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diff --git a/43929-0.txt b/43929-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1daf845 --- /dev/null +++ b/43929-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10722 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43929 *** + +THE COLLECTOR. + + + + + THE COLLECTOR + + _ESSAYS ON_ + + BOOKS, NEWSPAPERS, PICTURES, INNS, AUTHORS, + DOCTORS, HOLIDAYS, ACTORS, PREACHERS. + + + BY HENRY T. TUCKERMAN. + + + [Illustration] + + + WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY DR. DORAN, + _Author of "Table Traits," "Monarchs Retired + from Business," "History of Court Fools," + "Their Majesties' Servants," &c. &c._ + + + LONDON: + JOHN CAMDEN HOTTEN, PICCADILLY. + + (_All Rights Reserved._) + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + INTRODUCTION BY DR. DORAN 1 + + INNS 29 + + AUTHORS 65 + + PICTURES 95 + + DOCTORS 120 + + HOLIDAYS 143 + + LAWYERS 176 + + SEPULCHRES 203 + + ACTORS 221 + + NEWSPAPERS 246 + + PREACHERS 280 + + STATUES 308 + + BRIDGES 325 + + + + +INTRODUCTION. + + +It was one of the conclusions arrived at by Adelung, that the same +language would not maintain itself beyond the limit of a hundred and fifty +thousand square miles; but by means of books the limits of the world alone +are the limits within which language and the enjoyment of it can be +confined. Letters waft a sigh from Indus to the Pole, and printed volumes +carry thoughts that breathe and words that burn over the great oceans from +one quarter of the world to another. + +Such a volume is the one now in the hand of the reader. It is freighted +with a dozen pleasant papers or essays, the subjects of which are not +confined to America exclusively. They furnish us with text, and afford +opportunity for illustrative comment. + +Profiting by this opportunity, let me commence by observing, in reference +to the opening essay, that the inns and taverns of London underwent a +great change after the death of James the First. The rights of honest +topers were suppressed by his son King Charles, who, for the poor fee of +an annual three pounds sterling, granted licences to tavern-keepers to +sell wines at what prices they pleased, in spite of all statutes to the +contrary! You may fancy how flushed the face of a thirsty Cockney might +become, who, on putting down his eightpence for a quart of claret, was +told by Francis, the drawer, that the price was a full quarter noble, or +'one-and-eightpence'! + +Lord Goring, who issued these licences, pocketed a respectable amount of +fees in return. By statute, London had authority only for the +establishment of forty taverns. But what did roystering George Goring care +for statute, since the king gave him licence to ride over it? Taverns +multiplied accordingly, not only in the city but in those 'suburbs,' as +they were once called, fragrant Drury Lane and refined 'Convent Garden.' +With competition came lower prices, however, and the throats of the +Londoners were refreshed, while their purses were not so speedily +lightened. + +Jolly places they became again; but when they not only increased all over +the town, but took to 'victualling,' as it was termed, as well as +'liquoring,' the authorities began to inquire into the matter. With the +claret that was drunk, a corresponding amount of venison was eaten. At the +same time the king's bucks began to disappear, and suspicion arose that +gentlemen in taverns dined off his sacred majesty's deer! A watch was set +to prevent such felonious fare being carried into London from any of the +royal parks, chases, or forests. Still haunches smoked on the boards of +those naughty victualling taverns, and haughty Cockneys, 'greatly daring, +dined'! The stolen bucks were smuggled in over Bow Bridge; and not till +that passage was occupied by representatives of legal authority did the +venison intended for the court cease to find its way into the city. + +The drama at this time lingered about Blackfriars and the Bankside. +Bacchus emigrated westward, before Thespis. In 1633, in 'Convent Garden' +and the 'little lane' adjacent, which had then just begun to be called +Russell Street, there were not less than eight taverns and twenty +alehouses. This was thought to be so much beyond the requirements of the +public thirst, that an order was issued to reduce the number of taverns to +two and the alehouses to four. The suburban public cried out against the +drinking privileges of the city, where claret was tapped in taverns and +ale ran from the spigot from before breakfast till after supper-time. The +Council directed the attention of the Lord Mayor thereto, and in 1633 +inquiry was made as to how many taverns had been newly opened since the +year 1612. The reply was, 'sixty and one.' In the return it is pleasant to +read of the 'Boar's Head,' as 'an ancient tavern.' Teetotallers will, +perhaps, entertain due regard for 'Bagsishaw Ward,' as being the only one +in the city described as having 'never a tavern within that ward.' But, +then, Basing Hall, or Bagsishaw Ward, was of such small extent as to be +rather contemptuously spoken of by Stowe himself, who calls it 'a small +thing consisting of one street.' + +An inhabitant of this ward had, therefore, only to step into the next +street if he wanted a stoup of Bordeaux or a flagon of ale. If he swore +over his liquor he was liable to the penalty of a shilling; and if he went +on his way home noisily, with more claret under his belt than he well knew +how to carry, he might be mulcted of a crown. These fines were distributed +among the poor, so that the more drinking and profanity abounded, the +better for those poor. To be blasphemous was to be on one of the blessed +paths of charity. City chronicles tell of one Richard Dixon, who, having +more of an eccentric compassion for the distressed than regard for +propriety, swallowed his claret, swore a score of oaths, and deposited +twenty shillings with the town clerk for London paupers. + +Sober people in the city, however, complained of the increasing number of +inns and taverns. Orders were issued accordingly, and a Boniface here and +there took down his bush at the beginning of the week, but hung it up +again before Saturday. The temperance party furnished a list of 211 +taverns, new and old, in the city, in October, 1633. At that time +Shakspeare's and Washington Irving's 'Boar's Head,' in Eastcheap, was kept +by one William Leedes, 'not by any licence from the king's majesty,' but +'as a freeman.' Will Leedes may well have seen Shakspeare, who had not +then been dead a score of years; and we may fancy mine host's guests +discussing the second edition of the _Folio_, which had then been out of +the press not much above twelve months. + +In spite of the law for the suppression of certain taverns, these remained +open, and new inns were built. The fashion and delicacy of Drury Lane were +deeply affected by the threatened building of a tavern in that refined +locality, in addition to eleven already existing there. The master of his +majesty's tents, one Thomas Jones, resided in Drury Lane, and he +petitioned the Council to prohibit the above building, as being to the +great prejudice of the royal tent-master 'and other neighbours, being men +of eminent quality.' + +The greatest blow at the old taverns was the prohibition of +'victualling.' Tavern-keepers beset the king for licences to cook and +retail meat, 'it being,' says one petition, 'a thing much desired by +noblemen and gentlemen of the best rank, and others (for the which, if +they please, they may also contract beforehand, as the custom is in other +countries), there being no other place fit for them to eat in the city.' +This was in Cheapside; but there was also Will Mead's house in Bread +Street. It had ever been resorted to by citizens and foreigners, on +account of its famous fish dinners. The company had always been +'well-affected,' of the very best quality, too; gentlefolk, who conformed +themselves to the laws made for eating fish upon days appointed. If Will +Mead be not permitted to vend his Lenten fare, then he is 'deprived of his +best way of subsistence, having applied himself and bred up many servants +only for the dressing of fish.' As licence had been given to two vintners +to 'dress and vent flesh,' Will prays for similar licence to dress and +vend fish also. Will was landlord of that very 'Mermaid' of which Mr. +Tuckerman speaks in his first essay--the 'Mermaid' of Ben Jonson, who had +then just closed his dramatic career with _Love's Welcome_--the 'Mermaid' +which, some thirty years earlier, had been kept by the poet's namesake, +Johnson, and which had been a 'Mermaid,' where men of quality took their +wine, as early at least as the time when the Houses of York and Lancaster +were at bloody strife for the crown of 'this our England.' + +But, occasionally, men of quality died as well as drank in a London inn. I +am not sure that it was not in this very 'Mermaid' that Richard de Grey, +the sixth Lord Grey of Ruthyn, died, in 1523, an utterly penniless +gambler. His son Henry, from poverty, never assumed any title of honour; +and it was not until the time of his great-grandson, Reginald, that the +honour and fortune were restored of a family of which the present Baroness +Grey de Ruthyn is the representative. + +Those old inns had their tragic as well as their gayer aspects. A man was +as likely to die poisoned as ruined by gaming in some of them. For +example, in 1635 eighteen pipes of white wine, belonging to Peter van +Paine, a foreigner, were seized, and Lord Mayor Parkhurst wrote to the +Council that 'in eight of them were found eight bundles of weeds, in four +some quantities of sulphur, in another a whole piece of match, besides in +every cask a kind of gravel mixture, by which mixtures the wines are +conceived to be very unwholesome, and of the like nature with those which +were formerly destroyed.' Peter van Paine must have dealt in a compound of +the quality of modern Hamburg sherry, a compound that would have been +deeply declined by the poorest of those authors who form the subject of +the second essay. + + * * * * * + +Poor Authors! Against no class of men have the acutely-pointed shafts of +satire been more frequently darted. Congreve, who had so little cause to +be ashamed of the name, yet persistently rejected the honour of being +supposed to be one of the brotherhood. When Voltaire visited him, the +French writer expressly stated that the compliment was addressed to the +_author_, and not to merely Mr. Congreve. The latter remarked that he was +a 'gentleman,' and not an _author_. Whereupon the polite Frenchman +rejoined that if Congreve had been only a gentleman, he, the French +author, would never have thought of calling upon him at all. + +A wicked wit, some hundred and odd years ago, made the early pages of +_Sylvanus Urban_ lively by inventing a census of surviving English +authors. These he set down in round numbers at three thousand, who had +produced in the preceding year, of abortive works, 7,000; born dead, +3,000; and not one that survived the year itself. Three hundred and twenty +perished by sudden death, and a few thousands went to line trunks, make +sky-rocket cases, hold pies, or were consumed by worms. One thousand of +these literary gentlemen are said to have died of lunacy, a rather greater +number were 'starved,' seventeen were hanged, fifteen committed suicide, +five pastoral poets died of fistula, others in various ways; while a +difference was suggested as to the diet, lives, and deaths of aldermen and +authors in a _zero_, indicating the number of writers who died of +'surfeit.' + +Perhaps one of the most singular reasons for founding a periodical, and +undertaking much of the authorship and editorship, presents itself in the +case of the celebrated French physician, Théophraste Renaudet. He had a +number of nervous, anxious, restless patients, who required little more +than to have their minds drawn from the unprofitable occupation of +dwelling upon the condition of the body. The great doctor did not wish +that the thoughts of his patients should be allowed to dwell very much +upon anything. Books of science, politics, or polemical theology, were not +at all what he required. The romances of the day were stilted, pompous +things, quite as difficult for invalids to read as any of the inflated +treatises on scientific, political, and theological subjects. Renaudet +may be said to have been a pupil of the philosophical school of Hippias. +That self-reliant teacher of Elis maintained that a portion at least of +manly virtue consisted in being able to dispense with the assistance of +other men. Hippias never allowed any man to help him in any matter wherein +he could help himself. He was accordingly his own tailor, shoemaker, +hairdresser, laundress, and cook! How the philosopher looked when he went +abroad, or how he fared when he dined at home, it is at once awful and +amusing to think of! Renaudet did not go quite so far as the Elian; but in +case of his patients failing to find help in others, he took the matter +into his own hands, and founded the _Gazette de France_. It was better, if +not for himself, at least for his patients, than if he had discovered a +new remedy for prevalent diseases. Those pleasant little paragraphs of +news were as so many pleasant fillips to the lazy intelligences of the +nervous. Those fresh supplies of little scandals were as fresh pinches of +rappee to the arid nostril all athirst for dust. Those brief hints and +innuendoes were as gentle titillations, not strong enough to exhaust, but +just sufficient to exhilarate, refresh, and strengthen. Nervous patients +recovered, many who might otherwise have become so did not fall ill, and +every one was delighted with Renaudet's attempt at authorship except his +fellow-practitioners, the most of whom then lived upon the nerves of the +fashionable public. + +Renaudet's authorship had a benevolent and unselfish motive. As an example +of audacity in the same line, I know nothing that can compare with a +circumstance which occurred in the middle of the last century. There was +at that time in Oxford an honest watchmaker, named Greene. He was a great +reader and a great admirer of Milton; but, like the artist who had just +finished a painting on a signboard, and contemplated his performance with +a commiserating thought of Titian, and the complacent cry of '_Poor little +Tit!_' so the Oxford watchmaker tapped his forehead, like poor André +Chenier before execution, and thought he had 'something _there_' beyond +any possession that could be boasted of by mortal sons of song. +Accordingly, Greene published a specimen of a new version of _Paradise +Lost_, in blank verse of the watchmaker's own adaptation, 'by which,' he +modestly remarked, 'that amazing work is brought somewhat nearer the +summit of perfection.' Poor Greene's 'summit of perfection' might lead one +to believe that his ideas of improvement were not directed towards Milton +only, but that he wished to give a new version to the old joke, the point +of which lay in 'the height of acme'! + +It is a singular fact that one of the best literal renderings of Milton +into a foreign language is one into French by Jean de Diur. It is lineal, +metaphrastic, and literal; consequently you have, as it were, the words of +the song, but only faint, or rather no echoes of the music. Nevertheless, +the patience and conscientiousness of the translator are to be seen in the +fidelity with which he has interpreted the significance of the terms. + +Another original phase of authorship may be here recorded, since it is in +connection with Milton. While the Oxford watchmaker was carrying _Paradise +Lost_ to the summit of perfection by his improvements, Landor was carrying +through the press his Essay on _Milton's Use and Imitation of the +Moderns_. The author described the attempt as one hitherto never made in +prose or rhyme. The method by which he sought to prove his case against +Milton was by naming certain authors whom he supposed the poet to have +consulted, and then giving quotations from them to expose Milton's +plagiarisms. The case startled the world only for a while. Competent +defenders of Milton's authorship arose, and they proved that Milton had +not plagiarised from the sources named by Landor, but that the latter had +forged his quotations in order to traduce Milton! The discovery made every +one eager to avoid Landor as a rogue, and to possess his book as a +curiosity. + +A French author flung _his_ poisoned dart also at Milton. Voltaire accused +him of taking his epic from an old Italian mystery, the _Adamo_, by +Andréivi. But Milton has had gallant champions in French authors, too. +Their judgment is, that if Milton created his great epic out of the chaos +of the old mystery, he, in a certain sense, resembled the Creator, who, +out of brute clay, created man in the image of the Creator himself. + +Cædmon, in Anglo-Saxon, and St. Avitus, in Latin, likewise treated of the +Creation and the Fall, long before Milton. But, as another French author, +M. Guizot, has remarked, 'It is of little importance to Milton's glory +whether he was acquainted with them or not. He was one of those who +imitate when they please, for they invent when they choose, and they +invent even while imitating.' True authorship could not be more happily +defined than under those words; and they may be applied in reference to +another attempt to question Milton's originality, in the statement that he +founded his epic on the old drama _Adamo Caduto_, by Salandra. Moreover, +there is nothing more in common between Milton and his predecessors than +that he selected a subject which _they_ had sung before him. _Their_ +tune is on an oaten reed; but Milton sits down to the organ, and billows +of sound roll forth to awe and enchant the world. + +In our own country Milton made but 'slow way,' not merely with the general +but with the educated public. Dryden supposed he wrote _Paradise Lost_ in +blank verse because he was unable to do it in rhyme! Johnson depreciated +him by asserting that if he could cut a colossus out of the rock he could +not carve heads upon cherry-stones; as if Milton's briefer poems and +sonnets were unworthy of the author of the great epic! Hannah More united +with Johnson, not only in thinking these briefer poems bad, but in +critically examining _why_ they were so! But there is no end to the +vagaries of authors when judging of other writers. Dryden, in his Essay on +Dramatic Poetry, makes Shakspeare the Homer and Johnson the Virgil of +dramatic composition; but, in his _Defence of the Epilogue to the Conquest +of Granada_, he informs us that Shakspeare abounds in solecisms and +nonsense, in lameness of plot, meanness of writing, in comedy that cannot +raise mirth, and tragedy that cannot excite sympathy; and, most wonderful +of all, placing Shakspeare on a level with Fletcher, he says: 'Had they +lived now they would doubtless have written more correctly'! If you would +know to what correct level Dryden thought Shakspeare might have been +brought, had he had the good luck to live later, the knowledge is +vouchsafed in the assertion that 'the well placing of words for the +sweetness of pronunciation was not known till Mr. Waller introduced it.' +This is quite as bad as the criticism of Addison, who bracketed Lee and +Shakspeare together, accused them of a spurious sublimity, and gave it as +his opinion that 'in those authors the affectation of greatness often +hurts the perspicuity of style'! + +These great literary artists understood Shakspeare so indifferently, that +they were unable to picture him truly to themselves or to represent him +naturally to others. Milton called sweetest Shakspeare 'Fancy's child.' +Dryden says his Fancy limped; and Addison hints that his sublimity +rendered him obscure! + + * * * * * + +Perhaps some among us may be inclined to smile at Mr. Tuckerman's +allusion, in his chapter on PICTURES, to a portrait of 'an American +matronly belle of the days of Washington, by Stewart, which represents the +type of mingled self-reliance and womanly loveliness that has made the +ladies of our Republican court so memorably attractive.' Of the attraction +of the ladies there can be no doubt, but can a Republic care to pride +itself on such an institution as a 'court'? La Rochefoucauld said very +well of royal courts in Europe that they did not render those that tarried +in them happy, but that they prevented those who _had_ tarried at them +from being happy elsewhere. It may be added that there is only one royal +court on record where every one was equal, and that was the proverbially +celebrated 'Cours du Roi Pétaut.' But the equality there led to +inextricable confusion, because every one wished to command and no one +cared to obey. Now, the court of King Pétaut has very much extended +itself. So wide, indeed, are its limits that it may be said to embrace all +society, which has become a grand court where dissimulation and distrust, +splendour without and anxieties within, abundantly prevail. Some one has +compared that tremendous institution called 'Society,' as well as courts +generally, to those magnificent, ill-regulated, gilt clocks to be seen in +France. The exterior is dazzling with beauty, but inside everything is +going wrong. + +Among old court fashions of the last century was one of having a portrait +of the eye. Of course this was only of ladies' eyes--eyes that slew the +peace of mortal man,--and the counterfeit presentiment of one of which was +held to be a solace to the memory and a stimulant to hope. Lovers carried +about with them the figure of one of the (presumed) two eyes of their +respective ladies. There was an affected modesty in this fashion; and, if +I may so speak, the mode most prevailed when modesty, or a decent reserve +which might pass for it, was least in fashion. + +It has been a disputed question whether painting or poetry was the earlier +born. It would be as difficult to determine whether Calliope wrote heroic +songs before Clio painted heroic deeds. Probably poetry, which preceded +prose in the early festive ceremonies of the human race (bards sang of +high deeds before less gifted men made long speeches about them), was +earlier than painting. The actions of heroes were first fixed on the +artist's imagination by the songs of the bards and the praise of orators. +But there is a prettier theory touching the origin of portrait-painting, +in the story of the youth who drew the outline of the one face he loved by +tracing with charcoal its shadow on the wall, purposely disposed to enable +him to display this primitive effort of art and of affection. + +As we may not take all portraits of our ancestors for _veræ effigies_, so +are the portraits of more modern heroes not to be accepted without due +reserve. There was, for instance, a series of _Lives of the British +Admirals_, with illustrative portraits, and Charles Lamb sat for them +_all_! + +Desmahis says, rather saucily, of the ladies (but they must have been +those of his time, and not the general sex), that when they go to have +their portraits taken they wish the artist to be faithless and the +portrait to be a likeness! Steele has similar satire. Clerimont, in the +_Tender Husband_, says that his fancy is utterly exhausted with inventing +faces for his sitters. 'I gave my Lady Scornwell,' he says, 'the choice of +a dozen frowns before she found one to her liking.' I suppose in these +days the fair are not so exacting. In the very ancient days noble sitters +were even more so. It was death to the painter, as well as to his +reputation, if he failed to please a Roman emperor. I shudder when I think +of the artist who received a commission to paint a full-length of Nero. It +was more than life size; it was a hundred and twenty feet high! and there +was possible death in every inch of it. + +Michael Angelo had a good idea of the simple dignity of an artist. On +being told of one who painted pictures with his fingers, 'The simpleton,' +said he; 'he had better keep to his pencils.' A picture painted without +pencils is, however, not so curious a fact as publishing a book that never +was written. Mr. Tuckerman's volume reminds me of another set of essays, +which were published in 1844, called _Colloquies Desultory, but chiefly +upon Poetry and Poets_. It is a very agreeable volume of 250 pages, but +not a word of it was really ever written. The clever printer and +publisher, Mr. Lordan of Romsey, set up the types as fast as he mentally +composed the book; and the latter is highly creditable to the author, who, +however, never _wrote_ it! Lord Palmerston respected this ingenious man; +and collectors of singular books keep a good look out for a work that was +published before the author penned a word of it. + + * * * * * + +The next curiosity to an author who did not write his own book, passing +over the authors who really _did_ write books by other people, is, +perhaps, the physician who scorned to take fees. Mr. Tuckerman has pretty +well exhausted the subject of DOCTORS. Let me notice how few of them +resemble those proto-Christian physicians, Cosmas and Damian, who won the +glorious name of _Anargyri_, or the 'feeless,' because out of their +abundant charity they gave 'advice gratis,' which, it must be said, is a +commodity often worth the price it costs when you get it for nothing. + +Those last-named amiable physicians were Arabians by birth, and among +those people some curious ideas still prevail touching the relations +between medical men and patients. When the late Dr. Hogg was travelling +with Lamartine in the East, it was the physician's happiness to cure, of a +very horrible disease, a poor and pious Arab who had been reduced almost +to despair. The cure was slow, but at last it was perfect; and the +gratitude of the Arab to God, the Prophet, and Dr. Hogg was beyond all +bounds. The convalescent waited on his mortal benefactor, and told him +that he was the greatest of the wonders of the world. The _medico_, +fancying the grateful fellow might embarrass himself by overstraining his +means, in order to evince his gratitude, told him that all had been done +for the love of God and the good of a fellow-creature, and that nothing +more was to be said about it. But the Arab had much more to say about it. +'God,' he remarked, 'had conferred upon the Christian doctor a power +beyond that possessed by any other man. The Prophet had permitted him to +find a remedy for the maladies which had beset one of the faithful. +Gratitude, taking the form of cash payment, was therefore indispensable.' +'I need no payment,' said the doctor. 'Just so, Effendi,' replied the +countryman of Cosmas and Damian; 'it is so, I understand it. But the chief +of doctors will not be ungrateful for the power he has been permitted to +exercise. Behold the servant whom he has been allowed to make whole. Let +the Effendi show his thankfulness by bestowing on his servant _bakshish_.' +Between these two extremes of physicians altogether declining fees, and +patients requesting them from physicians as testimonies of gratitude for +cure almost miraculously wrought, modern practice has established itself +on a pretty good basis. But the old theory, yet not the old reality as to +fees, still exists. The _honorarium_ is slipped into the physician's hand +with an air of there being nothing in it, and that unworldly person often +_looks_ like Cosmas and Damian, as if he had taken nothing by it. + +A question of health connects itself closely with the subject of the next +essay, on HOLIDAYS. Many a soldier in the noble army of workers owes much +of his health to the keeping of holidays. Mr. Tuckerman regrets that his +country does not take rest and rejoice on some common national holiday at +least once a year. Now, all Christian nations have one that they may +celebrate once a week. But some among us are doing their conscientious +best to turn the joyous festival into a gloomy fast. God granted the +day, but some among us misinterpret the meaning of the grant, obstruct +rest and enjoyment, and only change one sort of labour for another. Let +all the nation go up and praise the Lord; but, for + + 'Other things mild Heav'n a time ordains, + And disapproves that care, though wise in show, + That with superfluous burden loads the day, + And, when God sends a cheerful hour, refrains.' + +The making of a holiday rendered famous for ever a philosopher whose +reputation would not have spread so widely through his philosophy. When +Anaxagoras was dying he was asked if he had any particular desire that +should be fulfilled. 'Ay,' said the Clazomenian, 'on the anniversary of my +death let all the boys have a holiday.' Thence arose the _Anaxagorica_, +festivals in which the boys rejoiced, not that Anaxagoras had died on that +day, but that he had lived during many years of usefulness before it. Mr. +Bright never shook the faith of his own followers so much as when he voted +against the shortening of the hours of labour of women and children in the +cotton mills. The contrast between the ancient and the modern philosopher +is not to the disadvantage of the heathen. But there are some persons who +are averse to much leisure time on working-days, and to any air of +enjoyment on Sundays. A Scotchman, who had gone back to his country after +a long absence, declared after going to kirk that the whole kingdom was on +the road to perdition. 'The people,' he said, 'used to be reserved and +solemn on the Sabbath, but now they look as happy on that day as on any +other.' + + * * * * * + +With regard to what is asserted in this volume respecting the judicial and +legal excellence of modern times compared with a past period, the +assertion cannot be admitted without a certain reserve. We may look back +at those old Brehon laws which St. Patrick himself could not amend or even +make more clear, when he attempted to be for them what Coke afterwards was +upon Lyttleton. For instance, if a Brehon judge were to utter an +absurdity--were he, for instance, to say that he was inclined to believe +in the folly of a criminal, which folly had led to crime, and were the +judge to inflict a ridiculously light sentence in consequence, the 'truth +of nature,' as the phrase then ran, would have been violated, and a blotch +would fix itself on the face of the judge for ever! + +One might reasonably suppose that no Brehon judge ever exposed himself to +be twice so branded. But human nature is as weak as it is perverse. We +read in the ancient laws of Ireland of a certain Sencha Mac Aililla, who, +the more he was 'blotched,' the wickeder he grew. He seemed to defy the +brand, as others have defied public opinion. He did not care what the law +was. When he had to administer it between a member of his own tribe and +one of another clan, he would decide in favour of his own 'country,' as he +called it, irrespective of law and justice. This exemplary Sencha used to +retire from the judgment-seat daily with three additional fiery blotches +to those he bore the day previous. The monster became so ugly that he was +fain at last to withdraw from the public gaze. + +It was the same with the lawyers in those felicitous times. If one +ventured upon a 'Scotch insinuation,' such as deliberately accusing a +witness of forgery, and, on the accusation being immediately shown to be +groundless, pleading that the charge was simply an 'insinuation,' +perfectly professional, on the Brehon nose of such an unworthy lawyer a +carbuncle would establish itself, like a light on a disagreeable object to +help you to avoid it. A Brehon lawyer never even played with a lie but a +pimple started on his tongue and checked his speech. If a Brehon judge +were addicted to the wine-cup, it was as much as his nose, or at least the +end of it, was worth to potter about excess, from the bench. If he lived +an unclean life, and then judicially talked solemn sham to the ignorant +and immoral, a burning St. Anthony's fire, or whatever name it was called +before St. Anthony, overspread his face, and never left it. Nay, there is +record of unjust kings and judges laughing at the commission of crime till +their mouths extended from ear to ear, and remained so for ever after. + +It must have been _then_ that divine Astræa bandaged her eyes. Were she to +open them now and glance over the world, she would behold bench and bar +unstained by a blush. Nevertheless, a sigh may be permitted for the good +old Brehon times, when wicked lawyers blushed in spite of themselves. + + * * * * * + +In many respects those old times, or their customs, have not so completely +passed away as might be generally thought. In connection with Mr. +Tuckerman's next subject of SEPULCHRES, I may notice those military +funerals at which the horse of the dead rider follows his master to the +grave. There is now no significance in such a matter; but it was once of +very stern reality, and not a mere form. It is now simply a relic of the +times when the steed was slain at the side of the tomb of his defunct +master, a tomb which the horse was destined to share with the departed +soldier. The faithful horse, like the Indian's dog, was to keep him +company in the fields beyond the waters of oblivion. It was a pagan +ceremony, but it did not finally go out till somewhat late in the +Christian era--in fact, not till towards the close of the last century. On +the 13th of February, 1781, there was a military burial at Treves. A +cavalry general, in the service of the Palatinate, a Teutonic knight, and +commander of Lorraine, named Frederick Kasimir, was then and there buried +according to the rites of the Order of Chivalry, of which he was a member. +As soon as the coffin was lowered into the grave, the general's horse was +led up by the officer who had had it in charge during the funeral +procession. An official then advanced, and, by a skilful sweep of a sharp +hunting-knife across the animal's throat, stretched him dead, after which +the dead horse was thrown into the grave on the top of the coffin. It was +a hideous ceremonial, the origin of which dates from the days when +skeleton knights were supposed to require skeleton chargers. The above was +the last occasion on which such a ceremony was performed. The favourite +horse that followed the Duke of Wellington's funeral car, the caparisoned +steed that was but yesterday led after the bier of the dragoon who used to +mount him, were but formalities, the meaning of which is for the most part +forgotten. + +There was a period when a grave and much ceremony were thus afforded to +brutes, but when also the grave 'was begrudgingly allowed,' and all +ceremony denied, to men. I allude to the ACTORS, which pleasant +brotherhood forms the subject of Mr. Tuckerman's next essay. This has been +especially the case in France. Thence some erroneously suppose that actors +were excommunicated by the Roman Catholic Church; whereas the +ecclesiastical authorities at Rome especially protected the Italian +players in Paris from the ban proclaimed by the Gallican bishops against +actors and actresses. In England there has been more liberality of feeling +towards the players. These have had individual clerical enemies, from +Archbishop Grindal down to Dean Close; but they have also had as many +friends, from Archbishop Bancroft down to the present Archbishop of +Dublin, who, amidst groups of actors and a large general public, in +Stratford Church, at the last Shakspeare centenary, gave expression to +wise and loving testimony in behalf of that poor player on whom God +conferred the gifts that made of him the foremost poet of the entire +world. + +As between plaintiff and defendant, the opposite cases were succinctly +stated by Dean Close and Mr. Buckstone. The Dean once denounced the +brethren of the drama generally as wicked people. Mr. Buckstone simply +replied that, while there was no crime subject to capital punishment but +that a clergyman had suffered for it, there was no instance of an actor +ever having been hanged for any crime. This is not quite correct, but the +rare exception testifies to the general rule. _One_ actor has been hanged, +and two or three, richly deserved to be; but, speaking generally, they +have been distinguished for the good observance of prudence and the +excellent practice of charity. Lord Southampton described the players at +the 'Blackfriars' as 'married men and of reputation.' Even in Grindal's +days, though there were some among them of equivocal conduct and +character, they were designated as 'those grave and sober actors.' +Burbage's fortune is a proof of their thrift; Alleyn's noble bequests are +so many proofs of his godlike charity. In every path of his life, from St. +Botolph's, Bishopsgate, down to Dulwich College, he has left proofs of a +benevolence which still brings enjoyment to numberless legatees. Alleyn's +letters afford us a glance into the household of a player of the +seventeenth century, and they show that the house was well kept, and that +a spirit of piety sanctified it. So of Betterton; his hand and his heart +were open and liberal. What were Quinn's faults in the light of his +delicate and profuse charity? The same question might be asked in +reference to many other actors. They have not only shown, as the _Tatler_ +once said of his dramatic contemporaries, a wonderful benevolence towards +the interests and necessities of each other, but towards those of all who +needed succour. They have played equally well in this respect on and off +the stage, and all that need be added in regard to them may be said in the +quaint words of Sir Thomas Overbury, who remarks: 'I value a worthy actor +by the corruption of some few of the quality, as I would do gold in the +ore; I should not mind the dross, but the purity of the metal.' + +Theatrical criticism in early days found no place in our newspapers. Even +as late as the first appearance of Sprangor Barry, in 'Othello' (A.D. +1746), the journalist only recorded the fact, adding, as a sort of +critical notice, that the gentleman got as much applause as could be +expected! + +An essay on NEWSPAPERS might extend to a folio volume. They have all been +founded on the insatiable appetite that humanity has to know what has +happened to its fellows. The difference is not so great between the +earliest and the latest samples of newspapers. The 'leading article,' +which so often misleads, is comparatively of modern origin; but the Roman +_Acta Diurna_ may be said to correspond with our reports and general +intelligence, chronicling human errors, heroism, and rascality, pillorying +the names of young fellows who had quaffed too deeply of the Falernian, +and noting how the fine imposed on a felonious butcher who gave short +weight was to be devoted to the building of a chapel in the temple of +Tellus for the propagation of the gospel of that deity, and the +reformation of light weights. + +If the subject of newspapers _could_ be exhausted in a single essay, it +has been done by Mr. Tuckerman. Of journalism generally, a very summary +phrase of Southey's renders a rather acrid judgment. He had been alluding +to the fact of Marchmont Needham having published the _Mercurius +Britannicus_ for the Parliament, the _Mercurius Pregmaticus_ in the king's +interest, and the _Mercurius Politicus_ in support of Oliver. His +consequent remark was that 'journalists in that age had about as much +probity as in this.' But these _Mercurii_ were something like the +_Moniteur_, the official paper of the predominant power for the time +being. In the latter, 'His Imperial Majesty Napoleon' of one day was 'the +Corsican usurper' of the next. One man may have written both phrases, but +two governments uttered them. The writer was a part of the pen used by a +couple of superior officials, each of whom employed the pen to express +antagonistic sentiments. + +There was once a period when the office now performed by a journalist was +occasionally undertaken by the preacher. We learn from old chroniclers +that scarcely an event which very closely affected the public ever took +place without its being shadowed forth from the pulpit. Rufus was in all +probability _not_ slain by Sir Walter Tyrrel; but that he was +treacherously slain cannot be disputed, if the record be true that God's +vengeance against the wicked in high places was a theme very much dwelt +upon by the popular preachers of the day--men who addressed themselves to +the judgments, impulses, and prejudices of the people. In the reign of the +second Edward, contemporary events were employed for illustrative purposes +from the pulpit. The putting away of the king was discussed there under +similitudes, as a matter in a solemn national crisis might now be weighed +and examined more openly in an eloquent leader. The pulpit at Paul's Cross +alone would furnish a thousand illustrations of how the preacher could +deftly mingle politics with religion. Patriotism was then stimulated, in a +time of approaching war, by the priest reciting the 'bede roll' of the +king's enemies, and solemnly cursing every one of them, amidst the popular +acclamation. Church and State met and shook hands, sometimes with a mask +on the face of each, at the trysting-place of Paul's Cross. + +But there may be sermons efficiently delivered from other places besides +pulpits. 'Sermons in stones' formed a poet's phrase, which led to another +rendering of the sentiment included in it by a modern poetess. Mrs. +Browning, in her sonnet on Power's Greek Slave, sees a purpose as well as +a beauty in it, and she exclaims-- + + 'Appeal, fair stone, + From God's pure height of beauty, against man's wrong; + Catch up in thy divine face not alone + East griefs but West, and strike and shame the strong + By thunders of white silence, overthrown.' + +The image, indeed, is rather a bold one, reminding us of the soliloquy in +a French tragedy, commencing with the observation--'_Quel silence se fait +entendre_.' + +While directing attention to Mr. Tuckerman's pleasant paper on STATUES, it +may be worth while recording that under the Christian era sculpture was +first employed by a woman, under the influence of gratitude for a +manifestation of the divine mercy. The story is, indeed, only traditional, +but it is ancient, and comes down to us through Eusebius. According to +that historian the woman of Paneas, after having been cured of her +disease, as mentioned in the Gospels, returned to her native place and set +up in one of the streets there an image of the Saviour, with the figure of +herself in the act of adoration. This group of statuary (the material, +indeed, is not mentioned, and the word _image_ sometimes implies +_picture_) was the progenitor of all the effigies of God and the saints +that have since been erected in public highways in order to stimulate the +religious fervour of the passers by. If that alleged proto-group did not +exactly effect this, the story of the grateful woman and her statuary led +to the same result. It _may_ be a mere legend; but even then the legend +itself was in such case invented for the purpose of bringing about the +adoption of the fashion of setting up images challenging the reverence of +all who looked on them, and it was afterwards appealed to as authority, +alike for the fashion and the observance. + +Nowhere have statues been erected with greater effect than on BRIDGES. +They who remember the bridge at Prague, over the Moldau, with the statues +and groups of saints, St. John Neoponuck towering over all, will confirm +this fact. The fashion has not been followed in our own country, where +there are some relics, however, of bridge architecture said to be as old +as the days of the Britons. Such are rather fondly said to be the small +red stone arches spanning the streams in some of the Cornish valleys. We +may rest more satisfied, however, with the triangular bridge at Croyland, +which was completed in the year after the island was first called England, +namely, A.D. 830. Whether we can, in the days of Queen Victoria, detect in +the structure any of the stones the laying of which was watched by the +curious Lincolnshire folk in the reign of King Egbert, may be reasonably +doubted. The foundations rather than the superstructure of the original +bridge alone remain. This bridge was of great importance to the monastery +of Croyland, but indeed as much may be said of all bridges and their +vicinities. To build them was a holy work. The title of 'Pontifex' +belonged to the highest of the sacred classes of Rome. 'Pontifex Maximus' +is a designation which the pope himself inherits from the Roman emperors, +and 'Pontificum Coenæ' is a phrase by which we learn from Horace that the +sacred successors of those who erected the Sublician bridge were persons +who, with some care for the souls and well-being of the people, had a +special regard for their own bodies. + +Perhaps it was because of this connection between holy men and bridges +that in early English times the keeping of our bridges and of the roads +leading to them was intrusted to hermits, who were in fact the original +toll-takers and turnpike-keepers in England. Old London Bridge, which was +commenced in 1176 and finished in 1209, which was the only bridge at +London over the Thames till that of Westminster was opened in 1738, and +which lasted till the new bridge was inaugurated in 1831 by William the +Fourth, was the work of a holy Pontifex, Peter Colechurch, chaplain of +St. Mary's in the Poultry. The architect found fitting burial place in the +crypt of the chapel of St. Thomas, which stood in the centre of the bridge +itself. Thus the London Bridge which Peter built became his sepulchre and +monument when Peter died. + +But it is time that I should be at least as silent as Peter himself, since +Mr. Tuckerman is ready and the stage prepared. The first little piece is +played out, and the curtain now rises to a better sustained drama and to a +finished actor--_Plaudite!_ + +J. DORAN. + + + + +INNS. + + 'Whoe'er has travelled life's dull round, + Whate'er his fortunes may have been, + Must sigh to think how oft he's found + Life's warmest welcome at an inn.' + SHENSTONE. + + +The old, legitimate, delightful idea of an Inn is becoming obsolete; like +so many other traditional blessings, it has been sacrificed to the genius +of locomotion. The rapidity with which distance is consumed obviates the +need that so long existed of by-way retreats and halting-places. A hearty +meal or a few hours' sleep, caught between the arrival of the trains, is +all the railway traveller requires; and the modern habit of moving in +caravans has infinitely lessened the romantic probabilities and +comfortable realities of a journey: the rural alehouse and picturesque +hostel now exist chiefly in the domain of memory; crowds, haste, and +ostentation triumph here over privacy and rational enjoyment, as in nearly +all the arrangements of modern society. Old Walton would discover now but +few of the secluded inns that refreshed him on his piscatorial excursions; +the ancient ballads on the wall have given place to French paper; the +scent of lavender no longer makes the linen fragrant; instead of the +crackle of the open wood-fire, we have the dingy coal-smoke, and +exhalations of a stove; and green blinds usurp the place of the snowy +curtains. Not only these material details, but the social character of +the inn is sadly changed. Few hosts can find time to gossip; the clubs +have withdrawn the wits; the excitement of a stage-coach arrival is no +more; and a poet might travel a thousand leagues without finding a +romantic 'maid of the inn,' such as Southey has immortalized. Jollity, +freedom, and comfort are no longer inevitably associated with the name; +the world has become a vast procession that scorns to linger on its route, +and has almost forgotten how to enjoy. Thanks, however, to the +conservative spell of literature, we can yet appreciate, in imagination at +least, the good old English inn. Goldsmith's Village Alehouse has +daguerreotyped its humble species, while Dr. Johnson's evenings at the +'Mitre' keep vivid the charm of its metropolitan fame. Indeed, it is quite +impossible to imagine what British authors would have done without the +solace and inspiration of the inn. Addison fled thither from domestic +annoyance; Dryden's chair at 'Will's' was an oracular throne; when hard +pressed, Steele and Savage sought refuge in a tavern, and wrote pamphlets +for a dinner; Farquhar found there his best comic material; Sterne opens +his _Sentimental Journey_ with his landlord, Monsieur Dessein, Calais, and +his inn-yard; Shenstone confessed he found 'life's warmest welcome at an +inn;' Sheridan's convivial brilliancy shone there with peculiar lustre; +Hazlitt relished Congreve anew, reading him in the shady windows of a +village inn after a long walk; even an old Almanac, or Annual Register, +will acquire an interest under such circumstances; and a dog-eared copy of +the _Seasons_ found in such a place induced Coleridge to exclaim, 'This is +fame!' while Byron exulted when informed that a well-thumbed volume of the +_English Bards_ had been seen, soon after its publication, at a little +hostel in Albany. Elia's quaint anecdote of the Quakers when they all ate +supper without paying for it, and Irving's 'Stout Gentleman,' are +incidents which could only have been suggested by a country inn; and as +to the novelists, from Smollett and Fielding to Scott and Dickens, the +most characteristic scenes occur on this vantage-ground, where the strict +unities of life are temporarily discarded, and its zest miraculously +quickened by fatigue, hunger, a kind of infinite possibility of events, a +singular mood of adventure and pastime, nowhere else in civilized lands so +readily induced. It is, therefore, by instinct that these enchanting +chroniclers lead us thither, from old Chaucer to our own Longfellow. Gil +Bias acquired his first lesson in a knowledge of the world, by his +encounter with the parasite at the inn of Panafleur; and Don Quixote's +enthusiasm always reaches a climax at these places of wayside sojourn. The +'Black Bull,' at Islington, is said to have been Sir Walter Raleigh's +mansion; 'Dolly's Chop-House' is dear to authors for the sake of Goldsmith +and his friends, who used to go there on their way to and from Paternoster +Row. At the 'Salutation and Cat,' Smithfield, Coleridge and Lamb held +memorable converse; and Steele often dated his _Tatlers_ from the +'Trumpet.' How appropriate for Voltaire to have lodged, in London, at the +'White Peruke'! Spenser died at an inn in King Street, Westminster, on his +return from Ireland. At the 'Red Horse,' Stratford, is the 'Irving room,' +precious to the American traveller; and how renowned have sweet Anne Page +and jolly Falstaff made the very name of the 'Garter Inn'! In the East a +monastery, in the Desert a tent, on the Nile a boat, a _hacienda_ in South +America, a _kiosk_ in Turkey, a _caffé_ in Italy, but in Britain an inn, +is the pilgrim's home, and one not less characteristic. The subject, as +suggestive of the philosophy of civilization, is worth investigation. + +In England and in towns of Anglo-Saxon origin, where the economies of life +have a natural sway, we find inns representative; in London, especially, a +glance at the parlour wall reveals the class to whose convenience the +tavern is dedicated: in one the portraits of actors, in another scenes in +the ring and on the racecourse; here the countenance of a leading +merchant, and there a military effigy, suggest the vocation of those who +chiefly frequent the inn. Nor are local features less certain to find +recognition: a view of the nearest nobleman's estate, or his portrait, +ornaments the sitting-room; and the observant eye can always discover an +historical hint at these public resorts. Heywood, the dramatist, aptly +specified this representative character of inns:-- + + 'The gentry to the King's Head, + The nobles to the Crown, + The knights unto the Golden Fleece, + And to the Plough the clown; + The churchman to the Mitre, + The shepherd to the Star, + The gardener hies him to the Rose, + To the Drum the man of war; + To the Feathers, ladies, you; the Globe + The seamen do not scorn; + The usurer to the Devil, and + The townsman to the Horn; + The huntsman to the White Hart, + To the Ship the merchants go, + But you that do the Muses love + The sign called River Po; + The bankrupt to the World's End, + The fool to the Fortune hie, + Unto the Mouth the oyster-wife, + The fiddler to the Pie; + + * * * * + + The drunkard to the Vine, + The beggar to the Bush, then meet + And with Sir Humphrey dine.' + +Inn signs are indeed historical landmarks: in the Middle Ages, the 'Cross +Keys,' the 'Three Kings,' and 'St. Francis,' abounded; the Puritans +substituted for 'Angel and Lady,' the 'Soldier and Citizen;' the +'Saracen's Head' was a device of the Crusades; and before the 'Coach and +Horses' was the sign of the 'Packhorse,' indicative of the days of +equestrian travel. Many current anecdotes attest the virtue of an old, and +the hazards of a new inn sign; as when the loyal host substituted the head +of George the Fourth for the ancient ass, which latter effigy being +successfully adopted by a neighbouring innkeeper, his discomfited rival +had inscribed under the royal effigy, 'This is the real ass.' Thackeray +cites an inn sign as illustrative of Scotch egotism: 'In Cupar-Fife,' he +writes, 'there's a little inn called the "Battle of Waterloo," and what do +you think the sign is? The "Battle of Waterloo" is _one_ broad Scotchman +laying about him with a broadsword.' + +The coffee-room of the best class of English inns, carpeted and curtained, +the dark rich hue of the old mahogany, the ancient plate, the four-post +bed, the sirloin or mutton joint, the tea, muffins, Cheshire and Stilton, +the ale, the coal-fire, and _The Times_, form an epitome of England; and +it is only requisite to ponder well the associations and history of each +of these items, to arrive at what is essential in English history and +character. The impassable divisions of society are shown in the difference +between the 'commercial' and the 'coffee-room;' the time-worn aspect of +the furniture is eloquent of conservatism; the richness of the meats and +strength of the ale explain the bone and sinew of the race; the tea is +fragrant with Cowper's memory, and suggestive of East India conquests; the +cheese proclaims a thrifty agriculture, the bed and draperies comfort, the +coal-fire manufactures; while _The Times_ is the chart of English +enterprise, division of labour, wealth, self-esteem, politics, trade, +court-life, 'inaccessibility to ideas,' and bullyism. + +The national subserviency to rank is as plainly evinced by the plates on +chamber-doors at the provincial inns, setting forth that therein on a +memorable night slept a certain scion of nobility. And from the visitor at +the great house of a neighbourhood, when sojourning at the inn thereof, is +expected a double fee. As an instance of the inappropriate, of that stolid +insensibility to taste and tact which belongs to the nation, consider the +English waiter. His costume is that of a clergyman, or a gentleman dressed +for company, and in ridiculous contrast with his menial obeisance; perhaps +it is the self-importance nourished by this costume which renders him such +a machine, incapable of an idea beyond the routine of handing a dish and +receiving a sixpence. + +Old Hobson, whose name is proverbially familiar, went with his wain from +Cambridge to the 'Bull Inn,' Bishopsgate Street, London. 'Clement's Inn' +tavern was the scene of that memorable dialogue between Shallow and Sir +John; at the 'Cock,' in Bond Street, Sir Charles Sedley got scandalously +drunk. 'Will's Coffee-house' was formerly called the 'Rose;' hence the +line-- + + 'Supper and friends expect me at the Rose.' + +'Button's,' so long frequented by the wits of Queen Anne's time, was kept +by a former servant of Lady Warwick; and there the author of _Cato_ +fraternized with Garth, Armstrong, and other contemporary writers. Ben +Jonson held his club at the 'Devil Tavern,' and Shakspeare and Beaumont +used to meet him at the 'Mermaid;' the same inn is spoken of by Pope, and +Swift writes 'Stella' of his dinner there. Beaumont thus reveals to Ben +Jonson their convivial talk:-- + + 'What things have we seen + Done at the "Mermaid"! heard words that have been + So nimble and so full of subtle fire, + As if that every one from whom they came + Had meant to put his whole wit in a jest, + And had resolved to live a fool the rest + Of his dull life.' + +The author of _Peter Wilkins_ was a frequent visitor at an hostel near +Clifford's Inn, and Dr. Johnson frequented all the taverns in Fleet +Street. Old Slaughter's coffee-house, in St. Martin's Lane, was the +favourite resort of Hogarth; the house where Jeremy Taylor was born is +now an inn; and Prior's uncle kept an inn in London, where the poet was +seen, when a boy, reading Horace. This incident is made use of by Johnson, +in his _Lives of the Poets_, in a very caustic manner; for, after relating +it, he observes of Prior, that 'in his private relaxations he revived the +tavern, and in his amorous pedantry he exhibited the college.' + +There is no city in Europe where an imaginative mood can be so +indefinitely prolonged as at Venice; and in the early summer, the +traveller, after gliding about all day in a gondola, and thinking of +Barbarossa, Faliero, Titian, and the creations of Shakspeare, Otway, +Byron, and Cooper, at evening, from under the arches of St. Mark's Square, +watches the picturesque, and sometimes mysterious figures, and then, +between moss-grown palaces and over lone canals, returns to his _locanda_ +to find its aspect perfectly in accordance with his reverie; at least, +such was my experience at the 'Golden Lion.' The immense _salle-à-manger_ +was dimly lighted, and the table for two or three guests set in a corner +and half surrounded by a screen; when I raised my eyes from my first +dinner there, they fell on a large painting of the Death of Seneca, a +print of which had been familiar to my childhood; and thus memory was ever +invoked in Venice, and her dissolving views reflected in the mirror of the +mind, unbroken by the interruptions from passing life that elsewhere +render them so brief. The mere fact of disembarking at the weedy steps, +the utter silence of the canal, invaded only by the plash of the +gondolier's oar, or his warning cry at the angle, the tessellated pavement +and quaintly-carved furniture of the bedroom, and a certain noiseless step +and secretive gravity observable in the attendants, render the Venetian +inn memorable and distinct in reminiscence, and in perfect harmony with +the place and its associations. + +During the late revolutionary era in Europe, the inn tables of Germany +afforded the most reliable index of political opinion; the free discussion +which was there indulged brought out every variety of sentiment and +theory, as it included all classes, with a due sprinkling of foreigners. +From the old novel to the new farce, indeed, the extremes of public +opinion and the average tone of manners, the laughable _contre-temps_ and +the delightful adventure, are made to reveal themselves at inns, so that +political sects and all vocations are identified with them. To Rip Van +Winkle, the most astonishing change he discovered in his native village, +after his long nap, was the substitution of Washington's likeness for that +of King George on the tavern sign. + +The dark staircase, rising from the mule stable of a _posada_, the bare +chambers, wool-knotted mattresses, odour of garlic, and vegetables +swimming in oil, are items of the Spanish inn not likely to be forgotten +by the epicurean traveller. But good beds and excellent chocolate are to +be found at the most uninviting Spanish inns; and the imaginative +traveller enjoys the privilege of sojourning at the very one where Don +Quixote was knighted. In highly-civilized lands, inns have not only a +national, but a professional character; the sign, the pictures on the +wall, and the company, have a certain individuality,--marine in sailors' +inns, pugilistic in sporting ones, and picturesque in those haunted by +artists; the lines of demarcation are as visible as those which separate +newspapers and shops; in the grand division of labour that signalizes +modern life, the inn also has thus become an organ and a symbol. Even +their mottoes and symbols give traditional suggestions, or emblazon phases +of opinion; natural history has been exhausted in supplying effigies; +mythology has yielded up all her deities and institutions; heroes and +localities are kept fresh in the traveller's imagination by their +association with 'creature comforts.' Thus he dreams of Cromwell at the +'Tumble-down Dick,' and of the Stuarts at the 'King Charles in the Oak,' +the days of chivalry at the 'Star and Garter' or the 'Croix de Malta,' of +brilliant campaigns at the 'Wagram and Montmorency,' of woman's love at +the 'Petrarch and Laura,' and of man's at the 'Freemasons' Tavern.'[1] + +My host at Ravenna had been Byron's purveyor during the poet's residence +there; and he was never weary of descanting upon his character and the +incidents of his sojourn; in fact, upon discovering my interest in the +subject, he forgot the landlord in the _cicerone_, and gave no small part +of a day to accompanying me to the haunts of the bard. Our first visit was +to the Guiccioli Palace, and here he described his lordship's dinners with +the precision and enthusiasm of an antiquarian certifying a document or +medal; then he took me to the Pine Forest, and pointed out the track where +Byron used to wheel his horse at full gallop, and discharge his pistol at +a bottle placed on a stump--exercises preparatory to his Grecian campaign. +At a particular flagstone, in the main street, my guide suddenly paused; +'Signore,' said he 'just as milord had reached this spot one evening, he +heard the report of a musket, and saw an officer fall a few rods in +advance; dismounting, he rushed to his side, and found him to be a +familiar acquaintance, an agent of the government, who had thus become the +victim to private vengeance. Byron had him conveyed to his own apartment +and placed on a bed, where in half an hour he expired. This event made a +deep impression on his mind; he was dispirited for a week, and wrote a +description of death from a shot, which you will find in his poems, +derived from this scene.' With such local anecdotes my Byronic host +entertained me so well, that the departed bard ever since has seemed to +live in my remembrance rather than my fancy. + +Whoever has eaten trout caught in the Arno at the little inn at Tivoli, or +been detained by stress of weather in that of Albano, will not forget the +evidences the walls of both exhibit that rollicking artists have felt at +home there. Such heads and landscapes, caricatures and grotesque animals, +as are there improvised, baffle description. + +A well is the inn of the desert. 'The dragoman usually looks out for some +place of shelter,' says the author of _Over the Lebanon to Balbek_; 'the +shadow of a ruin or the covering of a grove of fig-trees is the most +common, and, if possible, near a well or stream. The first of all +considerations is to reach a spot where you can get water; so that +throughout the East the well answers to the old English "Half-way House," +and road-side "Accommodation for Man and Beast," which gave their cheerful +welcome to the "Tally Ho" and "Red Rover" that flourished before this age +of iron.' + +The pedestrian in Wales sometimes encounters a snug and +beautifully-situated hostel (perhaps the 'Angler's Rest'), where five +minutes beside the parlour fire, and a chat with the landlady or her +pretty daughter, give him so complete a home feeling that it is with +painful reluctance he again straps on his knapsack; at liberty to muse by +the ever-singing tea-kettle if the weather is unpropitious, stroll out in +view of a noble mountain or a fairy lake in the warm sunset, or hear the +news from the last wayfarer in the travellers' room; and there is thus +mingled a sense of personal independence, comfort, and solitude, which is +rarely experienced even in the most favoured domain of hospitality. An +equally winsome but more romantic charm holds the roaming artist who stops +at Albano or Volterra, where the dreamy _campagna_ or Etruscan ruins +alternate with groups of sunburnt _contadini_, lighted up by the +charcoal's glow in a way to fascinate Salvator, before his contented gaze; +his portfolio fills up with miraculous rapidity; and the still life is +agreeably varied by the scenic costumes and figures which grace the +vintage or a _festa_. Some humble Champollion could easily add to the +curiosities of literature by a volume gleaned among inn inscriptions--from +the marble tablet announcing the sojourn of a royal personage, to the rude +caricature on the whitewashed wall, and the sentimental couplet on the +window-pane; to say nothing of the albums which enshrine so many tributes +to Etna and the White Mountains--the heirlooms of Abbaté, the famous +_padrone_ of Catania, and Crawford of the Notch. + +Sicily is famous for the absence of inns, and the intolerable discomfort +of those that do exist; but mine host of Catania was the prince of +landlords. A fine specimen of manly beauty, and with the manners of a +gentleman, he seemed to think his guests entitled to all the courtesy +which should follow an invitation; he made formal calls upon them, and +gave sage advice as to the best way to pass the time; fitted them out with +hospitable skill and experienced counsels for the ascent of Etna, and +brought home choice game from his hunting excursions, as a present to the +'stranger within his gates.' His discourse, too, was of the most bland and +entertaining description; he was 'a fellow of infinite wit, of most +excellent fancy;' and these ministrations derived a memorable charm from a +certain gracefulness and winsome cordiality. No wonder his scrap-book is +filled with eulogiums, and that the traveller in Sicily, by the mere +force of contrast, records in hyperboles the merits of the 'Corona d'Oro.' +Alas for the mutability of inns and their worthy hosts! Abbaté was killed +by an accidental shot, during an _émeute_ in Catania, in 1848. + +The waxed floor, light curtains, and gay paper of a Parisian bedroom, +however cheerful, are the reverse of snug; but in the provincial inns of +the Continent, with less of comfort there is often more historical +interest than in those of England; the stone staircases and floors, and +the scanty furniture are forlorn; and the exuberance of the host's +civility is often in ludicrous contrast with the poverty of his larder. An +hour or two in the dreary _salle-à-manger_ of a provincial French inn on a +rainy day is the acme of a _voyageur's_ depression. The _restaurant_ and +_café_ have superseded the French inns, of whose gastronomic renown and +scenes of intrigue and violence we read in Dumas's historical novels; +romance and tragedy, the convivial and the culinary associations, are +equally prominent. 'Suburban _cabarets_,' observes a popular writer, 'were +long dangerous rendezvous for Parisians;' before and during the Grand +Monarque's reign the French taverns were representative, the army, court, +men of letters, and even ecclesiastics having their favourite haunt: +Molière went to the 'Croix de Lorraine,' and Racine to the 'Mouton Blanc;' +the actors met at 'Les Deux Faisans;' one of the last of the old-school +Parisian landladies--she who kept the 'Maison Rouge'--is celebrated in +Béranger's _Madame Gregoire_; Ravaillac went from a tavern to assassinate +Henry the Fourth; and fashionable orgies were carried on in the 'Temple +Cellars.' It is not uncommon to find ourselves in a friar's dormitory, the +large hotels in the minor towns having frequently been erected as +convents; and in Italy, such an inn as that of Terracina, with its legends +of banditti and its romantic site, the waves of the Mediterranean moaning +under its lofty windows, infallibly recalls Mrs. Radcliffe. In the cities +many of the hotels are palaces where noble families have dwelt for +centuries, and about them are perceptible the traces of decayed +magnificence and the spell of traditional glory and crime. To an +imaginative traveller these fanciful attractions often compensate for the +absence of substantial merit, and there is something mysterious and +winsome in the obsolete architecture and fallen grandeur of these +edifices;--huge shadows glide along the high cornices, the mouldy frescoes +look as if they had witnessed strange vicissitudes, and the imagination +readily wanders through a series of wonderful experiences of which these +old _palazzi_ have been the scene. Here, as elsewhere in the land, it is +the romantic element, the charm of antiquity, that is the redeeming +feature. For picturesque beauty of situation, neatness, and rural comfort, +some of the inns of Switzerland are the most delightful on the Continent, +inviting the stranger to linger amid the clear, fresh, and glorious +landscape, and relish the sweet butter, white bread, and unrivalled honey +and eggs, served so neatly every morning by a fair mountaineer with snowy +cap and gay bodice. + +I am a lover of the woods, and sometimes cross the bay, with a friend, to +Long Island, and pass a few hours in the strip of forest that protected +our fugitive army at the Battle of Flatbush; there are devious and shadowy +paths intersecting it, and in spring and autumn the wild flowers, radiant +leaves, and balmy stillness cheer the mind and senses, fresh from the dust +and bustle of the city. Often after one of these woodland excursions we +have emerged upon a quiet road, with farm-houses at long intervals, and +orchards and grain-fields adjacent, and followed its course to a village, +whose gable-roofed domicile and ancient graveyard indicate an old +settlement; and here is a little inn which recalls our idea of the +primitive English alehouse. It has a little Dutch porch, a sunny garden, +the liquor is served from the square bottles of Holland, the back parlour +is retired and neat, and the landlady sits all day in the window at her +sewing, and, when a little acquainted, will tell you all about the +love-affairs of the village; the cheese and sour-krout at dinner suggest a +Flemish origin. + +The old sign that hangs at the road-side was brought to this country by an +English publican, when the fine arts were supposed to be at so low a stage +as to furnish no Dick Tinto equal to such an achievement. It represents +the arms of Great Britain, and doubtless beguiled many a trooper of his +Majesty when Long Island was occupied by the English; no sooner, however, +had they retreated, than the republican villagers forced the landlord to +have an American eagle painted above the king's escutcheon. Indeed, it is +characteristic of inns that they perpetuate local associations: put your +head into an Italian boarding-house in New York, and the garlic, macaroni, +and red wine lead you to think yourself at Naples; the snuff, dominoes, +and gazettes mark a French _café_ all the world over; in Montreal you wake +up in a room like that you occupied at Marseilles; and at Halifax the malt +liquor is as English as the currency. + +'The sports of the inn yards' are noted often in the memoirs of +Elizabeth's reign. In a late biography of Lord Bacon, his brother Anthony +is spoken of as 'having taken a house in Bishopsgate Street, near the +famous "Ball Inn," where plays are performed before cits and gentlemen, +very much to the delight of Essex and his jovial crew.' And in allusion to +the Earl's conspiracy, the lower class of inns then and there are thus +described: 'From kens like the "Hart's Horn" and the "Shipwreck Tavern," +haunts of the vilest refuse of a great city, the spawn of hells and stews, +the vomit of Italian cloisters and Belgian camps, Blount, long familiar +with the agents of disorder, unkennels in the Earl's name a pack of needy +ruffians eager for any device that seems to promise pay to their greed or +licence to their lust.' It has been justly remarked by Letitia Landon, +that 'after all, the English hostel owes much of its charm to Chaucer; our +associations are of his haunting pictures--his delicate prioress, his +comely young squire, with their pleasant interchange of tale and legend:' +still less remote and more personal associations endear and identify these +landmarks of travel and sojourn in Great Britain. Scarcely a pleasant +record of life or manners, during the last century, is destitute of one of +these memorable resorts. Addison frequented the 'White Horn,' at the end +of Holland House Lane. When Sir Walter Scott visited Wordsworth, he daily +strolled to the 'Swan,' beyond Grasmere, to atone for the plain fare of +the bard's cottage. 'We four,' naïvely writes the Rev. Archibald Carlyle, +speaking of his literary comrades, 'frequently resorted to a small tavern +at the corner of Cockspur Street, the "Golden Ball," where we had a frugal +supper and a little punch, as the finances of none of the company were in +very good order; but we had rich enough conversation on literary subjects, +enlivened by Smollett's agreeable stories, which he told with peculiar +grace.' And his more than clerical zest for such a rendezvous is apparent +in his notice of another favourite inn: 'It was during this assembly that +the inn at the lower end of the West Bow got into some credit, and was +called the "Diversorium." Thomas Nicholson was the man's name, and his +wife's Nelly Douglas. Nelly was handsome, Thomas a rattling fellow.' Here +often met Robertson the historian, Horne the dramatist, Hume, Jardine, and +other notable men of the Scotch metropolis. To facilitate their +intercourse when in London, they also 'established a club at a +coffee-house in Saville Row, and dined together daily at three with +Wedderburn and Jack Dalrymple.' By the same candid autobiographer we are +informed that, at a tavern 'in Fleet Street, a physicians' club met, had +original papers laid before them, and always waited supper for Dr. +Armstrong to order.' These casual allusions indicate the essential +convenience and social importance of the inn, before clubs had superseded +them in Britain, and _cafés_ on the Continent. A writer, whose _Itinerary_ +is dated 1617, thus describes entertainment at the English inns of his +day: 'As soone as a passenger comes to an inne, the servants run to him, +and one takes his horse and walkes him about till he is cool, then rubs +him down and gives him feed; another servant gives the passenger his +private chamber, and kindles his fire; the third pulls off his bootes and +makes them cleane; then the host and hostess visit him, and if he will +eate with the hoste, or at a common table with the others, his meale will +cost him sixpence, or, in some places, fourpence; but if he will eate in +his own chamber, he commands what meat he will, according to his appetite; +yea, the kitchen is open to him to order the meat to be dressed as he +likes beste. After having eaten what he pleases, he may with credit set by +a part for next day's breakfast. His bill will then be written for him, +and should he object to any charge, the host is ready to alter it.' An +Italian nobleman of our own day,[2] his appreciation of free discussion +quickened by political exile, was much impressed with the influence and +agency of the English inn in public affairs. 'Taverns,' he writes, 'are +the forum of the English; it was here that arose the triumph of Burdett +when he left the Tower, and the curses of Castlereagh when he descended +into the tomb; it is here that begins the censure or the approval of a new +law.' + +Charles Lamb delighted to smoke his pipe at the old 'Queen's Head,' and to +quaff ale from the tankard presented by one Master Cranch (a choice +spirit) to a former host, and in the old oak-parlour where tradition says +'the gallant Raleigh received full souse in his face the contents of a +jolly black-jack from an affrighted clown, who, seeing clouds of tobacco +smoke curling from the knight's mouth and nose, thought he was all on +fire.' + +'A relic of old London is fast disappearing,' says a journal of that +city--'the "Blue Boar Inn," or the "George and Blue Boar," as it came to +be called later, in Holborn. For more than two hundred years this was one +of the famous coaching-houses, where stages arrived from the Northern and +Midland counties. It is more famous still as being the place--if Lord +Orrery's chaplain, Morrice, may be credited--where Cromwell and Ireton, +disguised as troopers, cut from the saddle-flap of a messenger a letter +which they knew to be there, from Charles the First to Henrietta Maria.' + +The 'Peacock,' at Matlock on the Derwent, was long the chosen resort of +artists, botanists, geologists, lawyers, and anglers; and perhaps at no +rural English inn of modern times has there been more varied and gifted +society than occasionally convened in this romantic district, under its +roof. + +The 'Hotel Gibbon,' at Lausanne, suggests to one familiar with English +literature the life of that historian, so naïvely described by himself, +and keeps alive the associations of his elaborate work in the scene of its +production; and nightly colloquies, that are embalmed and embodied in +genial literature, immortalize the 'sky-blue parlour' at Ambrose's +'Edinburgh Tavern.' + +Few historical novelists have more completely mastered the details of +costume, architecture, and social habits in the old times of England, than +James; and his description of the inns of Queen Anne's day is as elaborate +as it is complete: 'Landlords in England at that time--I mean, of course, +in country towns--were very different in many respects, and of a different +class, from what they are at present. In the first place, they were not +fine gentlemen; in the next place, they were not discharged +_valets-de-chambre_ or butlers, who, having cheated their masters +handsomely, and perhaps laid them under contribution in many ways, retire +to enjoy the fat things at their ease in their native town. Then, again, +they were on terms of familiar intercourse with two or three classes, +completely separate and distinct from each other--a sort of connecting +link between them. At their door, the justice of the peace, the knight of +the shire, the great man of the neighbourhood, dismounted from his horse, +and had his chat with mine host. There came the village lawyer, when he +gained a cause, or won a large fee, or had been paid a long bill, to +indulge in his pint of sherry, and gossiped as he drank it of all the +affairs of his clients. There sneaked in the doctor to get his glass of +_eau-de-vie_, or plague-water, or _aqua mirabilis_, or strong spirits, in +short, of any other denomination, and tell little dirty anecdotes of his +cases and his patients. There the alderman, the wealthy shopkeeper, and +the small proprietor, or the large farmer, came to take his cheerful cup +on Saturdays, or on market-day. But, besides these, the inn was the +resort--though approached by another door--of a lower and a poorer class, +with whom the landlord was still upon as good terms as with the others. +The wagoner, the carter, the lawyer's and the banker's clerk, the shopman, +the porter even, all came there; the landlord was civil, and familiar, and +chatty with them all.' + +Geoffrey Crayon's 'Shakspearian Research' culminated at the 'Boar Head,' +Eastcheap; his story of the 'Spectre Bridegroom' was appropriately related +in the kitchen of the 'Pomme d'Or,' in the Netherlands; and he makes Rip's +congenial retreat from his virago spouse, the 'coin of vantage' in front +of the village inn. Irving's own appreciation of these vagabond shrines +and accidental homes is emphatic; he commends the 'honest bursts of +laughter in which a man indulges in that temple of true liberty, an inn,' +and quotes zestfully the maxim that 'a tavern is the rendezvous, the +exchange, the staple of good fellows.' His personal testimony is +characteristic: 'To a homeless man there is a momentary feeling of +independence, as he stretches himself before an inn fire: the arm-chair is +his throne, the poker is his sceptre, and the little parlour his +undisputed empire.' How little did the modest author imagine, when he thus +wrote, that the poker with which he stirred the fire in the parlour-grate +of the 'Red Lion' would become a sacred literary relic wherewith his +partial countrymen are beguiled of extra fees, while the bard of Avon and +the gentleman of Sunnyside mingle in the reverie of fond reminiscence. + +'I went by an indirect route to Lichfield,' writes Hawthorne, in his +English sketches, 'and put up at the "Black Swan." Had I known where to +find it, I would rather have established myself at the inn kept by Mr. +Boniface, and so famous for its ale in Farquhar's time.' Gossip and +gaiety, the poor man's arena and the 'breathing-time of day' of genius, +thus give to the inn a kind of humane scope. Beethoven, wearied of his +palace-home and courtly patronage, and the 'stately houses open to him in +town and country, often forsook all for solitude in obscure inns, escaping +from all conventionalities to be alone with himself.' '_Nous voyons_,' +says Brillat-Savarin, '_que les villageois font toutes les affaires au +cabaret_;' Rousseau delighted in the frugal liberty thereof; and the last +days of Elia are associated with the inn which was the goal of his daily +promenade. 'After Isola married,' writes one of his friends, 'and Mary was +infirm, he took his lonely walk along the London road, as far as the "Bell +of Edmonton;" and one day tripped over a stone and slightly wounded his +forehead; erysipelas set in, and he died.' Somewhat of the attractiveness +of the inn to the philosopher is that its temporary and casual shelter and +solace accord with the counsel of Sydney Smith, 'to take short views,' and +Goëthe's, to 'cast ourselves into the sea of accidents;' and a less +amiable reason for the partiality has been suggested in 'the wide +capability of finding fault which an inn affords.' A genial picture of one +is thus drawn by a modern poet:-- + + 'This cosy hostelrie a visit craves; + Here will I sit awhile, + And watch the heavenly sunshine smile + Upon the village graves. + Strange is this little room in which I wait, + With its old table, rough with rustic names. + 'Tis summer now; instead of blinking flames, + Sweet-smelling ferns are hanging o'er the grate. + With curious eyes I pore + Upon the mantel-piece, with precious wares; + Glazed Scripture prints, in black, lugubrious frames, + Filled with old Bible lore: + The whale is casting Jonah on the shore; + Pharaoh is drowning in the curly wave; + And to Elijah, sitting at his cave, + The hospitable ravens fly in pairs, + Celestial food within their horny beaks; + On a slim David, with great pinky cheeks, + A towered Goliath stares. + Here will I sit at peace, + While, piercing through the window's ivy veil, + A slip of sunshine smites the amber ale; + And as the wreaths of fragrant smoke increase, + I'll read the letter which came down to-day.'[3] + +As a contrast to this, take Longfellow's 'Wayside Inn,' at Sudbury, +Massachusetts:-- + + 'As ancient is this hostelry + As any in the land may be, + Built in the old colonial day, + When men lived in a grander way, + With ampler hospitality; + A kind of old Hobgoblin hall, + Now somewhat fallen to decay, + With weather-stains upon the wall, + And stairways worn, and crazy doors, + And creaking and uneven floors, + And chimneys huge and tiled and tall. + A region of repose it seems, + A place of slumber and of dreams, + Remote among the wooded hills!' + +The facilities of modern travel and its vast increase, while they have +modified the characteristic features of the inn, have given it new +economical importance; and, not long since, the American hotel-system was +earnestly discussed in the English and French journals, as a substitute +for the European: the method by which all the wants of the traveller are +supplied at an established price per diem, instead of the details of +expense and the grades of accommodation in vogue abroad. In Paris, London, +some of the West India Islands, and elsewhere, the American hotel has, in +a measure, succeeded. But it is in its historical and social aspect that +we find the interest of the subject; as regards convenience, economy, and +comfort, the question can perhaps only be met in an eclectic spirit, each +country having its own merits and demerits as regards the provision for +public entertainment of man and beast. The inns of Switzerland will bear +the test of reminiscence better than those of any other part of the +Continent; the solitary system of the English inn is objectionable; +discomfort is proverbial in Havannah hotels; the garden-tables and music +in the German hostels are pleasant social features; and, with all their +frugal resources, the farm-stations in Norway boast the charm of a candid +and _naïve_ hospitality which sweetens the humble porridge of the weary +traveller. 'It is scarcely credible,' says an 'unprotected female,' in her +record of travel there, 'that such pre-adamite simplicity of heart still +exists on earth.' In pictures and diaries, the German landlord is always +light-haired, and holds a beer tankard; and the hotels in the British West +Indies, according to a recent traveller, are always kept by 'fat, +middle-aged, coloured ladies, who have no husbands.' Rose, writing to +Hallam from Italy, hints the union of romantic and classical associations +which some of the inns conserve and inspire; that of 'Civita Castellana,' +he remarks, 'is on the classic route from Rome to Florence, and is a type +of the large Italian inns, such as one finds in romances: balconies, +terraces, flowers of the south, large courts open for +post-chaises--nothing is wanting.' When Heine visited Germany, he tells us +how the conservative habits of his fatherland newly impressed him in the +familiar and old-fashioned dishes, 'sour-krout, stuffed chestnuts in +green cabbages, stockfish swimming in butter, eggs and bloaters, sausages, +fieldfares, roasted angels with apple-sauce, and goose.' + +In mediæval times, in that part of Europe, from the isolation of inns they +were emphatically the places to find an epitome of the age--soldiers, +monks, noblemen, and peasants surrounded the same stove, shared the +contents of the same pot, and often the straw which formed their common +bed; the proverb was, 'Inns are not built for one.' The salutations, +benisons, and curses; the motley guests, the lack of privacy, the +_trinkgeld_ and stirrup-cup, the murders and amours, the converse and +precautions, the orgies and charities thereof; were each and all +characteristic of the unsettled state of society, the diversities of rank, +the common necessities, and the priestly, military, and boorish elements +of life and manners. But the rarity of any public-house, as we understand +the term, is more characteristic of those times than the incongruous +elements therein occasionally exhibited. 