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diff --git a/39716.txt b/39716.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e84c203 --- /dev/null +++ b/39716.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4410 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Little Masterpieces, by Nathaniel Hawthorne + +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: Little Masterpieces + Dr. Heidegger's Experiment, The Birthmark, Ethan Brand, + Wakefield, Drowne's Wooden Image, The Ambitious Guest, The + Great Stone F + +Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne + +Editor: Bliss Perry + +Release Date: May 17, 2012 [EBook #39716] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LITTLE MASTERPIECES *** + + + + +Produced by Chris Curnow, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive) + + + + + + + + + + Little Masterpieces + + Edited by Bliss Perry + + NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE + + + DR. HEIDEGGER'S EXPERIMENT + THE BIRTHMARK + ETHAN BRAND + WAKEFIELD + DROWNE'S WOODEN IMAGE + THE AMBITIOUS GUEST + THE GREAT STONE FACE + THE GRAY CHAMPION + + NEW YORK + DOUBLEDAY & McCLURE CO. + 1897 + + Copyright, 1897, by + DOUBLEDAY & MCCLURE CO. + + _These selections are used by special arrangement with + Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin & Co., the authorized + publishers of Hawthorne's works._ + + MCCLURE PRESS + New York City + + + + +[Illustration: Nathaniel Hawthorne] + + + + +Introduction + + +Hawthorne made three collections of his short stories and sketches: +"Twice-Told Tales," "Mosses from an Old Manse," and "The Snow Image and +Other Tales." The prefaces to these volumes express, with characteristic +charm, the author's dissatisfaction with his handiwork. No critic has +pointed out so clearly as Hawthorne himself the ineffectiveness of some +of the "Twice-Told Tales"; he thinks that the "Mosses from an Old Manse" +afford no solid basis for a literary reputation; and his comment upon +the earlier and later work gathered indiscriminately into his final +volume is that "the ripened autumnal fruit tastes but little better than +the early windfalls." + +It must be remembered that the collections were made in desultory +fashion. They included some work that Hawthorne had outgrown even when +the first volume was published, such as elaborate exercises in +description and fanciful allegories, excellently composed but without +substance. Yet side by side with these proofs of his long, weary +apprenticeship are stories that reveal the consummate artist, mature in +mind and heart, and with the sure hand of the master. The qualities of +imagination and style that place Hawthorne easily first among American +writers of fiction are as readily discernible in his best brief tales as +in his romances. + +"Dr. Heidegger's Experiment," with which the present volume opens, is +Hawthorne's earliest treatment of the elixir of immortality theme, which +haunted him throughout his life and was the subject of the unfinished +romance which rested upon his coffin. He handles it daintily, poetically +here, with an irony at once exquisite and profound. "The Birthmark" +represents another favorite theme: the rivalry between scientific +passion and human affection. It is not wholly free from the morbid fancy +which Hawthorne occasionally betrays, and which allies him, on one side +of his many-gifted mind, with Edgar Allan Poe; but the essential sanity +of Hawthorne's moral, and the perfection of the workmanship, render "The +Birthmark" worthy of its high place among modern short stories. "Ethan +Brand" dates obviously from the sojourn at North Adams, Massachusetts, +described in the "American Note-Book." Fragmentary as it is, it is one +of Hawthorne's most powerful pieces of writing, the Unpardonable Sin +which it portrays--the development of the intellect at the expense of +the heart--being one which the lonely romancer himself had had cause to +dread. The motive of the humorous character sketch entitled "Wakefield" +is somewhat similar: the danger of stepping aside, even for a moment, +from one's allotted place. "Drowne's Wooden Image" is a charming old +Boston version of the artistic miracles made possible by love. In "The +Ambitious Guest," the familiar story of the Willey House, in the Notch +of the White Hills, is told with singular delicacy and imaginativeness, +while "The Great Stone Face," a parable after Hawthorne's own heart, is +suggested by a well-known phenomenon of the same mountainous region. +Hawthorne's numerous tales based upon New England history are +represented by one of the briefest, "The Gray Champion," whose succinct +opening and eloquent close are no less admirable than the stern passion +of its dramatic climax. + +Not every note of which Hawthorne's deep-toned instrument was capable is +exhibited in these eight tales, but they will serve, perhaps, to show +the nature of his magic. Certain characteristics of his art are +everywhere in evidence: simplicity of theme and treatment, absolute +clearness, verbal melody, with now and again a dusky splendor of +coloring. The touch of a few other men may be as perfect, the notes they +evoke more brilliant, certainly more gay, but Hawthorne's graver +harmonies linger in the ear and abide in the memory. It is only after +intimate acquaintance, however, that one perceives fully Hawthorne's +real scope, his power to convey an idea in its totality. His art is the +product of a rich personality, strong, self-contained, content to brood +long over its treasures. It is seldom in the history of literature--and +quite without parallel in American letters--that a nature so perfectly +dowered should attain to such perfect self-expression. Here lies his +supreme fortune as an artist. He was permitted to give adequate +expression to a rare and beautiful genius, and for thousands of his +countrymen life has been touched to finer issues because Hawthorne +followed his boyish bent and became a writer of fiction. + +BLISS PERRY. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + PAGE + + Editor's Introduction V + + Dr. Heidegger's Experiment 1 + + The Birthmark 21 + + Ethan Brand 53 + + Wakefield 83 + + Drowne's Wooden Image 101 + + The Ambitious Guest 125 + + The Great Stone Face 141 + + The Gray Champion 177 + + + + +Dr. Heidegger's Experiment + + +That very singular man, old Dr. Heidegger, once invited four venerable +friends to meet him in his study. There were three white-bearded +gentlemen, Mr. Medbourne, Colonel Killigrew, and Mr. Gascoigne, and a +withered gentlewoman, whose name was the Widow Wycherly. They were all +melancholy old creatures, who had been unfortunate in life, and whose +greatest misfortune it was that they were not long ago in their graves. +Mr. Medbourne, in the vigor of his age, had been a prosperous merchant, +but had lost his all by a frantic speculation, and was now little better +than a mendicant. Colonel Killigrew had wasted his best years, and his +health and substance, in the pursuit of sinful pleasures, which had +given birth to a brood of pains, such as the gout, and divers other +torments of soul and body. Mr. Gascoigne was a ruined politician, a man +of evil fame, or at least had been so, till time had buried him from the +knowledge of the present generation, and made him obscure instead of +infamous. As for the Widow Wycherly, tradition tells us that she was a +great beauty in her day; but, for a long while past, she had lived in +deep seclusion, on account of certain scandalous stories, which had +prejudiced the gentry of the town against her. It is a circumstance +worth mentioning, that each of these three old gentlemen, Mr. Medbourne, +Colonel Killigrew, and Mr. Gascoigne, were early lovers of the Widow +Wycherly, and had once been on the point of cutting each other's throats +for her sake. And, before proceeding further, I will merely hint, that +Dr. Heidegger and all his four guests were sometimes thought to be a +little beside themselves; as is not unfrequently the case with old +people, when worried either by present troubles or woful recollections. + +"My dear old friends," said Dr. Heidegger, motioning them to be seated, +"I am desirous of your assistance in one of those little experiments +with which I amuse myself here in my study." + +If all stories were true, Dr. Heidegger's study must have been a very +curious place. It was a dim, old-fashioned chamber, festooned with +cobwebs and besprinkled with antique dust. Around the walls stood +several oaken bookcases, the lower shelves of which were filled with +rows of gigantic folios and black-letter quartos, and the upper with +little parchment-covered duodecimos. Over the central bookcase was a +bronze bust of Hippocrates, with which, according to some authorities, +Dr. Heidegger was accustomed to hold consultations, in all difficult +cases of his practice. In the obscurest corner of the room stood a tall +and narrow oaken closet, with its door ajar, within which doubtfully +appeared a skeleton. Between two of the bookcases hung a looking-glass, +presenting its high and dusty plate within a tarnished gilt frame. Among +many wonderful stories related of this mirror, it was fabled that the +spirits of all the doctor's deceased patients dwelt within its verge, +and would stare him in the face whenever he looked thitherward. The +opposite side of the chamber was ornamented with the full-length +portrait of a young lady, arrayed in the faded magnificence of silk, +satin, and brocade, and with a visage as faded as her dress. Above half +a century ago, Dr. Heidegger had been on the point of marriage with this +young lady; but, being affected with some slight disorder, she had +swallowed one of her lover's prescriptions, and died on the bridal +evening. The greatest curiosity of the study remains to be mentioned; it +was a ponderous folio volume, bound in black leather, with massive +silver clasps. There were no letters on the back, and nobody could tell +the title of the book. But it was well known to be a book of magic; and +once, when a chambermaid had lifted it, merely to brush away the dust, +the skeleton had rattled in its closet, the picture of the young lady +had stepped one foot upon the floor, and several ghastly faces had +peeped forth from the mirror; while the brazen head of Hippocrates +frowned, and said, "Forbear!" + +Such was Dr. Heidegger's study. On the summer afternoon of our tale, a +small round table, as black as ebony, stood in the centre of the room, +sustaining a cut-glass vase, of beautiful form and elaborate +workmanship. The sunshine came through the window, between the heavy +festoons of two faded damask curtains, and fell directly across this +vase; so that a mild splendor was reflected from it on the ashen visages +of the five old people who sat around. Four champagne-glasses were also +on the table. + +"My dear old friends," repeated Dr. Heidegger, "may I reckon on your aid +in performing an exceedingly curious experiment?" + +Now Dr. Heidegger was a very strange old gentleman, whose eccentricity +had become the nucleus for a thousand fantastic stories. Some of these +fables, to my shame be it spoken, might possibly be traced back to mine +own veracious self; and if any passages of the present tale should +startle the reader's faith, I must be content to bear the stigma of a +fiction-monger. + +When the doctor's four guests heard him talk of his proposed experiment, +they anticipated nothing more wonderful than the murder of a mouse in +an air-pump, or the examination of a cobweb by the microscope, or some +similar nonsense, with which he was constantly in the habit of pestering +his intimates. But without waiting for a reply, Dr. Heidegger hobbled +across the chamber, and returned with the same ponderous folio, bound in +black leather, which common report affirmed to be a book of magic. +Undoing the silver clasps, he opened the volume, and took from among its +black-letter pages a rose, or what was once a rose, though now the green +leaves and crimson petals had assumed one brownish hue, and the ancient +flower seemed ready to crumble to dust in the doctor's hands. + +"This rose," said Dr. Heidegger, with a sigh, "this same withered and +crumbling flower, blossomed five-and-fifty years ago. It was given me by +Sylvia Ward, whose portrait hangs yonder; and I meant to wear it in my +bosom at our wedding. Five-and-fifty years it has been treasured between +the leaves of this old volume. Now, would you deem it possible that this +rose of half a century could ever bloom again?" + +"Nonsense!" said the Widow Wycherly, with a peevish toss of her head. +"You might as well ask whether an old woman's wrinkled face could ever +bloom again." + +"See!" answered Dr. Heidegger. + +He uncovered the vase, and threw the faded rose into the water which it +contained. At first, it lay lightly on the surface of the fluid, +appearing to imbibe none of its moisture. Soon, however, a singular +change began to be visible. The crushed and dried petals stirred, and +assumed a deepening tinge of crimson, as if the flower were reviving +from a death-like slumber; the slender stalk and twigs of foliage became +green; and there was the rose of half a century, looking as fresh as +when Sylvia Ward had first given it to her lover. It was scarcely full +blown; for some of its delicate red leaves curled modestly around its +moist bosom, within which two or three dewdrops were sparkling. + +"That is certainly a very pretty deception," said the doctor's friends; +carelessly, however, for they had witnessed greater miracles at a +conjurer's show; "pray how was it effected?" + +"Did you never hear of the 'Fountain of Youth,'" asked Dr. Heidegger, +"which Ponce de Leon, the Spanish adventurer, went in search of, two or +three centuries ago?" + +"But did Ponce de Leon ever find it?" said the Widow Wycherly. + +"No," answered Dr. Heidegger, "for he never sought it in the right +place. The famous Fountain of Youth, if I am rightly informed, is +situated in the southern part of the Floridian peninsula, not far from +Lake Macaco. Its source is overshadowed by several gigantic magnolias, +which, though numberless centuries old, have been kept as fresh as +violets, by the virtues of this wonderful water. An acquaintance of +mine, knowing my curiosity in such matters, has sent me what you see in +the vase. + +"Ahem!" said Colonel Killigrew, who believed not a word of the doctor's +story; "and what may be the effect of this fluid on the human frame?" + +"You shall judge for yourself, my dear Colonel," replied Dr. Heidegger; +"and all of you, my respected friends, are welcome to so much of this +admirable fluid as may restore to you the bloom of youth. For my own +part, having had much trouble in growing old, I am in no hurry to grow +young again. With your permission, therefore, I will merely watch the +progress of the experiment." + +While he spoke, Dr. Heidegger had been filling the four +champagne-glasses with the water of the Fountain of Youth. It was +apparently impregnated with an effervescent gas, for little bubbles were +continually ascending from the depths of the glasses, and bursting in +silvery spray at the surface. As the liquor diffused a pleasant perfume, +the old people doubted not that it possessed cordial and comfortable +properties; and, though utter sceptics as to its rejuvenescent power, +they were inclined to swallow it at once. But Dr. Heidegger besought +them to stay a moment. + +"Before you drink, my respectable old friends," said he, "it would be +well that, with the experience of a lifetime to direct you, you should +draw up a few general rules for your guidance, in passing a second time +through the perils of youth. Think what a sin and shame it would be, if, +with your peculiar advantages, you should not become patterns of virtue +and wisdom to all the young people of the age." + +The doctor's four venerable friends made him no answer, except by a +feeble and tremulous laugh; so very ridiculous was the idea, that, +knowing how closely repentance treads behind the steps of error, they +should ever go astray again. + +"Drink, then," said the doctor, bowing. "I rejoice that I have so well +selected the subjects of my experiment." + +With palsied hands, they raised the glasses to their lips. The liquor, +if it really possessed such virtues as Dr. Heidegger imputed to it, +could not have been bestowed on four human beings who needed it more +wofully. They looked as if they had never known what youth or pleasure +was, but had been the off-spring of Nature's dotage, and always the +gray, decrepit, sapless, miserable creatures who now sat stooping round +the doctor's table, without life enough in their souls or bodies to be +animated even by the prospect of growing young again. They drank off the +water, and replaced their glasses on the table. + +Assuredly there was an almost immediate improvement in the aspect of the +party, not unlike what might have been produced by a glass of generous +wine, together with a sudden glow of cheerful sunshine, brightening over +all their visages at once. There was a healthful suffusion on their +cheeks, instead of the ashen hue that had made them look so corpse-like. +They gazed at one another, and fancied that some magic power had really +begun to smooth away the deep and sad inscriptions which Father Time had +been so long engraving on their brows. The Widow Wycherly adjusted her +cap, for she felt almost like a woman again. + +"Give us more of this wondrous water!" cried they, eagerly. "We are +younger,--but we are still too old! Quick,--give us more!" + +"Patience, patience!" quoth Dr. Heidegger, who sat watching the +experiment, with philosophic coolness. "You have been a long time +growing old. Surely, you might be content to grow young in half an hour! +But the water is at your service." + +Again he filled their glasses with the liquor of youth, enough of which +still remained in the vase to turn half the old people in the city to +the age of their own grandchildren. While the bubbles were yet sparkling +on the brim, the doctor's four guests snatched their glasses from the +table, and swallowed the contents at a single gulp. Was it delusion? +even while the draught was passing down their throats, it seemed to have +wrought a change on their whole systems. Their eyes grew clear and +bright; a dark shade deepened among their silvery locks; they sat around +the table, three gentlemen of middle age, and a woman, hardly beyond her +buxom prime. + +"My dear widow, you are charming!" cried Colonel Killigrew, whose eyes +had been fixed upon her face, while the shadows of age were flitting +from it like darkness from the crimson daybreak. + +The fair widow knew, of old, that Colonel Killigrew's compliments were +not always measured by sober truth; so she started up and ran to the +mirror, still dreading that the ugly visage of an old woman would meet +her gaze. Meanwhile, the three gentlemen behaved in such a manner, as +proved that the water of the Fountain of Youth possessed some +intoxicating qualities; unless, indeed, their exhilaration of spirits +were merely a lightsome dizziness, caused by the sudden removal of the +weight of years. Mr. Gascoigne's mind seemed to run on political topics, +but whether relating to the past, present, or future, could not easily +be determined, since the same ideas and phrases have been in vogue +these fifty years. Now he rattled forth full-throated sentences about +patriotism, national glory, and the people's right; now he muttered some +perilous stuff or other, in a sly and doubtful whisper, so cautiously +that even his own conscience could scarcely catch the secret; and now, +again, he spoke in measured accents, and a deeply deferential tone, as +if a royal ear were listening to his well-turned periods. Colonel +Killigrew all this time had been trolling forth a jolly bottle-song, and +ringing his glass in symphony with the chorus, while his eyes wandered +toward the buxom figure of the Widow Wycherly. On the other side of the +table, Mr. Medbourne was involved in a calculation of dollars and cents, +with which was strangely intermingled a project for supplying the East +Indies with ice, by harnessing a team of whales to the polar icebergs. + +As for the Widow Wycherly, she stood before the mirror courtesying and +simpering to her own image, and greeting it as the friend whom she loved +better than all the world beside. She thrust her face close to the +glass, to see whether some long-remembered wrinkle or crow's-foot had +indeed vanished. She examined whether the snow had so entirely melted +from her hair, that the venerable cap could be safely thrown aside. At +last, turning briskly away, she came with a sort of dancing step to the +table. + +"My dear old doctor," cried she, "pray favor me with another glass!" + +"Certainly, my dear madam, certainly!" replied the complaisant doctor; +"see! I have already filled the glasses." + +There, in fact, stood the four glasses, brimful of this wonderful water, +the delicate spray of which, as it effervesced from the surface, +resembled the tremulous glitter of diamonds. It was now so nearly +sunset, that the chamber had grown duskier than ever; but a mild and +moonlike splendor gleamed from within the vase, and rested alike on the +four guests, and on the doctor's venerable figure. He sat in a +high-backed, elaborately carved oaken arm-chair, with a gray dignity of +aspect that might have well befitted that very Father Time, whose power +had never been disputed, save by this fortunate company. Even while +quaffing the third draught of the Fountain of Youth, they were almost +awed by the expression of his mysterious visage. + +But, the next moment, the exhilarating gush of young life shot through +their veins. They were now in the happy prime of youth. Age, with its +miserable train of cares, and sorrows, and diseases, was remembered only +as the trouble of a dream, from which they had joyously awoke. The fresh +gloss of the soul, so early lost, and without which the world's +successive scenes had been but a gallery of faded pictures, again threw +its enchantment over all their prospects. They felt like new-created +beings, in a new-created universe. + +"We are young! We are young!" they cried exultingly. + +Youth, like the extremity of age, had effaced the strongly marked +characteristics of middle life, and mutually assimilated them all. They +were a group of merry youngsters, almost maddened with the exuberant +frolicsomeness of their years. The most singular effect of their gayety +was an impulse to mock the infirmity and decrepitude of which they had +so lately been the victims. They laughed loudly at their old-fashioned +attire, the wide-skirted coats and flapped waistcoats of the young men, +and the ancient cap and gown of the blooming girl. One limped across the +floor, like a gouty grandfather; one set a pair of spectacles astride of +his nose, and pretended to pore over the black-letter pages of the book +of magic; a third seated himself in an arm-chair, and strove to imitate +the venerable dignity of Dr. Heidegger. Then all shouted mirthfully, and +leaped about the room. The Widow Wycherly--if so fresh a damsel could be +called a widow--tripped up to the doctor's chair, with a mischievous +merriment in her rosy face. + +"Doctor, you dear old soul," cried she, "get up and dance with me!" And +then the four young people laughed louder than ever, to think what a +queer figure the poor old doctor would cut. + +"Pray excuse me," answered the doctor, quietly. "I am old and rheumatic, +and my dancing days were over long ago. But either of these gay young +gentlemen will be glad of so pretty a partner." + +"Dance with me, Clara!" cried Colonel Killigrew. + +"No, no, I will be her partner!" shouted Mr. Gascoigne. + +"She promised me her hand, fifty years ago!" exclaimed Mr. Medbourne. + +They all gathered round her. One caught both her hands in his passionate +grasp,--another threw his arm about her waist,--the third buried his +hand among the glossy curls that clustered beneath the widow's cap. +Blushing, panting, struggling, chiding, laughing, her warm breath +fanning each of their faces by turns, she strove to disengage herself, +yet still remained in their triple embrace. Never was there a livelier +picture of youthful rivalship, with bewitching beauty for the prize. +Yet, by a strange deception, owing to the duskiness of the chamber, and +the antique dresses which they still wore, the tall mirror is said to +have reflected the figures of the three old, gray, withered grandsires, +ridiculously contending for the skinny ugliness of a shrivelled +grandam. + +But they were young: their burning passions proved them so. Inflamed to +madness by the coquetry of the girl-widow, who neither granted nor quite +withheld her favors, the three rivals began to interchange threatening +glances. Still keeping hold of the fair prize, they grappled fiercely at +one another's throats. As they struggled to and fro, the table was +overturned, and the vase dashed into a thousand fragments. The precious +Water of Youth flowed in a bright stream across the floor, moistening +the wings of a butterfly, which, grown old in the decline of summer, had +alighted there to die. The insect fluttered lightly through the chamber, +and settled on the snowy head of Dr. Heidegger. + +"Come, come, gentlemen!--come, Madam Wycherly," exclaimed the doctor, "I +really must protest against this riot." + +They stood still and shivered; for it seemed as if gray Time were +calling them back from their sunny youth, far down into the chill and +darksome vale of years. They looked at old Dr. Heidegger, who sat in his +carved arm-chair, holding the rose of half a century, which he had +rescued from among the fragments of the shattered vase. At the motion of +his hand, the four rioters resumed their seats; the more readily, +because their violent exertions had wearied them, youthful though they +were. + +"My poor Sylvia's rose!" ejaculated Dr. Heidegger, holding it in the +light of the sunset clouds; "it appears to be fading again." + +And so it was. Even while the party were looking at it, the flower +continued to shrivel up, till it became as dry and fragile as when the +doctor had first thrown it into the vase. He shook off the few drops of +moisture which clung to its petals. + +"I love it as well thus, as in its dewy freshness," observed he, +pressing the withered rose to his withered lips. While he spoke, the +butterfly fluttered down from the doctor's snowy head, and fell upon the +floor. + +His guests shivered again. A strange chillness, whether of the body or +spirit they could not tell, was creeping gradually over them all. They +gazed at one another, and fancied that each fleeting moment snatched +away a charm, and left a deepening furrow where none had been before. +Was it an illusion? Had the changes of a lifetime been crowded into so +brief a space, and were they now four aged people, sitting with their +old friend, Dr. Heidegger? + +"Are we grown old again, so soon?" cried they, dolefully. + +In truth, they had. The Water of Youth possessed merely a virtue more +transient than that of wine. The delirium which it created had +effervesced away. Yes! they were old again. With a shuddering impulse, +that showed her a woman still, the widow clasped her skinny hands before +her face, and wished that the coffin-lid were over it, since it could be +no longer beautiful. + +"Yes, friends, ye are old again," said Dr. Heidegger; "and lo! the Water +of Youth is all lavished on the ground. Well, I bemoan it not; for if +the fountain gushed at my very doorstep, I would not stoop to bathe my +lips in it; no, though its delirium were for years instead of moments. +Such is the lesson ye have taught me!" + +But the doctor's four friends had taught no such lesson to themselves. +They resolved forthwith to make a pilgrimage to Florida, and quaff at +morning, noon, and night from the Fountain of Youth. + + NOTE.