MR. SQUIER ON NICARAGUA.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#THE_HEIRS_OF_RANDOLPH_ABBEY8"><b>THE HEIRS OF RANDOLPH ABBEY.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#SEQUEL_TO_THE_JEWISH_HEROINE"><b>SEQUEL TO THE JEWISH HEROINE.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#ADVENTURES_OF_AN_ARMY_PHYSICIAN"><b>ADVENTURES OF AN ARMY PHYSICIAN.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#STRINGS_OF_PROVERBS"><b>STRINGS OF PROVERBS.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#A_CHAPTER_ON_WATCHES"><b>A CHAPTER ON WATCHES.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#FETE_DAYS_AT_ST_PETERSBURG"><b>FÊTE DAYS AT ST. PETERSBURG.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#RAINBOW_MAKING"><b>RAINBOW MAKING.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#BARTHOLD_NIEBUHR_THE_HISTORIAN20"><b>BARTHOLD NIEBUHR, THE HISTORIAN.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#PICTURE_ADVERTISING_IN_SOUTH_AMERICA"><b>PICTURE ADVERTISING IN SOUTH AMERICA.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#GUIZOT_AND_MONTALEMBERT"><b>GUIZOT AND MONTALEMBERT.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#AN_ACCOUNT_OF_SOME_TREATMENT_OF_GOLD_AND_GEMS"><b>AN ACCOUNT OF SOME TREATMENT OF GOLD AND GEMS.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#MY_NOVEL"><b>MY NOVEL.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHOICE_SECRETS"><b>CHOICE SECRETS.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#Authors_and_Books"><b>AUTHORS AND BOOKS.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#Recent_Deaths"><b>RECENT DEATHS.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#Ladies_Fashions_for_April"><b>LADIES FASHIONS FOR APRIL.</b></a><br /> +</p> +<!-- End Autogenerated TOC. --> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="WILLIAM_GILMORE_SIMMS_LLD" id="WILLIAM_GILMORE_SIMMS_LLD"></a>WILLIAM GILMORE SIMMS, LL.D.</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 321px;"> +<img src="images/443.jpg" width="321" height="337" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + + +<p>A steadily growing reputation for almost twenty years, justified by the +gradually increasing evidence of those latent, exhaustless, +ever-unfolding energies which belong to genius, has inwoven the name of +Simms with the literature of America, and made it part of the heirloom +which our age will give to posterity. Asking and desiring nothing to +which he could not prove himself justly entitled, he has wrested a +reputation from difficulty and obstacle, and conquered an honorable +acknowledgment from opposition and indifference. Even if we had not +proofs of genius in the treasury of thought and imagination constituted +by his writings, still the nobility of the example of energy, +perseverance, and high-toned hopefulness, which he has given, would +deserve a grateful homage.</p> + +<p>William Gilmore Simms is the second, and only surviving, of three +brothers, sons of William Gilmore Simms, and Harriet Ann Augusta +Singleton. His father was of a Scotch-Irish family, and his mother of a +Virginia stock, her grandparents having removed to South Carolina long +before the Revolution, in which they took an active part on the Whig +side. He was born on the 17th of April, 1806. His mother died when he +was an infant. His father, failing in business as a merchant, removed +first to Tennessee, and then to Mississippi. While in Tennessee he +volunteered and held a commission in the army of Jackson (in Coffee's +brigade of mounted men), which scourged the Creeks and Seminoles after +the massacre of Fort Mims. Our author, left to the care of a +grandmother, remained in Charleston, where he received an education +which circumstances rendered exceedingly limited.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_434" id="Page_434">[Pg 434]</a></span> He was denied a +classical training, but such characters stand little in need of the +ordinary aids of the schoolmaster, and, with indomitable application, he +has not only stored his mind with the richest literature, but has +received an unsolicited tribute to his diligence and acquisitions, in +the degree of Doctor of Laws, conferred upon him by the respectable +University of Alabama.</p> + +<p>At first it was designed that he should study medicine, but his +inclination led him to the law. He was admitted to the bar of South +Carolina when twenty-one, practised for a brief period, and became part +proprietor of a daily newspaper, which, taking ground against +nullification, ruined him—swallowing up a small maternal property, and +involving him in a heavy debt which hung upon and embarrassed him for a +long time after. In 1832, he first visited the North, where he published +Atalantis. Martin Faber followed in 1834, and periodically the long +catalogue of his subsequent performances.</p> + +<p>There are few writers who have exhibited such versatility of powers, +combined with vigor, originality of copious and independent ideas, and +that faculty of condensation which frequently by a single pregnant line +suggests an expansive train of reflection. As a poet, he unites high +imaginative powers with metaphysical thought—by which we mean that +large discourse of reason which generalizes, and which seizes the +universal, and perceives its relations to individual phenomena of nature +and psychology. His poems abound in appropriate, felicitous, and +original similes. His keen and fresh perception of nature, furnishes him +with beautiful pictures, the truthfulness and clearness of which are +admirably presented in the lucid language with which they are painted, +and, in his expression of deep personal feelings, we find a noble union +of sad emotion and manliness of tone. He draws from a full treasury of +varied experience, active thought, close observation, just and original +reflection, and a spirit which has drank deeply and lovingly from the +gushing founts of nature. His inspiration is often kindled by the sunny +and luxuriant scenery of the beautiful region to which he was born, and +besides the freshness and glow which this imparts to his descriptive +poetry, it makes him emphatically the poet of the South. Not only has he +sung her peculiar natural aspects with the appreciation of a poet and +the feeling of a son, but he has a claim to her gratitude for having +enshrined in melodious verse her ancient and fading traditions.</p> + +<p>Mr. Simms commenced writing verses at a very early period. At eight +years of age he rhymed the achievements of the American navy in the last +war with Great Britain. At fifteen, he was a scribbler of fugitive verse +for the newspapers, and before he was twenty-one he had published two +collections of miscellaneous poetry, which his better taste and prudence +subsequently induced him to suppress. Two other volumes of poems +followed, in a more ambitious vein, which are also now beyond the reach +of the collector, and were issued while he was engaged in the +occupations of a newspaper editor and a student and practitioner of law. +These volumes were followed by Atalantis, a poem which has been highly +praised by the best critics of our time.</p> + +<p>As a prose writer, his vigorous, copious, and original ideas are clothed +in a manly, flexible, pure, and lucid style. His first production, +Martin Faber, succeeded Atalantis. It was the initial of a series of +tales, which we may describe as of the metaphysical and passionate or +moral imaginative class. These, with two or more volumes of shorter +tales, are numerous, and perhaps among the most original of his +writings. They comprise Martin Faber and other Tales, Castle Dismal, +Confessions, or the Blind Heart, Carle Werner and other Tales, and the +Wigwam and Cabin. There are other compositions belonging to this +category, and, it may be, not inferior in merit to any of these, which +have appeared in periodicals and annuals, but have not yet been +collected by their author.</p> + +<p>The first novel of Mr. Simms belonged to our border and domestic +history. This was Guy Rivers; and to the same class he has contributed +largely, in Richard Hurdis, Border Beagles, Beauchampe, Helen Halsey, +and other productions. In historical romance, he has written The +Yemassee, the Damsel of Darien, Pelayo, and Count Julian, each in two +volumes. The scenes of the two last are laid in Europe. His romances +founded on our revolutionary history, are The Partisan, Mellichampe, and +The Kinsmen. In biography and history, he is the author of The Life of +Marion; The Life of Captain John Smith, founder of Virginia; a History +of South Carolina; a Geography of the same State; a Life of Bayard; and +a Life of General Greene.</p> + +<p>It is impossible to enumerate accurately his poetical productions, as +many, published in periodicals, have never been printed together; but +the collection of his poems now in course of publication at Charleston, +will supply a desideratum to the lovers of genuine American letters and +art. Atalantis, Southern Passages and Pictures, Donna Florida, Grouped +Thoughts and Scattered Fancies, Areytos, Lays of the Palmetto, The +Cassique of Accube and other Poems, Norman Maurice, and The City of the +Silent, constituting distinct volumes, are, however, well known.</p> + +<p>The orations of Mr. Simms, which have been published, comprise one +delivered before the Erosophic Society of the Alabama University, +entitled, The Social Principle—the true source of National Permanence; +another before the town council and citizens of Aiken, South Carolina, +on the Fourth of July, 1844, entitled, The Sources of American +Independence; and one delivered before literary societies in Georgia, +entitled Self-development.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_435" id="Page_435">[Pg 435]</a></span></p> + +<p>As a writer of criticism, Mr. Simms is known by numerous articles +contributed to periodicals; by a review of Mrs. Trolloppe, in the +American Quarterly, and of Miss Martineau in the Southern Literary +Messenger (both subsequently republished in pamphlets, and received with +general approval), as well as by many others of equal merit—a selection +from which, wholly devoted to American topics, has been published in two +volumes, under the title of Views and Reviews in American History and +Fiction.</p> + +<p>Scarcely a production of Mr. Simms has been unmarked by a cordial +reception from the best literary journals; and the praise of the London +<i>Metropolitan</i> and <i>Examiner</i>—the former when under the conduct of +Thomas Campbell, the latter of Albany Fonblanque—was generously +bestowed, especially on <i>Atalantis</i>; of which the <i>Metropolitan</i> said, +"What has the most disappointed us is, that it is so thoroughly English: +the construction, the imagery, and, with a very few exceptions, the +idioms of the language, are altogether founded on our own scholastic and +classical models;" and Fonblanque, in reviewing a tale by Simms, +entitled, <i>Murder will Out</i>, said, "But all we intended to say about the +originality displayed in the volume has been forgotten in the interest +of the last story of the book, <i>Murder will Out</i>. This is an American +ghost story, and, without exception, the best we ever read. Within our +limits, we could not, with any justice, describe the whole course of its +incident, and it is in that, perhaps, its most marvellous effect lies. +It is the <i>rationale</i> of the whole matter of such appearances, given +with fine philosophy and masterly interest. We never read any thing more +perfect or more consummately told."</p> + +<p>But the testimony of the critical press, or even of the successful sale +of an author's works, is not so suggestive of merit as the fact that his +productions have entered into the popular mind; and this tribute Mr. +Simms has received in the fact that in regions which he has identified +with legends created for them by his own genius, localities of his +different incidents are pointed out with a sincere belief in their +historical verity. The dramatic powers manifested in his novels, have +been still more largely displayed in his <i>Norman Maurice</i>, a play of +singular originality, in design, character, and execution, the nervous +language and felicitous turns of expression in which remind us of the +best of the old dramatists. We have heretofore expressed in the +<i>International</i> a conviction that Norman Maurice is the best American +drama that has yet been published—the most American, the most dramatic, +the most original.</p> + +<p>As a member of the Legislature of his native State, and on various +public occasions, Mr. Simms has vindicated a title to fame as an orator; +and a recent nomination for the presidency of the South Carolina +College, although he declined being a candidate, is an evidence of the +impression which his ability, information, and high character have +produced on his fellow citizens.</p> + +<p>His intense intellectual activity, united with a habitually reflective +and philosophical mode of thought, and unwearied laboriousness, enable +him to accomplish an almost incredible amount of literary labor. The +catalogue of his works which is subjoined, gives but an inadequate idea +of what he has really performed; for multifarious productions, many of +them of the highest order in their respective classes, are scattered in +the pages of periodicals, or still in manuscript; while the unceasing +demands on his pen, with his arduous editorship, prevent him from +accomplishing many fruitful designs, whose inception he has hinted in +various ways. To his intellectual gifts, he unites a brave, generous +nature, a kindly, and strong heart, a genial, impulsive, yet faithful +and determined disposition, warm affection and friendship, a spirit to +do and to endure, and a soul as much elevated above the petty envies and +jealousies which too often deform the <i>genus irritabile</i>, as it is in +large sympathy with the beautiful, the true, the just—with humanity and +with nature.</p> + +<p class="right"> +P.<br /> +</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<h4><i>CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF WORKS BY MR. SIMMS.</i></h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>1. Lyrical and other Poems: 18mo, pp. 208, Charleston, Ellis +& Noufvillle, 1827.</p> + +<p>2. Early Lays: 12mo. pp. 108, Charleston, A. E. Miller, +1827.</p> + +<p>3. The Vision of Cortes, and other Poems: Charleston, J. S. +Burgess.</p> + +<p>4. The Tri-Color, or Three Days of Blood in Paris, 1830: +Charleston.</p> + +<p>5. Atalantis, a Story of the Sea: New-York, J. & J. Harper, +1832.</p> + +<p>6. Martin Faber, a Tale: New-York, J. & J. Harper, 1833.</p> + +<p>7. The Book of My Lady, a Melange: Phila., Key & Biddle, +1833.</p> + +<p>8. Guy Rivers, a Tale of Georgia: 2 vols. 12mo., New-York, +Harper & Brothers, 1834.</p> + +<p>9. The Yemassee, a Romance of Carolina: 2 vols., New-York, +Harper & Brothers, 1835.</p> + +<p>10. The Partisan, a Tale of the Revolution: 2 vols., +New-York, Harper & Brothers, 1836.</p> + +<p>11. Mellichampe, a Legend of the Santee: 2 vols., New-York, +Harper & Brothers, 1836.</p> + +<p>12. Martin Faber, and other Tales: a new edition, 2 vols., +New-York, Harper & Brothers, 1836.</p> + +<p>13. Pelayo, a Story of the Goth: 2 vols., New-York, Harper & +Brothers, 1838.</p> + +<p>14. Carl Werner, an Imaginative Story, with other Tales of +the Imagination: 2 vols., New-York, George Adlard, 1838.</p> + +<p>15. Richard Hurdis, or the Avenger of Blood, a Tale of +Alabama: 2 vols., Philadelphia, Carey & Hart, 1838.</p> + +<p>16. Southern Passages and Pictures: 1 vol., New-York, G. +Adlard, 1839.</p> + +<p>17. The Damsel of Darien: 2 vols., Philadelphia, Lea & +Blanchard.</p> + +<p>18. Border Beagles, a Tale of Mississippi: 2 vols., +Philadelphia, Carey & Hart, 1840.</p> + +<p>19. The Kinsman, or the Black Riders of the Congaree: 2 +vols., Philadelphia, Lea & Blanchard, 1841.</p> + +<p>20. Confession, or the Blind Heart: 2 vols., Philadelphia, +Lea & Blanchard.</p> + +<p>21. Beauchampe, or the Kentucky Tragedy, a Tale of Passion: +2 vols., Philadelphia, Lea & Blanchard, 1842.</p> + +<p>22. History of South Carolina: 1 vol. 12mo., Charleston, +Babcock & Co.</p> + +<p>23. Geography of South Carolina: 1 vol. 12mo., Charleston, +Babcock.</p> + +<p>24. Life of Francis Marion: 1 vol., New-York, J. & H. G. +Langley.</p> + +<p>25. Life of Capt. John Smith, the Founder of Virginia: 1 +vol., New-York, Langley.</p> + +<p>26. Count Julian: 2 vols. 8vo., New-York, Taylor & Co., +1845.</p> + +<p>27. The Wigwam and the Cabin: 2 vols., New-York, Wiley & +Putnam.</p> + +<p>28. Views and Reviews in American History, Literature and +Art: 2 vols., New-York, Wiley & Putnam, 1846.</p> + +<p>29. Life of Chev. Bayard: 1 vol., New-York, Harper & +Brothers, 1848.</p> + +<p>30. Donna Florida: 1 vol. 18mo., Charleston, Burgess & +James, 1848.</p> + +<p>31. Grouped Thoughts and Scattered Fancies, a Collection of +Sonnets: 1 vol. 18mo., Richmond, McFarlane.</p> + +<p>32. Slavery in the South: 1 vol 8vo., Richmond, McFarlane, +1831.</p> + +<p>33. Araytos, or the Songs of the South: 1 vol, 12mo., +Charleston, John Russell, 1846.</p> + +<p>34. Lays of the Palmetto, a Tribute to the South Carolina +Regiment in the War with Mexico: 12mo., Charleston, John +Russell, 1848.</p> + +<p>35. Atalantis, a Story of the Sea, with the Eye and Wing +(Poems chiefly Imaginative): 1 vol. 12mo., Carey & Hart, +1848.</p> + +<p>36. Life of Nathaniel Greene: 12 mo., New-York, Coolidge & +Bro., 1849.</p> + +<p>37. Supplement to Writings of Shakspeare, Edited with Notes: +(First collected edition) 1 vol. 8vo., New-York, Coolidge & +Brothers.</p> + +<p>38. The Social Principle, the true Secret of National +Permanence, an Oration: 1842.</p> + +<p>39. The Sources of American Independence, an Oration: 1844.</p> + +<p>40. Self Development, an Oration: 1847.</p> + +<p>41. Castle Dismal, a Novelette: 1 vol. 12mo., Burgess & +Stringer.</p> + +<p>42. Helen Halsey, 1 vol, 12mo., New-York, Burgess & +Stringer.</p> + +<p>43. Katherine Walton, or the Rebel of Dorchester, a Romance +of the Revolution: A. Hart, Philadelphia, 1851.</p> + +<p>44. The Golden Christmas; a Chronicle of St. John's, +Berkeley: Charleston, Walker & Richards, 1852.</p></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_436" id="Page_436">[Pg 436]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 447px;"> +<img src="images/446.jpg" width="447" height="336" alt="PETERSON & HUMPHREY'S CARPET HOUSE." title="" /> +<span class="caption">PETERSON & HUMPHREY'S CARPET HOUSE.</span> +</div> + +<h2><a name="THE_PALACES_OF_TRADE" id="THE_PALACES_OF_TRADE"></a>THE PALACES OF TRADE.</h2> + + +<p>It were well if not only William B. Astor, Stephen Whitney, the heirs of +Peter Stuyvesant (of blessed memory), and others who own real estate in +this city, and likewise all mayors, common councilmen, and others in +authority, were endued with more taste, with a higher regard to the +general interest, and a juster sense of the matters that pertain to a +good administration, so that it might be said in after times that the +beneficence of the Creator (who in things natural has done more for ours +than for any other city), had been seconded by the pious wisdom of the +creature, and Manhattan pointed to as in all respects the metropolis of +the world. Why not? If the very stones in the streets of London, Paris, +and Vienna, were turned to pure gold, they would not purchase for those +cities advantages that should be compared with such as we already +possessed by our beautiful island—a giant mosaic, set in emerald, +studding the bosom of Nature.</p> + +<p>Whatever may be said by our excellent neighbor, the minister of the +dingy-looking red brick meeting-house round the corner, it is not less a +work of piety to create any work of beauty—a beautiful house, or shop, +or poem, for example—than to teach a class in the Sunday school,—which +doctrine may be incidentally fortified from Jonathan Edwards's Theory of +True Virtue, and more directly from the best philosophies of later +years. It is ordered that the dignity of human nature shall in a great +degree be dependent upon a sympathetic association with what is +admirable. It was Hazlitt, we believe,—certainly it was some one who +appreciatingly recognized the highest earthly ministry,—who said it was +impossible to entertain an angry feeling in the presence of a lovely +woman's portrait,—which, done fitly, is the highest accomplishment of +art. Whatever is beautiful or sublime has the same purifying and +ennobling tendency. The beggars do shrewdly who sit in <i>front</i> of +Stewart's. The same person who would give a shilling there, would as +likely as not steal a penny from the hat of the blind man round the +corner, where those detestable red bricks so outrage every principle +known to a builder fit to handle the trowel. There is nothing more +offensive than this custom of making of different materials the various +fronts of the same edifice. It may be allowable to construct the <i>rear</i> +of a house, or a side that is to be built against speedily, of a cheaper +stone; but to make the face upon one street of marble, and the face +around the corner of brick, as in the case of Stewart's store, and the +Society Library, is an outrage as ridiculous as it would be to make +alternate gores of a woman's skirt of Petersham and Brussels lace. +Bricks are very respectable; we say nothing in their dispraise; but to +any man of taste, an edifice is much more beautiful built entirely of +bricks than it is with but one of two exposed parts of marble; and let +us say to the affluent merchant to whom New-York is indebted for the +structure just mentioned, that until he paints<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_437" id="Page_437">[Pg 437]</a></span> his bricks on +Reade-street, so that they correspond as nearly as may be with his +fronts on Chambers-street and Broadway, his store will indicate but a +shabby gentility, an unnatural association of tow cloth and satin, +copper and silver, poverty and riches, which should blush in the face of +the most inferior exhibition of consistency. With the abolition of this +strong contrast, the observer who goes down Broadway will contemplate +with delight the classical air of this most imposing Palace of Trade +that has yet been erected in the cities of the United States. How easily +Broadway, for the money that its piles of brick and stone will have cost +in ten years, might be made the most splendid street in Christendom, by +a mere observance of the principles of taste and unity!</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/447.jpg" width="500" height="390" alt="PRINCIPAL HALL OF PETERSON & HUMPHREY'S CARPET HOUSE." title="" /> +<span class="caption">PRINCIPAL HALL OF PETERSON & HUMPHREY'S CARPET HOUSE.</span> +</div> + +<p>In a little hamlet of five or fifteen hundred inhabitants, great +buildings are out of place. In a city like ours, every thing should be +in keeping, and the predominant principle should be the <i>gigantesque</i>. +If the lot-holders from Bowling Green to the New Park would but consider +the matter, with intelligent reference not only to the glory of the city +but to their own profit; if each separate square were built as if it +were <i>one</i> edifice (as, without any blending of property, it might be +very easily), though these squares were all of plain brick, and no more +costly than the well-known row of stores in William-street, what an +imposing spectacle they would present! But if one block were like the +Astor House, the next like Stewart's (except only the Reade street +front), the next a row of free-stone, the next one of brick, the next +one of granite,—here a Gothic, there a Byzantine, then a Corinthian, +then, if you please, as plain a front as that of the New-York +Hotel—with here and there a church, library, lyceum, or art gallery, of +a style less suitable for shops or dwellings,—and there would be +nothing in the world to compare with Broadway. But this running of +democracy into the ground, this whim of every vulgar fellow who owns a +front of twenty feet, that he must illustrate his independence by +building on it in his own peculiar way, is baulking Providence, and for +the full cost of magnificence confining us to tricksy meanness. Two or +three years ago rose the chaste and simple front of 349 Broadway, in a +row of decayed brick shops, which, it was hoped would give place to an +entire range in imitation of the initial structure. But since then, the +owner of a couple of adjoining lots—a Connecticut man probably—has +caused to be put up two stores of a different style, not of half the +value of continuations of the less expensive edifice which they join. If +instead of this patchwork, now planted here for half a century, there +had been an extension of uniform stores from corner to corner—though +either Beck's or the building we have mentioned had been the model—the +single splendid edifice would have been a pride and boast of the city, +and the separate stores would have been of much greater value than the +best can be now. It is as revolting (and much<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_438" id="Page_438">[Pg 438]</a></span> more vexatious, for its +publicity) as the worst case of Saxon and Congo amalgamation. A +magnificent pile has been erected in Wall-street on the corner west of +the Exchange; but some person, ignorant, it is to be hoped for his +soul's sake, of the true obligations of morality applicable in the case, +has built, at the same time, at the same cost, of the same height, and +without any conceivable justifying reason, an utterly incongruous basket +of offices, as if for the special purpose of vexing the eyes of men who +have instincts of decency.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 383px;"> +<img src="images/448.jpg" width="383" height="500" alt="THOMPSON'S SALOON." title="" /> +<span class="caption">THOMPSON'S SALOON.</span> +</div> + +<p>The imposing edifice on the corner of Broadway and White-street, of +which a view is presented on a preceding page, is one of the +improvements of the city made during the last year. In the great +carpet-house of Peterson & Humphrey are offered the productions of the +best looms in the world, in a variety and profusion probably unequalled +elsewhere in America. The principal saloon is like a street, and it is +almost always thronged with people.</p> + +<p>Not far from the store of Peterson & Humphrey—at 359 Broadway—is the +new and beautiful building erected by the well-known confectioners, +Thompson & Son. This was opened to the public but a few weeks ago, and +it is the most splendid establishment of the kind in America. The +several sales during the last three quarters of a century of the ground +upon which it is built, illustrate the rapid increase of value in real +estate in this city during that period. The lot formed a part of the De +Peyster farm, and was called pasture ground. On the death of Major De +Peyster, the farm was divided, and this lot, then thirty-two feet wide, +was on the 13th of December, 1784, sold for £100 New-York currency; in +1789 it was sold for £150; in 1805 for $1500; in 1820 for $4000; in 1825 +for $11,000; and in 1850 it was bought by Mr. Thompson for $60,000, and +he has expended $50,000 in the erection of the building with which it is +now occupied, and which is twenty-eight feet wide, one hundred and +ninety feet deep, and sixty-two feet high. It is built in a very rich +style, of Paterson stone, similar to that used in Trinity church. The +architects were Field and Correja, and the decorations in fresco are by +Rossini. Mr. Thompson, senior, has been a quarter of a century in the +business for which he has erected this new edifice, and in which he has +accumulated his fortune.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_439" id="Page_439">[Pg 439]</a></span> In 1820 there were but one or two houses of +the kind in New-York, and these were of limited capacity and in every +way inferior to Taylor's, Weller's, or Thompson's, of the present day. +These are among the most luxurious and comfortable resorts for ladies +and gentlemen who visit the city but for a part of a day, or who have +not time or inclination to go to houses in distant parts of the town, to +lunch or dine, or for those who come down Broadway to do shopping, and +need a resting place, or enjoy an exchange for gossip.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/449.jpg" width="500" height="362" alt="PRINCIPAL SALOON AT THOMPSON'S." title="" /> +<span class="caption">PRINCIPAL SALOON AT THOMPSON'S.</span> +</div> + +<p>The next of the Palaces of Trade recently erected in the city, for which +we have now room for any description, is the great silk house of the +well-known merchants, Bowen & McNamee, constituting one of the most +attractive features of the lower part of Broadway. It is built of white +marble, and the style of architecture is Elizabethan, and peculiarly +elaborate and effective. The building is thirty-seven and a half feet +wide, one hundred and forty-seven deep, and four stories high; and each +story consists of a single unbroken hall, lined with the richest +English, German, French, Italian and Indian goods. The architect was Mr. +Joseph C. Wells, and his plans were used in all the minutest details of +ornament and furniture. It is regarded, we believe, as the greatest +triumph of its kind of which our commercial metropolis has to boast; +indeed in magnificence of design, beauty of execution, and perfect +adaptation to its purposes, there is nothing superior to it, probably, +among the buildings devoted to trade in all the world.</p> + +<p>It was said by Jefferson that the genius of Architecture would never +make her abode in America; but the new edifices in New-York, of which we +have described some prominent specimens, may lead others to a different +conclusion. And we are of opinion that the progress of this country, in +the last quarter of a century, has been less conspicuous in any thing +else than in this noble art, little as it is now understood, much as it +is still disregarded. In some recent speculations on the subject, the +<i>Tribune</i> observes:</p> + +<p>"There is no American architecture, unless the Lowell factories may be +regarded as such. Our churches are small and imperfect imitations of a +miscellaneous Gothic, and our exchanges, colleges, lyceums, banks and +custom-houses affect the Greek, with as much propriety as our merchants, +professors and clerks would indue themselves with the Athenian costume. +There is no hope of the churches and banks. They are nothing if not +Gothic and Grecian. We shall not discuss the probable character of our +architecture. It is clear that New-York will build brick houses, and in +blocks. But beauty costs no more than ugliness, and although every man +has the right to build a house of that appearance which best pleases +himself, yet every citizen is bound to have at heart the beauty of the +city. He cannot escape it. His pride compels it; and therefore every man +who builds a house ought to consult, to some extent, the general effect +of his building, and as he would not paint it blue or black, he should +no less consider its form than its color.</p> + +<p>"Cheapness and convenience will, of course,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_440" id="Page_440">[Pg 440]</a></span> be the first principles in +our building, beauty and picturesqueness will be secondary. The point is +to combine these without much compromising either. At present our cities +are the unhandsomest in the world. The street architecture is monotonous +and heavy. The houses, compared with those of other capitals, are low, +but they are not light. Paris and the Italian cities have always a +festal air. Vienna is brilliant. Even grim old Rome seems waiting to be +gay. You do not immediately see the reason of this. The houses are high, +the streets narrow, shutting out the sky, and the swarms of passengers +do not explain the charm. But if you look narrowly you will see that the +difference of effect produced, arises, not so much from any essential +architectural superiority; because the mass of building in any city is +of about the same general character—but that it is due to the "broken +and various lines which every where meet the eye, relieving the heavy +gravity of the smooth fronts which with us are entirely unrelieved. +Sometimes, indeed, a street is built with regard to its architectural +beauty, as the <i>Rue de Rivoli</i>, in Paris, of which the harmony is +uniformity and not monotony. One side of this street is the garden of +the Tuileries, and the other is like a prolonged palace front. The +northern side of the <i>Boulevards des Italiens</i> is truly picturesque, but +for directly the contrary reason—the infinite variety of line +presented.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 271px;"> +<img src="images/450.jpg" width="271" height="500" alt="BOWEN & McNAMME'S SILK HOUSE." title="" /> +<span class="caption">BOWEN & McNAMME'S SILK HOUSE.</span> +</div> + +<p>"It is to these lines of gallery and balcony which break and lighten the +mass of building, that we must look for a hint of very feasible +improvement. If any city reader wishes an illustration of this fact, let +him observe how the iron verandah upon the Collamore House redeems the +otherwise bald, dead weight of that building. Then let him cast his eye +up Broadway to the long front of Niblo's Hotel—unrelieved and +blank—and consider the cheerful effect of a continuous gallery along +each story, or separate balconies at every window, as on the beautiful +<i>Chiaja</i> at Naples. On the other hand let him ask his Metropolitan pride +how it would like a street of such edifices as the City Assembly Rooms +on the site of Tattersalls? So, also, in dwelling-houses, the balcony +which is now confined to the parlor floor might occasionally be carried +up through the other stories, and this, in narrow streets, with a +peculiarly happy effect, as is seen in such streets of foreign cities, +where the style, if elaborated in lattices and bay-windows, becomes +romantic and poetic.</p> + +<p>"Greater variety in the mouldings of doors and windows, and in the +designs of porticoes, might easily be obtained, with an infinite gain of +grace to the city. The Broadway Theatre illustrates this, for it is +certainly one of the most impressive buildings upon that street. The +question, it must be remembered, is not one of art, so much as of +picturesqueness and effect. The galleries and balconies, &c., are only a +subterfuge. If an edifice is intrinsically beautiful and +well-proportioned, it claims no such accessories, as Stewart's building, +which, although a simple square mass, yet from the admirable proportion, +rather than the material, is as stately and imposing as many a foreign +palace. But where there is no regard—as is the usual case—to the +dignity or propriety of form, there we must take advantage of an +alleviation, and obtain lightness, gayety, and variety as we best can.</p> + +<p>"There is, however, one point peculiar to American, or more properly to +New-York building, which calls for the determined and constant censure +of every man who values human life. We mean the flimsy style of building +arising from the frenzied haste with which we do every thing. This has +long been our reproach. Scarcely a year passes that we do not record +some disaster of this kind, often involving a melancholy waste of life. +'<i>Is it strong?</i>' is a question constantly asked of a new building, and +a question which, in any civilized community, it should be as +unnecessary to ask, as whether the public wells are poisoned.</p> + +<p>"We know many who will not pass under buildings now going up or recently +erected.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_441" id="Page_441">[Pg 441]</a></span> A friend walked down Broadway one morning, while a building +was in course of erection on the site of the present Waverly House, and +returning in the afternoon found that it had all tumbled down. Our +readers have not forgotten the frightful fall of a block in Twenty-first +street last spring. One is curious to know if nothing is ever to be +done—if the city means to take no security for the lives of the +citizens in this matter. It would be very easy to prevent this flimsy +building, and even were it very difficult it should be effectually done. +This, too, is a matter in which every citizen is interested.</p> + +<p>"Stores and Warehouses have their own proprieties. Warehouses properly +avoid even the <i>appearance</i> of lightness. They are devoted to heavy +storage. No life, save of bales and boxes,—and not of the contents of +bales and boxes—is associated with them. Security is the first and only +thing we demand of them, provided the structures are not painfully +disproportioned. So with Prisons. In fact, in architecture, the ornament +must depend upon the use, must be developed from the use. For the same +reason that balconies become a dwelling-house they disfigure a +warehouse. Stores again should partake, in their appearance, of the +intrinsic character and associations of shops. When shop-keeping becomes +royal, it should be royally housed, as in Stewart's building.</p> + +<p>"The theme unravels itself endlessly. It is one of those common +interests of constantly recurring importance which it is always worth +while to talk about. Because there is no American architecture, there is +no occasion for making our buildings mere piles of brick and mortar, +punctured here and there for light—and because we are a commonsense, +go-ahead people, there is no need that our houses should offend the eye; +but—for that reason—great need that they should please it.</p> + +<p>"Lorenzo of Florence was the magnificent, not because he was rich, but +because he knew the use of riches."</p> + +<p>Despite all drawbacks, our city is growing wonderfully in splendor as +well as in size; and perhaps no previous season has promised so many +improvements in Broadway, uptown, or by the different parks, as the +present. Surpassing already any metropolis in the world in the number +and magnificence of our hotels, we are to have in occupancy within a few +weeks the splendid St. Nicholas and the gigantic Metropolitan, besides +half a dozen of inferior pretensions, which will yet surpass the best in +other cities; and new churches, and galleries, and public halls, are +talked of, in number and capacity, as in beauty, sufficient for all the +possible contingencies of a great capital, increasing in wealth, and +power, and beauty, with such unexampled rapidity. The power and +magnificence of New-York have been built up by her merchants, whose +private enterprise, public spirit, and intelligence and taste, are +especially conspicuous in the new edifices devoted to trade, of which we +have given descriptions.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/451.jpg" width="500" height="379" alt="INTERIOR OF BOWEN & McNAMEE'S SILK HOUSE." title="" /> +<span class="caption">INTERIOR OF BOWEN & M<sup>c</sup>NAMEE'S SILK HOUSE.</span> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="HERMAN_HOOKER_DD" id="HERMAN_HOOKER_DD"></a>HERMAN HOOKER, D.D.</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"> +<img src="images/452.jpg" width="450" height="488" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + + +<p>Herman Hooker is one of the most able and peculiar writers in religion +and religious philosophy now living in America. Indeed, we are inclined +to doubt whether the Episcopal Church in the United States embraces +another author whose name will be as long or as respectfully remembered +in the Christian world. If he is not mentioned in "every day's report," +it is because he adds to genius an unobtrusive modesty, as rare as are +the admirable qualities with which in his case it is associated.</p> + +<p>Dr. Hooker is a native of Poultney, Rutland county, Vermont. He was +graduated at Middlebury College in 1825, and soon after entered upon the +study of divinity at the Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Princeton. +He subsequently took orders in the Episcopal Church, and acquired +considerable reputation as a preacher; but at the end of a few years ill +health compelled him to abandon the pulpit, and he has since resided in +Philadelphia. The distinction of Doctor in Divinity was conferred upon +him three or four years ago by Union College.</p> + +<p>Dr. Hooker published in 1835 <i>The Portion of the Soul, or Thoughts on +its Attributes and Tendencies as Indications of its Destiny</i>; in the +same year <i>Popular Infidelity</i>, which in later editions is entitled, +<i>The Philosophy of Unbelief, in Morals and Religion, as discernible in +the Faith and Character of Men</i>; in 1846, <i>The Uses of Adversity and the +Provisions of Consolation</i>; in 1848, <i>The Christian Life a Fight of +Faith</i>; and soon after, <i>Thoughts and Maxims</i>, a book worthy of +Rochefoucauld for point, of Herbert for piety, and Bacon for wisdom.</p> + +<p>Upon meeting with qualities like Dr. Hooker's in one not known among the +popular authors of the country, we are prompted to say with Wordsworth, +"Strongest minds are often those of whom the world hears least," or in +the bolder words of Henry Taylor, "The world knows nothing of its +greatest men." It is surprising that a voice like his should have +awakened no echoes. He deserves a place among the first religious +writers of the age: for he has been faithful to the great mission laid +upon the priesthood, which is, not to labor upon "forms, modes, shows," +of devotion, nor to dispute of systems, schools, and theories of faith, +but to be witnesses of a law above the world, and prophets of a +consolation that is not of mortality. When we take up one of his books, +we could imagine that we had fallen upon one of those great masters in +divinity, who in the seventeenth century illustrated the field of moral +relations and affections with a power and splendor peculiar to that age. +These great writers possessed an apprehension of spiritual subjects, +sensitive, yet profoundly rational; a vision on which the rays of a +higher consciousness streamed in lustre so transcending that the light +of earth seemed like a shadow thrown<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_443" id="Page_443">[Pg 443]</a></span> across its course; which differed +from inspiration in degree rather than in kind. The resemblance of Dr. +Hooker to these great authors is obviously not an affectation. It is not +confined to style, but reaches to the constitution and tone of the mind. +His productions indicate the same temper of deep thoughtfulness upon +man's estate and destiny; the same union of a personal sympathy with a +judicial superiority, which suffers in all the human weaknesses which it +detects and condemns; the same earnest sense of their subjects as +realities, clear, present and palpable; the same quick feeling, toned +into dignity by pervading, essential wisdom; and that direct cognizance +of the substances of religion, which does not deduce its great moral +truths as consequences of an assumed theory, but seizes them as primary +elements that verify themselves and draw the theories after them by a +natural connection. Fretted and wearied with metaphysical theologies; +vexed by the self-illustration, the want of candor, the fierceness, the +ungenial and unsatisfying hollowness of popular religionism, we turn +with a grateful relief to this soothing and impressive system which +speculates not, wrangles not, reviles not, but, while it every where +testifies of the degradation we are under, touches our spirits to power +and purity by the constant exhortation of "sursem corda!"</p> + +<p>The style of Dr. Hooker abounds in spontaneous interest and unexpected +graces. It seems to result immediately from his character, and to be an +inseparable part of it. It is free from all the commonplaces of fine +writing; has nothing of the formal contrivance of the rhetorician, the +balanced period, the pointed turn, the recurring cadence. Yet the charms +of a genuine simplicity, of a directness almost quaint, of primitive +gravity, and calm, native good sense, renders it singularly agreeable to +a cultivated taste. Undoubtedly there is in spiritual sensibility +something akin to genius, and like it tending to utterance in language +significant and beautiful. We meet at times in Dr. Hooker's writings +with phrases of the rarest felicity and of great delicacy and +expressiveness; in which we know not whether most to admire the vigor +which has conceived so striking a thought, or the refinement of art +which has fixed it in words so beautifully exact.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="SUNSET" id="SUNSET"></a>SUNSET.</h2> + +<h4>WRITTEN FOR THE INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE.</h4> + +<h3>BY R. S. CHILTON</h3> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">See with what pomp the golden sun goes down<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Behind yon purple mountain!—far and wide<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His mellow radiance streams; the steep hill-side<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is clothed with splendor, and the distant town<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wears his last glory like a blazing crown.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We cannot see him now, and yet his fire<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Still lingers on the city's tallest spire,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Chased slowly upward by the gathering frown<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of the approaching darkness. God of light!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou leavest us in gloom,—but other eyes<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Watch thy faint coming now in distant skies:—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There drooping flowers spring up, and streams grow bright,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And singing birds plume their moist wings for flight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And stars grow pale and vanish from the sight!<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="NEW-YORK_SOCIETY_BY_THE_LAST_ENGLISH_TRAVELLER" id="NEW-YORK_SOCIETY_BY_THE_LAST_ENGLISH_TRAVELLER"></a>NEW-YORK SOCIETY, BY THE LAST ENGLISH TRAVELLER.</h2> + + +<p>The Hon. <span class="smcap">Henry Cope</span> has lately published in London a <i>Ride across the +Rocky Mountains, to California</i>—a book abounding in striking adventure +and description, and illustrating in its general tone the spirit of an +English gentleman. Its temper and good sense may be inferred from the +following specimen, on the never-failing subject of Society in New-York:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Any observations I might be tempted to make on New-York, or +even, I am inclined to think, on any of the civilized parts +of the states, would probably be neither novel nor +interesting. I am not ambitious of circulating more +'American notes,' nor do I care to follow in the footsteps +of Mrs. Trollope. Enough has been written to illustrate the +singularities of second-rate American society. Good society +is the same all over the world. General remarks I hold to be +fair play. But to indulge in personalities is a poor return +for hospitality; and those Americans who are most willing to +be civil to foreigners, receive little enough encouragement +to extend that civility, when, as is too often the case, +those very foreigners afterwards attempt to amuse their +friends on one side of the Atlantic, at the expense of a +breach of good faith to their friends on the other. Every +one has his prejudices: I freely confess I have mine. I like +London better than New-York, but it does not, therefore, +follow that I dislike New-York, or Americans either. I have +a great respect for almost every thing American—I do not +mean to say that I have any affection for a thorough bred +Yankee, in our acceptation of the term; far from it, I think +him the most offensive of all bipeds in the known world. +Yankee snobs too I hate—such as infest Broadway, for +instance, genuine specimens of the genus, according to the +highest authorities. The worst of New-York is its +superabundance of snobbism. The snob here is a snob "<i>sui +generis</i>" quite beyond the capacities of the old world. +There is no mistaking him. He is cut out after the most +approved pattern. If he differs from the original, or +whatever that might have been, it must be in a surpassing +excellence of snobbism which does credit to the progressive +order of things. Tuft-hunting is a sport he pursues with +delight to himself, but without remorse or pity for his +victim. It is necessary for the object of his persecutions +to be constantly on the alert. He is frequently seen +prowling about in white kid gloves, patent leather boots, +and Parisian hat. Whenever this is the case, he must be +considered dangerous and bloody-minded, for in all +probability he is meditating a call. Often he has been known +to run his prey to ground in the Opera or other public +places, and there to worry them within less than an inch of +their good temper. Offensive as he is, generally speaking, +he sometimes acts on the defensive; for, not very well +convinced of his own infallibility, he is particularly +susceptible of affronts, to which his assumed consequence +not unfrequently makes him liable. Baits are often proffered +by these swell-catchers to lure the unwary. Such as an +introduction to the nymphs of the <i>corps de ballet</i>; the +<i>entré</i> to all the theatres, private gambling-houses, &c., +&c. But beware of such seductions."</p></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_444" id="Page_444">[Pg 444]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="EMILIE_DE_COIGNY" id="EMILIE_DE_COIGNY"></a>EMILIE DE COIGNY.</h2> + +<h4>WRITTEN FOR THE INTERNATIONAL MONTHLY MAGAZINE.</h4> + +<h3>BY RICHARD B. KIMBALL.</h3> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/454.jpg" width="500" height="348" alt="EMILIE DE COIGNY AND THE STUDENTS." title="" /> +<span class="caption">EMILIE DE COIGNY AND THE STUDENTS.</span> +</div> + + +<p>A morning at <i>Là Morgue</i> is hardly as agreeable as a day at the Louvre, +yet it is not without a certain fascination. Let but the influence once +fasten on you, and it will be very hard to shake it off. At one period I +confess it was to me almost irresistible, and I shudder sometimes when I +recollect how punctually every morning at the same hour I took my place +on one side of that fearful room—not for the purpose of inspecting the +bodies of the suicides (I rarely turned to look at them), but to regard +the countenances of the anxious ones who came to realize the worst, or +to take hope till the morrow. Literally there are no spectators in that +dismal solitude—if we except an occasional visit from the foreign +sight-hunter, who comes in charge of a valet, and passes in and out and +away to the "next place." In London or in New-York, an establishment so +public would be thronged with persons eager to gratify a prurient +curiosity. Not so in Paris. The French possess a sensibility so +refined—it may be called a species of delicacy—that they cannot enjoy +such a spectacle, can scarcely endure it: and if the tourist will bring +the subject to mind, he will recollect that while his guide pointed out +the entrance, he himself declined going into the apartment.</p> + +<p>I know not how it happened, but, as I have remarked, the habit of +visiting this spot every morning, was fastened on me. Never shall I +forget some of the faces I encountered there. One image is impressed on +me indelibly; it is that of a woman of middle age, with a very pale +face, and having the appearance of one struggling with some wearing +sorrow, who for two weeks in succession came in daily, and walking +painfully up to the partition, looked intently through the lattice work, +and turned and went away. I never before felt so strong an impulse to +accost a person, without yielding to it. Indeed I had resolved to speak +to her on the morning of the fifteenth day, but she did not come and I +never saw her again. Who was she? did her fears prove groundless? what +became of her? An old man I remember to have seen—a very old man, +feeble and decrepit, who came once only, looked at the dead, shook his +head despairingly, and tottered away: I know not if he discovered the +object of his search. Young girls who had quarrelled with their lovers, +and lovers who in moments of jealousy had been cruel to their +sweethearts, would look anxiously in, and generally with relieved +spirits pass out, almost smilingly, resolving no doubt to make all up +before night should again tempt to suicide. Another incident I cannot +omit, although it is impossible to recall it without a dreadful pang. +One morning a pretty fair-haired child, not more than four years old, +came running in, and clasping the wooden bar with one hand, pointed with +her little finger through the opening, and with a tone of innocent +curiosity said, "There's mamma!" The same moment two or three rushed in, +and seizing the unconscious orphan, carried her hastily away. She had +wandered after some of the family, and heard enough as they came from +the fatal place to lead her to suppose her lost mamma was there, and so +she ran to see. What could be the circumstances so untoward,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_445" id="Page_445">[Pg 445]</a></span> that even +the child could not bind the mother to life?</p> + +<p>A long chapter might be written of the occurrences at my singular +rendezvous, but I had no design, when I began, of alluding to them, and +I will only remark here that, leaving Paris some time after for the +south of Europe, I got rid of this nightmare impulse, and although I +returned the following season I never again entered <i>La Morgue</i>....</p> + +<p>It was in the spring when I came back. The foliage was deep and green, +and in the <i>Jardin des Plants</i>, which was near my quarters, the various +flowers and shrubs and trees filled the atmosphere with fragrance, and +tempted us to frequent strolls along its avenues.</p> + +<p>"Come with me at six o'clock," said my friend Partridge, "and you shall +see an apparition."</p> + +<p>"Where?"</p> + +<p>"I will not tell you, till we are on the Spot."</p> + +<p>"I will go, but hope the rendezvous will be an agreeable one." Just +then, I know not why, I thought of <i>La Morgue</i>, and shuddered.</p> + +<p>"The most agreeable in all Paris."</p> + +<p>This conversation took place in the Hospital <i>de Notre Dame de Pitie</i>, +just as we were finishing our morning occupation of following the +celebrated <span class="smcap">Louis</span> through the fever wards. Partridge was my room-mate, +and generally a fellow traveller, but I had left him behind in my late +tour, to devote himself more entirely to his medical pursuits, while I, +to my shame be it spoken, began to tire of the lectures of Broussais, +and the teachings of Majendie; and, even now that I had returned, was +tempted every day to slip across to the <i>Rue Vivienne</i>, where were +staying some fascinating strangers, whose acquaintance I had made <i>en +route</i>, and who had begun to engross me too much for any steady progress +in my studies; at least so thought Partridge, who shook his head and +said it would not do for a student to cross the Seine—he ought to stay +in his own <i>quartier</i>; that I had had too much recreation as it was—I +should forget the little I know, and as for the <i>Rue Vivienne</i>, and the +<i>Boulevard des Italiens</i>, the <i>Rue de la Paix</i>, &c., I must break off +all such associations or be read out of the community. I was glad, +therefore, to appease my friend by consenting to go with him—I knew not +where—and see an apparition.</p> + +<p>Accordingly a few minutes before six, we started together on the strange +adventure. We passed down the street which leads to the <i>Jardin des +Plants</i>, and entering through the main avenue, walked nearly its entire +length, when my companion turned into a narrow path, almost concealed by +the foliage, which brought us into a small open space. Here he motioned +me to stop, and pointing to a rustic bench we both sat down. At the same +moment, the chimes from a neighboring chapel pealed the hour of six, and +while I was still listening to them, my friend seized my arm and +exclaimed in a whisper, "Look!" I cast my eyes across to the other side, +and beheld a figure advancing slowly toward us. It was that of a young +girl, in appearance scarcely seventeen. Her form was light and graceful, +simply draped in a loose robe of white muslin. On her head she wore a +straw hat, in which were placed conspicuously a bunch of fresh spring +blossoms. The gloves and mantelet seemed to have been forgotten. Her +demeanor was one of gentleness and modesty. She cast her eyes around as +if expecting to meet a companion, and then quietly sat down on a rude +seat not very far from where we were. I remained for ten minutes +patiently waiting a demonstration of some kind, either from my companion +or the strange appearance near us. But now I began to yield to the +influence of the scene. The sun was declining, and cast a mellow and +saddening light over the various objects around. Gradually as I gazed on +the motionless form of the maiden, I felt impressed with awe, which was +heightened by the solemn manner of my friend, who appeared as much under +the charm as myself. At length I whispered to him, "For Heaven's sake +tell me what does all this mean?" A low "Hush," with an expressive +gesture to enforce quiet, was the only response. I made no further +attempt to interrupt the silence, but sat spell-bound, always looking at +the figure, until I was positively afraid to take my eyes from it. Again +the chimes began their peal for the completion of the last quarter. It +was seven o'clock. The moment they ceased, the girl rose from her seat, +glanced slowly, sadly, earnestly around, pressed her hand across her +eyes, and proceeded in the path toward us. We both stood up as she came +near; my friend lifted his hat from his head in the most respectful +manner as the maiden passed, while she in return gazed vacantly on him, +and walking slowly by, disappeared in the direction opposite that from +which she came. We did not remain, but proceeded with a quickened pace +to our lodgings. Arrived there, I asked for an explanation of what we +had witnessed.</p> + +<p>"Do you remember," said Partridge, "Alfred Dervilly?"</p> + +<p>"Perfectly well. He was your room-mate after I left you last summer, and +twenty times I have been on the point of inquiring for him, but +something at each moment prevented. Where is he?"</p> + +<p>"Dead."</p> + +<p>"Dead! How, when?"</p> + +<p>"Killed by the apparition yonder."</p> + +<p>"Nonsense! Do not talk any more in riddles. Out with what you have to +say about Dervilly and the apparition, as you call it, and this +afternoon's adventure."</p> + +<p>"<i>Bien</i>, let us light the candles, fasten the doors, close the windows, +and take a fresh cigar."</p> + +<p>This was soon done, and accommodating<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_446" id="Page_446">[Pg 446]</a></span> himself to his seat in a +comfortable manner, my companion commenced:</p> + +<p>"Yes—you recollect Dervilly of course, and must remember that before +you left us we used to joke him about a fair unknown, who was engaging +so much of his time."</p> + +<p>"I had forgotten—but I now recall the circumstance; I remember, I was +walking with him near the 'Garden,' and he made some trivial excuse to +leave me and turn into it. You afterwards told me he had an appointment +there, but I thought little of it."</p> + +<p>"Well, I will give you the story as I now have it, quite complete, for I +was partly in Dervilly's confidence, and was with him during his illness +and when he died. He was born in Louisiana, of French parents, who, +after spending some years in America, returned to their native country. +He spoke English fluently, as you know, and when you deserted me we +became very intimate. Then it was I learned how deeply the poor fellow +was in love, actually <i>in love</i>. No mere transitory emotion—no +momentary passion for an adventure—no affair of gallantry, was this: +his very being was absorbed—he became wholly changed—it seemed as if +he had bound himself, body and soul, to some spirit of another world. I +never saw, never read, of so engrossing a feeling. At last he confessed +to me. He said he had met, a few months before, at the house of a former +friend of his family, who had been of considerable consequence under the +previous reign, but was now reduced, and lived in obscurity, a creature +of most exquisite shape and feature, who proved on acquaintance to be +possessed with a loveliness of character, a modesty, an irresistible +charm of manner, which took him captive. Dervilly became completely +enamored with Emilie de Coigny. This he discovered to be her name, but +on inquiring of the persons at whose house he first met her, he could +get no satisfactory information; indeed a very singular reserve, as poor +Dervilly thought, was maintained whenever her name was mentioned, so +that he could not, in fact, glean the slightest particulars about her. +This did not prevent him from confessing his passion, for the girl came +frequently to this house, and their acquaintance ripened very fast. +Emilie de Coigny felt for the first time that her heart was occupied, +and all that restlessness of spirit caused by the unconscious longing of +the affections laid at rest, and Alfred Dervilly became the sole object +of her thoughts and of her hopes, if hopes she had. All this, I repeat, +Emilie de Coigny felt; but, singular to say, she hesitated to confess +what was in her heart, even when her lover passionately entreated; it +seemed as if something stood between her and happiness, to which she +feared to allude. It is not easy to deceive the <i>heart</i>, and Dervilly +knew, despite the apparent calmness of Emilie, despite her sometimes +cold demeanor, that he was loved in return. But one thing troubled and +perplexed him; one thing filled him with vague fears and apprehensions, +and checked the ecstatic feelings which were ready to overflow his +heart. A mystery hung about this beautiful girl; she claimed no one for +her friend, she spoke of no acquaintances, she never alluded to parents, +or to brother or sister, or other relation; she made no mention of her +home. Besides, a strange sadness, strange in one so young, seemed to +possess her, and to pervade her spirit, and while contemplating that +imperturbable countenance, Dervilly at times felt an awe come over him +for which he could not account, and which for moments subdued even the +force of his passion. It appeared to him then, as if he were under a +spell; but presently, when a gentle smile illumined her face, her eyes +would be turned on him so lovingly, and her look express, as plainly as +look could, that all her trust was in him and in him only. Dervilly +would forget every thing in the raptures of such moments; indeed in his +ecstasy he would be driven almost to madness; for of all characters," +continued Partridge, "hers was the one to set a youth of ardent +temperament absolutely crazy. So matters advanced, or rather I should +say, so time advanced, while affairs did not. It was at this period," +said my friend, "that Dervilly gave me his confidence. Our intimacy had +gradually increased from the hour of your leaving us, and at length he +unbosomed himself completely. My first impression, after hearing his +story, was that the pretty mademoiselle was no more nor less than an +arrant flirt; that her charms were magnified to a lover's vision, and +that the mystery which attended her would turn out to be no mystery at +all—so I treated the case lightly, laughed at his description, called +Mademoiselle Emilie a coquette, and added, a little seriously, that it +was a shame for her to trifle with so warm-hearted a fellow. You know +how grating are the disparaging remarks of a friend about one in whom we +confess to ourselves a deeper interest than we care to acknowledge. What +I had said was kindly intended, but it touched Dervilly to the quick. 'I +did not think you capable,' he exclaimed, 'of thus making light of my +confidence—I find I was deceived—you are at liberty to make as much +sport of me as you will. I have learned a lesson which I shall take care +to remember.' 'You must not speak so,' I said,' I really was not +serious. I take back every word. I would not wound you for the +world—forgive me.' Then we shook hands, and Dervilly assured me I had +misjudged his Emilie; he would ask her permission to introduce me, and I +should see for myself. The permission was never accorded, although +Dervilly urged to Mademoiselle de Coigny, that I was his best and almost +his only friend. She was unyielding; she would not see me. Meanwhile his +passion increased with every impediment—yet he gained no assurance of +its being returned, save what his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_447" id="Page_447">[Pg 447]</a></span> heart whispered to him. In the +<i>Jardin des Plants</i> they were accustomed to meet daily, when the weather +was propitious—so much Emilie yielded to her lover—and spend an hour +together; and if they could not meet in the open air, they repaired to +the house where they first became acquainted. On one occasion Dervilly, +unable to bear suspense any longer, seized her hand, and passionately +pledged himself, his existence, his soul, his all to Emilie de Coigny; +he swore his fate was indissolubly linked with hers, that their destiny +could not be severed, and he demanded from her an avowal of the truth of +what he said. The violence of Dervilly alarmed her; she drew her hand +from his, and looking him steadily in the face, inquired:</p> + +<p>"'What has prompted Monsieur to this sudden show of feeling?'</p> + +<p>"'Do you ask what?' exclaimed Dervilly; 'it is <i>you</i>. Are you not +answered? How can I resist what is inevitable? how curb myself when +<i>all</i> hold is lost? Are you then so cruel? <i>Dieu merci!</i> be not so +deadly calm—it means the worst for me—be angry, vexed, any thing, but +look not on me with that glazed look—it maddens me.'</p> + +<p>"'Monsieur Dervilly,' said Emilie, without change of tone or manner, +'what you have said, if it means any thing, means every thing; it means +all a maiden longs to hear from lips that are beloved. To respond, I +must be assured how far your judgment will confirm what now seems to be +a mere passionate ebullition. Excuse me,' she continued, as Dervilly +made an impatient gesture; 'I have heard and read of similar +protestations which had little true significance.'</p> + +<p>"'I accept any conditions,' interrupted the young man, 'and will bless +you from the depths of my soul for naming any, even the hardest; yes, +the hardest—I care not what, so that they are from you.' The girl +regarded Dervilly as if she would search his very nature. 'You are +silent—speak; I can no longer contain myself,' exclaimed he, wildly.</p> + +<p>"'Monsieur,' once more observed Mademoiselle de Coigny, 'you know not to +whom you address yourself; should I tell you, you would retract all +those strong words, and hasten to escape in the least humiliating way +possible.'</p> + +<p>"'Never. Heaven is my witness, never! I care not who you are; I will +never seek to know; when you choose, you shall inform me. You need never +tell me. I say, I care not, so that you are mine.'</p> + +<p>"'And you will be <i>mine</i> for ever?' said the girl, slowly.</p> + +<p>"'For ever.'</p> + +<p>"'I am yours—yours,' and Emilie de Coigny sunk into the arms of her +lover.</p> + +<p>"In one instant the fortunes of Dervilly were changed—from despair he +was raised to a condition of delicious joy. His raptures were so +unnatural, that I cautioned him against such violent indulgence of them. +But he was too excited to listen to me. Indeed, I feared he would lose +his reason. It seemed as if more than ordinary passion had possession of +him, and that it was inspired by something unearthly; and, without ever +having seen the girl, I began to attribute to her a supernatural +influence. Besides, Dervilly confessed he knew as little of his +affianced as before, and that occasionally the same icy look would be +turned on him, as it were quite inadvertently, and hold him spell-bound +with horror, while it still served to increase his frenzy beyond all +bounds. Then, her endearing smiles, her truthful and confiding love, her +absolute reliance, her entire dependence, on Dervilly, made him so +frantic with happiness, that he lost all capacity to reason.</p> + +<p>"The summer passed away, but Dervilly had learned nothing more of the +history of his betrothed; she still avoided the subject, and, when he +alluded to it, she would beg him to desist, and hide her face in his +bosom and weep.</p> + +<p>"Strange thoughts at last found their way into his brain, fearful +surmises began to disturb his peace, and, when absent from Emilie, he +would resolve at their next interview, to insist on knowing all. But +when the time came, and he met, turned on him, the open and innocent +look of the maiden's clear eyes, which expressed so earnestly how +entirely her soul rested on his, all courage failed him, and he could +not go on.....</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>"One evening," continued Partridge, after a pause, and with the tone of +a person approaching an unpleasant subject, "One evening, after +dinner—I think it was the first week in September—when the day had +been excessively sultry, I strolled into the large garden, which you +recollect belonged to our old lodgings in the <i>Rue d' Enfer</i> and after a +while sat down in the summer-house. Presently little Sophie Lecomte came +running out to me, and I remained amusing myself with the child's +prattle till it was dark. The moon shone brightly, and I did not +perceive how late it was, until reminded of the hour by finding that +Sophie was fast asleep in my lap. I rose and carried her into the house, +and went quietly to my room. I seated myself near the window without +lighting the candles, feeling that the glare would not just then +harmonize with my feelings. The truth is, I was thinking of you, and of +that romantic passage across the Apennines, and of the fair stranger, +and so forth. I sat by the window, the moonlight streaming across the +room, over the top of the old chapel, the windows and doors open, and +every thing still except the monotonous chirping of a single cricket, +louder than that of any French cricket I ever heard before, and which +sung the very same song I used to hear when a boy from under the large +kitchen<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_448" id="Page_448">[Pg 448]</a></span> hearthstone at home. I began to feel a little lonely, and so +started up, and stamped with my feet in order to silence the solitary +insect, or arouse the rest of the family, but the old one only sung the +harder, and the others would not wake, and I sat down again, and half +closed my eyes in order to lose myself, if I could, in some pleasant +revery. My eyes <i>were</i> half closed, the perfume from the graperies +filled the room, and had a pleasant effect upon my senses, and thus I +began to forget where I was and what was about me. Presently I heard a +rapid unsteady step along the corridor; it grew more rapid and more +unsteady; I raised my head, and at that instant Dervilly hurried into +the room. 'I knew it—I knew it,' he exclaimed, wildly; 'one of the +sirens sent from hell! I have sold myself, body and soul!—I am +lost—lost. Ah! I knew it—I knew it.' Shocked and surprised as I was by +such an extraordinary scene, I did not forget that Dervilly was of a +most nervous and excitable temperament. I rose, took hold of him kindly, +and asked him what had happened. As I placed my hand on his head, I +perceived that the veins were distended, and that the carotid and +temporal arteries were throbbing violently. I hastened to strike a +light, while he continued to repeat nearly the words I have just +mentioned, in a wild and incoherent manner. I could now see his +countenance, and it seemed as if the destroyer had been ravaging it. His +cap was gone. His hair, which was usually so neatly arranged, was tossed +over his face in twisted locks; his eyes were fixed, and bloodshot, and +sparkling.</p> + +<p>"'My dear friend, you are ill—you are excited—let me bring you to your +bed' (we occupied the large room in common, with a small bedroom for +each, leading from it); with this I took his arm, and gently urged him +to his apartment.</p> + +<p>"'Not there, not there!' he cried vehemently; 'Have I not lain <i>there</i>, +night after night, thinking of her?—have I not dreamed there happy +dreams, and seen dear delightful visions? Not there—never—never +again!'</p> + +<p>"'You shall not,' I said, endeavoring to humor him; 'you shall lie in my +bed, and I will watch by you till you are better.'</p> + +<p>"The young man burst into tears. This action evidently relieved him, and +made him more rational, for he took my arm and I assisted him to bed, +and tried to soothe him; but he soon relapsed into an excited fever. +Shortly after, he called me to him, and throwing his arms closely around +me, exclaimed, 'Partridge, we were born in the same land; I implore you, +by that one common tie, not to leave me an instant; I am a doomed +wretch; but save me, save me from the fiend, as long as it is possible.'</p> + +<p>"I now became very much alarmed. My first impulse was to administer an +opiate; but the case seemed so critical that I determined to send at +once for Louis, whose sympathy for the students, you know, is universal. +I called to young Stabb, who occupied the next room, and he set off +immediately. After a few minutes Dervilly dozed a little; and then he +started up, and gazed around, as if attempting to discern some object.</p> + +<p>"'Do you wish for any thing?' I said. He took no notice of my question, +but continued to glance piercingly in every direction.</p> + +<p>"'What do you see?' I asked.</p> + +<p>"'<i>La Morgue!</i>' he exclaimed, with a shudder, and pointing into the +other room—'<i>La Morgue!</i>'</p> + +<p>"He continued to gaze madly in the same way, still holding his arm +outstretched, while his whole frame seemed convulsed with terror; but I +could gain no clue to the catastrophe which had fallen so terribly on +the ill-fated sufferer.</p> + +<p>"It seemed to me an age—it really was but an hour—before Stabb +returned. He was accompanied by Louis. It was the great Louis whose +skill as a physician, and especially in the treatment of fevers, is +world renowned. I had 'followed' him during the whole of your absence; +had become, as a matter of course, one of his warmest admirers; and was +fortunate enough to secure his friendship. He also knew Dervilly. +Hearing them enter, I stepped into the principal room, to meet him. +'<i>Mon Dieu! Monsieur Partridge, quel est le mal?</i>' said Louis, with +great feeling. 'Monsieur Dervilly was at the hospital in the morning, +and I met him as late as six o'clock this afternoon, passing into the +<i>Jardin des Plants</i>.'</p> + +<p>"'God only knows,' I replied. 'Something horrible has suddenly befallen +him.' And I gave an account of what had occurred since Dervilly came to +his rooms. Louis was silent for a moment, and then began to question me +very minutely about him, while Stabb went in to keep watch over the poor +fellow.—Among other things, I mentioned his love affair; and believing +it to be my duty to do so, I told Louis, briefly, all Dervilly had +confided to me. He listened with great attention, and after I had +concluded, we passed into the little chamber where Dervilly lay. He +started up with violence as we came in, as if a severe paroxysm were +about to follow. He stared wildly on seeing Louis, and seizing his hand, +he exclaimed, 'Ah, <i>mon Professeur</i>, you are a very great man, and you +are very kind to come to me, but your knowledge avails nothing here,' +touching his forehead. Suddenly he extended his finger, and cried again, +'<i>La Morgue—La Morgue.</i>'</p> + +<p>"'What see you in <i>La Morgue</i>?' said Louis, tenderly.</p> + +<p>"'See? <i>Her, her!</i>' screamed Dervilly.</p> + +<p>"'Who, <i>mon enfant</i>? said the Professor, very gently.</p> + +<p>"'Who, but the fiend—the fiend! She has my soul—lost, lost for ever.'</p> + +<p>"'You should not speak so harshly of Mademoiselle<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_449" id="Page_449">[Pg 449]</a></span> de Coigny,' continued +Louis, in a soothing tone.</p> + +<p>"'Pronounce not that name: a bait, a trap, a wile of Satan; repeat it, +and I will tear you piecemeal!' cried the maniac.</p> + +<p>"'But, <i>mon pauvre enfant</i>, what does she at La Morgue?'</p> + +<p>"'<i>She?</i> the fiend—the fiend—sits perched on the top of the wooden +rail all night, watching—watching—and when some of the corpses show +signs of life, sails down, and sits upon, and strangles them. Keep me +away from there. Ah, <i>mon Professeur</i>, do not let me go there, to lie on +the board, and have her bending over me, eyeing me, watching me, ready +to strangle me. There again! keep those glazed eyes away—keep them +away, I say—'</p> + +<p>"All this time Louis was making a minute examination of Dervilly's +symptoms.</p> + +<p>"The latter presently seemed aware of what he was doing, for he +exclaimed, 'The usual symptoms, <i>eh, mon Professeur</i>; strongly marked, +<i>n'est ce pas</i>? Act promptly and decisively, as you say sometimes. Let +blood—let blood—<i>appliquez des sangsues</i>—ha, ha, ha! that's what we +call bleeding, both general and local, ha, ha, ha! then come on with +your cold applications: ice, ice, a mountain of ice piled round about +the head! follow up with cathartics, refrigerant diaphoretics, after +depleting blister!—say you not so?—blisters to the nape of the +neck—blisters behind the ears—shave the scalp—I forgot that—shave +the scalp—strange I had not thought of it,—and the hair. <i>Mon +Professeur</i>, I know you will think me very foolish, but—save the +hair—I shan't have another growth—save the hair. Where was I?—ah, the +blisters—that will pretty nearly do for me—keep every thing quiet, +very quiet—after a while, digitalis and nitre—digitalis and nitre, +<i>mon Professeur</i>—have I not said my lesson well?'</p> + +<p>"Louis stood perfectly still, regarding the poor fellow with a mournful +interest. As Dervilly paused, he took off his spectacles, and wiped his +eyes. 'Ah, Monsieur Louis, you talk very eloquently about medical +science, but I baffle you; I am sure of it. Call the class +together—<i>Ah, Notre Dame de Pitie</i>—call the class together; <i>voila la +clinique</i>. Thus being thus, it must necessarily be thus. That's a wise +saying, <i>mon Professeur</i>. Call the class together; propound why of +necessity you can do nothing? because of a necessity nothing can be +done. Call the class together; be active—vigorously antiphlogistic; +time is precious—the patient in danger. Purgatives—I doubt as to +purgatives. What think you?' And Dervilly paused, and cast on Louis a +look so naturally inquiring, that the latter replied, as it were, +involuntarily, '<i>Moi aussi je doute.</i>' And it was so; with all his +genius, all his knowledge, all his experience, and all his skill, the +great practitioner stood, while minute after minute was lost, apparently +hesitating what to do. At last he called me into the other room. 'Is it +not possible to find Mademoiselle de Coigny?' he inquired.</p> + +<p>"'I have no means of knowing where to seek her,' I replied. At the same +time I remembered she was in the habit of visiting the house in which +Dervilly first met her, and fortunately knew the street and number.</p> + +<p>"'Let her be sent for instantly,' said Louis. 'Do not go yourself; you +may be of service here.' Accordingly I gave Stabb the direction, and +instructed him to procure Mademoiselle de Coigny's address, if possible; +but if he were unsuccessful in this, to communicate the fact of +Dervilly's alarming illness, and beg that Mademoiselle might be +immediately summoned.</p> + +<p>"We returned to the sick room, and Louis, seating himself in a chair, +remained lost in thought for nearly a quarter of an hour, while I did +what I could, to pacify the sufferer. I could not help wondering that a +man, so prompt and so efficient, should lose a moment when the least +delay was to be avoided; and as I was reflecting on this, Louis rose so +suddenly from his seat that I was startled. 'There is but one course, +and the poor boy has very accurately defined it. Let his head be shaved, +and pillowed in ice; bleed him at once—if he faints, all the better.' +'No danger of that,' shouted Dervilly. 'No syncope with me but the +<i>last</i> syncope—no syncope—ha, ha, ha! double the ounces—you are +timid—no syncope, I say—' He continued the whole time raving, much in +the manner I have described. The room was kept quite dark, and no one +was permitted to come in. Louis did not leave the bedside the entire +night. Dervilly never slept for an instant. On one occasion he threw +himself close on one side, and screamed, 'Take her away—take her away!'</p> + +<p>"'What is it?' I asked.</p> + +<p>"'Do you not see her?' he shrieked, 'sitting on the bed, looking into my +eyes; take her away, take her away!'</p> + +<p>"I need not detail to you," continued Partridge, "the whole of these +fearful scenes. Late in the evening Stabb returned; he had found the +house; and although he could not obtain Mademoiselle de Coigny's +address, he was promised that his message should be communicated early +in the morning.</p> + +<p>"'It will be too late,' said Louis, mournfully.</p> + +<p>"What a long night it was. The morning dawned at last, but it brought no +change to poor Dervilly. I had sent for his nearest relative, who lived +over on the <i>Boulevard Poissonnière</i>, and was awaiting his arrival with +considerable anxiety. It was not later than nine. Stabb, the good +fellow, had relieved me from my watch, and I was in the sitting-room, in +my large arm-chair, still anxious and fearful, when there came a slight +tap at the door; it opened—and Emilie de Coigny stood before me. Ah, +how beautiful she was,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_450" id="Page_450">[Pg 450]</a></span> yet how terrified! It was not terror of +excitement—mere surface passion—but from the depths of her soul. She +was stirred by intense emotion. 'Tell me,' she said, coming earnestly up +to me, 'tell me where he is, and what has happened to him!' I put my +finger on my lips to prevent her from saying more, and led her to the +further corner of the room; but she would not sit down; she begged to be +told every thing at once; and I, in a low voice, gave Mademoiselle do +Coigny a minute account of all I had witnessed. When I came to +Dervilly's exclamation, '<i>La Morgue—La Morgue</i>,' the young girl became +suddenly very pale, her fortitude forsook her, and she murmured faintly, +'He saw me go in—he saw me go in.' I must admit I was, for the moment, +not a little tremulous. I recollected stories of devils taking +possession of the dead bodies of virgins, in order to lure young men to +perdition. I thought of the tale of the German student, who, on retiring +with his bride, beheld her head roll from her body (she had been +guillotined that morning), leaving him wedded to the foul fiend. In +spite of me, I looked on the pale stricken creature before me as in one +way or another connected with the adversary, and holding a commission +from the Prince of the Power of the Air. I had little time for thought +on the subject, for Mademoiselle de Coigny insisted on seeing Dervilly. +I hesitated, but she was decided. She threw aside her pretty straw hat, +and a light shawl, and stepped toward the apartment where her lover lay. +She passed the threshold before he saw her. She called him by his name, +'Alfred.' He turned, and as his eyes fell on her, he uttered mad +exclamations; crouching frantically in the furthest corner of the bed. +'Avaunt,' he screamed; 'vampyre—devil—owl of hell—come no nearer, +(she still advanced, calling to him tenderly); I know that syren voice; +it has damned and double damned me.—Partridge! Stabb! take her away, +or,' he continued, in a fierce tone, 'I will do second execution on +her.'</p> + +<p>"Poor girl—it was too much—she swooned away....</p> + +<p>"You may imagine that it was a terrible scene," continued Partridge. "I +set to work immediately for her recovery, having first carried her out +of the room where Dervilly lay. She opened her eyes at last, but what a +look of anguish was in them! 'Is he better?' she asked in a faint tone. +I shook my head. 'Tell me,' she exclaimed, 'will he die? oh, will he, +<i>must</i> he die?'</p> + +<p>"'He is very sick, Mademoiselle.'</p> + +<p>"'I have killed him, I have killed him,' she cried.</p> + +<p>"'Pardon me', said I, 'Monsieur Dervilly is in great danger; still if we +knew the cause of this dreadful attack we might gain some advantage by +it.'</p> + +<p>"'Ah, it is my work,' murmured the fair mystery to herself, without +heeding my observation; 'I have done it, and if he dies, I am a +murderer—<i>his</i> murderer.' She appeared no way disposed to betray her +secret, and I did not press the subject. Presently Louis came in. He +made his inquiries of me, and then went to the patient. There was no +change, except in the increase of fatal symptoms. The delirium was more +furious, the pulse hard, full, frequent, and vibrating. The most +vigorous course was adopted; two other students were called in to assist +Stabb and myself, and every means used to give effect to the prescribed +treatment.</p> + +<p>"As for Mademoiselle de Coigny, she remained in the sitting-room, the +picture of intense anguish. I urged her to retire, but she shook her +head. I now begged her to tell me what had caused this strange attack, +but she was silent. At length I went and called Madame Lecomte—you +recollect what a kind-hearted creature she was—and told her briefly the +little I knew of the unfortunate girl. She answered the summons at once, +and in the most gentle manner endeavored to persuade Mademoiselle de +Coigny to go with her. It was in vain. She would not leave the room. +Occasionally, through the day, she would step to Dervilly's bedside, and +in the softest, sweetest, gentlest tone I ever heard, say, 'Alfred.' The +effect was always the same as at first—exciting the poor fellow to +still deeper paroxysms, and more violent exclamations. On the fourth day +he died; the symptoms becoming more and more aggravating, until <i>coma</i> +supervened to delirium. During the whole period of his sickness +Mademoiselle de Coigny never left the house—scarcely the room—Madame +Lecomte on two or three occasions almost forcing the wretched girl away +to her own apartments. When poor Dervilly sunk into that deep lethargic +slumber, so much dreaded by the physician, because so fatal, she came +almost joyfully into his chamber, and threw her arms tenderly around +him, 'He sleeps at last,' she said, 'is it not well?'</p> + +<p>"I would have given the world for the freedom of bursting into tears, so +deeply was I affected by that hopeful, trustful question. What could I +do, but shake my head mournfully and hasten out of the place.... He +died, and made no sign; not a word, not a look, not the slightest +pressure of the hand, for the one he loved so tenderly, and who watched +so anxiously for some slight token. 'Oh,' I exclaimed to myself, as the +hardness of such a fate was impressed on me, 'God is just, there is a +hereafter, these two <i>must</i> meet again.' ... Emilie de Coigny left the +room where her dead lover lay, only when he himself was borne to his +last resting-place. She followed him to the spot where he was buried in +<i>Pere la Chaise</i>, and remained standing by it after every one else had +come away. In this position she was found—standing over the grave—late +at night by her friends—some members of the family I have +mentioned—who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_451" id="Page_451">[Pg 451]</a></span> sought her out. She left that splendid city of the dead +bereft of reason, and so she has ever since continued. When the day is +fine, she invariably keeps her fancied engagement with her lover at the +appointed place in the <i>Jardin des Plants</i>; she patiently sits the hour, +and retires sadly, as you saw her. When the weather is forbidding, she +goes to her friend's house and waits the same period, never showing the +least symptom of impatience, but, on the contrary, evincing the signs of +a bruised but most gentle spirit." ...</p> + +<p>Here Partridge paused, as if at the end of his story.</p> + +<p>"Is that all?" said I.</p> + +<p>"That is all," he responded.</p> + +<p>"Surely not," I continued; "you have said nothing about the strange +mystery which killed our poor friend, and which, as it seems to me, is +the main point, in the story."</p> + +<p>"True enough—it is singular I should have left it out, but it is +explained in a word. These same friends of Mademoiselle de Coigny gave +me the information. It appears that on one inclement night, as the +<i>keeper of the Morgue</i> was returning from an official visit to the Chief +of Police, toward his own quarters, which are adjoining and over the +<i>dead room</i>—he stumbled over something which a flash of lightning at +the instant showed to be the body of a man. He was quite dead, but, +nestled down close by his side, with one of her little hands on his +face, was a child, about two years of age. Jean Maurice Sorel, although +long inured to repulsive sights, had not grown callous to misery. By +birth he was considerably above his somewhat ignominious office; he had +narrowly escaped with his life when Louis XVI. was brought to the +scaffold, for some indiscreet expressions that savored too much of +royalty; but in the tumults which succeeded, he had, he scarcely knew +how, through some influence with the chief of one of the departments, +been appointed to this repulsive duty. But as I have said, his heart was +just as kind as ever, after many years discharge of it; and Jean Maurice +Sorel, instead of repining at his lot, blessed God daily that he had the +means of supporting a wife and children, while so many of his old +friends had literally starved to death. Such was the person who stumbled +over the body of the dead man, and discovered the living child beside +it. He called at once for assistance, and had the corpse conveyed to his +house, while he carried the little girl in his arms. She was too young +to give any information about herself, but on searching the pockets of +the deceased, several papers were found which disclosed enough to +satisfy Jean Maurice Sorel that in the wasted, attenuated form before +him, he beheld his once friend and benefactor the Marquis de Coigny, +who, he supposed, had perished by the guillotine in the revolution. The +papers permitted no doubt of the fact that the little girl was his +granddaughter and only descendant, and she was commended to the care of +the kind-hearted when death should overtake him.</p> + +<p>"The old Marquis was buried, and the little Emilie adopted into the +family of the good Jean Maurice. Her education was conducted in a manner +far superior to that of his own children, and the choicest garments of +those which fell to him were selected to be made over for her. Perhaps +unwisely, her history was explained to her, so that she lived all her +life with the sense that she belonged in a different sphere—not that +she was ungrateful or unamiable—quite the contrary—she was sweet +tempered, affectionate and gentle, and loved by Jean Maurice and all his +family with a devoted fondness: but the world had charms for her which +the world withheld; she felt that she never could become an object of +love where she could love in return, and so she repined at her destiny. +By accident she made the acquaintance of the family where Dervilly first +met her. They had known her father and her grandfather, and she loved +them for that. She resisted for a long time the feeling for her lover +which she perceived was taking strong hold of her, and when she could +resist no longer, she yet delayed to tell him what a home she inhabited. +This was her pride—her weakness—and how terribly did she pay the +penalty! Day after day (so I was told), she resolved to explain all, but +she procrastinated, till her lover, no longer able to restrain his +anxiety, and full of excitements and fears and perturbations, followed +her at some little distance, just at twilight, and saw or fancied he saw +her enter <i>La Morgue</i>. It was too much for his nervous temperament. His +brain caught fire—he came home raving with delirium—and <span class="smcap">DIED</span>! Now you +have the whole."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="A_LEGEND" id="A_LEGEND"></a>A LEGEND.</h2> + +<h4>TRANSLATED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL FROM THE SPANISH,</h4> + +<h3>BY MRS. M. E. HEWITT.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Sin vos, y sin Dios y mi."<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The motto that with trembling hand I write,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And deep is traced upon this heart of mine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In olden time a loyal Christian knight<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Bore graven on his shield to Palestine.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"<i>Sin vos</i>," it saith, "if I am without thee,"<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Beloved! whose thought surrounds me every where—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"<i>Sin Dios</i>," I am without God, "<i>y mi</i>,"<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And in myself I have no longer share.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Where pealed the clash of war, the mighty din,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Where trump and cymbal crashed along the sky;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">High o'er the "Il Allah!" of the Moslemin,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">"God and my lady!" rang his battle-cry.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">His white plume waved where fiercest raged the flight,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">His arm was strong the Paynim's course to stem:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His foot was foremost on the sacred height,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To plant the Cross above Jerusalem.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">False proved the lady, and thenceforth the knight,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Casting aside the buckler and the brand,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lived, an austere and lonely anchorite,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In a drear mountain-cave in Holy Land.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">There, bowed before the Crucifix in prayer,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">He would dash madly down his rosary,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And cry "Beloved!" in tones of wild despair,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">"I have lost God, and self, in losing thee!"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And I, if thus my life's sweet hope were o'er,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">An echo of the knight's despair must be;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thus I were lost, if loved by thee no more,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">For, ah! myself and heaven are merged in thee.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_452" id="Page_452">[Pg 452]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CAGLIOSTRO_THE_MAGICIAN" id="CAGLIOSTRO_THE_MAGICIAN"></a>CAGLIOSTRO, THE MAGICIAN.</h2> + +<h4>WRITTEN FOR THE INTERNATIONAL MONTHLY MAGAZINE.</h4> + +<h3>BY CHARLES WYLLYS ELLIOT.</h3> + + +<p>"Know, then, that in the year 1743, in the city of Palermo, the family +of Signor Pietro Balsamo, a shopkeeper, were exhilarated by the birth of +a boy. Such occurrences have now become so frequent, that, miraculous as +they are, they occasion little astonishment;" and, it may be well to +add, that, except in some curious cases, there is no longer that +exhilaration now felt, but, as in Ireland, a leaden sense of future woe. +We are not told by the parents that any strange or miraculous appearance +attended or preceded this advent, though one cannot but believe that the +future Archimagus and his followers must have had a more or less +distinct opinion upon this point. Not to lose time in speculation, we +learn that "we have here found in the Count Alessandro di Cagliostro +(the above-named boy), pupil of the sage, Altholas—foster-child of the +Scherif of Mecca—probable son of the last king of Trebizond; named also +Acharat, and unfortunate child of nature; by profession, healer of +diseases, abolisher of wrinkles, friend of the poor and impotent, +grand-master of the Egyptian Mason lodge of High Science, spirit +summoner, gold cork, grand cophta, prophet, priest, and thaurmaturgic +moralist and swindler; really a <span class="smcap">liar</span> of the first magnitude; +thorough-paced in all provinces of lying, what one may call their king."</p> + +<p>Under the common tent, the great canopy of life, it would not be fair to +prejudge the mind of the reader upon so grave a thing as character, +which we are now considering—it might be best to let each come to an +after-thought respecting it—upon our caustic and noble author let the +blame, if any, hang, while we now proceed to dip in, here and there, to +his magic page.</p> + +<p>As the boy grows, we learn, that "as he skulks about there, plundering, +pilfering, playing dog's-tricks, with his finger in every mischief, he +already gains character. Shrill housewives of the neighborhood, whose +sausages he has filched, whose weaker sons maltreated, name him Beppo +Maldetto, and indignantly prophecy that he will be hanged—a prediction +which the issue has signally falsified." We also may learn, what, in the +treatment of our whole subject it is extremely important to remember, +that, in the "boy," a "brazen impudence developes itself, the crowning +gift," &c. "To his astonishment," though, "he finds that even here he is +in a conditional world, and if he will employ his capability of eating +(or enjoying) must first, in some measure, work and suffer. Contention +enough hereupon; but now dimly arises, or reproduces itself, the +question. Whether there were not a <i>shorter</i> road—that of stealing!"</p> + +<p>But how he was entered into the convent, and under the convent +apothecary proceeded to learn certain arts and mysteries of the retorts +and alembics (which lucky knowledge, after that, came to use), while he +was learning his other trade of monkery and mass-chanting, we will omit. +It is enough to know, that he would not answer for the convent, and was +again afloat on the wide sea of existence. That he floated is certain; +for "he has a fair cousin living in the house with him, and she again +has a lover. Beppo stations himself as go-between; delivers letters; +fails not to drop hints that a lady to be won or kept must be generously +treated; that such and such a pair of ear-rings, watch, or sum of money, +would work wonders: which valuables, adds the wooden Roman biographer, +he then appropriated furtively." Slowly but certainly he makes his way: +"tries his hand at forging" theatre tickets—a will even, "for the +benefit of a certain religious house;" and, further on, can tell +fortunes, and show visions in a small way—all these inspirations are +vouchsafed him, or, rather, these things he is permitted to do, and +others not to be mentioned here.</p> + +<p>It is well to note, that in all times, and among all peoples, there is a +deep and profound conviction that there <i>is</i> not only a "short and +certain" way of getting to heaven, and to know the eternal truths, but +also that these earthly treasures do exist, in untold quantity, in the +elements; and if one could only discover the secret by which the gases +could be condensed into solid gold, or the gnomes be persuaded or +compelled to give them up, ready solidified to hand, it would at least +save time and be satisfactory. It is only curious, as a matter of +speculation, to know what we shall eat when the lucky age arrives, and +spirits will do our bidding in this matter of gold and diamonds. The +"boy," as he grew, discovered this world-wide capacity; and who should +have this power of setting the "spirits" to work but he?</p> + +<p>"Walking one day in the fields with a certain ninny of a goldsmith, +named Marano, Beppo begins in his oily voluble way to hint that +treasures often lay hid; that a certain treasure lay hid there (as he +knew by some pricking of his thumbs, divining rod, or other talismanic +monition), which treasure might, by the aid of science, courage, +secrecy, and a small judicious advance of money, be fortunately lifted. +The gudgeon takes—advances, by degrees, to the length of 'sixty gold +ounces'—sees magic circles drawn in the wane or the full of the moon, +blue (phosphorous) flames arise—split twigs auspiciously quiver—and at +length demands, peremptorily, that the treasure be dug!"</p> + +<p>Alas! why is it that the "spirits" so often fail us at our sorest need? +Do <i>they</i> deceive us; and, if not, who does? The treasure vanishes, or +does not appear, "the conditions are imperfect," and the "ninny of a +goldsmith" being roughly handled by these spiritual<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_453" id="Page_453">[Pg 453]</a></span> visitants, +threatens to stiletto the adept; who, overcome with the ingratitude of +the world, concludes to quit;—at least, in the words of his Inquisition +biographer, "he fled from Palermo, and overran the whole earth."</p> + +<p>We may see how he has grown—how, as in ordinary mortals, he advances +step by step—even he, the favorite son of the higher intelligences, +learns as he goes. How is it, then, that we can have no full-grown +inspiration; that we know of no perfection—that we only go on towards +it? Can it be that prophets and priests really do <i>learn</i>, and that even +now, men may grow into the future? Might not a more thorough and +scientific seminary for this purpose be established than any we now +have—theologic, thaumaturgic, theosophic, or other variety? It is a +question easier asked than answered.</p> + +<p>"The Beppic Hegira brings us down in European history to somewhere about +the period of the peace of Paris"—(<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> ——), supervening upon which +is a portentous time—"the multitudinous variety of quacks that, along +with Beppo, overran all Europe during that same period—the latter half +of the last century. It was the very age of impostors, cut-purses, +swindlers, double gaugers, enthusiasts, ambiguous persons, quacks +simple, quacks compound, crack-brained or with deceit prepense, quacks +and quackeries of all colors and kinds. How many mesmerists (so speaks +this strange author), magicians, cabalists, Swedenborgians, illuminati, +crucified nuns, and devils of Loudun! To which the Inquisition +biographer adds vampyres, sylphs, rosicrucians, free-masons, and an <i>et +cetera</i>. Consider your Schropfers, Cagliostros, Casanovas, Saint +Germains, Dr. Grahams, the Chevalier d'Eon, Psalmanazar, Abbé Paris, and +the Ghost of Cock-lane!—as if Bedlam had broken loose!"</p> + +<p>The great, the inexplicable, the mysterious Beppo, being now fairly +afloat, let us try to comprehend how he has begun to touch upon the edge +of those trade winds, which shall drive him along toward the golden +Indies, Ophir, and the land of promise, for which the men of this world +do so hunger and thirst.</p> + +<p>He married a beautiful Seraphina, afterward countess, graceful and +lady-like, once the daughter of a girdle-maker, and named Lorenza +Feliciani. Every one, simple or sedate, knows that it is best to hunt in +couples. What one has not the other may have. So Seraphina had beauty, +lightness, buoyancy, and could float up her count when the demons and +harpies of a certain troublesome devil, called law or justice, seemed +bent upon his swift destruction. Could she not, too, "enlist the +sympathies of admiring audiences"—by her sweet smiles and "artless +ways," gain belief, and "a wish to believe?" More than that, could she +not turn the heads of young and old? "noble" perhaps, perhaps +"ignoble"—"moneyed do-nothings" (so says this writer), whereof in this +vexed earth there are many, ever lounging about such (?) places—scan +and comment on the foreign coat-of-arms—ogle the fair foreign woman, +who timidly recoils from their gaze, timidly responds to their +reverences, as in halls and passages they obsequiously throw themselves +in her way. Ere long, one moneyed do-nothing (from amid his tags, +tassels, sword-belts, fop-tackle, frizzled hair, without brains beneath +it) is heard speaking to another—"Seen the countess?—divine creature +that!" Indeed, one cannot but wonder that any should question the unity +of the race, at least, of those known as "civilized." In a small way, or +in a large way, how this thing ever goes on—on church steps, on +Broadways, in Metropolitan Halls, Congresses, the Palais-Royal, at home +and abroad! And men do yet call <i>this</i> "reverence for the sex," and holy +sentiment; and indulge in hallelujahs to that hoary myth, "a gentleman +of the old school;" while women—God help us—women loving it, hate +those who, hating it, hate hollowness and hell. With slight imagination, +then, one may see how important an element this "divine creature" must +have become in any conjuration or mystic "renovation of the universe," +which the high mystagogue might be impressed to set on foot. Enough, +that <i>she</i> helped and learned the arts of prophecy and perfection faster +than her master! But we read—alas! alas!—"As his seraphic countess +gives signs of withering, and one luxuriant branch of industry will die +and drop off, others must be pushed into budding." He, the indefatigable +count, is not idle. "Faded dames of quality (over all Europe, all +creation) have many wants: the count has not studied in the convent +laboratory, or pilgrimed to the Count St. Germain, in Westphalia, to no +purpose. With loftiest condescension he stoops to impart somewhat of his +supernatural secrets—for a <i>consideration</i>. Rowland's Kalydor is +valuable; but what to the beautifying water of Count Alessandro! He that +will undertake to smooth wrinkles, and make withered, green parchment +into a fair carnation skin, is he not one whom faded dames of quality +will delight to honor? Or, again, let the beautifying-water succeed or +not, have not such dames (if calumny may in aught be believed) another +want? This want, too, the indefatigable Cagliostro will supply—for a +consideration. For faded gentlemen of quality the count likewise has +help. Not a charming countess alone, but a "wine of Egypt" (Cantharides +not being unknown to him), sold in drops, more precious than nectar; +which, what faded gentlemen of quality will not purchase with any thing +short of life. Consider, too, what may be done with potions, washes, +charms, love-philters, among a class of mortals idle from their mother's +womb," &c., &c.</p> + +<p>It is well to know, once for all, that the count, chief-priest of his +order—which yet<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_454" id="Page_454">[Pg 454]</a></span> thrives, and if not great, deserves to be called for +its number, Legion—made money out of this his enterprising trade; that +he was enabled to pay his way; to ride post with the ever potent +"voucher of respectability, a coach-and-four," with out-riders and +beef-eaters, and couriers and lackeys, and the other paraphernalia which +the greedy tooth of man desires—which helps one forward so far toward +happiness, provided always that "there <i>is</i> no heaven above and no hell +beneath," of which let each first make sure; and more than all, let such +as wish to travel this road, take great courage from the contemplation +of this one model.</p> + +<p>We must hasten to the year 1776, a year rather noted in our annals, and +in that of England, perhaps, independently of this the "first visit" of +the famed Count Cagliostro to its shores, which happened then. Should it +have so chanced that he had lived now, would he have stopped there does +the reader think? Having an insight into <i>their</i> national character, and +finding "great greed and need," and but small heed, what might he not +have done on this transatlantic shore, whose free people can so nobly +cherish even its Barnum, its——, its——! But let names go. We make the +most of what we have, and if not equal to the greatest, the fault rests +not on our shoulders. We are not responsible for the past, if for the +present or future.</p> + +<p>'Twas in England that the master developed most bravely the art of +prophecy; perhaps finding there a demand for his supply—such, according +to some, being the only law of God or man. It is enough to know that he +does a trade in foretelling the lucky lottery numbers by means of his +"occult science," whereby at least he put money in <i>his</i> purse, and +satisfied good-natured men that as there were gulls, and necessarily a +guller, he above all others deserved praise and not blame; the whole +thing, this life, being really a juggle, and the smartest fellow of +course the best juggler. As man goes on he developes, so many think—so +did Cagliostro, and in his growth he reaches to masonry—Egyptian +masonry—and in "sworn secrecy" finds a new Talisman, for which men will +pay five guineas each. He resolves to "free it from all vile +ingredients, and make it a new Evangile." "No religion is excluded from +the Egyptian society"—for is it not certain that religion <i>pays</i>? +Charity too, pays, as we shall see by-and-by. No religion is +tabooed—none—all who admit the existence of a God, and the immortality +of the soul, may, for the small sum of five guineas, be certain to gain +"perfection by means of a physical and moral regeneration." He promises +them by the former or physical to find the <i>prime matter</i> or +philosopher's stone, and the <i>acacia</i> which consolidates in man the +forces of the most vigorous youth, and renders him immortal; and by the +latter or moral, to procure them a Pentagon which shall restore man to +his primitive state of innocence, lost by his original sin. It must be +understood that this masonry was founded by Enoch and Elias, had been +corrupted by the Egyptian priests, but was now restored to its pristine +vigor by its last and greatest Grand Cophta, and includes not only men +but women, of whom the Countess Seraphina is Cophtess.</p> + +<p>We cannot do better than to gain some insight into the forms and +symbolic practices of these worshippers; and especially will those who +desire to practise this or any short and easy way to perfection or +happiness, be glad to learn what has been done, and thus be encouraged +to begin.</p> + +<p>In the <i>Essai sur les Illuminés</i>, printed in Paris in 1789, are the +following details quoted by this before-mentioned known author.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> These +bear an air of truth and probability which will win for them easy +admission. Many of them are not unlike what we have seen amongst us +during the few past years.</p> + +<p>"They take a young lad or a girl who is in the state of innocence: such +they call the <i>Pupil</i> or <i>Colomb</i>: the Venerable communicates to him the +power he would have had before the fall of man; which power consists +mainly in commanding the pure spirits: these spirits are to the number +of seven. It is said they surround the shrine, and that they govern the +seven planets. Their names are Arael, Michael, Raphael, Gabriel, Uriel, +Zobiachel, Anachiel." Nothing certainly can begin more favorably. We +learn that "she the Colomb," can act in two ways, either behind a +curtain, behind a hieroglyphically-painted screen with table and three +candles, or before the Caraffe and showing face. If the <i>miracle fail</i> +it can only be because she is not "in the state of innocence." <i>An +accident must be guarded against.</i> Surely our mystic professors, both +clerical and lay, will take heed to these things. Much may be learned.</p> + +<p>Cagliostro accordingly (it is his own story) brought a little boy into +the lodge, son of a nobleman there. He placed him on his knees before a +table, whereon stood a bottle of pure water, and behind this some +lighted candles. He made an exorcism round the boy, put his hand on +head, and both in this attitude addressed their prayers to God for the +happy accomplishment of the work. Having then bid the child look into +the bottle, directly the child cried that he saw a garden. Knowing +hereby that Heaven assisted him [why this is so proven he does not +explain], Cagliostro took courage, and bade the child ask of God the +grace to see the Archangel Michael. At first the child said, "I see +something white; I know not what it is." Then he began jumping and +stamping like a possessed creature, and cried, "Now, I see a child like +myself, which seems to have something angelical (!)" <i>All the assembly +and Cagliostro himself remained speechless with emotion....</i> [How like +this is to what we at this day have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_455" id="Page_455">[Pg 455]</a></span> seen.] The child being anew +exorcised with the hands of the Venerable on his head, and the customary +prayers addressed to Heaven, he looked into the bottle, and said he saw +his sister at that moment coming down stairs, and embracing one of her +brothers. That appeared impossible, the brother in question being then +hundreds of miles off. However Cagliostro felt not disconcerted; said +they might send to the country-house, where the sister was, and see—if +they chose!</p> + +<p>Do some still doubt? Time nor paper will allow us to allay that doubt. +We must, as rapidly as we can, introduce what may yet be useful in +certain cases of the like kind, either in whole or in part. It is the +introduction of a novice into the holy Mysteries.</p> + +<p>"The recipiendary is led by a darksome path into a large hall, the +ceiling, the walls, the floor of which are covered by a black cloth, +sprinkled over with red flames and menacing serpents; three sepulchral +lamps emit from time to time a dying glimmer, and the eye half +distinguishes, in this lugubrious den, certain wrecks of mortality +suspended by funeral crapes; a heap of skeletons forms in the centre a +sort of altar; on both sides of it are piled books; some contain menaces +against the perjured; others the deadly narrative of the vengeance which +the invisible spirit has exacted; of the infernal evocations for a long +time pronounced in vain.</p> + +<p>"Eight hours elapse. Then phantoms, trailing mortuary vails, slowly +cross the hall and sink in caverns, without audible noise of trapdoors +or of falling. You notice only that they are gone by a fetid odor +exhaled from them.</p> + +<p>"The novice remains four and twenty hours in this gloomy abode, in the +midst of a freezing silence. A rigorous fast has already weakened his +thinking faculties. Liquors prepared for the purpose first weary and at +length wear out his senses. At his feet are placed three cups, filled +with a drink of a greenish color. Necessity lifts them to his lips: +involuntary fear repels them.</p> + +<p>"At last appear two men: looked upon as the ministers of Death. These +gird the pale brow of the recipiendary with an auroral-colored-ribbon +dipped in blood, and full of silvered characters mixed with our lady of +Loretto. He receives a copper crucifix, of two inches length: to his +neck are hung a sort of amulets wrapped in violet cloth. He is stripped +of his clothes; which two ministering brethren deposit on a funeral +pile, erected at the other end of the hall. With blood on his naked body +are traced crosses. In this state of suffering and humiliation, he sees +approaching with large strides five Phantoms armed with swords, and clad +in garments dropping blood. Their faces are vailed: they spread a velvet +carpet on the floor; kneel there, pray; and remain with outstretched +hands crossed on their breasts, and faces fixed on the ground in deep +silence. An hour passes in this painful attitude. After which fatiguing +trial, plaintive cries are heard; the funeral pile takes fire, yet casts +only a pale light; the garments are thrown on it and burnt. A colossal +and almost transparent figure rises from the very bosom of the pile. At +sight of it the five prostrated men fall into convulsions insupportable +to look on: the too faithful image of those foaming struggles wherein a +mortal, at hand-grips with a sudden pain, ends by sinking under it.</p> + +<p>"Then a trembling voice pierces the vault, and articulates the formula +of those execrable oaths that are to be sworn: my pen falters: I think +myself almost guilty to retrace them."</p> + +<p>Strange as it may seem, we stop here with Monsieur the Author. Strange +too that some deny the reality of all this—and tell of magic lanterns +and science—stranger still that men are who believe all—all—'tis to +them a spasmodic miracle, and he is an infidel of course who doubts. +Strange too is it, that men do not see here the monstrous power of what +is called Symbolism, and that they should not help nor hinder; who say, +Let the world go—who cares! Men live and women too who say, "There's +<i>something</i> in it"—there must be! and is there not? Figure now all this +boundless cunningly devised agglomerate of royal arches, deaths' heads, +hieroglyphically painted screens, "columns in the state of innocence, +with spacious masonic halls—dark, or in the favorablest theatrical +light-and-dark: Kircher's magic lantern, Belshazzar handwritings (of +phosphorus), plaintive tones, gong-beatings, hoary head of a +supernatural Grand Cophta emerging through the gloom—and how it all +acts, not only directly through the foolish senses of men, but also +indirectly connecting itself with Enoch and Elias, with philanthropy, +immortality," &c. Let such as <i>will</i> now say there is nothing in +it—something there is, for a thoughtful man to consider well of, asking +himself what also does this of clairvoyance, and spiritual knockings, +and Jenny-Lind manias, and Jerkers—truly mean? and what kind of a +person am <i>I who have had</i> part and lot with these?</p> + +<p>But the lofty science of Egyptian Masonry flourishes, lodges are +established over Europe, and the Grand Master travels hither and +thither, "mounts to the seat of the Venerable, and holds high discourse, +hours long, on masonry, morality, universal science, divinity, and +things in general," with a "sublimity, and emphasis and unction," +proceeding it appears "from the special inspiration of the Holy Ghost." +He is received with shouts and exultation—every where the great heart +of man thrills at the coming of this mystic symbol, which +contains—cunningly enfolded, as their eyes can and do see—every +virtue, every greatness—is he not indeed the Incarnation of these, and +therefore to be worshipped; such gift of reverence is in the heart of +man, and to such things does he again and again bow down!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_456" id="Page_456">[Pg 456]</a></span></p> + +<p>To go on. Cheers, and the ravishment of thronging audiences can make him +maudlin; render him louder in eloquence of theory; and "philanthropy," +"divine science," "depth of unknown worlds," "finer feelings of the +heart"—and so shall draw tears from most asses of sensibility. "The few +reasoning mortals scattered here and there, that see through him, +deafened in the universal hub-bub, shut their lips in sorrowful disdain, +<i>confident in the grand remedy, Time</i>." So says our author, and can we +blame him? Will the reader allow the current of this prosperity to be +checked for one moment by a certain Count M.? One of the chosen few at +Warsaw, who having spent the night with the "dear Master," in conversing +with spirits, had returned to the country to transmute metals +perhaps—perhaps to do other mighty works. Count M. seems to have been +afflicted with doubts, to have supposed that by sleight-of-hand the +"sweet Master" had substituted the crucible with melted ducats, for the +other—carefully filled with red lead, "smelted and set to cool," "and +now found broken and hidden among these bushes"—the whole golden +crucible standing in its place. "Neither does the Plenagon or Elixir of +Life, or whatever it was, prosper better—our sweet master enters into +expostulation—swears by his great God, and his honor, that he will +finish the work and make us <i>happy</i>." In vain—"the shreds of the broken +crucible lie there before your eyes"—and the usurper has its place. +That "resemblance of a sleeping child, grown visible in the magic +cooking of our Elixir, proves to be an inserted rosemary leaf. The Grand +Cophta cannot be gone too soon."</p> + +<p>Already it has been said that "Charity pays," philanthropy, benevolence, +all these—sometimes? if one sows his bread on the waters shall he not +expect its return after many or after few days?—the sooner the better +for your Cagliostros, your Barnums. Shout it daily to an envious +world—"Am I not a charitable man? If I have done wrong myself (as who +has not?) has not a great deal of good <i>grown out</i> of my wickedness? I +have therefore done my share, for which if the world has paid me in +'praise and pudding,' it is no more than it has done before, and will do +again!" Take courage!</p> + +<p>Cagliostro doctors—heals—the poor, for nothing!—even gives them +alms—does a great deal of good—who but he? At Strasburg in the year +1783 (year of our peace with England), he "appears in full bloom and +radiance, the envy and admiration of the world. In large hired +hospitals, he with open drug-box (containing 'Extract of Saturn'), and +even with open purse, relieves the suffering poor; unfolds himself +lamblike, angelic, to a believing few, of the rich classes. Medical +miracles have at all times been common, but what miracle is this of an +occidental or oriental Serene-highness that 'regardless of expense,' +employs himself in curing sickness, in illuminating ignorance?" We at +the present day know nothing like it; the mere giving of a few surplus +hundreds or thousands to certain Slavery, Anti-Slavery, Peace, +Temperance or other societies, is benevolence of the "rocking chair" +species—is not to be mentioned with this, of the self-denying +Cagliostro's diving into cellars, and mounting into garrets, to seek and +to save—at the risk of not only life but comfort—the first of which +happily was not thus sacrificed:—nor indeed on the whole was comfort +lost sight of, as the "coach-and-four with liveries and sumptuosities +bears witness." There is often profound wisdom in this thing called +<i>public</i> or newspaper charity. Does it—or does it not—pay?</p> + +<p>The favorite of the gods, he who holds high discourse with spirits, and +to whom is opened the hidden secret of earth and heaven, finds ready +acceptance—backed as he is by charities, by elegancies: finds +acceptance with the poor, the ignorant to whom he ministers—but also +"with a mixture of sorrow and indignation" it is recorded, among the +great—and not only they, but among the learned, "even physicians and +naturalists." It does not seem worth while to expend sorrow and +indignation upon this fact, not at all new, as we now fifty years +farther along have discovered; for we can show our physicians and +naturalists, and also our priests and prophets, in small crowds with +whom marvels find acceptance. We shall see more of them by and by.</p> + +<p>But one among the rich and great, was the Cardinal Prince Count Rohan, +Archbishop of Strasburg. "Open-handed dupe," as some term him—now out +of favor with the Queen Marie Antoinette (after that beheaded and called +unfortunate). Banished from his beloved Paris and the sunshine of +royalty, what should he do but to regain his pedestal? necessary no +doubt, for the glory of God, and his church; necessary at least for the +Count Rohan. Cagliostro is all powerful—he will help the Cardinal +Prince—not only by philters and charms, but by prophecies from the +gods, who speaking through their earthly oracle, will of course (it +paying best), promise success and not failure. The Archbishop tries all +things, and at last the far-famed "diamond necklace," upon the queen, +which no woman's heart can withstand, not even the queen's. Sad to tell, +the miserable queen knew nothing of the necklace; and only the Md'lle De +la Motte, styled countess, by superior arts had outjuggled Cagliostro +himself, Cardinal Rohan, queen and all: the diamonds were gone—the +queen's character blackened, cardinal, cophta, and countess, all in the +Bastille, where they lay some nine months (year 1781), disastrous +months, when "high science" wasted itself in eating out its own heart. +Cagliostro escaped, was let go—but a plundered, banished, suspected +high priest, was quite another thing from a golden cophta, with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_457" id="Page_457">[Pg 457]</a></span> the +foreign coat-of-arms, serene countess—and open purse relieving the +unfortunate.</p> + +<p>Cagliostro now flits to England, to Bale, to Brienne, to Aix, to Turin, +he wanders hither and thither; we cannot follow him. The end of all, the +lofty and the low, must come—that seems drawing near to Cagliostro +too—but how? not in ruddy splendor as of departing day, not quiet, +serene, as of nature sinking to rest—rather like the disastrous death +of the bleeding shark it seems: his brethren, his friends—- sharks of +his own kind, of all kinds, high and low—rush upon the wounded shark, +as to a banquet to which they were bidden. He is exiled here, he is +persecuted there—imprisonment, despair, degradation haunt him—the +houseless, unfortunate—now vagabond, once renovator of the human race, +and friend of lords and friend of gods and princes. Such is gratitude! +such is popular favor! a thing to be bought and bargained for, to be +given when <i>not needed</i>. Such, no doubt, Cagliostro decided!</p> + +<p>He is sore bested, and begins "to confess himself to priests," for a man +must do something in his extremity. It avails him not; he is at last in +the gripe of the holy Inquisition at Rome, "in the year of our Lord, +1789, December 29," and must match himself with a power which this world +knows something of: face to face, hand to hand, at last. Have they +juggles equal to his juggles, miracles equal to his—high science equal +to his—legions of angels equal to his?—enough that they have dungeons, +and sbirri—and in his case, hearts harder than the nether +mill-stone—not to be softened "by demands for religious +books"—assertions of the divinity of the Egyptian Masonry—promises of +wonderful revelations—oaths, flatteries, or any of the mystic +paraphernalia of the now powerless professor and prophet: they will not +let him out! but rather will introduce him to a new art, that of +becoming a Christian, and get him, the toughest in a tough time, into +heaven as they best can. Did they find Loyola's twenty days sufficient, +and was the article then turned out of hand complete for that other +state? The Inquisition biographer does not dwell upon this, it was +perhaps as well. We learn at last that he died in the year 1795, and +went, the writer says, "<i>Whither</i> no man knows!" So ended a Magician!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">New Haven</span>, Feb., 1852.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> T. Carlyle.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="BITTER_WORDS" id="BITTER_WORDS"></a>BITTER WORDS.</h2> + +<h4>WRITTEN FOR THE INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE,</h4> + +<h3>BY R. H. STODDARD.</h3> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Bitter words are easy spoken;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Not so easily forgot;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hearts it may be can be broken—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Mine cannot!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">When thou lovest me I adore thee;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Hating, I can hate thee too;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But I will not bow before thee—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Will not sue!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Even now, without endeavor,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Thou hast wounded so my pride,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I could leave thee, and for ever—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Though I died!<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_MURDER_OF_LATOUR" id="THE_MURDER_OF_LATOUR"></a>THE MURDER OF LATOUR.</h2> + +<h4>WRITTEN FOR THE INTERNATIONAL MONTHLY MAGAZINE,</h4> + +<h3>BY HON. W. H. STILES.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> +</h3> + +<p>The cabinet remained in deliberation at the Ministry of War, situated at +the corner of the square called the Hof. The tide of insurrection now +rose to an unconquerable height. The nearest shots of the retiring +cannons, the advancing shouts of the infuriated people, warned the +ministers that all defence was rapidly becoming hopeless. The building +itself still offered some means of resistance, and there were two +cannons in the court; but at that crisis was issued a written order, +signed by Latour and Wessenberg, "to cease the fire at all points," and +given to officers for distribution.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> It was in vain. The popular +torrent rolled on toward the seat of government, which was destined ere +long to be disgraced by atrocious crime. The minister of war, Count +Latour, prepared for defence. The military on guard in front of the war +office were withdrawn into the yards, with two pieces of artillery +loaded with grape. The gates were closed, the military distributed to +the different threatened points, and the cannons directed towards the +two gates; soon the scene of battle had reached the Bogner Gasse, +immediately under the windows of the war department; the ministers in +consultation heard the cry, "The military retreat." The great square of +the Hof was soon cleared, the soldiers retiring by the way of the +Freyung. The guards and academic legion pursuing; the military +commander's quarters in the Freyung are soon captured. The retiring +military not being able to escape through the Schotten-Thor, as they had +expected, that gate being closed and barricaded, they cut their way +through the Herrn Gasse.</p> + +<p>So intent were the respective combatants, either in retreat or pursuit, +that the whole tempest of war swept over the Hof, and left that square, +for a short time, deserted and silent.</p> + +<p>But that stillness was but of short duration; a few moments only had +elapsed, when a number of straggling guards, students, and people, came +stealing silently from the Graben, through the Bogner, Naglus, and +Glosken Gasse, on to the Hof, and removed the dead and the wounded into +the neighboring<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_458" id="Page_458">[Pg 458]</a></span> dwellings, and into the deserted guard-house in the war +department. These were soon followed by a fierce and noisy mob, armed +with axes, pikes, and iron bars, which halted before the war office, and +began to thunder at its massive doors.</p> + +<p>The officer of ordnance in vain attempted to communicate to the crowd +the order of the ministry, that all firing should cease. A member of the +academic legion, from the window, over the gateway, waved with a white +handkerchief to the tumultuous masses, and, exhibiting the order signed +by Latour and Wessenberg, read its contents to the crowd.</p> + +<p>But a pacification was not to be thought of; the people were too +excited, their fury could only be appeased by blood; that delayed +measure was not sufficient; they made negative gesticulations, and +summoned the student to come down and open the portals to their +admission. The tumult increased from minute to minute; the closed doors +at length gave way under the axes of the mob, and the people streamed +in, led by a man "in a light gray coat."</p> + +<p>The secretary of war, having by this time abandoned the idea of defence, +on the ground either that it was useless or impolitic, no shots were +fired or active resistance offered; but the orderlies with their horses +retired to the stables, and the grenadiers into an inner court. At first +only single individuals entered, and their course was not characterized +by violence; then groups, proceeding slowly, listening, and searching; +and, at last the tumultuous masses thundered in the rear.</p> + +<p>Ere long the cry rung on the broad staircase, "Where is Latour? he must +die!" At this moment the ministers and their followers in the building, +with the exception of Latour himself, found means to escape, or mingled +with the throng. The deputies, Smolka, Borrosch, Goldmark, and +Sierakowski, who had undertaken to guarantee protection to the +threatened ministers, arrived in the hope of restraining the mob. The +numerous corridors and cabinets of the war office (formerly a monastery +of the Jesuits) were filled with the crowd; the tide of insurrection now +rose to an uncontrollable height; and the danger of Latour became every +moment more imminent.</p> + +<p>The generals who were with him, perceiving the peril, entreated him to +throw himself upon the Nassau regiment or the Dutch Meister grenadiers, +and retreat to their barracks. He scorned the proposal, denied the +danger, and even refused, for some time, to change his uniform for a +civilian's dress, until the hazard becoming more evident, he put on +plain clothes, and went up into a small room in the roof of the +building, where he soon after signed a paper declaring that, with his +majesty's consent, he was ready to resign the office of minister of war. +A Tecnicker, named Ranch,<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> who, it was said, had come to relieve the +secretary of war, was seized and hung in the court by his own scarf, but +fortunately cut down by a National Guard before life was extinct. The +mob rushed into the private apartment of the minister, but plundered it +merely of the papers, which were conveyed to the university. They came +with a sterner purpose. The act of resignation, exhibited to the crowd +by the deputy Smolka, was scornfully received by the people, while the +freshness of the writing, the sand adhering still to the ink, betrayed +the proximity of the hand which had just traced it. Meanwhile, the crowd +had penetrated the corridors of the fourth story, and were not long in +discovering the place of Latour's concealment. Hearing their approach, +and recognizing the voice of Smolka, vice-president of the assembly, who +was doubtless anxious to protect him, Latour came out of his retreat.</p> + +<p>They descended together from the fourth story by a narrow stairway, on +the right-hand side of the building, and entered the yard by the pump. +At each successive landing place, the tumult and the crowd increased; +but the descent was slow, and rendered more and more difficult by the +numbers which joined the crowd at every turn of the stairs. At length +they reached the court below, and Count Latour, although he had been +severely pressed, was still unhurt; but here the populace, which awaited +them, broke in upon the group that still clustered around Latour, and +dispersed it. In vain did the deputies, Smolka and Sierakowski, endeavor +to protect the minister; in vain did the Count Leopold Gondrecourt +attempt to cover him by the exposure of his own body. A workman struck +the hat from his head; others pulled him by his gray locks, he defending +himself with his hands, which were already bleeding. At length a +ruffian, disguised as a Magyar, gave him, from behind, a mortal blow +with a hammer, the man in the gray coat cleft his face with a sabre, and +another plunged a bayonet into his heart. A hundred wounds followed, +and, with the words, "I die innocent!" he gave up his loyal and manly +spirit. A cry of exultation from the assembled crowd rent the air at +this event. Every indignity was offered to his body; before he had +ceased to breathe even, they hung him by a cord to the grating of a +window in the court of the war office. He had been suspended there but a +few minutes when, from the outrages committed on it, the body fell.</p> + +<p>They then dragged it to the Hof, and suspended it to one of the bronze +candelabras that adorn that extensive, and much frequented square, and +there treated it with every indignity; it remained for fourteen hours +exposed to the gaze of a mocking populace.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> A chapter from Mr. Stiles's forthcoming work on Austria, +which we have mentioned elsewhere in this number of the International.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> The last order issued by the unfortunate Latour was +instructed to Colonel Gustave Schindler, of the imperial engineers, an +efficient officer, as well as a most amiable and accomplished gentleman, +and one well and favourably known in the United States, from his kind +attention to Americans who have visited the Austrian capital. The +colonel was in the act of passing out of the great door of the war +office, which opens on the Hof, when the mob reached that spot. +Recognized by his imperial uniform, he was instantly surrounded and +attacked. He received many blows on the head, inflicted by the crowd +with clubs and iron bars; was most severely wounded, and would probably +have been killed but for the timely interference of one of the rabble, +who, riding up on horseback between the colonel and the mob, shielded +him from further blow, and finally effected his escape.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> A student of the Polytechnic school, for brevity, usually +called Tecnickers.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_459" id="Page_459">[Pg 459]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="SOME_SMALL_POEMS" id="SOME_SMALL_POEMS"></a>SOME SMALL POEMS.</h2> + +<h4>WRITTEN FOR THE INTERNATIONAL MONTHLY MAGAZINE,</h4> + +<h3>BY R. H. STODDARD.</h3> + + +<h4>SONG.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I hung upon your breast in pain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And poured my kisses there like rain;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A flood of tears, a cloud of fire,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That fed and stifled wild desire,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And lay like death upon my heart,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To think that we must learn to path;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For we must part, and live apart!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Had I, that hour of dark unrest,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But plunged a dagger in your breast<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And in mine own, it had been well;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For now I had been spared the hell<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That racks my lone and loving heart,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To think that we must learn to part;—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For we must part, and die apart!<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>LU LU.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The shining cloud that broods above the hill,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Casts down its shadows over all the lawns,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The snowy swan is sailing out to sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Leaving behind a ruffled surge of light!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lu Lu is like a cloud in memory,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And shades the ancient brightness of my mind:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A swan upon the ocean of my heart,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Floating along a path of golden thought!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The light of evening slants adown the sky,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Poured from the inner folds of western cloud;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But in the cast there is a spot of blue,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And in that heavenly spot the evening star!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The tresses of Lu Lu are like the light,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Gushing from out her turban down her neck;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And like that Eye of heaven, her mild blue eye,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And in its deeps there hangs a starry tear!<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>THOSE WHO LOVE LIKE ME.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Those who love like me,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">When their meeting ends<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Friends can hardly be,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">But less or more than friends!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">With common words, and smiles,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">We cannot meet, and part,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For something will prevent—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Something in the heart!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The thought of other days,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The dream of other years;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With other words, and smiles,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And other sighs and tears!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">For all who love like me,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">When their parting ends,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Friends must never be,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">But more or less than friends!<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>TO THE WINDS</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Blow fair to-day, ye changing Winds!<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And smooth the story sea;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For now ye waft a sacred bark,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And bear a friend from me.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From you he flies, ye Northern Winds,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Your Southern mates to seek;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So urge his keel until he feels<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Their kisses on his cheek:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And when their tropic kisses warm,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And tropic skies impart,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Their floods of sunshine to his veins,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Their gladness to his heart—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Blow fair again, ye happy Winds!<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And smooth again the sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For then ye'll waft the blessed bark,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And bear my friend to me!<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>"WIND OF SUMMER, MURMUR LOW."</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Wind of summer, murmur low,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where the charméd waters flow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While the songs of day are dying,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the bees are homeward flying,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As the breezes come and go.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Come and go, hum and blow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Winds of summer, sweet and low,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ere my lover sinks to rest,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While he lies upon my breast,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Kiss his forehead, pale and fair,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Kiss the ringlets of his hair,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Kiss his heavy-lidded eyes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where the mist of slumber lies;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Kiss his throat, his cheek, his brow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And his red, red lips, as I do now,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While he sleeps so sound and slow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On the heart that loves him so,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dreaming of the sad, and olden,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the loving, and the golden<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wind of summers long ago!<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_LATE_ELIOT_WARBURTON" id="THE_LATE_ELIOT_WARBURTON"></a>THE LATE ELIOT WARBURTON.</h2> + + +<p>The melancholy fate of the author of <i>The Crescent and the Cross</i>, +<i>Canada</i>, <i>Darien</i>, &c., has been stated in these pages. In Great +Britain, where he was well known and highly esteemed by literary men, +there have been many feeling and apparently just tributes to his memory, +one of the most interesting of which is a memoir in the <i>Dublin +University Magazine</i>, from which we transcribe the following paragraphs:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"It was during an extended tour in the Mediterranean about +ten years ago, that Mr. Warburton sent some sheets of +manuscript notes to Mr. Lever, at that time Editor of the +<i>Dublin University Magazine</i>. These at once caught that +gentleman's attention, and he gladly gave them publicity, +under the title of "Episodes of Eastern Travel," in +successive numbers of the magazine, where they were +universally admired for the grace and liveliness of their +style. Mr. Lever, however, soon saw that though for the +purposes of his periodical these papers were extremely +valuable, the author was not consulting his own best +interests by continuing to give his travels to the world in +that form; and, with generous disinterestedness, advised him +to collect what he had already published, and the remainder +of his notes, and make a book of the whole. Mr. Warburton +followed his advice, entered into terms with Mr. Colburn, +and published his travels under the title of 'The Crescent +and the Cross.'</p> + +<p>"Of this book it is needless for us to speak. In spite of +the formidable rivalry of an 'Eothen,' which appeared about +the same time, it sprang at once into public favor, and is +one of the very few books of modern travels of which the +sale has continued uninterrupted through successive editions +to the present time. Were we to pronounce upon the secret of +its success, we should lay it to its perfect +<i>right-mindedness</i>. A changeful truth, a versatile propriety +of feeling initiates the author, as it were, into the heart +of each successive subject; and we find him as profoundly +impressed with the genius of the Holy Land, as he is +steeped, in the proper place, in the slumberous influences +of the dreamy Nile, upon whose bosom he rocks his readers +into a trance, to be awakened only by the gladsome +originality of these melodies which come mirthfully on their +ears from either bank. And, we may observe in passing, it is +precisely the <i>want</i> of this, which prevents the +indisputable power and grace of 'Eothen' from having their +full effect with the public.</p> + +<p>"Passages of beauty, almost of sublimity, stand isolated +from our sympathies by the interposed cynicism of a few +caustic remarks; and scenes of the world's most ancient +reverence and worship become needlessly disenchanted under +the spell of some skeptical sneer.</p> + +<p>"But we must not turn aside to criticise. Since<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_460" id="Page_460">[Pg 460]</a></span> the +publication of the 'Crescent and the Cross,' Mr. Warburton +has written, or edited, a number of works, some historical, +others of fiction, of which his last romance, 'Darien,' only +appeared as he was on the eve of departing on the fatal +voyage. It has been remarked as a singular circumstance, +that in this tale has prefigured his own fate. A burning +ship is described in terms which would have served as a +picture of the frightful reality he was himself doomed to +witness. The coincidence, casual as it is, has imparted a +melancholy interest to that story, which will long be wept +over as the parting and presaging legacy of a gifted spirit, +prematurely snatched away.</p> + +<p>"These lighter effusions most probably grew out of the +craving of the publishers for the <i>prestige</i> of his name, +already found to be valuable even on title-pages; and the +ready market they commanded could not but prove an +excitement to continue and multiply them. This might be +considered in an ulterior sense unfortunate; for we are +inclined to think that the true bent of Mr. Warburton's +mind, if not of his talents, was towards graver and less +imaginative studies; and we know that this propensity was +growing upon him with maturer years and soberer reflections.</p> + +<p>"It is not exclusively from the bearing of his researches +and the general drift of his correspondence that we infer +this; though both set latterly in that direction. He had for +some time been actually at work with definite objects in +view. One subject which he took up warmly was a <i>British</i> +History of Ireland; that is, a history intended to deal +impartial justice between the Irish people on the one side, +and the British empire on the other; reviewing the politics +of successive periods, neither from the Irish nor the +English side of the question, but with reference to the +general interests of the whole.</p> + +<p>"The task, would have proved an arduous one, under any +circumstances—perhaps an invidious one; but what was worse, +even when accomplished, the book might have turned out a +dull affair. So, with a view to lightening the reading, he +had proposed to embody with it memoirs of the Viceroys, thus +keeping the British connection prominent, while enlivening +the pages with biographical touches.</p> + +<p>"Acting on these ideas, he had actually begun a 'History of +the Viceroys' in conjunction with a literary friend, and was +only deterred from prosecuting it by the apathy, or rather +discouragement, of the London publishers, who felt no +inclination to venture upon an Irish historical speculation. +Unfortunately, neither he nor his friend could afford to +pursue the task gratuitously, and it was accordingly +abandoned.</p> + +<p>"Still later, he employed himself in collecting materials +for a History of the Poor—a vast theme; perhaps too vast +for a single intellect to grasp. To him, however, it was a +labor of love; and he had succeeded in getting together a +considerable mass of curious and valuable material <i>pour +servir</i>. His last visit to his native country had researches +of this nature for one of its objects; and we are sure many +persons connected with the charitable institutions of +Dublin, will recollect the persevering zeal with which he +visited the haunts of poverty, as well as the asylums for +its relief, noting down every thing which might prove +afterwards serviceable on that suggestive topic.</p> + +<p>"With an upwelling of philanthropy so pure and perennial as +this, the preliminary investigations could have been only a +delight to him. Other men might be forced to them as a +revolting duty; he chose the inquiry, with very dubious +hopes of bettering himself by prosecuting it, because his +heart was full of compassion, and he thought he might do +good. We repeat, what we can state from personal knowledge, +that the bent of Mr. Warburton's mind was latterly towards +works of general utility; and it is with great satisfaction +we learn, what we had not been aware of until the public +papers announced it, that his projected visit to the New +World was a mission, in which the interests of humanity were +to have in him an advocate and champion.</p> + +<p>"Into his private life we feel that, under present +circumstances, it would be indelicate, as well as out of +place, to enter. Surrounded as he was with all the blessings +which the domestic relations can bestow, beloved by his +intimates, caressed by the gifted and the good, Eliot +Warburton lived the centre of a radiating circle of +happiness. His personal qualities were of no common order. +His society was eagerly sought after. With a fastidious +lassitude of air, and an apparent disinclination to +exertion, he possessed remarkable force of thought and +fluency of diction; and it was no uncommon thing to see him, +when he had begun to relate passages from his experience in +foreign countries, or adventures in his own, the centre of a +gradually increasing audience, amidst which he sat, +improvisating a sort of romantic recitation, until he was +completely carried away on the current of his own eloquence, +and lost every sense of where he was or what he was doing, +in the enthusiasm he had fanned up and saw reflected around +him. This power was a peculiar gift; and he loved to +exercise it. In this form many of his happiest effusions +have been given utterance to; and every body who has heard +him at such inspired moments has felt regret that the +brilliant bursts which so delighted him, should have been +stamped upon no more retentive tablets than the ears of +ordinary listeners.</p> + +<p>"Of this amiable, refined and gifted individual, we are +afraid to speak as warmly as our heart would dictate. Before +us lie the few hasty lines—but not too hurried to be the +channel of a parting kindness—scrawled to us on the first +day of this year—the last day the writer was ever to pass +in England. They are, perhaps, amongst the latest words he +ever wrote. 'I am off,' they run 'for the West Indies +to-morrow. <i>But I have accomplished your affair.</i>' Oh, +vanity of human purpose! Man proposes—God disposes. We were +next to hear of him, standing on the deck of the burning +vessel in the Atlantic, alone with the captain, after every +other soul had disappeared, surveying—we feel convinced, +with a courage of a lion—the awful twofold death close +before him, and which he had in probability deliberately +preferred to an early relinquishment of his companions to +their fate. It is a fine picture—one that shall every hang +framed with his image in our memory; helping us to believe +that</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"'——Lycidas our sorrow is not dead.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sunk though he be beneath the watery flood,'—<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>But that he hath mounted to a higher sphere—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"'Through the dear might of Him that walked the waves.'"<br /></span> +</div></div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_461" id="Page_461">[Pg 461]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="AUTHOR_OF_THE_FOOL_OF_QUALITY" id="AUTHOR_OF_THE_FOOL_OF_QUALITY"></a>AUTHOR OF "THE FOOL OF QUALITY."</h2> + + +<p>Of the interesting papers in the February Dublin University Magazine, we +have read none with more satisfaction than the biographical sketch and +portrait of one of the most distinguished Irishmen of his own or any +age, the gifted and pure minded author of <i>Gustavus Vasa</i> and <i>The Fool +of Quality</i>, <span class="smcap">Henry Brooke</span>. Of his literary fate it might be said that +the most unfortunate thing he did was to assert the patriotism of Dean +Swift; and the most unfortunate thing was to be left out of Doctor +Johnson's "Lives of the Poets." Trials had he to undergo, although not +absolutely driven to the wall, like many children of "the fatal dowry," +and those of Irish complexion, in particular; but he bravely bore up +against them. Those who deem that relatives may live more happily apart, +and that friendship is best preserved in full dress, may look at the +picture of Henry Brooke, the poet and politician, and Robert Brooke, the +painter, with their wives and children, not less than twenty, living +together in perfect peace and amity at Daisy Park, in the flattest part +of Kildare, where, in those dull seats and distant times, a family +breeze might now and then have been looked on in the Irish sense as a +"convenience and a comfort." "While Henry wrote," says the biographer, +"Robert painted, and sold his pictures; and thus these two loving +brothers, having lost their property, made a right and manful use of +their intellectual gifts, and supported their large families by the +sweat of their brows."</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"In his politics, Brooke was of the old whig school; and, +had he lived in 1829, he would probably have been an +emancipator. He was a right-minded, ardent Irishman in his +love for fatherland; hated oppression; idolized liberty; +wrote most keenly against Poyning's infamous laws; mourned +over the misrule and misgovernment of his country, under the +tyranny and rapacity of the Stuart dynasty; admired King +William, and was an exulting Protestant; yet greatly loved +his Roman Catholic neighbors, and would preserve to them +their properties, though he disliked their principles, and +deprecated their ascendency."</p></div> + +<p>Dr. Johnson's feelings respecting Brooke are accounted for, not +improbably, as follows:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"It may be asked why did Dr. Johnson exclude Brooke from his +'Lives of the Poets,' where so many names of little note are +to be found? In 1739, Johnson had written in Brooke's praise +in his 'Complete Vindication,' and twenty years afterwards, +when the learned Dr. Campbell showed a spirited 'Prospectus +of a History of Ireland' written by him, to the great +moralist, he read it with much pleasure and praise, saying +that 'every line breathed the true fire of genius.' It is +recorded that, on this occasion, Johnson lamented that 'the +vanity of Irishmen, even if their patriotism were extinct, +did not enable Brooke to carry his design into execution.' +In Johnson's letter to Charles O'Connor we have his mind on +the subject. To Brooke he appears never to have written; +there had been an ancient quarrel between them. They had +argued and disagreed; and the traditionary story in Brooke's +family bears <i>so</i> heavily on the manner of the philosopher, +and is <i>so</i> flattering to the courtesy of the poet, that we +should prefer not to write it down. Brooke was at all times +strangely careless of fame; independent to a fault, and more +proud than vain; and though much urged by his friends to +humble himself, yet he could not be induced to 'bow down' to +the cap of this literary Gesler, much as he regarded his +learning and noble intellect. This dislike of the Doctor +continued during his life; and Boswell narrates that on the +occasion of a play being read to him (it was Brooke's +<i>Gustavus Vasa</i>) and a circle of friends, on coming to the +line—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Who rules o'er free men should himself be free!'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>the company applauded, but Johnson said it might as well be +said—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"'Who drives fat oxen should himself be fat—'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>a stupid and inapt verbal sophism, and unworthy of his great +and good mind; but such was often his way. In this fashion +one might string endless parodies on the line, and equally +inapplicable; for example:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"'Who keeps a madhouse should himself be mad!'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"Mr. Brooke's elegant and honest mind probably had in view +that word of Scripture which saith, 'he that ruleth his own +spirit is better than he who taketh a city'—(Prov. xvi. +32.)</p></div> + +<p>"By this unhappy difference Brooke lost his Johnsonian niche in the +temple of biographical fame. Yet we must remember that a better fate was +his,—'his record is on high,'—and his spirit with that Saviour who +loved him and made him what he was. Faults and inconsistency were in +him, no doubt, but still we know not of any of whom it could be so well +and suitably said—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"'His life was gentle, and the elements<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So mixed him, that Nature might stand up<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And say to all the world, 'This was a man.'"<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="BANCROFTS_AMERICAN_REVOLUTION5" id="BANCROFTS_AMERICAN_REVOLUTION5"></a>BANCROFT'S AMERICAN REVOLUTION.<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></h2> + +<h4>From the Westminster Review.</h4> + + +<p>Among the historians who have attained a high and deserved reputation in +the United States, within the last few years, we are inclined to yield +the first place to George Bancroft. His great work on the history of the +United States has been brought down from the commencement of American +colonization to the opening of the Revolutionary War, to which subject +it is understood that he intends devoting the three succeeding volumes. +His researches in the public offices of England, while he was Minister +of the United States at the Court of St. James, have brought to light a +great mass of documentary evidence on the antecedents and course of the +Revolution, which have not yet been made public. With his critical +sagacity in sifting evidence, his hound-like instinct in scenting every +particle of testimony that can lead him on the right-track, and his +plastic skill in moulding the most confused and discordant materials +into a compact, symmetrical, and truthful narrative, he cannot fail to +present the story of that great historical drama with a freshness, +accuracy, and artistic beauty, worthy of the immortal events which it +commemorates.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_462" id="Page_462">[Pg 462]</a></span> Mr. Bancroft is now exclusively occupied in the +completion of this work. He pursues it with the drudging fidelity of a +mechanical laborer, combined with the enthusiasm of a poet and the +comprehensive wisdom of a statesman. With strong social tastes, he gives +little time to society. His favorite post is in his library, where he +labors the live-long day in the spirit of the ancient artist, <i>Nulla +dies sine linea</i>. His experience in political and diplomatic life, no +less than his rare and generous culture, and his singular union of the +highest mental faculties, enable us to predict with confidence that this +work will be reckoned among the genuine masterpieces of historical +genius. The volumes of the History of the United States already +published, are well known to intelligent readers both in Great Britain +and America. They are distinguished for their compact brevity of +statement, their terse and vigorous diction, their brilliant panoramic +views, and the boldness and grace of their sketches of personal +character. A still higher praise may be awarded to this history for the +tenacity with which it clings to the dominant and inspiring idea of +which it records the development. Whoever reads it without comprehending +the standpoint of the author, is liable to disappointment. For it must +be confessed that as a mere narrative of events, the preference may be +given to the productions of far inferior authors. But it is to be +regarded as an epic in prose of the triumph of freedom. This noble +principle is considered by Mr. Bancroft as an essential attribute of the +soul, necessarily asserting itself in proportion to the spiritual +supremacy which has been achieved. The history, then, is devoted to the +illustration of the progress of freedom, as an out-birth of the +spontaneous action of the soul. It is in this point of view that the +remarkable chapters on the Massachusetts Pilgrims, the Pennsylvania +Quakers, and the North American Indians, were written; and their full +purport, their profound significance, can only be appreciated by readers +whose minds possess at least the seeds of sympathy and cognateness with +this sublime philosophy. The chapter on the Quakers is a pregnant +psychological treatise. Sparkling all over with the electric lights of a +rich humanitary philosophy, it invests the theologic visions of Fox and +Barclay with a radiance and beauty which have been ill-preserved in the +formal and lifeless organic systems of their successors. The parallel +run by the historian between William Penn and John Locke is one of the +most characteristic productions of his peculiar genius. Original, +subtle, suggestive, crowded with matter and frugal of words, it brings +out the distinctive features of the spiritual and mechanical schools in +the persons of two of their 'representative men,' with a breadth and +reality which is seldom found in philosophical portraitures. Mr. +Bancroft was the son of an eminent Unitarian clergyman in Worcester, +Massachusetts. He was born about the beginning of the present century, +and is consequently a little more than fifty years of age. He graduated +at Harvard University, with distinguished honors, before he had +completed his fifteenth year. Soon after he sailed for Europe, and +continued his studies at the German Universities, returning to his own +country just before the attainment of his majority. Devoting himself for +several years to literary and educational pursuits, he acquired a +brilliant reputation as a poet, critic, and essayist; and at a +subsequent period, entering the career of politics, he has signalized +himself by his attachment to democratic ideas, and the eloquence and +force with which on all occasions he has sustained the principles with +the prevalence of which he identifies the progress of humanity.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<h4>From the Athenæum.</h4> + +<p>The further this work proceeds, the more do we feel that it must take +its place as an essentially satisfactory history of the United States. +Mr. Bancroft is thoroughly American in thought and in feeling, without +ceasing to have those larger views and nobler sympathies which result +from cosmopolitan rather than from local training. His style is original +and national. It breathes of the mountain and the prairie—of the great +lakes and wild savannahs of his native land. A strain of wild and +forest-like music swells up in almost every line. The story is told +richly and vividly. It has hitherto been thought by Americans +themselves, even more than by Europeans, that the story of the English +colonies presented but a dreary and lifeless succession of petty +squabbles between the settlers and the crown officers—of unintelligible +persecutions of each other on the ground of differences of opinion in +religion. Mr. Bancroft has shown how ill founded has been this +impression. In his hands American history is full of fine effects. +Steeped in the colors of his imagination, a thousand incidents hitherto +thought dull appear animated and pictorial. Between Hildreth and +Bancroft the difference is immense. In the treatment of the former, +dates, facts, events are duly stated—the criticism is keen, the +chronology indisputable,—but the figures do not live, the narrative +knows no march. The latter is all movement. His men glow with human +purposes,—his story sweeps on with the exulting life of a procession.</p> + +<p>Yet because Mr. Bancroft contrives to bring out the more romantic +aspects of his theme, it is not to be supposed that he fails in that +strict regard to truth—truth of character as well as of incident—which +is the historian's first duty, and without which all other qualities are +useless. Of all American writers who have written on the history of +their own country, we would pronounce him to be the most conscientious. +His former volumes were remarkable for the amplitude<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_463" id="Page_463">[Pg 463]</a></span> and accuracy of +their references. The authorities cited were often recondite and +obscure,—yet it was evident that they had been sifted carefully and +critically. The same may be said of the volume before us.</p> + +<p>Careful research had enabled Mr. Bancroft to throw new light on several +points connected with the settlement and early history of his country. +As his dates approach nearer to the present time, the sources of new +information open on him in abundance. The MS, additions to our knowledge +of the times treated of in these volumes are considerable; but they are +spread pretty fairly over the entire narrative—lending a new light to +the events and adding a new trait to the characters—rather than thrown +into masses. The effect produced is more that of greater roundness and +completion than of absolute change in old historical verdicts. We quote +one out of innumerable instances of these minute but characteristic +additions. The historian is speaking of the Duke of Newcastle,—whose +ignorant government of the colonies was one of the chief sources of +their discontent:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"For nearly four-and-twenty years he remained minister for +British America; yet to the last, the statesman, who was +deeply versed in the statistics of elections, knew little of +the continent of which he was the guardian. He addressed +letters, it used to be confidently said, to 'the island of +New England,' and could not tell but that Jamaica was in the +Mediterranean. Heaps of colonial memorials and letters +remained unread in his office; and a paper was almost sure +of neglect unless some agent remained with him to see it +opened. His frivolous nature could never glow with +affection, or grasp a great idea, or analyze complex +relations. After long research, I cannot find that he ever +once attended seriously to an American question, or had a +clear conception of one American measure."</p></div> + +<p>Walpole had told us that Newcastle did not know where Jamaica was:—the +amusing address "Island of New England" Mr. Bancroft finds referred to +in a manuscript letter of J. Q. Adams. It serves to suggest that what is +usually thought to be a joke of Walpole's was probably the literal +truth:—the man who is sufficiently innocent of geography to make New +England an island, would have no difficulty in confounding the East and +West Indies.</p> + +<p>In this volume we first meet with the great character who is to be the +hero of the Revolution now looming before the reader. Mr. Bancroft +treats us to no full-length portrait of George Washington:—instead of a +picture he presents us with the man. Washington comes before us at +twenty-one,—in the chamber of Governor Dinwiddie, of Virginia; from +whom he is accepting a perilous but most important mission—to cross the +forests, rivers, and mountains which separate Williamsburg and Lake +Erie, in the depths of a severe winter, and there endeavor to detach the +Delaware Indians from the French alliance. All the elements of +Washington's greatness—his courage, hardihood, military prescience, and +merciful disposition—are stamped indelibly on this the first act of his +public life:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"In the middle of November, with an interpreter and four +attendants, and Christopher Gist as a guide, he left Will's +Creek, and following the Indian trace through forest +solitudes, gloomy with the fallen leaves, and solemn sadness +of late autumn, across mountains, rocky ravines, and +streams, through sleet and snows, he rode in nine days to +the fork of the Ohio. How lonely was the spot, where, so +long unheeded of men, the rapid Allegheny met nearly at +right angles 'the deep and still' water of the Monongahela! +At once Washington foresaw the destiny of the place. 'I +spent some time,' said he, 'in viewing the rivers;' 'the +land in the Fork has the absolute command of both.' 'The +flat, well-timbered land all around the point lies very +convenient for building.' After creating in imagination a +fortress and a city, he and his party swam their horses +across the Allegheny, and wrapt their blankets around them +for the night, on its northwest bank. From the Fork the +chief of the Delawares conducted Washington through rich +alluvial fields to the pleasing valley at Logstown. There +deserters from Louisiana discoursed of the route from New +Orleans to Quebec, by way of the Wabash and the Maumee, and +of a detachment from the lower province on its way to meet +the French troops from Lake Erie, while Washington held +close colloquy with the half-king; the one anxious to gain +the west as a part of the territory of the ancient dominion, +the other to preserve it for the Red Men. 'We are brothers,' +said the half-king in council; 'we are one people; I will +send back the French speech-belt, and will make the Shawnees +and the Delawares do the same.' On the night of the +twenty-ninth of November, the council-fire was kindled an +aged orator was selected to address the French the speech +which he was to deliver was debated and rehearsed; it was +agreed that, unless the French would heed this third warning +to quit the land, the Delawares also would be their enemies; +and a very large string of black and white wampun was sent +to the Six Nations as a prayer for aid. After these +preparations, the party of Washington, attended by the +half-king, and envoys of the Delawares, moved onwards to the +post of the French at Venango. The officers there avowed the +purpose of taking possession of the Ohio; and they mingled +the praises of La Salle with boasts of their forts at Le +Bœuf and Erie, at Niagara, Toronto, and Frontenac. 'The +English,' said they, 'can raise two men to our one; but they +are too dilatory to prevent any enterprise of ours.' The +Delawares were intimidated or debauched; but the half-king +clung to Washington like a brother, and delivered up his +belt as he had promised. The rains of December had swollen +the creeks. The messengers could pass them only by felling +trees for bridges. Thus they proceeded, now killing a buck +and now a bear, delayed by excessive rains and snows, by +mire and swamps, while Washington's quick eye discerned all +the richness of the meadows. At Waterford, the limit of his +journey, he found Fort Le Bœuf defended by cannon. Around +it stood the barracks of the soldiers, rude log-cabins, +roofed with bark. Fifty birch-bark canoes,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_464" id="Page_464">[Pg 464]</a></span> and one hundred +seventy boats of pine, were already prepared for the descent +of the river, and materials were collected for building +more. The Commander, Gardeur de St. Pierre, an officer of +integrity and experience, and, for his dauntless courage, +both feared and beloved by the Red Men, refused to discuss +questions of right. 'I am here,' said he, 'by the orders of +my general, to which I shall conform with exactness and +resolution.' And he avowed his purpose of seizing every +Englishman within the Ohio Valley. France was resolved on +possessing the great territory which her missionaries and +travellers had revealed to the world. Breaking away from +courtesies, Washington hastened homewards to Virginia. The +rapid current of French Creek dashed his party against +rocks; in shallow places they waded, the water congealing on +their clothes; where the ice had lodged in the bend of the +rivers, they carried their canoe across the neck. At +Venango, they found their horses, but so weak, the +travellers went still on foot, heedless of the storm. The +cold increased very fast; the paths grew 'worse by a deep +snow continually freezing.' Impatient to get back with his +despatches, the young envoy, wrapping himself in an Indian +dress, with gun in hand and pack on his back, the day after +Christmas quitted the usual path, and, with Gist for his +sole companion, by aid of the compass, steered the nearest +way across the country for the Fork. An Indian, who had lain +in wait for him, fired at him from not fifteen steps' +distance, but, missing him, became his prisoner. 'I would +have killed him,' wrote Gist, 'but Washington forbade.' +Dismissing their captive at night, they walked about half a +mile, then kindled a fire, fixed their course by the +compass, and continued travelling all night, and all the +next day, till quite dark. Not till then did the weary +wanderers 'think themselves safe enough to sleep,' and they +encamped, with no shelter but the leafless forest-tree. On +reaching the Allegheny, with one poor hatchet and a whole +day's work, a raft was constructed and launched. But before +they were half over the river, they were caught in the +running ice, expecting every moment to be crushed, unable to +reach either shore. Putting out the setting-pole to stop the +raft, Washington was jerked into the deep water, and saved +himself only by grasping at the raft-logs. They were obliged +to make for an island. There lay Washington, imprisoned by +the elements; but the late December night was intensely +cold, and in the morning he found the river frozen. Not till +he reached Gist's settlement, in January, 1754, were his +toils lightened."</p></div> + +<p>Washington reported the state of affairs on the Lakes,—and active +measures were consequently adopted. Of the rapid and brilliant +development of his military genius, we are not now to trace the +progress; but it is scarcely possible to read without a shudder of "the +hair-breadth 'scapes" of the young man whose life was of such +inestimable consequence to his country. Thus, in the battle fought by +Braddock—to whom Washington acted as aide-de-camp—against the French +and Indians in 1755, he appeared to others as well as to himself to bear +a charmed life. In this action, says Mr. Bancroft,—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Of eighty-six officers, twenty-six were killed—among them, +Sir Peter Halket,—and thirty-seven were wounded, including +Gage and other field officers. Of the men, one half were +killed or wounded. Braddock braved every danger. His +secretary was shot dead; both his English aids were disabled +early in the engagement, leaving the American alone to +distribute his orders. 'I expected every moment,' said one +whose eye was on Washington, 'to see him fall.' Nothing but +the superintending care of Providence could have saved him. +An Indian chief—I suppose a Shawnee—singled him out with +his rifle, and bade others of his warriors do the same. Two +horses were killed under him; four balls penetrated his +coat. 'Some potent Manitou guards his life,' exclaimed the +savage. 'Death,' wrote Washington, 'was levelling my +companions on every side of me, but, by the all-powerful +dispensations of Providence, I have been protected.' 'To the +public,' said Davis, a learned divine, in the following +month, 'I point out that heroic youth, Colonel Washington, +whom I cannot but hope Providence has preserved in so signal +a manner for some important service to his country.' 'Who is +Mr. Washington?' asked Lord Halifax, a few months later. 'I +know nothing of him,' he added, 'but that they say he +behaved in Braddock's action as bravely as if he really +loved the whistling of bullets.'"</p></div> + +<p>Thus opened that career of glory, moderation, and success—thus, at the +period of nascent manhood were exhibited the marking traits of that +serene and devoted character—which have placed the name of Washington +on the noblest and loftiest pedestal in the Temple of Fame.</p> + +<p>Leaving for a while the only figure in that scene of miserable and +savage warfare on which the mind can dwell with any degree of trust and +satisfaction, we will move to the north-east of the English settlements, +and follow the story of the unhappy people of Acadia. Mr. Bancroft has +drawn a touching picture of the homely virtues and obscure happiness of +this rural population before the interference of the British officers +changed their joy into wailing, and endowed their simple annals with a +dark and tragic interest:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"After repeated conquests and restorations, the treaty of +Utrecht conceded Acadia, or Nova Scotia, to Great Britain. +Yet the name of Annapolis, the presence of a feeble English +garrison, and the emigration of hardly five or six English +families, were nearly all that marked the supremacy of +England. The old inhabitants remained on the soil which they +had subdued, hardly conscious that they had changed their +sovereign. They still loved the language and the usages of +their forefathers, and their religion was graven upon their +souls. They promised submission to England; but such was the +love with which France had inspired them, they would not +fight against its standard or renounce its name. Though +conquered they were French neutrals. For nearly forty years +from the peace of Utrecht they had been forgotten or +neglected, and had prospered in their seclusion. No +tax-gatherer counted their folds, no magistrate dwelt in +their hamlets. The parish priests made their records and +regulated their successions. Their little disputes were +settled among themselves, with scarcely an instance<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_465" id="Page_465">[Pg 465]</a></span> of an +appeal to English authority at Annapolis. The pastures were +covered with their herds and flocks; and dikes, raised by +extraordinary efforts of social industry, shut out the +rivers and the tide from alluvial marshes of exuberant +fertility. The meadows, thus reclaimed, were covered by +richest grasses, or fields of wheat, that yielded fifty and +thirty fold at the harvest. Their houses were built in +clusters, neatly constructed and comfortably furnished, and +around them all kinds of domestic fowls abounded. With the +spinning-wheel and the loom, their women made, of flax from +their own fields, of fleeces from their own flock, coarse, +but sufficient clothing. The few foreign luxuries that were +coveted could be obtained from Annapolis or Louisburgh, in +return for furs, or wheat, or cattle. Thus were the Acadians +happy in their neutrality and in the abundance which they +drew from their native land. They formed, as it were, one +great family. Their morals were of unaffected purity. Love +was sanctified and calmed by the universal custom of early +marriages. The neighbors of the community would assist the +new couple to raise their cottage, while the wilderness +offered land. Their numbers increased, and the colony, which +had begun only as the trading station of a company, with a +monopoly of the fur trade, counted, perhaps, sixteen or +seventeen thousand inhabitants."</p></div> + +<p>The transfer of this colony from French to English rule could not fail +to be productive of some untoward results. The native priests feared the +introduction among them of heretical opinions:—the British officers +treated the people with insolent contempt. "Their papers and records" +says our historian, "were taken from them" by their new masters:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Was their property demanded for the public service? 'they +were not to be bargained with for the payment.' The order +may still be read on the Council records at Halifax. They +must comply, it was written, without making any terms, +'immediately,' or 'the next courier would bring an order for +military execution upon the delinquents.' And when they +delayed in fetching firewood for their oppressors, it was +told them from the governor, 'If they do not do it in proper +time, the soldiers shall absolutely take their houses for +fuel.' The unoffending sufferers submitted meekly to the +tyranny. Under pretence of fearing that they might rise in +behalf of France, or seek shelter in Canada, or convey +provisions to the French garrisons, they were ordered to +surrender their boats and their firearms; and, conscious of +innocence, they gave up their barges and their muskets, +leaving themselves without the means of flight, and +defenceless. Further orders were afterwards given to the +English officers, if the Acadians behaved amiss to punish +them at discretion; if the troops were annoyed, to inflict +vengeance on the nearest, whether the guilty one or +not,—'taking an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.'"</p></div> + +<p>There is no reason to believe that these atrocious orders were not +executed in the spirit in which they had been conceived. But worse +remained to come:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"The Acadians cowered before their masters, hoping +forbearance; willing to take an oath of fealty to England; +in their single-mindedness and sincerity, refusing to pledge +themselves to bear arms against France. The English were +masters of the sea, were undisputed lords of the country, +and could exercise clemency without apprehension. Not a +whisper gave a warning of their purpose till it was ripe for +execution. But it had been 'determined upon' after the +ancient device of Oriental despotism, that the French +inhabitants of Acadia should be carried away into captivity +to other parts of the British dominions. * * France +remembered the descendants of her sons in the hour of their +affliction, and asked that they might have time to remove +from the peninsula with their effects, leaving their lands +to the English; but the answer of the British Minister +claimed them as useful subjects, and refused them the +liberty of transmigration. The inhabitants of Minas and the +adjacent country pleaded with the British officers for the +restitution of their boats and their guns, promising +fidelity, if they could but retain their liberties, and +declaring that not the want of arms, but their conscience, +should engage them not to revolt. 'The memorial,' said +Lawrence in Council, 'is highly arrogant, insidious and +insulting.' The memorialists, at his summons, came +submissively to Halifax. 'You want your canoes for carrying +provisions to the enemy,' said he to them, though he knew no +enemy was left in their vicinity. 'Guns are no part of your +goods,' he continued, 'as by the laws of England all Roman +Catholics are restrained from having arms, and are subject +to penalties if arms are found in their houses. It is not +the language of British subjects to talk of terms with the +Crown, or capitulate about their fidelity and allegiance. +What excuse can you make for your presumption in treating +this government with such indignity as to expound to them +the nature of fidelity? Manifest your obedience by +immediately taking the oaths of allegiance in the common +form before the Council.' The deputies replied that they +would do as the generality of the inhabitants should +determine; and they merely entreated leave to return home +and consult the body of their people. The next day, the +unhappy men, foreseeing the sorrows that menaced them, +offered to swear allegiance unconditionally."</p></div> + +<p>But it was now too late. The savage purpose had been formed. That the +cruelty might have no excuse, it happened that while the scheme was +under discussion letters arrived leaving no doubt that all the shores of +the Bay of Fundy were in the possession of the British. It only remained +to be fixed how the exportation should be effected:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"To hunt them into the net was impracticable; artifice was +therefore resorted to. By a general proclamation, on one and +the same day, the scarcely conscious victims, 'both old men +and young men, as well as all the lads of ten years of age,' +were peremptorily ordered to assemble at their respective +posts. On the appointed 5th of September, they obeyed. At +Grand Pré, for example, 418 unarmed men came together. They +were marched into the church, and its avenues were closed, +when Winslow, the American commander, placed himself in +their centre, and spoke:—'You are convened together to +manifest to you His Majesty's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_466" id="Page_466">[Pg 466]</a></span> final resolution to the +French inhabitants of this his province. Your lands, and +tenements, cattle of all kinds, and live stock of all sorts, +are forfeited to the crown, and you yourselves are to be +removed from this his province. I am, through his Majesty's +goodness, directed to allow you liberty to carry off your +money and household goods, as many as you can, without +discommoding the vessels you go in.' And he then declared +them the King's prisoners. Their wives and families shared +their lot; their sons, 527 in number, their daughters, 576; +in the whole, women and babes and old men and children all +included, 1,923 souls. The blow was sudden; they had left +home but for the morning, and they never were to return. +Their cattle were to stay unfed in the stalls, their fires +to die out on their hearths. They had for that first day +even no food for themselves or their children, and were +compelled to beg for bread. The 10th of September was the +day for the embarkation of a part of the exiles. They were +drawn up six deep, and the young men, 161 in number, were +ordered to march first on board the vessel. They could leave +their farms and cottages, the shady rocks on which they had +reclined, their herds and their garners; but nature yearned +within them, and they would not be separated from their +parents. Yet of what avail was the frenzied despair of the +unarmed youth? They had not one weapon; the bayonet drove +them to obey; and they marched slowly and heavily from the +chapel to the shore, between women and children, who +kneeling, prayed for blessings on their heads, they +themselves weeping, and praying, and singing hymns. The +seniors went next; the wives and children must wait till +other transport vessels arrived. The delay had its horrors. +The wretched people left behind were kept together near the +sea, without proper food or raiment, or shelter, till other +ships came to take them away; and December with its +appalling cold had struck the shivering, half-clad, +broken-hearted sufferers before the last of them were +removed. 'The embarkation of the inhabitants goes on but +slowly,' wrote Monckton, from Fort Cumberland, near which he +had burned three hamlets, 'the most part of the wives of the +men we have prisoners are gone off with their children, in +hopes I would not send off their husbands without them.' +Their hope was vain. Near Annapolis, a hundred heads of +families fled to the woods, and a party was detached on the +hunt to bring them in. 'Our soldiers hate them,' wrote an +officer on this occasion, 'and if they can but find a +pretext to kill them, they will.' Did a prisoner seek to +escape, he was shot down by the sentinel. Yet some fled to +Quebec; more than 3,000 had withdrawn to Miramichi and the +region south of the Ristigouche; some found rest on the +banks of the St. John's and its branches; some found a lair +in their native forests; some were charitably sheltered from +the English in the wigwams of the savages. But 7,000 of +these banished people were driven on board ships, and +scattered among the English colonies, from New Hampshire to +Georgia alone; 1,020 to South Carolina alone. They were cast +ashore without resources; hating the poor-house as a shelter +for their offspring, and abhorring the thought of selling +themselves as laborers. Households, too, were separated; the +colonial newspapers contained advertisements of members of +families seeking their companions, of sons anxious to reach +and relieve their parents, of mothers mourning for their +children. The wanderers sighed for their native country; but +to prevent their return, their villages, from Annapolis to +the isthmus, were laid waste. Their old homes were but +ruins. In the district of Minas, for instance, 250 of their +houses, and more than as many barns, were consumed. The live +stock which belonged to them, consisting of great numbers of +horned cattle, hogs, sheep, and horses, were seized as +spoils and disposed of by the English officials. A beautiful +and fertile tract of country was reduced to a solitude. +There was none left round the ashes of the cottages of the +Acadians but the faithful watch-dog, vainly seeking the +hands that fed him. Thickets of forest-trees choked their +orchards; the ocean broke over their neglected dikes, and +desolated their meadows."</p></div> + +<p>Nor were the woes of this ill-treated people ended:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Relentless misfortune pursued the exiles whereever they +fled. Those sent to Georgia, drawn by a love for the spot +where they were born as strong as that of the captive Jews, +who wept by the side of the rivers of Babylon for their own +temple and land, escaped to sea in boats, and went coasting +from harbor to harbor; but when they had reached New +England, just as they would have set sail for their native +fields, they were stopped by orders from Nova Scotia. Those +who dwelt on the St. John's were torn once more from their +new homes. When Canada surrendered, hatred with its worst +venom pursued the 1,500 who remained south of the +Ristigouche. Once more those who dwelt in Pennsylvania +presented a humble petition to the Earl of Loudoun, then the +British Commander in-Chief in America; and the cold-hearted +peer, offended that the prayer was made in French, seized +their five principal men, who in their own land had been +persons of dignity and substance, and shipped them to +England, with the request that they might be kept from ever +again becoming troublesome by being consigned to service as +common sailors on board ships of war."</p></div> + +<p>And so it was throughout:—"We have been true," said they in one of +their petitions, "to our religion, and true to ourselves; yet nature +appears to consider us only as the objects of public vengeance."—"I +know not," writes Mr. Bancroft, "if the annals of the human race keep +the records of wounds so wantonly inflicted, so bitter and so perennial +as fell upon the French inhabitants of Acadia."</p> + +<p>American history has at least one element of peculiar character. The +voyage of the Pilgrim Fathers—the settlement of the Virginia +cavaliers—the foundation of Pennsylvania,—though all events of +profound moral interest, as well as productive of fine pictorial +effects, are not without parallels more or less close in the varied tale +of ancient and modern colonization. But that which is distinctive and +peculiar in the story of American civilization is, its struggle against +the Red Men. Settlers, it is true, have often found themselves in +strange company. In Africa the Greek colonizer elbowed the swarthy +Ethiop. In South<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_467" id="Page_467">[Pg 467]</a></span> America the Spaniard stood beside the Peruvian and the +Carib. Dutchmen have encountered the Malay and the Dyak. For two +centuries English settlers have had to deal with the uncivilized races +of the East and West—from the Bushmen of the Cape to the savages of New +Zealand. But none of these races present the same attractive features as +the brethren of the Iroquois and the Mohicans. About these latter there +are points of romantic and chivalric interest. Though not free from the +vices of the savage, they often exhibit virtues which might shame the +European. There is something of dignity in their aspect and bearing. +They are seldom without a natural and original poetic sense,—and their +language has a wild Ossianic music. They are bold in metaphor and apt in +natural illustration. A group of actors on the scene having +characteristics so peculiar and so attractive as the Red Skin is +invaluable to a historian whose tendency is to see events and note +character under their most pictorial aspects.