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+Project Gutenberg's Narrative And Miscellaneous Papers, by Thomas De Quincey
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Narrative And Miscellaneous Papers
+       Volumes I and II, Complete
+
+Author: Thomas De Quincey
+
+
+Release Date: July, 2004 [EBook #6148]
+This file was first posted on November 19, 2002
+Last Updated: June 15, 2013
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NARRATIVE AND MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Anne Soulard, Charles Franks and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+NARRATIVE AND MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS.
+
+By Thomas De Quincey.
+
+
+Contents Of Volume I.
+
+   The Household Wreck
+   The Spanish Nun
+   Flight Of A Tartar Tribe
+
+
+Contents Of Volume II.
+
+   System Of The Heavens As Revealed By Lord Rosse's Telescopes
+   Modern Superstition
+   Coleridge And Opium-Eating
+   Temperance Movement
+   On War
+   The Last Days Of Immanuel Kant
+
+
+
+
+
+
+VOLUME I.
+
+
+
+
+THE HOUSEHOLD WRECK.
+
+
+'To be weak,' we need not the great archangel's voice to tell us, '_is
+to be miserable_.' All weakness is suffering and humiliation, no matter
+for its mode or its subject. Beyond all other weakness, therefore, and
+by a sad prerogative, as more miserable than what is most miserable
+in all, that capital weakness of man which regards the _tenure_ of his
+enjoyments and his power to protect, even for a moment, the crown of
+flowers--flowers, at the best, how frail and few!--which sometimes
+settles upon his haughty brow. There is no end, there never will be
+an end, of the lamentations which ascend from earth and the rebellious
+heart of her children, upon this huge opprobrium of human pride--the
+everlasting mutabilities of all which man can grasp by his power or
+by his aspirations, the fragility of all which he inherits, and the
+hollowness visible amid the very raptures of enjoyment to every eye
+which looks for a moment underneath the draperies of the shadowy
+_present_, the hollowness, the blank treachery of hollowness, upon which
+all the pomps and vanities of life ultimately repose. This trite but
+unwearying theme, this impassioned common-place of humanity, is the
+subject in every age of variation without end, from the poet,
+the rhetorician, the fabulist, the moralist, the divine, and the
+philosopher. All, amidst the sad vanity of their sighs and groans, labor
+to put on record and to establish this monotonous complaint, which needs
+not other record or evidence than those very sighs and groans. What is
+life? Darkness and formless vacancy for a beginning, or something beyond
+all beginning--then next a dim lotos of human consciousness, finding
+itself afloat upon the bosom of waters without a shore--then a few sunny
+smiles and many tears--a little love and infinite strife--whisperings
+from paradise and fierce mockeries from the anarchy of chaos--dust and
+ashes--and once more darkness circling round, as if from the beginning,
+and in this way rounding or making an island of our fantastic
+existence,--_that_ is human life; _that_ the inevitable amount of man's
+laughter and his tears--of what he suffers and he does--of his motions
+this way and that way--to the right or to the left--backwards
+or forwards--of all his seeming realities and all his absolute
+negations--his shadowy pomps and his pompous shadows--of whatsoever he
+thinks, finds, makes or mars, creates or animates, loves, hates, or in
+dread hope anticipates;--so it is, so it has been, so it will be, for
+ever and ever.
+
+Yet in the lowest deep there still yawns a lower deep; and in the vast
+halls of man's frailty, there are separate and more gloomy chambers of
+a frailty more exquisite and consummate. We account it frailty that
+threescore years and ten make the upshot of man's pleasurable existence,
+and that, far before that time is reached, his beauty and his power
+have fallen among weeds and forgetfulness. But there is a frailty, by
+comparison with which this ordinary flux of the human race seems to have
+a vast duration. Cases there are, and those not rare, in which a
+single week, a day, an hour sweeps away all vestiges and landmarks of
+a memorable felicity; in which the ruin travels faster than the flying
+showers upon the mountain-side, faster 'than a musician scatters
+sounds;' in which 'it was' and 'it is not' are words of the self-same
+tongue, in the self-same minute; in which the sun that at noon beheld
+all sound and prosperous, long before its setting hour looks out upon
+a total wreck, and sometimes upon the total abolition of any fugitive
+memorial that there ever had been a vessel to be wrecked, or a wreck to
+be obliterated.
+
+These cases, though here spoken of rhetorically, are of daily
+occurrence; and, though they may seem few by comparison with the
+infinite millions of the species, they are many indeed, if they be
+reckoned absolutely for themselves; and throughout the limits of a whole
+nation, not a day passes over us but many families are robbed of their
+heads, or even swallowed up in ruin themselves, or their course turned
+out of the sunny beams into a dark wilderness. Shipwrecks and nightly
+conflagrations are sometimes, and especially among some nations,
+wholesale calamities; battles yet more so; earthquakes, the famine, the
+pestilence, though rarer, are visitations yet wider in their desolation.
+Sickness and commercial ill-luck, if narrower, are more frequent
+scourges. And most of all, or with most darkness in its train, comes the
+sickness of the brain--lunacy--which, visiting nearly one thousand in
+every million, must, in every populous nation, make many ruins in each
+particular day. 'Babylon in ruins,' says a great author, 'is not so sad
+a sight as a human soul overthrown by lunacy.' But there is a sadder
+even than _that_,--the sight of a family-ruin wrought by crime is even
+more appalling. Forgery, breaches of trust, embezzlement, of private
+or public funds--(a crime sadly on the increase since the example of
+Fauntleroy, and the suggestion of its great feasibility first made by
+him)--these enormities, followed too often, and countersigned for their
+final result to the future happiness of families, by the appalling
+catastrophe of suicide, must naturally, in every wealthy nation,
+or wherever property and the modes of property are much developed,
+constitute the vast majority of all that come under the review of public
+justice. Any of these is sufficient to make shipwreck of all peace and
+comfort for a family; and often, indeed, it happens that the desolation
+is accomplished within the course of one revolving sun; often the
+whole dire catastrophe, together with its total consequences, is both
+accomplished and made known to those whom it chiefly concerns within one
+and the same hour. The mighty Juggernaut of social life, moving onwards
+with its everlasting thunders, pauses not for a moment to spare--to
+pity--to look aside, but rushes forward for ever, impassive as the
+marble in the quarry--caring not for whom it destroys, for the how
+many, or for the results, direct and indirect, whether many or few.
+The increasing grandeur and magnitude of the social system, the more it
+multiplies and extends its victims, the more it conceals them; and for
+the very same reason: just as in the Roman amphitheatres, when they grew
+to the magnitude of mighty cities, (in some instances accommodating
+four hundred thousand spectators, in many a fifth part of that amount,)
+births and deaths became ordinary events, which, in a small modern
+theatre, are rare and memorable; and exactly as these prodigious
+accidents multiplied, _pari passu_, they were disregarded and easily
+concealed: for curiosity was no longer excited; the sensation attached
+to them was little or none.
+
+From these terrific tragedies, which, like monsoons or tornadoes,
+accomplish the work of years in an hour, not merely an impressive lesson
+is derived, sometimes, perhaps, a warning, but also (and this is of
+universal application) some consolation. Whatever may have been the
+misfortunes or the sorrows of a man's life, he is still privileged to
+regard himself and his friends as amongst the fortunate by comparison,
+in so far as he has escaped these wholesale storms, either as an actor
+in producing them, or a contributor to their violence--or even more
+innocently, (though oftentimes not less miserably)--as a participator in
+the instant ruin, or in the long arrears of suffering which they entail.
+
+The following story falls within the class of hasty tragedies, and
+sudden desolations here described. The reader is assured that every
+incident is strictly true: nothing, in that respect, has been altered;
+nor, indeed, anywhere except in the conversations, of which, though
+the results and general outline are known, the separate details have
+necessarily been lost under the agitating circumstances which produced
+them. It has been judged right and delicate to conceal the name of the
+great city, and therefore of the nation in which these events occurred,
+chiefly out of consideration for the descendants of one person concerned
+in the narrative: otherwise, it might not have been requisite: for it
+is proper to mention, that every person directly a party to the case has
+been long laid in the grave: all of them, with one solitary exception,
+upwards of fifty years.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was early spring in the year 17--; the day was the 6th of April; and
+the weather, which had been of a wintry fierceness for the preceding six
+or seven weeks--cold indeed beyond anything known for many years,
+gloomy for ever, and broken by continual storms--was now by a Swedish
+transformation all at once bright, genial, heavenly. So sudden and so
+early a prelusion of summer, it was generally feared, could not last.
+But that only made every body the more eager to lose no hour of an
+enjoyment that might prove so fleeting. It seemed as if the whole
+population of the place, a population among the most numerous in
+Christendom, had been composed of hybernating animals suddenly awakened
+by the balmy sunshine from their long winter's torpor. Through every
+hour of the golden morning the streets were resonant with female parties
+of young and old, the timid and the bold, nay, even of the most delicate
+valetudinarians, now first tempted to lay aside their wintry clothing
+together with their fireside habits, whilst the whole rural environs of
+our vast city, the woodlands, and the interminable meadows began daily
+to re-echo the glad voices of the young and jovial awaking once again,
+like the birds and the flowers, and universal nature, to the luxurious
+happiness of this most delightful season.
+
+Happiness do I say? Yes, happiness; happiness to me above all others.
+For I also in those days was among the young and the gay; I was healthy;
+I was strong; I was prosperous in a worldly sense! I owed no man a
+shilling; feared no man's face; shunned no man's presence. I held a
+respectable station in society; I was myself, let me venture to say it,
+respected generally for my personal qualities, apart from any advantages
+I might draw from fortune or inheritance; I had reason to think myself
+popular amongst the very slender circle of my acquaintance; and finally,
+which perhaps was the crowning grace to all these elements of happiness,
+I suffered not from the presence of _ennui_, nor ever feared to suffer:
+for my temperament was constitutionally ardent; I had a powerful
+animal sensibility; and I knew the one great secret for maintaining its
+equipoise, viz., by powerful daily exercise; and thus I lived in
+the light and presence, or, (if I should not be suspected of seeking
+rhetorical expressions, I would say,) in one eternal solstice of
+unclouded hope.
+
+These, you will say, were blessings; these were golden elements of
+felicity. They were so; and yet, with the single exception of my
+healthy frame and firm animal organization, I feel that I have mentioned
+hitherto nothing but what by comparison might be thought of a vulgar
+quality. All the other advantages that I have enumerated, had they been
+yet wanting, might have been acquired; had they been forfeited, might
+have been reconquered; had they been even irretrievably lost, might, by
+a philosophic effort, have been dispensed with; compensations might have
+been found for any of them, many equivalents, or if not, consolations at
+least, for their absence. But now it remains to speak of other blessings
+too mighty to be valued, not merely as transcending in rank and dignity
+all other constituents of happiness, but for a reason far sadder than
+that--because, once lost, they were incapable of restoration, and
+because not to be dispensed with; blessings in which 'either we must
+live or have no life:' lights to the darkness of our paths and to the
+infirmity of our steps--which, once extinguished, never more on this
+side the gates of Paradise can any man hope to see re-illumined for
+himself. Amongst these I may mention an intellect, whether powerful or
+not in itself, at any rate most elaborately cultivated; and, to say the
+truth, I had little other business before me in this life than to pursue
+this lofty and delightful task. I may add, as a blessing, not in the
+same _positive_ sense as that which I have just mentioned, because not
+of a nature to contribute so hourly to the employment of the thoughts,
+but yet in this sense equal, that the absence of either would have been
+an equal affliction,--namely, a conscience void of all offence. It
+was little indeed that I, drawn by no necessities of situation into
+temptations of that nature, had done no injury to any man. That was
+fortunate; but I could not much value myself upon what was so much an
+accident of my situation. Something, however, I might pretend to beyond
+this _negative_ merit; for I had originally a benign nature; and, as I
+advanced in years and thoughtfulness, the gratitude which possessed me
+for my own exceeding happiness led me to do that by principle and system
+which I had already done upon blind impulse; and thus upon a double
+argument I was incapable of turning away from the prayer of the
+afflicted, whatever had been the sacrifice to myself. Hardly, perhaps,
+could it have been said in a sufficient sense at that time that I was
+a religious man: yet, undoubtedly, I had all the foundations within me
+upon which religion might hereafter have grown. My heart overflowed with
+thankfulness to Providence: I had a natural tone of unaffected piety;
+and thus far, at least, I might have been called a religious man, that
+in the simplicity of truth I could have exclaimed,
+
+  'O, Abner, I fear God, and I fear none beside.'
+
+But wherefore seek to delay ascending by a natural climax to that final
+consummation and perfect crown of my felicity--that almighty blessing
+which ratified their value to all the rest? Wherefore, oh! wherefore
+do I shrink in miserable weakness from--what? Is it from reviving,
+from calling up again into fierce and insufferable light the images and
+features of a long-buried happiness? That would be a natural shrinking
+and a reasonable weakness. But how escape from reviving, whether I give
+it utterance or not, that which is for ever vividly before me? What need
+to call into artificial light that which, whether sleeping or waking, by
+night or by day, for eight-and-thirty years has seemed by its miserable
+splendor to scorch my brain? Wherefore shrink from giving language,
+simple vocal utterance, to that burden of anguish which by so long an
+endurance has lost no atom of its weight, nor can gain any most surely
+by the loudest publication? Need there can be none, after this, to say
+that the priceless blessing, which I have left to the final place in
+this ascending review, was the companion of my life--my darling and
+youthful wife. Oh! dovelike woman! fated in an hour the most
+defenceless to meet with the ravening vulture,--lamb fallen amongst
+wolves,--trembling--fluttering fawn, whose path was inevitably to be
+crossed by the bloody tiger;--angel, whose most innocent heart fitted
+thee for too early a flight from this impure planet; if indeed it were a
+necessity that thou shouldst find no rest for thy footing except amidst
+thy native heavens, if indeed to leave what was not worthy of thee were
+a destiny not to be evaded--a summons not to be put by,--yet why, why,
+again and again I demand--why was it also necessary that this, thy
+departure, so full of wo to me, should also to thyself be heralded by
+the pangs of martyrdom? Sainted love, if, like the ancient children
+of the Hebrews, like Meshech and Abednego, thou wert called by divine
+command, whilst yet almost a child, to walk, and to walk alone, through
+the fiery furnace,--wherefore then couldst not thou, like that Meshech
+and that Abednego, walk unsinged by the dreadful torment, and come forth
+unharmed? Why, if the sacrifice were to be total, was it necessary to
+reach it by so dire a struggle? and if the cup, the bitter cup, of final
+separation from those that were the light of thy eyes and the pulse
+of thy heart might not be put aside,--yet wherefore was it that thou
+mightest not drink it up in the natural peace which belongs to a sinless
+heart?
+
+But these are murmurings, you will say, rebellious murmurings against
+the proclamations of God. Not so: I have long since submitted myself,
+resigned myself, nay, even reconciled myself, perhaps, to the great
+wreck of my life, in so far as it was the will of God, and according to
+the weakness of my imperfect nature. But my wrath still rises, like a
+towering flame, against all the earthly instruments of this ruin; I am
+still at times as unresigned as ever to this tragedy, in so far as it
+was the work of human malice. Vengeance, as a mission for _me_, as
+a task for _my_ hands in particular, is no longer possible; the
+thunderbolts of retribution have been long since launched by other
+hands; and yet still it happens that at times I do--I must--I shall
+perhaps to the hour of death, rise in maniac fury, and seek, in the
+very impotence of vindictive madness, groping as it were in blindness of
+heart, for that tiger from hell-gates that tore away my darling from my
+heart. Let me pause, and interrupt this painful strain, to say a word
+or two upon what she was--and how far worthy of a love more honorable
+to her (that was possible) and deeper (but that was not possible) than
+mine. When first I saw her, she--my Agnes--was merely a child, not much
+(if anything) above sixteen. But, as in perfect womanhood she retained
+a most childlike expression of countenance, so even then in absolute
+childhood she put forward the blossoms and the dignity of a woman. Never
+yet did my eye light upon creature that was born of woman, nor could it
+enter my heart to conceive one, possessing a figure more matchless in
+its proportions, more statuesque, and more deliberately and advisedly to
+be characterized by no adequate word but the word _magnificent_, (a word
+too often and lightly abused.) In reality, speaking of women, I have
+seen many beautiful figures, but hardly one except Agnes that could,
+without hyperbole, be styled truly and memorably magnificent. Though
+in the first order of tall women, yet, being full in person, and with a
+symmetry that was absolutely faultless, she seemed to the random sight
+as little above the ordinary height. Possibly from the dignity of her
+person, assisted by the dignity of her movements, a stranger would
+have been disposed to call her at a distance a woman of _commanding_
+presence; but never, after he had approached near enough to behold her
+face. Every thought of artifice, of practised effect, or of haughty
+pretension, fled before the childlike innocence, the sweet feminine
+timidity, and the more than cherub loveliness of that countenance, which
+yet in its lineaments was noble, whilst its expression was purely gentle
+and confiding. A shade of pensiveness there was about her; but _that_
+was in her manners, scarcely ever in her features; and the exquisite
+fairness of her complexion, enriched by the very sweetest and most
+delicate bloom that ever I have beheld, should rather have allied it
+to a tone of cheerfulness. Looking at this noble creature, as I first
+looked at her, when yet upon the early threshold of womanhood
+
+  'With household motions light and free,
+  And steps of virgin liberty'
+
+you might have supposed her some Hebe or young Aurora of the dawn. When
+you saw only her superb figure, and its promise of womanly development,
+with the measured dignity of her step, you might for a moment have
+fancied her some imperial Medea of the Athenian stage--some Volumnia
+from Rome,
+
+  'Or ruling bandit's wife amidst the Grecian isles.'
+
+ But catch one glance from her angelic countenance--and then combining
+the face and the person, you would have dismissed all such fancies, and
+have pronounced her a Pandora or an Eve, expressly accomplished and held
+forth by nature as an exemplary model or ideal pattern for the future
+female sex:--
+
+  'A perfect woman, nobly plann'd,
+  To warm, to comfort, to command:
+  And yet a spirit too, and bright
+  With something of an angel light.'
+
+To this superb young woman, such as I have here sketched her, I
+surrendered my heart for ever, almost from my first opportunity of
+seeing her: for so natural and without disguise was her character, and
+so winning the simplicity of her manners, due in part to her own native
+dignity of mind, and in part to the deep solitude in which she had been
+reared, that little penetration was required to put me in possession of
+all her thoughts; and to win her love, not very much more than to let
+her see, as see she could not avoid, in connection with that chivalrous
+homage which at any rate was due to her sex and her sexual perfections,
+a love for herself on my part, which was in its nature as exalted a
+passion and as profoundly rooted as any merely human affection can ever
+yet have been.
+
+On the seventeenth birthday of Agnes we were married. Oh! calendar of
+everlasting months--months that, like the mighty rivers, shall flow on
+for ever, immortal as thou, Nile, or Danube, Euphrates, or St. Lawrence!
+and ye, summer and winter, day and night, wherefore do you bring round
+continually your signs, and seasons, and revolving hours, that still
+point and barb the anguish of local recollections, telling me of this
+and that celestial morning that never shall return, and of too blessed
+expectations, travelling like yourselves through a heavenly zodiac of
+changes, till at once and for ever they sank into the grave! Often do I
+think of seeking for some quiet cell either in the Tropics or in
+Arctic latitudes, where the changes of the year, and the external signs
+corresponding to them, express themselves by no features like those in
+which the same seasons are invested under our temperate climes: so that,
+if knowing, we cannot at least feel the identity of their revolutions.
+We were married, I have said, on the birthday--the seventeenth
+birthday--of Agnes; and pretty nearly on her eighteenth it was that she
+placed me at the summit of my happiness, whilst for herself she
+thus completed the circle of her relations to this life's duties,
+by presenting me with a son. Of this child, knowing how wearisome to
+strangers is the fond exultation of parents, I shall simply say, that
+he inherited his mother's beauty; the same touching loveliness and
+innocence of expression, the same chiselled nose, mouth, and chin,
+the same exquisite auburn hair. In many other features, not of person
+merely, but also of mind and manners, as they gradually began to open
+before me, this child deepened my love to him by recalling the image of
+his mother; and what other image was there that I so much wished to
+keep before me, whether waking or asleep? At the time to which I am now
+coming but too rapidly, this child, still our only one, and unusually
+premature, was within four months of completing his third year;
+consequently Agnes was at that time in her twenty-first year; and I may
+here add, with respect to myself, that I was in my twenty-sixth.
+
+But, before I come to that period of wo, let me say one word on the
+temper of mind which so fluent and serene a current of prosperity may
+be thought to have generated. Too common a course I know it is, when
+the stream of life flows with absolute tranquillity, and ruffled by no
+menace of a breeze--the azure overhead never dimmed by a passing cloud,
+that in such circumstances the blood stagnates: life, from excess and
+plethora of sweets, becomes insipid: the spirit of action droops: and
+it is oftentimes found at such seasons that slight annoyances and
+molestations, or even misfortunes in a lower key, are not wholly
+undesirable, as means of stimulating the lazy energies, and disturbing a
+slumber which is, or soon will be, morbid in its character. I have known
+myself cases not a few, where, by the very nicest gradations, and by
+steps too silent and insensible for daily notice, the utmost harmony and
+reciprocal love had shaded down into fretfulness and petulance, purely
+from too easy a life, and because all nobler agitations that might have
+ruffled the sensations occasionally, and all distresses even on the
+narrowest scale that might have re-awakened the solicitudes of love, by
+opening necessities for sympathy, for counsel, or for mutual aid, had
+been shut out by foresight too elaborate, or by prosperity too cloying.
+But all this, had it otherwise been possible with my particular mind,
+and at my early age, was utterly precluded by one remarkable peculiarity
+in my temper. Whether it were that I derived from nature some jealousy
+and suspicion of all happiness which seems too perfect and unalloyed--[a
+spirit of restless distrust, which in ancient times often led men to
+throw valuable gems into the sea, in the hope of thus propitiating the
+dire deity of misfortune, by voluntarily breaking the fearful chain of
+prosperity, and led some of them to weep and groan when the gems
+thus sacrificed were afterwards brought back to their hand by simple
+fishermen, who had recovered them in the intestines of fishes--a
+portentous omen, which was interpreted into a sorrowful indication
+that the deity thus answered the propitiatory appeal, and made solemn
+proclamation that he had rejected it]--whether, I say, it were this
+spirit of jealousy awaked in me by too steady and too profound a
+felicity--or whether it were that great overthrows and calamities have
+some mysterious power to send forward a dim misgiving of their advancing
+footsteps, and really and indeed,
+
+  'That in to-day already walks to-morrow;'
+
+or whether it were partly, as I have already put the case in my first
+supposition, a natural instinct of distrust, but irritated and enlivened
+by a particular shock of superstitious alarm; which, or whether any of
+these causes it were that kept me apprehensive, and on the watch for
+disastrous change, I will not here undertake to determine. Too certain
+it is that I was so. I never ridded myself of an over-mastering and
+brooding sense, shadowy and vague, a dim abiding feeling (that sometimes
+was and sometimes was not exalted into a conscious presentiment) of
+some great calamity travelling towards me; not perhaps immediately
+impending--perhaps even at a great distance; but already--dating from
+some secret hour--already in motion upon some remote line of approach.
+This feeling I could not assuage by sharing it with Agnes. No motive
+could be strong enough for persuading me to communicate so gloomy a
+thought with one who, considering her extreme healthiness, was but too
+remarkably prone to pensive, if not to sorrowful, contemplations. And
+thus the obligation which I felt to silence and reserve, strengthened
+the morbid impression I had received; whilst the remarkable incident
+I have adverted to served powerfully to rivet the superstitious chain
+which was continually gathering round me. The incident was this--and
+before I repeat it, let me pledge my word of honor, that I report to you
+the bare facts of the case, without exaggeration, and in the simplicity
+of truth:--There was at that time resident in the great city, which
+is the scene of my narrative, a woman, from some part of Hungary, who
+pretended to the gift of looking into futurity. She had made herself
+known advantageously in several of the greatest cities of Europe, under
+the designation of the Hungarian Prophetess; and very extraordinary
+instances were cited amongst the highest circles of her success in the
+art which she professed. So ample were the pecuniary tributes which
+she levied upon the hopes and the fears, or the simple curiosity of
+the aristocracy, that she was thus able to display not unfrequently
+a disinterestedness and a generosity, which seemed native to her
+disposition, amongst the humbler classes of her applicants; for she
+rejected no addresses that were made to her, provided only they were
+not expressed in levity or scorn, but with sincerity, and in a spirit of
+confiding respect. It happened, on one occasion, when a nursery-servant
+of ours was waiting in her anteroom for the purpose of taking her turn
+in consulting the prophetess professionally, that she had witnessed a
+scene of consternation and unaffected maternal grief in this Hungarian
+lady upon the sudden seizure of her son, a child of four or five years
+old, by a spasmodic inflammation of the throat (since called croup)
+peculiar to children, and in those days not very well understood by
+medical men. The poor Hungarian, who had lived chiefly in warm, or
+at least not damp, climates, and had never so much as heard of this
+complaint, was almost wild with alarm at the rapid increase of the
+symptoms which attend the paroxysms, and especially of that loud and
+distressing sound which marks the impeded respiration. Great, therefore,
+was her joy and gratitude on finding from our servant that she had
+herself been in attendance more than once upon cases of the same nature,
+but very much more violent,--and that, consequently, she was well
+qualified to suggest and to superintend all the measures of instant
+necessity, such as the hot-bath, the peculiar medicines, &c., which are
+almost sure of success when applied in an early stage. Staying to give
+her assistance until a considerable improvement had taken place in the
+child, our servant then hurried home to her mistress. Agnes, it may
+be imagined, dispatched her back with such further and more precise
+directions as in a very short time availed to re-establish the child in
+convalescence. These practical services, and the messages of maternal
+sympathy repeatedly conveyed from Agnes, had completely won the heart of
+the grateful Hungarian, and she announced her intention of calling with
+her little boy, to make her personal acknowledgments for the kindness
+which had been shown to her. She did so, and we were as much impressed
+by the sultana-like style of her Oriental beauty, as she, on her part,
+was touched and captivated by the youthful loveliness of my angelic
+wife. After sitting for above an hour, during which time she talked with
+a simplicity and good feeling that struck us as remarkable in a person
+professing an art usually connected with so much of conscious fraud, she
+rose to take her leave. I must mention that she had previously had our
+little boy sitting on her knee, and had at intervals thrown a hasty
+glance upon the palms of his hands. On parting, Agnes, with her usual
+frankness, held out her hand. The Hungarian took it with an air of sad
+solemnity, pressed it fervently, and said:--'Lady, it is my part in
+this life to look behind the curtain of fate; and oftentimes I see such
+sights in futurity--some near, some far off--as willingly I would _not_
+see. For you, young and charming lady, looking like that angel which you
+are, no destiny can be equal to your deserts. Yet sometimes, true it
+is, God sees not as man sees; and he ordains, after his unfathomable
+counsels, to the heavenly-minded a portion in heaven, and to the
+children whom he loves a rest and a haven not built with hands.
+Something that I have seen dimly warns me to look no farther. Yet, if
+you desire it, I will do my office, and I will read for you with truth
+the lines of fate as they are written upon your hands.' Agnes was a
+little startled, or even shocked, by this solemn address; but, in a
+minute or so, a mixed feeling--one half of which was curiosity, and
+the other half a light-hearted mockery of her own mysterious awe in
+the presence of what she had been taught to view as either fraud or
+insanity--prompted her playfully to insist upon the fullest application
+of the Hungarian's art to her own case; nay, she would have the hands
+of our little Francis read and interpreted as well as her own, and
+she desired to hear the full professional judgment delivered without
+suppression or softening of its harshest awards. She laughed whilst she
+said all this; but she also trembled a little. The Hungarian first
+took the hand of our young child, and perused it with a long and steady
+scrutiny. She said nothing, but sighed heavily as she resigned it. She
+then took the hand of Agnes--looked bewildered and aghast--then gazed
+piteously from Agnes to her child--and at last, bursting into tears,
+began to move steadily out of the room. I followed her hastily, and
+remonstrated upon this conduct, by pointing her attention to the obvious
+truth--that these mysterious suppressions and insinuations, which
+left all shadowy and indistinct, were far more alarming than the most
+definite denunciations. Her answer yet rings in my ear:--'Why should I
+make myself odious to you and to your innocent wife? Messenger of evil
+I am, and have been to many; but evil I will not prophecy to her. Watch
+and pray! Much may be done by effectual prayer. Human means, fleshly
+arms, are vain. There is an enemy in the house of life,' [here she
+quitted her palmistry for the language of astrology;] 'there is a
+frightful danger at hand, both for your wife and your child. Already
+on that dark ocean, over which we are all sailing, I can see dimly the
+point at which the enemy's course shall cross your wife's. There is
+but little interval remaining--not many hours. All is finished; all
+is accomplished; and already he is almost up with the darlings of your
+heart. Be vigilant, be vigilant, and yet look not to yourself, but to
+Heaven, for deliverance.'
+
+This woman was not an impostor: she spoke and uttered her oracles
+under a wild sense of possession by some superior being, and of mystic
+compulsion to say what she would have willingly left unsaid; and never
+yet, before or since, have I seen the light of sadness settle with so
+solemn an expression into human eyes as when she dropped my wife's
+hand, and refused to deliver that burden of prophetic wo with which she
+believed herself to be inspired.
+
+The prophetess departed; and what mood of mind did she leave behind her
+in Agnes and myself? Naturally there was a little drooping of spirits
+at first; the solemnity and the heart-felt sincerity of fear and grief
+which marked her demeanor, made it impossible, at the moment when we
+were just fresh from their natural influences, that we should recoil
+into our ordinary spirits. But with the inevitable elasticity of youth
+and youthful gaiety we soon did so; we could not attempt to persuade
+ourselves that there had been any conscious fraud or any attempt at
+scenical effect in the Hungarian's conduct. She had no motive for
+deceiving us; she had refused all offerings of money, and her whole
+visit had evidently been made under an overflow of the most grateful
+feelings for the attentions shown to her child. We acquitted her,
+therefore, of sinister intentions; and with our feelings of jealousy,
+feelings in which we had been educated, towards everything that tended
+to superstition, we soon agreed to think her some gentle maniac or sad
+enthusiast, suffering under some form of morbid melancholy. Forty-eight
+hours, with two nights' sleep, sufficed to restore the wonted
+equilibrium of our spirits; and that interval brought us onwards to
+the 6th of April--the day on which, as I have already said, my story
+properly commences.
+
+ On that day, on that lovely 6th of April, such as I have described it,
+that 6th of April, about nine o'clock in the morning, we were seated at
+breakfast near the open window--we, that is, Agnes, myself, and little
+Francis; the freshness of morning spirits rested upon us; the golden
+light of the morning sun illuminated the room; incense was floating
+through the air from the gorgeous flowers within and without the house;
+there in youthful happiness we sat gathered together, a family of
+love, and there we never sat again. Never again were we three gathered
+together, nor ever shall be, so long as the sun and its golden
+light--the morning and the evening--the earth and its flowers endure.
+
+Often have I occupied myself in recalling every circumstance the most
+trivial of this the final morning of what merits to be called my life.
+Eleven o'clock, I remember, was striking when Agnes came into my study,
+and said that she would go into the city, (for we lived in a quite rural
+suburb,) that she would execute some trifling commissions which she
+had received from a friend in the country, and would be at home again
+between one and two for a stroll which we had agreed to take in the
+neighboring meadows. About twenty minutes after this she again came into
+my study dressed for going abroad; for such was my admiration of her,
+that I had a fancy--fancy it must have been, and yet still I felt it to
+be real--that under every change she looked best; if she put on a shawl,
+then a shawl became the most feminine of ornaments; if she laid
+aside her shawl and her bonnet, then how nymph-like she seemed in her
+undisguised and unadorned beauty! Full-dress seemed for the time to be
+best, as bringing forward into relief the splendor of her person, and
+allowing the exposure of her arms; a simple morning-dress, again, seemed
+better still, as fitted to call out the childlike innocence of her face,
+by confining the attention to that. But all these are feelings of fond
+and blind affection, hanging with rapture over the object of something
+too like idolatry. God knows, if that be a sin, I was but too profound
+a sinner; yet sin it never was, sin it could not be, to adore a beauty
+such as thine, my Agnes. Neither was it her beauty by itself, and that
+only, which I sought at such times to admire; there was a peculiar
+sort of double relation in which she stood at moments of pleasurable
+expectation and excitement, since our little Francis had become of an
+age to join our party, which made some aspects of her character trebly
+interesting. She was a wife--and wife to one whom she looked up to
+as her superior in understanding and in knowledge of the world, whom,
+therefore, she leaned to for protection. On the other hand, she was also
+a mother. Whilst, therefore, to her child she supported the matronly
+part of guide, and the air of an experienced person; to me she wore,
+ingenuously and without disguise, the part of a child herself, with all
+the giddy hopes and unchastised imaginings of that buoyant age. This
+double character, one aspect of which looks towards her husband and one
+to her children, sits most gracefully upon many a young wife whose heart
+is pure and innocent; and the collision between the two separate parts
+imposed by duty on the one hand, by extreme youth on the other, the
+one telling her that she is a responsible head of a family and the
+depository of her husband's honor in its tenderest and most vital
+interests, the other telling her, through the liveliest language of
+animal sensibility, and through the very pulses of her blood, that she
+is herself a child; this collision gives an inexpressible charm to
+the whole demeanor of many a young married woman, making her other
+fascinations more touching to her husband, and deepening the admiration
+she excites; and the more so, as it is a collision which cannot exist
+except among the very innocent. Years, at any rate, will irresistibly
+remove this peculiar charm, and gradually replace it by the graces
+of the matronly character. But in Agnes this change had not yet been
+effected, partly from nature, and partly from the extreme seclusion of
+her life. Hitherto she still retained the unaffected expression of her
+childlike nature; and so lovely in my eyes was this perfect exhibition
+of natural feminine character, that she rarely or never went out alone
+upon any little errand to town which might require her to rely upon her
+own good sense and courage, that she did not previously come to exhibit
+herself before me. Partly this was desired by me in that lover-like
+feeling of admiration already explained, which leads one to court the
+sight of a beloved object under every change of dress, and under all
+effects of novelty. Partly it was the interest I took in that exhibition
+of sweet timidity, and almost childish apprehensiveness, half disguised
+or imperfectly acknowledged by herself, which (in the way I have just
+explained) so touchingly contrasted with (and for that very reason so
+touchingly drew forth) her matronly character. But I hear some objector
+say at this point, ought not this very timidity, founded (as in part
+at least it was) upon inexperience and conscious inability to face the
+dangers of the world, to have suggested reasons for not leaving her to
+her own protection? And does it not argue, on my part, an arrogant or
+too blind a confidence in the durability of my happiness, as though
+charmed against assaults, and liable to no shocks of sudden revolution?
+I reply that, from the very constitution of society, and the tone of
+manners in the city which we inhabited, there seemed to be a moral
+impossibility that any dangers of consequence should meet her in the
+course of those brief absences from my protection, which only
+were possible; that even to herself any dangers, of a nature to be
+anticipated under the known circumstances of the case, seemed almost
+imaginary; that even _she_ acknowledged a propriety in being trained, by
+slight and brief separations from my guardianship, to face more boldly
+those cases of longer separation and of more absolute consignment to her
+own resources which circumstances might arise to create necessarily, and
+perhaps abruptly. And it is evident that, had she been the wife of any
+man engaged in the duties of a profession, she might have been summoned
+from the very first, and without the possibility of any such gradual
+training, to the necessity of relying almost singly upon her own courage
+and discretion. For the other question, whether I did not depend too
+blindly and presumptuously upon my good luck in not at least affording
+her my protection so long as nothing occurred to make it impossible? I
+may reply, most truly, that all my feelings ran naturally in the very
+opposite channel. So far from confiding too much in my luck, in the
+present instance I was engaged in a task of writing upon some points
+of business which could not admit of further delay; but now, and at all
+times, I had a secret aversion to seeing so gentle a creature thrown
+even for an hour upon her own resources, though in situations which
+scarcely seemed to admit of any occasion for taxing those resources;
+and often I have felt anger towards myself for what appeared to be an
+irrational or effeminate timidity, and have struggled with my own mind
+upon occasions like the present, when I knew that I could not have
+acknowledged my tremors to a friend without something like shame, and
+a fear to excite his ridicule. No; if in anything I ran into excess,
+it was in this very point of anxiety as to all that regarded my wife's
+security. Her good sense, her prudence, her courage, (for courage she
+had in the midst of her timidity,) her dignity of manner, the more
+impressive from the childlike character of her countenance, all should
+have combined to reassure me, and yet they did not. I was still anxious
+for her safety to an irrational extent; and to sum up the whole in a
+most weighty line of Shakspeare, I lived under the constant presence of
+a feeling which only that great observer of human nature (so far as I
+am aware) has ever noticed, viz., that merely the excess of my happiness
+made me jealous of its ability to last, and in that extent less capable
+of enjoying it; that in fact the prelibation of my tears, as a homage to
+its fragility, was drawn forth by my very sense that my felicity was too
+exquisite; or, in the words of the great master
+
+  'I wept to have' [absolutely, by anticipation, shed tears in
+  possessing] 'what I so feared to lose.'
+
+Thus end my explanations, and I now pursue my narrative: Agnes, as
+I have said, came into my room again before leaving the house--we
+conversed for five minutes--we parted--she went out--her last words
+being that she would return at half-past one o'clock; and not long
+after that time, if ever mimic bells--bells of rejoicing, or bells of
+mourning, are heard in desert spaces of the air, and (as some have said)
+in unreal worlds, that mock our own, and repeat, for ridicule, the vain
+and unprofitable motions of man, then too surely, about this hour, began
+to toll the funeral knell of my earthly happiness--its final hour had
+sounded.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+One o'clock had arrived; fifteen minutes after, I strolled into the
+garden, and began to look over the little garden-gate in expectation of
+every moment descrying Agnes in the distance. Half an hour passed,
+and for ten minutes more I was tolerably quiet. From this time till
+half-past two I became constantly more agitated--_agitated,_ perhaps, is
+too strong a word--but I was restless and anxious beyond what I should
+have chosen to acknowledge. Still I kept arguing, What is half an hour?
+what is an hour? A thousand things might have occurred to cause that
+delay, without needing to suppose any accident; or, if an accident, why
+not a very trifling one? She may have slightly hurt her foot--she
+may have slightly sprained her ankle. 'Oh, doubtless,' I exclaimed to
+myself, 'it will be a mere trifle, or perhaps nothing at all.' But I
+remember that, even whilst I was saying this, I took my hat and walked
+with nervous haste into the little quiet lane upon which our garden-gate
+opened. The lane led by a few turnings, and after a course of about five
+hundred yards, into a broad high-road, which even at that day had begun
+to assume the character of a street, and allowed an unobstructed
+range of view in the direction of the city for at least a mile. Here
+I stationed myself, for the air was so clear that I could distinguish
+dress and figure to a much greater distance than usual. Even on such a
+day, however, the remote distance was hazy and indistinct, and at any
+other season I should have been diverted with the various mistakes
+I made. From occasional combinations of color, modified by light and
+shade, and of course powerfully assisted by the creative state of the
+eye under this nervous apprehensiveness, I continued to shape into
+images of Agnes forms without end, that upon nearer approach presented
+the most grotesque contrasts to her impressive appearance. But I
+had ceased even to comprehend the ludicrous; my agitation was now so
+overruling and engrossing that I lost even my intellectual sense of it;
+and now first I understood practically and feelingly the anguish of hope
+alternating with disappointment, as it may be supposed to act upon the
+poor shipwrecked seaman, alone and upon a desolate coast, straining his
+sight for ever to the fickle element which has betrayed him, but
+which only can deliver him, and with his eyes still tracing in the far
+distance,
+
+  'Ships, dim-discover'd, dropping from the clouds,'--
+
+which a brief interval of suspense still for ever disperses into hollow
+pageants of air or vapor. One deception melted away only to be succeeded
+by another; still I fancied that at last to a certainty I could descry
+the tall figure of Agnes, her gipsy hat, and even the peculiar elegance
+of her walk. Often I went so far as to laugh at myself, and even to tax
+my recent fears with unmanliness and effeminacy, on recollecting the
+audible throbbings of my heart, and the nervous palpitations which had
+besieged me; but these symptoms, whether effeminate or not, began to
+come back tumultuously under the gloomy doubts that succeeded almost
+before I had uttered this self-reproach. Still I found myself mocked
+and deluded with false hopes; yet still I renewed my quick walk, and the
+intensity of my watch for that radiant form that was fated never more to
+be seen returning from the cruel city.
+
+It was nearly half-past three, and therefore close upon two hours
+beyond the time fixed by Agnes for her return, when I became absolutely
+incapable of supporting the further torture of suspense, and I suddenly
+took the resolution of returning home and concerting with my female
+servants some energetic measures, though _what_ I could hardly say, on
+behalf of their mistress. On entering the garden-gate I met our little
+child Francis, who unconsciously inflicted a pang upon me which he
+neither could have meditated nor have understood. I passed him at his
+play, perhaps even unaware of his presence, but he recalled me to that
+perception by crying aloud that he had just seen his mamma.
+
+'When--where?' I asked convulsively.
+
+'Up stairs in her bedroom,' was his instantaneous answer.
+
+His manner was such as forbade me to suppose that he could be joking;
+and, as it was barely possible (though, for reasons well known to me,
+in the highest degree improbable) that Agnes might have returned by a
+by-path, which, leading through a dangerous and disreputable suburb,
+would not have coincided at any one point with the public road where I
+had been keeping my station. I sprang forward into the house, up stairs,
+and in rapid succession into every room where it was likely that she
+might be found; but everywhere there was a dead silence, disturbed only
+by myself, for, in my growing confusion of thought, I believe that
+I rang the bell violently in every room I entered. No such summons,
+however, was needed, for the servants, two of whom at the least were
+most faithful creatures, and devotedly attached to their young mistress,
+stood ready of themselves to come and make inquiries of me as soon as
+they became aware of the alarming fact, that I had returned without her.
+
+Until this moment, though having some private reasons for surprise that
+she should have failed to come into the house for a minute or two at the
+hour prefixed, in order to make some promised domestic arrangements for
+the day, they had taken it for granted that she must have met with me at
+some distance from home--and that either the extreme beauty of the
+day had beguiled her of all petty household recollections, or (as a
+conjecture more in harmony with past experiences) that my impatience
+and solicitations had persuaded her to lay aside her own plans for the
+moment at the risk of some little domestic inconvenience. Now, however,
+in a single instant vanished _every_ mode of accounting for their
+mistress's absence; and the consternation of our looks communicated
+contagiously, by the most unerring of all languages, from each to the
+other what thoughts were uppermost in our panic-stricken hearts. If
+to any person it should seem that our alarm was disproportioned to the
+occasion, and not justified at least by anything as yet made known to
+us, let that person consider the weight due to the two following facts:
+First, that from the recency of our settlement in this neighborhood, and
+from the extreme seclusion of my wife's previous life at a vast distance
+from the metropolis, she had positively no friends on her list of
+visitors who resided in this great capital; secondly, and far above
+all beside, let him remember the awful denunciations, so unexpectedly
+tallying with this alarming and mysterious absence, of the Hungarian
+prophetess; these had been slighted--almost dismissed from our thoughts;
+but now in sudden reaction they came back upon us with a frightful power
+to lacerate and to sting--the shadowy outline of a spiritual agency,
+such as that which could at all predict the events, combining in one
+mysterious effect, with the shadowy outline of those very predictions.
+The power, that could have predicted, was as dim and as hard to grasp as
+was the precise nature of the evil that had been predicted.
+
+An icy terror froze my blood at this moment when I looked at the
+significant glances, too easily understood by me, that were exchanged
+between the servants. My mouth had been for the last two hours growing
+more and more parched, so that at present, from mere want of moisture,
+I could not separate my lips to speak. One of the women saw the vain
+efforts I was making, and hastily brought me a glass of water. With the
+first recovery of speech, I asked them what little Francis had meant by
+saying that he had seen his mother in her bedroom. Their reply was, that
+they were as much at a loss to discover his meaning as I was; that he
+had made the same assertion to them, and with so much earnestness, that
+they had, all in succession, gone up stairs to look for her, and
+with the fullest expectation of finding her. This was a mystery which
+remained such to the very last; there was no doubt whatsoever that the
+child believed himself to have seen his mother; that he could not have
+seen her in her human bodily presence, there is as little doubt as there
+is, alas! that in this world he never _did_ see her again. The poor
+child constantly adhered to his story, and with a circumstantiality
+far beyond all power of invention that could be presumed in an
+artless infant. Every attempt at puzzling him or entangling him in
+contradictions by means of cross-examination was but labor thrown away;
+though indeed, it is true enough that for those attempts, as will soon
+be seen, there was but a brief interval allowed.
+
+Not dwelling upon this subject at present, I turned to Hannah--a woman
+who held the nominal office of cook in our little establishment, but
+whose real duties had been much more about her mistress's person--and
+with a searching look of appeal I asked her whether, in this moment of
+trial, when (as she might see) I was not so perfectly master of myself
+as perhaps always to depend upon seeing what was best to be done, she
+would consent to accompany me into the city, and take upon herself those
+obvious considerations of policy or prudence which might but too easily
+escape my mind, darkened, and likely to be darkened, as to its power of
+discernment by the hurricane of affliction now too probably at hand. She
+answered my appeal with the fervor I expected from what I had already
+known of her character. She was a woman of a strong, fiery, perhaps I
+might say of heroic mind, supported by a courage that was absolutely
+indomitable, and by a strength of bodily frame very unusual in a woman,
+and beyond the promise even of her person. She had suffered as deep a
+wrench in her own affections as a human being can suffer; she had
+lost her one sole child, a fair-haired boy of most striking beauty and
+interesting disposition, at the age of seventeen, and by the worst
+of all possible fates; he lived (as we did at that time) in a large
+commercial city overflowing with profligacy, and with temptations of
+every order; he had been led astray; culpable he had been, but by very
+much the least culpable of the set into which accident had thrown him,
+as regarded acts and probable intentions; and as regarded palliations
+from childish years, from total inexperience, or any other alleviating
+circumstances that could be urged, having everything to plead--and of
+all his accomplices the only one who had anything to plead. Interest,
+however, he had little or none; and whilst some hoary villains of the
+party, who happened to be more powerfully befriended, were finally
+allowed to escape with a punishment little more than nominal, he and two
+others were selected as sacrifices to the offended laws. They suffered
+capitally. All three behaved well; but the poor boy in particular, with
+a courage, a resignation, and a meekness, so distinguished and beyond
+his years as to attract the admiration and the liveliest sympathy of
+the public universally. If strangers could feel in that way, if the
+mere hardened executioner could be melted at the final scene,--it may be
+judged to what a fierce and terrific height would ascend the affliction
+of a doating mother, constitutionally too fervid in her affections.
+I have heard an official person declare, that the spectacle of her
+desolation and frantic anguish was the most frightful thing he had ever
+witnessed, and so harrowing to the feelings, that all who could by their
+rank venture upon such an irregularity, absented themselves during the
+critical period from the office which corresponded with the government;
+for, as I have said, the affair took place in a large provincial city,
+at a great distance from the capital. All who knew this woman, or who
+were witnesses to the alteration which one fortnight had wrought in her
+person as well as her demeanor, fancied it impossible that she could
+continue to live; or that, if she did, it must be through the giving way
+of her reason. They proved, however, to be mistaken; or, at least, if
+(as some thought) her reason did suffer in some degree, this result
+showed itself in the inequality of her temper, in moody fits of
+abstraction, and the morbid energy of her manner at times under the
+absence of all adequate external excitement, rather than in any positive
+and apparent hallucinations of thought. The charm which had mainly
+carried off the instant danger to her faculties, was doubtless the
+intense sympathy which she met with. And in these offices of consolation
+my wife stood foremost. For, and that was fortunate, she had found
+herself able, without violence to her own sincerest opinions in the
+case, to offer precisely that form of sympathy which was most soothing
+to the angry irritation of the poor mother; not only had she shown a
+_direct_ interest in the boy, and not a mere interest of _reflection_
+from that which she took in the mother, and had expressed it by visits
+to his dungeon, and by every sort of attention to his comforts which
+his case called for, or the prison regulations allowed; not only had
+she wept with the distracted woman as if for a brother of her own; but,
+which went farther than all the rest in softening the mother's heart,
+she had loudly and indignantly proclaimed her belief in the boy's
+innocence, and in the same tone her sense of the crying injustice
+committed as to the selection of the victims, and the proportion of the
+punishment awarded. Others, in the language of a great poet,
+
+  'Had pitied _her,_ and not her grief;'
+
+they had either not been able to see, or, from carelessness, had
+neglected to see, any peculiar wrong done to her in the matter which
+occasioned her grief,--but had simply felt compassion for her as for one
+summoned, in a regular course of providential and human dispensation,
+to face an affliction, heavy in itself, but not heavy from any special
+defect of equity. Consequently their very sympathy, being so much
+built upon the assumption that an only child had offended to the extent
+implied in his sentence, oftentimes clothed itself in expressions which
+she felt to be not consolations but insults, and, in fact, so many
+justifications of those whom it relieved her overcharged heart to regard
+as the very worst of enemies. Agnes, on the other hand, took the very
+same view of the case as herself; and, though otherwise the gentlest
+of all gentle creatures, yet here, from the generous fervor of her
+reverence for justice, and her abhorrence of oppression, she gave
+herself no trouble to moderate the energy of her language: nor did I,
+on my part, feeling that substantially she was in the right, think it of
+importance to dispute about the exact degrees of the wrong done or the
+indignation due to it. In this way it happened naturally enough that
+at one and the same time, though little contemplating either of these
+results, Agnes had done a prodigious service to the poor desolate mother
+by breaking the force of her misery, as well as by arming the active
+agencies of indignation against the depressing ones of solitary grief,
+and for herself had won a most grateful and devoted friend, who would
+have gone through fire and water to serve her, and was thenceforwards
+most anxious for some opportunity to testify how deep had been her
+sense of the goodness shown to her by her benign young mistress, and
+how incapable of suffering abatement by time. It remains to add, which
+I have slightly noticed before, that this woman was of unusual personal
+strength: her bodily frame matched with her intellectual: and I notice
+this _now_ with the more emphasis, because I am coming rapidly upon
+ground where it will be seen that this one qualification was of more
+summary importance to us--did us more 'yeoman's service' at a crisis
+the most awful--than other qualities of greater name and pretension.
+_Hannah_ was this woman's Christian name; and her name and her memory
+are to me amongst the most hallowed of my earthly recollections.
+
+One of her two fellow-servants, known technically amongst us as the
+'parlor maid,' was also, but not equally, attached to her mistress; and
+merely because her nature, less powerfully formed and endowed, did not
+allow her to entertain or to comprehend any service equally fervid of
+passion or of impassioned action. She, however, was good, affectionate,
+and worthy to be trusted. But a third there was, a nursery maid, and
+therefore more naturally and more immediately standing within the
+confidence of her mistress--her I could not trust: her I suspected. But
+of that hereafter. Meantime, Hannah, she upon whom I leaned as upon a
+staff in all which respected her mistress, ran up stairs, after I had
+spoken and received her answer, in order hastily to dress and prepare
+herself for going out along with me to the city. I did not ask her to
+be quick in her movements: I knew there was no need: and, whilst she was
+absent, I took up, in one of my fretful movements of nervousness, a book
+which was lying upon a side-table: the book fell open of itself at a
+particular page; and in that, perhaps, there was nothing extraordinary,
+for it was a little portable edition of _Paradise Lost_; and the page
+was one which I must naturally have turned to many a time: for to Agnes
+I had read all the great masters of literature, especially those of
+modern times; so that few people knew the high classics more familiarly:
+and as to the passage in question, from its divine beauty I had read it
+aloud to her, perhaps, on fifty separate occasions. All this I mention
+to take away any appearance of a vulgar attempt to create omens;
+but still, in the very act of confessing the simple truth, and thus
+weakening the marvellous character of the anecdote, I must notice it as
+a strange instance of the '_Sortes Miltonianae_,'--that precisely at such
+a moment as this I should find thrown in my way, should feel tempted
+to take up, and should open, a volume containing such a passage as the
+following: and observe, moreover, that although the volume, _once being
+taken up_, would naturally open where it had been most frequently
+read, there were, however, many passages which had been read _as_
+frequently--or more so. The particular passage upon which I opened
+at this moment was that most beautiful one in which the fatal morning
+separation is described between Adam and his bride--that separation so
+pregnant with wo, which eventually proved the occasion of the mortal
+transgression--the last scene between our first parents at which both
+were innocent and both were happy--although the superior intellect
+already felt, and, in the slight altercation preceding this separation,
+had already expressed a dim misgiving of some coming change: these are
+the words, and in depth of pathos they have rarely been approached:--
+
+  'Oft he to her his charge of quick return
+  Repeated; she to him as oft engag'd
+  To be returned by noon amid the bow'r,
+  And all things in best order to invite
+  Noon-tide repast, or afternoon's repose.
+  Oh much deceived, much failing, hapless Eve!
+  Of thy presumed return, event perverse!
+  Thou never from that hour in Paradise
+  Found'st either sweet repast, or sound repose.'
+
+'_My_ Eve!' I exclaimed, 'partner in _my_ paradise, where art thou?
+_Much failing_ thou wilt not be found, nor _much deceived_; innocent in
+any case thou art; but, alas! too surely by this time _hapless_, and the
+victim of some diabolic wickedness.' Thus I murmured to myself; thus I
+ejaculated; thus I apostrophized my Agnes; then again came a stormier
+mood. I could not sit still; I could not stand in quiet; I threw the
+book from me with violence against the wall; I began to hurry backwards
+and forwards in a short uneasy walk, when suddenly a sound, a step; it
+was the sound of the garden-gate opening, followed by a hasty tread.
+Whose tread? Not for a moment could it be fancied the oread step which
+belonged to that daughter of the hills--my wife, my Agnes; no, it was
+the dull massy tread of a man: and immediately there came a loud blow
+upon the door, and in the next moment, the bell having been found, a
+furious peal of ringing. Oh coward heart! not for a lease of immortality
+could I have gone forwards myself. My breath failed me; an interval
+came in which respiration seemed to be stifled--the blood to halt in its
+current; and then and there I recognised in myself the force and living
+truth of that Scriptural description of a heart consciously beset by
+evil without escape: 'Susannah _sighed_.' Yes, a long, long sigh--a
+deep, deep sigh--that is, the natural language by which the over-charged
+heart utters forth the wo that else would break it. I sighed--oh how
+profoundly! But that did not give me power to move. Who will go to the
+door? I whispered audibly. Who is at the door? was the inaudible whisper
+of my heart. Then might be seen the characteristic differences of the
+three women. That one, whom I suspected, I heard raising an upper window
+to look out and reconnoitre. The affectionate Rachael, on the other
+hand, ran eagerly down stairs; but Hannah, half dressed, even her
+bosom exposed, passed her like a storm; and before I heard any sound of
+opening a door, I saw from the spot where I stood the door already wide
+open, and a man in the costume of a policeman. All that he said I could
+not hear; but this I heard--that I was wanted at the police office, and
+had better come off without delay. He seemed then to get a glimpse of
+me, and to make an effort towards coming nearer; but I slunk away, and
+left to Hannah the task of drawing from him any circumstances which he
+might know. But apparently there was not much to tell, or rather, said
+I, there is too much, the _much_ absorbs the _many_; some one mighty
+evil transcends and quells all particulars. At length the door was
+closed, and the man was gone. Hannah crept slowly along the passage, and
+looked in hesitatingly. Her very movements and stealthy pace testified
+that she had heard nothing which, even by comparison, she could think
+good news. 'Tell me not now, Hannah,' I said; 'wait till we are in the
+open air.' She went up stairs again. How short seemed the time till she
+descended! how I longed for further respite! 'Hannah!' I said at length
+when we were fairly moving upon the road, 'Hannah! I am too sure you
+have nothing good to tell. But now tell me the worst, and let that be in
+the fewest words possible.'
+
+'Sir,' she said, 'we had better wait until we reach the office; for
+really I could not understand the man. He says that my mistress is
+detained upon some charge; but _what_, I could not at all make out. He
+was a man that knew something of you, Sir, I believe, and he wished to
+be civil, and kept saying, "Oh! I dare say it will turn out nothing
+at all, many such charges are made idly and carelessly, and some
+maliciously." "But what charges?" I cried, and then he wanted to speak
+privately to you. But I told him that of all persons he must not speak
+to you, if he had anything painful to tell; for that you were too much
+disturbed already, and had been for some hours, out of anxiety and
+terror about my mistress, to bear much more. So, when he heard that, he
+was less willing to speak freely than before. He might prove wrong, he
+said; he might give offence; things might turn out far otherwise than
+according to first appearances; for his part, he could not believe
+anything amiss of so sweet a lady. And after all, it would be better to
+wait till we reached the office.'
+
+Thus much then was clear--Agnes was under some accusation. This was
+already worse than the worst I had anticipated. 'And then,' said I,
+thinking aloud to Hannah, 'one of two things is apparent to me; either
+the accusation is one of pure hellish malice, without a color of
+probability or the shadow of a foundation, and that way, alas! I am
+driven in my fears by that Hungarian woman's prophecy; or, which but for
+my desponding heart I should be more inclined to think, the charge
+has grown out of my poor wife's rustic ignorance as to the usages then
+recently established by law with regard to the kind of money that could
+be legally tendered. This, however, was a suggestion that did not tend
+to alleviate my anxiety; and my nervousness had mounted to a painful,
+almost to a disabling degree, by the time we reached the office. Already
+on our road thither some parties had passed us who were conversing with
+eagerness upon the case: so much we collected from the many and ardent
+expressions about 'the lady's beauty,' though the rest of such words as
+we could catch were ill calculated to relieve my suspense. This,
+then, at least, was certain--that my poor timid Agnes had already been
+exhibited before a tumultuous crowd; that her name and reputation had
+gone forth as a subject of discussion for the public; and that the
+domestic seclusion and privacy within which it was her matronly
+privilege to move had already undergone a rude violation.
+
+The office, and all the purlieus of the office, were occupied by a dense
+crowd. That, perhaps, was always the case, more or less, at this time
+of day; but at present the crowd was manifestly possessed by a more than
+ordinary interest; and there was a unity in this possessing interest;
+all were talking on the same subject, the case in which Agnes had so
+recently appeared in some character or other; and by this time it became
+but too certain in the character of an accused person. Pity was the
+prevailing sentiment amongst the mob; but the opinions varied much as to
+the probable criminality of the prisoner. I made my way into the office.
+The presiding magistrates had all retired for the afternoon, and would
+not reassemble until eight o'clock in the evening. Some clerks only
+or officers of the court remained, who were too much harassed by
+applications for various forms and papers connected with the routine of
+public business, and by other official duties which required signatures
+or attestations, to find much leisure for answering individual
+questions. Some, however, listened with a marked air of attention to my
+earnest request for the circumstantial details of the case, but finally
+referred me to a vast folio volume, in which were entered all the
+charges, of whatever nature, involving any serious tendency--in fact,
+all that exceeded a misdemeanor--in the regular chronological succession
+according to which they came before the magistrate. Here, in this vast
+calendar of guilt and misery, amidst the _aliases_ or cant designations
+of ruffians, prostitutes, felons, stood the description, at full length,
+Christian and surnames all properly registered, of my Agnes--of her
+whose very name had always sounded to my ears like the very echo of
+mountain innocence, purity, and pastoral simplicity. Here in another
+column stood the name and residence of her accuser. I shall call him
+_Barratt_, for that was amongst his names, and a name by which he had at
+one period of his infamous life been known to the public, though not his
+principal name, or the one which he had thought fit to assume at
+this era. James Barratt, then, as I shall here call him, was a
+haberdasher--keeping a large and conspicuous shop in a very crowded and
+what was then considered a fashionable part of the city. The charge was
+plain and short. Did I live to read it? It accused Agnes M---- of having
+on that morning secreted in her muff, and feloniously carried away, a
+valuable piece of Mechlin lace, the property of James Barratt. And the
+result of the first examination was thus communicated in a separate
+column, written in red ink--'Remanded to the second day after to-morrow
+for final examination.' Everything in this sin-polluted register was
+in manuscript; but at night the records of each day were regularly
+transferred to a printed journal, enlarged by comments and explanatory
+descriptions from some one of the clerks, whose province it was to
+furnish this intelligence to the public journals. On that same night,
+therefore, would go forth to the world such an account of the case, and
+such a description of my wife's person, as would inevitably summon
+to the next exhibition of her misery, as by special invitation and
+advertisement, the whole world of this vast metropolis--the idle, the
+curious, the brutal, the hardened amateur in spectacles of wo, and the
+benign philanthropist who frequents such scenes with the purpose of
+carrying alleviation to their afflictions. All alike, whatever might
+be their motives or the spirit of their actions, would rush (as to
+some grand festival of curiosity and sentimental luxury) to this public
+martyrdom of my innocent wife.
+
+Meantime, what was the first thing to be done? Manifestly, to see Agnes:
+her account of the affair might suggest the steps to be taken. Prudence,
+therefore, at any rate, prescribed this course; and my heart would not
+have tolerated any other. I applied, therefore, at once, for information
+as to the proper mode of effecting this purpose without delay. What
+was my horror at learning that, by a recent regulation of all the
+police-offices, under the direction of the public minister who presided
+over that department of the national administration, no person could be
+admitted to an interview with any accused party during the progress of
+the official examinations; or, in fact, until the final committal of
+the prisoner for trial. This rule was supposed to be attended by great
+public advantages, and had rarely been relaxed--never, indeed, without a
+special interposition of the police minister authorizing its suspension.
+But was the exclusion absolute and universal? Might not, at least,
+a female servant, simply as the bearer of such articles as were
+indispensable to female delicacy and comfort, have access to her
+mistress? No; the exclusion was total and unconditional. To argue the
+point was manifestly idle; the subordinate officers had no discretion in
+the matter; nor, in fact, had any other official person, whatever were
+his rank, except the supreme one; and to him I neither had any obvious
+means of introduction, nor (in case of obtaining such an introduction)
+any chance of success; for the spirit of the rule, I foresaw it would be
+answered, applied with especial force to cases like the present.
+
+Mere human feelings of pity, sympathy with my too visible agitation,
+superadded to something of perhaps reverence for the blighting misery
+that was now opening its artillery upon me--for misery has a privilege,
+and everywhere is felt to be a holy thing--had combined to procure for
+me some attention and some indulgence hitherto. Answers had been given
+with precision, explanations made at length, and anxiety shown
+to satisfy my inquiries. But this could not last; the inexorable
+necessities of public business coming back in a torrent upon the
+official people after this momentary interruption, forbade them to
+indulge any further consideration for an individual case, and I saw that
+I must not stay any longer. I was rapidly coming to be regarded as a
+hinderance to the movement of public affairs; and the recollection
+that I might again have occasion for some appeal to these men in their
+official characters, admonished me not to abuse my privilege of the
+moment. After returning thanks, therefore, for the disposition shown to
+oblige me, I retired.
+
+Slowly did I and Hannah retrace our steps. Hannah sustained, in the tone
+of her spirits, by the extremity of her anger, a mood of feeling which
+I did not share. Indignation was to her in the stead of consolation and
+hope. I, for my part, could not seek even a momentary shelter from my
+tempestuous affliction in that temper of mind. The man who could accuse
+my Agnes, and accuse her of such a crime, I felt to be a monster; and
+in my thoughts he was already doomed to a bloody atonement (atonement!
+alas! what atonement!) whenever the time arrived that _her_ cause would
+not be prejudiced, or the current of public feeling made to turn in his
+favor by investing him with the semblance of an injured or suffering
+person. So much was settled in my thoughts with the stern serenity of a
+decree issuing from a judgment-seat. But that gave no relief, no shadow
+of relief, to the misery which was now consuming me. Here was an end, in
+one hour, to the happiness of a life. In one hour it had given way, root
+and branch--had melted like so much frost-work, or a pageant of vapory
+exhalations. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, and yet for ever
+and ever, I comprehended the total ruin of my situation. The case, as
+others might think, was yet in suspense; and there was room enough for
+very rational hopes, especially where there was an absolute certainty of
+innocence. Total freedom from all doubt on that point seemed to justify
+almost more than hopes. This might be said, and most people would have
+been more or less consoled by it. I was not. I felt as certain, as
+irredeemably, as hopelessly certain of the final results as though I
+had seen the record in the books of Heaven. 'Hope nothing,' I said to
+myself; 'think not of hope in this world, but think only how best to
+walk steadily, and not to reel like a creature wanting discourse of
+reason, or incapable of religious hopes under the burden which it has
+pleased God to impose, and which in this life cannot be shaken off. The
+countenance of man is made to look upward and to the skies. Thither also
+point henceforwards your heart and your thoughts. Never again let your
+thoughts travel earthwards. Settle them on the heavens, to which your
+Agnes is already summoned. The call is clear, and not to be mistaken.
+Little in _her_ fate now depends upon you, or upon anything that man
+can do. Look, therefore, to yourself; see that you make not shipwreck
+of your heavenly freight because your earthly freight is lost; and miss
+not, by any acts of wild and presumptuous despair, that final reunion
+with your Agnes, which can only be descried through vistas that open
+through the heavens.'
+
+Such were the thoughts, thoughts often made audible, which came
+spontaneously like oracles from afar, as I strode homewards with Hannah
+by my side. Her, meantime, I seemed to hear; for at times I seemed and
+I intended to answer her. But answer her I did not; for not ten words of
+all that she said did I really and consciously hear. How I went through
+that night is more entirely a blank in my memory, more entirely a
+chapter of chaos and the confusion of chaos, than any other passage
+the most impressive in my life. If I even slumbered for a moment, as at
+intervals I did sometimes, though never sitting down, but standing
+or pacing about throughout the night, and if in this way I attained a
+momentary respite from self-consciousness, no sooner had I reached this
+enviable state of oblivion, than some internal sting of irritation
+_as_ rapidly dispersed the whole fickle fabric of sleep; and as if the
+momentary trance--this fugitive beguilement of my wo--had been conceded
+by a demon's subtle malice only with the purpose of barbing the pang,
+by thus forcing it into a stronger relief through the insidious peace
+preceding it. It is a well known and most familiar experience to all
+the sons and daughters of affliction, that under no circumstances is the
+piercing, lancinating torment of a recent calamity felt so keenly as in
+the first moments of awaking in the morning from the night's slumbers.
+Just at the very instant when the clouds of sleep, and the whole
+fantastic illusions of dreaminess are dispersing, just as the
+realities of life are re-assuming their steadfast forms--re-shaping
+themselves--and settling anew into those fixed relations which they are
+to preserve throughout the waking hours; in that particular crisis of
+transition from the unreal to the real, the wo which besieges the brain
+and the life-springs at the heart rushes in afresh amongst the other
+crowd of realities, and has at the moment of restoration literally the
+force and liveliness of a new birth--the very same pang, and no whit
+feebler, as that which belonged to it when it was first made known. From
+the total hush of oblivion which had buried it and sealed it up, as it
+were, during the sleeping hours, it starts into sudden life on our
+first awaking, and is to all intents and purposes a new and not an
+old affliction--one which brings with it the old original shock which
+attended its first annunciation.
+
+That night--that first night of separation from my wife--_how_ it
+passed, I know not; I know only _that_ it passed, I being in our common
+bed-chamber, that holiest of all temples that are consecrated to human
+attachments, whenever the heart is pure of man and woman, and the love
+is strong--I being in that bedchamber, once the temple now the sepulchre
+of our happiness,--I there, and my wife--my innocent wife--in a dungeon.
+As the morning light began to break, somebody knocked at the door; it
+was Hannah: she took my hand--misery levels all feeble distinctions of
+station, sex, age--she noticed my excessive feverishness, and gravely
+remonstrated with me upon the necessity there was that I should maintain
+as much health as possible for the sake of 'others,' if not for myself.
+She then brought me some tea, which refreshed me greatly; for I
+had tasted nothing at all beyond a little water since the preceding
+morning's breakfast. This refreshment seemed to relax and thaw the stiff
+frozen state of cheerless, rayless despair in which I had passed the
+night; I became susceptible of consolation--that consolation which lies
+involved in kindness and gentleness of manner--if not susceptible more
+than before of any positive hope. I sat down; and, having no witnesses
+to my weakness but this kind and faithful woman, I wept, and I found a
+relief in tears; and she, with the ready sympathy of woman, wept along
+with me. All at once she ventured upon the circumstances (so far as she
+had been able to collect them from the reports of those who had been
+present at the examination) of our calamity. There was little indeed
+either to excite or to gratify any interest or curiosity separate from
+the _personal_ interest inevitably connected with a case to which there
+were two such parties as a brutal, sensual, degraded ruffian, on one
+side in character of accuser, and on the other as defendant, a meek
+angel of a woman, timid and fainting from the horrors of her situation,
+and under the licentious gaze of the crowd--yet, at the same time, bold
+in conscious innocence, and in the very teeth of the suspicions which
+beset her, winning the good opinion, as well as the good wishes of all
+who saw her. There had been at this first examination little for her to
+say beyond the assigning her name, age, and place of abode; and here
+it was fortunate that her own excellent good sense concurred with
+her perfect integrity and intuitive hatred of all indirect or crooked
+courses in prompting her to an undisguised statement of the simple
+truth, without a momentary hesitation or attempt either at evasion or
+suppression. With equally good intentions in similar situations many a
+woman has seriously injured her cause by slight evasions of the entire
+truth, where nevertheless her only purpose has been the natural and
+ingenuous one of seeking to save the reputation untainted of a name
+which she felt to have been confided to her keeping. The purpose was an
+honorable one, but erroneously pursued. Agnes fell into no such error.
+She answered calmly, simply, and truly, to every question put by the
+magistrates; and beyond _that_ there was little opportunity for her to
+speak; the whole business of this preliminary examination being confined
+to the deposition of the accuser as to the circumstances under which he
+alleged the act of felonious appropriation to have taken place. These
+circumstances were perfectly uninteresting, considered in themselves;
+but amongst them was one which to us had the most shocking interest,
+from the absolute proof thus furnished of a deep-laid plot against
+Agnes. But for this one circumstance there would have been a possibility
+that the whole had originated in error--error growing out of and
+acting upon a nature originally suspicious, and confirmed perhaps by
+an unfortunate experience. And in proportion as that was possible, the
+chances increased that the accuser might, as the examinations advanced,
+and the winning character of the accused party began to develop itself,
+begin to see his error, and to retract his own over-hasty suspicions.
+But now we saw at a glance that for this hope there was no countenance
+whatever, since one solitary circumstance sufficed to establish a
+conspiracy. The deposition bore--that the lace had been secreted and
+afterwards detected in a muff; now it was a fact as well known to both
+of us as the fact of Agnes having gone out at all--that she had laid
+aside her winter's dress for the first time on this genial sunny day.
+Muff she had not at the time, nor could have had appropriately from the
+style of her costume in other respects. What was the effect upon us of
+this remarkable discovery! Of course there died at once the hope of any
+abandonment by the prosecutor of his purpose; because here was proof of
+a predetermined plot. This hope died at once; but then, as it was one
+which never had presented itself to my mind, I lost nothing by which I
+had ever been solaced. On the other hand, it will be obvious that a new
+hope at the same time arose to take its place, viz., the reasonable one
+that by this single detection, if once established, we might raise a
+strong presumption of conspiracy, and moreover that, as a leading fact
+or clue, it might serve to guide us in detecting others. Hannah
+was sanguine in this expectation; and for a moment her hopes were
+contagiously exciting to mine. But the hideous despondency which in
+my mind had settled upon the whole affair from the very first, the
+superstitious presentiment I had of a total blight brooding over the
+entire harvest of my life and its promises, (tracing itself originally,
+I am almost ashamed to own, up to that prediction of the Hungarian
+woman)--denied me steady light, anything--all in short but a wandering
+ray of hope. It was right, of course, nay, indispensable, that the
+circumstance of the muff should be strongly insisted upon at the
+next examination, pressed against the prosecutor, and sifted to the
+uttermost. An able lawyer would turn this to a triumphant account; and
+it would be admirable as a means of pre-engaging the good opinion as
+well as the sympathies of the public in behalf of the prisoner. But,
+for its final effect--my conviction remained, not to be shaken, that all
+would be useless; that our doom had gone forth, and was irrevocable.
+
+Let me not linger too much over those sad times. Morning came on as
+usual; for it is strange, but true, that to the very wretched it seems
+wonderful that times and seasons should keep their appointed courses
+in the midst of such mighty overthrows, and such interruption to the
+courses of their own wonted happiness and their habitual expectations.
+Why should morning and night, why should all movements in the natural
+world be so regular, whilst in the moral world all is so irregular
+and anomalous? Yet the sun and the moon rise and set as usual upon the
+mightiest revolutions of empire and of worldly fortune that this planet
+ever beholds; and it is sometimes even a comfort to know that this will
+be the case. A great criminal, sentenced to an agonizing punishment,
+has derived a fortitude and a consolation from recollecting that the
+day would run its inevitable course--that a day after all was _but_
+a day--that the mighty wheel of alternate light and darkness must and
+would revolve--and that the evening star would rise as usual, and shine
+with its untroubled lustre upon the dust and ashes of what _had_ indeed
+suffered, and so recently, the most bitter pangs, but would then have
+ceased to suffer. 'La Journee,' said Damien,
+
+  'La journee sera dure, mais elle se passera.'
+
+'----_Se passera_:' yes, that is true, I whispered to myself; my day
+also, my season of trial will be hard to bear; but that also will have
+an end; that also '_se passera_.' Thus I talked or thought so long as I
+thought at all; for the hour was now rapidly approaching, when thinking
+in any shape would for some time be at an end for me.
+
+That day, as the morning advanced, I went again, accompanied by Hannah,
+to the police court and to the prison--a vast, ancient, in parts
+ruinous, and most gloomy pile of building. In those days the
+administration of justice was, if not more corrupt, certainly in its
+inferior departments by far more careless than it is at present, and
+liable to thousands of interruptions and mal-practices, supporting
+themselves upon old traditionary usages which required at least half
+a century, and the shattering everywhere given to old systems by the
+French Revolution, together with the universal energy of mind applied
+to those subjects over the whole length and breadth of Christendom, to
+approach with any effectual reforms. Knowing this, and having myself had
+direct personal cognisance of various cases in which bribery had been
+applied with success, I was not without considerable hope that perhaps
+Hannah and myself might avail ourselves of this irregular passport
+through the gates of the prison. And, had the new regulation been of
+somewhat longer standing, there is little doubt that I should have been
+found right; unfortunately, as yet it had all the freshness of newborn
+vigor, and kept itself in remembrance by the singular irritation it
+excited. Besides this, it was a pet novelty of one particular minister,
+new to the possession of power, anxious to distinguish himself, proud
+of his creative functions within the range of his office, and very
+sensitively jealous on the point of opposition to his mandates. Vain,
+therefore, on this day were all my efforts to corrupt the jailers; and,
+in fact, anticipating a time when I might have occasion to corrupt some
+of them for a more important purpose and on a larger scale, I did not
+think it prudent to proclaim my character beforehand as one who tampered
+with such means, and thus to arm against myself those jealousies in
+official people, which it was so peculiarly important that I should keep
+asleep.
+
+All that day, however, I lingered about the avenues and vast courts
+in the precincts of the prison, and near one particular wing of the
+building, which had been pointed out to me by a jailer as the section
+allotted to those who were in the situation of Agnes; that is, waiting
+their final commitment for trial. The building generally he could
+indicate with certainty, but he professed himself unable to indicate
+the particular part of it which 'the young woman brought in on the day
+previous' would be likely to occupy; consequently he could not point
+out the window from which her cell (her '_cell_!' what a word!) would be
+lighted. 'But, master,' he went on to say, 'I would advise nobody to try
+that game.' He looked with an air so significant, and at the same time
+used a gesture so indicative of private understanding, that I at
+once apprehended his meaning, and assured him that he had altogether
+misconstrued my drift; that, as to attempts at escape, or at any mode of
+communicating with the prisoner from the outside, I trusted all _that_
+was perfectly needless; and that at any rate in my eyes it was perfectly
+hopeless. 'Well, master,' he replied, 'that's neither here nor there.
+You've come down handsomely, that I _will_ say; and where a gentleman
+acts like a gentleman, and behaves himself as such, I'm not the man to
+go and split upon him for a word. To be sure it's quite nat'ral that a
+gentleman--put case that a young woman is his fancy woman--it's nothing
+but nat'ral that he should want to get her out of such an old rat-hole
+as this, where many's the fine-timbered creature, both he and she, that
+has lain to rot, and has never got out of the old trap at all, first
+or last'----'How so?' I interrupted him; 'surely they don't detain the
+corpses of prisoners?' 'Ay, but mind you--put case that he or that she
+should die in this rat-trap before sentence is past, why then the prison
+counts them as its own children, and buries them in its own chapel--that
+old stack of pigeon-holes that you see up yonder to the right hand.' So
+then, after all, thought I, if my poor Agnes should, in her desolation
+and solitary confinement to these wretched walls, find her frail
+strength give way--should the moral horrors of her situation work their
+natural effect upon her health, and she should chance to die within this
+dungeon, here within this same dungeon will she lie to the resurrection,
+and in that case her prison-doors have already closed upon her for
+ever. The man, who perhaps had some rough kindness in his nature,
+though tainted by the mercenary feelings too inevitably belonging to
+his situation, seemed to guess at the character of my ruminations by the
+change of my countenance, for he expressed some pity for my being 'in
+so much trouble;' and it seemed to increase his respect for me that this
+trouble should be directed to the case of a woman, for he appeared
+to have a manly sense of the peculiar appeal made to the honor and
+gallantry of man, by the mere general fact of the feebleness and the
+dependence of woman. I looked at him more attentively in consequence of
+the feeling tone in which he now spoke, and was surprised that I had not
+more particularly noticed him before; he was a fine looking, youngish
+man, with a bold Robin-hood style of figure and appearance; and, morally
+speaking, he was absolutely transfigured to my eyes by the effect worked
+upon him for the moment, through the simple calling up of his better
+nature. However, he recurred to his cautions about the peril in a legal
+sense of tampering with the windows, bolts, and bars of the old decaying
+prison; which, in fact, precisely according to the degree in which its
+absolute power over its prisoners was annually growing less and less,
+grew more and more jealous of its own reputation, and punished the
+attempts to break loose with the more severity, in exact proportion as
+they were the more tempting by the chances of success. I persisted in
+disowning any schemes of the sort, and especially upon the ground of
+their hopelessness. But this, on the other hand, was a ground that in
+his inner thoughts he treated with scorn; and I could easily see that,
+with a little skilful management of opportunity, I might, upon occasion,
+draw from him all the secrets he knew as to the special points of
+infirmity in this old ruinous building. For the present, and until it
+should certainly appear that there was some use to be derived from
+this species of knowledge, I forbore to raise superfluous suspicions
+by availing myself further of his communicative disposition. Taking,
+however, the precaution of securing his name, together with his
+particular office and designation in the prison, I parted from him as
+if to go home, but in fact to resume my sad roamings up and down the
+precincts of the jail.
+
+What made these precincts much larger than otherwise they would have
+been, was the circumstance that, by a usage derived from older days,
+both criminal prisoners and those who were prisoners for debt, equally
+fell under the custody of this huge caravanserai for the indifferent
+reception of crime, of misdemeanor, and of misfortune. And those who
+came under the two first titles, were lodged here through all stages of
+their connection with public justice; alike when mere objects of vague
+suspicion to the police, when under examination upon a specific charge,
+when fully committed for trial, when convicted and under sentence,
+awaiting the execution of that sentence, and, in a large proportion of
+cases, even through their final stage of punishment, when it happened
+to be of any nature compatible with in-door confinement. Hence it arose
+that the number of those who haunted the prison gates, with or without
+a title to admission, was enormous; all the relatives, or more properly
+the acquaintances and connections of the criminal population within
+the prison, being swelled by all the families of needy debtors who came
+daily, either to offer the consolation of their society, or to diminish
+their common expenditure by uniting their slender establishments. One
+of the rules applied to the management of this vast multitude that were
+every day candidates for admission was, that to save the endless trouble
+as well as risk, perhaps, of opening and shutting the main gates
+to every successive arrival, periodic intervals were fixed for the
+admission by wholesale; and as these periods came round every two hours,
+it would happen at many parts of the day that vast crowds accumulated
+waiting for the next opening of the gate. These crowds were assembled
+in two or three large outer courts, in which also were many stalls and
+booths, kept there upon some local privilege of ancient inheritance,
+or upon some other plea made good by gifts or bribes--some by Jews
+and others by Christians, perhaps equally Jewish. Superadded to these
+stationary elements of this miscellaneous population, were others drawn
+thither by pure motives of curiosity, so that altogether an almost
+permanent mob was gathered together in these courts; and amid this mob
+it was,--from I know not what definite motive, partly because I thought
+it probable that amongst these people I should hear the cause of Agnes
+peculiarly the subject of conversation; and so, in fact, it did really
+happen,--but partly, and even more, I believe, because I now awfully
+began to shrink from solitude. Tumult I must have, and distraction of
+thought. Amid this mob, I say, it was that I passed two days. Feverish I
+had been from the first--and from bad to worse, in such a case, was, at
+any rate, a natural progress; but, perhaps, also amongst this crowd of
+the poor, the abjectly wretched, the ill-fed, the desponding, and the
+dissolute, there might be very naturally a larger body of contagion
+lurking than according to their mere numerical expectations. There was
+at that season a very extensive depopulation going on in some quarters
+of this great metropolis, and in other cities of the same empire, by
+means of a very malignant typhus. This fever is supposed to be the
+peculiar product of jails; and though it had not as yet been felt as
+a scourge and devastator of this particular jail, or at least the
+consequent mortality had been hitherto kept down to a moderate amount,
+yet it was highly probable that a certain quantity of contagion, much
+beyond the proportion of other popular assemblages less uniformly
+wretched in their composition, was here to be found all day long; and
+doubtless my excited state, and irritable habit of body, had offered
+a peculiar predisposition that favored the rapid development of this
+contagion. However this might be, the result was, that on the evening
+of the second day which I spent in haunting the purlieus of the prison,
+(consequently the night preceding the second public examination of
+Agnes,) I was attacked by ardent fever in such unmitigated fury, that
+before morning I had lost all command of my intellectual faculties. For
+some weeks I became a pitiable maniac, and in every sense the wreck of
+my former self; and seven entire weeks, together with the better half of
+an eighth week, had passed over my head whilst I lay unconscious of time
+and its dreadful freight of events, excepting in so far as my disordered
+brain, by its fantastic coinages, created endless mimicries and
+mockeries of these events--less substantial, but oftentimes less
+afflicting, or less agitating. It would have been well for me had my
+destiny decided that I was not to be recalled to this world of wo. But
+I had no such happiness in store. I recovered, and through twenty and
+eight years my groans have recorded the sorrow I feel that I did.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I shall not rehearse circumstantially, and point by point, the sad
+unfolding, as it proceeded through successive revelations to me, of all
+which had happened during my state of physical incapacity. When I first
+became aware that my wandering senses had returned to me, and knew, by
+the cessation of all throbbings, and the unutterable pains that had
+so long possessed my brain, that I was now returning from the gates of
+death, a sad confusion assailed me as to some indefinite cloud of evil
+that had been hovering over me at the time when I first fell into a
+state of insensibility. For a time I struggled vainly to recover the
+lost connection of my thoughts, and I endeavored ineffectually to
+address myself to sleep. I opened my eyes, but found the glare of light
+painful beyond measure. Strength, however, it seemed to me that I had,
+and more than enough, to raise myself out of bed. I made the attempt,
+but fell back, almost giddy with the effort. At the sound of the
+disturbance which I had thus made, a woman whom I did not know came from
+behind a curtain, and spoke to me. Shrinking from any communication
+with a stranger, especially one whose discretion I could not estimate in
+making discoveries to me with the requisite caution, I asked her simply
+what o'clock it was.