--In an English Review, not long since, I have been accused of + plagiarizing the idea of this story from a chapter in one of the + novels of Alexandre Dumas. There has undoubtedly been a plagiarism + on one side or the other; but as my story was written a good deal + more than twenty years ago, and as the novel is of considerably + more recent date, I take pleasure in thinking that M. Dumas has + done me the honor to appropriate one of the fanciful conceptions of + my earlier days. He is heartily welcome to it: nor is it the only + instance, by many, in which the great French romancer has exercised + the privilege of commanding genius by confiscating the intellectual + property of less famous people to his own use and behoof. + + _September, 1860._ + + + + +The Birthmark + + +In the latter part of the last century there lived a man of science, an +eminent proficient in every branch of natural philosophy, who not long +before our story opens had made experience of a spiritual affinity more +attractive than any chemical one. He had left his laboratory to the care +of an assistant, cleared his fine countenance from the furnace-smoke, +washed the stain of acids from his fingers, and persuaded a beautiful +woman to become his wife. In those days, when the comparatively recent +discovery of electricity and other kindred mysteries of Nature seemed to +open paths into the region of miracle, it was not unusual for the love +of science to rival the love of woman in its depth and absorbing energy. +The higher intellect, the imagination, the spirit, and even the heart +might all find their congenial aliment in pursuits which, as some of +their ardent votaries believed, would ascend from one step of powerful +intelligence to another, until the philosopher should lay his hand on +the secret of creative force and perhaps make new worlds for himself. +We know not whether Aylmer possessed this degree of faith in man's +ultimate control over nature. He had devoted himself, however, too +unreservedly to scientific studies ever to be weakened from them by any +second passion. His love for his young wife might prove the stronger of +the two; but it could only be by intertwining itself with his love of +science and uniting the strength of the latter to his own. + +Such a union accordingly took place, and was attended with truly +remarkable consequences and a deeply impressive moral. One day, very +soon after their marriage, Aylmer sat gazing at his wife with a trouble +in his countenance that grew stronger until he spoke. + +"Georgiana," said he, "has it never occurred to you that the mark upon +your cheek might be removed?" + +"No, indeed," said she, smiling; but, perceiving the seriousness of his +manner, she blushed deeply. "To tell you the truth, it has been so often +called a charm, that I was simple enough to imagine it might be so." + +"Ah, upon another face perhaps it might," replied her husband; "but +never on yours. No, dearest Georgiana, you came so nearly perfect from +the hand of Nature, that this slightest possible defect, which we +hesitate whether to term a defect or a beauty, shocks me, as being the +visible mark of earthly imperfection." + +"Shocks you, my husband!" cried Georgiana, deeply hurt; at first +reddening with momentary anger but then bursting into tears. "Then why +did you take me from my mother's side? You cannot love what shocks you!" + +To explain this conversation, it must be mentioned that in the centre of +Georgiana's left cheek there was a singular mark, deeply interwoven, as +it were, with the texture and substance of her face. In the usual state +of her complexion--a healthy though delicate bloom--the mark wore a tint +of deeper crimson, which imperfectly defined its shape amid the +surrounding rosiness. When she blushed it gradually became more +indistinct, and finally vanished amid the triumphant rush of blood that +bathed the whole cheek with its brilliant glow. But if any shifting +motion caused her to turn pale there was the mark again, a crimson stain +upon the snow, in what Aylmer sometimes deemed an almost fearful +distinctness. Its shape bore not a little similarity to the human hand, +though of the smallest pygmy size. Georgiana's lovers were wont to say +that some fairy at her birth-hour had laid her tiny hand upon the +infant's cheek, and left this impress there in token of the magic +endowments that were to give her such sway over all hearts. Many a +desperate swain would have risked life for the privilege of pressing +his lips to the mysterious hand. It must not be concealed, however, that +the impression wrought by this fairy sign-manual varied exceedingly +according to the difference of temperament in the beholders. Some +fastidious persons--but they were exclusively of her own sex--affirmed +that the bloody hand, as they chose to call it, quite destroyed the +effect of Georgiana's beauty and rendered her countenance even hideous. +But it would be as reasonable to say that one of those small blue stains +which sometimes occur in the purest statuary marble would convert the +Eve of Powers to a monster. Masculine observers, if the birthmark did +not heighten their admiration, contented themselves with wishing it +away, that the world might possess one living specimen of ideal +loveliness without the semblance of a flaw. After his marriage,--for he +thought little or nothing of the matter before,--Aylmer discovered that +this was the case with himself. + +Had she been less beautiful,--if Envy's self could have found aught else +to sneer at,--he might have felt his affection heightened by the +prettiness of this mimic hand, now vaguely portrayed, now lost, now +stealing forth again and glimmering to and fro with every pulse of +emotion that throbbed within her heart; but, seeing her otherwise so +perfect, he found this one defect grow more and more intolerable with +every moment of their united lives. It was the fatal flaw of humanity +which Nature, in one shape or another, stamps ineffaceably on all her +productions, either to imply that they are temporary and finite, or that +their perfection must be wrought by toil and pain. The crimson hand +expressed the ineludible gripe in which mortality clutches the highest +and purest of earthly mould, degrading them into kindred with the +lowest, and even with the very brutes, like whom their visible frames +return to dust. In this manner, selecting it as the symbol of his wife's +liability to sin, sorrow, decay, and death, Aylmer's sombre imagination +was not long in rendering the birthmark a frightful object, causing him +more trouble and horror than ever Georgiana's beauty, whether of soul or +sense, had given him delight. + +At all the seasons which should have been their happiest he invariably, +and without intending it, nay, in spite of a purpose to the contrary, +reverted to this one disastrous topic. Trifling as it at first appeared, +it so connected itself with innumerable trains of thought and modes of +feeling that it became the central point of all. With the morning +twilight Aylmer opened his eyes upon his wife's face and recognized the +symbol of imperfection; and when they sat together at the evening +hearth his eyes wandered stealthily to her cheek, and beheld, flickering +with the blaze of the wood-fire, the spectral hand that wrote mortality +where he would fain have worshipped. Georgiana soon learned to shudder +at his gaze. It needed but a glance with the peculiar expression that +his face often wore to change the roses of her cheek into a death-like +paleness, amid which the crimson hand was brought strongly out, like a +bas-relief of ruby on the whitest marble. + +Late one night, when the lights were growing dim so as hardly to betray +the stain on the poor wife's cheek, she herself, for the first time, +voluntarily took up the subject. + +"Do you remember, my dear Aylmer," said she, with a feeble attempt at a +smile, "have you any recollection, of a dream last night about this +odious hand?" + +"None! none whatever!" replied Aylmer, starting; but then he added, in a +dry, cold tone, affected for the sake of concealing the real depth of +his emotion, "I might well dream of it; for, before I fell asleep, it +had taken a pretty firm hold of my fancy." + +"And you did dream of it?" continued Georgiana, hastily; for she dreaded +lest a gush of tears should interrupt what she had to say. "A terrible +dream! I wonder that you can forget it. Is it possible to forget this +one expression?--'It is in her heart now; we must have it out!' Reflect, +my husband; for by all means I would have you recall that dream." + +The mind is in a sad state when Sleep, the all-involving, cannot confine +her spectres within the dim region of her sway, but suffers them to +break forth, affrighting this actual life with secrets that perchance +belong to a deeper one. Aylmer now remembered his dream. He had fancied +himself with his servant Aminadab attempting an operation for the +removal of the birthmark; but the deeper went the knife, the deeper sank +the hand, until at length its tiny grasp appeared to have caught hold of +Georgiana's heart; whence, however, her husband was inexorably resolved +to cut or wrench it away. + +When the dream had shaped itself perfectly in his memory, Aylmer sat in +his wife's presence with a guilty feeling. Truth often finds its way to +the mind close muffled in robes of sleep, and then speaks with +uncompromising directness of matters in regard to which we practise an +unconscious self-deception during our waking moments. Until now he had +not been aware of the tyrannizing influence acquired by one idea over +his mind, and of the lengths which he might find in his heart to go for +the sake of giving himself peace. + +"Aylmer," resumed Georgiana, solemnly, "I know not what may be the cost +to both of us to rid me of this fatal birthmark. Perhaps its removal may +cause cureless deformity; or it may be the stain goes as deep as life +itself. Again: do we know that there is a possibility, on any terms, of +unclasping the firm gripe of this little hand which was laid upon me +before I came into the world?" + +"Dearest Georgiana, I have spent much thought upon the subject," hastily +interrupted Aylmer. "I am convinced of the perfect practicability of its +removal." + +"If there be the remotest possibility of it," continued Georgiana, "let +the attempt be made, at whatever risk. Danger is nothing to me; for +life, while this hateful mark makes me the object of your horror and +disgust,--life is a burden which I would fling down with joy. Either +remove this dreadful hand, or take my wretched life! You have deep +science. All the world bears witness of it. You have achieved great +wonders. Cannot you remove this little, little mark, which I cover with +the tips of two small fingers? Is this beyond your power, for the sake +of your own peace, and to save your poor wife from madness?" + +"Noblest, dearest, tenderest wife," cried Aylmer, rapturously, "doubt +not my power. I have already given this matter the deepest +thought,--thought which might almost have enlightened me to create a +being less perfect than yourself. Georgiana, you have led me deeper than +ever into the heart of science. I feel myself fully competent to render +this dear cheek as faultless as its fellow; and then, most beloved, +what will be my triumph when I shall have corrected what Nature left +imperfect in her fairest work! Even Pygmalion, when his sculptured woman +assumed life, felt not greater ecstasy than mine will be." + +"It is resolved, then," said Georgiana, faintly smiling. "And, Aylmer, +spare me not, though you should find the birthmark take refuge in my +heart at last." + +Her husband tenderly kissed her cheek,--her right cheek,--not that which +bore the impress of the crimson hand. + +The next day Aylmer apprised his wife of a plan that he had formed +whereby he might have opportunity for the intense thought and constant +watchfulness which the proposed operation would require; while +Georgiana, likewise, would enjoy the perfect repose essential to its +success. They were to seclude themselves in the extensive apartments +occupied by Aylmer as a laboratory, and where, during his toilsome +youth, he had made discoveries in the elemental powers of nature that +had roused the admiration of all the learned societies in Europe. Seated +calmly in this laboratory, the pale philosopher had investigated the +secrets of the highest cloud-region and of the profoundest mines; he had +satisfied himself of the causes that kindled and kept alive the fires of +the volcano; and had explained the mystery of fountains, and how it is +that they gush forth, some so bright and pure, and others with such rich +medicinal virtues, from the dark bosom of the earth. Here, too, at an +earlier period, he had studied the wonders of the human frame, and +attempted to fathom the very process by which Nature assimilates all her +precious influences from earth and air, and from the spiritual world, to +create and foster man, her masterpiece. The latter pursuit, however, +Aylmer had long laid aside in unwilling recognition of the +truth--against which all seekers sooner or later stumble--that our great +creative Mother, while she amuses us with apparently working in the +broadest sunshine, is yet severely careful to keep her own secrets, and, +in spite of her pretended openness, shows us nothing but results. She +permits us, indeed, to mar, but seldom to mend, and, like a jealous +patentee, on no account to make. Now, however, Aylmer resumed these +half-forgotten investigations; not, of course, with such hopes or wishes +as first suggested them; but because they involved much physiological +truth and lay in the path of his proposed scheme for the treatment of +Georgiana. + +As he led her over the threshold of the laboratory Georgiana was cold +and tremulous. Aylmer looked cheerfully into her face, with intent to +reassure her, but was so startled with the intense glow of the +birthmark upon the whiteness of her cheek that he could not restrain a +strong convulsive shudder. His wife fainted. + +"Aminadab! Aminadab!" shouted Aylmer, stamping violently on the floor. + +Forthwith there issued from an inner apartment a man of low stature, but +bulky frame, with shaggy hair hanging about his visage, which was grimed +with the vapors of the furnace. This personage had been Aylmer's +underworker during his whole scientific career, and was admirably fitted +for that office by his great mechanical readiness, and the skill with +which, while incapable of comprehending a single principle, he executed +all the details of his master's experiments. With his vast strength, his +shaggy hair, his smoky aspect, and the indescribable earthiness that +incrusted him, he seemed to represent man's physical nature; while +Aylmer's slender figure, and pale, intellectual face, were no less apt a +type of the spiritual element. + +"Throw open the door of the boudoir, Aminadab," said Aylmer, "and burn a +pastil." + +"Yes, master," answered Aminadab, looking intently at the lifeless form +of Georgiana; and then he muttered to himself, "If she were my wife, I'd +never part with that birthmark." + +When Georgiana recovered consciousness she found herself breathing an +atmosphere of penetrating fragrance, the gentle potency of which had +recalled her from her death-like faintness. The scene around her looked +like enchantment. Aylmer had converted those smoky, dingy, sombre rooms, +where he had spent his brightest years in recondite pursuits, into a +series of beautiful apartments not unfit to be the secluded abode of a +lovely woman. The walls were hung with gorgeous curtains, which imparted +the combination of grandeur and grace that no other species of adornment +can achieve; and, as they fell from the ceiling to the floor, their rich +and ponderous folds, concealing all angles and straight lines, appeared +to shut in the scene from infinite space. For aught Georgiana knew, it +might be a pavilion among the clouds. And Aylmer, excluding the +sunshine, which would have interfered with his chemical processes, had +supplied its place with perfumed lamps, emitting flames of various hue, +but all uniting in a soft, impurpled radiance. He now knelt by his +wife's side, watching her earnestly, but without alarm; for he was +confident in his science, and felt that he could draw a magic circle +round her within which no evil might intrude. + +"Where am I? Ah, I remember," said Georgiana, faintly; and she placed +her hand over her cheek to hide the terrible mark from her husband's +eyes. + +"Fear not, dearest!" exclaimed he. "Do not shrink from me! Believe me, +Georgiana, I even rejoice in this single imperfection, since it will be +such a rapture to remove it." + +"O, spare me!" sadly replied his wife. "Pray do not look at it again. I +never can forget that convulsive shudder." + +In order to soothe Georgiana, and, as it were, to release her mind from +the burden of actual things, Aylmer now put in practice some of the +light and playful secrets which science had taught him among its +profounder lore. Airy figures, absolutely bodiless ideas, and forms of +unsubstantial beauty came and danced before her, imprinting their +momentary footsteps on beams of light. Though she had some indistinct +idea of the method of these optical phenomena, still the illusion was +almost perfect enough to warrant the belief that her husband possessed +sway over the spiritual world. Then again, when she felt a wish to look +forth from her seclusion, immediately, as if her thoughts were answered, +the procession of external existence flitted across a screen. The +scenery and the figures of actual life were perfectly represented but +with that bewitching yet indescribable difference which always makes a +picture, an image, or a shadow so much more attractive than the +original. When wearied of this, Aylmer bade her cast her eyes upon a +vessel containing a quantity of earth. She did so, with little interest +at first; but was soon startled to perceive the germ of a plant shooting +upward from the soil. Then came the slender stalk; the leaves gradually +unfolded themselves; and amid them was a perfect and lovely flower. + +"It is magical!" cried Georgiana. "I dare not touch it." + +"Nay, pluck it," answered Aylmer,--"pluck it, and inhale its brief +perfume while you may. The flower will wither in a few moments and leave +nothing save its brown seed-vessels; but thence may be perpetuated a +race as ephemeral as itself." + +But Georgiana had no sooner touched the flower than the whole plant +suffered a blight, its leaves turning coal-black as if by the agency of +fire. + +"There was too powerful a stimulus," said Aylmer, thoughtfully. + +To make up for this abortive experiment, he proposed to take her +portrait by a scientific process of his own invention. It was to be +effected by rays of light striking upon a polished plate of metal. +Georgiana assented; but, on looking at the result, was affrighted to +find the features of the portrait blurred and indefinable; while the +minute figure of a hand appeared where the cheek should have been. +Aylmer snatched the metallic plate and threw it into a jar of corrosive +acid. + +Soon, however, he forgot these mortifying failures. In the intervals of +study and chemical experiment he came to her flushed and exhausted, but +seemed invigorated by her presence, and spoke in glowing language of the +resources of his art. He gave a history of the long dynasty of the +alchemists, who spent so many ages in quest of the universal solvent by +which the golden principle might be elicited from all things vile and +base. Aylmer appeared to believe that, by the plainest scientific logic, +it was altogether within the limits of possibility to discover this +long-sought medium. "But," he added, "a philosopher who should go deep +enough to acquire the power would attain too lofty a wisdom to stoop to +the exercise of it." Not less singular were his opinions in regard to +the elixir vitae. He more than intimated that it was at his option to +concoct a liquid that should prolong life for years, perhaps +interminably; but that it would produce a discord in nature which all +the world, and chiefly the quaffer of the immortal nostrum, would find +cause to curse. + +"Aylmer, are you in earnest?" asked Georgiana, looking at him with +amazement and fear. "It is terrible to possess such power, or even to +dream of possessing it." + +"O, do not tremble, my love," said her husband. "I would not wrong +either you or myself by working such inharmonious effects upon our +lives; but I would have you consider how trifling, in comparison, is +the skill requisite to remove this little hand." + +At the mention of the birthmark, Georgiana, as usual, shrank as if a +red-hot iron had touched her cheek. + +Again Aylmer applied himself to his labors. She could hear his voice in +the distant furnace-room giving directions to Aminadab, whose harsh, +uncouth, misshapen tones were audible in response, more like the grunt +or growl of a brute than human speech. After hours of absence, Aylmer +reappeared and proposed that she should now examine his cabinet of +chemical products and natural treasures of the earth. Among the former +he showed her a small vial, in which, he remarked, was contained a +gentle yet most powerful fragrance, capable of impregnating all the +breezes that blow across a kingdom. They were of inestimable value, the +contents of that little vial; and, as he said so, he threw some of the +perfume into the air and filled the room with piercing and invigorating +delight. + +"And what is this?" asked Georgiana, pointing to a small crystal globe +containing a gold-colored liquid. "It is so beautiful to the eye that I +could imagine it the elixir of life." + +"In one sense it is," replied Aylmer; "or rather, the elixir of +immortality. It is the most precious poison that ever was concocted in +this world. By its aid I could apportion the lifetime of any mortal at +whom you might point your finger. The strength of the dose would +determine whether he were to linger out years, or drop dead in the midst +of a breath. No king on his guarded throne could keep his life if I, in +my private station, should deem that the welfare of millions justified +me in depriving him of it." + +"Why do you keep such a terrific drug?" inquired Georgiana, in horror. + +"Do not mistrust me, dearest," said her husband, smiling; "its virtuous +potency is yet greater than its harmful one. But see! here is a powerful +cosmetic. With a few drops of this in a vase of water, freckles may be +washed away as easily as the hands are cleansed. A stronger infusion +would take the blood out of the cheek, and leave the rosiest beauty a +pale ghost." + +"Is it with this lotion that you intend to bathe my cheek?" asked +Georgiana, anxiously. + +"O no," hastily replied her husband; "this is merely superficial. Your +case demands a remedy that shall go deeper." + +In his interviews with Georgiana, Aylmer generally made minute inquiries +as to her sensations, and whether the confinement of the rooms and the +temperature of the atmosphere agreed with her. These questions had such +a particular drift that Georgiana began to conjecture that she was +already subjected to certain physical influences, either breathed in +with the fragrant air or taken with her food. She fancied likewise, but +it might be altogether fancy, that there was a stirring up of her +system,--a strange, indefinite sensation creeping through her veins, and +tingling, half painfully, half pleasurably, at her heart. Still, +whenever she dared to look into the mirror, there she beheld herself +pale as a white rose and with the crimson birthmark stamped upon her +cheek. Not even Aylmer now hated it so much as she. + +To dispel the tedium of the hours which her husband found it necessary +to devote to the processes of combination and analysis, Georgiana turned +over the volumes of his scientific library. In many dark old tomes she +met with chapters full of romance and poetry. They were the works of the +philosophers of the Middle Ages, such as Albertus Magnus, Cornelius +Agrippa, Paracelsus, and the famous friar who created the prophetic +Brazen Head. All these antique naturalists stood in advance of their +centuries, yet were imbued with some of their credulity, and therefore +were believed, and perhaps imagined themselves to have acquired from the +investigation of nature a power above nature, and from physics a sway +over the spiritual world. Hardly less curious and imaginative were the +early volumes of the Transactions of the Royal Society, in which the +members, knowing little of the limits of natural possibility, were +continually recording wonders or proposing methods whereby wonders might +be wrought. + +But, to Georgiana, the most engrossing volume was a large folio from her +husband's own hand, in which he had recorded every experiment of his +scientific career, its original aim, the methods adopted for its +development, and its final success or failure, with the circumstances to +which either event was attributable. The book, in truth was both the +history and emblem of his ardent, ambitious, imaginative, yet practical +and laborious life. He handled physical details as if there were nothing +beyond them; yet spiritualized them all, and redeemed himself from +materialism by his strong and eager aspiration towards the infinite. In +his grasp the veriest clod of earth assumed a soul. Georgiana, as she +read, reverenced Aylmer and loved him more profoundly than ever, but +with a less entire dependence on his judgment than heretofore. Much as +he had accomplished, she could not but observe that his most splendid +successes were almost invariably failures, if compared with the ideal at +which he aimed. His brightest diamonds were the merest pebbles, and felt +to be so by himself, in comparison with the inestimable gems which lay +hidden beyond his reach. The volume, rich with achievements that had +won renown for its author, was yet as melancholy a record as ever mortal +hand had penned. It was the sad confession and continual exemplification +of the shortcomings of the composite man, the spirit burdened with clay +and working in matter, and of the despair that assails the higher nature +at finding itself so miserably thwarted by the earthly part. Perhaps +every man of genius, in whatever sphere, might recognize the image of +his own experience in Aylmer's journal. + +So deeply did these reflections affect Georgiana that she laid her face +upon the open volume and burst into tears. In this situation she was +found by her husband. + +"It is dangerous to read in a sorcerer's books," said he with a smile, +though his countenance was uneasy and displeased. "Georgiana, there are +pages in that volume which I can scarcely glance over and keep my +senses. Take heed lest it prove as detrimental to you." + +"It has made me worship you more than ever," said she. + +"Ah, wait for this one success," rejoined he, "then worship me if you +will. I shall deem myself hardly unworthy of it. But come, I have sought +you for the luxury of your voice. Sing to me, dearest." + +So she poured out the liquid music of her voice to quench the thirst of +his spirit. He then took his leave with a boyish exuberance of gayety, +assuring her that her seclusion would endure but a little longer, and +that the result was already certain. Scarcely had he departed when +Georgiana felt irresistibly impelled to follow him. She had forgotten to +inform Aylmer of a symptom which for two or three hours past had begun +to excite her attention. It was a sensation in the fatal birthmark, not +painful, but which induced a restlessness throughout her system. +Hastening after her husband, she intruded for the first time into the +laboratory. + +The first thing that struck her eye was the furnace, that hot and +feverish worker, with the intense glow of its fire, which by the +quantities of soot clustered above it seemed to have been burning for +ages. There was a distilling-apparatus in full operation. Around the +room were retorts, tubes, cylinders, crucibles, and other apparatus of +chemical research. An electrical machine stood ready for immediate use. +The atmosphere felt oppressively close, and was tainted with gaseous +odors which had been tormented forth by the processes of science. The +severe and homely simplicity of the apartment, with its naked walls and +brick pavement, looked strange, accustomed as Georgiana had become to +the fantastic elegance of her boudoir. But what chiefly, indeed almost +solely, drew her attention, was the aspect of Aylmer himself. + +He was pale as death, anxious and absorbed, and hung over the furnace as +if it depended upon his utmost watchfulness whether the liquid which it +was distilling should be the draught of immortal happiness or misery. +How different from the sanguine and joyous mien that he had assumed for +Georgiana's encouragement! + +"Carefully now, Aminadab; carefully, thou human machine; carefully, thou +man of clay," muttered Aylmer, more to himself than his assistant. "Now, +if there be a thought too much or too little, it is all over." + +"Ho! ho!" mumbled Aminadab. "Look, master! look!" + +Aylmer raised his eyes hastily, and at first reddened, then grew paler +than ever, on beholding Georgiana. He rushed towards her and seized her +arm with a gripe that left the print of his fingers upon it. + +"Why do you come hither? Have you no trust in your husband?" cried he, +impetuously. "Would you throw the blight of that fatal birthmark over my +labors? It is not well done. Go, prying