</p> + +<p>The part taken by the Indians in that war between the French and English +in America which ended in the conquest of Quebec and the expulsion of +the Lilies from Canada is narrated at great length by Mr. Bancroft,—and +the atrocious nature of the conflict is well brought out. At the +commencement of the war, we are allowed a glimpse at a curious +war-council:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"'Brothers,' said the Delawares to the Miamis, 'we desire +the English and the Six Nations to put their hands upon your +heads, and keep the French from hurting you. Stand fast in +the chain of friendship with the Government of Virginia.' +'Brothers,' said the Miamis to the English, 'your country is +smooth; your hearts are good; the dwellings of your +governors are like the spring in its bloom.' 'Brothers,' +they added to the Six Nations, holding aloft a calumet +ornamented with feathers, 'the French and their Indians have +struck us, yet we kept this pipe unhurt;' and they gave it +to the Six Nations, in token of friendship with them and +with their allies. A shell and a string of black wampum were +given to signify the unity of heart; and that, though it was +darkness to the westward, yet towards the sun-rising it was +bright and clear. Another string of black wampum announced +that the war-chiefs and braves of the Miamis held the +hatchet in their hand, ready to strike the French. The +widowed Queen of the Piankeshaws sent a belt of black shells +intermixed with white. 'Brothers,' such were her words, 'I +am left a poor, lonely woman, with one son, whom I commend +to the English, the Six Nations, the Shawnees, and the +Delawares, and pray them to take care of him.' The Weas +produced a calumet. 'We have had this feathered pipe,' said +they, 'from the beginning of the world; so that when it +becomes cloudy, we can sweep the clouds away. It is dark in +the west, yet we sweep all clouds away towards the +sun-rising, and leave a clear and serene sky.' Thus, on the +alluvial lands of Western Ohio, began the contest that was +to scatter death broadcast through the world. All the +speeches were delivered again to the Deputies of the +Nations, represented at Logstown, that they might be +correctly repeated to the head Council at Onondaga. An +express messenger from the Miamis hurried across the +mountains, bearing to the shrewd and able Dinwiddie, the +Lieutenant-Governor of Virginia, a belt of wampum, the scalp +of a French Indian, and a feathered pipe, with letters from +the dwellers on the Maumee and on the Wabash. 'Our good +brothers of Virginia,' said the former, 'we must look upon +ourselves as lost, if our brothers, the English, do not +stand by us and give us arms.' 'Eldest brother,' pleaded the +Picts and Windaws, 'this string of wampum assures you, that +the French King's servants have spilled our blood, and eaten +the flesh of three of our men. Look upon us and pity us, for +we are in great distress. Our chiefs have taken up the +hatchet of war. We have killed and eaten ten of the French +and two of their negroes. We are your brothers; and do not +think this is from our mouth only; it is from our very +hearts.' Thus they solicited protection and revenge."</p></div> + +<p>The Duke of Newcastle was unequal to the task of driving the soldiers of +France from Canada or from the valley of the Mississippi. The North and +South were both in the hands of France. The route of the Ohio and the +Mississippi had been discovered by adventurers and missionaries of that +nation; and a few years of quiet possession of the territory would have +allowed French statesmen to consolidate their power in those regions, +and to draw a strong cordon around the entire group of English colonies +on the Atlantic sea-board. But Pitt's genius was brought to bear at a +critical moment on the arrangement of this great question—and he +conceived the project of breaking the Mississippi line and attacking the +enemy in their strongholds on the St. Lawrence. Three expeditions were +fitted out. Amherst and Wolfe were ordered to join the fleet under +Boscawen, destined to act against Louisburgh—Forbes was sent to the +Ohio Valley—Abercrombie was intrusted with the command against Crown +Point and Ticonderoga, though Lord Howe was sent out with the last named +as the real soul of the enterprise. Mr. Bancroft writes:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"None of the officers won favor like Lord Howe and Wolfe. +Both were still young. To high rank and great connections +Howe added manliness, humanity, capacity to discern merit, +and judgment to employ it. As he reached America, he entered +on the simple austerity of forest warfare. James Wolfe, but +thirty-one years old, had already been eighteen years in the +army; was at Dettingen and Fontenoy, and had won laurels at +Laffeldt. Merit made him at two-and-twenty a +lieutenant-colonel, and his active genius improved the +discipline of his battalion. He was at once authoritative +and humane, severe, yet indefatigably kind; modest, but +aspiring and secretly conscious of ability. The brave +soldier dutifully loved and obeyed his widowed mother, and +his gentle nature saw visions of happiness in scenes of +domestic love, even while he kindled at the prospect of +glory, as 'gunpowder at fire.'"</p></div> + +<p>On the 28th of May the expedition reached Halifax.—</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_468" id="Page_468">[Pg 468]</a></span></p><div class="blockquot"><p>"For six days after the British forces on their way from +Halifax to Louisburgh, had entered Chapeau Rouge Bay, the +surf, under a high wind, made the rugged shore inaccessible, +and gave the French time to strengthen and extend their +lines. The sun still dashed heavily, when, before daybreak, +on the 8th of June, the troops, under cover of a random fire +from the frigates, attempted disembarking. Wolfe, the third +brigadier, who led the first division, would not allow a gun +to be fired, cheered on the rowers, and, on coming to shoal +water, jumped into the sea; and, in spite of the surf, which +broke several boats and upset more, in spite of the +well-directed fire of the French, in spite of their +breastwork and rampart of felled trees, whose interwoven +branches made one continued wall of green, the English +landed, took the batteries, drove in the French, and on the +same day invested Louisburgh. At that landing, none was more +gallant than young Richard Montgomery; just one-and-twenty; +Irish by birth; an humble officer in Wolfe's brigade; but +also a servant of humanity, enlisted in its corps of +immortals. The sagacity of Wolfe honored him with +well-deserved praise, and promotion to a lieutenancy. On the +morning of the 12th, an hour before dawn, Wolfe, with light +infantry and Highlanders, took by surprise the light-house +battery on the north-east side of the entrance to the +harbor; the smaller works were successively carried. On the +23d, the English battery began to play on that of the French +on the island near the centre of the mouth of the harbor. +Science, sufficient force, union among the officers, +heroism, pervading mariners and soldiers, carried forward +the siege, during which Barre by his conduct secured the +approbation of Amherst and the confirmed friendship of +Wolfe. Of the French ships in the port, three were burned on +the 21st of July; in the night following the 25th, the boats +of the squadron, with small loss, set fire to the Prudent, a +seventy-four, and carried off the Bienfaisant. Boscawen was +prepared to send six English ships into the harbor. But the +town of Louisburgh was already a heap of ruins; for eight +days, the French officers and men had had no safe place for +rest; of fifty-two cannon opposed to the English batteries +forty were disabled. The French had but five ships of the +line and four frigates. It was time for the Chevalier de +Drucour to capitulate. The garrison became prisoners of war, +and, with the sailors and marines, in all 5,637, were sent +to England. On the 27th of July, the English took possession +of Louisburgh, and, as a consequence, of Cape Breton and +Prince Edward's Island. Thus fell the power of France on our +eastern coast. Halifax being the English naval station, +Louisburgh was deserted. The harbor still offers shelter +from storms; the coast repels the surge: but a few hovels +only mark the spot which so much treasure was lavished to +fortify, so much heroism to conquer. Wolfe, whose heart was +in England, returned home with the love and esteem of the +army. His country was full of exultation; the trophies were +deposited with pomp in the cathedral of St. Paul's; the +churches gave thanks; Boscawen, himself a member of +parliament, was honored by a unanimous tribute from the +House of Commons. New England, too, triumphed; for the +praises awarded to Amherst and Wolfe recalled the heroism of +her own sons."</p></div> + +<p>This success inspired Pitt to still greater efforts. He resolved to +annex the "boundless north," as it was then called, to the British +empire in America; and early in the spring Wolfe again went out,—this +time, to conquer Quebec and find a soldier's grave. Many of his +companions in arms were then and afterwards famous men:—Jervis, +afterwards the renowned Earl St. Vincent, James Cook, the navigator, +George Townshend, Barre, and Colonel Howe.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"On the 26th of June, the whole armament arrived, without +the least accident, off the Isle of Orleans, on which, the +next day, they disembarked. A little south of west the cliff +of Quebec was seen distinctly, seemingly impregnable, rising +precipitously in the midst of one of the grandest scenes in +nature. To protect this guardian citadel of New France, +Montcalm had of regular troops no more than six wasted +battalions; of Indian warriors few appeared, the wary +savages preferring the security of neutrals; the Canadian +militia gave him the superiority in numbers; but he put his +chief confidence in the natural strength of the country. +Above Quebec, the high promontory on which the upper town is +built expands into an elevated plain, having towards the +river the steepest acclivities. For nine miles or more above +the city, as far as Cape Rouge, every landing-place was +intrenched and protected. The river St. Charles, after +meandering through a fertile valley, sweeps the rocky base +of the town, which it covers by expanding into sedgy +marshes. Nine miles below Quebec, the impetuous Montmorenci, +after fretting itself a whirlpool route, and leaping for +miles down the steps of a rocky bed, rushes with velocity +towards the ledge, over which, falling two hundred and fifty +feet, it pours its fleecy cataract into the chasm. As Wolfe +disembarked on the Isle of Orleans, what scene could be more +imposing? On his left lay at anchor the fleet with the +numerous transports; the tents of his army stretched across +the island; the intrenched troops of France, having their +centre at the village of Beanport, extended from the +Montmorenci to the St. Charles; the city of Quebec, +garrisoned by five battalions, bounded the horizon. At +midnight on the 28th, the short darkness was lighted up by a +fleet of fire-ships, that, after a furious storm of wind, +came down with the tide in the proper direction. But the +British sailors grappled with them and towed them free of +the shipping. The river was Wolfe's; the men-of-war made it +so; and, being master of the deep water, he also had the +superiority on the south-shore of the St. Lawrence. In the +night of the 29th, Monckton, with four battalions, having +crossed the south channel, occupied Point Levi; and where +the mighty current, which below the town expands as a bay, +narrows to a deep stream of but a mile in width, batteries +of mortars and cannon were constructed. The citizens of +Quebec, foreseeing the ruin of their houses, volunteered to +pass over the river and destroy the works; but, at the +trial, their courage failed them, and they retreated. The +English, by the discharge of red-hot balls and shells, set +on fire fifty houses in a night, demolished the lower town, +and injured the upper. But the citadel was beyond their +reach, and every avenue from the river to the cliff was too +strongly intrenched for an assault."</p></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_469" id="Page_469">[Pg 469]</a></span></p> + +<p>The summer was going rapidly, and as yet no real progress had been made. +Wolfe was eager for action,—and he pursued his researches into the +nature of the formidable position with extraordinary eagerness:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"He saw that the eastern bank of the Montmorenci was higher +than the ground occupied by Montcalm, and, on the 9th of +July, he crossed the north channel and encamped there; but +the armies and their chiefs were still divided by the river +precipitating itself down its rocky way in impassable eddies +and rapids. Three miles in the interior, a ford was found; +but the opposite bank was steep, woody, and well intrenched. +Not a spot on the line of the Montmorenci for miles into the +interior, nor on the St. Lawrence to Quebec, was left +unprotected by the vigilance of the inaccessible Montcalm. +The General proceeded to reconnoitre the shore above the +town. In concert with Saunders, on the 18th of July, he +sailed along the well-defended bank from Montmorenci to the +St. Charles: he passed the deep and spacious harbor, which, +at four hundred miles from the sea, can shelter a hundred +ships of the line; he neared the high cliff of Cape Diamond, +towering like a bastion over the waters, and surmounted by +the banner of the Bourbons; he coasted along the craggy wall +of rock that extends beyond the citadel; he marked the +outline of the precipitous hill that forms the north bank of +the river,—and every where he beheld a natural fastness, +vigilantly defended, intrenchments, cannon, boats, and +floating batteries guarding every access. Had a detachment +landed between the city and Cape Rouge, it would have +encountered the danger of being cut off before it could +receive support. He would have risked a landing at St. +Michael's Cove, three miles above the city, but the enemy +prevented him by planting artillery and a mortar to play +upon the shipping. Meantime, at midnight, on the 28th of +July, the French sent down a raft of five-stages, consisting +of nearly a hundred pieces; but these, like the fire-ships a +month before, did but light up the river, without injuring +the British fleet. Scarcely a day passed but there were +skirmishes of the English with the Indians and Canadians, +who were sure to tread stealthily in the footsteps of every +exploring party. Wolfe returned to Montmorenci. July was +almost gone, and he had made no effective advances. He +resolved on an engagement. The Montmorenci, after falling +over a perpendicular rock, flows for three hundred yards, +amidst clouds of spray and rainbow glories, in a gentle +stream to the St. Lawrence. Near the junction, the river +may, for a few hours of the tide, be passed on foot. It was +planned that two brigades should ford the Montmorenci at the +proper time of the tide, while Monckton's regiments should +cross the St. Lawrence in boats from Point Levi. The signal +was made, but some of the boats grounded on a ledge of rocks +that runs out into the river. While the seamen were getting +them off, and the enemy were firing a vast number of shot +and shells, Wolfe, with some of the navy officers as +companions, selected a landing-place; and his desperate +courage thought it not yet too late to begin the attack. +Thirteen companies of grenadiers, and two hundred of the +second battalion of the Royal Americans, who got first on +shore, not waiting for support, ran hastily towards the +intrenchments, and were repulsed in such disorder that they +could not again come into line; though Monckton's regiment +had arrived, and had formed with the coolness of invincible +valor. But hours hurried by; night was near; the clouds of +midsummer gathered heavily, as if for a storm; the tide +rose; and Wolfe, wiser than Frederic at Colin, ordered a +timely retreat."</p></div> + +<p>In this unsuccessful attempt Wolfe lost 400 men. On the tortures of a +body wasted by fever and a mind preyed on by its own restless energy, we +will not dwell. Wolfe reckoned on assistance from the corps of +Amherst,—but this did not arrive. At last he perceived that his fate +rested in his own hands alone,—and he conceived the daring plan of +attack which has given to his name the soldier's immortality. We extract +Mr. Bancroft's account of the brilliant attack which cost our young hero +his life and the French their dominions in Northern America:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Every officer knew his appointed duty, when, at one o'clock +in the morning of the 13th September, Wolfe, with Monckton +and Murray, and about half the forces, set off in boats, and +without sail or oars, glided down with the tide. In +three-quarters of an hour the ships followed, and, though +the night had become dark, aided by the rapid current, they +reached the cove just in time to cover the landing. Wolfe +and the troops with him leaped on shore; the light infantry, +who found themselves borne by the current a little below the +intrenched path, clambered up the steep hill, staying +themselves by the roots and boughs of the maple and spruce +and ash trees that covered the precipitous declivity, and, +after a little firing, dispersed the picket which guarded +the height. The rest ascended safely by the pathway. A +battery of four guns on the left was abandoned to Colonel +Howe. When Townshend's division disembarked, the English had +already gained one of the roads to Quebec, and, advancing in +front of the forest, Wolfe stood at daybreak with big +invincible battalions on the plains of Abraham, the +battle-field of empire. 'It can be but a small party come to +burn a few houses and retire,' said Montcalm, in amazement, +as the news reached him in his intrenchments the other side +of the St. Charles; but, obtaining better +information,—'Then,' he cried, 'they have at last got to +the weak side of this miserable garrison; we must give +battle and crush them before mid-day.' And before ten, the +two armies, equal in numbers, each being composed of less +than five thousand men, were ranged in presence of one +another for battle. The English, not easily accessible from +intervening shallow ravines, and rail fences, were all +regulars, perfect in discipline, terrible in their fearless +enthusiasm, thrilling with pride at their morning's success, +commanded by a man whom they obeyed with confidence and +love. The doomed and devoted Montcalm had what Wolfe had +called but 'five weak French battalions,' of less than two +thousand men, 'mingled with disorderly peasantry,' formed on +ground which commanded the position of the English. The +French had three little pieces of artillery, the English one +or two. The two armies cannonaded each other for nearly an +hour; when Montcalm, having summoned Bougainville to his +aid, and despatched messenger<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_470" id="Page_470">[Pg 470]</a></span> after messenger for De +Vaudreuil, who had fifteen hundred men at the camp, to come +up, before he should be driven from the ground, endeavored +to flank the British and crowd them down the high bank of +the river. Wolfe counteracted the movement by detaching +Townshend with Amherst's regiment, and afterwards a part of +the Royal Americans, who formed on the left with a double +front. Waiting no longer for more troops, Montcalm led the +French army impetuously to the attack. The ill-disciplined +companies broke by their precipitation and the unevenness of +the ground; and fired by platoons, without unity. The +English, especially the forty-third and forty-seventh, where +Monckton stood, received the shock with calmness; and after +having, at Wolfe's command, reserved their fire till their +enemy was within forty yards, their line began a regular, +rapid, and exact discharge of musketry. Montcalm was present +every where, braving danger, wounded, but cheering by his +example. The second in command, De Sennezergues, an +associate in glory at Ticonderoga, was killed. The brave but +untried Canadians, flinching from a hot fire in the open +field, began to waver; and, so soon as Wolfe, placing +himself at the head of the twenty-eighth and the Louisburgh +grenadiers, charged with bayonets, they every where gave +way. Of the English officers, Carleton was wounded; Barre, +who fought near Wolfe, received in the head a ball which +destroyed the power of vision of one eye, and ultimately +made him blind. Wolfe, also, as he led the charge, was +wounded in the wrist, but still pressing forward, he +received a second ball; and, having decided the day, was +struck a third time, and mortally, in the breast. 'Support +me,' he cried to an officer near him: 'let not my brave +fellows see me drop.' He was carried to the rear, and they +brought him water to quench his thirst. 'They run, they +run,' spoke the officer on whom he leaned. 'Who run?' asked +Wolfe, as his life was fast ebbing. 'The French,' replied +the officer, 'give way every where.' 'What,' cried the +expiring hero, 'do they run already? Go, one of you, to +Colonel Burton; bid him march Webb's regiment with all speed +to Charles River to cut off the fugitives.' Four days +before, he had looked forward to early death with dismay. +'Now, God be praised, I die happy.' These were his words as +his spirit escaped in the blaze of his glory. Night, +silence, the rushing tide, veteran discipline, the sure +inspiration of genius had been his allies; his battle-field, +high over the ocean-river, was the grandest theatre on earth +for illustrious deeds; his victory, one of the most +momentous in the annals of mankind, gave to the English +tongue and the institutions of the Germanic race the +unexplored and seemingly infinite West and North. He crowded +into a few hours actions that would have given lustre to +length of life; and filling his day with greatness, +completed it before its noon."</p></div> + +<p>In that terrible action fell also "the hope of New France." In +attempting to rally a body of fugitive Canadians in a copse near St. +John's Gate, Montcalm was mortally wounded.</p> + +<p>We have quoted enough from this volume to show how varied and stirring +are the subjects with which Mr. Bancroft here deals.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> <i>History of the American Revolution.</i> By George Bancroft. +Vol. I. Boston, Little & Brown, 1852.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h4>From the London Literary Gazette</h4> + +<h2><a name="LIFE_IN_CANADA" id="LIFE_IN_CANADA"></a>LIFE IN CANADA.</h2> + +<h3>BY MRS. MOODIE.<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> +</h3> + + + +<p>If there be one of life's affairs in which woman has a peculiar right to +have her wishes considered and her veto respected, it is that of +emigration. For, in the arduous task of establishing a new home in a +half-settled country, let man do what he will to alleviate, on her fall +the burthen and heat of the day. Hers are the menial toils, the frequent +anxieties, the lingering home-sickness, the craving after dear friends' +faces and a beloved native land. Hers, too, the self-imposed duty and +unselfish effort to hide regret under cheerful smiles, when the weary +brother or husband returns at evening from toil in field and forest. +Blessed and beautiful are the smiles of the sad-hearted, worn to wile +away another's cares!</p> + +<p>Love in a cottage has long been jeered at, and depicted as flying out of +the window. It seems miraculous to behold the capricious little deity +steadfastly braving, for many a long year, the chilly atmosphere of a +log-hut in an American forest. In the year 1832, Mrs. Moodie (here +better remembered as Miss Susanna Strickland, sister of the well-known +historian of the English and Scottish Queens) accompanied her husband, a +half-pay subaltern, to the backwoods of Canada. Many were her +misgivings, and they did not prove unfounded. Long and cruel was the +probation she underwent, before finding comparative comfort and +prosperity in the rugged land where at first she found so much to +embitter her existence. Nobly did she bear up under countless +difficulties and sufferings, supported by an energy rare in woman, and +by her devoted attachment to the husband of her choice. For some years +her troubles were not occasional, but continual and increasing. Her +first installation in a forest home could hardly have been more +discouraging and melancholy than it was:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"The place we first occupied was purchased of Mr. C——, a +merchant, who took it in payment of sundry large debts, +which the owner, a New England loyalist, had been unable to +settle. Old Joe H—, the present occupant, had promised to +quit it with his family at the commencement of sleighing; +and as the bargain was concluded in the month of September, +and we were anxious to plough for fall wheat, it was +necessary to be upon the spot. No house was to be found in +the immediate neighborhood save a small dilapidated log +tenement, on an adjoining farm (which was scarcely reclaimed +from the bush), that had been some months without an owner. +The merchant assured us that this could be made very +comfortable until such time as it suited H—to remove."</p></div> + +<p>With singular want of caution, Mr. and Mrs. Moodie neglected to visit +this "log tenement" before signing an agreement to rent it. On a rainy +September day they proceed to take possession:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_471" id="Page_471">[Pg 471]</a></span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"The carriage turned into a narrow, steep path, overhung +with lofty woods, and after laboring up it with considerable +difficulty, and at the risk of breaking our necks, it +brought us at length to a rocky upland clearing, partially +covered with a second growth of timber, and surrounded on +all sides by the dark forest. 'I guess,' quoth our Yankee +driver, 'that at the bottom of this 'ere swell, you'll find +yourself <i>to hum</i>;' and plunging into a short path cut +through the wood, he pointed to a miserable hut, at the +bottom of a steep descent, and cracking his whip, exclaimed, +'It's a smart location that. I wish you Britishers may enjoy +it.' I gazed upon the place in perfect dismay, for I had +never seen such a shed called a house before. 'You must be +mistaken; that is not a house, but a cattle-shed, or +pig-sty.' The man turned his knowing keen eye upon me, and +smiled, half humorously, half maliciously, as he said, 'You +were raised in the old country, I guess; you have much to +learn, and more perhaps than you'll like to know, before the +winter is over.'"</p></div> + +<p>The prophet of evil spoke truly. It was a winter of painful instruction +for the inexperienced young woman, and her not very prudent husband. We +might fill columns with a bare list of their vexations and disasters. +Amongst the former, not the least arose from the borrowing propensities +of their neighbors. They had 'located' in a bad neighborhood, in the +vicinity of a number of low Yankee squatters, "ignorant as savages, +without their courtesy and kindness." These people walked +unceremoniously at all hours into their wretched dwelling, to criticise +their proceedings, make impertinent remarks, and to borrow—or rather to +beg or steal, for what they borrowed they rarely returned. The most +extraordinary loans were daily solicited or demanded; and Mrs. Moodie, +strange and timid in her new home, and amongst, these +semi-barbarians—her husband, too, being much away at the farm—for some +time dared not refuse to acquiesce in their impudent extortions. Here is +a specimen of the style of these miscalled 'borrowings.' On the first +day of their arrival, whilst they were yet toiling to exclude wind and +rain from the crazy hovel, which their baggage and goods filled nearly +to the roof, a young Yankee 'lady' squeezed herself into the crowded +room:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Imagine a girl of seventeen or eighteen years of age, with +sharp, knowing-looking features, a forward impudent carnage, +and a pert flippant voice, standing upon one of the trunks, +and surveying all our proceedings in the most impertinent +manner. The creature was dressed in a ragged, dirty, purple +stuff gown, cut very low in the neck, with an old red cotton +handkerchief tied over her head; her uncombed, tangled locks +falling over her thin, inquisitive face in a state of +perfect nature. Her legs and feet were bare, and in her +coarse, dirty, red hands she swung to and fro an empty glass +decanter."</p></div> + +<p>The mission of this squalid nymph was not to borrow but to lend. She +"guessed the strangers were fixin' there," and that they'd want a glass +decanter to hold their whisky, so she had brought one over. "But +mind—don't break it," said she; "'tis the only one we have to hum, and +father says it's so mean to drink out of green glass"—a sentiment +worthy of a colonel of hussars. Although quite pleased by such +disinterested kindness and attention, Mrs. Moodie declined the decanter, +on the double ground of having some of her own, and of not drinking +whisky. The refusal was unavailing. The lady in ragged purple set down +the bottle on a trunk, as firmly as if she meant to plant it there, and +took herself off. The next morning cleared up the mystery of her +perseverance. "Have you done with that 'ere decanter I brought across +yesterday?" said the 'cute damsel, presenting herself before Mrs. Moodie +with her bare red knees peeping through her ragged petticoats, and with +face and hands innocent of soap. The English lady returned the bottle, +with the remark that she had never needed it.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"'I guess you won't return it empty,' quoth the obliging +neighbor; 'that would be mean, father says. He wants it +filled with whisky.'"</p></div> + +<p>The hearty laugh which this solution of the riddle provoked from the +inmates of the log-house offended the female Yankee, who tossed the +decanter from hand to hand and glared savagely about her. But the +ridicule was insufficient to deter her from the whisky hunt. When +assured there was none in the place, she demanded rum, and pointed to a +keg, in which she said she smelt it. Her keen olfactories had not +deceived her. The rum, she was told, was for the workmen:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"'I calculate,' was the reply, 'when you've been here a few +months, you'll be too knowing to give rum to helps. But +old-country folks are all fools, and that's the reason they +get so easily sucked in, and be so soon wound up. Cum, fill +the bottle, and don't be stingy. In this country we all live +by borrowing. If you want any thing, why, just send and +borrow from us.'"</p></div> + +<p>When the decanter was filled and delivered to this saucy mendicant, Mrs. +Moodie ventured to petition for a little milk for her infant, but +Impudence in purple laughed in her face, and named an exorbitant price +at which she would <i>sell</i> it her, for cash on delivery. It seems +incredible that, after this ingratitude, Mrs. Moodie continued her +'lendings' to the family of which her new acquaintance was a +distinguished ornament.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"The very day our new plough came home, the father of this +bright damsel, who went by the familiar name of <i>Old Satan</i>, +came over to borrow it (though we afterwards found out that +he had a good one of his own). The land had never been +broken up, and was full of rocks and stumps, and he was +anxious to save his own from injury; the consequence was, +that the borrowed implement came home unfit for use, just at +the very time we wanted to plough for fall wheat. The same +happened to a spade and trowel, bought in order to plaster +the house. Satan asked the loan of them for <i>one</i> hour, for +the same purpose, and we never saw them again."</p></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_472" id="Page_472">[Pg 472]</a></span></p> + +<p>The other neighbors were no better. One Yankee dame used to send over +her son, a hopeful youth, Philander by name, almost every morning, to +borrow the bake-kettle, in which hot cakes were cooked for breakfast. +One day, when Mrs. Moodie was later than usual in rising, she heard from +her bedroom the kitchen latch lifted. It was Philander, come for the +kettle.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"<i>I (through the partition):</i> 'You can't have it this +morning. We cannot get our breakfast without it,' +<i>Philander:</i> 'No more can the old woman to hum,' and, +snatching up the kettle, which had been left to warm on the +hearth, he rushed out of the house, singing at the top of +his voice, 'Hurrah for the Yankee boys!' When James (the +servant) came home for his breakfast, I sent him across to +demand the kettle, and the dame very coolly told him, that +when she had done with it I might have it; but she defied +him to take it out of her house with her bread in it."</p></div> + +<p>Since the request of the drover who begged his comrade to lend him a +bark of his dog, we have not heard of queerer loans than some of those +solicited of Mrs. Moodie:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Another American squatter was always sending over to borrow +a small-tooth comb, which she called a <i>vermin destroyer</i>; +and once the same person asked the loan of a towel, as a +friend had come from the States to visit her, and the only +one she had, had been made into a best 'pinny' for the +child: she likewise begged a sight in the looking-glass, as +she wanted to try on a new cap, to see if it were fixed to +her mind. This woman must have been a mirror of neatness +when compared with her dirty neighbors. One night I was +roused up from my bed for the loan of a pair of +'steelyards.' For what purpose, think you, gentle reader? To +weigh a new-born infant. The process was performed by tying +the poor squalling thing up in a small shawl, and suspending +it to one of the hooks. The child was a fine boy, and +weighed ten pounds, greatly to the delight of the Yankee +father. One of the drollest instances of borrowing I have +ever heard of was told me by a friend. A maid-servant asked +her mistress to go out on a particular afternoon, as she was +going to have a party of her friends, and <i>wanted the loan +of the drawing-room</i>."</p></div> + +<p>Traits such as these exhibit, more vividly than volumes of description, +the sort of savages amongst whom poor Mrs. Moodie's lot was cast. They +had all the worst qualities of Yankee and Indian—the good ones of +neither. They had neither manners, heart, nor honesty. The basest +selfishness, cunning, and malignity were their prominent +characteristics. A less patient and good-tempered person than Mrs. +Moodie would, however, have had little difficulty in getting rid of the +troublesome and intrusive borrowers. They could not bear a sharp rebuke, +and, more than once, a happy and pointed retort rid her, for weeks, or +even for ever, of the pestilent presence of one or other of them. An +English farmer, settled near at hand, to whom she mentioned her +annoyances, laughed—as well he might—at her easy-going toleration. +"Ask them sharply what they want," he said, "and, failing a satisfactory +answer, bid them leave the house. Or—a better way still—buy some small +article of them, and bid them bring the change." Mrs. Moodie tried the +latter plan, and with no slight success.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"That very afternoon, Miss Satan brought me a plate of +butter for sale. The price was three and nine pence; twice +the sum, by-the-bye, that it was worth. 'I have no +change,'—giving her a dollar—'but you can bring it to me +to-morrow.' Oh! blessed experiment! for the value of one +quarter dollar I got rid of this dishonest girl for ever. +Rather than pay me, she never entered the house again."</p></div> + +<p>The strange names of some of the farmers and squatters in Mrs. Moodie's +neighborhood exceed belief. Amongst the substantial yeomen thereabouts +were Solomon Sly, Reynard Fox, and Hiram Dolittle. Ammon and Ichabod +were two hopeful Canadian youths, the former of whom—a child of tender +years—was in the habit of hideously swearing at his father, and then +scampering across the meadow, and defying the pursuit of his pursy +progenitor. This is another family of which Mrs. Moodie gives amusing +glimpses, in a style sufficiently masculine, but therefore all the +better adapted to the subject:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"The conversation was interrupted by a queer-looking urchin +of five years old, dressed in a long-tailed coat and +trowsers, popping his black shock head in at the door and +calling out, 'Uncle Joe! You're wanted to hum.' 'Is that +your nephew?' 'No! I guess it's my woman's eldest son,' said +uncle Joe, rising; 'but they call me Uncle Joe. 'Tis a spry +chap that—as cunning as a fox. I tell you what it is—he +will make a smart man. Go home, Ammon, and tell your ma that +I am coming.' 'I won't,' said the boy; 'you may go hum and +tell her yourself. She has wanted wood cut this hour, and +you'll catch it!' Away ran the dutiful son, but not before +he had applied his forefinger significantly to the side of +his nose, and, with a knowing wink, pointed in the direction +of hum. Uncle Joe obeyed the signal, drily remarking that he +could not leave the barn door without the old hen clucking +him back. At this period we were still living in Old Satan's +log house, and anxiously looking out for the first snow to +put us in possession of the good substantial log dwelling +occupied by Uncle Joe and his family, which consisted of a +brown brood of seven girls and this highly-prized boy."</p></div> + +<p>The names of the squatter ladies were of a far superior description to +those to which their brothers answered. Looking down upon the Old +Testament, their godfathers had resorted for suggestions to the Italian +Opera, the heathen mythology, and the Minerva press. She of the purple +garment was called Emily. This was quiet enough. But her associates were +Cinderellas, Minervas, and Almerias; and Amanda was the baptismal +appellation of one of Ammon's sisters.</p> + +<p>Old Joe, it will be remembered, had agreed to quit, when winter set in, +the house belonging to the farm which Mr. Moodie had purchased. But even +in civilized and lawyer-ridden England possession is held to be nine<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_473" id="Page_473">[Pg 473]</a></span> +points of the law, and in Canada the other tenth is thrown in. Old Joe's +mother, an abominable Yankee Hecate, grinned like a whole bag-full of +monkeys when informed that her son was expected to dis-locate as soon as +sleighing began.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"'Joe,' she guessed, 'would take his own time. The house was +not built which was to receive him; and he was not the man +to turn his back upon a warm hearth to camp in the +wilderness. It was neither the first snow nor the last frost +that would turn Joe out of his comfortable home.'"</p></div> + +<p>Mrs. Hecate spoke a true word. Frost came, sledges ran, thaw began—not +an inch budged Joe. The sun gained power, a soft south wind fanned the +frozen earth, the snow disappeared—still the reckless, dishonest scamp +made no sign of removing, and replied with abuse to the remonstrances of +those to whom his dwelling belonged. In the States, and with a brother +Yankee, his obstinacy might have led to revolver and rifle work. The +English emigrants patiently waited, to their own great inconvenience. +Joe reckoned he shouldn't move till his 'missus' was confined—an +interesting event which was expected to come off in May. About the +middle of that month the Joe family was increased by a sturdy boy, +whereupon its chief declared his intention of turning out in a +fortnight, if all went well. Mrs. Moodie did not believe him—he had +lied so often before; but he was determined to take her in at last, as +he had done at first, for this time he was as good as his word. On the +last day of May they went, bag and baggage, and Mrs. Moodie sent over +her Scotch maid-servant and Irish serving-man to clear out the dwelling, +which she justly expected would be in bad enough condition. But her +expectations were far exceeded by the reality. The malignity of these +people, who from her had received nothing but kindness and good offices, +was degrading to human nature. Presently the Irishman returned, panting +with indignation:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"'The house,' he said, 'was more filthy than a pig-sty.' But +that was not the worst of it; Uncle Joe, before he went, had +undermined the brick chimney, and let all the water into the +house. 'Oh! but if he comes here agin,' he continued, +grinding his teeth and doubling his fist, 'I'll thrash him +for it. And thin, Ma'arm, he has girdled round all the best +graft apple-trees, the murtherin' owld villain, as if it +would spile his digestion our ating them.'</p> + +<p>"John and Bell scrubbed at the house all day, and in the +evening they carried over the furniture, and I went to +inspect our new dwelling. It looked beautifully clean and +neat. Bell had whitewashed all the black, smoky walls, and +boarded ceilings, and scrubbed the dirty window-frames, and +polished the fly-spotted panes of glass, until they actually +admitted a glimpse of the clear air and the blue sky. +Snow-white-fringed curtains, and a bed with furniture to +correspond, a carpeted floor, and a large pot of green +boughs on the hearthstone, gave an air of comfort and +cleanliness to a room which, only a few hours before, had +been a loathsome den of filth and impurity. This change +would have been very gratifying, had not a strong, +disagreeable odor almost deprived me of my breath as I +entered the room. It was unlike any thing I had ever smelt +before, and turned me so sick and faint, that I had to cling +to the door-post for support.</p> + +<p>"'Where does this dreadful smell come from?'</p> + +<p>"'The guidness knows, ma'am; John and I have searched the +house from the loft to the cellar, but we canna find out the +cause of the stink.'</p> + +<p>"'It must be in the room, Bell, and it is impossible to +remain here, or to live in the house, until it is removed.'</p> + +<p>"Glancing my eyes all round the place, I spied what seemed +to me a little cupboard, over the mantel-shelf, and I told +John to see if I was right. The lad mounted upon a chair, +and pulled open a small door, but almost fell to the ground +with the dreadful stench which seemed to rush from the +closet.</p> + +<p>"'What is it, John?' I cried from the open door.</p> + +<p>"'A skunk! ma'arm, a skunk! Sure, I thought the devil had +scorched his tail, and left the grizzled hair behind him. +What a strong perfume it has!' he continued, holding up the +beautiful but odious little creature by the tail.</p> + +<p>"'By dad! I know all about it now. I saw Ned Layton, only +two days ago, crossing the field with Uncle Joe, with his +gun on his shoulder, and this wee bit baste in his hand. +They were both laughing like sixty. 'Well, if this does not +stink the Scotchman out of the house,' said Joe, 'I'll be +content to be tarred and feathered;' and thin they both +laughed until they stopped to draw breath.'</p> + +<p>"I could hardly help laughing myself; but I begged Monaghan +to convey the horrid creature away, and putting some salt +and sulphur into a tin plate, and setting fire to it, I +placed it on the floor in the middle of the room, and closed +all the doors for an hour, which greatly assisted in +purifying the house from the skunkification. Bell then +washed out the closet with strong ley, and in a short time +no vestige remained of the malicious trick Uncle Joe had +played off upon us."</p></div> + +<p>The smell of skunk and Yankee eradicated, there still was much to be +done before the house could be deemed habitable. It swarmed with mice, +which all the night long performed fantastical dances over the faces and +pillows of the new comers. The old logs which composed the walls of the +dwelling were alive with bugs and large black ants, and the fleas upon +the floor were as thick as sand-grains in the desert. With the warm +weather, then just setting in, came legions of mosquitoes, that rose in +clouds from the numerous little streams intersecting the valley. But in +spite of all these discomforts, summer was felt to be a blessing, and +"roughing it" in the woods was far less painful than in the season of +snow, and frost, and storm.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"The banks of the little streams abounded with wild +strawberries, which, although small, were of a delicious +flavor. Thither Bell and I, and the baby, daily repaired to +gather the bright red berries of nature's own providing. +Katie, young as she was, was very expert at helping herself, +and we used to seat her in the middle of a fine bed,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_474" id="Page_474">[Pg 474]</a></span> whilst +we gathered farther on. Hearing her talking very lovingly to +something in the grass, which she tried to clutch between +her white hands, calling it 'pitty, pitty,' I ran to the +spot and found it was a large garter-snake that she was so +affectionately courting to her embrace. Not then aware that +this formidable looking reptile was perfectly harmless, I +snatched the child up in my arms, and ran with her home, +never stopping until I reached the house and saw her safely +seated in her cradle."</p></div> + +<p>Sixteen years elapsed after the departure of Joe and his brood from her +neighborhood before Mrs. Moodie heard any thing of their fate. A winter +or two ago, tidings of them reached her through one who had lived near +them. Hecate, almost a centenarian, occupied a corner of her son's barn. +She could not dwell in harmony under the same roof with her +daughter-in-law. The lady in purple and her sisters were married and +scattered abroad. Joe himself, who could neither read nor write, had +turned itinerant preacher. No account was given of the hopeful Ammon.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Moodie's work, unaffectedly and naturally written, though a little +coarse, will delight ladies, please men, and even amuse children. On our +readers' account we regret our inability to make further extracts from +its amusing pages. The book is one of great originality and interest.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> <i>Roughing it in the Bush; or, Life in Canada.</i> 2 vols. +Bentley.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h4>From the London Literary Gazette.</h4> + +<h2><a name="MR_SQUIER_ON_NICARAGUA7" id="MR_SQUIER_ON_NICARAGUA7"></a>MR. SQUIER ON NICARAGUA.<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></h2> + + +<p>Many causes are combining to give great importance to the States of +Central America. Their own fertility and natural advantages, the +commerce of the Pacific, and the gold of California, unite to attract +the earnest attention of enterprising men and politicians towards them. +At the present moment, the appearance of this full and able account of +Nicaragua is peculiarly well-timed. The writer of it describes himself +as "late <i>chargé d'affaires</i> of the United States to the Republics of +Central America." His official position has evidently enabled him to get +at much information that would otherwise have been inaccessible. His +name is well and favorably known to ethnologists and antiquarians by his +researches into the history of the aboriginal monuments of the United +States, and by his very curious, though somewhat fanciful, essay on "The +Serpent Symbol, and the Worship of the Reciprocal Principles of Nature +in America." The bias and extent of his studies make him a very +competent person to investigate the antiquities of Nicaragua. The +chapters devoted to this subject in the work before us are full of +interest, and highly to be valued for the abundance of fresh +observations they contain. Like many American archæologists and +historians, Mr. Squier is inclined to over-estimate the peculiarities +and antiquity of the aborigines of the New World. If we understand +rightly, he claims for them an independent origin. His ethnology is of +the romantic school, and rather loose. His imagination gets the better +of his reasoning, and his "organ of wonder," to speak in the manner of +phrenologists, is over-developed. His habits of mind and training do not +seem to be such as to qualify him for strict scientific research. He is +more of the <i>littérateur</i> than the philosopher. His writings are, in +consequence, very amusing, but require to be dealt with cautiously. The +facts must be winnowed from the fancies with which they are mingled, if +we wish to use them for scientific purposes.</p> + +<p>Imaginative men are usually warm lovers and fierce haters. Our American +envoy's appreciation of female charms is so intense, that he cannot pass +a pretty woman without inscribing a memorandum respecting her in his +note-book, afterwards to be printed more at length with additional +expressions of admiration. A pair of black eyes cannot sparkle behind a +lattice without being duly recorded. His affection for the ladies is +only equalled by his dislike of the "Britishers." The handsomest girl +and the ugliest idol could scarcely distract his thought from the vices +and crimes of England and the English. If he is to be trusted, the whole +population of Central America regards every Englishman as a bitter +enemy. He paints us in the blackest hues, and prophesies the fall of +England with undisguised delight. Bluster about Britain is the prominent +fault of the book, and one for which the writer will, when he knows more +about us, be ashamed of himself. Every day it is becoming more and more +the interest of Englishmen and Americans to pull together. Consanguinity +and the love of constitutional liberty are strong ties. They may be +forgotten for a time, but in the end must work uppermost. Recent events +have done much to remind us of our near relationship with our +transatlantic cousins, and them of the Anglo-Saxon blood to which they +owe their pre-eminence among the nations of the New World. The grasping +and interfering qualities that bring down upon us the unmitigated +censures of Mr. Squier are quite as prominently manifested in the doings +of his countrymen; and whilst in one chapter he censures our meddlings +with, and claims upon, the Mosquito shore, in another he anticipates +something very like the annexation of all Central America to the United +States.</p> + +<p>The Mosquito country, about which we have seen of late so many very +unsatisfactory paragraphs in our newspapers, is a thinly populated and +most unhealthy tract on the Atlantic sea-board of Central America. It is +inhabited by a mixed breed of Indians and Negroes, supposed to be ruled +by a semi-civilized individual, who rejoices in the entomological title +of King of the Mosquitoes, one by no means inappropriate, considering +the amount of small annoyance we have endured through disputes about his +territory.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_475" id="Page_475">[Pg 475]</a></span> He is supposed to be under British protection; it is +difficult to understand exactly why. The main purpose we have in view +seems to be the securing a proper supply of the peculiar hard woods of +this region. Britons at home generally make peace over their mahogany; +abroad they seem to pick quarrels over it.</p> + +<p>Central America includes an era of 150,000 square miles. Under Spanish +dominion it was divided into the provinces of Guatemala, Honduras, San +Salvador, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. These became independent states in +1821, and subsequently united to form the "Republic of Central America." +They separated again, in 1839, into so many distinct republics. +Nicaragua, Honduras, and San Salvador have recently confederated. The +entire region of Central America presents very marked and important +physical features. These are the great plain, six thousand feet above +the sea, upon which stands the city of Guatemala; the high plain forming +the centre of Honduras and part of Nicaragua; and the elevated country +of Costa Rica. Between the two latter lies the basin of the Nicaraguan +Lakes, with broad and undulating verdant slopes broken by steep volcanic +cones, and a few ranges of hills along the shores of the Pacific, +intermingled with undulating plains. Of the two great lakes, the lesser, +Managua, is one hundred and fifty-six feet, and the larger, Nicaragua, +one hundred and twenty-eight feet above the Pacific ocean. The former is +fifty or sixty miles in length by thirty-five wide, the latter above a +hundred miles long by fifty wide. On or near their western borders are +the chief cities of the country. Enormous isolated volcanic cones rise +to the height of from 4000 to 7000 feet in their neighborhood or on the +islands that stud them. Numerous remains of antiquity, ruins of temples, +and deserted monolithic idols, give interest to their precincts, whilst +the scenery is described as being surpassingly grand and beautiful. The +sole outlet is the river San Juan, a magnificent stream flowing from the +southeastern extremity of Lake Nicaragua, for a length of about ninety +miles, into the Atlantic. The climate is generally healthy, more +especially towards the Pacific side. Nicaragua is inhabited by a +population of about 260,000, one-half of which, or more, is composed of +mixed breeds, Indians, in great part civilized, coming next in number, +then whites, of whom there are about 25,000, and, lastly, some 15,000 +Negroes. They live chiefly in towns, and cultivate the soil, which is +very productive, and capable of supporting a much larger population. The +natural resources of Nicaragua appear to be very great. Sugar, cotton, +coffee, indigo, tobacco, rice, and maize, are the chief productions. +There is, besides, great mineral wealth. In ancient times the aborigines +appear to have occupied considerable cities, and to have attained a +civilization comparable with that of the Mexicans. Indeed, Mr. Squier +has proved, by philological and other evidence, that a Mexican colony +did exist in Nicaragua at the period of the discovery of the country in +the fifteenth century. This had been surmised before, but not clearly +made out.</p> + +<p>Much interest attaches to the population of Nicaragua, on account of the +large proportion of families of Indian blood, pure and mixed, of whom it +is made up. The qualities which enabled the ancient Indian people of +Mexico, Central America, and Peru, to become civilized nations after a +peculiar fashion, are not extinct, and seem to be retained and +re-developed in proportion to the prevalence of Indian over Spanish +blood. The Indians of Nicaragua are remarkable for industry and +docility; they are unobtrusive, hospitable, and brave, although, +fortunately for themselves, not warlike. They make good soldiers, yet +have no morbid taste for the military profession. The men are +agriculturists; the women occupy themselves with the weaving of cotton, +and make fabrics of good quality and tasteful design. It is interesting +to find the Tyrian dye still employed in their manufactures. They +procure it from a species of <i>Murex</i> inhabiting the shores of the +Pacific. They take the cotton thread to the sea-side, where, having +gathered together a sufficient quantity of shell-fish, they patiently +squeeze over the cotton the coloring fluid, at first pellucid and +colorless, from the animals, one by one. At first the thread is pale +blue, but on exposure to the atmosphere becomes of the desired purple. +This color is so prized that purple thread dyed by cheaper and speedier +methods, imported from Europe, cannot supplant the native product. With +mingled humanity and thrift they replace the whelks in their native +element, after these shell-fish have yielded up the precious liquor for +which they were originally gathered. The Indian population also +exclusively manufacture variegated mats and hammocks from the Pita, a +species of Agave, and are as skilful as their ancient ancestors in the +making of pottery. They do not use the potter's wheel. Politically they +enjoy equal privileges with the whites, and all positions in church and +state are open to them. Among them are men of decided talent. Physically +they are a smaller and paler race than the Indians of the United States, +but are well developed and muscular. Their women are not unfrequently +pretty, and when young are often very finely formed.</p> + +<p>Happily in Nicaragua no distinctions of caste are recognized, or, at any +rate, they have no influence. Such of the people as claim to be of pure +Spanish blood are, in most instances, evidently partly of Indian +descent. The Sambos, or offspring of Indian and Negro parents, are a +fine race of people, taller and stronger than the Indians.</p> + +<p>Mr. Squier's admiration for the gentler (in Nicaragua we can scarcely +say the <i>fair</i>) sex, has led him to picture very vividly the charms<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_476" id="Page_476">[Pg 476]</a></span> and +appearance of the ladies he encountered during his travels. The +following is a precise and tempting description:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"The women of pure Spanish stock are very fair, and have the +<i>embonpoint</i> which characterizes the sex under the tropics. +Their dress, except in a few instances where the stiff +costume of our own country had been adopted, was exceedingly +loose and flowing, leaving the neck and arms exposed. The +entire dress was often pure white, but generally the skirt, +or <i>nagua</i>, was of some flowered stuff, in which case the +<i>guipil</i> (<i>anglicè</i>, vandyke) was white, heavily trimmed +with lace. Satin slippers, a red or purple sash wound +loosely round the waist, and a rosary sustaining a little +golden cross, with a narrow golden band or a string of +pearls extending around the forehead and binding the hair, +which often fell in luxuriant waves upon their shoulders, +completed a costume as novel as it was graceful and +picturesque. To all this, add the superior attractions of an +oval face, regular features, large and lustrous black eyes, +small mouth, pearly white teeth, and tiny hands and feet, +and withal a low but clear voice, and the reader has a +picture of a Central American lady of pure stock. Very many +of the women have, however, an infusion of other families +and races, from the Saracen to the Indian and the Negro, in +every degree of intermixture. And as tastes differ, so many +opinions as to whether the tinge of brown, through which the +blood glows with a peach-like bloom, in the complexion of +the girl who may trace her lineage to the caziques upon one +side, and the haughty grandees of Andalusia and Seville on +the other, superadded, as it usually is, to a greater +lightness of figure and animation of face,—whether this is +not a more real beauty than that of the fair and more +languid señora, whose white and almost transparent skin +bespeaks a purer ancestry. Nor is the Indian girl, with her +full, little figure, long, glossy hair, quick and +mischievous eyes, who walks erect as a grenadier beneath her +heavy water-jar, and salutes you in a musical, impudent +voice as you pass—nor is the Indian girl to be overlooked +in the novel contrasts which the 'bello sexo' affords in +this glorious land of the sun."</p></div> + +<p>The Nicaraguan ladies occupy themselves with smoking and displaying +little feet in satin slippers when daily they go to church and back. In +the early evening they occasionally pay visits, and if a number of both +sexes happen to assemble at the same house a dance is improvised, though +regular parties or balls are rare and ceremonial.</p> + +<p>At festival seasons the Nicaraguans have some curious customs, +apparently derived from their ancient heathen worship.</p> + +<p>In some of the Nicaraguan towns, especially in Leon, the pernicious +practice of burying the dead within the walls of city churches is +persisted in, even as in London, and, just as with us, against the +opposition of all sensible persons, including the government itself. +Fees to the church and attendant officials are at the root of the evil, +and give it a vitality that defies all attempts at eradication. The +priests of Leon have evaded all edicts about this nuisance, and have +improved upon the practice of our metropolitan parishes; for, not +content with the revenues they derive from funerals, they charge +according to the length of time (from ten to twenty-five years) the dead +are to be permitted by them to rest in their graves. When the purchased +time is up, the bones and the earth derived from the decomposed corpses +are removed and sold to the manufacturers of nitre! The least warlike of +citizens may thus in the end become a defender of his country, when +converted into a constituent of gunpowder. The most quiet and +unambitious of mortals may complete his career by making a noise in the +world, when fired off from a mortar. Assuredly this is a very novel and +original method of shooting churchyard rubbish, and we recommend a fair +consideration of it to our vested parochial authorities.</p> + +<p>Mr. Squier claims to be the first person who has described the ancient +monuments of Nicaragua, or, indeed, to have indicated their existence. +Excellent and numerous plates and cuts of these very interesting though +rather frightful relics are given in his work. Hitherto the antiquities +of the northern portion of Central America only have been explored, and +are familiar to us through the researches of Stephens and of Catherwood. +The Indians still reverence the shrines and statues of their ancient +gods, and are apt to conceal their knowledge about their localities and +existence. Those described by our traveller have mostly suffered +dilapidation through the religious zeal of the conquerors. They appear +to differ among themselves somewhat in degree of antiquity, but there is +no good reason—this is the conclusion to which Mr. Squier comes—for +supposing that they were not made by the nations found in possession of +the country. The structures in or about which, they were originally +placed were probably of wood, and great mounds and earthworks, like the +teocallis of Mexico, were associated with them.</p> + +<p>A section of Mr. Squier's work is devoted to an elaborate dissertation +on the proposed interoceanic canal, illustrated by an excellent map. We +recommend these chapters to the consideration of all who are interested +upon this important subject. Like most parts of his book it is defaced +by not a few sneers at, and misstatements about, the English. About the +bad taste of these outbursts we shall not say more. That they should +come from a man who is professionally a diplomatist, is evidence of his +indiscretion and unfitness for his political calling. As an amusing +traveller and diligent antiquarian, however, we can do Mr. Squier full +honor, and were glad to see the just compliment lately paid to him in +London, when our Antiquarian Society elected him an honorary member.</p> + +<p>[This interesting and important work of our countryman is reviewed in a +flattering manner in most of the great organs of critical opinion in +England, and its sale there, as well as in this country, has been very +large for one so costly.]</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> Nicaragua; its People, Scenery, Monuments, and the Proposed +Inter-oceanic Canal. By E. G. Squier. New-York: Appletons.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_477" id="Page_477">[Pg 477]</a></span></p> +<h4>From the Dublin University Magazine.</h4> +<h2><a name="THE_HEIRS_OF_RANDOLPH_ABBEY8" id="THE_HEIRS_OF_RANDOLPH_ABBEY8"></a>THE HEIRS OF RANDOLPH ABBEY.<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a></h2> + +<h3>IV. THE MIDNIGHT VOICE AND ITS ANSWERED CALL.</h3> + + + +<p>Lady Randolph took leave of Lilias at the door of her room, and she +having, with infinite trepidation, declined the services of the lady's +maid, who seemed to her rather more awful and stately than the lady +herself, soon remained alone in the magnificent apartment which had been +assigned to her. She looked all around it with a glance of some +disquietude, for the vastness of the room, and the dark oak furniture, +made it look very gloomy. She contemplated the huge bed, which bore an +unpleasant resemblance to a hearse, with the utmost awe; it seemed to +her that there was room for a dozen concealed robbers within the massive +folds of the sombre curtains, and the reflection of her own figure in +the tall mirrors, looked strangely like a white ghost wandering +stealthily to and fro; the only gleam of comfort that shone in upon her, +was from the glimpse of the midnight sky that could be seen through the +chinks of the window-shutters. As the night was not cold she went and +threw the window open, feeling that the companionship of the stars would +destroy all these fantastic fancies; and very soon her sense of +loneliness and oppression passed away, for there came a soft wind that +lifted the curls of her long fair hair, and kissed her cheek +caressingly, and she could not help believing it was a breeze from the +Irish hills that bore to her the blessing of her kind old grandfather; +gayly as ever she closed the window and went to sit down, wondering if +ever she should feel inclined to sleep again after the excitement of the +last two days. She had unbound her hair and let it fall around her like +a golden veil, when, suddenly, a sound came floating towards her, on the +still night air, which irresistibly attracted her attention.</p> + +<p>It was a sound of music, deep solemn music, rising with a power and +richness of melody she had never heard before; whence it came, or how it +was produced, she could not conceive, for it seemed to her unpractised +ear not to proceed from one instrument, but from many, and yet there was +through it all a unity of harmony which could result from the influence +of a single mind alone: now, it swelled out into soft thunders that +vibrated through the long passages up to the very roof of her vaulted +room, and deep into her beating heart, then it died away to a whisper +faint as the sigh of a child, only to rise again more glorious than +before; and, over all, heard distinct as the lark in heaven at morning's +dawn, there thrilled a voice of such unearthly sweetness that she could +not believe it belonged to an inhabitant of this world.</p> + +<p>Lilias had one of those sensitive passionate souls over whom music has +an uncontrollable power; but as yet she had heard no other instrument +than an antique harpsichord of her grandmother's, and such singing as +the village girls regaled her with when they stood at work in the +fields. No wonder, then, that this wonderful strain had an effect upon +her like that of enchantment; it seemed to take possession of her whole +soul, and absorb every faculty. She became, as she listened, utterly +unconscious of all things, save that this entrancing melody drew her +towards it with an irresistible attraction; the sound was so distant, +yet so clear, she could not tell if even it were within the house at +all; but she did not ponder on its position, or on the nature of it; +only, like one who walks in sleep, she rose mechanically on her feet to +go to it. If her mind, steeped in that marvellous melody, could reflect +at all, it was to conclude that she had fallen asleep and was dreaming, +so that she had no thought but the longing not to awake from a dream so +beautiful. Slowly drawn by the sweet sounds, as by invisible chains, she +moved towards the door and opened it; then, sweeter, louder than before, +floating into her very soul, came that angel voice, with the full +swelling chords that seemed, as it were, to clothe it, filling her with +a sense of enjoyment so intense, that she would have felt constrained to +follow after it, even had she known it would lure her to some murderous +precipice, like the dangerous sirens in the haunted woods of Germany.</p> + +<p>Truly there was a strange fascination in this soft and sublime music, +filling the quiet night as with a soul, whose breathing was melody. And +Lilias yielded without a thought, or effort, to the entrancing power, +which, like a mesmeric influence, drew her imperiously towards it, +panting and breathless, as though she feared the sounds would die before +she reached them—every faculty concentrated in the sense of hearing. +She hastened rapidly along the passages down the wide staircase, and, +guided by the deepening, volume of the strain, reached the door of the +great hall, which stood open. She passed within it, and at once +discerned, that from this room proceeded the wonderful harmony, which +had so allured her, the instrument whose solemn tones formed the +accompaniment was evidently the magnificent organ, which stood at the +further end of the hall; and, as she had never heard one before, it is +not to be wondered at that now, when a hand endowed with extraordinary +skill drew forth its full power, she should have been enraptured; but it +was not so much the majesty of sound, swelling from the noblest +instrument in the world, that had so won the very soul within her as the +voice, sounding almost celestial to her ears, which still was thrilling +with unutterable sweetness through the echoing hall. However glorious +those deep low chords, it was yet only the metal which gave them forth; +but there was a spirit<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_478" id="Page_478">[Pg 478]</a></span> in that voice which touched her own spirit, and +never again could her young soul be free and independent as it had been +before that mysterious contact.</p> + +<p>A little while only does the new-created child of dust stand lonely upon +earth, as Adam stood in Eden before he woke from his deep sleep to meet +the living glance of Eve—a little while in the passionless ignorance of +youth, and then is the mortal being free—free from thought, from +affection, from desire; but soon, through all the wild tumult and +turmoil of the world, he hears the voice calling to him, which demands +the surrender of his whole being in one deep human love, and no sooner +is that whisper heard echoing in the depths of his heart than, +straightway, he yields up the sweet empire of his life's affections; and +henceforward, whether he is blest in close companionship, or divided by +some gulf impassable, over which, most vain and mournfully, he stretches +out the longing arms that only grasp the vacant air, still never more is +he alone, or free, for he must live in another's life, and, even in +death, desire another's grave.</p> + +<p>And was it to be thus with Lilias! the gentle, single-hearted child?</p> + +<p>As she stood at the door of the hall, the words which that angel voice +was breathing into music came with a strange, deep meaning on her ears. +There was no light save that of the moon, which streamed in long, soft +rays from the one large window, and reached even the gilded fluting of +the organ, yet, through the dim shadows, she could perceive that a +musician sat before it. The face only was visible to her in that half +light; the upturned face, with the dark hair falling round it, and the +deep gray eyes made luminous by the living soul that was shining through +them. Never had she looked on him who sat there before, nor could she +tell if in truth that countenance had any beauty; only there was upon it +now a spiritual loveliness emanating from the solemn thoughts that moved +him, which entered into her heart and there abode, to fade only when +itself should moulder beneath the coffin lid.</p> + +<p>And now, still drawn onwards by the voice, her noiseless feet went down +the hall, till, by the side of the unconscious musician, she knelt down +meekly, for it seemed to her as though adoring reverence were the +needful homage of one who could create such harmony; and there, in +breathless rapture, with parted lips, and folded hands, she remained all +motionless, till the soft music died away, as if those sounds had been +withdrawn again into the heaven to which they belonged.</p> + +<p>Then he turned, and his eyes fell upon the kneeling figure by his side; +he started violently, and remained mute with surprise, his heart well +nigh stopping in its beating with astonishment; almost it seemed to him +as if his music had drawn down an angel from the regions of perpetual +melody; so fair and spotless did she seem, the moonlight falling on her +soft white robes, and weaving her floating hair into a golden tissue +with the mingling of its own bright rays. Speechless he remained gazing +with the earnest wish that this pure vision might not pass away into a +dream. But meantime the cessation of music had unbound the chains that +held her young soul captive, and when the sweet face turned towards him +the childlike features, solemn with intensity of feeling, he saw that +they were human eyes which met his own, eyes that could weep for sorrow, +and grow beautiful with tenderness, for now a timid glance stole into +them, and a faint smile to the parted lips. Unconsciously, he let his +hands fall softly on her head and said:</p> + +<p>"Where have you come from? who are you?"</p> + +<p>"Lilias," she answered, simply, as a child that tells its name when +asked.</p> + +<p>"Lily, indeed," he said, "most fair and lovely as the snow-white lilies +are; but no such gentle vision ever came to me before in these dark +hours, though I have been here lonely, night by night. I thought at +first it was a spirit kneeling there; and it is scarce less marvellous +to me that a human being should visit me in my solitude, than that some +merciful angel should come to cheer me. How is it, then, that you are +here?"</p> + +<p>"The music seemed to call me and I came," she said; "it was so very +beautiful it drew my whole soul after it; but I know I should not have +ventured here at such an hour, and now I will go back, only——"</p> + +<p>She hesitated, and looked up pleadingly into the eyes that were turned +with such admiring wonder on her——</p> + +<p>"You live in this house?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"I do," he replied, and then bowed his head as though the answer were +one of shame.</p> + +<p>"Then will you promise me," she said, "that I shall hear these glorious +sounds once more? I feel as though I could have no rest till I may +listen to them yet again, and to the voice that was as a soul within +them. May I come here to-morrow, and will you bestow on me the greatest +pleasure I have ever known, for, indeed, I never felt such deep +enjoyment as in hearing that solemn strain?"</p> + +<p>"Most gladly would I—most gladly see you again, sweet Lily; since that +is your sweet name; but do you know who I am?"</p> + +<p>"No, excepting that I think you will be my friend,—at least I shall +hope it,—for the soul that could utter that divine song must be so +worthy of all friendship."</p> + +<p>These gentle words seemed literally to make him tremble, as another +might to hear the ravings of passion.</p> + +<p>"Oh do not speak so softly to me," he said, "I am unused to kindness, +and it unmans me; besides, soon you will know all, and then you will +neither have the will nor power to befriend me, and it were better for +me not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_479" id="Page_479">[Pg 479]</a></span> to have the hope of your future sympathy, thus given for a +moment and then withdrawn."</p> + +<p>"But why withdrawn?" she said, with her gaze of innocent surprise.</p> + +<p>"You are Sir Michael's niece, are you not, the child of his favorite +brother—his heiress probably?"</p> + +<p>"I am his niece, but not his heiress surely; there are so many worthier +heirs, are you not one of them?"</p> + +<p>"I! I am Hubert Lyle." He seemed to expect that at the sound of that +name she would recoil in fear or indignation, but she only repeated the +words "Hubert Lyle," and then shook her head gently to intimate that it +was an unknown sound to her; he smiled with pleasure to hear his name so +softly spoken by the lips of one who seemed to him the purest, sweetest +vision that ever had blest his eyes on earth. "I see you have not yet +learned all the secrets of this house," he said, "but it will not be +long before Sir Michael's niece shall have been taught that there is one +beneath this roof whom she must hate, hate even with a deadly animosity. +I think it will be a hard lesson for such a gentle nature;" he added +almost pityingly. A new light seemed to break in upon her.</p> + +<p>"Oh, is it possible?" she exclaimed; "was it then of you that my uncle +spoke with such a bitter animosity, as it makes me shiver to think one +human being should ever have the power to feel towards another?"</p> + +<p>"I am, indeed, the object of his abhorrence."</p> + +<p>"But unjustly," she exclaimed, fixing her candid eyes steadily on his +face. "I know, I feel, you have not deserved this cruel hatred."</p> + +<p>"Not at your uncle's hands, indeed, not, I think, at those of any human +being, for I know that wilfully I have injured none; but, doubtless, +this discipline is all too little for my deserts, as I must seem unto no +mortal sight, and so it must be borne patiently." This humanity touched +Lilias to the very heart, her voice trembled with eagerness as she said:</p> + +<p>"But do not speak as though I or any other could ever share in the wrong +he does you; rather is it our part to make you forget it, as you have +forgiven it, by our friendship justly and gladly granted to you."</p> + +<p>"Most innocent child," he said, "it is plain you never yet have listened +to the voice of your worldly interest; but when that world shall have +taught you the value of Sir Michael's favor, then will even this +guileless heart be moved to feel or simulate a due abhorrence for his +enemy."</p> + +<p>"Never!" she exclaimed, lifting up her childlike head with a noble +dignity, and throwing back the long hair that she might stand face to +face with him to whom she spoke. "Listen, I do not know you; as yet I +cannot tell if in very deed you are worthy of the loyal true-hearted +friendship, which it is a blessing to give and to receive from our +fellow-creatures; but my heart tells me you are so, even to the very +uttermost, for I think that none could be otherwise, and dare to sing +such solemn strains before high heaven at dead of night; and if it be +so—if indeed you are worthy of the esteem and sympathy of all who can +distinguish between right and wrong—then is it your lawful due, of +which I would not dare defraud you, for it were high treason against the +truth and majesty of goodness. If we are bound to adore perfection in +its eternal Source and Essence, so is it our very duty and service to +pay tribute to the faint reflection of that spirit in the frail human +creature; and neither my uncle, nor any other on this earth, has a right +to ask of me, or shall compel me, to act a lie against the sovereign +virtue I am sworn to worship loyally, by withholding the homage of my +friendship to all that are good and true of heart."</p> + +<p>"Pray heaven no taint from this bad world may ever reach your soul," +were the words that burst from the lips of Hubert Lyle. "Yes, keep—keep +your pure wisdom and your noble principle; blessed is he who taught them +to you; but, alas! if ever I were worthy of the gift of your esteem on +the basis of that rectitude of which you speak, could even your +beautiful philosophy stand the test to which it would be put before you +could give to <i>me</i> the name of friend. The darkness covers me and you do +not yet know what I am—how smitten of heaven as well as hunted down of +men; how, by the very decree of nature, repugnant in their sight, not +less than hated for another's sake. But I will not deceive you; none +could look upon your face and hide one shadow of the bitterest truth: +come, and let me show you what I am, and do not fear to shrink away from +me when you have seen that sight. I hope for nothing else from any on +this earth, for the gentlest look that human eyes have ever had for me, +has been one of sorrowing pity."</p> + +<p>He took her by the hand, and led her slowly down the hall towards the +window, where the moonlight was streaming with a full clear radiance. +Through the shadows they went solemnly hand in hand, and a sensation of +awe took possession of her; she felt as if he were leading her to the +threshold of a new life; strange and unknown feelings were stirring at +her heart, and a deep instinct whispering there, seemed to tell her that +what he was about to reveal would have an influence on her whole future +existence. He dropped her hand when they passed within the circle of +light, and, placing himself where the beams fell brightest, he turned +and looked upon her. Then she saw that he was smitten indeed, and that +heaven had laid a load upon his mortal frame, heavy, as that which man +had built upon his shrinking soul. Hubert Lyle was hopelessly and +fearfully deformed. It would seem as though it were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_480" id="Page_480">[Pg 480]</a></span> designed for him +that he should be crushed both in body and in spirit, for his neck was +bowed as by an iron power, and the sadness of a life's long humiliation +was stamped on that upturned face; unlike the countenance of many who +are deformed in body, there was no beauty on it save in the deep, +thoughtful eyes, and the pale forehead, whence dark masses of hair were +swept aside.</p> + +<p>Oh, how the heart of Lilias trembled as she looked upon him and read the +measure of his twofold suffering. An outcast, by deformity, from the +common race of man, and trodden down in soul by unmerited contumely or +hate. How to the very depths was stirred within her that well of +tenderness and pity for the oppressed which gushes in every woman's +heart, as she saw in his whole aspect the evidence of a resolute and +noble endurance, a patient meekness, untinged by a trace of bitterness! +She could have wept over him, for she was one of those unhappily gifted +whose soul is like a sensitive plant, and shrinks from the touch of +sufferings in others with an exquisite susceptibility. Her natural +delicacy, however, taught her that she must hide from him how deeply his +infirmity had moved her; he must see in her no evidence of the insulting +pity to which alone he seemed accustomed. He had spoken of her shrinking +away from him; she drew nearer, and lifting up her eyes, smiled one +quiet, gentle smile, as though in token that she had seen nought to +surprise or grieve her; that look was balm to him, used only to the +half-averted glance of sad repugnance which we are wont to cast on an +unsightly object. His voice shook with mingled eagerness and delight as +he said:</p> + +<p>"Could you indeed take such a deformed wretch as I am by the hand, and +stand forth before all the world to acknowledge him your friend?"</p> + +<p>"Is it, then, the perishable, mortal body that we love and hold +communion with, in those who are mercifully given to be our friends?" +she answered; "the frame that shall be a thing of dust and worms so +soon? Is it not the indestructible soul to which we give our sympathy, +and is not that sympathy immortal as itself? for nothing good and pure +that ever was created can have power to perish, though it be only the +subtle feeling of a human heart; and so the friendship which is given by +one deathless spirit to another is a link between them for their +eternity of life, and what has it to do with the outward circumstances +of our brief sojourn here?" She paused, and then anxious to dispel the +sort of solemnity which had gained on both of them, she said, playfully:</p> + +<p>"You have not yet found a good reason why I should not some day be your +friend; but I think I shall soon give you little cause to wish for my +acquaintance, if I keep you any longer in conversation at this strange +hour of the night. I must go; for, indeed, I have lingered too long; +but, no doubt, we shall meet again." He did not seek to detain her; he +felt that he ought not; but he knew that the smile so sweet and kindly +with which she had looked on his unsightly frame would linger like a +sunbeam in his memory; and that, yet more, the words of pure, calm +wisdom she had uttered would never depart from his sad heart; for the +faith she had shown in that one deep truth, that all things good, and +beautiful, and worth the having, are created for eternity, and in no +sense to be influenced by the accidents (so to speak) of this mere +outward life, had suddenly lightened the load of his deformity, which so +long had crushed down his entire being, and made him feel that it was +his undying soul which stood face to face with hers—no less +immortal—and that he, the actual <i>ego</i> the very self, had nought to do +with this poor frame, the magnet, as he long had deemed it, of the +world's hate and scorn, but, in truth, only the temporary clothing, soon +to be put off, and now unworthy of a thought: he had felt this, as +regards the life which was to come, when he should be disembarrassed of +his mortal body; but he had not understood what a deep joy the truth of +this principle could cast even into this present existence. None had +taught him, by the sweet teaching of entire sympathy, that all true +affection is but planted in the germ here, and has its full fruition +only in eternity.</p> + +<p>These thoughts rose like morning light on his soul, as he stood gazing, +thoughtfully, upon her; whilst she, now that the enthusiasm, which had +been called forth by the expression of her own bright faith had died +away, had yielded to her womanly timidity, and stood half shy, half +embarrassed, not knowing how to take leave of the companion she had so +strangely encountered. He saw this, and, with a ready courtesy, opened +the door for her, and bade her good night, thanking her gently for the +sweet words of comfort she had spoken. She expressed a hope once more +that they should meet again, and so vanished from his sight. The white +figure passing away into the shadows, like some fair dream into the +darkness of a deeper sleep. He remained standing on the spot where she +left him, clasping his hands tightly on his breast. "Meet again!" he +repeated thoughtfully, echoing the words she had uttered. "I will not +desire it; I will not seek it: surely it were the greatest peril that +ever has crossed my path. How have I labored for peace these many years, +and have attained it only by stripping my life of every hope and wish +connected with this world. I have so veiled my eyes to its allurements, +from which I am for ever exiled, that all the living things within it +have become to me as moving shadows in the twilight; whilst my own soul +has been bathed in the sunlight of an eternal hope; but if the smile of +these sweet eyes came falling on my heart again—if the spirit that +looked through<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_481" id="Page_481">[Pg 481]</a></span> them be, indeed, as beautiful as I believe it—if, day +by day, I saw the outward loveliness, and felt the inward beauty, +infinitely fairer, it could not fail, but I should grow to love her. +I—I—the deformed outcast! Oh! could my worst enemy—could even he who +hates the very ground on which I walk, desire for me a deeper curse than +that I should bring upon myself, if ever I made room in this my soul for +human love. It must not be; I can and will avoid her. I will believe +that I have slept and woke again; and this night shall be to me but as +one in which I have dreamt a brighter dream than usual."</p> + +<p>He resumed his habitual composure as these thoughts passed through his +mind; the resolute calm, which was the habitual expression of his face, +returned to it, and quietly he left that old hall where the first scene +in the drama of Lilias Randolph's life had been enacted.</p> + +<p>She soon was lying in a tranquil slumber—the deep sleep of an innocent +heart that is altogether at rest; but through all her dreams that night, +there went a voice whose echo was to haunt her soul for evermore.</p> + + +<h4>V. A MEETING FOR THE DISSECTION OF SOULS.</h4> + +<p>Lilias, like most blythe young spirits, never could sleep after the +morning beams came to visit her eyelids; and, despite the unusual +excitement of the preceding night, she was roaming through the house at +a very early hour, looking bright and fresh as the day-dawn itself. She +passed through the old hall with timid steps, though it was now deserted +by the musician, with whom her thoughts had been busy ever since she +awoke. Deep was the pity that had sprung to life, never more to die in +her young heart for him: not a barren pity, but active, tender, +<i>woman-like</i>, that would take no rest till it had found some means of +ministering to his happiness. For the present it expended itself in an +earnest desire to discover all concerning him, and most especially +whether, amongst all the inhabitants of Randolph Abbey, he had no friend +to counterbalance the animosity of his one known enemy. To see him again +likewise, not once but often, was a determination which she could not +fail to form after the conversation she had held with him; her generous +spirit was in some sense bound to this, and it did but deepen her +longing to draw near to one so doubly stricken. Occupied with these +thoughts, Lilias passed through the drawing-room to a verandah which +opened from it, and where she could enjoy the fresh air whilst sheltered +from the sun. There were couches placed there, and as Lilias moved +towards one of them, she was startled by perceiving a motionless figure +extended upon it.</p> + +<p>It was Aletheia, apparently in a profound slumber; but to Lilias she +seemed like a corpse laid out for burial, so pale, so rigid was her +face. The cold, white hands were folded on her breast as in dumb +supplication, and they were scarce stirred by her slow breathing, or the +dull, heavy beating of her heart. Her countenance bore an expression of +extreme fatigue, and it seemed plain to Lilias that she had been walking +to a great distance. Her hair, matted with dew, was clinging wet to her +temples, and her bonnet lay on the ground beside her. Lilias gazed at +her with a feeling almost of awe, wondering what was the secret of this +strange cousin's life, and a slight movement which she made awoke +Aletheia. Slowly the eyelids rose over those sad eyes, and revealed, as +the power of thought stole into them, a depth of pain, of mute entreaty, +which seemed to indicate an imploring desire that she might not be +commanded to take up the burden of returning life. She tried to close +them again, but in vain; the light sleep was altogether broken, and, +raising herself up, with a heavy sigh she turned a look of involuntary +reproach on Lilias.</p> + +<p>"I am so sorry I awoke you," said the latter, breathlessly. "I did not +mean it, indeed; you were not resting well; but I am afraid you did not +wish to be awakened."</p> + +<p>"No," said the low voice of Aletheia, which seemed ever to come from her +lips without stirring them, "for it is the only injury any one can do to +me."</p> + +<p>"An injury!" said Lilias, in her innocent surprise, "to wake on this +bright morning and beautiful world."</p> + +<p>"Bright and beautiful," said Aletheia, musingly, "how these words are +like dreams of long, long ago. My days have no part in them now; but +think no more of having awakened me, it matters nothing; and it would +have been strange, indeed, if such as you had known how many are roused +to the morning light with the one cry in their heart—'must I, must I +live again?'"</p> + +<p>"I cannot conceive it," said Lilias; "I always wish there were no night, +it seems so sad to go away and shut one's eyes on all one loves and +admires."</p> + +<p>"Yet, believe me, to some sleep is precious—more precious even than +death, for all it seems so like an angel of rest and mercy; the brief +forgetfulness of sleep is certain, whilst in death the soul feels there +is no oblivion."</p> + +<p>It was to the gay, young Lilias, as though Aletheia were speaking in an +unknown tongue; her unclouded spirit understood none of these things; +but in spite of her prejudice against this strange person, she felt +struck with pity as she saw her sitting there with the wet hair clinging +to her cold, white cheek.</p> + +<p>"You are very tired; I am afraid," she said, "you have walked a long +distance."</p> + +<p>Aletheia started, and the pale lips grew paler, as she exclaimed, almost +passionately—</p> + +<p>"You have been watching me!"</p> + +<p>"No, indeed," said Lilias, distressed at the idea, "how could you think +me capable of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_482" id="Page_482">[Pg 482]</a></span> it? I did not see you until I came into the verandah; but +I guessed you had gone out early, because your clothes are all wet with +dew."</p> + +<p>Aletheia rose up.</p> + +<p>"Lilias, you are come to live in the same house with me, and therefore +is it necessary I should make to you one prayer. I do beseech you, as +you hope that men will deal mercifully with your life, grant me the only +mercy they can give to mine—leave me alone; forget that I exist; live +as if I did not, or were dead. I ask nothing but this, to be unmolested +and forgotten."</p> + +<p>She turned to go into the room as she spoke, but she was stopped by the +appearance of Gabriel, who was creeping, with his quiet, stealthy step, +towards her; his blue eyes, usually so soft, glowing with the intensity +of his ardent gaze. She paused and looked at him sadly.</p> + +<p>"Gabriel, you heard what I said to Lilias just now; it is nothing new to +you; you know well and deeply what is my one desire—the petition I make +to all. Why, then, will you live, as it were in my shadow—why will you +persecute me?" He made no answer, but by folding his hands in mute +appeal and bowing his head humbly over them. She passed him in silence, +and went into the house. He followed softly after her, and Lilias was +left alone.</p> + +<p>The poor child drew a long breath, and felt at the moment an intense +desire to be at liberty amongst the Connaught hills again, where the +thoughts and words of the rough country people seemed free and fresh as +the winds that blew there; all seemed so strange and mysterious in this +house; she had been brought suddenly into contact with that deep human +passion of which she knew nothing, and felt as if she were in the midst +of some entangled web, where nothing plain or regular was to be seen. +Her momentary wish to escape, however, died away, as the recollection +came upon her, borne as it were, by the wings of memory, of the one +sweet haunting voice, and solemn strain. Nor was she long left to her +own reflections; Sir Michael, who so rarely left his own rooms, came in +search of her, and fairly monopolized her during the whole of the day. +He persuaded her to stay with him in his laboratory, and seemed to take +infinite pleasure in hearing her talk of all that had been joy to her in +her past life.</p> + +<p>And truly it was a strange sight to see her in that dark little den, +with her innocent face and her fair white robes, sitting so fearlessly +at the feet of the old man, telling him stories of Irish banshees, and +sunny nooks in her native valley, where her nurse said the fairies +danced all night long. To hear her talk, and to have her sweet presence, +was to Sir Michael as though some fresh breeze were passing over his +withered soul; and the tones of her voice were so like those of his +long-lost brother, that at times he could dream they were side by side +again, both young, full of hope that was to bear fruit, for him at +least, in bitterest despair, and with passions yet unchained from the +depth of his heart. The first pleasure he had tasted for years was in +Lilias's society, and he inwardly determined to enjoy as much of it +henceforward as was possible—a resolution which we may so far +anticipate as to mention he rigidly kept, to the sore discomfiture of +poor little Lilias.</p> + +<p>He had a deeper motive for it in the movement of jealousy he had +witnessed in his beautiful wife, when he took his niece in his arms the +day before. Indifferent as she was to him, she was too thorough a woman +to relish the idea, that the sole and undivided dominion she had +maintained over his heart was to be diminished by the entrance even of +the most natural affection. She need have had no fears; the passion of a +life was not now to be tempered by any such influence. Lilias was to him +simply an occupation for his restless mind; she preserved him from +thinking, better than his chemical experiments, and, above all, she gave +him the exquisite delight of feeling that he had power to move his +scornful wife even yet; so Lilias was doomed from that day to be his +constant companion.</p> + +<p>He did not suppose she would like it, though he did not guess, as she +sat by his side, how restlessly her poor little feet were longing to be +away bounding on the soft, green grass; but he resolved to compensate +her for her daily imprisonment by making her his heiress: a +determination subject to any change of circumstances that might cause +him to alter it, which he did not conceal either from her or the rest of +the family.</p> + +<p>We are anticipating, however; the first day of Lilias's probation is not +yet over. Very wearily it passed, because her eager mind was bent on +seeing Hubert Lyle; and not only did her uncle never mention his name, +but she found no opportunity of asking any one who and what he was, and +where she could meet with him again. It was not till the evening that +she found the family once more assembled, and as she gazed round amongst +them all with this object in her thoughts, she felt there was but one +who inspired her with any confidence, or to whom she could speak freely. +This was Walter, with his fine frank countenance and winning smile; and +she was very glad when they found themselves accidentally alone in the +music-room, where Sir Michael left them, after listening, with evident +pleasure, to her sweet voice singing like a bird in the sky.</p> + +<p>Lilias turned round hastily to Walter, with such a pair of speaking +eyes, that he laughed gayly, and answered them at once——</p> + +<p>"How can I help you? I see you have a great deal to say."</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, cousin Walter; I have been longing to speak to you; you are +the only one in all this house I am not afraid of. I want you to tell me +so many things!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_483" id="Page_483">[Pg 483]</a></span></p> + +<p>"And what things, dear Lilias? This is rather vague."</p> + +<p>"Oh, every thing about every body, they are all so mysterious."</p> + +<p>"Well, so they are," he said laughing: "I find them so myself. I can +quite fancy how you feel, like a poor little fly, caught in some great +web, and surrounded by spiders of all kinds and dimensions, each weaving +their separate snares."</p> + +<p>"Precisely; and now I want you to explain all the spiders to me; you +must classify them, and tell me which are venomous, and which are not," +she said, laughing along with him.</p> + +<p>"I wish I could," answered Walter, "but they are quite beyond me—they +are not in my line at all, I assure you. I never could keep a secret in +my life; but I will do my best to enlighten you. I can tell you certain +peculiarities at all events. Suppose we make a sort of catechism of it; +you shall question and I shall answer."</p> + +<p>"Very well," said Lilias, entering into the spirit of his gayety, "and +so to begin—Why does Lady Randolph look so strangely at Sir Michael, +and always seem anxious to go out of the room whenever he comes in?"</p> + +<p>"Because she hates him," replied Walter.</p> + +<p>"How very strange; people seem to hate a good deal at Randolph Abbey; +but is it always their nearest relations, as in this case?"</p> + +<p>"Why no; as you proceed in your catechism I doubt not we shall have +occasion to mention certain hatreds in this household, which are in no +sense affected by natural ties."</p> + +<p>"Well to proceed," said Lilias; "why does Gabriel hour after hour keep +his eyes fixed on Aletheia, with a strange look which makes me fancy he +thinks she would die if he were to cease gazing on her?"</p> + +<p>"Because he loves her," answered Walter.</p> + +<p>"But she does not love him," exclaimed Lilias, with a woman's instinct.</p> + +<p>"Most certainly not."</p> + +<p>"There is so much I have to ask about her. Tell me why it is that she +has such imploring eyes. I never, on a human face, saw an expression of +such mute entreaty; I saw it once in the wistful look of a poor deer +which they killed on our Irish hills. I remember so well when it lay +wounded, and the gamekeeper came near with the knife, it lifted up its +great brown eyes with just such a dumb beseeching gaze, but that was +only for a moment. It soon died, poor thing; and with Aletheia, that +mournful supplication seems stamped on her countenance, as though her +very life were to be spent in it."</p> + +<p>"Ah! if you ask me about Aletheia," said Walter, "I am powerless at +once. I can tell you nothing of her; she is a greater mystery in herself +than all the rest put together; this only seems plain to me, that her +existence is, for some unexplicable reason, one living agony."</p> + +<p>"If I thought so I should be so angry with myself for having felt +prejudiced against her, which, I confess, I have done, for a reason I +could not name to you. She is so cold and statue-like, I thought she +seemed lost to all human feeling; but if it be suffering, and not +insensibility, which makes her move about amongst us as if she had been +dead, and forced unwillingly to live again, I should try to overcome the +sort of awe with which she has inspired me."</p> + +<p>"I believe it matters little how you feel respecting her, for you will +never conquer her impenetrable reserve; even poor Gabriel, who seems +fascinated by her to a marvellous extent, has ever struggled vainly +against her implacable calm. It is seldom, I think, that one human being +can so lavish all his sympathies upon another, as he has done on her, +without gaining some sign of life at least; but he tells me it is as +though the living soul within her were cased in iron; he cannot draw it +out of the dungeon where she seems to have buried it, to meet even for a +moment his own ardent spirit."</p> + +<p>"But I hardly wonder at this, if she does not love him," said Lilias.</p> + +<p>"You mistake me," replied Walter: "I do not expect that she should +return his affection; but she seems utterly unaware of its existence; +she appears ever to be so intent in listening to some voice we cannot +hear, that all human words are unheeded by her; those deep, beseeching +eyes of hers are ever gazing out, as though the world and all the things +of it, were but moving shadows for her, because of the greatness of some +one thought which is alone reality to her; yet that there lives a most +burning soul within that statue of ice, I can no more doubt than that +the snows of Etna hide, but do not quench its fiery heart."</p> + +<p>"And does no one know the secret of her life?" asked Lilias.</p> + +<p>"No one, that I am aware of—none at least, now living; that her father +did, whose idol she was, I have reason to think from some remarks of Sir +Michael's; he himself knows possibly somewhat more than we do, though +assuredly not the real truth, nor more than some external peculiarities +of her position. I have heard, however, that before she would consent to +come here, even for six months, and that with the chance of being chosen +as the heiress, she made certain conditions with her uncle respecting +the liberty she was to be allowed. I presume this to refer chiefly to a +strange visit which she receives one day in every month, on which day +alone I believe has any human being seen her moved."</p> + +<p>"And who is this visitor?" exclaimed Lilias.</p> + +<p>"That is more than I can tell you; and all I know of him is that I have +heard his sharp quick step, which certainly is the step of a man, going +across the hall to the library, where Aletheia receives him; and an hour +or so later I have heard the same tread as he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_484" id="Page_484">[Pg 484]</a></span> leaves the house; then +the galloping of his horse sounds for a moment on the gravel, and that +is all that any one at Randolph Abbey hears of the only friend she seems +to possess."</p> + +<p>"Does even Gabriel not know him?"</p> + +<p>"He may have seen him; but he does not know him, I am sure; it is quite +wonderful how little knowledge he has acquired concerning Aletheia, +considering the means he has taken to penetrate her secret—means which, +I confess to you, I should have scorned to employ, even though, like +him, my dearest interests were at stake; for instance, he has actually +more than once tracked her in her mysterious morning walks."</p> + +<p>"What! does she walk every day," said Lilias, in astonishment; "I found +her this morning lying quite exhausted in the verandah. She must have +been to a great distance; surely she does not do the same every day?"</p> + +<p>"Every day, so far as I know, she does walk to precisely the same spot, +and that several miles distance; it is certainly beyond her strength, +for she is often in a state of frightful exhaustion when she returns; +but even in the coldest spring mornings she used to leave the house, +long before it was light, to make this pilgrimage; it seems she wishes +to avoid the observation she would incur later in the day."</p> + +<p>"Then it was cruel of Gabriel to follow her."</p> + +<p>"It was; but I think he is often maddened to find how his great love +comes beating up against the rock of her impenetrable calm, like waves +upon the shore, leaving no trace behind."</p> + +<p>"Do you know," said Lilias, with a wondering look in her cloudless eyes, +"I think Gabriel has his mysteries too, like every one else in this +strange house. I can understand his watching Aletheia, if his whole +heart is for ever turning to her, as you describe; but it is not her +alone, for in the short time I have know him, I am sure he has managed +to find out more about me than ever I knew myself; those soft blue eyes +of his seem to look so stealthily into one's soul. I am convinced he +could tell you every thing I have done and said the whole of this day. +You know Sir Michael made me stay with him ever since morning, but I +never passed out of this room without meeting Gabriel in the passage."</p> + +<p>"That I can easily believe. I always feel as if Gabriel acted in this +delectable abode the part of a cat watching innumerable mice; he has an +anomalous sort of character; but one of his qualities is sufficiently +distinct, which is a very acute penetration; he can divine the most +intricate affairs from the smallest possible indications. For my own +part, I make not the slightest attempt to conceal my innermost thoughts +from him; happily I have nothing to hide, but if I had, I should let him +know it at once; it would save all trouble, as he would infallibly find +it out."</p> + +<p>"But what do you mean by an anomalous character?" asked Lilias.</p> + +<p>"A sort of double nature; he seems to me to have naturally good impulses +on which some guiding hand has ingrafted a calculating disposition that +sorely warps them; he has no control whatever over his passions, yet the +most perfect over his outward words and actions, whereby he effectually +conceals them when he so pleases. Certain it is, that he has an +indomitable will to which every thing else is subservient; but much of +this inconsistency of his character may be attributed to his position; +here he is the nephew of Sir Michael Randolph—the possible heir of +Randolph Abbey; but he was educated by a person whom we know to be of +low station, and I believe must be equally so in mind."</p> + +<p>"His mother?" asked Lilias.</p> + +<p>"Yes; I know nothing of her, nor does he ever allude to his past life. I +do not even know where she lives; he is simply ashamed of her, I +presume, and I sometimes think we should have the key-stone to Gabriel's +character in a violent ambition, were it not so neutralized by his not +less violent love for Aletheia. Dear Lilias, why do you start so, what +do you see?"</p> + +<p>"He is there," she said, half frightened, and glancing to the open door +through which, with his soft steps, Gabriel was gliding.</p> + +<p>"Of course, considering whom we were speaking of," said Walter, +laughingly, "it is an invariable rule, you know. Come along, Gabriel," +he added, turning to his cousin, "I need not mention that we were +discussing you, as by the simple rule of cause and effect, it was that +circumstance which produced your appearance."</p> + +<p>"Not by my overhearing you," said Gabriel, quickly.</p> + +<p>"My dear fellow, there was not the least occasion for that; you were +obeying a mysterious law, which is summarily stated in a proverb quite +unfit for ears polite; but your arrival is most opportune; your services +will be very available to Lilias and myself; allow me to offer you a +chair, and invest you at once with your office."</p> + +<p>"And how am I to be made useful?" said Gabriel, attempting, by a forced +smile, to sympathize in Walter's playful manner of viewing the subject.</p> + +<p>"Why, you must know," and he laid an emphasis on the word <i>must</i>, for +Lilias's behoof, "that Miss Lilias Randolph and I have begun a course of +moral dissection of the inhabitants of this house, in which she acts the +part of a young and very inexperienced surgeon, and I that of a most +grave and potent doctor. We had just finished you off, and were +proceeding to the dismemberment of the rest of the family; in this +interesting study I think you can materially assist us, seeing you have +some very sharp and subtle instrument for this species of anatomy."</p> + +<p>"I was not aware I possessed any such,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_485" id="Page_485">[Pg 485]</a></span> said Gabriel; "it would ill +befit me in my position to make myself a judge of any here."</p> + +<p>"Now don't begin to be humble and make us ashamed of ourselves. I +consider it quite an important matter to Lilias that she should know her +ground here so far as possible; so let us parade the remainder of our +dear relations before her as fast as we can."</p> + +<p>A strange smile passed over Gabriel's face, as if he doubted that the +gentle Lilias, and the frank-hearted Walter, would discover much +concerning that intricate ground on which they stood; but he made no +remark, and simply said—</p> + +<p>"And who stands next on the list after my unworthy self?"</p> + +<p>"That is for Lilias to determine; we wait your orders, lady dear."</p> + +<p>"You are learning to speak Irish," she said, smiling.</p> + +<p>"A most likely consummation," murmured Gabriel.</p> + +<p>"Oh! I could say better things than that in Irish," said Walter, +coughing off the slight confusion his cousin's remark had produced; "but +you must really tell us whom you mean to propose for our inspection, or +this council of war will last till midnight."</p> + +<p>"This council for the preliminaries of war," said the low voice of +Gabriel, giving an unpleasant aspect of truth to an expression which +Walter had carelessly used with no special meaning.</p> + +<p>For a moment Lilias made no answer; the thought which had been present +with her throughout the whole of this conversation, and that which had +alone, indeed, given it any interest for her, was, that she might obtain +some information respecting Hubert Lyle; yet now that the time was come +when she must name him or lose her opportunity, she felt, in a lower +degree, something of that unwillingness to broach the subject, which we +have to mention any secret act of self-devotion. The solemn music which +had been the means of leading her into his presence; the unearthly +serenity with which his soul had looked at her through those eyes that +reminded her of the still waters of some unruffled lake, where only the +glory of heaven is reflected; and above all, his infirmity, so meekly +borne, had invested him with a sacredness in her mind which made her +feel as if it was almost a profanation to speak of him to indifferent +ears. With a slight trembling in the voice, which did not escape the +quick perception of Gabriel, she said, "There is yet one of whom I would +inquire—Hubert Lyle." Both her cousins started at the name, but Gabriel +instantly repressed his astonishment, while Walter as freely gave vent +to his.</p> + +<p>"Is it possible you have heard of him already? who can have been bold +enough to mention him?" he said.</p> + +<p>"Why, I have not only heard of him, I have seen him."</p> + +<p>"Seen him!" even Gabriel exclaimed at this. Lilias looked up with a +smile.</p> + +<p>"I think he must be the most mysterious of all," she said, "you seem so +surprised."</p> + +<p>"You would not wonder at that if you knew more of the 'secrets of this +prison-house,'" said Walter, "which you must know is no inapt quotation +as regards Hubert Lyle, for he certainly acts, in some sense, the part +of Hamlet."</p> + +<p>"Without Hamlet's soul," said Gabriel, softly.</p> + +<p>"Without Hamlet's madness, rather, I should say; for I cannot doubt, +from all I have heard, that Hubert has a noble soul, though not one +which would lead him, like the Prince of Denmark, to make to himself an +idol of the principle of vengeance."</p> + +<p>"And Lilias is waiting meanwhile to tell us where she saw him," said +Gabriel.</p> + +<p>"Is it Lilias or you who are waiting?" said Walter, laughing; "for my +part, I frankly confess that my curiosity is greatly excited, so pray +tell us."</p> + +<p>And she did so at once, for there was not a thought of guile in this +young girl's heart. She told how, in the quiet night, she had heard a +solemn voice of music that had called her spirit with an irresistible +allurement; and how she had risen up and followed where it led, till it +had brought her into the presence of him of whom they spoke; but she +went no farther; she said nothing of the conversation which had drawn +those stranger souls more closely together than weeks of ordinary +intercourse could have done; for she felt that Lyle had been surprised +into speaking of his private feelings; and the subject of his infirmity +was one she could not have brought herself to mention; the sympathy with +which he had inspired her was of that nature which made her feel as +sensitive as she would have done had the affliction been her own. Yet, +though she did not enter into details, the deep interest she felt for +him gave a soft tremulousness to her voice, which was duly noticed by +Gabriel, as he sat looking intently at her with the keen gaze which his +meek eyes knew so well how to give from under their long lashes.</p> + +<p>"And now," said she, "tell me who and what he is, he seems to occupy so +strange a position in this house?"</p> + +<p>"Not more strange than cruel," said Walter; "he is the son of Lady +Randolph, by her first husband; she had been engaged to Sir Michael +before she met Mr. Lyle, who was his first cousin, but she had never +cared for him, and yielded at once to the intense passion which sprung +up between Mr. Lyle and herself; she married him, and from that hour Sir +Michael hated him with such a hate, I believe, as this world has rarely +seen. When his rival died, he transferred this miserable, bitter feeling +to the son, Hubert, simply because the widow had, in like manner, turned +all the deep love she had felt for the dead<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_486" id="Page_486">[Pg 486]</a></span> husband on the living +son—not for his own merits, for poor Hubert has few attractions, but +solely because he bears his father's name, and looks at her with his +father's eyes. I believe she has even the cruelty to tell him so. She +worships so the memory of her early love, that she will not have it +thought her heart could spare any affection, even to her child, were he +not his son also. It has always seemed to me the saddest fate for her +unhappy son, to be thus the object of such vehement hate, and no less +powerful love, and yet to feel that he has neither deserved the one, nor +gained the other, in his own person, but solely as the representative of +a dead man who can feel no more."</p> + +<p>"Miserable, indeed," said Lilias, folding her hands as though she would +have asked mercy for him; "how cruel! how cruel! but his mother, how +could she marry Sir Michael when she so loved, and still loves, another? +this seems to me a fearful thing."</p> + +<p>"Starvation is more so," muttered Gabriel.</p> + +<p>"Starvation!" exclaimed Lilias.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Walter; "Mrs. Lyle and her son were actually left in such +destitution at her husband's death, that she certainly married Sir +Michael for no other purpose but to procure a home for herself and her +child. How it came to pass that she was in this extreme poverty, I know +not; report says that it was the result of Sir Michael's persecution of +Mr. Lyle in his lifetime; but I can hardly believe this of our uncle."</p> + +<p>"No, indeed," said Lilias.</p> + +<p>"One thing is certain, that it sorely diminished Sir Michael's delight +in marrying the woman he had loved so long, to find that he must submit +to the continual presence of her son in the house; but she forced him to +enter into a solemn agreement that Hubert was always to reside with +them, and he agreed, on condition that he crossed his path as seldom as +possible. This part of the arrangement is almost overdone by poor Lyle, +who is, I believe, like most persons afflicted with personal infirmity, +singularly sensitive and full of delicate feeling. He never leaves his +own rooms except to go to his mother's apartments, unless Sir Michael +happens to be absent, when Lady Randolph generally forces him to make +his appearance among us. I believe his only amusement is playing on the +organ half the night, as you found him."</p> + +<p>"And do none of you ever go to see him, and try to comfort him," +exclaimed Lilias; "do none befriend him in all this house?"</p> + +<p>"You forget," said Gabriel, hastily, evidently desirous to prevent +Walter from answering till he had spoken himself, "that any one who +sought out Hubert Lyle, and made a friend of him, would incur Sir +Michael's displeasure to such a degree that he would strike him at once +off the list of his heirs, and the penalty of his philanthropy would be +nothing less than the loss of Randolph Abbey." As he said this he bent +his eyes with the most ardent gaze on Lilias, that he might read to her +inmost soul the effect of his speech; but it needed not so keen a +scrutiny; the indignation with which it had filled her sent the color +flying to her cheek, and kindled a fire in her clear eyes seldom seen +within them.</p> + +<p>"And who," she exclaimed, "could dare withhold their due tribute of +charity and sympathy to a suffering fellow-creature for the sake of the +fairest lands that ever the world saw! who could be so base, for the +love of his own interest, as to pander to an unjust hatred, the evil +passion of another, and join with the oppressor in persecuting one who +is guiltless of all save deep misfortune! Can there be any such?" she +added, in her turn fixing her gaze upon Gabriel. A triumphant smile +passed over his lips; her answer seemed precisely what he had hoped it +would be; but Walter anxiously exclaimed:</p> + +<p>"Pray do me the justice to believe that I would not act so, Lilias; I +never should have thought of the motive Gabriel assigned as a reason for +not visiting Hubert; but, to tell the truth, I have no desire to do so, +because I believe him, from all I have heard, to be a poor morbid +visionary, who desires nothing so much as solitude, and with whom I +should not have an idea in common."</p> + +<p>"Nor should I be deterred from showing him any kindness for this reason, +I trust," said Gabriel, with his meekest voice; "I merely wished to +place you in possession of facts with which I thought it right you +should be acquainted in case Hubert should afford you the opportunity of +intercourse which he has not granted to us; for it is one of the noble +traits of his fine character, that he will not risk our incurring Sir +Michael's displeasure for his sake. He is the more generous in this, +that, from his relationship to our uncle, he would be heir-at-law after +us four. But in fact I believe there exists not a more high-minded and +amiable man than he is, in no sense meriting the misfortunes that have +fallen upon him; and his dignified, unmurmuring endurance of them could +never be attributed to insensibility, for he is singularly gifted; his +wonderful musical talent is the least of his powers."</p> + +<p>"Why, Gabriel," said Walter, looking round in great surprise, "I never +heard you say so much in praise of Hubert before;—or, indeed, of any +one," he added, <i>sotto voce</i>.</p> + +<p>"I know him, perhaps, better than you do," said Gabriel, watching, with +delight the softened expression of Lilias's face, which proved to him +how artfully his words had been calculated to produce the effect he +desired. He read in her thoughtful eyes, as easily as he would have done +in a page of fair writing, how she was quietly determining in that hour +that she would seek by every means in her power to become the friend of +this unfortunate man, and teach him how sweet a solace there may be even +in human<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_487" id="Page_487">[Pg 487]</a></span> sympathy, and that, all the more, because her worldly +prospects would be endangered thereby. It would prove to Hubert that her +friendship had at least the merit of sincerity, since, in her humility, +she imagined it could possess no other;—but Gabriel had no time to say +more, for Sir Michael at this moment joined them, and Lilias, rising up, +said she believed it was late, and turned to go into the other +drawing-room. Sir Michael looked sharply at the trio, and, as Walter +followed his cousin, he turned to Gabriel with considerable irritation—</p> + +<p>"How came you here, sir; I left those two together?"</p> + +<p>"They invited me to join them, or I should not have intruded," said +Gabriel, with his customary meekness, but a smile curled his lips, which +he could not repress. Sir Michael saw and understood it at once; he +paused for a moment in thought, and then deciding, apparently like +Walter, that it was no use to conceal any thing from Gabriel, and more +advantageous to be open with him at once, he said—</p> + +<p>"Gabriel, understand me, if your quick eyes have divined any of my +plans, it will work you no good to thwart them."</p> + +<p>"But, possibly, it might avail me were I to further them," said the +nephew, very softly.</p> + +<p>"It might," said Sir Michael; "the broad lands of Randolph Abbey could, +with little loss, furnish a handsome compensation to the person who +should assist me in placing therein, the heirs I desire to choose."</p> + +<p>Gabriel's reply was merely a significant look of acquiescence, and the +old man, bestowing on him a smile of approbation such as he had never +before vouchsafed him, went away well pleased. He was firmly convinced +that he had enlisted in support of the plan that was already a favorite +one with him, the individual amongst all his heirs who he was the most +positively resolved should never inherit the Abbey, both because he +rather disliked him personally, and because he could not forgive him his +mother's low birth. Could he have seen the sneer with which Gabriel +looked after him, he would have been somewhat unpleasantly enlightened +as to the real value of the ally he had obtained.</p> + + +<h4>VI. THE DEAD FATHER IS MADE THE PERSECUTOR OF THE LIVING SON.</h4> + +<p>Very strange was the contrast between the splendid drawing-room, blazing +with light and heat, where the Randolph family were assembled, and the +small room in the other wing of the house which was occupied by Hubert +Lyle. It contained barely the furniture necessary for his use, and this +was by his own desire, for it was already sufficiently bitter to him to +eat the bread dealt out so grudgingly, and at least he would not be +beholden to his stepfather for more than the actual necessaries of +existence.</p> + +<p>Sorely against his proud mother's wish, he had chosen for his +sitting-room one of the very meanest and poorest in the house, with a +single window, low and narrow, which looked out on a deserted part of +the grounds. Hubert liked it all the better for this, as there was no +flower-garden or green-house near to bring the head-gardener, with his +trim, mathematical mind, amongst the wild beauties of nature. The grass +was left in this part to come up against the very wall of the house, and +the ivy and honeysuckle which grew round the window were allowed to +penetrate almost into the room. Fortunately, the noble trees which +filled the park stood somewhat apart in this place, and their arching +branches formed at this moment a sort of framework to the most glorious +picture that ever is given to mortal eyes to look upon—the lucid sky of +night, filled as it were to overflowing with radiant worlds, each +hanging in its own atmosphere of glory.</p> + +<p>It was no wonder that Hubert turned from the low, dark room, so dimly +lit with its single candle, to look upon this the bright landscape of +the skies. Within, the scene was certainly uninviting. The heavy deal +table, the scanty supply of chairs, the plain writing-desk, evidently +many years in use, were the only objects on which the eye could rest, +excepting a few books and a small piano, the gift of Aletheia, with +which, greatly to his astonishment, she had presented him one day—for +she was as completely a stranger to him as she was to all the rest of +the family, and had always avoided intercourse with him as much as she +did with every one else. This thoughtful act of kindness on her part, +however, produced no increased acquaintance between them, as she shrank +from hearing his expressions of gratitude on that occasion, and, indeed, +they seldom met. Aletheia was never in Lady Randolph's rooms, where +alone Hubert was to be met, excepting at rare intervals, when Sir +Michael was absent.</p> + +<p>Hubert sat now at the window; he had laid down his heavy head upon the +wooden ledge, and his hands fell listlessly on his knee. He seemed full +of anxious thoughts, and sighed very deeply more than once. From time to +time, apparently with a violent effort, he looked up and gazed fixedly +on the tranquil stars, seeming to drink in their pure glory, as though +he sought to steep his soul in this light of higher spheres; but ever a +sort of trembling passed over his frame, and he would sink down again +oppressed and weary. This was most unlike Hubert Lyle's usual condition. +He was a man of the most ardent and sensitive feelings; but, at the +same, possessed of that moral strength and <i>truthfulness of soul</i> which +can only belong to a great character—by this last expression, we mean +that he was what few are in this world, neither a deceiver nor deceived. +He did not deceive himself in any case, nor would he allow life to +deceive him; he saw things as they really were, and he permitted not the +bright coloring<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_488" id="Page_488">[Pg 488]</a></span> of hope or imagination to deck them with false apparel; +he did not live as most men do, figuring to himself that he was as it +were the centre of the universe, and that all around him thought of him +and felt for him as he did for himself. He weighed himself in the +balance not of his own self-love, but of other men's judgment, and rated +himself accordingly. Thus, in the earlier days of his maturity, he +constrained his spirit to rise up and look his position in the face. And +truly it was one which might have appalled a less feeling heart than +his.</p> + +<p>His outward circumstances were as bitter as could well be to a +high-minded man. He was a dependent on the grudging charity of one who +abhorred him; and though he would right thankfully have gone out from +these inhospitable doors, even to starve, in preference, yet was he +bound to endure existence within them, by a promise which his mother had +extorted from him as a condition of their marriage, that he never would +leave Randolph Abbey without her consent. This marriage he knew was to +save her from a blighting penury which was killing her; and, moreover, +she concealed from him that cruel hatred of Sir Michael, which was the +only heritage his dead father left him, and, thinking no evil, he had +given them the promise which bound him as with an iron chain to abide +under the roof of his unprovoked enemy. But heavier even than unjust +hatred was the weight upon soul and body of his own deformity; for if +the first shut up one human heart from him, and turned its power of +affection to gall for his sake, the other cast him out for ever from the +love of all human kind. He knew that his unsightly frame could call +forth no other feeling from them but a cold, most often a contemptuous +pity.</p> + +<p>And yet, when he looked out into the world—the dark, tumultuous, +agonizing world—that very sea of human hearts, all beating up upon the +stony shores of a life, against which they are for ever broken and +shattered, he saw passing through the midst of it all a soft, pure +light, shedding warmth and brightness even on the dreariest scenes, and +causing men to forget all pain, and privation, and misery—a light to +which the saddest eyes turned with a joyous greeting, and on which the +gaze of the dying lingered mournfully, till the coffin-lid for ever shut +it out from their fond longing. And he knew that this one blessed thing, +which could overcome the strong, fierce evils of life, like the maid in +the pride of her purity, before whom the lion would turn and flee, was +called Human Love in the doting hearts of men—Human Love—the one sole, +unfailing joy of our merely mortal existence. And was it for him? Should +he ever have any share in it? Was its sweetness ever to be for his +hungry and thirsty heart? Never! The seal was set upon him in his +repulsive appearance, that he was to be an outcast from his fellow-men; +his deformity was as a burden bound upon his back, with which he was +driven out into the wilderness, there to abide in utter solitude of +soul. The promise of life was abortive for him ere yet he had begun it.</p> + +<p>Hubert Lyle understood all this at once; he saw how it stood with him, +and how it was to be, on to the very door of the grave; so he folded his +hands upon his breast and bowed down his head; he accepted his destiny, +for he felt that this was not the all of existence. He knew how +strangely sweet beyond the tomb shall seem all the bitterness of this +life; he saw that the earth was to be to his soul what it is to the +outward eyes on a starry winter's night. We know what a contrast there +is in that hour between the world above and the world below: the one +lies so dark and cold, full only of black shadows and the howling of +mournful winds, while the lucid sky that overhangs it, replete with +brightness and glory, teems with radiant stars, which are the type of +those eternal and glorious hopes that cluster for us on the outskirts of +the heaven of revelation. And so it was to be for him: his spirit was to +walk in this world as in a bleak and sunless desert; but it was to be +for ever canopied over with one bright and boundless thought, wherein +were set immutable and numberless, the starlike hopes of one eternity.</p> + +<p>Thus was he to live, wholly independent of earth, and indifferent to it. +But no man can walk free while there are chains upon his hands and feet, +and he felt that he was bound to his fellow-creatures by two ropes, as +it were, of iron: the longing to love, and to be beloved. Of these he +must free himself, tearing them off his shrinking flesh as a prisoner +would his manacles. And he did so. He taught himself to look upon all +human beings as not of his kind. Even when every nerve and fibre in his +frame cried out that they were bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh, +he learned to consider them inaccessible for him as the angels in +heaven. Yes, even far more; for he trusted that yet a little while, and +these holy ones should be his dear companions; and so he held communion +with them now. But with men he dared not hazard so much as to give them +a place in his thoughts, for he knew that the dream of their friendship +would become the longing for it, and the longing in his case must turn +to agony; so it came to pass that his strong will, his stern +resignation, compassed that which one might have believed well nigh +unattainable to flesh and blood. He divested himself of all earthly +inclinations and desires, all natural wishes and sympathies, and lived +in this world as though he were utterly alone in it, and sole +representative of a race, differing from those angelic friends whom only +he consented to know as the living population of the universe—a +solitary being placed on this earth as in a desert place, where he was +commanded, for his own needful discipline, to abide, till the world of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_489" id="Page_489">[Pg 489]</a></span> +spirits should be revealed to him, and he entering there should find a +home and loving friends.</p> + +<p>It was for this cause that Hubert shunned all intercourse with the +Randolph family, as he did with all others—a resolution strengthened in +their case by the generous motives Gabriel had assigned to him; for +whatever might have been the reasons of this latter for pronouncing his +eulogium, he had said no more than the truth in his account of his +character.</p> + +<p>When Hubert Lyle had gone through the mental process we have detailed, +very deep was the calm that entered into his soul. It became like the +pure waters of a deep still well, walled in and protected from all +sights and sounds of the world without, and with the light and the glory +of heaven alone mirrored within it.</p> + +<p>And why, then, was the quiet now gone from his heart, and the repose +from his eyes? Why did he look up with that earnest gaze to the evening +sky, as though some shadow had come over its brightness? It was because +the terror had come upon him, that the greatest enemy he ever could know +in this life was about to rise up from its deathlike torpor and assail +him—even his own human nature; he felt that all those natural feelings +and passions which he had crushed down deep into his heart as unto a +grave, were now stirring themselves like men that had been buried alive, +and were waking in torture; they <i>would</i> live, they were bursting the +cerements of that strong heart. How were they to be beaten to death +again? There—rampant and fierce was the craving for sympathy, for love. +There, sickening in its intensity, was the yearning to give and to +receive that greatest of earthly gifts, the blessing of a mutual pure +affection; the heart moulded from dust reasserted its birthright, and +cried out for its kindred dust. It was not that these feelings were as +yet at work with any definite object within Hubert Lyle, it was but the +shadow and the prophecy of them that lay upon him, like a thick cloud +charged with lightning.</p> + +<p>And all this had been done by the murmur of one voice, one sweet voice, +speaking in the accents of that tender sympathy which never before had +sounded in the cold, joyless region of his life, whispering hope to him. +He was not so mad as to love Lilias Randolph, whom he had seen but for +one half-hour, but her tenderness, her generous, loving kindness, had +aroused the slumbering nature within him, and he felt that were he much +in contact with one so pure, so gentle, so noble, as she seemed to him, +he might come to love. Oh! how madly, how miserably to love! he, the +deformed cripple! Was not this a frenzy against which he had armed all +the powers of his being? what tyrant, what enemy could be more fearful +to him than an earthly love? what would it do for him but crush and +torture him, and hold up far off the cup of this world's joy, where his +parched lips could not reach, and he dying of thirst? Was it a +presentiment that made him feel as if the spirit he had so chained down +were rebelling against him, and required but the master-touch of some +kindly and winning child of earth to abandon itself to unutterable +madness? But, at all events, whatever were the source of this terror +which had come upon him, whether it were a foreshadowing of future evil, +or the warning of his good angel, it cannot pass unheeded. He must, with +a strong will, compel his spirit to realize in all the bitterness of +detail the truth of his exile from mankind, his needful isolation, as +decreed by the seal of that deformity which made him an unsightly object +in their eyes.</p> + +<p>He would force himself to remember that the music of human voices, +however softly they might greet him, must be for him like those melodies +of nature when wind and stream make the air musical, to which we listen +with pleasure, but in which we have no part; and the aspect of goodness +and gentleness, so lovely in the fallen child of Adam, must be to him +like the light of a star shining far off in regions unattainable. Yet, +while he felt within himself the courage thus to act, were he brought in +contact again with her, whose sweet face had come beaming in so +strangely on the darkness of his perpetual solitude, his very soul +shrank from the struggle, and the longing so often before experienced to +quit this house, where he was so unwelcome, returned upon him with +redoubled force.</p> + +<p>Whilst he was still sitting thinking on these things, his head resting +on his clasped hands, there was a sound of rustling silks in the +passage—the door opened, a measured, stately step went through the +room, and Lady Randolph stood by the side of her deformed son. He looked +up.</p> + +<p>"Dear mother, I am so glad you have come, I was wishing at this very +moment to speak to you."</p> + +<p>There was an expression of displeasure and annoyance on her beautiful +face as she looked at him.</p> + +<p>"It cost me no small effort to come, I can tell you, Hubert; it is so +wretched to find you here in this miserable room, with every thing so +mean and neglected round you. You seem ever to do what you can to render +your own appearance uninviting, crouching down there with your matted +hair and melancholy face."</p> + +<p>There was little of the accents of love in these words, and a slight +shiver seemed to agitate the frame of Hubert as he felt at that moment +that he was repulsive even to the mother who bore him; but he lifted his +dark gray eyes to her face with the sweet, patient smile which filled +his countenance at times with a spiritual beauty, and said gently:</p> + +<p>"I did not expect you at this hour, or I should have tried to make both +my little<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_490" id="Page_490">[Pg 490]</a></span> den and myself look more cheerful in your honor."</p> + +<p>There was something in his expression which touched with an intense +power a never-slumbering memory. She flung her arms round his neck and +bent over him.</p> + +<p>"Oh, my Henry—my Henry—it was his eyes that looked at me just now, as +they have often looked in their tenderness, for ever perished—his eyes +that I kissed in death with my poor heart broken—broken—as it is to +this day—his eyes sealed up now with the horrible clog of his deep +grave—oh, my Henry—my Henry—come back to me!"</p> + +<p>She pressed the head of her son close to her beating heart and wept. He +waited till she was more composed; then, gently disengaging himself, he +made her sit down beside him, and held her hand in both his own.</p> + +<p>"Dear mother," he said very gently, "it is my father whom you love in me +and not myself; when I do not wear this passing likeness of him, which +at times only draws your heart to me, there remains nothing in myself to +win your affections, and you do not love me."</p> + +<p>"It is true," she answered calmly; "living I loved him only—dead, it is +his memory alone which I adore."</p> + +<p>"Then I think you cannot refuse the prayer I have to make to you this +day," said Hubert, not the least flush of indignation tinging his pale +cheek at this unfeeling announcement; "I think it cannot in truth be any +pleasure to you to see in me the marred and hateful resemblance of that +which was so beautiful, and so dear; better surely to feed on his image +pure and unchanged in the depths of your heart, and never have it +brought so painfully before you in my miserable person." He paused a +moment whilst she looked wondering at him, and then, suddenly, he +exclaimed, with a passionate burst of feeling, "Mother, let me go—let +me go—from this house, where my presence is abhorred by some and sought +by none; nothing has kept me here but my fatal promise to you: I would I +had died ere I made it; but it will cost you nothing to part from me, +and you know not what it may cost me to stay here; it is cruel to keep +me—let me go."</p> + +<p>"Let you go! Hubert think what you are saying, you would go to starve!"</p> + +<p>"It matters not! better so than to live on here. Mother, you would have +had no power to detain me in this place but for that rash promise; not +even your wishes should have kept me. I beseech you release me from it."</p> + +<p>"Never!"</p> + +<p>He almost writhed as she spoke, yet he went on—</p> + +<p>"Do not keep me because you fancy I should starve; no man does who has +energy and perseverance. I have a head and hands to labor with, and how +far sweeter were the worst of toil than the bitter bread of charity."</p> + +<p>"But do you know," said Lady Randolph almost fiercely, "that I could not +give you the means of buying that bread one day, I am so utterly in Sir +Michael's power. He succeeded in laying hold of me because I was +poverty-stricken beyond what flesh and blood could bear, and now by the +same means he binds me down; he never has relaxed his hold; every thing +is his; I could not command a shilling. These very baubles with which he +loads me are not my own." And she tore the bracelets from her arms and +flung them down. "He calls them family jewels on purpose to keep me to +the veriest trifle in his power.</p> + +<p>"Mother, mother," exclaimed Hubert, "do you think, though he placed the +wealth of millions in your hands, that I would not rather perish than +touch it; it is too much already that I have been so long indebted to +him for the roof that shelters me; but I do not fear that I could gain +enough for my own living, if only you will let me go from this Egyptian +bondage."</p> + +<p>"Hubert, what is it that has excited you in this manner? I never saw you +so unlike yourself; you are usually so calm and so enduring. Was it your +unfortunate meeting with Sir Michael last night? Was he more than +usually insulting?"</p> + +<p>"No, it was not that," said Hubert gently. "I am so used to his bitter +words that I could not feel more pained than I have ever been; but it +matters not that you should be wearied with the detail of all the +thoughts that have made me at this time so desirous to leave Randolph +Abbey; dear mother, let it suffice you that I do implore you to release +me from my promise."</p> + +<p>"Hubert, I tell you <span class="smcap">no</span> a thousand times. I will not see you starved to +death for any Quixotic fancy; and, besides, do you think any power on +this earth would induce me to gratify my worst enemy, my life-long +enemy, whom chiefly I hate because he has the power to call me +<i>wife</i>—that dear name I so loved to hear from the beloved lips that are +choked up with dust? Do you think I would gratify him by giving him that +which he has labored for, by the persecution of my own dearest husband, +even to the death, and of myself to worse than death, a life with him? +Do you know that the one thing he has always desired has been to obtain +possession of me without having you for ever before his eyes as the +living monument of that buried love which was his torturer, and to which +I am faithful still? And do you think that to brighten even your life, +much less to peril it, I would grant him this his heart's desire, and +put it out of my power to show him, in every caress I lavish upon you, +my poor deformed son, how I adored your father?"</p> + +<p>Hubert let her hand fall, and his features assumed an expression of +severity.</p> + +<p>"Mother, forgive me that as your son I venture to judge you; but this is +unworthy, most unworthy."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_491" id="Page_491">[Pg 491]</a></span></p> + +<p>She seemed almost awed by his rebuke, but hastily throwing her arms +round him, she said more gently:</p> + +<p>"Hubert, forgive me; but I cannot—cannot part with you, the last +shattered fragment of my ruined happiness. You do not know what it is to +me to see you; to hear your voice coming to me like an echo from the +grave, telling of departed love; to find in your eyes at times a glance +as from the light of the past. It was such joy, such deep, deep joy when +he lived, and my happiness was hid in his true heart, that often I think +I never, never could have been so blest: and in truth that it is all a +dream, too unutterably sweet to have been true; life seems to faint +within me at that thought, for it is something to feel, barren and +desolate as my existence is now, that I <i>have</i> loved and been loved as +once I was; and, Hubert, it is your presence alone that makes all this +reality to me. His kiss has been upon your lips—his voice has called +you his dear son. Ah! take not from me those last relics of him."</p> + +<p>She laid her head upon his breast in a passion of weeping. He raised her +tenderly, and said with a calm voice:</p> + +<p>"Mother, it is not my vocation in this world to give pain to others for +the sake of my own will or pleasure: take comfort, I will never more +trouble you concerning this matter; I will not ask again to leave you."</p> + +<p>Silently she pressed her lips to his forehead, and then, as if ashamed +that even her own son should have seen her so moved, she rose up without +speaking and left the room.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> Continued from page 387.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h4>From Bentley's Miscellany.</h4> + +<h2><a name="SEQUEL_TO_THE_JEWISH_HEROINE" id="SEQUEL_TO_THE_JEWISH_HEROINE"></a>SEQUEL TO THE JEWISH HEROINE.</h2> + + +<p>A magnificent saloon, dazzling with oriental splendor, and brilliant +with Arabic decorations, was allotted to Sol's reception; and there she +was immediately attended by six Moorish damsels, who came to receive her +orders. Fatigued by the length of her journey, and covered with the dust +of the road, she begged for water to refresh herself, and a room where +she might repose. Scarcely were the words pronounced when she beheld +around her vessels of silver, brought to her by six other damsels, +clothed in white, and offering her that for which she had asked with +respect and humility. They brought her clothes of the finest cambric, +fragrant essences of Arabia, and exquisitely-worked garments of divers +colors, and of the highest value, all of which the humble Sol rejected, +scarcely accepting from them even those things which were indispensable +to her, and declining to change her dress. But one of the ladies of the +court, seeing this, told her that she had received orders to clothe her +according to the custom of the country, for which purpose she had +collected together these garments for her choice. Sol, nevertheless, +after expressing her gratitude, endeavored to excuse herself, but the +request was pressed upon her with so much urgency, that she found it +impossible to decline; and, at length, among the many varieties of dress +prepared for her express use, selected one of a black hue, bordered with +white, as indicative of the sadness of her heart; when, after a place of +rest had been pointed out to her, she was left alone.</p> + +<p>All the women who had been employed about the young Hebrew repeated to +the wives of the imperial prince the warmest praises of her extreme +beauty and amiability. The emperor himself visited the house of his son, +and inquiring with minute curiosity into all the incidents that have +been related, and listening with delight to the praises heaped upon his +young captive, he renewed his commands that she should be treated with +gentleness, that every thing which could flatter her sight, or gratify +her wishes, should be given her, and that nothing should be denied her +by which her mind could be favorably impressed previously to the +interview which he proposed to have with her on the day +following,—saying, as he departed, that the moment of her conversion by +his means would be an epoch in his life, which he would mark by the most +princely magnificence to all that had contributed to it. All promised +the most punctual compliance with the commands of the emperor and the +prince, and all vied with one another in inventing every expedient to +effect the object which the most subtle arts could have recourse to. +During the night the wearied maiden slept profoundly, while the Moorish +women in attendance watched her in silence, anxious not to disturb her +slumbers, and not venturing to move from their posts.</p> + +<p>Morning dawned at last. The nightingale, the goldfinch, and the +swift-flying bunting, announced the rising of the orb of day; the +flowers unclosed their buds in the transparent morning ray, wafting +forth their delicious odors, and perfuming with their fragrance the +tranquil abode where breathed this innocent and lovely maiden. This +abode was within a small gallery, decorated with crystal; and surrounded +by vast shrubberies of the laurel, cypress, and myrtle, whose dark +foliage mingled with the fragrant boughs of the citron and lemon. +Through occasional vistas might be remarked, amid these labyrinths of +eternal green, the deep mulberry-colored branches of the towering +spice-tree, while the rose, the jessamine, and the mallow, crowned the +raised terraces in sweet luxuriance, seeming to vie with the tall +cassia, and darkening the bowers where the sunlight had been allowed to +penetrate by the abundance of their white and crimson bloom. The +blue-bell, the white lily, and the lily of the valley, blossomed +beneath, shedding their perfume on the lower earth, as though too lowly +to mingle with the clouds of fragrance emitted by the loftier plants, +above which in their turn the ambitious woodbine exalted its gay +festoons; and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_492" id="Page_492">[Pg 492]</a></span> in the more distant shades of the garden, the green sward +spread a soft and variegated carpet over the ground, spangled with +plants of the dwarf violet, and aromatic spikenard. It was upon these +scenes that the eyes of the fair Hebrew unclosed, after her long and +profound sleep. So fair a sight filled her with a tranquil and serene +pleasure; the warbling of the singing birds that fluttered amid the +branches around her, or flew here and there amid the flowery mazes of +the garden, were heard with delight, and while she watched them she +envied them their liberty.</p> + +<p>It was with surprise and admiration that the young Jewess examined the +embellishments of this gallery, which were, indeed, a triumph of art and +ingenuity. Again and again did she admire it, reclining on her couch. +One of the Moorish ladies, seeing her attention thus engaged, addressed +her, with an affectionate salutation. Sol replied in accents of +kindness, and entered into conversation with her, speaking with innocent +admiration of the picturesque beauty of the landscape she beheld from +this gallery.</p> + +<p>A black slave, clothed in white, came to give notice to Sol that the +kaidmia<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> waited to receive her. With haste, therefore, she took leave +of the Moorish ladies, and placed herself under the conduct of that +officer. She was at once conducted into the presence of the emperor, who +received her in a magnificent hall, sitting on an ottoman of crimson +velvet, richly fringed with gold. Opposite to him was a cushion, which +he desired the young Hebrew to occupy, and commanded his slaves to serve +<i>esfa</i>,<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> and tea with the herb <i>luisa</i>.<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> Having thus, by every +demonstration of kindness and affability, prepared her to converse with +him—the emperor told Sol, he had long since heard of her mental +acquirements and talents, and was not ignorant of the arguments she had +used in the palace of his son, nor of her obstinate refusal to embrace +the Law of the Prophet; but that he looked upon that merely as a morbid +feeling of her mind, arising from delusion, and trusted that when <i>he</i> +should have argued awhile with her, she would not long continue in her +present opinion.</p> + +<p>"Thou art called Sol," proceeded the emperor, "is it not so?"</p> + +<p>The young Jewess replied in the affirmative.</p> + +<p>"Well, then, beloved Sol," said he, "I have prepared a boon beyond all +the powers of thine imagination to conceive. Since first I heard of thy +beauty and virtue from Arbi Esid, the governor of Tangier, I decided +that thou shouldst become the enchantress of my court. I saw thee enter +Fez; and was delighted with all I saw; I heard thee speak in the palace +of my son, and was charmed with all I heard. I was beside thee, though +unseen, and I rejoiced with the Prophet, over so fair a captive. This +morning, while thou wast conversing upon the state of men by birth, I +was in the garden; the Tolva,<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> who accompanied me, said to me, 'this +Jewess will indeed be a noble Mahometan!' At that moment, I had decided +to reward thy beauty by giving thee in marriage to my nephew,—a +handsome, rich, and brave youth; I had determined to bestow upon thee a +diamond, whose value exceeds all the riches that any prince can possess; +see, beautiful Sol, these are indeed gifts worthy to be appreciated, and +thou wilt not, I am certain, disappoint me."</p> + +<p>"My lord," replied Sol, "I must confess, that in my present condition, +nothing can attract or fix my attention: and my mind is tormented by the +remembrance of my parents and of my brother."</p> + +<p>"Thy parents and thy brother," said the emperor, "shall be sent for +immediately after thy recantation."</p> + +<p>"Say, rather," exclaimed Sol, "after my death, for never can I become a +Mahometan!"</p> + +<p>"Innocent creature!" said the emperor, "who has urged you to this +temerity? Reflect but for an instant; then consider if you would +renounce my favor, and embrace Death as an alternative! Resolve quickly; +or I would even grant delay, if you desire it."</p> + +<p>"My Lord," said Sol, "I am well aware that you have distinguished me in +a manner of which I am undeserving; the offers that you have made me +are, indeed, worthy of so great a prince; but I, a miserable Jewess, +cannot accept them. I have determined never to change my creed; if this +resolve should merit death, I will patiently submit; order, then, my +execution, and the God of justice, knowing my innocence, will avenge my +blood."</p> + +<p>"Unhappy girl!" exclaimed the emperor; "you were not born to be so +beautiful, yet so unfortunate! From this moment I abandon you: my pride +forbids me to persuade you further; yet I leave you with sorrow—the +laws of my realm must judge you, and already I foresee that your blood +will be poured out upon the earth!"</p> + +<p>So speaking, and casting a compassionate glance upon Sol, the monarch +departed with a measured and thoughtful step.</p> + +<p>The afflicted Sol remained immovable, but gave way to a torrent of +tears. Before long the kaidmia appeared and desired her to follow him, +which she did without opposition. The emperor, although he had decreed +that the cadi, as superior judge of the law, should try her cause, had +urged upon him to withhold the extreme penalties of the law till every +means had been tried that persuasion<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_493" id="Page_493">[Pg 493]</a></span> and mildness could suggest. To the +house of this magistrate she was now conducted, with this especial +recommendation from the emperor, in consequence of which, instead of +being sent to the prison, a room in the cadi's own house was set apart +for her, where he could be near her continually, and frequently engage +her in conversation; yet all these marks of kindness did the young Sol +receive as part of her martyrdom, and now thought on nothing but death, +as the means of her wished-for release.</p> + +<p>The Jew who had accompanied the captive maiden at the request of her +parents, had written news of all these events to Tangier. In Fez they +excited a very great sensation; and, especially among the resident Jews, +who showed their interest in all that passed whenever they could do so +without injuring the success of the means devised to save the victim, of +which they never lost sight for a moment. But they were now, although +they knew it not, engaged in a hopeless undertaking; for the Moors had +entered into a compact, having for its object the conversion of Sol, and +from this there was no escape. The cadi, a zealous servant of the +emperor, conducted his task with masterly subtlety; six hours were +almost daily occupied by him in arguments and entreaties to the young +Jewess; but all was vain, the steadfast maiden, firm in her resolution, +adhered to the law of her fathers, and listened with reluctance to all +the exhortations of the cadi. He admired her fortitude of spirit, while +he pitied her fate, knowing that unless she became a proselyte, her +sentence must inevitably be pronounced. In order to hasten the crisis, +however, he concerted a scheme to surprise her into a decision by which +she might either escape, or fall into his snare.<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a></p> + +<p>One morning early, after nine days had been spent in useless persuasion, +the cadi entered the apartment of Sol: "My daughter," said he, "I bring +you news of consolation; I, that have beheld you with eyes of +compassion, that would weep over your death as for that of a daughter, +have sought the Jajamins<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> of your creed; with them I have considered +your present position; they assure me that your fear of forfeiting the +glories which are to come, which causes you to reject the laws of the +Prophet, is groundless; they ensure you that future glory, on the word +of their conscience, provided that your life is not thus forfeited. I +wish the emperor to remain unacquainted with the step I have thus taken +for your sole benefit, my dear daughter, and from motives of kindness +and affection only. You will be visited by the Jajamins, who will repeat +what you now hear from my lips; and thus, convinced of the truth, you +will give me the delight of your conversion, and of your rescue from +death. But I perceive you are but little affected by this news!"</p> + +<p>Sol had not ceased, during this conversation, to regard the cadi with a +serious expression of countenance, which very clearly indicated the +state of mental vacillation produced by his words; nevertheless, she +answered only, that she was beyond measure anxious to speak to the +Jajamins, on whose judgment would probably depend her final +determination.</p> + +<p>Now this plot, so far from being undertaken without the knowledge of the +emperor, had been concerted between himself and the cadi; and by his +desire the latter informed the Jajamins, that unless they succeeded in +the conversion of the young Hebrew, she would suffer death, and they +would be exposed to the emperor's rigorous displeasure. This threat +produced the desired effect upon the Jajamins, who came to Sol prepared +by every means in their power to change her resolution.</p> + +<p>On the ensuing day, when she received their visit, they professed to her +their wish to console her in her affliction, and to hear from her own +lips the reasons why she had negatived the urgent wishes of the emperor; +adding, that this mission was a part of their duty, to which they much +desired to conform.</p> + +<p>The beautiful Jewess listened with attention to this exordium; and +replied, though with many sighs, in the following terms:—"God, who was +concealed from our view by the dense cloud which no human sight could +penetrate, delivered the Tables of the Law to Moses on the Mountain of +the Desert. He prompts my heart to remain faithful to those laws, +imposed on the people of Israel. More than once have I read in those +sacred books of the horrible persecutions endured by the Israelites who +violated that law; I have studied the prophecies of our Patriarchs, and +have observed their gradual fulfilment. Mahomet was but a false +innovator, a renegade from the primitive law;<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> neither to his laws +nor to the future pleasures of his paradise, can I lend an ear; faithful +to my own rites, the name of the only true God remains engraven on my +heart; to whom Abraham offered his son Isaac in sacrifice; and I, a +daughter of Abraham, would make sacrifice of my life to the same God. He +ordains fidelity, and I will keep His commandments as a faithful Hebrew +ought to keep them. Can any one on earth oppose the decree written by +the right hand of the Most High?"</p> + +<p>The Jajamins listened attentively to the reasons of the youthful Sol, +and urged, in reply, arguments full of hope; but perceiving that Sol, +with an indescribable firmness, set<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_494" id="Page_494">[Pg 494]</a></span> these all aside, one of them at +length addressed her as follows: "Our law imposes on us, as a duty, +after God, to respect the king. The king's will is that you should wear +the turban; and his will is sacred upon earth. I dare not advise +otherwise, for I should then lift up my counsel against the law of the +country that gives us a home. Besides, there are certain circumstances +of human life which are of such exigency, that the God of Abraham looks +upon them with leniency and toleration. As, for instance, young maiden, +the unforeseen and impending danger of your present situation. You have +parents—a brother; Jews, in great numbers, reside in this vast empire; +and all these will, on your account, be exiled, persecuted, and +ill-used. While, on the contrary, your conversion will not only liberate +yourself from death, but will avert these threatening ills to them, and +will bring down upon them honors and privileges; and we will, in the +name of God, insure your future glory, and save your conscience, by +taking on ourselves the responsibility of the act."</p> + +<p>The young Jewess listened in expressive silence, but without any visible +emotion, to the foregoing address. At the close of it she arose, and +expressed herself thus:</p> + +<p>"I respect your words, wise men of our faith; but if our laws impose +respect—after God, to the king—the king cannot violate the precepts of +the One God. I am resolved to sacrifice my life on the altar of my +faith. To myself only can this resolve be fatal: my parents and kindred +will be strengthened, and protected, and freed from the fury of that +fanaticism by which I suffer. I will not, even in outward appearance, +accede to the terms proposed. I will lay down my head to receive the axe +of the executioner, and the remembrance of my death and constancy will +excite only remorse in those who have oppressed me. Pardon me, if I have +offended you; and, I pray you, tell my parents that they live in my +heart. Entreat the cadi to molest me by no further importunities. My +determination is fixed, and all further attempts to shake it will be +vain."</p> + +<p>The tone of firmness in which she spoke convinced the jajamins that +there was no hope; and they left her, overwhelmed with surprise.</p> + +<p>The cadi, who had listened to the whole conference from another +apartment, went to meet the anxious and unsuccessful jajamins.</p> + +<p>"I know all," said he; "I have heard every thing. Your mission is +fulfilled, and I shall report your fidelity to the emperor. Fear +nothing, therefore, but rely upon my word."</p> + +<p>He then dismissed them, and going at once to his office, he took the +papers that related to the cause of the young Sol, and added to them a +transcript of her late contumelious expressions respecting the Law of +the Prophet, which he represented as being blasphemed by her, and +sentenced her, in consequence, to public execution. He next repaired to +the palace of the emperor, and after reporting to him the result of the +late conference with the jajamins, he handed to him the sentence of +death. The emperor was much moved, and showed symptoms of surprise and +concern.</p> + +<p>"How!" said he; "is there no remedy? Must this Jewess die?"</p> + +<p>"My lord," answered the cadi, "by the law she stands condemned; and +there is no remedy."</p> + +<p>"Well, then," said the emperor, "but one more hope remains. I command +that preparations for the execution be made with the utmost publicity; +that all the troops of Fez, and at the intermediate stations, be +assembled, and that nothing may be omitted which can make the spectacle +an imposing one. Let her be awe-stricken; let her even be partially +wounded before her head be finally severed. Perchance the sight of her +own blood, flowing down, may produce some effect upon her, and we may, +at the last moment, accomplish her conversion by intimidation. Leave me; +I am sorely displeased at the fate of this young Hebrew—lovely as her +name. And, mark me, strain every point, neglect nothing. We may yet gain +her over. Alas! may Alà protect her!" And the emperor turned away with +manifest signs of heavy displeasure.</p> + +<p>The cadi well perceived how greatly his royal master was grieved at the +idea of Sol's death: but there was now no remedy. The law, barbarous and +unjust as it was, was final; and her death was, therefore, inevitable. +Before her execution, nevertheless, he paid her a final visit, when he +found her kneeling in prayer, and displayed to her the writ of +execution.</p> + +<p>"Behold," said he, "your sentence. Your head will roll on the ground, +and the dust of the earth shall be dyed with your blood. Your tomb shall +be covered with maledictions, and amidst them will your last end be +remembered. Yet, fair Sol, there is a remedy; think yet upon it. +To-morrow, at this very hour, I will return, either to present you, +crowned with the jessamine flowers, to the emperor, or to lead you to +your death."</p> + +<p>With these words he departed, leaving the young Hebrew still in the +position in which he had found her upon his entrance, and from which she +stirred not, but remained in a contemplative ecstasy commending her soul +fervently to her Creator.</p> + +<p>It was soon publicly known in Fez that the day approached when the +beautiful young Jewess was to be beheaded for blaspheming the name of +the Prophet. The Moors, whose religious fanaticism is great beyond +comparison, looked upon this execution as an occasion for rejoicings. +The Jews, powerless to remedy it, were overcome by the deepest feelings +of despondency: unwilling to remain entirely passive, they commenced a +subscription, ready to be invested in any way that might<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_495" id="Page_495">[Pg 495]</a></span> best suit the +emergency. The parents and relations, who were in Tangier, whose efforts +to save this beloved victim would have been unavailing, even had they +been capable of devising any means for her rescue, were plunged into +despair; their hopes had suffered shipwreck upon the rock of a +relentless fatality, and they, like the young maiden herself, had no +consolation but those imparted from heaven. The afflicted Sol spent the +whole day in meditation, she refused all food, and looked anxiously for +the hour which would end her life. That fatal hour arrived at length. +With a trembling step, the cadi entered her apartment, and found her, as +before, in prayer. He was much agitated, and could speak to her only +with the utmost difficulty. At length he said:—</p> + +<p>"Sol—beautiful Sol! the arbiters of life and death may meet together. +Behold me here! Know you wherefore I am come?"</p> + +<p>"I do know it," replied the maiden.</p> + +<p>"And have you determined upon your fate?" asked the cadi.</p> + +<p>Rising from the ground, and with firmness, Sol answered:—"I have +determined. Lead me to the place where I am to shed my blood."</p> + +<p>"Unhappy girl!" said the cadi, "never, till my death, will thine image +leave my memory!" He then desired a soldier to handcuff and lead her to +the prison.</p> + +<p>The authorities of Fez, at the emperor's desire, having determined to +give the scene as much publicity as possible, resolved that the +execution should take place upon the Soco—a large square in Fez, where +the market is held. The previous day, too, having been one of the weekly +market days, when the concourse of persons was always very considerable, +the news had circulated far and wide, and but little else was talked of. +Very early in the morning, a strong picquet of soldiers had been posted +on the Soco, in order to excite attention, and attract more spectators; +but so numerous was the crowd that this precaution was scarcely +necessary. The Jews who resided in Fez, when they saw that hope was at +an end, went to the emperor and proffered the large sum they had +collected, as was previously stated, in exchange for the permission to +inter the remains of the young Sol after her execution; to which the +emperor offered no opposition.</p> + +<p>The dreadful moment had now arrived, when the fair victim was to be +conducted from her prison to the place of execution. Till it arrived, +her devotions had been uninterrupted, and the executioners, sent to +fetch her, found her still praying to that Eternal Being in whom her +faith was centred, that He would endow her with strength and fortitude +to receive the bitter cup that awaited her. When the door of her prison +opened, she saw the executioners enter without manifesting any emotion +or surprise, but looked meekly towards them, waiting for the fulfilment +of their mission. But these men, whose nature is hardened to the most +savage cruelty, after intimating to her that they were come to conduct +her to death, tied around her neck a thick rope, by which they commenced +dragging her along as though she were a wild beast. The lovely young +girl, wrapped in her haïque,<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> her eyes fixed on the earth, which she +moistened with her bitter tears, followed them with faltering steps. As +she passed, compassion, grief, tenderness, and every painful emotion of +the heart, might be traced in the countenances of the Jews; but among +the Mahometans there were no visible relentings of humanity. The Moors, +of all sects and ages, who crowded the streets, rent the air with their +discordant rejoicings. "She comes!" they cried; "she comes, who +blasphemed the name of the Prophet. Let her die for her impiety!"</p> + +<p>From the prison to the Soco, the crowds every minute augmented, though +the square formed by the troops prevented their penetrating to the +scaffold. Every alley and lane was crowded, and amid the most extreme +confusion the executioner arrived with Sol at the appointed spot. The +pen refuses to describe the incidents of the few succeeding moments. +Some few, even amongst the Moors, were moved, and wept freely and +bitterly. The executioner<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> unsheathed his sharp scimetar, and whirled +it twice or thrice in the air, as a signal for silence, when the uproar +of the Moors was hushed. The beautiful Sol was then directed to kneel +down,—at which moment she begged for a little water to wash her hands. +It was immediately brought, when she performed the ablution required by +the Jewish custom before engaging in prayer. The spectators were +anxiously observant of all the actions of the victim. Lifting her eyes +to heaven, and amid many tears, she recited the Semà (the prayer offered +by those of her nation before death), and then, turning to the +executioners, "I have finished," said she, "dispose of my life;" and, +fixing her gaze upon the earth, she knelt to receive the fatal stroke.</p> + +<p>The scene had by this time begun to change its aspect. The vast +concourse of people, seeing Sol's meek gentleness, could not but be +moved; many wept, and all felt a degree of compassion for her faith. The +executioner, then, seizing the arms of the victim, and twisting them +behind her back, bound them with a rope, and whirling his sword in the +air, laid hold of the long hair of Sol's head, and wounded her slightly, +as he had been commanded, yet so that the blood flowed instantly from +the wound, dyeing her breast and garments.</p> + +<p>But Sol, turning her face to the cruel executioner, replied—</p> + +<p>"There is yet time," said they to her; "be converted, your life may yet +be spared."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_496" id="Page_496">[Pg 496]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Slay me, and let me not linger in my sufferings; dying innocently, as I +do, the God of Abraham will judge my cause."</p> + +<p>These were her last words, at the close of them the scimetar descended +upon her fair neck, and the courageous maiden was no more.</p> + +<p>The Jews had paid six Moors to deliver to them the corpse with the +blood-stained earth on which it lay, immediately after the execution of +the sentence. This was accordingly done, and the remains, wrapped in a +fine linen cloth, were deposited in a deep sepulchre of the Jewish +cemetery by the side of those of a learned and honored sage of the law +of Moses. Amidst tears and sighs was the Hebrew martyr buried. Even some +of the Moors followed her, mourning to her grave, and still visit her +tomb, and venerate her resting place as that of a true and faithful +martyr to the creed she held.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> Or "captain of a hundred," centurion. From the Arabic +<i>kaid</i>, a leader or chief, <i>mia</i>, a hundred. The Kaidmia is adjutant of +the empire.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> A kind of sweetmeat prepared for the emperor and persons +of high rank, composed of milk, sugar, butter, and cinnamon.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> A herb like sweet marjoram, usually accompanying tea in +Morocco.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> A learned professor of the law. It is the common practice +in Arabia to have whispering-galleries and watch-rooms in most houses, +so that what passes in one apartment may be overheard in another.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> It may here be mentioned, that the Moorish law cannot +<i>force</i> a Jew to change his religion; this conversion must be voluntary. +The cadi could not, therefore, condemn Sol to death, because she refused +to become a Mahometan, unless she had made use of some expressions +impugning the law of Mahomet. This will be seen by the sequel.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> The Jajamins or Hajamins are Jews invested with certain +dignities—<i>Anglicè</i>, "wise men," and respected as such.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> On these words was the sentence of Sol framed, impeaching, +as they did, the Mahometan creed.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> The <i>haïque</i>, a sort of bonded cloak, is worn in Africa by +the Jews as well as the Moors.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> All Moorish executions are performed with a sword.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h4>From Chambers's Edinburgh Journal.</h4> + +<h2><a name="ADVENTURES_OF_AN_ARMY_PHYSICIAN" id="ADVENTURES_OF_AN_ARMY_PHYSICIAN"></a>ADVENTURES OF AN ARMY PHYSICIAN.</h2> + +<h3>A REMINISCENCE OF THE BRITISH RULE IN NEW-YORK.</h3> + + +<p>Robert Jackson, the son of a small landed proprietor of limited income +but respectable character in Lanarkshire, was born in 1750, at +Stonebyres, in that county. He received his education first at the +barony school of Wandon, and afterwards under the care of Mr. Wilson, a +teacher of considerable local celebrity at Crawford, one of the wildest +spots in the Southern Highlands. He was subsequently apprenticed to Mr. +William Baillie, in Biggar; and in 1766 proceeded, for the completion of +his professional training, to the university of Edinburgh, at that time +illustrated and adorned by the genius and learning of such men as the +Monros, the Cullens, and the Blacks.</p> + +<p>In pursuing his studies at this favored abode of science and literature, +young Jackson is said to have evinced all that purity of morals and +singleness of heart which characterised him in after-life, and to have +resisted the allurements of dissipation by which, in those days +especially, the youthful student was tempted to wander from the paths of +virtuous industry. His circumstances were, however, distressingly +narrow; and not only was he forced to forego the means of professional +improvement open only to the more opulent student; but in order to meet +the expenses of the winter-sessions, he was obliged to employ the +summer, not in the study but in the practice of his profession. He +engaged himself as medical officer to a Greenland whaler, and in two +successive summers visited, in that capacity, "the thrilling regions of +thick-ribbed ice;" returning on each occasion with a recruited purse and +a frame strengthened and invigorated by exposure and exercise. During +these expeditions he occupied his leisure with the study of the Greek +and Roman languages, and the careful and repeated perusal of the best +authors in both.</p> + +<p>His third winter-sessions at Edinburgh having passed away, he was +induced to go out and seek his fortune in Jamaica, and accordingly +proceeded thither in a vessel commanded by one Captain Cunningham, who +had previously been employed as master of a transport at the siege of +Havannah. It is far from improbable that it was from his conversations +with this individual that Jackson derived those hints, of which at a +future time he availed himself, respecting the transmission of troops by +sea without injury to their health; but it is quite certain his +conviction of the enormous value of cold-water affusions as a curative +agent in the last stage of febrile affections, was imbibed from this +source.</p> + +<p>Arriving in Jamaica, he in 1774 became assistant to an eminent general +practitioner at Savana-la-Mar, Dr. King, who was also in medical charge +of a detachment of the first battalion of the 50th regiment. This latter +he consigned to Jackson's care; and well worthy of the trust did our +young adventurer, though but twenty-four years of age, approve +himself—visiting three or four times a day the quarters of the troops +to detect incipient disease, and studying with ardor and intelligent +attention the varied phenomena of tropical maladies. Four years thus +passed profitably away, and they would have been as pleasant as +profitable, but for one circumstance. The existence of slavery and its +concomitant horrors, appears to have made a deep impression on Jackson's +mind, and, at last, to have produced in him such sentiments of disgust +and abhorrence, that he resolved on quitting the island altogether, and, +as the phrase is, trying his luck in North America, where the +revolutionary war was then raging. This resolution—due perhaps, as much +to his love of travel as to the motive assigned—was not altogether +unfortunate, for shortly after his departure, October 3, 1780, +Savana-la-Mar was totally destroyed, and the surrounding country for a +considerable distance desolated, by a terrible hurricane and sweeping +inroad of the sea, in which Dr. King, his family and partner, together +with numbers of others, unhappily perished.</p> + +<p>The law of Jamaica forbade any one to leave the island without having +given previous notice of his intention, or having obtained the bond of +some respectable person as security for such debts as he might have +outstanding. Jackson, when he embarked for America, had no debts +whatever, and was, moreover, ignorant of the law, with whose +requirements therefore he did not comply. Nor did he become aware of his +mistake until, when off the easternmost point of the island, the master +of the vessel approached him and said: "We are now, sir, off +Point-Morant; you will therefore have the goodness to favor me with your +security-bond. It is a mere legal form, but we are obliged to respect +it." Finding this "legal form" had not been complied with, the master +then, in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_497" id="Page_497">[Pg 497]</a></span> spite of Jackson's protestations and entreaties, set him on +shore, and the vessel continued on her voyage. What was to be done? +Almost penniless, landed on a part of the coast where he knew not a +soul, Jackson well-nigh gave himself up to despair. There was a vessel +for New-York loading, it was true, at Lucea; but Lucea was 150 miles +distant, on the westernmost side of the island, and not to be reached by +sea, whilst our adventurer's purse would not suffer him to hire a horse. +No choice was left him but to walk, and that in a country where the +exigencies of the climate make pedestrianism perilous in the extreme to +the white man. Having reached Kingston, which was in the neighborhood, +in a boat, and obtained the necessary certificate, he started on his +dangerous expedition, and on the first day walked eighteen miles, being +sheltered at night in the house of a benevolent planter. The next day he +pushed on for Rio Bueno, which he had almost reached, when, overcome by +thirst, he stopped by the way to refresh himself, and imprudently +standing in an open piazza exposed to a smart easterly breeze, whilst +his lemonade was preparing, contracted a severe chill that almost took +from him the power of motion, and left him to crawl along the road +slowly and with pain, until he reached his destination.</p> + +<p>Having finally arrived, friendless and moneyless, in New-York, then in +the occupation of the British, he endeavored first to obtain a +commission in the New-York volunteers, and afterwards employment as mate +in the Naval Hospital. In his endeavors, he was kindly assisted by a +Jamaica gentleman, a fellow-passenger, whose regard during the voyage he +had succeeded in conciliating by his amiable manners and evident +abilities; but his efforts were all in vain, and poor Jackson, familiar +with poverty from childhood, began now to experience the misery of +destitution. In truth, starvation stared him in the face, and a sense of +delicacy withheld him from seeking from his Jamaica friend the most +trifling pecuniary assistance. In this, his state of desperation, he +determined upon passing the British lines, and endeavoring to obtain +amongst the insurgents the food he had hitherto sought in vain; +resolving, however, under no circumstances to bear arms against his +native country. Whilst moodily and slowly walking towards the British +outposts to carry into execution this scheme, having in one pocket a +shirt, and in another a Greek Testament and a Homer, he was met half-way +by a British officer, who fixed his eyes steadily on him in passing. +Jackson in his agitation thought he read in the glance a knowledge of +his purpose and a disapprobation of it. Struck by the incident, he +turned back, and, after a moment's reflection, resolved on offering +himself as a volunteer in the first battalion of the 71st regiment +(Sutherland Highlanders), then in cantonment near New-York. Arriving at +the place, he presented himself to the notice of Lieutenant-Colonel +(afterwards Sir Archibald) Campbell, who, having first ascertained that +he was a Scotsman, inquired to whom he was known at New-York. Jackson +replied, to no one; but that a fellow-passenger from Jamaica would +readily testify to his being a gentleman. "I require no testimony to +your being a gentleman," returned the kind-hearted colonel. "Your +countenance and address satisfy me on that head. I will receive you into +the regiment with pleasure; but then I have to inform you, Mr. Jackson, +that there are seventeen on the list before you, who are of course +entitled to prior promotion." The next day, at the instance of Colonel +Campbell, the regimental surgeon, Dr. Stuart, appointed Jackson acting +hospital or surgeon's mate—a rank now happily abolished in the British +army; for those who filled it, whatever might be their competency or +skill, were accounted and treated no better than drudges. Although +discharging the duties that now devolve on the assistant-surgeon, they +were not, like him, commissioned, but only warrant-officers, and +therefore had no title to half-pay.</p> + +<p>Dr. Stuart, who appears to have been a man superior to vulgar prejudice, +and to have appreciated at once the extent of Jackson's acquirements and +the vigor of his intellect, relinquished to him, almost without control, +the charge of the regimental hospital. Here it was that this able young +officer began to put in practice that amended system of army medical +treatment which since his time, but in conformity with his teachings, +has been so successfully carried out as to reduce the mortality amongst +our soldiery from what it formerly was—about fifteen per cent—to what +it is now, about two and a half per cent.</p> + +<p>In the army hospitals, at the period Jackson commenced a career that was +to eventuate so gloriously, there was no regulated system of diet, no +classification of the sick. What are now well known as "medical +comforts," were things unheard of; the sick soldier, like the healthy +soldier, had his ration of salt-beef or pork, and his allowance of rum. +The hospital furnished him with no bedding; he must bring his own +blanket. Any place would do for a hospital. That in which Jackson began +his labors had originally been a commissary's store; but happily its +roof was water-tight—an unusual occurrence—and its site being in close +proximity to a wood, our active surgeon's mate managed, by the aid of a +common fatigue party, to surround the walls with wicker-work platforms, +which served the patients as tolerably comfortable couches. A further +and still more important change he effected related to the article of +diet. He suggested, and the suggestion was adopted—honor to the +courageous humanity which did not shrink from so righteous an +innovation!—that instead of his salt ration and spirits, which he could +not consume, the sick soldier should be supplied<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_498" id="Page_498">[Pg 498]</a></span> with fresh meat, +broth, &c.; and that, as the quantity required for the invalid would be +necessarily small, the quarter-master should allow the saving on the +commuted ration to be expended in the common market on other comforts, +such as sago, &c., suitable for the patient. Thus proper hospital diet +was furnished, without entailing any additional expense on the +state.<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a></p> + +<p>Indefatigable in the discharge of his interesting duties, Mr. Jackson +speedily obtained the confidence of his military superiors, who remarked +with admiration not only his intelligent zeal in performing his hospital +functions, but his calmness, quickness of perception, and generous +self-devotion when in the field of battle. On one occasion, although +suffering at the time from severe indisposition, he remained, under a +heavy fire, succoring the wounded, in spite of the remonstrances of the +officers present. On another, having observed the British commander, +Colonel (afterwards General) Tarleton, in danger of falling into the +hands of the enemy, who had routed the royalist troops, he galloped up +to the colonel—whom a musket-ball had just dismounted-pressed him to +mount his own horse and escape, whilst he himself, with a white +handkerchief displayed, quietly proceeded in the direction of the +advancing foe, and surrendered himself at once. The American commander, +who did not know what to make of such conduct, asked him who he was? He +replied: "I am assistant surgeon in the 71st regiment. Many of the men +are wounded, and in your hands. I come, therefore, to offer my services +in attending them." He was accordingly sent to the rear as a prisoner; +but was well treated, and spent the first night of his captivity in +dressing his soldiers' wounds, taking off his shirt, and tearing it up +into bandages for the purpose. He afterwards did the same good office +for the American sufferers; and when the wounded English could be +exchanged, Washington sent him back, not only without exchange, but even +without requiring his parole. At a subsequent period during the same +unhappy war, when the British under Lord Cornwallis were in full +retreat, the sick and wounded were placed in a building—which the +colonists, on their approach, began to riddle with shot. Several +surgeons, not caring to incur the risk of entering so exposed an +edifice, agreed to cast lots who should go in and see to the invalids; +but Jackson, with characteristic nerve and simplicity, at once stepped +forward: "No, no," said he, "I will go and attend to the men!" He did +so, and returned unhurt.</p> + +<p>After this we find him a prisoner in the hands of the Americans and +French at Yorktown, Virginia. As on the former occasion, he was treated +with all imaginable kindness; and, being released on parole, returned to +Europe early in 1782, and proceeded by way of Cork, Dublin, and Greenock +to Edinburgh, where he abode for a short time. Thence he started for +London: and, desirous of testing the best way of sustaining physical +strength during long marches, and urged perhaps also by economical +considerations, he resolved to make the journey on foot. His West Indian +and American experience had taught him that spare diet consisted best +with pedestrian efficiency, and it was accordingly his practice, during +this long walk, to abstain from animal food until the close of day, nor +often then to partake of it. He would walk some fourteen miles before +breakfast—a meal of tea and bread; rest then for an hour or an hour and +a half; then pace on until bedtime—a salad, a tart, or sometimes tea +and bread, forming his usual evening fare. He found that on this diet he +arose every morning at dawn with alacrity, and could prosecute without +inconvenience his laborious undertaking. By way of experiment he twice +or thrice varied his plan—dining on the road off beefsteaks, and having +a draught of porter in the course of the afternoon; but the result +justified his anticipations. The stimulus of the beer soon passing off, +lassitude succeeded the temporary strength it had lent him; and, worse +than all, his disposition to early rising sensibly diminished.</p> + +<p>His stay in London, which he reached in this primitive fashion, was not +long. His kind friend Dr. Stuart, who had exchanged into the Royal +Horse-Guards, gave him the shelter of his roof; but so poor was Mr. +Jackson, that, although ardently desirous of improving himself in his +profession, he was unable to attend any one of the medical schools with +which London abounds.</p> + +<p>The peace of 1783 having opened the continent to the curiosity of the +British traveller, Jackson curtly announced to his friends, that "he was +going to take a walk." His poverty allowed him no other mode of +locomotion; so off he set on the grand tour, carrying with him a map of +France, a bundle of clothes, and a scanty supply of money. Crossing the +Channel, he reached Calais, a place which Horace Walpole, writing from +Rome, declared had astonished him more than any thing he had elsewhere +seen, but in which our adventurer found nothing more astonishing than a +superb Swiss regiment. He proceeded to Paris, and thence through +Switzerland, by Geneva and Berne, into Germany, at a town of which—Günz +in Suabia—he met with a comical enough adventure.</p> + +<p>On entering the town he was challenged by a soldier, who, having learned +he had no passport, carried him before a magistrate, by whom he was +forthwith condemned as a vagabond,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_499" id="Page_499">[Pg 499]</a></span> and remitted to the custody of a +recruiting sergeant. This worthy, in turn, introduced him to the +commanding officer, who politely gave our traveller the choice of +serving his Imperial and Apostolic Majesty, the Emperor of Germany, +either in his cavalry or his infantry forces. But Jackson, strangely +insensible to the honor, flatly refused to serve his Majesty in these or +any other ways, and desired to be at once set free, and suffered to +continue his journey. The officer, doubtless, amazed at such +presumption, desired the sergeant to convey him to the barracks, where +he was placed in a large room, in which were congregated some two +hundred or so involuntary recruits like himself—harmless travellers, +who, being destitute of passports, the emperor forcibly enlisted into +his service. Jackson found his co-mates in misfortune very dirty, very +ragged, but perfectly civil and good-tempered. Having a little recovered +his serenity—for it is easy to see, though our hero is described as a +man of placid demeanor and somewhat Quakerly appearance, he could be not +a little fiery at times—he sat down and wrote to the commanding +officer, entreating leave to sleep at an inn, and proffering the deposit +of all his money as a pledge for his reappearance next morning. The +reply was an order that he should surrender his writing materials. At +seven o'clock, the appointed sleeping hour, the sergeant returned and +gave the signal for bed by rapping with his cane on the floor, which was +speedily covered by a number of dirty bags of mouldy straw—the +regulation mattresses, it would seem, for involuntary recruits. +Jackson—peppery again—refused to lie down, but was at last compelled +to do so, and between two of the dirtiest fellows of the lot, each of +whom had a leg chained to an arm. The next morning, at his own request, +he was brought before the commandant of the town, who had only arrived +late the preceding evening, and whom he found seated in his bedroom, +"with all his officers standing round him receiving orders," says +Jackson, "with more humility than orderly-sergeants." The commandant +repeated the offer of "cavalry or infantry;" adding that a war was about +to commence with the Turks, and that good-behavior would insure +promotion. However, finding Jackson obstinately persistent in his +refusal, he quietly observed, in conclusion, that the emperor, as a +matter of rule and of right, "impressed" into his army all such as +entered his dominions without certificates of character. "The order was +so tyrannical," declares our <i>détenu</i>, "that I could not contain myself. +'Put me in chains, if you please,' I said, 'but I tell you, all Germany +shall not make me carry a musket for the emperor.'" This impetuous burst +of indignation seems to have alarmed the pglegmatic commandant, who +accordingly let our adventurer go, counselling him, however, to write to +the English ambassador at Vienna for a passport, lest he should get into +further trouble.