+
+'Eleven in the forenoon,' she replied.
+
+'And what day of the month?'
+
+'The second,' was her brief answer.
+
+I felt almost a sense of shame in adding--; 'The second! but of what
+month?'
+
+'Of June,' was the startling rejoinder.
+
+On the 8th of April I had fallen ill, and it was now actually the 2d
+of June. Oh! sickening calculation! revolting register of hours! for in
+that same moment which brought back this one recollection, perhaps by
+steadying my brain, rushed back in a torrent all the other dreadful
+remembrances of the period, and now the more so, because, though the
+event was still uncertain as regarded my knowledge, it must have become
+dreadfully certain as regarded the facts of the case, and the happiness
+of all who were concerned. Alas! one little circumstance too painfully
+assured me that this event had not been a happy one. Had Agnes been
+restored to her liberty and her home, where would she have been
+found but watching at my bed-side? That too certainly I knew, and the
+inference was too bitter to support.
+
+On this same day, some hours afterwards, upon Hannah's return from the
+city, I received from her, and heard with perfect calmness, the whole
+sum of evil which awaited me. Little Francis--she took up her tale at
+that point--'was with God:' so she expressed herself. He had died of the
+same fever which had attacked me--had died and been buried nearly
+five weeks before. Too probably he had caught the infection from me.
+Almost--such are the caprices of human feeling--almost I could have
+rejoiced that this young memorial of my vanished happiness had vanished
+also. It gave me a pang, nevertheless, that the grave should thus have
+closed upon him before I had seen his fair little face again. But I
+steeled my heart to hear worse things than this. Next she went on to
+inform me that already, on the first or second day of our calamity, she
+had taken upon herself, without waiting for authority, on observing the
+rapid approaches of illness in me, and arguing the state of helplessness
+which would follow, to write off at once a summons in the most urgent
+terms to the brother of my wife. This gentleman, whom I shall call
+Pierpoint, was a high-spirited, generous young man as I have ever known.
+When I say that he was a sportsman, that at one season of the year he
+did little else than pursue his darling amusement of fox-hunting, for
+which indeed he had almost a maniacal passion--saying this, I shall
+already have prejudged him in the opinions of many, who fancy all such
+persons the slaves of corporeal enjoyments. But, with submission, the
+truth lies the other way. According to my experience, people of these
+habits have their bodies more than usually under their command, as being
+subdued by severe exercise; and their minds, neither better nor worse on
+an average than those of their neighbors, are more available from being
+so much more rarely clogged by morbid habits in that uneasy yoke-fellow
+of the intellectual part--the body. He at all events was a man to
+justify in his own person this way of thinking; for he was a man not
+only of sound, but even of bold and energetic intellect, and in all
+moral respects one whom any man might feel proud to call his friend.
+This young man, Pierpoint, without delay obeyed the summons; and on
+being made acquainted with what had already passed, the first step he
+took was to call upon Barratt, and without further question than what
+might ascertain his identity, he proceeded to inflict upon him a severe
+horsewhipping. A worse step on his sister's account he could not have
+taken. Previously to this the popular feeling had run strongly against
+Barratt, but now its unity was broken. A new element was introduced
+into the question: Democratic feelings were armed against this outrage;
+gentlemen and nobles, it was said, thought themselves not amenable
+to justice; and again, the majesty of the law was offended at this
+intrusion upon an affair already under solemn course of adjudication.
+Everything, however, passes away under the healing hand of time, and
+this also faded from the public mind. People remembered also that he
+was a brother, and in that character, at any rate, had a right to some
+allowances for his intemperance; and what quickened the oblivion of the
+affair was, which in itself was sufficiently strange, that Barratt did
+not revive the case in the public mind by seeking legal reparation for
+his injuries. It was, however, still matter of regret that Pierpoint
+should have indulged himself in this movement of passion, since
+undoubtedly it broke and disturbed the else uniform stream of public
+indignation, by investing the original aggressor with something like the
+character of an injured person; and therefore with some set-off to plead
+against his own wantonness of malice;--his malice might now assume the
+nobler aspect of revenge.
+
+Thus far, in reporting the circumstances, Hannah had dallied--thus far
+I had rejoiced that she dallied, with the main burden of the wo; but now
+there remained nothing to dally with any longer--and she rushed along in
+her narrative, hurrying to tell--I hurrying to hear. A second, a third
+examination had ensued, then a final committal--all this within a week.
+By that time all the world was agitated with the case; literally not
+the city only, vast as that city was, but the nation was convulsed and
+divided into parties upon the question, Whether the prosecution were one
+of mere malice or not? The very government of the land was reported to
+be equally interested, and almost equally divided in opinion. In this
+state of public feeling came the trial. Image to yourself, oh reader,
+whosoever you are, the intensity of the excitement which by that time
+had arisen in all people to be spectators of the scene--then image to
+yourself the effect of all this, a perfect consciousness that in
+herself as a centre was settled the whole mighty interest of
+the exhibition--that interest again of so dubious and mixed a
+character--sympathy in some with mere misfortune--sympathy in others
+with female frailty and guilt, not perhaps founded upon an absolute
+unwavering belief in her innocence, even amongst those who were most
+loud and positive as partisans in affirming it,--and then remember that
+all this hideous scenical display and notoriety settled upon one whose
+very nature, constitutionally timid, recoiled with the triple agony of
+womanly shame--of matronly dignity--of insulted innocence, from every
+mode and shape of public display. Combine all these circumstances and
+elements of the case, and you may faintly enter into the situation of my
+poor Agnes. Perhaps the best way to express it at once is by recurring
+to the case of a young female Christian martyr, in the early ages of
+Christianity, exposed in the bloody amphitheatre of Rome or Verona, to
+'fight with wild beasts,' as it was expressed in mockery--she to fight
+the lamb to fight with lions! But in reality the young martyr _had_
+a fight to maintain, and a fight (in contempt of that cruel mockery)
+fiercer than the fiercest of her persecutors could have faced
+perhaps--the combat with the instincts of her own shrinking, trembling,
+fainting nature. Such a fight had my Agnes to maintain; and at that time
+there was a large party of gentlemen in whom the gentlemanly instinct
+was predominant, and who felt so powerfully the cruel indignities of her
+situation, that they made a public appeal in her behalf. One thing, and
+a strong one, which they said, was this:--'We all talk and move in this
+case as if, because the question appears doubtful to some people, and
+the accused party to some people wears a doubtful character, it would
+follow that she therefore had in reality a mixed character composed in
+joint proportions of the best and the worst that is imputed to her. But
+let us not forget that this mixed character belongs not to her, but
+to the infirmity of our human judgments--_they_ are mixed--_they_ are
+dubious--but she is not--she is, or she is not, guilty--there is no
+middle case--and let us consider for a single moment, that if this young
+lady (as many among us heartily believe) _is_ innocent, then and upon
+that supposition let us consider how cruel we should all think the
+public exposure which aggravates the other injuries (as in that case
+they must be thought) to which her situation exposes her.' They went on
+to make some suggestions for the officers of the court in preparing
+the arrangements for the trial, and some also for the guidance of
+the audience, which showed the same generous anxiety for sparing the
+feelings of the prisoner. If these did not wholly succeed in repressing
+the open avowal of coarse and brutal curiosity amongst the intensely
+vulgar, at least they availed to diffuse amongst the neutral and
+indifferent part of the public a sentiment of respect and forbearance
+which, emanating from high quarters, had a very extensive influence upon
+most of what met the eye or the ear of my poor wife. She, on the day of
+trial, was supported by her brother; and by that time she needed support
+indeed. I was reported to be dying; her little son was dead; neither had
+she been allowed to see him. Perhaps these things, by weaning her from
+all further care about life, might have found their natural effect in
+making her indifferent to the course of the trial, or even to its issue.
+And so, perhaps, in the main, they did. But at times some lingering
+sense of outraged dignity, some fitful gleams of old sympathies,
+'the hectic of a moment,' came back upon her, and prevailed over the
+deadening stupor of her grief. Then she shone for a moment into a starry
+light--sweet and woful to remember. Then----but why linger? I hurry to
+the close: she was pronounced guilty; whether by a jury or a bench of
+judges, I do not say--having determined, from the beginning, to give no
+hint of the land in which all these events happened; neither is that of
+the slightest consequence. Guilty she was pronounced: but sentence at
+that time was deferred. Ask me not, I beseech you, about the muff
+or other circumstances inconsistent with the hostile evidence. These
+circumstances had the testimony, you will observe, of my own servants
+only; nay, as it turned out, of one servant exclusively: _that_
+naturally diminished their value. And, on the other side, evidence was
+arrayed, perjury was suborned, that would have wrecked a wilderness of
+simple truth trusting to its own unaided forces. What followed? Did this
+judgment of the court settle the opinion of the public? Opinion of
+the public! Did it settle the winds? Did it settle the motion of the
+Atlantic? Wilder, fiercer, and louder grew the cry against the wretched
+accuser: mighty had been the power over the vast audience of the
+dignity, the affliction, the perfect simplicity, and the Madonna beauty
+of the prisoner. That beauty so childlike, and at the same time so
+saintly, made, besides, so touching in its pathos by means of the
+abandonment--the careless abandonment and the infinite desolation of her
+air and manner--would of itself, and without further aid, have made many
+converts. Much more was done by the simplicity of her statements, and
+the indifference with which she neglected to improve any strong points
+in her own favor--the indifference, as every heart perceived, of
+despairing grief. Then came the manners on the hostile side--the haggard
+consciousness of guilt, the drooping tone, the bravado and fierce strut
+which sought to dissemble all this. Not one amongst all the witnesses,
+assembled on that side, had (by all agreement) the bold natural tone of
+conscious uprightness. Hence it could not be surprising that the storm
+of popular opinion made itself heard with a louder and a louder sound.
+The government itself began to be disturbed; the ministers of the
+sovereign were agitated; and, had no menaces been thrown out, it was
+generally understood that they would have given way to the popular
+voice, now continually more distinct and clamorous. In the midst of all
+this tumult, obscure murmurs began to arise that Barratt had practised
+the same or similar villanies in former instances. One case in
+particular was beginning to be whispered about, which at once threw
+a light upon the whole affair: it was the case of a young and very
+beautiful married woman, who had been on the very brink of a catastrophe
+such as had befallen my own wife, when some seasonable interference, of
+what nature was not known, had critically delivered her. This case
+arose 'like a little cloud no bigger than a man's hand,' then spread and
+threatened to burst in tempest upon the public mind, when all at once,
+more suddenly even than it had arisen, it was hushed up, or in some way
+disappeared. But a trifling circumstance made it possible to trace
+this case:--in after times, when means offered, but unfortunately no
+particular purpose of good, nor any purpose, in fact, beyond that of
+curiosity, it _was_ traced; and enough was soon ascertained to have
+blown to fragments any possible conspiracy emanating from this Barratt,
+had that been of any further importance. However, in spite of all that
+money or art could effect, a sullen growl continued to be heard amongst
+the populace of villanies many and profound that had been effected or
+attempted by this Barratt; and accordingly, much in the same way as
+was many years afterwards practised in London, when a hosier had caused
+several young people to be prosecuted to death for passing forged
+bank-notes, the wrath of the people showed itself in marking the shop
+for vengeance upon any favorable occasion offering through fire or
+riots, and in the mean time in deserting it. These things had been going
+on for some time when I awoke from my long delirium; but the effect they
+had produced upon a weak and obstinate and haughty government, or at
+least upon the weak and obstinate and haughty member of the government
+who presided in the police administration, was, to confirm and rivet the
+line of conduct which had been made the object of popular denunciation.
+More energetically, more scornfully, to express that determination of
+flying in the face of public opinion and censure, four days before my
+awakening, Agnes had been brought up to receive her sentence. On
+that same day (nay, it was said in that same hour,) petitions, very
+numerously signed, and various petitions from different ranks, different
+ages, different sexes, were carried up to the throne, praying, upon
+manifold grounds, but all noticing the extreme doubtfulness of the
+case, for an unconditional pardon. By whose advice or influence, it was
+guessed easily, though never exactly ascertained, these petitions were
+unanimously, almost contemptuously rejected. And to express the contempt
+of public opinion as powerfully as possible, Agnes was sentenced by the
+court, reassembled in full pomp, order, and ceremonial costume, to a
+punishment the severest that the laws allowed--viz. hard labor for ten
+years. The people raged more than ever; threats public and private
+were conveyed to the ears of the minister chiefly concerned in the
+responsibility, and who had indeed, by empty and ostentatious talking,
+assumed that responsibility to himself in a way that was perfectly
+needless.
+
+Thus stood matters when I awoke to consciousness: and this was the
+fatal journal of the interval--interval so long as measured by my fierce
+calendar of delirium--so brief measured by the huge circuit of
+events which it embraced, and their mightiness for evil. Wrath, wrath
+immeasurable, unimaginable, unmitigable, burned at my heart like
+a cancer. The worst had come. And the thing which kills a man for
+action--the living in two climates at once--a torrid and a frigid
+zone--of hope and fear--that was past. Weak--suppose I were for the
+moment: I felt that a day or two might bring back my strength. No
+miserable tremors of hope _now_ shook my nerves: if they shook from that
+inevitable rocking of the waters that follows a storm, so much might
+be pardoned to the infirmity of a nature that could not lay aside its
+fleshly necessities, nor altogether forego its homage to 'these frail
+elements,' but which by inspiration already lived within a region
+where no voices were heard but the spiritual voices of transcendent
+passions--of
+
+  'Wrongs unrevenged, and insults unredress'd.'
+
+Six days from that time I was well--well and strong. I rose from bed; I
+bathed; I dressed; dressed as if I were a bridegroom. And that _was_ in
+fact a great day in my life. I was to see Agnes. Oh! yes: permission had
+been obtained from the lordly minister that I should see my wife. Is it
+possible? Can such condescensions exist? Yes: solicitations from
+ladies, eloquent notes wet with ducal tears, these had won from the
+thrice-radiant secretary, redolent of roseate attar, a countersign to
+some order or other, by which I--yes I--under license of a fop, and
+supervision of a jailer--was to see and for a time to converse with my
+own wife.
+
+The hour appointed for the first day's interview was eight o'clock
+in the evening. On the outside of the jail all was summer light and
+animation. The sports of children in the streets of mighty cities are
+but sad, and too painfully recall the circumstances of freedom and
+breezy nature that are not there. But still the pomp of glorious summer,
+and the presence, 'not to be put by,' of the everlasting light, that
+is either always present, or always dawning--these potent elements
+impregnate the very city life, and the dim reflex of nature which is
+found at the bottom of well-like streets, with more solemn powers to
+move and to soothe in summer. I struck upon the prison gates, the first
+among multitudes waiting to strike. Not because we struck, but because
+the hour had sounded, suddenly the gate opened; and in we streamed. I,
+as a visitor for the first time, was immediately distinguished by the
+jailers, whose glance of the eye is fatally unerring. 'Who was it that I
+wanted?' At the name a stir of emotion was manifest, even there: the dry
+bones stirred and moved: the passions outside had long ago passed to the
+interior of this gloomy prison: and not a man but had his hypothesis on
+the case; not a man but had almost fought with some comrade (many had
+literally fought) about the merits of their several opinions.
+
+If any man had expected a scene at this reunion, he would have been
+disappointed. Exhaustion, and the ravages of sorrow, had left to dear
+Agnes so little power of animation or of action, that her emotions were
+rather to be guessed at, both for kind and for degree, than directly
+to have been perceived. She was in fact a sick patient, far gone in an
+illness that should properly have confined her to bed; and was as much
+past the power of replying to my frenzied exclamations, as a dying
+victim of fever of entering upon a strife of argument. In bed, however,
+she was not. When the door opened she was discovered sitting at a table
+placed against the opposite wall, her head pillowed upon her arms, and
+these resting upon the table. Her beautiful long auburn hair had escaped
+from its confinement, and was floating over the table and her own
+person. She took no notice of the disturbance made by our entrance, did
+not turn, did not raise her head, nor make an effort to do so, nor by
+any sign whatever intimate that she was conscious of our presence, until
+the turnkey in a respectful tone announced me. Upon that a low groan, or
+rather a feeble moan, showed that she had become aware of my presence,
+and relieved me from all apprehension of causing too sudden a shock by
+taking her in my arms. The turnkey had now retired; we were alone. I
+knelt by her side, threw my arms about her, and pressed her to my heart.
+She drooped her head upon my shoulder, and lay for some time like one
+who slumbered; but, alas! not as she had used to slumber. Her breathing,
+which had been like that of sinless infancy, was now frightfully short
+and quick; she seemed not properly to breathe, but to gasp. This,
+thought I, may be sudden agitation, and in that case she will gradually
+recover; half an hour will restore her. Wo is me! she did _not_ recover;
+and internally I said--she never _will_ recover. The arrows have gone
+too deep for a frame so exquisite in its sensibility, and already her
+hours are numbered.
+
+At this first visit I said nothing to her about the past; _that_, and
+the whole extent to which our communications should go, I left rather
+to her own choice. At the second visit, however, upon some word or other
+arising which furnished an occasion for touching on this hateful topic,
+I pressed her, contrary to my own previous intention, for as full an
+account of the fatal event as she could without a distressing effort
+communicate. To my surprise she was silent--gloomily--almost it might
+have seemed obstinately silent. A horrid thought came into my mind;
+could it, might it have been possible that my noble-minded wife, such
+she had ever seemed to me, was open to temptations of this nature? Could
+it have been that in some moment of infirmity, when her better angel was
+away from her side, she had yielded to a sudden impulse of frailty,
+such as a second moment for consideration would have resisted, but which
+unhappily had been followed by no such opportunity of retrieval? I
+had heard of such things. Cases there were in our own times (and not
+confined to one nation), when irregular impulses of this sort were known
+to have haunted and besieged natures not otherwise ignoble and base.
+I ran over some of the names amongst those which were taxed with this
+propensity. More than one were the names of people in a technical sense
+held noble. That, nor any other consideration abated my horror. Better,
+I said, better, (because more compatible with elevation of mind,) better
+to have committed some bloody act--some murderous act. Dreadful was the
+panic I underwent. God pardon the wrong I did; and even now I pray
+to him--as though the past thing were a future thing and capable
+of change--that he would forbid her for ever to know what was the
+derogatory thought I had admitted. I sometimes think, by recollecting a
+momentary blush that suffused her marble countenance,--I think--I fear
+that she might have read what was fighting in my mind. Yet that would
+admit of another explanation. If she did read the very worst, meek
+saint! she suffered no complaint or sense of that injury to escape her.
+It might, however, be that perception, or it might be that fear which
+roused her to an effort that otherwise had seemed too revolting to
+undertake. She now rehearsed the whole steps of the affair from first to
+last; but the only material addition, which her narrative made to that
+which the trial itself had involved, was the following:--On two separate
+occasions previous to the last and fatal one, when she had happened to
+walk unaccompanied by me in the city, the monster Barratt had met her
+in the street. He had probably--and this was, indeed, subsequently
+ascertained--at first, and for some time afterwards, mistaken her rank,
+and had addressed some proposals to her, which, from the suppressed
+tone of his speaking, or from her own terror and surprise, she had not
+clearly understood; but enough had reached her alarmed ear to satisfy
+her that they were of a nature in the last degree licentious and
+insulting. Terrified and shocked rather than indignant, for she too
+easily presumed the man to be a maniac, she hurried homewards; and was
+rejoiced, on first venturing to look round when close to her own gate,
+to perceive that the man was not following. There, however, she was
+mistaken; for either on this occasion, or on some other, he had traced
+her homewards. The last of these rencontres had occurred just three
+months before the fatal 6th of April; and if, in any one instance, Agnes
+had departed from the strict line of her duty as a wife, or had shown
+a defect of judgment, it was at this point--in not having frankly and
+fully reported the circumstances to me. On the last of these occasions
+I had met her at the garden-gate, and had particularly remarked that she
+seemed agitated; and now, at recalling these incidents, Agnes reminded
+me that I had noticed that circumstance to herself, and that she had
+answered me faithfully as to the main fact. It was true she had done so;
+for she had said that she had just met a lunatic who had alarmed her
+by fixing his attention upon herself, and speaking to her in a ruffian
+manner; and it was also true that she did sincerely regard him in that
+light. This led me at the time to construe the whole affair into a
+casual collision with some poor maniac escaping from his keepers, and of
+no future moment, having passed by without present consequences. But had
+she, instead of thus reporting her own erroneous impression, reported
+the entire circumstances of the case, I should have given them a
+very different interpretation. Affection for me, and fear to throw me
+needlessly into a quarrel with a man of apparently brutal and violent
+nature--these considerations, as too often they do with the most upright
+wives, had operated to check Agnes in the perfect sincerity of her
+communications. She had told nothing _but_ the truth--only, and fatally
+it turned out for us both, she had not told the _whole_ truth. The very
+suppression, to which she had reconciled herself, under the belief that
+thus she was providing for my safety and her own consequent happiness,
+had been the indirect occasion of ruin to both. It was impossible to
+show displeasure under such circumstances, or under any circumstances,
+to one whose self-reproaches were at any rate too bitter; but certainly,
+as a general rule, every conscientious woman should resolve to consider
+her husband's honor in the first case, and far before all other regards
+whatsoever; to make this the first, the second, the third law of her
+conduct, and his personal safety but the fourth or fifth. Yet women,
+and especially when the interests of children are at stake upon their
+husbands' safety, rarely indeed are able to take this Roman view of
+their duties.
+
+To return to the narrative. Agnes had not, nor could have, the most
+remote suspicion of this Barratt's connection with the shop which he had
+not accidentally entered; and the sudden appearance of this wretch it
+was, at the very moment of finding herself charged with so vile and
+degrading an offence, that contributed most of all to rob her of her
+natural firmness, by suddenly revealing to her terrified heart the depth
+of the conspiracy which thus yawned like a gulf below her. And not only
+had this sudden horror, upon discovering a guilty design in what before
+had seemed accident, and links uniting remote incidents which else
+seemed casual and disconnected, greatly disturbed and confused her
+manner, which confusion again had become more intense upon her own
+consciousness that she _was_ confused, and that her manner was greatly
+to her disadvantage; but--which was the worst effect of all, because the
+rest could not operate against her, except upon those who were present
+to witness it, whereas this was noted down and recorded--so utterly
+did her confusion strip her of all presence of mind, that she did not
+consciously notice (and consequently could not protest against at
+the moment when it was most important to do so, and most natural) the
+important circumstance of the muff. This capital objection, therefore,
+though dwelt upon and improved to the utmost at the trial, was looked
+upon by the judges as an after-thought; and merely because it had not
+been seized upon by herself, and urged in the first moments of her
+almost incapacitating terror on finding this amongst the circumstances
+of the charge against her--as if an ingenuous nature, in the very act of
+recoiling with horror from a criminal charge the most degrading, and in
+the very instant of discovering, with a perfect rapture of alarm, the
+too plausible appearance of probability amongst the circumstances, would
+be likely to pause, and with attorney-like dexterity, to pick out the
+particular circumstance that might admit of being _proved_ to be false,
+when the conscience proclaimed, though in despondence for the result,
+that all the circumstances were, as to the use made of them, one tissue
+of falsehoods. Agnes, who had made a powerful effort in speaking of the
+case at all, found her calmness increase as she advanced; and she now
+told me, that in reality there were two discoveries which she made in
+the same instant, and not one only, which had disarmed her firmness and
+ordinary presence of mind. One I have mentioned--the fact of Barratt,
+the proprietor of the shop, being the same person who had in former
+instances persecuted her in the street; but the other was even more
+alarming--it has been said already that it was _not_ a pure matter of
+accident that she had visited this particular shop. In reality, that
+nursery-maid, of whom some mention has been made above, and in terms
+expressing the suspicion with which even then I regarded her, had
+persuaded her into going thither by some representations which Agnes
+had already ascertained to be altogether unwarranted. Other presumptions
+against this girl's fidelity crowded dimly upon my wife's mind at the
+very moment of finding her eyes thus suddenly opened. And it was not
+five minutes after her first examination, and in fact five minutes
+after it had ceased to be of use to her, that she remembered another
+circumstance which now, when combined with the sequel, told its own
+tale,--the muff had been missed some little time before the 6th of
+April. Search had been made for it; but, the particular occasion which
+required it having passed off, this search was laid aside for the
+present, in the expectation that it would soon reappear in some corner
+of the house before it was wanted: then came the sunny day, which made
+it no longer useful, and would perhaps have dismissed it entirely from
+the recollection of all parties, until it was now brought back in this
+memorable way. The name of my wife was embroidered within, upon the
+lining, and it thus became a serviceable link to the hellish cabal
+against her. Upon reviewing the circumstances from first to last, upon
+recalling the manner of the girl at the time when the muff was missed,
+and upon combining the whole with her recent deception, by which she had
+misled her poor mistress into visiting this shop, Agnes began to see the
+entire truth as to this servant's wicked collusion with Barratt, though,
+perhaps, it might be too much to suppose her aware of the unhappy result
+to which her collusion tended. All this she saw at a glance when it was
+too late, for her first examination was over. This girl, I must add, had
+left our house during my illness, and she had afterwards a melancholy
+end.
+
+One thing surprised me in all this. Barratt's purpose must manifestly
+have been to create merely a terror in my poor wife's mind, and to stop
+short of any legal consequences, in order to profit of that panic and
+confusion for extorting compliances with his hideous pretensions. It
+perplexed me, therefore, that he did not appear to have pursued this
+manifestly his primary purpose, the other being merely a mask to conceal
+his true ends, and also (as he fancied) a means for effecting them. In
+this, however, I had soon occasion to find that I was deceived. He had,
+but without the knowledge of Agnes, taken such steps as were then open
+to him, for making overtures to her with regard to the terms upon which
+he would agree to defeat the charge against her by failing to appear.
+But the law had travelled too fast for him, and too determinately; so
+that, by the time he supposed terror to have operated sufficiently in
+favor of his views, it had already become unsafe to venture upon such
+explicit proposals as he would otherwise have tried. His own safety was
+now at stake, and would have been compromised by any open or written
+avowal of the motives on which he had been all along acting. In fact, at
+this time he was foiled by the agent in whom he confided; but much
+more he had been confounded upon another point--the prodigious interest
+manifested by the public. Thus it seems--that, whilst he meditated only
+a snare for my poor Agnes, he had prepared one for himself; and finally,
+to evade the suspicions which began to arise powerfully as to his true
+motives, and thus to stave off his own ruin, had found himself in a
+manner obliged to go forward and consummate the ruin of another.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The state of Agnes, as to health and bodily strength, was now becoming
+such that I was forcibly warned--whatsoever I meditated doing, to do
+quickly. There was this urgent reason for alarm: once conveyed into
+that region of the prison in which sentences like hers were executed, it
+became hopeless that I could communicate with her again. All intercourse
+whatsoever, and with whomsoever, was then placed under the most rigorous
+interdict; and the alarming circumstance was, that this transfer was
+governed by no settled rules, but might take place at any hour, and
+would certainly be precipitated by the slightest violence on my part,
+the slightest indiscretion, or the slightest argument for suspicion.
+Hard indeed was the part I had to play, for it was indispensable that
+I should appear calm and tranquil, in order to disarm suspicions around
+me, whilst continually contemplating the possibility that I myself might
+be summoned to extremities which I could not so much as trust myself to
+name or distinctly to conceive. But thus stood the case: the Government,
+it was understood, angered by the public opposition, resolute for the
+triumph of what they called 'principle,' had settled finally that the
+sentence should be carried into execution. Now that she, that my Agnes,
+being the frail wreck that she had become, could have stood one week of
+this sentence practically and literally enforced--was a mere chimera. A
+few hours probably of the experiment would have settled that question
+by dismissing her to the death she longed for; but because the suffering
+would be short, was I to stand by and to witness the degradation--the
+pollution--attempted to be fastened upon her. What! to know that her
+beautiful tresses would be shorn ignominiously--a felon's dress forced
+upon her--a vile taskmaster with authority to----; blistered be the
+tongue that could go on to utter, in connection with her innocent name,
+the vile dishonors which were to settle upon her person! I, however, and
+her brother had taken such resolutions that this result was one barely
+possible; and yet I sickened (yes, literally I many times experienced
+the effect of physical sickness) at contemplating our own utter childish
+helplessness, and recollecting that every night during our seclusion
+from the prison the last irreversible step might be taken--and in the
+morning we might find a solitary cell, and the angel form that had
+illuminated it gone where we could not follow, and leaving behind her
+the certainty that we should see her no more. Every night, at the hour
+of locking up, _she_, at least, manifestly had a fear that she saw
+us for the last time; she put her arms feebly about my neck, sobbed
+convulsively, and, I believe, guessed--but, if really so, did not much
+reprove or quarrel with the desperate purposes which I struggled with in
+regard to her own life. One thing was quite evident--that to the peace
+of her latter days, now hurrying to their close, it was indispensable
+that she should pass them undivided from me; and possibly, as was
+afterwards alleged, when it became easy to allege any thing, some
+relenting did take place in high quarters at this time; for upon some
+medical reports made just now, a most seasonable indulgence was granted,
+viz. that Hannah was permitted to attend her mistress constantly; and
+it was also felt as a great alleviation of the horrors belonging to this
+prison, that candles were now allowed throughout the nights. But I was
+warned privately that these indulgences were with no consent from
+the police minister; and that circumstances might soon withdraw the
+momentary intercession by which we profited. With this knowledge, we
+could not linger in our preparations; we had resolved upon accomplishing
+an escape for Agnes, at whatever risk or price; the main difficulty was
+her own extreme feebleness, which might forbid her to co-operate with us
+in any degree at the critical moment; and the main danger was--delay. We
+pushed forward, therefore, in our attempts with prodigious energy, and I
+for my part with an energy like that of insanity.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The first attempt we made was upon the fidelity to his trust of the
+chief jailer. He was a coarse, vulgar man, brutal in his manners, but
+with vestiges of generosity in his character--though damaged a good deal
+by his daily associates. Him we invited to a meeting at a tavern in
+the neighborhood of the prison, disguising our names as too certain to
+betray our objects, and baiting our invitation with some hints which
+we had ascertained were likely to prove temptations under his immediate
+circumstances. He had a graceless young son whom he was most anxious to
+wean from his dissolute connections, and to steady, by placing him in
+some office of no great responsibility. Upon this knowledge we framed
+the terms of our invitation.
+
+These proved to be effectual, as regarded our immediate object of
+obtaining an interview of persuasion. The night was wet; and at seven
+o'clock, the hour fixed for the interview, we were seated in readiness,
+much perplexed to know whether he would take any notice of our
+invitation. We had waited three quarters of an hour, when we heard a
+heavy lumbering step ascending the stair. The door was thrown open
+to its widest extent, and in the centre of the door-way stood a short
+stout-built man, and the very broadest I ever beheld--staring at us with
+bold inquiring eyes. His salutation was something to this effect.
+
+'What the hell do you gay fellows want with me? What the blazes is this
+humbugging letter about? My son, and be hanged! What do you know of my
+son?'
+
+Upon this overture we ventured to request that he would come in and
+suffer us to shut the door, which we also locked. Next we produced the
+official paper nominating his son to a small place in the customs,--not
+yielding much, it was true, in the way of salary, but fortunately, and
+in accordance with the known wishes of the father, unburdened with any
+dangerous trust.
+
+'Well, I suppose I must say thank ye: but what comes next? What am I to
+do to pay the damages?' We informed him that for this particular little
+service we asked no return.
+
+'No, no,' said he, 'that'll not go down: that cat'll not jump. I'm
+not green enough for that. So, say away--what's the damage?' We then
+explained that we had certainly a favor and a great one to ask: ['Ay,
+I'll be bound you have,' was his parenthesis:] but that for this we were
+prepared to offer a separate remuneration; repeating that with respect
+to the little place procured for his son, it had not cost us anything,
+and therefore we did really and sincerely decline to receive anything
+in return; satisfied that, by this little offering, we had procured
+the opportunity of this present interview. At this point we withdrew a
+covering from the table upon which we had previously arranged a heap of
+gold coins, amounting in value to twelve hundred English guineas: this
+being the entire sum which circumstances allowed us to raise on so
+sudden a warning: for some landed property that we both had was so
+settled and limited, that we could not convert it into money either
+by way of sale, loan, or mortgage. This sum, stating to him its exact
+amount, we offered to his acceptance, upon the single condition that he
+would look aside, or wink hard, or (in whatever way he chose to express
+it) would make, or suffer to be made, such facilities for our liberating
+a female prisoner as we would point out. He mused: full five minutes he
+sat deliberating without opening his lips. At length he shocked us by
+saying, in a firm, decisive tone, that left us little hope of altering
+his resolution,--'No: gentlemen, it's a very fair offer, and a good deal
+of money for a single prisoner. I think I can guess at the person. It's
+a fair offer--fair enough. But, bless your heart! if I were to do the
+thing you want--why perhaps another case might be overlooked: but this
+prisoner, no: there's too much depending. No, they would turn me out of
+my place. Now the place is worth more to me in the long run than what
+you offer: though you bid fair enough, if it were only for my time in
+it. But look here: in case I can get my son to come into harness, I'm
+expecting to get the office for him after I've retired. So I can't do
+it. But I'll tell you what: you've been kind to my son: and therefore
+I'll not say a word about it. You're safe for me. And so good-night
+to you.' Saying which, and standing no further question, he walked
+resolutely out of the room and down stairs.
+
+Two days we mourned over this failure, and scarcely knew which way
+to turn for another ray of hope;--on the third morning we received
+intelligence that this very jailer had been attacked by the fever,
+which, after long desolating the city, had at length made its way into
+the prison. In a very few days the jailer was lying without hope of
+recovery: and of necessity another person was appointed to fill his
+station for the present. This person I had seen, and I liked him less
+by much than the one he succeeded: he had an Italian appearance, and he
+wore an air of Italian subtlety and dissimulation. I was surprised to
+find, on proposing the same service to him, and on the same terms, that
+he made no objection whatever, but closed instantly with my offers. In
+prudence, however, I had made this change in the articles: a sum equal
+to two hundred English guineas, or one-sixth part of the whole money, he
+was to receive beforehand as a retaining fee; but the remainder was to
+be paid only to himself, or to anybody of his appointing, at the very
+moment of our finding the prison gates thrown open to us. He spoke
+fairly enough, and seemed to meditate no treachery; nor was there any
+obvious or known interest to serve by treachery; and yet I doubted him
+grievously.
+
+The night came: it was chosen as a gala night, one of two nights
+throughout the year in which the prisoners were allowed to celebrate a
+great national event: and in those days of relaxed prison management
+the utmost license was allowed to the rejoicing. This indulgence was
+extended to prisoners of all classes, though, of course, under more
+restrictions with regard to the criminal class. Ten o'clock came--the
+hour at which we had been instructed to hold ourselves in readiness.
+We had been long prepared. Agnes had been dressed by Hannah in such a
+costume externally (a man's hat and cloak, &c.) that, from her height,
+she might easily have passed amongst a mob of masquerading figures in
+the debtors' halls and galleries for a young stripling. Pierpoint and
+myself were also to a certain degree disguised; so far, at least, that
+we should not have been recognized at any hurried glance by those of the
+prison officers who had become acquainted with our persons. We were all
+more or less disguised about the face; and in that age when masks were
+commonly used at all hours by people of a certain rank, there would have
+been nothing suspicious in any possible costume of the kind in a night
+like this, if we could succeed in passing for friends of debtors.
+
+I am impatient of these details, and I hasten over the ground. One
+entire hour passed away, and no jailer appeared. We began to despond
+heavily; and Agnes, poor thing! was now the most agitated of us all.
+At length eleven struck in the harsh tones of the prison-clock. A
+few minutes after, we heard the sound of bolts drawing, and bars
+unfastening. The jailer entered--drunk, and much disposed to be
+insolent. I thought it advisable to give him another bribe, and he
+resumed the fawning insinuation of his manner. He now directed us, by
+passages which he pointed out, to gain the other side of the prison.
+There we were to mix with the debtors and their mob of friends, and
+to await his joining us, which in that crowd he could do without much
+suspicion. He wished us to traverse the passages separately; but this
+was impossible, for it was necessary that one of us should support Agnes
+on each side. I previously persuaded her to take a small quantity
+of brandy, which we rejoiced to see had given her, at this moment of
+starting, a most seasonable strength and animation. The gloomy passages
+were more than usually empty, for all the turnkeys were employed in a
+vigilant custody of the gates, and examination of the parties going out.
+So the jailer had told us, and the news alarmed us. We came at length to
+a turning which brought us in sight of a strong iron gate, that divided
+the two main quarters of the prison. For this we had not been prepared.
+The man, however, opened the gate without a word spoken, only putting
+out his hand for a fee; and in my joy, perhaps, I gave him one
+imprudently large. After passing this gate, the distant uproar of the
+debtors guided us to the scene of their merriment; and when there, such
+was the tumult and the vast multitude assembled, that we now hoped in
+good earnest to accomplish our purpose without accident. Just at this
+moment the jailer appeared in the distance; he seemed looking towards
+us, and at length one of our party could distinguish that he was
+beckoning to us. We went forward, and found him in some agitation, real
+or counterfeit. He muttered a word or two quite unintelligible about the
+man at the wicket, told us we must wait a while, and he would then see
+what could be done for us. We were beginning to demur, and to express
+the suspicions which now too seriously arose, when he, seeing, or
+affecting to see some object of alarm, pushed us with a hurried movement
+into a cell opening upon the part of the gallery at which we were now
+standing. Not knowing whether we really might not be retreating from
+some danger, we could do no otherwise than comply with his signals; but
+we were troubled at finding ourselves immediately locked in from the
+outside, and thus apparently all our motions had only sufficed to
+exchange one prison for another.
+
+We were now completely in the dark, and found, by a hard breathing from
+one corner of the little dormitory, that it was not unoccupied. Having
+taken care to provide ourselves separately with means for striking a
+light, we soon had more than one torch burning. The brilliant light
+falling upon the eyes of a man who lay stretched on the iron bedstead,
+woke him. It proved to be my friend the under-jailer, Ratcliffe, but
+no longer holding any office in the prison. He sprang up, and a rapid
+explanation took place. He had become a prisoner for debt; and on this
+evening, after having caroused through the day with some friends
+from the country, had retired at an early hour to sleep away
+his intoxication. I on my part thought it prudent to intrust him
+unreservedly with our situation and purposes, not omitting our gloomy
+suspicions. Ratcliffe looked, with a pity that won my love, upon the
+poor wasted Agnes. He had seen her on her first entrance into the
+prison, had spoken to her, and therefore knew _from_ what she had
+fallen, _to_ what. Even then he had felt for her; how much more at this
+time, when he beheld, by the fierce light of the torches, her wo-worn
+features!
+
+'Who was it,' he asked eagerly, 'you made the bargain with? Manasseh?'
+
+'The same.'
+
+'Then I can tell you this--not a greater villain walks the earth. He is
+a Jew from Portugal; he has betrayed many a man, and will many another,
+unless he gets his own neck stretched, which might happen, if I told all
+I know.'
+
+'But what was it probable that this man meditated? Or how could it
+profit him to betray us?'
+
+'That's more than I can tell. He wants to get your money, and that he
+doesn't know how to bring about without doing his part. But that's what
+he never _will_ do, take my word for it. That would cut him out of all
+chance for the head-jailer's place.' He mused a little, and then told us
+that he could himself put us outside the prison walls, and _would_ do it
+without fee or reward. 'But we must be quiet, or that devil will bethink
+him of me. I'll wager something he thought that I was out merry-making
+like the rest; and if he should chance to light upon the truth, he'll be
+back in no time.' Ratcliffe then removed an old fire-grate, at the back
+of which was an iron plate, that swung round into a similar fire-place
+in the contiguous cell. From that, by a removal of a few slight
+obstacles, we passed, by a long avenue, into the chapel. Then he left
+us, whilst he went out alone to reconnoitre his ground. Agnes was now
+in so pitiable a condition of weakness, as we stood on the very brink of
+our final effort, that we placed her in a pew, where she could rest as
+upon a sofa. Previously we had stood upon graves, and with monuments
+more or less conspicuous all around us: some raised by friends to
+the memory of friends--some by subscriptions in the prison--some by
+children, who had risen into prosperity, to the memory of a father,
+brother, or other relative, who had died in captivity. I was grieved
+that these sad memorials should meet the eye of my wife at this moment
+of awe and terrific anxiety. Pierpoint and I were well armed, and all
+of us determined not to suffer a recapture, now that we were free of the
+crowds that made resistance hopeless. This Agnes easily perceived;
+and _that_, by suggesting a bloody arbitration, did not lessen her
+agitation. I hoped therefore, that, by placing her in the pew, I might
+at least liberate her for the moment from the besetting memorials of
+sorrow and calamity. But, as if in the very teeth of my purpose, one of
+the large columns which supported the roof of the chapel, had its basis
+and lower part of the shaft in this very pew. On the side of it, and
+just facing her as she lay reclining on the cushions, appeared a
+mural tablet, with a bas-relief in white marble, to the memory of two
+children, twins, who had lived and died at the same time, and in
+this prison--children who had never breathed another air than that of
+captivity, their parents having passed many years within these walls,
+under confinement for debt. The sculptures were not remarkable, being a
+trite, but not the less affecting, representation of angels descending
+to receive the infants; but the hallowed words of the inscription,
+distinct and legible--'Suffer little children to come unto me, and
+forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of God'--met her eye,
+and, by the thoughts they awakened, made me fear that she would become
+unequal to the exertions which yet awaited her. At this moment Ratcliffe
+returned, and informed us that all was right; and that, from the ruinous
+state of all the buildings which surrounded the chapel, no difficulty
+remained for us, who were, in fact, beyond the strong part of the
+prison, excepting at a single door, which we should be obliged to break
+down. But had we any means arranged for pursuing our flight, and turning
+this escape to account when out of confinement? All that, I assured him,
+was provided for long ago. We proceeded, and soon reached the door. We
+had one crow-bar amongst us, but beyond that had no better weapons
+than the loose stones found about some new-made graves in the chapel.
+Ratcliffe and Pierpoint, both powerful men, applied themselves by turns
+to the door, whilst Hannah and I supported Agnes. The door did not
+yield, being of enormous strength; but the wall did, and a large mass
+of stone-work fell outwards, twisting the door aside; so that, by
+afterwards working with our hands, we removed stones many enough to
+admit of our egress. Unfortunately this aperture was high above the
+ground, and it was necessary to climb over a huge heap of loose rubbish
+in order to profit by it. My brother-in-law passed first in order to
+receive my wife, quite helpless at surmounting the obstacle by her own
+efforts, out of my arms. He had gone through the opening, and, turning
+round so as to face me, he naturally could see something that I did
+_not_ see. 'Look behind!' he called out rapidly. I did so, and saw the
+murderous villain Manasseh with his arm uplifted, and in the act of
+cutting at my wife, nearly insensible as she was, with a cutlass. The
+blow was not for me, but for her, as the fugitive prisoner; and the law
+would have borne him out in the act. I saw, I comprehended the whole. I
+groped, as far as I could without letting my wife drop, for my pistols;
+but all that I could do would have been unavailing, and too late--she
+would have been murdered in my arms. But--and that was what none of us
+saw--neither I, nor Pierpoint, nor the hound Manasseh--one person stood
+back in the shade; one person had seen, but had not uttered a word
+on seeing Manasseh advancing through the shades; one person only
+had forecast the exact succession of all that was coming; me she saw
+embarrassed and my hands preoccupied--Pierpoint and Ratcliffe useless
+by position--and the gleam of the dog's eye directed her to his aim. The
+crow-bar was leaning against the shattered wall. This she had silently
+seized. One blow knocked up the sword; a second laid the villain
+prostrate. At this moment appeared another of the turnkeys advancing
+from the rear, for the noise of our assault upon the door had drawn
+attention in the interior of the prison, from which, however, no great
+number of assistants could on this dangerous night venture to absent
+themselves. What followed for the next few minutes hurried onwards,
+incident crowding upon incident, like the motions of a dream:--Manasseh,
+lying on the ground, yelled out, 'The bell! the bell!' to him who
+followed. The man understood, and made for the belfry-door attached
+to the chapel; upon which Pierpoint drew a pistol, and sent the bullet
+whizzing past his ear so truly, that fear made the man obedient to the
+counter-orders of Pierpoint for the moment. He paused and awaited the
+issue. In a moment had all cleared the wall, traversed the waste ground
+beyond it, lifted Agnes over the low railing, shaken hands with our
+benefactor Ratcliffe, and pushed onwards as rapidly as we were able
+to the little dark lane, a quarter of a mile distant, where had stood
+waiting for the last two hours a chaise-and-four.
+
+[Ratcliffe, before my story closes, I will pursue to the last of my
+acquaintance with him, according to the just claims of his services. He
+had privately whispered to me, as we went along, that he could speak to
+the innocence of that lady, pointing to my wife, better than anybody.
+He was the person whom (as then holding an office in the prison) Barratt
+had attempted to employ as agent in conveying any messages that he found
+it safe to send--obscurely hinting the terms on which he would desist
+from prosecution. Ratcliffe had at first undertaken the negotiation from
+mere levity of character. But when the story and the public interest
+spread, and after himself becoming deeply struck by the prisoner's
+affliction, beauty, and reputed innocence, he had pursued it only as a
+means of entrapping Barratt into such written communications and such
+private confessions of the truth as might have served Agnes effectually.
+He wanted the art, however, to disguise his purposes: Barratt came to
+suspect him violently, and feared his evidence so far, even for those
+imperfect and merely oral overtures which he had really sent through
+Ratcliffe--that on the very day of the trial, he, as was believed,
+though by another nominally, contrived that Ratcliffe should be arrested
+for debt; and, after harassing him with intricate forms of business, had
+finally caused him to be conveyed to prison. Ratcliffe was thus involved
+in his own troubles at the time; and afterwards supposed that, without
+written documents to support his evidence, he could not be of much
+service to the re-establisment of my wife's reputation. Six months after
+his services in the night-escape from the prison, I saw him, and pressed
+him to take the money so justly forfeited to him by Manasseh's perfidy.
+He would, however, be persuaded to take no more than paid his debts. A
+second and a third time his debts were paid by myself and Pierpoint.
+But the same habits of intemperance and dissolute pleasure which led him
+into these debts, finally ruined his constitution; and he died, though
+otherwise of a fine generous manly nature, a martyr to dissipation at
+the early age of twenty-nine. With respect to his prison confinement, it
+was so frequently recurring in his life, and was alleviated by so many
+indulgences, that he scarcely viewed it as a hardship: having once been
+an officer of the prison, and having thus formed connections with the
+whole official establishment, and done services to many of them, and
+being of so convivial a turn, he was, even as a prisoner, treated with
+distinction, and considered as a privileged son of the house.]
+
+It was just striking twelve o'clock as we entered the lane where the
+carriage was drawn up. Rain, about the profoundest I had ever witnessed,
+was falling. Though near to midsummer, the night had been unusually dark
+to begin with, and from the increasing rain had become much more so. We
+could see nothing; and at first we feared that some mistake had occurred
+as to the station of the carriage--in which case we might have sought
+for it vainly through the intricate labyrinth of the streets in
+that quarter. I first descried it by the light of a torch, reflected
+powerfully from the large eyes of the leaders. All was ready.
+Horse-keepers were at the horses' heads. The postilions were mounted;
+each door had the steps let down: Agnes was lifted in: Hannah and I
+followed: Pierpoint mounted his horse; and at the word--Oh! how strange
+a word!--'_All's right_,' the horses sprang off like leopards, a manner
+ill-suited to the slippery pavement of a narrow street. At that moment,
+but we valued it little indeed, we heard the prison-bell ringing out
+loud and clear. Thrice within the first three minutes we had to pull up
+suddenly, on the brink of formidable accidents, from the dangerous
+speed we maintained, and which, nevertheless, the driver had orders to
+maintain, as essential to our plan. All the stoppages and hinderances
+of every kind along the road had been anticipated previously, and met by
+contrivance, of one kind or other; and Pierpoint was constantly a
+little ahead of us to attend to anything that had been neglected. The
+consequence of these arrangements was--that no person along the road
+could possibly have assisted to trace us by any thing in our appearance:
+for we passed all objects at too flying a pace, and through darkness too
+profound, to allow of any one feature in our equipage being distinctly
+noticed. Ten miles out of town, a space which we traversed in forty-four
+minutes, a second relay of horses was ready; but we carried on the same
+postilions throughout. Six miles ahead of this distance we had a second
+relay; and with this set of horses, after pushing two miles further
+along the road, we crossed by a miserable lane five miles long, scarcely
+even a bridge road, into another of the great roads from the capital;
+and by thus crossing the country, we came back upon the city at a point
+far distant from that at which we left it. We had performed a distance
+of forty-two miles in three hours, and lost a fourth hour upon the
+wretched five miles of cross-road. It was, therefore, four o'clock, and
+broad daylight, when we drew near the suburbs of the city; but a most
+happy accident now favored us; a fog the most intense now prevailed;
+nobody could see an object six feet distant; we alighted in an
+uninhabited new-built street, plunged into the fog, thus confounding our
+traces to any observer. We then stepped into a hackney-coach which had
+been stationed at a little distance. Thence, according to our plan, we
+drove to a miserable quarter of the town, whither the poor only and the
+wretched resorted; mounted a gloomy dirty staircase, and, befriended by
+the fog, still growing thicker and thicker, and by the early hour of the
+morning, reached a house previously hired, which, if shocking to the eye
+and the imagination from its squalid appearance and its gloom, still
+was a home--a sanctuary--an asylum from treachery, from captivity, from
+persecution. Here Pierpoint for the present quitted us: and once more
+Agnes, Hannah, and I, the shattered members of a shattered family, were
+thus gathered together in a house of our own.
+
+Yes: once again, daughter of the hills, thou sleptst as heretofore in my
+encircling arms; but not again in that peace which crowned thy innocence
+in those days, and should have crowned it now. Through the whole of our
+flying journey, in some circumstances at its outset strikingly recalling
+to me that blessed one which followed our marriage, Agnes slept away
+unconscious of our movements. She slept through all that day and the
+following night; and I watched over her with as much jealousy of all
+that might disturb her, as a mother watches over her new-born baby; for
+I hoped, I fancied, that a long--long rest, a rest, a halcyon calm, a
+deep, deep Sabbath of security, might prove healing and medicinal. I
+thought wrong; her breathing became more disturbed, and sleep was now
+haunted by dreams; all of us, indeed, were agitated by dreams; the past
+pursued me, and the present, for high rewards had been advertised by
+Government to those who traced us; and though for the moment we were
+secure, because we never went abroad, and could not have been naturally
+sought in such a neighborhood, still that very circumstance would
+eventually operate against us. At length, every night I dreamed of
+our insecurity under a thousand forms; but more often by far my dreams
+turned upon our wrongs; wrath moved me rather than fear. Every night,
+for the greater part, I lay painfully and elaborately involved, by deep
+sense of wrong,
+
+  '--in long orations, which I pleaded
+  Before unjust tribunals.'
+  [Footnote: From a MS. poem of a great living Poet.]
+
+And for poor Agnes, her also did the remembrance of mighty wrongs occupy
+through vast worlds of sleep in the same way--though colored by
+that tenderness which belonged to her gentler nature. One dream in
+particular--a dream of sublime circumstances--she repeated to me so
+movingly, with a pathos so thrilling, that by some profound sympathy
+it transplanted itself to my own sleep, settled itself there, and is to
+this hour a part of the fixed dream scenery which revolves at intervals
+through my sleeping life. This it was:--She would hear a trumpet
+sound--though perhaps as having been the prelude to the solemn entry of
+the judges at a town which she had once visited in her childhood; other
+preparations would follow, and at last all the solemnities of a great
+trial would shape themselves and fall into settled images. The audience
+was assembled, the judges were arrayed, the court was set. The prisoner
+was cited. Inquest was made, witnesses were called; and false witnesses
+came tumultuously to the bar. Then again a trumpet was heard, but the
+trumpet of a mighty archangel; and then would roll away thick clouds and
+vapors. Again the audience, but another audience, was assembled; again
+the tribunal was established; again the court was set; but a tribunal
+and a court--how different to her! _That_ had been composed of men
+seeking indeed for truth, but themselves erring and fallible creatures;
+the witnesses had been full of lies, the judges of darkness. But
+here was a court composed of heavenly witnesses--here was a righteous
+tribunal--and then at last a judge that could not be deceived. The judge
+smote with his eye a person who sought to hide himself in the crowd;
+the guilty man stepped forward; the poor prisoner was called up to the
+presence of the mighty judge; suddenly the voice of a little child was
+heard ascending before her. Then the trumpet sounded once again; and
+then there were new heavens and a new earth; and her tears and
+her agitation (for she had seen her little Francis) awoke the poor
+palpitating dreamer.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Two months passed on: nothing could possibly be done materially to raise
+the standard of those wretched accommodations which the house
+offered. The dilapidated walls, the mouldering plaster, the blackened
+mantel-pieces, the stained and polluted wainscots--what could be
+attempted to hide or to repair all this by those who durst not venture
+abroad? Yet whatever could be done, Hannah did; and, in the mean time,
+very soon indeed my Agnes ceased to see or to be offended by these
+objects. First of all her sight went from her; and nothing which
+appealed to that sense could ever more offend her. It is to me the one
+only consolation I have, that my presence and that of Hannah, with such
+innocent frauds as we concerted together, made her latter days pass in
+a heavenly calm, by persuading her that our security was absolute,
+and that all search after us had ceased, under a belief on the part of
+Government that we had gained the shelter of a foreign land. All this
+was a delusion; but it was a delusion--blessed be Heaven! which
+lasted exactly as long as her life, and was just commensurate with its
+necessity. I hurry over the final circumstances.
+
+There was fortunately now, even for me, no fear that the hand of any
+policeman or emissary of justice could effectually disturb the latter
+days of my wife; for, besides pistols always lying loaded in an inner
+room, there happened to be a long narrow passage on entering the house,
+which, by means of a blunderbuss, I could have swept effectually, and
+cleared many times over; and I know what to do in a last extremity.
+Just two months it was, to a day, since we had entered the house; and
+it happened that the medical attendant upon Agnes, who awakened no
+suspicion by his visits, had prescribed some opiate or anodyne which had
+not come; being dark early, for it was now September, I had ventured out
+to fetch it. In this I conceived there could be no danger. On my return
+I saw a man examining the fastenings of the door. He made no opposition
+to my entrance, nor seemed much to observe it--but I was disturbed. Two
+hours after, both Hannah and I heard a noise about the door, and voices
+in low conversation. It is remarkable that Agnes heard this also--so
+quick had grown her hearing. She was agitated, but was easily calmed;
+and at ten o'clock we were all in bed. The hand of Agnes was in mine;
+so only she felt herself in security. She had been restless for an hour,
+and talking at intervals in sleep. Once she certainly wakened, for she
+pressed her lips to mine. Two minutes after, I heard something in
+her breathing which did not please me. I rose hastily--brought a
+light--raised her head--two long, long gentle sighs, that scarcely moved
+the lips, were all that could be perceived. At that moment, at that very
+moment, Hannah called out to me that the door was surrounded. 'Open it!'
+I said; six men entered; Agnes it was they sought; I pointed to the bed;
+they advanced, gazed, and walked away in silence.
+
+After this I wandered about, caring little for life or its affairs, and
+roused only at times to think of vengeance upon all who had contributed
+to lay waste my happiness. In this pursuit, however, I was confounded
+as much by my own thoughts as by the difficulties of accomplishing my
+purpose. To assault and murder either of the two principal agents in
+this tragedy, what would it be, what other effect could it have, than to
+invest them with the character of injured and suffering people, and thus
+to attract a pity or a forgiveness at least to their persons which never
+otherwise could have illustrated their deaths? I remembered, indeed, the
+words of a sea-captain who had taken such vengeance as had offered at
+the moment upon his bitter enemy and persecutor (a young passenger on
+board his ship), who had informed against him at the Custom-house on his
+arrival in port, and had thus effected the confiscation of his ship,
+and the ruin of the captain's family. The vengeance, and it was all
+that circumstances allowed, consisted in coming behind the young man
+clandestinely and pushing him into the deep waters of the dock, when,
+being unable to swim, he perished by drowning. 'And the like,' said the
+captain, when musing on his trivial vengeance, 'and the like happens
+to many an honest sailor.' Yes, thought I, the captain was right. The
+momentary shock of a pistol-bullet--what is it? Perhaps it may save
+the wretch after all from the pangs of some lingering disease; and then
+again I shall have the character of a murderer, if known to have shot
+him; he will with many people have no such character, but at worst the
+character of a man too harsh (they will say), and possibly mistaken in
+protecting his property. And then, if not known as the man who shot
+him, where is the shadow even of vengeance? Strange it seemed to me, and
+passing strange, that I should be the person to urge arguments in behalf
+of letting this man escape. For at one time I had as certainly, as
+inexorably, doomed him as ever I took any resolution in my life. But the
+fact is, and I began to see it upon closer view, it is not easy by any
+means to take an adequate vengeance for any injury beyond a very trivial
+standard; and that with common magnanimity one does not care to avenge.
+Whilst I was in this mood of mind, still debating with myself whether
+I should or should not contaminate my hands with the blood of this
+monster, and still unable to shut my eyes upon one fact, viz. that my
+buried Agnes could above all things have urged me to abstain from such
+acts of violence, too evidently useless, listlessly and scarcely knowing
+what I was in quest of, I strayed by accident into a church where a
+venerable old man was preaching at the very moment I entered; he was
+either delivering as a text, or repeating in the course of his sermon,
+these words--'Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord.' By
+some accident also he fixed his eyes upon me at the moment; and
+this concurrence with the subject then occupying my thoughts so much
+impressed me, that I determined very seriously to review my half-formed
+purposes of revenge; and well it was that I did so: for in that same
+week an explosion of popular fury brought the life of this wretched
+Barratt to a shocking termination, pretty much resembling the fate of
+the De Witts in Holland. And the consequences to me were such, and so
+full of all the consolation and indemnification which this world could
+give me, that I have often shuddered since then at the narrow escape
+I had had from myself intercepting this remarkable retribution. The
+villain had again been attempting to play off the same hellish scheme
+with a beautiful young rustic which had succeeded in the case of my
+ill-fated Agnes. But the young woman in this instance had a high, and,
+in fact, termagant spirit. Rustic as she was, she had been warned of the
+character of the man; everybody, in fact, was familiar with the recent
+tragedy. Either her lover or her brother happened to be waiting for
+her outside the window. He saw in part the very tricks in the act of
+perpetration by which some article or other, meant to be claimed as
+stolen property, was conveyed into a parcel she had incautiously laid
+down. He heard the charge against her made by Barratt, and seconded by
+his creatures--heard her appeal--sprang to her aid--dragged the ruffian
+into the street, when in less time than the tale could be told, and
+before the police (though tolerably alert) could effectually interpose
+for his rescue, the mob had so used or so abused the opportunity they
+had long wished for, that he remained the mere disfigured wreck of what
+had once been a man, rather than a creature with any resemblance to
+humanity. I myself heard the uproar at a distance, and the shouts and
+yells of savage exultation; they were sounds I shall never forget,
+though I did not at that time know them for what they were, or
+understood their meaning. The result, however, to me was something
+beyond this, and worthy to have been purchased with my heart's blood.
+Barratt still breathed; spite of his mutilations he could speak; he was
+rational. One only thing he demanded--it was that his dying confession
+might be taken. Two magistrates and a clergyman attended. He gave a
+list of those whom he had trepanned, and had failed to trepan, by his
+artifices and threats, into the sacrifice of their honor. He expired
+before the record was closed, but not before he had placed my wife's
+name in the latter list as the one whose injuries in his dying moments
+most appalled him. This confession on the following day went into the
+hands of the hostile minister, and my revenge was perfect.
+
+
+
+
+THE SPANISH NUN.
+
+
+Why is it that _Adventures_ are so generally repulsive to people of
+meditative minds? It is for the same reason that any other want of law,
+that any other anarchy is repulsive. Floating passively from action to
+action, as helplessly as a withered leaf surrendered to the breath
+of winds, the human spirit (out of which comes all grandeur of human
+motions) is exhibited in mere _Adventures_, as either entirely laid
+asleep, or as acting only by lower organs that regulate the _means_,
+whilst the _ends_ are derived from alien sources, and are imperiously
+predetermined. It is a case of exception, however, when even amongst
+such adventures the agent reacts upon his own difficulties and
+necessities by a temper of extraordinary courage, and a mind of
+premature decision. Further strength arises to such an exception, if the
+very moulding accidents of the life, if the very external coercions are
+themselves unusually romantic. They may thus gain a separate interest of
+their own. And, lastly, the whole is locked into validity of interest,
+even for the psychological philosopher, by complete authentication
+of its truth. In the case now brought before him, the reader must not
+doubt; for no memoir exists, or personal biography, that is so trebly
+authenticated by proofs and attestations direct and collateral. From the
+archives of the Royal Marine at Seville, from the autobiography or the
+heroine, from contemporary chronicles, and from several official sources
+scattered in and out of Spain, some of them ecclesiastical, the
+amplest proofs have been drawn, and may yet be greatly extended, of the
+extraordinary events here recorded. M. de Ferrer, a Spaniard of much
+research, and originally incredulous as to the facts, published about
+seventeen years ago a selection from the leading documents, accompanied
+by his _palinode_ as to their accuracy. His materials have been since
+used for the basis of more than one narrative, not inaccurate, in
+French, German and Spanish journals of high authority. It is seldom the
+case that French writers err by prolixity. They _have_ done so in this
+case. The present narrative, which contains no sentence derived from any
+foreign one, has the great advantage of close compression; my own pages,
+after equating the size, being as 1 to 3 of the shortest continental
+form. In the mode of narration, I am vain enough to flatter myself
+that the reader will find little reason to hesitate between us. Mine
+at least, weary nobody; which is more than can be always said for the
+continental versions.
+
+On a night in the year 1592, (but which night is a secret liable to 365
+answers,) a Spanish '_son of somebody_,' [Footnote: _i.e._ 'Hidalgo']
+in the fortified town of St. Sebastian, received the disagreeable
+intelligence from a nurse, that his wife had just presented him with a
+daughter. No present that the poor misjudging lady could possibly have
+made him was so entirely useless for any purpose of his. He had three
+daughters already, which happened to be more by 2+1 than _his_ reckoning
+assumed as a reasonable allowance of daughters. A supernumerary son
+might have been stowed away; but daughters in excess were the very
+nuisance of Spain. He did, therefore, what in such cases every proud
+and lazy Spanish gentleman was apt to do--he wrapped the new little
+daughter, odious to his paternal eyes, in a pocket handkerchief; and
+then, wrapping up his own throat with a good deal more care, off he
+bolted to the neighboring convent of St. Sebastian, not merely of that
+city, but also (amongst several convents) the one dedicated to that
+saint. It is well that in this quarrelsome world we quarrel furiously
+about tastes; since agreeing too closely about the objects to be
+liked and appropriated would breed much more fighting than is bred by
+disagreeing. That little human tadpole, which the old toad of a father
+would not suffer to stay ten minutes in his house, proved as welcome at
+the nunnery of St. Sebastian as she was odious elsewhere. The superior
+of the convent was aunt, by the mother's side, to the new-born stranger.
+She, therefore, kissed and blessed the little lady. The poor nuns, who
+were never to have any babies of their own, and were languishing for
+some amusement, perfectly doated on this prospect of a wee pet. The
+superior thanked the hidalgo for his very splendid present. The nuns
+thanked him each and all; until the old crocodile actually began to
+cry and whimper sentimentally at what he now perceived to be excess of
+munificence in himself. Munificence, indeed, he remarked, was his foible
+next after parental tenderness.
+
+What a luxury it is sometimes to a cynic that there go two words to a
+bargain. In the convent of St. Sebastian all was gratitude; gratitude
+(as aforesaid) to the hidalgo from all the convent for his present,
+until at last the hidalgo began to express gratitude to _them_ for their
+gratitude to _him_. Then came a rolling fire of thanks to St. Sebastian;
+from the superior, for sending a future saint; from the nuns, for
+sending such a love of a plaything; and, finally, from papa, for sending
+such substantial board and well-bolted lodgings, 'from which,' said the
+malicious old fellow, 'my pussy will never find her way out to a thorny
+and dangerous world.' Won't she? I suspect, son of somebody, that the
+next time you see 'pussy,' which may happen to be also the last,
+will not be in a convent of any kind. At present, whilst this general
+rendering of thanks was going on, one person only took no part in them.
+That person was 'pussy,' whose little figure lay quietly stretched out
+in the arms of a smiling young nun, with eyes nearly shut, yet peering
+a little at the candles. Pussy said nothing. It's of no great use to
+say much, when all the world is against you. But if St. Sebastian had
+enabled her to speak out the whole truth, pussy _would_ have said: 'So,
+Mr. Hidalgo, you have been engaging lodgings for me; lodgings for life.
+Wait a little. We'll try that question, when my claws are grown a little
+longer.'
+
+Disappointment, therefore, was gathering ahead. But for the present
+there was nothing of the kind. That noble old crocodile, papa, was not
+in the least disappointed as regarded _his_ expectation of having
+no anxiety to waste, and no money to pay, on account of his youngest
+daughter. He insisted on his right to forget her; and in a week _had_
+forgotten her, never to think of her again but once. The lady superior,
+as regarded _her_ demands, was equally content, and through a course of
+several years; for, as often as she asked pussy if she would be a
+saint, pussy replied that she would, if saints were allowed plenty of
+sweetmeats. But least of all were the nuns disappointed. Everything that
+they had fancied possible in a human plaything fell short of what pussy
+realized in racketing, racing, and eternal plots against the peace of
+the elder nuns. No fox ever kept a hen-roost in such alarm as pussy kept
+the dormitory of the senior sisters; whilst the younger ladies were
+run off their legs by the eternal wiles, and had their chapel gravity
+discomposed, even in chapel, by the eternal antics of this privileged
+little kitten.
+
+The kitten had long ago received a baptismal name, which was Kitty; this
+is Catharine, or Kate, or _Hispanice_ Catalina. It was a good name, as
+it recalled her original name of pussy. And, by the way, she had also an
+ancient and honorable surname, viz., _De Erauso_, which is to this day a
+name rooted in Biscay. Her father, the _hidalgo_, was a military officer
+in the Spanish service, and had little care whether his kitten should
+turn out a wolf or a lamb, having made over the fee simple of his own
+interest in the little Kate to St. Sebastian, 'to have and to hold,'
+so long as Kate should keep her hold of this present life. Kate had
+no apparent intention to let slip that hold, for she was blooming as
+a rose-bush in June, tall and strong as a young cedar. Yet,
+notwithstanding this robust health and the strength of the convent
+walls, the time was drawing near when St. Sebastian's lease in Kate
+must, in legal phrase, 'determine;' and any _chateaux en Espagne_,
+that the Saint might have built on the cloisteral fidelity of his pet
+Catalina, must suddenly give way in one hour, like many other vanities
+in our own days of Spanish bonds and promises. After reaching her tenth
+year, Catalina became thoughtful, and not very docile. At times she
+was even headstrong and turbulent, so that the gentle sisterhood of St.
+Sebastian, who had no other pet or plaything in the world, began to weep
+in secret--fearing that they might have been rearing by mistake some
+future tigress--for as to infancy, _that_, you know, is playful and
+innocent even in the cubs of a tigress. But _there_ the ladies were
+going too far. Catalina was impetuous and aspiring, but not cruel. She
+was gentle, if people would let her be so. But woe to those that
+took liberties with _her_! A female servant of the convent, in some
+authority, one day, in passing up the aisle to matins, _wilfully_ gave
+Kate a push; and in return, Kate, who never left her debts in arrear,
+gave the servant for a keepsake a look which that servant carried with
+her in fearful remembrance to her grave. It seemed as if Kate had tropic
+blood in her veins, that continually called her away to the tropics. It
+was all the fault of that 'blue rejoicing sky,' of those purple Biscayan
+mountains, of that tumultuous ocean, which she beheld daily from the
+nunnery gardens. Or, if only half of it was _their_ fault, the other
+half lay in those golden tales, streaming upwards even into the
+sanctuaries of convents, like morning mists touched by earliest
+sunlight, of kingdoms overshadowing a new world which had been founded
+by her kinsmen with the simple aid of a horse and a lance. The reader is
+to remember that this is no romance, or at least no fiction, that he
+is reading; and it is proper to remind the reader of real romances in
+Ariosto or our own Spenser, that such martial ladies as the _Marfisa_,
+or _Bradamant_ of the first, and _Britomart_ of the other, were really
+not the improbabilities that modern society imagines. Many a stout man,
+as you will soon see, found that Kate, with a sabre in hand, and well
+mounted, was but too serious a fact.
+
+The day is come--the evening is come--when our poor Kate, that had for
+fifteen years been so tenderly rocked in the arms of St. Sebastian and
+his daughters, and that henceforth shall hardly find a breathing space
+between eternal storms, must see her peaceful cell, must see the holy
+chapel, for the last time. It was at vespers, it was during the chanting
+of the vesper service, that she finally read the secret signal for her
+departure, which long she had been looking for. It happened that her
+aunt, the Lady Principal, had forgotten her breviary. As this was in
+a private 'scrutoire, she did not choose to send a servant for it, but
+gave the key to her niece. The niece, on opening the 'scrutoire, saw,
+with that rapidity of eye-glance for the one thing needed in any great
+emergency, which ever attended her through life, that _now_ was the
+moment for an attempt which, if neglected, might never return. There lay
+the total keys, in one massive _trousseau_, of that fortress impregnable
+even to armies from without. Saint Sebastian! do you see what your
+pet is going to do? And do it she will, as sure as your name is St.
+Sebastian. Kate went back to her aunt with the breviary and the key; but
+taking good care to leave that awful door, on whose hinge revolved her
+whole life, unlocked. Delivering the two articles to the Superior, she
+complained of a headache--[Ah, Kate! what did you know of headaches,
+except now and then afterwards from a stray bullet, or so?]--upon which
+her aunt, kissing her forehead, dismissed her to bed. Now, then, through
+three-fourths of an hour Kate will have free elbow-room for unanchoring
+her boat, for unshipping her oars, and for pulling ahead right out of
+St. Sebastian's cove into the main ocean of life.
+
+Catalina, the reader is to understand, does not belong to the class of
+persons in whom chiefly I pretend to an interest. But everywhere one
+loves energy and indomitable courage. I, for my part, admire not, by
+preference, anything that points to this world. It is the child of
+reverie and profounder sensibility who turns _away_ from the world as
+hateful and insufficient, that engages _my_ interest: whereas Catalina
+was the very model of the class fitted for facing this world, and who
+express their love to it by fighting with it and kicking it from year to
+year. But, always, what is best in its kind one admires, even though the
+kind be disagreeable. Kate's advantages for her _role_ in this life lay
+in four things, viz., in a well-built person, and a particularly strong
+wrist; 2d, in a heart that nothing could appal; 3d, in a sagacious head,
+never drawn aside from the _hoc age_ [from the instant question of life]
+by any weakness of imagination; 4th, in a tolerably thick skin--not
+literally, for she was fair and blooming, and decidedly handsome, having
+such a skin as became a young woman of family in northernmost Spain.
+But her sensibilities were obtuse as regarded _some_ modes of delicacy,
+_some_ modes of equity, _some_ modes of the world's opinion, and
+_all_ modes whatever of personal hardship. Lay a stress on that word
+_some_--for, as to delicacy, she never lost sight of the kind which
+peculiarly concerns her sex. Long afterwards she told the Pope himself,
+when confessing without disguise her sad and infinite wanderings to the
+paternal old man (and I feel convinced of her veracity), that in this
+respect, even then, at middle age, she was as pure as is a child. And,
+as to equity, it was only that she substituted the equity of camps for
+the polished (but often more iniquitous) equity of courts and towns. As
+to the third item--the world's opinion--I don't know that you need lay
+a stress on _some_; for, generally speaking, _all_ that the world did,
+said, or thought, was alike contemptible in her eyes, in which, perhaps,
+she was not so _very_ far wrong. I must add, though at the cost of
+interrupting the story by two or three more sentences, that Catalina had
+also a fifth advantage, which sounds humbly, but is really of use in a
+world, where even to fold and seal a letter adroitly is not the least
+of accomplishments. She was a _handy_ girl. She could turn her hand to
+anything, of which I will give you two memorable instances. Was there
+ever a girl in this world but herself that cheated and snapped her
+fingers at that awful Inquisition, which brooded over the convents of
+Spain, that did this without collusion from outside, trusting to nobody,
+but to herself, and what? to one needle, two hanks of thread, and a very
+inferior pair of scissors? For, that the scissors were bad, though Kate
+does not say so in her memoirs, I knew by an _a priori_ argument, viz.,
+because _all_ scissors were bad in the year 1607. Now, say all decent
+logicians, from a universal to a particular _valet consequentia_, _all_
+scissors were bad: _ergo_, _some_ scissors were bad. The second instance
+of her handiness will surprise you even more:--She once stood upon a
+scaffold, under sentence of death--[but, understand, on the evidence
+of false witnesses]. Jack Ketch was absolutely tying the knot under her
+ear, and the shameful man of ropes fumbled so deplorably, that Kate (who
+by much nautical experience had learned from another sort of 'Jack'
+how a knot _should_ be tied in this world,) lost all patience with the
+contemptible artist, told him she was ashamed of him, took the rope out
+of his hand, and tied the knot irreproachably herself. The crowd saluted
+her with a festal roll, long and loud, of _vivas_; and this word _viva_
+of good augury--but stop; let me not anticipate.
+
+From this sketch of Catalina's character, the reader is prepared to
+understand the decision of her present proceeding. She had no time to
+lose: the twilight favored her; but she must get under hiding before
+pursuit commenced. Consequently she lost not one of her forty-five
+minutes in picking and choosing. No _shilly-shally_ in Kate. She saw
+with the eyeball of an eagle what was indispensable. Some little money
+perhaps to pay the first toll-bar of life: so, out of four shillings in
+Aunty's purse, she took one. You can't say _that_ was exorbitant. Which
+of us wouldn't subscribe a shilling for poor Katy to put into the first
+trouser pockets that ever she will wear? I remember even yet, as a
+personal experience, that when first arrayed, at four years old, in
+nankeen trousers, though still so far retaining hermaphrodite relations
+of dress as to wear a petticoat above my trousers, all my female friends
+(because they pitied me, as one that had suffered from years of ague)
+filled my pockets with half-crowns, of which I can render no account at
+this day. But what were my poor pretensions by the side of Kate's? Kate
+was a fine blooming girl of fifteen, with no touch of ague, and, before
+the next sun rises, Kate shall draw on her first trousers, and made by
+her own hand; and, that she may do so, of all the valuables in Aunty's
+repository she takes nothing beside the shilling, _quantum sufficit_ of
+thread, one stout needle, and (as I told you before, if you would please
+to remember things) one bad pair of scissors. Now she was ready; ready
+to cast off St. Sebastian's towing-rope; ready to cut and run for port
+anywhere. The finishing touch of her preparations was to pick out the
+proper keys: even there she showed the same discretion. She did do no
+gratuitous mischief. She did not take the wine-cellar key, which would
+have irritated the good father confessor; she took those keys only that
+belonged to _her_, if ever keys did; for they were the keys that locked
+her out from her natural birthright of liberty. 'Show me,' says the
+Romish Casuist, 'her right in law to let herself out of that nunnery.'
+'Show us,' we reply, '_your_ right to lock her in.'
+
+Right or wrong, however, in strict casuistry, Kate was resolved to let
+herself out; and _did_ so; and, for fear any man should creep in whilst
+vespers lasted, and steal the kitchen grate, she locked her old friends
+_in_. Then she sought a shelter. The air was not cold. She hurried into
+a chestnut wood, and upon withered leaves slept till dawn. Spanish diet
+and youth leaves the digestion undisordered, and the slumbers light.
+When the lark rose, up rose Catalina. No time to lose, for she was still
+in the dress of a nun, and liable to be arrested by any man in Spain.
+With her _armed_ finger, [aye, by the way, I forgot the thimble; but
+Kate did _not_]--she set to work upon her amply-embroidered petticoat.
+She turned it wrong side out; and with the magic that only female hands
+possess, she had soon sketched and finished a dashing pair of Wellington
+trousers. All other changes were made according to the materials she
+possessed, and quite sufficiently to disguise the two main perils--her
+sex, and her monastic dedication. What was she to do next. Speaking of
+Wellington trousers would remind _us_, but could hardly remind _her_,
+of Vittoria, where she dimly had heard of some maternal relative.
+To Vittoria, therefore, she bent her course; and, like the Duke of
+Wellington, but arriving more than two centuries earlier, [though _he_
+too is an early riser,] she gained a great victory at that place. She
+had made a two days' march, baggage far in the rear, and no provisions
+but wild berries; she depended for anything better, as light-heartedly
+as the Duke, upon attacking, sword in hand, storming her dear friend's
+entrenchments, and effecting a lodgment in his breakfast-room, should he
+happen to have one. This amiable relative, an elderly man, had but
+one foible, or perhaps one virtue in this world; but _that_ he had in
+perfection,--it was pedantry. On that hint Catalina spoke: she knew
+by heart, from the services of the convent, a few Latin phrases.
+Latin!--Oh, but _that_ was charming; and in one so young! The grave Don
+owned the soft impeachment; relented at once, and clasped the hopeful
+young gentleman in the Wellington trousers to his _uncular_ and rather
+angular breast. In this house the yarn of life was of a mingled quality.
+The table was good, but that was exactly what Kate cared little about.
+The amusement was of the worst kind. It consisted chiefly in conjugating
+Latin verbs, especially such as were obstinately irregular. To show
+him a withered frost-bitten verb, that wanted its preterite, wanted its
+supines, wanted, in fact, everything in this world, fruits or blossoms,
+that make a verb desirable, was to earn the Don's gratitude for life.
+All day long he was marching and countermarching his favorite
+brigades of verbs--verbs frequentative, verbs inceptive, verbs
+desiderative--horse, foot, and artillery; changing front, advancing from
+the rear, throwing out skirmishing parties, until Kate, not given to
+faint, must have thought of such a resource, as once in her life she had
+thought so seasonably of a vesper headache. This was really worse than
+St. Sebastian's. It reminds one of a French gayety in Thiebault or
+some such author, who describes a rustic party, under equal despair, as
+employing themselves in conjugating the verb _s'ennuyer,--Je m'ennuie,
+tu t'ennuies, il s'ennuit; nous nous ennuyons_, &c.; thence to
+the imperfect--_Je m'ennuyois, tu t'ennuyois_, &c.; thence to the
+imperative--_Qu'il s'ennuye_, &c.; and so on through the whole
+melancholy conjugation. Now, you know, when the time comes that, _nous
+nous ennuyons_, the best course is, to part. Kate saw _that_; and she
+walked off from the Don's [of whose amorous passion for defective
+verbs one would have wished to know the catastrophe], and took from his
+mantel-piece rather move silver than she had levied on her aunt. But the
+Don also was a relative; and really he owed her a small cheque on his
+banker for turning out on his field-days. A man, if he _is_ a kinsman,
+has no right to bore one _gratis_.
+
+From Vittoria, Kate was guided by a carrier to Valladolid. Luckily, as
+it seemed at first, but it made little difference in the end, here, at
+Valladolid, were the King and his Court. Consequently, there was plenty
+of regiments and plenty of regimental bands. Attracted by one of these,
+Catalina was quietly listening to the music, when some street
+ruffians, in derision of the gay colors and the form of her forest-made
+costume--[rascals! one would like to have seen what sort of trousers
+_they_ would have made with no better scissors!]--began to pelt her with
+stones. Ah, my friends, of the genus _blackguard_, you little know who
+it is that you are selecting for experiments. This is the one creature
+of fifteen in all Spain, be the other male or female, whom nature, and
+temper, and provocation have qualified for taking the conceit out of
+you. This she very soon did, laying open a head or two with a sharp
+stone, and letting out rather too little than too much of bad
+Valladolid blood. But mark the constant villany of this world.