woman! go!" + +"Nay, Aylmer," said Georgiana with the firmness of which she possessed +no stinted endowment, "it is not you that have a right to complain. You +mistrust your wife; you have concealed the anxiety with which you watch +the development of this experiment. Think not so unworthily of me, my +husband. Tell me all the risk we run, and fear not that I shall shrink; +for my share in it is far less than your own." + +"No, no, Georgiana!" said Aylmer, impatiently; "it must not be." + +"I submit," replied she, calmly. "And, Aylmer, I shall quaff whatever +draught you bring me; but it will be on the same principle that would +induce me to take a dose of poison if offered by your hand." + +"My noble wife," said Aylmer, deeply moved, "I knew not the height and +depth of your nature until now. Nothing shall be concealed. Know, then, +that this crimson hand, superficial as it seems, has clutched its grasp +into your being with a strength of which I had no previous conception. I +have already administered agents powerful enough to do aught except to +change your entire physical system. Only one thing remains to be tried. +If that fail us we are ruined." + +"Why did you hesitate to tell me this?" asked she. + +"Because, Georgiana," said Aylmer, in a low voice, "there is danger." + +"Danger? There is but one danger,--that this horrible stigma shall be +left upon my cheek!" cried Georgiana. "Remove it, remove it, whatever be +the cost, or we shall both go mad!" + +"Heaven knows your words are too true," said Aylmer, sadly. "And now, +dearest, return to your boudoir. In a little while all will be tested." + +He conducted her back and took leave of her with a solemn tenderness +which spoke far more than his words how much was now at stake. After his +departure Georgiana became rapt in musings. She considered the character +of Aylmer, and did it completer justice than at any previous moment. Her +heart exulted, while it trembled, at his honorable love,--so pure and +lofty that it would accept nothing less than perfection, nor miserably +make itself contented with an earthlier nature than he had dreamed of. +She felt how much more precious was such a sentiment than that meaner +kind which would have borne with the imperfection for her sake, and have +been guilty of treason to holy love by degrading its perfect idea to the +level of the actual; and with her whole spirit she prayed that, for a +single moment, she might satisfy his highest and deepest conception. +Longer than one moment she well knew it could not be; for his spirit was +ever on the march, ever ascending, and each instant required something +that was beyond the scope of the instant before. + +The sound of her husband's footsteps aroused her. He bore a crystal +goblet containing a liquor colorless as water, but bright enough to be +the draught of immortality. Aylmer was pale; but it seemed rather the +consequence of a highly wrought state of mind and tension of spirit than +of fear or doubt. + +"The concoction of the draught has been perfect," said he, in answer to +Georgiana's look. "Unless all my science have deceived me, it cannot +fail." + +"Save on your account, my dearest Aylmer," observed his wife, "I might +wish to put off this birthmark of mortality by relinquishing mortality +itself in preference to any other mode. Life is but a sad possession to +those who have attained precisely the degree of moral advancement at +which I stand. Were I weaker and blinder, it might be happiness. Were I +stronger, it might be endured hopefully. But, being what I find myself, +methinks I am of all mortals the most fit to die." + +"You are fit for heaven without tasting death!" replied her husband. +"But why do we speak of dying? The draught cannot fail. Behold its +effect upon this plant." + +On the window-seat there stood a geranium diseased with yellow blotches, +which had overspread all its leaves. Aylmer poured a small quantity of +the liquid upon the soil in which it grew. In a little time, when the +roots of the plant had taken up the moisture, the unsightly blotches +began to be extinguished in a living verdure. + +"There needed no proof," said Georgiana, quietly. "Give me the goblet. +I joyfully stake all upon your word." + +"Drink, then, thou lofty creature!" exclaimed Aylmer, with fervid +admiration. "There is no taint of imperfection on thy spirit. Thy +sensible frame, too, shall soon be all perfect." + +She quaffed the liquid and returned the goblet to his hand. + +"It is grateful," said she, with a placid smile. "Methinks it is like +water from a heavenly fountain; for it contains I know not what of +unobtrusive fragrance and deliciousness. It allays a feverish thirst +that had parched me for many days. Now, dearest, let me sleep. My +earthly senses are closing over my spirit like the leaves around the +heart of a rose at sunset." + +She spoke the last words with a gentle reluctance, as if it required +almost more energy than she could command to pronounce the faint and +lingering syllables. Scarcely had they loitered through her lips ere she +was lost in slumber. Aylmer sat by her side, watching her aspect with +the emotions proper to a man, the whole value of whose existence was +involved in the process now to be tested. Mingled with this mood, +however, was the philosophic investigation characteristic of the man of +science. Not the minutest symptom escaped him. A heightened flush of the +cheek, a slight irregularity of breath, a quiver of the eyelid, a +hardly perceptible tremor through the frame,--such were the details +which, as the moments passed, he wrote down in his folio volume. Intense +thought had set its stamp upon every previous page of that volume; but +the thoughts of years were all concentrated upon the last. + +While thus employed, he failed not to gaze often at the fatal hand, and +not without a shudder. Yet once, by a strange and unaccountable impulse, +he pressed it with his lips. His spirit recoiled, however, in the very +act; and Georgiana, out of the midst of her deep sleep, moved uneasily +and murmured, as if in remonstrance. Again Aylmer resumed his watch. Nor +was it without avail. The crimson hand, which at first had been strongly +visible upon the marble paleness of Georgiana's cheek, now grew more +faintly outlined. She remained not less pale than ever; but the +birthmark, with every breath that came and went, lost somewhat of its +former distinctness. Its presence had been awful; its departure was more +awful still. Watch the stain of the rainbow fading out of the sky, and +you will know how that mysterious symbol passed away. + +"By Heaven! it is wellnigh gone!" said Aylmer to himself, in almost +irrepressible ecstasy. "I can scarcely trace it now. Success! success! +And now it is like the faintest rose-color. The lightest flush of blood +across her cheek would overcome it. But she is so pale!" + +He drew aside the window-curtain and suffered the light of natural day +to fall into the room and rest upon her cheek. At the same time he heard +a gross, hoarse chuckle, which he had long known as his servant +Aminadab's expression of delight. + +"Ah, clod! ah, earthly mass!" cried Aylmer, laughing in a sort of +frenzy, "you have served me well! Matter and spirit--earth and +heaven--have both done their part in this! Laugh, thing of the senses! +You have earned the right to laugh." + +These exclamations broke Georgiana's sleep. She slowly unclosed her eyes +and gazed into the mirror which her husband had arranged for that +purpose. A faint smile flitted over her lips when she recognized how +barely perceptible was now that crimson hand which had once blazed forth +with such disastrous brilliancy as to scare away all their happiness. +But then her eyes sought Aylmer's face with a trouble and anxiety that +he could by no means account for. + +"My poor Aylmer!" murmured she. + +"Poor? Nay, richest, happiest, most favored!" exclaimed he. "My peerless +bride, it is successful! You are perfect!" + +"My poor Aylmer," she repeated, with a more than human tenderness, "you +have aimed loftily; you have done nobly. Do not repent that, with so +high and pure a feeling, you have rejected the best the earth could +offer. Aylmer, dearest Aylmer, I am dying!" + +Alas! it was too true! The fatal hand had grappled with the mystery of +life, and was the bond by which an angelic spirit kept itself in union +with a mortal frame. As the last crimson tint of the birthmark--that +sole token of human imperfection--faded from her cheek, the parting +breath of the now perfect woman passed into the atmosphere, and her +soul, lingering a moment near her husband, took its heavenward flight. +Then a hoarse, chuckling laugh was heard again! Thus ever does the gross +fatality of earth exult in its invariable triumph over the immortal +essence which, in this dim sphere of half-development, demands the +completeness of a higher state. Yet, had Aylmer reached a profounder +wisdom, he need not thus have flung away the happiness which would have +woven his mortal life of the self-same texture with the celestial. The +momentary circumstance was too strong for him; he failed to look beyond +the shadowy scope of time, and, living once for all in eternity, to find +the perfect future in the present. + + + + +Ethan Brand + +A CHAPTER FROM AN ABORTIVE ROMANCE + + +Bartram the lime-burner, a rough, heavy-looking man, begrimed with +charcoal, sat watching his kiln, at nightfall, while his little son +played at building houses with the scattered fragments of marble, when, +on the hillside below them, they heard a roar of laughter, not mirthful, +but slow, and even solemn, like a wind shaking the boughs of the forest. + +"Father, what is that?" asked the little boy, leaving his play, and +pressing betwixt his father's knees. + +"O, some drunken man, I suppose," answered the lime-burner; "some merry +fellow from the bar-room in the village, who dared not laugh loud enough +within doors lest he should blow the roof of the house off. So here he +is, shaking his jolly sides at the foot of Graylock." + +"But, father," said the child, more sensitive than the obtuse, +middle-aged clown, "he does not laugh like a man that is glad. So the +noise frightens me!" + +"Don't be a fool, child!" cried his father, gruffly. "You will never +make a man, I do believe; there is too much of your mother in you. I +have known the rustling of a leaf startle you. Hark! Here comes the +merry fellow now. You shall see that there is no harm in him." + +Bartram and his little son, while they were talking thus, sat watching +the same lime-kiln that had been the scene of Ethan Brand's solitary and +meditative life, before he began his search for the Unpardonable Sin. +Many years, as we have seen, had now elapsed, since that portentous +night when the Idea was first developed. The kiln, however, on the +mountain-side, stood unimpaired, and was in nothing changed since he had +thrown his dark thoughts into the intense glow of its furnace, and +melted them, as it were, into the one thought that took possession of +his life. It was a rude, round, tower-like structure, about twenty feet +high, heavily built of rough stones, and with a hillock of earth heaped +about the larger part of its circumference; so that the blocks and +fragments of marble might be drawn by cart-loads, and thrown in at the +top. There was an opening at the bottom of the tower, like an +oven-mouth, but large enough to admit a man in a stooping posture, and +provided with a massive iron door. With the smoke and jets of flame +issuing from the chinks and crevices of this door, which seemed to give +admittance into the hillside, it resembled nothing so much as the +private entrance to the infernal regions, which the shepherds of the +Delectable Mountains were accustomed to show to pilgrims. + +There are many such lime-kilns in that tract of country, for the purpose +of burning the white marble which composes a large part of the substance +of the hills. Some of them, built years ago, and long deserted, with +weeds growing in the vacant round of the interior, which is open to the +sky, and grass and wild-flowers rooting themselves into the chinks of +the stones, look already like relics of antiquity, and may yet be +overspread with the lichens of centuries to come. Others, where the +lime-burner still feeds his daily and night-long fire, afford points of +interest to the wanderer among the hills, who seats himself on a log of +wood or a fragment of marble, to hold a chat with the solitary man. It +is a lonesome, and, when the character is inclined to thought, may be an +intensely thoughtful occupation; as it proved in the case of Ethan +Brand, who had mused to such strange purpose, in days gone by, while the +fire in this very kiln was burning. + +The man who now watched the fire was of a different order, and troubled +himself with no thoughts save the very few that were requisite to his +business. At frequent intervals, he flung back the clashing weight of +the iron door, and, turning his face from the insufferable glare, thrust +in huge logs of oak, or stirred the immense brands with a long pole. +Within the furnace were seen the curling and riotous flames, and the +burning marble, almost molten with the intensity of heat; while without, +the reflection of the fire quivered on the dark intricacy of the +surrounding forest, and showed in the foreground a bright and ruddy +little picture of the hut, the spring beside its door, the athletic and +coal-begrimed figure of the lime-burner, and the half-frightened child, +shrinking into the protection of his father's shadow. And when again the +iron door was closed, then reappeared the tender light of the half-full +moon, which vainly strove to trace out the indistinct shapes of the +neighboring mountains; and, in the upper sky, there was a flitting +congregation of clouds, still faintly tinged with the rosy sunset, +though thus far down into the valley the sunshine had vanished long and +long ago. + +The little boy now crept still closer to his father, as footsteps were +heard ascending the hillside, and a human form thrust aside the bushes +that clustered beneath the trees. + +"Halloo! who is it?" cried the lime-burner, vexed at his son's timidity, +yet half infected by it. "Come forward, and show yourself, like a man, +or I'll fling this chunk of marble at your head!" + +"You offer me a rough welcome," said a gloomy voice, as the unknown man +drew nigh. "Yet I neither claim nor desire a kinder one, even at my own +fireside." + +To obtain a distincter view, Bartram threw open the iron door of the +kiln, whence immediately issued a gush of fierce light, that smote full +upon the stranger's face and figure. To a careless eye there appeared +nothing very remarkable in his aspect, which was that of a man in a +coarse, brown, country-made suit of clothes, tall and thin, with the +staff and heavy shoes of a wayfarer. As he advanced, he fixed his +eyes--which were very bright--intently upon the brightness of the +furnace, as if he beheld, or expected to behold, some object worthy of +note within it. + +"Good evening, stranger," said the lime-burner; "whence come you, so +late in the day?" + +"I come from my search," answered the wayfarer; "for, at last, it is +finished." + +"Drunk!--or crazy!" muttered Bartram to himself. "I shall have trouble +with the fellow. The sooner I drive him away, the better." + +The little boy, all in a tremble, whispered to his father, and begged +him to shut the door of the kiln, so that there might not be so much +light; for that there was something in the man's face which he was +afraid to look at, yet could not look away from. And, indeed, even the +lime-burner's dull and torpid sense began to be impressed by an +indescribable something in that thin, rugged, thoughtful visage, with +the grizzled hair hanging wildly about it, and those deeply sunken eyes, +which gleamed like fires within the entrance of a mysterious cavern. +But, as he closed the door, the stranger turned towards him, and spoke +in a quiet, familiar way, that made Bartram feel as if he were a sane +and sensible man, after all. + +"Your task draws to an end, I see," said he. "This marble has already +been burning three days. A few hours more will convert the stone to +lime." + +"Why, who are you?" exclaimed the lime-burner. "You seem as well +acquainted with my business as I am myself." + +"And well I may be," said the stranger; "for I followed the same craft +many a long year, and here, too, on this very spot. But you are a +new-comer in these parts. Did you never hear of Ethan Brand?" + +"The man that went in search of the Unpardonable Sin?" asked Bartram, +with a laugh. + +"The same," answered the stranger. "He has found what he sought, and +therefore he comes back again." + +"What! then you are Ethan Brand himself?" cried the lime-burner, in +amazement. "I am a new-comer here, as you say, and they call it eighteen +years since you left the foot of Graylock. But, I can tell you, the good +folks still talk about Ethan Brand, in the village yonder, and what a +strange errand took him away from his lime-kiln. Well, and so you have +found the Unpardonable Sin?" + +"Even so!" said the stranger, calmly. + +"If the question is a fair one," proceeded Bartram, "where might it be?" + +Ethan Brand laid his finger on his own heart. + +"Here!" replied he. + +And then, without mirth in his countenance, but as if moved by an +involuntary recognition of the infinite absurdity of seeking throughout +the world for what was the closest of all things to himself, and looking +into every heart, save his own, for what was hidden in no other breast, +he broke into a laugh of scorn. It was the same slow, heavy laugh, that +had almost appalled the lime-burner when it heralded the wayfarer's +approach. + +The solitary mountain-side was made dismal by it. Laughter, when out of +place, mis-timed, or bursting forth from a disordered state of feeling, +may be the most terrible modulation of the human voice. The laughter of +one asleep, even if it be a little child,--the madman's laugh,--the +wild, screaming laugh of a born idiot,--are sounds that we sometimes +tremble to hear, and would always willingly forget. Poets have imagined +no utterance of fiends or hobgoblins so fearfully appropriate as a +laugh. And even the obtuse lime-burner felt his nerves shaken, as this +strange man looked inward at his own heart, and burst into laughter that +rolled away into the night, and was indistinctly reverberated among the +hills. + +"Joe," said he to his little son, "scamper down to the tavern in the +village, and tell the jolly fellows there that Ethan Brand has come +back, and that he has found the Unpardonable Sin!" + +The boy darted away on his errand, to which Ethan Brand made no +objection, nor seemed hardly to notice it. He sat on a log of wood, +looking steadfastly at the iron door of the kiln. When the child was out +of sight, and his swift and light footsteps ceased to be heard treading +first on the fallen leaves and then on the rocky mountain-path, the +lime-burner began to regret his departure. He felt that the little +fellow's presence had been a barrier between his guest and himself, and +that he must now deal, heart to heart, with a man who, on his own +confession, had committed the one only crime for which Heaven could +afford no mercy. That crime, in its indistinct blackness, seemed to +overshadow him. The lime-burner's own sins rose up within him, and made +his memory riotous with a throng of evil shapes that asserted their +kindred with the Master Sin, whatever it might be, which it was within +the scope of man's corrupted nature to conceive and cherish. They were +all of one family; they went to and fro between his breast and Ethan +Brand's, and carried dark greetings from one to the other. + +Then Bartram remembered the stories which had grown traditionary in +reference to this strange man, who had come upon him like a shadow of +the night, and was making himself at home in his old place, after so +long absence that the dead people, dead and buried for years, would have +had more right to be at home, in any familiar spot, than he. Ethan +Brand, it was said, had conversed with Satan himself in the lurid blaze +of this very kiln. The legend had been matter of mirth heretofore, but +looked grisly now. According to this tale, before Ethan Brand departed +on his search, he had been accustomed to evoke a fiend from the hot +furnace of the lime-kiln, night after night, in order to confer with him +about the Unpardonable Sin; the man and the fiend each laboring to frame +the image of some mode of guilt which could neither be atoned for nor +forgiven. And, with the first gleam of light upon the mountain-top, the +fiend crept in at the iron door, there to abide the intensest element +of fire, until again summoned forth to share in the dreadful task of +extending man's possible guilt beyond the scope of Heaven's else +infinite mercy. + +While the lime-burner was struggling with the horror of these thoughts, +Ethan Brand rose from the log, and flung open the door of the kiln. The +action was in such accordance with the idea in Bartram's mind, that he +almost expected to see the Evil One issue forth, red-hot from the raging +furnace. + +"Hold! hold!" cried he, with a tremulous attempt to laugh; for he was +ashamed of his fears, although they overmastered him. "Don't, for +mercy's sake, bring out your Devil now!" + +"Man!" sternly replied Ethan Brand, "what need have I of the Devil? I +have left him behind me, on my track. It is with such half-way sinners +as you that he busies himself. Fear not, because I open the door. I do +but act by old custom, and am going to trim your fire, like a +lime-burner, as I was once." + +He stirred the vast coals, thrust in more wood, and bent forward to gaze +into the hollow prison-house of the fire, regardless of the fierce glow +that reddened upon his face. The lime-burner sat watching him, and half +suspected his strange guest of a purpose, if not to evoke a fiend, at +least to plunge bodily into the flames, and thus vanish from the sight +of man. Ethan Brand, however, drew quietly back, and closed the door of +the kiln. + +"I have looked," said he, "into many a human heart that was seven times +hotter with sinful passions than yonder furnace is with fire. But I +found not there what I sought. No, not the Unpardonable Sin!" + +"What is the Unpardonable Sin?" asked the lime-burner; and then he +shrank farther from his companion, trembling lest his question should be +answered. + +"It is a sin that grew within my own breast," replied Ethan Brand, +standing erect, with a pride that distinguishes all enthusiasts of his +stamp. "A sin that grew nowhere else! The sin of an intellect that +triumphed over the sense of brotherhood with man and reverence for God, +and sacrificed everything to its own mighty claims! The only sin that +deserves a recompense of immortal agony! Freely, were it to do again, +would I incur the guilt. Unshrinkingly I accept the retribution!" + +"The man's head is turned," muttered the lime-burner to himself. "He may +be a sinner, like the rest of us,--nothing more likely,--but, I'll be +sworn, he is a madman too." + +Nevertheless, he felt uncomfortable at his situation, alone with Ethan +Brand on the wild mountain-side, and was right glad to hear the rough +murmur of tongues, and the footsteps of what seemed a pretty numerous +party, stumbling over the stones and rustling through the underbrush. +Soon appeared the whole lazy regiment that was wont to infest the +village tavern, comprehending three or four individuals who had drunk +flip beside the bar-room fire through all the winters, and smoked their +pipes beneath the stoop through all the summers, since Ethan Brand's +departure. Laughing boisterously, and mingling all their voices together +in unceremonious talk, they now burst into the moonshine and narrow +streaks of firelight that illuminated the open space before the +lime-kiln. Bartram set the door ajar again, flooding the spot with +light, that the whole company might get a fair view of Ethan Brand, and +he of them. + +There, among other old acquaintances, was a once ubiquitous man, now +almost extinct, but whom we were formerly sure to encounter at the hotel +of every thriving village throughout the country. It was the +stage-agent. The present specimen of the genus was a wilted and +smoke-dried man, wrinkled and red-nosed, in a smartly cut, brown, +bobtailed coat, with brass buttons, who, for a length of time unknown, +had kept his desk and corner in the bar-room, and was still puffing what +seemed to be the same cigar that he had lighted twenty years before. He +had great fame as a dry joker, though, perhaps, less on account of any +intrinsic humor than from a certain flavor of brandy-toddy and +tobacco-smoke, which impregnated all his ideas and expressions, as well +as his person. Another well-remembered though strangely altered face was +that of Lawyer Giles, as people still called him in courtesy; an elderly +ragamuffin, in his soiled shirt-sleeves and tow-cloth trousers. This +poor fellow had been an attorney, in what he called his better days, a +sharp practitioner, and in great vogue among the village litigants; but +flip, and sling, and toddy, and cocktails, imbibed at all hours, +morning, noon, and night, had caused him to slide from intellectual to +various kinds and degrees of bodily labor, till, at last, to adopt his +own phrase, he slid into a soap-vat. In other words, Giles was now a +soap-boiler, in a small way. He had come to be but the fragment of a +human being, a part of one foot having been chopped off by an axe, and +an entire hand torn away by the devilish grip of a steam-engine. Yet, +though the corporeal hand was gone, a spiritual member remained; for, +stretching forth the stump, Giles steadfastly averred that he felt an +invisible thumb and fingers with as vivid a sensation as before the real +ones were amputated. A maimed and miserable wretch he was; but one, +nevertheless, whom the world could not trample on, and had no right to +scorn, either in this or any previous stage of his misfortunes, since he +had still kept up the courage and spirit of a man, asked nothing in +charity, and with his one hand--and that the left one--fought a stern +battle against want and hostile circumstances. + +Among the throng, too, came another personage, who, with certain points +of similarity to Lawyer Giles, had many more of difference. It was the +village doctor; a man of some fifty years, whom, at an earlier period of +his life, we introduced as paying a professional visit to Ethan Brand +during the latter's supposed insanity. He was now a purple-visaged, +rude, and brutal, yet half-gentlemanly figure, with something wild, +ruined, and desperate in his talk, and in all the details of his gesture +and manners. Brandy possessed this man like an evil spirit, and made him +as surly and savage as a wild beast, and as miserable as a lost soul; +but there was supposed to be in him such wonderful skill, such native +gifts of healing, beyond any which medical science could impart, that +society caught hold of him, and would not let him sink out of its reach. +So, swaying to and fro upon his horse, and grumbling thick accents at +the bedside, he visited all the sick-chambers for miles about among the +mountain towns, and sometimes raised a dying man, as it were, by +miracle, or quite as often, no doubt, sent his patient to a grave that +was dug many a year too soon. The doctor had an everlasting pipe in his +mouth, and, as somebody said, in allusion to his habit of swearing, it +was always alight with hell-fire. + +These three worthies pressed forward, and greeted Ethan Brand each after +his own fashion, earnestly inviting him to partake of the contents of a +certain black bottle, in which, as they averred, he would find something +far better worth seeking for than the Unpardonable Sin. No mind, which +has wrought itself by intense and solitary meditation into a high state +of enthusiasm, can endure the kind of contact with low and vulgar modes +of thought and feeling to which Ethan Brand was now subjected. It made +him doubt--and, strange to say, it was a painful doubt--whether he had +indeed found the Unpardonable Sin and found it within himself. The whole +question on which he had exhausted life, and more than life, looked like +a delusion. + +"Leave me," he said bitterly, "ye brute beasts, that have made +yourselves so, shrivelling up your souls with fiery liquors! I have done +with you. Years and years ago, I groped into your hearts, and found +nothing there for my purpose. Get ye gone!" + +"Why, you uncivil scoundrel," cried the fierce doctor, "is that the way +you respond to the kindness of your best friends? Then let me tell you +the truth. You have