</p> + +<p>Jackson passed through the Tyrol into Italy, every where indulging his +love of scenery and still greater love of adventure; studying with all +the acuteness of his countrymen the varied characters of the people he +met with, and in his correspondence with home friends, sketching them in +language striking for its force, its propriety, and originality. Some of +his remarks on men and manners are conceived in a truly Goldsmithian +vein, whilst all testify at once to the goodness of his heart and the +quickness of his perceptions. At Venice he says that he felt it to be +"such a feast of enjoyment as seldom falls to the lot of man, and never +to the lot of any but a poor man, who has nothing conspicuous about him +to attract the notice of the crowd," to possess such facilities as he +did for learning what the people of foreign countries really were.</p> + +<p>At Albenga, in Piedmont, Jackson arrived one night, tired, hungry, and +drenched with rain. Intending to put up at the "Albergo di San +Dominico," which he had been informed was the best inn, he went by +accident to the convent of the same name, and entering, called loudly to +be shown to a private room. "Instead of telling me I was wrong," he +says, "the young brethren looked waggish, and began to laugh: when a man +is cold and hungry, he can ill brook being the sport of others;" so +accordingly—peppery again—he shook his stick angrily at the young +monks. And at last one of the most courteous and demure of the number, +coming forward, said that although theirs was not exactly a public +house, still the stranger was heartily welcome to walk in, rest, and +refresh himself. Discovering his mistake, Jackson of course lost no time +in making his bow, his apologies, and acknowledgments.</p> + +<p>He returned to England by way of France, having but six sous in his +pockets when he reached Bordeaux, where an English merchant, a total +stranger, advanced him a few pounds. On the road, he was frequently +taken for an Irishman, and not seldom for an Irish priest; under which +impression, many civilities were paid him by the simple inhabitants of +the country he traversed. Ultimately he landed at Southampton, with just +four shillings in his possession: his once black coat having turned a +rusty brown, his hat shovel-shaped by ill-usage, and his whole aspect so +comical, that the mob hooted him, under the belief that he was a +Methodist preacher. Proceeding inland on foot, in the direction of +Southampton, he overtook a poor man walking along the road, whose looks +of unutterable misery induced our traveller to stop and inquire what +ailed him. He told Jackson he had a son and daughter dying of a disorder +apparently contagious, and that no physician would attend them, as he +was too poor to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_500" id="Page_500">[Pg 500]</a></span> pay the fees. Jackson at once offered his services, +which were gratefully accepted. He saw his patients, and prescribed for +them, and his heart was touched by their simple expressions of +gratitude. "Their thankfulness," he says, "for a thing that would +perhaps do them no good, gave me more pleasure than a fee of, I believe, +twenty guineas, much in need of it as I was." The night had gathered in +before he reached Winchester, where, at a respectable inn, he partook of +such refreshment as his means afforded, and then desired to be shown to +his bedroom. The answer was, that the house contained no bedroom for +such as he, and he was finally driven out with the coarsest abuse into +the streets. The hour was ten o'clock, the month December, and the +severity of the weather may be guessed from the fact, that the snow lay +deep on the ground. After wandering about for some time, he at last +obtained shelter in a small house in the outskirts of the city. The next +day he fared little better. "On Sunday morning," he relates, "I was +sixty-four miles from London, and had only one shilling in my pocket. I +was hungry, but durst not eat; thirsty, and I durst not drink, for fear +of being obliged to lie all night at the side of a hedge in a cold night +in December. After dark, I travelled over to Bagshot; was denied +admittance into some of the public-houses, ill used in others." He +sought in vain permission even to lie in a barn; but a laborer he +fortunately fell in with conducted him to a house, where, at the +sacrifice of his last shilling, he secured at length a bed. The next +day—foot-sore, penniless and starving—he entered London. After +remaining there a brief space—January, 1784—in spite of the inclement +season, he set off, again on foot, to Perth—a journey that occupied him +three weeks, as he was detained on the way by some friends whom he +visited. At Perth, where his old regiment then lay previous to its +disbandment, he amused himself by studying Gaelic, and the controversy +respecting Ossian and his poems. Quitting Perth, he travelled, still on +foot, through the Highlands, the inhabitants of which he was, in the +first instance, disposed to class with savages; but when he had observed +the originality of conception, the breadth of humor, and the elevated +sentiments which mark the Celt, his opinions underwent a total +revolution. He was especially delighted with a ragged old reiver or +cattle-lifter whom he encountered, and who had given shelter to the +Young Chevalier in the braes of Glenmoriston after the battle of +Culloden.</p> + +<p>On his return to Edinburgh, Jackson married a lady of fortune, the +daughter of Dr. Stephenson, and niece of his old friend Colonel Francis +Shelley, of the 71st regiment; and was enabled by this accession to his +means once again to visit Paris, where he not only resumed his medical +studies, but acquired the mastery of several languages, Arabic amongst +the rest. Having graduated M. D. at Leyden, he came back again to +England, and commenced practice at Stockton-upon-Tees, in Durham. +Although his reputation speedily became considerable, especially in +cases of fever, he seems scarcely to have liked his new avocation. He +found solace, however, in his favorite study of language, which he +pursued with unremitting ardor—constantly reading through the Greek and +Latin classics, and not only rendering himself familiar with the best +works of the modern continental authors, but also with the literature of +the Arabic, Persian, Hebrew, and Gaelic tongues. The <i>Bostan</i> of Saadi +is said to have been one of his most favorite poems.</p> + +<p>On the war breaking out in 1793, Dr. Jackson—who, in 1791, had +published a valuable work on the fevers of Jamaica and continental +America—applied for employment as army-physician; but Mr. Hunter, the +director-general of the medical department of the army, considering none +eligible for such employment who had not served as staff or regimental +surgeon, or apothecary to the forces, Jackson agreed to accept, in the +first instance, the surgeoncy of the 3d Buffs, on the understanding, +that at a future time, he should be nominated physician as he desired. +Mr. Hunter, however, ever, died soon after this; and his promise was not +fulfilled by the Board which succeeded him in the medical direction of +the army, and which appears to have pursued Dr. Jackson with uniform +hostility.</p> + +<p>Returning to England with the troops, it was offered to him to +accompany, in the capacity of chief medical officer, Sir Ralph +Abercromby's expedition against some of the West India islands; and +although no employment could possibly have been more agreeable to his +taste, he, much to Sir Ralph's chagrin, declined the flattering +proposal, on the grounds, that lower terms had been offered to him than +to another professional man. Nothing but a sense of professional +delicacy, it is plain, governed him in this transaction, for he +immediately afterwards embarked (April, 1796) as <i>second</i> medical +officer in another expedition to San Domingo. During his abode in this +island, he was unwearied in enlarging his acquaintance with tropical +diseases—observing the rule he had followed in Holland of noting down +by the patient's bedside the minutest particulars of every case he +attended, the effects of the treatment pursued, and whatever else might +shed light on the intricacies of pathological science. He also gave a +larger practical operation to the scheme he had years before devised of +amending the dietaries of military hospitals.</p> + +<p>After the evacuation of San Domingo in 1798, our physician paid a visit +to the United States, where he was received with signal distinction, his +reputation having preceded him. The latter part of the year found him +again at Stockton, publishing a work on contagious<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_501" id="Page_501">[Pg 501]</a></span> and endemic fevers, +"more especially the contagious fever of ships, jails, and hospitals, +vulgarly called the yellow-fever of the West Indies;" together with "an +explanation of military discipline and economy, with a scheme for the +medical arrangements of armies." He undertook, about this time, by +desire of Count Woronzow, the Russian ambassador, the medical charge of +seventeen hundred Russian soldiers, who were stationed in the Channel +Islands in a sad state of disease and disorganization; and so admirably +did he acquit himself, and so perfect were the hospital provisions he +made, that (1800) the commander-in-chief nominated him physician and +head of the army-hospital depôt at Chatham—as he says, "without any +application or knowledge on his part." This appointment was the cause of +his subsequent misfortunes.</p> + +<p>At Chatham, with the warm approbation of Major-General Hewett, +commanding the depôt, he introduced that system of hospital reform form +which had elsewhere operated so successfully. The changes he effected, +as soon as they were made, became known to the Medical Board, and were +publicly approved of by one of its members. However, shortly afterwards, +an epidemic broke out in the depôt (then removed to the Isle of Wight), +arising from the fact, that the barracks were overcrowded with young +recruits, but which the medical board ascribed to Jackson's innovations, +and reported so to the Horse-Guards. The commander-in-chief directed an +inquiry to take place before a medical board impannelled for the +purpose, and the result of that inquiry may be guessed from a +communication made by the War-Office to the commandant of the depôt. +This states "the unanimous opinion of the board to have exculpated Dr. +Jackson from all improper treatment of diseases in the sick," and the +commander-in-chief's gratification, "than an opportunity has thus been +given to that most zealous officer of proving his fitness for the +important situation in which he is placed." The result of this wretched +intrigue, however, was that Jackson, disgusted with the whole affair, +requested to be placed on half-pay, to which request the Duke of York, +with marked reluctance, at last (March 1803) acceded.</p> + +<p>In his retirement at Stockton, Jackson put forth two valuable works, one +on the medical economy of armies, and another on that of the British +army in particular, and was much gratified by an offer to accompany, as +military secretary, General Simcoe, just appointed commander-in-chief in +India. The general's sudden death, however, put an end to this plan; and +Jackson continued at Stockton, addressing frequent representations to +government on the defective medical arrangements in the military +service—representations the very receipt of which were not acknowledged +by Mr. Pitt, to whom they were forwarded. The Peninsular war commencing, +Dr. Jackson was again named Inspector of Hospitals, but was not, thanks +to the persevering enmity of the Medical Board, sent on foreign service, +although he volunteered to sink his rank, and go in any capacity. The +Board even succeeded, by calumnious statements, that he had purchased +his diploma—statements he readily confuted—in preventing his +appointment to the Spanish liberating army; although the British +government had formally requested him to accept such an appointment, and +agreed to give credentials testifying to his capacity and +trustworthiness. This last appointment led him, in an unguarded +moment—peppery to the last—to inflict a slight personal chastisement +on the surgeon-general, for which he was imprisoned six months in the +King's Bench.</p> + +<p>But the triumph of his enemies was not of long duration. In 1810 the +Board was dissolved, and the control of the medical department vested in +a director-general, with three principal inspectors subordinate to him. +Then did Jackson return to active service, and from 1811 to 1815 was +employed in the West Indies; his reports from whence embracing every +topic relating to medical topography, to sanitary arrangements, and to +the observed phenomena of tropical disease, are, it is not too much to +say, invaluable. His hints as to the choice of sites for barracks, the +propriety of giving to soldiers healthy employment and recreation, as a +means of averting sickness, his suggestions as to the treatment of +fevers and other endemic diseases, may be found in the various works he +has published, embodying the fruits of his West Indian experience.</p> + +<p>In 1819, he was sent by government to Spain, where the yellow-fever had +broken out, and his report upon its characteristics has been universally +admitted to supply the fullest information on the subject that had +hitherto been communicated to the public. He availed himself of his +presence in that part of Europe to pay a visit to Constantinople and the +Levant; and, retaining his energy to the last, when a British force was +sent to Portugal in 1827, he desired permission to accompany it. The +sands of his life, however, were then fast running out, and on the 6th +of April in the same year he died, after a short illness, at Thursby, +near Carlisle, in the seventy-seventh year of his age. Thus closed a +long career of usefulness; for it is not too much to say, that few men +of his time labored harder to benefit his fellow-creatures than did Dr. +Robert Jackson.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Spanish Names.</span>—A Spanish journal gives the following singular names as +those of two <i>employés</i> in the Finance department at Madrid:—Don +Epifanio Mirurzururdundua y Zengotita, and Don Juan Nepomuceno de +Burionagonatotorecagogeazcoecha. The journal would have done well to +have given some directions as to the pronunciation.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> The late Admiral Sir Edward Codrington, when in command, +during the war, of a frigate on the coast of Calabria, finding sickness +appear amongst his crew, purchased on his own responsibility some +bullocks, for the purpose of supplying them with fresh meat. Lord +Collingwood having heard of this, and considering it a breach of +discipline, sent for Codrington, and addressed him: "Captain Codrington, +pray have you any idea of the price of a bullock In this place?" "No, my +lord," was the reply, "I have not; but I know well the value of a +British sailor's life!"</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_502" id="Page_502">[Pg 502]</a></span></p> +<h4>From Dicken's Household Words.</h4> + +<h2><a name="STRINGS_OF_PROVERBS" id="STRINGS_OF_PROVERBS"></a>STRINGS OF PROVERBS.</h2> + + + +<p>When a saying has passed into a national proverb, it is regarded as +having received the "hall-mark" of the people, with respect to its +prudence or practical wisdom. Proverbs deal only with realities, +generally of the most homely and every-day kind, and are always supposed +to comprise the most sage advice, or the most broad worldly truth, +within the least possible compass.</p> + +<p>Now, while we admit that proverbs are for the most part true, and useful +in their teaching, and that they very often inculcate excellent maxims, +we must at the same time enter our protest against the infallibility of +most of them. Numbers will be found, on the least examination (which is +seldom given to them) to be one-sided truths; others, inculcate an +utterly selfish conduct, under the guise of prudence or worldly wisdom; +and some of them are absolutely false, or only of the narrowest +application. The majority of the proverbs, of all modern nations, +originate with the people, and with the humbler classes (we must except +the Chinese and Arabic, which are evidently the product of their sages), +as witnessed by the homeliness of the allusions, and the frequent +vulgarity, but, in all cases, the actual experience of life and its +ordinary occurences with regard to men and things. They are full of +corn, with a proportionate quantity of chaff and straw. Let us no +longer, therefore, take all these "sayings" for granted; let us rather +take them to task a little, for their revision and our own good.</p> + +<p>Proverbs being the common property of all mankind, and often to be +traced to very remote geographical sources, we shall observe no national +classification; but string a few together now and then from Arabia and +China, from Spain, Italy, France, or England, just as they may occur. +So, now to our first string.</p> + +<p><i>Honesty is the best policy.</i> This is true in the higher sense; but +doubtful in the sense usually intended. It is true as to the general +good, but not usually for the individual, except in the long run. (We +pass over the obvious truth, that it is better policy to earn a guinea, +than to steal one, because the proverb has a far wider range of meaning +than that.) To be a "politic," clever fellow, a vast deal more humoring +of prejudices, errors, and follies, is requisite, than at all assorts +with true honesty of character. If, however, we regard this proverb only +on its higher moral ground, then, of course, we must at once admit its +truth. The reader will probably be surprised, as we were, to find that +it comes from the Chinese, and will be found in the translation of the +novel of "<i>Iu-Kiao-Li</i>."</p> + +<p><i>A leap from a hedge is better than a good man's prayer.</i> (Spanish.) The +leap (of a robber) from his lurking-place, being preferable to asking +charity, and receiving a blessing, is one of those proverbs, the +impudent immorality of which is of a kind that makes it impossible to +help laughing. Its frank atrocity amounts to the ludicrous. It is an old +Spanish proverb, and occurs in "Don Quixote"—of course in the mouth of +Sancho.</p> + +<p><i>A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.</i> The extreme caution +ridiculed by this proverb is of a kind which one would hardly have +expected to be popular in a commercial country. If this were acted upon, +there would be an end of trade and commerce, and all capital would lie +dead at the banker's—as a bird who was held safe. The truth is, our +whole practice is of a directly opposite kind. We regard a bird in the +hand as worth only a bird; and we know there is no chance of making it +worth two birds—not to speak of the hope of a dozen—without letting it +out of the hand. Inasmuch, however, as the proverb also means to exhort +us not to give up a good certainty for a tempting uncertainty, we do +most fully coincide in its prudence and good sense. It is identical with +the French "<i>Mieux vaut un</i> 'tiens' <i>que deux</i> 'tu l'auras,'"—one "take +this" is better than two "thou shalt have it;"—identical also with the +Italian: <i>E meglio un uovo oggi, che una gallina domani</i>; an egg to-day +is better than a hen to-morrow. It owes its origin to the Arabic—"A +thousand cranes in the air, are not worth one sparrow in the fist."</p> + +<p><i>Enough is as good as a feast.</i> The best comment on this proverb that +occurs to us was the reply made by Rooke, the composer (a man who had a +fund of racy Irish wit in him), at a time when he was struggling with +considerable worldly difficulties. "How few are our real wants!" said a +consoling friend; "of what consequence is a splendid dinner? Enough is +as good as a feast."—"Yes," replied Rooke, "and therefore a feast is as +good as enough—and I think I prefer the former."</p> + +<p><i>Love me, love my dog.</i> At first sight this has a kindly appearance, as +of one whose interest in a humble friend was as great as any he took in +himself; but, on looking closer into it, we fear it involves a curious +amount of selfish encroachment upon the kindness of others—a sort of +doubling of the individuality, with all its exactions. My dog (in +whatever shape) may be an odious beast; or, at best, one who either +makes himself, or, whose misfortune it is to be, very disagreeable to +certain people; but, never mind—what of that, if he is <i>my</i> dog? +Society could not go on if this were persisted it.</p> + +<p><i>Set a beggar on horseback, and he'll ride to the devil.</i> The direction +in which he will ride depends entirely on the character of the +beggar—or poor man suddenly risen to power. Some sink over the other +side of the horse, and drop into utter sloth and pampered sensualism; +but others do their best to ride well, and sometimes succeed. Masaniello +and Rienzi did not ride long in the best way; but several patriots, who +have rapidly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_503" id="Page_503">[Pg 503]</a></span> risen from obscurity to power, have set noble examples.</p> + +<p><i>Throw him into a river, and he will rise with a fish in his mouth.</i> +(Arabic.) Some men are so fortunate that nothing can sink them. Where +another man would drown they find fish or pearls.</p> + +<p><i>The monkey feared transmigration, lest he should become a gazelle.</i> +(Arabic.) The matchless conceit of some people, and utter ignorance of +themselves, either as to appearance or abilities, are finely expressed +in the above.</p> + +<p><i>The baker's wife went to bed hungry.</i> (Arabic.) How often is it seen, +that those who follow a profession or trade, are among the last to +display a special benefit from their calling! Our proverb, that +"Shoemakers' wives are the worst shod," seems to be derived from the +same source.</p> + +<p><i>Chat échaudé craint l'eau froide</i>; the scalded cat fears (even) cold +water. This is a better version of the English proverb of "A burnt child +dreads the fire." That the proverb is by no means of general +application, the experience of every one can avouch. It would be the +saving of many a child, of whatever age, who having been burnt should +entertain a salutary dread of the fire ever after. But it is not so; +witness how many are burnt—<i>i.e.</i>, ruined, wounded, shot, drowned, made +ridiculous, who had all been previously well warned by "burning their +fingers" with losses, injuries by land and sea, and failures in attempts +involving dangerous chances.</p> + +<p><i>Crom a boo</i>; I will burn. This Irish proverb, or saying, may serve in +many respects as an adverse commentary on the preceding. There are +people who are never at rest when they are out of hot water—nor +contented when they are in. "I will burn" is the motto of the Duke of +Leinster. It would do capitally for Mr. Smith O'Brien. Perhaps, however, +it should not be read as a resolution to suffer, but as a threat to +inflict a burning. Still, the vagueness of this threat—a dreadful +announcement with no definite object—would render it equally +applicable.</p> + +<p><i>Bis dat qui cito dat</i>; he gives double who gives promptly. The truth of +this is well illustrated by the converse it suggests; that he who long +delays and tantalizes before giving, earns less gratitude than scorn. It +requires more generosity and a finer mind to confer a favor in the best +way, than to confer double the amount of the favor in itself.</p> + +<p><i>What I gain afore I lose ahint.</i> (Scotch.) To be engrossed with a fixed +object, is to forget what is going on all around us. I am closely +engaged with what is passing before my eyes, while I am deceived and +injured behind my back. This quaint old proverb has been ludicrously +illustrated by a characteristic story. A Highlander, in a somewhat +scanty kilt, was crossing a desolate moor one winter's night, and being +very cold, he hastened to a light he saw at no great distance. It turned +out to be a decomposed cod's head, which sent forth phosphoric gleams. +He stooped down to try and warm his hands at it; but finding the bleak +winds whistling all round his legs, he made the sage observation above, +which has passed into a proverb.</p> + +<p><i>Entfloh'nes Wort, geworf'ner Stein, die kommen nimmermehr herein</i>; the +hasty word, and hasty stone, can never be recalled. How truthful, how +home to the mark, does this proverb fly; how excellent is the warning +and the self-command it inculcates!</p> + +<p><i>To-day a fire, to-morrow ashes.</i> (Arabic.) Violent passions are the +soonest exhausted; to-day all-powerful, to-morrow nothing, or the +consequences.</p> + +<p><i>Reading the psalms to the dead.</i> (Arabic.) This is the original of our +"Preaching to the dead," to express the fruitlessness of exhortations, +applications, or petitions, to certain insensible people.</p> + +<p><i>Follow the owl, she will lead thee to ruin.</i> (Arabic.) A most +picturesque proverb, giving its own scenery with it. But it strikes one +as curious that this should come from the East which seems so familiar +to our apprehensions. Not only are the habits of the owl the same, but +the owl is equally regarded as the symbol of a purblind fool. Yet, on +the other hand, the owl of classic times was a type of wisdom.</p> + +<p><i>Two of a trade can never agree.</i> It is curious, and, in most instances, +highly gratifying, to see how many of these sayings of our ancestors are +becoming falsified by the great advances made, of late years, in social +feelings and arrangements. Trades' unions, co-operative societies—in +fact, all our great companies prove how well two of a trade can agree; +and so do all combinations of masters or of workmen. Yes, it will be +said, but they "agree," and co-operate for their mutual interests, and +they do not agree with those opposed to them. Of course not; the +sensible thing, therefore, is obvious, to enlarge the sphere of good +understanding and reciprocal fair dealing in matters of business, and +thus to supersede the bad feeling and injury of greedy rivalries and +selfish antagonisms.</p> + +<p><i>There was a wife who always took what she had, and never wanted.</i> +(Scotch.) A good practical advice, showing the importance of using what +you possess, instead of hoarding it, or reserving it, even when most +needed, for some possible contingency, which may never occur. It seems +to refer chiefly to articles of dress, clothing, domestic utensils, or +other household matters.</p> + +<p><i>Dat Deus immiti cornua curta bovi</i>; God curtails the power to do evil +in those who desire to do it.</p> + +<p><i>There is honor among thieves.</i> This is, no doubt, quite true, though +you must be a thief yourself to derive much benefit from it. They stand +by their order. The suggestion is—since there is honor towards each +other among the most unprincipled classes, surely Mr. Sweepstakes, and +Mr. Moses Battledore, who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_504" id="Page_504">[Pg 504]</a></span> are both respectable members of society, and +belong to clubs, would not cheat me. But this does not logically follow; +for we by no means know how far the respectable individual makes his +view of his own interest an excuse to himself for an occasional +exception to the code of morality he professes. There's honor among +thieves; and there are thieves (here and there) among +honorably-connected men, "all honorable men." Life is a "mingled yarn" +of good and evil; and society is a motley aggregate of all sorts of +yarns.</p> + +<p><i>A rose-bud fell to the lot of a monkey.</i> (Arabic.) The monkey +appreciated the rose-bud quite as much as swine appreciate the pearls +which are said to be cast before them.</p> + +<p><i>Of what use to a fool is all the trouble he gives himself?</i> (Chinese.) +None whatever; but his folly may cause a vast deal of trouble to people +of sense. One false move of an utterly incompetent man in office, and +the force of the saying becomes very expansive.</p> + +<p><i>There are no lies so wicked as those which have some foundation.</i> +(Chinese.) A saying which is but too true, and which ought to be +universally understood in society, as some protection against slander.</p> + +<p><i>Many preparations before the sour plum sweetens.</i> (Chinese.) Great +results do not hastily ripen; great and important changes must undergo a +gradual process.</p> + +<p><i>Spare the rod and spoil the child.</i> This seems to be derived from the +old Spanish proverb, which we find in Don Quixote, "He loves thee well +who makes thee weep." They are unkindly and dangerous maxims, which tend +to inculcate severity, and to justify harsh treatment upon the plea of +future advantage. We readily admit that nothing can well be worse than a +"spoilt child," nor can a more injurious system exist than that of +pampering or spoiling—except the direct opposite, that of frequently +causing tears.</p> + +<p><i>A tea-spoonful of honey is worth a pound of gall.</i> An indiscriminate +use of the sweets of life is a stupidity and an injury; but the +judicious use of them is of far more service in the production of good +results, than the bitter lessons which are often considered to be of +most advantage. It is better to soften the heart than to harden it. "A +soft word turneth away wrath."</p> + +<p><i>What the ant collects in a year, the priest eats up in a night.</i> +(Arabic.) The tithe-taxes, and other revenues of the state-clergy, +derived from the industry of the working classes, are not very tenderly +dealt with in this proverb.</p> + +<p><i>The walls have ears.</i> (Arabic.) This is one of the many instances of +our homeliest proverbs in every-day use, being derived from the East. No +doubt the saying, that "Little pitchers have great ears" (in allusion to +the sharpness of hearing in children), is also derived from the domestic +utensils of foreign countries in ancient times. The British Museum +contains many such little pitchers, as well as the Foundling Hospital.</p> + +<p><i>The ox that ploughs must not be muzzled.</i> (Arabic.) The laborer ought +to be allowed freedom of speech, or at least free breathing. We have a +nautical saying akin to this—"A sailor never works well if he does not +grumble."</p> + +<p><i>Three united men will ruin a town.</i> (Arabic.) The power of combination +was never more excellently expressed.</p> + +<p><i>He begins the quarrel who gives the second blow.</i> (Spanish.) There are +but few who possess the requisite degree of wise and kindly forbearance +and magnanimous self-command implied in this saying. To strike again, or +rather (as the <i>blow</i> is figurative) to retort an angry word, is natural +to most men; to preserve a reproving silence, or administer a dignified +rebuke, is in the power only of great characters, and not with them at +all times. But it is quite possible, as we live in a very pugnacious +world, that such forbearance should not be thrown away upon every one, +or the small majority of the magnanimous would soon be beaten out of +existence. The above proverb, we believe, is originally Spanish, and, +coming from a people so proverbially revengeful, seems very +extraordinary, and only to be accounted for as the result of an abstract +thought of some lofty-minded hidalgo, speculating on friendship. Don +Quixote might have said it.</p> + +<p><i>A stitch in time saves nine.</i> One of the most sensible and practical of +all proverbs, as every body's experience can avouch. Yet, in defiance of +all their own experience, how many people we often see who constantly +neglect the stitch in time! They do not forget it, or overlook it; and +when they do, if you point it out to them, they still neglect it.</p> + +<p><i>Chi non sa niente, non dubita di niente</i>; he who knows nothing, doubts +of nothing. The converse is equally true. He who knows much, is careful +how he doubts of any thing. This is peculiarly inculcated, at the +present time, by the extraordinary discoveries and success of science.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h4>From the Ladies' Companion.</h4> + +<h2><a name="A_CHAPTER_ON_WATCHES" id="A_CHAPTER_ON_WATCHES"></a>A CHAPTER ON WATCHES.</h2> + + +<p>We have no means of telling how long a period elapsed from that primal +time when the "evening and the morning made the first day," ere man's +ingenuity devised a means of calculating the passing by of those +precious moments of which his duration is composed, in order to +economize them to the purposes of life. Shadows by day and stars at +night appear to have indexed the flight of time for the ancient Hebrews; +though it is very evident that long before the sun-dial of Ahaz was made +memorable by the Prophet Isaiah, the Chaldeans, accustomed to calculate +eclipses, and other astronomical phenomena, must have been in possession +of some much more accurate instrument for its computation.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_505" id="Page_505">[Pg 505]</a></span></p> + +<p>Days, months, and years, are constantly referred to in the books of the +Old Testament, but nothing is said of more minute divisions of time, +save that of the day into the natural ones of morning, noon, eventide, +and night, until Judea became tributary to Rome, when three of the +Evangelists, in describing the crucifixion, and the supernatural +darkness subsequent to that event, remark that it lasted from the sixth +<i>hour</i> to the ninth; and it is on record, that the Clepsydra, or +water-clock, (said by Vitrivius to have been invented by one Ctesibius +of Alexandria, in the reign of Ptolemy Evergetes), was introduced at +Rome by P. Cornelius Scipio Nasica, in the 595th year of the city, and +consequently many years before the birth of Christ. This simple +time-keeper was so constructed, that the water issued, drop by drop, +through a hole in the vessel, and fell into another, in which a light +floating body marked the height of the water as it rose, and by this +means the time that had elapsed. These instruments, we are told, were +set full of water in the courts of judicature, and by them the lawyers +pleaded; in order, as Phavorinus tells us, to prevent babbling, and +cause those who spoke to be brief in their speeches. Hour, or +sand-glasses, are also said to have originated at Alexandria, and to +have been introduced into domestic use amongst the Romans eight years +afterwards, or 158 years before the Christian era.</p> + +<p>The earliest attempt at measuring time in this country appears to have +been on the part of Alfred the Great, by means of waxen tapers. The +exact period when those direct ancestors of our subject, clocks, or, as +they were primitively called, horologes, came into use, is one of those +things over which time has cast so thick a veil, that not even the +researches of the encyclopædists can penetrate it. By some, the +invention of clocks with wheels is ascribed to Pacificus, archdeacon of +Verona, as early as the ninth century. And though we read that clocks +(without water) were set up in churches toward the end of the twelfth, +the author of the "Divina Commedia" is the first writer on record, who +distinctly applies the term horologium to a clock that struck the hours; +and he was born 1265, and died 1321.</p> + +<p>In 1288, during the reign of the 1st Edward, the <i>English Justinian</i>, as +he has been called, it is said that a fine levied on a lord chief +justice was applied to the purpose of furnishing the famous clock-house +near Westminster Hall with an horologe, which it is farther stated was +the work of an English artist.</p> + +<p>Mention is also made of the setting up of a clock in Canterbury +Cathedral about the same period, and in that of Wells in 1325. So that +those three Dutch horologiers, from Delft, who came over (as Rymer tells +us) at the invitation of Edward III. in 1368, were not, as some +imagined, the introducers of the art, though they very possibly helped +us to improve it. Up to the time when Henry de Wic astonished the +Emperor Charles V. with those seemingly living toys with which he was +wont to surround himself after dinner, and watch the beating and +revolving of their curious machinery, those rude prototypes of our +subject, which are said to have resembled small table clocks rather than +watches, and yet were true specimens, we imagine, since they continued +going in a horizontal position, which is the only mechanical distinction +between a watch and clock—up to this period, we were about to say, +clocks appear to have endured a very ascetic existence, living in tall +houses, built on purpose for them, or shut up in church towers and +monastic buildings—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Fell sickerer<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> was his crowning in his loge,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As is a clock, or any <i>abbey orloge</i>,"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>wrote Chaucer in the fourteenth century. And it is not until nearly the +end of the fifteenth that we find them domesticated in houses.</p> + +<p>From a description of some, which appear in an inventory of articles in +the king's palaces of Westminster and Hampton Court, copied by Strutt, +the pendules of the period must have been equally ornate with those in +modern drawing-rooms, and much more curious. Thus one, we are told, not +only showed the course of the planets, and the days of the year, but was +richly gilt, and enamelled, and ornamented with the king's (Henry the +Eighth's) coat of arms; it also possessed a chime.</p> + +<p>Speaking of this monarch reminds us, that previous to the scattering of +the treasures of Strawberry Hill, there was preserved in the library +there a little clock, of silver gilt, the gift of Henry, on the morning +of his marriage, to the ill-fated Anne Boleyn. It was elaborately chased +and engraved, and adorned with fleurs-de-lys, and other heraldic +devices, and had on the top a lion supporting the arms of England. The +gilded weights represented <i>true-lovers-knots</i>, inclosing the initials +of Henry and Anne; and one bore the inscription, "The most happye," the +other the royal motto. Though more than three hundred years had passed +since the tragic ending of time with its original possessor, it was +still going when the ivory hammer of the famous Robins struck it down to +another new and more fortunate owner, About this period watches are said +to have been in use; and in the Holbein chamber of the collection just +mentioned, a bust of the royal <i>wife-slayer</i>, carved in box-wood, +represented him with a dial suspended on his breast. The earliest watch +known was one in Sir Ashton Lever's Museum, which bore date 1541; but +from various imperfections in the workmanship, they were not very +generally used till towards the end of Elizabeth's reign.</p> + +<p>Shakspeare frequently mentions the clock, and in "Twelfth Night" he +makes Malvolio—"While exclaim, in his babblings of fancied greatness<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_506" id="Page_506">[Pg 506]</a></span> +I, perchance, <i>wind up my watch</i>, or play with some rich jewel," an +expression that would lead us to suppose that they were even then +regarded rather as toys or ornaments than things of necessary use.</p> + +<p>Archbishop Parker, in 1575, left by will to the Bishop of Ely his staff +of Indian cane, with a <i>watch</i> in the top of it; a position that savors +more of whim than utility. Yet the excellence of some of these ancient +timekeepers is remarkable; for Derham, in his "Artificial Clockmaker," +mentions a watch of Henry VIII., which was in order in 1714, and of +which Dr. Demanbray had often heard Sir Isaac Newton and Demoivre speak; +and the old wooden-framed clock of Peterborough Cathedral, which, +instead of the usual key or winch, is wound up by long handles or +spikes—a sufficient proof of its antiquity—still strikes, says +Denison, upon a bell of considerable size.</p> + +<p>Guy Fawkes carried a watch in a more practical spirit than Malvolio or +Archbishop Parker; Stowe tells us, one was found upon him which he and +Percy had bought the day before, "to try conclusions for the long and +short burning of the touch-wood with which he had prepared to give fire +to the train of powder;" a proof that even in the third year of the +reign of James I. watches were not commonly worn, or the circumstance +would not have been mentioned.</p> + +<p>In the next reign, however, we find the London "Clock-Makers' Company," +incorporated 1631—a sign of the increased use of these instruments, and +the growing importance of their manufacture; and as this charter +prohibits the importation of clocks, watches, and alarms, it proves that +we had even then artists sufficiently skilful in the various +manipulations requisite in the construction of these articles, to render +us independent of foreign workmanship.</p> + +<p>It is a singular feature in the history of this branch of art, that it +has remained until very lately concentrated in the metropolis; besides +which, Liverpool and Coventry are said to be the only places in England +where a complete watch can be manufactured. At the latter place the +business has only been introduced since the commencement of the present +century, but the number of persons employed are said to equal the number +in London.</p> + +<p>But before passing from this event in the history of our subject (the +incorporation of a company for the protection of their manufacture in +the reign of Charles I.), we may as well describe a watch of the period, +which a few years before the publication of the "Encyclopædia +Londinensis" (in 1811) had been in the possession of the proprietor. It +was dug up but a few years previously, near the site of the ancient +castle of Winchester, where it had probably lain from the time of +Cromwell, who, it is well known, destroyed that edifice. It was of an +octagon form, and had no minute hand; a piece of catgut supplied the +place of a chain; it required winding up every twelve hours, had no +balance spring, and appeared never to have had one; and it shut like a +hunting-watch without any glass.</p> + +<p>But to compensate for this interior rudeness in its construction, the +lid and bottom of the case, as well as the dial-plate, were of silver, +very neatly engraved, with pieces of Scripture history in the centre, +and in the compartments the four Evangelists, and St. Peter, St. Paul, +St. James, and St. Jude: it had no date.</p> + +<p>The reign of Charles II., who (like his namesake the emperor, in whose +time they first appeared) is said to have been very partial to these +instruments, was remarkable for the improvements made in them. Spring +pocket-watches were invented by Hooke, 1658; and repeaters were +introduced, one of the first of which Charles sent as a present to Louis +XIV. of France. According to some authorities, <i>reproduced</i> would be the +juster phrase here, for it is stated in "Memoirs of Literature," that +some of the most ancient watches were strikers, and that such having +been stolen both from Charles V. and Louis XI. whilst they were in a +crowd, the thief was detected by their striking the hour!</p> + +<p>Perhaps the most remarkable repeating watch extant, is that in the +Academy of Sciences at St. Petersburg, and which, like the old Nuremberg +watches, is about the size of an egg: within is represented the holy +sepulchre, with the sentinels, and the stone at the mouth; and while the +spectator is admiring this curious piece of mechanism, the stone is +suddenly removed, the sentinels drop down, the angels appear, the women +enter the tomb, and the same chant is heard which is performed in the +Greek Church on Easter Eve.</p> + +<p>Germany, by the way, has always been famous for the manufacture of +clocks and watches, these latter claiming Nuremberg for their +birthplace; and from this circumstance, and their oval shape, +Dopplemayer tells us they were originally known as Nuremberg <i>animated +eggs</i>.</p> + +<p>At present this branch of horometry is chiefly to be found on the other +side of the Alps, at or near Geneva, and at Chaux de Fond, in the +principality of Neufchatel, where vast numbers of watches are +manufactured. But the wooden clocks, which tick on every cottage wall, +and which are erroneously called Dutch, are in fact German, and are +nearly all made in the Black Forest, the village of Freyburg being the +centre of the manufacture, whence it is said 180,000 wooden clocks on an +average are yearly exported.</p> + +<p>The Swiss, or <i>Geneva</i> watches, as they are commonly called, owing to +the poverty of the workmen, the employment of women, and the subdivision +of labor, which is carried to even a greater extent than with us, sell +at a much lower price than those made in England;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_507" id="Page_507">[Pg 507]</a></span> but an English watch +has hitherto been a desideratum in every part of the world. Here, at +present, the term watch-maker is no longer applicable, every portion of +the instrument being the work of a different artisan, and the separate +parts are often sent hundreds of miles, to meet in the metropolis, and +make a whole of excellent workmanship. There are innumerable places in +which some branch or other of the manufacture is carried on; but the +best movements are made at Prescot, in Lancashire, while the town of +Whitchurch, in Hampshire, is employed wholly in making hands. In London, +Clerkenwall Green has long been the resort of artificers employed in the +various nice and delicate manipulations requisite in the construction of +our subject: here, slide-makers, jewellers, motion-makers, +wheel-cutters, cap-makers, dial-plate-makers, the painter, the +case-maker, the joint-finisher, the pendent-maker, the engraver, the +piercer, the escapement-maker, the spring-maker, the chain-maker, the +finisher, the gilder, the fusee-cutter, the hand-maker, the glass-maker, +and pendulum spring wire-drawer, are all located; for, owing to the +minute division of labor, which tends greatly to facilitate its +execution after the movements (which have previously passed through +thirteen workmen's hands in the provinces) are received in town, the +watch progresses through those of these other twenty-one artificers +before it comes forth complete.</p> + +<p>Owing to this delicate and varied workmanship, materials originally not +worth sixpence are frequently converted into watches worth a hundred +pounds and more, so costly may their appendages be made. But in all +these different branches of a business which maintains thousands of +families, the only part of it which falls to women in this country is +the polishing of the cases, which the casemakers' wives are sometimes +employed to do.</p> + +<p>Perhaps no object of man's ingenuity has been made the exponent of so +many grave morals as the <i>watch</i>. Poets and philosophers have managed +that its beatings should be only a little less gloomy to the imagination +than the associations of a passing bell; but Paley has thrown a glory +round this gloom, and aggrandized it from a peevish reminder of passing +time into a fair argument of a Creator's presence, in the delicate and +wonderful machinery of nature, which could no more come by chance than +could this little instrument have been formed without a contriver.</p> + +<p>What the author of the "Old Church Clock" has said of that branch of our +subject, may be equally applied to this—"there is no dead thing so like +a living one." Day by day, year by year, its iron heart throbs on, some +of them surviving, as we have seen, for centuries, though they are said +to beat 17,160 times in an hour. Well would it be for us if the +time-keeper in our bosoms, beating momently the escape of our allotted +term, acted as lightly on the frame; but all its emotions help to wear +this out.</p> + +<p>In the dawn of its appearance, in an age when every science that set men +wondering was in some degree regarded as the work of magic, what a +sensation must these "animated eggs" have occasioned, and how +suggestive! unless the fanciful belief of some of the early fathers of +the church, who averred that gems and precious metals were first made +known to mortals by fallen angels, who also inspired the desire to +profit by, and be adorned with them, had any thing to do with the +tabooing of evil by holy signatures—how suggestive are the quaint +gravings of saints and scriptural subjects on the cover of the watch dug +up at Winchester, of the antique custom of inscribing trinkets with +sacred symbols, and so converting them into amulets; a custom which the +Greeks and Romans borrowed from the Egyptians, and which the early +Christians perpetuated after them.</p> + +<p>We have seen the watch, originally oval, take an octagon form; after +which it subsided into its present shape, the only variation being in +size, and degrees of roundness.</p> + +<p>At present watches are frequently made not thicker than a crown piece, +and yet perform their functions with exactness; nay, there are some with +perfect works, compressed into a smaller compass than a shilling! A +friend of the writer's saw one, not long since, set in a ring, the hands +and figures being composed of brilliants, upon a dial of blue enamel; +and at the recent exhibition one filled the place usually occupied by a +seal at the end of a pencil-case, and another appeared as an appendage +to a lady's bracelet. There was also a large silver watch, such as +mariners are fond of wearing, immersed in a vase of water, and yet +impervious to any ill effects.</p> + +<p>Our subject is one which grows under our hands, and we might go on <i>ad +libitum</i> describing their different idiosyncracies; for watches, like +individuals, have their several temperaments and ways of going. We have +all met with <i>fast watches</i> and slow ones, and some (a disposition they +are apt to contract from their wearers) are very irregular—varieties of +character, which so puzzled their first owner, the Emperor Charles V., +who amused himself on his retirement to the monastery of St. John, by +endeavoring to keep in order these by-gone companions of his +dinner-table, that they produced a reflection on the absurdity of his +attempts to keep together the powers of Europe, when even these little +pieces of mechanism baffled him.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>American women have less courtesy than any others in the world. A +thousand rules of deference are established by concessions of the other +sex, which they enforce with ungracious arrogance, as if they were but +recognitions of "inalienable rights." This is their offence to all +well-bred Europeans.—<i>Correspondent London Morning Post.</i></p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> Sickerness—steady, secure.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_508" id="Page_508">[Pg 508]</a></span></p> + +<h4>From Sharpe's Magazine.</h4> + +<h2><a name="FETE_DAYS_AT_ST_PETERSBURG" id="FETE_DAYS_AT_ST_PETERSBURG"></a>FÊTE DAYS AT ST. PETERSBURG.</h2> + +<h3>TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH OF ALEXANDER DUMAS</h3> + +<h3>BY JANE STRICKLAND.</h3> + + + +<p>New-Year's day and the Benediction of the Waters provide the inhabitants +of St. Petersburg with two great national festivals, in which all +classes share in the pleasures and devotion of the sovereign. The first +is an imperial fête, the second an imposing religious ceremony.</p> + +<p>On New-Year's day, in virtue of an old and touching custom by which the +Emperor and Empress of Russia are designated by their poorest subjects +Father and Mother, these potentates at the commencement of the year +receive their children as their own invited guests. Their family being +too vast to invite by name, they adopt the simple but efficacious plan +of scattering about the streets of their capital twenty-five thousand +cards of invitation, indicative that they will be at home to such a +number of their children. These cards bear no address, but they give +admission to the bearers to the splendid saloons of the Winter Palace +without the slightest distinction of rank or wealth.</p> + +<p>It was thus that the Emperor Alexander, according to custom, kept the +first day of the year 1825, the last he was ever destined to see. The +rumor of the conspiracy that embittered the closing months of his life +and reign, though it had reached his ears and troubled his repose, did +not appear to him any reason for depriving his subjects of their annual +visit to their sovereign. From these unknown guests the Russian Autocrat +felt assured he had nothing to fear. With them he was not only popular +but adored. He therefore directed the Master of the Police to order no +alteration in the usual costume of the male part of the company, whom he +was to admit in masks according to custom on these occasions. In the +darkest annals of barbarism, despotic sovereigns dreaded and often found +the dagger of the assassin in the hands of some member of their own +family. Civilization, however limited, changes the objects of suspicion +to the aristocracy, who are always, under these unfortunate +constitutions, of the military profession. Now the want of the +counterpoise of the middle classes creates this secret but perpetual +warfare between the absolute monarch and the nobility—the nobility who +in free countries are the natural bulwark of the throne. In Russia the +Autocrat is never afraid of the multitude, with whom he holds a twofold +claim to their veneration, as supreme pontiff, or head of the Church, +and Czar.</p> + +<p>The cards of invitation, being transferable, are, as a matter of course, +purchaseable; and among his masked guests who were privileged to shake +hands with Alexander, some cowardly assassin might take that opportunity +to murder the sovereign; yet he, with a firm but touching reliance on +God, ordered at seven o'clock on the New-Year's evening, the gates of +the Winter Palace to be thrown open as usual, to his motley company.</p> + +<p>No extra precautions were taken by the police; the sentinels were on +duty, according to custom, at the palace gates, but the Emperor was +without any guards in the interior of the imperial residence, vast as +the Tuileries. In the absence of all precaution or even regulations for +the behavior of an undisciplined crowd, it was surprising what natural +politeness effected. Veneration for the presence of the sovereign was +alone sufficient to produce good breeding; there was no pushing nor +striving, nor clamor, and the entrance was made with as little noise as +if gratitude for the favor accorded to the guests had induced each to +give a precautionary admonition to his neighbor.</p> + +<p>While the thronging thousands were gaining admission to his palace, the +Emperor Alexander was seated by the Empress in the Hall of St. George in +the midst of the imperial family, when the door was opened to the sound +of music, for the saloons were filled with his visitors, and a grand +<i>coup d'œil</i> of grandees, peasants, princesses, and grisettes was +discerned. At this moment the Emperor advanced and gave his hand to the +English, French, Spanish, and Austrian ambassadors, the representatives +of their several sovereigns. He then moved alone to the door, that his +guests might behold in their sovereign and host the father of his +people. It was a moment anarchy was said to have dedicated to his +assassination, and that parricidal and regicidal act could have been +easily effected at such a juncture had it really been in contemplation. +Alexander was no longer in appearance a melancholy and suffering +invalid, he looked happy and smiling; and if his smile was +counterfeited, he wore the mask ably and well. The instant the Autocrat +appeared, the motley group made a forward movement, and then a +precipitate retreat. The danger vanished with them. The Emperor regarded +the retiring waves of this human sea with imperturbable serenity, a +remarkable feature in his character, a moral re-action, which a +courageous mind can alone bestow, and which he had shown on several +trying occasions. One of these was at a ball given by M. Caulincourt, +Duke of Vicenza, the French Ambassador; the other was at a fête at +Zakret, near Wilna.</p> + +<p>The ball was at its height, when the ambassador was informed that the +house was on fire; fearful that the news of the conflagration might +occasion more ill consequences than the fire itself, he posted an +aide-de-camp at every door, and ordered his people to keep the +misfortune a profound secret, after which he communicated the accident +in a low voice to the Emperor, and assured him that no one should be +permitted to withdraw till he and the imperial family were in perfect +safety; he was going to see the fire extinguished, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_509" id="Page_509">[Pg 509]</a></span> he hoped the +efforts made to get it under would be successful; adding, that even if a +report should circulate in the saloons as to this startling fact, no one +would credit it while they saw the Emperor and his family still there.</p> + +<p>"Very well, then, I will remain," coolly remarked the Emperor; and when +Caulincourt returned some time after to announce the extinction of the +fire, he found the Russian Autocrat dancing a polonaise.</p> + +<p>The guests of the ambassador heard on the morrow that their festivities +had been kept over the mouth of a volcano.</p> + +<p>At the fête held at Zakret not only the life but the empire of Alexander +was at stake. In the middle of the dance he was apprised that the +advanced guard of a guest he had forgotten to invite had passed the +Niemen. This was the Emperor Napoleon, his old host at Erfurth, who +might momentarily be expected to enter the hall, followed by six hundred +thousand dancers. Alexander gave his orders with great coolness, +chatting while he issued them with his aide-de-camps. He walked about, +praised the manner in which the saloons were lighted, which he declared +was only second to the beautiful moonlight, supped, and remained till +dawn. His gay manner and the serenity of his countenance prevented the +guests from even suspecting the nature of the communication he had +received, and the entrance of the French into the city was the first +intimation the inhabitants had received of their approach.</p> + +<p>He was in imminent peril in this Polish city, from which his great +self-command delivered him. His retreat at early morning was made before +the approach of an enemy he had hitherto found invincible. Very +different might have been the result of Napoleon's campaign in Russia, +if the inhabitants of Wilna had known during the fête of Zakret of his +vicinity.</p> + +<p>These incidents naturally occurred to the guests of the Emperor +Alexander, during this New-Year's day festival, when they beheld him +approach alone to show himself to the multitude, amongst whom he had +reason to believe many conspirators, or even assassins lurked. If such +indeed were there, the calm serenity of his countenance disarmed them, +and none dared raise an arm against the life he fearlessly trusted, if +not to their loyalty at least to their honor.</p> + +<p>Indeed the suffering and melancholy Emperor, the last time he received +his people, seemed to have shaken off his lassitude and depression, and +appeared full of life and energy, traversing with rapidity the immense +saloons of the Winter Palace. He led off the sort of galoppe peculiar to +the Russian Court, which, however, terminated about nine o'clock.</p> + +<p>At ten, the illuminations of the Hermitage being finished, those persons +who had cards for the spectacle went there. Twelve negroes, superbly +arrayed in rich oriental costumes, kept the doors of the theatre, to +admit or restrain the crowd, and examine the authenticity of the +vouchers of the guests. Here the admission was not promiscuous, a +certain number alone being allowed to be present at the banquet.</p> + +<p>Upon entering the theatre, the spectators found themselves in a land of +enchantment—a vast hall encircled with tubes of crystal, bent in every +possible way, meeting at top in order to form the ceiling, united by +silver threads of imperceptible fineness, behind which hung 10,000 +colored lamps, whose light, reflected and refracted by these transparent +columns, illuminated the gardens, groves, flowers, cascades, and +fountains, like an enchanted landscape, which seen across this veil of +light resembled the poetical phantasm of a dream. The splendid +illuminations cost twelve thousand roubles, and lasted two months.</p> + +<p>At eleven a flourish of musical instruments announced the arrival of the +Emperor, who entered with the Empress and the imperial family, the +ambassadors, the ambassadresses, the officers of the household, and the +ladies in waiting, who all took their places at the middle supper-table; +two other tables were filled by six hundred guests, mostly composed of +the first-class nobility. The Emperor alone remained standing, moving +about the tables, conversing by turns with his numerous guests.</p> + +<p>Nothing could exceed the magnificent effect produced by the banquet, and +the appearance of the court; the sovereign and his officers and nobility +covered with gold and embroidery, the Empress and her ladies glittering +with diamonds and splendid velvets, tissues, and satins. No other fête +in Europe could produce such a grand <i>coup d'œil</i> as the New-Year's +fête at the Hermitage. At the conclusion of the banquet the Court +returned to the Saloon of St. George, where the music struck up a +polonaise, which was led off by the Emperor. This dance was his farewell +to his guests, for as soon as it was finished he withdrew. The departure +of their sovereign gave pleasure to those loyal subjects who trembled +for his personal safety; but the courageous and ever paternal confidence +reposed in his subjects by Alexander, turned away from him every +murderous weapon. No one could resolve to assassinate a kind father in +the midst of his children, for as such the Emperor had received his +numerous guests.</p> + +<p>The second annual fête was of a religious character, "The Benediction of +the Waters," to which the recent disastrous calamity of the most +terrible inundation on record in Russia, the preceding year, had given +deeper solemnity. The preparations were made with an activity tempered +by care, which denoted the national character to be essentially +religious. Upon the Neva a great pavilion was erected of a circular +form, pierced with eight<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_510" id="Page_510">[Pg 510]</a></span> openings, decorated by four paintings, crowned +with a cross; to this pavilion access was given by a jetty forming the +hermitage. The temporary edifice, on the morning of the ceremony, was to +have its pavement of ice cut through in order to permit the Patriarch to +reach the water. The cold was already twenty degrees below zero, when at +nine o'clock in the morning the whole population of St. Petersburg +assembled themselves on the frozen waters of the Neva, then a solid mass +of crystal. At half-past eleven the Empress and Grand-Duchesses took +their places in the glass balcony of the Hermitage, and their appearance +announced to the crowd that the <i>Te Deum</i> was concluded. The whole corps +of the Imperial Guards, amounting to forty thousand men, marched to the +sound of martial music and formed in line of battle on the river, from +the hotel of the French embassy to the fortress. The palace gates opened +as soon as this military evolution was effected, and the banners, sacred +pictures, and the choristers of the chapel, appeared preceding the +Patriarch and his clergy; then came the pages and the colors of the +different regiments of guards, borne by their proper officers; then the +Emperor, supported by the Grand-Dukes Nicholas and Michael, followed by +the officers of his household, his aide-de-camps and generals. As soon +as the Emperor reached the door of the pavilion, which was nearly filled +with priests and banners, the Patriarchs gave the signal, and the sweet +solemn chant of more than a hundred voices rose to heaven, unaccompanied +by music indeed, yet forming a divine harmony hardly to be surpassed on +earth. During the prayer, which lasted twenty minutes, the Emperor stood +bareheaded, dressed in his uniform, without fur or any defence from the +piercing cold, running more risk by this disregard to climate, than if +he had faced the fire of a hundred pieces of artillery in the front of +battle. The spectators, enveloped in fur mantles and caps, presented a +complete contrast to the religious imprudence of their rash sovereign, +who had been bald from his early youth.</p> + +<p>As soon as the second <i>Te Deum</i> was concluded, the Patriarch took a +silver cross from the hand of the young chorister, and encircled by the +kneeling crowd, plunged it through the opening made in the ice into the +waters below. He then filled a vase up with the consecrated element, +which he presented to the Emperor. After this ceremonial of blessing the +waters, came the benediction of the standards, which were reverently +inclined towards the Patriarch for that purpose. A sky-rocket was +immediately let off from the pavilion, and its silvery smoke was +answered by a terrible explosion, for the whole artillery of the +fortress gave from their metallic throats a loud <i>Te Deum</i>, and these +salvos were heard three times during the benediction of the standards; +at the third, the Emperor commenced his return to the palace.</p> + +<p>He was more melancholy than usual, for during this religious ceremony he +felt no need of courage or presence of mind; he was secured by the +natural veneration of a superstitious people. He knew it, and, +therefore, wore no mask in the semblance of a joyless smile.</p> + +<p>On the same day, this imposing ceremonial is used at Constantinople, +only the winter is a mere name and the water has no ice. The Patriarch +stands on the deck of a vessel, and drops his silver cross into the calm +blue waves of the Bosphorus, which a skilful diver restores to him +before it reaches the bottom. To these religious ceremonies succeed +sports and pastimes of all kinds. Booths and barracks are erected on the +frozen Neva from quay to quay, Russian mountains, down which sledges +slide with inconceivable velocity, and the Carnival commences with as +much zest as in cities enjoying a southern temperature. Plays are +performed on the ice, and curious pantomimes, in which a marmot performs +the part of a baby very cleverly, while the man who shows him off under +the character of the good father of the family, finds resemblances in +this black-nosed imp to all his supposed human relatives, to the +infinite delight of the spectators.</p> + +<p>Sleighing on the ice is, as in Canada, a favorite diversion with the +Russians, whose sledges are lined with fur and ornamented with silver +bells and ribbons of every color. Sometimes a wind loaded with vapor +puts an end to these diversions by rendering the ice unsafe, in which +case they are interdicted by the police, and the sports and pastimes of +the people are transferred to <i>terra firma</i>; but the Carnival is +considered to come to an abrupt conclusion if this misfortune occurs at +its commencement, for the Neva is to the inhabitants of St. Petersburg +what Vesuvius is to the Neapolitans, and the absence of the ice robs +their Saturnalia of its greatest attraction. In countries where the +Greek religion is the national standard of faith, Lent is preceded by +the same unbounded festivity as in those which are Roman Catholic; but +the Court does not display in these days so much barbarous magnificence +as in those earlier times when civilization was unknown. The Carnival +was, however, held during the last century by Anna Ivanovna, in a style +surpassing that of her ancestors. This pleasure-loving princess, the +daughter of the elder brother of Peter the Great, covered her usurpation +of a throne she had snatched not only from the decendants of her mighty +uncle, but also from her own elder sister and niece, by conducing to the +popular amusements of her people, who in their turn forgot her defective +title to the throne. This popular female sovereign founded the largest +bell in the world, and gave the most magnificent Carnival ever held in +Russia. Thus she maintained her sway by the aid of pleasure and +devotion, a twofold cord her subjects<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_511" id="Page_511">[Pg 511]</a></span> never broke. In 1740 Anna +Ivanovna resolved to surpass every preceding Carnival by her unique +manner of providing her people with amusement during this merry season. +It was customary for the sovereign of Russia to be attended by a dwarf, +who united the privileged character of a jester to the tiny proportions +of a little child. This empress possessed two of these diminutive +personages, and she chose for her own amusement and that of her loving +subjects, that they should be married during this Carnival, and "whether +nature did this match contrive," or it was the consequence of her own +despotic will, cannot be known without a peep into the jealously guarded +archives of Russia; but the nuptials of these sports of nature was the +ostensible cause of the fête. This the Autocrat gave on a new and +splendid scale. She directed her governors to send her two natives of +the hundred districts they ruled in her name, clothed in their national +costume, and with the animals they were accustomed to use on their +journeys. The idea was certainly a brilliant one, and worthy of the +sovereign lady of so many nations, tongues, and languages.</p> + +<p>Anna Ivanovna was punctually obeyed, and at the appointed time a motley +procession, including the purest types of the Caucasian race and the +ugliest of the Mongolian, astonished the eyes of the Empress, who had +scarcely known the greater part of these distant tribes by name. There +she beheld the Kamtchadale with his sledge drawn by dogs, the Russian +Laplander with his reindeer, the Kalmuck with his cows, the Tartar on +his horse, and the native of Bochara with his camel, the Ostiak on his +clogs. Then for the first time, the beautiful Georgian and Circassian, +with their dark ringlets and unrivalled features, looked with +astonishment upon the red hair of the Finlander. The gigantic Cossack of +the Ukraine eyed with contempt the pigmy Samoiede—and in fact, for the +first time were brought into contact by the will of their sovereign +lady, who classed each race under one of four banners, representing +spring, summer, autumn, and winter; and these two hundred persons, +during eight days, paraded the streets of St. Petersburg, to the +infinite delight of the population, who had never seen the power of the +throne displayed in a manner so agreeable to their taste before.</p> + +<p>Upon the wedding day of her dwarfs, these important personages had been +attended to the altar by this singular national procession, where they +plighted their faith in the presence of the Empress and all her Court, +after which they heard Mass, and then, accompanied by their numerous +escort, took possession of the palace prepared for them by the direction +of their imperial mistress. This palace was not the least fanciful part +of the fête. It was entirely composed of ice, and resembled crystal in +its brilliancy and fine cutting and polish. This beautiful fabric was +fifty-two feet in length and twenty in width; the roof, the floor, the +furniture, chandeliers, and even the nuptial bed, were formed of the +same cold, glittering, and transparent materials. The doors, the +galleries, and the fortifications,—even the six pieces of cannon that +guarded this magical palace, were of ice; one of these, charged with a +single ice-bullet, and fired by the aid of a pound of powder, perforated +at seventy paces a plank of twelve inches thickness. This was done to +salute the bridal party, and welcome them home. The most curious piece +of mechanism, and which pleased the Russians the most, was a colossal +elephant, mounted by an armed Persian, and led by twelve slaves. This +gigantic beast threw from his trunk a column of water by day, and at +night a stream of fire, uttering from time to time roars which were +heard from one end of St. Petersburg to the other. These noble roars +were produced by twelve Russians concealed in the body and legs of the +phantom elephant, whose costly housings hid the men whose noise so +delighted their countrymen. This Carnival of the fête-loving feany male +usurper has never been surpassed by Russian sovereign, though, with the +exception of the assembly of her distant subjects, its taste was +barbarous enough.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h4>From Household Words.</h4> + + +<h2><a name="RAINBOW_MAKING" id="RAINBOW_MAKING"></a>RAINBOW MAKING.</h2> + +<p>It is a great idea—too large to be arrived at but by degrees—that the +fleece of sheep can clothe nations of men. The fleece of a sheep, when +pulled and spread out, looks much larger than while covering the mutton; +but still it is with a sort of despair that we think of the quantity +required, and of the dressing and preparation necessary, for clothing +fifteen million of men in one country, and double the number in another +(to say nothing of the women), and of the number of countries, each +containing its millions, which are incessantly demanding the fleeces of +sheep to clothe their inhabitants. We remember the hill-sides of our own +mountainous districts; and the wide grassy plains of Saxony; and the +boundless table lands of Thibet, and the valleys of Cashmere, all +speckled over with flocks; we think of the Australian sheep-walks, where +there are flocks of such unmanageable size, that the whole sheep is +boiled down for tallow; we think of Prince Esterhazy's reply to the +question of an English nobleman, when shown vast flocks, and asked how +his sheep in Hungary would compare in number with these,—that his +shepherds outnumbered the Englishman's sheep; we think of these things, +and by degrees begin to understand how wool enough may be produced to +furnish the broadcloths and flannels of the world. But the most strong +and agile imagination is confounded when the material of silk is +considered in the same way. Compare a caterpillar with a sheep; compare +the cocoon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_512" id="Page_512">[Pg 512]</a></span> of a silkworm (the achievement of its life) with the annual +fleece of a sheep; and the supply of silk for the looms of Europe, Asia, +and America, seems a mere miracle. The marvel is the greater, not the +less, when one is in a silk-growing region, attending to the facts and +appearances, than when trying to conceive of them at home. In Lombardy, +we travel from day to day, during the whole month of May, between rows +of mulberry trees, where the peasants are busy providing food for the +worms; a man in the tree stripping off the leaves, and two women below +with sacks, to carry home the foliage. We see what tons of leaves per +mile must be thus gathered daily for weeks together; we go into houses +in every village to inspect the worm; we mount to the flat roofs of the +dwellings, and find in each countless multitudes of the worms; we pass +on, from country to country, till we mount to the hamlets, perched on +the rocky shelves of the Lebanon; and we find every where the insect +secreting its gum, or spinning it forth as silk; we remember that the +same process is going forward in the heart of our Indian Peninsula, and +throughout China; we look at the broad belt round the globe where the +little worm is forming its cocoons; and still we find it impossible to +imagine how enough silk is produced to supply the wants of the world, +from the brocade of the Asiatic potentate to the wedding ribbon of the +English dairy-maid. Nowhere is the speculation more difficult than in a +dye-house at Coventry.</p> + +<p>Probably there was as much wonder excited by the same thought, when King +Henry VIII. wore the first pair of silk stockings brought to England +from Spain; and when Francis I. looked after the mulberry trees in +France, and fixed some silk weavers at Lyons; and when our Queen Mary +passed a law forbidding servant-maids to wear ribbons on bonnets; and +when monarch after monarch passed acts to teach how silk should be +boiled, and whence it should be brought, and who should, and who should +not, wear it when wrought; but the perplexity and amazement of king, +lords, and commons could hardly, at any time, have exceeded that of the +humblest visitor of to-day in any dye-house at Coventry. We know +something of the fact of this astonishment; for we have been noting the +wonders that are to be found on the premises of Messrs. Leavesley and +Hands at Coventry.</p> + +<p>On entering, we see, ranged along the counters, half round the room, +bundles of glossy silk, of the most brilliant colors. Blues, +rose-colors, greens, lilacs, make a rainbow of the place. It is only two +days since this silk was brought in in a very different condition. The +throwster (to throw, means to twist or twine), after spinning the raw +silk, imported from Italy, Turkey, Bengal, and China, into thread fit +for the loom, sent it here in bundles, gummy, harsh, dingy; except, +indeed, the Italian, which looks, till washed, like fragments of Jason's +fleece. If bundles, and regiments of bundles, like these, come into one +dye-house every few days, to be prepared for the weaving of ribbons +alone, and for the ribbon-weaving of a single town, it is overwhelming +to think of the amount of production required for the broad silk-weaving +of England, of Europe, of the world. Of the silk dyed at Coventry, about +eighty per cent. is used for the ribbon-weaving of the city and +neighborhood; and the quantity averages six tons and a half weekly. Of +the remaining twenty per cent., half is used for the manufacture of +fringes; and the other half goes to Macclesfield, Congleton, and Derby.</p> + +<p>The harsh gummy silk that comes in from the throwing mills is boiled, +wrung out, and boiled again. If it wants bleaching, there is a sort of +open oven of a house; a vault in the yard where it is "sulphured." The +heat, and the sensation in the throat, inform us in a moment where we +have got to. When the hanks come forth from this process, every thread +is separated from its neighbor, and the whole bundle is soft, dry, and +glossy. Then follows the dyeing. To make the silk receive the colors, it +is dipped in a mordant in some diluted acid, or solution of metal which +enables the color to bite into the fibre. To make pinks of all shades, +the silk is dipped in diluted tartaric acid for the mordant, and then in +a decoction of safflower for the hue. To make plum-color or puce, indigo +is the dye, with a cochineal. To make black, nitrate of iron first; then +a washing follows; and then a dipping in logwood dye, mixed with soap +and water. For a white, pure enough for ribbons, the silk has to pass +through the three primary colors, yellow, red, and blue. The dipping, +wringing, splashing, stirring, boiling, drying, go on vigorously, from +end to end of the large premises, as may be supposed, when the fact is +mentioned that the daily consumption of water amounts to one hundred +thousand gallons. A reservoir, in the middle of the yard, formerly +supplied the water; but it proved insufficient, or uncertain; and now it +is about to be filled up, and an Artesian well is opened to the depth of +one hundred and ninety-five feet. The dyeing sheds are paved with +pebbles or bricks, crossed with gutters, and variegated with gay +puddles. Stout brick-built coppers are stationed round the place. Above +each copper are cocks, which let in hot and cold water from the pipes +that travel round the walls of the sheds. There are wooden troughs for +the dye; and to these troughs the water is conveyed by spouts. The silk +hangs down into the dye from poles, smoothly turned and uniform, which +are laid across the troughs by the dozen or more at once. These staves +are procured from Derby. They cost from six shillings to twenty-four +shillings per dozen, and constitute an independent subsidiary +manufacture. The silk hanks being suspended<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_513" id="Page_513">[Pg 513]</a></span> from those poles, two men, +standing on either side the trough, take up two poles, souse, and shake, +and plunge the silk, and turn that which had been uppermost under the +surface of the liquor, and pass on to the next two. When done enough, +the silk is wrung out and pressed, and taken to the drying-house. The +heat in that large chamber is about one hundred degrees. On entering it, +everybody begins to cough. The place is lofty and large. The staves, +which are laid across beams, to contain the suspended silk, make little +movable ceilings here and there. This chamber contains five or six +hundred-weights of silk at once. Our minds glance once more towards the +spinning insects on hearing this; and we ask again, how much of their +produce may be woven into fabrics in Coventry alone? We think we must +have made a mistake in setting down the weekly average at six tons and a +half. But there was no mistake. It is really so.</p> + +<p>While speaking of weight, we heard something which reminded us of King +Charles I.'s opinions about some practices which were going forward +before our eyes. It appears, that the silk which comes to the dye-house +is heavy with gum, to the amount of one-fourth of its weight. This gum +must be boiled out before the silk can be dyed. But the manufacturers of +cheap goods require that the material shall not be so light as this +process would leave it. It is dipped in well-sugared water, which adds +about eight per cent. to its weight. Many tons of sugar per year are +used as (what the proprietor called) "the silk-dyer's devil's dust." It +was this very practice which excited the wrath of our pious King +Charles, in all his horror of double-dealing. A proclamation of his, of +the date of 1630, declares his fears of the consequences of "a deceitful +handling" of the material, by adding to its weight in dyeing, and +ordains that the whole shall be done as soft as possible; that no black +shall be used but Spanish black, "and that the gum shall be fair boiled +off before dyeing." He found, in time, that he had meddled with a matter +that he did not understand, and had gone too far. Some of the fabrics of +his day required to be made of "hard silk;" and he took back his orders +in 1638, having become, as he said, "better-informed."</p> + +<p>From trough to trough we go, breathing steam, and stepping into puddles, +or reeking rivulets rippling over the stones of the pavement; but we are +tempted on, like children, by the charm of the brilliant colors that +flash upon the sight whichever way we turn. What a lilac this is! Is it +possible that such a hue can stand? It could not stand even the drying, +but for the alkali into which it is dipped. It is dyed in orchil first, +and then made bluer, and somewhat more secure, by being soused in a +well-soaped alkaline mixture. That is a good red brown. It is from +Brazil wood, with alum for its mordant. This is a brilliant blue; +indigo, of course? Yes, sulphate of indigo, with tartaric acid. Here are +two yellows: how is that? One is much better than the other; moreover, +it makes a better green; moreover, it wears immeasurably better. But +what is it? The inferior one is the old-fashioned turmeric, with +tartaric acid. And the improved yellow? Oh! we perceive. It is a secret +of the establishment, and we are not to ask questions about it. But +among all these men employed here, are there none accessible to a bribe +from a rival in the art? There is no saying; for the men cannot be +tempted. They do not know, any more than ourselves, what this mysterious +yellow is. But why does it not supersede the old-fashioned turmeric? It +will, no doubt; and it is gaining rapidly upon it; but it takes time to +establish improvements. The improvement in greens, however, is fast +recommending the new yellow. This deep amber is a fine color. We find it +is called California, which has a modern sound in it. This Napoleon blue +(not Louis Napoleon's) is a rich color. It gives a good deal of trouble. +There is actually a precipitation of metal, of tin, upon every fibre, to +make it receive the dye; and then it has to be washed; and then dipped +again, before it can take a darker shade; and afterwards washed again, +over and over, till it is dark enough; when it is finally soused in +water which has fuller's earth in it, to make it soft enough for working +and wear. What is doing with that dirty-white bundle? It is silk of a +thoroughly bad color. Whether it is the fault of the worm, or of the +worm's food, or what, there is no saying—that is the manufacturer's +affair. He sent it here. It is now to be sulphured, and dipped in a very +faint shade of indigo, curdled over with soap. This will improve it, but +not make it equal to a purer white silk. Next, the wet hanks have to be +squeezed in the Archimedean press, and then hung up in that large, hot +drying-room.</p> + +<p>One serious matter remains unintelligible to us. Plaid ribbons—that is, +all sorts of checked ribbons—have been in fashion so long now, that we +have had time to speculate (which we have often done), on how they can +possibly be made. About the colors of the warp (the long way of the +ribbon), we are clear enough. But how, in the weft, do the colors duly +return, so as to make the stripes, and therefore the checks, recur at +equal distances? We are now shown how this was done formerly, and how it +is done now. Formerly, the hanks were tied very tightly, at equal +distances, and the alternate spaces closely wrapped round with paper, or +wound round with packthread. This took up a great deal of time. We were +shown a much better plan. A shallow box is made, so as to hold within it +the halves of several skeins of silk; these halves being curiously +twisted, so as to alternate with the other halves when the hanks are +shaken back into<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_514" id="Page_514">[Pg 514]</a></span> their right position for winding. One half being +within the box, and the other hanging out, the lid is bolted down so +tight that the dye cannot creep into the box; and the out-hanging silk +is dipped. So much can be done at once, that the saving of time is very +great, and, judging by the prodigious array of plaid ribbons that we saw +in the looms afterwards, the value of the invention is no trifle. The +name of this novelty is the Clouding Box.</p> + +<p>We see a bundle of cotton. What has cotton to do here? It is from +Nottingham—very fine and well twisted. It is a pretty pink, and it +costs one shilling and sixpence per pound to dye. But what is it for? +Ah! that is the question! It is to mix in with silk, to make a cheap +ribbon. Another pinch of devil's dust!</p> + +<p>There is a calendering process employed in the final preparation of the +dried silk, by which, we believe, its gloss is improved; but it was not +in operation at the time of our visit. We saw, and watched with great +curiosity, a still later process—more pretty to witness than easy to +achieve—the making up of the hanks. This is actually the most difficult +thing the men have to learn in the whole business. Of course, therefore, +it is no matter for description. The twist, the insertion of the arm, +the jerk, the drawing of the mysterious knot, may be looked at for hours +and days, without the spectator having the least idea how the thing is +done. We went from workman to workman—from him who was making up the +blue, to him who was making up the red—we saw one of the proprietors +make up several hanks at the speed of twenty in four minutes and a half, +and we are no more likely to be able to do it, than if we had never +entered a dye-house. Peeping Tom might spy for very long before he would +be much the wiser; when done, the effect is beautiful. The snaky coils +of the polished silk throw off the light like fragments of mirrors.</p> + +<p>Another mysterious process is the marking of the silk which belongs to +each manufacturer. The hanks and bundles are tied with cotton string; +and this string is knotted with knots at this end, at that end, in the +middle, in ties at the sides, with knots numbering from one to fifteen, +twenty, or whatever number may be necessary; and the manufacturer's +particular system of knots is posted in the books with his name, the +quantity of silk sent in, the dye required, and all other particulars.</p> + +<p>We were amused to find that there is a particular twist and a particular +dye for the fringe of brown parasols. It is desired that there should be +a claret tint on this fringe, when seen against the light; and here, +accordingly, we find the claret tint. The silk is somewhat dull, from +being hard twisted; it is to be made more lustrous by stretching, and we +accompany it to the stretching machine. There it is suspended on a +barrel and movable pin; by a man's weight applied to a wheel, the pin is +drawn down, the hank stretches, and comes out two or more inches longer +than it went in, and looking perceptibly brighter. A hank of bad silk +snaps under this strain; a twist that will stand it is improved by it.</p> + +<p>Looking into a little apartment, as we return through the yard, we find +a man engaged in work which the daintiest lady might long to take out of +his hands. He is making pattern-cards and books. He arranges the shades +of all sorts of charming colors, named after a hundred pretty flowers, +fruits, and other natural productions,—his lemons, lavenders, corn +flowers, jonquils, cherries, fawns, pearls, and so forth; takes a pinch +of each floss, knots it in the middle, spreads it at the ends, pastes +down these ends, and, when he has a row complete, covers the pasted part +with slips of paper, so numbered as that each number stands opposite its +own shade of color. A pattern-book is as good as a rainbow for the +pocket. This looks like a woman's work; but there are no women here. The +men will not allow it. Women cannot be kept out of the ribbon-weaving; +but in the dye-house they must not set foot, though the work, or the +chief part of it, is far from laborious, and requires a good eye and +tact, more than qualities less feminine. We found many apprentices in +the works, receiving nearly half the amount of wages of their qualified +elders. The men earn from ten shillings to thirty shillings a week, +according to their qualifications. Nearly half of the whole number earn +about fifteen shillings a week at the present time.</p> + +<p>And, now, we are impatient to follow these pretty silk bundles to the +factory, and see the weaving. It is strange to see, on our way to so +thoroughly modern an establishment, such tokens of antiquity, or +reminders of antiquity, as we have to pass. We pass under St. Michael's +Church, and look up, amazed, to the beauty and loftiness of its tower +and spire; the spire tapering off at a height of three hundred and +twenty feet. The crumbling nature of the stone gives a richness and +beauty to the edifice, which we would hardly part with for such clear +outlines as those of the restored Trinity Church, close at hand. And +then, at an angle of the market-place, there is Tom, peeping past the +corner,—looking out of his window, through his spectacles, with a +stealthy air, which, however ridiculous, makes one thrill, as with a +whiff of the breeze which stirred the Lady Godiva's hair, on that +memorable day, so long ago. It is strange, after this, to see the +factory chimney, straight, tall, and handsome, in its way, with its +inlaying of colored bricks, towering before us, to about the height of a +hundred and thirty feet. No place has proved itself more unwilling than +Coventry to admit such innovations. No place has made a more desperate +resistance to the introduction of steam<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_515" id="Page_515">[Pg 515]</a></span> power. No place has more +perseveringly struggled for protection, with groans, menaces, and +supplications. Up to a late period, the Coventry weavers believed +themselves safe from the inroads of steam power. A Macclesfield +manufacturer said, only twenty years ago, before a Committee of the +House of Commons, that he despaired of ever applying power-looms to +silk. This was because so much time was employed in handling and +trimming the silk, that the steam power must be largely wasted. So +thought the weavers, in the days when the silk was given out in hanks or +bobbins, and woven at home, or, when the work was done by handloom +weavers in the factory—called the loom-shop. The day was at hand, +however, when that should be done of which the Macclesfield gentleman +despaired. A small factory was set up in Coventry by way of experiment, +in the use of steam power, in 1831. It was burned down during a quarrel +about wages,—nobody knows how or by whom. The weavers declared it was +not their doing; but their enmity to steam power was strong enough to +restrain the employers from the use of it. It was not till every body +saw that Coventry was losing its manufacture,—parting with it to places +which made ribbons by steam,—that the manufacturers felt themselves +able to do what must be done, if they were to save their trade. The +state of things now is very significant. About seventy houses in +Coventry make ribbons and trimmings, (fringes and the like.) Of these, +four make fringes and trimmings, and no ribbons; and six or eight make +both. Say that fifty-eight houses make ribbons alone. It is believed +that three-fourths of the ribbons are made by no more than twenty houses +out of these fifty-eight. There are now thirty steam powerloom factories +in Coventry, producing about seven thousand pieces of ribbons in the +week, and employing about three thousand persons. It seems not to be +ascertained how large a proportion of the population are employed in the +ribbon manufacture: but the increase is great since the year 1838, when +the number was about eight thousand, without reckoning the outlying +places, which would add about three thousand to the number. The total +population of the city was found, last March, to amount to nearly +thirty-seven thousand. So, if we reckon the numbers employed in +connection with the throwing-mills and dye-houses, we shall see what an +ascendency the ribbon manufacture has in Coventry.</p> + +<p>At the factory we are entering, the preparatory processes are going +forward at the top and the bottom of the building. In the yard is the +boiler fire, which sets the engine to work; and, from the same yard, we +enter workshops, where the machinery is made and repaired. The ponderous +work of the men at the forge and anvils contrasts curiously with the +delicacy of the fabric which is to be produced by the agency of these +masses of iron and steel. Passing up a step-ladder, we find ourselves in +a long room, where turners are at work, making the wooden apparatus +required, piercing the "compass boards," for the threads to pass +through, and displaying to us many ingenious forms of polished wood. +While the apparatus is thus preparing below, the material of the +manufacture is getting arranged, four stories overhead. There, under a +skylight, women and girls are winding the silk from the hanks, upon the +spools, for the shuttles. Here we see, again, the clouded silk, which is +to make plaid ribbons, and the bright hues which delighted our eyes at +the dyeing-house. This is easy work,—many of the women sitting at their +reels; and the air is pure and cool. The great shaft from the engine, +passing through the midst of the building, carries off the dust, and +affords excellent ventilation. Besides this, the whole edifice is +crowned by an observatory, with windows all round; and no complete +ceilings shut off the air between this chamber and the rooms of two +stories below. In clear weather, there is a fine view from this +pinnacle, extending from the house, gardens, and orchard of the Messrs. +Hamerton below, over the spires of Coventry, to a wide range of country +beyond.</p> + +<p>Descending from the long room, where the winding is going on, we find +ourselves in an apartment which it does one good to be in. It is +furnished with long narrow tables, and benches put there for the sake of +the work-people, who may like to have their tea at the factory, in peace +and quiet. They can have hot water, and make themselves comfortable +here. Against the door hangs a list of books, read, or to be read, by +the people: and a very good list it is. Prints, from Raffaelle's Bible, +plainly framed, are on the walls. In the middle of the room, on, and +beside, a table, are four men and boys, preparing the "strapping" of a +Jacquard loom for work. The cords, so called, are woven at Shrewsbury. +We next enter a room where a young man is engaged in the magical work of +"reading in from the draught." The draught is the pattern of the +intended ribbon, drawn and painted upon diced paper,—like the patterns +for carpets that we saw at Kendal, but a good deal larger, though the +article to be produced here is so much smaller. The young man sits, as +at a loom. Before him hangs the mass of cords he is to tie into pattern, +close before his face, like the curtain of a cabinet piano. Upreared +before his eyes is his pattern, supported by a slip of wood. He brings +the line he has to "read in" to the edge of this wood, and then, with +nimble fingers, separates the cords, by threes, by sevens, by fives, by +twelves, according to the pattern, and threads through them the string +which is to tie them apart. The skill and speed with which he feels out +his cords, while his eyes are fixed on his pattern, appear very +remarkable; but when we come to consider, it is not so complicated a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_516" id="Page_516">[Pg 516]</a></span> +process as playing at sight on the piano. The reader has to deal thus +with one chapter, or series, or movement, of his pattern. A <i>da capo</i> +ensues: in other words, the Jacquard cards are tied together, to begin +again; and there is a revolution of the cards, and a repetition of the +pattern, till the piece of ribbon is finished. In the same apartment is +the press in which the Jacquard cards are prepared; just in the way +which may be seen wherever silk or carpet weaving, with Jacquard looms, +goes forward.</p> + +<p>All the preparations having been seen—the making of the machinery, the +filling of the spools, the drawing and "reading in" of the pattern, and +the tying of the cords or strapping, we have to see the great process of +all, the actual weaving. We certainly had no idea how fine a spectacle +it might be. Floor above floor is occupied with a long room in each, +where the looms are set as close as they can work, on either hand, +leaving only a narrow passage between. It may seem an odd thing to say; +but there is a kind of architectural grandeur in these long lofty rooms, +where the transverse cords of the looms and their shafts and beams are +so uniform, as to produce the impression that symmetry, on a large +scale, always gives. Looking down upon the details, there is plenty of +beauty. The light glances upon the glossy colored silks, depending, like +a veil, from the backs of the looms, where women and girls are busy +piercing the imperfect threads with nimble fingers. There seems to be +plenty for one person to do; for there are thirteen broad ribbons, or a +greater number of narrow ones, woven at once, in a single loom; yet it +may sometimes be seen that one person can attend the fronts, and another +the backs of two looms. In the front we see the thirteen ribbons getting +made. Usually, they are of the same pattern, in different colors. The +shuttles, with their gay little spools, fly to and fro, and the pattern +grows, as of its own will. Below is a barrel, on which the woven ribbon +is wound. Slowly revolving, it winds off the fabric as it is finished, +leaving the shuttles above room to ply their work.</p> + +<p>The variety of ribbons is very great, though in this factory we saw no +gauzes, nor, at the time of our visit, any of the extremely rich ribbons +which made such a show at the Exhibition. Some had an elegant and +complicated pattern, and were woven with two shuttles (called the +double-batten weaving) which came forward alternately, as the details of +the rich flower or leaf required the one or the other. There were satin +ribbons, in weaving which only one thread in eight is taken up,—the +gloss being given by the silk loop which covers the other seven. On +entering, we saw some narrow scarlet satin ribbons, woven for the Queen. +Wondering what Her Majesty could want with ribbon of such a color and +quality, we were set at ease by finding that it was not for ladies, but +horses. It was to dress the heads of the royal horses. There were +bride-like, white-figured ribbons, and narrow flimsy black ones, fit for +the wear of the poor widow who strives to get together some mourning for +Sundays. There were checked ribbons, of all colors and all sizes in the +check. There were stripes of all varieties of width and hue. There were +diced ribbons, and speckled, and frosted. There were edges which may +introduce a beautiful harmony of coloring; as primrose with a lilac +edge, green with a purple edge, rose color and brown, puce and amber, +and so on. The loops of pearl or shell edges are given by the silk being +passed round horse-hairs, which are drawn out when the thing is done. +There are belts,—double ribbons,—which have other material than silk +in them; and there are a good many which are plain at one edge, and +ornamented at the other. These are for trimming dresses. One reason why +there are so few gauzes, is that the French beat us there. They grow the +kind of silk that is best for that fabric, and labor is cheap with them; +so that any work in which labor bears a large proportion to the +material, is peculiarly suitable for them.</p> + +<p>We have spent so much time among the looms, that it is growing dusk in +their shadows, though still light enough in the counting house for us to +look over the pattern-book, and admire a great many patterns, most, till +we see more. Young women are weighing ribbons in large scales; and a man +is measuring off some pieces, by reeling. He cuts off remnants, which he +casts into a basket, where they look so pretty that, lest we should be +conscious of any shop-lifting propensities, we turn away. There is a +glare now through the window which separates us from the noisy weaving +room. The gas is lighted, and we step in again, just to see the effect. +It is really very fine. The flare of the separate jets is lost behind +the screens of silken threads, which veil the backs of the looms, while +the yellow light touches the beams, and gushes up to the high ceiling in +a thousand caprices. Surely the ribbon manufacture is one of the +prettiest that we have to show.</p> + +<p>If the Coventry people were asked whether their chief manufacture was in +a flourishing state, the most opposite answers would probably be given +by different parties equally concerned. Some exult, and some complain, +at this present time. As far as we can make out, the state of things is +this. From the low price of provisions, multitudes have something more +to spare from their weekly wages than formerly, for the purchase of +finery: and the demand for cheap ribbons has increased wonderfully. As +always happens when any manufacture is prosperous, the operatives engage +their whole families in it. We may see the father weaving; his wife, on +the verge of her confinement, winding in another room, or, perhaps, +standing behind a loom, piecing the whole day long. The little girls<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_517" id="Page_517">[Pg 517]</a></span> +fill the spools; the boys are weaving somewhere else. The consequences +of this devotion of whole households to one business, are as bad here as +among the Nottingham lace-makers, or the Leicester hosiers. Not only is +there the misery before them of the whole family being adrift at once, +when bad times come, but they are doing their utmost to bring on those +bad times. Great as is the demand, the production has, thus far, much +exceeded it. The soundest capitalists may be heard complaining that +theirs is a losing trade. Less substantial capitalists have been obliged +to get rid of some of their stock at any price they could obtain: and +those ribbons, sold at a loss, intercept the sales of the fair-dealing +manufacturer. This cannot go on. Prosperous as the working-classes of +Coventry have been, for a considerable time, a season of adversity must +be within ken, if the capitalists find the trade a bad one for them. We +find the case strongly stated, and supported by facts, in a tract, on +the Census of Coventry, which has lately been published there. It might +save a repetition of the misery which the Coventry people brought upon +themselves formerly—by their tenacity about protective duties, and +their opposition to steam power—if they would, before it is too late, +ponder the facts of their case, and strive, every man in his way, to +yield respect to the natural demand for the great commodity of his city; +and to take care that the men of Coventry shall be fit for something +else than weaving ribbons.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h4>From the Examiner.</h4> + +<h2><a name="BARTHOLD_NIEBUHR_THE_HISTORIAN20" id="BARTHOLD_NIEBUHR_THE_HISTORIAN20"></a>BARTHOLD NIEBUHR, THE HISTORIAN.<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a></h2> + + +<p>Niebuhr was born pre-eminently gifted, was trained by intellectual and +tender parents, and his whole career is one story of the progress made +by a mind which united extraordinary powers with untiring industry. But +Niebuhr was not only born to achieve greatness. He achieved love and +friendship in every relation of his life, he was a high-minded and in +the purest sense of the word an earnest man. In intellect he was a giant +among us; but in him the intellect was not a statue raised above the +moral life, on which it trod as on a pedestal, a block of mere +stone-mason's work; his heart had not been used up in the making of his +brains, or his soul cleared out a sacrifice to make room for a new stock +of understanding. We may yield our minds up to admire Niebuhr +unreservedly, and it is pleasant therefore to get a <i>Life</i> of him in +English, so full as this is of the actual man, as he poured out portions +thereof to his bosom friends, and wherein the large lumps of true +Niebuhr gold are contained in a biographic deposit which itself is a +long way removed from dross. The quiet, unaffected way in which this +work has been done by the English writer of the book before us, her +elegant simplicity of style, her thorough mastery of the subject, enable +us to pass from Life to Letters, and from Letters back to Life, without +any sense but of a perfect harmony between both. The two volumes are of +a kind that can be read through from the beginning to the end with +unremitting pleasure. We strongly suspect that Niebuhr, at the age of +twelve, would have bewildered with his knowledge some few of our +university professors. Here is part of a sketch, representing him when +he was not very far removed from long clothes:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>How keenly alive he was to poetical impressions appears from +a letter of Boje's written in 1783: "This reminds me of +little Niebuhr. His docility, his industry, and his devoted +love for me procure me many a pleasant hour. A short time +back I was reading 'Macbeth' aloud to his parents without +taking any notice of him, till I saw what an impression it +made upon him. Then I tried to render it all intelligible to +him, and even explained to him how the witches were only +poetical beings. When I was gone, he sat down (he is not yet +seven years old), and wrote it all out on seven sheets of +paper without omitting one important point, and certainly +without any expectation of receiving praise for it; for, +when his father asked to see what he had written, and showed +it to me, he cried for fear he had not done it well. Since +then he writes down every thing of importance that he hears +from his father or me. We seldom praise him, but just +quietly tell him where he has made any mistake, and he +avoids the fault for the future.</p> + +<p>"The child's character early exhibited a rare union of the +faculty of poetical insight with that of accurate practical +observation. The amusements he contrived for himself afford +an illustration of this. During the periods of his +confinement to the house, before he was old enough to have +any paper given him, he covered with his writings and +drawings the margins of the leaves of several copies of +Forskaal's works, which were used in the house as waste +paper. Then he made copy books for himself, in which he +wrote essays, mostly on political subjects. He had an +imaginary empire called Low-England, of which he drew maps, +and he promulgated laws, waged wars, and made treaties of +peace there. His father was pleased that he should occupy +himself with amusements of this kind, and his sister took an +active part in them. There still exist among his papers many +of his childish productions; among others, translations and +interpretations of passages of the New Testament, poetical +paraphrases from the classics, sketches of little poems, a +translation of Poncet's Travels in Ethiopia, an historical +and geographical description of Africa, written in 1787 (the +two last were undertaken as presents to his father on his +birth-day), and many other things mostly written during +these years."</p></div> + +<p>Here is Niebuhr, at the age of thirty-four, Professor in Berlin, after +he had retired from official trusts which had imposed as many toils upon +him as would have made an enormously active life for one of the most +ancient tenants of our English pension list to look back upon:</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_518" id="Page_518">[Pg 518]</a></span></p> +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Niebuhr's relinquishment of office, in 1810, forms an +important epoch in his life. He was now thirty-four years of +age, and since his twentieth year (with the exception of the +sixteen months passed in England and Scotland), had been +actively engaged in the public service. During this period +he had indeed never lost sight of his philological +researches, but he had only been able to devote to them his +few hours of leisure; now, it was to be seen whether he +could find satisfaction in the life of a student, after +years passed in the midst of the great world, and surrounded +by exciting circumstances. How far he had, however, turned +these leisure hours to account, may be judged by the +following memorandum, found, with many others of a similar +kind, among his papers, and written most probably in +Copenhagen about 1803:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Works which I have to complete: 1. Treatise on Roman +Domains. 2. Translation of El Wakidi 3. History of Macedon. +4. Account of the Roman Constitution at its various Epochs. +5. History of the Achæan Confederation, of the Wars of the +Confederates, and of the Civil Wars of Marius and Sylla, 6. +Constitutions of the Greek States. 7. Empire of the +Caliphs."</p></div> + +<p>"No detailed outlines of these, or any of his other literary +undertakings are to be found; but it must not be inferred that such +memoranda contain mere projects, towards whose execution no steps were +ever taken. That Niebuhr proposed any such work to himself, was a +certain sign that he had read and thought deeply on the subject, but he +was able to trust so implicitly to his extraordinary memory, that he +never committed any portion of his essays to paper, till the whole was +complete in his own mind. His memory was so wonderfully retentive, that +he scarcely ever forgot any thing which he had once heard or read, and +the facts he knew remained present to him at all times, even in their +minutest details.</p> + +<p>"His wife and his sister once playfully took up Gibbon, and asked him +questions from the table of contents about the most trivial things, by +way of testing his memory. They carried on the examination till they +were tired, and gave up all hope of even detecting him in a momentary +uncertainty, though he was at the same time engaged in writing on some +other subject. He was once conversing with a party of Austrian officers +about Napoleon's Italian campaigns. Some dispute arose respecting the +position of different corps in the battle of Marengo. Niebuhr described +exactly how they were placed, and the progress of the action. The +officers contradicted him; but on maps being brought he was found to be +in the right, and to know more of the details of the conflict than the +very officers who had been present. One day, when he was talking with +Professor Welcker of Bonn, the conversation happened to turn on the +weather, and Niebuhr quoted the results of barometrical observations in +the different years, as far back as 1770, with perfect accuracy. This +power was not a merely mechanical faculty; it was intimately connected +with the power of instantaneously seizing on all the relations of any +fact placed before him, and with his wonderful imagination; his +imagination, however, was that of an historian, not of a poet—it was +not creative, but enabled him to form from the most various, and +apparently inadequate sources, distinct and truthful pictures of scenes, +actions, and characters. Hence his keen delight in travels: hence, too, +his habit of pronouncing judgment on the men of other countries and of +past times, with all the warmth of a fellow-countryman and a +contemporary.</p> + +<p>"With his warm affections, and clear-sighted moral sense, it was +impossible for him to form such opinions on past or present history, +coolly standing aloof, as it were, and regarding the subject with calm +superiority; he could not but condemn and despise all that was +pernicious and base; he could not but love and reverence, with his whole +heart, whatever was noble and beautiful. Such opinions and feelings he +expressed with the utmost frankness, sometimes even with vehemence, when +prudence would have counselled more guarded language."</p></div> + +<p>Here is Professor Niebuhr holding up a bright example to our friends who +fear to look ridiculous in rifle clubs:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"On the evacuation of Berlin by the French in February, +1813, Niebuhr shared in the national rejoicings, and not +less in the enthusiasm displayed in the preparations for the +complete re-conquest of freedom. When the Landwehr was +called out, he refused to evade serving in it, as he could +take no other part in the war. His wish was to act as +secretary to the general staff; but if this were not +possible, he meant to enter the service as a volunteer with +some of his friends. For this purpose he went through the +exercises, and when the time came for those of his age to be +summoned, sent in his name as a volunteer to the Landwehr. +He would have preferred entering a regular regiment, and +applied to the King for permission to do so; but this +request was refused by him, and he added that he would give +him other commissions more suited to his talents.</p> + +<p>"Niebuhr's friends in Holstein could hardly trust their eyes +when he wrote them word that he was drilling for the army, +and that his wife entered with equal enthusiasm into his +feelings. The greatness of the object had so inspired Madame +Niebuhr, who was usually anxious, even to a morbid extent, +at the slightest imaginable peril for the husband in whom +she might truly be said to live, that she was willing and +ready to bring even her most precious treasure as a +sacrifice to her country."</p></div> + +<p>Hitherto we have quoted the biography, but on this point, and at a time +when we are seeking to forearm ourselves against the chance of evil, it +may edify us to hear Niebuhr himself speak on the theme of ball +practice. Niebuhr, it should be remembered, writes at a time when two +volumes of his great work, the "History of Rome," had been appreciated +by the public:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"I come from an employment in which you will hardly be able +to fancy me engaged—namely, exercising. Even before the +departure of the French, I began to go through the exercise +in private, but a man can scarcely acquire it without +companions. Since the French left, a party of about twenty +of us have been exercising in a garden, and we have already +got over the most difficult part of the training. When my +lectures are concluded, which they will be at the beginning +of next week, I shall try to exercise with regular recruits +during the morning, and as often as possible practice +shooting at a mark..... By the end of a month I hope to be +as well drilled as any recruit who is considered to have +finished his training. The heavy musket<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_519" id="Page_519">[Pg 519]</a></span> gave me so much +trouble at first, that I almost despaired of being able to +handle it; but we are able to recover the powers again that +we have only lost for want of practice. I am happy to say +that my hands are growing horny; for as long as they had a +delicate bookworm's skin, the musket cut into them +terribly."</p></div> + +<p>And now let us give a view of Niebuhr as Professor in Bonn, together +with a few well-written notes upon his character:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"We have seen that, at Berlin, Niebuhr delivered his +lectures <i>verbatim</i> from written notes. At Bonn, on the +contrary, his only preparation consisted in meditating for a +short time on the subject of his lecture, and referring to +authorities for his data, when he found it necessary, and he +brought no written notes with him to the lecture-room. His +success in imparting his ideas varied greatly at different +times, as it depended almost entirely on his mental and +physical condition at the moment. He always felt a certain +difficulty in expressing himself. He grasped his subject as +a whole, and it was not easy to him to retrace the steps by +which he had arrived at his results. Hence his style was +harsh and often disjointed; and yet he possessed a species +of eloquence whose value is of a high order—that of making +the expression the exact reflection of the thought—that of +embodying each separate idea in an adequate, but not +redundant form. The discourse was no dry, impersonal +statement of facts and arguments, or even opinions; the +whole man, with his conceptions, feelings, moral sentiments, +nay passions too, was mirrored forth in it. Hence Niebuhr +not merely informed and stimulated the minds of his hearers, +but attracted their affections. That he did this in an +eminent degree, was not indeed owing to his lectures alone, +but also to his kind and generous conduct. All who deserved +it were sure of his sympathy and assistance, whether +oppressed by intellectual difficulties, or pecuniary cares. +During the first year, he delivered his lectures without +remuneration; afterwards, on its being represented to him +that this would be injurious to other professors who could +not afford to do the same, he consented to take fees, but +employed them in assisting poor scholars and founding +prizes. He often, however, still remitted the fee privately, +when he perceived that a young man could not well afford it, +and never took any from friends.</p> + +<p>"But those who were admitted to his domestic circle were the +class most deeply indebted to him. His interest in all +subjects of scientific or moral importance was always +lively; and it was impossible to be in his company without +deriving some accession of knowledge and incentive to good. +From his associates he only required a warm and pure heart +and a sincere love of knowledge, with a freedom from +affectation or arrogance. Where he found these, he willingly +adapted himself to the wants and capacities of his +companions; would receive objections mildly, and take pains +to answer them, even when urged by mere youths, and weigh +carefully every new idea presented to him. He was fond of +society, and while his irritability not seldom gave rise to +slight misunderstandings and even temporary estrangements in +the circle of his acquaintance, there were some friends with +whom he always remained on terms of unbroken intimacy, among +whom may be named Professors Brandis, Arndt, Nitzsch, Bleek, +Näke, Welcker, and Hollweg. He enjoyed wit in others, and in +his lighter moods racy and pointed sayings escaped him not +unfrequently.</p> + +<p>"His intercourse was not confined to literary circles. In +all the civil affairs of the town and neighborhood he took +an active interest from principle as well as inclination, +for he considered a man as no good citizen who refused to +take his share of the public business of the neighborhood in +which he lived; and the loss which left so great a blank in +the world of letters, was also deeply regretted by his +fellow-townsmen of Bonn. Niebuhr's mode of life at Bonn was +very regular, and his habits simple. He hated show and +unnecessary luxury in domestic life. He loved art in her +proper place, but could not bear to see her degraded into +the mere minister of outward ease. His life in his own +family showed the erroneousness of the assertion that a +thorough devotion to learning is inconsistent with the +claims of family affection. He liked to hear of all the +little household occurrences, and his sympathy was as ready +for the little sorrows of his children as for the +misfortunes of a nation. He was in the habit of rising at +seven in the morning, and retiring at eleven. At the simple +one o'clock dinner, he generally conversed cheerfully upon +the contents of the newspapers which he had just looked +through. The conversation was usually continued during the +walk which he took immediately afterwards. The building of a +house, or the planting of a garden, had always an attraction +for him, and he used to watch the measuring of a wall, or +the breaking open of an entrance, with the same species of +interest with which he observed the development of a +political organization. The family drank tea at eight +o'clock, when any of his acquaintance were always welcome. +But during the hours spent in his library, his whole being +was absorbed in his studies, and hence he got through an +immense amount of work in an incredibly short time."</p></div> + +<p>Finally, here is the death of the immortal historian:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"The last political occurrence in which Niebuhr was strongly +interested, was the trial of the ministers of Charles the +Tenth; it was indirectly the cause of his death. He read the +reports in the French journals with eager attention; and as +these newspapers were much in request at that time, from the +universal interest felt in their contents, he did not in +general go to the public reading-rooms where he was +accustomed to see the papers daily, until the evening. On +Christmas Eve and the following day, he was in better health +and spirits than he had been for a long while, but on the +evening of the 25th of December he spent a considerable time +waiting and reading in the hot news-room, without taking off +his thick fur cloak, and then returned home through the +bitter frosty night air, heated in mind and body. Still full +of the impression made on him by the papers, he went +straight to Classen's room, and exclaimed, 'That is true +eloquence! You must read Sauzet's speech; he alone declares +the true state of the case; that this is no question of law, +but an open battle between hostile powers! Sauzet must be no +common man! But,' he added immediately, 'I have taken a +severe chill, I must go to bed.' And from the couch which he +then sought, he never rose again, except for one hour, two +days afterwards, when he was forced to return to it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_520" id="Page_520">[Pg 520]</a></span> quickly +with warning symptoms of his approaching end.</p> + +<p>"His illness lasted a week, and was pronounced, on the +fourth day, to be a decided attack of inflammation on the +lungs. His hopes sank at first, but rose with his increasing +danger and weakness; even on the morning of the last day he +said, 'I may still recover.' Two days before, his faithful +wife, who had exerted herself beyond her strength in nursing +him, fell ill and was obliged to leave him. He then turned +his face to the wall, and exclaimed with the most painful +presentiment, 'Hapless house! To lose father and mother at +once!' And to the children he said, 'Pray to God, children! +He alone can help us!' And his attendants saw that he +himself was seeking comfort and strength in silent prayer. +But when his hopes of life revived, his active and powerful +mind soon demanded its wonted occupation. The studies that +had been dearest to him through life, remained so in death; +his love to them was proved to be pure and genuine by its +unwavering perseverance to the last. While he was on his +sick bed, Classsen read aloud to him for hours the Greek +text of the Jewish History of Josephus, and he followed the +sense with such ease and attention, that he suggested +several emendations in the text at the moment; this may be +called an unimportant circumstance, but it always appeared +to us one of the most wonderful proofs of his mental powers. +The last learned work in which he was able to testify his +interest, was the description of Rome by Bunsen and his +friends, which had just been sent to him; the preface to the +first volume was read aloud to him, and called forth +expressions of pleasure and approbation. He also asked for +light reading to pass the time, but our attempts to satisfy +him were unsuccessful. A friend proposed the 'Briefe eines +Verstorbenen,' which was then making a great sensation; but +he declined it, faying he feared that its levity would jar +upon his feelings. One of Cooper's novels was recommended to +him, and excited his ridicule by its extraordinary verbiage; +he was much amused by trying an experiment he proposed, +which consisted in taking one period at hap-hazard on each +page; and by the discovery that this mode of reading did +little violence to the connection of the story. The +'Colnishe Zeitung' was read aloud to him up to the last day, +with extracts from the French and other journals. He asked +for them expressly, only twelve hours before his death, and +gave his opinion half in jest about the change of ministry +in Paris. But on the afternoon of the 1st of January, 1831, +he sank into a dreamy slumber; once on awakening, he said +that pleasant images floated before him in sleep; now and +then he spoke French in his dreams; probably he felt himself +in the presence of his departed friend De Serre. As the +night gathered, consciousness gradually faded away; he woke +up once more about midnight, when the last remedy was +administered; he recognized in it a medicine of doubtful +operation, never resorted to but in extreme cases, and said +in a faint voice, 'What essential substance is this? Am I so +far gone?' These were his last words; he sank back on his +pillow, and within an hour his noble heart had ceased to +beat."</p> + +<p>"Niebuhr's wife died nine days after him, on the 11th of the +same month, about the same hour of the night. She died, in +fact, of a broken heart, though her disease was, like his, +an inflammation of the chest. She could shed no tears, +though she longed for them, and prayed God to send them; +once her eyes grew moist, when his picture was brought to +her at her own request, but they dried again, and her heavy +heart was not relieved. She had her children often with her, +particularly her son, and gave them her parting counsels. +And so her loving and pure soul went home to God. Both rest +in one grave, over which the present King of Prussia has +erected a monument to the memory of his former instructor +and counsellor. The children were placed under the care of +Madame Hensler, at Kiel."</p></div> + +<p>Our copious extracts from the biographic portion of the work will amply +satisfy the mind of any one who needs more than report to convince him +of the tact and good taste which have presided over the transformation +of Madame Hensler's <i>Lebensnachrichten</i> into a readable and interesting +book, which is likely to be read for years as the best English record of +a life that will be looked back upon with interest by all posterity.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> The Life and Letters of Barthold George Niebuhr; with +Essays on his Character and Influence, by the Chevalier Bunsen and +Professors Brandis and Loebell. Two volumes. Chapman & Hall.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h4>From Household Words.</h4> + + +<h2><a name="PICTURE_ADVERTISING_IN_SOUTH_AMERICA" id="PICTURE_ADVERTISING_IN_SOUTH_AMERICA"></a>PICTURE ADVERTISING IN SOUTH AMERICA.</h2> + +<p>The concentrated wisdom of nations used formerly to be sought for in +their proverbs; we look for it now-a-days in their newspapers. Whether +we always find what we seek, in this respect, may be a question; but +something is sure to turn up in them that will repay the search, though +the leading article, the records of parliament and of law, or even the +letters of "our own correspondent," may fail to disclose it. The +"intelligent" reader will at once see that we point to the advertising +columns, but we are not going to inflict an epitome of the first and +second pages of the <i>Times</i>, or present an abstract of its Supplement, +characteristic of our country as the result might prove. We purpose to +go somewhat further afield, and tread upon ground hitherto unbroken. A +file of South American newspapers has suggested to us that it might +prove amusing, if not instructive, to describe the wants and wishes, the +habits of life, and something of the pervading tone of society, in +certain parts of that hemisphere, as shown in the advertisements of the +periodical journals. We have selected the city of Buenos Ayres for this +illustration, and turn at once to our file.</p> + +<p>The political feature is absent here, for where men have always arms in +their hands to establish a new "Constitution," or destroy an old one, +they look elsewhere than to a newspaper advertisement for the arena +wherein to exhibit their valor or patriotism. Their "London Tavern," +their "Town Hall," their "Copenhagen Fields," or "Bull-ring," are to be +found on their wide-spreading Pampas, or in the fastnesses of their +Sierras, with the <i>lasso</i> at the saddle-bow, the sharp spur on the heel, +the <i>trabrigo</i> (carbine) in the holster,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_521" id="Page_521">[Pg 521]</a></span> and the lance or sabre in the +grasp. These politicians have no time for reading or writing +advertisements, nor would it answer any very useful purpose if they did. +The only attempt that is ever made to catch the patriotic eye, is where +a formal notice is issued by the authorities, touching taxes, or a +muster of militia for some peaceful end; on these occasions, a "<i>Viva la +Federation!</i>" (Long live the Confederation!) appears at the head of the +advertisement announcing the fact; and when it has a quasi-military +character attached to it, the portrait of an infantry soldier under +arms, in white tights, Hessian boots, crossbelts, stiff stock, and +ponderous chako (none of them very pleasant things to think of in +latitude thirty-four degrees south, with the thermometer ninety-six in +the shade), is invariably added. But the confederation is not appealed +to merely because the nature of the advertisement may seem to require +it; we find the same heart-stirring refresher associated with ass's +milk, live turtle, runaway slaves—with everything, indeed, that has an +interest for the community, portable or edible, necessary to its +comfort, or serviceable to its desires.</p> + +<p>But if liberty has very little claim on the advertising columns of a +newspaper in Buenos Ayres, there is a large set-off in favor of slavery. +The papers teem with notices concerning that portion of the people who +have the misfortune not to belong to themselves. And here it may be +desirable to advert to a feature which is essential to the success of an +advertisement in South America; it must be pictorial. Our own country +newspapers, and most of the continental ones,—those of our Parisian +friends in particular,—show us what can be done in this way; but they +do not elaborate their subject after the manner of the Buenos-Ayreans. +With them the advertisement must have a double chance; they who can read +may enjoy the advantages of a liberal education in plain type;—they who +have not been introduced to the schoolmaster may gather the meaning of +the "noticia" from the greater or less striking resemblance of the +object advertised to the woodcut which illustrates it. It is true, a +difficulty may sometimes arise in the latter case, owing to an +economical employment of the same block to represent a great variety of +actions; the same slave is always in the attitude of a fugitive, whether +he be described as running away with all his might, or quietly standing +still to be sold; the same horse is always in a high trotting condition, +whether he be supposed to career across the plain, or hold up a foot to +be shod; the same bull has always his head bent down, with the same +mischievous poke of the horns, whether he be advertised for slaughter or +recommended for sport.</p> + +<p>A cook who might make a pudding with quick-lime instead of flour, and +instead of a bath-brick send in a real one, would not accord with the +notions of an English housewife. Female slaves who are to be sold, are +represented as like to Atalanta, as the males are to Hippomenes. They, +too, attired in a long night-gown, which has very much the look of +impeding their flight, are always bolting with a bundle, which probably +contains the bonnet they never appear in, or the shoes they are not +supposed to wear. In like manner, if you wish to buy (<i>se desca +comprar</i>) a slave, of either sex, you do so with your eyes open; for the +great probability that the new purchase will vanish on the first +favorable opportunity, is vividly get forth in the woodcut that speaks +for all. The prices are tolerably high,—a boy, as we have seen, fetches +nine hundred dollars; a woman-servant (<i>una criada</i>), fifteen hundred; +and a man in the prime of his age,—for manual labor,—eighteen hundred, +or two thousand. What a fortune Louis Napoleon might make, if he could +establish a market-value for those whom he proscribes! M. Thiers would +then be worth four hundred pounds!</p> + +<p>The next step is to religion,—or, at least, to its forms and +ceremonies. We see the vignette of an altar-table, covered with a fair +cloth, whereon stand a crucifix, and a pair of long waxen tapers, in +full blaze, a holy-water pot, and a sprinkling-brush, are placed beside +the table, beneath which is spread a handsome carpet. So much for the +emblem; now for the text:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Doña Agustina Lopez de Rosas, the citizens Don Prudencio +and Don Gervacio Ortiz de Rosas, and others, brothers, wife, +and sons of the deceased Don Leon Ortiz de Rosas (Q.E.P.D.), +invite those gentlemen who, by accident, have not received +notes of invitation, to accompany them to pray to God for +mercy on the soul of the aforesaid deceased, in the +Cathedral Church, at ten o'clock of the 20th of March +current, by which they will feel under infinite obligation."</p></div> + +<p>The next is a more than half-obliterated impression of an image of the +sun, partly obscured by clouds, with the obligato crucifix in the midst, +headed "Ave Maria;"—it is the third advertisement (<i>tercer aviso</i>), and +is addressed by the Superiors (Mayordomos) of the most Holy Rosary to +all faithful and devout sons of the most holy Mary.</p> + +<p>The text of this address we need not give; the substance will be +sufficient. It tells the history of the completion of the two naves and +other parts of the church of the Patriarch San Domingo, which have been +painted, whitewashed, and otherwise decorated, in the sight of all the +faithful (<i>à la vista de todos los fieles</i>), and—to make a long story +short—money is wanted to make it what the priests wish it, and' +therefore the superiors intend to stand daily in the chief porch to +receive subscriptions, the smallest sums being—as in England, and every +where else—most gratefully received.</p> + +<p>The mortuary advertisements are not absolutely a transition "from +praying to purse-taking;"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_522" id="Page_522">[Pg 522]</a></span> only a variety of the same general mode of +dealing. We select two of these:—In the first, we behold a lady in the +full-dress evening costume of the Empire, with a very short waist, and +very little drapery above it, leaning pensively against a funereal +monument; an embroidered pocket-handkerchief being placed beneath one +elbow, to protect it from the cold marble; in her left hand she carries +a substantial wooden cross, which is held so as to fall over the +shoulder; a weeping willow on the opposite side to the mourning lady +balances the composition. Below the picture is the announcement that +"Funereal letters (<i>Esquelas de Funerales</i>) of every tasteful +description, engraved as well as lithographic, and at a very moderate +price, are to be obtained at the printing-office of the Mercantile +Gazette, in the street of Cangallo, No. 75, where designs of all kinds +maybe seen." The second is more sombre in outward show, but less +applicable to the general business of the advertiser. It is headed, +"Interesting to all whom it may concern." (<i>Interesante à quienes +conguenga.</i>) We have here a very black tree, a very black tombstone, and +a very black sky; the outline of the two former relieved by gleams of +light from a very full moon; and having gazed our fill on these +melancholy objects, are told that—"In the street of Victory, at No. +63-1/2, at all hours of the day, an individual is to be met with who +undertakes to supply every description of cards or notes of invitation, +whether for funerals or any other kind of entertainment; he undertakes +at the same time to serve those gentlemen who may honor him with their +orders, with the very best goods, &c.," after the approved fashion of +advertisers all over the globe.</p> + +<p>Natural history affords the Buenos-Ayreans great scope for their +artistical genius. Don Federico Costa announces a grand spectacle of +wild beasts; and that there may be no mistake about what he has to show, +he heralds his collections with the full-length portrait of an Uran-utan +(<i>Orangutan</i>), which he describes as a native of Africa. This +interesting animal is seated on a bank, with a large stick in one hand, +looking over his shoulder, and displays an endless amount of fingers and +toes; the greater the number, the nearer, in Don Federico's opinion, the +creature's approach to humanity. There is a wonderful bit of shadow +thrown from one of the Uran-utan's legs, which puts one in mind of the +footprint that so startled Robinson Crusoe; and, indeed, the general +appearance of the animal is not unlike some of the earlier portraits of +that renowned mariner, only nature has done for the Uran-utan what art +and goat-skins accomplished for the solitary of Juan Fernandez.</p> + +<p>The moral attributes of Don Federico's pet are strongly insisted upon in +the advertisement,—his excellent disposition, the ingenuity of his +mind, and (included in "<i>la moral</i>") the surprising dexterity with which +he scoops out the contents of a cocoa-nut "in a manner most pleasing +(<i>muy agradáble</i>) to the beholders." His companions in captivity are +porcupines, tiger-cats, ounces, armadillos, and a number of animals +bearing local names, besides divers snakes of different colors, two +thousand well-preserved insects, and, finally, (<i>por último</i>,) a +collection of antiquities from Mexico. The price of admission is two +<i>reales</i>—the universal shilling; and children, in Buenos Ayres, as in +London, are admitted for half-price.</p> + +<p>A livelier turtle than that which is figured for the edification of the +gourmands who frequent the Hotel of Liberty in the street of the 25th of +May, it would be difficult to find even in the celebrated cellars of +Leadenhall-street. If we were wholly unacquainted with the domestic +habits of these scaly delicacies, we might easily imagine, from the +picture here given, that the way a turtle gets over the ground is by +flying, his outstretched feet and flippers serving him for wings. This +advertisement is brief,—on the principle that good wine needs no bush. +We are merely informed that turtle-soup, cutlets, and broiled fins, are +to be had from mid-day till sunset. There is no occasion for the hotel +proprietor to waste his money in commending wares such as these. The +picture and the hour of consummation would have been enough.</p> + +<p>It is well that invalids should be told, that at No. 76, in the Street +of Maipú, the milk of an ass "recently confined" is always on sale; but +the woodcut attached to the advertisement makes the fact appear +doubtful; for a sturdier male animal than the "burro" there depicted, +was never painted by Morland or Gainsborough. This, however, may arise +from the necessity which exists for one of a sort doing duty for all. +But there is another singularity in this advertisement. With no line to +indicate a fresh subject, as is the case in every other instance, the +portrait of the ass is always followed by the words "Long live the +Confederation! Death to the Unitarians!" These lines have puzzled us; +and we hesitate to give the only explanation that strikes us: something +disrespectful, in short, to the Confederation of Buenos Ayres.</p> + +<p>It is not only the slaves that run away in that part of South America: +the infection extends to dogs, horses, and oxen, all of which, like +Caliban, seem for ever on the look out to "have a new master, get a new +man," to hunt, ride, or drive them. There is a daily column, headed +"Perdida," in which long-tailed horses, with flowing manes, pointers in +immovable attitudes, for ever pointing, and sinister-looking +bulls—thorough-paced gamblers, always ready for pitch-and-toss—are +advertised as having left their owners, who strive to win them back by +rewards varying twenty to fifty dollars. In all these cases the missing +animals are described as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_523" id="Page_523">[Pg 523]</a></span> having "disappeared" (<i>desaparecido</i>)—a mild +term for "stolen;" it being the Spanish custom to refrain from "wounding +ears polite"—except when the blood is up; then, indeed, they may take +the field against Uncle Toby's army, that swore so terribly in Flanders.</p> + +<p>This delicate mode of appealing to the consciences of thieves—which, +carried fairly out, would probably bear a strong resemblance in the end +to the politeness of Mr. Chucks—is extended to property of all kinds. A +large watch, of the genus turnip, the hands pointing to half-past +eleven, the time, perhaps, when the robbery is supposed to have taken +place, and accompanied by the expressive word "Ojo" (look sharp) thrice +repeated, indicates, what the advertisement soon plainly tells, that +from No. 69, in Emerald-street, there have "disappeared" a valuable lot +of articles, which give a very good idea of the turn-out of a +well-mounted horseman in South America. There are, first, several pairs +of large silver spurs—and a pair of Spanish spurs, when melted down, +would make a decent service of plate,—quite enough for a "testimonial" +to ourselves; and then come braided headstalls and bridles, with twisted +chains and cavessons of silver; the reins hung with silver-bells, and +decorated with silver bosses, and the bits and curbs heavily mounted +with the same costly metal. This robbery has been evidently "a put-up +thing," for there is no word of housebreaking,—merely a disappearance; +and all silversmiths, pawnbrokers, and the public in general, are +entreated (<i>se suplica à los, &c.</i>) to detain the article, if offered, +and a reward of two hundred dollars will be given. Perhaps the gentlemen +who caused the horses to disappear have taken this mode of procuring +caparisons!</p> + +<p>Quack-medicine vendors are not wanting in Buenos Ayres to render +important services to humanity. Two magnificent cut-glass decanters, +gigantic in proportion to a tree of wondrous virtues which stands +between them, are stated to be full of a healing medicine, which will do +the business of all whom the faculty have given up or are otherwise +incurable, as effectually as Parr's Life Pills or Holloway's Ointment. +The chief establishment for the sale of this elixir is very carefully +pointed out; and for the benefit of future travellers we may mention, +that it is to be found at No. 496 in the street of Cangallo, and in the +very last door on the left-hand side, behind the windmill; and that in +the court-yard of the house there is a garden filled with statues, of +which the originals are probably defunct; but whether the elixir out of +the two large decanters had any thing to do with this apotheosis, we +refrain from conjecturing.</p> + +<p>The preceding advertisements are the most noticeable for embellishment +and style. The ordinary kind of wants are set forth with woodcuts and +text of a less striking kind, but almost all are illustrated. Wine has a +barrel for its sign; music, a violin; travelling, a carriage; gardening, +a flower-pot; upholstery, a chair; the cobbler's mystery, a top-boot; +the hatter's, a beaver; and the letter of lodgings, a house full of +windows. Not all of them are confined to the Spanish language, for there +are many English merchants and traders; and to accommodate the last, a +notice like the following recommends the aforementioned Street of Piety:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"To Det. To roms in altos one Squaz from the Place of +Victory."</p></div> + +<p>The author of this announcement certainly had not achieved a victory +over the English language.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h4>From the London Examiner.</h4> + +<h2><a name="GUIZOT_AND_MONTALEMBERT" id="GUIZOT_AND_MONTALEMBERT"></a>GUIZOT AND MONTALEMBERT.</h2> + + +<p>The greatest novelty now in Paris is a speech. Any specimen of oratory +that the police will first allow to be spoken, and then to be printed, +is quite an attraction. Indeed there is but one remaining chance of +perpetrating a speech, and that is by achieving your election as a +member of the Institute, or being appointed as an old member to welcome +the newly-elected academician. These are the only legitimate +opportunities for making one's voice heard in public that M. Bonaparte's +code has left to the Frenchman.</p> + +<p>In pursuance of this solitary permission on the part of the authorities, +the Paris journals have contained reports of two remarkable speeches, +the one uttered by Count Montalembert on his being elected to the seat +in the Academy, rendered vacant by the death of M. Droz; the other +spoken by M. Guizot, in the form of an address of welcome to the new +academician, M. de Montalembert. Now in the speeches of these, the first +authorized orators of the new despotic <i>regime</i>, we find so little to +awaken the susceptibilities of even M. Bonaparte's police, that we have +heard with unaffected wonder of the scissors of the censorship having +been applied even to them. The philosophy of the speeches is terribly +Conservative. M. Bonaparte himself could have desired no other. If his +highness the President had embraced the two academicians after their +speeches, and decorated them with the Grand Cordon of his new Order, it +would have been but a tribute justly due to these lay preachers of +absolutism.</p> + +<p>Eulogy of Droz was the theme which afforded Count Montalembert the +opportunity to ventilate his opinions, as M. Guizot's theme was the +eulogy of Montalembert. Montalembert depicted how Droz, who had reached +youth at the commencement of the great revolution, joined in all its +theories, its hopes, and its excesses, anathematizing kings and priests, +and believing in the happy and final reign of pure democracy; and how +all this the same Droz lived to unlearn and to correct, and to settle +down as quiet and as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_524" id="Page_524">[Pg 524]</a></span> arrant a Conservative as ever supported monarchic +government and a restored church. This is the true path of repentance, +exclaimed Montalembert, and the only road to wisdom.</p> + +<p>The compliment to tergiversation, which M. Montalembert thus paid to +Droz, M. Guizot applied to Montalembert himself, whom he (M. Guizot) had +remembered commencing his political career in full opposition, +thundering against corrupt majorities, against kingly influence, and +even against that want of spirit which preferred being at peace with +neighbors to provoking them. But all that sort of constitutional +opposition leads, as the people have seen, to the triumph of socialism; +and so all wise people, like M. Montalembert, naturally become sick of +it, and abandon it, betaking themselves for a preference to the old +political religion of legitimacy and worship of absolutism. Of all the +national disgraces inflicted upon France by M. Bonaparte's triumph, we +know of none greater than such a hymn to servility, such anathemas and +farewells to constitutional freedom, uttered by these two Talleyrands of +the professorial and ecclesiastical schools, who have been changing +principles all their lives, and now proclaim at last that absolutism is +the only anchor to hold by.</p> + +<p>On one point M. Montalembert impugned the philosophy of M. Droz, and in +doing so impugned not less the opinion of M. Thiers, and most of the +eminent men who have written histories or judgments upon the great +events of the Revolution. Droz, relating these events in after life, saw +in their march and series the influence of stern necessity. Such was the +congregated mass of evils of all kinds produced by the long +misgovernment of the despotism and corrupt regime of the Bourbons, that +a catastrophe like that of the Great Revolution was, according to Droz, +not to be avoided. No human power could stop it, no moderation, no +wisdom. In its path men were like the mere vegetable growth of a valley +down which a torrent comes in inundation, sweeping all before it.</p> + +<p>But M. Montalembert, for his own part, has another way of viewing the +events of the Revolution. He denies the doctrine of fatalism or of +necessity. He will not allow that the follies of the monarchy drew down +after them the crimes of the Republic as a natural consequence. He sees +in all those events, on the contrary, a direct intervention of +Providence, who inflicted the sufferings of the Revolution upon the +French simply as retribution for their crimes and a punishment for their +sins. Providence, in the imagination of Count Montalembert, is a Nemesis +with sword and scourge in hand, exercising its chief duty in castigating +humanity; and thus doth the French Academy in the middle of the +nineteenth century proclaim the philosophy of history.</p> + +<p>M. Guizot avoided the recognition of any assertion so extravagant as +this, and so very unfair to poor Jaques Bonhomme. The crimes of the old +monarchy were confined to the court, the clergy, the aristocracy, and +the financiers; whereas the poor peasant was ground to poverty, yet a +proverbially honest and cheerful fellow amidst his ignorance and +privations. But, according to Montalembert, Providence sent the +Revolution to punish the crimes of duchesses; and this Revolution +decimated, arrested, and sent to perish all over the world poor Jaques +Bonhomme. Was this justice? M. Guizot did not, as we say, endorse this +portion of the Montalembert philosophy. But he warned the Count of +having in his early life made one grand mistake, in allying religion +with liberalism, and putting the names of both combined on the banners +of opposition. M. Guizot could hardly mean that religion, like fortune, +should be always on the side of the greatest number of battalions. For +should not this be the creed of M. Bonaparte, rather than of his +illustrious Academicians?</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h4>From Household Words.</h4> + +<h2><a name="AN_ACCOUNT_OF_SOME_TREATMENT_OF_GOLD_AND_GEMS" id="AN_ACCOUNT_OF_SOME_TREATMENT_OF_GOLD_AND_GEMS"></a>AN ACCOUNT OF SOME TREATMENT OF GOLD AND GEMS.</h2> + + +<p>Those who visit the metal works of Birmingham naturally desire to know +where the metals come from; and especially the precious metals. Among +the materials shown to the visitor, are drawers full of the brightest +and cleanest gold; and ingots of silver, pure, or slightly streaked with +copper. We have handled to-day an ingot which contains, to ninety-two +ounces ten pennyweights of silver, seven ounces ten pennyweights of +copper. We ask whether the gold comes from California; but we find that +it has just arrived—from a much nearer place—from a refinery next +door. We hear high praises of the Californian gold. It is so pure that +some of it can be used, without refining, for second-rate articles. Some +small black specks may be detected in it, certainly, though they are so +few and so minute, that the native gold is wrought in large quantities. +But what <i>is</i> this neighboring refinery? Whence does it obtain the +metals it refines? Let us go and see.</p> + +<p>It is a strange murky place; a dismal inclosure, with ugly sheds, and +yards not more agreeable to the eye. Its beauties come out by degrees, +as the understanding opens to comprehend the affairs of the +establishment. In the sheds, are ranges of musty-looking furnaces; some +cold and gaping, others showing, through crevices, red signs of fire +within. There are piles of blocks of coal, of burnt ladles and peels, +and rivulets of black refuse, which has flowed out from the furnaces +into safe beds of red sand. In a special shed, is a black moist-looking +heap of what appears to be filth, battened into the shape of a large +compost bed. A man is filling a barrow with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_525" id="Page_525">[Pg 525]</a></span> this commodity, and +smoothing it down with loving care. And well he may; for this +despicable-looking dirt is the California of the concern! Here is their +gold mine, and their silver mine, and their copper mine. In another +shed, is a mill-stone on edge, revolving with the post to which it is +fixed, to crush the material which is to be calcined. In the yard, we +see heaps of scoriæ—the shining, heavy, glassy-looking fragments, which +tell tales of the prodigious heat to which they have been subjected. We +see picks, and more ladles, and lanterns, and a most sordid-looking +bonfire. A heap of refuse is burning on the stones; old rags, fragments +of shoes, cinders, dust, and nails—the veriest sweepings that can be +imagined. Something precious is there; but the mass must be burned to +become manageable. The ashes will be swept up for the refinery.</p> + +<p>But what is it that yields gold, and silver, and copper, and brass? What +is that heap of dirt in the special shed? It is the sweepings of the +Birmingham manufactories.</p> + +<p>What economy! In all goldsmiths' shops every effort is made to save all +the filings, and the minutest dust of the metals used. The floors are +swept, and every thing recoverable is picked up. Yet the imperceptible +loss is so valuable to the refiners, that they pay, and pay high, for +the scrapings, sweepings, and picking of the work-rooms. A cart load of +dirt is taken from a fork-and-spoon manufactory to the refinery, and +paid for on the instant; and the money thus received is one of the +regular items in the books of the concern. Perhaps it pays the wages of +one of the workmen. Another establishment receives two hundred pounds a +year for its sweepings. It is worth noting these methods in concerns +which are flourishing, and which have been raised to a prosperous +condition by pains and care; less flourishing people may be put in the +way of similar methods. For instance, how good it would be for farmers +if, instead of thinking there is something noble in disregard of +trifling economy, they could see the wisdom and beauty of an economy +which hurts nobody, but benefits every body! It would do no one any good +to throw away these scattered particles of precious metal, while their +preservation affords a maintenance to many families. In the same way, +the waste of dead leaves, of animal manure, of odds and ends of time, of +seed, of space in hedges, in the great majority of farms, does no good, +and gives no pleasure to any body; while the same thrift on a farm that +we see in a manufactory, would sustain much life, bestow much comfort, +narrow no hearts, and expand the enjoyment of very many.</p> + +<p>We must take care of our eyes when the ovens are opened—judging by the +scarlet rays that peep out, here and there, from any small crevice. +Prodigious! What a heat it is, when, by the turn of a handle, a door of +the furnace is raised! The roasting, or calcining, to get rid of the +sulphur, is going on here. The whole inside—walls, roof, embers, and +all—are a transparent salmon-color. As a shovel, inserted from the +opposite side, stirs and turns the burning mass, the sulphur appears +above—a little blue flame, and a great deal of yellow smoke. We feel +some of it in our throats. We exclaim about the intensity of the heat, +declaring it tremendous. But we are told that it is not so; that, in +fact, "it is very cold—that furnace;" which shows us that there is +something hotter to come.</p> + +<p>The Refiner's Test is pointed out to us;—a sort of shovel, with a +spout, lined throughout with a material of burnt bones, the only +substance which can endure unchanged the heat necessary for testing the +metals. Of this material are made the little crucibles that we see in +the furnaces, which our conductor admits to be "rather warm." There they +are, ranged in rows, so obscured by the mere heat, which confounds every +thing in one glow, that their circular rims are only seen by being +looked for. Yet, one little orifice, at the back of this furnace, shows +that even this heat can be exceeded. That orifice is a point of white +heat, revealed from behind. We do not see the metal in the crucibles; +but we know that it is simmering there.</p> + +<p>One more oven is opened for us—the assay furnace, which is at a white +heat. As the smallest quantities of metal serve for the assay, the +crucibles are here on the scale of dolls' tea-things. The whole concern +of that smallest furnace looks like a pretty toy; but it is a very +serious matter—the work it does, and the values it determines.</p> + +<p>The metals, which run down to the bottom, in the melting furnaces, are +separated (the gold and silver by aquafortis), and cast in moulds, +coming out as ingots; or, in fragments, of any shape they may have +pleased to run into. Some of the gold fragments are of the cleanest and +brightest yellow. Other, no less pure, are dark and brownish. They are +for gilding porcelain. Lastly, we see a pretty curiosity. In the +counting-house, a little glass chamber is erected upon a counter, with +an apparatus of great beauty—a pair of scales, thin and small to the +last degree, fastened by spider-like threads to a delicate beam, which +is connected with an index, sensitive enough to show the variation of +the hundredth part of a grain. The glass walls exclude atmospheric +disturbance. Behind the rusty-looking doors were the white glowing +crucibles; within the drawers was the yellow gold; and, hidden in its +glass house, was the fairy balance.</p> + +<p>Now, we will follow some of the gold and silver to a place where skilled +hands are ready to work it curiously.</p> + +<p>First, however, we may as well mention, in confidence to our readers, +that our feelings are now and then wounded by the injustice of the world +to the Birmingham manufacturers. We observe with pain, that the very +virtues of Birmingham manufacture are made<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_526" id="Page_526">[Pg 526]</a></span> matters of reproach. Because +the citizens have at their command extraordinary means of cheap +production, and produce cheap goods accordingly, the world jumps to the +conclusion that the work must be deceptive and bad. Fine gentlemen and +ladies give, in London shops, twice the price for Birmingham jewelry +that they would pay, if no middlemen stood, filling their pockets +uncommonly fast, between them and the manufacturer; and they admire the +solid value and great beauty of the work; but, as soon as they know +where the articles were wrought, they undervalue them with the term +"Brummagem." In the Great Exhibition there was a certain case of +gold-work and jewelry, rich and thorough in material and workmanship. +The contents of that case were worth many hundred pounds. A gentleman +and lady stopped to admire their contents. The lady was so delighted +with them that she supposed they must be French. The gentleman reminded +her that they were in the British department. After a while, they +observed the label at the top of the case, and instantly retracted their +admiration. "Oh!" said the gentleman, pointing to the label, "these are +Brummagem ware—shams!" Whatever may have been Brummagem-gold-beating in +ancient times, and in days of imperfect art when long wars impeded the +education of English taste, it is mere ignorance to keep up the censure +in these times. It is merely accepting and retailing vulgar phrases +without any inquiry, which is the stupidest form of ignorance. Perhaps +some of the prejudice may be removed by a brief account of what a +Birmingham manufacture of gold chains is at this day.</p> + +<p>Twenty years ago, the making of gold chains occupied a dozen or twenty +people in Birmingham. Now, the establishment we are entering, alone, +employs probably eight times that number. Formerly, a small master +undertook the business in a little back shop: drew out his wire with his +own hands; cut the devices himself; soldered the pieces himself; in +short, worked under the disadvantage of great waste of time, of effort, +and of gold. Into the same shop more and more machinery has been since +introduced as it was gradually devised by clever heads. This machinery +is made on the spot, and the whole is set to work by steam. Few things +in the arts can be more striking than the contrast between the murky +chambers where the forging and grinding—the Plutonic processes of +machine-making—are going on, and the upper chambers, light and quiet, +where the delicate fingers of women and girls are arranging and +fastening the cobweb links of the most delicate chain-work. The whole +establishment is most picturesque. While in some speculative towns in +our island great warehouses and other edifices have sprung up too +quickly, and are standing untenanted, a rising manufacture like this +cannot find room. In the case before us, more room is preparing. A large +steam-engine will soon be at work, and the processes will be more +conveniently connected. Mean time, house after house has been absorbed +into the concern. There are steps up here, and steps down there; and +galleries across courts; and long ranges of low-roofed chambers; and +wooden staircases, in yards;—care being taken, however, to preserve in +the midst an isolated, well-lighted chamber, where part of the stock is +kept, where some high officials abide, and where there are four counters +or hatches, where the people present themselves outside, to receive +their work. All this has grown out of the original little back-shop.</p> + +<p>Below, there is a refinery. It is for the establishment alone; but, just +like that we have already described—only on a smaller scale. First, the +rolling-mill shows us its powers by a speedy experiment;—it flattens a +halfpenny, making it oblong at the first turn, and, by degrees, with the +help of some annealing in the furnace, drawing it out into a long ribbon +of shining copper, which is rolled up, tied with a wire, and presented +to us as a curiosity. Next, we see coils of thick round wire, of a dirty +white, which we can hardly believe to be gold. It is gold, however, and +is speedily drawn out into wire. Then, there are cutting, and piercing, +and snipping machines—all bright and diligent; and the women and girls +who work them are bright and diligent too. Here, in this long room, +lighted with lattices along the whole range, the machines stand, and the +women sit, in a row—quiet, warm, and comfortable. Here we see sheets of +soft metal (for solder) cut into strips or squares; here, again, a woman +is holding such a strip to a machine, and snipping the metal very fine, +into minute shreds, all alike. These are to be laid or stuck on little +joins in the chain-work, or clasps, or swivel hinges, where soldering is +required. Next, we find a dozen workwomen, each at her machine, pushing +snips of gold into grooves, where they are pierced with a pattern, or +one or two holes of a pattern, and made to fall into a receiver below. +Each may take about a second of time. Farther on, slender gold wire is +twisted into links by myriads. At every seat the counter is cut out in a +semicircle, whereby room is saved, and the worker has a free use of her +arms. Under every such semicircle hangs a leathern pouch, to catch every +particle that falls, and to hold the tools. On shelves every where are +ranges of steel dies; and larger pieces of the metal, for massive links +or for clasps, or for watch-keys and other ornaments, are stamped from +these. On the whole, we may say, that in these lower rooms the separate +pieces are prepared for being put together elsewhere.</p> + +<p>That putting together appears to novices very blinding work; but, we are +assured that it becomes so easy, by practice, that the girls could +almost do it with their eyes shut. In<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_527" id="Page_527">[Pg 527]</a></span> such a case we should certainly +shut ours; for they ache with the mere sight of such poking and picking, +and ranging of the white rings—all exactly like one another. They are +ranged in a groove of a plate of metal, or on a block of pumice-stone. +When pricked into a precise row, they are anointed, at their points of +junction, with borax. Each worker has a little saucer of borax, wet, and +stirred with a camel-hair pencil. With this pencil she transfers a +little of the borax to the flattened point of a sort of bodkin, and then +anoints the links where they join. When the whole row is thus treated, +she turns on the gas, and, with a small blow-pipe, directs the flame +upon the solder. It bubbles and spreads in the heat, and makes the row +of links into a chain. There would be no end of describing the loops and +hoops, and joints and embossings, which are soldered at these gas-pipes, +after being taken up by tiny tweezers, and delicately treated by all +manner of little tools. Suffice it, that here every thing is put +together, and made ready for the finishing. In the middle of one room is +a counter, where is fixed the machine for twisting the chains—with its +cog-wheels, and its nippers, whereby it holds one end of a portion of +chain, while another is twisted, as the door-handle fixes the +schoolboy's twine, while he knots or loops his pattern, or twists his +cord. Here, a little girl stands, and winds a plain gold chain into this +or that pattern, which depends upon the twisting.</p> + +<p>These ornaments of precious metal do not look very ornamental at +present; being of the color of dirty soap-suds, and tossed together in +heaps on the counters. We are now to see the hue and brightness of the +gold brought out. We take up a chain, rather massive, and reminding us +of some ornament we have somewhere seen; but it is so rough! and its +flakes do not appear to fit upon each other. A man lays it along the +length of his left hand, and files it briskly; as he works, the soapy +white disappears, the polish comes out, the parts fit together, and it +is, presently, one of those flexible, scaly, smooth, glittering chains +that we have seen all our lives. Of course, the filings are dropped +carefully into a box, to go to the refinery. There is, here, a +home-invented and home-made apparatus for polishing and cutting topazes, +amethysts, bloodstones and the like, into shield shapes, for seals, +watch-keys, and ornaments of various kinds. The strongest man's arm must +tire; but steam and steel need no consideration—so there go the wheels +and the emery, smoothing and polishing infallibly; with a workman to +apply the article, and a boy to drop oil when screw or socket begins to +scream. This polishing and filing was such severe work, in the lapidary +department, in former days, that the nervous energy of a man's arm was +destroyed—a serious grief to both worker and employer. At this day, it +is understood that the lapidary is past work at forty, from the +contraction of the sinews of the wrist, consequent on the nature of his +labor. The period of disablement depends much on the habits of the men; +but, sooner or later, it is looked for as a matter of course. Here, the +wear and tear is deputed to that which has no nerve. As the proprietor +observes, it requires no sympathy.</p> + +<p>It may be asked how there comes to be any lapidary department here? Do +we never see gold chains the links whereof are studded with turquoises, +or garnets, or little specks of emerald? Are there no ruby drops to +ladies' necklaces?—no jewelled toys hanging from gentlemen's +watch-guards? We see many of these pretty things here; besides cameos +for setting.</p> + +<p>After the delicate little filings (which must be done by hand) are all +finished, the articles must be well washed, dried in box-wood sawdust, +and finally hand-polished with rouge. The people in one apartment look +grotesque enough—two women powdered over with rouge, and men of various +dirty hues, all dressed alike, in an over-all garment of brown holland. +A washerwoman is maintained on the establishment expressly to wash these +dresses on the spot—her soap-suds being preserved, like all the other +washes, for the sake of the gold-dust contained in them. Her wash-tubs +are emptied, like every thing else, into the refinery.</p> + +<p>In the final burnishing room, we observe a row of chemists's +globes—glass vases filled with water, ranged on a shelf. A stranger +might guess long before he would find out what these are for. They are +to reflect a concentrated blaze from the gas-lights in the evening, to +point out specks and dimnesses, to the eyes and fingers of the +burnishers. What curious finger-ends they have—those women who chafe +the precious metals into their last degree of polish! They are +broad—the joint so flexible that it is bent considerably backwards when +in use; and the skin has a peculiar smoothness: more mechanical, we +fancy, than vital. However that may be, the burnish they produce is +strikingly superior to any hitherto achieved by friction with any other +substance.</p> + +<p>In departing, the sense of contrast comes over us once more. We have +just seen all manner of elegancies in ornament, from the classical and +dignified to the minute, fanciful, and grotesque; in going out, we give +a look to the unfinished engine-house, and the smiths' shop. All this +hard work; all those many dwellings thrown into one establishment; all +these scores of men, and women, and children, busy from year's end to +year's end; all those diggers far away in California; all those +lapidaries in Germany; all those engineers in their studies; all those +ironmasters in their markets; all those miners in the bowels of the +earth—all are enlisted in making gold chains; and some of us have no +more knowledge and no more thought than to call the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_528" id="Page_528">[Pg 528]</a></span> product "Brummagem +shams!" Well! the price charged for them in London shops, where they are +as good as French, is something real; and it is a real comfort to think +how swingingly some fine folks pay, though the bulk of the profit comes, +not to the manufacturer, but to the middlemen. Of these middlemen there +are always two; the factor and the shopkeeper—often more. Their +intervention is very useful, of course, or they would not exist; but +somebody or other makes a prodigious profit of Birmingham jewelry, after +it has left the manufacturer's hands. It was only yesterday that we saw, +among a rich heap of wonderful things, a pair of elegant +bracelets—foreign pebbles, beautifully set. We were told the wholesale +price they were to be sold for; which was half the shop price. The +transference to the London shop was to cost as much as the whole of the +previous processes: from the digging of the silver and the collecting of +the pebbles, through all the needful voyages and travels, to the +burnishing and packing at Birmingham!</p> + +<p>We have seen, however, something which may throw a little light on the +prejudice against Birmingham jewelry. It is not conceivable that any one +should despise such an establishment as we have been describing. But, we +found ourselves, the other day, passing through a little dwelling where +the housewife, with a baby on her arm, and where more than half-a-dozen +children were housed; and then crossing a little yard, and mounting a +flight of substantial brick steps with a stout hand-rail, and entering +the most curious little work-room we ever were in. It would just hold +four or five people, without allowing them room to turn round more than +one at a time. In one corner, was a very small stove. A lattice-window +ran along the whole front, and made it pleasant, light, and airy. A +work-bench or counter was scalloped out, in the same way as in larger +establishments, so as to accommodate three workers in the smallest +possible space. The three workers had each his stool, his leathern pouch +on his knees, and his gas-pipe. A row of tools bristled along the whole +length of the lattice; and there was another row on a shelf behind. The +principal workman was the father of those many children below. One son +was at work at his elbow, and the remaining workman was an apprentice. +This working jeweller was as thorough a gentleman, according to our +notions, as anybody we have seen for a long time past. Tall, stout, and +handsome; collar white and stiff; apron white and sound; his whole dress +in good repair; his voice cheerful as his face; his manner open and +courteous; his information exactly what we wanted. We could not help +wishing that some rural grandee, who avows that he hates all +manufacturers, could see this fair specimen of an English +handicraftsman. As for his work, he told us he supplies the factors to +order. It would not answer for him to keep a stock. The factors would +not buy what he should offer, but dictate to him what he shall make. +Fashions change incessantly, and he has only to keep up with them as +well as he can. It is not for him to invent new patterns and get steel +dies made for them; but to get the same steel dies that other makers are +procuring. These dies are, of course, for the metallic part of his work. +The boxes of lockets and hair brooches (now vehemently in fashion), and +devices, and colored stones, he procures at "the French shops" in the +town; and he showed us some variety of these, ready for setting. Then +came out the "Brummagem" feature of the case; showing us how the gold +setting that he was preparing—perforating and filing—was to be backed +by a blue stone. He observed that it was not thought worth while to get +costly stones for a purpose like that; for blue glass would do as well. +I certainly thought so, considering that the stone was to be only the +back-ground of his work. Of the specimens I saw in that airy little +workshop, some were in excellent taste, and all, I believe, of good +workmanship. These small masters are as punctilious about employing only +regularly qualified workmen, as any members of any guild in the country. +Their journeymen must all have served an apprenticeship; not only +because they are thus best fitted for their business, but because the +value of apprenticeship is thus kept up; and these small capitalists +will not part with the advantage of having journeymen, under the name of +apprentices, completely under their command during the last two or three +years of their term.</p> + +<p>One of the most remarkable sights, to those who knew Birmingham a +quarter of a century ago, is such a manufacture as that of Messrs. +Parker and Acott's ever-pointed pencils. Those of us whose fathers were +in business in the days of the war, when the arts were not flourishing, +may remember the bulky pocket-book, with its leather strap (always +shabby after the first month), and its thick cedar pencil, which always +wanted cutting; always blackening whatever came near it; always getting +used up; the lead turning to dust at the most critical point of a +memorandum. There was a fine trade in cedar pencils at Keswick in those +days. It seemed a tale too romantic to be true, when we were told of +ever-pointed pencils. First, we, of course, refused to believe in their +existence;—what improvement have we not refused to believe in? Then, +when we found there was a screw in the case, and that the pencil was not +ever-pointed by a vital action of its own, we were sure we should not +like it. We grew humble, and were certain we could never learn to manage +it. And now, what have we not arrived at? We are so saucy as to look +beyond our improved pencils; beyond pen and ink; beyond our present<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_529" id="Page_529">[Pg 529]</a></span> +need of a cumbrous apparatus to carry about with us; ink that will spill +and spot; leads that will break and use up; pens, paper, syllables, +letters, pot-hooks, dots and crossings, and all the process of writing. +Perhaps the electric telegraph has spoiled us: enabling us to imagine +some process by which thoughts may record themselves; some brief and +complete method of making "mems," without the complicated process of +writing down hundreds of letters, and scores of syllables, to preserve +one single idea. All this, however, is as romantic now as ever-pointed +pencils seemed to be at first; and instead of dreaming of what is not +yet achieved, let us look at the reality before our eyes.</p> + +<p>Here is something wonderful enough, on our very entrance. Here is a +silver pencil-case, neat and serviceable, though not of the most elegant +form; handsome enough to have been praised for its looks, thirty years +ago. This pencil-case carries two feet of lead. It is intended to be the +commercial traveller's joy and treasure. It will last him his life, +unless he take an unconscionable amount of orders. Unscrewing the top, +we see that the upper end of the tube is divided into +compartments,—which look like the mouth of a revolver; and here, +protected from each other, the leads are bestowed, safe—despite their +great length, through their owner's roughest travelling.</p> + +<p>Some drawers in a counter are pulled out. One is divided into +compartments, each of which holds a handful of something different from +all the rest. This drawer contains one hundred gross of pencil-cases in +parts; the tube, the rack and barrel, the propelling wire, the slide, +the top, the various chambers, and screws, and niceties. In another +drawer, there is a dazzling and beautiful heap of pure amethysts and +topazes from far countries, of vast aggregate value: and, farther on, we +see the elegant onyx and white cornelian from South America (a very +recent importation), and the sardonyx, now in high favor for seals and +the tops of pencil-cases. Its delicate layer of white upon red, (or the +reverse,) the undermost color coming out in the engraving, makes it +singularly fit for the purpose. Then, there is a paperful of small +turquoises, which are poured out and handled like a sample of lentils. +These are from Persia; and they have to be re-cut in England, the +Persian tools being of the roughest. Then, there are bloodstones, and +pebbles out of number, and pints of glittering fragments of Californian +gold; rich materials tossed together, to be drawn out for use at the +bidding of capricious fashion; for, fashion seems to be as capricious +here, among these stones and ores that have required cycles of ages to +compose, as in the milliner's shop, where the materials are drawn from +the pods of a season and the insects of a summer. On shelves against the +walls, are ranged rows and piles of steel dies,—that pretty and costly +piece of apparatus, which we find in almost all these +manufactories—together with the inexhaustible stamping and cutting +machines, the blow-pipe, the borax, and soft metal for solder, the +pumice-stone and wirebed, the turning wheel, the circular saw, and the +bath of diluted aquafortis, and the pan of box-wood sawdust, in which +the pretty things are dried when they come out of "pickle." From buttons +to epergnes, we find this apparatus every where. The steel dies are an +everlasting study: the block, like the conical weight of a pair of +warehouse scales, seeming very large for the little figure indented in +the upper surface. Here, in this manufactory, the figures are of the +bugle, a favorite form of watch-key—the deer's foot, (a pretty study +for the same purpose,) and a large variety of patterns—the tulip, the +acanthus, and other foliage, flowers or fruit, climbing up the summit of +the pencil-case, as if it were a little Corinthian capital.</p> + +<p>And now for the process. The silver or gold comes from the rolling-mill, +and is passed in slips through a series of draw-plates, each smaller +than the last, and finally through the one which is to give it its +fluted or other pattern. Soldering at the joint, filing away the +roughness left by the solder, washing in an aquafortis bath come next. A +slit for the slide is then made; the rims and screws and slides are +added, and you have a pencil-case complete. We observed that a large +proportion of the tops are hexagonal, or of some angular form, to +prevent their rolling off the table.</p> + +<p>Some of the pencil-cases are so small, and some of the watch-keys are so +elaborate, that it requires a moment's consideration to decide which is +which; and again, ladies' crochet-needles, of gold, diversely +ornamented, are very like pencil-cases. Some of each kind are specked +over with turquoise or garnets; and all appear to be designed for +ornament, rather than for use. It is quite a relief to turn the eye upon +a shovelful of the yellow sawdust, where substantial pencil-cases, fit +for manly fingers, are drying. On the whole, perhaps, the most striking +feature is the prodigious extent of the production. We ask where all +these can possibly go; for a pencil-case is a thing which lasts half a +century, as the manufacturer himself observes. These do not go to +America; for, in such things, the Americans are our chief rivals. They +supply their own wants, and a good deal more. We send our pencil-cases +and trinkets over a good part of the world, however; and the caprice of +fashion causes a great adventitious demand at home. In reply to our +remark about this vast production, the manufacturer observes, "Yes, we +cut up gold and silver as the year comes in, and as the year goes out." +Something of a change, this, since the old days of cedar pencils!</p> + +<p>Here is a steel die with an elegant pyramidal pattern; the half of a +watch-key. We<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_530" id="Page_530">[Pg 530]</a></span> see the inch of metal stamped; and then another inch, for +the other half: and then the filing and snipping of the edges; and then +the laying in of the solder inside; and the binding together of the two +halves with wire; and the repose on the bed of wire on the pumice-stone, +to be broiled red-hot; and the neat cleaning when cool; the polishing, +and the leaving certain parts of the pattern dead, while others are +burnished; and the firing of the steel cylinder at the point, and the +turning of the rims. All this for a watch-key! But, we are shown +another, which does not look like anything very studied; and we are +told, and are at once convinced, that it consists of no less than +thirteen parts. Other keys, which look more fanciful, consist of ten, +eight, or seven. None are the simple affair that a novice would suppose, +now that we require the convenience of being able to wind up our watches +without twisting the chain or ribbon with every turn of the key.</p> + +<p>But we must leave these niceties; the little pistols, the deers feet, +the bugle-horns, and all the dainty fancies embodied in watch-keys and +knick-knacks. Here, as elsewhere, every atom is saved, of sweeping and +wash; and we now find ourselves, writer and readers, like the materials +of which we have been speaking, brought back, after all these various +processes, to the refinery from which we set out.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="MY_NOVEL" id="MY_NOVEL"></a>MY NOVEL:</h2> + +<h3>OR, VARIETIES IN ENGLISH LIFE.<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> +</h3> +<h3>BY PISISTRATUS CAXTON.</h3> + + +<h4>BOOK X.-INITIAL CHAPTER.</h4> + +<p>It is observed by a very pleasant writer—read now-a-days only by the +brave pertinacious few who still struggle hard to rescue from the House +of Pluto the souls of departed authors, jostled and chased as those +souls are by the noisy footsteps of the living—it is observed by the +admirable Charron, that "judgment and wisdom is not only the best, but +the happiest portion God Almighty hath distributed amongst men; for +though this distribution be made with a very uneven hand, yet nobody +thinks himself stinted or ill-dealt with, but he that hath never so +little is contented in <i>this</i> respect."<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a></p> + +<p>And, certainly, the present narrative may serve in notable illustration +of the remark so drily made by the witty and wise preacher. For whether +our friend Riccabocca deduce theories for daily life from the great +folio of Machiavel; or that promising young gentleman, Mr. Randal +Leslie, interpret the power of knowledge into the art of being too +knowing for dull honest folks to cope with him; or acute Dick Avenel +push his way up the social ascent with a blow for those before, and a +kick for those behind him, after the approved fashion of your strong New +Man; or Baron Levy—that cynical impersonation of Gold—compare himself +to the Magnetic Rock in the Arabian tale, to which the nails in every +ship that approaches the influence of the loadstone fly from the planks, +and a shipwreck per day adds its waifs to the Rock: questionless, at +least, it is, that each of those personages believed that Providence had +bestowed on him an elder son's inheritance of wisdom. Nor, were we to +glance towards the obscurer parts of life, should we find good Parson +Dale deem himself worse off than the rest of the world in this precious +commodity—as, indeed, he had signally evinced of late in that shrewd +guess of his touching Professor Moss;—even plain Squire Hazeldean took +it for granted that he could teach Audley Egerton a thing or two worth +knowing in politics; Mr. Stirn thought that there was no branch of +useful lore on which he could not instruct the squire; and Sprott, the +tinker, with his bag full of tracts and lucifer matches, regarded the +whole framework of modern society, from a rick to a constitution, with +the profound disdain of a revolutionary philosopher. Considering that +every individual thus brings into the stock of the world so vast a share +of intelligence, it cannot but excite our wonder to find that Oxenstiern +is popularly held to be right when he said, "See, my son, how little +wisdom it requires to govern states;"—that is, men! That so many +millions of persons, each with a profound assurance that he is possessed +of an exalted sagacity, should concur in the ascendency of a few +inferior intellects, according to a few, stupid, prosy, matter-of-fact +rules as old as the hills, is a phenomenon very discreditable to the +spirit and energy of the aggregate human species! It creates no surprise +that one sensible watch-dog should control the movements of a flock of +silly grass-eating sheep; but that two or three silly grass-eating sheep +should give the law to whole flocks of such mighty sensible +watch-dogs—<i>Diavolo!</i> Dr. Riccabocca, explain <i>that</i>, if you can! And +wonderfully strange it is, that notwithstanding all the march of +enlightenment, notwithstanding our progressive discoveries in the laws +of nature—our railways, steam-engines, animal magnetism, and +electro-biology—we have never made any improvement that is generally +acknowledged, since men ceased to be troglodytes and nomads, in the +old-fashioned gamut of flats and sharps, which attunes into irregular +social jog-trot all the generations that pass from the cradle to the +grave;—still, "<i>the desire for something we have not</i>" impels all the +energies that keep us in movement, for good or for ill, according to the +checks or the directions of each favorite desire.</p> + +<p>A friend of mine once said to a <i>millionaire</i>,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_531" id="Page_531">[Pg 531]</a></span> whom he saw for ever +engaged in making money which he never seemed to have any pleasure in +spending, "Pray, Mr.——, will you answer me one question: You are said +to have two millions, and you spend £600 a-year. In order to rest and +enjoy, what will content you?"</p> + +<p>"A little more," answered the <i>millionaire</i>.</p> + +<p>That "little more" is the mainspring of civilization. Nobody ever gets +it!</p> + +<p>"Philus," saith a Latin writer, "was not so rich as Lælius; Lælius was +not so rich as Scipio; Scipio was not so rich as Crassus: and Crassus +was not so rich—as he wished to be!" If John Bull were once contented, +Manchester might shut up its mills. It is the "little more" that makes a +mere trifle of the National Debt!—Long life to it!</p> + +<p>Still, mend our law-books as we will, one is forced to confess that +knaves are often seen in fine linen, and honest men in the most shabby +old rags; and still, notwithstanding the exceptions, knavery is a very +hazardous game; and honesty, on the whole, by far the best policy. +Still, most of the Ten Commandments remain at the core of all the +Pandects and Institutes that keep our hands off our neighbors' throats, +wives, and pockets; still, every year shows that the parson's +maxim—<i>quieta non movere</i>—is as prudent for the health of communities +as when Apollo recommended his votaries not to rake up a fever by +stirring the Lake Camarina; still people, thank Heaven, decline to +reside in parallelograms; and the surest token that we live under a free +government is, when we are governed by persons whom we have a full right +to imply, by our censure and ridicule, are blockheads compared to +ourselves! Stop that delightful privilege, and, by Jove! sir, there is +neither pleasure nor honor in being governed at all! You might as well +be—a Frenchman!</p> + + +<h4>CHAPTER II.</h4> + +<p>The Italian and his friend are closeted together.</p> + +<p>"And why have you left your home in ——shire? And why this new change +of name?"</p> + +<p>"Peschiera is in England."</p> + +<p>"I know it."</p> + +<p>"And bent on discovering me; and, it is said, of stealing from me my +child."</p> + +<p>"He has the assurance to lay wagers that he will win the hand of your +heiress. I know that too; and therefore I have come to England—first to +baffle his design—for I do not think your fears are exaggerated—and +next to learn from you how to follow up a clue which, unless I am too +sanguine, may lead to his ruin, and your unconditional restoration. +Listen to me. You are aware that, after the skirmish with Peschiera's +armed hirelings sent in search of you, I received a polite message from +the Austrian government, requesting me to leave its Italian domains. +Now, as I hold it the obvious duty of any foreigner, admitted to the +hospitality of a state, to refrain from all participation in its civil +disturbances, so I thought my honor assailed at this intimation, and +went at once to Vienna to explain to the Minister there (to whom I was +personally known), that though I had, as became man to man, aided to +protect a refugee, who had taken shelter under my roof, from the +infuriated soldiers at the command of his private foe, I had not only +not shared in any attempt at revolt, but dissuaded, as far as I could, +my Italian friends from their enterprise; and that because, without +discussing its merits, I believed, as a military man and a cool +spectator, the enterprise could only terminate in fruitless bloodshed. I +was enabled to establish my explanation by satisfactory proof; and my +acquaintance with the Minister assumed something of the character of +friendship. I was then in a position to advocate your cause, and to +state your original reluctance to enter into the plots of the +insurgents. I admitted freely that you had such natural desire for the +independence of your native land, that, had the standard of Italy been +boldly hoisted by its legitimate chiefs, or at the common uprising of +its whole people, you would have been found in the van, amidst the ranks +of your countrymen; but I maintained that you would never have shared in +a conspiracy frantic in itself, and defiled by the lawless schemes and +sordid ambition of its main projectors, had you not been betrayed and +decoyed into it by the misrepresentations and domestic treachery of your +kinsman—the very man who denounced you. Unfortunately, of this +statement I had no proof but your own word. I made, however, so far an +impression in your favor, and, it may be, against the traitor, that your +property was not confiscated to the State, nor handed over, upon the +plea of your civil death, to your kinsman."</p> + +<p>"How, I do not understand. Peschiera has the property?"</p> + +<p>"He holds the revenues but of one half upon pleasure, and they would be +withdrawn, could I succeed in establishing the case that exists against +him. I was forbidden before to mention this to you; the Minister, not +inexcusably, submitted you to the probation of unconditional exile. Your +grace might depend upon your own forbearance from farther +conspiracies—forgive the word. I need not say I was permitted to return +to Lombardy. I found, on my arrival, that—that your unhappy wife had +been to my house, and exhibited great despair at hearing of my +departure."</p> + +<p>Riccabocca knit his dark brows, and breathed hard.</p> + +<p>"I did not judge it necessary to acquaint you with this circumstance, +nor did it much affect me. I believed in her guilt—and what could now +avail her remorse, if remorse she felt? Shortly afterwards I heard that +she was no more."