'There seems,' says an ancient +historian, 'to have been no inns or houses of entertainment for the +reception of travellers during the middle ages. This is a proof of the +little intercourse which took place between different nations. The duty of +hospitality was so necessary in that state of society, that it was +enforced by statutes; it abounded, and secured the stranger a kind +reception under any roof where he chose to take shelter.'[4] + +On first entering an inn at Havre-de-Grace, I found the landlady taking +leave of the captain of an American packet ship. He had paid his bill, not +without some remonstrance, and his smiling hostess, with true French tact, +was now in the act of bidding so pleasing a farewell as would lure him to +take up his quarters there on the return voyage. She had purchased at the +market a handsome bouquet, and tied it up jauntily with ribbons. The ruddy +sea-dog face of the captain was half turned aside with a look of +impatience at the idea of being inveigled into good-nature after her +extortion; but she, not a whit discouraged, held her flowers up to him, +and smiling, with her fair hand on his rough dread-naught overcoat, turned +full to his eye a sprig of yellow blossom, and with irresistible _naïveté_ +whispered,--'_Mon cher Capitaine, c'est immortel comme mon attachement +pour vous_.' It was a little scene worthy of Sterne, and brought the +agreeableness and the imposition of the innkeepers of the Continent at +once before me. One evening, in Florence, I was sent for by a countryman, +who lodged at the most famous hotel in that city, and found him +perambulating his apartment under strong excitement of mind. He told me, +with much emotion, that the last time he had visited Florence was twenty +years before, with his young and beautiful wife. The belle of the season +that winter was the Marchesa ----. She gave a magnificent ball, and in the +midst of the festivities took the young American couple into her boudoir, +and sung to them with her harp. Her vocal talent was celebrated, but it +was a rare favour to hear her, and this attention was prized accordingly. +'You know,' added my friend, 'that I came abroad to recover the health +which grief at my wife's death so seriously impaired; and you know how +unavailing has proved the experiment. On my arrival here I inquired for +the best inn, and was directed hither; upon entering this chamber, which +was assigned me, something in the frescoes and tiles struck me as +familiar; they awoke the most vivid associations, and at last I remembered +that this is the very room to which the beautiful Marchesa brought us to +hear her sing on that memorable evening; the family are dispersed, and her +palace is rented for an hotel; hence this coincidence.' + +Among the minor local associations to be enjoyed at Rome, not the least +common and suggestive are those which belong to the old 'Bear Inn,' where +Montaigne lodged. Not only the vicissitudes but the present fortunes of +European towns are indicated by the inns. I arrived at ancient Syracuse at +sunset on a spring afternoon, and dismounted at an inn that looked like an +episcopal residence or government house, so lofty and broad were the +dimensions of the edifice; but not a person was visible in the spacious +court, and as I wandered up the staircases and along the corridors, no +sound but the echo of my steps was audible. At length a meagre attendant +emerged from an obscure chamber, and explained that this grand pile was +erected in anticipation of the American squadron in the Mediterranean +making their winter quarters in the harbour of Syracuse: a project +abandoned at the earnest request of the King of Naples, who dreaded the +example of a republican marine in his realm; and then so rarely did a +visitor appear, that the poor lonely waiter was thrown into a fit of +surprise, from which he did not recover during my stay. + +To the stranger, no more characteristic evidence of our material +prosperity and gregarious habits can be imagined than that afforded by the +large, showy, and thronged hotels of our principal cities. They are +epitomes of the whole country; at a glance they reveal the era of +upholstery, the love of ostentation, the tendency to live in herds, and +the absence of a subdued and harmonious tone of life and manners. The +large mirrors and bright carpets which decorate these resorts are entirely +incongruous--the brilliancy of the sunshine and the stimulating nature of +the climate demand within doors a predominance of neutral tints to relieve +and freshen the eye and nerves. It is characteristic of that devotion to +the immediate which De Tocqueville ascribes to republican institutions, +that these extravagant and gregarious establishments in our country are so +often named after living celebrities in the mercantile, literary, and +political world. This custom gives those who enjoy this distinction while +living 'the freedom of the house.' It greatly amused the friends of our +modest Geoffery Crayon, when, encouraged by his affectionate kinswoman +and his friend Kennedy to 'travel on his capital,' under the pressure of +necessity he once thus desperately claimed the privileges of his honoured +name, wherefrom his sensitive nature habitually shrunk. 'I arrived in town +safe,' he writes from New York to his niece, 'and proceeded to the "Irving +House," where I asked for a room. What party had I with me? None. Had I +not a lady with me? No; I was alone. I saw my chance was a bad one, and I +feared to be put in a dungeon as I was on a former occasion. I bethought +myself of your advice; and so, when the book was presented to me, wrote my +name at full length--"from Sunnyside." I was ushered into an apartment on +the first floor, furnished with rosewood, yellow damask, and pier-glasses, +with a bed large enough for an alderman and his wife, a bath-room +adjoining. In a word, I was accommodated completely _en prince_. The negro +waiters all call me by name, and vie with each other in waiting on me. The +chambermaid has been at uncommon pains to put my room in first-rate order; +and if she had been pretty, I absolutely should have kissed her; but as +she was not, I shall reward her in sordid coin. Henceforth I abjure all +modesty with hotel-keepers, and will get as much for my name as it will +fetch. Kennedy calls it travelling on one's capital.' + +The extravagant scale upon which these establishments are conducted is +another national feature, at once indicating the comparative ease with +which money is acquired in the New World, and the passion that exists here +for keeping up appearances. It would be useful to investigate the +influence of hotel life in this country upon manners: whatever may be the +result as to the coarser sex, its effect upon women and children is +lamentable--lowering the tone, compromising the taste, and yielding +incessant and promiscuous excitement to the love of admiration; the change +in the very nature of young girls, thus exposed to an indiscriminate +crowd, is rapid and complete; modesty and refinement are soon lost in +over-consciousness and moral hardihood. But, perhaps, the most singular +trait in the American hotel is the deference paid to the landlord: instead +of being the servant of the public, he is apparently the master; and a +traveller who makes the now rapid transition from a New York to a +Liverpool hotel, might think himself among a different race; the courteous +devotion, almost subserviency, in the one case, being in total contrast +with the nonchalance and even despotism of the other. The prosperous +security of the host with us, and the dependence of his guest for any +choice of accommodation, is doubtless the most obvious reason for this +anomaly; but it is also, in a degree at least, to be referred to the +familiarity with which even gentlemen treat the innkeepers. To use a +vulgar phrase, they descend to curry favour and minister to the +self-esteem of a class of men in whom it is already pampered beyond +endurable bounds. No formula of republican equality justifies this +behaviour; and it usually reacts unfavourably for the self-respect of the +individual. Some foreigner remarked, with as much truth as irony, that our +aristocracy consisted of hotel-keepers and steamboat captains; and +appearances certainly warrant the sarcasm. It was not always thus. When +Washington lodged at the old Walton Mansion-house, which had been +converted to an inn, the old negro who kept it was the ideal of a host; an +air of dignity as well as comfort pervaded the house; through the open +upper half of the broad door played the sunshine upon the sanded +threshold; at the head of the long easy staircase ticked the old-fashioned +clock; full-length portraits, by Copley, graced the parlour wall; the old +Dutch stoop looked the emblem of hospitality; no angular figures were +ranged to squirt tobacco-juice; no pert clerks lorded it from behind a +mahogany barricade; but the glow of the windows at night, the alacrity of +the sedate waiter, the few but respectable guests, and the prolonged +meals, of which but two or three partook, gave to the inn the character of +a home. Lafayette wrote to his wife in 1777, while descanting with +enthusiasm upon the simplicity of manners in this country: 'The very inns +are different from those in Europe; the host and hostess sit at table with +you, and do the honours of a comfortable meal; and, on going away, you pay +your fare without higgling.' An English traveller, who visited this +country soon after the Revolutionary War, speaks of the 'uncomplying +temper of the landlords of the country inns in America.' 'They will not,' +says another, 'bear the treatment we too often give ours at home. They +feel themselves in some degree independent of travellers, as all of them +have other occupations to follow; nor will they put themselves into a +bustle on your account; but with good language they are very civil, and +will accommodate you as well as they can. The general custom of having two +or three beds in a room, to be sure, is very disagreeable; it arises from +the great increase of travelling within the last few years, and the +smallness of their houses, which were not built for houses of +entertainment.' + +It is a most significant indication of our devotion to the external, that +ovations at which the legislators of the land discourse, and eulogies that +fill the columns of the best journals, celebrate the opening of a new +tavern, or the retirement of a publican. The confined and altitudinous +cells into which so many of the complacent victims of these potentates are +stowed, and their habits of subserviency to the rules of the house which +are perked up on their chamber-walls, induced a Sicilian friend of mine to +complain that sojourners at inns in this land of liberty were treated like +friars. The gorgeous luxury of the metropolitan inns is reversed in the +small towns, where, without the picturesque situation, we often find the +discomfort of the Continent. + +Under date of March 4, 1634, John Winthrop, first governor of +Massachusetts, records in his journal: 'Samuel Cole set up the first house +of common entertainment' in Boston. According to the famous literary ruse +of Irving and Wirt, Knickerbocker's facetious history and the _Letters of +a British Spy_ were found in the inn-chamber of a departed traveller. Of +old, the American inn, or tavern as it was called, subserved a great +variety of purposes. One of New England's local historians says:-- + +'The taverns of olden time were the places of resort for gentlemen; and +one consequence was, good suppers and deep drinking. They also performed +the office of newspapers. The names posted on the several tavern-doors +were a sufficient notice for jurors. Saturday afternoon was the time when +men came from all quarters of the town to see and hear all they could at +the tavern, where politics and theology, trade, barter, and taxes, were +all mixed up together over hot flip and strong toddy. + +'The taverns served also as places for marketing. During most of the +winter they were filled every night with farmers, who had brought their +pork, butter, grain, seeds, and poultry to market. Most families supplied +themselves through these opportunities, and purchased the best articles at +moderate prices. + +'Landlords could not grow rich very fast on country custom. The travelling +farmer brought all his food for himself in a box, and that for his horse +in a bag. He therefore paid only twelve cents for his bed, and as much for +horse-keeping. It was not uncommon to have six days' expenses amount only +to two dollars. Auctions, theatricals, legerdemain, caucuses, military +drills, balls, and dancing-schools, all came in place at the tavern. +Especially, sleigh-riding parties found them convenient.'[5] + +'You will not go into one,' wrote Brissot in 1788, 'without meeting with +neatness, decency, and dignity. The table is served by a maiden, +well-dressed and pretty, by a pleasant mother whose age has not effaced +the agreeableness of her features, and by men who have that air of +respectability which is inspired by the idea of equality, and are not +ignoble and base, like the greater part of our own tavern-keepers.' In +1792, Wansey, the commercial traveller already cited, tells us he lodged +at the 'Bunch of Grapes,' in Boston, and paid five shillings a day, +including a pint of Madeira. He had an interview with Citizen Genet and +Dr. Priestley at the 'Tontine,' near the Battery in New York; and saw +Frenchmen with tricolour cockades at the 'Indian Queen,' on the Boston +road;--trivial data for his journal then, and yet now suggestive of the +political and economical condition of the land, whereof even tavern bills +and company are no inadequate test. A sagacious reminiscent informs us +that 'the taverns of Boston were the original business exchanges: they +combined the Counting-house, the Exchange-office, the Reading-room, and +the Bank; each represented a locality. To the "Lamb Tavern," called by the +sailors "sheep's baby," people went to "see a man from Dedham"--it was the +resort of Norfolk County; the old "Eastern Stage-house," in Ann Street, +was frequented by "down-easters," captains of vessels, formerly from the +Penobscot and Kennebec; there were to be seen groups of sturdy men seated +round an enormous fireplace, chalking down the price of bark and lumber, +and skippers bringing in a vagrant tarpaulin to "sign the articles." To +the "Exchange Coffee-house" resorted the nabobs of Essex County; here +those aristocratic eastern towns, Newburyport and Portsmouth, were +represented by shipowners and shipbuilders, merchants of the first class. +Dealers in butter and cheese went to the "City Tavern," in Brattle +Street--a favourite sojourn of "members of the General Court,"--its +court-yard crowded with teams loaded with the best pork from Vermont and +Western Massachusetts, and the "wooden notions" of Yankee rustics. The +last of the old Boston taverns was the once famous "Elm-street House," a +rendezvous of stage-coaches, teams, and transient boarders, which was kept +up in the old style until fairly drawn from the field by "modern +improvements."' Indeed, this slight mention of the functions and fortunes +of inns in the New England metropolis hints, more than a volume of +statistics, the progress of her growth and the cause of her social +transitions; locomotion has completely done away with the local affinities +of the past, and emigration modified the individuality of class and +character which of old gave such special interest to the inn; we are too +gregarious, luxurious, and hurried to indulge in these primitive +expedients. + +At the old 'Raleigh Tavern,' in Virginia--not long since destroyed by +fire,--Patrick Henry lodged when he made his memorable _début_, as a +patriotic orator, in the House of Burgesses; and it was in a chamber of +this inn that he prepared his speeches, and that the great leading men of +the Revolution, in that State, assembled to consult. Some of the inns in +Canada are named after the Indian chiefs mentioned in the earliest records +of exploration by Cartier. At the 'Frauncis Tavern,' in New York, +Washington took leave of his officers, and the 'Social Club,' still famous +in the annals of the city, met. Military men appreciate good inns; +Washington wrote to Frauncis, and Lafayette praised him. One of the latest +of memorable associations connected with the inns of New York, is that +which identifies the 'City Hotel' with the naval victories of the last war +with England. No one who listened to the musical voice of the late Ogden +Hoffman, as he related to the St. Nicholas Society at their annual banquet +his personal memories of that favourite hotel, will fail to realize the +possible dramatic and romantic interest which may attach to such a resort, +even in our unromantic times and in the heart of a commercial city. +Visions of naval heroes, of belles in the dance, witty coteries and +distinguished strangers, political crises and social triumphs, flitted +vividly before the mind as the genial reminiscent called up the men, +women, _fêtes_, and follies there known. A recent English traveller in +the United States, in alluding to the resemblance he discovered to what +was familiar at home, speaks of one relic which has caught the eye of few +as suggestive of the old country. 'There is,' he observes, 'in Baltimore +an old inn, with an old sign, standing at the corner of Eutaw and Franklin +streets, just such as may still be seen in the towns of Somersetshire; and +before it are to be seen old wagons, covered and soiled and battered, +about to return from the city to the country, just as the wagons do in our +own agricultural counties.'[6] + +How near to us the record of 'baiting at an inn' brings the renowned! +'After dinner,' writes Washington in the diary of his second visit to New +England, 'through frequent showers we proceeded to the tavern of a Mrs. +Haviland, at Rye, who keeps a very neat and decent inn.' Mendelssohn, +ideal as was his tone of mind, wrote zestfully to his sister:--'A neat, +civil Frenchwoman keeps the inn on the summit of the Simplon; and it would +not be easy to describe the sensation of satisfaction caused by its +thrifty cleanliness, which is nowhere to be found in Italy.' Lockhart, +when an assiduous Oxford scholar, found his choicest recreation in 'a +quiet row on the river, and a fish-dinner at Godstow;' and there is not +one of his surviving associates, says his biographer, 'who fails to look +back at this moment, with melancholy pleasure, on the brilliant wit, the +merry song, and the grave discussion which gave to the sanded parlour of +the village alehouse the air of the Palæstra at Tusculum, or the Amaltheum +of Cumæ.' + +It is impossible to conceive any house of entertainment more dreary than +some of the stage-houses, as they were called in New England; the bar-room +with an odour of stale rum, the parlour with its everlasting sampler over +the fireplace, weeping willow, tombstone, and inscription; the peacock's +feathers or asparagus boughs in the chimney, as if in cheerful mockery; +the looking-glass that reflects every feature awry, the cross-lights of +the windows, inquisitive loungers, pie-crust like leather, and cheese of +mollified oak,--all defied both the senses and digestion, and made the +crack of the coachman's whip a joyful alarum. + +The inns near famous localities identify themselves to the memory with the +most attractive objects of travel; thus the inn, so rural and neat, at +Edensor, with the marvels of Chatsworth; the 'Red Horse,' at +Stratford-on-Avon, with Shakspeare's tomb; and the 'Nag's Head,' at +Uttoxeter, with Johnson's penance. It was while 'waiting for the train,' +at an inn of Coventry, that Tennyson so gracefully paraphrased the legend +of Godiva; and the sign of the 'Flitch' is associated with the famous +bequest of the traditional patron of conjugal harmony. 'A wayside inn at +which we tarried, in Derbyshire, I fancied must have sheltered Moreland or +Gainsborough, when caught in the rain, while sketching in that region. The +landlady had grenadier proportions and red cheeks; a few peasants were +drinking ale beneath a roof whence depended flitches of bacon, and with +the frocks, the yellow hair, and the full, ruddy features we see in their +pictures; the windows of the best room had little diamond-shaped panes, in +which sprigs of holly were stuck. There were several ancient engravings in +quaint-looking frames on the wall; the chairs and desk were of dark-veined +wood that shone with the polish of many a year's friction; a great fire +blazed in the chimney, and the liquor was served in vessels only seen on +this other side of the water, in venerable prints. It was an hostel where +you would not be surprised to hear the crack of Tony Lumpkin's whip, or to +see the Vicar of Wakefield rush in, in search of Olivia--an alehouse that, +you knew at once, had often given "an hour's importance to the poor man's +heart," and where Parson Adams or Squire Western would have felt +themselves entirely at home.'[7] + +Goldsmith has genially celebrated the humble, rustic inn in the _Deserted +Village_, and his own habits confirmed the early predilection. 'His +favourite festivity,' says one of his biographers, 'his holiday of +holidays, was to have three or four intimate friends to breakfast with him +at ten, to start at eleven for a walk through the fields to Highbury Barn, +where they dined at an ordinary, frequented by authors, templars, and +retired citizens, for tenpence a head; to return at six to "White's," +Conduit Street, and to end the evening with a supper at the "Grecian," or +"Temple Exchange Coffee-house." The whole of the expense of the day's +_fête_ never exceeded a crown, for which the party obtained "good air, +good living, and good conversation."' 'He, Goldsmith, however,' adds +Foster, 'would leave a tavern if his jokes were not rewarded with a roar.' +One of Ben Jonson's best comedies is the _New Inn_, and Southey's most +popular ballad is _Mary of the Inn_. Chaucer makes his Canterbury pilgrims +set out from an inn at Southwark. We all remember the inns described by +Scott. Elliston's 'larks' at the 'White Hart' and 'Red Cow' were comical +episodes, that read like a _vaudeville_. _She Stoops to Conquer_, +_L'Auberge Pleine_, and _The Double-bedded Room_, are a few of the +countless standard plays of which an inn is the scene. 'What befell them +at the Inn,' is the heading of Don Quixote's best chapters, for the knight +always mistook inns for castles. Grammont's adventures frequently boast +the same scene, and it was 'in the worst room of the worst inn' that the +accomplished, and dissolute Villiers died. Foote frequented the 'Bedford' +in Covent Garden, and old Macklin doffed the buskin for the apron and +carver. Philosophers, from Horace at the inn of Brundusium, to Montaigne +noting the furniture, dishes, and prices at the inns where he rested on +his journey into Italy, have found this a most suggestive and +characteristic theme. + +In German university towns, the professors frequent the 'Hereditary +Prince,' or some other inn, at evening, to drink beer, smoke pipes, and +discuss metaphysics. The jocose reproof which Lamb administers to the +sentimental donor of _Coelebs_ was-- + + 'If ever I marry a wife, + I'll marry a landlord's daughter, + And sit in the bar all day, + And drink cold brandy and water.' + +Quaintly pious is the allusion of John Winthrop, in a letter--more than +two centuries old--to his father, the first governor of Massachusetts, +when the project of immigration was about to be realized: 'For the +business of New England, I can say no other thing but that I believe +confidently that the whole disposition thereof is from the Lord; and, for +myself, I have seen so much of the vanity of the world, that I esteem no +more of the diversities of countries than as so many inns, whereof the +traveller that hath lodged in the best or in the worst findeth no +difference when he cometh to his journey's end.'[8] + +It has been said of Socrates that he 'looked upon himself as a traveller +who halts at the public inn of the Earth.' 'Was I in a condition to +stipulate with death,' writes Sterne, 'I should certainly declare against +submitting to it before my friends, and therefore I never seriously think +upon the mode and the manner of this great catastrophe, but I constantly +draw the curtain across it with this wish, that the Disposer of all things +may so order it, that it happen not to me in my own house, but rather in +some decent inn.' Aaron Burr realized in a forlorn manner Yorick's desire +when, after years of social ostracism, he expired at a tavern on Staten +Island. + +The beautiful significance of the first incident in the life of Christ is +seldom realized, offering, as it does, so wonderful and affecting a +contrast between the humblest mortal vicissitudes in the outward +circumstances of birth and the highest glory of a spiritual advent: they +'laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.' It +was to an inn that the Good Samaritan carried the traveller who had +'fallen among thieves.' Joseph's brethren rested at an inn on their way to +Egypt; and it was at the 'Three Taverns,' in the suburbs of Rome, that +Paul was met by the brethren. Venerable as are these allusions in sacred +history, the visible token of the antiquity of inns that strikes our +imagination most vividly is the wine-stains on the marble counter in +Pompeii. + +Falstaff absolutely requires the frame of an inn to make his portrait +intelligible, with the buxom figure of Mrs. Quickly in the background; and +it may safely be asserted that no public house of entertainment has +afforded such world-wide mirth as the 'Boar's Head,' Eastcheap. The freaks +of Tony Lumpkin have their natural scope at an alehouse; and Goldoni's +_Locandiera_ is a fine colloquial piece of real life; even the most +eloquent of England's historians cites the superior inns that existed in +the range of travel there, during the early part of the seventeenth +century, as a reliable evidence of the prosperity and civil advancement of +the nation. These inns are, in fact, the original retreats for 'freedom +and comfort,' whence our pleasant ideas on the subject are derived; they +still exist in some of the rural districts of the kingdom; and the +cleanliness, good fare, and retirement of the old-fashioned English inn, +as well as the freshness and urbanity of the host, wholly justify their +renown. The exigencies of the climate, and the domestic habits of the +people, explain this superiority; where so much enjoyment is sought within +doors, and the national character is reserved and individual, better +provision is naturally made both for the physical well-being and the +privacy of the wayfarer than is required under less inclement skies, and +among a more vivacious and social race. + +A most characteristic note of Boswell's is that which records his idol's +hearty encomiums on a tavern, while dining at one in London. Both the man +and the place then combined to realize the perfection of the idea, for +that dim and multitudinous city invites to secluded conviviality; and that +irritable, dogmatic, yet epicurean sage required the liberty of speech, an +absolute deference, and the solid physical comforts so easily obtained at +a London tavern. There he could make 'inarticulate, animal noises over his +food' without restraint; there he could bring only such companions as +would bear to be contradicted, and there he could refresh body and mind +without fear of intrusion from a printer's devil or needy author. Bores +and duns away, a good listener by, surrounded with pleasant viands and a +cheerful blaze, a man so organized and situated might, without +extravagance, call a tavern-chair the throne of human felicity, and quote +Shenstone's praise of inns with rapture. Beneath this jovial appreciation, +however, there lurks a sad inference; it argues a homeless lot, for lonely +or ungenial must be the residence, contrast with which renders an inn so +attractive; and we must bear in mind that the winsome aspect they wear in +English literature is based on their casual and temporary enjoyment; it is +as recreative, not abiding places, that they are usually introduced; and, +in an imaginative point of view, our sense of the appropriate is gratified +by these landmarks of our precarious destiny, for we are but 'pilgrims and +sojourners on the earth.' Jeremy Taylor compared human life to an inn, and +Archbishop Leighton used to say he would prefer to die in one. + + + + +AUTHORS. + + 'High is our calling, friend! Creative Art, + Whether the instrument of words she use, + Or pencil pregnant with ethereal hues, + Demands the service of a mind and heart, + Though sensitive, yet in their weakest part + Heroically fashioned--to infuse + Faith in the whispers of the lonely muse, + While the whole world seems adverse to desert.' + WORDSWORTH. + + +Some of the fondest illusions of our student-life and companionship were +based on literary fame. The only individuals, of the male gender, who then +seemed to us (indiscriminate and mutual lovers of literature) worthy of +admiration and sympathy, were authors. Our ideal of felicity was the +consciousness of distributing ideas of vital significance, and causing +multitudes to share a sentiment born in a lonely heart. The most real and +permanent sway of which man is capable we imagined that of ruling and +cheering the minds of others through the medium of literature. Our herbals +were made up of flowers from the graves of authors; their signatures were +our only autographs. The visions that haunted us were little else than a +boundless panorama that displayed scenes in their lives. We used +continually to see, in fancy, Petrarch beside a fountain, under a laurel, +with the sweet _penseroso_-look visible in his portraits; Dante in the +corridor of a monastery, his palm laid on a friar's breast, and his stern +features softened as he craved the only blessing life retained for +him--_peace_; rustic Burns, with his dark eye proudly meeting the curious +stare of an Edinburgh coterie; Camoens breasting the waves with the +_Lusiad_ between his teeth; Johnson appalling Boswell with his emphatic +'_Sir_;' Milton--his head like that of a saint encircled with rays--seated +at the organ; Shakspeare walking serenely, and with a benign and majestic +countenance, beside the Avon; Steele jocosely presiding at table with +liveried bailiffs to pass the dishes; the bright face of Pope looming up +from his deformed body in the cool twilight of a grotto; Voltaire's sneer +withering an auditor through a cloud of snuff; Molière reading his new +comedy to the old woman; Landor standing in the ilex path of a Tuscan +villa; Savage asleep on a bulk at midnight, in one of the London parks; +Dryden seated in oracular dignity in his coffee-house arm-chair; +Metastasio comparing notes with a handsome _prima donna_ at Vienna; +Alfieri with a magnificent steed in the midst of the Alps; Swift stealing +an interview with Miss Johnson, or chuckling over a chapter of _Gulliver_; +the funeral pyre of Shelley lighting up a solitary crag on the shores of +the Mediterranean; and Byron, with marble brow and rolling eye, guiding +the helm of a storm-tossed boat on the Lake of Geneva! Such were a few +only of the _tableaux_ that haunted our imagination. We echoed heartily +Akenside's protest against the sermon on Glory: + + 'Come, then, tell me, sage divine, + Is it an offence to own + That our bosoms e'er incline + Towards immortal glory's throne? + For with me nor pomp nor pleasure, + Bourbon's might, Braganza's treasure, + So can fancy's dream rejoice, + So conciliate reason's choice, + As one approving word of her impartial voice. + + 'If to spurn at noble praise + Be the passport to thy heaven; + Follow thou those gloomy ways; + No such law to me was given; + Nor, I trust, shall I deplore me, + Faring like my friends before me; + Nor a holier place desire + Than Timoleon's arms acquire, + And Tully's curule chair, and Milton's golden lyre.' + +In our passion for native authors we revered the memory of Brockden Brown, +and detected in his romantic studies the germs of the supernatural school +of fiction; we nearly suffocated ourselves in the crowded gallery of the +old church at Cambridge, listening to Sprague's _Phi Beta Kappa_ poem; and +often watched the spiritual figure of the 'Idle Man,' and gazed on the +white locks of our venerable painter, with his 'Monaldi' and 'Paint King' +vividly remembered. We wearied an old friend of Brainard's by making him +repeat anecdotes of the poet; and have spent hours in the French +coffee-house which Halleck once frequented, eliciting from him criticisms, +anecdotes, or recitations of Campbell. New Haven people that came in our +way were obliged to tell all they could remember of the vagaries of +Percival, and the elegant hospitality of Hillhouse. We have followed Judge +Hopkinson through the rectangular streets of his native metropolis, with +the tune of _Hail, Columbia!_ humming in our ears; and kept a curious eye +on Howard Payne through a whole evening party, fondly cognizant of _Sweet +Home_. Beaumont and Fletcher were our Damon and Pythias. The memorable +occurrence of our childhood was the advent of a new Waverley novel, and of +our youth a fresh _Edinburgh Review_. We loved plum-colour because poor +Goldy was vain of his coat of that hue; and champagne, partly because +Schiller used to drink it when writing; we saved orange-peel because the +author of _The Rambler_ liked it; and put ourselves on a course of +tar-water, in imitation of Berkeley. Roast pig had a double relish for us +after we had read Elia's dissertation thereon. We associated goldfish and +china jars with Gray, skulls with Dr. Young, the leap of a sturgeon in the +Hudson with Drake's 'Culprit Fay,' pine-trees with Ossian, stained-glass +windows with Keats (who set one in an immortal verse), fortifications with +Uncle Toby, literary breakfasts with Rogers, waterfowl with Bryant, +foundlings with Rousseau, letter-writing with Madame de Sévigné, bread and +butter with the author of _Werther_, daisies with Burns, and primroses +with Wordsworth. Mrs. Thrale's acceptance of Piozzi was a serious trouble +to our minds; and whether 'little Burney' would be happy after her +marriage with the noble _emigré_ was a problem that made us really anxious +until the second part of her _Diary_ was procurable and relieved our +solicitude. An unpatriotic antipathy to the Pilgrim Fathers was quelled by +the melodious pæan of Mrs. Hemans; and we kept vigils before a portrait of +Mrs. Norton, at an artist's studio, with a chivalric desire to avenge her +wrongs. + +This enthusiasm for authors was not altogether the result of a literary +idiosyncrasy or local influences; it grew out of a consciousness of +personal obligation. Mrs. Radcliffe, Miss Porter, and Maturin were the +clandestine intimates of childhood; the English poets became the +confidants of youthful sentiment, which met but a cool reception from +those by whom we were surrounded; and when judgment was enough matured to +discriminate the charms of style, a new world opened under the guidance of +Mackenzie and Sterne, Lady Montagu and Sir Thomas Browne. Books are +endeared, like people, by the force of circumstances; ideal tendencies, a +spirit of inquiry, a thirst for sympathy, will often drive minds whose +environment is uncongenial to seek therein what is elsewhere denied; and +when in early life this resource becomes habitual, it is not surprising +that a deep personal feeling should be gradually engendered, and that we +should come to regard favourite authors as the most reliable and dearest +of our companions; and this without an inkling of pedantry or a title to +scholarship, but from a thoroughly human impulse intellectually +vindicating itself. To such a pitch did the feeling once possess us that +we resented any imputation cast upon our chosen authors as if they were +actual friends. We honoured the critic that defended Bacon from the charge +of meanness, and longed to applaud his prowess; we disliked to admit the +evidence that Johnson was dogmatic, and ascribed his arrogance to a kind +of excusable horse-play; we contended that Thomson was not lazy, but +encouraged ease to escape ambition; we grew very warm if any one really +believed Shelley an atheist, and argued that his faith transcended that of +the majority of so-called Christians; we never would admit that Sterne was +heartless, or Moore a toady. We could have embraced Dr. Madden after +reading his _Infirmities of Genius_, and thought the most brave of +Sidney's deeds his _Defence of Poesy_. How we longed to go a-fishing with +Walton, to walk in Cowley's garden, to see Roscoe's library, to hear +Coleridge talk, to feel the grasp of Burns's hand, to drink whisky with +John Wilson, to pat Scott's dogs, to go to the theatre with Lamb, to +listen to D'Israeli the elder's anecdotes, to look on the lakes of +Westmoreland at the side of Wordsworth, and to ride through 'our village' +in Miss Mitford's pony chaise! + +The first time we saw an author was an epoch. It was in a church. Some one +whispered, just as the sermon began, that a lady in the next pew was the +writer of a moral tale then rated high in our little circle. We did +nothing the rest of the service but watch and speculate upon this, to us, +wonderful personage. We were disappointed at her every-day look and +attire; there was no fine frenzy in eye or gesture; there she sat, for all +the world like any other lady--mild, quiet, and attentive. We were +somewhat consoled by noting the extreme paleness of her complexion, and a +kind of abstraction in her gaze. Her habiliments were dark and faded; in +fact, as we afterward discovered, she was poor, and her book had been +printed by subscription. Thenceforth, for a long time, we imagined all +female authors were dressed in black, looked pensive, and had no colour. +This illusion, however, was banished, some years later, when we were taken +to a literary _soirée_ where all the female authors were fat, dressed in a +variety of colours, and, instead of being melancholy, had an overwhelming +vivacity that made us realize how the type had changed. By degrees we +became enlightened, and our authormania cooled. In the first place, we +were shocked by seeing a pathetic writer, whose universal tribute was +tears, in a flashy vest; then we encountered a psychologist, whose forte +was sublimity, enacting the part of a mendicant; it was our misfortune to +conduct a bard, whose highly-imaginative strain had often roused our +aspirations, home from a party in a state of inebriety; one author we were +prepared to love turned out a disagreeable egotist; another wearied us by +the exactions of his vanity; a third repelled by intense affectation, and +a fourth by the bitterness of his comments; one, who had written only the +most refined sentiment, proved, upon acquaintance, an acute Yankee; one, +who had sung the beauty of nature, we found to be an inveterate dandy; and +another, whose expressed ideas betokened excess of delicacy, grossly +violated the ordinary instincts of gentle blood. + +On one of our earliest visits to ------, the illusive charm attached to +the idea of a female author became, indeed, changed to a horror from which +we have never wholly recovered. We were requested to escort a lady to what +we understood was an ordinary social gathering. After entering a rather +small and somewhat obscure drawing-room, saluting the hostess, and taking +the proffered seat, we were struck with the formal arrangement of the +company. They formed an unbroken row along the walls of the room, except +at one end, at which stood a table surmounted by an astral lamp; and in an +arm-chair beside it, in studied attitude, like one _poséd_ for a +daguerreotype, sat a woman of masculine proportions, coarse features, and +hair between yellow and red, which fell in unkempt masses down each side +of her broad face. She was clad in white muslin of an antiquated fashion. +We noticed that the guests cast looks, partly of curiosity, partly of +uneasiness, upon this Herculean female, who rolled her eyes occasionally, +and smiled on us all with a kind of complacent pity. We ventured, amidst +the silence, to ask our neighbour the name of the gigantic unknown. She +appeared extremely surprised at the very natural question. 'Why, don't you +know? We're invited here to meet her, and, I assure you, it is a rare +privilege. That is Mrs. Jones, the celebrated author of the _Affianced +One_!' At this moment a brisk little woman in the corner, with accents +slightly tremulous, and a manner intended to be very _nonchalant_, broke +the uncomfortable hush of the room. 'My dear Mrs. Jones,' said she, 'as +one of your earliest and most fervent admirers, allow me to inquire if +your health does not suffer from the intense state of feeling in which you +evidently write?' The Amazonian novelist sighed--it was funny to see that +operation on so large a scale,--and then, in a voice so like the rougher +sex that we began to think she was a man in disguise, replied: 'When I +reach the catastrophe of my stories, it is not uncommon for me to faint +dead away; and, as I always write in a room by myself, it has happened +more than once that I have been found stretched, miserable and cold, on +the floor, with a pen grasped in my fingers, and the carpet littered with +manuscript blotted with tears!' The Siddonian pathos of this announcement +sent a thrill round the circle; glances of admiration and pity were thrown +upon the self-immolated victim at the shrine of letters, and other +inquiries were adventured, which elicited equally impressive replies, +until the psychological throes of authorship--particularly in the female +gender--assumed the aspect of an experience combined of epilepsy and +nightmare. The tragic egotism of these revelations at length overcame our +patience; and, leaving our fair companion to another's escort, we slipped +out of the room. A thunder-storm had arisen; the rain was pouring down in +torrents; upon the door-steps we encountered a very pale, thin, little +man, with an umbrella under his arm and a pair of overshoes in his hands. +As we passed, he addressed us in a very meek and frightened voice: +'Please, sirs, is there a party here?' 'Yes.' 'Please, sirs, is the +celebrated Mrs. Jones here?' 'Yes.' 'Please, sirs, do you think I could +step into the entry? I'm Mr. Jones!' + +Hastening to our lodgings in another metropolis at twilight, we passed a +dwarf standing on a threshold, who leaped down and caught us by the arm, +eagerly pronouncing our name, and requesting a moment's interview. He led +the way to a little room lighted by a single candle, closed the door, and, +with a quivering impatience of gesture, introduced himself. We remembered +his name at once. He was the author of a feeble imitation of Pope. We +never beheld such an ogre. His little green eyes, ape-like limbs, and +expression indicative of sensitiveness and conceit, in that lone and dusky +cabinet, were appalling. From a cupboard he took down what we supposed to +be a ledger, and, placing it on the table, gave an emphatic slap to the +worn brown cover. 'There,' said he, 'is garnered the labour of years. I +have heard of your enthusiasm for authors, and I will read you specimens +of a poem destined to see the light a twelvemonth hence. Listen!' It was +an epic in blank verse--dreary, monotonous, and verbose. His recitation +was like the refrain of a bull-frog; it grated on the ear and made the +nerves shrink. The candle burned thick; the air seemed mephitic, and in a +little while we were oppressed and fevered as by a glamour cast over our +brain; we looked toward the door and moved uneasily; the green eye was +cast fiercely up from the page, and the tone of the deformed became +malicious. We had heard of his vindictive spirit, and felt as if in the +cave of an imp spellbound and helpless. The complacent hardihood with +which he read on made us inwardly frantic. We thought of the fair being +who waited for us at a neighbouring fireside, of the free air we had +quitted, and we writhed under the infliction. Hours passed; a numb, +half-unconscious sense of misery stole over us, and still the little demon +glared and spouted. 'Words, words, words'--how detestable seemed they +then! At last, in a fit of desperation, we clapped our hand to our +forehead, and murmuring something about a congestive tendency, sprang up, +ran through the hall and out at the door, and looking back, after hurrying +on a few yards, beheld the dwarf, with his enormous book clasped to his +heart, gazing after us with the implacable look of a disappointed savage. + +Literature is no more regulated by accident than nature; lucky hits and +the tricks of pencraft are as temporary as all other artificial +expedients. The authors truly remembered and loved are _men_ in the best +sense of the term; the human, the individual informs and stamps their +books with an image or an effluence not born of will or mere ingenuity, +but emanating from the soul; and this is the quality that endears and +perpetuates their fame. Hence Goldsmith is beloved, Milton reverenced, and +the grave of Burns a 'Mecca of the mind.' At the commencement of the last +century there appeared in the _London Gazette_ the offer of a reward of +fifty pounds for the discovery of a certain person thus described: 'A +middle-sized, spare man, about forty years of age, of a brown complexion +and dark brown hair, though he wears a wig, having a hooked nose, a sharp +chin, gray eyes, and a large mouth.' This was Daniel Defoe, the victim of +partisan injustice, for whose rights every schoolboy would fight now, out +of sheer gratitude to the author of _Robinson Crusoe_. Let the writers who +debase authorship into a perversion of history, a sickly medium for +egotistical rhetoric, a gross theft of antecedent labours, a base vehicle +for spite, or a mechanical knack of book-making, realize that they are +foredoomed to contempt, and that character is as little disguised by types +as by costume. The genuine author is recognized at once; his integrity is +self-evident. + +It was sunset on the Arno. Far down the river, over mountain ranges where +snow yet lingered, a warm tint, half rose and half amethyst, glowed along +the horizon; beside the low parapet that bordered the street people were +loitering back from their afternoon promenade at the Cascine: here a +priest, there a soldier, now an Englishman on horseback, and then a +bearded artist; sometimes an oval-faced _contadina_, the broad brim of +whose finely-woven straw hat flapped over his eyes of mellow jet; and +again a trig nurse, with Saxon ringlets, dragging a petulant urchin along; +and over all these groups and figures was shed the beautiful smile of +parting day; and by them, under graceful bridges, flowed the turbid +stream, its volume doubled by the spring freshets. I surveyed the panorama +from an overhanging balcony, where I stood awaiting the appearance of a +friend upon whom I had called. Hearing a movement behind, I stepped back +into the _salon_, and found a middle-aged gentleman seated on a divan near +the window. We exchanged salutations and began to converse. He alluded, in +unexceptionable English, to the beauty of the hour. 'I came here from +Geneva,' he said. 'There I work--in Italy I recreate; and it is wonderful +how this country ministers to intellectual repose, even by the very +associations it excites. We feel a dream-like relation with the past, and +enter readily, for a time, into the _dolce-farniente_ spirit of the +people; and then return to task-work invigorated and with new zest.' There +was a bland, self-possessed, and paternal look about this chance +acquaintance that insensibly won my confidence and respect. He was the +image of a wise and serene maturity. His ample brow, his strong physique, +his affable manner, and kindly eye, suggested experience, intelligence, +and benignity. I was certain that he was a philosopher of some kind, and +fancied him an optimist; but the utter absence of pretension and the +simple candour of his address gave no hint of a man of renown. +Accordingly, I soon found myself engaged in a most pleasant, and to me +instructive colloquy. Following up the hint he had thrown out, I spoke of +the difficulty of combining mental toil with health--reverting in my own +mind to our American race of scholars, a majority of whom are confirmed +invalids. 'Ah!' said he, 'there is vast error on this subject. Be assured +that we were intended for intellectual labour, and that there is a way of +making it subservient to health. I will tell you a few rules founded on +experience. Vary the kind of work--let it be research one hour, meditation +another; collation to-day, and revision to-morrow. Do this on system; give +the first part of the day to the hardest study, the afternoon to exercise, +and the evening to social intercourse; let the mind be tasked when the +brain is most vigorous--that is, after sleep; and woo the latter blessing, +not in the feverish hour of thought and emotion, but after the gentle +exercise of the mind, which comes from pastime and friendliness.' I looked +at the hale, contented face of the speaker, about whom no sign of nervous +irritability or exhaustion was discoverable, and asked myself what +experience of mental toil could have led him to such inferences. He looked +like a temperate country gentleman, or unambitious and well-to-do citizen. +He then spoke of the changes he observed upon each successive visit to +Italy, of the climate of Switzerland, and the society of Geneva; then he +referred to America, divining at once that it was my country, and +exhibiting entire familiarity with all that had been accomplished there in +literature. He betrayed a keen sense of enjoyment, recognized a genial +influence in the scene before us, and gradually infected me with that +agreeable feeling only to be derived from what poor Cowper used to call +'comfortable people.' I led him to speak of his own method of life, which +was one of the most philosophical order. He considered occasional travel +and prudent habits the best _hygiène_ for a man of sedentary pursuits; and +the great secret both of health and successful industry the absolute +yielding up of one's consciousness to the business and the diversion of +the hour--never permitting the one to infringe in the least degree upon +the other. I felt an instinctive respect toward him, but at the same time +entirely at home in his company; the gentleman and the scholar appeared to +me admirably fused in, without overlaying, the man. Presently the friend +we mutually expected came in, and introduced me to Sismondi. I was fresh +from his _Italian Republics_ and _Literature of the South of Europe_, and +he realized my ideal of a humane and earnest historian. + +Quite in contrast with this tranquil and robust votary of letters was the +appearance and manner of Silvio Pellico. No one who has ever read the +chronicle of his imprisonments can forget the gentle and aspiring nature +just blooming into poetic development, which, by the relentless fiat of +Austrian tyranny, was cut off in a moment from home, intelligent +companionship, and graceful activity, and subjected to the loneliness, +privation, and torments of long and solitary confinement; nor is the +spirit in which he met the bitter reverse less memorable than its tragic +detail--recorded with so much simplicity, and borne with such loving +faith. When I arrived in Turin he was still an object of espionage, and it +was needful to seek him with caution. Agreeably to instructions previously +received, I went to a _café_ near the Strada Alfieri, just at nightfall, +and watched for the arrival of an _abbé_ remarkable for his manly beauty. +I handed him the card of a mutual friend, and made known my wishes. The +next day he conducted me through several arcades, and by many a group of +noble-looking Piedmontese soldiers, to a gateway, thence up a long flight +of steps to a door, at which he gave a significant knock. In a few moments +it was quietly opened. He whispered to the old _serva_, and we tarried in +an ante-chamber until a diminutive figure in black appeared, who received +me with a pensive kindliness that, to one acquainted with _Le Mie +Prigioni_, was fraught with pathos. I beheld in the pallor of that mild +face and expanded brow, and the purblind eyes, the blight of a dungeon. +His manner was subdued and nervous, and his very tones melancholy. I was +unprepared to find, after years of liberty, the effects of his experience +so visible, and felt almost guilty of profane curiosity in having thus +intruded upon his cherished seclusion. I had known other victims of the +same infernal tyranny; but they were men of sterner mould, who had +resisted their cruel fate by the force of will rather than the patience of +resignation. Pellico's very delicacy of organization barbed the arrows of +persecution; and when at length he was released, loneliness, hope +deferred, and mental torture had crushed the energy of his nature. The +sweetness of his autobiography was but the fragrance of the trampled +flower--too unelastic ever again to rise up in its early beauty. A smile +lighted up his brooding expression when I told him of the deep sympathy +his book had excited in America, and he grasped my hand with momentary +ardour; but the man too plainly reflected the martyr. The stifling air he +breathed under the leads of Venice and the damps of his Spielberg cell +seemed yet to weigh upon his soul; no glimmer of the patriotic fire which +beams from Francesca da Rimini, no ray of the vivacious observation that +beguiled his solitude and quickened his pen, redeemed the hopeless air of +the captive poet; the shadow of the power he had braved yet lay on his +form and face; and only the solace of filial love and the consolations of +religion gave hope to his existence. + +That is but a vulgar idea of authorship which estimates its worth by the +caprices of fashion or the prestige of immediate success. Like art, its +value is intrinsic. There are books, as there are pictures, which do not +catch the thoughtless eye; and yet are the gems of the virtuoso, the +oracles of the philosopher, and the consolations of the poet. We love +authors, as we love individuals, according to our latent affinities; and +the extent of the popular appreciation is no more a standard to us than +the world's estimate of our friend, whose nature we have tested by +faithful companionship and sympathetic intercourse. He who has not the +mental independence to be loyal to his own intellectual benefactors is as +much a heathen as one who repudiates his natural kin. Indeed, an honest +soul clings more tenaciously to neglected merit in authors as in men; +there is a chivalry of taste as of manners. Doubtless Lamb's zest for the +old English dramatists, Addison's admiration of Milton's poetry, and +Carlyle's devotion to German favourites, were all the more earnest and +keen because they were ignored by their neighbours. In the library, an +original mind is conscious of special and comparatively obscure friends; +as the lover of nature has his pet flower, and the lover of art his +favourite old master. It is well to obey these decided idiosyncrasies. +They point, like the divining-rod, to hidden streams peculiarly adapted to +our refreshment. I knew an old merchant that read no book except Boswell's +_Johnson_, and a black and hump-backed cook whose only imaginative feast +was the _Arabian Nights_. + +No one really can, indeed, love authors as a class without a catholic +taste. If thus equipped, how inexhaustible the field! He is independent of +the world. Is he retrospective in mood? Plutarch will array before him a +procession of heroes and sages. Does he yearn for conviviality? Fielding +will take him to a jolly tavern. Is he eager for intellectual communion? +Landor is at hand with a choice of 'imaginary conversations.' Would he +exercise causality? Bishop Butler will put to the test his power of +reasoning. Is he in need of a little gossip by way of recreation? Horace +Walpole will amuse by the hour. Is the society of a sensible woman wanted? +Call in Maria Edgeworth or Jane Austin. Is the bitterness of a jilted +lover in his heart? _Locksley Hall_ will relieve it. Would he stroll in +the forest? Evelyn or Bryant will take him there in a moment. By the +sea-shore? Crabbe and Byron are sympathetic guides. Are his thoughts +comprehensive and inclined for the generalities of literature? Open De +Staël or Hallam. + +The relation of authorship to society varies with political influences and +average culture. The class of degraded penwrights so often alluded to by +Fielding, the ferocious quarrels recorded of and by Pope and Johnson with +critics and publishers, are phases of literary life, which, if not +extinct, have become essentially modified with the progress of +civilization. Yet a quite recent quarterly reviewer speaks of this class +of men as 'a kind of ticket-of-leave lunatics;' and modern experiences, if +less dark than old annals of Grub Street, include some quite as remarkable +instances of reckless extravagance in prosperity and barbarous neglect in +adversity. The Bohemian class is confined to no epoch or country. Yet +charming is the group of authors that illustrate and signalize every +period of British history--an intellectual alleviation to the monotony of +fashionable, and the rancour of political life. Every era of French +government also has its brilliant _salon_ of philosophers and poets. Mrs. +Carter and Mrs. Montagu assembled, in their day, as exclusive a coterie as +used to cluster about Dryden's chair, dine with Sir Joshua Reynolds, keep +Burns's birthday at Edinburgh with Scott at the head of the table, rally +at Jeffrey's call, dispute with Hume, chat over Rogers's breakfast, +fraternize with the lakers at Keswick and Grasmere, or pass an evening +with Lamb. From the days of Shakspeare to those of Evelyn and Sydney +Smith, from La Fontaine to Lamartine, from Klopstock to Goëthe, and from +Mather to Channing, every cultivated city abroad and at home has boasted +its author circle, to which kindred tastes ever revert with zest, and +whose traditions as well as 'works' prolong a spell more refined and +memorable than any other social prestige. Weimar, Bordeaux, Florence, +Edinburgh, and Boston, as well as London and Paris, are thus consecrated +by reminiscences of Goëthe, Schiller, Montaigne, Alfieri, Wilson, +Mackenzie, some Concord Sage, or Spanish Historian, some Autocrat, Wizard +of the North, or Ettrick Shepherd of the pen. To have seen Niccolini on +the 'Lung' Arno; Elizabeth Browning at a Casa Guidi window; Rossini, the +historical novelist, at a bookstore in Pisa; Hillhouse under the New Haven +elms; Hawthorne at the Athenæum; Elia at his India-house desk; poor Heine +on his 'mattress grave,' or Freiligrath at his bank-counter, requires but +the perspective of time to be as impressive or winsome an experience as +the first survivors of Pope, Chatterton, Milton, or Burke realized in +rehearsing their personal cognizance of these famous authors. Such is the +instinctive attraction of congenial or eminent authorship. If this subject +were nomenclated and analyzed in the naturalistic way, there is scarcely a +sphere of humanity or a form of character which might not be identified +with or illustrated by authorship; the mad, the mendicant, the +charlatan--combative, contemplative, heroic, and sybarite,--are but a few +of the varieties which literary biography reveals. Their amours, diseases, +profits, calamities, triumphs, quarrels, personal tastes and habits, +domestic life, and most individual traits and fortunes, have been minutely +recorded, so as to form, on the whole, the best and most accessible +psychological cabinet for the student of human nature. Of no other class +of men and women with whom we never had personal acquaintance, do we know +so many details; Chatterton's despair, Young's skull-light, Milton's +organ, Berkeley's tar-water, Coleridge's opium, Swift's lady-loves, +Cowper's hymns and hares, Rogers's table-talk, Scott's dogs, Steele's +debts, Lamb's folios, are as familiar to us as if they appertained to some +neighbour or kinsman. The prisons of Cervantes, Raleigh, Pellico, Hunt, +and Montgomery, have a pathetic charm which no other record of captivity +boasts. Even the self-delusions of authors awaken a considerate interest; +the mistaken judgment of Petrarch and Milton, in regard to the comparative +merit of their writings; and the exaggerated estimate of their own verses +by such able statesmen as Frederic and Richelieu, tend to enhance the +mysteries of the craft and sanction its illusions. But it must be +confessed that the romance of authorship is fast disappearing in its +reality; so numerous have become the votaries of a once rare pursuit, so +common the renown, so universal the practice, that the individual and +characteristic, the curious and interesting elements thereof, are more and +more merged in the commonplace and familiar. + +A distinction has often been insisted on between the critical and the +creative in literature; but modern criticism, in its best development, is +essentially reproductive; so intimate, deep, and affluent is its dealing +with authors, that they often are restored in all their vital worth; and +the process has endeared such writers as Lamb, Hazlitt, Carlyle, Arnold, +and St. Beuve, as true intellectual benefactors. Such philosophical and +æsthetic interpreters of authorship have engendered an eclectic +appreciation and enjoyment of authors, and made us what Allston calls +'wide likers.' Hence the prevalence and promise of what may be called a +cosmopolitan, in distinction to a provincial taste, whereby we learn to +value the greatest diversities of style, subject, and character in +literature. Fastidious and severely disciplined minds, indeed, coldly +ignore certain authors, and warmly espouse others; but to a spirit at once +generous and cultivated, sympathetic and intelligent, though a special +charm will invest favourite authors, all of the fraternity who are genuine +have a recognized claim to grateful recognition; and even the unequal and +incongruous development of modern English literature, incident to the +absence of what Matthew Arnold calls 'any centre of intelligent and urbane +spirit,' like the French Academy. Desirable as such a discipline and +standard is in quelling eccentricity and incorrectness, the free and +energetic development, the honest, though sometimes rude, exercise of +authorship in our vernacular, is no small compensation. We confess a +partiality for the richly-diversified phases of mental life thus +induced--an eclectic relish for the varieties of national and personal +characteristics. The artistic French, the meditative German, the practical +English writers, have each their attraction and use; the desultory style +of Richter, the quaint individuality of Lamb, the verbose dignity of +Johnson, the mosaic finish of Gray, the grotesque eloquence of Carlyle, +the flowing rhetoric of Macaulay, Wordsworth's pastoral isolation, Scott's +feudal enthusiasm, Byron's intense consciousness, Shelley's disinterested +idealism, the homely images of Crabbe, and the sensuous luxury of Keats, +are all, in their way and at times, accordant with our mental wants, +congenial to our receptive moods. Why should not we tolerate and enjoy the +various elements of literature as fully and fondly as those of nature and +society? Does it not argue a narrowness of mind inconsistent with genuine +intellectual and moral health to perversely confine our appreciation of +authorship to certain schools, forms, and individuals? Are not the +philosophical, the piquant, the earnest, the playful, the solemn, gay, +impressive, winsome, acute, wise, and humorous traits and triumphs of +written thought as legitimate, in their infinite variety, as means of +human culture, discipline, and pleasure, as the myriad tints and tones of +nature, and the diversities of character and manners? A true lover of +authors will not only find something to enjoy and appropriate in the most +diverse forms of expression and qualities of genius, both in the +literature of power and in that of knowledge as finely discriminated by De +Quincey; but will separate the inspired and the journeyman work of each +author, and do justice to what is genuine while repudiating the +conventional. If what Goëthe maintained is literally true, and genuine +authorship is the reflex of consciousness upon outward life, then all its +spontaneous products must have a vital element of human life, love, and +truth, more or less congenial to all readers of candid, clear, and humane +instincts: for we agree with a liberal and acute critic, when he says that +the gift of literary genius 'lies in the faculty of being happily inspired +by a certain intellectual and spiritual atmosphere--by a certain order of +ideas; of dealing divinely with these ideas, presenting them in the most +effective and attractive combinations, making beautiful works of them.' + +It is a new and glorious era in our experience of books when the vital +significance of authorship is heartily realized; dilletantism, excusable +in the novice, gives place to the worship of truth. To write for the mere +sake of writing, to amuse with the pen, becomes in our estimation what it +is--a thing of less interest than the most simple and familiar phenomena +of nature. As life reveals itself, and character matures, we long, above +all, for reality; we perceive that growth is our welfare, and that +earnestness, faith, and new truth are the only joy of a manly intellect. +Then we read to nerve our moral energies, to extend the scope of +perception, and to deepen the experience of the soul: the butterflies of +literature allure no longer; the imitators we pass by; but the deep +thinkers, the original, the brave, lead us on to explore, analyze, and +conquer. 'Literature,' says Schlegel, 'according to the spirit in which it +is pursued, is an infamy, a pastime, a dry labour, a handicraft, an art, a +science, a virtue;' and this diversity is true, not only of authors in +general, but sometimes of the same individual. Many a poet, whose early +utterance was inspired, has degenerated into a hack, a truckster, and a +mercenary penman; and many a youthful dabbler in letters, by some deep +experience, has been matured into the bold advocate or heroic pioneer in +the world of thought. + +We soon learn heartily to sympathize with one of the unfortunate originals +of Goëthe's _Werther_, and declare with him,--'I have resolved in future +to take good care how I write anything to an author, save what all the +world may see;' only extending the prudential resolve to +conversation,--for whatever advance has been made in refinement in the use +of language, in the abuse of confidence modern writers are so destitute of +scruples, that the sanctities of life and social intercourse have no +greater or more profane intruder than the author. + +Nor is the 'heart of courtesy' the only high quality risked by the +vocation; it almost seems, in vain and unchivalric natures, to sap manhood +itself. Some one has said,--'The man who has learned to read has lost one +portion of his courage; if he writes verses, he has lost a double +portion.' There is a fatal fluency, an arrogant expressiveness, whereby +the robust and honest material of character is, as it were, evaporated in +words; for nothing characterizes the genuine author more than a reticent +tone, an integrity of utterance, which makes it apparent that his +authorship, instead of a graft, is a growth of his best humanity. So +proverbial is the social barrenness of the craft, in its average +conventional scope, that a facetious Florentine barber, in one of the best +of modern historical novels, _Romola_, is quite appropriately made to +say,--'I am sorely afraid that the good wine of my understanding is going +to run off at the spigot of authorship, and I shall be left an empty cask, +with an odour of dregs, like many other incomparable geniuses of my +acquaintance.' All meanness is disenchanting; but selfish economy of +intellectual treasures, and egotistical insensibility to the merit of +others, not only robs the author of all sympathetic charm, but almost +invariably signalizes his essential mediocrity or unfounded pretensions. + +Under the two diverse aspects of an inspiration and a career, authorship +thus offers the extremes of attraction and antagonism to candid and +earnest souls; if the spontaneous gift and charm of the former are justly +endeared to all lovers of humanity, the artificial conditions, worldly +motives, and forced relations of the latter, often dispel the illusions +of fame in the realities of vulgar notoriety and mercenary zeal. We can +well understand how a reverent, delicate, and true nature, like Maurice de +Guèrin, shrinks from professional authorship, when the original beauty and +truth of his utterances led his friends to urge that vocation upon him: +'The literary career,' he writes, 'seems to me unreal, both in its own +essence and in the rewards one seeks from it; and, therefore, fatally +marred by a secret absurdity.' + +At this moment our vernacular is the only tongue in which men can express +themselves fearlessly; it appropriately enshrines the literature of +freedom. We seldom realize this noble distinction of the English language. +I was half-asleep one afternoon, in the cabin of a steamer in the Bay of +Naples, when suddenly the violent pitching of the vessel ceased, and I +hastened on deck to learn the reason of the change, and found, to my +surprise, that we were returning into the harbour, the captain having +decided that it was too great a risk to venture to sea in such a gale. +Pleasant as was the transition from tossing waves to smooth water, every +traveller in that region who has gone through the business of a +departure--the passport signatures, the tussle with porters, drivers, and +boatmen, the leave-takings, packing-ups, directions at post-office and +banker's, an embarkation in the midst of cries, rushings to and fro, +disputes for gratuities, beggars, missing baggage, attempts to secure a +berth, wringing of hands, waving of handkerchiefs, and, it may be, +embraces at parting,--every traveller, cognizant of this experience, will +understand how vexatious it was, within an hour after this tantalizing +process, to find one's self, in travelling costume, once more in the city +for the afternoon, with no lodging, no appointment, and no sight-seeing to +do. I was not long in resolving to visit once more my old dining-place, +the '_Corona di Ferro_.' At the opposite table to that at which I was +seated, appeared a handsome young man, with a dark, intelligent eye, and a +bearing indicative of spirit and courtesy. Seeing me hesitate over the +_carte_, he suggested a dish which had proved _molto buono_ that day, and +having followed the kindly counsel, we engaged in a desultory chat about +the weather, the opera, the last news from France, &c., and by the time +dessert came on, had established quite a pleasant understanding. At length +he made an inquiry based upon the idea that he was addressing an +Englishman. I corrected the error, and his politeness at once warmed into +enthusiasm at the discovery that he was talking with an American. After +dinner he invited me to his apartments. I found the sitting-room adorned +with pictures and littered with books. Having ordered coffee, we were soon +engaged in a serious discussion of literary subjects, in which my new +friend proved a tasteful votary. He wished for a definite statement as to +the extent of the liberty of the press in the United States. I explained +it; and he became highly excited, paced the room, quoted Alfieri, sighed, +pressed his brow, and at length flung himself into a chair, declaring +that, if it were not for kindred who had claims upon him, he would +emigrate at once to America. To account for his feelings, he showed me a +pile of MSS., the publication of which had been prohibited by the +government censors on account of their liberal sentiment. He then +exhibited several beautiful poems founded on scientific truths, yet +mystically involving great and humane principles--a _ruse_ he had been +compelled to resort to in order to express publicly his opinions. As I +recognized the evidences of genius, watched his chafed mood, and noted his +manly spirit, I felt deeply the crushing influence of despotism upon +authorship, and realized the natural antagonism between poets and kings. + +There is no greater fallacy than that involved in the notion of an +essential diversity between an author and his books. Professed opinions do +not reveal the truth of character, but unconscious phases of style, habits +of thought, and tones of expression, like what is called natural +language, make us thoroughly acquainted with the man. Is not Jeremy +Taylor's religious sentiment manifest in the very method of his utterance? +Can we not see at a glance the improvidence and the fascination of +Sheridan in the tenor of his plays? Who would not avouch the honesty of +John L. Stephens after reading his travels? What reverent heart is not +magnetized by the genuineness of devotion in Watts, however crudely +expressed? Is not prudence signified in the very style of Franklin? Are we +not braced with the self-confident frankness of Cooper in the spirit as +well as the characters of his nautical and forest tales? Critics betray +their arrogant temper under the most courteous phrases; a gentleman is +still a gentleman, and a puppy a puppy, on paper as in life; the sham and +the true are equally discernible in print and in society. Montaigne +exhibits his worldly wisdom as plainly in his essays as he ever did in his +acts. It is not, therefore, the insidious but the obvious perils of +authorship that threaten the novice. Lamentable is it to see mediocre men +take up as a vocation either literature or art, for in both a certain +amount of _character_ alone insures respectability; and this is less +requisite in pursuits that do not so openly challenge observation. + +One day, I was told a gentleman had called and waited for me in the +drawing-room. As I entered, he was gazing from the window in the shadow of +a damask curtain, which threw a warm tint upon as strongly moulded a face +as I remembered to have seen in one so young. His forehead was compactly +rounded, his hair curly and raven, and his eye dark and luminous. As I +approached, he handed me a note of introduction from a friend, refused the +proffered seat, and wore so earnest and grave an expression that I almost +thought he was the bearer of a challenge. 'Sir,' he began, 'I have come to +you for sympathy in a great undertaking. I wish to be cheered in a +mission, encouraged in a career, advised in an experiment.' There was a +certain wildness in the manner of this sententious address which breathed +of an excited fancy. I expressed a willingness to aid him to the extent of +my humble ability. He drew a thick packet from his coat, and proceeded: 'I +am a native of a little village in a neighbouring State. My father is an +agriculturist, and has endeavoured to render me content with that lot; but +there is something _here_'--and he laid a large red hand on his capacious +breast--'that rebels against the decree. I aspire to the honours of +literature. I long to utter myself to the world. Here is a tragedy and +some lyrics; and I have come to town to test my fortune as an author.' I +saw that he was an enthusiast, and calmly pointed out the obstacles to +success. He became impatient. I enlarged on the healthfulness and wisdom +of a country life, on the precarious subsistence incident to pencraft. His +eye flashed with anger. I urged him to consider well the risk he incurred, +the danger of failure, the advantages of a reliable vocation, the comfort +of an independent though secluded existence. He advanced toward me with an +indignant stride. 'Sir,' he exclaimed, 'I have been misinformed; you are +not the man I took you for; farewell, for ever!' and he rushed from the +house. Six months had elapsed, and I was sitting over a book in my quiet +room one day, when a terrific knock at the door aroused me, and an instant +after the stranger entered and impetuously grasped my hand. 'Sir--my dear +friend, I mean,'--he said, 'I have done you injustice, and I have come to +apologize. For a month after my former interview, I passed a feverish +novitiate, hawking my manuscripts around, deceived by plausible members of +the trade, snubbed by managers, frozen out of the sanctums of editors, +yawned at by casual audiences, baffled at every turn, until worn out, +mortified, and despairing, I went home. The feel of the turf, the breath +of the wind, the lowing of the kine, the very scent of hay was refreshing. +I thought over your counsel, and found it true. I now farm the paternal +acres on shares, write verses during the long winter evenings, lead the +choir on Sundays, am to marry the pride of the village next week, and am +here to beg your pardon, and invite you to my wedding.' + +The delectable quality of authorship is its impersonality. Consider a +moment the privilege and the immunity. If we address a multitude or an +individual, the impression may be pleasing or wearisome, but courtesy +requires that it be endured with equanimity. A book is unobtrusive, +silent, objective. It can be taken up or let alone. In it, if genuine, +there is a thought that craves hospitality to be caught in a favourable +mood, as the fallow hillock receives the seed borne on the vagrant wind. +It may take root, and the originator thereof has unconsciously given birth +to an undying impulse or yielded spiritual refreshment. The whole process +is like that of nature,--unostentatious, benign, and of inestimable +benefit; and yet how latent, beyond observation, secreted in +consciousness! All power of expression--whether by means of pen, colour, +or chisel,--all artistic development, is but a new vocabulary that reveals +character. The author and the artist differ from their less gifted fellows +simply in this--that they have more language; the endowment does not +change their natures; if coarse, artificial, vain,--if brave, truthful, or +shallow,--they thus appear in books and marble, or on canvas; and hence it +is that character is the true gauge of authorship, and wins or repels +confidence, respect, and love, in the same proportion as do living men. +'By their fruit shall ye know them.' Therefore authors themselves most +effectually disenchant readers. They are disloyal to their high mission; +they compromise their own ideal, write gossip instead of truth, describe +themselves instead of nature, dip their pens in the venom of malevolence, +corrupt their style with vulgarity, keep no faith with aspiration, truckle +to power and interest, and so bring their vocation itself into merited +disdain. + +How charming, on the other hand, is the spontaneous bard, who sings from +an overflowing and musical nature! There is a court in one of the most +populous quarters of London which rejoices in the name of Spring Gardens. +Doubtless the spot, at one time, was a rural domain; at present, a few +trees peering over a wall, and a retired and quaint look about some of the +brick domiciles that line the street, alone justify the pleasant name it +bears. In one of these houses is the office of the Commissioners of +Lunacy; and there, one winter morning, I had the satisfaction of a brief +_tête-à-tête_ with Procter. His plainly-cut frock-coat, long and black, +his white hair and quiet bearing, made him appear a curate such as +Goldsmith portrayed. It is a curious vocation for a poet--that of testing +the wits of people suspected of being out of their mind,--and a painful +one for a sensitive nature, to inspect the asylums devoted to their use. +But I remembered that Procter's early taste drew him into intimate love +and recognition of the old English dramatists, whose natural element was +the terrible in human passion and woe; I considered the profound +tenderness of his muse, and I felt that even the tragic scenes it was his +duty to witness and to study, were not without a certain sad affinity with +genius. Kean visited madhouses to perfect his conception of Lear; and he +who sings of human weal and sorrow is taught to deepen and hallow his +strain by the misery as well as the amenities of his life. The heart of +courtesy, the mood of aspiration, have not been quelled in Procter by the +stern professional business which is his daily task. They loomed up even +in that dusky office, and kept faith with my previous ideal; but it was +especially in the poet's eye that I read the spirit of his muse; ineffably +mild and tender is its expression, deepening under the influence of +emotion like the tremulous cadence of music that is born of sentiment. I +saw there the soul that dictated 'How many summers, love, hast thou been +mine?' 'Send down thy pitying angel, God!' and so many other lays of +affection endeared to all who can appreciate the genuine lyrics of the +heart identified with the name of Barry Cornwall. + +With all its occasional disenchantment, my love of authors imparted a +singular charm to the experience of travel; the lapse of time and new +localities united then to revive the dreams of youth. What a new grace the +first view of the hills of Spain derived from the memory of Cervantes, and +the gleanings in that romantic field of Lockhart and Irving; how rife with +associations was the dreary night-ride beyond Terracina, near the scene of +Cicero's murder; and what an intense life awoke in desolate Ravenna, at +the sight of Dante's tomb! The rustling of dry reeds in the gardens of +Sallust had an eloquent significance; the figures on Alfieri's monument, +in Santa Croce, seemed to breathe in the twilight; the rosemary plucked in +Rousseau's old garden at Montmorency had a scent of fragrant memory; in +the _cafés_ at Venice, Goldoni's characters appeared to be talking, and +Byron's image floated on her waters like a sculptor's dream; in the +Florentine villa Boccacio's spirit lingered; in the Cenci palace Shelley's +deep eyes glistened; in the shade of the pyramid of Cestus the muse of +Keats scattered flowers; on the shores of Como hovered the creations of +Manzoni, and a cliff in Brittany rose like a cenotaph to Chateaubriand; +while the cadence of Virgil's line chimed with the lapsing wave on the +beach at Naples. I thought, at Lausanne, of Gibbon's last touch to the +_Rise and Fall_, and his reverie that night; sought the tablet that covers +Parnell's dust at Chester, craved Montgomery's blessing at Sheffield, +looked for Sterne's monk at Calais, and beheld the crown on Tasso's cold +temples beneath the cypresses of St. Onofrio. Defoe lighted up gloomy +Cripplegate, Addison walked in the groves of Oxford, Johnson threaded the +crowd in Fleet Street, and Milton's touch seemed to wake the organ-keys of +St. Giles. But it is not requisite to wander from home for such +experiences. + +It was a delicious morning in June. I had passed the previous night at a +village on the Hudson; a violent thunder-storm just before dawn had laid +the dust, freshened the leaves, and purified as well as cooled the sultry +air. Attracted by the sweet breath and vivid tints of the landscape, I +determined to walk to a steamboat-landing four miles off, and on my way +make a long-meditated visit to Sunnyside. Taking an umbrageous path that +wound through a shady lane, I sauntered along, sometimes in view of the +crystal expanse of Tappan Zee, sometimes catching a glimpse of the hoary +and tufted Palisades, and again pausing under a majestic elm on whose +pendent spray a yellow-bird chirped and swung, or from whose dense green +canopy a locust trilled its drowsy note. The breeze was scented with +clover and woodbine; sleek cattle grazed in the meadows; amber clouds +flecked a heaven of azure; fields of grain waved like a shoreless lake of +plumes; the maize stood thick and tasselled; the lofty chestnuts shook +their feathery bloom; now and then a solitary crow hovered above, or a +brown robin hopped cheerily by the wayside. It was one of those clear, +serene, luxurious days of early summer which, in our capricious climate, +occasionally unite the gorgeous hues of the Orient with the balm and the +softness of Italy; pearly outlines stretched along the hills, the broad +river gleamed in sunshine, and every shade of emerald flashed or deepened +over the wide groves and teeming farms. As I drew near to Irving's +cottage, the bees were contentedly humming round the locusts, and the +ivy-leaves that clustered thickly about the old gables were dripping with +the tears of night; every bugle of the honeysuckle was a delicate censer, +and the turf and hedge wore their brightest colours; even the old +weathercock, trophy of an ancient colonial Stadt-house, dazzled the eye as +it caught the lateral rays of the sun; the fowls strutted about with +unwonted complacency, and the house-dog bounded through the beaded grass +as if exhilarated by the scene. On the veranda that overlooks the river, +from which it is divided by a little grove, sat our favourite author, with +a book on his knee, the embodiment of thoughtful content. His home looked +the symbol of his genius, and his expression the reflex of his life. They +harmonized with a rare completeness, and fulfilled to the heart the +picture which imagination had drawn. Here was no castle in the air, but a +realized daydream. Sleepy Hollow was at hand; an English cottage, like +that to which poor Leslie brought his angel wife; a Dutch roof such as +covered Van Tassell's memorable feast; the stream up which floated the +incorrigible Dolph; the mountain range whose echoes resounded with the +mysterious bowls, and where Rip took his long nap--all identified with the +author's virgin fame,--gave the vital interest of charming association to +the silent grace of nature; and, above all, the originator of the spell +was there, as genial, humorous, and imaginative, as if he had never +wandered from the primal haunts of his childhood and his fame. That he had +done so, and to good purpose, however, was evident in his conversation. +News had just arrived of a new French _émeute_, and that led us to speak +of the first Revolution; and Irving gave some impressive reminiscences of +his visits to the localities of Paris which are identified with those +scenes of violence and blood. He recurred to them with keen sensibility +and in graphic details. It was delightful thus to commune with a man whose +name was associated with my first conscious relish of native authorship, +and detect the same moral zest and picturesque insight in his talk which +so long ago had endeared his writings. I felt anew the conservative power +of a love of nature and an artistic organization; they had kept thus fresh +the sympathies, and thus enjoyable the mind. Retirement was as grateful +now as when he sought it as a juvenile dreamer; the noble river won as +fond a glance as when first explored as a truant urchin; and the kindly +spirit beamed as truly in his smile as when he mused in the Alhambra, or +walked to Melrose with Scott for a _cicerone_. My authormania revived in +all its original fervour; here were the mellow hues on the picture that +beguiled my boyhood; and the man, the scene, and the author blended in a +graceful unity of effect, without a single incongruity. + + + + +PICTURES. + + 'Look on this picture, and on this.'