no more found the Unpardonable Sin than yonder boy +Joe has. You are but a crazy fellow,--I told you so twenty years +ago,--neither better nor worse than a crazy fellow, and the fit +companion of old Humphrey, here!" + +He pointed to an old man, shabbily dressed, with long white hair, thin +visage, and unsteady eyes. For some years past this aged person had been +wandering about among the hills, inquiring of all travellers whom he met +for his daughter. The girl, it seemed, had gone off with a company of +circus-performers; and occasionally tidings of her came to the village, +and fine stories were told of her glittering appearance as she rode on +horseback in the ring, or performed marvellous feats on the tight-rope. + +The white-haired father now approached Ethan Brand, and gazed unsteadily +into his face. + +"They tell me you have been all over the earth," said he, wringing his +hands with earnestness. "You must have seen my daughter, for she makes a +grand figure in the world, and everybody goes to see her. Did she send +any word to her old father, or say when she was coming back?" + +Ethan Brand's eye quailed beneath the old man's. That daughter, from +whom he so earnestly desired a word of greeting, was the Esther of our +tale, the very girl whom, with such cold and remorseless purpose, Ethan +Brand had made the subject of a psychological experiment, and wasted, +absorbed, and perhaps annihilated her soul, in the process. + +"Yes," murmured he, turning away from the hoary wanderer; "it is no +delusion. There is an Unpardonable Sin!" + +While these things were passing, a merry scene was going forward in the +area of cheerful light, beside the spring and before the door of the +hut. A number of the youth of the village, young men and girls, had +hurried up the hillside, impelled by curiosity to see Ethan Brand, the +hero of so many a legend familiar to their childhood. Finding nothing, +however, very remarkable in his aspect,--nothing but a sunburnt +wayfarer, in plain garb and dusty shoes, who sat looking into the fire, +as if he fancied pictures among the coals,--these young people speedily +grew tired of observing him. As it happened, there was other amusement +at hand. An old German Jew, travelling with a diorama on his back, was +passing down the mountain-road towards the village just as the party +turned aside from it, and, in hopes of eking out the profits of the day, +the showman had kept them company to the lime-kiln. + +"Come, old Dutchman," cried one of the young men, "let us see your +pictures, if you can swear they are worth looking at!" + +"O yes, Captain," answered the Jew,--whether was a matter of courtesy +or craft, he styled everybody Captain,--"I shall show you, indeed, some +very superb pictures!" + +So, placing his box in a proper position, he invited the young men and +girls to look through the glass orifices of the machine, and proceeded +to exhibit a series of the most outrageous scratchings and daubings, as +specimens of the fine arts, that ever an itinerant showman had the face +to impose upon his circle of spectators. The pictures were worn out, +moreover, tattered, full of cracks and wrinkles, dingy with +tobacco-smoke, and otherwise in a most pitiable condition. Some +purported to be cities, public edifices, and ruined castles in Europe; +others represented Napoleon's battles and Nelson's sea-fights; and in +the midst of these would be seen a gigantic, brown, hairy hand,--which +might have been mistaken for the Hand of Destiny, though, in truth, it +was only the showman's,--pointing its forefinger to various scenes of +the conflict, while its owner gave historical illustrations. When, with +much merriment at its abominable deficiency of merit, the exhibition was +concluded, the German bade little Joe put his head into the box. Viewed +through the magnifying-glasses, the boy's round, rosy visage assumed the +strangest imaginable aspect of an immense Titanic child, the mouth +grinning broadly, and the eyes and every other feature overflowing with +fun at the joke. Suddenly, however, that merry face turned pale, and +its expression changed to horror, for this easily impressed and +excitable child had become sensible that the eye of Ethan Brand was +fixed upon him through the glass. + +"You make the little man to be afraid, Captain," said the German Jew, +turning up the dark and strong outline of his visage, from his stooping +posture. "But look again, and, by chance, I shall cause you to see +somewhat that is very fine, upon my word!" + +Ethan Brand gazed into the box for an instant, and then starting back, +looked fixedly at the German. What had he seen? Nothing, apparently; for +a curious youth, who had peeped in almost at the same moment, beheld +only a vacant space of canvas. + +"I remember you now," muttered Ethan Brand to the showman. + +"Ah, Captain," whispered the Jew of Nuremburg, with a dark smile, "I +find it to be a heavy matter in my show-box,--this Unpardonable Sin! By +my faith, Captain, it has wearied my shoulders, this long day, to carry +it over the mountain." + +"Peace," answered Ethan Brand, sternly, "or get thee into the furnace +yonder!" + +The Jew's exhibition had scarcely concluded, when a great, elderly +dog--who seemed to be his own master, as no person in the company laid +claim to him--saw fit to render himself the object of public notice. +Hitherto, he had shown himself a very quiet, well-disposed old dog, +going round from one to another, and, by way of being sociable, offering +his rough head to be patted by any kindly hand that would take so much +trouble. But now, all of a sudden, this grave and venerable quadruped, +of his own mere motion, and without the slightest suggestion from +anybody else, began to run round after his tail, which, to heighten the +absurdity of the proceeding, was a great deal shorter than it should +have been. Never was seen such headlong eagerness in pursuit of an +object that could not possibly be attained; never was heard such a +tremendous outbreak of growling, snarling, barking, and snapping,--as if +one end of the ridiculous brute's body were at deadly and most +unforgivable enmity with the other. Faster and faster, round about went +the cur; and faster and still faster fled the unapproachable brevity of +his tail; and louder and fiercer grew his yells of rage and animosity; +until, utterly exhausted, and as far from the goal as ever, the foolish +old dog ceased his performance as suddenly as he had begun it. The next +moment he was as mild, quiet, sensible, and respectable in his +deportment, as when he first scraped acquaintance with the company. + +As may be supposed, the exhibition was greeted with universal laughter, +clapping of hands, and shouts of encore, to which the canine performer +responded by wagging all that there was to wag of his tail, but appeared +totally unable to repeat his very successful effort to amuse the +spectators. + +Meanwhile, Ethan Brand had resumed his seat upon the log, and moved, it +might be, by a perception of some remote analogy between his own case +and that of this self-pursuing cur, he broke into the awful laugh, +which, more than any other token, expressed the condition of his inward +being. From that moment, the merriment of the party was at an end; they +stood aghast, dreading lest the inauspicious sound should be +reverberated around the horizon, and that mountain would thunder it to +mountain, and so the horror be prolonged upon their ears. Then, +whispering one to another that it was late,--that the moon was almost +down,--that the August night was growing chill,--they hurried homewards, +leaving the lime-burner and little Joe to deal as they might with their +unwelcome guest. Save for these three human beings, the open space on +the hillside was a solitude, set in a vast gloom of forest. Beyond that +darksome verge, the firelight glimmered on the stately trunks and almost +black foliage of pines, intermixed with the lighter verdure of sapling +oaks, maples, and poplars, while here and there lay the gigantic corpses +of dead trees, decaying on the leaf-strewn soil. And it seemed to +little Joe--a timorous and imaginative child--that the silent forest was +holding its breath, until some fearful thing should happen. + +Ethan Brand thrust more wood into the fire, and closed the door of the +kiln; then looking over his shoulder at the lime-burner and his son, he +bade, rather than advised, them to retire to rest. + +"For myself, I cannot sleep," said he. "I have matters that it concerns +me to meditate upon. I will watch the fire, as I used to do in the old +time." + +"And call the Devil out of the furnace to keep you company, I suppose," +muttered Bartram, who had been making intimate acquaintance with the +black bottle above mentioned. "But watch, if you like, and call as many +devils as you like! For my part, I shall be all the better for a snooze. +Come, Joe!" + +As the boy followed his father into the hut, he looked back at the +wayfarer, and the tears came into his eyes, for his tender spirit had an +intuition of the bleak and terrible loneliness in which this man had +enveloped himself. + +When they had gone, Ethan Brand sat listening to the crackling of the +kindled wood, and looking at the little spirts of fire that issued +through the chinks of the door. These trifles, however, once so +familiar, had but the slightest hold of his attention, while deep +within his mind he was reviewing the gradual but marvellous change that +had been wrought upon him by the search to which he had devoted himself. +He remembered how the night dew had fallen upon him,--how the dark +forest had whispered to him,--how the stars had gleamed upon him,--a +simple and loving man, watching his fire in the years gone by, and ever +musing as it burned. He remembered with what tenderness, with what love +and sympathy for mankind, and what pity for human guilt and woe, he had +first begun to contemplate those ideas which afterwards became the +inspiration of his life; with what reverence he had then looked into the +heart of man, viewing it as a temple originally divine, and, however +desecrated, still to be held sacred by a brother; with what awful fear +he had deprecated the success of his pursuit, and prayed that the +Unpardonable Sin might never be revealed to him. Then ensued that vast +intellectual development, which, in its progress, disturbed the +counterpoise between his mind and heart. The Idea that possessed his +life had operated as a means of education; it had gone on cultivating +his powers to the highest point of which they were susceptible; it had +raised him from the level of an unlettered laborer to stand on a +star-lit eminence, whither the philosophers of the earth, laden with +the lore of universities, might vainly strive to clamber after him. So +much for the intellect! But where was the heart? That, indeed, had +withered,--had contracted,--had hardened,--had perished! It had ceased +to partake of the universal throb. He had lost his hold of the magnetic +chain of humanity. He was no longer a brother-man, opening the chambers +of the dungeons of our common nature by the key of holy sympathy, which +gave him a right to share in all its secrets; he was now a cold +observer, looking on mankind as the subject of his experiment, and, at +length, converting man and woman to be his puppets, and pulling the +wires that moved them to such degrees of crime as were demanded for his +study. + +Thus Ethan Brand became a fiend. He began to be so from the moment that +his moral nature had ceased to keep the pace of improvement with his +intellect. And now, as his highest effort and inevitable +development,--as the bright and gorgeous flower, and rich, delicious +fruit of his life's labor,--he had produced the Unpardonable Sin! + +"What more have I to seek? what more to achieve?" said Ethan Brand to +himself. "My task is done, and well done!" + +Starting from the log with a certain alacrity in his gait and ascending +the hillock of earth that was raised against the stone circumference of +the lime-kiln, he thus reached the top of the structure. It was a space +of perhaps ten feet across, from edge to edge, presenting a view of the +upper surface of the immense mass of broken marble with which the kiln +was heaped. All these innumerable blocks and fragments of marble were +red-hot and vividly on fire, sending up great spouts of blue flame, +which quivered aloft and danced madly, as within a magic circle, and +sank and rose again, with continual and multitudinous activity. As the +lonely man bent forward over this terrible body of fire, the blasting +heat smote up against his person with a breath that, it might be +supposed, would have scorched and shrivelled him up in a moment. + +Ethan Brand stood erect, and raised his arms on high. The blue flames +played upon his face, and imparted the wild and ghastly light which +alone could have suited its expression; it was that of a fiend on the +verge of plunging into his gulf of intensest torment. + +"O Mother Earth," cried he, "who art no more my Mother, and into whose +bosom this frame shall never be resolved! O mankind, whose brotherhood I +have cast off, and trampled thy great heart beneath my feet! O stars of +heaven, that shone on me of old, as if to light me onward and +upward!--farewell all, and forever. Come, deadly element of +Fire,--henceforth my familiar frame! Embrace me, as I do thee!" + +That night the sound of a fearful peal of laughter rolled heavily +through the sleep of the lime-burner and his little son; dim shapes of +horror and anguish haunted their dreams, and seemed still present in the +rude hovel, when they opened their eyes to the daylight. + +"Up, boy, up!" cried the lime-burner, staring about him. "Thank Heaven, +the night is gone, at last; and rather than pass such another, I would +watch my lime-kiln, wide awake, for a twelvemonth. This Ethan Brand, +with his humbug of an Unpardonable Sin, has done me no such mighty +favor, in taking my place!" + +He issued from the hut, followed by little Joe, who kept fast hold of +his father's hand. The early sunshine was already pouring its gold upon +the mountain-tops; and though the valleys were still in shadow, they +smiled cheerfully in the promise of the bright day that was hastening +onward. The village, completely shut in by hills, which swelled away +gently about it, looked as if it had rested peacefully in the hollow of +the great hand of Providence. Every dwelling was distinctly visible; the +little spires of the two churches pointed upwards, and caught a +fore-glimmering of brightness from the sun-gilt skies upon their gilded +weathercocks. The tavern was astir, and the figure of the old, +smoke-dried stage-agent, cigar in mouth, was seen beneath the stoop. +Old Graylock was glorified with a golden cloud upon his head. Scattered +likewise over the breasts of the surrounding mountains, there were heaps +of hoary mist, in fantastic shapes, some of them far down into the +valley, others high up towards the summits, and still others, of the +same family of mist or cloud, hovering in the gold radiance of the upper +atmosphere. Stepping from one to another of the clouds that rested on +the hills, and thence to the loftier brotherhood that sailed in air, it +seemed almost as if a mortal man might thus ascend into the heavenly +regions. Earth was so mingled with sky that it was a day-dream to look +at it. + +To supply that charm of the familiar and homely, which Nature so readily +adopts into a scene like this, the stage-coach was rattling down the +mountain-road, and the driver sounded his horn, while echo caught up the +notes, and intertwined them into a rich and varied and elaborate +harmony, of which the original performer could lay claim to little +share. The great hills played a concert among themselves, each +contributing a strain of airy sweetness. + +Little Joe's face brightened at once. + +"Dear father," cried he, skipping cheerily to and fro, "that strange man +is gone, and the sky and the mountains all seem glad of it!" + +"Yes," growled the lime-burner, with an oath, "but he has let the fire +go down, and no thanks to him if five hundred bushels of lime are not +spoiled. If I catch the fellow hereabouts again, I shall feel like +tossing him into the furnace!" + +With his long pole in his hand, he ascended to the top of the kiln. +After a moment's pause, he called to his son. + +"Come up here, Joe!" said he. + +So little Joe ran up the hillock, and stood by his father's side. The +marble was all burnt into perfect, snow-white lime. But on its surface, +in the midst of the circle,--snow-white too, and thoroughly converted +into lime,--lay a human skeleton, in the attitude of a person who, after +long toil, lies down to long repose. Within the ribs--strange to +say--was the shape of a human heart. + +"Was the fellow's heart made of marble?" cried Bartram, in some +perplexity at this phenomenon. "At any rate, it is burnt into what looks +like special good lime; and, taking all the bones together, my kiln is +half a bushel the richer for him." + +So saying, the rude lime-burner lifted his pole, and, letting it fall +upon the skeleton, the relics of Ethan Brand were crumbled into +fragments. + + + + +Wakefield + + +In some old magazine or newspaper, I recollect a story, told as truth, +of a man--let us call him Wakefield--who absented himself for a long +time from his wife. The fact thus abstractedly stated is not very +uncommon, nor--without a proper distinction of circumstances--to be +condemned either as naughty or nonsensical. Howbeit, this, though far +from the most aggravated, is perhaps the strangest instance on record of +marital delinquency; and, moreover, as remarkable a freak as may be +found in the whole list of human oddities. The wedded couple lived in +London. The man, under pretence of going a journey, took lodgings in the +next street to his own house, and there, unheard of by his wife or +friends, and without the shadow of a reason for such self-banishment, +dwelt upwards of twenty years. During that period, he beheld his home +every day, and frequently the forlorn Mrs. Wakefield. And after so great +a gap in his matrimonial felicity--when his death was reckoned certain, +his estate settled, his name dismissed from memory, and his wife, long, +long ago resigned to her autumnal widowhood--he entered the door one +evening, quietly, as from a day's absence, and became a loving spouse +till death. + +This outline is all that I remember. But the incident, though of the +purest originality, unexampled, and probably never to be repeated, is +one, I think, which appeals to the generous sympathies of mankind. We +know, each for himself, that none of us would perpetrate such a folly, +yet feel as if some other might. To my own contemplations, at least, it +has often recurred, always exciting wonder, but with a sense that the +story must be true, and a conception of its hero's character. Whenever +any subject so forcibly affects the mind, time is well spent in thinking +of it. If the reader choose, let him do his own meditation; or if he +prefer to ramble with me through the twenty years of Wakefield's vagary, +I bid him welcome; trusting that there will be a pervading spirit and a +moral, even should we fail to find them, done up neatly, and condensed +into the final sentence. Thought has always its efficacy, and every +striking incident its moral. + +What sort of a man was Wakefield? We are free to shape out our own idea, +and call it by his name. He was now in the meridian of life; his +matrimonial affections, never violent, were sobered into a calm, +habitual sentiment; of all husbands, he was likely to be the most +constant, because a certain sluggishness would keep his heart at rest, +wherever it might be placed. He was intellectual, but not actively so; +his mind occupied itself in long and lazy musings, that tended to no +purpose, or had not vigor to attain it; his thoughts were seldom so +energetic as to seize hold of words. Imagination, in the proper meaning +of the term, made no part of Wakefield's gifts. With a cold but not +depraved nor wandering heart, and a mind never feverish with riotous +thoughts, nor perplexed with originality, who could have anticipated +that our friend would entitle himself to a foremost place among the +doers of eccentric deeds? Had his acquaintances been asked, who was the +man in London, the surest to perform nothing to-day which should be +remembered on the morrow, they would have thought of Wakefield. Only the +wife of his bosom might have hesitated. She, without having analyzed his +character, was partly aware of a quiet selfishness, that had rusted into +his inactive mind,--of a peculiar sort of vanity, the most uneasy +attribute about him,--of a disposition to craft, which had seldom +produced more positive effects than the keeping of petty secrets, hardly +worth revealing,--and, lastly, of what she called a little strangeness, +sometimes, in the good man. This latter quality is indefinable, and +perhaps non-existent. + +Let us now imagine Wakefield bidding adieu to his wife. It is the dusk +of an October evening. His equipment is a drab great-coat, a hat covered +with an oil-cloth, top-boots, an umbrella in one hand and a small +portmanteau in the other. He has informed Mrs. Wakefield that he is to +take the night coach into the country. She would fain inquire the length +of his journey, its object, and the probable time of his return; but, +indulgent to his harmless love of mystery, interrogates him only by a +look. He tells her not to expect him positively by the return coach, nor +to be alarmed should he tarry three or four days; but, at all events, to +look for him at supper on Friday evening. Wakefield himself, be it +considered, has no suspicion of what is before him. He holds out his +hand; she gives her own, and meets his parting kiss, in the +matter-of-course way of a ten years' matrimony; and forth goes the +middle-aged Mr. Wakefield, almost resolved to perplex his good lady by a +whole week's absence. After the door has closed behind him, she +perceives it thrust partly open, and a vision of her husband's face, +through the aperture, smiling on her, and gone in a moment. For the +time, this little incident is dismissed without a thought. But, long +afterwards, when she has been more years a widow than a wife, that smile +recurs, and flickers across all her reminiscences of Wakefield's +visage. In her many musings, she surrounds the original smile with a +multitude of fantasies, which make it strange and awful; as, for +instance, if she imagines him in a coffin, that parting look is frozen +on his pale features; or, if she dreams of him in heaven, still his +blessed spirit wears a quiet and crafty smile. Yet, for its sake, when +all others have given him up for dead, she sometimes doubts whether she +is a widow. + +But our business is with the husband. We must hurry after him, along the +street, ere he lose his individuality, and melt into the great mass of +London life. It would be vain searching for him there. Let us follow +close at his heels, therefore, until, after several superfluous turns +and doublings, we find him comfortably established by the fireside of a +small apartment, previously bespoken. He is in the next street to his +own, and at his journey's end. He can scarcely trust his good fortune in +having got thither unperceived,--recollecting that, at one time, he was +delayed by the throng, in the very focus of a lighted lantern; and, +again, there were footsteps, that seemed to tread behind his own, +distinct from the multitudinous tramp around him; and, anon, he heard a +voice shouting afar, and fancied that it called his name. Doubtless, a +dozen busybodies had been watching him, and told his wife the whole +affair. Poor Wakefield! Little knowest thou thine own insignificance in +this great world! No mortal eye but mine has traced thee. Go quietly to +thy bed, foolish man; and, on the morrow, if thou wilt be wise, get thee +home to good Mrs. Wakefield, and tell her the truth. Remove not thyself, +even for a little week, from thy place in her chaste bosom. Were she, +for a single moment to deem thee dead, or lost, or lastingly divided +from her, thou wouldst be wofully conscious of a change in thy true +wife, forever after. It is perilous to make a chasm in human affections; +not that they gape so long and wide, but so quickly close again! + +Almost repenting of his frolic, or whatever it may be termed, Wakefield +lies down betimes, and starting from his first nap, spreads forth his +arms into the wide and solitary waste of the unaccustomed bed. +"No,"--thinks he, gathering the bedclothes about him,--"I will not sleep +alone another night." + +In the morning, he rises earlier than usual, and sets himself to +consider what he really means to do. Such are his loose and rambling +modes of thought, that he has taken this very singular step, with the +consciousness of a purpose, indeed, but without being able to define it +sufficiently for his own contemplation. The vagueness of the project, +and the convulsive effort with which he plunges into the execution of +it, are equally characteristic of a feeble-minded man. Wakefield sifts +his ideas, however, as minutely as he may, and finds himself curious to +know the progress of matters at home,--how his exemplary wife will +endure her widowhood of a week; and, briefly, how the little sphere of +creatures and circumstances, in which he was a central object, will be +affected by his removal. A morbid vanity, therefore, lies nearest the +bottom of the affair. But, how is he to attain his ends? Not, certainly, +by keeping close in this comfortable lodging, where, though he slept and +awoke in the next street to his home, he is as effectually abroad, as if +the stage-coach had been whirling him away all night. Yet, should he +reappear, the whole project is knocked in the head. His poor brains +being hopelessly puzzled with this dilemma, he at length ventures out, +partly resolving to cross the head of the street, and send one hasty +glance towards his forsaken domicile. Habit--for he is a man of +habits--takes him by the hand, and guides him, wholly unaware, to his +own door, where, just at the critical moment, he is aroused by the +scraping of his foot upon the step. Wakefield! whither are you going? + +At that instant, his fate was turning on the pivot. Little dreaming of +the doom to which his first backward step devotes him, he hurries away, +breathless with agitation hitherto unfelt, and hardly dares turn his +head, at the distant corner. Can it be that nobody caught sight of him? +Will not the whole household--the decent Mrs. Wakefield, the smart +maid-servant, and the dirty little footboy--raise a hue and cry, through +London streets, in pursuit of their fugitive lord and master? Wonderful +escape! He gathers courage to pause and look homeward, but is perplexed +with a sense of change about the familiar edifice, such as affects us +all, when after a separation of months or years, we again see some hill +or lake, or work of art, with which we were friends of old. In ordinary +cases, this indescribable impression is caused by the comparison and +contrast between our imperfect reminiscences and the reality. In +Wakefield, the magic of a single night has wrought a similar +transformation, because, in that brief period, a great moral change has +been effected. But this is a secret from himself. Before leaving the +spot, he catches a far and momentary glimpse of his wife, passing +athwart the front window, with her face turned towards the head of the +street. The crafty nincompoop takes to his heels, scared with the idea, +that, among a thousand such atoms of mortality, her eye must have +detected him. Right glad is his heart, though his brain be somewhat +dizzy, when he finds himself by the coal-fire of his lodgings. + +So much for the commencement of this long whim-wham. After the initial +conception, and the stirring up of the man's sluggish temperament to +put it in practice, the whole matter evolves itself in a natural train. +We may suppose him, as the result of deep deliberation, buying a new +wig, of reddish hair, and selecting sundry garments, in a fashion unlike +his customary suit of brown, from a Jew's old-clothes bag. It is +accomplished. Wakefield is another man. The new system being now +established, a retrograde movement to the old would be almost as +difficult as the step that placed him in his unparalleled position. +Furthermore, he is rendered obstinate by a sulkiness, occasionally +incident to his temper, and brought on, at present, by the inadequate +sensation which he conceives to have been produced in the bosom of Mrs. +Wakefield. He will not go back until she be frightened half to death. +Well; twice or thrice