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_532" id="Page_532">[Pg 532]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Yes," muttered Riccabocca, "she died in the same year that I left +Italy. It must be a strong reason that can excuse a friend for reminding +me even that she once lived!"</p> + +<p>"I come at once to that reason," said L'Estrange gently. "This autumn I +was roaming through Switzerland, and, in one of my pedestrian excursions +amidst the mountains, I met with an accident, which confined me for some +days to a sofa at a little inn in an obscure village. My hostess was an +Italian; and as I had left my servant at a town at some distance, I +required her attention till I could write to him to come to me. I was +thankful for her cares, and amused by her Italian babble. We became very +good friends. She told me she had been servant to a lady of great rank, +who had died in Switzerland; and that, being enriched by the generosity +of her mistress, she had married a Swiss innkeeper, and his people had +become hers. My servant arrived, and my hostess learned my name, which +she did not know before. She came into my room greatly agitated. In +brief, this woman had been servant to your wife. She had accompanied her +to my villa, and known of her anxiety to see me, as your friend. The +government had assigned to your wife your palace at Milan, with a +competent income. She had refused to accept of either. Failing to see +me, she had set off towards England, resolved upon seeing yourself; for +the journals had stated that to England you had escaped."</p> + +<p>"She dared!—shameless! And see, but a moment before, I had forgotten +all but her grave in a foreign soil—and these tears had forgiven her," +murmured the Italian.</p> + +<p>"Let them forgive her still," said Harley, with all his exquisite +sweetness of look and tone. "I resume. On entering Switzerland, your +wife's health, which you know was always delicate, gave way. To fatigue +and anxiety succeeded fever, and delirium ensued. She had taken with her +but this one female attendant—the sole one she could trust—on leaving +home. She suspected Peschiera to have bribed her household. In the +presence of this woman she raved of her innocence—in accents of terror +and aversion, denounced your kinsman—and called on you to vindicate her +name and your own."</p> + +<p>"Ravings indeed! Poor Paulina!" groaned Riccabocca, covering his face +with both hands.</p> + +<p>"But in her delirium there were lucid intervals. In one of these she +rose, in spite of all her servant could do to restrain her, took from +her desk several letters, and reading them over, exclaimed piteously, +'But how to get them to him?—whom to trust? And his friend is gone!' +Then an idea seemed suddenly to flash upon her, for she uttered a joyous +exclamation, sat down, and wrote long and rapidly; inclosed what she +wrote, with all the letters, in one packet, which she sealed carefully, +and bade her servant carry to the post, with many injunctions to take it +with her own hand, and pay the charge on it. 'For, oh!' said she (I +repeat the words as my informant told them to me)—'for, oh, this is my +sole chance to prove to my husband that, though I have erred, I am not +the guilty thing he believes me; the sole chance, too, to redeem my +error, and restore, perhaps, to my husband his country, to my child her +heritage.' The servant took the letter to the post; and when she +returned, her lady was asleep, with a smile upon her face. But from that +sleep she woke again delirious, and before the next morning her soul had +fled." Here Riccabocca lifted one hand from his face, and grasped +Harley's arm, as if mutely beseeching him to pause. The heart of the man +struggled hard with his pride and his philosophy; and it was long before +Harley could lead him to regard the worldly prospects which this last +communication from his wife might open to his ruined fortunes. Not, +indeed, till Riccabocca had persuaded himself, and half persuaded +Harley, (for strong, indeed, was all presumption of guilt against the +dead,) that his wife's protestations of innocence from all but error had +been but ravings.</p> + +<p>"Be this as it may," said Harley, "there seems every reason to suppose +that the letters inclosed were Peschiera's correspondence, and that, if +so, these would establish the proof of his influence over your wife, and +of his perfidious machinations against yourself. I resolved, before +coming hither, to go round by Vienna. There I heard with dismay that +Peschiera had not only obtained the imperial sanction to demand your +daughter's hand, but had boasted to his profligate circle that he should +succeed; and he was actually on his road to England. I saw at once that +could this design, by any fraud or artifice, be successful with +Violante, (for of your consent, I need not say, I did not dream,) the +discovery of this packet, whatever its contents, would be useless: his +end would be secured. I saw also that his success would suffice for ever +to clear his name; for his success must imply your consent, (it would be +to disgrace your daughter, to assert that she had married without it,) +and your consent would be his acquittal. I saw, too, with alarm, that to +all means for the accomplishment of his project he would be urged by +despair; for his debts are great, and his character nothing but new +wealth can support. I knew that he was able, bold, determined, and that +he had taken with him a large supply of money, borrowed upon usury;—in +a word, I trembled for you both. I have now seen your daughter, and I +tremble no more. Accomplished seducer as Peschiera boasts himself, the +first look upon her face, so sweet yet so noble, convinced me that she +is proof against a legion of Peschieras. Now, then, return we to this +all-important<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_533" id="Page_533">[Pg 533]</a></span> subject—to this packet. It never reached you. Long years +have passed since then. Does it exist still? Into whose hands would it +have fallen? Try to summon up all your recollections. The servant could +not remember the name of the person to whom it was addressed; she only +insisted that the name began with a B, that it was directed to England, +and that to England she accordingly paid the postage. Whom, then, with a +name that begins with B, or (in case the servant's memory here misled +her) whom did you or your wife know, during your visit to England, with +sufficient intimacy to make it probable that she would select such a +person for her confidant?"</p> + +<p>"I cannot conceive," said Riccabocca, shaking his head. "We came to +England shortly after our marriage. Paulina was affected by the climate. +She spoke not a word of English, and indeed not even French as might +have been expected from her birth, for her father was poor, and +thoroughly Italian. She refused all society. I went, it is true, +somewhat into the London world—enough to induce me to shrink from the +contrast that my second visit as a beggared refugee would have made to +the reception I met with on my first—but I formed no intimate +friendships. I recall no one whom she could have written to as intimate +with me."</p> + +<p>"But," persisted Harley, "think again. Was there no lady well acquainted +with Italian, and with whom, perhaps, for that very reason, your wife +became familiar?"</p> + +<p>"Ah, it is true. There was one old lady of retired habits, but who had +been much in Italy. Lady—Lady—I remember—Lady Jane Horton."</p> + +<p>"Horton—Lady Jane!" exclaimed Harley; "again! thrice in one day—is +this wound never to scar over?" Then, noting Riccabocca's look of +surprise, he said, "Excuse me, my friend; I listen to you with renewed +interest. Lady Jane was a distant relation of my own; she judged me, +perhaps harshly—and I have some painful associations with her name; but +she was a woman of many virtues. Your wife knew her?"</p> + +<p>"Not, however, intimately—still, better than any one else in London. +But Paulina would not have written to her; she knew that Lady Jane had +died shortly after her own departure from England. I myself was summoned +back to Italy on pressing business; she was too unwell to journey with +me as rapidly as I was obliged to travel; indeed, illness detained her +several weeks in England. In this interval she might have made +acquaintances. Ah, now I see; I guess. You say the name began with B. +Paulina, in my absence, engaged a companion; it was at my suggestion—a +Mrs. Bertram. This lady accompanied her abroad. Paulina became +excessively attached to her, she knew Italian so well. Mrs. Bertram left +her on the road, and returned to England, for some private affairs of +her own. I forget why or wherefore; if, indeed, I ever asked or learned. +Paulina missed her sadly, often talked of her, wondered why she never +heard from her. No doubt it was to this Mrs. Bertram that she wrote!"</p> + +<p>"And you don't know the lady's friends or address?"</p> + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>"Nor who recommended her to your wife?"</p> + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>"Probably Lady Jane Horton?"</p> + +<p>"It may be so. Very likely."</p> + +<p>"I will follow up this track, slight as it is."</p> + +<p>"But if Mrs. Bertram received the communication, how comes it that it +never reached—O, fool that I am, how should it! I, who guarded so +carefully my incognito!"</p> + +<p>"True. This your wife could not foresee; she would naturally imagine +that your residence in England would be easily discovered. But many +years must have passed since your wife lost sight of this Mrs. Bertram, +if their acquaintance was made so soon after your marriage; and now it +is a long time to retrace—long before even your Violante was born."</p> + +<p>"Alas! yes. I lost two fair sons in the interval. Violante was born to +me as the child of sorrow."</p> + +<p>"And to make sorrow lovely! how beautiful she is!"</p> + +<p>The father smiled proudly.</p> + +<p>"Where, in the loftiest house of Europe, find a husband worthy of such a +prize?"</p> + +<p>"You forget that I am still an exile—she still dowerless. You forget +that I am pursued by Peschiera; that I would rather see her a beggar's +wife—than—Pah, the very thought maddens me, it is so foul. <i>Corpo di +Bacco!</i> I have been glad to find her a husband already."</p> + +<p>"Already! Then that young man spoke truly?"</p> + +<p>"What young man?"</p> + +<p>"Randal Leslie. How! You know him?" Here a brief explanation followed. +Harley heard with attentive ear, and marked vexation, the particulars of +Riccabocca's connection and implied engagement with Leslie.</p> + +<p>"There is something very suspicious to me in all this," said he. "Why +should this young man have so sounded me as to Violante's chance of +losing fortune if she married an Englishman?"</p> + +<p>"Did he? O, pooh! excuse him. It was but his natural wish to seem +ignorant of all about me. He did not know enough of my intimacy with you +to betray my secret."</p> + +<p>"But he knew enough of it—must have known enough to have made it right +that he should tell you I was in England. He does not seem to have done +so."</p> + +<p>"No—<i>that</i> is strange; yet scarcely strange—for, when we last met, his +head was full of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_534" id="Page_534">[Pg 534]</a></span> other things—love and marriage. <i>Basta!</i> youth will +be youth."</p> + +<p>"He has no youth left in him!" exclaimed Harley, passionately. "I doubt +if he ever had any. He is one of those men who come into the world with +the pulse of a centenarian. You and I never shall be as old—as he was +in long-clothes. Ah, you may laugh; but I am never wrong in my +instincts. I disliked him at the first—his eye, his smile, his voice, +his very footstep. It is madness in you to countenance such a marriage; +it may destroy all chance of your restoration."</p> + +<p>"Better that than infringe my word once passed."</p> + +<p>"No, no," exclaimed Harley; "your word is not passed—it shall not be +passed. Nay, never look so piteously at me. At all events, pause till we +know more of this young man. If he be worthy of her without a dower, +why, then, let him lose you your heritage. I should have no more to +say."</p> + +<p>"But why lose me my heritage?"</p> + +<p>"Do you think the Austrian government would suffer your estates to pass +to this English jackanapes, a clerk in a public office? O, sage in +theory, why are you such a simpleton in action?"</p> + +<p>Nothing moved by this taunt, Riccabocca rubbed his hands, and then +stretched them comfortably over the fire.</p> + +<p>"My friend," said he, "the heritage would pass to my son—a dowry only +goes to the daughter."</p> + +<p>"But you have no son."</p> + +<p>"Hush! I am going to have one; my Jemima informed me of it yesterday +morning; and it was upon that information that I resolved to speak to +Leslie. Am I a simpleton now?"</p> + +<p>"Going to have a son," repeated Harley, looking very bewildered; "how do +you know it is to be a son?"</p> + +<p>"Physiologists are agreed," said the sage positively, "that where the +husband is much older than the wife, and there has been a long interval +without children before she condescends to increase the population of +the world—she (that is, it is at least as nine to four)—she brings +into the world a male. I consider that point, therefore, as settled, +according to the calculations of statistics and the researches of +naturalists."</p> + +<p>Harley could not help laughing, though he was still angry and disturbed.</p> + +<p>"The same man as ever; always the fool of philosophy."</p> + +<p>"<i>Cospetto!</i>" said Riccabocca, "I am rather the philosopher of fools. +And talking of that, shall I present you to my Jemima?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; but in turn I must present you to one who remembers with gratitude +your kindness, and whom your philosophy, for a wonder, has not ruined. +Some time or other you must explain that to me. Excuse me for a moment; +I will go for him."</p> + +<p>"For him;—for whom? In my position I must be cautious; and—"</p> + +<p>"I will answer for his faith and discretion. Meanwhile, order dinner, +and let me and my friend stay to share it."</p> + +<p>"Dinner? <i>Corpo di Bacco!</i>—not that Bacchus can help us here. What will +Jemima say?"</p> + +<p>"Henpecked man, settle that with your connubial tyrant. But dinner it +must be."</p> + +<p>I leave the reader to imagine the delight of Leonard at seeing once more +Riccabocca unchanged, and Violante so improved; and the kind Jemima, +too. And their wonder at him and his history, his books and his fame. He +narrated his struggles and adventures with a simplicity that removed +from a story so personal the character of egotism. But when he came to +speak of Helen, he was brief and reserved.</p> + +<p>Violante would have questioned more closely; but, to Leonard's relief, +Harley interposed.</p> + +<p>"You shall see her whom he speaks of, before long, and question her +yourself."</p> + +<p>With these words, Harley turned the young man's narrative into new +directions; and Leonard's words again flowed freely. Thus the evening +passed away, happily to all save Riccabocca. But the thought of his dead +wife rose ever and anon before him; and yet when it did, and became too +painful, he crept nearer to Jemima, and looked in her simple face, and +pressed her cordial hand. And yet the monster had implied to Harley that +his comforter was a fool—so she was, to love so contemptible a +slanderer of herself, and her sex.</p> + +<p>Violante was in a state of blissful excitement; she could not analyze +her own joy. But her conversation was chiefly with Leonard; and the most +silent of all was Harley. He sat listening to Leonard's warm, yet +unpretending eloquence—that eloquence which flows so naturally from +genius, when thoroughly at its ease, and not chilled back on itself by +hard, unsympathizing hearers—listened, yet more charmed, to the +sentiments less profound, yet no less earnest—sentiments so feminine, +yet so noble, with which Violante's fresh virgin heart responded to the +poet's kindling soul. Those sentiments of hers were so unlike all he +heard in the common world—so akin to himself in his gone youth! +Occasionally—at some high thought of her own, or some lofty line from +Italian song, that she cited with lighted eyes and in melodious +accents—occasionally he reared his knightly head, and his lips +quivered, as if he had heard the sound of a trumpet. The inertness of +long years was shaken. The Heroic, that lay deep beneath all the humors +of his temperament, was reached, appealed to; and stirred within him, +rousing up all the bright associations connected with it, and long +dormant. When he rose to take leave, surprised at the lateness of the +hour, Harley said, in a tone that bespoke the sincerity of the +compliment, "I thank you for the happiest<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_535" id="Page_535">[Pg 535]</a></span> hours I have known for +years." His eye dwelt on Violante as he spoke. But timidity returned to +her with his words—at his look; and it was no longer the inspired muse, +but the bashful girl that stood before him.</p> + +<p>"And when shall I see you again?" asked Riccabocca disconsolately, +following his guest to the door.</p> + +<p>"When? Why, of course, to-morrow. Adieu! my friend. No wonder you have +borne your exile so patiently,—with such a child!"</p> + +<p>He took Leonard's arm, and walked with him to the inn where he had left +his horse. Leonard spoke of Violante with enthusiasm. Harley was silent.</p> + + +<h4>CHAPTER III.</h4> + +<p>The next day a somewhat old-fashioned, but exceedingly patrician, +equipage stopped at Riccabocca's garden-gate. Giacomo, who, from a +bedroom window, had caught sight of it winding towards the house, was +seized with undefinable terror when he beheld it pause before their +walls and heard the shrill summons at the portal. He rushed into his +master's presence, and implored him not to stir—not to allow any one to +give ingress to the enemies the machine might disgorge. "I have heard," +said he, "how a town in Italy—I think it was Bologna—was once taken +and given to the sword, by incautiously admitting a wooden horse, full +of the troops of Barbarossa, and all manner of bombs and Congreve +rockets."</p> + +<p>"The story is differently told in Virgil," quoth Riccabocca, peeping out +of the window. "Nevertheless, the machine looks very large and +suspicious; unloose Pompey."</p> + +<p>"Father," said Violante, coloring, "it is your friend, Lord L'Estrange; +I hear his voice."</p> + +<p>"Are you sure?"</p> + +<p>"Quite. How can I be mistaken?"</p> + +<p>"Go, then, Giacomo; but take Pompey with thee—and give the alarm if we +are deceived."</p> + +<p>But Violante was right; and in a few moments Lord L'Estrange was seen +walking up the garden, and giving the arm to two ladies.</p> + +<p>"Ah," said Riccabocca, composing his dressing-robe round him, "go, my +child, and summon Jemima. Man to man; but, for Heaven's sake, woman to +woman."</p> + +<p>Harley had brought his mother and Helen, in compliment to the ladies of +his friend's household.</p> + +<p>The proud Countess knew that she was in the presence of Adversity, and +her salute to Riccabocca was only less respectful than that with which +she would have rendered homage to her sovereign. But Riccabocca, always +gallant to the sex that he pretended to despise, was not to be outdone +in ceremony; and the bow which replied to the curtsey would have edified +the rising generation, and delighted such surviving relicts of the old +Court breeding as may linger yet amidst the gloomy pomp of the Faubourg +St. Germain. These dues paid to etiquette, the Countess briefly +introduced Helen, as Miss Digby, and seated herself near the exile. In a +few moments the two elder personages became quite at home with each +other; and really, perhaps, Riccabocca had never, since we have known +him, showed to such advantage as by the side of his polished, but +somewhat formal visitor. Both had lived so little with our modern, +ill-bred age! They took out their manners of a former race with a sort +of pride in airing once more such fine lace and superb brocade. +Riccabocca gave truce to the shrewd but homely wisdom of his +proverbs—perhaps he remembered that Lord Chesterfield denounces +proverbs as vulgar;—and gaunt though his figure, and far from elegant +though his dressing-robe, there was that about him which spoke +undeniably of the <i>grand seigneur</i>—of one to whom a Marquis de Dangeau +would have offered a <i>fauteuil</i> by the side of the Rohans and +Montmorencies.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, Helen and Harley seated themselves a little apart, and were +both silent—the first from timidity; the second, from abstraction. At +length the door opened, and Harley suddenly sprang to his feet—Violante +and Jemima entered. Lady Lansmere's eyes first rested on the daughter, +and she could scarcely refrain from an exclamation of admiring surprise; +but then, when she caught sight of Mrs. Riccabocca's somewhat humble, +yet not obsequious mien—looking a little shy, a little homely, yet +still thoroughly a gentlewoman, (though of your plain rural kind of that +genus)—she turned from the daughter, and with the <i>savoir vivre</i> of the +fine old school, paid her first respects to the wife; respects +literally, for her manner implied respect,—but it was more kind, +simple, and cordial than the respect she had shown to Riccabocca;—as +the sage himself had said, here "it was Woman to Woman." And then she +took Violante's hand in both hers, and gazed on her as if she could not +resist the pleasure of contemplating so much beauty. "My son," she said +softly, and with a half sigh—"my son in vain told me not to be +surprised. This is the first time I have ever known reality exceed +description!"</p> + +<p>Violante's blush here made her still more beautiful; and as the Countess +returned to Riccabocca, she stole gently to Helen's side.</p> + +<p>"Miss Digby, my ward," said Harley pointedly, observing that his mother +had neglected her duty of presenting Helen to the ladies. He then +reseated himself, and conversed with Mrs. Riccabocca; but his bright +quick eye glanced ever at the two girls. They were about the same +age—and youth was all that, to the superficial eye, they seemed to have +in common. A greater contrast could not well be conceived; and, what is +strange, both gained by it. Violante's brilliant lovelieness seemed yet +more dazzling, and Helen's fair<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_536" id="Page_536">[Pg 536]</a></span> gentle face yet more winning. Neither +had mixed much with girls of her own age; each took to the other at +first sight. Violante, as the less shy, began the conversation.</p> + +<p>"You are his ward—Lord L'Estrange's?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps you came with him from Italy?"</p> + +<p>"No, not exactly. But I have been in Italy for some years."</p> + +<p>"Ah! you regret—nay, I am foolish—you return to your native land. But +the skies in Italy are so blue—here it seems as if nature wanted +colors."</p> + +<p>"Lord L'Estrange says that you were very young when you left Italy; you +remember it well. He, too, prefers Italy to England."</p> + +<p>"He! Impossible!"</p> + +<p>"Why impossible, fair skeptic?" cried Harley, interrupting himself in +the midst of a speech to Jemima.</p> + +<p>Violante had not dreamed that she could be overheard—she was speaking +low; but, though visibly embarrassed, she answered distinctly—</p> + +<p>"Because in England there is the noblest career for noble minds."</p> + +<p>Harley was startled, and replied with a slight sigh, "At your age I +should have said as you do. But this England of ours is so crowded with +noble minds, that they only jostle each other, and the career is one +cloud of dust."</p> + +<p>"So, I have read, seems a battle to the common soldier, but not to the +chief."</p> + +<p>"You have read good descriptions of battles, I see."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Riccabocca, who thought this remark a taunt upon her +daughter-in-law's studies, hastened to Violante's relief.</p> + +<p>"Her papa made her read the history of Italy, and I believe that is full +of battles."</p> + +<p><i>Harley.</i>—"All history is, and all women are fond of war and of +warriors. I wonder why."</p> + +<p><i>Violante</i>, (turning to Helen, and in a very low voice, resolved that +Harley should not hear this time.)—"We can guess why—can we not?"</p> + +<p><i>Harley</i>, (hearing every word, as if it had been spoken in St. Paul's +Whispering Gallery.)—"If you can guess, Helen, pray tell me."</p> + +<p><i>Helen</i>, (shaking her pretty head, and answering with a livelier smile +than usual.)—"But I am not fond of war and warriors."</p> + +<p><i>Harley</i> to Violante.—"Then I must appeal at once to you, +self-convicted Bellona that you are. Is it from the cruelty natural to +the female disposition?"</p> + +<p><i>Violante</i>, (with a sweet musical laugh.)—"From two propensities still +more natural to it."</p> + +<p><i>Harley.</i>—"You puzzle me: what can they be?"</p> + +<p><i>Violante.</i>—"Pity and admiration; we pity the weak, and admire the +brave."</p> + +<p>Harley inclined his head, and was silent.</p> + +<p>Lady Lansmere had suspended her conversation with Riccabocca to listen +to this dialogue. "Charming!" she cried. "You have explained what has +often perplexed me. Ah, Harley, I am glad to see that your satire is +foiled: you have no reply to that."</p> + +<p>"No; I willingly own myself defeated—too glad to claim the Signorina's +pity, since my cavalry sword hangs on the wall, and I can have no longer +a professional pretence to her admiration."</p> + +<p>He then rose, and glanced towards the window. "But I see a more +formidable disputant for my conqueror to encounter is coming into the +field—one whose profession it is to substitute some other romance for +that of camp and siege."</p> + +<p>"Our friend Leonard," said Riccabocca, turning his eye also towards the +widow. "True; as Quevedo says wittily, 'Ever since there has been so +great a demand for type, there has been much less lead to spare for +cannon-balls.'"</p> + +<p>Here Leonard entered. Harley had sent Lady Lansmere's footman to him +with a note, that prepared him to meet Helen. As he came into the room, +Harley took him by the hand, and led him to Lady Lansmere.</p> + +<p>"The friend of whom I spoke. Welcome him now for my sake, ever after for +his own;" and then, scarcely allowing time for the Countess's elegant +and gracious response, he drew Leonard towards Helen. "Children," said +he, with a touching voice, that thrilled through the hearts of both, "go +and seat yourselves yonder, and talk together of the past. Signorina, I +invite you to renewed discussion upon the abstruse metaphysical subject +you have started; let us see if we cannot find gentler sources for pity +and admiration than war and warriors." He took Violante aside to the +window. "You remember that Leonard, in telling you his history last +night, spoke, you thought, rather too briefly of the little girl who had +been his companion in the rudest time of his trials. When you would have +questioned more, I interrupted you, and said, 'You should see her +shortly, and question her yourself.' And now what think you of Helen +Digby? Hush, speak low. But her ears are not so sharp as mine."</p> + +<p><i>Violante</i>—"Ah! that is the fair creature whom Leonard called his +child-angel? What a lovely innocent face!—the angel is there still."</p> + +<p><i>Harley</i>, (pleased both at the praise and with her who gave it.)—"You +think so, and you are right. Helen is not communicative. But fine +natures are like fine poems—a glance at the first two lines suffices +for a guess into the beauty that waits you, if you read on."</p> + +<p>Violante gazed on Leonard and Helen as they sat apart. Leonard was the +speaker, Helen the listener; and though the former had, in his narrative +the night before, been indeed brief as to the episode in his life +connected with the orphan, enough had been said to interest Violante in +the pathos of their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_537" id="Page_537">[Pg 537]</a></span> former position towards each other, and in the +happiness they must feel in their meeting again—separated for years on +the wide sea of life, now both saved from the storm and shipwreck. The +tears came into her eyes. "True," she said very softly, "there is more +here to move pity and admiration than in"—She paused.</p> + +<p><i>Harley.</i>—"Complete the sentence. Are you ashamed to retract? Fie on +your pride and obstinacy."</p> + +<p><i>Violante.</i>—"No; but even here there have been war and heroism—the war +of genius with adversity, and heroism in the comforter who shared it and +consoled. Ah! wherever pity and admiration are both felt, something +nobler than mere sorrow must have gone before: the heroic must exist."</p> + +<p>"Helen does not know what the word heroic means," said Harley, rather +sadly; "you must teach her."</p> + +<p>Is it possible, thought he as he spoke, that a Randal Leslie could have +charmed this grand creature? No "Heroic" surely, in that sleek young +placeman. "Your father," he said aloud, and fixing his eyes on her face, +"sees much, he tells me, of a young man, about Leonard's age, as to +date; but I never estimate the age of men by the parish register; and I +should speak of that so-called young man as a contemporary of my +great-grandfather; I mean Mr. Randal Leslie. Do you like him?"</p> + +<p>"Like him?" said Violante slowly, and as if sounding her own mind. "Like +him—yes."</p> + +<p>"Why?" asked Harley, with dry and curt indignation.</p> + +<p>"His visits seem to please my dear father. Certainly, I like him."</p> + +<p>"Hum. He professes to like you, I suppose?"</p> + +<p>Violante laughed, unsuspiciously. She had half a mind to reply, "Is that +so strange!" But her respect for Harley stopped her. The words would +have seemed to her pert.</p> + +<p>"I am told he is clever," resumed Harley.</p> + +<p>"O, certainly."</p> + +<p>"And he is rather handsome. But I like Leonard's face better."</p> + +<p>"Better—that is not the word. Leonard's face is as that of one who has +gazed so often upon heaven; and Mr. Leslie's—there is neither sunlight +nor starlight reflected there."</p> + +<p>"My dear Violante!" exclaimed Harley, overjoyed; and he pressed her +hand.</p> + +<p>The blood rushed over the girl's cheek and brow; her hand trembled in +his. But Harley's familiar exclamation might have come from a father's +lips.</p> + +<p>At this moment, Helen softly approached them, and looking timidly into +her guardian's face, said, "Leonard's mother is with him: he asks me to +call and see her. May I?"</p> + +<p>"May you! A pretty notion the Signorina must form of your enslaved state +of pupilage, when she hears you ask that question. Of course you may."</p> + +<p>"Will you take me there?"</p> + +<p>Harley looked embarrassed. He thought of the widow's agitation at his +name; of that desire to shun him, which Leonard had confessed, and of +which he thought he divined the cause. And, so divining, he too shrank +from such a meeting.</p> + +<p>"Another time, then," said he, after a pause.</p> + +<p>Helen looked disappointed, but said no more.</p> + +<p>Violante was surprised at this ungracious answer. She would have blamed +it as unfeeling in another. But all that Harley did was right in her +eyes.</p> + +<p>"Cannot I go with Miss Digby?" said she, "and my mother will go too. We +both know Mrs. Fairfield. We shall be so pleased to see her again."</p> + +<p>"So be it," said Harley; "I will wait here with your father till you +come back. Oh, as to my mother, she will excuse the—excuse Madame +Riccabocca, and you too. See how charmed she is with <i>your</i> father. I +must stay to watch over the conjugal interests of <i>mine</i>."</p> + +<p>But Mrs. Riccabocca had too much good old country breeding to leave the +Countess; and Harley was forced himself to appeal to Lady Lansmere. When +he had explained the case in point, the Countess rose and said—</p> + +<p>"But I will call myself, with Miss Digby."</p> + +<p>"No," said Harley, gravely, but in a whisper. "No—I would rather not. I +will explain later."</p> + +<p>"Then," said the Countess aloud, after a glance of surprise at her son, +"I must insist on your performing this visit, my dear Madam, and you, +Signorina. In truth, I have something to say confidentially to—"</p> + +<p>"To me," interrupted Riccabocca. "Ah, Madame la Comtesse, you restore me +to five-and-twenty. Go, quick—O jealous and injured wife; go, both of +you, quick; and you, too, Harley."</p> + +<p>"Nay," said Lady Lansmere, in the same tone, "Harley must stay, for my +design is not at present upon destroying your matrimonial happiness, +whatever it may be later. It is a design so innocent that my son will be +a partner in it."</p> + +<p>Here the Countess put her lips to Harley's ear, and whispered. He +received her communication in attentive silence; but when she had done, +pressed her hand, and bowed his head, as if an assent to a proposal.</p> + +<p>In a few minutes, the three ladies and Leonard were on their road to the +neighboring cottage.</p> + +<p>Violante, with her usual delicate intuition, thought that Leonard and +Helen must have much to say to each other; and ignorant, as Leonard +himself was, of Helen's engagement to Harley, began already, in the +romance natural to her age, to predict for them happy and united days in +the future. So she took<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_538" id="Page_538">[Pg 538]</a></span> her step-mother's arm, and left Helen and +Leonard to follow.</p> + +<p>"I wonder," she said, musingly, "how Miss Digby became Lord L'Estrange's +ward, I hope she is not very rich, nor very high-born."</p> + +<p>"La, my love," said the good Jemima, "that is not like you; you are not +envious of her, poor girl?"</p> + +<p>"Envious! Dear mamma, what a word! But don't you think Leonard and Miss +Digby seem born for each other? And then the recollections of their +childhood—the thoughts of childhood are so deep, and its memories so +strangely soft!" The long lashes drooped over Violante's musing eyes as +she spoke. "And therefore," she said after a pause "therefore I hoped +that Miss Digby might not be very rich, nor very high-born."</p> + +<p>"I understand you now, Violante," exclaimed Jemima, her own early +passion for match-making instantly returning to her; "for as Leonard, +however clever and distinguished, is still the son of Mark Fairfield the +carpenter, it would spoil all if Miss Digby was, as you say, rich and +high-born. I agree with you—a very pretty match—a very pretty match, +indeed. I wish dear Mrs. Dale were here now she is so clever in settling +such matters."</p> + +<p>Meanwhile Leonard and Helen walked side by side a few paces in the rear. +He had not offered her his arm. They had been silent hitherto since they +left Riccabocca's house.</p> + +<p>Helen now spoke first. In similar cases it is generally the woman, be +she ever so timid, who does speak first. And here Helen was the bolder: +for Leonard did not disguise from himself the nature of his feelings, +and Helen was engaged to another; and her pure heart was fortified by +the trust reposed in it.</p> + +<p>"And have you ever heard more of the good Dr. Morgan, who had powders +against sorrow, and who meant to be so kind to us—though," she added, +coloring, "we did not think so then?"</p> + +<p>"He took my child-angel from me," said Leonard, with visible emotion; +"and if she had not returned, where and what should I be now? But I have +forgiven him. No, I have never met him since."</p> + +<p>"And that terrible Mr. Burley?"</p> + +<p>"Poor, poor Burley! He, too, is vanished out of my present life. I have +made many inquiries after him; all I can hear is that he went abroad, +supposed as a correspondent to some journal. I should like so much to +see him again, now that perhaps I could help him as he helped me."</p> + +<p>"<i>Helped</i> you—ah!"</p> + +<p>Leonard smiled with a beating heart, as he saw again the dear, prudent, +warning look, and involuntarily drew closer to Helen. She seemed more +restored to him and to her former self.</p> + +<p>"Helped me much by his instructions; more, perhaps, by his very faults. +You cannot guess, Helen—I beg pardon, Miss Digby—but I forgot that we +are no longer children: you cannot guess how much we men, and, more than +all perhaps, we writers, whose task it is to unravel the web of human +actions, owe even to our own past errors; and if we learn nothing by the +errors of others, we should be dull indeed. We must know where the roads +divide, and have marked where they lead to, before we can erect our +sign-posts; and books are the sign-posts in human life."</p> + +<p>"Books!—And I have not yet read yours. And Lord L'Estrange tells me you +are famous now. Yet you remember me still—the poor orphan child, whom +you first saw weeping at her father's grave, and with whom you burdened +your own young life, over-burdened already. No, still call me Helen—you +must always be to me—a brother! Lord L'Estrange feels <i>that</i>; he said +so to me when he told me that we were to meet again. He is so generous, +so noble. Brother!" cried Helen, suddenly, and extending her hand, with +a sweet but sublime look in her gentle face—"brother, we will never +forfeit his esteem; we will both do our best to repay him? Will we +not—say so?"</p> + +<p>Leonard felt overpowered by contending and unanalyzed emotions. Touched +almost to tears by the affectionate address—thrilled by the hand that +pressed his own—and yet with a vague fear, a consciousness that +something more than the words themselves was implied—something that +checked all hope. And this word "brother," once so precious and so dear, +why did he shrink from it now?—why could he not too say the sweet word +"sister?"</p> + +<p>"She is above me now and evermore," he thought, mournfully; and the +tones of his voice, when he spoke again, were changed. The appeal to +renewed intimacy but made him more distant; and to that appeal itself he +made no direct answer; for Mrs. Riccabocca, now turning round, and +pointing to the cottage which came in view, with its picturesque gable +ends, cried out—</p> + +<p>"But is that your house, Leonard? I never saw any thing so pretty."</p> + +<p>"You do not remember it then," said Leonard to Helen, in accents of +melancholy reproach "there where I saw you last! I doubted whether to +keep it exactly as it was, and I said, No! the association is not +changed because we try to surround it with whatever beauty we can +create: the dearer the association, the more the Beautiful becomes to it +natural.' Perhaps you don't understand this—perhaps it is only we poor +poets who do."</p> + +<p>"I understand it," said Helen, gently. She looked wistfully at the +cottage.</p> + +<p>"So changed—I have so often pictured it to myself—never, never like +this; yet I loved it, commonplace as it was to my recollection; and the +garret, and the tree in the carpenter's yard."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_539" id="Page_539">[Pg 539]</a></span></p> + +<p>She did not give these thoughts utterance. And they now entered the +garden.</p> + + +<h4>CHAPTER IV.</h4> + +<p>Mrs. Fairfield was a proud woman when she received Mrs. Riccabocca and +Violante in her grand house; for a grand house to her was that cottage +to which her boy Lenny had brought her home. Proud, indeed, ever was +Widow Fairfield; but she thought then in her secret heart, that if ever +she could receive in the drawing-room of that grand house the great Mrs. +Hazeldean, who had so lectured her for refusing to live any longer in +the humble tenement rented of the Squire, the cup of human bliss would +be filled, and she could contentedly die of the pride of it. She did not +much notice Helen—her attention was too absorbed by the ladies who +renewed their old acquaintance with her, and she carried them all over +the house, yea, into the very kitchen; and so, somehow or other, there +was a short time when Helen and Leonard found themselves alone. It was +in the study. Helen had unconsciously seated herself in Leonard's own +chair, and she was gazing with anxious and wistful interest, on the +scattered papers, looking so disorderly (though, in truth, in that +disorder there was method, but method only known to the owner), and at +the venerable, well-worn books, in all languages, lying on the floor, on +the chairs—any where. I must confess that Helen's first tidy woman-like +idea was a great desire to arrange the latter. "Poor Leonard," she +thought to herself—"the rest of the house so neat, but no one to take +care of his own room and of him!"</p> + +<p>As if he divined her thought, Leonard smiled, and said, "It would be a +cruel kindness to the spider, if the gentlest hand in the world tried to +set its cobweb to rights."</p> + +<p><i>Helen.</i>—"You were not quite so bad in the old days."</p> + +<p><i>Leonard.</i>—"Yet even then, you were obliged to take care of the money. +I have more books now, and more money. My present housekeeper lets me +take care of the books, but she is less indulgent as to the money."</p> + +<p><i>Helen</i>, (archly.)—"Are you as absent as ever?"</p> + +<p><i>Leonard.</i>—"Much more so, I fear. The habit is incorrigible, Miss +Digby—"</p> + +<p><i>Helen.</i>—"Not Miss Digby—sister, if you like."</p> + +<p><i>Leonard</i>, (evading the word that implied so forbidden an +affinity.)—"Helen, will you grant me a favor? Your eyes and your smile +say 'yes.' Will you lay aside, for one minute, your shawl and bonnet? +What! can you be surprised that I ask it? Can you not understand that I +wish for one minute to think you are at home again under this roof?"</p> + +<p>Helen cast down her eyes, and seemed troubled; then she raised them, +with a soft angelic candor in their dovelike blue, and, as if in shelter +from all thoughts of more warm affection, again murmured "<i>brother</i>," +and did as he asked her.</p> + +<p>So there she sat, amongst the dull books, by his table, near the open +window—her fair hair parted on her forehead—looking so good, so calm, +so happy! Leonard wondered at his own self-command. His heart yearned to +her with such inexpressible love—his lips so longed to murmur—"Ah, as +now so could it be for ever! Is the home too mean?" But that word +"brother" was as a talisman between her and him.</p> + +<p>Yet she looked so at home—perhaps so at home she felt!—more certainly +than she had yet learned to do in that stiff stately house in which she +was soon to have a daughter's rights. Was she suddenly made aware of +this—that she so suddenly arose—and with a look of alarm and distress +on her face—</p> + +<p>"But—we are keeping Lady Lansmere too long," she said, falteringly. "We +must go now," and she hastily took up her shawl and bonnet.</p> + +<p>Just then Mrs. Fairfield entered with the visitors, and began making +excuses for inattention to Miss Digby, whose identity with Leonard's +child-angel she had not yet learned.</p> + +<p>Helen received these apologies with her usual sweetness. "Nay," she +said, "your son and I are such old friends, how could you stand on +ceremony with me?"</p> + +<p>"Old friends!" Mrs. Fairfield stared amazed, and then surveyed the fair +speaker more curiously than she had yet done. "Pretty, nice spoken +thing," thought the widow; "as nice spoken as Miss Violante, and +humbler-looking-like—though, as to dress, I never see any thing so +elegant out of a picter."</p> + +<p>Helen now appropriated Mrs. Riccabocca's arm; and after a kind +leave-taking with the widow, the ladies returned towards Riccabocca's +house.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Fairfield, however, ran after them with Leonard's hat and gloves, +which he had forgotten.</p> + +<p>"'Deed, boy," said she kindly, yet scoldingly, "but there'd be no more +fine books, if the Lord had not fixed your head on your shoulders. You +would not think it, marm," she added to Mrs. Riccabocca, "but sin' he +has left you, he's not the 'cute lad he was; very helpless at times, +marm!"</p> + +<p>Helen could not resist turning round, and looking at Leonard, with a sly +smile.</p> + +<p>The widow saw the smile, and catching Leonard by the arm, whispered, +"But, where before have you seen that pretty young lady? Old friends!"</p> + +<p>"Ah, mother," said Leonard, sadly, "it is a long tale; you have heard +the beginning, who can guess the end?"—and he escaped. But Helen still +leant on the arm of Mrs. Riccobocca, and, in the walk back, it seemed to +Leonard as if the winter had resettled in the sky.</p> + +<p>Yet he was by the side of Violante, and she spoke to him with such +praise of Helen! Alas! it is not always so sweet as folks say,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_540" id="Page_540">[Pg 540]</a></span> to hear +the praises of one we love. Sometimes those praises seem to ask +ironically, "And what right hast thou to hope because thou lovest? <i>All</i> +love <i>her</i>."</p> + + +<h4>CHAPTER V.</h4> + +<p>No sooner had Lady Lansmere found herself alone with Riccabocca and +Harley than she laid her hand on the exile's arm, and, addressing him by +a title she had not before given him, and from which he appeared to +shrink nervously, said—"Harley, in bringing me to visit you, was forced +to reveal to me your incognito, for I should have discovered it. You may +not remember me, in spite of your gallantry. But I mixed more in the +world than I do now, during your first visit to England, and once sat +next to you at dinner at Carlton House. Nay, no compliments, but listen +to me. Harley tells me you have cause for some alarm respecting the +designs of an audacious and unprincipled—adventurer, I may call him; +for adventurers are of all ranks. Suffer your daughter to come to me, on +a visit, as long as you please. With me, at least, she will be safe; and +if you, too, and the—"</p> + +<p>"Stop, my dear madam," interrupted Riccabocca, with great vivacity, +"your kindness overpowers me. I thank you most gratefully for your +invitation to my child; but—"</p> + +<p>"Nay," in his turn interrupted Harley, "no buts. I was not aware of my +mother's intention when she entered this room. But since she whispered +it to me, I have reflected on it, and am convinced that it is but a +prudent precaution. Your retreat is known to Mr. Leslie—he is known to +Peschiera. Grant that no indiscretion of Mr. Leslie's betray the secret; +still I have reason to believe that the Count guesses Randal's +acquaintance with you. Audley Egerton this morning told me he had +gathered that, not from the young man himself, but from questions put to +himself by Madame di Negra; and Peschiera might, and would, set spies, +to track Leslie to every house that he visits—might and would, still +more naturally, set spies to track myself. Were this man an Englishman, +I should laugh at his machinations; but he is an Italian, and has been a +conspirator. What he could do, I know not; but an assassin can penetrate +into a camp, and a traitor can creep through closed walls to one's +hearth. With my mother, Violante must be safe; that you cannot oppose. +And why not come yourself?"</p> + +<p>Riccabocca had no reply to these arguments, so far as they affected +Violante; indeed, they awakened the almost superstitious terror with +which he regarded his enemy, and he consented at once that Violante +should accept the invitation proffered. But he refused it for himself +and Jemima.</p> + +<p>"To say truth," said he simply, "I made a secret vow, on re-entering +England, that I would associate with none who knew the rank I had +formerly held in my own land. I felt that all my philosophy was needed, +to reconcile and habituate myself to my altered circumstances. In order +to find in my present existence, however humble, those blessings which +make all life noble—dignity and peace—it was necessary for poor, weak +human nature, wholly to dismiss the past. It would unsettle me sadly, +could I come to your house, renew a while, in your kindness and +respect—nay, in the very atmosphere of your society—the sense of what +I have been; and then (should the more than doubtful chance of recall +from my exile fail me) to awake, and find myself for the rest of +life—what I am. And though, were I alone, I might trust myself perhaps +to the danger—yet my wife: she is happy and contented now; would she be +so, if you had once spoiled her for the simple position of Dr. +Riccabocca's wife? Should I not have to listen to regrets, and hopes, +and fears that would prick sharp through my thin cloak of philosophy? +Even as it is, since in a moment of weakness I confided my secret to +her, I have had 'my rank' thrown at me—with a careless hand, it is +true—but it hits hard, nevertheless. No stone hurts like one taken from +the ruins of one's own home; and the grander the home, why, the heavier +the stone! Protect, dear madam—protect my daughter, since her father +doubts his own power to do so. But—ask no more."</p> + +<p>Riccabocca was immovable here. And the matter was settled as he decided, +it being agreed that Violante should be still styled the daughter of Dr. +Riccabocca.</p> + +<p>"And now, one word more," said Harley. "Do not confide to Mr. Leslie +these arrangements; do not let him know where Violante is placed—at +least, until I authorize such confidence in him. It is sufficient +excuse, that it is no use to know unless he called to see her, and his +movements, as I said before, may be watched. You can give the same +reason to suspend his visits to yourself. Suffer me, meanwhile, to +mature my judgment on this young man. In the mean while also, I think +that I shall have means of ascertaining the real nature of Peschiera's +schemes. His sister has sought to know me; I will give her the occasion. +I have heard some things of her in my last residence abroad, which make +me believe that she cannot be wholly the Count's tool in any schemes +nakedly villanous; that she has some finer qualities in her than I once +supposed; and that she can be won from his influence. It is a state of +war; we will carry it into the enemy's camp. You will promise me, then, +to refrain from all further confidence to Mr. Leslie."</p> + +<p>"For the present, yes," said Riccabocca, reluctantly.</p> + +<p>"Do not even say that you have seen me, unless he first tell you that I +am in England, and wish to learn your residence. I will give him full +occasion to do so. Pish! don't hesitate; you know your own proverb<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_541" id="Page_541">[Pg 541]</a></span>—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Boccha chiusa, ed occhio aperto<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Non fece mai nissun deserto.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>'The closed mouth and the open eye,' &c."</p> + +<p>"That's very true," said the Doctor, much struck. "Very true. '<i>In +bocchac hiusa non c'entrano mosche</i>.' One can't swallow flies if one +keeps one's mouth shut. <i>Corpo di Bacco!</i> that's very true!"</p> + +<p>Harley took aside the Italian.</p> + +<p>"You see if our hope of discovering the lost packet, or if our belief in +the nature of its contents, be too sanguine, still, in a few months it +is possible that Peschiera can have no further designs on your +daughter—possible that a son may be born to you, and Violante would +cease to be in danger, because she would cease to be an heiress. Indeed, +it may be well to let Peschiera know this chance; it would, at least, +make him delay all his plans while we are tracking the document that may +defeat them for ever."</p> + +<p>"No, no! for heaven's sake, no!" exclaimed Riccabocca, pale as ashes. +"Not a word to him. I don't mean to impute to him crimes of which he may +be innocent. But he meant to take my life when I escaped the pursuit of +his hirelings in Italy. He did not hesitate, in his avarice, to denounce +a kinsman; expose hundreds to the sword, if resisting—to the dungeon, +if passive. Did he know that my wife might bear me a son, how can I tell +that his designs might not change into others still darker, and more +monstrous, than those he now openly parades, though, after all, not more +infamous and vile? Would my wife's life be safe? Not more difficult to +convey poison into my house, than to steal my child from my hearth. +Don't despise me; but when I think of my wife, my daughter, and that +man, my mind forsakes me: I am one fear."</p> + +<p>"Nay, this apprehension is too exaggerated. We do not live in the age of +the Borgias. Could Peschiera resort to the risks of a murder, it is for +yourself that you should fear."</p> + +<p>"For myself!—I! I!" cried the exile, raising his tall stature to its +full height. "Is it not enough degradation to a man who has borne the +name of such ancestors, to fear for those he loves! Fear for myself! Is +it you who ask if I am a coward?"</p> + +<p>He recovered himself as he felt Harley's penitential and admiring grasp +of the hand.</p> + +<p>"See," said he, turning to the Countess with a melancholy smile, "how +even one hour of your society destroys the habits of years. Dr. +Riccabocca is talking of his ancestors!"</p> + + +<h4>CHAPTER VI.</h4> + +<p>Violante and Jemima were both greatly surprised, as the reader may +suppose, when they heard, on their return, the arrangements already made +for the former. The Countess insisted on taking her at once, and +Riccabocca briefly said, "Certainly, the sooner the better." Violante +was stunned and bewildered. Jemima hastened to make up a little bundle +of things necessary, with many a woman's sigh that the poor wardrobe +contained so few things befitting. But among the clothes she slipped a +purse, containing the savings of months, perhaps of years, and with it a +few affectionate lines, begging Violante to ask the Countess to buy her +all that was proper for her father's child. There is always something +hurried and uncomfortable in the abrupt and unexpected withdrawal of any +member from a quiet household. The small party broke into still smaller +knots. Violante hung on her father, and listened vaguely to his not very +lucid explanations. The Countess approached Leonard, and according to +the usual mode of persons of quality addressing young authors, +complimented him highly on the books she had not read, but which her son +assured her were so remarkable. She was a little anxious to know where +Harley had met with Mr. Oran, whom he called his friend; but she was too +high-bred to inquire, or to express any wonder that rank should be +friends with genius.</p> + +<p>She took it for granted that they had formed their acquaintance abroad.</p> + +<p>Harley conversed with Helen. "You are not sorry that Violante is coming +to us? She will be just such a companion for you as I could desire; of +your own years too."</p> + +<p><i>Helen</i>, (ingenuously.)—"It is hard to think I am not younger than she +is."</p> + +<p><i>Harley.</i>—"Why, my dear Helen?"</p> + +<p><i>Helen.</i>—"She is so brilliant. She talks so beautifully. And I—"</p> + +<p><i>Harley.</i>—"And you want but the habit of talking, to do justice to your +own beautiful thoughts."</p> + +<p>Helen looked at him gratefully, but shook her head. It was a common +trick of hers, and always when she was praised.</p> + +<p>At last the preparations were made—the farewell was said. Violante was +in the carriage by Lady Lansmere's side. Slowly moved on the stately +equipage with its four horses and trim postillions, heraldic badges on +their shoulders, in the style rarely seen in the neighborhood of the +metropolis, and now fast vanishing even amidst distant counties.</p> + +<p>Riccabocca, Jemima, and Jackeymo continued to gaze after it from the +gate.</p> + +<p>"She is gone," said Jackeymo, brushing his eyes with his coat-sleeve. +"But it is a load off one's mind."</p> + +<p>"And another load on one's heart," murmured Riccabocca. "Don't cry, +Jemima; it may be bad for you, and bad for <i>him</i> that is to come. It is +astonishing how the humors of the mother may affect the unborn. I should +not like to have a son who has a more than usual propensity to tears."</p> + +<p>The poor philosopher tried to smile; but it was a bad attempt. He went +slowly in and shut himself up with his books. But he could not read. His +whole mind was unsettled. And though, like all parents, he had been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_542" id="Page_542">[Pg 542]</a></span> +anxious to rid himself of a beloved daughter for life, now that she was +gone but for a while, a string seemed broken in the Music of Home.</p> + + +<h4>CHAPTER VII.</h4> + +<p>The evening of the same day, as Egerton, who was to entertain a large +party at dinner, was changing his dress, Harley walked into his room.</p> + +<p>Egerton dismissed his valet by a sign, and continued his toilet.</p> + +<p>"Excuse me, my dear Harley, I have only ten minutes to give you. I +expect one of the royal dukes, and punctuality is the stern virtue of +men of business, and the graceful courtesy of princes."</p> + +<p>Harley had usually a jest for his friend's aphorisms; but he had none +now. He laid his hand kindly on Egerton's shoulder—"Before I speak of +my business, tell me how you are—better?"</p> + +<p>"Better—nay, I am always well. Pooh! I may look a little tired—years +of toil will tell on the countenance. But that matters little—the +period of life has passed with me when one cares how one looks in the +glass."</p> + +<p>As he spoke, Egerton completed his dress, and came to the hearth, +standing there, erect and dignified as usual, still far handsomer than +many a younger man, and with a form that seemed to have ample vigor to +support for many a year the sad and glorious burden of power.</p> + +<p>"So now to your business, Harley."</p> + +<p>"In the first place, I want you to present me, at the first opportunity, +to Madame di Negra. You say she wished to know me."</p> + +<p>"Are you serious?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"Well, then, she receives this evening. I did not mean to go; but when +my party breaks up"—</p> + +<p>"You can call for me at 'The Travellers.' Do!</p> + +<p>"Next—you knew Lady Jane Horton better even than I did, at least in the +last year of her life." Harley sighed, and Egerton turned and stirred +the fire.</p> + +<p>"Pray, did you ever see at her house, or hear her speak of, a Mrs. +Bertram?"</p> + +<p>"Of whom?" said Egerton, in a hollow voice, his face still turned +towards the fire.</p> + +<p>"A Mrs. Bertram; but heavens! my dear fellow, what is the matter? Are +you ill?"</p> + +<p>"A spasm at the heart—that is all—don't ring—I shall be better +presently—go on talking. Mrs.—— why do you ask?"</p> + +<p>"Why! I have hardly time to explain; but I am, as I told you, resolved +on righting my old Italian friend, if Heaven will help me, as it ever +does help the just when they bestir themselves; and this Mrs. Bertram is +mixed up in my friend's affairs."</p> + +<p>"His! How is that possible?"</p> + +<p>Harley rapidly and succinctly explained. Audley listened attentively, +with his eyes fixed on the floor, and still seeming to labor under great +difficulty of breathing.</p> + +<p>At last he answered, "I remember something of this Mrs.—Mrs.—Bertram. +But your inquiries after her would be useless. I think I have heard that +she is long since dead; nay, I am sure of it."</p> + +<p>"Dead!—that is most unfortunate. But do you know any of her relations +or friends? Can you suggest any mode of tracing this packet if it came +to her hands?"</p> + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>"And Lady Jane had scarcely any friend that I remember, except my +mother, and she knows nothing of this Mrs. Bertram. How unlucky! I think +I shall advertise. Yet, no. I could only distinguish this Mrs. Bertram +from any other of the same name, by stating with whom she had gone +abroad, and that would catch the attention of Peschiera, and set him to +counterwork us."</p> + +<p>"And what avails it?" said Egerton. "She whom you seek is no more—no +more!" He paused, and went on rapidly—"The packet did not arrive in +England till years after her death—was no doubt returned to the +post-office—is destroyed long ago."</p> + +<p>Harley looked very much disappointed. Egerton went on in a sort of set +mechanical voice, as if not thinking of what he said, but speaking from +the dry practical mode of reasoning which was habitual to him, and by +which the man of the world destroys the hopes of an enthusiast. Then +starting up at the sound of the first thundering knock at the street +door, he said, "Hark! you must excuse me."</p> + +<p>"I leave you, my dear Audley. Are you better now?"</p> + +<p>"Much, much—quite well. I will call for you, probably between eleven +and twelve."</p> + + +<h4>CHAPTER VIII.</h4> + +<p>If any one could be more surprised at seeing Lord L'Estrange at the +house of Madame di Negra that evening than the fair hostess herself, it +was Randal Leslie. Something instinctively told him that this visit +threatened interference with whatever might be his ultimate projects in +regard to Riccabocca and Violante. But Randal Leslie was not one of +those who shrink from an intellectual combat. On the contrary, he was +too confident of his powers of intrigue, not to take a delight in their +exercise. He could not conceive that the indolent Harley could be a +match for his own restless activity and dogged perseverance. But in a +very few moments fear crept on him. No man of his day could produce a +more brilliant effect than Lord L'Estrange, when he deigned to desire +it. Without much pretence to that personal beauty which strikes at first +sight, he still retained all the charm of countenance, and all the grace +of manner which had made him in boyhood the spoiled darling of society. +Madame di Negra had collected but a small circle round her, still it was +of the <i>élite</i> of the great world; not, indeed, those more precise<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_543" id="Page_543">[Pg 543]</a></span> and +reserved <i>dames du chateau</i>, whom the lighter and easier of the fair +dispensers of fashion ridicule as prudes; but, nevertheless, ladies were +there, as unblemished in reputation as high in rank; flirts and +coquettes, perhaps—nothing more; in short, "charming women"—the gay +butterflies that hover over the stiff parterre. And there were +ambassadors and ministers, and wits and brilliant debaters, and +first-rate dandies (dandies, when first-rate, are generally very +agreeable men). Amongst all these various persons, Harley, so long a +stranger to the London world, seemed to make himself at home with the +ease of an Alcibiades. Many of the less juvenile ladies remembered him, +and rushed to claim his acquaintance, with nods, and becks, and wreathed +smiles. He had ready compliments for each. And few indeed were there, +men or women, for whom Harley L'Estrange had not appropriate attraction. +Distinguished reputation as a soldier and scholar, for the grave; whim +and pleasantry for the gay; novelty for the sated; and for the more +vulgar natures, was he not Lord L'Estrange, unmarried, heir to an +ancient earldom, and some fifty thousand a-year?</p> + +<p>Not till he had succeeded in the general effect—which, it must be +owned, he did his best to create—did Harley seriously and especially +devote himself to his hostess. And then he seated himself by her side; +and as if in compliment to both, less pressing admirers insensibly +slipped away and edged off.</p> + +<p>Frank Hazeldean was the last to quit his ground behind Madame di Negra's +chair; but when he found that the two began to talk in Italian, and he +could not understand a word they said, he too—fancying, poor fellow, +that he looked foolish, and cursing his Eaton education that had +neglected, for languages spoken by the dead, of which he had learned +little, those still in use among the living, of which he had learned +naught—retreated towards Randal, and asked wistfully, "Pray, what age +should you say L'Estrange was? He must be devilish old, in spite of his +looks. Why, he was at Waterloo!"</p> + +<p>"He is young enough to be a terrible rival," answered Randal, with +artful truth.</p> + +<p>Frank turned pale, and began to meditate dreadful bloodthirsty thoughts, +of which hair-triggers and Lord's Cricket-ground formed the staple.</p> + +<p>Certainly there was apparent ground for a lover's jealousy. For Harley +and Beatrice now conversed in a low tone, and Beatrice seemed agitated, +and Harley earnest. Randal himself grew more and more perplexed. Was +Lord L'Estrange really enamored of the Marchesa? If so, farewell to all +hopes of Frank's marriage with her! Or was he merely playing a part in +Riccabocca's interest; pretending to be the lover, in order to obtain an +influence over her mind, rule her through her ambition, and secure an +ally against her brother? Was this <i>finesse</i> compatible with Randal's +notions of Harley's character? Was it consistent with that chivalric and +soldierly spirit of honor which the frank nobleman affected, to make +love to a woman in a mere <i>ruse de guerre</i>? Could mere friendship for +Riccabocca be a sufficient inducement to a man, who, whatever his +weaknesses or his errors, seemed to wear on his very forehead a soul +above deceit, to stoop to paltry means, even for a worthy end? At this +question, a new thought flashed upon Randal—might not Lord L'Estrange +have speculated himself upon winning Violante?—would not that account +for all the exertions he had made on behalf of her inheritance at the +court of Vienna—exertions of which Peschiera and Beatrice had both +complained? Those objections which the Austrian government might take to +Violante's marriage with some obscure Englishman would probably not +exist against a man like Harley L'Estrange, whose family not only +belonged to the highest aristocracy of England, but had always supported +opinions in vogue amongst the leading governments of Europe. Harley +himself, it is true, had never taken part in politics, but his notions +were, no doubt, those of a high-born soldier, who had fought, in +alliance with Austria, for the restoration of the Bourbons. And this +immense wealth—which Violante might lose if she married one like Randal +himself—her marriage with the heir of the Lansmeres might actually tend +only to secure. Could Harley, with all his own expectations, be +indifferent to such a prize?—and no doubt he had learned Violante's +rare beauty in his correspondence with Riccabocca.</p> + +<p>Thus considered, it seemed natural to Randal's estimate of human nature, +that Harley's more prudish scruples of honor, as regards what is due to +women, could not resist a temptation so strong. Mere friendship was not +a motive powerful enough to shake them, but ambition was.</p> + +<p>While Randal was thus cogitating, Frank thus suffering, and many a +whisper, in comment on the evident flirtation between the beautiful +hostess and the accomplished guest, reached the ears both of the +brooding schemer and the jealous lover, the conversation between the two +objects of remark and gossip had taken a new turn. Indeed, Beatrice had +made an effort to change it.</p> + +<p>"It is long, my lord," said she, still speaking Italian, "since I have +heard sentiments like those you address to me; and if I do not feel +myself wholly unworthy of them, it is from the pleasure I have felt in +reading sentiments equally foreign to the language of the world in which +I live." She took a book from the table as she spoke: "Have you seen +this work?"</p> + +<p>Harley glanced at the title-page. "To be sure I have, and I know the +author."</p> + +<p>"I envy you that honor. I should so like also to know one who has +discovered to me<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_544" id="Page_544">[Pg 544]</a></span> deeps in my own heart which I had never explored."</p> + +<p>"Charming Marchesa, if the book has done this, believe me that I have +paid you no false compliment—formed no overflattering estimate of your +nature; for the charm of the work is but in its simple appeal to good +and generous emotions, and it can charm none in whom those emotions +exist not!"</p> + +<p>"Nay, that cannot be true, or why is it so popular?"</p> + +<p>"Because good and generous emotions are more common to the human heart +than we are aware of till the appeal comes."</p> + +<p>"Don't ask me to think that! I have found the world so base."</p> + +<p>"Pardon me a rude question; but what do you know of the world?"</p> + +<p>Beatrice looked first in surprise at Harley, then glanced round the room +with significant irony.</p> + +<p>"As I thought; you call this little room 'the world.' Be it so. I will +venture to say, that if the people in this room were suddenly converted +into an audience before a stage, and you were as consummate in the +actor's art as you are in all others that please and command—"</p> + +<p>"Well?"</p> + +<p>"And were to deliver a speech full of sordid and base sentiments, you +would be hissed. But let any other woman, with half your powers, arise +and utter sentiments sweet and womanly, or honest and lofty—and +applause would flow from every lip, and tears rush to many a worldly +eye. The true proof of the inherent nobleness of our common nature is in +the sympathy it betrays with what is noble wherever crowds are +collected. Never believe the world is base;—if it were so, no society +could hold together for a day. But you would know the author of this +book? I will bring him to you."</p> + +<p>"Do."</p> + +<p>"And now," said Harley rising, and with his candid winning smile, "do +you think we shall ever be friends?"</p> + +<p>"You have startled me so, that I can scarcely answer. But why would you +be friends with me?"</p> + +<p>"Because you need a friend. You have none?"</p> + +<p>"Strange flatterer!" said Beatrice, smiling, though very sadly; and +looking up, her eye caught Randal's.</p> + +<p>"Pooh!" said Harley, "you are too penetrating to believe that you +inspire friendship <i>there</i>. Ah, do you suppose that, all the while I +have been conversing with you, I have not noticed the watchful gaze of +Mr. Randal Leslie? What tie can possibly connect you together I know not +yet; but I soon shall."</p> + +<p>"Indeed! you talk like one of the old Council of Venice. You try hard to +make me fear you," said Beatrice, seeking to escape from the graver kind +of impression Harley had made on her, by the affectation, partly of +coquetry, partly of levity.</p> + +<p>"And I," said L'Estrange, calmly, "tell you already, that I fear you no +more." He bowed, and passed through the crowd to rejoin Audley, who was +seated in a corner, whispering with some of his political colleagues. +Before Harley reached the minister, he found himself close to Randal and +young Hazeldean.</p> + +<p>He bowed to the first, and extended his hand to the last. Randal felt +the distinction, and his sullen, bitter pride was deeply galled—a +feeling of hate towards Harley passed into his mind. He was pleased to +see the cold hesitation with which Frank just touched the hand offered +to him. But Randal had not been the only person whose watch upon +Beatrice the keen-eyed Harley had noticed. Harley had seen the angry +looks of Frank Hazeldean, and divined the cause. So he smiled +forgivingly at the slight he had received.</p> + +<p>"You are like me, Mr. Hazeldean," said he. "You think something of the +heart should go with all courtesy that bespeaks friendship—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"The hand of Douglas is his own."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Here Harley drew aside Randal. "Mr. Leslie, a word with you. If I wished +to know the retreat of Dr. Riccabocca, in order to render him a great +service, would you confide to me that secret?"</p> + +<p>"That woman has let out her suspicions that I know the exile's retreat," +thought Randal; and with rare presence of mind, he replied at once—</p> + +<p>"My Lord, yonder stands a connection of Dr. Riccabocca's. Mr. Hazeldean +is surely the person to whom you should address this inquiry."</p> + +<p>"Not so, Mr. Leslie; for I suspect that he cannot answer it, and that +you can. Well, I will ask something that it seems to me you may grant +without hesitation. Should you see Dr. Riccabocca, tell him that I am in +England, and so leave it to him to communicate with me or not; but +perhaps you have already done so?"</p> + +<p>"Lord L'Estrange," said Randal, bowing low, with pointed formality, +"excuse me if I decline either to disclaim or acquiesce in the knowledge +you impute to me. If I am acquainted with any secret intrusted to me by +Dr. Riccabocca, it is for me to use my own discretion how best to guard +it. And for the rest, after the Scotch earl, whose words your lordship +has quoted, refused to touch the hand of Marmion, Douglas could scarcely +have called him back in order to give him—a message!"</p> + +<p>Harley was not prepared for this tone in Mr. Egerton's <i>protégé</i>, and +his own gallant nature was rather pleased than irritated by a +haughtiness that at least seemed to bespeak independence of spirit. +Nevertheless, L'Estrange's suspicions of Randal were too strong<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_545" id="Page_545">[Pg 545]</a></span> to be +easily set aside, and therefore he replied, civilly, but with covert +taunt—</p> + +<p>"I submit to your rebuke, Mr. Leslie, though I meant not the offence you +would ascribe to me. I regret my unlucky quotation yet the more, since +the wit of your retort has obliged you to identify yourself with +Marmion, who, though a clever and brave fellow, was an +uncommonly—tricky one." And so Harley, certainly having the best of it, +moved on, and joining Egerton, in a few minutes more both left the room.</p> + +<p>"What was L'Estrange saying to you?" asked Frank. "Something about +Beatrice, I am sure."</p> + +<p>"No; only quoting poetry."</p> + +<p>"Then, what made you look so angry, my dear fellow? I know it was your +kind feeling for me. As you say, he is a formidable rival. But that +can't be his own hair. Do you think he wears a <i>toupet</i>? I am sure he +was praising Beatrice. He is evidently very much smitten with her. But I +don't think she is a woman to be caught by <i>mere</i> rank and fortune! Do +you? Why can't you speak?"</p> + +<p>"If you do not get her consent soon, I think she is lost to you," said +Randal slowly; and, before Frank could recover his dismay, glided from +the house.</p> + + +<h4>CHAPTER IX.</h4> + +<p>Violante's first evening at the Lansmeres, had seemed happier to her +than the first evening, under the same roof, had done to Helen. True +that she missed her father much—Jemima somewhat; but she so identified +her father's cause with Harley, that she had a sort of vague feeling +that it was to promote that cause that she was on this visit to Harley's +parents. And the Countess, it must be owned, was more emphatically +cordial to her than she had ever yet been to Captain Digby's orphan. But +perhaps the real difference in the heart of either girl was this, that +Helen felt awe of Lady Lansmere, and Violante felt only love for Lord +L'Estrange's mother. Violante, too, was one of those persons whom a +reserved and formal person, like the Countess, "can get on with," as the +phrase goes. Not so poor little Helen—so shy herself, and so hard to +coax into more than gentle monosyllables. And Lady Lansmere's favorite +talk was always of Harley. Helen had listened to such talk with respect +and interest. Violante listened to it with inquisitive eagerness—with +blushing delight. The mother's heart noticed the distinction between the +two, and no wonder that the heart moved more to Violante than to Helen. +Lord Lansmere, too, like most gentlemen of his age, clumped all young +ladies together, as a harmless, amiable, but singularly stupid class of +the genus-Petticoat, meant to look pretty, play the piano, and talk to +each other about frocks and sweethearts. Therefore this animated, +dazzling creature, with her infinite variety of look and play of mind, +took him by surprise, charmed him into attention, and warmed him into +gallantry. Helen sat in her quiet corner, at her work, sometimes +listening with mournful, though certainly unenvious, admiration at +Violante's vivid, yet ever unconscious, eloquence of word and +thought—sometimes plunged deep into her own secret meditations. And all +the while the work went on the same, under the small noiseless fingers. +This was one of Helen's habits that irritated the nerves of Lady +Lansmere. She despised young ladies who were fond of work. She did not +comprehend how often it is the resource of the sweet womanly mind, not +from want of thought, but from the silence and the depth of it. Violante +was surprised, and perhaps disappointed, that Harley had left the house +before dinner, and did not return all the evening. But Lady Lansmere, in +making excuse for his absence, on the plea of engagements, found so good +an opportunity to talk of his ways in general—of his rare promise in +boyhood—of her regret at the inaction of his maturity—of her hope to +see him yet do justice to his natural powers, that Violante almost +ceased to miss him.</p> + +<p>And when Lady Lansmere conducted her to her room, and kissing her cheek +tenderly, said, "But you are just the person Harley admires—just the +person to rouse him from melancholy dreams, of which his wild humors are +now but the vain disguise"—Violante crossed her arms on her bosom, and +her bright eyes, deepened into tenderness, seemed to ask, "He +melancholy—and why?"</p> + +<p>On leaving Violante's room, Lady Lansmere paused before the door of +Helen's; and, after musing a little while, entered softly.</p> + +<p>Helen had dismissed her maid; and, at the moment Lady Lansmere entered, +she was kneeling at the foot of the bed, her hands clasped before her +face.</p> + +<p>Her form, thus seen, looked so youthful and childlike—the attitude +itself was so holy and so touching, that the proud and cold expression +on Lady Lansmere's face changed. She shaded the light involuntarily, and +seated herself in silence, that she might not disturb the act of prayer.</p> + +<p>When Helen rose, she was startled to see the Countess seated by the +fire; and hastily drew her hand across her eyes. She had been weeping.</p> + +<p>Lady Lansmere did not, however, turn to observe those traces of tears, +which Helen feared were too visible. The Countess was too absorbed in +her own thoughts; and as Helen timidly approached, she said—still with +her eyes on the clear low fire—"I beg your pardon, Miss Digby, for my +intrusion; but my son has left it to me to prepare Lord Lansmere to +learn the offer you have done Harley the honor to accept. I have not yet +spoken to my lord; it may be days before I find a fitting occasion to do +so; meanwhile, I feel assured that your sense of propriety will make you +agree with me, that it is due to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_546" id="Page_546">[Pg 546]</a></span> Lord L'Estrange's father, that +strangers should not learn arrangements of such moment in his family, +before his own consent be obtained."</p> + +<p>Here the Countess came to a full pause; and poor Helen, finding herself +called upon for some reply to this chilling speech, stammered out, +scarce audibly—</p> + +<p>"Certainly, madam, I never dreamed of—"</p> + +<p>"That is right, my dear," interrupted Lady Lansmere, rising suddenly, +and as if greatly relieved. "I could not doubt your superiority to +ordinary girls of your age, with whom these matters are never secret for +a moment. Therefore, of course, you will not mention, at present, what +has passed between you and Harley, to any of the friends with whom you +may correspond."</p> + +<p>"I have no correspondents—no friends, Lady Lansmere," said Helen, +deprecatingly, and trying hard not to cry.</p> + +<p>"I am very glad to hear it, my dear; young ladies never should have. +Friends, especially friends who correspond, are the worst enemies they +can have. Good night, Miss Digby. I need not add, by the way, that, +though we are bound to show all kindness to this young Italian lady, +still she is wholly unconnected with our family; and you will be as +prudent with her as you would have been with your correspondents—had +you had the misfortune to have any."</p> + +<p>Lady Lansmere said the last words with a smile, and pressed a reluctant +kiss (the step-mother's kiss) on Helen's bended brow. She then left the +room, and Helen sat on the seat vacated by the stately unloving form, +and again covered her face with her hands, and again wept. But when she +rose at last, and the light fell upon her face, that soft face was sad +indeed, but serene—serene, as if with some inward sense of duty—sad, +as with the resignation which accepts patience instead of hope.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> Continued from page 411.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> Translation of <i>Charron on Wisdom</i>. By G. Stanhope, D.D., +late Dean of Canterbury (1729). A translation remarkable for ease, +vigor, and (despite that contempt for the strict rules of grammar, which +was common enough amongst writers at the commencement of the last +century) for the idiomatic raciness of its English.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h4>From Household Words.</h4> + +<h2><a name="CHOICE_SECRETS" id="CHOICE_SECRETS"></a>CHOICE SECRETS.</h2> + + +<p>"Light a room with spermaceti, anoint your face with the same substance, +and you will seem to all beholders to have the head of a sperm whale +upon your shoulders." "When you would have men in the house seem to be +without heads: take yellow brimstone with oil, and put it in a lamp and +light it, and set it in the midst amongst men, and you shall see a +wonder." These are two out of a large mass of facts which form a compact +body of ancestral wisdom. They lie before us in a venerable volume, +whose grave frontispiece is adorned with the portraitures of Alexis, +Albertus Magnus, Dr. Reade, Raymond Lully, Dr. Harvey, Lord Bacon, and +Dr. John Wecker. John Wecker, Doctor in Physic, first compiled the book, +and Dr. R. Read augmented and enlarged it. "A like work never before was +in the English tongue." It was printed in the year 1661, for Simon +Miller, at the Starre in St. Paul's Church Yard, and it is entitled, +"Eighteen Books of the Secrets of Art and Nature, being the Summe and +Substance of Naturall Philosophy, Methodically Digested." The book is +one of considerable size and pretension, written by wise doctors in the +good old time, two hundred years ago. Let us not be conceited and harp +only on the strings provided to our fingers in the nineteenth century. +For a few minutes, at least, it will not do us harm to get a little +scientific information from our ancestors. We shall glean, therefore, +some random facts out of the harvest-field of Doctors Mead and Wecker, +selecting, of course, most characteristic, those which our forefathers +may call exclusively their own.</p> + +<p>The volume opens with scientific information on the subject of Angels +and Devils, including, of course, the fact that "Witches kill children, +and divers cattle, which we find by various experience, and by relation +of others that are worthy to be believed. But if you will say they are +mere delusions of the Devil, whereby he makes foolish women mad that are +entangled by him, that they believe they do those things which neither +they nor the devil can do; if we can so avoid it, we may as well deny +any thing else, be it never so evident. "—If you deny that, you may +deny any thing—is a phrase not yet dead. Applied two hundred years ago +to the experience concerning witches, it has been industriously employed +to the present day, and is employed still on behalf of a great many +fresh delusions. As for the gentleman, whom truth is said to shame, he +claimed his distinct chapter in the minds of old physicians, because, as +the book before us has it, he "can cause many diseases, of the reasons +whereof we are ignorant. Also he can do this, or that; being subtile, he +can easily pass through all parts of the body, which he can bind, pull +back, or torment otherwise."</p> + +<p>Passing on now, as we follow the march of high philosophy, to secrets of +the sun and moon; it may be worth while to understand, as our +forefathers taught, that "it is easie to guess at the fortune of every +year by the stars, if a man consider twelve, nineteen, eight, four, and +thirty." Somebody wants to know what luck he will have in 1853. Let him +consider 1841 (twelve years back), let him consider 1834 (nineteen years +back), and, for the eight, four, thirty, let him look back to the years +1845, 1849, and 1823. Let him reflect on the nature of his fortune in +each of those years, look up his old diaries, combine their results, and +that will give him the character of his fate in 1853. Jupiter is somehow +at the bottom of this, but we are too modern and ignorant to understand +the author's explanation.</p> + +<p>Among secrets concerning fire, are those two facts connected with +spermaceti and brimstone already stated. Any one living in the country, +whom the croaking of the frogs<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_547" id="Page_547">[Pg 547]</a></span> may trouble of a night, will doubtless +be glad to hear of a remedy: "Take the fat of a crocodile, and make it +up with wax while in the sun, and make a candle of it, and light it in +the place where frogs are, and when they see that they will presently +cease crying." Where crocodile's fat cannot be had, "the fat of a +dolphin" will do. Prescriptions abound, by the use of which men may +appear to wear the heads of asses, horses, dogs, or to resemble +elephants. There is a receipt also for making "a faire light, that the +house may seem all full of serpents so long as the wick doth burn." But +we pass over these pleasant methods of illumination, simply remarking, +that if our wise ancestors were right, the volume now before us would +procure a sudden fortune to the lessees of Vauxhall. By the use of some +dozen kinds of cunningly prepared lamps, the Royal Gardens might in good +faith be chronicled in its bills as a "scene of enchantment." At one +turn of a walk, all visitors would show their heads, and at another, +none; in another grove they would be elephants, and in another they +would look like angels. The Rotunda might be lighted for a diabolical +effect, and the Dark Walk illuminated brilliantly with dolphin's fat, +funeral cloth and Azemat, whose light makes every body invisible. This, +again, is no bad hint for a country tallow-chandler, who supplies light +to the ladies of a solemn village, where he is annoyed by the neglect of +any gayeties that would create large orders for composite or sperm: "<i>To +make women rejoice mightily.</i> Make candles of the fat of hares, and +light them, and let them stand awhile in the middle where women are: +they will not be so merry as to dance; yet sometimes that falls out +also."</p> + +<p>"It is a wonder that some report how that the tooth of a badger, or his +left foot bound to a man's right arm will strengthen the memory." Boys, +who have lessons to learn, may like to know that fact; and teachers, who +have idle pupils, must not flog, but feed them upon cresses. "Cresses +eaten make a man industrious." Young ladies, who believe in their +ancestors, will thank us for repeating their opinion that the use of a +ring, which was lain for a certain time in a sparrow's nest, will +procure love. Nor need any dread the penalties of matrimony, since the +man who carries with him a hartshorn "shall alwaies have peace with his +wife:" and also, "the heart of a male quail, carried by the man, and the +heart of a female quail, by the woman, will cause that no quarrels can +ever arise between them." The man who carries a quail's heart in his +pocket may face his wife, and never have to feel his own heart quailing +underneath his ribs.</p> + +<p>Old Parr dined probably upon serpents, not, as is commonly reported, +upon pills. "It is known that stags renew their age by eating serpents; +so the phœnix is restored by the nest of spices shee makes to burn +in. The pelican hath the same virtue, whose right foot, if it be put +under hot dung, after three months a pelican will be bred from it. +Wherefore some physicians, with some confections, made of a viper and +hellebore, and of some of the flesh of these creatures, do promise to +restore youth, and sometimes they do it." If the Zoological Society has +proper respect for our ancestors, they will not delay to sow a hot-bed +with pelicans' feet. Young shoots of pelican would be much more +appropriate beside the gravel-walks than your mere vegetable +pelargonium.</p> + +<p>In the way of practice of medicine, we moderns say that any thing like +scientific principles, on which one can depend, have only been attained +in our own lifetime. "Doctors differed," and bumped against each other, +only because all alike were feeling through the dark. In our own day +there is light enough to keep doctors from differing very +grossly,—gross difference springing generally more from the want of +knowledge in an individual, than in the profession generally. Although +there is yet a vast deal to be learned. In the first century, +Asclepiades dubbed the medical system of Hippocrates, "a cold meditation +of death." Under Nero there arose a Dr. Thessalus, who taught that +Nature was the guide to follow and obey in all diseases; and, therefore, +under his system patients were simply to be liberally and rapidly +supplied with every thing they fancied. Paracelsus, in the sixteenth +century, looked for a patient's symptoms in the stars; so we must not be +surprised if the "Secrets in Physic and Surgery," published among the +other secrets in this volume now before us, contain odd information. +Here is a nice cure for a quartan ague, which might tickle a patient's +stomach sooner than his fancy: "Seven wig-lice of the bed, wrapped in a +great grape husk, and swallowed down alive before the fit." Another cure +is effected when the patient eats the parings of his nails and toes, +mingled with wax. There are many remedies against the Plague; but that +one which is recommended as "<i>The Best Thing against the Plague</i>," is +for a man to wash his mouth with vinegar and water before he goes out, +drinking also a spoonful of the liquor; then to press his nose and stop +his breath, so that "by the vapor and steam held in your mouth, the +brain be moistened." In the following prescription we believe entirely: +"<i>For Melancholy.</i> It is no small remedy to cure melancholy, to rub your +body all over with nettles."</p> + +<p>Book Five contains secrets for beautifying the human body. The following +receipt, which comes first, for giving people a substantial look, seems +to be somewhat too efficacious to be often tried: "<i>To make men fat.</i> If +you mingle with the fat of a lizard, salt-petre and cummin and +wheat-meal, hens fatted with this meat will be so fat, that men that eat +of them, will eat until they burst."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_548" id="Page_548">[Pg 548]</a></span> A degree of fatness in hens equal +to this will never be communicated by our degenerate modern +agriculturists. For the hair-dyes, favored by our forefathers, we +cannot, however, say much, for we must differ in taste very decidedly. +Recipes are given for obtaining, not only black, but white hair, yellow +hair, red hair, and "To make your hair seem GREEN." Nobody in these days +will use a course of the distilled water of capers to make his hair look +like a meadow; and even, if any body among us, too fastidious as we now +are, wanted yellow hair, we do <i>not</i> think that he would consent to rub +into his head for that purpose honey and the yolk of eggs. There are +also in this part of the work some ungallant recommendations of +substances, which a man may chew in order that, presently breathing near +a lady's cheek, he may discolor it, and so detect her artifice, if she +should happen to be painted. Among "secrets for beautifying the body," +we cannot but think this also indicative of an odd taste; "If you would +change the color of children's eyes, you shall do it thus; with the +ashes of the small nut-shells, with oil you must anoint the forepart of +their head; <i>it will make the whites of children's eyes black</i>; <span class="smcap">do it +often</span>!"</p> + +<p>Concerning wine, it is worth knowing, that to cure a man of drunkenness, +you should put eels into his wine. Delightful dreams will visit the +couch of him who has eaten moderately, for supper, of a horse's tongue, +and taken balm for salad. This is "A means to make a man sleep sweetly," +which we recommend to the attention of all restless people, who have +proper faith in their forefathers. As we have passed over a good many +pages, and come to the "secrets of asses," we may put down, <i>à propos</i> +to nothing, that "If an ass have a stone bound to his tail he cannot +bray."</p> + +<p>The following may be tried in a few months by ladies in the country, who +rise early on a fine spring morning; they may thus earn the delight of +exhibiting to their friends one of the prettiest balloon ascents that +any body can conceive: "In May, fill an egg-shell with May-dew, and set +it in the hot sun at noon-day, and the sun will draw it up."</p> + +<p>The secrets of gardening, known to our forefathers, annihilate all claim +in Sir Joseph Paxton to the commonest consideration. They taught how to +get the blue roses by manuring with indigo, or green roses by digging +verdigris about the roots. They taught the whole art of perfuming fruit, +by steeping the seeds of the future tree in oil of spike, or rose-water +and musk. If, say our ancestors, you would have peaches, plums, or +cherries without any stone, you have only, when the tree is a twig, to +pick out all the pith before you set it. To get your filbert-trees to +bear you fruit all kernel, you have only to crack a nut, and sow the +kernel only, covered with a little wool. And very much more marvellous, +in the annals of gardening, is the receipt for getting peach-trees that +bear fruit covered with inscriptions: "When you have eaten the peach, +steep the stone two or three days in water, and open it gently, and +<i>take the kernal out of it(!)</i> and write something within the shell with +an iron graver, what you please, yet not too deep, then wrap it in paper +and set it; whatever you write in the shell you shall find written in +the fruit." Such shrewd things mingled with the more ordinary knowledge +of our ancestors upon affairs of gardening.</p> + +<p>It will be seen that for many of these "facts" there was a "reason" +close at hand. Our forefathers were wise enough to know that every thing +required properly accounting for. Thus, for example, in "the secrets of +metals:" "Some report that a candle lighted of man's fat, and brought to +the place where the treasures are hid, will discover them with the +noise; and when it is near them it will go out. If this be true, it +ariseth from sympathy; for fat is made of blood, and blood is the seat +of the soul and spirits, and both these are held by the desire of silver +and gold, so long as a man lives; and therefore they trouble the blood; +so here is sympathy."</p> + +<p>If a man would prevent hail from coming down, he is to walk about his +garden, with a crocodile—stuffed, of course—and hang it up in the +middle. Pieces of the skin of a hippopotamus, wherever they are buried, +keep off storms. A thunder-storm also can be put to rout by firing +cannons at it; "for by the force of the sound moving the air, the +exhalations are driven upward." (In the same way, the plague was said to +yield before a cannonade.) "Some who observe hail coming on, bring a +huge looking-glass, and observe the largeness of the cloud, and by that +remedy,—whether objected against, or despised by it, or it is +displeased with it; or whether, being doubled, it gives way to the +other" (in some way or other one must find out a reason), "they suddenly +turn it off and remove it." An owl stuck up in the fields, with its +wings spread, served also as a scare-crow to the tempests. As lightning +conductor on a roof, it was thought wise to put an egg-shell, out of +which a chicken had been hatched on Ascension-day. Thunderbolt stones +were said to sweat during a storm, which was not thought a more +wonderful "fact" than the perspirations streaming out of glass windows +"in winter when the stove is hot." Our ancestors were far too wise to be +surprised at any thing.</p> + +<p>Secrets of alchemy, magic, and astrology are, of course, very profound; +we pass over these and many more; among secrets of cookery we pause, +shuddering. Whipping young pigs to death, to make them tender eating, +used to be quite bad enough; and some of our own hidden devices in the +meat trade are, even now, equally revolting; but here we meet with a +device of the wise ancestors,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_549" id="Page_549">[Pg 549]</a></span> which may, perhaps, stand at the head of +all culinary horrors. Remembering that these cooks were also apt at +roasting men, we will inflict this illustration on our readers: "<i>To +roast a Goose alive.</i> Let it be a duck or goose, or some such lively +creature; but a goose is best of all for this purpose; leaving his neck, +pull off all the feathers from his body, then make a fire round about +him, not too wide, for that will not roast him; within the place set +here and there small pots full of water, with salt and honey mixed +therewith, and let there be dishes set full of roasted apples, and cut +in pieces in the dish, and let the goose be basted with butter all over, +and larded to make him better meat, and he may roast the better; put +fire to it; do not make too much haste, when he begins to roast, walking +about, and striving to fly away; the fire stops him in, and he will fall +to drink water to quench his thirst; this will cool his heart, and the +other parts of his body, and, by this medicament, he looseneth his belly +and grows empty. And when he roasteth and consumes inwardly, always wet +his head and heart with a wet sponge; but when you see him run madding +and stumble, his heart wants moisture, take him away, set him before +your guests, and he will cry as you cut off any part from him, and will +be almost eaten up before he be dead; it is very pleasant to behold."</p> + +<p>Degenerate moderns would most certainly be unable to enjoy such +hospitality, and would be cured as thoroughly of any appetite as if +their host had employed another of the secrets of our ancestors. "That +guests may not eat at table, do this: You must have a needle that dead +people are often sewed up in their winding-sheet; and at beginning of +supper secretly stick this under the table; this will hinder the guests +from eating, that they will rather be weary to sit, than desirous to +eat; take it away when you have laughed at them awhile."</p> + +<p>Take it away, we must say now to the old book. As we have said, our +specimens, drawn from an immense mass of the same kind, do not represent +the sole character of the volume. It states, also, a very large number +of facts, confirmed and explained in the present day, being a fair +transcript of the average standard of opinion among learned doctors upon +a great number of things. Have we not made a little progress since those +good old times, and would it be a pleasant thing to get them back again? +To come home to every man's breakfast-table, we may ask the public to +decide between the coffee now made, and the coffee of the good old +times. In a somewhat expensive book, addressed only to wealthy readers, +Drs. Read and Weckir disclose this secret of good coffee, for the ladies +and gentlemen of 1660:—"Take the berry, put it in a tin pudding-pan, +and when bread hath been in the oven about half-an-hour, put in your +coffee; there let it stand till you draw your bread; then beat it and +sift it; mix it thus: first boyl your water about half-an-hour; to every +quart of water put in a spoonful of the pouder of coffee; then let it +boyl one-third away; clear it off from the setlings; and the next day +put fresh water; and so add every day fresh water, so long as any +setlings remain. <i>Often Tryed.</i>"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="Authors_and_Books" id="Authors_and_Books"></a><i>Authors and Books.</i></h2> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Arthor Schopenhauer</span>, of Berlin, has recently published <i>Parerga und +Paralipomena, or little Philosophical Writings</i>, in which, according to +a Leipsic reviewer, "the author asserts that <i>his</i> philosophy is not +merely the <i>only</i> advance in that department since the days of Kant, but +that <i>his</i> system bears the same relation to all earlier philosophy, +that the New Testament bears to the Old. In addition to this, he +attempts to solve the problem, how can it be possible that he has ever +been as unknown to the literary and scientific world as the Man in the +Moon, while the absurdest and most ridiculous theories, such, for +example, as those of Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel, have been so +generally accepted. But as he, in spite of the most earnest endeavors, +can find no internal ground for this unaccountable blindness of the +public, he seeks it in another direction. These impudent sophists, it +seems, have had no other ground than simply <i>that of making money</i>! With +the hocus-pocus of common charlatans they have carried their wares to +market, and as <i>candidates</i> and teachers of philosophy generally spring +up from the same effort, there resulted an alliance of charlatans whose +object it was on the one side to raise themselves to heaven, and on the +other to suppress all true thinking, so that the public might be +prevented, by a just consideration of their own worthlessness." "Such +accusations as those," continues our reviewer, "awaken an unfavorable +impression, which is not in the least diminished by continued boasting +and grandiloquence, and a clumsy roughness of style, which not +unfrequently falls into downright burlesque. The work itself is an odd +mixture of actual recollections and arbitrary fancies, of explanations +and superstitions, which force us to regret that many really admirable +thoughts which occasionally surprise the reader in an assembly of +trivialities and paradoxes, must inevitably be lost. Those philosophers +certainly provoke sharp criticism when we separate their truly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_550" id="Page_550">[Pg 550]</a></span> +scientific contents from their visions and dispositions, and it would +perhaps be more in accordance with the spirit of the age to return more +earnestly to <i>Kant</i> than most of the more recent philosophers are +accustomed to do. Still nothing is in the least gained for the negative +aim of criticism, when the critic makes it such an easy matter to cast +away, without further consideration, all of the latest advances in +philosophy, because he believes that he has detected errors in their +pretended fundamental thoughts, without first ascertaining whether these +fundamental thoughts are really the leading principle of the system, and +when he on his own side falls into suppositions which have certainly +received long since a satisfactory refutation from the later philosophy; +as, for example, in the Kantean opposition of things in themselves, and +their appearances. The <i>positive</i>, with which Herr Schopenhauer believes +that he has enriched science, the derivation of united spiritual +functions from the will, and the correction of the course of the world, +by the idea that the true aim of life is to scorn it, might with greater +propriety be classed in the sphere of 'visions and dispositions,' which +he so fiercely attacks, than in that of science. The discussions which +fill these two volumes, and are spread out over every imaginable +subject, even to ghosts, the possibility of whose existence is admitted, +have naturally a very varied character, and can only, by a continued +polemic, and a fragmentary system of examination harmonizing therewith, +be brought into unity."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The second part of <span class="smcap">Wachsmuth's</span> <i>Allgemeine Culturgeschichte</i> (History of +Civilization, for so we venture to translate the word Cultur), which +indicates more strictly all referring to those social influences which +refine, form, and educate society, has recently appeared. The volume +referred to contains <i>The Middle Ages</i>, and is highly spoken of for the +skilful manner in which the author has treated the influence exerted by +the Byzantine and Mohammedan races. Another historical work of +importance is the fourth and concluding volume containing the tenth and +twelfth books of <span class="smcap">Hammer Purgstall's</span> <i>Life of Cardinal Khlesl</i>, compiled +from contemporary documents. In it we have the last diplomatic acts of +the Cardinal, of the intrigues of the Grand Dukes Ferdinand and +Maximilian relative to him, and of his consequent arrest and abduction. +The eleventh book details his imprisonment in Innspruck and in the Abbey +St. Georgenberg, the negotiations with the Pope relative to him, and his +delivery to the latter on the 24th October, 1622. In the twelfth we have +the details of his residence in Rome, of the part he took in instituting +the Propaganda, his return home after an absence of ten years, his +subsequent clerical exertions, and his testament. The conclusion gives a +parallel drawn between Khlesl, Wolsey, and Ximenes—a description of his +personal appearance and an explanation of the exertions of power brought +to bear against him, with the final judgment that those truly to blame +were the grand dukes and not Khlesl, and that the Cardinal, if not +entirely devoid of blame, was still a great character, and one of the +most illustrious statesmen of Austria. Another new historical work is +the <i>Laben des Herzogs von Sachsen-Gotha und Altenburg, Freiderich II. +Ein Bei trazzur Geschichte Gotha's beim Wechsel d. 17, und 18, Jahrh. +Herausgegeben nach dessen Tode von Dr.</i> <span class="smcap">Ad. Moritz Schulze</span>, <i>Director d. +Burgerschule zu Gotha</i> (or Life of the Duke of Saxe Gotha and Altenburg, +Frederic the II.) A contribution to the history of Gotha during the +changes of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Published after the +death of the author by Dr. Ad. Moritz Schulze, director of the Citizen +School of Gotha, this work appears to be well and warmly, though +impartially written.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>In theology, we observe the publication, by <span class="smcap">Albert Wessel von Hengel</span>, of +<i>Commentarius Perpetuus in Prioris Pauli ad Corinthios Epistolæ Caput +Quintum Decimum cum Epistola ad Winerum, Theol. Lips. Haag.</i> (Bœdeker +in Rotterdam). In this book we perceive that the important fifteenth +chapter of the Letter to the Corinthians is philologically treated with +true Dutch thoroughness and remarkable erudition, but that the results +to which he comes are often untenable, and that a satisfactory decision +as to the proposed dogmatic questions, such as advanced theological +science requires, is not given. The peculiar views of the author as to +the aim or object of the chapter have also had an effect on the +explanation of many passages. It is asserted, for instance, <i>a la</i> Bush, +that Paul does not speak of the resurrection of the body, but that he +means by this resurrection the return of all men into life, or +immortality; and regarding this, has in view only those who admit +Christ, and their future happiness; and that even verse forty-nine +contains only a comparison of the <i>moral</i> condition of Christians in +this and a better life. Yet notwithstanding this he finds himself +compelled to admit, by the fifty-second verse, that the same bodies +which we have here on earth, again return to life. By the παρουσια of Christ (v. 23) he understands <i>earthly life</i>, and by +οι του Χριστου εν τη παρουσια αυτου, +those Christians who already believed on him while yet on earth, and by the τειος, +not the end of the world with its universal resurrection and judgment, +but the resurrection of the later Christians. The oft-repeated σπειρεται +(v. 43) he translates by it is begotten or generated, and +understands it as referring to an entry into earthly life, and that the +χοικοσ of the forty-seventh verse refers to the earthly +<i>disposition</i> or <i>inclination</i>, and the εξ ουρνου and επουρανιοσ +to that of the heavenly.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_551" id="Page_551">[Pg 551]</a></span></p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Among recent books of travel we have <i>A Journey to Persia and the +country of the Koords</i>, and the preceding sketch, <i>Souvenirs of the +Danube and Bosphorus</i>, by <span class="smcap">Moritz Wagner</span>. The Journey to Persia contains +much curious information and observation of a country but little known +to the outer world, while in the Souvenirs we have bitter complaints and +merciless revelations relative to the Metternich policy in the East, and +the conduct and character of the Austrian diplomatic representative by +the Porte. Many curious facts are also given relative to the present +condition of Turkey, the personal appearance of the Sultan and divers +Constantinopolitan dignitaries and foreign ambassadors. The commendatory +characteristic of this work appears to consist in the fact, that the +author, unlike the great majority of those who are elevated to constant +familiarity with men of high standing and influence, is remarkably +independent and unselfish in his views, and invariably speaks bold plain +truth, even of individuals in whose power it actually lies to do him +very decided injury. No person desirous of being <i>au courant</i> as to the +great political world of the present day, should be ignorant of this +work.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>A work has recently been published at Ratisbon, entitled. <i>Die +Katholischon Missionen, Geschildert aus der Neuzeit, Miteinem Anhange, +Zwei Missionen in dem Jahr 1716 und 1718</i> (Catholic Missions, Sketched +from recent times, with a supplement; Two Missions in the years 1716 and +1718). Of this performance a German review remarks, that it was once +believed that the power of the Jesuits was for ever broken, but lo! they +again lift their heads in power. "Missions are one of the means by which +they act upon the people—a number of Jesuits repair to a certain place, +and day after day its inhabitants are preached to, taught, confessions +heard, and mass read festally." The book is a eulogium of Catholicism, +and especially of the Jesuits, as its truest representatives, with +occasional passes at democracy, the unbelievers, the administration, and +bureaucracy. It praises Catholicism as the only means whereby the +revolution can be restrained; it tells of devotions to the heart of the +Virgin Mary and her medals, and of the plenary remission which the +missions bring. It exalts the obedience of the Jesuits to their +superiors, and praises the principle that they, without any will of +their own, should be <i>perinde ac cadaver</i>—like a corpse. According to +this book, the consequences of these missions are incalculable, and the +love bestowed upon them by the Jesuits truly affecting. It well-nigh +appears the same as if one were reading Chateaubriand's praises of the +<i>Patres</i>. Only that history, for the past three hundred years, has given +a somewhat strong contrast to this ideal. The best parts of the book are +sketches of life in the <i>Bagnos</i> of Toulon and Brest.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>At Berlin, the Scientific Society (<i>Winenschaftlicher Vereins</i>) have +been giving a course of lectures to a large and aristocratic audience, +invited by members of the society. Their success has brought out the +Evangelical Society, in another course of a more theological and +religious nature. In the first-named society, Professor Brandes lately +lectured upon the Mormons; but it seems that the majority of the elegant +gentlemen and ladies, did not fully appreciate his efforts for their +instruction, for want of the necessary elementary knowledge. "When the +doctor rose and announced his subject, the question was at once +whispered in all parts of the hall," "Who are the Mormons?" The ladies +in the most brilliant costume were generally the most eager in this +inquiry. But unfortunately they got no satisfaction; the common reply of +the gentleman appealed to being, "I am sorry to say I have forgotten." +Some, more learned than others, however, assured their lovely companions +that the Mormons were an Indian tribe of America, closely connected +with, if not directly descended from, the Hurons, so frequently +mentioned in Cooper's novels. Another amusing misunderstanding recently +occurred in the same course. The lectures are not generally announced +before-hand, but one day the newspapers got hold of the subject, and +informed all the world that Professor Diterici would read a lecture upon +<i>Pera and the desert festivals</i>. A great crowd of ladies was the +consequence, all agog to hear about the picturesque costumes and strange +ways of Pera, the national festivals of the Bedouins, and, perhaps, to +have a glimpse at the mysteries of the seraglio. How great was the +disappointment of the fashionable auditory when the learned doctor rose +and began his discourse upon <i>Petra, the Fastness of the Desert</i>. That +evening the ladies went home in very ill humor.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>A work which political students and legislators may read, with +advantage, is the <i>Wesen und Verfassung der Laadgemeinde</i> (Nature and +Constitution of the Country Towns, and of the tenure of Real Estate in +Lower Saxony and Westphalia, with special regard to the Kingdom of +Hanover.) It is by Mr. <span class="smcap">Stuve</span>, recently the Prime Minister of Hanover, +and is interesting, especially as exhibiting the extent to which the +principle of local self-government obtains in Germany, and the +probabilities and methods of its extension. For its historical view of +the organization of the <i>commune</i> or township in Germany, it is very +valuable.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The second part of the <i>System of Ethics</i>, by <span class="smcap">Imanuel Hermann</span> (not +Johann Gottlieb) <span class="smcap">Fichte</span>, has recently appeared. The anticipations +awakened by the first historico-critical part of the work do not appear +to be satisfactorily realized by this second dogmatic division.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_552" id="Page_552">[Pg 552]</a></span></p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Among the most entertaining "books of autobiography must always be +reckoned <i>The Memoirs of the Margravine of Bayreuth</i>, daughter of +Frederic William I., and sister of Frederic the Great of Prussia. They +are among the chief sources of the history of the German states during +the last century, and they afford the most striking, if not the most +pleasing, view we have of aristocratic German manners for the same +period. In the London <i>Literary Gazette</i> it is stated that—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"The revelations of the Princess, especially concerning the +King of Prussia and his court, if true, are at least not +flattering to the Prussian dynasty; and strenuous attempts +have for years past been making to represent the 'Memoirs of +the Margravine of Bayreuth' as a spurious work, concocted by +the enemies of Prussia, for the express purpose of +humiliating the descendants of Frederic William I. It so +happened, that at the first publication of the book, in +1810, a rival edition was almost immediately given to the +world in another part of Germany. The publishers of either +book pretended to be in exclusive possession of the original +MS. of the unfortunate Princess. These conflicting claims +furnished the partisans of the court of Berlin with a very +plausible pretext for doubting the genuineness of either. +But of late, Dr. Pertz, of Berlin, when engaged in +collecting still further proofs of the 'literary imposition' +practised by the editors of the two MS., happened to stumble +on the original autograph copy of the Princess among the +books and papers of the Protonotarius Blanet, at Celle, in +Hanover. Herr Blanet had the MS. from Dr. E. Spangenberg, of +Celle, who died in 1833, and who bought it from Colonel +Osten, who, in his turn, had received the MS. from Dr. +Superville, physician to the Princess, to whom it had been +presented by that lady. From a paper read by Dr. Pertz, to +the Royal Academy of Sciences at Berlin, (Berlin: Keimer. +London: Williams and Norgate,) it appears that, of the two +existing editions, the one published at Brunswick, in 1810, +is a copy, though not a faithful or complete one, of the +original MS. This copy in particular wants several sheets. +At all events, the question as to the genuineness of the +'Memoirs of the Margravine of Bayreuth' is now completely +set at rest; for although Dr. Pertz demonstrates at some +length that many important phrases and parts of phrases are +wanting in the Brunswick edition, he has not ventured to +affirm that any phrases or statements have been added by the +editor."</p></div> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>A recent book of travels published at Munich is not utterly devoid of +interest, though it appears to be far inferior to what we should have +expected from the subject. We refer to the <i>Errimerungen an Italien, +Sicilian and Grieohenland aus den Jahren, 1826-1844</i> (Recollections of +Greece, Italy, and Sicily, in the Years 1826-1844), by <span class="smcap">Heinrich +Farmbacher</span>. In company with the king of Bavaria, and as his secretary, +Herr Farmbacher travelled twice to Sicily, once to Greece, and +frequently through Italy. The descriptions of scenes and events appear +in no instance to rise above mediocrity, nor do we find any of that +artistic spirit and observation which might have been anticipated from +an intelligent attendant of the great royal connoisseur. His anecdotes +relative to the monarch himself are rare, trivial, and worthless, for it +does not seem to have occurred to the royal secretary that in such a +work his master to the general reader is a far more attractive +individual than himself. As regards style, the book gives from time to +time curious glimpses of that court lackey language so habitual to the +upper class <i>flunkies</i> of Herr Farmbacher's description, and which it is +impossible for him to entirely suppress even in writing.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The distinguished and lamented orientalist <span class="smcap">Klaproth</span> has left behind him +a large map of Central Asia, in four sheets, engraved at Paris by +Berthe, the geographer. This map is the product of ten years' +researches, and exhibits the topography of those vast regions, with the +cities it contains, many of which have hitherto been unknown, and the +names of the tribes inhabiting it. The map is based not only upon the +explorations of travellers, but on the Chinese maps made by order of the +Emperor Kiang-Long, and by missionaries in China and Tartary. It extends +on the north to the frontiers of Siberia, including the great lake +Balaton; on the south to Hindostan; on the west to the sea of Aral and +Persia; and on the east to China.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hafis</span> is the title prefixed to a new collection of poems, by <span class="smcap">G. F. +Daumer</span>, just published at Nuremberg. Daumer is one of the most original +writers in the whole scope of the present German literature. His +<i>Evangelium</i> is especially worthy of a far greater degree of attention +than it has received. It is a volume of brief poems, discussing the +gravest questions with as much warmth and freshness of imagination as +elevation and beauty of style. In this country Daumer is known but to +the few whose acquaintance with German literature extends beyond the +classic writers whose names are familiar to all the world. A Catholic +critic in Germany says of him, that the epitaph once proposed for the +gravestone of Voltaire will suit equally well that of Daumer. It is as +follows:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"In poesi magnus,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In historia parvus,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In philosophia minimus,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In religione nullus."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gutzkow's</span> <i>Ritter vom Geiste</i> has just appeared in a second edition in +Germany—no trifling success for a romance in nine stout volumes; +another German <i>litterateur</i> has also dramatized a part of it. Gutzkow +is, beyond dispute, one of the foremost among the living writers of +Germany. His collected works, published some years since, in twelve +volumes, have lately been increased by a thirteenth, containing several +fugitive stories, and one or two plays that he has brought out at +various times.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_553" id="Page_553">[Pg 553]</a></span></p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>We heard little of Scandinavian literature until the translations of +Tegner, Frederica Bremer, Oelenschlager, and Hans Christian Andersen, +called our attention to the rich treasures of intellectual activity +produced under that cold northern sky. Of course constant additions are +being made to this literature. Among its recent productions is a comedy +by <span class="smcap">Andersen</span>, based on a fairy story, called <i>Hyldemöer</i>, which has +lately been performed upon the Danish stage with not very brilliant +success. It is admitted to be inferior to his stories, as have been his +former attempts at dramatic composition. <span class="smcap">C. Molbach</span> announces, at +Copenhagen, a Danish translation of <span class="smcap">Dante's</span> <i>Divina Commedia</i>; the same +author has just published a volume of original poems under the title of +<i>Twilight</i>. A very industriously-prepared and useful work is <span class="smcap">J. H. +Eoslen's</span> <i>General Literary Dictionary</i>, from the year 1814 to 1840, of +which the thirteenth part has just appeared. In Norway, <span class="smcap">F. M. Bugge</span> +announces a translation of the <i>Iliad</i> into Norwegian hexameters, to be +published by subscription. A Norwegian dictionary, by <span class="smcap">Iwar Aasen</span> is +highly commended.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>A very sharp controversy is now being waged by the scholars of Denmark +and Schleswig. The Danes resort to philology in order to prove the right +of their country to extend its government over the Germans of that +Duchy, and the other party meet their onslaught with weapons equally +keen, drawn also from the arsenals of dictionaries and grammars. The +best of the quarrel hitherto seems to be on the side of the +Schleswigers, whose great champion is one Herr Clement, a man of as much +learning as talent. In a recent essay, he establishes that the original +inhabitants of Schleswig were not Danes but Angles, or Frieslanders, +essentially the same race as the original Saxon stock of England. In +illustration of this doctrine he adduces an immense list of names of +places which are the same in Schleswig and England—as, for instance, +Ripen and Ripon, Ellum and Elham, Rödding and Reading, Meldorp and +Milthorp, Wilstrup and Wilthorpe, &c., &c. This essay will probably be +expanded into a book.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The German critics are discussing with high encomiums a volume of poems +by <span class="smcap">Annette von Droste</span>, a deceased poetess of Westphalia. It is entitled +<i>Das Religiöse Jahr</i> (The Religious Year), and is inspired with that +absolute devotion which lends so great a charm to the poems of +Montgomery, the Moravians, and the mystical writers generally.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Byron's</span> <i>Manfred</i>, with musical accompaniments, by R. Schumann, is about +to be produced at the Weimar theatre.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Jahn</span>, the well-known Leipsic professor, is engaged in writing a life of +Beethoven.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Richard Wagner</span>, the revolutionist, musical composer, and writer upon +æsthetics, has published a new work, entitled <i>Oper und Drama</i> (Opera +and Drama), which the German critics fall upon with considerable +ferocity. They complain that while he entirely rejects the old form of +the opera, he does not indicate what is the new kind of musical drama to +be substituted for it. Wagner has also published <i>Three Opera Poems</i>, +which the same critics cannot but praise for their originality, power, +and inspiration. If the music of these operas is adequate to the +<i>libretti</i>, say they, they are really new and grand productions. This +would seem, also, to be proved by the fact that one of them has been +brought out at Weimar, through the influence and under the direction of +Liszt. The author is living in exile in Switzerland, and is engaged upon +a dramatic trilogy with a prelude. He no longer professes to write +operas, but musical dramas.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>An attempt has been made in Germany to register the enormous number of +books and pamphlets which the Germans themselves have published on their +two great poets, Goethe and Schiller. A catalogue of the Goethean +literature in Germany, from 1793 to 1851, has been published by Balde, +at Cassel, and in London by Williams and Norgate. The Schiller +literature, from 1781 to 1851, is likewise announced by the same firm.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>A very excellent translation of sundry old Scottish and English ballads +has just made its appearance at Munich, from the pen of W. <span class="smcap">Doenniger</span>. It +contains sixteen Scotch and seventeen English ballads, from the +fourteenth to the seventeenth centuries, all rendered with great +fidelity, and in the true spirit of the original. So successful is the +book that a second edition of it is about to appear, with illustrations +by Kaulbach, Voltzen, and other eminent artists.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The <i>Augsburg Gazette</i> states that the Congregation of the Index has +just prohibited all the works of Eugene Sue and Proudhon; also a +clerical Turin paper, called the <i>Buona Novella</i>; a work on animal +magnetism, by Tomasi; a manual for schoolmasters, printed at Asti in +1850; and all the works of Gioberti.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>A book to be read by the students of literature and by critics is +<span class="smcap">Hettner's</span> <i>Moderne Drama</i>, just published at Brunswick. We do not know +of a profounder and keener discussion of the principles and laws of +dramatic writing, or of more just and striking dramatic criticisms than +it contains.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Layard's</span> popular account of his excavations and discoveries at Nineveh +has been translated into German by one of the Meissners (not the poet, +we believe), and is published at Leipsic.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_554" id="Page_554">[Pg 554]</a></span></p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Fraulein Friederike Friedemann</span> has published, at Leipsic, a metrical +version of Lord <span class="smcap">Byron's</span> <i>Corsair</i>, which is worthy of all commendation. +The gloomy hue and passionate vehemence of the original are preserved in +the translation with surprising fidelity, and the rhythm is hardly less +perfect than in Byron's English itself.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The last number of the <i>Theologische Quartalschrift</i> (Theological +Quarterly), published at Tübingen, by Laupp, contains an interesting +paper on the pretended objections to the historical truth of the +Pentateuch, by <span class="smcap">Welte</span>; the critical historical examination of the xxxi. +xxxii. Jeremiah, by <span class="smcap">Reinke</span>; and the Aloge, with their relations to the +Montanists, by <span class="smcap">Hefele</span>.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. George Stephens</span>, the translator of Tegner's <i>Frithiof's Saga</i>, and +whose intimate acquaintance with the early literature of Sweden has been +shown by the collection of legends of that country which he edited in +conjunction with Hylten-Cavallius, and by various works superintended by +him for the <i>Svenska Fornskrift-Salskapet</i>, (a sort of Stockholm Camden +Society,) has removed to Copenhagen in consequence of his having been +appointed Professor of the English Language and Literature in the +University there. The subject of his first course of lectures was +Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. We have in our possession the MS. +translations of some very interesting ancient Swedish poems made by Mr. +Stephens some five years ago, and not yet published.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The London <i>Leader</i>, socialist and avowedly and industriously infidel, +says of <span class="smcap">Eugene Sue</span>, not long ago the rage of half the world:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"We have to announce the third and last volume of Eugene +Sue's <i>Fernand Duplessis</i>, wherein the memoirs of a husband +are recounted with a license which only a French public +could permit. Perhaps the worst thing in Sue is not his +positive passion for what is criminal and odious, so much as +the way in which he always contrives to render the good +people odious. Much as we reprobate his pictures of vice, we +think them less offensive than his pictures of virtue. How a +man so essentially vulgar-minded could ever have attained +the position he had once!"</p></div> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">M. Alfred Villefort</span> has published at Paris a treatise on literary and +artistic property in an international point of view. It not only +discusses the question as a matter of principle, but gives the history +of the negotiations and treaties which France has made in that respect +with the nations.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Among the pleasant books recently published in France is <span class="smcap">Arsene +Houssaye's</span> volume of stories, <i>Les Filles d'Eve</i>, very piquant and +French in its treatment. A translation is announced in this city by +Redfield.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The literary event of the month at Paris is the publication of the third +volume of <span class="smcap">Louis Blanc's</span> <i>History of the French Revolution</i>. Of all the +works written upon that memorable epoch, none is more marked by +originality of thought and power of treatment than this, and we can only +hope that the present volume, which we have not yet seen, may prove +equal to its predecessors. Its table of contents is as follows: Attitude +of Property toward the Revolution, Attitude of the Gospel toward the +Revolution, Tableau of the Constituent Assembly, First Labors of the +Constituent Assembly, Administration of Necker, People Starving, +Treasury Empty, A New Power, Journalism, Faction of the Count de +Provence, The Fifteen Complots, The Women of Versailles, The King +brought to Paris, The Court at the Tuileries, Municipal and Military +Organization of the Bourgeoisie, The Wealth of the Clergy Denounced, War +of the Bourgeoisie on the Clergy, The Authority of the Parliaments +Discussed, War of the Bourgeoisie on the Parliaments, The Ambition of +Mirabeau, Complots of the Luxembourg, New Organization of the Kingdom. +The <i>Leader</i> mentions that Mr. Blanc undertakes to <i>prove</i> that Egalité +was not at the bottom of those conspiracies with which his name has been +associated, but that the real culprit was the Comte de Provence, +afterwards Louis XVIII.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">M. Edmond Texier</span>, one of the most fresh and agreeable of that race of +literary butterflies, the <i>feuilletonists</i> of Paris, is publishing a +large work upon that great capital, which promises to be as readable as +its exterior is splendid. It is to be ornamented with some two thousand +engravings on wood, representing all the prominent and famous public +edifices and places which not only figure so largely in history, but are +so splendid in themselves. The title of M. Texier's work is the <i>Tableau +de Paris</i>. It appears in parts.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The publication of the magnificent work, the <i>Catacombs de Rome</i>, for +which the French National Assembly voted $40,000, will shortly commence, +under the direction of a commission nominated by the Government, +consisting of Messrs. Ampere (now in the United States), Ingres, +Prosper, Merinice, and Vitel, all members of the Institute. The work +will contain exact copies of the architecture, mural paintings, +inscriptions, figures, symbols, sepulchres, lamps, vases, rings, +instruments, in a word, of every thing belonging to, or connected with, +the primitive Christians, which by the most diligent search, exercised +during many years, have been brought to light in the catacombs of +ancient Rome. Its enormous price, between $250 and $300, will, however, +keep it out of the hands of all but the wealthy. Another work on the +same subject and of similar character is announced in Rome, under the +direction of the ecclesiastical government.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_555" id="Page_555">[Pg 555]</a></span></p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>A volume purporting to contain thirty hitherto unpublished Letters of +<span class="smcap">Shelley</span>, appeared a few weeks ago from the press of Moxon, in London, +edited by Robert Browning. It appears from an article in the <i>Athenæum</i> +that these—letters, and many others recently sold to publishers and +autograph collectors, are forgeries. The book referred to is of course +suppressed. The <i>Athenæum</i> inquires:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"From whom did Mr. Moxon buy these letters? They were bought +at Sotheby & Wilkinson's, at large prices. From whom did +Messrs. Sotheby and Wilkinson receive them for sale? 'We had +them from Mr. White, the bookseller in Pall Mall, over +against the Reform Club.' Off runs the gentle man-detective. +'From whom did you, Mr. White, obtain these letters?' 'I +bought them of two women—I believed them to be genuine, and +I paid large prices for them in that belief.' Such are the +words supposed to have been spoken by Mr. White. The two +women would appear to have been like the man in a +clergyman's band, but with a lawyer's gown, who brought +Pope's letters to Curll.</p> + +<p>"It is proper to say thus early that there has been of late +years, as we are assured, a most systematic and wholesale +forgery of letters purporting to be written by Byron, +Shelley, and Keats,—that these forgeries carry upon them +such marks of genuineness as have deceived the entire body +of London collectors,—that they are executed with a skill +to which the forgeries of Chatterton and Ireland can lay no +claim,—that they have sold at public auctions, and by the +hands of booksellers, to collectors of experience and +rank—and that the imposition has extended to a large +collection of books bearing not only the signature of Lord +Byron, but notes in many of their pages—the matter of the +letters being selected with a thorough knowledge of Byron's +life and feelings, and the whole of the books chosen with +the minutest knowledge of his tastes and peculiarities.</p> + +<p>"But the 'marvel' of the forgery is not yet told. At the +same sale at which Mr. Moxon bought the Shelley letters were +catalogued for sale a series of (unpublished) letters from +Shelley to his wife, revealing the innermost secrets of his +heart, and containing facts, not wholly dishonorable facts +to a father's memory, but such as a son would wish to +conceal. These letters were bought in by the son of Shelley, +the present Sir Percy Shelley—and are now proved, we are +told, to be forgeries. To impose on the credulity of a +collector is a minor offence compared with the crime of +forging evidence against the dead, and still minor as, in +one instance, against the fidelity of a woman.</p> + +<p>"The forgery of Chatterton injured no one but an imaginary +priest; the forgery of Ireland made a great poet seem to +write worse than Settle could have written; but this forgery +blackens the character of a great man, and, worse still, +traduces female virtue.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Moxon is not the only publisher taken in. Mr. Murray +has been a heavy sufferer, though not to the same extent. +Mr. Moxon has printed his Shelley purchases; Mr. +Murray—wise through Mr. Moxon's example—<i>will not</i> publish +his Byron acquisitions."</p></div> + +<p>These forgeries seem to us to have been very clumsily executed.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The London <i>Athenæum</i> contains a very interesting letter from Mr. <span class="smcap">Payne +Collier</span>, in which he gives an account of the discovery of a copy of the +second folio edition of Shakspeare, with numerous important corrections +of the text, apparently by some learned contemporary actor, whose memory +of parts, or access to original MSS., enabled him to restore all the +readings vitiated by careless transcription or printing. Mr. Collier has +such faith in these <i>errata</i> that he does not hesitate to avow that he +would have adopted a large portion of them in his own edition of +Shakspeare, had they been known to him when that was printed. Of the +several instances he offers, this will serve as a specimen:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"An embarrassment meets us in the very outset of <i>Measure +for Measure</i>,—where the Duke, addressing Escalus, observes, +in the ordinary reading:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"'Of government the properties to unfold<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Would seem in me t' affect speech and discourse;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Since I am put to know, that your own science<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Exceeds, in that, the lists of all advice<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My strength can give you: then, no more remains,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But that to your sufficiency as your worth is able,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And let them work.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>—The meaning is pretty evident; but the expression of that +meaning is obscure and corrupt,—as indeed the measure alone +would establish. Various conjectural modes of setting the +passage right have been proposed; and perhaps what follows +from my corrected folio of 1632 has no better +foundation,—but, at all events, it restores both the sense +and the metre, and may, for aught we know, give the very +words of Shakspeare:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"'Of government the properties to unfold<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Would seem in me t' affect speech and discourse;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Since I am <i>apt</i> to know, that your own science<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Exceeds (in that) the lists of all advice<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My strength can give you; Then, no more remains<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But <i>add</i> to your sufficiency your worth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And let them work.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>—How 'that' in the old editions came to be printed for +<i>add</i> and how 'is able' came to be foisted in, most +unnecessarily and awkwardly, at the end of the same line, it +is not easy to explain. The third line is also much cleared +by the substitution of <i>apt</i> for 'put,'—which was an easy +misprint: 'Apt to know' is an expression of every-day +occurrence."</p></div> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sir James Stephen</span>, whose excellent <i>Lectures on the History of France</i> +have been so well received, proposes to deliver, at Cambridge, a series +of twenty lectures on the <i>Diplomatic History of France during the reign +of Louis XIV.</i>, comprising a review of the treaties of Westphalia, of +the Pyrenees, of Breda, of the Triple Alliance, of Aix-la-Chapelle, of +Nimeguen, of Ryswick, and of Utrecht.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Miss Charlotte Vandenhoff</span>, whose professional tour in the United States +will be remembered by old play-goers, has written a piece under the +title of <i>Woman's Heart</i>, possessing considerable poetical merits, and +herself sustained the character of the heroine in its representation.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. Carlyle</span>, is engaged upon a new work in history, but its subject is +not disclosed, nor its extent.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_556" id="Page_556">[Pg 556]</a></span></p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Robinson</span>, who left New-York several months ago to visit her +relations in Germany, writes from Berlin to the <i>Athenæum</i>, under date +of February 2, as follows:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"A work appeared in London last summer with the following +title: <i>Talvi's History of the Colonization of America</i>, +edited by William Hazlitt, in two volumes. It seems proper +to state that the original work was written under favorable +circumstances <i>in German</i>, and published in Germany. It +treated only of the colonization of <i>New England</i>: and that +only stood on its title-page. The above English publication, +therefore, is a mere translation, and it was made without +the consent or knowledge of the author. The very title is a +misnomer; all references to authorities are omitted; and the +whole work teems with errors, not only of the press, but +also of translation,—the latter such as could have been +made by no person well acquainted with the German and +English tongues. For the work in this form, therefore, the +author can be in no sense whatever responsible.</p> + +<p class="right"> +<span class="smcap">Talvi</span>."</p> +</div> + +<p>From a more recent number of the <i>Athenæum</i> it appears that Mr. Hazlitt +is not himself the translator of the original work; and the +responsibility, not only of the translation, but of all the faults +charged which might seem more especially editorial, is transferred by +him to another. Mr. Hazlitt, we believe, is a son of the great critic of +the last age.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>There are connected with the newspapers a considerable number of +weak-minded and absurd persons, who delight in strange coincidences and +the most inconceivable relations, and who, for a certain consciousness +they have of their own slight claims to consideration are anxious to +find on every occasion, some indication of regard for their vocation, as +if credit won by any journalist or writer were portion of a common fund +of respectability from which they could draw a dividend. In no other way +can we account for the thousand-and-one articles in which the +appointments of Dr. <span class="smcap">Layard</span> and Mr. <span class="smcap">D'Israeli</span> have been referred to as +"honor," "homage," &c., to literature. Dr. Layard was selected by Lord +Granville to be an Under-Secretary of State, because he had shown +himself in the admirable manner in which he discharged certain important +diplomatic functions in the East, better fitted, in Lord Granville's +opinion, than any other person for the new duties to which it was +proposed to summon him. Mr. D'Israeli has long been one of the most +conspicuous and astute politicians in England, and owes his present +office solely to his activity and eminence in affairs. There was as +little of "recognition of the claims of literature" in either case, as +there was praise of fiddlesticks or Carolina potatoes. It would not be a +whit more ridiculous to say that the French people, remembering the +happy genius displayed by Napoleon Bonaparte in his "Supper of +Beaucaire," chose him to be their emperor.</p> + +<p>In the new British ministry are an unusual number of book-makers. The +most conspicuous in authorship is the now Right Honorable Benjamin +D'Israeli, "the wondrous boy who wrote <i>Alroy</i>, in rhyme and prose, only +to show how long ago victorious Judah's lion banner rose." Sir Emerson +Tennent, Sir Edward Sugden, Lord John Manners, Mr. Whiteside, the Earl +of Malmesbury, Lord de Roos, are all known as authors, as well as +politicians. The Duke of Northumberland also is favorably known as a +zealous promoter of arts and learning.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The author of <i>Life in Bombay and the Neighboring Stations</i>, pays the +following testimony to the abilities of the manœuvring mammas of +Bombay: "The bachelor civilians are always the grand aim; for, however +young in the service they may be, their income is always vastly above +that of the military man, to say nothing of the noble provision made by +the fund for their widows and children. We remember being greatly +amused, soon after our arrival in the country, at overhearing a lady +say, in reference to her daughter's approaching marriage with a young +civilian: 'Certainly, I could have wished my son-in-law to be a little +more steady; but then it is £300 a-year for my girl, dead or alive!'"</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>A volume of brilliant French criticism will be published in a few days +by Charles Scribner, under the title of <i>Anglo-American Literature and +Manners</i>, by <span class="smcap">Philarete Chasles</span>, Professor in the College of France. Mr. +Chasles, in a book of five hundred pages, considers the literature and +manners of the people of the United States—their institutions, capacity +for self-government, actual condition and probable future—with all the +sprightly grace of a Frenchman, and with a great deal of cleverness +prosecutes his industrious researches from the landing of the Mayflower +to the present day. He finds in the United States neither an Utopia, nor +a land worthy merely of ridicule. He does not simply condemn, like some +travellers, nor give us universal and unreasonable praise, as our +egotism and contentment lead us to desire, but takes a fair view of the +country, its claims, position, and prospects. In the beginning of his +performance he considers that the most essential thing for the founding +of a new commonwealth, is moral force; this he finds in the Puritans, +who possessed "sincerity, belief, perseverance, courage;" they could +"wait, fight, suffer." Their energy, he thinks, comes from their +Teutonic or Saxon blood; their indomitable perseverance is a fruit of +Calvinism, added to which they are clannish, or mutual helpers one of +another. This is the key to the philosophical, political and prophetic +portion of his work. The literary part is honest criticism, freely +spoken, by the aid of such light as happened to be around him. He begins +with the landing of the Pilgrims, speaks of their literature, which, +like all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_557" id="Page_557">[Pg 557]</a></span> other American literature down to the present day, he regards +as destitute of originality. Franklin, Jonathan Edwards, and others, all +lack this quality. The author of the <i>American Cultivator</i> has the most +of it; but Franklin is made up of Fénelon, Banyan, and Addison; Edwards +partakes of Hobbes, Priestley, and in his better moments of the close +reasoning Descartes. He gives us then a politician, a journalist, and a +gentleman, "the American Aristocrat" as he calls him, Gouverneur Morris, +our minister at Paris during the old revolution. Brockden Brown is +characterized as a copyist of Monk Lewis; and he comes then to +Washington Irving, but while all the charms of this delightful writer +are thoroughly appreciated and minutely described, it is denied that he +has originality. "In some square house in Boston, he sees in thought St. +James's Park: in reveries he is led through the umbrageous alleys of +Kensington—he talks with Sterne—he shakes hands with Goldsmith." "It +is a copy, somewhat timid, of Addison, of Steele, of Swift." You would +think of him as of "a young lady of good family, a slave to propriety, +never elevating her voice, never exaggerating the <i>ton</i>, never +committing the sin of eloquence;" "a refined continuation of the style +of Addison," &c. Nevertheless a dawn of freshness appears in his +writings when they treat of forest scenes. This dawn advances into day +in Cooper, upon whom we have an admirable critique. The author of <i>The +Spy</i>, M. Chasles thinks, has a native vigor unknown to Irving. Paulding +is dismissed with but very little consideration. Channing occupies the +critic longer, but is found to be an unsatisfactory and too general +reasoner. Audubon furnishes the most attractive chapter in the book, +which closes with what is called the First Literary Epoch of the United +States.</p> + +<p>The next division is of the <i>Literature of the People, and the falsely +popular Literature of England and the States</i>. One thoughtful chapter is +given to the infancy and future of America; the age and despair of +Europe, of emigration, and colonization. Then, the popular movements in +France and England are treated of, and the education of the masses. +Crabbe, Burns, Elliott, Thomas Cooper and others serve as a text. +Popular literature is found to be less anarchical in America than in +Europe. We have a chapter on Herman Melville; and then the Americans are +viewed through the spectacles of Marryatt, Trolloppe, Dickens, and their +exaggerations are noted. The force of public opinion and of the press +conclude the section. Our poets have two chapters: I. Barlow, Dwight, +Colton, Payne, Sprague, Dana, Drake, Pierrepont; Female Poets; and +Street and Halleck. II, Bryant, Emerson, and Longfellow. <i>Tom +Stapleton</i>, by an Irish Sunday newspaper reporter, and <i>Puffer Hopkins</i>, +by Mr. Cornelius Matthews, one chapter; Stephens, Silliman, and others +represent the travellers; a chapter is dedicated to Arnold and Andre; +Haliburton's <i>Sam Slick</i> concludes the criticism; and the book ends with +<i>The Future of Septentrional America and the United States</i>—what a +"Bee" is, how an American village is got up, the aggregative principles +of Americans, the Lowell Lectures, Democrats and Whigs—and then, +far-seeing prophetic talking, conclude what the author has to say about +us.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The well-known school book publishers of Philadelphia, <span class="smcap">Thomas, +Cowperthwait, & Co.</span>, have just published a large duodecimo of five +hundred and fifty-eight pages. <i>The Standard Speaker, containing +Exercises in Prose and Poetry, for Declamation in Schools, Academies, +Lyceums, and Colleges, newly Translated or Compiled from celebrated +Orators, Authors, and Popular Debaters, Ancient and Modern; a Treatise +on Oratory and Elocution; and Notes Explanatory and Biographical</i>—by +<span class="smcap">Epes Sargent</span>. This book bears abundant evidences of editorial research +and labor. The original translations would form a volume of respectable +size, and they are all strikingly adapted to the purpose of elocutionary +practice. Some passages of fervid eloquence from Mirabeau, Robespierre +and Victor Hugo are given. Ancient eloquence is also well represented in +new and spirited translations. The department of British Parliamentary +oratory, shows extracts from Pym, Chatham, Barre, Wilkes, Thurlow, +Grattan, Pitt, Fox, Sheridan, Curran, Canning, Brougham, O'Connell, +Sheil, Macaulay, Croker, Talfourd, Palmerston, Cobden, and many others, +and in nine instances out of ten the exercises are compiled originally +for this volume. The American department is quite rich, and while the +old masterpieces of Patrick Henry, Ames, Randolph, Clay, Calhoun, +Webster, Hayne, and others are retained, a large number of fresh and +striking pieces are introduced from the eloquence of Congress and the +American lecture room.</p> + +<p>In its dramatic and poetical novelties the work is of course amply +supplied. Mr. Sargent's editorial experience here has enabled him to add +much that other compilers have entirely overlooked. In the adaptation of +the exercises, great discrimination has been shown. They are of the +right length, pithy, and calculated to engage the attention of the +young. A new and valuable feature of the work is the introduction of +notes, biographical and explanatory. In the instances of authors not +contemporary the dates of their birth and death are given. An +introductory treatise, comprising much practical information on the +subject of elocution, gives completeness to the volume. Such is the +Standard Speaker; and while it will be found to justify its title in the +retention of all the standard specimens of rhetoric suitable for its +purposes, it presents in its large proportion of new exercises of a high +character, fresh and enduring claims to popularity.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_558" id="Page_558">[Pg 558]</a></span></p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><i>The Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli</i>, by <span class="smcap">Ralph Waldo Emerson, William +Ellery Channing</span>, and <span class="smcap">James Freeman Clarke</span>, published a few weeks ago by +Phillips, Sampson & Co., of Boston, are generally praised in the +critical journals, but in this country, where the subject was generally +known in literary circles, there is a common feeling of surprise at the +artistic and successful <i>exaggeration</i> of her capacities and virtues. +The book, however, is in parts delightfully written, and the melancholy +fate of the heroine gives it a character of romance apart from its +merits as a biographical and critical composition. The <i>Athenæum</i> thus +refers to some additional <i>material</i> for her memoirs, which, it strikes +us, should have been communicated to the custodians of her reputation at +an earlier day:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"We have received permission to state that poor Margaret +Fuller, on the eve of that visit to the Continent which was +to prove so eventful and disastrous, left in the hands of a +friend in London a sealed packet, containing, it is +understood, the journals which she kept during her stay in +England. Margaret Fuller—as they who saw her here all +know—contemplated at that time a return to England at no +very distant date;—and the deposit of these papers was +accompanied by an injunction that the packet should then be +restored with unbroken seal into her hands. No provision was +of course made for death:—and here we believe the lady in +possession feels herself in a difficulty, out of which she +does not clearly see her way. The papers are likely to be of +great interest, and were doubtless intended for publication; +but the writer had peremptorily reserved the right of +revision to herself, and forbidden the breaking of the +seals, on a supposition which fate has now made impossible. +It seems to us, that the equity of the case under such +circumstances demands only a reference to Margaret Fuller's +heir, whoever that may be; and with his or her concurrence, +the lady to whom these MSS. were intrusted—and who probably +knows something of the author's feeling as to their +contents—may very properly constitute herself literary +executor to her unfortunate friend."</p></div> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Of <span class="smcap">Bayard Taylor</span> <i>The Tribune</i> said a few days ago:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"By the Niagara's mail we have had the pleasure of receiving +letters from our friend and associate Bayard Taylor,—or as +he his known among the Arabs, Taylor Bey,—dated at +Khartoum, the chief city of Sennaar, situated at the +confluence of the White and the Blue Nile, about half way +between Cairo and the Equator. He arrived there on the 12th +of January in excellent health and spirits, after a journey +on camels across the Nubian Desert, during which he had +sundry fortunate adventures, and received every friendly +attention from the native chieftains. He was the first +American ever seen so far toward Central Africa, and like a +good patriot never slept without the stars and stripes +floating above his tent. Every where good luck had attended +him,—in truth he seems to have been born to it,—but at +Khartoum especially he was received with unexpected honors. +The governor of the city had presented him with a horse, and +had entertained him in a banquet of genuine Ethiopic +magnificence, while the commander of the troops had +stationed a nightly guard of honor around his tent. In +company with Dr. Knoblecher, the venerable Catholic +missionary bound for the equatorial regions whom he had +overtaken at Khartoum, and of Dr. Deitz, the Austrian +Counsel, Mr. Taylor had also attended a banquet at the +palace of the daughter of the late king of Sennaar, a very +stately and ebon princess, who entertained her guests +chiefly upon sheep roasted whole. Others of the first +families among the Ethiopian aristocracy had also welcomed +the strangers with distinguished civilities. Mr. Taylor +expected to reach Cairo on his return about the 1st of +April, though we should not be surprised to learn that he +had changed his mind, and, in company with the Jesuit +mission, plunged still farther into the mysterious country +about the equator and the sources of the Nile."</p></div> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Several new works by our literary women are on the eve of publication. +Redfield has nearly ready <i>Lyra and other Poems</i>, by <span class="smcap">Alice Carey</span>—a book +containing more illustrations of unquestionable genius than any other +written by a woman in America; and he will also publish soon, <i>Isa, a +Pilgrimage</i>, a romance by Miss Caroline <span class="smcap">Cheesebro'</span>, which is likely to +attract a great deal of attention. Putnam has in press, <i>The Shield, a +Story of the New World</i>, by Miss <span class="smcap">Fenimore Cooper</span>, whose <i>Rural Hours</i>, +last year, commanded every where so much well-merited praise, and a new +story by Miss <span class="smcap">Warner</span>, of whose <i>Wide, Wide World</i> (edited in London by a +"Clergyman of the Church of England"), a recent number of the <i>Literary +Gazette</i> says:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"This American tale has met with extraordinary success +across the Atlantic. Within a very short time several large +impressions were disposed of, and the sale still continues +to be rapid. Of the causes of this popularity, there is one +which will rather operate against a similar run of favor on +this side of the water. A large part of the book refers to +'the old country,' and American readers eagerly seek what +pertains to English life or history. But the book has many +merits, apart from the incidents of its scenery and +character. The authoress writes with liveliness and +elegance; her power of discriminating and presenting +character is great; in describing the feelings and ways of +young people, she is especially happy, and an air of +cheerful piety pervades the whole work. We shall not attempt +to give any idea of the story, or of its principal +personages, but content ourselves with commending it as a +book which will please and instruct others than the young, +for whom it is chiefly intended. The authoress seems herself +young, and if so, we may expect other works from a spirit so +lively and communicative. Who the editor is we have no +knowledge, but he has taken liberties with the original not +always warranted, and to an extent greater than can be +approved without previous consultation. On the whole, +however, he has done his part well, and in his prefatory +note justly characterizes the merits of the writer, of whom +we shall gladly hear more."</p></div> + +<p>Miss Warner's new book is entitled <i>Queechy</i>—the name of its scene, we +suppose—and it is said to be very different in character from her first +production.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_559" id="Page_559">[Pg 559]</a></span></p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Dr. <span class="smcap">Dunglison's</span> <i>Medical Dictionary</i>, of which a new and much enlarged +edition has been published by Blanchard & Lea, is one of those +professional works which are almost indispensable in a gentleman's +library. Every person has sometimes occasion to consult a work of this +kind, and there is no other in English so masterly in treatment, or so +perspicuous in style. Dr. Dunglison keeps up with all the departments of +the literature of his science, and, through his quick, comprehensive, +and practical understanding, we have in this volume the best results of +the world's experiment and study in medicine down to the beginning of +the present half century.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>A new and complete edition of the Poetical Works of <span class="smcap">George P. Morris</span> +will be published in October, amply and most elaborately illustrated +with engravings after original designs by Robert W. Weir. The +distinction of Gen. Morris is, that he is a great song writer. The +naturalness, simplicity, unity, and pervading grace of his pieces, do +not so much constitute their characteristic, as the exquisite music of +their cadences, justifying the praise of Braham, that they sing +themselves. The new edition will surpass any other in completeness, and +in artistic execution will not be inferior to any volume ever published +in the United States.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Mr. <span class="smcap">C. L. Brace</span>, who has tasted in person the sweets of Austrian rule, +by his imprisonment in Hungary, has in press a book of Hungarian +travels, and observations upon the political situation and prospects of +that country. The personal history of an American in Hungary, who +enjoyed rare opportunities of intimate intercourse with the inhabitants, +will be a very valuable addition to our literature, and will make a most +readable and seasonable book. Of the quality of Mr. <span class="smcap">Brace's</span> ability, and +of the faithfulness of his observation and record, his letters to the +New-York <i>Tribune</i> are satisfactory evidence. (Scribner.)</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Mr. <span class="smcap">Ticknor's</span> admirable <i>History of Spanish Literature</i> by no means +fails of the high consideration to which it is entitled from the best +critics of Europe. One of the best translations of it is in Spanish, by +Don <span class="smcap">Pascual de Gayangos Y Don Enrique de Vedia</span> (<i>con adiciones y notas +criticas</i>), Mr. Ticknor having communicated some notes and corrections +to the two translators, who have added from their own store. A second +translation is coming out in Germany, also containing important +additions, in part from material and suggestions furnished by the +accomplished author.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Arvine's</span> <i>Anecdotes of Literature and the Arts</i> is an agreeable +miscellany; but the neglect of the editor to give credits in cases where +he adopts entire pages from well-known books, deserves rebuke. The +eighth number has been published by Gould & Lincoln of Boston, and it +completes the work.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The work of Mr. <span class="smcap">Stiles</span>, which we have noticed elsewhere in this number +of the <i>International</i>, we understand, will be published by the Harpers, +in two large octavo volumes, about the first of May. It contains a +complete history of the revolutionary proceedings in the Austrian empire +in 1848. Mr. Stiles witnessed much that he describes. Each section is +introduced by an historical survey of the country where the events +described occurred. Thus Venice, Prague, and Vienna are brought before +the reader in all their past glory and recent political vicissitudes. +The Hungarian war is amply chronicled. The work is moderate in tone, +authentic, fresh, and abounding in interesting facts. It will be +illustrated by engravings, executed in Germany, of the Emperor, Archduke +John, Kossuth, and other chief characters.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Dr. <span class="smcap">A. K. Gardiner</span>, whose clever book about Paris, under the title of +<i>Old Wine in New Bottles</i>, is well known, has just published a +noticeable lecture, delivered before the College of Physicians and +Surgeons, on the <i>History of the Art of Midwifery</i>. It is most +conclusive upon the point of the unfitness of women for any of the more +delicate and important duties in obstetrics, and is a sufficient +argument for the immediate abolition of the so-called "Female Colleges." +We recommend it to the attention of readers who feel any interest in the +subject.—(Stringer & Townsend.)</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Mrs. <span class="smcap">H. C. Conant</span>, wife of the learned Professor of Hebrew in the +Rochester University, has published (through Lewis Colby, Nassau-street) +another of <span class="smcap">Neander's</span> Commentaries, done into terse and vigorous +English—<i>The Epistle of James Practically Explained</i>. It is needless to +praise the great German, and it will readily be believed, by those who +are acquainted with the fine abilities and thorough scholarship of Mrs. +Conant, that this translation is in all respects admirable.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>We are soon to have a new dramatic poem from Mr. <span class="smcap">George H. Boker</span>, whose +<i>Calaynos</i>, <i>Anne Bullen</i>, and <i>Ivory Carver and other Poems</i>, have +secured to him very high and well-deserved reputation as a literary +artist. We do not think any sonnets written in this country are to be +preferred to Mr. Boker's, and his <i>Ballad of Sir John Franklin</i>, +published a few months ago in this magazine, is full of imagination, and +is marked throughout with the nicest skill in execution.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The last work of the late Professor <span class="smcap">Stuart</span>, a <i>Commentary on the Book of +Proverbs</i>, has been published by <span class="smcap">M. W. Dodd</span>, in a large duodecimo +volume. It contains a full account of the principal commentaries written +on this book, and the translations and paraphrases made into different +languages, with a new version, and exegetical remarks. A memoir of +Professor Stuart is in preparation.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_560" id="Page_560">[Pg 560]</a></span></p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Mr. <span class="smcap">Richard B. Kimball</span>, the accomplished author of <i>St. Leger</i>, leaves +New York in a few days for a tour through Europe. No one among our +younger authors has risen more rapidly in the public regard, or +established a good reputation in literature upon a surer basis. +Imagination, scholarship, and profound reflection, characterize nearly +all his performances. The admirable story written by him for the present +number of the <i>International</i>, we believe, is true in every essential +but the name of the heroine. It is a reminiscence of Mr. Kimball's +student life in Paris, where, for a time, he walked the hospitals with +his friend, the well-known Dr. O. H. Partridge, now one of the most +distinguished physicians of Philadelphia, who is one of the dramatis +personæ of <i>Emilie de Coigny</i>.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Mr. <span class="smcap">John P. Kennedy</span> pronounced, in Baltimore, on the anniversary of the +birth of Washington, a very eloquent and wise discourse, in which the +state of the nation with respect to possible entanglements in foreign +affairs, and implications by needless artificial ties in the +vicissitudes of European politics, were treated in a manner worthy of a +statesman of the school of the Great Chief. The occasion was also +improved in Philadelphia by the Rev. Dr. <span class="smcap">Boardman</span>, who, in a discourse +entitled <i>Washington or Kossuth</i> (published by Lippincott, Grambo, & +Co.), discusses the same great subjects in a masterly argument for the +observance of the principles of the Farewell Address.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>An elaborate attack on the Society of Friends appeared lately in Dublin, +and has been republished in Philadelphia, under the title of <i>Quakerism, +or the Story of My Life</i>. It was written by a Mrs. <span class="smcap">Greer</span>, the daughter +of an eminently respectable Irish Quaker, who was herself connected with +the society for forty years, and so had abundant opportunities of +becoming familiar with the peculiarities of the system. But the book is +vulgar, malignant, and evidently altogether undeserving of credit in +regard to facts. The points obnoxious to ridicule are broadly +caricatured, and the most distinguished and blameless characters are +introduced in the most offensive manner, as if to gratify personal +spleen or a disposition to slander.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The Neander Library, recently purchased by the University of Rochester, +consists of 4,500 volumes, and the price paid was only $2,300. About 350 +of the volumes are large folios, and many of the works in the collection +are of the choicest and rarest editions. We observe that an attempt to +show that there was even the slightest possible degree of unfairness on +the part of the Rochester faculty in obtaining this library, which was +much desired by a western college, has most signally failed.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>We commend to our readers as the best literary journal in this country, +the <i>To Day</i>, recently established in Boston by <span class="smcap">Charles Hale</span>, a +thoroughly educated and judicious editor.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="Recent_Deaths" id="Recent_Deaths"></a><i>Recent Deaths</i></h2> + + +<p><span class="smcap">William Ware</span> was born at Hingham, in Massachusetts, on the third of +August, 1797. He was a descendant in the fifth generation from Robert +Ware, one of the earliest settlers of the colony, who came from England +about the year 1644. His father was Henry Ware, D. D., many years +honorably distinguished by his connection with the Divinity School at +Cambridge, and the late Henry Ware, jr., D. D., was his elder brother. +His only living brother is Dr. John Ware, who also shares of the +literary tastes and talents of his family, and has written its history.</p> + +<p>William Ware was graduated at Harvard University in 1816. After reading +theology the usual term he was on the 18th of December, 1821, settled +over the Unitarian society of Chambers street, New-York, where he +remained about sixteen years. He gave little to the press except a few +sermons, and four numbers of a religious miscellany called <i>The +Unitarian</i>, until near the close of this period, when he commenced the +publication in the Knickerbocker Magazine of those brilliant papers +which in the autumn of 1836 were given to the world under the title of +<i>Zenobia, or the Fall of Palmyra, an Historical Romance</i>. Before the +completion of this work he had resigned his pastoral office and removed +to Brookline, near Boston. The romance of Zenobia is in the form of +letters to Marcus Curtius, at Rome, from Lucius Manlius Piso, a senator, +who is supposed to have been led by circumstances of a private nature to +visit Palmyra toward the close of the third century, to have become +acquainted with the queen and her court, to have seen the City of the +Desert in its greatest magnificence, and to have witnessed its +destruction by the Emperor Aurelian. For the purposes of romantic +fiction the subject is perhaps the finest that had not been appropriated +in all ancient history; and the treatment of it, which is highly +picturesque and dramatic throughout, shows that the author had been a +successful student of the institutions, manners and social life of the +age he attempted to illustrate.</p> + +<p>Mr. Ware's second romance, <i>Probus, or Rome in the Third Century</i>, was +published in the summer of 1838. It is a sort of sequel to the Zenobia, +and is composed of letters purporting to be written by Piso from Rome to +Fausta, the daughter of Gracchus, one of the old Palmyrene ministers. In +the first work Piso meets with Probus, a Christian teacher, and is +partially convinced of the truth of his doctrine; he is now a disciple, +and a sharer of the persecutions which marked the last days of the reign +of Aurelian. The characters<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_561" id="Page_561">[Pg 561]</a></span> in Probus are skilfully drawn and +contrasted, and with a deeper moral interest, from the frequent +discussions of doctrine which it contains, the romance has the classical +style and spirit which characterized its predecessor.</p> + +<p>Mr. Ware's third work is entitled <i>Julian, or Scenes in Judea</i>, and was +published in 1841. The hero is a Roman, of Hebrew descent, who visits +the land of his ancestors, to gratify a liberal curiosity, during the +last days of the Saviour. Every thing connected with Palestine at this +period is so familiar that the ground might seem to be sacred to History +and Religion; but it has often been invaded by the romancer, and perhaps +never with more success than in the present instance. Although Julian +has less freshness than Zenobia, it has an air of truth and sincerity +that renders it scarcely less interesting.</p> + +<p>About the time of the publication of Julian, Mr. Ware was attacked with +Epilepsy, while in his pulpit, at Lexington, near Boston, and he +suffered all the residue of his life from disease and apprehension; but +his illness did not affect his intelligence or its activity, and he +continued to devote himself to congenial studies, for several years, +chiefly as editor of <i>The Christian Examiner</i>. For a short period he was +pastor of the Unitarian society at West Cambridge, but the condition of +his health did not permit a regular discharge of his functions, for +which, indeed, he was scarcely fitted in any thing but a spirit of +humility and piety. His tastes and capacities would have secured for him +greater triumphs in any department of pictorial or plastic art, to which +he was always insensibly drawn by instinct and congenial studies.</p> + +<p>In 1848 Mr. Ware passed several months abroad, and after his return he +delivered in <i>Lectures on European Capitals</i> the best fruits of his +travel. These Lectures have recently been published in a very attractive +volume, which has been favorably received in this country and in +England. Among his unprinted writings is a series of Lectures on the +<i>Life, Works, and Genius of Washington Allston</i>. He died on the 19th of +February.</p> + +<p>The romances of Mr. Ware betray a familiarity with the civilization of +the ancients, and are written in a graceful, pure and brilliant style. +In our literature they are peculiar, and they will bear a favorable +comparison with the most celebrated historical romances relating to the +same scenes and periods which have been written abroad. They have passed +through many editions in Great Britain, and have been translated into +German and other languages of the continent.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">John Frazee</span>, the sculptor, died at the age of sixty, on the—th of +March, at the house of his daughter, in New Bedford, Massachusetts. The +<i>Evening Post</i> remarks that "he was a man of decided talent for +sculpture, but the necessity of employing himself in other occupations, +prevented his attaining that skill which, under more auspicious +circumstances, would have been within his reach." Mr. Frazee was born in +Brunswick, N.J., and in early life was a farmer and stone-cutter. One of +his first attempts at sculpture which attracted notice, was a clever +female bust, a likeness of one of his own family, exhibited in the +gallery of the Academy of Design. He afterwards, at the request of the +bar of New-York, was employed in the mural tablet and bust of John +Welles, which fills a conspicuous place in St Paul's Church. This +production, with others subsequently executed, attracted the attention +of the Trustees of the Boston Athenæum, and at their request, in 1834, +he proceeded to Boston, and modelled a series of busts of eminent men in +that city—Webster, Bowditch, Prescott, Story, J. Lowell, and T. H. +Perkins. Afterwards he went to Richmond, where he produced the likeness +of John Marshall, copies of which adorn the Court rooms of New York, +New-Orleans, and the Capitol of Virginia. On his return he visited +President Jackson, at whose house he executed an inimitable head of that +extraordinary man. Among his other productions were heads of General +Lafayette, in 1824, De Witt Clinton, John Jay, Bishop Hobart, Dr. +Milnor, Dr. Stearns, Nathaniel Prime, George Griswold, Eli Hart, &c. The +monument, however, which is destined to perpetuate his fame, is the New +York Custom-House. This edifice was commenced in 1834 by another +gentleman, who, when he had finished the base, abandoned the work and +withdrew his plans. Mr. Frazee was obliged to commence <i>de novo</i>, and in +1843 had completed the work. During the erection of the Custom-House, +from the dampness of its material and concomitant causes, he contracted +a disorder which caused paralysis, from which he never recovered. For +several years he held a subordinate post under the Collector. His last +effort with the chisel was in giving the finishing touch to the bust of +General Jackson, which had remained in his studio seventeen years, +without an order for completion. This was in November last, and while +assiduously at work, his mallet fell from his hand, and his worn-out +body followed it to the floor."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">John Park, M. D.</span>, died in Worcester, Massachusetts, on the 2d of March, +aged seventy-eight. He was an active member of the old Federal party in +Massachusetts, during the administration of Jefferson and Madison, and +exerted a wide and important influence by his well-known journal, <i>The +Boston Repertory</i>. At a subsequent period, he established a private +school for young women, which acquired a celebrity second to that of no +similar educational institution in the old Commonwealth. He was +distinguished for his cultivated literary tastes, his uncommon purity of +character, his fine social qualities, and his cordial and attractive +manners. Dr. Park was the father of Mrs. L. G. Hall, wife of the Rev. +Dr. Hall, of Providence, the authoress of <i>Miriam</i>, and other successful +productions, and of Mr. John C. Park, an eminent lawyer in Boston. Mrs. +Osgood and several other distinguished literary women were among his +pupils.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">William Thompson</span>, of Belfast, the naturalist of Ireland, died in London +on the 17th February. Mr. Thompson was born in 1805, and from earliest +youth was attached to scientific and literary studies. For the last +fifteen years his name has been before the world of science in +connection with arduous researches on the natural history of Ireland. +The numerous memoirs published by him, chiefly in scientific +periodicals, and latterly in the <i>Annals of Natural History</i>, of which +he was a warm supporter, extend in their subjects over all departments +of zoology, and several are devoted to botanical investigations. He was +constantly on the watch for new facts bearing on the natural history<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_562" id="Page_562">[Pg 562]</a></span> of +his native island, which could boast of no more truly patriotic son. At +the meeting of the British Association, at Cork, he read an elaborate +report on the <i>Fauna of Ireland</i>, since published <i>in extenso</i> in the +Association <i>Transactions</i>; and it was his intention to communicate a +continuation of that report at the Belfast meeting. He did not confine +his inquiries to Irish subjects, but added considerably to the natural +history of several parts of England and Scotland; and when Professor +Forbes proceeded to the Ægean at the invitation of Captain Graves, Mr. +Thompson, himself an intimate friend of that distinguished officer, +accompanied him, and devoted the short time he was in the Archipelago to +zoological observations, since published, chiefly on the migration of +birds. His love of ornithology was intense, and the results of his +labors in that department are narrated with charming details in the +volumes that have been published of his great work on <i>The Natural +History of Ireland</i>. His name is associated with many discoveries, and +numerous species of new creatures have been named after him. His +reputation stood equally high on the Continent and in America, and he +had been elected an honorary member of several foreign societies. He +numbered among his intimate friends and correspondents all the eminent +naturalists of the day. His love of the fine arts was second only to his +love of science, and for many years he was one of the most active +promoters of tasteful pursuits, especially of painting, in Ireland. He +was a gentleman of independent means, and of no profession.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Robert Reinick</span>, deservedly the most popular of recent song writers in +Germany, died at Dresden early in February. He was born at Dantzic, in +1805, and was educated an artist, but he never painted more than one +picture which attained any considerable reputation. His sketches were, +however, remarkable for great delicacy of feeling, and of touch, a +genial humor and an endless variety of fancy. But it was his songs that +first and most widely made him known to the public. Without any +surprising features of genius, they were so natural, so replete with +true and happy sentiment, and flowed so sweetly and melodiously in a +spontaneous beauty of language, that they were every where taken up, and +still remain the intimate favorites of the people, but especially of +artists, to whose peculiar life and customs many of them are devoted. +One of the most pleasing books ever published in Germany, was his <i>Songs +of a Painter</i>, which was illustrated with designs from all the prominent +artists of Düsseldorf. Its appearance made an epoch in the book trade, +and introduced the many splendid illustrated works that have succeeded +it. It is some years since we read these songs, but their naiveté, +tenderness, and frolic humor are still fresh in our memory. Reinick also +had a great skill in the writing of story books for children, and +illustrating them with his own drawings. One of these, the <i>Black Aunt</i>, +has been translated into English, and was published in this city some +three or four years since. The poet died quite suddenly, and was +snatched from a life full of happiness, amid constant artistic activity, +and the love of his family, and a boundless circle of friends. All +Dresden sorrowed at his death, and his funeral procession seemed to +embrace the entire city.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">William Henry Oxberry</span>, comedian, was the son of the once eminent actor +Oxberry, and was born in Brownlow-street, Bloomsbury, on the 21st of +April, 1808. He was educated at Merchant Tailors' school; and +subsequently studied with an artist and in a lawyer's office. At length +he was apprenticed to a surgeon: and was asked by Sir Astley Cooper, +during an examination, whether, "when he saw his father convulse the +audience with laughter, he felt no ambition to tread in his shoes?" No +doubt he did, for he soon after made his essay at the Rawstone-street +private theatre, in the character of <i>Abel Day</i>, which he performed to +the <i>Captain Careless</i> of Mr. F. Matthews. His public commencement was +deferred till the 17th March, 1825, for the Olympic, in the part of <i>Sam +Swipes</i>, in "The High Road to Marriage." He remained not long there, but +took a situation under Mr. Leigh Hunt, on the <i>Examiner</i>. Shortly +afterwards he returned to the stage, and went on a provincial tour, and +finally appeared in 1832 at the Strand Theatre, as <i>Fathom</i>, in "The +Hunchback." Since that period he was seen with credit in turn at every +theatre in the metropolis. On the 11th December, 1831, he married Ellen +Malcombe Lancaster. He also became manager of the English Opera-House, +but was not successful. The loss of his wife was a misfortune, and his +subsequent career was not prosperous. He died on the 28th of February.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The <span class="smcap">Rev. Christopher Anderson</span>, died at Edinburgh, on the 7th of +February, aged seventy. He was best known as the author of <i>Annals of +the English Bible and The History of Irish Literature</i>. He was educated +at Bristol, at the college of which Dr. Ryland was president. He +intended in early life to accompany Drs. Carey, Marshman, and Ward, to +India, when the Baptist Societies' Mission was established in the east; +but being prevented by the state of his health he settled in Edinburgh, +where he has for nearly half a century been the respected pastor of a +Baptist church. In missionary work, both at home and abroad, he always +took deep and active interest. He travelled much through Ireland, and +knew well the state of the people. His historical narration of the +various attempts to educate the Irish in their own tongue is referred to +by all who are engaged in Irish education and missions. He visited +Copenhagen many years ago in order to obtain the protection of the +Danish Government for the Serampore mission. The king granted him an +interview, received him cordially, and granted a charter of +incorporation. It is from the Serampore press that the Scriptures first +began to be issued in the languages of the east, and the names of Carey +and the other superintendents of the Serampore mission are memorable in +the records of literature as well as of the church. He published in 1845 +the <i>Annals of the English Bible</i>, an historical account of the +different English translations and editions of the Bible, a work of +learning and research, lately reprinted in New-York by the Carters.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The mother of M. Thiers has expired at Batignolles, where she has long +resided on a pension allowed her by her son. M. Thiers was the only +child of this woman, although his father had other children by a former +marriage, one of whom keeps a restaurant in Paris.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_563" id="Page_563">[Pg 563]</a></span></p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The some time expected death of <span class="smcap">Thomas Moore</span> occurred on the 26th of +February, at Sloperton Cottage, near Devizes. Like Southey and Scott, +the British Anacreon had for several years before his decease, quite +lost his intelligence, and he lingered in seclusion, and in half +slumbering unconsciousness, personally well nigh forgotten by the world. +His history is little more than a history of his writings. He was +deservedly popular in society, for his amiable qualities, and +fascinating manners; he shared the intimacy of the greatest men and +greatest writers of his age, more prolific of eminent characters than +any other since that of Shakspeare, Raleigh, and Sidney; and dividing +his time between the quiet charms of domestic ease, and the smiles of +the most elevated classes, he may be said to have been a fortunate and +happy man. As a song writer, he was doubtless unrivalled. His +versification is exquisitely finished, harmonious, and musically toned. +The sense is never obviously sacrificed to the sound; on the contrary, +he delighted in that species of antithetical and epigramatic turn, which +is generally held to excuse some roughness, and to be scarcely +compatible with perfect melody of rhythm. In grace, both of thought and +diction, in easy, fluent wit, in melody, in brilliancy of fancy, in +warmth (but scarcely depth) of sentiment, and even in purity and +simplicity, when he chose to be pure and simple, no one has been +superior to Moore; but in grandeur of conception, power of thought, and +above all, unity of purpose, and a high aim, he was singularly +deficient, and these are necessary to the character, not of a sweet +minstrel, but of a great poet.</p> + +<p>The London <i>Morning Chronicle</i> furnishes a biography of Moore, which we +slightly abridge. With him, says the <i>Chronicle</i>, is snapped the last +tie, save perhaps one, represented by the veteran Rogers, which connects +the present generation with the outburst of "all the talents" which +signalized the opening of the century. That great kindling of +genius—embracing almost all sides of imaginative literature, of +criticism and philosophy—is becoming more a thing of history than of +fact. Year by year, the lights are going out. Wordsworth was the last +extinguished before Moore; and now, to all intents and purposes, the +great galaxy which poured such a flood of light on the literature of +fifty years ago—which extinguished Rosa Matilda fiction and Delia +Cruscan poetry—substituted true criticism for technical carping upon +philological points, and established new styles in every branch of the +<i>belles-lettres</i>—this great constellation may now be said to have +disappeared. One of the brightest, if not of the largest stars, has long +been obscured, and is now quite put out. The fame of Moore is fairly a +matter of discussion. It cannot, we believe, be denied that much of his +serious and more ambitious verse, founded on promptings of a more +luscious and florid fancy than the present tastes incline to admit, and +no inconsiderable portion even of his lyric pieces,—refined to +attenuation—are less read and admired than they were a score or thirty +years ago. A severer and sterner school of poetry has succeeded—one of +deeper feeling and more sober thought; and the representatives of those +who revelled in <i>Lalla Rookh</i>, and delighted in the strains of Mr. +Little, now generally address themselves to more staid and philosophic +musings. The <i>Irish Melodies</i>, too—exquisite as is their +word-music—fanciful as is their conception—delightful as is their +playfulness, and touching as is their pathos—even the <i>Irish Melodies</i>, +we believe are declining in popular estimation. The reasons are obvious. +In the first place, the <i>Irish Melodies</i> are not particularly Irish; +they have grace, sparkling fancy, delicious feeling; but they are too +fine-spun to do the work-a-day duty of popular songs. As literary +performances, nine-tenths of Burns's are inferior to Moore's; and all +Dibdin's are immeasurably beneath them. Yet the probability is that +<i>When Willie Brewed</i>, and <i>Poor Tom Bowling</i>, will be in the full tide +of popularity, where <i>Rich and Rare</i>, and <i>Oh Breathe not His Name</i>, +will be unsung and forgotten. In a certain circle, and among people of a +certain reading and appreciation, Moore will live as long as the +language; but his genius was delicate and acute rather than catholic and +strong. He had a rich play of fancy, but none of the soaring imagination +of Shelley or Byron. His mind, in fact, was a first-class second-rate. +It had no pretensions to stand in the line of the giants of his time. +Brightly fanciful, rather than continuously imaginative—teeming with +poetic imagery—loving to sparkle along the floweriest paths, and +beneath the balmiest skies—revelling always in fays and flowers—in +love, and mingled intellectual and sensual pleasures—playful in the +extreme, and always ready to stop to make mirth as joyous and as +delightful as the passion—his muse, in his great romantic poems, is the +incarnation of a charming Epicureanism; and the mirth and jolity could +go a long step further. He had wit, which sparkled as brightly as it +could cut deeply; and humor, and sense of the ludicrous, which could be +as well, if not more effectually applied to living persons and actual +things than to the creations of his own fancy; and accordingly we find +him loving to turn from the etherealized voluptuousness of <i>Loves of the +Angels</i>, or the mystic imaginings of the <i>Epicurean</i>, to the sharp and +brilliant hittings of political and social squibs—the restless satire +with which, in the <i>Fudge Family</i> and hundreds of ephemeral but not the +less clever lays, he quizzed his political and literary opponents, +abolished the Earl of Mountcashell, or shot stinging shafts through the +heart of the Benthamites. It is, indeed, far from probable that Moore's +political and satiric poetry, little perhaps as he thought of it at the +time, will live after his more ambitious works have sunk into that +chronic state of classicism, in which books are labelled with an +excellent character, and shelved—turned into the category of works +without which no gentleman's library is complete, and doomed, not to +actual obscurity, but to honorable retirement. The last of his political +squibs and short poems were given to the world in the columns of the +<i>Morning Chronicle</i>; and referred principally to the earlier struggles +of the Anti-Corn Law League—the verses having in most cases been +suggested by pasting political events.</p> + +<p>Thomas Moore died at the ripe age of seventy-two. He was born on the +28th of May, 1780, in Angier-street, Dublin, where his father, a strict +Roman Catholic, carried on a grocery and spirit business. As a child, he +is said to have been remarkable for personal beauty; but his appearance +in after life hardly carried out the promise of infancy. He was short, +with a heavy, expressive,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_564" id="Page_564">[Pg 564]</a></span> but not handsome face, which, however, +lightened up wonderfully when conversing or singing his own ballads. He +was educated at Dublin, and one of big first noted peculiarities was a +fondness and a talent for private theatricals. Taking advantage of the +boon, as it was then considered, the young Roman Catholic was entered at +Trinity College. He could not, of course, obtain a degree; but some +English verses tendered at an examination, in lieu of the usual Latin +composition, procured a copy of the <i>Travels of Anacharsis</i>, as a +reward. The wild times of the Irish rebellion were approaching, and the +poet was naturally to be found in the ranks led by the Emmetts and +Arthur O'Connor; but his treasonable lucubrations, though, as his own +sister remarked, "rather strong," were passed over without any measures +against the enthusiastic young champion of liberty. Politics, however, +were by no means the only subject of his muse. At the age of fourteen he +published poetry in a Dublin magazine, and afterwards composed many +semi-burlesque pieces for private representation.