--HAMLET. + + +It is not surprising that pictures, with all their attraction for eye and +mind, are, to many honest and intelligent people, too much of a riddle to +be altogether pleasant. What with the oracular dicta of self-constituted +arbiters of taste, the discrepancies of popular writers on art, the jargon +of connoisseurship, the vagaries of fashion, the endless theories about +colour, style, chiaro-oscuro composition, design, imitation, nature, +schools, painting has become rather a subject for the gratification of +vanity and the exercise of pedantic dogmatism, than a genuine source of +enjoyment and culture, of sympathy and satisfaction,--like music, +literature, scenery, and other recognized intellectual recreations. In +these latter spheres it is not thought presumptuous to assert and enjoy +individual taste; the least independent talkers will bravely advocate +their favourite composer, describe the landscape which has charmed or the +book which has interested them; but when a picture is the subject of +discussion, few have the moral courage to say what they think; there is a +self-distrust of one's own impressions, and even convictions, in regard to +what is represented on canvas, that never intervenes between thought and +expression where ideas or sentiments are embodied in writing or in melody. +Nor is this to be ascribed wholly to the technicalities of pictorial art, +in which so few are deeply versed, but in a great measure to the +incongruous and irrelevant associations which have gradually overlaid and +mystified a subject in itself as open to the perception of a candid mind +and healthy senses as any other department of human knowledge. Half the +want of appreciation of pictures arises from ignorance, not of the +principles of art, but of the elements of nature. Good observers are rare. +The peasant's criticism upon Moreland's 'Farmyard'--that three pigs never +eat together without one foot at least in the trough--was a strict +inference from personal knowledge of the habits of the animal; so the +surgeon found a head of the Baptist untrue, because the skin was not +withdrawn somewhat from the line of decollation. These and similar +instances show that some knowledge of or interest in the thing represented +is essential to the appreciation of pictures. Soldiers and their wives +crowded around Wilkie's 'Chelsea Pensioners,'[9] when first exhibited; +French soldiers enjoy the minutiæ of Vernet's battle-pieces; a lover can +judge of his betrothed's miniature; and the most unrefined sportsman will +point out the niceties of breed in one of Landseer's dogs. To the want of +correspondence so frequent between the subject of a picture and the +observer's experience may, therefore, be attributed no small degree of the +prevalent want of sympathy and confident judgment. 'Gang into an +exhibition,' says the Ettrick Shepherd, 'and only look at a crowd o' +Cockneys, some with specs and some wi' quizzing-glasses, and faces without +ae grain o' meaning in them o' ony kind whatsomever, a' glowering, +perhaps, at a picture o' one o' nature's maist fearfu' or magnificent +warks! What, I ask, could a Prince's Street maister or missy ken o' sic a +wark mair than a red deer wad ken o' the inside o' George's Street +Assembly-rooms?' + +The incidental associations of pictures link them to history, tradition, +and human character, in a manner which indefinitely enhances their +suggestiveness. Horace Walpole wove a standard collection of anecdotes +from the lives and works of painters. The frescoes of St. Mark's, at +Florence, have a peculiar significance to the spectator familiar with Fra +Angelico's life. One of the most pathetic and beautiful tragedies in +modern literature is that which a Danish poet elaborated from Correggio's +artist career. Lamb's great treasure was a print from Da Vinci, which he +called 'My Beauty,' and its exhibition to a literal Scotchman gave rise to +one of the richest jokes in Elia's record. The pen-drawing Andre made of +himself, the night before his execution--the curtain painted in the space +where Faliero's portrait should have been, in the ducal palace at Venice, +and the head of Dante, discovered by Mr. Kirkup, on the wall of the +Bargello, at Florence--convey impressions far beyond the mere lines and +hues they exhibit; each is a drama, a destiny. And the hard but true +lineaments of Holbein, the aërial grace of Malbone's 'Hours,' Albert +Durer's mediæval sanctities, Overbeck's conservative self-devotion, a +market-place by Ostade, Reynolds's 'Strawberry Girl,' one of Copley's +colonial grandees in a New England farmer's parlour, a cabinet gem by +Greuze, a dog or sheep of Landseer's, the misty depths of Turner's +'Carthage,' Domenichino's 'Sibyl,' Claude's 'Sunset,' or Allston's +'Rosalie'--how much of eras in art, events in history, national tastes, +and varieties of genius, do they each foreshadow and embalm! Even when no +special beauty or skill is manifest, the character of features transmitted +by pictorial art, their antiquity or historical significance, often lends +a mystery and meaning to the effigies of humanity. In the carved faces of +old German church choirs and altars, the existent facial peculiarities of +race are curiously evident; a Grecian life breathes from many a profile +in the Elgin marbles, and a sacred marvel invests the exhumed giants of +Nineveh; in the cartoons of Raphael, and the old Gobelin tapestries, are +hints of what is essential in the progress and the triumphs of painting. +Considered as a language, how definitely is the style of painters +associated with special forms of character and spheres of life! 'There +certainly never was a painter,' says a traveller in Spain of Murillo, +'who, without much imagination, and telling no story, could yet vision his +eyes with such pure love, and make lips so parting with prayer, as +Murillo; himself a father, he loved to paint the child-Saviour in +conjunction with thin-faced saints.' It is this variety of human +experience, typified and illustrated on canvas, that forms our chief +obligations to the artist; through him our perception of and acquaintance +with our race--its individuality and career, its phases and aspects--are +indefinitely enlarged. 'The greatest benefit,' says a late writer, 'we owe +to the artist, whether painter, poet, or novelist, is the _extension of +our sympathies_. Art is the nearest thing to life; it is a mode of +amplifying our experience and extending our contact with our +fellow-creatures beyond the bounds of our personal lot.' + +'A room with pictures in it, and a room without pictures,' says an +æsthetic essayist, 'differ by nearly as much as a room with windows and a +room without windows. Nothing, we think, is more melancholy, particularly +to a person who has to pass much time in his room, than blank walls with +nothing on them; for pictures are loopholes of escape to the soul, leading +it to other spheres. It is such an inexpressible relief to the person +engaged in writing, or even reading, on looking up, not to have his line +of vision chopped square off by an odious white wall, but to find his soul +escaping, as it were, through the frame of an exquisite picture, to other +beautiful and perhaps idyllic scenes, where the fancy for a moment may +revel, refreshed and delighted. Is it winter in your world? Perhaps it is +summer in the picture; what a charming momentary change and contrast! And +thus pictures are consolers of loneliness; they are a sweet flattery to +the soul; they are a relief to the jaded mind; they are windows to the +imprisoned thought; they are books; they are histories and sermons--which +we can read without the trouble of turning over the leaves.' + +The effect of a picture is increased by isolation and surprise. I never +realized the physiognomical traits of Madame de Maintenon until her +portrait was encountered in a solitary country-house, of whose +drawing-room it was the sole ornament; and the romance of a miniature by +Malbone first came home to me when an ancient dame, in the costume of the +last century, with trembling fingers drew one of her husband from an +antique cabinet, and descanted on the manly beauty of the deceased +original, and the graceful genius of the young and lamented artist. +Hazlitt wrote an ingenious essay on _A Portrait by Vandyke_, which gives +us an adequate idea of what such a masterpiece is to the eye and mind of +genuine artistic perception and sympathy. Few sensations, or rather +sentiments, are more inextricably made up of pleasure and sadness than +that with which we contemplate (as is not infrequent in some old gallery +of Europe) a portrait which deeply interests or powerfully attracts us, +and whose history is irrevocably lost. A better homily on the evanescence +of human love and fame can scarcely be imagined: a face alive with moral +personality and human charms, such as win and warm our stranger eyes; yet +the name, subject, artist, owner, all lost in oblivion! To pause before an +interesting but 'unknown portrait' is to read an elegy as pathetic as +Gray's. + +The mechanical processes by which nature is so closely imitated, and the +increase of which during the last few years is one of the most remarkable +facts in science, may, at the first glance, appear to have lessened the +marvellous in art, by making available to all the exact representation of +still-life. But, when duly considered, the effect is precisely the +reverse; for exactly in proportion as we become familiar with the +mechanical production of the similitudes of natural and artificial +objects, do we instinctively demand higher powers of conception, greater +spiritual expression in the artist. The discovery of Daguerre and its +numerous improvements, and the unrivalled precision attained by +photography, render exact imitation no longer a miracle of crayon or +palette; these must now create as well as reflect, invent and harmonize as +well as copy, bring out the soul of the individual and of the landscape, +or their achievements will be neglected in favour of the fac-similes +obtainable through sunshine and chemistry. The best photographs of +architecture, statuary, ruins, and, in some cases, of celebrated pictures, +are satisfactory to a degree which has banished mediocre sketches, and +even minutely-finished but literal pictures. Specimens of what is called +'Nature-printing,' which gives an impression directly from the veined +stone, the branching fern, or the sea-moss, are so true to the details as +to answer a scientific purpose; natural objects are thus lithographed +without the intervention of pencil or ink. And these several discoveries +have placed the results of mere imitative art within reach of the mass; in +other words, her prose language--that which mechanical science can +utter--is so universal, that her poetry--that which must be conceived and +expressed through individual genius, the emanation of the soul--is more +distinctly recognized and absolutely demanded from the artist, in order to +vindicate his claim to that title, than ever before. + +Perhaps, indeed, the scope which painting offers to experimental, +individual, and prescriptive taste, the loyalty it invokes from the +conservative, the 'infinite possibilities' it offers to the imaginative, +the intimacy it promotes with nature and character, are the cause of so +much originality and attractiveness in its votaries. The lives of +painters abound in the characteristic, the adventurous, and the romantic. +Open Vasari, Walpole, or Cunningham, at random, and one is sure to light +upon something odd, genial, or exciting. One of the most popular novelists +of our day assured me that, in his opinion, the richest unworked vein for +his craft, available in these days of civilized uniformity, is artist-life +at Rome, to one thoroughly cognizant of its humours and aspirations, its +interiors and vagrancies, its self-denials and its resources. I have +sometimes imagined what a story the old white dog, who so long frequented +the 'Lepri' and the 'Caffé Greco,' and attached himself so capriciously to +the brother artists of his deceased master, could have told, if blessed +with memory and language. He had tasted the freedom and the zest of +artist-life in Rome, and scorned to follow trader or king. He preferred +the odour of canvas and oil to that of conservatories, and had more frolic +and dainty morsels at an _al fresco_ of the painters, in the Campagna, +than the kitchen of an Italian prince could furnish. His very name +betokened good cheer, and was pronounced after the manner of the pert +waiters who complacently enunciate a few words of English. _Bif-steck_ was +a privileged dog; and though occasionally made the subject of a practical +joke, taught absurd tricks, sent on fools' errands, and his white coat +painted like a zebra, these were but casual troubles; he was a sensible +dog to despise them, when he could enjoy such quaint companionship, behold +such experiments in colour and drawing, serve as a model himself, and go +on delicious sketching excursions to Albano and Tivoli, besides inhaling +tobacco-smoke and hearing stale jests and love soliloquies _ad infinitum_. +I am of _Bif-steck's_ opinion. There is no such true, earnest, humorous, +and individual life, in these days of high civilization, as that of your +genuine painter; impoverished as it often is, baffled in its aspirations, +unregarded by the material and the worldly, it often rears and keeps pure +bright, genial natures whose contact brings back the dreams of youth. It +is pleasant, too, to realize, in a great commercial city, that man 'does +not live by bread alone,' that fun is better than furniture, and a private +resource of nature more prolific of enjoyment than financial investments. +It is rare comfort here, in the land of bustle and sunshine, to sit in a +tempered light and hear a man sing or improvise stories over his work; to +behold once more vagaries of costume; to let the eye rest upon pictorial +fragments of Italy--the 'old familiar faces' of Roman models, the endeared +outlines of Apennine hills, the _contadina_ bodice and the brigand hat, +until these objects revive to the heart all the romance of travel. + +Vernet's sympathies were excited by the misfortunes of a worthy tradesman +of Marseilles, and he attended the sheriff's auction at the bankrupt's +house, where, among the crowd, he recognized a would-be _connoisseur_ in +art, of ample wealth. The painter fixed his eyes upon a dim and mediocre +picture on the wall, and bid fifteen francs; immediately the rich amateur +scented a prize; a long contest ensued, and at length the picture was +knocked off to Vernet's antagonist for so large a sum that the honest +bankrupt was enabled to pay his creditors in full, and recommence business +with a handsome capital. With the progress of civilization pictures have +grown in permanent market value. A Quaker who incurred the reproach of his +brethren for securing a Wouverman for a large sum, was excused for this +'vanity' by his shrewd friends, when he demonstrated to them that he had +made an excellent investment. Literature affords many illustrations of the +romance of the pictorial art, of which, among our own authors, Allston and +Hawthorne have given memorable examples in _Monaldi_ and _Twice-told +Tales_. Unknown portraits have inspired the most attractive conjectures, +and about the best known and most fascinating hover an atmosphere of +intensely personal interest or historical association. Vasari, Mrs. +Jameson, Hazlitt, and other art-writers have elaborated the most +delectable facts and fancies from this vast individual sphere of the +picturesque. + +The technicalities of art, its refinements of style, its absolute +significance, are, indeed, as dependent for appreciation on a special +endowment as are mathematics; but the general and incidental associations, +in which is involved a world of poetry, may be enjoyed to the full extent +by those whose perception of form, sense of colour, and knowledge of the +principles of sculpture, painting, music, and architecture are notably +deficient. It is a law of life and nature, that truth and beauty, +adequately represented, create and diffuse a limitless element of wisdom +and pleasure. Such memorials are talismanic, and their influence is felt +in all the higher and more permanent spheres of thought and emotion; they +are the gracious landmarks that guide humanity above the commonplace and +the material, along the 'line of infinite desires.' Art, in its broad and +permanent meaning, is a language--the language of sentiment, of character, +of national impulse, of individual genius; and for this reason it bears a +lesson, a charm, or a sanction to all--even to those least versed in its +rules, and least alive to its special triumphs. Sir Walter Scott was no +amateur, yet, through his reverence for ancestry and his local +attachments, portraiture and architecture had for him a romantic interest. +Sydney Smith was impatient of galleries when he could talk with men and +women, and made a practical joke of buying pictures; yet Newton and Leslie +elicited his best humour. Talfourd cared little and knew less of the +treasures of the Louvre, but lingered there because it had been his friend +Hazlitt's Elysium. Indeed, there are constantly blended associations in +the history of English authors and artists; Reynolds is identified with +Johnson and Goldsmith, Smibert with Berkeley, Barry with Burke, Constable +and Wilkie with Sir George Beaumont, Haydon with Wordsworth, and Leslie +with Irving. The painters depict their friends of the pen, the latter +celebrate in verse or prose the artist's triumphs, and both intermingle +thought and sympathy; and from this contact of select intelligences, of +diverse vocation, has resulted the choicest wit and the most genial +companionship. If from special we turn to general associations, from +biography to history, the same prolific affinities are evident, whereby +the artist becomes an interpreter of life, and casts the halo of romance +over the stern features of reality. Hampton Court is the almost breathing +society of Charles the Second's reign; the Bodleian Gallery is vivid with +Britain's past intellectual life; the history of France is pictured on the +walls of Versailles; the luxury of colour bred by the sunsets of the +Euganean hills, the waters of the Adriatic, the marbles of San Marco, and +the skies and atmosphere of Venice, are radiant on the canvas of Titian, +Tintoretto, and Paul Veronese; Michael Angelo has embodied the soul of his +era, and the loftiest spirit of his country; Salvator typified the +half-savage picturesqueness, Claude the atmospheric enchantments, Carlo +Dolce the effeminate grace, Titian the voluptuous energy, Guido the placid +self-possession, and Raphael and Correggio the religious sentiment of +Italy; Watteau put on canvas the _fête champêtre_; the peasant life of +Spain is pictured by Murillo, her asceticism by the old religious limners; +what English rustics were before steam and railroads, Gainsborough and +Moreland reveal; Wilkie has permanently symbolized Scotch shrewdness and +domesticity, and Lawrence framed and fixed the elegant shapes of a London +drawing-room; and each of these is a normal type and suggestive exemplar +to the imagination, a chapter of romance, a sequestration and initial +token of the characteristic and the historical, either of what has become +traditional or what is for ever true. + +The indirect service good artists have rendered by educating observation +has yet to be acknowledged. The Venetian painters cannot be even +superficially regarded, without developing the sense of colour; nor the +Roman, without enlarging our cognizance of expression; nor the English, +without refining our perception of the evanescent effects in scenery. +Raphael has made infantile grace obvious to unmaternal eyes; Turner opened +to many a preoccupied vision the wonders of atmosphere; Constable guided +our perception of the casual phenomena of wind; Landseer, that of the +natural language of the brute creation; Lely, of the coiffure; Michael +Angelo, of physical grandeur; Rolfe, of fish; Gerard Dow, of water; Cuyp, +of meadows; Cooper, of cattle; Stanfield, of the sea; and so on through +every department of pictorial art. Insensibly these quiet but persuasive +teachers have made every phase and object of the material world +interesting, environed them with more or less of romance, by such +revelations of their latent beauty and meaning; so that, thus instructed, +the sunset and the pastoral landscape, the moss-grown arch and the craggy +seaside, the twilight grove and the swaying cornfield, an old mill, a +peasant, light and shade, form and feature, perspective and anatomy, a +smile, a gesture, a cloud, a waterfall, weather-stains, leaves, +deer--every object in nature, and every impress of the elements, speaks +more distinctly to the eye, and more effectively to the imagination. + +The vicissitudes which sometimes attend a picture or statue furnish no +inadequate materials for narrative interest. Amateur collectors can unfold +a tale in reference to their best acquisitions which outvies fiction. +Beckford's table-talk abounded in such reminiscences. An American artist, +who had resided long in Italy, and made a study of old pictures, caught +sight at a shop window in New Orleans of an 'Ecce Homo' so pathetic in +expression as to arrest his steps and engross his attention. Upon inquiry, +he learned that it had been purchased of a soldier fresh from Mexico, +after the late war between that country and the United States; he bought +it for a trifle, carried it to Europe, and soon authenticated it as an +original Guercino, painted for the royal chapel in Madrid, and sent +thence by the government to a church in Mexico, whence, after centuries, +it had found its way, through the accidents of war, to a pawnbroker's shop +in Louisiana. A lady in one of our eastern cities, wishing to possess, as +a memorial, some article which had belonged to a deceased neighbour, and +not having the means, at the public sale of her effects, to bid for an +expensive piece of furniture, contented herself with buying for a few +shillings a familiar chimney-screen. One day she discovered a glistening +surface under the flowered paper which covered it, and when this was torn +away, there stood revealed a picture of 'Jacob and Rachel at the Well,' by +Paul Veronese; doubtless thus concealed with a view to its secret removal +during the first French Revolution. The missing Charles First of Velasquez +was lately exhibited in this country, and the account its possessor gives +of the mode of its discovery and the obstacles which attended the +establishment of its legal ownership in England is a remarkable +illustration both of the tact of the connoisseur and the mysteries of +jurisprudence.[10] + +Political vicissitudes not only cause pictures to emigrate like their +owners, but to change their costume--if we may so call a frame,--with +equal celerity: that which now encloses Peale's Washington, at Princeton, +once held the portrait of George the Third; and there is an elaborate old +frame which holds the likeness of a New England poet's grandfather whence +was hurriedly taken the portrait of Governor Hutchinson, in anticipation +of a domiciliary visit from the 'Sons of Liberty.' + +There is scarcely, indeed, an artist or a patron of art, of any eminence, +who has not his own 'story of a picture.' Like all things of beauty and of +fame, the very desire of possession which a painting excites, and the +interest it awakens, give rise to some costly sacrifice, or incidental +circumstance, which associates the prize with human fortune and sentiment. + +A friend of mine, in exploring the more humble class of boarding-houses in +one of our large commercial towns, in search of an unfortunate relation, +found himself, while expecting the landlady, absorbed in a portrait on the +walls of a dingy back parlour. The furniture was of the most common +description. A few smutched and faded annuals, half-covered with dust, lay +on the centre-table, beside an old-fashioned astral lamp, a cracked +porcelain vase of wax-flowers, a yellow satin pincushion embroidered with +tarnished gold-lace, and an album of venerable hue filled with hyperbolic +apostrophes to the charms of some ancient beauty; which, with the +dilapidated window-curtains, the obsolete sideboard, the wooden effigy of +a red-faced man with a spyglass under his arm, and the cracked alabaster +clock-case on the mantel, all bespoke an impoverished establishment, so +devoid of taste that the beautiful and artistic portrait seemed to have +found its way there by a miracle. It represented a young and _spirituelle_ +woman, in the costume, so elegant in material and formal in mode, which +Copley has immortalized; in this instance, however, there was a French +look about the coiffure and robe. The eyes were bright with intelligence +chastened by sentiment, the features at once delicate and spirited; and +altogether the picture was one of those visions of blended youth, grace, +sweetness, and intellect, from which the fancy instinctively infers a tale +of love, genius, or sorrow, according to the mood of the spectator. +Subdued by his melancholy errand, and discouraged by a long and vain +search, my friend, whose imagination was quite as excitable as his taste +was correct, soon wove a romance around the picture. It was evidently not +the work of a novice; it was as much out of place in this obscure and +inelegant domicile, as a diamond set in filigree, or a rose among pigweed. +How came it there? who was the original? what her history and her fate? +Her parentage and her nurture must have been refined; she must have +inspired love in the chivalric; perchance this was the last relic of an +illustrious exile, the last memorial of a princely house. + +This reverie of conjecture was interrupted by the entrance of the +landlady. My friend had almost forgotten the object of his visit; and when +his anxious inquiries proved vain, he drew the loquacious hostess into +general conversation, in order to elicit the mystery of the beautiful +portrait. She was a robust, gray-haired woman, with whose constitutional +good-nature care had waged a long and partially successful war. That +indescribable air which speaks of better days was visible at a glance; the +remnants of bygone gentility were obvious in her dress; she had the +peculiar manner of one who had enjoyed social consideration; and her +language indicated familiarity with cultivated society; yet the anxious +expression habitual to her countenance, and the bustling air of her +vocation which quickly succeeded conversational repose, hinted but too +plainly straitened circumstances and daily toil. But what struck her +present curious visitor more than these casual traits were the remains of +great beauty in the still lovely contour of the face, the refined lines of +her mouth, and the depth and varied play of the eyes. He was both +sympathetic and ingenious, and ere long gained the confidence of his +auditor. The unfeigned interest and the true perception he manifested in +speaking of the portrait rendered him, in its owner's estimation, worthy +to know the story his own intuition had so nearly divined. The original +was Theodosia, the daughter of Aaron Burr. His affection for her was the +redeeming fact of his career and character. Both were anomalous in our +history. In an era remarkable for patriotic self-sacrifice, he became +infamous for treasonable ambition; among a phalanx of statesmen +illustrious for directness and integrity, he pursued the tortuous path of +perfidious intrigue; in a community where the sanctities of domestic life +were unusually revered, he bore the stigma of unscrupulous libertinism. +With the blood of his gallant adversary and his country's idol on his +hands, the penalties of debt and treason hanging over him, the fertility +of an acute intellect wasted on vain expedients--an outlaw, an adventurer, +a plausible reasoner with one sex and fascinating betrayer of the other, +poor, bereaved, contemned,--one holy, loyal sentiment lingered in his +perverted soul--love for the fair, gifted, gentle being who called him +father. The only disinterested sympathy his letters breathe is for her; +and the feeling and sense of duty they manifest offer a remarkable +contrast to the parallel record of a life of unprincipled schemes, misused +talents, and heartless amours. As if to complete the tragic antithesis of +destiny, the beloved and gifted woman who thus shed an angelic ray upon +that dark career was, soon after her father's return from Europe, lost in +a storm at sea, while on her way to visit him, thus meeting a fate which, +even at this distance of time, is remembered with pity. Her wretched +father bore with him, in all his wanderings and through all his remorseful +exile, her picture--emblem of filial love, of all that is beautiful in the +ministry of woman, and all that is terrible in human fate. At length he +lay dangerously ill in a garret. He had parted with one after another of +his articles of raiment, books, and trinkets, to defray the expenses of a +long illness; Theodosia's picture alone remained; it hung beside him--the +one talisman of irreproachable memory, of spotless love, and of undying +sorrow; he resolved to die with this sweet relic of the loved and lost in +his possession; there his sacrifices ended. Life seemed slowly ebbing; +the unpaid physician lagged in his visits; the importunate landlord +threatened to send this once dreaded partisan, favoured guest, and +successful lover to the almshouse; when, as if the spell of woman's +affection were spiritually magnetic, one of the deserted old man's early +victims--no other than she who spoke--accidentally heard of his extremity, +and, forgetting her wrongs, urged by compassion and her remembrance of the +past, sought her betrayer, provided for his wants, and rescued him from +impending dissolution. In grateful recognition of her Christian kindness, +he gave her all he had to bestow--Theodosia's portrait. + +The indiscriminate disparagement of the old masters which has so long been +the paradox of Ruskin's beautiful rhetoric, Haydon's suicidal devotion to +the 'grand style,' Mrs. Jameson's gracious exposition of religious art, +and the extravagant encomiums which the fashionable painter of the hour +elicits from accredited critical journals, indicate the antagonistic +theories and tastes that prevail; and yet these are all authentic and +recognized oracles of artistic knowledge--all more or less true; and yet, +in a comparative view, offering such violent contrasts as to baffle and +discourage a novice in search of the legitimate picturesque. + +So thoroughly identified with the possibility and probability of deception +is the very name of a picture-dealer, that to the multitude an 'Old +Master' is a bugbear;--the tricks of this trade form a staple of Paris +correspondents and travelled _raconteurs_. The details of manufacture in +perhaps this most lucrative branch of spurious traffic are patent; and, +although the legitimate products of world-renowned painters are +authenticated and on record, scarcely a month passes without some +extensive fraud. The amateur in literature, sculpture, and music, is +comparatively free from this perpetual danger; the sense of mystery does +not baffle his enthusiasm; and while the pictorial votary or victim is +disputing about an 'Andrea del Sarto,' or a 'Teniers,' or bewildered by +the conflicting theories of rival artists in regard to colour, tone, +composition, foreshortening, chiaro-oscuro, &c., he enjoys, without +misgiving, the _noi ci darem_ of Mozart, revels over the faded leaves of +his first edition of a classic, or discourses fluently about the line of +beauty in his copy of a Greek statue. 'God Almighty's daylight,' wrote +Constable, 'is enjoyed by all mankind, excepting only the lovers of old +dirty canvas, perished pictures at a thousand guineas each, cart-grease, +tar, and snuff of candle.' The practical lesson derivable from these +anomalous results of 'Pictures' is that we should rely upon our individual +impressions, enjoy what appeals gratefully to our consciousness, repudiate +hackneyed and conventional terms, judgments, and affectations, and boldly +declare with the poet, before the picture which enchants us,-- + + 'I leave to learned fingers and wise hands + The artist and his ape, to teach and tell + How well his connoisseurship understands + The graceful bend and the voluptuous swell: + Let these describe the indescribable; + I would not their vile breath should crisp the stream + Wherein that image shall for ever dwell; + The unruffled mirror of the loveliest dream + That ever left the sky on the deep soul to beam.' + +There are heads of men and women delineated hundreds of years ago, so knit +into the mystic web of memory and imagination, so familiar through +engravings, cameos, and other reproductive forms of art, and so identified +with tragic experience, ideal aspiration, or heroic deeds, that the first +view of the originals is an epoch in life; we seem to behold them down a +limitless vista of time, and they appeal to our consciousness like the +faces of the long-loved, long-lost, and suddenly restored. It is as if we +had entered a spiritual realm, and were greeted by the vanished idols of +the heart, or the 'beings of the mind and not of clay,' once arbiters of +destiny and oracles of genius. Beatrice Cenci, through soulful eyes, +infinitely deepened by a life of tears dried up by the fever of intense +anguish, looks the incarnation of beauty and woe--beauty we have adored in +dreams, woe we have realized through sympathy. With the first sight of +that alabaster skin, those lips quivering with pain, those golden locks, +the theme of poets, that corpse-like headband; the fragility, the fervour, +the sensibility, and the chaste, ineffable grace; above all, the soulful +world of terror, pity, and meekness in the lustrous and melancholy orbs, +how familiar, yet how new, how pathetic, yet sublime! The hoary wretch who +called her child, seems lurking somewhere in that hushed and sombre +palace; the brother whose fair brow was lacerated by parental violence; +the resigned mother, the infernal banquet, the prison, the tribunal, the +bloody axe, flit with fearful distinctness between our entranced vision +and the picture; for tradition, local association, Shelley's muse, the +secret pen of the annalist, and the pencil of Guido, combine to make +absolutely real an unparalleled story of loveliness and persecution, +maidenhood and martyrdom. It is but recently that the true history of this +picture has been authenticated. According to Guerazzi, who has minutely +explored contemporary archives, the 'study' from which it was painted, +Ubaldo Ubaldini made from memory, to console his sister for the loss of +Beatrice. He was one of the many artists who loved the beautiful victim, +with the passion of youth and the fancy of a painter; one of the +courageous but inadequate band who conspired to rescue her at the +scaffold;[11] and it was long believed that he died of indignant grief +after the catastrophe. Imagine him with the shadow of that mighty sorrow +upon his soul, his hand inspired by tender recollection, secluded with her +image stamped on his broken heart, and patiently reproducing those +delicate features and that anguished expression--his last offering to her +he so quickly followed into the valley of death! His 'study' fell into the +hands of Maffei Barberini, and furnished Guido Reni the materials for +this, his most effective and endeared creation. Its marvellous, almost +magnetic expression, doubtless gave rise to the belief, so long current, +that he sketched Beatrice on her way to execution; but the later +explanation is more accordant with probability and more satisfactory to +the mind, for such a work requires for the conditions of success both the +inspiration of love and the aptitude of skill. Ubaldini furnished one, and +Guido the other. + +Many travellers, especially women, have expressed great disappointment +with the 'Fornarina.' They cannot associate a figure so much the reverse +of ethereal, and charms so robust, with the refined taste and delicate +person of Raffaelo. But such objections are founded on an imaginative not +philosophic theory of love. There never was a genuine artist who, in +matters of feeling, was not a child of Nature; and we have but to +recognize the idiosyncrasies of poet and painter to find a key to their +human affinities. What a peculiar interest we feel in the objects of love +whose affection cheered, and whose sympathy inspired those products of pen +and pencil, which have become part of our mental being! I have seen a +crowd of half-bashful and wholly intent English girls watch the carriage +which contained the obese, yet still fair-haired Countess, whose youthful +charms so long made Byron a methodical hermit at Ravenna; and the +respectable matron who, as a child, was deemed by sentimentalists in +Germany and her own exaggerated fancy the object of Goëthe's senile +passion, was long courted on that account, at tea-drinkings, by foreign +visitors enamoured of _Faust_ and _Wilhelm Meister_. Still more natural is +the sentiment which lures us to earnest acquaintance with the countenance, +on which he who gave an angelic semblance to maternity and caught the most +gracious aspect of childhood used to gaze with rapture; the eye that +responded to his glance, the smile that penetrated his heart, and were +fixed on his canvas. The impression which the 'Fornarina' of the Tribune +instantly gives, is that of genuine womanhood: there is generosity, a +repose, a world of latent emotion, an exuberance of sympathetic power, in +the full impassioned eye, the broad symmetrical bosom, the rich olive +tint; it is precisely the woman to harmonize by her simple presence, and +to soothe or exalt by her spontaneous love, the mood of a man of nervous +organization and ardent temper. There is a tranquil self-possession in the +face and figure which the sensitive and excitable artist especially finds +refreshing--a candid nature such as alone can inspire such a man's +confidence, a majestic simplicity peculiar to the best type of Roman +women, more delightful to the over-tasked brain and sensibilities than the +highest culture of an artificial kind; and there is the fresh, +unperverted, richly-developed, harmoniously-united heart and physique, +which, notwithstanding the modern standard of female charms, is the +normal and the essential basis of honest, natural affinity. I could never +turn, in the Florence Gallery, from the pale, delicately-rounded, ideal +brow, the almost pleading eye, and the cherubic lips of Raffaelo, instinct +with the needs as well as the immortal longings of genius, to the mellow, +calm, self-sustained, and healthful 'Fornarina,' without fancying the +support, the rest, the inexhaustible comfort--in Othello's sense of that +expressive word--which the sensitive artist could find in the cheerful +baker's daughter, the irritable seeker in the serene and satisfied woman, +the delicate in the strong, the gentle in the hearty, the ideal in the +real, the poetic in the practical, the spiritual in the human; and I +contemplated her noble contour, her contented smile, her beaming cheek, +and eye undeepened by the experience that withers as it teaches--yet +soulful with latent emotion, with an ever-increasing sense of her native +claims to Raphael's love. + +Musical organizations are especially sensitive to the pictorial spell; the +letters of Mendelssohn indicate how it influenced his development. Writing +from Venice of church services he attended, he says:--'Nothing impressed +me with more solemn awe than when, on the very spot for which they were +originally created, the "Presentation of Mary and the Child in the +Temple," "The Assumption of the Virgin," "The Entombment of Christ," and +"The Martyrdom of St. Peter," in all their grandeur, gradually steal forth +out of the darkness in which the long lapse of time has veiled them. Often +I feel a musical inspiration, and since I came here have been busily +engaged in composition.' And from Florence he writes:--'There is a small +picture here which I discovered for myself. It is by Fra Bartolomeo, who +must have been a man of most devout, tender, and earnest spirit. The +figures are finished in the most exquisite and consummate manner. You can +see in the picture itself that the pious master has taken delight in +painting it, and in finishing the most minute details, probably with a +view of giving it away to gratify some friend; we feel as if the painter +belonged to it, and still ought to be sitting before his work, or had this +moment left.' This personal magnetism about pictures is an authentic +evidence of their vital relation to character, and it is felt often in an +incredible way by the imaginative and susceptible. The same gifted and +generous composer, who thus wrote of Titian and Fra Bartolomeo, speaks of +the impression he received from Raphael's portrait by himself:--'Youthful, +pale, delicate, and with such inward aspirations, such longing and +wistfulness in the mouth and eyes, that it is as if you could see into his +very soul; that he cannot succeed in expressing all that he sees and +feels, and is thus impelled to go forward, and that he must die an early +death;--all this is written on his mournful, suffering, yet fervid +countenance.' + +Vandyke's portraits of Charles the First impress the spectator with regal +fanaticism, and a tragic destiny, more than some of the written histories +of his reign. The exquisite hands of Leonardo's 'Gioconde' are as eloquent +of feminine grace and sensibility as the most elaborate description. +Correggio's 'Magdalen,' in the remorseful _abandon_ and beautiful sadness +of its expression, reveals her who 'loved much,' repented, and was +forgiven. Giovanni di Medici, in the Uffizzi Gallery, fulfils to the +imagination the ideal of mediæval Italian soldiership. Stuart's +'Washington' embodies the serene conscience, the self-control, the humane +dignity and birthright of command, which consecrate our peerless chief; +and Delaroche's 'Napoleon Crossing the Alps' perpetuates the intense +purpose and insatiable ambition that won so many battles and died of +anxiety on an ocean-rock. Such instances, which might easily be +multiplied, prove how a single department of art, and that the least +estimated, is allied to history, patriotism, and sentiment, and capable of +touching their secret springs and unveiling their limitless perspective at +a glance. Guercino's 'Hagar' is a biblical poem. Hamlet's filial +reproaches borrow their keenest sting from two 'counterfeit presentments,' +and Trumbull's faithful and assiduous pencil has transmitted the +individualities of our Revolutionary drama. And thus the art of +portraiture, even in its general relations, may become, through +illustrious subjects and rare fidelity, the romance which association of +ideas breeds from reality. + +I was never more impressed with the absolute line of demarcation between +the imitative and the inventive, even in the lighter processes of art, +than when examining the graphic series of illustrations of _The Wandering +Jew_. Nature is represented under all forms--the woods, the desert, the +ocean, caves, meadows, and skies; and these fixed elemental features might +be well reflected by mechanical aids, photographed or reproduced through +chemical and optical means; but the true meaning of each picture consisted +in the ever-present shadow pursuing the Wanderer--the form of the Holy One +bowed under his cross: it glimmered in the water, was stamped on the rock, +outlined in the gnarled forest branches, pencilled in the floating vapour, +reflected in the ice-mirrored lake, with a latent and inevitable yet +unobtrusive and apparently accidental omni-presence, as if wrought into +the texture of nature through the creative anguish of conscience--which +emphatically announced an intelligence far beyond all mechanical art, and +interfused the material with the abstract, the imaginative, and the human, +as only genius can. The same thing is evinced by comparing the best +photographs of architecture, figures, or landscapes with the sketch-book +of a genuine artist; in certain points there will be found a special +intelligence and feeling which transcend the most remarkable imitative +truth. How much of this is suggested, for instance, by the mere catalogue +of an album on the table at a Parisian _soirée_: fleurs de Redonté, +chevaux de Carl Vernet, Bedouins d'Horace, aquarelles de Ciceri, petit +paysages de Géniole, caricatures de Grandville et de Monnier, beaux +brigands de Schnetz--'tous chéfs d'oeuvre au petit pied.' + +A portrait of little Fritz drumming, in the Berlin Gallery, Carlyle hails, +in his _Life of Frederick the Great_, as 'one tiny islet of reality amid +the shoreless sea of fantasms, Flaying of Bartholomews, Rape of Europas,' +&c. Napoleon was delighted to remember that his mother reclined on +tapestry representing the heroes of the _Iliad_, when she brought him into +the world. + +For how long and with what vividness are certain pictures associated with +localities. Gainsborough's 'Blue Boy,' and Reynolds's 'Strawberry Girl,' +are among the salient retrospective images of the English school at the +Manchester Exhibition. We think of Correggio with Parma, Perugino with +Perugia, Fra Angelico with Florence, Da Vinci's 'Last Supper' and +Guercino's 'Hagar' with Milan, Murillo with Seville, Vandyke with Madrid, +Rubens with Antwerp, Watteau with Paris, and Paul Potter's 'Bull' with the +Hague. + +The Dutch school, in a philosophical estimate, is but the compensation +afforded by the romance of art for its deficiency in nature; the element +of the picturesque not found in mountains, forests, and cataracts, the +lowland painters wrought from flowers and firesides; the radiant tulips +and exquisite interiors, the humble but characteristic in life and +manners. To seize upon individuality is the conservative tact of both +painter and poet; whoever does this effectively contributes to the world's +gallery of historical portraits, and keeps before the living the faces, +costume, and actions of bygone races and heroes. Catlin's aboriginal +portraits introduced the American native tribes to Europe; a naturalist +abroad has but to turn over Audubon's portfolio to become intimately +acquainted with every bird whose plumage or song makes beautiful our +woodlands and seashore; the traveller who rests an hour at Perugia may +trace on the walls of a church the original, crude, yet pious expression +which Raphael developed into angelic beauty. Vernet has, by the very +multiplicity of his battle-pieces, signalized on canvas the military +genius of the French nation; the faith which so distinguishes the +fifteenth from the speculation of the eighteenth century is manifest to us +most eloquently in the masterpieces of religious art which yet remain in +peerless beauty to attest the holy convictions that inspired them; and all +that is peculiar in Grecian culture has found no exponent like the statues +of her divinities. Hogarth preceded Crabbe and Dickens in making palpable +the shadows of want, crime, and luxury. The Italian satirist, who endowed +animals with speech and made them represent the absurdities of humanity, +hinted their possible significance less than Landseer who individualized +their most salient traits, or Kaulbach who revealed the brute creation in +the highest intuitive expression. There is a piquant rustic beauty by +Greuze, which embodies and embalms, in its exquisite suggestiveness, the +special claim of naïve brightness and grace that belongs almost +exclusively to French lovable women; and there is a portrait of an +American matronly belle of the days of Washington, by Stuart, which +represents the type of mingled self-reliance and womanly loveliness that +has made the ladies of our Republican court so memorably attractive. + + + + +DOCTORS. + + 'Throw physic to the dogs.'--MACBETH. + + 'Friend of my life, which did not you prolong, + The world had wanted many an idle song.'--POPE. + + +In the moving panoramas of cities are to be seen certain vehicles of all +degrees of locomotive beauty and convenience, from the glossy and +silver-knobbed carriage with its prancing grays, to the bacheloric-looking +sulky with its one gaunt horse, in which are seated gentlemen of a learned +and professional aspect, usually wearing spectacles, and always an air of +intense respectability, or of contemplation and seriousness. They +recognize numerous acquaintances as they pass with a peculiar smile and +nod, and are usually accompanied by 'a little man-boy to hold the horse,' +as the French cook in the play defines a _tigre_. These mysterious +personages rejoice in the title of Doctor--once a very distinctive +appellation, but now as common as authorship and travelling. A moralist, +watching them gliding by amid fashionable equipages, crowded omnibuses, +hasty pedestrians, and all the phenomena of life in a metropolis, would +find a striking contrast between the rushing tide around and the hushed +rooms they enter. To how many their visit is the one daily event that +breaks in upon the monotony of illness and confinement; how many eyes +watch them with eager suspense, and listen to their opinion as the fiat +of destiny; how many feverishly expect their coming, shrink from their +polished steel, rejoice in their cheering ministrations, or dread their +long bills! 'The Doctor!'--a word that stirs the extremest moods, despair +and jollity! + +There is no profession which depends so much for its efficiency on +personal traits as that of medicine; for the utility of technical +knowledge here is derived from individual judgment, tact, and sympathy. In +other words, the physician has to deal with an unknown element. Between +the specific ailment and the remedy there are peculiarities of +constitution, the influence of circumstances, and the laws of nature to be +considered; so that although the medical adviser may be thoroughly versed +in physiology, the materia medica, and the symptoms of disease, if he +possess not the discrimination, the observant skill, and the reflective +power to apply his learning wisely, it is comparatively unavailing. The +aim of the divine and the attorney, however impeded by obstacles, is +reached by a more direct course; logic, eloquence, and zeal, united to +professional attainment, will insure success in law and divinity; but in +physic, certain other qualities in the man are requisite to give scope to +the professor. Hence we associate a certain originality with the idea of a +doctor; are apt to regard the vocation at the two extremes of superiority +and pretension, and justly estimate the individuals of the class according +to their capacity of insight and their principles of action, rather than +by their mere acquisitions or rank as teachers. The uncertainty of +medicine, as a practical art, thus induces a stronger reliance on +individual endowments than is the case in any other liberal pursuit. + +A philosophical history of the art of healing would be not less curious +than suggestive. The absurd theories which checked its progress for +centuries, the secrets hoarded by Egyptian priests, the union of medical +knowledge with ancient systems of philosophy, the epoch of Galen, the +Arabian and Salerno schools, the reformation of Paracelsus, the brilliant +discoveries which, at long intervals, illumined the track of the science, +and the enlightened principles now realized--if fully discussed--would +form an extraordinary chapter in the biography of man. Herein, as with +other vocations, modern division of labour has concentrated professional +aptitudes. 'L' affluence des postulants,' says Balzac, 'a forcé la +médecine a se diviser en catégories; il y a le médecin qui professe, le +médecin politique et le médecin militant et la cinquième divisions, celle +des docteurs qui vendent des remèdes.' + +St. Luke and the Good Samaritan are yet the favourite signs of +apothecaries, confirming the original charity of the art; and in the south +of Europe may still be seen over the barbers' shops the effigy of a human +arm spouting blood from an open vein--an indication of the once universal +custom of periodical depletion. It is now acknowledged that diverse +climates require modified treatment of the same disease; that nervous +susceptibility is far greater in one latitude than another, and that +habits of life essentially individualize the constitution. Indeed, the +widest difference exists in the relation of persons to the doctor; some +never see him, and others must have a consultation upon the most trifling +ailment,--so great is the dependence which can be had upon nature, and so +extreme both the faith and the scepticism which exist in regard to +curative science. + +Popular literature is full of hits at the profession. 'Le barbier fait +plus de la moitié d' un médecin,' says Molière, who, in _La Malade +Imaginaire_, has so acutely given the current philosophy of the subject by +satirizing the pedantry and charlatanism of the doctors of his day; 'Nous +voyons que, dans la maladie tout le monde a recours aux médecins;--c'est +une marque de la faiblesse humaine et non pas de la vérité de leur art;' +and of all ailments the hardest to cure is 'la maladie des médecins.' +Imagination has been called by a German philosopher 'the mediatrix, the +nurse, the mover of all the several parts of our spiritual organism.' 'I +have the worst luck of any physician under the cope of heaven,' complains +Sancho Panza; 'other doctors kill their patients, and are paid for it too, +and yet they are at no further trouble than scrawling two or three cramp +words for some physical slip-slop, which the apothecaries are at all the +pains to make up.' + +It would seem, indeed, as if the advance of science improved medical +practice negatively--that is, by inducing what in politics has been called +a masterly inactivity; and there is no doubt that no small degree of the +success attending Hahnemann's theory is to be attributed to the +comparative abstinence it inculcates in the use of remedial agents. The +fact is a significant one, as indicative of the want of positive science +in the healing art; and the consequent wisdom of leaving to nature, as far +as possible, the restorative process. Indeed, to assist nature is +acknowledged, by just observers, to be the only wise course; and this +brings us to the inference that a good physician is necessarily a +philosopher; it is incumbent on him, of all men, to exercise the inductive +faculty; he must possess good causality, not only to reason justly on +individual cases, but to apply the progress of science to the exigencies +of disease. It is related of Bixio that such was his zeal for science, +having long wished to ascertain whether a man instinctively turns when +wounded in a vital part, asked his adversary in a duel to aim at one, and, +although fatally hurt, exclaimed with ardour, as he involuntarily spun +round--'It is true, they do turn!' + +The comparatively slow accumulation of scientific truth in regard to the +treatment of disease, is illustrated by the fact that not until the lapse +of two thousand years after medicine had assumed the rank of a science, +under the auspices of Hippocrates, was the circulation of the blood +discovered--an era in its history. The fiery discussion of the efficacy of +inoculation, and its gradual introduction, is another significant +evidence of the same general truth. But in our own day the rapid and +valuable developments of chemistry have, in a measure, reversed the +picture. Numerous alleviating and curative agents have been discovered; +the gas of poisonous acids is found to eradicate, in many cases, the most +fatal diseases of the eye; heat, more penetrating than can be created by +other means, is eliminated from carbon in an aëriform state, passes +through the cuticle without leaving a mark on its surface, and restores +aching nerves or exhausted vitality. Vegetable and mineral substances are +refined, analyzed, and combined with a skill never before imagined; opium +yields morphine, and Peruvian bark quinine, and all the known salubrious +elements are thus rendered infinitely subservient to the healing art. +Chloroform is one of the most beneficent of these new agents; and has +exorcised the demon of physical pain by a magical charm, without +violating, in judicious hands, the integrity of nature. + +There is a secret of curative art in which consists the genius of healing; +it is that union of sympathy with intelligence, and of moral energy with +magnetic gifts, whereby the tides of life are swayed, and one 'can +minister to a mind diseased.' Fortunate is the patient who is attended by +one thus endowed; but such are usually found out of the professional +circle;--they are referees ordained by nature to settle the difficulties +of inferior spirits; the arbiters recognized by instinct who soothe anger, +reconcile doubt, amuse, elevate, and console, by a kind of moral alchemy; +and potent coadjutors are they to the material aids of merely technical +physicians. 'Who dare say,' asks Rénan, in allusion to the calming and +purifying influence of Jesus, 'that in many cases, and apart from injuries +of a dreaded character, the contact of an exquisite person is not worth +all the resources of pharmacy?' 'It was agony to me,' wrote Hahnemann, 'to +walk in darkness, with no other light than could be derived from books.' +One of his opponents, from this confession, infers the fallacy of his +system; 'the conviction,' he observes, 'is irresistibly forced upon us +that he was not a _born physician_.' If our ancestors were less +enlightened in regard to _hygiène_, and if their physicians were less +scrupulous in tampering with the functions of nature, they had one signal +advantage over us in escaping the inhuman comments, made after every fatal +issue, on the practice and the treatment adopted--no matter with how much +conscientious intelligence. We not only suffer the pangs of bereavement, +but the reproaches of devotees of each school of medicine and of rival +doctors, of having by an unwise choice sacrificed the life for which we +would have cheerfully resigned our own! Somewhat of this occult healing +force might have been read in the serene countenance of Dr. Physic, of +Philadelphia; it predominated in the benevolent founder of the Insane +Asylum of Palermo, who learned from an attack of mental disorder how to +feel for, and minister to, those thus afflicted. The late Preissnitz, of +Graefenberg, seems to have enjoyed the gift which is as truly Nature's +indication of an aptitude for the art, as a sense of beauty in the poet. +But this principle is 'caviare to the general.' + +Medicine has lost much of its inherent dignity by the same element, in +modern times, that has degraded art, letters, and society--the spirit of +trade. This agency encourages motives, justifies means, and leads to ends +wholly at variance with high tone and with truth. The gentleman, the +philosopher, the man of honour, and with them that keystone in the arch of +character--self-respect, are wholly compromised in the process of sinking +a liberal art into a common trade. In the economy of modern society, +however, the physician has acquired a new influence; he has gained upon +the monopoly of the priest: for while the spirit of inquiry, by trenching +on the mysterious prerogatives which superstition once accorded, has +retrenched the latter's functions, the same agency, by extending the +domain of science and rendering its claims popular, has enlarged the +sphere of the other profession. To an extent, therefore, never before +known, the doctor fills the office of confessor; his visits yield +agreeable excitement to women with whom he gossips and sympathizes; +admitted by the very exigency of the case to entire confidence, often +revered as a counsellor and friend, as well as relied on as a healer, not +infrequently he becomes the oracle of a household. Privileges like these, +when used with benevolence and integrity, are doubtless honourable to both +parties, and become occasions for the exercise of the noblest service and +the highest sentiments of our nature; while, on the other hand, they are +liable to the grossest abuse, where elevation of character and gentlemanly +instincts are wanting. Accordingly there has sprung into existence, in our +day, a personage best designated as the medical Jesuit; whose real +vocation, as well as the process by which he acquires supremacy, fully +justifies the appellation. Like his religious prototype, he operates +through the female branches, who, in their turn, control the heads of +families; and the extent to which the domestic arrangements, the social +relations, and even the opinions of individuals are thus regulated, is +truly surprising. 'Women,' says Mrs. Jameson, 'are inclined to fall in +love with priests and physicians, because of the help and comfort they +derive from both in perilous moral and physical maladies. They believe in +the presence of real pity, real sympathy, where the look and tone of each +have become merely habitual and conventional, I may say professional.' Yet +a popular novelist, in his ideal portrait of the physician, justly claims +superiority to impulse and casual sympathy as an essential requisite to +success. 'He must enter the room a calm intelligencer. He is disabled for +his mission if he suffer aught to obscure the keen glance of his +science.'[12] + +The natural history of the doctor has not yet been written, but the +classes are easily nomenclated; we have all known the humorous, the +urbane, the oracular, the facetious, the brusque, the elegant, the shrewd, +the exquisite, the burly, the bold, and the fastidious; and the character +of people may be inferred by their choice of each species. Those in whom +taste predominates over intellect, will select a physician, for his +agreeable personal qualities; while such as value essential traits, will +compromise with the roughest exterior and the least flattering address for +the sake of genuine skill and a vigorous and honest mind. As a general +rule, in large cities, vanity seems to rule the selection; and it is a +lamentable view of human nature to see the blind preference given to +plausible but shallow men, whose smooth tongues or gallant air win them +suffrages denied to good sense and candid intercourse. The most detestable +genus is that we have described under the name of medical Jesuits; next in +annoyance are the precisians; the most harmless of the weaker order are +the gossips; and there is often little to choose in point of risk to 'the +house of life' between the very timid and the dare-devils; in a great +exigency the former, and in an ordinary case the latter are equally to be +shunned. In the _Horæ Subsecivæ_ of Dr. John Brown, we find some apt and +needed counsel to the aspirants for medical success:--'The young doctor +must have for his main faculty, _sense_; but all will not do if Genius is +not there; such a special therapeutic gift had Hippocrates, Sydenham, +Pott, Purcell, John Hunter, Delpech, Dupuytren, Kellie, Cheyne, Baillie, +and Abercrombie. Moreover, let me tell you, my young doctor friends, that +a cheerful face and step and neckcloth and buttonhole, and an occasional +hearty and kindly joke, and the power of executing and setting a-going a +good laugh, are stock in our trade not to be despised.' Brillat Savarin +declares, doctors easily become gourmands because so well received. + +In Paris, Edinburgh, and Philadelphia, all the world over, the medical +student is an exceptional character. Their pranks are patent: the rough +ones like to kick up rows, and the more quiet are unique at practical +jokes. Bob Sawyer is a typical hero. If, like the portrait-painter, +doctors are often the playthings of fortune in cities, where the arbitrary +whims of fashion decree success; in the country their true worth is more +apt to find appreciation, and the individualities of character having free +scope, quite original children of Apollo are the result. The name of +Hopkins is still memorable in the region where he practised, as one of the +literary clique of which Humphries, Dwight, and Barlow were members. Dr. +Osborn, of Sandwich, Mass., wrote the popular whaling-song yet in vogue +among Nantucketers. Dr. Holyoke, of Salem, is renowned as a beautiful +instance of longevity; and the wit of Dr. Spring was proverbial in Boston. +The best example of a medical philosopher, in our annals, is that of Dr. +Rush, of Philadelphia; he reformed the system of practice; first treated +yellow fever successfully, made climate a special study, and, like Burke, +laid every one he encountered under contribution for facts. His life of +seventy years was passed in ardent investigation. It is remarkable that +the first martyr to American liberty was a physician; and, before he fell, +Warren eloquently avowed his principles, like Körner in Germany, rousing +the spirit of his countrymen, and then consecrating his sentiments with +his blood. Boylston, the ancestral portraits of whose family are among the +best of Copley's American works, nearly fell a victim to public +indignation for his zealous and intelligent advocacy of inoculation, and +natural science owes a debt to Barton, Morton, and De Kay, which is +acknowledged both at home and abroad. A French doctor has noted the +historical importance of his _confrères_, and tells us Hamond was Racine's +master, Lestocq helped to elevate Catharine to the Russian throne, Haller +was a poet and romancer, Cuvier was the greatest naturalist of his age, +and Murat was a doctor. French _médecins_ have figured in the Chamber and +on the Boulevards. + +If by virtue of the philosophic instinct and liberal tastes the doctor is +thus allied to belles-lettres, he is allured into the domain of science by +a still more direct sympathy. To how many has the study of the materia +medica, and the culling of simples, proved the occasion of botanical +research; and hence, by an easy transition, of exploring the entire field +of natural science. Thus Davy was beguiled into chemical investigation; +and Abercrombie, by the vestibule of physiological knowledge, sought the +clue to mental philosophy; while Spurzheim and Combe ministered to a great +charity by clearly explaining to the masses the natural laws of human +well-being. It is an evidence of the sagacity of the Russian Peter, that +he sought an interview with Boerhaäve; for by these varied links of +general utility the medical office enters into every branch of social +economy, and is only narrowed and shorn of dignity by the limited views or +inadequate endowments of its votaries. The Jewish physician preserved and +transmitted much of the learning of the world, after the fall of the +Alexandrian school.[13] Life-insurance and quarantines have become such +grave interests, that through them the responsibility of the physician to +society is manifest to all; that to individuals is only partially +recognized. How Cowper and Byron suffered for wise medical advice, and +what ameliorations in states of mind and moral conditions have been +induced by the now widely-extended knowledge of hygienic laws! Charles +Lamb reasons wisely as well as quaintly in this wise:--'You are too +apprehensive of your complaint. The best way in these cases is to keep +yourself as ignorant as the world was before Galen, of the entire +construction of the animal man; not to be conscious of a midriff; to hold +kidneys to be an agreeable fiction; to account the circulation of the +blood an idle whim of Harvey's; to acknowledge no mechanism not visible. +For once fix the seat of your disorder, and your fancies flux into it like +bad humours. Above all, take exercise, and avoid tampering with the hard +terms of art. Desks are not deadly. It is the mind, and not the limbs, +that taints by long sitting. Think of the patience of the tailors; think +how long the Lord Chancellor sits; think of the brooding hen.' + +In literature the doctor figures with a genial dignity; he has affinities +with genius, and a life-estate in the kingdom of letters: witness Garth's +poem of _The Dispensary_; Akenside's _Pleasures of the Imagination_; +Armstrong's _Art of Health_; Cowley's verses, Sprat's life of him, and +Currie's of Burns; Beattie's _Minstrel_; Darwin's _Botanic Garden_; +Moore's _Travels in Italy_; Zimmerman's _Solitude_; Goldsmith's _Vicar_ +and _Village_; Aikin's _Criticisms_; Joanna Baillie's gifted brother, and +Lady Morgan's learned husband. Burke found health at the house of the +benign Dr. Nugent, of Bath, at the outset of his career, and married the +daughter of his medical friend. 'Les médecins sont souvent tout a la fois +conseillors, arbitres et magistrats au sein des familles.' The best +occasional verses of Dr. Johnson are those that commend the humble virtues +of Levett, the apothecary.[14] Dr. Lettson wrote the life of Carver, the +American traveller, and his account of that adventurous unfortunate led +to the establishment of the Literary Fund Society. Among the graves near +Archibald Carlyle's old church at Inveresk, where that handsome clerical +and convivial gossip is buried, is that of the sweet versifier, beloved as +the 'Delta' of Blackwood, Dr. Moir, who so genially united the domestic +lyrist and the good doctor; a Delta framed in bay adorns the pedestal of +his monument. Rousseau, an invalid of morbid sensibility, recognizes the +professional superiority of the physician as a social agent:--'Par tous le +pays ce sont les hommes les plus véritablement utiles et savants.' The +_Médecin de Campagne_ of Balzac, and the _Dr. Antonio_ of Ruffini, are +elaborate and charming illustrations of this testimony of the author of +_Emile_. What a curious chapter would be added to the _Diary of a +Physician_, had Cabanis kept a record of his interviews with those two +illustrious patients--Mirabeau and Condorcet. The social affinities of the +doctor prove indirectly what we before suggested, that it is in the +character more than in the learning, in the mind rather than the technical +knowledge, that medical success lies. One of the shrewdest of the +profession, Abernethy, declared thereof,--'I have observed, in my +profession, that the greatest men were not mere readers, but the men who +reflected, who observed, who fairly thought out an idea.' Almost intuitive +is the venerable traditional ideal of the physician; among the aborigines +of this continent, the 'medicine man' was revered as nearest to the 'Great +Spirit.' 'I hold physicians,' said Dr. Parr, 'to be the most enlightened +professional persons in the whole circle of human arts and sciences.' In +our own day, Lever's Irish novels, and in our own country the writings of +Drake, Mitchell, Holmes, Bigelow, Francis, and others, indicate the +literary claims of the profession. Think of Arbuthnot beside Pope's +sick-bed, and the latter's apostrophe:-- + + 'Friend of my life, which did not you prolong, + The world had wanted many an idle song;' + +of Garth ministering to Johnson, and Rush philosophizing, with Dr. +Franklin, and the friendship of Pope and Cheselden. Bell's comments on +art, Colden's _Letters to Linnæus_, and Thatcher's _Military Journal_, are +attractive proofs of that liberal tendency which leads the physician +beyond the limits of his profession into the field of philosophical +research. The bequest of Sir Hans Sloane was the nucleus of the British +Museum. We all have a kind of affection for Dr. Slop, who, drawn from Dr. +Burton, of York--a cruel, instrumental obstetrician,--is the type of an +almost obsolete class, as the doctor in _Macbeth_ is of the sapient +pretender of all time. As to ideal doctors, how real to our minds is that +Wordsworthean myth Dr. Fell, the physician of Sancho Panza, and the Purgon +of Molière; while Dulcamara is a permanent type of the clever quack, Dr. +Bartolo of the solemn professor, and Sangrado of the merciless +phlebotomist. To think it 'more honourable to fail according to rule than +to succeed by innovation,' is a satire of no local significance, but the +constant creed of the medical pedant. Satirized years ago by the French +comic dramatist, the profession was caricatured the other day by a young +disciple of Esculapius, who in a clever drawing represented the votary of +homoeopathy with a little globule between thumb and finger, engaged in a +kind of airy swallowing; the allopathic patient in an easy-chair is making +wry faces over a large spoonful of physic; the believer in hydropathy sits +forlorn and shivering in a sitz-bath, with a large goblet of water raised +to his lips; while the Thomsonian victim is writhing and nauseating in +anguish; and in the midst a skeleton, with a syringe for a baton, is +dancing in a transport of infernal joy. Southey took a wise advantage of +the popular idea of a doctor, in the genial and speculative phase of the +character, when he gave the title to his last rambling, erudite, quaint, +and charming production. Men of letters accordingly are wont to fraternize +with the best of the profession; and there has always been a reciprocal +interchange between them, both of affection and wit. Thus Halleck tells +us, in _Fanny_,-- + + 'In Physic, we have Francis and M'Neven, + Famed for long heads, short lectures, and long bills; + And Quackenboss and others, who from heaven + Were rained upon us in a shower of pills; + They'd beat the deathless Esculapius hollow, + And make a starveling druggist of Apollo.' + +The record of our surgeons in the war for the Union is alike honourable to +their patriotism, humanity, and skill. + +Popular writers have indicated the claims and character of the profession, +not only in a dramatic or anecdotal way, but by personal testimony and +observation; and those who have had the best opportunities, and are +endowed with liberal sympathies, warmly recognize the possible usefulness +and probable benevolence of a class of men more often satirized than sung. +The privations and toil incident to country practice half a century ago +are scarcely imagined now. Sir Walter Scott tells us,--'I have heard the +celebrated traveller Mungo Park, who had experienced both courses of life, +rather give the preference to travelling as a discoverer in Africa, than +to wandering by night and day the wilds of his native land in the capacity +of a country practitioner.' Dr. Johnson, a livelong invalid, and not apt +to overlook professional foibles, gives a high average character to the +doctor. 'Whether,' he observes, 'what Sir William Temple says be true, +that the physicians have more learning than the other faculties, I will +not stay to inquire; but I believe every man has found in physicians great +liberality and dignity of sentiment, very prompt effusion of beneficence, +and willingness to exert a lucrative art where there is no hope of lucre.' + +It is a nervous process to undergo the examination of a Parisian medical +professor of the first class. Auscultation was first introduced by one of +them, Laennec, and diagnosis is their chief art. In their hands the +stethoscope is a divining-rod. So reliable is their insight, that they +seem to read the internal organism as through a glass; and one feels under +Louis's inspection as if awaiting sentence. The laws of disease have been +thoroughly studied in the hospitals of Paris, and the philosophy of +symptoms is there understood by the medical _savans_ with the certainty of +a natural science, but the knowledge and application of remedies is by no +means advanced in equal proportion. Accordingly, the perfection of modern +skill in the art seems to result from an education in the French schools, +combined with experience in English practice; thorough acquaintance with +physiology, and habits of acute observation and accurate deduction, are +thus united to executive tact and ability. And similar eclectic traits of +character are desirable in the physician, especially the union of solidity +of mind with agreeableness of manner; for in no vocation is there so often +demanded the blending of the _fortiter in re_ with the _suaviter in modo_. + +The absence of faith in positive remedies that obtains in Europe is very +striking to an American visitor, because it offers so absolute a contrast +to the system pursued at home. I attended the funeral of a countryman a +few days after reaching Paris, and on our way to Père la Chaise his case +and treatment were fully discussed; his disease was typhus fever. Previous +to delirium he had designated a physician, a celebrated professor, who +only prescribed _gomme syrop_. For a week I travelled with a Dominican +friar, who had so high a fever that in America he would have been +confined to his bed; he took no nourishment all the time but a plate of +thin soup once a day, and when we reached our destination he was +convalescent. Abstinence and repose are appreciated on the Continent as +remedial agencies; but they are contrary to the genius of our people, who +regard active enterprise as no less desirable in a doctor than a steamboat +captain. + +Veteran practitioners have demonstrated that certain diseases are +self-limited, that the art of treating diseases is still 'a conjectural +study,' and avowed the conviction that 'the amount of death and disaster +in the world would be less if all disease were left to itself, than it now +is under the multiform, reckless, and contradictory modes of practice.' A +conscientious student, of high personal character, entered upon the +profession with enthusiastic faith; experience in the use of remedies made +him sceptical, and he resorted to evasion by giving water only under +various pretexts and names. His success was so much greater than that of +his brethren, that he felt bound to reveal the ruse; but continued +thenceforth to assert that, all things being equal, more patients would +survive, if properly guarded and nourished, without medicine than with. + +The influence of the mind upon the body is, in some instances, so great, +that it accounts for that identity of superstition and medicine which is +one of the most remarkable traits in the history of the science. Sir +Walter Raleigh's cordial was as famous in its day as Mrs. Trulbery's water +praised by Sir Roger de Coverley. In Egypt, old practitioners cure with +amulets and charms; among the Tartars they swallow the name of the remedy +with perfect faith; and from the Puritan horseshoe to keep off witchcraft, +to Perkins' tractors to annihilate rheumatism, the history of medical +delusions is rife with imaginary triumphs. As late as the seventeenth +century, when Arabian precepts and the Jewish leech of chivalric times had +disappeared, when the square cap and falling beards had given place to +the wig and cane, in some places the mystic emblems of skull, stuffed +lizards, pickled fetus, and alembic gave a necromantic air to the doctor's +sanctum. + +The unknown is the source of the marvellous, and the relation between a +disease and its cure is less obvious to the common understanding than that +between the evidence and the verdict in a law case, or religious faith and +its public ministration in the office of priest. The imagination has room +to act, and the sense of wonder is naturally excited, when, by the agency +of some drug, mechanical apparatus, or mystic rite, it is attempted to +relieve human suffering and dispel infirmity. Hence the most enlightened +minds are apt to yield to credulity in this sphere, much to the annoyance +of the 'regular faculty,' who complain with reason that quackery, whether +in the form of popular specifics or the person of a charlatan, derives its +main support from men of civic and professional reputation. Think of Dr. +Johnson, in his infancy, being touched for king's evil by Queen Anne, in +accordance with a belief in its sovereign efficiency, unquestioned for +centuries. Sir Kenelm Digby was as much celebrated in his day for his +recipe for a sympathetic powder, which he obtained from an Italian friar, +as for his beautiful wife or his naval victory; and the good Bishop +Berkeley gave as much zeal to the _Treatise on the Virtues of Tar-water_ +as to that on the _Immateriality of the Universe_. + +Shakspeare has drawn a quack doctor to the life in Caius, the French +physician, in the _Merry Wives of Windsor_, and uttered an impressive +protest against the tribe in _All's Well that Ends Well_:-- + + '_King._ But may not be so credulous of cure, + When our most learned doctors leave us; and + The congregated college have concluded + That labouring art can never ransom nature + From her inaidable estate: I say we must not + So stain our judgment, or corrupt our hope, + To prostitute our past-cure malady + To empirics; or to dissever so + Our great self and our credit, to esteem + A senseless help, when help past sense we deem.' + +An American member of the medical profession[15] has traced in the great +bard of nature a minute knowledge of the healing art, citing his various +allusions to diseases and their remedies. Thus we have in Coriolanus the +'post-prandial temper of a robust man,' and the physiology of madness in +Hamlet and Lear. The wasting effects of love, melancholy, the processes of +digestion, respiration, circulation of the blood, infusion of humours, +effects of passions on the body, of slow and swift poisons, insomnia, +dropsy, and other phenomena described with accuracy. Cæsar's fever in +Spain, Gratiano's warning, 'creep into a jaundice by being peevish;' the +physical effects of sensualism in Antony and Cleopatra, the external signs +of sudden death from natural causes in Henry VI., and summary of diseases +in Troilus and Cressida, are described with professional truth. How +memorable his Apothecary's portrait! while the medical critic assures us +that, in a passage in _Midsummer-Night's Dream_, the 'accessories of a +sickly season are poetically described,' and that Falstaff admirably +satirizes the 'ambiguities of professional opinion,' while, in Mrs. +Quickly's description of his death, and the dying scene of Cardinal +Beaufort, as well as the senility of Lear, the mellow virility of old +Adam, the 'thick-coming fancies' of remorse, and Ophelia's +aberration--every minute touch in the memorable picture of 'a mind +diseased'--indicate a profound insight, and suggest, as no other poet can, +how intimately and universally the 'ills that flesh is heir to,' and the +vocation of those who minister to health, are woven into the web of human +destiny and the scenes of human life. Who has so sweetly celebrated +'Nature's sweet restorer' and the 'healing touch'? or more emphatically +declared, 'when the mind's free the body's delicate,' and-- + + 'We are not ourselves + When nature, being oppressed, commands + The mind to suffer with the body.' + +The memoirs of celebrated men abound with physiological interest; their +eminence brings out facts which serve to vindicate impressively the phases +of medical experience, and the relation of the soul to its tabernacle. +Madden's _Infirmities of Genius_ is a book which suggests an infinite +charity, as well as exposes the fatal effects of neglecting natural laws. +Lord Byron used to declare that a dose of salts exhilarated him more than +wine. Shelley was a devoted vegetarian. Cowper spoke from experience when +he sang the praises of the cups 'that cheer but not inebriate.' Johnson +had faith in the sanative quality of dried orange-peel. When Dr. Spurzheim +was first visited by the physicians in his last illness, he told them to +allow for the habitual irregularity of his pulse, which had intermitted +ever since the death of his wife. George Combe used to tell a capital +story, in his lectures, of the manner in which a pious Scotch lady made +her grandson pass Sunday, whereby, while outwardly keeping the Sabbath, he +violated all the rules of health. Two of the most characteristic books in +British literature are Greene's poem of the _Spleen_, and Dr. Cheyne's +_English Malady_; and another is the history of the _Gold-headed Cane_, or +rather of the five doctors that successively owned it. The cane, indeed, +was ever an indispensable symbol of medical authority. The story of Dr. +Radcliffe's illustrates its modern significance; but the association of +the walking-staff and the doctor comes down to us from mediæval times. 'He +smelt his cane,' in the old ballads, is a phrase suggestive of a then +common expedient; the head of the physician's cane was filled with +disinfectant herbs, the odour of which the owner inhaled when exposed to +miasma. Even at this day, in some of the provincial towns in Italy, we +encounter the doctor in the pharmacist's shop, awaiting patients,--his +dress and manner such as are reproduced in the comic drama, while the +quack of the Piazza is recognized on the operatic stage. + +How unprofessional medicine is becoming may be seen in current literature, +when De Quincey's metaphysical account of the effects of opium, and +Bulwer's fascinating plea for the Water-Cure, are ranked as light reading. +To the lover of the old English prose-writers there is no more endeared +name than Sir Thomas Browne, and his _Religio Medici_ and quaint tracts +are among the choicest gifts for which philosophy is indebted to the +profession; while the classical student owes to Dr. Middleton a _Life of +Cicero_. The vivacious Lady Montagu is most gratefully remembered for her +philanthropic efforts in behalf of inoculation for smallpox; and our +Brockden Brown has described the phenomena of an epidemic, in one of his +novels, with more insight though less horror than Defoe. + +It is in pestilence and after battle that the doctor sometimes rises to +the moral sublime, in his disinterested and unwearied devotion to others. +It must, however, be confessed that, notwithstanding these incidental +laurels, the authority of the profession has so declined, the _malades +imaginaires_ so increased with civilization, and the privileges of the +faculty been so encroached upon by what is called 'progress,' that a +doctor of the old school would scorn to tolerate the fallen dignity of a +title that once rendered his intercourse with society oracular, and +authorized him with impunity to whip a king, as in the case of Dr. Willis +and George the Third. + +'The philosophy of medicine, I imagine,' observed Dr. Arnold, 'is zero; +our practice is empirical, and seems hardly more than a course of +guessing, more or less happy.' None have been more sceptical than +physicians themselves in regard to their own science: Broussais calls it +illusory, like astrology; and Bichat declares 'it is, in respect to its +principles, taken from most of our _materia medicas_, impracticable for a +sensible man; an incoherent assemblage of incoherent opinions, it is, +perhaps, of all the physiological sciences, the one which shows plainest +the contradictions and wanderings of the human mind.' Montaigne used to +beseech his friends that, if he fell ill, they would let him get a little +stronger before sending for the doctor. Louis XIV., who was a slave to his +physicians, asked Molière what he did for his doctor. 