has she passed before his sight, each time with a +heavier step, a paler cheek, and more anxious brow; and in the third +week of his non-appearance, he detects a portent of evil entering the +house, in the guise of an apothecary. Next day, the knocker is muffled. +Towards nightfall comes the chariot of a physician, and deposits its +big-wigged and solemn burden at Wakefield's door, whence, after a +quarter of an hour's visit, he emerges, perchance the herald of a +funeral. Dear woman! Will she die? By this time, Wakefield is excited to +something like energy of feeling, but still lingers away from his +wife's bedside, pleading with his conscience, that she must not be +disturbed at such a juncture. If aught else restrains him, he does not +know it. In the course of a few weeks, she gradually recovers; the +crisis is over; her heart is sad, perhaps, but quiet; and, let him +return soon or late, it will never be feverish for him again. Such ideas +glimmer through the mist of Wakefield's mind, and render him +indistinctly conscious that an almost impassable gulf divides his hired +apartment from his former home. "It is but in the next street!" he +sometimes says. Fool! it is in another world. Hitherto, he has put off +his return from one particular day to another; henceforward, he leaves +the precise time undetermined. Not to-morrow,--probably next +week,--pretty soon. Poor man! The dead have nearly as much chance of +revisiting their earthly homes, as the self-banished Wakefield. + +Would that I had a folio to write, instead of an article of a dozen +pages! Then might I exemplify how an influence, beyond our control, lays +its strong hand on every deed which we do, and weaves its consequences +into an iron tissue of necessity. Wakefield is spellbound. We must leave +him, for ten years or so, to haunt around his house, without once +crossing the threshold, and to be faithful to his wife, with all the +affection of which his heart is capable, while he is slowly fading out +of hers. Long since, it must be remarked, he has lost the perception of +singularity in his conduct. + +Now for a scene! Amid the throng of a London street, we distinguish a +man, now waxing elderly, with few characteristics to attract careless +observers, yet bearing, in his whole aspect, the handwriting of no +common fate, for such as have the skill to read it. He is meagre; his +low and narrow forehead is deeply wrinkled; his eyes, small and +lustreless, sometimes wander apprehensively about him, but oftener seem +to look inward. He bends his head, and moves with an indescribable +obliquity of gait, as if unwilling to display his full front to the +world. Watch him, long enough to see what we have described, and you +will allow, that circumstances--which often produce remarkable men from +nature's ordinary handiwork--have produced one such here. Next, leaving +him to sidle along the footwalk, cast your eyes in the opposite +direction, where a portly female, considerably in the wane of life, with +a prayer-book in her hand, is proceeding to yonder church. She has the +placid mien of settled widowhood. Her regrets have either died away, or +have become so essential to her heart, that they would be poorly +exchanged for joy. Just as the lean man and well-conditioned woman are +passing, a slight obstruction occurs, and brings these two figures +directly in contact. Their hands touch; the pressure of the crowd forces +her bosom against his shoulder; they stand, face to face, staring into +each other's eyes. After a ten years' separation, thus Wakefield meets +his wife! + +The throng eddies away, and carries them asunder. The sober widow, +resuming her former pace, proceeds to church, but pauses in the portal, +and throws a perplexed glance along the street. She passes in, however, +opening her prayer-book as she goes. And the man! with so wild a face, +that busy and selfish London stands to gaze after him, he hurries to his +lodgings, bolts the door, and throws himself upon the bed. The latent +feelings of years break out; his feeble mind acquires a brief energy +from their strength; all the miserable strangeness of his life is +revealed to him at a glance: and he cries out, passionately, "Wakefield! +Wakefield! you are mad!" + +Perhaps he was so. The singularity of his situation must have so moulded +him to himself, that, considered in regard to his fellow-creatures and +the business of life, he could not be said to possess his right mind. He +had contrived, or rather he had happened, to dissever himself from the +world,--to vanish,--to give up his place and privileges with living men, +without being admitted among the dead. The life of a hermit is nowise +parallel to his. He was in the bustle of the city, as of old; but the +crowd swept by, and saw him not; he was, we may figuratively say, always +beside his wife, and at his hearth, yet must never feel the warmth of +the one, nor the affection of the other. It was Wakefield's +unprecedented fate, to retain his original share of human sympathies, +and to be still involved in human interests, while he had lost his +reciprocal influence on them. It would be a most curious speculation, to +trace out the effect of such circumstances on his heart and intellect, +separately, and in unison. Yet, changed as he was, he would seldom be +conscious of it, but deem himself the same man as ever; glimpses of the +truth, indeed, would come, but only for the moment; and still he would +keep saying, "I shall soon go back!" nor reflect that he had been saying +so for twenty years. + +I conceive, also, that these twenty years would appear, in the +retrospect, scarcely longer than the week to which Wakefield had at +first limited his absence. He would look on the affair as no more than +an interlude in the main business of his life. When, after a little +while more, he should deem it time to re-enter his parlor, his wife +would clap her hands for joy, on beholding the middle-aged Mr. +Wakefield. Alas, what a mistake! Would Time but await the close of our +favorite follies, we should be young men, all of us, and till Doomsday. + +One evening, in the twentieth year since he vanished, Wakefield is +taking his customary walk towards the dwelling which he still calls his +own. It is a gusty night of autumn, with frequent showers, that patter +down upon the pavement, and are gone, before a man can put up his +umbrella. Pausing near the house, Wakefield discerns, through the parlor +windows of the second floor, the red glow, and the glimmer and fitful +flash of a comfortable fire. On the ceiling appears a grotesque shadow +of good Mrs. Wakefield. The cap, the nose and chin, and the broad waist +form an admirable caricature, which dances, moreover, with the +up-flickering and down-sinking blaze, almost too merrily for the shade +of an elderly widow. At this instant, a shower chances to fall, and is +driven, by the unmannerly gust, full into Wakefield's face and bosom. He +is quite penetrated with its autumnal chill. Shall he stand, wet and +shivering here, when his own hearth has a good fire to warm him, and his +own wife will run to fetch the gray coat and small-clothes, which +doubtless she has kept carefully in the closet of their bedchamber? No! +Wakefield is no such fool. He ascends the steps,--heavily!--for twenty +years have stiffened his legs, since he came down,--but he knows it not. +Stay, Wakefield! Would you go to the sole home that is left you? Then +step into your grave! The door opens. As he passes in, we have a +parting glimpse of his visage, and recognize the crafty smile, which was +the precursor of the little joke that he has ever since been playing off +at his wife's expense. How unmercifully has he quizzed the poor woman! +Well, a good night's rest to Wakefield! + +This happy event--supposing it to be such--could only have occurred at +an unpremeditated moment. We will not follow our friend across the +threshold. He has left us much food for thought, a portion of which +shall lend its wisdom to a moral, and be shaped into a figure. Amid the +seeming confusion of our mysterious world, individuals are so nicely +adjusted to a system, and systems to one another, and to a whole, that, +by stepping aside for a moment, a man exposes himself to a fearful risk +of losing his place forever. Like Wakefield, he may become, as it were, +the Outcast of the Universe. + + + + +Drowne's Wooden Image + + +One sunshiny morning, in the good old times of the town of Boston, a +young carver in wood, well known by the name of Drowne, stood +contemplating a large oaken log, which it was his purpose to convert +into the figure-head of a vessel. And while he discussed within his own +mind what sort of shape or similitude it were well to bestow upon this +excellent piece of timber, there came into Drowne's workshop a certain +Captain Hunnewell, owner and commander of the good brig called the +Cynosure, which had just returned from her first voyage to Fayal. + +"Ah! that will do, Drowne, that will do!" cried the jolly captain, +tapping the log with his ratan. "I bespeak this very piece of oak for +the figure-head of the Cynosure. She has shown herself the sweetest +craft that ever floated, and I mean to decorate her prow with the +handsomest image that the skill of man can cut out of timber. And, +Drowne, you are the fellow to execute it." + +"You give me more credit than I deserve, Captain Hunnewell," said the +carver, modestly, yet as one conscious of eminence in his art. "But, +for the sake of the good brig, I stand ready to do my best. And which of +these designs do you prefer? Here,"--pointing to a staring, half-length +figure, in a white wig and scarlet coat,--"here is an excellent model, +the likeness of our gracious king. Here is the valiant Admiral Vernon. +Or, if you prefer a female figure, what say you to Britannia with the +trident?" + +"All very fine, Drowne; all very fine," answered the mariner. "But as +nothing like the brig ever swam the ocean, so I am determined she shall +have such a figure-head as old Neptune never saw in his life. And what +is more, as there is a secret in the matter, you must pledge your credit +not to betray it." + +"Certainly," said Drowne, marvelling, however, what possible mystery +there could be in reference to an affair so open, of necessity, to the +inspection of all the world as the figure-head of a vessel. "You may +depend, Captain, on my being as secret as the nature of the case will +permit." + +Captain Hunnewell then took Drowne by the button, and communicated his +wishes in so low a tone that it would be unmannerly to repeat what was +evidently intended for the carver's private ear. We shall, therefore, +take the opportunity to give the reader a few desirable particulars +about Drowne himself. + +He was the first American who is known to have attempted--in a very +humble line, it is true--that art in which we can now reckon so many +names already distinguished, or rising to distinction. From his earliest +boyhood he had exhibited a knack,--for it would be too proud a word to +call it genius,--a knack, therefore, for the imitation of the human +figure in whatever material came most readily to hand. The snows of a +New England winter had often supplied him with a species of marble as +dazzlingly white, at least, as the Parian or the Carrara, and if less +durable, yet sufficiently so to correspond with any claims to permanent +existence possessed by the boy's frozen statues. Yet they won admiration +from maturer judges than his schoolfellows, and were, indeed, remarkably +clever, though destitute of the native warmth that might have made the +snow melt beneath his hand. As he advanced in life, the young man +adopted pine and oak as eligible materials for the display of his skill, +which now began to bring him a return of solid silver as well as the +empty praise that had been an apt reward enough for his productions of +evanescent snow. He became noted for carving ornamental pump-heads, and +wooden urns for gate-posts, and decorations, more grotesque than +fanciful, for mantel-pieces. No apothecary would have deemed himself in +the way of obtaining custom, without setting up a gilded mortar, if not +a head of Galen or Hippocrates, from the skilful hand of Drowne. + +But the great scope of his business lay in the manufacture of +figure-heads for vessels. Whether it were the monarch himself, or some +famous British admiral or general, or the governor of the province, or +perchance the favorite daughter of the ship-owner, there the image stood +above the prow, decked out in gorgeous colors, magnificently gilded, and +staring the whole world out of countenance, as if from an innate +consciousness of its own superiority. These specimens of native +sculpture had crossed the sea in all directions, and been not ignobly +noticed among the crowded shipping of the Thames, and wherever else the +hardy mariners of New England had pushed their adventures. It must be +confessed that a family likeness pervaded these respectable progeny of +Drowne's skill; that the benign countenance of the king resembled those +of his subjects, and that Miss Peggy Hobart, the merchant's daughter, +bore a remarkable similitude to Britannia, Victory, and other ladies of +the allegoric sisterhood; and, finally, that they all had a kind of +wooden aspect, which proved an intimate relationship with the unshaped +blocks of timber in the carver's workshop. But at least there was no +inconsiderable skill of hand, nor a deficiency of any attribute to +render them really works of art, except that deep quality, be it of +soul or intellect, which bestows life upon the lifeless and warmth upon +the cold, and which, had it been present, would have made Drowne's +wooden image instinct with spirit. + +The captain of the Cynosure had now finished his instructions. + +"And, Drowne," said he, impressively, "you must lay aside all other +business and set about this forthwith. And as to the price, only do the +job in first-rate style, and you shall settle that point yourself." + +"Very well, Captain," answered the carver, who looked grave and somewhat +perplexed, yet had a sort of smile upon his visage; "depend upon it, +I'll do my utmost to satisfy you." + +From that moment the men of taste about Long Wharf and the Town Dock who +were wont to show their love for the arts by frequent visits to Drowne's +workshop, and admiration of his wooden images, began to be sensible of a +mystery in the carver's conduct. Often he was absent in the daytime. +Sometimes, as might be judged by gleams of light from the shop-windows, +he was at work until a late hour of the evening; although neither knock +nor voice, on such occasions, could gain admittance for a visitor, or +elicit any word of response. Nothing remarkable, however, was observed +in the shop at those hours when it was thrown open. A fine piece of +timber, indeed, which Drowne was known to have reserved for some work of +especial dignity, was seen to be gradually assuming shape. What shape it +was destined ultimately to take was a problem to his friends and a point +on which the carver himself preserved a rigid silence. But day after +day, though Drowne was seldom noticed in the act of working upon it, +this rude form began to be developed until it became evident to all +observers that a female figure was growing into mimic life. At each new +visit they beheld a larger pile of wooden chips and a nearer +approximation to something beautiful. It seemed as if the hamadryad of +the oak had sheltered herself from the unimaginative world within the +heart of her native tree, and that it was only necessary to remove the +strange shapelessness that had incrusted her, and reveal the grace and +loveliness of a divinity. Imperfect as the design, the attitude, the +costume, and especially the face of the image still remained, there was +already an effect that drew the eye from the wooden cleverness of +Drowne's earlier productions and fixed it upon the tantalizing mystery +of this new project. + +Copley, the celebrated painter, then a young man and a resident of +Boston, came one day to visit Drowne; for he had recognized so much of +moderate ability in the carver as to induce him, in the dearth of +professional sympathy, to cultivate his acquaintance. On entering the +shop the artist glanced at the inflexible image of the king, commander, +dame, and allegory that stood around, on the best of which might have +been bestowed the questionable praise that it looked as if a living man +had here been changed to wood, and that not only the physical, but the +intellectual and spiritual part, partook of the stolid transformation. +But in not a single instance did it seem as if the wood were imbibing +the ethereal essence of humanity. What a wide distinction is here! and +how far would the slightest portion of the latter merit have outvalued +the utmost degree of the former! + +"My friend Drowne," said Copley, smiling to himself, but alluding to the +mechanical and wooden cleverness that so invariably distinguished the +images, "you are really a remarkable person! I have seldom met with a +man in your line of business that could do so much; for one other touch +might make this figure of General Wolfe, for instance, a breathing and +intelligent human creature." + +"You would have me think that you are praising me highly, Mr. Copley," +answered Drowne, turning his back upon Wolfe's image in apparent +disgust. "But there has come a light into my mind. I know, what you know +as well, that the one touch which you speak of as deficient is the only +one that would be truly valuable, and that without it these works of +mine are no better than worthless abortions. There is the same +difference between them and the works of an inspired artist as between a +sign-post daub and one of your best pictures." + +"This is strange," cried Copley, looking him in the face, which now, as +the painter fancied, had a singular depth of intelligence, though +hitherto it had not given him greatly the advantage over his own family +of wooden images. "What has come over you? How is it that, possessing +the idea which you have now uttered, you should produce only such works +as these?" + +The carver smiled, but made no reply. Copley turned again to the images, +conceiving that the sense of deficiency which Drowne had just expressed, +and which is so rare in a merely mechanical character, must surely imply +a genius, the tokens of which had heretofore been overlooked. But no; +there was not a trace of it. He was about to withdraw when his eyes +chanced to fall upon a half-developed figure which lay in a corner of +the workshop, surrounded by scattered chips of oak. It arrested him at +once. + +"What is here? Who has done this?" he broke out, after contemplating it +in speechless astonishment for an instant. "Here is the divine, the +life-giving touch. What inspired hand is beckoning this wood to arise +and live? Whose work is this?" + +"No man's work," replied Drowne. "The figure lies within that block of +oak, and it is my business to find it." + +"Drowne," said the true artist, grasping the carver fervently by the +hand, "you are a man of genius!" + +As Copley departed, happening to glance backward from the threshold, he +beheld Drowne bending over the half-created shape, and stretching forth +his arms as if he would have embraced and drawn it to his heart; while, +had such a miracle been possible, his countenance expressed passion +enough to communicate warmth and sensibility to the lifeless oak. + +"Strange enough!" said the artist to himself. "Who would have looked for +a modern Pygmalion in the person of a Yankee mechanic!" + +As yet, the image was but vague in its outward presentment; so that, as +in the cloud-shapes around the western sun, the observer rather felt, or +was led to imagine, than really saw what was intended by it. Day by day, +however, the work assumed greater precision, and settled its irregular +and misty outline into distincter grace and beauty. The general design +was now obvious to the common eye. It was a female figure, in what +appeared to be a foreign dress; the gown being laced over the bosom, +and opening in front so as to disclose a skirt or petticoat, the folds +and inequalities of which were admirably represented in the oaken +substance. She wore a hat of singular gracefulness, and abundantly laden +with flowers, such as never grew in the rude soil of New England, but +which, with all their fanciful luxuriance, had a natural truth that it +seemed impossible for the most fertile imagination to have attained +without copying from real prototypes. There were several little +appendages to this dress, such as a fan, a pair of earrings, a chain +about the neck, a watch in the bosom, and a ring upon the finger, all of +which would have been deemed beneath the dignity of sculpture. They were +put on, however, with as much taste as a lovely woman might have shown +in her attire, and could therefore have shocked none but a judgment +spoiled by artistic rules. + +The face was still imperfect; but gradually, by a magic touch, +intelligence and sensibility brightened through the features, with all +the effect of light gleaming forth from within the solid oak. The face +became alive. It was a beautiful, though not precisely regular, and +somewhat haughty aspect, but with a certain piquancy about the eyes and +mouth, which, of all expressions, would have seemed the most impossible +to throw over a wooden countenance. And now, so far as carving went, +this wonderful production was complete. + +"Drowne," said Copley, who had hardly missed a single day in his visits +to the carver's workshop, "if this work were in marble it would make you +famous at once; nay, I would almost affirm that it would make an era in +the art. It is as ideal as an antique statue, and yet as real as any +lovely woman whom one meets at a fireside or in the street. But I trust +you do not mean to desecrate this exquisite creature with paint, like +those staring kings and admirals yonder?" + +"Not paint her!" exclaimed Captain Hunnewell, who stood by; "not paint +the figure-head of the Cynosure! And what sort of a figure should I cut +in a foreign port with such an unpainted oaken stick as this over my +prow! She must, and she shall, be painted to the life, from the topmost +flower in her hat down to the silver spangles on her slippers." + +"Mr. Copley," said Drowne, quietly, "I know nothing of marble statuary, +and nothing of the sculptor's rules of art; but of this wooden image, +this work of my hands, this creature of my heart,"--and here his voice +faltered and choked in a very singular manner,--"of this--of her--I may +say that I know something. A wellspring of inward wisdom gushed within +me as I wrought upon the oak with my whole strength, and soul, and +faith. Let others do what they may with marble, and adopt what rules +they choose. If I can produce my desired effect by painted wood, those +rules are not for me, and I have a right to disregard them." + +"The very spirit of genius," muttered Copley to himself. "How otherwise +should this carver feel himself entitled to transcend all rules, and +make me ashamed of quoting them?" + +He looked earnestly at Drowne, and again saw that expression of human +love which, in a spiritual sense, as the artist could not help +imagining, was the secret of the life that had been breathed into this +block of wood. + +The carver, still in the same secrecy that marked all his operations +upon this mysterious image, proceeded to paint the habiliments in their +proper colors, and the countenance with nature's red and white. When all +was finished he threw open his workshop, and admitted the towns-people +to behold what he had done. Most persons, at their first entrance, felt +impelled to remove their hats, and pay such reverence as was due to the +richly dressed and beautiful young lady who seemed to stand in a corner +of the room, with oaken chips and shavings scattered at her feet. Then +came a sensation of fear; as if, not being actually human, yet so like +humanity, she must therefore be something preternatural. There was, in +truth, an indefinable air and expression that might reasonably induce +the query, Who and from what sphere this daughter of the oak should be? +The strange, rich flowers of Eden on her head; the complexion, so much +deeper and more brilliant than those of our native beauties; the +foreign, as it seemed, and fantastic garb, yet not too fantastic to be +worn decorously in the street; the delicately wrought embroidery of the +skirt; the broad gold chain about her neck; the curious ring upon her +finger; the fan, so exquisitely sculptured in open-work, and painted to +resemble pearl and ebony;--where could Drowne, in his sober walk of +life, have beheld the vision here so matchlessly embodied! And then her +face! In the dark eyes and around the voluptuous mouth there played a +look made up of pride, coquetry, and a gleam of mirthfulness, which +impressed Copley with the idea that the image was secretly enjoying the +perplexing admiration of himself and other beholders. + +"And will you," said he to the carver, "permit this masterpiece to +become the figure-head of a vessel? Give the honest captain yonder +figure of Britannia,--it will answer his purpose far better,--and send +this fairy queen to England, where, for aught I know, it may bring you a +thousand pounds." + +"I have not wrought it for money," said Drowne. + +"What sort of a fellow is this!" thought Copley. "A Yankee, and throw +away the chance of making his fortune! He has gone mad; and thence has +come this gleam of genius." + +There was still further proof of Drowne's lunacy, if credit were due to +the rumor that he had been seen kneeling at the feet of the oaken lady, +and gazing with a lover's passionate ardor into the face that his own +hands had created. The bigots of the day hinted that it would be no +matter of surprise if an evil spirit were allowed to enter this +beautiful form and seduce the carver to destruction. + +The fame of the image spread far and wide. The inhabitants visited it so +universally that after a few days of exhibition there was hardly an old +man or a child who had not become minutely familiar with its aspect. +Even had the story of Drowne's wooden image ended here, its celebrity +might have been prolonged for many years by the reminiscences of those +who looked upon it in their childhood, and saw nothing else so beautiful +in after life. But the town was now astounded by an event the narrative +of which has formed itself into one of the most singular legends that +are yet to be met with in the traditionary chimney-corners of the New +England metropolis, where old men and women sit dreaming of the past, +and wag their heads at the dreamers of the present and the future. + +One fine morning, just before the departure of the Cynosure on her +second voyage to Fayal, the commander of that gallant vessel was seen to +issue from his residence in Hanover Street. He was stylishly dressed in +a blue broadcloth coat, with gold-lace at the seams and button-holes, an +embroidered scarlet waistcoat, a triangular hat, with a loop and broad +binding of gold, and wore a silver-hilted hanger at his side. But the +good captain might have been arrayed in the robes of a prince or the +rags of a beggar, without in either case attracting notice, while +obscured by such a companion as now leaned on his arm. The people in the +street started, rubbed their eyes, and either leaped aside from their +path, or stood as if transfixed to wood or marble in astonishment. + +"Do you see it?--do you see it?" cried one, with tremulous eagerness. +"It is the very same!" + +"The same?" answered another, who had arrived in town only the night +before. "Who do you mean? I see only a sea-captain in his shore-going +clothes, and a young lady in a foreign habit, with a bunch of beautiful +flowers in her hat. On my word, she is as fair and bright a damsel as my +eyes have looked on this many a day!" + +"Yes; the same!