+Certain Alguazils--very like some other Alguazils that I know nearer
+home--having stood by quietly to see the friendless stranger insulted
+and assaulted, now felt it their duty to apprehend the poor nun for
+murderous violence: and had there been such a thing as a treadmill in
+Valladolid, Kate was booked for a place on it without further inquiry.
+Luckily, injustice does not _always_ prosper. A gallant young cavalier,
+who had witnessed from his windows the whole affair, had seen the
+provocation, and admired Catalina's behavior--equally patient at first
+and bold at last--hastened into the street, pursued the officers, forced
+them to release their prisoner, upon stating the circumstances of the
+case, and instantly offered Catalina a situation amongst his retinue.
+He was a man of birth and fortune; and the place offered, that of
+an honorary page, not being at all degrading even to a 'daughter of
+somebody,' was cheerfully accepted. Here Catalina spent a happy month.
+She was now splendidly dressed in dark blue velvet, by a tailor that
+did not work within the gloom of a chestnut forest. She and the young
+cavalier, Don Francisco de Cardenas, were mutually pleased, and had
+mutual confidence. All went well--when one evening, but, luckily, not
+until the sun had been set so long as to make all things indistinct, who
+should march into the ante-chamber of the cavalier but that sublime of
+crocodiles, _Papa_, that we lost sight of fifteen years ago, and shall
+never see again after this night. He had his crocodile tears all ready
+for use, in working order, like a good industrious fire-engine. It was
+absolutely to Catalina herself that he advanced; whom, for many reasons,
+he could not be supposed to recognise--lapse of years, male attire,
+twilight, were all against him. Still, she might have the family
+countenance; and Kate thought he looked with a suspicious scrutiny into
+her face, as he inquired for the young Don. To avert her own face, to
+announce him to Don Francisco, to wish him on the shores of that ancient
+river for crocodiles, the Nile, furnished but one moment's work to the
+active Catalina. She lingered, however, as her place entitled her to
+do, at the door of the audience chamber. She guessed already, but in a
+moment she _heard_ from papa's lips what was the nature of his errand.
+His daughter Catharine, he informed the Don, had eloped from the
+convent of St. Sebastian, a place rich in delight. Then he laid open the
+unparalleled ingratitude of such a step. Oh, the unseen treasure that
+had been spent upon that girl! Oh, the untold sums of money that he had
+sunk in that unhappy speculation! The nights of sleeplessness suffered
+during her infancy! The fifteen years of solicitude thrown away in
+schemes for her improvement! It would have moved the heart of a stone.
+The _hidalgo_ wept copiously at his own pathos. And to such a height
+of grandeur had he carried his Spanish sense of the sublime, that he
+disdained to mention the pocket-handkerchief which he had left at St.
+Sebastian's fifteen years ago, by way of envelope for 'pussy,' and
+which, to the best of pussy's knowledge, was the one sole memorandum
+of papa ever heard of at St. Sebastian's. Pussy, however, saw no use in
+revising and correcting the text of papa's remembrances. She showed her
+usual prudence, and her usual incomparable decision. It did not appear,
+as yet, that she would be reclaimed, or was at all suspected for the
+fugitive by her father. For it is an instance of that singular fatality
+which pursued Catalina through life, that, to her own astonishment, (as
+she now collected from her father's conference,) nobody had traced her
+to Valladolid, nor had her father's visit any connection with suspicious
+travelling in that direction. The case was quite different. Strangely
+enough, her street row had thrown her into the one sole household in all
+Spain that had an official connection with St. Sebastian's. That convent
+had been founded by the young cavalier's family; and, according to the
+usage of Spain, the young man (as present representative of his house)
+was the responsible protector of the establishment. It was not to
+the Don, as harborer of his daughter, but to the Don, as _ex officio_
+visitor of the convent, that the hidalgo was appealing. Probably Kate
+might have staid safely some time longer. Yet, again, this would but
+have multiplied the clues for tracing her; and, finally, she would
+too probably have been discovered; after which, with all his youthful
+generosity, the poor Don could not have protected her. Too terrific was
+the vengeance that awaited an abettor of any fugitive nun; but, above
+all, if such a crime were perpetrated by an official mandatory of the
+church. Yet, again, so far it was the more hazardous course to abscond,
+that it almost revealed her to the young Don as the missing daughter.
+Still, if it really _had_ that effect, nothing at present obliged him to
+pursue her, as might have been the case a few weeks later. Kate
+argued (I dare say) rightly, as she always did. Her prudence whispered
+eternally, that safety there was none for her, until she had laid the
+Atlantic between herself and St. Sebastian's. Life was to be for _her_
+a Bay of Biscay; and it was odds but she had first embarked upon this
+billowy life from the literal Bay of Biscay. Chance ordered otherwise.
+Or, as a Frenchman says with eloquent ingenuity, in connection with this
+story, 'Chance is but the _pseudonyme_ of God for those particular cases
+which he does not subscribe openly with his own sign manual.' She crept
+up stairs to her bed-room. Simple are the travelling preparations of
+those that, possessing nothing, have no imperials to pack. She had
+Juvenal's qualification for carolling gaily through a forest full of
+robbers; for she had nothing to lose but a change of linen, that rode
+easily enough under her left arm, leaving the right free for answering
+any questions of impertinent customers. As she crept down stairs, she
+heard the Crocodile still weeping forth his sorrows to the pensive ear
+of twilight, and to the sympathetic Don Francisco. Now, it would not
+have been filial or lady-like for Kate to do what I am going to suggest;
+but what a pity that some gay brother page had not been there to
+turn aside into the room, armed with a roasted potato, and, taking a
+sportsman's aim, to have lodged it in the Crocodile's abominable mouth.
+Yet, what an anachronism! There _were_ no roasted potatoes in Spain
+at that date, and very few in England. But anger drives a man to say
+anything.
+
+Catalina had seen her last of friends and enemies in Valladolid. Short
+was her time there; but she had improved it so far as to make a few of
+both. There was an eye or two in Valladolid that would have glared with
+malice upon her, had she been seen by _all_ eyes in that city, as she
+tripped through the streets in the dusk; and eyes there were that would
+have softened into tears, had they seen the desolate condition of the
+child, or in vision had seen the struggles that were before her. But
+what's the use of wasting tears upon our Kate? Wait till to-morrow
+morning at sunrise, and see if she is particularly in need of pity.
+What now should a young lady do--I propose it as a subject for a prize
+essay--that finds herself in Valladolid at nighfall, having no letters
+of introduction, not aware of any reason great or small for preferring
+any street in general, except so far as she knows of some reason for
+avoiding one or two streets in particular? The great problem I have
+stated, Kate investigated as she went along; and she solved it with
+the accuracy with which she ever applied to _practical_ exigencies. Her
+conclusion was--that the best door to knock at in such a case was the
+door where there was no need to knock at all, as being unfastened, and
+open to all comers. For she argued that within such a door there would
+be nothing to steal, so that, at least, you could not be mistaken in the
+ark for a thief. Then, as to stealing from _her_, they might do that if
+they could.
+
+Upon these principles, which hostile critics will in vain endeavor to
+undermine, she laid her hand upon what seemed a rude stable door. Such
+it proved. There was an empty cart inside, certainly there was, but you
+couldn't take _that_ away in your pocket; and there were five loads of
+straw, but then of those a lady could take no more than her _reticule_
+would carry, which perhaps was allowed by the courtesy of Spain. So Kate
+was right as to the difficulty of being challenged for a thief. Closing
+the door as gently as she had opened it, she dropped her person, dressed
+as she was, upon the nearest heap of straw. Some ten feet further were
+lying two muleteers, honest and happy enough, as compared with the lords
+of the bed-chamber then in Valladolid: but still gross men, carnally
+deaf from eating garlic and onions, and other horrible substances.
+Accordingly, they never heard her, nor were aware, until dawn, that such
+a blooming person existed. But she was aware of _them_, and of their
+conversation. They were talking of an expedition for America, on the
+point of sailing under Don Ferdinand de Cordova. It was to sail from
+some Andalusian port. That was the very thing for _her_. At daylight she
+woke, and jumped up, needing no more toilet than the birds that already
+were singing in the gardens, or than the two muleteers, who, good,
+honest fellows, saluted the handsome boy kindly--thinking no ill at his
+making free with _their_ straw, though no leave had been asked.
+
+With these philo-garlic men Kate took her departure. The morning was
+divine: and leaving Valladolid with the transports that befitted such
+a golden dawn, feeling also already, in the very obscurity of her exit,
+the pledge of her escape; she cared no longer for the Crocodile, or
+for St. Sebastian, or (in the way of fear) for the protector of St.
+Sebastian, though of _him_ she thought with some tenderness; so deep is
+the remembrance of kindness mixed with justice. Andalusia she reached
+rather slowly; but many months before she was sixteen years old, and
+quite in time for the expedition. St. Lucar being the port of rendezvous
+for the Peruvian expedition, thither she went. All comers were welcome
+on board the fleet; much more a fine young fellow like Kate. She was at
+once engaged as a mate; and _her_ ship, in particular, after doubling
+Cape Horn without loss, made the coast of Peru. Paita was the port of
+her destination. Very near to this port they were, when a storm threw
+them upon a coral reef. There was little hope of the ship from the
+first, for she was unmanageable, and was not expected to hold together
+for twenty-four hours. In this condition, with death before their faces,
+mark what Kate did; and please to remember it for her benefit, when
+she does any other little thing that angers you. The crew lowered the
+long-boat. Vainly the captain protested against this disloyal desertion
+of a king's ship, which might yet perhaps be run on shore, so as to save
+the stores. All the crew, to a man, deserted the captain. You may say
+_that_ literally; for the single exception was _not_ a man, being our
+bold-hearted Kate. She was the only sailor that refused to leave her
+captain, or the king of Spain's ship. The rest pulled away for the
+shore, and with fair hopes of reaching it. But one half-hour told
+another tale: just about that time came a broad sheet of lightning,
+which, through the darkness of evening, revealed the boat in the very
+act of mounting like a horse upon an inner reef, instantly filling,
+and throwing out the crew, every man of whom disappeared amongst
+the breakers. The night which succeeded was gloomy for both the
+representatives of his Catholic Majesty. It cannot be denied by the
+greatest of philosophers, that the muleteer's stable at Valladolid was
+worth twenty such ships, though the stable was _not_ insured against
+fire, and the ship _was_ insured against the sea and the wind by some
+fellow that thought very little of his engagements. But what's the
+use of sitting down to cry? That was never any trick of Catalina's. By
+daybreak, she was at work with an axe in her hand. I knew it, before
+ever I came to this place, in her memoirs. I felt, as sure as if I had
+read it, that when day broke, we should find Kate hard at work. Thimble
+or axe, trousers or raft, all one to _her_.
+
+The Captain, though true to his duty, seems to have desponded. He gave
+no help towards the raft. Signs were speaking, however, pretty loudly
+that he must do something; for notice to quit was now served pretty
+liberally. Kate's raft was ready; and she encouraged the captain to
+think that it would give both of them something to hold by in swimming,
+if not even carry double. At this moment, when all was waiting for
+a start, and the ship herself was waiting for a final lurch, to say
+_Good-bye_ to the King of Spain, Kate went and did a thing which some
+misjudging people will object to. She knew of a box laden with gold
+coins, reputed to be the King of Spain's, and meant for contingencies in
+the voyage out. This she smashed open with her axe, and took a sum
+equal to one hundred guineas English; which, having well secured in a
+pillow-case, she then lashed firmly to the raft. Now this, you know,
+though not _flotsam_, because it would not float, was certainly, by
+maritime law, '_jetsom_.' It would be the idlest of scruples to fancy
+that the sea or a shark had a better right to it than a philosopher, or
+a splendid girl who showed herself capable of writing a very fair 8vo,
+to say nothing of her decapitating in battle several of the king's
+enemies, and recovering the king's banner. No sane moralist would
+hesitate to do the same thing under the same circumstances, on board an
+English vessel, though the First Lord of the Admiralty should be looking
+on. The raft was now thrown into the sea. Kate jumped after it, and then
+entreated the captain to follow her. He attempted it; but, wanting her
+youthful agility, he struck his head against a spar, and sank like lead,
+giving notice below that his ship was coming. Kate mounted the raft,
+and was gradually washed ashore, but so exhausted, as to have lost all
+recollection. She lay for hours until the warmth of the sun revived her.
+On sitting up, she saw a desolate shore stretching both ways--nothing to
+eat, nothing to drink, but fortunately the raft and the money had been
+thrown near her; none of the lashings having given way--only what is the
+use of a guinea amongst tangle and sea-gulls? The money she distributed
+amongst her pockets, and soon found strength to rise and march
+forward. But which _was_ forward? and which backward? She knew by the
+conversation of the sailors that Paita must be in the neighborhood; and
+Paita, being a port, could not be in the inside of Peru, but, of course,
+somewhere on its outside--and the outside of a maritime land must be the
+shore; so that, if she kept the shore, and went far enough, she could
+not fail of hitting her foot against Paita at last, in the very darkest
+night, provided only she could first find out which was _up_ and which
+was _down_; else she might walk her shoes off, and find herself six
+thousand miles in the wrong. Here was an awkward case, all for want of a
+guide-post. Still, when one thinks of Kate's prosperous horoscope, that
+after so long a voyage, _she_ only, out of the total crew, was thrown
+on the American shore, with one hundred and five pounds in her purse of
+clear gain on the voyage, a conviction arises that she _could_ not guess
+wrongly. She might have tossed up, having coins in her pocket, _heads
+or tails_? but this kind of sortilege was then coming to be thought
+irreligious in Christendom, as a Jewish and a Heathen mode of
+questioning the dark future. She simply guessed, therefore; and very
+soon a thing happened which, though adding nothing to strengthen her
+guess as a true one, did much to sweeten it if it should prove a false
+one. On turning a point of the shore, she came upon a barrel of biscuit
+washed ashore from the ship. Biscuit is about the best thing I know,
+but it is the soonest spoiled; and one would like to hear counsel on one
+puzzling point, why it is that a touch of water utterly ruins it, taking
+its life, and leaving a _caput mortuum_ corpse! Upon this _caput_ Kate
+breakfasted, though _her_ case was worse than mine; for any water that
+ever plagued _me_ was always fresh; now _hers_ was a present from the
+Pacific ocean. She, that was always prudent, packed up some of the
+Catholic king's biscuit, as she had previously packed up far too little
+of his gold. But in such cases a most delicate question occurs, pressing
+equally on medicine and algebra. It is this: if you pack up too much,
+then, by this extra burthen of salt provisions, you may retard for days
+your arrival at fresh provisions; on the other hand, if you pack up too
+little, you may never arrive at all. Catalina hit the _juste milieu;_
+and about twilight on the second day, she found herself entering Paita,
+without having had to swim any river in her walk.
+
+The first thing, in such a case of distress, which a young lady does,
+even if she happens to be a young gentleman, is to beautify her dress.
+Kate always attended to _that_, as we know, having overlooked her in the
+chestnut wood. The man she sent for was not properly a tailor, but one
+who employed tailors, he himself furnishing the materials. His name was
+Urquiza, a fact of very little importance to us in 1847, if it had stood
+only at the head and foot of Kate's little account. But unhappily for
+Kate's _debut_ on this vast American stage, the case was otherwise. Mr.
+Urquiza had the misfortune (equally common in the old world and the
+new) of being a knave; and also a showy specious knave. Kate, who
+had prospered under sea allowances of biscuit and hardship, was now
+expanding in proportions. With very little vanity or consciousness on
+that head, she now displayed a really fine person; and, when drest
+anew in the way that became a young officer in the Spanish service, she
+looked [Footnote: _'She looked,' etc_. If ever the reader should visit
+Aix-la-Chapelle, he will probably feel interest enough in the poor, wild
+impassioned girl, to look out for a picture of her in that city, and the
+only one known _certainly_ to be authentic. It is in the collection of
+Mr. Sempeller. For some time it was supposed that the best (if not the
+only) portrait of her lurked somewhere in Italy. Since the discovery
+of the picture at Aix-la-Chapelle, that notion has been abandoned. But
+there is great reason to believe that, both in Madrid and Rome, many
+portraits of her must have been painted to meet the intense interest
+which arose in her history subsequently amongst all the men of rank,
+military or ecclesiastical, whether in Italy or Spain. The date of these
+would range between sixteen and twenty-two years from, the period which
+we have now reached (1608.)] the representative picture of a Spanish
+_caballador_. It is strange that such an appearance, and such a rank,
+should have suggested to Urquiza the presumptuous idea of wishing that
+Kate might become his clerk. He _did_, however wish it; for Kate wrote
+a beautiful hand; and a stranger thing is, that Kate accepted his
+proposal. This might arise from the difficulty of moving in those days
+to any distance in Peru. The ship had been merely bringing stores to
+the station of Paita; and no corps of the royal armies was readily to be
+reached, whilst something must be done at once for a livelihood. Urquiza
+had two mercantile establishments, one at Trujillo, to which he repaired
+in person, on Kate's agreeing to undertake the management of the other
+in Paita. Like the sensible girl, that we have always found her, she
+demanded specific instructions for her guidance in duties so new.
+Certainly she was in a fair way for seeing life. Telling her beads at
+St. Sebastian's, manoeuvreing irregular verbs at Vittoria, acting as
+gentleman-usher at Valladolid, serving his Spanish Majesty round Cape
+Horn, fighting with storms and sharks off the coast of Peru, and now
+commencing as book-keeper or _commis_ to a draper at Paita, does she not
+justify the character that I myself gave her, just before dismissing
+her from St. Sebastian's, of being a 'handy' girl? Mr. Urquiza's
+instructions were short, easy to be understood, but rather comic; and
+yet, which is odd, they led to tragic results. There were two debtors of
+the shop, (_many_, it is to be hoped, but two meriting his affectionate
+notice,) with respect to whom he left the most opposite directions. The
+one was a very handsome lady; and the rule as to _her_ was, that she was
+to have credit unlimited, strictly unlimited. That was plain. The other
+customer, favored by Mr. Urquiza's valedictory thoughts, was a young
+man, cousin to the handsome lady, and bearing the name of Reyes. This
+youth occupied in Mr. Urquiza's estimate the same hyperbolical rank as
+the handsome lady, but on the opposite side of the equation. The rule
+as to _him_ was--that he was to have _no_ credit; strictly none. In this
+case, also, Kate saw no difficulty; and when she came to know Mr. Reyes
+a little, she found the path of pleasure coinciding with the path of
+duty. Mr. Urquiza could not be more precise in laying down the rule
+than Kate was in enforcing it. But in the other case a scruple arose.
+_Unlimited_ might be a word, not of Spanish law, but of Spanish
+rhetoric; such as '_Live a thousand years_,' which even annuity offices
+hear, and perhaps utter, without a pang. Kate, therefore, wrote to
+Trujillo, expressing her honest fears, and desiring to have more
+definite instructions. These were positive. If the lady chose to send
+for the entire shop, her account was to be debited instantly with
+_that_. She had, however, as yet, not sent for the shop, but she
+began to manifest strong signs of sending for the shop _man_. Upon the
+blooming young Biscayan had her roving eye settled; and she was in a
+course of making up her mind to take Kate for a sweetheart. Poor Kate
+saw this with a heavy heart. And, at the same time that she had a
+prospect of a tender friend more than she wanted, she had become certain
+of an extra enemy that she wanted quite as little. What she had done to
+offend Mr. Reyes, Kate could not guess, except as to the matter of the
+credit; but then, in that, she only executed her instructions. Still Mr.
+Reyes was of opinion that there were two ways of executing orders: but
+the main offence was unintentional on Kate's part. Reyes, though as yet
+she did not know it, had himself been a candidate for the situation of
+clerk; and intended probably to keep the equation precisely as it was
+with respect to the allowance of credit, only to change places with
+the handsome lady--keeping _her_ on the negative side, himself on the
+affirmative--an arrangement that you know could have made no sort of
+pecuniary difference to Urquiza.
+
+Thus stood matters, when a party of strolling players strolled into
+Paita. Kate, as a Spaniard, being one held of the Paita aristocracy, was
+expected to attend. She did so; and there also was the malignant Reyes.
+He came and seated himself purposely so as to shut out Kate from all
+view of the stage. She, who had nothing of the bully in her nature, and
+was a gentle creature when her wild Biscayan blood had not been kindled
+by insult, courteously requested him to move a little; upon which Reyes
+remarked that it was not in his power to oblige the clerk as to that,
+but that he _could_ oblige him by cutting his throat. The tiger that
+slept in Catalina wakened at once. She seized him, and would have
+executed vengeance on the spot, but that a party of young men interposed
+to part them. The next day, when Kate (always ready to forget and
+forgive) was thinking no more of the row, Reyes passed; by spitting at
+the window, and other gestures insulting to Kate, again he roused
+her Spanish blood. Out she rushed, sword in hand--a duel began in the
+street, and very soon Kate's sword had passed into the heart of Reyes.
+Now that the mischief was done, the police were, as usual, all alive
+for the pleasure of avenging it. Kate found herself suddenly in a strong
+prison, and with small hopes of leaving it, except for execution.
+The relations of the dead man were potent in Paita, and clamorous for
+justice, so that the _corregidor_, in a case where he saw a very poor
+chance of being corrupted by bribes, felt it his duty to be sublimely
+incorruptible. The reader knows, however, that, amongst the relatives
+of the deceased bully, was that handsome lady, who differed as much from
+her cousin in her sentiments as to Kate, as she did in the extent of her
+credit with Mr. Urquiza. To _her_ Kate wrote a note; and, using one
+of the Spanish King's gold coins for bribing the jailor, got it safely
+delivered. That, perhaps, was unnecessary; for the lady had been already
+on the alert, and had summoned Urquiza from Trujillo. By some means, not
+very luminously stated, and by paying proper fees in proper quarters,
+Kate was smuggled out of the prison at nightfall, and smuggled into a
+pretty house in the suburbs. Had she known exactly the footing she
+stood on as to the law, she would have been decided. As it was, she
+was uneasy, and jealous of mischief abroad; and, before supper, she
+understood it all. Urquiza briefly informed his clerk, that it would
+be requisite for him to marry the handsome lady. But why? Because, said
+Urquiza, after talking for hours with the _corregidor_, who was infamous
+for obstinacy, he had found it impossible to make him 'hear reason,' and
+release the prisoner, until this compromise of marriage was suggested.
+But how could public justice be pacified for the clerk's unfortunate
+homicide of Reyes, by a female cousin of the deceased man engaging to
+love, honor, and obey the clerk for life? Kate could not see her way
+through this logic. 'Nonsense, my friend,' said Urquiza, 'you don't
+comprehend. As it stands, the affair is a murder, and hanging the
+penalty. But, if you marry into the murdered man's house, then it
+becomes a little family murder, all quiet and comfortable amongst
+ourselves. What has the _corregidor_ to do with that? or the public
+either? Now, let me introduce the bride.' Supper entered at that moment,
+and the bride immediately after. The thoughtfulness of Kate was narrowly
+observed, and even alluded to, but politely ascribed to the natural
+anxieties of a prisoner, and the very imperfect state of liberation
+even yet from prison _surveillance_. Kate had, indeed, never been in so
+trying a situation before. The anxieties of the farewell night at St.
+Sebastian were nothing to this; because, even if she had failed _then_,
+a failure might not have been always irreparable. It was but to watch
+and wait. But now, at this supper table, she was not more alive to the
+nature of the peril than she was to the fact, that if, before the night
+closed, she did not by some means escape from it, she never _would_
+escape with life. The deception as to her sex, though resting on no
+motive that pointed to these people, or at all concerned them, would be
+resented as if it had. The lady would resent the case as a mockery;
+and Urquiza would lose his opportunity of delivering himself from an
+imperious mistress. According to the usages of the times and country,
+Kate knew that in twelve hours she would be assassinated.
+
+People of infirmer resolution would have lingered at the supper table,
+for the sake of putting off the evil moment of final crisis. Not so
+Kate. She had revolved the case on all its sides in a few minutes, and
+had formed her resolution. This done, she was as ready for the trial at
+one moment as another; and, when the lady suggested that the hardships
+of a prison must have made repose desirable, Kate assented, and
+instantly rose. A sort of procession formed, for the purpose of doing
+honor to the interesting guest, and escorting him in pomp to his
+bedroom. Kate viewed it much in the same light as the procession to
+which for some days she had been expecting an invitation from the
+_corregidor_. Far ahead ran the servant-woman as a sort of outrider.
+Then came Urquiza, like a Pasha of two tails, who granted two sorts of
+credit, viz. unlimited and none at all, bearing two wax-lights, one
+in each hand, and wanting only cymbals and kettle-drums to express
+emphatically the pathos of his Castilian strut. Next came the bride, a
+little in advance of the clerk, but still turning obliquely towards him,
+and smiling graciously into his face. Lastly, bringing up the rear,
+came the prisoner--our Kate--the nun, the page, the mate, the clerk, the
+homicide, the convict; and, for this day only, by particular desire, the
+bridegroom elect.
+
+It was Kate's fixed opinion, that, if for a moment she entered any
+bedroom having obviously no outlet, her fate would be that of an ox once
+driven within the shambles. Outside, the bullock might make some defence
+with his horns; but once in, with no space for turning, he is muffled
+and gagged. She carried her eye, therefore, like a hawk's, steady,
+though restless, for vigilant examination of every angle she turned.
+Before she entered any bedroom, she was resolved to reconnoiter it
+from the doorway, and, in case of necessity, show fight at once, before
+entering--as the best chance, after all, where all chances were bad.
+Everything ends; and at last the procession reached the bedroom door,
+the outrider having filed off to the rear. One glance sufficed to
+satisfy Kate that windows there were none, and, therefore, no outlet
+for escape. Treachery appeared even in _that_; and Kate, though
+unfortunately without arms, was now fixed for resistance. Mr. Urquiza
+entered first--'Sound the trumpets! Beat the drums!' There were, as we
+know already, no windows; but a slight interruption to Mr. Urquiza's
+pompous tread showed that there were steps downwards into the room.
+Those, thought Kate, will suit me even better. She had watched the
+unlocking of the bedroom door--she had lost nothing--she had marked that
+the key was left in the lock. At this moment, the beautiful lady, as
+one acquainted with the details of the house, turning with the air of
+a gracious monitress, held out her fair hand to guide Kate in careful
+descent of the steps. This had the air of taking out Kate to dance; and
+Kate, at that same moment, answering to it by the gesture of a modern
+waltzer, threw her arm behind the lady's waist, hurled her headlong down
+the steps right against Mr. Urquiza, draper and haberdasher; and
+then, with the speed of lightning, throwing the door _home_ within its
+architrave, doubly locked the creditor and debtor into the rat-trap
+which they had prepared for herself.
+
+The affrighted out-rider fled with horror: she already knew that the
+clerk had committed one homicide; a second would cost him still less
+thought; and thus it happened that egress was left easy. But, when out
+and free once more in the bright starry night, which way should Kate
+turn? The whole city would prove but a rat-trap for her, as bad as
+Mr. Urquiza's, if she was not off before morning. At a glance she
+comprehended that the sea was her only chance. To the port she fled. All
+was silent. Watchmen there were none. She jumped into a boat. To use
+the oars was dangerous, for she had no means of muffling them. But she
+contrived to hoist a sail, pushed off with a boat-hook, and was soon
+stretching across the water for the mouth of the harbor before a breeze
+light but favorable. Having cleared the difficulties of exit she lay
+down, and unintentionally fell asleep. When she awoke the sun had been
+up three or four hours; all was right otherwise; but had she not served
+as a sailor, Kate would have trembled upon finding that, during her long
+sleep of perhaps seven or eight hours, she had lost sight of land; by
+what distance she could only guess; and in what direction, was to some
+degree doubtful. All this, however, seemed a great advantage to the bold
+girl, throwing her thoughts back on the enemies she had left behind.
+The disadvantage was--having no breakfast, not even damaged biscuit; and
+some anxiety naturally arose as to ulterior prospects a little beyond
+the horizon of breakfast. But who's afraid? As sailors whistle for a
+wind, Catalina really had but to whistle for anything with energy, and
+it was sure to come. Like Caesar to the pilot of Dyrrhachium, she might
+have said, for the comfort of her poor timorous boat, (though destined
+soon to perish,) '_Catalinam vehis, et fortunas ejus_.' Meantime, being
+very doubtful as to the best course for sailing, and content if her
+course did but lie offshore, she 'carried on,' as sailors say, under
+easy sail, going, in fact, just whither and just how the Pacific breezes
+suggested in the gentlest of whispers. _All right behind_, was Kate's
+opinion; and, what was better, very soon she might say, _all right
+ahead:_ for some hour or two before sunset, when dinner was for once
+becoming, even to Kate, the most interesting of subjects for meditation,
+suddenly a large ship began to swell upon the brilliant atmosphere.
+In those latitudes, and in those years, any ship was pretty sure to
+be Spanish: sixty years later the odds were in favor of its being an
+English buccaneer; which would have given a new direction to Kate's
+energy. Kate continued to make signals with a handkerchief whiter
+than the crocodile's of Ann. Dom. 1592, else it would hardly have been
+noticed. Perhaps, after all, it would not, but that the ship's course
+carried her very nearly across Kate's. The stranger lay-to for her. It
+was dark by the time Kate steered herself under the ship's quarter;
+and _then_ was seen an instance of this girl's eternal wakefulness.
+Something was painted on the stern of her boat, she could not see
+_what;_ but she judged that it would express some connection with the
+port that she had just quitted. Now it was her wish to break the chain
+of traces connecting her with such a scamp as Urquiza; since else,
+through his commercial correspondence, he might disperse over Peru a
+portrait of herself by no means flattering. How should she accomplish
+this? It was dark; and she stood, as you may see an Etonian do at times,
+rocking her little boat from side to side, until it had taken in
+water as much as might be agreeable. Too much it proved for the boat's
+constitution, and the boat perished of dropsy--Kate declining to tap it.
+She got a ducking herself; but what cared she? Up the ship's side she
+went, as gaily as ever, in those years when she was called pussy, she
+had raced after the nuns of St. Sebastian; jumped upon deck, and told
+the first lieutenant, when he questioned her about her adventures, quite
+as much truth as any man, under the rank of admiral, had a right to
+expect.
+
+This ship was full of recruits for the Spanish army, and bound to
+Concepcion. Even in that destiny was an iteration, or repeating memorial
+of the significance that ran through Catalina's most casual adventures.
+She had enlisted amongst the soldiers; and, on reaching port, the
+very first person who came off from shore was a dashing young military
+officer, whom at once by his name and rank, (though she had never
+consciously seen him,) she identified as her own brother. He was
+splendidly situated in the service, being the Governor-General's
+secretary, besides his rank as a cavalry officer; and, his errand on
+board being to inspect the recruits, naturally, on reading in the roll
+one of them described as a Biscayan, the ardent young man came up with
+high-bred courtesy to Catalina, took the young recruit's hand with
+kindness, feeling that to be a compatriot at so great a distance was
+to be a sort of relative, and asked with emotion after old boyish
+remembrances. There was a scriptural pathos in what followed, as if it
+were some scene of domestic re-union, opening itself from patriarchal
+ages. The young officer was the eldest son of the house, and had left
+Spain when Catalina was only three years old. But, singularly enough,
+Catalina it was, the little wild cat that he yet remembered seeing at
+St. Sebastian's, upon whom his earliest inquiries settled. 'Did the
+recruit know his family, the De Erausos?' O yes, every body knew _them_.
+'Did the recruit know little Catalina?' Catalina smiled, as she replied
+that she did; and gave such an animated description of the little fiery
+wretch, as made the officer's eye flash with gratified tenderness, and
+with certainty that the recruit was no counterfeit Biscayan. Indeed, you
+know, if Kate couldn't give a good description of 'Pussy,' who could?
+The issue of the interview was--that the officer insisted on Kate's
+making a home of his quarters. He did other services for his unknown
+sister. He placed her as a trooper in his own regiment, and favored
+her in many a way that is open to one having authority. But the person,
+after all, that did most to serve our Kate, was Kate. War was then
+raging with Indians, both from Chili and Peru. Kate had always done her
+duty in action; but at length, in the decisive battle of Puren, there
+was an opening for doing something more. Havoc had been made of her own
+squadron: most of the officers were killed, and the standard was carried
+off. Kate gathered around her a small party--galloped after the Indian
+column that was carrying away the trophy--charged--saw all her own party
+killed--but (in spite of wounds on her face and shoulder) succeeded in
+bearing away the recovered standard. She rode up to the general and his
+staff; she dismounted; she rendered up her prize; and fainted away, much
+less from the blinding blood, than from the tears of joy which dimmed
+her eyes, as the general, waving his sword in admiration over her head,
+pronounced our Kate on the spot an _Alferez_, [Footnote: _Alferez_.
+This rank in the Spanish army is, or was, on a level with the modern
+_sous-lieutenant_ of France.] or standard-bearer, with a commission from
+the King of Spain and the Indies. Bonny Kate! Noble Kate! I would
+there were not two centuries laid between us, so that I might have the
+pleasure of kissing thy fair hand.
+
+Kate had the good sense to see the danger of revealing her sex, or her
+relationship, even to her own brother. The grasp of the Church never
+relaxed, never 'prescribed,' unless freely and by choice. The nun, if
+discovered, would have been taken out of the horse-barracks, or the
+dragoon-saddle. She had the firmness, therefore, for many years, to
+resist the sisterly impulses that sometimes suggested such a confidence.
+For years, and those years the most important of her life--the years
+that developed her character--she lived undetected as a brilliant
+cavalry officer under her brother's patronage. And the bitterest grief
+in poor Kate's whole life, was the tragical (and, were it not fully
+attested, one might say the ultra-scenical,) event that dissolved their
+long connection. Let me spend a word of apology on poor Kate's errors.
+We all commit many; both you and I, reader. No, stop; that's not civil.
+You, reader, I know, are a saint; I am _not_, though very near it. I
+_do_ err at long intervals; and then I think with indulgence of the many
+circumstances that plead for this poor girl. The Spanish armies of that
+day inherited, from the days of Cortez and Pizarro, shining remembrances
+of martial prowess, and the very worst of ethics. To think little of
+bloodshed, to quarrel, to fight, to gamble, to plunder, belonged to the
+very atmosphere of a camp, to its indolence, to its ancient traditions.
+In your own defence, you were obliged to do such things. Besides
+all these grounds of evil, the Spanish army had just there an extra
+demoralization from a war with savages--faithless and bloody. Do not
+think, I beseech you, too much, reader, of killing a man. That word
+'_kill_' is sprinkled over every page of Kate's own autobiography. It
+ought not to be read by the light of these days. Yet, how if a man that
+she killed were----? Hush! It was sad; but is better hurried over in a
+few words. Years after this period, a young officer one day dining with
+Kate, entreated her to become his second in a duel. Such things were
+every-day affairs. However, Kate had reasons for declining the service,
+and did so. But the officer, as he was sullenly departing, said--that,
+if he were killed, (as he thought he _should_ be,) his death would lie
+at Kate's door. I do not take _his_ view of the case, and am not moved
+by his rhetoric or his logic. Kate _was_, and relented. The duel was
+fixed for eleven at night, under the walls of a monastery. Unhappily the
+night proved unusually dark, so that the two principals had to tie white
+handkerchiefs round their elbows, in order to descry each other. In the
+confusion they wounded each other mortally. Upon that, according to a
+usage not peculiar to Spaniards, but extending (as doubtless the reader
+knows) for a century longer to our own countrymen, the two seconds were
+obliged in honor to do something towards avenging their principals. Kate
+had her usual fatal luck. Her sword passed sheer through the body of her
+opponent: this unknown opponent falling dead, had just breath left
+to cry out, 'Ah, villain, you have killed me,' in a voice of horrific
+reproach; and the voice was the voice of her brother!
+
+The monks of the monastery, under whose silent shadows this murderous
+duel had taken place, roused by the clashing of swords and the angry
+shouts of combatants, issued out with torches to find one only of the
+four officers surviving. Every convent and altar had a right of asylum
+for a short period. According to the custom, the monks carried Kate,
+insensible with anguish of mind, to the sanctuary of their chapel. There
+for some days they detained her; but then, having furnished her with a
+horse and some provisions, they turned her adrift. Which way should the
+unhappy fugitive turn? In blindness of heart she turned towards the sea.
+It was the sea that had brought her to Peru; it was the sea that would
+perhaps carry her away. It was the sea that had first showed her this
+land and its golden hopes; it was the sea that ought to hide from her
+its fearful remembrances. The sea it was that had twice spared her life
+in extremities; the sea it was that might now if it chose, take back the
+bauble that it had spared in vain.
+
+
+KATE'S PASSAGE OVER THE ANDES.
+
+Three days our poor heroine followed the coast. Her horse was then
+almost unable to move; and on _his_ account, she turned inland to
+a thicket for grass and shelter. As she drew near to it, a voice
+challenged--'_Who goes there_?' Kate answered, '_Spain_.' '_What
+people_?' '_A friend_.' It was two soldiers, deserters, and almost
+starving. Kate shared her provisions with these men: and, on hearing
+their plan, which was to go over the Cordilleras, she agreed to join the
+party. _Their_ object was the wild one of seeking the river _Dorado_,
+whose waters rolled along golden sands, and whose pebbles were emeralds.
+_Hers_ was to throw herself upon a line the least liable to pursuit, and
+the readiest for a new chapter of life in which oblivion might be found
+for the past. After a few days of incessant climbing and fatigue, they
+found themselves in the regions of perpetual snow. Summer would come as
+vainly to this kingdom of frost as to the grave of her brother. No
+fire, but the fire of human blood in youthful veins, could ever be kept
+burning in these aerial solitudes. Fuel was rarely to be found, and
+kindling a secret hardly known except to Indians. However, our Kate can
+do everything, and she's the girl, if ever girl _did_ such a thing, or
+ever girl did _not_ such a thing, that I back at any odds for crossing
+the Cordilleras. I would bet you something now, reader, if I thought
+you would deposit your stakes by return of post, (as they play at chess
+through the post-office,) that Kate does the trick, that she gets down
+to the other side; that the soldiers do _not_: and that the horse, if
+preserved at all, is preserved in a way that will leave him very little
+to boast of.
+
+The party had gathered wild berries and esculent roots at the foot of
+the mountains, and the horse was of very great use in carrying them. But
+this larder was soon emptied. There was nothing then to carry; so that
+the horse's value, as a beast of burthen, fell cent per cent. In fact,
+very soon he could not carry himself, and it became easy to calculate
+when he would reach the bottom on the wrong side the Cordilleras. He
+took three steps back for one upwards. A council of war being held, the
+small army resolved to slaughter their horse. He, though a member of the
+expedition, had no vote, and if he had the votes would have stood three
+to one--majority, two against him. He was cut into quarters; which
+surprises me; for, unless _one_ quarter was considered his own share,
+it reminds one too much of this amongst the many _facetiae_ of English
+midshipmen, who ask (on any one of their number looking sulky) 'if it is
+his intention to marry and retire from the service upon a superannuation
+of L4 4s. 4 1/2d. a year, paid quarterly by way of bothering the
+purser.' The purser can't do it with the help of farthings. And
+as respects aliquot parts, four shares among three persons are as
+incommensurable as a guinea is against any attempt at giving change
+in half-crowns. However, this was all the preservation that the horse
+found. No saltpetre or sugar could be had: but the frost was antiseptic.
+And the horse was preserved in as useful a sense as ever apricots were
+preserved or strawberries.
+
+On a fire, painfully devised out of broom and withered leaves, a
+horse-steak was dressed, for drink, snow as allowed _a discretion_. This
+ought to have revived the party, and Kate, perhaps, it _did_. But the
+poor deserters were thinly clad, and they had not the boiling heart of
+Catalina. More and more they drooped. Kate did her best to cheer them.
+But the march was nearly at an end for _them_, and they were going
+in one half hour to receive their last billet. Yet, before this
+consummation, they have a strange spectacle to see; such as few places
+could show, but the upper chambers of the Cordilleras. They had reached
+a billowy scene of rocky masses, large and small, looking shockingly
+black on their perpendicular sides as they rose out of the vast snowy
+expanse. Upon the highest of these, that was accessible, Kate mounted
+to look around her, and she saw--oh, rapture at such an hour!--a man
+sitting on a shelf of rock with a gun by his side. She shouted with joy
+to her comrades, and ran down to communicate the joyful news. Here was
+a sportsman, watching, perhaps, for an eagle; and now they would have
+relief. One man's cheek kindled with the hectic of sudden joy, and he
+rose eagerly to march. The other was fast sinking under the fatal sleep
+that frost sends before herself as her merciful minister of death; but
+hearing in his dream the tidings of relief, and assisted by his friends,
+he also staggeringly arose. It could not be three minutes' walk, Kate
+thought, to the station of the sportsman. That thought supported them
+all. Under Kate's guidance, who had taken a sailor's glance at the
+bearings, they soon unthreaded the labyrinth of rocks so far as to bring
+the man within view. He had not left his resting-place; their steps on
+the soundless snow, naturally, he could not hear; and, as their road
+brought them upon him from the rear, still less could he see them. Kate
+hailed him; but so keenly was he absorbed in some speculation, or in the
+object of his watching, that he took no notice of them, not even moving
+his head. Kate began to think there would be another man to rouse from
+sleep. Coming close behind him, she touched his shoulder, and said, 'My
+friend, are you sleeping?' Yes, he _was_ sleeping; sleeping the sleep
+from which there is no awaking; and the slight touch of Kate having
+disturbed the equilibrium of the corpse, down it rolled on the snow:
+the frozen body rang like a hollow iron cylinder; the face uppermost and
+blue with mould, mouth open, teeth ghastly and bleaching in the frost,
+and a frightful grin upon the lips. This dreadful spectacle finished the
+struggles of the weaker man, who sank and died at once. The other made
+an effort with so much spirit, that, in Kate's opinion, horror had acted
+upon him beneficially as a stimulant. But it was not really so. It was
+a spasm of morbid strength; a collapse succeeded; his blood began to
+freeze; he sat down in spite of Kate, and _he_ also died without further
+struggle. Gone are the poor suffering deserters; stretched and bleaching
+upon the snow; and insulted discipline is avenged. Great kings have long
+arms; and sycophants are ever at hand for the errand of the potent. What
+had frost and snow to do with the quarrel? Yet _they_ made themselves
+sycophantic servants of the King of Spain; and _they_ dogged his
+deserters up to the summit of the Cordilleras, more surely than any
+Spanish bloodhound, or any Spanish tirailleur's bullet.
+
+Now is our Kate standing alone on the summits of the Andes, in solitude
+that is shocking, for she is alone with her own afflicted conscience.
+Twice before she had stood in solitude as deep upon the wild--wild
+waters of the Pacific; but her conscience had been then untroubled. Now,
+is there nobody left that can help; her horse is dead--the soldiers are
+dead. There is nobody that she can speak to except God; and very soon
+you will find that she _does_ speak to him; for already on these vast
+aerial deserts He has been whispering to _her_. The condition of Kate is
+exactly that of Coleridge's '_Ancient Mariner_.' But possibly, reader,
+you may be amongst the many careless readers that have never fully
+understood what that condition was. Suffer me to enlighten you, else you
+ruin the story of the mariner; and by losing all its pathos, lose half
+the jewels of its beauty.
+
+There are three readers of the 'Ancient Mariner.' The first is gross
+enough to fancy all the imagery of the mariner's visions delivered by
+the poet for actual facts of experience; which being impossible, the
+whole pulverizes, for that reader, into a baseless fairy tale. The
+second reader is wiser than _that_; he knows that the imagery is _not_
+baseless; it is the imagery of febrile delirium; really seen, but not
+seen as an external reality. The mariner had caught the pestilential
+fever, which carried off all his mates; he only had survived--the
+delirium had vanished; but the visions that had haunted the delirium
+remained. 'Yes,' says the third reader, 'they remained; naturally they
+did, being scorched by fever into his brain; but how did they happen to
+remain on his belief as gospel truths? The delirium had vanished:
+why had not the painted scenery of the delirium vanished, except as
+visionary memorials of a sorrow that was cancelled? Why was it that
+craziness settled upon this mariner's brain, driving him, as if he were
+a Cain, or another Wandering Jew, to 'pass like night--from land
+to land;' and, at uncertain intervals, wrenching him until he made
+rehearsal of his errors, even at the hard price of 'holding children
+from their play, and old men from the chimney corner?' [Footnote: The
+beautiful words of Sir Philip Sidney, in his '_Defense of Poesie_.']
+That craziness, as the _third reader_ deciphers, rose out of a deeper
+soil than any bodily affection. It had its root in penitential sorrow.
+Oh, bitter is the sorrow to a conscientious heart, when, too late, it
+discovers the depth of a love that has been trampled under foot! This
+mariner had slain the creature that, on all the earth, loved him best.
+In the darkness of his cruel superstition he had done it, to save his
+human brothers from a fancied inconvenience; and yet, by that very act
+of cruelty, he had himself called destruction upon their heads. The
+Nemesis that followed punished _him_ through _them_--him, that wronged,
+through those that wrongfully he sought to benefit. That spirit who
+watches over the sanctities of love is a strong angel--is a jealous
+angel; and this angel it was
+
+  'That lov'd the bird, that lov'd the man,
+  That shot him with his bow.'
+
+He it was that followed the cruel archer into silent and slumbering
+seas;
+
+  'Nine fathom deep he had follow'd him
+  Through the realms of mist and snow.'
+
+This jealous angel it was that pursued the man into noon-day darkness,
+and the vision of dying oceans, into delirium, and finally, (when
+recovered from disease) into an unsettled mind.
+
+Such, also, had been the offence of Kate; such, also was the punishment
+that now is dogging her steps. She, like the mariner, had slain the one
+sole creature that loved her upon the whole wide earth; she, like the
+mariner, for this offence, had been hunted into frost and snow--very
+soon will be hunted into delirium; and from _that_ (if she escapes with
+life) will be hunted into the trouble of a heart that cannot rest.
+There was the excuse of one darkness for _her_; there was the excuse of
+another darkness for the mariner. But, with all the excuses that earth,
+and the darkness of earth, can furnish, bitter it would be for you or
+me, reader, through every hour of life, waking or dreaming, to look back
+upon one fatal moment when we had pierced the heart that would have died
+for us. In this only the darkness had been merciful to Kate--that it had
+hidden for ever from her victim the hand that slew him. But now in such
+utter solitude, her thoughts ran back to their earliest interview. She
+remembered with anguish, how, on first touching the shores of America,
+almost the very first word that met her ear had been from _him_, the
+brother whom she had killed, about the 'Pussy' of times long past; how
+the gallant young man had hung upon her words, as in her native Basque
+she described her own mischievous little self, of twelve years back; how
+his color went and came, whilst his loving memory of the little sister
+was revived by her own descriptive traits, giving back, as in a mirror,
+the fawn-like grace, the squirrel-like restlessness, that once had
+kindled his own delighted laughter; how he would take no denial, but
+showed on the spot, that, simply to have touched--to have kissed--to
+have played with the little wild thing, that glorified, by her
+innocence, the gloom of St. Sebastian's cloisters, gave a _right_ to his
+hospitality; how, through _him_ only, she had found a welcome in camps;
+how, through _him_, she had found the avenue to honor and distinction.
+And yet this brother, so loving and generous, it was that she had
+dismissed from life. She paused; she turned round, as if looking back
+for his grave; she saw the dreadful wildernesses of snow which already
+she had traversed.
+
+Silent they were at this season, even as in the panting heats of noon,
+the Zaarrahs of the torrid zone are oftentimes silent. Dreadful was the
+silence; it was the nearest thing to the silence of the grave. Graves
+were at the foot of the Andes, _that_ she knew too well; graves were at
+the summit of the Andes, _that_ she saw too well. And, as she gazed, a
+sudden thought flashed upon her, when her eyes settled upon the corpses
+of the poor deserters--could she, like _them_, have been all this while
+unconsciously executing judgment upon herself? Running from a wrath that
+was doubtful, into the very jaws of a wrath that was inexorable? Flying
+in panic--and behold! there was no man that pursued? For the first time
+in her life, Kate trembled. _Not_ for the first time, Kate wept. Far
+less for the first time was it, that Kate bent her knee--that Kate
+clasped her hands--that Kate prayed. But it _was_ the first time that
+she prayed as _they_ pray, for whom no more hope is left but in prayer.
+
+Here let me pause a moment for the sake of making somebody angry. A
+Frenchman, who sadly misjudges Kate, looking at her through a Parisian
+opera-glass, gives it as _his_ opinion--that, because Kate first
+_records_ her prayer on this occasion, therefore, now first of all she
+prayed. _I_ think not so. _I_ love this Kate, blood-stained as she is;
+and I could not love a woman that never bent her knee in thankfulness or
+in supplication. However, we have all a right to our own little opinion;
+and it is not you, '_mon cher_,' you Frenchman, that I am angry with,
+but somebody else that stands behind you. You, Frenchman, and your
+compatriots, I love oftentimes for your festal gaiety of heart; and I
+quarrel only with your levity and that eternal worldliness that freezes
+too fiercely--that absolutely blisters with its frost--like the upper
+air of the Andes. _You_ speak of Kate only as too readily you speak of
+all women; the instinct of a natural scepticism being to scoff at all
+hidden depths of truth. Else you are civil enough to Kate; and your
+'_homage_' (such as it may happen to be) is always at the service of a
+woman on the shortest notice. But behind _you_, I see a worse fellow;
+a gloomy fanatic; a religious sycophant that seeks to propitiate his
+circle by bitterness against the offences that are most unlike his own.
+And against him, I must say one word for Kate to the too hasty reader.
+This villain, whom I mark for a shot if he does not get out of the
+way, opens his fire on our Kate under shelter of a lie. For there is a
+standing lie in the very constitution of civil society, a _necessity_
+of error, misleading us as to the proportions of crime. Mere necessity
+obliges man to create many acts into felonies, and to punish them as the
+heaviest offences, which his better sense teaches him secretly to regard
+as perhaps among the lightest. Those poor deserters, for instance, were
+they necessarily without excuse? They might have been oppressively used;
+but in critical times of war, no matter for the individual palliations,
+the deserter from his colors _must_ be shot: there is no help for it:
+as in extremities of general famine, we shoot the man (alas! we are
+_obliged_ to shoot him) that is found robbing the common stores in order
+to feed his own perishing children, though the offence is hardly visible
+in the sight of God. Only blockheads adjust their scale of guilt to
+the scale of human punishments. Now, our wicked friend the fanatic, who
+calumniates Kate, abuses the advantage which, for such a purpose, he
+derives from the exaggerated social estimate of all violence. Personal
+security being so main an object of social union, we are obliged to
+frown upon all modes of violence as hostile to the central principle
+of that union. We are _obliged_ to rate it, according to the universal
+results towards which it tends, and scarcely at all, according to the
+special condition of circumstances, in which it may originate. Hence
+a horror arises for that class of offences, which is (philosophically
+speaking) exaggerated; and by daily use, the ethics of a police-office
+translate themselves, insensibly, into the ethics even of religious
+people. But I tell that sycophantish fanatic--not this only, viz., that
+he abuses unfairly, against Kate, the advantage which he has from the
+_inevitably_ distorted bias of society; but also, I tell him this second
+little thing, viz., that upon turning away the glass from that one
+obvious aspect of Kate's character, her too fiery disposition to
+vindicate all rights by violence, and viewing her in relation
+to _general_ religious capacities, she was a thousand times more
+promisingly endowed than himself. It is impossible to be noble in many
+things, without having many points of contact with true religion. If you
+deny _that_ you it is that calumniate religion. Kate _was_ noble in many
+things. Her worst errors never took a shape of self-interest or deceit.
+She was brave, she was generous, she was forgiving, she bore no malice,
+she was full of truth--qualities that God loves either in man or woman.
+She hated sycophants and dissemblers. _I_ hate them; and more than ever
+at this moment on her behalf. I wish she were but here--to give a punch
+on the head to that fellow who traduces her. And, coming round again
+to the occasion from which this short digression has started, viz., the
+question raised by the Frenchman--whether Kate were a person likely to
+_pray_ under other circumstances than those of extreme danger? I offer
+it as _my_ opinion that she was. Violent people are not always such from
+choice, but perhaps from situation. And, though the circumstances of
+Kate's position allowed her little means for realizing her own wishes,
+it is certain that those wishes pointed continually to peace and an
+unworldly happiness, if _that_ were possible. The stormy clouds that
+enveloped her in camps, opened overhead at intervals--showing her a far
+distant blue serene. She yearned, at many times, for the rest which is
+not in camps or armies; and it is certain, that she ever combined with
+any plans or day-dreams of tranquillity, as their most essential ally,
+some aid derived from that dovelike religion which, at St. Sebastian's,
+as an infant and through girlhood, she had been taught so profoundly to
+adore.
+
+Now, let us rise from this discussion of Kate against libellers, as Kate
+herself is rising from prayer, and consider, in conjunction with _her_,
+the character and promise of that dreadful ground which lies immediately
+before her. What is to be thought of it? I could wish we had a
+theodolite here, and a spirit-level, and other instruments, for settling
+some important questions. Yet no: on consideration, if one _had_ a wish
+allowed by that kind fairy, without whose assistance it would be quite
+impossible to send, even for the spirit-level, nobody would throw away
+the wish upon things so paltry. I would not put the fairy upon any such
+errand: I would order the good creature to bring no spirit-level, but a
+stiff glass of spirits for Kate--a palanquin, and relays of fifty stout
+bearers--all drunk, in order that they might not feel the cold. The
+main interest at this moment, and the main difficulty--indeed, the 'open
+question' of the case--was, to ascertain whether the ascent were yet
+accomplished or not; and when would the descent commence? or had it,
+perhaps, long commenced? The character of the ground, in those immediate
+successions that could be connected by the eye, decided nothing; for the
+undulations of the level had been so continual for miles, as to perplex
+any eye but an engineer's, in attempting to judge whether, upon the
+whole, the tendency were upwards or downwards. Possibly it was yet
+neither way; it is, indeed, probable, that Kate had been for some time
+travelling along a series of terraces, that traversed the whole breadth
+of the topmost area at that point of crossing the Cordilleras, and which
+perhaps, but not certainly, compensated any casual tendencies downwards
+by corresponding reascents. Then came the question--how long would these
+terraces yet continue? and had the ascending parts _really_ balanced
+the descending?--upon _that_ seemed to rest the final chance for Kate.
+Because, unless she very soon reached a lower level, and a warmer
+atmosphere, mere weariness would oblige her to lie down, under a
+fierceness of cold, that would not suffer her to rise after once losing
+the warmth of motion; or, inversely, if she even continued in motion,
+mere extremity of cold would, of itself, speedily absorb the little
+surplus energy for moving, which yet remained unexhausted by weariness.
+
+At this stage of her progress, and whilst the agonizing question seemed
+yet as indeterminate as ever, Kate's struggle with despair, which had
+been greatly soothed by the fervor of her prayer, revolved upon her in
+deadlier blackness. All turned, she saw, upon a race against time, and
+the arrears of the road; and she, poor thing! how little qualified could
+_she_ be, in such a condition, for a race of any kind; and against two
+such obstinate brutes as time and space! This hour of the progress,
+this noontide of Kate's struggle, must have been the very crisis of
+the whole. Despair was rapidly tending to ratify itself. Hope, in any
+degree, would be a cordial for sustaining her efforts. But to flounder
+along a dreadful chaos of snow-drifts, or snow-chasms, towards a point
+of rock, which, being turned, should expose only another interminable
+succession of the same character--might _that_ be endured by ebbing
+spirits, by stiffening limbs, by the ghastly darkness that was now
+beginning to gather upon the inner eye? And, if once despair became
+triumphant, all the little arrear of physical strength would collapse at
+once.
+
+Oh! verdure of human fields, cottages of men and women, (that now
+suddenly seemed all brothers and sisters,) cottages with children around
+them at play, that are so far below--oh! summer and spring, flowers
+and blossoms, to which, as to _his_ symbols, God has given the gorgeous
+privilege of rehearsing for ever upon earth his most mysterious
+perfection--Life, and the resurrections of Life--is it indeed true, that
+poor Kate must never see you more? Mutteringly she put that question
+to herself. But strange are the caprices of ebb and flow in the deep
+fountains of human sensibilities. At this very moment, when the utter
+incapacitation of despair was gathering fast at Kate's heart, a sudden
+lightening shot far into her spirit, a reflux almost supernatural, from
+the earliest effects of her prayer. A thought had struck her all at
+once, and this thought prompted her immediately to turn round. Perhaps
+it was in some blind yearning after the only memorials of life in this
+frightful region, that she fixed her eye upon a point of hilly ground by
+which she identified the spot near which the three corpses were lying.
+The silence seemed deeper than ever. Neither was there any phantom
+memorial of life for the eye or for the ear, nor wing of bird, nor echo,
+nor green leaf, nor creeping thing, that moved or stirred, upon the
+soundless waste. Oh, what a relief to this burthen of silence would be a
+human groan! Here seemed a motive for still darker despair. And yet, at
+that very moment, a pulse of joy began to thaw the ice at her heart. It
+struck her, as she reviewed the ground, that undoubtedly it had been for
+some time slowly descending. Her senses were much dulled by suffering;
+but this thought it was, suggested by a sudden apprehension of a
+continued descending movement, which had caused her to turn round.
+Sight had confirmed the suggestion first derived from her own steps. The
+distance attained was now sufficient to establish the tendency. Oh, yes,
+yes, to a certainty she had been descending for some time. Frightful was
+the spasm of joy which whispered that the worst was over. It was as when
+the shadow of midnight, that murderers had relied on, is passing away
+from your beleagured shelter, and dawn will soon be manifest. It was
+as when a flood, that all day long has raved against the walls of your
+house, has ceased (you suddenly think) to rise; yes! measured by a
+golden plummet, it _is_ sinking beyond a doubt, and the darlings of
+your household are saved. Kate faced round in agitation to her proper
+direction. She saw, what previously, in her stunning confusion, she had
+_not_ seen, that, hardly two stones' throw in advance, lay a mass
+of rock, split as into a gateway. Through that opening it now became
+probable that the road was lying. Hurrying forward, she passed within
+the natural gates. Gates of paradise they were. Ah, what a vista
+did that gateway expose before her dazzled eye? what a revelation of
+heavenly promise? Full two miles long, stretched a long narrow glen,
+everywhere descending, and in many parts rapidly. All was now placed
+beyond a doubt. She _was_ descending--for hours, perhaps, _had_ been
+descending insensibly, the mighty staircase. Yes, Kate is leaving behind
+her the kingdom of frost and the victories of death. Two miles farther
+there may be rest, if there is not shelter. And very soon, as the crest
+of her new-born happiness, she distinguished at the other end of that
+rocky vista, a pavilion-shaped mass of dark green foliage--a belt of
+trees, such as we see in the lovely parks of England, but islanded by
+a screen (though not everywhere occupied by the usurpations) of a thick
+bushy undergrowth. Oh, verdure of dark olive foliage, offered suddenly
+to fainting eyes, as if by some winged patriarchal herald of wrath
+relenting--solitary Arab's tent, rising with saintly signals of peace,
+in the dreadful desert, must Kate indeed die even yet, whilst she
+sees but cannot reach you? Outpost on the frontier of man's dominions,
+standing within life, but looking out upon everlasting death, wilt thou
+hold up the anguish of thy mocking invitation, only to betray? Never,
+perhaps, in this world was the line so exquisitely grazed, that parts
+salvation and ruin. As the dove to her dove-cot from the swooping
+hawk--as the Christian pinnace to Christian batteries, from the bloody
+Mahometan corsair, so flew--so tried to fly towards the anchoring
+thickets, that, alas! could not weigh their anchors and make sail to
+meet her--the poor exhausted Kate from the vengeance of pursuing frost.
+
+And she reached them; staggering, fainting, reeling, she entered beneath
+the canopy of umbrageous trees. But, as oftentimes, the Hebrew fugitive
+to a city of refuge, flying for his life before the avenger of blood,
+was pressed so hotly that, on entering the archway of what seemed to
+_him_ the heavenly city-gate, as he kneeled in deep thankfulness to kiss
+its holy merciful shadow, he could not rise again, but sank instantly
+with infant weakness into sleep--sometimes to wake no more; so sank, so
+collapsed upon the ground, without power to choose her couch, and with
+little prospect of ever rising again to her feet, the martial nun. She
+lay as luck had ordered it, with her head screened by the undergrowth
+of bushes, from any gales that might arise; she lay exactly as she sank,
+with her eyes up to heaven; and thus it was that the nun saw, before
+falling asleep, the two sights that upon earth are fittest for the
+closing eyes of a nun, whether destined to open again, or to close for
+ever. She saw the interlacing of boughs overhead forming a dome, that
+seemed like the dome of a cathedral. She saw through the fretwork of the
+foliage, another dome, far beyond, the dome of an evening sky, the dome
+of some heavenly cathedral, not built with hands. She saw upon this
+upper dome the vesper lights, all alive with pathetic grandeur of
+coloring from a sunset that had just been rolling down like a chorus.
+She had not, till now, consciously observed the time of day; whether it
+were morning, or whether it were afternoon, in her confusion she had not
+distinctly known. But now she whispered to herself--'_It is evening_:'
+and what lurked half unconsciously in these words might be--'The sun,
+that rejoices, has finished his daily toil; man, that labors, has
+finished _his_; I, that suffer, have finished mine.' That might be what
+she thought, but what she _said_ was--'It is evening; and the hour is
+come when the _Angelus_ is sounding through St. Sebastian.' What made
+her think of St. Sebastian, so far away in depths of space and time? Her
+brain was wandering, now that her feet were _not_; and, because her eyes
+had descended from the heavenly to the earthly dome, _that_ made
+her think of earthly cathedrals, and of cathedral choirs, and of St.
+Sebastian's chapel, with its silvery bells that carried the _Angelus_
+far into mountain recesses. Perhaps, as her wanderings increased, she
+thought herself back in childhood; became 'pussy' once again; fancied
+that all since then was a frightful dream; that she was not upon the
+dreadful Andes, but still kneeling in the holy chapel at vespers; still
+innocent as then; loved as then she had been loved; and that all men
+were liars, who said her hand was ever stained with blood. Little enough
+is mentioned of the delusions which possessed her; but that little gives
+a key to the impulse which her palpitating heart obeyed, and which her
+rambling brain for ever reproduced in multiplying mirrors. Restlessness
+kept her in waking dreams for a brief half hour. But then, fever and
+delirium would wait no longer; the killing exhaustion would no longer be
+refused; the fever, the delirium, and the exhaustion, swept in together
+with power like an army with banners; and the nun ceased through the
+gathering twilight any more to watch the cathedrals of earth, or the
+more solemn cathedrals that rose in the heavens above.
+
+All night long she slept in her verdurous St. Bernard's hospice without
+awaking, and whether she would _ever_ awake seemed to depend upon
+an accident. The slumber that towered above her brain was like that
+fluctuating silvery column which stands in scientific tubes sinking,
+rising, deepening, lightening, contracting, expanding; or like the mist
+that sits, through sultry afternoons, upon the river of the American
+St. Peter, sometimes rarefying for minutes into sunny gauze, sometimes
+condensing for hours into palls of funeral darkness. You fancy that,
+after twelve hours of _any_ sleep, she must have been refreshed; better
+at least than she was last night. Ah! but sleep is not always sent upon
+missions of refreshment. Sleep is sometimes the secret chamber in which
+death arranges his machinery. Sleep is sometimes that deep mysterious
+atmosphere, in which the human spirit is slowly unsettling its wings for
+flight from earthly tenements. It is now eight o'clock in the morning;
+and, to all appearance, if Kate should receive no aid before noon, when
+next the sun is departing to his rest, Kate will be departing to hers;
+when next the sun is holding out his golden Christian signal to man,
+that the hour is come for letting his anger go down, Kate will be
+sleeping away for ever into the arms of brotherly forgiveness.
+
+What is wanted just now for Kate, supposing Kate herself to be wanted
+by this world, is, that this world would be kind enough to send her a
+little brandy before it is too late. The simple truth was, and a truth
+which I have known to take place in more ladies than Kate, who died
+or did _not_ die, accordingly, as they had or had not an adviser like
+myself, capable of giving so sound an opinion, that the jewelly star of
+life had descended too far down the arch towards setting, for any chance
+of re-ascending by _spontaneous_ effort. The fire was still burning
+in secret, but needed to be rekindled by potent artificial breath. It
+lingered, and _might_ linger, but would never culminate again without
+some stimulus from earthly vineyards. [Footnote: Though not exactly in
+the same circumstances as Kate, or sleeping, _a la belle etoile_, on
+a declivity of the Andes, I have known (or heard circumstantially
+reported) the cases of many ladies besides Kate, who were in precisely
+the same critical danger of perishing for want of a little brandy.
+A dessert spoonful or two would have saved them. Avaunt! you wicked
+'Temperance' medallist! repent as fast as ever you can, or, perhaps the
+next time we hear of you, _anasarca_ and _hydro-thorax_ will be running
+after you to punish your shocking excesses in water. Seriously, the
+case is one of constant recurrence, and constantly ending fatally from
+_unseasonable_ and pedantic rigor of temperance. The fact is, that the
+medical profession composes the most generous and liberal body of
+men amongst us; taken generally, by much the most enlightened; but
+professionally, the most timid. Want of boldness in the administration
+of opium, &c., though they can be bold enough with mercury, is their
+besetting infirmity. And from this infirmity females suffer most.
+One instance I need hardly mention, the fatal case of an august lady,
+mourned by nations, with respect to whom it was, and is, the belief of
+multitudes to this hour (well able to judge), that she would have been
+saved by a glass of brandy; and her attendant, who shot himself, came to
+think so too late--too late for _her_, and too late for himself. Amongst
+many cases of the same nature, which personally I have been acquainted
+with, twenty years ago, a man, illustrious for his intellectual
+accomplishments, mentioned to me that his own wife, during her first or
+second confinement, was suddenly reported to him, by one of her female
+attendants, (who slipped away unobserved by the medical people,) as
+undoubtedly sinking fast. He hurried to her chamber, and _saw_ that it
+was so. The presiding medical authority, however, was inexorable. 'Oh,
+by no means,' shaking his ambrosial wig, 'any stimulant at this
+crisis would be fatal.' But no authority could overrule the concurrent
+testimony of all symptoms, and of all unprofessional opinions. By some
+pious falsehood my friend smuggled the doctor out of the room, and
+immediately smuggled a glass of brandy into the poor lady's lips. She
+recovered with magical power. The doctor is now dead, and went to his
+grave under the delusive persuasion--that not any vile glass of brandy,
+but the stern refusal of all brandy, was the thing that saved his
+collapsing patient. The patient herself, who might naturally know
+something of the matter, was of a different opinion. She sided with the
+factious body around her bed, (comprehending all beside the doctor,) who
+felt sure that death was rapidly approaching, _barring_ that brandy.
+The same result in the same appalling crisis, I have known repeatedly
+produced by twenty-five drops of laudanum. An obstinate man will
+say--'Oh, never listen to a non-medical man like this writer. Consult in
+such a case your medical adviser.' You will, will you? Then let me tell
+you, that you are missing the very logic of all I have been saying for
+the improvement of blockheads, which is--that you should consult any man
+_but_ a medical man, since no other man has any obstinate prejudice of
+professional timidity. N. B.--I prescribe for Kate _gratis_, because
+she, poor thing! has so little to give. But from other ladies, who may
+have the happiness to benefit by my advice, I expect a fee--not so large
+a one considering the service--a flowering plant, suppose the _second_
+best in their collection. I know it would be of no use to ask for the
+_very_ best, (which else I could wish to do,) because that would only be
+leading them into little fibs. I don't insist on a _Yucca gloriosa_, or
+a _Magnolia speciosissima_, (I hope there _is_ such a plant)--a rose or
+a violet will do. I am sure there is such a plant as that. And if they
+settle their debts justly, I shall very soon be master of the prettiest
+little conservatory in England. For, treat it not as a jest, reader;
+no case of timid practice is so fatally frequent.] Kate was ever lucky,
+though ever unfortunate; and the world, being of my opinion that Kate
+was worth saving, made up its mind about half-past eight o'clock in the
+morning to save her. Just at that time, when the night was over, and its
+sufferings were hidden--in one of those intermitting gleams that for
+a moment or two lightened the clouds of her slumber, Kate's dull ear
+caught a sound that for years had spoken a familiar language to _her_.
+What was it? It was the sound, though muffled and deadened, like the
+ear that heard it, of horsemen advancing. Interpreted by the tumultuous
+dreams of Kate, was it the cavalry of Spain, at whose head so often she
+had charged the bloody Indian scalpers? Was it, according to the legend
+of ancient days, cavalry that had been sown by her brother's blood,
+cavalry that rose from the ground on an inquest of retribution, and were
+racing up the Andes to seize her? Her dreams that had opened sullenly to
+the sound waited for no answer, but closed again into pompous darkness.
+Happily, the horsemen had caught the glimpse of some bright ornament,
+clasp, or aiguillette, on Kate's dress. They were hunters and foresters
+from below; servants in the household of a beneficent lady; and in some
+pursuit of flying game had wandered beyond their ordinary limits. Struck
+by the sudden scintillation from Kate's dress played upon by the morning
+sun, they rode up to the thicket. Great was their surprise, great their
+pity, to see a young officer in uniform stretched within the bushes upon
+the ground, and perhaps dying. Borderers from childhood on this dreadful
+frontier, sacred to winter and death, they understood the case at once.
+They dismounted: and with the tenderness of women, raising the poor
+frozen cornet in their arms, washed her temples with brandy, whilst one,
+at intervals, suffered a few drops to trickle within her lips. As the
+restoration of a warm bed was now most likely to be successful, they
+lifted the helpless stranger upon a horse, walking on each side with
+supporting arms. Once again our Kate is in the saddle; once again a
+Spanish Caballador. But Kate's bridle-hand is deadly cold. And her
+spurs, that she had never unfastened since leaving the monastic asylum,
+hung as idle as the flapping sail that fills unsteadily with the breeze
+upon a stranded ship.
+
+This procession had some miles to go, and over difficult ground; but at
+length it reached the forest-like park and the chateau of the wealthy
+proprietress. Kate was still half-frozen and speechless, except at
+intervals. Heavens! can this corpse-like, languishing young woman, be
+the Kate that once, in her radiant girlhood, rode with a handful of
+comrades into a column of two thousand enemies, that saw her comrades
+die, that persisted when all were dead, that tore from the heart of
+all resistance the banner of her native Spain? Chance and change have
+'written strange defeatures in her face.' Much is changed; but some
+things are not changed: there is still kindness that overflows with
+pity: there is still helplessness that asks for this pity without a
+voice: she is now received by a Senora, not less kind than that maternal
+aunt, who, on the night of her birth, first welcomed her to a loving
+home; and she, the heroine of Spain, is herself as helpless now as that
+little lady who, then at ten minutes of age, was kissed and blessed by
+all the household of St. Sebastian.
+
+Let us suppose Kate placed in a warm bed. Let us suppose her in a few
+hours recovering steady consciousness; in a few days recovering some
+power of self-support; in a fortnight able to seek the gay saloon,
+where the Senora was sitting alone, and rendering thanks, with that
+deep sincerity which ever characterized our wild-hearted Kate, for the
+critical services received from that lady and her establishment.
+
+This lady, a widow, was what the French call a _metisse_, the Spaniards
+a _mestizza_; that is, the daughter of a genuine Spaniard, and an Indian
+mother. I shall call her simply a _creole_, [Footnote: 'Creole.'--At
+that time the infusion of negro or African blood was small.
+Consequently none of the negro hideousness was diffused. After these
+intercomplexities had arisen between all complications of descent from
+three original strands, European, American, African, the distinctions
+of social consideration founded on them bred names so many, that a
+court calendar was necessary to keep you from blundering. As yet,
+the varieties were few. Meantime, the word _creole_ has always been
+misapplied in our English colonies to a person (though of strictly
+European blood,) simply because _born_ in the West Indies. In this
+English use, it expresses the same difference as the Romans indicated by
+_Hispanus_ and _Hispanicus_. The first meant a person of Spanish blood,
+a native of Spain; the second, a Roman born in Spain. So of _Germanus_
+and _Germanicus_, _Italus_ and _Italicus_, _Anglus_ and _Anglicus_, &c.;
+an important distinction, on which see Casaubon _apud Scriptores.
+Hist. Augustan._] which will indicate her want of pure Spanish blood
+sufficiently to explain her deference for those who had it. She was a
+kind, liberal woman; rich rather more than needed where there were no
+opera boxes to rent--a widow about fifty years old in the wicked world's
+account, some forty-four in her own; and happy, above all, in the
+possession of a most lovely daughter, whom even the wicked world did
+not accuse of more than sixteen years. This daughter, Juana, was--But
+stop--let her open the door of the saloon in which the Senora and the
+cornet are conversing, and speak for herself. She did so, after an hour
+had passed; which length of time, to _her_ that never had any business
+whatever in her innocent life, seemed sufficient to settle the business
+of the old world and the new. Had Pietro Diaz (as Catalina now called
+herself) been really a Peter, and not a sham Peter, what a vision of
+loveliness would have rushed upon his sensibilities as the door
+opened! Do not expect me to describe her, for which, however, there are
+materials extant, sleeping in archives, where they have slept for two
+hundred and twenty years. It is enough that she is reported to
+have united the stately tread of Andalusian women with the innocent
+voluptuousness of Peruvian eyes. As to her complexion and figure, be it
+known that Juana's father was a gentleman from Grenada, having in his
+veins the grandest blood of all this earth, blood of Goths and Vandals,
+tainted (for which Heaven be thanked!) twice over with blood of
+Arabs--once through Moors, once through Jews; [Footnote: It is well
+known, that the very reason why the Spanish of all nations became the
+most gloomily jealous of a Jewish cross in the pedigree, was because,
+until the vigilance of the Church rose into ferocity, in no nation was
+such a cross so common. The hatred of fear is ever the deepest. And men
+hated the Jewish taint, as once in Jerusalem they hated the leprosy,
+because even whilst they raved against it, the secret proofs of it might
+be detected amongst their own kindred, even as in the Temple, whilst
+once a king rose in mutiny against the priesthood, (2 Chron. xxvi
+16-20,) suddenly the leprosy that dethroned him, blazed out upon his
+forehead.] whilst from her grandmother, Juana drew the deep subtle
+melancholy and the beautiful contours of limb which belong to the Indian
+race--a race destined silently and slowly to fade from the earth. No
+awkwardness was or could be in this antelope, when gliding with forest
+grace into the room--no town-bred shame--nothing but the unaffected
+pleasure of one who wishes to speak a fervent welcome, but knows not if
+she ought--the astonishment of a Miranda, bred in utter solitude, when
+first beholding a princely Ferdinand--and just so much reserve as to
+remind you, that if Catalina thought fit to dissemble her sex, she
+did _not_. And consider, reader, if you look back and are a great
+arithmetician, that whilst the Senora had only fifty per cent of Spanish
+blood, Juana had seventy-five; so that her Indian melancholy after all
+was swallowed up for the present by her Vandal, by her Arab, by her
+Spanish fire.
+
+Catalina, seared as she was by the world, has left it evident in her
+memoirs that she was touched more than she wished to be by this
+innocent child. Juana formed a brief lull for Catalina in her too stormy
+existence. And if for _her_ in this life the sweet reality of a sister
+had been possible, here was the sister she would have chosen. On the
+other hand, what might Juana think of the cornet? To have been thrown
+upon the kind hospitalities of her native home, to have been rescued
+by her mother's servants from that fearful death which, lying but a few
+miles off, had filled her nursery with traditionary tragedies,--_that_
+was sufficient to create an interest in the stranger. But his bold
+martial demeanor, his yet youthful style of beauty, his frank manners,
+his animated conversation that reported a hundred contests with
+suffering and peril, wakened for the first time her admiration. Men she
+had never seen before, except menial servants, or a casual priest. But
+here was a gentleman, young like herself, that rode in the cavalry of
+Spain--that carried the banner of the only potentate whom Peruvians knew
+of--the King of the Spains and the Indies--that had doubled Cape Horn,
+that had crossed the Andes, that had suffered shipwreck, that had rocked
+upon fifty storms, and had wrestled for life through fifty battles.
+
+The reader knows all that followed. The sisterly love which Catalina
+did really feel for this young mountaineer was inevitably misconstrued.
+Embarrassed, but not able, from sincere affection, or almost in bare
+propriety, to refuse such expressions of feeling as corresponded to the
+artless and involuntary kindnesses of the ingenuous Juana, one day the
+cornet was surprised by mamma in the act of encircling her daughter's
+waist with his martial arm, although waltzing was premature by at least
+two centuries in Peru. She taxed him instantly with dishonorably abusing
+her confidence. The cornet made but a bad defence. He muttered something
+about '_fraternal affection_,' about 'esteem,' and a great deal of
+metaphysical words that are destined to remain untranslated in their
+original Spanish. The good Senora, though she could boast only of
+forty-four years' experience, was not altogether to be '_had_' in that
+fashion--she was as learned as if she had been fifty, and she brought
+matters to a speedy crisis. 'You are a Spaniard,' she said, 'a
+gentleman, therefore; _remember_ that you are a gentleman. This very
+night, if your intentions are not serious, quit my house. Go to Tucuman;
+you shall command my horses and servants; but stay no longer to increase
+the sorrow that already you will have left behind you. My daughter loves
+you. That is sorrow enough, if you are trifling with us. But, if not,
+and you also love _her_, and can be happy in our solitary mode of life,
+stay with us--stay for ever. Marry Juana with my free consent. I ask not
+for wealth. Mine is sufficient for you both.' The cornet protested
+that the honor was one never contemplated by _him_--that it was too
+great--that--. But, of course, reader, you know that 'gammon' flourishes
+in Peru, amongst the silver mines, as well as in some more boreal lands
+that produce little better than copper and tin. 'Tin,' however, has its
+uses. The delighted Senora overruled all objections, great and small;
+and she confirmed Juana's notion that the business of two worlds could
+be transacted in an hour, by settling her daughter's future happiness in
+exactly twenty minutes. The poor, weak Catalina, not acting now in any
+spirit of recklessness, grieving sincerely for the gulf that was opening
+before her, and yet shrinking effeminately from the momentary shock
+that would be inflicted by a firm adherence to her duty, clinging to the
+anodyne of a short delay, allowed herself to be installed as the
+lover of Juana. Considerations of convenience, however, postponed the
+marriage. It was requisite to make various purchases; and for this, it
+was requisite to visit Tucuman, where, also, the marriage ceremony could
+be performed with more circumstantial splendor. To Tucuman, therefore,
+after some weeks' interval, the whole party repaired. And at Tucuman it
+was that the tragical events arose, which, whilst interrupting such a
+mockery for ever, left the poor Juana still happily deceived, and never
+believing for a moment that hers was a rejected or a deluded heart.
+
+One reporter of Mr. De Ferrer's narrative forgets his usual generosity,
+when he says that the Senora's gift of her daughter to the Alferez was
+not quite so disinterested as it seemed to be. Certainly it was not so
+disinterested as European ignorance might fancy it: but it was quite as
+much so as it ought to have been, in balancing the interests of a child.
+Very true it is--that, being a genuine Spaniard, who was still a rare
+creature in so vast a world as Peru, being a Spartan amongst Helots, an
+Englishman amongst Savages, an Alferez would in those days have been
+a natural noble. His alliance created honor for his wife and for his
+descendants. Something, therefore, the cornet would add to the family
+consideration. But, instead of selfishness, it argued just regard for
+her daughter's interest to build upon this, as some sort of equipoise to
+the wealth which her daughter would bring.
+
+Spaniard, however, as he was, our Alferez on reaching Tucuman found no
+Spaniards to mix with, but instead twelve Portuguese.
+
+Catalina remembered the Spanish proverb--'Subtract from a Spaniard all
+his good qualities, and the remainder makes a pretty fair Portuguese;'
+but, as there was nobody else to gamble with, she entered freely into
+their society. Very soon she suspected that there was foul play:
+all modes of doctoring dice had been made familiar to _her_ by the
+experience of camps. She watched; and, by the time she had lost her
+final coin, she was satisfied that she had been plundered. In her first
+anger she would have been glad to switch the whole dozen across the
+eyes; but, as twelve to one were too great odds, she determined on
+limiting her vengeance to the immediate culprit. Him she followed into
+the street; and coming near enough to distinguish his profile reflected
+on a wall, she continued to keep him in view from a short distance. The
+light-hearted young cavalier whistled, as he went, an old Portuguese
+ballad of romance; and in a quarter of an hour came up to an house, the
+front door of which he began to open with a pass-key. This operation
+was the signal for Catalina that the hour of vengeance had struck;
+and, stepping hastily up, she tapped the Portuguese on the shoulder,
+saying--'Senor, you are a robber!' The Portuguese turned coolly round,
+and, seeing his gaming antagonist, replied--'Possibly, Sir; but I have
+no particular fancy for being told so,' at the same time drawing his
+sword. Catalina had not designed to take any advantage; and the touching
+him on the shoulder, with the interchange of speeches, and the known
+character of Kate, sufficiently imply it. But it is too probable in such
+cases, that the party whose intention has been regularly settled from
+the first, will, and must have an advantage unconsciously over a man
+so abruptly thrown on his defence. However this might be, they had not
+fought a minute before Catalina passed her sword through her opponent's
+body; and without a groan or a sigh, the Portuguese cavalier fell dead
+at his own door. Kate searched the street with her ears, and (as far as
+the indistinctness of night allowed) with her eyes. All was profoundly
+silent; and she was satisfied that no human figure was in motion. What
+should be done with the body? A glance at the door of the house settled
+_that_: Fernando had himself opened it at the very moment when
+he received the summons to turn round. She dragged the corpse in,
+therefore, to the foot of the staircase, put the key by the dead man's
+side, and then issuing softly into the street, drew the door close with
+as little noise as possible. Catalina again paused to listen and to
+watch, went home to the hospitable Senora's house, retired to bed, fell
+asleep, and early the next morning was awakened by the Corregidor and
+four alguazils.