'Oh, sire,' said he, +'when I am ill I send for him. He comes; we have a chat, and enjoy +ourselves. He prescribes; I don't take it,--and I am cured.' + +'There is a certain analogy,' says an agreeable writer, 'between naval and +medical men. Neither like to acknowledge the presence of danger.' On the +other hand, each patient's character as well as constitution makes a +separate demand upon his sympathy; for in cases where fortitude and +intelligence exist, perfect frankness is due, and in instances of extreme +sensibility it may prove fatal; so that the most delicate consideration is +often required to decide on the expediency of enlightening the invalid. If +it is folly to theorize in medicine, it is often sinful to flatter the +imagination for the purpose of securing temporary ease. A physician's +course, like that of men in all pursuits, is sometimes regulated by his +consciousness, and he is apt to prescribe according to his own rather than +his patient's nature; thus a fleshy doctor is inclined to bleed, and +recommend generous diet; a nervous one affects mild anodynes; a vain one +talks science; and a thin, cold-blooded, speculative one, makes safe +experiments in practice, and is habitually non-committal in speech. Almost +invariably short-necked plethoric doctors enjoy freeing the vessels of +others by copious depletion, and those more delicately organized advocate +fresh air and tonics; the one instinctively reasoning from the surplus, +and the other from the inadequate vitality of which they are respectively +conscious. I knew a doctor who scarcely ever failed to prescribe an +emetic, and the expression of his countenance indicated chronic nausea. + +Medicine enjoys no immunity from the spirit of the age. Who does not +recognize in the popularity of Hahnemann's system the influence of the +transcendental philosophy, a kind of intuitive practice analogous to the +vague terms of its disciples in literature; those little globules with the +theoretical accompaniment catch the fancy; castor-oil and the lancet are +matter-of-fact in comparison. And so with hydropathy. There is in our day +what may be called a return-to-nature school. Wordsworth is its expositor +in poetry, Fourier in social life, the Pre-Raphaelites in painting. The +newly-appreciated efficacy of water accords with this principle. It is an +elemental medicament, limpid as the style of Peter Bell, free from +admixture as the individual labour in a model community, and as directly +caught from nature as the aërial perspective of England's late scenic +limner. Even what has been considered the inevitable resort to dissection +in order to acquire anatomical knowledge, it is now pretended, has a +substitute in clairvoyance. Somewhat of truth in this spiritualizing +tendency of science there doubtless is; but fact is the basis of positive +knowledge, and the most unwarrantable of all experiments are those +involving human health. + +If the mental experience of a doctor naturally leads to philosophy, the +moral tends to make him a philanthropist. He is familiar with all the ills +that flesh is heir to. The mystery of birth, the solemnity of death, the +anxiety of disease, the devotion of faith, the agony of despair, are +phases of life daily open to his view; and their contemplation, if there +is in his nature a particle either of reflection or sensibility, must lead +to a sense of human brotherhood, excite the impulse of benevolence, and +awaken the spirit of humanity. Warren's _Diary of a Physician_ gives us an +inkling of what varieties of human experience are exposed to his gaze. +Vigils at the couch of genius and beauty, full of the stern romance of +reality, or imbued with tenderness and inspiration, are recorded in his +heart. He is admitted into sanctums where no other feet but those of +kindred enter. He becomes the inevitable auditor and spectator where no +other stranger looks or listens. Human nature, stripped of its +conventionalities, lies exposed before him; the secrets of conscience, the +aspirations of intellect, the devotedness of love, all that exalts and all +that debases the soul, he beholds in the hour of weakness, solitude, or +dismay; and hard and unthinking must he be if such lessons make no +enduring impression, and excite no comprehensive sympathies. + +'The corner-stone of health,' says a German writer, 'is to maintain our +individuality intact;' and while the hygienic reformer has lessened the +bills of mortality, personal culture has emancipated society from much of +the ignorant dependence and insalubrious habits of less enlightened +times. + + + + +HOLIDAYS. + + 'And here I must have leave, in the fulness of my soul, to regret the + abolition and doing away with altogether of those consolatory + interstices and sprinklings of freedom through the four seasons--the + _red-letter_ days, now become to all intents and purposes + _dead-letter_ days.'--CHARLES LAMB. + + +While we accord a certain historical or ethical significance to our +holidays, we also feel their casual tenure, their want of recreative rest, +of enjoyable spirit, and of cordial popular estimation; and are +irresistibly prompted to discuss their claims as one of the neglected +elements of our national life. It is an anomalous fact in our civilization +that we have no one holiday, the observance of which is unanimous. It is +an exceptional trait in our nationality that its sentiment finds no annual +occasion when the hearts of the people thrill with an identical emotion, +absorbing in patriotic instinct and mutual reminiscence all personal +interests and local prejudices. It is an unfortunate circumstance that no +American festival, absolutely consecrated and universally acknowledged, +hallows the calendar to the imagination of our people. Anniversaries +enough, we boast, of historical importance, but they are casually +observed; events of glorious memory crowd our brief annals, but they are +not consciously identified with recurring periods; universal celebrities +are included in the roll of our country's benefactors; but the dates of +their birth, services, and decease, form no saints' days for the Republic. +How often in the crises of sectional passion does the moral necessity of +a common shrine, a national feast, a place, a time, or a memory sacred to +fraternal sympathies of general observance, appal the patriotic heart with +regret, or warm it with desire! How much of sectional misunderstanding, +hatred, and barbarism culminating in a base and savage mutiny, will the +future historian trace in the last analysis to the absence of a common +sentiment and occasion of mutual pleasure and faith. Were such a nucleus +for popular enthusiasm, such a goal for a nation's pilgrimage, such a day +for reciprocal gratulation our own--a time when the oath of fealty could +be renewed at the same altar, the voice of encouragement be echoed from +every section of the Union, the memory of what has been, the appreciation +of what is, and the hope of what may be, simultaneously felt,--what a bond +of union, a motive to forbearance, and a pledge of nationality would be +secured! Were there not in us sentiments as well as appetites, reflection +as well as passion, humanity might rest content with such 'note of time' +as is marked on a sun-dial or in the almanac; but constituted as we are, a +profound and universal instinct prompts observances wherewith faith, hope, +and memory may keep register of the fleeting hours and months. In +accordance with this instinct, periodical sacrifice, song, prayer, and +banquet, in all countries and ages, have inscribed with heartfelt ceremony +the shadowy lapse of being. Without law or art, the savage thus identifies +his consciousness with the seasons and their transition; anniversaries +typifying vicissitude; the wheel of custom stops awhile; events, +convictions, reminiscences, and aspirations are personified in the +calendar; and that reason which 'looks before and after' asserts itself +under every guise, from the barbarian rite to the Christian festival, and +begets the holiday as an institution natural to man. If the ballads of a +people are the essence of its history, holidays are, on similar grounds, +the free utterance of its character; and, as such, of great interest to +the philosopher, and fraught with endearing associations to the +philanthropist. + +The spontaneous in nations as well as individuals is attractive to the eye +of philosophy, because it is eminently characteristic. The great charm of +biography is its revelation of the play of mind and the aspect of +character, when freed from conventional restraints; and in the life of +nations how inadequate are the records of diplomacy, legislation, and +war--the official and economical development--to indicate what is +instinctive and typical in character! It is when the armour of daily toil, +the insignia of office, the prosaic routine of life, are laid aside, that +what is peculiar in form and graceful in movement become evident. In the +glee or solemnity of the festival, the soul breaks forth; in the fusion of +a common idea, the heart of a country becomes freely manifest. + +Accordingly, the manner, the spirit, and the object of festal observances +are among the most significant illustrations of history. An accurate chart +of these, from the earliest time, would afford a reliable index to the +progress of humanity, and suggest a remarkable identity of natural wants, +tendencies, and aspirations. There is, for instance, a singular affinity +between the Saturnalia of the ancient and the Carnival of the modern +Romans, the sports of the ancient circus and bull-fights of Spain; while +so closely parallel, in some respects, are Druidical and Monastic vows and +fanaticism, that one of the most popular of modern Italian operas, which +revived the picturesque costume and sylvan rites of the Druids, was +threatened with prohibition, as a satire upon the Church. It would, +indeed, well repay antiquarian investigation to trace the germ of holiday +customs from the crude superstitions of barbarians, through the usages +incident to a more refined mythology, to their modified reappearance in +the Catholic temples, where Pagan rites are invested with Christian +meaning, or the statue of Jupiter transformed into St. Peter, and the +sarcophagus of a heathen becomes the font of holy baptism. Gibbon tells +us how shrewd Pope Boniface professed but to rehabilitate old customs when +he revived the secular games in Rome. Not only are traces of Pagan forms +discoverable in the modern holidays, but the mediæval taste for +exhibitions of animal courage and vigour still lives in the love of +prize-fights and horse-racing, so prevalent in England; and the ring and +the cockpit minister to the same brutal passions which of old filled the +Flavian amphitheatre with eager spectators, and gave a relish to the +ordeal of blood. In the abuses of the modern pastime we behold the relics +of barbarism; and the perpetuity of such national tastes is evident in the +combative instinct which once sustained the orders of chivalry, and in our +day has lured thousands to the destructive battle-fields of the Crimea and +Virginia. + +Not only do the social organizations devoted to popular amusements and +economies thus give the best tokens of local manners and average taste, +but they directly minister to the culture they illustrate. The gladiator, +'butchered to make a Roman holiday,' nurtured with his lifeblood and dying +agonies the ferocious propensities and military hardihood of the imperial +cohorts. The graceful posture and fine muscular display of the wrestler +and discus-player of Athens reappeared in the statues which peopled her +squares and temples. The equine beauty and swiftness exhibited at Derby +and Ascot keep alive the emulation which renders England famous for breeds +of horses, and her gentry healthful by equestrian exercise. The custom of +musical accompaniments at every German symposium has, in a great measure, +bred a nation of vocal and instrumental performers. The dance became a +versatile art in France, because it was, as it still is, the national +pastime.[16] The Circassian is expert with steed and rifle from the habit +of dexterity acquired in the festive trials of skill, excellence in which +is the qualification for leadership. The compass, flexibility, and +sweetness of the human voice, so characteristic of the people of Italy, +have been attained through ages of vocal practice in ecclesiastical and +rural festivals; and the copious melody of their language gradually arose +through the _canzoni_ of troubadours and the rhythmical feats of +_improvisatori_. The deafening clang of gongs, the blinding smoke of +chowsticks, and the dazzling light of innumerable lanterns, wherewith the +Chinese celebrate their national feasts, are to European senses the most +oppressive imaginable token of a stagnant and primitive civilization; the +festive elements of the semi-barbarism artistically represented by their +grotesque figures, ignorance of perspective, interminable alphabet, +pinched feet, bare scalps, and implacable hatred of innovation, both in +the processes and the forms of advanced taste. + +Even the aboriginal feasts of this continent were the best indication of +what the American Indians, in their palmy days, could boast of strength, +agility, and grace. Thus, from the most cultivated to the least developed +races, what is adopted and expressed in a recreative or holiday +manner--what is thus done and said, sought and felt,--the rallying-point +of popular sympathy, the occasion of the universal joy or reverence,--is a +moral fact of unique and permanent interest; on the one hand, as +illustrative of the kind and degree of civilization attained, and of the +instinctive direction of the national mind, and, on the other, as +indicative of the means and the processes whereby the wants are met and +the ideas realized, which stimulate and mould a nation's genius and faith. + +The testimony of observation accords with that of history in this regard. +The foreign scenes which haunt the memory, as popular illustrations of +character, are those of holidays. The government, literature, art, and +society of a country may be individually represented to our minds; but +when we discuss national traits, we instinctively refer to the pastimes, +the religious ceremonials, and the festivals of a people. Where has the +pugilistic hilarity of the Irish scope as at Donnybrook Fair?[17] Is a +dull parliamentary speech, or an animated debate at the racecourse, most +vivid with the spirit of English life? Market-day, and harvest-home, and +saintly anniversaries, evoke from its commonplace level the life of the +humble and the princely, and they appear before the stranger under a +genuine and characteristic guise. We associate the French, as a people, +with the rustic groups under the trees of Montmorency, or the crowds of +neatly-dressed and gay _bourgeoise_ at the _Jardin d'Hiver_,--finding in +the green grass, lights, cheap wine and comfits, a flower in the hair, a +waltz and saunter, more real pleasure than a less frugal and mercurial +people can extract from a solemn feast, garnished with extravagant +upholstery, and loaded with luxurious viands. We recall the Italians and +Spaniards by the ceaseless bells of their _festas_ vibrating in the air, +and the golden necklace and graceful _mezzano_ of the peasant's holiday; +the tinkle of guitars, the _bolero_ and processions, or the lines of stars +marking the architecture of illuminated temples, the euphonious greeting, +the light-hearted carol, the abundant fruit, the knots of flowers, the gay +jerkin and bodice, which render the urbane throng so picturesque in aspect +and childlike in enjoyment. The sadness which overhung the very idea of +Italy, considered as a political entity, exhaled like magic before the +spectacle of a Tuscan vintage. The heaps of purple and amber fruit, the +gray and pensive-eyed oxen, the reeking butts, the yellow vine-leaves +waving in the autumn sun, form studies for the pencil; but the human +interest of the scene infinitely endears its still life. Kindred and +friends, in festal array, celebrate their work, and rejoice over the +Falernian, _Lachryma Christi_, or _Vino Nostrale_, with a frank and +_naïve_ gratitude akin to the mellow smile of productive Nature: the +distance between the lord of the soil and the peasant is, for the time, +lost in a mutual and innocent triumph; they who are wont to serve become +guests; the dance and song, the compliment and repartee, the toast and the +smile, are interchanged, on the one side with artless loyalty, and on the +other with a condescension merged in graciousness. It seems as if the hand +of Nature, in yielding her annual tribute, literally imparted to prince +and peasant the touch which makes 'the whole world kin.' + +The contrast, in respect of pastime, is felt most keenly when we observe +life at home, with the impressions of the Old World fresh in our minds. We +have perhaps joined the laughing group who cluster round Punch and Judy on +the Mole of Naples; we have watched the flitting emotions on swarthy +listeners who greedily drink in the story-teller's words on the shore of +Palermo; we have made an old gondolier chant a stanza of Tasso, at sunset, +on the Adriatic; our hostess at Florence has decked the window with a +consecrated branch on Palm Sunday; we have seen the poor _contadini_ of a +Roman village sport their silver knobs and hang out their one bit of +crimson tapestry, in honour of some local saint; we have examined the last +mosaic saint exhumed from Pompeii, brilliant with festal rites, and thus, +as an element both of history and experience, of religion and domesticity, +the recreative side of life appears essential and absolute, while the +hurrying crowd, hasty salutations, and absorption in affairs around us, +seem to repudiate and ignore the inference, and to confirm the opinion of +one whose existence was divided between this country and Europe, that 'the +Americans are practical Stoics.' + +To appreciate the value of holidays merely as a conservative element of +faith, we have but to remember the Jewish festivals. Ages of dispersion, +isolation, contempt, and persecution--all that mortal agencies can effect +to chill the zeal or to discredit the traditions of the Hebrews--have +not, in the slightest degree, lessened the sanction or diminished the +observance of that festival, to keep which the Divine Founder of our +religion, nineteen centuries ago, went up to Jerusalem with his disciples. +And it is difficult to conceive a more sublime idea than is involved in +this fact. On the day of the Passover, in the Austrian banker's splendid +palace, in the miserable Ghetto of Rome, under the shadow of Syrian +mosques, in the wretched by-way hostel of Poland, at the foot of Egyptian +pyramids, beside the Holy Sepulchre, among the money-changers of Paris and +the pawnbrokers of London, along the canals of Holland, in Siberia, +Denmark, Calcutta, and New York, in every nook of the civilized world, the +Jew celebrates his holy national feast; and who can estimate how much this +and similar rites have to do with the eternal marvel of that nation's +survival? + +The conservatism inherent in traditional festivals not only binds together +and keeps intact the scattered communities of a dispersed race, but saves +from extinction many local and inherited characteristics. I was never so +impressed with this thought as on the occasion of an annual village _fête_ +in Sicily. Perhaps no territory of the same limits comprehends such a +variety of elements in the basis of its existent population as that +luxuriant and beautiful but ill-fated island. Its surface is venerable +with the architectural remains of successive races. Here a Grecian temple, +there a Saracenic dome; now a Roman fortification, again a Norman tower; +and often a mediæval ruin of some incongruous order attracts the +traveller's gaze from broad valleys rich with grain, olive-orchards, and +citron-groves, vineyards planted in decomposed lava, hedges of aloe, +meadows of wild-flowers, a torrent's arid path, a holly-crowned mountain, +a cork forest, or seaward landscape. But the more flexible materials left +by the receding tide of invasion are so blended in the physiognomies, the +customs, and the _patois_ of the inhabitants, that only nice +investigation can trace them amid the generic phenomena of nationality +now recognized as Sicilian. Yet the people of a village but a few miles +from the capital have so identified their Greek origin with the costume of +a holiday, that, as one scans their festal array, it is easy to imagine +that the unmixed blood of their classic progenitors flushes in the dark +eyes and mantles in the olive cheeks. This ancestral dress is the endeared +heirloom in the homes of the peasantry, assumed with conscious pride and +gaiety to meet the wondering eyes of neighbouring _contadini_, curious +Palermitans, and delighted strangers, who flock to the spectacle. + +The love of power is a great teacher of human instincts; and despotism, +both civil and spiritual, has, in all ages, availed itself of the natural +instinct for festivals, to multiply and enhance shows, amusements, and +holidays, in a manner which yields profitable lessons to free communities +intent on adapting the same means to nobler ends. The stated pilgrimage to +the tomb of the Prophet is an important part of the superstitious +machinery of the Mohammedan tyranny over the will and conscience; and it +is difficult to conceive now to what an extent the zeal and unity of the +early Christians were enforced by specific days of ceremonial, and by such +a hallowed goal as Jerusalem. + +Imperial authority in France is upheld by festive seductions, adapted to a +vivacious populace; and by masque balls, municipal banquets, showers of +bon-bons, and ascent of balloons, contrives to win attention from +republican discontent. Mercenary rulers of petty states, by the gift of +stars and red ribbons, and liberal contributions to the opera, obtain an +economical safeguard. The policy of the Romish Church is nowhere more +striking than in her holiday institutions, appealing to native sentiment +through pageantry, music, and impressive rites in honour of saints, +martyrs, and departed friends, to propitiate their intercession or to +endear their memories. + +While the pastimes in vogue typify the national mind, and are to serious +avocations what the efflorescence of the tree is to its fruit--a bountiful +pledge and augury of prolific energy,--it is only when kept as holidays, +set apart by law and usage, consecrated by time and sympathy, that such +observances attain their legitimate meaning; and to this end, a certain +affinity with character, a spontaneous and not conventional impulse is +essential. The Tournament, for instance, was the natural and appropriate +pastime of the age of chivalry; it fostered knightly prowess, and made +patent the twinborn inspiration of love and valour. As described in +_Ivanhoe_, it accords intimately with the spirit of the age and the +history of the times; as exhibited to the utilitarian vision and +mercantile habits of our own day, in Virginia, it comes no nearer our +associations than any theatrical pageant chosen at hap-hazard. What other +species of grown men could, in this age, enact every year, in the +neighbourhood of Rome, the scenes which make the artists' holiday? As a +profession, they retain the instincts of childhood, with little warping +from the world around. But imagine a set of mechanics or merchants +attempting such a masquerade. The invention, the fancy, the independence, +and the _abandon_ congenial with artist-life, gives unity, +picturesqueness, and grace to the pageant; and the speeches, costumes, +feasting, and drollery, are pre-eminently those of an artist's carnival. +It is indispensable that the spirit of a holiday should be native to the +scene and the people; and hence all endeavours to graft local pastimes +upon foreign communities signally fail. This is illustrated in our +immediate vicinity. The genial fellowship and exuberant hospitality with +which the first day of the year is celebrated in New York were +characteristic among the Dutch colonists, and have been transmitted to +their posterity, while the tone of New England society, though more +intellectual, is less urbane and companionable; accordingly, the few +enthusiasts who have attempted it have been unable, either by precept or +example, to make a Boston New Year's day the complete and hearty festival +which renders it _par excellence_ the holiday of the Knickerbockers. +Charitable enterprise, for several years past, in the Puritan city, has +distinguished May-day as a children's floral anniversary; but who that is +familiar with the peasant-songs that hail this advent of summer in the +south of Europe ever beheld the shivering infants and the wilted leaves, +paraded in the teeth of an east wind, without a conscious recoil from the +anomalous _fête_? The facts of habit, public sentiment, natural taste, +local association, and of climate, cannot be ignored in holiday +institutions, which, like eloquence, as defined by Webster, must spring +directly from the men, the subject, and the occasion. Any other source is +unstable and factitious. Of all affectations, those of diversion are the +least endurable; and there is no phase of social life more open to satire, +nor any that has provoked it to more legitimate purpose, than the +affectation of a taste for art, sporting, the ball-room, the bivouac, the +gymnasium, foreign travel, country life, nautical adventure, and literary +amusements; an affectation yielding, as we know, food for the most spicy +irony, from Goldoni's _Filosofo Inglese_ to Hood's cockney ruralist and +_Punch's_ amateur sportsman or verdant tourist. And what is true of +personal incongruities is only the more conspicuous in social and national +life. + +When our literary pioneer sought to waken the fraternal sentiment of his +countrymen towards their ancestral land, he described with sympathetic +zest an English Christmas in an old family mansion; and the most popular +of modern novelists can find no more potent spell whereby to excite a +charitable glow in two hemispheres than a _Christmas Carol_. In New as +well as in Old England the once absolute sway of this greatest of +Christian festivals has been checked by Puritan zeal. We must look to the +ancient ballads, obsolete plays, and musty church traditions, to ascertain +what this hallowed season was in the British islands, when wassail and the +yule-log, largess and the Lord of Misrule, the mistletoe bough, boars' +heads, holly wreaths, midnight chimes, the feast of kindred, the anthem, +the prayer, the games of children, the good cheer of the poor, +forgiveness, gratulation, worship--all that revelry hails and religion +consecrates,--made holiday in palace, manor, and cottage, throughout the +land; winter's robe of ermine everywhere vividly contrasting with +evergreen decorations, the frosty air with the warmth of household fires, +the cold sky with the incense of hospitable hearths; when King Charles +acted, Ben Jonson wrote a masque, Milton a hymn, lords and peasants +flocked to the altar, parents and children gathered round the board, and +church, home, wayside, town, and country bore witness to one mingled and +hearty sentiment of festivity. Identical in season with the Roman +Saturnalia, and the time when the Scalds let 'wildly loose their red locks +fly,' Christmas is sanctioned by all that is venerable in association as +well as tender and joyous in faith. It is deeply to be regretted that with +us its observance is almost exclusively confined to the Romanists and +Episcopalians. The sentiment of all Christian denominations is equally +identified with its commemoration, the event it celebrates being +essentially memorable alike to all who profess Christianity; and although +the forlorn description by Pepys of a Puritan Christmas will not apply to +the occasion here, its comparative neglect, which followed Bloody Mary's +reign, continues among too many of the sects that found refuge in America. +There are abundant indications that if the clergy would initiate the +movement, the laity are prepared to make Christmas among us the universal +religious holiday which every consideration of piety, domestic affection, +and traditional reverence unite to proclaim it. + +The humanities of time, if we may so designate the periods consecrated to +repose and festivity, were thoroughly appreciated by the most quaint and +genial of English essayists. The boon of leisure, the amenities of social +intercourse, the sacredness and the humours of old-fashioned holidays, +have found their most loving interpreter, in our day, in Charles Lamb. +Hear him:-- + + 'I must have leave, in the fulness of my soul, to regret the abolition + and doing away with altogether of those _consolatory interstices_ and + _sprinklings of freedom_ through the four seasons--the _red-letter_ + days, now become, to all intents and purposes, _dead-letter_ days. + There was Paul and Stephen and Barnabas, Andrew and John, men famous + in old times,--we used to keep all their days holy, as long back as + when I was at school at Christ's. I remember their effigies by the + same token, in the old Basket Prayer-book. I honoured them all, and + could almost have wept the defalcation of Iscariot, so much did we + love to keep holy memories sacred; only methought I a little grudged + at the coalition of the _better Jude_ with _Simon_--clubbing, as it + were, their sanctities together to make up one poor gaudy day between + them, as an economy unworthy of the dispensation. These were bright + visitations in a scholar's and a clerk's life,--"far off their coming + shone." I was as good as an almanac in those days.'[18] + +And who has written, like Lamb, of the forlorn pathos of the charity boy's +'objectless holiday;' of the 'most touching peal which rings out the old +year;' of 'the safety which a palpable hallucination warrants' on All +Fools'; and the 'Immortal Go-between,' St. Valentine? + +The devotion to the immediate, the thrift, the enterprise, and the +material activity which pertain to a new country, and especially to our +own, distinguish American holidays from those of the Old World. Not a few +of them are consecrated to the future, many spring from the triumphs of +the present, and nearly all hint progress rather than retrospection. We +inaugurate civil and local improvements; glorify the achievements of +mechanical skill and of social reform; pay honour by feasts, processions, +and rhetoric to public men; give a municipal ovation to a foreign patriot, +or a funeral pageant to a native statesman. Our festivals are chiefly on +occasions of economic interest. Daily toil is suspended, and gala +assemblies convene, to rejoice over the completion of an aqueduct or a +railroad, or the launching of an ocean steamer. One of the earliest of +these economical displays--in New York, memorable equally from the great +principle it initiated and the felicitous auguries of the holiday +itself--was the celebration of the opening of the Erie Canal, the first of +a series of grand internal improvements which have since advanced our +national prosperity beyond all historical precedent; and one of the last +was the grand excursion which signalized the union by railroads of the +Atlantic seacoast and the Mississippi river. The two celebrations were but +festive landmarks in one magnificent system. The enterprise initiated in +Western New York, in 1825, was consummated in Illinois, in 1854, when the +last link was riveted to the chain which binds the vast line of eastern +seacoast to the great river of the West, and the genius of communication, +so essential to our unity and prosperity, brought permanently together the +boundless harvest-fields of the interior and the mighty fleets of the +seaboard. To European eyes the sight of the thousand invited guests +conveyed from New York to the Falls of St. Anthony would yield a thrilling +impression of the scale of festal arrangements in this Republic; and were +they to scan the reports of popular anniversaries and conventions in our +journals, embracing every class and vocation, representative of every art, +trade, and interest, a conviction would inevitably arise that we are the +most social and holiday nation in the world; on the constant _qui vive_ +for any plausible excuse for public dinners, speeches, processions, songs, +toasts, and other republican divertisements. One month brings round the +anniversary banquet of the printers, when Franklin's memory is invoked and +his story rehearsed; another is marked by the annual symposium and +contributions of the Dramatic Fund; a temperance jubilee is announced +to-day, a picnic of Spiritualists to-morrow; here we encounter a long +train of Sunday scholars, and there are invited to a publishers' feast in +a 'crystal palace;' the triumph of the 'Yacht America' must be celebrated +this week, and the anniversary of Clay's birth or Webster's death the +next; a clerk delivers a poem before a Mercantile Library Association, a +mechanic addresses his fellows; exhibitions of fruit, of fowls, of cattle, +of machines, of horses, ploughing-matches, schools, and pictures, lead to +social gatherings and volunteer discourses, and make a holiday now for the +farmer and now for the artisan; so that the programme of festivals, such +as they are, is coextensive with the land and the calendar. All this +proves that there is no lack of holiday instinct among us, but it also +demonstrates that the spirit of utility, the pride of occupation, and the +ambition of success, interfuse the recreative as they do the serious life +of America. The American enters into festivity as if it were a serious +business; he cannot take pleasure naturally like the European, and is +pursued with a half-conscious remorse if he dedicates time to amusement; +so that even our holidays seem rather an ordeal to be gone through with, +than an occasion to be enjoyed. At many of these _fêtes_, too, we are +painfully conscious of interested motives, which are essentially opposed +to genuine recreation. Capital is made of amusement, as of every other +conceivable element of our national life. It is often to advertise the +stock, to introduce the breed, to gain political influence, to win +fashionable suffrages to a scheme or a product of art or industry, that +these expensive arrangements are made, these hospitalities exercised, +these guests convened. Too many of our so-called holidays are tricks of +trade; too many are exclusively utilitarian; too many consecrate external +success and material well-being; and too few are based on sentiment, +taste, and good-fellowship. In a panorama of national holidays, therefore, +instead of a crowd of gracefully-attired rustics waltzing under trees, an +enthusiastic chorus breathing as one deep voice the popular chant, ladies +veiled in _tulle_ following an imperial infant to a cathedral altar, the +garlands and maidens of Old England's May-day, or the splendid evolutions +of the continental soldiery,--we should be most aptly represented by a +fleet of steamers with crowded decks and gay pennons, sweeping through the +lofty and wooded bluffs of the Upper Mississippi, the procession of boats +and regiment of marines disembarking in the bay of Jeddo, or the old Hall, +in whose sleeping echoes lives the patriotic eloquence of the Revolution, +alive with hundreds of children invited by the city authorities to the +annual school festival; for these occasions typify the enterprise at home, +the exploration abroad, and the system of public instruction, which +constitute our specific and absolute distinction in the family of nations. +A jovial eclectic could, notwithstanding, gather traces of the partial and +isolated festivals of every race and country in America;--harvest-songs +among the German settlers of Pennsylvania, here a 'golden wedding,' there +a private grape-feast; in the South a tournament, at Hoboken a +cricket-match, and an archery club at Sunnyside; a Vienna lager-beer dance +in New York, or a vine-dressers' merry-making in Ohio. + +If from those holidays which arise from temporary causes we turn to those +which, from annual recurrence, aspire to the dignity of institutions, the +first thing which strikes us is their essentially local character. +'Pilgrim-day,' wherever kept, is a New England festival; 'Evacuation-day' +belongs to the city of New York; the anniversary of the battle of Bunker +Hill is celebrated only in Charlestown; and the victory on Lake Erie, at +Newport, where its hero resided. The events thus commemorated deserve +their eminence in our regard; and patriotic sentiment is excited and +maintained by such observances. Yet in many instances they have dwindled +to a lifeless parade, and in others have become a somewhat invidious +exaggeration of local self-complacency. The latter is the case, for +instance, with the New England Society's annual feast in the commercial +metropolis of the Union. It occasionally tries the patience and vexes the +liberal sentiment of the considerate son of New England, to hear the +reiterated laudation of her schools, her clergy, her women, her codfish, +and her granite, at the hospitable board where sits, perhaps, a venerable +Knickerbocker, conscious that the glib orators and their people have +worked themselves into all places of honour and profit, where the honest +burgomaster used to smoke the pipe of peace and comfort in his generous +portico, his children now superseded by the restless emigrants from the +Eastern States, thus boastfully tracing all that redeems and sustains the +republic to the wisdom, foresight, and moral superiority of their own +peculiar ancestry. The style of the festival is often in bad taste; there +is too little recognition of the hospitality of their adopted home, too +little respect for Manhattan blood; an exuberance of language too +conspicuously triumphant over a race which the best of comic histories +illustrates by the reign of Peter the Silent, so that, at length, a jocose +reproof was administered by the toast of a humorist present, who gave, +with irresistible nasal emphasis,--'Plymouth Rock--the Blarney-stone of +New England.' + +It is, however, an appropriate illustration of the cosmopolitan population +of New York, that every year her English, Scotch, Welsh, Irish, French, +German, and Dutch children, after their own fashion, recall their +respective national associations. In point of oratory the New England +Society carries the day, inasmuch as it usually presses into its service +some distinguished speaker from abroad; in geniality, antique customs, and +long-drawn reminiscences, the St. Nicholas excels; at St. Andrew's board +the memory of Burns is revived in song; Monsieur extols his vanished +_Republique_; Welsh harps tinkle at St. David's; 'God save the Queen' +echoes under the banner of St. George; green sprigs and uncouth garments +mark the Irish procession of St. Patrick; and the Germans multiply their +festivals by summer picnics, at which lager-beer, waltzing, and fine +instrumental music recall the gardens of Vienna. 'Thanksgiving-day' is of +Puritan origin, and was designed to combine family reunions with a +grateful recognition of the autumnal harvest. The former beautiful feature +is not as salient now as when the absence of locomotive facilities made it +a rare privilege for the scattered members of a household to come together +around the paternal hearth. The occasion has also diminished in value as +one of clerical emancipation from Sabbath themes, when the preacher could +expatiate unreproved on the questions of the day and the aspects of the +times,--that privilege being now exercised, at will, on the regular day of +weekly religious service. 'Fast-day' has also become anomalous; its +abolition or identification with Good Friday has been repeatedly +advocated; strictly speaking, its title is a misnomer, and the actual +observance of it is too partial and ineffective to have any true +significance. + +An old town on the north-eastern extremity of an island, the nearest +approach to which overland is from the southern shore of Cape Cod, was +eagerly visited annually, until within a few years, by those who delight +in primitive character and local festivals. The broad plain beyond the +town was long held in common property by the inhabitants as a +sheep-pasture. It may be that the maritime occupations of the natives, +their insular position and frugal habits, imparted, by contrast, a +singular relish to the rural episode thus secured in their lives of +hazardous toil and dreary absence, as sailors and whalemen; but it is +remarkable that amid the sands of that island flourished one of the +heartiest and most characteristic of New England festivals. Simplicity of +manners, hardihood, frankness, the genial spirit of the mariner, and the +unsophisticated energy and kindliness of the sailor's wife, gave to the +Nantucket 'Sheep-shearing' a rare and permanent freshness and charm. +Unfortunately discord, arising from the conflicting interests of these +primitive islanders, at length made it desirable to restore peace by +sacrificing the flocks--innocent provocations of this domestic feud;--the +sheep were sold, and the unique festival to which they gave occasion +vanished with them. We must turn to that most available resource, an old +newspaper, for a description of this now obsolete holiday:-- + + '_Sheep-shearing._--This patriarchal festival was celebrated on Monday + and Tuesday last, in this place, with more than ordinary interest. For + some days previous, the sheep-drivers had been busily employed in + collecting from all quarters of the island the dispersed members of + the several flocks; and committing them to the great sheepfold, about + two miles from town, preparatory to the ceremonies of ablution and + _devestment_. + + 'The principal enclosure contains three hundred acres; towards one + side of this area, and near the margin of a considerable pond, are + four or five circular fences, one within the other--like Captain + Symmes's concentric curves,--and about twenty feet apart, forming a + sort of labyrinth. Into these circuits the sheep are gradually driven, + so as to be designated by their "ear-marks," and secured for their + proper owners in sheepcotes arranged laterally, or nearly so, around + the exterior circle. Contiguous to these smaller pens, each of which + is calculated to contain about one hundred sheep, the respective + owners had erected temporary tents, wherein the operation of shearing + was usually performed. The number of hands engaged in this service may + be imagined from the fact that one gentleman is the owner of about + 1,000 sheep, another of 700, and numerous others of smaller flocks, + varying in number from three or four hundred down to a single dozen. + The business of identifying, seizing, and yarding the sheep, creates a + degree of bustle that adds no small amusement to the general activity + of the scene. The whole number of sheep and lambs brought within the + great enclosure is said to be 16,000. There are also several large + flocks commonly sheared at other parts of the island. + + 'As these are the only important holidays which the inhabitants of + Nantucket have ever been accustomed to observe, it is not to be + marvelled at that all other business should on such occasions be + suspended; and that the labours attendant thereon should be mingled + with a due share of recreation. Accordingly, the fancies of the + juvenile portion of our community are, for a long time prior to the + annual "Shearing," occupied in dreams of fun and schemes of frolic. + With the mind's eye they behold the long array of tents, surmounted + with motley banners flaunting in the breeze, and stored with tempting + titbits, candidates for money and for mastication. With the mind's ear + they distinguish the spirit-stirring screak of the fiddle, the gruff + jangling of the drum, the somniferous _smorzando_ of the jews-harp, + and the enlivening scuffle of little feet in a helter-skelter jig upon + a deal platform. And their visions, unlike those of riper mortals, are + always realized. For be it known, that independent of the preparations + made by persons actually concerned in the mechanical duties of the + day, there are erected on a rising ground in the vicinity of the + sheep-field, some twenty pole and sail-cloth edifices, furnished with + seats, and tables, and casks, and dishes, severally filled with jocund + faces, baked pigs, punch, and cakes, and surrounded with divers + savoury concomitants in the premises, courteously dispensed by the + changeful master of ceremonies, studious of custom and emulous of + cash. For the accommodation of those merry urchins and youngsters who + choose to "trip it on the light fantastic toe," a floor is laid at one + corner, over which presides some African genius of melody, brandishing + a cracked violin, and drawing most moving notes from its agonized + intestines, by dint of griping fingers and right-angled elbows. + + 'We know of no parallel for this section of the entertainment, other + than what the Boston boys were wont to denominate "Nigger + 'Lection,"--so called in contradistinction from "Artillery Election." + At the former anniversary, which is the day on which "who is Governor" + is officially announced, the blacks and blackees are permitted to + perambulate the Mall and Common, to buy gingerbread and beer with the + best of folks, and to mingle in the mysteries of pawpaw. But on the + latter day, when that grave and chivalrous corps, known as the Ancient + and Honourable Artillery Company, parade for choice of + officers,--which officers are to receive their diplomas directly from + the hands of His Excellency the Governor and Commander-in-Chief in + open day, and in the august presence of all sorts of civil and martial + dignitaries,--why, woe to the sable imp that shall _then_ adventure + his woolly poll and tarnished cuticle within the hallowed + neighbourhood of nobility! + + 'On previous days the sheep had been collected from every quarter of + the island, driven into the great fold at Miacomet (the site of an + ancient Indian settlement, about a mile from town), selected and + identified by their respective owners, placed in separate pens, and + subjected to the somewhat arduous process of _washing_, in the large + pond contiguous. After this preparatory ablution, they were then ready + to "throw off this muddy vesture of decay" by the aid of some hundreds + of shearers, who began to ply their vocation on Monday morning, seated + in rude booths, or beneath umbrageous awnings ranged around the + circular labyrinth of enclosures, wherein the panting animals awaited + the divestment of their uncomfortable jackets. The space partially + occupied by the unshorn sheep and their contented lambs, and in other + spots exhibiting multitudes stripped of their fleece and clamorously + seeking their wandering young, presented to the eye and ear of the + stranger sights and sounds somewhat rare.' + +We have sometimes been tempted to believe that all illustrious occasions, +men, and things, in this Republic, must inevitably be profaned,--that, as +a compensatory balance to the 'greatest good of the greatest number,' +secured by democratic institutions, there must exist a sacrifice of the +hallowed, aspiring, and consecrated elements of national feeling and +achievement. If there is an anniversary which should compel respect, +excite eternal gratitude, and win unhackneyed observance, it is that of +the day when, for the first time in the world's history, the select +intelligences of a country proclaimed to the nations, with deliberate and +resolved wisdom, the principles of human equality and the right of +self-government, pledged thereto their lives, fortunes, and honour, and +consistently redeemed the heroically prophetic pledge. Subsequent events +have only deepened the significance of that act, and extended its agency; +every succeeding year has increased its moral value and its material +fruits; the career of other and less happy nations has given more and more +relief to its isolated grandeur; and not a day fraught with more hope and +glory lives in the calendar. Yet what is the actual observance, the +average estimation, it boasts among us? In our large cities, especially in +New York, 'Independence' is, by universal consent, a nuisance. It is most +auspicious to the Chinese, from increasing the importation of +fire-crackers. The municipal authorities provide for it as for a lawless +saturnalia; the fire-department dread its approach as indicative of +conflagrations; physicians, as hazardous to such unfortunate patients as +cannot be removed into the country; quiet citizens, as insufferable from +incessant detonation; the prudent, as fraught with reckless tomfoolery; +and the respectable, as desecrated by rowdyism. John Adams, when he +prophesied that the Fourth of July would be hailed, in all after-time, by +the ringing of bells, the blaze of bonfires, and the roar of cannon, was +far from intending, by this programme of Anglo-Saxon methods of popular +rejoicing, to indicate the exclusive and ultimate style of our national +holiday. On its earlier recurrence, when many of the actors in the scenes +it commemorates still lived, there was an interest and a meaning in the +ceremonies which time has lessened. Yet it is difficult to account for the +absence of all that high civilization presupposes, in the celebration of +our only holiday which can strictly be called national; and if the +sympathies of the most intelligent of our citizens could be enlisted, so +as to make the occasion a genuine patriotic jubilee--instead of a noisy +carnival, or a time for political animosity to assert itself with special +emphasis,--much would be gained on the score of rational enjoyment and +American fraternity. As it is, although the 'Hundred Boston Orators' nobly +vindicate the talent and good taste of one city in regard to this +anniversary, and is a most pleasing historical memorial of the occasion, +it cannot be denied that our usual synonyme for bombast and mere +rhetorical patriotism is 'a Fourth of July Oration,' and that Pickwickian +sentiment, pyrotechnic flashes, torpedoes, arrests, bursting cannon, +draggled flags, crowded steamboats, the retiracy of the educated and the +uproar of the multitude, make up the confused and wearisome details of +what should and might be a sacred feast, a pious memory, a hallowed +consecration, a 'Sabbath day of Freedom.' Perhaps the real zest of this +holiday is felt only abroad, when, under some remote consular flag, at the +board of private and munificent hospitality in London, or at an American +_réunion_ in the French capital, distance from home, the ties of common +nativity in a foreign land, and the contrast of uneducated masses or +despotic insignia around, with the prosperous, free, and enlightened +population of our own favoured country, to say nothing of superior festal +arrangements, render the occasion at once charming and memorable. + +One of the most noticeable features of American life to a stranger's eye +is the prevalent habit of travel; and although the incessant and huge +caravans that rush along the numerous railways which make an iron network +over this Union are, for the most part, impelled by motives of enterprise +and thrift, yet the common idea of recreation is associated with a 'trip.' +Whether the facilities or the temperament of our country, or both, be the +reason of this locomotive propensity, it is a characteristic which at once +distinguishes the American from the home-tethered German, the Paris-bound +Frenchman, and the locally-patriotic Italian. The schoolboy in vacation, +the college graduate, the bridegroom, the overtasked professional +man,--all Americans who give themselves a 'holiday,' are wont to dedicate +it to a journey. But even this resource has lost much of its original +charm from the catastrophes which have associated some of the most +beautiful scenery of the land with the most agonizing of human tragedies. +In the crystal waters of Lake George, by the picturesque banks of the +Hudson, amid the fertile valleys of the Connecticut, on the teeming +currents of Long Island Sound, have perished, often through reckless +hardihood, always by more or less reprehensible negligence, some of the +fairest and the noblest of our citizens. The statistics of these +melancholy events, which have so often appalled the public, have yet to be +written; but their moral effect may be divined by a mere glance at the +mercenary hardihood and soulless haste that mark our civilization. 'Les +dangers personnels,' says an acute writer; 'quand ils attegnent une +certaine limite, bouleversent tous les rapports et l'oublie de l'espérance +changé presque notre nature.' The zest, too, of a journey in America is +much diminished by the monotonous character of the people, and by the +gregarious habits, the rapid transits, and the business motives of the +_voyageurs_, so that it is only at the terminus that we enjoy our +pilgrimage; there the sight of a magnificent prairie or mountain range, +cataract or mammoth cave, may, indeed, vindicate our locomotive taste, and +the wonders of Nature make, for the imaginative and reverential, a +glorious holiday. + +A pleasing feature in the recreative aspect of American life is the +literary festival. It is a beautiful custom of our scholars annually to +meet amid the scenes of their academical education and renew youthful +friendships, while they listen to the orator and poet, who dwell upon +those problems of the times which challenge an intellectual solution and +identify the duties of the citizen with the offices of learning. Within +the memory of almost all, there is probably at least one of these +occasions when the interest of the performances or the circumstances of +the hour lent a memorable charm to the collegiate holiday; when, under the +shade of venerable elms that witnessed the first outpouring of mental +enthusiasm or the earliest honours of genius and attainment, they who +parted as boys meet as men, and the classic dreamer felt himself a +recognized and practical thinker for the people; when the language of +eloquent wisdom or poetic beauty came warm from lips hallowed by the +chalice of fame. Who that listened ever can forget the anniversary graced +by the chaste eloquence of Buckminster, that on which Bryant recited _The +Ages_, or Everett's musical periods welcomed Lafayette to the oldest seat +of American learning? What New England scholar, after years of +professional labour in a distant State, ever found himself once more +within the charmed precincts of his _alma mater_, and surrounded by the +companions of his youthful studies, without a thrill of happy +reminiscence? Yet even these rational opportunities for what should be a +genuine holiday to mind and heart are but casually appreciated. The sultry +period of their occurrence, the irregularity of attendance, and the +precarious quality of the 'feast of reason' provided, have caused them +gradually to lose a tenacious hold upon the affections, while there are +few _habitués_, the majority, especially those who live at a distance from +the scene, and whose presence is therefore especially desirable,--are not +loyal pilgrims to the shrine where their virgin distinction was earned and +their intellectual armour forged. To many, our literary festivals are but +technical ceremonies; to not a few, wearisome forms; associated rather +with fans, didactics, perspiration, and cold viands, than with any social +or intellectual refreshment. The 'lean annuitant' who loved to visit +'Oxford in vacation,' and fancy himself a gownsman, and the ingenious +'Opium Eater' who has recorded the enduring claims of those venerable +cloisters to the scholar's gratitude, enjoyed speculatively more of the +real luxury of academic repose and triumph than is often attained by those +who ostensibly participate in our college festivals; and seldom do her +children go up to the altars of wisdom consecrated by the pious zeal of +our ancestors, with the faithful recognition of the venerable pastor, so +long the statistical oracle of the surviving graduates, who, while his +strength sufficed, cheerily walked from his rural parish to Old Harvard, +to lead off the anniversary psalm, with genial pride and honest +self-gratulation. + +Of our purely social holidays, New Year's day, as observed in the city of +New York, bears the palm. Initiated by the hospitable instinct of the +Dutch colonists, neither the heterogeneous population which has succeeded +them, nor the annually enlarged circuit of the metropolis, has diminished +the universality or the heartiness of its observance. When the snow is +massed in the thoroughfares, and the sunshine tempers a clear, frosty +atmosphere, a more cheerful scene, on a large scale, it is impossible to +imagine. From morning to midnight, sleighs, freighted with gay companions +and drawn by handsome steeds, dash merrily along,--the tinkling of their +bells and the scarlet lining their buffalo-robes redolent of a _fête_; +the sidewalks are alive with hurrying pedestrians who exchange cordial +greetings as they pass one another; doors incessantly fly open; guests +come and go; every one looks prosperous and happy; business is totally +suspended; in warm parlours, radiant with comfort or splendid with luxury, +sit the wives, daughters, sisters, or fair favourites of these innumerable +visitors, the queens of the day; the neglects of the past are forgiven and +forgotten in the welcome of the present; kindred, friends, and +acquaintances all meet and begin the year with mutual good wishes; in +every dwelling a little feast stands ready, encompassed with smiles; and +all varieties of fortune, all degrees of intimacy, all tastes in dress, +entertainment, and manners, on this one day, are consecrated by the +liberal and kindly spirit of a social carnival. + +Of associations expressly instituted for the observance of holidays there +is no lack; of days technically devoted to festivity, in the aggregate, +our proportion equals that of older communities; and the legitimate +occasions for pastime and ceremony, social pleasure, or historical +commemoration, are as numerous as is consistent with the industrious +habits and the civic prosperity of the land. The traveller who should make +it his specialty to discover and note the ostensible merrymakings and +pageants of America would find the list neither brief nor monotonous. In +the summer he would light upon many an excursion on our beautiful lakes, +many a chowder-party to the seaside, and picnic in the grove; and in the +winter would catch the shrill echo of the skating frolic. Here, through +pillared trunks, he would behold the smoke-wreaths of the sugar-camp; +there watch laughing groups clustered round the cider-mill or hop-field; +and in woods radiant with autumnal tints, or prairies balmy with a million +flowers, would sounds of merriment announce to him the cheerful bivouac. +Nor have American holidays, even in their most primitive aspect, been +devoid of use and beauty. The once-renowned 'musters' fostered military +taste, and the cattle-shows encouraged agricultural science; with the +increase of horticultural festivals, our fruits and flowers have +constantly improved; regattas and yacht-clubs have indirectly promoted +nautical architecture; school festivals attest the superiority of our +system of popular education; family gatherings, on the large scale +observed in several instances, have induced genealogical research; +historical celebrations have led to the collection and preservation of +local archives and memorials; the Cincinnati Society annually renews the +noblest patriotic sympathies; and the genius for mechanical invention is +proclaimed by the fairs which, every October, bring together so many +trophies of skilful handiwork and husbandry, and recognize so emphatically +the dignity and scientific amelioration of labour. Yet these facts do not +invalidate the general truth that our festivals are too much tinctured +with utilitarian aims to breathe earnestness and hilarity; that they are +so specific as to represent the division rather than the social triumphs +of human toil; that they are too partial in their scope, too sectional in +their objects, and too isolated in their arrangements, to meet the claims +of popular and permanent interests. Our harvests are songless. +Reaping-machines have diminished the zest of autumn's golden largess, as +destructive inventions have lessened the miracles of chivalry. Here and +there may yet convene a quilting-party, but locomotive facilities have +deprived rural gatherings, in sparse neighbourhoods, of their marvel and +their joy; and the hilarious huskings of old chiefly survive in Barlow's +neglected verse:-- + + 'The days grow short; but though the fallen sun + To the glad swain proclaims his day's work done; + Night's pleasant shades his various tasks prolong, + And yield new subjects to my various song. + For now, the corn-house filled, the harvest home, + The invited neighbours to the _husking_ come; + A frolic scene, where work and mirth and play, + Unite their charms to chase the hours away. + Where the huge heap lies centred in the hall, + The lamp suspended from the cheerful wall, + Brown, corn-fed nymphs, and strong, hard-handed beaux, + Alternate ranged, extend in circling rows, + Assume their seats, the solid mass attack; + The dry husks rustle, and the corn-cobs crack; + The song, the laugh, alternate notes resound, + And the sweet cider trips in silence round. + The laws of husking every wight can tell, + And sure no laws he ever keeps so well: + For each red ear a general kiss he gains, + With each smut ear he smuts the luckless swains; + But when to some sweet maid a prize is cast, + Red as her lips and taper as her waist, + She walks the round and culls one favoured beau, + Who leaps the luscious tribute to bestow. + Various the sports, as are the wits and brains + Of well-pleased lasses and contending swains; + Till the vast mound of corn is swept away, + And he that gets the last ear wins the day.' + +Progress in taste and sentiment, however, is already obvious in our +recreative arrangements. There is vastly more of intellectual dignity and +permanent use in the _fêtes_ of the Lyceum than in those of the +training-days and election-jubilees which formerly were the chief holidays +of our rural population; exhibitions of flowers mark a notable advance +upon the coarse diversions of the ring and the race-ground; and, within a +few years, statues by native artists, worthy of their illustrious +subjects, have been inaugurated by public rites and noble eloquence. + +A radical cause of the inefficiency, and therefore of the indifferent +observance of our holidays, may be found in our national inadequacy of +expression, in the want of those modes of popular rejoicing and ceremonial +that win and triumph, from their intrinsic beauty. As a general truth, it +may be asserted that but two methods of representing holiday sentiment are +native to the average taste of our people,--military display and oral +discourse. These exhaust our festal resources. Our citizens have an +extraordinary facility in making occasional speeches; and the love of +soldiership is so prevalent that it is the favourite sport of children, +and all classes indulge in costly uniforms and volunteer parades. But the +language of art, which in the Old World lends such a permanent attraction +to holidays, with us hardly finds voice. Had we requiems conceived with +the eternal pathos of Mozart; harmonious embodiments of rural pastime, +like that which Beethoven caught while sitting on a style amid the subdued +murmurs of a summer evening; melodious invocations to freedom, such as +Bellini's thrilling _duo_; were a symphony as readily composed in America +as an oration; tableaux, costumes, and processions as artistically +invented here as in France; were dance and song as spontaneously +expressive as among the European peasantry; had we vast, open, magnificent +temples, free gardens, statues to crown, shrines to frequent, palatial +balconies, fields Elysian for both rich and poor, a sensibility to music, +and a sense of the appropriate and beautiful, as wide and as instinctive +as our appreciation of the useful, the practical, and the comfortable,--it +would no longer be requisite to resort exclusively to drums, fifes, +powder, substantial viands, and speechifying, to give utterance to the +common sentiment, which would find vent in tones, forms, hues, +combinations, and sympathies, that respond to the heart, through the +imagination, and conform 'the show of things to the desires of the mind.' + +Other causes of our deficient holidays are obvious. The primary are to be +found in the absorption in business and the dominion of practical habits, +both of thought and action. Enterprise holds Carnival while Poetry keeps +Lent. The facts of to-day shut out of view the perspective of time, or, at +best, lure the gaze forward with boundless expectancy. To rehearse the +fortunate achievements of the past gratifies our national egotism; but the +sensibility and meditation which consecrate historical associations find +no room amid the rush and eagerness of the passing hour. Content to point +to the heroic episode of the Revolution, to the wisdom and justice of our +Constitution, to the caravans that sweep on iron tracks over leagues of +what a few years ago was a pathless forest, to the swiftest keels and most +graceful models that traverse the ocean, to the aërial viaducts that span +dizzy heights and impetuous torrents, to the exquisite vignettes of a +limitless paper currency, to the dignified and consistent maintenance of +usurped law in younger States of the Union, and to the continually +increasing resources of its older members; we are disposed to sneer at the +childish love of amusement which beguiles the inhabitants of European +capitals, and to pity the superstition and idleness which retain, in this +enlightened age, the melodramatic church shows of Romanism. In all this +there is doubtless a certain manly intelligence; but there is also an +inauspicious moral hardihood. If, as a people, we cultivated more heartily +the social instincts and humane sentiments expressed in holiday rites, +life would be more valued, the whole nature would find congenial play, and +our taskwork and duty, our citizenship and our natural advantages, would +be adorned by gracefulness, alacrity, and repose. Quantity would not be so +grossly estimated above quality, speed above security, routine above +enjoyment. We need to win from time what is denied to us in material. +Other nations have in art a permanent and accessible refreshment, which +prevents life from being wholly prosaic; the humblest dweller on English +soil can enter a time-hallowed and beautiful cathedral; the poorest rustic +in Italy can feel the honest pride of a distinctive festal attire; the +veriest clod-hopper in Germany can soften the rigours of poverty by music; +the London apprentice may wander once a week amid the venerable beauties +of Hampton Court; and the Parisian shopkeeper may kindle pride of country +by reading the pictorial history of France at Versailles. It is not the +expensive arrangements, but the national provision, and, above all, the +personal sentiment, which makes the holiday. There was more holy rapture +in the low cadence of the hymn stealing from the Roman catacombs, where +the hunted Christians of old kept holy the Sabbath day, than there is in +the gorgeous display and complex melody under the magnificent dome of St. +Peter's. There was more of the grace of festivity in such a dance as poor +Goldsmith's flute enlivened on the banks of the Loire, than there is in +the grand ball which marks the season's climax at an American +watering-place. In public not less than private banquets, the scriptural +maxim holds true: 'Better is a dinner of herbs _where love is_.' Our +national life is too diffusive to yield the best social fruits. The extent +of territory, the nomadic habits of our people, the alternations of +climate, the vicissitudes of trade, the prevalence of spasmodic and +superficial excitements, the boundless passion for gain, the local +changes, the family separations, and the incessant fevers of opinion, +scatter the holy fire of love, reverence, self-respect, contemplation, and +faith. What a senseless boast, that the United States has thirty-five +thousand miles of railroad,[19] while England claims but ninety-two +hundred, France forty-eight hundred, if against the American overplus are +to be arrayed countless hecatombs of murdered fellow-citizens, and +desolating frauds unparalleled in the history of finance! What a mockery +the distinction of having accumulated a fortune in a few years, by +sagacity and toil, if, to complete the record, it is added that mercenary +ambition risked and lost it in as many months, or the want of self-control +and mental resources made its possession a life-long curse from _ennui_ or +tasteless extravagance! It is as a check to the whirl of inconsiderate +speculation, an antidote to the bane of material luxury, an interval in +the hurried march of executive life, that holidays should 'give us +pause,' and might prove a means of refinement and of disinterestedness. We +could thus infuse a better spirit into our work-day experience, refresh +and warm the nation's heart, and gradually concentrate what of higher +taste and more genial sympathy underlies the restless and cold tide that +hurries us onward, unmindful of the beauty and indifferent to the +sanctities with which God and Nature have invested our existence. + +Of natal anniversaries we have in our national calendar one which it would +augur well for the Republic to observe as a universal holiday. Every +sentiment of gratitude, veneration, and patriotism has already consecrated +it to the private heart; and every consideration of unity, good faith, and +American feeling designates its celebration as the most sacred civic +_fête_ of the land. Recent demonstrations in literature, art, and oratory, +indicate that the obligation and importance of keeping before the eyes, +minds, and affections of the people the memory of Washington, are +emphatically recognized by genius and popular sentiment. Within a few +years, the pen of our most endeared author, the eloquence of our most +finished orator, and the chisel of our best sculptors, have combined to +exhibit, in the most authentic and impressive forms of literary and +plastic art, the character and image of the Father of his Country. Copies +of Stuart's masterly portrait have multiplied. A monument bearing the +revered name is slowly rising at the Capital, the materials of which are +gathered from every part of the globe. One of the last and most noble +efforts to renew the waning national sentiment, ere its lapse brought on +civil war, was that of a New England scholar, patriot, and orator who, +despite the allurements of prosperity and the claims of age and long +service, traversed the length and breadth of the Republic, eloquently +expatiating on the character of Washington, retracing his spotless and +great career, and evoking his sacred memory as a talisman to quicken and +combine a people's love. With the large contributions thus secured, and +those gathered by the daughters of the Republic, the home and grave of +Washington has been redeemed as national property. Let the first homage of +a free people be paid at that shrine; and alienated fellow-citizens gather +there as at a common altar: his tomb is thus doubly hallowed. In Virginia +is a sculptured memorial of enduring beauty and historical significance. A +new and admirable biography, with all the elements of standard popularity, +makes his peerless career familiar to every citizen from the woods of +Maine to the shores of the Pacific. One effective statue already ornaments +the commercial emporium, and another is about to be erected in the city of +Boston. These, and many other signs of the times, prove that the +fanaticism of party strife has awakened the wise and loyal to a +consciousness of the inestimable value of that great example and canonized +name, as a bond of union, a conciliating memory, and a glorious watchword. +Desecrated as has been his native State by rebels against the government +he founded and the nation he inaugurated, profaned as has been his memory, +now that Peace smiles upon the land his august image will reappear to +every true, loyal, and patriotic heart with renewed authority, and +hallowed by a deeper love. The present, therefore, is a favourable moment +to institute the birthday of Washington--hitherto but partially and +ineffectually honoured--as a solemn National Festival. Around his tomb let +us annually gather; let eloquence and song, leisure and remembrance, +trophies of art, ceremonies of piety, and sentiments of gratitude and +admiration, consecrate that day with an unanimity of feeling and of rites, +which shall fuse and mould into one pervasive emotion the divided hearts +of the country, until the discordant cries of faction are lost in the +anthems of benediction and of love; and, before the august spirit of a +people's homage, sectional animosity is awed into universal reverence. + + + + +LAWYERS. + + 'To vindicate the majesty of the law.'--JUDGE'S CHARGE. + + 'Why may not this be a lawyer's skull? Why does he suffer this rude + knave to knock him about the sconce with a dirty shovel, and will not + tell him of his action for battery?'--HAMLET. + + +The miniature effigy of a town-crier, with a little placard on his bell, +inscribed '_Lost--a Lawyer's conscience!_' was a favourite toy for +children not many years ago; and about the same time a song was in vogue, +warbled by a whole generation of young misses, 'all about the L-A-W,' in +which that venerable profession was made the subject of a warning chant, +whose dolorous refrain, doubtless, yet lingers in many an ear. Thus early +is law associated with uncertainty and shamelessness; Messrs. Roe and Doe +become the most dreaded of apocryphal characters; red-tape the clew of an +endless labyrinth; Justice Shallow, with all his imbecility, a dangerous +personage; and human beings, even a friend, transformed by the mysterious +perspective of this anomalous element to a 'party.' The most popular of +modern novelists have found these associations sufficiently universal to +yield good material in 'dead suitors broken, heart and soul, on the wheel +of chancery;' and Flite, Gridley, and Rick, are fresh and permanent +scarecrows in the harvest-field of the law. + +From the Mosaic code, enrolled on tables of stone, to the convention which +inaugurated that of the modern conqueror of Europe, law has been a field +for the noblest triumphs and most gross perversions of the human +intellect. No profession offers such extremes of glory and shame. From the +most wretched sophistry to the grandest inference, from a quibble to a +principle, from the august minister of justice to the low pettifogger, how +great the distance; yet all are included within a common pale. + +In every social circle and family group there is an oracle--some +individual whose age, wit, or force of character, gives an intellectual +ascendency,--and there are always Bunsbys, to 'give an opinion' among the +ignorant, to which the others spontaneously defer; and thus instinctively +arises the lawgiver, sometimes ruling with the rude dogmatism of Dr. +Johnson, and at others, through the humorous good sense of Sydney Smith, +or the endearing tact of Madame Recamier. These authorities, in the sphere +of opinion and companionship, indicate how natural to human society is a +recognized head, whence emanates that controlling influence to which we +give the name of law. Like every other element of life, this loses +somewhat of its native beauty, when organized and made professional. To +every vocation there belong master-spirits who have established +precedents, and there are natural lawgivers; as in art, Michael Angelo and +Raphael; in oratory, Demosthenes; in philosophy, Bacon. The endowments of +each not only justify, but originate their authority; they interpret truth +through their superior insight and wisdom in their respective departments +of action and of thought; but of the vast number who undertake to +illustrate, maintain, or apply the laws which govern states, a small +minority are gifted for the task, or aspire to its higher functions; hence +the proverbial abuse of the profession, its few glorious ornaments, and +its herd of perverted slaves. + +From this primary condition, it is impossible for any human being to +escape; if he goes into the desert, he is still subject to the laws of +Nature, and, however retired he may live amid his race, the laws of +society press upon him at some point; if his own opinion is his law in +matters of fancy or politics, he must still obey the law of the road: in +one country the law of primogeniture; in another, that of conscription; in +one circle, a law of taste; in another, of custom; and in a third, of +privilege, reacts upon his free agency; at his club is sumptuary law; over +his game of whist, Hoyle; in his drawing-room, Chesterfield; now _l'esprit +du corps_; and, again, the claims of rank; in Maine, the liquor law; in +California, lynch law; in Paris, a _gens d'armes_; at Rome, a permission +of residence; on an English domain, the game laws; in the fields of +Connecticut, a pound; everywhere, turnpikes, sheriffs' sales, marriage +certificates, prisons, courts, passports, and policemen, thrust before the +eyes of the most peaceable and reserved cosmopolite--insignia that assure +him that law is everywhere unavoidable. His physician discourses to him of +the laws of health; his military friends, of tactics; the beaux, of +etiquette; the belles, of _la mode_; the authors, of tasteful precedents; +the reformer, of social systems; and thus all recognize and yield to some +code. + +If he have nothing to bequeath, no tax to pay, no creditor to sue, or +libeller to prosecute, he yet must walk the streets, and thereby realize +the influence or neglect of municipal law in the enjoyment of 'right of +way,' or the nausea from some neglected offal; the accidents incident to +travel in this country assure him of the slight tenure of corporate +responsibility under republican law; and the facility of divorce, the +removal of old landmarks, the incessant subdivision and dispersion of +estates, indicate that devotion to the immediate which a French +philosopher ascribes to free institutions, and which affects legal as well +as social phenomena. In a tour abroad, he discovers new majesty in the +ruins of the Forum, from their association with the ancient Roman law, +upon which modern jurisprudence is founded; and a curious interest +attaches to the picturesque beauty of Amalfi, because the Pandects were +there discovered. Westminster revives the tragic memories of the State +trials, and seems yet to echo the Oriental rhetoric that made the trial of +Hastings a Parliamentary romance. At Bologna, amid the old drooping +towers, under the pensive arcades, in the radiant silence of the +picture-gallery, comes back the traditionary beauty of the fair lecturer, +who taught the students juridical lore from behind a curtain, that her +loveliness might not bewilder the minds her words informed; and at Venice, +every dark-robed, graceful figure that glides by the porticoes of San +Marco's moonlit square, revives the noble Portia's image, and that 'same +scrubbed boy, the doctor's clerk.' + +No inconsiderable legal knowledge has been traced in Shakspeare. His +Justice Shallow and Dogberry are types of imbecile magistracy; in the +historical plays, the law of legitimacy is defined; and not a little +judicial lore is embodied in the _Merchant of Venice_ and _Taming the +Shrew_. Lord Campbell wrote a book to prove that Shakspeare, in his youth, +must have been, at least, an attorney's clerk. One of the characters in a +popular novel is made to say that he is never in company with a lawyer but +he fancies himself in a witness-box. This hit at the interrogative +propensity of the class is by no means an exaggerated view of a use to +which they are specially inclined to put conversation; and if we compare +the ordeal of inquiry to which we are thus subjected, it will be found +more thorough and better fitted to test our knowledge than that of any +other social catechism; so that, perhaps, we gain in discipline what we +lose in patience. It is to be acknowledged, also, that few men are better +stocked with ideas, or more fluent in imparting them, than well-educated +lawyers. There is often a singular zest in their anecdotes, a precision in +their statement of facts, and a dramatic style of narrative, which render +them the pleasantest of companions. In all clever coteries of which we +have any genial record, there usually figures a lawyer, as a wit, a boon +companion, an entertaining dogmatist, or an intellectual champion. In +literature, the claims and demerits of the profession are emphatically +recognized; and it is curious to note the varied inferences of +philosophers and authors. Thus, Dr. Johnson says to Boswell: 'Sir, a +lawyer has no business with the justice or injustice of the cause he +undertakes;' and 'everybody knows you are paid for affecting a warmth for +your client.' 'Justice,' observes Sydney Smith, 'is found, experimentally, +to be best promoted by the opposite efforts of practised and ingenious +men, presenting to an impartial judge the best argument for the +establishment and explanation of truth.' 'Some are allured to the trade of +law,' says Milton, 'by litigiousness and fat fees;' one authoritative +writer describes a lawyer as a man whose understanding is on the town; +another declares no man departs more from justice; Sancho Panza said his +master would prattle more than three attorneys; and Coleridge thought +that, 'upon the whole, the advocate is placed in a position unfavourable +to his moral being, and indeed to his intellect also, in its higher +powers;' while it was a maxim of Wilkes, that scoundrel and lawyer are +synonymous terms. Our pioneer _littérateur_, Brockden Brown, whose +imaginative mind revolted at the dry formalities of the law, for which he +was originally intended, defined it as 'a tissue of shreds and remnants of +a barbarous antiquity, patched by the stupidity of modern workmen into new +deformity.' 'In the study of law,' remarks the poet Gray, 'the labour is +long, and the elements dry and uninteresting, nor was there ever any one +not disgusted at the beginning.' Foote, the comic writer and actor, +feigned surprise to a farmer that attorneys were buried in the country +like other men; in town, he declared, it was the custom to place the body +in a chamber, with an open window, and it was sure to disappear during the +night, leaving a smell of brimstone. A portrait-painter assures us he is +never mistaken in a lawyer's face; the avocation is betrayed to his +observant eye by a certain _inscrutable_ expression; and Dickens has +given this not exaggerated picture of a class in the profession: +'Smoke-dried and faded, dwelling among mankind, but not consorting with +them, aged without experience of genial youth, and so long used to make +his cramped nest in holes and corners of human nature, that he has +forgotten its broader and better range.' + +A French writer defines a lawyer as 'un marchand de phrases, un fabricant +de paradoxes, qui ment pour l'argent et vend ses paroles;' and another +remarks of the profession that it is a 'vaste champ, ouvert aux ambitions +des honnêtes; une tribune offerte aux subtilités de la pensée et l'abus de +la parole;' while Arthur Helps declares that 'law affords a notable +example of loss of time, of heart, of love, of leisure. I observe,' he +adds, 'that the first Spanish colonists in America wrote home to +Government, begging them not to allow lawyers to come to the colony.'[20] +On the other hand, what an eloquent tribute to the possible actual +beneficence of law is the close of Lord Brougham's memorable speech in its +defence:-- + + 'You saw the greatest warrior of the age--conqueror of Italy, humbler + of Germany, terror of the North,--saw him account all his matchless + victories poor, compared with the triumph you are now in a condition + to win,--saw him contemn the fickleness of Fortune, while in despite + of her he could pronounce his memorable boast, "I shall go down to + posterity with the Code in my hand!" You have vanquished him in the + field; strive now to rival him in the sacred arts of peace. Outstrip + him as a lawgiver whom in arms you overcame. The lustre of the Regency + will be eclipsed by the more solid and enduring splendour of the + Reign. It was the boast of Augustus--it formed part of the glare in + which the perfidies of his earlier years were lost--that he found Rome + of brick, and left it of marble. But how much nobler will be the + Sovereign's boast, when he shall have it to say, that he found law + dear and left it cheap; found it a sealed book, left it a living + letter; found it the patrimony of the rich, left it the inheritance of + the poor; found it the two-edged sword of craft and oppression, left + it the staff of honesty and the shield of innocence!' + +'Why may not this be a lawyer's skull?' muses Hamlet, in the graveyard; +'where be his quiddets now, his quillets, his cases, his tenures, and his +tricks? Humph! this fellow might be in 's time a greater buyer of land, +with his statutes, his recognizances, his fines, his double-vouchers, his +recoveries; and this, the fine of his fines, and the recovery of his +recoveries, to have his fine poll full of dirt! The very conveyances of +his lands will hardly lie in this box; and must the inheritor himself have +no more?' + +The diversities of the profession in England and America are curious and +suggestive. Already is the obligation mutual; for if in the old country +there are more profound, and elaborate resources, in the new the science +has received brilliant elucidations, and its forms and processes been +simplified. There routine is apt to dwarf, and here variety to dissipate +the lawyer's ability; there he is too often a mere drudge, and here his +vocation regarded as the vestibule only of political life. In England, the +advocate's knowledge is frequently limited to his special department; and +in America, while it is less complete and accurate, he is versed in many +other subjects, and apt at many vocations. 