--the very same!" repeated the other. "Drowne's wooden +image has come to life!" + +Here was a miracle indeed! Yet, illuminated by the sunshine, or darkened +by the alternate shade of the houses, and with its garments fluttering +lightly in the morning breeze, there passed the image along the street. +It was exactly and minutely the shape, the garb, and the face which the +towns-people had so recently thronged to see and admire. Not a rich +flower upon her head, not a single leaf, but had its prototype in +Drowne's wooden workmanship, although now their fragile grace had become +flexible, and was shaken by every footstep that the wearer made. The +broad gold chain upon the neck was identical with the one represented on +the image, and glistened with the motion imparted by the rise and fall +of the bosom which it decorated. A real diamond sparkled on her finger. +In her right hand she bore a pearl and ebony fan, which she flourished +with a fantastic and bewitching coquetry, that was likewise expressed in +all her movements as well as in the style of her beauty and the attire +that so well harmonized with it. The face, with its brilliant depth of +complexion, had the same piquancy of mirthful mischief that was fixed +upon the countenance of the image, but which was here varied and +continually shifting, yet always essentially the same, like the sunny +gleam upon a bubbling fountain. On the whole, there was something so +airy and yet so real in the figure, and withal so perfectly did it +represent Drowne's image, that people knew not whether to suppose the +magic wood etherealized into a spirit or warmed and softened into an +actual woman. + +"One thing is certain," muttered a Puritan of the old stamp, "Drowne has +sold himself to the Devil; and doubtless this gay Captain Hunnewell is a +party to the bargain." + +"And I," said a young man who overheard him, "would almost consent to be +the third victim, for the liberty of saluting those lovely lips." + +"And so would I," said Copley, the painter, "for the privilege of taking +her picture." + +The image, or the apparition, whichever it might be, still escorted by +the bold captain, proceeded from Hanover Street through some of the +cross lanes that make this portion of the town so intricate, to Ann +Street, thence into Dock Square, and so downward to Drowne's shop, which +stood just on the water's edge. The crowd still followed, gathering +volume as it rolled along. Never had a modern miracle occurred in such +broad daylight, nor in the presence of such a multitude of witnesses. +The airy image, as if conscious that she was the object of the murmurs +and disturbance that swelled behind her, appeared slightly vexed and +flustered, yet still in a manner consistent with the light vivacity and +sportive mischief that were written in her countenance. She was observed +to flutter her fan with such vehement rapidity that the elaborate +delicacy of its workmanship gave way, and it remained broken in her +hand. + +Arriving at Drowne's door, while the captain threw it open, the +marvellous apparition paused an instant on the threshold, assuming the +very attitude of the image, and casting over the crowd that glance of +sunny coquetry which all remembered on the face of the oaken lady. She +and her cavalier then disappeared. + +"Ah!" murmured the crowd, drawing a deep breath, as with one vast pair +of lungs. + +"The world looks darker now that she has vanished," said some of the +young men. + +But the aged, whose recollections dated as far back as witch times, +shook their heads, and hinted that our forefathers would have thought it +a pious deed to burn the daughter of the oak with fire. + +"If she be other than a bubble of the elements," exclaimed Copley, "I +must look upon her face again." + +He accordingly entered the shop; and there, in her usual corner, stood +the image, gazing at him, as it might seem, with the very same +expression of mirthful mischief that had been the farewell look of the +apparition when, but a moment before, she turned her face towards the +crowd. The carver stood beside his creation, mending the beautiful fan, +which by some accident was broken in her hand. But there was no longer +any motion in the life-like image, nor any real woman in the workshop, +nor even the witchcraft of a sunny shadow, that might have deluded +people's eyes as it flitted along the street. Captain Hunnewell, too, +had vanished. His hoarse, sea-breezy tones, however, were audible on the +other side of a door that opened upon the water. + +"Sit down in the stern sheets, my lady," said the gallant captain. +"Come, bear a hand, you lubbers, and set us on board in the turning of a +minute-glass." + +And then was heard the stroke of oars. + +"Drowne," said Copley, with a smile of intelligence, "you have been a +truly fortunate man. What painter or statuary ever had such a subject! +No wonder that she inspired a genius into you, and first created the +artist who afterwards created her image." + +Drowne looked at him with a visage that bore the traces of tears, but +from which the light of imagination and sensibility, so recently +illuminating it, had departed. He was again the mechanical carver that +he had been known to be all his lifetime. + +"I hardly understand what you mean, Mr. Copley," said he, putting his +hand to his brow. "This image! Can it have been my work? Well, I have +wrought it in a kind of dream; and now that I am broad awake I must set +about finishing yonder figure of Admiral Vernon." + +And forthwith he employed himself on the stolid countenance of one of +his wooden progeny, and completed it in his own mechanical style, from +which he was never known afterwards to deviate. He followed his business +industriously for many years, acquired a competence, and in the latter +part of his life attained to a dignified station in the church, being +remembered in records and traditions as Deacon Drowne, the carver. One +of his productions, an Indian chief, gilded all over, stood during the +better part of a century on the cupola of the Province House, bedazzling +the eyes of those who looked upward, like an angel of the sun. Another +work of the good deacon's hand--a reduced likeness of his friend Captain +Hunnewell, holding a telescope and quadrant--may be seen to this day, at +the corner of Broad and State Streets, serving in the useful capacity of +sign to the shop of a nautical-instrument maker. We know not how to +account for the inferiority of this quaint old figure as compared with +the recorded excellence of the Oaken Lady, unless on the supposition +that in every human spirit there is imagination, sensibility, creative +power, genius, which, according to circumstances, may either be +developed in this world, or shrouded in a mask of dulness until another +state of being. To our friend Drowne there came a brief season of +excitement, kindled by love. It rendered him a genius for that one +occasion, but quenched in disappointment, left him again the mechanical +carver in wood, without the power even of appreciating the work that his +own hands had wrought. Yet, who can doubt that the very highest state to +which a human spirit can attain, in its loftiest aspirations, is its +truest and most natural state, and that Drowne was more consistent with +himself when he wrought the admirable figure of the mysterious lady, +than when he perpetrated a whole progeny of blockheads? + +There was a rumor in Boston, about this period, that a young Portuguese +lady of rank, on some occasion of political or domestic disquietude, had +fled from her home in Fayal and put herself under the protection of +Captain Hunnewell, on board of whose vessel, and at whose residence, she +was sheltered until a change of affairs. This fair stranger must have +been the original of Drowne's Wooden Image. + + + + +The Ambitious Guest + + +One September night, a family had gathered round their hearth, and piled +it high with the drift-wood of mountain streams, the dry cones of the +pine, and the splintered ruins of great trees, that had come crashing +down the precipice. Up the chimney roared the fire, and brightened the +room with its broad blaze. The faces of the father and mother had a +sober gladness; the children laughed; the eldest daughter was the image +of Happiness at seventeen; and the aged grandmother, who sat knitting in +the warmest place, was the image of Happiness grown old. They had found +the "herb, heart's-ease," in the bleakest spot of all New England. This +family were situated in the Notch of the White Hills, where the wind was +sharp throughout the year, and pitilessly cold in the winter,--giving +their cottage all its fresh inclemency, before it descended on the +valley of the Saco. They dwelt in a cold spot and a dangerous one; for a +mountain towered above their heads, so steep, that the stones would +often rumble down its sides, and startle them at midnight. + +The daughter had just uttered some simple jest, that filled them all +with mirth, when the wind came through the Notch and seemed to pause +before their cottage,--rattling the door, with a sound of wailing and +lamentation, before it passed into the valley. For a moment, it saddened +them, though there was nothing unusual in the tones. But the family were +glad again, when they perceived that the latch was lifted by some +traveller, whose footsteps had been unheard amid the dreary blast, which +heralded his approach, and wailed as he was entering, and went moaning +away from the door. + +Though they dwelt in such a solitude, these people held daily converse +with the world. The romantic pass of the Notch is a great artery, +through which the life-blood of internal commerce is continually +throbbing, between Maine on one side and the Green Mountains and the +shores of the St. Lawrence on the other. The stage-coach always drew up +before the door of the cottage. The wayfarer, with no companion but his +staff, paused here to exchange a word, that the sense of loneliness +might not utterly overcome him, ere he could pass through the cleft of +the mountain, or reach the first house in the valley. And there the +teamster, on his way to Portland market, would put up for the night; +and, if a bachelor, might sit an hour beyond the usual bedtime, and +steal a kiss from the mountain-maid, at parting. It was one of those +primitive taverns, where the traveller pays only for food and lodging, +but meets with a homely kindness, beyond all price. When the footsteps +were heard, therefore, between the outer door and the inner one, the +whole family rose up, grandmother, children, and all, as if about to +welcome some one who belonged to them, and whose fate was linked with +theirs. + +The door was opened by a young man. His face at first wore the +melancholy expression, almost despondency, of one who travels a wild and +bleak road, at nightfall and alone, but soon brightened up, when he saw +the kindly warmth of his reception. He felt his heart spring forward to +meet them all, from the old woman, who wiped a chair with her apron, to +the little child that held out its arms to him. One glance and smile +placed the stranger on a footing of innocent familiarity with the eldest +daughter. + +"Ah, this fire is the right thing!" cried he; "especially when there is +such a pleasant circle round it. I am quite benumbed; for the Notch is +just like the pipe of a great pair of bellows; it has blown a terrible +blast in my face, all the way from Bartlett." + +"Then you are going towards Vermont?" said the master of the house, as +he helped to take a light knapsack off the young man's shoulders. + +"Yes; to Burlington, and far enough beyond," replied he. "I meant to +have been at Ethan Crawford's to-night; but a pedestrian lingers along +such a road as this. It is no matter; for, when I saw this good fire, +and all your cheerful faces, I felt as if you had kindled it on purpose +for me, and were waiting my arrival. So I shall sit down among you, and +make myself at home." + +The frank-hearted stranger had just drawn his chair to the fire, when +something like a heavy footstep was heard without, rushing down the +steep side of the mountain, as with long and rapid strides, and taking +such a leap, in passing the cottage, as to strike the opposite +precipice. The family held their breath, because they knew the sound, +and their guest held his, by instinct. + +"The old mountain has thrown a stone at us, for fear we should forget +him," said the landlord, recovering himself. "He sometimes nods his +head, and threatens to come down; but we are old neighbors, and agree +together pretty well, upon the whole. Besides, we have a sure place of +refuge, hard by, if he should be coming in good earnest." + +Let us now suppose the stranger to have finished his supper of bear's +meat; and, by his natural felicity of manner, to have placed himself on +a footing of kindness with the whole family, so that they talked as +freely together, as if he belonged to their mountain brood. He was of a +proud, yet gentle spirit,--haughty and reserved among the rich and +great; but ever ready to stoop his head to the lowly cottage door, and +be like a brother or a son at the poor man's fireside. In the household +of the Notch, he found warmth and simplicity of feeling, the pervading +intelligence of New England, and a poetry of native growth, which they +had gathered, when they little thought of it, from the mountain peaks +and chasms, and at the very threshold of their romantic and dangerous +abode. He had travelled far and alone; his whole life, indeed, had been +a solitary path; for, with the lofty caution of his nature, he had kept +himself apart from those who might otherwise have been his companions. +The family, too, though so kind and hospitable, had that consciousness +of unity among themselves, and separation from the world at large, +which, in every domestic circle, should still keep a holy place, where +no stranger may intrude. But, this evening, a prophetic sympathy +impelled the refined and educated youth to pour out his heart before the +simple mountaineers, and constrained them to answer him with the same +free confidence. And thus it should have been. Is not the kindred of a +common fate a closer tie than that of birth? + +The secret of the young man's character was, a high and abstracted +ambition. He could have borne to live an undistinguished life, but not +to be forgotten in the grave. Yearning desire had been transformed to +hope; and hope, long cherished, had become like certainty, that, +obscurely as he journeyed now, a glory was to beam on all his +pathway,--though not, perhaps, while he was treading it. But, when +posterity should gaze back into the gloom of what was now the present, +they would trace the brightness of his footsteps, brightening as meaner +glories faded, and confess, that a gifted one had passed from his cradle +to his tomb, with none to recognize him. + +"As yet," cried the stranger, his cheek glowing and his eye flashing +with enthusiasm,--"as yet, I have done nothing. Were I to vanish from +the earth to-morrow, none would know so much of me as you; that a +nameless youth came up, at nightfall, from the valley of the Saco, and +opened his heart to you in the evening, and passed through the Notch, by +sunrise, and was seen no more. Not a soul would ask, 'Who was he? +Whither did the wanderer go?' But, I cannot die till I have achieved my +destiny. Then, let Death come! I shall have built my monument!" + +There was a continual flow of natural emotion, gushing forth amid +abstracted revery, which enabled the family to understand this young +man's sentiments, though so foreign from their own. With quick +sensibility of the ludicrous, he blushed at the ardor into which he had +been betrayed. + +"You laugh at me," said he, taking the eldest daughter's hand, and +laughing himself. "You think my ambition as nonsensical as if I were to +freeze myself to death on the top of Mount Washington, only that people +might spy at me from the country round about. And truly, that would be a +noble pedestal for a man's statue!" + +"It is better to sit here by this fire," answered the girl, blushing, +"and be comfortable and contented, though nobody thinks about us." + +"I suppose," said her father, after a fit of musing, "there is something +natural in what the young man says; and if my mind had been turned that +way, I might have felt just the same. It is strange, wife, how his talk +has set my head running on things that are pretty certain never to come +to pass." + +"Perhaps they may," observed the wife. "Is the man thinking what he will +do when he is a widower?" + +"No, no!" cried he, repelling the idea with reproachful kindness. "When +I think of your death, Esther, I think of mine, too. But I was wishing +we had a good farm, in Bartlett, or Bethlehem, or Littleton, or some +other township round the White Mountains; but not where they could +tumble on our heads. I should want to stand well with my neighbors, and +be called Squire, and sent to General Court for a term or two; for a +plain, honest man may do as much good there as a lawyer. And when I +should be grown quite an old man, and you an old woman, so as not to be +long apart, I might die happy enough in my bed, and leave you all crying +around me. A slate gravestone would suit me as well as a marble +one,--with just my name and age, and a verse of a hymn, and something to +let people know that I lived an honest man and died a Christian." + +"There now!" exclaimed the stranger; "it is our nature to desire a +monument, be it slate, or marble, or a pillar of granite, or a glorious +memory in the universal heart of man." + +"We're in a strange way, to-night," said the wife, with tears in her +eyes. "They say it's a sign of something, when folks' minds go a +wandering so. Hark to the children!" + +They listened accordingly. The younger children had been put to bed in +another room, but with an open door between, so that they could be heard +talking busily among themselves. One and all seemed to have caught the +infection from the fireside circle, and were outvying each other in wild +wishes and childish projects of what they would do when they came to be +men and women. At length, a little boy, instead of addressing his +brothers and sisters, called out to his mother. + +"I'll tell you what I wish, mother," cried he. "I want you and father +and grandma'm, and all of us, and the stranger too, to start right away, +and go and take a drink out of the basin of the Flume!" + +Nobody could help laughing at the child's notion of leaving a warm bed, +and dragging them from a cheerful fire, to visit the basin of the +Flume,--a brook which tumbles over the precipice, deep within the Notch. +The boy had hardly spoken, when a wagon rattled along the road, and +stopped a moment before the door. It appeared to contain two or three +men, who were cheering their hearts with the rough chorus of a song, +which resounded, in broken notes, between the cliffs, while the singers +hesitated whether to continue their journey, or put up here for the +night. + +"Father," said the girl, "they are calling you by name." + +But the good man doubted whether they had really called him, and was +unwilling to show himself too solicitous of gain, by inviting people to +patronize his house. He therefore did not hurry to the door; and the +lash being soon applied, the travellers plunged into the Notch, still +singing and laughing, though their music and mirth came back drearily +from the heart of the mountain. + +"There, mother!" cried the boy, again. "They'd have given us a ride to +the Flume." + +Again they laughed at the child's pertinacious fancy for a night ramble. +But it happened, that a light cloud passed over the daughter's spirit; +she looked gravely into the fire, and drew a breath that was almost a +sigh. It forced its way, in spite of a little struggle to repress it. +Then starting and blushing, she looked quickly round the circle, as if +they had caught a glimpse into her bosom. The stranger asked what she +had been thinking of. + +"Nothing," answered she, with a downcast smile. "Only I felt lonesome +just then." + +"O, I have always had a gift of feeling what is in other people's +hearts!" said he, half seriously. "Shall I tell the secrets of yours? +For I know what to think, when a young girl shivers by a warm hearth, +and complains of lonesomeness at her mother's side. Shall I put these +feelings into words?" + +"They would not be a girl's feelings any longer, if they could be put +into words," replied the mountain nymph, laughing, but avoiding his eye. + +All this was said apart. Perhaps a germ of love was springing in their +hearts, so pure that it might blossom in Paradise, since it could not be +matured on earth; for women worship such gentle dignity as his; and the +proud, contemplative, yet kindly soul is oftenest captivated by +simplicity like hers. But, while they spoke softly, and he was watching +the happy sadness, the lightsome shadows, the shy yearnings of a +maiden's nature, the wind, through the Notch, took a deeper and drearier +sound. It seemed, as the fanciful stranger said, like the choral strain +of the spirits of the blast, who, in old Indian times, had their +dwelling among these mountains, and made their heights and recesses a +sacred region. There was a wail, along the road, as if a funeral were +passing. To chase away the gloom, the family threw pine branches on +their fire, till the dry leaves crackled and the flame arose, +discovering once again a scene of peace and humble happiness. The light +hovered about them fondly, and caressed them all. There were the little +faces of the children, peeping from their bed apart, and here the +father's frame of strength, the mother's subdued and careful mien, the +high-browed youth, the budding girl, and the good old grandam, still +knitting in the warmest place. The aged woman looked up from her task, +and, with fingers ever busy, was the next to speak. + +"Old folks have their notions," said she, "as well as young ones. You've +been wishing and planning; and letting your heads run on one thing and +another, till you've set my mind a-wandering too. Now what should an old +woman wish for, when she can go but a step or two before she comes to +her grave? Children, it will haunt me night and day, till I tell you." + +"What is it, mother?" cried the husband and wife, at once. + +Then the old woman, with an air of mystery, which drew the circle closer +round the fire, informed them that she had provided her graveclothes +some years before,--a nice linen shroud, a cap with a muslin ruff, and +everything of a finer sort than she had worn since her wedding-day. But, +this evening, an old superstition had strangely recurred to her. It used +to be said, in her younger days, that, if anything were amiss with a +corpse, if only the ruff were not smooth, or the cap did not set right, +the corpse, in the coffin and beneath the clods, would strive to put up +its cold hands and arrange it. The bare thought made her nervous. + +"Don't talk so, grandmother!" said the girl, shuddering. + +"Now," continued the old woman, with singular earnestness, yet smiling +strangely at her own folly, "I want one of you, my children,--when your +mother is dressed, and in the coffin,--I want one of you to hold a +looking-glass over my face. Who knows but I may take a glimpse at +myself, and see whether all's right?" + +"Old and young, we dream of graves and monuments," murmured the stranger +youth. "I wonder how mariners feel, when the ship is sinking, and they, +unknown and undistinguished, are to be buried together in the +ocean,--that wide and nameless sepulchre?" + +For a moment, the old woman's ghastly conception so engrossed the minds +of her hearers, that a sound, abroad in the night, rising like the roar +of a blast, had grown broad, deep, and terrible, before the fated group +were conscious of it. The house, and all within it, trembled; the +foundations of the earth seemed to be shaken, as if this awful sound +were the peal of the last trump. Young and old exchanged one wild +glance, and remained an instant, pale, affrighted, without utterance, or +power to move. Then the same shriek burst simultaneously from all their +lips. + +"The Slide! The Slide!" + +The simplest words must intimate, but not portray, the unutterable +horror of the catastrophe. The victims rushed from their cottage, and +sought refuge in what they deemed a safer spot,--where, in contemplation +of such an emergency, a sort of barrier had been reared. Alas! they had +quitted their security, and fled right into the pathway of destruction. +Down came the whole side of the mountain, in a cataract of ruin. +Just before it reached the house, the stream broke into two +branches,--shivered not a window there, but overwhelmed the whole +vicinity, blocked up the road, and annihilated everything in its +dreadful course. Long ere the thunder of that great Slide had ceased to +roar among the mountains, the mortal agony had been endured, and the +victims were at peace. Their bodies were never found. + +The next morning, the light smoke was seen stealing from the cottage +chimney, up the mountain-side. Within, the fire was yet smouldering on +the hearth, and the chairs in a circle round it, as if the inhabitants +had but gone forth to view the devastation of the Slide, and would +shortly return, to thank Heaven for their miraculous escape. All had +left separate tokens, by which those who had known the family were made +to shed a tear for each. Who has not heard their name? The story has +been told far and wide, and will forever be a legend of these mountains. +Poets have sung their fate. + +There were circumstances which led some to suppose that a stranger had +been received into the cottage on this awful night, and had shared the +catastrophe of all its inmates. Others denied that there were sufficient +grounds for such a conjecture. Woe, for the high-souled youth, with his +dream of earthly immortality! His name and person utterly unknown; his +history, his way of life, his plans, a mystery never to be solved; his +death and his existence equally a doubt! Whose was the agony of that +death moment? + + + + +The Great Stone Face + + +One afternoon, when the sun was going down, a mother and her little boy +sat at the door of their cottage, talking about the Great Stone Face. +They had but to lift their eyes, and there it was plainly to be seen, +though miles away, with the sunshine brightening all its features. + +And what was the Great Stone Face? + +Embosomed amongst a family of lofty mountains, there was a valley so +spacious that it contained many thousand inhabitants. Some of these good +people dwelt in log-huts, with the black forest all around them, on the +steep and difficult hillsides. Others had their homes in comfortable +farm-houses, and cultivated the rich soil on the gentle slopes or level +surfaces of the valley. Others, again, were congregated into populous +villages, where some wild, highland rivulet, tumbling down from its +birthplace in the upper mountain region, had been caught and tamed by +human cunning, and compelled to turn the machinery of cotton-factories. +The inhabitants of this valley, in short, were numerous, and of many +modes of life. But all of them, grown people and children, had a kind of +familiarity with the Great Stone Face, although some possessed the gift +of distinguishing this grand natural phenomenon more perfectly than many +of their neighbors. + +The Great Stone Face, then, was a work of Nature in her mood of majestic +playfulness, formed on the perpendicular side of a mountain by some +immense rocks, which had been thrown together in such a position as, +when viewed at a proper distance, precisely to resemble the features of +the human countenance. It seemed as if an enormous giant, or a Titan, +had sculptured his own likeness on the precipice. There was the broad +arch of the forehead, a hundred feet in height; the nose, with its long +bridge; and the vast lips, which, if they could have spoken, would have +rolled their thunder accents from one end of the valley to the other. +True it is, that if the spectator approached too near, he lost the +outline of the gigantic visage, and could discern only a heap of +ponderous and gigantic rocks, piled in chaotic ruin one upon another. +Retracing his steps, however, the wondrous features would again be seen; +and the farther he withdrew from them, the more like a human face, with +all its original divinity intact, did they appear; until, as it grew dim +in the distance, with the clouds and glorified vapor of the mountains +clustering about it, the Great Stone Face seemed positively to be +alive. + +It was a happy lot for children to grow up to manhood or womanhood with +the Great Stone Face before their eyes, for all the features were noble, +and the expression was at once grand and sweet, as if it were the glow +of a vast, warm heart, that embraced all mankind in its affections, and +had room for more. It was an education only to look at it. According to +the belief of many people, the valley owed much of its fertility to this +benign aspect that was continually beaming over it, illuminating the +clouds, and infusing its tenderness into the sunshine. + +As we began with saying, a mother and her little boy sat at their +cottage-door, gazing at the Great Stone Face, and talking about it. The +child's name was Ernest. + +"Mother," said he, while the Titanic visage smiled on him, "I wish that +it could speak, for it looks so very kindly that its voice must needs be +pleasant. If I were to see a man with such