+
+The lawlessness of all that followed strikingly exposes the frightful
+state of criminal justice at that time, wherever Spanish law prevailed.
+No evidence appeared to connect Catalina in any way with the death of
+Fernando Acosta. The Portuguese gamblers, besides that perhaps they
+thought lightly of such an accident, might have reasons of their own for
+drawing off public attention from their pursuits in Tucuman: not one
+of these men came forward openly; else the circumstances at the gaming
+table, and the departure of Catalina so closely on the heels of her
+opponent, would have suggested reasonable grounds for detaining her
+until some further light should be obtained. As it was, her imprisonment
+rested upon no colorable ground whatever, unless the magistrate had
+received some anonymous information, which, however, he never alleged.
+One comfort there was, meantime, in Spanish injustice: it did not
+loiter. Full gallop it went over the ground: one week often sufficed
+for informations--for trial--for execution; and the only bad consequence
+was, that a second or a third week sometimes exposed the disagreeable
+fact that everything had been 'premature;' a solemn sacrifice had
+been made to offended justice, in which all was right except as to the
+victim; it was the wrong man; and _that_ gave extra trouble; for then
+all was to do over again, another man to be executed, and, possibly,
+still to be caught.
+
+Justice moved at her usual Spanish rate in the present case. Kate was
+obliged to rise instantly; not suffered to speak to anybody in the
+house, though, in going out, a door opened, and she saw the young Juana
+looking out with saddest Indian expression. In one day the trial was all
+finished. Catalina said (which was true) that she hardly knew Acosta;
+and that people of her rank were used to attack their enemies face to
+face, not by murderous surprises. The magistrates were impressed with
+Catalina's answers (yet answered to _what_?) Things were beginning to
+look well, when all was suddenly upset by two witnesses, whom the reader
+(who is a sort of accomplice after the fact, having been privately let
+into the truths of the case, and having concealed his knowledge), will
+know at once to be false witnesses, but whom the old Spanish buzwigs
+doated on as models of all that could be looked for in the best. Both
+were very ill-looking fellows, as it was their duty to be. And the first
+deposed as follows:--That through his quarter of Tucuman, the fact was
+notorious of Acosta's wife being the object of a criminal pursuit on the
+part of the Alferez (Catalina): that, _doubtless_, the injured husband
+had surprised the prisoner, which, of course, had led to the murder,
+to the staircase, to the key--to everything, in short, that could be
+wished; no--stop! what am I saying?--to everything that ought to be
+abominated. Finally--for he had now settled the main question--that
+he had a friend who would take up the case where he himself, from
+short-sightedness, was obliged to lay it down.' This friend, the Pythias
+of this short-sighted Damon started up in a frenzy of virtue at this
+summons, and, rushing to the front of the alguazils, said, 'That since
+his friend had proved sufficiently the fact of the Alferez having been
+lurking in the house, and having murdered a man, all that rested upon
+_him_ to show was, how that murderer got out of the house; which he
+could do satisfactorily; for there was a balcony running along the
+windows on the second floor, one of which windows he himself, lurking
+in a corner of the street, saw the Alferez throw up, and from the said
+balcony take a flying leap into the said street.' Evidence like this was
+conclusive; no defence was listened to, nor indeed had the prisoner
+any to produce. The Alferez could deny neither the staircase nor the
+balcony: the street is there to this day, like the bricks in Jack Cade's
+Chimney, testifying all that may be required; and, as to our friend who
+saw the leap, there he was; nobody could deny _him_. The prisoner might
+indeed have suggested that she never heard of Acosta's wife, nor had
+the existence of such a wife been ripened even into a suspicion. But
+the bench were satisfied; chopping logic was of no use; and sentence was
+pronounced--that on the eighth day from the day of arrest, the Alferez
+should be executed in the public square.
+
+It was not amongst the weaknesses of Catalina--who had so often
+inflicted death, and, by her own journal, thought so lightly of
+inflicting it (if not under cowardly advantages)--to shrink from facing
+death in her own person. Many incidents in her career show the coolness
+and even gaiety with which, in any case where death was apparently
+inevitable, she would have gone to meet it. But in this case she _had_
+a temptation for escaping it, which was probably in her power. She had
+only to reveal the secret of her sex, and the ridiculous witnesses,
+beyond whose testimony there was nothing at all against her, must at
+once be covered with derision. Catalina had some liking for fun; and a
+main inducement to this course was, that it would enable her to say to
+the judges, 'Now you see what old fools you've made of yourselves;
+every woman and child in Peru will soon be laughing at you.' I must
+acknowledge my own weakness; this last temptation I could _not_ have
+withstood; flesh is weak, and fun is strong. But Catalina _did_. On
+consideration she fancied, that although the particular motive for
+murdering Acosta would be dismissed with laughter, still this might not
+clear her of the murder, which on some _other_ motive she might have
+committed. But supposing that she were cleared altogether, what most of
+all she feared was, that the publication of her sex would throw a reflex
+light upon many past transactions in her life--would instantly find
+its way to Spain--and would probably soon bring her within the tender
+attentions of the Inquisition. She kept firm to the resolution of not
+saving her life by this discovery. And so far as her fate lay in her own
+hands, she would (as the reader will perceive from a little incident at
+the scaffold) have perished to a certainty. But even at this point, how
+strange a case! A woman _falsely_ accused of an act which she really
+_did_ commit! And falsely accused of a true offence upon a motive that
+was impossible!
+
+As the sun set upon the seventh day, when the hours were numbered
+for the prisoner, there filed into her cell four persons in religious
+habits. They came on the charitable mission of preparing the poor
+convict for death. Catalina, however, watching all things narrowly,
+remarked something earnest and significant in the eye of the leader, as
+of one who had some secret communication to make. She contrived to clasp
+this man's hands, as if in the energy of internal struggles, and _he_
+contrived to slip into hers the very smallest of billets from poor
+Juana. It contained, for indeed it _could_ contain, only these three
+words--'Do not confess. J.' This one caution, so simple and so brief,
+was a talisman. It did not refer to any confession of the crime; _that_
+would have been assuming what Juana was neither entitled nor disposed
+to assume, but, in the technical sense of the Church, to the act of
+devotional confession. Catalina found a single moment for a glance at
+it--understood the whole--resolutely refused to confess, as a person
+unsettled in her religious opinions, that needed spiritual instructions,
+and the four monks withdrew to make their report. The principal judge,
+upon hearing of the prisoner's impenitence, granted another day. At the
+end of _that_, no change having occurred either in the prisoner's
+mind, or in the circumstances, he issued his warrant for the execution.
+Accordingly, as the sun went down, the sad procession formed within the
+prison. Into the great square of Tucuman it moved, where the scaffold
+had been built, and the whole city had assembled for the spectacle.
+Catalina steadily ascended the ladder of the scaffold; even then she
+resolved not to benefit by revealing her sex; even then it was that she
+expressed her scorn for the lubberly executioner's mode of tying a knot;
+did it herself in a 'ship-shape,' orthodox manner; received in return
+the enthusiastic plaudits of the crowd, and so far ran the risk of
+precipitating her fate; for the timid magistrates, fearing a rescue from
+the impetuous mob, angrily ordered the executioner to finish the scene.
+The clatter of a galloping horse, however, at this instant forced them
+to pause. The crowd opened a road for the agitated horseman, who was
+the bearer of an order from the President of La Plata to suspend the
+execution until two prisoners could be examined. The whole was the
+work of the Senora and her daughter. The elder lady, having gathered
+informations against the witnesses, had pursued them to La Plata. There,
+by her influence with the Governor, they were arrested; recognised as
+old malefactors; and in their terror had partly confessed their perjury.
+Catalina was removed to La Plata; solemnly acquitted; and, by the advice
+of the President, for the present the connection with the Senora's
+family was postponed indefinitely.
+
+Now was the last adventure approaching that ever Catalina should see in
+the new world. Some fine sights she may yet see in Europe, but nothing
+after this (_which she has recorded_) in America. Europe, if it had
+ever heard of her name (which very shortly it _shall_), Kings, Pope,
+Cardinals, if they were but aware of her existence (which in six months
+they _shall_ be), would thirst for an introduction to our Catalina.
+You hardly thought now, reader, that she was such a great person, or
+anybody's pet but yours and mine. Bless you, Sir, she would scorn to
+look at _us_. I tell you, royalties are languishing to see her, or soon
+_will_ be. But how can this come to pass, if she is to continue in her
+present obscurity? Certainly it cannot without some great _peripetteia_
+or vertiginous whirl of fortune; which, therefore, you shall now behold
+taking place in one turn of her next adventure. _That_ shall let in
+a light, _that_ shall throw back a Claude Lorraine gleam over all
+the past, able to make Kings, that would have cared not for her under
+Peruvian daylight, come to glorify her setting beams.
+
+The Senora--and, observe, whatever kindness she does to Catalina speaks
+secretly from two hearts, her own and Juana's--had, by the advice of
+Mr. President Mendonia, given sufficient money for Catalina's travelling
+expenses. So far well. But Mr. M. chose to add a little codicil to this
+bequest of the Senora's, never suggested by her or by her daughter.
+'Pray,' said this inquisitive President, who surely might have found
+business enough in La Plata, 'Pray, Senor Pietro Diaz, did you ever live
+at Concepcion? And were you ever acquainted there with Senor Miguel de
+Erauso? That man, Sir, was my friend.' What a pity that on this occasion
+Catalina could not venture to be candid! What a capital speech it
+would have made to say--'_Friend_ were you? I think you could hardly
+be _that_, with seven hundred miles between you. But that man was _my_
+friend also; and, secondly, my brother. True it is I killed him. But if
+you happen to know that this was by pure mistake in the dark, what
+an old rogue you must be to throw _that_ in my teeth, which is the
+affliction of my life!' Again, however, as so often in the same
+circumstances, Catalina thought that it would cause more ruin than it
+could heal to be candid; and, indeed, if she were really _P. Diaz, Esq.
+_, how came she to be brother to the late Mr. Erauso? On consideration,
+also, if she could not tell _all_, merely to have professed a fraternal
+connection which never was avowed by either whilst living together,
+would not have brightened the reputation of Catalina, which too surely
+required a scouring. Still, from my kindness for poor Kate, I feel
+uncharitably towards the president for advising Senor Pietro 'to travel
+for his health.' What had _he_ to do with people's health? However, Mr.
+Peter, as he had pocketed the Senora's money, thought it right to pocket
+also the advice that accompanied its payment. That he might be in a
+condition to do so, he went off to buy a horse. He was in luck to-day.
+For beside money and advice, he obtained, at a low rate, a horse both
+beautiful and serviceable for a journey. To Paz it was, a city of
+prosperous name, that the cornet first moved. But Paz did not fulfil the
+promise of its name. For it laid the grounds of a feud that drove our
+Kate out of America.
+
+Her first adventure was a bagatelle, and fitter for a jest-book than a
+history; yet it proved no jest either, since it led to the tragedy that
+followed. Riding into Paz, our gallant standard-bearer and her bonny
+black horse drew all eyes, _comme de raison_, upon their separate
+charms. This was inevitable amongst the indolent population of a Spanish
+town; and Kate was used to it. But, having recently had a little too
+much of the public attention, she felt nervous on remarking two soldiers
+eyeing the handsome horse and the handsome rider, with an attention that
+seemed too solemn for mere _aesthetics_. However, Kate was not the kind
+of person to let anything dwell on her spirits, especially if it
+took the shape of impudence; and, whistling gaily, she was riding
+forward--when, who should cross her path but the Alcalde! Ah! Alcalde,
+you see a person now that has a mission against you, though quite
+unknown to herself. He looked so sternly, that Kate asked if his worship
+had any commands. 'These men,' said the Alcalde, 'these two soldiers,
+say that this horse is stolen.' To one who had so narrowly and so lately
+escaped the balcony witness and his friend, it was really no laughing
+matter to hear of new affidavits in preparation. Kate was nervous, but
+never disconcerted. In a moment she had twitched off a saddle-cloth on
+which she sat; and throwing it over the horse's head, so as to cover up
+all between the ears and the mouth, she replied, 'that she had bought
+and paid for the horse at La Plata. But now, your worship, if this horse
+has really been stolen from these men, they must know well of which eye
+it is blind; for it _can_ be only in the right eye or the left.' One
+of the soldiers cried out instantly, that it was the left eye; but
+the other said, 'No, no, you forget, it's the right.' Kate maliciously
+called attention to this little schism. But the men said, 'Ah, _that_
+was nothing--they were hurried; but now, on recollecting themselves,
+they were agreed that it was the left eye.' Did they stand to that? 'Oh
+yes, positive they were, left eye, left.'
+
+Upon which our Kate, twitching off the horse-cloth, said gaily to the
+magistrate, 'Now, Sir, please to observe that this horse has nothing
+the matter with either eye.' And in fact it _was_ so. Then his worship
+ordered his alguazils to apprehend the two witnesses, who posted off to
+bread and water, with other reversionary advantages, whilst Kate rode in
+quest of the best dinner that Paz could furnish.
+
+This Alcalde's acquaintance, however, was not destined to drop here.
+Something had appeared in the young _caballero's_ bearing, which made
+it painful to have addressed him with harshness, or for a moment to
+have entertained such a charge against such a person. He despatched his
+cousin, therefore, Don Antonio Calderon, to offer his apologies, and at
+the same time to request that the stranger, whose rank and quality he
+regretted not to have known, would do him the honor to come and dine
+with him. This explanation, and the fact that Don Antonio had already
+proclaimed his own position as cousin to the magistrate and nephew
+to the Bishop of Cuzco, obliged Catalina to say, after thanking the
+gentlemen for their obliging attentions, 'I myself hold the rank of
+Alferez in the service of his Catholic Majesty. I am a native of Biscay,
+and I am now repairing to Cuzco on private business.' 'To Cuzco!'
+exclaimed Don Antonio, 'how very fortunate! My cousin is a Basque like
+you; and, like you, he starts for Cuzco to-morrow morning; so that, if
+it is agreeable to you, Senor Alferez, we will travel together.' It was
+settled that they should. To travel--amongst 'balcony witnesses,' and
+anglers for 'blind horses'--not merely with a just man, but with the
+very abstract idea and riding allegory of justice, was too delightful to
+the storm-wearied cornet; and he cheerfully accompanied Don Antonio
+to the house of the magistrate, called Don Pedro de Chavarria.
+Distinguished was his reception; the Alcalde personally renewed his
+regrets for the ridiculous scene of the two scampish oculists, and
+presented him to his wife, a splendid Andalusian beauty, to whom he had
+been married about a year.
+
+This lady there is a reason for describing; and the French reporter
+of Catalina's memoirs dwells upon the theme. She united, he says,
+the sweetness of the German lady with the energy of the Arabian, a
+combination hard to judge of. As to her feet, he adds, I say nothing;
+for she had scarcely any at all. '_Je ne parle point de ses pieds, elle
+n'en avait presque pas_.' 'Poor lady!' says a compassionate rustic: 'no
+feet! What a shocking thing that so fine a woman should have been so
+sadly mutilated!' Oh, my dear rustic, you're quite in the wrong box. The
+Frenchman means this as the very highest compliment. Beautiful, however,
+she must have been; and a Cinderella, I hope, not a Cinderellula,
+considering that she had the inimitable walk and step of the
+Andalusians, which cannot be accomplished without something of a
+proportionate basis to stand upon.
+
+The reason which there is (as I have said) for describing this lady,
+arises out of her relation to the tragic events which followed. She,
+by her criminal levity, was the cause of all. And I must here warn the
+moralizing blunderer of two errors that he is too likely to make: 1st,
+That he is invited to read some extract from a licentious amour, as if
+for its own interest; 2d, Or on account of Donna Catalina's memoirs,
+with a view to relieve their too martial character. I have the pleasure
+to assure him of his being so utterly in the darkness of error, that any
+possible change he can make in his opinions, right or left, must be
+for the better: he cannot stir, but he will mend, which is a delightful
+thought for the moral and blundering mind. As to the first point,
+what little glimpse he obtains of a licentious amour is, as a court
+of justice will sometimes show him such a glimpse, simply to make
+intelligible the subsequent facts which depend upon it. Secondly, As to
+the conceit, that Catalina wished to embellish her memoirs, understand
+that no such practice then existed; certainly not in Spanish literature.
+Her memoirs are electrifying by their facts; else, in the manner of
+telling these facts, they are systematically dry.
+
+Don Antonio Calderon was a handsome, accomplished cavalier. And in the
+course of dinner, Catalina was led to judge, from the behavior to each
+other of this gentleman and the lady, the Alcalde's beautiful wife,
+that they had an improper understanding. This also she inferred from the
+furtive language of their eyes. Her wonder was, that the Alcalde should
+be so blind; though upon that point she saw reason in a day or two
+to change her opinion. Some people see everything by affecting to see
+nothing. The whole affair, however, was nothing at all to _her_, and
+she would have dismissed it from her thoughts altogether, but for what
+happened on the journey.
+
+From the miserable roads, eight hours a day of travelling was found
+quite enough for man and beast; the product of which eight hours was
+from ten to twelve leagues. On the last day but one of the journey, the
+travelling party, which was precisely the original dinner party, reached
+a little town ten leagues short of Cuzco. The Corregidor of this place
+was a friend of the Alcalde; and through _his_ influence the party
+obtained better accommodations than those which they had usually had in
+a hovel calling itself a _venta_, or in the sheltered corner of a
+barn. The Alcalde was to sleep at the Corregidor's house; the two young
+cavaliers, Calderon and our Kate, had sleeping rooms at the public
+_locanda_; but for the lady was reserved a little pleasure-house in an
+enclosed garden. This was a plaything of a house; but the season
+being summer, and the house surrounded with tropical flowers, the lady
+preferred it (in spite of its loneliness) to the damp mansion of the
+official grandee, who, in her humble opinion, was quite as fusty as his
+mansion, and his mansion not much less so than himself.
+
+After dining gaily together at the _locanda_, and possibly taking a
+'rise' out of his worship the Corregidor, as a repeating echo of Don
+Quixote, (then growing popular in Spanish America,) the young man
+who was no young officer, and the young officer who was no young man,
+lounged down together to the little pavilion in the flower-garden, with
+the purpose of paying their respects to the presiding belle. They were
+graciously received, and had the honor of meeting there his Mustiness
+the Alcalde, and his Fustiness the Corregidor; whose conversation was
+surely improving, but not equally brilliant. How they got on under the
+weight of two such muffs, has been a mystery for two centuries. But they
+_did_ to a certainty, for the party did not break up till eleven. _Tea
+and turn out_ you could not call it; for there was the _turn out_ in
+rigor, but not the _tea_. One thing, however, Catalina by mere accident
+had an opportunity of observing, and observed with pain. The two
+official gentlemen had gone down the steps into the garden. Catalina,
+having forgot her hat, went back into the little vestibule to look for
+it. There stood the lady and Don Antonio, exchanging a few final
+words (they _were_ final) and a few final signs. Amongst the last
+Kate observed distinctly this, and distinctly she understood it. First
+drawing Calderon's attention to the gesture, as one of significant
+pantomime, by raising her forefinger, the lady snuffed out one of the
+candles. The young man answered it by a look of intelligence, and all
+three passed down the steps together. The lady was disposed to take the
+cool air, and accompanied them to the garden-gate; but, in passing down
+the walk, Catalina noticed a second ill-omened sign that all was not
+right. Two glaring eyes she distinguished amongst the shrubs for a
+moment, and a rustling immediately after. 'What's that?' said the lady,
+and Don Antonio answered carelessly, 'A bird flying out of the bushes.'
+
+Catalina, as usual, had read everything. Not a wrinkle or a rustle was
+lost upon _her_. And, therefore, when she reached the _locanda_, knowing
+to an iota all that was coming, she did not retire to bed, but paced
+before the house. She had not long to wait: in fifteen minutes the door
+opened softly, and out stepped Calderon. Kate walked forward, and faced
+him immediately; telling him laughingly that it was not good for his
+health to go abroad on this night. The young man showed some impatience;
+upon which, very seriously, Kate acquainted him with her suspicions, and
+with the certainty that the Alcalde was not so blind as he had seemed.
+Calderon thanked her for the information; would be upon his guard; but,
+to prevent further expostulation, he wheeled round instantly into the
+darkness. Catalina was too well convinced, however, of the mischief on
+foot, to leave him thus. She followed rapidly, and passed silently
+into the garden, almost at the same time with Calderon. Both took
+their stations behind trees; Calderon watching nothing but the burning
+candles, Catalina watching circumstances to direct her movements.
+The candles burned brightly in the little pavilion. Presently one was
+extinguished. Upon this, Calderon pressed forward to the steps, hastily
+ascended them, and passed into the vestibule. Catalina followed on his
+traces. What succeeded was all one scene of continued, dreadful dumb
+show; different passions of panic, or deadly struggle, or hellish malice
+absolutely suffocated all articulate words.
+
+In a moment a gurgling sound was heard, as of a wild beast attempting
+vainly to yell over some creature that it was strangling. Next came a
+tumbling out at the door of one black mass, which heaved and parted at
+intervals into two figures, which closed, which parted again, which at
+last fell down the steps together. Then appeared a figure in white. It
+was the unhappy Andalusian; and she seeing the outline of Catalina's
+person, ran up to her, unable to utter one syllable. Pitying the agony
+of her horror, Catalina took her within her own cloak, and carried her
+out at the garden gate. Calderon had by this time died; and the maniacal
+Alcalde had risen up to pursue his wife. But Kate, foreseeing what he
+would do, had stepped silently within the shadow of the garden wall.
+Looking down the road to the town, and seeing nobody moving, the maniac,
+for some purpose, went back to the house. This moment Kate used to
+recover the _locanda_ with the lady still panting in horror. What was
+to be done? To think of concealment in this little place was out of the
+question. The Alcalde was a man of local power, and it was certain that
+he would kill his wife on the spot. Kate's generosity would not allow
+her to have any collusion with this murderous purpose. At Cuzco, the
+principal convent was ruled by a near relative of the Andalusian;
+and there she would find shelter. Kate, therefore, saddled her horse
+rapidly, placed the lady behind, and rode off in the darkness. About
+five miles out of the town their road was crossed by a torrent, over
+which they could not hit the bridge. 'Forward!' cried the lady; and Kate
+repeating the word to the horse, the docile creature leaped down into
+the water. They were all sinking at first; but having its head free,
+the horse swam clear of all obstacles through the midnight darkness, and
+scrambled out on the opposite bank. The two riders were dripping from
+the shoulders downward. But, seeing a light twinkling from a cottage
+window, Kate rode up; obtained a little refreshment, and the benefit of
+a fire, from a poor laboring man. From this man she also bought a warm
+mantle for the lady, who, besides her torrent bath, was dressed in a
+light evening robe, so that but for the horseman's cloak of Kate she
+would have perished. But there was no time to lose. They had already
+lost two hours from the consequences of their cold bath. Cuzco was
+still eighteen miles distant; and the Alcalde's shrewdness would at once
+divine this to be his wife's mark. They remounted: very soon the silent
+night echoed the hoofs of a pursuing rider; and now commenced the most
+frantic race, in which each party rode as if the whole game of life were
+staked upon the issue. The pace was killing: and Kate has delivered it
+as her opinion, in the memoirs which she wrote, that the Alcalde was the
+better mounted. This may be doubted. And certainly Kate had ridden too
+many years in the Spanish cavalry to have any fear of his worship's
+horsemanship; but it was a prodigious disadvantage that _her_ horse had
+to carry double; while the horse ridden by her opponent was one of those
+belonging to the murdered Don Antonio, and known to Kate as a powerful
+animal. At length they had come within three miles at Cuzco. The road
+after this descended the whole way to the city, and in some places
+rapidly, so as to require a cool rider. Suddenly a deep trench appeared
+traversing the whole extent of a broad heath. It was useless to evade
+it. To have hesitated was to be lost. Kate saw the necessity of clearing
+it, but doubted much whether her poor exhausted horse, after twenty-one
+miles of work so severe, had strength for the effort. Kate's maxim,
+however, which never yet had failed, both figuratively for life, and
+literally for the saddle, was--to ride at everything that showed a front
+of resistance. She did so now. Having come upon the trench rather too
+suddenly, she wheeled round for the advantage of coming down upon it
+more determinately, rode resolutely at it, and gained the opposite bank.
+The hind feet of her horse were sinking back from the rottenness of
+the ground; but the strong supporting bridle-hand of Kate carried him
+forward; and in ten minutes more they would be in Cuzco. This being
+seen by the vicious Alcalde, who had built great hopes on the trench,
+he unslung his carbine, pulled up, and fired after the bonny black
+horse and its bonny fair riders. But this manoeuvre would have lost
+his worship any bet that he might have had depending on this admirable
+steeple-chase. Had I been stakeholder, what a pleasure it would have
+been, in fifteen minutes from this very vicious shot, to pay into
+Kate's hands every shilling of the deposits. I would have listened to
+no nonsense about referees or protests. The bullets, says Kate, whistled
+round the poor clinging lady _en croupe_--luckily none struck her;
+but one wounded the horse. And that settled the odds. Kate now planted
+herself well in her stirrups to enter Cuzco, almost dangerously a
+winner; for the horse was so maddened by the wound, and the road so
+steep, that he went like blazes; and it really became difficult for
+Kate to guide him with any precision through narrow episcopal paths.
+Henceforwards the wounded horse required Kate's continued attention; and
+yet, in the mere luxury of strife, it was impossible for Kate to avoid
+turning a little in her saddle to see the Alcalde's performance on
+this tight rope of the trench. His worship's horsemanship being perhaps
+rather rusty, and he not perfectly acquainted with his horse, it
+would have been agreeable to compromise the case by riding round, or
+dismounting. But all _that_ was impossible. The job must be done. And I
+am happy to report, for the reader's satisfaction, the sequel--so far
+as Kate could attend the performance. Gathering himself up for mischief,
+the Alcalde took a sweep, as if ploughing out the line of some vast
+encampment, or tracing the _pomaerium_ for some future Rome; then, like
+thunder and lightning, with arms flying aloft in the air, down he came
+upon the trembling trench.
+
+But the horse refused the leap; and, as the only compromise that _his_
+unlearned brain could suggest, he threw his worship right over his ears,
+lodging him safely in a sand-heap that rose with clouds of dust and
+screams of birds into the morning air. Kate had now no time to send back
+her compliments in a musical halloo. The Alcalde missed breaking his
+neck on this occasion very narrowly; but his neck was of no use to him
+in twenty minutes more, as the reader will soon find. Kate rode right
+onwards; and, coming in with a lady behind her, horse bloody, and pace
+such as no hounds could have lived with, she ought to have made a great
+sensation in Cuzco. But, unhappily, the people were all in bed.
+
+The steeple-chase into Cuzco had been a fine headlong thing, considering
+the torrent, the trench, the wounded horse, the lovely lady, with her
+agonizing fears, mounted behind Kate, together with the meek dove-like
+dawn: but the finale crowded together the quickest succession of changes
+that out of a melodrama can ever have been witnessed. Kate reached the
+convent in safety; carried into the cloisters, and delivered like a
+parcel the fair Andalusian. But to rouse the servants caused delay; and
+on returning to the street through the broad gateway of the convent,
+whom should she face but the Alcalde! How he escaped the trench, who can
+tell? He had no time to write memoirs; his horse was too illiterate. But
+he _had_ escaped; temper not at all improved by that adventure, and now
+raised to a hell of malignity by seeing that he had lost his prey. In
+the morning light he now saw how to use his sword. He attacked Kate with
+fury. Both were exhausted; and Kate, besides that she had no personal
+quarrel with the Alcalde, having now accomplished her sole object
+in saving the lady, would have been glad of a truce. She could with
+difficulty wield her sword: and the Alcalde had so far the advantage,
+that he wounded Kate severely. That roused her ancient blood. She turned
+on him now with determination. At that moment in rode two servants of
+the Alcalde, who took part with their master. These odds strengthened
+Kate's resolution, but weakened her chances. Just then, however, rode
+in, and ranged himself on Kate's side, the servant of the murdered Don
+Calderon. In an instant, Kate had pushed her sword through the Alcalde,
+who died upon the spot. In an instant the servant of Calderon had fled.
+In an instant the Alguazils had come up. They and the servants of the
+Alcalde pressed furiously on Kate, who now again was fighting for life.
+Against such odds, she was rapidly losing ground; when, in an instant,
+on the opposite side of the street, the great gates of the Episcopal
+palace rolled open. Thither it was that Calderon's servant had fled. The
+bishop and his attendants hurried across. 'Senor Caballador,' said
+the bishop, 'in the name of the Virgin, I enjoin you to surrender your
+sword.' 'My lord,' said Kate, 'I dare not do it with so many enemies
+about me.' 'But I,' replied the bishop, 'become answerable to the law
+for your safe keeping.' Upon which, with filial reverence, all parties
+dropped their swords. Kate being severely wounded, the bishop led her
+into his palace. In an instant came the catastrophe; Kate's discovery
+could no longer be delayed; the blood flowed too rapidly; the wound was
+in her bosom. She requested a private interview with the bishop; all was
+known in a moment; for surgeons and attendants were summoned hastily,
+and Kate had fainted. The good bishop pitied her, and had her attended
+in his palace; then removed to a convent; then to a second at Lima; and,
+after many months had passed, his report to the Spanish Government at
+home of all the particulars, drew from the King of Spain and from the
+Pope an order that the Nun should be transferred to Spain.
+
+Yes, at length the warrior lady, the blooming cornet, this nun that is
+so martial, this dragoon that is so lovely, must visit again the home
+of her childhood, which now for seventeen years she has not seen. All
+Spain, Portugal, Italy, rang with her adventures. Spain, from north to
+south, was frantic with desire to behold her fiery child, whose girlish
+romance, whose patriotic heroism electrified the national imagination.
+The King of Spain must kiss his _faithful_ daughter, that would not
+suffer his banner to see dishonor. The Pope must kiss his _wandering_
+daughter, that henceforwards will be a lamb travelling back into the
+Christian fold. Potentates so great as these, when _they_ speak words
+of love, do not speak in vain. All was forgiven; the sacrilege, the
+bloodshed, the flight and the scorn of St. Peter's keys; the pardons
+were made out, were signed, were sealed, and the chanceries of earth
+were satisfied.
+
+Ah! what a day of sorrow and of joy was _that_ one day, in the first
+week of November, 1624, when the returning Kate drew near to the shore
+of Andalusia--when, descending into the ship's barge, she was rowed to
+the piers of Cadiz by bargemen in the royal liveries--when she saw every
+ship, street, house, convent, church, crowded, like a day of judgment,
+with human faces, with men, with women, with children, all bending
+the lights of their flashing and their loving eyes upon herself. Forty
+myriads of people had gathered in Cadiz alone. All Andalusia had turned
+out to receive her. Ah! what joy, if she had not looked back to the
+Andes, to their dreadful summits, and their more dreadful feet. Ah! what
+sorrow, if she had not been forced by music, and endless banners, and
+triumphant clamors, to turn away from the Andes to the joyous shore
+which she approached!
+
+Upon this shore stood, ready to receive her, in front of all this mighty
+crowd, the Prime Minister of Spain, the same Conde Olivarez, who but
+one year before had been so haughty and so defying to our haughty and
+defying Duke of Buckingham. But a year ago the Prince of Wales was in
+Spain, and he also was welcomed with triumph and great joy, but not with
+the hundredth part of that enthusiasm which now met the returning nun.
+And Olivarez, that had spoken so roughly to the English Duke, to
+_her_ 'was sweet as summer.' [Footnote: Griffith in Shakspeare, when
+vindicating, in that immortal scene with Queen Catherine, Cardinal
+Wolsey.] Through endless crowds of festive compatriots he conducted
+her to the King. The King folded her in his arms, and could never be
+satisfied with listening to her. He sent for her continually to his
+presence--he delighted in her conversation, so new, so natural, so
+spirited--he settled a pension upon her at that time, of unprecedented
+amount, in the case of a subaltern officer; and by _his_ desire, because
+the year 1625 was a year of jubilee, she departed in a few months
+from Madrid to Rome. She went through Barcelona; there and everywhere
+welcomed as the lady whom the King delighted to honor. She travelled to
+Rome, and all doors flew open to receive her. She was presented to his
+Holiness, with letters from his most Catholic majesty. But letters there
+needed none. The Pope admired her as much as all before had done. He
+caused her to recite all her adventures; and what he loved most in her
+account, was the sincere and sorrowing spirit in which she described
+herself as neither better nor worse than she had been. Neither proud
+was Kate, nor sycophantishly and falsely humble. Urban VIII. it was
+that then filled the chair of St. Peter. He did not neglect to raise
+his daughter's thoughts from earthly things--he pointed her eyes to the
+clouds that were above the dome of St. Peter's cathedral--he told her
+what the cathedral had told her in the gorgeous clouds of the Andes
+and the vesper lights, how sweet a thing, how divine a thing it was for
+Christ's sake to forgive all injuries, and how he trusted that no more
+she would think of bloodshed. He also said two words to her in Latin,
+which, if I had time to repeat a Spanish bishop's remark to Kate some
+time afterwards upon those two mysterious words, with Kate's most
+natural and ingenuous answer to the Bishop upon what she supposed to
+be their meaning, would make the reader smile not less than they made
+myself. You know that Kate _did_ understand a little Latin, which,
+probably, had not been much improved by riding in the Light Dragoons. I
+must find time, however, whether the press and the compositors are in a
+fury or not, to mention that the Pope, in his farewell audience to his
+dear daughter, whom he was to see no more, gave her a general license
+to wear henceforth in all countries--even _in partibus Infidelium_--a
+cavalry officer's dress--boots, spurs, sabre, and sabretache; in fact,
+anything that she and the Horse Guards might agree upon. Consequently,
+reader, remember for your life never to say one word, nor suffer any
+tailor to say one word, against those Wellington trousers made in the
+chestnut forest; for, understand that the Papal indulgence, as to this
+point, runs backwards as well as forwards; it is equally shocking and
+heretical to murmur against trousers in the forgotten rear or against
+trousers yet to come.
+
+From Rome, Kate returned to Spain. She even went to St. Sebastian's--to
+the city, but--whether it was that her heart failed her or not--never
+to the convent. She roamed up and down; everywhere she was
+welcome--everywhere an honored guest; but everywhere restless. The poor
+and humble never ceased from their admiration of her; and amongst the
+rich and aristocratic of Spain, with the King at their head, Kate found
+especial love from two classes of men. The Cardinals and Bishops all
+doated upon her--as their daughter that was returning. The military men
+all doated upon her--as their sister that was retiring.
+
+Some time or other, when I am allowed more elbow-room, I will tell you
+why it is that I myself love this Kate. Now, at this moment, when it
+is necessary for me to close, if I allow you one question before laying
+down my pen--if I say, 'Come now, be quick, ask anything you _have_
+to ask, for, in one minute, I am going to write _Finis_, after which
+(unless the Queen wished it) I could not add a syllable'--twenty to
+one, I guess what your question will be. You will ask me, What became of
+Kate? What was her end?
+
+Ah, reader! but, if I answer that question, you will say I have _not_
+answered it. If I tell you that secret, you will say that the secret
+is still hidden. Yet, because I have promised, and because you will be
+angry if I do not, let me do my best; and bad is the best. After ten
+years of restlessness in Spain, with thoughts always turning back to the
+Andes, Kate heard of an expedition on the point of sailing to Spanish
+America. All soldiers knew _her_, so that she had information of
+everything that stirred in camps. Men of the highest military rank were
+going out with the expedition; but they all loved Kate as a sister, and
+were delighted to hear that she would join their mess on board ship.
+This ship, with others, sailed, whither finally bound, I really forget.
+But, on reaching America, all the expedition touched at _Vera Cruz_.
+Thither a great crowd of the military went on shore. The leading
+officers made a separate party for the same purpose. Their intention
+was, to have a gay happy dinner, after their long confinement to a ship,
+at the chief hotel; and happy in perfection it could not be, unless Kate
+would consent to join it. She, that was ever kind to brother soldiers,
+agreed to do so. She descended into the boat along with them, and in
+twenty minutes the boat touched the shore. All the bevy of gay laughing
+officers, junior and senior, like schoolboys escaping from school,
+jumped on shore, and walked hastily, as their time was limited, up to
+the hotel. Arriving there, all turned round in eagerness, saying, 'Where
+is our dear Kate?' Ah, yes, my dear Kate, at that solemn moment, where,
+indeed, were _you_? She had _certainly_ taken her seat in the boat: that
+was sure. Nobody, in the general confusion, was certain of having seen
+her on coming ashore. The sea was searched for her--the forests were
+ransacked. The sea made no answer--the forests gave up no sign. I have
+a conjecture of my own; but her brother soldiers were lost in sorrow and
+confusion, and could never arrive even at a conjecture.
+
+That happened two hundred and fourteen years ago! Here is the brief sum
+of all:--This nun sailed from Spain to Peru, and she found no rest for
+the sole of her foot. This nun sailed back from Peru to Spain, and she
+found no rest for the agitations of her heart. This nun sailed again
+from Spain to America, and she found--the rest which all of us find. But
+where it was, could never be made known to the father of Spanish camps,
+that sat in Madrid; nor to Kate's spiritual father, that sat in Rome.
+Known it is to the great Father that once whispered to Kate on the
+Andes; but else it has been a secret for two centuries; and to man it
+remains a secret for ever and ever!
+
+
+
+
+FLIGHT OF A TARTAR TRIBE.
+
+
+There is no great event in modern history, or perhaps it may be said
+more broadly, none in all history, from its earliest records, less
+generally known, or more striking to the imagination, than the flight
+eastwards of a principal Tartar nation across the boundless _steppes_
+of Asia in the latter half of the last century. The _terminus a quo_ of
+this flight, and the _terminus ad quem_, are equally magnificent; the
+mightiest of Christian thrones being the one, the mightiest of Pagan the
+other. And the grandeur of these two terminal objects, is harmoniously
+supported by the romantic circumstances of the flight. In the abruptness
+of its commencement, and the fierce velocity of its execution, we read
+an expression of the wild barbaric character of the agents. In the
+unity of purpose connecting this myriad of wills, and in the blind but
+unerring aim at a mark so remote, there is something which recalls to
+the mind those Almighty instincts that propel the migrations of the
+swallow, or the life-withering marches of the locust. Then again, in the
+gloomy vengeance of Russia and her vast artillery, which hung upon the
+rear and the skirts of the fugitive vassals, we are reminded of Miltonic
+images--such, for instance, as that of the solitary hand pursuing
+through desert spaces and through ancient chaos a rebellious host, and
+overtaking with volleying thunders those who believed themselves already
+within the security of darkness and of distance.
+
+We shall have occasion farther on to compare this event with other great
+national catastrophes as to the magnitude of the suffering. But it may
+also challenge a comparison with similar events under another relation,
+viz., as to its dramatic capabilities. Few cases, perhaps, in romance or
+history, can sustain a close collation with this as to the complexity
+of its separate interests. The great outline of the enterprise, taken
+in connection with the operative motives, hidden or avowed, and the
+religious sanctions under which it was pursued, give to the case a
+triple character: 1st, That of a conspiracy, with as close a unity
+in the incidents, and as much of a personal interest in the moving
+characters, with fine dramatic contrasts, as belongs to Venice
+Preserved, or to the Fiesco of Schiller. 2dly, That of a great military
+expedition offering the same romantic features of vast distances to
+be traversed, vast reverses to be sustained, untried routes, enemies
+obscurely ascertained, and hardships too vaguely prefigured, which mark
+the Egyptian expedition of Cambyses--the anabasis of the younger Cyrus,
+and the subsequent retreat of the ten thousand to the Black Sea--the
+Parthian expeditions of the Romans, especially those of Crassus and
+Julian--or (as more disastrous than any of them, and in point of space
+as well as in amount of forces, more extensive,) the Russian anabasis
+and katabasis of Napoleon. 3dly, That of a religious Exodus, authorized
+by an oracle venerated throughout many nations of Asia, an Exodus,
+therefore, in so far resembling the great Scriptural Exodus of the
+Israelites, under Moses and Joshua, as well as in the very peculiar
+distinction of carrying along with them their entire families, women,
+children, slaves, their herds of cattle and of sheep, their horses and
+their camels.
+
+This triple character of the enterprise naturally invests it with a more
+comprehensive interest. But the dramatic interest, which we ascribed to
+it, or its fitness for a stage representation, depends partly upon the
+marked variety and the strength of the personal agencies concerned, and
+partly upon the succession of scenical situations. Even the _steppes_,
+the camels, the tents, the snowy and the sandy deserts, are not beyond
+the scale of our modern representative powers, as often called into
+action in the theatres both of Paris and London; and the series of
+situations unfolded, beginning with the general conflagration on the
+Wolga--passing thence to the disastrous scenes of the flight (as it
+literally was in its commencement)--to the Tartar siege of the Russian
+fortress Koulagina--the bloody engagement with the Cossacks in the
+mountain passes at Ouchim--the surprisal by the Bashkirs and the
+advanced posts of the Russian army at Torgau--the private conspiracy at
+this point against the Khan--the long succession of running fights--the
+parting massacres at the lake of Tengis under the eyes of the
+Chinese--and finally, the tragical retribution to Zebek-Dorchi at the
+hunting-lodge of the Chinese emperor;--all these situations communicate
+a _scenical_ animation to the wild romance, if treated dramatically;
+whilst a higher and a philosophic interest belongs to it as a case of
+authentic history, commemorating a great revolution for good and for
+evil, in the fortunes of a whole people--a people semi-barbarous, but
+simple-hearted, and of ancient descent.
+
+On the 2lst of January, 1761, the young Prince Oubacha assumed the
+sceptre of the Kalmucks upon the death of his father. Some part of
+the power attached to this dignity he had already wielded since his
+fourteenth year, in quality of Vice-Khan, by the express appointment,
+and with the avowed support of the Russian Government. He was now
+about eighteen years of age, amiable in his personal character, and not
+without titles to respect in his public character as a sovereign prince.
+In times more peaceable, and amongst a people more entirely civilized,
+or more humanized by religion, it is even probable that he might have
+discharged his high duties with considerable distinction. But his
+lot was thrown upon stormy times, and a most difficult crisis amongst
+tribes, whose native ferocity was exasperated by debasing forms of
+superstition, and by a nationality as well as an inflated conceit of
+their own merit absolutely unparalleled, whilst the circumstances of
+their hard and trying position under the jealous _surveillance_ of an
+irresistible lord paramount, in the person of the Russian Czar, gave a
+fiercer edge to the natural unamiableness of the Kalmuck disposition,
+and irritated its gloomier qualities into action under the restless
+impulses of suspicion and permanent distrust. No prince could hope for
+a cordial allegiance from his subjects, or a peaceful reign under the
+circumstances of the case; for the dilemma in which a Kalmuck ruler
+stood at present was of this nature; _wanting_ the sanction and
+support of the Czar, he was inevitably too weak from without to command
+confidence from his subjects, or resistance to his competitors: on the
+other hand, _with_ this kind of support, and deriving his title in any
+degree from the favor of the Imperial Court, he became almost in that
+extent an object of hatred at home, and within the whole compass of his
+own territory. He was at once an object of hatred for the past, being a
+living monument of national independence, ignominiously surrendered, and
+an object of jealousy for the future, as one who had already advertised
+himself to be a fitting tool for the ultimate purposes (whatsoever those
+might prove to be) of the Russian Court. Coming himself to the Kalmuck
+sceptre under the heaviest weight of prejudice from the unfortunate
+circumstances of his position, it might have been expected that Oubacha
+would have been pre-eminently an object of detestation; for besides his
+known dependence upon the Cabinet of St. Petersburg, the direct line
+of succession had been set aside, and the principle of inheritance
+violently suspended, in favor of his own father, so recently as nineteen
+years before the era of his own accession, consequently within the
+lively remembrance of the existing generation. He therefore, almost
+equally with his father, stood within the full current of the national
+prejudices, and might have anticipated the most pointed hostility. But
+it was not so: such are the caprices in human affairs, that he was even,
+in a moderate sense, popular,--a benefit which wore the more cheering
+aspect, and the promises of permanence, inasmuch as he owed it
+exclusively to his personal qualities of kindness and affability, as
+well as to the beneficence of his government. On the other hand, to
+balance this unlooked-for prosperity at the outset of his reign, he met
+with a rival in popular favor--almost a competitor--in the person of
+Zebek-Dorchi, a prince with considerable pretensions to the throne, and,
+perhaps it might be said, with equal pretensions. Zebek-Dorchi was
+a direct descendant of the same royal house as himself, through a
+different branch. On public grounds, his claim stood, perhaps, on
+a footing equally good with that of Oubacha, whilst his personal
+qualities, even in those aspects which seemed to a philosophical
+observer most odious and repulsive, promised the most effectual aid to
+the dark purposes of an intriguer or a conspirator, and were generally
+fitted to win a popular support precisely in those points where
+_Oubacha_ was most defective. He was much superior in external
+appearance to his rival on the throne, and so far better qualified
+to win the good opinion of a semi-barbarous people; whilst his
+dark intellectual qualities of Machiavelian dissimulation, profound
+hypocrisy, and perfidy which knew no touch of remorse, were admirably
+calculated to sustain any ground which he might win from the
+simple-hearted people with whom he had to deal--and from the frank
+carelessness of his unconscious competitor.
+
+At the very outset of his treacherous career, Zebek-Dorchi was sagacious
+enough to perceive that nothing could be gained by open declaration of
+hostility to the reigning prince: the choice had been a deliberate act
+on the part of Russia, and Elizabeth Petrowna was not the person to
+recall her own favors with levity or upon slight grounds. Openly,
+therefore, to have declared his enmity towards his relative on the
+throne, could have had no effect but that of arming suspicions against
+his own ulterior purposes in a quarter where it was most essential to
+his interest that, for the present, all suspicion should be hoodwinked.
+Accordingly, after much meditation, the course he took for opening his
+snares was this:--He raised a rumor that his own life was in danger from
+the plots of several _Saissang_, (that is, Kalmuck nobles,) who were
+leagued together, under an oath to assassinate him; and immediately
+after, assuming a well-counterfeited alarm, he fled to Tcherkask,
+followed by sixty-five tents. From this place he kept up a
+correspondence with the Imperial Court; and, by way of soliciting his
+cause more effectually, he soon repaired in person to St. Petersburg.
+Once admitted to personal conferences with the Cabinet, he found no
+difficulty in winning over the Russian counsels to a concurrence with
+some of his political views, and thus covertly introducing the point of
+that wedge which was finally to accomplish his purposes. In particular,
+he persuaded the Russian Government to make a very important alteration
+in the constitution of the Kalmuck State Council, which in effect
+reorganized the whole political condition of the state, and disturbed
+the balance of power as previously adjusted. Of this Council--in the
+Kalmuck language called _Sarga_--there were eight members, called
+_Sargatchi;_ and hitherto it had been the custom that these eight
+members should be entirely subordinate to the Khan; holding, in fact,
+the ministerial character of secretaries and assistants, but in no
+respect ranking as co-ordinate authorities. That had produced some
+inconveniences in former reigns; and it was easy for Zebek-Dorchi to
+point the jealousy of the Russian Court to others more serious which
+might arise in future circumstances of war or other contingencies.
+It was resolved, therefore, to place the Sargatchi henceforward on
+a footing of perfect independence, and therefore (as regarded
+responsibility) on a footing of equality with the Khan. Their
+independence, however, had respect only to their own sovereign; for
+towards Russia they were placed in a new attitude of direct duty and
+accountability, by the creation in their favor of small pensions (300
+roubles a year), which, however, to a Kalmuck of that day were more
+considerable than might be supposed, and had a further value as marks
+of honorary distinction emanating from a great Empress. Thus far the
+purposes of Zebek-Dorchi were served effectually for the moment:
+but, apparently, it was only for the moment; since, in the further
+development of his plots, this very dependency upon Russian influence
+would be the most serious obstacle in his way. There was, however,
+another point carried which outweighed all inferior considerations, as
+it gave him a power of setting aside discretionally whatsoever should
+arise to disturb his plots: he was himself appointed President and
+Controller of the _Sargatchi_. The Russian Court had been aware of his
+high pretensions by birth, and hoped by this promotion to satisfy the
+ambition which, in some degree, was acknowledged to be a reasonable
+passion for any man occupying his situation.
+
+Having thus completely blindfolded the Cabinet of Russia, Zebek-Dorchi
+proceeded in his new character to fulfil his political mission with
+the Khan of the Kalmucks. So artfully did he prepare the road for his
+favorable reception at the court of this Prince, that he was at once
+and universally welcomed as a public benefactor. The pensions of the
+counsellors were so much additional wealth poured into the Tartar
+exchequer; as to the ties of dependency thus created, experience had
+not yet enlightened these simple tribes as to that result. And that he
+himself should be the chief of these mercenary counsellors, was so far
+from being charged upon Zebek as any offence or any ground of suspicion,
+that his relative the Khan returned him hearty thanks for his services,
+under the belief that he could have accepted this appointment only with
+a view to keep out other and more unwelcome pretenders, who would not
+have had the same motives of consanguinity or friendship for executing
+its duties in a spirit of kindness to the Kalmucks. The first use which
+he made of his new functions about the Khan's person was to attack the
+Court of Russia, by a romantic villany not easy to be credited, for
+those very acts of interference with the council which he himself had
+prompted. This was a dangerous step: but it was indispensable to
+his further advance upon the gloomy path which he had traced out for
+himself. A triple vengeance was what he meditated--1, Upon the Russian
+Cabinet for having undervalued his own pretensions to the throne--2,
+upon his amiable rival for having supplanted him--and 3, upon all those
+of the nobility who had manifested their sense of his weakness by their
+neglect, or their sense of his perfidious character by their suspicions.
+Here was a colossal outline of wickedness; and by one in his situation,
+feeble (as it might seem) for the accomplishment of its humblest parts,
+how was the total edifice to be reared in its comprehensive grandeur?
+He, a worm as he was, could he venture to assail the mighty behemoth of
+Muscovy, the potentate who counted three hundred languages around the
+footsteps of his throne, and from whose 'lion ramp' recoiled alike
+'baptized and infidel'--Christendom on the one side, strong by her
+intellect and her organization, and the `Barbaric East' on the other,
+with her unnumbered numbers? The match was a monstrous one; but in its
+very monstrosity there lay this germ of encouragement, that it could not
+be suspected. The very hopelessness of the scheme grounded his hope, and
+he resolved to execute a vengeance which should involve as it were,
+in the unity of a well-laid tragic fable, all whom he judged to be his
+enemies. That vengeance lay in detaching from the Russian empire the
+whole Kalmuck nation, and breaking up that system of intercourse which
+had thus far been beneficial to both. This last was a consideration
+which moved him but little. True it was that Russia to the Kalmucks had
+secured lands and extensive pasturage; true it was that the Kalmucks
+reciprocally to Russia had furnished a powerful cavalry. But the latter
+loss would be part of his triumph, and the former might be more than
+compensated in other climates under other sovereigns. Here was a scheme
+which, in its final accomplishment, would avenge him bitterly on the
+Czarina, and in the course of its accomplishment might furnish him
+with ample occasions for removing his other enemies. It may be readily
+supposed indeed that he, who could deliberately raise his eyes to the
+Russian autocrat as an antagonist in single duel with himself, was not
+likely to feel much anxiety about Kalmuck enemies of whatever rank. He
+took his resolution, therefore, sternly and irrevocably to effect this
+astonishing translation of an ancient people across the pathless
+deserts of Central Asia, intersected continually by rapid rivers, rarely
+furnished with bridges, and of which the fords were known only to those
+who might think it for their interest to conceal them, through many
+nations inhospitable or hostile; frost and snow around them, (from the
+necessity of commencing their flight in the winter,) famine in their
+front, and the sabre, or even the artillery of an offended and mighty
+empress, hanging upon their rear for thousands of miles. But what was
+to be their final mark, the port of shelter after so fearful a course
+of wandering? Two things were evident: it must be some power at a great
+distance from Russia, so as to make return even in that view hopeless;
+and it must be a power of sufficient rank to ensure them protection from
+any hostile efforts on the part of the Czarina for reclaiming them, or
+for chastising their revolt. Both conditions were united obviously in
+the person of Kien Long, the reigning Emperor of China, who was farther
+recommended to them by his respect for the head of their religion. To
+China, therefore, and as their first rendezvous to the shadow of the
+great Chinese Wall, it was settled by Zebek that they should direct
+their flight.
+
+Next came the question of time; _when_ should the flight commence:--and
+finally, the more delicate question as to the choice of accomplices.
+To extend the knowledge of the conspiracy too far, was to insure
+its betrayal to the Russian Government. Yet at some stage of the
+preparations it was evident that a very extensive confidence must be
+made, because in no other way could the mass of the Kalmuck population
+be persuaded to furnish their families with the requisite equipments
+for so long a migration. This critical step, however, it was resolved to
+defer up to the latest possible moment, and, at all events, to make no
+general communication on the subject until the time of departure should
+be definitely settled. In the meantime, Zebek admitted only three
+persons to his confidence; of whom Oubacha, the reigning prince, was
+almost necessarily one; but him, from his yielding and somewhat feeble
+character, he viewed rather in the light of a tool than as one of his
+active accomplices. Those whom (if anybody) he admitted to an unreserved
+participation in his counsels, were two only, the great _Lama_ among the
+Kalmucks, and his own father-in-law, Erempel, a ruling prince of some
+tribe in the neighborhood of the Caspian sea, recommended to his favor
+not so much by any strength of talent corresponding to the occasion, as
+by his blind devotion to himself, and his passionate anxiety to promote
+the elevation of his daughter and his son-in-law to the throne of a
+sovereign prince. A titular prince Zebek already was: but this dignity,
+without the substantial accompaniment of a sceptre, seemed but an empty
+sound to both of these ambitious rivals. The other accomplice, whose
+name was Loosang-Dchaltzan, and whose rank was that of Lama, or Kalmuck
+pontiff, was a person of far more distinguished pretensions; he had
+something of the same gloomy and terrific pride which marked the
+character of Zebek himself, manifesting also the same energy,
+accompanied by the same unfaltering cruelty, and a natural facility
+of dissimulation even more profound. It was by this man that the other
+question was settled as to the time for giving effect to their designs.
+His own pontifical character had suggested to him, that in order to
+strengthen their influence with the vast mob of simple-minded men whom
+they were to lead into a howling wilderness, after persuading them to
+lay desolate their own ancient hearths, it was indispensable that they
+should be able, in cases of extremity, to plead the express sanction of
+God for their entire enterprise. This could only be done by addressing
+themselves to the great head of their religion, the Dalai-Lama of Tibet.
+Him they easily persuaded to countenance their schemes: and an oracle
+was delivered solemnly at Tibet, to the effect that no ultimate
+prosperity would attend this great Exodus unless it were pursued through
+the years of the _tiger_ and the _hare_. Now, the Kalmuck custom is to
+distinguish their years by attaching to each a denomination taken from
+one of twelve animals, the exact order of succession being absolutely
+fixed, so that the cycle revolves of course through a period of a
+dozen years. Consequently, if the approaching year of the _tiger_ were
+suffered to escape them, in that case the expedition must be delayed for
+twelve years more, within which period, even were no other unfavorable
+changes to arise, it was pretty well foreseen that the Russian
+Government would take the most effectual means for bridling their
+vagrant propensities by a ring fence of forts or military posts; to say
+nothing of the still readier plan for securing their fidelity (a plan
+already talked of in all quarters), by exacting a large body of hostages
+selected from the families of the most influential nobles. On these
+cogent considerations, it was solemnly determined that this terrific
+experiment should be made in the next year of the _tiger_, which
+happened to fall upon the Christian year 1771. With respect to the
+month, there was, unhappily for the Kalmucks, even less latitude
+allowed to their choice than with respect to the year. It was absolutely
+necessary, or it was thought so, that the different divisions of the
+nation, which pastured their flocks on both banks of the Wolga, should
+have the means of effecting an instantaneous junction; because the
+danger of being intercepted by flying columns of the Imperial armies was
+precisely the greatest at the outset. Now, from the want of bridges, or
+sufficient river craft for transporting so vast a body of men, the sole
+means which could be depended upon (especially where so many women,
+children, and camels were concerned,) was _ice_: and this, in a state
+of sufficient firmness, could not be absolutely counted upon before the
+month of January. Hence it happened that this astonishing Exodus of a
+whole nation, before so much as a whisper of the design had begun to
+circulate amongst those whom it most interested, before it was even
+suspected that any man's wishes pointed in that direction, had been
+definitively appointed for January of the year 1771. And almost up
+to the Christmas of 1770, the poor simple Kalmuck herdsmen and their
+families were going nightly to their peaceful beds without even dreaming
+that the _fiat_ had already gone forth from their rulers which consigned
+those quiet abodes, together with the peace and comfort which reigned
+within them, to a withering desolation, now close at hand.
+
+Meantime war raged on a great scale between Russia and the Sultan.
+And, until the time arrived for throwing off their vassalage, it was
+necessary that Oubacha should contribute his usual contingent of martial
+aid. Nay, it had unfortunately become prudent that he should contribute
+much more than his usual aid. Human experience gives ample evidence
+that in some mysterious and unaccountable way no great design is ever
+agitated, no matter how few or how faithful may be the participators,
+but that some presentiment--some dim misgiving--is kindled amongst
+those whom it is chiefly important to blind. And, however it might have
+happened, certain it is, that already, when as yet no syllable of the
+conspiracy had been breathed to any man whose very existence was
+not staked upon its concealment, nevertheless, some vague and uneasy
+jealousy had arisen in the Russian Cabinet as to the future schemes of
+the Kalmuck Khan: and very probable it is--that, but for the war then
+raging, and the consequent prudence of conciliating a very important
+vassal, or, at least, of abstaining from what would powerfully alienate
+him, even at that moment such measures would have been adopted as
+must for ever have intercepted the Kalmuck schemes. Slight as were the
+jealousies of the Imperial Court, they had not escaped the Machiavelian
+eyes of Zebek and the Lama. And under their guidance, Oubacha, bending
+to the circumstances of the moment, and meeting the jealousy of the
+Russian Court with a policy corresponding to their own, strove by
+unusual zeal to efface the Czarina's unfavorable impressions. He
+enlarged the scale of his contributions; and _that_ so prodigiously,
+that he absolutely carried to head-quarters a force of 35,000 cavalry
+fully equipped; some go further, and rate the amount beyond 40,000: but
+the smaller estimate is, at all events, _within_ the truth.
+
+With this magnificent array of cavalry, heavy as well as light, the Khan
+went into the field under great expectations; and these he more than
+realized. Having the good fortune to be concerned with so ill-organized
+and disorderly a description of force as that which at all times
+composed the bulk of a Turkish army, he carried victory along with
+his banners; gained many partial successes; and at last, in a pitched
+battle, overthrew the Turkish force opposed to him with a loss of 5000
+men left upon the field.
+
+These splendid achievements seemed likely to operate in various ways
+against the impending revolt. Oubacha had now a strong motive, in the
+martial glory acquired, for continuing his connection with the empire
+in whose service he had won it, and by whom only it could be fully
+appreciated. He was now a great marshal of a great empire, one of the
+Paladins around the imperial throne; in China he would be nobody,
+or (worse than that) a mendicant-alien, prostrate at the feet,
+and soliciting the precarious alms of a prince with whom he had no
+connection. Besides, it might reasonably be expected that the Czarina,
+grateful for the really efficient aid given by the Tartar prince, would
+confer upon him such eminent rewards as might be sufficient to anchor
+his hopes upon Russia, and to wean him from every possible seduction.
+These were the obvious suggestions of prudence and good sense to every
+man who stood neutral in the case. But they were disappointed. The
+Czarina knew her obligations to the Khan, but she did not acknowledge
+them. Wherefore? That is a mystery, perhaps never to be explained. So
+it was, however. The Khan went unhonored; no _ukase_ ever proclaimed his
+merits; and, perhaps, had he even been abundantly recompensed by
+Russia, there were others who would have defeated these tendencies
+to reconciliation. Erempel, Zebek, and Loosang the Lama, were pledged
+life-deep to prevent any accommodation; and their efforts were
+unfortunately seconded by those of their deadliest enemies. In the
+Russian Court there were at that time some great nobles pre-occupied
+with feelings of hatred and blind malice towards the Kalmucks, quite as
+strong as any which the Kalmucks could harbor towards Russia, and not,
+perhaps, so well-founded. Just as much as the Kalmucks hated the Russian
+yoke, their galling assumption of authority, the marked air of disdain,
+as towards a nation of ugly, stupid, and filthy barbarians, which too
+generally marked the Russian bearing and language; but above all, the
+insolent contempt, or even outrages which the Russian governors or great
+military commandants tolerated in their followers towards the
+barbarous religion and superstitious mummeries of the Kalmuck
+priesthood--precisely in that extent did the ferocity of the Russian
+resentment, and their wrath at seeing the trampled worm turn or attempt
+a feeble retaliation, re-act upon the unfortunate Kalmucks. At this
+crisis it is probable that envy and wounded pride, upon witnessing
+the splendid victories of Oubacha and Momotbacha over the Turks and
+Bashkirs, contributed strength to the Russian irritation. And it must
+have been through the intrigues of those nobles about her person, who
+chiefly smarted under these feelings, that the Czarina could ever
+have lent herself to the unwise and ungrateful policy pursued at this
+critical period towards the Kalmuck Khan. That Czarina was no longer
+Elizabeth Petrowna, it was Catharine the Second; a princess who did not
+often err so injuriously (injuriously for herself as much as for
+others) in the measures of her government. She had soon ample reason
+for repenting of her false policy. Meantime, how much it must have
+co-operated with the other motives previously acting upon Oubacha in
+sustaining his determination to revolt; and how powerfully it must have
+assisted the efforts of all the Tartar chieftains in preparing the minds
+of their people to feel the necessity of this difficult enterprise, by
+arming their pride and their suspicions against the Russian Government,
+through the keenness of their sympathy with the wrongs of their insulted
+prince, may be readily imagined. It is a fact, and it has been
+confessed by candid Russians themselves, when treating of this great
+dismemberment, that the conduct of the Russian Cabinet throughout the
+period of suspense, and during the crisis of hesitation in the Kalmuck
+Council, was exactly such as was most desirable for the purposes of
+the conspirators; it was such, in fact, as to set the seal to all their
+machinations, by supplying distinct evidences and official vouchers for
+what could otherwise have been at the most matters of doubtful suspicion
+and indirect presumption.
+
+Nevertheless, in the face of all these arguments, and even allowing
+their weight so far as not at all to deny the injustice or the impolicy
+of the Imperial Ministers, it is contended by many persons who have
+reviewed the affair with a command of all the documents bearing on the
+case, more especially the letters or minutes of Council subsequently
+discovered, in the handwriting of Zebek-Dorchi, and the important
+evidence of the Russian captive Weseloff, who was carried off by the
+Kalmucks in their flight, that beyond all doubt Oubacha was powerless
+for any purpose of impeding, or even of delaying the revolt. He himself,
+indeed, was under religious obligations of the most terrific solemnity
+never to flinch from the enterprise, or even to slacken in his zeal;
+for Zebek-Dorchi, distrusting the firmness of his resolution under any
+unusual pressure of alarm or difficulty, had, in the very earliest
+stage of the conspiracy, availed himself of the Khan's well known
+superstition, to engage him, by means of previous concert with the
+priests and their head the Lama, in some dark and mysterious rites of
+consecration, terminating in oaths under such terrific sanctions as no
+Kalmuck would have courage to violate. As far, therefore, as regarded
+the personal share of the Khan in what was to come, Zebek was entirely
+at his ease: he knew him to be so deeply pledged by religious terrors to
+the prosecution of the conspiracy, that no honors within the Czarina's
+gift could have possibly shaken his adhesion: and then, as to threats
+from the same quarter, he knew him to be sealed against those fears
+by others of a gloomier character, and better adapted to his peculiar
+temperament. For Oubacha was a brave man, as respected all bodily
+enemies or the dangers of human warfare, but was as sensitive and timid
+as the most superstitious of old women in facing the frowns of a priest,
+or under the vague anticipations of ghostly retributions. But had it
+been otherwise, and had there been any reason to apprehend an unsteady
+demeanor on the part of this Prince at the approach of the critical
+moment, such were the changes already effected in the state of their
+domestic politics amongst the Tartars by the undermining arts of
+Zebek-Dorchi, and his ally the Lama, that very little importance would
+have attached to that doubt. All power was now effectually lodged in
+the hands of Zebek-Dorchi. He was the true and absolute wielder of
+the Kalmuck sceptre: all measures of importance were submitted to his
+discretion; and nothing was finally resolved but under his dictation.
+This result he had brought about in a year or two by means sufficiently
+simple; first of all, by availing himself of the prejudice in his favor,
+so largely diffused amongst the lowest of the Kalmucks, that his own
+title to the throne, in quality of great-grandson in a direct line from
+Ajouka, the most illustrious of all the Kalmuck Khans, stood upon a
+better basis than that of Oubacha, who derived from a collateral branch:
+secondly, with respect to that sole advantage which Oubacha possessed
+above himself in the ratification of his title, by improving this
+difference between their situations to the disadvantage of his
+competitor, as one who had not scrupled to accept that triumph from an
+alien power at the price of his independence, which he himself (as
+he would have it understood) disdained to court: thirdly, by his own
+talents and address, coupled with the ferocious energy of his moral
+character: fourthly--and perhaps in an equal degree--by the criminal
+facility and good-nature of Oubacha: finally, (which is remarkable
+enough, as illustrating the character of the man,) by that very
+new modelling of the Sarga or Privy Council, which he had used as a
+principal topic of abuse and malicious insinuation against the Russian
+Government, whilst in reality he first had suggested the alteration to
+the Empress, and he chiefly appropriated the political advantages which
+it was fitted to yield. For, as he was himself appointed the chief of
+the Sargatchi, and as the pensions of the inferior Sargatchi passed
+through his hands, whilst in effect they owed their appointments to his
+nomination, it may be easily supposed that whatever power existed in the
+state capable of controlling the Khan, being held by the Sarga under its
+new organization, and this body being completely under his influence,
+the final result was to throw all the functions of the state, whether
+nominally in the Prince or in the council, substantially into the hands
+of this one man: whilst, at the same time, from the strict league which
+he maintained with the Lama, all the thunders of the spiritual power
+were always ready to come in aid of the magistrate, or to supply his
+incapacity in cases which he could not reach.
+
+But the time was now rapidly approaching for the mighty experiment. The
+day was drawing near on which the signal was to be given for raising
+the standard of revolt, and by a combined movement on both sides of the
+Wolga for spreading the smoke of one vast conflagration, that should
+wrap in a common blaze their own huts and the stately cities of their
+enemies, over the breadth and length of those great provinces in which
+their flocks were dispersed. The year of the _tiger_ was now within one
+little month of its commencement; the fifth morning of that year was
+fixed for the fatal day, when the fortunes and happiness of a whole
+nation were to be put upon the hazard of a dicer's throw; and as yet
+that nation was in profound ignorance of the whole plan. The Khan, such
+was the kindness of his nature, could not bring himself to make the
+revelation so urgently required. It was clear, however, that this could
+not be delayed; and Zebek-Dorchi took the task willingly upon himself.
+But where or how should this notification be made, so as to exclude
+Russian hearers? After some deliberation, the following plan was
+adopted:--Couriers, it was contrived, should arrive in furious haste,
+one upon the heels of another, reporting a sudden inroad of the
+Kirghises and Bashkirs upon the Kalmuck lands, at a point distant
+about one hundred and twenty miles. Thither all the Kalmuck families,
+according to immemorial custom, were required to send a separate
+representative; and there, accordingly, within three days, all appeared.
+The distance, the solitary ground appointed for the rendezvous, the
+rapidity of the march, all tended to make it almost certain that no
+Russian could be present. Zebek-Dorchi then came forward. He did
+not waste many words upon rhetoric. He unfurled an immense sheet of
+parchment, visible from the outermost distance at which any of this vast
+crowd could stand; the total number amounted to eighty thousand; all
+saw, and many heard. They were told of the oppressions of Russia; of her
+pride and haughty disdain, evidenced towards them by a thousand acts; of
+her contempt for their religion; of her determination to reduce them to
+absolute slavery; of the preliminary measures she had already taken by
+erecting forts upon many of the great rivers of their neighborhood;
+of the ulterior intentions she thus announced to circumscribe their
+pastoral lands, until they would all be obliged to renounce their
+flocks, and to collect in towns like Sarepta, there to pursue mechanical
+and servile trades of shoemaker, tailor, and weaver, such as the
+freeborn Tartar had always disdained. 'Then again,' said the subtle
+prince, 'she increases her military levies upon our population every
+year; we pour out our blood as young men in her defence, or more often
+in support of her insolent aggressions; and as old men, we reap nothing
+from our sufferings, nor benefit by our survivorship where so many
+are sacrificed.' At this point of his harangue, Zebek produced several
+papers, (forged, as it is generally believed, by himself and the Lama,)
+containing projects of the Russian court for a general transfer of the
+eldest sons, taken _en masse_ from the greatest Kalmuck families, to
+the Imperial court. 'Now let this be once accomplished,' he argued,
+'and there is an end of all useful resistance from that day forwards.
+Petitions we might make, or even remonstrances; as men of words, we
+might play a bold part; but for deeds, for that sort of language by
+which our ancestors were used to speak; holding us by such a chain,
+Russia would make a jest of our wishes,--knowing full well that we
+should not dare to make any effectual movement.'
+
+Having thus sufficiently roused the angry passions of his vast audience,
+and having alarmed their fears by this pretended scheme against their
+first-born, (an artifice which was indispensable to his purpose, because
+it met beforehand _every_ form of amendment to his proposal coming from
+the more moderate nobles, who would not otherwise have failed to
+insist upon trying the effect of bold addresses to the Empress, before
+resorting to any desperate extremity,) Zebek-Dorchi opened his scheme of
+revolt, and, if so, of instant revolt; since any preparations reported
+at St. Petersburg would be a signal for the armies of Russia to cross
+into such positions from all parts of Asia, as would effectually
+intercept their march. It is remarkable, however, that, with all his
+audacity and his reliance upon the momentary excitement of the Kalmucks,
+the subtle prince did not venture, at this stage of his seduction, to
+make so startling a proposal as that of a flight to China. All that he
+held out for the present was a rapid march to the Temba or some other
+great river, which they were to cross, and to take up a strong position
+on the further bank, from which, as from a post of conscious security,
+they could hold a bolder language to the Czarina, and one which would
+have a better chance of winning a favorable audience.
+
+These things, in the irritated condition of the simple Tartars, passed
+by acclamation; and all returned homewards, to push forward with the
+most furious speed the preparations for their awful undertaking. Rapid
+and energetic these of necessity were; and in that degree they became
+noticeable and manifest to the Russians who happened to be intermingled
+with the different hordes, either on commercial errands, or as agents
+officially from the Russian Government, some in a financial, others in a
+diplomatic character.
+
+Amongst these last (indeed at the head of them) was a Russian of some
+distinction, by name Kichinskoi, a man memorable for his vanity, and
+memorable also as one of the many victims to the Tartar revolution. This
+Kichinskoi had been sent by the Empress as her envoy to overlook the
+conduct of the Kalmucks; he was styled the _Grand Pristaw_, or Great
+Commissioner, and was universally known amongst the Tartar tribes
+by this title. His mixed character of ambassador and of political
+_surveillant_, combined with the dependent state of the Kalmucks, gave
+him a real weight in the Tartar councils, and might have given him a
+far greater, had not his outrageous self-conceit, and his arrogant
+confidence in his own authority, as due chiefly to his personal
+qualities for command, led him into such harsh displays of power, and
+menaces so odious to the Tartar pride, as very soon made him an object
+of their profoundest malice. He had publicly insulted the Khan; and upon
+making a communication to him to the effect that some reports began to
+circulate, and even to reach the Empress, of a design in agitation to
+fly from the Imperial dominions, he had ventured to say,--'But this you
+dare not attempt; I laugh at such rumors; yes, Khan, I laugh at them to
+the Empress; for you are a chained bear, and that you know.' The Khan
+turned away on his heel with marked disdain; and the Pristaw, foaming
+at the mouth, continued to utter, amongst those of the Khan's attendants
+who staid behind, to catch his real sentiments in a moment of unguarded
+passion, all that the blindest frenzy of rage could suggest to the most
+presumptuous of fools. It was now ascertained that suspicions _had_
+arisen; but at the same time it was ascertained that the Pristaw spoke
+no more than the truth in representing himself to have discredited these
+suspicions. The fact was, that the mere infatuation of vanity made
+him believe that nothing could go on undetected by his all-piercing
+sagacity, and that no rebellion could prosper when rebuked by his
+commanding presence. The Tartars, therefore, pursued their preparations,
+confiding in the obstinate blindness of the Grand Pristaw as in their
+perfect safeguard; and such it proved--to his own ruin, as well as that
+of myriads beside.
+
+Christmas arrived; and, a little before that time, courier upon courier
+came dropping in, one upon the very heels of another, to St. Petersburg,
+assuring the Czarina that beyond all doubt the Kalmucks were in the
+very crisis of departure. These despatches came from the Governor of
+Astrachan, and copies were instantly forwarded to Kichinskoi. Now, it
+happened that between this governor--a Russian named Beketoff--and the
+Pristaw had been an ancient feud. The very name of Beketoff inflamed
+his resentment; and no sooner did he see that hated name attached to
+the despatch, than he felt himself confirmed in his former views with
+tenfold bigotry, and wrote instantly, in terms of the most pointed
+ridicule, against the new alarmist, pledging his own head upon the
+visionariness of his alarms. Beketoff, however, was not to be put down
+by a few hard words, or by ridicule: he persisted in his statements: the
+Russian Ministry were confounded by the obstinacy of the disputants; and
+some were beginning even to treat the Governor of Astrachan as a bore,
+and as the dupe of his own nervous terrors, when the memorable day
+arrived, the fatal 5th of January, which for ever terminated the
+dispute, and put a seal upon the earthly hopes and fortunes of
+unnumbered myriads. The Governor of Astrachan was the first to hear the
+news. Stung by the mixed furies of jealousy, of triumphant vengeance,
+and of anxious ambition, he sprang into his sledge, and, at the rate of
+three hundred miles a day, pursued his route to St. Petersburg, rushed
+into the Imperial presence,--announced the total realization of his
+worst predictions,--and upon the confirmation of this intelligence
+by subsequent despatches from many different posts on the Wolga, he
+received an imperial commission to seize the person of his deluded
+enemy, and to keep him in strict captivity. These orders were eagerly
+fulfilled, and the unfortunate Kichinskoi soon afterwards expired of
+grief and mortification in the gloomy solitude of a dungeon; a victim
+to his own immeasurable vanity, and the blinding self-delusions of a
+presumption that refused all warning.
+
+The Governor of Astrachan had been but too faithful a prophet. Perhaps
+even _he_ was surprised at the suddenness with which the verification
+followed his reports. Precisely on the 5th of January, the day so
+solemnly appointed under religious sanctions by the Lama, the Kalmucks
+on the east bank of the Wolga were seen at the earliest dawn of day
+assembling by troops and squadrons, and in the tumultuous movement of
+some great morning of battle. Tens of thousands continued moving off the
+ground at every half-hour's interval. Women and children, to the amount
+of two hundred thousand and upwards, were placed upon wagons, or upon
+camels, and drew off by masses of twenty thousand at once--placed under
+suitable escorts, and continually swelled in numbers by other outlying
+bodies of the horde who kept falling in at various distances upon the
+first and second day's march. From sixty to eighty thousand of those
+who were the best mounted stayed behind the rest of the tribes,
+with purposes of devastation and plunder more violent than prudence
+justified, or the amiable character of the Khan could be supposed to
+approve. But in this, as in other instances, he was completely overruled
+by the malignant counsels of Zebek-Dorchi. The first tempest of
+the desolating fury of the Tartars discharged itself upon their own
+habitations. But this, as cutting off all infirm looking backward from
+the hardships of their march, had been thought so necessary a measure by
+all the chieftains, that even Oubacha himself was the first to authorize
+the act by his own example. He seized a torch previously prepared with
+materials the most durable as well as combustible, and steadily applied
+it to the timbers of his own palace. Nothing was saved from the general
+wreck except the portable part of the domestic utensils, and that part
+of the woodwork which could be applied to the manufacture of the
+long Tartar lances. This chapter in their memorable day's work being
+finished, and the whole of their villages throughout a district of ten
+thousand square miles in one simultaneous blaze, the Tartars waited for
+further orders.
+
+These, it was intended, should have taken a character of valedictory
+vengeance, and thus have left behind to the Czarina a dreadful
+commentary upon the main motives of their flight. It was the purpose
+of Zebek-Dorchi that all the Russian towns, churches, and buildings of
+every description, should be given up to pillage and destruction, and
+such treatment applied to the defenceless inhabitants as might naturally
+be expected from a fierce people already infuriated by the spectacle
+of their own outrages, and by the bloody retaliations which they must
+necessarily have provoked. This part of the tragedy, however, was
+happily intercepted by a providential disappointment at the very
+crisis of departure. It has been mentioned already that the motive for
+selecting the depth of winter as the season of flight (which otherwise
+was obviously the very worst possible) had been the impossibility of
+effecting a junction sufficiently rapid with the tribes on the west of
+the Wolga, in the absence of bridges, unless by a natural bridge of ice.
+For this one advantage the Kalmuck leaders had consented to aggravate
+by a thousandfold the calamities inevitable to a rapid flight over
+boundless tracts of country with women, children, and herds of
+cattle--for this one single advantage; and yet, after all, it was lost.
+The reason never has been explained satisfactorily, but the fact was
+such. Some have said that the signals were not properly concerted
+for marking the moment of absolute departure; that is, for signifying
+whether the settled intention of the Eastern Kalmucks might not have
+been suddenly interrupted by adverse intelligence. Others have supposed
+that the ice might not be equally strong on both sides of the river,
+and might even be generally insecure for the treading of heavy and
+heavily-laden animals such as camels. But the prevailing notion is, that
+some accidental movements on the 3d and 4th of January of Russian troops
+in the neighborhood of the Western Kalmucks, though really having no
+reference to them or their plans, had been construed into certain
+signs that all was discovered; and that the prudence of the Western
+chieftains, who, from situation, had never been exposed to those
+intrigues by which Zebek-Dorchi had practised upon the pride of the
+Eastern tribes, now stepped in to save their people from ruin. Be the
+cause what it might, it is certain that the Western Kalmucks were
+in some way prevented from forming the intended junction with their
+brethren of the opposite bank; and the result was, that at least one
+hundred thousand of these Tartars were left behind in Russia. This
+accident it was which saved their Russian neighbors universally from
+the desolation which else awaited them. One general massacre and
+conflagration would assuredly have surprised them, to the utter
+extermination of their property, their houses, and themselves, had it
+not been for this disappointment. But the Eastern chieftains did not
+dare to put to hazard the safety of their brethren under the first
+impulse of the Czarina's vengeance for so dreadful a tragedy; for
+as they were well aware of too many circumstances by which she might
+discover the concurrence of the Western people in the general scheme of
+revolt, they justly feared that she would thence infer their concurrence
+also in the bloody events which marked its outset.
+
+Little did the Western Kalmucks guess what reasons they also had for
+gratitude on account of an interposition so unexpected, and which at
+the moment they so generally deplored. Could they but have witnessed the
+thousandth part of the sufferings which overtook their Eastern brethren
+in the first month of their sad flight, they would have blessed Heaven
+for their own narrow escape; and yet these sufferings of the first month
+were but a prelude or foretaste comparatively slight of those which
+afterwards succeeded.
+
+For now began to unroll the most awful series of calamities, and the
+most extensive, which is anywhere recorded to have visited the sons and
+daughters of men. It is possible that the sudden inroads of destroying
+nations, such as the Huns, or the Avars, or the Mongol Tartars, may have
+inflicted misery as extensive; but there the misery and the desolation
+would be sudden--like the flight of volleying lightning. Those who were
+spared at first would generally be spared to the end; those who perished
+would perish instantly. It is possible that the French retreat from
+Moscow may have made some nearer approach to this calamity in duration,
+though still a feeble and miniature approach; for the French sufferings
+did not commence in good earnest until about one month from the time of
+leaving Moscow; and though it is true that afterwards the vials of wrath
+were emptied upon the devoted army for six or seven weeks in succession,
+yet what is that to this Kalmuck tragedy, which lasted for more than as
+many months? But the main feature of horror, by which the Tartar march
+was distinguished from the French, lies in the accompaniment of women
+[Footnote: Singular it is, and not generally known, that Grecian women
+accompanied the _Anabasis_ of the younger Cyrus and the subsequent
+Retreat of the Ten Thousand. Xenophon affirms that there were 'many'
+women in the Greek army--pollai aesun etairai en tosratenaeazi; and in
+a late stage of that trying expedition it is evident that women were
+amongst the survivors.] and children. There were both, it is true, with
+the French army, but so few as to bear no visible proportion to the
+total numbers concerned. The French, in short, were merely an army--a
+host of professional destroyers, whose regular trade was bloodshed, and
+whose regular element was danger and suffering. But the Tartars were a
+nation carrying along with them more than two hundred and fifty thousand
+women and children, utterly unequal, for the most part, to any contest
+with the calamities before them. The Children of Israel were in the same
+circumstances as to the accompaniment of their families; but they were
+released from the pursuit of their enemies in a very early stage of
+their flight; and their subsequent residence in the Desert was not a
+march, but a continued halt, and under a continued interposition of
+Heaven for their comfortable support. Earthquakes, again, however
+comprehensive in their ravages, are shocks of a moment's duration. A
+much nearer approach made to the wide range and the long duration of the
+Kalmuck tragedy may have been in a pestilence such as that which visited
+Athens in the Peloponnesian war, or London in the reign of Charles II.