'The Americans,' says Sydney +Smith, 'are the first persons who have discarded, in the administration of +justice, the tailor, and his auxiliary the barber,--two persons of endless +importance in the codes and pandects of Europe. A judge administers +justice without a calorific wig and parti-coloured gown--in a coat and +pantaloons; he is obeyed, however; and life and property are not badly +protected in the United States.' + +There can be no more striking contrast than that between the lives of the +English chancellors and the American chief justices: in the former, regal +splendour, the vicissitudes of kingcraft and succession, of religious +transition, of courts, war, the people and the nobility, lend a kind of +feudal splendour, or tragic interest, or deep intrigue, to the career of +the minister of justice; he is surrounded with the insignia of his +office; big wigs, scarlet robes, ermine mantles, the great seal, +interviews with royalty, the trappings and the awe of power invest his +person; his career is identified with the national annals; the lapse of +time and historic associations lend a mysterious interest to his name; in +the background, there is the martyrdom of Thomas à Becket, the speech of +the fallen Wolsey, the scaffold of Sir Thomas More, the inductive system +and low ambition of Bacon, and the literary fame of Clarendon. Yet, in +intellectual dignity, our young republic need not shrink from the +comparison. The Virginia stripling, who drilled regulars in a +hunting-shirt, is a high legal authority in both hemispheres. 'Where,' +says one of Marshall's intelligent eulogists, 'in English history, is the +judge whose mind was at once so enlarged and so systematic; who had so +thoroughly reduced professional science to general reason; in whose +disciplined intellect technical learning had so completely passed into +native sense?' And now that Kent's _Commentaries_ have become the +indispensable guide and reference of the entire profession, who remembers, +except with pride, that, on his first circuit, the Court was often held in +a barn, with the hayloft for a bench, a stall for a bar, and the shade of +a neighbouring apple-tree for a jury-room? The majesty of justice, the +intellectual superiority of law as a pursuit, is herein most evident; +disrobed of all external magnificence, with no lofty and venerable halls, +imposing costume, or array of officials, the law yet borrows from the +learning, the fidelity, and the genius of its votaries, essential dignity +and memorable triumphs. 'Of law, no less can be said,' grandly observes +Hooker, 'than that her seat is the bosom of God, her voice the harmony of +the world.' + +The most celebrated English lawyers have their American prototypes; thus, +Marshall has been compared to Lord Mansfield, Pinkney to Erskine, and Wirt +to Sheridan (who was a student of the Middle Temple, though not called to +the bar); imperfect as are such analogies, they yet indicate, with truth, +a similarity of endowment, or style of advocacy. The diverse influence of +the respective institutions of the two countries is, however, none the +less apparent because of an occasional resemblance in the genius of +eminent barristers. The genuine British lawyer is recognized, by the +technical cast of his expression and habit of mind, to a degree seldom +obvious in this country. Indeed, no small portion of the graduates of our +colleges who select the law as a pursuit, do so without any strong bias +for the profession, but with a view to the facilities it affords for +entrance into public life. Some of these aspirants thus become useful +servants of the State; a few, statesmen; but the majority, mere +politicians; and from the predominance of the latter class originate half +the errors of American legislation; for, however much profound legal +training may fit a man of ability for the higher functions of +representative government, a superficial knowledge and practice of law +renders him only an adept in chicanery and the 'gift of the gab;' and it +is easy to imagine how a mob of such adroit and ambitious +partisans--especially when brought together from the narrow sphere of +village life--may pervert the great ends of legislative action. They make +the laws according to their own interests; and there is no prospect of the +reformation demanded in juridical practice, while such a corps form the +speaking and voting majority, and act on what has been justly called the +one great principle of English law,--'_to make business for itself_.'[21] + +Two names appear on the roll of English lawyers which are identified with +the worst characteristics of the race--impious, wild, and browbeating +arrogance,--that of Jeffreys, whose ferocious persecution of those +suspected of complicity with Monmouth's Rebellion forms one of the most +scandalous chapters in the history of British courts; and Lord Thurlow, +who, in a more refined age, won the alias of Tiger, for his rudeness, +inflexibility, oaths, and ill-manners, his black brows, and audible +growls. In beautiful contrast shine forth the Law Reformers of England, +whose benign eloquence and unwearied labour mitigated the sanguinary +rigours of the criminal code, and pressed the Common Law into the service +of humanity. Romilly and Erskine have gained a renown more enduring than +that of learned and gifted advocates; their professional glory is +heightened and mellowed by the sacred cause it illustrates. + +The trial by jury and _habeas corpus_ are the grand privileges of England +and our own country; the integrity of the former has been invaded among +us, by the abuse incident to making judgeships elective, and by the +lawless spirit of the western communities; while the conviction of such +eminent criminals as Earl Ferrers, Dr. Dodd, and Fauntleroy, prove how it +has been, and is, respected by the public sentiment of England. + +'The great expense of the simplest lawsuit,' writes an English lawyer, in +a popular magazine, 'and the droll laws which force all English subjects +into a court of equity for their sole redress, in an immense number of +cases, lead, at this present day, to a very entertaining class of +practical jokes. I mean that ludicrous class, in which the joke consists +of a man's taking and keeping possession of money or other property to +which he even pretends to have no shadow of right, but which he seizes +because he knows that the whole will be swallowed up if the rightful owner +should seek to assert his claim.' The instances which are cited are rather +fitted to excite a sense of humiliation than of fun, at the cruel +injustice of a legal system which expressly organizes and protects +robbery. + +The legal treatises produced in England, in modern times, are wonderful +monuments of erudition, research, and analytical power. The intelligent +lawyer who examines Spence's two volumes on equity, does not wonder his +brain gave way when thus far advanced on his gigantic task. It is this +patient study, this complete learning, which distinguishes the English +lawyer; in point of eloquence, he is confessedly inferior to his Irish and +American brethren, as they are to him in profundity; in the careful and +persistent application of common sense to the hoarded legal acquisitions +of centuries, the great minds of the English bar stand unrivalled. It is, +indeed, the most certain professional avenue to official power. 'Rely upon +it,' says a brilliant novelist, 'the barrister's gown is the +wedding-garment to the British feast of fat things;' and Veron declares +that 'en France, mais en France seulement, un avocat est propre à tout, +tandis qu'un mèdecin n'est jugé propre à rien qu' à hanter les hôpitaux.' + +In this country, the lawyers of each State have a characteristic +reputation; the Bar of Boston, as a whole, is more English, that of the +South more Irish, in its general merits. Marshall was an exception to the +eloquent fame of American lawyers born and bred south of the Potomac; his +superiority was logical: 'aim exclusively at strength,' was his maxim; and +'close, compact, simple, but irresistible logic,' his great distinction. +Wheaton's labours in behalf of International, and Hamilton's in that of +Constitutional law, have laid the civilized world, as well as their native +country, under high and lasting obligations. + +The popular estimate of a profession is dependent on circumstances; and +this, like every other human pursuit, takes its range and tone from the +character of its votary, and the existent relation it holds to public +sentiment; not so much from what it technically demands, but from the +spirit in which it is followed, come the dignity and the shame of the law. +The erudite generalizations of Savigny belong to the most difficult and +enlarged sphere of thought, while the cunning tergiversations of the legal +adventurer identify him with sharpers and roguery. How characteristic of +Aaron Burr, that he should sarcastically define law as 'whatever is +boldly asserted and plausibly maintained.' In the first cycle of our +Republic, when a liberal education was rare, the best lawyers were +ornaments of society, and the intellectual benefactors of the country. In +that study were disciplined the chivalrous minds of Marshall, Hamilton, +Adams, Morris, and other statesmen of the Revolution. A trial, which +afforded the least scope for their remarkable powers, was attended by the +intelligent citizens with very much the same kind of interest as filled +the Athenian theatre--a mental banquet was confidently expected and deeply +enjoyed. To have a great legal reputation, then, implied all that is noble +in intellect, graceful in manner, and courteous in spirit--it bespoke the +scholar, the gentleman, and the wit, as well as the advocate. When Emmet +came hither with the _prestige_ of inherited patriotism and talents, as +well as the claims of an exile, he found men at the bar whose eloquence +rivalled the fame of Curran and Grattan. + +In Scotland, lawyers are eminently identified with social distinction and +arrangements. 'The fact of the substitution of the legal profession for +the old Scottish aristocracy,' says a late review, 'in the chief place in +Edinburgh society, is typified by the circumstance that the so-called +Parliament House, which is on the site of the ancient hall where the +Estates of the Kingdom sat when the nation made its own laws, is now the +seat of the Scottish law-courts, and the daily resort of the interpreters +of the land. The general hour of breakfast in Edinburgh is determined by +the time when the Courts open in the morning; and, dispersed through their +homes or at dinner-parties in the evening, it is the members of the legal +profession that lead the social talk.' + +The equality of free institutions was never more aptly illustrated than by +a scene which occurred in a courthouse we used to frequent, in boyhood, in +order to hear the impassioned rhetoric of a gifted criminal lawyer. A +trial of peculiar interest was to come on; the room was crowded with +spectators and officials; the judge, a venerable specimen of the stern and +dignified magistrate, took his seat; the sheriff announced the opening of +the court, and the clerk called over the names of those summoned to act as +jurors. We were startled to hear, among those of grocers, draymen, and +mechanics, the well-known name of an aristocratic millionaire. It was +thrice repeated, and no answer given. 'Has that juror been duly summoned?' +inquired the judge. 'Yes, your honour,' was the reply. 'Let two constables +instantly bring him before us,' said the magistrate. One can imagine the +vexation of the rich gentleman of leisure, when dawdling, in a flowered +_robe de chambre_, over his sumptuous breakfast, to be disturbed by those +rude minions of the law; however, there was no alternative, and he was +obliged to despatch his meal and accompany the distasteful escort. He +entered the court, where a deep silence prevailed, with a supercilious +smile and complacent air of well-bred annoyance. 'How dare you keep the +court waiting, sir?' was the indignant salutation of the judge, who, +perhaps, when last in the gentleman's company, had sipped a glass +delectable of old Madeira to his health. 'I intended to pay my fine and +not serve,' stammered the millionaire. 'And do you suppose, sir, that +wealth exonerates you from the duties of a citizen, and is any apology for +your gross incivility in thus detaining the court for over an hour? No +excuse will be accepted; either take your seat in the jury-box or stand +committed.' Through the silent crowd the luxurious man of fortune threaded +his way, and sat down between a currier and wood-merchant, with whom he +had to listen to the law and the evidence for a fortnight. + +The author of the _Lives of the English Chancellors_ refers to the usual +explanation of the origin of the term 'wool-sack,' as intended in +compliment to the staple product of the realm; and adds his own belief +that, in 'the rude simplicity of early times, a sack of wool was +frequently used as a sofa.' In the colonial era of our history, when +ceremony and etiquette ruled the public hall as well as the private +drawing-room, American judges wore the robe and wig still used in the Old +Country. These insignia of authority inspired an awe, before the era of +legal reform and of philosophical jurisprudence, which comported with the +tyrannous exercise of juridical power, when it was little more than the +medium of despotism, and when the calm reproach of Stafford was a literal +truth: 'It is better to be without laws altogether, than to persuade +ourselves that we have laws by which to regulate our conduct, and to find +that they consist only in the enmity and arbitrary will of our accusers.' + +The Conveyancer, Writer to the Signet, Attorney, Barrister, and other +divisions of the legal profession, indicate how, in this, as in other +vocations, the division of labour operates in England; while on this side +of the water, the contrary principle not only assigns to the lawyer a +degree of knowledge and aptitude in each branch of his calling, but lays +him under contribution in every political and social exigency, as an +interpreter or advocate of public sentiment; hence his remarkable +versatility and comparatively superficial attainments. In the history of +English law, the early struggles and profound acquirements of her +disciples form the salient points; while in that of America, they are to +be found rather in the primitive resources of justice and the varied +career of her ministers. With regard to the former, our many racy +descriptions of the process of Western colonization abound in remarkable +anecdotes of the unlicensed administration of justice. After the Pioneer +comes the Ranger, a kind of border police, then the Regulator, and finally +the Justice of the Peace. In the primitive communities, when a flagrant +wrong is committed, a public meeting is called, perhaps under an +oak-clump, or in a green hollow, the oldest settler is invited to the +chair, which is probably the trunk of a fallen tree; the offence is +discussed; the offender identified; volunteers scour the woods, he is +arraigned, and, if found guilty, hung, banished, or reprimanded, as the +case may be, with a despatch which is not less remarkable than the fair +hearing he is allowed, and the cool decision with which he is condemned. + +There is a peculiar kind of impudence exhibited by the lawyer--it is +sometimes called 'badgering a witness,'--and consists essentially of a +mean abuse of that power which is legally vested in judge and advocate, +whereby they can, at pleasure, insult and torment each other, and all +exposed to their queries, with impunity. It is easy to imagine the relish +with which unprofessional victims behold the mutual exercise of this legal +tyranny. A venerable Justice, in one of our cities, was remarkable for the +frequent reproofs he administered to young practitioners in his court, and +the formal harangues with which he wore out the patience of those so +unfortunate as to give testimony in his presence. On one occasion, it +happened that he was summoned as a witness, in a case to be defended by +one of the juvenile members of the bar, whom he had often called to order +with needless severity. This hopeful limb of the law was gifted with more +than a common share of the cool assurance so requisite in the profession, +and determined to improve the opportunity, to make his 'learned friend' of +the bench feel the sting he had so often inflicted. Accordingly, when his +Honour took the stand, the counsel gravely inquired his name, occupation, +place of residence, and sundry other facts of his personal history--though +all were as familiar to himself and every one present as the old church, +or main street of their native town. The queries were put in a voice and +with a manner so exactly imitated from that of the judge himself, as to +convulse the audience with laughter; every unnecessary word the hampered +witness used was reprimanded as 'beyond the question;' he was continually +adjured to 'tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth;' +his expressions were captiously objected to; he was tantalized with +repetitions and cross-questioning about the veriest trifles; and, +finally, his tormentor, with a face of the utmost gravity, pretended to +discover in the witness a levity of bearing, and equivocal replies, which +called for a lecture on 'the responsibility of an oath;' this was +delivered with a pedantic solemnity, in words, accent, and gesture so like +one of his own addresses from the bench, that judge, jury, and spectators +burst forth into irresistible peals of laughter; and the subject of this +clever retaliation lost all self-possession, grew red and pale by turns, +fumed, and at last protested, until his young adversary wound up the farce +by a threat to commit him for contempt of court. + +When Chief Justice Coleridge retired from the bench, his farewell address +deeply affected the members of the bar present: 'These are not your +severest trials,' said he, referring to the more familiar difficulties of +the profession; 'they are those which are most insidious; which beset you +in the ordinary path of your daily duty; those which spring from the +excitement of contest, from the love of intellectual display, and even +from an exaggerated sense of duty to your clients. Gentlemen--especially +my younger friends,--suffer me, without offence, to put you on your guard +against these. We can well afford to bear traditional pleasantries upon us +from without, but we cannot afford that, underlying these, there should +exist among thoughtful persons a feeling that our professional standard of +honour is questionable--that we, as advocates, will say and do in court +what we, as gentlemen, would scorn to do in the common walks of life. +Sometimes, I confess, it seems to me that we lend support to such a +feeling by the lightness with which we impute ungenerous conduct or +practices to each other. Surely no case is so sacred, no client so dear, +that ever an advocate should be called upon to barter his own +self-respect. If that be our duty, our great and glorious profession is no +calling for a gentleman.' + +The relation of law to poetry is proverbially antagonistic; and the +attempt to bind imagination to technicalities has usually proved a +hopeless experiment; and yet it is curious to note how many of the +brotherhood of song were originally destined for this profession, and how +similar their confessions are, of a struggle, a compromise, and, finally, +an abandonment of jurisprudence for the sake of the Muses. Ovid, Petrarch, +Tasso, Milton, Cowper, Ariosto, and others, are examples; Scott was +faithful awhile to a branch of the law; Blackstone's only known poem is a +_Farewell to the Muse_; Marshall and Story wooed the Nine, in their youth; +Talfourd deemed it requisite to declare, in the preface to _Ion_, that he +'left no duty for this idle trade,' and Proctor only weaves a song in the +intervals of his stern task as a Commissioner of Lunacy. With philosophy +the law is more congenial: Bacon and Mackintosh are illustrious examples +of their united pursuit. Sir Thomas More wrote verses on the wall of his +prison with a coal, and Addison compliments Somers on his poetry in his +dedication of the _Campaign_. Lord Mansfield's name appears in history a +successful competitor for the Oxford prize poem. Lyndhurst and Denham were +given to rhyme, and Sir William Jones is popularly known by his nervous +lines on _What constitutes a State?_ Lord Jeffrey is one of the most +characteristic modern examples of the union of legal and literary +success,--his taste of the latter kind having, with the aid of a +felicitous style, made him the most famous reviewer of his day, while the +mental traits of the advocate unfitted him to appreciate the ideal, as +they rendered him expert and brilliant in the discussion of rhetoric, +facts, and philosophy. + +Its connection with the most adventurous and tragic realities of life +often brings law into the sphere of the dramatic and imaginative. Popular +fiction has found in its annals all the material for profound human +interest and artistic effect. Scott's most pathetic tale, the _Heart of +Mid-Lothian_, _Ten Thousand a Year_, and _Bleak House_, are memorable +examples. The trials of Russell, Strafford, Vane, and other noble +prisoners charged with high treason, have furnished both plot and +incidents for popular novelists. Uriah Heep, Oily Gammon, and Gilbert +Glossin, are familiar types of legal villany. Thackeray's best work, +artistically speaking--_Henry Esmond_--is largely indebted to the State +Trials of Queen Anne's time for its material. Have you ever seen Portia +enacted by a woman of genius? Then has the romance of law been +impersonated for ever to your mind. That demoniac plaintiff, so memorably +represented by Kean, with his haunting expression and voice,--the noble +wife of Bassanio, uttering, in tones of musical entreaty, her immortal +plea for Mercy, and, when it failed to touch the Jew's heart of adamant, +cleaving his hope of vengeance by a subtle evasion,--the joy of Antonio, +the fiat of the judge, the merry reunion and gay bridal talk at Belmont +that night, whose moonlit gladness lives for ever in the page of +Shakspeare,--Queen Katherine's defence, and Othello's argument before +their judges, equally show how effective is a tribunal under the hand of +the poet of Nature; and every barrister of long experience can relate +episodes in his career 'stranger than fiction.' + +Although one would naturally turn to the State Trials, _Causes Célèbres_, +_Memoirs of Vidocq_, and similar works, for the dramatic materials +developed by process of law, yet, to the initiated, there is an equal fund +of interest in those researches of the profession which appear to deal +only with technicalities. How many effective situations have playwrights, +and such observers of human nature as Hogarth, drawn from, or grouped +around the formal act of making or reading a Will! There is positive +romance in the task of the Conveyancer, when he traces the title of an +estate far back through the ramifications of family history, often +bringing to light the most curious historical facts and remarkable +personal incidents. Questions of property, of heirship, of fraud, and of +divorce, involve manifold relative facts, that only require the sequence +and arrangement of literary art, to make them dramas. Perhaps no field of +character has yielded types as memorable to the writers of modern fiction +as that of the Law. Think of Balzac's diagnosis of the French statutes +regulating burial and marriage settlements, in his psychological Tales; of +Brass, Tulkinghorn, and Peyton. Libel cases vie with police reports in +unveiling the tragedy and comedy of life. That a trial involves scope for +the broadest humour, or the most facetious invention, is evident from the +Moot Court having become a permanent form of public entertainment in +London. + +No profession affords better opportunities for the study of human nature; +indeed, an acute insight of motives is a prerequisite of success; but +unfortunately it is the dark side of character, the selfish instincts, +that are most frequently displayed in litigation, and hence the exclusive +recognition of these which many a practised lawyer manifests. In its ideal +phase, among the noblest--in its possible actuality, among the lowest--of +human pursuits, we can scarcely wonder that popular sentiment and +literature exhibit such apparently irreconcilable estimates of its value +and tendencies. English lawyers of the first class are scholars and +gentlemen. Classical knowledge and familiarity with standard modern +literature are indispensable to their equipment; and such attainments are +usually conducive to a humane and refined character. In the programme +suggested by eminent lawyers for a general training for the Bar, there is, +however, an amusing diversity of opinion as to the best literary culture; +one writer recommends the Bible, another Shakspeare, one English history, +and another Joe Miller, as the best resource for apt quotation and +discipline in the art of efficient rhetoric. Coke was remarkable for his +citations from Virgil. But there is no doubt that general knowledge is an +essential advantage to the lawyer, if he understand the rare art of using +it with tact. The mere fact that the highest political distinction and +official duty are open to the lawyer, ought to incline him to liberal +studies and comprehensive acquaintance with literature, science, and +philosophy. + +How distinctly in social life the phases of the legal mind have become, is +evident from such allusion as that of a Quarterly Reviewer, who, in a +political discussion, remarks that 'Mr. Percival was only a poorish _nisi +prius_ lawyer, and there is no kind of human being so disagreeable to the +gross Tory nation;' while De Quincey, with that philosophic benignity +which sometimes inspires his weird pen, observes that 'he had often +thought that the influence of a portion of the acrid humours, which seem +an element in the human mental constitution, being drained off, as it +were, in forensic disputation, raised the lawyer above the average of +mankind, in the qualities that give enjoyment to society.' + +The trial of Aaron Burr elicited the most characteristic eloquence of Clay +and Wirt; that of Knapp, the tragic force of statement in which Webster +excelled. Emmet's address to his judges has become a charter to his +countrymen. Patrick Henry's remarkable powers of argument and appeal, +which fanned the embers of Revolutionary zeal into a flame, originally +exhibited themselves in a Virginia courthouse. And if eloquence has been +justly described as existing 'in the man, in the subject, and in the +occasion,' we can easily imagine why the legal profession affords it such +frequent and extensive scope. + +The intellectual process by which the advocate seeks his ends is +observable in the best conversation and writing. Almost all good talkers +are essentially pleaders; they espouse, defend, illustrate, or maintain a +question. Many of Lord Jeffrey's reviews are little else but special +pleadings, and Macaulay's most brilliant articles are digests executed +with taste and eloquence; the subject is first thoroughly explored, then +its presentation systematized, and afterwards stated, argued, and summed +up, after the manner of a charge or plea, with the addition of rhetorical +graces inadmissible in a legal case. There is nothing, therefore, in the +peculiar exercise of the faculties which renders law a profession apt to +pervert second-rate minds; the evil lies in the predetermined side, the +logic aforethought--if we may so say,--the interested choice and +dogmatical assumption of a certain view undertaken 'for a consideration.' +'I know some barristers,' observes Thackeray, 'who mistake you and I for +jury-boxes when they address us; but these are not your modest barristers, +not your true gentlemen.' + +The special pleading and judicial complacency of Jeffrey--in other words +his lawyer's mind--prevented his recognition of the highest and best +poetical merit. It has been said of the conversation of his circle at +Edinburgh, that it was, 'in a very great measure, made up of brilliant +disquisition, of sharp word-catching, ingenious thinking, and parrying of +dialectics, and all the quips and quiddities of bar-pleading. It was the +talk of a society to which lawyers and lecturers had, for at least a +hundred years, given the tone.'[22] + +When from the advocate we pass to the bench, and from the feed barrister +to the philosophical jurist, a new and majestic vista opens to the view. +As in literature, two great divisions mark the legal character: there is +the narrow but thoroughly-informed practitioner, and the comprehensive +judicial mind,--the first only distinguished within a limited bound of +immediate utility and respectable adherence to precedent, and the other a +pioneer in the realm of truth, a brave and original minister at the altar +of justice. Lord Brougham, in his _Sketches of English Statesmen_, has +admirably indicated these two classes. To the former he says, 'The precise +dictates of English statutes, and the dictates of English judges and +English text-writers, are the standard of justice. They are extremely +suspicious of any enlarged or general views upon so serious a subject as +law.' The second and higher order of lawyers are well described in his +portrait of Lord Grant, of whose charges he remarks: 'Forth came a strain +of clear, unbroken fluency, disposing in the most luminous order all the +facts and all the arguments in the cause; reducing into clear and simple +arrangement the most entangled masses of broken, conflicting statement; +settling one doubt by a parenthetical remark, passing over another only +more decisive that it was condensed; and giving out the whole impression +of the case upon the judge's mind,--the material view, with argument +enough to show why he so thought, and to prove him right, and without so +much reasoning as to make you forget that it was a judgment you were +hearing, and not a speech.' Do we not often find, in literature and in +life, counterparts of this picture of a judicial mind? Add to it +discovery, and we have the legal philosopher; intrepid love of right, and +we recognize the legal reformer. To this noble category belong such +lawyers as Mansfield and Marshall, Romilly, Erskine, and Webster. Genius +for the bar is as varied in its character as that for poetry or art. In +one man the gift is acuteness, in another felicity of language; here, +extraordinary perspicuity of statement; there, singular ingenuity of +argument. It is rhetoric, manner, force of purpose, a glamour that +subdues, or a charm that wins; so that no precise rules, irrespective of +individual endowments, can be laid down to secure forensic triumph. +Doubtless, however, the union of a sympathetic temperament and an +attractive manner, with logical power and native eloquence, form the ideal +equipment of the pleader. Erskine seems to have combined these qualities +in perfection, and to have woven a spell both for soul and sense. He +magnetized, physically and intellectually, his audience. 'Juries,' says +his biographer, 'declared that they felt it impossible to remove their +looks from him when he had riveted, and, as it were, fascinated them by +his first glance; and it used to be a common remark of men who observed +his motions, that they resembled those of a blood-horse.' + +The tendency to subterfuge in the less highly endowed, is but an +incidental liability; in general, law-practice seems to harden and make +sceptical the mind absorbed in its details. One can almost invariably +detect the keen look of distrust or the smile of incredulity in the +physiognomy of the barrister. Everything like sentiment, +disinterestedness, and frank demonstration, is apt to be regarded without +faith or sympathy. Most lawyers confess that they place no reliance on the +statements of their clients. If you introduce a spiritual hypothesis or a +practical view of any topic, it is treated by this class of men with +ill-concealed scorn. The habit of their minds is logical; they usually +ignore and repudiate those instincts which experience seldom reveals to +them, and observation of life in its coarser phases leads them to doubt +and contemn. But, while thus less open to the gentler and more sacred +sympathies, they often possess the distinction of manliness, of courage, +and generosity. The very process which so exclusively develops the +understanding, and makes their ideal of intellectual greatness to consist +in aptitude, subtlety, and reasoning power, tends to give a certain vigour +and alertness to the thinking faculty, and to emancipate it from morbid +influences. One of Ben Jonson's characters thus defines the lawyer:-- + + 'I oft have heard him say how he admired + Men of your law-profession, that could speak + To every cause and things mere contraries, + Till they were hoarse again, yet all be law. + That, with most quick agility, could turn + And return, make knots and undo them, + Give forked counsel, take provoking gold + On either hand,--and put it up.' + +And one of Balzac's characters says:--'Savez-vous, mon cher, qu'il existe +dans notre société trois hommes: le prêtre, le médecin, et l'homme de +justice, qui ne peuvent pas estimer le monde? Ils ont des robes noires, +peut-être parce qu'ils portent le deuil de toutes les vertus, de toutes +les illusions. _Le plus malheureux des trois est l'avoué._' When the +question at issue is purely utilitarian, and the interest discussed one of +outward and practical relations, this legal training comes into eminent +efficiency: in a word, it is applicable to affairs, but not to sentiment; +to fact, but not to abstract truth. How evanescent is often a great +lawyer's fame; often as intangible as that of a great vocalist or actor. +Even their eloquence is now rare. Great lawyers are uniformly distrustful +of rhetoric, and their power is based on knowledge. We learn from the son +and biographer of Chief Justice Parsons, that a special reason of his +eminent superiority was that accident gave him early and undisturbed +access to the best law library in America. It has been truly said, that +the eloquence of the bar has become a tradition; 'it is suspected as +impugning sense and knowledge,' and is opposed to the practical spirit of +the age. Yet the advocate, like the poet, is occasionally born, not made, +notwithstanding the maxim _orator fit_. A mind fertile in expedients, +warmed by a temperament which instinctively seizes upon, and, we had +almost said, incarnates, a cause, is a phenomenon that sometimes renders +law an inspiration instead of a dogma. Such a pleader lately lived in one +of the Eastern States. Not only the grasp of his thought, but his +elocution, announced that he had literally thrown himself into the case. +It would be more strictly correct to say that he had absorbed it. The +gesture, the eye, the tone of his voice, the quiver of the muscle, nay, +each lock of his long steel-gray hair, that he tossed back from his +dripping brow, in the excitement of his fluent harangue, seemed alive and +overflowing with the rationale and the sentiment of the cause; his +enthusiasm was real, however it may have originated; and, by identifying +himself with his client, he espoused the argument as if it were vital to +his own interest. Such instances, however, are exceptional; few are the +lawyers thus constituted. Accepting their cases objectively, and +maintaining them by formula, the usual effect is that which Burke +describes in his character of Greville: 'He was bred to the law, which is, +in my opinion, one of the first and noblest of human sciences--a science +which does more to quicken and invigorate the understanding than all other +kinds of learning put together; but it is not apt, except in persons very +happily born, to open and liberalize the mind exactly in the same +proportion.' + +Why is the poet's function the noblest? Because it is inspired, not +arbitrarily decreed by the will. Mental activity is grand and beautiful in +proportion as it is disinterested; and it is on account of the almost +inevitable forcing, by circumstances, of a lawyer's mind from the line of +honest conviction into that of determined casuistry, that the moral +objection to the pursuit is so often urged. 'The indiscriminate defence of +right and wrong,' says Junius, 'contracts the understanding while it +corrupts the heart.' Some men, in conversation, affect us as unreal. We +attach no vital interest to what they say, because the mind appears to act +wholly apart--the fusion of sense and feeling, which we call soul, is +wanting; there is no conviction, no personal sentiment, no unselfish love +of truth in what they say; and yet it may be intelligent, erudite, and +void of positive falsity--still it is mechanical; the intellect is _used_, +not _inspired_; willed to act, not moved thereto: this is the +characteristic of legal training, unmodified by the higher sentiments; it +makes intellectual machines, logical grist-mills, talkers by rote; the +rational powers, from long slavery to temporary and interested aims, seem +to have lost magnanimity; their spontaneous, genuine, and earnest action +has yielded to a conventional and predetermined habit. Yet at the other +extreme we see the most lofty and permanent intellectual results. It has +been justly said that the Code Napoleon is even now the sole embodiment +of Lord Bacon's thought--'put them (the laws) into shape, inform them with +philosophy, reduce them in bulk, give them into every man's hand. Laws are +made to guard the rights of the people, not to feed the lawyers.' + +Whoever, in the freshness of youthful emotions, has been present at the +tribunal of a free country, where the character of the judge, the +integrity of the jury, and the learning and eloquence of the advocates +have equalled the moral exigencies and the ideal dignity of the scene, and +when the case has possessed a high tragic or social interest, can never +lose the impression thus derived of the majesty of the law. No public +scene of human life can surpass it to the apprehension of a thoughtful +spectator. He seems to behold the principle of justice as it exists in the +very elements of humanity, and to stand on the primeval foundation of +civil society; the searching struggle for truth, the conscientious +application of law to evidence, the stern recital of the prosecutor, the +appeal of the defence, the constant test of inquiry, of reference to +statutes and precedents, the luminous arrangement of conflicting facts by +the judge, his impartial deductions and clear final statement, the +interval of suspense and the solemn verdict, combine to present a calm, +reflective, almost sublime exercise of the intellect and moral sentiments, +in order to conform authority to their highest dictates, which elevates +and widens the function and the glory of human life and duty. Compare with +such a picture the base mockery of justice exhibited by the Inquisition of +old, and an Austrian court-martial of our own day; the arbitrary fiat of +an Eastern official, and the murderous ordeal of the provisional bodies +that ruled during the first French revolution; and it is easy to +appreciate the identity of justly-administered law with civilization and +freedom. 'Justice,' says Webster, 'is the great interest of man on earth. +It is the ligament which holds civilized beings and civilized nations +together. Wherever her temple stands, and as long as it is duly honoured, +there is a foundation for social security, general happiness, and the +improvement and progress of our race; and whoever labours on this edifice +with usefulness and distinction, whoever clears its foundations, +strengthens its pillars, adorns its entablatures, or contributes to raise +its august dome still higher in the skies, connects himself--in name, and +fame, and character--with that which is, and must be, as durable as the +frame of human society.' + + + + +SEPULCHRES. + + 'The hills, + Rock-ribbed and ancient as the sun; the vales, + Stretching in pensive quietness between; + The venerable woods; rivers that move + In majesty, and the complaining brooks + That make the meadow green; and, poured round all, + Old ocean's gray and melancholy waste, + Are but the solemn decorations all + Of the great tomb of man.'--BRYANT. + + +The comparatively recent and widely-diffused interest in the establishment +of rural cemeteries in this country is an auspicious reaction of popular +feeling. Never did a Christian nation manifest so little conservative and +exalted sentiment, apart from its direct religious scope, as our own. This +patent defect is owing, in a measure, to the absence of the venerable, the +time-hallowed, and the contemplative in the scenes and the life of our +country; it is, however, confirmed by the busy competition, the hurried, +experimental, and ambitious spirit of the people. Local change is the +rule, not the exception; scorn of wise delay, moderation, and philosophic +content, the prevalent feeling; impatience, temerity, and self-confidence, +the characteristic impulse; houses are locomotive, church edifices turned +into post-offices, and even theatres; ancestral domains are bartered away +in the second generation; old trees bow to the axe; the very sea is +encroached upon, and landmarks are removed almost as soon as they grow +familiar; change, which is the life of Nature, seems to be regarded as not +less the vital element of what is called local improvement and prosperity; +the future is almost exclusively regarded, and the past contemned. + +If a man cites the precedents of experience, he is sneered at as a 'fogy;' +if he has a competence, he risks it in speculation; newspapers usurp the +attention once given to standard lore; the picturesque rocks of the rural +wayside are defiled by quack advertisements, the arcana of spirituality +degraded by legerdemain, the dignity of reputation sullied by partisan +brutality, the graces of social refinement abrogated by a mercenary +standard, the lofty aims of science levelled by charlatan tricks, and +independence of character sacrificed to debasing conformity; observation +is lost in locomotion, thought in action, ideality in materialism. Against +this perversion of life the sanctity of death protests, often vainly to +the general mind, but not ineffectually to the individual heart. + +When it was attempted to secure the collection of Egyptian antiquities +brought hither by Dr. Abbott, of Cairo, for a future scientific museum to +be established in New York, the representatives--commercial, professional, +and speculative--of 'Young America' scorned the bare idea of exchanging +gold for mummies, sepulchral lamps, papyrus, and ancient utensils and +inscriptions; yet, within a twelvemonth, a celebrated German philologist, +a native biblical scholar, and a lecturer on the History of Art, eagerly +availed themselves of these contemned relics to prove and illustrate their +respective subjects; and the enlightened of Gotham's utilitarian citizens +acknowledged that the trophies of the past were essential to elucidate and +confirm the wisdom of the present. It is this idolatry of the immediate +which stultifies republican perception. Offer a manuscript to a publisher, +and he instantly inquires if it relates to the questions of the day; if +not, it is almost certain to be rejected without examination. The +conservative element of social life is merged in gregarious intercourse; +the youth looks not up to age; the maiden's susceptibilities are hardened +by premature and promiscuous association; external success is glorified, +private consistency unhonoured; art becomes a trade, literature an +expedient, reform fanaticism; aspiration is chilled, romance outgrown, +life unappreciated; and all because the vista of departed time is cut off +from our theory of moral perspective, and existence itself is regarded +merely as an opportunity for instant and outward success, not a link in an +eternal chain reaching 'before and after.' + +Sentiment is the great conservative principle of society; those instincts +of patriotism, local attachment, family affection, human sympathy, +reverence for truth, age, valour, and wisdom, so often alive and conscious +in the child, and overlaid or perverted in the man,--for the culture of +which our educational systems, habitual vocations, domestic and social +life, make so little provision,--are, in the last analysis, the elements +of whatever is noble, efficient, and individual in character; in every +moral crisis we appeal to them, as the channels whereby we are linked to +God and humanity, and through which alone we can realize just views or +lawful action. In our normal condition they may not be often exhibited; +yet none the less they constitute the latent force of civil society. To +depend upon intelligence and will is, indeed, the creed of the age, and +especially of this Republic; but these powers, when unhallowed by the +primal and better instincts, react and fail of their end. It is so in +individual experience and in national affairs. The absence of the +sentiments which the pride of intellect and the brutality of self-will +thus repudiate, is the occasion of our greatest errors; to them is the +final appeal, through them the only safety; and their violation was the +precursor of base and bloody treason; their vindication but the renewal +through sacrifice of a normal and vital interest of human society. The +war for the Union has been expiatory not less than patriotic. And the +great lesson taught by these and similar errors is, that the life, the +spirit, the faith of the country had, by a long course of national +prosperity and a blind worship of outward success, become gradually but +inevitably material; so that motives of patriotism, of reverence, of +courtesy, of generous sympathy,--in a word, the sentiments, as +distinguished from the passions and the will, had ceased to be recognized +as legitimate, and the reliable springs of action and guides of life. It +was the repudiation of these which horrified Burke at the outbreak of the +French Revolution; he augured the worst from that event, at the best hour +of its triumph, because it stripped Humanity of her divine attribute of +sentiment, and left her to shiver naked in the cold light of reason and +will, unredeemed by the sense of justice, of beauty, of compassion, of +honourable pride, which under the name of chivalry he lamented as extinct. +He spoke and felt as a man whose brain was kindled by his heart, and whose +heart retained the pure impulse of these sacred instincts, and knew their +value as the medium of all truth and the basis of civil order. They were +temporarily quenched in France by the frenzy of want; they are inactive +and in abeyance here, through the gross pressure of material prosperity +and mercenary ambition. Hence whatever effectively appeals to them, and +whoever sincerely recognizes them, whether by example or precept, in a +life or a poem, through art or rhetoric, in respect for the past, love of +nature, or devotion to truth and beauty, excites our cordial sympathy. In +this age and land, no man is a greater benefactor than he who scorns the +worldly and narrow philosophy of life which degrades to a material, +unaspiring level the tone of mind and the tendency of the affections. If +he invent a character, lay out a domain, erect a statue, weave a stanza, +write a paragraph, utter a word, or chant a melody which stirs in any +breast the love of the beautiful, admiration for the heroic, or the +chastening sense of awe,--any sentiment, in truth, which partakes of +disinterestedness, and merges self 'in an idea dearer than +self,'--uplifts, expands, fortifies, intensifies, and therefore +inspires,--he is essentially and absolutely a benefactor to society, a +genuine though perhaps unrecognized champion of what is 'highest in man's +nature' against what is 'lowest in man's destiny.' And not the least +because the most universal of these higher and holier feelings is the +sentiment of Death, consecrating its symbols, guarding its relics, and +keeping fresh and sacred its memories. + +The disposition of the mortal remains was, and is, to a considerable +extent, in England, an ecclesiastical function; in Catholic lands it is a +priestly interest. Indignity to the body, after death, was one of the most +dreaded punishments of heresy and crime; to scatter human ashes to the +winds, expose the skulls of malefactors in iron gratings over city +portals, refuse interment in ground consecrated by the church, and +disinter and insult the body of an unpopular ruler, were among the +barbarous reprisals of offended power. And yet, in these same twilight +eras, in the heathen customs and the mediæval laws, under the sway of Odin +and the Franks, the sentiment of respect for the dead was acted upon in a +manner to shame the indifference and hardihood of later and more civilized +times. With the emigration to America, this sentiment looked for its legal +vindication entirely to the civic authority. With their reaction from +spiritual tyranny, our ancestors transferred this, with other social +interests, to popular legislation and private inclination. Hence the +comparatively indefinite enactments on the subject, and the need of a +uniform code, applicable to all the States, and organized so as clearly to +establish the rights both of the living and the dead, and to preserve +inviolable the choice of disposition, and the place of deposit, of human +remains. + +The practical treatment of this subject is anomalous. Amid the scenes of +horror, outraging humanity in every form, which characterized the anarchy +incident to the first dethronement of legitimate authority in France, how +startling to read, among the first decrees of the Convention, provisions +for the dead, while pitiless destruction awaited the living! And in this +country, while motives of _hygiène_ limit intermural interments, and a +higher impulse sets apart and adorns rural cemeteries, our rail-tracks +still often ruthlessly intersect the fields of the dead, and ancestral +tombs are annually broken up to make way for streets and warehouses. The +tomb of Washington was long dilapidated; the bones of Revolutionary +martyrs are neglected, and half the graveyards of the country desecrated +by indifference or misuse. The conservative piety of the Hebrews +reproaches our inconsiderate neglect, in the faithfully-tended cemetery of +their race at Newport, R. I., where not a Jew remains to gather the ashes +of his fathers, thus carefully preserved by a testamentary fund. Of late +years elaborate monuments in rural cemeteries have done much to redeem +this once proverbial neglect. They constitute the most sacred adornment of +the environs of our principal cities. + +Both the modes and places of burial have an historical significance. The +pyre of the Greeks and Romans, the embalming process of the Egyptians, the +funeral piles of Hindoo superstition, and those bark stagings, curiously +regarded by Mississippi voyagers, where Indian corpses are exposed to the +elements,--the old cross-road interment of the suicide, the inhumation of +the early patriarchs and Christians,--all symbolize eras and creeds. The +lying-in-state of the royal defunct, the sable catafalque of the Catholic +temples, the salutes over the warrior's grave, the 'Day of the Dead' +celebrated in Southern Europe, the eulogies in French cemeteries, the +sublime ritual of the Establishment, and the silent prayer of the +Friends,--requiems, processions, emblems, inscriptions, badges, and +funereal garlands,--mark faith, nation, rank, and profession at the very +gates of the sepulchre. Vain is the sceptic's sneer, useless the +utilitarian's protest; by these poor tributes the heart utters its undying +regret and its immortal prophecies, though 'mummy has become merchandise,' +and to be 'but pyramidically extant is a fallacy in duration;' for, as the +same religious philosopher[23] of Norwich declared, 'it is the heaviest +stone that melancholy can throw at a man, to tell him he is at the end of +his nature;' and, therefore, in the grim Tuscan's Hell, the souls of those +who denied their immortality when in the flesh, are shut up through +eternity in living tombs. How the idea of a local abode for the mortal +remains is hallowed to our nature, is realized in the pathos which closes +the noble and sacred life of the Hebrew lawgiver: 'And he buried him in a +valley of the land of Moab, over against Beth-peor; but no man knoweth of +his sepulchre unto this day.'[24] Etruria's best relics are sepulchral +urns. Social distinctions are as obvious in the tombs of the ancients as +in their palaces: witness the Columbarium in ruins, and the fresh pit of +the plebeians; the sandy isles of the Venetian cemetery, and Pompeii's +street of tombs. Byron thought '_Implora pace_' the most affecting of +epitaphs; and the visitor at Coppet recognizes a melancholy +appropriateness, in the garden-grave of its gifted mistress. + +Natural, therefore, and human, is the consoling thought of the poet, of +the ship bringing home for burial all of earth that remains of his +lamented friend:-- + + 'I hear the noise about thy keel; + I hear the bell struck in the night; + I see the cabin-window bright; + I see the sailor at the wheel. + + 'Thou bringest the sailor to his wife, + And travelled men from foreign lands; + And letters unto trembling hands; + And thy dark freight, a vanished life. + + 'So bring him: we have idle dreams: + This look of quiet flatters thus + Our home-bred fancies; O, to us, + The fools of habit, sweeter seems + + 'To rest beneath the clover sod, + That takes the sunshine and the rains, + Or where the kneeling hamlet drains + The chalice of the grapes of God, + + 'Than if with thee the roaring wells + Should gulf him fathom deep in brine; + And hands so often clasped in mine + Should toss with tangle and with shells.'[25] + +Doubtless many of the processes adopted by blind affection and +superstitious homage, to rescue the poor human casket from destruction, +are grotesque and undesirable. Had Segato, the discoverer of a chemical +method of petrifying flesh, survived to publish the secret, it would be +chiefly for anatomical purposes that we should appreciate his invention; +there is something revolting in the artificial conservation of what, by +the law of Nature, should undergo elemental dissolution; and it is but a +senseless homage to cling to the shattered chrysalis when the winged +embryo has soared away: + + 'All' ombra de' cipressi e dentro l'urne + Confortate di pianto, è forse il sonno + Delia morte men duro?'[26] + +Nature sometimes is a conservative mother even of mortal lineaments; in +glacier or tarn, in _tuffo_ and limestone fossils, she keeps for ages the +entire relics of humanity. The fantastic array of human bones in the +Capuchin cells at Palermo and Rome; the eyeless, shrunken face of Carlo +Borromeo embedded in crystal, jewels, and silk, beneath the Milan +cathedral; the fleshless figure of old Jeremy Bentham in the raiment of +this working-day world; the thousand spicy wrappings which enfold the +exhumed mummy whose exhibition provoked Horace Smith's facetious +rhymes,--these, and such as these, poor attempts to do vain honour to our +clay, are not less repugnant to the sentiment of death, in its religious +and enlightened manifestation, than the promiscuous and careless putting +out of sight of the dead after battle and in the reign of pestilence, or +the brutal and irreverent disposal of the bodies of the poor in the +diurnal pits of the Naples Campo Santo. More accordant with our sense of +respect to what once enshrined an immortal spirit, and stood erect and +free, even in barbaric manhood, is the adjuration of the bard:-- + + 'Gather him to his grave again, + And solemnly and softly lay, + Beneath the verdure of the plain, + The warrior's scattered bones away; + The soul hath quickened every part,-- + That remnant of a martial brow, + Those ribs that held the mighty heart, + That strong arm,--strong no longer now! + Spare them, each mouldering relic spare, + Of God's own image; let them rest, + Till not a trace shall speak of where + The awful likeness was impressed.' + +Yet there are many and judicious reasons for preferring cremation to +inhumation; the prejudice against the former having doubtless originated +among the early Christians, in their respect for patriarchal entombment, +practised by the Jews, and their natural horror at any custom which +savoured of heathenism. But there is actually no religious obstacle, and, +under proper arrangement, no public inconvenience, in the burning of the +dead. It is, too, a process which singularly attracts those who would save +the remains of those they love from the possibility of desecration, and +anticipate the ultimate fate of the mortal coil 'to mix for ever with the +elements;' at all events, there can be no rational objection to the +exercise of private taste, and the gratification of personal feeling on +this point. 'I bequeath my soul to God,' said Michael Angelo, in his terse +will, 'my body to the earth, and my possessions to my nearest kin;'--and +this right to dispose of one's mortal remains appears to be instinctive; +though the indignation excited by any departure from custom would indicate +that, in popular apprehension, the privilege so rarely exercised is +illegally usurped. + +The outcry in a Western town, a few years ago, when cremation was resorted +to, at the earnest desire of a deceased wife; and the offence taken and +expressed in an Eastern city, when it became known that a distinguished +surgeon, from respect to science, had bequeathed his skeleton to a medical +college; evidence how little, among us, is recognized the right of the +living to dispose of their remains, and the extent to which popular +ignorance and individual prejudice are allowed to interfere in what good +sense and good feeling declare an especial matter of private concern. Yet +that other than the ordinary modes of disposing of human relics are not +absolutely repugnant to endearing associations, may be inferred from the +poetic interest which sanctions to the imagination the obsequies of +Shelley. Although it was from convenience that the body of that ideal +bard, so misunderstood, so humane, so 'cradled into poesy by wrong,' was +burned, yet the lover of his spiritual muse beholds in that lonely pyre, +blazing on the shores of the Mediterranean, an elemental destruction of +the material shrine of a lofty and loving soul, accordant with his +aspiring, isolated, and imaginative career.[27] + +Vain, indeed, have proved the studious precautions of Egyptians to +conserve from decay and sacrilege the relics of their dead. Not only has +'mummy become merchandise,' in the limited sense of the English moralist; +the traffic of the Jews in their gums and spices, the distribution of +their exhumed forms in museums, and the use of their cases for fuel, is +now superseded by commerce in their cerements for the manufacture of +paper; and it is a startling evidence of that human vicissitude from which +even the shrouds of ancient kings are not exempt, that recently, in one of +the new towns of this continent, a newspaper was printed on sheets made +from the imported rags of Egyptian mummies. + +Of primitive and casual landmarks, encountered on solitary moors and +hills, the cairn and the Alpine cross affect the imagination with a sense +alike of mortality and tributary sentiment, even more vividly than the +elaborate mausoleum, from the rude expedients and the solemn isolation; +while the beauty of cathedral architecture is hallowed by ancestral +monuments. Of all Scott's characters, the one that most deeply enlists our +sympathies, through that quaint pathos whereby the Past is made eloquent +both to fancy and affection, is Old Mortality renewing the +half-obliterated inscriptions on the gravestones of the Covenanters, his +white hair fluttering in the wind as he stoops to his melancholy task, and +his aged pony feeding on the grassy mounds. Even our practical Franklin +seized the first leisure from patriotic duties, on his visit to England, +in order to examine the sepulchral tablets which bear the names of his +progenitors. + +A cursory glance at the most cherished trophies of literature indicates +how deeply the sentiment of death is wrought into the mind and +imagination,--how it invests with awe, love, pity, and hope, thoughtful +and gifted spirits, inspires their art, elevates their conceptions, and +casts over life and consciousness a sacred mystery. The most finished and +suggestive piece of modern English verse is elegiac,--its theme a country +churchyard, and so instinct are its melancholy numbers with pathos and +reflection, embalmed in rhythmical music, that its lines have passed into +household words. Our national poet, who has sung of Nature in all her +characteristic phases on this continent, next to those ever-renewed +glories of the universe has found his chief inspiration in the same +reverent contemplation: _Thanatopsis_ was his first grand offering to the +Muses, and _The Disinterred Warrior_, the _Hymn to Death_, and _The Old +Man's Funeral_, are but pious variations of a strain worthy to be chanted +in the temple of humanity. Shakspeare in no instance comes nearer what is +highest in our common nature and miraculous in our experience, than when +he makes the philosophic Dane question his soul and confront mortality. +The once popular and ever-memorable _Night Thoughts_ of Young elaborate +kindred ideas in the light of Christian truth; the most quaintly eloquent +of early speculative writings in English prose is Sir Thomas Browne's +treatise on Urn-Burial. The most thoughtful and earnest of modern Italian +poems is Foscolo's _Sepolchri_; the Monody on Sir John Moore, Shelley's +Elegy on Keats, Tickell's on Addison, Byron's on Sheridan, and Tennyson's +_In Memoriam_, contain the most sincere and harmonious utterances of their +authors. Not the least affecting pages of _The Sketch Book_ are those +which describe the 'Village Funeral' and the 'Widow's Son;' and the +endeared author has marked his own sense of the local sanctity of the +grave by selecting that of his family in 'Sleepy Hollow,' in the midst of +scenes endeared by his abode and his fame. Halleck has given lyrical +immortality to the warrior's death in the cause of freedom; and +Wordsworth, in perhaps his most quoted ballad, has recorded with exquisite +simplicity childhood's unconsciousness of death; even the most analytical +of French novelists found, in the laws and ceremonial of a Parisian +interment, material for his keenest diagnosis of the scenes of life in +that marvellous capital. Hope's best descriptive powers were enlisted in +his sketch of burial-places near Constantinople, so pensively contrasting +with the more adventurous chapters of Anastasius. If in popular literature +this sentiment is so constantly appealed to, and so enshrined in the +poet's dream and the philosopher's speculation, classic and Hebrew authors +have inscribed its memorials in outlines of majestic and graceful import; +around it the picturesque and the moralizing, the vivacious and the +grandly simple expressions of the Roman, the Greek, and the Jewish writers +seem to hover with the significant plaint--heroism or faith--which invokes +us, with the voice of ages, to + + 'Pay the deep reverence taught of old, + The homage of man's heart to death; + Nor dare to trifle with the mould + Once hallowed by the Almighty's breath.' + +Perhaps there is no instance of this vague and awful interest more +memorable to the American than when he reads, on some ancient tablet in +the Old World, the burial record of his ancestors. + +The monitory and reminiscent influence of the churchyard, apart from all +personal associations, cannot, indeed, be over-estimated; doubtless in a +spirit of propriety and good taste, it is now more frequently suburban, +made attractive by trees, flowers, a wide landscape, and rural peace, and +rendered comparatively safe from desecration by distance from the +so-called march of improvement which annually changes the aspect of our +growing towns. Yet, wherever situated, the homes of the dead, when made +eloquent by art, and kept fresh by reverent care, breathe a chastening and +holy lesson, perhaps the more impressive when uttered beside the teeming +camp of life. To the traveller in Europe it is a pathetic sight to watch +the Norwegian peasants strew flowers, every Sabbath, on the graves of +their kindred, and gives a living interest to the memorials of +Scandinavian antiquity gathered in the museums, whereby, through the +weapons and drinking-cups of stone, bronze, and iron, exhumed from graves, +he traces the origin and growth of that remote civilization. And when time +has softened the most acute and bitter memories of the War for the Union, +what monument to individual prowess, what trophy of patriotic +self-sacrifice will compare, in solemn and elevating pathos, with the +impression derived from the 'national cemeteries' of the battle-field and +the hospital? As Lincoln said of Gettysburg,--'they will dedicate us +afresh to our country, to humanity, and to God.' + +When the traveller gazes on the marble effigy of the warrior at Ravenna, +and then treads the plain where Gaston de Foix fell in battle, the fixed +lineaments and obsolete armour bring home to his mind the very life of the +middle ages, solemnized by youthful heroism and early death; when he scans +the vast city beneath its smoky veil--thick with roofs and dotted with +spires,--from an elevated point of Père la Chaise, the humble and +garlanded cross, and the chiselled names of the wise and brave that +surround him, cause the parallel and inwoven mysteries of life and death +to stir the fountains of his heart with awe, and make his lips tremble +into prayer; and, familiar as is the spectacle, the more thoughtful of the +throng in New York's bustling thoroughfare will sometimes pause and cast a +salutary glance from the hurrying crowd to the monuments of the heroic +Lawrence, the eloquent Emmet, the gallant Montgomery, and the patriotic +Hamilton. Those associations which form at once the culture and the +romance of travel are identified with the same eternal sentiment. Next in +interest to the monuments of genius and character are those of death; or +rather, the inspiration of the former are everywhere consecrated by the +latter. + + 'Take the wings + Of morning, and the Barcan desert pierce, + Or lose thyself in the continuous woods + Where rolls the Oregon, and hears no sound + Save his own dashings,--yet the dead are there!' + +Nero dug his own grave, lest he should be denied burial, and Shakspeare +guarded his own ashes by an imprecatory epitaph; David praises the men of +Jabesh Gilead who rescue the bones of their king from the enemy. It is a +sweet custom,--that of making little excavations in sepulchral slabs to +catch the rain, that birds may be lured thither to drink and sing. The +Chinese sell themselves in order to obtain means to bury their parents. + +We enter a city of antiquity--memorable Syracuse or disinterred +Pompeii--through a street of tombs; the majestic relics of Egyptian +civilization are the cenotaphs of kings; the Escurial is Spain's +architectural elegy; Abelard's philosophy is superseded, but his love and +death live daily to the vision of the mourners who go from the gay capital +of France, to place chaplets on the graves of departed friends;[28] the +grandeurs of Westminster Abbey are sublimated by the effigies of bards and +statesmen, and the rare music of St. George's choir made solemn by the +dust of royalty; deserted Ravenna is peopled with intense life by the +creations of Dante which haunt his sepulchre; Arqua is the shrine of +affectionate pilgrims; the radiant hues and graceful shapes of Titian and +Canova become ethereal to the fancy, when viewed beside their monuments; +St. Peter's is but a magnificent apostolic tomb; and the shadow of +mortality is incarnated in Lorenzo's brooding figure in the jewelled +temple of the dead Medici. Even the dim, half-explored catacombs of Rome +yield significant testimony to the Christian's heart to-day. 'The works of +painting found within them,' well says a recent writer, 'their +construction, the inscriptions on the graves,--all unite in bearing +witness to the simplicity of the faith, the purity of the doctrine, the +strength of the feeling, the change in the lives of the vast mass of the +members of the early church of Christ.'[29] + +What resorts are Santa Croce, Mount Vernon, Saint Paul's, and Saint +Onofrio! What a goal, through ages, the Holy Sepulchre! How the dim +escutcheons sanctify cathedrals, and sunken headstones the rural cemetery! +How sacred the mystery of the Campagna hid in that 'stern round tower of +other days,' which bears the name of a Roman matron! The beautiful +sarcophagus of Scipio, the feudal crypt of Theodric, the silent soldier of +the Invalides, the mossy cone of Caius Cæstus, in whose shadow two English +poets[30] yet speak in graceful epitaphs, Thorwaldsen's grand mausoleum +at Copenhagen, composed of his own trophies,--what objects are these to +win the mind back into the lapsing ages, and upward with 'immortal +longings!' We turn from brilliant thoroughfares, alive with creatures of a +day, to catacombs obscure with the impalpable dust of bygone generations; +we pass from the vociferous piazza to the hushed and frescoed cloister, +and walk on mural tablets whose inscriptions are worn by the feet of +vanished multitudes; we steal from the cheerful highway to the field of +mounds, where a shaft, a cross, or a garland breathes of surviving +tenderness; we handle the cloudy lachrymal, quaint depository of +long-evaporated tears, or admire the sculptured urn, the casket of what +was unutterably precious, even in mortality; and thereby life is +solemnized, consciousness deepened, and we feel, above the tyrannous +present, and through the casual occupation of the hour, the 'electric +chain wherewith we're darkly bound.' 'When I look upon the tombs of the +great,' says Addison, 'every emotion of envy dies in me; when I read the +epitaphs of the beautiful, every inordinate desire goes out; when I meet +with the grief of parents upon a tombstone, my heart melts with +compassion; when I see the tombs of the parents themselves, I consider the +vanity of grieving for those whom we must quickly follow. When I see kings +lying by those who deposed them, when I consider rival wits placed side by +side, or the holy men that divided the world with their contests and +disputes, I reflect with sorrow and astonishment on the little +competitions, factions, and debates of mankind. When I read the several +dates of the tombs, of some that died yesterday, and some six hundred +years ago, I consider that great day when we shall all of us be +contemporaries, and make our appearance together.' Thus perpetual is the +hymn of death, thus ubiquitous its memorials--attesting not only an +inevitable destiny, but a universal sentiment; under whatever name,--God's +Acre, Pantheon, Campo Santo, Valhalla, Potter's Field, Greenwood, or Mount +Auburn,--the last resting-place of the body, the last earthly shrine of +human love, fame, and sorrow, claims--by the pious instinct which +originates, the holy rites which consecrate, the blessed hopes which +glorify it--respect, protection, and sanctity. + +There is, indeed, no spot of earth so hallowed to the contemplative as +that which holds the ashes of an intellectual benefactor. What a grateful +tribute does the trans-atlantic pilgrim instinctively offer at the +sepulchre of Roscoe at Liverpool, of Lafayette in France, of Berkeley at +Oxford, of Burns at Alloway Kirk, and of Keats and Goldsmith,--of all the +bards, philosophers, and reformers whose conceptions warmed and exalted +his dawning intelligence, and became thereby sacred to his memory for +ever! How fruitful the hours--snatched from less serene pleasure--devoted +to Stratford, Melrose, and the Abbey! To realize the value of these +opportunities, the spirit of humanity enshrined in such 'Meccas of the +mind,' we must fancy the barrenness of earth stripped of these landmarks +of the gifted and the lost. How denuded of its most tender light would be +Olney, Stoke Pogis, the vale of Florence, the cypress groves of Rome, and +the park at Weimar, unconsecrated by the sepulchres of Cowper and Gray, +Michael Angelo, Tasso, and Schiller, whose sweet and lofty remembrance +links meadow and stream, mountain and sunset, with the thought of all that +is most pensive, beautiful, and sublime in genius and in woe. + + + + +ACTORS. + + 'All the world's a stage, + And all the men and women merely players.' + JACQUES. + + +Dramatic talent is far more common than is usually believed. In every +family where decided traits of character prevail, it is spontaneously +exhibited; and no intimate circle of friends in which a perfect mutual +understanding and entire frankness exist, can often meet without an +instinctive development of a propensity and a gift innate in all +intelligent and genial minds; either in the play of humour, in graphic +narrative, in skilful imitation, or the accidental turn of conversation, +the dramatic appears, and we have only to look and listen objectively, to +find the scene and the dialogue 'as good as a play.' Almost every +community has its self-elected buffoons, its volunteer harlequins, and its +involuntary actors, who, carried away by the spur of vanity or the +overflow of enthusiasm, vividly represent either the ludicrous, the +characteristic, or the impassioned in human nature. To the imaginative, +observant, and susceptible, 'all the world's a stage,' and men and women +'merely players;' or, rather, there are times when the aspects of society +thus impress us. There is, too, a dramatic instinct in the very +consciousness of imaginative and impassioned natures, who, to use the +words of a woman of genius, yield to 'un besoin inné qu'elles éprouvent de +dramatiser leur existence à leurs propres yeux.' A national dramatic +language has ever been recognized in the responsive vivacity of the +Italian manners, the theatrical bearing of the French, and the proud +reticence of the Spaniard; these traits are infinitely modified to the eye +of scientific observation; and are the direct and significant language of +temperament, race, and character. It is, perhaps, because the elements of +the dramatic art are thus universal, that its professors are so little +esteemed, unless of the very highest order. It is certainly true of most +of the celebrated performers that they have been unhappy, and averse to +their children adopting the vocation. + +To appreciate the significance of elocutionary art, we have but to +consider that all poetry and rhetoric need interpretation. To the +multitude, in its printed or written form, the word of genius is often as +much a sealed book as the notes of a fine musical composition to one +uninitiated as to the meaning of those occult signs of harmony. Wordsworth +gained many converts to his poetical theory by the impressive manner in +which he recited his verses, who would have remained insensible to their +worth if only the force of reasoning had been used. The popularity of many +English lyrics and dramatic scenes is owing to the emphasis given them, in +the memory, by felicitous declaimers. How different is the Church Service, +an old ballad, an oration, the sentiment of Tennyson, the chivalry of +Campbell, or the ardent gloom of Byron, when melodiously and intelligently +uttered: only those who really feel the sense or pathos of a poem, win +others adequately to receive it; and there now lie neglected heaps of +noble verse, the latent music of which has not been vocally eliminated. In +this view, the requisite combination of voice, sensibility, and +intelligence, that constitute a good elocutionist, is an endowment of +inestimable value. Lee, the dramatist, used to read his plays so +effectively that it discouraged the actors from undertaking them; and the +crowds that listen attentively to an able reader of Shakspeare, indicate +the extent of public taste for this unappreciated and rarely cultivated +accomplishment. Kean gave 'a local habitation,' in the minds of thousands, +to Shaksperian inspiration; his surviving auditors are yet haunted by his +tones; his inflections and emphasis sculptured, as it were, with a breath, +upon memory, words that had previously left only a transient impression. +Had we, in our Western civilization, a profession analogous to the +improvisatore of the South, or the story-teller of the East, to make +familiar and impressive the utterance of our poets, they need not fear +comparison with the ancient bards of the people. Tasso and Ariosto are +read to this day, in squares and on quays in Italy, to swarthy and +tattered groups, who applaud a good line as if it were a new candidate for +fame; and, notwithstanding the aversion of the highly intellectual to the +theatre, Shakspeare became domesticated in the English mind through the +interpretation of histrionic genius. It is on account of this vital +connection between literature and elocution, this absolute need of a +popular exposition of what otherwise would never penetrate the common +mind, that the decadence of the Stage is to be regretted, and the +recognition of elocution as a high, graceful, and useful art is desirable. +We have an abundance of critics; we need expositors, artists to embody in +clear, emphatic, and justly-modulated tones, the graces and the thoughts +which minstrel and philosopher have elaborated; this would awaken moral +sympathy, give a social interest to the pleasures of literature, and wing +words of truth and beauty over the world. It is in view of such an office +that the actor rises to dignity; and that such a 'great simple being' as +Mrs. Siddons was consoled, when insulted by an audience, for her +'consciousness of a humiliating vocation;' and that Kean, wayward and +dissolute, recklessly leaping the barrier of civilization, like Freneau's +Indian boy who ran from college to the woods, reappears to the fancy as a +genuine minister at the altar of humanity. Talma's life was coincident +with some of the greatest events of the century; and his social position +is a noble vindication of histrionic genius in alliance with superior +character. Associated with the literary men of his country, and befriended +by her statesmen, his reminiscences are quite as interesting as his +professional triumphs. Intimate with Chenier, David, and Danton, he was +admired and cherished by Napoleon. Like Kean his earliest attempts failed, +and like Garrick he was a reformer in his art. The philosophy of dramatic +personation as regarded by such a man has a peculiar interest. 'Acting,' +he said, 'is a complete paradox; we must possess the power of strong +feeling, or we could never command and carry with us the sympathy of a +mixed audience in a crowded theatre; but we must, at the same time, +control our sensations on the stage, for their indulgence would enfeeble +execution. The skilful actor calculates his effects beforehand; the voice, +gesture, and look which pass for inspiration, have been rehearsed a +hundred times. On the other hand, a dull, composed, phlegmatic nature can +never make a great actor.' Talma's introduction of Kemble's toga in the +Roman plays, his teaching Bonaparte to play king, according to the famous +_on-dit_, his matchless dignity and elocution, his English affinities, his +charming talk, his select circle of friends, his prosperous style of +living, and the new rank he gave his vocation, combine to endear and +elevate his memory. + +In an historical view the relation of actors to society, art, letters, and +religion, offers many curious problems: _protégés_ of the State in the +palmy days of Greece, with the purely secular interest attached to the +stage under the Romans it degenerated; yet Cicero profited by the +instructions of Roscius, and gained for him an important suit; and while +Augustus decreed that 'players were exempt from stripes,' later edicts +declared 'that no senators should enter the houses of pantomimes, and that +Roman knights should not attend them in the streets.' Excommunicated by +the Church of Rome in the middle ages, they gave vital scope and +character to Spanish literature by evoking the rich and national materials +of that extraordinary drama of which Calderon and Lope de Vega are the +permanent expositors. Its history shows how, from religious comedies to +historical and social plays, the representatives of the stage in Spain +fostered her intellectual development and only popular culture, 'until +there was hardly a village that did not possess some kind of a theatre.' +The actors at Madrid 'constituted no less than forty companies,' and +'secular comedies of a very equivocal complexion were represented in some +of the principal monasteries of the kingdom.' The conduct of the Spanish +actors, however, according to the same testimony,[31] 'did more than +anything else to endanger the privileges of the drama.' Their personal lot +seems to have been as hard as the worst of their successors; 'slaves in +Algiers were better off.' In France, political, social, and literary life +and labour are often so related to or influenced by the renowned +_artistes_ of the stage, that they figure as an inevitable element in +popular memoirs; nowhere is the influence of the profession so direct and +absolute; and while the rise of German literature and liberalism is +identified with the advent of dramatic genius and the national revival of +the theatre, in England the most distinctive and pervading glory of her +intellectual character and fame is the offspring of this form of letters +and this phase of social recreative art. The biographies of the most +celebrated and endeared authors, from Alfieri to Irving, and from Goëthe +to Wilson, indicate that dramatic entertainments, whether Italian opera or +the English stage in its prime, court-plays at Weimar, or Terry at +Edinburgh, are to them the most available recuperative and inspiring of +pastimes. + +It is alike instructive and amusing to trace the dramatic element, so +instinctive and versatile, from the natural language of races and +individuals, through social manners to its organized culmination in art; +and thus to realize its historical significance. The Greek drama has +afforded philosophical scholars the most inspiring theme whereby to +illustrate the culture of classic antiquity. In the mellifluous verses of +Metastasio, the stern emphasis of Alfieri, and the comedies of Goldoni, we +have a perfect reflection of the lyrical taste, the free aspiration, and +the colloquial geniality of the Italians. From Molière to Scribe, what +vivid and true pictures of human life and nature as modified by French +character; while the essential facts of the origin and development of the +British stage, so fully recorded by Dr. Doran, brings it into intimate and +sympathetic contact with all the phases and crises of literature, society, +and politics. In the days of the first Charles the stage 'suffered with +the throne and the church.' Around Blackfriars, Whitefriars, the Globe, +the Rose, Drury Lane, Covent Garden, and the Haymarket, crystallize the +most salient associations of court and authorship; on this vantage-ground +Puritan and Cavalier alternately triumphed; and the genius of England bore +its consummate flower in Shakspeare. Now denounced and now cherished, +to-day patronized by kings, and to-morrow denounced by clergy, the memoirs +and annals of each epoch include the fortunes and the fame of the drama as +one of the most suggestive tests of social transitions. Queen Henrietta +was 'well-affected towards plays,' while South vigorously assailed, and +Bossuet consigned their personators to the infernal regions. The +playhouses, declared a public nuisance by the Middlesex grand jury of +1700, at an earlier and later period were shrines of fashion, nurseries of +talent, and haunts of courtiers. The representative men and women of the +day were dramatic authors, actors, and actresses; each succeeding +generation of poets essayed in this arena, so that a familiar designation +of the ages is borrowed from their leading playwrights, whose works +faithfully mirror the moral tone, the social spirit, and the public +taste. In Alphra Behn's _Oronooko_, Mrs. Centlivres' _Busybody_, Addison's +_Cato_, Steele's _Tender Husband_, Dr. Young's _Revenge_, Gay's _Beggar's +Opera_, Sheridan's _School for Scandal_, Goldsmith's _She Stoops to +Conquer_, Rowe's _Jane Shore_, Farquhar's _Beaux' Stratagem_, and many +other popular plays, we have, as it were, the living voice of ideas, +passions, and sentiments which agitated or charmed the town; and the +robust, earnest individuality of the English race for ever lives in the +profound, impassioned utterance of the old dramatists, as its emasculated +tone is embodied in the comic muse of the Restoration. How vivid the +glimpses of stage influence in the memoirs and correspondence of each era, +in the art and the annals of the nation. Evelyn and Pepys note Betterton's +triumphs; Tillotson learned from him his effective elocution; Kneller +painted, and Pope loved him. The _Tatler_ comments on 'haughty George +Powell;' Jack Lacy still lives in his portrait at Hampton Court. 'The +great Mrs. Barry' is buried in Westminster cloisters; and Mrs. Pritchard's +bust looms up from among those of poets and statesmen in the Abbey, and +recalls Churchill's metrical tribute. Burke, Johnson, Walpole, and +Chesterfield, expatiate on Garrick with critical zest or personal +sympathy. Each great performer creates an epoch of taste or fashion, +feeling or fame. Betterton, Quin, Barry, Foote, Cibber, Garrick, Kemble, +Cooke, and Kean, are names whose mention brings to mind not a transient +histrionic reputation, but a reign,--a social, literary, or national +period, crowded with interesting characters, remarkable achievements, or +special traits of life and manners. Each theatre has its memorable +traditions; each school its great illustrators; audiences, criticisms, the +court, the coffee-house, the journal, derive from and impart to the +theatre a specific influence. The gallantry, the wit, the local manners, +the style of writing, the fashion, that prevail at a given period, are +associated with the stage, the annals whereof, whether in Paris, London, +or Vienna, are therefore invaluable as a reference to historian, +novelist, and artist. 