</p> + +<p>In his twentieth year, giving up republicanism for ever, Moore came to +London to study at the Middle Temple, and publish his translations, or +rather paraphrases, of <i>Anacreon</i>. As may be imagined, he attended much +more to the Greek than to Coke upon Lyttleton, and permission, obtained +through the friendship of Lord Moira, to dedicate the work to the Prince +Regent, was the means of his introduction to those elevated circles in +which he was afterwards to move and shine. His <i>Anacreon</i> was highly +successful, and was succeeded, in 1801, by <i>Poems and Songs, by Thomas +Little</i>. Whatever objections may be raised by the present generation to +either of these works, there can be no doubt of their vivid play of +fancy, their singular grace, even when verging on improprieties, and +their exquisite melody of versification. His translations of the <i>Old +Greek Lover</i>, and of <i>Women and Wine</i>, are probably the finest and +richest versions of these often rendered songs in the English +language—always excepting the rough but thoroughly racy version of the +last, by quaint old Mr. Donne.</p> + +<p>In the days of the regency, poets came in for patronage, and Mr. Moore, +made registrar to the Court of Admiralty at Bermuda—as singularly +appropriate an appointment as some we have seen in our own day—went out +to the islands, appointed a deputy, took a glance at the United States, +and came home again. He then published <i>Sketches of Travel and Society +beyond the Atlantic</i>—a satiric work in heroic verse, vigorously +written, but politically evincing a miserable short-sightedness. Soon +afterwards, a savage review in the <i>Edinburgh</i>, of a republication of +<i>Juvenile Songs, &c.</i>, led to the celebrated rencontre between Moore and +Jeffrey, at Hampstead, when the great critic, as Byron asserted, stood +valiantly up:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"When Little's leadless pistol met his eye<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Bow-street myrmidons stood laughing by."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The affair was ultimately arranged, mainly through the intervention of +Mr. Rogers, and at his house Moore shortly afterwards made his first +acquaintance with Byron and Campbell. The long and affectionate intimacy +between Moore and the author of <i>Childe Harold</i>, we need here only +allude to. Moore had about this time married. His wife was a Miss Dyke, +a woman, of strong sense and character, as well as great beauty and +amiability. Their children are all dead.</p> + +<p>A couple of political satires of no great merit—one setting forth a +sober and earnest panegyric upon ignorance—were followed by the famous +<i>Two-penny Post Bag</i>, a bundle of rollicking satire and humor. It made a +great hit. Not so its author's next venture, a farce called the <i>Blue +Stocking</i>, damned at the Lyceum. Moore's intimacy with Byron and Hunt +was broken off by the outspoken tone of the <i>Liberal</i>, and especially by +the <i>Vision of Judgment</i>. Moore thought his friends had gone too far. +What would Carlton House say! For if, as Byron said, "Little Tommy +dearly loved a lord," with how much more affection did he worship a +prince of the blood royal?</p> + +<p>The <i>Melodies</i> were his next, and perhaps most popular compositions. +Charming as they are, and exquisitely finished as is their lyrical +workmanship, we doubt whether they have the stamina and heart-rooted +earnestness, which are requisite to make songs immortal. Only the +strongest heart and the manliest brain produce offspring to suit all +tastes and to last all time.</p> + +<p>It was in 1812 that Moore determined to write an Indian poem. Mr. Perry, +of the <i>Morning Chronicle</i>, accompanied the poet to the Messrs. Longman, +and through his intervention the great sum of 3,000 guineas was settled +on as the price of a piece of which not one word was yet written. Moore +then retired to Mayfield Cottage, a desolate place in Derbyshire, and +after a long and hard struggle with a coquettish muse—after a three +years' retirement—he sent forth <i>Lalla Rookh</i>. Its success was immense; +the poem ran rapidly through several editions, and Moore's fame stood +upon a higher and surer pedestal than ever. The tales were the triumph +of poetic lusciousness; but not a few old judges stigmatized their taste +by preferring Fadladeen and his criticisms, even to the Fireworshippers, +or the tribulations of the Peri. We need hardly say that the judgment of +these tough critics has now a far greater number of adherents than it +once commanded.</p> + +<p>After a continental tour, Moore wrote the clever and popular <i>Fudge +Family</i>. In the following year he met Byron in Italy, and then the +latter intrusted to him his memoirs for publication. These memoirs Moore +sold to Murray for two thousand guineas; but, as is well known and a +good deal regretted, the purchase money was refunded, and the papers +regained, and destroyed. Pecuniary difficulties connected with the +misconduct of his Bermuda deputy, about this time, compelled Moore to +seek a temporary refuge in Paris, and there he led a pleasant social +life, such as he loved, and composed the <i>Loves of the Angels</i>, which is +not much more than an elaborate and carefully wrought repetition of all +his previous love-and-flower poetry. The whole thing is dreamy, lulling, +and beautiful, but vague and misty. The words tinkle like falling +fountains, and the essence of the closing fancy floats about one like +perfume; but this enervating species of composition is far from high or +true poetry, and accordingly the work is now far oftener alluded to than +it is read. In Paris he occupied the same hotel for a long time with his +intimate friend Washington Irving.</p> + +<p>In 1825 Moore paid a visit to Scott, who pronounced the Irish melodist +the "prettiest warbler" he had ever heard. One evening Scott and his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_565" id="Page_565">[Pg 565]</a></span> +guest visited the theatre at Edinburgh. Soon after their unmarked +entrance, the attention of the audience, which had been engrossed by the +Duchess of St. Albans, was directed towards the new comers; and, +according to a newspaper report, copied and published by Mr. Moore in +one of his last prefaces, considerable excitement ensued. "Eh!" +exclaimed a man in the pit, "eh, yon's Sir Walter, wi' Lockhart and his +wife; and wha's the wee body wi' the pawkie een? Wow, but it's Tarn +Moore, just." "Scott, Scott! Moore, Moore!" immediately resounded +through the house. Scott would not rise; Moore did, and bowed several +times, with his hand on his heart. Scott afterwards acknowledged the +plaudits of his countrymen; and the orchestra, during the rest of the +evening, played alternately Scotch and Irish airs.</p> + +<p>Soon after this period, Moore was established, by the kind offices of +his old and stanch friend the Marquis of Lansdowne, in Sloperton +Cottage, where he passed the remainder of his days, and where he ended +them. It was here that he commenced his career as a biographer, and +produced successively the memoirs of Lord Edward Fitzgerald, Lord Byron, +and Sheridan. The two latter are well known and highly appreciated. It +was in the previous year that the poet first came out as a prose writer +in the <i>Memoirs of Captain Rock</i>, a bitter and unfair account of—or +rather commentary on—the English government of Ireland, and a curious +instance of warped and twisted views in a man of the world like Moore, +almost unavoidable in an Irishman writing of his country. His next +serious work—he continued his squibs and sparkles of occasional +verse—was the <i>Travels of an Irish Gentleman in Search of a +Religion</i>—in which he attempted to show that the doctrines and +practises of the Roman Catholic Church date from the apostolic period. +The last of his prose works, and that which has attained a greater sale, +we believe, than any of them, was the romance of <i>The Epicurean</i>. Here +Moore's style, always too florid, is occasionally redeemed by passages +of eloquence and natural feeling. There is much out-of-the-way learning +in the book, but a pompous and cumbrous ornament overlays every thing. +The book had great success, but of what Mr. Carlyle calls the "wind-bag" +nature. The wind inside was very highly perfumed, and sighed with very +pleasing murmurs, but it was only wind, and, as such, will ooze out +presently, and the Epicurean bag will be little regarded.</p> + +<p>From this time political and social squibs were the only literary +occupations to which Mr. Moore devoted himself until, gradually and +fitfully mental darkness came down on him. Of critical estimates of +Moore, we have seen none to which we more perfectly agree, than one +(sometimes attributed to Richard H. Dana, but) written by Professor +Edward T. Channing, for the <i>North American Review</i> soon after that +Review was established.</p> + +<p>The best edition of Moore's works ever published in this country, is the +very beautiful one in octavo, from the press of the Appletons, embracing +all the revisions, introductions, notes, &c., of the author's recent ten +volume edition, printed in London.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The well-known artist, <span class="smcap">Samuel Prout</span>, died in London on the 10th of +February. The <i>Athenæum</i> remarks that he was long and popularly known by +a style of Art which he may be said to have originated,—and to the +influence of his example may be ascribed the distinctive character and +the successes of the English school of painters of architectural +subjects. Born at Plymouth about the year 1784, like his townsmen +distinguished in art, he owed little to the patronage of his native +town, unless their share in the praises which he ultimately commanded +may be counted to them as encouragement. In the metropolis his first +patron, was Mr. Palser, the printseller, who used to take all his water +color drawings at low prices, and had a ready sale for them. When Mr. +Prout had arrived at distinction, he never omitted grateful mention of +the advantages he had derived from the acquaintance and transactions. +Mr. Prout early gained the notice of the late Mr. Ackermann; and the +many drawing-books for learners, and other prints which he undertook for +that gentleman, soon gave currency to his name. His transcripts of +Gothic architecture at home it is superfluous to commend; and when the +allied armies had made it safe to venture to the Continent, he was among +the earliest of the English to travel there. His love of the picturesque +was gratified amid the new and remarkable combinations of form which met +his eye at Nürnberg and in many of the adjacent cities. He was among the +first English artists to add to what had been already made known of +Venice by Canaletto. Nor must it be forgotten that he was among the +first when Senefelder's newly discovered process was imported to try his +hand at it. The powers of the art of Lithography, though its processes +may have been improved and amplified since,—were never better exhibited +than in Mr. Prout's broad and vigorous touch. The <i>Landscape Annual</i> is +another record of his powers. Other books of the class testify to his +unwearied industry and graphic skill. For many years suffering from +ill-health, Mr. Prout, in convalescent intervals, labored cheerfully at +the vocation which he had so illustrated in better times.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The venerable Dr. <span class="smcap">Murray</span>, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, died at +his residence in that city on the 25th of February. The death of this +excellent prelate, whose life has been a model of Christian forbearance +in a country where such an example is invaluable, the journals say is +deeply regretted by moderate men of all the religious denominations of +the country.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Dr. <span class="smcap">M'nicholas</span>, titular Bishop of Achonry, died about the middle of +February. He was regarded as one of the ripest scholars among the Roman +Catholic hierarchy of Ireland, and belonged to the advanced school of +"educationists."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The London papers announce the death of Mr. <span class="smcap">Holcroft</span>, son of the more +famous Thomas Holcroft, the dramatist,—who was for many years connected +with the press, and, perhaps, in that capacity most prominently known as +the musical and dramatic critic of one of the leading daily papers.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">M. Benchot</span>, the editor of Voltaire's works, lately died at Paris. He +devoted thirty years to studies preparatory to the execution of his +undertaking, which he finally completed in 1834. He also published in +1811 a laborious work on French bibliography, which is still a standard +manual.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_566" id="Page_566">[Pg 566]</a></span></p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Johann Kollar</span>, Professor of Slavonian antitiquities at the University of +Vienna, died on January 24th, last, in his sixtieth year. He was born at +Mursotz, in Hungary, and was educated as a Protestant clergyman; he was +appointed Professor in 1849. He contributed greatly to the intellectual +movement of recent years among the Austrian and Prussian Slavonians. His +literary reputation was first established by <i>Slavy dcera</i> (The Daughter +of Fame) a lyrical epic poem, published in 1824. His ideal end was the +creation of an independent Slavonic literature, which should preserve +his race from the ever increasing influence of German culture, by which +he foresaw that it must be absorbed, unless it could be aroused to a +development strictly its own. During the Hungarian war he remained an +adherent of the Austrian side. He leaves two nearly finished works; the +one is <i>Slavonic Italy in Early Times</i>; the other is upon Slavonic +Mythology, and is entitled <i>The Gods of Retra</i>. They are written in the +Bohemian or Tschechic language.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The widow of <span class="smcap">Von Kotzebue</span>, the author of <i>The Stranger</i> and <i>Pizarro</i> +(the former of which still keeps possession of the German provincial +stage), who was assassinated at Mannheim by the student Sand, died at +Heidelberg, on the 4th of February, at the age of 73. She was Kotzebue's +third wife, and had lived for many years in strict retirement.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Baron Krudener</span>, Russian Minister in Stockholm since 1844, died early in +February.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">M. Lucas de Montigny</span>, the adopted son of Mirabeau, died in Paris, early +in February. On his death-bed Mirabeau took him in his arms, and called +on his friends to protect him. He left him all his papers and +correspondence, and some years ago M. Lucas compiled from them eight +volumes of <i>Mémoires Biographiques</i> of <i>le grand homme</i>. He naturally +entertained a profound veneration for the memory of his benefactor; and, +it is said, spent not less than 100,000 francs ($20,000), of his private +fortune, in buying up letters and documents calculated to cast dishonor +upon it. These papers he of course destroyed, and it does not appear +that he left behind him any calculated to throw new light on the +character or career of the tribune.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Belgian journals announce the death of a <span class="smcap">M. Smits</span>, a great compiler of +statistics, and a poet: two vocations rather dissimilar. He wrote three +tragedies, called <i>Marie de Bourgogne</i>, <i>Jeanne de Flandre</i>, <i>Elfrida, +ou la Vengeance</i>, which were applauded by his countrymen; also several +poems on different subjects, and especially on the rising of the +Spaniards and Greeks for liberty.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dr. Eylert</span>, first Bishop of Prussia, died a short time since at Potsdam, +aged eighty-two. He was the author of several works on theology, and on +the sciences. For a long time he was a member of the Ministry of Public +Worship and Instruction.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Victor Falck</span>, a distinguished French ornithologist, has just died at +Stockholm.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="Ladies_Fashions_for_April" id="Ladies_Fashions_for_April"></a><i>Ladies Fashions for April.</i></h2> + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 375px;"> +<img src="images/576.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="LA VIVANDIERE" title="" /> +<span class="caption">LA VIVANDIERE</span> +</div> + +<p>The spring has brought to the several departments of fashion the usual +amount of changes, but at our last advices there were many points of +some consequence undecided, as for example, the length of dresses, which +some authorities make greater than ever in recent years, and others +less, by a few inches. Among the chief novelties we notice <i>La +Vivandiere</i>, which, with various styles of the <i>gilet</i>, or waist, has +been introduced into New-York by Bulpin of Broadway. The waistcoat will +remain in vogue. The Parisiennes, who had begun to turn it into +ridicule, still patronize it; and the provinciales need not fear to +adopt it. But some conditions are necessary in order to render it +becoming and stylish. The figure of the wearer should be thin, tall, and +sylph-like; all others should avoid the style. Rounded, white shoulders +appear to much more advantage in toilette Pompadour than in toilet Louis +XIII. The corsage Louis XIII., and the waistcoat accord so well together +that they are scarcely ever separated. However, some bodies a basquines +are made to be worn without the waistcoat. They are then trimmed with +velvet or ribbon bands, which cross the chest and fasten with buttons; +the chemisette being composed of frills of English point or +Valenciennes, separated by embroidered insertion.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_567" id="Page_567">[Pg 567]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 160px;"> +<img src="images/577a.jpg" width="160" height="145" alt="INFANT'S STRAW BEDFORD HAT." title="" /> +<span class="caption">INFANT'S STRAW BEDFORD HAT.</span> +</div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 157px;"> +<img src="images/577b.jpg" width="157" height="160" alt="THE BATEMAN CAP." title="" /> +<span class="caption">THE BATEMAN CAP.</span> +</div> + +<div class="figright" style="width: 147px;"> +<img src="images/577c.jpg" width="147" height="160" alt="THE CLEMENTINE RIDING HAT." title="" /> +<span class="caption">THE CLEMENTINE RIDING HAT.</span> +</div> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 143px;"> +<img src="images/577d.jpg" width="143" height="160" alt="THE ST. NICHOLAS CAP." title="" /> +<span class="caption">THE ST. NICHOLAS CAP.</span> +</div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 160px;"> +<img src="images/577e.jpg" width="160" height="157" alt="BOY'S STRAW BRUSSELS HAT." title="" /> +<span class="caption">BOY'S STRAW BRUSSELS HAT.</span> +</div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 160px;"> +<img src="images/577f.jpg" width="160" height="160" alt="MISSES LEGHORN HATS." title="" /> +<span class="caption">MISSES LEGHORN HATS.</span> +</div> + +<p>The recent fine bright weather has brought out many very elegant spring +bonnets. The most fashionable are of Leghorn, which, during the +approaching season, is likely to recover the favor it enjoyed some years +ago. The shape of new Leghorn bonnets is elegant and becoming—the brim +is wide and circular, and the crown gently sloping backwards. The +<i>bavolet</i> at the back is made of the Leghorn itself, instead of being +composed of silk or ribbon, as in bonnets of straw or other materials. +The favorite style of trimming Leghorns is with fancy straw, tastefully +intermingled with velvet or ribbon, of some dark rick color. On one side +may be placed a small ostrich feather, of the color of the Leghorn, or +shaded in the hues of the bird of Paradise. As the season advances, +flowers will be employed for trimming these bonnets. Genin has +introduced a great variety of new and fanciful styles from the recent +Paris modes, for children, and for ladies' riding dresses. They are of +Leghorn, felt, and beaver, all of which will be in vogue through April, +and they are generally very tasteful and elegant.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_568" id="Page_568">[Pg 568]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 352px;"> +<img src="images/578.jpg" width="352" height="500" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p>In the above figure we have a <i>Promenade or Carriage Costume</i>, of rich +figured silk; the sleeves open at the ends, with under sleeves of white +muslin; with a Leghorn bonnet, trimmed with fancy straw and +violet-colored ribbon, tastefully intermingled; on one side a Leghorn +colored feather, waving spirally. Under-trimming, loops of narrow ribbon +in various shades of violet; and gloves of pale yellow kid. The +<i>taffetas d'Athenes</i> is appropriate for ball dresses, and obtains +generally; the ground is white, blue, or pale pink, brochees in silk of +all colors in wreaths, or bouquets, forming undulating festoons round +the bottoms of the triple skirts. The upper skirt is flowered over in +small designs to the waist, as is also the body and sleeves. The +<i>taffetas flore</i> has a white ground, covered with small bouquets of wild +field flowers. The <i>taffetas rose</i> has wreaths of large roses, brochees +in white silk round each skirt, and rose-buds over the top skirt and +body. This toilet should be accompanied with a coiffure, of a wreath of +white roses, fixed behind by a bow and long floating ends of satin +ribbon, forming an elegant evening toilette for a bride. The manteaux, +with hoods, continue in fashion; they are generally made of cloth. The +mantelet-echarpe has been cited for its elegance and taste. It is more +dressy than the manteaux, marking the waist, and descending in front in +square ends. Sorties de bal, are very fanciful. Some of white cachemire, +trimmed with beads, silk, and jet, with magnificent lace or deep fringe. +Others of white or pink satin, edged with ruches of guipure lace, or +rouleaux of marabouts. They have hoods and large Venetian sleeves.</p> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The International Monthly, Volume 5, +No. 4, April, 1852, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE INTERNATIONAL MONTHLY *** + +***** This file should be named 35345-h.htm or 35345-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/5/3/4/35345/ + +Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, Josephine Paolucci and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net. +(This file was produced from images generously made +available by Cornell University Digital Collections.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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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 International Monthly, Volume 5, No. 4, April, 1852 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: February 21, 2011 [EBook #35345] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE INTERNATIONAL MONTHLY *** + + + + +Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, Josephine Paolucci and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net. +(This file was produced from images generously made +available by Cornell University Digital Collections.) + + + + + + + +THE INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE + +Of Literature, Art, and Science. + +Vol. V. NEW-YORK, APRIL 1, 1852. No. IV. + + + + +WILLIAM GILMORE SIMMS, LL.D. + +[Illustration] + + +A steadily growing reputation for almost twenty years, justified by the +gradually increasing evidence of those latent, exhaustless, +ever-unfolding energies which belong to genius, has inwoven the name of +Simms with the literature of America, and made it part of the heirloom +which our age will give to posterity. Asking and desiring nothing to +which he could not prove himself justly entitled, he has wrested a +reputation from difficulty and obstacle, and conquered an honorable +acknowledgment from opposition and indifference. Even if we had not +proofs of genius in the treasury of thought and imagination constituted +by his writings, still the nobility of the example of energy, +perseverance, and high-toned hopefulness, which he has given, would +deserve a grateful homage. + +William Gilmore Simms is the second, and only surviving, of three +brothers, sons of William Gilmore Simms, and Harriet Ann Augusta +Singleton. His father was of a Scotch-Irish family, and his mother of a +Virginia stock, her grandparents having removed to South Carolina long +before the Revolution, in which they took an active part on the Whig +side. He was born on the 17th of April, 1806. His mother died when he +was an infant. His father, failing in business as a merchant, removed +first to Tennessee, and then to Mississippi. While in Tennessee he +volunteered and held a commission in the army of Jackson (in Coffee's +brigade of mounted men), which scourged the Creeks and Seminoles after +the massacre of Fort Mims. Our author, left to the care of a +grandmother, remained in Charleston, where he received an education +which circumstances rendered exceedingly limited. He was denied a +classical training, but such characters stand little in need of the +ordinary aids of the schoolmaster, and, with indomitable application, he +has not only stored his mind with the richest literature, but has +received an unsolicited tribute to his diligence and acquisitions, in +the degree of Doctor of Laws, conferred upon him by the respectable +University of Alabama. + +At first it was designed that he should study medicine, but his +inclination led him to the law. He was admitted to the bar of South +Carolina when twenty-one, practised for a brief period, and became part +proprietor of a daily newspaper, which, taking ground against +nullification, ruined him--swallowing up a small maternal property, and +involving him in a heavy debt which hung upon and embarrassed him for a +long time after. In 1832, he first visited the North, where he published +Atalantis. Martin Faber followed in 1834, and periodically the long +catalogue of his subsequent performances. + +There are few writers who have exhibited such versatility of powers, +combined with vigor, originality of copious and independent ideas, and +that faculty of condensation which frequently by a single pregnant line +suggests an expansive train of reflection. As a poet, he unites high +imaginative powers with metaphysical thought--by which we mean that +large discourse of reason which generalizes, and which seizes the +universal, and perceives its relations to individual phenomena of nature +and psychology. His poems abound in appropriate, felicitous, and +original similes. His keen and fresh perception of nature, furnishes him +with beautiful pictures, the truthfulness and clearness of which are +admirably presented in the lucid language with which they are painted, +and, in his expression of deep personal feelings, we find a noble union +of sad emotion and manliness of tone. He draws from a full treasury of +varied experience, active thought, close observation, just and original +reflection, and a spirit which has drank deeply and lovingly from the +gushing founts of nature. His inspiration is often kindled by the sunny +and luxuriant scenery of the beautiful region to which he was born, and +besides the freshness and glow which this imparts to his descriptive +poetry, it makes him emphatically the poet of the South. Not only has he +sung her peculiar natural aspects with the appreciation of a poet and +the feeling of a son, but he has a claim to her gratitude for having +enshrined in melodious verse her ancient and fading traditions. + +Mr. Simms commenced writing verses at a very early period. At eight +years of age he rhymed the achievements of the American navy in the last +war with Great Britain. At fifteen, he was a scribbler of fugitive verse +for the newspapers, and before he was twenty-one he had published two +collections of miscellaneous poetry, which his better taste and prudence +subsequently induced him to suppress. Two other volumes of poems +followed, in a more ambitious vein, which are also now beyond the reach +of the collector, and were issued while he was engaged in the +occupations of a newspaper editor and a student and practitioner of law. +These volumes were followed by Atalantis, a poem which has been highly +praised by the best critics of our time. + +As a prose writer, his vigorous, copious, and original ideas are clothed +in a manly, flexible, pure, and lucid style. His first production, +Martin Faber, succeeded Atalantis. It was the initial of a series of +tales, which we may describe as of the metaphysical and passionate or +moral imaginative class. These, with two or more volumes of shorter +tales, are numerous, and perhaps among the most original of his +writings. They comprise Martin Faber and other Tales, Castle Dismal, +Confessions, or the Blind Heart, Carle Werner and other Tales, and the +Wigwam and Cabin. There are other compositions belonging to this +category, and, it may be, not inferior in merit to any of these, which +have appeared in periodicals and annuals, but have not yet been +collected by their author. + +The first novel of Mr. Simms belonged to our border and domestic +history. This was Guy Rivers; and to the same class he has contributed +largely, in Richard Hurdis, Border Beagles, Beauchampe, Helen Halsey, +and other productions. In historical romance, he has written The +Yemassee, the Damsel of Darien, Pelayo, and Count Julian, each in two +volumes. The scenes of the two last are laid in Europe. His romances +founded on our revolutionary history, are The Partisan, Mellichampe, and +The Kinsmen. In biography and history, he is the author of The Life of +Marion; The Life of Captain John Smith, founder of Virginia; a History +of South Carolina; a Geography of the same State; a Life of Bayard; and +a Life of General Greene. + +It is impossible to enumerate accurately his poetical productions, as +many, published in periodicals, have never been printed together; but +the collection of his poems now in course of publication at Charleston, +will supply a desideratum to the lovers of genuine American letters and +art. Atalantis, Southern Passages and Pictures, Donna Florida, Grouped +Thoughts and Scattered Fancies, Areytos, Lays of the Palmetto, The +Cassique of Accube and other Poems, Norman Maurice, and The City of the +Silent, constituting distinct volumes, are, however, well known. + +The orations of Mr. Simms, which have been published, comprise one +delivered before the Erosophic Society of the Alabama University, +entitled, The Social Principle--the true source of National Permanence; +another before the town council and citizens of Aiken, South Carolina, +on the Fourth of July, 1844, entitled, The Sources of American +Independence; and one delivered before literary societies in Georgia, +entitled Self-development. + +As a writer of criticism, Mr. Simms is known by numerous articles +contributed to periodicals; by a review of Mrs. Trolloppe, in the +American Quarterly, and of Miss Martineau in the Southern Literary +Messenger (both subsequently republished in pamphlets, and received with +general approval), as well as by many others of equal merit--a selection +from which, wholly devoted to American topics, has been published in two +volumes, under the title of Views and Reviews in American History and +Fiction. + +Scarcely a production of Mr. Simms has been unmarked by a cordial +reception from the best literary journals; and the praise of the London +_Metropolitan_ and _Examiner_--the former when under the conduct of +Thomas Campbell, the latter of Albany Fonblanque--was generously +bestowed, especially on _Atalantis_; of which the _Metropolitan_ said, +"What has the most disappointed us is, that it is so thoroughly English: +the construction, the imagery, and, with a very few exceptions, the +idioms of the language, are altogether founded on our own scholastic and +classical models;" and Fonblanque, in reviewing a tale by Simms, +entitled, _Murder will Out_, said, "But all we intended to say about the +originality displayed in the volume has been forgotten in the interest +of the last story of the book, _Murder will Out_. This is an American +ghost story, and, without exception, the best we ever read. Within our +limits, we could not, with any justice, describe the whole course of its +incident, and it is in that, perhaps, its most marvellous effect lies. +It is the _rationale_ of the whole matter of such appearances, given +with fine philosophy and masterly interest. We never read any thing more +perfect or more consummately told." + +But the testimony of the critical press, or even of the successful sale +of an author's works, is not so suggestive of merit as the fact that his +productions have entered into the popular mind; and this tribute Mr. +Simms has received in the fact that in regions which he has identified +with legends created for them by his own genius, localities of his +different incidents are pointed out with a sincere belief in their +historical verity. The dramatic powers manifested in his novels, have +been still more largely displayed in his _Norman Maurice_, a play of +singular originality, in design, character, and execution, the nervous +language and felicitous turns of expression in which remind us of the +best of the old dramatists. We have heretofore expressed in the +_International_ a conviction that Norman Maurice is the best American +drama that has yet been published--the most American, the most dramatic, +the most original. + +As a member of the Legislature of his native State, and on various +public occasions, Mr. Simms has vindicated a title to fame as an orator; +and a recent nomination for the presidency of the South Carolina +College, although he declined being a candidate, is an evidence of the +impression which his ability, information, and high character have +produced on his fellow citizens. + +His intense intellectual activity, united with a habitually reflective +and philosophical mode of thought, and unwearied laboriousness, enable +him to accomplish an almost incredible amount of literary labor. The +catalogue of his works which is subjoined, gives but an inadequate idea +of what he has really performed; for multifarious productions, many of +them of the highest order in their respective classes, are scattered in +the pages of periodicals, or still in manuscript; while the unceasing +demands on his pen, with his arduous editorship, prevent him from +accomplishing many fruitful designs, whose inception he has hinted in +various ways. To his intellectual gifts, he unites a brave, generous +nature, a kindly, and strong heart, a genial, impulsive, yet faithful +and determined disposition, warm affection and friendship, a spirit to +do and to endure, and a soul as much elevated above the petty envies and +jealousies which too often deform the _genus irritabile_, as it is in +large sympathy with the beautiful, the true, the just--with humanity and +with nature. P. + + * * * * * + +_CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF WORKS BY MR. SIMMS._ + + 1. Lyrical and other Poems: 18mo, pp. 208, Charleston, Ellis + & Noufvillle, 1827. + + 2. Early Lays: 12mo. pp. 108, Charleston, A. E. Miller, + 1827. + + 3. The Vision of Cortes, and other Poems: Charleston, J. S. + Burgess. + + 4. The Tri-Color, or Three Days of Blood in Paris, 1830: + Charleston. + + 5. Atalantis, a Story of the Sea: New-York, J. & J. Harper, + 1832. + + 6. Martin Faber, a Tale: New-York, J. & J. Harper, 1833. + + 7. The Book of My Lady, a Melange: Phila., Key & Biddle, + 1833. + + 8. Guy Rivers, a Tale of Georgia: 2 vols. 12mo., New-York, + Harper & Brothers, 1834. + + 9. The Yemassee, a Romance of Carolina: 2 vols., New-York, + Harper & Brothers, 1835. + + 10. The Partisan, a Tale of the Revolution: 2 vols., + New-York, Harper & Brothers, 1836. + + 11. Mellichampe, a Legend of the Santee: 2 vols., New-York, + Harper & Brothers, 1836. + + 12. Martin Faber, and other Tales: a new edition, 2 vols., + New-York, Harper & Brothers, 1836. + + 13. Pelayo, a Story of the Goth: 2 vols., New-York, Harper & + Brothers, 1838. + + 14. Carl Werner, an Imaginative Story, with other Tales of + the Imagination: 2 vols., New-York, George Adlard, 1838. + + 15. Richard Hurdis, or the Avenger of Blood, a Tale of + Alabama: 2 vols., Philadelphia, Carey & Hart, 1838. + + 16. Southern Passages and Pictures: 1 vol., New-York, G. + Adlard, 1839. + + 17. The Damsel of Darien: 2 vols., Philadelphia, Lea & + Blanchard. + + 18. Border Beagles, a Tale of Mississippi: 2 vols., + Philadelphia, Carey & Hart, 1840. + + 19. The Kinsman, or the Black Riders of the Congaree: 2 + vols., Philadelphia, Lea & Blanchard, 1841. + + 20. Confession, or the Blind Heart: 2 vols., Philadelphia, + Lea & Blanchard. + + 21. Beauchampe, or the Kentucky Tragedy, a Tale of Passion: + 2 vols., Philadelphia, Lea & Blanchard, 1842. + + 22. History of South Carolina: 1 vol. 12mo., Charleston, + Babcock & Co. + + 23. Geography of South Carolina: 1 vol. 12mo., Charleston, + Babcock. + + 24. Life of Francis Marion: 1 vol., New-York, J. & H. G. + Langley. + + 25. Life of Capt. John Smith, the Founder of Virginia: 1 + vol., New-York, Langley. + + 26. Count Julian: 2 vols. 8vo., New-York, Taylor & Co., + 1845. + + 27. The Wigwam and the Cabin: 2 vols., New-York, Wiley & + Putnam. + + 28. Views and Reviews in American History, Literature and + Art: 2 vols., New-York, Wiley & Putnam, 1846. + + 29. Life of Chev. Bayard: 1 vol., New-York, Harper & + Brothers, 1848. + + 30. Donna Florida: 1 vol. 18mo., Charleston, Burgess & + James, 1848. + + 31. Grouped Thoughts and Scattered Fancies, a Collection of + Sonnets: 1 vol. 18mo., Richmond, McFarlane. + + 32. Slavery in the South: 1 vol 8vo., Richmond, McFarlane, + 1831. + + 33. Araytos, or the Songs of the South: 1 vol, 12mo., + Charleston, John Russell, 1846. + + 34. Lays of the Palmetto, a Tribute to the South Carolina + Regiment in the War with Mexico: 12mo., Charleston, John + Russell, 1848. + + 35. Atalantis, a Story of the Sea, with the Eye and Wing + (Poems chiefly Imaginative): 1 vol. 12mo., Carey & Hart, + 1848. + + 36. Life of Nathaniel Greene: 12 mo., New-York, Coolidge & + Bro., 1849. + + 37. Supplement to Writings of Shakspeare, Edited with Notes: + (First collected edition) 1 vol. 8vo., New-York, Coolidge & + Brothers. + + 38. The Social Principle, the true Secret of National + Permanence, an Oration: 1842. + + 39. The Sources of American Independence, an Oration: 1844. + + 40. Self Development, an Oration: 1847. + + 41. Castle Dismal, a Novelette: 1 vol. 12mo., Burgess & + Stringer. + + 42. Helen Halsey, 1 vol, 12mo., New-York, Burgess & + Stringer. + + 43. Katherine Walton, or the Rebel of Dorchester, a Romance + of the Revolution: A. Hart, Philadelphia, 1851. + + 44. The Golden Christmas; a Chronicle of St. John's, + Berkeley: Charleston, Walker & Richards, 1852. + + + + +THE PALACES OF TRADE. + +[Illustration: PETERSON & HUMPHREY'S CARPET HOUSE.] + + +It were well if not only William B. Astor, Stephen Whitney, the heirs of +Peter Stuyvesant (of blessed memory), and others who own real estate in +this city, and likewise all mayors, common councilmen, and others in +authority, were endued with more taste, with a higher regard to the +general interest, and a juster sense of the matters that pertain to a +good administration, so that it might be said in after times that the +beneficence of the Creator (who in things natural has done more for ours +than for any other city), had been seconded by the pious wisdom of the +creature, and Manhattan pointed to as in all respects the metropolis of +the world. Why not? If the very stones in the streets of London, Paris, +and Vienna, were turned to pure gold, they would not purchase for those +cities advantages that should be compared with such as we already +possessed by our beautiful island--a giant mosaic, set in emerald, +studding the bosom of Nature. + +Whatever may be said by our excellent neighbor, the minister of the +dingy-looking red brick meeting-house round the corner, it is not less a +work of piety to create any work of beauty--a beautiful house, or shop, +or poem, for example--than to teach a class in the Sunday school,--which +doctrine may be incidentally fortified from Jonathan Edwards's Theory of +True Virtue, and more directly from the best philosophies of later +years. It is ordered that the dignity of human nature shall in a great +degree be dependent upon a sympathetic association with what is +admirable. It was Hazlitt, we believe,--certainly it was some one who +appreciatingly recognized the highest earthly ministry,--who said it was +impossible to entertain an angry feeling in the presence of a lovely +woman's portrait,--which, done fitly, is the highest accomplishment of +art. Whatever is beautiful or sublime has the same purifying and +ennobling tendency. The beggars do shrewdly who sit in _front_ of +Stewart's. The same person who would give a shilling there, would as +likely as not steal a penny from the hat of the blind man round the +corner, where those detestable red bricks so outrage every principle +known to a builder fit to handle the trowel. There is nothing more +offensive than this custom of making of different materials the various +fronts of the same edifice. It may be allowable to construct the _rear_ +of a house, or a side that is to be built against speedily, of a cheaper +stone; but to make the face upon one street of marble, and the face +around the corner of brick, as in the case of Stewart's store, and the +Society Library, is an outrage as ridiculous as it would be to make +alternate gores of a woman's skirt of Petersham and Brussels lace. +Bricks are very respectable; we say nothing in their dispraise; but to +any man of taste, an edifice is much more beautiful built entirely of +bricks than it is with but one of two exposed parts of marble; and let +us say to the affluent merchant to whom New-York is indebted for the +structure just mentioned, that until he paints his bricks on +Reade-street, so that they correspond as nearly as may be with his +fronts on Chambers-street and Broadway, his store will indicate but a +shabby gentility, an unnatural association of tow cloth and satin, +copper and silver, poverty and riches, which should blush in the face of +the most inferior exhibition of consistency. With the abolition of this +strong contrast, the observer who goes down Broadway will contemplate +with delight the classical air of this most imposing Palace of Trade +that has yet been erected in the cities of the United States. How easily +Broadway, for the money that its piles of brick and stone will have cost +in ten years, might be made the most splendid street in Christendom, by +a mere observance of the principles of taste and unity! + +[Illustration: PRINCIPAL HALL OF PETERSON & HUMPHREY'S CARPET HOUSE.] + +In a little hamlet of five or fifteen hundred inhabitants, great +buildings are out of place. In a city like ours, every thing should be +in keeping, and the predominant principle should be the _gigantesque_. +If the lot-holders from Bowling Green to the New Park would but consider +the matter, with intelligent reference not only to the glory of the city +but to their own profit; if each separate square were built as if it +were _one_ edifice (as, without any blending of property, it might be +very easily), though these squares were all of plain brick, and no more +costly than the well-known row of stores in William-street, what an +imposing spectacle they would present! But if one block were like the +Astor House, the next like Stewart's (except only the Reade street +front), the next a row of free-stone, the next one of brick, the next +one of granite,--here a Gothic, there a Byzantine, then a Corinthian, +then, if you please, as plain a front as that of the New-York +Hotel--with here and there a church, library, lyceum, or art gallery, of +a style less suitable for shops or dwellings,--and there would be +nothing in the world to compare with Broadway. But this running of +democracy into the ground, this whim of every vulgar fellow who owns a +front of twenty feet, that he must illustrate his independence by +building on it in his own peculiar way, is baulking Providence, and for +the full cost of magnificence confining us to tricksy meanness. Two or +three years ago rose the chaste and simple front of 349 Broadway, in a +row of decayed brick shops, which, it was hoped would give place to an +entire range in imitation of the initial structure. But since then, the +owner of a couple of adjoining lots--a Connecticut man probably--has +caused to be put up two stores of a different style, not of half the +value of continuations of the less expensive edifice which they join. If +instead of this patchwork, now planted here for half a century, there +had been an extension of uniform stores from corner to corner--though +either Beck's or the building we have mentioned had been the model--the +single splendid edifice would have been a pride and boast of the city, +and the separate stores would have been of much greater value than the +best can be now. It is as revolting (and much more vexatious, for its +publicity) as the worst case of Saxon and Congo amalgamation. A +magnificent pile has been erected in Wall-street on the corner west of +the Exchange; but some person, ignorant, it is to be hoped for his +soul's sake, of the true obligations of morality applicable in the case, +has built, at the same time, at the same cost, of the same height, and +without any conceivable justifying reason, an utterly incongruous basket +of offices, as if for the special purpose of vexing the eyes of men who +have instincts of decency. + +[Illustration: THOMPSON'S SALOON.] + +The imposing edifice on the corner of Broadway and White-street, of +which a view is presented on a preceding page, is one of the +improvements of the city made during the last year. In the great +carpet-house of Peterson & Humphrey are offered the productions of the +best looms in the world, in a variety and profusion probably unequalled +elsewhere in America. The principal saloon is like a street, and it is +almost always thronged with people. + +Not far from the store of Peterson & Humphrey--at 359 Broadway--is the +new and beautiful building erected by the well-known confectioners, +Thompson & Son. This was opened to the public but a few weeks ago, and +it is the most splendid establishment of the kind in America. The +several sales during the last three quarters of a century of the ground +upon which it is built, illustrate the rapid increase of value in real +estate in this city during that period. The lot formed a part of the De +Peyster farm, and was called pasture ground. On the death of Major De +Peyster, the farm was divided, and this lot, then thirty-two feet wide, +was on the 13th of December, 1784, sold for L100 New-York currency; in +1789 it was sold for L150; in 1805 for $1500; in 1820 for $4000; in 1825 +for $11,000; and in 1850 it was bought by Mr. Thompson for $60,000, and +he has expended $50,000 in the erection of the building with which it is +now occupied, and which is twenty-eight feet wide, one hundred and +ninety feet deep, and sixty-two feet high. It is built in a very rich +style, of Paterson stone, similar to that used in Trinity church. The +architects were Field and Correja, and the decorations in fresco are by +Rossini. Mr. Thompson, senior, has been a quarter of a century in the +business for which he has erected this new edifice, and in which he has +accumulated his fortune. In 1820 there were but one or two houses of +the kind in New-York, and these were of limited capacity and in every +way inferior to Taylor's, Weller's, or Thompson's, of the present day. +These are among the most luxurious and comfortable resorts for ladies +and gentlemen who visit the city but for a part of a day, or who have +not time or inclination to go to houses in distant parts of the town, to +lunch or dine, or for those who come down Broadway to do shopping, and +need a resting place, or enjoy an exchange for gossip. + +[Illustration: PRINCIPAL SALOON AT THOMPSON'S.] + +The next of the Palaces of Trade recently erected in the city, for which +we have now room for any description, is the great silk house of the +well-known merchants, Bowen & McNamee, constituting one of the most +attractive features of the lower part of Broadway. It is built of white +marble, and the style of architecture is Elizabethan, and peculiarly +elaborate and effective. The building is thirty-seven and a half feet +wide, one hundred and forty-seven deep, and four stories high; and each +story consists of a single unbroken hall, lined with the richest +English, German, French, Italian and Indian goods. The architect was Mr. +Joseph C. Wells, and his plans were used in all the minutest details of +ornament and furniture. It is regarded, we believe, as the greatest +triumph of its kind of which our commercial metropolis has to boast; +indeed in magnificence of design, beauty of execution, and perfect +adaptation to its purposes, there is nothing superior to it, probably, +among the buildings devoted to trade in all the world. + +It was said by Jefferson that the genius of Architecture would never +make her abode in America; but the new edifices in New-York, of which we +have described some prominent specimens, may lead others to a different +conclusion. And we are of opinion that the progress of this country, in +the last quarter of a century, has been less conspicuous in any thing +else than in this noble art, little as it is now understood, much as it +is still disregarded. In some recent speculations on the subject, the +_Tribune_ observes: + +"There is no American architecture, unless the Lowell factories may be +regarded as such. Our churches are small and imperfect imitations of a +miscellaneous Gothic, and our exchanges, colleges, lyceums, banks and +custom-houses affect the Greek, with as much propriety as our merchants, +professors and clerks would indue themselves with the Athenian costume. +There is no hope of the churches and banks. They are nothing if not +Gothic and Grecian. We shall not discuss the probable character of our +architecture. It is clear that New-York will build brick houses, and in +blocks. But beauty costs no more than ugliness, and although every man +has the right to build a house of that appearance which best pleases +himself, yet every citizen is bound to have at heart the beauty of the +city. He cannot escape it. His pride compels it; and therefore every man +who builds a house ought to consult, to some extent, the general effect +of his building, and as he would not paint it blue or black, he should +no less consider its form than its color. + +"Cheapness and convenience will, of course, be the first principles in +our building, beauty and picturesqueness will be secondary. The point is +to combine these without much compromising either. At present our cities +are the unhandsomest in the world. The street architecture is monotonous +and heavy. The houses, compared with those of other capitals, are low, +but they are not light. Paris and the Italian cities have always a +festal air. Vienna is brilliant. Even grim old Rome seems waiting to be +gay. You do not immediately see the reason of this. The houses are high, +the streets narrow, shutting out the sky, and the swarms of passengers +do not explain the charm. But if you look narrowly you will see that the +difference of effect produced, arises, not so much from any essential +architectural superiority; because the mass of building in any city is +of about the same general character--but that it is due to the "broken +and various lines which every where meet the eye, relieving the heavy +gravity of the smooth fronts which with us are entirely unrelieved. +Sometimes, indeed, a street is built with regard to its architectural +beauty, as the _Rue de Rivoli_, in Paris, of which the harmony is +uniformity and not monotony. One side of this street is the garden of +the Tuileries, and the other is like a prolonged palace front. The +northern side of the _Boulevards des Italiens_ is truly picturesque, but +for directly the contrary reason--the infinite variety of line +presented. + +[Illustration: BOWEN & M'cNAMME'S SILK HOUSE.] + +"It is to these lines of gallery and balcony which break and lighten the +mass of building, that we must look for a hint of very feasible +improvement. If any city reader wishes an illustration of this fact, let +him observe how the iron verandah upon the Collamore House redeems the +otherwise bald, dead weight of that building. Then let him cast his eye +up Broadway to the long front of Niblo's Hotel--unrelieved and +blank--and consider the cheerful effect of a continuous gallery along +each story, or separate balconies at every window, as on the beautiful +_Chiaja_ at Naples. On the other hand let him ask his Metropolitan pride +how it would like a street of such edifices as the City Assembly Rooms +on the site of Tattersalls? So, also, in dwelling-houses, the balcony +which is now confined to the parlor floor might occasionally be carried +up through the other stories, and this, in narrow streets, with a +peculiarly happy effect, as is seen in such streets of foreign cities, +where the style, if elaborated in lattices and bay-windows, becomes +romantic and poetic. + +"Greater variety in the mouldings of doors and windows, and in the +designs of porticoes, might easily be obtained, with an infinite gain of +grace to the city. The Broadway Theatre illustrates this, for it is +certainly one of the most impressive buildings upon that street. The +question, it must be remembered, is not one of art, so much as of +picturesqueness and effect. The galleries and balconies, &c., are only a +subterfuge. If an edifice is intrinsically beautiful and +well-proportioned, it claims no such accessories, as Stewart's building, +which, although a simple square mass, yet from the admirable proportion, +rather than the material, is as stately and imposing as many a foreign +palace. But where there is no regard--as is the usual case--to the +dignity or propriety of form, there we must take advantage of an +alleviation, and obtain lightness, gayety, and variety as we best can. + +"There is, however, one point peculiar to American, or more properly to +New-York building, which calls for the determined and constant censure +of every man who values human life. We mean the flimsy style of building +arising from the frenzied haste with which we do every thing. This has +long been our reproach. Scarcely a year passes that we do not record +some disaster of this kind, often involving a melancholy waste of life. +'_Is it strong?_' is a question constantly asked of a new building, and +a question which, in any civilized community, it should be as +unnecessary to ask, as whether the public wells are poisoned. + +"We know many who will not pass under buildings now going up or recently +erected. A friend walked down Broadway one morning, while a building +was in course of erection on the site of the present Waverly House, and +returning in the afternoon found that it had all tumbled down. Our +readers have not forgotten the frightful fall of a block in Twenty-first +street last spring. One is curious to know if nothing is ever to be +done--if the city means to take no security for the lives of the +citizens in this matter. It would be very easy to prevent this flimsy +building, and even were it very difficult it should be effectually done. +This, too, is a matter in which every citizen is interested. + +"Stores and Warehouses have their own proprieties. Warehouses properly +avoid even the _appearance_ of lightness. They are devoted to heavy +storage. No life, save of bales and boxes,--and not of the contents of +bales and boxes--is associated with them. Security is the first and only +thing we demand of them, provided the structures are not painfully +disproportioned. So with Prisons. In fact, in architecture, the ornament +must depend upon the use, must be developed from the use. For the same +reason that balconies become a dwelling-house they disfigure a +warehouse. Stores again should partake, in their appearance, of the +intrinsic character and associations of shops. When shop-keeping becomes +royal, it should be royally housed, as in Stewart's building. + +"The theme unravels itself endlessly. It is one of those common +interests of constantly recurring importance which it is always worth +while to talk about. Because there is no American architecture, there is +no occasion for making our buildings mere piles of brick and mortar, +punctured here and there for light--and because we are a commonsense, +go-ahead people, there is no need that our houses should offend the eye; +but--for that reason--great need that they should please it. + +"Lorenzo of Florence was the magnificent, not because he was rich, but +because he knew the use of riches." + +Despite all drawbacks, our city is growing wonderfully in splendor as +well as in size; and perhaps no previous season has promised so many +improvements in Broadway, uptown, or by the different parks, as the +present. Surpassing already any metropolis in the world in the number +and magnificence of our hotels, we are to have in occupancy within a few +weeks the splendid St. Nicholas and the gigantic Metropolitan, besides +half a dozen of inferior pretensions, which will yet surpass the best in +other cities; and new churches, and galleries, and public halls, are +talked of, in number and capacity, as in beauty, sufficient for all the +possible contingencies of a great capital, increasing in wealth, and +power, and beauty, with such unexampled rapidity. The power and +magnificence of New-York have been built up by her merchants, whose +private enterprise, public spirit, and intelligence and taste, are +especially conspicuous in the new edifices devoted to trade, of which we +have given descriptions. + +[Illustration: INTERIOR OF BOWEN & M'cNAMEE'S SILK HOUSE.] + + + + +HERMAN HOOKER, D.D. + +[Illustration] + + +Herman Hooker is one of the most able and peculiar writers in religion +and religious philosophy now living in America. Indeed, we are inclined +to doubt whether the Episcopal Church in the United States embraces +another author whose name will be as long or as respectfully remembered +in the Christian world. If he is not mentioned in "every day's report," +it is because he adds to genius an unobtrusive modesty, as rare as are +the admirable qualities with which in his case it is associated. + +Dr. Hooker is a native of Poultney, Rutland county, Vermont. He was +graduated at Middlebury College in 1825, and soon after entered upon the +study of divinity at the Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Princeton. +He subsequently took orders in the Episcopal Church, and acquired +considerable reputation as a preacher; but at the end of a few years ill +health compelled him to abandon the pulpit, and he has since resided in +Philadelphia. The distinction of Doctor in Divinity was conferred upon +him three or four years ago by Union College. + +Dr. Hooker published in 1835 _The Portion of the Soul, or Thoughts on +its Attributes and Tendencies as Indications of its Destiny_; in the +same year _Popular Infidelity_, which in later editions is entitled, +_The Philosophy of Unbelief, in Morals and Religion, as discernible in +the Faith and Character of Men_; in 1846, _The Uses of Adversity and the +Provisions of Consolation_; in 1848, _The Christian Life a Fight of +Faith_; and soon after, _Thoughts and Maxims_, a book worthy of +Rochefoucauld for point, of Herbert for piety, and Bacon for wisdom. + +Upon meeting with qualities like Dr. Hooker's in one not known among the +popular authors of the country, we are prompted to say with Wordsworth, +"Strongest minds are often those of whom the world hears least," or in +the bolder words of Henry Taylor, "The world knows nothing of its +greatest men." It is surprising that a voice like his should have +awakened no echoes. He deserves a place among the first religious +writers of the age: for he has been faithful to the great mission laid +upon the priesthood, which is, not to labor upon "forms, modes, shows," +of devotion, nor to dispute of systems, schools, and theories of faith, +but to be witnesses of a law above the world, and prophets of a +consolation that is not of mortality. When we take up one of his books, +we could imagine that we had fallen upon one of those great masters in +divinity, who in the seventeenth century illustrated the field of moral +relations and affections with a power and splendor peculiar to that age. +These great writers possessed an apprehension of spiritual subjects, +sensitive, yet profoundly rational; a vision on which the rays of a +higher consciousness streamed in lustre so transcending that the light +of earth seemed like a shadow thrown across its course; which differed +from inspiration in degree rather than in kind. The resemblance of Dr. +Hooker to these great authors is obviously not an affectation. It is not +confined to style, but reaches to the constitution and tone of the mind. +His productions indicate the same temper of deep thoughtfulness upon +man's estate and destiny; the same union of a personal sympathy with a +judicial superiority, which suffers in all the human weaknesses which it +detects and condemns; the same earnest sense of their subjects as +realities, clear, present and palpable; the same quick feeling, toned +into dignity by pervading, essential wisdom; and that direct cognizance +of the substances of religion, which does not deduce its great moral +truths as consequences of an assumed theory, but seizes them as primary +elements that verify themselves and draw the theories after them by a +natural connection. Fretted and wearied with metaphysical theologies; +vexed by the self-illustration, the want of candor, the fierceness, the +ungenial and unsatisfying hollowness of popular religionism, we turn +with a grateful relief to this soothing and impressive system which +speculates not, wrangles not, reviles not, but, while it every where +testifies of the degradation we are under, touches our spirits to power +and purity by the constant exhortation of "sursem corda!" + +The style of Dr. Hooker abounds in spontaneous interest and unexpected +graces. It seems to result immediately from his character, and to be an +inseparable part of it. It is free from all the commonplaces of fine +writing; has nothing of the formal contrivance of the rhetorician, the +balanced period, the pointed turn, the recurring cadence. Yet the charms +of a genuine simplicity, of a directness almost quaint, of primitive +gravity, and calm, native good sense, renders it singularly agreeable to +a cultivated taste. Undoubtedly there is in spiritual sensibility +something akin to genius, and like it tending to utterance in language +significant and beautiful. We meet at times in Dr. Hooker's writings +with phrases of the rarest felicity and of great delicacy and +expressiveness; in which we know not whether most to admire the vigor +which has conceived so striking a thought, or the refinement of art +which has fixed it in words so beautifully exact. + + + + +SUNSET. + +WRITTEN FOR THE INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE. + +BY R. S. CHILTON + + + See with what pomp the golden sun goes down + Behind yon purple mountain!--far and wide + His mellow radiance streams; the steep hill-side + Is clothed with splendor, and the distant town + Wears his last glory like a blazing crown. + We cannot see him now, and yet his fire + Still lingers on the city's tallest spire,-- + Chased slowly upward by the gathering frown + Of the approaching darkness. God of light! + Thou leavest us in gloom,--but other eyes + Watch thy faint coming now in distant skies:-- + There drooping flowers spring up, and streams grow bright, + And singing birds plume their moist wings for flight, + And stars grow pale and vanish from the sight! + + + + +NEW-YORK SOCIETY, BY THE LAST ENGLISH TRAVELLER. + + +The Hon. HENRY COPE has lately published in London a _Ride across the +Rocky Mountains, to California_--a book abounding in striking adventure +and description, and illustrating in its general tone the spirit of an +English gentleman. Its temper and good sense may be inferred from the +following specimen, on the never-failing subject of Society in New-York: + + "Any observations I might be tempted to make on New-York, or + even, I am inclined to think, on any of the civilized parts + of the states, would probably be neither novel nor + interesting. I am not ambitious of circulating more + 'American notes,' nor do I care to follow in the footsteps + of Mrs. Trollope. Enough has been written to illustrate the + singularities of second-rate American society. Good society + is the same all over the world. General remarks I hold to be + fair play. But to indulge in personalities is a poor return + for hospitality; and those Americans who are most willing to + be civil to foreigners, receive little enough encouragement + to extend that civility, when, as is too often the case, + those very foreigners afterwards attempt to amuse their + friends on one side of the Atlantic, at the expense of a + breach of good faith to their friends on the other. Every + one has his prejudices: I freely confess I have mine. I like + London better than New-York, but it does not, therefore, + follow that I dislike New-York, or Americans either. I have + a great respect for almost every thing American--I do not + mean to say that I have any affection for a thorough bred + Yankee, in our acceptation of the term; far from it, I think + him the most offensive of all bipeds in the known world. + Yankee snobs too I hate--such as infest Broadway, for + instance, genuine specimens of the genus, according to the + highest authorities. The worst of New-York is its + superabundance of snobbism. The snob here is a snob "_sui + generis_" quite beyond the capacities of the old world. + There is no mistaking him. He is cut out after the most + approved pattern. If he differs from the original, or + whatever that might have been, it must be in a surpassing + excellence of snobbism which does credit to the progressive + order of things. Tuft-hunting is a sport he pursues with + delight to himself, but without remorse or pity for his + victim. It is necessary for the object of his persecutions + to be constantly on the alert. He is frequently seen + prowling about in white kid gloves, patent leather boots, + and Parisian hat. Whenever this is the case, he must be + considered dangerous and bloody-minded, for in all + probability he is meditating a call. Often he has been known + to run his prey to ground in the Opera or other public + places, and there to worry them within less than an inch of + their good temper. Offensive as he is, generally speaking, + he sometimes acts on the defensive; for, not very well + convinced of his own infallibility, he is particularly + susceptible of affronts, to which his assumed consequence + not unfrequently makes him liable. Baits are often proffered + by these swell-catchers to lure the unwary. Such as an + introduction to the nymphs of the _corps de ballet_; the + _entre_ to all the theatres, private gambling-houses, &c., + &c. But beware of such seductions." + + + + +EMILIE DE COIGNY. + +WRITTEN FOR THE INTERNATIONAL MONTHLY MAGAZINE. + +BY RICHARD B. KIMBALL. + +[Illustration: EMILIE DE COIGNY AND THE STUDENTS.] + + +A morning at _La Morgue_ is hardly as agreeable as a day at the Louvre, +yet it is not without a certain fascination. Let but the influence once +fasten on you, and it will be very hard to shake it off. At one period I +confess it was to me almost irresistible, and I shudder sometimes when I +recollect how punctually every morning at the same hour I took my place +on one side of that fearful room--not for the purpose of inspecting the +bodies of the suicides (I rarely turned to look at them), but to regard +the countenances of the anxious ones who came to realize the worst, or +to take hope till the morrow. Literally there are no spectators in that +dismal solitude--if we except an occasional visit from the foreign +sight-hunter, who comes in charge of a valet, and passes in and out and +away to the "next place." In London or in New-York, an establishment so +public would be thronged with persons eager to gratify a prurient +curiosity. Not so in Paris. The French possess a sensibility so +refined--it may be called a species of delicacy--that they cannot enjoy +such a spectacle, can scarcely endure it: and if the tourist will bring +the subject to mind, he will recollect that while his guide pointed out +the entrance, he himself declined going into the apartment. + +I know not how it happened, but, as I have remarked, the habit of +visiting this spot every morning, was fastened on me. Never shall I +forget some of the faces I encountered there. One image is impressed on +me indelibly; it is that of a woman of middle age, with a very pale +face, and having the appearance of one struggling with some wearing +sorrow, who for two weeks in succession came in daily, and walking +painfully up to the partition, looked intently through the lattice work, +and turned and went away. I never before felt so strong an impulse to +accost a person, without yielding to it. Indeed I had resolved to speak +to her on the morning of the fifteenth day, but she did not come and I +never saw her again. Who was she? did her fears prove groundless? what +became of her? An old man I remember to have seen--a very old man, +feeble and decrepit, who came once only, looked at the dead, shook his +head despairingly, and tottered away: I know not if he discovered the +object of his search. Young girls who had quarrelled with their lovers, +and lovers who in moments of jealousy had been cruel to their +sweethearts, would look anxiously in, and generally with relieved +spirits pass out, almost smilingly, resolving no doubt to make all up +before night should again tempt to suicide. Another incident I cannot +omit, although it is impossible to recall it without a dreadful pang. +One morning a pretty fair-haired child, not more than four years old, +came running in, and clasping the wooden bar with one hand, pointed with +her little finger through the opening, and with a tone of innocent +curiosity said, "There's mamma!" The same moment two or three rushed in, +and seizing the unconscious orphan, carried her hastily away. She had +wandered after some of the family, and heard enough as they came from +the fatal place to lead her to suppose her lost mamma was there, and so +she ran to see. What could be the circumstances so untoward, that even +the child could not bind the mother to life? + +A long chapter might be written of the occurrences at my singular +rendezvous, but I had no design, when I began, of alluding to them, and +I will only remark here that, leaving Paris some time after for the +south of Europe, I got rid of this nightmare impulse, and although I +returned the following season I never again entered _La Morgue_.... + +It was in the spring when I came back. The foliage was deep and green, +and in the _Jardin des Plants_, which was near my quarters, the various +flowers and shrubs and trees filled the atmosphere with fragrance, and +tempted us to frequent strolls along its avenues. + +"Come with me at six o'clock," said my friend Partridge, "and you shall +see an apparition." + +"Where?" + +"I will not tell you, till we are on the Spot." + +"I will go, but hope the rendezvous will be an agreeable one." Just +then, I know not why, I thought of _La Morgue_, and shuddered. + +"The most agreeable in all Paris." + +This conversation took place in the Hospital _de Notre Dame de Pitie_, +just as we were finishing our morning occupation of following the +celebrated LOUIS through the fever wards. Partridge was my room-mate, +and generally a fellow traveller, but I had left him behind in my late +tour, to devote himself more entirely to his medical pursuits, while I, +to my shame be it spoken, began to tire of the lectures of Broussais, +and the teachings of Majendie; and, even now that I had returned, was +tempted every day to slip across to the _Rue Vivienne_, where were +staying some fascinating strangers, whose acquaintance I had made _en +route_, and who had begun to engross me too much for any steady progress +in my studies; at least so thought Partridge, who shook his head and +said it would not do for a student to cross the Seine--he ought to stay +in his own _quartier_; that I had had too much recreation as it was--I +should forget the little I know, and as for the _Rue Vivienne_, and the +_Boulevard des Italiens_, the _Rue de la Paix_, &c., I must break off +all such associations or be read out of the community. I was glad, +therefore, to appease my friend by consenting to go with him--I knew not +where--and see an apparition. + +Accordingly a few minutes before six, we started together on the strange +adventure. We passed down the street which leads to the _Jardin des +Plants_, and entering through the main avenue, walked nearly its entire +length, when my companion turned into a narrow path, almost concealed by +the foliage, which brought us into a small open space. Here he motioned +me to stop, and pointing to a rustic bench we both sat down. At the same +moment, the chimes from a neighboring chapel pealed the hour of six, and +while I was still listening to them, my friend seized my arm and +exclaimed in a whisper, "Look!" I cast my eyes across to the other side, +and beheld a figure advancing slowly toward us. It was that of a young +girl, in appearance scarcely seventeen. Her form was light and graceful, +simply draped in a loose robe of white muslin. On her head she wore a +straw hat, in which were placed conspicuously a bunch of fresh spring +blossoms. The gloves and mantelet seemed to have been forgotten. Her +demeanor was one of gentleness and modesty. She cast her eyes around as +if expecting to meet a companion, and then quietly sat down on a rude +seat not very far from where we were. I remained for ten minutes +patiently waiting a demonstration of some kind, either from my companion +or the strange appearance near us. But now I began to yield to the +influence of the scene. The sun was declining, and cast a mellow and +saddening light over the various objects around. Gradually as I gazed on +the motionless form of the maiden, I felt impressed with awe, which was +heightened by the solemn manner of my friend, who appeared as much under +the charm as myself. At length I whispered to him, "For Heaven's sake +tell me what does all this mean?" A low "Hush," with an expressive +gesture to enforce quiet, was the only response. I made no further +attempt to interrupt the silence, but sat spell-bound, always looking at +the figure, until I was positively afraid to take my eyes from it. Again +the chimes began their peal for the completion of the last quarter. It +was seven o'clock. The moment they ceased, the girl rose from her seat, +glanced slowly, sadly, earnestly around, pressed her hand across her +eyes, and proceeded in the path toward us. We both stood up as she came +near; my friend lifted his hat from his head in the most respectful +manner as the maiden passed, while she in return gazed vacantly on him, +and walking slowly by, disappeared in the direction opposite that from +which she came. We did not remain, but proceeded with a quickened pace +to our lodgings. Arrived there, I asked for an explanation of what we +had witnessed. + +"Do you remember," said Partridge, "Alfred Dervilly?" + +"Perfectly well. He was your room-mate after I left you last summer, and +twenty times I have been on the point of inquiring for him, but +something at each moment prevented. Where is he?" + +"Dead." + +"Dead! How, when?" + +"Killed by the apparition yonder." + +"Nonsense! Do not talk any more in riddles. Out with what you have to +say about Dervilly and the apparition, as you call it, and this +afternoon's adventure." + +"_Bien_, let us light the candles, fasten the doors, close the windows, +and take a fresh cigar." + +This was soon done, and accommodating himself to his seat in a +comfortable manner, my companion commenced: + +"Yes--you recollect Dervilly of course, and must remember that before +you left us we used to joke him about a fair unknown, who was engaging +so much of his time." + +"I had forgotten--but I now recall the circumstance; I remember, I was +walking with him near the 'Garden,' and he made some trivial excuse to +leave me and turn into it. You afterwards told me he had an appointment +there, but I thought little of it." + +"Well, I will give you the story as I now have it, quite complete, for I +was partly in Dervilly's confidence, and was with him during his illness +and when he died. He was born in Louisiana, of French parents, who, +after spending some years in America, returned to their native country. +He spoke English fluently, as you know, and when you deserted me we +became very intimate. Then it was I learned how deeply the poor fellow +was in love, actually _in love_. No mere transitory emotion--no +momentary passion for an adventure--no affair of gallantry, was this: +his very being was absorbed--he became wholly changed--it seemed as if +he had bound himself, body and soul, to some spirit of another world. I +never saw, never read, of so engrossing a feeling. At last he confessed +to me. He said he had met, a few months before, at the house of a former +friend of his family, who had been of considerable consequence under the +previous reign, but was now reduced, and lived in obscurity, a creature +of most exquisite shape and feature, who proved on acquaintance to be +possessed with a loveliness of character, a modesty, an irresistible +charm of manner, which took him captive. Dervilly became completely +enamored with Emilie de Coigny. This he discovered to be her name, but +on inquiring of the persons at whose house he first met her, he could +get no satisfactory information; indeed a very singular reserve, as poor +Dervilly thought, was maintained whenever her name was mentioned, so +that he could not, in fact, glean the slightest particulars about her. +This did not prevent him from confessing his passion, for the girl came +frequently to this house, and their acquaintance ripened very fast. +Emilie de Coigny felt for the first time that her heart was occupied, +and all that restlessness of spirit caused by the unconscious longing of +the affections laid at rest, and Alfred Dervilly became the sole object +of her thoughts and of her hopes, if hopes she had. All this, I repeat, +Emilie de Coigny felt; but, singular to say, she hesitated to confess +what was in her heart, even when her lover passionately entreated; it +seemed as if something stood between her and happiness, to which she +feared to allude. It is not easy to deceive the _heart_, and Dervilly +knew, despite the apparent calmness of Emilie, despite her sometimes +cold demeanor, that he was loved in return. But one thing troubled and +perplexed him; one thing filled him with vague fears and apprehensions, +and checked the ecstatic feelings which were ready to overflow his +heart. A mystery hung about this beautiful girl; she claimed no one for +her friend, she spoke of no acquaintances, she never alluded to parents, +or to brother or sister, or other relation; she made no mention of her +home. Besides, a strange sadness, strange in one so young, seemed to +possess her, and to pervade her spirit, and while contemplating that +imperturbable countenance, Dervilly at times felt an awe come over him +for which he could not account, and which for moments subdued even the +force of his passion. It appeared to him then, as if he were under a +spell; but presently, when a gentle smile illumined her face, her eyes +would be turned on him so lovingly, and her look express, as plainly as +look could, that all her trust was in him and in him only. Dervilly +would forget every thing in the raptures of such moments; indeed in his +ecstasy he would be driven almost to madness; for of all characters," +continued Partridge, "hers was the one to set a youth of ardent +temperament absolutely crazy. So matters advanced, or rather I should +say, so time advanced, while affairs did not. It was at this period," +said my friend, "that Dervilly gave me his confidence. Our intimacy had +gradually increased from the hour of your leaving us, and at length he +unbosomed himself completely. My first impression, after hearing his +story, was that the pretty mademoiselle was no more nor less than an +arrant flirt; that her charms were magnified to a lover's vision, and +that the mystery which attended her would turn out to be no mystery at +all--so I treated the case lightly, laughed at his description, called +Mademoiselle Emilie a coquette, and added, a little seriously, that it +was a shame for her to trifle with so warm-hearted a fellow. You know +how grating are the disparaging remarks of a friend about one in whom we +confess to ourselves a deeper interest than we care to acknowledge. What +I had said was kindly intended, but it touched Dervilly to the quick. 'I +did not think you capable,' he exclaimed, 'of thus making light of my +confidence--I find I was deceived--you are at liberty to make as much +sport of me as you will. I have learned a lesson which I shall take care +to remember.' 'You must not speak so,' I said,' I really was not +serious. I take back every word. I would not wound you for the +world--forgive me.' Then we shook hands, and Dervilly assured me I had +misjudged his Emilie; he would ask her permission to introduce me, and I +should see for myself. The permission was never accorded, although +Dervilly urged to Mademoiselle de Coigny, that I was his best and almost +his only friend. She was unyielding; she would not see me. Meanwhile his +passion increased with every impediment--yet he gained no assurance of +its being returned, save what his heart whispered to him. In the +_Jardin des Plants_ they were accustomed to meet daily, when the weather +was propitious--so much Emilie yielded to her lover--and spend an hour +together; and if they could not meet in the open air, they repaired to +the house where they first became acquainted. On one occasion Dervilly, +unable to bear suspense any longer, seized her hand, and passionately +pledged himself, his existence, his soul, his all to Emilie de Coigny; +he swore his fate was indissolubly linked with hers, that their destiny +could not be severed, and he demanded from her an avowal of the truth of +what he said. The violence of Dervilly alarmed her; she drew her hand +from his, and looking him steadily in the face, inquired: + +"'What has prompted Monsieur to this sudden show of feeling?' + +"'Do you ask what?' exclaimed Dervilly; 'it is _you_. Are you not +answered? How can I resist what is inevitable? how curb myself when +_all_ hold is lost? Are you then so cruel? _Dieu merci!_ be not so +deadly calm--it means the worst for me--be angry, vexed, any thing, but +look not on me with that glazed look--it maddens me.' + +"'Monsieur Dervilly,' said Emilie, without change of tone or manner, +'what you have said, if it means any thing, means every thing; it means +all a maiden longs to hear from lips that are beloved. To respond, I +must be assured how far your judgment will confirm what now seems to be +a mere passionate ebullition. Excuse me,' she continued, as Dervilly +made an impatient gesture; 'I have heard and read of similar +protestations which had little true significance.' + +"'I accept any conditions,' interrupted the young man, 'and will bless +you from the depths of my soul for naming any, even the hardest; yes, +the hardest--I care not what, so that they are from you.' The girl +regarded Dervilly as if she would search his very nature. 'You are +silent--speak; I can no longer contain myself,' exclaimed he, wildly. + +"'Monsieur,' once more observed Mademoiselle de Coigny, 'you know not to +whom you address yourself; should I tell you, you would retract all +those strong words, and hasten to escape in the least humiliating way +possible.' + +"'Never. Heaven is my witness, never! I care not who you are; I will +never seek to know; when you choose, you shall inform me. You need never +tell me. I say, I care not, so that you are mine.' + +"'And you will be _mine_ for ever?' said the girl, slowly. + +"'For ever.' + +"'I am yours--yours,' and Emilie de Coigny sunk into the arms of her +lover. + +"In one instant the fortunes of Dervilly were changed--from despair he +was raised to a condition of delicious joy. His raptures were so +unnatural, that I cautioned him against such violent indulgence of them. +But he was too excited to listen to me. Indeed, I feared he would lose +his reason. It seemed as if more than ordinary passion had possession of +him, and that it was inspired by something unearthly; and, without ever +having seen the girl, I began to attribute to her a supernatural +influence. Besides, Dervilly confessed he knew as little of his +affianced as before, and that occasionally the same icy look would be +turned on him, as it were quite inadvertently, and hold him spell-bound +with horror, while it still served to increase his frenzy beyond all +bounds. Then, her endearing smiles, her truthful and confiding love, her +absolute reliance, her entire dependence, on Dervilly, made him so +frantic with happiness, that he lost all capacity to reason. + +"The summer passed away, but Dervilly had learned nothing more of the +history of his betrothed; she still avoided the subject, and, when he +alluded to it, she would beg him to desist, and hide her face in his +bosom and weep. + +"Strange thoughts at last found their way into his brain, fearful +surmises began to disturb his peace, and, when absent from Emilie, he +would resolve at their next interview, to insist on knowing all. But +when the time came, and he met, turned on him, the open and innocent +look of the maiden's clear eyes, which expressed so earnestly how +entirely her soul rested on his, all courage failed him, and he could +not go on..... + + * * * * * + +"One evening," continued Partridge, after a pause, and with the tone of +a person approaching an unpleasant subject, "One evening, after +dinner--I think it was the first week in September--when the day had +been excessively sultry, I strolled into the large garden, which you +recollect belonged to our old lodgings in the _Rue d' Enfer_ and after a +while sat down in the summer-house. Presently little Sophie Lecomte came +running out to me, and I remained amusing myself with the child's +prattle till it was dark. The moon shone brightly, and I did not +perceive how late it was, until reminded of the hour by finding that +Sophie was fast asleep in my lap. I rose and carried her into the house, +and went quietly to my room. I seated myself near the window without +lighting the candles, feeling that the glare would not just then +harmonize with my feelings. The truth is, I was thinking of you, and of +that romantic passage across the Apennines, and of the fair stranger, +and so forth. I sat by the window, the moonlight streaming across the +room, over the top of the old chapel, the windows and doors open, and +every thing still except the monotonous chirping of a single cricket, +louder than that of any French cricket I ever heard before, and which +sung the very same song I used to hear when a boy from under the large +kitchen hearthstone at home. I began to feel a little lonely, and so +started up, and stamped with my feet in order to silence the solitary +insect, or arouse the rest of the family, but the old one only sung the +harder, and the others would not wake, and I sat down again, and half +closed my eyes in order to lose myself, if I could, in some pleasant +revery. My eyes _were_ half closed, the perfume from the graperies +filled the room, and had a pleasant effect upon my senses, and thus I +began to forget where I was and what was about me. Presently I heard a +rapid unsteady step along the corridor; it grew more rapid and more +unsteady; I raised my head, and at that instant Dervilly hurried into +the room. 'I knew it--I knew it,' he exclaimed, wildly; 'one of the +sirens sent from hell! I have sold myself, body and soul!--I am +lost--lost. Ah! I knew it--I knew it.' Shocked and surprised as I was by +such an extraordinary scene, I did not forget that Dervilly was of a +most nervous and excitable temperament. I rose, took hold of him kindly, +and asked him what had happened. As I placed my hand on his head, I +perceived that the veins were distended, and that the carotid and +temporal arteries were throbbing violently. I hastened to strike a +light, while he continued to repeat nearly the words I have just +mentioned, in a wild and incoherent manner. I could now see his +countenance, and it seemed as if the destroyer had been ravaging it. His +cap was gone. His hair, which was usually so neatly arranged, was tossed +over his face in twisted locks; his eyes were fixed, and bloodshot, and +sparkling. + +"'My dear friend, you are ill--you are excited--let me bring you to your +bed' (we occupied the large room in common, with a small bedroom for +each, leading from it); with this I took his arm, and gently urged him +to his apartment. + +"'Not there, not there!' he cried vehemently; 'Have I not lain _there_, +night after night, thinking of her?--have I not dreamed there happy +dreams, and seen dear delightful visions? Not there--never--never +again!' + +"'You shall not,' I said, endeavoring to humor him; 'you shall lie in my +bed, and I will watch by you till you are better.' + +"The young man burst into tears. This action evidently relieved him, and +made him more rational, for he took my arm and I assisted him to bed, +and tried to soothe him; but he soon relapsed into an excited fever. +Shortly after, he called me to him, and throwing his arms closely around +me, exclaimed, 'Partridge, we were born in the same land; I implore you, +by that one common tie, not to leave me an instant; I am a doomed +wretch; but save me, save me from the fiend, as long as it is possible.' + +"I now became very much alarmed. My first impulse was to administer an +opiate; but the case seemed so critical that I determined to send at +once for Louis, whose sympathy for the students, you know, is universal. +I called to young Stabb, who occupied the next room, and he set off +immediately. After a few minutes Dervilly dozed a little; and then he +started up, and gazed around, as if attempting to discern some object. + +"'Do you wish for any thing?' I said. He took no notice of my question, +but continued to glance piercingly in every direction. + +"'What do you see?' I asked. + +"'_La Morgue!_' he exclaimed, with a shudder, and pointing into the +other room--'_La Morgue!_' + +"He continued to gaze madly in the same way, still holding his arm +outstretched, while his whole frame seemed convulsed with terror; but I +could gain no clue to the catastrophe which had fallen so terribly on +the ill-fated sufferer. + +"It seemed to me an age--it really was but an hour--before Stabb +returned. He was accompanied by Louis. It was the great Louis whose +skill as a physician, and especially in the treatment of fevers, is +world renowned. I had 'followed' him during the whole of your absence; +had become, as a matter of course, one of his warmest admirers; and was +fortunate enough to secure his friendship. He also knew Dervilly. +Hearing them enter, I stepped into the principal room, to meet him. +'_Mon Dieu! Monsieur Partridge, quel est le mal?_' said Louis, with +great feeling. 'Monsieur Dervilly was at the hospital in the morning, +and I met him as late as six o'clock this afternoon, passing into the +_Jardin des Plants_.' + +"'God only knows,' I replied. 'Something horrible has suddenly befallen +him.' And I gave an account of what had occurred since Dervilly came to +his rooms. Louis was silent for a moment, and then began to question me +very minutely about him, while Stabb went in to keep watch over the poor +fellow.--Among other things, I mentioned his love affair; and believing +it to be my duty to do so, I told Louis, briefly, all Dervilly had +confided to me. He listened with great attention, and after I had +concluded, we passed into the little chamber where Dervilly lay. He +started up with violence as we came in, as if a severe paroxysm were +about to follow. He stared wildly on seeing Louis, and seizing his hand, +he exclaimed, 'Ah, _mon Professeur_, you are a very great man, and you +are very kind to come to me, but your knowledge avails nothing here,' +touching his forehead. Suddenly he extended his finger, and cried again, +'_La Morgue--La Morgue._' + +"'What see you in _La Morgue_?' said Louis, tenderly. + +"'See? _Her, her!_' screamed Dervilly. + +"'Who, _mon enfant_? said the Professor, very gently. + +"'Who, but the fiend--the fiend! She has my soul--lost, lost for ever.' + +"'You should not speak so harshly of Mademoiselle de Coigny,' continued +Louis, in a soothing tone. + +"'Pronounce not that name: a bait, a trap, a wile of Satan; repeat it, +and I will tear you piecemeal!' cried the maniac. + +"'But, _mon pauvre enfant_, what does she at La Morgue?' + +"'_She?_ the fiend--the fiend--sits perched on the top of the wooden +rail all night, watching--watching--and when some of the corpses show +signs of life, sails down, and sits upon, and strangles them. Keep me +away from there. Ah, _mon Professeur_, do not let me go there, to lie on +the board, and have her bending over me, eyeing me, watching me, ready +to strangle me. There again! keep those glazed eyes away--keep them +away, I say--' + +"All this time Louis was making a minute examination of Dervilly's +symptoms. + +"The latter presently seemed aware of what he was doing, for he +exclaimed, 'The usual symptoms, _eh, mon Professeur_; strongly marked, +_n'est ce pas_? Act promptly and decisively, as you say sometimes. Let +blood--let blood--_appliquez des sangsues_--ha, ha, ha! that's what we +call bleeding, both general and local, ha, ha, ha! then come on with +your cold applications: ice, ice, a mountain of ice piled round about +the head! follow up with cathartics, refrigerant diaphoretics, after +depleting blister!--say you not so?--blisters to the nape of the +neck--blisters behind the ears--shave the scalp--I forgot that--shave +the scalp--strange I had not thought of it,--and the hair. _Mon +Professeur_, I know you will think me very foolish, but--save the +hair--I shan't have another growth--save the hair. Where was I?--ah, the +blisters--that will pretty nearly do for me--keep every thing quiet, +very quiet--after a while, digitalis and nitre--digitalis and nitre, +_mon Professeur_--have I not said my lesson well?' + +"Louis stood perfectly still, regarding the poor fellow with a mournful +interest. As Dervilly paused, he took off his spectacles, and wiped his +eyes. 'Ah, Monsieur Louis, you talk very eloquently about medical +science, but I baffle you; I am sure of it. Call the class +together--_Ah, Notre Dame de Pitie_--call the class together; _voila la +clinique_. Thus being thus, it must necessarily be thus. That's a wise +saying, _mon Professeur_. Call the class together; propound why of +necessity you can do nothing? because of a necessity nothing can be +done. Call the class together; be active--vigorously antiphlogistic; +time is precious--the patient in danger. Purgatives--I doubt as to +purgatives. What think you?' And Dervilly paused, and cast on Louis a +look so naturally inquiring, that the latter replied, as it were, +involuntarily, '_Moi aussi je doute._' And it was so; with all his +genius, all his knowledge, all his experience, and all his skill, the +great practitioner stood, while minute after minute was lost, apparently +hesitating what to do. At last he called me into the other room. 'Is it +not possible to find Mademoiselle de Coigny?' he inquired. + +"'I have no means of knowing where to seek her,' I replied. At the same +time I remembered she was in the habit of visiting the house in which +Dervilly first met her, and fortunately knew the street and number. + +"'Let her be sent for instantly,' said Louis. 'Do not go yourself; you +may be of service here.' Accordingly I gave Stabb the direction, and +instructed him to procure Mademoiselle de Coigny's address, if possible; +but if he were unsuccessful in this, to communicate the fact of +Dervilly's alarming illness, and beg that Mademoiselle might be +immediately summoned. + +"We returned to the sick room, and Louis, seating himself in a chair, +remained lost in thought for nearly a quarter of an hour, while I did +what I could, to pacify the sufferer. I could not help wondering that a +man, so prompt and so efficient, should lose a moment when the least +delay was to be avoided; and as I was reflecting on this, Louis rose so +suddenly from his seat that I was startled. 'There is but one course, +and the poor boy has very accurately defined it. Let his head be shaved, +and pillowed in ice; bleed him at once--if he faints, all the better.' +'No danger of that,' shouted Dervilly. 'No syncope with me but the +_last_ syncope--no syncope--ha, ha, ha! double the ounces--you are +timid--no syncope, I say--' He continued the whole time raving, much in +the manner I have described. The room was kept quite dark, and no one +was permitted to come in. Louis did not leave the bedside the entire +night. Dervilly never slept for an instant. On one occasion he threw +himself close on one side, and screamed, 'Take her away--take her away!' + +"'What is it?' I asked. + +"'Do you not see her?' he shrieked, 'sitting on the bed, looking into my +eyes; take her away, take her away!' + +"I need not detail to you," continued Partridge, "the whole of these +fearful scenes. Late in the evening Stabb returned; he had found the +house; and although he could not obtain Mademoiselle de Coigny's +address, he was promised that his message should be communicated early +in the morning. + +"'It will be too late,' said Louis, mournfully. + +"What a long night it was. The morning dawned at last, but it brought no +change to poor Dervilly. I had sent for his nearest relative, who lived +over on the _Boulevard Poissonniere_, and was awaiting his arrival with +considerable anxiety. It was not later than nine. Stabb, the good +fellow, had relieved me from my watch, and I was in the sitting-room, in +my large arm-chair, still anxious and fearful, when there came a slight +tap at the door; it opened--and Emilie de Coigny stood before me. Ah, +how beautiful she was, yet how terrified! It was not terror of +excitement--mere surface passion--but from the depths of her soul. She +was stirred by intense emotion. 'Tell me,' she said, coming earnestly up +to me, 'tell me where he is, and what has happened to him!' I put my +finger on my lips to prevent her from saying more, and led her to the +further corner of the room; but she would not sit down; she begged to be +told every thing at once; and I, in a low voice, gave Mademoiselle do +Coigny a minute account of all I had witnessed. When I came to +Dervilly's exclamation, '_La Morgue--La Morgue_,' the young girl became +suddenly very pale, her fortitude forsook her, and she murmured faintly, +'He saw me go in--he saw me go in.' I must admit I was, for the moment, +not a little tremulous. I recollected stories of devils taking +possession of the dead bodies of virgins, in order to lure young men to +perdition. I thought of the tale of the German student, who, on retiring +with his bride, beheld her head roll from her body (she had been +guillotined that morning), leaving him wedded to the foul fiend. In +spite of me, I looked on the pale stricken creature before me as in one +way or another connected with the adversary, and holding a commission +from the Prince of the Power of the Air. I had little time for thought +on the subject, for Mademoiselle de Coigny insisted on seeing Dervilly. +I hesitated, but she was decided. She threw aside her pretty straw hat, +and a light shawl, and stepped toward the apartment where her lover lay. +She passed the threshold before he saw her. She called him by his name, +'Alfred.' He turned, and as his eyes fell on her, he uttered mad +exclamations; crouching frantically in the furthest corner of the bed. +'Avaunt,' he screamed; 'vampyre--devil--owl of hell--come no nearer, +(she still advanced, calling to him tenderly); I know that syren voice; +it has damned and double damned me.--Partridge! Stabb! take her away, +or,' he continued, in a fierce tone, 'I will do second execution on +her.' + +"Poor girl--it was too much--she swooned away.... + +"You may imagine that it was a terrible scene," continued Partridge. "I +set to work immediately for her recovery, having first carried her out +of the room where Dervilly lay. She opened her eyes at last, but what a +look of anguish was in them! 'Is he better?' she asked in a faint tone. +I shook my head. 'Tell me,' she exclaimed, 'will he die? oh, will he, +_must_ he die?' + +"'He is very sick, Mademoiselle.' + +"'I have killed him, I have killed him,' she cried. + +"'Pardon me', said I, 'Monsieur Dervilly is in great danger; still if we +knew the cause of this dreadful attack we might gain some advantage by +it.' + +"'Ah, it is my work,' murmured the fair mystery to herself, without +heeding my observation; 'I have done it, and if he dies, I am a +murderer--_his_ murderer.' She appeared no way disposed to betray her +secret, and I did not press the subject. Presently Louis came in. He +made his inquiries of me, and then went to the patient. There was no +change, except in the increase of fatal symptoms. The delirium was more +furious, the pulse hard, full, frequent, and vibrating. The most +vigorous course was adopted; two other students were called in to assist +Stabb and myself, and every means used to give effect to the prescribed +treatment. + +"As for Mademoiselle de Coigny, she remained in the sitting-room, the +picture of intense anguish. I urged her to retire, but she shook her +head. I now begged her to tell me what had caused this strange attack, +but she was silent. At length I went and called Madame Lecomte--you +recollect what a kind-hearted creature she was--and told her briefly the +little I knew of the unfortunate girl. She answered the summons at once, +and in the most gentle manner endeavored to persuade Mademoiselle de +Coigny to go with her. It was in vain. She would not leave the room. +Occasionally, through the day, she would step to Dervilly's bedside, and +in the softest, sweetest, gentlest tone I ever heard, say, 'Alfred.' The +effect was always the same as at first--exciting the poor fellow to +still deeper paroxysms, and more violent exclamations. On the fourth day +he died; the symptoms becoming more and more aggravating, until _coma_ +supervened to delirium. During the whole period of his sickness +Mademoiselle de Coigny never left the house--scarcely the room--Madame +Lecomte on two or three occasions almost forcing the wretched girl away +to her own apartments. When poor Dervilly sunk into that deep lethargic +slumber, so much dreaded by the physician, because so fatal, she came +almost joyfully into his chamber, and threw her arms tenderly around +him, 'He sleeps at last,' she said, 'is it not well?' + +"I would have given the world for the freedom of bursting into tears, so +deeply was I affected by that hopeful, trustful question. What could I +do, but shake my head mournfully and hasten out of the place.... He +died, and made no sign; not a word, not a look, not the slightest +pressure of the hand, for the one he loved so tenderly, and who watched +so anxiously for some slight token. 'Oh,' I exclaimed to myself, as the +hardness of such a fate was impressed on me, 'God is just, there is a +hereafter, these two _must_ meet again.' ... Emilie de Coigny left the +room where her dead lover lay, only when he himself was borne to his +last resting-place. She followed him to the spot where he was buried in +_Pere la Chaise_, and remained standing by it after every one else had +come away. In this position she was found--standing over the grave--late +at night by her friends--some members of the family I have +mentioned--who sought her out. She left that splendid city of the dead +bereft of reason, and so she has ever since continued. When the day is +fine, she invariably keeps her fancied engagement with her lover at the +appointed place in the _Jardin des Plants_; she patiently sits the hour, +and retires sadly, as you saw her. When the weather is forbidding, she +goes to her friend's house and waits the same period, never showing the +least symptom of impatience, but, on the contrary, evincing the signs of +a bruised but most gentle spirit." ... + +Here Partridge paused, as if at the end of his story. + +"Is that all?" said I. + +"That is all," he responded. + +"Surely not," I continued; "you have said nothing about the strange +mystery which killed our poor friend, and which, as it seems to me, is +the main point, in the story." + +"True enough--it is singular I should have left it out, but it is +explained in a word. These same friends of Mademoiselle de Coigny gave +me the information. It appears that on one inclement night, as the +_keeper of the Morgue_ was returning from an official visit to the Chief +of Police, toward his own quarters, which are adjoining and over the +_dead room_--he stumbled over something which a flash of lightning at +the instant showed to be the body of a man. He was quite dead, but, +nestled down close by his side, with one of her little hands on his +face, was a child, about two years of age. Jean Maurice Sorel, although +long inured to repulsive sights, had not grown callous to misery. By +birth he was considerably above his somewhat ignominious office; he had +narrowly escaped with his life when Louis XVI. was brought to the +scaffold, for some indiscreet expressions that savored too much of +royalty; but in the tumults which succeeded, he had, he scarcely knew +how, through some influence with the chief of one of the departments, +been appointed to this repulsive duty. But as I have said, his heart was +just as kind as ever, after many years discharge of it; and Jean Maurice +Sorel, instead of repining at his lot, blessed God daily that he had the +means of supporting a wife and children, while so many of his old +friends had literally starved to death. Such was the person who stumbled +over the body of the dead man, and discovered the living child beside +it. He called at once for assistance, and had the corpse conveyed to his +house, while he carried the little girl in his arms. She was too young +to give any information about herself, but on searching the pockets of +the deceased, several papers were found which disclosed enough to +satisfy Jean Maurice Sorel that in the wasted, attenuated form before +him, he beheld his once friend and benefactor the Marquis de Coigny, +who, he supposed, had perished by the guillotine in the revolution. The +papers permitted no doubt of the fact that the little girl was his +granddaughter and only descendant, and she was commended to the care of +the kind-hearted when death should overtake him. + +"The old Marquis was buried, and the little Emilie adopted into the +family of the good Jean Maurice. Her education was conducted in a manner +far superior to that of his own children, and the choicest garments of +those which fell to him were selected to be made over for her. Perhaps +unwisely, her history was explained to her, so that she lived all her +life with the sense that she belonged in a different sphere--not that +she was ungrateful or unamiable--quite the contrary--she was sweet +tempered, affectionate and gentle, and loved by Jean Maurice and all his +family with a devoted fondness: but the world had charms for her which +the world withheld; she felt that she never could become an object of +love where she could love in return, and so she repined at her destiny. +By accident she made the acquaintance of the family where Dervilly first +met her. They had known her father and her grandfather, and she loved +them for that. She resisted for a long time the feeling for her lover +which she perceived was taking strong hold of her, and when she could +resist no longer, she yet delayed to tell him what a home she inhabited. +This was her pride--her weakness--and how terribly did she pay the +penalty! Day after day (so I was told), she resolved to explain all, but +she procrastinated, till her lover, no longer able to restrain his +anxiety, and full of excitements and fears and perturbations, followed +her at some little distance, just at twilight, and saw or fancied he saw +her enter _La Morgue_. It was too much for his nervous temperament. His +brain caught fire--he came home raving with delirium--and DIED! Now you +have the whole." + + + + +A LEGEND. + +TRANSLATED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL FROM THE SPANISH, + +BY MRS. M. E. HEWITT. + + "Sin vos, y sin Dios y mi." + + + The motto that with trembling hand I write, + And deep is traced upon this heart of mine, + In olden time a loyal Christian knight + Bore graven on his shield to Palestine. + + "_Sin vos_," it saith, "if I am without thee," + Beloved! whose thought surrounds me every where-- + "_Sin Dios_," I am without God, "_y mi_," + And in myself I have no longer share. + + Where pealed the clash of war, the mighty din, + Where trump and cymbal crashed along the sky; + High o'er the "Il Allah!" of the Moslemin, + "God and my lady!" rang his battle-cry. + + His white plume waved where fiercest raged the flight, + His arm was strong the Paynim's course to stem: + His foot was foremost on the sacred height, + To plant the Cross above Jerusalem. + + False proved the lady, and thenceforth the knight, + Casting aside the buckler and the brand, + Lived, an austere and lonely anchorite, + In a drear mountain-cave in Holy Land. + + There, bowed before the Crucifix in prayer, + He would dash madly down his rosary, + And cry "Beloved!" in tones of wild despair, + "I have lost God, and self, in losing thee!" + + And I, if thus my life's sweet hope were o'er, + An echo of the knight's despair must be; + Thus I were lost, if loved by thee no more, + For, ah! myself and heaven are merged in thee. + + + + +CAGLIOSTRO, THE MAGICIAN. + +WRITTEN FOR THE INTERNATIONAL MONTHLY MAGAZINE. + +BY CHARLES WYLLYS ELLIOT. + + +"Know, then, that in the year 1743, in the city of Palermo, the family +of Signor Pietro Balsamo, a shopkeeper, were exhilarated by the birth of +a boy. Such occurrences have now become so frequent, that, miraculous as +they are, they occasion little astonishment;" and, it may be well to +add, that, except in some curious cases, there is no longer that +exhilaration now felt, but, as in Ireland, a leaden sense of future woe. +We are not told by the parents that any strange or miraculous appearance +attended or preceded this advent, though one cannot but believe that the +future Archimagus and his followers must have had a more or less +distinct opinion upon this point. Not to lose time in speculation, we +learn that "we have here found in the Count Alessandro di Cagliostro +(the above-named boy), pupil of the sage, Altholas--foster-child of the +Scherif of Mecca--probable son of the last king of Trebizond; named also +Acharat, and unfortunate child of nature; by profession, healer of +diseases, abolisher of wrinkles, friend of the poor and impotent, +grand-master of the Egyptian Mason lodge of High Science, spirit +summoner, gold cork, grand cophta, prophet, priest, and thaurmaturgic +moralist and swindler; really a LIAR of the first magnitude; +thorough-paced in all provinces of lying, what one may call their king." + +Under the common tent, the great canopy of life, it would not be fair to +prejudge the mind of the reader upon so grave a thing as character, +which we are now considering--it might be best to let each come to an +after-thought respecting it--upon our caustic and noble author let the +blame, if any, hang, while we now proceed to dip in, here and there, to +his magic page. + +As the boy grows, we learn, that "as he skulks about there, plundering, +pilfering, playing dog's-tricks, with his finger in every mischief, he +already gains character. Shrill housewives of the neighborhood, whose +sausages he has filched, whose weaker sons maltreated, name him Beppo +Maldetto, and indignantly prophecy that he will be hanged--a prediction +which the issue has signally falsified." We also may learn, what, in the +treatment of our whole subject it is extremely important to remember, +that, in the "boy," a "brazen impudence developes itself, the crowning +gift," &c. "To his astonishment," though, "he finds that even here he is +in a conditional world, and if he will employ his capability of eating +(or enjoying) must first, in some measure, work and suffer. Contention +enough hereupon; but now dimly arises, or reproduces itself, the +question. Whether there were not a _shorter_ road--that of stealing!" + +But how he was entered into the convent, and under the convent +apothecary proceeded to learn certain arts and mysteries of the retorts +and alembics (which lucky knowledge, after that, came to use), while he +was learning his other trade of monkery and mass-chanting, we will omit. +It is enough to know, that he would not answer for the convent, and was +again afloat on the wide sea of existence. That he floated is certain; +for "he has a fair cousin living in the house with him, and she again +has a lover. Beppo stations himself as go-between; delivers letters; +fails not to drop hints that a lady to be won or kept must be generously +treated; that such and such a pair of ear-rings, watch, or sum of money, +would work wonders: which valuables, adds the wooden Roman biographer, +he then appropriated furtively." Slowly but certainly he makes his way: +"tries his hand at forging" theatre tickets--a will even, "for the +benefit of a certain religious house;" and, further on, can tell +fortunes, and show visions in a small way--all these inspirations are +vouchsafed him, or, rather, these things he is permitted to do, and +others not to be mentioned here. + +It is well to note, that in all times, and among all peoples, there is a +deep and profound conviction that there _is_ not only a "short and +certain" way of getting to heaven, and to know the eternal truths, but +also that these earthly treasures do exist, in untold quantity, in the +elements; and if one could only discover the secret by which the gases +could be condensed into solid gold, or the gnomes be persuaded or +compelled to give them up, ready solidified to hand, it would at least +save time and be satisfactory. It is only curious, as a matter of +speculation, to know what we shall eat when the lucky age arrives, and +spirits will do our bidding in this matter of gold and diamonds. The +"boy," as he grew, discovered this world-wide capacity; and who should +have this power of setting the "spirits" to work but he? + +"Walking one day in the fields with a certain ninny of a goldsmith, +named Marano, Beppo begins in his oily voluble way to hint that +treasures often lay hid; that a certain treasure lay hid there (as he +knew by some pricking of his thumbs, divining rod, or other talismanic +monition), which treasure might, by the aid of science, courage, +secrecy, and a small judicious advance of money, be fortunately lifted. +The gudgeon takes--advances, by degrees, to the length of 'sixty gold +ounces'--sees magic circles drawn in the wane or the full of the moon, +blue (phosphorous) flames arise--split twigs auspiciously quiver--and at +length demands, peremptorily, that the treasure be dug!" + +Alas! why is it that the "spirits" so often fail us at our sorest need? +Do _they_ deceive us; and, if not, who does? The treasure vanishes, or +does not appear, "the conditions are imperfect," and the "ninny of a +goldsmith" being roughly handled by these spiritual visitants, +threatens to stiletto the adept; who, overcome with the ingratitude of +the world, concludes to quit;--at least, in the words of his Inquisition +biographer, "he fled from Palermo, and overran the whole earth." + +We may see how he has grown--how, as in ordinary mortals, he advances +step by step--even he, the favorite son of the higher intelligences, +learns as he goes. How is it, then, that we can have no full-grown +inspiration; that we know of no perfection--that we only go on towards +it? Can it be that prophets and priests really do _learn_, and that even +now, men may grow into the future? Might not a more thorough and +scientific seminary for this purpose be established than any we now +have--theologic, thaumaturgic, theosophic, or other variety? It is a +question easier asked than answered. + +"The Beppic Hegira brings us down in European history to somewhere about +the period of the peace of Paris"--(A.D. ----), supervening upon which +is a portentous time--"the multitudinous variety of quacks that, along +with Beppo, overran all Europe during that same period--the latter half +of the last century. It was the very age of impostors, cut-purses, +swindlers, double gaugers, enthusiasts, ambiguous persons, quacks +simple, quacks compound, crack-brained or with deceit prepense, quacks +and quackeries of all colors and kinds. How many mesmerists (so speaks +this strange author), magicians, cabalists, Swedenborgians, illuminati, +crucified nuns, and devils of Loudun! To which the Inquisition +biographer adds vampyres, sylphs, rosicrucians, free-masons, and an _et +cetera_. Consider your Schropfers, Cagliostros, Casanovas, Saint +Germains, Dr. Grahams, the Chevalier d'Eon, Psalmanazar, Abbe Paris, and +the Ghost of Cock-lane!--as if Bedlam had broken loose!" + +The great, the inexplicable, the mysterious Beppo, being now fairly +afloat, let us try to comprehend how he has begun to touch upon the edge +of those trade winds, which shall drive him along toward the golden +Indies, Ophir, and the land of promise, for which the men of this world +do so hunger and thirst. + +He married a beautiful Seraphina, afterward countess, graceful and +lady-like, once the daughter of a girdle-maker, and named Lorenza +Feliciani. Every one, simple or sedate, knows that it is best to hunt in +couples. What one has not the other may have. So Seraphina had beauty, +lightness, buoyancy, and could float up her count when the demons and +harpies of a certain troublesome devil, called law or justice, seemed +bent upon his swift destruction. Could she not, too, "enlist the +sympathies of admiring audiences"--by her sweet smiles and "artless +ways," gain belief, and "a wish to believe?" More than that, could she +not turn the heads of young and old? "noble" perhaps, perhaps +"ignoble"--"moneyed do-nothings" (so says this writer), whereof in this +vexed earth there are many, ever lounging about such (?) places--scan +and comment on the foreign coat-of-arms--ogle the fair foreign woman, +who timidly recoils from their gaze, timidly responds to their +reverences, as in halls and passages they obsequiously throw themselves +in her way. Ere long, one moneyed do-nothing (from amid his tags, +tassels, sword-belts, fop-tackle, frizzled hair, without brains beneath +it) is heard speaking to another--"Seen the countess?--divine creature +that!" Indeed, one cannot but wonder that any should question the unity +of the race, at least, of those known as "civilized." In a small way, or +in a large way, how this thing ever goes on--on church steps, on +Broadways, in Metropolitan Halls, Congresses, the Palais-Royal, at home +and abroad! And men do yet call _this_ "reverence for the sex," and holy +sentiment; and indulge in hallelujahs to that hoary myth, "a gentleman +of the old school;" while women--God help us--women loving it, hate +those who, hating it, hate hollowness and hell. With slight imagination, +then, one may see how important an element this "divine creature" must +have become in any conjuration or mystic "renovation of the universe," +which the high mystagogue might be impressed to set on foot. Enough, +that _she_ helped and learned the arts of prophecy and perfection faster +than her master! But we read--alas! alas!--"As his seraphic countess +gives signs of withering, and one luxuriant branch of industry will die +and drop off, others must be pushed into budding." He, the indefatigable +count, is not idle. "Faded dames of quality (over all Europe, all +creation) have many wants: the count has not studied in the convent +laboratory, or pilgrimed to the Count St. Germain, in Westphalia, to no +purpose. With loftiest condescension he stoops to impart somewhat of his +supernatural secrets--for a _consideration_. Rowland's Kalydor is +valuable; but what to the beautifying water of Count Alessandro! He that +will undertake to smooth wrinkles, and make withered, green parchment +into a fair carnation skin, is he not one whom faded dames of quality +will delight to honor? Or, again, let the beautifying-water succeed or +not, have not such dames (if calumny may in aught be believed) another +want? This want, too, the indefatigable Cagliostro will supply--for a +consideration. For faded gentlemen of quality the count likewise has +help. Not a charming countess alone, but a "wine of Egypt" (Cantharides +not being unknown to him), sold in drops, more precious than nectar; +which, what faded gentlemen of quality will not purchase with any thing +short of life. Consider, too, what may be done with potions, washes, +charms, love-philters, among a class of mortals idle from their mother's +womb," &c., &c. + +It is well to know, once for all, that the count, chief-priest of his +order--which yet thrives, and if not great, deserves to be called for +its number, Legion--made money out of this his enterprising trade; that +he was enabled to pay his way; to ride post with the ever potent +"voucher of respectability, a coach-and-four," with out-riders and +beef-eaters, and couriers and lackeys, and the other paraphernalia which +the greedy tooth of man desires--which helps one forward so far toward +happiness, provided always that "there _is_ no heaven above and no hell +beneath," of which let each first make sure; and more than all, let such +as wish to travel this road, take great courage from the contemplation +of this one model. + +We must hasten to the year 1776, a year rather noted in our annals, and +in that of England, perhaps, independently of this the "first visit" of +the famed Count Cagliostro to its shores, which happened then. Should it +have so chanced that he had lived now, would he have stopped there does +the reader think? Having an insight into _their_ national character, and +finding "great greed and need," and but small heed, what might he not +have done on this transatlantic shore, whose free people can so nobly +cherish even its Barnum, its----, its----! But let names go. We make the +most of what we have, and if not equal to the greatest, the fault rests +not on our shoulders. We are not responsible for the past, if for the +present or future. + +'Twas in England that the master developed most bravely the art of +prophecy; perhaps finding there a demand for his supply--such, according +to some, being the only law of God or man. It is enough to know that he +does a trade in foretelling the lucky lottery numbers by means of his +"occult science," whereby at least he put money in _his_ purse, and +satisfied good-natured men that as there were gulls, and necessarily a +guller, he above all others deserved praise and not blame; the whole +thing, this life, being really a juggle, and the smartest fellow of +course the best juggler. As man goes on he developes, so many think--so +did Cagliostro, and in his growth he reaches to masonry--Egyptian +masonry--and in "sworn secrecy" finds a new Talisman, for which men will +pay five guineas each. He resolves to "free it from all vile +ingredients, and make it a new Evangile." "No religion is excluded from +the Egyptian society"--for is it not certain that religion _pays_? +Charity too, pays, as we shall see by-and-by. No religion is +tabooed--none--all who admit the existence of a God, and the immortality +of the soul, may, for the small sum of five guineas, be certain to gain +"perfection by means of a physical and moral regeneration." He promises +them by the former or physical to find the _prime matter_ or +philosopher's stone, and the _acacia_ which consolidates in man the +forces of the most vigorous youth, and renders him immortal; and by the +latter or moral, to procure them a Pentagon which shall restore man to +his primitive state of innocence, lost by his original sin. It must be +understood that this masonry was founded by Enoch and Elias, had been +corrupted by the Egyptian priests, but was now restored to its pristine +vigor by its last and greatest Grand Cophta, and includes not only men +but women, of whom the Countess Seraphina is Cophtess. + +We cannot do better than to gain some insight into the forms and +symbolic practices of these worshippers; and especially will those who +desire to practise this or any short and easy way to perfection or +happiness, be glad to learn what has been done, and thus be encouraged +to begin. + +In the _Essai sur les Illumines_, printed in Paris in 1789, are the +following details quoted by this before-mentioned known author.[1] These +bear an air of truth and probability which will win for them easy +admission. Many of them are not unlike what we have seen amongst us +during the few past years. + +"They take a young lad or a girl who is in the state of innocence: such +they call the _Pupil_ or _Colomb_: the Venerable communicates to him the +power he would have had before the fall of man; which power consists +mainly in commanding the pure spirits: these spirits are to the number +of seven. It is said they surround the shrine, and that they govern the +seven planets. Their names are Arael, Michael, Raphael, Gabriel, Uriel, +Zobiachel, Anachiel." Nothing certainly can begin more favorably. We +learn that "she the Colomb," can act in two ways, either behind a +curtain, behind a hieroglyphically-painted screen with table and three +candles, or before the Caraffe and showing face. If the _miracle fail_ +it can only be because she is not "in the state of innocence." _An +accident must be guarded against._ Surely our mystic professors, both +clerical and lay, will take heed to these things. Much may be learned. + +Cagliostro accordingly (it is his own story) brought a little boy into +the lodge, son of a nobleman there. He placed him on his knees before a +table, whereon stood a bottle of pure water, and behind this some +lighted candles. He made an exorcism round the boy, put his hand on +head, and both in this attitude addressed their prayers to God for the +happy accomplishment of the work. Having then bid the child look into +the bottle, directly the child cried that he saw a garden. Knowing +hereby that Heaven assisted him [why this is so proven he does not +explain], Cagliostro took courage, and bade the child ask of God the +grace to see the Archangel Michael. At first the child said, "I see +something white; I know not what it is." Then he began jumping and +stamping like a possessed creature, and cried, "Now, I see a child like +myself, which seems to have something angelical (!)" _All the assembly +and Cagliostro himself remained speechless with emotion...._ [How like +this is to what we at this day have seen.] The child being anew +exorcised with the hands of the Venerable on his head, and the customary +prayers addressed to Heaven, he looked into the bottle, and said he saw +his sister at that moment coming down stairs, and embracing one of her +brothers. That appeared impossible, the brother in question being then +hundreds of miles off. However Cagliostro felt not disconcerted; said +they might send to the country-house, where the sister was, and see--if +they chose! + +Do some still doubt? Time nor paper will allow us to allay that doubt. +We must, as rapidly as we can, introduce what may yet be useful in +certain cases of the like kind, either in whole or in part. It is the +introduction of a novice into the holy Mysteries. + +"The recipiendary is led by a darksome path into a large hall, the +ceiling, the walls, the floor of which are covered by a black cloth, +sprinkled over with red flames and menacing serpents; three sepulchral +lamps emit from time to time a dying glimmer, and the eye half +distinguishes, in this lugubrious den, certain wrecks of mortality +suspended by funeral crapes; a heap of skeletons forms in the centre a +sort of altar; on both sides of it are piled books; some contain menaces +against the perjured; others the deadly narrative of the vengeance which +the invisible spirit has exacted; of the infernal evocations for a long +time pronounced in vain. + +"Eight hours elapse. Then phantoms, trailing mortuary vails, slowly +cross the hall and sink in caverns, without audible noise of trapdoors +or of falling. You notice only that they are gone by a fetid odor +exhaled from them. + +"The novice remains four and twenty hours in this gloomy abode, in the +midst of a freezing silence. A rigorous fast has already weakened his +thinking faculties. Liquors prepared for the purpose first weary and at +length wear out his senses. At his feet are placed three cups, filled +with a drink of a greenish color. Necessity lifts them to his lips: +involuntary fear repels them. + +"At last appear two men: looked upon as the ministers of Death. These +gird the pale brow of the recipiendary with an auroral-colored-ribbon +dipped in blood, and full of silvered characters mixed with our lady of +Loretto. He receives a copper crucifix, of two inches length: to his +neck are hung a sort of amulets wrapped in violet cloth. He is stripped +of his clothes; which two ministering brethren deposit on a funeral +pile, erected at the other end of the hall. With blood on his naked body +are traced crosses. In this state of suffering and humiliation, he sees +approaching with large strides five Phantoms armed with swords, and clad +in garments dropping blood. Their faces are vailed: they spread a velvet +carpet on the floor; kneel there, pray; and remain with outstretched +hands crossed on their breasts, and faces fixed on the ground in deep +silence. An hour passes in this painful attitude. After which fatiguing +trial, plaintive cries are heard; the funeral pile takes fire, yet casts +only a pale light; the garments are thrown on it and burnt. A colossal +and almost transparent figure rises from the very bosom of the pile. At +sight of it the five prostrated men fall into convulsions insupportable +to look on: the too faithful image of those foaming struggles wherein a +mortal, at hand-grips with a sudden pain, ends by sinking under it. + +"Then a trembling voice pierces the vault, and articulates the formula +of those execrable oaths that are to be sworn: my pen falters: I think +myself almost guilty to retrace them." + +Strange as it may seem, we stop here with Monsieur the Author. Strange +too that some deny the reality of all this--and tell of magic lanterns +and science--stranger still that men are who believe all--all--'tis to +them a spasmodic miracle, and he is an infidel of course who doubts. +Strange too is it, that men do not see here the monstrous power of what +is called Symbolism, and that they should not help nor hinder; who say, +Let the world go--who cares! Men live and women too who say, "There's +_something_ in it"--there must be! and is there not? Figure now all this +boundless cunningly devised agglomerate of royal arches, deaths' heads, +hieroglyphically painted screens, "columns in the state of innocence, +with spacious masonic halls--dark, or in the favorablest theatrical +light-and-dark: Kircher's magic lantern, Belshazzar handwritings (of +phosphorus), plaintive tones, gong-beatings, hoary head of a +supernatural Grand Cophta emerging through the gloom--and how it all +acts, not only directly through the foolish senses of men, but also +indirectly connecting itself with Enoch and Elias, with philanthropy, +immortality," &c. Let such as _will_ now say there is nothing in +it--something there is, for a thoughtful man to consider well of, asking +himself what also does this of clairvoyance, and spiritual knockings, +and Jenny-Lind manias, and Jerkers--truly mean? and what kind of a +person am _I who have had_ part and lot with these? + +But the lofty science of Egyptian Masonry flourishes, lodges are +established over Europe, and the Grand Master travels hither and +thither, "mounts to the seat of the Venerable, and holds high discourse, +hours long, on masonry, morality, universal science, divinity, and +things in general," with a "sublimity, and emphasis and unction," +proceeding it appears "from the special inspiration of the Holy Ghost." +He is received with shouts and exultation--every where the great heart +of man thrills at the coming of this mystic symbol, which +contains--cunningly enfolded, as their eyes can and do see--every +virtue, every greatness--is he not indeed the Incarnation of these, and +therefore to be worshipped; such gift of reverence is in the heart of +man, and to such things does he again and again bow down! + +To go on. Cheers, and the ravishment of thronging audiences can make him +maudlin; render him louder in eloquence of theory; and "philanthropy," +"divine science," "depth of unknown worlds," "finer feelings of the +heart"--and so shall draw tears from most asses of sensibility. "The few +reasoning mortals scattered here and there, that see through him, +deafened in the universal hub-bub, shut their lips in sorrowful disdain, +_confident in the grand remedy, Time_." So says our author, and can we +blame him? Will the reader allow the current of this prosperity to be +checked for one moment by a certain Count M.? One of the chosen few at +Warsaw, who having spent the night with the "dear Master," in conversing +with spirits, had returned to the country to transmute metals +perhaps--perhaps to do other mighty works. Count M. seems to have been +afflicted with doubts, to have supposed that by sleight-of-hand the +"sweet Master" had substituted the crucible with melted ducats, for the +other--carefully filled with red lead, "smelted and set to cool," "and +now found broken and hidden among these bushes"--the whole golden +crucible standing in its place. "Neither does the Plenagon or Elixir of +Life, or whatever it was, prosper better--our sweet master enters into +expostulation--swears by his great God, and his honor, that he will +finish the work and make us _happy_." In vain--"the shreds of the broken +crucible lie there before your eyes"--and the usurper has its place. +That "resemblance of a sleeping child, grown visible in the magic +cooking of our Elixir, proves to be an inserted rosemary leaf. The Grand +Cophta cannot be gone too soon." + +Already it has been said that "Charity pays," philanthropy, benevolence, +all these--sometimes? if one sows his bread on the waters shall he not +expect its return after many or after few days?--the sooner the better +for your Cagliostros, your Barnums. Shout it daily to an envious +world--"Am I not a charitable man? If I have done wrong myself (as who +has not?) has not a great deal of good _grown out_ of my wickedness? I +have therefore done my share, for which if the world has paid me in +'praise and pudding,' it is no more than it has done before, and will do +again!" Take courage! + +Cagliostro doctors--heals--the poor, for nothing!--even gives them +alms--does a great deal of good--who but he? At Strasburg in the year +1783 (year of our peace with England), he "appears in full bloom and +radiance, the envy and admiration of the world. In large hired +hospitals, he with open drug-box (containing 'Extract of Saturn'), and +even with open purse, relieves the suffering poor; unfolds himself +lamblike, angelic, to a believing few, of the rich classes. Medical +miracles have at all times been common, but what miracle is this of an +occidental or oriental Serene-highness that 'regardless of expense,' +employs himself in curing sickness, in illuminating ignorance?" We at +the present day know nothing like it; the mere giving of a few surplus +hundreds or thousands to certain Slavery, Anti-Slavery, Peace, +Temperance or other societies, is benevolence of the "rocking chair" +species--is not to be mentioned with this, of the self-denying +Cagliostro's diving into cellars, and mounting into garrets, to seek and +to save--at the risk of not only life but comfort--the first of which +happily was not thus sacrificed:--nor indeed on the whole was comfort +lost sight of, as the "coach-and-four with liveries and sumptuosities +bears witness." There is often profound wisdom in this thing called +_public_ or newspaper charity. Does it--or does it not--pay? + +The favorite of the gods, he who holds high discourse with spirits, and +to whom is opened the hidden secret of earth and heaven, finds ready +acceptance--backed as he is by charities, by elegancies: finds +acceptance with the poor, the ignorant to whom he ministers--but also +"with a mixture of sorrow and indignation" it is recorded, among the +great--and not only they, but among the learned, "even physicians and +naturalists." It does not seem worth while to expend sorrow and +indignation upon this fact, not at all new, as we now fifty years +farther along have discovered; for we can show our physicians and +naturalists, and also our priests and prophets, in small crowds with +whom marvels find acceptance. We shall see more of them by and by. + +But one among the rich and great, was the Cardinal Prince Count Rohan, +Archbishop of Strasburg. "Open-handed dupe," as some term him--now out +of favor with the Queen Marie Antoinette (after that beheaded and called +unfortunate). Banished from his beloved Paris and the sunshine of +royalty, what should he do but to regain his pedestal? necessary no +doubt, for the glory of God, and his church; necessary at least for the +Count Rohan. Cagliostro is all powerful--he will help the Cardinal +Prince--not only by philters and charms, but by prophecies from the +gods, who speaking through their earthly oracle, will of course (it +paying best), promise success and not failure. The Archbishop tries all +things, and at last the far-famed "diamond necklace," upon the queen, +which no woman's heart can withstand, not even the queen's. Sad to tell, +the miserable queen knew nothing of the necklace; and only the Md'lle De +la Motte, styled countess, by superior arts had outjuggled Cagliostro +himself, Cardinal Rohan, queen and all: the diamonds were gone--the +queen's character blackened, cardinal, cophta, and countess, all in the +Bastille, where they lay some nine months (year 1781), disastrous +months, when "high science" wasted itself in eating out its own heart. +Cagliostro escaped, was let go--but a plundered, banished, suspected +high priest, was quite another thing from a golden cophta, with the +foreign coat-of-arms, serene countess--and open purse relieving the +unfortunate. + +Cagliostro now flits to England, to Bale, to Brienne, to Aix, to Turin, +he wanders hither and thither; we cannot follow him. The end of all, the +lofty and the low, must come--that seems drawing near to Cagliostro +too--but how? not in ruddy splendor as of departing day, not quiet, +serene, as of nature sinking to rest--rather like the disastrous death +of the bleeding shark it seems: his brethren, his friends--- sharks of +his own kind, of all kinds, high and low--rush upon the wounded shark, +as to a banquet to which they were bidden. He is exiled here, he is +persecuted there--imprisonment, despair, degradation haunt him--the +houseless, unfortunate--now vagabond, once renovator of the human race, +and friend of lords and friend of gods and princes. Such is gratitude! +such is popular favor! a thing to be bought and bargained for, to be +given when _not needed_. Such, no doubt, Cagliostro decided! + +He is sore bested, and begins "to confess himself to priests," for a man +must do something in his extremity. It avails him not; he is at last in +the gripe of the holy Inquisition at Rome, "in the year of our Lord, +1789, December 29," and must match himself with a power which this world +knows something of: face to face, hand to hand, at last. Have they +juggles equal to his juggles, miracles equal to his--high science equal +to his--legions of angels equal to his?--enough that they have dungeons, +and sbirri--and in his case, hearts harder than the nether +mill-stone--not to be softened "by demands for religious +books"--assertions of the divinity of the Egyptian Masonry--promises of +wonderful revelations--oaths, flatteries, or any of the mystic +paraphernalia of the now powerless professor and prophet: they will not +let him out! but rather will introduce him to a new art, that of +becoming a Christian, and get him, the toughest in a tough time, into +heaven as they best can. Did they find Loyola's twenty days sufficient, +and was the article then turned out of hand complete for that other +state? The Inquisition biographer does not dwell upon this, it was +perhaps as well. We learn at last that he died in the year 1795, and +went, the writer says, "_Whither_ no man knows!" So ended a Magician! + +NEW HAVEN, Feb., 1852. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] T. Carlyle. + + + + +BITTER WORDS. + +WRITTEN FOR THE INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE, + +BY R. H. STODDARD. + + + Bitter words are easy spoken; + Not so easily forgot; + Hearts it may be can be broken-- + Mine cannot! + + When thou lovest me I adore thee; + Hating, I can hate thee too; + But I will not bow before thee-- + Will not sue! + + Even now, without endeavor, + Thou hast wounded so my pride, + I could leave thee, and for ever-- + Though I died! + + + + +THE MURDER OF LATOUR. + +WRITTEN FOR THE INTERNATIONAL MONTHLY MAGAZINE, + +BY HON. W. H. STILES.[2] + + +The cabinet remained in deliberation at the Ministry of War, situated at +the corner of the square called the Hof. The tide of insurrection now +rose to an unconquerable height. The nearest shots of the retiring +cannons, the advancing shouts of the infuriated people, warned the +ministers that all defence was rapidly becoming hopeless. The building +itself still offered some means of resistance, and there were two +cannons in the court; but at that crisis was issued a written order, +signed by Latour and Wessenberg, "to cease the fire at all points," and +given to officers for distribution.[3] It was in vain. The popular +torrent rolled on toward the seat of government, which was destined ere +long to be disgraced by atrocious crime. The minister of war, Count +Latour, prepared for defence. The military on guard in front of the war +office were withdrawn into the yards, with two pieces of artillery +loaded with grape. The gates were closed, the military distributed to +the different threatened points, and the cannons directed towards the +two gates; soon the scene of battle had reached the Bogner Gasse, +immediately under the windows of the war department; the ministers in +consultation heard the cry, "The military retreat." The great square of +the Hof was soon cleared, the soldiers retiring by the way of the +Freyung. The guards and academic legion pursuing; the military +commander's quarters in the Freyung are soon captured. The retiring +military not being able to escape through the Schotten-Thor, as they had +expected, that gate being closed and barricaded, they cut their way +through the Herrn Gasse. + +So intent were the respective combatants, either in retreat or pursuit, +that the whole tempest of war swept over the Hof, and left that square, +for a short time, deserted and silent. + +But that stillness was but of short duration; a few moments only had +elapsed, when a number of straggling guards, students, and people, came +stealing silently from the Graben, through the Bogner, Naglus, and +Glosken Gasse, on to the Hof, and removed the dead and the wounded into +the neighboring dwellings, and into the deserted guard-house in the war +department. These were soon followed by a fierce and noisy mob, armed +with axes, pikes, and iron bars, which halted before the war office, and +began to thunder at its massive doors. + +The officer of ordnance in vain attempted to communicate to the crowd +the order of the ministry, that all firing should cease. A member of the +academic legion, from the window, over the gateway, waved with a white +handkerchief to the tumultuous masses, and, exhibiting the order signed +by Latour and Wessenberg, read its contents to the crowd. + +But a pacification was not to be thought of; the people were too +excited, their fury could only be appeased by blood; that delayed +measure was not sufficient; they made negative gesticulations, and +summoned the student to come down and open the portals to their +admission. The tumult increased from minute to minute; the closed doors +at length gave way under the axes of the mob, and the people streamed +in, led by a man "in a light gray coat." + +The secretary of war, having by this time abandoned the idea of defence, +on the ground either that it was useless or impolitic, no shots were +fired or active resistance offered; but the orderlies with their horses +retired to the stables, and the grenadiers into an inner court. At first +only single individuals entered, and their course was not characterized +by violence; then groups, proceeding slowly, listening, and searching; +and, at last the tumultuous masses thundered in the rear. + +Ere long the cry rung on the broad staircase, "Where is Latour? he must +die!" At this moment the ministers and their followers in the building, +with the exception of Latour himself, found means to escape, or mingled +with the throng. The deputies, Smolka, Borrosch, Goldmark, and +Sierakowski, who had undertaken to guarantee protection to the +threatened ministers, arrived in the hope of restraining the mob. The +numerous corridors and cabinets of the war office (formerly a monastery +of the Jesuits) were filled with the crowd; the tide of insurrection now +rose to an uncontrollable height; and the danger of Latour became every +moment more imminent. + +The generals who were with him, perceiving the peril, entreated him to +throw himself upon the Nassau regiment or the Dutch Meister grenadiers, +and retreat to their barracks. He scorned the proposal, denied the +danger, and even refused, for some time, to change his uniform for a +civilian's dress, until the hazard becoming more evident, he put on +plain clothes, and went up into a small room in the roof of the +building, where he soon after signed a paper declaring that, with his +majesty's consent, he was ready to resign the office of minister of war. +A Tecnicker, named Ranch,[4] who, it was said, had come to relieve the +secretary of war, was seized and hung in the court by his own scarf, but +fortunately cut down by a National Guard before life was extinct. The +mob rushed into the private apartment of the minister, but plundered it +merely of the papers, which were conveyed to the university. They came +with a sterner purpose. The act of resignation, exhibited to the crowd +by the deputy Smolka, was scornfully received by the people, while the +freshness of the writing, the sand adhering still to the ink, betrayed +the proximity of the hand which had just traced it. Meanwhile, the crowd +had penetrated the corridors of the fourth story, and were not long in +discovering the place of Latour's concealment. Hearing their approach, +and recognizing the voice of Smolka, vice-president of the assembly, who +was doubtless anxious to protect him, Latour came out of his retreat. + +They descended together from the fourth story by a narrow stairway, on +the right-hand side of the building, and entered the yard by the pump. +At each successive landing place, the tumult and the crowd increased; +but the descent was slow, and rendered more and more difficult by the +numbers which joined the crowd at every turn of the stairs. At length +they reached the court below, and Count Latour, although he had been +severely pressed, was still unhurt; but here the populace, which awaited +them, broke in upon the group that still clustered around Latour, and +dispersed it. In vain did the deputies, Smolka and Sierakowski, endeavor +to protect the minister; in vain did the Count Leopold Gondrecourt +attempt to cover him by the exposure of his own body. A workman struck +the hat from his head; others pulled him by his gray locks, he defending +himself with his hands, which were already bleeding. At length a +ruffian, disguised as a Magyar, gave him, from behind, a mortal blow +with a hammer, the man in the gray coat cleft his face with a sabre, and +another plunged a bayonet into his heart. A hundred wounds followed, +and, with the words, "I die innocent!" he gave up his loyal and manly +spirit. A cry of exultation from the assembled crowd rent the air at +this event. Every indignity was offered to his body; before he had +ceased to breathe even, they hung him by a cord to the grating of a +window in the court of the war office. He had been suspended there but a +few minutes when, from the outrages committed on it, the body fell. + +They then dragged it to the Hof, and suspended it to one of the bronze +candelabras that adorn that extensive, and much frequented square, and +there treated it with every indignity; it remained for fourteen hours +exposed to the gaze of a mocking populace. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[2] A chapter from Mr. Stiles's forthcoming work on Austria, which we +have mentioned elsewhere in this number of the International. + +[3] The last order issued by the unfortunate Latour was instructed to +Colonel Gustave Schindler, of the imperial engineers, an efficient +officer, as well as a most amiable and accomplished gentleman, and one +well and favourably known in the United States, from his kind attention +to Americans who have visited the Austrian capital. The colonel was in +the act of passing out of the great door of the war office, which opens +on the Hof, when the mob reached that spot. Recognized by his imperial +uniform, he was instantly surrounded and attacked. He received many +blows on the head, inflicted by the crowd with clubs and iron bars; was +most severely wounded, and would probably have been killed but for the +timely interference of one of the rabble, who, riding up on horseback +between the colonel and the mob, shielded him from further blow, and +finally effected his escape. + +[4] A student of the Polytechnic school, for brevity, usually called +Tecnickers. + + + + +SOME SMALL POEMS. + +WRITTEN FOR THE INTERNATIONAL MONTHLY MAGAZINE, + +BY R. H. STODDARD. + + + SONG. + + I hung upon your breast in pain, + And poured my kisses there like rain; + A flood of tears, a cloud of fire, + That fed and stifled wild desire, + And lay like death upon my heart, + To think that we must learn to path; + For we must part, and live apart! + + Had I, that hour of dark unrest, + But plunged a dagger in your breast + And in mine own, it had been well; + For now I had been spared the hell + That racks my lone and loving heart, + To think that we must learn to part;-- + For we must part, and die apart! + + + LU LU. + + The shining cloud that broods above the hill, + Casts down its shadows over all the lawns, + The snowy swan is sailing out to sea, + Leaving behind a ruffled surge of light! + Lu Lu is like a cloud in memory, + And shades the ancient brightness of my mind: + A swan upon the ocean of my heart, + Floating along a path of golden thought! + + The light of evening slants adown the sky, + Poured from the inner folds of western cloud; + But in the cast there is a spot of blue, + And in that heavenly spot the evening star! + The tresses of Lu Lu are like the light, + Gushing from out her turban down her neck; + And like that Eye of heaven, her mild blue eye, + And in its deeps there hangs a starry tear! + + + THOSE WHO LOVE LIKE ME. + + Those who love like me, + When their meeting ends + Friends can hardly be, + But less or more than friends! + + With common words, and smiles, + We cannot meet, and part, + For something will prevent-- + Something in the heart! + + The thought of other days, + The dream of other years; + With other words, and smiles, + And other sighs and tears! + + For all who love like me, + When their parting ends, + Friends must never be, + But more or less than friends! + + + TO THE WINDS + + Blow fair to-day, ye changing Winds! + And smooth the story sea; + For now ye waft a sacred bark, + And bear a friend from me. + From you he flies, ye Northern Winds, + Your Southern mates to seek; + So urge his keel until he feels + Their kisses on his cheek: + And when their tropic kisses warm, + And tropic skies impart, + Their floods of sunshine to his veins, + Their gladness to his heart-- + Blow fair again, ye happy Winds! + And smooth again the sea, + For then ye'll waft the blessed bark, + And bear my friend to me! + + + "WIND OF SUMMER, MURMUR LOW." + + Wind of summer, murmur low, + Where the charmed waters flow, + While the songs of day are dying, + And the bees are homeward flying, + As the breezes come and go. + Come and go, hum and blow, + Winds of summer, sweet and low, + Ere my lover sinks to rest, + While he lies upon my breast, + Kiss his forehead, pale and fair, + Kiss the ringlets of his hair, + Kiss his heavy-lidded eyes, + Where the mist of slumber lies; + Kiss his throat, his cheek, his brow, + And his red, red lips, as I do now, + While he sleeps so sound and slow, + On the heart that loves him so, + Dreaming of the sad, and olden, + And the loving, and the golden + Wind of summers long ago! + + + + +THE LATE ELIOT WARBURTON. + + +The melancholy fate of the author of _The Crescent and the Cross_, +_Canada_, _Darien_, &c., has been stated in these pages. In Great +Britain, where he was well known and highly esteemed by literary men, +there have been many feeling and apparently just tributes to his memory, +one of the most interesting of which is a memoir in the _Dublin +University Magazine_, from which we transcribe the following paragraphs: + + "It was during an extended tour in the Mediterranean about + ten years ago, that Mr. Warburton sent some sheets of + manuscript notes to Mr. Lever, at that time Editor of the + _Dublin University Magazine_. These at once caught that + gentleman's attention, and he gladly gave them publicity, + under the title of "Episodes of Eastern Travel," in + successive numbers of the magazine, where they were + universally admired for the grace and liveliness of their + style. Mr. Lever, however, soon saw that though for the + purposes of his periodical these papers were extremely + valuable, the author was not consulting his own best + interests by continuing to give his travels to the world in + that form; and, with generous disinterestedness, advised him + to collect what he had already published, and the remainder + of his notes, and make a book of the whole. Mr. Warburton + followed his advice, entered into terms with Mr. Colburn, + and published his travels under the title of 'The Crescent + and the Cross.' + + "Of this book it is needless for us to speak. In spite of + the formidable rivalry of an 'Eothen,' which appeared about + the same time, it sprang at once into public favor, and is + one of the very few books of modern travels of which the + sale has continued uninterrupted through successive editions + to the present time. Were we to pronounce upon the secret of + its success, we should lay it to its perfect + _right-mindedness_. A changeful truth, a versatile propriety + of feeling initiates the author, as it were, into the heart + of each successive subject; and we find him as profoundly + impressed with the genius of the Holy Land, as he is + steeped, in the proper place, in the slumberous influences + of the dreamy Nile, upon whose bosom he rocks his readers + into a trance, to be awakened only by the gladsome + originality of these melodies which come mirthfully on their + ears from either bank. And, we may observe in passing, it is + precisely the _want_ of this, which prevents the + indisputable power and grace of 'Eothen' from having their + full effect with the public. + + "Passages of beauty, almost of sublimity, stand isolated + from our sympathies by the interposed cynicism of a few + caustic remarks; and scenes of the world's most ancient + reverence and worship become needlessly disenchanted under + the spell of some skeptical sneer. + + "But we must not turn aside to criticise. Since the + publication of the 'Crescent and the Cross,' Mr. Warburton + has written, or edited, a number of works, some historical, + others of fiction, of which his last romance, 'Darien,' only + appeared as he was on the eve of departing on the fatal + voyage. It has been remarked as a singular circumstance, + that in this tale has prefigured his own fate. A burning + ship is described in terms which would have served as a + picture of the frightful reality he was himself doomed to + witness. The coincidence, casual as it is, has imparted a + melancholy interest to that story, which will long be wept + over as the parting and presaging legacy of a gifted spirit, + prematurely snatched away. + + "These lighter effusions most probably grew out of the + craving of the publishers for the _prestige_ of his name, + already found to be valuable even on title-pages; and the + ready market they commanded could not but prove an + excitement to continue and multiply them. This might be + considered in an ulterior sense unfortunate; for we are + inclined to think that the true bent of Mr. Warburton's + mind, if not of his talents, was towards graver and less + imaginative studies; and we know that this propensity was + growing upon him with maturer years and soberer reflections. + + "It is not exclusively from the bearing of his researches + and the general drift of his correspondence that we infer + this; though both set latterly in that direction. He had for + some time been actually at work with definite objects in + view. One subject which he took up warmly was a _British_ + History of Ireland; that is, a history intended to deal + impartial justice between the Irish people on the one side, + and the British empire on the other; reviewing the politics + of successive periods, neither from the Irish nor the + English side of the question, but with reference to the + general interests of the whole. + + "The task, would have proved an arduous one, under any + circumstances--perhaps an invidious one; but what was worse, + even when accomplished, the book might have turned out a + dull affair. So, with a view to lightening the reading, he + had proposed to embody with it memoirs of the Viceroys, thus + keeping the British connection prominent, while enlivening + the pages with biographical touches. + + "Acting on these ideas, he had actually begun a 'History of + the Viceroys' in conjunction with a literary friend, and was + only deterred from prosecuting it by the apathy, or rather + discouragement, of the London publishers, who felt no + inclination to venture upon an Irish historical speculation. + Unfortunately, neither he nor his friend could afford to + pursue the task gratuitously, and it was accordingly + abandoned. + + "Still later, he employed himself in collecting materials + for a History of the Poor--a vast theme; perhaps too vast + for a single intellect to grasp. To him, however, it was a + labor of love; and he had succeeded in getting together a + considerable mass of curious and valuable material _pour + servir_. His last visit to his native country had researches + of this nature for one of its objects; and we are sure many + persons connected with the charitable institutions of + Dublin, will recollect the persevering zeal with which he + visited the haunts of poverty, as well as the asylums for + its relief, noting down every thing which might prove + afterwards serviceable on that suggestive topic. + + "With an upwelling of philanthropy so pure and perennial as + this, the preliminary investigations could have been only a + delight to him. Other men might be forced to them as a + revolting duty; he chose the inquiry, with very dubious + hopes of bettering himself by prosecuting it, because his + heart was full of compassion, and he thought he might do + good. We repeat, what we can state from personal knowledge, + that the bent of Mr. Warburton's mind was latterly towards + works of general utility; and it is with great satisfaction + we learn, what we had not been aware of until the public + papers announced it, that his projected visit to the New + World was a mission, in which the interests of humanity were + to have in him an advocate and champion. + + "Into his private life we feel that, under present + circumstances, it would be indelicate, as well as out of + place, to enter. Surrounded as he was with all the blessings + which the domestic relations can bestow, beloved by his + intimates, caressed by the gifted and the good, Eliot + Warburton lived the centre of a radiating circle of + happiness. His personal qualities were of no common order. + His society was eagerly sought after. With a fastidious + lassitude of air, and an apparent disinclination to + exertion, he possessed remarkable force of thought and + fluency of diction; and it was no uncommon thing to see him, + when he had begun to relate passages from his experience in + foreign countries, or adventures in his own, the centre of a + gradually increasing audience, amidst which he sat, + improvisating a sort of romantic recitation, until he was + completely carried away on the current of his own eloquence, + and lost every sense of where he was or what he was doing, + in the enthusiasm he had fanned up and saw reflected around + him. This power was a peculiar gift; and he loved to + exercise it. In this form many of his happiest effusions + have been given utterance to; and every body who has heard + him at such inspired moments has felt regret that the + brilliant bursts which so delighted him, should have been + stamped upon no more retentive tablets than the ears of + ordinary listeners. + + "Of this amiable, refined and gifted individual, we are + afraid to speak as warmly as our heart would dictate. Before + us lie the few hasty lines--but not too hurried to be the + channel of a parting kindness--scrawled to us on the first + day of this year--the last day the writer was ever to pass + in England. They are, perhaps, amongst the latest words he + ever wrote. 'I am off,' they run 'for the West Indies + to-morrow. _But I have accomplished your affair._' Oh, + vanity of human purpose! Man proposes--God disposes. We were + next to hear of him, standing on the deck of the burning + vessel in the Atlantic, alone with the captain, after every + other soul had disappeared, surveying--we feel convinced, + with a courage of a lion--the awful twofold death close + before him, and which he had in probability deliberately + preferred to an early relinquishment of his companions to + their fate. It is a fine picture--one that shall every hang + framed with his image in our memory; helping us to believe + that + + "'-----Lycidas our sorrow is not dead. + Sunk though he be beneath the watery flood,'-- + + But that he hath mounted to a higher sphere-- + + "'Through the dear might of Him that walked the waves.'" + + + + +AUTHOR OF "THE FOOL OF QUALITY." + + +Of the interesting papers in the February Dublin University Magazine, we +have read none with more satisfaction than the biographical sketch and +portrait of one of the most distinguished Irishmen of his own or any +age, the gifted and pure minded author of _Gustavus Vasa_ and _The Fool +of Quality_, HENRY BROOKE. Of his literary fate it might be said that +the most unfortunate thing he did was to assert the patriotism of Dean +Swift; and the most unfortunate thing was to be left out of Doctor +Johnson's "Lives of the Poets." Trials had he to undergo, although not +absolutely driven to the wall, like many children of "the fatal dowry," +and those of Irish complexion, in particular; but he bravely bore up +against them. Those who deem that relatives may live more happily apart, +and that friendship is best preserved in full dress, may look at the +picture of Henry Brooke, the poet and politician, and Robert Brooke, the +painter, with their wives and children, not less than twenty, living +together in perfect peace and amity at Daisy Park, in the flattest part +of Kildare, where, in those dull seats and distant times, a family +breeze might now and then have been looked on in the Irish sense as a +"convenience and a comfort." "While Henry wrote," says the biographer, +"Robert painted, and sold his pictures; and thus these two loving +brothers, having lost their property, made a right and manful use of +their intellectual gifts, and supported their large families by the +sweat of their brows." + + "In his politics, Brooke was of the old whig school; and, + had he lived in 1829, he would probably have been an + emancipator. He was a right-minded, ardent Irishman in his + love for fatherland; hated oppression; idolized liberty; + wrote most keenly against Poyning's infamous laws; mourned + over the misrule and misgovernment of his country, under the + tyranny and rapacity of the Stuart dynasty; admired King + William, and was an exulting Protestant; yet greatly loved + his Roman Catholic neighbors, and would preserve to them + their properties, though he disliked their principles, and + deprecated their ascendency." + +Dr. Johnson's feelings respecting Brooke are accounted for, not +improbably, as follows: + + "It may be asked why did Dr. Johnson exclude Brooke from his + 'Lives of the Poets,' where so many names of little note are + to be found? In 1739, Johnson had written in Brooke's praise + in his 'Complete Vindication,' and twenty years afterwards, + when the learned Dr. Campbell showed a spirited 'Prospectus + of a History of Ireland' written by him, to the great + moralist, he read it with much pleasure and praise, saying + that 'every line breathed the true fire of genius.' It is + recorded that, on this occasion, Johnson lamented that 'the + vanity of Irishmen, even if their patriotism were extinct, + did not enable Brooke to carry his design into execution.' + In Johnson's letter to Charles O'Connor we have his mind on + the subject. To Brooke he appears never to have written; + there had been an ancient quarrel between them. They had + argued and disagreed; and the traditionary story in Brooke's + family bears _so_ heavily on the manner of the philosopher, + and is _so_ flattering to the courtesy of the poet, that we + should prefer not to write it down. Brooke was at all times + strangely careless of fame; independent to a fault, and more + proud than vain; and though much urged by his friends to + humble himself, yet he could not be induced to 'bow down' to + the cap of this literary Gesler, much as he regarded his + learning and noble intellect. This dislike of the Doctor + continued during his life; and Boswell narrates that on the + occasion of a play being read to him (it was Brooke's + _Gustavus Vasa_) and a circle of friends, on coming to the + line-- + + "Who rules o'er free men should himself be free!' + + the company applauded, but Johnson said it might as well be + said-- + + "'Who drives fat oxen should himself be fat--' + + a stupid and inapt verbal sophism, and unworthy of his great + and good mind; but such was often his way. In this fashion + one might string endless parodies on the line, and equally + inapplicable; for example:-- + + "'Who keeps a madhouse should himself be mad!' + + "Mr. Brooke's elegant and honest mind probably had in view + that word of Scripture which saith, 'he that ruleth his own + spirit is better than he who taketh a city'--(Prov. xvi. + 32.) + +"By this unhappy difference Brooke lost his Johnsonian niche in the +temple of biographical fame. Yet we must remember that a better fate was +his,--'his record is on high,'--and his spirit with that Saviour who +loved him and made him what he was. Faults and inconsistency were in +him, no doubt, but still we know not of any of whom it could be so well +and suitably said-- + + "'His life was gentle, and the elements + So mixed him, that Nature might stand up + And say to all the world, 'This was a man.'" + + + + +BANCROFT'S AMERICAN REVOLUTION.[5] + +From the Westminster Review. + + +Among the historians who have attained a high and deserved reputation in +the United States, within the last few years, we are inclined to yield +the first place to George Bancroft. His great work on the history of the +United States has been brought down from the commencement of American +colonization to the opening of the Revolutionary War, to which subject +it is understood that he intends devoting the three succeeding volumes. +His researches in the public offices of England, while he was Minister +of the United States at the Court of St. James, have brought to light a +great mass of documentary evidence on the antecedents and course of the +Revolution, which have not yet been made public. With his critical +sagacity in sifting evidence, his hound-like instinct in scenting every +particle of testimony that can lead him on the right-track, and his +plastic skill in moulding the most confused and discordant materials +into a compact, symmetrical, and truthful narrative, he cannot fail to +present the story of that great historical drama with a freshness, +accuracy, and artistic beauty, worthy of the immortal events which it +commemorates. Mr. Bancroft is now exclusively occupied in the +completion of this work. He pursues it with the drudging fidelity of a +mechanical laborer, combined with the enthusiasm of a poet and the +comprehensive wisdom of a statesman. With strong social tastes, he gives +little time to society. His favorite post is in his library, where he +labors the live-long day in the spirit of the ancient artist, _Nulla +dies sine linea_. His experience in political and diplomatic life, no +less than his rare and generous culture, and his singular union of the +highest mental faculties, enable us to predict with confidence that this +work will be reckoned among the genuine masterpieces of historical +genius. The volumes of the History of the United States already +published, are well known to intelligent readers both in Great Britain +and America. They are distinguished for their compact brevity of +statement, their terse and vigorous diction, their brilliant panoramic +views, and the boldness and grace of their sketches of personal +character. A still higher praise may be awarded to this history for the +tenacity with which it clings to the dominant and inspiring idea of +which it records the development. Whoever reads it without comprehending +the standpoint of the author, is liable to disappointment. For it must +be confessed that as a mere narrative of events, the preference may be +given to the productions of far inferior authors. But it is to be +regarded as an epic in prose of the triumph of freedom. This noble +principle is considered by Mr. Bancroft as an essential attribute of the +soul, necessarily asserting itself in proportion to the spiritual +supremacy which has been achieved. The history, then, is devoted to the +illustration of the progress of freedom, as an out-birth of the +spontaneous action of the soul. It is in this point of view that the +remarkable chapters on the Massachusetts Pilgrims, the Pennsylvania +Quakers, and the North American Indians, were written; and their full +purport, their profound significance, can only be appreciated by readers +whose minds possess at least the seeds of sympathy and cognateness with +this sublime philosophy. The chapter on the Quakers is a pregnant +psychological treatise. Sparkling all over with the electric lights of a +rich humanitary philosophy, it invests the theologic visions of Fox and +Barclay with a radiance and beauty which have been ill-preserved in the +formal and lifeless organic systems of their successors. The parallel +run by the historian between William Penn and John Locke is one of the +most characteristic productions of his peculiar genius. Original, +subtle, suggestive, crowded with matter and frugal of words, it brings +out the distinctive features of the spiritual and mechanical schools in +the persons of two of their 'representative men,' with a breadth and +reality which is seldom found in philosophical portraitures. Mr. +Bancroft was the son of an eminent Unitarian clergyman in Worcester, +Massachusetts. He was born about the beginning of the present century, +and is consequently a little more than fifty years of age. He graduated +at Harvard University, with distinguished honors, before he had +completed his fifteenth year. Soon after he sailed for Europe, and +continued his studies at the German Universities, returning to his own +country just before the attainment of his majority. Devoting himself for +several years to literary and educational pursuits, he acquired a +brilliant reputation as a poet, critic, and essayist; and at a +subsequent period, entering the career of politics, he has signalized +himself by his attachment to democratic ideas, and the eloquence and +force with which on all occasions he has sustained the principles with +the prevalence of which he identifies the progress of humanity. + + * * * * * + +From the Athenaeum. + +The further this work proceeds, the more do we feel that it must take +its place as an essentially satisfactory history of the United States. +Mr. Bancroft is thoroughly American in thought and in feeling, without +ceasing to have those larger views and nobler sympathies which result +from cosmopolitan rather than from local training. His style is original +and national. It breathes of the mountain and the prairie--of the great +lakes and wild savannahs of his native land. A strain of wild and +forest-like music swells up in almost every line. The story is told +richly and vividly. It has hitherto been thought by Americans +themselves, even more than by Europeans, that the story of the English +colonies presented but a dreary and lifeless succession of petty +squabbles between the settlers and the crown officers--of unintelligible +persecutions of each other on the ground of differences of opinion in +religion. Mr. Bancroft has shown how ill founded has been this +impression. In his hands American history is full of fine effects. +Steeped in the colors of his imagination, a thousand incidents hitherto +thought dull appear animated and pictorial. Between Hildreth and +Bancroft the difference is immense. In the treatment of the former, +dates, facts, events are duly stated--the criticism is keen, the +chronology indisputable,--but the figures do not live, the narrative +knows no march. The latter is all movement. His men glow with human +purposes,--his story sweeps on with the exulting life of a procession. + +Yet because Mr. Bancroft contrives to bring out the more romantic +aspects of his theme, it is not to be supposed that he fails in that +strict regard to truth--truth of character as well as of incident--which +is the historian's first duty, and without which all other qualities are +useless. Of all American writers who have written on the history of +their own country, we would pronounce him to be the most conscientious. +His former volumes were remarkable for the amplitude and accuracy of +their references. The authorities cited were often recondite and +obscure,--yet it was evident that they had been sifted carefully and +critically. The same may be said of the volume before us. + +Careful research had enabled Mr. Bancroft to throw new light on several +points connected with the settlement and early history of his country. +As his dates approach nearer to the present time, the sources of new +information open on him in abundance. The MS, additions to our knowledge +of the times treated of in these volumes are considerable; but they are +spread pretty fairly over the entire narrative--lending a new light to +the events and adding a new trait to the characters--rather than thrown +into masses. The effect produced is more that of greater roundness and +completion than of absolute change in old historical verdicts. We quote +one out of innumerable instances of these minute but characteristic +additions. The historian is speaking of the Duke of Newcastle,--whose +ignorant government of the colonies was one of the chief sources of +their discontent:-- + + "For nearly four-and-twenty years he remained minister for + British America; yet to the last, the statesman, who was + deeply versed in the statistics of elections, knew little of + the continent of which he was the guardian. He addressed + letters, it used to be confidently said, to 'the island of + New England,' and could not tell but that Jamaica was in the + Mediterranean. Heaps of colonial memorials and letters + remained unread in his office; and a paper was almost sure + of neglect unless some agent remained with him to see it + opened. His frivolous nature could never glow with + affection, or grasp a great idea, or analyze complex + relations. After long research, I cannot find that he ever + once attended seriously to an American question, or had a + clear conception of one American measure." + +Walpole had told us that Newcastle did not know where Jamaica was:--the +amusing address "Island of New England" Mr. Bancroft finds referred to +in a manuscript letter of J. Q. Adams. It serves to suggest that what is +usually thought to be a joke of Walpole's was probably the literal +truth:--the man who is sufficiently innocent of geography to make New +England an island, would have no difficulty in confounding the East and +West Indies. + +In this volume we first meet with the great character who is to be the +hero of the Revolution now looming before the reader. Mr. Bancroft +treats us to no full-length portrait of George Washington:--instead of a +picture he presents us with the man. Washington comes before us at +twenty-one,--in the chamber of Governor Dinwiddie, of Virginia; from +whom he is accepting a perilous but most important mission--to cross the +forests, rivers, and mountains which separate Williamsburg and Lake +Erie, in the depths of a severe winter, and there endeavor to detach the +Delaware Indians from the French alliance. All the elements of +Washington's greatness--his courage, hardihood, military prescience, and +merciful disposition--are stamped indelibly on this the first act of his +public life:-- + + "In the middle of November, with an interpreter and four + attendants, and Christopher Gist as a guide, he left Will's + Creek, and following the Indian trace through forest + solitudes, gloomy with the fallen leaves, and solemn sadness + of late autumn, across mountains, rocky ravines, and + streams, through sleet and snows, he rode in nine days to + the fork of the Ohio. How lonely was the spot, where, so + long unheeded of men, the rapid Allegheny met nearly at + right angles 'the deep and still' water of the Monongahela! + At once Washington foresaw the destiny of the place. 'I + spent some time,' said he, 'in viewing the rivers;' 'the + land in the Fork has the absolute command of both.' 'The + flat, well-timbered land all around the point lies very + convenient for building.' After creating in imagination a + fortress and a city, he and his party swam their horses + across the Allegheny, and wrapt their blankets around them + for the night, on its northwest bank. From the Fork the + chief of the Delawares conducted Washington through rich + alluvial fields to the pleasing valley at Logstown. There + deserters from Louisiana discoursed of the route from New + Orleans to Quebec, by way of the Wabash and the Maumee, and + of a detachment from the lower province on its way to meet + the French troops from Lake Erie, while Washington held + close colloquy with the half-king; the one anxious to gain + the west as a part of the territory of the ancient dominion, + the other to preserve it for the Red Men. 'We are brothers,' + said the half-king in council; 'we are one people; I will + send back the French speech-belt, and will make the Shawnees + and the Delawares do the same.' On the night of the + twenty-ninth of November, the council-fire was kindled an + aged orator was selected to address the French the speech + which he was to deliver was debated and rehearsed; it was + agreed that, unless the French would heed this third warning + to quit the land, the Delawares also would be their enemies; + and a very large string of black and white wampun was sent + to the Six Nations as a prayer for aid. After these + preparations, the party of Washington, attended by the + half-king, and envoys of the Delawares, moved onwards to the + post of the French at Venango. The officers there avowed the + purpose of taking possession of the Ohio; and they mingled + the praises of La Salle with boasts of their forts at Le + Boeuf and Erie, at Niagara, Toronto, and Frontenac. 'The + English,' said they, 'can raise two men to our one; but they + are too dilatory to prevent any enterprise of ours.' The + Delawares were intimidated or debauched; but the half-king + clung to Washington like a brother, and delivered up his + belt as he had promised. The rains of December had swollen + the creeks. The messengers could pass them only by felling + trees for bridges. Thus they proceeded, now killing a buck + and now a bear, delayed by excessive rains and snows, by + mire and swamps, while Washington's quick eye discerned all + the richness of the meadows. At Waterford, the limit of his + journey, he found Fort Le Boeuf defended by cannon. Around + it stood the barracks of the soldiers, rude log-cabins, + roofed with bark. Fifty birch-bark canoes, and one hundred + seventy boats of pine, were already prepared for the descent + of the river, and materials were collected for building + more. The Commander, Gardeur de St. Pierre, an officer of + integrity and experience, and, for his dauntless courage, + both feared and beloved by the Red Men, refused to discuss + questions of right. 'I am here,' said he, 'by the orders of + my general, to which I shall conform with exactness and + resolution.' And he avowed his purpose of seizing every + Englishman within the Ohio Valley. France was resolved on + possessing the great territory which her missionaries and + travellers had revealed to the world. Breaking away from + courtesies, Washington hastened homewards to Virginia. The + rapid current of French Creek dashed his party against + rocks; in shallow places they waded, the water congealing on + their clothes; where the ice had lodged in the bend of the + rivers, they carried their canoe across the neck. At + Venango, they found their horses, but so weak, the + travellers went still on foot, heedless of the storm. The + cold increased very fast; the paths grew 'worse by a deep + snow continually freezing.' Impatient to get back with his + despatches, the young envoy, wrapping himself in an Indian + dress, with gun in hand and pack on his back, the day after + Christmas quitted the usual path, and, with Gist for his + sole companion, by aid of the compass, steered the nearest + way across the country for the Fork. An Indian, who had lain + in wait for him, fired at him from not fifteen steps' + distance, but, missing him, became his prisoner. 'I would + have killed him,' wrote Gist, 'but Washington forbade.' + Dismissing their captive at night, they walked about half a + mile, then kindled a fire, fixed their course by the + compass, and continued travelling all night, and all the + next day, till quite dark. Not till then did the weary + wanderers 'think themselves safe enough to sleep,' and they + encamped, with no shelter but the leafless forest-tree. On + reaching the Allegheny, with one poor hatchet and a whole + day's work, a raft was constructed and launched. But before + they were half over the river, they were caught in the + running ice, expecting every moment to be crushed, unable to + reach either shore. Putting out the setting-pole to stop the + raft, Washington was jerked into the deep water, and saved + himself only by grasping at the raft-logs. They were obliged + to make for an island. There lay Washington, imprisoned by + the elements; but the late December night was intensely + cold, and in the morning he found the river frozen. Not till + he reached Gist's settlement, in January, 1754, were his + toils lightened." + +Washington reported the state of affairs on the Lakes,--and active +measures were consequently adopted. Of the rapid and brilliant +development of his military genius, we are not now to trace the +progress; but it is scarcely possible to read without a shudder of "the +hair-breadth 'scapes" of the young man whose life was of such +inestimable consequence to his country. Thus, in the battle fought by +Braddock--to whom Washington acted as aide-de-camp--against the French +and Indians in 1755, he appeared to others as well as to himself to bear +a charmed life. In this action, says Mr. Bancroft,-- + + "Of eighty-six officers, twenty-six were killed--among them, + Sir Peter Halket,--and thirty-seven were wounded, including + Gage and other field officers. Of the men, one half were + killed or wounded. Braddock braved every danger. His + secretary was shot dead; both his English aids were disabled + early in the engagement, leaving the American alone to + distribute his orders. 'I expected every moment,' said one + whose eye was on Washington, 'to see him fall.' Nothing but + the superintending care of Providence could have saved him. + An Indian chief--I suppose a Shawnee--singled him out with + his rifle, and bade others of his warriors do the same. Two + horses were killed under him; four balls penetrated his + coat. 'Some potent Manitou guards his life,' exclaimed the + savage. 'Death,' wrote Washington, 'was levelling my + companions on every side of me, but, by the all-powerful + dispensations of Providence, I have been protected.' 'To the + public,' said Davis, a learned divine, in the following + month, 'I point out that heroic youth, Colonel Washington, + whom I cannot but hope Providence has preserved in so signal + a manner for some important service to his country.' 'Who is + Mr. Washington?' asked Lord Halifax, a few months later. 'I + know nothing of him,' he added, 'but that they say he + behaved in Braddock's action as bravely as if he really + loved the whistling of bullets.'" + +Thus opened that career of glory, moderation, and success--thus, at the +period of nascent manhood were exhibited the marking traits of that +serene and devoted character--which have placed the name of Washington +on the noblest and loftiest pedestal in the Temple of Fame. + +Leaving for a while the only figure in that scene of miserable and +savage warfare on which the mind can dwell with any degree of trust and +satisfaction, we will move to the north-east of the English settlements, +and follow the story of the unhappy people of Acadia. Mr. Bancroft has +drawn a touching picture of the homely virtues and obscure happiness of +this rural population before the interference of the British officers +changed their joy into wailing, and endowed their simple annals with a +dark and tragic interest:-- + + "After repeated conquests and restorations, the treaty of + Utrecht conceded Acadia, or Nova Scotia, to Great Britain. + Yet the name of Annapolis, the presence of a feeble English + garrison, and the emigration of hardly five or six English + families, were nearly all that marked the supremacy of + England. The old inhabitants remained on the soil which they + had subdued, hardly conscious that they had changed their + sovereign. They still loved the language and the usages of + their forefathers, and their religion was graven upon their + souls. They promised submission to England; but such was the + love with which France had inspired them, they would not + fight against its standard or renounce its name. Though + conquered they were French neutrals. For nearly forty years + from the peace of Utrecht they had been forgotten or + neglected, and had prospered in their seclusion. No + tax-gatherer counted their folds, no magistrate dwelt in + their hamlets. The parish priests made their records and + regulated their successions. Their little disputes were + settled among themselves, with scarcely an instance of an + appeal to English authority at Annapolis. The pastures were + covered with their herds and flocks; and dikes, raised by + extraordinary efforts of social industry, shut out the + rivers and the tide from alluvial marshes of exuberant + fertility. The meadows, thus reclaimed, were covered by + richest grasses, or fields of wheat, that yielded fifty and + thirty fold at the harvest. Their houses were built in + clusters, neatly constructed and comfortably furnished, and + around them all kinds of domestic fowls abounded. With the + spinning-wheel and the loom, their women made, of flax from + their own fields, of fleeces from their own flock, coarse, + but sufficient clothing. The few foreign luxuries that were + coveted could be obtained from Annapolis or Louisburgh, in + return for furs, or wheat, or cattle. Thus were the Acadians + happy in their neutrality and in the abundance which they + drew from their native land. They formed, as it were, one + great family. Their morals were of unaffected purity. Love + was sanctified and calmed by the universal custom of early + marriages. The neighbors of the community would assist the + new couple to raise their cottage, while the wilderness + offered land. Their numbers increased, and the colony, which + had begun only as the trading station of a company, with a + monopoly of the fur trade, counted, perhaps, sixteen or + seventeen thousand inhabitants." + +The transfer of this colony from French to English rule could not fail +to be productive of some untoward results. The native priests feared the +introduction among them of heretical opinions:--the British officers +treated the people with insolent contempt. "Their papers and records" +says our historian, "were taken from them" by their new masters:-- + + "Was their property demanded for the public service? 'they + were not to be bargained with for the payment.' The order + may still be read on the Council records at Halifax. They + must comply, it was written, without making any terms, + 'immediately,' or 'the next courier would bring an order for + military execution upon the delinquents.' And when they + delayed in fetching firewood for their oppressors, it was + told them from the governor, 'If they do not do it in proper + time, the soldiers shall absolutely take their houses for + fuel.' The unoffending sufferers submitted meekly to the + tyranny. Under pretence of fearing that they might rise in + behalf of France, or seek shelter in Canada, or convey + provisions to the French garrisons, they were ordered to + surrender their boats and their firearms; and, conscious of + innocence, they gave up their barges and their muskets, + leaving themselves without the means of flight, and + defenceless. Further orders were afterwards given to the + English officers, if the Acadians behaved amiss to punish + them at discretion; if the troops were annoyed, to inflict + vengeance on the nearest, whether the guilty one or + not,--'taking an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.'" + +There is no reason to believe that these atrocious orders were not +executed in the spirit in which they had been conceived. But worse +remained to come:-- + + "The Acadians cowered before their masters, hoping + forbearance; willing to take an oath of fealty to England; + in their single-mindedness and sincerity, refusing to pledge + themselves to bear arms against France. The English were + masters of the sea, were undisputed lords of the country, + and could exercise clemency without apprehension. Not a + whisper gave a warning of their purpose till it was ripe for + execution. But it had been 'determined upon' after the + ancient device of Oriental despotism, that the French + inhabitants of Acadia should be carried away into captivity + to other parts of the British dominions. * * France + remembered the descendants of her sons in the hour of their + affliction, and asked that they might have time to remove + from the peninsula with their effects, leaving their lands + to the English; but the answer of the British Minister + claimed them as useful subjects, and refused them the + liberty of transmigration. The inhabitants of Minas and the + adjacent country pleaded with the British officers for the + restitution of their boats and their guns, promising + fidelity, if they could but retain their liberties, and + declaring that not the want of arms, but their conscience, + should engage them not to revolt. 'The memorial,' said + Lawrence in Council, 'is highly arrogant, insidious and + insulting.' The memorialists, at his summons, came + submissively to Halifax. 'You want your canoes for carrying + provisions to the enemy,' said he to them, though he knew no + enemy was left in their vicinity. 'Guns are no part of your + goods,' he continued, 'as by the laws of England all Roman + Catholics are restrained from having arms, and are subject + to penalties if arms are found in their houses. It is not + the language of British subjects to talk of terms with the + Crown, or capitulate about their fidelity and allegiance. + What excuse can you make for your presumption in treating + this government with such indignity as to expound to them + the nature of fidelity? Manifest your obedience by + immediately taking the oaths of allegiance in the common + form before the Council.' The deputies replied that they + would do as the generality of the inhabitants should + determine; and they merely entreated leave to return home + and consult the body of their people. The next day, the + unhappy men, foreseeing the sorrows that menaced them, + offered to swear allegiance unconditionally." + +But it was now too late. The savage purpose had been formed. That the +cruelty might have no excuse, it happened that while the scheme was +under discussion letters arrived leaving no doubt that all the shores of +the Bay of Fundy were in the possession of the British. It only remained +to be fixed how the exportation should be effected:-- + + "To hunt them into the net was impracticable; artifice was + therefore resorted to. By a general proclamation, on one and + the same day, the scarcely conscious victims, 'both old men + and young men, as well as all the lads of ten years of age,' + were peremptorily ordered to assemble at their respective + posts. On the appointed 5th of September, they obeyed. At + Grand Pre, for example, 418 unarmed men came together. They + were marched into the church, and its avenues were closed, + when Winslow, the American commander, placed himself in + their centre, and spoke:--'You are convened together to + manifest to you His Majesty's final resolution to the + French inhabitants of this his province. Your lands, and + tenements, cattle of all kinds, and live stock of all sorts, + are forfeited to the crown, and you yourselves are to be + removed from this his province. I am, through his Majesty's + goodness, directed to allow you liberty to carry off your + money and household goods, as many as you can, without + discommoding the vessels you go in.' And he then declared + them the King's prisoners. Their wives and families shared + their lot; their sons, 527 in number, their daughters, 576; + in the whole, women and babes and old men and children all + included, 1,923 souls. The blow was sudden; they had left + home but for the morning, and they never were to return. + Their cattle were to stay unfed in the stalls, their fires + to die out on their hearths. They had for that first day + even no food for themselves or their children, and were + compelled to beg for bread. The 10th of September was the + day for the embarkation of a part of the exiles. They were + drawn up six deep, and the young men, 161 in number, were + ordered to march first on board the vessel. They could leave + their farms and cottages, the shady rocks on which they had + reclined, their herds and their garners; but nature yearned + within them, and they would not be separated from their + parents. Yet of what avail was the frenzied despair of the + unarmed youth? They had not one weapon; the bayonet drove + them to obey; and they marched slowly and heavily from the + chapel to the shore, between women and children, who + kneeling, prayed for blessings on their heads, they + themselves weeping, and praying, and singing hymns. The + seniors went next; the wives and children must wait till + other transport vessels arrived. The delay had its horrors. + The wretched people left behind were kept together near the + sea, without proper food or raiment, or shelter, till other + ships came to take them away; and December with its + appalling cold had struck the shivering, half-clad, + broken-hearted sufferers before the last of them were + removed. 