+There also the martyrs were counted by myriads, and the period of the
+desolation was counted by months. But, after all, the total amount
+of destruction was on a smaller scale; and there was this feature of
+alleviation to the _conscious_ pressure of the calamity--that the misery
+was withdrawn from public notice into private chambers and hospitals.
+The siege of Jerusalem by Vespasian and his son, taken in its entire
+circumstances, comes nearest of all--for breadth and depth of suffering,
+for duration, for the exasperation of the suffering from without by
+internal feuds, and, finally, for that last most appalling expression of
+the furnace-heat of the anguish in its power to extinguish the natural
+affections even of maternal love. But, after all, each case had
+circumstances of romantic misery peculiar to itself--circumstances
+without precedent, and (wherever human nature is ennobled by
+Christianity) it may be confidently hoped--never to be repeated.
+
+The first point to be reached, before any hope of repose could be
+encouraged, was the river Jaik. This was not above three hundred miles
+from the main point of departure on the Wolga; and if the march thither
+was to be a forced one, and a severe one, it was alleged on the other
+hand that the suffering would be the more brief and transient; one
+summary exertion, not to be repeated, and all was achieved. Forced
+the march was, and severe beyond example: there the forewarning
+proved correct; but the promised rest proved a mere phantom of the
+wilderness--a visionary rainbow, which fled before their hope-sick eyes,
+across these interminable solitudes, for seven months of hardship and
+calamity, without a pause. These sufferings, by their very nature, and
+the circumstances under which they arose, were (like the scenery of the
+_Steppes_) somewhat monotonous in their coloring and external features:
+what variety, however, there was, will be most naturally exhibited
+by tracing historically the successive stages of the general misery,
+exactly as it unfolded itself under the double agency of weakness still
+increasing from within, and hostile pressure from without. Viewed in
+this manner, under the real order of development, it is remarkable that
+these sufferings of the Tartars, though under the moulding hands of
+accident, arrange themselves almost with a scenical propriety. They seem
+combined, as with the skill of an artist; the intensity of the misery
+advancing regularly with the advances of the march, and the stages of
+the calamity corresponding to the stages of the route; so that, upon
+raising the curtain which veils the great catastrophe, we behold one
+vast climax of anguish, towering upwards by regular gradations, as if
+constructed artificially for picturesque effect:--a result which might
+not have been surprising, had it been reasonable to anticipate the same
+rate of speed, and even an accelerated rate, as prevailing through the
+later stages of the expedition. But it seemed, on the contrary, most
+reasonable to calculate upon a continual decrement in the rate of motion
+according to the increasing distance from the head-quarters of
+the pursuing enemy. This calculation, however, was defeated by the
+extraordinary circumstance, that the Russian armies did not begin
+to close in very fiercely upon the Kalmucks until after they had
+accomplished a distance of full two thousand miles; one thousand miles
+further on the assaults became even more tumultuous and murderous; and
+already the great shadows of the Chinese Wall were dimly descried, when
+the frenzy and _acharnement_ of the pursuers, and the bloody desperation
+of the miserable fugitives had reached its uttermost extremity. Let us
+briefly rehearse the main stages of the misery, and trace the ascending
+steps of the tragedy, according to the great divisions of the route
+marked out by the central rivers of Asia.
+
+The first stage, we have already said, was from the Wolga to the Jaik;
+the distance about three hundred miles; the time allowed seven days.
+For the first week, therefore, the rate of marching averaged about
+forty-three English miles a day. The weather was cold, but bracing;
+and, at a more moderate pace, this part of the journey might have been
+accomplished without much distress by a people as hardy as the Kalmucks:
+as it was, the cattle suffered greatly from overdriving: milk began to
+fail even for the children: the sheep perished by wholesale: and the
+children themselves were saved only by the innumerable camels.
+
+The Cossacks, who dwelt upon the banks of the Jaik, were the first among
+the subjects of Russia to come into collision with the Kalmucks. Great
+was their surprise at the suddenness of the irruption, and great also
+their consternation: for, according to their settled custom, by far the
+greater part of their number was absent during the winter months at the
+fisheries upon the Caspian. Some who were liable to surprise at the most
+exposed points, fled in crowds to the fortress of Koulagina, which was
+immediately invested, and summoned by Oubacha. He had, however, in his
+train only a few light pieces of artillery; and the Russian commandant
+at Koulagina, being aware of the hurried circumstances in which the
+Khan was placed, and that he stood upon the very edge, as it were, of
+a renewed flight, felt encouraged by these considerations to a more
+obstinate resistance than might else have been advisable, with an enemy
+so little disposed to observe the usages of civilized warfare. The
+period of his anxiety was not long: on the fifth day of the siege, he
+descried from the walls a succession of Tartar couriers, mounted upon
+fleet Bactrian camels, crossing the vast plains around the fortress at a
+furious pace, and riding into the Kalmuck encampment at various points.
+Great agitation appeared immediately to follow; orders were soon after
+despatched in all directions: and it became speedily known that upon a
+distant flank of the Kalmuck movement a bloody and exterminating battle
+had been fought the day before, in which one entire tribe of the Khan's
+dependents, numbering not less than nine thousand fighting men, had
+perished to the last man. This was the _ouloss_, or clan, called
+_Feka-Zechorr_, between whom and the Cossacks there was a feud of
+ancient standing. In selecting, therefore, the points of attack, on
+occasion of the present hasty inroad, the Cossack chiefs were naturally
+eager so to direct their efforts as to combine with the service of the
+Empress some gratification to their own party hatreds; more especially
+as the present was likely to be their final opportunity for revenge if
+the Kalmuck evasion should prosper. Having, therefore, concentrated as
+large a body of Cossack cavalry as circumstances allowed, they attacked
+the hostile _ouloss_ with a precipitation which denied to it all means
+for communicating with Oubacha; for the necessity of commanding an ample
+range of pasturage, to meet the necessities of their vast flocks and
+herds, had separated this _ouloss_ from the Khan's head-quarters by an
+interval of eighty miles: and thus it was, and not from oversight, that
+it came to be thrown entirely upon its own resources. These had proved
+insufficient; retreat, from the exhausted state of their horses and
+camels, no less than from the prodigious encumbrances of their live
+stock, was absolutely out of the question: quarter was disdained on the
+one side, and would not have been granted on the other; and thus it had
+happened that the setting sun of that one day (the 13th from the first
+opening of the revolt) threw his parting rays upon the final agonies of
+an ancient _ouloss_, stretched upon a bloody field, who on that day's
+dawning had held and styled themselves an independent nation.
+
+Universal consternation was diffused through the wide borders of the
+Khan's encampment by this disastrous intelligence; not so much on
+account of the numbers slain, or the total extinction of a powerful
+ally, as because the position of the Cossack force was likely to put to
+hazard the future advances of the Kalmucks, or at least to retard, and
+hold them in check, until the heavier columns of the Russian army should
+arrive upon their flanks. The siege of Koulagina was instantly raised;
+and that signal, so fatal to the happiness of the women and their
+children, once again resounded through the tents--the signal for flight,
+and this time for a flight more rapid than ever. About one hundred and
+fifty miles ahead of their present position, there arose a tract of
+hilly country, forming a sort of margin to the vast, sea-like expanse
+of champaign savannas, steppes, and occasionally of sandy deserts, which
+stretched away on each side of this margin both eastwards and westwards.
+Pretty nearly in the centre of this hilly range, lay a narrow defile,
+through which passed the nearest and the most practicable route to the
+river Torgai (the further bank of which river offered the next great
+station of security for a general halt.) It was the more essential to
+gain this pass before the Cossacks, inasmuch as not only would the
+delay in forcing the pass give time to the Russian pursuing columns for
+combining their attacks and for bringing up their artillery, but also
+because (even if all enemies in pursuit were thrown out of the question)
+it was held by those best acquainted with the difficult and obscure
+geography of these pathless steppes--that the loss of this one narrow
+strait amongst the hills would have the effect of throwing them (as
+their only alternative in a case where so wide a sweep of pasturage was
+required) upon a circuit of at least five hundred miles extra; besides
+that, after all, this circuitous route would carry them to the Torgai at
+a point ill fitted for the passage of their heavy baggage. The defile
+in the hills, therefore, it was resolved to gain; and yet, unless they
+moved upon it with the velocity of light cavalry, there was little
+chance but it would be found pre-occupied by the Cossacks. They, it is
+true, had suffered greatly in the recent sanguinary action with their
+enemies; but the excitement of victory, and the intense sympathy with
+their unexampled triumph, had again swelled their ranks--and would
+probably act with the force of a vortex to draw in their simple
+countrymen from the Caspian. The question, therefore, of pre-occupation
+was reduced to a race. The Cossacks were marching upon an oblique line
+not above fifty miles longer than that which led to the same point from
+the Kalmuck head-quarters before Koulagina: and therefore without the
+most furious haste on the part of the Kalmucks, there was not a chance
+for them, burdened and 'trashed' [Footnote: _'Trashed'_--This is an
+expressive word used by Beaumont and Fletcher in their Bonduca, etc., to
+describe the case of a person retarded and embarrassed in flight, or in
+pursuit, by some encumbrance, whether thing or person, too valuable to
+be left behind.] as they were, to anticipate so agile a light cavalry as
+the Cossacks in seizing this important pass.
+
+Dreadful were the feelings of the poor women on hearing this exposition
+of the case. For they easily understood that too capital an interest
+(the _summa rerum_) was now at stake to allow of any regard to
+minor interests, or what would be considered such in their present
+circumstances. The dreadful week already passed,--their inauguration in
+misery,--was yet fresh in their remembrance. The scars of suffering were
+impressed not only upon their memories, but upon their very persons and
+the persons of their children. And they knew that where no speed had
+much chance of meeting the cravings of the chieftains, no test would
+be accepted, short of absolute exhaustion, that as much had been
+accomplished as could be accomplished. Weseloff, the Russian captive,
+has recorded the silent wretchedness with which the women and elder boys
+assisted in drawing the tent-ropes. On the 5th of January all had been
+animation, and the joyousness of indefinite expectation: now, on the
+contrary, a brief but bitter experience had taught them to take an
+amended calculation of what it was that lay before them.
+
+One whole day and far into the succeeding night had the renewed flight
+continued: the sufferings had been greater than before: for the cold had
+been more intense: and many perished out of the living creatures through
+every class, except only the camels--whose powers of endurance seemed
+equally adapted to cold and heat. The second morning, however, brought
+an alleviation to the distress. Snow had begun to fall: and though not
+deep at present, it was easily foreseen that it soon would be so; and
+that, as a halt would in that case become unavoidable, no plan could
+be better than that of staying where they were: especially as the same
+cause would check the advance of the Cossacks. Here then was the last
+interval of comfort which gleamed upon the unhappy nation during their
+whole migration. For ten days the snow continued to fall with little
+intermission. At the end of that time keen bright frosty weather
+succeeded: the drifting had ceased: in three days the smooth expanse
+became firm enough to support the treading of the camels, and the flight
+was recommenced. But during the halt much domestic comfort had been
+enjoyed: and for the last time universal plenty. The cows and oxen had
+perished in such vast numbers on the previous marches, that an order was
+now issued to turn what remained to account by slaughtering the whole,
+and salting whatever part should be found to exceed the immediate
+consumption. This measure led to a scene of general banqueting and even
+of festivity amongst all who were not incapacitated for joyous emotions
+by distress of mind, by grief for the unhappy experience of the few last
+days, and by anxiety for the too gloomy future. Seventy thousand persons
+of all ages had already perished; exclusively of the many thousand
+allies who had been cut down by the Cossack sabre. And the losses in
+reversion were likely to be many more. For rumors began now to arrive
+from all quarters, by the mounted couriers whom the Khan had despatched
+to the rear and to each flank as well as in advance, that large masses
+of the Imperial troops were converging from all parts of Central Asia
+to the fords of the river Torgai as the most convenient point for
+intercepting the flying tribes: and it was already well known that a
+powerful division was close in their rear, and was retarded only by
+the numerous artillery which had been judged necessary to support their
+operations. New motives were thus daily arising for quickening the
+motions of the wretched Kalmucks, and for exhausting those who were
+previously but too much exhausted.
+
+It was not until the 2d day of February that the Khan's advanced guard
+came in sight of Ouchim, the defile among the hills of Moulgaldchares,
+in which they anticipated so bloody an opposition from the Cossacks. A
+pretty large body of these light cavalry had, in fact, pre-occupied the
+pass by some hours; but the Khan having too great advantages, namely,
+a strong body of infantry, who had been conveyed by sections of five on
+about two hundred camels, and some pieces of light artillery which
+he had not yet been forced to abandon, soon began to make a serious
+impression upon this unsupported detachment; and they would probably at
+any rate have retired; but at the very moment when they were making some
+dispositions in that view, Zebek-Dorchi appeared upon their rear with
+a body of trained riflemen, who had distinguished themselves in the war
+with Turkey. These men had contrived to crawl unobserved over the cliffs
+which skirted the ravine, availing themselves of the dry beds of the
+summer torrents, and other inequalities of the ground, to conceal their
+movement. Disorder and trepidation ensued instantly in the Cossack
+files; the Khan, who had been waiting with the _elite_ of his heavy
+cavalry, charged furiously upon them; total overthrow followed to the
+Cossacks, and a slaughter such as in some measure avenged the
+recent bloody extermination of their allies, the ancient _ouloss_ of
+Feka-Zechorr. The slight horses of the Cossacks were unable to support
+the weight of heavy Polish dragoons and a body of trained _cameleers_
+(that is, cuirassiers mounted on camels); hardy they were, but
+not strong, nor a match for their antagonists in weight; and their
+extraordinary efforts through the last few days to gain their present
+position, had greatly diminished their powers for effecting an escape.
+Very few, in fact, _did_ escape; and the bloody day of Ouchim became as
+memorable amongst the Cossacks as that which, about twenty days before,
+had signalized the complete annihilation of the Faka-Zechorr. [Footnote:
+There was another _ouloss_ equally strong with that of _Feka-Zechorr_,
+viz., that of Erketunn, under the government of Assarcho and Machi, whom
+some obligations of treaty or other hidden motives drew into the general
+conspiracy of revolt. But fortunately the two chieftains found means
+to assure the Governor of Astrachan, on the first outbreak of the
+insurrection, that their real wishes were for maintaining the old
+connection with Russia. The Cossacks, therefore, to whom the pursuit
+was intrusted, had instructions to act cautiously and according to
+circumstances on coming up with them. The result was, through the
+prudent management of Assarcho, that the clan, without compromising
+their pride or independence, made such moderate submissions as satisfied
+the Cossacks; and eventually both chiefs and people received from the
+Czarina the rewards and honors of exemplary fidelity.]
+
+The road was now open to the river Igritch, and as yet even far beyond
+it to the Torgau; but how long this state of things would continue, was
+every day more doubtful. Certain intelligence was now received that a
+large Russian army, well appointed in every arm, was advancing upon the
+Torgau, under the command of General Traubenberg. This officer was to be
+joined on his route by ten thousand Bashkirs, and pretty nearly the
+same amount of Kirghises--both hereditary enemies of the Kalmucks--both
+exasperated to a point of madness by the bloody trophies which Oubacha
+and Momotbacha had, in late years, won from such of their compatriots as
+served under the Sultan. The Czarina's yoke these wild nations bore with
+submissive patience, but not the hands by which it had been imposed;
+and, accordingly, catching with eagerness at the present occasion
+offered to their vengeance, they sent an assurance to the Czarina of
+their perfect obedience to her commands, and at the same time a message
+significantly declaring in what spirit they meant to execute them, viz.,
+'That they would not trouble her Majesty with prisoners.'
+
+Here then arose, as before with the Cossacks, a race for the Kalmucks
+with the regular armies of Russia, and concurrently with nations as
+fierce and semi-humanized as themselves, besides that they were stung
+into threefold activity by the furies of mortified pride and military
+abasement, under the eyes of the Turkish Sultan. The forces, and more
+especially the artillery, of Russia, were far too overwhelming to permit
+the thought of a regular opposition in pitched battles, even with a less
+dilapidated state of their resources than they could reasonably expect
+at the period of their arrival on the Torgau. In their speed lay their
+only hope--in strength of foot, as before, and not in strength of arm.
+Onward, therefore, the Kalmucks pressed, marking the lines of their
+wide-extending march over the sad solitudes of the steppes by a
+never-ending chain of corpses. The old and the young, the sick man on
+his couch, the mother with her baby--all were left behind. Sights such
+as these, with the many rueful aggravations incident to the helpless
+condition of infancy--of disease and of female weakness abandoned to
+the wolves amidst a howling wilderness, continued to track their course
+through a space of full two thousand miles; for so much at the least,
+it was likely to prove, including the circuits to which they were often
+compelled by rivers or hostile tribes, from the point of starting on the
+Wolga until they could reach their destined halting-ground on the
+east bank of the Torgau. For the first seven weeks of this march their
+sufferings had been embittered by the excessive severity of the cold;
+and every night--so long as wood was to be had for fires, either from
+the lading of the camels, or from the desperate sacrifice of their
+baggage-wagons, or (as occasionally happened) from the forests which
+skirted the banks of the many rivers which crossed their path--no
+spectacle was more frequent than that of a circle, composed of men,
+women, and children, gathered by hundreds round a central fire, all dead
+and stiff at the return of morning light. Myriads were left behind from
+pure exhaustion of whom none had a chance, under the combined evils
+which beset them, of surviving through the next twenty-four hours.
+Frost, however, and snow at length ceased to persecute; the vast extent
+of the march at length brought them into more genial latitudes, and the
+unusual duration of the march was gradually bringing them into the
+more genial seasons of the year: Two thousand miles had at least been
+traversed; February, March, April were gone; the balmy month of May had
+opened; vernal sights and sounds came from every side to comfort the
+heart-weary travellers; and at last, in the latter end of May, they
+crossed the Torgau, and took up a position where they hoped to find
+liberty to repose themselves for many weeks in comfort as well as in
+security, and to draw such supplies from the fertile neighborhood as
+might restore their shattered forces to a condition for executing, with
+less of wreck and ruin, the large remainder of the journey.
+
+Yes; it was true that two thousand miles of wandering had been
+completed, but in a period of nearly five months, and with the terrific
+sacrifice of at least two hundred and fifty thousand souls, to say
+nothing of herds and flocks past all reckoning. These had all perished:
+ox, cow, horse, mule, ass, sheep, or goat, not one survived--only the
+camels. These arid and adust creatures, looking like the mummies of some
+antediluvian animals, without the affections or sensibilities of flesh
+and blood--these only still erected their speaking eyes to the eastern
+heavens, and had to all appearance come out from this long tempest
+of trial unscathed and unharmed. The Khan, knowing how much he was
+individually answerable for the misery which had been sustained, must
+have wept tears even more bitter than those of Xerxes when he threw his
+eyes over the myriads whom he had assembled: for the tears of Xerxes
+were unmingled with compunction. Whatever amends were in his power
+he resolved to make by sacrifices to the general good of all personal
+regards; and accordingly, even at this point of their advance, he once
+more deliberately brought under review the whole question of the revolt.
+The question was formally debated before the Council, whether, even at
+this point, they should untread their steps, and, throwing themselves
+upon the Czarina's mercy, return to their old allegiance? In that
+case, Oubacha professed himself willing to become the scapegoat for the
+general transgression. This, he argued, was no fantastic scheme, but
+even easy of accomplishment; for the unlimited and sacred power of the
+Khan, so well known to the Empress, made it absolutely iniquitous to
+attribute any separate responsibility to the people--upon the Khan
+rested the guilt, upon the Khan would descend the Imperial vengeance.
+This proposal was applauded for its generosity, but was energetically
+opposed by Zebek-Dorchi. Were they to lose the whole journey of two
+thousand miles? Was their misery to perish without fruit; true it was
+that they had yet reached only the half-way house; but, in that respect,
+the motives were evenly balanced for retreat or for advance. Either way
+they would have pretty nearly the same distance to traverse, but
+with this difference--that, forwards, their rout lay through lands
+comparatively fertile--backwards, through a blasted wilderness, rich
+only in memorials of their sorrow, and hideous to Kalmuck eyes by the
+trophies of their calamity. Besides, though the Empress might accept
+an excuse for the past, would she the less forbear to suspect for the
+future? The Czarina's _pardon_ they might obtain, but could they
+ever hope to recover her _confidence_? Doubtless there would now be a
+standing presumption against them, an immortal ground of jealousy; and
+a jealous government would be but another name for a harsh one. Finally,
+whatever motives there ever had been for the revolt surely remained
+unimpaired by anything that had occurred. In reality the revolt was,
+after all, no revolt, but (strictly speaking) a return to their old
+allegiance, since, not above one hundred and fifty years ago (viz., in
+the year 1616,) their ancestors had revolted from the Emperor of China.
+They had now tried both governments; and for them China was the land of
+promise, and Russia the house of bondage.
+
+Spite, however, of all that Zebek could say or do, the yearning of the
+people was strongly in behalf of the Khan's proposal; the pardon of
+their prince, they persuaded themselves, would be readily conceded by
+the Empress; and there is little doubt that they would at this time have
+thrown themselves gladly upon the Imperial mercy; when suddenly all was
+defeated by the arrival of two envoys from Traubenberg. This general had
+reached the fortress of Orsk, after a very painful march, on the 12th of
+April; thence he set forwards towards Oriembourg, which he reached
+upon the 1st of June, having been joined on his route at various times
+through the month of May by the Kirghises and a corps of ten thousand
+Bashkirs. From Oriembourg he sent forward his official offer to
+the Khan, which were harsh and peremptory, holding out no specific
+stipulations as to pardon or impunity, and exacting unconditional
+submission as the preliminary price of any cessation from military
+operations. The personal character of Traubenberg, which was anything
+but energetic, and the condition of his army, disorganized in a great
+measure by the length and severity of the march, made it probable that,
+with a little time for negotiation, a more conciliatory tone would have
+been assumed. But, unhappily for all parties, sinister events occurred
+in the meantime, such as effectually put an end to every hope of the
+kind.
+
+The two envoys sent forward by Traubenberg had reported to this
+officer that a distance of only ten days' march lay between his own
+head-quarters and those of the Khan. Upon this fact transpiring, the
+Kirghises, by their prince Nourali, and the Bashkirs, entreated the
+Russian general to advance without delay. Once having placed his cannon
+in position, so as to command the Kalmuck camp, the fate of the rebel
+Khan and his people would be in his own hands; and they would themselves
+form his advanced guard. Traubenberg, however, _why_ has not been
+certainly explained, refused to march, grounding his refusal upon the
+condition of his army, and their absolute need of refreshment. Long
+and fierce was the altercation; but at length, seeing no chance of
+prevailing, and dreading above all other events the escape of their
+detested enemy, the ferocious Bashkirs went off in a body by forced
+marches. In six days they reached the Torgau, crossed by swimming their
+horses, and fell upon the Kalmucks, who were dispersed for many a league
+in search of food or provender for their camels. The first day's action
+was one vast succession of independent skirmishes, diffused over a field
+of thirty to forty miles in extent; one party often breaking up into
+three or four, and again (according to the accidents of ground) three or
+four blending into one; flight and pursuit, rescue and total overthrow,
+going on simultaneously, under all varieties of form, in all quarters of
+the plain. The Bashkirs had found themselves obliged, by the scattered
+state of the Kalmucks, to split up into innumerable sections; and thus,
+for some hours, it had been impossible for the most practised eye to
+collect the general tendency of the day's fortune. Both the Khan and
+Zebek-Dorchi were at one moment made prisoners, and more than once in
+imminent danger of being cut down; but at length Zebek succeeded in
+rallying a strong column of infantry, which, with the support of the
+camel-corps on each flank, compelled the Bashkirs to retreat. Clouds,
+however, of these wild cavalry continued to arrive through the next two
+days and nights, followed or accompanied by the Kirghises. These being
+viewed as the advanced parties of Traubenberg's army, the Kalmuck
+chieftains saw no hope of safety but in flight; and in this way it
+happened that a retreat, which had so recently been brought to a
+pause, was resumed at the very moment when the unhappy fugitives were
+anticipating a deep repose without further molestation, the whole summer
+through.
+
+It seemed as though every variety of wretchedness were predestined to
+the Kalmucks; and as if their sufferings were incomplete unless they
+were rounded and matured by all that the most dreadful agencies of
+summer's heat could superadd to those of frost and winter. To this
+sequel of their story we shall immediately revert, after first noticing
+a little romantic episode which occurred at this point between Oubacha
+and his unprincipled cousin Zebek-Dorchi.
+
+There was at the time of the Kalmuck flight from the Wolga, a Russian
+gentleman of some rank at the court of the Khan, whom, for political
+reasons, it was thought necessary to carry along with them as a captive.
+For some weeks his confinement had been very strict, and in one or
+two instances cruel. But, as the increasing distance was continually
+diminishing the chances of escape, and perhaps, also, as the misery of
+the guards gradually withdrew their attention from all minor interests
+to their own personal sufferings, the vigilance of the custody grew
+more and more relaxed; until at length, upon a petition to the Khan, Mr.
+Weseloff was formally restored to liberty; and it was understood that
+he might use his liberty in whatever way he chose, even for returning
+to Russia, if that should be his wish. Accordingly, he was making active
+preparations for his journey to St. Petersburg, when it occurred to
+Zebek-Dorchi that, not improbably, in some of the battles which were
+then anticipated with Traubenberg, it might happen to them to lose some
+prisoner of rank, in which case the Russian Weseloff would be a pledge
+in their hands for negotiating an exchange. Upon this plea, to his own
+severe affliction, the Russian was detained until the further pleasure
+of the Khan. The Khan's name, indeed, was used through the whole affair,
+but, as it seemed, with so little concurrence on his part, that, when
+Weseloff in a private audience humbly remonstrated upon the injustice
+done him, and the cruelty of thus sporting with his feelings by setting
+him at liberty, and, as it were, tempting him into dreams of home
+and restored happiness only for the purpose of blighting them, the
+good-natured prince disclaimed all participation in the affair, and went
+so far in proving his sincerity as even to give him permission to effect
+his escape; and, as a ready means of commencing it without raising
+suspicion, the Khan mentioned to Mr. Weseloff that he had just then
+received a message from the Hetman of the Bashkirs, soliciting a
+private interview on the banks of the Torgau at a spot pointed out; that
+interview was arranged for the coming night; and Mr. Weseloff might
+go in the Khan's _suite_, which on either side was not to exceed three
+persons. Weseloff was a prudent man, acquainted with the world, and
+he read treachery in the very outline of this scheme, as stated by the
+Khan--treachery against the Khan's person. He mused a little, and then
+communicated so much of his suspicions to the Khan as might put him on
+his guard; but, upon further consideration, he begged leave to decline
+the honor of accompanying the Khan. The fact was, that three Kalmucks,
+who had strong motives for returning to their countrymen on the west
+bank of the Wolga, guessing the intentions of Weseloff, had offered to
+join him in his escape. These men the Khan would probably find himself
+obliged to countenance in their project; so that it became a point
+of honor with Weseloff to conceal their intentions, and therefore to
+accomplish the evasion from the camp, (of which the first steps only
+would be hazardous,) without risking the notice of the Khan.
+
+The district in which they were now encamped abounded, through many
+hundred miles, with wild horses of a docile and beautiful breed. Each
+of the four fugitives had caught from seven to ten of these spirited
+creatures in the course of the last few days; this raised no suspicion;
+for the rest of the Kalmucks had been making the same sort of provision
+against the coming toils of their remaining route to China. These horses
+were secured by halters, and hidden about dusk in the thickets which
+lined the margin of the river. To these thickets, about ten at night,
+the four fugitives repaired; they took a circuitous path, which drew
+them as little as possible within danger of challenge from any of the
+outposts or of the patrols which had been established on the quarters
+where the Bashkirs lay; and in three quarters of an hour they reached
+the rendezvous. The moon had now risen, the horses were unfastened, and
+they were in the act of mounting, when the deep silence of the woods
+was disturbed by a violent uproar, and the clashing of arms. Weseloff
+fancied that he heard the voice of the Khan shouting for assistance.
+He remembered the communication made by that prince in the morning; and
+requesting his companions to support him, he rode off in the direction
+of the sound. A very short distance brought him to an open glade in the
+wood, where he beheld four men contending with a party of at least
+nine or ten. Two of the four were dismounted at the very instant of
+Weseloff's arrival; one of these he recognized almost certainly as the
+Khan, who was fighting hand to hand, but at great disadvantage, with two
+of the adverse horsemen. Seeing that no time was to be lost, Weseloff
+fired, and brought down one of the two. His companions discharged their
+carbines at the same moment, and then all rushed simultaneously into
+the little open area. The thundering sound of about thirty horses, all
+rushing at once into a narrow space, gave the impression that a whole
+troop of cavalry was coming down upon the assailants; who, accordingly,
+wheeled about and fled with one impulse. Weseloff advanced to the
+dismounted cavalier, who, as he expected, proved to be the Khan. The
+man whom Weseloff had shot was lying dead; and both were shocked, though
+Weseloff at least was not surprised, on stooping down and scrutinizing
+his features, to recognize a well known confidential servant of
+Zebek-Dorchi. Nothing was said by either party. The Khan rode off,
+escorted by Weseloff and his companions, and for some time a dead
+silence prevailed. The situation of Weseloff was delicate and critical;
+to leave the Khan at this point was probably to cancel their recent
+services; for he might be again crossed on his path, and again attacked
+by the very party from whom he had just been delivered. Yet, on the
+other hand, to return to the camp was to endanger the chances of
+accomplishing the escape. The Khan also was apparently revolving
+all this in his mind, for at length he broke silence, and said--'I
+comprehend your situation; and, under other circumstances, I might feel
+it my duty to detain your companions. But it would ill become me to do
+so after the important service you have just rendered me. Let us turn a
+little to the left. There, where you see the watchfire, is an outpost.
+Attend me so far. I am then safe. You may turn and pursue your
+enterprise; for the circumstances under which you will appear, as my
+escort, are sufficient to shield you from all suspicion for the present.
+I regret having no better means at my disposal for testifying my
+gratitude. But tell me, before we part, was it accident only which led
+you to my rescue? Or had you acquired any knowledge of the plot by which
+I was decoyed into this snare?' Weseloff answered very candidly that
+mere accident had brought him to the spot at which he heard the
+uproar, but that _having_ heard it, and connecting it with the Khan's
+communication of the morning, he had then designedly gone after the
+sound in a way which he certainly should not have done at so critical
+a moment, unless in the expectation of finding the Khan assaulted by
+assassins. A few minutes after they reached the outpost at which it
+became safe to leave the Tartar chieftain; and immediately the four
+fugitives commenced a flight which is perhaps without a parallel in the
+annals of travelling. Each of them led six or seven horses besides the
+one he rode; and by shifting from one to the other (like the ancient
+_Desultors_ of the Roman circus,) so as never to burden the same horse
+for more than half an hour at a time, they continued to advance at
+the rate of two hundred miles in the twenty-four hours for three days
+consecutively. After that time, considering themselves beyond pursuit,
+they proceeded less rapidly; though still with a velocity which
+staggered the belief of Weseloff's friends in after years. He was,
+however, a man of high principle, and always adhered firmly to the
+details of his printed report. One of the circumstances there stated is,
+that they continued to pursue the route by which the Kalmucks had
+fled, never for an instant finding any difficulty in tracing it by the
+skeletons and other memorials of their calamities. In particular, he
+mentions vast heaps of money as part of the valuable property which
+it had been necessary to sacrifice. These heaps were found lying still
+untouched in the deserts. From these, Weseloff and his companions took
+as much as they could conveniently carry; and this it was, with the
+price of their beautiful horses, which they afterwards sold at one of
+the Russian military settlements for about L15 a-piece, which eventually
+enabled them to pursue their journey in Russia. This journey, as
+regarded Weseloff in particular, was closed by a tragical catastrophe.
+He was at that time young, and the only child of a doating mother. Her
+affliction under the violent abduction of her son had been excessive,
+and probably had undermined her constitution. Still she had supported
+it. Weseloff, giving way to the natural impulses of his filial
+affection, had imprudently posted through Russia, to his mother's
+house without warning of his approach. He rushed precipitately into her
+presense; and she, who had stood the shocks of sorrow, was found unequal
+to the shock of joy too sudden and too acute. She died upon the spot.
+
+We now revert to the final scenes of the Kalmuck flight. These it would
+be useless to pursue circumstantially through the whole two thousand
+miles of suffering which remained; for the character of that suffering
+was even more monotonous than on the former half of the flight, but
+also more severe. Its main elements were excessive heat, with the
+accompaniments of famine and thirst, but aggravated at every step by
+the murderous attacks of their cruel enemies, the Bashkirs and the
+Kirghises.
+
+These people, 'more fell than anguish, hunger, or the sea,' stuck to the
+unhappy Kalmucks like a swarm of enraged hornets. And very often whilst
+_they_ were attacking them in the rear, their advanced parties and
+flanks were attacked with almost equal fury by the people of the country
+which they were traversing; and with good reason, since the law of
+self-preservation had now obliged the fugitive Tartars to plunder
+provisions, and to forage wherever they passed. In this respect their
+condition was a constant oscillation of wretchedness; for, sometimes,
+pressed by grinding famine, they took a circuit of perhaps a hundred
+miles, in order to strike into a land rich in the comforts of life; but
+in such a land they were sure to find a crowded population, of which
+every arm was raised in unrelenting hostility, with all the advantages
+of local knowledge, and with constant preoccupation of all the
+defensible positions, mountain passes, or bridges. Sometimes, again,
+wearied out with this mode of suffering, they took a circuit of
+perhaps a hundred miles, in order to strike into a land with few or
+no inhabitants. But in such a land they were sure to meet absolute
+starvation. Then, again, whether with or without this plague of
+starvation, whether with or without this plague of hostility in front,
+whatever might he the 'fierce varieties' of their misery in this
+respect, no rest ever came to their unhappy rear; _post equitem sedet
+atra cura_; it was a torment like the undying worm of conscience. And,
+upon the whole, it presented a spectacle altogether unprecedented in the
+history of mankind. Private and personal malignity is not unfrequently
+immortal; but rare indeed is it to find the same pertinacity of malice
+in a nation. And what embittered the interest was, that the malice was
+reciprocal. Thus far the parties met upon equal terms; but that
+equality only sharpened the sense of their dire inequality as to other
+circumstances. The Bashkirs were ready to fight 'from morn to dewy eve.'
+The Kalmucks, on the contrary, were always obliged to run; was it _from_
+their enemies, as creatures whom they feared? No; but _towards_ their
+friends--towards that final haven of China--as what was hourly implored
+by their wives, and the tears of their children. But though they fled
+unwillingly, too often they fled in vain--being unwillingly recalled.
+There lay the torment. Every day the Bashkirs fell upon them; every day
+the same unprofitable battle was renewed; as a matter of course, the
+Kalmucks recalled part of their advanced guard to fight them; every day
+the battle raged for hours, and uniformly with the same result. For, no
+sooner did the Bashkirs find themselves too heavily pressed, and that
+the Kalmuck march had been retarded by some hours, than they retired
+into the boundless deserts where all pursuit was hopeless. But if the
+Kalmucks resolved to press forward, regardless of their enemies, in that
+case their attacks became so fierce and overwhelming, that the general
+safety seemed likely to be brought into question; nor could any
+effectual remedy be applied to the case, even for each separate day,
+except by a most embarrassing halt, and by countermarches, that, to men
+in their circumstances, were almost worse than death. It will not
+be surprising, that the irritation of such a systematic persecution,
+superadded to a previous and hereditary hatred, and accompanied by the
+stinging consciousness of utter impotence as regarded all effectual
+vengeance, should gradually have inflamed the Kalmuck animosity into the
+wildest expression of downright madness and frenzy. Indeed, long before
+the frontiers of China were approached, the hostility of both sides had
+assumed the appearance much more of a warfare amongst wild beasts than
+amongst creatures acknowledging the restraints of reason or the claims
+of a common nature. The spectacle became too atrocious; it was that of a
+host of lunatics pursued by a host of fiends.
+
+On a fine morning in early autumn of the year 1771, Kien Long, the
+Emperor of China, was pursuing his amusements in a wild frontier
+district lying on the outside of the Great Wall. For many hundred square
+leagues the country was desolate of inhabitants, but rich in woods of
+ancient growth, and overrun with game of every description. In a
+central spot of this solitary region, the Emperor had built a gorgeous
+hunting-lodge, to which he resorted annually for recreation and relief
+from the cares of government. Led onwards in pursuit of game, he had
+rambled to a distance of two hundred miles or more from this lodge,
+followed at a little distance by a sufficient military escort, and every
+night pitching his tent in a different situation, until at length he
+had arrived on the very margin of the vast central deserts of Asia.
+[Footnote: All the circumstances are learned from a long state paper
+upon the subject of this Kalmuck migration, drawn up in the Chinese
+language by the Emperor himself. Parts of this paper have been
+translated by the Jesuit missionaries. The Emperor states the whole
+motives of his conduct and the chief incidents at great length.] Here he
+was standing, by accident, at an opening of his pavilion, enjoying
+the morning sunshine, when suddenly to the westward there arose a vast
+cloudy vapor, which by degrees expanded, mounted, and seemed to be
+slowly diffusing itself over the whole face of the heavens. By-and-by
+this vast sheet of mist began to thicken towards the horizon, and to
+roll forward in billowy volumes. The Emperor's suite assembled from all
+quarters. The silver trumpets were sounded in the rear, and from all the
+glades and forest avenues began to trot forward towards the pavilion the
+yagers, half cavalry, half huntsmen, who composed the Imperial escort.
+Conjecture was on the stretch to divine the cause of this phenomenon,
+and the interest continually increased, in proportion as simple
+curiosity gradually deepened into the anxiety of uncertain danger. At
+first it had been imagined that some vast troops of deer, or other wild
+animals of the chase, had been disturbed in their forest haunts by the
+Emperor's movements, or possibly by wild beasts prowling for prey, and
+might be fetching a compass by way of re-entering the forest grounds
+at some remoter points secure from molestation. But this conjecture was
+dissipated by the slow increase of the cloud, and the steadiness of its
+motion. In the course of two hours the vast phenomenon had advanced to a
+point which was judged to be within five miles of the spectators, though
+all calculations of distance were difficult, and often fallacious, when
+applied to the endless expanses of the Tartar deserts. Through the next
+hour, during which the gentle morning breeze had a little freshened,
+the dusty vapor had developed itself far and wide into the appearance
+of huge aerial draperies, hanging in mighty volumes from the sky to the
+earth; and at particular points, where the eddies of the breeze acted
+upon the pendulous skirts of these aerial curtains rents were perceived,
+sometimes taking the form of regular arches, portals, and windows,
+through which began dimly to gleam the heads of camels 'indorsed'
+[Footnote: _Camels 'indorsed;'_--'And elephants indorsed with towers.'
+MILTON in _Paradise Regained_.] with human beings--and at intervals the
+moving of men and horses, in tumultuous array--and then, through other
+openings or vistas, at far distant points, the flashing of polished
+arms. But sometimes, as the wind slackened or died away, all those
+openings, of whatever form, in the cloudy pall, would slowly close, and
+for a time the whole pageant was shut up from view; although the growing
+din, the clamors, the shrieks and groans, ascending from infuriated
+myriads, reported, in a language not to be misunderstood, what was going
+on behind the cloudy screen.
+
+It was in fact the Kalmuck host, now in the last extremities of their
+exhaustion, and very fast approaching to that final stage of privation
+and intense misery, beyond which few or none could have lived, but also,
+happily for themselves, fast approaching (in a literal sense) that final
+stage of their long pilgrimage, at which they would meet hospitality on
+a scale of royal magnificence, and full protection from their enemies.
+These enemies, however, as yet still were hanging on their rear as
+fiercely as ever, though this day was destined to be the last of their
+hideous persecution. The Khan had, in fact, sent forward couriers with
+all the requisite statements and petitions, addressed to the Emperor
+of China. These had been duly received, and preparations made in
+consequence to welcome the Kalmucks with the most paternal benevolence.
+But as these couriers had been despatched from the Torgau at the moment
+of arrival thither, and before the advance of Traubenberg had made
+it necessary for the Khan to order a hasty renewal of the flight, the
+Emperor had not looked for their arrival on their frontier until full
+three months after the present time. The Khan had indeed expressly
+notified his intention to pass the summer heats on the banks of the
+Torgau, and to recommence his retreat about the beginning of September.
+The subsequent change of plan being unknown to Kien Long, left him for
+some time in doubt as to the true interpretation to be put upon this
+mighty apparition in the desert; but at length the savage clamors of
+hostile fury, and the clangor of weapons, unveiled to the Emperor the
+true nature of those unexpected calamities which had so prematurely
+precipitated the Kalmuck measure.
+
+Apprehending the real state of affairs, the Emperor instantly perceived
+that the first act of his fatherly care for these erring children (as
+he esteemed them) now returning to their ancient obedience, must be--to
+deliver them from their pursuers. And this was less difficult than
+might have been supposed. Not many miles in the rear was a body of well
+appointed cavalry, with a strong detachment of artillery, who always
+attended the Emperor's motions. These were hastily summoned. Meantime it
+occurred to the train of courtiers that some danger might arise to the
+Emperor's person from the proximity of a lawless enemy; and accordingly
+he was induced to retire a little to the rear. It soon appeared,
+however, to those who watched the vapory shroud in the desert, that
+its motion was not such as would argue the direction of the march to
+be exactly upon the pavilion, but rather in a diagonal line, making an
+angle of full forty-five degrees with that line in which the Imperial
+_cortege_ had been standing, and therefore with a distance continually
+increasing. Those who knew the country judged that the Kalmucks were
+making for a large fresh-water lake about seven or eight miles distant;
+they were right; and to that point the Imperial cavalry was ordered up;
+and it was precisely in that spot, and about three hours after and at
+noon-day on the 8th of September, that the great Exodus of the Kalmuck
+Tartars was brought to a final close, and with a scene of such memorable
+and hellish fury, as formed an appropriate winding-up to an expedition
+in all its parts and details so awfully disastrous. The Emperor was not
+personally present, or at least he saw whatever he _did_ see from too
+great a distance to discriminate its individual features; but he records
+in his written memorial the report made to him of this scene by some of
+his own officers.
+
+The lake of Tengis, near the frightful desert of Kobi, lay in a hollow
+amongst hills of a moderate height, ranging generally from two to three
+thousand feet high. About eleven o'clock in the forenoon, the Chinese
+cavalry reached the summit of a road which led through a cradle-like dip
+in the mountains right down upon the margin of the lake. From this pass,
+elevated about two thousand feet above the level of the water, they
+continued to descend, by a very winding and difficult road, for an hour
+and a half; and during the whole of this descent they were compelled to
+be inactive spectators of the fiendish spectacle below. The Kalmucks,
+reduced by this time from about six hundred thousand souls to two
+hundred thousand, and after enduring for two months and a half the
+miseries we have previously described--outrageous heat, famine, and the
+destroying scimitar of the Kirghises and the Bashkirs, had for the last
+ten days been traversing a hideous desert, where no vestiges were seen
+of vegetation, and no drop of water could be found. Camels and men were
+already so overladen, that it was a mere impossibility that they
+should carry a tolerable sufficiency for the passage of this frightful
+wilderness. On the eighth day the wretched daily allowance, which had
+been continually diminishing, failed entirely; and thus for two days
+of insupportable fatigue, the horrors of thirst had been carried to the
+fiercest extremity. Upon this last morning, at the sight of the hills
+and the forest scenery, which announced to those who acted as guides
+the neighborhood of the lake of Tengis, all the people rushed along with
+maddening eagerness to the anticipated solace. The day grew hotter
+and hotter, the people more and more exhausted, and gradually, in the
+general rush forwards to the lake, all discipline and command were
+lost--all attempts to preserve a rear-guard were neglected--the wild
+Bashkirs rode in amongst the encumbered people, and slaughtered them by
+wholesale, and almost without resistance. Screams and tumultuous shouts
+proclaimed the progress of the massacre; but none heeded--none halted;
+all alike, pauper or noble, continued to rush on with maniacal haste to
+the waters--all with faces blackened by the heat preying upon the liver,
+and with tongue drooping from the mouth. The cruel Bashkir was affected
+by the same misery, and manifested the same symptoms of his misery as
+the wretched Kalmuck; the murderer was oftentimes in the same frantic
+misery as his murdered victim--many indeed (an ordinary effect of
+thirst) in both nations had become lunatic--and in this state, whilst
+mere multitude and condensation of bodies alone opposed any check to the
+destroying scimitar and the trampling hoof, the lake was reached; and
+to that the whole vast body of enemies rushed, and together continued
+to rush, forgetful of all things at that moment but of one almighty
+instinct. This absorption of the thoughts in one maddening appetite
+lasted for a single minute; but in the next arose the final scene of
+parting vengeance. Far and wide the waters of the solitary lake were
+instantly dyed red with blood and gore; here rode a party of savage
+Bashkirs, hewing off heads as fast as the swathes fall before the
+mower's scythe; there stood unarmed Kalmucks in a death-grapple with
+their detested foes, both up to the middle in water, and oftentimes both
+sinking together below the surface, from weakness, or from struggles,
+and perishing in each other's arms. Did the Bashkirs at any point
+collect into a cluster for the sake of giving impetus to the assault?
+Thither were the camels driven in fiercely by those who rode them,
+generally women or boys; and even these quiet creatures were forced into
+a share in this carnival of murder, by trampling down as many as they
+could strike prostrate with the lash of their fore-legs. Every moment
+the water grew more polluted: and yet every moment fresh myriads came up
+to the lake and rushed in, not able to resist their frantic thirst, and
+swallowing large draughts of water, visibly contaminated with the blood
+of their slaughtered compatriots. Wheresoever the lake was shallow
+enough to allow of men raising their heads above the water, there for
+scores of acres were to be seen all forms of ghastly fear, of agonizing
+struggle, of spasm, of convulsion, of mortal conflict, death, and the
+fear of death--revenge, and the lunacy of revenge--hatred, and the
+frenzy of hatred--until the neutral spectators, of whom there were not
+a few, now descending the eastern side of the lake, at length averted
+their eyes in horror. This horror, which seemed incapable of further
+addition, was, however, increased by an unexpected incident. The
+Bashkirs, beginning to perceive here and there the approach of the
+Chinese cavalry, felt it prudent--wheresoever they were sufficiently at
+leisure from the passions of the murderous scene--to gather into bodies.
+This was noticed by the governor of a small Chinese fort, built upon an
+eminence above the lake; and immediately he threw in a broadside,
+which spread havoc amongst the Bashkir tribe. As often as the Bashkirs
+collected into 'globes' and 'turms' as their only means of meeting
+the long line of descending Chinese cavalry--so often did the Chinese
+governor of the fort pour in his exterminating broadside; until at
+length the lake at the lower end, became one vast seething cauldron of
+human bloodshed and carnage. The Chinese cavalry had reached the foot
+of the hills: the Bashkirs, attentive to their movements, had formed;
+skirmishes had been fought: and, with a quick sense that the contest
+was henceforwards rapidly becoming hopeless, the Bashkirs and Kirghises
+began to retire. The pursuit was not as vigorous as the Kalmuck hatred
+would have desired. But, at the same time, the very gloomiest hatred
+could not but find, in their own dreadful experience of the Asiatic
+deserts, and in the certainty that these wretched Bashkirs had to repeat
+that same experience a second time, for thousands of miles, as the price
+exacted by a retributary Providence for their vindictive cruelty--not
+the very gloomiest of the Kalmucks, or the least reflecting, but found
+in all this a retaliatory chastisement more complete and absolute
+than any which their swords and lances could have obtained, or human
+vengeance could have devised.
+
+Here ends the tale of the Kalmuck wanderings in the Desert; for any
+subsequent marches which awaited them, were neither long nor painful.
+Every possible alleviation and refreshment for their exhausted
+bodies had been already provided by Kien Long with the most princely
+munificence; and lands of great fertility were immediately assigned to
+them in ample extent along the river Ily, not very far from the point
+at which they had first emerged from the wilderness of Kobi. But the
+beneficent attention of the Chinese Emperor may be best stated in
+his own words, as translated into French by one of the Jesuit
+missionaries:--"La nation des Torgotes (_savoir les Kalmuques_) arriva a
+Ily, toute _delabree_, n'ayant ni de quoi vivre, ni de quoi se vetir. Je
+l'avais prevu; et j'avais ordonne de faire en tout genre les provisions
+necessaires pour pouvoir les secourir promptement; c'est ce qui a ete
+execute. On a fait la division des terres; et on a assigne a chaque
+famille une portion suffisante pour pouvoir servir a son entretien, soit
+en la cultivant, soit en y nourissant des bestiaux. On a donne a chaque
+particulier des etoffes pour l'habiller, des grains pour se nourrir
+pendant l'espace d'une annee, des ustensiles pour le menage et d'autres
+choses necessaires: et outre cela plusieurs onces d'argent, pour
+se pourvoir de ce qu'on aurait pu oublier. On a designe des lieux
+particuliers, fertiles en paturages; et on leur a donne des boeufs,
+moutons, &c. pour qu'ils pussent dans la suite travailler par euxmemes a
+leur entretien et a leur bienetre."
+
+These are the words of the Emperor himself, speaking in his own person
+of his own paternal cares; but another Chinese, treating the same
+subject, records the munificence of this prince in terms which proclaim
+still more forcibly the disinterested generosity which prompted, and the
+delicate considerateness which conducted this extensive bounty. He
+has been speaking of the Kalmucks, and he goes on thus:--"Lorsqu'ils
+arriverent sur nos frontieres (au nombre de plusieurs centaines de
+mille), quoique la fatigue extreme, la faim, la soif, et toutes les
+autres incommodites inseparables d'une tres-longue et tres penible route
+en eussent fait perir presque autant, ils etaient reduits a la derniere
+misere: ils manquaient de tout. Il" (viz. l'Empereur, Kien Long) "leur
+fit preparer des logemens conformes a leur maniere de vivre; il leur fit
+distribuer des aliments et des habits; il leur fit donner des boeufs,
+des moutons, et des ustensiles, pour les mettre en etat de former des
+troupeaux et de cultiver la terre, _et tout cela a ses propres frais_,
+qui se sont montes a des sommes immenses, sans compter l'argent qu'il
+a donne a chaque chef-de-famille, pour pourvoir a la subsistance de sa
+femme et de ses enfans."
+
+Thus, after their memorable year of misery, the Kalmucks were replaced
+in territorial possessions, and in comfort equal perhaps, or even
+superior, to that which they had enjoyed in Russia, and with superior
+political advantages. But, if equal or superior, their condition was no
+longer the same; if not in degree, their social prosperity had altered
+in quality; for instead of being a purely pastoral and vagrant people,
+they were now in circumstances which obliged them to become essentially
+dependent upon agriculture; and thus far raised in social rank, that by
+the natural course of their habits and the necessities of life they were
+effectually reclaimed from roving, and from the savage customs connected
+with so unsettled a life. They gained also in political privileges,
+chiefly through the immunity from military service which their new
+relations enabled them to obtain. These were circumstances of advantage
+and gain. But one great disadvantage there was, amply to overbalance
+all other possible gain; the chances were lost or were removed to an
+incalculable distance for their conversion to Christianity, without
+which in these times there is no absolute advance possible on the path
+of true civilization.
+
+One word remains to be said upon the _personal_ interests concerned in
+this great drama. The catastrophe in this respect was remarkable and
+complete. Oubacha, with all his goodness and incapacity of suspecting,
+had, since the mysterious affair on the banks of the Torgau, felt his
+mind alienated from his cousin; he revolted from the man that would have
+murdered him; and he had displayed his caution so visibly as to provoke
+a reaction in the bearing of Zebek-Dorchi, and a displeasure which all
+his dissimulation could not hide. This had produced a feud, which, by
+keeping them aloof, had probably saved the life of Oubacha; for the
+friendship of Zebek-Dorchi was more fatal than his open enmity. After
+the settlement on the Ily this feud continued to advance, until it came
+under the notice of the Emperor, on occasion of a visit which all the
+Tartar chieftains made to his Majesty at his hunting-lodge in 1772. The
+Emperor informed himself accurately of all the particulars connected
+with the transaction--of all the rights and claims put forward--and
+of the way in which they would severally affect the interests of the
+Kalmuck people. The consequence was, that he adopted the cause of
+Oubacha, and repressed the pretensions of Zebek-Dorchi, who, on his
+part, so deeply resented this discountenance to his ambitious projects,
+that in conjunction with other chiefs he had the presumption even to
+weave nets of treason against the Emperor himself. Plots were laid--were
+detected--were baffled--counterplots were constructed upon the same
+basis, and with the benefit of the opportunities thus offered.
+
+Finally, Zebek-Dorchi was invited to the imperial lodge, together with
+all his accomplices; and under the skilful management of the Chinese
+nobles in the Emperor's establishment, the murderous artifices of these
+Tartar chieftains were made to recoil upon themselves; and the whole
+of them perished by assassination at a great imperial banquet. For the
+Chinese morality is exactly of that kind which approves in everything
+the _lex talionis:_--
+
+  ----'lex nec justior ulla est (as _they_ think)
+  Quam necis artifices arte perire sua.'
+
+So perished Zebek-Dorchi, the author and originator of the great Tartar
+_Exodus_. Oubacha, meantime, and his people, were gradually recovering
+from the effects of their misery, and repairing their losses. Peace
+and prosperity, under the gentle rule of a fatherly lord paramount,
+re-dawned upon the tribes; their household _lares_, after so harsh a
+translation to distant climates, found again a happy reinstatement in
+what had in fact been their primitive abodes; they found themselves
+settled in quiet sylvan scenes, rich in all the luxuries of life, and
+endowed with the perfect loveliness of Arcadian beauty. But from the
+hills of this favored land and even from the level grounds as they
+approach its western border, they still look out upon that fearful
+wilderness which once beheld a nation in agony--the utter extirpation of
+nearly half a million from amongst its numbers, and, for the remainder,
+a storm of misery so fierce, that in the end (as happened also at Athens
+during the Peloponnesian war from a different form of misery) very many
+lost their memory; all records of their past life were wiped out as
+with a sponge--utterly erased and cancelled; and many others lost their
+reason; some in a gentle form of pensive melancholy, some in a more
+restless form of feverish delirium and nervous agitation, and others in
+the fixed forms of tempestuous mania, raving frenzy, or moping idiocy.
+Two great commemorative monuments arose in after years to mark the depth
+and permanence of the awe--the sacred and reverential grief with which
+all persons looked back upon the dread calamities attached to the year
+of the Tiger--all who had either personally shared in those calamities,
+and had themselves drunk from that cup of sorrow, or who had effectually
+been made witnesses to their results, and associated with their
+relief; two great monuments, we say; first of all, one in the religious
+solemnity, enjoined by the Dalai Lama, called in the Tartar language a
+_Romanang_, that is, a national commemoration, with music the most rich
+and solemn, of all the souls who departed to the rest of Paradise from
+the afflictions of the Desert: this took place about six years after the
+arrival in China. Secondly, another more durable and more commensurate
+to the scale of the calamity and to the grandeur of this national
+Exodus, in the mighty columns of granite and brass, erected by the
+Emperor Kien Long, near the banks of the Ily: these columns stand upon
+the very margin of the _steppes_; and they bear a short but emphatic
+inscription [Footnote: This inscription has been slightly altered in one
+or two phrases, and particularly in adapting to the Christian era the
+Emperor's expressions for the year of the original Exodus from China and
+the retrogressive Exodus from Russia. With respect to the designation
+adopted for the Russian Emperor, either it is built upon some confusion
+between him and the Byzantine Caesars, as though the former, being
+of the same religion with the latter (and occupying in part the same
+longitudes, though in different latitudes) might be considered as
+his modern successor; or else it refers simply to the Greek form of
+Christianity professed by the Russian Emperor and Church.] to the
+following effect:--
+
+By the Will of God Here, upon the Brink of these Deserts, Which from
+this Point begin and stretch away Pathless, treeless, waterless, For
+thousands of miles--and along the margins of many mighty Nations, Rested
+from their labors and from great afflictions Under the shadow of the
+Chinese Wall, And by the favor of KIEN LONG, God's Lieutenant upon
+Earth, The ancient Children of the Wilderness--the Torgote Tartars
+Flying before the wrath of the Grecian Czar, Wandering Sheep who had
+strayed away from the Celestial Empire in the year 1616, But are now
+mercifully gathered again, after infinite sorrow, Into the fold of their
+forgiving Shepherd. Hallowed be the spot for ever, and Hallowed be the
+day--September 8, 1771! Amen.
+
+END OF VOLUME I.
+
+
+
+
+VOLUME II
+
+
+
+
+SYSTEM OF THE HEAVENS AS REVEALED BY LORD ROSSE'S TELESCOPES.
+
+
+[Footnote: Thoughts on Some Important Points relating to the System of
+the World. By J. P. Nichol, LL.D., Professor of Astronomy in the
+University of Glasgow. William Tait, Edinburgh. 1846.]
+
+Some years ago, some person or other, [in fact I believe it was myself,]
+published a paper from the German of Kant, on a very interesting
+question, viz., the age of our own little Earth. Those who have never
+seen that paper, a class of unfortunate people whom I suspect to form
+_rather_ the majority in our present perverse generation, will be likely
+to misconceive its object. Kant's purpose was, not to ascertain how many
+years the Earth had lived: a million of years, more or less, made very
+little difference to _him_. What he wished to settle was no such barren
+conundrum. For, had there even been any means of coercing the Earth into
+an honest answer, on such a delicate point, which the Sicilian canon,
+Recupero, fancied that there was; [Footnote: _Recupero_. See Brydone's
+Travels, some sixty or seventy years ago. The canon, being a beneficed
+clergyman in the Papal church, was naturally an infidel. He wished
+exceedingly to refute Moses: and he fancied that he really had done so
+by means of some collusive assistance from the layers of lava on Mount
+Etna. But there survives, at this day, very little to remind us of the
+canon, except an unpleasant guffaw that rises, at times, in solitary
+valleys of Etna.] but which, in my own opinion, there neither is, nor
+ought to be,--(since a man deserves to be cudgelled who could put such
+improper questions to a _lady_ planet,)--still what would it amount
+to? What good would it do us to have a certificate of our dear little
+mother's birth and baptism? Other people--people in Jupiter, or
+the Uranians--may amuse themselves with her pretended foibles or
+infirmities: it is quite safe to do so at _their_ distance; and, in
+a female planet like Venus, it might be natural, (though, strictly
+speaking, not quite correct,) to scatter abroad malicious insinuations,
+as though our excellent little mamma had begun to wear false hair, or
+had lost some of her front teeth. But all this, we men of sense know
+to be gammon. Our mother Tellus, beyond all doubt, is a lovely little
+thing. I am satisfied that she is very much admired throughout the Solar
+System: and, in clear seasons, when she is seen to advantage, with her
+bonny wee pet of a Moon tripping round her like a lamb, I should be
+thankful to any gentleman who will mention where he has happened to
+observe--either he or his telescope--will he only have the goodness
+to say, in what part of the heavens he has discovered a more elegant
+turn-out. I wish to make no personal reflections. I name no names. Only
+this I say, that, though some people have the gift of seeing things that
+other people never could see, and though some other people, or other
+some people are born with a silver spoon in their mouths, so that,
+generally, their geese count for swans, yet, after all, swans or geese,
+it would be a pleasure to me, and really a curiosity, to see the planet
+that could fancy herself entitled to sneeze at our Earth. And then, if
+she (viz., our Earth,) keeps but one Moon, even _that_ (you know) is
+an advantage as regards some people that keep none. There are people,
+pretty well known to you and me, that can't make it convenient to keep
+even one Moon. And so I come to my moral; which is this, that, to all
+appearance, it is mere justice; but, supposing it were not, still it is
+_our_ duty, (as children of the Earth,) right or wrong, to stand up for
+our bonny young mamma, if she _is_ young; or for our dear old mother, if
+she _is_ old; whether young or old, to take her part against all comers;
+and to argue through thick and thin, which (sober or not) I always
+attempt to do, that she is the most respectable member of the Copernican
+System.
+
+Meantime, what Kant understood by being old, is something that still
+remains to be explained. If one stumbled, in the steppes of Tartary,
+on the grave of a Megalonyx, and, after long study, had deciphered from
+some pre-Adamite heiro-pothooks, the following epitaph:--'_Hic jacet_
+a Megalonyx, or _Hic jacet_ a Mammoth, (as the case might be,) who
+departed this life, to the grief of his numerous acquaintance in the
+seventeen thousandth year of his age,'--of course, one would be sorry
+for him; because it must be disagreeable at _any_ age to be torn away
+from life, and from all one's little megalonychal comforts; that's not
+pleasant, you know, even if one _is_ seventeen thousand years old. But
+it would make all the difference possible in your grief, whether the
+record indicated a premature death, that he had been cut off, in fact,
+whilst just stepping into life, or had kicked the bucket when full
+of honors, and been followed to the grave by a train of weeping
+grandchildren. He had died 'in his teens,' that's past denying. But
+still we must know to what stage of life in a man, had corresponded
+seventeen thousand years in a Mammoth. Now exactly this was what Kant
+desired to know about our planet. Let her have lived any number of
+years that you suggest, (shall we say if you please, that she is in her
+billionth year?) still that tells us nothing about the _period_ of life,
+the _stage_, which she may be supposed to have reached. Is she a child,
+in fact, or is she an adult? And, _if_ an adult, and that you gave a
+ball to the Solar System, is she that kind of person, that you would
+introduce to a waltzing partner, some fiery young gentlemen like Mars,
+or would you rather suggest to her the sort of partnership which takes
+place at a whist-table? On this, as on so many other questions, Kant was
+perfectly sensible that people, of the finest understandings, may and
+do take the most opposite views. Some think that our planet is in that
+stage of her life, which corresponds to the playful period of twelve
+or thirteen in a spirited girl. Such a girl, were it not that she is
+checked by a sweet natural sense of feminine grace, you might call a
+romp; but not a hoyden, observe; no horse-play; oh, no, nothing of that
+sort. And these people fancy that earthquakes, volcanoes, and all such
+little _escapades_ will be over, they will, in lawyer's phrase, 'cease
+and determine,' as soon as our Earth reaches the age of maidenly
+bashfulness. Poor thing! It's quite natural, you know, in a healthy
+growing girl. A little overflow of vivacity, a _pirouette_ more or less,
+what harm should _that_ do to any of us? Nobody takes more delight than
+I in the fawn-like sportiveness of an innocent girl, at this period of
+life: even a shade of _espieglerie_ does not annoy me. But still my own
+impressions incline me rather to represent the Earth as a fine noble
+young woman, full of the pride which is so becoming to her sex, and well
+able to take her own part, in case that, at any solitary point of
+the heavens, she should come across one of those vulgar fussy Comets,
+disposed to be rude and take improper liberties. These Comets, by the
+way, are public nuisances, very much like the mounted messengers of
+butchers in great cities, who are always at full gallop, and moving upon
+such an infinity of angles to human shinbones, that the final purpose of
+such boys (one of whom lately had the audacity nearly to ride down the
+Duke of Wellington) seems to be--not the translation of mutton, which
+would certainly find its way into human mouths even if riding boys were
+not,--but the improved geometry of transcendental curves. They ought to
+be numbered, ought these boys, and to wear badges--X 10, &c. And exactly
+the same evil, asking therefore by implication for exactly the same
+remedy, affects the Comets. A respectable planet is known everywhere,
+and responsible for any mischief that he does. But if a cry should
+arise, 'Stop that wretch, who was rude to the Earth: who is he?' twenty
+voices will answer, perhaps, 'It's Encke's Comet; he is always doing
+mischief;' well, what can you say? it _may_ be Encke's, it may be some
+other man's Comet; there are so many abroad and on so many roads, that
+you might as well ask upon a night of fog, such fog as may be opened
+with an oyster knife, whose cab that was (whose, viz., out of 27,000 in
+London) that floored you into the kennel.
+
+These are constructive ideas upon the Earth's stage of evolution, which
+Kant was aware of, and which will always find toleration, even where
+they do not find patronage. But others there are, a class whom I
+perfectly abominate, that place our Earth in the category of decaying
+women, nay of decayed women, going, going, and all but gone. 'Hair like
+arctic snows, failure of vital heat, palsy that shakes the head as in
+the porcelain toys on our mantel-pieces, asthma that shakes the whole
+fabric--these they absolutely fancy themselves to _see_. They absolutely
+_hear_ the tellurian lungs wheezing, panting, crying, 'Bellows to mend!'
+periodically as the Earth approaches her aphelion.
+
+But suddenly at this point a demur arises upon the total question.
+Kant's very problem explodes, bursts, as poison in Venetian wine-glass
+of old shivered the glass into fragments. For is there, after all, any
+stationary meaning in the question? Perhaps in reality the Earth is both
+young and old. Young? If she is not young at present, perhaps she _will_
+be so in future. Old? if she is not old at this moment, perhaps she
+_has_ been old, and has a fair chance of becoming so again. In fact,
+she is a Phoenix that is known to have secret processes for rebuilding
+herself out of her own ashes. Little doubt there is but she has
+seen many a birthday, many a funeral night, and many a morning of
+resurrection. Where now the mightiest of oceans rolls in pacific beauty,
+once were anchored continents and boundless forests. Where the south
+pole now shuts her frozen gates inhospitably against the intrusions
+of flesh, once were probably accumulated the ribs of empires; man's
+imperial forehead, woman's roseate lips, gleamed upon ten thousand
+hills; and there were innumerable contributions to antarctic journals
+almost as good (but not quite) as our own. Even within our domestic
+limits, even where little England, in her south-eastern quarter now
+devolves so quietly to the sea her sweet pastoral rivulets, once
+came roaring down, in pomp of waters, a regal Ganges [Footnote:
+_'Ganges:'_--Dr. Nichol calls it by this name for the purpose of
+expressing its grandeur; and certainly in breadth, in diffusion at all
+times, but especially in the rainy season, the Ganges is the cock of
+the walk in our British orient. Else, as regards the body of water
+discharged, the absolute payments made into the sea's exchequer, and the
+majesty of column riding downwards from the Himalaya, I believe that,
+since Sir Alexander Burnes's measurements, the Indus ranks foremost by
+a long chalk.], that drained some hyperbolical continent, some Quinbus
+Flestrin of Asiatic proportions, long since gone to the dogs. All things
+pass away. Generations wax old as does a garment: but eternally God
+says:--'Come again, ye children of men.' Wildernesses of fruit, and
+worlds of flowers, are annually gathered in solitary South America to
+ancestral graves: yet still the Pomona of Earth, yet still the Flora of
+Earth, does not become superannuated, but blossoms in everlasting youth.
+Not otherwise by secular periods, known to us geologically as facts,
+though obscure as durations, _Tellus_ herself, the planet, as a whole,
+is for ever working by golden balances of change and compensation,
+of ruin and restoration. She recasts her glorious habitations in
+decomposing them; she lies down for death, which perhaps a thousand
+times she has suffered; she rises for a new birth, which perhaps for
+the thousandth time has glorified her disc. Hers is the wedding garment,
+hers is the shroud, that eternally is being woven in the loom. And God
+imposes upon her the awful necessity of working for ever at her
+own grave, yet of listening for ever to his far-off trumpet of
+_palingenesis_.
+
+If this account of the matter be just, and were it not treasonable
+to insinuate the possibility of an error against so great a swell as
+Immanuel Kant, one would be inclined to fancy that Mr. Kant had
+really been dozing a little on this occasion; or, agreeably to his own
+illustration elsewhere, that he had realized the pleasant picture of one
+learned doctor trying to milk a he-goat, whilst another doctor, equally
+learned, holds the milk-pail below. [Footnote: Kant applied this
+illustration to the case where one worshipful scholar proposes some
+impossible problem, (as the squaring of the circle, or the perpetual
+motion,) which another worshipful scholar sits down to solve. The
+reference was of course to Virgil's line,--'Atque idem jungat vulpes, et
+_mulgeat hircos_.'] And there is apparently this two-edged embarrassment
+pressing upon the case--that, if our dear excellent mother the Earth
+could be persuaded to tell us her exact age in Julian years, still
+_that_ would leave us all as much in the dark as ever: since, if the
+answer were, 'Why, children, at my next birth-day I shall count a matter
+of some million centuries,' we should still be at a loss to _value_ her
+age: would it mean that she was a mere chicken, or that she was 'getting
+up in years?' On the other hand, if (declining to state any odious
+circumstantialities,) she were to reply,--'No matter, children, for my
+precise years, which are disagreeable remembrances; I confess generally
+to being a lady of a certain age,'--here, in the inverse order,
+given the _valuation_ of the age, we should yet be at a loss for the
+_absolute_ years numerically: would a 'certain age,' mean that 'mamma'
+was a million, be the same more or less, or perhaps not much above
+seventy thousand?
+
+Every way, you see, reader, there are difficulties. But two things
+used to strike me, as unaccountably overlooked by Kant; who, to say the
+truth, was profound--yet at no time very agile--in the character of his
+understanding. First, what age now might we take our brother and
+sister planets to be? For _that_ determination as to a point in _their_
+constitution, will do something to illustrate our own. We are as good
+as they, I hope, any day: perhaps in a growl, one might modestly
+insinuate--_better_. It's not at all likely that there can be any
+great disproportion of age amongst children of the same household: and
+therefore, since Kant always countenanced the idea that Jupiter had
+not quite finished the upholstery of his extensive premises, as a
+comfortable residence for a man, Jupiter having, in fact, a fine family
+of mammoths, but no family at all of 'humans,' (as brother Jonathan
+calls them,) Kant was bound, _ex analogo_, to hold that any little
+precedency in the trade of living, on the part of our own mother Earth,
+could not count for much in the long run. At Newmarket, or Doncaster,
+the start is seldom mathematically true: trifling advantages will
+survive all human trials after abstract equity; and the logic of this
+case argues, that any few thousands of years by which Tellus may have
+got ahead of Jupiter, such as the having finished her Roman Empire,
+finished her Crusades, and finished her French Revolution, virtually
+amounts to little or nothing; indicates no higher proportion to the
+total scale upon which she has to run, than the few tickings of a watch
+by which one horse at the start for the Leger is in advance of another.
+When checked in our chronology by each other, it transpires that, in
+effect, we are but executing the nice manoeuvre of a start; and that the
+small matter of six thousand years, by which we may have advanced
+our own position beyond some of our planetary rivals, is but the
+outstretched neck of an uneasy horse at Doncaster. This is _one_ of the
+data overlooked by Kant; and the less excusably overlooked, because
+it was his own peculiar doctrine,--that uncle Jupiter ought to be
+considered a greenhorn. Jupiter may be a younger brother of our mamma;
+but, if he is a brother at all, he cannot be so very wide of our own
+chronology; and therefore the first _datum_ overlooked by Kant was--the
+analogy of our whole planetary system. A second datum, as it always
+occurred to myself, might reasonably enough be derived from the
+intellectual vigor of us men. If our mother could, with any show of
+reason, be considered an old decayed lady, snoring stentorously in
+her arm-chair, there would naturally be some _aroma_ of phthisis, or
+apoplexy, beginning to form about _us_, that are her children. But _is_
+there? If ever Dr. Johnson said a true word, it was when he replied to
+the Scottish judge Burnett, so well known to the world as Lord Monboddo.
+The judge, a learned man, but obstinate as a mule in certain prejudices,
+had said plaintively, querulously, piteously,--'Ah, Doctor, we are poor
+creatures, we men of the eighteenth century, by comparison with our
+forefathers!' 'Oh, no, my Lord,' said Johnson, 'we are quite as strong
+as our ancestors, and a great deal wiser.' Yes; our kick is, at least,
+as dangerous, and our logic does three times as much execution. This
+would be a complex topic to treat effectively; and I wish merely to
+indicate the opening which it offers for a most decisive order of
+arguments in such a controversy. If the Earth were on her last legs, we
+her children could not be very strong or healthy. Whereas, if there were
+less pedantry amongst us, less malice, less falsehood, and less darkness
+of prejudice, easy it would be to show, that in almost every mode of
+intellectual power, we are more than a match for the most conceited
+of elder generations, and that in some modes we have energies or arts
+absolutely and exclusively our own. Amongst a thousand indications of
+strength and budding youth, I will mention two:--Is it likely, is
+it plausible, that our Earth should just begin to find out effective
+methods of traversing land and sea, when she had a summons to leave
+both? Is it not, on the contrary, a clear presumption that the great
+career of earthly nations is but on the point of opening, that life
+is but just beginning to kindle, when the great obstacles to effectual
+locomotion, and therefore to extensive human intercourse, are first of
+all beginning to give way? Secondly, I ask peremptorily,--Does it
+stand with good sense, is it reasonable that Earth is waning, science
+drooping, man looking downward, precisely in that epoch when, first of
+all, man's eye is arming itself for looking effectively into the mighty
+depths of space? A new era for the human intellect, upon a path that
+lies amongst its most aspiring, is promised, is inaugurated, by Lord
+Rosse's almost awful telescope.
+
+What is it then that Lord Rosse has accomplished? If a man were aiming
+at dazzling by effects of rhetoric, he might reply: He has accomplished
+that which once the condition of the telescope not only refused its
+permission to hope for, but expressly bade man to despair of. What is it
+that Lord Rosse has revealed? Answer: he has revealed more by far than
+he found. The theatre to which he has introduced us, is _immeasurably_
+beyond the old one which he found. To say that he found, in the visible
+universe, a little wooden theatre of Thespis, a _treteau_ or shed of
+vagrants, and that he presented us, at a price of toil and of _anxiety_
+that cannot be measured, with a Roman colosseum,--_that_ is to say
+nothing. It is to undertake the measurement of the tropics with the
+pocket-tape of an upholsterer. Columbus, when he introduced the Old
+World to the New, after all that can be said in his praise, did in
+fact only introduce the majority to the minority; but Lord Rosse has
+introduced the minority to the majority. There are two worlds, one
+called Ante-Rosse, and the other Post-Rosse; and, if it should come to
+voting, the latter would shockingly outvote the other. Augustus Caesar
+made it his boast when dying, that he had found the city of Rome built
+of brick, and that he left it built of marble: _lateritiam invenit,
+marmoream reliquit_. Lord Rosse may say, even if to-day he should die,
+'I found God's universe represented for human convenience, even after
+all the sublime discoveries of Herschel, upon a globe or spherical chart
+having a radius of one hundred and fifty feet; and I left it sketched
+upon a similar chart, keeping exactly the same scale of proportions, but
+now elongating its radius into one thousand feet.' The reader of course
+understands that this expression, founded on absolute calculations of
+Dr. Nichol, is simply meant to exhibit the _relative_ dimensions of the
+_mundus Ante-Rosseanus_ and the _mundus Post-Rosseanus;_ for as to
+the _absolute_ dimensions, when stated in miles, leagues or any units
+familiar to the human experience, they are too stunning and confounding.
+If, again, they are stated in larger units, as for instance diameters of
+the earth's orbit, the unit itself that should facilitate the grasping
+of the result, and which really _is_ more manageable numerically,
+becomes itself elusive of the mental grasp: it comes in as an
+interpreter; and (as in some other cases) the interpreter is hardest to
+be understood of the two. If, finally, TIME be assumed as the exponent
+of the dreadful magnitudes, time combining itself with motion, as in the
+flight of cannon-balls or the flight of swallows, the sublimity
+becomes greater; but horror seizes upon the reflecting intellect, and
+incredulity upon the irreflective. Even a railroad generation, that
+_should_ have faith in the miracles of velocity, lifts up its hands with
+an '_Incredulus odi_!' we know that Dr. Nichol speaks the truth; but he
+_seems_ to speak falsehood. And the ignorant by-stander prays that the
+doctor may have grace given him and time for repentance; whilst his
+more liberal companion reproves his want of charity, observing that
+travellers into far countries have always had a license for lying, as
+a sort of tax or fine levied for remunerating their own risks; and
+that great astronomers, as necessarily far travellers into space, are
+entitled to a double per centage of the same Munchausen privilege.
+
+Great is the mystery of Space, greater is the mystery of Time; either
+mystery grows upon man, as man himself grows; and either seems to be a
+function of the godlike which is in man. In reality the depths and the
+heights which are in man, the depths by which he searches, the heights
+by which he aspires, are but projected and made objective externally in
+the three dimensions of space which are outside of him. He trembles at
+the abyss into which his bodily eyes look down, or look up; not knowing
+that abyss to be, not always consciously suspecting it to be, but by an
+instinct written in his prophetic heart feeling it to be, boding it to
+be, fearing it to be, and sometimes hoping it to be, the mirror to a
+mightier abyss that will one day be expanded in himself. Even as to
+the sense of space, which is the lesser mystery than time, I know not
+whether the reader has remarked that it is one which swells upon man
+with the expansion of his mind, and that it is probably peculiar to the
+mind of man. An infant of a year old, or oftentimes even older, takes no
+notice of a sound, however loud, which is a quarter of a mile removed,
+or even in a distant chamber. And brutes, even of the most enlarged
+capacities, seem not to have any commerce with distance: distance is
+probably not revealed to them except by a _presence_, viz., by some
+shadow of their own animality, which, if perceived at all, is perceived
+as a thing _present_ to their organs. An animal desire, or a deep
+animal hostility, may render sensible a distance which else would not be
+sensible; but not render it sensible _as_ a distance. Hence perhaps is
+explained, and not out of any self-oblivion from higher enthusiasm, a
+fact that often has occurred, of deer, or hares, or foxes, and the
+pack of hounds in pursuit, chaser and chased, all going headlong over a
+precipice together. Depth or height does not readily manifest itself to
+_them_; so that any _strong_ motive is sufficient to overpower the sense
+of it. Man only has a natural function for expanding on an illimitable
+sensorium, the illimitable growths of space. Man, coming to the
+precipice, reads his danger; the brute perishes: man is saved; and the
+horse is saved by his rider.
+
+But, if this sounds in the ear of some a doubtful refinement, the doubt
+applies only to the lowest degrees of space. For the highest, it is
+certain that brutes have no perception. To man is as much reserved
+the prerogative of perceiving space in its higher extensions, as of
+geometrically constructing the relations of space. And the brute is no
+more capable of apprehending abysses through his eye, than he can build
+upwards or can analyze downwards the aerial synthesis of Geometry. Such,
+therefore, as is space for the grandeur of man's perceptions, such as is
+space for the benefit of man's towering mathematic speculations, such is
+the nature of our debt to Lord Rosse--as being the philosopher who has
+most pushed back the frontiers of our conquests upon this _exclusive_
+inheritance of man. We have all heard of a king that, sitting on the
+sea-shore, bade the waves, as they began to lave his feet, upon their
+allegiance to retire. _That_ was said not vainly or presumptuously,
+but in reproof of sycophantic courtiers. Now, however, we see in good
+earnest another man, wielding another kind of sceptre, and sitting upon
+the shores of infinity, that says to the ice which had frozen up our
+progress,--'Melt thou before my breath!' that says to the rebellious
+_nebulae_,--'Submit, and burst into blazing worlds!' that says to the
+gates of darkness,--'Roll back, ye barriers, and no longer hide from us
+the infinities of God!'
+
+  'Come, and I will show you what is beautiful.'
+
+From the days of infancy still lingers in my ears this opening of
+a prose hymn by a lady, then very celebrated, viz., the late Mrs.
+Barbauld. The hymn began by enticing some solitary infant into some
+silent garden, I believe, or some forest lawn; and the opening words
+were, 'Come, and I will show you what is beautiful!' Well, and what
+beside? There is nothing beside; oh, disappointed and therefore enraged
+reader; positively this is the sum-total of what I can recall from the
+wreck of years; and certainly it is not much. Even of Sappho, though
+time has made mere ducks and drakes of her lyrics, we have rather more
+spared to us than this. And yet this trifle, simple as you think it,
+this shred of a fragment, if the reader will believe me, still
+echoes with luxurious sweetness in my ears, from some unaccountable
+hide-and-seek of fugitive childish memories; just as a marine shell,
+if applied steadily to the ear, awakens (according to the fine image
+of Landor [Footnote: 'Of Landor,' viz., in his 'Gebir;' but also of
+Wordsworth in 'The Excursion.' And I must tell the reader, that a
+contest raged at one time as to the _original property_ in this image,
+not much less keen than that between Neptune and Minerva, for the
+chancellorship of Athens.]) the great vision of the sea; places the
+listener
+
+              'In the sun's palace-porch,
+  And murmurs as the ocean murmurs there.'
+
+Now, on some moonless night, in some fitting condition of the
+atmosphere, if Lord Rosse would permit the reader and myself to walk
+into the front drawing-room of his telescope, then, in Mrs. Barbauld's
+words, slightly varied, I might say to him,--Come, and I will show you
+what is sublime! In fact, what I am going to lay before him, from Dr.
+Nichol's work, is, or at least _would_ be, (when translated into Hebrew
+grandeur by the mighty telescope,) a step above even that object which
+some four-and-twenty years ago in the British Museum struck me as simply
+the sublimest sight which in this sight-seeing world I had seen. It was
+the Memnon's head, then recently brought from Egypt. I looked at it, as
+the reader must suppose, in order to understand the depth which I have
+here ascribed to the impression, not as a human but as a symbolic
+head; and what it symbolized to me were: 1. The peace which passeth all
+understanding. 2. The eternity which baffles and confounds all faculty
+of computation; the eternity which _had_ been, the eternity which _was_
+to be. 3. The diffusive love, not such as rises and falls upon waves of
+life and mortality, not such as sinks and swells by undulations of time,
+but a procession--an emanation from some mystery of endless dawn. You
+durst not call it a smile that radiated from the lips; the radiation was
+too awful to clothe itself in adumbrations or memorials of flesh.