'The Garrick fever,' we are told, 'extended to St. +Petersburg;' 'a dissenting, one-eyed jeweller,' in _George Barnwell_, +brought the domestic drama into vogue; the _Beggar's Opera_ 'made +highwaymen fashionable;' and Ross is still remembered in Edinburgh 'as the +founder of the legal stage.' + +There is this great difference between the British and the French stage, +that while the former has achieved the grandest triumphs of tragic genius, +both literary and histrionic, the comedy of the latter has proved a +permanent school of manners, of language, and of art. The patronage of the +government, and the most strict artistic methods and discipline, have +established a standard of acting through the Théâtre Français. +Accordingly, instead of one superlatively clever and a score of +inefficient performers, all the French actors and actresses work together +for a harmonious result; unity of art and of effect, exquisite finish, +scientific aptitude, graces of manner, of utterance, and of expression, +often combine to make the modern French drama the perfection of artificial +triumphs. + +The lyric drama has greatly diminished the influence and modified the +character of the stage; and its personal records and associations abound +in romantic and artistic triumphs. The rare and delicate gift of a voice +adapted to this sphere, the temperament, talent, and beauty of the queens +of song, the individuality and power of musical composition, the vast +expense and varied attractions of the Italian opera, its fashionable sway, +and the genius and social interest identified with its history, all +combine to throw a special and significant charm around its votaries and +its record. What a world of emotional and artistic meaning the very names +of Purcell, Pergolesi, Bach, Cherubini, Mozart, and Rossini, Bellini, +Donizetti, Verdi, Beethoven, Mercandante, and other eminent composers, +awakens; and how the memory of their great interpreters haunts the +imagination! Perhaps, in our material age, there is no sphere where fancy +and feeling have found such scope. From the memoirs of Alfieri to those +of our own Irving, it is evident that the most available of inspiring +recreations, for men of thought and sensibility, is the lyric drama; and +from the days of Metastasio at the court of Vienna to those of Felice +Romani's libretto of _La Norma_, words and melody have reproduced, in +vivid and vital grace, the tragic and the naïve in history, sentiment, and +life. Even around imperial careers flit the vocal victors of the hour. +Joseph of Austria, the great Frederic, and the first Napoleon, had their +authoritative or conciliatory skirmishes with a _prima donna_, or an +_impresario_; operatic alternate with diplomatic episodes. Nor is the +social charm and _prestige_ of the lyric drama less apparent in the annals +of kindred genius. At Sophia Arnould's _salon_ the illustrious writers and +statesmen of Paris gladly convened. Goëthe celebrated in verse the +eighty-third birthday of Mara. Sir Joshua painted Mrs. Billington as St. +Cecilia; and Catalani made English tars, rowing her to a frigate, weep as +she warbled the national anthem. The amours, rivalries, luxury, disasters, +adventures, courtly favour, social influence, conjugal quarrels, noble +charities, and artistic triumphs of vocalists, add a new and marvellous +chapter to the annals of dramatic character and fortunes. Lavinia Fanton's +'Polly Peachum' secured the triumph of Gay's _Beggar's Opera_, and the +heart of a duke; of kindred significance is that scene, so exceptional in +English conventional life, and well described by Dr. Burney, where +Anastasia Robinson was acknowledged by Lord Peterborough as his wife. A +cardinal and a cook were the parents of Gabrielli; Pasta's _Medea_ was an +epoch in histrionic art; Malibran's brief and brilliant career revealed +the most versatile woman, as well as original _cantatrice_ of her day; +Sontag's death was a public calamity; Catalani's marvellous vocalization +lacked pathos, because 'she had not suffered;' while Mrs. Woods gained the +same quality from a contrary experience. Madame Devrient was called the +Siddons of Germany; Jenny Lind's _naïve_ song won thousands for the +indigent; and Braham's triumphant tones in singing the triumphs of Israel, +made the audience appear to Lamb as Egyptians over whose necks the Hebrew +chanter rode. + +From the time Burbage was lessee of the Globe Theatre, and Shakspeare +performed in his own characters, the morality of an actor's profession and +the stage have been discussed; but that there is no inevitable degradation +in the theatre, is evident from the late wholly successful though +temporary revival of its glory under the auspices of Macready. By +magnificent and complete scenic arrangements, the restoration of mutilated +Shakspearian dramas, efficient companies, the reformation of the house +itself, and especially by combining with the best dramatic authors of the +day, and rigidly maintaining his own self-respect as a member of society, +Macready once more brought together the scattered elements upon which the +character and utility of the stage is based, invested it with the highest +interest, and raised it above the cavils both of severe intellectual taste +and of pure morality. For a brief period it was the centre of graceful +ministries, a high school of art, the handmaid of literature, and the +means of elevating public sentiment and refreshing the most toilsome +minds; works of real dramatic genius were elicited; latent artistic +resources suggested; and the noblest drama in the world adequately +represented. Financial difficulties, incident to the monopoly enjoyed by +patentees, soon put a stop to the laudable enterprise; but the experiment +is as memorable as it was satisfactory. Ronzi shed tears of pleasure when +she found herself the only guest at a nobleman's villa near Florence, to +which she had been invited to a _fête_ sumptuously and tastefully +arranged; it was so rare an exception to the rule of making professional +vocalists contribute to, instead of receiving private entertainment; and +it is a curious fact in the social history of theatrical characters that +the English, notwithstanding their prudery and exclusiveness, first +recognized actors and actresses of merit as companions. Miss Farren is +not the only performer married to one of the nobility. The Earl of Craven +espoused Miss Bromton; Lord Peterborough, Anastasia Robinson; a nephew of +Lord Thurlow, Miss Bolton; and Sir William Becher, Miss O'Neil. One can +readily understand how an intellectual bachelor like James Smith, +accustomed to solace himself for domestic privations by cultivating a +sympathy for the heroines of the mimic world, should lament, as he did, in +apt verse, their appropriation even by noble lovers. He closes a pathetic +record of the kind with this allusion to the union between his prime +favourite, Miss Stevens, and Lord Essex, who seems to have acted on the +advice of the author of _Matrimonial Maxims_, who says, 'If you marry an +actress, the singing-girls are the best:' + + 'Last of the dear, delightful list, + Most followed, wonder'd at, and miss'd + In Hymen's odds and evens;-- + Old Essex caged our nightingale, + And finished thy dramatic tale, + Enchanting Kitty Stevens!' + +Boswell's reason for his partiality to players and soldiers was that they +excelled 'in animation and relish of existence.' There is a striking +illustration of the personal sympathy awakened by the profession in +conflict with the judgment that condemns it, as a career, in the life of +Scott. On one of the last days of Sir Walter's life, when, in a bath-chair +at Abbotsford, he was wheeled to a shady place by Lockhart and Laidlaw, he +asked the former to read him something from Crabbe. Lockhart read the +description of the arrival of the Players at the Borough. Sir Walter +cried, 'Capital!' at the poet's sarcasms on that way of life; but asked +penitently, 'How will poor Terry endure those cuts?' and when Lockhart +reached the summing up-- + + 'Sad, happy race! soon raised and soon depressed, + Your days all past in jeopardy and jest; + Poor without prudence, with afflictions, vain, + Nor warned by misery, nor enriched by gain----' + +'Shut the book,' said Scott; 'I can't stand more of this: it will touch +Terry to the quick.' A different but significant tribute to the actual +personal worth of the profession occurs in one of those genial 'imaginary +conversations,' vital with reality of reminiscence and rhapsody, wherein +Christopher North and the Ettrick Shepherd discourse so memorably. The +conduct of Kean in appearing on the stage immediately after a scandalous +intrigue had become public, is reprobated by 'Tickler' as 'an insult to +humanity.' To which the Shepherd replies: 'What can ye expec' frae a +playactor?' 'What can I expect, James?' is the reply; 'why, look at Terry, +Young, Matthews, Charles Kemble, and your friend Vandenhoff; and then I +say that you expect good players to be good men as men go, and likewise +gentlemen.' + +This sympathy with the profession, and vivid interest in some phase or +period of the drama, is an almost universal fact in the experience of +intelligent and sensitive persons. Thackeray's picture of Pendennis +enamoured of an actress in boyhood, is typical of a common episode of +youth; if not in this form, it takes the shape of enthusiasm for a certain +actor or class of plays, or a mania defined as the condition of being +'stage-struck;' while to the philosophical as well as sympathetic of these +early votaries the literature of the drama is a perennial storehouse of +psychological data, and the most vital connecting link between written +lore and actual life--the source of the highest poetry and the most +universal human truth. + +In literary biography, the accounts of the manner in which the plays of +Goldsmith, Sheridan, Byron, Mrs. Hemans, Joanna Baillie, Procter, +Talfourd, Hunt, Lamb, and other poets, were brought on the stage,--the +reciprocal good offices of actors and authors, mutually acknowledged,--the +array of intellectual friends convened to grace the occasion, and the +anecdotes and criticism thence resulting,--form some of the most agreeable +episodes in literary biography. Farquhar, Holcraft, Mrs. Inchbald, +Knowles, and others, combined the author and actor; and it was a genial +and noble custom for distinguished writers to contribute prologues and +epilogues;--the interchange of such kindly offices gave, as we have said, +a wide and elevated social interest to the theatre, which had, in a great +measure, passed away before the advent of Kean. Besides the comparative +indifference of the public, he was obliged to contend against both the +prejudices and the refinements of taste--the one opposing all innovation +as to style, and the other repudiating the intensity and boldness of his +conceptions. + +The Spagnoletto style of Sandford, and the 'cordage' visible in old +Macklin's face, are traditional. The inimitable pathos of Miss O'Neil, the +tragic beauty of Pasta, the heroic manner of Siddons, the irresistible +humour of Matthews, and Liston's comic genius, had each their distinctive +character; they respectively individualized the art, and, if we range over +the entire gallery of histrionic celebrities, we shall find their fame +based upon as peculiar traits of excellence as that of renowned authors +and painters; and their genius consisting in some quality emphatically +their own--where imitation and art became subservient to, or illustrative +of, an idiosyncrasy. + +Impulsive genius seldom receives the credit of artistic study, and its +most effective points are often ascribed to chance inspiration. This is an +error of frequent occurrence in judging of actors; and it is one almost +perversely indulged by the bigoted opponents of the romantic or natural +school. The most effective touches, however, in Garrick, Kean, and other +eminent performers, are easily traced to careful observation or a personal +idiosyncrasy or association. In the very first instruction the latter +received in his art, recourse was had to natural sympathy in order to +perfect his imitative skill. The pathetic intonation with which, even as a +boy, he exclaimed, 'Alas, poor Yorick!' in _Hamlet_, was derived from the +manner in which he habitually spoke of an unfortunate relative who +constantly excited his commiseration; he was instructed to transfer the +tone awakened by real, to the expression of imaginary grief: his manner of +falling on his face was derived from the figure on Abercrombie's monument, +and his fighting with a weaponless arm in Richard was borrowed from the +death-scene of an officer in Spain. The play of _Bertram_, by Maturin, he +is said to have rendered memorable by a single touching benison: all who +once heard his 'God bless the child!' recall it with emotion; it was a +favourite mode of uttering his paternal tenderness at home; hence its +reality. Garrick made a study of an old crazy friend of his in order to +enact _Lear_ with truth to nature; and when Kean was playing in New York, +he accompanied his physician to Bloomingdale asylum for the express +purpose of obtaining hints for the same part, from the manner and +expression of the insane patients. Indeed, those most intimate with Kean, +in his best days, unite in the opinion that he was never surpassed for the +intense and original study of his characters; he brooded over them in the +quiet fields, observed life and nature, conversed with discerning men, and +acutely examined books and his own consciousness, for the purpose of +attaining an harmonious and artistic conception; he tried experiments in +elocution before his wife, and was in the habit of rehearsing, for hours, +without any auditor. So elaborate were his studies, that, having once +decided on a course, he never modified it without great +self-dissatisfaction; and on one occasion, when he yielded his judgment on +a special point, to please Mrs. Garrick, the inharmonious effect was +obvious to all. + +'What the bank is to the credit of the nation,' said Steele, 'the +playhouse is to its politeness and good manners.' And although this maxim +is scarcely applicable now, the instinct and the sympathy by virtue of +which the stage instructs and refines for ever obtain in humanity. Among +recent illustrations, is the genial influence of dramatic pastimes upon +the isolated and dark sojourn of ice-bound Arctic voyagers, as described +by the intrepid and philosophic Kane and his predecessors. The gallery of +human portraits, conserved even by the minor English drama, are among the +most genuine illustrations of life and character; Sir Peter Teazle and +Joseph Surface, Sir Pertinax and Tony Lumpkin, Sylvester Daggerwood and +Mawworm, are emphatic types with which we could ill dispense. One of the +remarkable intellectual phenomena of the age in which we live, however, is +the gradual encroachment of literature upon dramatic art. The best modern +characters which genius has created exist in masterpieces of fiction and +poetry; in a measure they have superseded in popular favour dramatic +ideals, except the highest and most endeared. Scott, Dickens, and their +contemporaries or successors, have given the world a new gallery of living +portraits such as of old were only to be found in the drama. Well said +Wilson, in the _Noctes_: 'I think the good novels that are published come +in place of new dramas.' The Italian opera has, by its affluent artistic +attractions, overshadowed, and in a great measure superseded, the +'legitimate drama.' Even in Italy the opportunity is comparatively rare to +enjoy fine acting apart from music and the ballet; yet there is no better +lesson for the novice in that 'soft bastard Latin' that Byron loved, than +to listen to one of Goldoni's old-fashioned colloquial plays, as, clearly +and with admirable emphasis, recited by such a company as that of which +Internari was so long the ornament; by melodious emphasis alone +commonplace maxims seemed to attain the sparkle of wit, and the mere tone +of voice is fraught with infectious merriment. From Arlechino's broad +jokes to Ristori's majestic pathos, the natural dramatic instinct and +endowments of the Italians awaken every shade and subtlety of sympathetic +feeling. + +Philosophically examined, the stage will be found a compensatory +institution, and its actual relation to society intimate or conventional, +according to the predominance of real or ideal satisfaction. Thus the free +enterprise and speculative range in America make it merely recreative; the +best Italian dramatist wrote when his country's civic life was paralyzed. +The sentiment, checked by caste and absolutism in Elizabeth's day, burst +forth in the old dramatists, and culminated, for all time, in Shakspeare; +while the memoirs of Goëthe, Schiller, and Korner indicate how near and +dear to the popular heart of their country was the art, in all its phases +and forms, wherein baffled aspirations found scope. The histrionic artists +of Germany, and the actresses of Paris, are or have been a vital element +of the social economy, impracticable and almost inconceivable to English +and Americans. _Wilhelm Meister_ is the legitimate romance of its country +and era. 'L' artiste aimée du public,' says Madame Dudevant, 'est comme un +enfant a qui l' univers est la famille;' while the affinity of the +dramatic instinct with literary culture and capability is not only evident +in the friendships between authors and actors, but in the facility with +which the former become amateur performers. Montaigne says, 'I played the +chief part in the Latin tragedies of Buchanan, Guerente, and Moret, that +were acted in our college of Guienne.' Dickens is a capital actor and +dramatic reader of his own stories; and Washington Irving, when sojourning +at Dresden, delectably enacted, in a genial family circle, Sir Charles +Rackett. + +One proof of the essential individuality of histrionic genius is, that in +every celebrated part each renowned actor seems to have excelled in a +different phrase. Garrick's Hamlet was inimitable in the words, 'I have +that within that passeth show;' while the most affecting touch of the +elder Wallack was, 'That undiscovered country, from whose bourne no +traveller returns.' Kean's first soliloquy in _Richard the Third_ is +perhaps the best preserved traditional recitation of the English stage; +and the power of contrasted intonation in the expression of feeling, +never forgotten by those who listened, was evinced in the memorable +passage in _Othello_-- + + 'Perdition catch my soul, but _I do love thee_, + And when I love thee _not_, chaos is come again.' + +His conceptions were remarkable for bold earnestness. His discordant +voice, insignificant figure, and slightly-misshaped feet, seemed to pass +miraculously away before the glowing energy of his spirit; to the +imaginative spectator he visibly expanded, and filled the stage, and +towered over the inferior actors of larger physical dimensions; his +action, expression of countenance, intelligent emphasis, and vigour of +utterance, lifted, kindled, and glorified, as it were, his merely human +attributes, and bore him, and those who gazed and listened, triumphantly +onward in a whirl of passion, a concentration of will, or a chaos of +emotion. + +As far as contemporary memoirs elucidate the subject, it is evident that +gross violations of elocutionary taste were habitual both prior to and +succeeding the time of Betterton. This actor, with remarkable physical +disadvantages, appears to have had the most decided genius--especially for +tragedy. We have no accounts of the effects of tragic personation +exceeding those recorded of Betterton; so truly did he feel the emotion +represented, that it is said his colour, breathing, accent, and looks +betrayed an incessant and absolute sympathy with the part; as Hamlet he +turned deadly pale at the sight of the ghost; and Cibber emphatically +declares that his tone, accentuation, and the whole management of his +voice were faultlessly adapted to each passage he recited. Garrick seems +first to have established a taste for the refinements of the art; his +style, compared to what had been in vogue, was singularly chaste; he +embodied the great idea of unity; and when he first appeared, his manner, +expression of countenance, inflection of voice, and whole air, instantly +revealed the character, of which he did not lose sight for a moment. The +Kemble school has been traced to Quin; but its individuality was trenched +upon vitally by Kean, although it has been, in many essential features, +renewed by the elder Vandenhoff and Macready. It is contended by its +ardent votaries that Kean sacrificed the dignity of his art--so ably +sustained by John Kemble and his renowned sister--to mere effect; that he +substituted impulse for science, and excited sympathy by powerful but +illegitimate appeals to emotion. This, however, is a narrow statement, and +like the old dispute about Racine and Shakspeare, the classic and +romantic, the natural and the artistic, resolves itself into the fact that +the principle of a division of labour is applicable to art as well as +social economy. In Cato and Coriolanus and Wolsey, the traits of Kemble +were perfectly assimilated; in the more complex part of Richard, and the +still more impetuous one of Othello, the energy, quickness, intense +expression, and infectious action of Kean were not only electrical in +their immediate effect, but appropriate in the highest degree in the view +of reflection and taste. Thus, too, Cooke as Sir Pertinax McSycophant, +Mrs. Siddons as Lady Macbeth, Cooper as Virginius, Kean as Shylock, +Macready as Werner, and Booth as Iago, made indelible, because highly +characteristic, impressions. The actor, like the author and artist, has +his _forte_--a sphere peculiarly fitted to elicit his powers and give +scope and inspiration to his genius; and it is here that we should +estimate him, and not according to a comparative and irrelevant standard. + +The lives of actors partake of the extreme alternations and varied +excitement of their profession. To the philosopher there is nothing +anomalous in the frequent contrast between the lessons of virtue they +enact and the recklessness of their habits. When we consider how much they +are the sport of fortune, and how often poverty and contempt form the +background to the picture of love, triumph, or wit, in which they figure; +and remember the constant draft upon nervous sensibility and the resources +of temperament, as well as intelligence, it is their lot to undergo, we +cannot reasonably wonder that extravagances of conduct, vagaries of habit, +and a proneness to seek pleasure in the immediate, characterize players. +'Players,' says Hazlitt, 'are the only honest hypocrites.' It is proved by +judicial statistics, that 'of all classes they are the freest from crime;' +while their charitable sympathies are proverbial; in marriage and finance, +however, they are the reverse of precisians; yet few more pleasing +examples of domestic virtue and happiness can be found than some recorded +in histrionic memoirs. A kindly but acute observer who long fraternized +with the craft, Douglas Jerrold, said of the strolling player: 'He is the +merry preacher of the noblest, grandest lessons of human thought. He is +the poet's pilgrim, and in the forlornest byways and abodes of men, calls +forth new sympathies, sheds upon the cold, dull trade of real life an hour +of poetic glory. He informs human clay with thoughts and throbbings that +refine it; and for this he was for centuries a "rogue and a vagabond," and +is, even now, a long, long day's march from the vantage-ground of +respectability.' Through the annals of the English stage there may be +traced a vein of romantic vicissitude as suggestive as any the written +drama affords:--Wilks, generous and spirited, abandoning a profitable +engagement in Dublin, with language as noble in its key as one of +Fletcher's characters, to allay the conjugal jealousy of a brother actor; +Nell Gwynn discouraged in her theatrical ambition by the manager, becoming +orange-girl to the theatre in order to be in the line of her aspirations, +which, when realized, made her the mistress of a king and the envy of +courtiers; Mountfort killed in an impromptu duel with a noble rival for +the love of Mrs. Bracegirdle; the charming Mrs. Woffington disguised as a +man, at a country ball, undeceiving the affianced of her disloyal lover; +the beautiful Miss Bellamy meditating suicide on the steps of Westminster +Bridge; Savage asleep on a street-bunk, and, three days after, the admired +guest at a lord's table; the eccentricities of Cibber's daft daughter; +Holcraft's affecting story of his boyhood, and the ludicrous +self-importance displayed in his account of his trial for treason; the +fascinating dialogue of the benevolent Mrs. Jordan with the Quaker in the +rain under a shed; Jerrold's father playing in a barn upon an estate that +was rightfully his own; and Douglas himself, the future dramatic author, +carried on the stage by Kean, as the child in Rolla. Palmer fell dead +while personating The Stranger, in consequence of the excess of sorrow +which the situation induced, he having just been stricken by a great +domestic bereavement; Williams was killed by Quin; and Mountford and Clive +murdered. Quin's memorable jokes; Cooke's lapses from more than Roman +dignity and Anglo-Saxon sense to a worse than Indian sottishness; +Grimaldi, whom Hook called 'the Garrick of Clowns,' and to whom Byron gave +a silver snuff-box, leaving buffoonery and harlequin whirls to train +pigeons, collect flies, or meet with London robbers; Matthews, after +keeping the Park audience in a roar for hours, crossing the river to +stroll in pensive thought under the trees at Hoboken; and the versatile +and admired Hodgkinson dying at a solitary tavern on the road to +Washington, amid the horrors of pestilence, and his body thrown into a +field by slaves; Booth's extraordinary fits of contemplative originality, +and the grotesque night adventures in which Kean was the leader, are but +incidental glimpses of a world in which the violent, fantastic, and +reckless instincts of human nature are wantonly displayed, yielding +curious material for the metaphysician, and ample scope for charity. An +English poet has brought together many such anecdotes of Kean--some +touching in the highest degree, some superlatively ridiculous, and others +shocking to the heart,--yet all kindled with the forlorn glory of genius, +like the scathed form of Milton's fallen angel. And what a mercurial +compound was Samuel Foote--London's great source of fun and satire for +years,--whose chance observations became proverbs, who used to find a seat +for Gray the poet, stand ruefully against the scenes to have his +artificial leg attached, and then go forward to set the house in a +roar,--as ingenious as Steele in evading 'injunctions,' who lived by his +'takings off,' over which the grave Johnson shook with merriment, and +whose 'wits' were literally his capital, whereby he realized three +fortunes! It is no wonder people frequented Macklin's ordinary when he +quitted the stage; nor that they listened until far into the night to that +'perpetual showman of the extraordinary in manners, adventure, +sentimentality, and sin'--Elliston,--whose 'I'll never call you Jack, my +boy, again,' equalled in comic zest the tragic force of Kean's 'God bless +the child,' in _Bertram_, who made life itself a comedy, and played the +'child of fortune' to the end; exuberant in vagaries, a vagabond by +instinct, celebrating the 'triumph of abstinence by excess,' and with +'eccentricity absolutely germane to his being,' yet could so perfectly +enact the 'regal style' in common life that Charles Lamb declared he +should 'repose under no inscription but one of pure Latinity.' The +_Memoirs of Grimaldi_ was the first book Dickens published, and in that +biography of a harlequin are the smiles and tears of a genuine romance. In +the perusal of such an experience we realize how directly comedy springs +from human life; the _piazzas_ of Spain and Italy, with their motley +crowds and glib dialogue, gave birth to the theatre. What a curious fact +in human nature is the relation of seeming to being in the drama. Dr. +Sheldon, archbishop of Canterbury, was dining with the celebrated +Betterton, and said: 'Pray, Mr. Betterton, inform me what is the reason +you actors can affect your audiences with speaking of things imaginary as +if they were real, while we of the church speak of things real which our +congregations only receive as if they were imaginary?' 'Why, my lord,' +replied the player, 'the reason is plain. We actors speak of things +imaginary as if they were real, and you in the pulpit speak of things +real as if they were imaginary.' It has been observed that there are no +English lives worth reading except those of players, who, 'by the nature +of the case, have bidden respectability good day;' and a grave literary +critic explains on higher grounds than this _abandon_, why there is an +intrinsic charm in an actor's memoirs, when he remarks that, +'notwithstanding everything which may be said against the theatrical +profession, it certainly does require from those who pursue it a certain +quickness and liveliness of mind.' + +The very nature of the vocation is inciting to vagrant propensities and +thoughtless adventures. The English theatre originated in strollers who +performed in inn-yards; and the Greek drama is associated with the 'cart +of Thespis.' I have seen an itinerant company of Italians perform a +tragedy in the old Roman amphitheatre at Verona, on a spring afternoon, to +a hundred spectators grouped about the lower tiers of that magnificent +relic of antiquity, where gladiators once contended in the presence of +thousands. It was an impressive evidence of the universality of dramatic +taste, which, however modified by circumstances, always reasserts itself +in all nations and climes. The best historians, cognizant of this, make +the condition and influence of the theatre a subject of record; and its +phases undoubtedly mirror the characteristic in social and national life +more truly than any other institution. It was a great bone of contention +between the Puritans and Cavaliers; Macaulay finds it needful to revert to +the subject to illustrate the reign of Charles II. and the Commonwealth, +and Hildreth to mark the difference of public sentiment in New England and +the other States after the revolution. Its critical history in England +would afford a reliable scale by which to measure the rise, progress, and +lapses of civilization and public taste. Upon this arena the great +controversy between nature and art, rules and inspiration, eclecticism and +adherence to a school, which, under different names, forms an everlasting +problem to the votaries of intellectual enjoyment, was boldly fought. And +the discussion once inspired by Kemble and Kean has been renewed by the +respective advocates of Rachel and Ristori. + +The diminished influence of the stage is obvious in its comparative +isolation. 'The dramatic temperament,' observes Mrs. Kemble, 'always +exceptional in England, is becoming daily more so under the various +adverse influences of a civilization and society which fosters a genuine +dislike to exhibitions of emotion, and a cynical disbelief in the reality +of it, both necessarily depressing, first its expression, and next its +existence.' This social repudiation of the dramatic instinct undoubtedly +affects its professional development; and the stage in Great Britain, of +late years, with the exception of the lyric drama, appeals far more to the +amusing than the tragic element; the comic muse and the melodrama have +long been in the ascendant. The social character which once rendered the +stage in England a connecting link between literature and the town, +refined circles and the public at large, no longer exists; that such a +relation naturally obtains we perceive in the mutual advantages then +derived from its recognition; authors and actors, indeed, have a +reciprocal interest in the drama, while the tone of society and manners is +directly influenced by, and reflected from, the theatre; much, therefore, +of the deterioration of the latter is owing to its being in a great degree +abandoned by those whose taste, character, and personal influence alone +can redeem it from abuse and degradation; for it has been well said that +the theatre is respectable only in proportion as it is respected. A +traditional charm and intellectual dignity, as well as social +attractiveness, linger around the memory of its palmy days;--when Quin so +nobly befriended the author of _The Seasons_; when Steele was a patentee, +and Mrs. Bracegirdle inspired the best authors to write for her, and +received a legacy from Congreve; when Dr. Johnson and Goldsmith discussed +new plays and old readings with Garrick, and Mrs. Oldfield remembered poor +Savage in her will; or Sheridan vibrated between the greenroom and the +dress circle. Similar pleasing associations belong to the era of Mrs. +Siddons, when she doffed the majestic air of Lady Macbeth to mingle with +the literati of Edinburgh; and nightly saw Reynolds, Gibbon, Burke, and +Fox in the orchestra. Peg Woffington charmed Burke, and incited him to his +first successful literary effort; and Archbishop Tillotson profited by the +elocution of Butterton. We are told, in corresponding memoirs, of Kitty +Clive's 'clear laugh,' 'fair Abington with her dove-like looks,' 'charming +Mrs. Barry,' and 'womanly Mrs. Pritchard.' There is no vocation so +directly inspired by love of approbation; the stimulus of applause is an +indispensable encouragement, and popular caprice vents itself without +limit in deifying or degrading the children of Thespis. It is not to be +wondered at that diseased vanity often results from such adulation as +attends the successful actor. 'Is it possible,' asks Sir Lytton, 'that +this man--so fondled, so shouted to, so dandled by the world--can, at +bedtime, take off the whole of Macbeth with his stockings?' The old +essayists criticized the stage with efficiency; men of political fame +watched with interest over its destiny; men of genius proclaimed its +worth, and men of birth took an active part in its support and direction. +Thus encouraged and inspired, actors of the higher order felt a degree of +responsibility to the public, and indulged in aspirations that gave +elevation and significance to their art. Its evanescent triumphs, when +compared with those of letters, painting, or sculpture, have often been +lamented; Cibber is eloquently pathetic on the subject, and Campbell has +expressed the sentiment in a memorable stanza. In one respect, however, +the fragility of histrionic renown is an advantage; no species of +enjoyment from art has been made the theme of such glowing reminiscence; +as if inspired by the very consciousness that the merit they celebrated +had no permanent memorial, intelligent lovers of the drama describe, in +conversation and literature, the traits of favourite performers and the +effects they have produced, with a zest, acuteness, and enthusiasm rarely +awarded the votaries of other pursuits. What genial emphasis, even in the +traditional memory of Wilks' Sir Harry Wildair, Barry's Jaffier, Quin's +Falstaff, Henderson's Sir Giles, Yates' Shakspeare's Fools, Macklin's +Shylock, Harry Woodworth's Captain Boabdil, Cooke's McSycophant, Siddons' +Lady Macbeth, and Kean's Othello! Yet in no art is eclecticism more a +desideratum; our great actors proverbially suffer for adequate support in +the minor characters; rivalry and division of labour sadly mar the +possible perfection of the modern stage. Walpole, who was an epicurean in +his dramatic as in his social tastes, sighed for the incarnation in one +prodigy of the voice of Mrs. Cibber, the eye of Garrick, and the soul of +Mrs. Pritchard. In Cibber's eulogies upon the tragic genius of Betterton, +or the inimitable drollery of Nokes,--Hunt's genial memoirs of Jack +Bannister, Lamb's account of Munden's acting, Campbell's tribute to Mrs. +Siddons, and Barry Cornwall's description of Kean's characters,--there is +a relish and earnestness seldom devoted to the limner and the bard, who, +we feel, can speak best for themselves to posterity. Indeed, the +heartiness of appreciation manifested by literary men towards great +actors, is the result of natural affinity. There is something, too, in the +mere vocation of the latter, when efficiently realized, that excites +intellectual and personal sympathy. The actor seems a noble volunteer in +behalf of humanity,--a kind of spontaneous lay-figure upon which the +drapery of human life may be arranged at pleasure;--he is the oral +interpreter of the individual mind to the hearts of the people; and takes +upon himself the passion, wit, and sentiment of types of the race, that +all may realize their action and quality. + + + + +NEWSPAPERS. + + 'What is it but a map of busy life?'--COWPER. + + +I remember how vivid was the impression of Paris life, in its contrasts +and economy, derived from the distribution of the 'Entr' Acte' at the +Opera Comique, announcing the death of Talleyrand. Cinti Damoreau had just +warbled a _finale_ in the _Pré Aux Clercs_, and the applause had scarcely +died away, when a shower of neatly-printed gazettes were seized and +pondered. There was a minute description of the last hours of a man +associated with dynasties and diplomacy for half a century, who had been +the confidant of the Bourbons and the Bonapartes, and a few moments before +bade farewell to earth and Louis Philippe; and all these historical and +incongruous memories solemnized by death, filled up the interval of a gay +and crowded opera, and the pauses of an exquisite vocalist;--a more +bewildering consciousness of the past and present, of art and history, of +intrigue and melody, of mortality and pastime, it is difficult to imagine. + +The newspaper is not only a map but a test of the age; its history is +parallel with civilization, and each new feature introduced is significant +of political and social changes; while its tone, style, and opinions, at +any given time, indicate the spirit of the times more definitely than any +other index. If we scan, with a philosophic eye, these fugitive +emanations of the press, from their earliest date to the present hour, we +find that they not only record events, but bear indirect, and therefore +authentic, testimony to the transitions of society, the formation of +opinions, and the actual standards of public taste. Hence they are +eminently characteristic to the annalist. Compare the single diminutive +sheet which, in the latter part of the sixteenth century, formed the +London newspaper, almost wholly occupied with state papers and the +statistics of a battle in some distant region, with a copy of the present +leading Tory journal in the same latitude; the extent and variety of its +contents, the finished rhetoric of its leading articles, the scholarly +criticism, fully reported debates, thorough detail of news, foreign and +domestic, local and universal, personal and social--evince how the +resources of the world have multiplied, the refinements of life +progressed, and the intellectual demands of society risen. News, like all +other desirable things, was, at the origin of newspapers, a monopoly of +Government; the _Gazette_ a mere instrument of courts: now, the daily +journal, in free countries, is the legitimate expression of the popular +mind; its comparative liberty of utterance is the criterion of political +enfranchisement; and where entire scope is afforded, it takes as many +forms as there are sects, theories, and interests in a community. Thus, +from being a mere record it has become an expositor; from heralding royal +mandates it has grown into an advocate of individual sentiments; and +daguerreotypes civil life, in its swiftly-moving panorama, with incredible +celerity and faithfulness. The improvements in the modern journal are +chiefly owing to those in human intercourse. The steam-engine and the +electric telegraph, by rapidly concentrating the knowledge of events at +central points, give both the motive and the means of vitality and +completeness to the newspaper. A remarkable effect, however, of these +facilities is that they have diminished what may be called the personal +influence of the editor, and reduced the daily journal, in a great +measure, to its normal state--that of a dispenser of news. The success of +the newspapers, for instance, in the commercial metropolis of this +country, and also in London, is at the present day more the result of +enterprise than talent. The paper which collects the earliest and most +complete intelligence of passing events is the most successful. When these +materials of interest were not so abundant; when days and weeks elapsed +between the publication of important news, the vehicles of this evanescent +but much-desired commodity were kept alive by the individual talent and +information of editors. Their views were earnestly uttered and responded +to; and the paper was eagerly seized for the sake of its eloquence, its +argument, or its satire. It is true, indeed, that a degree of this +_prestige_ still belongs to the daily journal; but the _éclat_ of the +writer is now all but lost in the teeming interest of events; the editor, +who, in less exciting times, would have been the idolized lay-preacher or +improvisatore of the town, must content himself with judiciously compiling +new facts, vividly describing passing events, and making up from his +foreign and domestic files an entertaining summary of news. His comments +are necessarily brief; no opportunity is afforded carefully to digest the +knowledge he acquires, or to compare the occurrence of to-day with its +parallel in history. Accordingly he glances at the new book, utters his +party dictum on the last legislative act, gives a vague interpretation to +the aspects of the political horizon, and refers to the full, varied, and +interesting details of 'news,' for both the attraction and the value of +his journal. A curious effect of this modern facility in accumulating news +is that of anticipating the effect of time, or superseding the interest of +artificial excitements. So various, incessant, and impressive are the +incidents daily brought to our knowledge, so visible now is the drama of +the world's life, that we have scarcely time or inclination for illusions. +History seems enacting; changes, once the work of years, are effected in +as many months, and we are so accustomed to the wonderful that sensibility +to it is greatly diminished. Imagine the scientific discoveries, the +political revolutions, the memorable facts of the last twenty years, all +at once revealed to one of our ancestors, at the epoch when editors used +to board vessels at the wharf to glean three months' English news for +their weekly readers; when political items, marine disasters, +advertisements, and marriages, were all printed in the same column and +type, and notice was formally given that the postman would start on +horseback in a week, to convey letters a hundred miles! Compare, too, the +terse, emphatic style of the modern press to the old-fashioned prolixity, +and the practice of publishing both sides of a public question on the same +sheet, with the existent division of newspapers into specific organs; the +original extreme deference to authority with the present bold discussion +of its claims; and the even tenor of the past with the eventful present. +Each period has its advantages; and the enduring intellectual monuments of +the earlier somewhat reproach the restlessness, diffuse, and fragmentary +life of to-day. 'The patriarch of a community,' says Martineau, 'can never +be restored to the kind of importance which he possessed in the elder +societies of the world; from their prerogatives he is deposed by the +journal, whose speechless and impersonal lore coldly but effectually +supplies the wants once served by the living voice of elders, kindling +with the inspiration of the past.' + +To discover the public feeling of an epoch as well as its social economy, +historians, not less than novelists, wisely resort to a file of old +newspapers. In James Franklin's journal, commenced at Boston in 1722, and +afterwards removed to Newport, for instance, we find controversies between +the clergy and the editors of the province, discussions on the utility of +inoculation, advertisements of runaway slaves, and notices of whippings +and the pillory--all characteristic facts and landmarks of the progress +of civilization. The advanced culture of the Eastern States is evident +from the contemporaneous republication in one of their daily prints of the +poetry of Shenstone, Collins, and Goldsmith, and in another of Robertson's +History; there, too, we find Whitfield's preaching theologically analyzed, +and the manner of the _Spectator_ and _Tatler_ at once imitated. +Federalism was incarnated in the _Columbian Centinel_; and in another +organ, of the same community, at an earlier period, the contributions of +Otis and Quincy prepared the public mind gravely to assert the rights for +which the colonies were about to struggle. The financial essays of Morris +and others taught them, through a similar medium, the principles of +currency, exchange, and credit; Dennie induced, in the same way, a taste +for elegant literature; and the journals of Freneau and Bache embodied the +spirit of French political fanaticism. History, indeed, records events in +their continuity, and with reference to what precedes and follows; but the +actual state of public sentiment in regard to such exciting affairs as +Hamilton's duel, Jefferson's gunboats, Genet's mission, Perry's victory, +the Freemason's oath, the death of Washington, California gold, and +Kossuth's crusade, is most vividly reflected from the diverse reports, +opinions, and chronicles of the newspaper press. + +It is impossible to estimate the fusion of knowledge and argument brought +about by the press in free countries, whereby public sentiment is formed +and concentrated. Truth, even the most sacred, was propagated in the world +ages ago by oral and written communication; perhaps it was then more +cherished and better considered; but without modern facilities of +intercourse like the press, it is difficult to imagine how a political +organization like our own could be regulated and conserved; how universal +reputations could be so speedily created, the discoveries of science made +available to all, or charitable and economical enterprise be expanded to +their present wide issues. The establishment of prolific and cheap +journals in New York, in 1830, was an event of incalculable historical +importance. The universal interest in public affairs justifies, in this +country, the greatest editorial enterprise; while the growing value of our +journals, as means of reference, make it desirable their form should be +convenient;--the book-shape of _Niles' Register_ is one reason it is so +much consulted. The variety of talent and opinion enlisted in American +journalism, the fights and flatteries of its conductors, the alacrity and +seasonableness which is its chief ideal, are traits which absolutely +reflect the normal life of the people; the church and schoolhouse, which +inaugurate an American settlement, are instantly followed by the +newspaper; and as the antiquarian now searches the _Boston News-Letter_ or +_Pennsylvanian Gazette_ for incidents of the Revolutionary war, or +statistics of colonial trade, he will, a century hence, find in the +journals of to-day the economical questions, the social gauge, the +daguerreotyped enterprise, fillibusterism, and popular tastes of this era. + +The stagnation of business and the lapse of metropolitan fashionable life, +which so emphatically mark midsummer in America, make that wonderful chart +of life, the daily newspaper, more sought and enjoyed than at any other +time. From the merchant in his counting-room to the stranger in the +hotel-parlour, from the passenger in suburban cars and steamboats to the +teamster waiting for a job, there is observable a patience and attention +in reading newspapers such as one seldom perceives at more busy periods of +the year. And if we were to cite a single characteristic sign of the +times, as of universal import, it would be American journalism. The +avidity with which the papers are seized at watering places, the habit of +making their contents the staple of talk, and the manner in which they are +conducted in order to meet the popular demands, are facts indicative of +modern civilization which no one can ignore who would rightly appreciate +its tendency and traits. These are brought out and made conscious, to a +remarkable degree, in the leisure intervals which midsummer alone affords +to our active and busy people. + +The truth is that newspaper reading is the exclusive mental pabulum of a +vast number in this country; and to this circumstance is to be ascribed +the amount of general information, and ready, though superficial ideas, on +all kinds of subjects, which so astonish foreigners. If you converse with +your neighbour in the railway cars, or listen to the remarks at the _table +d'hôte_, hear what the farmers, mechanics, tradesmen, and gentlemen, so +gregariously locomotive now, have to say--you will find that the daily +press furnishes nine-tenths of the subject-matter and the speculative +inspiration. There never was a time or a country where this 'fourth +estate,' as it has been well called, enacted so broad and vital a +function. Every year our press has become more personal and local on the +one hand, and more comprehensive on the other. Cowper's idea of seeing +life through the 'loop-holes of retreat,' can now be realized as never +before. However sequestered may be the summer home of our citizens, they +have but to con the daily journals and know all that goes on in the great +world, with a detail as to events, persons, and places, which not only +satisfies curiosity, but imagination. Nothing is too abstract for the +discussion, or too trivial for the gossip, of the American journal. It +concentrates the record of daily life at home and abroad; and has so +encroached upon the province of the old essayists, the excitements of +fiction and the materials of history, that more or less of the literature +of each may be found in every well-conducted newspaper. + +And yet so undesirable is the unseasonable or excessive dependence upon +newspaper reading, considered with reference to high culture and refined +individuality, that, of all indirect benefits of modern travel, perhaps +none is more valuable, as a mental experience, than an Eastern tour which +cuts off the usual excitements and routine of civilized life, and +especially that intense and absolute relation with the present fostered +by the newspaper. Under the palms, on the Nile, and amid the desert, to a +thoughtful mind and sensitive organization, it is blissful and auspicious +to feel isolated awhile, not only from the busy material life of the age, +but from its chart and programme--the newspaper; and so be able to live +consciously for a season in the past, and feel the solemn spell of +solitude and antiquity. The modern deluge of journalism, it has been said, +with more truth than we can at present quite appreciate, 'bereaves life of +spirituality, disturbs and overlays individuality, and often becomes a +mania and a nuisance, to keep out of which is the only way to keep sacred. +It is a sad barbarism,' continues the same writer, 'when men yield to +every impulse from without, with no imperial dignity in the soul which +closes its apartments against the virulence of the world and from unworthy +intruders.'[32] A Swedish archæologist proves, by relics found in graves +in Europe and America, that man in the savage state makes in form, and as +far as possible in material, identical utensils and weapons; so, in +civilized nations the same abuses and traits characterize the periodical +press. Crabbe's description of the newspaper in England, eighty years ago, +finds a curious parallel in that of Sprague in America, fifty years later. + +The individual needs an organ in this age wherein and whereby he may +record or find reflected his opinions; the great evil is, that he who +directs this representative medium may be a 'landless resolute,' a +Bohemian adventurer, without convictions or interest. It is to Burke and +the opposition, who protected printers from the House of Commons in 1770, +that the 'Fourth Estate dates its birth;' and Burke was right in his +declaration--'posterity will bless this day.' Under the ancient _régime_ +one in a hundred Parisians only could read. After the Revolution, all +became interested in battles; to read the news became indispensable; +hence it has been well said:--'Napoleon a appris à lire aux Parisiennes. +Le professeur leur a coûté cher.' The biographer of Volney records that +philosopher's testimony against the newspaper as a means of popular +culture:--'L'auteur des Ruines, appelé à la chaire d'Histoire, accepté +cette charge pénible, mais qui portrait avec elle lui offrir les moyens +d'être utile: tout en enseignant l'histoire, il voulait chercher à +diminuer l'influence journalière qu'elle exerce sur les actions et les +opinions des hommes; il la regardait à juste titre comme l'une des sources +les plus fécondes de leurs préjugés et de leurs erreurs.' De Tocqueville +indicates, in a different way, his sense of the casual adaptation of the +newspaper, which he describes as 'a speech made from a window to the +chance passers-by in the street.' Among other tests which the rebellion in +the United States has thoroughly applied, is that of the press; and it is +no exaggeration to say that thereby London and Paris journalism has been +completely denuded of the _prestige_ of integrity and humanity, save as +exceptional traits. + +The deliberate protest of an eminent public man like Cobden is sufficient +proof of this fact in regard to the great British organ. He writes:--'A +tone of pre-eminent unscrupulousness in the discussion of political +questions, a contempt for the rights and feelings of others, and an +unprincipled disregard of the claims of consistency and sincerity on the +part of its writers, have long been recognized as the distinguishing +characteristics of _The Times_, and placed it in marked contrast with the +rest of the periodical press, including the penny journals of the +metropolis and the provinces. Its writers are, I believe, betrayed into +this tone mainly by their reliance on the shield of impenetrable secrecy. +No gentleman would dream of saying, under the responsibility of his +signature, what your writer said of Mr. Bright yesterday. I will not stop +to remark on the deterioration of character which follows when a man of +education and rare ability thus lowers himself, ay, even in his own eyes, +to a condition of moral cowardice. We all know the man whose fortune is +derived from _The Times_. We know its manager; its only avowed and +responsible editor--he of the semi-official correspondence with Sir +Charles Napier in the Baltic, through whose hands, though he never pen a +line himself, every slander in its leaders must pass--is as well known to +us as the chief official at the Home Office. Now the question is forced on +us whether we, who are behind the scenes, are not bound in the interests +of the uninitiated public, and as the only certain mode of abating such +outrages as this, to lift the veil and dispel the delusion by which _The +Times_ is enabled to pursue this game of secrecy to the public and +servility to the Government--a game (I purposely use the word) which +secures for its connections the corrupt advantages, while denying to the +public its own boasted benefits of the anonymous system.' + +The London _Times_ has won, and popularly confirmed for itself during the +American war for the Union, the name of 'Weathercock,' only fixed awhile +by a _trade_ wind, and veering, with shameless alacrity, at every +mercenary and malicious breath; while never before in the history of the +world has the line of demarcation between what is true and comprehensive, +and what is interested and partisan, been made so emphatically apparent to +the common mind as in the vaunts, vagaries, and vacillations of +journalism. On the other hand, one of the most remarkable evidences of the +benefit of popular education, as well as an unique contribution to the +materials of history, may be found in the letters of the soldiers of the +Union army, written from the seat of war to their kindred, and printed in +the local journals; thousands of them have been collected and arranged, +and they naïvely describe every battle as witnessed and fought by as many +individuals. Never before were such materials of history available. In +view of the great result--the elimination of vital truth by public +discussion--the expression as well as the enlightenment and discipline of +public sentiment through the press, we have ample reason to agree with +Jefferson, who declared, 'If I had to choose between a Government without +newspapers, or newspapers without a Government, I should prefer the +latter.' + +A son of Leigh Hunt, in a voluminous work entitled _The Fourth Estate_, +has written the annals of the English press;--of which Count Gurowski has +well said that it 'addresses itself to classes, but seldom, very seldom, +to the people itself, as the only national element.' The English press +mentions the name of the people, to be sure, but speaks of it only in +generalities, not in that broad and direct sense as is the case in +America. Whole districts, communities, and townships in England, as well +as on the Continent, exist without having any newspaper--any organ of +publicity. Therein England is under the influence of centralization, as +are the other European States. Almost every township and more populous +village in the free States in the Union has its organs, whose circulation +is independent, and does not interfere with that of those larger papers +published in the capitals of States, or in the larger cities. + +A philosophical and authentic history of the newspaper would, however, not +only yield the most genuine insight as to public events and the spirit of +the age, it would also reveal the most exalted and the lowest traits of +humanity. The cowardly hireling who stabs reputations--as the _bravo_ of +the middle ages did hearts--for a bribe; and the heroic defender of truth +and advocate of reform, loyal with his pen to honest conviction amid the +wiles of corruption and the ignominy of abuse--in a word, the holy +champion and the base lampooner are both represented in this field. It is +one of the conditions of its freedom, that equal rights shall be accorded +all; and the wisest men have deemed the possible evils of such latitude +more than compensated by the probable good. Perhaps our own country +affords the best opportunity to judge this question; and here we cannot +but perceive that private judgment continually modifies the influence of +the press. We speak habitually of each newspaper as the organ of its +editor; and the opinion it advances has precisely as much weight with +intelligent readers as the individual is entitled to, and no more. The +days when the cabalistic 'we' inspired awe have passed away; the venom of +a scurrilous print, and the ferocity of a partisan one, only provoke a +smile; newspapers here, instead of guiding, follow public opinion; and +they have created, by free discussion, an independent habit of thought on +the part of their readers, which renders their influence harmless when not +useful. Yet the abuses of journalism were so patent and pernicious thirty +years ago, that Hillhouse thus entered his wise protest against the +growing evil: 'Many of our faults, much of our danger, are chargeable to +_a reckless press_. No institutions or principles are spared its empiric +handling. The most sacred maxims of jurisprudence, the most unblemished +public characters, the vital points of constitutional policy and safety, +are dragged into discussion and exposed to scorn by presumptuous +scribblers, from end to end of the nation.' Printers originally issued +gazettes, and depended upon contributions for a discussion of public +affairs--news whereof they alone furnished: gradually arose the editor; +and two conditions soon became apparent as essential to his +success--prompt utterance of opinion, and constant reannouncement and +advocacy thereof. Cobbett declared the genius of journalism to consist in +_re-iteration_, upon which distinction a witty editor improved by +substituting _re-irritation_. + +As a political element, journalism has entirely changed the position of +statesmen, and seems destined to subvert the secret machinery of +diplomacy. These results grow out of the enlightenment and circulation of +thought on national questions induced by their constant public discussion +by the press; their tendency is to break up monopolies of information, to +scatter the knowledge of facts, and openly recognize great human +interests. By condensing the mists of popular feeling into clear and +powerful streams, or shooting them into luminous crystals, the judgment, +the sympathies, and the will of mankind are gradually modified. Hence, all +who represent the people are acted upon as they never could have been when +authority was less exposed to criticism, and the means of a mutual +understanding and comparison of ideas among men less organized and +effective. It has been justly observed that no danger can result from the +most seductive 'leader' on a public question, while the same sheet +contains a full report of all the facts relating to it. The pamphlet and +gazette of Addison's day, and earlier, are now combined in the newspaper. +In great exigencies, however, the immediate promulgation of facts may be a +serious national peril. An experienced American editor, and careful +observer of the phenomena of the Rebellion, thus emphatically testifies to +the possible evil of an enterprising press: 'I believe most strongly now, +that this Rebellion would have been subdued ere this, if, at the outbreak, +the Government had suppressed every daily newspaper which contained a line +or a word upon the war question, except to give the results of +engagements. Our daily journals have kept the Confederates minutely and +seasonably informed. The greater the vigilance and accuracy of these +journals, the greater their value to the enemy.' But a more significant +result than this may be found in the test which the Rebellion has proved, +not only to social and national, but to professional life, and especially +the editorial. How completely has the prestige of newspapers as organs of +opinion faded away before the facts of the hour! What poor prophets, +reasoners, historical scholars, patriots, and _men_, have some of the +conductors of the press proved! With what distrust is it now regarded; and +how does public confidence refuse any nucleus but that of individual +character. The press, therefore, as a popular organ, is unrivalled. It +now illustrates every phase, both of reform and conservatism, every +religious doctrine, scientific interest, and social tendency. Take up at +random any popular newspaper of the day, and what a variety of subjects +and scope of vision it covers, superficially indeed, but to the +philosophic mind none the less significantly; the world is therein +pictured in miniature--the world of to-day. + +Probably the most universal charm of a newspaper is the gratification it +affords to what phrenologists call the organ of eventuality. Curiosity is +a trait of human nature which belongs to every order of mind, and actuates +the infant as well as the sage. To its more common manifestations the +newspaper appeals, and indeed originated in this natural craving for +incident. In its most sympathetic degree, this feeling is the source of +the profound interest which tragedy inspires, and its lower range is the +occasion of that pleasure which gossip yields. It is a curious fact that +the same propensity should be at once the cause of the noblest and the +meanest exhibitions of character; yet the poetic impulse and reverent +inquiry of the highest scientific intelligence--intent upon exploring the +wonders of the universe--is but the exalted and ultimate development of +this love of the new and desire to penetrate the unknown. The everlasting +inquiry for news, which meets us in the street, at the hearthstone, and +even beside the bier and in the church, constantly evinces this universal +passion. How often does that commonplace question harshly salute the ear +of the reflective; what a satire it is upon the glory of the past; how it +baffles sentiment, chills enthusiasm, and checks earnestness! The avidity +with which fresh intelligence, although of no personal concern, is seized, +the eagerness with which it is circulated, and the rapidity with which it +is forgotten, are more significant of the transitory conditions of human +life than the data of the calendar or the ruins of Balbek. They prove that +we live altogether in the immediate, that our dearest associations may be +invaded by the most trivial occurrence, that the mental acquisitions of +years do not invalidate a childish love of amusement, and that the mere +impertinences of external life have a stronger hold upon our nature than +the deepest mysteries of consciousness. 'It seems,' wrote Fisher Ames, 'as +if newspaper wares were made to suit a market as much as any other. The +starers, and wonderers, and gapers engross a very large share of the +attention of all the sons of the type. I pray the whole honourable craft +to banish as many murders, and horrid accidents, and monstrous births, and +prodigies from their gazettes, by degrees, as their readers will permit; +and, by degrees, coax them back to contemplate life and manners, to +consider events with some common sense, and to study Nature where she can +be known.' On the other hand, this curiosity about what does not concern +us, is undoubtedly linked with the more generous sympathies, and is, in a +degree, prompted by them; so that philanthropy, good fellowship, and the +amenities of social life and benevolent enterprise, are more or less the +result of the natural interest we feel in the affairs of nations and those +of our neighbour. If the newspaper, therefore, considered merely as a +vehicle of general information in regard to passing events, has a tendency +to diffuse and render fragmentary our mental life; on the other hand, it +keeps the attention fixed upon something besides self, it directs the gaze +beyond a narrow circle, and brings home to the heart a sense of universal +laws, natural affinities, and progressive interests. But curiosity is not +altogether a disinterested passion; and it is amusing to see how +newspapers act upon the idiosyncrasy or the interest of readers. The +broker unfolds the damp sheet at the stock column; the merchant turns at +once to the ship-news; the spinster first reads the marriages; the +politician, legislative debates; and the author, literary criticisms; +while lovers of the marvellous, like Abernethy's patient, enjoy the +murders. To how many human propensities does the newspaper thus casually +minister! Old gentlemen are, indeed, excusable for losing their temper on +a cold morning, when kept waiting for a look into the paper by some +spelling reader; and, to a benign observer, the comfort of some poor +frequenter of a coffee-house oracularly dispensing his gleanings from the +journals, is pleasant to consider,--a cheap and harmless gratification, an +inoffensive and solacing phase of self-importance. We can easily imagine +the anxious expectancy with which the visitors at a gentleman's +country-seat in England, before the epoch of journals, awaited the +news-letter from town,--destined to pass from house to house, through an +isolated neighbourhood, and almost worn out in the process of thumbing. + +Three traditions exist to account for the origin of newspapers. The first +attributes their introduction to the custom prevalent at Venice, about the +middle of the fifteenth century, of reading the written intelligence +received from the seat of war, then waging by the Republic against Solyman +the Second, in Dalmatia, at a fixed time and place, for the benefit of all +who chose to hear. French annalists, on the other hand, trace the great +invention to a gossiping medical practitioner of Paris, who used to cheer +his patients with all the news he could gather, and, to save time, had it +written out, at intervals, and distributed among them; while an English +historian, quoted by Disraeli the elder, says, 'they commenced at the +epoch of the Spanish Armada; and that we are indebted to the wisdom of +Elizabeth and the prudence of Burleigh for the first newspaper.'[33] The +same authority conjectures that the word gazette is derived from +_gazzerótta_, a magpie, but it is usually ascribed to _gazet_, a small +coin,--the original price of a copy in Venice. One of the most startling +relics of Pompeii is the poster advertising gladiators. The oldest +newspaper in the world, according to _L'Imprimière_, is published at +Pekin. It is printed on silk, and has appeared every week for a thousand +years. Whatever the actual origin, however, it is natural to suppose that +a gradual transition from oral to written, and thence to printed news, was +the process by which the modern journal advanced towards its present +completeness. It is remarkable that the retrograde movement essential to +despotism in all interests, is obvious in the newspaper;--censorship +driving free minds from written expression, as in the recent instance of +Kossuth when advocating Hungarian progress. + +A rigid and complete analytical history of the newspaper would perhaps +afford the best illustration of the social and civic development of the +civilized world. Commencing with a mere official announcement of national +events, such as the ancient Romans daily promulgated in writing, we find +the next precursor of the public journal in that systematic correspondence +of the scholars of the middle ages, whereby erudite, philosophical, or +æsthetic ideas were regularly interchanged and diffused. From this to the +written circular, distributed among the English aristocracy, the +transition was a natural result of economical and social necessity; and +the historian of the subject in Great Britain finds in the popularity of +the ballad a still further development of the same instinct and want +expressing itself among the people. As their vital interest in civic +questions enlarged, pamphlets began to be written and circulated on the +current topics of the day; then a periodical sheet was issued containing +foreign intelligence, among the earliest specimens whereof is, _The Weekly +Newes from Italy and Germanie_, which first appeared in 1622. It is a +characteristic fact that the first two special newspaper organs that were +published in England were devoted to sporting[34] and medical +intelligence. But it was reserved for the last century to expand these +germinal experiments into what we now justly consider a great civilizing +institution. When Burke[35] began to apply philosophy to politics, and +Junius to set the example of memorable anonymous writing on public +questions, and Wilkes to battle for the liberty of the press, new and +powerful intellectual and moral elements were infused into journalism; to +these, vast mechanical improvements gave new diffusion; discussion gave +birth to systems, invention to new industrial interests, social culture to +original phases and forms of popular literary taste and talent. In +England, Hazlitt's psychological criticisms, Jerrold's local wit, +Thackeray's incisive satire, the descriptive talent of scores of +travelling reporters, and the dramatic genius of such observers as Charles +Dickens, blended their versatile attractions with the vivid chronicle of +daily news and the elaborate treatise of political essayists; while in +France, from Rousseau, Grimm, and Mirabeau, to Thiers and St. Beuve, the +journal represented the sternest political and the most finished literary +ability; from the old _Journal Etranger_, devoted to scandal, to Marat's +_Ami du Peuple_, the vicissitudes and the genius of France are enrolled in +her journalism. + +The French papers have the largest subscription, those of London the most +complete establishments, and in America they are far more numerous than in +other countries; over three thousand are now published, and their price is +about one-seventh that of the English. The tone of the American press is +usually less dignified and intellectual than that of France and England. +It has also the peculiarity of being maintained, in a great degree, by +advertisements; thus the commercial as well as the party element--both +dangerous to the elevation of the press--enter largely into its character +here. It has been said of penny-a-liners that they are to the newspaper +corps what Cossacks are to a regular army; and the activity of journalism +in Great Britain, and the detail of its enterprise, are signally evidenced +by such a class of writers, as well by the fact that in 1826, when Canning +sent British troops to Portugal, newspaper reporters went with the army--a +custom which in the Crimean, East India, and recent American war, has +given birth to such memorable correspondence. The shipping intelligence of +United States journals is more minute, the philosophical eloquence of +those of Paris more striking, and the details of court gossip and criminal +jurisprudence more full in those of London,--characteristics which +respectively mirror national traits and the existent state of society in +each latitude. The shareholders of the London _Times_ have occasionally +divided a net profit of one hundred and twenty thousand pounds--the +well-earned recompense for the complete arrangement and efficient exercise +of this greatest of modern instruments. It is not surprising that the most +renowned of writers have availed themselves of a medium so direct and +universal. Chateaubriand wrote in the _Journal des Débats_ against +Polignac; Malte-Brun contributed geographical articles to the same print; +Benjamin Constant's views were unfolded in the _Minerve Française_; +Lafitte's opinions found expression in the _Journal du Commerce_. +Lamartine's ideal of a journal is one which has 'assez de raison pour +convenir aux hommes sérieux, assez de témerité pour plaire aux hommes +légeres, assez d'excentricité pour plaire aux aventereux.' With all the +restrictions to which despotism in France has subjected the press, its +history as a whole is as Protean as Paris life, and reflects the +tendencies of national character. As early as 1650, there was a _Gazette +de Burlesque_, soon after a _Mercury Galant_; the _Journal des Débats_ is +devoted to facts and its own dignity, the _Siècle_ represents mercantile +interests, _La Presse_ is full of ideas, and has been well described as +partaking of the nature of a torrent which '_se grossit par la +resistance_.'[36] Napoleon depended on the _Moniteur_, and kept the press +low because he feared its influence more than an army. The proprietors of +the _Constitutionel_ often pay a hundred and fifty francs for a single +column. William Livingston wrote effectively, in 1752, in the _Independent +Reflector_, of New York, against Episcopal encroachments. Freedom of the +press, in America, was established by the trial of the printer Zenger. +Kossuth was a journalist while at the head of a nation. Cavour began his +public career in the same capacity, and Heine was the admirable +correspondent of leading German journals for many years. Centralization +vastly increases the influence of journalism in Paris, and its history +there is a perfect index of the successive revolutions. From Benjamin +Franklin to Walter Savage Landor, and from Junius to Jack Downing, these +vehicles of ideas have enshrined memorable individualities as well as +phases of general opinion. Jefferson, Hamilton, Rufus King, De Witt +Clinton, and Everett--all our statesmen--have been newspaper writers. + +Specimens of recorded thought from the earliest to the present time would +aptly mark the history of civilization; the writings on stone, wax, bones, +lead, palm-leaves, bark, linen, and parchment--inscribed by patient +manual toil, denoting the era when knowledge was a mystery and its +possessor a seer; illuminated chronicles and missals representing its +cloistered years;--black-letter, the transition period when it began to +expand, although still a luxury; and the newspaper, illustrating its +modern diffusion and universality. The scribe's vocation was at once +superseded by the invention of printing, and the scholar's monopoly broken +up; hence the scarcity and value of books prior to the times of Faust and +Caxton, can scarcely be appreciated by this generation. Wonderful indeed +is the contrast to the American traveller, as he muses beside the Anapus +at Syracuse, over the papyrus vegetating in its waters,--between the +scrolls of antiquity engrossed on this material, and the twenty thousand +closely-printed sheets thrown off in an hour by one of the mammoth daily +presses of his native country. This rapidity of production, however, is +almost as oblivious in its tendency as the limited copies produced by the +pen and transmitted in manuscript. It may be said of exclusive newspaper +writers and readers, with a few memorable exceptions, that their +intellectual triumphs are 'writ in water;' and melancholy is that fate +which condemns a man of real genius to the labours of a newspaper editor; +fragmentary and fugitive, though incessant, are his labours,--usually +destructive of style, and without permanent memorials; when of a political +nature, they often enlist bitter feelings and promote a knowledge of the +world calculated to indurate as well as expand the mind. A veteran French +writer for the press describes the editor's life as always '_troublée et +militante_.' An American poet,[37] whose divine art is a safeguard against +the worst evils of journalism, in a recent history of his paper, thus +speaks of the influence of the employment upon character:-- + + 'It is a vocation which gives an insight into men's motives, and + reveals by what influences masses of men are moved, but it shows the + dark, rather than the bright side of human nature; and one who is not + disposed to make due allowances for the peculiar circumstances in + which he is placed, is apt to be led by it into the mistake, that the + large majority of mankind are knaves. It fills the mind with a variety + of knowledge relating to the events of the day, but that knowledge is + apt to be superficial; since the necessity of attending to many + subjects prevents the journalist from thoroughly investigating any. In + this way it begets desultory habits of thought, disposing the mind to + be satisfied with mere glances at difficult questions, and to delight + in passing lightly from one thing to another. The style gains in + clearness and fluency, but is apt to become, in consequence of much + and hasty writing, loose, diffuse, and stuffed with local barbarisms + and the cant phrases of the day. Its worst effect is the strong + temptation which it sets before men to betray the cause of truth to + public opinion, and to fall in with what are supposed to be the views + held by a contemporaneous majority, which are sometimes perfectly + right and sometimes grossly wrong.' + +In regard to the influence of newspapers on style, it has been noted that +since their cheap issue, colloquial simplicity has vanished. 'A single +number of a London morning paper,' observes a writer in _Blackwood_ +'(which, in half a century, has expanded from the size of a dinner napkin +to that of a breakfast tablecloth, from that to a carpet, and will soon be +forced by the expansion of public business into something resembling the +mainsail of a frigate), already is equal in printed matter to a very large +octavo volume. Every old woman in the nation now reads daily a vast +miscellany, in one volume royal octavo; thus the whole artificial dialect +of books has come into play as the dialect of ordinary life. This is one +form of the evil impressed upon style by journalism; a dire monotony of +bookish idiom has stiffened all freedom of expression.'[38] As to its +effect on the _morale_, when pursued exclusively as a material interest, +one of the most acute and observant of modern French writers says:--'Le +journal, au lieu d'être un sacerdoce, est devenu un moyen pour les partis; +de moyen, il s'est fait commerce; et comme tous les commerces, il est +sans foi ni loi;' and in allusion to the French, bitterly adds, 'nous +verrons les journaux, dirigés d'abord par des hommes d'honneur, tomber +plus tard sous le gouvernement de plus médiocre, qui auront la patience et +lâcheté de gomme elastique qui manquent aux beaux genies, ou à des +epiciers qui auront de l'argent pour acheter des plumes.' Macaulay, says a +French critic, 'a conservé dans l'histoire, les habitudes qu' il avait +gagnées dans les journaux.' Journalism has proved an effective discipline +for statesmen; the late prime minister of Sardinia first dealt with public +questions in the columns of a political journal. + +But whatever facility of expression and tact in the popular exposition of +political science may be acquired by the statesman or annalist, in the +practice of journalism, there is no doubt that the worst perversions of +'English undefiled' have originated in, and been confirmed by, newspapers. +On this subject, an American writer, at once philosophical, erudite, and +liberal, who has treated of the history and influence of the English +language with remarkable insight and eloquence, emphatically testifies to +the verbal corruptions and consequent moral degradation of the newspaper +press. 'The dialect of personal vituperation,' says Marsh, 'the rhetoric +of malice in all its modifications, the Billingsgate of vulgar hate, the +art of damning with faint praise, the sneer of contemptuous irony, have +been sedulously cultivated; and, combined with a certain flippancy of +expression and ready command of a tolerably extensive vocabulary, are +enough to make the fortune of any sharp, shallow, and unprincipled +journalist who is content with the fame and the pelf.' + +The interest which belongs to newspapers, as arenas for discussion and +records of fact, is greatly marred by the abuses of the press. No more +humiliating exhibition of human passion can be imagined than printed +scurrility; and no meaner or more contemptible influence of skulking +treachery than anonymous libels. By what anomaly base spirits enact and +endure insult in this form, which public opinion and the faintest +self-respect compel them to resent when orally uttered, we have never been +able to explain. It is, however, a satire on the alleged freedom we enjoy +in this country, that any malicious poltroon, who has the means to +purchase types, may defame the character, and thereby injure the +prosperity, of any one towards whom he entertains a grudge, with +comparative impunity. Indeed, if a man comes before the public in any +shape, even in that of a benefactor, he is liable to gross personal +attacks from the press; here the shafts of envy, of party hatred, of +blackguardism and of detraction, find a covert whence they may be sped +with deadly aim and little or no chance of punishment. To realize at once +the moral grandeur and the degrading abuse of which the press is capable, +one should read Milton's discourse on the _Liberty of Unlicensed +Printing_, and then a history of cases under the law of libel. The choice +of weapons is allowed his enemy even by the inveterate duellist; but there +is this essential dishonour in the attacks of the practised writer--that +he adroitly uses an instrument which his antagonist often cannot wield. +Thus the laws of honourable warfare are basely set aside; and cowardice +often wins an ostensible triumph. The meanest threat we ever heard was +that of a popular author towards a spirited and generous but uneducated +farmer with whom he was in altercation, and who proposed a resort to +arms:--'I hold a pen that shall point the world's finger of scorn at you!' +The cheapest abuse is that which can be poured out in newspapers; and +besides the comparatively defenceless position of the assailed, if he have +no skill in pencraft, it is the more contemptible because premeditated; +the insulting word may be uttered in the heat of rage, but the slanderous +paragraph goes through the process of writing and printing;--it is, +therefore, the result of a deliberate act. The 'scar of wrath' left on the +heart by the partisan combats of the press is seldom honourable, and the +records of duels, persecutions, and street-fights, originating in libels, +is one of the most degrading, to all concerned, of any in social history. +Vituperation and invective, Billingsgate and the cant nicknames of +newspaper controversy, belong to the most unredeemed species of +blackguardism. No wounds rankle in the human bosom like those inflicted by +the press; and no agent of redress should be used with such thorough +observance of the golden rule. 'The French,' says Matthew Arnold, 'talk of +the "brutalité des journaux Anglais." What strikes them comes from the +necessary inherent tendencies of newspaper writing not being checked in +England by any centre of intelligent and urbane spirit, but rather +stimulated by coming in contact with a provincial spirit.' + +From these various capabilities and liabilities of journalism we may infer +what are the requisites of an editor. It is obvious that his intellectual +equipment should be more versatile and complete than that demanded by any +other profession. He is to interpret the events of the day, and must, of +course, be versed in the history of the past; he is to speak a universal +language, and the gifts of expression must be his chief endowment; he +exercises a mighty influence, and, therefore, judgment, self-respect, a +recognition of rights and duties, and a benevolent impulse are essential. +The _juste milieu_ between moral courage and respect for public sentiment +should be his goal. It is a significant fact that, in this country, where +there are more readers than in any other, and, at the same time, entire +freedom of the press, journals have not attained to the intellectual +standard of the best of foreign origin, nor has the profession of an +editor reached the rank it has in Europe. With a few exceptions, the +vocation has been adopted, as school-keeping used to be, as the most +available resource. Cleverness has usually been the substitute for +acquirement; loyalty to some dogma for philosophy, and glib phrases and +cant terms for style. In some memorable cases, where the London system of +a division of labour is resorted to, and the French practice of careful +rhetoric and reasoning applied to current topics, the result has +approximated to what a leading journal should be. Such names as Franklin, +Russell, Thomas, Duane, Buckingham, Walsh, Gales, Noah, King, Hoffman, and +the eminent contemporary editors of America, bear, it must be remembered, +but a very small proportion to the sum total of newspapers published in +this country; and it is the average ability and character of editors to +which we refer. Yet familiarity alone blinds us to the 'extraordinary +talent' exhibited in the journalism of our times. 