'The embarkation of the inhabitants goes on but + slowly,' wrote Monckton, from Fort Cumberland, near which he + had burned three hamlets, 'the most part of the wives of the + men we have prisoners are gone off with their children, in + hopes I would not send off their husbands without them.' + Their hope was vain. Near Annapolis, a hundred heads of + families fled to the woods, and a party was detached on the + hunt to bring them in. 'Our soldiers hate them,' wrote an + officer on this occasion, 'and if they can but find a + pretext to kill them, they will.' Did a prisoner seek to + escape, he was shot down by the sentinel. Yet some fled to + Quebec; more than 3,000 had withdrawn to Miramichi and the + region south of the Ristigouche; some found rest on the + banks of the St. John's and its branches; some found a lair + in their native forests; some were charitably sheltered from + the English in the wigwams of the savages. But 7,000 of + these banished people were driven on board ships, and + scattered among the English colonies, from New Hampshire to + Georgia alone; 1,020 to South Carolina alone. They were cast + ashore without resources; hating the poor-house as a shelter + for their offspring, and abhorring the thought of selling + themselves as laborers. Households, too, were separated; the + colonial newspapers contained advertisements of members of + families seeking their companions, of sons anxious to reach + and relieve their parents, of mothers mourning for their + children. The wanderers sighed for their native country; but + to prevent their return, their villages, from Annapolis to + the isthmus, were laid waste. Their old homes were but + ruins. In the district of Minas, for instance, 250 of their + houses, and more than as many barns, were consumed. The live + stock which belonged to them, consisting of great numbers of + horned cattle, hogs, sheep, and horses, were seized as + spoils and disposed of by the English officials. A beautiful + and fertile tract of country was reduced to a solitude. + There was none left round the ashes of the cottages of the + Acadians but the faithful watch-dog, vainly seeking the + hands that fed him. Thickets of forest-trees choked their + orchards; the ocean broke over their neglected dikes, and + desolated their meadows." + +Nor were the woes of this ill-treated people ended: + + "Relentless misfortune pursued the exiles whereever they + fled. Those sent to Georgia, drawn by a love for the spot + where they were born as strong as that of the captive Jews, + who wept by the side of the rivers of Babylon for their own + temple and land, escaped to sea in boats, and went coasting + from harbor to harbor; but when they had reached New + England, just as they would have set sail for their native + fields, they were stopped by orders from Nova Scotia. Those + who dwelt on the St. John's were torn once more from their + new homes. When Canada surrendered, hatred with its worst + venom pursued the 1,500 who remained south of the + Ristigouche. Once more those who dwelt in Pennsylvania + presented a humble petition to the Earl of Loudoun, then the + British Commander in-Chief in America; and the cold-hearted + peer, offended that the prayer was made in French, seized + their five principal men, who in their own land had been + persons of dignity and substance, and shipped them to + England, with the request that they might be kept from ever + again becoming troublesome by being consigned to service as + common sailors on board ships of war." + +And so it was throughout:--"We have been true," said they in one of +their petitions, "to our religion, and true to ourselves; yet nature +appears to consider us only as the objects of public vengeance."--"I +know not," writes Mr. Bancroft, "if the annals of the human race keep +the records of wounds so wantonly inflicted, so bitter and so perennial +as fell upon the French inhabitants of Acadia." + +American history has at least one element of peculiar character. The +voyage of the Pilgrim Fathers--the settlement of the Virginia +cavaliers--the foundation of Pennsylvania,--though all events of +profound moral interest, as well as productive of fine pictorial +effects, are not without parallels more or less close in the varied tale +of ancient and modern colonization. But that which is distinctive and +peculiar in the story of American civilization is, its struggle against +the Red Men. Settlers, it is true, have often found themselves in +strange company. In Africa the Greek colonizer elbowed the swarthy +Ethiop. In South America the Spaniard stood beside the Peruvian and the +Carib. Dutchmen have encountered the Malay and the Dyak. For two +centuries English settlers have had to deal with the uncivilized races +of the East and West--from the Bushmen of the Cape to the savages of New +Zealand. But none of these races present the same attractive features as +the brethren of the Iroquois and the Mohicans. About these latter there +are points of romantic and chivalric interest. Though not free from the +vices of the savage, they often exhibit virtues which might shame the +European. There is something of dignity in their aspect and bearing. +They are seldom without a natural and original poetic sense,--and their +language has a wild Ossianic music. They are bold in metaphor and apt in +natural illustration. A group of actors on the scene having +characteristics so peculiar and so attractive as the Red Skin is +invaluable to a historian whose tendency is to see events and note +character under their most pictorial aspects. + +The part taken by the Indians in that war between the French and English +in America which ended in the conquest of Quebec and the expulsion of +the Lilies from Canada is narrated at great length by Mr. Bancroft,--and +the atrocious nature of the conflict is well brought out. At the +commencement of the war, we are allowed a glimpse at a curious +war-council: + + "'Brothers,' said the Delawares to the Miamis, 'we desire + the English and the Six Nations to put their hands upon your + heads, and keep the French from hurting you. Stand fast in + the chain of friendship with the Government of Virginia.' + 'Brothers,' said the Miamis to the English, 'your country is + smooth; your hearts are good; the dwellings of your + governors are like the spring in its bloom.' 'Brothers,' + they added to the Six Nations, holding aloft a calumet + ornamented with feathers, 'the French and their Indians have + struck us, yet we kept this pipe unhurt;' and they gave it + to the Six Nations, in token of friendship with them and + with their allies. A shell and a string of black wampum were + given to signify the unity of heart; and that, though it was + darkness to the westward, yet towards the sun-rising it was + bright and clear. Another string of black wampum announced + that the war-chiefs and braves of the Miamis held the + hatchet in their hand, ready to strike the French. The + widowed Queen of the Piankeshaws sent a belt of black shells + intermixed with white. 'Brothers,' such were her words, 'I + am left a poor, lonely woman, with one son, whom I commend + to the English, the Six Nations, the Shawnees, and the + Delawares, and pray them to take care of him.' The Weas + produced a calumet. 'We have had this feathered pipe,' said + they, 'from the beginning of the world; so that when it + becomes cloudy, we can sweep the clouds away. It is dark in + the west, yet we sweep all clouds away towards the + sun-rising, and leave a clear and serene sky.' Thus, on the + alluvial lands of Western Ohio, began the contest that was + to scatter death broadcast through the world. All the + speeches were delivered again to the Deputies of the + Nations, represented at Logstown, that they might be + correctly repeated to the head Council at Onondaga. An + express messenger from the Miamis hurried across the + mountains, bearing to the shrewd and able Dinwiddie, the + Lieutenant-Governor of Virginia, a belt of wampum, the scalp + of a French Indian, and a feathered pipe, with letters from + the dwellers on the Maumee and on the Wabash. 'Our good + brothers of Virginia,' said the former, 'we must look upon + ourselves as lost, if our brothers, the English, do not + stand by us and give us arms.' 'Eldest brother,' pleaded the + Picts and Windaws, 'this string of wampum assures you, that + the French King's servants have spilled our blood, and eaten + the flesh of three of our men. Look upon us and pity us, for + we are in great distress. Our chiefs have taken up the + hatchet of war. We have killed and eaten ten of the French + and two of their negroes. We are your brothers; and do not + think this is from our mouth only; it is from our very + hearts.' Thus they solicited protection and revenge." + +The Duke of Newcastle was unequal to the task of driving the soldiers of +France from Canada or from the valley of the Mississippi. The North and +South were both in the hands of France. The route of the Ohio and the +Mississippi had been discovered by adventurers and missionaries of that +nation; and a few years of quiet possession of the territory would have +allowed French statesmen to consolidate their power in those regions, +and to draw a strong cordon around the entire group of English colonies +on the Atlantic sea-board. But Pitt's genius was brought to bear at a +critical moment on the arrangement of this great question--and he +conceived the project of breaking the Mississippi line and attacking the +enemy in their strongholds on the St. Lawrence. Three expeditions were +fitted out. Amherst and Wolfe were ordered to join the fleet under +Boscawen, destined to act against Louisburgh--Forbes was sent to the +Ohio Valley--Abercrombie was intrusted with the command against Crown +Point and Ticonderoga, though Lord Howe was sent out with the last named +as the real soul of the enterprise. Mr. Bancroft writes: + + "None of the officers won favor like Lord Howe and Wolfe. + Both were still young. To high rank and great connections + Howe added manliness, humanity, capacity to discern merit, + and judgment to employ it. As he reached America, he entered + on the simple austerity of forest warfare. James Wolfe, but + thirty-one years old, had already been eighteen years in the + army; was at Dettingen and Fontenoy, and had won laurels at + Laffeldt. Merit made him at two-and-twenty a + lieutenant-colonel, and his active genius improved the + discipline of his battalion. He was at once authoritative + and humane, severe, yet indefatigably kind; modest, but + aspiring and secretly conscious of ability. The brave + soldier dutifully loved and obeyed his widowed mother, and + his gentle nature saw visions of happiness in scenes of + domestic love, even while he kindled at the prospect of + glory, as 'gunpowder at fire.'" + +On the 28th of May the expedition reached Halifax.-- + + "For six days after the British forces on their way from + Halifax to Louisburgh, had entered Chapeau Rouge Bay, the + surf, under a high wind, made the rugged shore inaccessible, + and gave the French time to strengthen and extend their + lines. The sun still dashed heavily, when, before daybreak, + on the 8th of June, the troops, under cover of a random fire + from the frigates, attempted disembarking. Wolfe, the third + brigadier, who led the first division, would not allow a gun + to be fired, cheered on the rowers, and, on coming to shoal + water, jumped into the sea; and, in spite of the surf, which + broke several boats and upset more, in spite of the + well-directed fire of the French, in spite of their + breastwork and rampart of felled trees, whose interwoven + branches made one continued wall of green, the English + landed, took the batteries, drove in the French, and on the + same day invested Louisburgh. At that landing, none was more + gallant than young Richard Montgomery; just one-and-twenty; + Irish by birth; an humble officer in Wolfe's brigade; but + also a servant of humanity, enlisted in its corps of + immortals. The sagacity of Wolfe honored him with + well-deserved praise, and promotion to a lieutenancy. On the + morning of the 12th, an hour before dawn, Wolfe, with light + infantry and Highlanders, took by surprise the light-house + battery on the north-east side of the entrance to the + harbor; the smaller works were successively carried. On the + 23d, the English battery began to play on that of the French + on the island near the centre of the mouth of the harbor. + Science, sufficient force, union among the officers, + heroism, pervading mariners and soldiers, carried forward + the siege, during which Barre by his conduct secured the + approbation of Amherst and the confirmed friendship of + Wolfe. Of the French ships in the port, three were burned on + the 21st of July; in the night following the 25th, the boats + of the squadron, with small loss, set fire to the Prudent, a + seventy-four, and carried off the Bienfaisant. Boscawen was + prepared to send six English ships into the harbor. But the + town of Louisburgh was already a heap of ruins; for eight + days, the French officers and men had had no safe place for + rest; of fifty-two cannon opposed to the English batteries + forty were disabled. The French had but five ships of the + line and four frigates. It was time for the Chevalier de + Drucour to capitulate. The garrison became prisoners of war, + and, with the sailors and marines, in all 5,637, were sent + to England. On the 27th of July, the English took possession + of Louisburgh, and, as a consequence, of Cape Breton and + Prince Edward's Island. Thus fell the power of France on our + eastern coast. Halifax being the English naval station, + Louisburgh was deserted. The harbor still offers shelter + from storms; the coast repels the surge: but a few hovels + only mark the spot which so much treasure was lavished to + fortify, so much heroism to conquer. Wolfe, whose heart was + in England, returned home with the love and esteem of the + army. His country was full of exultation; the trophies were + deposited with pomp in the cathedral of St. Paul's; the + churches gave thanks; Boscawen, himself a member of + parliament, was honored by a unanimous tribute from the + House of Commons. New England, too, triumphed; for the + praises awarded to Amherst and Wolfe recalled the heroism of + her own sons." + +This success inspired Pitt to still greater efforts. He resolved to +annex the "boundless north," as it was then called, to the British +empire in America; and early in the spring Wolfe again went out,--this +time, to conquer Quebec and find a soldier's grave. Many of his +companions in arms were then and afterwards famous men:--Jervis, +afterwards the renowned Earl St. Vincent, James Cook, the navigator, +George Townshend, Barre, and Colonel Howe. + + "On the 26th of June, the whole armament arrived, without + the least accident, off the Isle of Orleans, on which, the + next day, they disembarked. A little south of west the cliff + of Quebec was seen distinctly, seemingly impregnable, rising + precipitously in the midst of one of the grandest scenes in + nature. To protect this guardian citadel of New France, + Montcalm had of regular troops no more than six wasted + battalions; of Indian warriors few appeared, the wary + savages preferring the security of neutrals; the Canadian + militia gave him the superiority in numbers; but he put his + chief confidence in the natural strength of the country. + Above Quebec, the high promontory on which the upper town is + built expands into an elevated plain, having towards the + river the steepest acclivities. For nine miles or more above + the city, as far as Cape Rouge, every landing-place was + intrenched and protected. The river St. Charles, after + meandering through a fertile valley, sweeps the rocky base + of the town, which it covers by expanding into sedgy + marshes. Nine miles below Quebec, the impetuous Montmorenci, + after fretting itself a whirlpool route, and leaping for + miles down the steps of a rocky bed, rushes with velocity + towards the ledge, over which, falling two hundred and fifty + feet, it pours its fleecy cataract into the chasm. As Wolfe + disembarked on the Isle of Orleans, what scene could be more + imposing? On his left lay at anchor the fleet with the + numerous transports; the tents of his army stretched across + the island; the intrenched troops of France, having their + centre at the village of Beanport, extended from the + Montmorenci to the St. Charles; the city of Quebec, + garrisoned by five battalions, bounded the horizon. At + midnight on the 28th, the short darkness was lighted up by a + fleet of fire-ships, that, after a furious storm of wind, + came down with the tide in the proper direction. But the + British sailors grappled with them and towed them free of + the shipping. The river was Wolfe's; the men-of-war made it + so; and, being master of the deep water, he also had the + superiority on the south-shore of the St. Lawrence. In the + night of the 29th, Monckton, with four battalions, having + crossed the south channel, occupied Point Levi; and where + the mighty current, which below the town expands as a bay, + narrows to a deep stream of but a mile in width, batteries + of mortars and cannon were constructed. The citizens of + Quebec, foreseeing the ruin of their houses, volunteered to + pass over the river and destroy the works; but, at the + trial, their courage failed them, and they retreated. The + English, by the discharge of red-hot balls and shells, set + on fire fifty houses in a night, demolished the lower town, + and injured the upper. But the citadel was beyond their + reach, and every avenue from the river to the cliff was too + strongly intrenched for an assault." + +The summer was going rapidly, and as yet no real progress had been made. +Wolfe was eager for action,--and he pursued his researches into the +nature of the formidable position with extraordinary eagerness:-- + + "He saw that the eastern bank of the Montmorenci was higher + than the ground occupied by Montcalm, and, on the 9th of + July, he crossed the north channel and encamped there; but + the armies and their chiefs were still divided by the river + precipitating itself down its rocky way in impassable eddies + and rapids. Three miles in the interior, a ford was found; + but the opposite bank was steep, woody, and well intrenched. + Not a spot on the line of the Montmorenci for miles into the + interior, nor on the St. Lawrence to Quebec, was left + unprotected by the vigilance of the inaccessible Montcalm. + The General proceeded to reconnoitre the shore above the + town. In concert with Saunders, on the 18th of July, he + sailed along the well-defended bank from Montmorenci to the + St. Charles: he passed the deep and spacious harbor, which, + at four hundred miles from the sea, can shelter a hundred + ships of the line; he neared the high cliff of Cape Diamond, + towering like a bastion over the waters, and surmounted by + the banner of the Bourbons; he coasted along the craggy wall + of rock that extends beyond the citadel; he marked the + outline of the precipitous hill that forms the north bank of + the river,--and every where he beheld a natural fastness, + vigilantly defended, intrenchments, cannon, boats, and + floating batteries guarding every access. Had a detachment + landed between the city and Cape Rouge, it would have + encountered the danger of being cut off before it could + receive support. He would have risked a landing at St. + Michael's Cove, three miles above the city, but the enemy + prevented him by planting artillery and a mortar to play + upon the shipping. Meantime, at midnight, on the 28th of + July, the French sent down a raft of five-stages, consisting + of nearly a hundred pieces; but these, like the fire-ships a + month before, did but light up the river, without injuring + the British fleet. Scarcely a day passed but there were + skirmishes of the English with the Indians and Canadians, + who were sure to tread stealthily in the footsteps of every + exploring party. Wolfe returned to Montmorenci. July was + almost gone, and he had made no effective advances. He + resolved on an engagement. The Montmorenci, after falling + over a perpendicular rock, flows for three hundred yards, + amidst clouds of spray and rainbow glories, in a gentle + stream to the St. Lawrence. Near the junction, the river + may, for a few hours of the tide, be passed on foot. It was + planned that two brigades should ford the Montmorenci at the + proper time of the tide, while Monckton's regiments should + cross the St. Lawrence in boats from Point Levi. The signal + was made, but some of the boats grounded on a ledge of rocks + that runs out into the river. While the seamen were getting + them off, and the enemy were firing a vast number of shot + and shells, Wolfe, with some of the navy officers as + companions, selected a landing-place; and his desperate + courage thought it not yet too late to begin the attack. + Thirteen companies of grenadiers, and two hundred of the + second battalion of the Royal Americans, who got first on + shore, not waiting for support, ran hastily towards the + intrenchments, and were repulsed in such disorder that they + could not again come into line; though Monckton's regiment + had arrived, and had formed with the coolness of invincible + valor. But hours hurried by; night was near; the clouds of + midsummer gathered heavily, as if for a storm; the tide + rose; and Wolfe, wiser than Frederic at Colin, ordered a + timely retreat." + +In this unsuccessful attempt Wolfe lost 400 men. On the tortures of a +body wasted by fever and a mind preyed on by its own restless energy, we +will not dwell. Wolfe reckoned on assistance from the corps of +Amherst,--but this did not arrive. At last he perceived that his fate +rested in his own hands alone,--and he conceived the daring plan of +attack which has given to his name the soldier's immortality. We extract +Mr. Bancroft's account of the brilliant attack which cost our young hero +his life and the French their dominions in Northern America:-- + + "Every officer knew his appointed duty, when, at one o'clock + in the morning of the 13th September, Wolfe, with Monckton + and Murray, and about half the forces, set off in boats, and + without sail or oars, glided down with the tide. In + three-quarters of an hour the ships followed, and, though + the night had become dark, aided by the rapid current, they + reached the cove just in time to cover the landing. Wolfe + and the troops with him leaped on shore; the light infantry, + who found themselves borne by the current a little below the + intrenched path, clambered up the steep hill, staying + themselves by the roots and boughs of the maple and spruce + and ash trees that covered the precipitous declivity, and, + after a little firing, dispersed the picket which guarded + the height. The rest ascended safely by the pathway. A + battery of four guns on the left was abandoned to Colonel + Howe. When Townshend's division disembarked, the English had + already gained one of the roads to Quebec, and, advancing in + front of the forest, Wolfe stood at daybreak with big + invincible battalions on the plains of Abraham, the + battle-field of empire. 'It can be but a small party come to + burn a few houses and retire,' said Montcalm, in amazement, + as the news reached him in his intrenchments the other side + of the St. Charles; but, obtaining better + information,--'Then,' he cried, 'they have at last got to + the weak side of this miserable garrison; we must give + battle and crush them before mid-day.' And before ten, the + two armies, equal in numbers, each being composed of less + than five thousand men, were ranged in presence of one + another for battle. The English, not easily accessible from + intervening shallow ravines, and rail fences, were all + regulars, perfect in discipline, terrible in their fearless + enthusiasm, thrilling with pride at their morning's success, + commanded by a man whom they obeyed with confidence and + love. The doomed and devoted Montcalm had what Wolfe had + called but 'five weak French battalions,' of less than two + thousand men, 'mingled with disorderly peasantry,' formed on + ground which commanded the position of the English. The + French had three little pieces of artillery, the English one + or two. The two armies cannonaded each other for nearly an + hour; when Montcalm, having summoned Bougainville to his + aid, and despatched messenger after messenger for De + Vaudreuil, who had fifteen hundred men at the camp, to come + up, before he should be driven from the ground, endeavored + to flank the British and crowd them down the high bank of + the river. Wolfe counteracted the movement by detaching + Townshend with Amherst's regiment, and afterwards a part of + the Royal Americans, who formed on the left with a double + front. Waiting no longer for more troops, Montcalm led the + French army impetuously to the attack. The ill-disciplined + companies broke by their precipitation and the unevenness of + the ground; and fired by platoons, without unity. The + English, especially the forty-third and forty-seventh, where + Monckton stood, received the shock with calmness; and after + having, at Wolfe's command, reserved their fire till their + enemy was within forty yards, their line began a regular, + rapid, and exact discharge of musketry. Montcalm was present + every where, braving danger, wounded, but cheering by his + example. The second in command, De Sennezergues, an + associate in glory at Ticonderoga, was killed. The brave but + untried Canadians, flinching from a hot fire in the open + field, began to waver; and, so soon as Wolfe, placing + himself at the head of the twenty-eighth and the Louisburgh + grenadiers, charged with bayonets, they every where gave + way. Of the English officers, Carleton was wounded; Barre, + who fought near Wolfe, received in the head a ball which + destroyed the power of vision of one eye, and ultimately + made him blind. Wolfe, also, as he led the charge, was + wounded in the wrist, but still pressing forward, he + received a second ball; and, having decided the day, was + struck a third time, and mortally, in the breast. 'Support + me,' he cried to an officer near him: 'let not my brave + fellows see me drop.' He was carried to the rear, and they + brought him water to quench his thirst. 'They run, they + run,' spoke the officer on whom he leaned. 'Who run?' asked + Wolfe, as his life was fast ebbing. 'The French,' replied + the officer, 'give way every where.' 'What,' cried the + expiring hero, 'do they run already? Go, one of you, to + Colonel Burton; bid him march Webb's regiment with all speed + to Charles River to cut off the fugitives.' Four days + before, he had looked forward to early death with dismay. + 'Now, God be praised, I die happy.' These were his words as + his spirit escaped in the blaze of his glory. Night, + silence, the rushing tide, veteran discipline, the sure + inspiration of genius had been his allies; his battle-field, + high over the ocean-river, was the grandest theatre on earth + for illustrious deeds; his victory, one of the most + momentous in the annals of mankind, gave to the English + tongue and the institutions of the Germanic race the + unexplored and seemingly infinite West and North. He crowded + into a few hours actions that would have given lustre to + length of life; and filling his day with greatness, + completed it before its noon." + +In that terrible action fell also "the hope of New France." In +attempting to rally a body of fugitive Canadians in a copse near St. +John's Gate, Montcalm was mortally wounded. + +We have quoted enough from this volume to show how varied and stirring +are the subjects with which Mr. Bancroft here deals. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[5] _History of the American Revolution._ By George Bancroft. Vol. I. +Boston, Little & Brown, 1852. + + + + +From the London Literary Gazette + +LIFE IN CANADA. + +BY MRS. MOODIE.[6] + + +If there be one of life's affairs in which woman has a peculiar right to +have her wishes considered and her veto respected, it is that of +emigration. For, in the arduous task of establishing a new home in a +half-settled country, let man do what he will to alleviate, on her fall +the burthen and heat of the day. Hers are the menial toils, the frequent +anxieties, the lingering home-sickness, the craving after dear friends' +faces and a beloved native land. Hers, too, the self-imposed duty and +unselfish effort to hide regret under cheerful smiles, when the weary +brother or husband returns at evening from toil in field and forest. +Blessed and beautiful are the smiles of the sad-hearted, worn to wile +away another's cares! + +Love in a cottage has long been jeered at, and depicted as flying out of +the window. It seems miraculous to behold the capricious little deity +steadfastly braving, for many a long year, the chilly atmosphere of a +log-hut in an American forest. In the year 1832, Mrs. Moodie (here +better remembered as Miss Susanna Strickland, sister of the well-known +historian of the English and Scottish Queens) accompanied her husband, a +half-pay subaltern, to the backwoods of Canada. Many were her +misgivings, and they did not prove unfounded. Long and cruel was the +probation she underwent, before finding comparative comfort and +prosperity in the rugged land where at first she found so much to +embitter her existence. Nobly did she bear up under countless +difficulties and sufferings, supported by an energy rare in woman, and +by her devoted attachment to the husband of her choice. For some years +her troubles were not occasional, but continual and increasing. Her +first installation in a forest home could hardly have been more +discouraging and melancholy than it was: + + "The place we first occupied was purchased of Mr. C----, a + merchant, who took it in payment of sundry large debts, + which the owner, a New England loyalist, had been unable to + settle. Old Joe H--, the present occupant, had promised to + quit it with his family at the commencement of sleighing; + and as the bargain was concluded in the month of September, + and we were anxious to plough for fall wheat, it was + necessary to be upon the spot. No house was to be found in + the immediate neighborhood save a small dilapidated log + tenement, on an adjoining farm (which was scarcely reclaimed + from the bush), that had been some months without an owner. + The merchant assured us that this could be made very + comfortable until such time as it suited H--to remove." + +With singular want of caution, Mr. and Mrs. Moodie neglected to visit +this "log tenement" before signing an agreement to rent it. On a rainy +September day they proceed to take possession: + + "The carriage turned into a narrow, steep path, overhung + with lofty woods, and after laboring up it with considerable + difficulty, and at the risk of breaking our necks, it + brought us at length to a rocky upland clearing, partially + covered with a second growth of timber, and surrounded on + all sides by the dark forest. 'I guess,' quoth our Yankee + driver, 'that at the bottom of this 'ere swell, you'll find + yourself _to hum_;' and plunging into a short path cut + through the wood, he pointed to a miserable hut, at the + bottom of a steep descent, and cracking his whip, exclaimed, + 'It's a smart location that. I wish you Britishers may enjoy + it.' I gazed upon the place in perfect dismay, for I had + never seen such a shed called a house before. 'You must be + mistaken; that is not a house, but a cattle-shed, or + pig-sty.' The man turned his knowing keen eye upon me, and + smiled, half humorously, half maliciously, as he said, 'You + were raised in the old country, I guess; you have much to + learn, and more perhaps than you'll like to know, before the + winter is over.'" + +The prophet of evil spoke truly. It was a winter of painful instruction +for the inexperienced young woman, and her not very prudent husband. We +might fill columns with a bare list of their vexations and disasters. +Amongst the former, not the least arose from the borrowing propensities +of their neighbors. They had 'located' in a bad neighborhood, in the +vicinity of a number of low Yankee squatters, "ignorant as savages, +without their courtesy and kindness." These people walked +unceremoniously at all hours into their wretched dwelling, to criticise +their proceedings, make impertinent remarks, and to borrow--or rather to +beg or steal, for what they borrowed they rarely returned. The most +extraordinary loans were daily solicited or demanded; and Mrs. Moodie, +strange and timid in her new home, and amongst, these +semi-barbarians--her husband, too, being much away at the farm--for some +time dared not refuse to acquiesce in their impudent extortions. Here is +a specimen of the style of these miscalled 'borrowings.' On the first +day of their arrival, whilst they were yet toiling to exclude wind and +rain from the crazy hovel, which their baggage and goods filled nearly +to the roof, a young Yankee 'lady' squeezed herself into the crowded +room: + + "Imagine a girl of seventeen or eighteen years of age, with + sharp, knowing-looking features, a forward impudent carnage, + and a pert flippant voice, standing upon one of the trunks, + and surveying all our proceedings in the most impertinent + manner. The creature was dressed in a ragged, dirty, purple + stuff gown, cut very low in the neck, with an old red cotton + handkerchief tied over her head; her uncombed, tangled locks + falling over her thin, inquisitive face in a state of + perfect nature. Her legs and feet were bare, and in her + coarse, dirty, red hands she swung to and fro an empty glass + decanter." + +The mission of this squalid nymph was not to borrow but to lend. She +"guessed the strangers were fixin' there," and that they'd want a glass +decanter to hold their whisky, so she had brought one over. "But +mind--don't break it," said she; "'tis the only one we have to hum, and +father says it's so mean to drink out of green glass"--a sentiment +worthy of a colonel of hussars. Although quite pleased by such +disinterested kindness and attention, Mrs. Moodie declined the decanter, +on the double ground of having some of her own, and of not drinking +whisky. The refusal was unavailing. The lady in ragged purple set down +the bottle on a trunk, as firmly as if she meant to plant it there, and +took herself off. The next morning cleared up the mystery of her +perseverance. "Have you done with that 'ere decanter I brought across +yesterday?" said the 'cute damsel, presenting herself before Mrs. Moodie +with her bare red knees peeping through her ragged petticoats, and with +face and hands innocent of soap. The English lady returned the bottle, +with the remark that she had never needed it. + + "'I guess you won't return it empty,' quoth the obliging + neighbor; 'that would be mean, father says. He wants it + filled with whisky.'" + +The hearty laugh which this solution of the riddle provoked from the +inmates of the log-house offended the female Yankee, who tossed the +decanter from hand to hand and glared savagely about her. But the +ridicule was insufficient to deter her from the whisky hunt. When +assured there was none in the place, she demanded rum, and pointed to a +keg, in which she said she smelt it. Her keen olfactories had not +deceived her. The rum, she was told, was for the workmen: + + "'I calculate,' was the reply, 'when you've been here a few + months, you'll be too knowing to give rum to helps. But + old-country folks are all fools, and that's the reason they + get so easily sucked in, and be so soon wound up. Cum, fill + the bottle, and don't be stingy. In this country we all live + by borrowing. If you want any thing, why, just send and + borrow from us.'" + +When the decanter was filled and delivered to this saucy mendicant, Mrs. +Moodie ventured to petition for a little milk for her infant, but +Impudence in purple laughed in her face, and named an exorbitant price +at which she would _sell_ it her, for cash on delivery. It seems +incredible that, after this ingratitude, Mrs. Moodie continued her +'lendings' to the family of which her new acquaintance was a +distinguished ornament. + + "The very day our new plough came home, the father of this + bright damsel, who went by the familiar name of _Old Satan_, + came over to borrow it (though we afterwards found out that + he had a good one of his own). The land had never been + broken up, and was full of rocks and stumps, and he was + anxious to save his own from injury; the consequence was, + that the borrowed implement came home unfit for use, just at + the very time we wanted to plough for fall wheat. The same + happened to a spade and trowel, bought in order to plaster + the house. Satan asked the loan of them for _one_ hour, for + the same purpose, and we never saw them again." + +The other neighbors were no better. One Yankee dame used to send over +her son, a hopeful youth, Philander by name, almost every morning, to +borrow the bake-kettle, in which hot cakes were cooked for breakfast. +One day, when Mrs. Moodie was later than usual in rising, she heard from +her bedroom the kitchen latch lifted. It was Philander, come for the +kettle. + + "_I (through the partition):_ 'You can't have it this + morning. We cannot get our breakfast without it,' + _Philander:_ 'No more can the old woman to hum,' and, + snatching up the kettle, which had been left to warm on the + hearth, he rushed out of the house, singing at the top of + his voice, 'Hurrah for the Yankee boys!' When James (the + servant) came home for his breakfast, I sent him across to + demand the kettle, and the dame very coolly told him, that + when she had done with it I might have it; but she defied + him to take it out of her house with her bread in it." + +Since the request of the drover who begged his comrade to lend him a +bark of his dog, we have not heard of queerer loans than some of those +solicited of Mrs. Moodie:-- + + "Another American squatter was always sending over to borrow + a small-tooth comb, which she called a _vermin destroyer_; + and once the same person asked the loan of a towel, as a + friend had come from the States to visit her, and the only + one she had, had been made into a best 'pinny' for the + child: she likewise begged a sight in the looking-glass, as + she wanted to try on a new cap, to see if it were fixed to + her mind. This woman must have been a mirror of neatness + when compared with her dirty neighbors. One night I was + roused up from my bed for the loan of a pair of + 'steelyards.' For what purpose, think you, gentle reader? To + weigh a new-born infant. The process was performed by tying + the poor squalling thing up in a small shawl, and suspending + it to one of the hooks. The child was a fine boy, and + weighed ten pounds, greatly to the delight of the Yankee + father. One of the drollest instances of borrowing I have + ever heard of was told me by a friend. A maid-servant asked + her mistress to go out on a particular afternoon, as she was + going to have a party of her friends, and _wanted the loan + of the drawing-room_." + +Traits such as these exhibit, more vividly than volumes of description, +the sort of savages amongst whom poor Mrs. Moodie's lot was cast. They +had all the worst qualities of Yankee and Indian--the good ones of +neither. They had neither manners, heart, nor honesty. The basest +selfishness, cunning, and malignity were their prominent +characteristics. A less patient and good-tempered person than Mrs. +Moodie would, however, have had little difficulty in getting rid of the +troublesome and intrusive borrowers. They could not bear a sharp rebuke, +and, more than once, a happy and pointed retort rid her, for weeks, or +even for ever, of the pestilent presence of one or other of them. An +English farmer, settled near at hand, to whom she mentioned her +annoyances, laughed--as well he might--at her easy-going toleration. +"Ask them sharply what they want," he said, "and, failing a satisfactory +answer, bid them leave the house. Or--a better way still--buy some small +article of them, and bid them bring the change." Mrs. Moodie tried the +latter plan, and with no slight success. + + "That very afternoon, Miss Satan brought me a plate of + butter for sale. The price was three and nine pence; twice + the sum, by-the-bye, that it was worth. 'I have no + change,'--giving her a dollar--'but you can bring it to me + to-morrow.' Oh! blessed experiment! for the value of one + quarter dollar I got rid of this dishonest girl for ever. + Rather than pay me, she never entered the house again." + +The strange names of some of the farmers and squatters in Mrs. Moodie's +neighborhood exceed belief. Amongst the substantial yeomen thereabouts +were Solomon Sly, Reynard Fox, and Hiram Dolittle. Ammon and Ichabod +were two hopeful Canadian youths, the former of whom--a child of tender +years--was in the habit of hideously swearing at his father, and then +scampering across the meadow, and defying the pursuit of his pursy +progenitor. This is another family of which Mrs. Moodie gives amusing +glimpses, in a style sufficiently masculine, but therefore all the +better adapted to the subject:-- + + "The conversation was interrupted by a queer-looking urchin + of five years old, dressed in a long-tailed coat and + trowsers, popping his black shock head in at the door and + calling out, 'Uncle Joe! You're wanted to hum.' 'Is that + your nephew?' 'No! I guess it's my woman's eldest son,' said + uncle Joe, rising; 'but they call me Uncle Joe. 'Tis a spry + chap that--as cunning as a fox. I tell you what it is--he + will make a smart man. Go home, Ammon, and tell your ma that + I am coming.' 'I won't,' said the boy; 'you may go hum and + tell her yourself. She has wanted wood cut this hour, and + you'll catch it!' Away ran the dutiful son, but not before + he had applied his forefinger significantly to the side of + his nose, and, with a knowing wink, pointed in the direction + of hum. Uncle Joe obeyed the signal, drily remarking that he + could not leave the barn door without the old hen clucking + him back. At this period we were still living in Old Satan's + log house, and anxiously looking out for the first snow to + put us in possession of the good substantial log dwelling + occupied by Uncle Joe and his family, which consisted of a + brown brood of seven girls and this highly-prized boy." + +The names of the squatter ladies were of a far superior description to +those to which their brothers answered. Looking down upon the Old +Testament, their godfathers had resorted for suggestions to the Italian +Opera, the heathen mythology, and the Minerva press. She of the purple +garment was called Emily. This was quiet enough. But her associates were +Cinderellas, Minervas, and Almerias; and Amanda was the baptismal +appellation of one of Ammon's sisters. + +Old Joe, it will be remembered, had agreed to quit, when winter set in, +the house belonging to the farm which Mr. Moodie had purchased. But even +in civilized and lawyer-ridden England possession is held to be nine +points of the law, and in Canada the other tenth is thrown in. Old Joe's +mother, an abominable Yankee Hecate, grinned like a whole bag-full of +monkeys when informed that her son was expected to dis-locate as soon as +sleighing began. + + "'Joe,' she guessed, 'would take his own time. The house was + not built which was to receive him; and he was not the man + to turn his back upon a warm hearth to camp in the + wilderness. It was neither the first snow nor the last frost + that would turn Joe out of his comfortable home.'" + +Mrs. Hecate spoke a true word. Frost came, sledges ran, thaw began--not +an inch budged Joe. The sun gained power, a soft south wind fanned the +frozen earth, the snow disappeared--still the reckless, dishonest scamp +made no sign of removing, and replied with abuse to the remonstrances of +those to whom his dwelling belonged. In the States, and with a brother +Yankee, his obstinacy might have led to revolver and rifle work. The +English emigrants patiently waited, to their own great inconvenience. +Joe reckoned he shouldn't move till his 'missus' was confined--an +interesting event which was expected to come off in May. About the +middle of that month the Joe family was increased by a sturdy boy, +whereupon its chief declared his intention of turning out in a +fortnight, if all went well. Mrs. Moodie did not believe him--he had +lied so often before; but he was determined to take her in at last, as +he had done at first, for this time he was as good as his word. On the +last day of May they went, bag and baggage, and Mrs. Moodie sent over +her Scotch maid-servant and Irish serving-man to clear out the dwelling, +which she justly expected would be in bad enough condition. But her +expectations were far exceeded by the reality. The malignity of these +people, who from her had received nothing but kindness and good offices, +was degrading to human nature. Presently the Irishman returned, panting +with indignation: + + "'The house,' he said, 'was more filthy than a pig-sty.' But + that was not the worst of it; Uncle Joe, before he went, had + undermined the brick chimney, and let all the water into the + house. 'Oh! but if he comes here agin,' he continued, + grinding his teeth and doubling his fist, 'I'll thrash him + for it. And thin, Ma'arm, he has girdled round all the best + graft apple-trees, the murtherin' owld villain, as if it + would spile his digestion our ating them.' + + "John and Bell scrubbed at the house all day, and in the + evening they carried over the furniture, and I went to + inspect our new dwelling. It looked beautifully clean and + neat. Bell had whitewashed all the black, smoky walls, and + boarded ceilings, and scrubbed the dirty window-frames, and + polished the fly-spotted panes of glass, until they actually + admitted a glimpse of the clear air and the blue sky. + Snow-white-fringed curtains, and a bed with furniture to + correspond, a carpeted floor, and a large pot of green + boughs on the hearthstone, gave an air of comfort and + cleanliness to a room which, only a few hours before, had + been a loathsome den of filth and impurity. This change + would have been very gratifying, had not a strong, + disagreeable odor almost deprived me of my breath as I + entered the room. It was unlike any thing I had ever smelt + before, and turned me so sick and faint, that I had to cling + to the door-post for support. + + "'Where does this dreadful smell come from?' + + "'The guidness knows, ma'am; John and I have searched the + house from the loft to the cellar, but we canna find out the + cause of the stink.' + + "'It must be in the room, Bell, and it is impossible to + remain here, or to live in the house, until it is removed.' + + "Glancing my eyes all round the place, I spied what seemed + to me a little cupboard, over the mantel-shelf, and I told + John to see if I was right. The lad mounted upon a chair, + and pulled open a small door, but almost fell to the ground + with the dreadful stench which seemed to rush from the + closet. + + "'What is it, John?' I cried from the open door. + + "'A skunk! ma'arm, a skunk! Sure, I thought the devil had + scorched his tail, and left the grizzled hair behind him. + What a strong perfume it has!' he continued, holding up the + beautiful but odious little creature by the tail. + + "'By dad! I know all about it now. I saw Ned Layton, only + two days ago, crossing the field with Uncle Joe, with his + gun on his shoulder, and this wee bit baste in his hand. + They were both laughing like sixty. 'Well, if this does not + stink the Scotchman out of the house,' said Joe, 'I'll be + content to be tarred and feathered;' and thin they both + laughed until they stopped to draw breath.' + + "I could hardly help laughing myself; but I begged Monaghan + to convey the horrid creature away, and putting some salt + and sulphur into a tin plate, and setting fire to it, I + placed it on the floor in the middle of the room, and closed + all the doors for an hour, which greatly assisted in + purifying the house from the skunkification. Bell then + washed out the closet with strong ley, and in a short time + no vestige remained of the malicious trick Uncle Joe had + played off upon us." + +The smell of skunk and Yankee eradicated, there still was much to be +done before the house could be deemed habitable. It swarmed with mice, +which all the night long performed fantastical dances over the faces and +pillows of the new comers. The old logs which composed the walls of the +dwelling were alive with bugs and large black ants, and the fleas upon +the floor were as thick as sand-grains in the desert. With the warm +weather, then just setting in, came legions of mosquitoes, that rose in +clouds from the numerous little streams intersecting the valley. But in +spite of all these discomforts, summer was felt to be a blessing, and +"roughing it" in the woods was far less painful than in the season of +snow, and frost, and storm. + + "The banks of the little streams abounded with wild + strawberries, which, although small, were of a delicious + flavor. Thither Bell and I, and the baby, daily repaired to + gather the bright red berries of nature's own providing. + Katie, young as she was, was very expert at helping herself, + and we used to seat her in the middle of a fine bed, whilst + we gathered farther on. Hearing her talking very lovingly to + something in the grass, which she tried to clutch between + her white hands, calling it 'pitty, pitty,' I ran to the + spot and found it was a large garter-snake that she was so + affectionately courting to her embrace. Not then aware that + this formidable looking reptile was perfectly harmless, I + snatched the child up in my arms, and ran with her home, + never stopping until I reached the house and saw her safely + seated in her cradle." + +Sixteen years elapsed after the departure of Joe and his brood from her +neighborhood before Mrs. Moodie heard any thing of their fate. A winter +or two ago, tidings of them reached her through one who had lived near +them. Hecate, almost a centenarian, occupied a corner of her son's barn. +She could not dwell in harmony under the same roof with her +daughter-in-law. The lady in purple and her sisters were married and +scattered abroad. Joe himself, who could neither read nor write, had +turned itinerant preacher. No account was given of the hopeful Ammon. + +Mrs. Moodie's work, unaffectedly and naturally written, though a little +coarse, will delight ladies, please men, and even amuse children. On our +readers' account we regret our inability to make further extracts from +its amusing pages. The book is one of great originality and interest. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[6] _Roughing it in the Bush; or, Life in Canada._ 2 vols. Bentley. + + + + +From the London Literary Gazette. + +MR. SQUIER ON NICARAGUA.[7] + + +Many causes are combining to give great importance to the States of +Central America. Their own fertility and natural advantages, the +commerce of the Pacific, and the gold of California, unite to attract +the earnest attention of enterprising men and politicians towards them. +At the present moment, the appearance of this full and able account of +Nicaragua is peculiarly well-timed. The writer of it describes himself +as "late _charge d'affaires_ of the United States to the Republics of +Central America." His official position has evidently enabled him to get +at much information that would otherwise have been inaccessible. His +name is well and favorably known to ethnologists and antiquarians by his +researches into the history of the aboriginal monuments of the United +States, and by his very curious, though somewhat fanciful, essay on "The +Serpent Symbol, and the Worship of the Reciprocal Principles of Nature +in America." The bias and extent of his studies make him a very +competent person to investigate the antiquities of Nicaragua. The +chapters devoted to this subject in the work before us are full of +interest, and highly to be valued for the abundance of fresh +observations they contain. Like many American archaeologists and +historians, Mr. Squier is inclined to over-estimate the peculiarities +and antiquity of the aborigines of the New World. If we understand +rightly, he claims for them an independent origin. His ethnology is of +the romantic school, and rather loose. His imagination gets the better +of his reasoning, and his "organ of wonder," to speak in the manner of +phrenologists, is over-developed. His habits of mind and training do not +seem to be such as to qualify him for strict scientific research. He is +more of the _litterateur_ than the philosopher. His writings are, in +consequence, very amusing, but require to be dealt with cautiously. The +facts must be winnowed from the fancies with which they are mingled, if +we wish to use them for scientific purposes. + +Imaginative men are usually warm lovers and fierce haters. Our American +envoy's appreciation of female charms is so intense, that he cannot pass +a pretty woman without inscribing a memorandum respecting her in his +note-book, afterwards to be printed more at length with additional +expressions of admiration. A pair of black eyes cannot sparkle behind a +lattice without being duly recorded. His affection for the ladies is +only equalled by his dislike of the "Britishers." The handsomest girl +and the ugliest idol could scarcely distract his thought from the vices +and crimes of England and the English. If he is to be trusted, the whole +population of Central America regards every Englishman as a bitter +enemy. He paints us in the blackest hues, and prophesies the fall of +England with undisguised delight. Bluster about Britain is the prominent +fault of the book, and one for which the writer will, when he knows more +about us, be ashamed of himself. Every day it is becoming more and more +the interest of Englishmen and Americans to pull together. Consanguinity +and the love of constitutional liberty are strong ties. They may be +forgotten for a time, but in the end must work uppermost. Recent events +have done much to remind us of our near relationship with our +transatlantic cousins, and them of the Anglo-Saxon blood to which they +owe their pre-eminence among the nations of the New World. The grasping +and interfering qualities that bring down upon us the unmitigated +censures of Mr. Squier are quite as prominently manifested in the doings +of his countrymen; and whilst in one chapter he censures our meddlings +with, and claims upon, the Mosquito shore, in another he anticipates +something very like the annexation of all Central America to the United +States. + +The Mosquito country, about which we have seen of late so many very +unsatisfactory paragraphs in our newspapers, is a thinly populated and +most unhealthy tract on the Atlantic sea-board of Central America. It is +inhabited by a mixed breed of Indians and Negroes, supposed to be ruled +by a semi-civilized individual, who rejoices in the entomological title +of King of the Mosquitoes, one by no means inappropriate, considering +the amount of small annoyance we have endured through disputes about his +territory. He is supposed to be under British protection; it is +difficult to understand exactly why. The main purpose we have in view +seems to be the securing a proper supply of the peculiar hard woods of +this region. Britons at home generally make peace over their mahogany; +abroad they seem to pick quarrels over it. + +Central America includes an era of 150,000 square miles. Under Spanish +dominion it was divided into the provinces of Guatemala, Honduras, San +Salvador, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. These became independent states in +1821, and subsequently united to form the "Republic of Central America." +They separated again, in 1839, into so many distinct republics. +Nicaragua, Honduras, and San Salvador have recently confederated. The +entire region of Central America presents very marked and important +physical features. These are the great plain, six thousand feet above +the sea, upon which stands the city of Guatemala; the high plain forming +the centre of Honduras and part of Nicaragua; and the elevated country +of Costa Rica. Between the two latter lies the basin of the Nicaraguan +Lakes, with broad and undulating verdant slopes broken by steep volcanic +cones, and a few ranges of hills along the shores of the Pacific, +intermingled with undulating plains. Of the two great lakes, the lesser, +Managua, is one hundred and fifty-six feet, and the larger, Nicaragua, +one hundred and twenty-eight feet above the Pacific ocean. The former is +fifty or sixty miles in length by thirty-five wide, the latter above a +hundred miles long by fifty wide. On or near their western borders are +the chief cities of the country. Enormous isolated volcanic cones rise +to the height of from 4000 to 7000 feet in their neighborhood or on the +islands that stud them. Numerous remains of antiquity, ruins of temples, +and deserted monolithic idols, give interest to their precincts, whilst +the scenery is described as being surpassingly grand and beautiful. The +sole outlet is the river San Juan, a magnificent stream flowing from the +southeastern extremity of Lake Nicaragua, for a length of about ninety +miles, into the Atlantic. The climate is generally healthy, more +especially towards the Pacific side. Nicaragua is inhabited by a +population of about 260,000, one-half of which, or more, is composed of +mixed breeds, Indians, in great part civilized, coming next in number, +then whites, of whom there are about 25,000, and, lastly, some 15,000 +Negroes. They live chiefly in towns, and cultivate the soil, which is +very productive, and capable of supporting a much larger population. The +natural resources of Nicaragua appear to be very great. Sugar, cotton, +coffee, indigo, tobacco, rice, and maize, are the chief productions. +There is, besides, great mineral wealth. In ancient times the aborigines +appear to have occupied considerable cities, and to have attained a +civilization comparable with that of the Mexicans. Indeed, Mr. Squier +has proved, by philological and other evidence, that a Mexican colony +did exist in Nicaragua at the period of the discovery of the country in +the fifteenth century. This had been surmised before, but not clearly +made out. + +Much interest attaches to the population of Nicaragua, on account of the +large proportion of families of Indian blood, pure and mixed, of whom it +is made up. The qualities which enabled the ancient Indian people of +Mexico, Central America, and Peru, to become civilized nations after a +peculiar fashion, are not extinct, and seem to be retained and +re-developed in proportion to the prevalence of Indian over Spanish +blood. The Indians of Nicaragua are remarkable for industry and +docility; they are unobtrusive, hospitable, and brave, although, +fortunately for themselves, not warlike. They make good soldiers, yet +have no morbid taste for the military profession. The men are +agriculturists; the women occupy themselves with the weaving of cotton, +and make fabrics of good quality and tasteful design. It is interesting +to find the Tyrian dye still employed in their manufactures. They +procure it from a species of _Murex_ inhabiting the shores of the +Pacific. They take the cotton thread to the sea-side, where, having +gathered together a sufficient quantity of shell-fish, they patiently +squeeze over the cotton the coloring fluid, at first pellucid and +colorless, from the animals, one by one. At first the thread is pale +blue, but on exposure to the atmosphere becomes of the desired purple. +This color is so prized that purple thread dyed by cheaper and speedier +methods, imported from Europe, cannot supplant the native product. With +mingled humanity and thrift they replace the whelks in their native +element, after these shell-fish have yielded up the precious liquor for +which they were originally gathered. The Indian population also +exclusively manufacture variegated mats and hammocks from the Pita, a +species of Agave, and are as skilful as their ancient ancestors in the +making of pottery. They do not use the potter's wheel. Politically they +enjoy equal privileges with the whites, and all positions in church and +state are open to them. Among them are men of decided talent. Physically +they are a smaller and paler race than the Indians of the United States, +but are well developed and muscular. Their women are not unfrequently +pretty, and when young are often very finely formed. + +Happily in Nicaragua no distinctions of caste are recognized, or, at any +rate, they have no influence. Such of the people as claim to be of pure +Spanish blood are, in most instances, evidently partly of Indian +descent. The Sambos, or offspring of Indian and Negro parents, are a +fine race of people, taller and stronger than the Indians. + +Mr. Squier's admiration for the gentler (in Nicaragua we can scarcely +say the _fair_) sex, has led him to picture very vividly the charms and +appearance of the ladies he encountered during his travels. The +following is a precise and tempting description: + + "The women of pure Spanish stock are very fair, and have the + _embonpoint_ which characterizes the sex under the tropics. + Their dress, except in a few instances where the stiff + costume of our own country had been adopted, was exceedingly + loose and flowing, leaving the neck and arms exposed. The + entire dress was often pure white, but generally the skirt, + or _nagua_, was of some flowered stuff, in which case the + _guipil_ (_anglice_, vandyke) was white, heavily trimmed + with lace. Satin slippers, a red or purple sash wound + loosely round the waist, and a rosary sustaining a little + golden cross, with a narrow golden band or a string of + pearls extending around the forehead and binding the hair, + which often fell in luxuriant waves upon their shoulders, + completed a costume as novel as it was graceful and + picturesque. To all this, add the superior attractions of an + oval face, regular features, large and lustrous black eyes, + small mouth, pearly white teeth, and tiny hands and feet, + and withal a low but clear voice, and the reader has a + picture of a Central American lady of pure stock. Very many + of the women have, however, an infusion of other families + and races, from the Saracen to the Indian and the Negro, in + every degree of intermixture. And as tastes differ, so many + opinions as to whether the tinge of brown, through which the + blood glows with a peach-like bloom, in the complexion of + the girl who may trace her lineage to the caziques upon one + side, and the haughty grandees of Andalusia and Seville on + the other, superadded, as it usually is, to a greater + lightness of figure and animation of face,--whether this is + not a more real beauty than that of the fair and more + languid senora, whose white and almost transparent skin + bespeaks a purer ancestry. Nor is the Indian girl, with her + full, little figure, long, glossy hair, quick and + mischievous eyes, who walks erect as a grenadier beneath her + heavy water-jar, and salutes you in a musical, impudent + voice as you pass--nor is the Indian girl to be overlooked + in the novel contrasts which the 'bello sexo' affords in + this glorious land of the sun." + +The Nicaraguan ladies occupy themselves with smoking and displaying +little feet in satin slippers when daily they go to church and back. In +the early evening they occasionally pay visits, and if a number of both +sexes happen to assemble at the same house a dance is improvised, though +regular parties or balls are rare and ceremonial. + +At festival seasons the Nicaraguans have some curious customs, +apparently derived from their ancient heathen worship. + +In some of the Nicaraguan towns, especially in Leon, the pernicious +practice of burying the dead within the walls of city churches is +persisted in, even as in London, and, just as with us, against the +opposition of all sensible persons, including the government itself. +Fees to the church and attendant officials are at the root of the evil, +and give it a vitality that defies all attempts at eradication. The +priests of Leon have evaded all edicts about this nuisance, and have +improved upon the practice of our metropolitan parishes; for, not +content with the revenues they derive from funerals, they charge +according to the length of time (from ten to twenty-five years) the dead +are to be permitted by them to rest in their graves. When the purchased +time is up, the bones and the earth derived from the decomposed corpses +are removed and sold to the manufacturers of nitre! The least warlike of +citizens may thus in the end become a defender of his country, when +converted into a constituent of gunpowder. The most quiet and +unambitious of mortals may complete his career by making a noise in the +world, when fired off from a mortar. Assuredly this is a very novel and +original method of shooting churchyard rubbish, and we recommend a fair +consideration of it to our vested parochial authorities. + +Mr. Squier claims to be the first person who has described the ancient +monuments of Nicaragua, or, indeed, to have indicated their existence. +Excellent and numerous plates and cuts of these very interesting though +rather frightful relics are given in his work. Hitherto the antiquities +of the northern portion of Central America only have been explored, and +are familiar to us through the researches of Stephens and of Catherwood. +The Indians still reverence the shrines and statues of their ancient +gods, and are apt to conceal their knowledge about their localities and +existence. Those described by our traveller have mostly suffered +dilapidation through the religious zeal of the conquerors. They appear +to differ among themselves somewhat in degree of antiquity, but there is +no good reason--this is the conclusion to which Mr. Squier comes--for +supposing that they were not made by the nations found in possession of +the country. The structures in or about which, they were originally +placed were probably of wood, and great mounds and earthworks, like the +teocallis of Mexico, were associated with them. + +A section of Mr. Squier's work is devoted to an elaborate dissertation +on the proposed interoceanic canal, illustrated by an excellent map. We +recommend these chapters to the consideration of all who are interested +upon this important subject. Like most parts of his book it is defaced +by not a few sneers at, and misstatements about, the English. About the +bad taste of these outbursts we shall not say more. That they should +come from a man who is professionally a diplomatist, is evidence of his +indiscretion and unfitness for his political calling. As an amusing +traveller and diligent antiquarian, however, we can do Mr. Squier full +honor, and were glad to see the just compliment lately paid to him in +London, when our Antiquarian Society elected him an honorary member. + +[This interesting and important work of our countryman is reviewed in a +flattering manner in most of the great organs of critical opinion in +England, and its sale there, as well as in this country, has been very +large for one so costly.] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[7] Nicaragua; its People, Scenery, Monuments, and the Proposed +Inter-oceanic Canal. By E. G. Squier. New-York: Appletons. + + + + +From the Dublin University Magazine. + +THE HEIRS OF RANDOLPH ABBEY.[8] + +IV. THE MIDNIGHT VOICE AND ITS ANSWERED CALL. + + +Lady Randolph took leave of Lilias at the door of her room, and she +having, with infinite trepidation, declined the services of the lady's +maid, who seemed to her rather more awful and stately than the lady +herself, soon remained alone in the magnificent apartment which had been +assigned to her. She looked all around it with a glance of some +disquietude, for the vastness of the room, and the dark oak furniture, +made it look very gloomy. She contemplated the huge bed, which bore an +unpleasant resemblance to a hearse, with the utmost awe; it seemed to +her that there was room for a dozen concealed robbers within the massive +folds of the sombre curtains, and the reflection of her own figure in +the tall mirrors, looked strangely like a white ghost wandering +stealthily to and fro; the only gleam of comfort that shone in upon her, +was from the glimpse of the midnight sky that could be seen through the +chinks of the window-shutters. As the night was not cold she went and +threw the window open, feeling that the companionship of the stars would +destroy all these fantastic fancies; and very soon her sense of +loneliness and oppression passed away, for there came a soft wind that +lifted the curls of her long fair hair, and kissed her cheek +caressingly, and she could not help believing it was a breeze from the +Irish hills that bore to her the blessing of her kind old grandfather; +gayly as ever she closed the window and went to sit down, wondering if +ever she should feel inclined to sleep again after the excitement of the +last two days. She had unbound her hair and let it fall around her like +a golden veil, when, suddenly, a sound came floating towards her, on the +still night air, which irresistibly attracted her attention. + +It was a sound of music, deep solemn music, rising with a power and +richness of melody she had never heard before; whence it came, or how it +was produced, she could not conceive, for it seemed to her unpractised +ear not to proceed from one instrument, but from many, and yet there was +through it all a unity of harmony which could result from the influence +of a single mind alone: now, it swelled out into soft thunders that +vibrated through the long passages up to the very roof of her vaulted +room, and deep into her beating heart, then it died away to a whisper +faint as the sigh of a child, only to rise again more glorious than +before; and, over all, heard distinct as the lark in heaven at morning's +dawn, there thrilled a voice of such unearthly sweetness that she could +not believe it belonged to an inhabitant of this world. + +Lilias had one of those sensitive passionate souls over whom music has +an uncontrollable power; but as yet she had heard no other instrument +than an antique harpsichord of her grandmother's, and such singing as +the village girls regaled her with when they stood at work in the +fields. No wonder, then, that this wonderful strain had an effect upon +her like that of enchantment; it seemed to take possession of her whole +soul, and absorb every faculty. She became, as she listened, utterly +unconscious of all things, save that this entrancing melody drew her +towards it with an irresistible attraction; the sound was so distant, +yet so clear, she could not tell if even it were within the house at +all; but she did not ponder on its position, or on the nature of it; +only, like one who walks in sleep, she rose mechanically on her feet to +go to it. If her mind, steeped in that marvellous melody, could reflect +at all, it was to conclude that she had fallen asleep and was dreaming, +so that she had no thought but the longing not to awake from a dream so +beautiful. Slowly drawn by the sweet sounds, as by invisible chains, she +moved towards the door and opened it; then, sweeter, louder than before, +floating into her very soul, came that angel voice, with the full +swelling chords that seemed, as it were, to clothe it, filling her with +a sense of enjoyment so intense, that she would have felt constrained to +follow after it, even had she known it would lure her to some murderous +precipice, like the dangerous sirens in the haunted woods of Germany. + +Truly there was a strange fascination in this soft and sublime music, +filling the quiet night as with a soul, whose breathing was melody. And +Lilias yielded without a thought, or effort, to the entrancing power, +which, like a mesmeric influence, drew her imperiously towards it, +panting and breathless, as though she feared the sounds would die before +she reached them--every faculty concentrated in the sense of hearing. +She hastened rapidly along the passages down the wide staircase, and, +guided by the deepening, volume of the strain, reached the door of the +great hall, which stood open. She passed within it, and at once +discerned, that from this room proceeded the wonderful harmony, which +had so allured her, the instrument whose solemn tones formed the +accompaniment was evidently the magnificent organ, which stood at the +further end of the hall; and, as she had never heard one before, it is +not to be wondered at that now, when a hand endowed with extraordinary +skill drew forth its full power, she should have been enraptured; but it +was not so much the majesty of sound, swelling from the noblest +instrument in the world, that had so won the very soul within her as the +voice, sounding almost celestial to her ears, which still was thrilling +with unutterable sweetness through the echoing hall. However glorious +those deep low chords, it was yet only the metal which gave them forth; +but there was a spirit in that voice which touched her own spirit, and +never again could her young soul be free and independent as it had been +before that mysterious contact. + +A little while only does the new-created child of dust stand lonely upon +earth, as Adam stood in Eden before he woke from his deep sleep to meet +the living glance of Eve--a little while in the passionless ignorance of +youth, and then is the mortal being free--free from thought, from +affection, from desire; but soon, through all the wild tumult and +turmoil of the world, he hears the voice calling to him, which demands +the surrender of his whole being in one deep human love, and no sooner +is that whisper heard echoing in the depths of his heart than, +straightway, he yields up the sweet empire of his life's affections; and +henceforward, whether he is blest in close companionship, or divided by +some gulf impassable, over which, most vain and mournfully, he stretches +out the longing arms that only grasp the vacant air, still never more is +he alone, or free, for he must live in another's life, and, even in +death, desire another's grave. + +And was it to be thus with Lilias! the gentle, single-hearted child? + +As she stood at the door of the hall, the words which that angel voice +was breathing into music came with a strange, deep meaning on her ears. +There was no light save that of the moon, which streamed in long, soft +rays from the one large window, and reached even the gilded fluting of +the organ, yet, through the dim shadows, she could perceive that a +musician sat before it. The face only was visible to her in that half +light; the upturned face, with the dark hair falling round it, and the +deep gray eyes made luminous by the living soul that was shining through +them. Never had she looked on him who sat there before, nor could she +tell if in truth that countenance had any beauty; only there was upon it +now a spiritual loveliness emanating from the solemn thoughts that moved +him, which entered into her heart and there abode, to fade only when +itself should moulder beneath the coffin lid. + +And now, still drawn onwards by the voice, her noiseless feet went down +the hall, till, by the side of the unconscious musician, she knelt down +meekly, for it seemed to her as though adoring reverence were the +needful homage of one who could create such harmony; and there, in +breathless rapture, with parted lips, and folded hands, she remained all +motionless, till the soft music died away, as if those sounds had been +withdrawn again into the heaven to which they belonged. + +Then he turned, and his eyes fell upon the kneeling figure by his side; +he started violently, and remained mute with surprise, his heart well +nigh stopping in its beating with astonishment; almost it seemed to him +as if his music had drawn down an angel from the regions of perpetual +melody; so fair and spotless did she seem, the moonlight falling on her +soft white robes, and weaving her floating hair into a golden tissue +with the mingling of its own bright rays. Speechless he remained gazing +with the earnest wish that this pure vision might not pass away into a +dream. But meantime the cessation of music had unbound the chains that +held her young soul captive, and when the sweet face turned towards him +the childlike features, solemn with intensity of feeling, he saw that +they were human eyes which met his own, eyes that could weep for sorrow, +and grow beautiful with tenderness, for now a timid glance stole into +them, and a faint smile to the parted lips. Unconsciously, he let his +hands fall softly on her head and said: + +"Where have you come from? who are you?" + +"Lilias," she answered, simply, as a child that tells its name when +asked. + +"Lily, indeed," he said, "most fair and lovely as the snow-white lilies +are; but no such gentle vision ever came to me before in these dark +hours, though I have been here lonely, night by night. I thought at +first it was a spirit kneeling there; and it is scarce less marvellous +to me that a human being should visit me in my solitude, than that some +merciful angel should come to cheer me. How is it, then, that you are +here?" + +"The music seemed to call me and I came," she said; "it was so very +beautiful it drew my whole soul after it; but I know I should not have +ventured here at such an hour, and now I will go back, only----" + +She hesitated, and looked up pleadingly into the eyes that were turned +with such admiring wonder on her---- + +"You live in this house?" she asked. + +"I do," he replied, and then bowed his head as though the answer were +one of shame. + +"Then will you promise me," she said, "that I shall hear these glorious +sounds once more? I feel as though I could have no rest till I may +listen to them yet again, and to the voice that was as a soul within +them. May I come here to-morrow, and will you bestow on me the greatest +pleasure I have ever known, for, indeed, I never felt such deep +enjoyment as in hearing that solemn strain?" + +"Most gladly would I--most gladly see you again, sweet Lily; since that +is your sweet name; but do you know who I am?" + +"No, excepting that I think you will be my friend,--at least I shall +hope it,--for the soul that could utter that divine song must be so +worthy of all friendship." + +These gentle words seemed literally to make him tremble, as another +might to hear the ravings of passion. + +"Oh do not speak so softly to me," he said, "I am unused to kindness, +and it unmans me; besides, soon you will know all, and then you will +neither have the will nor power to befriend me, and it were better for +me not to have the hope of your future sympathy, thus given for a +moment and then withdrawn." + +"But why withdrawn?" she said, with her gaze of innocent surprise. + +"You are Sir Michael's niece, are you not, the child of his favorite +brother--his heiress probably?" + +"I am his niece, but not his heiress surely; there are so many worthier +heirs, are you not one of them?" + +"I! I am Hubert Lyle." He seemed to expect that at the sound of that +name she would recoil in fear or indignation, but she only repeated the +words "Hubert Lyle," and then shook her head gently to intimate that it +was an unknown sound to her; he smiled with pleasure to hear his name so +softly spoken by the lips of one who seemed to him the purest, sweetest +vision that ever had blest his eyes on earth. "I see you have not yet +learned all the secrets of this house," he said, "but it will not be +long before Sir Michael's niece shall have been taught that there is one +beneath this roof whom she must hate, hate even with a deadly animosity. +I think it will be a hard lesson for such a gentle nature;" he added +almost pityingly. A new light seemed to break in upon her. + +"Oh, is it possible?" she exclaimed; "was it then of you that my uncle +spoke with such a bitter animosity, as it makes me shiver to think one +human being should ever have the power to feel towards another?" + +"I am, indeed, the object of his abhorrence." + +"But unjustly," she exclaimed, fixing her candid eyes steadily on his +face. "I know, I feel, you have not deserved this cruel hatred." + +"Not at your uncle's hands, indeed, not, I think, at those of any human +being, for I know that wilfully I have injured none; but, doubtless, +this discipline is all too little for my deserts, as I must seem unto no +mortal sight, and so it must be borne patiently." This humanity touched +Lilias to the very heart, her voice trembled with eagerness as she said: + +"But do not speak as though I or any other could ever share in the wrong +he does you; rather is it our part to make you forget it, as you have +forgiven it, by our friendship justly and gladly granted to you." + +"Most innocent child," he said, "it is plain you never yet have listened +to the voice of your worldly interest; but when that world shall have +taught you the value of Sir Michael's favor, then will even this +guileless heart be moved to feel or simulate a due abhorrence for his +enemy." + +"Never!" she exclaimed, lifting up her childlike head with a noble +dignity, and throwing back the long hair that she might stand face to +face with him to whom she spoke. "Listen, I do not know you; as yet I +cannot tell if in very deed you are worthy of the loyal true-hearted +friendship, which it is a blessing to give and to receive from our +fellow-creatures; but my heart tells me you are so, even to the very +uttermost, for I think that none could be otherwise, and dare to sing +such solemn strains before high heaven at dead of night; and if it be +so--if indeed you are worthy of the esteem and sympathy of all who can +distinguish between right and wrong--then is it your lawful due, of +which I would not dare defraud you, for it were high treason against the +truth and majesty of goodness. If we are bound to adore perfection in +its eternal Source and Essence, so is it our very duty and service to +pay tribute to the faint reflection of that spirit in the frail human +creature; and neither my uncle, nor any other on this earth, has a right +to ask of me, or shall compel me, to act a lie against the sovereign +virtue I am sworn to worship loyally, by withholding the homage of my +friendship to all that are good and true of heart." + +"Pray heaven no taint from this bad world may ever reach your soul," +were the words that burst from the lips of Hubert Lyle. "Yes, keep--keep +your pure wisdom and your noble principle; blessed is he who taught them +to you; but, alas! if ever I were worthy of the gift of your esteem on +the basis of that rectitude of which you speak, could even your +beautiful philosophy stand the test to which it would be put before you +could give to _me_ the name of friend. The darkness covers me and you do +not yet know what I am--how smitten of heaven as well as hunted down of +men; how, by the very decree of nature, repugnant in their sight, not +less than hated for another's sake. But I will not deceive you; none +could look upon your face and hide one shadow of the bitterest truth: +come, and let me show you what I am, and do not fear to shrink away from +me when you have seen that sight. I hope for nothing else from any on +this earth, for the gentlest look that human eyes have ever had for me, +has been one of sorrowing pity." + +He took her by the hand, and led her slowly down the hall towards the +window, where the moonlight was streaming with a full clear radiance. +Through the shadows they went solemnly hand in hand, and a sensation of +awe took possession of her; she felt as if he were leading her to the +threshold of a new life; strange and unknown feelings were stirring at +her heart, and a deep instinct whispering there, seemed to tell her that +what he was about to reveal would have an influence on her whole future +existence. He dropped her hand when they passed within the circle of +light, and, placing himself where the beams fell brightest, he turned +and looked upon her. Then she saw that he was smitten indeed, and that +heaven had laid a load upon his mortal frame, heavy, as that which man +had built upon his shrinking soul. Hubert Lyle was hopelessly and +fearfully deformed. It would seem as though it were designed for him +that he should be crushed both in body and in spirit, for his neck was +bowed as by an iron power, and the sadness of a life's long humiliation +was stamped on that upturned face; unlike the countenance of many who +are deformed in body, there was no beauty on it save in the deep, +thoughtful eyes, and the pale forehead, whence dark masses of hair were +swept aside. + +Oh, how the heart of Lilias trembled as she looked upon him and read the +measure of his twofold suffering. An outcast, by deformity, from the +common race of man, and trodden down in soul by unmerited contumely or +hate. How to the very depths was stirred within her that well of +tenderness and pity for the oppressed which gushes in every woman's +heart, as she saw in his whole aspect the evidence of a resolute and +noble endurance, a patient meekness, untinged by a trace of bitterness! +She could have wept over him, for she was one of those unhappily gifted +whose soul is like a sensitive plant, and shrinks from the touch of +sufferings in others with an exquisite susceptibility. Her natural +delicacy, however, taught her that she must hide from him how deeply his +infirmity had moved her; he must see in her no evidence of the insulting +pity to which alone he seemed accustomed. He had spoken of her shrinking +away from him; she drew nearer, and lifting up her eyes, smiled one +quiet, gentle smile, as though in token that she had seen nought to +surprise or grieve her; that look was balm to him, used only to the +half-averted glance of sad repugnance which we are wont to cast on an +unsightly object. His voice shook with mingled eagerness and delight as +he said: + +"Could you indeed take such a deformed wretch as I am by the hand, and +stand forth before all the world to acknowledge him your friend?" + +"Is it, then, the perishable, mortal body that we love and hold +communion with, in those who are mercifully given to be our friends?" +she answered; "the frame that shall be a thing of dust and worms so +soon? Is it not the indestructible soul to which we give our sympathy, +and is not that sympathy immortal as itself? for nothing good and pure +that ever was created can have power to perish, though it be only the +subtle feeling of a human heart; and so the friendship which is given by +one deathless spirit to another is a link between them for their +eternity of life, and what has it to do with the outward circumstances +of our brief sojourn here?" She paused, and then anxious to dispel the +sort of solemnity which had gained on both of them, she said, playfully: + +"You have not yet found a good reason why I should not some day be your +friend; but I think I shall soon give you little cause to wish for my +acquaintance, if I keep you any longer in conversation at this strange +hour of the night. I must go; for, indeed, I have lingered too long; +but, no doubt, we shall meet again." He did not seek to detain her; he +felt that he ought not; but he knew that the smile so sweet and kindly +with which she had looked on his unsightly frame would linger like a +sunbeam in his memory; and that, yet more, the words of pure, calm +wisdom she had uttered would never depart from his sad heart; for the +faith she had shown in that one deep truth, that all things good, and +beautiful, and worth the having, are created for eternity, and in no +sense to be influenced by the accidents (so to speak) of this mere +outward life, had suddenly lightened the load of his deformity, which so +long had crushed down his entire being, and made him feel that it was +his undying soul which stood face to face with hers--no less +immortal--and that he, the actual _ego_ the very self, had nought to do +with this poor frame, the magnet, as he long had deemed it, of the +world's hate and scorn, but, in truth, only the temporary clothing, soon +to be put off, and now unworthy of a thought: he had felt this, as +regards the life which was to come, when he should be disembarrassed of +his mortal body; but he had not understood what a deep joy the truth of +this principle could cast even into this present existence. None had +taught him, by the sweet teaching of entire sympathy, that all true +affection is but planted in the germ here, and has its full fruition +only in eternity. + +These thoughts rose like morning light on his soul, as he stood gazing, +thoughtfully, upon her; whilst she, now that the enthusiasm, which had +been called forth by the expression of her own bright faith had died +away, had yielded to her womanly timidity, and stood half shy, half +embarrassed, not knowing how to take leave of the companion she had so +strangely encountered. He saw this, and, with a ready courtesy, opened +the door for her, and bade her good night, thanking her gently for the +sweet words of comfort she had spoken. She expressed a hope once more +that they should meet again, and so vanished from his sight. The white +figure passing away into the shadows, like some fair dream into the +darkness of a deeper sleep. He remained standing on the spot where she +left him, clasping his hands tightly on his breast. "Meet again!" he +repeated thoughtfully, echoing the words she had uttered. "I will not +desire it; I will not seek it: surely it were the greatest peril that +ever has crossed my path. How have I labored for peace these many years, +and have attained it only by stripping my life of every hope and wish +connected with this world. I have so veiled my eyes to its allurements, +from which I am for ever exiled, that all the living things within it +have become to me as moving shadows in the twilight; whilst my own soul +has been bathed in the sunlight of an eternal hope; but if the smile of +these sweet eyes came falling on my heart again--if the spirit that +looked through them be, indeed, as beautiful as I believe it--if, day +by day, I saw the outward loveliness, and felt the inward beauty, +infinitely fairer, it could not fail, but I should grow to love her. +I--I--the deformed outcast! Oh! could my worst enemy--could even he who +hates the very ground on which I walk, desire for me a deeper curse than +that I should bring upon myself, if ever I made room in this my soul for +human love. It must not be; I can and will avoid her. I will believe +that I have slept and woke again; and this night shall be to me but as +one in which I have dreamt a brighter dream than usual." + +He resumed his habitual composure as these thoughts passed through his +mind; the resolute calm, which was the habitual expression of his face, +returned to it, and quietly he left that old hall where the first scene +in the drama of Lilias Randolph's life had been enacted. + +She soon was lying in a tranquil slumber--the deep sleep of an innocent +heart that is altogether at rest; but through all her dreams that night, +there went a voice whose echo was to haunt her soul for evermore. + + +V. A MEETING FOR THE DISSECTION OF SOULS. + +Lilias, like most blythe young spirits, never could sleep after the +morning beams came to visit her eyelids; and, despite the unusual +excitement of the preceding night, she was roaming through the house at +a very early hour, looking bright and fresh as the day-dawn itself. She +passed through the old hall with timid steps, though it was now deserted +by the musician, with whom her thoughts had been busy ever since she +awoke. Deep was the pity that had sprung to life, never more to die in +her young heart for him: not a barren pity, but active, tender, +_woman-like_, that would take no rest till it had found some means of +ministering to his happiness. For the present it expended itself in an +earnest desire to discover all concerning him, and most especially +whether, amongst all the inhabitants of Randolph Abbey, he had no friend +to counterbalance the animosity of his one known enemy. To see him again +likewise, not once but often, was a determination which she could not +fail to form after the conversation she had held with him; her generous +spirit was in some sense bound to this, and it did but deepen her +longing to draw near to one so doubly stricken. Occupied with these +thoughts, Lilias passed through the drawing-room to a verandah which +opened from it, and where she could enjoy the fresh air whilst sheltered +from the sun. There were couches placed there, and as Lilias moved +towards one of them, she was startled by perceiving a motionless figure +extended upon it. + +It was Aletheia, apparently in a profound slumber; but to Lilias she +seemed like a corpse laid out for burial, so pale, so rigid was her +face. The cold, white hands were folded on her breast as in dumb +supplication, and they were scarce stirred by her slow breathing, or the +dull, heavy beating of her heart. Her countenance bore an expression of +extreme fatigue, and it seemed plain to Lilias that she had been walking +to a great distance. Her hair, matted with dew, was clinging wet to her +temples, and her bonnet lay on the ground beside her. Lilias gazed at +her with a feeling almost of awe, wondering what was the secret of this +strange cousin's life, and a slight movement which she made awoke +Aletheia. Slowly the eyelids rose over those sad eyes, and revealed, as +the power of thought stole into them, a depth of pain, of mute entreaty, +which seemed to indicate an imploring desire that she might not be +commanded to take up the burden of returning life. She tried to close +them again, but in vain; the light sleep was altogether broken, and, +raising herself up, with a heavy sigh she turned a look of involuntary +reproach on Lilias. + +"I am so sorry I awoke you," said the latter, breathlessly. "I did not +mean it, indeed; you were not resting well; but I am afraid you did not +wish to be awakened." + +"No," said the low voice of Aletheia, which seemed ever to come from her +lips without stirring them, "for it is the only injury any one can do to +me." + +"An injury!" said Lilias, in her innocent surprise, "to wake on this +bright morning and beautiful world." + +"Bright and beautiful," said Aletheia, musingly, "how these words are +like dreams of long, long ago. My days have no part in them now; but +think no more of having awakened me, it matters nothing; and it would +have been strange, indeed, if such as you had known how many are roused +to the morning light with the one cry in their heart--'must I, must I +live again?'" + +"I cannot conceive it," said Lilias; "I always wish there were no night, +it seems so sad to go away and shut one's eyes on all one loves and +admires." + +"Yet, believe me, to some sleep is precious--more precious even than +death, for all it seems so like an angel of rest and mercy; the brief +forgetfulness of sleep is certain, whilst in death the soul feels there +is no oblivion." + +It was to the gay, young Lilias, as though Aletheia were speaking in an +unknown tongue; her unclouded spirit understood none of these things; +but in spite of her prejudice against this strange person, she felt +struck with pity as she saw her sitting there with the wet hair clinging +to her cold, white cheek. + +"You are very tired; I am afraid," she said, "you have walked a long +distance." + +Aletheia started, and the pale lips grew paler, as she exclaimed, almost +passionately-- + +"You have been watching me!" + +"No, indeed," said Lilias, distressed at the idea, "how could you think +me capable of it? I did not see you until I came into the verandah; but +I guessed you had gone out early, because your clothes are all wet with +dew." + +Aletheia rose up. + +"Lilias, you are come to live in the same house with me, and therefore +is it necessary I should make to you one prayer. I do beseech you, as +you hope that men will deal mercifully with your life, grant me the only +mercy they can give to mine--leave me alone; forget that I exist; live +as if I did not, or were dead. I ask nothing but this, to be unmolested +and forgotten." + +She turned to go into the room as she spoke, but she was stopped by the +appearance of Gabriel, who was creeping, with his quiet, stealthy step, +towards her; his blue eyes, usually so soft, glowing with the intensity +of his ardent gaze. She paused and looked at him sadly. + +"Gabriel, you heard what I said to Lilias just now; it is nothing new to +you; you know well and deeply what is my one desire--the petition I make +to all. Why, then, will you live, as it were in my shadow--why will you +persecute me?" He made no answer, but by folding his hands in mute +appeal and bowing his head humbly over them. She passed him in silence, +and went into the house. He followed softly after her, and Lilias was +left alone. + +The poor child drew a long breath, and felt at the moment an intense +desire to be at liberty amongst the Connaught hills again, where the +thoughts and words of the rough country people seemed free and fresh as +the winds that blew there; all seemed so strange and mysterious in this +house; she had been brought suddenly into contact with that deep human +passion of which she knew nothing, and felt as if she were in the midst +of some entangled web, where nothing plain or regular was to be seen. +Her momentary wish to escape, however, died away, as the recollection +came upon her, borne as it were, by the wings of memory, of the one +sweet haunting voice, and solemn strain. Nor was she long left to her +own reflections; Sir Michael, who so rarely left his own rooms, came in +search of her, and fairly monopolized her during the whole of the day. +He persuaded her to stay with him in his laboratory, and seemed to take +infinite pleasure in hearing her talk of all that had been joy to her in +her past life. + +And truly it was a strange sight to see her in that dark little den, +with her innocent face and her fair white robes, sitting so fearlessly +at the feet of the old man, telling him stories of Irish banshees, and +sunny nooks in her native valley, where her nurse said the fairies +danced all night long. To hear her talk, and to have her sweet presence, +was to Sir Michael as though some fresh breeze were passing over his +withered soul; and the tones of her voice were so like those of his +long-lost brother, that at times he could dream they were side by side +again, both young, full of hope that was to bear fruit, for him at +least, in bitterest despair, and with passions yet unchained from the +depth of his heart. The first pleasure he had tasted for years was in +Lilias's society, and he inwardly determined to enjoy as much of it +henceforward as was possible--a resolution which we may so far +anticipate as to mention he rigidly kept, to the sore discomfiture of +poor little Lilias. + +He had a deeper motive for it in the movement of jealousy he had +witnessed in his beautiful wife, when he took his niece in his arms the +day before. Indifferent as she was to him, she was too thorough a woman +to relish the idea, that the sole and undivided dominion she had +maintained over his heart was to be diminished by the entrance even of +the most natural affection. She need have had no fears; the passion of a +life was not now to be tempered by any such influence. Lilias was to him +simply an occupation for his restless mind; she preserved him from +thinking, better than his chemical experiments, and, above all, she gave +him the exquisite delight of feeling that he had power to move his +scornful wife even yet; so Lilias was doomed from that day to be his +constant companion. + +He did not suppose she would like it, though he did not guess, as she +sat by his side, how restlessly her poor little feet were longing to be +away bounding on the soft, green grass; but he resolved to compensate +her for her daily imprisonment by making her his heiress: a +determination subject to any change of circumstances that might cause +him to alter it, which he did not conceal either from her or the rest of +the family. + +We are anticipating, however; the first day of Lilias's probation is not +yet over. Very wearily it passed, because her eager mind was bent on +seeing Hubert Lyle; and not only did her uncle never mention his name, +but she found no opportunity of asking any one who and what he was, and +where she could meet with him again. It was not till the evening that +she found the family once more assembled, and as she gazed round amongst +them all with this object in her thoughts, she felt there was but one +who inspired her with any confidence, or to whom she could speak freely. +This was Walter, with his fine frank countenance and winning smile; and +she was very glad when they found themselves accidentally alone in the +music-room, where Sir Michael left them, after listening, with evident +pleasure, to her sweet voice singing like a bird in the sky. + +Lilias turned round hastily to Walter, with such a pair of speaking +eyes, that he laughed gayly, and answered them at once---- + +"How can I help you? I see you have a great deal to say." + +"Oh, yes, cousin Walter; I have been longing to speak to you; you are +the only one in all this house I am not afraid of. I want you to tell me +so many things!" + +"And what things, dear Lilias? This is rather vague." + +"Oh, every thing about every body, they are all so mysterious." + +"Well, so they are," he said laughing: "I find them so myself. I can +quite fancy how you feel, like a poor little fly, caught in some great +web, and surrounded by spiders of all kinds and dimensions, each weaving +their separate snares." + +"Precisely; and now I want you to explain all the spiders to me; you +must classify them, and tell me which are venomous, and which are not," +she said, laughing along with him. + +"I wish I could," answered Walter, "but they are quite beyond me--they +are not in my line at all, I assure you. I never could keep a secret in +my life; but I will do my best to enlighten you. I can tell you certain +peculiarities at all events. Suppose we make a sort of catechism of it; +you shall question and I shall answer." + +"Very well," said Lilias, entering into the spirit of his gayety, "and +so to begin--Why does Lady Randolph look so strangely at Sir Michael, +and always seem anxious to go out of the room whenever he comes in?" + +"Because she hates him," replied Walter. + +"How very strange; people seem to hate a good deal at Randolph Abbey; +but is it always their nearest relations, as in this case?" + +"Why no; as you proceed in your catechism I doubt not we shall have +occasion to mention certain hatreds in this household, which are in no +sense affected by natural ties." + +"Well to proceed," said Lilias; "why does Gabriel hour after hour keep +his eyes fixed on Aletheia, with a strange look which makes me fancy he +thinks she would die if he were to cease gazing on her?" + +"Because he loves her," answered Walter. + +"But she does not love him," exclaimed Lilias, with a woman's instinct. + +"Most certainly not." + +"There is so much I have to ask about her. Tell me why it is that she +has such imploring eyes. I never, on a human face, saw an expression of +such mute entreaty; I saw it once in the wistful look of a poor deer +which they killed on our Irish hills. I remember so well when it lay +wounded, and the gamekeeper came near with the knife, it lifted up its +great brown eyes with just such a dumb beseeching gaze, but that was +only for a moment. It soon died, poor thing; and with Aletheia, that +mournful supplication seems stamped on her countenance, as though her +very life were to be spent in it." + +"Ah! if you ask me about Aletheia," said Walter, "I am powerless at +once. I can tell you nothing of her; she is a greater mystery in herself +than all the rest put together; this only seems plain to me, that her +existence is, for some unexplicable reason, one living agony." + +"If I thought so I should be so angry with myself for having felt +prejudiced against her, which, I confess, I have done, for a reason I +could not name to you. She is so cold and statue-like, I thought she +seemed lost to all human feeling; but if it be suffering, and not +insensibility, which makes her move about amongst us as if she had been +dead, and forced unwillingly to live again, I should try to overcome the +sort of awe with which she has inspired me." + +"I believe it matters little how you feel respecting her, for you will +never conquer her impenetrable reserve; even poor Gabriel, who seems +fascinated by her to a marvellous extent, has ever struggled vainly +against her implacable calm. It is seldom, I think, that one human being +can so lavish all his sympathies upon another, as he has done on her, +without gaining some sign of life at least; but he tells me it is as +though the living soul within her were cased in iron; he cannot draw it +out of the dungeon where she seems to have buried it, to meet even for a +moment his own ardent spirit." + +"But I hardly wonder at this, if she does not love him," said Lilias. + +"You mistake me," replied Walter: "I do not expect that she should +return his affection; but she seems utterly unaware of its existence; +she appears ever to be so intent in listening to some voice we cannot +hear, that all human words are unheeded by her; those deep, beseeching +eyes of hers are ever gazing out, as though the world and all the things +of it, were but moving shadows for her, because of the greatness of some +one thought which is alone reality to her; yet that there lives a most +burning soul within that statue of ice, I can no more doubt than that +the snows of Etna hide, but do not quench its fiery heart." + +"And does no one know the secret of her life?" asked Lilias. + +"No one, that I am aware of--none at least, now living; that her father +did, whose idol she was, I have reason to think from some remarks of Sir +Michael's; he himself knows possibly somewhat more than we do, though +assuredly not the real truth, nor more than some external peculiarities +of her position. I have heard, however, that before she would consent to +come here, even for six months, and that with the chance of being chosen +as the heiress, she made certain conditions with her uncle respecting +the liberty she was to be allowed. I presume this to refer chiefly to a +strange visit which she receives one day in every month, on which day +alone I believe has any human being seen her moved." + +"And who is this visitor?" exclaimed Lilias. + +"That is more than I can tell you; and all I know of him is that I have +heard his sharp quick step, which certainly is the step of a man, going +across the hall to the library, where Aletheia receives him; and an hour +or so later I have heard the same tread as he leaves the house; then +the galloping of his horse sounds for a moment on the gravel, and that +is all that any one at Randolph Abbey hears of the only friend she seems +to possess." + +"Does even Gabriel not know him?" + +"He may have seen him; but he does not know him, I am sure; it is quite +wonderful how little knowledge he has acquired concerning Aletheia, +considering the means he has taken to penetrate her secret--means which, +I confess to you, I should have scorned to employ, even though, like +him, my dearest interests were at stake; for instance, he has actually +more than once tracked her in her mysterious morning walks." + +"What! does she walk every day," said Lilias, in astonishment; "I found +her this morning lying quite exhausted in the verandah. She must have +been to a great distance; surely she does not do the same every day?" + +"Every day, so far as I know, she does walk to precisely the same spot, +and that several miles distance; it is certainly beyond her strength, +for she is often in a state of frightful exhaustion when she returns; +but even in the coldest spring mornings she used to leave the house, +long before it was light, to make this pilgrimage; it seems she wishes +to avoid the observation she would incur later in the day." + +"Then it was cruel of Gabriel to follow her." + +"It was; but I think he is often maddened to find how his great love +comes beating up against the rock of her impenetrable calm, like waves +upon the shore, leaving no trace behind." + +"Do you know," said Lilias, with a wondering look in her cloudless eyes, +"I think Gabriel has his mysteries too, like every one else in this +strange house. I can understand his watching Aletheia, if his whole +heart is for ever turning to her, as you describe; but it is not her +alone, for in the short time I have know him, I am sure he has managed +to find out more about me than ever I knew myself; those soft blue eyes +of his seem to look so stealthily into one's soul. I am convinced he +could tell you every thing I have done and said the whole of this day. +You know Sir Michael made me stay with him ever since morning, but I +never passed out of this room without meeting Gabriel in the passage." + +"That I can easily believe. I always feel as if Gabriel acted in this +delectable abode the part of a cat watching innumerable mice; he has an +anomalous sort of character; but one of his qualities is sufficiently +distinct, which is a very acute penetration; he can divine the most +intricate affairs from the smallest possible indications. For my own +part, I make not the slightest attempt to conceal my innermost thoughts +from him; happily I have nothing to hide, but if I had, I should let him +know it at once; it would save all trouble, as he would infallibly find +it out." + +"But what do you mean by an anomalous character?" asked Lilias. + +"A sort of double nature; he seems to me to have naturally good impulses +on which some guiding hand has ingrafted a calculating disposition that +sorely warps them; he has no control whatever over his passions, yet the +most perfect over his outward words and actions, whereby he effectually +conceals them when he so pleases. Certain it is, that he has an +indomitable will to which every thing else is subservient; but much of +this inconsistency of his character may be attributed to his position; +here he is the nephew of Sir Michael Randolph--the possible heir of +Randolph Abbey; but he was educated by a person whom we know to be of +low station, and I believe must be equally so in mind." + +"His mother?" asked Lilias. + +"Yes; I know nothing of her, nor does he ever allude to his past life. I +do not even know where she lives; he is simply ashamed of her, I +presume, and I sometimes think we should have the key-stone to Gabriel's +character in a violent ambition, were it not so neutralized by his not +less violent love for Aletheia. Dear Lilias, why do you start so, what +do you see?" + +"He is there," she said, half frightened, and glancing to the open door +through which, with his soft steps, Gabriel was gliding. + +"Of course, considering whom we were speaking of," said Walter, +laughingly, "it is an invariable rule, you know. Come along, Gabriel," +he added, turning to his cousin, "I need not mention that we were +discussing you, as by the simple rule of cause and effect, it was that +circumstance which produced your appearance." + +"Not by my overhearing you," said Gabriel, quickly. + +"My dear fellow, there was not the least occasion for that; you were +obeying a mysterious law, which is summarily stated in a proverb quite +unfit for ears polite; but your arrival is most opportune; your services +will be very available to Lilias and myself; allow me to offer you a +chair, and invest you at once with your office." + +"And how am I to be made useful?" said Gabriel, attempting, by a forced +smile, to sympathize in Walter's playful manner of viewing the subject. + +"Why, you must know," and he laid an emphasis on the word _must_, for +Lilias's behoof, "that Miss Lilias Randolph and I have begun a course of +moral dissection of the inhabitants of this house, in which she acts the +part of a young and very inexperienced surgeon, and I that of a most +grave and potent doctor. We had just finished you off, and were +proceeding to the dismemberment of the rest of the family; in this +interesting study I think you can materially assist us, seeing you have +some very sharp and subtle instrument for this species of anatomy." + +"I was not aware I possessed any such," said Gabriel; "it would ill +befit me in my position to make myself a judge of any here." + +"Now don't begin to be humble and make us ashamed of ourselves. I +consider it quite an important matter to Lilias that she should know her +ground here so far as possible; so let us parade the remainder of our +dear relations before her as fast as we can." + +A strange smile passed over Gabriel's face, as if he doubted that the +gentle Lilias, and the frank-hearted Walter, would discover much +concerning that intricate ground on which they stood; but he made no +remark, and simply said-- + +"And who stands next on the list after my unworthy self?" + +"That is for Lilias to determine; we wait your orders, lady dear." + +"You are learning to speak Irish," she said, smiling. + +"A most likely consummation," murmured Gabriel. + +"Oh! I could say better things than that in Irish," said Walter, +coughing off the slight confusion his cousin's remark had produced; "but +you must really tell us whom you mean to propose for our inspection, or +this council of war will last till midnight." + +"This council for the preliminaries of war," said the low voice of +Gabriel, giving an unpleasant aspect of truth to an expression which +Walter had carelessly used with no special meaning. + +For a moment Lilias made no answer; the thought which had been present +with her throughout the whole of this conversation, and that which had +alone, indeed, given it any interest for her, was, that she might obtain +some information respecting Hubert Lyle; yet now that the time was come +when she must name him or lose her opportunity, she felt, in a lower +degree, something of that unwillingness to broach the subject, which we +have to mention any secret act of self-devotion. The solemn music which +had been the means of leading her into his presence; the unearthly +serenity with which his soul had looked at her through those eyes that +reminded her of the still waters of some unruffled lake, where only the +glory of heaven is reflected; and above all, his infirmity, so meekly +borne, had invested him with a sacredness in her mind which made her +feel as if it was almost a profanation to speak of him to indifferent +ears. With a slight trembling in the voice, which did not escape the +quick perception of Gabriel, she said, "There is yet one of whom I would +inquire--Hubert Lyle." Both her cousins started at the name, but Gabriel +instantly repressed his astonishment, while Walter as freely gave vent +to his. + +"Is it possible you have heard of him already? who can have been bold +enough to mention him?" he said. + +"Why, I have not only heard of him, I have seen him." + +"Seen him!" even Gabriel exclaimed at this. Lilias looked up with a +smile. + +"I think he must be the most mysterious of all," she said, "you seem so +surprised." + +"You would not wonder at that if you knew more of the 'secrets of this +prison-house,'" said Walter, "which you must know is no inapt quotation +as regards Hubert Lyle, for he certainly acts, in some sense, the part +of Hamlet." + +"Without Hamlet's soul," said Gabriel, softly. + +"Without Hamlet's madness, rather, I should say; for I cannot doubt, +from all I have heard, that Hubert has a noble soul, though not one +which would lead him, like the Prince of Denmark, to make to himself an +idol of the principle of vengeance." + +"And Lilias is waiting meanwhile to tell us where she saw him," said +Gabriel. + +"Is it Lilias or you who are waiting?" said Walter, laughing; "for my +part, I frankly confess that my curiosity is greatly excited, so pray +tell us." + +And she did so at once, for there was not a thought of guile in this +young girl's heart. She told how, in the quiet night, she had heard a +solemn voice of music that had called her spirit with an irresistible +allurement; and how she had risen up and followed where it led, till it +had brought her into the presence of him of whom they spoke; but she +went no farther; she said nothing of the conversation which had drawn +those stranger souls more closely together than weeks of ordinary +intercourse could have done; for she felt that Lyle had been surprised +into speaking of his private feelings; and the subject of his infirmity +was one she could not have brought herself to mention; the sympathy with +which he had inspired her was of that nature which made her feel as +sensitive as she would have done had the affliction been her own. Yet, +though she did not enter into details, the deep interest she felt for +him gave a soft tremulousness to her voice, which was duly noticed by +Gabriel, as he sat looking intently at her with the keen gaze which his +meek eyes knew so well how to give from under their long lashes. + +"And now," said she, "tell me who and what he is, he seems to occupy so +strange a position in this house?" + +"Not more strange than cruel," said Walter; "he is the son of Lady +Randolph, by her first husband; she had been engaged to Sir Michael +before she met Mr. Lyle, who was his first cousin, but she had never +cared for him, and yielded at once to the intense passion which sprung +up between Mr. Lyle and herself; she married him, and from that hour Sir +Michael hated him with such a hate, I believe, as this world has rarely +seen. When his rival died, he transferred this miserable, bitter feeling +to the son, Hubert, simply because the widow had, in like manner, turned +all the deep love she had felt for the dead husband on the living +son--not for his own merits, for poor Hubert has few attractions, but +solely because he bears his father's name, and looks at her with his +father's eyes. I believe she has even the cruelty to tell him so. She +worships so the memory of her early love, that she will not have it +thought her heart could spare any affection, even to her child, were he +not his son also. It has always seemed to me the saddest fate for her +unhappy son, to be thus the object of such vehement hate, and no less +powerful love, and yet to feel that he has neither deserved the one, nor +gained the other, in his own person, but solely as the representative of +a dead man who can feel no more." + +"Miserable, indeed," said Lilias, folding her hands as though she would +have asked mercy for him; "how cruel! how cruel! but his mother, how +could she marry Sir Michael when she so loved, and still loves, another? +this seems to me a fearful thing." + +"Starvation is more so," muttered Gabriel. + +"Starvation!" exclaimed Lilias. + +"Yes," said Walter; "Mrs. Lyle and her son were actually left in such +destitution at her husband's death, that she certainly married Sir +Michael for no other purpose but to procure a home for herself and her +child. How it came to pass that she was in this extreme poverty, I know +not; report says that it was the result of Sir Michael's persecution of +Mr. Lyle in his lifetime; but I can hardly believe this of our uncle." + +"No, indeed," said Lilias. + +"One thing is certain, that it sorely diminished Sir Michael's delight +in marrying the woman he had loved so long, to find that he must submit +to the continual presence of her son in the house; but she forced him to +enter into a solemn agreement that Hubert was always to reside with +them, and he agreed, on condition that he crossed his path as seldom as +possible. This part of the arrangement is almost overdone by poor Lyle, +who is, I believe, like most persons afflicted with personal infirmity, +singularly sensitive and full of delicate feeling. He never leaves his +own rooms except to go to his mother's apartments, unless Sir Michael +happens to be absent, when Lady Randolph generally forces him to make +his appearance among us. I believe his only amusement is playing on the +organ half the night, as you found him." + +"And do none of you ever go to see him, and try to comfort him," +exclaimed Lilias; "do none befriend him in all this house?" + +"You forget," said Gabriel, hastily, evidently desirous to prevent +Walter from answering till he had spoken himself, "that any one who +sought out Hubert Lyle, and made a friend of him, would incur Sir +Michael's displeasure to such a degree that he would strike him at once +off the list of his heirs, and the penalty of his philanthropy would be +nothing less than the loss of Randolph Abbey." As he said this he bent +his eyes with the most ardent gaze on Lilias, that he might read to her +inmost soul the effect of his speech; but it needed not so keen a +scrutiny; the indignation with which it had filled her sent the color +flying to her cheek, and kindled a fire in her clear eyes seldom seen +within them. + +"And who," she exclaimed, "could dare withhold their due tribute of +charity and sympathy to a suffering fellow-creature for the sake of the +fairest lands that ever the world saw! who could be so base, for the +love of his own interest, as to pander to an unjust hatred, the evil +passion of another, and join with the oppressor in persecuting one who +is guiltless of all save deep misfortune! Can there be any such?" she +added, in her turn fixing her gaze upon Gabriel. A triumphant smile +passed over his lips; her answer seemed precisely what he had hoped it +would be; but Walter anxiously exclaimed: + +"Pray do me the justice to believe that I would not act so, Lilias; I +never should have thought of the motive Gabriel assigned as a reason for +not visiting Hubert; but, to tell the truth, I have no desire to do so, +because I believe him, from all I have heard, to be a poor morbid +visionary, who desires nothing so much as solitude, and with whom I +should not have an idea in common." + +"Nor should I be deterred from showing him any kindness for this reason, +I trust," said Gabriel, with his meekest voice; "I merely wished to +place you in possession of facts with which I thought it right you +should be acquainted in case Hubert should afford you the opportunity of +intercourse which he has not granted to us; for it is one of the noble +traits of his fine character, that he will not risk our incurring Sir +Michael's displeasure for his sake. He is the more generous in this, +that, from his relationship to our uncle, he would be heir-at-law after +us four. But in fact I believe there exists not a more high-minded and +amiable man than he is, in no sense meriting the misfortunes that have +fallen upon him; and his dignified, unmurmuring endurance of them could +never be attributed to insensibility, for he is singularly gifted; his +wonderful musical talent is the least of his powers." + +"Why, Gabriel," said Walter, looking round in great surprise, "I never +heard you say so much in praise of Hubert before;--or, indeed, of any +one," he added, _sotto voce_. + +"I know him, perhaps, better than you do," said Gabriel, watching, with +delight the softened expression of Lilias's face, which proved to him +how artfully his words had been calculated to produce the effect he +desired. He read in her thoughtful eyes, as easily as he would have done +in a page of fair writing, how she was quietly determining in that hour +that she would seek by every means in her power to become the friend of +this unfortunate man, and teach him how sweet a solace there may be even +in human sympathy, and that, all the more, because her worldly +prospects would be endangered thereby. It would prove to Hubert that her +friendship had at least the merit of sincerity, since, in her humility, +she imagined it could possess no other;--but Gabriel had no time to say +more, for Sir Michael at this moment joined them, and Lilias, rising up, +said she believed it was late, and turned to go into the other +drawing-room. Sir Michael looked sharply at the trio, and, as Walter +followed his cousin, he turned to Gabriel with considerable irritation-- + +"How came you here, sir; I left those two together?" + +"They invited me to join them, or I should not have intruded," said +Gabriel, with his customary meekness, but a smile curled his lips, which +he could not repress. Sir Michael saw and understood it at once; he +paused for a moment in thought, and then deciding, apparently like +Walter, that it was no use to conceal any thing from Gabriel, and more +advantageous to be open with him at once, he said-- + +"Gabriel, understand me, if your quick eyes have divined any of my +plans, it will work you no good to thwart them." + +"But, possibly, it might avail me were I to further them," said the +nephew, very softly. + +"It might," said Sir Michael; "the broad lands of Randolph Abbey could, +with little loss, furnish a handsome compensation to the person who +should assist me in placing therein, the heirs I desire to choose." + +Gabriel's reply was merely a significant look of acquiescence, and the +old man, bestowing on him a smile of approbation such as he had never +before vouchsafed him, went away well pleased. He was firmly convinced +that he had enlisted in support of the plan that was already a favorite +one with him, the individual amongst all his heirs who he was the most +positively resolved should never inherit the Abbey, both because he +rather disliked him personally, and because he could not forgive him his +mother's low birth. Could he have seen the sneer with which Gabriel +looked after him, he would have been somewhat unpleasantly enlightened +as to the real value of the ally he had obtained. + + +VI. THE DEAD FATHER IS MADE THE PERSECUTOR OF THE LIVING SON. + +Very strange was the contrast between the splendid drawing-room, blazing +with light and heat, where the Randolph family were assembled, and the +small room in the other wing of the house which was occupied by Hubert +Lyle. It contained barely the furniture necessary for his use, and this +was by his own desire, for it was already sufficiently bitter to him to +eat the bread dealt out so grudgingly, and at least he would not be +beholden to his stepfather for more than the actual necessaries of +existence. + +Sorely against his proud mother's wish, he had chosen for his +sitting-room one of the very meanest and poorest in the house, with a +single window, low and narrow, which looked out on a deserted part of +the grounds. Hubert liked it all the better for this, as there was no +flower-garden or green-house near to bring the head-gardener, with his +trim, mathematical mind, amongst the wild beauties of nature. The grass +was left in this part to come up against the very wall of the house, and +the ivy and honeysuckle which grew round the window were allowed to +penetrate almost into the room. Fortunately, the noble trees which +filled the park stood somewhat apart in this place, and their arching +branches formed at this moment a sort of framework to the most glorious +picture that ever is given to mortal eyes to look upon--the lucid sky of +night, filled as it were to overflowing with radiant worlds, each +hanging in its own atmosphere of glory. + +It was no wonder that Hubert turned from the low, dark room, so dimly +lit with its single candle, to look upon this the bright landscape of +the skies. Within, the scene was certainly uninviting. The heavy deal +table, the scanty supply of chairs, the plain writing-desk, evidently +many years in use, were the only objects on which the eye could rest, +excepting a few books and a small piano, the gift of Aletheia, with +which, greatly to his astonishment, she had presented him one day--for +she was as completely a stranger to him as she was to all the rest of +the family, and had always avoided intercourse with him as much as she +did with every one else. This thoughtful act of kindness on her part, +however, produced no increased acquaintance between them, as she shrank +from hearing his expressions of gratitude on that occasion, and, indeed, +they seldom met. Aletheia was never in Lady Randolph's rooms, where +alone Hubert was to be met, excepting at rare intervals, when Sir +Michael was absent. + +Hubert sat now at the window; he had laid down his heavy head upon the +wooden ledge, and his hands fell listlessly on his knee. He seemed full +of anxious thoughts, and sighed very deeply more than once. From time to +time, apparently with a violent effort, he looked up and gazed fixedly +on the tranquil stars, seeming to drink in their pure glory, as though +he sought to steep his soul in this light of higher spheres; but ever a +sort of trembling passed over his frame, and he would sink down again +oppressed and weary. This was most unlike Hubert Lyle's usual condition. +He was a man of the most ardent and sensitive feelings; but, at the +same, possessed of that moral strength and _truthfulness of soul_ which +can only belong to a great character--by this last expression, we mean +that he was what few are in this world, neither a deceiver nor deceived. +He did not deceive himself in any case, nor would he allow life to +deceive him; he saw things as they really were, and he permitted not the +bright coloring of hope or imagination to deck them with false apparel; +he did not live as most men do, figuring to himself that he was as it +were the centre of the universe, and that all around him thought of him +and felt for him as he did for himself. He weighed himself in the +balance not of his own self-love, but of other men's judgment, and rated +himself accordingly. Thus, in the earlier days of his maturity, he +constrained his spirit to rise up and look his position in the face. And +truly it was one which might have appalled a less feeling heart than +his. + +His outward circumstances were as bitter as could well be to a +high-minded man. He was a dependent on the grudging charity of one who +abhorred him; and though he would right thankfully have gone out from +these inhospitable doors, even to starve, in preference, yet was he +bound to endure existence within them, by a promise which his mother had +extorted from him as a condition of their marriage, that he never would +leave Randolph Abbey without her consent. This marriage he knew was to +save her from a blighting penury which was killing her; and, moreover, +she concealed from him that cruel hatred of Sir Michael, which was the +only heritage his dead father left him, and, thinking no evil, he had +given them the promise which bound him as with an iron chain to abide +under the roof of his unprovoked enemy. But heavier even than unjust +hatred was the weight upon soul and body of his own deformity; for if +the first shut up one human heart from him, and turned its power of +affection to gall for his sake, the other cast him out for ever from the +love of all human kind. He knew that his unsightly frame could call +forth no other feeling from them but a cold, most often a contemptuous +pity. + +And yet, when he looked out into the world--the dark, tumultuous, +agonizing world--that very sea of human hearts, all beating up upon the +stony shores of a life, against which they are for ever broken and +shattered, he saw passing through the midst of it all a soft, pure +light, shedding warmth and brightness even on the dreariest scenes, and +causing men to forget all pain, and privation, and misery--a light to +which the saddest eyes turned with a joyous greeting, and on which the +gaze of the dying lingered mournfully, till the coffin-lid for ever shut +it out from their fond longing. And he knew that this one blessed thing, +which could overcome the strong, fierce evils of life, like the maid in +the pride of her purity, before whom the lion would turn and flee, was +called Human Love in the doting hearts of men--Human Love--the one sole, +unfailing joy of our merely mortal existence. And was it for him? Should +he ever have any share in it? Was its sweetness ever to be for his +hungry and thirsty heart? Never! The seal was set upon him in his +repulsive appearance, that he was to be an outcast from his fellow-men; +his deformity was as a burden bound upon his back, with which he was +driven out into the wilderness, there to abide in utter solitude of +soul. The promise of life was abortive for him ere yet he had begun it. + +Hubert Lyle understood all this at once; he saw how it stood with him, +and how it was to be, on to the very door of the grave; so he folded his +hands upon his breast and bowed down his head; he accepted his destiny, +for he felt that this was not the all of existence. He knew how +strangely sweet beyond the tomb shall seem all the bitterness of this +life; he saw that the earth was to be to his soul what it is to the +outward eyes on a starry winter's night. We know what a contrast there +is in that hour between the world above and the world below: the one +lies so dark and cold, full only of black shadows and the howling of +mournful winds, while the lucid sky that overhangs it, replete with +brightness and glory, teems with radiant stars, which are the type of +those eternal and glorious hopes that cluster for us on the outskirts of +the heaven of revelation. And so it was to be for him: his spirit was to +walk in this world as in a bleak and sunless desert; but it was to be +for ever canopied over with one bright and boundless thought, wherein +were set immutable and numberless, the starlike hopes of one eternity. + +Thus was he to live, wholly independent of earth, and indifferent to it. +But no man can walk free while there are chains upon his hands and feet, +and he felt that he was bound to his fellow-creatures by two ropes, as +it were, of iron: the longing to love, and to be beloved. Of these he +must free himself, tearing them off his shrinking flesh as a prisoner +would his manacles. And he did so. He taught himself to look upon all +human beings as not of his kind. Even when every nerve and fibre in his +frame cried out that they were bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh, +he learned to consider them inaccessible for him as the angels in +heaven. Yes, even far more; for he trusted that yet a little while, and +these holy ones should be his dear companions; and so he held communion +with them now. But with men he dared not hazard so much as to give them +a place in his thoughts, for he knew that the dream of their friendship +would become the longing for it, and the longing in his case must turn +to agony; so it came to pass that his strong will, his stern +resignation, compassed that which one might have believed well nigh +unattainable to flesh and blood. He divested himself of all earthly +inclinations and desires, all natural wishes and sympathies, and lived +in this world as though he were utterly alone in it, and sole +representative of a race, differing from those angelic friends whom only +he consented to know as the living population of the universe--a +solitary being placed on this earth as in a desert place, where he was +commanded, for his own needful discipline, to abide, till the world of +spirits should be revealed to him, and he entering there should find a +home and loving friends. + +It was for this cause that Hubert shunned all intercourse with the +Randolph family, as he did with all others--a resolution strengthened in +their case by the generous motives Gabriel had assigned to him; for +whatever might have been the reasons of this latter for pronouncing his +eulogium, he had said no more than the truth in his account of his +character. + +When Hubert Lyle had gone through the mental process we have detailed, +very deep was the calm that entered into his soul. It became like the +pure waters of a deep still well, walled in and protected from all +sights and sounds of the world without, and with the light and the glory +of heaven alone mirrored within it. + +And why, then, was the quiet now gone from his heart, and the repose +from his eyes? Why did he look up with that earnest gaze to the evening +sky, as though some shadow had come over its brightness? It was because +the terror had come upon him, that the greatest enemy he ever could know +in this life was about to rise up from its deathlike torpor and assail +him--even his own human nature; he felt that all those natural feelings +and passions which he had crushed down deep into his heart as unto a +grave, were now stirring themselves like men that had been buried alive, +and were waking in torture; they _would_ live, they were bursting the +cerements of that strong heart. How were they to be beaten to death +again? There--rampant and fierce was the craving for sympathy, for love. +There, sickening in its intensity, was the yearning to give and to +receive that greatest of earthly gifts, the blessing of a mutual pure +affection; the heart moulded from dust reasserted its birthright, and +cried out for its kindred dust. It was not that these feelings were as +yet at work with any definite object within Hubert Lyle, it was but the +shadow and the prophecy of them that lay upon him, like a thick cloud +charged with lightning. + +And all this had been done by the murmur of one voice, one sweet voice, +speaking in the accents of that tender sympathy which never before had +sounded in the cold, joyless region of his life, whispering hope to him. +He was not so mad as to love Lilias Randolph, whom he had seen but for +one half-hour, but her tenderness, her generous, loving kindness, had +aroused the slumbering nature within him, and he felt that were he much +in contact with one so pure, so gentle, so noble, as she seemed to him, +he might come to love. Oh! how madly, how miserably to love! he, the +deformed cripple! Was not this a frenzy against which he had armed all +the powers of his being? what tyrant, what enemy could be more fearful +to him than an earthly love? what would it do for him but crush and +torture him, and hold up far off the cup of this world's joy, where his +parched lips could not reach, and he dying of thirst? Was it a +presentiment that made him feel as if the spirit he had so chained down +were rebelling against him, and required but the master-touch of some +kindly and winning child of earth to abandon itself to unutterable +madness? But, at all events, whatever were the source of this terror +which had come upon him, whether it were a foreshadowing of future evil, +or the warning of his good angel, it cannot pass unheeded. He must, with +a strong will, compel his spirit to realize in all the bitterness of +detail the truth of his exile from mankind, his needful isolation, as +decreed by the seal of that deformity which made him an unsightly object +in their eyes. + +He would force himself to remember that the music of human voices, +however softly they might greet him, must be for him like those melodies +of nature when wind and stream make the air musical, to which we listen +with pleasure, but in which we have no part; and the aspect of goodness +and gentleness, so lovely in the fallen child of Adam, must be to him +like the light of a star shining far off in regions unattainable. Yet, +while he felt within himself the courage thus to act, were he brought in +contact again with her, whose sweet face had come beaming in so +strangely on the darkness of his perpetual solitude, his very soul +shrank from the struggle, and the longing so often before experienced to +quit this house, where he was so unwelcome, returned upon him with +redoubled force. + +Whilst he was still sitting thinking on these things, his head resting +on his clasped hands, there was a sound of rustling silks in the +passage--the door opened, a measured, stately step went through the +room, and Lady Randolph stood by the side of her deformed son. He looked +up. + +"Dear mother, I am so glad you have come, I was wishing at this very +moment to speak to you." + +There was an expression of displeasure and annoyance on her beautiful +face as she looked at him. + +"It cost me no small effort to come, I can tell you, Hubert; it is so +wretched to find you here in this miserable room, with every thing so +mean and neglected round you. You seem ever to do what you can to render +your own appearance uninviting, crouching down there with your matted +hair and melancholy face." + +There was little of the accents of love in these words, and a slight +shiver seemed to agitate the frame of Hubert as he felt at that moment +that he was repulsive even to the mother who bore him; but he lifted his +dark gray eyes to her face with the sweet, patient smile which filled +his countenance at times with a spiritual beauty, and said gently: + +"I did not expect you at this hour, or I should have tried to make both +my little den and myself look more cheerful in your honor." + +There was something in his expression which touched with an intense +power a never-slumbering memory. She flung her arms round his neck and +bent over him. + +"Oh, my Henry--my Henry--it was his eyes that looked at me just now, as +they have often looked in their tenderness, for ever perished--his eyes +that I kissed in death with my poor heart broken--broken--as it is to +this day--his eyes sealed up now with the horrible clog of his deep +grave--oh, my Henry--my Henry--come back to me!" + +She pressed the head of her son close to her beating heart and wept. He +waited till she was more composed; then, gently disengaging himself, he +made her sit down beside him, and held her hand in both his own. + +"Dear mother," he said very gently, "it is my father whom you love in me +and not myself; when I do not wear this passing likeness of him, which +at times only draws your heart to me, there remains nothing in myself to +win your affections, and you do not love me." + +"It is true," she answered calmly; "living I loved him only--dead, it is +his memory alone which I adore." + +"Then I think you cannot refuse the prayer I have to make to you this +day," said Hubert, not the least flush of indignation tinging his pale +cheek at this unfeeling announcement; "I think it cannot in truth be any +pleasure to you to see in me the marred and hateful resemblance of that +which was so beautiful, and so dear; better surely to feed on his image +pure and unchanged in the depths of your heart, and never have it +brought so painfully before you in my miserable person." He paused a +moment whilst she looked wondering at him, and then, suddenly, he +exclaimed, with a passionate burst of feeling, "Mother, let me go--let +me go--from this house, where my presence is abhorred by some and sought +by none; nothing has kept me here but my fatal promise to you: I would I +had died ere I made it; but it will cost you nothing to part from me, +and you know not what it may cost me to stay here; it is cruel to keep +me--let me go." + +"Let you go! Hubert think what you are saying, you would go to starve!" + +"It matters not! better so than to live on here. Mother, you would have +had no power to detain me in this place but for that rash promise; not +even your wishes should have kept me. I beseech you release me from it." + +"Never!" + +He almost writhed as she spoke, yet he went on-- + +"Do not keep me because you fancy I should starve; no man does who has +energy and perseverance. I have a head and hands to labor with, and how +far sweeter were the worst of toil than the bitter bread of charity." + +"But do you know," said Lady Randolph almost fiercely, "that I could not +give you the means of buying that bread one day, I am so utterly in Sir +Michael's power. He succeeded in laying hold of me because I was +poverty-stricken beyond what flesh and blood could bear, and now by the +same means he binds me down; he never has relaxed his hold; every thing +is his; I could not command a shilling. These very baubles with which he +loads me are not my own." And she tore the bracelets from her arms and +flung them down. "He calls them family jewels on purpose to keep me to +the veriest trifle in his power. + +"Mother, mother," exclaimed Hubert, "do you think, though he placed the +wealth of millions in your hands, that I would not rather perish than +touch it; it is too much already that I have been so long indebted to +him for the roof that shelters me; but I do not fear that I could gain +enough for my own living, if only you will let me go from this Egyptian +bondage." + +"Hubert, what is it that has excited you in this manner? I never saw you +so unlike yourself; you are usually so calm and so enduring. Was it your +unfortunate meeting with Sir Michael last night? Was he more than +usually insulting?" + +"No, it was not that," said Hubert gently. "I am so used to his bitter +words that I could not feel more pained than I have ever been; but it +matters not that you should be wearied with the detail of all the +thoughts that have made me at this time so desirous to leave Randolph +Abbey; dear mother, let it suffice you that I do implore you to release +me from my promise." + +"Hubert, I tell you NO a thousand times. I will not see you starved to +death for any Quixotic fancy; and, besides, do you think any power on +this earth would induce me to gratify my worst enemy, my life-long +enemy, whom chiefly I hate because he has the power to call me +_wife_--that dear name I so loved to hear from the beloved lips that are +choked up with dust? Do you think I would gratify him by giving him that +which he has labored for, by the persecution of my own dearest husband, +even to the death, and of myself to worse than death, a life with him? +Do you know that the one thing he has always desired has been to obtain +possession of me without having you for ever before his eyes as the +living monument of that buried love which was his torturer, and to which +I am faithful still? And do you think that to brighten even your life, +much less to peril it, I would grant him this his heart's desire, and +put it out of my power to show him, in every caress I lavish upon you, +my poor deformed son, how I adored your father?" + +Hubert let her hand fall, and his features assumed an expression of +severity. + +"Mother, forgive me that as your son I venture to judge you; but this is +unworthy, most unworthy." + +She seemed almost awed by his rebuke, but hastily throwing her arms +round him, she said more gently: + +"Hubert, forgive me; but I cannot--cannot part with you, the last +shattered fragment of my ruined happiness. You do not know what it is to +me to see you; to hear your voice coming to me like an echo from the +grave, telling of departed love; to find in your eyes at times a glance +as from the light of the past. It was such joy, such deep, deep joy when +he lived, and my happiness was hid in his true heart, that often I think +I never, never could have been so blest: and in truth that it is all a +dream, too unutterably sweet to have been true; life seems to faint +within me at that thought, for it is something to feel, barren and +desolate as my existence is now, that I _have_ loved and been loved as +once I was; and, Hubert, it is your presence alone that makes all this +reality to me. His kiss has been upon your lips--his voice has called +you his dear son. Ah! take not from me those last relics of him." + +She laid her head upon his breast in a passion of weeping. He raised her +tenderly, and said with a calm voice: + +"Mother, it is not my vocation in this world to give pain to others for +the sake of my own will or pleasure: take comfort, I will never more +trouble you concerning this matter; I will not ask again to leave you." + +Silently she pressed her lips to his forehead, and then, as if ashamed +that even her own son should have seen her so moved, she rose up without +speaking and left the room. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[8] Continued from page 387. + + + + +From Bentley's Miscellany. + +SEQUEL TO THE JEWISH HEROINE. + + +A magnificent saloon, dazzling with oriental splendor, and brilliant +with Arabic decorations, was allotted to Sol's reception; and there she +was immediately attended by six Moorish damsels, who came to receive her +orders. Fatigued by the length of her journey, and covered with the dust +of the road, she begged for water to refresh herself, and a room where +she might repose. Scarcely were the words pronounced when she beheld +around her vessels of silver, brought to her by six other damsels, +clothed in white, and offering her that for which she had asked with +respect and humility. They brought her clothes of the finest cambric, +fragrant essences of Arabia, and exquisitely-worked garments of divers +colors, and of the highest value, all of which the humble Sol rejected, +scarcely accepting from them even those things which were indispensable +to her, and declining to change her dress. But one of the ladies of the +court, seeing this, told her that she had received orders to clothe her +according to the custom of the country, for which purpose she had +collected together these garments for her choice. Sol, nevertheless, +after expressing her gratitude, endeavored to excuse herself, but the +request was pressed upon her with so much urgency, that she found it +impossible to decline; and, at length, among the many varieties of dress +prepared for her express use, selected one of a black hue, bordered with +white, as indicative of the sadness of her heart; when, after a place of +rest had been pointed out to her, she was left alone. + +All the women who had been employed about the young Hebrew repeated to +the wives of the imperial prince the warmest praises of her extreme +beauty and amiability. The emperor himself visited the house of his son, +and inquiring with minute curiosity into all the incidents that have +been related, and listening with delight to the praises heaped upon his +young captive, he renewed his commands that she should be treated with +gentleness, that every thing which could flatter her sight, or gratify +her wishes, should be given her, and that nothing should be denied her +by which her mind could be favorably impressed previously to the +interview which he proposed to have with her on the day +following,--saying, as he departed, that the moment of her conversion by +his means would be an epoch in his life, which he would mark by the most +princely magnificence to all that had contributed to it. All promised +the most punctual compliance with the commands of the emperor and the +prince, and all vied with one another in inventing every expedient to +effect the object which the most subtle arts could have recourse to. +During the night the wearied maiden slept profoundly, while the Moorish +women in attendance watched her in silence, anxious not to disturb her +slumbers, and not venturing to move from their posts. + +Morning dawned at last. The nightingale, the goldfinch, and the +swift-flying bunting, announced the rising of the orb of day; the +flowers unclosed their buds in the transparent morning ray, wafting +forth their delicious odors, and perfuming with their fragrance the +tranquil abode where breathed this innocent and lovely maiden. This +abode was within a small gallery, decorated with crystal; and surrounded +by vast shrubberies of the laurel, cypress, and myrtle, whose dark +foliage mingled with the fragrant boughs of the citron and lemon. +Through occasional vistas might be remarked, amid these labyrinths of +eternal green, the deep mulberry-colored branches of the towering +spice-tree, while the rose, the jessamine, and the mallow, crowned the +raised terraces in sweet luxuriance, seeming to vie with the tall +cassia, and darkening the bowers where the sunlight had been allowed to +penetrate by the abundance of their white and crimson bloom. The +blue-bell, the white lily, and the lily of the valley, blossomed +beneath, shedding their perfume on the lower earth, as though too lowly +to mingle with the clouds of fragrance emitted by the loftier plants, +above which in their turn the ambitious woodbine exalted its gay +festoons; and in the more distant shades of the garden, the green sward +spread a soft and variegated carpet over the ground, spangled with +plants of the dwarf violet, and aromatic spikenard. It was upon these +scenes that the eyes of the fair Hebrew unclosed, after her long and +profound sleep. So fair a sight filled her with a tranquil and serene +pleasure; the warbling of the singing birds that fluttered amid the +branches around her, or flew here and there amid the flowery mazes of +the garden, were heard with delight, and while she watched them she +envied them their liberty. + +It was with surprise and admiration that the young Jewess examined the +embellishments of this gallery, which were, indeed, a triumph of art and +ingenuity. Again and again did she admire it, reclining on her couch. +One of the Moorish ladies, seeing her attention thus engaged, addressed +her, with an affectionate salutation. Sol replied in accents of +kindness, and entered into conversation with her, speaking with innocent +admiration of the picturesque beauty of the landscape she beheld from +this gallery. + +A black slave, clothed in white, came to give notice to Sol that the +kaidmia[9] waited to receive her. With haste, therefore, she took leave +of the Moorish ladies, and placed herself under the conduct of that +officer. She was at once conducted into the presence of the emperor, who +received her in a magnificent hall, sitting on an ottoman of crimson +velvet, richly fringed with gold. Opposite to him was a cushion, which +he desired the young Hebrew to occupy, and commanded his slaves to serve +_esfa_,[10] and tea with the herb _luisa_.[11] Having thus, by every +demonstration of kindness and affability, prepared her to converse with +him--the emperor told Sol, he had long since heard of her mental +acquirements and talents, and was not ignorant of the arguments she had +used in the palace of his son, nor of her obstinate refusal to embrace +the Law of the Prophet; but that he looked upon that merely as a morbid +feeling of her mind, arising from delusion, and trusted that when _he_ +should have argued awhile with her, she would not long continue in her +present opinion. + +"Thou art called Sol," proceeded the emperor, "is it not so?" + +The young Jewess replied in the affirmative. + +"Well, then, beloved Sol," said he, "I have prepared a boon beyond all +the powers of thine imagination to conceive. Since first I heard of thy +beauty and virtue from Arbi Esid, the governor of Tangier, I decided +that thou shouldst become the enchantress of my court. I saw thee enter +Fez; and was delighted with all I saw; I heard thee speak in the palace +of my son, and was charmed with all I heard. I was beside thee, though +unseen, and I rejoiced with the Prophet, over so fair a captive. This +morning, while thou wast conversing upon the state of men by birth, I +was in the garden; the Tolva,[12] who accompanied me, said to me, 'this +Jewess will indeed be a noble Mahometan!' At that moment, I had decided +to reward thy beauty by giving thee in marriage to my nephew,--a +handsome, rich, and brave youth; I had determined to bestow upon thee a +diamond, whose value exceeds all the riches that any prince can possess; +see, beautiful Sol, these are indeed gifts worthy to be appreciated, and +thou wilt not, I am certain, disappoint me." + +"My lord," replied Sol, "I must confess, that in my present condition, +nothing can attract or fix my attention: and my mind is tormented by the +remembrance of my parents and of my brother." + +"Thy parents and thy brother," said the emperor, "shall be sent for +immediately after thy recantation." + +"Say, rather," exclaimed Sol, "after my death, for never can I become a +Mahometan!" + +"Innocent creature!" said the emperor, "who has urged you to this +temerity? Reflect but for an instant; then consider if you would +renounce my favor, and embrace Death as an alternative! Resolve quickly; +or I would even grant delay, if you desire it." + +"My Lord," said Sol, "I am well aware that you have distinguished me in +a manner of which I am undeserving; the offers that you have made me +are, indeed, worthy of so great a prince; but I, a miserable Jewess, +cannot accept them. I have determined never to change my creed; if this +resolve should merit death, I will patiently submit; order, then, my +execution, and the God of justice, knowing my innocence, will avenge my +blood." + +"Unhappy girl!" exclaimed the emperor; "you were not born to be so +beautiful, yet so unfortunate! From this moment I abandon you: my pride +forbids me to persuade you further; yet I leave you with sorrow--the +laws of my realm must judge you, and already I foresee that your blood +will be poured out upon the earth!" + +So speaking, and casting a compassionate glance upon Sol, the monarch +departed with a measured and thoughtful step. + +The afflicted Sol remained immovable, but gave way to a torrent of +tears. Before long the kaidmia appeared and desired her to follow him, +which she did without opposition. The emperor, although he had decreed +that the cadi, as superior judge of the law, should try her cause, had +urged upon him to withhold the extreme penalties of the law till every +means had been tried that persuasion and mildness could suggest. To the +house of this magistrate she was now conducted, with this especial +recommendation from the emperor, in consequence of which, instead of +being sent to the prison, a room in the cadi's own house was set apart +for her, where he could be near her continually, and frequently engage +her in conversation; yet all these marks of kindness did the young Sol +receive as part of her martyrdom, and now thought on nothing but death, +as the means of her wished-for release. + +The Jew who had accompanied the captive maiden at the request of her +parents, had written news of all these events to Tangier. In Fez they +excited a very great sensation; and, especially among the resident Jews, +who showed their interest in all that passed whenever they could do so +without injuring the success of the means devised to save the victim, of +which they never lost sight for a moment. But they were now, although +they knew it not, engaged in a hopeless undertaking; for the Moors had +entered into a compact, having for its object the conversion of Sol, and +from this there was no escape. The cadi, a zealous servant of the +emperor, conducted his task with masterly subtlety; six hours were +almost daily occupied by him in arguments and entreaties to the young +Jewess; but all was vain, the steadfast maiden, firm in her resolution, +adhered to the law of her fathers, and listened with reluctance to all +the exhortations of the cadi. He admired her fortitude of spirit, while +he pitied her fate, knowing that unless she became a proselyte, her +sentence must inevitably be pronounced. In order to hasten the crisis, +however, he concerted a scheme to surprise her into a decision by which +she might either escape, or fall into his snare.[13] + +One morning early, after nine days had been spent in useless persuasion, +the cadi entered the apartment of Sol: "My daughter," said he, "I bring +you news of consolation; I, that have beheld you with eyes of +compassion, that would weep over your death as for that of a daughter, +have sought the Jajamins[14] of your creed; with them I have considered +your present position; they assure me that your fear of forfeiting the +glories which are to come, which causes you to reject the laws of the +Prophet, is groundless; they ensure you that future glory, on the word +of their conscience, provided that your life is not thus forfeited. I +wish the emperor to remain unacquainted with the step I have thus taken +for your sole benefit, my dear daughter, and from motives of kindness +and affection only. You will be visited by the Jajamins, who will repeat +what you now hear from my lips; and thus, convinced of the truth, you +will give me the delight of your conversion, and of your rescue from +death. But I perceive you are but little affected by this news!" + +Sol had not ceased, during this conversation, to regard the cadi with a +serious expression of countenance, which very clearly indicated the +state of mental vacillation produced by his words; nevertheless, she +answered only, that she was beyond measure anxious to speak to the +Jajamins, on whose judgment would probably depend her final +determination. + +Now this plot, so far from being undertaken without the knowledge of the +emperor, had been concerted between himself and the cadi; and by his +desire the latter informed the Jajamins, that unless they succeeded in +the conversion of the young Hebrew, she would suffer death, and they +would be exposed to the emperor's rigorous displeasure. This threat +produced the desired effect upon the Jajamins, who came to Sol prepared +by every means in their power to change her resolution. + +On the ensuing day, when she received their visit, they professed to her +their wish to console her in her affliction, and to hear from her own +lips the reasons why she had negatived the urgent wishes of the emperor; +adding, that this mission was a part of their duty, to which they much +desired to conform. + +The beautiful Jewess listened with attention to this exordium; and +replied, though with many sighs, in the following terms:--"God, who was +concealed from our view by the dense cloud which no human sight could +penetrate, delivered the Tables of the Law to Moses on the Mountain of +the Desert. He prompts my heart to remain faithful to those laws, +imposed on the people of Israel. More than once have I read in those +sacred books of the horrible persecutions endured by the Israelites who +violated that law; I have studied the prophecies of our Patriarchs, and +have observed their gradual fulfilment. Mahomet was but a false +innovator, a renegade from the primitive law;[15] neither to his laws +nor to the future pleasures of his paradise, can I lend an ear; faithful +to my own rites, the name of the only true God remains engraven on my +heart; to whom Abraham offered his son Isaac in sacrifice; and I, a +daughter of Abraham, would make sacrifice of my life to the same God. He +ordains fidelity, and I will keep His commandments as a faithful Hebrew +ought to keep them. Can any one on earth oppose the decree written by +the right hand of the Most High?" + +The Jajamins listened attentively to the reasons of the youthful Sol, +and urged, in reply, arguments full of hope; but perceiving that Sol, +with an indescribable firmness, set these all aside, one of them at +length addressed her as follows: "Our law imposes on us, as a duty, +after God, to respect the king. The king's will is that you should wear +the turban; and his will is sacred upon earth. I dare not advise +otherwise, for I should then lift up my counsel against the law of the +country that gives us a home. Besides, there are certain circumstances +of human life which are of such exigency, that the God of Abraham looks +upon them with leniency and toleration. As, for instance, young maiden, +the unforeseen and impending danger of your present situation. You have +parents--a brother; Jews, in great numbers, reside in this vast empire; +and all these will, on your account, be exiled, persecuted, and +ill-used. While, on the contrary, your conversion will not only liberate +yourself from death, but will avert these threatening ills to them, and +will bring down upon them honors and privileges; and we will, in the +name of God, insure your future glory, and save your conscience, by +taking on ourselves the responsibility of the act." + +The young Jewess listened in expressive silence, but without any visible +emotion, to the foregoing address. At the close of it she arose, and +expressed herself thus: + +"I respect your words, wise men of our faith; but if our laws impose +respect--after God, to the king--the king cannot violate the precepts of +the One God. I am resolved to sacrifice my life on the altar of my +faith. To myself only can this resolve be fatal: my parents and kindred +will be strengthened, and protected, and freed from the fury of that +fanaticism by which I suffer. I will not, even in outward appearance, +accede to the terms proposed. I will lay down my head to receive the axe +of the executioner, and the remembrance of my death and constancy will +excite only remorse in those who have oppressed me. Pardon me, if I have +offended you; and, I pray you, tell my parents that they live in my +heart. Entreat the cadi to molest me by no further importunities. My +determination is fixed, and all further attempts to shake it will be +vain." + +The tone of firmness in which she spoke convinced the jajamins that +there was no hope; and they left her, overwhelmed with surprise. + +The cadi, who had listened to the whole conference from another +apartment, went to meet the anxious and unsuccessful jajamins. + +"I know all," said he; "I have heard every thing. Your mission is +fulfilled, and I shall report your fidelity to the emperor. Fear +nothing, therefore, but rely upon my word." + +He then dismissed them, and going at once to his office, he took the +papers that related to the cause of the young Sol, and added to them a +transcript of her late contumelious expressions respecting the Law of +the Prophet, which he represented as being blasphemed by her, and +sentenced her, in consequence, to public execution. He next repaired to +the palace of the emperor, and after reporting to him the result of the +late conference with the jajamins, he handed to him the sentence of +death. The emperor was much moved, and showed symptoms of surprise and +concern. + +"How!" said he; "is there no remedy? Must this Jewess die?" + +"My lord," answered the cadi, "by the law she stands condemned; and +there is no remedy." + +"Well, then," said the emperor, "but one more hope remains. I command +that preparations for the execution be made with the utmost publicity; +that all the troops of Fez, and at the intermediate stations, be +assembled, and that nothing may be omitted which can make the spectacle +an imposing one. Let her be awe-stricken; let her even be partially +wounded before her head be finally severed. Perchance the sight of her +own blood, flowing down, may produce some effect upon her, and we may, +at the last moment, accomplish her conversion by intimidation. Leave me; +I am sorely displeased at the fate of this young Hebrew--lovely as her +name. And, mark me, strain every point, neglect nothing. We may yet gain +her over. Alas! may Ala protect her!" And the emperor turned away with +manifest signs of heavy displeasure. + +The cadi well perceived how greatly his royal master was grieved at the +idea of Sol's death: but there was now no remedy. The law, barbarous and +unjust as it was, was final; and her death was, therefore, inevitable. +Before her execution, nevertheless, he paid her a final visit, when he +found her kneeling in prayer, and displayed to her the writ of +execution. + +"Behold," said he, "your sentence. Your head will roll on the ground, +and the dust of the earth shall be dyed with your blood. Your tomb shall +be covered with maledictions, and amidst them will your last end be +remembered. Yet, fair Sol, there is a remedy; think yet upon it. +To-morrow, at this very hour, I will return, either to present you, +crowned with the jessamine flowers, to the emperor, or to lead you to +your death." + +With these words he departed, leaving the young Hebrew still in the +position in which he had found her upon his entrance, and from which she +stirred not, but remained in a contemplative ecstasy commending her soul +fervently to her Creator. + +It was soon publicly known in Fez that the day approached when the +beautiful young Jewess was to be beheaded for blaspheming the name of +the Prophet. The Moors, whose religious fanaticism is great beyond +comparison, looked upon this execution as an occasion for rejoicings. +The Jews, powerless to remedy it, were overcome by the deepest feelings +of despondency: unwilling to remain entirely passive, they commenced a +subscription, ready to be invested in any way that might best suit the +emergency. The parents and relations, who were in Tangier, whose efforts +to save this beloved victim would have been unavailing, even had they +been capable of devising any means for her rescue, were plunged into +despair; their hopes had suffered shipwreck upon the rock of a +relentless fatality, and they, like the young maiden herself, had no +consolation but those imparted from heaven. The afflicted Sol spent the +whole day in meditation, she refused all food, and looked anxiously for +the hour which would end her life. That fatal hour arrived at length. +With a trembling step, the cadi entered her apartment, and found her, as +before, in prayer. He was much agitated, and could speak to her only +with the utmost difficulty. At length he said:-- + +"Sol--beautiful Sol! the arbiters of life and death may meet together. +Behold me here! Know you wherefore I am come?" + +"I do know it," replied the maiden. + +"And have you determined upon your fate?" asked the cadi. + +Rising from the ground, and with firmness, Sol answered:--"I have +determined. Lead me to the place where I am to shed my blood." + +"Unhappy girl!" said the cadi, "never, till my death, will thine image +leave my memory!" He then desired a soldier to handcuff and lead her to +the prison. + +The authorities of Fez, at the emperor's desire, having determined to +give the scene as much publicity as possible, resolved that the +execution should take place upon the Soco--a large square in Fez, where +the market is held. The previous day, too, having been one of the weekly +market days, when the concourse of persons was always very considerable, +the news had circulated far and wide, and but little else was talked of. +Very early in the morning, a strong picquet of soldiers had been posted +on the Soco, in order to excite attention, and attract more spectators; +but so numerous was the crowd that this precaution was scarcely +necessary. The Jews who resided in Fez, when they saw that hope was at +an end, went to the emperor and proffered the large sum they had +collected, as was previously stated, in exchange for the permission to +inter the remains of the young Sol after her execution; to which the +emperor offered no opposition. + +The dreadful moment had now arrived, when the fair victim was to be +conducted from her prison to the place of execution. Till it arrived, +her devotions had been uninterrupted, and the executioners, sent to +fetch her, found her still praying to that Eternal Being in whom her +faith was centred, that He would endow her with strength and fortitude +to receive the bitter cup that awaited her. When the door of her prison +opened, she saw the executioners enter without manifesting any emotion +or surprise, but looked meekly towards them, waiting for the fulfilment +of their mission. But these men, whose nature is hardened to the most +savage cruelty, after intimating to her that they were come to conduct +her to death, tied around her neck a thick rope, by which they commenced +dragging her along as though she were a wild beast. The lovely young +girl, wrapped in her haique,[16] her eyes fixed on the earth, which she +moistened with her bitter tears, followed them with faltering steps. As +she passed, compassion, grief, tenderness, and every painful emotion of +the heart, might be traced in the countenances of the Jews; but among +the Mahometans there were no visible relentings of humanity. The Moors, +of all sects and ages, who crowded the streets, rent the air with their +discordant rejoicings. "She comes!" they cried; "she comes, who +blasphemed the name of the Prophet. Let her die for her impiety!" + +From the prison to the Soco, the crowds every minute augmented, though +the square formed by the troops prevented their penetrating to the +scaffold. Every alley and lane was crowded, and amid the most extreme +confusion the executioner arrived with Sol at the appointed spot. The +pen refuses to describe the incidents of the few succeeding moments. +Some few, even amongst the Moors, were moved, and wept freely and +bitterly. The executioner[17] unsheathed his sharp scimetar, and whirled +it twice or thrice in the air, as a signal for silence, when the uproar +of the Moors was hushed. The beautiful Sol was then directed to kneel +down,--at which moment she begged for a little water to wash her hands. +It was immediately brought, when she performed the ablution required by +the Jewish custom before engaging in prayer. The spectators were +anxiously observant of all the actions of the victim. Lifting her eyes +to heaven, and amid many tears, she recited the Sema (the prayer offered +by those of her nation before death), and then, turning to the +executioners, "I have finished," said she, "dispose of my life;" and, +fixing her gaze upon the earth, she knelt to receive the fatal stroke. + +The scene had by this time begun to change its aspect. The vast +concourse of people, seeing Sol's meek gentleness, could not but be +moved; many wept, and all felt a degree of compassion for her faith. The +executioner, then, seizing the arms of the victim, and twisting them +behind her back, bound them with a rope, and whirling his sword in the +air, laid hold of the long hair of Sol's head, and wounded her slightly, +as he had been commanded, yet so that the blood flowed instantly from +the wound, dyeing her breast and garments. + +But Sol, turning her face to the cruel executioner, replied-- + +"There is yet time," said they to her; "be converted, your life may yet +be spared." + +"Slay me, and let me not linger in my sufferings; dying innocently, as I +do, the God of Abraham will judge my cause." + +These were her last words, at the close of them the scimetar descended +upon her fair neck, and the courageous maiden was no more. + +The Jews had paid six Moors to deliver to them the corpse with the +blood-stained earth on which it lay, immediately after the execution of +the sentence. This was accordingly done, and the remains, wrapped in a +fine linen cloth, were deposited in a deep sepulchre of the Jewish +cemetery by the side of those of a learned and honored sage of the law +of Moses. Amidst tears and sighs was the Hebrew martyr buried. Even some +of the Moors followed her, mourning to her grave, and still visit her +tomb, and venerate her resting place as that of a true and faithful +martyr to the creed she held. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[9] Or "captain of a hundred," centurion. From the Arabic _kaid_, a +leader or chief, _mia_, a hundred. The Kaidmia is adjutant of the +empire. + +[10] A kind of sweetmeat prepared for the emperor and persons of high +rank, composed of milk, sugar, butter, and cinnamon. + +[11] A herb like sweet marjoram, usually accompanying tea in Morocco. + +[12] A learned professor of the law. It is the common practice in Arabia +to have whispering-galleries and watch-rooms in most houses, so that +what passes in one apartment may be overheard in another. + +[13] It may here be mentioned, that the Moorish law cannot _force_ a Jew +to change his religion; this conversion must be voluntary. The cadi +could not, therefore, condemn Sol to death, because she refused to +become a Mahometan, unless she had made use of some expressions +impugning the law of Mahomet. This will be seen by the sequel. + +[14] The Jajamins or Hajamins are Jews invested with certain +dignities--_Anglice_, "wise men," and respected as such. + +[15] On these words was the sentence of Sol framed, impeaching, as they +did, the Mahometan creed. + +[16] The _haique_, a sort of bonded cloak, is worn in Africa by the Jews +as well as the Moors. + +[17] All Moorish executions are performed with a sword. + + + + +From Chambers's Edinburgh Journal. + +ADVENTURES OF AN ARMY PHYSICIAN. + +A REMINISCENCE OF THE BRITISH RULE IN NEW-YORK. + + +Robert Jackson, the son of a small landed proprietor of limited income +but respectable character in Lanarkshire, was born in 1750, at +Stonebyres, in that county. He received his education first at the +barony school of Wandon, and afterwards under the care of Mr. Wilson, a +teacher of considerable local celebrity at Crawford, one of the wildest +spots in the Southern Highlands. He was subsequently apprenticed to Mr. +William Baillie, in Biggar; and in 1766 proceeded, for the completion of +his professional training, to the university of Edinburgh, at that time +illustrated and adorned by the genius and learning of such men as the +Monros, the Cullens, and the Blacks. + +In pursuing his studies at this favored abode of science and literature, +young Jackson is said to have evinced all that purity of morals and +singleness of heart which characterised him in after-life, and to have +resisted the allurements of dissipation by which, in those days +especially, the youthful student was tempted to wander from the paths of +virtuous industry. His circumstances were, however, distressingly +narrow; and not only was he forced to forego the means of professional +improvement open only to the more opulent student; but in order to meet +the expenses of the winter-sessions, he was obliged to employ the +summer, not in the study but in the practice of his profession. He +engaged himself as medical officer to a Greenland whaler, and in two +successive summers visited, in that capacity, "the thrilling regions of +thick-ribbed ice;" returning on each occasion with a recruited purse and +a frame strengthened and invigorated by exposure and exercise. During +these expeditions he occupied his leisure with the study of the Greek +and Roman languages, and the careful and repeated perusal of the best +authors in both. + +His third winter-sessions at Edinburgh having passed away, he was +induced to go out and seek his fortune in Jamaica, and accordingly +proceeded thither in a vessel commanded by one Captain Cunningham, who +had previously been employed as master of a transport at the siege of +Havannah. It is far from improbable that it was from his conversations +with this individual that Jackson derived those hints, of which at a +future time he availed himself, respecting the transmission of troops by +sea without injury to their health; but it is quite certain his +conviction of the enormous value of cold-water affusions as a curative +agent in the last stage of febrile affections, was imbibed from this +source. + +Arriving in Jamaica, he in 1774 became assistant to an eminent general +practitioner at Savana-la-Mar, Dr. King, who was also in medical charge +of a detachment of the first battalion of the 50th regiment. This latter +he consigned to Jackson's care; and well worthy of the trust did our +young adventurer, though but twenty-four years of age, approve +himself--visiting three or four times a day the quarters of the troops +to detect incipient disease, and studying with ardor and intelligent +attention the varied phenomena of tropical maladies. Four years thus +passed profitably away, and they would have been as pleasant as +profitable, but for one circumstance. The existence of slavery and its +concomitant horrors, appears to have made a deep impression on Jackson's +mind, and, at last, to have produced in him such sentiments of disgust +and abhorrence, that he resolved on quitting the island altogether, and, +as the phrase is, trying his luck in North America, where the +revolutionary war was then raging. This resolution--due perhaps, as much +to his love of travel as to the motive assigned--was not altogether +unfortunate, for shortly after his departure, October 3, 1780, +Savana-la-Mar was totally destroyed, and the surrounding country for a +considerable distance desolated, by a terrible hurricane and sweeping +inroad of the sea, in which Dr. King, his family and partner, together +with numbers of others, unhappily perished. + +The law of Jamaica forbade any one to leave the island without having +given previous notice of his intention, or having obtained the bond of +some respectable person as security for such debts as he might have +outstanding. Jackson, when he embarked for America, had no debts +whatever, and was, moreover, ignorant of the law, with whose +requirements therefore he did not comply. Nor did he become aware of his +mistake until, when off the easternmost point of the island, the master +of the vessel approached him and said: "We are now, sir, off +Point-Morant; you will therefore have the goodness to favor me with your +security-bond. It is a mere legal form, but we are obliged to respect +it." Finding this "legal form" had not been complied with, the master +then, in spite of Jackson's protestations and entreaties, set him on +shore, and the vessel continued on her voyage. What was to be done? +Almost penniless, landed on a part of the coast where he knew not a +soul, Jackson well-nigh gave himself up to despair. There was a vessel +for New-York loading, it was true, at Lucea; but Lucea was 150 miles +distant, on the westernmost side of the island, and not to be reached by +sea, whilst our adventurer's purse would not suffer him to hire a horse. +No choice was left him but to walk, and that in a country where the +exigencies of the climate make pedestrianism perilous in the extreme to +the white man. Having reached Kingston, which was in the neighborhood, +in a boat, and obtained the necessary certificate, he started on his +dangerous expedition, and on the first day walked eighteen miles, being +sheltered at night in the house of a benevolent planter. The next day he +pushed on for Rio Bueno, which he had almost reached, when, overcome by +thirst, he stopped by the way to refresh himself, and imprudently +standing in an open piazza exposed to a smart easterly breeze, whilst +his lemonade was preparing, contracted a severe chill that almost took +from him the power of motion, and left him to crawl along the road +slowly and with pain, until he reached his destination. + +Having finally arrived, friendless and moneyless, in New-York, then in +the occupation of the British, he endeavored first to obtain a +commission in the New-York volunteers, and afterwards employment as mate +in the Naval Hospital. In his endeavors, he was kindly assisted by a +Jamaica gentleman, a fellow-passenger, whose regard during the voyage he +had succeeded in conciliating by his amiable manners and evident +abilities; but his efforts were all in vain, and poor Jackson, familiar +with poverty from childhood, began now to experience the misery of +destitution. In truth, starvation stared him in the face, and a sense of +delicacy withheld him from seeking from his Jamaica friend the most +trifling pecuniary assistance. In this, his state of desperation, he +determined upon passing the British lines, and endeavoring to obtain +amongst the insurgents the food he had hitherto sought in vain; +resolving, however, under no circumstances to bear arms against his +native country. Whilst moodily and slowly walking towards the British +outposts to carry into execution this scheme, having in one pocket a +shirt, and in another a Greek Testament and a Homer, he was met half-way +by a British officer, who fixed his eyes steadily on him in passing. +Jackson in his agitation thought he read in the glance a knowledge of +his purpose and a disapprobation of it. Struck by the incident, he +turned back, and, after a moment's reflection, resolved on offering +himself as a volunteer in the first battalion of the 71st regiment +(Sutherland Highlanders), then in cantonment near New-York. Arriving at +the place, he presented himself to the notice of Lieutenant-Colonel +(afterwards Sir Archibald) Campbell, who, having first ascertained that +he was a Scotsman, inquired to whom he was known at New-York. Jackson +replied, to no one; but that a fellow-passenger from Jamaica would +readily testify to his being a gentleman. "I require no testimony to +your being a gentleman," returned the kind-hearted colonel. "Your +countenance and address satisfy me on that head. I will receive you into +the regiment with pleasure; but then I have to inform you, Mr. Jackson, +that there are seventeen on the list before you, who are of course +entitled to prior promotion." The next day, at the instance of Colonel +Campbell, the regimental surgeon, Dr. Stuart, appointed Jackson acting +hospital or surgeon's mate--a rank now happily abolished in the British +army; for those who filled it, whatever might be their competency or +skill, were accounted and treated no better than drudges. Although +discharging the duties that now devolve on the assistant-surgeon, they +were not, like him, commissioned, but only warrant-officers, and +therefore had no title to half-pay. + +Dr. Stuart, who appears to have been a man superior to vulgar prejudice, +and to have appreciated at once the extent of Jackson's acquirements and +the vigor of his intellect, relinquished to him, almost without control, +the charge of the regimental hospital. Here it was that this able young +officer began to put in practice that amended system of army medical +treatment which since his time, but in conformity with his teachings, +has been so successfully carried out as to reduce the mortality amongst +our soldiery from what it formerly was--about fifteen per cent--to what +it is now, about two and a half per cent. + +In the army hospitals, at the period Jackson commenced a career that was +to eventuate so gloriously, there was no regulated system of diet, no +classification of the sick. What are now well known as "medical +comforts," were things unheard of; the sick soldier, like the healthy +soldier, had his ration of salt-beef or pork, and his allowance of rum. +The hospital furnished him with no bedding; he must bring his own +blanket. Any place would do for a hospital. That in which Jackson began +his labors had originally been a commissary's store; but happily its +roof was water-tight--an unusual occurrence--and its site being in close +proximity to a wood, our active surgeon's mate managed, by the aid of a +common fatigue party, to surround the walls with wicker-work platforms, +which served the patients as tolerably comfortable couches. A further +and still more important change he effected related to the article of +diet. He suggested, and the suggestion was adopted--honor to the +courageous humanity which did not shrink from so righteous an +innovation!--that instead of his salt ration and spirits, which he could +not consume, the sick soldier should be supplied with fresh meat, +broth, &c.; and that, as the quantity required for the invalid would be +necessarily small, the quarter-master should allow the saving on the +commuted ration to be expended in the common market on other comforts, +such as sago, &c., suitable for the patient. Thus proper hospital diet +was furnished, without entailing any additional expense on the +state.