+
+In _that mode_ of sublimity, perhaps, I still adhere to my first
+opinion, that nothing so great was ever beheld. The atmosphere for
+_this_, for the Memnon, was the breathlessness which belongs to a
+saintly trance; the holy thing seemed to live by silence. But there _is_
+a picture, the pendant of the Memnon, there _is_ a dreadful cartoon,
+from the gallery which has begun to open upon Lord Rosse's telescope,
+where the appropriate atmosphere for investing it must be drawn from
+another silence, from the frost and from the eternities of death. It
+is the famous _nebula_ in the constellation of Orion; famous for the
+unexampled defiance with which it resisted all approaches from the most
+potent of former telescopes; famous for its frightful magnitude and for
+the frightful depth to which it is sunk in the abysses of the heavenly
+wilderness; famous just now for the submission with which it has begun
+to render up its secrets to the all-conquering telescope; and famous
+in all time coming for the horror of the regal phantasma which it has
+perfected to eyes of flesh. Had Milton's 'incestuous mother,' with her
+fleshless son, and with the warrior angel, his father, that led the
+rebellions of heaven, been suddenly unmasked by Lord Rosse's instrument,
+in these dreadful distances before which, simply as expressions of
+resistance, the mind of man shudders and recoils, there would have been
+nothing more appalling in the exposure; in fact, it would have been
+essentially the same exposure: the same expression of power in the
+detestable phantom, the same rebellion in the attitude, the same pomp of
+malice in the features to a universe seasoned for its assaults.
+
+The reader must look to Dr. Nichol's book, at page 51, for the picture
+of this abominable apparition. But then, in order to see what _I_ see,
+the obedient reader must do what I tell him to do. Let him therefore
+view the wretch upside down. If he neglects that simple direction, of
+course I don't answer for anything that follows: without any fault of
+mine, my description will be unintelligible. This inversion being made,
+the following is the dreadful creature that will then reveal itself.
+
+_Description of the Nebula in Orion, as forced to show out by Lord
+Rosse._--You see a head thrown back, and raising its face, (or eyes, if
+eyes it had,) in the very anguish of hatred, to some unknown heavens.
+What _should_ be its skull wears what _might_ be an Assyrian tiara, only
+ending behind in a floating train. This head rests upon a beautifully
+developed neck and throat. All power being given to the awful enemy, he
+is beautiful where he pleases, in order to point and envenom his ghostly
+ugliness. The mouth, in that stage of the apocalypse which Sir John
+Herschel was able to arrest in his eighteen-inch mirror, is amply
+developed. Brutalities unspeakable sit upon the upper lip, which is
+confluent with a snout; for separate nostrils there are none. Were it
+not for this one defect of nostrils; and, even in spite of this defect,
+(since, in so mysterious a mixture of the angelic and the brutal, we may
+suppose the sense of odor to work by some compensatory organ,) one is
+reminded by the phantom's attitude of a passage, ever memorable, in
+Milton: that passage, I mean, where Death first becomes aware, soon
+after the original trespass, of his own future empire over man. The
+'meagre shadow' even smiles (for the first time and the last) on
+apprehending his own abominable bliss, by apprehending from afar the
+savor 'of mortal change on earth.'
+
+  ----'Such a scent,' (he says,) 'I draw
+  Of carnage, prey innumerable.'
+
+As illustrating the attitude of the phantom in Orion, let the reader
+allow me to quote the tremendous passage:--
+
+  'So saying, with delight he snuff'd the smell
+  Of mortal change on earth. As when a flock
+  Of ravenous fowl, though many a league remote,
+  Against the day of battle, to a field,
+  Where armies lie encamp'd, come flying, lured
+  With scent of living carcasses design'd
+  For death, the following day, in bloody fight;
+  So scented the grim feature,
+
+[Footnote: 'So scented the grim feature,' [_feature_ is the old word for
+_form or outline that is shadowy_; and also for form (shadowy or not)
+which abstracts from the _matter_.] By the way, I have never seen it
+noticed, that Milton was indebted for the hint of this immortal passage
+to a superb line-and-a-half, in Lucan's Pharsalia.]
+
+               and upturn'd
+  His nostril wide into the murky air,
+  Sagacious of his quarry from so far.'
+
+But the lower lip, which is drawn inwards with the curve of a conch
+shell,--oh what a convolute of cruelty and revenge is _there_!
+Cruelty!--to whom? Revenge!--for what? Ask not, whisper not. Look
+upwards to other mysteries. In the very region of his temples, driving
+itself downwards into his cruel brain, and breaking the continuity of
+his diadem, is a horrid chasm, a ravine, a shaft, that many centuries
+would not traverse; and it is serrated on its posterior wall with a
+harrow that perhaps is partly hidden. From the anterior wall of this
+chasm rise, in vertical directions, two processes; one perpendicular,
+and rigid as a horn, the other streaming forward before some portentous
+breath. What these could be, seemed doubtful; but now, when further
+examinations by Sir John Herschel, at the Cape of Good Hope, have filled
+up the scattered outline with a rich umbrageous growth, one is inclined
+to regard them as the plumes of a sultan. Dressed he is, therefore, as
+well as armed. And finally comes Lord Rosse, that glorifies him with
+the jewellery [Footnote: _The jewellery of Stars_. And one thing is
+very remarkable, viz., that not only the stars justify this name of
+jewellery, as usual, by the life of their splendor, but also, in this
+case, by their arrangement. No jeweller could have set, or disposed with
+more art, the magnificent quadrille of stars which is placed immediately
+below the upright plume. There is also another, a truncated quadrille,
+wanting only the left hand star (or you might call it a bisected
+lozenge) placed on the diadem, but obliquely placed as regards the curve
+of that diadem. Two or three other arrangements are striking, though
+not equally so, both from their regularity and from their repeating each
+other, as the forms in a kaleidoscope.] of stars: he is now a vision 'to
+dream of, not to tell:' he is ready for the worship of those that
+are tormented in sleep: and the stages of his solemn uncovering by
+astronomy, first by Sir W. Herschel, secondly, by his son, and finally
+by Lord Rosse, is like the reversing of some heavenly doom, like
+the raising of the seals that had been sealed by the angel, in the
+Revelations. But the reader naturally asks, How does all this concern
+Lord Rosse's telescope on the one side, or general astronomy on the
+other? This _nebula_, he will say, seems a bad kind of fellow by your
+account; and of course it will not break my heart to hear, that he has
+had the conceit taken out of him. But in what way can _that_ affect the
+pretensions of this new instrument; or, if it did, how can the character
+of the instrument affect the general condition of a science? Besides, is
+not the science a growth from very ancient times? With great respect for
+the Earl of Rosse, is it conceivable that he, or any man, by one hour's
+working the tackle of his new instrument, can have carried any stunning
+revolutionary effect into the heart of a section so ancient in our
+mathematical physics? But the reader is to consider, that the ruins made
+by Lord Rosse, are in _sidereal_ astronomy, which is almost wholly a
+growth of modern times; and the particular part of it demolished by the
+new telescope, is almost exclusively the creation of the two Herschels,
+father and son. Laplace, it is true, adopted their views; and he
+transferred them to the particular service of our own planetary system.
+But he gave to them no new sanction, except what arises from showing
+that they would account for the appearances, as they present themselves
+to our experience at this day. That was a _negative_ confirmation; by
+which I mean, that, had their views failed in the hands of Laplace,
+then they were proved to be false; but, _not_ failing, they were not
+therefore proved to be true. It was like proving a gun; if the charge is
+insufficient, or if, in trying the strength of cast iron, timber, ropes,
+&c., the strain is not up to the rigor of the demand, you go away with
+perhaps a favorable impression as to the promises of the article; it has
+stood a moderate trial; it has stood all the trial that offered, which
+is always something; but you are still obliged to feel that, when the
+ultimate test is applied, smash may go the whole concern. Lord Rosse
+applied an ultimate test; and smash went the whole concern. Really I
+must have laughed, though all the world had been angry, when the shrieks
+and yells of expiring systems began to reverberate all the way from the
+belt of Orion; and positively at the very first broadside delivered from
+this huge four-decker of a telescope.
+
+But what was it then that went to wreck? That is a thing more easy to
+ask than to answer. At least, for my own part, I complain that some
+vagueness hangs over all the accounts of the nebular hypothesis.
+However, in this place a brief sketch will suffice.
+
+Herschel the elder, having greatly improved the telescope, began to
+observe with special attention a class of remarkable phenomena in the
+starry world hitherto unstudied, viz.: milky spots in various stages of
+diffusion. The nature of these appearances soon cleared itself up thus
+far, that generally they were found to be starry worlds, separated from
+ours by inconceivable distances, and in that way concealing at first
+their real nature. The whitish gleam was the mask conferred by the
+enormity of their remotion. This being so, it might have been supposed
+that, as was the faintness of these cloudy spots or _nebulae_, such was
+the distance. But _that_ did not follow: for in the treasury of nature
+it turned out that there were other resources for modifying the powers
+of distance, for muffling and unmuffling the voice of stars. Suppose
+a world at the distance _x_, which distance is so great as to make the
+manifestation of that world weak, milky, nebular. Now let the secret
+power that wields these awful orbs, push this world back to a double
+distance! _that_ should naturally make it paler and more dilute than
+ever: and yet by _compression_, by deeper centralization, this effect
+shall be defeated; by forcing into far closer neighborhood the stars
+which compose this world, again it shall gleam out brighter when at 2_x_
+than when at _x_. At this point of compression, let the great moulding
+power a second time push it back; and a second time it will grow faint.
+But once more let this world be tortured into closer compression, again
+let the screw be put upon it, and once again it shall shake off the
+oppression of distance as the dew-drops are shaken from a lion's mane.
+And thus in fact the mysterious architect plays at hide-and-seek with
+his worlds. 'I will hide it,' he says, 'and it shall be found again by
+man; I will withdraw it into distances that shall seem fabulous, and
+again it shall apparel itself in glorious light; a third time I will
+plunge it into aboriginal darkness, and upon the vision of man a third
+time it shall rise with a new epiphany.'
+
+But, says the objector, there is no such world; there is no world that
+has thus been driven back, and depressed from one deep to a lower
+deep. Granted: but the same effect, an illustration of the same law,
+is produced equally, whether you take four worlds, all of the same
+magnitude, and plunge them _simultaneously_ into four different abysses,
+sinking by graduated distances one below another, or take one world and
+plunge it to the same distances _successively_. So in Geology, when men
+talk of substances in different stages, or of transitional states, they
+do not mean that they have watched the same individual _stratum_ or
+_phenomenon_, exhibiting states removed from each other by depths of
+many thousand years; how could they? but they have seen one stage in
+the case A, another stage in the case B. They take, for instance, three
+objects, the same (to use the technical language of logic) generically,
+though numerically different, under separate circumstances, or in
+different stages of advance. They are one object for logic, they are
+three for human convenience. So again it might seem impossible to give
+the history of a rose tree from infancy to age: how could the same rose
+tree, at the same time, be young and old? Yet by taking the different
+developments of its flowers, even as they hang on the same tree, from
+the earliest bud to the full-blown rose, you may in effect pursue this
+vegetable growth through all its stages: you have before you the bony
+blushing little rose-bud, and the respectable 'mediaeval' full-blown
+rose.
+
+This point settled, let it now be remarked, that Herschel's resources
+enabled him to unmask many of these _nebulae_: stars they were, and stars
+he forced them to own themselves. Why should any decent world wear
+an _alias_? There was nothing, you know, to be ashamed of in being an
+honest cluster of stars. Indeed, they seemed to be sensible of this
+themselves, and they now yielded to the force of Herschel's arguments so
+far as to show themselves in the new character of _nebulae_ spangled with
+stars; these are the _stellar nebulae_; quite as much as you could expect
+in so short a time: Rome was not built in a day: and one must have
+some respect to stellar feelings. It was noticed, however, that where a
+bright haze, and not a weak milk-and-water haze, had revealed itself
+to the telescope, this, arising from a case of _compression_, (as
+previously explained,) required very little increase of telescopic power
+to force him into a fuller confession. He made a clean breast of it.
+But at length came a dreadful anomaly. A 'nebula' in the constellation
+_Andromeda_ turned restive: another in _Orion_, I grieve to say it,
+still more so. I confine myself to the latter. A very low power sufficed
+to bring him to a slight confession, which in fact amounted to nothing;
+the very highest would not persuade him to show a star. 'Just one,'
+said some coaxing person; 'we'll be satisfied with only one.' But no:
+he would _not_. He was hardened, 'he wouldn't _split_.' And Herschel
+was thus led, after waiting as long as flesh and blood _could_ wait,
+to infer two classes of _nebulae_; one that were stars; and another
+that were _not_ stars, nor ever were meant to be stars. Yet _that_ was
+premature: he found at last, that, though not raised to the peerage of
+stars, finally they would be so: they were the matter of stars; and by
+gradual condensation would become suns, whose atmosphere, by a similar
+process of condensing, would become planets, capable of brilliant
+literati and philosophers, in several volumes octavo. So stood the case
+for a long time; it was settled to the satisfaction of Europe that there
+were two classes of _nebulae_, one that _were_ worlds, one that were
+_not_, but only the pabulum of future worlds. Silence arose. A voice was
+heard, 'Let there be Lord Rosse!' and immediately his telescope walked
+into Orion; destroyed the supposed matter of stars; but, in return,
+created immeasurable worlds.
+
+As a hint for apprehending the delicacy and difficulty of the process in
+sidereal astronomy, let the inexperienced reader figure to himself these
+separate cases of perplexity: 1st, A perplexity where the dilemma arises
+from the collision between magnitude and distance:--is the size less, or
+the distance greater? 2dly, Where the dilemma arises between motions, a
+motion in ourselves doubtfully confounded with a motion in some external
+body; or, 3dly, Where it arises between possible positions of an object:
+is it a real proximity that we see between two stars, or simply an
+apparent proximity from lying in the same visual line, though in far
+other depths of space? As regards the first dilemma, we may suppose two
+laws, A and B, absolutely in contradiction, laid down at starting: A,
+that all fixed stars are precisely at the same _distance_; in this case
+every difference in the apparent magnitude will indicate a corresponding
+difference in the real magnitude, and will measure that difference. B,
+that all the fixed stars are precisely of the same _magnitude_; in which
+case, every variety in the size will indicate a corresponding difference
+in the distance, and will measure that difference. Nor could we imagine
+any exception to these inferences from A or from B, whichever of the two
+were assumed, unless through optical laws that might not equally affect
+objects under different circumstances; I mean, for instance, that might
+suffer a disturbance as applied under hypoth. B, to different depths in
+space, or under hypoth. A, to different arrangements of structure in the
+star. But thirdly, it is certain, that neither A nor B is the abiding
+law: and next it becomes an object by science and by instruments to
+distinguish more readily and more certainly between the cases where
+the distance has degraded the size, and the cases where the size being
+_really_ less, has caused an exaggeration of the distance: or again,
+where the size being really less, yet co-operating with a distance
+really greater, may degrade the estimate, (though travelling in a right
+direction,) below the truth; or again where the size being really less,
+yet counteracted by a distance also less, may equally disturb the truth
+of human measurements, and so on.
+
+A second large order of equivocating appearances will arise,--not as to
+magnitude, but as to motion. If it could be a safe assumption, that
+the system to which our planet is attached were absolutely fixed and
+motionless, except as regards its own _internal_ relations of movement,
+then every change outside of us, every motion that the registers of
+astronomy had established, would be objective and not subjective. It
+would be safe to pronounce at once that it was a motion in the object
+contemplated, _not_ in the subject contemplating. Or, reversely, if it
+were safe to assume as a universal law, that no motion was possible in
+the starry heavens, then every change of relations in space, between
+ourselves and them, would indicate and would measure a progress, or
+regress, on the part of our solar system, in certain known directions.
+But now, because it is not safe to rest in either assumption, the range
+of possibilities for which science has to provide, is enlarged; the
+immediate difficulties are multiplied; but with the result (as in the
+former case) of reversionally expanding the powers, and consequently the
+facilities, lodged both in the science and in the arts ministerial
+to the science. Thus, in the constellation _Cygnus_, there is a star
+gradually changing its relation to our system, whose distance from
+ourselves (as Dr. Nichol tells us) is ascertained to be about six
+hundred and seventy thousand times our own distance from the sun: that
+is, neglecting minute accuracy, about six hundred and seventy thousand
+stages of one hundred million miles each. This point being known, it
+falls within the _arts_ of astronomy to translate this apparent angular
+motion into miles; and presuming this change of relation to be not in
+the star, but really in ourselves, we may deduce the velocity of our
+course, we may enter into our _log_ daily the rate at which our whole
+solar system is running. Bessel, it seems, the eminent astronomer who
+died lately, computed this velocity to be such (viz., three times that
+of our own earth in its proper orbit) as would carry us to the star in
+forty-one thousand years. But, in the mean time, the astronomer is to
+hold in reserve some small share of his attention, some trifle of a
+side-glance, now and then, to the possibility of an error, after all, in
+the main assumption: he must watch the indications, if any such should
+arise, that not ourselves, but the star in _Cygnus_, is the real party
+concerned, in drifting at this shocking rate, with no prospect of coming
+to an anchorage. [Footnote: It is worth adding at this point, whilst the
+reader remembers without effort the numbers, viz., forty-one thousand
+years, for the time, (the space being our own distance from the sun
+repeated six hundred and seventy thousand times,) what would be the
+time required for reaching, in the _body_, that distance to which Lord
+Rosse's six feet mirror has so recently extended our _vision_. The time
+would be, as Dr. Nichol computes, about two hundred and fifty millions
+of years, supposing that our rate of travelling was about three times
+that of our earth in its orbit. Now, as the velocity is assumed to
+be the same in both cases, the ratio between the distance (already so
+tremendous) of Bessel's 61 _Cygni_, and that of Lord Rosse's farthest
+frontier, is as forty-one thousand to two hundred and fifty millions.
+This is a simple rule-of-three problem for a child. And the answer to
+it will, perhaps, convey the simplest expression of the superhuman power
+lodged in the new telescope:--as is the ratio of forty-one thousand to
+two hundred and fifty million, so is the ratio of our own distance from
+the sun multiplied by six hundred and seventy thousand, to the outermost
+limit of Lord Rosse's sidereal vision.]
+
+Another class, and a frequent one, of equivocal phenomena, phenomena
+that are reconcilable indifferently with either of two assumptions,
+though less plausibly reconciled with the one than with the other,
+concerns the position of stars that seem connected with each other by
+systematic relations, and which yet _may_ lie in very different depths
+of space, being brought into seeming connection only by the human eye.
+There have been, and there are, cases where two stars dissemble an
+interconnection which they really _have_, and other cases where they
+simulate an interconnection which they have not. All these cases of
+simulation and dissimulation torment the astronomer by multiplying his
+perplexities, and deepening the difficulty of escaping them. He cannot
+get at the truth: in many cases, magnitude and distance are in collusion
+with each other to deceive him: motion subjective is in collusion with
+motion objective; duplex systems are in collusion with fraudulent stars,
+having no real partnership whatever, but mimicking such a partnership by
+means of the limitations or errors affecting the human eye, where it can
+apply no other sense to aid or to correct itself. So that the business
+of astronomy, in these days, is no sinecure, as the reader perceives.
+And by another evidence, it is continually becoming less of a sinecure.
+Formerly, one or two men,--Tycho, suppose, or, in a later age, Cassini
+and Horrox, and Bradley, had observatories: one man, suppose, observed
+the stars for all Christendom; and the rest of Europe observed _him_.
+But now, up and down Europe, from the deep blue of Italian skies to the
+cold frosty atmospheres of St. Petersburg and Glasgow, the stars are
+conscious of being watched everywhere; and if all astronomers do not
+publish their observations, all use them in their speculations. New and
+brilliantly appointed observatories are rising in every latitude, or
+risen; and none, by the way, of these new-born observatories, is
+more interesting from the circumstances of its position, or more
+_picturesque_ to a higher organ than the eye--viz., to the human
+heart--than the New Observatory raised by the university of
+Glasgow.[Footnote: It has been reported, ever since the autumn of 1845,
+and the report is now, (August, 1846,) gathering strength, that some
+railway potentate, having taken a fancy for the ancient college of
+Glasgow, as a bauble to hang about his wife's neck, (no accounting for
+tastes,) has offered, (or _will_ offer,) such a price, that the good
+old academic lady in this her moss-grown antiquity, seriously thinks
+of taking him at his word, packing up her traps, and being off. When a
+spirit of galavanting comes across an aged lady, it is always difficult
+to know where it will stop: so, in fact, you know, she may choose to
+steam for Texas. But the present impression is, that she will
+settle down by the side of what you may call her married or settled
+daughter--the Observatory; which one would be glad to have confirmed,
+as indicating that no purpose of pleasure-seeking had been working in
+elderly minds, but the instinct of religious rest and aspiration. The
+Observatory would thus remind one of those early Christian anchorites,
+and self-exiled visionaries, that being led by almost a necessity of
+nature to take up their residence in deserts, sometimes drew after
+themselves the whole of their own neighborhood.]
+
+The New Observatory of Glasgow is now, I believe, finished; and the
+only fact connected with its history that was painful, as embodying and
+recording that Vandal alienation from science, literature, and all their
+interests, which has ever marked our too haughty and Caliph-Omar-like
+British government, lay in the circumstance that the glasses of the
+apparatus, the whole mounting of the establishment, in so far as it
+was a scientific establishment, and even the workmen for putting up
+the machinery, were imported from Bavaria. We, that once bade the world
+stand aside when the question arose about glasses, or the graduation of
+instruments, were now literally obliged to stand cap in hand, bowing to
+Mr. Somebody, successor of Frauenhofer or Frauendevil, in Munich!
+Who caused _that_, we should all be glad to know, if not the wicked
+Treasury, that killed the hen that laid the golden eggs by taxing her
+until her spine broke? It is to be hoped that, at this moment, and
+specifically for this offence, some scores of Exchequer men, chancellors
+and other rubbish, are in purgatory, and perhaps working, with
+shirt-sleeves tucked up, in purgatorial glass-houses, with very small
+allowances of beer, to defray the cost of perspiration. But why trouble
+a festal remembrance with commemorations of crimes or criminals?
+What makes the Glasgow Observatory so peculiarly interesting, is its
+position, connected with and overlooking so vast a city, having more
+than three hundred thousand inhabitants, (in spite of an American
+sceptic,) nearly all children of toil; and a city, too, which, from the
+necessities of its circumstances, draws so deeply upon that fountain of
+misery and guilt which some ordinance, as ancient as 'our father Jacob,'
+with his patriarchal well for Samaria, has bequeathed to manufacturing
+towns,--to Ninevehs, to Babylons, to Tyres. How tarnished with eternal
+canopies of smoke, and of sorrow; how dark with agitations of many
+orders, is the mighty town below! How serene, how quiet, how lifted
+above the confusion and the roar, how liberated from the strifes of
+earth, is the solemn Observatory that crowns the grounds above! And
+duly, at night, just when the toil of over-wrought Glasgow is mercifully
+relaxing, then comes the summons to the laboring astronomer. _He_ speaks
+not of the night, but of the day and the flaunting day-light, as the
+hours 'in which no man can work.' And the least reflecting of men
+must be impressed by the idea, that at wide intervals, but intervals
+scattered over Europe, whilst 'all that mighty heart' is, by sleep,
+resting from its labors, secret eyes are lifted up to heaven in
+astronomical watch-towers; eyes that keep watch and ward over spaces
+that make us dizzy to remember, eyes that register the promises of
+comets, and disentangle the labyrinths of worlds.
+
+Another feature of interest, connected with the Glasgow Observatory, is
+personal, and founded on the intellectual characteristics of the present
+professor, Dr. Nichol; in the deep meditative style of his mind seeking
+for rest, yet placed in conflict for ever with the tumultuous necessity
+in _him_ for travelling along the line of revolutionary thought, and
+following it loyally, wearied or not, to its natural home.
+
+In a sonnet of Milton, one of three connected with his own blindness,
+he distinguishes between two classes of servants that minister to
+the purposes of God. '_His_ state,' says he, meaning God's state, the
+arrangement of his regular service, 'is kingly;' that is to say, it
+resembles the mode of service established in the courts of kings;
+and, in this, it resembles that service, that there are two classes of
+ministers attending on his pleasure. For, as in the trains of kings
+are some that run without resting, night or day, to carry the royal
+messages, and also others--great lords in waiting--that move not from
+the royal gates; so of the divine retinues, some are for action only,
+some for contemplation. 'Thousands' there are that
+
+  ----'at his bidding speed,
+  And post o'er land and ocean without rest.'
+
+Others, on the contrary, motionless as statues, that share not in the
+agitations of their times, that tremble not in sympathy with the
+storms around them, but that listen--that watch--that wait--for secret
+indications to be fulfilled, or secret signs to be deciphered. And,
+of this latter class, he adds-that they, not less than the others, are
+accepted by God; or, as it is so exquisitely expressed in the closing
+line,
+
+  '_They_ also serve, that only stand and wait.'
+
+Something analogous to this one may see in the distributions of
+literature and science. Many popularize and diffuse: some reap and
+gather on their own account. Many translate, into languages fit for the
+multitude, messages which they receive from human voices: some listen,
+like Kubla Khan, far down in caverns or hanging over subterranean
+rivers, for secret whispers that mingle and confuse themselves with the
+general uproar of torrents, but which can be detected and kept apart
+by the obstinate prophetic ear, which spells into words and ominous
+sentences the distracted syllables of aerial voices. Dr. Nichol is one
+of those who pass to and fro between these classes; and has the rare
+function of keeping open their vital communications. As a popularizing
+astronomer, he has done more for the benefit of his great science than
+all the rest of Europe combined: and now, when he notices, without
+murmur, the fact that his office of popular teacher is almost taken out
+of his hands, (so many are they who have trained of late for the duty,)
+that change has, in fact, been accomplished through knowledge, through
+explanations, through suggestions, dispersed and prompted by himself.
+
+For my own part, as one belonging to the laity, and not to the _clerus_,
+in the science of astronomy, I could scarcely have presumed to report
+minutely, or to sit in the character of dissector upon the separate
+details of Dr. Nichol's works, either this, or those which have preceded
+it, had there even been room left disposable for such a task. But in
+this view it is sufficient to have made the general acknowledgment which
+already _has_ been made, that Dr. Nichol's works, and his oral lectures
+upon astronomy, are to be considered as the _fundus_ of the knowledge on
+that science now working in this generation. More important it is, and
+more in reconciliation with the tenor of my own ordinary studies, to
+notice the philosophic spirit in which Dr. Nichol's works are framed;
+the breadth of his views, the eternal tendency of his steps in advance,
+or (if advance on that quarter, or at that point, happens to
+be absolutely walled out for the present,) the vigor of the
+_reconnoissances_ by which he examines the hostile intrenchments.
+Another feature challenges notice. In reading astronomical works, there
+arises (from old experience of what is usually most faulty) a wish
+either for the naked severities of science, with a total abstinence from
+all display of enthusiasm; or else, if the cravings of human sensibility
+are to be met and gratified, that it shall be by an enthusiasm
+unaffected and grand as its subject. Of that kind is the enthusiasm
+of Dr. Nichol. The grandeurs of astronomy are such to him who has a
+capacity for being grandly moved. They are none at all to him who has
+not. To the mean they become meannesses. Space, for example, has no
+grandeur to him who has no space in the theatre of his own brain. I know
+writers who report the marvels of velocity, &c., in such a way that
+they become insults to yourself. It is obvious that in _their_ way of
+insisting on our earth's speed in her annual orbit, they do not seek
+to exalt _her_, but to mortify _you_. And, besides, these fellows are
+answerable for provoking people into fibs:--for I remember one day, that
+reading a statement of this nature, about how many things the Earth
+had done that we could never hope to do, and about the number of cannon
+balls, harnessed as a _tandem_, which the Earth would fly past, without
+leaving time to say, _How are you off for soap?_ in vexation of heart I
+could not help exclaiming--'That's nothing: I've done a great deal more
+myself;' though, when one turns it in one's mind, you know there must be
+some inaccuracy _there_. How different is Dr. Nichol's enthusiasm from
+this hypocritical and vulgar wonderment! It shows itself not merely in
+reflecting the grandeurs of his theme, and by the sure test of detecting
+and allying itself with all the indirect grandeurs that arrange
+themselves from any distance, upon or about that centre, but by the
+manifest promptness with which Dr. Nichol's enthusiasm awakens itself
+upon _every_ road that leads to things elevating for man; or to things
+promising for knowledge; or to things which, like dubious theories
+or imperfect attempts at systematizing, though neutral as regards
+knowledge, minister to what is greater than knowledge, viz., to
+intellectual _power_, to the augmented power of handling your materials,
+though with no more materials than before. In his geological and
+cosmological inquiries, in his casual speculations, the same quality of
+intellect betrays itself; the intellect that labors in sympathy with the
+laboring _nisus_ of these gladiatorial times; that works (and sees the
+necessity of working) the apparatus of many sciences towards a composite
+result; the intellect that retires in one direction only to make head in
+another; and that already is prefiguring the route beyond the barriers,
+whilst yet the gates are locked.
+
+There was a man in the last century, and an eminent man too, who used
+to say, that whereas people in general pretended to admire astronomy as
+being essentially sublime, he for _his_ part looked upon all that sort
+of thing as a swindle; and, on the contrary, he regarded the solar
+system as decidedly vulgar; because the planets were all of them so
+infernally punctual, they kept time with such horrible precision,
+that they forced him, whether he would or no, to think of nothing but
+post-office clocks, mail-coaches, and book-keepers. Regularity may be
+beautiful, but it excludes the sublime. What he wished for was something
+like Lloyd's list.
+
+_Comets_--due 3; arrived 1. _Mercury_, when last seen, appeared to be
+distressed; but made no signals. _Pallas_ and _Vesta_, not heard of for
+some time; supposed to have foundered. _Moon_, spoken last night through
+a heavy bank of clouds; out sixteen days: all right.
+
+Now this poor man's misfortune was, to have lived in the days of mere
+planetary astronomy. At present, when our own little system, with all
+its grandeurs, has dwindled by comparison to a subordinate province, if
+any man is bold enough to say so, a poor shivering unit amongst myriads
+that are brighter, we ought no longer to talk of astronomy, but of
+_the astronomies_. There is the planetary, the cometary, the sidereal,
+perhaps also others; as, for instance, even yet the nebular; because,
+though Lord Rosse has smitten it with the son of Amram's rod, has
+made it open, and cloven a path through it, yet other and more fearful
+_nebulae_ may loom in sight, (if further improvements should be effected
+in the telescope,) that may puzzle even Lord Rosse. And when he tells
+his _famulus_--'Fire a shot at that strange fellow, and make him show
+his colors,' possibly the mighty stranger may disdain the summons. That
+would be vexatious: we should all be incensed at _that_. But no matter.
+What's a _nebula_, what's a world, more or less? In the spiritual
+heavens are many mansions: in the starry heavens, that are now unfolding
+and preparing to unfold before us, are many vacant areas upon which the
+astronomer may pitch his secret pavilion. He may dedicate himself to the
+service of the _Double Suns_; he has my license to devote his whole time
+to the quadruple system of suns in _Lyra_. Swammerdam spent his life in
+a ditch watching frogs and tadpoles; why may not an astronomer give
+nine lives, if he had them, to the watching of that awful appearance
+in _Hercules_, which pretends to some rights over our own unoffending
+system? Why may he not mount guard with public approbation, for the
+next fifty years, upon the zodiacal light, the interplanetary ether,
+and other rarities, which the professional body of astronomers would
+naturally keep (if they could) for their own private enjoyment? There
+is no want of variety now, nor in fact of irregularity: for the most
+exquisite clock-work, which from enormous distance _seems_ to go
+wrong, virtually for us _does_ go wrong; so that our friend of the last
+century, who complained of the solar system, would not need to do so any
+longer. There are anomalies enough to keep him cheerful. There are now
+even things to alarm us; for anything in the starry worlds that look
+suspicious, anything that ought _not_ to be there, is, for all purposes
+of frightening us, as good as a ghost.
+
+But of all the novelties that excite my own interest in the expanding
+astronomy of recent times, the most delightful and promising are
+those charming little pyrotechnic planetoids,[Footnote: _'Pyrotechnic
+Planetoids:'_--The reader will understand me as alluding to the periodic
+shooting stars. It is now well known, that as, upon our own poor little
+earthly ocean, we fall in with certain phenomena as we approach certain
+latitudes; so also upon the great ocean navigated by our Earth, we
+fall in with prodigious showers of these meteors at periods no longer
+uncertain, but fixed as jail-deliveries. 'These remarkable showers of
+meteors,' says Dr. Nichol, 'observed at different periods in August and
+November, seem to demonstrate the fact, that, at these periods, we have
+come in contact with two streams of such planetoids then intersecting
+the earth's orbit.' If they intermit, it is only because they are
+shifting their nodes, or points of intersection.] that variegate our
+annual course. It always struck me as most disgusting, that, in going
+round the sun, we must be passing continually over old roads, and yet
+we had no means of establishing an acquaintance with them: they might
+as well be new for every trip. Those chambers of ether, through which we
+are tearing along night and day, (for _our_ train stops at no stations,)
+doubtless, if we could put some mark upon them, must be old fellows
+perfectly liable to recognition. I suppose, _they_ never have notice to
+quit. And yet, for want of such a mark, though all our lives flying past
+them and through them, we can never challenge them as known. The same
+thing happens in the desert: one monotonous iteration of sand, sand,
+sand, unless where some miserable fountain stagnates, forbids all
+approach to familiarity: nothing is circumstantiated or differenced:
+travel it for three generations, and you are no nearer to identification
+of its parts: so that it amounts to travelling through an abstract idea.
+For the desert, really I suspect the thing is hopeless: but, as regards
+our planetary orbit, matters are mending: for the last six or seven
+years I have heard of these fiery showers, but indeed I cannot say how
+much earlier they were first noticed,[Footnote: Somewhere I have seen it
+remarked, that if, on a public road, you meet a party of four women,
+it is at least fifty to one that they are all laughing; whereas, if you
+meet an equal party of my own unhappy sex, you may wager safely that
+they are talking gravely, and that one of them is uttering the word
+_money_. Hence it must be, viz, because our sisters are too much
+occupied with the playful things of this earth, and our brothers with
+its gravities, that neither party sufficiently watches the skies. And
+_that_ accounts for a fact which often has struck myself, viz., that, in
+cities, on bright moonless nights, when some brilliant skirmishings of
+the Aurora are exhibiting, or even a luminous arch, which is a broad
+ribbon of snowy light that spans the skies, positively unless I myself
+say to people--'Eyes upwards!' not one in a hundred, male or female, but
+fails to see the show, though it may be seen _gratis_, simply because
+their eyes are too uniformly reading the earth. This downward direction
+of the eyes, however, must have been worse in former ages: because else
+it never _could_ have happened that, until Queen Anne's days, nobody
+ever hinted in a book that there _was_ such a thing, or _could_ be such
+a thing, as the Aurora Borealis; and in fact Halley had the credit of
+discovering it.] as celebrating two annual festivals--one in August, one
+in November. You are a little too late, reader, for seeing this year's
+summer festival; but that's no reason why you should not engage a good
+seat for the November meeting; which, if I recollect, is about the
+9th, or the Lord Mayor's day, and on the whole better worth seeing.
+For anything _we_ know, this may be a great day in the earth's earlier
+history; she may have put forth her original rose on this day, or tried
+her hand at a primitive specimen of wheat; or she may, in fact, have
+survived some gunpowder plot about this time; so that the meteoric
+appearance may be a kind congratulating _feu-de-joye_, on the
+anniversary of the happy event. What it is that the 'cosmogony man' in
+the 'Vicar of Wakefield' would have thought of such novelties, whether
+he would have favored us with his usual opinion upon such topics, viz.,
+that _anarchon ara kai ateleutaion to pan_, or have sported a new
+one exclusively for this occasion, may be doubtful. What it is that
+astronomers think, who are a kind of 'cosmogony men,' the reader may
+learn from Dr. Nichol, Note B, (p. 139, 140.)
+
+In taking leave of a book and a subject so well fitted to draw out
+the highest mode of that grandeur, which _can_ connect itself with
+the external, (a grandeur capable of drawing down a spiritual being to
+earth, but not of raising an earthly being to heaven,) I would wish to
+contribute my own brief word of homage to this grandeur by recalling
+from a fading remembrance of twenty-five years back a short _bravura_
+of John Paul Richter. I call it a _bravura_, as being intentionally a
+passage of display and elaborate execution; and in this sense I may
+call it partly 'my own,' that at twenty-five years' distance, (after one
+single reading,) it would not have been possible for any man to report
+a passage of this length without greatly disturbing [Footnote:
+_'Disturbing;'_--neither perhaps should I much have sought to avoid
+alterations if the original had been lying before me: for it takes the
+shape of a dream; and this most brilliant of all German writers wanted
+in that field the severe simplicity, that horror of the _too much_,
+belonging to Grecian architecture, which is essential to the perfection
+of a dream considered as a work of art. He was too elaborate, to
+realize the grandeur of the shadowy.] the texture of the composition:
+by altering, one makes it partly one's own; but it is right to mention,
+that the sublime turn at the end belongs entirely to John Paul.
+
+'God called up from dreams a man into the vestibule of heaven,
+saying,--"Come thou hither, and see the glory of my house." And to the
+servants that stood around his throne he said,--"Take him, and undress
+him from his robes of flesh: cleanse his vision, and put a new breath
+into his nostrils: only touch not with any change his human heart--the
+heart that weeps and trembles." It was done; and, with a mighty angel
+for his guide, the man stood ready for his infinite voyage; and from the
+terraces of heaven, without sound or farewell, at once they wheeled away
+into endless space. Sometimes with the solemn flight of angel wing they
+fled through Zaarrahs of darkness, through wildernesses of death, that
+divided the worlds of life: sometimes they swept over frontiers, that
+were quickening under prophetic motions from God. Then, from a distance
+that is counted only in heaven, light dawned for a time through a sleepy
+film: by unutterable pace the light swept to _them_, they by unutterable
+pace to the light: in a moment the rushing of planets was upon them: in
+a moment the blazing of suns was around them. Then came eternities of
+twilight, that revealed, but were not revealed. To the right hand and
+to the left towered mighty constellations, that by self-repetitions and
+answers from afar, that by counter-positions, built up triumphal gates,
+whose architraves, whose archways--horizontal, upright--rested, rose--at
+altitudes, by spans--that seemed ghostly from infinitude. Without
+measure were the architraves, past number were the archways, beyond
+memory the gates. Within were stairs that scaled the eternities above,
+that descended to the eternities below: above was below, below was
+above, to the man stripped of gravitating body: depth was swallowed up
+in height insurmountable, height was swallowed up in depth unfathomable.
+Suddenly as thus they rode from infinite to infinite, suddenly as thus
+they tilted over abysmal worlds, a mighty cry arose--that systems
+more mysterious, that worlds more billowy,--other heights, and other
+depths,--were coming, were nearing, were at hand. Then the man sighed,
+and stopped, shuddered and wept. His over-laden heart uttered itself in
+tears; and he said,--"Angel, I will go no farther. For the spirit of man
+aches with this infinity. Insufferable is the glory of God. Let me lie
+down in the grave from the persecutions of the infinite; for end, I
+see, there is none." And from all the listening stars that shone around
+issued a choral voice, "The man speaks truly: end there is none, that
+ever yet we heard of." "End is there none?" the angel solemnly demanded:
+"Is there indeed no end? And is this the sorrow that kills you?" But no
+voice answered, that he might answer himself. Then the angel threw up
+his glorious hands to the heaven of heavens; saying, "End is there none
+to the universe of God? Lo! also there is no Beginning."'
+
+
+NOTE.--On throwing his eyes hastily over the preceding paper, the writer
+becomes afraid that some readers may give such an interpretation to a
+few playful expressions upon the age of our earth, &c., as to class him
+with those who use geology, cosmology, &c., for purposes of attack,
+or insinuation against the Scriptures. Upon this point, therefore, he
+wishes to make a firm explanation of his own opinions, which, (whether
+right or wrong,) will liberate him, once and for all, from any such
+jealousy.
+
+It is sometimes said, that the revealer of a true religion, does
+not come amongst men for the sake of teaching truths in science, or
+correcting errors in science. Most justly is this said: but often in
+terms far too feeble. For generally these terms are such as to
+imply, that, although no function of his mission, it was yet open to
+him--although not pressing with the force of an obligation upon the
+revealer, it was yet at his discretion--if not to correct other
+men's errors, yet at least in his own person to speak with scientific
+precision. I contend that it was _not_. I contend, that to have uttered
+the truths of astronomy, of geology, &c., at the era of new-born
+Christianity, was not only _below_ the purposes of a religion, but would
+have been _against_ them. Even upon errors of a far more important class
+than any errors in science can ever be,--superstitions, for instance,
+that degraded the very idea of God; prejudices and false usages, that
+laid waste human happiness, (such as slavery and many hundreds of other
+abuses that might be mentioned,) the rule evidently acted upon by
+the Founder of Christianity was this--Given the purification of the
+fountain, once assumed that the fountains of truth are cleansed, all
+these derivative currents of evil will cleanse themselves. And the only
+exceptions, which I remember, to this rule, are two cases in which, from
+the personal appeal made to his decision, Christ would have made himself
+a party to wretched delusions, if he had not condescended to expose
+their folly. But, as a general rule, the branches of error were
+disregarded, and the roots only attacked. If, then, so lofty a station
+was taken with regard even to such errors as had moral and spiritual
+relations, how much more with regard to the comparative trifles, (as
+in the ultimate relations of human nature they are,) of merely human
+science! But, for my part, I go further, and assert, that upon three
+reasons it was impossible for any messenger from God, (or offering
+himself in that character,) for a moment to have descended into the
+communication of truth merely scientific, or economic, or worldly.
+And the reasons are these: _First_, Because it would have degraded his
+mission, by lowering it to the base level of a collision with human
+curiosity, or with petty and transitory interests. _Secondly_, Because
+it would have ruined his mission; would utterly have prostrated the free
+agency and the proper agency of that mission. He that, in those days,
+should have proclaimed the true theory of the Solar System and the
+heavenly forces, would have been shut up at once--as a lunatic likely
+to become dangerous. But suppose him to have escaped _that_; still, as
+a divine teacher, he has no liberty of caprice. He must stand to the
+promises of his own acts. Uttering the first truth of a science, he
+is pledged to the second: taking the main step, he is committed to all
+which follow. He is thrown at once upon the endless controversies which
+science in every stage provokes, and in none more than in the
+earliest. Or, if he retires as from a scene of contest that he had not
+anticipated, he retires as one confessing a human precipitance and
+a human oversight, weaknesses, venial in others, but fatal to the
+pretensions of a divine teacher. Starting besides from such pretensions,
+he could not (as others might) have the privilege of selecting
+arbitrarily or partially. If upon one science, then upon all,--if upon
+science, then upon, art,--if upon art and science, then upon _every_
+branch of social economy, upon _every_ organ of civilization, his
+reformations and advances are equally due; due as to all, if due as to
+any. To move in one direction, is constructively to undertake for all.
+Without power to retreat, he has thus thrown the intellectual interests
+of his followers into a channel utterly alien to the purposes of a
+spiritual mission.
+
+Thus far he has simply failed: but next comes a worse result; an evil,
+not negative but positive. Because, _thirdly_, to apply the light of a
+revelation for the benefit of a merely human science, which is virtually
+done by so applying the illumination of an _inspired_ teacher, is--to
+assault capitally the scheme of God's discipline and training for man.
+To improve by _heavenly_ means, if but in one solitary science--to
+lighten, if but in one solitary section, the condition of difficulty
+which had been designed for the strengthening and training of human
+faculties, is _pro tanto_ to disturb--to cancel--to contradict a
+previous purpose of God, made known by silent indications from the
+beginning of the world. Wherefore did God give to man the powers for
+contending with scientific difficulties? Wherefore did he lay a secret
+train of continual occasions, that should rise, by intervals, through
+thousands of generations, for provoking and developing those activities
+in man's intellect, if, after all, he is to send a messenger of his own,
+more than human, to intercept and strangle all these great purposes?
+When, therefore, the persecutors of Galileo, alleged that Jupiter, for
+instance, could not move in the way alleged, because then the Bible
+would have proclaimed it,--as they thus threw back upon God the burthen
+of discovery, which he had thrown upon Galileo, why did they not,
+by following out their own logic, throw upon the Bible the duty of
+discovering the telescope, or discovering the satellites of Jupiter?
+And, as no such discoveries were there, why did they not, by parity of
+logic, and for mere consistency, deny the telescope as a fact, deny the
+Jovian planets as facts? But this it is to mistake the very meaning and
+purposes of a revelation. A revelation is not made for the purpose of
+showing to idle men that which they may show to themselves, by faculties
+already given to them, if only they will exert those faculties, but for
+the purpose of showing _that_ which the moral darkness of man will
+not, without supernatural light, allow him to perceive. With disdain,
+therefore, must every considerate person regard the notion,--that God
+could wilfully interfere with his own plans, by accrediting ambassadors
+to reveal astronomy, or any other science, which he has commanded men
+to cultivate _without_ revelation, by endowing them with all the natural
+powers for doing so.
+
+Even as regards astronomy, a science so nearly allying itself to
+religion by the loftiness and by the purity of its contemplations,
+Scripture is nowhere the _parent_ of any doctrine, nor so much as the
+silent sanctioner of any doctrine. Scripture cannot become the author
+of falsehood,--though it were as to a trifle, cannot become a party to
+falsehood. And it is made impossible for Scripture to teach falsely, by
+the simple fact that Scripture, on such subjects, will not condescend to
+teach at all. The Bible adopts the erroneous language of men, (which at
+any rate it must do, in order to make itself understood,) not by way
+of sanctioning a theory, but by way of using a fact. The Bible _uses_
+(postulates) the phenomena of day and night, of summer and winter, and
+expresses them, in relation to their causes, as _men_ express them, men,
+even, that are scientific astronomers. But the results, which are all
+that concern Scripture, are equally true, whether accounted for by one
+hypothesis which is philosophically just, or by another which is popular
+and erring.
+
+Now, on the other hand, in geology and cosmology, the case is still
+stronger. _Here_ there is no opening for a compliance even with popular
+language. _Here_, where there is no such stream of apparent phenomena
+running counter (as in astronomy) to the real phenomena, neither is
+there any popular language opposed to the scientific. The whole are
+abstruse speculations, even as regards their objects, not dreamed of as
+possibilities, either in their true aspects or their false aspects,
+till modern times. The Scriptures, therefore, nowhere allude to such
+sciences, either under the shape of histories, applied to processes
+current and in movement, or under the shape of theories applied to
+processes past and accomplished. The Mosaic cosmogony, indeed, gives the
+succession of natural births; and that succession will doubtless be more
+and more confirmed and illustrated as geology advances. But as to the
+time, the duration, of this cosmogony, it is the idlest of notions that
+the Scriptures either have or could have condescended to human curiosity
+upon so awful a prologue to the drama of this world. Genesis would no
+more have indulged so mean a passion with respect to the mysterious
+inauguration of the world, than the Apocalypse with respect to its
+mysterious close. 'Yet the six _days_ of Moses!' Days! But is any man
+so little versed in biblical language as not to know that (except in the
+merely historical parts of the Jewish records) every section of time
+has a secret and separate acceptation in the Scriptures? Does an _aeon_,
+though a Grecian word, bear scripturally [either in Daniel or in Saint
+John] any sense known to Grecian ears? Do the seventy _weeks_ of the
+prophet mean weeks in the sense of human calendars? Already the Psalms,
+(xc) already St. Peter, (2d Epist.) warn us of a peculiar sense
+attached to the word _day_ in divine ears? And who of the innumerable
+interpreters understands the twelve hundred and odd days in Daniel,
+or his two thousand and odd days, to mean, by possibility, periods of
+twenty-four hours? Surely the theme of Moses was as mystical, and
+as much entitled to the benefit of mystical language, as that of the
+prophets.
+
+The sum of the matter is this:--God, by a Hebrew prophet, is sublimely
+described as _the Revealer_; and, in variation of his own expression,
+the same prophet describes him as the Being 'that knoweth the darkness.'
+Under no idea can the relations of God to man be more grandly expressed.
+But of what is he the revealer? Not surely of those things which he has
+enabled man to reveal for himself, and which he has commanded him so
+to reveal, but of those things which, were it not through special
+light from heaven, must eternally remain sealed up in the inaccessible
+darkness. On this principle we should all laugh at a revealed cookery.
+But essentially the same ridicule applies to a revealed astronomy, or a
+revealed geology. As a fact, there _is_ no such astronomy or geology: as
+a possibility, by the _a priori_ argument which I have used, (viz., that
+a revelation on such fields, would contradict _other_ machineries of
+providence,) there _can_ be no such astronomy or geology. Consequently
+there _can_ be none such in the Bible. Consequently there _is_ none.
+Consequently there can be no schism or feud upon _these_ subjects
+between the Bible and the philosophies outside. Geology is a field left
+open, with the amplest permission from above, to the widest and wildest
+speculations of man.
+
+
+
+
+MODERN SUPERSTITION
+
+
+It is said continually--that the age of miracles is past. We deny that
+it is so in any sense which implies this age to differ from all other
+generations of man except one. It is neither past, nor ought we to wish
+it past. Superstition is no vice in the constitution of man: it is
+not true that, in any philosophic view, _primus in orbe deos fecit
+timor_--meaning by _fecit_ even so much as _raised into light_. As Burke
+remarked, the _timor_ at least must be presumed to preexist, and must
+be accounted for, if not the gods. If the fear created the gods, what
+created the fear? Far more true, and more just to the grandeur of man,
+it would have been to say--_Primus in orbe deos fecit sensus infiniti_.
+Even in the lowest Caffre, more goes to the sense of a divine being than
+simply his wrath or his power. Superstition, indeed, or the sympathy
+with the invisible, is the great test of man's nature, as an earthly
+combining with a celestial. In superstition lies the possibility
+of religion. And though superstition is often injurious, degrading,
+demoralizing, it is so, not as a form of corruption or degradation,
+but as a form of non-development. The crab is harsh, and for itself
+worthless. But it is the germinal form of innumerable finer fruits: not
+apples only the most exquisite, and pears; the peach and the nectarine
+are said to have radiated from this austere stock when cultured,
+developed, and transferred to all varieties of climate. Superstition
+will finally pass into pure forms of religion as man advances. It would
+be matter of lamentation to hear that superstition had at all decayed
+until man had made corresponding steps in the purification and
+development of his intellect as applicable to religious faith. Let us
+hope that this is not so. And, by way of judging, let us throw a hasty
+eye over the modes of popular superstition. If these manifest their
+vitality, it will prove that the popular intellect does not go along
+with the bookish or the worldly (philosophic we cannot call it) in
+pronouncing the miraculous extinct. The popular feeling is all in all.
+
+This function of miraculous power, which is most widely diffused through
+Pagan and Christian ages alike, but which has the least root in the
+solemnities of the imagination, we may call the _Ovidian_. By way of
+distinction, it may be so called; and with some justice, since Ovid in
+his _Metamorphoses_ gave the first elaborate record of such a tendency
+in human superstition. It is a movement of superstition under the
+domination of human affections; a mode of spiritual awe which seeks
+to reconcile itself with human tenderness or admiration; and which
+represents supernatural power as expressing itself by a sympathy with
+human distress or passion concurrently with human sympathies, and as
+supporting that blended sympathy by a symbol incarnated with the fixed
+agencies of nature. For instance, a pair of youthful lovers perish by a
+double suicide originating in a fatal mistake, and a mistake operating
+in each case through a noble self-oblivion. The tree under which their
+meeting has been concerted, and which witnesses their tragedy, is
+supposed ever afterwards to express the divine sympathy with this
+catastrophe in the gloomy color of its fruit:--
+
+  'At tu, quae ramis (arbor!) miserabile corpus
+  Nunc tegis unius, mox es tectura duorum,
+  Signa tene caedis:--pullosque et luctibus aptos
+  Semper habe fructus--gemini monumenta cruoris:'
+
+Such is the dying adjuration of the lady to the tree. And the fruit
+becomes from that time a monument of a double sympathy--sympathy from
+man, sympathy from a dark power standing behind the agencies of nature,
+and speaking through them. Meantime the object of this sympathy is
+understood to be not the individual catastrophe, but the universal
+case of unfortunate love exemplified in this particular romance. The
+inimitable grace with which Ovid has delivered these early traditions
+of human tenderness, blending with human superstition, is notorious; the
+artfulness of the pervading connection, by which every tale in the long
+succession is made to arise spontaneously out of that which precedes, is
+absolutely unrivalled; and this it was, with his luxuriant gayety, which
+procured for him a preference, even with Milton, a poet so opposite by
+intellectual constitution. It is but reasonable, therefore, that this
+function of the miraculous should bear the name of _Ovidian_. Pagan it
+was in its birth; and to paganism its titles ultimately ascend. Yet we
+know that in the transitional state through the centuries succeeding to
+Christ, during which paganism and Christianity were slowly descending
+and ascending, as if from two different strata of the atmosphere, the
+two powers interchanged whatsoever they could. (See Conyer's Middleton;
+and see Blount of our own days.) It marked the earthly nature of
+paganism, that it could borrow little or nothing by organization: it
+was fitted to no expansion. But the true faith, from its vast and
+comprehensive adaptation to the nature of man, lent itself to many
+corruptions--some deadly in their tendencies, some harmless. Amongst
+these last was the Ovidian form of connecting the unseen powers moving
+in nature with human sympathies of love or reverence. The legends of
+this kind are universal and endless. No land, the most austere in its
+Protestantism, but has adopted these superstitions: and everywhere by
+those even who reject them they are entertained with some degree of
+affectionate respect. That the ass, which in its very degradation still
+retains an under-power of sublimity, [Footnote: '_An under-power of
+sublimity_.'--Everybody knows that Homer compared the Telamonian Ajax,
+in a moment of heroic endurance, to an ass. This, however, was only
+under a momentary glance from a peculiar angle of the case. But the
+Mahometan, too solemn, and also perhaps too stupid to catch the fanciful
+colors of things, absolutely by choice, under the Bagdad Caliphate,
+decorated a most favorite hero with the title of the _Ass_--which title
+is repeated with veneration to this day. The wild ass is one of the few
+animals which has the reputation of never flying from an enemy.] or of
+sublime suggestion through its ancient connection with the wilderness,
+with the Orient, with Jerusalem, should have been honored amongst
+all animals, by the visible impression upon its back of Christian
+symbols--seems reasonable even to the infantine understanding when made
+acquainted with its meekness, its patience, its suffering life, and
+its association with the founder of Christianity in one great triumphal
+solemnity. The very man who brutally abuses it, and feels a hardhearted
+contempt for its misery and its submission, has a semi-conscious feeling
+that the same qualities were possibly those which recommended it to a
+distinction, [Footnote: '_Which recommended it to a distinction_.'--It
+might be objected that the Oriental ass was often a superb animal; that
+it is spoken of prophetically as such; and that historically the Syrian
+ass is made known to us as having been used in the prosperous ages
+of Judea for the riding of princes. But this is no objection. Those
+circumstances in the history of the ass were requisite to establish its
+symbolic propriety in a great symbolic pageant of triumph. Whilst, on
+the other hand, the individual animal, there is good reason to think,
+was marked by all the qualities of the general race as a suffering and
+unoffending tribe in the animal creation. The asses on which princes
+rode were of a separate color, of a peculiar breed, and improved, like
+the English racer, by continual care.] when all things were valued
+upon a scale inverse to that of the world. Certain it is, that in all
+Christian lands the legend about the ass is current amongst the rural
+population. The haddock, again, amongst marine animals, is supposed,
+throughout all maritime Europe, to be a privileged fish; even in austere
+Scotland, every child can point out the impression of St. Peter's
+thumb, by which from age to age it is distinguished from fishes having
+otherwise an external resemblance. All domesticated cattle, having the
+benefit of man's guardianship and care, are believed throughout England
+and Germany to go down upon their knees at one particular moment of
+Christmas eve, when the fields are covered with darkness, when no eye
+looks down but that of God, and when the exact anniversary hour
+revolves of the angelic song, once rolling over the fields and flocks
+of Palestine. [Footnote: Mahometanism, which everywhere pillages
+Christianity, cannot but have its own face at times glorified by its
+stolen jewels. This solemn hour of jubilation, gathering even the brutal
+natures into its fold, recalls accordingly the Mahometan legend (which
+the reader may remember is one of those incorporated into Southey's
+_Thalaba_) of a great hour revolving once in every year, during which
+the gates of Paradise were thrown open to their utmost extent, and gales
+of happiness issued forth upon the total family of man.] The Glastonbury
+Thorn is a more local superstition; but at one time the legend was as
+widely diffused as that of Loretto, with the angelic translation of
+its sanctities: on Christmas morning, it was devoutly believed by all
+Christendom, that this holy thorn put forth its annual blossoms. And
+with respect to the aspen tree, which Mrs. Hemans very naturally mistook
+for a Welsh legend, having first heard it in Denbighshire, the popular
+faith is universal--that it shivers mystically in sympathy with the
+horror of that mother tree in Palestine which was compelled to furnish
+materials for the cross. Neither would it in this case be any objection,
+if a passage were produced from Solinus or Theophrastus, implying that
+the aspen tree had always shivered--for the tree might presumably be
+penetrated by remote presentiments, as well as by remote remembrances.
+In so vast a case the obscure sympathy should stretch, Janus-like, each
+way. And an objection of the same kind to the rainbow, considered as
+the sign or seal by which God attested his covenant in bar of all future
+deluges, may be parried in something of the same way. It was not then
+first created--true: but it was then first selected by preference,
+amongst a multitude of natural signs as yet unappropriated, and then
+first charged with the new function of a message and a ratification to
+man. Pretty much the same theory, that is, the same way of accounting
+for the natural existence without disturbing the supernatural functions,
+may be applied to the great constellation of the other hemisphere,
+called the Southern Cross. It is viewed popularly in South America, and
+the southern parts of our northern hemisphere, as the great banner, or
+gonfalon, held aloft by Heaven before the Spanish heralds of the true
+faith in 1492. To that superstitious and ignorant race it costs not an
+effort to suppose, that by some synchronizing miracle, the constellation
+had been then specially called into existence at the very moment when
+the first Christian procession, bearing a cross in their arms, solemnly
+stepped on shore from the vessels of Christendom. We Protestants know
+better: we understand the impossibility of supposing such a narrow and
+local reference in orbs, so transcendently vast as those composing the
+constellation--orbs removed from each other by such unvoyageable worlds
+of space, and having, in fact, no real reference to each other more
+than to any other heavenly bodies whatsoever. The unity of synthesis, by
+which they are composed into one figure of a cross, we know to be a mere
+accidental result from an arbitrary synthesis of human fancy. Take such
+and such stars, compose them into letters, and they will spell such a
+word. But still it was our own choice--a synthesis of our own fancy,
+originally to combine them in this way. They might be divided from
+each other, and otherwise combined. All this is true: and yet, as
+the combination does spontaneously offer itself [Footnote: '_Does
+spontaneously offer itself._'--Heber (Bishop of Calcutta) complains that
+this constellation is not composed of stars answering his expectation in
+point of magnitude. But he admits that the dark barren space around it
+gives to this inferior magnitude a very advantageous relief.] to every
+eye, as the glorious cross does really glitter for ever through the
+silent hours of a vast hemisphere, even they who are not superstitious,
+may willingly yield to the belief--that, as the rainbow was laid in
+the very elements and necessities of nature, yet still bearing a
+pre-dedication to a service which would not be called for until many
+ages had passed, so also the mysterious cipher of man's imperishable
+hopes may have been entwined and enwreathed with the starry heavens from
+their earliest creation, as a prefiguration--as a silent heraldry of
+hope through one period, and as a heraldry of gratitude through the
+other.
+
+All these cases which we have been rehearsing, taking them in the
+fullest literality, agree in this general point of union--they are all
+silent incarnations of miraculous power--miracles, supposing them to
+have been such originally, locked up and embodied in the regular
+course of nature, just as we see lineaments of faces and of forms in
+petrifactions, in variegated marbles, in spars, or in rocky strata,
+which our fancy interprets as once having been real human existences;
+but which are now confounded with the substance of a mineral product.
+Even those who are most superstitious, therefore, look upon cases of
+this order as occupying a midway station between the physical and the
+hyperphysical, between the regular course of nature and the providential
+interruption of that course. The stream of the miraculous is here
+confluent with the stream of the natural. By such legends the credulous
+man finds his superstition but little nursed; the incredulous finds his
+philosophy but little revolted. Both alike will be willing to admit, for
+instance, that the apparent act of reverential thanksgiving, in certain
+birds, when drinking, is caused and supported by a physiological
+arrangement; and yet, perhaps, both alike would bend so far to the
+legendary faith as to allow a child to believe, and would perceive a
+pure childlike beauty in believing, that the bird was thus rendering a
+homage of deep thankfulness to the universal Father, who watches for
+the safety of sparrows, and sends his rain upon the just and upon the
+unjust. In short, the faith in this order of the physico-miraculous
+is open alike to the sceptical and the non-sceptical: it is touched
+superficially with the coloring of superstition, with its tenderness,
+its humility, its thankfulness, its awe; but, on the other hand, it is
+not therefore tainted with the coarseness, with the silliness, with the
+credulity of superstition. Such a faith reposes upon the universal
+signs diffused through nature, and blends with the mysterious of natural
+grandeurs wherever found--with the mysterious of the starry heavens,
+with the mysterious of music, and with that infinite form of the
+mysterious for man's dimmest misgivings--
+
+  'Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns.'
+
+But, from this earliest note in the ascending scale of superstitious
+faith, let us pass to a more alarming key. This first, which we have
+styled (in equity as well as for distinction) the _Ovidian_, is too
+aerial, too allegoric, almost to be susceptible of much terror. It is the
+mere _fancy_, in a mood half-playful, half-tender, which submits to the
+belief. It is the feeling, the sentiment, which creates the faith; not
+the faith which creates the feeling. And thus far we see that modern
+feeling and Christian feeling has been to the full as operative as any
+that is peculiar to paganism; judging by the Romish _Legenda_, very
+much more so. The Ovidian illustrations, under a false superstition, are
+entitled to give the designation, as being the first, the earliest, but
+not at all as the richest. Besides that, Ovid's illustrations emanated
+often from himself individually, not from the popular mind of his
+country; ours of the same classification uniformly repose on large
+popular traditions from the whole of Christian antiquity. These again
+are agencies of the supernatural which can never have a private or
+personal application; they belong to all mankind and to all generations.
+But the next in order are more solemn; they become terrific by becoming
+personal. These comprehend all that vast body of the marvellous which is
+expressed by the word _Ominous_. On this head, as dividing itself into
+the ancient and modern, we will speak next.
+
+Everybody is aware of the deep emphasis which the Pagans laid upon words
+and upon names, under this aspect of the ominous. The name of several
+places was formally changed by the Roman government, solely with a view
+to that contagion of evil which was thought to lurk in the syllables,
+if taken significantly. Thus, the town of Maleventum, (Ill-come, as one
+might render it,) had its name changed by the Romans to Beneventum, (or
+Welcome.) _Epidamnum_ again, the Grecian Calais, corresponding to the
+Roman Dover of Brundusium, was a name that would have startled the
+stoutest-hearted Roman 'from his propriety.' Had he suffered this name
+to escape him inadvertently, his spirits would have forsaken him--he
+would have pined away under a certainty of misfortune, like a poor
+Negro of Koromantyn who is the victim of Obi.[Footnote: '_The victim
+of Obi._'--It seems worthy of notice, that this magical fascination is
+generally called Obi, and the magicians Obeah men, throughout Guinea,
+Negroland, &c.; whilst the Hebrew or Syriac word for the rites
+of necromancy, was _Ob_ or _Obh_, at least when ventriloquism was
+concerned.] As a Greek word, which it was, the name imported no ill; but
+for a Roman to say _Ibo Epidamnum_, was in effect saying, though in a
+hybrid dialect, half-Greek half-Roman, 'I will go to ruin.' The name
+was therefore changed to Dyrrachium; a substitution which quieted more
+anxieties in Roman hearts than the erection of a light-house or the
+deepening of the harbor mouth. A case equally strong, to take one out of
+many hundreds that have come down to us, is reported by Livy. There was
+an officer in a Roman legion, at some period of the Republic, who bore
+the name either of Atrius Umber or Umbrius Ater: and this man being
+ordered on some expedition, the soldiers refused to follow him. They
+did right. We remember that Mr. Coleridge used facetiously to call
+the well-known sister of Dr. Aikin, Mrs. Barbauld, 'that pleonasm of
+nakedness'--the idea of nakedness being reduplicated and reverberated
+in the _bare_ and the _bald_. This Atrius Umber might be called 'that
+pleonasm of darkness;' and one might say to him, in the words of
+Othello, 'What needs this iteration?' To serve under the Gloomy was
+enough to darken the spirit of hope; but to serve under the Black Gloomy
+was really rushing upon destruction. Yet it will be alleged that Captain
+Death was a most favorite and heroic leader in the English navy; and
+that in our own times, Admiral Coffin, though an American by birth, has
+not been unpopular in the same service. This is true: and all that can
+be said is, that these names were two-edged swords, which might be made
+to tell against the enemy as well as against friends. And possibly the
+Roman centurion might have turned his name to the same account, had he
+possessed the great Dictator's presence of mind; for he, when landing in
+Africa, having happened to stumble--an omen of the worst character, in
+Roman estimation--took out its sting by following up his own oversight,
+as if it had been intentional, falling to the ground, kissing it, and
+ejaculating that in this way he appropriated the soil.
+
+Omens of every class were certainly regarded, in ancient Rome, with a
+reverence that can hardly be surpassed. But yet, with respect to these
+omens derived from names, it is certain that our modern times have more
+memorable examples on record. Out of a large number which occur to us,
+we will cite two:--The present King of the French bore in his boyish
+days a title which he would not have borne, but for an omen of bad
+augury attached to his proper title. He was called the Duc de Chartres
+before the Revolution, whereas his proper title was Duc de Valois. And
+the origin of the change was this:--The Regent's father had been the
+sole brother of Louis Quatorze. He married for his first wife our
+English princess Henrietta, the sister of Charles II., (and through her
+daughter, by the way, it is that the house of Savoy, _i.e._ of Sardinia,
+has pretensions to the English throne.) This unhappy lady, it is too
+well established, was poisoned. Voltaire, amongst many others, has
+affected to doubt the fact; for which in his time there might be some
+excuse. But since then better evidences have placed the matter beyond
+all question. We now know both the fact, and the how, and the why. The
+Duke, who probably was no party to the murder of his young wife, though
+otherwise on bad terms with her, married for his second wife a coarse
+German princess, homely in every sense, and a singular contrast to the
+elegant creature whom he had lost. She was a daughter of the Bavarian
+Elector; ill-tempered by her own confession, self-willed, and a plain
+speaker to excess; but otherwise a woman of honest German principles.
+Unhappy she was through a long life; unhappy through the monotony as
+well as the malicious intrigues of the French court; and so much so,
+that she did her best (though without effect) to prevent her Bavarian
+niece from becoming dauphiness. She acquits her husband, however, in
+the memoirs which she left behind, of any intentional share in her
+unhappiness; she describes him constantly as a well-disposed prince.
+But whether it were, that often walking in the dusk through the numerous
+apartments of that vast mansion which her husband had so much enlarged,
+naturally she turned her thoughts to the injured lady who had presided
+there before herself; or whether it arose from the inevitable gloom
+which broods continually over mighty palaces, so much is known for
+certain, that one evening, in the twilight, she met, at a remote quarter
+of the reception-rooms, something that she conceived to be a spectre.
+What she fancied to have passed on that occasion, was never known except
+to her nearest friends; and if she made any explanations in her memoirs,
+the editor has thought fit to suppress them. She mentions only, that
+in consequence of some ominous circumstances relating to the title of
+_Valois_, which was the proper second title of the Orleans family, her
+son, the Regent, had assumed in his boyhood that of Duc de Chartres. His
+elder brother was dead, so that the superior title was open to him; but,
+in consequence of those mysterious omens, whatever they might be, which
+occasioned much whispering at the time, the great title of Valois was
+laid aside for ever as of bad augury; nor has it ever been resumed
+through a century and a half that have followed that mysterious warning;
+nor will it be resumed unless the numerous children of the present
+Orleans branch should find themselves distressed for ancient titles;
+which is not likely, since they enjoy the honors of the elder house, and
+are now the _children of France_ in a technical sense.
+
+Here we have a great European case of state omens in the eldest of
+Christian houses. The next which we shall cite is equally a state case,
+and carries its public verification along with itself. In the spring of
+1799, when Napoleon was lying before Acre, he became anxious for news
+from Upper Egypt, whither he had despatched Dessaix in pursuit of a
+distinguished Mameluke leader. This was in the middle of May. Not many
+days after, a courier arrived with favorable despatches--favorable in
+the main, but reporting one tragical occurrence on a small scale
+that, to Napoleon, for a superstitious reason, outweighed the public
+prosperity. A _djerme_, or Nile boat of the largest class, having on
+board a large party of troops and of wounded men, together with most
+of a regimental band, had run ashore at the village of Benouth. No
+case could be more hopeless. The neighboring Arabs were of the Yambo
+tribe--of all Arabs the most ferocious. These Arabs and the Fellahs
+(whom, by the way, many of our countrymen are so ready to represent
+as friendly to the French and hostile to ourselves,) had taken the
+opportunity of attacking the vessel. The engagement was obstinate; but
+at length the inevitable catastrophe could be delayed no longer. The
+commander, an Italian named Morandi, was a brave man; any fate appeared
+better than that which awaited him from an enemy so malignant. He set
+fire to the powder magazine; the vessel blew up; Morandi perished in
+the Nile; and all of less nerve, who had previously reached the shore in
+safety, were put to death to the very last man, with cruelties the
+most detestable, by their inhuman enemies. For all this Napoleon cared
+little; but one solitary fact there was in the report which struck him
+with consternation. This ill-fated _djerme_--what was it called? It was
+called _L'Italie_; and in the name of the vessel Napoleon read an augury
+of the fate which had befallen the Italian territory. Considered as a
+dependency of France, he felt certain that Italy was lost; and Napoleon
+was inconsolable. But what possible connection, it was asked, can exist
+between this vessel on the Nile and a remote peninsula of Southern
+Europe? 'No matter,' replied Napoleon; 'my presentiments never deceive
+me. You will see that all is ruined. I am satisfied that my Italy, my
+conquest, is lost to France!' So, indeed, it was. All European news had
+long been intercepted by the English cruisers; but immediately after the
+battle with the Vizier in July 1799, an English admiral first informed
+the French army of Egypt that Massena and others had lost all that
+Bonaparte had won in 1796. But it is a strange illustration of human
+blindness, that this very subject of Napoleon's lamentation--this very
+campaign of 1799--it was, with its blunders and its long equipage of
+disasters, that paved the way for his own elevation to the Consulship,
+just seven calendar months from the receipt of that Egyptian despatch;
+since most certainly, in the struggle of Brumaire 1799, doubtful and
+critical through every stage, it was the pointed contrast between _his_
+Italian campaigns and those of his successors which gave effect to
+Napoleon's pretensions with the political combatants, and which procured
+them a ratification amongst the people. The loss of Italy was essential
+to the full effect of Napoleon's previous conquest. That and the
+imbecile characters of Napoleon's chief military opponents were the true
+keys to the great revolution of Brumaire. The stone which he rejected
+became the keystone of the arch. So that, after all, he valued the omen
+falsely; though the very next news from Europe, courteously communicated
+by his English enemies, showed that he had interpreted its meaning
+rightly.
+
+These omens, derived from names, are therefore common to the ancient and
+the modern world. But perhaps, in strict logic, they ought to have been
+classed as one subdivision or variety under a much larger head, viz.
+words generally, no matter whether proper names or appellatives, as
+operative powers and agencies, having, that is to say, a charmed power
+against some party concerned from the moment that they leave the lips.
+
+Homer describes prayers as having a separate life, rising buoyantly upon
+wings, and making their way upwards to the throne of Jove. Such, but in
+a sense gloomy and terrific, is the force ascribed under a widespread
+superstition, ancient and modern, to words uttered on critical
+occasions; or to words uttered at any time, which point to critical
+occasions. Hence the doctrine of _euphaemismos_, the necessity of
+abstaining from strong words or direct words in expressing fatal
+contingencies. It was shocking, at all times of paganism, to say of a
+third person--'If he should die;' or to suppose the case that he might
+be murdered. The very word _death_ was consecrated and forbidden.
+_Si quiddam humanum passus fuerit_ was the extreme form to which men
+advanced in such cases. And this scrupulous feeling, originally founded
+on the supposed efficacy of words, prevails to this day. It is a feeling
+undoubtedly supported by good taste, which strongly impresses upon us
+all the discordant tone of all impassioned subjects, (death, religion,
+&c.,) with the common key of ordinary conversation. But good taste is
+not in itself sufficient to account for a scrupulousness so general and
+so austere. In the lowest classes there is a shuddering recoil still
+felt from uttering coarsely and roundly the anticipation of a
+person's death. Suppose a child, heir to some estate, the subject of
+conversation--the hypothesis of his death is put cautiously, under such
+forms as, 'If anything but good should happen;' 'if any change should
+occur;' 'if any of us should chance to miscarry;' and so forth. Always a
+modified expression is sought--always an indirect one. And this timidity
+arises under the old superstition still lingering amongst men, like
+that ancient awe, alluded to by Wordsworth, for the sea and its deep
+secrets--feelings that have not, no, nor ever will, utterly decay. No
+excess of nautical skill will ever perfectly disenchant the great abyss
+from its terrors--no progressive knowledge will ever medicine that dread
+misgiving of a mysterious and pathless power given to words of a certain
+import, or uttered in certain situations, by a parent, to persecuting or
+insulting children; by the victim of horrible oppression, when laboring
+in final agonies; and by others, whether cursing or blessing, who stand
+central to great passions, to great interests, or to great perplexities.
+
+And here, by way of parenthesis, we may stop to explain the force of
+that expression, so common in Scripture, '_Thou hast said it._' It is an
+answer often adopted by our Saviour; and the meaning we hold to be this:
+Many forms in eastern idioms, as well as in the Greek occasionally,
+though meant _interrogatively_, are of a nature to convey a direct
+categorical _affirmation_, unless as their meaning is modified by
+the cadence and intonation. _Art thou_, detached from this vocal and
+accentual modification, is equivalent to _thou art_. Nay, even apart
+from this accident, the popular belief authorized the notion, that
+simply to have uttered any great thesis, though unconsciously--simply to
+have united verbally any two great ideas, though for a purpose the most
+different or even opposite, had the mysterious power of realizing them
+in act. An exclamation, though in the purest spirit of sport, to a
+boy, '_You shall be our imperator_,' was many times supposed to be
+the forerunner and fatal mandate for the boy's elevation. Such words
+executed themselves. To connect, though but for denial or for mockery,
+the ideas of Jesus and the Messiah, furnished an augury that eventually
+they would be found to coincide, and to have their coincidence admitted.
+It was an _argumentum ad hominem_, and drawn from a popular faith.
+
+But a modern reader will object the want of an accompanying design or
+serious meaning on the part of him who utters the words--he never meant
+his words to be taken seriously--nay, his purpose was the very opposite.
+True: and precisely that is the reason why his words are likely to
+operate effectually, and why they should be feared. Here lies the
+critical point which most of all distinguishes this faith. Words
+took effect, not merely in default of a serious use, but exactly in
+consequence of that default. It was the chance word, the stray word,
+the word uttered in jest, or in trifling, or in scorn, or unconsciously,
+which took effect; whilst ten thousand words, uttered with purpose
+and deliberation, were sure to prove inert. One case will illustrate
+this:--Alexander of Macedon, in the outset of his great expedition,
+consulted the oracle at Delphi. For the sake of his army, had he
+been even without personal faith, he desired to have his enterprise
+consecrated. No persuasions, however, would move the priestess to enter
+upon her painful and agitating duties for the sake of obtaining the
+regular answer of the god. Wearied with this, Alexander seized the great
+lady by the arm, and using as much violence as was becoming to the two
+characters--of a great prince acting and a great priestess suffering--he
+pushed her gently backwards to the tripod on which, in her professional
+character, she was to seat herself. Upon this, in the hurry and
+excitement of the moment, the priestess exclaimed, _O pai, anixaitos
+ei--O son, thou art irresistible_; never adverting for an instant to his
+martial purposes, but simply to his personal importunities. The person
+whom she thought of as incapable of resistance, was herself, and all she
+meant _consciously_ was--O son, I can refuse nothing to one so earnest.
+But mark what followed: Alexander desisted at once--he asked for no
+further oracle--he refused it, and exclaimed joyously:--'Now then, noble
+priestess, farewell; I have the oracle--I have your answer, and better
+than any which you could deliver from the tripod. I am invincible--so
+you have declared, you cannot revoke it. True, you thought not of
+Persia--you thought only of my importunity. But that very fact is what
+ratifies your answer. In its blindness I recognise its truth. An oracle
+from a god might be distorted by political ministers of the god, as
+in time past too often has been suspected. The oracle has been said to
+_Medize_, and in my own father's time to _Philippize_. But an oracle
+delivered unconsciously, indirectly, blindly, that is the oracle
+which cannot deceive.' Such was the all-famous oracle which Alexander
+accepted--such was the oracle on which he and his army reposing went
+forth 'conquering and to conquer.'
+
+Exactly on this principle do the Turks act, in putting so high a value
+on the words of idiots. Enlightened Christians have often wondered at
+their allowing any weight to people bereft of understanding. But that is
+the very reason for allowing them weight: that very defect it is which
+makes them capable of being organs for conveying words from higher
+intelligences. A fine human intelligence cannot be a passive
+instrument--it cannot be a mere tube for conveying the words of
+inspiration: such an intelligence will intermingle ideas of its own, or
+otherwise modify what is given, and pollute what is sacred.
+
+It is also on this principle that the whole practice and doctrine of
+Sortilegy rest. Let us confine ourselves to that mode of sortilegy which
+is conducted by throwing open privileged books at random, leaving to
+chance the page and the particular line on which the oracular functions
+are thrown. The books used have varied with the caprice or the error of
+ages. Once the Hebrew Scriptures had the preference. Probably they were
+laid aside, not because the reverence for their authority decayed,
+but because it increased. In later times Virgil has been the favorite.
+Considering the very limited range of ideas to which Virgil was tied
+by his theme--a colonizing expedition in a barbarous age, no worse book
+could have been selected: [Footnote: '_No worse book could have been
+selected._'--The probable reason for making so unhappy a choice seems
+to have been that Virgil, in the middle ages, had the character of
+a necromancer, a diviner, &c. This we all know from Dante. Now, the
+original reason for this strange translation of character and functions
+we hold to have arisen from the circumstance of his maternal grandfather
+having borne the name of _Magus_. People in those ages held that a
+powerful enchanter, exorciser, &c., must have a magician amongst his
+_cognati_; the power must run in the blood, which on the maternal side
+could be undeniably ascertained. Under this preconception, they took
+Magus not for a proper name, but for a professional designation. Amongst
+many illustrations of the magical character sustained by Virgil in the
+middle ages, we may mention that a writer, about the year 1200, or the
+era of our Robin Hood, published by Montfaucon, and cited by Gibbon in
+his last volume, says of Virgil,--that '_Captus a Romanis invisibiliter
+exiit, ivitque Neapopolim_.'] so little indeed does the AEneid exhibit
+of human life in its multiformity, that much tampering with the text
+is required to bring real cases of human interest and real situations
+within the scope of any Virgilian sentence, though aided by the utmost
+latitude of accommodation. A king, a soldier, a sailor, &c., might look
+for correspondences to their own circumstances; but not many others.
+Accordingly, everybody remembers the remarkable answer which Charles I.
+received at Oxford from this Virgilian oracle, about the opening of the
+Parliamentary war. But from this limitation in the range of ideas it was
+that others, and very pious people too, have not thought it profane to
+resume the old reliance on the Scriptures. No case, indeed, can try
+so severely, or put upon record so conspicuously, this indestructible
+propensity for seeking light out of darkness--this thirst for looking
+into the future by the aid of dice, real or figurative, as the fact
+of men eminent for piety having yielded to the temptation. We give one
+instance--the instance of a person who, in _practical_ theology, has
+been, perhaps, more popular than any other in any church. Dr. Doddridge,
+in his earlier days, was in a dilemma both of conscience and of taste
+as to the election he should make between two situations, one in
+possession, both at his command. He was settled at Harborough,
+in Leicestershire, and was 'pleasing himself with the view of a
+continuance' in that situation. True, he had received an invitation to
+Northampton; but the reasons against complying seemed so strong, that
+nothing was wanting but the civility of going over to Northampton, and
+making an apologetic farewell. On the last Sunday in November of the
+year 1729, the doctor went and preached a sermon in conformity with
+those purposes. 'But,' says he, 'on the morning of that day an incident
+happened, which affected me greatly.' On the night previous, it seems,
+he had been urged very importunately by his Northampton friends to
+undertake the vacant office. Much personal kindness had concurred with
+this public importunity: the good doctor was affected; he had prayed
+fervently, alleging in his prayer, as the reason which chiefly weighed
+with him to reject the offer, that it was far beyond his forces,
+and chiefly because he was too young [Footnote: '_Because he was too
+young_'--Dr. Doddridge was born in the summer of 1702; consequently
+he was at this era of his life about twenty-seven years old, and
+consequently not so obviously entitled to the excuse of youth. But he
+pleaded his youth, not with a view to the exertions required, but to
+the _auctoritas_ and responsibilities of the situation.] and had no
+assistant. He goes on thus:--'As soon as ever this address' (meaning
+the prayer) 'was ended, I passed through a room of the house in which
+I lodged, where a child was reading to his mother, and the only words
+I heard distinctly were these, _And as thy days, so shall thy strength
+be_.' This singular coincidence between his own difficulty and a
+scriptural line caught at random in passing hastily through a room, (but
+observe, a line insulated from the context, and placed in high relief
+to his ear,) shook his resolution. Accident co-operated; a promise to
+be fulfilled at Northampton, in a certain contingency, fell due at the
+instant; the doctor was detained, this detention gave time for further
+representations; new motives arose, old difficulties were removed, and
+finally the doctor saw, in all this succession of steps, the first of
+which, however, lay in the _Sortes Biblicae_, clear indications of a
+providential guidance. With that conviction he took up his abode at
+Northampton, and remained there for the next thirty-one years, until he
+left it for his grave at Lisbon; in fact, he passed at Northampton the
+whole of his public life. It must, therefore, be allowed to stand upon
+the records of sortilegy, that in the main direction of his life--not,
+indeed, as to its spirit, but as to its form and local connections--a
+Protestant divine of much merit, and chiefly in what regards practice,
+and of the class most opposed to superstition, took his determining
+impulse from a variety of the _Sortes Virgilianae_.