'I'll be shot,' says +Christopher North to the shepherd, 'if Junius, were he alive now, would +set the world on the rave as he did some half century ago.' + +The rarest and most needful moral quality in an editor is magnanimity. Of +all vocations this is the one with which narrow motives and exclusive +points of view are most incompatible. It is true that the office is +self-imposed; but in its very nature is included a comprehensive tone of +mind and feeling; the editor, therefore, who pronounces judgment upon a +book, a work of art, a public man, or popular subject, according to his +personal animosities or selfish interests, annuls his own claim to the +position he occupies. If the pulpit, the medical chair, the justice's +bench, or the authority of elective office is exclusively used by an +individual for direct personal ends, for the exclusive emolument of +friends, or the gratification of private revenge, the perversion is +resented at once and indignantly by public opinion; and the same violation +of a general principle for a particular end is equally unjustifiable in +the press. Yet how many journals serve but as channels for the prejudices, +the likes and dislikes, the plans and whims of their editors; so that at +last we recognize them, not as broad and reliable expositors of great +questions and critical taste, but as mouthpieces for the spite, the +flattery, and the ambition of a single vain mortal! For such evils +Milton's arguments, for patient toleration of all kinds of printed ideas, +are the best remedy: 'Punishing wits,' he says, 'enhances their authority; +errors known, read, and collated, are of main service toward the speedy +attainment of what is truest; and though all the winds of doctrine were +let loose to play upon the earth, so truth be in the field, we do +injuriously by licensing and prohibiting to misdoubt her strength.' With +all its defects, therefore, the emanations of a free press are the best +expositors of the immediate in taste, opinion, and affairs; and copies of +_The Times_, the _Court Journal_, and _Bell's Life in London_, deposited +under the corner-stone of a modern English edifice, are as authentic +memorials of the country and people as they exist to-day, as the styles of +Grecian architecture, or the characteristics of Italian painting, of +epochs in the history of art, and far more detailed, minute, and +elaborate. The complex state of society, the multitudinous aspect of life, +the progress of science, and its influence on social economy, can indeed +only be designated by such a versatile record. The miserable little +gazzettas issued in the south of Europe, containing only the diluted news +of the French journals; the spirited _feuilletons_ of the cleverest +authors of the day that appear in the latter, the enormous advertising +sheets in this country, and the able rhetoric and argument of the daily +press in Great Britain, are so many landmarks and gauges of the civic +life, the mental recreations, the prosperity, and the political +intelligence of these different countries. Although Fanny Kemble snubbed +the press-gang, ironically so called,--perhaps in this age there is no +office capable of a higher ideal standard and a more practical efficiency +combined, as that of the public writer. Let us suppose such a man endowed +with the greatest faculty of expression, learned in history and the arts, +with philosophic insight and poetical sensibility, chivalric in tone, +uniting the principles of conservatism and reform, devoted to humanity, +generous, heroic, independent, and 'clear in his great office;' and thus +furnished and inspired, waging the battle of honest opinion, a staunch +advocate of truth, stripping the mask from fanaticism and dishonesty, and +shedding pure intellectual light on the common mind;--no more noble +function can be imagined. Seldom, however, is the ideal of an editor even +approached; and hence the wisdom of an eclectic system and a division of +labour; concentrating upon the same journal the humour of one, the +statistical researches of another, the learning of a third, and the +rhetoric of a fourth, until all the needful elements are brought into +action for a common result. + +In periods of war, emigration, or catastrophes of any kind, the newspaper +becomes a chart of destiny to the heart, and is seized with overwhelming +anxiety to learn the fate of the absent and the loved; and, in times of +peace and comfort, it is the readiest pastime. What traveller does not +remember with zest the intervals of leisure he has spent, under the trees +of the Palais Royal, over a fresh gazette; or the eagerness with which, in +an Italian _café_, he has devoured _Galignani_ with his breakfast? It is +difficult to imagine how the social reforms that distinguish the age could +have been realized without the aid of newspapers; or by what other means +popular sympathy could be kindled simultaneously on both sides of the +globe. In view of such offices, we must regard the editor as a species of +modern _improvisatore_, who gathers from clubs, theatres, legislative +halls, private society, and the streets, the idea and the elemental spirit +of the hour, the topic of the day, the moral influence born of passing +events, and then concentrates and elaborates it to give forth its vital +principles and absolute significance. + +As a medium of controversy, the advantages of the newspaper are signal. In +1685, the discussion of popery in England was carried on by means of +tracts issued from the presses of Oxford, Cambridge, and London; and some +of the pamphlets of Defoe, Steele, and other popular writers, had a large +sale; but the circulation of these vehicles of argument was limited +compared to the daily journals of our day; and in order to reach the +people, controversialist and agreeable essayists, from the times of 'Sir +Roger L'Estrange' to that of 'O. P. Q.,' have wisely availed themselves of +newspapers. That they now aid rather than form public opinion, however, is +quite obvious. The implicit faith once bestowed upon editors has departed; +and no class are more pertinacious in asserting the right of private +judgment than habitual readers of journals; they derive from them +materials of discussion rather than positive inferences. Yet there are two +qualities that in Great Britain and America gain an editor permanent +admirers--good sense and an individual style. The thunder, as Carlyle +calls it, of Edward Sterling in the London _Times_, and the plain words of +Cobbett, are instances. In fact, the same qualities insure consideration +for a newspaper as for an individual; tone, manliness, grace or vigour, +full and free knowledge, wit and fancy, and the sincerity or geniality of +the editor's character, are not less recognized in his paragraphs than in +his behaviour. But as a general rule, as before suggested, in the United +States, the press is the expositor, not the herald, of opinion; the +newspapers simply mark the level of popular feeling; their criticism +seldom transcends the existent taste, and their tone is rarely elevated +above that of the majority. Between the radical and the conservative there +appears no medium; and newspapers symbolize these two extremes. In our +large cities there is always one newspaper which has a name for +respectability, of which its editors are extremely jealous; it never +startles, offends, or inspires, but pursues an even, unexceptionable +course, is praised by old people who have taken it for years, and desire +that it shall contain their obituary; its news, however, is usually stale, +its opinions timid, and its spirit behind the age. To represent the +opposite element, there is always a vigorous, speculative, and fresh-toned +newspaper, which continually utters startling things, and suggests +glorious impossibilities; it is the exponent of reform, a harbinger of +better times, and appeals to hope and fancy, rather than to memory and +reflection. Now the experienced reader will at once perceive that an +editor, worthy the name, should be an eclectic, and combine in his own +mind and work the expression of both these extremes of opinion and +sentiment; but it is found, by experiment, that a hobby is the means of +temporary success,--that a catholic temper is unappreciated, and that, in +a republic, combativeness and self-esteem are the organs to be most +profitably addressed. + +There is a very large class whose reading is confined to newspapers, and +they manifest the wisdom of Pope's maxim about the danger of a little +learning. Adopting the cant and slang phrases of the hour, and satisfied +with the hasty conjectures and partial glimpses of truth that diurnal +journals usually contain, they are at once superficial and dogmatic, full +of fragmentary ideas and oracular commonplace. If such is the natural +effect upon an undisciplined mind of exclusive newspaper reading, even the +scholar, the thinker, and the man of refined taste is exposed to mental +dissipation from the same cause. A celebrated French philosopher, recently +deceased, remarkable for severe and efficient mental labour, told an +American friend that he had not read a newspaper for four years. It is +incalculable what productiveness of mind and freshness of conception is +lost to the cultivated intellect by the habit of beginning the day with +newspapers. The brain, refreshed by sleep, is prepared to act genially in +the morning hours; and a statistical table, prepared by an able +physiologist, shows that those authors who give this period to labour, +most frequently attain longevity. Scott is a memorable example of the +healthfulness and efficiency attending the practice. If, therefore, the +student, the man of science, or the author dissipates his mental vigour, +and the nervous energy induced by a night's repose, in skimming over the +countless topics of a newspaper, he is too much in relation with things in +general to concentrate easily his thoughts: his mind has been diverted, +and his sympathies too variously excited, to readily gather around a +special theme. Those intent upon self-culture, or intellectual results, +should, therefore, make this kind of reading a pastime, and resort to it +in the intervals of more consecutive thought. There is no element of +civilization that debauches the mind of our age more than the +indiscriminate and exclusive perusal of newspapers. Only by consulting +history, by disciplining the reasoning powers in the study of philosophy, +and cherishing a true sense of the beautiful by communion with the +poets,--in a word, only by habitual reference to standard literature, can +we justly estimate the record of the hour. There must be great examples in +the mind, great principles of judgment and taste, or the immediate appeal +to these qualities is ignorantly answered; whereas, the thoughtful, +intelligent comments of an educated reader of journals upon the questions +they discuss, the precedents he brings in view, and the facts of the past +to which he refers, place the immediate in relation with the universal, +and enable us to seize upon essential truth. To depend for mental +recreation upon newspapers is a desperate resource; not to consult them is +to linger behind the age. De Tocqueville has shown that devotion to the +immediate is characteristic of republics; and this tendency is manifest in +the prevalence of newspapers in the United States. They, in a great +measure, supersede the demand for a more permanent native literature; they +foster a taste for ephemeral topics and modes of thought, and lamentably +absorb, in casual efforts, gifts and graces of mind which, under a +different order of things, would have attained not only a higher, but a +lasting development. The comparative importance of newspapers among us, as +materials of history, is evidenced by the fact that the constant +reference to their files has induced the historical societies to propose +an elaborate index to facilitate the labours of inquirers, which has been +felicitously called a diving-bell for the sea of print. A list of the +various journals now in existence would be found to include not only every +political party and religious sect in the country, but every theory of +life, every science, profession, and taste, from phrenology to dietetics, +and from medicine, war, and odd-fellowship, to literature, catholicism, +and sporting. Tribunals and punsters, not less than fashion and +chess-players, have their printed organ. What was a subordinate element, +has become an exclusive feature. 'In those days,' writes Lamb, 'every +morning-paper, as an essential retainer to its establishment, kept an +author who was bound to furnish daily a quantum of witty paragraphs at +sixpence a joke.' Now _Punch_ and _Charivari_ monopolize the fun, and +grave and gay are separately embodied. The cosmopolitan nature of the +people would as obviously appear in the number of journals issued in +foreign languages, each nation and tribe having its newspaper organ; and +an analysis of the contents, even of one popular journal for a single +year, would be found to touch the entire circle of human knowledge and +vicissitude, without penetrating to a vital cause, or expanding to a +comprehensive principle, yet affording a boundless horizon;--astronomical +phenomena, _causes célèbres_, earthquakes, the advent of a great +_cantatrice_, shipwrecks and revolutions, battles and bankruptcies, +freshets and fires, _émeutes_ and hailstorms, gold discoveries, +anniversaries, executions, Arctic expeditions, World's Fairs, the +utterance of patriots, and the acts of usurpers; all the materials of +history, the suggestions of philosophy, and the visions of poetry, in +their chaotic, elemental, and actual state. It is evident that more +excitement than truth, more food for curiosity than aid to reflection, +more vague knowledge than actual wisdom, is thus promulgated and +preserved. The harvest of the immediate is comparatively barren; and life +only proves the truth of Dr. Johnson's association of intellectual dignity +with the past and future. The individual, to be true to himself, must take +a firm stand against the encroachments of this restless, temporary, and +absorbing life of the moment represented by the newspaper; he must cleave +to Memory and Hope; he must look before and after, or his mind will be +superficial in its activity, and fruitless in its growth. + +There is no mechanical invention around which cluster such interesting +associations as that of printing; the indirect agency of the press and of +journalism is remarkable; and this is owing to the relation they bear to +the world at large, and to personal improvement. The newspaper office has +always been a nucleus for wits, politicians, and literati,--a nursery of +local genius, and a school for knowledge of the world, and criticism. In +Franklin's autobiography, the natural effect of even a mechanical +connection with the press is memorably unfolded; and scarcely a great name +in modern history is unallied with some incident or activity connected +with the daily press. Otis, Adams, Hancock, and Warren, used to meet at +the office of the _Boston Gazette_, and write essays on colonial rights in +its columns. Talleyrand and Louis Philippe frequented the sanctum of an +editor in the same town, to read the _Moniteur_ and discuss news. +Chateaubriand first heard of the king's flight from a stray newspaper +picked up in a log hut in the backwoods of America; and it sent him back +at once to the army of the Princes. Horne Tooke's _Diversions of Purley_ +were written to beguile his imprisonment occasioned by a libel; and his +trial resulted in making parliamentary reports legal. Hunt's prison-life, +for which he was indebted to his comments on the Prince-Regent in the +_Examiner_, is the most charming episode in his memoirs; and some of the +noblest flights of Erskine's eloquence arose from the defence of those +prosecuted for constructive treason based on the free expression of +opinion in regard to public questions. Jefferson thought Freneau's paper +'prevented the Constitution from galloping into a monarchy;' it was in the +columns of a daily journal that Hamilton defended the proclamation of +neutrality. It has been said that the most reliable history of the French +Revolution, and wars of the Republic, could be gleaned from the pages of +an American journal of the day, conducted by a man of political knowledge +and military aptitude, who combined from various prejudiced foreign papers +what he deemed an authentic narrative of each act in the drama; and it is +certain that the best account of the massacre and the destruction of the +tea--from which dates our Revolution--are to be found in the contemporary +newspapers. Never was contemporary history so copiously and minutely +written as in the newspaper annals of the war for the Union. In fact, the +best history thereof has been compiled by an assiduous collator from +current journalism. The history of censorship in Europe in modern times is +the history of opinion, of freedom, and of society. We felt the despotism +of the King of Naples in all its baseness, only when a writer of genius +told us, with a sigh, that he had been driven to natural history as the +only subject upon which he could expatiate in print without impediment. +Thus we see how the fate of nations and the experience of individuals are +associated with the press; and how its influence touches the whole circle +of life,--evoking genius, kindling nations, informing fugitives, and +alarming kings. + + + + +PREACHERS. + + 'It is neither the vote nor the laying on of hands that gives men the + right to preach. One's own heart is authority. If he cannot preach to + edification, he is not authorized, though all the ministers of + Christendom ordain him.' + + +Thus writes a popular preacher of the conservative sect in theology: +recognizing a spiritual fact and conviction which tempts us to analyze and +define, as a subject of natural history, the function and fame of the +preacher. The term by its derivation is the most generic word to indicate +clerical vocation; 'to say before,' to proclaim, inculcate, preach; in +other words, to be the herald and representative of truth, right, faith, +and immortal hope,--such is the basis and logical claim of the preacher's +authority, under whatever form, creed, or character. They may be divided +into the inspired, the ascetic, the jovial, the belligerent, the finical, +the shrewd, and the ingenuous. The 'oily man of God' described by Pope, +Scott's Covenanter, and Friar Tuck, the disinterested Vicar of Fielding, +Shakspeare's good friars and ambitious cardinals, Mawworm, Mrs. Inchbald's +Dorimel, the gentle hero of the Sexton's Daughter, Manzoni's Prelate and +Capuchin, and Mrs. Radcliffe's Monks, are genuine and permanent types, +only modified by circumstances. All that is subtle in artifice, all that +is relentless in the love of power, all that is exalted in spiritual +graces, all that is base in cunning, glorious in self-sacrifice, beautiful +in compassion, and noble in allegiance, has been and is manifest in the +priest. His great distinction is based upon the fact that 'the church, +rightly ministered, is the vestibule to an immortal life.' He is at once +the author of the worst tyranny and the grandest amenities of social life. +The traveller on Alpine summits blesses the name of St. Bernard, and +descends to Geneva to shudder at the bigoted ferocity of Calvin. The +picture of the good pastor in the _Deserted Village_, and Ranke's _Lives +of the Popes_, give us the two extremes of the character. The spiritual +heroism of Luther, the religious gloom of Cowper, and the cheerful +devotion of Watts, are but varied expressions of one feeling, which, +according to the frail conditions of humanity, has its healthy and its +morbid phase, its authentic and its spurious exposition, and is no more to +be confounded in its original essence with its imperfect development and +representatives, than the pure light of heaven with the accidental mediums +which colour and distort its rays. + +The _prestige_ of the clerical office is greatly diminished because many +of its prerogatives are no longer exclusive. 'When ecclesiasticism became +so weak as to be unable to regulate international affairs, and was +supplanted by diplomacy, in the castle the physician was more than a rival +for the confessor, in the town the mayor was a greater man than the +abbot.'[39] The clergy, at a former period, were the chief scholars; +learning was not less their distinction than sanctity. In every +intelligent community, this source of influence is now shared with men of +letters; and even the once peculiar office of public instruction, is now +filled by the lecturer, who takes an evening from the avocations of +business or professional life, to claim intellectual sympathy or impart +individual opinions. But the great agent in breaking up the monopoly of +the pulpit has been the press. Written has in a great measure superseded +oral thought. Half the world are readers, and the necessity of hearing no +longer exists to those desirous of knowledge. The sermons of the old +English divines abound with classical learning and comments on the times, +such as are now sought in periodical literature. In Latimer, Andrews, and +Donne, we find such hints of the prevailing manners as subsequently were +revealed by _The Spectator_. The philosophy of antiquity and the morals of +courts, the facts of distant climes, all that we now seek in popular books +and the best journals, came to the minds of our ancestors through the +discourses of preachers. American ministers, prior to and at the era of +the Revolution, were the expositors of political as well as religious +sentiments. Independent of the priestly rites, therefore, a clergyman, in +past times, represented social transitions, and ministered to intellectual +wants, for which we of this age have adequate provision otherwise; so that +the most zealous advocate of reform, doctrine, or ethical philosophy, is +no longer obliged to have recourse to the sacerdotal office, in order to +reach the public mind. This apparent diminution of the privileges of the +order, however, does not invalidate but rather simplifies its claims. In +this as in so many other functions of the social economy, progress has the +effect of reducing to its original elements the duties and the influence +of the profession. Education, once their special responsibility, and +popular enlightenment on the questions of the hour, being assumed by +others, the preacher is free to concentrate his abilities on theology and +the religious sentiment. Division of labour gives him a better opportunity +to be 'clear in his great office.' It is reduced to its normal state. +Except in isolated and newly-settled communities, there is not that +incessant appeal to his benevolence and erudition: to heal the sick, +reconcile litigants, argue civic questions, teach the elements of science, +promote charities; in a word, to be the village orator and social oracle, +are not the indispensable requisites of a clergyman's duty which they were +before the Newspaper and the Lyceum existed. He is, therefore, at liberty +to imitate the apostles of Christianity and the fathers of the church, and +bring all his power to awaken devotion and faith, and all his learning to +the defence of sacred truth. That the time and capacity of the profession +are diffused, and the sympathy of its members enlisted in behalf of other +than these aims, is, indeed, true; but this is a voluntary and not an +inevitable result, and only proves that the spirit of the age overlays +instead of being penetrated and ruled by the priestly office. + +'Civilization,' says Lamartine, 'was of the sanctuary. Kings were only +concerned with acts; ideas belonged to the priest.' And, by a singular +contradiction, with the general progress of society, the same class, as a +whole, have proved the most antagonistic to innovation even in the form of +genius, whose erratic manifestations are jealously regarded as +inconsistent with professional decorum. Hence Byron, in one of his +splenetic moods, exclaimed to Trelawney: 'When did parsons patronize +genius? If one of their black band dares to think for himself, he is +drummed out or cast aside like Sterne and Swift.' On the other hand, +venerable physicians say that the clergy are the most efficient promoters +of medical innovations; and that quackery owes its social _prestige_ in no +small degree to their countenance. + +After the Reformation, this office, as such, lost its specialty; the right +to exercise it was no longer peculiar; and in all societies and epochs, +when a great activity of the religious sentiment, or an earnest discussion +of questions of faith prevailed, men prayed, sermonized, commented on +Scripture, and mingled all the duties of the clerical vocation with their +own pursuits. Thus the English statesmen of Cromwell's time were versed in +divinity, exhorted, and published tracts in behalf of their creeds. +Theology was a popular study; and the kingdom swarmed with lay-preachers. +Sects, too, repudiated official leaders; and even among the Pilgrim +Fathers of New England, ministers betrayed a jealousy of encroachments on +the part of their unconsecrated brethren. Many Christians also recognized +spiritual gifts as the exclusive credentials of a priesthood. Church, not +less than State prerogatives were challenged by republican zeal; and the +historical authority of the order being thus openly invaded, a new and +more rational test was soon applied, and preachers, like kings, were made +amenable to the tribunal of public opinion, and obliged to rest their +claims on other than traditional or educational authority. 'On conserva,' +says Rochambeau, writing of American society at the period of the +Revolution, 'au ministre du culte le première place dans les repas +publics; il bénissoit le repas; mais ses prérogatives ne s'entendoient pas +plus loin dans la société.[40] Cet exposé,' he adds, evidently in view of +priestly corruption in France, 'doit amener naturellement des moeurs +simples et pures.'[41] 'They,' says the historian of preachers at the time +of the Revolutionary war, 'dealt in no high-sounding phrases of liberty +and equality; they went to the very foundations of society, showed what +the rights of man were, and how those rights became modified when men +gathered into communities. The profound thought and unanswerable +arguments, found in these sermons, show that the clergy were not a whit +behind the ablest statesmen of the day in their knowledge of the great +science of human government. In reading them one gets at the true pulse of +the people, and can trace the steady progress of the public sentiment. +The rebellion in New England rested on the pulpit, received its strongest +impulse, indeed its moral character, from it; the teachings of the pulpit +of Lexington caused the first blow to be struck for American +independence.' + +The tendency of all the so-called liberal professions is to limit and +pervert the development of character, by giving to knowledge a technical +shape, and to thought a prescriptive action. Conformity to a specific +method is unfavourable to original results, and organization often does +injustice to its subjects. Only the strong men, the brave, and the highly +endowed, rise above such restrictions. It is a kind of social necessity +alone which reconciles the man of scientific genius to seek the passport +of a medical diploma,--the logician to exert his mind exclusively before a +legal tribunal, and the votary of religious truth to sign a creed and +become responsible to a congregation. How constantly each breaks away from +his respective sphere to expatiate in the broad kingdom of letters! Would +Humboldt have written the _Cosmos_ had his life been confined to a +laboratory, or a round of medical practice? Would Burke have theorized in +so comprehensive a range if chained to an attorney's desk, or Sir Henry +Vane's martyrdom acquired a holier sanction from the mere title of priest? + +At the first glance, so distinct are the phases of the office that it is +difficult to realize its identity. The ideal of a village pastor like +Oberlin, self-devoted, in a secluded district, to the most pure and +benevolent enterprise,--the life of a Jesuit missionary in Canada or Peru, +who seems to incarnate the fiery zeal of the church he represents,--the +complacent bishop of the Establishment, listlessly going through a +prescribed form, and his very person embodying worldly prosperity; and the +inelegant but earnest Methodist swaying the multitude at a camp-meeting in +the wilds of America,--consider the vast contrast of the pictures: the +dark robe, lonely existence, and subtle eye of the Catholic; the simple, +friendly, conscientious toil of the poor vicar; the scholarship and good +dinners of the English bishop; the cathedral decked with the trophies of +art, and fields lit up by watch-fires; the silence of the Quaker assembly, +and the loud harangue and frantic moans of the 'revival;' the solemn +refinement of the Episcopal, the intellectual zeal of the Unitarian, and +the gorgeous rites of the Roman worship; and an uninformed spectator, to +whom each was a novelty, would imagine that a totally diverse principle +was at work. To the philosophic eye, the ceremonies, organization, +costume, rites, and even creeds of Christian sects, are but the varied +manifestations of a common instinct, more or less mingled with other human +qualities, and influenced in its development by time and place. Traced +back to its source, and separated from incidental association, we find a +natural sentiment of religion which is represented in social economy by +the preacher. Simple as was the original relation between the two, +however, in the process of time it has become so complicated that it now +requires no ordinary analytical power to divest the idea of the priest +from history, and that of religion from the church, so as to perceive both +as facts of human nature instead of parts of the machinery of civilized +life. To do this, indeed, we look inward, and derive from consciousness +the great idea of a religious sentiment; and then ask ourselves how far it +is justly represented in the institutions of the church and the persons of +her ministers. Let this process be tried by a man of high endowments, +genuine aspirations, and noble sympathies, and what is the result? +'Milton,' says Dr. Johnson, in his life of that poet, 'grew old without +any visible worship,' a phrase which, considering the superstition of the +writer, and the exalted devotional sentiment of the subject, has, to our +minds, a most pathetic significance. It tacitly admits that Milton +worshipped his Maker; it brings him before us in a venerable aspect, at +the time when he was blind, proscribed, and indigent; we recall his image +at the organ, and seem to catch the symphonies of _Paradise Lost_ and the +_Hymn on the Nativity_; and yet we are told by the greatest votary of +religious forms and profession among English literary men--one who was +oppressed by the sense of religious truth, and a slave to church +requirements, that, in his old age, the reverential bard had no 'visible +worship.' It is an admission of great moment; it is a fact infinitely +suggestive. Why did not Milton practically recognize any organized church, +or publicly enact any prescribed form? Not altogether because he had +tasted of persecution, and been driven, by the force of individual +opinion, away from popular rites; but also, and to a far greater degree, +because he had so fully experienced within himself the force and scope of +the religious sentiment, and found in its prevalent representation, not an +incitement, but a hindrance to its exercise. + +In the patriarchal age, the head of a family was its priest; and, in all +ages, the true and complete man feels a personal interest and +responsibility, a direct and entire relation to his Creator, that will not +suffer interference any more than genuine conjugal or parental ties. The +so-called progress of society has rendered its functions more complex, and +broken up this simple and natural identity between the offices of devotion +and those of paternity. It has not only made the priestly office distinct +and apart from domestic life, but shorn it of glory by the cumbrous +details of a hierarchy and badges of exclusiveness; and lessened its +sanctity by changing the grand and holy function of a spiritual medium and +expositor into a professional business and special pleading. What are +conventional preachers but the _employés_ of a sect? And so regarded, how +is it possible to rejoice 'in the plain presence of their dignity?' Called +upon by a thoroughly earnest soul in its deep perplexity and agonizing +bewilderment, what can they do but repeat the commonplaces of their +office? How instantly are they reduced to the level of other men, when +brought into contact with a human reality! The voice of true sympathy, +though from ignorant lips, the grasp of honest affection, though from +unconsecrated hands, yield more of the balm of consolation in such an +hour, because they are real, human, and therefore nearer to God, than the +technical representative of His truth. The essential mistake is, that +instead of regarding the man as something divine in essence and relation, +a perverse theology assigns that quality to the office. It is what is +grafted upon, not what is essential to, humanity, that is thus made the +nucleus of reverence and hope, whereas priesthood and manhood are +identical. The authority of the former is derived from the latter; by +virtue of being men we become priests--that is, servants--of the Most +High; and not through any miraculous anointing, laying on of hands, +courses of divinity, or rites of ordination. 'How,' says Carlyle, 'did +Christianity arise and spread abroad among men? Was it by institutions and +establishments and well-arranged systems of mechanism? Not so. On the +contrary, in all past and existing institutions for those ends, its divine +spirit has invariably been found to languish and decay. It arose in the +mystic deeps of man's soul; and spread abroad by the "preaching of the +word" by simple, altogether natural, and individual efforts; and flew like +hallowed fire from heart to heart, till all were purified and illuminated +by it.' Accordingly, if merely professional representatives of the church, +as such, hold a less influential position now than formerly, it is not +because the instinct of worship has died out in the human heart, nor +because men feel less than before the need of interpreters of the true, +the holy, and the beautiful; it is not that the mysteries of life are less +impressive, or its vicissitudes less constant, or its origin and end less +enveloped in sacred obscurity; but it is because more legitimate priests +have been found out of the church than in it; because that institution +and its ministers fail to meet adequately the wants of the religious +sentiment; and it has been discovered that the Invisible Spirit is more +easily found by the lonely seashore than in the magnificent cathedral; +that the mountain-top is an altar nearer to His throne than a chancel; and +that the rustle of forest-leaves and the moaning of the sea less disturb +the idea of His presence in the devout heart, than the monotonous chant of +the choir, or the conventional words of the preacher. We have but to +glance at the pictures of clerical life, so thickly scattered through the +memoirs and novels of the day, to realize the necessity of an eclectic +spirit in estimating the clerical character--whose highest manifestations +and most patent abuses seem entirely irrespective of sect. A Scotch +clergyman, writing, in 1763, of the society at Harrogate, 'made up of +half-pay officers and clergymen,' thus describes the latter: 'They are in +general--I mean the lower order--divided into bucks and prigs; of which +the first, though inconceivably ignorant, and sometimes indecent in their +morals, yet I held them to be most tolerable, because they were +unassuming, and had no other affectation but that of behaving themselves +like gentlemen. The other division of them, the prigs, are truly not to be +endured, for they are but half-learned, are ignorant of the world, +narrow-minded, pedantic, and overbearing.'[42] Contrast with this estimate +of a class Victor Hugo's portrait of an individual in his _Provincial +Bishop_--'Monseigneur Bienvenu,' so called, instinctively, by the people: +'The formidable spectacle of created things developed a tenderness in him; +he was always busy in finding for himself and inspiring others with the +best way of sympathizing and solacing. The universe appeared to him like +disease. He auscultated suffering everywhere. The whole world was to this +good and rare priest a permanent subject of sadness seeking to be +consoled.' + +The absolute need of separating in our minds the idea of the clerical man +as a natural development of humanity--a normal phase of character--from +the historical idea of the same personage, is at once evinced by the +immense distance between the lives, influence, and traits of the men who +have conspicuously borne the office of public religious teachers and +administrators in different sects, ages, and countries; as for instance, +Ximenes, Wolsey, Richelieu, Whitfield, Channing, George Herbert, and Dr. +Arnold; in position, habits, and relations to the world, how great the +contrast! And yet each represented to society, in a professional way, the +same principle; the former with all the pomp of hierarchal magnificence, +and all the influence of executive power, and the latter by the force of +patient usefulness, earnest simplicity, and individual moral energy. +Between Puritan and Pope, what infinite grades; between Jewish rabbi and +Scotch elder, how diverse is the traditional sanction; and how little +would a novice imagine that the bare walls and plain costume of a Friends' +meeting had the least of a common origin with the gorgeous decorations of +a minster! Thus do the passions, the tastes, and the very blood of races +and individuals modify the expression of the same instinct; worship is as +Protean in its forms as labour, diversion, _hygiène_, or any other human +need and activity. Philosophy reconciles us to the apparent incongruity, +and reveals beneath surplice, drab-coat, and silken robe, hearts that +pulsate to an identical measure. + +The best writers have recognized the clerical tone of manners as +significant of the social condition of each period. Burnet thought more +highly of his _Pastoral Care_ than of his History; and Baxter's _Reformed +Pastor_ is an indirect but keen testimony to the decadence of the clergy. +Macaulay cites Fielding's parson. Sir Roger's chaplain in the _Spectator_, +Cowper's rebuke of the 'cassocked huntsmen,' the Stiggins of Dickens, and +Honeyman of Thackeray, are but a popular reflex of that deep sense of the +abuse of a profession which is the highest evidence of its normal +estimation. And the types of the vocation seem permanent. Every era has +its Whateley, its Lammenais, and its Spurgeon--or men in the church whose +gifts, tone, and mission essentially correspond with these. When George +Herbert abandoned court for clerical aspirations, a friend protested +against his choice 'as too mean an employment;' and yet so truly did he +illustrate the spiritual grandeur of his office that the chime which +called to prayer from the humble belfry of Bemerton, was recognized by the +country people as the 'saint's bell.' It was his holiness, and not his +attachment to the ritual year, that inspired his example while living, and +embalmed his memory; lowly kindnesses were 'music to him at midnight;' +charity was 'his only perfume;' to teach the ignorant, in his estimation, +'the greatest alms;' and a day well spent, 'the bridal of the earth and +sky;' his humanity, spiritualized by Christian faith and practice, so +essentially constituted him a priest that, 'about Salisbury,' writes his +brother, 'where he lived beneficed for many years, he was little less than +sainted.' He drew an ideal from his own soul, and for his own guidance, in +the _Country Parson_. + +To the reverent mind that dares to exercise freely the prerogative of +thought, the constant blending of human infirmity with the method of +worship is painfully evident: the instinct itself, the sentiment--highest +in man--is thus 'sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought;' what is +beautiful and true in the ceremonial, or the emblem, arrays itself to his +consciousness so as to intercept the holy beams that he would draw from +the altar. Let him obey the waves of accident, and pause at shrines by the +wayside; and according to circumstances will be the inspiration they +yield. Thus turning from the gay Parisian thoroughfare, at noonday, he may +pace the chaste aisles of the Madeleine, and feel his devotion stirred by +the solemn quietude, the few kneeling figures--perhaps by the dark +catafalque awaiting the dead in the centre of the spacious floor; and +then what to him is the doctrine of transubstantiation? Religious +architecture is speaking to his heart. The voices of the choristers at St. +George's Chapel, at Windsor, may touch his pious sensibility; but if his +thoughts revert to the ruddy dean, his good dinners, and indulgent life, +and the poor, toilsome vicars, which make the Establishment a reflection +of the world's diversity of condition--the pampered and the drudged; or, +if he notes the prayer that the Queen may be preserved 'in health and +_wealth_,' how sanctity ceases to invest the priest and the ritual, thus +typical of human vanity and selfishness! 'We know not,' wrote Jerrold, +'and we say it with grief, but with profound conviction of the necessity +of every man giving fullest utterance to his thoughts--we know not, in +this world of ours, in this social, out-of-door masquerade, a more dreary +shortcoming, a greater disappointment to the business and bosoms of men, +than the Established Church. Its essence is self-denial; its foundations +are in humility and poverty; its practice is self-aggrandizement and +money-getting.' Nor is the reverse of the picture, the contrast between +the high and low clergy, less inauspicious. 'A Christian bishop,' writes +Sydney Smith, 'proposes, in cold blood, to create a thousand livings of +one hundred and thirty pounds each,--to call into existence a thousand of +the most unhappy men on the face of the earth--the sons of the poor, +without hope, without the assistance of private fortune, chained to the +soil, ashamed to live with their inferiors, unfit for the society of the +better classes, and dragging about the English curse of poverty, without +the smallest hope that they can ever shake it off. Can any man of common +sense say that all these outward circumstances of the ministers of +religion have no bearing on religion itself?' On the other hand, what +divine significance to the pious soul, 'as through a zodiac moves the +ritual year,'--in the altar, the font, the choral service, the venerable +liturgy, the holy emblems and hallowed forms whereby this Church is +consecrated to the hearts of her devout children, and the reverence of +sympathetic intelligence. + +Buckle, drawing broad inference from extensive and acute research, +unmodified by sympathetic observation, wrote an historical treatise, rich +in knowledge and philosophy, to prove that Spain and Scotland owe whatever +is hopeless and hampered in their intellectual development to the tyranny +of priests and preachers. It was a special plea, but it serves to +illustrate, with comprehensive emphasis, the antagonism between +Ecclesiasticism and Christianity; for, viewed individually, as a social +phenomenon, and not the mere exponent of an organization, the preacher or +teacher of the right, advocate of the true, representative of faith, +becomes a distinct and personal character, and is identified with +humanity. It is when the man and the function coalesce, and the former +transcends and spiritualizes the latter, that, in history and in life, all +that is great and gracious in the vocation is memorably vindicated. Under +this genuine aspect, Rousseau found his ideal of happiness in the life of +a village _curé_, Chateaubriand renewed the heartfelt claims of religion +in eloquently describing its primitive and legitimate benignities. +Mediæval ecclesiasticism commenced its purifying though inadequate ordeal +through the heroism of Savonarola at Florence and Sarpi at Venice. Current +literature, indeed, continually and clearly states the problem; and +illustrates the question with a frequency and a talent which indicate how +largely it occupies the popular mind. To discriminate between the +preacher's conventional office and his spiritual endowment,--between +Christianity as a sentiment and a dogma, between the religious and the +temporal authority, between the church as an institution and a faith, is +an emphatic mission of artist and author in our age. Witness the salient +discussions of the 'Roman question,' the pleas and protests of Gallican +and Ultramontane, the conservative zeal of the Puseyite and liberal +encroachments of the progressive clergy, and the picturesque or +psychological fictions which instruct and beguile modern readers.[43] Both +literature and life in modern times, while they attest the official +decadence of the clergy, as a political and theological organization, +still more significantly vindicate their normal influence as a social +power. 'Not as in the old times,' says a philosophical historian, in +allusion to the clergy of America, 'does the layman look upon them as the +cormorants and curses of society; they are his faithful advisers, his +honoured friends, under whose suggestion and supervision are instituted +educational establishments, colleges, hospitals--whatever can be of +benefit to men in this life, or secure to them happiness in the life to +come.'[44] + +There are types of character that prophesy vocation; and we occasionally +see in families a gentle being, so disinterested, thoughtful, and above +the world in natural disposition, that he seems born to wear a surplice, +as one we can behold officiating at the altar by virtue of a certain +innate adaptation; and so there are men of strong affections, early +bereft, and thereby alienated from personal motives, and thus peculiarly +able to give an undivided heart to God and humanity; or, through a +singular moral experience, initiated more deeply than their fellows into +the arcana of truth, and hence justified in becoming her expositors. In +cases like these, a more than conventional reason for the faith that is in +them causes them to speak and act with an authority which is its own +sanction, and hence springs what is vital both in the life and the +literature of the visible church. Sacerdotal biography, the achievements +of the true reformer, the literary bequests of the genuine pulpit orator, +and the results of efficient parochial genius, attest the reality of such +characters; they are of Nature's ordaining, and sectarianism itself is +lost sight of in their universal and grateful recognition--as witness St. +Augustine, Fenelon, Luther, Wesley, Fox, and Frederick Robertson. +Landmarks in the history of our race, oases in the desert of theological +controversy, flowers in the garland of humanity, they 'vindicate the ways +of God to man,' and are the redeeming facts of ecclesiastical life. Above +the system they illustrate, beyond the limits they designate, and +providential exceptions to a general rule, we instinctively accept them as +holding a relation to the religious sentiment and the highest interests of +the world that only a profane imagination can associate with the +pretensions of the thousands who claim their fraternity. This idea of +asserting the human as consecrated and not usurped by the priestly, has +ever distinguished the veritable ecclesiastical heroes. Lammenais, when a +mere youth, was arrested for his eloquent advocacy of freedom and faith; +'we will show them,' he said of the civil tribunals, 'what kind of a _man_ +a priest is.' + +Dupuytren, the most celebrated French surgeon of his day, was destitute of +faith, and by his powerful mind and brusque hardihood overcame the +individuality of almost every one who approached him. One day a poor +_curé_ from some village near Paris called upon the great surgeon. +Dupuytren was struck with his manly beauty and noble presence, but +examined, with his usual nonchalance, the patient's neck, disfigured by a +horrible cancer. '_Avec cela, il faut mourir_,' said the surgeon. 'So I +thought,' calmly replied the priest; 'I expected the disease was fatal, +and only came to you to please my parishioners.' He then unfolded a bit of +paper and took from it a five-franc piece, which he handed to Dupuytren, +saying: 'Pardon, sir, the little fee, for we are poor.' The serene dignity +and holy self-possession of this man, about to die in the prime of his +life, impressed the stoical surgeon in spite of himself, though his manner +betrayed neither surprise nor interest. Before the _curé_ had descended +half the staircase, he was called back by a servant. 'If you choose to +try an operation,' said Dupuytren, 'go to the Hotel Dieu; I will see you +to-morrow.' 'It is my duty to make use of all means of recovery,' replied +the _curé_; 'I will go.' The next day, the surgeon cut away remorselessly +at the priest's neck, laying bare tendons and arteries. It was before the +days of chloroform, and, unsustained by any opiate, the poor _curé_ +suffered with uncomplaining heroism. He did not even wince. Dupuytren +respected his courage; and every day lingered longer at his bedside, when +making the rounds of the hospital. In a few weeks the _curé_ recovered. A +year after the operation, he made his appearance in the _salon_ of the +great professor with a neat basket containing pears and chickens. +'Monsieur,' he said, 'it is the anniversary of the day when your skill +saved my life; accept this humble gift; the pears and chickens are better +than you can find in Paris; they are of my own raising.' Each succeeding +year, on the same day of the month, the honest priest brought his grateful +offering. At length Dupuytren was taken ill, and the physicians declared +his heart diseased. He shut himself up with his favourite nephew and +refused to see his friends. One day he wrote on a slip of paper, '_Le +medécin a besoin du curé_,' and sent it to the village priest, who quickly +obeyed the summons. He remained for hours in the dying surgeon's chamber; +and when he came forth, tears were in his eyes, and Dupuytren was no more. +How easy for the imagination to fill up this outline, which is all that +was vouchsafed to Parisian gossip. + +Whoever has gone from Roman church or palace--his soul yet warm with the +radiant figures and divine expression of saints and martyrs as depicted by +the inspired hands of the Christian artists of the fifteenth century--into +the gloomy and damp catacombs, where the early disciples met in order to +enjoy 'freedom to worship God,' must have felt at once the solemn reality +and the beautiful triumph of faith, in its unperverted glow--on the one +hand nerving the believer to cheerful endurance, and on the other +kindling genius to noble toil; and, before this fresh conviction, how vain +appeared to him the mechanical rite and the cold response of conventional +worship! The truth is that the history of religion is like the history of +love; a natural and divine sentiment has been wrested into illegitimate +service; ambitious pretenders, like the wanton and the coquette, abuse to +selfish ends what should either be honourably let alone or sacredly +cherished. This process, at once so habitual and so intricate--working +through formulas, tradition, appeals to fear, the power of custom, the +imperative needs and the ignorant credulity of the multitude--has +gradually built up a partition between heaven and earth, obscured +spiritual facts, made vague and mystical the primitive relation of the +soul to the fatherhood of God, and thus induced either open scepticism or +artificial conformity. In painting, in music, in literature, in the +wonders of the universe, in the mysteries of life, and in human +consciousness, the sentiment asserts itself for ever; but to the genuine +man of to-day is allotted the ceaseless duty of keeping it apart from the +incrustations of form, the perversion of office, and the base uses of +ambition and avarice. + +The lionism of the pulpit is another desecration. London and New York must +have their fashionable preachers as well as favourite _prima donnas_, and +the phenomena attending each are the same. Intellectual amusement, +exclusiveness, the _mode_, thus become identical with that which is their +essential opposite, and the meekness and sublimity of the religious +function is utterly lost in a frivolous glare and soulless vanity. The pew +itself is a satire on existent Christianity; the very organ-airs played in +the fashionable churches, by recalling the ball-room and the theatre, are +ironical; and to these how often the elegantly-worded commonplace of the +preacher is a fit accompaniment--so well likened, by a thoughtful writer, +to shovelling sand with a pitchfork! Thank Heaven, we have perpetually +the Vicar of Wakefield and Parson Adams to keep green the memories of +that genial simplicity and honest warmth of which modern refinement has +deprived the clerical man. They, at least, were not effigies. Heroism as +embodied in Knox, scholarship in Barrow, zeal in Doddridge, holy idealism +in Taylor, sacred eloquence in Hall and Chalmers, earnest aspiration in +Channing and Robertson,--these and like instances of a fine manly +endowment, give vitality to the preacher and significance to his +ministrations. + +In a recent farce, that had a run at Paris, and caricatures English life, +the curtain rises on a deserted street, hushed and gloomy, through which +two figures at last slowly walk on tiptoe: as they approach, and one +begins to address the other, the latter, raising his finger to his lips, +whispers '_C'est Soonday_,' and both disappear: the comedy ends, however, +with a prodigious dinner of beef and beer. Absurd as such pictures of a +London Sabbath are, they yet indicate a suggestive truth, which is, that +the extreme outward observance in Protestant countries, of one day in +seven, by repudiating all pastime, is the best proof of a conscious defect +in the social representation of the religious instinct, exactly as the +festivity of continental people, on the same day, illustrates the opposite +extreme of indifference to appearances. It is probable that neither +affords a just index of the state of feeling; for domestic enjoyments in +the one case, and attendance at mass, by sincere devotees, in the other, +are facts that modify the apparent truth. It is highly probable, also, +that in this age of free inquiry and general intelligence, what has been +lost in public observance has been gained in individual sincerity. There +is not the same dependence on the preacher. Devotional sentiment is fed +from other sources. It has come to be felt and understood as never before, +that man is personally responsible, and must seek light for himself, and +repose on his own faith. Accordingly, he is comparatively unallied to +institutions, and will no longer trust for spiritual insight to a mortal +as frail and ignorant as himself. The redeeming fact is to be sought in +the existence of the sentiment itself. The sensuality of a Borgia makes +more impressive the sanctity of Fenelon; because of the artificial funeral +eulogies of Bossuet, we are more sensible to the practical efficiency of +Father Matthew; Calvin's intolerance heightens the glory of Luther's +vindication of spiritual freedom; the fanaticism of the Methodist, the +subtlety of the Jesuit, the cold rationalism of the Unitarian, the dark +bigotry of the Presbyterian, the monotonous tone of the Quaker, the +refined conservatism of the Episcopalian, and other characteristics of +sects, philosophically considered, are but the excess of a tendency which +also manifests its benign and desirable influence as an element of +Christian society. What liberal mind can reflect upon the agency of the +English Church, pregnant of abuses as it is, without feeling that she has +greatly contributed to preserve a wholesome equilibrium amid conflicting +agencies, to keep intact the dignity and hallowed associations of worship, +to calm the feverish impulses, and prolong a law of order amid chaotic +tendencies? What just observer will hesitate to award to Dissenters the +honour of imparting a vital spirit to the listless body of the Church, +renewing the sentiment of religion which had become dormant through +conventionalism and oppressive institutions, and making its divine reality +once more a conscious motive and solace to the world? How much have the +eminent preachers of liberal Christianity, in New England, done toward +enlarging the charity of sects, elevating the standard of pulpit +eloquence, and giving to the priestly office moral dignity and +intellectual force! Who that has witnessed the life-devotion of the +Sisters of Charity, in a season of pestilence, seen the tears on the +bronze cheeks of hardy mariners at the Bethel, or heard the bold protest +of the educated divine, above the voice of public opinion, at a social +crisis, pleading for principle against expediency, and has not, for the +moment at least, forgotten dogmas in grateful appreciation of the general +benefits resulting from the direct inspiration of that sentiment, which +the preacher, of whatever creed, is ordained to illustrate? Truly has it +been said, that 'it is the spirit of the soul's natural piety to alight on +whatever is beautiful and touching in every faith, and take thence its +secret draught of spiritual refreshment.' Even popular literature enforces +the argument. The lives of Fox, Wesley, Fenelon, Arnold, Chalmers, and +Channing, illustrate the same truth, that the man can sanction the priest, +the soul vindicate the office, and the reality of a sentiment reconcile or +sublimate discordant creeds. + +That good maxim of the brave English lexicographer, 'Clear your mind of +cant;' and the noble appeal of Campbell's chivalric muse, who asks-- + + 'Has Earth a clod + Where man, the image of his God, + Unscourged by Superstition's rod, + Should bend the knee?' + +have an eternal significance. We are called upon to resist formalism by as +potential reasons as those which impel to sincere devotion. It is +evidenced in the best writings of the day, that the highest in man's +nature may be linked with the most ferocious and abject. Balfour of Burley +is but the fanciful embodiment of an actual union between religious zeal +and a thirst for blood. Blanco White's memoirs indicate the possible +variations of speculative belief in an honest and ardent mind; and true +observation induced John Foster to write his able treatise on _The +Objections of Men of Taste to Evangelical Religion_. 'There is no +denying,' says a popular reviewer, 'that there is a certain stiff, tough, +clayish, agricultural, English nature, on which the _aggressive divine_ +produces a visible and good effect.' Father Marquette's adventurous +martyrdom, Pascal's metaphysical acuteness, the rude courage of John Knox, +the witch-chronicle of Mather, the magnetic power of Edward Irving, the +wit that scintillated from Sydney Smith, the poetry of Heber, the ideal +beauty of Buckminster's style, and the virtuous charm of Berkeley, prove +how the expositors of religion blend with professional life the essential +characteristics of man, and how impossible it is to divide the office we +are considering, from those qualities and conditions which belong +essentially to the race. In the face of such diversity, before such +acknowledged facts, how irrational is it to exempt the preacher from any +law either of life or character; how unphilosophical and untrue to regard +him in any other light than that of experience; and how unjust to imagine +there is any occult virtue in ceremonial systems of faith, or the accident +of vocation, whereby he derives any special authority unsustained by +personal gifts and rectitude. + +The problem we have suggested, of an antagonism between the theological +profession, the office of priest, artificially held, and the manly +instincts, has recently been illustrated by the criticisms on Carlyle's +_Life of Sterling_. In that work, it is lamented that the mental freedom +and just development of a gifted, ingenuous, and aspiring soul were +restrained and baffled by the vocation of priest; and to this view +Churchmen indignantly protest, and accuse the biographer of infidelity. It +is evident, however, that it was not religion but its formula, not truth +but an institution, which he thought hampered and narrowed the legitimate +spirit of his friend. There is that which commands profound respect in +Carlyle's recoil from the conventional; there is justice in his +indignation at the attempt to link a true, loving, brave, and progressive +mind to any wheel of social machinery. To keep apart from an organized +mode of action is the instinct of the best natures,--not from pride, but +self-respect. Of modern writers few have a better right to claim for +literature an agency more effective. The press has, indeed, in a measure, +superseded the pulpit. No intelligent observer of the signs of the times +can fail to perceive that as a means of influence, the two are at least +equal. In the pages of journals, in the verses of poets, in the favourite +books of the hour, we have homilies that teach charity and faith more +eloquently than the conventional Sunday's discourse; they come nearer to +experience; they are more the offspring of earnest conviction, and +therefore enlist popular sympathy. When we turn from such genuine +pleadings and pictures to those offered by the unspiritual preacher,--how +unreal do the last appear! It was once remarked by an auditor of a genial +man, who gave a prescriptive emphasis to his sermons, quite foreign to his +frank nature, that he seemed to feel that what he uttered was 'important +if true;' and such is the impression not a few preachers leave on the +listener's mind. If we carefully note those within the sphere of our +acquaintance, we find that many are either visibly oppressed or rendered +artificial by their profession. It seldom harmoniously blends with their +nature. They seem painfully conscious of a false relation to society, or +manfully, and it may be recklessly, put aside the character, as if it were +indeed a masquerade. Either course is a proof of incongruity; and in those +cases where our confidence and affection are spontaneously yielded, is it +not the qualities of the man that win and hold them?--his spiritual +aptitude to, and not the fact of, his vocation? + +In no profession do we find so many instances of a mistaken choice, and +this even when its duties are respectably fulfilled. The candid preacher, +when arrived at maturity, will not seldom confess with pain, that the +logical skill of the advocate, the love of representing nature of the +artist, the scientific skill of the physician, or the practical industry +of the man of affairs, constituted the natural basis of his usefulness; +and proved inadequate endowments in his actual vocation. Perhaps the great +error is in prematurely deciding on a step so responsible. To bind a +youth's interests, reputation, and opinions to the priesthood, as is +often done by the undue exercise of authority and influence, at an +impressible age, by Protestant not less than Catholic families, is a +positive wrong; and the moral courage which repudiates what was unjustly +assumed, is more deserving of honour than blame. Inefficiency, in such +cases, is proverbial: 'He talks like a parson,' said Lord Carteret of +Sherlock, 'and consequently is used to talk to people that do not mind +him.' A clergyman, in conversing with a gifted layman, used the phrase +'_born_ preacher.' 'I do not believe there is such a thing,' replied the +former, 'for it implies a born hearer, which is a being whose existence is +incompatible with my idea of the goodness of the Creator.' Occasionally we +see delightful exceptions to such an erroneous choice; men of firm yet +gentle souls, deep convictions, and sustained elevation, whose talents not +less than the spirit they are of, whose natural demeanour, habitual +temper, and constitutional sympathies, designate them for the sacred +office. We listen to their ministrations without misgiving, accept their +counsel, rise on the wings of their prayer, respond to their appeals, and +rejoice in their holiness--as a true and a blest incentive and +consolation. We ordain them with our hearts, for the idea of the preacher +is lost in that of the brother. + +In these instances, the normal conditions of the office are realized, the +boundaries of sect forgotten, and the legitimate idea of a minister to the +religious sympathies practically made apparent. Such a preacher was +Fenelon, in whose life, aspect, and writings the love of God and man were +exhibited, with such pure consistency, that his name is a spell which +invokes all that is sacred in the associations of humanity. The +blandishments of a court, the rudeness of soldiers, the ignorance of +peasants, were alike chastened by his presence. Neither persecution, high +culture, nor the gifts of fortune, for a moment disturbed his holy +self-possession. He disarmed prejudice, envy, intrigue, and violence, by +the tranquil influence of the spirit he was of. Ecclesiastical power, +ceremony, tradition, and literary fame were but the incidental accessories +of his career. The principles of Christianity and the temper of its +genuine disciple so predominated in his actions, speech, manners, +writings, and in his very tones and expression of countenance, that every +heart, by the instinct of its best affections, recognized his spiritual +authority. The man thoroughly vindicated the office; therefore the +courtier at Versailles and the rustic of Cambray held him in equal +reverence. + +In Madame Guyon, Anne Hutcheson, and Hannah More, we see the religious +sentiment and the instinct of proselytism in connection with the +idiosyncrasies of female character, rendered more affecting by its +tenderness, or losing in efficient dignity by the weakness of the sex. A +beautiful example of the natural preacher, unmodified by the paraphernalia +of the office, is given in Wirt's description of the Blind Preacher, while +its original identity with scholarship and philosophy is singularly +illustrated in the career of Abelard; and Molière's _Tartuffe_ is but the +dramatic embodiment of its extreme actual perversion at those periods when +the form, by a gradual process of social corruption, has completely +superseded the reality, and cant and hypocrisy are allowed to pass for +truth and emotion. All that is peculiar in the _modus operandi_ of sects +testifies to the constant adaptation of the office to occasion: thus the +itinerant episcopacy of the Methodists, the attractive temples of the +Catholics, the time-hallowed liturgy of the Church of England, the +immersing fonts of the Baptists, the plain language and prescriptive +uniformity of the Quakers, and the literary culture of the Unitarians, +appeal to certain tastes, feelings, or associations, which, although +independent of the religious sentiment, greatly tend to the impressiveness +of its outward manifestation upon different classes of persons. A +spiritual tendency is characteristic of Swedenborgians; an absence of the +sense of beauty is observable in the Friends; the superstitious element is +the usual trait of Romanists; conservatism prevails among Episcopalians; +and a progressive spirit and broad sympathies usually distinguish liberal +Christians. To a bigot this diversity is offensive; to a philosopher it is +the result of an inevitable and beneficent law. An American poet has aptly +described the scene which a Protestant city presents on a Sabbath morning, +when its streets are filled with the diverging streams of a population, +each moving toward its respective place of worship, in obedience to this +law of individual faith. + +The word 'skeleton' as applied to the outline of sermons is very +significant, for this is the only feature they have in common when vital; +and yet how different the manner in which they are clothed with life! +Sometimes it is logic, sometimes enthusiasm; now the eloquence of the +heart, and now the ingenuity of the head that creates the animating +principle; in one instance the beauty of style, and in another the force +of conviction or the glow of sympathy; and there are cases where only +grace of manner, melody of voice, and the magnetism of the preacher's +temperament and delivery impart to his words their effect; for every grade +of rhetorical power, from the refinements of artificial study to the gush +of irresistible feeling, has scope in the pulpit; there is no sacred charm +in that rostrum except what its occupant brings; its possible scale +includes elocutionary tricks, and the most disinterested and unconscious +utterance; mediocrity lisps there its commonplace truisms, and devotional +genius breathes its holy oracles; it is the medium of complacent formulas +as well as of inspired truth. + +The ancient philosophers and the modern essayists often apply wisdom to +life in the manner of the best sermonizers; and as Christianity has +infused its spirit into literature, this has become more apparent. Seneca +and Epictetus as moralists, and Plato in psychological speculation, +anticipated many of the sentiments that now have a religious authority. +Rousseau, in as far as he was true to humanity, Montaigne to the extent he +justly interprets the world, Bacon in the degree he indicates the +approaches to universal truth, Saint Pierre when awaking the sentiment of +beauty as revealed in Nature, Shakspeare by the memorable development of +the laws of character, Dante as the picturesque limner of the material +faith of the middle ages, Richter in his beautiful exposition of human +sentiment,--all exhibit a phase or element of the preacher, and in the +writings of Milton and Chateaubriand it breaks forth with a still more +direct emphasis. Carlyle and Coleridge, Isaac Taylor, Wordsworth, Lamb, +and many other effective modern writers, are among the most influential of +lay preachers. And this unprofessional teaching, this priesthood of +nature, has multiplied with the progress of society, so that every +community has its father confessors, its sisters of charity, its gifted +interpreters and eloquent advocates; while literature, even in forms the +most profane, continually emulates the sacred function, yielding great +lessons, exciting holy sentiment, and demonstrating pure faith. Indeed it +is characteristic of the age, that the technical is becoming merged in the +æsthetic; as culture extends, the distinctive in pursuit and office loses +its prominence. Lamb jocosely told Coleridge he never heard him do +anything but preach; and there is scarcely a favourite among the authors +of the day that, in some way, does not hallow his genius by consecrating +it to an interpretation or sentiment which, in its last analysis, is +religious. + +In these considerations may be found a partial explanation of that +diminution of individual agency in the priesthood to which we have +referred. The modern religious teachers also, as we have seen, have not +the same extent of ignorance to vanquish as the old divines. The line of +demarcation between ecclesiastical polity and Christian truth is more +evident to the multitude; and it is now felt as never before, that 'a +heart of deep sympathies solves all theological questions in the flame of +its love and justice.' Hence the comparative indifference to controversy; +and the recognition of the primal fact--so truly stated by the same +reflective writer--that 'spiritual insight, moral elevation, rich +sympathies, are the tokens whereby the divinely-ordained are +signalized.'[45] + +The practical inference is, that never before was the obligation of +personal responsibility in spiritual interests, on the part of the laity, +so apparent, nor that of a thorough integrity in the preacher. To be +'clear in his great office'--to rely on absolute gifts and essentials of +character--to cleave to simplicity and truth, and keep within the line of +honest conviction, is now his only guarantee, not only of self-respect, +but of usefulness and honour. Organization, form, tact, theological +acquirement, the _prestige_ of traditional importance, are of little +efficacy. The scientific era--the reaction to first causes--the universal +and intense demand for the real--the exposure of delusions--the test of +wide intelligence and fearless inquiry--the jealousy of mental +freedom--the multiplied sources of devotional sentiment--the earnestness +of the age--all invoke him to repudiate the machinery, the historical +badge, the conventional resources of his title--nay, to lose, if possible, +his title itself--and incarnate only the everlasting principles, laws, and +sentiments, by virtue of which alone he may hope for inspiration or claim +authority. + + + + +STATUES. + + 'And if it be Prometheus stole from Heaven + The fire which we endure, it was repaid + By him to whom the energy was given, + Which this poetic marble hath arrayed + With an eternal glory.'--BYRON. + + +There is as absolute an instinct in the human mind for the definite, the +palpable, and the emphatic, as there is for the mysterious, the versatile, +and the elusive. With some, method is a law, and taste severe in affairs, +costume, exercise, social intercourse, and faith. The simplicity, +directness, uniformity, and pure emphasis or grace of Sculpture have +analogies in literature and character; the terse despatch of a brave +soldier, the concentrated dialogue of Alfieri, some proverbs, aphorisms, +and poetic lines, that have become household words, puritanic consistency, +silent fortitude, are but so many vigorous outlines, and impress us by +virtue of the same colourless intensity as a masterpiece of the statuary. +How sculpturesque is Dante, even in metaphor, as when he writes,-- + + 'Ella non ci diceva alcuna cosa; + Ma lasciavane gir, solo guardando, + A guisa di leon quando si posa.' + +Nature, too, hints the art, when her landscape tints are covered with +snow, and the forms of tree, rock, and mountain are clearly defined by the +universal whiteness. Death, in its pale, still, fixed image,--always +solemn, sometimes beautiful,--would have inspired primeval humanity to +mould and chisel the lineaments of clay. Even New Zealanders elaborately +carve their war-clubs; and from the 'graven images' prohibited by +Decalogue as objects of worship, through the mysterious granite effigies +of ancient Egypt, the brutal anomalies in Chinese porcelain, the gay and +gilded figures on a ship's prow,--whether emblems of rude ingenuity, +tasteless caprice, retrospective sentiment, or embodiments of the highest +physical and mental culture, as in the Greek statues,--there is no art +whose origin is more instructive and progress more historically +significant. The vases of Etruria are the best evidence of her degree of +civilization; the designs of Flaxman on Wedgwood ware redeem the +economical art of England; the Bears at Berne and the Wolf in the Roman +Capitol are the most venerable local insignia; the carvings of Gibbons, in +old English manor-houses, outrival all the luxurious charms of modern +upholstery; Phidias is a more familiar element in Grecian history than +Pericles; the moral energy of the old Italian republics is more +impressively shadowed forth and conserved in the bold and vigorous +creations of Michael Angelo than in the political annals of Macchiavelli; +and it is the massive, uncouth sculptures, half buried in sylvan +vegetation, which mythically transmit the ancient people of Central +America. + +We confess a faith in, and a love for, the 'testimony of the rocks,'--not +only as interpreted by the sagacious Scotchman, as he excavated the 'old +red sandstone,' but as shaped into forms of truth, beauty, and power by +the hand of man through all generations. We love to catch a glimpse of +these silent memorials of our race, whether as Nymphs half shaded at +noonday with summer foliage in a garden, or as Heroes gleaming with +startling distinctness in the moonlit city square; as the similitudes of +illustrious men gathered in the halls of nations and crowned with a +benignant fame, or as prone effigies on sepulchres, for ever proclaiming +the calm without the respiration of slumber, so as to tempt us to exclaim, +with the enamoured gazer on the Egyptian queen, when the asp had done its +work,-- + + 'She looks like sleep, + As she would catch another Antony + In her strong _toil of grace_.' + +Although Dr. Johnson undervalued sculpture, partly because of an +inadequate sense of the beautiful, and partly from ignorance of its +greatest trophies, he expressed unqualified assent to its awe-inspiring +influence in 'the monumental caves of death,' as described by Congreve. +Sir Joshua truly declares that 'all arts address themselves to the +sensibility and imagination;' and no one thus alive to the appeal of +sculpture, will marvel that the infuriated mob spared the statues of the +Tuileries at the bloody climax of the French Revolution; that a 'love of +the antique,' knit in bonds of lifelong friendship Winckelmann and +Cardinal Albani; that among the most salient of childhood's memories +should be Memnon's image and the Colossus of Rhodes; that an imaginative +girl of exalted temperament died of love for the Apollo Belvidere, and +that Carrara should win many a pilgrimage because its quarries have +peopled earth with grace. + +To a sympathetic eye there are few more pleasing tableaux than a gifted +sculptor engaged in his work. How absorbed he is!--standing erect by the +mass of clay,--with graduated touch moulding into delicate undulations or +expressive lines the inert mass; now stepping back to see the effect, now +bending forward, almost lovingly, to add a master indentation or detach a +thin layer; and so, hour after hour, working on, every muscle in action, +each perception active, oblivious of time, happy in the gradual +approximation, under patient and thoughtful manipulation, of what was a +dense heap of earth, to a form of vital expression or beauty. + +Much has been said and written of the limits of sculpture; but it is the +sphere, rather than the art itself, which is thus bounded; and one of its +most glorious distinctions, like that of the human form and face, which +are its highest subject, is the vast possible variety within what seems, +at first thought, to be so narrow a field. That the same number and kind +of limbs and features should, under the plastic touch of genius, have +given birth to so many and totally diverse forms, memorable for ages, and +endeared to humanity, is in itself an infinite marvel, which vindicates, +as a beautiful wonder, the statuary's art from the more Protean rivalry of +pictorial skill. If we call to mind even a few of the sculptured creations +which are 'a joy for ever,' even to retrospection, haunting by their pure +individuality the temple of memory, permanently enshrined in heartfelt +admiration as illustrations of what is noble in man and woman, significant +in history, powerful in expression, or irresistible in grace,--we feel +what a world of varied interest is hinted by the very name of Sculpture. +Through it the most just and clear idea of Grecian culture is revealed. +The solemn mystery of Egyptian, and the grand scale of Assyrian, +civilization are best attested by the same trophies. How a Sphinx typifies +the land of the Pyramids and all its associations, mythological, +scientific, natural, and sacred,--its reverence for the dead, and its dim +and portentous traditions! and what a reflex of Nineveh's palmy days are +the winged lions exhumed by Layard! What more authentic tokens of mediæval +piety and patience exist than the elaborate and grotesque carvings of +Albert Dürer's day? The colossal Brahma in the temple of Elephanta, near +Bombay, is the visible acme of Asiatic superstition. And can an +illustration of the revival of art in the fifteenth century, so exuberant, +aspiring, and sublime, be imagined, to surpass the Day and Night, the +Moses, and other statues of Angelo? But such general inferences are less +impressive than the personal experience of every European traveller with +the least passion for the beautiful or reverence for genius. Is there any +sphere of observation and enjoyment, to such a one, more prolific of +individual suggestions than this so-called limited art? From the soulful +glow of expression in the inspired countenance of the Apollo, to the +womanly contours so exquisite in the armless figure of the Venus de +Milo,--from the aërial posture of John of Bologna's Mercury, to the +inimitable and firm dignity in the attitude of Aristides in the Museum of +Naples,--from the delicate lines which teach how grace can chasten nudity +in the Goddess of the Tribune at Florence, to the embodied melancholy of +Hamlet in the brooding Lorenzo of the Medici Chapel,--from the stone +despair, the frozen tears, as it were, of all bereaved maternity, in the +very bend of Niobe's body and yearning gesture, to the _abandon_ gleaming +from every muscle of the Dancing Faun,--from the stern brow of the +Knife-grinder, and the bleeding frame of the Gladiator, whereon are +written for ever the inhumanities of ancient civilization, to the +triumphant beauty, and firm, light, enjoyable aspect of Dannecker's +Ariadne,--from the unutterable joy of Cupid and Psyche's embrace, to the +grand authority of Moses,--how many separate phases of human emotion 'live +in stone'! What greater contrast to eye or imagination, in our knowledge +of facts, and in our consciousness of sentiment, can be exemplified, than +those so distinctly, memorably, and gracefully moulded in the apostolic +figures of Thorwaldsen, the Hero and Leander of Steinhaüser, the lovely +funereal monument, inspired by gratitude, which Rauch reared to Louise of +Prussia, Chantrey's Sleeping Children, Canova's Lions in St. Peter's, the +bas-reliefs of Ghiberti on the Baptistery doors at Florence, and Gibson's +Horses of the Sun? + +The last time Heine went out of doors, before succumbing to his fearful +malady, he says: 'With difficulty I dragged myself to the Louvre, and +almost sank down as I entered that magnificent hall where the ever-blessed +goddess of beauty, our beloved Lady of Milo, stands on her pedestal. At +her feet I lay long and wept so bitterly that a stone must have pitied me. +The goddess looked compassionately on me, but at the same time +disconsolately, as if she would say: Dost thou not see that I have no +arms, and thus cannot help thee?' + +Have you ever strolled from the inn at Lucerne, on a pleasant afternoon, +along the Zurich road, to the old General's garden, where stands the +colossal lion designed by Thorwaldsen, to keep fresh the brave renown of +the Swiss guard who perished in defence of the royal family of France +during the massacre of the Revolution? Carved from the massive sandstone, +the majestic animal, with the fatal spear in his side, yet loyal in his +vigil over the royal shield, is a grand image of fidelity unto death. The +stillness, the isolation, the vivid creepers festooning the rocks, the +clear mirror of the basin, into which trickle pellucid streams, reflecting +the vast proportions of the enormous lion, the veteran Swiss, who acts as +_cicerone_, the adjacent chapel with its altar-cloth wrought by one of the +fair decendants of the Bourbon king and queen for whom these victims +perished, the hour, the memories, the admixture of Nature and Art, convey +a unique impression, in absolute contrast with such white effigies, for +instance, as in the dusky precincts of Santa Croce droop over the +sepulchre of Alfieri, or with the famous bronze boar in the Mercato Nuovo +of Florence, or the ethereal loveliness of that sweet scion of the English +nobility, moulded by Chantrey in all the soft and lithe grace of +childhood, holding a contented dove to her bosom. + +Even as the subject of taste, independently of historical diversities, +sculpture presents every degree of the meretricious, the grotesque, and +the beautiful,--more emphatically, because more palpably, than is +observable in painting. The inimitable Grecian standard is an immortal +precedent; the mediæval carvings embody the rude Teutonic truthfulness; +where Canova provoked comparison with the antique, as in the Perseus and +Venus, his more gross ideal is painfully evident. How artificial seems +Bernini in contrast with Angelo! How minutely expressive are the terra +cotta images of Spain! What a climax of absurdity teases the eye in the +monstrosities in stone which draw travellers in Sicily to the eccentric +nobleman's villa, near Palermo! Who does not shrink from the French +allegory, and horrible melodrama, of Roubillac's monument to Miss +Nightingale, in Westminster Abbey? How like Horace Walpole to dote on Ann +Conway's canine groups! We actually feel sleepy as we examine the little +black marble Somnus of the Florence Gallery, and electrified with the +first sight of the Apollo, and won to sweet emotion in the presence of +Nymphs, Graces, and the Goddess of Beauty, when, shaped by the hand of +genius, they seem the ethereal types of that + + 'Common clay ta'en from the common earth, + Moulded by God and tempered by the tears + Of angels to the perfect form of woman.' + +Calm and fixed as is the natural language of Sculpture, it is the artistic +illustration of life's normal activity and character in the economy not +less than in the ideal and heroic phase. 