[18] + +Indefatigable in the discharge of his interesting duties, Mr. Jackson +speedily obtained the confidence of his military superiors, who remarked +with admiration not only his intelligent zeal in performing his hospital +functions, but his calmness, quickness of perception, and generous +self-devotion when in the field of battle. On one occasion, although +suffering at the time from severe indisposition, he remained, under a +heavy fire, succoring the wounded, in spite of the remonstrances of the +officers present. On another, having observed the British commander, +Colonel (afterwards General) Tarleton, in danger of falling into the +hands of the enemy, who had routed the royalist troops, he galloped up +to the colonel--whom a musket-ball had just dismounted-pressed him to +mount his own horse and escape, whilst he himself, with a white +handkerchief displayed, quietly proceeded in the direction of the +advancing foe, and surrendered himself at once. The American commander, +who did not know what to make of such conduct, asked him who he was? He +replied: "I am assistant surgeon in the 71st regiment. Many of the men +are wounded, and in your hands. I come, therefore, to offer my services +in attending them." He was accordingly sent to the rear as a prisoner; +but was well treated, and spent the first night of his captivity in +dressing his soldiers' wounds, taking off his shirt, and tearing it up +into bandages for the purpose. He afterwards did the same good office +for the American sufferers; and when the wounded English could be +exchanged, Washington sent him back, not only without exchange, but even +without requiring his parole. At a subsequent period during the same +unhappy war, when the British under Lord Cornwallis were in full +retreat, the sick and wounded were placed in a building--which the +colonists, on their approach, began to riddle with shot. Several +surgeons, not caring to incur the risk of entering so exposed an +edifice, agreed to cast lots who should go in and see to the invalids; +but Jackson, with characteristic nerve and simplicity, at once stepped +forward: "No, no," said he, "I will go and attend to the men!" He did +so, and returned unhurt. + +After this we find him a prisoner in the hands of the Americans and +French at Yorktown, Virginia. As on the former occasion, he was treated +with all imaginable kindness; and, being released on parole, returned to +Europe early in 1782, and proceeded by way of Cork, Dublin, and Greenock +to Edinburgh, where he abode for a short time. Thence he started for +London: and, desirous of testing the best way of sustaining physical +strength during long marches, and urged perhaps also by economical +considerations, he resolved to make the journey on foot. His West Indian +and American experience had taught him that spare diet consisted best +with pedestrian efficiency, and it was accordingly his practice, during +this long walk, to abstain from animal food until the close of day, nor +often then to partake of it. He would walk some fourteen miles before +breakfast--a meal of tea and bread; rest then for an hour or an hour and +a half; then pace on until bedtime--a salad, a tart, or sometimes tea +and bread, forming his usual evening fare. He found that on this diet he +arose every morning at dawn with alacrity, and could prosecute without +inconvenience his laborious undertaking. By way of experiment he twice +or thrice varied his plan--dining on the road off beefsteaks, and having +a draught of porter in the course of the afternoon; but the result +justified his anticipations. The stimulus of the beer soon passing off, +lassitude succeeded the temporary strength it had lent him; and, worse +than all, his disposition to early rising sensibly diminished. + +His stay in London, which he reached in this primitive fashion, was not +long. His kind friend Dr. Stuart, who had exchanged into the Royal +Horse-Guards, gave him the shelter of his roof; but so poor was Mr. +Jackson, that, although ardently desirous of improving himself in his +profession, he was unable to attend any one of the medical schools with +which London abounds. + +The peace of 1783 having opened the continent to the curiosity of the +British traveller, Jackson curtly announced to his friends, that "he was +going to take a walk." His poverty allowed him no other mode of +locomotion; so off he set on the grand tour, carrying with him a map of +France, a bundle of clothes, and a scanty supply of money. Crossing the +Channel, he reached Calais, a place which Horace Walpole, writing from +Rome, declared had astonished him more than any thing he had elsewhere +seen, but in which our adventurer found nothing more astonishing than a +superb Swiss regiment. He proceeded to Paris, and thence through +Switzerland, by Geneva and Berne, into Germany, at a town of which--Guenz +in Suabia--he met with a comical enough adventure. + +On entering the town he was challenged by a soldier, who, having learned +he had no passport, carried him before a magistrate, by whom he was +forthwith condemned as a vagabond, and remitted to the custody of a +recruiting sergeant. This worthy, in turn, introduced him to the +commanding officer, who politely gave our traveller the choice of +serving his Imperial and Apostolic Majesty, the Emperor of Germany, +either in his cavalry or his infantry forces. But Jackson, strangely +insensible to the honor, flatly refused to serve his Majesty in these or +any other ways, and desired to be at once set free, and suffered to +continue his journey. The officer, doubtless, amazed at such +presumption, desired the sergeant to convey him to the barracks, where +he was placed in a large room, in which were congregated some two +hundred or so involuntary recruits like himself--harmless travellers, +who, being destitute of passports, the emperor forcibly enlisted into +his service. Jackson found his co-mates in misfortune very dirty, very +ragged, but perfectly civil and good-tempered. Having a little recovered +his serenity--for it is easy to see, though our hero is described as a +man of placid demeanor and somewhat Quakerly appearance, he could be not +a little fiery at times--he sat down and wrote to the commanding +officer, entreating leave to sleep at an inn, and proffering the deposit +of all his money as a pledge for his reappearance next morning. The +reply was an order that he should surrender his writing materials. At +seven o'clock, the appointed sleeping hour, the sergeant returned and +gave the signal for bed by rapping with his cane on the floor, which was +speedily covered by a number of dirty bags of mouldy straw--the +regulation mattresses, it would seem, for involuntary recruits. +Jackson--peppery again--refused to lie down, but was at last compelled +to do so, and between two of the dirtiest fellows of the lot, each of +whom had a leg chained to an arm. The next morning, at his own request, +he was brought before the commandant of the town, who had only arrived +late the preceding evening, and whom he found seated in his bedroom, +"with all his officers standing round him receiving orders," says +Jackson, "with more humility than orderly-sergeants." The commandant +repeated the offer of "cavalry or infantry;" adding that a war was about +to commence with the Turks, and that good-behavior would insure +promotion. However, finding Jackson obstinately persistent in his +refusal, he quietly observed, in conclusion, that the emperor, as a +matter of rule and of right, "impressed" into his army all such as +entered his dominions without certificates of character. "The order was +so tyrannical," declares our _detenu_, "that I could not contain myself. +'Put me in chains, if you please,' I said, 'but I tell you, all Germany +shall not make me carry a musket for the emperor.'" This impetuous burst +of indignation seems to have alarmed the pglegmatic commandant, who +accordingly let our adventurer go, counselling him, however, to write to +the English ambassador at Vienna for a passport, lest he should get into +further trouble. + +Jackson passed through the Tyrol into Italy, every where indulging his +love of scenery and still greater love of adventure; studying with all +the acuteness of his countrymen the varied characters of the people he +met with, and in his correspondence with home friends, sketching them in +language striking for its force, its propriety, and originality. Some of +his remarks on men and manners are conceived in a truly Goldsmithian +vein, whilst all testify at once to the goodness of his heart and the +quickness of his perceptions. At Venice he says that he felt it to be +"such a feast of enjoyment as seldom falls to the lot of man, and never +to the lot of any but a poor man, who has nothing conspicuous about him +to attract the notice of the crowd," to possess such facilities as he +did for learning what the people of foreign countries really were. + +At Albenga, in Piedmont, Jackson arrived one night, tired, hungry, and +drenched with rain. Intending to put up at the "Albergo di San +Dominico," which he had been informed was the best inn, he went by +accident to the convent of the same name, and entering, called loudly to +be shown to a private room. "Instead of telling me I was wrong," he +says, "the young brethren looked waggish, and began to laugh: when a man +is cold and hungry, he can ill brook being the sport of others;" so +accordingly--peppery again--he shook his stick angrily at the young +monks. And at last one of the most courteous and demure of the number, +coming forward, said that although theirs was not exactly a public +house, still the stranger was heartily welcome to walk in, rest, and +refresh himself. Discovering his mistake, Jackson of course lost no time +in making his bow, his apologies, and acknowledgments. + +He returned to England by way of France, having but six sous in his +pockets when he reached Bordeaux, where an English merchant, a total +stranger, advanced him a few pounds. On the road, he was frequently +taken for an Irishman, and not seldom for an Irish priest; under which +impression, many civilities were paid him by the simple inhabitants of +the country he traversed. Ultimately he landed at Southampton, with just +four shillings in his possession: his once black coat having turned a +rusty brown, his hat shovel-shaped by ill-usage, and his whole aspect so +comical, that the mob hooted him, under the belief that he was a +Methodist preacher. Proceeding inland on foot, in the direction of +Southampton, he overtook a poor man walking along the road, whose looks +of unutterable misery induced our traveller to stop and inquire what +ailed him. He told Jackson he had a son and daughter dying of a disorder +apparently contagious, and that no physician would attend them, as he +was too poor to pay the fees. Jackson at once offered his services, +which were gratefully accepted. He saw his patients, and prescribed for +them, and his heart was touched by their simple expressions of +gratitude. "Their thankfulness," he says, "for a thing that would +perhaps do them no good, gave me more pleasure than a fee of, I believe, +twenty guineas, much in need of it as I was." The night had gathered in +before he reached Winchester, where, at a respectable inn, he partook of +such refreshment as his means afforded, and then desired to be shown to +his bedroom. The answer was, that the house contained no bedroom for +such as he, and he was finally driven out with the coarsest abuse into +the streets. The hour was ten o'clock, the month December, and the +severity of the weather may be guessed from the fact, that the snow lay +deep on the ground. After wandering about for some time, he at last +obtained shelter in a small house in the outskirts of the city. The next +day he fared little better. "On Sunday morning," he relates, "I was +sixty-four miles from London, and had only one shilling in my pocket. I +was hungry, but durst not eat; thirsty, and I durst not drink, for fear +of being obliged to lie all night at the side of a hedge in a cold night +in December. After dark, I travelled over to Bagshot; was denied +admittance into some of the public-houses, ill used in others." He +sought in vain permission even to lie in a barn; but a laborer he +fortunately fell in with conducted him to a house, where, at the +sacrifice of his last shilling, he secured at length a bed. The next +day--foot-sore, penniless and starving--he entered London. After +remaining there a brief space--January, 1784--in spite of the inclement +season, he set off, again on foot, to Perth--a journey that occupied him +three weeks, as he was detained on the way by some friends whom he +visited. At Perth, where his old regiment then lay previous to its +disbandment, he amused himself by studying Gaelic, and the controversy +respecting Ossian and his poems. Quitting Perth, he travelled, still on +foot, through the Highlands, the inhabitants of which he was, in the +first instance, disposed to class with savages; but when he had observed +the originality of conception, the breadth of humor, and the elevated +sentiments which mark the Celt, his opinions underwent a total +revolution. He was especially delighted with a ragged old reiver or +cattle-lifter whom he encountered, and who had given shelter to the +Young Chevalier in the braes of Glenmoriston after the battle of +Culloden. + +On his return to Edinburgh, Jackson married a lady of fortune, the +daughter of Dr. Stephenson, and niece of his old friend Colonel Francis +Shelley, of the 71st regiment; and was enabled by this accession to his +means once again to visit Paris, where he not only resumed his medical +studies, but acquired the mastery of several languages, Arabic amongst +the rest. Having graduated M. D. at Leyden, he came back again to +England, and commenced practice at Stockton-upon-Tees, in Durham. +Although his reputation speedily became considerable, especially in +cases of fever, he seems scarcely to have liked his new avocation. He +found solace, however, in his favorite study of language, which he +pursued with unremitting ardor--constantly reading through the Greek and +Latin classics, and not only rendering himself familiar with the best +works of the modern continental authors, but also with the literature of +the Arabic, Persian, Hebrew, and Gaelic tongues. The _Bostan_ of Saadi +is said to have been one of his most favorite poems. + +On the war breaking out in 1793, Dr. Jackson--who, in 1791, had +published a valuable work on the fevers of Jamaica and continental +America--applied for employment as army-physician; but Mr. Hunter, the +director-general of the medical department of the army, considering none +eligible for such employment who had not served as staff or regimental +surgeon, or apothecary to the forces, Jackson agreed to accept, in the +first instance, the surgeoncy of the 3d Buffs, on the understanding, +that at a future time, he should be nominated physician as he desired. +Mr. Hunter, however, ever, died soon after this; and his promise was not +fulfilled by the Board which succeeded him in the medical direction of +the army, and which appears to have pursued Dr. Jackson with uniform +hostility. + +Returning to England with the troops, it was offered to him to +accompany, in the capacity of chief medical officer, Sir Ralph +Abercromby's expedition against some of the West India islands; and +although no employment could possibly have been more agreeable to his +taste, he, much to Sir Ralph's chagrin, declined the flattering +proposal, on the grounds, that lower terms had been offered to him than +to another professional man. Nothing but a sense of professional +delicacy, it is plain, governed him in this transaction, for he +immediately afterwards embarked (April, 1796) as _second_ medical +officer in another expedition to San Domingo. During his abode in this +island, he was unwearied in enlarging his acquaintance with tropical +diseases--observing the rule he had followed in Holland of noting down +by the patient's bedside the minutest particulars of every case he +attended, the effects of the treatment pursued, and whatever else might +shed light on the intricacies of pathological science. He also gave a +larger practical operation to the scheme he had years before devised of +amending the dietaries of military hospitals. + +After the evacuation of San Domingo in 1798, our physician paid a visit +to the United States, where he was received with signal distinction, his +reputation having preceded him. The latter part of the year found him +again at Stockton, publishing a work on contagious and endemic fevers, +"more especially the contagious fever of ships, jails, and hospitals, +vulgarly called the yellow-fever of the West Indies;" together with "an +explanation of military discipline and economy, with a scheme for the +medical arrangements of armies." He undertook, about this time, by +desire of Count Woronzow, the Russian ambassador, the medical charge of +seventeen hundred Russian soldiers, who were stationed in the Channel +Islands in a sad state of disease and disorganization; and so admirably +did he acquit himself, and so perfect were the hospital provisions he +made, that (1800) the commander-in-chief nominated him physician and +head of the army-hospital depot at Chatham--as he says, "without any +application or knowledge on his part." This appointment was the cause of +his subsequent misfortunes. + +At Chatham, with the warm approbation of Major-General Hewett, +commanding the depot, he introduced that system of hospital reform form +which had elsewhere operated so successfully. The changes he effected, +as soon as they were made, became known to the Medical Board, and were +publicly approved of by one of its members. However, shortly afterwards, +an epidemic broke out in the depot (then removed to the Isle of Wight), +arising from the fact, that the barracks were overcrowded with young +recruits, but which the medical board ascribed to Jackson's innovations, +and reported so to the Horse-Guards. The commander-in-chief directed an +inquiry to take place before a medical board impannelled for the +purpose, and the result of that inquiry may be guessed from a +communication made by the War-Office to the commandant of the depot. +This states "the unanimous opinion of the board to have exculpated Dr. +Jackson from all improper treatment of diseases in the sick," and the +commander-in-chief's gratification, "than an opportunity has thus been +given to that most zealous officer of proving his fitness for the +important situation in which he is placed." The result of this wretched +intrigue, however, was that Jackson, disgusted with the whole affair, +requested to be placed on half-pay, to which request the Duke of York, +with marked reluctance, at last (March 1803) acceded. + +In his retirement at Stockton, Jackson put forth two valuable works, one +on the medical economy of armies, and another on that of the British +army in particular, and was much gratified by an offer to accompany, as +military secretary, General Simcoe, just appointed commander-in-chief in +India. The general's sudden death, however, put an end to this plan; and +Jackson continued at Stockton, addressing frequent representations to +government on the defective medical arrangements in the military +service--representations the very receipt of which were not acknowledged +by Mr. Pitt, to whom they were forwarded. The Peninsular war commencing, +Dr. Jackson was again named Inspector of Hospitals, but was not, thanks +to the persevering enmity of the Medical Board, sent on foreign service, +although he volunteered to sink his rank, and go in any capacity. The +Board even succeeded, by calumnious statements, that he had purchased +his diploma--statements he readily confuted--in preventing his +appointment to the Spanish liberating army; although the British +government had formally requested him to accept such an appointment, and +agreed to give credentials testifying to his capacity and +trustworthiness. This last appointment led him, in an unguarded +moment--peppery to the last--to inflict a slight personal chastisement +on the surgeon-general, for which he was imprisoned six months in the +King's Bench. + +But the triumph of his enemies was not of long duration. In 1810 the +Board was dissolved, and the control of the medical department vested in +a director-general, with three principal inspectors subordinate to him. +Then did Jackson return to active service, and from 1811 to 1815 was +employed in the West Indies; his reports from whence embracing every +topic relating to medical topography, to sanitary arrangements, and to +the observed phenomena of tropical disease, are, it is not too much to +say, invaluable. His hints as to the choice of sites for barracks, the +propriety of giving to soldiers healthy employment and recreation, as a +means of averting sickness, his suggestions as to the treatment of +fevers and other endemic diseases, may be found in the various works he +has published, embodying the fruits of his West Indian experience. + +In 1819, he was sent by government to Spain, where the yellow-fever had +broken out, and his report upon its characteristics has been universally +admitted to supply the fullest information on the subject that had +hitherto been communicated to the public. He availed himself of his +presence in that part of Europe to pay a visit to Constantinople and the +Levant; and, retaining his energy to the last, when a British force was +sent to Portugal in 1827, he desired permission to accompany it. The +sands of his life, however, were then fast running out, and on the 6th +of April in the same year he died, after a short illness, at Thursby, +near Carlisle, in the seventy-seventh year of his age. Thus closed a +long career of usefulness; for it is not too much to say, that few men +of his time labored harder to benefit his fellow-creatures than did Dr. +Robert Jackson. + + * * * * * + +SPANISH NAMES.--A Spanish journal gives the following singular names as +those of two _employes_ in the Finance department at Madrid:--Don +Epifanio Mirurzururdundua y Zengotita, and Don Juan Nepomuceno de +Burionagonatotorecagogeazcoecha. The journal would have done well to +have given some directions as to the pronunciation. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[18] The late Admiral Sir Edward Codrington, when in command, during the +war, of a frigate on the coast of Calabria, finding sickness appear +amongst his crew, purchased on his own responsibility some bullocks, for +the purpose of supplying them with fresh meat. Lord Collingwood having +heard of this, and considering it a breach of discipline, sent for +Codrington, and addressed him: "Captain Codrington, pray have you any +idea of the price of a bullock In this place?" "No, my lord," was the +reply, "I have not; but I know well the value of a British sailor's +life!" + + + + +From Dicken's Household Words. + +STRINGS OF PROVERBS. + + +When a saying has passed into a national proverb, it is regarded as +having received the "hall-mark" of the people, with respect to its +prudence or practical wisdom. Proverbs deal only with realities, +generally of the most homely and every-day kind, and are always supposed +to comprise the most sage advice, or the most broad worldly truth, +within the least possible compass. + +Now, while we admit that proverbs are for the most part true, and useful +in their teaching, and that they very often inculcate excellent maxims, +we must at the same time enter our protest against the infallibility of +most of them. Numbers will be found, on the least examination (which is +seldom given to them) to be one-sided truths; others, inculcate an +utterly selfish conduct, under the guise of prudence or worldly wisdom; +and some of them are absolutely false, or only of the narrowest +application. The majority of the proverbs, of all modern nations, +originate with the people, and with the humbler classes (we must except +the Chinese and Arabic, which are evidently the product of their sages), +as witnessed by the homeliness of the allusions, and the frequent +vulgarity, but, in all cases, the actual experience of life and its +ordinary occurences with regard to men and things. They are full of +corn, with a proportionate quantity of chaff and straw. Let us no +longer, therefore, take all these "sayings" for granted; let us rather +take them to task a little, for their revision and our own good. + +Proverbs being the common property of all mankind, and often to be +traced to very remote geographical sources, we shall observe no national +classification; but string a few together now and then from Arabia and +China, from Spain, Italy, France, or England, just as they may occur. +So, now to our first string. + +_Honesty is the best policy._ This is true in the higher sense; but +doubtful in the sense usually intended. It is true as to the general +good, but not usually for the individual, except in the long run. (We +pass over the obvious truth, that it is better policy to earn a guinea, +than to steal one, because the proverb has a far wider range of meaning +than that.) To be a "politic," clever fellow, a vast deal more humoring +of prejudices, errors, and follies, is requisite, than at all assorts +with true honesty of character. If, however, we regard this proverb only +on its higher moral ground, then, of course, we must at once admit its +truth. The reader will probably be surprised, as we were, to find that +it comes from the Chinese, and will be found in the translation of the +novel of "_Iu-Kiao-Li_." + +_A leap from a hedge is better than a good man's prayer._ (Spanish.) The +leap (of a robber) from his lurking-place, being preferable to asking +charity, and receiving a blessing, is one of those proverbs, the +impudent immorality of which is of a kind that makes it impossible to +help laughing. Its frank atrocity amounts to the ludicrous. It is an old +Spanish proverb, and occurs in "Don Quixote"--of course in the mouth of +Sancho. + +_A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush._ The extreme caution +ridiculed by this proverb is of a kind which one would hardly have +expected to be popular in a commercial country. If this were acted upon, +there would be an end of trade and commerce, and all capital would lie +dead at the banker's--as a bird who was held safe. The truth is, our +whole practice is of a directly opposite kind. We regard a bird in the +hand as worth only a bird; and we know there is no chance of making it +worth two birds--not to speak of the hope of a dozen--without letting it +out of the hand. Inasmuch, however, as the proverb also means to exhort +us not to give up a good certainty for a tempting uncertainty, we do +most fully coincide in its prudence and good sense. It is identical with +the French "_Mieux vaut un_ 'tiens' _que deux_ 'tu l'auras,'"--one "take +this" is better than two "thou shalt have it;"--identical also with the +Italian: _E meglio un uovo oggi, che una gallina domani_; an egg to-day +is better than a hen to-morrow. It owes its origin to the Arabic--"A +thousand cranes in the air, are not worth one sparrow in the fist." + +_Enough is as good as a feast._ The best comment on this proverb that +occurs to us was the reply made by Rooke, the composer (a man who had a +fund of racy Irish wit in him), at a time when he was struggling with +considerable worldly difficulties. "How few are our real wants!" said a +consoling friend; "of what consequence is a splendid dinner? Enough is +as good as a feast."--"Yes," replied Rooke, "and therefore a feast is as +good as enough--and I think I prefer the former." + +_Love me, love my dog._ At first sight this has a kindly appearance, as +of one whose interest in a humble friend was as great as any he took in +himself; but, on looking closer into it, we fear it involves a curious +amount of selfish encroachment upon the kindness of others--a sort of +doubling of the individuality, with all its exactions. My dog (in +whatever shape) may be an odious beast; or, at best, one who either +makes himself, or, whose misfortune it is to be, very disagreeable to +certain people; but, never mind--what of that, if he is _my_ dog? +Society could not go on if this were persisted it. + +_Set a beggar on horseback, and he'll ride to the devil._ The direction +in which he will ride depends entirely on the character of the +beggar--or poor man suddenly risen to power. Some sink over the other +side of the horse, and drop into utter sloth and pampered sensualism; +but others do their best to ride well, and sometimes succeed. Masaniello +and Rienzi did not ride long in the best way; but several patriots, who +have rapidly risen from obscurity to power, have set noble examples. + +_Throw him into a river, and he will rise with a fish in his mouth._ +(Arabic.) Some men are so fortunate that nothing can sink them. Where +another man would drown they find fish or pearls. + +_The monkey feared transmigration, lest he should become a gazelle._ +(Arabic.) The matchless conceit of some people, and utter ignorance of +themselves, either as to appearance or abilities, are finely expressed +in the above. + +_The baker's wife went to bed hungry._ (Arabic.) How often is it seen, +that those who follow a profession or trade, are among the last to +display a special benefit from their calling! Our proverb, that +"Shoemakers' wives are the worst shod," seems to be derived from the +same source. + +_Chat echaude craint l'eau froide_; the scalded cat fears (even) cold +water. This is a better version of the English proverb of "A burnt child +dreads the fire." That the proverb is by no means of general +application, the experience of every one can avouch. It would be the +saving of many a child, of whatever age, who having been burnt should +entertain a salutary dread of the fire ever after. But it is not so; +witness how many are burnt--_i.e._, ruined, wounded, shot, drowned, made +ridiculous, who had all been previously well warned by "burning their +fingers" with losses, injuries by land and sea, and failures in attempts +involving dangerous chances. + +_Crom a boo_; I will burn. This Irish proverb, or saying, may serve in +many respects as an adverse commentary on the preceding. There are +people who are never at rest when they are out of hot water--nor +contented when they are in. "I will burn" is the motto of the Duke of +Leinster. It would do capitally for Mr. Smith O'Brien. Perhaps, however, +it should not be read as a resolution to suffer, but as a threat to +inflict a burning. Still, the vagueness of this threat--a dreadful +announcement with no definite object--would render it equally +applicable. + +_Bis dat qui cito dat_; he gives double who gives promptly. The truth of +this is well illustrated by the converse it suggests; that he who long +delays and tantalizes before giving, earns less gratitude than scorn. It +requires more generosity and a finer mind to confer a favor in the best +way, than to confer double the amount of the favor in itself. + +_What I gain afore I lose ahint._ (Scotch.) To be engrossed with a fixed +object, is to forget what is going on all around us. I am closely +engaged with what is passing before my eyes, while I am deceived and +injured behind my back. This quaint old proverb has been ludicrously +illustrated by a characteristic story. A Highlander, in a somewhat +scanty kilt, was crossing a desolate moor one winter's night, and being +very cold, he hastened to a light he saw at no great distance. It turned +out to be a decomposed cod's head, which sent forth phosphoric gleams. +He stooped down to try and warm his hands at it; but finding the bleak +winds whistling all round his legs, he made the sage observation above, +which has passed into a proverb. + +_Entfloh'nes Wort, geworf'ner Stein, die kommen nimmermehr herein_; the +hasty word, and hasty stone, can never be recalled. How truthful, how +home to the mark, does this proverb fly; how excellent is the warning +and the self-command it inculcates! + +_To-day a fire, to-morrow ashes._ (Arabic.) Violent passions are the +soonest exhausted; to-day all-powerful, to-morrow nothing, or the +consequences. + +_Reading the psalms to the dead._ (Arabic.) This is the original of our +"Preaching to the dead," to express the fruitlessness of exhortations, +applications, or petitions, to certain insensible people. + +_Follow the owl, she will lead thee to ruin._ (Arabic.) A most +picturesque proverb, giving its own scenery with it. But it strikes one +as curious that this should come from the East which seems so familiar +to our apprehensions. Not only are the habits of the owl the same, but +the owl is equally regarded as the symbol of a purblind fool. Yet, on +the other hand, the owl of classic times was a type of wisdom. + +_Two of a trade can never agree._ It is curious, and, in most instances, +highly gratifying, to see how many of these sayings of our ancestors are +becoming falsified by the great advances made, of late years, in social +feelings and arrangements. Trades' unions, co-operative societies--in +fact, all our great companies prove how well two of a trade can agree; +and so do all combinations of masters or of workmen. Yes, it will be +said, but they "agree," and co-operate for their mutual interests, and +they do not agree with those opposed to them. Of course not; the +sensible thing, therefore, is obvious, to enlarge the sphere of good +understanding and reciprocal fair dealing in matters of business, and +thus to supersede the bad feeling and injury of greedy rivalries and +selfish antagonisms. + +_There was a wife who always took what she had, and never wanted._ +(Scotch.) A good practical advice, showing the importance of using what +you possess, instead of hoarding it, or reserving it, even when most +needed, for some possible contingency, which may never occur. It seems +to refer chiefly to articles of dress, clothing, domestic utensils, or +other household matters. + +_Dat Deus immiti cornua curta bovi_; God curtails the power to do evil +in those who desire to do it. + +_There is honor among thieves._ This is, no doubt, quite true, though +you must be a thief yourself to derive much benefit from it. They stand +by their order. The suggestion is--since there is honor towards each +other among the most unprincipled classes, surely Mr. Sweepstakes, and +Mr. Moses Battledore, who are both respectable members of society, and +belong to clubs, would not cheat me. But this does not logically follow; +for we by no means know how far the respectable individual makes his +view of his own interest an excuse to himself for an occasional +exception to the code of morality he professes. There's honor among +thieves; and there are thieves (here and there) among +honorably-connected men, "all honorable men." Life is a "mingled yarn" +of good and evil; and society is a motley aggregate of all sorts of +yarns. + +_A rose-bud fell to the lot of a monkey._ (Arabic.) The monkey +appreciated the rose-bud quite as much as swine appreciate the pearls +which are said to be cast before them. + +_Of what use to a fool is all the trouble he gives himself?_ (Chinese.) +None whatever; but his folly may cause a vast deal of trouble to people +of sense. One false move of an utterly incompetent man in office, and +the force of the saying becomes very expansive. + +_There are no lies so wicked as those which have some foundation._ +(Chinese.) A saying which is but too true, and which ought to be +universally understood in society, as some protection against slander. + +_Many preparations before the sour plum sweetens._ (Chinese.) Great +results do not hastily ripen; great and important changes must undergo a +gradual process. + +_Spare the rod and spoil the child._ This seems to be derived from the +old Spanish proverb, which we find in Don Quixote, "He loves thee well +who makes thee weep." They are unkindly and dangerous maxims, which tend +to inculcate severity, and to justify harsh treatment upon the plea of +future advantage. We readily admit that nothing can well be worse than a +"spoilt child," nor can a more injurious system exist than that of +pampering or spoiling--except the direct opposite, that of frequently +causing tears. + +_A tea-spoonful of honey is worth a pound of gall._ An indiscriminate +use of the sweets of life is a stupidity and an injury; but the +judicious use of them is of far more service in the production of good +results, than the bitter lessons which are often considered to be of +most advantage. It is better to soften the heart than to harden it. "A +soft word turneth away wrath." + +_What the ant collects in a year, the priest eats up in a night._ +(Arabic.) The tithe-taxes, and other revenues of the state-clergy, +derived from the industry of the working classes, are not very tenderly +dealt with in this proverb. + +_The walls have ears._ (Arabic.) This is one of the many instances of +our homeliest proverbs in every-day use, being derived from the East. No +doubt the saying, that "Little pitchers have great ears" (in allusion to +the sharpness of hearing in children), is also derived from the domestic +utensils of foreign countries in ancient times. The British Museum +contains many such little pitchers, as well as the Foundling Hospital. + +_The ox that ploughs must not be muzzled._ (Arabic.) The laborer ought +to be allowed freedom of speech, or at least free breathing. We have a +nautical saying akin to this--"A sailor never works well if he does not +grumble." + +_Three united men will ruin a town._ (Arabic.) The power of combination +was never more excellently expressed. + +_He begins the quarrel who gives the second blow._ (Spanish.) There are +but few who possess the requisite degree of wise and kindly forbearance +and magnanimous self-command implied in this saying. To strike again, or +rather (as the _blow_ is figurative) to retort an angry word, is natural +to most men; to preserve a reproving silence, or administer a dignified +rebuke, is in the power only of great characters, and not with them at +all times. But it is quite possible, as we live in a very pugnacious +world, that such forbearance should not be thrown away upon every one, +or the small majority of the magnanimous would soon be beaten out of +existence. The above proverb, we believe, is originally Spanish, and, +coming from a people so proverbially revengeful, seems very +extraordinary, and only to be accounted for as the result of an abstract +thought of some lofty-minded hidalgo, speculating on friendship. Don +Quixote might have said it. + +_A stitch in time saves nine._ One of the most sensible and practical of +all proverbs, as every body's experience can avouch. Yet, in defiance of +all their own experience, how many people we often see who constantly +neglect the stitch in time! They do not forget it, or overlook it; and +when they do, if you point it out to them, they still neglect it. + +_Chi non sa niente, non dubita di niente_; he who knows nothing, doubts +of nothing. The converse is equally true. He who knows much, is careful +how he doubts of any thing. This is peculiarly inculcated, at the +present time, by the extraordinary discoveries and success of science. + + + + +From the Ladies' Companion. + +A CHAPTER ON WATCHES. + + +We have no means of telling how long a period elapsed from that primal +time when the "evening and the morning made the first day," ere man's +ingenuity devised a means of calculating the passing by of those +precious moments of which his duration is composed, in order to +economize them to the purposes of life. Shadows by day and stars at +night appear to have indexed the flight of time for the ancient Hebrews; +though it is very evident that long before the sun-dial of Ahaz was made +memorable by the Prophet Isaiah, the Chaldeans, accustomed to calculate +eclipses, and other astronomical phenomena, must have been in possession +of some much more accurate instrument for its computation. + +Days, months, and years, are constantly referred to in the books of the +Old Testament, but nothing is said of more minute divisions of time, +save that of the day into the natural ones of morning, noon, eventide, +and night, until Judea became tributary to Rome, when three of the +Evangelists, in describing the crucifixion, and the supernatural +darkness subsequent to that event, remark that it lasted from the sixth +_hour_ to the ninth; and it is on record, that the Clepsydra, or +water-clock, (said by Vitrivius to have been invented by one Ctesibius +of Alexandria, in the reign of Ptolemy Evergetes), was introduced at +Rome by P. Cornelius Scipio Nasica, in the 595th year of the city, and +consequently many years before the birth of Christ. This simple +time-keeper was so constructed, that the water issued, drop by drop, +through a hole in the vessel, and fell into another, in which a light +floating body marked the height of the water as it rose, and by this +means the time that had elapsed. These instruments, we are told, were +set full of water in the courts of judicature, and by them the lawyers +pleaded; in order, as Phavorinus tells us, to prevent babbling, and +cause those who spoke to be brief in their speeches. Hour, or +sand-glasses, are also said to have originated at Alexandria, and to +have been introduced into domestic use amongst the Romans eight years +afterwards, or 158 years before the Christian era. + +The earliest attempt at measuring time in this country appears to have +been on the part of Alfred the Great, by means of waxen tapers. The +exact period when those direct ancestors of our subject, clocks, or, as +they were primitively called, horologes, came into use, is one of those +things over which time has cast so thick a veil, that not even the +researches of the encyclopaedists can penetrate it. By some, the +invention of clocks with wheels is ascribed to Pacificus, archdeacon of +Verona, as early as the ninth century. And though we read that clocks +(without water) were set up in churches toward the end of the twelfth, +the author of the "Divina Commedia" is the first writer on record, who +distinctly applies the term horologium to a clock that struck the hours; +and he was born 1265, and died 1321. + +In 1288, during the reign of the 1st Edward, the _English Justinian_, as +he has been called, it is said that a fine levied on a lord chief +justice was applied to the purpose of furnishing the famous clock-house +near Westminster Hall with an horologe, which it is farther stated was +the work of an English artist. + +Mention is also made of the setting up of a clock in Canterbury +Cathedral about the same period, and in that of Wells in 1325. So that +those three Dutch horologiers, from Delft, who came over (as Rymer tells +us) at the invitation of Edward III. in 1368, were not, as some +imagined, the introducers of the art, though they very possibly helped +us to improve it. Up to the time when Henry de Wic astonished the +Emperor Charles V. with those seemingly living toys with which he was +wont to surround himself after dinner, and watch the beating and +revolving of their curious machinery, those rude prototypes of our +subject, which are said to have resembled small table clocks rather than +watches, and yet were true specimens, we imagine, since they continued +going in a horizontal position, which is the only mechanical distinction +between a watch and clock--up to this period, we were about to say, +clocks appear to have endured a very ascetic existence, living in tall +houses, built on purpose for them, or shut up in church towers and +monastic buildings-- + + "Fell sickerer[19] was his crowning in his loge, + As is a clock, or any _abbey orloge_," + +wrote Chaucer in the fourteenth century. And it is not until nearly the +end of the fifteenth that we find them domesticated in houses. + +From a description of some, which appear in an inventory of articles in +the king's palaces of Westminster and Hampton Court, copied by Strutt, +the pendules of the period must have been equally ornate with those in +modern drawing-rooms, and much more curious. Thus one, we are told, not +only showed the course of the planets, and the days of the year, but was +richly gilt, and enamelled, and ornamented with the king's (Henry the +Eighth's) coat of arms; it also possessed a chime. + +Speaking of this monarch reminds us, that previous to the scattering of +the treasures of Strawberry Hill, there was preserved in the library +there a little clock, of silver gilt, the gift of Henry, on the morning +of his marriage, to the ill-fated Anne Boleyn. It was elaborately chased +and engraved, and adorned with fleurs-de-lys, and other heraldic +devices, and had on the top a lion supporting the arms of England. The +gilded weights represented _true-lovers-knots_, inclosing the initials +of Henry and Anne; and one bore the inscription, "The most happye," the +other the royal motto. Though more than three hundred years had passed +since the tragic ending of time with its original possessor, it was +still going when the ivory hammer of the famous Robins struck it down to +another new and more fortunate owner, About this period watches are said +to have been in use; and in the Holbein chamber of the collection just +mentioned, a bust of the royal _wife-slayer_, carved in box-wood, +represented him with a dial suspended on his breast. The earliest watch +known was one in Sir Ashton Lever's Museum, which bore date 1541; but +from various imperfections in the workmanship, they were not very +generally used till towards the end of Elizabeth's reign. + +Shakspeare frequently mentions the clock, and in "Twelfth Night" he +makes Malvolio--"While exclaim, in his babblings of fancied greatness +I, perchance, _wind up my watch_, or play with some rich jewel," an +expression that would lead us to suppose that they were even then +regarded rather as toys or ornaments than things of necessary use. + +Archbishop Parker, in 1575, left by will to the Bishop of Ely his staff +of Indian cane, with a _watch_ in the top of it; a position that savors +more of whim than utility. Yet the excellence of some of these ancient +timekeepers is remarkable; for Derham, in his "Artificial Clockmaker," +mentions a watch of Henry VIII., which was in order in 1714, and of +which Dr. Demanbray had often heard Sir Isaac Newton and Demoivre speak; +and the old wooden-framed clock of Peterborough Cathedral, which, +instead of the usual key or winch, is wound up by long handles or +spikes--a sufficient proof of its antiquity--still strikes, says +Denison, upon a bell of considerable size. + +Guy Fawkes carried a watch in a more practical spirit than Malvolio or +Archbishop Parker; Stowe tells us, one was found upon him which he and +Percy had bought the day before, "to try conclusions for the long and +short burning of the touch-wood with which he had prepared to give fire +to the train of powder;" a proof that even in the third year of the +reign of James I. watches were not commonly worn, or the circumstance +would not have been mentioned. + +In the next reign, however, we find the London "Clock-Makers' Company," +incorporated 1631--a sign of the increased use of these instruments, and +the growing importance of their manufacture; and as this charter +prohibits the importation of clocks, watches, and alarms, it proves that +we had even then artists sufficiently skilful in the various +manipulations requisite in the construction of these articles, to render +us independent of foreign workmanship. + +It is a singular feature in the history of this branch of art, that it +has remained until very lately concentrated in the metropolis; besides +which, Liverpool and Coventry are said to be the only places in England +where a complete watch can be manufactured. At the latter place the +business has only been introduced since the commencement of the present +century, but the number of persons employed are said to equal the number +in London. + +But before passing from this event in the history of our subject (the +incorporation of a company for the protection of their manufacture in +the reign of Charles I.), we may as well describe a watch of the period, +which a few years before the publication of the "Encyclopaedia +Londinensis" (in 1811) had been in the possession of the proprietor. It +was dug up but a few years previously, near the site of the ancient +castle of Winchester, where it had probably lain from the time of +Cromwell, who, it is well known, destroyed that edifice. It was of an +octagon form, and had no minute hand; a piece of catgut supplied the +place of a chain; it required winding up every twelve hours, had no +balance spring, and appeared never to have had one; and it shut like a +hunting-watch without any glass. + +But to compensate for this interior rudeness in its construction, the +lid and bottom of the case, as well as the dial-plate, were of silver, +very neatly engraved, with pieces of Scripture history in the centre, +and in the compartments the four Evangelists, and St. Peter, St. Paul, +St. James, and St. Jude: it had no date. + +The reign of Charles II., who (like his namesake the emperor, in whose +time they first appeared) is said to have been very partial to these +instruments, was remarkable for the improvements made in them. Spring +pocket-watches were invented by Hooke, 1658; and repeaters were +introduced, one of the first of which Charles sent as a present to Louis +XIV. of France. According to some authorities, _reproduced_ would be the +juster phrase here, for it is stated in "Memoirs of Literature," that +some of the most ancient watches were strikers, and that such having +been stolen both from Charles V. and Louis XI. whilst they were in a +crowd, the thief was detected by their striking the hour! + +Perhaps the most remarkable repeating watch extant, is that in the +Academy of Sciences at St. Petersburg, and which, like the old Nuremberg +watches, is about the size of an egg: within is represented the holy +sepulchre, with the sentinels, and the stone at the mouth; and while the +spectator is admiring this curious piece of mechanism, the stone is +suddenly removed, the sentinels drop down, the angels appear, the women +enter the tomb, and the same chant is heard which is performed in the +Greek Church on Easter Eve. + +Germany, by the way, has always been famous for the manufacture of +clocks and watches, these latter claiming Nuremberg for their +birthplace; and from this circumstance, and their oval shape, +Dopplemayer tells us they were originally known as Nuremberg _animated +eggs_. + +At present this branch of horometry is chiefly to be found on the other +side of the Alps, at or near Geneva, and at Chaux de Fond, in the +principality of Neufchatel, where vast numbers of watches are +manufactured. But the wooden clocks, which tick on every cottage wall, +and which are erroneously called Dutch, are in fact German, and are +nearly all made in the Black Forest, the village of Freyburg being the +centre of the manufacture, whence it is said 180,000 wooden clocks on an +average are yearly exported. + +The Swiss, or _Geneva_ watches, as they are commonly called, owing to +the poverty of the workmen, the employment of women, and the subdivision +of labor, which is carried to even a greater extent than with us, sell +at a much lower price than those made in England; but an English watch +has hitherto been a desideratum in every part of the world. Here, at +present, the term watch-maker is no longer applicable, every portion of +the instrument being the work of a different artisan, and the separate +parts are often sent hundreds of miles, to meet in the metropolis, and +make a whole of excellent workmanship. There are innumerable places in +which some branch or other of the manufacture is carried on; but the +best movements are made at Prescot, in Lancashire, while the town of +Whitchurch, in Hampshire, is employed wholly in making hands. In London, +Clerkenwall Green has long been the resort of artificers employed in the +various nice and delicate manipulations requisite in the construction of +our subject: here, slide-makers, jewellers, motion-makers, +wheel-cutters, cap-makers, dial-plate-makers, the painter, the +case-maker, the joint-finisher, the pendent-maker, the engraver, the +piercer, the escapement-maker, the spring-maker, the chain-maker, the +finisher, the gilder, the fusee-cutter, the hand-maker, the glass-maker, +and pendulum spring wire-drawer, are all located; for, owing to the +minute division of labor, which tends greatly to facilitate its +execution after the movements (which have previously passed through +thirteen workmen's hands in the provinces) are received in town, the +watch progresses through those of these other twenty-one artificers +before it comes forth complete. + +Owing to this delicate and varied workmanship, materials originally not +worth sixpence are frequently converted into watches worth a hundred +pounds and more, so costly may their appendages be made. But in all +these different branches of a business which maintains thousands of +families, the only part of it which falls to women in this country is +the polishing of the cases, which the casemakers' wives are sometimes +employed to do. + +Perhaps no object of man's ingenuity has been made the exponent of so +many grave morals as the _watch_. Poets and philosophers have managed +that its beatings should be only a little less gloomy to the imagination +than the associations of a passing bell; but Paley has thrown a glory +round this gloom, and aggrandized it from a peevish reminder of passing +time into a fair argument of a Creator's presence, in the delicate and +wonderful machinery of nature, which could no more come by chance than +could this little instrument have been formed without a contriver. + +What the author of the "Old Church Clock" has said of that branch of our +subject, may be equally applied to this--"there is no dead thing so like +a living one." Day by day, year by year, its iron heart throbs on, some +of them surviving, as we have seen, for centuries, though they are said +to beat 17,160 times in an hour. Well would it be for us if the +time-keeper in our bosoms, beating momently the escape of our allotted +term, acted as lightly on the frame; but all its emotions help to wear +this out. + +In the dawn of its appearance, in an age when every science that set men +wondering was in some degree regarded as the work of magic, what a +sensation must these "animated eggs" have occasioned, and how +suggestive! unless the fanciful belief of some of the early fathers of +the church, who averred that gems and precious metals were first made +known to mortals by fallen angels, who also inspired the desire to +profit by, and be adorned with them, had any thing to do with the +tabooing of evil by holy signatures--how suggestive are the quaint +gravings of saints and scriptural subjects on the cover of the watch dug +up at Winchester, of the antique custom of inscribing trinkets with +sacred symbols, and so converting them into amulets; a custom which the +Greeks and Romans borrowed from the Egyptians, and which the early +Christians perpetuated after them. + +We have seen the watch, originally oval, take an octagon form; after +which it subsided into its present shape, the only variation being in +size, and degrees of roundness. + +At present watches are frequently made not thicker than a crown piece, +and yet perform their functions with exactness; nay, there are some with +perfect works, compressed into a smaller compass than a shilling! A +friend of the writer's saw one, not long since, set in a ring, the hands +and figures being composed of brilliants, upon a dial of blue enamel; +and at the recent exhibition one filled the place usually occupied by a +seal at the end of a pencil-case, and another appeared as an appendage +to a lady's bracelet. There was also a large silver watch, such as +mariners are fond of wearing, immersed in a vase of water, and yet +impervious to any ill effects. + +Our subject is one which grows under our hands, and we might go on _ad +libitum_ describing their different idiosyncracies; for watches, like +individuals, have their several temperaments and ways of going. We have +all met with _fast watches_ and slow ones, and some (a disposition they +are apt to contract from their wearers) are very irregular--varieties of +character, which so puzzled their first owner, the Emperor Charles V., +who amused himself on his retirement to the monastery of St. John, by +endeavoring to keep in order these by-gone companions of his +dinner-table, that they produced a reflection on the absurdity of his +attempts to keep together the powers of Europe, when even these little +pieces of mechanism baffled him. + + * * * * * + +American women have less courtesy than any others in the world. A +thousand rules of deference are established by concessions of the other +sex, which they enforce with ungracious arrogance, as if they were but +recognitions of "inalienable rights." This is their offence to all +well-bred Europeans.--_Correspondent London Morning Post._ + +FOOTNOTES: + +[19] Sickerness--steady, secure. + + + + +From Sharpe's Magazine. + +FETE DAYS AT ST. PETERSBURG. + +TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH OF ALEXANDER DUMAS + +BY JANE STRICKLAND. + + +New-Year's day and the Benediction of the Waters provide the inhabitants +of St. Petersburg with two great national festivals, in which all +classes share in the pleasures and devotion of the sovereign. The first +is an imperial fete, the second an imposing religious ceremony. + +On New-Year's day, in virtue of an old and touching custom by which the +Emperor and Empress of Russia are designated by their poorest subjects +Father and Mother, these potentates at the commencement of the year +receive their children as their own invited guests. Their family being +too vast to invite by name, they adopt the simple but efficacious plan +of scattering about the streets of their capital twenty-five thousand +cards of invitation, indicative that they will be at home to such a +number of their children. These cards bear no address, but they give +admission to the bearers to the splendid saloons of the Winter Palace +without the slightest distinction of rank or wealth. + +It was thus that the Emperor Alexander, according to custom, kept the +first day of the year 1825, the last he was ever destined to see. The +rumor of the conspiracy that embittered the closing months of his life +and reign, though it had reached his ears and troubled his repose, did +not appear to him any reason for depriving his subjects of their annual +visit to their sovereign. From these unknown guests the Russian Autocrat +felt assured he had nothing to fear. With them he was not only popular +but adored. He therefore directed the Master of the Police to order no +alteration in the usual costume of the male part of the company, whom he +was to admit in masks according to custom on these occasions. In the +darkest annals of barbarism, despotic sovereigns dreaded and often found +the dagger of the assassin in the hands of some member of their own +family. Civilization, however limited, changes the objects of suspicion +to the aristocracy, who are always, under these unfortunate +constitutions, of the military profession. Now the want of the +counterpoise of the middle classes creates this secret but perpetual +warfare between the absolute monarch and the nobility--the nobility who +in free countries are the natural bulwark of the throne. In Russia the +Autocrat is never afraid of the multitude, with whom he holds a twofold +claim to their veneration, as supreme pontiff, or head of the Church, +and Czar. + +The cards of invitation, being transferable, are, as a matter of course, +purchaseable; and among his masked guests who were privileged to shake +hands with Alexander, some cowardly assassin might take that opportunity +to murder the sovereign; yet he, with a firm but touching reliance on +God, ordered at seven o'clock on the New-Year's evening, the gates of +the Winter Palace to be thrown open as usual, to his motley company. + +No extra precautions were taken by the police; the sentinels were on +duty, according to custom, at the palace gates, but the Emperor was +without any guards in the interior of the imperial residence, vast as +the Tuileries. In the absence of all precaution or even regulations for +the behavior of an undisciplined crowd, it was surprising what natural +politeness effected. Veneration for the presence of the sovereign was +alone sufficient to produce good breeding; there was no pushing nor +striving, nor clamor, and the entrance was made with as little noise as +if gratitude for the favor accorded to the guests had induced each to +give a precautionary admonition to his neighbor. + +While the thronging thousands were gaining admission to his palace, the +Emperor Alexander was seated by the Empress in the Hall of St. George in +the midst of the imperial family, when the door was opened to the sound +of music, for the saloons were filled with his visitors, and a grand +_coup d'oeil_ of grandees, peasants, princesses, and grisettes was +discerned. At this moment the Emperor advanced and gave his hand to the +English, French, Spanish, and Austrian ambassadors, the representatives +of their several sovereigns. He then moved alone to the door, that his +guests might behold in their sovereign and host the father of his +people. It was a moment anarchy was said to have dedicated to his +assassination, and that parricidal and regicidal act could have been +easily effected at such a juncture had it really been in contemplation. +Alexander was no longer in appearance a melancholy and suffering +invalid, he looked happy and smiling; and if his smile was +counterfeited, he wore the mask ably and well. The instant the Autocrat +appeared, the motley group made a forward movement, and then a +precipitate retreat. The danger vanished with them. The Emperor regarded +the retiring waves of this human sea with imperturbable serenity, a +remarkable feature in his character, a moral re-action, which a +courageous mind can alone bestow, and which he had shown on several +trying occasions. One of these was at a ball given by M. Caulincourt, +Duke of Vicenza, the French Ambassador; the other was at a fete at +Zakret, near Wilna. + +The ball was at its height, when the ambassador was informed that the +house was on fire; fearful that the news of the conflagration might +occasion more ill consequences than the fire itself, he posted an +aide-de-camp at every door, and ordered his people to keep the +misfortune a profound secret, after which he communicated the accident +in a low voice to the Emperor, and assured him that no one should be +permitted to withdraw till he and the imperial family were in perfect +safety; he was going to see the fire extinguished, and he hoped the +efforts made to get it under would be successful; adding, that even if a +report should circulate in the saloons as to this startling fact, no one +would credit it while they saw the Emperor and his family still there. + +"Very well, then, I will remain," coolly remarked the Emperor; and when +Caulincourt returned some time after to announce the extinction of the +fire, he found the Russian Autocrat dancing a polonaise. + +The guests of the ambassador heard on the morrow that their festivities +had been kept over the mouth of a volcano. + +At the fete held at Zakret not only the life but the empire of Alexander +was at stake. In the middle of the dance he was apprised that the +advanced guard of a guest he had forgotten to invite had passed the +Niemen. This was the Emperor Napoleon, his old host at Erfurth, who +might momentarily be expected to enter the hall, followed by six hundred +thousand dancers. Alexander gave his orders with great coolness, +chatting while he issued them with his aide-de-camps. He walked about, +praised the manner in which the saloons were lighted, which he declared +was only second to the beautiful moonlight, supped, and remained till +dawn. His gay manner and the serenity of his countenance prevented the +guests from even suspecting the nature of the communication he had +received, and the entrance of the French into the city was the first +intimation the inhabitants had received of their approach. + +He was in imminent peril in this Polish city, from which his great +self-command delivered him. His retreat at early morning was made before +the approach of an enemy he had hitherto found invincible. Very +different might have been the result of Napoleon's campaign in Russia, +if the inhabitants of Wilna had known during the fete of Zakret of his +vicinity. + +These incidents naturally occurred to the guests of the Emperor +Alexander, during this New-Year's day festival, when they beheld him +approach alone to show himself to the multitude, amongst whom he had +reason to believe many conspirators, or even assassins lurked. If such +indeed were there, the calm serenity of his countenance disarmed them, +and none dared raise an arm against the life he fearlessly trusted, if +not to their loyalty at least to their honor. + +Indeed the suffering and melancholy Emperor, the last time he received +his people, seemed to have shaken off his lassitude and depression, and +appeared full of life and energy, traversing with rapidity the immense +saloons of the Winter Palace. He led off the sort of galoppe peculiar to +the Russian Court, which, however, terminated about nine o'clock. + +At ten, the illuminations of the Hermitage being finished, those persons +who had cards for the spectacle went there. Twelve negroes, superbly +arrayed in rich oriental costumes, kept the doors of the theatre, to +admit or restrain the crowd, and examine the authenticity of the +vouchers of the guests. Here the admission was not promiscuous, a +certain number alone being allowed to be present at the banquet. + +Upon entering the theatre, the spectators found themselves in a land of +enchantment--a vast hall encircled with tubes of crystal, bent in every +possible way, meeting at top in order to form the ceiling, united by +silver threads of imperceptible fineness, behind which hung 10,000 +colored lamps, whose light, reflected and refracted by these transparent +columns, illuminated the gardens, groves, flowers, cascades, and +fountains, like an enchanted landscape, which seen across this veil of +light resembled the poetical phantasm of a dream. The splendid +illuminations cost twelve thousand roubles, and lasted two months. + +At eleven a flourish of musical instruments announced the arrival of the +Emperor, who entered with the Empress and the imperial family, the +ambassadors, the ambassadresses, the officers of the household, and the +ladies in waiting, who all took their places at the middle supper-table; +two other tables were filled by six hundred guests, mostly composed of +the first-class nobility. The Emperor alone remained standing, moving +about the tables, conversing by turns with his numerous guests. + +Nothing could exceed the magnificent effect produced by the banquet, and +the appearance of the court; the sovereign and his officers and nobility +covered with gold and embroidery, the Empress and her ladies glittering +with diamonds and splendid velvets, tissues, and satins. No other fete +in Europe could produce such a grand _coup d'oeil_ as the New-Year's +fete at the Hermitage. At the conclusion of the banquet the Court +returned to the Saloon of St. George, where the music struck up a +polonaise, which was led off by the Emperor. This dance was his farewell +to his guests, for as soon as it was finished he withdrew. The departure +of their sovereign gave pleasure to those loyal subjects who trembled +for his personal safety; but the courageous and ever paternal confidence +reposed in his subjects by Alexander, turned away from him every +murderous weapon. No one could resolve to assassinate a kind father in +the midst of his children, for as such the Emperor had received his +numerous guests. + +The second annual fete was of a religious character, "The Benediction of +the Waters," to which the recent disastrous calamity of the most +terrible inundation on record in Russia, the preceding year, had given +deeper solemnity. The preparations were made with an activity tempered +by care, which denoted the national character to be essentially +religious. Upon the Neva a great pavilion was erected of a circular +form, pierced with eight openings, decorated by four paintings, crowned +with a cross; to this pavilion access was given by a jetty forming the +hermitage. The temporary edifice, on the morning of the ceremony, was to +have its pavement of ice cut through in order to permit the Patriarch to +reach the water. The cold was already twenty degrees below zero, when at +nine o'clock in the morning the whole population of St. Petersburg +assembled themselves on the frozen waters of the Neva, then a solid mass +of crystal. At half-past eleven the Empress and Grand-Duchesses took +their places in the glass balcony of the Hermitage, and their appearance +announced to the crowd that the _Te Deum_ was concluded. The whole corps +of the Imperial Guards, amounting to forty thousand men, marched to the +sound of martial music and formed in line of battle on the river, from +the hotel of the French embassy to the fortress. The palace gates opened +as soon as this military evolution was effected, and the banners, sacred +pictures, and the choristers of the chapel, appeared preceding the +Patriarch and his clergy; then came the pages and the colors of the +different regiments of guards, borne by their proper officers; then the +Emperor, supported by the Grand-Dukes Nicholas and Michael, followed by +the officers of his household, his aide-de-camps and generals. As soon +as the Emperor reached the door of the pavilion, which was nearly filled +with priests and banners, the Patriarchs gave the signal, and the sweet +solemn chant of more than a hundred voices rose to heaven, unaccompanied +by music indeed, yet forming a divine harmony hardly to be surpassed on +earth. During the prayer, which lasted twenty minutes, the Emperor stood +bareheaded, dressed in his uniform, without fur or any defence from the +piercing cold, running more risk by this disregard to climate, than if +he had faced the fire of a hundred pieces of artillery in the front of +battle. The spectators, enveloped in fur mantles and caps, presented a +complete contrast to the religious imprudence of their rash sovereign, +who had been bald from his early youth. + +As soon as the second _Te Deum_ was concluded, the Patriarch took a +silver cross from the hand of the young chorister, and encircled by the +kneeling crowd, plunged it through the opening made in the ice into the +waters below. He then filled a vase up with the consecrated element, +which he presented to the Emperor. After this ceremonial of blessing the +waters, came the benediction of the standards, which were reverently +inclined towards the Patriarch for that purpose. A sky-rocket was +immediately let off from the pavilion, and its silvery smoke was +answered by a terrible explosion, for the whole artillery of the +fortress gave from their metallic throats a loud _Te Deum_, and these +salvos were heard three times during the benediction of the standards; +at the third, the Emperor commenced his return to the palace. + +He was more melancholy than usual, for during this religious ceremony he +felt no need of courage or presence of mind; he was secured by the +natural veneration of a superstitious people. He knew it, and, +therefore, wore no mask in the semblance of a joyless smile. + +On the same day, this imposing ceremonial is used at Constantinople, +only the winter is a mere name and the water has no ice. The Patriarch +stands on the deck of a vessel, and drops his silver cross into the calm +blue waves of the Bosphorus, which a skilful diver restores to him +before it reaches the bottom. To these religious ceremonies succeed +sports and pastimes of all kinds. Booths and barracks are erected on the +frozen Neva from quay to quay, Russian mountains, down which sledges +slide with inconceivable velocity, and the Carnival commences with as +much zest as in cities enjoying a southern temperature. Plays are +performed on the ice, and curious pantomimes, in which a marmot performs +the part of a baby very cleverly, while the man who shows him off under +the character of the good father of the family, finds resemblances in +this black-nosed imp to all his supposed human relatives, to the +infinite delight of the spectators. + +Sleighing on the ice is, as in Canada, a favorite diversion with the +Russians, whose sledges are lined with fur and ornamented with silver +bells and ribbons of every color. Sometimes a wind loaded with vapor +puts an end to these diversions by rendering the ice unsafe, in which +case they are interdicted by the police, and the sports and pastimes of +the people are transferred to _terra firma_; but the Carnival is +considered to come to an abrupt conclusion if this misfortune occurs at +its commencement, for the Neva is to the inhabitants of St. Petersburg +what Vesuvius is to the Neapolitans, and the absence of the ice robs +their Saturnalia of its greatest attraction. In countries where the +Greek religion is the national standard of faith, Lent is preceded by +the same unbounded festivity as in those which are Roman Catholic; but +the Court does not display in these days so much barbarous magnificence +as in those earlier times when civilization was unknown. The Carnival +was, however, held during the last century by Anna Ivanovna, in a style +surpassing that of her ancestors. This pleasure-loving princess, the +daughter of the elder brother of Peter the Great, covered her usurpation +of a throne she had snatched not only from the decendants of her mighty +uncle, but also from her own elder sister and niece, by conducing to the +popular amusements of her people, who in their turn forgot her defective +title to the throne. This popular female sovereign founded the largest +bell in the world, and gave the most magnificent Carnival ever held in +Russia. Thus she maintained her sway by the aid of pleasure and +devotion, a twofold cord her subjects never broke. In 1740 Anna +Ivanovna resolved to surpass every preceding Carnival by her unique +manner of providing her people with amusement during this merry season. +It was customary for the sovereign of Russia to be attended by a dwarf, +who united the privileged character of a jester to the tiny proportions +of a little child. This empress possessed two of these diminutive +personages, and she chose for her own amusement and that of her loving +subjects, that they should be married during this Carnival, and "whether +nature did this match contrive," or it was the consequence of her own +despotic will, cannot be known without a peep into the jealously guarded +archives of Russia; but the nuptials of these sports of nature was the +ostensible cause of the fete. This the Autocrat gave on a new and +splendid scale. She directed her governors to send her two natives of +the hundred districts they ruled in her name, clothed in their national +costume, and with the animals they were accustomed to use on their +journeys. The idea was certainly a brilliant one, and worthy of the +sovereign lady of so many nations, tongues, and languages. + +Anna Ivanovna was punctually obeyed, and at the appointed time a motley +procession, including the purest types of the Caucasian race and the +ugliest of the Mongolian, astonished the eyes of the Empress, who had +scarcely known the greater part of these distant tribes by name. There +she beheld the Kamtchadale with his sledge drawn by dogs, the Russian +Laplander with his reindeer, the Kalmuck with his cows, the Tartar on +his horse, and the native of Bochara with his camel, the Ostiak on his +clogs. Then for the first time, the beautiful Georgian and Circassian, +with their dark ringlets and unrivalled features, looked with +astonishment upon the red hair of the Finlander. The gigantic Cossack of +the Ukraine eyed with contempt the pigmy Samoiede--and in fact, for the +first time were brought into contact by the will of their sovereign +lady, who classed each race under one of four banners, representing +spring, summer, autumn, and winter; and these two hundred persons, +during eight days, paraded the streets of St. Petersburg, to the +infinite delight of the population, who had never seen the power of the +throne displayed in a manner so agreeable to their taste before. + +Upon the wedding day of her dwarfs, these important personages had been +attended to the altar by this singular national procession, where they +plighted their faith in the presence of the Empress and all her Court, +after which they heard Mass, and then, accompanied by their numerous +escort, took possession of the palace prepared for them by the direction +of their imperial mistress. This palace was not the least fanciful part +of the fete. It was entirely composed of ice, and resembled crystal in +its brilliancy and fine cutting and polish. This beautiful fabric was +fifty-two feet in length and twenty in width; the roof, the floor, the +furniture, chandeliers, and even the nuptial bed, were formed of the +same cold, glittering, and transparent materials. The doors, the +galleries, and the fortifications,--even the six pieces of cannon that +guarded this magical palace, were of ice; one of these, charged with a +single ice-bullet, and fired by the aid of a pound of powder, perforated +at seventy paces a plank of twelve inches thickness. This was done to +salute the bridal party, and welcome them home. The most curious piece +of mechanism, and which pleased the Russians the most, was a colossal +elephant, mounted by an armed Persian, and led by twelve slaves. This +gigantic beast threw from his trunk a column of water by day, and at +night a stream of fire, uttering from time to time roars which were +heard from one end of St. Petersburg to the other. These noble roars +were produced by twelve Russians concealed in the body and legs of the +phantom elephant, whose costly housings hid the men whose noise so +delighted their countrymen. This Carnival of the fete-loving feany male +usurper has never been surpassed by Russian sovereign, though, with the +exception of the assembly of her distant subjects, its taste was +barbarous enough. + + + + +From Household Words. + +RAINBOW MAKING. + + +It is a great idea--too large to be arrived at but by degrees--that the +fleece of sheep can clothe nations of men. The fleece of a sheep, when +pulled and spread out, looks much larger than while covering the mutton; +but still it is with a sort of despair that we think of the quantity +required, and of the dressing and preparation necessary, for clothing +fifteen million of men in one country, and double the number in another +(to say nothing of the women), and of the number of countries, each +containing its millions, which are incessantly demanding the fleeces of +sheep to clothe their inhabitants. We remember the hill-sides of our own +mountainous districts; and the wide grassy plains of Saxony; and the +boundless table lands of Thibet, and the valleys of Cashmere, all +speckled over with flocks; we think of the Australian sheep-walks, where +there are flocks of such unmanageable size, that the whole sheep is +boiled down for tallow; we think of Prince Esterhazy's reply to the +question of an English nobleman, when shown vast flocks, and asked how +his sheep in Hungary would compare in number with these,--that his +shepherds outnumbered the Englishman's sheep; we think of these things, +and by degrees begin to understand how wool enough may be produced to +furnish the broadcloths and flannels of the world. But the most strong +and agile imagination is confounded when the material of silk is +considered in the same way. Compare a caterpillar with a sheep; compare +the cocoon of a silkworm (the achievement of its life) with the annual +fleece of a sheep; and the supply of silk for the looms of Europe, Asia, +and America, seems a mere miracle. The marvel is the greater, not the +less, when one is in a silk-growing region, attending to the facts and +appearances, than when trying to conceive of them at home. In Lombardy, +we travel from day to day, during the whole month of May, between rows +of mulberry trees, where the peasants are busy providing food for the +worms; a man in the tree stripping off the leaves, and two women below +with sacks, to carry home the foliage. We see what tons of leaves per +mile must be thus gathered daily for weeks together; we go into houses +in every village to inspect the worm; we mount to the flat roofs of the +dwellings, and find in each countless multitudes of the worms; we pass +on, from country to country, till we mount to the hamlets, perched on +the rocky shelves of the Lebanon; and we find every where the insect +secreting its gum, or spinning it forth as silk; we remember that the +same process is going forward in the heart of our Indian Peninsula, and +throughout China; we look at the broad belt round the globe where the +little worm is forming its cocoons; and still we find it impossible to +imagine how enough silk is produced to supply the wants of the world, +from the brocade of the Asiatic potentate to the wedding ribbon of the +English dairy-maid. Nowhere is the speculation more difficult than in a +dye-house at Coventry. + +Probably there was as much wonder excited by the same thought, when King +Henry VIII. wore the first pair of silk stockings brought to England +from Spain; and when Francis I. looked after the mulberry trees in +France, and fixed some silk weavers at Lyons; and when our Queen Mary +passed a law forbidding servant-maids to wear ribbons on bonnets; and +when monarch after monarch passed acts to teach how silk should be +boiled, and whence it should be brought, and who should, and who should +not, wear it when wrought; but the perplexity and amazement of king, +lords, and commons could hardly, at any time, have exceeded that of the +humblest visitor of to-day in any dye-house at Coventry. We know +something of the fact of this astonishment; for we have been noting the +wonders that are to be found on the premises of Messrs. Leavesley and +Hands at Coventry. + +On entering, we see, ranged along the counters, half round the room, +bundles of glossy silk, of the most brilliant colors. Blues, +rose-colors, greens, lilacs, make a rainbow of the place. It is only two +days since this silk was brought in in a very different condition. The +throwster (to throw, means to twist or twine), after spinning the raw +silk, imported from Italy, Turkey, Bengal, and China, into thread fit +for the loom, sent it here in bundles, gummy, harsh, dingy; except, +indeed, the Italian, which looks, till washed, like fragments of Jason's +fleece. If bundles, and regiments of bundles, like these, come into one +dye-house every few days, to be prepared for the weaving of ribbons +alone, and for the ribbon-weaving of a single town, it is overwhelming +to think of the amount of production required for the broad silk-weaving +of England, of Europe, of the world. Of the silk dyed at Coventry, about +eighty per cent. is used for the ribbon-weaving of the city and +neighborhood; and the quantity averages six tons and a half weekly. Of +the remaining twenty per cent., half is used for the manufacture of +fringes; and the other half goes to Macclesfield, Congleton, and Derby. + +The harsh gummy silk that comes in from the throwing mills is boiled, +wrung out, and boiled again. If it wants bleaching, there is a sort of +open oven of a house; a vault in the yard where it is "sulphured." The +heat, and the sensation in the throat, inform us in a moment where we +have got to. When the hanks come forth from this process, every thread +is separated from its neighbor, and the whole bundle is soft, dry, and +glossy. Then follows the dyeing. To make the silk receive the colors, it +is dipped in a mordant in some diluted acid, or solution of metal which +enables the color to bite into the fibre. To make pinks of all shades, +the silk is dipped in diluted tartaric acid for the mordant, and then in +a decoction of safflower for the hue. To make plum-color or puce, indigo +is the dye, with a cochineal. To make black, nitrate of iron first; then +a washing follows; and then a dipping in logwood dye, mixed with soap +and water. For a white, pure enough for ribbons, the silk has to pass +through the three primary colors, yellow, red, and blue. The dipping, +wringing, splashing, stirring, boiling, drying, go on vigorously, from +end to end of the large premises, as may be supposed, when the fact is +mentioned that the daily consumption of water amounts to one hundred +thousand gallons. A reservoir, in the middle of the yard, formerly +supplied the water; but it proved insufficient, or uncertain; and now it +is about to be filled up, and an Artesian well is opened to the depth of +one hundred and ninety-five feet. The dyeing sheds are paved with +pebbles or bricks, crossed with gutters, and variegated with gay +puddles. Stout brick-built coppers are stationed round the place. Above +each copper are cocks, which let in hot and cold water from the pipes +that travel round the walls of the sheds. There are wooden troughs for +the dye; and to these troughs the water is conveyed by spouts. The silk +hangs down into the dye from poles, smoothly turned and uniform, which +are laid across the troughs by the dozen or more at once. These staves +are procured from Derby. They cost from six shillings to twenty-four +shillings per dozen, and constitute an independent subsidiary +manufacture. The silk hanks being suspended from those poles, two men, +standing on either side the trough, take up two poles, souse, and shake, +and plunge the silk, and turn that which had been uppermost under the +surface of the liquor, and pass on to the next two. When done enough, +the silk is wrung out and pressed, and taken to the drying-house. The +heat in that large chamber is about one hundred degrees. On entering it, +everybody begins to cough. The place is lofty and large. The staves, +which are laid across beams, to contain the suspended silk, make little +movable ceilings here and there. This chamber contains five or six +hundred-weights of silk at once. Our minds glance once more towards the +spinning insects on hearing this; and we ask again, how much of their +produce may be woven into fabrics in Coventry alone? We think we must +have made a mistake in setting down the weekly average at six tons and a +half. But there was no mistake. It is really so. + +While speaking of weight, we heard something which reminded us of King +Charles I.'s opinions about some practices which were going forward +before our eyes. It appears, that the silk which comes to the dye-house +is heavy with gum, to the amount of one-fourth of its weight. This gum +must be boiled out before the silk can be dyed. But the manufacturers of +cheap goods require that the material shall not be so light as this +process would leave it. It is dipped in well-sugared water, which adds +about eight per cent. to its weight. Many tons of sugar per year are +used as (what the proprietor called) "the silk-dyer's devil's dust." It +was this very practice which excited the wrath of our pious King +Charles, in all his horror of double-dealing. A proclamation of his, of +the date of 1630, declares his fears of the consequences of "a deceitful +handling" of the material, by adding to its weight in dyeing, and +ordains that the whole shall be done as soft as possible; that no black +shall be used but Spanish black, "and that the gum shall be fair boiled +off before dyeing." He found, in time, that he had meddled with a matter +that he did not understand, and had gone too far. Some of the fabrics of +his day required to be made of "hard silk;" and he took back his orders +in 1638, having become, as he said, "better-informed." + +From trough to trough we go, breathing steam, and stepping into puddles, +or reeking rivulets rippling over the stones of the pavement; but we are +tempted on, like children, by the charm of the brilliant colors that +flash upon the sight whichever way we turn. What a lilac this is! Is it +possible that such a hue can stand? It could not stand even the drying, +but for the alkali into which it is dipped. It is dyed in orchil first, +and then made bluer, and somewhat more secure, by being soused in a +well-soaped alkaline mixture. That is a good red brown. It is from +Brazil wood, with alum for its mordant. This is a brilliant blue; +indigo, of course? Yes, sulphate of indigo, with tartaric acid. Here are +two yellows: how is that? One is much better than the other; moreover, +it makes a better green; moreover, it wears immeasurably better. But +what is it? The inferior one is the old-fashioned turmeric, with +tartaric acid. And the improved yellow? Oh! we perceive. It is a secret +of the establishment, and we are not to ask questions about it. But +among all these men employed here, are there none accessible to a bribe +from a rival in the art? There is no saying; for the men cannot be +tempted. They do not know, any more than ourselves, what this mysterious +yellow is. But why does it not supersede the old-fashioned turmeric? It +will, no doubt; and it is gaining rapidly upon it; but it takes time to +establish improvements. The improvement in greens, however, is fast +recommending the new yellow. This deep amber is a fine color. We find it +is called California, which has a modern sound in it. This Napoleon blue +(not Louis Napoleon's) is a rich color. It gives a good deal of trouble. +There is actually a precipitation of metal, of tin, upon every fibre, to +make it receive the dye; and then it has to be washed; and then dipped +again, before it can take a darker shade; and afterwards washed again, +over and over, till it is dark enough; when it is finally soused in +water which has fuller's earth in it, to make it soft enough for working +and wear. What is doing with that dirty-white bundle? It is silk of a +thoroughly bad color. Whether it is the fault of the worm, or of the +worm's food, or what, there is no saying--that is the manufacturer's +affair. He sent it here. It is now to be sulphured, and dipped in a very +faint shade of indigo, curdled over with soap. This will improve it, but +not make it equal to a purer white silk. Next, the wet hanks have to be +squeezed in the Archimedean press, and then hung up in that large, hot +drying-room. + +One serious matter remains unintelligible to us. Plaid ribbons--that is, +all sorts of checked ribbons--have been in fashion so long now, that we +have had time to speculate (which we have often done), on how they can +possibly be made. About the colors of the warp (the long way of the +ribbon), we are clear enough. But how, in the weft, do the colors duly +return, so as to make the stripes, and therefore the checks, recur at +equal distances? We are now shown how this was done formerly, and how it +is done now. Formerly, the hanks were tied very tightly, at equal +distances, and the alternate spaces closely wrapped round with paper, or +wound round with packthread. This took up a great deal of time. We were +shown a much better plan. A shallow box is made, so as to hold within it +the halves of several skeins of silk; these halves being curiously +twisted, so as to alternate with the other halves when the hanks are +shaken back into their right position for winding. One half being +within the box, and the other hanging out, the lid is bolted down so +tight that the dye cannot creep into the box; and the out-hanging silk +is dipped. So much can be done at once, that the saving of time is very +great, and, judging by the prodigious array of plaid ribbons that we saw +in the looms afterwards, the value of the invention is no trifle. The +name of this novelty is the Clouding Box. + +We see a bundle of cotton. What has cotton to do here? It is from +Nottingham--very fine and well twisted. It is a pretty pink, and it +costs one shilling and sixpence per pound to dye. But what is it for? +Ah! that is the question! It is to mix in with silk, to make a cheap +ribbon. Another pinch of devil's dust! + +There is a calendering process employed in the final preparation of the +dried silk, by which, we believe, its gloss is improved; but it was not +in operation at the time of our visit. We saw, and watched with great +curiosity, a still later process--more pretty to witness than easy to +achieve--the making up of the hanks. This is actually the most difficult +thing the men have to learn in the whole business. Of course, therefore, +it is no matter for description. The twist, the insertion of the arm, +the jerk, the drawing of the mysterious knot, may be looked at for hours +and days, without the spectator having the least idea how the thing is +done. We went from workman to workman--from him who was making up the +blue, to him who was making up the red--we saw one of the proprietors +make up several hanks at the speed of twenty in four minutes and a half, +and we are no more likely to be able to do it, than if we had never +entered a dye-house. Peeping Tom might spy for very long before he would +be much the wiser; when done, the effect is beautiful. The snaky coils +of the polished silk throw off the light like fragments of mirrors. + +Another mysterious process is the marking of the silk which belongs to +each manufacturer. The hanks and bundles are tied with cotton string; +and this string is knotted with knots at this end, at that end, in the +middle, in ties at the sides, with knots numbering from one to fifteen, +twenty, or whatever number may be necessary; and the manufacturer's +particular system of knots is posted in the books with his name, the +quantity of silk sent in, the dye required, and all other particulars. + +We were amused to find that there is a particular twist and a particular +dye for the fringe of brown parasols. It is desired that there should be +a claret tint on this fringe, when seen against the light; and here, +accordingly, we find the claret tint. The silk is somewhat dull, from +being hard twisted; it is to be made more lustrous by stretching, and we +accompany it to the stretching machine. There it is suspended on a +barrel and movable pin; by a man's weight applied to a wheel, the pin is +drawn down, the hank stretches, and comes out two or more inches longer +than it went in, and looking perceptibly brighter. A hank of bad silk +snaps under this strain; a twist that will stand it is improved by it. + +Looking into a little apartment, as we return through the yard, we find +a man engaged in work which the daintiest lady might long to take out of +his hands. He is making pattern-cards and books. He arranges the shades +of all sorts of charming colors, named after a hundred pretty flowers, +fruits, and other natural productions,--his lemons, lavenders, corn +flowers, jonquils, cherries, fawns, pearls, and so forth; takes a pinch +of each floss, knots it in the middle, spreads it at the ends, pastes +down these ends, and, when he has a row complete, covers the pasted part +with slips of paper, so numbered as that each number stands opposite its +own shade of color. A pattern-book is as good as a rainbow for the +pocket. This looks like a woman's work; but there are no women here. The +men will not allow it. Women cannot be kept out of the ribbon-weaving; +but in the dye-house they must not set foot, though the work, or the +chief part of it, is far from laborious, and requires a good eye and +tact, more than qualities less feminine. We found many apprentices in +the works, receiving nearly half the amount of wages of their qualified +elders. The men earn from ten shillings to thirty shillings a week, +according to their qualifications. Nearly half of the whole number earn +about fifteen shillings a week at the present time. + +And, now, we are impatient to follow these pretty silk bundles to the +factory, and see the weaving. It is strange to see, on our way to so +thoroughly modern an establishment, such tokens of antiquity, or +reminders of antiquity, as we have to pass. We pass under St. Michael's +Church, and look up, amazed, to the beauty and loftiness of its tower +and spire; the spire tapering off at a height of three hundred and +twenty feet. The crumbling nature of the stone gives a richness and +beauty to the edifice, which we would hardly part with for such clear +outlines as those of the restored Trinity Church, close at hand. And +then, at an angle of the market-place, there is Tom, peeping past the +corner,--looking out of his window, through his spectacles, with a +stealthy air, which, however ridiculous, makes one thrill, as with a +whiff of the breeze which stirred the Lady Godiva's hair, on that +memorable day, so long ago. It is strange, after this, to see the +factory chimney, straight, tall, and handsome, in its way, with its +inlaying of colored bricks, towering before us, to about the height of a +hundred and thirty feet. No place has proved itself more unwilling than +Coventry to admit such innovations. No place has made a more desperate +resistance to the introduction of steam power. No place has more +perseveringly struggled for protection, with groans, menaces, and +supplications. Up to a late period, the Coventry weavers believed +themselves safe from the inroads of steam power. A Macclesfield +manufacturer said, only twenty years ago, before a Committee of the +House of Commons, that he despaired of ever applying power-looms to +silk. This was because so much time was employed in handling and +trimming the silk, that the steam power must be largely wasted. So +thought the weavers, in the days when the silk was given out in hanks or +bobbins, and woven at home, or, when the work was done by handloom +weavers in the factory--called the loom-shop. The day was at hand, +however, when that should be done of which the Macclesfield gentleman +despaired. A small factory was set up in Coventry by way of experiment, +in the use of steam power, in 1831. It was burned down during a quarrel +about wages,--nobody knows how or by whom. The weavers declared it was +not their doing; but their enmity to steam power was strong enough to +restrain the employers from the use of it. It was not till every body +saw that Coventry was losing its manufacture,--parting with it to places +which made ribbons by steam,--that the manufacturers felt themselves +able to do what must be done, if they were to save their trade. The +state of things now is very significant. About seventy houses in +Coventry make ribbons and trimmings, (fringes and the like.) Of these, +four make fringes and trimmings, and no ribbons; and six or eight make +both. Say that fifty-eight houses make ribbons alone. It is believed +that three-fourths of the ribbons are made by no more than twenty houses +out of these fifty-eight. There are now thirty steam powerloom factories +in Coventry, producing about seven thousand pieces of ribbons in the +week, and employing about three thousand persons. It seems not to be +ascertained how large a proportion of the population are employed in the +ribbon manufacture: but the increase is great since the year 1838, when +the number was about eight thousand, without reckoning the outlying +places, which would add about three thousand to the number. The total +population of the city was found, last March, to amount to nearly +thirty-seven thousand. So, if we reckon the numbers employed in +connection with the throwing-mills and dye-houses, we shall see what an +ascendency the ribbon manufacture has in Coventry. + +At the factory we are entering, the preparatory processes are going +forward at the top and the bottom of the building. In the yard is the +boiler fire, which sets the engine to work; and, from the same yard, we +enter workshops, where the machinery is made and repaired. The ponderous +work of the men at the forge and anvils contrasts curiously with the +delicacy of the fabric which is to be produced by the agency of these +masses of iron and steel. Passing up a step-ladder, we find ourselves in +a long room, where turners are at work, making the wooden apparatus +required, piercing the "compass boards," for the threads to pass +through, and displaying to us many ingenious forms of polished wood. +While the apparatus is thus preparing below, the material of the +manufacture is getting arranged, four stories overhead. There, under a +skylight, women and girls are winding the silk from the hanks, upon the +spools, for the shuttles. Here we see, again, the clouded silk, which is +to make plaid ribbons, and the bright hues which delighted our eyes at +the dyeing-house. This is easy work,--many of the women sitting at their +reels; and the air is pure and cool. The great shaft from the engine, +passing through the midst of the building, carries off the dust, and +affords excellent ventilation. Besides this, the whole edifice is +crowned by an observatory, with windows all round; and no complete +ceilings shut off the air between this chamber and the rooms of two +stories below. In clear weather, there is a fine view from this +pinnacle, extending from the house, gardens, and orchard of the Messrs. +Hamerton below, over the spires of Coventry, to a wide range of country +beyond. + +Descending from the long room, where the winding is going on, we find +ourselves in an apartment which it does one good to be in. It is +furnished with long narrow tables, and benches put there for the sake of +the work-people, who may like to have their tea at the factory, in peace +and quiet. They can have hot water, and make themselves comfortable +here. Against the door hangs a list of books, read, or to be read, by +the people: and a very good list it is. Prints, from Raffaelle's Bible, +plainly framed, are on the walls. In the middle of the room, on, and +beside, a table, are four men and boys, preparing the "strapping" of a +Jacquard loom for work. The cords, so called, are woven at Shrewsbury. +We next enter a room where a young man is engaged in the magical work of +"reading in from the draught." The draught is the pattern of the +intended ribbon, drawn and painted upon diced paper,--like the patterns +for carpets that we saw at Kendal, but a good deal larger, though the +article to be produced here is so much smaller. The young man sits, as +at a loom. Before him hangs the mass of cords he is to tie into pattern, +close before his face, like the curtain of a cabinet piano. Upreared +before his eyes is his pattern, supported by a slip of wood. He brings +the line he has to "read in" to the edge of this wood, and then, with +nimble fingers, separates the cords, by threes, by sevens, by fives, by +twelves, according to the pattern, and threads through them the string +which is to tie them apart. The skill and speed with which he feels out +his cords, while his eyes are fixed on his pattern, appear very +remarkable; but when we come to consider, it is not so complicated a +process as playing at sight on the piano. The reader has to deal thus +with one chapter, or series, or movement, of his pattern. A _da capo_ +ensues: in other words, the Jacquard cards are tied together, to begin +again; and there is a revolution of the cards, and a repetition of the +pattern, till the piece of ribbon is finished. In the same apartment is +the press in which the Jacquard cards are prepared; just in the way +which may be seen wherever silk or carpet weaving, with Jacquard looms, +goes forward. + +All the preparations having been seen--the making of the machinery, the +filling of the spools, the drawing and "reading in" of the pattern, and +the tying of the cords or strapping, we have to see the great process of +all, the actual weaving. We certainly had no idea how fine a spectacle +it might be. Floor above floor is occupied with a long room in each, +where the looms are set as close as they can work, on either hand, +leaving only a narrow passage between. It may seem an odd thing to say; +but there is a kind of architectural grandeur in these long lofty rooms, +where the transverse cords of the looms and their shafts and beams are +so uniform, as to produce the impression that symmetry, on a large +scale, always gives. Looking down upon the details, there is plenty of +beauty. The light glances upon the glossy colored silks, depending, like +a veil, from the backs of the looms, where women and girls are busy +piercing the imperfect threads with nimble fingers. There seems to be +plenty for one person to do; for there are thirteen broad ribbons, or a +greater number of narrow ones, woven at once, in a single loom; yet it +may sometimes be seen that one person can attend the fronts, and another +the backs of two looms. In the front we see the thirteen ribbons getting +made. Usually, they are of the same pattern, in different colors. The +shuttles, with their gay little spools, fly to and fro, and the pattern +grows, as of its own will. Below is a barrel, on which the woven ribbon +is wound. Slowly revolving, it winds off the fabric as it is finished, +leaving the shuttles above room to ply their work. + +The variety of ribbons is very great, though in this factory we saw no +gauzes, nor, at the time of our visit, any of the extremely rich ribbons +which made such a show at the Exhibition. Some had an elegant and +complicated pattern, and were woven with two shuttles (called the +double-batten weaving) which came forward alternately, as the details of +the rich flower or leaf required the one or the other. There were satin +ribbons, in weaving which only one thread in eight is taken up,--the +gloss being given by the silk loop which covers the other seven. On +entering, we saw some narrow scarlet satin ribbons, woven for the Queen. +Wondering what Her Majesty could want with ribbon of such a color and +quality, we were set at ease by finding that it was not for ladies, but +horses. It was to dress the heads of the royal horses. There were +bride-like, white-figured ribbons, and narrow flimsy black ones, fit for +the wear of the poor widow who strives to get together some mourning for +Sundays. There were checked ribbons, of all colors and all sizes in the +check. There were stripes of all varieties of width and hue. There were +diced ribbons, and speckled, and frosted. There were edges which may +introduce a beautiful harmony of coloring; as primrose with a lilac +edge, green with a purple edge, rose color and brown, puce and amber, +and so on. The loops of pearl or shell edges are given by the silk being +passed round horse-hairs, which are drawn out when the thing is done. +There are belts,--double ribbons,--which have other material than silk +in them; and there are a good many which are plain at one edge, and +ornamented at the other. These are for trimming dresses. One reason why +there are so few gauzes, is that the French beat us there. They grow the +kind of silk that is best for that fabric, and labor is cheap with them; +so that any work in which labor bears a large proportion to the +material, is peculiarly suitable for them. + +We have spent so much time among the looms, that it is growing dusk in +their shadows, though still light enough in the counting house for us to +look over the pattern-book, and admire a great many patterns, most, till +we see more. Young women are weighing ribbons in large scales; and a man +is measuring off some pieces, by reeling. He cuts off remnants, which he +casts into a basket, where they look so pretty that, lest we should be +conscious of any shop-lifting propensities, we turn away. There is a +glare now through the window which separates us from the noisy weaving +room. The gas is lighted, and we step in again, just to see the effect. +It is really very fine. The flare of the separate jets is lost behind +the screens of silken threads, which veil the backs of the looms, while +the yellow light touches the beams, and gushes up to the high ceiling in +a thousand caprices. Surely the ribbon manufacture is one of the +prettiest that we have to show. + +If the Coventry people were asked whether their chief manufacture was in +a flourishing state, the most opposite answers would probably be given +by different parties equally concerned. Some exult, and some complain, +at this present time. As far as we can make out, the state of things is +this. From the low price of provisions, multitudes have something more +to spare from their weekly wages than formerly, for the purchase of +finery: and the demand for cheap ribbons has increased wonderfully. As +always happens when any manufacture is prosperous, the operatives engage +their whole families in it. We may see the father weaving; his wife, on +the verge of her confinement, winding in another room, or, perhaps, +standing behind a loom, piecing the whole day long. The little girls +fill the spools; the boys are weaving somewhere else. The consequences +of this devotion of whole households to one business, are as bad here as +among the Nottingham lace-makers, or the Leicester hosiers. Not only is +there the misery before them of the whole family being adrift at once, +when bad times come, but they are doing their utmost to bring on those +bad times. Great as is the demand, the production has, thus far, much +exceeded it. The soundest capitalists may be heard complaining that +theirs is a losing trade. Less substantial capitalists have been obliged +to get rid of some of their stock at any price they could obtain: and +those ribbons, sold at a loss, intercept the sales of the fair-dealing +manufacturer. This cannot go on. Prosperous as the working-classes of +Coventry have been, for a considerable time, a season of adversity must +be within ken, if the capitalists find the trade a bad one for them. We +find the case strongly stated, and supported by facts, in a tract, on +the Census of Coventry, which has lately been published there. It might +save a repetition of the misery which the Coventry people brought upon +themselves formerly--by their tenacity about protective duties, and +their opposition to steam power--if they would, before it is too late, +ponder the facts of their case, and strive, every man in his way, to +yield respect to the natural demand for the great commodity of his city; +and to take care that the men of Coventry shall be fit for something +else than weaving ribbons. + + + + +From the Examiner. + +BARTHOLD NIEBUHR, THE HISTORIAN.[20] + + +Niebuhr was born pre-eminently gifted, was trained by intellectual and +tender parents, and his whole career is one story of the progress made +by a mind which united extraordinary powers with untiring industry. But +Niebuhr was not only born to achieve greatness. He achieved love and +friendship in every relation of his life, he was a high-minded and in +the purest sense of the word an earnest man. In intellect he was a giant +among us; but in him the intellect was not a statue raised above the +moral life, on which it trod as on a pedestal, a block of mere +stone-mason's work; his heart had not been used up in the making of his +brains, or his soul cleared out a sacrifice to make room for a new stock +of understanding. We may yield our minds up to admire Niebuhr +unreservedly, and it is pleasant therefore to get a _Life_ of him in +English, so full as this is of the actual man, as he poured out portions +thereof to his bosom friends, and wherein the large lumps of true +Niebuhr gold are contained in a biographic deposit which itself is a +long way removed from dross. The quiet, unaffected way in which this +work has been done by the English writer of the book before us, her +elegant simplicity of style, her thorough mastery of the subject, enable +us to pass from Life to Letters, and from Letters back to Life, without +any sense but of a perfect harmony between both. The two volumes are of +a kind that can be read through from the beginning to the end with +unremitting pleasure. We strongly suspect that Niebuhr, at the age of +twelve, would have bewildered with his knowledge some few of our +university professors. Here is part of a sketch, representing him when +he was not very far removed from long clothes: + + How keenly alive he was to poetical impressions appears from + a letter of Boje's written in 1783: "This reminds me of + little Niebuhr. His docility, his industry, and his devoted + love for me procure me many a pleasant hour. A short time + back I was reading 'Macbeth' aloud to his parents without + taking any notice of him, till I saw what an impression it + made upon him. Then I tried to render it all intelligible to + him, and even explained to him how the witches were only + poetical beings. When I was gone, he sat down (he is not yet + seven years old), and wrote it all out on seven sheets of + paper without omitting one important point, and certainly + without any expectation of receiving praise for it; for, + when his father asked to see what he had written, and showed + it to me, he cried for fear he had not done it well. Since + then he writes down every thing of importance that he hears + from his father or me. We seldom praise him, but just + quietly tell him where he has made any mistake, and he + avoids the fault for the future. + + "The child's character early exhibited a rare union of the + faculty of poetical insight with that of accurate practical + observation. The amusements he contrived for himself afford + an illustration of this. During the periods of his + confinement to the house, before he was old enough to have + any paper given him, he covered with his writings and + drawings the margins of the leaves of several copies of + Forskaal's works, which were used in the house as waste + paper. Then he made copy books for himself, in which he + wrote essays, mostly on political subjects. He had an + imaginary empire called Low-England, of which he drew maps, + and he promulgated laws, waged wars, and made treaties of + peace there. His father was pleased that he should occupy + himself with amusements of this kind, and his sister took an + active part in them. There still exist among his papers many + of his childish productions; among others, translations and + interpretations of passages of the New Testament, poetical + paraphrases from the classics, sketches of little poems, a + translation of Poncet's Travels in Ethiopia, an historical + and geographical description of Africa, written in 1787 (the + two last were undertaken as presents to his father on his + birth-day), and many other things mostly written during + these years." + +Here is Niebuhr, at the age of thirty-four, Professor in Berlin, after +he had retired from official trusts which had imposed as many toils upon +him as would have made an enormously active life for one of the most +ancient tenants of our English pension list to look back upon: + + "Niebuhr's relinquishment of office, in 1810, forms an + important epoch in his life. He was now thirty-four years of + age, and since his twentieth year (with the exception of the + sixteen months passed in England and Scotland), had been + actively engaged in the public service. During this period + he had indeed never lost sight of his philological + researches, but he had only been able to devote to them his + few hours of leisure; now, it was to be seen whether he + could find satisfaction in the life of a student, after + years passed in the midst of the great world, and surrounded + by exciting circumstances. How far he had, however, turned + these leisure hours to account, may be judged by the + following memorandum, found, with many others of a similar + kind, among his papers, and written most probably in + Copenhagen about 1803: + + "Works which I have to complete: 1. Treatise on Roman + Domains. 2. Translation of El Wakidi 3. History of Macedon. + 4. Account of the Roman Constitution at its various Epochs. + 5. History of the Achaean Confederation, of the Wars of the + Confederates, and of the Civil Wars of Marius and Sylla, 6. + Constitutions of the Greek States. 7. Empire of the + Caliphs." + +"No detailed outlines of these, or any of his other literary +undertakings are to be found; but it must not be inferred that such +memoranda contain mere projects, towards whose execution no steps were +ever taken. That Niebuhr proposed any such work to himself, was a +certain sign that he had read and thought deeply on the subject, but he +was able to trust so implicitly to his extraordinary memory, that he +never committed any portion of his essays to paper, till the whole was +complete in his own mind. His memory was so wonderfully retentive, that +he scarcely ever forgot any thing which he had once heard or read, and +the facts he knew remained present to him at all times, even in their +minutest details. + +"His wife and his sister once playfully took up Gibbon, and asked him +questions from the table of contents about the most trivial things, by +way of testing his memory. They carried on the examination till they +were tired, and gave up all hope of even detecting him in a momentary +uncertainty, though he was at the same time engaged in writing on some +other subject. He was once conversing with a party of Austrian officers +about Napoleon's Italian campaigns. Some dispute arose respecting the +position of different corps in the battle of Marengo. Niebuhr described +exactly how they were placed, and the progress of the action. The +officers contradicted him; but on maps being brought he was found to be +in the right, and to know more of the details of the conflict than the +very officers who had been present. One day, when he was talking with +Professor Welcker of Bonn, the conversation happened to turn on the +weather, and Niebuhr quoted the results of barometrical observations in +the different years, as far back as 1770, with perfect accuracy. This +power was not a merely mechanical faculty; it was intimately connected +with the power of instantaneously seizing on all the relations of any +fact placed before him, and with his wonderful imagination; his +imagination, however, was that of an historian, not of a poet--it was +not creative, but enabled him to form from the most various, and +apparently inadequate sources, distinct and truthful pictures of scenes, +actions, and characters. Hence his keen delight in travels: hence, too, +his habit of pronouncing judgment on the men of other countries and of +past times, with all the warmth of a fellow-countryman and a +contemporary. + +"With his warm affections, and clear-sighted moral sense, it was +impossible for him to form such opinions on past or present history, +coolly standing aloof, as it were, and regarding the subject with calm +superiority; he could not but condemn and despise all that was +pernicious and base; he could not but love and reverence, with his whole +heart, whatever was noble and beautiful. Such opinions and feelings he +expressed with the utmost frankness, sometimes even with vehemence, when +prudence would have counselled more guarded language." + +Here is Professor Niebuhr holding up a bright example to our friends who +fear to look ridiculous in rifle clubs: + + "On the evacuation of Berlin by the French in February, + 1813, Niebuhr shared in the national rejoicings, and not + less in the enthusiasm displayed in the preparations for the + complete re-conquest of freedom. When the Landwehr was + called out, he refused to evade serving in it, as he could + take no other part in the war. His wish was to act as + secretary to the general staff; but if this were not + possible, he meant to enter the service as a volunteer with + some of his friends. For this purpose he went through the + exercises, and when the time came for those of his age to be + summoned, sent in his name as a volunteer to the Landwehr. + He would have preferred entering a regular regiment, and + applied to the King for permission to do so; but this + request was refused by him, and he added that he would give + him other commissions more suited to his talents. + + "Niebuhr's friends in Holstein could hardly trust their eyes + when he wrote them word that he was drilling for the army, + and that his wife entered with equal enthusiasm into his + feelings. The greatness of the object had so inspired Madame + Niebuhr, who was usually anxious, even to a morbid extent, + at the slightest imaginable peril for the husband in whom + she might truly be said to live, that she was willing and + ready to bring even her most precious treasure as a + sacrifice to her country." + +Hitherto we have quoted the biography, but on this point, and at a time +when we are seeking to forearm ourselves against the chance of evil, it +may edify us to hear Niebuhr himself speak on the theme of ball +practice. Niebuhr, it should be remembered, writes at a time when two +volumes of his great work, the "History of Rome," had been appreciated +by the public: + + "I come from an employment in which you will hardly be able + to fancy me engaged--namely, exercising. Even before the + departure of the French, I began to go through the exercise + in private, but a man can scarcely acquire it without + companions. Since the French left, a party of about twenty + of us have been exercising in a garden, and we have already + got over the most difficult part of the training. When my + lectures are concluded, which they will be at the beginning + of next week, I shall try to exercise with regular recruits + during the morning, and as often as possible practice + shooting at a mark..... By the end of a month I hope to be + as well drilled as any recruit who is considered to have + finished his training. The heavy musket gave me so much + trouble at first, that I almost despaired of being able to + handle it; but we are able to recover the powers again that + we have only lost for want of practice. I am happy to say + that my hands are growing horny; for as long as they had a + delicate bookworm's skin, the musket cut into them + terribly." + +And now let us give a view of Niebuhr as Professor in Bonn, together +with a few well-written notes upon his character: + + "We have seen that, at Berlin, Niebuhr delivered his + lectures _verbatim_ from written notes. At Bonn, on the + contrary, his only preparation consisted in meditating for a + short time on the subject of his lecture, and referring to + authorities for his data, when he found it necessary, and he + brought no written notes with him to the lecture-room. His + success in imparting his ideas varied greatly at different + times, as it depended almost entirely on his mental and + physical condition at the moment. He always felt a certain + difficulty in expressing himself. He grasped his subject as + a whole, and it was not easy to him to retrace the steps by + which he had arrived at his results. Hence his style was + harsh and often disjointed; and yet he possessed a species + of eloquence whose value is of a high order--that of making + the expression the exact reflection of the thought--that of + embodying each separate idea in an adequate, but not + redundant form. The discourse was no dry, impersonal + statement of facts and arguments, or even opinions; the + whole man, with his conceptions, feelings, moral sentiments, + nay passions too, was mirrored forth in it. Hence Niebuhr + not merely informed and stimulated the minds of his hearers, + but attracted their affections. That he did this in an + eminent degree, was not indeed owing to his lectures alone, + but also to his kind and generous conduct. All who deserved + it were sure of his sympathy and assistance, whether + oppressed by intellectual difficulties, or pecuniary cares. + During the first year, he delivered his lectures without + remuneration; afterwards, on its being represented to him + that this would be injurious to other professors who could + not afford to do the same, he consented to take fees, but + employed them in assisting poor scholars and founding + prizes. He often, however, still remitted the fee privately, + when he perceived that a young man could not well afford it, + and never took any from friends. + + "But those who were admitted to his domestic circle were the + class most deeply indebted to him. His interest in all + subjects of scientific or moral importance was always + lively; and it was impossible to be in his company without + deriving some accession of knowledge and incentive to good. + From his associates he only required a warm and pure heart + and a sincere love of knowledge, with a freedom from + affectation or arrogance. Where he found these, he willingly + adapted himself to the wants and capacities of his + companions; would receive objections mildly, and take pains + to answer them, even when urged by mere youths, and weigh + carefully every new idea presented to him. He was fond of + society, and while his irritability not seldom gave rise to + slight misunderstandings and even temporary estrangements in + the circle of his acquaintance, there were some friends with + whom he always remained on terms of unbroken intimacy, among + whom may be named Professors Brandis, Arndt, Nitzsch, Bleek, + Naeke, Welcker, and Hollweg. He enjoyed wit in others, and in + his lighter moods racy and pointed sayings escaped him not + unfrequently. + + "His intercourse was not confined to literary circles. In + all the civil affairs of the town and neighborhood he took + an active interest from principle as well as inclination, + for he considered a man as no good citizen who refused to + take his share of the public business of the neighborhood in + which he lived; and the loss which left so great a blank in + the world of letters, was also deeply regretted by his + fellow-townsmen of Bonn. Niebuhr's mode of life at Bonn was + very regular, and his habits simple. He hated show and + unnecessary luxury in domestic life. He loved art in her + proper place, but could not bear to see her degraded into + the mere minister of outward ease. His life in his own + family showed the erroneousness of the assertion that a + thorough devotion to learning is inconsistent with the + claims of family affection. He liked to hear of all the + little household occurrences, and his sympathy was as ready + for the little sorrows of his children as for the + misfortunes of a nation. He was in the habit of rising at + seven in the morning, and retiring at eleven. At the simple + one o'clock dinner, he generally conversed cheerfully upon + the contents of the newspapers which he had just looked + through. The conversation was usually continued during the + walk which he took immediately afterwards. The building of a + house, or the planting of a garden, had always an attraction + for him, and he used to watch the measuring of a wall, or + the breaking open of an entrance, with the same species of + interest with which he observed the development of a + political organization. The family drank tea at eight + o'clock, when any of his acquaintance were always welcome. + But during the hours spent in his library, his whole being + was absorbed in his studies, and hence he got through an + immense amount of work in an incredibly short time." + +Finally, here is the death of the immortal historian: + + "The last political occurrence in which Niebuhr was strongly + interested, was the trial of the ministers of Charles the + Tenth; it was indirectly the cause of his death. He read the + reports in the French journals with eager attention; and as + these newspapers were much in request at that time, from the + universal interest felt in their contents, he did not in + general go to the public reading-rooms where he was + accustomed to see the papers daily, until the evening. On + Christmas Eve and the following day, he was in better health + and spirits than he had been for a long while, but on the + evening of the 25th of December he spent a considerable time + waiting and reading in the hot news-room, without taking off + his thick fur cloak, and then returned home through the + bitter frosty night air, heated in mind and body. Still full + of the impression made on him by the papers, he went + straight to Classen's room, and exclaimed, 'That is true + eloquence! You must read Sauzet's speech; he alone declares + the true state of the case; that this is no question of law, + but an open battle between hostile powers! Sauzet must be no + common man! But,' he added immediately, 'I have taken a + severe chill, I must go to bed.' And from the couch which he + then sought, he never rose again, except for one hour, two + days afterwards, when he was forced to return to it quickly + with warning symptoms of his approaching end. + + "His illness lasted a week, and was pronounced, on the + fourth day, to be a decided attack of inflammation on the + lungs. His hopes sank at first, but rose with his increasing + danger and weakness; even on the morning of the last day he + said, 'I may still recover.' Two days before, his faithful + wife, who had exerted herself beyond her strength in nursing + him, fell ill and was obliged to leave him. He then turned + his face to the wall, and exclaimed with the most painful + presentiment, 'Hapless house! To lose father and mother at + once!' And to the children he said, 'Pray to God, children! + He alone can help us!' And his attendants saw that he + himself was seeking comfort and strength in silent prayer. + But when his hopes of life revived, his active and powerful + mind soon demanded its wonted occupation. The studies that + had been dearest to him through life, remained so in death; + his love to them was proved to be pure and genuine by its + unwavering perseverance to the last. While he was on his + sick bed, Classsen read aloud to him for hours the Greek + text of the Jewish History of Josephus, and he followed the + sense with such ease and attention, that he suggested + several emendations in the text at the moment; this may be + called an unimportant circumstance, but it always appeared + to us one of the most wonderful proofs of his mental powers. + The last learned work in which he was able to testify his + interest, was the description of Rome by Bunsen and his + friends, which had just been sent to him; the preface to the + first volume was read aloud to him, and called forth + expressions of pleasure and approbation. He also asked for + light reading to pass the time, but our attempts to satisfy + him were unsuccessful. A friend proposed the 'Briefe eines + Verstorbenen,' which was then making a great sensation; but + he declined it, faying he feared that its levity would jar + upon his feelings. One of Cooper's novels was recommended to + him, and excited his ridicule by its extraordinary verbiage; + he was much amused by trying an experiment he proposed, + which consisted in taking one period at hap-hazard on each + page; and by the discovery that this mode of reading did + little violence to the connection of the story. The + 'Colnishe Zeitung' was read aloud to him up to the last day, + with extracts from the French and other journals. He asked + for them expressly, only twelve hours before his death, and + gave his opinion half in jest about the change of ministry + in Paris. But on the afternoon of the 1st of January, 1831, + he sank into a dreamy slumber; once on awakening, he said + that pleasant images floated before him in sleep; now and + then he spoke French in his dreams; probably he felt himself + in the presence of his departed friend De Serre. As the + night gathered, consciousness gradually faded away; he woke + up once more about midnight, when the last remedy was + administered; he recognized in it a medicine of doubtful + operation, never resorted to but in extreme cases, and said + in a faint voice, 'What essential substance is this? Am I so + far gone?' These were his last words; he sank back on his + pillow, and within an hour his noble heart had ceased to + beat." + + "Niebuhr's wife died nine days after him, on the 11th of the + same month, about the same hour of the night. She died, in + fact, of a broken heart, though her disease was, like his, + an inflammation of the chest. She could shed no tears, + though she longed for them, and prayed God to send them; + once her eyes grew moist, when his picture was brought to + her at her own request, but they dried again, and her heavy + heart was not relieved. She had her children often with her, + particularly her son, and gave them her parting counsels. + And so her loving and pure soul went home to God. Both rest + in one grave, over which the present King of Prussia has + erected a monument to the memory of his former instructor + and counsellor. The children were placed under the care of + Madame Hensler, at Kiel." + +Our copious extracts from the biographic portion of the work will amply +satisfy the mind of any one who needs more than report to convince him +of the tact and good taste which have presided over the transformation +of Madame Hensler's _Lebensnachrichten_ into a readable and interesting +book, which is likely to be read for years as the best English record of +a life that will be looked back upon with interest by all posterity. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[20] The Life and Letters of Barthold George Niebuhr; with Essays on his +Character and Influence, by the Chevalier Bunsen and Professors Brandis +and Loebell. Two volumes. Chapman & Hall. + + + + +From Household Words. + +PICTURE ADVERTISING IN SOUTH AMERICA. + + +The concentrated wisdom of nations used formerly to be sought for in +their proverbs; we look for it now-a-days in their newspapers. Whether +we always find what we seek, in this respect, may be a question; but +something is sure to turn up in them that will repay the search, though +the leading article, the records of parliament and of law, or even the +letters of "our own correspondent," may fail to disclose it. The +"intelligent" reader will at once see that we point to the advertising +columns, but we are not going to inflict an epitome of the first and +second pages of the _Times_, or present an abstract of its Supplement, +characteristic of our country as the result might prove. We purpose to +go somewhat further afield, and tread upon ground hitherto unbroken. A +file of South American newspapers has suggested to us that it might +prove amusing, if not instructive, to describe the wants and wishes, the +habits of life, and something of the pervading tone of society, in +certain parts of that hemisphere, as shown in the advertisements of the +periodical journals. We have selected the city of Buenos Ayres for this +illustration, and turn at once to our file. + +The political feature is absent here, for where men have always arms in +their hands to establish a new "Constitution," or destroy an old one, +they look elsewhere than to a newspaper advertisement for the arena +wherein to exhibit their valor or patriotism. Their "London Tavern," +their "Town Hall," their "Copenhagen Fields," or "Bull-ring," are to be +found on their wide-spreading Pampas, or in the fastnesses of their +Sierras, with the _lasso_ at the saddle-bow, the sharp spur on the heel, +the _trabrigo_ (carbine) in the holster, and the lance or sabre in the +grasp. These politicians have no time for reading or writing +advertisements, nor would it answer any very useful purpose if they did. +The only attempt that is ever made to catch the patriotic eye, is where +a formal notice is issued by the authorities, touching taxes, or a +muster of militia for some peaceful end; on these occasions, a "_Viva la +Federation!_" (Long live the Confederation!) appears at the head of the +advertisement announcing the fact; and when it has a quasi-military +character attached to it, the portrait of an infantry soldier under +arms, in white tights, Hessian boots, crossbelts, stiff stock, and +ponderous chako (none of them very pleasant things to think of in +latitude thirty-four degrees south, with the thermometer ninety-six in +the shade), is invariably added. But the confederation is not appealed +to merely because the nature of the advertisement may seem to require +it; we find the same heart-stirring refresher associated with ass's +milk, live turtle, runaway slaves--with everything, indeed, that has an +interest for the community, portable or edible, necessary to its +comfort, or serviceable to its desires. + +But if liberty has very little claim on the advertising columns of a +newspaper in Buenos Ayres, there is a large set-off in favor of slavery. +The papers teem with notices concerning that portion of the people who +have the misfortune not to belong to themselves. And here it may be +desirable to advert to a feature which is essential to the success of an +advertisement in South America; it must be pictorial. Our own country +newspapers, and most of the continental ones,--those of our Parisian +friends in particular,--show us what can be done in this way; but they +do not elaborate their subject after the manner of the Buenos-Ayreans. +With them the advertisement must have a double chance; they who can read +may enjoy the advantages of a liberal education in plain type;--they who +have not been introduced to the schoolmaster may gather the meaning of +the "noticia" from the greater or less striking resemblance of the +object advertised to the woodcut which illustrates it. It is true, a +difficulty may sometimes arise in the latter case, owing to an +economical employment of the same block to represent a great variety of +actions; the same slave is always in the attitude of a fugitive, whether +he be described as running away with all his might, or quietly standing +still to be sold; the same horse is always in a high trotting condition, +whether he be supposed to career across the plain, or hold up a foot to +be shod; the same bull has always his head bent down, with the same +mischievous poke of the horns, whether he be advertised for slaughter or +recommended for sport. + +A cook who might make a pudding with quick-lime instead of flour, and +instead of a bath-brick send in a real one, would not accord with the +notions of an English housewife. Female slaves who are to be sold, are +represented as like to Atalanta, as the males are to Hippomenes. They, +too, attired in a long night-gown, which has very much the look of +impeding their flight, are always bolting with a bundle, which probably +contains the bonnet they never appear in, or the shoes they are not +supposed to wear. In like manner, if you wish to buy (_se desca +comprar_) a slave, of either sex, you do so with your eyes open; for the +great probability that the new purchase will vanish on the first +favorable opportunity, is vividly get forth in the woodcut that speaks +for all. The prices are tolerably high,--a boy, as we have seen, fetches +nine hundred dollars; a woman-servant (_una criada_), fifteen hundred; +and a man in the prime of his age,--for manual labor,--eighteen hundred, +or two thousand. What a fortune Louis Napoleon might make, if he could +establish a market-value for those whom he proscribes! M. Thiers would +then be worth four hundred pounds! + +The next step is to religion,--or, at least, to its forms and +ceremonies. We see the vignette of an altar-table, covered with a fair +cloth, whereon stand a crucifix, and a pair of long waxen tapers, in +full blaze, a holy-water pot, and a sprinkling-brush, are placed beside +the table, beneath which is spread a handsome carpet. So much for the +emblem; now for the text: + + "Dona Agustina Lopez de Rosas, the citizens Don Prudencio + and Don Gervacio Ortiz de Rosas, and others, brothers, wife, + and sons of the deceased Don Leon Ortiz de Rosas (Q.E.P.D.), + invite those gentlemen who, by accident, have not received + notes of invitation, to accompany them to pray to God for + mercy on the soul of the aforesaid deceased, in the + Cathedral Church, at ten o'clock of the 20th of March + current, by which they will feel under infinite obligation." + +The next is a more than half-obliterated impression of an image of the +sun, partly obscured by clouds, with the obligato crucifix in the midst, +headed "Ave Maria;"--it is the third advertisement (_tercer aviso_), and +is addressed by the Superiors (Mayordomos) of the most Holy Rosary to +all faithful and devout sons of the most holy Mary. + +The text of this address we need not give; the substance will be +sufficient. It tells the history of the completion of the two naves and +other parts of the church of the Patriarch San Domingo, which have been +painted, whitewashed, and otherwise decorated, in the sight of all the +faithful (_a la vista de todos los fieles_), and--to make a long story +short--money is wanted to make it what the priests wish it, and' +therefore the superiors intend to stand daily in the chief porch to +receive subscriptions, the smallest sums being--as in England, and every +where else--most gratefully received. + +The mortuary advertisements are not absolutely a transition "from +praying to purse-taking;" only a variety of the same general mode of +dealing. We select two of these:--In the first, we behold a lady in the +full-dress evening costume of the Empire, with a very short waist, and +very little drapery above it, leaning pensively against a funereal +monument; an embroidered pocket-handkerchief being placed beneath one +elbow, to protect it from the cold marble; in her left hand she carries +a substantial wooden cross, which is held so as to fall over the +shoulder; a weeping willow on the opposite side to the mourning lady +balances the composition. Below the picture is the announcement that +"Funereal letters (_Esquelas de Funerales_) of every tasteful +description, engraved as well as lithographic, and at a very moderate +price, are to be obtained at the printing-office of the Mercantile +Gazette, in the street of Cangallo, No. 75, where designs of all kinds +maybe seen." The second is more sombre in outward show, but less +applicable to the general business of the advertiser. It is headed, +"Interesting to all whom it may concern." (_Interesante a quienes +conguenga._) We have here a very black tree, a very black tombstone, and +a very black sky; the outline of the two former relieved by gleams of +light from a very full moon; and having gazed our fill on these +melancholy objects, are told that--"In the street of Victory, at No. +63-1/2, at all hours of the day, an individual is to be met with who +undertakes to supply every description of cards or notes of invitation, +whether for funerals or any other kind of entertainment; he undertakes +at the same time to serve those gentlemen who may honor him with their +orders, with the very best goods, &c.," after the approved fashion of +advertisers all over the globe. + +Natural history affords the Buenos-Ayreans great scope for their +artistical genius. Don Federico Costa announces a grand spectacle of +wild beasts; and that there may be no mistake about what he has to show, +he heralds his collections with the full-length portrait of an Uran-utan +(_Orangutan_), which he describes as a native of Africa. This +interesting animal is seated on a bank, with a large stick in one hand, +looking over his shoulder, and displays an endless amount of fingers and +toes; the greater the number, the nearer, in Don Federico's opinion, the +creature's approach to humanity. There is a wonderful bit of shadow +thrown from one of the Uran-utan's legs, which puts one in mind of the +footprint that so startled Robinson Crusoe; and, indeed, the general +appearance of the animal is not unlike some of the earlier portraits of +that renowned mariner, only nature has done for the Uran-utan what art +and goat-skins accomplished for the solitary of Juan Fernandez. + +The moral attributes of Don Federico's pet are strongly insisted upon in +the advertisement,--his excellent disposition, the ingenuity of his +mind, and (included in "_la moral_") the surprising dexterity with which +he scoops out the contents of a cocoa-nut "in a manner most pleasing +(_muy agradable_) to the beholders." His companions in captivity are +porcupines, tiger-cats, ounces, armadillos, and a number of animals +bearing local names, besides divers snakes of different colors, two +thousand well-preserved insects, and, finally, (_por ultimo_,) a +collection of antiquities from Mexico. The price of admission is two +_reales_--the universal shilling; and children, in Buenos Ayres, as in +London, are admitted for half-price. + +A livelier turtle than that which is figured for the edification of the +gourmands who frequent the Hotel of Liberty in the street of the 25th of +May, it would be difficult to find even in the celebrated cellars of +Leadenhall-street. If we were wholly unacquainted with the domestic +habits of these scaly delicacies, we might easily imagine, from the +picture here given, that the way a turtle gets over the ground is by +flying, his outstretched feet and flippers serving him for wings. This +advertisement is brief,--on the principle that good wine needs no bush. +We are merely informed that turtle-soup, cutlets, and broiled fins, are +to be had from mid-day till sunset. There is no occasion for the hotel +proprietor to waste his money in commending wares such as these. The +picture and the hour of consummation would have been enough. + +It is well that invalids should be told, that at No. 76, in the Street +of Maipu, the milk of an ass "recently confined" is always on sale; but +the woodcut attached to the advertisement makes the fact appear +doubtful; for a sturdier male animal than the "burro" there depicted, +was never painted by Morland or Gainsborough. This, however, may arise +from the necessity which exists for one of a sort doing duty for all. +But there is another singularity in this advertisement. With no line to +indicate a fresh subject, as is the case in every other instance, the +portrait of the ass is always followed by the words "Long live the +Confederation! Death to the Unitarians!" These lines have puzzled us; +and we hesitate to give the only explanation that strikes us: something +disrespectful, in short, to the Confederation of Buenos Ayres. + +It is not only the slaves that run away in that part of South America: +the infection extends to dogs, horses, and oxen, all of which, like +Caliban, seem for ever on the look out to "have a new master, get a new +man," to hunt, ride, or drive them. There is a daily column, headed +"Perdida," in which long-tailed horses, with flowing manes, pointers in +immovable attitudes, for ever pointing, and sinister-looking +bulls--thorough-paced gamblers, always ready for pitch-and-toss--are +advertised as having left their owners, who strive to win them back by +rewards varying twenty to fifty dollars. In all these cases the missing +animals are described as having "disappeared" (_desaparecido_)--a mild +term for "stolen;" it being the Spanish custom to refrain from "wounding +ears polite"--except when the blood is up; then, indeed, they may take +the field against Uncle Toby's army, that swore so terribly in Flanders. + +This delicate mode of appealing to the consciences of thieves--which, +carried fairly out, would probably bear a strong resemblance in the end +to the politeness of Mr. Chucks--is extended to property of all kinds. A +large watch, of the genus turnip, the hands pointing to half-past +eleven, the time, perhaps, when the robbery is supposed to have taken +place, and accompanied by the expressive word "Ojo" (look sharp) thrice +repeated, indicates, what the advertisement soon plainly tells, that +from No. 69, in Emerald-street, there have "disappeared" a valuable lot +of articles, which give a very good idea of the turn-out of a +well-mounted horseman in South America. There are, first, several pairs +of large silver spurs--and a pair of Spanish spurs, when melted down, +would make a decent service of plate,--quite enough for a "testimonial" +to ourselves; and then come braided headstalls and bridles, with twisted +chains and cavessons of silver; the reins hung with silver-bells, and +decorated with silver bosses, and the bits and curbs heavily mounted +with the same costly metal. This robbery has been evidently "a put-up +thing," for there is no word of housebreaking,--merely a disappearance; +and all silversmiths, pawnbrokers, and the public in general, are +entreated (_se suplica a los, &c._) to detain the article, if offered, +and a reward of two hundred dollars will be given. Perhaps the gentlemen +who caused the horses to disappear have taken this mode of procuring +caparisons! + +Quack-medicine vendors are not wanting in Buenos Ayres to render +important services to humanity. Two magnificent cut-glass decanters, +gigantic in proportion to a tree of wondrous virtues which stands +between them, are stated to be full of a healing medicine, which will do +the business of all whom the faculty have given up or are otherwise +incurable, as effectually as Parr's Life Pills or Holloway's Ointment. +The chief establishment for the sale of this elixir is very carefully +pointed out; and for the benefit of future travellers we may mention, +that it is to be found at No. 496 in the street of Cangallo, and in the +very last door on the left-hand side, behind the windmill; and that in +the court-yard of the house there is a garden filled with statues, of +which the originals are probably defunct; but whether the elixir out of +the two large decanters had any thing to do with this apotheosis, we +refrain from conjecturing. + +The preceding advertisements are the most noticeable for embellishment +and style. The ordinary kind of wants are set forth with woodcuts and +text of a less striking kind, but almost all are illustrated. Wine has a +barrel for its sign; music, a violin; travelling, a carriage; gardening, +a flower-pot; upholstery, a chair; the cobbler's mystery, a top-boot; +the hatter's, a beaver; and the letter of lodgings, a house full of +windows. Not all of them are confined to the Spanish language, for there +are many English merchants and traders; and to accommodate the last, a +notice like the following recommends the aforementioned Street of Piety: + + "To Det. To roms in altos one Squaz from the Place of + Victory." + +The author of this announcement certainly had not achieved a victory +over the English language. + + + + +From the London Examiner. + +GUIZOT AND MONTALEMBERT. + + +The greatest novelty now in Paris is a speech. Any specimen of oratory +that the police will first allow to be spoken, and then to be printed, +is quite an attraction. Indeed there is but one remaining chance of +perpetrating a speech, and that is by achieving your election as a +member of the Institute, or being appointed as an old member to welcome +the newly-elected academician. These are the only legitimate +opportunities for making one's voice heard in public that M. Bonaparte's +code has left to the Frenchman. + +In pursuance of this solitary permission on the part of the authorities, +the Paris journals have contained reports of two remarkable speeches, +the one uttered by Count Montalembert on his being elected to the seat +in the Academy, rendered vacant by the death of M. Droz; the other +spoken by M. Guizot, in the form of an address of welcome to the new +academician, M. de Montalembert. Now in the speeches of these, the first +authorized orators of the new despotic _regime_, we find so little to +awaken the susceptibilities of even M. Bonaparte's police, that we have +heard with unaffected wonder of the scissors of the censorship having +been applied even to them. The philosophy of the speeches is terribly +Conservative. M. Bonaparte himself could have desired no other. If his +highness the President had embraced the two academicians after their +speeches, and decorated them with the Grand Cordon of his new Order, it +would have been but a tribute justly due to these lay preachers of +absolutism. + +Eulogy of Droz was the theme which afforded Count Montalembert the +opportunity to ventilate his opinions, as M. Guizot's theme was the +eulogy of Montalembert. Montalembert depicted how Droz, who had reached +youth at the commencement of the great revolution, joined in all its +theories, its hopes, and its excesses, anathematizing kings and priests, +and believing in the happy and final reign of pure democracy; and how +all this the same Droz lived to unlearn and to correct, and to settle +down as quiet and as arrant a Conservative as ever supported monarchic +government and a restored church. This is the true path of repentance, +exclaimed Montalembert, and the only road to wisdom. + +The compliment to tergiversation, which M. Montalembert thus paid to +Droz, M. Guizot applied to Montalembert himself, whom he (M. Guizot) had +remembered commencing his political career in full opposition, +thundering against corrupt majorities, against kingly influence, and +even against that want of spirit which preferred being at peace with +neighbors to provoking them. But all that sort of constitutional +opposition leads, as the people have seen, to the triumph of socialism; +and so all wise people, like M. Montalembert, naturally become sick of +it, and abandon it, betaking themselves for a preference to the old +political religion of legitimacy and worship of absolutism. Of all the +national disgraces inflicted upon France by M. Bonaparte's triumph, we +know of none greater than such a hymn to servility, such anathemas and +farewells to constitutional freedom, uttered by these two Talleyrands of +the professorial and ecclesiastical schools, who have been changing +principles all their lives, and now proclaim at last that absolutism is +the only anchor to hold by. + +On one point M. Montalembert impugned the philosophy of M. Droz, and in +doing so impugned not less the opinion of M. Thiers, and most of the +eminent men who have written histories or judgments upon the great +events of the Revolution. Droz, relating these events in after life, saw +in their march and series the influence of stern necessity. Such was the +congregated mass of evils of all kinds produced by the long +misgovernment of the despotism and corrupt regime of the Bourbons, that +a catastrophe like that of the Great Revolution was, according to Droz, +not to be avoided. No human power could stop it, no moderation, no +wisdom. In its path men were like the mere vegetable growth of a valley +down which a torrent comes in inundation, sweeping all before it. + +But M. Montalembert, for his own part, has another way of viewing the +events of the Revolution. He denies the doctrine of fatalism or of +necessity. He will not allow that the follies of the monarchy drew down +after them the crimes of the Republic as a natural consequence. He sees +in all those events, on the contrary, a direct intervention of +Providence, who inflicted the sufferings of the Revolution upon the +French simply as retribution for their crimes and a punishment for their +sins. Providence, in the imagination of Count Montalembert, is a Nemesis +with sword and scourge in hand, exercising its chief duty in castigating +humanity; and thus doth the French Academy in the middle of the +nineteenth century proclaim the philosophy of history. + +M. Guizot avoided the recognition of any assertion so extravagant as +this, and so very unfair to poor Jaques Bonhomme. The crimes of the old +monarchy were confined to the court, the clergy, the aristocracy, and +the financiers; whereas the poor peasant was ground to poverty, yet a +proverbially honest and cheerful fellow amidst his ignorance and +privations. But, according to Montalembert, Providence sent the +Revolution to punish the crimes of duchesses; and this Revolution +decimated, arrested, and sent to perish all over the world poor Jaques +Bonhomme. Was this justice? M. Guizot did not, as we say, endorse this +portion of the Montalembert philosophy. But he warned the Count of +having in his early life made one grand mistake, in allying religion +with liberalism, and putting the names of both combined on the banners +of opposition. M. Guizot could hardly mean that religion, like fortune, +should be always on the side of the greatest number of battalions. For +should not this be the creed of M. Bonaparte, rather than of his +illustrious Academicians? + + + + +From Household Words. + +AN ACCOUNT OF SOME TREATMENT OF GOLD AND GEMS. + + +Those who visit the metal works of Birmingham naturally desire to know +where the metals come from; and especially the precious metals. Among +the materials shown to the visitor, are drawers full of the brightest +and cleanest gold; and ingots of silver, pure, or slightly streaked with +copper. We have handled to-day an ingot which contains, to ninety-two +ounces ten pennyweights of silver, seven ounces ten pennyweights of +copper. We ask whether the gold comes from California; but we find that +it has just arrived--from a much nearer place--from a refinery next +door. We hear high praises of the Californian gold. It is so pure that +some of it can be used, without refining, for second-rate articles. Some +small black specks may be detected in it, certainly, though they are so +few and so minute, that the native gold is wrought in large quantities. +But what _is_ this neighboring refinery? Whence does it obtain the +metals it refines? Let us go and see. + +It is a strange murky place; a dismal inclosure, with ugly sheds, and +yards not more agreeable to the eye. Its beauties come out by degrees, +as the understanding opens to comprehend the affairs of the +establishment. In the sheds, are ranges of musty-looking furnaces; some +cold and gaping, others showing, through crevices, red signs of fire +within. There are piles of blocks of coal, of burnt ladles and peels, +and rivulets of black refuse, which has flowed out from the furnaces +into safe beds of red sand. In a special shed, is a black moist-looking +heap of what appears to be filth, battened into the shape of a large +compost bed. A man is filling a barrow with this commodity, and +smoothing it down with loving care. And well he may; for this +despicable-looking dirt is the California of the concern! Here is their +gold mine, and their silver mine, and their copper mine. In another +shed, is a mill-stone on edge, revolving with the post to which it is +fixed, to crush the material which is to be calcined. In the yard, we +see heaps of scoriae--the shining, heavy, glassy-looking fragments, which +tell tales of the prodigious heat to which they have been subjected. We +see picks, and more ladles, and lanterns, and a most sordid-looking +bonfire. A heap of refuse is burning on the stones; old rags, fragments +of shoes, cinders, dust, and nails--the veriest sweepings that can be +imagined. Something precious is there; but the mass must be burned to +become manageable. The ashes will be swept up for the refinery. + +But what is it that yields gold, and silver, and copper, and brass? What +is that heap of dirt in the special shed? It is the sweepings of the +Birmingham manufactories. + +What economy! In all goldsmiths' shops every effort is made to save all +the filings, and the minutest dust of the metals used. The floors are +swept, and every thing recoverable is picked up. Yet the imperceptible +loss is so valuable to the refiners, that they pay, and pay high, for +the scrapings, sweepings, and picking of the work-rooms. A cart load of +dirt is taken from a fork-and-spoon manufactory to the refinery, and +paid for on the instant; and the money thus received is one of the +regular items in the books of the concern. Perhaps it pays the wages of +one of the workmen. Another establishment receives two hundred pounds a +year for its sweepings. It is worth noting these methods in concerns +which are flourishing, and which have been raised to a prosperous +condition by pains and care; less flourishing people may be put in the +way of similar methods. For instance, how good it would be for farmers +if, instead of thinking there is something noble in disregard of +trifling economy, they could see the wisdom and beauty of an economy +which hurts nobody, but benefits every body! It would do no one any good +to throw away these scattered particles of precious metal, while their +preservation affords a maintenance to many families. In the same way, +the waste of dead leaves, of animal manure, of odds and ends of time, of +seed, of space in hedges, in the great majority of farms, does no good, +and gives no pleasure to any body; while the same thrift on a farm that +we see in a manufactory, would sustain much life, bestow much comfort, +narrow no hearts, and expand the enjoyment of very many. + +We must take care of our eyes when the ovens are opened--judging by the +scarlet rays that peep out, here and there, from any small crevice. +Prodigious! What a heat it is, when, by the turn of a handle, a door of +the furnace is raised! The roasting, or calcining, to get rid of the +sulphur, is going on here. The whole inside--walls, roof, embers, and +all--are a transparent salmon-color. As a shovel, inserted from the +opposite side, stirs and turns the burning mass, the sulphur appears +above--a little blue flame, and a great deal of yellow smoke. We feel +some of it in our throats. We exclaim about the intensity of the heat, +declaring it tremendous. But we are told that it is not so; that, in +fact, "it is very cold--that furnace;" which shows us that there is +something hotter to come. + +The Refiner's Test is pointed out to us;--a sort of shovel, with a +spout, lined throughout with a material of burnt bones, the only +substance which can endure unchanged the heat necessary for testing the +metals. Of this material are made the little crucibles that we see in +the furnaces, which our conductor admits to be "rather warm." There they +are, ranged in rows, so obscured by the mere heat, which confounds every +thing in one glow, that their circular rims are only seen by being +looked for. Yet, one little orifice, at the back of this furnace, shows +that even this heat can be exceeded. That orifice is a point of white +heat, revealed from behind. We do not see the metal in the crucibles; +but we know that it is simmering there. + +One more oven is opened for us--the assay furnace, which is at a white +heat. As the smallest quantities of metal serve for the assay, the +crucibles are here on the scale of dolls' tea-things. The whole concern +of that smallest furnace looks like a pretty toy; but it is a very +serious matter--the work it does, and the values it determines. + +The metals, which run down to the bottom, in the melting furnaces, are +separated (the gold and silver by aquafortis), and cast in moulds, +coming out as ingots; or, in fragments, of any shape they may have +pleased to run into. Some of the gold fragments are of the cleanest and +brightest yellow. Other, no less pure, are dark and brownish. They are +for gilding porcelain. Lastly, we see a pretty curiosity. In the +counting-house, a little glass chamber is erected upon a counter, with +an apparatus of great beauty--a pair of scales, thin and small to the +last degree, fastened by spider-like threads to a delicate beam, which +is connected with an index, sensitive enough to show the variation of +the hundredth part of a grain. The glass walls exclude atmospheric +disturbance. Behind the rusty-looking doors were the white glowing +crucibles; within the drawers was the yellow gold; and, hidden in its +glass house, was the fairy balance. + +Now, we will follow some of the gold and silver to a place where skilled +hands are ready to work it curiously. + +First, however, we may as well mention, in confidence to our readers, +that our feelings are now and then wounded by the injustice of the world +to the Birmingham manufacturers. We observe with pain, that the very +virtues of Birmingham manufacture are made matters of reproach. Because +the citizens have at their command extraordinary means of cheap +production, and produce cheap goods accordingly, the world jumps to the +conclusion that the work must be deceptive and bad. Fine gentlemen and +ladies give, in London shops, twice the price for Birmingham jewelry +that they would pay, if no middlemen stood, filling their pockets +uncommonly fast, between them and the manufacturer; and they admire the +solid value and great beauty of the work; but, as soon as they know +where the articles were wrought, they undervalue them with the term +"Brummagem." In the Great Exhibition there was a certain case of +gold-work and jewelry, rich and thorough in material and workmanship. +The contents of that case were worth many hundred pounds. A gentleman +and lady stopped to admire their contents. The lady was so delighted +with them that she supposed they must be French. The gentleman reminded +her that they were in the British department. After a while, they +observed the label at the top of the case, and instantly retracted their +admiration. "Oh!" said the gentleman, pointing to the label, "these are +Brummagem ware--shams!" Whatever may have been Brummagem-gold-beating in +ancient times, and in days of imperfect art when long wars impeded the +education of English taste, it is mere ignorance to keep up the censure +in these times. It is merely accepting and retailing vulgar phrases +without any inquiry, which is the stupidest form of ignorance. Perhaps +some of the prejudice may be removed by a brief account of what a +Birmingham manufacture of gold chains is at this day. + +Twenty years ago, the making of gold chains occupied a dozen or twenty +people in Birmingham. Now, the establishment we are entering, alone, +employs probably eight times that number. Formerly, a small master +undertook the business in a little back shop: drew out his wire with his +own hands; cut the devices himself; soldered the pieces himself; in +short, worked under the disadvantage of great waste of time, of effort, +and of gold. Into the same shop more and more machinery has been since +introduced as it was gradually devised by clever heads. This machinery +is made on the spot, and the whole is set to work by steam. Few things +in the arts can be more striking than the contrast between the murky +chambers where the forging and grinding--the Plutonic processes of +machine-making--are going on, and the upper chambers, light and quiet, +where the delicate fingers of women and girls are arranging and +fastening the cobweb links of the most delicate chain-work. The whole +establishment is most picturesque. While in some speculative towns in +our island great warehouses and other edifices have sprung up too +quickly, and are standing untenanted, a rising manufacture like this +cannot find room. In the case before us, more room is preparing. A large +steam-engine will soon be at work, and the processes will be more +conveniently connected. Mean time, house after house has been absorbed +into the concern. There are steps up here, and steps down there; and +galleries across courts; and long ranges of low-roofed chambers; and +wooden staircases, in yards;--care being taken, however, to preserve in +the midst an isolated, well-lighted chamber, where part of the stock is +kept, where some high officials abide, and where there are four counters +or hatches, where the people present themselves outside, to receive +their work. All this has grown out of the original little back-shop. + +Below, there is a refinery. It is for the establishment alone; but, just +like that we have already described--only on a smaller scale. First, the +rolling-mill shows us its powers by a speedy experiment;--it flattens a +halfpenny, making it oblong at the first turn, and, by degrees, with the +help of some annealing in the furnace, drawing it out into a long ribbon +of shining copper, which is rolled up, tied with a wire, and presented +to us as a curiosity. Next, we see coils of thick round wire, of a dirty +white, which we can hardly believe to be gold. It is gold, however, and +is speedily drawn out into wire. Then, there are cutting, and piercing, +and snipping machines--all bright and diligent; and the women and girls +who work them are bright and diligent too. Here, in this long room, +lighted with lattices along the whole range, the machines stand, and the +women sit, in a row--quiet, warm, and comfortable. Here we see sheets of +soft metal (for solder) cut into strips or squares; here, again, a woman +is holding such a strip to a machine, and snipping the metal very fine, +into minute shreds, all alike. These are to be laid or stuck on little +joins in the chain-work, or clasps, or swivel hinges, where soldering is +required. Next, we find a dozen workwomen, each at her machine, pushing +snips of gold into grooves, where they are pierced with a pattern, or +one or two holes of a pattern, and made to fall into a receiver below. +Each may take about a second of time. Farther on, slender gold wire is +twisted into links by myriads. At every seat the counter is cut out in a +semicircle, whereby room is saved, and the worker has a free use of her +arms. Under every such semicircle hangs a leathern pouch, to catch every +particle that falls, and to hold the tools. On shelves every where are +ranges of steel dies; and larger pieces of the metal, for massive links +or for clasps, or for watch-keys and other ornaments, are stamped from +these. On the whole, we may say, that in these lower rooms the separate +pieces are prepared for being put together elsewhere. + +That putting together appears to novices very blinding work; but, we are +assured that it becomes so easy, by practice, that the girls could +almost do it with their eyes shut. In such a case we should certainly +shut ours; for they ache with the mere sight of such poking and picking, +and ranging of the white rings--all exactly like one another. They are +ranged in a groove of a plate of metal, or on a block of pumice-stone. +When pricked into a precise row, they are anointed, at their points of +junction, with borax. Each worker has a little saucer of borax, wet, and +stirred with a camel-hair pencil. With this pencil she transfers a +little of the borax to the flattened point of a sort of bodkin, and then +anoints the links where they join. When the whole row is thus treated, +she turns on the gas, and, with a small blow-pipe, directs the flame +upon the solder. It bubbles and spreads in the heat, and makes the row +of links into a chain. There would be no end of describing the loops and +hoops, and joints and embossings, which are soldered at these gas-pipes, +after being taken up by tiny tweezers, and delicately treated by all +manner of little tools. Suffice it, that here every thing is put +together, and made ready for the finishing. In the middle of one room is +a counter, where is fixed the machine for twisting the chains--with its +cog-wheels, and its nippers, whereby it holds one end of a portion of +chain, while another is twisted, as the door-handle fixes the +schoolboy's twine, while he knots or loops his pattern, or twists his +cord. Here, a little girl stands, and winds a plain gold chain into this +or that pattern, which depends upon the twisting. + +These ornaments of precious metal do not look very ornamental at +present; being of the color of dirty soap-suds, and tossed together in +heaps on the counters. We are now to see the hue and brightness of the +gold brought out. We take up a chain, rather massive, and reminding us +of some ornament we have somewhere seen; but it is so rough! and its +flakes do not appear to fit upon each other. A man lays it along the +length of his left hand, and files it briskly; as he works, the soapy +white disappears, the polish comes out, the parts fit together, and it +is, presently, one of those flexible, scaly, smooth, glittering chains +that we have seen all our lives. Of course, the filings are dropped +carefully into a box, to go to the refinery. There is, here, a +home-invented and home-made apparatus for polishing and cutting topazes, +amethysts, bloodstones and the like, into shield shapes, for seals, +watch-keys, and ornaments of various kinds. The strongest man's arm must +tire; but steam and steel need no consideration--so there go the wheels +and the emery, smoothing and polishing infallibly; with a workman to +apply the article, and a boy to drop oil when screw or socket begins to +scream. This polishing and filing was such severe work, in the lapidary +department, in former days, that the nervous energy of a man's arm was +destroyed--a serious grief to both worker and employer. At this day, it +is understood that the lapidary is past work at forty, from the +contraction of the sinews of the wrist, consequent on the nature of his +labor. The period of disablement depends much on the habits of the men; +but, sooner or later, it is looked for as a matter of course. Here, the +wear and tear is deputed to that which has no nerve. As the proprietor +observes, it requires no sympathy. + +It may be asked how there comes to be any lapidary department here? Do +we never see gold chains the links whereof are studded with turquoises, +or garnets, or little specks of emerald? Are there no ruby drops to +ladies' necklaces?--no jewelled toys hanging from gentlemen's +watch-guards? We see many of these pretty things here; besides cameos +for setting. + +After the delicate little filings (which must be done by hand) are all +finished, the articles must be well washed, dried in box-wood sawdust, +and finally hand-polished with rouge. The people in one apartment look +grotesque enough--two women powdered over with rouge, and men of various +dirty hues, all dressed alike, in an over-all garment of brown holland. +A washerwoman is maintained on the establishment expressly to wash these +dresses on the spot--her soap-suds being preserved, like all the other +washes, for the sake of the gold-dust contained in them. Her wash-tubs +are emptied, like every thing else, into the refinery. + +In the final burnishing room, we observe a row of chemists's +globes--glass vases filled with water, ranged on a shelf. A stranger +might guess long before he would find out what these are for. They are +to reflect a concentrated blaze from the gas-lights in the evening, to +point out specks and dimnesses, to the eyes and fingers of the +burnishers. What curious finger-ends they have--those women who chafe +the precious metals into their last degree of polish! They are +broad--the joint so flexible that it is bent considerably backwards when +in use; and the skin has a peculiar smoothness: more mechanical, we +fancy, than vital. However that may be, the burnish they produce is +strikingly superior to any hitherto achieved by friction with any other +substance. + +In departing, the sense of contrast comes over us once more. We have +just seen all manner of elegancies in ornament, from the classical and +dignified to the minute, fanciful, and grotesque; in going out, we give +a look to the unfinished engine-house, and the smiths' shop. All this +hard work; all those many dwellings thrown into one establishment; all +these scores of men, and women, and children, busy from year's end to +year's end; all those diggers far away in California; all those +lapidaries in Germany; all those engineers in their studies; all those +ironmasters in their markets; all those miners in the bowels of the +earth--all are enlisted in making gold chains; and some of us have no +more knowledge and no more thought than to call the product "Brummagem +shams!" Well! the price charged for them in London shops, where they are +as good as French, is something real; and it is a real comfort to think +how swingingly some fine folks pay, though the bulk of the profit comes, +not to the manufacturer, but to the middlemen. Of these middlemen there +are always two; the factor and the shopkeeper--often more. Their +intervention is very useful, of course, or they would not exist; but +somebody or other makes a prodigious profit of Birmingham jewelry, after +it has left the manufacturer's hands. It was only yesterday that we saw, +among a rich heap of wonderful things, a pair of elegant +bracelets--foreign pebbles, beautifully set. We were told the wholesale +price they were to be sold for; which was half the shop price. The +transference to the London shop was to cost as much as the whole of the +previous processes: from the digging of the silver and the collecting of +the pebbles, through all the needful voyages and travels, to the +burnishing and packing at Birmingham! + +We have seen, however, something which may throw a little light on the +prejudice against Birmingham jewelry. It is not conceivable that any one +should despise such an establishment as we have been describing. But, we +found ourselves, the other day, passing through a little dwelling where +the housewife, with a baby on her arm, and where more than half-a-dozen +children were housed; and then crossing a little yard, and mounting a +flight of substantial brick steps with a stout hand-rail, and entering +the most curious little work-room we ever were in. It would just hold +four or five people, without allowing them room to turn round more than +one at a time. In one corner, was a very small stove. A lattice-window +ran along the whole front, and made it pleasant, light, and airy. A +work-bench or counter was scalloped out, in the same way as in larger +establishments, so as to accommodate three workers in the smallest +possible space. The three workers had each his stool, his leathern pouch +on his knees, and his gas-pipe. A row of tools bristled along the whole +length of the lattice; and there was another row on a shelf behind. The +principal workman was the father of those many children below. One son +was at work at his elbow, and the remaining workman was an apprentice. +This working jeweller was as thorough a gentleman, according to our +notions, as anybody we have seen for a long time past. Tall, stout, and +handsome; collar white and stiff; apron white and sound; his whole dress +in good repair; his voice cheerful as his face; his manner open and +courteous; his information exactly what we wanted. We could not help +wishing that some rural grandee, who avows that he hates all +manufacturers, could see this fair specimen of an English +handicraftsman. As for his work, he told us he supplies the factors to +order. It would not answer for him to keep a stock. The factors would +not buy what he should offer, but dictate to him what he shall make. +Fashions change incessantly, and he has only to keep up with them as +well as he can. It is not for him to invent new patterns and get steel +dies made for them; but to get the same steel dies that other makers are +procuring. These dies are, of course, for the metallic part of his work. +The boxes of lockets and hair brooches (now vehemently in fashion), and +devices, and colored stones, he procures at "the French shops" in the +town; and he showed us some variety of these, ready for setting. Then +came out the "Brummagem" feature of the case; showing us how the gold +setting that he was preparing--perforating and filing--was to be backed +by a blue stone. He observed that it was not thought worth while to get +costly stones for a purpose like that; for blue glass would do as well. +I certainly thought so, considering that the stone was to be only the +back-ground of his work. Of the specimens I saw in that airy little +workshop, some were in excellent taste, and all, I believe, of good +workmanship. These small masters are as punctilious about employing only +regularly qualified workmen, as any members of any guild in the country. +Their journeymen must all have served an apprenticeship; not only +because they are thus best fitted for their business, but because the +value of apprenticeship is thus kept up; and these small capitalists +will not part with the advantage of having journeymen, under the name of +apprentices, completely under their command during the last two or three +years of their term. + +One of the most remarkable sights, to those who knew Birmingham a +quarter of a century ago, is such a manufacture as that of Messrs. +Parker and Acott's ever-pointed pencils. Those of us whose fathers were +in business in the days of the war, when the arts were not flourishing, +may remember the bulky pocket-book, with its leather strap (always +shabby after the first month), and its thick cedar pencil, which always +wanted cutting; always blackening whatever came near it; always getting +used up; the lead turning to dust at the most critical point of a +memorandum. There was a fine trade in cedar pencils at Keswick in those +days. It seemed a tale too romantic to be true, when we were told of +ever-pointed pencils. First, we, of course, refused to believe in their +existence;--what improvement have we not refused to believe in? Then, +when we found there was a screw in the case, and that the pencil was not +ever-pointed by a vital action of its own, we were sure we should not +like it. We grew humble, and were certain we could never learn to manage +it. And now, what have we not arrived at? We are so saucy as to look +beyond our improved pencils; beyond pen and ink; beyond our present +need of a cumbrous apparatus to carry about with us; ink that will spill +and spot; leads that will break and use up; pens, paper, syllables, +letters, pot-hooks, dots and crossings, and all the process of writing. +Perhaps the electric telegraph has spoiled us: enabling us to imagine +some process by which thoughts may record themselves; some brief and +complete method of making "mems," without the complicated process of +writing down hundreds of letters, and scores of syllables, to preserve +one single idea. All this, however, is as romantic now as ever-pointed +pencils seemed to be at first; and instead of dreaming of what is not +yet achieved, let us look at the reality before our eyes. + +Here is something wonderful enough, on our very entrance. Here is a +silver pencil-case, neat and serviceable, though not of the most elegant +form; handsome enough to have been praised for its looks, thirty years +ago. This pencil-case carries two feet of lead. It is intended to be the +commercial traveller's joy and treasure. It will last him his life, +unless he take an unconscionable amount of orders. Unscrewing the top, +we see that the upper end of the tube is divided into +compartments,--which look like the mouth of a revolver; and here, +protected from each other, the leads are bestowed, safe--despite their +great length, through their owner's roughest travelling. + +Some drawers in a counter are pulled out. One is divided into +compartments, each of which holds a handful of something different from +all the rest. This drawer contains one hundred gross of pencil-cases in +parts; the tube, the rack and barrel, the propelling wire, the slide, +the top, the various chambers, and screws, and niceties. In another +drawer, there is a dazzling and beautiful heap of pure amethysts and +topazes from far countries, of vast aggregate value: and, farther on, we +see the elegant onyx and white cornelian from South America (a very +recent importation), and the sardonyx, now in high favor for seals and +the tops of pencil-cases. Its delicate layer of white upon red, (or the +reverse,) the undermost color coming out in the engraving, makes it +singularly fit for the purpose. Then, there is a paperful of small +turquoises, which are poured out and handled like a sample of lentils. +These are from Persia; and they have to be re-cut in England, the +Persian tools being of the roughest. Then, there are bloodstones, and +pebbles out of number, and pints of glittering fragments of Californian +gold; rich materials tossed together, to be drawn out for use at the +bidding of capricious fashion; for, fashion seems to be as capricious +here, among these stones and ores that have required cycles of ages to +compose, as in the milliner's shop, where the materials are drawn from +the pods of a season and the insects of a summer. On shelves against the +walls, are ranged rows and piles of steel dies,--that pretty and costly +piece of apparatus, which we find in almost all these +manufactories--together with the inexhaustible stamping and cutting +machines, the blow-pipe, the borax, and soft metal for solder, the +pumice-stone and wirebed, the turning wheel, the circular saw, and the +bath of diluted aquafortis, and the pan of box-wood sawdust, in which +the pretty things are dried when they come out of "pickle." From buttons +to epergnes, we find this apparatus every where. The steel dies are an +everlasting study: the block, like the conical weight of a pair of +warehouse scales, seeming very large for the little figure indented in +the upper surface. Here, in this manufactory, the figures are of the +bugle, a favorite form of watch-key--the deer's foot, (a pretty study +for the same purpose,) and a large variety of patterns--the tulip, the +acanthus, and other foliage, flowers or fruit, climbing up the summit of +the pencil-case, as if it were a little Corinthian capital. + +And now for the process. The silver or gold comes from the rolling-mill, +and is passed in slips through a series of draw-plates, each smaller +than the last, and finally through the one which is to give it its +fluted or other pattern. Soldering at the joint, filing away the +roughness left by the solder, washing in an aquafortis bath come next. A +slit for the slide is then made; the rims and screws and slides are +added, and you have a pencil-case complete. We observed that a large +proportion of the tops are hexagonal, or of some angular form, to +prevent their rolling off the table. + +Some of the pencil-cases are so small, and some of the watch-keys are so +elaborate, that it requires a moment's consideration to decide which is +which; and again, ladies' crochet-needles, of gold, diversely +ornamented, are very like pencil-cases. Some of each kind are specked +over with turquoise or garnets; and all appear to be designed for +ornament, rather than for use. It is quite a relief to turn the eye upon +a shovelful of the yellow sawdust, where substantial pencil-cases, fit +for manly fingers, are drying. On the whole, perhaps, the most striking +feature is the prodigious extent of the production. We ask where all +these can possibly go; for a pencil-case is a thing which lasts half a +century, as the manufacturer himself observes. These do not go to +America; for, in such things, the Americans are our chief rivals. They +supply their own wants, and a good deal more. We send our pencil-cases +and trinkets over a good part of the world, however; and the caprice of +fashion causes a great adventitious demand at home. In reply to our +remark about this vast production, the manufacturer observes, "Yes, we +cut up gold and silver as the year comes in, and as the year goes out." +Something of a change, this, since the old days of cedar pencils! + +Here is a steel die with an elegant pyramidal pattern; the half of a +watch-key. We see the inch of metal stamped; and then another inch, for +the other half: and then the filing and snipping of the edges; and then +the laying in of the solder inside; and the binding together of the two +halves with wire; and the repose on the bed of wire on the pumice-stone, +to be broiled red-hot; and the neat cleaning when cool; the polishing, +and the leaving certain parts of the pattern dead, while others are +burnished; and the firing of the steel cylinder at the point, and the +turning of the rims. All this for a watch-key! But, we are shown +another, which does not look like anything very studied; and we are +told, and are at once convinced, that it consists of no less than +thirteen parts. Other keys, which look more fanciful, consist of ten, +eight, or seven. None are the simple affair that a novice would suppose, +now that we require the convenience of being able to wind up our watches +without twisting the chain or ribbon with every turn of the key. + +But we must leave these niceties; the little pistols, the deers feet, +the bugle-horns, and all the dainty fancies embodied in watch-keys and +knick-knacks. Here, as elsewhere, every atom is saved, of sweeping and +wash; and we now find ourselves, writer and readers, like the materials +of which we have been speaking, brought back, after all these various +processes, to the refinery from which we set out. + + + + +MY NOVEL: + +OR, VARIETIES IN ENGLISH LIFE.[21] + +BY PISISTRATUS CAXTON. + + +BOOK X.-INITIAL CHAPTER. + +It is observed by a very pleasant writer--read now-a-days only by the +brave pertinacious few who still struggle hard to rescue from the House +of Pluto the souls of departed authors, jostled and chased as those +souls are by the noisy footsteps of the living--it is observed by the +admirable Charron, that "judgment and wisdom is not only the best, but +the happiest portion God Almighty hath distributed amongst men; for +though this distribution be made with a very uneven hand, yet nobody +thinks himself stinted or ill-dealt with, but he that hath never so +little is contented in _this_ respect."[22] + +And, certainly, the present narrative may serve in notable illustration +of the remark so drily made by the witty and wise preacher. For whether +our friend Riccabocca deduce theories for daily life from the great +folio of Machiavel; or that promising young gentleman, Mr. Randal +Leslie, interpret the power of knowledge into the art of being too +knowing for dull honest folks to cope with him; or acute Dick Avenel +push his way up the social ascent with a blow for those before, and a +kick for those behind him, after the approved fashion of your strong New +Man; or Baron Levy--that cynical impersonation of Gold--compare himself +to the Magnetic Rock in the Arabian tale, to which the nails in every +ship that approaches the influence of the loadstone fly from the planks, +and a shipwreck per day adds its waifs to the Rock: questionless, at +least, it is, that each of those personages believed that Providence had +bestowed on him an elder son's inheritance of wisdom. Nor, were we to +glance towards the obscurer parts of life, should we find good Parson +Dale deem himself worse off than the rest of the world in this precious +commodity--as, indeed, he had signally evinced of late in that shrewd +guess of his touching Professor Moss;--even plain Squire Hazeldean took +it for granted that he could teach Audley Egerton a thing or two worth +knowing in politics; Mr. Stirn thought that there was no branch of +useful lore on which he could not instruct the squire; and Sprott, the +tinker, with his bag full of tracts and lucifer matches, regarded the +whole framework of modern society, from a rick to a constitution, with +the profound disdain of a revolutionary philosopher. Considering that +every individual thus brings into the stock of the world so vast a share +of intelligence, it cannot but excite our wonder to find that Oxenstiern +is popularly held to be right when he said, "See, my son, how little +wisdom it requires to govern states;"--that is, men! That so many +millions of persons, each with a profound assurance that he is possessed +of an exalted sagacity, should concur in the ascendency of a few +inferior intellects, according to a few, stupid, prosy, matter-of-fact +rules as old as the hills, is a phenomenon very discreditable to the +spirit and energy of the aggregate human species! It creates no surprise +that one sensible watch-dog should control the movements of a flock of +silly grass-eating sheep; but that two or three silly grass-eating sheep +should give the law to whole flocks of such mighty sensible +watch-dogs--_Diavolo!_ Dr. Riccabocca, explain _that_, if you can! And +wonderfully strange it is, that notwithstanding all the march of +enlightenment, notwithstanding our progressive discoveries in the laws +of nature--our railways, steam-engines, animal magnetism, and +electro-biology--we have never made any improvement that is generally +acknowledged, since men ceased to be troglodytes and nomads, in the +old-fashioned gamut of flats and sharps, which attunes into irregular +social jog-trot all the generations that pass from the cradle to the +grave;--still, "_the desire for something we have not_" impels all the +energies that keep us in movement, for good or for ill, according to the +checks or the directions of each favorite desire. + +A friend of mine once said to a _millionaire_, whom he saw for ever +engaged in making money which he never seemed to have any pleasure in +spending, "Pray, Mr.----, will you answer me one question: You are said +to have two millions, and you spend L600 a-year. In order to rest and +enjoy, what will content you?" + +"A little more," answered the _millionaire_. + +That "little more" is the mainspring of civilization. Nobody ever gets +it! + +"Philus," saith a Latin writer, "was not so rich as Laelius; Laelius was +not so rich as Scipio; Scipio was not so rich as Crassus: and Crassus +was not so rich--as he wished to be!" If John Bull were once contented, +Manchester might shut up its mills. It is the "little more" that makes a +mere trifle of the National Debt!--Long life to it! + +Still, mend our law-books as we will, one is forced to confess that +knaves are often seen in fine linen, and honest men in the most shabby +old rags; and still, notwithstanding the exceptions, knavery is a very +hazardous game; and honesty, on the whole, by far the best policy. +Still, most of the Ten Commandments remain at the core of all the +Pandects and Institutes that keep our hands off our neighbors' throats, +wives, and pockets; still, every year shows that the parson's +maxim--_quieta non movere_--is as prudent for the health of communities +as when Apollo recommended his votaries not to rake up a fever by +stirring the Lake Camarina; still people, thank Heaven, decline to +reside in parallelograms; and the surest token that we live under a free +government is, when we are governed by persons whom we have a full right +to imply, by our censure and ridicule, are blockheads compared to +ourselves! Stop that delightful privilege, and, by Jove! sir, there is +neither pleasure nor honor in being governed at all! You might as well +be--a Frenchman! + + +CHAPTER II. + +The Italian and his friend are closeted together. + +"And why have you left your home in ----shire? And why this new change +of name?" + +"Peschiera is in England." + +"I know it." + +"And bent on discovering me; and, it is said, of stealing from me my +child." + +"He has the assurance to lay wagers that he will win the hand of your +heiress. I know that too; and therefore I have come to England--first to +baffle his design--for I do not think your fears are exaggerated--and +next to learn from you how to follow up a clue which, unless I am too +sanguine, may lead to his ruin, and your unconditional restoration. +Listen to me. You are aware that, after the skirmish with Peschiera's +armed hirelings sent in search of you, I received a polite message from +the Austrian government, requesting me to leave its Italian domains. +Now, as I hold it the obvious duty of any foreigner, admitted to the +hospitality of a state, to refrain from all participation in its civil +disturbances, so I thought my honor assailed at this intimation, and +went at once to Vienna to explain to the Minister there (to whom I was +personally known), that though I had, as became man to man, aided to +protect a refugee, who had taken shelter under my roof, from the +infuriated soldiers at the command of his private foe, I had not only +not shared in any attempt at revolt, but dissuaded, as far as I could, +my Italian friends from their enterprise; and that because, without +discussing its merits, I believed, as a military man and a cool +spectator, the enterprise could only terminate in fruitless bloodshed. I +was enabled to establish my explanation by satisfactory proof; and my +acquaintance with the Minister assumed something of the character of +friendship. I was then in a position to advocate your cause, and to +state your original reluctance to enter into the plots of the +insurgents. I admitted freely that you had such natural desire for the +independence of your native land, that, had the standard of Italy been +boldly hoisted by its legitimate chiefs, or at the common uprising of +its whole people, you would have been found in the van, amidst the ranks +of your countrymen; but I maintained that you would never have shared in +a conspiracy frantic in itself, and defiled by the lawless schemes and +sordid ambition of its main projectors, had you not been betrayed and +decoyed into it by the misrepresentations and domestic treachery of your +kinsman--the very man who denounced you. Unfortunately, of this +statement I had no proof but your own word. I made, however, so far an +impression in your favor, and, it may be, against the traitor, that your +property was not confiscated to the State, nor handed over, upon the +plea of your civil death, to your kinsman." + +"How, I do not understand. Peschiera has the property?" + +"He holds the revenues but of one half upon pleasure, and they would be +withdrawn, could I succeed in establishing the case that exists against +him. I was forbidden before to mention this to you; the Minister, not +inexcusably, submitted you to the probation of unconditional exile. Your +grace might depend upon your own forbearance from farther +conspiracies--forgive the word. I need not say I was permitted to return +to Lombardy. I found, on my arrival, that--that your unhappy wife had +been to my house, and exhibited great despair at hearing of my +departure." + +Riccabocca knit his dark brows, and breathed hard. + +"I did not judge it necessary to acquaint you with this circumstance, +nor did it much affect me. I believed in her guilt--and what could now +avail her remorse, if remorse she felt? Shortly afterwards I heard that +she was no more." + +"Yes," muttered Riccabocca, "she died in the same year that I left +Italy. It must be a strong reason that can excuse a friend for reminding +me even that she once lived!" + +"I come at once to that reason," said L'Estrange gently. "This autumn I +was roaming through Switzerland, and, in one of my pedestrian excursions +amidst the mountains, I met with an accident, which confined me for some +days to a sofa at a little inn in an obscure village. My hostess was an +Italian; and as I had left my servant at a town at some distance, I +required her attention till I could write to him to come to me. I was +thankful for her cares, and amused by her Italian babble. We became very +good friends. She told me she had been servant to a lady of great rank, +who had died in Switzerland; and that, being enriched by the generosity +of her mistress, she had married a Swiss innkeeper, and his people had +become hers. My servant arrived, and my hostess learned my name, which +she did not know before. She came into my room greatly agitated. In +brief, this woman had been servant to your wife. She had accompanied her +to my villa, and known of her anxiety to see me, as your friend. The +government had assigned to your wife your palace at Milan, with a +competent income. She had refused to accept of either. Failing to see +me, she had set off towards England, resolved upon seeing yourself; for +the journals had stated that to England you had escaped." + +"She dared!--shameless! And see, but a moment before, I had forgotten +all but her grave in a foreign soil--and these tears had forgiven her," +murmured the Italian. + +"Let them forgive her still," said Harley, with all his exquisite +sweetness of look and tone. "I resume. On entering Switzerland, your +wife's health, which you know was always delicate, gave way. To fatigue +and anxiety succeeded fever, and delirium ensued. She had taken with her +but this one female attendant--the sole one she could trust--on leaving +home. She suspected Peschiera to have bribed her household. In the +presence of this woman she raved of her innocence--in accents of terror +and aversion, denounced your kinsman--and called on you to vindicate her +name and your own." + +"Ravings indeed! Poor Paulina!" groaned Riccabocca, covering his face +with both hands. + +"But in her delirium there were lucid intervals. In one of these she +rose, in spite of all her servant could do to restrain her, took from +her desk several letters, and reading them over, exclaimed piteously, +'But how to get them to him?--whom to trust? And his friend is gone!' +Then an idea seemed suddenly to flash upon her, for she uttered a joyous +exclamation, sat down, and wrote long and rapidly; inclosed what she +wrote, with all the letters, in one packet, which she sealed carefully, +and bade her servant carry to the post, with many injunctions to take it +with her own hand, and pay the charge on it. 'For, oh!' said she (I +repeat the words as my informant told them to me)--'for, oh, this is my +sole chance to prove to my husband that, though I have erred, I am not +the guilty thing he believes me; the sole chance, too, to redeem my +error, and restore, perhaps, to my husband his country, to my child her +heritage.' The servant took the letter to the post; and when she +returned, her lady was asleep, with a smile upon her face. But from that +sleep she woke again delirious, and before the next morning her soul had +fled." Here Riccabocca lifted one hand from his face, and grasped +Harley's arm, as if mutely beseeching him to pause. The heart of the man +struggled hard with his pride and his philosophy; and it was long before +Harley could lead him to regard the worldly prospects which this last +communication from his wife might open to his ruined fortunes. Not, +indeed, till Riccabocca had persuaded himself, and half persuaded +Harley, (for strong, indeed, was all presumption of guilt against the +dead,) that his wife's protestations of innocence from all but error had +been but ravings. + +"Be this as it may," said Harley, "there seems every reason to suppose +that the letters inclosed were Peschiera's correspondence, and that, if +so, these would establish the proof of his influence over your wife, and +of his perfidious machinations against yourself. I resolved, before +coming hither, to go round by Vienna. There I heard with dismay that +Peschiera had not only obtained the imperial sanction to demand your +daughter's hand, but had boasted to his profligate circle that he should +succeed; and he was actually on his road to England. I saw at once that +could this design, by any fraud or artifice, be successful with +Violante, (for of your consent, I need not say, I did not dream,) the +discovery of this packet, whatever its contents, would be useless: his +end would be secured. I saw also that his success would suffice for ever +to clear his name; for his success must imply your consent, (it would be +to disgrace your daughter, to assert that she had married without it,) +and your consent would be his acquittal. I saw, too, with alarm, that to +all means for the accomplishment of his project he would be urged by +despair; for his debts are great, and his character nothing but new +wealth can support. I knew that he was able, bold, determined, and that +he had taken with him a large supply of money, borrowed upon usury;--in +a word, I trembled for you both. I have now seen your daughter, and I +tremble no more. Accomplished seducer as Peschiera boasts himself, the +first look upon her face, so sweet yet so noble, convinced me that she +is proof against a legion of Peschieras. Now, then, return we to this +all-important subject--to this packet. It never reached you. Long years +have passed since then. Does it exist still? Into whose hands would it +have fallen? Try to summon up all your recollections. The servant could +not remember the name of the person to whom it was addressed; she only +insisted that the name began with a B, that it was directed to England, +and that to England she accordingly paid the postage. Whom, then, with a +name that begins with B, or (in case the servant's memory here misled +her) whom did you or your wife know, during your visit to England, with +sufficient intimacy to make it probable that she would select such a +person for her confidant?" + +"I cannot conceive," said Riccabocca, shaking his head. "We came to +England shortly after our marriage. Paulina was affected by the climate. +She spoke not a word of English, and indeed not even French as might +have been expected from her birth, for her father was poor, and +thoroughly Italian. She refused all society. I went, it is true, +somewhat into the London world--enough to induce me to shrink from the +contrast that my second visit as a beggared refugee would have made to +the reception I met with on my first--but I formed no intimate +friendships. I recall no one whom she could have written to as intimate +with me." + +"But," persisted Harley, "think again. Was there no lady well acquainted +with Italian, and with whom, perhaps, for that very reason, your wife +became familiar?" + +"Ah, it is true. There was one old lady of retired habits, but who had +been much in Italy. Lady--Lady--I remember--Lady Jane Horton." + +"Horton--Lady Jane!" exclaimed Harley; "again! thrice in one day--is +this wound never to scar over?" Then, noting Riccabocca's look of +surprise, he said, "Excuse me, my friend; I listen to you with renewed +interest. Lady Jane was a distant relation of my own; she judged me, +perhaps harshly--and I have some painful associations with her name; but +she was a woman of many virtues. Your wife knew her?" + +"Not, however, intimately--still, better than any one else in London. +But Paulina would not have written to her; she knew that Lady Jane had +died shortly after her own departure from England. I myself was summoned +back to Italy on pressing business; she was too unwell to journey with +me as rapidly as I was obliged to travel; indeed, illness detained her +several weeks in England. In this interval she might have made +acquaintances. Ah, now I see; I guess. You say the name began with B. +Paulina, in my absence, engaged a companion; it was at my suggestion--a +Mrs. Bertram. This lady accompanied her abroad. Paulina became +excessively attached to her, she knew Italian so well. Mrs. Bertram left +her on the road, and returned to England, for some private affairs of +her own. I forget why or wherefore; if, indeed, I ever asked or learned. +Paulina missed her sadly, often talked of her, wondered why she never +heard from her. No doubt it was to this Mrs. Bertram that she wrote!" + +"And you don't know the lady's friends or address?" + +"No." + +"Nor who recommended her to your wife?" + +"No." + +"Probably Lady Jane Horton?" + +"It may be so. Very likely." + +"I will follow up this track, slight as it is." + +"But if Mrs. Bertram received the communication, how comes it that it +never reached--O, fool that I am, how should it! I, who guarded so +carefully my incognito!" + +"True. This your wife could not foresee; she would naturally imagine +that your residence in England would be easily discovered. But many +years must have passed since your wife lost sight of this Mrs. Bertram, +if their acquaintance was made so soon after your marriage; and now it +is a long time to retrace--long before even your Violante was born." + +"Alas! yes. I lost two fair sons in the interval. Violante was born to +me as the child of sorrow." + +"And to make sorrow lovely! how beautiful she is!" + +The father smiled proudly. + +"Where, in the loftiest house of Europe, find a husband worthy of such a +prize?" + +"You forget that I am still an exile--she still dowerless. You forget +that I am pursued by Peschiera; that I would rather see her a beggar's +wife--than--Pah, the very thought maddens me, it is so foul. _Corpo di +Bacco!