+
+This variety was known in early times to the Jews--as early, indeed, as
+the era of the Grecian Pericles, if we are to believe the Talmud. It
+is known familiarly to this day amongst Polish Jews, and is called
+_Bathcol_, or the _daughter of a voice_; the meaning of which
+appellation is this:--The _Urim and Thummim_, or oracle in the
+breast-plate of the high priest, spoke directly from God. It was,
+therefore, the original or mother-voice. But about the time of Pericles,
+that is, exactly one hundred years before the time of Alexander the
+Great, the light of prophecy was quenched in Malachi or Haggai; and
+the oracular jewels in the breast-plate became simultaneously dim.
+Henceforwards the mother-voice was heard no longer: but to this
+succeeded an imperfect or daughter-voice, (_Bathcol_,) which lay in the
+first words happening to arrest the attention at a moment of perplexity.
+An illustration, which has been often quoted from the Talmud, is to the
+following effect:--Rabbi Tochanan, and Rabbi Simeon Ben Lachish, were
+anxious about a friend, Rabbi Samuel, six hundred miles distant on
+the Euphrates. Whilst talking earnestly together on this subject in
+Palestine, they passed a school; they paused to listen: it was a child
+reading the first book of Samuel; and the words which they caught were
+these--_And Samuel died_. These words they received as a _Bath-col_: and
+the next horseman from the Euphrates brought word accordingly that
+Rabbi Samuel had been gathered to his fathers at some station on the
+Euphrates.
+
+Here is the very same case, the same _Bath-col_ substantially, which
+we have cited from Orton's _Life of Doddridge_. And Du Cange himself
+notices, in his Glossary, the relation which this bore to the Pagan
+_Sortes_. 'It was,' says he, 'a fantastical way of divination, invented
+by the Jews, not unlike the _Sortes Virgilianae_ of the heathens. For, as
+with them the first words they happened to dip into in the works of that
+poet were a kind of oracle whereby they predicted future events,--so,
+with the Jews, when they appealed to _Bath-col_, the first words they
+heard from any one's mouth were looked upon as a voice from Heaven
+directing them in the matter they inquired about.'
+
+If the reader imagines that this ancient form of the practical
+miraculous is at all gone out of use, even the example of Dr. Doddridge
+may satisfy him to the contrary. Such an example was sure to authorize a
+large imitation. But, even apart from that, the superstition is common.
+The records of conversion amongst felons and other ignorant persons
+might be cited by hundreds upon hundreds to prove that no practice is
+more common than that of trying the spiritual fate, and abiding by the
+import of any passage in the Scriptures which may first present itself
+to the eye. Cowper, the poet, has recorded a case of this sort in his
+own experience. It is one to which all the unhappy are prone. But a mode
+of questioning the oracles of darkness, far more childish, and, under
+some shape or other, equally common amongst those who are prompted by
+mere vacancy of mind, without that determination to sacred fountains
+which is impressed by misery, may be found in the following extravagant
+silliness of Rousseau, which we give in his own words--a case for which
+he admits that he himself would have _shut up_ any other man (meaning in
+a lunatic hospital) whom he had seen practising the same absurdities:--
+
+'Au milieu de mes etudes et d'une vie innocente autant qu'on la puisse
+mener, et malgre tout ce qu'on m'avoit pu dire, la peur de l'Enfer
+m'agitoit encore. Souvent je me demandois--En quel etat suis-je? Si je
+mourrois a l'instant meme, _serois-je damne_? Selon mes Jansenistes, [he
+had been reading the books of the Port Royal,] la chose est indubitable:
+mais, selon ma conscience, il me paroissoit que non. Toujours craintif
+et flottant dans cette cruelle incertitude, j'avois recours (pour en
+sortir) aux expedients les plus risibles, et pour lesquels je ferois
+volontiers enfermer un homme si je lui en voyois faire autant. ... Un
+jour, revant a ce triste sujet, je m'exercois machinalement a lancer
+les pierres contre les troncs des arbres; et cela avec mon addresse
+ordinaire, c'est-a-dire sans presque jamais en toucher aucun. Tout au
+milieu de ce bel exercise, je m'avisai de faire une espece de pronostic
+pour calmer mon inquietude. Je me dis--je m'en vais jeter cette pierre
+contre l'arbre qui est vis-a-vis de moi: si je le touche, signe de
+salut: si je le manque, signe de damnation. Tout en disant ainsi, je
+jette ma pierre d'une main tremblante, et avec un horrible battement
+de coeur, mais si heureusement qu'elle va frapper au beau-milieu de
+l'arbre: ce qui veritablement n'etoit pas difficile: car j'avois eu soin
+de le choisir fort gros et fort pres. _Depuis lors je n'ai plus doubte
+de mon salut._ Je ne sais, en me rappelant ce trait, si je dois rire ou
+gemir sur moimeme.'--_Les Confessions, Partie I. Livre VI._
+
+Now, really, if Rousseau thought fit to try such tremendous appeals
+by taking 'a shy' at any random object, he should have governed his
+sortilegy (for such it may be called) with something more like equity.
+Fair play is a jewel: and in such a case, a man is supposed to play
+against an adverse party hid in darkness. To shy at a cow within six
+feet distance gives no chance at all to his dark antagonist. A pigeon
+rising from a trap at a suitable distance might be thought a _sincere_
+staking of the interest at issue: but, as to the massy stem of a tree
+'fort gros et fort pres'--the sarcasm of a Roman emperor applies, that
+to miss under such conditions implied an original genius for stupidity,
+and to hit was no trial of the case. After all, the sentimentalist had
+youth to plead in apology for this extravagance. He was hypochondriacal;
+he was in solitude; and he was possessed by gloomy imaginations from the
+works of a society in the highest public credit. But most readers will
+be aware of similar appeals to the mysteries of Providence, made in
+public by illustrious sectarians, speaking from the solemn station of a
+pulpit. We forbear to quote cases of this nature, though really existing
+in print, because we feel that the blasphemy of such anecdotes is more
+revolting and more painful to pious minds than the absurdity is amusing.
+Meantime it must not be forgotten, that the principle concerned,
+though it may happen to disgust men when associated with ludicrous
+circumstances, is, after all, the very same which has latently governed
+very many modes of ordeal, or judicial inquiry; and which has been
+adopted, blindly, as a moral rule, or canon, equally by the blindest of
+the Pagans, the most fanatical of the Jews, and the most enlightened of
+the Christians. It proceeds upon the assumption that man by his actions
+puts a question to Heaven; and that Heaven answers by the event. Lucan,
+in a well known passage, takes it for granted that the cause of Caesar
+had the approbation of the gods. And why? Simply from the event. It was
+notoriously the triumphant cause. It was victorious, (_victrix_ causa
+Deis placuit; sed _victa_ Catoni.) It was the '_victrix_ causa;' and,
+_as_ such, simply because it was 'victrix,' it had a right in his eyes
+to postulate the divine favor as mere matter of necessary interference:
+whilst, on the other hand, the _victa causa_, though it seemed to Lucan
+sanctioned by human virtue in the person of Cato, stood unappealably
+condemned. This mode of reasoning may strike the reader as merely Pagan.
+Not at all. In England, at the close of the Parliamentary war, it was
+generally argued--that Providence had decided the question against the
+Royalists by the mere fact of the issue. Milton himself, with all his
+high-toned morality, uses this argument as irrefragable: which is odd,
+were it only on this account--that the issue ought necessarily to have
+been held for a time as merely hypothetic, and liable to be set aside
+by possible counter-issues through one generation at the least. But
+the capital argument against such doctrine is to be found in the
+New Testament. Strange that Milton should overlook, and strange that
+moralists in general have overlooked, the sudden arrest given to this
+dangerous but most prevalent mode of reasoning by the Founder of our
+faith. He first, he last, taught to his astonished disciples the new
+truth--at that time the astounding truth--that no relation exists
+between the immediate practical events of things on the one side, and
+divine sentences on the other. There was no presumption, he teaches
+them, against a man's favor with God, or that of his parents, because he
+happened to be afflicted to extremity with bodily disease. There was no
+shadow of an argument for believing a party of men criminal objects
+of heavenly wrath because upon them, by fatal preference, a tower had
+fallen, and because _their_ bodies were exclusively mangled. How little
+can it be said that Christianity has yet developed the fulness of its
+power, when kings and senates so recently acted under a total oblivion
+of this great though novel Christian doctrine, and would do so still,
+were it not that religious arguments have been banished by the progress
+of manners from the field of political discussion.
+
+But, quitting this province of the ominous, where it is made the object
+of a direct personal inquest, whether by private or by national trials,
+or the sortilegy of events, let us throw our eyes over the broader field
+of omens, as they offer themselves spontaneously to those who do not
+seek, or would even willingly evade them. There are few of these,
+perhaps none, which are not universal in their authority, though every
+land in turn fancies them (like its proverbs) of local prescription and
+origin. The death-watch extends from England to Cashmere, and across
+India diagonally to the remotest nook of Bengal, over a three thousand
+miles' distance from the entrance of the Indian Punjaub. A hare crossing
+a man's path on starting in the morning, has been held in all countries
+alike to prognosticate evil in the course of that day. Thus, in the
+_Confessions of a Thug_, (which is partially built on a real judicial
+document, and everywhere conforms to the usages of Hindostan,) the
+hero of the horrid narrative [Footnote: '_The hero of the horrid
+narrative_.'--Horrid it certainly is; and one incident in every case
+gives a demoniacal air of coolness to the hellish atrocities, viz the
+regular forwarding of the _bheels_, or grave-diggers. But else the tale
+tends too much to monotony; and for a reason which ought to have checked
+the author in carrying on the work to three volumes, namely, that
+although there is much dramatic variety in the circumstances of the
+several cases, there is none in the catastrophes. The brave man and the
+coward, the erect spirit fighting to the last, and the poor
+creature that despairs from the first,--all are confounded in one
+undistinguishing end by sudden strangulation. This was the original
+defect of the plan. The sudden surprise, and the scientific noosing as
+with a Chilian _lasso_, constituted in fact a main feature of Thuggee.
+But still, the gradual theatrical arrangement of each Thug severally by
+the side of a victim, must often have roused violent suspicion, and that
+in time to intercept the suddenness of the murder. Now, for the sake
+of the dramatic effect, this interception ought more often to have been
+introduced, else the murders are but so many blind surprises as if in
+sleep.] charges some disaster of his own upon having neglected such an
+omen of the morning. The same belief operated in Pagan Italy. The same
+omen announced to Lord Lindsay's Arab attendants in the desert the
+approach of some disaster, which partially happened in the morning. And
+a Highlander of the 42d Regiment, in his printed memoirs, notices
+the same harbinger of evil as having crossed his own path on a day of
+personal disaster in Spain.
+
+Birds are even more familiarly associated with such ominous warnings.
+This chapter in the great volume of superstition was indeed cultivated
+with unusual solicitude amongst the Pagans--_ornithomancy_ grew into an
+elaborate science. But if every rule and distinction upon the number
+and the position of birds, whether to the right or the left, had been
+collected from our own village matrons amongst ourselves, it would
+appear that no more of this Pagan science had gone to wreck than must
+naturally follow the difference between a believing and a disbelieving
+government. Magpies are still of awful authority in village life,
+according to their number, &c.; for a striking illustration of which we
+may refer the reader to Sir Walter Scott's _Demonology_, reported not
+at second-hand, but from Sir Walter's personal communication with some
+seafaring fellow-traveller in a stage-coach.
+
+Among the ancient stories of the same class is one which we shall
+repeat--having reference to that Herod Agrippa, grandson of Herod the
+Great, before whom St. Paul made his famous apology at Caesarea. This
+Agrippa, overwhelmed by debts, had fled from Palestine to Rome in
+the latter years of Tiberius. His mother's interest with the widow of
+Germanicus procured him a special recommendation to her son Caligula.
+Viewing this child and heir of the popular Germanicus as the rising sun,
+Agrippa had been too free in his language. True, the uncle of Germanicus
+was the reigning prince; but he was old, and breaking up. True, the
+son of Germanicus was not yet on the throne; but he soon would be;
+and Agrippa was rash enough to call the Emperor a _superannuated old
+fellow_, and even to wish for his death. Sejanus was now dead and gone;
+but there was no want of spies: and a certain Macro reported his words
+to Tiberius. Agrippa was in consequence arrested; the Emperor himself
+condescending to point out the noble Jew to the officer on duty. The
+case was a gloomy one, if Tiberius should happen to survive much longer:
+and the story of the omen proceeds thus:--'Now Agrippa stood in his
+bonds before the Imperial palace, and in his affliction leaned against
+a certain tree, upon the boughs of which it happened that a bird
+had alighted which the Romans call _bubo_, or the owl. All this was
+steadfastly observed by a German prisoner, who asked a soldier what
+might be the name and offence of that man habited in purple. Being told
+that the man's name was Agrippa, and that he was a Jew of high rank, who
+had given a personal offence to the Emperor, the German asked permission
+to go near and address him; which being granted, he spoke thus:--"This
+disaster, I doubt not, young man, is trying to your heart; and
+perhaps you will not believe me when I announce to you beforehand the
+providential deliverance which is impending. However, this much I will
+say--and for my sincerity let me appeal to my native gods, as well as
+to the gods of this Rome, who have brought us both into trouble--that
+no selfish objects prompt me to this revelation--for a revelation it
+is--and to the following effect:--It is fated that you shall not long
+remain in chains. Your deliverance will be speedy; you shall be raised
+to the very highest rank and power; you shall be the object of as much
+envy as now you are of pity; you shall retain your prosperity till
+death; and you shall transmit that prosperity to your children.
+But"--and there the German paused. Agrippa was agitated; the bystanders
+were attentive; and after a time, the German, pointing solemnly to the
+bird, proceeded thus:--"But this remember heedfully--that, when next you
+see the bird which now perches above your head, you will have only five
+days longer to live! This event will be surely accomplished by that same
+mysterious god who has thought fit to send the bird as a warning sign;
+and you, when you come to your glory, do not forget me that foreshadowed
+it in your humiliation."' The story adds, that Agrippa affected to laugh
+when the German concluded; after which it goes on to say, that in a few
+weeks, being delivered by the death of Tiberius; being released from
+prison by the very prince on whose account he had incurred the risk;
+being raised to a tetrarchy, and afterwards to the kingdom of all Judea;
+coming into all the prosperity which had been promised to him by the
+German; and not losing any part of his interest at Rome through the
+assassination of his patron Caligula--he began to look back respectfully
+to the words of the German, and forwards with anxiety to the second
+coming of the bird. Seven years of sunshine had now slipped away as
+silently as a dream. A great festival, shows and vows, was on the point
+of being celebrated in honor of Claudius Caesar, at Strato's Tower,
+otherwise called Caesarea, the Roman metropolis of Palestine. Duty and
+policy alike required that the king of the land should go down and unite
+in this mode of religious homage to the emperor. He did so; and on the
+second morning of the festival, by way of doing more conspicuous honor
+to the great solemnity, he assumed a very sumptuous attire of silver
+armor, burnished so highly as to throw back a dazzling glare from the
+sun's morning beams upon the upturned eyes of the vast multitude around
+him. Immediately from the sycophantish part of the crowd, of whom a
+vast majority were Pagans, ascended a cry of glorification as to some
+manifestation of Deity. Agrippa, gratified by this success of his new
+apparel, and by this flattery, not unusual in the case of kings, had not
+the firmness (though a Jew, and conscious of the wickedness, greater in
+himself than in the heathen crowd,) to reject the blasphemous homage.
+Voices of adoration continued to ascend; when suddenly, looking upward
+to the vast awnings prepared for screening the audience from the noonday
+heats, the king perceived the same ominous bird which he had seen at
+Rome in the day of his affliction, seated quietly, and looking down upon
+himself. In that same moment an icy pang shot through his intestines.
+He was removed into the palace; and at the end of five days, completely
+worn out by pain, Agrippa expired in the 54th year of his age, and the
+seventh of his sovereign power.
+
+Whether the bird, here described as an owl, was really such, may be
+doubted, considering the narrow nomenclature of the Romans for all
+zoological purposes, and the total indifference of the Roman mind to
+all distinctions in natural history which are not upon the very largest
+scale. We should much suspect that the bird was a magpie. Meantime,
+speaking of ornithoscopy in relation to Jews, we remember another
+story in that subdivision of the subject which it may be worth while
+repeating; not merely on its own account, as wearing a fine oriental
+air, but also for the correction which it suggests to a very common
+error.
+
+In some period of Syrian warfare, a large military detachment was
+entering at some point of Syria from the desert of the Euphrates. At
+the head of the whole array rode two men of some distinction: one was an
+augur of high reputation, the other was a Jew called Mosollam, a man
+of admirable beauty, a matchless horseman, an unerring archer, and
+accomplished in all martial arts. As they were now first coming within
+enclosed grounds, after a long march in the wilderness, the augur was
+most anxious to inaugurate the expedition by some considerable omen.
+Watching anxiously, therefore, he soon saw a bird of splendid plumage
+perching on a low wall. 'Halt!' he said to the advanced guard: and all
+drew up in a line. At that moment of silence and expectation, Mosollam,
+slightly turning himself in his saddle, drew his bow-string to his ear;
+his Jewish hatred of Pagan auguries burned within him; his inevitable
+shaft went right to its mark, and the beautiful bird fell dead. The
+augur turned round in fury. But the Jew laughed at him. 'This bird, you
+say, should have furnished us with omens of our future fortunes. But had
+he known anything of his own, he would never have perched where he did,
+or have come within the range of Mosollam's archery. How should that
+bird know our destiny, who did not know that it was his own to be shot
+by Mosollam the Jew?'
+
+Now, this is a most common but a most erroneous way of arguing. In
+a case of this kind, the bird was not supposed to have any conscious
+acquaintance with futurity, either for his own benefit or that of
+others. But even where such a consciousness may be supposed, as in the
+case of oneiromancy, or prophecy by means of dreams, it must be
+supposed limited, and the more limited in a personal sense as they are
+illimitable in a sublime one. Who imagines that, because a Daniel or
+Ezekiel foresaw the grand revolutions of the earth, therefore they must
+or could have foreseen the little details of their own ordinary life?
+And even descending from that perfect inspiration to the more doubtful
+power of augury amongst the Pagans, (concerning which the most eminent
+of theologians have held very opposite theories,) one thing is certain,
+that, so long as we entertain such pretensions, or discuss them at all,
+we must take them with the principle of those who professed such arts,
+not with principles of our own arbitrary invention.
+
+One example will make this clear:--There are in England [Footnote:
+'_There are in England_'--Especially in Somersetshire, and for twenty
+miles round Wrington, the birthplace of Locke. Nobody sinks for wells
+without their advice. We ourselves knew an amiable and accomplished
+Scottish family, who, at an estate called Belmadrothie, in memory of
+a similar property in Ross shire, built a house in Somersetshire, and
+resolved to find water without help from the jowser. But after sinking
+to a greater depth than ever had been known before, and spending nearly
+L200, they were finally obliged to consult the jowser, who found water
+at once.] a class of men who practise the Pagan rhabdomancy in a limited
+sense. They carry a rod or rhabdos (_rhabdos_) of willow: this they
+hold horizontally; and by the bending of the rod towards the ground
+they discover the favorable places for sinking wells; a matter of
+considerable importance in a province so ill-watered as the northern
+district of Somersetshire, &c. These people are locally called
+_jowsers_; and it is probable, that from the suspicion with which their
+art has been usually regarded amongst people of education, as a mere
+legerdemain trick of Dousterswivel's, is derived the slang word to
+_chouse_ for _swindle_. Meantime, the experimental evidences of a real
+practical skill in these men, and the enlarged compass of speculation
+in these days, have led many enlightened people to a Stoic _epochey_, or
+suspension of judgment, on the reality of this somewhat mysterious art.
+Now, in the East, there are men who make the same pretensions in a
+more showy branch of the art. It is not water, but treasures which they
+profess to find by some hidden kind of rhabdomancy. The very existence
+of treasures with us is reasonably considered a thing of improbable
+occurrence. But in the unsettled East, and with the low valuation of
+human life wherever Mahometanism prevails, insecurity and other causes
+must have caused millions of such deposits in every century to have
+perished as to any knowledge of survivors. The sword has been moving
+backwards and forwards, for instance, like a weaver's shuttle, since
+the time of Mahmoud the Ghaznevide, [Footnote: Mahmood of Ghizni, which,
+under the European name of Ghaznee, was so recently taken in one hour by
+our Indian army under Lord Keane Mahmood was the first Mahometan invader
+of Hindostan.] in Anno Domini 1000, in the vast regions between the
+Tigris, the Oxus, and the Indus. Regularly as it approached, gold and
+jewels must have sunk by whole harvests into the ground. A certain
+per centage has been doubtless recovered: a larger per centage has
+disappeared for ever. Hence naturally the jealousy of barbarous
+Orientals that we Europeans, in groping amongst pyramids, sphynxes, and
+tombs, are looking for buried treasures. The wretches are not so wide
+astray in what they believe as in what they disbelieve. The treasures do
+really exist which they fancy; but then also the other treasures in the
+glorious antiquities have that existence for our sense of beauty which
+to their brutality is inconceivable. In these circumstances, why should
+it surprise us that men will pursue the science of discovery as
+a regular trade? Many discoveries of treasure are doubtless made
+continually, which, for obvious reasons, are communicated to nobody.
+Some proportion there must be between the sowing of such grain as
+diamonds or emeralds, and the subsequent reaping, whether by accident or
+by art. For, with regard to the last, it is no more impossible, _prima
+fronte_, that a substance may exist having an occult sympathy with
+subterraneous water or subterraneous gold, than that the magnet should
+have a sympathy (as yet occult) with the northern pole of our planet.
+
+The first flash of careless thought applied to such a case will suggest,
+that men holding powers of this nature need not offer their services for
+hire to others. And this, in fact, is the objection universally urged by
+us Europeans as decisive against their pretensions. Their knavery, it
+is fancied, stands self-recorded; since, assuredly, they would not be
+willing to divide their subterranean treasures, if they knew of any.
+But the men are not in such self-contradiction as may seem. Lady
+Hester Stanhope, from the better knowledge she had acquired of Oriental
+opinions, set Dr. Madden right on this point. The Oriental belief is
+that a fatality attends the appropriator of a treasure in any case where
+he happens also to be the discoverer. Such a person, it is held, will
+die soon, and suddenly--so that he is compelled to seek his remuneration
+from the wages or fees of his employers, not from the treasure itself.
+
+Many more secret laws are held sacred amongst the professors of that art
+than that which was explained by Lady Hester Stanhope. These we shall
+not enter upon at present: but generally we may remark, that the same
+practices of subterranean deposits, during our troubled periods in
+Europe, led to the same superstitions. And it may be added, that the
+same error has arisen in both cases as to some of these superstitions.
+How often must it have struck people of liberal feelings, as a
+scandalous proof of the preposterous value set upon riches by poor men,
+that ghosts should popularly be supposed to rise and wander for the sake
+of revealing the situations of buried treasures. For ourselves, we have
+been accustomed to view this popular belief in the light of an argument
+for pity rather than for contempt towards poor men, as indicating the
+extreme pressure of that necessity which could so have demoralized their
+natural sense of truth. But certainly, in whatever feelings originating,
+such popular superstitions as to motives of ghostly missions did seem to
+argue a deplorable misconception of the relation subsisting between the
+spiritual world and the perishable treasures of this perishable world.
+Yet, when we look into the Eastern explanations of this case, we find
+that it is meant to express, not any overvaluation of riches, but
+the direct contrary passion. A human spirit is punished--such is the
+notion--punished in the spiritual world for excessive attachment to
+gold, by degradation to the office of its guardian; and from this office
+the tortured spirit can release itself only by revealing the treasure
+and transferring the custody. It is a penal martyrdom, not an elective
+passion for gold, which is thus exemplified in the wanderings of a
+treasure-ghost.
+
+But, in a field where of necessity we are so much limited, we willingly
+pass from the consideration of these treasure or _khasne_ phantoms
+(which alone sufficiently ensure a swarm of ghostly terrors for all
+Oriental ruins of cities,) to the same marvellous apparitions, as they
+haunt other solitudes even more awful than those of ruined cities. In
+this world there are two mighty forms of perfect solitude--the ocean and
+the desert: the wilderness of the barren sands, and the wilderness of
+the barren waters. Both are the parents of inevitable superstitions--of
+terrors, solemn, ineradicable, eternal. Sailors and the children of the
+desert are alike overrun with spiritual hauntings, from accidents of
+peril essentially connected with those modes of life, and from the
+eternal spectacle of the infinite. Voices seem to blend with the raving
+of the sea, which will for ever impress the feeling of beings more than
+human: and every chamber of the great wilderness which, with little
+interruption, stretches from the Euphrates to the western shores of
+Africa, has its own peculiar terrors both as to sights and sounds. In
+the wilderness of Zin, between Palestine and the Red Sea, a section of
+the desert well known in these days to our own countrymen, bells are
+heard daily pealing for matins, or for vespers, from some phantom
+convent that no search of Christian or of Bedouin Arab has ever been
+able to discover. These bells have sounded since the Crusades. Other
+sounds, trumpets, the _Alala_ of armies, &c., are heard in other regions
+of the Desert. Forms, also, are seen of more people than have any
+right to be walking in human paths: sometimes forms of avowed terror;
+sometimes, which is a case of far more danger, appearances that mimic
+the shapes of men, and even of friends or comrades. This is a case
+much dwelt on by the old travellers, and which throws a gloom over the
+spirits of all Bedouins, and of every cafila or caravan. We all know
+what a sensation of loneliness or 'eeriness' (to use an expressive term
+of the ballad poetry) arises to any small party assembling in a
+single room of a vast desolate mansion: how the timid among them fancy
+continually that they hear some remote door opening, or trace the sound
+of suppressed footsteps from some distant staircase. Such is the feeling
+in the desert, even in the midst of the caravan. The mighty solitude is
+seen: the dread silence is anticipated which will succeed to this brief
+transit of men, camels, and horses. Awe prevails even in the midst of
+society: but, if the traveller should loiter behind from fatigue, or
+be so imprudent as to ramble aside--should he from any cause once lose
+sight of his party, it is held that his chance is small of recovering
+their traces. And why? Not chiefly from the want of footmarks where the
+wind effaces all impressions in half an hour, or of eyemarks where all
+is one blank ocean of sand, but much more from the sounds or the visual
+appearances which are supposed to beset and to seduce all insulated
+wanderers.
+
+Everybody knows the superstitions of the ancients about the
+_Nympholeptoi_, or those who had seen Pan. But far more awful and gloomy
+are the existing superstitions, throughout Asia and Africa, as to the
+perils of those who are phantom-haunted in the wilderness. The old
+Venetian traveller Marco Polo states them well: he speaks, indeed, of
+the Eastern or Tartar deserts; the steppes which stretch from European
+Russia to the footsteps of the Chinese throne; but exactly the same
+creed prevails amongst the Arabs, from Bagdad to Suez and Cairo--from
+Rosetta to Tunis--Tunis to Timbuctoo or Mequinez. 'If, during the
+daytime,' says he, 'any person should remain behind until the caravan is
+no longer in sight, he hears himself unexpectedly called to by name,
+and in a voice with which he is familiar. Not doubting that the voice
+proceeds from some of his comrades, the unhappy man is beguiled from the
+right direction; and soon finding himself utterly confounded as to the
+path, he roams about in distraction until he perishes miserably. If,
+on the other hand, this perilous separation of himself from the caravan
+should happen at night, he is sure to hear the uproar of a great
+cavalcade a mile or two to the right or left of the true track. He is
+thus seduced on one side: and at break of day finds himself far removed
+from man. Nay, even at noon-day, it is well known that grave and
+respectable men to all appearance will come up to a particular
+traveller, will bear the look of a friend, and will gradually lure him
+by earnest conversation to a distance from the caravan; after which the
+sounds of men and camels will be heard continually at all points but the
+true one; whilst an insensible turning by the tenth of an inch at each
+separate step from the true direction will very soon suffice to set the
+traveller's face to the opposite point of the compass from that which
+his safety requires, and which his fancy represents to him as his
+real direction. Marvellous, indeed, and almost passing belief, are the
+stories reported of these desert phantoms, which are said at times
+to fill the air with choral music from all kinds of instruments, from
+drums, and the clash of arms: so that oftentimes a whole caravan are
+obliged to close up their open ranks, and to proceed in a compact line
+of march.'
+
+Lord Lindsay, in his very interesting travels in Egypt, Edom, &c.,
+agrees with Warton in supposing (and probably enough) that from this
+account of the desert traditions in Marco Polo was derived Milton's fine
+passage in Comus:--
+
+  'Of calling shapes, and beckoning shadows dire,
+  And aery tongues that syllable men's names
+  On sands, and shores, and desert wildernesses.'
+
+But the most remarkable of these desert superstitions, as suggested by
+the mention of Lord Lindsay, is one which that young nobleman, in some
+place which we cannot immediately find, has noticed, but which he only
+was destined by a severe personal loss immediately to illustrate. Lord
+L. quotes from Vincent le Blanc an anecdote of a man in his own caravan,
+the companion of an Arab merchant, who disappeared in a mysterious
+manner. Four Moors, with a retaining fee of 100 ducats, were sent in
+quest of him, but came back _re infecta_. 'And 'tis uncertain,' adds Le
+Blanc, 'whether he was swallowed up in the sands, or met his death by
+any other misfortune; as it often happens, by the relation of a merchant
+then in our company, who told us, that two years before, traversing the
+same journey, a comrade of his, going a little aside from the company,
+saw three men who called him by his name; and one of them, to his
+thinking, favored very much his companion; and, as he was about to
+follow them, his real companion calling him to come back to his company,
+he found himself deceived by the others, and thus was saved. And all
+travellers in these parts hold, that in the deserts are many such
+phantasms seen, that strive to seduce the traveller.' Thus far it is
+the traveller's own fault, warned as he is continually by the extreme
+anxiety of the Arab leaders or guides, with respect to all who stray to
+any distance, if he is duped or enticed by these pseudo-men: though,
+in the case of Lapland dogs, who ought to have a surer instinct of
+detection for counterfeits, we know from Sir Capel de Broke and others,
+that they are continually wiled away by the wolves who roam about the
+nightly encampments of travellers. But there is a secondary disaster,
+according to the Arab superstition, awaiting those whose eyes are once
+opened to the discernment of these phantoms. To see them, or to hear
+them, even where the traveller is careful to refuse their lures, entails
+the certainty of death in no long time. This is another form of that
+universal faith which made it impossible for any man to survive a bodily
+commerce, by whatever sense, with a spiritual being. We find it in the
+Old Testament, where the expression, 'I have seen God and shall die,'
+means simply a supernatural being; since no Hebrew believed it possible
+for a nature purely human to sustain for a moment the sight of the
+Infinite Being. We find the same faith amongst ourselves, in case
+of _doppelgaenger_ becoming apparent to the sight of those whom they
+counterfeit; and in many other varieties. We modern Europeans, of
+course, laugh at these superstitions; though, as La Place remarks,
+(_Essai sur les Probabilites_,) any case, however apparently incredible,
+if it is a recurrent case, is as much entitled to a fair valuation as if
+it had been more probable beforehand.[Footnote: _'Is as much entitled
+to a fair valuation, under the lans of induction, as if it had been
+more probable beforehand'_--One of the cases which La Place notices as
+entitled to a grave consideration, but which would most assuredly be
+treated as a trivial phenomenon, unworthy of attention, by commonplace
+spectators, is--when a run of success, with no apparent cause, takes
+place on heads or tails, (_pile ou croix_) Most people dismiss such a
+case as pure accident. But La Place insists on its being duly valued
+as a fact, however unaccountable as an effect. So again, if in a large
+majority of experiences like those of Lord Lindsay's party in the
+desert, death should follow, such a phenomenon is as well entitled
+to its separate valuation as any other.] This being premised, we who
+connect superstition with the personal result, are more impressed by the
+disaster which happened to Lord Lindsay, than his lordship, who either
+failed to notice the _nexus_ between the events, or possibly declined to
+put the case too forward in his reader's eye, from the solemnity of the
+circumstances, and the private interest to himself and his own family,
+of the subsequent event. The case was this:--Mr. William Wardlaw Ramsay,
+the companion (and we believe relative) of Lord Lindsay, a man whose
+honorable character, and whose intellectual accomplishments speak for
+themselves, in the posthumus memorabilia of his travels published
+by Lord L., had seen an array of objects in the desert, which facts
+immediately succeeding demonstrated to have been a mere ocular _lusus_,
+or (according to Arab notions) phantoms. During the absence from home of
+an Arab sheikh, who had been hired as conductor of Lord Lindsay's party,
+a hostile tribe (bearing the name of Tellaheens) had assaulted and
+pillaged his tents. Report of this had reached the English travelling
+party; it was known that the Tellaheens were still in motion, and a
+hostile rencounter was looked for for some days. At length, in crossing
+the well known valley of the _Wady Araba_, that most ancient channel of
+communication between the Red Sea and Judea, &c., Mr. Ramsay saw, to his
+own entire conviction, a party of horse moving amongst some sand-hills.
+Afterwards it became certain, from accurate information, that this must
+have been a delusion. It was established, that no horseman _could_ have
+been in that neighborhood at that time. Lord Lindsay records the case
+as an illustration of 'that spiritualized tone the imagination naturally
+assumes, in scenes presenting so little sympathy with the ordinary
+feelings of humanity;' and he reports the case in these pointed
+terms:--'Mr. Ramsay, a man of remarkably strong sight, and by no means
+disposed to superstitious credulity, distinctly saw a party of horse
+moving among the sand-hills; and I do not believe he was ever able
+to divest himself of that impression.' No--and, according to Arab
+interpretation, very naturally so; for, according to their faith, he
+really _had_ seen the horsemen; phantom horseman certainly, but
+still objects of sight. The sequel remains to be told--by the Arabian
+hypothesis, Mr. Ramsay had but a short time to live--he was under a
+secret summons to the next world. And accordingly, in a few weeks after
+this, whilst Lord Lindsay had gone to visit Palmyra, Mr. Ramsay died at
+Damascus.
+
+This was a case exactly corresponding to the Pagan _nympholepsis_--he
+had seen the beings whom it is not lawful to see and live. Another case
+of Eastern superstition, not less determined, and not less remarkably
+fulfilled, occurred some years before to Dr. Madden, who travelled
+pretty much in the same route as Lord Lindsay. The doctor, as a
+phrenologist, had been struck with the very singular conformation of
+a skull which he saw amongst many others on an altar in some Syrian
+convent. He offered a considerable sum in gold for it; but it was by
+repute the skull of a saint; and the monk with whom Dr. M. attempted to
+negotiate, not only refused his offers, but protested that even for the
+doctor's sake, apart from the interests of the convent, he could not
+venture on such a transfer: for that, by the tradition attached to it,
+the skull would endanger any vessel carrying it from the Syrian shore:
+the vessel might escape; but it would never succeed in reaching any but
+a Syrian harbor. After this, for the credit of our country, which
+stands so high in the East, and should be so punctiliously tended by all
+Englishmen, we are sorry to record that Dr. Madden (though otherwise a
+man of scrupulous honor) yielded to the temptation of substituting for
+the saint's skull another less remarkable from his own collection. With
+this saintly relic he embarked on board a Grecian ship; was alternately
+pursued and met by storms the most violent; larboard and starboard, on
+every quarter, he was buffeted; the wind blew from every point of the
+compass; the doctor honestly confesses that he often wished this baleful
+skull back in safety on the quiet altar from which he took it; and
+finally, after many days of anxiety, he was too happy in finding himself
+again restored to some oriental port, from which he secretly vowed
+never again to sail with a saint's skull, or with any skull, however
+remarkable phrenologically, not purchased in an open market.
+
+Thus we have pursued, through many of its most memorable sections,
+the spirit of the miraculous as it moulded and gathered itself in
+the superstitions of Paganism; and we have shown that, in the modern
+superstitions of Christianity, or of Mahometanism, (often enough
+borrowed from Christian sources,) there is a pretty regular
+correspondence. Speaking with a reference to the strictly popular
+belief, it cannot be pretended for a moment, that miraculous agencies
+are slumbering in modern ages. For one superstition of that nature which
+the Pagans had, we can produce twenty. And if, from the collation of
+numbers, we should pass to that of quality, it is a matter of notoriety,
+that from the very philosophy of Paganism, and its slight root in the
+terrors or profounder mysteries of spiritual nature, no comparison
+could be sustained for a moment between the true religion and any mode
+whatever of the false. Ghosts we have purposely omitted, because that
+idea is so peculiarly Christian [Footnote: '_Because that idea is so
+peculiarly Christian_'--One reason, additional to the main one, why the
+idea of a ghost could not be conceived or reproduced by Paganism,
+lies in the fourfold resolution of the human nature at death, viz.--1.
+_corpus_; 2. _manes_; 3. _spiritus_; 4. _anima_. No reversionary
+consciousness, no restitution of the total nature, sentient and active,
+was thus possible. Pliny has a story which looks like a ghost story; but
+it is all moonshine--a mere _simulacrum_.] as to reject all counterparts
+or affinities from other modes of the supernatural. The Christian ghost
+is too awful a presence, and with too large a substratum of the real,
+the impassioned, the human, for our present purposes. We deal chiefly
+with the wilder and more aerial forms of superstition; not so far off
+from fleshly nature as the purely allegoric--not so near as the penal,
+the purgatorial, the penitential. In this middle class, 'Gabriel's
+hounds'--the 'phantom ship'--the gloomy legends of the charcoal burners
+in the German forests--and the local or epichorial superstitions from
+every district of Europe, come forward by thousands, attesting the high
+activity of the miraculous and the hyperphysical instincts, even in this
+generation, wheresoever the voice of the people makes itself heard.
+
+But in Pagan times, it will be objected, the popular superstitions
+blended themselves with the highest political functions, gave a sanction
+to national counsels, and oftentimes gave their starting point to the
+very primary movements of the state. Prophecies, omens, miracles, all
+worked concurrently with senates or princes. Whereas in our days,
+says Charles Lamb, the witch who takes her pleasure with the moon, and
+summons Beelzebub to her sabbaths, nevertheless trembles before the
+beadle, and hides herself from the overseer. Now, as to the witch, even
+the horrid Canidia of Horace, or the more dreadful Erichtho of Lucan,
+seems hardly to have been much respected in any era. But for the
+other modes of the supernatural, they have entered into more frequent
+combinations with state functions and state movements in our modern ages
+than in the classical age of Paganism. Look at prophecies, for example:
+the Romans had a few obscure oracles afloat, and they had the Sibylline
+books under the state seal. These books, in fact, had been kept so long,
+that, like port wine superannuated, they had lost their flavor and body.
+[Footnote: '_Like port wine superannuated, the Sibylline books had lost
+their flavor and their body_.'--There is an allegoric description in
+verse, by Mr. Rogers, of an ice-house, in which winter is described as
+a captive, &c., which is memorable on this account, that a brother
+poet, on reading the passage, mistook it, (from not understanding
+the allegorical expressions,) either sincerely or maliciously, for a
+description of the house-dog. Now, this little anecdote seems to embody
+the poor Sibyl's history,--from a stern icy sovereign, with a petrific
+mace, she lapsed into an old toothless mastiff. She continued to snore
+in her ancient kennel for above a thousand years. The last person who
+attempted to stir her up with a long pole, and to extract from her
+paralytic dreaming some growls or snarls against Christianity, was
+Aurelian, in a moment of public panic. But the thing was past all
+tampering. The poor creature could neither be kicked nor coaxed into
+vitality.] On the other hand, look at France. Henry the historian,
+speaking of the fifteenth century, describes it as a national infirmity
+of the English to be prophecy-ridden. Perhaps there never was any
+foundation for this as an exclusive remark; but assuredly not in the
+next century. There had been with us British, from the twelfth century,
+Thomas of Ercildoune in the north, and many monkish local prophets for
+every part of the island; but latterly England had no terrific prophet,
+unless, indeed Nixon of the Vale Royal in Cheshire, who uttered his
+dark oracles sometimes with a merely Cestrian, sometimes with a national
+reference. Whereas in France, throughout the sixteenth century, every
+principal event was foretold successively, with an accuracy that still
+shocks and confounds us. Francis the First, who opens the century, (and
+by many is held to open the book of _modern history_, as distinguished
+from the middle or _feudal_ history,) had the battle of Pavia
+foreshown to him, not by name, but in its results--by his own Spanish
+captivity--by the exchange for his own children upon a frontier river
+of Spain--finally, by his own disgraceful death, through an infamous
+disease conveyed to him under a deadly circuit of revenge. This king's
+son, Henry the Second, read some years _before_ the event a description
+of that tournament, on the marriage of the Scottish Queen with his
+eldest son, Francis II., which proved fatal to himself, through the
+awkwardness of the Compte de Montgomery and his own obstinacy. After
+this, and we believe a little after the brief reign of Francis II.,
+arose Nostradamus, the great prophet of the age. All the children of
+Henry II. and of Catharine de Medici, one after the other, died in
+circumstances of suffering and horror, and Nostradamus pursued the
+whole with ominous allusions. Charles IX., though the authorizer of the
+Bartholomew massacre, was the least guilty of his party, and the only
+one who manifested a dreadful remorse. Henry III., the last of the
+brothers, died, as the reader will remember, by assassination. And all
+these tragic successions of events are still to be read more or less
+dimly prefigured in verses of which we will not here discuss the dates.
+Suffice it, that many authentic historians attest the good faith of the
+prophets; and finally, with respect to the first of the Bourbon dynasty,
+Henry IV., who succeeded upon the assassination of his brother-in-law,
+we have the peremptory assurance of Sully and other Protestants,
+countersigned by writers both historical and controversial, that not
+only was he prepared, by many warnings, for his own tragical death--not
+only was the day, the hour prefixed--not only was an almanac sent to
+him, in which the bloody summer's day of 1610 was pointed out to his
+attention in bloody colors; but the mere record of the king's last
+afternoon shows beyond a doubt the extent and the punctual limitation of
+his anxieties. In fact, it is to this attitude of listening expectation
+in the king, and breathless waiting for the blow, that Schiller alludes
+in that fine speech of Wallenstein to his sister, where he notices the
+funeral knells that sounded continually in Henry's ears, and, above all,
+his prophetic instinct, that caught the sound from a far distance of his
+murderer's motions, and could distinguish, amidst all the tumult of a
+mighty capital, those stealthy steps
+
+  ----'Which even then were seeking him
+  Throughout the streets of Paris.'
+
+We profess not to admire Henry the Fourth of France, whose secret
+character we shall, on some other occasion, attempt to expose. But his
+resignation to the appointments of Heaven, in dismissing his guards, as
+feeling that against a danger so domestic and so mysterious, all fleshly
+arms were vain, has always struck us as the most like magnanimity of
+anything in his very theatrical life.
+
+Passing to our own country, and to the times immediately in succession,
+we fall upon some striking prophecies, not verbal but symbolic, if we
+turn from the broad highway of public histories, to the by-paths of
+private memories. Either Clarendon it is, in his Life (not his public
+history), or else Laud, who mentions an anecdote connected with the
+coronation of Charles I., (the son-in-law of the murdered Bourbon,)
+which threw a gloom upon the spirits of the royal friends, already
+saddened by the dreadful pestilence which inaugurated the reign of this
+ill-fated prince, levying a tribute of one life in sixteen from the
+population of the English metropolis. At the coronation of Charles, it
+was discovered that all London would not furnish the quantity of purple
+velvet required for the royal robes and the furniture of the throne.
+What was to be done? Decorum required that the furniture should be
+all _en suite_. Nearer than Genoa no considerable addition could
+be expected. That would impose a delay of 150 days. Upon mature
+consideration, and chiefly of the many private interests that would
+suffer amongst the multitudes whom such a solemnity had called up from
+the country, it was resolved to robe the King in _white_ velvet. But
+this, as it afterwards occurred, was the color in which victims were
+arrayed. And thus, it was alleged, did the King's council establish an
+augury of evil. Three other ill omens, of some celebrity, occurred to
+Charles I., viz., on occasion of creating his son Charles a knight of
+the Bath, at Oxford some years after; and at the bar of that tribunal
+which sat in judgment upon him.
+
+The reign of his second son, James II., the next reign that could be
+considered an unfortunate reign, was inaugurated by the same evil omens.
+The day selected for the coronation (in 1685) was a day memorable for
+England--it was St. George's day, the 23d of April, and entitled,
+even on a separate account, to be held a sacred day as the birthday of
+Shakspeare in 1564, and his deathday in 1616. The King saved a sum of
+sixty thousand pounds by cutting off the ordinary cavalcade from the
+Tower of London to Westminster. Even this was imprudent. It is well
+known that, amongst the lowest class of the English, there is an
+obstinate prejudice (though unsanctioned by law) with respect to the
+obligation imposed by the ceremony of coronation. So long as this
+ceremony is delayed, or mutilated, they fancy that their obedience is
+a matter of mere prudence, liable to be enforced by arms, but not
+consecrated either by law or by religion. The change made by James was,
+therefore, highly imprudent; shorn of its antique traditionary usages,
+the yoke of conscience was lightened at a moment when it required a
+double ratification. Neither was it called for on motives of economy,
+for James was unusually rich. This voluntary arrangement was, therefore,
+a bad beginning; but the accidental omens were worse. They are thus
+reported by Blennerhassett, (History of England to the end of George
+I., Vol. iv., p. 1760, printed at Newcastle-upon-Tyne: 1751.) 'The
+crown being too little for the King's head, was often in a tottering
+condition, and like to fall off.' Even this was observed attentively
+by spectators of the most opposite feelings. But there was another
+simultaneous omen, which affected the Protestant enthusiasts, and the
+superstitious, whether Catholic or Protestant, still more alarmingly.
+'The same day the king's arms, pompously painted in the great altar
+window of a London church, suddenly fell down without apparent cause,
+and broke to pieces, whilst the rest of the window remained standing.
+Blennerhassett mutters the dark terrors which possessed himself and
+others.' 'These,' says he, 'were reckoned ill omens to the king.'
+
+In France, as the dreadful criminality of the French sovereigns through
+the 17th century began to tell powerfully, and reproduce itself in the
+miseries and tumults of the French populace through the 18th century, it
+is interesting to note the omens which unfolded themselves at intervals.
+A volume might be written upon them. The French Bourbons renewed the
+picture of that fatal house which in Thebes offered to the Grecian
+observers the spectacle of dire auguries, emerging from darkness through
+three generations, _a plusieurs reprises_. Everybody knows the fatal
+pollution of the marriage pomps on the reception of Marie Antoinette in
+Paris; the numbers who perished are still spoken of obscurely as to the
+amount, and with shuddering awe for the unparalleled horrors standing in
+the background of the fatal reign--horrors
+
+  'That hush'd in grim repose, await their evening prey.'
+
+But in the life of Goethe is mentioned a still more portentous (though
+more shadowy) omen in the pictorial decorations of the arras which
+adorned the pavilion on the French frontier; the first objects which met
+the Austrian Archduchess on being hailed as Dauphiness, was a succession
+of the most tragic groups from the most awful section of the Grecian
+theatre. The next alliance of the same kind between the same great
+empires, in the persons of Napoleon and the Archduchess Marie Louisa,
+was overshadowed by the same unhappy omens, and, as we all remember,
+with the same unhappy results, within a brief period of five years.
+
+Or, if we should resort to the fixed and monumental rather than to these
+auguries of great nations--such, for instance, as were embodied in those
+_Palladia_, or protesting talismans, which capital cities, whether Pagan
+or Christian, glorified through a period of twenty-five hundred years,
+we shall find a long succession of these enchanted pledges, from the
+earliest precedent of Troy (whose palladium was undoubtedly a talisman)
+down to that equally memorable, and bearing the same name, at Western
+Rome. We may pass, by a vast transition of two and a half millennia,
+to that great talisman of Constantinople, the triple serpent, (having
+perhaps an original reference to the Mosaic serpent of the wilderness,
+which healed the infected by the simple act of looking upon it, as the
+symbol of the Redeemer, held aloft upon the Cross for the deliverance
+from moral contagion.) This great consecrated talisman, venerated
+equally by Christian, by Pagan, and by Mahometan, was struck on the head
+by Mahomet the Second, on that same day, May 29th of 1453, in which
+he mastered by storm this glorious city, the bulwark of eastern
+Christendom, and the immediate rival of his own European throne at
+Adrianople. But mark the superfetation of omens--omen supervening
+upon omen, augury engrafted upon augury. The hour was a sad one for
+Christianity; just 720 years before the western horn of Islam had been
+rebutted in France by the Germans, chiefly under Charles Martel. But now
+it seemed as though another horn, even more vigorous, was preparing
+to assault Christendom and its hopes from the eastern quarter. At this
+epoch, in the very hour of triumph, when the last of the Caesars had
+glorified his station, and sealed his testimony by martyrdom, the
+fanatical Sultan, riding to his stirrups in blood, and wielding that
+iron mace which had been his sole weapon, as well as cognizance, through
+the battle, advanced to the column, round which the triple serpent
+roared spirally upwards. He smote the brazen talisman; he shattered one
+head; he left it mutilated as the record of his great revolution; but
+crush it, destroy it, he did not--as a symbol prefiguring the fortunes
+of Mahometanism, his people noticed, that in the critical hour of fate,
+which stamped the Sultan's acts with efficacy through ages, he had been
+prompted by his secret genius only to 'scotch the snake,' not to crush
+it. Afterwards the fatal hour was gone by; and this imperfect augury has
+since concurred traditionally with the Mahometan prophecies about the
+Adrianople gate of Constantinople, to depress the ultimate hopes of
+Islam in the midst of all its insolence. The very haughtiest of the
+Mussulmans believe that the gate is already in existence, through which
+the red Giaours (the _Russi_) shall pass to the conquest of Stamboul;
+and that everywhere, in Europe at least, the hat of Frangistan is
+destined to surmount the turban--the crescent must go down before the
+cross.
+
+
+
+
+COLERIDGE AND OPIUM-EATING.
+
+
+What is the deadest of things earthly? It is, says the world, ever
+forward and rash--'a door-nail!' But the world is wrong. There is a
+thing deader than a door-nail, viz., Gillman's Coleridge, Vol. I. Dead,
+more dead, most dead, is Gillman's Coleridge, Vol. I.; and this
+upon more arguments than one. The book has clearly not completed its
+elementary act of respiration; the _systole_ of Vol. I. is absolutely
+useless and lost without the _diastole_ of that Vol. II., which is never
+to exist. That is one argument, and perhaps this second argument is
+stronger. Gillman's Coleridge, Vol. I., deals rashly, unjustly, and
+almost maliciously, with some of our own particular friends; and yet,
+until late in this summer, _Anno Domini_ 1844, we--that is, neither
+ourselves nor our friends--ever heard of its existence. Now a sloth,
+even without the benefit of Mr. Waterton's evidence to his character,
+will travel faster than that. But malice, which travels fastest of
+all things, must be dead and cold at starting, when it can thus have
+lingered in the rear for six years; and therefore, though the world
+was so far right, that people _do_ say, 'Dead as a door-nail,' yet,
+henceforward, the weakest of these people will see the propriety of
+saying--'Dead as Gillman's Coleridge.'
+
+The reader of experience, on sliding over the surface of this opening
+paragraph, begins to think there's mischief singing in the upper air.
+'No, reader, not at all. We never were cooler in our days. And this we
+protest, that, were it not for the excellence of the subject, _Coleridge
+and Opium-Eating_, Mr. Gillman would have been dismissed by us
+unnoticed. Indeed, we not only forgive Mr. Gillman, but we have
+a kindness for him; and on this account, that he was good, he was
+generous, he was most forbearing, through twenty years, to poor
+Coleridge, when thrown upon his hospitality. An excellent thing _that_,
+Mr. Gillman, till, noticing the theme suggested by this unhappy Vol.
+I., we are forced at times to notice its author, Nor is this to be
+regretted. We remember a line of Horace never yet properly translated,
+viz:--
+
+  'Nec scutica dignum horribili sectere flagello.'
+
+The true translation of which, as we assure the unlearned reader,
+is--'Nor must you pursue with the horrid knout of Christopher that man
+who merits only a switching.' Very true. We protest against all attempts
+to invoke the exterminating knout; for _that_ sends a man to the
+hospital for two months; but you see that the same judicious poet, who
+dissuades an appeal to the knout, indirectly recommends the switch,
+which, indeed, is rather pleasant than otherwise, amiably playful
+in some of its little caprices, and in its worst, suggesting only a
+pennyworth of diachylon.
+
+We begin by professing, with hearty sincerity, our fervent admiration
+of the extraordinary man who furnishes the theme for Mr. Gillman's
+_coup-d'essai_ in biography. He was, in a literary sense, our
+brother--for he also was amongst the contributors to _Blackwood_--and
+will, we presume, take his station in that Blackwood gallery of
+portraits, which, in a century hence, will possess more interest for
+intellectual Europe than any merely martial series of portraits, or any
+gallery of statesmen assembled in congress, except as regards one or two
+leaders; for defunct major-generals, and secondary diplomatists,
+when their date is past, awake no more emotion than last year's
+advertisements, or obsolete directories; whereas those who, in a stormy
+age, have swept the harps of passion, of genial wit, or of the wrestling
+and gladiatorial reason, become more interesting to men when they can no
+longer be seen as bodily agents, than even in the middle chorus of that
+intellectual music over which, living, they presided.
+
+Of this great camp Coleridge was a leader, and fought amongst the
+_primipili_; yet, comparatively, he is still unknown. Heavy, indeed, are
+the arrears still due to philosophic curiosity on the real merits,
+and on the separate merits, of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Coleridge as a
+poet--Coleridge as a philosopher! How extensive are those questions,
+if those were all! and upon neither question have we yet any
+investigation--such as, by compass of views, by research, or even by
+earnestness of sympathy with the subject, can, or ought to satisfy, a
+philosophic demand. Blind is that man who can persuade himself that the
+interest in Coleridge, taken as a total object, is becoming an obsolete
+interest. We are of opinion that even Milton, now viewed from a distance
+of two centuries, is still inadequately judged or appreciated in
+his character of poet, of patriot and partisan, or, finally, in his
+character of accomplished scholar. But, if so, how much less can it
+be pretended that satisfaction has been rendered to the claims of
+Coleridge? for, upon Milton, libraries have been written. There has been
+time for the malice of men, for the jealousy of men, for the enthusiasm,
+the scepticism, the adoring admiration of men, to expand themselves!
+There has been room for a Bentley, for an Addison, for a Johnson, for a
+wicked Lauder, for an avenging Douglas, for an idolizing Chateaubriand;
+and yet, after all, little enough has been done towards any
+comprehensive estimate of the mighty being concerned. Piles of materials
+have been gathered to the ground; but, for the monument which should
+have risen from these materials, neither the first stone has been laid,
+nor has a qualified architect yet presented his credentials. On the
+other hand, upon Coleridge little, comparatively, has yet been written,
+whilst the separate characters on which the judgment is awaited, are
+more by one than those which Milton sustained. Coleridge, also, is a
+poet; Coleridge, also, was mixed up with the fervent politics of his
+age--an age how memorably reflecting the revolutionary agitations of
+Milton's age. Coleridge, also, was an extensive and brilliant scholar.
+Whatever might be the separate proportions of the two men in each
+particular department of the three here noticed, think as the reader
+will upon that point, sure we are that either subject is ample enough to
+make a strain upon the amplest faculties. How alarming, therefore,
+for any _honest_ critic, who should undertake this later subject of
+Coleridge, to recollect that, after pursuing him through a zodiac of
+splendors corresponding to those of Milton in kind, however different in
+degree--after weighing him as a poet, as a philosophic politician, as
+a scholar, he will have to wheel after him into another orbit, into
+the unfathomable _nimbus_ of transcendental metaphysics. Weigh him the
+critic must in the golden balance of philosophy the most abstruse--a
+balance which even itself requires weighing previously, or he will
+have done nothing that can be received for an estimate of the composite
+Coleridge. This astonishing man, be it again remembered, besides being
+an exquisite poet, a profound political speculator, a philosophic
+student of literature through all its chambers and recesses, was also
+a circumnavigator on the most pathless waters of scholasticism and
+metaphysics. He had sounded, without guiding charts, the secret deeps
+of Proclus and Plotinus; he had laid down buoys on the twilight, or
+moonlight, ocean of Jacob Boehmen; [Footnote: 'JACOB BOEHMEN.' We
+ourselves had the honor of presenting to Mr. Coleridge, Law's English
+version of Jacob--a set of huge quartos. Some months afterwards we saw
+this work lying open, and one volume at least overflowing, in parts,
+with the commentaries and the _corollaries_ of Coleridge. Whither has
+this work, and so many others swathed about with Coleridge's MS. notes,
+vanished from the world?] he had cruised over the broad Atlantic of Kant
+and Schelling, of Fichte and Oken. Where is the man who shall be equal
+to these things? We at least make no such adventurous effort; or, if
+ever we should presume to do so, not at present. Here we design only
+to make a coasting voyage of survey round the headlands and most
+conspicuous seamarks of our subject, as they are brought forward by
+Mr. Gillman, or collaterally suggested by our own reflections; and
+especially we wish to say a word or two on Coleridge as an opium-eater.
+
+Naturally the first point to which we direct our attention, is the
+history and personal relations of Coleridge. Living with Mr. Gillman for
+nineteen years as a domesticated friend, Coleridge ought to have
+been known intimately. And it is reasonable to expect, from so much
+intercourse, some additions to our slender knowledge of Coleridge's
+adventures, (if we may use so coarse a word,) and of the secret springs
+at work in those early struggles of Coleridge at Cambridge, London,
+Bristol, which have been rudely told to the world, and repeatedly told,
+as showy romances, but never rationally explained.
+
+The anecdotes, however, which Mr. Gillman has added to the personal
+history of Coleridge, are as little advantageous to the effect of his
+own book as they are to the interest of the memorable character which he
+seeks to illustrate. Always they are told without grace, and generally
+are suspicious in their details. Mr. Gillman we believe to be too
+upright a man for countenancing any untruth. He has been deceived. For
+example, will any man believe this? A certain 'excellent equestrian'
+falling in with Coleridge on horseback, thus accosted him--'Pray, Sir,
+did you meet a tailor along the road?' '_A tailor_!' answered Coleridge;
+'_I did meet a person answering such a description, who told me he had
+dropped his goose; that if I rode a little further I should find it; and
+I guess he must have meant you._' In Joe Miller this story would
+read, perhaps, sufferably. Joe has a privilege; and we do not look too
+narrowly into the mouth of a Joe-Millerism. But Mr. Gillman, writing
+the life of a philosopher, and no jest-book, is under a different law of
+decorum. That retort, however, which silences the jester, it may seem,
+must be a good one. And we are desired to believe that, in this case,
+the baffled assailant rode off in a spirit of benign candor, saying
+aloud to himself, like the excellent philosopher that he evidently was,
+'Caught a Tartar!'
+
+But another story of a sporting baronet, who was besides a Member of
+Parliament, is much worse, and altogether degrading to Coleridge.
+This gentleman, by way of showing off before a party of ladies, is
+represented as insulting Coleridge by putting questions to him on the
+qualities of his horse, so as to draw the animal's miserable defects
+into public notice, and then closing his display by demanding what he
+would take for the horse 'including the rider.' The supposed reply
+of Coleridge might seem good to those who understand nothing of true
+dignity; for, as an _impromptu_, it was smart and even caustic. The
+baronet, it seems, was reputed to have been bought by the minister; and
+the reader will at once divine that the retort took advantage of that
+current belief, so as to throw back the sarcasm, by proclaiming that
+neither horse nor rider had a price placarded in the market at which any
+man could become their purchaser. But this was not the temper in which
+Coleridge either did reply, or could have replied. Coleridge showed, in
+the _spirit_ of his manner, a profound sensibility to the nature of
+a gentleman; and he felt too justly what it became a self-respecting
+person to say, ever to have aped the sort of flashy fencing which might
+seem fine to a theatrical blood.
+
+Another story is self-refuted: 'A hired partisan' had come to one of
+Coleridge's political lectures with the express purpose of bringing the
+lecturer into trouble; and most preposterously he laid himself open
+to his own snare by refusing to pay for admission. Spies must be poor
+artists who proceed thus. Upon which Coleridge remarked--'That, before
+the gentleman kicked up a dust, surely he would down with the dust.'
+So far the story will not do. But what follows is possible enough.
+The _same_ 'hired' gentleman, by way of giving unity to the tale, is
+described as having hissed. Upon this a cry arose of 'Turn him out!' But
+Coleridge interfered to protect him; he insisted on the man's right to
+hiss if he thought fit; it was legal to hiss; it was natural to hiss;
+'for what is to be expected, gentlemen, when the cool waters of reason
+come in contact with red-hot aristocracy, but a hiss?' _Euge!_
+
+Amongst all the anecdotes, however of this splendid man, often trivial,
+often incoherent, often unauthenticated, there is one which strikes us
+as both true and interesting; and we are grateful to Mr. Gillman for
+preserving it. We find it introduced, and partially authenticated, by
+the following sentence from Coleridge himself:--'From eight to fourteen
+I was a playless day-dreamer, a _helluo librorum_; my appetite for which
+was indulged by a singular incident. A stranger, who was struck by my
+conversation, made me free of a circulating library in King's Street,
+Cheapside.' The more circumstantial explanation of Mr. Gillman is this:
+`The incident indeed was singular. Going down the Strand, in one of his
+day-dreams, fancying himself swimming across the Hellespont, thrusting
+his hands before him as in the act of swimming, his hand came in contact
+with a gentleman's pocket. The gentleman seized his hand, turning round,
+and looking at him with some anger--"What! so young, and yet so wicked?"
+at the same time accused him of an attempt to pick his pocket. The
+frightened boy sobbed out his denial of the intention, and explained to
+him how he thought himself Leander swimming across the Hellespont. The
+gentleman was so struck and delighted with the novelty of the thing, and
+with the simplicity and intelligence of the boy, that he subscribed,
+as before stated, to the library; in consequence of which Coleridge was
+further enabled to indulge his love of reading.'
+
+We fear that this slovenly narrative is the very perfection of bad
+story-telling. But the story itself is striking, and, by the very
+oddness of the incidents, not likely to have been invented. The effect,
+from the position of the two parties--on the one side, a simple child
+from Devonshire, dreaming in the Strand that he was swimming over from
+Sestos to Abydos, and, on the other, the experienced man, dreaming
+only of this world, its knaves and its thieves, but still kind and
+generous--is beautiful and picturesque. _Oh! si sic omnia!_
+
+But the most interesting to us of the _personalities_ connected with
+Coleridge are his feuds and his personal dislikes. Incomprehensible to
+us is the war of extermination which Coleridge made upon the political
+economists. Did Sir James Steuart, in speaking of vine-dressers, (not
+_as_ vine-dressers, but generally as cultivators,) tell his readers,
+that, if such a man simply replaced his own consumption, having no
+surplus whatever or increment for the public capital, he could not be
+considered a useful citizen? Not the beast in the Revelation is held up
+by Coleridge as more hateful to the spirit of truth than the Jacobite
+baronet. And yet we know of an author--viz., one S. T. Coleridge--who
+repeated that same doctrine without finding any evil in it. Look at the
+first part of the _Wallenstein_, where Count Isolani having said, 'Pooh!
+we are _all_ his subjects,' _i. e._, soldiers, (though unproductive
+laborers,) not less than productive peasants, the emperor's envoy
+replies--'Yet with a difference, general;' and the difference implies
+Sir James's scale, his vine-dresser being the equatorial case between
+the two extremes of the envoy. Malthus again, in his population-book,
+contends for a mathematic difference between animal and vegetable life,
+in respect to the law of increase, as though the first increased by
+geometrical ratios, the last by arithmetical! No proposition more
+worthy of laughter; since both, when permitted to expand, increase
+by geometrical ratios, and the latter by much higher ratios. Whereas,
+Malthus persuaded himself of his crotchet simply by refusing the
+requisite condition in the vegetable case, and granting it in the
+other. If you take a few grains of wheat, and are required to plant all
+successive generations of their produce in the same flower-pot for ever,
+of course you neutralize its expansion by your own act of arbitrary
+limitation. [Footnote: Malthus would have rejoined by saying--that the
+flowerpot limitation was the actual limitation of nature in our present
+circumstances. In America it is otherwise, he would say, but England
+is the very flowerpot you suppose; she is a flowerpot which cannot be
+multiplied, and cannot even be enlarged. Very well, so be it (which we
+say in order to waive irrelevant disputes). But then the true inference
+will be--not that vegetable increase proceeds under a different law from
+that which governs animal increase, but that, through an accident of
+position, the experiment cannot be tried in England. Surely the levers
+of Archimedes, with submission to Sir Edward B. Lytton, were not the
+less levers because he wanted the _locum standi_. It is proper, by the
+way, that we should inform the reader of this generation where to look
+for Coleridge's skirmishings with Malthus. They are to be found chiefly
+in the late Mr. William Hazlitt's work on that subject: a work which
+Coleridge so far claimed as to assert that it had been substantially
+made up from his own conversation.] But so you would do, if you tried
+the case of _animal_ increase by still exterminating all but one
+replacing couple of parents. This is not to try, but merely a pretence
+of trying, one order of powers against another. That was folly. But
+Coleridge combated this idea in a manner so obscure, that nobody
+understood it. And leaving these speculative conundrums, in coming to
+the great practical interests afloat in the Poor Laws, Coleridge did so
+little real work, that he left, as a _res integra_, to Dr. Alison,
+the capital argument that legal and _adequate_ provision for the poor,
+whether impotent poor or poor accidentally out of work, does not extend
+pauperism--no, but is the one great resource for putting it down. Dr.
+Alison's overwhelming and _experimental_ manifestations of that truth
+have prostrated Malthus and his generation for ever. This comes of not
+attending to the Latin maxim--'_Hoc_ age'--mind the object before you.
+Dr. Alison, a wise man, '_hoc_ egit:' Coleridge '_aliud_ egit.' And we
+see the result. In a case which suited him, by interesting his peculiar
+feeling, Coleridge could command
+
+  'Attention full ten times as much as there needs.'
+
+But search documents, value evidence, or thresh out bushels of
+statistical tables, Coleridge could not, any more than he could ride
+with Elliot's dragoons.
+
+Another instance of Coleridge's inaptitude for such studies as political
+economy is found in his fancy, by no means 'rich and rare,' but meagre
+and trite, that taxes can never injure public prosperity by mere excess
+of quantity; if they injure, we are to conclude that it must be by their
+quality and mode of operation, or by their false appropriation, (as,
+for instance, if they are sent out of the country and spent abroad.)
+Because, says Coleridge, if the taxes are exhaled from the country as
+vapors, back they come in drenching showers. Twenty pounds ascend in a
+Scotch mist to the Chancellor of the Exchequer from Leeds; but does it
+evaporate? Not at all: By return of post down comes an order for twenty
+pounds' worth of Leeds cloth, on account of Government, seeing that
+the poor men of the ----th regiment want new gaiters. True; but of this
+return twenty pounds, not more than four will be profit, _i.e._, surplus
+accruing to the public capital; whereas, of the original twenty pounds,
+every shilling was surplus. The same unsound fancy has been many times
+brought forward; often in England, often in France. But it is curious,
+that its first appearance upon any stage was precisely two centuries
+ago, when as yet political economy slept with the pre-Adamites, viz., in
+the Long Parliament. In a quarto volume of the debates during 1644-45,
+printed as an independent work, will be found the same identical
+doctrine, supported very sonorously by the same little love of an
+illustration from the see-saw of mist and rain.
+
+Political economy was not Coleridge's forte. In politics he was happier.
+In mere personal politics, he (like every man when reviewed from a
+station distant by forty years) will often appear to have erred; nay,
+he will be detected and nailed in error. But this is the necessity of us
+all. Keen are the refutations of time. And absolute results to posterity
+are the fatal touchstone of opinions in the past. It is undeniable,
+besides, that Coleridge had strong personal antipathies, for instance,
+to Messrs. Pitt and Dundas. Yet _why_, we never could understand. We
+once heard him tell a story upon Windermere, to the late Mr. Curwen,
+then M. P. for Workington, which was meant, apparently, to account
+for this feeling. The story amounted to this; that, when a freshman at
+Cambridge, Mr. Pitt had wantonly amused himself at a dinner party
+in Trinity, in smashing with filberts (discharged in showers like
+grape-shot) a most costly dessert set of cut glass, from which
+Samuel Taylor Coleridge argued a principle of destructiveness in his
+_cerebellum_. Now, if this dessert set belonged to some poor suffering
+Trinitarian, and not to himself, we are of opinion that he was faulty,
+and ought, upon his own great subsequent maxim, to have been coerced
+into 'indemnity for the past, and security for the future.' But, besides
+that this glassy _mythus_ belongs to an aera fifteen years earlier than
+Coleridge's so as to justify a shadow of scepticism, we really cannot
+find, in such an _escapade_ under the boiling blood of youth, any
+sufficient justification of that withering malignity towards the name
+of Pitt, which runs through Coleridge's famous _Fire, Famine,
+and Slaughter_. As this little viperous _jeu-d'esprit_ (published
+anonymously) subsequently became the subject of a celebrated
+after-dinner discussion in London, at which Coleridge (_comme de
+raison_) was the chief speaker, the reader of this generation may wish
+to know the question at issue; and in order to judge of _that_, he must
+know the outline of this devil's squib. The writer brings upon the scene
+three pleasant young ladies, viz., Miss Fire, Miss Famine, and Miss
+Slaughter. 'What are you up to? What's the row?'--we may suppose to
+be the introductory question of the poet. And the answer of the ladies
+makes us aware that they are fresh from larking in Ireland, and
+in France. A glorious spree they had; lots of fun; and laughter _a
+discretion_. At all times _gratus puellae risus ab angulo_; so that we
+listen to their little gossip with interest. They had been setting
+men, it seems, by the ears; and the drollest little atrocities they do
+certainly report. Not but we have seen better in the Nenagh paper, so
+far as Ireland is concerned. But the pet little joke was in La Vendee.
+Miss Famine, who is the girl for our money, raises the question--whether
+any of them can tell the name of the leader and prompter to these high
+jinks of hell--if so, let her whisper it.
+
+  'Whisper it, sister, so and so,
+  In a dark hint--distinct and low.'
+
+Upon which the playful Miss Slaughter replies:--
+
+  'Letters _four_ do form his name.
+  *     *     *     *     *
+  He came by stealth and unlock'd my den;
+  And I have drunk the blood since then
+  Of thrice three hundred thousand men.'
+
+Good: but the sting of the hornet lies in the conclusion. If this
+quadriliteral man had done so much for _them_, (though really, we think,
+6s. 8d. might have settled his claim,) what, says Fire, setting her arms
+a-kimbo, would they do for _him_? Slaughter replies, rather crustily,
+that, as far as a good kicking would go--or (says Famine) a little
+matter of tearing to pieces by the mob--they would be glad to take
+tickets at his benefit. 'How, you bitches!' says Fire, 'is that all?
+
+  'I alone am faithful; I
+  _Cling to him everlastingly_.'
+
+The sentiment is diabolical. And the question argued at the London
+dinner-table was--Could the writer have been other than a devil? The
+dinner was at the late excellent Mr. Sotheby's, known advantageously in
+those days as the translator of Wieland's _Oberon_. Several of the great
+guns amongst the literary body were present; in particular, Sir
+Walter Scott; and he, we believe, with his usual good-nature, took the
+apologetic side of the dispute. In fact, he was in the secret. Nobody
+else, barring the author, knew at first whose good name was at stake.
+The scene must have been high. The company kicked about the poor
+diabolic writer's head as if it had been a tennis-ball. Coleridge, the
+yet unknown criminal, absolutely perspired and fumed in pleading for the
+defendant; the company demurred; the orator grew urgent; wits began to
+_smoke_ the case, as active verbs; the advocate to _smoke_, as a neuter
+verb; the 'fun grew fast and furious;' until at length _delinquent
+arose_, burning tears in his eyes, and confessed to an audience, (now
+bursting with stifled laughter, but whom he supposed to be bursting with
+fiery indignation,) 'Lo! I am he that wrote it.'
+
+For our own parts, we side with Coleridge. Malice is not always of the
+heart. There is a malice of the understanding and the fancy. Neither do
+we think the worse of a man for having invented the most horrible and
+old-woman-troubling curse that demons ever listened to. We are too apt
+to swear horribly ourselves; and often have we frightened the cat, to
+say nothing of the kettle, by our shocking [far too shocking!] oaths.
+
+There were other celebrated men whom Coleridge detested, or seemed
+to detest--Paley, Sir Sidney Smith, Lord Hutchinson, (the last Lord
+Donoughmore,) and Cuvier. To Paley it might seem as if his antipathy had
+been purely philosophic; but we believe that partly it was personal;
+and it tallies with this belief, that, in his earliest political tracts,
+Coleridge charged the archdeacon repeatedly with his own joke, as if
+it had been a serious saying, viz.--'That he could not afford to keep
+a conscience;' such luxuries, like a carriage, for instance, being
+obviously beyond the finances of poor men.
+
+With respect to the philosophic question between the parties, as to the
+grounds of moral election, we hope it is no treason to suggest that both
+were perhaps in error. Against Paley, it occurs at once that he himself
+would not have made consequences the _practical_ test in valuing the
+morality of an act, since these can very seldom be traced at all up to
+the final stages, and in the earliest stages are exceedingly different
+under different circumstances; so that the same act, tried by its
+consequences, would bear a fluctuating appreciation. This could not have
+been Paley's _revised_ meaning. Consequently, had he been pressed
+by opposition, it would have come out, that by _test_ he meant only
+_speculative_ test: a very harmless doctrine certainly, but useless
+and impertinent to any purpose of his system. The reader may catch our
+meaning in the following illustration. It is a matter of general belief,
+that happiness, upon the whole, follows in a higher degree from constant
+integrity, than from the closest attention to self-interest. Now
+happiness is one of those consequences which Paley meant by final or
+remotest. But we could never use this idea as an exponent of integrity,
+or interchangeable criterion, because happiness cannot be ascertained or
+appreciated except upon long tracts of time, whereas the particular act
+of integrity depends continually upon the election of the moment. No
+man, therefore, could venture to lay down as a rule, Do what makes you
+happy; use this as your test of actions, satisfied that in that case
+always you will do the thing which is right. For he cannot discern
+independently what _will_ make him happy; and he must decide on the
+spot. The use of the _nexus_ between morality and happiness must
+therefore be inverted; it is not practical or prospective, but simply
+retrospective; and in that form it says no more than the good old rules
+hallowed in every cottage. But this furnishes no practical guide for
+moral election which a man had not, before he ever thought of this
+_nexus_. In the sense in which it is true, we need not go to the
+professor's chair for this maxim; in the sense in which it would serve
+Paley, it is absolutely false.
+
+On the other hand, as against Coleridge, it is certain that many acts
+could be mentioned which are judged to be good or bad only because their
+consequences are known to be so, whilst the great catholic acts of life
+are entirely (and, if we may so phrase it, haughtily) independent of
+consequences. For instance, fidelity to a trust is a law of immutable
+morality subject to no casuistry whatever. You have been left executor
+to a friend--you are to pay over his last legacy to X, though a
+dissolute scoundrel; and you are to give no shilling of it to the
+poor brother of X, though a good man, and a wise man, struggling
+with adversity. You are absolutely excluded from all contemplation of
+results. It was your deceased friend's right to make the will; it is
+yours simply to see it executed. Now, in opposition to this primary
+class of actions stands another, such as the habit of intoxication,
+which are known to be wrong only by observing the consequences. If
+drunkenness did not terminate, after some years, in producing bodily
+weakness, irritability in the temper, and so forth, it would _not_ be a
+vicious act. And accordingly, if a transcendent motive should arise in
+favor of drunkenness, as that it would enable you to face a degree of
+cold, or contagion, else menacing to life, a duty would arise, _pro hac
+vice_, of getting drunk. We had an amiable friend who suffered under
+the infirmity of cowardice; an awful coward he was when sober; but,
+when very drunk, he had courage enough for the Seven Champions of
+Christendom, Therefore, in an emergency, where he knew himself suddenly
+loaded with the responsibility of defending a family, we approved highly
+of his getting drunk. But to violate a trust could never become right
+under any change of circumstances. Coleridge, however, altogether
+overlooked this distinction: which, on the other hand, stirring in
+Paley's mind, but never brought out to distinct consciousness, nor ever
+investigated, nor limited, has undermined his system. Perhaps it is not
+very important how a man _theorizes_ upon morality; happily for us all,
+God has left no man in such questions practically to the guidance of his
+understanding; but still, considering that academic bodies _are_
+partly instituted for the support of speculative truth as well as truth
+practical, we must think it a blot upon the splendor of Oxford and
+Cambridge that both of them, in a Christian land, make Paley the
+foundation of their ethics; the alternative being Aristotle. And, in
+our mind, though far inferior as a moralist to the Stoics, Aristotle is
+often less of a pagan than Paley.
+
+Coleridge's dislike to Sir Sidney Smith and the Egyptian Lord Hutchinson
+fell under the category of Martial's case.
+
+  'Non amo te, Sabidi, nec possum dicere quare,
+  Hoc solum novi--non amo te, Sabidi.'
+
+Against Lord Hutchinson, we never heard him plead anything of moment,
+except that he was finically Frenchified in his diction; of which he
+gave this instance--that having occasion to notice a brick wall, (which
+was literally _that_, not more and not less,) when reconnoitring the
+French defences, he called it a _revetement_. And we ourselves remember
+his using the French word _gloriole_ rather ostentatiously; that is,
+when no particular emphasis attached to the case. But every man has his
+foibles; and few, perhaps, are less conspicuously annoying than this of
+Lord Hutchinson's. Sir Sidney's crimes were less distinctly revealed
+to our mind. As to Cuvier, Coleridge's hatred of _him_ was more to our
+taste; for (though quite unreasonable, we fear) it took the shape of
+patriotism. He insisted on it, that our British John Hunter was the
+genuine article, and that Cuvier was a humbug. Now, speaking privately
+to the public, we cannot go quite so far as _that_. But, when publicly
+we address that most respectable character, _en grand costume_,
+we always mean to back Coleridge. For we are a horrible John Bull
+ourselves. As Joseph Hume observes, it makes no difference to us--right
+or wrong, black or white--when our countrymen are concerned. And John
+Hunter, notwithstanding he had a bee in his bonnet, [Footnote: _Vide_,
+in particular, for the most exquisite specimen of pigheadedness that the
+world can furnish, his perverse evidence on the once famous case at the
+Warwick assizes, of Captain Donelan for poisoning his brother-in-law,
+Sir Theodosius Boughton.] was really a great man; though it will not
+follow that Cuvier must, therefore, have been a little one. We do not
+pretend to be acquainted with the tenth part of Cuvier's performances;
+but we suspect that Coleridge's range in that respect was not much
+greater than our own.
+
+Other cases of monomaniac antipathy we might revive from our
+recollections of Coleridge, had we a sufficient motive. But in
+compensation, and by way of redressing the balance, he had many strange
+likings--equally monomaniac--and, unaccountably, he chose to exhibit his
+whimsical partialities by dressing up, as it were, in his own clothes,
+such a set of scarecrows as eye has not beheld. Heavens! what an ark
+of unclean beasts would have been Coleridge's private _menagerie_
+of departed philosophers, could they all have been trotted out in
+succession! But did the reader feel them to be the awful bores which,
+in fact, they were? No; because Coleridge had blown upon these withered
+anatomies, through the blowpipe of his own creative genius, a stream of
+gas that swelled the tissue of their antediluvian wrinkles, forced color
+upon their cheeks, and splendor upon their sodden eyes. Such a process
+of ventriloquism never _has_ existed. He spoke by their organs. They
+were the tubes; and he forced through their wooden machinery his own
+Beethoven harmonies.
+
+First came Dr. Andrew Bell. We knew him. Was he dull? Is a wooden spoon
+dull? Fishy were his eyes; torpedinous was his manner; and his main
+idea, out of two which he really had, related to the moon--from which
+you infer, perhaps, that he was lunatic. By no means. It was no craze,
+under the influence of the moon, which possessed him; it was an idea of
+mere hostility to the moon. The Madras people, like many others, had an
+idea that she influenced the weather. Subsequently the Herschels,
+senior and junior, systematized this idea; and then the wrath of Andrew,
+previously in a crescent state, actually dilated to a plenilunar orb.