a face, I should love him +dearly." + +"If an old prophecy should come to pass," answered his mother, "we may +see a man, some time or other, with exactly such a face as that." + +"What prophecy do you mean, dear mother?" eagerly inquired Ernest. "Pray +tell me all about it!" + +So his mother told him a story that her own mother had told to her, +when she herself was younger than little Ernest; a story, not of things +that were past, but of what was yet to come; a story, nevertheless, so +very old, that even the Indians, who formerly inhabited this valley, had +heard it from their forefathers, to whom, as they affirmed, it had been +murmured by the mountain streams, and whispered by the wind among the +tree-tops. The purport was, that, at some future day, a child should be +born hereabouts, who was destined to become the greatest and noblest +personage of his time, and whose countenance, in manhood, should bear an +exact resemblance to the Great Stone Face. Not a few old-fashioned +people, and young ones likewise, in the ardor of their hopes, still +cherished an enduring faith in this old prophecy. But others, who had +seen more of the world, had watched and waited till they were weary, and +had beheld no man with such a face, nor any man that proved to be much +greater or nobler than his neighbors, concluded it to be nothing but an +idle tale. At all events, the great man of the prophecy had not yet +appeared. + +"O mother, dear mother!" cried Ernest, clapping his hands above his +head, "I do hope that I shall live to see him!" + +His mother was an affectionate and thoughtful woman, and felt that it +was wisest not to discourage the generous hopes of her little boy. So +she only said to him, "Perhaps you may." + +And Ernest never forgot the story that his mother told him. It was +always in his mind, whenever he looked upon the Great Stone Face. He +spent his childhood in the log-cottage where he was born, and was +dutiful to his mother, and helpful to her in many things, assisting her +much with his little hands, and more with his loving heart. In this +manner, from a happy yet often pensive child, he grew up to be a mild, +quiet, unobtrusive boy, and sun-browned with labor in the fields, but +with more intelligence brightening his aspect than is seen in many lads +who have been taught at famous schools. Yet Ernest had had no teacher, +save only that the Great Stone Face became one to him. When the toil of +the day was over, he would gaze at it for hours, until he began to +imagine that those vast features recognized him, and gave him a smile of +kindness and encouragement, responsive to his own look of veneration. We +must not take upon us to affirm that this was a mistake, although the +Face may have looked no more kindly at Ernest than at all the world +besides. But the secret was, that the boy's tender and confiding +simplicity discerned what other people could not see; and thus the love, +which was meant for all, became his peculiar portion. + +About this time, there went a rumor throughout the valley, that the +great man, foretold from ages long ago, who was to bear a resemblance to +the Great Stone Face, had appeared at last. It seems that, many years +before, a young man had migrated from the valley and settled at a +distant seaport, where, after getting together a little money, he had +set up as a shopkeeper. His name--but I could never learn whether it was +his real one, or a nickname that had grown out of his habits and success +in life--was Gathergold. Being shrewd and active, and endowed by +Providence with that inscrutable faculty which develops itself in what +the world calls luck, he became an exceedingly rich merchant, and owner +of a whole fleet of bulky-bottomed ships. All the countries of the globe +appeared to join hands for the mere purpose of adding heap after heap to +the mountainous accumulation of this one man's wealth. The cold regions +of the north, almost within the gloom and shadow of the Arctic Circle, +sent him their tribute in the shape of furs; hot Africa sifted for him +the golden sands of her rivers, and gathered up the ivory tusks of her +great elephants out of the forests; the East came bringing him the rich +shawls, and spices, and teas, and the effulgence of diamonds, and the +gleaming purity of large pearls. The ocean, not to be behindhand with +the earth, yielded up her mighty whales, that Mr. Gathergold might sell +their oil, and make a profit on it. Be the original commodity what it +might, it was gold within his grasp. It might be said of him, as of +Midas in the fable, that whatever he touched with his finger immediately +glistened, and grew yellow, and was changed at once into sterling metal, +or, which suited him still better, into piles of coin. And, when Mr. +Gathergold had become so very rich that it would have taken him a +hundred years only to count his wealth, he bethought himself of his +native valley, and resolved to go back thither, and end his days where +he was born. With this purpose in view, he sent a skilful architect to +build him such a palace as should be fit for a man of his vast wealth to +live in. + +As I have said above, it had already been rumored in the valley that Mr. +Gathergold had turned out to be the prophetic personage so long and +vainly looked for, and that his visage was the perfect and undeniable +similitude of the Great Stone Face. People were the more ready to +believe that this must needs be the fact, when they beheld the splendid +edifice that rose, as if by enchantment, on the site of his father's old +weather-beaten farm-house. The exterior was of marble, so dazzlingly +white that it seemed as though the whole structure might melt away in +the sunshine, like those humbler ones which Mr. Gathergold, in his young +play-days, before his fingers were gifted with the touch of +transmutation, had been accustomed to build of snow. It had a richly +ornamented portico, supported by tall pillars, beneath which was a lofty +door, studded with silver knobs, and made of a kind of variegated wood +that had been brought from beyond the sea. The windows, from the floor +to the ceiling of each stately apartment, were composed, respectively, +of but one enormous pane of glass, so transparently pure that it was +said to be a finer medium than even the vacant atmosphere. Hardly +anybody had been permitted to see the interior of this palace; but it +was reported, and with good semblance of truth, to be far more gorgeous +than the outside, insomuch that whatever was iron or brass in other +houses was silver or gold in this; and Mr. Gathergold's bed-chamber, +especially, made such a glittering appearance that no ordinary man would +have been able to close his eyes there. But, on the other hand, Mr. +Gathergold was now so inured to wealth, that perhaps he could not have +closed his eyes unless where the gleam of it was certain to find its way +beneath his eyelids. + +In due time, the mansion was finished; next came the upholsterers, with +magnificent furniture; then, a whole troop of black and white servants, +the harbingers of Mr. Gathergold, who in his own majestic person, was +expected to arrive at sunset. Our friend Ernest, meanwhile, had been +deeply stirred by the idea that the great man, the noble man, the man of +prophecy, after so many ages of delay, was at length to be made manifest +to his native valley. He knew, boy as he was, that there were a thousand +ways in which Mr. Gathergold, with his vast wealth, might transform +himself into an angel of beneficence, and assume a control over human +affairs as wide and benignant as the smile of the Great Stone Face. Full +of faith and hope, Ernest doubted not that what the people said was +true, and that now he was to behold the living likeness of those +wondrous features on the mountain-side. While the boy was still gazing +up the valley, and fancying, as he always did, that the Great Stone Face +returned his gaze and looked kindly at him, the rumbling of wheels was +heard, approaching swiftly along the winding road. + +"Here he comes!" cried a group of people who were assembled to witness +the arrival. "Here comes the great Mr. Gathergold!" + +A carriage, drawn by four horses, dashed round the turn of the road. +Within it, thrust partly out of the window, appeared the physiognomy of +a little old man, with a skin as yellow as if his own Midas-hand had +transmuted it. He had a low forehead, small, sharp eyes, puckered about +with innumerable wrinkles, and very thin lips, which he made still +thinner by pressing them forcibly together. + +"The very image of the Great Stone Face!" shouted the people. "Sure +enough, the old prophecy is true; and here we have the great man come, +at last!" + +And, what greatly perplexed Ernest, they seemed actually to believe that +here was the likeness which they spoke of. By the roadside there chanced +to be an old beggar-woman and two little beggar-children, stragglers +from some far-off region, who, as the carriage rolled onward, held out +their hands and lifted up their doleful voices, most piteously +beseeching charity. A yellow claw--the very same that had clawed +together so much wealth--poked itself out of the coach-window, and dropt +some copper coins upon the ground; so that, though the great man's name +seems to have been Gathergold, he might just as suitably have been +nicknamed Scattercopper. Still, nevertheless, with an earnest shout, and +evidently with as much good faith as ever, the people bellowed,-- + +"He is the very image of the Great Stone Face!" + +But Ernest turned sadly from the wrinkled shrewdness of that sordid +visage, and gazed up the valley, where, amid a gathering mist, gilded by +the last sunbeams, he could still distinguish those glorious features +which had impressed themselves into his soul. Their aspect cheered him. +What did the benign lips seem to say? + +"He will come! Fear not, Ernest; the man will come!" + +The years went on, and Ernest ceased to be a boy. He had grown to be a +young man now. He attracted little notice from the other inhabitants of +the valley; for they saw nothing remarkable in his way of life, save +that, when the labor of the day was over, he still loved to go apart and +gaze and meditate upon the Great Stone Face. According to their idea of +the matter, it was a folly, indeed, but pardonable, inasmuch as Ernest +was industrious, kind, and neighborly, and neglected no duty for the +sake of indulging this idle habit. They knew not that the Great Stone +Face had become a teacher to him, and that the sentiment which was +expressed in it would enlarge the young man's heart, and fill it with +wider and deeper sympathies than other hearts. They knew not that thence +would come a better wisdom than could be learned from books, and a +better life than could be moulded on the defaced example of other human +lives. Neither did Ernest know that the thoughts and affections which +came to him so naturally, in the fields and at the fireside, and +wherever he communed with himself, were of a higher tone than those +which all men shared with him. A simple soul,--simple as when his +mother first taught him the old prophecy,--he beheld the marvellous +features beaming adown the valley, and still wondered that their human +counterpart was so long in making his appearance. + +By this time poor Mr. Gathergold was dead and buried; and the oddest +part of the matter was, that his wealth, which was the body and spirit +of his existence, had disappeared before his death, leaving nothing of +him but a living skeleton, covered over with a wrinkled, yellow skin. +Since the melting away of his gold, it had been very generally conceded +that there was no such striking resemblance, after all, betwixt the +ignoble features of the ruined merchant and that majestic face upon the +mountain-side. So the people ceased to honor him during his lifetime, +and quietly consigned him to forgetfulness after his decease. Once in a +while, it is true, his memory was brought up in connection with the +magnificent palace which he had built, and which had long ago been +turned into a hotel for the accommodation of strangers, multitudes of +whom came, every summer, to visit that famous natural curiosity, the +Great Stone Face. Thus, Mr. Gathergold being discredited and thrown into +the shade, the man of prophecy was yet to come. + +It so happened that a native-born son of the valley, many years before, +had enlisted as a soldier, and, after a great deal of hard fighting, had +now become an illustrious commander. Whatever he may be called in +history, he was known in camps and on the battle-field under the +nickname of Old Blood-and-Thunder. This war-worn veteran, being now +infirm with age and wounds, and weary of the turmoil of a military life, +and of the roll of the drum and the clangor of the trumpet, that had so +long been ringing in his ears, had lately signified a purpose of +returning to his native valley, hoping to find repose where he +remembered to have left it. The inhabitants, his old neighbors and their +grown-up children, were resolved to welcome the renowned warrior with a +salute of cannon and a public dinner; and all the more enthusiastically, +it being affirmed that now, at last, the likeness of the Great Stone +Face had actually appeared. An aid-de-camp of Old Blood-and-Thunder, +travelling through the valley, was said to have been struck with the +resemblance. Moreover the schoolmates and early acquaintances of the +general were ready to testify, on oath, that, to the best of their +recollection, the aforesaid general had been exceedingly like the +majestic image, even when a boy, only that the idea had never occurred +to them at that period. Great, therefore, was the excitement throughout +the valley; and many people, who had never once thought of glancing at +the Great Stone Face for years before, now spent their time in gazing at +it, for the sake of knowing exactly how General Blood-and-Thunder +looked. + +On the day of the great festival, Ernest, with all the other people of +the valley, left their work, and proceeded to the spot where the sylvan +banquet was prepared. As he approached, the loud voice of the Rev. Dr. +Battleblast was heard, beseeching a blessing on the good things set +before them, and on the distinguished friend of peace in whose honor +they were assembled. The tables were arranged in a cleared space of the +woods, shut in by the surrounding trees, except where a vista opened +eastward, and afforded a distant view of the Great Stone Face. Over the +general's chair, which was a relic from the home of Washington, there +was an arch of verdant boughs, with the laurel profusely intermixed, and +surmounted by his country's banner, beneath which he had won his +victories. Our friend Ernest raised himself on his tiptoes, in hopes to +get a glimpse of the celebrated guest; but there was a mighty crowd +about the tables anxious to hear the toasts and speeches, and to catch +any word that might fall from the general in reply; and a volunteer +company, doing duty as a guard, pricked ruthlessly with their bayonets +at any particularly quiet person among the throng. So Ernest, being of +an unobtrusive character, was thrust quite into the background, where he +could see no more of Old Blood-and-Thunder's physiognomy than if it had +been still blazing on the battle-field. To console himself, he turned +towards the Great Stone Face, which, like a faithful and long-remembered +friend, looked back and smiled upon him through the vista of the forest. +Meantime, however, he could overhear the remarks of various individuals, +who were comparing the features of the hero with the face on the distant +mountain-side. + +"'Tis the same face, to a hair!" cried one man, cutting a caper for joy. + +"Wonderfully like, that's a fact!" responded another. + +"Like! why, I call it Old Blood-and-Thunder himself, in a monstrous +looking-glass!" cried a third. "And why not? He's the greatest man of +this or any other age, beyond a doubt." + +And then all three of the speakers gave a great shout, which +communicated electricity to the crowd, and called forth a roar from a +thousand voices, that went reverberating for miles among the mountains, +until you might have supposed that the Great Stone Face had poured its +thunder-breath into the cry. All these comments, and this vast +enthusiasm, served the more to interest our friend; nor did he think of +questioning that now, at length, the mountain-visage had found its +human counterpart. It is true, Ernest had imagined that this +long-looked-for personage would appear in the character of a man of +peace, uttering wisdom, and doing good, and making people happy. But, +taking an habitual breadth of view, with all his simplicity, he +contended that Providence should choose its own method of blessing +mankind, and could conceive that this great end might be effected even +by a warrior and a bloody sword, should inscrutable wisdom see fit to +order matters so. + +"The general! The general!" was now the cry. "Hush! silence! Old +Blood-and-Thunder's going to make a speech." + +Even so; for, the cloth being removed, the general's health had been +drunk amid shouts of applause, and he now stood upon his feet to thank +the company. Ernest saw him. There he was, over the shoulders of the +crowd, from the two glittering epaulets and embroidered collar upward, +beneath the arch of green boughs with intertwined laurel, and the banner +drooping as if to shade his brow! And there, too, visible in the same +glance, through the vista of the forest, appeared the Great Stone Face! +And was there, indeed, such a resemblance as the crowd had testified? +Alas, Ernest could not recognize it! He beheld a war-worn and +weather-beaten countenance, full of energy, and expressive of an iron +will; but the gentle wisdom, the deep, broad, tender sympathies, were +altogether wanting in Old Blood-and-Thunder's visage; and even if the +Great Stone Face had assumed his look of stern command, the milder +traits would still have tempered it. + +"This is not the man of prophecy," sighed Ernest, to himself, as he made +his way out of the throng. "And must the world wait longer yet?" + +The mists had congregated about the distant mountain-side, and there +were seen the grand and awful features of the Great Stone Face, awful +but benignant, as if a mighty angel were sitting among the hills, and +enrobing himself in a cloud-vesture of gold and purple. As he looked, +Ernest could hardly believe but that a smile beamed over the whole +visage, with a radiance still brightening, although without motion of +the lips. It was probably the effect of the western sunshine, melting +through the thinly diffused vapors that had swept between him and the +object that he gazed at. But--as it always did--the aspect of his +marvellous friend made Ernest as hopeful as if he had never hoped in +vain. + +"Fear not, Ernest," said his heart, even as if the Great Face were +whispering him,--"fear not, Ernest; he will come." + +More years sped swiftly and tranquilly away. Ernest still dwelt in his +native valley, and was now a man of middle age. By imperceptible +degrees, he had become known among the people. Now, as heretofore, he +labored for his bread, and was the same simple-hearted man that he had +always been. But he had thought and felt so much, he had given so many +of the best hours of his life to unworldly hopes for some great good to +mankind, that it seemed as though he had been talking with the angels, +and had imbibed a portion of their wisdom unawares. It was visible in +the calm and well-considered beneficence of his daily life, the quiet +stream of which had made a wide green margin all along its course. Not a +day passed by, that the world was not the better because this man, +humble as he was, had lived. He never stepped aside from his own path, +yet would always reach a blessing to his neighbor. Almost involuntarily, +too, he had become a preacher. The pure and high simplicity of his +thought, which, as one of its manifestations, took shape in the good +deeds that dropped silently from his hand, flowed also forth in speech. +He uttered truths that wrought upon and moulded the lives of those who +heard him. His auditors, it may be, never suspected that Ernest, their +own neighbor and familiar friend, was more than an ordinary man; least +of all did Ernest himself suspect it; but, inevitably as the murmur of +a rivulet, came thoughts out of his mouth that no other human lips had +spoken. + +When the people's minds had had a little time to cool, they were ready +enough to acknowledge their mistake in imagining a similarity between +General Blood-and-Thunder's truculent physiognomy and the benign visage +on the mountain-side. But now, again, there were reports and many +paragraphs in the newspapers, affirming that the likeness of the Great +Stone Face had appeared upon the broad shoulders of a certain eminent +statesman. He, like Mr. Gathergold and Old Blood-and-Thunder, was a +native of the valley, but had left it in his early days, and taken up +the trades of law and politics. Instead of the rich man's wealth and the +warrior's sword, he had but a tongue, and it was mightier than both +together. So wonderfully eloquent was he, that whatever he might choose +to say, his auditors had no choice but to believe him; wrong looked like +right, and right like wrong; for when it pleased him, he could make a +kind of illuminated fog with his mere breath, and obscure the natural +daylight with it. His tongue, indeed, was a magic instrument: sometimes +it rumbled like the thunder; sometimes it warbled like the sweetest +music. It was the blast of war,--the song of peace; and it seemed to +have a heart in it, when there was no such matter. In good truth, he +was a wondrous man; and when his tongue had acquired him all other +imaginable success,--when it had been heard in halls of state, and in +the courts of princes and potentates,--after it had made him known all +over the world, even as a voice crying from shore to shore,--it finally +persuaded his countrymen to select him for the Presidency. Before this +time,--indeed, as soon as he began to grow celebrated,--his admirers had +found out the resemblance between him and the Great Stone Face; and so +much were they struck by it, that throughout the country this +distinguished gentleman was known by the name of Old Stony Phiz. The +phrase was considered as giving a highly favorable aspect to his +political prospects; for, as is likewise the case with the Popedom, +nobody ever becomes President without taking a name other than his own. + +While his friends were doing their best to make him President, Old Stony +Phiz, as he was called, set out on a visit to the valley where he was +born. Of course, he had no other object than to shake hands with his +fellow-citizens, and neither thought nor cared about any effect which +his progress through the country might have upon the election. +Magnificent preparations were made to receive the illustrious statesman; +a cavalcade of horsemen set forth to meet him at the boundary line of +the State, and all the people left their business and gathered along +the wayside to see him pass. Among these was Ernest. Though more than +once disappointed, as we have seen, he had such a hopeful and confiding +nature, that he was always ready to believe in whatever seemed beautiful +and good. He kept his heart continually open, and thus was sure to catch +the blessing from on high, when it should come. So now again, as +buoyantly as ever, he went forth to behold the likeness of the Great +Stone Face. + +The cavalcade came prancing along the road, with a great clattering of +hoofs and a mighty cloud of dust, which rose up so dense and high that +the visage of the mountain-side was completely hidden from Ernest's +eyes. All the great men of the neighborhood were there on horseback: +militia officers, in uniform; the member of Congress; the sheriff of the +county; the editors of newspapers; and many a farmer, too, had mounted +his patient steed, with his Sunday coat upon his back. It really was a +very brilliant spectacle, especially as there were numerous banners +flaunting over the cavalcade, on some of which were gorgeous portraits +of the illustrious statesman and the Great Stone Face, smiling +familiarly at one another, like two brothers. If the pictures were to be +trusted, the mutual resemblance, it must be confessed, was marvellous. +We must not forget to mention that there was a band of music, which +made the echoes of the mountains ring and reverberate with the loud +triumph of its strains; so that airy and soul-thrilling melodies broke +out among all the heights and hollows, as if every nook of his native +valley had found a voice, to welcome the distinguished guest. But the +grandest effect was when the far-off mountain precipice flung back the +music; for then the Great Stone Face itself seemed to be swelling the +triumphant chorus, in acknowledgment that, at length, the man of +prophecy was come. + +All this while the people were throwing up their hats and shouting, with +enthusiasm so contagious that the heart of Ernest kindled up, and he +likewise threw up his hat, and shouted, as loudly as the loudest, "Huzza +for the great man! Huzza for Old Stony Phiz!" But as yet he had not seen +him. + +"Here he is, now!" cried those who stood near Ernest. "There! There! +Look at Old Stony Phiz and then at the Old Man of the Mountain, and see +if they are not as like as two twin-brothers!" + +In the midst of all this gallant array, came an open barouche, drawn by +four white horses; and in the barouche, with his massive head uncovered, +sat the illustrious statesman, Old Stony Phiz himself. + +"Confess it," said one of Ernest's neighbors to him, "the Great Stone +Face has met its match at last!" + +Now, it must be owned that, at his first glimpse of the countenance +which was bowing and smiling from the barouche, Ernest did fancy that +there was a resemblance between it and the old familiar face upon the +mountain-side. The brow, with its massive depth and loftiness, and all +the other features, indeed, were boldly and strongly hewn, as if in +emulation of a more than heroic, of a Titanic model. But the sublimity +and stateliness, the grand expression of a divine sympathy, that +illuminated the mountain visage, and etherealized its ponderous granite +substance into spirit, might here be sought in vain. Something had been +originally left out, or had departed. And therefore the marvellously +gifted statesman had always a weary gloom in the deep caverns of his +eyes, as of a child that has outgrown its playthings, or a man of mighty +faculties and little aims, whose life, with all its high performances, +was vague and empty, because no high purpose had endowed it with +reality. + +Still, Ernest's neighbor was thrusting his elbow into his side, and +pressing him for an answer. + +"Confess! confess! Is not he the very picture of your Old Man of the +Mountain?" + +"No!" said Ernest, bluntly, "I see little or no likeness." + +"Then so much the worse for the Great Stone Face!" answered his +neighbor; and again he set up a shout for Old Stony Phiz. + +But Ernest turned away, melancholy, and almost despondent: for this was +the saddest of his disappointments, to behold a man who might have +fulfilled the prophecy, and had not willed to do so. Meantime, the +cavalcade, the banners, the music, and the barouches swept past him, +with the vociferous crowd in the rear, leaving the dust to settle down, +and the Great Stone Face to be revealed again, with the grandeur that it +had worn for untold centuries. + +"Lo, here I am, Ernest!" the benign lips seemed to say. "I have waited +longer than thou, and am not yet weary. Fear not; the man will come." + +The years hurried onward, treading in their haste on one another's +heels. And now they began to bring white hairs, and scatter them over +the head of Ernest; they made reverend wrinkles across his forehead, and +furrows in his cheeks. He was an aged man. But not in vain had he grown +old: more than the white hairs on his head were the sage thoughts in his +mind; his wrinkles and furrows were inscriptions that Time had graved, +and in which he had written legends of wisdom that had been tested by +the tenor of a life. And Ernest had ceased to be obscure. Unsought for, +undesired, had come the fame which so many seek, and made him known in +the great world, beyond the limits of the valley in which he had dwelt +so quietly. College professors, and even the active men of cities, came +from far to see and converse with Ernest; for the report had gone abroad +that this simple husbandman had ideas unlike those of other men, not +gained from books, but of a higher tone,--a tranquil and familiar +majesty, as if he had been talking with