'Our statues,' says one of the +quaint personages of Richter's _Titan_, 'are no idle, dawdling citizens, +but all drive a trade. Such as are caryates hold up houses; and heathen +water-gods labour at the public fountains, and pour out water into the +pitchers of the maidens. Such as are angels bear up baptismal vessels.' + +Yet the distinctive element in the pleasure afforded by sculpture is +tranquillity,--a quiet, contemplative delight; somewhat of awe chastens +admiration; a feeling of peace hallows sympathy; and we echo the poet's +sentiment,-- + + 'I feel a mighty calmness creep + Over my heart, which can no longer borrow + Its hues from chance or change,--those children of to-morrow.' + +It is this fixedness and placidity, conveying the impression of fate, +death, repose, or immortality, which render sculpture so congenial as +commemorative of the departed. Even quaint wooden effigies, like those in +St. Mary's Church at Chester, with the obsolete peaked beards, ruffs, and +broadswords, accord with the venerable associations of a mediæval tomb; +while marble figures, typifying Grief, Poetry, Fame, or Hope, brooding +over the lineaments of the illustrious dead, seem, of all sepulchral +decorations, the most apt and impressive. We remember, after exploring the +plain of Ravenna on an autumn day, and rehearsing the famous battle in +which the brave young Gaston de Foix fell, how the associations of the +scene and story were defined and deepened as we gazed on the sculptured +form of a recumbent knight in armour, preserved in the academy of the old +city; it seemed to bring back and stamp with brave renown for ever the +gallant soldier who so long ago perished there in battle. In Cathedral and +Parthenon, under the dome of the Invalides, in the sequestered parish +church or the rural cemetery, what image so accords with the sad reality +and the serene hope of humanity, as the adequate marble personification on +sarcophagus and beneath shrine, in mausoleum or on turf-mound? + + 'His palms enfolded on his breast, + There is no other thought express'd + But long disquiet merged in rest.' + +In truth, it is for want of comprehensive perception that we take so +readily for granted the limited scope of this glorious art. There is in +the Grecian mythology alone a remarkable variety of character and +expression, as perpetuated by the statuary; and when to her deities we add +the athletes, charioteers, and marble portraits, a realm of diverse +creations is opened. Indeed, to the average modern mind, it is the statues +of Grecian divinities that constitute the poetic charm of her history; +abstractly, we regard them with the poet:-- + + 'Their gods? what were their gods? + There's Mars, all bloody-haired; and Hercules, + Whose soul was in his sinews; Pluto, blacker + Than his own hell; Vulcan, who shook his horns + At every limp he took; great Bacchus rode + Upon a barrel; and in a cockle-shell + Neptune kept state; then Mercury was a thief; + Juno a shrew; Pallas a prude, at best; + And Venus walked the clouds in search of lovers; + Only great Jove, the lord and thunderer, + Sat in the circle of his starry power + And frowned "I will!" to all.' + +Not in their marble beauty do they thus ignobly impress us,--but calm, +fair, strong, and immortal. 'They seem,' wrote Hazlitt, 'to have no +sympathy with us, and not to want our admiration. In their faultless +excellence, they appear sufficient to themselves.' + +In the sculptor's art, more than on the historian's page, lives the most +glorious memory of the classic past. A visit to the Vatican by torchlight +endears even these poor traditional deities for ever. + + On lofty ceilings vivid frescoes glow, + Auroras beam, + The steeds of Neptune through the waters go, + Or Sibyls dream. + + As in the flickering torchlight shadows weaved + Illusions wild, + Methought Apollo's bosom slightly heaved, + And Juno smiled. + + Aërial Mercuries in bronze upspring, + Dianas fly, + And marble Cupids to the Psyches cling + Without a sigh. + +The absence of complexity in the language and intent of sculpture is +always obvious in the expositions of its votaries. In no class of men have +we found such distinct and scientific views of Art. One lovely evening in +spring we stood with Bartolini beside the corpse of a beautiful child. +Bereavement in a foreign land has a desolation of its own, and the +afflicted mother desired to carry home a statue of her loved and lost. We +conducted the sculptor to the chamber of death, that he might superintend +the casts from the body. No sooner did his eyes fall upon it, than they +glowed with admiration and filled with tears. He waved the assistants +aside, clasped his hands, and gazed spell-bound upon the dead child. Its +brow was ideal in contour, the hair of wavy gold, the cheeks of angelic +outline. 'How beautiful!' exclaimed Bartolini; and drawing us to the +bedside, with a mingled awe and intelligence, he pointed out how the +rigidity of death coincided, in this fair young creature, with the +standard of Art;--the very hands, he declared, had stiffened into lines of +beauty; and over the beautiful clay we thus learned, from the lips of a +venerable sculptor, how intimate and minute is the cognizance this noble +art takes of the language of the human form. Greenough would unfold by the +hour the exquisite relation between function and beauty, organization and +use, tracing therein a profound law and an illimitable truth. No more +genial spectacle greeted us in Rome than Thorwaldsen at his Sunday-noon +receptions;--his white hair, kindly smile, urbane manners, and +unpretending simplicity, gave an added charm to the wise and liberal +sentiments he expressed on Art, reminding us, in his frank eclecticism, of +the spirit in which Humboldt cultivated science, and Sismondi history. Nor +less indicative of this clear apprehension was the thorough solution we +have heard Powers give, over the mask taken from a dead face, of the +problem, how its living aspect was to modify its sculptured reproduction; +or the original views expressed by Palmer as to the treatment of the eyes +and hair in marble. + +Appropriate and inspiring as are statues as memorials of character, in no +department of art is there more need of a pure and just sense of the +appropriate than in the choice of subject, locality, and treatment in +statuary embellishment. Many greatly-endeared human benefactors cannot +thus be wisely or genially celebrated. Of late years there has been a +mania on the subject; and even popular sentiment recognized the +impropriety of setting up a statue in the marketplace, of pious, retiring +Izaak Walton. + +Shelley used to say that a Roman peasant is as good a judge of sculpture +as the best academician or anatomist. It is this direct appeal, this +elemental simplicity, which constitutes the great distinction and charm of +the art. There is nothing evasive and mysterious; in dealing with form and +expression through features and attitude, average observation is a +reliable test. The same English poet was right in declaring that the Greek +sculptors did not find their inspiration in the dissecting-room; yet upon +no subject has criticism displayed greater insight on the one hand and +pedantry on the other, than in the discussion of these very +_chefs-d'oeuvre_ of antiquity. While Michael Angelo was at Rome when the +Laocoön was discovered, hailed it as 'the wonder of Art,' and scholars +identified the group with a famous one described by Pliny, Canova thought +that the right arm of the father was not in its right position, and the +other restorations in the work have all been objected to. Goëthe +recognized a profound sagacity in the artist. 'If,' he wrote, 'we try to +place the bite in some different position, the whole action is changed, +and we find it impossible to conceive one more fitting; the situation of +the bite renders necessary the whole action of the limbs.' And another +critic says, 'In the group of the Laocoön, the breast is expanded and the +throat contracted to show that the agonies that convulse the frame are +borne in silence.' In striking contrast with such testimonies to the +scientific truth to Nature in Grecian Art, was the objection I once heard +an American backwoods mechanic make to this celebrated work. He asked why +the figures were seated in a row on a dry-goods box, and declared that the +serpent was not of a size to coil round so small an arm as the child's +without breaking its vertebræ. So disgusted was Titian with the critical +pedantry elicited by this group, that, in ridicule thereof, he painted a +caricature,--three monkeys writhing in the folds of a little snake. + +Few statues at Rome excite the imagination, apart from intrinsic beauty, +like that of Pompey, at whose base, tradition says, 'great Cæsar fell.' It +was discovered lying across the boundary line of two estates, and claimed +by both proprietors. Shrewd Cardinal Spada decided the head belonged to +one, and the body to another. It was decapitated, and sold in fragments +for a small sum, and by this device was added to his famous collection, by +the wily churchman. + +Yet, despite the jargon of connoisseurship, against which Byron, while +contemplating the Venus de Medici, utters so eloquent an invective, +sculpture is a grand, serene, and intelligible art,--more so than +architecture and painting,--and, as such, justly consecrated to the heroic +and the beautiful in man and history. It is pre-eminently commemorative. +How the old cities of Europe are peopled to the imagination, as well as +the eye, by the statues of their traditional rulers or illustrious +children, keeping, as it were, a warning sign, or a sublime vigil, silent, +yet expressive, in the heart of busy life and through the lapse of ages! +We could never pass Duke Cosmo's imposing effigy in the old square of +Florence, without the magnificent patronage and the despotic perfidy of +the Medicean family being revived to memory with intense local +association,--nor note the ugly mitred and cloaked papal figures, with +hands extended, in the mockery of benediction, over the beggars in the +piazzas of Romagna, without Ranke's frightful picture of church abuses +reappearing, as if to crown these brazen forms with infamy. There was +always a gleam of poetry--however sad--on the most foggy day, in the +glimpse afforded from our window, in Trafalgar Square, of that patient +horseman, Charles the Martyr. How alive old Neptune sometimes looked, by +moonlight, in Rome, as we passed his plashing fountain. And those German +poets--Goëthe, Schiller, and Jean Paul,--what to modern eyes were +Frankfort, Stuttgart, and Baireuth, unconsecrated by their endeared forms? +The most pleasant association Versailles yielded us of the Bourbon dynasty +was that inspired by Jeanne d'Arc, graceful in her marble sleep, as +sculptured by Marie d'Orléans; and the most impressive token of Napoleon's +downfall we saw in Europe was his colossal image intended for the square +of Leghorn, but thrown permanently on the sculptor's hands by the waning +of his proud star. The statue of Heber, to Christian vision, hallows +Calcutta. The Perseus of Cellini breathes of the months of artistic +suspense, inspiration, and experiment so graphically described in that +clever egotist's memoirs. One feels like blessing the grief-bowed figures +at the tomb of the Princess Charlotte, so truly do their attitudes express +our sympathy with the love and the sorrow her name excites. Would not +Sterne have felt a thrill of complacency, had he beheld his tableau of the +Widow Wadman and Uncle Toby so genially embodied by Ball Hughes? What more +spirited symbol of prosperous conquest can be imagined than the gilded +horses of St. Mark's? How natural was Michael Angelo's exclamation, +'March!' as he gazed on Donatello's San Giorgio, in the Church of San +Michele,--one mailed hand on a shield, bare head, complete armour, and the +foot advanced, like a sentinel who hears the challenge, or a knight +listening for the charge! Tenerani's Descent from the Cross, in the +Torlonia Chapel, outlives in remembrance the brilliant assemblies of that +financial house. The outlines of Flaxman, essentially statuesque, seem +alone adequate to illustrate to the eye the great mediæval poet, whose +verse seems often cut from stone in the quarries of infernal destiny. How +grandly sleep the lions of Canova at Pope Clement's tomb! + +A census of the statues of the world, past and present, would indicate an +enormous marble population: in every Greek and Roman house, temple, public +square, cemetery, these effigies abounded. According to Pliny the number +of memorable statues in Athens exceeded three thousand; the number brought +to Rome from conquered provinces was so great that the record seems +incredible; add to these the countless statues we know to have been +destroyed, the innumerable fragmentary images encountered in Italy, and +the variety of modern works--from those which people the cathedral roof to +those which adorn private galleries and favourite studios,--and the mind +is bewildered by the extent not less than the beauty of the products of +the chisel. + +We have sometimes wondered that some æsthetic philosopher has not analyzed +the vital relation of the arts to each other, and given a popular +exposition of their mutual dependence. Drawing from the antique has long +been an acknowledged initiation for the limner; and Campbell, in his terse +description of the histrionic art, says that therein 'verse ceases to be +airy thought, and sculpture to be dumb.' How much of their peculiar +effects did Talma, Kemble, and Rachel owe to the attitudes, gestures, and +drapery of the Grecian statues! Kean adopted the 'dying fall' of General +Abercrombie's figure in St. Paul's as the model of his own. Some of the +memorable scenes and votaries of the drama are directly associated with +the sculptor's art,--as, for instance, the last act of _Don Giovanni_, +wherein the expressive music of Mozart breathes a pleasing terror in +connection with the spectral nod of the marble horseman; and Shakspeare +has availed himself of this art, with beautiful wisdom, in that melting +scene where remorseful love pleads with the motionless heroine of the +_Winter's Tale_,-- + + 'Her natural posture! + Chide me, dear stone, that I may say, indeed, + Thou art Hermione; or rather thou art she, + In thy not chiding: for she was as tender + As infancy and grace.' + +Garrick imitated to the life, in _Abel Drugger_, the vacant stare peculiar +to Nollekens, the sculptor; and Colley Cibber's father was a devotee of +the chisel, and adorned Chatsworth with freestone Sea-Nymphs. + +In view of the great historical value, comparative authenticity, and +possible significance and beauty of busts, this department of sculpture +has a peculiar interest and charm. The most distinct idea we have of the +Roman emperors, even in regard to their individual characters, is derived +from their busts at the Vatican and elsewhere. The benignity of Trajan, +the animal development of Nero, and the classic vigour of young Augustus, +are best apprehended through these memorable effigies which Time has +spared and Art transmitted. And a similar permanence and distinctness of +impression associate most of our illustrious moderns with their sculptured +features; the ironical grimace of Voltaire is perpetuated by Houdon's +bust; the sympathetic intellectuality of Schiller by Dannecker's; Handel's +countenance is familiar through the elaborate chisel of Roubillac; +Nollekens moulded Sterne's delicate and unimpassioned but keen +physiognomy, and Chantrey the lofty cranium of Scott. Who has not blessed +the rude but conscientious artist who carved the head of Shakspeare, +preserved at Stratford? How quaintly appropriate to the old house in +Nuremberg is Albert Dürer's bust over the door! Our best knowledge of +Alexander Hamilton's aspect is obtained from the expressive marble head of +him by that ardent republican sculptor, Ceracchi. It was appropriate for +Mrs. Damer, the daughter of a gallant field-marshal, to portray in marble, +as heroic idols, Fox, Nelson, and Napoleon. We were never more convinced +of the intrinsic grace and solemnity of this form of 'counterfeit +presentment' than when exploring the Baciocchi _palazzo_ at Bologna. In +the centre of a circular room, lighted from above, and draped as well as +carpeted with purple, stood on a simple pedestal the bust of Napoleon's +sister, thus enshrined after death by her husband. The profound stillness, +the relief of this isolated head against a mass of dark tints, and its +consequent emphatic individuality, made the sequestered chamber seem a +holy place, where communion with the departed, so spiritually represented +by the exquisite image, appeared not only natural, but inevitable. Our +countryman, Powers, has eminently illustrated the possible excellence of +this branch of Art. In mathematical correctness of detail, unrivalled +finish of texture, and with these, in many cases, the highest +characterization, busts from his hand have an absolute artistic value, +independent of likeness, like a portrait by Vandyke or Titian. When the +subject is favourable, his achievements in this regard are memorable, and +fill the eye and mind with ideas of beauty and meaning undreamed of by +those who consider marble portraits as wholly imitative and mechanical. +Was there ever a human face which so completely reflected inward +experience and individual genius as the bust which haunts us throughout +Italy, broods over the monument in Santa Croce, gazes pensively from +library niche, seems to awe the more radiant images of boudoir and +gallery, and sternly looks melancholy reproach from the Ravenna tomb? + + 'The lips, as Cumæ's cavern close; + The cheeks, with fast and sorrow thin; + The rigid front, almost morose, + But for the patient hope within; + Declare a life whose course hath been + Unsullied still, though still severe, + Which, through the wavering days of sin, + Kept itself icy chaste and clear.' + +National characters become, as it were, household gods through the +sculptor's portrait; the duplicates of Canova's head of Napoleon seem as +appropriate in the _salons_ and shops of France, as the heads of +Washington and Franklin in America, or the antique images of Scipio +Africanus and Ceres in Sicily, and Wellington and Byron in London. + +It is to us a source of noble delight, that with these permanent trophies +of the sculptor's art may now be mingled our national fame. Twenty years +ago, the address in Murray's Guide-Book,--_Crawford, an American Sculptor, +Piazza Barberini_,--would have been unique; now that name is enrolled on +the list of the world's benefactors in the patrimony of Art. Greenough, by +his pen, his presence, and his chisel, gave an impulse to taste and +knowledge in sculpture and architecture not destined soon to pass away; no +more eloquent and original advocate of the beautiful and the true in the +higher social economies has blest our day; his Cherubs and Medora overflow +with the poetry of form; his essays are a valuable legacy of philosophic +thought. The Greek Slave of Powers was invariably surrounded by visitors +at the London World's Fair and the Manchester Exhibition. Story's +Cleopatra was the nucleus of charmed observation at Sydenham. The Pearl +Diver of Paul Akers is his own most beautiful monument. Palmer has sent +forth from his isolated studio at Albany a series of ideal busts, of a +pure type of original and exquisite beauty; and many others might be named +who have honourably illustrated an American claim to distinction in an art +eminently republican in its perpetuation of national worth, and the +identity of its highest achievements with social progress. + + + + +BRIDGES. + + 'I stood on the bridge at midnight, + As the clocks were striking the hour, + And the moon rose over the city, + Behind the dark church-tower. + And like those waters rushing + Among the wooden piers, + A flood of thoughts came o'er me, + That filled my eyes with tears.' + LONGFELLOW. + + +Instinctively, Treason, in this vast land, aimed its first blow at the +Genius of Communication,--the benign and potent means and method of +American civilization and nationality. The great problem Watt and Fulton, +Clinton and Morse, so gloriously solved, a barbaric necessity thus reduced +back to chaos; and not the least sad and significant of the bulletins +whereby the most base of civic mutinies found current record, is that +entitled _Destruction of the Bridges_; and (melancholy contrast!) +simultaneously we hear of constructive energy in the same direction, on +the Italian peninsula,--an engineer having submitted to Victor Emmanuel +proposals for throwing a bridge across the Straits of Messina, 'binding +Scylla to Charybdis, and thus clinching Italian unity with bonds of +iron.'[46] Bonds of nationality, in more than a physical sense, indeed, +are bridges; even cynical Heine found an endeared outlook to his native +Rhine on the bastion of a familiar bridge. Tennyson makes one an essential +feature of his English summer-picture, wherein for ever glows the sweet +image of the 'Gardener's Daughter;' and Bunyan found no better similitude +for Christian's passage from Time to Eternity than the 'river where there +is no bridge.' + +The primitive need, the possible genius, the science, and the sentiment of +a bridge, endear its aspect and associations beyond those of any other +economical structure. There is, indeed, something genially picturesque +about a mill, as Constable's pencil and Tennyson's muse have aptly +demonstrated; there is an artistic miracle possible in a sculptured gate, +as those of Ghiberti so elaborately evidence; science, poetry, and human +enterprise consecrate a lighthouse; sacred feelings hallow a spire, and +mediæval towers stand forth in noble relief against the sunset sky; but +around none of these familiar objects cluster the same thoroughly human +associations which make a bridge attractive to the sight and memory. In +its most remote suggestion it typifies man's primal relation to Nature, +his first instinctive effort to circumvent or avail himself of her +resources; indeed, he might take his hint of a bridge from Nature +herself,--her fallen monarchs of the forest athwart a stream, 'the +testimony of the rocks,' the curving shores, cavern roofs, and pendent +branches, and the prismatic bow in the heavens, which a poet well calls 'a +bridge to tempt the angels down.' + +A bridge of the simplest kind is often charmingly effective as a +landscape-accessory; there is a short plank one in a glen of the White +Mountains, which, seen through a vista of woodland, makes out the picture +so aptly that it is sketched by every artist who haunts the region. What +lines of grace are added to the night-view of a great city by the lights +on the bridges! What subtile principles enter into the building of such a +bridge as the Britannia, where even the metallic contraction of the +enormous tubes is provided for by supporting them on cannon-balls! How +venerable seems the most graceful of Tuscan bridges, when we remember it +was erected in the fifteenth century,--and the Rialto, when we think of +Shylock and Portia; and how signal an instance is it of the progressive +application of a true principle in science, that the contrivance whereby +the South Americans bridge the gorges of their mountains, by a pendulous +causeway of twisted osiers and bamboo,--one of which, crossed by Humboldt, +was a hundred and twenty feet long,--is identical with that which sustains +the magnificent structure over the Niagara river! The chasms and streams +thus spanned by a rope of seven strands have a fairy-like aspect. Artist +and engineer alike delight in this feature of tropical scenery. In some +cases the stone structures built by the Spaniards, and half destroyed by +earthquakes, are repaired with bamboo, and often with an effective grace. +In a bridge the arch is triumphal, both for practical and commemorative +ends. Unknown to the Greeks and Egyptians, even the ancient Romans, it is +said by modern architects, did not appreciate its true mechanical +principle, but ascribed the marvellous strength thereof to the cement +which kept intact their semicircle. In Cæsar's _Commentaries_, the bridge +transit and vigilance form no small part of military tactics,--boats and +baskets serving the same purpose in ancient and modern warfare. The church +of old originated and consecrated bridges; religion, royalty, and art +celebrate their advent; the opening of Waterloo Bridge is the subject of +one of the best pictures of a modern English painter; and Cockney visitors +to the peerless bridge of Telford still ask the guide where the Queen +stood at its inauguration. But it is when we turn from the historical and +scientific to the familiar and personal that we realize the spontaneous +interest attached to a bridge. It is as a feature of our native landscape, +the goal of habitual excursions, the rendezvous, the observatory, the +favourite haunt or transit, that it wins the gaze and the heart. There the +musing angler sits content; there the echoes of the horse's hoofs rouse to +expectancy the dozing traveller; there the glad lover dreams, and the +despairing wretch seeks a watery grave, and the song of the poet finds a +response in the universal heart,-- + + 'How often, oh, how often, + In the days that have gone by, + Have I stood on that bridge at midnight, + And gazed on the wave and sky!' + +One of the most primitive tokens of civilization is a bridge; and yet no +artificial object is more picturesquely associated with its ultimate +symbols. The fallen tree whereon the pioneer crosses a stream in the +wilderness is not more significant of human isolation than the fragmentary +arch in an ancient city of the vanished home of thousands. Thus, by its +necessity and its survival, a bridge suggests the first exigency and the +last relic of civilized life. The old explorers of our Western Continent +record the savage expedients whereby watercourses were passed,--coils of +grape-vine carried between the teeth of an aboriginal swimmer and attached +to the opposite bank, a floating log, or, in shallow streams, a series of +stepping-stones; and the most popular historian of England, when +delineating to the eye of fancy the hour of her capital's venerable decay, +can find no more impressive illustration than to make a broken arch of +London Bridge the observatory of the speculative reminiscent. + +The bridge is, accordingly, of all economical inventions, that which is +most inevitable to humanity, signalizing the first steps of man amid the +solitude of Nature, and accompanying his progress through every stage of +civic life; its crude form makes the wanderer's heart beat in the lonely +forest, as a sign of the vicinity or the track of his kind; and its +massive remains excite the reverent curiosity of the archæologist, who +seeks among the ruins of Art for trophies of a bygone race. Few +indications of Roman supremacy are more striking than the unexpected sight +of one of those bridges of solid and symmetrical masonry which the +traveller in Italy encounters, when emerging from a mountain-pass or a +squalid town upon the ancient highway. The permanent method herein +apparent suggests an energetic and pervasive race whose constructive +instinct was imperial; such an evidence of their pathway over water is as +suggestive of national power as the evanescent trail of the savage is of +his casual domain. In the bridge, as in no other structure, use combines +with beauty by an instinctive law; and the stone arch, more or less +elaborate in detail, is as essential now to the function and the grace of +a bridge, as when it was first thrown, invincible and harmonious, athwart +the rivers Cæsar's legions crossed. + +As I stood on the scattered planks which afford a precarious foothold amid +the rapids of St. Anthony, methought these frail bridges of hewn timber +accorded with the reminiscence of the missionary pioneer who discovered +and named the picturesque waters, more than an elaborate and ancient +causeway. Even those long, inelegant structures which lead the pedestrian +over our own Charles river, or the broad inlets of the adjacent bay, have +their peculiar charm as the scene of many a gorgeous autumnal sunset and +many a patient 'constitutional' walk. It is a homely but significant +proverb, 'Never find fault with the bridge that carries you safe over.' +What beautiful shadows graceful bridges cast, when the twilight deepens +and the waves are calm! How mysteriously sleep the moonbeams there! What a +suggestive vocation is a toll-keeper's! Patriarchs in this calling will +tell of methodical and eccentric characters known for years. + +Bridges have their legends. There is one in Lombardy whence a jilted lover +sprang with his faithless bride as she passed to church with her new +lover; it is yet called the 'Bridge of the Betrothed.' On the mountain +range, near Serravazza, in Tuscany, is a natural bridge which unites two +of the lofty peaks; narrow and aërial, it is believed by the peasantry to +have miraculously formed itself to give foothold to the Madonna as she +passed over the mountains, and it bears her name. An old traveller, +describing New York amusements, tells us of a favourite ride from the city +to the suburban country, and says,--'In the way there is a bridge, about +three miles distant, which you always pass as you return, called the +'Kissing Bridge,' where it is part of the etiquette to salute the lady who +has put herself under your protection.'[47] A curious lawsuit was lately +instituted by the proprietor of a menagerie who lost an elephant by a +bridge giving way beneath his unaccustomed weight; the authorities +protested against damages, as they never undertook to give safe passage to +so large an animal. + +The office of a bridge is prolific of metaphor, whereof an amusing +instance is Boswell's comparison of himself, when translating Paoli's talk +to Dr. Johnson, to a 'narrow isthmus connecting two continents.' It has +been aptly said of Dante's great poem, that, in the world of letters, it +is a mediæval bridge over that vast chasm which divides classical from +modern times. All conciliating authors bridge select severed +intelligences, and even national feeling: as Irving's writings brought +more near to each other the alienated sympathies of England and America, +and Carlyle made a trysting-place for British and German thought; as +Sydney Smith's talk threw a suspension-bridge from Conservative to +Reformer, and Lord Bacon's (in the hour of bitter alienation between Crown +and Commons) 'reconciling genius spanned the dividing stream of party.' + +How quaint, yet effective, Jean Paul's illustration of an alienated state +of human feeling, '_the drawbridge of countenances_, whereupon once the +two souls met, stood suddenly raised, high in air.' Nor less significant +is a modern historian's definition of an Englishman, as 'an island +surrounded by a misty and tumultuous sea of prejudices and hatreds, +generally unapproachable, and at all times _utterly repudiative of a +bridge_.' Pontifex Maximus has long ceased to wear the great spiritual +title whose unchallenged attribute was to bridge the chasm between earth +and heaven. What humour may be evolved from a nose-bridge, _Punch_ in his +dealings with the great Duke, and Sterne in his record of Tristram +Shandy's infancy, have notably chronicled; while the infinite delicacy of +tension in the bridge of Paganini's violin, indicates the relation thereof +to exquisite gradations of sound. 'The Mohammedans,' says Scott, 'have a +fanciful idea that the believer, in his passage to Paradise, is under the +necessity of passing barefoot over a bridge composed of red-hot iron +plates. All the pieces of paper which the Moslem has preserved during his +life, lest some holy thing being written upon them might be profaned, +arrange themselves between his feet and the burning metal, and so save him +from injury.' In the 'Vision' of Mirza, a bridge is typical of human life. +That was a ludicrous incident related of poor, obstinate, crazy George the +Third,--that encountering some boys near a bridge early one morning, he +asked them what bridge it was. 'The Bridge of Kew,' they replied; +whereupon the king proposed and gave three vociferous cheers for the +Bridge of Kew, as a newly-discovered wonder. Amusing, too, was the warm +dispute of the two errant lake poets whether a certain acutely-angular +bridge in the Alps was called great A from its resemblance to that letter, +or as the first of its kind. + +How isolated and bewildered are villagers, when, after a tempest, the news +spreads that a freshet has carried away the bridge! Every time we shake +hands we make a human bridge of courtesy or love; and that was a graceful +fancy of one of our ingenious writers to give expression to his thoughts +in _Letters from under a Bridge_. With an eye and an ear for Nature's +poetry, the gleam of lamps from a bridge, the figures that pass and repass +thereon, the rush and the lull of waters beneath, the perspective of the +arch, the weather-stains on the parapet, the sunshine and the +cloud-shadows around, are phases and sounds fraught with meaning and +mystery. + +It is an acknowledged truth in the philosophy of Art, that Beauty is the +handmaid of Use; and as the grace of the swan and the horse results from a +conformation whose _rationale_ is movement, so the pillar that supports +the roof, and the arch that spans the current, by their serviceable +fitness, wed grace of form to wise utility. The laws of architecture +illustrate this principle copiously; but in no single and familiar product +of human skill is it more striking than in bridges; if lightness, +symmetry, elegance, proportion, charm the ideal sense, not less are the +economy and adaptation of the structure impressive to the eye of science. +Perhaps the ideas of use and beauty, of convenience and taste, in no +instance coalesce more obviously; and therefore, of all human inventions, +the bridge lends the most undisputed charm to the landscape. It is one of +those symbols of humanity which spring from and are not grafted upon +Nature; it proclaims her affinity with man, and links her spontaneous +benefits with his invention and his needs; it seems to celebrate the +stream over which it rises, and to wed the wayward waters to the order and +the mystery of life. There is no hint of superfluity or impertinence in a +bridge; it blends with the wildest and the most cultivated scene with +singular aptitude, and is a feature of both rural and metropolitan +landscape that strikes the mind as essential. A striking confirmation of +this idea offers itself in a recent critic's definition of a classic style +of writing: 'A bridge,' he says, '_completes_ river landscape; it +_stiffens_ the scenery which was before too soft, too delicate, too +vegetable. Just such is the effect of pure style in literary art.'[48] The +most usual form has its counterpart in those rocky arches which flood and +fire have excavated or penned up in many picturesque regions--the segments +of caverns or the ribs of strata,--so that, without the instinctive +suggestion of the mind itself, Nature furnishes complete models of a +bridge whereon neither Art nor Science can improve. Herein the most +advanced and the most rude peoples own a common skill; bridges, of some +kind, and all adapted to their respective countries, being the familiar +invention of savage necessity and architectural genius. The explorer finds +them in Africa as well as the artist in Rome; swung, like huge hammocks of +ox-hide, over the rapid streams of South America; spanning in fragile +cane-platforms the gorges of the Andes; crossing vast chasms of the +Alleghanies with the slender iron viaduct of the American railways; and +jutting, a crumbling segment of the ancient world, over the yellow Tiber: +as familiar on the Chinese tea-caddy as on Canaletto's canvas; as +traditional a local feature of London as of Florence; as significant of +the onward march of civilization in Wales to-day as in Liguria during the +middle ages. Where men dwell and wander, and water flows, these beautiful +and enduring, or curious and casual expedients are found, as memorable +triumphs of architecture, crowned with historical associations, or as +primitive inventions that unconsciously mark the first faltering steps of +humanity in the course of empire; for, on this continent, where the French +missionary crossed the narrow log supported by his Indian convert in the +midst of a wilderness, massive stone arches shadow broad streams that flow +through populous cities; and the history of civilization may be traced +from the loose stones whereon the lone settler fords the watercourse, to +such grand, graceful, and permanent monuments of human prosperity as the +elaborate and ancient stone bridges of European capitals. + +When we look forth upon a grand or lovely scene of Nature--mountain, +river, meadow, and forest,--what a fine central object, what an harmonious +artificial feature of the picture, is a bridge, whether rustic and simple, +a mere rude passage-way over a brook, or a curve of gray stone throwing +broad shadows upon the bright surface of a river! Nor less effective is +the same object amid the crowded walls, spires, streets, and +chimney-stacks of a city. There the bridge is the least conventional +structure, the suggestive point, the favourite locality; it seems to +reunite the working-day world with the freedom of Nature; it is, perhaps, +the one spot in the dense array of edifices and thoroughfares which 'gives +us pause.' There, if anywhere, our gaze and our feet linger; people have a +relief against the sky, as they pass over it; artists look patiently +thither; lovers, the sad, the humorous, and the meditative, stop there to +observe and to muse; they lean over the parapet and watch the flowing +tide; they look thence around as from a pleasant vantage-ground. The +bridge, in populous old towns, is the rendezvous, the familiar landmark, +the traditional nucleus of the place, and perhaps the only picturesque +framework in all those marts and homes, more free, open, and suggestive of +a common lot than temple, square, or palace; for there pass and repass +noble and peasant, regal equipage and humble caravan; children plead to +stay, and veterans moralize there; the privileged beggar finds a +standing-place for charity to bless; a shrine hallows or a sentry guards, +history consecrates or art glorifies; and trade, pleasure, or battle, +perchance, lend to it the spell of fame. The dearest associations of a +life are described in one of Jean Ingelow's most elaborate poems, as +revolving around and identified with 'Four Bridges:'-- + + 'Our brattling river tumbles through the one; + The second spans a shallow, weedy brook; + Beneath the others, and beneath the sun, + Lie two long stilly pools, and on their breasts + Picture their wooden piles, encased in swallows' nests. + And round about them grows a fringe of weeds, + And then a floating crown of lily flowers, + And yet within small silver-budded weeds; + But each clear centre evermore embowers + A deeper sky, where stooping, you may see + The little minnows twirling restlessly.' + +In the neighbourhood of Aberdeen, the picturesque bridge over the Don, +with its adjacent rocks, trees, and deep, dark stream, is known as the +'brig of Balgownie.' Thomas the Rhymer uttered many prophecies about +'Balgownie's brig black wa';' and it figures among the scenes of Byron's +boyhood. Let any one recall his sojourn in a foreign city, and conjure to +his mind's eye the scenes, and prominent to his fancy, distinct to his +memory, will be the bridge. He will think of Florence as intersected by +the Arno, and with the very name of that river reappears the peerless +grace of the Ponte Santa Trinità with its moss-grown escutcheons and +aërial curves. He will recall the Pont du Gard with the vicinage of +Nismes; the Pont Neuf, at Paris, with its soldiers and priests, its +boot-blacks and grisettes, the gay streets on one side, and the studious +quarter on the other, typifies and concentrates for him the associations +of the French capital; and what a complete symbol of Venice--its canals, +its marbles, its mysterious polity, its romance of glory and woe--is a +good photograph of the Bridge of Sighs! Her history is, indeed, singularly +identified with bridges. One, as her exchange, is permanently associated +with the palmiest days of mediæval commerce; another with the darker +records of her criminal law; while on one of her bridges, Sarpi, the +'terrible friar' Paolo was waylaid and nearly killed by Papal assassins, +whence dates the most efficient protest against ecclesiastical tyranny. + +The history of Rome is written on her bridges. The Ponte Rotto is Art's +favourite trophy of her decay; two-thirds of it has disappeared; and the +last Pope has ineffectively repaired it, by a platform sustained by iron +wire: yet who that has stood thereon in the sunset, and looked from the +dome of St. Peter's to the islands projected at that hour so distinctly +from the river's surface, glanced along the flushed dwellings upon its +bank, with their intervals of green terraces; or gazed, in the other +direction, upon the Cloaca of Tarquin, Vesta's dome, and the Aventine +Hill, with its palaces, convents, vineyards, and gardens, has not felt +that the Ponte Rotto was the most suggestive observatory in the Eternal +City? The Ponte Molle brings back Constantine and his vision of the Cross; +and the statues on Sant' Angelo mutely attest the vicissitudes of +ecclesiastical eras. + +England boasts no monument of her modern victories so impressive as the +bridge named for the most memorable of them. The best view of Prague and +its people is from the long series of stone arches which span the Moldau. +The solitude and serenity of genius are rarely better realized than by +musing of Klopstock and Gessner, Lavater and Zimmermann, on the Bridge of +Rapperschwyl on the Lake of Zurich, where they dwelt and wrote or died. +From the Bridge of St. Martin we have the first view of Mont Blanc. The +Suspension Bridge at Niagara is an artificial wonder as great, in its +degree, as the natural miracle of the mighty cataract which thunders for +ever at its side; while no triumph of inventive economy could more aptly +lead the imaginative stranger into the picturesque beauties of Wales than +the extraordinary tubular bridge across the Menai Strait. The +aqueduct-bridge at Lisbon, the long causeway over Cayuga Lake in our own +country, and the bridge over the Loire at Orléans, are memorable in every +traveller's retrospect. + +But the economical and the artistic interest of bridges is often surpassed +by their historical suggestions, almost every vocation and sentiment of +humanity being intimately associated therewith. The Rialto at Venice and +the Ponte Vecchio at Florence, are identified with the financial +enterprise of the one city and the goldsmiths' skill of the other: one was +long the Exchange of the 'City of the Sea,' and still revives the image of +Shylock and the rendezvous of Antonio; while the other continues to +represent mediæval trade in the quaint little shops of jewellers and +lapidaries. One of the characteristic religious orders of that era is +identified with the ancient bridge which crosses the Rhone at Avignon, +erected by the 'Brethren of the Bridge,' a fraternity instituted in an age +of anarchy expressly to protect travellers from the bandits, whose +favourite place of attack was at the passage of rivers. The builder of the +old London Bridge, Peter Colechurch, is believed to have been attached to +this same order; he died in 1176, and was buried in a crypt of the little +chapel on the second pier, according to the habit of the fraternity. For +many years a market was held on this bridge; it was often the scene of +war; it stayed the progress of Canute's fleet; at one time destroyed by +fire, and at another carried away by ice; half ruined in one era by the +bastard Faulconbridge, and at another the watchword of civil war, when the +cry resounded, 'Cade hath gotten London Bridge!' and Wat Tyler's rebels +convened there. Elizabeth and her peerless courtiers have floated, in +luxurious barges and splendid attire, by its old piers, and the heads of +traitors rotted in the sun upon its venerable battlements. Only sixty +years ago a portion of the original structure remained;[49] it was once +covered with houses; Peter the Dutchman's famous water-wheels plashed at +its side; from the dark street and projected gables noted tavern-signs +vibrated in the wind. The exclusive thoroughfare from the city to Kent and +Surrey, what ceremonial and scenes has it not witnessed,--royal entrances +and greetings, rites under the low brown arches of the old chapel, revelry +in the convenient hostels, traffic in the crowded mart, chimes from the +quaint belfry, the tragic triumph of vindictive law in the gory heads upon +spikes! The veritable and minute history of London Bridge would illustrate +the civic and social annals of England; and romance could scarce invent a +more effective background for the varied scenes and personages such a +chronicle would exhibit than the dim local perspective, when, ere any +bridge stood there, the ferryman's daughter founded, with the tolls, a +House of Sisters, subsequently transformed into a college of priests. By a +law of Nature, thus do the elements of civilization cluster around the +place of transit; thus do the courses of the water indicate the direction +and nucleus of emigration,--from the vast lakes and mighty rivers of +America, whereby an immense continent is made available to human +intercourse, and therefore to material unity, to the point where the +Thames was earliest crossed and spanned. More special historical and +social facts may be found attached to every old bridge. In war, +especially, heroic achievement and desperate valour have often consecrated +these narrow defiles and exclusive means of advance and retreat:-- + + 'When the goodman mends his armour, + And trims his helmet's plume, + When the goodwife's shuttle merrily + Goes flashing through the loom, + With weeping and with laughter + Still is the story told, + How well Horatius kept the bridge + In the good old days of old.' + +The bridge of Darius spanned the Bosphorus,--of Xerxes, the +Hellespont,--of Cæsar, the Rhine,--and of Trajan, the Danube; while the +victorious march of Napoleon has left few traces so unexceptionably +memorable as the massive causeways of the Simplon. Cicero arrested the +bearer of letters to Catiline on the Pons Milonis, built in the time of +Sylla on the ancient Via Flaminia; and by virtue of the blazing cross +which he saw in the sky from the Ponte Molle the Christian emperor +Constantine conquered Maxentius. The Pont du Gard near Nismes, and the St. +Esprit near Lyons, were originally of Roman construction. During the war +of freedom, so admirably described by our countryman, whereby rose the +Dutch Republic, the Huguenots, at the siege of Valenciennes, we are told, +'made forays upon the monasteries for the purpose of procuring supplies, +and the broken statues of the dismantled churches were used to build a +bridge across an arm of the river, which was called, in derision, the +Bridge of Idols.' + +But a more memorable historical bridge is admirably described in another +military episode of this favourite historian,--that which Alexander of +Parma built across the Scheldt, whereby Antwerp was finally won for Philip +of Spain. Its construction was a miracle of science and courage; and it +became the scene of one of the most terrible tragedies and the most +fantastic festivals which signalize the history of that age, and +illustrate the extraordinary and momentous struggle for religious liberty +in the Netherlands. Its piers extended five hundred feet into the +stream,--connected with the shore by boats, defended by palisades, +fortified parapets, and spiked rafts; cleft and partially destroyed by the +volcanic fire-ship of Gianebelli, a Mantuan chemist and engineer, whereby +a thousand of the best troops of the Spanish army were instantly killed, +and their brave chief stunned,--when the hour of victory came to the +besiegers, it was the scene of a floral procession and Arcadian banquet, +and 'the whole extent of its surface from the Flemish to the Brabant +shore' was alive with 'war-bronzed figures crowned with flowers.' 'This +magnificent undertaking has been favourably compared with the celebrated +Rhine bridge of Julius Cæsar. When it is remembered, however, that the +Roman work was performed in summer, across a river only half as broad as +the Scheldt, free from the disturbing action of the tides, and flowing +through an unresisting country, while the whole character of the +structure, intended only to serve for the single passage of an army, was +far inferior to the massive solidity of Parma's bridge, it seems not +unreasonable to assign the superiority to the general who had surmounted +all the obstacles of a northern winter, vehement ebb and flow from the +sea, and enterprising and desperate enemies at every point.'[50] + +It was at the bridge of Pinos, where the Moors and Christians had so +fiercely battled, that Columbus, after pleading his cause in vain at the +court, hastening away with despondent steps, was overtaken by the queen's +messenger; recalled, and provided with the substantial aid that led to his +momentous discovery. It was in a pavilion in the middle of the bridge +across the Seine at Montereau, that the Dauphin, afterwards Charles the +Seventh, invited the Duke of Burgundy to meet him in colloquy; and there +the latter met his death. The Bridge of Lodi is one of the great landmarks +of Napoleon's career; and the Bridge of Concord no insignificant landmark +of the American Revolutionary War. Over the Melos at Smyrna is a bridge +which is a rendezvous for camels, and has been justly called 'the central +point of the commerce of Asia Minor.' + +We have a memorable illustration of the historic interest of bridges, in +the elaborate annals of the Pont Neuf.[51] Although in importance it has +long since been superseded by other elegant causeways, for centuries it +was the centre of Paris life,--of the trade and pastime, of the scandal +and the violences, of the shows and _émeutes_, so that the record of what +occurred there is an epitome of political and social history. It was the +rendezvous of dog-clippers and ballad-singers, of _bravi_ and gallants, of +the quack and the courtezan, of student, soldier, artist, and gossip. 'The +heart of Paris beat there,' says the historian of the Pont Neuf, 'from the +seventeenth century;' the statue of Henry IV. alone made it the nucleus of +political associations; it was alike the scene of Cellini's adventure and +Sterne's sentiment. Catherine de Medicis laid its first stone. Henry IV. +completed it; guillotines, _cafés_, and altars have signalized its +extremities or parapets. La Fronde was there inaugurated; there the +discharge of cannon proclaimed the flight of the king in '91; its pavement +was bloody with the massacres of September; the first Napoleon there first +tried his hand against the revolution; it was the scene of an Englishman's +famous bet and a parrot's famous lingo. Huguenot, royalist, priest, +executioner, _gamin_, assassin, thief, dandy, nun, hero, and +actress,--procession, tryst, ambush, faction, and farce,--murder, song, +_bon-mot_, watchword,--the tragic, the holy, and the hopeless in life, +alternate in the story of the Pont Neuf. The Countess du Barri, as a +child, 'the pretty little angel,' was a vendor there; and an old epigram +identified her career with bridges,--her birth with the Pont au Choux, her +childhood with the Pont Neuf, her triumph with the Pont Royale, and her +end with the Pont aux Dames. + +Even the fragile bridges of our own country during the Revolution, have an +historical importance in the story of war. The 'Great Bridge' across the +Elizabeth river, nine miles from Norfolk in Virginia; the floating bridge +at Ticonderoga; that which spanned Stony Brook in New Jersey; and many +others, are identified with strife or stratagem. What an effective object +in the distant landscape, to the _habitué_ of the Central Park in New +York, is the lofty bridge whereby the Croton aqueduct crosses the Harlaem +river, with its fifteen arches, its fourteen hundred feet of length, and +its span of nearly a thousand! How few of the multitude to whom King's +Bridge is a daily goal or transit, are cognizant of its historical +associations; yet the records of Manhattan Island declare that in 1692 +'His Excellency the Governor, out of great favour and good to the city,' +proposed the building of this bridge, and soon ordered that 'if Frederick +Phillipse will undertake the same, he shall have the preference of their +Majesties' grant (5th of King William and 3rd of Queen Mary), which was +subsequently confirmed to the lord of the manor of Phillipsburgh;' whereon +was born and lived Washington's first love--the beautiful Mary Phillipse. +Here was the barrier of the British, when they occupied New York Island in +the Revolution; while as far north as the Croton river extended the +neutral ground, the scene of Cooper's first American romance, the heroine +of which is this same fair but unresponsive enslaver of our peerless +chief's young affections. Here, in '75, Congress ordered a post +established to protect New York by land; two years later occurred the +sanguinary fight between the Continentals under Heath and the Hessians +under Knyphausen. The next year Cornwallis fixed his command at the same +border causeway; and in '81, when our army came near the spot to give the +French officers a view of the outposts, a brisk skirmish ensued, and a +number of our men were killed at long shot. King's Bridge was long the +rendezvous of freebooters in those unsettled times, and the rallying point +of the Cow-boys. Beautifully situated at the confluence of the Hudson and +Harlaem rivers, surrounded by high rolling hills, then thickly wooded and +crowned with forts, the region was originally selected as the site of New +Amsterdam, on account of its secure position. When Manhattan Island was +abandoned by the British in '76, Washington occupied King's Bridge as his +head-quarters. Indeed, from Trenton to Lodi, military annals have few more +fierce conflicts than those wherein the bridge of the battle-ground is +disputed; to cross one is often a declaration of war, and Rubicons abound +in history. + +There is probably no single problem, wherein the laws of science and +mechanical skill combine, which has so won the attention and challenged +the powers of inventive minds as the construction of bridges. The various +exigencies to be met, the possible triumphs to be achieved, the +experiments as to form, material, security, and grace, have been prolific +causes of inspiration and disappointment. In this branch of economy, the +mechanic and the mathematician fairly meet; and it requires a rare union +of ability in both vocations to arrive at original results in this sphere. +To invent a bridge, through the application of a scientific principle by a +novel method, is one of those projects which seem to fascinate +philosophical minds; in few have theory and practice been more completely +tested; and the history of bridges, scientifically written, would exhibit +as remarkable conflicts of opinion, trials of inventive skill, decision of +character, genius, folly, and fame, as any other chapter in the annals of +progress. How to unite security with the least inconvenience, permanence +with availability, strength with beauty,--how to adapt the structure to +the location, climate, use, and risks,--are questions which often invoke +all the science and skill of the architect, and which have increased in +difficulty with the advance of other resources and requisitions of +civilization. Whether a bridge is to cross a brook, a river, a strait, an +inlet, an arm of the sea, a canal, or a valley, are so many diverse +contingencies which modify the calculations and plans of the engineer. +Here liability to sudden freshets, there to overwhelming tides, now to the +enormous weight of railway-trains, and again to the corrosive influence of +the elements, must be taken into consideration; the navigation of waters, +the exigencies of war, the needs of a population, the respective uses of +viaduct, aqueduct, and roadway, have often to be included in the problem. +These considerations influence not only the method of construction, but +the form adopted and the material, and have given birth to bridges of +wood, brick, stone, iron, wire, and chain,--to bridges supported by piers, +to floating, suspension, and tubular structures, many of which are among +the remarkable trophies of modern science and the noblest fruits of the +arts of peace. Railways have created an entirely new species of bridge, to +enable a train to intersect a road, to cross canals in slanting +directions, to turn amid jagged precipices, and to cross arms of the sea +at a sufficient elevation not to interfere with the passage of +ships,--objects not to be accomplished by suspension-bridges because of +their oscillation, nor girder for lack of support, the desiderata being +extensive span with rigid strength, so triumphantly realized in the +tubular bridge. The day when the great Holyrood train, passing over the +Strait of Menai by this grand expedient, established the superiority of +this principle of construction, became a memorable occasion in the annals +of mechanical science, and immortalized the name of Stephenson. + +We find great national significance in the history of bridges in different +countries. Their costly and substantial grandeur in Britain accords with +the solid qualities of the race, and their elegance on the Continent with +the pervasive influence of art in Europe. It is a curious illustration of +the inferior economical and high intellectual development of Greece, that +the 'Athenians waded, when their temples were the most perfect models of +architecture;' and equally an evidence of the practical energy of the old +Romans, that their stone bridges often remain to this hour intact. Our own +incomplete civilization is manifest in the marvellous number of bridges +that annually break down, from negligent or unscientific construction; +while the indomitable enterprise of the people is no less apparent in some +of the longest, loftiest, most wonderfully constructed and sustained +bridges in the world. We have only to cross the Suspension Bridge at +Niagara, or gaze up to its aërial tracery from the river, or look forth +upon wooded ravines and down precipitous and umbrageous glens from the +Erie railway, to feel that in this, as in all other branches of mechanical +enterprise, our nation is as boldly dexterous as culpably reckless. In no +other country would so hazardous an experiment have been ventured as that +of an engineer on one of the most frequented lines of railroad in the +land, who, finding the bridge he was approaching on fire, bade the +passengers keep their seats, and dashed boldly through the flames ere the +main arch gave way! 'The vast majority of bridges in this country,' says a +recent writer, 'whether for railroads or for ordinary horse-travel, have +these elemental points:--1. Fragility. 2. Unendurably hideous ugliness. 3. +Great aptitude for catching fire. They are all built of wood, and must be +constantly patched and mended, and will rot away in a very few years. They +are enormous blots on the landscape, stretching as they do like long +unpainted boxes across the stream; like huge Saurian monsters with +ever-open jaws into which you rush, or walk, or drive, and are gobbled up +from all sight or sense of beauty. The dry timber of which they are built +will catch fire from the mere spark of a locomotive, as in the case a few +years ago of that hideous bridge which had so long insulted the Hudson +river at Troy; and which was not only burned itself, but spread the +destroying flame to the best part of the town. These bridges deface all +the valleys of our land. The Housatonic, the Mohawk, the Lehigh, the +hundreds of small yet beautiful rivers which so delightfully diversify our +country, one and all suffer by the vile wooden-bridge system which has +nothing at all to plead in extenuation of its tasteless, expensive +existence. Every bridge in this country should be deprived of its heavy +roof; and if the exigencies of engineering required side-walls, they +should be plentifully perforated with open spaces. The more recent +railroad bridges are fortunately open bridges, or "viaducts," as it is +fashionable to call them, and the traveller, as in the case of the +Starucca viaduct on the Erie road, can both admire the engineering skill +and enjoy the scenery. The Connecticut valley is terribly disfigured by +these bridges; and a traveller from New Haven to Memphremagog will be +thoroughly impressed with this fact, which is the only drawback to the +pleasure of the route.' As an instance of ingenuity in this sphere, the +bridge which crosses the Potomac creek, near Washington, deserves notice. +The hollow iron arches which support this bridge also serve as conduits to +the aqueduct which supplies the city with water. + +Amid the mass of prosaic structures in London, what a grand exception to +the architectural monotony are her bridges! How effectually they have +promoted her suburban growth! 'The English,' wrote Rose, from Italy, 'are +Hottentots in architecture except that of bridges.' Canova thought the +Waterloo Bridge the finest in Europe; and, by a strangely-tragic +coincidence, this noble and costly structure is the favourite scene of +suicidal despair, wherewith the catastrophes of modern novels and the most +pathetic of city lyrics are indissolubly associated. Westminster Bridge is +as truly the Swiss Laboyle's monument of architectural genius, fortitude, +and patience, as St. Paul's is that of Wren; there Crabbe, with his poems +in his pocket, walked to and fro in a flutter of suspense the morning +before his fortunate application to Burke; and our own Remington's +bridge-enthusiasm involves a pathetic story. At Cordova, the bridge over +the Guadalquiver is a grand relic of Moorish supremacy. The oldest bridge +in England is that of Croyland in Lincolnshire; the largest crosses the +Trent in Staffordshire. Tom Paine designed a cast-iron bridge, but the +speculation failed, and the materials were subsequently used in the +beautiful bridge over the river Wear, in Durham county. There is a segment +of a circle six hundred feet in diameter in Palmer's bridge which spans +our own Piscataqua. It is said that the first edifice of the kind which +the Romans built of stone was the Ponte Rotto--begun by the Censor +Fulvius, and finished by Scipio Africanus and Lucius Mummius. Popes Julius +III. and Gregory XIV. repaired it; so that the fragment now so valued as +a picturesque ruin symbolizes both Imperial and Ecclesiastical rule. In +striking contrast with the reminiscences of valour hinted by ancient Roman +bridges, are the ostentatious Papal inscriptions which everywhere in the +States of the Church, in elaborate Latin, announce that this Pontiff +built, or that Pontiff repaired, these structures. + +The mediæval castle-moat and drawbridge have, indeed, been transferred +from the actual world to that of fiction, history, and art, except where +preserved as memorials of antiquity; but the civil importance which from +the dawn of civilization attached to the bridge is as patent to-day as +when a Roman emperor, a feudal lord, or a monastic procession went forth +to celebrate or consecrate its advent or completion; in evidence whereof, +we have the appropriate function which made permanently memorable the late +visit of Victoria's son to her American realms, in his inauguration of the +magnificent bridge bearing her name, which is thrown across the St. +Lawrence for a distance of only sixty yards less than two English +miles,--the greatest tubular bridge in the world. When the young prince, +amid the cheers of a multitude and the grand cadence of the national +anthem, finished the Victoria Bridge by giving three blows with a mallet +to the last rivet in the central tube, he celebrated one of the oldest, +though vastly advanced, triumphs of the arts of peace, which ally the +rights of the people and the good of human society to the representatives +of law and polity. + +One may recoil with a painful sense of material incongruity, as did +Hawthorne, when contemplating the noisome suburban street where Burns +lived; but all the humane and poetical associations connected with the +long struggle sustained by him, of 'the highest in man's soul against the +lowest in man's destiny,' recur in sight of the Bridge of Doon, and the +'Twa Brigs of Ayr,' whose 'imaginary conversations' he caught and +recorded; or that other bridge which spans a glen on the Auchinleck +estate, where the rustic bard first saw the Lass of Ballochmyle. The +tender admiration which embalms the name of Keats is also blent with the +idea of a bridge. The poem which commences his earliest published volume +was suggested, according to Milnes, as he 'loitered by the gate that leads +from the battery on Hampstead Heath to the field by Caenwood;' and the +young poet told his friend Clarke that the sweet passage, 'Awhile upon +some bending planks,' came to him as he hung 'over the rail of a +foot-bridge that spanned a little brook in the last field upon entering +Edmonton.' One of Wordsworth's finest sonnets was composed on Westminster +Bridge. To the meditative pedestrian, indeed, such places lure to +quietude; the genial Country Parson, whose _Recreations_ we have recently +shared, unconsciously illustrates this, as he speaks of the privilege men +like him enjoy, when free 'to saunter forth with a delightful sense of +leisure, and know that nothing will go wrong, although he should sit down +on the mossy parapet of the little one-arched bridge that spans the +brawling mountain-stream.' On that Indian-summer day when Irving was +buried, no object of the familiar landscape, through which, without +formality, and in quiet grief, so many of the renowned and the humble +followed his remains from the village church to the rural graveyard, wore +so pensive a fitness to the eye as the simple bridge over Sleepy-Hollow +Creek, near to which Ichabod Crane encountered the headless horseman,--not +only as typical of his genius, which thus gave a local charm to the scene, +but because the country-people, in their heartfelt wish to do him honour, +had hung wreaths of laurel upon the rude planks. There are few places in +Europe where the picturesque and historical associations of a bridge more +vividly impress the spectator than Sorrento; divided from the main land by +a gorge two hundred feet deep and fifty wide, the chasm is spanned by a +bridge which rests on double arches, built by the Romans; it is the +popular rendezvous, and, beheld on coming from some adjacent +orange-garden, resembles a picture,--the men with their crimson or brown +caps, and the women with jetty hair and eyes and enormous earrings, +cluster there in the centre of the most exquisite scenery. There is a +bridge across the Adige, at Verona, which used to be opened but once a +year, on account of the risk of injury--its span being prodigious; it was +long called the 'Holiday Bridge.' In Paris the change in the names of +bridges is historically significant: in 1817 'the bridge of Austerlitz +abdicated its name,' and became the bridge of the Jardin des Plantes. The +lofty bridge of Carignano, at Genoa, owes its existence to a quarrel +between two noblemen; and it is a favourite sacrificial spot to suicides +who have repeatedly thrown themselves therefrom headlong into the Strada +Servi. + +'The Baltimore and Ohio railroad company lose two of their admirable +bridges: one at Fairmount, over the Monongahela river, and the famous one +over the Cheat river,' wrote a late reporter from the scene of war in +Virginia. 'The latter was one of the most beautiful structures in the +United States, and, being placed amid scenery of unsurpassed grandeur, it +had already become a classic spot in the guide-book of American art. It +was vandalism fit for ingrates and traitors of the lowest type to destroy +what was at once so beautiful and useful a monument of taste and science.' + +Another fine landscape effect produced by a bridge is at Spoleto, in the +Roman States; the ten brick arches that so picturesquely span the romantic +valley, have carried the water for centuries into the old city. The +magnificent bridge by which Madrid is approached, is a grand feature in +the adjacent landscape; and its striking photograph a noble souvenir of +the Spanish capital. The most awful bridge imagination ever created is +that described by Milton, whereby Satan's 'sea should find a shore:'-- + + 'Sin and Death amain + Following his track, such was the will of Heaven, + Pav'd after him a broad and beaten way + O'er the dark abyss, whose boiling gulf + Tamely endured a bridge of wond'rous length, + From hell continued, reaching th' utmost orb + Of this frail world; by which the spirits perverse + With easy intercourse pass to and fro + To tempt and punish mortals.' + +Fragments, as well as entire roadways and arches of natural bridges, are +more numerous in rocky, mountainous, and volcanic regions than is +generally supposed; the action of the water in excavating cliffs, the +segments of caverns, the accidental shapes of geological formations, often +result in structures so adapted for the use and like the shape of bridges +as to appear of artificial origin. In the States of Alabama and Kentucky, +especially, we have notable instances of these remarkable freaks of +Nature; there is one in Walker county, of the former State, which, as a +local curiosity, is unsurpassed; and one in the romantic county of +Christian, in the latter State, makes a span of seventy feet with an +altitude of thirty; while the vicinity of the famous Alabaster Mountain of +Arkansas boasts a very curious and interesting formation of this species. +Two of these natural bridges are of such vast proportions and symmetrical +structure that they rank among the wonders of the world, and have long +been the goals of pilgrimage, the shrines of travel. Their structure would +hint the requisites, and their forms the lines of beauty, desirable in +architectural prototypes. Across Cedar creek, in Rockbridge county, +Virginia, a beautiful and gigantic arch, thrown by elemental forces and +shaped by time, extends. It is a stratified arch, whence you gaze down two +hundred feet upon the flowing water; its sides are rock, nearly +perpendicular. Popular conjecture reasonably deems it the fragmentary arch +of an immense limestone cave; its loftiness imparts an aspect of +lightness, although at the centre it is nearly fifty feet thick, and so +massive is the whole that over it passes a public road, so that by +keeping in the middle one might cross unaware of the marvel. To realize +its height it must be viewed from beneath; from the side of the creek it +has a Gothic aspect; its immense walls, clad with forest-trees, its dizzy +elevation, buttress-like masses, and aërial symmetry, make this sublime +arch one of those objects which impress the imagination with grace and +grandeur all the more impressive because the mysterious work of +Nature,--eloquent of the ages, and instinct with the latent forces of the +universe. Equally remarkable, but in a diverse style, is the Giant's +Causeway, whose innumerable black stone columns rise from two to four +hundred feet above the water's edge in the county of Antrim, on the north +coast of Ireland. These basaltic pillars are for the most part pentagonal, +whose five sides are closely united, not in one conglomerate mass, but +articulated so aptly that to be traced the ball and socket must be +disjointed. + +The effect of statuary upon bridges is memorable. The Imperial statues +which line that of Berlin form an impressive array; and whoever has seen +the figures on the bridge of Sant' Angelo at Rome, when illuminated on a +Carnival night, or the statues upon Santa Trinità at Florence, bathed in +moonlight, and their outlines distinctly revealed against sky and water, +cannot but realize how harmoniously sculpture may heighten the +architecture of the bridge. More quaint than appropriate is pictorial +embellishment; a beautiful Madonna or local saint placed midway or at +either end of a bridge, especially one of mediæval form and fashion, seems +appropriate; but elaborate painting, such as one sees at Lucerne, strikes +us as more curious than desirable. The bridge which divides the town and +crosses the Reuss is covered, yet most of the pictures are +weather-stained; as no vehicles are allowed, foot-passengers can examine +them at ease. They are in triangular frames, ten feet apart; but few have +any technical merit. One series illustrates Swiss history; and the +Kapellbrücke has the pictorial life of the Saint of the town; while the +Mile Bridge exhibits a quaint and rough copy of the famous 'Dance of +Death.' + +In Switzerland what fearful ravines and foaming cascades do bridges cross! +sometimes so aërial, and overhanging such precipices, as to justify to the +imagination the name superstitiously bestowed on more than one, of the +Devil's Bridge; while from few is a more lovely effect of near water seen +than the 'arrowy Rhone,' as we gaze down upon its 'blue rushing,' beneath +the bridge at Geneva. Perhaps the varied pictorial effects of bridges, at +least in a city, are nowhere more striking than at Venice, whose five +hundred, with their mellow tint and association with palatial architecture +and streets of water, especially when revealed by the soft and radiant +hues of an Italian sunset, present outlines, shapes, colours, and +contrasts so harmonious and beautiful as to warm and haunt the imagination +while they charm the eye. It is remarkable, as an artistic fact, how +graciously these structures adapt themselves to such diverse +scenes,--equally, though variously, picturesque amid the sturdy foliage +and wild gorges of the Alps, the bustle, fog, and mast-forest of the +Thames, and the crystal atmosphere, Byzantine edifices, and silent canals +of Venice. + +Whoever has truly felt the aërial perspective of Turner has attained a +delicate sense of the pictorial significance of the bridge; for, as we +look through his floating mists, we descry, amid Nature's most evanescent +phenomena, the span, the arch, the connecting lines or masses whereby this +familiar image seems to identify itself not less with Nature than with +Art. Among the drawings which Arctic voyagers have brought home, many a +bridge of ice, enormous and symmetrical, seems to tempt adventurous feet +and to reflect a like form of fleecy cloud-land; daguerreotyped by the +frost in miniature, the same structures may be traced on the window-pane; +printed on the fossil and the strata of rock, in the veins of bark and the +lips of shells, or floating in sunbeams, an identical design appears; and, +on a summer morning, as the eye carefully roams over a lawn, how often do +the most perfect little suspension-bridges hang from spear to spear of +herbage, their filmy span embossed with glittering dewdrops![52] + + +THE END. + + + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] 'A recent London paper advertises a genuine _thesaurus_ of ancient +tavern signs and other curiosities at auction, collected during a long +life by some curious antiquary. The catalogue covered an extensive and +unique collection for a history of ancient and modern inns, taverns, and +coffee-houses, in town and country (numbering upwards of 850 signs), +formed with unwearied diligence and vast outlay during a lifetime; and +illustrated with upwards of 2,500 ancient and modern engravings, +comprising topographical and antiquarian subjects, early views of London, +caricatures, humorous and satirical subjects, portraits of celebrities +whose names have been adopted as signs, characters remarkable for their +eccentricities, actors and actresses; others illustrating ancient sports +and pastimes, etchings, wood-cuts, and numerous others, plain and +coloured, many of great rarity; also 415 drawings in water-colours, sepia, +and pen and ink, and numerous copies from scarce engravings and old +paintings; together with extensive antiquarian, local, and biographical +notices (both printed and in MS.) on signs and their origin, merriments +and witticisms in prose and verse, tales, traditions, legends, and +remarkable incidents, singular inscriptions on tap-room windows and walls, +anecdotes of landlords, guests, visitors, writers, &c.' + +[2] Count Pecchio. + +[3] Alexander Smith. + +[4] Prescott's Robertson's _Charles Fifth_, vol. 1, p. 355. + +[5] Brooks's _History of Medford_. + +[6] A. Trollope. + +[7] _A Month in England._ + +[8] _Life and Letters of John Winthrop_, by Robert C. Winthrop, p. 306. + +[9] 'I would not,' observes Washington Irving in one of his letters, 'give +an hour's conversation with Wilkie about paintings, in his earnest but +precise and original enthusiasm, for all the enthusiasm and declamation of +the common run of amateurs and artists.' + +[10] One of the recently-discovered gems of pictorial art in Florence is +the 'coach-house picture;' so called from being a fresco on a stable-wall; +and under the head of 'Romance of a Portrait,' the London _Athenæum_ +publishes a statement which seems to show conclusively that the famous +portrait of Addison at Holland House, which has been copied and engraved +time and again, and has been mentioned as authentic by Macaulay, is in +fact not a portrait of Addison, but a portrait of Sir Andrew Fountaine, of +Narford Hall, Norfolk, vice-chamberlain to Queen Caroline, and the +successor of Sir Isaac Newton in the wardenship of the Mint. + +[11] Another current tradition is the following:--'So great was the +excitement of the Roman populace against the condemnation of Beatrice, +that on her way to the scaffold three attempts were made, by concerted +bands of young men, to rescue her from the officers' hands. On the eve of +the fatal day she sat meditating her doom so intently, that for some time +she did not notice a young man who had bribed the jailer to admit him into +the cell for the purpose of making a sketch of her. Her appearance is thus +described:--"Beatrice had risen from her miserable pallet, but, unlike the +wretched inmate of a dungeon, resembled a being from a brighter sphere. +Her large brown eyes were of liquid softness, her forehead broad and +clear, her countenance of angelic purity, mysteriously beautiful. Around +her head a fold of white muslin had been carelessly wrapped, from whence +in rich luxuriance fell her fair and waving hair. Profound sorrow and +recent bodily anguish imparted an air of touching sensibility to her +lovely features. Suddenly turning, she discovered a stranger seated with +pencil and paper in hand looking earnestly at her--it was Guido Reni. She +demanded who he was, and what he did there; the frank young artist told +his name and object, when, after a moment's hesitation, Beatrice replied, +'Signor Guido, your great name and my sad story may make my portrait +interesting, and the picture will awaken compassion if you write on one of +its angles the word _innocent_.'" Thus was birth given to an inspired +picture, which, to contemplate, is itself worth a visit to Rome; which, +once seen, haunts the memory as a supernatural mystery--as the beautiful +apparition of sublimated suffering.' + +[12] Bulwer's _Strange Story_. + +[13] 'Mohammedanism had been the patron of physical science; paganizing +Christianity not only repudiated it, but exhibited towards it sentiments +of contemptuous disdain and hatred; hence physicians were viewed by the +Church with dislike, and regarded as atheists by the people, who had been +taught that cures must be wrought by relics of martyrs and bones of +saints: for each disease there was a saint. Already it was apparent that +the Saracenic movement would aid in developing the intelligence of +barbarian Western Europe, through Hebrew physicians, in spite of the +opposition encountered from theological ideas imported from Constantinople +and Rome.'--Draper's _Intellectual Development of Europe_, p. 414. + +[14] + + 'When fainting Nature called for aid, + And hovering Death prepared the blow, + His vigorous remedy displayed + The power of Art without the show. + In Misery's darkest caverns known, + His useful help was ever nigh; + Where hopeless Anguish poured his groan, + Or lonely Want retired to die. + No summons mocked by chill delay, + No petty gains disdained by pride; + The modest wants of every day, + The toil of every day supplied.' + +[15] _Shakspeare's Medical Knowledge_, by Charles W. Stearns, M.D. New +York: D. Appleton and Co. + +[16] 'Country dances' were taught in France, in 1684, by Isaac, an +Englishman.--D. + +[17] Which has long ceased to exist. + +[18] _Essays of Elia._ + +[19] In 1860. + +[20] _Friends in Council._ + +[21] 'By the working of the apparatus for the administration of justice, +they make their profits; and their welfare depends on its being so worked +as to bring them profits, rather than on its being so worked as to +administer justice.'--_Herbert Spencer._ + +[22] Lockhart's _Life of Scott_. + +[23] Sir T. Browne. + +[24] Deut. xxxiv. 6. + +[25] Tennyson's _In Memoriam_. + +[26] _Dei Sepolchri_, di Ugo Foscolo. + +[27] A recent advocate for cremation thus suggests the process:--'On a +gentle eminence, surrounded by pleasant grounds, stands a convenient, +well-ventilated chapel, with a high spire or steeple. At the entrance, +where some of the mourners might prefer to take leave of the body, are +chambers for their accommodation. Within the edifice are seats for those +who follow the remains to the last; there is also an organ and a gallery +for choristers. In the centre of the chapel, embellished with appropriate +emblems and devices, is erected a shrine of marble, somewhat like those +which cover the ashes of the great and mighty in our old cathedrals, the +openings being filled with prepared glass. Within this--a sufficient space +intervening--is an inner shrine, covered with bright, non-radiating metal, +and within this again is a covered sarcophagus of tempered fire-clay, with +one or more longitudinal slits near the top, extending its whole length. +As soon as the body is deposited therein, sheets of flame, at an immensely +high temperature, rush through the long apertures from end to end; and +acting as a combination of a modified oxyhydrogen blowpipe, with the +reverberatory furnace, utterly and completely consume and decompose the +body in an incredibly short space of time; even the large quantity of +water it contains is decomposed by the extreme heat, and its elements, +instead of retarding, aid combustion, as is the case in fierce +conflagrations. The gaseous products of combustion are conveyed away by +flues, and means being adopted to consume anything like smoke, all that is +observed from the outside is occasionally a quivering transparent ether +floating away from the high steeple to mingle with the atmosphere.' + +[28] 'How can we reconcile this pious and faithful remembrance with the +character of a nation generally thought so frivolous and inconstant? Let +this amiable, affectionate, but slandered people send the stranger and the +traveller to this place. These carefully tended flowers, these tombs, will +speak their defence.'--_Memoir of Harriet Preble_, p. 70. + +[29] _Atlantic Monthly_, vol. ii., p. 139. + +[30] 'I am now engaged,' wrote Mr. Severn, the artist-friend who watched +over Keats in his last hours, 'on a picture of the poet's grave. The +classical story of _Endymion_ being the subject of his principal poem, I +have introduced a young shepherd sleeping against the headstone, with his +flock about him; while the moon from behind the pyramid illuminates his +figure, and serves to realize the poet's favourite theme, in the presence +of his grave. This interesting incident is not fanciful, but is what I +actually saw, one autumn evening, at Monte Tertanio, the year following +the poet's death.' + +[31] Ticknor's _Spanish Literature_. + +[32] W. L. Symonds. + +[33] 'News-letters were written by enterprising individuals in the +metropolis, and sent to rich persons who subscribed for them; and then +circulated from family to family, and doubtless enjoyed a privilege which +has not descended to their printed contemporary--the newspaper,--of never +becoming stale. Their authors compiled them from materials picked up in +the gossip of the coffee-houses.'--Draper's _History of the Intellectual +Development of Europe_, p. 509. + +[34] _Jockey's Intelligencer_, 1683. + +[35] Burke's influence upon journalism was still more direct. While +preparing for Dodsley 'An Account of the European Settlements in America,' +he was led by his researches to suggest a periodical which should +chronicle the important literary, political, and social facts of the year. +Such was the origin of the _Annual Registers_. The first volume appeared +in 1759. For several years it was edited by Burke, is still regularly +published, and has been imitated in similar publications elsewhere, having +finally initiated and established the historical element of journalism. + +[36] The following return of the numbers daily printed by the principal +Paris journals is taken from M. Didot's pamphlet on the fabrication of +paper. It may be regarded as official: _Presse_, 40,000; _Siècle_, 35,000; +_Constitutionel_, 25,000; _Moniteur_, 24,000; _Patrie_, 18,000; _Pays_, +14,000; _Débats_, 9,000; _Assemblée Nationale_, 5,000; _Univers_, 3,500; +_Union_, 3,500; _Gazette de France_, 2,500; _Gazettes de Tribunaux_, +2,500. These journals are all printed in five offices; and the quantity of +paper they annually consume amounts to more than four millions of pounds. + +[37] Bryant. + +[38] _Blackwood's Magazine_, vol. xxviii., p. 8. + +[39] Draper's _Intellectual Development of Europe_. + +[40] Dr. Sprague's _Annals of the American Pulpit_ is full of delineations +and anecdotes of prominent preachers. Their energy, zeal, and courage are +viewed in connection with their racy individual peculiarities. What some +of the Methodists had and have to endure and suffer, is indicated by a +direction from a circuit, in want of a preacher, to the Western +Conference: 'Be sure you send us a good swimmer,'--it being the duty of +the minister in that region frequently to swim wide and bridgeless streams +to keep his appointments. + +[41] _Mémoires de Rochambeau._ + +[42] Rev. Archibald Carlyle's _Autobiography_. + +[43] The _Warden_, _Barchester Towers_, and _Framley Parsonage_, by A. +Trollope; _Vincenzo_, by Ruffini; _Mademoiselle La Quintinie_, par Geo. +Sand; _La Maudit_, par L'Abbe ----; _Adam Bede_; _Chronicles of +Carlingford_, &c. + +[44] Dr. J. W. Draper. + +[45] Calvert's _Scenes and Thoughts in Europe_. + +[46] Recent Italian journals speak of a project to construct a bridge over +the Straits of Messina, to unite Sicily with the mainland. The bridge +proposed will be a suspension one, on a new system, the chains being of +cast-steel, and strong enough to support the weight of several railway +trains. + +[47] _Travels through the Middle Settlements of North America, in +1759-60._ By Rev. Andrew Burnaby. + +[48] Bagehot. + +[49] Sir Astley Cooper's nephew presented to Dr. Valentine Mott, the late +eminent New York surgeon, an elegantly-wrought case of amputating +instruments, the handles of which are made of the wood and the blades of +iron from old London Bridge, whose oak timbers were laid in 1176. + +[50] _History of the Netherlands_, vol. i., p. 182. + +[51] _Histoire du Pont Neuf_, par Edouard Fournier. + +[52] 'The invention of the Suspension Bridge, by Sir Samuel Brown, sprung +from the sight of a spider's web hanging across the path of the inventor, +observed on a morning walk, when his mind was occupied with the idea of +bridging the Tweed.' + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Collector, by Henry T. Tuckerman + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43929 *** |