_ I have been glad to find her a husband already." + +"Already! Then that young man spoke truly?" + +"What young man?" + +"Randal Leslie. How! You know him?" Here a brief explanation followed. +Harley heard with attentive ear, and marked vexation, the particulars of +Riccabocca's connection and implied engagement with Leslie. + +"There is something very suspicious to me in all this," said he. "Why +should this young man have so sounded me as to Violante's chance of +losing fortune if she married an Englishman?" + +"Did he? O, pooh! excuse him. It was but his natural wish to seem +ignorant of all about me. He did not know enough of my intimacy with you +to betray my secret." + +"But he knew enough of it--must have known enough to have made it right +that he should tell you I was in England. He does not seem to have done +so." + +"No--_that_ is strange; yet scarcely strange--for, when we last met, his +head was full of other things--love and marriage. _Basta!_ youth will +be youth." + +"He has no youth left in him!" exclaimed Harley, passionately. "I doubt +if he ever had any. He is one of those men who come into the world with +the pulse of a centenarian. You and I never shall be as old--as he was +in long-clothes. Ah, you may laugh; but I am never wrong in my +instincts. I disliked him at the first--his eye, his smile, his voice, +his very footstep. It is madness in you to countenance such a marriage; +it may destroy all chance of your restoration." + +"Better that than infringe my word once passed." + +"No, no," exclaimed Harley; "your word is not passed--it shall not be +passed. Nay, never look so piteously at me. At all events, pause till we +know more of this young man. If he be worthy of her without a dower, +why, then, let him lose you your heritage. I should have no more to +say." + +"But why lose me my heritage?" + +"Do you think the Austrian government would suffer your estates to pass +to this English jackanapes, a clerk in a public office? O, sage in +theory, why are you such a simpleton in action?" + +Nothing moved by this taunt, Riccabocca rubbed his hands, and then +stretched them comfortably over the fire. + +"My friend," said he, "the heritage would pass to my son--a dowry only +goes to the daughter." + +"But you have no son." + +"Hush! I am going to have one; my Jemima informed me of it yesterday +morning; and it was upon that information that I resolved to speak to +Leslie. Am I a simpleton now?" + +"Going to have a son," repeated Harley, looking very bewildered; "how do +you know it is to be a son?" + +"Physiologists are agreed," said the sage positively, "that where the +husband is much older than the wife, and there has been a long interval +without children before she condescends to increase the population of +the world--she (that is, it is at least as nine to four)--she brings +into the world a male. I consider that point, therefore, as settled, +according to the calculations of statistics and the researches of +naturalists." + +Harley could not help laughing, though he was still angry and disturbed. + +"The same man as ever; always the fool of philosophy." + +"_Cospetto!_" said Riccabocca, "I am rather the philosopher of fools. +And talking of that, shall I present you to my Jemima?" + +"Yes; but in turn I must present you to one who remembers with gratitude +your kindness, and whom your philosophy, for a wonder, has not ruined. +Some time or other you must explain that to me. Excuse me for a moment; +I will go for him." + +"For him;--for whom? In my position I must be cautious; and--" + +"I will answer for his faith and discretion. Meanwhile, order dinner, +and let me and my friend stay to share it." + +"Dinner? _Corpo di Bacco!_--not that Bacchus can help us here. What will +Jemima say?" + +"Henpecked man, settle that with your connubial tyrant. But dinner it +must be." + +I leave the reader to imagine the delight of Leonard at seeing once more +Riccabocca unchanged, and Violante so improved; and the kind Jemima, +too. And their wonder at him and his history, his books and his fame. He +narrated his struggles and adventures with a simplicity that removed +from a story so personal the character of egotism. But when he came to +speak of Helen, he was brief and reserved. + +Violante would have questioned more closely; but, to Leonard's relief, +Harley interposed. + +"You shall see her whom he speaks of, before long, and question her +yourself." + +With these words, Harley turned the young man's narrative into new +directions; and Leonard's words again flowed freely. Thus the evening +passed away, happily to all save Riccabocca. But the thought of his dead +wife rose ever and anon before him; and yet when it did, and became too +painful, he crept nearer to Jemima, and looked in her simple face, and +pressed her cordial hand. And yet the monster had implied to Harley that +his comforter was a fool--so she was, to love so contemptible a +slanderer of herself, and her sex. + +Violante was in a state of blissful excitement; she could not analyze +her own joy. But her conversation was chiefly with Leonard; and the most +silent of all was Harley. He sat listening to Leonard's warm, yet +unpretending eloquence--that eloquence which flows so naturally from +genius, when thoroughly at its ease, and not chilled back on itself by +hard, unsympathizing hearers--listened, yet more charmed, to the +sentiments less profound, yet no less earnest--sentiments so feminine, +yet so noble, with which Violante's fresh virgin heart responded to the +poet's kindling soul. Those sentiments of hers were so unlike all he +heard in the common world--so akin to himself in his gone youth! +Occasionally--at some high thought of her own, or some lofty line from +Italian song, that she cited with lighted eyes and in melodious +accents--occasionally he reared his knightly head, and his lips +quivered, as if he had heard the sound of a trumpet. The inertness of +long years was shaken. The Heroic, that lay deep beneath all the humors +of his temperament, was reached, appealed to; and stirred within him, +rousing up all the bright associations connected with it, and long +dormant. When he rose to take leave, surprised at the lateness of the +hour, Harley said, in a tone that bespoke the sincerity of the +compliment, "I thank you for the happiest hours I have known for +years." His eye dwelt on Violante as he spoke. But timidity returned to +her with his words--at his look; and it was no longer the inspired muse, +but the bashful girl that stood before him. + +"And when shall I see you again?" asked Riccabocca disconsolately, +following his guest to the door. + +"When? Why, of course, to-morrow. Adieu! my friend. No wonder you have +borne your exile so patiently,--with such a child!" + +He took Leonard's arm, and walked with him to the inn where he had left +his horse. Leonard spoke of Violante with enthusiasm. Harley was silent. + + +CHAPTER III. + +The next day a somewhat old-fashioned, but exceedingly patrician, +equipage stopped at Riccabocca's garden-gate. Giacomo, who, from a +bedroom window, had caught sight of it winding towards the house, was +seized with undefinable terror when he beheld it pause before their +walls and heard the shrill summons at the portal. He rushed into his +master's presence, and implored him not to stir--not to allow any one to +give ingress to the enemies the machine might disgorge. "I have heard," +said he, "how a town in Italy--I think it was Bologna--was once taken +and given to the sword, by incautiously admitting a wooden horse, full +of the troops of Barbarossa, and all manner of bombs and Congreve +rockets." + +"The story is differently told in Virgil," quoth Riccabocca, peeping out +of the window. "Nevertheless, the machine looks very large and +suspicious; unloose Pompey." + +"Father," said Violante, coloring, "it is your friend, Lord L'Estrange; +I hear his voice." + +"Are you sure?" + +"Quite. How can I be mistaken?" + +"Go, then, Giacomo; but take Pompey with thee--and give the alarm if we +are deceived." + +But Violante was right; and in a few moments Lord L'Estrange was seen +walking up the garden, and giving the arm to two ladies. + +"Ah," said Riccabocca, composing his dressing-robe round him, "go, my +child, and summon Jemima. Man to man; but, for Heaven's sake, woman to +woman." + +Harley had brought his mother and Helen, in compliment to the ladies of +his friend's household. + +The proud Countess knew that she was in the presence of Adversity, and +her salute to Riccabocca was only less respectful than that with which +she would have rendered homage to her sovereign. But Riccabocca, always +gallant to the sex that he pretended to despise, was not to be outdone +in ceremony; and the bow which replied to the curtsey would have edified +the rising generation, and delighted such surviving relicts of the old +Court breeding as may linger yet amidst the gloomy pomp of the Faubourg +St. Germain. These dues paid to etiquette, the Countess briefly +introduced Helen, as Miss Digby, and seated herself near the exile. In a +few moments the two elder personages became quite at home with each +other; and really, perhaps, Riccabocca had never, since we have known +him, showed to such advantage as by the side of his polished, but +somewhat formal visitor. Both had lived so little with our modern, +ill-bred age! They took out their manners of a former race with a sort +of pride in airing once more such fine lace and superb brocade. +Riccabocca gave truce to the shrewd but homely wisdom of his +proverbs--perhaps he remembered that Lord Chesterfield denounces +proverbs as vulgar;--and gaunt though his figure, and far from elegant +though his dressing-robe, there was that about him which spoke +undeniably of the _grand seigneur_--of one to whom a Marquis de Dangeau +would have offered a _fauteuil_ by the side of the Rohans and +Montmorencies. + +Meanwhile, Helen and Harley seated themselves a little apart, and were +both silent--the first from timidity; the second, from abstraction. At +length the door opened, and Harley suddenly sprang to his feet--Violante +and Jemima entered. Lady Lansmere's eyes first rested on the daughter, +and she could scarcely refrain from an exclamation of admiring surprise; +but then, when she caught sight of Mrs. Riccabocca's somewhat humble, +yet not obsequious mien--looking a little shy, a little homely, yet +still thoroughly a gentlewoman, (though of your plain rural kind of that +genus)--she turned from the daughter, and with the _savoir vivre_ of the +fine old school, paid her first respects to the wife; respects +literally, for her manner implied respect,--but it was more kind, +simple, and cordial than the respect she had shown to Riccabocca;--as +the sage himself had said, here "it was Woman to Woman." And then she +took Violante's hand in both hers, and gazed on her as if she could not +resist the pleasure of contemplating so much beauty. "My son," she said +softly, and with a half sigh--"my son in vain told me not to be +surprised. This is the first time I have ever known reality exceed +description!" + +Violante's blush here made her still more beautiful; and as the Countess +returned to Riccabocca, she stole gently to Helen's side. + +"Miss Digby, my ward," said Harley pointedly, observing that his mother +had neglected her duty of presenting Helen to the ladies. He then +reseated himself, and conversed with Mrs. Riccabocca; but his bright +quick eye glanced ever at the two girls. They were about the same +age--and youth was all that, to the superficial eye, they seemed to have +in common. A greater contrast could not well be conceived; and, what is +strange, both gained by it. Violante's brilliant lovelieness seemed yet +more dazzling, and Helen's fair gentle face yet more winning. Neither +had mixed much with girls of her own age; each took to the other at +first sight. Violante, as the less shy, began the conversation. + +"You are his ward--Lord L'Estrange's?" + +"Yes." + +"Perhaps you came with him from Italy?" + +"No, not exactly. But I have been in Italy for some years." + +"Ah! you regret--nay, I am foolish--you return to your native land. But +the skies in Italy are so blue--here it seems as if nature wanted +colors." + +"Lord L'Estrange says that you were very young when you left Italy; you +remember it well. He, too, prefers Italy to England." + +"He! Impossible!" + +"Why impossible, fair skeptic?" cried Harley, interrupting himself in +the midst of a speech to Jemima. + +Violante had not dreamed that she could be overheard--she was speaking +low; but, though visibly embarrassed, she answered distinctly-- + +"Because in England there is the noblest career for noble minds." + +Harley was startled, and replied with a slight sigh, "At your age I +should have said as you do. But this England of ours is so crowded with +noble minds, that they only jostle each other, and the career is one +cloud of dust." + +"So, I have read, seems a battle to the common soldier, but not to the +chief." + +"You have read good descriptions of battles, I see." + +Mrs. Riccabocca, who thought this remark a taunt upon her +daughter-in-law's studies, hastened to Violante's relief. + +"Her papa made her read the history of Italy, and I believe that is full +of battles." + +_Harley._--"All history is, and all women are fond of war and of +warriors. I wonder why." + +_Violante_, (turning to Helen, and in a very low voice, resolved that +Harley should not hear this time.)--"We can guess why--can we not?" + +_Harley_, (hearing every word, as if it had been spoken in St. Paul's +Whispering Gallery.)--"If you can guess, Helen, pray tell me." + +_Helen_, (shaking her pretty head, and answering with a livelier smile +than usual.)--"But I am not fond of war and warriors." + +_Harley_ to Violante.--"Then I must appeal at once to you, +self-convicted Bellona that you are. Is it from the cruelty natural to +the female disposition?" + +_Violante_, (with a sweet musical laugh.)--"From two propensities still +more natural to it." + +_Harley._--"You puzzle me: what can they be?" + +_Violante._--"Pity and admiration; we pity the weak, and admire the +brave." + +Harley inclined his head, and was silent. + +Lady Lansmere had suspended her conversation with Riccabocca to listen +to this dialogue. "Charming!" she cried. "You have explained what has +often perplexed me. Ah, Harley, I am glad to see that your satire is +foiled: you have no reply to that." + +"No; I willingly own myself defeated--too glad to claim the Signorina's +pity, since my cavalry sword hangs on the wall, and I can have no longer +a professional pretence to her admiration." + +He then rose, and glanced towards the window. "But I see a more +formidable disputant for my conqueror to encounter is coming into the +field--one whose profession it is to substitute some other romance for +that of camp and siege." + +"Our friend Leonard," said Riccabocca, turning his eye also towards the +widow. "True; as Quevedo says wittily, 'Ever since there has been so +great a demand for type, there has been much less lead to spare for +cannon-balls.'" + +Here Leonard entered. Harley had sent Lady Lansmere's footman to him +with a note, that prepared him to meet Helen. As he came into the room, +Harley took him by the hand, and led him to Lady Lansmere. + +"The friend of whom I spoke. Welcome him now for my sake, ever after for +his own;" and then, scarcely allowing time for the Countess's elegant +and gracious response, he drew Leonard towards Helen. "Children," said +he, with a touching voice, that thrilled through the hearts of both, "go +and seat yourselves yonder, and talk together of the past. Signorina, I +invite you to renewed discussion upon the abstruse metaphysical subject +you have started; let us see if we cannot find gentler sources for pity +and admiration than war and warriors." He took Violante aside to the +window. "You remember that Leonard, in telling you his history last +night, spoke, you thought, rather too briefly of the little girl who had +been his companion in the rudest time of his trials. When you would have +questioned more, I interrupted you, and said, 'You should see her +shortly, and question her yourself.' And now what think you of Helen +Digby? Hush, speak low. But her ears are not so sharp as mine." + +_Violante_--"Ah! that is the fair creature whom Leonard called his +child-angel? What a lovely innocent face!--the angel is there still." + +_Harley_, (pleased both at the praise and with her who gave it.)--"You +think so, and you are right. Helen is not communicative. But fine +natures are like fine poems--a glance at the first two lines suffices +for a guess into the beauty that waits you, if you read on." + +Violante gazed on Leonard and Helen as they sat apart. Leonard was the +speaker, Helen the listener; and though the former had, in his narrative +the night before, been indeed brief as to the episode in his life +connected with the orphan, enough had been said to interest Violante in +the pathos of their former position towards each other, and in the +happiness they must feel in their meeting again--separated for years on +the wide sea of life, now both saved from the storm and shipwreck. The +tears came into her eyes. "True," she said very softly, "there is more +here to move pity and admiration than in"--She paused. + +_Harley._--"Complete the sentence. Are you ashamed to retract? Fie on +your pride and obstinacy." + +_Violante._--"No; but even here there have been war and heroism--the war +of genius with adversity, and heroism in the comforter who shared it and +consoled. Ah! wherever pity and admiration are both felt, something +nobler than mere sorrow must have gone before: the heroic must exist." + +"Helen does not know what the word heroic means," said Harley, rather +sadly; "you must teach her." + +Is it possible, thought he as he spoke, that a Randal Leslie could have +charmed this grand creature? No "Heroic" surely, in that sleek young +placeman. "Your father," he said aloud, and fixing his eyes on her face, +"sees much, he tells me, of a young man, about Leonard's age, as to +date; but I never estimate the age of men by the parish register; and I +should speak of that so-called young man as a contemporary of my +great-grandfather; I mean Mr. Randal Leslie. Do you like him?" + +"Like him?" said Violante slowly, and as if sounding her own mind. "Like +him--yes." + +"Why?" asked Harley, with dry and curt indignation. + +"His visits seem to please my dear father. Certainly, I like him." + +"Hum. He professes to like you, I suppose?" + +Violante laughed, unsuspiciously. She had half a mind to reply, "Is that +so strange!" But her respect for Harley stopped her. The words would +have seemed to her pert. + +"I am told he is clever," resumed Harley. + +"O, certainly." + +"And he is rather handsome. But I like Leonard's face better." + +"Better--that is not the word. Leonard's face is as that of one who has +gazed so often upon heaven; and Mr. Leslie's--there is neither sunlight +nor starlight reflected there." + +"My dear Violante!" exclaimed Harley, overjoyed; and he pressed her +hand. + +The blood rushed over the girl's cheek and brow; her hand trembled in +his. But Harley's familiar exclamation might have come from a father's +lips. + +At this moment, Helen softly approached them, and looking timidly into +her guardian's face, said, "Leonard's mother is with him: he asks me to +call and see her. May I?" + +"May you! A pretty notion the Signorina must form of your enslaved state +of pupilage, when she hears you ask that question. Of course you may." + +"Will you take me there?" + +Harley looked embarrassed. He thought of the widow's agitation at his +name; of that desire to shun him, which Leonard had confessed, and of +which he thought he divined the cause. And, so divining, he too shrank +from such a meeting. + +"Another time, then," said he, after a pause. + +Helen looked disappointed, but said no more. + +Violante was surprised at this ungracious answer. She would have blamed +it as unfeeling in another. But all that Harley did was right in her +eyes. + +"Cannot I go with Miss Digby?" said she, "and my mother will go too. We +both know Mrs. Fairfield. We shall be so pleased to see her again." + +"So be it," said Harley; "I will wait here with your father till you +come back. Oh, as to my mother, she will excuse the--excuse Madame +Riccabocca, and you too. See how charmed she is with _your_ father. I +must stay to watch over the conjugal interests of _mine_." + +But Mrs. Riccabocca had too much good old country breeding to leave the +Countess; and Harley was forced himself to appeal to Lady Lansmere. When +he had explained the case in point, the Countess rose and said-- + +"But I will call myself, with Miss Digby." + +"No," said Harley, gravely, but in a whisper. "No--I would rather not. I +will explain later." + +"Then," said the Countess aloud, after a glance of surprise at her son, +"I must insist on your performing this visit, my dear Madam, and you, +Signorina. In truth, I have something to say confidentially to--" + +"To me," interrupted Riccabocca. "Ah, Madame la Comtesse, you restore me +to five-and-twenty. Go, quick--O jealous and injured wife; go, both of +you, quick; and you, too, Harley." + +"Nay," said Lady Lansmere, in the same tone, "Harley must stay, for my +design is not at present upon destroying your matrimonial happiness, +whatever it may be later. It is a design so innocent that my son will be +a partner in it." + +Here the Countess put her lips to Harley's ear, and whispered. He +received her communication in attentive silence; but when she had done, +pressed her hand, and bowed his head, as if an assent to a proposal. + +In a few minutes, the three ladies and Leonard were on their road to the +neighboring cottage. + +Violante, with her usual delicate intuition, thought that Leonard and +Helen must have much to say to each other; and ignorant, as Leonard +himself was, of Helen's engagement to Harley, began already, in the +romance natural to her age, to predict for them happy and united days in +the future. So she took her step-mother's arm, and left Helen and +Leonard to follow. + +"I wonder," she said, musingly, "how Miss Digby became Lord L'Estrange's +ward, I hope she is not very rich, nor very high-born." + +"La, my love," said the good Jemima, "that is not like you; you are not +envious of her, poor girl?" + +"Envious! Dear mamma, what a word! But don't you think Leonard and Miss +Digby seem born for each other? And then the recollections of their +childhood--the thoughts of childhood are so deep, and its memories so +strangely soft!" The long lashes drooped over Violante's musing eyes as +she spoke. "And therefore," she said after a pause "therefore I hoped +that Miss Digby might not be very rich, nor very high-born." + +"I understand you now, Violante," exclaimed Jemima, her own early +passion for match-making instantly returning to her; "for as Leonard, +however clever and distinguished, is still the son of Mark Fairfield the +carpenter, it would spoil all if Miss Digby was, as you say, rich and +high-born. I agree with you--a very pretty match--a very pretty match, +indeed. I wish dear Mrs. Dale were here now she is so clever in settling +such matters." + +Meanwhile Leonard and Helen walked side by side a few paces in the rear. +He had not offered her his arm. They had been silent hitherto since they +left Riccabocca's house. + +Helen now spoke first. In similar cases it is generally the woman, be +she ever so timid, who does speak first. And here Helen was the bolder: +for Leonard did not disguise from himself the nature of his feelings, +and Helen was engaged to another; and her pure heart was fortified by +the trust reposed in it. + +"And have you ever heard more of the good Dr. Morgan, who had powders +against sorrow, and who meant to be so kind to us--though," she added, +coloring, "we did not think so then?" + +"He took my child-angel from me," said Leonard, with visible emotion; +"and if she had not returned, where and what should I be now? But I have +forgiven him. No, I have never met him since." + +"And that terrible Mr. Burley?" + +"Poor, poor Burley! He, too, is vanished out of my present life. I have +made many inquiries after him; all I can hear is that he went abroad, +supposed as a correspondent to some journal. I should like so much to +see him again, now that perhaps I could help him as he helped me." + +"_Helped_ you--ah!" + +Leonard smiled with a beating heart, as he saw again the dear, prudent, +warning look, and involuntarily drew closer to Helen. She seemed more +restored to him and to her former self. + +"Helped me much by his instructions; more, perhaps, by his very faults. +You cannot guess, Helen--I beg pardon, Miss Digby--but I forgot that we +are no longer children: you cannot guess how much we men, and, more than +all perhaps, we writers, whose task it is to unravel the web of human +actions, owe even to our own past errors; and if we learn nothing by the +errors of others, we should be dull indeed. We must know where the roads +divide, and have marked where they lead to, before we can erect our +sign-posts; and books are the sign-posts in human life." + +"Books!--And I have not yet read yours. And Lord L'Estrange tells me you +are famous now. Yet you remember me still--the poor orphan child, whom +you first saw weeping at her father's grave, and with whom you burdened +your own young life, over-burdened already. No, still call me Helen--you +must always be to me--a brother! Lord L'Estrange feels _that_; he said +so to me when he told me that we were to meet again. He is so generous, +so noble. Brother!" cried Helen, suddenly, and extending her hand, with +a sweet but sublime look in her gentle face--"brother, we will never +forfeit his esteem; we will both do our best to repay him? Will we +not--say so?" + +Leonard felt overpowered by contending and unanalyzed emotions. Touched +almost to tears by the affectionate address--thrilled by the hand that +pressed his own--and yet with a vague fear, a consciousness that +something more than the words themselves was implied--something that +checked all hope. And this word "brother," once so precious and so dear, +why did he shrink from it now?--why could he not too say the sweet word +"sister?" + +"She is above me now and evermore," he thought, mournfully; and the +tones of his voice, when he spoke again, were changed. The appeal to +renewed intimacy but made him more distant; and to that appeal itself he +made no direct answer; for Mrs. Riccabocca, now turning round, and +pointing to the cottage which came in view, with its picturesque gable +ends, cried out-- + +"But is that your house, Leonard? I never saw any thing so pretty." + +"You do not remember it then," said Leonard to Helen, in accents of +melancholy reproach "there where I saw you last! I doubted whether to +keep it exactly as it was, and I said, No! the association is not +changed because we try to surround it with whatever beauty we can +create: the dearer the association, the more the Beautiful becomes to it +natural.' Perhaps you don't understand this--perhaps it is only we poor +poets who do." + +"I understand it," said Helen, gently. She looked wistfully at the +cottage. + +"So changed--I have so often pictured it to myself--never, never like +this; yet I loved it, commonplace as it was to my recollection; and the +garret, and the tree in the carpenter's yard." + +She did not give these thoughts utterance. And they now entered the +garden. + + +CHAPTER IV. + +Mrs. Fairfield was a proud woman when she received Mrs. Riccabocca and +Violante in her grand house; for a grand house to her was that cottage +to which her boy Lenny had brought her home. Proud, indeed, ever was +Widow Fairfield; but she thought then in her secret heart, that if ever +she could receive in the drawing-room of that grand house the great Mrs. +Hazeldean, who had so lectured her for refusing to live any longer in +the humble tenement rented of the Squire, the cup of human bliss would +be filled, and she could contentedly die of the pride of it. She did not +much notice Helen--her attention was too absorbed by the ladies who +renewed their old acquaintance with her, and she carried them all over +the house, yea, into the very kitchen; and so, somehow or other, there +was a short time when Helen and Leonard found themselves alone. It was +in the study. Helen had unconsciously seated herself in Leonard's own +chair, and she was gazing with anxious and wistful interest, on the +scattered papers, looking so disorderly (though, in truth, in that +disorder there was method, but method only known to the owner), and at +the venerable, well-worn books, in all languages, lying on the floor, on +the chairs--any where. I must confess that Helen's first tidy woman-like +idea was a great desire to arrange the latter. "Poor Leonard," she +thought to herself--"the rest of the house so neat, but no one to take +care of his own room and of him!" + +As if he divined her thought, Leonard smiled, and said, "It would be a +cruel kindness to the spider, if the gentlest hand in the world tried to +set its cobweb to rights." + +_Helen._--"You were not quite so bad in the old days." + +_Leonard._--"Yet even then, you were obliged to take care of the money. +I have more books now, and more money. My present housekeeper lets me +take care of the books, but she is less indulgent as to the money." + +_Helen_, (archly.)--"Are you as absent as ever?" + +_Leonard._--"Much more so, I fear. The habit is incorrigible, Miss +Digby--" + +_Helen._--"Not Miss Digby--sister, if you like." + +_Leonard_, (evading the word that implied so forbidden an +affinity.)--"Helen, will you grant me a favor? Your eyes and your smile +say 'yes.' Will you lay aside, for one minute, your shawl and bonnet? +What! can you be surprised that I ask it? Can you not understand that I +wish for one minute to think you are at home again under this roof?" + +Helen cast down her eyes, and seemed troubled; then she raised them, +with a soft angelic candor in their dovelike blue, and, as if in shelter +from all thoughts of more warm affection, again murmured "_brother_," +and did as he asked her. + +So there she sat, amongst the dull books, by his table, near the open +window--her fair hair parted on her forehead--looking so good, so calm, +so happy! Leonard wondered at his own self-command. His heart yearned to +her with such inexpressible love--his lips so longed to murmur--"Ah, as +now so could it be for ever! Is the home too mean?" But that word +"brother" was as a talisman between her and him. + +Yet she looked so at home--perhaps so at home she felt!--more certainly +than she had yet learned to do in that stiff stately house in which she +was soon to have a daughter's rights. Was she suddenly made aware of +this--that she so suddenly arose--and with a look of alarm and distress +on her face-- + +"But--we are keeping Lady Lansmere too long," she said, falteringly. "We +must go now," and she hastily took up her shawl and bonnet. + +Just then Mrs. Fairfield entered with the visitors, and began making +excuses for inattention to Miss Digby, whose identity with Leonard's +child-angel she had not yet learned. + +Helen received these apologies with her usual sweetness. "Nay," she +said, "your son and I are such old friends, how could you stand on +ceremony with me?" + +"Old friends!" Mrs. Fairfield stared amazed, and then surveyed the fair +speaker more curiously than she had yet done. "Pretty, nice spoken +thing," thought the widow; "as nice spoken as Miss Violante, and +humbler-looking-like--though, as to dress, I never see any thing so +elegant out of a picter." + +Helen now appropriated Mrs. Riccabocca's arm; and after a kind +leave-taking with the widow, the ladies returned towards Riccabocca's +house. + +Mrs. Fairfield, however, ran after them with Leonard's hat and gloves, +which he had forgotten. + +"'Deed, boy," said she kindly, yet scoldingly, "but there'd be no more +fine books, if the Lord had not fixed your head on your shoulders. You +would not think it, marm," she added to Mrs. Riccabocca, "but sin' he +has left you, he's not the 'cute lad he was; very helpless at times, +marm!" + +Helen could not resist turning round, and looking at Leonard, with a sly +smile. + +The widow saw the smile, and catching Leonard by the arm, whispered, +"But, where before have you seen that pretty young lady? Old friends!" + +"Ah, mother," said Leonard, sadly, "it is a long tale; you have heard +the beginning, who can guess the end?"--and he escaped. But Helen still +leant on the arm of Mrs. Riccobocca, and, in the walk back, it seemed to +Leonard as if the winter had resettled in the sky. + +Yet he was by the side of Violante, and she spoke to him with such +praise of Helen! Alas! it is not always so sweet as folks say, to hear +the praises of one we love. Sometimes those praises seem to ask +ironically, "And what right hast thou to hope because thou lovest? _All_ +love _her_." + + +CHAPTER V. + +No sooner had Lady Lansmere found herself alone with Riccabocca and +Harley than she laid her hand on the exile's arm, and, addressing him by +a title she had not before given him, and from which he appeared to +shrink nervously, said--"Harley, in bringing me to visit you, was forced +to reveal to me your incognito, for I should have discovered it. You may +not remember me, in spite of your gallantry. But I mixed more in the +world than I do now, during your first visit to England, and once sat +next to you at dinner at Carlton House. Nay, no compliments, but listen +to me. Harley tells me you have cause for some alarm respecting the +designs of an audacious and unprincipled--adventurer, I may call him; +for adventurers are of all ranks. Suffer your daughter to come to me, on +a visit, as long as you please. With me, at least, she will be safe; and +if you, too, and the--" + +"Stop, my dear madam," interrupted Riccabocca, with great vivacity, +"your kindness overpowers me. I thank you most gratefully for your +invitation to my child; but--" + +"Nay," in his turn interrupted Harley, "no buts. I was not aware of my +mother's intention when she entered this room. But since she whispered +it to me, I have reflected on it, and am convinced that it is but a +prudent precaution. Your retreat is known to Mr. Leslie--he is known to +Peschiera. Grant that no indiscretion of Mr. Leslie's betray the secret; +still I have reason to believe that the Count guesses Randal's +acquaintance with you. Audley Egerton this morning told me he had +gathered that, not from the young man himself, but from questions put to +himself by Madame di Negra; and Peschiera might, and would, set spies, +to track Leslie to every house that he visits--might and would, still +more naturally, set spies to track myself. Were this man an Englishman, +I should laugh at his machinations; but he is an Italian, and has been a +conspirator. What he could do, I know not; but an assassin can penetrate +into a camp, and a traitor can creep through closed walls to one's +hearth. With my mother, Violante must be safe; that you cannot oppose. +And why not come yourself?" + +Riccabocca had no reply to these arguments, so far as they affected +Violante; indeed, they awakened the almost superstitious terror with +which he regarded his enemy, and he consented at once that Violante +should accept the invitation proffered. But he refused it for himself +and Jemima. + +"To say truth," said he simply, "I made a secret vow, on re-entering +England, that I would associate with none who knew the rank I had +formerly held in my own land. I felt that all my philosophy was needed, +to reconcile and habituate myself to my altered circumstances. In order +to find in my present existence, however humble, those blessings which +make all life noble--dignity and peace--it was necessary for poor, weak +human nature, wholly to dismiss the past. It would unsettle me sadly, +could I come to your house, renew a while, in your kindness and +respect--nay, in the very atmosphere of your society--the sense of what +I have been; and then (should the more than doubtful chance of recall +from my exile fail me) to awake, and find myself for the rest of +life--what I am. And though, were I alone, I might trust myself perhaps +to the danger--yet my wife: she is happy and contented now; would she be +so, if you had once spoiled her for the simple position of Dr. +Riccabocca's wife? Should I not have to listen to regrets, and hopes, +and fears that would prick sharp through my thin cloak of philosophy? +Even as it is, since in a moment of weakness I confided my secret to +her, I have had 'my rank' thrown at me--with a careless hand, it is +true--but it hits hard, nevertheless. No stone hurts like one taken from +the ruins of one's own home; and the grander the home, why, the heavier +the stone! Protect, dear madam--protect my daughter, since her father +doubts his own power to do so. But--ask no more." + +Riccabocca was immovable here. And the matter was settled as he decided, +it being agreed that Violante should be still styled the daughter of Dr. +Riccabocca. + +"And now, one word more," said Harley. "Do not confide to Mr. Leslie +these arrangements; do not let him know where Violante is placed--at +least, until I authorize such confidence in him. It is sufficient +excuse, that it is no use to know unless he called to see her, and his +movements, as I said before, may be watched. You can give the same +reason to suspend his visits to yourself. Suffer me, meanwhile, to +mature my judgment on this young man. In the mean while also, I think +that I shall have means of ascertaining the real nature of Peschiera's +schemes. His sister has sought to know me; I will give her the occasion. +I have heard some things of her in my last residence abroad, which make +me believe that she cannot be wholly the Count's tool in any schemes +nakedly villanous; that she has some finer qualities in her than I once +supposed; and that she can be won from his influence. It is a state of +war; we will carry it into the enemy's camp. You will promise me, then, +to refrain from all further confidence to Mr. Leslie." + +"For the present, yes," said Riccabocca, reluctantly. + +"Do not even say that you have seen me, unless he first tell you that I +am in England, and wish to learn your residence. I will give him full +occasion to do so. Pish! don't hesitate; you know your own proverb-- + + 'Boccha chiusa, ed occhio aperto + Non fece mai nissun deserto.' + +'The closed mouth and the open eye,' &c." + +"That's very true," said the Doctor, much struck. "Very true. '_In +bocchac hiusa non c'entrano mosche_.' One can't swallow flies if one +keeps one's mouth shut. _Corpo di Bacco!_ that's very true!" + +Harley took aside the Italian. + +"You see if our hope of discovering the lost packet, or if our belief in +the nature of its contents, be too sanguine, still, in a few months it +is possible that Peschiera can have no further designs on your +daughter--possible that a son may be born to you, and Violante would +cease to be in danger, because she would cease to be an heiress. Indeed, +it may be well to let Peschiera know this chance; it would, at least, +make him delay all his plans while we are tracking the document that may +defeat them for ever." + +"No, no! for heaven's sake, no!" exclaimed Riccabocca, pale as ashes. +"Not a word to him. I don't mean to impute to him crimes of which he may +be innocent. But he meant to take my life when I escaped the pursuit of +his hirelings in Italy. He did not hesitate, in his avarice, to denounce +a kinsman; expose hundreds to the sword, if resisting--to the dungeon, +if passive. Did he know that my wife might bear me a son, how can I tell +that his designs might not change into others still darker, and more +monstrous, than those he now openly parades, though, after all, not more +infamous and vile? Would my wife's life be safe? Not more difficult to +convey poison into my house, than to steal my child from my hearth. +Don't despise me; but when I think of my wife, my daughter, and that +man, my mind forsakes me: I am one fear." + +"Nay, this apprehension is too exaggerated. We do not live in the age of +the Borgias. Could Peschiera resort to the risks of a murder, it is for +yourself that you should fear." + +"For myself!--I! I!" cried the exile, raising his tall stature to its +full height. "Is it not enough degradation to a man who has borne the +name of such ancestors, to fear for those he loves! Fear for myself! Is +it you who ask if I am a coward?" + +He recovered himself as he felt Harley's penitential and admiring grasp +of the hand. + +"See," said he, turning to the Countess with a melancholy smile, "how +even one hour of your society destroys the habits of years. Dr. +Riccabocca is talking of his ancestors!" + + +CHAPTER VI. + +Violante and Jemima were both greatly surprised, as the reader may +suppose, when they heard, on their return, the arrangements already made +for the former. The Countess insisted on taking her at once, and +Riccabocca briefly said, "Certainly, the sooner the better." Violante +was stunned and bewildered. Jemima hastened to make up a little bundle +of things necessary, with many a woman's sigh that the poor wardrobe +contained so few things befitting. But among the clothes she slipped a +purse, containing the savings of months, perhaps of years, and with it a +few affectionate lines, begging Violante to ask the Countess to buy her +all that was proper for her father's child. There is always something +hurried and uncomfortable in the abrupt and unexpected withdrawal of any +member from a quiet household. The small party broke into still smaller +knots. Violante hung on her father, and listened vaguely to his not very +lucid explanations. The Countess approached Leonard, and according to +the usual mode of persons of quality addressing young authors, +complimented him highly on the books she had not read, but which her son +assured her were so remarkable. She was a little anxious to know where +Harley had met with Mr. Oran, whom he called his friend; but she was too +high-bred to inquire, or to express any wonder that rank should be +friends with genius. + +She took it for granted that they had formed their acquaintance abroad. + +Harley conversed with Helen. "You are not sorry that Violante is coming +to us? She will be just such a companion for you as I could desire; of +your own years too." + +_Helen_, (ingenuously.)--"It is hard to think I am not younger than she +is." + +_Harley._--"Why, my dear Helen?" + +_Helen._--"She is so brilliant. She talks so beautifully. And I--" + +_Harley._--"And you want but the habit of talking, to do justice to your +own beautiful thoughts." + +Helen looked at him gratefully, but shook her head. It was a common +trick of hers, and always when she was praised. + +At last the preparations were made--the farewell was said. Violante was +in the carriage by Lady Lansmere's side. Slowly moved on the stately +equipage with its four horses and trim postillions, heraldic badges on +their shoulders, in the style rarely seen in the neighborhood of the +metropolis, and now fast vanishing even amidst distant counties. + +Riccabocca, Jemima, and Jackeymo continued to gaze after it from the +gate. + +"She is gone," said Jackeymo, brushing his eyes with his coat-sleeve. +"But it is a load off one's mind." + +"And another load on one's heart," murmured Riccabocca. "Don't cry, +Jemima; it may be bad for you, and bad for _him_ that is to come. It is +astonishing how the humors of the mother may affect the unborn. I should +not like to have a son who has a more than usual propensity to tears." + +The poor philosopher tried to smile; but it was a bad attempt. He went +slowly in and shut himself up with his books. But he could not read. His +whole mind was unsettled. And though, like all parents, he had been +anxious to rid himself of a beloved daughter for life, now that she was +gone but for a while, a string seemed broken in the Music of Home. + + +CHAPTER VII. + +The evening of the same day, as Egerton, who was to entertain a large +party at dinner, was changing his dress, Harley walked into his room. + +Egerton dismissed his valet by a sign, and continued his toilet. + +"Excuse me, my dear Harley, I have only ten minutes to give you. I +expect one of the royal dukes, and punctuality is the stern virtue of +men of business, and the graceful courtesy of princes." + +Harley had usually a jest for his friend's aphorisms; but he had none +now. He laid his hand kindly on Egerton's shoulder--"Before I speak of +my business, tell me how you are--better?" + +"Better--nay, I am always well. Pooh! I may look a little tired--years +of toil will tell on the countenance. But that matters little--the +period of life has passed with me when one cares how one looks in the +glass." + +As he spoke, Egerton completed his dress, and came to the hearth, +standing there, erect and dignified as usual, still far handsomer than +many a younger man, and with a form that seemed to have ample vigor to +support for many a year the sad and glorious burden of power. + +"So now to your business, Harley." + +"In the first place, I want you to present me, at the first opportunity, +to Madame di Negra. You say she wished to know me." + +"Are you serious?" + +"Yes." + +"Well, then, she receives this evening. I did not mean to go; but when +my party breaks up"-- + +"You can call for me at 'The Travellers.' Do! + +"Next--you knew Lady Jane Horton better even than I did, at least in the +last year of her life." Harley sighed, and Egerton turned and stirred +the fire. + +"Pray, did you ever see at her house, or hear her speak of, a Mrs. +Bertram?" + +"Of whom?" said Egerton, in a hollow voice, his face still turned +towards the fire. + +"A Mrs. Bertram; but heavens! my dear fellow, what is the matter? Are +you ill?" + +"A spasm at the heart--that is all--don't ring--I shall be better +presently--go on talking. Mrs.---- why do you ask?" + +"Why! I have hardly time to explain; but I am, as I told you, resolved +on righting my old Italian friend, if Heaven will help me, as it ever +does help the just when they bestir themselves; and this Mrs. Bertram is +mixed up in my friend's affairs." + +"His! How is that possible?" + +Harley rapidly and succinctly explained. Audley listened attentively, +with his eyes fixed on the floor, and still seeming to labor under great +difficulty of breathing. + +At last he answered, "I remember something of this Mrs.--Mrs.--Bertram. +But your inquiries after her would be useless. I think I have heard that +she is long since dead; nay, I am sure of it." + +"Dead!--that is most unfortunate. But do you know any of her relations +or friends? Can you suggest any mode of tracing this packet if it came +to her hands?" + +"No." + +"And Lady Jane had scarcely any friend that I remember, except my +mother, and she knows nothing of this Mrs. Bertram. How unlucky! I think +I shall advertise. Yet, no. I could only distinguish this Mrs. Bertram +from any other of the same name, by stating with whom she had gone +abroad, and that would catch the attention of Peschiera, and set him to +counterwork us." + +"And what avails it?" said Egerton. "She whom you seek is no more--no +more!" He paused, and went on rapidly--"The packet did not arrive in +England till years after her death--was no doubt returned to the +post-office--is destroyed long ago." + +Harley looked very much disappointed. Egerton went on in a sort of set +mechanical voice, as if not thinking of what he said, but speaking from +the dry practical mode of reasoning which was habitual to him, and by +which the man of the world destroys the hopes of an enthusiast. Then +starting up at the sound of the first thundering knock at the street +door, he said, "Hark! you must excuse me." + +"I leave you, my dear Audley. Are you better now?" + +"Much, much--quite well. I will call for you, probably between eleven +and twelve." + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +If any one could be more surprised at seeing Lord L'Estrange at the +house of Madame di Negra that evening than the fair hostess herself, it +was Randal Leslie. Something instinctively told him that this visit +threatened interference with whatever might be his ultimate projects in +regard to Riccabocca and Violante. But Randal Leslie was not one of +those who shrink from an intellectual combat. On the contrary, he was +too confident of his powers of intrigue, not to take a delight in their +exercise. He could not conceive that the indolent Harley could be a +match for his own restless activity and dogged perseverance. But in a +very few moments fear crept on him. No man of his day could produce a +more brilliant effect than Lord L'Estrange, when he deigned to desire +it. Without much pretence to that personal beauty which strikes at first +sight, he still retained all the charm of countenance, and all the grace +of manner which had made him in boyhood the spoiled darling of society. +Madame di Negra had collected but a small circle round her, still it was +of the _elite_ of the great world; not, indeed, those more precise and +reserved _dames du chateau_, whom the lighter and easier of the fair +dispensers of fashion ridicule as prudes; but, nevertheless, ladies were +there, as unblemished in reputation as high in rank; flirts and +coquettes, perhaps--nothing more; in short, "charming women"--the gay +butterflies that hover over the stiff parterre. And there were +ambassadors and ministers, and wits and brilliant debaters, and +first-rate dandies (dandies, when first-rate, are generally very +agreeable men). Amongst all these various persons, Harley, so long a +stranger to the London world, seemed to make himself at home with the +ease of an Alcibiades. Many of the less juvenile ladies remembered him, +and rushed to claim his acquaintance, with nods, and becks, and wreathed +smiles. He had ready compliments for each. And few indeed were there, +men or women, for whom Harley L'Estrange had not appropriate attraction. +Distinguished reputation as a soldier and scholar, for the grave; whim +and pleasantry for the gay; novelty for the sated; and for the more +vulgar natures, was he not Lord L'Estrange, unmarried, heir to an +ancient earldom, and some fifty thousand a-year? + +Not till he had succeeded in the general effect--which, it must be +owned, he did his best to create--did Harley seriously and especially +devote himself to his hostess. And then he seated himself by her side; +and as if in compliment to both, less pressing admirers insensibly +slipped away and edged off. + +Frank Hazeldean was the last to quit his ground behind Madame di Negra's +chair; but when he found that the two began to talk in Italian, and he +could not understand a word they said, he too--fancying, poor fellow, +that he looked foolish, and cursing his Eaton education that had +neglected, for languages spoken by the dead, of which he had learned +little, those still in use among the living, of which he had learned +naught--retreated towards Randal, and asked wistfully, "Pray, what age +should you say L'Estrange was? He must be devilish old, in spite of his +looks. Why, he was at Waterloo!" + +"He is young enough to be a terrible rival," answered Randal, with +artful truth. + +Frank turned pale, and began to meditate dreadful bloodthirsty thoughts, +of which hair-triggers and Lord's Cricket-ground formed the staple. + +Certainly there was apparent ground for a lover's jealousy. For Harley +and Beatrice now conversed in a low tone, and Beatrice seemed agitated, +and Harley earnest. Randal himself grew more and more perplexed. Was +Lord L'Estrange really enamored of the Marchesa? If so, farewell to all +hopes of Frank's marriage with her! Or was he merely playing a part in +Riccabocca's interest; pretending to be the lover, in order to obtain an +influence over her mind, rule her through her ambition, and secure an +ally against her brother? Was this _finesse_ compatible with Randal's +notions of Harley's character? Was it consistent with that chivalric and +soldierly spirit of honor which the frank nobleman affected, to make +love to a woman in a mere _ruse de guerre_? Could mere friendship for +Riccabocca be a sufficient inducement to a man, who, whatever his +weaknesses or his errors, seemed to wear on his very forehead a soul +above deceit, to stoop to paltry means, even for a worthy end? At this +question, a new thought flashed upon Randal--might not Lord L'Estrange +have speculated himself upon winning Violante?--would not that account +for all the exertions he had made on behalf of her inheritance at the +court of Vienna--exertions of which Peschiera and Beatrice had both +complained? Those objections which the Austrian government might take to +Violante's marriage with some obscure Englishman would probably not +exist against a man like Harley L'Estrange, whose family not only +belonged to the highest aristocracy of England, but had always supported +opinions in vogue amongst the leading governments of Europe. Harley +himself, it is true, had never taken part in politics, but his notions +were, no doubt, those of a high-born soldier, who had fought, in +alliance with Austria, for the restoration of the Bourbons. And this +immense wealth--which Violante might lose if she married one like Randal +himself--her marriage with the heir of the Lansmeres might actually tend +only to secure. Could Harley, with all his own expectations, be +indifferent to such a prize?--and no doubt he had learned Violante's +rare beauty in his correspondence with Riccabocca. + +Thus considered, it seemed natural to Randal's estimate of human nature, +that Harley's more prudish scruples of honor, as regards what is due to +women, could not resist a temptation so strong. Mere friendship was not +a motive powerful enough to shake them, but ambition was. + +While Randal was thus cogitating, Frank thus suffering, and many a +whisper, in comment on the evident flirtation between the beautiful +hostess and the accomplished guest, reached the ears both of the +brooding schemer and the jealous lover, the conversation between the two +objects of remark and gossip had taken a new turn. Indeed, Beatrice had +made an effort to change it. + +"It is long, my lord," said she, still speaking Italian, "since I have +heard sentiments like those you address to me; and if I do not feel +myself wholly unworthy of them, it is from the pleasure I have felt in +reading sentiments equally foreign to the language of the world in which +I live." She took a book from the table as she spoke: "Have you seen +this work?" + +Harley glanced at the title-page. "To be sure I have, and I know the +author." + +"I envy you that honor. I should so like also to know one who has +discovered to me deeps in my own heart which I had never explored." + +"Charming Marchesa, if the book has done this, believe me that I have +paid you no false compliment--formed no overflattering estimate of your +nature; for the charm of the work is but in its simple appeal to good +and generous emotions, and it can charm none in whom those emotions +exist not!" + +"Nay, that cannot be true, or why is it so popular?" + +"Because good and generous emotions are more common to the human heart +than we are aware of till the appeal comes." + +"Don't ask me to think that! I have found the world so base." + +"Pardon me a rude question; but what do you know of the world?" + +Beatrice looked first in surprise at Harley, then glanced round the room +with significant irony. + +"As I thought; you call this little room 'the world.' Be it so. I will +venture to say, that if the people in this room were suddenly converted +into an audience before a stage, and you were as consummate in the +actor's art as you are in all others that please and command--" + +"Well?" + +"And were to deliver a speech full of sordid and base sentiments, you +would be hissed. But let any other woman, with half your powers, arise +and utter sentiments sweet and womanly, or honest and lofty--and +applause would flow from every lip, and tears rush to many a worldly +eye. The true proof of the inherent nobleness of our common nature is in +the sympathy it betrays with what is noble wherever crowds are +collected. Never believe the world is base;--if it were so, no society +could hold together for a day. But you would know the author of this +book? I will bring him to you." + +"Do." + +"And now," said Harley rising, and with his candid winning smile, "do +you think we shall ever be friends?" + +"You have startled me so, that I can scarcely answer. But why would you +be friends with me?" + +"Because you need a friend. You have none?" + +"Strange flatterer!" said Beatrice, smiling, though very sadly; and +looking up, her eye caught Randal's. + +"Pooh!" said Harley, "you are too penetrating to believe that you +inspire friendship _there_. Ah, do you suppose that, all the while I +have been conversing with you, I have not noticed the watchful gaze of +Mr. Randal Leslie? What tie can possibly connect you together I know not +yet; but I soon shall." + +"Indeed! you talk like one of the old Council of Venice. You try hard to +make me fear you," said Beatrice, seeking to escape from the graver kind +of impression Harley had made on her, by the affectation, partly of +coquetry, partly of levity. + +"And I," said L'Estrange, calmly, "tell you already, that I fear you no +more." He bowed, and passed through the crowd to rejoin Audley, who was +seated in a corner, whispering with some of his political colleagues. +Before Harley reached the minister, he found himself close to Randal and +young Hazeldean. + +He bowed to the first, and extended his hand to the last. Randal felt +the distinction, and his sullen, bitter pride was deeply galled--a +feeling of hate towards Harley passed into his mind. He was pleased to +see the cold hesitation with which Frank just touched the hand offered +to him. But Randal had not been the only person whose watch upon +Beatrice the keen-eyed Harley had noticed. Harley had seen the angry +looks of Frank Hazeldean, and divined the cause. So he smiled +forgivingly at the slight he had received. + +"You are like me, Mr. Hazeldean," said he. "You think something of the +heart should go with all courtesy that bespeaks friendship-- + + "The hand of Douglas is his own." + +Here Harley drew aside Randal. "Mr. Leslie, a word with you. If I wished +to know the retreat of Dr. Riccabocca, in order to render him a great +service, would you confide to me that secret?" + +"That woman has let out her suspicions that I know the exile's retreat," +thought Randal; and with rare presence of mind, he replied at once-- + +"My Lord, yonder stands a connection of Dr. Riccabocca's. Mr. Hazeldean +is surely the person to whom you should address this inquiry." + +"Not so, Mr. Leslie; for I suspect that he cannot answer it, and that +you can. Well, I will ask something that it seems to me you may grant +without hesitation. Should you see Dr. Riccabocca, tell him that I am in +England, and so leave it to him to communicate with me or not; but +perhaps you have already done so?" + +"Lord L'Estrange," said Randal, bowing low, with pointed formality, +"excuse me if I decline either to disclaim or acquiesce in the knowledge +you impute to me. If I am acquainted with any secret intrusted to me by +Dr. Riccabocca, it is for me to use my own discretion how best to guard +it. And for the rest, after the Scotch earl, whose words your lordship +has quoted, refused to touch the hand of Marmion, Douglas could scarcely +have called him back in order to give him--a message!" + +Harley was not prepared for this tone in Mr. Egerton's _protege_, and +his own gallant nature was rather pleased than irritated by a +haughtiness that at least seemed to bespeak independence of spirit. +Nevertheless, L'Estrange's suspicions of Randal were too strong to be +easily set aside, and therefore he replied, civilly, but with covert +taunt-- + +"I submit to your rebuke, Mr. Leslie, though I meant not the offence you +would ascribe to me. I regret my unlucky quotation yet the more, since +the wit of your retort has obliged you to identify yourself with +Marmion, who, though a clever and brave fellow, was an +uncommonly--tricky one." And so Harley, certainly having the best of it, +moved on, and joining Egerton, in a few minutes more both left the room. + +"What was L'Estrange saying to you?" asked Frank. "Something about +Beatrice, I am sure." + +"No; only quoting poetry." + +"Then, what made you look so angry, my dear fellow? I know it was your +kind feeling for me. As you say, he is a formidable rival. But that +can't be his own hair. Do you think he wears a _toupet_? I am sure he +was praising Beatrice. He is evidently very much smitten with her. But I +don't think she is a woman to be caught by _mere_ rank and fortune! Do +you? Why can't you speak?" + +"If you do not get her consent soon, I think she is lost to you," said +Randal slowly; and, before Frank could recover his dismay, glided from +the house. + + +CHAPTER IX. + +Violante's first evening at the Lansmeres, had seemed happier to her +than the first evening, under the same roof, had done to Helen. True +that she missed her father much--Jemima somewhat; but she so identified +her father's cause with Harley, that she had a sort of vague feeling +that it was to promote that cause that she was on this visit to Harley's +parents. And the Countess, it must be owned, was more emphatically +cordial to her than she had ever yet been to Captain Digby's orphan. But +perhaps the real difference in the heart of either girl was this, that +Helen felt awe of Lady Lansmere, and Violante felt only love for Lord +L'Estrange's mother. Violante, too, was one of those persons whom a +reserved and formal person, like the Countess, "can get on with," as the +phrase goes. Not so poor little Helen--so shy herself, and so hard to +coax into more than gentle monosyllables. And Lady Lansmere's favorite +talk was always of Harley. Helen had listened to such talk with respect +and interest. Violante listened to it with inquisitive eagerness--with +blushing delight. The mother's heart noticed the distinction between the +two, and no wonder that the heart moved more to Violante than to Helen. +Lord Lansmere, too, like most gentlemen of his age, clumped all young +ladies together, as a harmless, amiable, but singularly stupid class of +the genus-Petticoat, meant to look pretty, play the piano, and talk to +each other about frocks and sweethearts. Therefore this animated, +dazzling creature, with her infinite variety of look and play of mind, +took him by surprise, charmed him into attention, and warmed him into +gallantry. Helen sat in her quiet corner, at her work, sometimes +listening with mournful, though certainly unenvious, admiration at +Violante's vivid, yet ever unconscious, eloquence of word and +thought--sometimes plunged deep into her own secret meditations. And all +the while the work went on the same, under the small noiseless fingers. +This was one of Helen's habits that irritated the nerves of Lady +Lansmere. She despised young ladies who were fond of work. She did not +comprehend how often it is the resource of the sweet womanly mind, not +from want of thought, but from the silence and the depth of it. Violante +was surprised, and perhaps disappointed, that Harley had left the house +before dinner, and did not return all the evening. But Lady Lansmere, in +making excuse for his absence, on the plea of engagements, found so good +an opportunity to talk of his ways in general--of his rare promise in +boyhood--of her regret at the inaction of his maturity--of her hope to +see him yet do justice to his natural powers, that Violante almost +ceased to miss him. + +And when Lady Lansmere conducted her to her room, and kissing her cheek +tenderly, said, "But you are just the person Harley admires--just the +person to rouse him from melancholy dreams, of which his wild humors are +now but the vain disguise"--Violante crossed her arms on her bosom, and +her bright eyes, deepened into tenderness, seemed to ask, "He +melancholy--and why?" + +On leaving Violante's room, Lady Lansmere paused before the door of +Helen's; and, after musing a little while, entered softly. + +Helen had dismissed her maid; and, at the moment Lady Lansmere entered, +she was kneeling at the foot of the bed, her hands clasped before her +face. + +Her form, thus seen, looked so youthful and childlike--the attitude +itself was so holy and so touching, that the proud and cold expression +on Lady Lansmere's face changed. She shaded the light involuntarily, and +seated herself in silence, that she might not disturb the act of prayer. + +When Helen rose, she was startled to see the Countess seated by the +fire; and hastily drew her hand across her eyes. She had been weeping. + +Lady Lansmere did not, however, turn to observe those traces of tears, +which Helen feared were too visible. The Countess was too absorbed in +her own thoughts; and as Helen timidly approached, she said--still with +her eyes on the clear low fire--"I beg your pardon, Miss Digby, for my +intrusion; but my son has left it to me to prepare Lord Lansmere to +learn the offer you have done Harley the honor to accept. I have not yet +spoken to my lord; it may be days before I find a fitting occasion to do +so; meanwhile, I feel assured that your sense of propriety will make you +agree with me, that it is due to Lord L'Estrange's father, that +strangers should not learn arrangements of such moment in his family, +before his own consent be obtained." + +Here the Countess came to a full pause; and poor Helen, finding herself +called upon for some reply to this chilling speech, stammered out, +scarce audibly-- + +"Certainly, madam, I never dreamed of--" + +"That is right, my dear," interrupted Lady Lansmere, rising suddenly, +and as if greatly relieved. "I could not doubt your superiority to +ordinary girls of your age, with whom these matters are never secret for +a moment. Therefore, of course, you will not mention, at present, what +has passed between you and Harley, to any of the friends with whom you +may correspond." + +"I have no correspondents--no friends, Lady Lansmere," said Helen, +deprecatingly, and trying hard not to cry. + +"I am very glad to hear it, my dear; young ladies never should have. +Friends, especially friends who correspond, are the worst enemies they +can have. Good night, Miss Digby. I need not add, by the way, that, +though we are bound to show all kindness to this young Italian lady, +still she is wholly unconnected with our family; and you will be as +prudent with her as you would have been with your correspondents--had +you had the misfortune to have any." + +Lady Lansmere said the last words with a smile, and pressed a reluctant +kiss (the step-mother's kiss) on Helen's bended brow. She then left the +room, and Helen sat on the seat vacated by the stately unloving form, +and again covered her face with her hands, and again wept. But when she +rose at last, and the light fell upon her face, that soft face was sad +indeed, but serene--serene, as if with some inward sense of duty--sad, +as with the resignation which accepts patience instead of hope. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[21] Continued from page 411. + +[22] Translation of _Charron on Wisdom_. By G. Stanhope, D.D., late Dean +of Canterbury (1729). A translation remarkable for ease, vigor, and +(despite that contempt for the strict rules of grammar, which was common +enough amongst writers at the commencement of the last century) for the +idiomatic raciness of its English. + + + + +From Household Words. + +CHOICE SECRETS. + + +"Light a room with spermaceti, anoint your face with the same substance, +and you will seem to all beholders to have the head of a sperm whale +upon your shoulders." "When you would have men in the house seem to be +without heads: take yellow brimstone with oil, and put it in a lamp and +light it, and set it in the midst amongst men, and you shall see a +wonder." These are two out of a large mass of facts which form a compact +body of ancestral wisdom. They lie before us in a venerable volume, +whose grave frontispiece is adorned with the portraitures of Alexis, +Albertus Magnus, Dr. Reade, Raymond Lully, Dr. Harvey, Lord Bacon, and +Dr. John Wecker. John Wecker, Doctor in Physic, first compiled the book, +and Dr. R. Read augmented and enlarged it. "A like work never before was +in the English tongue." It was printed in the year 1661, for Simon +Miller, at the Starre in St. Paul's Church Yard, and it is entitled, +"Eighteen Books of the Secrets of Art and Nature, being the Summe and +Substance of Naturall Philosophy, Methodically Digested." The book is +one of considerable size and pretension, written by wise doctors in the +good old time, two hundred years ago. Let us not be conceited and harp +only on the strings provided to our fingers in the nineteenth century. +For a few minutes, at least, it will not do us harm to get a little +scientific information from our ancestors. We shall glean, therefore, +some random facts out of the harvest-field of Doctors Mead and Wecker, +selecting, of course, most characteristic, those which our forefathers +may call exclusively their own. + +The volume opens with scientific information on the subject of Angels +and Devils, including, of course, the fact that "Witches kill children, +and divers cattle, which we find by various experience, and by relation +of others that are worthy to be believed. But if you will say they are +mere delusions of the Devil, whereby he makes foolish women mad that are +entangled by him, that they believe they do those things which neither +they nor the devil can do; if we can so avoid it, we may as well deny +any thing else, be it never so evident. "--If you deny that, you may +deny any thing--is a phrase not yet dead. Applied two hundred years ago +to the experience concerning witches, it has been industriously employed +to the present day, and is employed still on behalf of a great many +fresh delusions. As for the gentleman, whom truth is said to shame, he +claimed his distinct chapter in the minds of old physicians, because, as +the book before us has it, he "can cause many diseases, of the reasons +whereof we are ignorant. Also he can do this, or that; being subtile, he +can easily pass through all parts of the body, which he can bind, pull +back, or torment otherwise." + +Passing on now, as we follow the march of high philosophy, to secrets of +the sun and moon; it may be worth while to understand, as our +forefathers taught, that "it is easie to guess at the fortune of every +year by the stars, if a man consider twelve, nineteen, eight, four, and +thirty." Somebody wants to know what luck he will have in 1853. Let him +consider 1841 (twelve years back), let him consider 1834 (nineteen years +back), and, for the eight, four, thirty, let him look back to the years +1845, 1849, and 1823. Let him reflect on the nature of his fortune in +each of those years, look up his old diaries, combine their results, and +that will give him the character of his fate in 1853. Jupiter is somehow +at the bottom of this, but we are too modern and ignorant to understand +the author's explanation. + +Among secrets concerning fire, are those two facts connected with +spermaceti and brimstone already stated. Any one living in the country, +whom the croaking of the frogs may trouble of a night, will doubtless +be glad to hear of a remedy: "Take the fat of a crocodile, and make it +up with wax while in the sun, and make a candle of it, and light it in +the place where frogs are, and when they see that they will presently +cease crying." Where crocodile's fat cannot be had, "the fat of a +dolphin" will do. Prescriptions abound, by the use of which men may +appear to wear the heads of asses, horses, dogs, or to resemble +elephants. There is a receipt also for making "a faire light, that the +house may seem all full of serpents so long as the wick doth burn." But +we pass over these pleasant methods of illumination, simply remarking, +that if our wise ancestors were right, the volume now before us would +procure a sudden fortune to the lessees of Vauxhall. By the use of some +dozen kinds of cunningly prepared lamps, the Royal Gardens might in good +faith be chronicled in its bills as a "scene of enchantment." At one +turn of a walk, all visitors would show their heads, and at another, +none; in another grove they would be elephants, and in another they +would look like angels. The Rotunda might be lighted for a diabolical +effect, and the Dark Walk illuminated brilliantly with dolphin's fat, +funeral cloth and Azemat, whose light makes every body invisible. This, +again, is no bad hint for a country tallow-chandler, who supplies light +to the ladies of a solemn village, where he is annoyed by the neglect of +any gayeties that would create large orders for composite or sperm: "_To +make women rejoice mightily._ Make candles of the fat of hares, and +light them, and let them stand awhile in the middle where women are: +they will not be so merry as to dance; yet sometimes that falls out +also." + +"It is a wonder that some report how that the tooth of a badger, or his +left foot bound to a man's right arm will strengthen the memory." Boys, +who have lessons to learn, may like to know that fact; and teachers, who +have idle pupils, must not flog, but feed them upon cresses. "Cresses +eaten make a man industrious." Young ladies, who believe in their +ancestors, will thank us for repeating their opinion that the use of a +ring, which was lain for a certain time in a sparrow's nest, will +procure love. Nor need any dread the penalties of matrimony, since the +man who carries with him a hartshorn "shall alwaies have peace with his +wife:" and also, "the heart of a male quail, carried by the man, and the +heart of a female quail, by the woman, will cause that no quarrels can +ever arise between them." The man who carries a quail's heart in his +pocket may face his wife, and never have to feel his own heart quailing +underneath his ribs. + +Old Parr dined probably upon serpents, not, as is commonly reported, +upon pills. "It is known that stags renew their age by eating serpents; +so the phoenix is restored by the nest of spices shee makes to burn +in. The pelican hath the same virtue, whose right foot, if it be put +under hot dung, after three months a pelican will be bred from it. +Wherefore some physicians, with some confections, made of a viper and +hellebore, and of some of the flesh of these creatures, do promise to +restore youth, and sometimes they do it." If the Zoological Society has +proper respect for our ancestors, they will not delay to sow a hot-bed +with pelicans' feet. Young shoots of pelican would be much more +appropriate beside the gravel-walks than your mere vegetable +pelargonium. + +In the way of practice of medicine, we moderns say that any thing like +scientific principles, on which one can depend, have only been attained +in our own lifetime. "Doctors differed," and bumped against each other, +only because all alike were feeling through the dark. In our own day +there is light enough to keep doctors from differing very +grossly,--gross difference springing generally more from the want of +knowledge in an individual, than in the profession generally. Although +there is yet a vast deal to be learned. In the first century, +Asclepiades dubbed the medical system of Hippocrates, "a cold meditation +of death." Under Nero there arose a Dr. Thessalus, who taught that +Nature was the guide to follow and obey in all diseases; and, therefore, +under his system patients were simply to be liberally and rapidly +supplied with every thing they fancied. Paracelsus, in the sixteenth +century, looked for a patient's symptoms in the stars; so we must not be +surprised if the "Secrets in Physic and Surgery," published among the +other secrets in this volume now before us, contain odd information. +Here is a nice cure for a quartan ague, which might tickle a patient's +stomach sooner than his fancy: "Seven wig-lice of the bed, wrapped in a +great grape husk, and swallowed down alive before the fit." Another cure +is effected when the patient eats the parings of his nails and toes, +mingled with wax. There are many remedies against the Plague; but that +one which is recommended as "_The Best Thing against the Plague_," is +for a man to wash his mouth with vinegar and water before he goes out, +drinking also a spoonful of the liquor; then to press his nose and stop +his breath, so that "by the vapor and steam held in your mouth, the +brain be moistened." In the following prescription we believe entirely: +"_For Melancholy._ It is no small remedy to cure melancholy, to rub your +body all over with nettles." + +Book Five contains secrets for beautifying the human body. The following +receipt, which comes first, for giving people a substantial look, seems +to be somewhat too efficacious to be often tried: "_To make men fat._ If +you mingle with the fat of a lizard, salt-petre and cummin and +wheat-meal, hens fatted with this meat will be so fat, that men that eat +of them, will eat until they burst." A degree of fatness in hens equal +to this will never be communicated by our degenerate modern +agriculturists. For the hair-dyes, favored by our forefathers, we +cannot, however, say much, for we must differ in taste very decidedly. +Recipes are given for obtaining, not only black, but white hair, yellow +hair, red hair, and "To make your hair seem GREEN." Nobody in these days +will use a course of the distilled water of capers to make his hair look +like a meadow; and even, if any body among us, too fastidious as we now +are, wanted yellow hair, we do _not_ think that he would consent to rub +into his head for that purpose honey and the yolk of eggs. There are +also in this part of the work some ungallant recommendations of +substances, which a man may chew in order that, presently breathing near +a lady's cheek, he may discolor it, and so detect her artifice, if she +should happen to be painted. Among "secrets for beautifying the body," +we cannot but think this also indicative of an odd taste; "If you would +change the color of children's eyes, you shall do it thus; with the +ashes of the small nut-shells, with oil you must anoint the forepart of +their head; _it will make the whites of children's eyes black_; DO IT +OFTEN!" + +Concerning wine, it is worth knowing, that to cure a man of drunkenness, +you should put eels into his wine. Delightful dreams will visit the +couch of him who has eaten moderately, for supper, of a horse's tongue, +and taken balm for salad. This is "A means to make a man sleep sweetly," +which we recommend to the attention of all restless people, who have +proper faith in their forefathers. As we have passed over a good many +pages, and come to the "secrets of asses," we may put down, _a propos_ +to nothing, that "If an ass have a stone bound to his tail he cannot +bray." + +The following may be tried in a few months by ladies in the country, who +rise early on a fine spring morning; they may thus earn the delight of +exhibiting to their friends one of the prettiest balloon ascents that +any body can conceive: "In May, fill an egg-shell with May-dew, and set +it in the hot sun at noon-day, and the sun will draw it up." + +The secrets of gardening, known to our forefathers, annihilate all claim +in Sir Joseph Paxton to the commonest consideration. They taught how to +get the blue roses by manuring with indigo, or green roses by digging +verdigris about the roots. They taught the whole art of perfuming fruit, +by steeping the seeds of the future tree in oil of spike, or rose-water +and musk. If, say our ancestors, you would have peaches, plums, or +cherries without any stone, you have only, when the tree is a twig, to +pick out all the pith before you set it. To get your filbert-trees to +bear you fruit all kernel, you have only to crack a nut, and sow the +kernel only, covered with a little wool. And very much more marvellous, +in the annals of gardening, is the receipt for getting peach-trees that +bear fruit covered with inscriptions: "When you have eaten the peach, +steep the stone two or three days in water, and open it gently, and +_take the kernal out of it(!)_ and write something within the shell with +an iron graver, what you please, yet not too deep, then wrap it in paper +and set it; whatever you write in the shell you shall find written in +the fruit." Such shrewd things mingled with the more ordinary knowledge +of our ancestors upon affairs of gardening. + +It will be seen that for many of these "facts" there was a "reason" +close at hand. Our forefathers were wise enough to know that every thing +required properly accounting for. Thus, for example, in "the secrets of +metals:" "Some report that a candle lighted of man's fat, and brought to +the place where the treasures are hid, will discover them with the +noise; and when it is near them it will go out. If this be true, it +ariseth from sympathy; for fat is made of blood, and blood is the seat +of the soul and spirits, and both these are held by the desire of silver +and gold, so long as a man lives; and therefore they trouble the blood; +so here is sympathy." + +If a man would prevent hail from coming down, he is to walk about his +garden, with a crocodile--stuffed, of course--and hang it up in the +middle. Pieces of the skin of a hippopotamus, wherever they are buried, +keep off storms. A thunder-storm also can be put to rout by firing +cannons at it; "for by the force of the sound moving the air, the +exhalations are driven upward." (In the same way, the plague was said to +yield before a cannonade.) "Some who observe hail coming on, bring a +huge looking-glass, and observe the largeness of the cloud, and by that +remedy,--whether objected against, or despised by it, or it is +displeased with it; or whether, being doubled, it gives way to the +other" (in some way or other one must find out a reason), "they suddenly +turn it off and remove it." An owl stuck up in the fields, with its +wings spread, served also as a scare-crow to the tempests. As lightning +conductor on a roof, it was thought wise to put an egg-shell, out of +which a chicken had been hatched on Ascension-day. Thunderbolt stones +were said to sweat during a storm, which was not thought a more +wonderful "fact" than the perspirations streaming out of glass windows +"in winter when the stove is hot." Our ancestors were far too wise to be +surprised at any thing. + +Secrets of alchemy, magic, and astrology are, of course, very profound; +we pass over these and many more; among secrets of cookery we pause, +shuddering. Whipping young pigs to death, to make them tender eating, +used to be quite bad enough; and some of our own hidden devices in the +meat trade are, even now, equally revolting; but here we meet with a +device of the wise ancestors, which may, perhaps, stand at the head of +all culinary horrors. Remembering that these cooks were also apt at +roasting men, we will inflict this illustration on our readers: "_To +roast a Goose alive._ Let it be a duck or goose, or some such lively +creature; but a goose is best of all for this purpose; leaving his neck, +pull off all the feathers from his body, then make a fire round about +him, not too wide, for that will not roast him; within the place set +here and there small pots full of water, with salt and honey mixed +therewith, and let there be dishes set full of roasted apples, and cut +in pieces in the dish, and let the goose be basted with butter all over, +and larded to make him better meat, and he may roast the better; put +fire to it; do not make too much haste, when he begins to roast, walking +about, and striving to fly away; the fire stops him in, and he will fall +to drink water to quench his thirst; this will cool his heart, and the +other parts of his body, and, by this medicament, he looseneth his belly +and grows empty. And when he roasteth and consumes inwardly, always wet +his head and heart with a wet sponge; but when you see him run madding +and stumble, his heart wants moisture, take him away, set him before +your guests, and he will cry as you cut off any part from him, and will +be almost eaten up before he be dead; it is very pleasant to behold." + +Degenerate moderns would most certainly be unable to enjoy such +hospitality, and would be cured as thoroughly of any appetite as if +their host had employed another of the secrets of our ancestors. "That +guests may not eat at table, do this: You must have a needle that dead +people are often sewed up in their winding-sheet; and at beginning of +supper secretly stick this under the table; this will hinder the guests +from eating, that they will rather be weary to sit, than desirous to +eat; take it away when you have laughed at them awhile." + +Take it away, we must say now to the old book. As we have said, our +specimens, drawn from an immense mass of the same kind, do not represent +the sole character of the volume. It states, also, a very large number +of facts, confirmed and explained in the present day, being a fair +transcript of the average standard of opinion among learned doctors upon +a great number of things. Have we not made a little progress since those +good old times, and would it be a pleasant thing to get them back again? +To come home to every man's breakfast-table, we may ask the public to +decide between the coffee now made, and the coffee of the good old +times. In a somewhat expensive book, addressed only to wealthy readers, +Drs. Read and Weckir disclose this secret of good coffee, for the ladies +and gentlemen of 1660:--"Take the berry, put it in a tin pudding-pan, +and when bread hath been in the oven about half-an-hour, put in your +coffee; there let it stand till you draw your bread; then beat it and +sift it; mix it thus: first boyl your water about half-an-hour; to every +quart of water put in a spoonful of the pouder of coffee; then let it +boyl one-third away; clear it off from the setlings; and the next day +put fresh water; and so add every day fresh water, so long as any +setlings remain. _Often Tryed._" + + + + +Authors and Books. + + +ARTHOR SCHOPENHAUER, of Berlin, has recently published _Parerga und +Paralipomena, or little Philosophical Writings_, in which, according to +a Leipsic reviewer, "the author asserts that _his_ philosophy is not +merely the _only_ advance in that department since the days of Kant, but +that _his_ system bears the same relation to all earlier philosophy, +that the New Testament bears to the Old. In addition to this, he +attempts to solve the problem, how can it be possible that he has ever +been as unknown to the literary and scientific world as the Man in the +Moon, while the absurdest and most ridiculous theories, such, for +example, as those of Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel, have been so +generally accepted. But as he, in spite of the most earnest endeavors, +can find no internal ground for this unaccountable blindness of the +public, he seeks it in another direction. These impudent sophists, it +seems, have had no other ground than simply _that of making money_! With +the hocus-pocus of common charlatans they have carried their wares to +market, and as _candidates_ and teachers of philosophy generally spring +up from the same effort, there resulted an alliance of charlatans whose +object it was on the one side to raise themselves to heaven, and on the +other to suppress all true thinking, so that the public might be +prevented, by a just consideration of their own worthlessness." "Such +accusations as those," continues our reviewer, "awaken an unfavorable +impression, which is not in the least diminished by continued boasting +and grandiloquence, and a clumsy roughness of style, which not +unfrequently falls into downright burlesque. The work itself is an odd +mixture of actual recollections and arbitrary fancies, of explanations +and superstitions, which force us to regret that many really admirable +thoughts which occasionally surprise the reader in an assembly of +trivialities and paradoxes, must inevitably be lost. Those philosophers +certainly provoke sharp criticism when we separate their truly +scientific contents from their visions and dispositions, and it would +perhaps be more in accordance with the spirit of the age to return more +earnestly to _Kant_ than most of the more recent philosophers are +accustomed to do. Still nothing is in the least gained for the negative +aim of criticism, when the critic makes it such an easy matter to cast +away, without further consideration, all of the latest advances in +philosophy, because he believes that he has detected errors in their +pretended fundamental thoughts, without first ascertaining whether these +fundamental thoughts are really the leading principle of the system, and +when he on his own side falls into suppositions which have certainly +received long since a satisfactory refutation from the later philosophy; +as, for example, in the Kantean opposition of things in themselves, and +their appearances. The _positive_, with which Herr Schopenhauer believes +that he has enriched science, the derivation of united spiritual +functions from the will, and the correction of the course of the world, +by the idea that the true aim of life is to scorn it, might with greater +propriety be classed in the sphere of 'visions and dispositions,' which +he so fiercely attacks, than in that of science. The discussions which +fill these two volumes, and are spread out over every imaginable +subject, even to ghosts, the possibility of whose existence is admitted, +have naturally a very varied character, and can only, by a continued +polemic, and a fragmentary system of examination harmonizing therewith, +be brought into unity." + + * * * * * + +The second part of WACHSMUTH'S _Allgemeine Culturgeschichte_ (History of +Civilization, for so we venture to translate the word Cultur), which +indicates more strictly all referring to those social influences which +refine, form, and educate society, has recently appeared. The volume +referred to contains _The Middle Ages_, and is highly spoken of for the +skilful manner in which the author has treated the influence exerted by +the Byzantine and Mohammedan races. Another historical work of +importance is the fourth and concluding volume containing the tenth and +twelfth books of HAMMER PURGSTALL'S _Life of Cardinal Khlesl_, compiled +from contemporary documents. In it we have the last diplomatic acts of +the Cardinal, of the intrigues of the Grand Dukes Ferdinand and +Maximilian relative to him, and of his consequent arrest and abduction. +The eleventh book details his imprisonment in Innspruck and in the Abbey +St. Georgenberg, the negotiations with the Pope relative to him, and his +delivery to the latter on the 24th October, 1622. In the twelfth we have +the details of his residence in Rome, of the part he took in instituting +the Propaganda, his return home after an absence of ten years, his +subsequent clerical exertions, and his testament. The conclusion gives a +parallel drawn between Khlesl, Wolsey, and Ximenes--a description of his +personal appearance and an explanation of the exertions of power brought +to bear against him, with the final judgment that those truly to blame +were the grand dukes and not Khlesl, and that the Cardinal, if not +entirely devoid of blame, was still a great character, and one of the +most illustrious statesmen of Austria. Another new historical work is +the _Laben des Herzogs von Sachsen-Gotha und Altenburg, Freiderich II. +Ein Bei trazzur Geschichte Gotha's beim Wechsel d. 17, und 18, Jahrh. +Herausgegeben nach dessen Tode von Dr._ AD. MORITZ SCHULZE, _Director d. +Burgerschule zu Gotha_ (or Life of the Duke of Saxe Gotha and Altenburg, +Frederic the II.) A contribution to the history of Gotha during the +changes of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Published after the +death of the author by Dr. Ad. Moritz Schulze, director of the Citizen +School of Gotha, this work appears to be well and warmly, though +impartially written. + + * * * * * + +In theology, we observe the publication, by ALBERT WESSEL VON HENGEL, of +_Commentarius Perpetuus in Prioris Pauli ad Corinthios Epistolae Caput +Quintum Decimum cum Epistola ad Winerum, Theol. Lips. Haag._ (Boedeker +in Rotterdam). In this book we perceive that the important fifteenth +chapter of the Letter to the Corinthians is philologically treated with +true Dutch thoroughness and remarkable erudition, but that the results +to which he comes are often untenable, and that a satisfactory decision +as to the proposed dogmatic questions, such as advanced theological +science requires, is not given. The peculiar views of the author as to +the aim or object of the chapter have also had an effect on the +explanation of many passages. It is asserted, for instance, _a la_ Bush, +that Paul does not speak of the resurrection of the body, but that he +means by this resurrection the return of all men into life, or +immortality; and regarding this, has in view only those who admit +Christ, and their future happiness; and that even verse forty-nine +contains only a comparison of the _moral_ condition of Christians in +this and a better life. Yet notwithstanding this he finds himself +compelled to admit, by the fifty-second verse, that the same bodies +which we have here on earth, again return to life. By the [Greek: +parousia] of Christ (v. 23) he understands _earthly life_, and by +[Greek: oi tou Christou en te parousia autou], those Christians who +already believed on him while yet on earth, and by the [Greek: telos], +not the end of the world with its universal resurrection and judgment, +but the resurrection of the later Christians. The oft-repeated [Greek: +speiretai] (v. 43) he translates by it is begotten or generated, and +understands it as referring to an entry into earthly life, and that the +[Greek: choikos] of the forty-seventh verse refers to the earthly +_disposition_ or _inclination_, and the [Greek: ex ournou] and [Greek: +epouranios] to that of the heavenly. + + * * * * * + +Among recent books of travel we have _A Journey to Persia and the +country of the Koords_, and the preceding sketch, _Souvenirs of the +Danube and Bosphorus_, by MORITZ WAGNER. The Journey to Persia contains +much curious information and observation of a country but little known +to the outer world, while in the Souvenirs we have bitter complaints and +merciless revelations relative to the Metternich policy in the East, and +the conduct and character of the Austrian diplomatic representative by +the Porte. Many curious facts are also given relative to the present +condition of Turkey, the personal appearance of the Sultan and divers +Constantinopolitan dignitaries and foreign ambassadors. The commendatory +characteristic of this work appears to consist in the fact, that the +author, unlike the great majority of those who are elevated to constant +familiarity with men of high standing and influence, is remarkably +independent and unselfish in his views, and invariably speaks bold plain +truth, even of individuals in whose power it actually lies to do him +very decided injury. No person desirous of being _au courant_ as to the +great political world of the present day, should be ignorant of this +work. + + * * * * * + +A work has recently been published at Ratisbon, entitled. _Die +Katholischon Missionen, Geschildert aus der Neuzeit, Miteinem Anhange, +Zwei Missionen in dem Jahr 1716 und 1718_ (Catholic Missions, Sketched +from recent times, with a supplement; Two Missions in the years 1716 and +1718). Of this performance a German review remarks, that it was once +believed that the power of the Jesuits was for ever broken, but lo! they +again lift their heads in power. "Missions are one of the means by which +they act upon the people--a number of Jesuits repair to a certain place, +and day after day its inhabitants are preached to, taught, confessions +heard, and mass read festally." The book is a eulogium of Catholicism, +and especially of the Jesuits, as its truest representatives, with +occasional passes at democracy, the unbelievers, the administration, and +bureaucracy. It praises Catholicism as the only means whereby the +revolution can be restrained; it tells of devotions to the heart of the +Virgin Mary and her medals, and of the plenary remission which the +missions bring. It exalts the obedience of the Jesuits to their +superiors, and praises the principle that they, without any will of +their own, should be _perinde ac cadaver_--like a corpse. According to +this book, the consequences of these missions are incalculable, and the +love bestowed upon them by the Jesuits truly affecting. It well-nigh +appears the same as if one were reading Chateaubriand's praises of the +_Patres_. Only that history, for the past three hundred years, has given +a somewhat strong contrast to this ideal. The best parts of the book are +sketches of life in the _Bagnos_ of Toulon and Brest. + + * * * * * + +At Berlin, the Scientific Society (_Winenschaftlicher Vereins_) have +been giving a course of lectures to a large and aristocratic audience, +invited by members of the society. Their success has brought out the +Evangelical Society, in another course of a more theological and +religious nature. In the first-named society, Professor Brandes lately +lectured upon the Mormons; but it seems that the majority of the elegant +gentlemen and ladies, did not fully appreciate his efforts for their +instruction, for want of the necessary elementary knowledge. "When the +doctor rose and announced his subject, the question was at once +whispered in all parts of the hall," "Who are the Mormons?" The ladies +in the most brilliant costume were generally the most eager in this +inquiry. But unfortunately they got no satisfaction; the common reply of +the gentleman appealed to being, "I am sorry to say I have forgotten." +Some, more learned than others, however, assured their lovely companions +that the Mormons were an Indian tribe of America, closely connected +with, if not directly descended from, the Hurons, so frequently +mentioned in Cooper's novels. Another amusing misunderstanding recently +occurred in the same course. The lectures are not generally announced +before-hand, but one day the newspapers got hold of the subject, and +informed all the world that Professor Diterici would read a lecture upon +_Pera and the desert festivals_. A great crowd of ladies was the +consequence, all agog to hear about the picturesque costumes and strange +ways of Pera, the national festivals of the Bedouins, and, perhaps, to +have a glimpse at the mysteries of the seraglio. How great was the +disappointment of the fashionable auditory when the learned doctor rose +and began his discourse upon _Petra, the Fastness of the Desert_. That +evening the ladies went home in very ill humor. + + * * * * * + +A work which political students and legislators may read, with +advantage, is the _Wesen und Verfassung der Laadgemeinde_ (Nature and +Constitution of the Country Towns, and of the tenure of Real Estate in +Lower Saxony and Westphalia, with special regard to the Kingdom of +Hanover.) It is by Mr. STUVE, recently the Prime Minister of Hanover, +and is interesting, especially as exhibiting the extent to which the +principle of local self-government obtains in Germany, and the +probabilities and methods of its extension. For its historical view of +the organization of the _commune_ or township in Germany, it is very +valuable. + + * * * * * + +The second part of the _System of Ethics_, by IMANUEL HERMANN (not +Johann Gottlieb) FICHTE, has recently appeared. The anticipations +awakened by the first historico-critical part of the work do not appear +to be satisfactorily realized by this second dogmatic division. + + * * * * * + +Among the most entertaining "books of autobiography must always be +reckoned _The Memoirs of the Margravine of Bayreuth_, daughter of +Frederic William I., and sister of Frederic the Great of Prussia. They +are among the chief sources of the history of the German states during +the last century, and they afford the most striking, if not the most +pleasing, view we have of aristocratic German manners for the same +period. In the London _Literary Gazette_ it is stated that-- + + "The revelations of the Princess, especially concerning the + King of Prussia and his court, if true, are at least not + flattering to the Prussian dynasty; and strenuous attempts + have for years past been making to represent the 'Memoirs of + the Margravine of Bayreuth' as a spurious work, concocted by + the enemies of Prussia, for the express purpose of + humiliating the descendants of Frederic William I. It so + happened, that at the first publication of the book, in + 1810, a rival edition was almost immediately given to the + world in another part of Germany. The publishers of either + book pretended to be in exclusive possession of the original + MS. of the unfortunate Princess. These conflicting claims + furnished the partisans of the court of Berlin with a very + plausible pretext for doubting the genuineness of either. + But of late, Dr. Pertz, of Berlin, when engaged in + collecting still further proofs of the 'literary imposition' + practised by the editors of the two MS., happened to stumble + on the original autograph copy of the Princess among the + books and papers of the Protonotarius Blanet, at Celle, in + Hanover. Herr Blanet had the MS. from Dr. E. Spangenberg, of + Celle, who died in 1833, and who bought it from Colonel + Osten, who, in his turn, had received the MS. from Dr. + Superville, physician to the Princess, to whom it had been + presented by that lady. From a paper read by Dr. Pertz, to + the Royal Academy of Sciences at Berlin, (Berlin: Keimer. + London: Williams and Norgate,) it appears that, of the two + existing editions, the one published at Brunswick, in 1810, + is a copy, though not a faithful or complete one, of the + original MS. This copy in particular wants several sheets. + At all events, the question as to the genuineness of the + 'Memoirs of the Margravine of Bayreuth' is now completely + set at rest; for although Dr. Pertz demonstrates at some + length that many important phrases and parts of phrases are + wanting in the Brunswick edition, he has not ventured to + affirm that any phrases or statements have been added by the + editor." + + * * * * * + +A recent book of travels published at Munich is not utterly devoid of +interest, though it appears to be far inferior to what we should have +expected from the subject. We refer to the _Errimerungen an Italien, +Sicilian and Grieohenland aus den Jahren, 1826-1844_ (Recollections of +Greece, Italy, and Sicily, in the Years 1826-1844), by HEINRICH +FARMBACHER. In company with the king of Bavaria, and as his secretary, +Herr Farmbacher travelled twice to Sicily, once to Greece, and +frequently through Italy. The descriptions of scenes and events appear +in no instance to rise above mediocrity, nor do we find any of that +artistic spirit and observation which might have been anticipated from +an intelligent attendant of the great royal connoisseur. His anecdotes +relative to the monarch himself are rare, trivial, and worthless, for it +does not seem to have occurred to the royal secretary that in such a +work his master to the general reader is a far more attractive +individual than himself. As regards style, the book gives from time to +time curious glimpses of that court lackey language so habitual to the +upper class _flunkies_ of Herr Farmbacher's description, and which it is +impossible for him to entirely suppress even in writing. + + * * * * * + +The distinguished and lamented orientalist KLAPROTH has left behind him +a large map of Central Asia, in four sheets, engraved at Paris by +Berthe, the geographer. This map is the product of ten years' +researches, and exhibits the topography of those vast regions, with the +cities it contains, many of which have hitherto been unknown, and the +names of the tribes inhabiting it. The map is based not only upon the +explorations of travellers, but on the Chinese maps made by order of the +Emperor Kiang-Long, and by missionaries in China and Tartary. It extends +on the north to the frontiers of Siberia, including the great lake +Balaton; on the south to Hindostan; on the west to the sea of Aral and +Persia; and on the east to China. + + * * * * * + +HAFIS is the title prefixed to a new collection of poems, by G. F. +DAUMER, just published at Nuremberg. Daumer is one of the most original +writers in the whole scope of the present German literature. His +_Evangelium_ is especially worthy of a far greater degree of attention +than it has received. It is a volume of brief poems, discussing the +gravest questions with as much warmth and freshness of imagination as +elevation and beauty of style. In this country Daumer is known but to +the few whose acquaintance with German literature extends beyond the +classic writers whose names are familiar to all the world. A Catholic +critic in Germany says of him, that the epitaph once proposed for the +gravestone of Voltaire will suit equally well that of Daumer. It is as +follows: + + "In poesi magnus, + In historia parvus, + In philosophia minimus, + In religione nullus." + + * * * * * + +GUTZKOW'S _Ritter vom Geiste_ has just appeared in a second edition in +Germany--no trifling success for a romance in nine stout volumes; +another German _litterateur_ has also dramatized a part of it. Gutzkow +is, beyond dispute, one of the foremost among the living writers of +Germany. His collected works, published some years since, in twelve +volumes, have lately been increased by a thirteenth, containing several +fugitive stories, and one or two plays that he has brought out at +various times. + + * * * * * + +We heard little of Scandinavian literature until the translations of +Tegner, Frederica Bremer, Oelenschlager, and Hans Christian Andersen, +called our attention to the rich treasures of intellectual activity +produced under that cold northern sky. Of course constant additions are +being made to this literature. Among its recent productions is a comedy +by ANDERSEN, based on a fairy story, called _Hyldemoeer_, which has +lately been performed upon the Danish stage with not very brilliant +success. It is admitted to be inferior to his stories, as have been his +former attempts at dramatic composition. C. MOLBACH announces, at +Copenhagen, a Danish translation of DANTE'S _Divina Commedia_; the same +author has just published a volume of original poems under the title of +_Twilight_. A very industriously-prepared and useful work is J. H. +EOSLEN'S _General Literary Dictionary_, from the year 1814 to 1840, of +which the thirteenth part has just appeared. In Norway, F. M. BUGGE +announces a translation of the _Iliad_ into Norwegian hexameters, to be +published by subscription. A Norwegian dictionary, by IWAR AASEN is +highly commended. + + * * * * * + +A very sharp controversy is now being waged by the scholars of Denmark +and Schleswig. The Danes resort to philology in order to prove the right +of their country to extend its government over the Germans of that +Duchy, and the other party meet their onslaught with weapons equally +keen, drawn also from the arsenals of dictionaries and grammars. The +best of the quarrel hitherto seems to be on the side of the +Schleswigers, whose great champion is one Herr Clement, a man of as much +learning as talent. In a recent essay, he establishes that the original +inhabitants of Schleswig were not Danes but Angles, or Frieslanders, +essentially the same race as the original Saxon stock of England. In +illustration of this doctrine he adduces an immense list of names of +places which are the same in Schleswig and England--as, for instance, +Ripen and Ripon, Ellum and Elham, Roedding and Reading, Meldorp and +Milthorp, Wilstrup and Wilthorpe, &c., &c. This essay will probably be +expanded into a book. + + * * * * * + +The German critics are discussing with high encomiums a volume of poems +by ANNETTE VON DROSTE, a deceased poetess of Westphalia. It is entitled +_Das Religioese Jahr_ (The Religious Year), and is inspired with that +absolute devotion which lends so great a charm to the poems of +Montgomery, the Moravians, and the mystical writers generally. + + * * * * * + +BYRON'S _Manfred_, with musical accompaniments, by R. Schumann, is about +to be produced at the Weimar theatre. + + * * * * * + +JAHN, the well-known Leipsic professor, is engaged in writing a life of +Beethoven. + + * * * * * + +RICHARD WAGNER, the revolutionist, musical composer, and writer upon +aesthetics, has published a new work, entitled _Oper und Drama_ (Opera +and Drama), which the German critics fall upon with considerable +ferocity. They complain that while he entirely rejects the old form of +the opera, he does not indicate what is the new kind of musical drama to +be substituted for it. Wagner has also published _Three Opera Poems_, +which the same critics cannot but praise for their originality, power, +and inspiration. If the music of these operas is adequate to the +_libretti_, say they, they are really new and grand productions. This +would seem, also, to be proved by the fact that one of them has been +brought out at Weimar, through the influence and under the direction of +Liszt. The author is living in exile in Switzerland, and is engaged upon +a dramatic trilogy with a prelude. He no longer professes to write +operas, but musical dramas. + + * * * * * + +An attempt has been made in Germany to register the enormous number of +books and pamphlets which the Germans themselves have published on their +two great poets, Goethe and Schiller. A catalogue of the Goethean +literature in Germany, from 1793 to 1851, has been published by Balde, +at Cassel, and in London by Williams and Norgate. The Schiller +literature, from 1781 to 1851, is likewise announced by the same firm. + + * * * * * + +A very excellent translation of sundry old Scottish and English ballads +has just made its appearance at Munich, from the pen of W. DOENNIGER. It +contains sixteen Scotch and seventeen English ballads, from the +fourteenth to the seventeenth centuries, all rendered with great +fidelity, and in the true spirit of the original. So successful is the +book that a second edition of it is about to appear, with illustrations +by Kaulbach, Voltzen, and other eminent artists. + + * * * * * + +The _Augsburg Gazette_ states that the Congregation of the Index has +just prohibited all the works of Eugene Sue and Proudhon; also a +clerical Turin paper, called the _Buona Novella_; a work on animal +magnetism, by Tomasi; a manual for schoolmasters, printed at Asti in +1850; and all the works of Gioberti. + + * * * * * + +A book to be read by the students of literature and by critics is +HETTNER'S _Moderne Drama_, just published at Brunswick. We do not know +of a profounder and keener discussion of the principles and laws of +dramatic writing, or of more just and striking dramatic criticisms than +it contains. + + * * * * * + +LAYARD'S popular account of his excavations and discoveries at Nineveh +has been translated into German by one of the Meissners (not the poet, +we believe), and is published at Leipsic. + + * * * * * + +FRAULEIN FRIEDERIKE FRIEDEMANN has published, at Leipsic, a metrical +version of Lord BYRON'S _Corsair_, which is worthy of all commendation. +The gloomy hue and passionate vehemence of the original are preserved in +the translation with surprising fidelity, and the rhythm is hardly less +perfect than in Byron's English itself. + + * * * * * + +The last number of the _Theologische Quartalschrift_ (Theological +Quarterly), published at Tuebingen, by Laupp, contains an interesting +paper on the pretended objections to the historical truth of the +Pentateuch, by WELTE; the critical historical examination of the xxxi. +xxxii. Jeremiah, by REINKE; and the Aloge, with their relations to the +Montanists, by HEFELE. + + * * * * * + +MR. GEORGE STEPHENS, the translator of Tegner's _Frithiof's Saga_, and +whose intimate acquaintance with the early literature of Sweden has been +shown by the collection of legends of that country which he edited in +conjunction with Hylten-Cavallius, and by various works superintended by +him for the _Svenska Fornskrift-Salskapet_, (a sort of Stockholm Camden +Society,) has removed to Copenhagen in consequence of his having been +appointed Professor of the English Language and Literature in the +University there. The subject of his first course of lectures was +Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. We have in our possession the MS. +translations of some very interesting ancient Swedish poems made by Mr. +Stephens some five years ago, and not yet published. + + * * * * * + +The London _Leader_, socialist and avowedly and industriously infidel, +says of EUGENE SUE, not long ago the rage of half the world: + + "We have to announce the third and last volume of Eugene + Sue's _Fernand Duplessis_, wherein the memoirs of a husband + are recounted with a license which only a French public + could permit. Perhaps the worst thing in Sue is not his + positive passion for what is criminal and odious, so much as + the way in which he always contrives to render the good + people odious. Much as we reprobate his pictures of vice, we + think them less offensive than his pictures of virtue. How a + man so essentially vulgar-minded could ever have attained + the position he had once!" + + * * * * * + +M. ALFRED VILLEFORT has published at Paris a treatise on literary and +artistic property in an international point of view. It not only +discusses the question as a matter of principle, but gives the history +of the negotiations and treaties which France has made in that respect +with the nations. + + * * * * * + +Among the pleasant books recently published in France is ARSENE +HOUSSAYE'S volume of stories, _Les Filles d'Eve_, very piquant and +French in its treatment. A translation is announced in this city by +Redfield. + + * * * * * + +The literary event of the month at Paris is the publication of the third +volume of LOUIS BLANC'S _History of the French Revolution_. Of all the +works written upon that memorable epoch, none is more marked by +originality of thought and power of treatment than this, and we can only +hope that the present volume, which we have not yet seen, may prove +equal to its predecessors. Its table of contents is as follows: Attitude +of Property toward the Revolution, Attitude of the Gospel toward the +Revolution, Tableau of the Constituent Assembly, First Labors of the +Constituent Assembly, Administration of Necker, People Starving, +Treasury Empty, A New Power, Journalism, Faction of the Count de +Provence, The Fifteen Complots, The Women of Versailles, The King +brought to Paris, The Court at the Tuileries, Municipal and Military +Organization of the Bourgeoisie, The Wealth of the Clergy Denounced, War +of the Bourgeoisie on the Clergy, The Authority of the Parliaments +Discussed, War of the Bourgeoisie on the Parliaments, The Ambition of +Mirabeau, Complots of the Luxembourg, New Organization of the Kingdom. +The _Leader_ mentions that Mr. Blanc undertakes to _prove_ that Egalite +was not at the bottom of those conspiracies with which his name has been +associated, but that the real culprit was the Comte de Provence, +afterwards Louis XVIII. + + * * * * * + +M. EDMOND TEXIER, one of the most fresh and agreeable of that race of +literary butterflies, the _feuilletonists_ of Paris, is publishing a +large work upon that great capital, which promises to be as readable as +its exterior is splendid. It is to be ornamented with some two thousand +engravings on wood, representing all the prominent and famous public +edifices and places which not only figure so largely in history, but are +so splendid in themselves. The title of M. Texier's work is the _Tableau +de Paris_. It appears in parts. + + * * * * * + +The publication of the magnificent work, the _Catacombs de Rome_, for +which the French National Assembly voted $40,000, will shortly commence, +under the direction of a commission nominated by the Government, +consisting of Messrs. Ampere (now in the United States), Ingres, +Prosper, Merinice, and Vitel, all members of the Institute. The work +will contain exact copies of the architecture, mural paintings, +inscriptions, figures, symbols, sepulchres, lamps, vases, rings, +instruments, in a word, of every thing belonging to, or connected with, +the primitive Christians, which by the most diligent search, exercised +during many years, have been brought to light in the catacombs of +ancient Rome. Its enormous price, between $250 and $300, will, however, +keep it out of the hands of all but the wealthy. Another work on the +same subject and of similar character is announced in Rome, under the +direction of the ecclesiastical government. + + * * * * * + +A volume purporting to contain thirty hitherto unpublished Letters of +SHELLEY, appeared a few weeks ago from the press of Moxon, in London, +edited by Robert Browning. It appears from an article in the _Athenaeum_ +that these--letters, and many others recently sold to publishers and +autograph collectors, are forgeries. The book referred to is of course +suppressed. The _Athenaeum_ inquires: + + "From whom did Mr. Moxon buy these letters? They were bought + at Sotheby & Wilkinson's, at large prices. From whom did + Messrs. Sotheby and Wilkinson receive them for sale? 'We had + them from Mr. White, the bookseller in Pall Mall, over + against the Reform Club.' Off runs the gentle man-detective. + 'From whom did you, Mr. White, obtain these letters?' 'I + bought them of two women--I believed them to be genuine, and + I paid large prices for them in that belief.' Such are the + words supposed to have been spoken by Mr. White. The two + women would appear to have been like the man in a + clergyman's band, but with a lawyer's gown, who brought + Pope's letters to Curll. + + "It is proper to say thus early that there has been of late + years, as we are assured, a most systematic and wholesale + forgery of letters purporting to be written by Byron, + Shelley, and Keats,--that these forgeries carry upon them + such marks of genuineness as have deceived the entire body + of London collectors,--that they are executed with a skill + to which the forgeries of Chatterton and Ireland can lay no + claim,--that they have sold at public auctions, and by the + hands of booksellers, to collectors of experience and + rank--and that the imposition has extended to a large + collection of books bearing not only the signature of Lord + Byron, but notes in many of their pages--the matter of the + letters being selected with a thorough knowledge of Byron's + life and feelings, and the whole of the books chosen with + the minutest knowledge of his tastes and peculiarities. + + "But the 'marvel' of the forgery is not yet told. At the + same sale at which Mr. Moxon bought the Shelley letters were + catalogued for sale a series of (unpublished) letters from + Shelley to his wife, revealing the innermost secrets of his + heart, and containing facts, not wholly dishonorable facts + to a father's memory, but such as a son would wish to + conceal. These letters were bought in by the son of Shelley, + the present Sir Percy Shelley--and are now proved, we are + told, to be forgeries. To impose on the credulity of a + collector is a minor offence compared with the crime of + forging evidence against the dead, and still minor as, in + one instance, against the fidelity of a woman. + + "The forgery of Chatterton injured no one but an imaginary + priest; the forgery of Ireland made a great poet seem to + write worse than Settle could have written; but this forgery + blackens the character of a great man, and, worse still, + traduces female virtue. + + "Mr. Moxon is not the only publisher taken in. Mr. Murray + has been a heavy sufferer, though not to the same extent. + Mr. Moxon has printed his Shelley purchases; Mr. + Murray--wise through Mr. Moxon's example--_will not_ publish + his Byron acquisitions." + +These forgeries seem to us to have been very clumsily executed. + + * * * * * + +The London _Athenaeum_ contains a very interesting letter from Mr. PAYNE +COLLIER, in which he gives an account of the discovery of a copy of the +second folio edition of Shakspeare, with numerous important corrections +of the text, apparently by some learned contemporary actor, whose memory +of parts, or access to original MSS., enabled him to restore all the +readings vitiated by careless transcription or printing. Mr. Collier has +such faith in these _errata_ that he does not hesitate to avow that he +would have adopted a large portion of them in his own edition of +Shakspeare, had they been known to him when that was printed. Of the +several instances he offers, this will serve as a specimen: + + "An embarrassment meets us in the very outset of _Measure + for Measure_,--where the Duke, addressing Escalus, observes, + in the ordinary reading: + + "'Of government the properties to unfold + Would seem in me t' affect speech and discourse; + Since I am put to know, that your own science + Exceeds, in that, the lists of all advice + My strength can give you: then, no more remains, + But that to your sufficiency as your worth is able, + And let them work.' + + --The meaning is pretty evident; but the expression of that + meaning is obscure and corrupt,--as indeed the measure alone + would establish. Various conjectural modes of setting the + passage right have been proposed; and perhaps what follows + from my corrected folio of 1632 has no better + foundation,--but, at all events, it restores both the sense + and the metre, and may, for aught we know, give the very + words of Shakspeare: + + "'Of government the properties to unfold + Would seem in me t' affect speech and discourse; + Since I am _apt_ to know, that your own science + Exceeds (in that) the lists of all advice + My strength can give you; Then, no more remains + But _add_ to your sufficiency your worth, + And let them work.' + + --How 'that' in the old editions came to be printed for + _add_ and how 'is able' came to be foisted in, most + unnecessarily and awkwardly, at the end of the same line, it + is not easy to explain. The third line is also much cleared + by the substitution of _apt_ for 'put,'--which was an easy + misprint: 'Apt to know' is an expression of every-day + occurrence." + + * * * * * + +SIR JAMES STEPHEN, whose excellent _Lectures on the History of France_ +have been so well received, proposes to deliver, at Cambridge, a series +of twenty lectures on the _Diplomatic History of France during the reign +of Louis XIV._, comprising a review of the treaties of Westphalia, of +the Pyrenees, of Breda, of the Triple Alliance, of Aix-la-Chapelle, of +Nimeguen, of Ryswick, and of Utrecht. + + * * * * * + +MISS CHARLOTTE VANDENHOFF, whose professional tour in the United States +will be remembered by old play-goers, has written a piece under the +title of _Woman's Heart_, possessing considerable poetical merits, and +herself sustained the character of the heroine in its representation. + + * * * * * + +MR. CARLYLE, is engaged upon a new work in history, but its subject is +not disclosed, nor its extent. + + * * * * * + +MRS. ROBINSON, who left New-York several months ago to visit her +relations in Germany, writes from Berlin to the _Athenaeum_, under date +of February 2, as follows: + + "A work appeared in London last summer with the following + title: _Talvi's History of the Colonization of America_, + edited by William Hazlitt, in two volumes. It seems proper + to state that the original work was written under favorable + circumstances _in German_, and published in Germany. It + treated only of the colonization of _New England_: and that + only stood on its title-page. The above English publication, + therefore, is a mere translation, and it was made without + the consent or knowledge of the author. The very title is a + misnomer; all references to authorities are omitted; and the + whole work teems with errors, not only of the press, but + also of translation,--the latter such as could have been + made by no person well acquainted with the German and + English tongues. For the work in this form, therefore, the + author can be in no sense whatever responsible. + + TALVI." + + + +From a more recent number of the _Athenaeum_ it appears that Mr. Hazlitt +is not himself the translator of the original work; and the +responsibility, not only of the translation, but of all the faults +charged which might seem more especially editorial, is transferred by +him to another. Mr. Hazlitt, we believe, is a son of the great critic of +the last age. + + * * * * * + +There are connected with the newspapers a considerable number of +weak-minded and absurd persons, who delight in strange coincidences and +the most inconceivable relations, and who, for a certain consciousness +they have of their own slight claims to consideration are anxious to +find on every occasion, some indication of regard for their vocation, as +if credit won by any journalist or writer were portion of a common fund +of respectability from which they could draw a dividend. In no other way +can we account for the thousand-and-one articles in which the +appointments of Dr. LAYARD and Mr. D'ISRAELI have been referred to as +"honor," "homage," &c., to literature. Dr. Layard was selected by Lord +Granville to be an Under-Secretary of State, because he had shown +himself in the admirable manner in which he discharged certain important +diplomatic functions in the East, better fitted, in Lord Granville's +opinion, than any other person for the new duties to which it was +proposed to summon him. Mr. D'Israeli has long been one of the most +conspicuous and astute politicians in England, and owes his present +office solely to his activity and eminence in affairs. There was as +little of "recognition of the claims of literature" in either case, as +there was praise of fiddlesticks or Carolina potatoes. It would not be a +whit more ridiculous to say that the French people, remembering the +happy genius displayed by Napoleon Bonaparte in his "Supper of +Beaucaire," chose him to be their emperor. + +In the new British ministry are an unusual number of book-makers. The +most conspicuous in authorship is the now Right Honorable Benjamin +D'Israeli, "the wondrous boy who wrote _Alroy_, in rhyme and prose, only +to show how long ago victorious Judah's lion banner rose." Sir Emerson +Tennent, Sir Edward Sugden, Lord John Manners, Mr. Whiteside, the Earl +of Malmesbury, Lord de Roos, are all known as authors, as well as +politicians. The Duke of Northumberland also is favorably known as a +zealous promoter of arts and learning. + + * * * * * + +The author of _Life in Bombay and the Neighboring Stations_, pays the +following testimony to the abilities of the manoeuvring mammas of +Bombay: "The bachelor civilians are always the grand aim; for, however +young in the service they may be, their income is always vastly above +that of the military man, to say nothing of the noble provision made by +the fund for their widows and children. We remember being greatly +amused, soon after our arrival in the country, at overhearing a lady +say, in reference to her daughter's approaching marriage with a young +civilian: 'Certainly, I could have wished my son-in-law to be a little +more steady; but then it is L300 a-year for my girl, dead or alive!'" + + * * * * * + +A volume of brilliant French criticism will be published in a few days +by Charles Scribner, under the title of _Anglo-American Literature and +Manners_, by PHILARETE CHASLES, Professor in the College of France. Mr. +Chasles, in a book of five hundred pages, considers the literature and +manners of the people of the United States--their institutions, capacity +for self-government, actual condition and probable future--with all the +sprightly grace of a Frenchman, and with a great deal of cleverness +prosecutes his industrious researches from the landing of the Mayflower +to the present day. He finds in the United States neither an Utopia, nor +a land worthy merely of ridicule. He does not simply condemn, like some +travellers, nor give us universal and unreasonable praise, as our +egotism and contentment lead us to desire, but takes a fair view of the +country, its claims, position, and prospects. In the beginning of his +performance he considers that the most essential thing for the founding +of a new commonwealth, is moral force; this he finds in the Puritans, +who possessed "sincerity, belief, perseverance, courage;" they could +"wait, fight, suffer." Their energy, he thinks, comes from their +Teutonic or Saxon blood; their indomitable perseverance is a fruit of +Calvinism, added to which they are clannish, or mutual helpers one of +another. This is the key to the philosophical, political and prophetic +portion of his work. The literary part is honest criticism, freely +spoken, by the aid of such light as happened to be around him. He begins +with the landing of the Pilgrims, speaks of their literature, which, +like all other American literature down to the present day, he regards +as destitute of originality. Franklin, Jonathan Edwards, and others, all +lack this quality. The author of the _American Cultivator_ has the most +of it; but Franklin is made up of Fenelon, Banyan, and Addison; Edwards +partakes of Hobbes, Priestley, and in his better moments of the close +reasoning Descartes. He gives us then a politician, a journalist, and a +gentleman, "the American Aristocrat" as he calls him, Gouverneur Morris, +our minister at Paris during the old revolution. Brockden Brown is +characterized as a copyist of Monk Lewis; and he comes then to +Washington Irving, but while all the charms of this delightful writer +are thoroughly appreciated and minutely described, it is denied that he +has originality. "In some square house in Boston, he sees in thought St. +James's Park: in reveries he is led through the umbrageous alleys of +Kensington--he talks with Sterne--he shakes hands with Goldsmith." "It +is a copy, somewhat timid, of Addison, of Steele, of Swift." You would +think of him as of "a young lady of good family, a slave to propriety, +never elevating her voice, never exaggerating the _ton_, never +committing the sin of eloquence;" "a refined continuation of the style +of Addison," &c. Nevertheless a dawn of freshness appears in his +writings when they treat of forest scenes. This dawn advances into day +in Cooper, upon whom we have an admirable critique. The author of _The +Spy_, M. Chasles thinks, has a native vigor unknown to Irving. Paulding +is dismissed with but very little consideration. Channing occupies the +critic longer, but is found to be an unsatisfactory and too general +reasoner. Audubon furnishes the most attractive chapter in the book, +which closes with what is called the First Literary Epoch of the United +States. + +The next division is of the _Literature of the People, and the falsely +popular Literature of England and the States_. One thoughtful chapter is +given to the infancy and future of America; the age and despair of +Europe, of emigration, and colonization. Then, the popular movements in +France and England are treated of, and the education of the masses. +Crabbe, Burns, Elliott, Thomas Cooper and others serve as a text. +Popular literature is found to be less anarchical in America than in +Europe. We have a chapter on Herman Melville; and then the Americans are +viewed through the spectacles of Marryatt, Trolloppe, Dickens, and their +exaggerations are noted. The force of public opinion and of the press +conclude the section. Our poets have two chapters: I. Barlow, Dwight, +Colton, Payne, Sprague, Dana, Drake, Pierrepont; Female Poets; and +Street and Halleck. II, Bryant, Emerson, and Longfellow. _Tom +Stapleton_, by an Irish Sunday newspaper reporter, and _Puffer Hopkins_, +by Mr. Cornelius Matthews, one chapter; Stephens, Silliman, and others +represent the travellers; a chapter is dedicated to Arnold and Andre; +Haliburton's _Sam Slick_ concludes the criticism; and the book ends with +_The Future of Septentrional America and the United States_--what a +"Bee" is, how an American village is got up, the aggregative principles +of Americans, the Lowell Lectures, Democrats and Whigs--and then, +far-seeing prophetic talking, conclude what the author has to say about +us. + + * * * * * + +The well-known school book publishers of Philadelphia, THOMAS, +COWPERTHWAIT, & CO., have just published a large duodecimo of five +hundred and fifty-eight pages. _The Standard Speaker, containing +Exercises in Prose and Poetry, for Declamation in Schools, Academies, +Lyceums, and Colleges, newly Translated or Compiled from celebrated +Orators, Authors, and Popular Debaters, Ancient and Modern; a Treatise +on Oratory and Elocution; and Notes Explanatory and Biographical_--by +EPES SARGENT. This book bears abundant evidences of editorial research +and labor. The original translations would form a volume of respectable +size, and they are all strikingly adapted to the purpose of elocutionary +practice. Some passages of fervid eloquence from Mirabeau, Robespierre +and Victor Hugo are given. Ancient eloquence is also well represented in +new and spirited translations. The department of British Parliamentary +oratory, shows extracts from Pym, Chatham, Barre, Wilkes, Thurlow, +Grattan, Pitt, Fox, Sheridan, Curran, Canning, Brougham, O'Connell, +Sheil, Macaulay, Croker, Talfourd, Palmerston, Cobden, and many others, +and in nine instances out of ten the exercises are compiled originally +for this volume. The American department is quite rich, and while the +old masterpieces of Patrick Henry, Ames, Randolph, Clay, Calhoun, +Webster, Hayne, and others are retained, a large number of fresh and +striking pieces are introduced from the eloquence of Congress and the +American lecture room. + +In its dramatic and poetical novelties the work is of course amply +supplied. Mr. Sargent's editorial experience here has enabled him to add +much that other compilers have entirely overlooked. In the adaptation of +the exercises, great discrimination has been shown. They are of the +right length, pithy, and calculated to engage the attention of the +young. A new and valuable feature of the work is the introduction of +notes, biographical and explanatory. In the instances of authors not +contemporary the dates of their birth and death are given. An +introductory treatise, comprising much practical information on the +subject of elocution, gives completeness to the volume. Such is the +Standard Speaker; and while it will be found to justify its title in the +retention of all the standard specimens of rhetoric suitable for its +purposes, it presents in its large proportion of new exercises of a high +character, fresh and enduring claims to popularity. + + * * * * * + +_The Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli_, by RALPH WALDO EMERSON, WILLIAM +ELLERY CHANNING, and JAMES FREEMAN CLARKE, published a few weeks ago by +Phillips, Sampson & Co., of Boston, are generally praised in the +critical journals, but in this country, where the subject was generally +known in literary circles, there is a common feeling of surprise at the +artistic and successful _exaggeration_ of her capacities and virtues. +The book, however, is in parts delightfully written, and the melancholy +fate of the heroine gives it a character of romance apart from its +merits as a biographical and critical composition. The _Athenaeum_ thus +refers to some additional _material_ for her memoirs, which, it strikes +us, should have been communicated to the custodians of her reputation at +an earlier day: + + "We have received permission to state that poor Margaret + Fuller, on the eve of that visit to the Continent which was + to prove so eventful and disastrous, left in the hands of a + friend in London a sealed packet, containing, it is + understood, the journals which she kept during her stay in + England. Margaret Fuller--as they who saw her here all + know--contemplated at that time a return to England at no + very distant date;--and the deposit of these papers was + accompanied by an injunction that the packet should then be + restored with unbroken seal into her hands. No provision was + of course made for death:--and here we believe the lady in + possession feels herself in a difficulty, out of which she + does not clearly see her way. The papers are likely to be of + great interest, and were doubtless intended for publication; + but the writer had peremptorily reserved the right of + revision to herself, and forbidden the breaking of the + seals, on a supposition which fate has now made impossible. + It seems to us, that the equity of the case under such + circumstances demands only a reference to Margaret Fuller's + heir, whoever that may be; and with his or her concurrence, + the lady to whom these MSS. were intrusted--and who probably + knows something of the author's feeling as to their + contents--may very properly constitute herself literary + executor to her unfortunate friend." + + * * * * * + +Of BAYARD TAYLOR _The Tribune_ said a few days ago: + + "By the Niagara's mail we have had the pleasure of receiving + letters from our friend and associate Bayard Taylor,--or as + he his known among the Arabs, Taylor Bey,--dated at + Khartoum, the chief city of Sennaar, situated at the + confluence of the White and the Blue Nile, about half way + between Cairo and the Equator. He arrived there on the 12th + of January in excellent health and spirits, after a journey + on camels across the Nubian Desert, during which he had + sundry fortunate adventures, and received every friendly + attention from the native chieftains. He was the first + American ever seen so far toward Central Africa, and like a + good patriot never slept without the stars and stripes + floating above his tent. Every where good luck had attended + him,--in truth he seems to have been born to it,--but at + Khartoum especially he was received with unexpected honors. + The governor of the city had presented him with a horse, and + had entertained him in a banquet of genuine Ethiopic + magnificence, while the commander of the troops had + stationed a nightly guard of honor around his tent. In + company with Dr. Knoblecher, the venerable Catholic + missionary bound for the equatorial regions whom he had + overtaken at Khartoum, and of Dr. Deitz, the Austrian + Counsel, Mr. Taylor had also attended a banquet at the + palace of the daughter of the late king of Sennaar, a very + stately and ebon princess, who entertained her guests + chiefly upon sheep roasted whole. Others of the first + families among the Ethiopian aristocracy had also welcomed + the strangers with distinguished civilities. Mr. Taylor + expected to reach Cairo on his return about the 1st of + April, though we should not be surprised to learn that he + had changed his mind, and, in company with the Jesuit + mission, plunged still farther into the mysterious country + about the equator and the sources of the Nile." + + * * * * * + +Several new works by our literary women are on the eve of publication. +Redfield has nearly ready _Lyra and other Poems_, by ALICE CAREY--a book +containing more illustrations of unquestionable genius than any other +written by a woman in America; and he will also publish soon, _Isa, a +Pilgrimage_, a romance by Miss Caroline CHEESEBRO', which is likely to +attract a great deal of attention. Putnam has in press, _The Shield, a +Story of the New World_, by Miss FENIMORE COOPER, whose _Rural Hours_, +last year, commanded every where so much well-merited praise, and a new +story by Miss WARNER, of whose _Wide, Wide World_ (edited in London by a +"Clergyman of the Church of England"), a recent number of the _Literary +Gazette_ says: + + "This American tale has met with extraordinary success + across the Atlantic. Within a very short time several large + impressions were disposed of, and the sale still continues + to be rapid. Of the causes of this popularity, there is one + which will rather operate against a similar run of favor on + this side of the water. A large part of the book refers to + 'the old country,' and American readers eagerly seek what + pertains to English life or history. But the book has many + merits, apart from the incidents of its scenery and + character. The authoress writes with liveliness and + elegance; her power of discriminating and presenting + character is great; in describing the feelings and ways of + young people, she is especially happy, and an air of + cheerful piety pervades the whole work. We shall not attempt + to give any idea of the story, or of its principal + personages, but content ourselves with commending it as a + book which will please and instruct others than the young, + for whom it is chiefly intended. The authoress seems herself + young, and if so, we may expect other works from a spirit so + lively and communicative. Who the editor is we have no + knowledge, but he has taken liberties with the original not + always warranted, and to an extent greater than can be + approved without previous consultation. On the whole, + however, he has done his part well, and in his prefatory + note justly characterizes the merits of the writer, of whom + we shall gladly hear more." + +Miss Warner's new book is entitled _Queechy_--the name of its scene, we +suppose--and it is said to be very different in character from her first +production. + + * * * * * + +Dr. DUNGLISON'S _Medical Dictionary_, of which a new and much enlarged +edition has been published by Blanchard & Lea, is one of those +professional works which are almost indispensable in a gentleman's +library. Every person has sometimes occasion to consult a work of this +kind, and there is no other in English so masterly in treatment, or so +perspicuous in style. Dr. Dunglison keeps up with all the departments of +the literature of his science, and, through his quick, comprehensive, +and practical understanding, we have in this volume the best results of +the world's experiment and study in medicine down to the beginning of +the present half century. + + * * * * * + +A new and complete edition of the Poetical Works of GEORGE P. MORRIS +will be published in October, amply and most elaborately illustrated +with engravings after original designs by Robert W. Weir. The +distinction of Gen. Morris is, that he is a great song writer. The +naturalness, simplicity, unity, and pervading grace of his pieces, do +not so much constitute their characteristic, as the exquisite music of +their cadences, justifying the praise of Braham, that they sing +themselves. The new edition will surpass any other in completeness, and +in artistic execution will not be inferior to any volume ever published +in the United States. + + * * * * * + +Mr. C. L. BRACE, who has tasted in person the sweets of Austrian rule, +by his imprisonment in Hungary, has in press a book of Hungarian +travels, and observations upon the political situation and prospects of +that country. The personal history of an American in Hungary, who +enjoyed rare opportunities of intimate intercourse with the inhabitants, +will be a very valuable addition to our literature, and will make a most +readable and seasonable book. Of the quality of Mr. BRACE'S ability, and +of the faithfulness of his observation and record, his letters to the +New-York _Tribune_ are satisfactory evidence. (Scribner.) + + * * * * * + +Mr. TICKNOR'S admirable _History of Spanish Literature_ by no means +fails of the high consideration to which it is entitled from the best +critics of Europe. One of the best translations of it is in Spanish, by +Don PASCUAL DE GAYANGOS Y DON ENRIQUE DE VEDIA (_con adiciones y notas +criticas_), Mr. Ticknor having communicated some notes and corrections +to the two translators, who have added from their own store. A second +translation is coming out in Germany, also containing important +additions, in part from material and suggestions furnished by the +accomplished author. + + * * * * * + +ARVINE'S _Anecdotes of Literature and the Arts_ is an agreeable +miscellany; but the neglect of the editor to give credits in cases where +he adopts entire pages from well-known books, deserves rebuke. The +eighth number has been published by Gould & Lincoln of Boston, and it +completes the work. + + * * * * * + +The work of Mr. STILES, which we have noticed elsewhere in this number +of the _International_, we understand, will be published by the Harpers, +in two large octavo volumes, about the first of May. It contains a +complete history of the revolutionary proceedings in the Austrian empire +in 1848. Mr. Stiles witnessed much that he describes. Each section is +introduced by an historical survey of the country where the events +described occurred. Thus Venice, Prague, and Vienna are brought before +the reader in all their past glory and recent political vicissitudes. +The Hungarian war is amply chronicled. The work is moderate in tone, +authentic, fresh, and abounding in interesting facts. It will be +illustrated by engravings, executed in Germany, of the Emperor, Archduke +John, Kossuth, and other chief characters. + + * * * * * + +Dr. A. K. GARDINER, whose clever book about Paris, under the title of +_Old Wine in New Bottles_, is well known, has just published a +noticeable lecture, delivered before the College of Physicians and +Surgeons, on the _History of the Art of Midwifery_. It is most +conclusive upon the point of the unfitness of women for any of the more +delicate and important duties in obstetrics, and is a sufficient +argument for the immediate abolition of the so-called "Female Colleges." +We recommend it to the attention of readers who feel any interest in the +subject.--(Stringer & Townsend.) + + * * * * * + +Mrs. H. C. CONANT, wife of the learned Professor of Hebrew in the +Rochester University, has published (through Lewis Colby, Nassau-street) +another of NEANDER'S Commentaries, done into terse and vigorous +English--_The Epistle of James Practically Explained_. It is needless to +praise the great German, and it will readily be believed, by those who +are acquainted with the fine abilities and thorough scholarship of Mrs. +Conant, that this translation is in all respects admirable. + + * * * * * + +We are soon to have a new dramatic poem from Mr. GEORGE H. BOKER, whose +_Calaynos_, _Anne Bullen_, and _Ivory Carver and other Poems_, have +secured to him very high and well-deserved reputation as a literary +artist. We do not think any sonnets written in this country are to be +preferred to Mr. Boker's, and his _Ballad of Sir John Franklin_, +published a few months ago in this magazine, is full of imagination, and +is marked throughout with the nicest skill in execution. + + * * * * * + +The last work of the late Professor STUART, a _Commentary on the Book of +Proverbs_, has been published by M. W. DODD, in a large duodecimo +volume. It contains a full account of the principal commentaries written +on this book, and the translations and paraphrases made into different +languages, with a new version, and exegetical remarks. A memoir of +Professor Stuart is in preparation. + + * * * * * + +Mr. RICHARD B. KIMBALL, the accomplished author of _St. Leger_, leaves +New York in a few days for a tour through Europe. No one among our +younger authors has risen more rapidly in the public regard, or +established a good reputation in literature upon a surer basis. +Imagination, scholarship, and profound reflection, characterize nearly +all his performances. The admirable story written by him for the present +number of the _International_, we believe, is true in every essential +but the name of the heroine. It is a reminiscence of Mr. Kimball's +student life in Paris, where, for a time, he walked the hospitals with +his friend, the well-known Dr. O. H. Partridge, now one of the most +distinguished physicians of Philadelphia, who is one of the dramatis +personae of _Emilie de Coigny_. + + * * * * * + +Mr. JOHN P. KENNEDY pronounced, in Baltimore, on the anniversary of the +birth of Washington, a very eloquent and wise discourse, in which the +state of the nation with respect to possible entanglements in foreign +affairs, and implications by needless artificial ties in the +vicissitudes of European politics, were treated in a manner worthy of a +statesman of the school of the Great Chief. The occasion was also +improved in Philadelphia by the Rev. Dr. BOARDMAN, who, in a discourse +entitled _Washington or Kossuth_ (published by Lippincott, Grambo, & +Co.), discusses the same great subjects in a masterly argument for the +observance of the principles of the Farewell Address. + + * * * * * + +An elaborate attack on the Society of Friends appeared lately in Dublin, +and has been republished in Philadelphia, under the title of _Quakerism, +or the Story of My Life_. It was written by a Mrs. GREER, the daughter +of an eminently respectable Irish Quaker, who was herself connected with +the society for forty years, and so had abundant opportunities of +becoming familiar with the peculiarities of the system. But the book is +vulgar, malignant, and evidently altogether undeserving of credit in +regard to facts. The points obnoxious to ridicule are broadly +caricatured, and the most distinguished and blameless characters are +introduced in the most offensive manner, as if to gratify personal +spleen or a disposition to slander. + + * * * * * + +The Neander Library, recently purchased by the University of Rochester, +consists of 4,500 volumes, and the price paid was only $2,300. About 350 +of the volumes are large folios, and many of the works in the collection +are of the choicest and rarest editions. We observe that an attempt to +show that there was even the slightest possible degree of unfairness on +the part of the Rochester faculty in obtaining this library, which was +much desired by a western college, has most signally failed. + + * * * * * + +We commend to our readers as the best literary journal in this country, +the _To Day_, recently established in Boston by CHARLES HALE, a +thoroughly educated and judicious editor. + + + + +_Recent Deaths_ + + +WILLIAM WARE was born at Hingham, in Massachusetts, on the third of +August, 1797. He was a descendant in the fifth generation from Robert +Ware, one of the earliest settlers of the colony, who came from England +about the year 1644. His father was Henry Ware, D. D., many years +honorably distinguished by his connection with the Divinity School at +Cambridge, and the late Henry Ware, jr., D. D., was his elder brother. +His only living brother is Dr. John Ware, who also shares of the +literary tastes and talents of his family, and has written its history. + +William Ware was graduated at Harvard University in 1816. After reading +theology the usual term he was on the 18th of December, 1821, settled +over the Unitarian society of Chambers street, New-York, where he +remained about sixteen years. He gave little to the press except a few +sermons, and four numbers of a religious miscellany called _The +Unitarian_, until near the close of this period, when he commenced the +publication in the Knickerbocker Magazine of those brilliant papers +which in the autumn of 1836 were given to the world under the title of +_Zenobia, or the Fall of Palmyra, an Historical Romance_. Before the +completion of this work he had resigned his pastoral office and removed +to Brookline, near Boston. The romance of Zenobia is in the form of +letters to Marcus Curtius, at Rome, from Lucius Manlius Piso, a senator, +who is supposed to have been led by circumstances of a private nature to +visit Palmyra toward the close of the third century, to have become +acquainted with the queen and her court, to have seen the City of the +Desert in its greatest magnificence, and to have witnessed its +destruction by the Emperor Aurelian. For the purposes of romantic +fiction the subject is perhaps the finest that had not been appropriated +in all ancient history; and the treatment of it, which is highly +picturesque and dramatic throughout, shows that the author had been a +successful student of the institutions, manners and social life of the +age he attempted to illustrate. + +Mr. Ware's second romance, _Probus, or Rome in the Third Century_, was +published in the summer of 1838. It is a sort of sequel to the Zenobia, +and is composed of letters purporting to be written by Piso from Rome to +Fausta, the daughter of Gracchus, one of the old Palmyrene ministers. In +the first work Piso meets with Probus, a Christian teacher, and is +partially convinced of the truth of his doctrine; he is now a disciple, +and a sharer of the persecutions which marked the last days of the reign +of Aurelian. The characters in Probus are skilfully drawn and +contrasted, and with a deeper moral interest, from the frequent +discussions of doctrine which it contains, the romance has the classical +style and spirit which characterized its predecessor. + +Mr. Ware's third work is entitled _Julian, or Scenes in Judea_, and was +published in 1841. The hero is a Roman, of Hebrew descent, who visits +the land of his ancestors, to gratify a liberal curiosity, during the +last days of the Saviour. Every thing connected with Palestine at this +period is so familiar that the ground might seem to be sacred to History +and Religion; but it has often been invaded by the romancer, and perhaps +never with more success than in the present instance. Although Julian +has less freshness than Zenobia, it has an air of truth and sincerity +that renders it scarcely less interesting. + +About the time of the publication of Julian, Mr. Ware was attacked with +Epilepsy, while in his pulpit, at Lexington, near Boston, and he +suffered all the residue of his life from disease and apprehension; but +his illness did not affect his intelligence or its activity, and he +continued to devote himself to congenial studies, for several years, +chiefly as editor of _The Christian Examiner_. For a short period he was +pastor of the Unitarian society at West Cambridge, but the condition of +his health did not permit a regular discharge of his functions, for +which, indeed, he was scarcely fitted in any thing but a spirit of +humility and piety. His tastes and capacities would have secured for him +greater triumphs in any department of pictorial or plastic art, to which +he was always insensibly drawn by instinct and congenial studies. + +In 1848 Mr. Ware passed several months abroad, and after his return he +delivered in _Lectures on European Capitals_ the best fruits of his +travel. These Lectures have recently been published in a very attractive +volume, which has been favorably received in this country and in +England. Among his unprinted writings is a series of Lectures on the +_Life, Works, and Genius of Washington Allston_. He died on the 19th of +February. + +The romances of Mr. Ware betray a familiarity with the civilization of +the ancients, and are written in a graceful, pure and brilliant style. +In our literature they are peculiar, and they will bear a favorable +comparison with the most celebrated historical romances relating to the +same scenes and periods which have been written abroad. They have passed +through many editions in Great Britain, and have been translated into +German and other languages of the continent. + + * * * * * + +JOHN FRAZEE, the sculptor, died at the age of sixty, on the--th of +March, at the house of his daughter, in New Bedford, Massachusetts. The +_Evening Post_ remarks that "he was a man of decided talent for +sculpture, but the necessity of employing himself in other occupations, +prevented his attaining that skill which, under more auspicious +circumstances, would have been within his reach." Mr. Frazee was born in +Brunswick, N.J., and in early life was a farmer and stone-cutter. One of +his first attempts at sculpture which attracted notice, was a clever +female bust, a likeness of one of his own family, exhibited in the +gallery of the Academy of Design. He afterwards, at the request of the +bar of New-York, was employed in the mural tablet and bust of John +Welles, which fills a conspicuous place in St Paul's Church. This +production, with others subsequently executed, attracted the attention +of the Trustees of the Boston Athenaeum, and at their request, in 1834, +he proceeded to Boston, and modelled a series of busts of eminent men in +that city--Webster, Bowditch, Prescott, Story, J. Lowell, and T. H. +Perkins. Afterwards he went to Richmond, where he produced the likeness +of John Marshall, copies of which adorn the Court rooms of New York, +New-Orleans, and the Capitol of Virginia. On his return he visited +President Jackson, at whose house he executed an inimitable head of that +extraordinary man. Among his other productions were heads of General +Lafayette, in 1824, De Witt Clinton, John Jay, Bishop Hobart, Dr. +Milnor, Dr. Stearns, Nathaniel Prime, George Griswold, Eli Hart, &c. The +monument, however, which is destined to perpetuate his fame, is the New +York Custom-House. This edifice was commenced in 1834 by another +gentleman, who, when he had finished the base, abandoned the work and +withdrew his plans. Mr. Frazee was obliged to commence _de novo_, and in +1843 had completed the work. During the erection of the Custom-House, +from the dampness of its material and concomitant causes, he contracted +a disorder which caused paralysis, from which he never recovered. For +several years he held a subordinate post under the Collector. His last +effort with the chisel was in giving the finishing touch to the bust of +General Jackson, which had remained in his studio seventeen years, +without an order for completion. This was in November last, and while +assiduously at work, his mallet fell from his hand, and his worn-out +body followed it to the floor." + + * * * * * + +JOHN PARK, M. D., died in Worcester, Massachusetts, on the 2d of March, +aged seventy-eight. He was an active member of the old Federal party in +Massachusetts, during the administration of Jefferson and Madison, and +exerted a wide and important influence by his well-known journal, _The +Boston Repertory_. At a subsequent period, he established a private +school for young women, which acquired a celebrity second to that of no +similar educational institution in the old Commonwealth. He was +distinguished for his cultivated literary tastes, his uncommon purity of +character, his fine social qualities, and his cordial and attractive +manners. Dr. Park was the father of Mrs. L. G. Hall, wife of the Rev. +Dr. Hall, of Providence, the authoress of _Miriam_, and other successful +productions, and of Mr. John C. Park, an eminent lawyer in Boston. Mrs. +Osgood and several other distinguished literary women were among his +pupils. + + * * * * * + +WILLIAM THOMPSON, of Belfast, the naturalist of Ireland, died in London +on the 17th February. Mr. Thompson was born in 1805, and from earliest +youth was attached to scientific and literary studies. For the last +fifteen years his name has been before the world of science in +connection with arduous researches on the natural history of Ireland. +The numerous memoirs published by him, chiefly in scientific +periodicals, and latterly in the _Annals of Natural History_, of which +he was a warm supporter, extend in their subjects over all departments +of zoology, and several are devoted to botanical investigations. He was +constantly on the watch for new facts bearing on the natural history of +his native island, which could boast of no more truly patriotic son. At +the meeting of the British Association, at Cork, he read an elaborate +report on the _Fauna of Ireland_, since published _in extenso_ in the +Association _Transactions_; and it was his intention to communicate a +continuation of that report at the Belfast meeting. He did not confine +his inquiries to Irish subjects, but added considerably to the natural +history of several parts of England and Scotland; and when Professor +Forbes proceeded to the AEgean at the invitation of Captain Graves, Mr. +Thompson, himself an intimate friend of that distinguished officer, +accompanied him, and devoted the short time he was in the Archipelago to +zoological observations, since published, chiefly on the migration of +birds. His love of ornithology was intense, and the results of his +labors in that department are narrated with charming details in the +volumes that have been published of his great work on _The Natural +History of Ireland_. His name is associated with many discoveries, and +numerous species of new creatures have been named after him. His +reputation stood equally high on the Continent and in America, and he +had been elected an honorary member of several foreign societies. He +numbered among his intimate friends and correspondents all the eminent +naturalists of the day. His love of the fine arts was second only to his +love of science, and for many years he was one of the most active +promoters of tasteful pursuits, especially of painting, in Ireland. He +was a gentleman of independent means, and of no profession. + + * * * * * + +ROBERT REINICK, deservedly the most popular of recent song writers in +Germany, died at Dresden early in February. He was born at Dantzic, in +1805, and was educated an artist, but he never painted more than one +picture which attained any considerable reputation. His sketches were, +however, remarkable for great delicacy of feeling, and of touch, a +genial humor and an endless variety of fancy. But it was his songs that +first and most widely made him known to the public. Without any +surprising features of genius, they were so natural, so replete with +true and happy sentiment, and flowed so sweetly and melodiously in a +spontaneous beauty of language, that they were every where taken up, and +still remain the intimate favorites of the people, but especially of +artists, to whose peculiar life and customs many of them are devoted. +One of the most pleasing books ever published in Germany, was his _Songs +of a Painter_, which was illustrated with designs from all the prominent +artists of Duesseldorf. Its appearance made an epoch in the book trade, +and introduced the many splendid illustrated works that have succeeded +it. It is some years since we read these songs, but their naivete, +tenderness, and frolic humor are still fresh in our memory. Reinick also +had a great skill in the writing of story books for children, and +illustrating them with his own drawings. One of these, the _Black Aunt_, +has been translated into English, and was published in this city some +three or four years since. The poet died quite suddenly, and was +snatched from a life full of happiness, amid constant artistic activity, +and the love of his family, and a boundless circle of friends. All +Dresden sorrowed at his death, and his funeral procession seemed to +embrace the entire city. + + * * * * * + +WILLIAM HENRY OXBERRY, comedian, was the son of the once eminent actor +Oxberry, and was born in Brownlow-street, Bloomsbury, on the 21st of +April, 1808. He was educated at Merchant Tailors' school; and +subsequently studied with an artist and in a lawyer's office. At length +he was apprenticed to a surgeon: and was asked by Sir Astley Cooper, +during an examination, whether, "when he saw his father convulse the +audience with laughter, he felt no ambition to tread in his shoes?" No +doubt he did, for he soon after made his essay at the Rawstone-street +private theatre, in the character of _Abel Day_, which he performed to +the _Captain Careless_ of Mr. F. Matthews. His public commencement was +deferred till the 17th March, 1825, for the Olympic, in the part of _Sam +Swipes_, in "The High Road to Marriage." He remained not long there, but +took a situation under Mr. Leigh Hunt, on the _Examiner_. Shortly +afterwards he returned to the stage, and went on a provincial tour, and +finally appeared in 1832 at the Strand Theatre, as _Fathom_, in "The +Hunchback." Since that period he was seen with credit in turn at every +theatre in the metropolis. On the 11th December, 1831, he married Ellen +Malcombe Lancaster. He also became manager of the English Opera-House, +but was not successful. The loss of his wife was a misfortune, and his +subsequent career was not prosperous. He died on the 28th of February. + + * * * * * + +The REV. CHRISTOPHER ANDERSON, died at Edinburgh, on the 7th of +February, aged seventy. He was best known as the author of _Annals of +the English Bible and The History of Irish Literature_. He was educated +at Bristol, at the college of which Dr. Ryland was president. He +intended in early life to accompany Drs. Carey, Marshman, and Ward, to +India, when the Baptist Societies' Mission was established in the east; +but being prevented by the state of his health he settled in Edinburgh, +where he has for nearly half a century been the respected pastor of a +Baptist church. In missionary work, both at home and abroad, he always +took deep and active interest. He travelled much through Ireland, and +knew well the state of the people. His historical narration of the +various attempts to educate the Irish in their own tongue is referred to +by all who are engaged in Irish education and missions. He visited +Copenhagen many years ago in order to obtain the protection of the +Danish Government for the Serampore mission. The king granted him an +interview, received him cordially, and granted a charter of +incorporation. It is from the Serampore press that the Scriptures first +began to be issued in the languages of the east, and the names of Carey +and the other superintendents of the Serampore mission are memorable in +the records of literature as well as of the church. He published in 1845 +the _Annals of the English Bible_, an historical account of the +different English translations and editions of the Bible, a work of +learning and research, lately reprinted in New-York by the Carters. + + * * * * * + +The mother of M. Thiers has expired at Batignolles, where she has long +resided on a pension allowed her by her son. M. Thiers was the only +child of this woman, although his father had other children by a former +marriage, one of whom keeps a restaurant in Paris. + + * * * * * + +The some time expected death of THOMAS MOORE occurred on the 26th of +February, at Sloperton Cottage, near Devizes. Like Southey and Scott, +the British Anacreon had for several years before his decease, quite +lost his intelligence, and he lingered in seclusion, and in half +slumbering unconsciousness, personally well nigh forgotten by the world. +His history is little more than a history of his writings. He was +deservedly popular in society, for his amiable qualities, and +fascinating manners; he shared the intimacy of the greatest men and +greatest writers of his age, more prolific of eminent characters than +any other since that of Shakspeare, Raleigh, and Sidney; and dividing +his time between the quiet charms of domestic ease, and the smiles of +the most elevated classes, he may be said to have been a fortunate and +happy man. As a song writer, he was doubtless unrivalled. His +versification is exquisitely finished, harmonious, and musically toned. +The sense is never obviously sacrificed to the sound; on the contrary, +he delighted in that species of antithetical and epigramatic turn, which +is generally held to excuse some roughness, and to be scarcely +compatible with perfect melody of rhythm. In grace, both of thought and +diction, in easy, fluent wit, in melody, in brilliancy of fancy, in +warmth (but scarcely depth) of sentiment, and even in purity and +simplicity, when he chose to be pure and simple, no one has been +superior to Moore; but in grandeur of conception, power of thought, and +above all, unity of purpose, and a high aim, he was singularly +deficient, and these are necessary to the character, not of a sweet +minstrel, but of a great poet. + +The London _Morning Chronicle_ furnishes a biography of Moore, which we +slightly abridge. With him, says the _Chronicle_, is snapped the last +tie, save perhaps one, represented by the veteran Rogers, which connects +the present generation with the outburst of "all the talents" which +signalized the opening of the century. That great kindling of +genius--embracing almost all sides of imaginative literature, of +criticism and philosophy--is becoming more a thing of history than of +fact. Year by year, the lights are going out. Wordsworth was the last +extinguished before Moore; and now, to all intents and purposes, the +great galaxy which poured such a flood of light on the literature of +fifty years ago--which extinguished Rosa Matilda fiction and Delia +Cruscan poetry--substituted true criticism for technical carping upon +philological points, and established new styles in every branch of the +_belles-lettres_--this great constellation may now be said to have +disappeared. One of the brightest, if not of the largest stars, has long +been obscured, and is now quite put out. The fame of Moore is fairly a +matter of discussion. It cannot, we believe, be denied that much of his +serious and more ambitious verse, founded on promptings of a more +luscious and florid fancy than the present tastes incline to admit, and +no inconsiderable portion even of his lyric pieces,--refined to +attenuation--are less read and admired than they were a score or thirty +years ago. A severer and sterner school of poetry has succeeded--one of +deeper feeling and more sober thought; and the representatives of those +who revelled in _Lalla Rookh_, and delighted in the strains of Mr. +Little, now generally address themselves to more staid and philosophic +musings. The _Irish Melodies_, too--exquisite as is their +word-music--fanciful as is their conception--delightful as is their +playfulness, and touching as is their pathos--even the _Irish Melodies_, +we believe are declining in popular estimation. The reasons are obvious. +In the first place, the _Irish Melodies_ are not particularly Irish; +they have grace, sparkling fancy, delicious feeling; but they are too +fine-spun to do the work-a-day duty of popular songs. As literary +performances, nine-tenths of Burns's are inferior to Moore's; and all +Dibdin's are immeasurably beneath them. Yet the probability is that +_When Willie Brewed_, and _Poor Tom Bowling_, will be in the full tide +of popularity, where _Rich and Rare_, and _Oh Breathe not His Name_, +will be unsung and forgotten. In a certain circle, and among people of a +certain reading and appreciation, Moore will live as long as the +language; but his genius was delicate and acute rather than catholic and +strong. He had a rich play of fancy, but none of the soaring imagination +of Shelley or Byron. His mind, in fact, was a first-class second-rate. +It had no pretensions to stand in the line of the giants of his time. +Brightly fanciful, rather than continuously imaginative--teeming with +poetic imagery--loving to sparkle along the floweriest paths, and +beneath the balmiest skies--revelling always in fays and flowers--in +love, and mingled intellectual and sensual pleasures--playful in the +extreme, and always ready to stop to make mirth as joyous and as +delightful as the passion--his muse, in his great romantic poems, is the +incarnation of a charming Epicureanism; and the mirth and jolity could +go a long step further. He had wit, which sparkled as brightly as it +could cut deeply; and humor, and sense of the ludicrous, which could be +as well, if not more effectually applied to living persons and actual +things than to the creations of his own fancy; and accordingly we find +him loving to turn from the etherealized voluptuousness of _Loves of the +Angels_, or the mystic imaginings of the _Epicurean_, to the sharp and +brilliant hittings of political and social squibs--the restless satire +with which, in the _Fudge Family_ and hundreds of ephemeral but not the +less clever lays, he quizzed his political and literary opponents, +abolished the Earl of Mountcashell, or shot stinging shafts through the +heart of the Benthamites. It is, indeed, far from probable that Moore's +political and satiric poetry, little perhaps as he thought of it at the +time, will live after his more ambitious works have sunk into that +chronic state of classicism, in which books are labelled with an +excellent character, and shelved--turned into the category of works +without which no gentleman's library is complete, and doomed, not to +actual obscurity, but to honorable retirement. The last of his political +squibs and short poems were given to the world in the columns of the +_Morning Chronicle_; and referred principally to the earlier struggles +of the Anti-Corn Law League--the verses having in most cases been +suggested by pasting political events. + +Thomas Moore died at the ripe age of seventy-two. He was born on the +28th of May, 1780, in Angier-street, Dublin, where his father, a strict +Roman Catholic, carried on a grocery and spirit business. As a child, he +is said to have been remarkable for personal beauty; but his appearance +in after life hardly carried out the promise of infancy. He was short, +with a heavy, expressive, but not handsome face, which, however, +lightened up wonderfully when conversing or singing his own ballads. He +was educated at Dublin, and one of big first noted peculiarities was a +fondness and a talent for private theatricals. Taking advantage of the +boon, as it was then considered, the young Roman Catholic was entered at +Trinity College. He could not, of course, obtain a degree; but some +English verses tendered at an examination, in lieu of the usual Latin +composition, procured a copy of the _Travels of Anacharsis_, as a +reward. The wild times of the Irish rebellion were approaching, and the +poet was naturally to be found in the ranks led by the Emmetts and +Arthur O'Connor; but his treasonable lucubrations, though, as his own +sister remarked, "rather strong," were passed over without any measures +against the enthusiastic young champion of liberty. Politics, however, +were by no means the only subject of his muse. At the age of fourteen he +published poetry in a Dublin magazine, and afterwards composed many +semi-burlesque pieces for private representation. + +In his twentieth year, giving up republicanism for ever, Moore came to +London to study at the Middle Temple, and publish his translations, or +rather paraphrases, of _Anacreon_. As may be imagined, he attended much +more to the Greek than to Coke upon Lyttleton, and permission, obtained +through the friendship of Lord Moira, to dedicate the work to the Prince +Regent, was the means of his introduction to those elevated circles in +which he was afterwards to move and shine. His _Anacreon_ was highly +successful, and was succeeded, in 1801, by _Poems and Songs, by Thomas +Little_. Whatever objections may be raised by the present generation to +either of these works, there can be no doubt of their vivid play of +fancy, their singular grace, even when verging on improprieties, and +their exquisite melody of versification. His translations of the _Old +Greek Lover_, and of _Women and Wine_, are probably the finest and +richest versions of these often rendered songs in the English +language--always excepting the rough but thoroughly racy version of the +last, by quaint old Mr. Donne. + +In the days of the regency, poets came in for patronage, and Mr. Moore, +made registrar to the Court of Admiralty at Bermuda--as singularly +appropriate an appointment as some we have seen in our own day--went out +to the islands, appointed a deputy, took a glance at the United States, +and came home again. He then published _Sketches of Travel and Society +beyond the Atlantic_--a satiric work in heroic verse, vigorously +written, but politically evincing a miserable short-sightedness. Soon +afterwards, a savage review in the _Edinburgh_, of a republication of +_Juvenile Songs, &c._, led to the celebrated rencontre between Moore and +Jeffrey, at Hampstead, when the great critic, as Byron asserted, stood +valiantly up: + + "When Little's leadless pistol met his eye + And Bow-street myrmidons stood laughing by." + +The affair was ultimately arranged, mainly through the intervention of +Mr. Rogers, and at his house Moore shortly afterwards made his first +acquaintance with Byron and Campbell. The long and affectionate intimacy +between Moore and the author of _Childe Harold_, we need here only +allude to. Moore had about this time married. His wife was a Miss Dyke, +a woman, of strong sense and character, as well as great beauty and +amiability. Their children are all dead. + +A couple of political satires of no great merit--one setting forth a +sober and earnest panegyric upon ignorance--were followed by the famous +_Two-penny Post Bag_, a bundle of rollicking satire and humor. It made a +great hit. Not so its author's next venture, a farce called the _Blue +Stocking_, damned at the Lyceum. Moore's intimacy with Byron and Hunt +was broken off by the outspoken tone of the _Liberal_, and especially by +the _Vision of Judgment_. Moore thought his friends had gone too far. +What would Carlton House say! For if, as Byron said, "Little Tommy +dearly loved a lord," with how much more affection did he worship a +prince of the blood royal? + +The _Melodies_ were his next, and perhaps most popular compositions. +Charming as they are, and exquisitely finished as is their lyrical +workmanship, we doubt whether they have the stamina and heart-rooted +earnestness, which are requisite to make songs immortal. Only the +strongest heart and the manliest brain produce offspring to suit all +tastes and to last all time. + +It was in 1812 that Moore determined to write an Indian poem. Mr. Perry, +of the _Morning Chronicle_, accompanied the poet to the Messrs. Longman, +and through his intervention the great sum of 3,000 guineas was settled +on as the price of a piece of which not one word was yet written. Moore +then retired to Mayfield Cottage, a desolate place in Derbyshire, and +after a long and hard struggle with a coquettish muse--after a three +years' retirement--he sent forth _Lalla Rookh_. Its success was immense; +the poem ran rapidly through several editions, and Moore's fame stood +upon a higher and surer pedestal than ever. The tales were the triumph +of poetic lusciousness; but not a few old judges stigmatized their taste +by preferring Fadladeen and his criticisms, even to the Fireworshippers, +or the tribulations of the Peri. We need hardly say that the judgment of +these tough critics has now a far greater number of adherents than it +once commanded. + +After a continental tour, Moore wrote the clever and popular _Fudge +Family_. In the following year he met Byron in Italy, and then the +latter intrusted to him his memoirs for publication. These memoirs Moore +sold to Murray for two thousand guineas; but, as is well known and a +good deal regretted, the purchase money was refunded, and the papers +regained, and destroyed. Pecuniary difficulties connected with the +misconduct of his Bermuda deputy, about this time, compelled Moore to +seek a temporary refuge in Paris, and there he led a pleasant social +life, such as he loved, and composed the _Loves of the Angels_, which is +not much more than an elaborate and carefully wrought repetition of all +his previous love-and-flower poetry. The whole thing is dreamy, lulling, +and beautiful, but vague and misty. The words tinkle like falling +fountains, and the essence of the closing fancy floats about one like +perfume; but this enervating species of composition is far from high or +true poetry, and accordingly the work is now far oftener alluded to than +it is read. In Paris he occupied the same hotel for a long time with his +intimate friend Washington Irving. + +In 1825 Moore paid a visit to Scott, who pronounced the Irish melodist +the "prettiest warbler" he had ever heard. One evening Scott and his +guest visited the theatre at Edinburgh. Soon after their unmarked +entrance, the attention of the audience, which had been engrossed by the +Duchess of St. Albans, was directed towards the new comers; and, +according to a newspaper report, copied and published by Mr. Moore in +one of his last prefaces, considerable excitement ensued. "Eh!" +exclaimed a man in the pit, "eh, yon's Sir Walter, wi' Lockhart and his +wife; and wha's the wee body wi' the pawkie een? Wow, but it's Tarn +Moore, just." "Scott, Scott! Moore, Moore!" immediately resounded +through the house. Scott would not rise; Moore did, and bowed several +times, with his hand on his heart. Scott afterwards acknowledged the +plaudits of his countrymen; and the orchestra, during the rest of the +evening, played alternately Scotch and Irish airs. + +Soon after this period, Moore was established, by the kind offices of +his old and stanch friend the Marquis of Lansdowne, in Sloperton +Cottage, where he passed the remainder of his days, and where he ended +them. It was here that he commenced his career as a biographer, and +produced successively the memoirs of Lord Edward Fitzgerald, Lord Byron, +and Sheridan. The two latter are well known and highly appreciated. It +was in the previous year that the poet first came out as a prose writer +in the _Memoirs of Captain Rock_, a bitter and unfair account of--or +rather commentary on--the English government of Ireland, and a curious +instance of warped and twisted views in a man of the world like Moore, +almost unavoidable in an Irishman writing of his country. His next +serious work--he continued his squibs and sparkles of occasional +verse--was the _Travels of an Irish Gentleman in Search of a +Religion_--in which he attempted to show that the doctrines and +practises of the Roman Catholic Church date from the apostolic period. +The last of his prose works, and that which has attained a greater sale, +we believe, than any of them, was the romance of _The Epicurean_. Here +Moore's style, always too florid, is occasionally redeemed by passages +of eloquence and natural feeling. There is much out-of-the-way learning +in the book, but a pompous and cumbrous ornament overlays every thing. +The book had great success, but of what Mr. Carlyle calls the "wind-bag" +nature. The wind inside was very highly perfumed, and sighed with very +pleasing murmurs, but it was only wind, and, as such, will ooze out +presently, and the Epicurean bag will be little regarded. + +From this time political and social squibs were the only literary +occupations to which Mr. Moore devoted himself until, gradually and +fitfully mental darkness came down on him. Of critical estimates of +Moore, we have seen none to which we more perfectly agree, than one +(sometimes attributed to Richard H. Dana, but) written by Professor +Edward T. Channing, for the _North American Review_ soon after that +Review was established. + +The best edition of Moore's works ever published in this country, is the +very beautiful one in octavo, from the press of the Appletons, embracing +all the revisions, introductions, notes, &c., of the author's recent ten +volume edition, printed in London. + + * * * * * + +The well-known artist, SAMUEL PROUT, died in London on the 10th of +February. The _Athenaeum_ remarks that he was long and popularly known by +a style of Art which he may be said to have originated,--and to the +influence of his example may be ascribed the distinctive character and +the successes of the English school of painters of architectural +subjects. Born at Plymouth about the year 1784, like his townsmen +distinguished in art, he owed little to the patronage of his native +town, unless their share in the praises which he ultimately commanded +may be counted to them as encouragement. In the metropolis his first +patron, was Mr. Palser, the printseller, who used to take all his water +color drawings at low prices, and had a ready sale for them. When Mr. +Prout had arrived at distinction, he never omitted grateful mention of +the advantages he had derived from the acquaintance and transactions. +Mr. Prout early gained the notice of the late Mr. Ackermann; and the +many drawing-books for learners, and other prints which he undertook for +that gentleman, soon gave currency to his name. His transcripts of +Gothic architecture at home it is superfluous to commend; and when the +allied armies had made it safe to venture to the Continent, he was among +the earliest of the English to travel there. His love of the picturesque +was gratified amid the new and remarkable combinations of form which met +his eye at Nuernberg and in many of the adjacent cities. He was among the +first English artists to add to what had been already made known of +Venice by Canaletto. Nor must it be forgotten that he was among the +first when Senefelder's newly discovered process was imported to try his +hand at it. The powers of the art of Lithography, though its processes +may have been improved and amplified since,--were never better exhibited +than in Mr. Prout's broad and vigorous touch. The _Landscape Annual_ is +another record of his powers. Other books of the class testify to his +unwearied industry and graphic skill. For many years suffering from +ill-health, Mr. Prout, in convalescent intervals, labored cheerfully at +the vocation which he had so illustrated in better times. + + * * * * * + +The venerable Dr. MURRAY, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, died at +his residence in that city on the 25th of February. The death of this +excellent prelate, whose life has been a model of Christian forbearance +in a country where such an example is invaluable, the journals say is +deeply regretted by moderate men of all the religious denominations of +the country. + + * * * * * + +Dr. M'NICHOLAS, titular Bishop of Achonry, died about the middle of +February. He was regarded as one of the ripest scholars among the Roman +Catholic hierarchy of Ireland, and belonged to the advanced school of +"educationists." + + * * * * * + +The London papers announce the death of Mr. HOLCROFT, son of the more +famous Thomas Holcroft, the dramatist,--who was for many years connected +with the press, and, perhaps, in that capacity most prominently known as +the musical and dramatic critic of one of the leading daily papers. + + * * * * * + +M. BENCHOT, the editor of Voltaire's works, lately died at Paris. He +devoted thirty years to studies preparatory to the execution of his +undertaking, which he finally completed in 1834. He also published in +1811 a laborious work on French bibliography, which is still a standard +manual. + + * * * * * + +JOHANN KOLLAR, Professor of Slavonian antitiquities at the University of +Vienna, died on January 24th, last, in his sixtieth year. He was born at +Mursotz, in Hungary, and was educated as a Protestant clergyman; he was +appointed Professor in 1849. He contributed greatly to the intellectual +movement of recent years among the Austrian and Prussian Slavonians. His +literary reputation was first established by _Slavy dcera_ (The Daughter +of Fame) a lyrical epic poem, published in 1824. His ideal end was the +creation of an independent Slavonic literature, which should preserve +his race from the ever increasing influence of German culture, by which +he foresaw that it must be absorbed, unless it could be aroused to a +development strictly its own. During the Hungarian war he remained an +adherent of the Austrian side. He leaves two nearly finished works; the +one is _Slavonic Italy in Early Times_; the other is upon Slavonic +Mythology, and is entitled _The Gods of Retra_. They are written in the +Bohemian or Tschechic language. + + * * * * * + +The widow of VON KOTZEBUE, the author of _The Stranger_ and _Pizarro_ +(the former of which still keeps possession of the German provincial +stage), who was assassinated at Mannheim by the student Sand, died at +Heidelberg, on the 4th of February, at the age of 73. She was Kotzebue's +third wife, and had lived for many years in strict retirement. + + * * * * * + +BARON KRUDENER, Russian Minister in Stockholm since 1844, died early in +February. + + * * * * * + +M. LUCAS DE MONTIGNY, the adopted son of Mirabeau, died in Paris, early +in February. On his death-bed Mirabeau took him in his arms, and called +on his friends to protect him. He left him all his papers and +correspondence, and some years ago M. Lucas compiled from them eight +volumes of _Memoires Biographiques_ of _le grand homme_. He naturally +entertained a profound veneration for the memory of his benefactor; and, +it is said, spent not less than 100,000 francs ($20,000), of his private +fortune, in buying up letters and documents calculated to cast dishonor +upon it. These papers he of course destroyed, and it does not appear +that he left behind him any calculated to throw new light on the +character or career of the tribune. + + * * * * * + +Belgian journals announce the death of a M. SMITS, a great compiler of +statistics, and a poet: two vocations rather dissimilar. He wrote three +tragedies, called _Marie de Bourgogne_, _Jeanne de Flandre_, _Elfrida, +ou la Vengeance_, which were applauded by his countrymen; also several +poems on different subjects, and especially on the rising of the +Spaniards and Greeks for liberty. + + * * * * * + +DR. EYLERT, first Bishop of Prussia, died a short time since at Potsdam, +aged eighty-two. He was the author of several works on theology, and on +the sciences. For a long time he was a member of the Ministry of Public +Worship and Instruction. + + * * * * * + +VICTOR FALCK, a distinguished French ornithologist, has just died at +Stockholm. + + + + +_Ladies Fashions for April._ + + +[Illustration: LA VIVANDIERE] + +The spring has brought to the several departments of fashion the usual +amount of changes, but at our last advices there were many points of +some consequence undecided, as for example, the length of dresses, which +some authorities make greater than ever in recent years, and others +less, by a few inches. Among the chief novelties we notice _La +Vivandiere_, which, with various styles of the _gilet_, or waist, has +been introduced into New-York by Bulpin of Broadway. The waistcoat will +remain in vogue. The Parisiennes, who had begun to turn it into +ridicule, still patronize it; and the provinciales need not fear to +adopt it. But some conditions are necessary in order to render it +becoming and stylish. The figure of the wearer should be thin, tall, and +sylph-like; all others should avoid the style. Rounded, white shoulders +appear to much more advantage in toilette Pompadour than in toilet Louis +XIII. The corsage Louis XIII., and the waistcoat accord so well together +that they are scarcely ever separated. However, some bodies a basquines +are made to be worn without the waistcoat. They are then trimmed with +velvet or ribbon bands, which cross the chest and fasten with buttons; +the chemisette being composed of frills of English point or +Valenciennes, separated by embroidered insertion. + +[Illustration: INFANT'S STRAW BEDFORD HAT.] + +[Illustration: THE BATEMAN CAP.] + +[Illustration: THE CLEMENTINE RIDING HAT.] + +[Illustration: THE ST. NICHOLAS CAP.] + +[Illustration: BOY'S STRAW BRUSSELS HAT.] + +[Illustration: MISSES LEGHORN HATS.] + +The recent fine bright weather has brought out many very elegant spring +bonnets. The most fashionable are of Leghorn, which, during the +approaching season, is likely to recover the favor it enjoyed some years +ago. The shape of new Leghorn bonnets is elegant and becoming--the brim +is wide and circular, and the crown gently sloping backwards. The +_bavolet_ at the back is made of the Leghorn itself, instead of being +composed of silk or ribbon, as in bonnets of straw or other materials. +The favorite style of trimming Leghorns is with fancy straw, tastefully +intermingled with velvet or ribbon, of some dark rick color. On one side +may be placed a small ostrich feather, of the color of the Leghorn, or +shaded in the hues of the bird of Paradise. As the season advances, +flowers will be employed for trimming these bonnets. Genin has +introduced a great variety of new and fanciful styles from the recent +Paris modes, for children, and for ladies' riding dresses. They are of +Leghorn, felt, and beaver, all of which will be in vogue through April, +and they are generally very tasteful and elegant. + +[Illustration] + +In the above figure we have a _Promenade or Carriage Costume_, of rich +figured silk; the sleeves open at the ends, with under sleeves of white +muslin; with a Leghorn bonnet, trimmed with fancy straw and +violet-colored ribbon, tastefully intermingled; on one side a Leghorn +colored feather, waving spirally. Under-trimming, loops of narrow ribbon +in various shades of violet; and gloves of pale yellow kid. The +_taffetas d'Athenes_ is appropriate for ball dresses, and obtains +generally; the ground is white, blue, or pale pink, brochees in silk of +all colors in wreaths, or bouquets, forming undulating festoons round +the bottoms of the triple skirts. The upper skirt is flowered over in +small designs to the waist, as is also the body and sleeves. The +_taffetas flore_ has a white ground, covered with small bouquets of wild +field flowers. The _taffetas rose_ has wreaths of large roses, brochees +in white silk round each skirt, and rose-buds over the top skirt and +body. This toilet should be accompanied with a coiffure, of a wreath of +white roses, fixed behind by a bow and long floating ends of satin +ribbon, forming an elegant evening toilette for a bride. The manteaux, +with hoods, continue in fashion; they are generally made of cloth. The +mantelet-echarpe has been cited for its elegance and taste. It is more +dressy than the manteaux, marking the waist, and descending in front in +square ends. Sorties de bal, are very fanciful. Some of white cachemire, +trimmed with beads, silk, and jet, with magnificent lace or deep fringe. +Others of white or pink satin, edged with ruches of guipure lace, or +rouleaux of marabouts. They have hoods and large Venetian sleeves. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The International Monthly, Volume 5, +No. 4, April, 1852, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE INTERNATIONAL MONTHLY *** + +***** This file should be named 35345.txt or 35345.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/5/3/4/35345/ + +Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, Josephine Paolucci and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net. +(This file was produced from images generously made +available by Cornell University Digital Collections.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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