the angels as his daily friends. +Whether it were sage, statesman, or philanthropist, Ernest received +these visitors with the gentle sincerity that had characterized him from +boyhood, and spoke freely with them of whatever came uppermost, or lay +deepest in his heart or their own. While they talked together, his face +would kindle, unawares, and shine upon them, as with a mild evening +light. Pensive with the fulness of such discourse, his guests took leave +and went their way; and passing up the valley, paused to look at the +Great Stone Face, imagining that they had seen its likeness in a human +countenance, but could not remember where. + +While Ernest had been growing up and growing old, a bountiful Providence +had granted a new poet to this earth. He, likewise, was a native of the +valley, but had spent the greater part of his life at a distance from +that romantic region, pouring out his sweet music amid the bustle and +din of cities. Often, however, did the mountains which had been +familiar to him in his childhood lift their snowy peaks into the clear +atmosphere of his poetry. Neither was the Great Stone Face forgotten, +for the poet had celebrated it in an ode, which was grand enough to have +been uttered by its own majestic lips. This man of genius, we may say, +had come down from heaven with wonderful endowments. If he sang of a +mountain, the eyes of all mankind beheld a mightier grandeur reposing on +its breast, or soaring to its summit, than had before been seen there. +If his theme were a lovely lake, a celestial smile had now been thrown +over it, to gleam forever on its surface. If it were the vast old sea, +even the deep immensity of its dread bosom seemed to swell the higher, +as if moved by the emotions of the song. Thus the world assumed another +and a better aspect from the hour that the poet blessed it with his +happy eyes. The Creator had bestowed him, as the last best touch to his +own handiwork. Creation was not finished till the poet came to +interpret, and so complete it. + +The effect was no less high and beautiful, when his human brethren were +the subject of his verse. The man or woman, sordid with the common dust +of life, who crossed his daily path, and the little child who played in +it, were glorified if he beheld them in his mood of poetic faith. He +showed the golden links of the great chain that intertwined them with +an angelic kindred; he brought out the hidden traits of a celestial +birth that made them worthy of such kin. Some, indeed, there were, who +thought to show the soundness of their judgment by affirming that all +the beauty and dignity of the natural world existed only in the poet's +fancy. Let such men speak for themselves, who undoubtedly appear to have +been spawned forth by Nature with a contemptuous bitterness; she having +plastered them up out of her refuse stuff, after all the swine were +made. As respects all things else, the poet's ideal was the truest +truth. + +The songs of this poet found their way to Ernest. He read them after his +customary toil, seated on the bench before his cottage-door, where for +such a length of time he had filled his repose with thought, by gazing +at the Great Stone Face. And now as he read stanzas that caused the soul +to thrill within him, he lifted his eyes to the vast countenance beaming +on him so benignantly. + +"O majestic friend," he murmured, addressing the Great Stone Face, "is +not this man worthy to resemble thee?" + +The Face seemed to smile, but answered not a word. + +Now it happened that the poet, though he dwelt so far away, had not only +heard of Ernest, but had meditated much upon his character, until he +deemed nothing so desirable as to meet this man, whose untaught wisdom +walked hand in hand with the noble simplicity of his life. One summer +morning, therefore, he took passage by the railroad, and, in the decline +of the afternoon, alighted from the cars at no great distance from +Ernest's cottage. The great hotel, which had formerly been the palace of +Mr. Gathergold, was close at hand, but the poet, with his carpet-bag on +his arm, inquired at once where Ernest dwelt, and was resolved to be +accepted as his guest. + +Approaching the door, he there found the good old man, holding a volume +in his hand, which alternately he read, and then, with a finger between +the leaves, looked lovingly at the Great Stone Face. + +"Good evening," said the poet. "Can you give a traveller a night's +lodging?" + +"Willingly," answered Ernest; and then he added, smiling, "Methinks I +never saw the Great Stone Face look so hospitably at a stranger." + +The poet sat down on the bench beside him, and he and Ernest talked +together. Often had the poet held intercourse with the wittiest and the +wisest, but never before with a man like Ernest, whose thoughts and +feelings gushed up with such a natural freedom, and who made great +truths so familiar by his simple utterance of them. Angels, as had been +so often said, seemed to have wrought with him at his labor in the +fields; angels seemed to have sat with him by the fireside; and, +dwelling with angels as friend with friends, he had imbibed the +sublimity of their ideas, and imbued it with the sweet and lowly charm +of household words. So thought the poet. And Ernest, on the other hand, +was moved and agitated by the living images which the poet flung out of +his mind, and which peopled all the air about the cottage-door with +shapes of beauty, both gay and pensive. The sympathies of these two men +instructed them with a profounder sense than either could have attained +alone. Their minds accorded into one strain, and made delightful music +which neither of them could have claimed as all his own, nor +distinguished his own share from the other's. They led one another, as +it were, into a high pavilion of their thoughts, so remote, and hitherto +so dim, that they had never entered it before, and so beautiful that +they desired to be there always. + +As Ernest listened to the poet, he imagined that the Great Stone Face +was bending forward to listen too. He gazed earnestly into the poet's +glowing eyes. + +"Who are you, my strangely gifted guest?" he said. + +The poet laid his finger on the volume that Ernest had been reading. + +"You have read these poems," said he. "You know me, then,--for I wrote +them." + +Again, and still more earnestly than before, Ernest examined the poet's +features; then turned towards the Great Stone Face; then back, with an +uncertain aspect, to his guest. But his countenance fell; he shook his +head, and sighed. + +"Wherefore are you sad?" inquired the poet. + +"Because," replied Ernest, "all through life I have awaited the +fulfilment of a prophecy; and, when I read these poems, I hoped that it +might be fulfilled in you." + +"You hoped," answered the poet, faintly smiling, "to find in me the +likeness of the Great Stone Face. And you are disappointed, as formerly +with Mr. Gathergold, and Old Blood-and-Thunder, and Old Stony Phiz. Yes, +Ernest, it is my doom. You must add my name to the illustrious three, +and record another failure of your hopes. For--in shame and sadness do I +speak it, Ernest--I am not worthy to be typified by yonder benign and +majestic image." + +"And why?" asked Ernest. He pointed to the volume. "Are not those +thoughts divine?" + +"They have a strain of the Divinity," replied the poet. "You can hear in +them the far-off echo of a heavenly song. But my life, dear Ernest, has +not corresponded with my thought. I have had grand dreams, but they +have been only dreams, because I have lived--and that, too, by my own +choice--among poor and mean realities. Sometimes even--shall I dare to +say it?--I lack faith in the grandeur, the beauty, and the goodness, +which my own works are said to have made more evident in nature and in +human life. Why, then, pure seeker of the good and true, shouldst thou +hope to find me, in yonder image of the divine?" + +The poet spoke sadly, and his eyes were dim with tears. So, likewise, +were those of Ernest. + +At the hour of sunset, as had long been his frequent custom, Ernest was +to discourse to an assemblage of the neighboring inhabitants in the open +air. He and the poet, arm in arm, still talking together as they went +along, proceeded to the spot. It was a small nook among the hills, with +a gray precipice behind, the stern front of which was relieved by the +pleasant foliage of many creeping plants, that made a tapestry for the +naked rock, by hanging their festoons from all its rugged angles. At a +small elevation above the ground, set in a rich framework of verdure, +there appeared a niche, spacious enough to admit a human figure, with +freedom for such gestures as spontaneously accompany earnest thought and +genuine emotion. Into this natural pulpit Ernest ascended, and threw a +look of familiar kindness around upon his audience. They stood, or sat, +or reclined upon the grass, as seemed good to each, with the departing +sunshine falling obliquely over them, and mingling its subdued +cheerfulness with the solemnity of a grove of ancient trees, beneath and +amid the boughs of which the golden rays were constrained to pass. In +another direction was seen the Great Stone Face, with the same cheer, +combined with the same solemnity, in its benignant aspect. + +Ernest began to speak, giving to the people of what was in his heart and +mind. His words had power, because they accorded with his thoughts; and +his thoughts had reality and depth, because they harmonized with the +life which he had always lived. It was not mere breath that this +preacher uttered; they were the words of life, because a life of good +deeds and holy love was melted into them. Pearls, pure and rich, had +been dissolved into this precious draught. The poet, as he listened, +felt that the being and character of Ernest were a nobler strain of +poetry than he had ever written. His eyes glistened with tears, he gazed +reverentially at the venerable man, and said within himself that never +was there an aspect so worthy of a prophet and a sage as that mild, +sweet, thoughtful countenance, with the glory of white hair diffused +about it. At a distance, but distinctly to be seen, high up in the +golden light of the setting sun, appeared the Great Stone Face, with +hoary mists around it, like the white hairs around the brow of Ernest. +Its look of grand beneficence seemed to embrace the world. + +At that moment, in sympathy with a thought which he was about to utter, +the face of Ernest assumed a grandeur of expression, so imbued with +benevolence, that the poet, by an irresistible impulse, threw his arms +aloft, and shouted,-- + +"Behold! Behold! Ernest is himself the likeness of the Great Stone +Face!" + +Then all the people looked, and saw that what the deep-sighted poet said +was true. The prophecy was fulfilled. But Ernest, having finished what +he had to say, took the poet's arm, and walked slowly homeward, still +hoping that some wiser and better man than himself would by and by +appear, bearing a resemblance to the GREAT STONE FACE. + + + + +The Gray Champion + + +There was once a time when New England groaned under the actual pressure +of heavier wrongs than those threatened ones which brought on the +Revolution. James II., the bigoted successor of Charles the Voluptuous, +had annulled the charters of all the colonies, and sent a harsh and +unprincipled soldier to take away our liberties and endanger our +religion. The administration of Sir Edmund Andros lacked scarcely a +single characteristic of tyranny: a Governor and Council, holding office +from the King, and wholly independent of the country; laws made and +taxes levied without concurrence of the people, immediate or by their +representatives; the rights of private citizens violated, and the titles +of all landed property declared void; the voice of complaint stifled by +restrictions on the press; and, finally, disaffection overawed by the +first band of mercenary troops that ever marched on our free soil. For +two years our ancestors were kept in sullen submission by that filial +love which had invariably secured their allegiance to the mother +country, whether its head chanced to be a Parliament, Protector, or +Popish Monarch. Till these evil times, however, such allegiance had been +merely nominal, and the colonists had ruled themselves, enjoying far +more freedom than is even yet the privilege of the native subjects of +Great Britain. + +At length a rumor reached our shores that the Prince of Orange had +ventured on an enterprise the success of which would be the triumph of +civil and religious rights and the salvation of New England. It was but +a doubtful whisper; it might be false, or the attempt might fail; and, +in either case, the man that stirred against King James would lose his +head. Still, the intelligence produced a marked effect. The people +smiled mysteriously in the streets, and threw bold glances at their +oppressors; while, far and wide, there was a subdued and silent +agitation, as if the slightest signal would rouse the whole land from +its sluggish despondency. Aware of their danger, the rulers resolved to +avert it by an imposing display of strength, and perhaps to confirm +their despotism by yet harsher measures. One afternoon in April, 1689, +Sir Edmund Andros and his favorite councillors, being warm with wine, +assembled the redcoats of the Governor's Guard, and made their +appearance in the streets of Boston. The sun was near setting when the +march commenced. + +The roll of the drum, at that unquiet crisis, seemed to go through the +streets, less as the martial music of the soldiers, than as a +muster-call to the inhabitants themselves. A multitude, by various +avenues, assembled in King Street, which was destined to be the scene, +nearly a century afterwards, of another encounter between the troops of +Britain and a people struggling against her tyranny. Though more than +sixty years had elapsed since the Pilgrims came, this crowd of their +descendants still showed the strong and sombre features of their +character, perhaps more strikingly in such a stern emergency than on +happier occasions. There were the sober garb, the general severity of +mien, the gloomy but undismayed expression, the Scriptural forms of +speech, and the confidence in Heaven's blessing on a righteous cause, +which would have marked a band of the original Puritans, when threatened +by some peril of the wilderness. Indeed, it was not yet time for the old +spirit to be extinct; since there were men in the street, that day, who +had worshipped there beneath the trees, before a house was reared to the +God for whom they had become exiles. Old soldiers of the Parliament were +here, too, smiling grimly at the thought, that their aged arms might +strike another blow against the house of Stuart. Here, also, were the +veterans of King Philip's war, who had burned villages and slaughtered +young and old, with pious fierceness, while the godly souls throughout +the land were helping them with prayer. Several ministers were scattered +among the crowd, which, unlike all other mobs, regarded them with such +reverence, as if there were sanctity in their very garments. These holy +men exerted their influence to quiet the people, but not to disperse +them. Meantime, the purpose of the Governor, in disturbing the peace of +the town, at a period when the slightest commotion might throw the +country into a ferment, was almost the universal subject of inquiry, and +variously explained. + +"Satan will strike his master-stroke presently," cried some, "because he +knoweth that his time is short. All our godly pastors are to be dragged +to prison! We shall see them at a Smithfield fire in King Street!" + +Hereupon the people of each parish gathered closer round their minister, +who looked calmly upwards and assumed a more apostolic dignity, as well +befitted a candidate for the highest honor of his profession, the crown +of martyrdom. It was actually fancied, at that period, that New England +might have a John Rogers of her own, to take the place of that worthy in +the Primer. + +"The Pope of Rome has given orders for a new St. Bartholomew!" cried +others. "We are to be massacred, man and male child!" + +Neither was this rumor wholly discredited, although the wiser class +believed the Governor's object somewhat less atrocious. His predecessor +under the old charter, Bradstreet, a venerable companion of the first +settlers, was known to be in town. There were grounds for conjecturing +that Sir Edmund Andros intended, at once, to strike terror, by a parade +of military force, and to confound the opposite faction by possessing +himself of their chief. + +"Stand firm for the old charter, Governor!" shouted the crowd, seizing +upon the idea. "The good old Governor Bradstreet!" + +While this cry was at the loudest, the people were surprised by the +well-known figure of Governor Bradstreet himself, a patriarch of nearly +ninety, who appeared on the elevated steps of a door, and, with +characteristic mildness, besought them to submit to the constituted +authorities. + +"My children," concluded this venerable person, "do nothing rashly. Cry +not aloud, but pray for the welfare of New England, and expect patiently +what the Lord will do in this matter!" + +The event was soon to be decided. All this time, the roll of the drum +had been approaching through Cornhill, louder and deeper, till with +reverberations from house to house, and the regular tramp of martial +footsteps, it burst into the street. A double rank of soldiers made +their appearance, occupying the whole breadth of the passage, with +shouldered matchlocks, and matches burning, so as to present a row of +fires in the dusk. Their steady march was like the progress of a +machine, that would roll irresistibly over everything in its way. Next, +moving slowly, with a confused clatter of hoofs on the pavement, rode a +party of mounted gentlemen, the central figure being Sir Edmund Andros, +elderly, but erect and soldier-like. Those around him were his favorite +councillors, and the bitterest foes of New England. At his right hand +rode Edward Randolph, our arch-enemy, that "blasted wretch," as Cotton +Mather calls him, who achieved the downfall of our ancient government, +and was followed with a sensible curse, through life and to his grave. +On the other side was Bullivant, scattering jests and mockery as he rode +along. Dudley came behind, with a downcast look, dreading, as well he +might, to meet the indignant gaze of the people, who beheld him, their +only countryman by birth, among the oppressors of his native land. The +captain of a frigate in the harbor, and two or three civil officers +under the Crown, were also there. But the figure which most attracted +the public eye, and stirred up the deepest feeling, was the Episcopal +clergyman of King's Chapel, riding haughtily among the magistrates in +his priestly vestments, the fitting representative of prelacy and +persecution, the union of Church and State, and all those abominations +which had driven the Puritans to the wilderness. Another guard of +soldiers, in double rank, brought up the rear. + +The whole scene was a picture of the condition of New England, and its +moral, the deformity of any government that does not grow out of the +nature of things and the character of the people. On one side the +religious multitude, with their sad visages and dark attire, and on the +other, the group of despotic rulers, with the High-Churchman in the +midst, and here and there a crucifix at their bosoms, all magnificently +clad, flushed with wine, proud of unjust authority, and scoffing at the +universal groan. And the mercenary soldiers, waiting but the word to +deluge the street with blood, showed the only means by which obedience +could be secured. + +"O Lord of Hosts," cried a voice among the crowd, "provide a Champion +for thy people!" + +This ejaculation was loudly uttered, and served as a herald's cry, to +introduce a remarkable personage. The crowd had rolled back, and were +now huddled together nearly at the extremity of the street, while the +soldiers had advanced no more than a third of its length. The +intervening space was empty,--a paved solitude, between lofty edifices, +which threw almost a twilight shadow over it. Suddenly, there was seen +the figure of an ancient man, who seemed to have emerged from among the +people, and was walking by himself along the centre of the street, to +confront the armed band. He wore the old Puritan dress, a dark cloak and +a steeple-crowned hat, in the fashion of at least fifty years before, +with a heavy sword upon his thigh, but a staff in his hand to assist the +tremulous gait of age. + +When at some distance from the multitude, the old man turned slowly +round, displaying a face of antique majesty, rendered doubly venerable +by the hoary beard that descended on his breast. He made a gesture at +once of encouragement and warning, then turned again, and resumed his +way. + +"Who is this gray patriarch?" asked the young men of their sires. + +"Who is this venerable brother?" asked the old men among themselves. + +But none could make reply. The fathers of the people, those of fourscore +years and upwards, were disturbed, deeming it strange that they should +forget one of such evident authority, whom they must have known in their +early days, the associate of Winthrop, and all the old councillors, +giving laws, and making prayers, and leading them against the savage. +The elderly men ought to have remembered him, too, with locks as gray in +their youth as their own were now. And the young! How could he have +passed so utterly from their memories,--that hoary sire, the relic of +long-departed times, whose awful benediction had surely been bestowed on +their uncovered heads, in childhood? + +"Whence did he come? What is his purpose? Who can this old man be?" +whispered the wondering crowd. + +Meanwhile, the venerable stranger, staff in hand, was pursuing his +solitary walk along the centre of the street. As he drew near the +advancing soldiers, and as the roll of their drum came full upon his +ear, the old man raised himself to a loftier mien, while the decrepitude +of age seemed to fall from his shoulders, leaving him in gray but +unbroken dignity. Now, he marched onward with a warrior's step, keeping +time to the military music. Thus the aged form advanced on one side, and +the whole parade of soldiers and magistrates on the other, till, when +scarcely twenty yards remained between, the old man grasped his staff by +the middle, and held it before him like a leader's truncheon. + +"Stand!" cried he. + +The eye, the face, and attitude of command; the solemn, yet warlike peal +of that voice, fit either to rule a host in the battle-field or be +raised to God in prayer, were irresistible. At the old man's word and +outstretched arm, the roll of the drum was hushed at once, and the +advancing line stood still. A tremulous enthusiasm seized upon the +multitude. That stately form, combining the leader and the saint, so +gray, so dimly seen, in such an ancient garb, could only belong to some +old champion of the righteous cause, whom the oppressor's drum had +summoned from his grave. They raised a shout of awe and exultation, and +looked for the deliverance of New England. + +The Governor, and the gentlemen of his party, perceiving themselves +brought to an unexpected stand, rode hastily forward, as if they would +have pressed their snorting and affrighted horses right against the +hoary apparition. He, however, blenched not a step, but glancing his +severe eye round the group, which half encompassed him, at last bent it +sternly on Sir Edmund Andros. One would have thought that the dark old +man was chief ruler there, and that the Governor and Council, with +soldiers at their back, representing the whole power and authority of +the Crown, had no alternative but obedience. + +"What does this old fellow here?" cried Edward Randolph, fiercely. "On, +Sir Edmund! Bid the soldiers forward, and give the dotard the same +choice that you give all his countrymen,--to stand aside or be trampled +on!" + +"Nay, nay, let us show respect to the good grandsire," said Bullivant, +laughing. "See you not, he is some old round-headed dignitary, who hath +lain asleep these thirty years, and knows nothing of the change of +times? Doubtless, he thinks to put us down with a proclamation in Old +Noll's name!" + +"Are you mad, old man?" demanded Sir Edmund Andros, in loud and harsh +tones. "How dare you stay the march of King James's Governor?" + +"I have stayed the march of a king himself, ere now," replied the gray +figure, with stern composure. "I am here, Sir Governor, because the cry +of an oppressed people hath disturbed me in my secret place; and +beseeching this favor earnestly of the Lord, it was vouchsafed me to +appear once again on earth, in the good old cause of his saints. And +what speak ye of James? There is no longer a Popish tyrant on the throne +of England, and by to-morrow noon his name shall be a byword in this +very street, where ye would make it a word of terror. Back, thou that +wast a Governor, back! With this night thy power is ended,--to-morrow, +the prison!--back, lest I foretell the scaffold!" + +The people had been drawing nearer and nearer, and drinking in the words +of their champion, who spoke in accents long disused, like one +unaccustomed to converse, except with the dead of many years ago. But +his voice stirred their souls. They confronted the soldiers, not wholly +without arms, and ready to convert the very stones of the street into +deadly weapons. Sir Edmund Andros looked at the old man; then he cast +his hard and cruel eye over the multitude, and beheld them burning with +that lurid wrath, so difficult to kindle or to quench; and again he +fixed his gaze on the aged form, which stood obscurely in an open space, +where neither friend nor foe had thrust himself. What were his thoughts, +he uttered no word which might discover. But whether the oppressor were +overawed by the Gray Champion's look, or perceived his peril in the +threatening attitude of the people, it is certain that he gave back, and +ordered his soldiers to commence a slow and guarded retreat. Before +another sunset, the Governor, and all that rode so proudly with him, +were prisoners, and long ere it was known that James had abdicated, King +William was proclaimed throughout New England. + +But where was the Gray Champion? Some reported, that when the troops had +gone from King Street, and the people were thronging tumultuously in +their rear, Bradstreet, the aged Governor, was seen to embrace a form +more aged than his own. Others soberly affirmed, that while they +marvelled at the venerable grandeur of his aspect, the old man had faded +from their eyes, melting slowly into the hues of twilight, till, where +he stood, there was an empty space. But all agreed that the hoary shape +was gone. The men of that generation watched for his reappearance, in +sunshine and in twilight, but never saw him more, nor knew when his +funeral passed, nor where his gravestone was. + +And who was the Gray Champion? Perhaps his name might be found in the +records of that stern Court of Justice, which passed a sentence, too +mighty for the age, but glorious in all after times, for its humbling +lesson to the monarch and its high example to the subject. I have heard, +that whenever the descendants of the Puritans are to show the spirit of +their sires, the old man appears again. When eighty years had passed, he +walked once more in King Street. Five years later, in the twilight of an +April morning, he stood on the green, beside the meeting-house, at +Lexington, where now the obelisk of granite, with a slab of slate +inlaid, commemorates the first fallen of the Revolution. And when our +fathers were toiling at the breastwork on Bunker's Hill, all through +that night the old warrior walked his rounds. Long, long may it be, ere +he comes again! His hour is one of darkness, and adversity, and peril. +But should domestic tyranny oppress us, or the invader's step pollute +our soil, still may the Gray Champion come, for he is the type of New +England's hereditary spirit, and his shadowy march, on the eve of +danger, must ever be the pledge that New England's sons will vindicate +their ancestry. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Little Masterpieces, by Nathaniel Hawthorne + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LITTLE MASTERPIECES *** + +***** This file should be named 39716.txt or 39716.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/9/7/1/39716/ + +Produced by Chris Curnow, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive) + + +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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