+The Westmoreland people (for at the lakes it was we knew him) expounded
+his condition to us by saying that he was 'maffled;' which word means
+'perplexed in the extreme.' His wrath did not pass into lunacy; it
+produced simple distraction; an uneasy fumbling with the idea; like that
+of an old superannuated dog who longs to worry, but cannot for want of
+teeth. In this condition you will judge that he was rather tedious. And
+in this condition Coleridge took him up. Andrew's other idea, because he
+_had_ two, related to education. Perhaps six-sevenths of that also came
+from Madras. No matter, Coleridge took _that_ up; Southey also; but
+Southey with his usual temperate fervor. Coleridge, on the other
+hand, found celestial marvels both in the scheme and in the man. Then
+commenced the apotheosis of Andrew Bell: and because it happened that
+his opponent, Lancaster, between ourselves, really _had_ stolen his
+ideas from Bell, what between the sad wickedness of Lancaster and the
+celestial transfiguration of Bell, gradually Coleridge heated himself to
+such an extent, that people, when referring to that subject, asked each
+other, 'Have you heard Coleridge lecture on _Bel and the Dragon_?'
+
+The next man glorified by Coleridge was John Woolman, the Quaker. Him,
+though we once possessed his works, it cannot be truly affirmed that
+we ever read. Try to read John, we often did; but read John we did not.
+This, however, you say, might be our fault, and not John's. Very likely.
+And we have a notion that now, with our wiser thoughts, we _should_ read
+John, if he were here on this table. It is certain that he was a good
+man, and one of the earliest in America, if not in Christendom, who
+lifted up his hand to protest against the slave-trade. But still, we
+suspect, that had John been all that Coleridge represented, he would
+not have repelled us from reading his travels in the fearful way that he
+did. But, again, we beg pardon, and entreat the earth of Virginia to lie
+light upon the remains of John Woolman; for he was an Israelite, indeed,
+in whom there was no guile.
+
+The third person raised to divine honors by Coleridge was Bowyer, the
+master of Christ's Hospital, London--a man whose name rises into
+the nostrils of all who knew him with the gracious odor of a
+tallow-chandler's melting-house upon melting day, and whose memory
+is embalmed in the hearty detestation of all his pupils. Coleridge
+describes this man as a profound critic. Our idea of him is different.
+We are of opinion that Bowyer was the greatest villain of the eighteenth
+century. We may be wrong; but we cannot be _far_ wrong. Talk of
+knouting indeed! which we did at the beginning of this paper in the
+mere playfulness of our hearts--and which the great master of the knout,
+Christopher, who visited men's trespasses like the Eumenides, never
+resorted to but in love for some great idea which had been outraged;
+why, this man knouted his way through life, from bloody youth up to
+truculent old age. Grim idol! whose altars reeked with children's blood,
+and whose dreadful eyes never smiled except as the stern goddess of the
+Thugs smiles, when the sound of human lamentations inhabits her ears.
+So much had the monster fed upon this great idea of 'flogging,' and
+transmuted it into the very nutriment of his heart, that he seems to
+have conceived the gigantic project of flogging all mankind; nay
+worse, for Mr. Gillman, on Coleridge's authority, tells us (p. 24) the
+following anecdote:--'"_Sirrah, I'll flog you_," were words so familiar
+to him, that on one occasion some _female_ friend of one of the boys,'
+(who had come on an errand of intercession,) 'still lingering at the
+door, after having been abruptly told to go, Bowyer exclaimed--"Bring
+that woman here, and I'll flog her."'
+
+To this horrid incarnation of whips and scourges, Coleridge, in his
+_Biographia Literaria_, ascribes ideas upon criticism and taste, which
+every man will recognise as the intense peculiarities of Coleridge.
+Could these notions really have belonged to Bowyer, then how do we know
+but he wrote _The Ancient Mariner_? Yet, on consideration, no. For even
+Coleridge admitted that, spite of his fine theorizing upon composition,
+Mr. Bowyer did not prosper in the practice. Of which he gave us this
+illustration; and as it is supposed to be the only specimen of the
+Bowyeriana which now survives in this sublunary world, we are glad to
+extend its glory. It is the most curious example extant of the melodious
+in sound:--
+
+  ''Twas thou that smooth'd'st the rough-rugg'd bed of pain.'
+
+'Smooth'd'st!' Would the teeth of a crocodile not splinter under that
+word? It seems to us as if Mr. Bowyer's verses ought to be boiled before
+they can be read. And when he says, 'Twas thou, what is the wretch
+talking to? Can he be apostrophizing the knout? We very much fear it.
+If so, then, you see (reader!) that, even when incapacitated by illness
+from operating, he still adores the image of his holy scourge, and
+invokes it as alone able to smooth 'his rough-rugg'd bed.' Oh,
+thou infernal Bowyer! upon whom even Trollope (_History of Christ's
+Hospital_) charges 'a discipline _tinctured_ with more than due
+severity;'--can there be any partners found for thee in a quadrille,
+except Draco, the bloody lawgiver, Bishop Bonner, and Mrs. Brownrigg?
+
+The next pet was Sir Alexander Ball. Concerning Bowyer, Coleridge did
+not talk much, but chiefly wrote; concerning Bell, he did not write
+much, but chiefly talked. Concerning Ball, however, he both wrote
+and talked. It was in vain to muse upon any plan for having Ball
+blackballed, or for rebelling against Bell. Think of a man, who had
+fallen into one pit called Bell; secondly, falling into another pit
+called Ball. This was too much. We were obliged to quote poetry against
+them:--
+
+  'Letters four do form his name;
+  He came by stealth and unlock'd my den;
+  And the nightmare I have felt since then
+  Of thrice three hundred thousand men.'
+
+Not that we insinuate any disrespect to Sir Alexander Ball. He was
+about the foremost, we believe, in all good qualities, amongst Nelson's
+admirable captains at the Nile. He commanded a seventy-four most
+effectually in that battle; he governed Malta as well as Sancho governed
+Barataria; and he was a true practical philosopher--as, indeed, was
+Sancho. But still, by all that we could ever learn, Sir Alexander had
+no taste for the abstract upon any subject; and would have read, as
+mere delirious wanderings, those philosophic opinions which Coleridge
+fastened like wings upon his respectable, but astounded, shoulders.
+
+We really beg pardon for having laughed a little at these crazes of
+Coleridge. But laugh we did, of mere necessity, in those days, at
+Bell and Ball, whenever we did not groan. And, as the same precise
+alternative offered itself now, viz., that, in recalling the case, we
+must reverberate either the groaning or the laughter, we presumed the
+reader would vote for the last. Coleridge, we are well convinced, owed
+all these wandering and exaggerated estimates of men--these diseased
+impulses, that, like the _mirage_, showed lakes and fountains where
+in reality there were only arid deserts, to the derangements worked by
+opium. But now, for the sake of change, let us pass to another topic.
+Suppose we say a word or two on Coleridge's accomplishments as a
+scholar. We are not going to enter on so large a field as that of his
+scholarship in connection with his philosophic labors, scholarship in
+the result; not this, but scholarship in the means and machinery, range
+of _verbal_ scholarship, is what we propose for a moment's review.
+
+For instance, what sort of a German scholar was Coleridge? We dare
+say that, because in his version of the _Wallenstein_ there are some
+inaccuracies, those who may have noticed them will hold him cheap in
+this particular pretension. But, to a certain degree, they will be
+wrong. Coleridge was not _very_ accurate in anything but in the use of
+logic. All his philological attainments were imperfect. He did not
+talk German; or so obscurely--and, if he attempted to speak fast, so
+erroneously--that in his second sentence, when conversing with a German
+lady of rank, he contrived to assure her that in his humble opinion she
+was a ----. Hard it is to fill up the hiatus decorously; but, in fact,
+the word very coarsely expressed that she was no better than she should
+be. Which reminds us of a parallel misadventure to a German, whose
+colloquial English had been equally neglected. Having obtained an
+interview with an English lady, he opened his business (whatever it
+might be) thus--'High-born madam, since your husband have kicked de
+bucket'----'Sir!' interrupted the lady, astonished and displeased. 'Oh,
+pardon!--nine, ten thousand pardon! Now, I make new beginning--quite
+oder beginning. Madam, since your husband have cut his stick'----It may
+be supposed that this did not mend matters; and, reading that in the
+lady's countenance, the German drew out an octavo dictionary, and said,
+perspiring with shame at having a second time missed fire,--'Madam,
+since your husband have gone to kingdom come'----This he said
+beseechingly; but the lady was past propitiation by this time, and
+rapidly moved towards the door. Things had now reached a crisis; and, if
+something were not done quickly, the game was up. Now, therefore, taking
+a last hurried look at his dictionary, the German flew after the lady,
+crying out in a voice of despair--'Madam, since your husband, your most
+respected husband, have hopped de twig'----This was his sheet-anchor;
+and, as this also _came home_, of course the poor man was totally
+wrecked. It turned out that the dictionary he had used (Arnold's, we
+think,)--a work of a hundred years back, and, from mere ignorance,
+giving slang translations from Tom Brown, L'Estrange, and other jocular
+writers--had put down the verb _sterben (to die)_ with the following
+worshipful series of equivalents--1. To kick the bucket; 2. To cut one's
+stick; 3. To go to kingdom come; 4. To hop the twig.
+
+But, though Coleridge did not pretend to any fluent command of
+conversational German, he read it with great ease. His knowledge
+of German literature was, indeed, too much limited by his rare
+opportunities for commanding anything like a well-mounted library. And
+particularly it surprised us that Coleridge knew little or nothing of
+John Paul (Richter). But his acquaintance with the German philosophic
+masters was extensive. And his valuation of many individual German words
+or phrases was delicate and sometimes profound.
+
+As a Grecian, Coleridge must be estimated with a reference to the state
+and standard of Greek literature at that time and in this country.
+Porson had not yet raised our ideal. The earliest laurels of Coleridge
+were gathered, however, in that field. Yet no man will, at this day,
+pretend that the Greek of his prize ode is sufferable. Neither did
+Coleridge ever become an accurate Grecian in later times, when better
+models of scholarship, and better aids to scholarship, had begun
+to multiply. But still we must assert this point of superiority for
+Coleridge, that, whilst he never was what may be called a well-mounted
+scholar in any department of verbal scholarship, he yet displayed
+sometimes a brilliancy of conjectural sagacity, and a felicity of
+philosophic investigation, even in this path, such as better scholars do
+not often attain, and of a kind which cannot be learned from books. But,
+as respects his accuracy, again we must recall to the reader the state
+of Greek literature in England during Coleridge's youth; and, in all
+equity, as a means of placing Coleridge in the balances, specifically we
+must recall the state of Greek metrical composition at that period.
+
+To measure the condition of Greek literature even in Cambridge, about
+the initial period of Coleridge, we need only look back to the several
+translations of Gray's _Elegy_ by three (if not four) of the reverend
+gentlemen at that time attached to Eton College. Mathias, no very great
+scholar himself in this particular field, made himself merry, in his
+_Pursuits of Literature_, with these Eton translations. In that he was
+right. But he was _not_ right in praising a contemporary translation by
+Cook, who (we believe) was the immediate predecessor of Porson in
+the Greek chair. As a specimen of this translation, [Footnote: It was
+printed at the end of Aristotle's _Poetics_, which Dr. Cook edited.] we
+cite one stanza; and we cannot be supposed to select unfairly, because
+it is the stanza which Mathias praises in extravagant terms. "Here,"
+says he, "Gray, Cook, and Nature, do seem to contend for the mastery."
+The English quatrain must be familiar to every body:--
+
+  "The boast of heraldry, the pomp of pow'r,
+    And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave,
+  Await alike the inevitable hour:
+    The paths of glory lead but to the grave."
+
+And the following, we believe, though quoting from a thirty-three years'
+recollection of it, is the exact Greek version of Cook:--
+
+  'A charis eugenon, charis a basilaeidos achas
+  Lora tuchaes chryseaes, Aphroditaes kala ta dora,
+  Paith ama tauta tethiake, kai eiden morsimon amar
+  Proon kle olole, kai ocheto xunon es Adaen.'
+
+Now really these verses, by force of a little mosaic tesselation from
+genuine Greek sources, pass fluently over the tongue; but can they be
+considered other than a _cento_? Swarms of English schoolboys, at this
+day, would not feel very proud to adopt them. In fact, we remember (at a
+period say twelve years later than this) some iambic verses, which were
+really composed by a boy, viz., a son of Dr. Prettyman, (afterwards
+Tomline,) Bishop of Winchester, and, in earlier times, private tutor to
+Mr. Pitt; they were published by Middleton, first Bishop of Calcutta,
+in the preface to his work on the Greek article; and for racy idiomatic
+Greek, self-originated, and not a mere mocking-bird's iteration of alien
+notes, are so much superior to all the attempts of these sexagenarian
+doctors, as distinctly to mark the growth of a new era and a new
+generation in this difficult accomplishment, within the first decennium
+of this century. It is singular that only one blemish is suggested by
+any of the contemporary critics in Dr. Cook's verses, viz., in the
+word _xunon_, for which this critic proposes to substitute _ooinon_,
+to prevent, as he observes, the last syllable of _ocheto_ from being
+lengthened by the _x_. Such considerations as these are necessary to the
+_trutinae castigatio_, before we can value Coleridge's place on the scale
+of his own day; which day, _quoad hoc_, be it remembered, was 1790.
+
+As to French, Coleridge read it with too little freedom to find pleasure
+in French literature. Accordingly, we never recollect his referring for
+any purpose, either of argument or illustration, to a French classic.
+Latin, from his regular scholastic training, naturally he read with a
+scholar's fluency; and indeed, he read constantly in authors, such as
+Petrarch, Erasmus, Calvin, &c., whom he could not then have found in
+translations. But Coleridge had not cultivated an acquaintance with the
+delicacies of classic Latinity. And it is remarkable that Wordsworth,
+educated most negligently at Hawkshead school, subsequently by reading
+the lyric poetry of Horace, simply for his own delight as a student of
+composition, made himself a master of Latinity in its most difficult
+form; whilst Coleridge, trained regularly in a great Southern school,
+never carried his Latin to any classical polish.
+
+There is another accomplishment of Coleridge's, less broadly open to
+the judgment of this generation, and not at all of the next--viz., his
+splendid art of conversation, on which it will be interesting to say a
+word. Ten years ago, when the music of this rare performance had not yet
+ceased to vibrate in men's ears, what a sensation was gathering amongst
+the educated classes on this particular subject! What a tumult of
+anxiety prevailed to 'hear Mr. Coleridge'--or even to talk with a man
+who _had_ heard him! Had he lived till this day, not Paganini would have
+been so much sought after. That sensation is now decaying; because a new
+generation has emerged during the ten years since his death. But many
+still remain whose sympathy (whether of curiosity in those who did _not_
+know him, or of admiration in those who _did_) still reflects as in a
+mirror the great stir upon this subject which then was moving in the
+world. To these, if they should inquire for the great distinguishing
+principle of Coleridge's conversation, we might say that it was the
+power of vast combination 'in linked sweetness long drawn out.'
+He gathered into focal concentration the largest body of objects,
+_apparently_ disconnected, that any man ever yet, by any magic, could
+assemble, or, _having_ assembled, could manage. His great fault was,
+that, by not opening sufficient spaces for reply or suggestion, or
+collateral notice, he not only narrowed his own field, but he grievously
+injured the final impression. For when men's minds are purely passive,
+when they are not allowed to re-act, then it is that they collapse most,
+and that their sense of what is said must ever be feeblest. Doubtless
+there must have been great conversational masters elsewhere, and at many
+periods; but in this lay Coleridge's characteristic advantage, that he
+was a great natural power, and also a great artist. He was a power in
+the art, and he carried a new art into the power.
+
+But now, finally--having left ourselves little room for more--one or two
+words on Coleridge as an opium-eater.
+
+We have not often read a sentence falling from a wise man with
+astonishment so profound, as that particular one in a letter of
+Coleridge's to Mr. Gillman, which speaks of the effort to wean
+one's-self from opium as a trivial task. There are, we believe, several
+such passages. But we refer to that one in particular which assumes
+that a single 'week' will suffice for the whole process of so mighty a
+revolution. Is indeed leviathan _so_ tamed? In that case the quarantine
+of the opium-eater might be finished within Coleridge's time, and
+with Coleridge's romantic ease. But mark the contradictions of this
+extraordinary man. Not long ago we were domesticated with a venerable
+rustic, strong-headed, but incurably obstinate in his prejudices, who
+treated the whole body of medical men as ignorant pretenders, knowing
+absolutely nothing of the system which they professed to superintend.
+This, you will remark, is no very singular case. No; nor, as we believe,
+is the antagonist case of ascribing to such men magical powers. Nor,
+what is worse still, the co-existence of both cases in the same mind,
+as in fact happened here. For this same obstinate friend of ours, who
+treated all medical pretensions as the mere jest of the universe, every
+'third day was exacting from his own medical attendants some exquisite
+_tour-de-force_, as that they should know or should do something,
+which, if they _had_ known or done, all men would have suspected them
+reasonably of magic. He rated the whole medical body as infants; and
+yet what he exacted from them every third day as a matter of course,
+virtually presumed them to be the only giants within the whole range of
+science. Parallel and equal is the contradiction of Coleridge. He speaks
+of opium excess, his own excess, we mean--the excess of twenty-five
+years--as a thing to be laid aside easily and for ever within seven
+days; and yet, on the other hand, he describes it pathetically,
+sometimes with a frantic pathos, as the scourge, the curse, the one
+almighty blight which had desolated his life.
+
+This shocking contradiction we need not press. All readers will see
+_that_. But some will ask--Was Mr. Coleridge right in either view?
+Being so atrociously wrong in the first notion, (viz., that the opium
+of twenty-five years was a thing easily to be forsworn,) where a child
+could know that he was wrong, was he even altogether right, secondly,
+in believing that his own life, root and branch, had been withered by
+opium? For it will not follow, because, with a relation to happiness and
+tranquillity, a man may have found opium his curse, that therefore, as
+a creature of energies and great purposes, he must have been the wreck
+which he seems to suppose. Opium gives and takes away. It defeats the
+_steady_ habit of exertion, but it creates spasms of irregular exertion;
+it ruins the natural power of life, but it develops preternatural
+paroxysms of intermitting power. Let us ask of any man who holds that
+not Coleridge himself but the world, as interested in Coleridge's
+usefulness, has suffered by his addiction to opium; whether he is aware
+of the way in which opium affected Coleridge; and secondly, whether
+he is aware of the actual contributions to literature--how large they
+were--which Coleridge made _in spite_ of opium. All who were intimate
+with Coleridge must remember the fits of genial animation which were
+created continually in his manner and in his buoyancy of thought by a
+recent or by an _extra_ dose of the omnipotent drug. A lady, who knew
+nothing experimentally of opium, once told us, that she 'could tell when
+Mr. Coleridge had taken too much opium by his shining countenance.' She
+was right; we know that mark of opium excesses well, and the cause of
+it; or at least we believe the cause to lie in the quickening of the
+insensible perspiration which accumulates and glistens on the face. Be
+that as it may, a criterion it was that could not deceive us as to the
+condition of Coleridge. And uniformly in that condition he made his most
+effective intellectual displays. It is true that he might not be happy
+under this fiery animation, and we fully believe that he was not. Nobody
+is happy under laudanum except for a very short term of years. But in
+what way did that operate upon his exertions as a writer? We are of
+opinion that it killed Coleridge as a poet. 'The harp of Quantock' was
+silenced for ever by the torment of opium. But proportionably it roused
+and stung by misery his metaphysical instincts into more spasmodic life.
+Poetry can flourish only in the atmosphere of happiness. But subtle and
+perplexed investigations of difficult problems are amongst the commonest
+resources for beguiling the sense of misery. And for this we have the
+direct authority of Coleridge himself speculating on his own case.
+In the beautiful though unequal ode entitled _Dejection_, stanza six,
+occurs the following passage:
+
+  'For not to think of what I needs must feel,
+  But to be still and patient all I can;
+  _And haply by abstruse research to steal
+  From my own nature all the natural man_--
+  This was my sole resource, my only plan;
+  Till that, which suits a part, infects the whole,
+  And now is almost grown the habit of my soul.'
+
+Considering the exquisite quality of some poems which Coleridge has
+composed, nobody can grieve (or _has_ grieved) more than ourselves, at
+seeing so beautiful a fountain choked up with weeds. But had Coleridge
+been a happier man, it is our fixed belief that we should have had far
+less of his philosophy, and perhaps, but not certainly, might have
+had more of his general literature. In the estimate of the public,
+doubtless, _that_ will seem a bad exchange. Every man to his taste.
+Meantime, what we wish to show is, that the loss was not absolute,
+but merely relative.
+
+It is urged, however, that, even on his philosophic speculations, opium
+operated unfavorably in one respect, by often causing him to leave them
+unfinished. This is true. Whenever Coleridge (being highly charged,
+or saturated, with opium) had written with distempered vigor upon any
+question, there occurred soon after a recoil of intense disgust, not
+from his own paper only, but even from the subject. All opium-eaters are
+tainted with the infirmity of leaving works unfinished, and suffering
+reactions of disgust. But Coleridge taxed himself with that infirmity in
+verse before he could at all have commenced opium-eating. Besides, it is
+too much assumed by Coleridge and by his biographer, that to leave off
+opium was of course to regain juvenile health. But all opium-eaters make
+the mistake of supposing every pain or irritation which they suffer to
+be the product of opium. Whereas a wise man will say, suppose you _do_
+leave off opium, that will not deliver you from the load of years (say
+sixty-three) which you carry on your back. Charles Lamb, another man of
+true genius, and another head belonging to the Blackwood Gallery, made
+that mistake in his _Confessions of a Drunkard_. 'I looked back,' says
+he, 'to the time when always, on waking in the morning, I had a song
+rising to my lips.' At present, it seems, being a drunkard, he has no
+such song. Ay, dear Lamb, but note this, that the drunkard was fifty-six
+years old, the songster was twenty-three. Take twenty-three from
+fifty-six, and we have some reason to believe that thirty-three will
+remain; which period of thirty-three years is a pretty good reason for
+not singing in the morning, even if brandy has been out of the question.
+
+It is singular, as respects Coleridge, that Mr. Gillman never says one
+word upon the event of the great Highgate experiment for leaving off
+laudanum, though Coleridge came to Mr. Gillman's for no other purpose;
+and in a week, this vast creation of new earth, sea, and all that in
+them is, was to have been accomplished. We _rayther_ think, as Bayley
+junior observes, that the explosion must have hung fire. But _that_ is
+a trifle. We have another pleasing hypothesis on the subject. Mr.
+Wordsworth, in his exquisite lines written on a fly-leaf of his own
+_Castle of Indolence_, having described Coleridge as 'a noticeable man
+with large grey eyes,' goes on to say, 'He' (viz., Coleridge) 'did that
+other man entice' to view his imagery. Now we are sadly afraid that 'the
+noticeable man with large grey eyes' did entice 'that other man,' viz.,
+Gillman, to commence opium-eating. This is droll; and it makes us laugh
+horribly. Gillman should have reformed _him_; and lo! _he_ corrupts
+Gillman. S. T. Coleridge visited Highgate by way of being converted
+from the heresy of opium; and the issue is--that, in two months' time,
+various grave men, amongst whom our friend Gillman marches first in
+great pomp, are found to have faces shining and glorious as that of
+AEsculapius; a fact of which we have already explained the secret
+meaning. And scandal says (but then what will not scandal say?) that
+a hogshead of opium goes up daily through Highgate tunnel. Surely one
+corroboration of our hypothesis may be found in the fact, that Vol. I.
+of Gillman's Coleridge is for ever to stand unpropped by Vol. II. For we
+have already observed, that opium-eaters, though good fellows upon the
+whole, never finish anything.
+
+What then? A man has a right never to finish anything. Certainly he has;
+and by Magna Charta. But he has no right, by Magna Charta or by Parva
+Charta, to slander decent men, like ourselves and our friend the author
+of the _Opium Confessions_. Here it is that our complaint arises against
+Mr. Gillman. If he has taken to opium-eating, can we help _that_? If
+_his_ face shines, must our faces be blackened? He has very improperly
+published some intemperate passages from Coleridge's letters, which
+ought to have been considered confidential, unless Coleridge had
+left them for publication, charging upon the author of the _Opium
+Confessions_ a reckless disregard of the temptations which, in that
+work, he was scattering abroad amongst men. Now this author is connected
+with ourselves, and we cannot neglect his defence, unless in the case
+that he undertakes it himself.
+
+We complain, also, that Coleridge raises (and is backed by Mr. Gillman
+in raising) a distinction perfectly perplexing to us, between himself
+and the author of the _Opium Confessions_ upon the question--Why they
+severally began the practice of opium-eating? In himself, it seems, this
+motive was to relieve pain, whereas the Confessor was surreptitiously
+seeking for pleasure. Ay, indeed--where did he learn _that_? We have no
+copy of the _Confessions_ here, so we cannot quote chapter and verse;
+but we distinctly remember, that toothache is recorded in that book
+as the particular occasion which first introduced the author to the
+knowledge of opium. Whether afterwards, having been thus initiated
+by the demon of pain, the opium confessor did not apply powers thus
+discovered to purposes of mere pleasure, is a question for himself; and
+the same question applies with the same cogency to Coleridge. Coleridge
+began in rheumatic pains. What then? This is no proof that he did not
+end in voluptuousness. For our parts, we are slow to believe that ever
+any man did, or could, learn the somewhat awful truth, that in a certain
+ruby-colored elixir, there lurked a divine power to chase away the
+genius of ennui, without subsequently abusing this power. To taste but
+once from the tree of knowledge, is fatal to the subsequent power
+of abstinence. True it is, that generations have used laudanum as an
+anodyne, (for instance, hospital patients,) who have not afterwards
+courted its powers as a voluptuous stimulant; but that, be sure, has
+arisen from no abstinence in _them_. There are, in fact, two classes of
+temperaments as to this terrific drug--those which are, and those which
+are not, preconformed to its power; those which genially expand to its
+temptations, and those which frostily exclude them. Not in the energies
+of the will, but in the qualities of the nervous organization, lies
+the dread arbitration of--Fall or stand: doomed thou art to yield; or,
+strengthened constitutionally, to resist. Most of those who have but a
+low sense of the spells lying couchant in opium, have practically none
+at all. For the initial fascination is for _them_ effectually defeated
+by the sickness which nature has associated with the first stages of
+opium-eating. But to that other class, whose nervous sensibilities
+vibrate to their profoundest depths under the first touch of the angelic
+poison, even as a lover's ear thrills on hearing unexpectedly the voice
+of her whom he loves, opium is the Amreeta cup of beatitude. You know
+the _Paradise Lost_? and you remember, from the eleventh book, in its
+earlier part, that laudanum already existed in Eden--nay, that it was
+used medicinally by an archangel; for, after Michael had 'purged with
+euphrasy and rue' the eyes of Adam, lest he should be unequal to the
+mere _sight_ of the great visions about to unfold their draperies before
+him, next he fortifies his fleshly spirits against the _affliction_ of
+these visions, of which visions the first was death. And how?
+
+  'He from the well of life three drops instill'd.'
+
+What was their operation?
+
+  'So deep the power of these ingredients pierced,
+  _Even to the inmost seat of mental sight_,
+  That Adam, now enforced to close his eyes,
+  Sank down, and all his spirits became entranced.
+  But him the gentle angel by the hand
+  Soon raised'----
+
+The second of these lines it is which betrays the presence of laudanum.
+It is in the faculty of mental vision, it is in the increased power of
+dealing with the shadowy and the dark, that the characteristic virtue
+of opium lies. Now, in the original higher sensibility is found some
+palliation for the _practice_ of opium-eating; in the greater temptation
+is a greater excuse. And in this faculty of self-revelation is found
+some palliation for _reporting_ the case to the world, which both
+Coleridge and his biographer have overlooked.
+
+
+
+
+TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT.
+
+
+The most remarkable instance of a combined movement in society, which
+history, perhaps, will be summoned to notice, is that which, in our own
+days, has applied itself to the abatement of intemperance. Naturally,
+or by any _direct_ process, the machinery set in motion would seem
+irrelevant to the object: if one hundred men unite to elevate
+the standard of temperance, they can do this with effect only by
+improvements in their own separate cases: each individual, for such an
+effort of self-conquest, can draw upon no resources but his own. One
+member in a combination of one hundred, when running a race, can hope
+for no cooperation from his ninety-nine associates. And yet, by a
+secondary action, such combinations are found eminently successful.
+Having obtained from every confederate a pledge, in some shape or
+other, that he will give them his support, thenceforwards they bring the
+passions of shame and self-esteem to bear upon each member's personal
+perseverance. Not only they keep alive and continually refresh in his
+thoughts the general purpose, which else might fade; but they also point
+the action of public contempt and of self-contempt at any defaulter much
+more potently, and with more acknowledged right to do so, when they use
+this influence under a license, volunteered, and signed, and sealed, by
+the man's own hand. They first conciliate his countenance through his
+intellectual perceptions of what is right; and next they sustain it
+through his conscience, (the strongest of his internal forces,) and
+even through the weakest of his human sensibilities. That revolution,
+therefore, which no combination of men can further by abating the
+original impulse of temptations, they often accomplish happily by
+maturing the secondary energies of resistance.
+
+Already in their earliest stage, these temperance movements had
+obtained, both at home and abroad, a _national_ range of grandeur. More
+than ten years ago, when M. de Tocqueville was resident in the United
+States, the principal American society counted two hundred and seventy
+thousand members: and in one single state (Pennsylvania) the annual
+diminution in the use of spirits had very soon reached half a million of
+gallons. Now a machinery must be so far good which accomplishes its end:
+the means are meritorious for so much as they effect. Even to strengthen
+a feeble resolution by the aid of other infirmities, such as shame or
+the very servility and cowardice of deference to public opinion, becomes
+prudent and laudable in the service of so great a cause. Nay, sometimes
+to make public profession of self-distrust by assuming the coercion of
+public pledges, may become an expression of frank courage, or even of
+noble principle, not fearing the shame of confession when it can aid the
+powers of victorious resistance. Yet still, so far as it is possible,
+every man sighs for a still higher victory over himself: a victory not
+tainted by bribes, and won from no impulses but those inspired by his
+own higher nature, and his own mysterious force of will; powers that in
+no man were fully developed.
+
+This being so, it is well that from time to time every man should throw
+out any hints that have occurred to his experience,--suggesting such as
+may be new, renewing such as may be old, towards the encouragement
+or the information of persons engaged in so great a struggle. My own
+experience had never travelled in that course which could much instruct
+me in the miseries from wine, or in the resources for struggling with
+it. I had repeatedly been obliged indeed to lay it aside altogether; but
+in this I never found room for more than seven or ten days' struggle:
+excesses I had never practised in the use of wine; simply the habit of
+using it, and the collateral habits formed by excessive use of opium,
+had produced any difficulty at all in resigning it even on an hour's
+notice. From opium I derive my right of offering hints at all upon the
+subjects of abstinence in other forms. But the modes of suffering
+from the evil, and the separate modes of suffering from the effort of
+self-conquest, together with errors of judgment incident to such states
+of transitional torment, are all nearly allied, practically analogous
+as regards the remedies, even if characteristically distinguished to the
+inner consciousness. I make no scruple, therefore, of speaking as from
+a station of high experience and of most watchful attention, which never
+remitted even under sufferings that were at times absolutely frantic.
+
+I. The first hint is one that has been often offered; viz., the
+diminution of the particular liquor used, by the introduction into
+each glass of some inert substance, ascertained in bulk, and equally
+increasing in amount from day to day. But this plan has often been
+intercepted by an accident: shot, or sometimes bullets, were the
+substances nearest at hand; an objection arose from too scrupulous a
+caution of chemistry as to the action upon lead of the vinous acid. Yet
+all objection of this kind might be removed at once, by using beads in a
+case where small decrements were wanted, and marbles, if it were thought
+advisable to use larger. Once for all, however, in cases deeply rooted,
+no advances ought ever to be made but by small stages: for the effect,
+which is insensible at first, by the tenth, twelfth, or fifteenth day,
+generally accumulates unendurably under any bolder deductions. I must
+not stop to illustrate this point; but certain it is, that by an error
+of this nature at the outset, most natural to human impatience under
+exquisite suffering, too generally the trial is abruptly brought to an
+end through the crisis of a passionate relapse.
+
+II. Another object, and one to which the gladiator matched in single
+duel with intemperance, must direct a religious vigilance, is the
+_digestibility_ of his food: it must be digestible not only by its
+original qualities, but also by its culinary preparation. In this last
+point we are all of us Manichaeans: all of us yield a cordial assent to
+that Manichaean proverb, which refers the meats and the cooks of this
+world to two opposite fountains of light and of darkness. Oromasdes it
+is, or the good principle, that sends the food; Ahrimanes, or the evil
+principle, that everywhere sends the cooks. Man has been repeatedly
+described or even defined, as by differential privilege of his nature,
+'A cooking animal.' Brutes, it is said, have faces,--man only has a
+countenance; brutes are as well able to eat as man,--man only is able
+to cook what he eats. Such are the romances of self-flattery. I, on the
+contrary, maintain, that six thousand years have not availed, in this
+point, to raise our race generally to the level of ingenious savages.
+The natives of the Society and the Friendly Isles, or of New Zealand,
+and other favored spots, had, and still have, an _art_ of cookery,
+though very limited in its range: the French [Footnote: But judge not,
+reader, of French skill by the attempts of fourth-rate artists; and
+understand me to speak with respect of this skill, not as it is the tool
+of luxury, but as it is the handmaid of health.] have an art, and
+more extensive; but we English are about upon a level (as regards this
+science) with the ape, to whom an instinct whispers that chestnuts may
+be roasted; or with the aboriginal Chinese of Charles Lamb's story, to
+whom the experience of many centuries had revealed thus much, viz., that
+a dish very much beyond the raw flesh of their ancestors, might be had
+by burning down the family mansion, and thus roasting the pig-stye.
+Rudest of barbarous devices is English cookery, and not much in advance
+of this primitive Chinese step; a fact which it would not be worth while
+to lament, were it not for the sake of the poor trembling deserter from
+the banners of intoxication, who is thus, and by no other cause, so
+often thrown back beneath the yoke which he had abjured. Past counting
+are the victims of alcohol, that, having by vast efforts emancipated
+themselves for a season, are violently forced into relapsing by the
+nervous irritations of demoniac cookery. Unhappily for _them_, the
+horrors of indigestion are relieved for the moment, however ultimately
+strengthened, by strong liquors; the relief is immediate, and cannot
+fail to be perceived; but the aggravation, being removed to a distance,
+is not always referred to its proper cause. This is the capital rock and
+stumbling-block in the path of him who is hurrying back to the camps of
+temperance; and many a reader is likely to misapprehend the case through
+the habit he has acquired of supposing indigestion to lurk chiefly
+amongst _luxurious_ dishes. But, on the contrary, it is amongst the
+plainest, simplest, and commonest dishes that such misery lurks, in
+England. Let us glance at three articles of diet, beyond all comparison
+of most ordinary occurrence, viz., potatoes, bread, and butcher's meat.
+The art of preparing potatoes for _human_ use is utterly unknown, except
+in certain provinces of our empire, and amongst certain sections of the
+laboring class. In our great cities,--London, Edinburgh, &c.--the sort
+of things which you see offered at table under the name and reputation
+of potatoes, are such that, if you could suppose the company to be
+composed of Centaurs and Lapithae, or any other quarrelsome people, it
+would become necessary for the police to interfere. The potato of cities
+is a very dangerous missile; and, if thrown with an accurate aim by an
+angry hand, will fracture any known skull. In volume and consistency, it
+is very like a paving-stone; only that, I should say, the paving-stone
+had the advantage in point of tenderness. And upon this horrid basis,
+which youthful ostriches would repent of swallowing, the trembling,
+palpitating invalid, fresh from the scourging of alcohol, is requested
+to build the superstructure of his dinner. The proverb says, that three
+flittings are as bad as a fire; and on that model I conceive that three
+potatoes, as they are found at many British dinner-tables, would be
+equal, in principle of ruin, to two glasses of vitriol. The same savage
+ignorance appears, and only not so often, in the bread of this island.
+Myriads of families eat it in that early stage of sponge which bread
+assumes during the process of baking; but less than sixty hours will not
+fit this dangerous article of human diet to be eaten. And those who are
+acquainted with the works of Parmentier, or other learned investigators
+of bread and of the baker's art, must be aware that this quality of
+sponginess (though quite equal to the ruin of the digestive organs) is
+but one in a legion of vices to which the article is liable. A German of
+much research wrote a book on the conceivable faults in a pair of shoes,
+which he found to be about six hundred and sixty-six, many of them, as
+he observed, requiring a very delicate process of study to find out;
+whereas the possible faults in bread, which are not less in number,
+require no study at all for the defection; they publish themselves
+through all varieties of misery. But the perfection of barbarism, as
+regards our island cookery, is reserved for animal food; and the two
+poles of Oromasdes and Ahrimanes are nowhere so conspicuously exhibited.
+Our insular sheep, for instance, are so far superior to any which the
+continent produces, that the present Prussian minister at our court is
+in the habit of questioning a man's right to talk of mutton as anything
+beyond a great idea, unless he can prove a residence in Great Britain.
+One sole case he cites of a dinner on the Elbe, when a particular leg of
+mutton really struck him as rivalling any which he had known in England.
+The mystery seemed inexplicable; but, upon inquiry, it turned out to
+be an importation from Leith. Yet this incomparable article, to produce
+which the skill of the feeder must co-operate with the peculiar bounty
+of nature, calls forth the most dangerous refinements of barbarism in
+its cookery. A Frenchman requires, as the primary qualification of flesh
+meat, that it should be tender. We English universally, but especially
+the Scots, treat that quality with indifference, or with bare
+toleration. What we require is, that it should be fresh, that is,
+recently killed, (in which state it cannot be digestible except by a
+crocodile;) and we present it at table in a transition state of leather,
+demanding the teeth of a tiger to rend it in pieces, and the stomach of
+a tiger to digest it.
+
+With these habits amongst our countrymen, exemplified daily in
+the articles of widest use, it is evident that the sufferer from
+intemperance has a harder quarantine, in this island, to support
+during the effort of restoration, than he could have anywhere else in
+Christendom. In Persia, and, perhaps, there only on this terraqueous
+planet, matters might be even worse: for, whilst we English neglect the
+machinery of digestion, as a matter entitled to little consideration,
+the people of Teheran seem unaware that there _is_ any such machinery.
+So, at least, one might presume, from cases on record, and especially
+from the reckless folly, under severe illness, from indigestion, of
+the three Persian princes, who visited this country, as stated by their
+official _mehmander_, Mr. Fraser. With us, the excess of ignorance, upon
+this subject, betrays itself oftenest in that vain-glorious answer made
+by the people, who at any time are admonished of the sufferings which
+they are preparing for themselves by these outrages upon the most
+delicate of human organs. They, for _their_ parts, 'know not if they
+_have_ a stomach; they know not what it is that dyspepsy means;'
+forgetting that, in thus vaunting their _strength_ of stomach, they are,
+at the same time, proclaiming its coarseness; and showing themselves
+unaware that precisely those, whom such coarseness of organization
+reprieves from immediate and seasonable reaction of suffering, are the
+favorite subjects of that heavier reaction which takes the shape of
+_delirium tremens_, of palsy, and of lunacy. It is but a fanciful
+advantage which _they_ enjoy, for whom the immediate impunity avails
+only to hide the final horrors which are gathering upon them from the
+gloomy rear. Better, by far, that more of immediate discomfort had
+guaranteed to them less of reversionary anguish. It may be safely
+asserted, that few, indeed, are the suicides amongst us to which the
+miseries of indigestion have not been a large concurring cause; and even
+where nothing so dreadful as _that_ occurs, always these miseries are
+the chief hinderance of the self-reforming drunkard, and the commonest
+cause of his relapse. It is certain, also, that misanthropic gloom
+and bad temper besiege that class, by preference, to whom peculiar
+coarseness or obtuse sensibility of organization has denied the salutary
+warnings and early prelibations of punishment which, happily for most
+men, besiege the more direct and obvious frailties of the digestive
+apparatus.
+
+The whole process and elaborate machinery of digestion are felt to be
+mean and humiliating when viewed in relation to our mere animal economy.
+But they rise into dignity, and assert their own supreme importance,
+when they arc studied from another station, viz., in relation to the
+intellect and temper; no man dares, _then_, to despise them: it is then
+seen that these functions of the human system form the essential basis
+upon which the strength and health of our higher nature repose; and
+that upon these functions, chiefly, the general happiness of life is
+dependent. All the rules of prudence, or gifts of experience that life
+can accumulate, will never do as much for human comfort and welfare as
+would be done by a stricter attention, and a wiser science, directed
+to the digestive system; in this attention lies the key to any perfect
+restoration for the victim of intemperance: and, considering the
+peculiar hostility to the digestive health which exists in the dietetic
+habits of our own country, it may be feared that nowhere upon earth has
+the reclaimed martyr to intemperance so difficult a combat to sustain;
+nowhere, therefore, is it so important to direct the attention upon
+an _artificial_ culture of those resources which naturally, and by the
+established habits of the land, are surest to be neglected. The sheet
+anchor for the storm-beaten sufferer, who is laboring to recover a haven
+of rest from the agonies of intemperance, and who has had the fortitude
+to abjure the poison which ruined, but which also, for brief intervals,
+offered him his only consolation, lies, beyond all doubt, in a most
+anxious regard to everything connected with this supreme function of
+our animal economy. And, as few men that are not regularly trained to
+medical studies can have the complex knowledge requisite for such a
+duty, some printed guide should be sought of a regular professional
+order. Twenty years ago, Dr. Wilson Philip published a valuable book of
+this class, which united a wide range of practical directions as to the
+choice of diet, and as to the qualities and tendencies of all esculent
+articles likely to be found at British tables, with some ingenious
+speculations upon the still mysterious theory of digestion. These were
+derived from experiments made upon rabbits, and had originally been
+communicated by him to the Royal Society of London, who judged them
+worthy of publication in their Transactions. I notice them chiefly
+for the sake of remarking, that the rationale of digestion, as here
+suggested, explains the reason of a fact, which merely _as_ a fact, had
+not been known until modern times, viz., the injuriousness to enfeebled
+stomachs of all fluid. Fifty years ago--and still lingering inveterately
+amongst nurses, and other ignorant persons--there prevailed a notion
+that 'slops' must be the proper resource of the valetudinarian; and
+the same erroneous notion appears in the common expression of ignorant
+wonder at the sort of breakfasts usual amongst women of rank in the
+times of Queen Elizabeth. 'What robust stomachs they must have had,
+to support such solid meals!' As to the question of fact, whether the
+stomachs were more or less robust in those days than at the present,
+there is no need to offer an opinion. But the question of principle
+concerned in scientific dietetics points in the very opposite direction.
+By how much the organs of digestion are feebler, by so much is it the
+more indispensable that solid food and animal food should be adopted.
+A robust stomach may be equal to the trying task of supporting a fluid,
+such as tea for breakfast; but for a feeble stomach, and still more for
+a stomach _enfeebled_ by bad habits, broiled beef, or something equally
+solid and animal, but not too much subjected to the action of fire, is
+the only tolerable diet. This, indeed, is the one capital rule for a
+sufferer from habitual intoxication, who must inevitably labor under
+an impaired digestion; that as little as possible he should use of any
+liquid diet, and as little as possible of vegetable diet. Beef, and a
+little bread, (at the least sixty hours old,) compose the privileged
+bill of fare for his breakfast. But precisely it is, by the way, in
+relation to this earliest meal, that human folly has in one or two
+instances shown itself most ruinously inventive. The less variety there
+is at that meal, the more is the danger from any single luxury; and
+there is one, known by the name of 'muffins,' which has repeatedly
+manifested itself to be a plain and direct bounty upon suicide. Darwin,
+in his 'Zoonomia,' reports a case where an officer, holding the rank of
+lieutenant-colonel, could not tolerate a breakfast in which this odious
+article was wanting; but, as a savage retribution invariably supervened
+within an hour or two upon this act of insane sensuality, he came to
+a resolution that life was intolerable _with_ muffins, but still more
+intolerable _without_ muffins. He would stand the nuisance no longer;
+but yet, being a just man, he would give nature one final chance of
+reforming her dyspeptic atrocities. Muffins, therefore, being laid at
+one angle of the breakfast-table, and loaded pistols at another, with
+rigid equity the Colonel awaited the result. This was naturally pretty
+much as usual: and then, the poor man, incapable of retreating from his
+word of honor, committed suicide,--having previously left a line for
+posterity to the effect (though I forget the expression), 'That a
+muffinless world was no world for him: better no life at all than a life
+dismantled of muffins.'--Dr. Darwin was a showy philosopher, and fond of
+producing effect, so that some allowance must be made in construing the
+affair. Strictly speaking, it is probable that not the especial want
+of muffins, but the general torment of indigestion, was the curse from
+which the unhappy sufferer sought relief by suicide. And the Colonel was
+not the first by many a million, that has fled from the very same form
+of wretchedness, or from its effects upon the genial spirits, to the
+same gloomy refuge. It should never be forgotten that, although some
+other more overt vexation is generally assigned as the proximate cause
+of suicide, and often may be so as regards the immediate occasion, too
+generally this vexation borrowed its whole power to annoy, from the
+habitual atmosphere of irritation in which the system had been kept by
+indigestion. So that indirectly, and virtually, perhaps, all suicides
+may be traced to mismanaged digestion. Meantime, in alluding at all to
+so dreadful a subject as suicide, I do so only by way of giving deeper
+effect to the opinion expressed above, upon the chief cause of relapse
+into habits of intemperance amongst those who have once accomplished
+their deliverance. Errors of digestion, either from impaired powers, or
+from powers not so much enfeebled as deranged, is the one immeasurable
+source both of disease and of secret wretchedness to the human race.
+Life is laid waste by the eternal fretting of the vital forces,
+emanating from this one cause. And it may well be conceived, that if
+cases so endless, even of suicide, in every generation, are virtually
+traceable to this main root, much more must it be able to shake
+and undermine the yet palpitating frame of the poor fugitive from
+intemperance; since indigestion in every mode and variety of its changes
+irresistibly upholds the temptation to that form of excitement which,
+though one foremost cause of indigestion, is yet unhappily its sole
+immediate palliation.
+
+III. Next, after the most vigorous attention, and a scientific attention
+to the digestive system, in power of operation, stands _exercise_. Here,
+however, most people have their own separate habits, with respect to
+the time of exercise, the duration, and the particular mode, on which a
+stranger cannot venture to intrude with his advice. Some will not endure
+the steady patience required for walking exercise; many benefit most by
+riding on horseback; and in days when roads were more rugged, and the
+springs of carriages less improved, I have known people who found
+most advantage in the vibrations communicated to the frame by a heavy
+rumbling carriage. For myself, under the ravages of opium, I have found
+walking the most beneficial exercise; besides that, it requires no
+previous notice or preparation of any kind; and this is a capital
+advantage in a state of drooping energies, or of impatient and unresting
+agitation. I may mention, as possibly an accident of my individual
+temperament, but possibly, also, no accident at all, that the relief
+obtained by walking was always most sensibly brought home to my
+consciousness, when some part of it (at least a mile and a half) has
+been performed before breakfast. In this there soon ceased to be any
+difficulty; for, whilst under the full oppression of opium, it was
+impossible for me to rise at any hour that could, by the most indulgent
+courtesy, be described as within the pale of morning, no sooner had
+there been established any considerable relief from this oppression,
+than the tendency was in the opposite direction; the difficulty became
+continually greater of sleeping even to a reasonable hour. Having once
+accomplished the feat of walking at nine A. M., I backed, in a space of
+seven or eight months, to eight o'clock, to seven, to six, five, four,
+three; until at this point a metaphysical fear fell upon me that I was
+actually backing into 'yesterday,' and should soon have no sleep at all.
+Below three, however, I did not descend; and, for a couple of years,
+three and a half hours' sleep was all that I could obtain in the
+twenty-four hours. From this no particular suffering arose, except
+the nervous impatience of lying in bed for one moment after awaking.
+Consequently, the habit of walking before breakfast became at length
+troublesome no longer as a most odious duty, but, on the contrary, as a
+temptation that could hardly be resisted on the wettest mornings. As to
+the quantity of the exercise, I found that six miles a day formed the
+_minimum_ which would support permanently a particular standard of
+animal spirits, evidenced to myself by certain apparent symptoms. I
+averaged about nine and a half miles a day; but ascended on particular
+days to fifteen or sixteen, and more rarely to twenty-three or
+twenty-four; a quantity which did not produce fatigue, on the contrary
+it spread a sense of improvement through almost the whole week that
+followed; but usually, in the night immediately succeeding to such
+an exertion, I lost much of my sleep; a privation that, under the
+circumstances explained, deterred me from trying the experiment too
+often. For one or two years, I accomplished more than I have here
+claimed, viz., from six to seven thousand miles in the twelve months.
+Let me add to this slight abstract of my own experience, in a point
+where it is really difficult to offer any useful advice, (the tastes
+and habits of men varying so much in this chapter of exercise,) that
+one caution seems applicable to the case of all persons suffering from
+nervous irritability, viz., that a secluded space should be measured off
+accurately, in some private grounds not liable to the interruption or
+notice of chance intruders; for these annoyances are unendurable to the
+restless invalid; to be questioned upon trivial things is death to
+him; and the perpetual anticipation of such annoyances is little less
+distressing. Some plan must also be adopted for registering the number
+of rounds performed. I once walked for eighteen months in a circuit so
+confined that forty revolutions were needed to complete a mile. These
+I counted, at one time, by a rosary of beads; every tenth round being
+marked by drawing a blue bead, the other nine by drawing white beads.
+But this plan, I found in practice, more troublesome and inaccurate than
+that of using ten detached counters, stones, or anything else that was
+large enough and solid. These were applied to the separate bars of a
+garden chair; the first bar indicating of itself the first decade, the
+second bar the second decade, and so on. In fact, I used the chair in
+some measure as a Roman abacus, but on a still simpler plan; and as the
+chair offered sixteen bars, it followed, that on covering the last bar
+of the series with the ten markers, I perceived without any trouble of
+calculation the accomplishment of my fourth mile.
+
+A necessity, more painful to me by far than that of taking continued
+exercise, arose out of a cause which applies, perhaps, with the same
+intensity only to opium cases, but must also apply in some degree to all
+cases of debilitation from morbid stimulation of the nerves, whether
+by means of wine, or opium, or distilled liquors. In travelling on the
+outside of mails, during my youthful days, for I could not endure the
+inside, occasionally, during the night-time, I suffered naturally from
+cold: no cloaks, &c. were always sufficient to relieve this; and I then
+made the discovery that opium, after an hour or so, diffuses a warmth
+deeper and far more permanent than could be had from any other known
+source. I mention this, to explain, in some measure, the awful passion
+of cold which for some years haunted the inverse process of laying aside
+the opium. It was a perfect frenzy of misery; cold was a sensation which
+then first, as a mode of torment, seemed to have been revealed. In
+the months of July and August, and not at all the less during the very
+middle watch of the day, I sate in the closest proximity to a blazing
+fire; cloaks, blankets, counterpanes, hearthrugs, horse-cloths, were
+piled upon my shoulders, but with hardly a glimmering of relief. At
+night, and after taking coffee, I felt a little warmer, and could
+sometimes afford to smile at the resemblance of my own case to that of
+Harry Gill. [Footnote: 'Harry Gill:'--Many readers, in this generation,
+may not be aware of this ballad as one amongst the early poems of
+Wordsworth. Thirty or forty years ago, it was the object of some insipid
+ridicule, which ought, perhaps, in another place, to be noticed. And,
+doubtless, this ridicule was heightened by the false impression that
+the story had been some old woman's superstitious fiction, meant to
+illustrate a supernatural judgment on hard-heartedness. But the story
+was a physiologic fact; and, originally, it had been brought forward in
+a philosophic work, by Darwin, who had the reputation of an irreligious
+man, and even of an infidel. A bold freethinker he certainly was: a
+Deist, and, by public repute, something more.] But, secretly, I was
+struck with awe at the revelation of powers so unsearchably new, lurking
+within old affections so familiarly known as cold. Upon the analogy of
+this case, it might be thought that nothing whatever had yet been
+truly and seriously felt by man; nothing searched or probed by human
+sensibilities, to a depth below the surface. If cold could give out
+mysteries of suffering so novel, all things in the world might be yet
+unvisited by the truth of human sensations. All experience, worthy of
+the name, was yet to begin. Meantime, the external phenomenon, by which
+the cold expressed itself, was a sense (but with little reality) of
+eternal freezing perspiration. From this I was never free; and at
+length, from finding one general ablution sufficient for one day, I was
+thrown upon the irritating necessity of repeating it more frequently
+than would seem credible, if stated. At this time, I used always hot
+water; and a thought occurred to me very seriously that it would be best
+to live constantly, and, perhaps, to sleep in a bath. What caused me to
+renounce this plan, was an accident that compelled me for one day to use
+cold water. This, first of all, communicated any lasting warmth; so that
+ever afterwards I used none _but_ cold water. Now, to live in a _cold_
+bath, in our climate, and in my own state of preternatural sensibility
+to cold, was not an idea to dally with. I wish to mention, however, for
+the information of other sufferers in the same way, one change in the
+mode of applying the water, which led to a considerable and a sudden
+improvement in the condition of my feelings. I had endeavored to procure
+a child's battledore, as an easy means (when clothed with sponge) of
+reaching the interspace between the shoulders; which interspace, by the
+way, is a sort of Bokhara, so provokingly situated, that it will neither
+suffer itself to be reached from the north, in which direction even the
+Czar, with his long arms, has only singed his own fingers, and lost six
+thousand camels; nor at all better from the south, upon which line
+of approach the greatest potentate in Southern Asia, viz., No.--, in
+Leadenhall Street, has found it the best policy to pocket the little
+Khan's murderous defiances and persevering insults. There is no
+battledore long enough to reach him in either way. In my own difficulty,
+I felt almost as perplexed as the Honorable East India Company, when I
+found that no battledore was to be had; for no town was near at hand.
+In default of a battledore, therefore, my necessity threw my experiment
+upon a long hair-brush; and this, eventually, proved of much greater
+service than any sponge or any battledore; for, the friction of the
+brush caused an irritation on the surface of the skin, which, more than
+anything else, has gradually diminished the once continual misery of
+unrelenting frost; although even yet it renews itself most distressingly
+at uncertain intervals.
+
+IV. I counsel the patient not to make the mistake of supposing that his
+amendment will necessarily proceed continuously, or by equal increments;
+because this, which is a common notion, will certainly lead to dangerous
+disappointments. How frequently I have heard people encouraging a
+self-reformer by such language as this:--'When you have got over the
+fourth day of abstinence, which suppose to be Sunday, then Monday will
+find you a trifle better; Tuesday better still,--though still it should
+be only by a trifle; and so on. You may, at least, rely on never going
+back; you may assure yourself of having seen the worst; and the positive
+improvements, if trifles separately, must soon gather into a sensible
+magnitude.' This may be true in a case of short standing: but, as a
+general rule, it is perilously delusive. On the contrary, the line of
+progress, if exhibited in a geometrical construction, would describe
+an ascending path upon the whole, but with frequent retrocessions into
+descending curves, which, compared with the point of ascent that had
+been previously gained and so vexatiously interrupted, would sometimes
+seem deeper than the original point of starting. This mortifying
+tendency I can report from experience many times repeated with regard
+to opium; and so unaccountably, as regarded all the previous grounds of
+expectation, that I am compelled to suppose it a tendency inherent in
+the very nature of all self-restorations for animal systems. They
+move perhaps necessarily _per saltum_, by, intermitting spasms, and
+pulsations of unequal energy.
+
+V. I counsel the patient frequently to call back before his
+thoughts--when suffering sorrowful collapses, that seem unmerited by
+anything done or neglected--that such, and far worse, perhaps, must
+have been his experience, and with no reversion of hope behind, had he
+persisted in his intemperate indulgencies; _these_ also suffer their own
+collapses, and (so far as things not co-present can be compared) by many
+degrees more shocking to the genial instincts.
+
+VI. I exhort him to believe, that no movement on his own part, not the
+smallest conceivable, towards the restoration of his healthy state, can
+by possibility perish. Nothing in this direction is finally lost; but
+often it disappears and hides itself; suddenly, however, to reappear,
+and in unexpected strength, and much more hopefully; because such
+minute elements of improvement, by reappearing at a remoter stage, show
+themselves to have combined with other elements of the same kind: so
+that equally by their gathering tendency and their duration through
+intervals of apparent darkness, and below the current of what seemed
+absolute interruption, they argue themselves to be settled in the
+system. There is no good gift that does not come from God: almost his
+greatest is health, with the peace which it inherits; and man must reap
+_this_ on the same terms as he was told to reap God's earliest gift, the
+fruits of the earth, viz.: 'in the sweat of his brow,' through labor,
+often through sorrow, through disappointment, but still through
+imperishable perseverance, and hoping under clouds, when all hope seems
+darkened.
+
+VII. It is difficult, in selecting from many memoranda of warning and
+encouragement, to know which to prefer when the space disposable is
+limited. But it seems to me important not to omit this particular
+caution: The patient will be naturally anxious, as he goes on,
+frequently to test the amount of his advance, and its rate, if that
+were possible. But this he will see no mode of doing, except through
+tentative balancings of his feelings, and generally of the moral
+atmosphere around him, as to pleasure and hope, against the
+corresponding states, so far as he can recall them from his periods of
+intemperance. But these comparisons, I warn him, are fallacious, when
+made in this way; the two states are incommensurable on any plan of
+_direct_ comparison. Some common measure must be found, and, _out of
+himself_; some positive fact, that will not bend to his own delusive
+feeling at the moment; as, for instance, in what degree he finds
+tolerable what heretofore was _not_ so--the effort of writing letters,
+or transacting business, or undertaking a journey, or overtaking the
+arrears of labor, that had been once thrown off to a distance. If
+in these things he finds himself improved, by tests that cannot be
+disputed, he may safely disregard any sceptical whispers from a wayward
+sensibility which cannot yet, perhaps, have recovered its normal health,
+however much improved. His inner feelings may not yet point steadily
+to the truth, though they may vibrate in that direction. Besides, it is
+certain that sometimes very manifest advances, such as any medical man
+would perceive at a glance, carry a man through stages of agitation and
+discomfort. A far worse condition might happen to be less agitated,
+and so far more bearable. Now, when a man is positively suffering
+discomfort, when he is below the line of pleasurable feeling, he is
+no proper judge of his own condition, which he neither will nor can
+appreciate. Tooth-ache extorts more groans than dropsy.
+
+VIII. Another important caution is, not to confound with the effects of
+intemperance any other natural effects of debility from advanced years.
+Many a man, having begun to be intemperate at thirty, enters at sixty
+or upwards upon a career of self-restoration. And by self-restoration he
+understands a renewal of that state in which he was when first swerving
+from temperance. But that state, for his memory, is coincident with his
+state of youth. The two states are coadunated. In his recollections they
+are intertwisted too closely. But life, without any intemperance at
+all, would soon have untwisted them. Charles Lamb, for instance, at
+forty-five, and Coleridge at sixty, measured their several conditions
+by such tests as the loss of all disposition to involuntary murmuring of
+musical airs or fragments when rising from bed. Once they had sung
+when rising in the morning light; now they sang no more. The _vocal_
+utterance of joy, for _them_, was silenced for ever. But these are
+amongst the changes that life, stern power, inflicts at any rate;
+these would have happened, and above all, to men worn by the unequal
+irritations of too much thinking, and by those modes of care
+
+  That kill the bloom before its time,
+  And blanch without the owner's crime
+  The most resplendent hair,
+
+not at all the less had the one drunk no brandy, nor the other any
+laudanum. A man must submit to the conditions of humanity, and not
+quarrel with a cure as incomplete, because in his climacteric year of
+sixty-three, he cannot recover, entirely, the vivacities of thirty-five.
+If, by dipping seven times in Jordan, he had cleansed his whole leprosy
+of intemperance; if, by going down into Bethesda, he were able to mount
+again upon the pinions of his youth,--even then he might querulously
+say,--'But, after all these marvels in my favor, I suppose that one
+of these fine mornings I, like other people, shall have to bespeak
+a coffin.' Why, yes, undoubtedly he will, or somebody _for_ him. But
+privileges so especial were not promised even by the mysterious waters
+of Palestine. Die he must. And counsels tendered to the intemperate do
+not hope to accomplish what might have been beyond the baths of Jordan
+or Bethesda. They do enough, if, being executed by efforts in the spirit
+of earnest sincerity, they make a life of _growing_ misery moderately
+happy for the patient; and, through that great change, perhaps, more
+than moderately useful for others.
+
+IX. One final remark I will make:--pointed to the case, not of the yet
+struggling patient, but of him who is fully re-established; and the more
+so, because I (who am no hypocrite, but, rather, frank to an infirmity)
+acknowledge, in myself, the trembling tendency at intervals, which
+would, if permitted, sweep round into currents that might be hard to
+overrule. After the absolute restoration to health, a man is very apt to
+say,--'Now, then, how shall I use my health? To what delightful purpose
+shall I apply it? Surely it is idle to carry a fine jewel in one's
+watch-pocket, and never to astonish the weak minds of this world,
+by wearing it and flashing it in their eyes.' 'But how?' retorts his
+philosophic friend; 'my good fellow, are you not using it at this
+moment? Breathing, for instance, talking to me, (though rather
+absurdly,) and airing your legs at a glowing fire?' 'Why, yes,' the
+other confesses, 'that is all true; but I am dull; and, if you will
+pardon my rudeness, even in spite of your too philosophic presence. It
+is painful to say so, but sincerely, if I had the power, at this moment,
+to turn you, by magic, into a bottle of old port wine, so corrupt is
+my nature, that really I fear lest the exchange might, for the moment,
+strike me as agreeable.' Such a mood, I apprehend, is apt to revolve
+upon many of us, at intervals, however firmly married to temperance. And
+the propensity to it has a root in certain analogies running through
+our nature. If the reader will permit me for a moment the use of what,
+without such an apology, might seem pedantic, I would call it the
+instinct of _focalizing_, which prompts such random desires. Feeling is
+diffused over the whole surface of the body; but light is focalized in
+the eye; sound in the ear. The organization of a sense or a pleasure
+seems diluted and imperfect, unless it is gathered by some machinery
+into one focus, or local centre. And thus it is that a general state of
+pleasurable feeling sometimes seems too superficially diffused, and one
+has a craving to intensify or brighten it by concentration through some
+sufficient stimulant. I, for my part, have tried every thing in this
+world except '_bang_,' which, I believe, is obtained from hemp. There
+are other preparations of hemp which have been found to give great
+relief from _ennui_; not ropes, but something lately introduced, which
+acts upon the system as the laughing gas (nitrous oxide) acts at times.
+One farmer in Mid-Lothian was mentioned to me, eight months ago, as
+having taken it, and ever since annoyed his neighbors by immoderate
+fits of laughter; so that in January it was agreed to present him to the
+sheriff as a nuisance. But, for some reason, the plan was laid aside;
+and now, eight months later, I hear that the farmer is laughing more
+rapturously than ever, continues in the happiest frame of mind, the
+kindest of creatures, and the general torment of his neighborhood. Now,
+I confess to having had a lurking interest in this extract of hemp, when
+first I heard of it: and at intervals a desire will continue to make
+itself felt for some deeper compression or centralization of the genial
+feelings than ordinary life affords. But old things will not avail, and
+new things I am now able to resist. Still, as the occasional craving
+does really arise in most men, it is well to notice it; and chiefly for
+the purpose of saying, that this dangerous feeling wears off by degrees;
+and oftentimes for long periods it intermits so entirely as to be even
+displaced by a profound disgust to all modes of artificial stimulation.
+At those times I have remarked that the pleasurable condition of health
+does _not_ seem weakened by its want of centralization. It seems to form
+a thousand centres. This it is well to know; because there are many who
+would resist effectually, if they were aware of any natural change going
+on silently in favor of their own efforts, such as would finally ratify
+the success. Towards such a result they would gladly contribute by
+waiting and forbearing; whilst, under despondency as to this result,
+they might more easily yield to some chance temptation.
+
+Finally, there is something to interest us in the _time_ at which this
+temperance movement has begun to stir. Let me close with a slight notice
+of what chiefly impresses myself in the relation between this time and
+the other circumstances of the case. In reviewing history, we may see
+something more than mere convenience in distributing it into three
+chambers; ancient history, ending in the space between the Western
+Empire falling and Mahomet arising; modern history, from that time to
+this; and a new modern history arising at present, or from the
+French Revolution. Two great races of men, our own in a two-headed
+form--British and American, and secondly, the Russian, are those which,
+like rising deluges, already reveal their mission to overflow the earth.
+Both these races, partly through climate, or through derivation of
+blood, and partly through the contagion of habits inevitable to brothers
+of the same nation, are tainted carnally with the appetite for brandy,
+for slings, for juleps. And no fire racing through the forests of Nova
+Scotia for three hundred miles in the direction of some doomed city,
+ever moved so fiercely as the infection of habits amongst the dense and
+fiery populations of republican North America.
+
+But it is remarkable, that the whole _ancient_ system of civilization,
+all the miracles of Greece and Rome, Persia and Egypt, moved by the
+machinery of races that were _not_ tainted with any such popular
+_marasmus_. The taste was slightly sowed, as an _artificial_ taste,
+amongst luxurious individuals, but never ran through the laboring
+classes, through armies, through cities The blood and the climate
+forbade it. In this earliest era of history, all the great races,
+consequently all the great empires, threw themselves, by accumulation,
+upon the genial climates of the south,--having, in fact, the magnificent
+lake of the Mediterranean for their general centre of evolutions. Round
+this lake, in a zone of varying depth, towered the whole grandeurs of
+the Pagan earth. But, in such climates, man is naturally temperate.
+He is so by physical coercion, and for the necessities of rest and
+coolness. The Spaniard, the Moor, or the Arab, has no merit in his
+temperance. The effort, for _him_, would be to form the taste for
+alcohol. He has a vast foreground of disgust to traverse before he can
+reach a taste so remote and alien. No need for resistance in his will
+where nature resists on his behalf. Sherbet, shaddocks, grapes,
+these were innocent applications to thirst. And the great republic of
+antiquity said to her legionary sons:--'Soldier, if you thirst, there
+is the river;--Nile, suppose, or Ebro. Better drink there cannot be.
+Of this you may take "at discretion." Or, if you wait till the
+_impedimenta_ come up, you may draw your ration of _Posca_' What was
+_posca_? It was, in fact, acidulated water; three parts of superfine
+water to one part of the very best vinegar. Nothing stronger did Rome,
+that awful mother, allow to her dearest children, _i. e._, her legions.
+Truest of blessings, that veiling itself in seeming sternness, drove
+away the wicked phantoms that haunt the couches of yet greater nations.
+'The blessings of the evil genii,' says an Eastern proverb, 'these are
+curses.' And the stern refusals of wisely loving mothers,--these are the
+mightiest of gifts.
+
+Now, on the other hand, our northern climates have universally the
+taste, latent if not developed, for powerful liquors. And through their
+blood, as also through the natural tendency of the imitative principle
+amongst compatriots, from these high latitudes the greatest of our
+modern nations propagate the contagion to their brothers, though
+colonizing warm climates. And it is remarkable that our modern
+preparations of liquors, even when harmless in their earliest stages,
+are fitted, like stepping-stones, for making the transition to higher
+stages that are _not_ harmless. The weakest preparations from malt,
+lead, by graduated steps, to the strongest; until we arrive at
+the intoxicating porter of London, which, under its local name (so
+insidiously delusive) of '_beer_,' diffuses the most extensive ravages.
+
+Under these marked circumstances of difference between the ruling races
+of antiquity and of our modern times, it now happens that the greatest
+era by far of human expansion is opening upon us. Two vast movements are
+hurrying into action by velocities continually accelerated--the great
+revolutionary movement from political causes concurring with the
+great physical movement in locomotion and social intercourse, from the
+gigantic (though still infant) powers of steam. No such Titan resources
+for modifying each other were ever before dreamed of by nations: and
+the next hundred years will have changed the face of the world. At the
+opening of such a crisis, had no third movement arisen of resistance to
+intemperate habits, there would have been ground for despondency as to
+the amelioration of the human race. But, as the case stands, the new
+principle of resistance nationally to bad habits, has arisen almost
+concurrently with the new powers of national intercourse; and
+henceforward by a change equally sudden and unlooked for, that new
+machinery, which would else most surely have multiplied the ruins
+of intoxication, has become the strongest agency for hastening its
+extirpation.
+
+
+
+
+ON WAR.
+
+
+Few people need to be told--that associations exist up and down
+Christendom, having the ambitious object of abolishing war. Some go so
+far as to believe that this evil of war, so ubiquitous, so ancient and
+apparently so inalienable from man's position upon earth, is already
+doomed; that not the private associations only, but the prevailing
+voice of races the most highly civilized, may be looked on as tending to
+confederation against it; that sentence of extermination has virtually
+gone forth, and that all which remains is gradually to execute that
+sentence. Conscientiously I find myself unable to join in these views.
+The project seems to me the most romantic of all romances in the course
+of publication. Consequently, when asked to become a member in any such
+association, I have always thought it most respectful, because most
+sincere, to decline. Yet, as it is painful to refuse all marks of
+sympathy with persons whose motives one honors, I design at my death to
+bequeath half-a-crown to the chief association for extinguishing war;
+the said half-crown to be improved in all time coming for the benefit of
+the association, under the trusteeship of Europe, Asia, and America,
+but not of Africa. I really dare not trust Africa with money, she is not
+able as yet to take care of herself. This half-crown, a fund that will
+overshadow the earth before it comes to be wanted under the provisions
+of my will, is to be improved at any interest whatever--no matter what;
+for the vast period of the accumulations will easily make good any
+tardiness of advance, long before the time comes for its commencing
+payment; a point which will be soon understood from the following
+explanation, by any gentleman that hopes to draw upon it.
+
+There is in Ceylon a granite _cippus_, or monumental pillar, of
+immemorial antiquity; and to this pillar a remarkable legend is
+attached. The pillar measures six feet by six, _i. e._ thirty-six
+square feet, on the flat tablet of its horizontal surface; and in height
+several _riyanas_, (which arc Ceylonese cubits of eighteen inches each,)
+but of these cubits, there are either eight or twelve; excuse me for
+having forgotten which. At first, perhaps, you will be angry, viz.,
+when you hear that this simple difference of four cubits, or six feet,
+measures a difference for your expectations, whether you count your
+expectations in kicks or halfpence, that absolutely strikes horror into
+arithmetic. The singularity of the case is, that the very solemnity of
+the legend and the wealth of the human race in time, depend upon the
+cubical contents of the monument, so that a loss of one granite chip is
+a loss of a frightful infinity; yet, again, for that very reason, the
+loss of all _but_ a chip, leaves behind riches so appallingly too rich,
+that everybody is careless about the four cubits. Enough is as good as
+a feast. Two bottomless abysses take as much time for the diver as ten;
+and five eternities are as frightful to look down as four-and-twenty. In
+the Ceylon legend all turns upon the inexhaustible series of ages which
+this pillar guarantees. But, as one inexhaustible is quite enough for
+one race of men, and you are sure of more by ineffable excess than you
+can use in any private consumption of your own, you become generous;
+'and between friends,' you say, in accepting my apologies for the
+doubtful error as to the four cubits, 'what signifies an infinity more
+or less?'
+
+For the Ceylonese legend is this, that once in every hundred years
+an angel visits this granite pillar. He is dressed in a robe of
+white muslin, muslin of that kind which the Romans called _aura
+textilis_--woven, as might seem, from zephyrs or from pulses of the air,
+such in its transparency, such in its gossamer lightness. Does the angel
+touch the pillar with his foot? Oh no! Even _that_ would be something,
+but even _that_ is not allowed. In his soundless flight across it, he
+suffers the hem of his impalpable robe to sweep the surface as softly
+as a moon-beam. So much and no more of pollution he endures from contact
+with earthly objects. The lowest extremity of his dress, but with the
+delicacy of light, grazes the granite surface. And _that_ is all the
+attrition which the sacred granite receives in the course of any one
+century, and this is all the progress which we, the poor children of
+earth, in any one century make towards the exhaustion of our earthly
+imprisonment. But, argues the subtle legend, even _that_ attrition,
+when weighed in metaphysical scales, cannot be denied its value; it
+has detached from the pillar an atom (no matter that it is an invisible
+atom) of granite dust, the ratio of which atom to a grain avoirdupois,
+if expressed as a fraction of unity, would by its denominator stretch
+from the Accountant-General's office in London to the Milky Way. Now
+the total mass of the granite represents, on this scheme of payment, the
+total funded debt of man's race to Father Time and earthly corruption;
+all this intolerable score, chalked up to our debit, we by ourselves and
+our representatives have to rub off, before the granite will be rubbed
+away by the muslin robe of the proud flying angel, (who, if he were a
+good fellow, might just as well give a sly kick with his heel to
+the granite,) before time will be at an end, and the burden of flesh
+accomplished. But you hear it expressed in terms that will astonish
+Baron Rothschild, what is the progress in liquidation which we make
+for each particular century. A billion of centuries pays off a quantity
+equal to a pinch of snuff. Despair seizes a man in contemplating a
+single _coupon_, no bigger than a visiting card, of such a stock as
+this; and behold we have to keep on paying away until the total granite
+is reduced to a level with a grain of mustard-seed. But when that is
+accomplished, thank heaven, our last generation of descendants will
+be entitled to leave at Master Time's door a visiting card, which the
+meagre shadow cannot refuse to take, though he will sicken at seeing it;
+viz., a P. P. C. card, upon seeing which, the old thief is bound to give
+receipt in full for all debts and pretended arrears.
+
+The reader perhaps knows of debts on both sides the Atlantic that have
+no great prospect of being paid off sooner than this in Ceylon.
+
+And naturally, to match this order of debts, moving off so slowly, there
+are funds that accumulate as slowly. My own funded half-crown is an
+illustration. The half-crown will travel in the inverse order of the
+granite pillar. The pillar and the half-crown move upon opposite tacks;
+and there _is_ a point of time (which it is for Algebra to investigate)
+when they will cross each other in the exact moment of their several
+bisections--my aspiring half-crown tending gradually towards the fixed
+stars, so that perhaps it might be right to make the man in the moon
+trustee for that part of the accumulations which rises above the optics
+of sublunary bankers; whilst the Ceylon pillar is constantly unweaving
+its own granite texture, and dwindling earthwards. It is probable that
+each of the parties will have reached its consummation about the same
+time. What is to be done with the mustard-seed, Ceylon has forgotten to
+say. But what is to be done with the half-crown and its surplus, nobody
+can doubt after reading my last will and testament. After reciting a few
+inconsiderable legacies to the three continents, and to the man in the
+moon, for any trouble they may have had in managing the hyperbolical
+accumulations, I go on to observe, that, when war is reported to have
+taken itself off for ever, 'and no mistake,' (because I foresee many
+false alarms of a perpetual peace,) a variety of inconveniences will
+arise to all branches of the United Service, including the Horse
+Marines. Clearly there can be no more half-pay; and even more clearly,
+there is an end to full-pay. Pensions are at an end for 'good service.'
+Allowances for wounds cannot be thought of, when all wounds shall have
+ceased except those from female eyes--for which the Horse Guards is too
+little advanced in civilization to make any allowance at all. Bargains
+there will be no more amongst auctions of old Government stores.
+Birmingham will be ruined, or so much of it as depended on rifles. And
+the great Scotch works on the river Carron will be hungering for beef,
+so far as Carron depended for beef upon carronades. Other arrears of
+evil will stretch after the extinction of war.
+
+Now upon my half-crown fund (which will be equal to anything by the time
+it is wanted) I charge once and for ever the general relief of all these
+arrears--of the poverty, the loss, the bankruptcy, arising by reason
+of this _quietus_ of final extinction applied to war. I charge the fund
+with a perpetual allowance of half-pay to all the armies of earth;
+or indeed, whilst my hand is in, I charge it with _full_ pay. And I
+strictly enjoin upon my trustees and executors, but especially upon
+the man in the moon, if his unsocial lip has left him one spark
+of gentlemanly feeling, that he and they shall construe all claims
+liberally; nay, with that riotous liberality which is safe and becoming,
+when applied to a fund so inexhaustible. Yes, reader, my fund will be
+inexhaustible, because the period of its growth will be measured by the
+concurrent deposition of the Ceylon mustard-seed from the everlasting
+pillar.
+
+Yet why, or on what principle? It is because I see, or imagine that
+I see, a twofold necessity for war--necessity in two different
+senses--1st, a physical necessity arising out of man's nature when
+combined with man's situation; a necessity under which war may be
+regarded, if you please, as a nuisance, but as a nuisance inalienable
+from circumstances essential to human frailty. 2dly, a moral necessity
+connected with benefits of compensation, such as continually lurk in
+evils acknowledged to be such--a necessity under which it becomes lawful
+to say, that war _ought_ to exist as a balance to opposite tendencies of
+a still more evil character. War is the mother of wrong and spoliation:
+war is a scourge of God--granted; but, like other scourges in the
+divine economy, war purifies and redeems itself in its character of a
+counterforce to greater evils that could not otherwise be intercepted or
+redressed. In two different meanings we say that a thing is necessary;
+either in that case where it is inexorably forced on by some sad
+overruling principle which it is vain to fight against, though all good
+men mourn over its existence and view it as an unconditional evil; or
+secondly, in that case, where an instrument of sorrowful consequences
+to man is nevertheless invoked and postulated by man's highest moral
+interests, is nevertheless clamorously indicated as a blessing when
+looked at in relation to some antagonist cause of evil for which it
+offers the one only remedy or principle of palliation. The very evil
+and woe of man's condition upon earth may be oftentimes detected in
+the necessity of looking to some other woe as the pledge of its
+purification; so that what separately would have been hateful for
+itself, passes mysteriously into an object of toleration, of hope, or
+even of prayer, as a counter-venom to the taint of some more mortal
+poison. Poverty, for instance, is in both senses necessary for man.
+It is necessary in the same sense as thirst is necessary (_i. e._
+inevitable) in a fever--necessary as one corollary amongst many others,
+from the eternal hollowness of all human efforts for organizing any
+perfect model of society--a corollary which, how gladly would all of us
+unite to cancel, but which our hearts suggest, which Scripture solemnly
+proclaims, to be ineradicable from the land. In this sense, poverty is a
+necessity over which we _mourn_,--as one of the dark phases that
+sadden the vision of human life. But far differently, and with a stern
+gratitude, we recognize another mode of necessity for this gloomy
+distinction--a call for poverty, when seen in relation to the manifold
+agencies by which it developes human energies, in relation to the trials
+by which it searches the power of patience and religion, in relation to
+the struggles by which it evokes the nobilities of fortitude; or again,
+amongst those who are not sharers in these trials and struggles, but
+sympathizing spectators, in relation to the stimulation by which it
+quickens wisdom that watches over the causes of this evil, or by which
+it vivifies the spirit of love that labors for its mitigation. War
+stands, or seems to stand, upon the same double basis of necessity; a
+primary necessity that belongs to our human degradations, a secondary
+one that towers by means of its moral relations into the region of our
+impassioned exaltations. The two propositions on which I take my stand
+are these. _First_, that there are nowhere latent in society any powers
+by which it can effectually operate on war for its extermination. The
+machinery is not there. The game is not within the compass of the cards.
+_Secondly_, that this defect of power is, though sincerely I grieve in
+avowing such a sentiment, and perhaps (if an infirm reader had his eye
+upon me) I might seem, in sympathy with his weakness, to blush--not
+a curse, no not at all, but on the whole a blessing from century to
+century, if it is an inconvenience from year to year. The Abolition
+Committees, it is to be feared, will be very angry at both propositions.
+Yet, Gentlemen, hear me--strike, but hear me. I believe that's a sort of
+plagiarism from Themistocles. But never mind. I have as good a right to
+the words, until translated back into Greek, as that most classical of
+yellow admirals. '_Pereant qui ante nos nostra dixerunt!_'
+
+The first proposition is, that war _cannot_ be abolished. The second,
+and more offensive--that war ought not to be abolished. First,
+therefore, concerning the first. One at a time. Sufficient for the page
+is the evil thereof! How came it into any man's heart, first of all,
+to conceive so audacious an idea as that of a conspiracy against war?
+Whence could he draw any vapor of hope to sustain his preliminary steps?
+And in framing his plot, which way did he set his face to look out
+for accomplices? Revolving this question in times past, I came to the
+conclusion--that, perhaps, this colossal project of a war against war,
+had been first put in motion under a misconception (natural enough, and
+countenanced by innumerable books) as to the true historical origin
+of wars in many notorious instances. If these had arisen on trivial
+impulses, a trivial resistance might have intercepted them. If a man has
+once persuaded himself, that long, costly, and bloody wars had arisen
+upon a point of ceremony, upon a personal pique, upon a hasty word, upon
+some explosion of momentary caprice; it is a natural inference, that
+strength of national will and public combinations for resistance,
+supposing such forces to have been trained, organized, and, from the
+circumstances of the particular nation, to be permanently disposable for
+action, might prove redundantly effective, when pointed against a few
+personal authors of war, so presumably weak, and so flexible to any
+stern counter-volition as those _must_ be supposed, whose wars argued
+so much of vicious levity. The inference is unexceptionable: it is the
+premises that are unsound. Anecdotes of war as having emanated from a
+lady's tea-table or toilette, would authorize such inference as to the
+facilities of controlling them. But the anecdotes themselves are false,
+or false substantially. _All_ anecdotes, I fear, are false. I am sorry
+to say so, but my duty to the reader extorts from me the disagreeable
+confession, as upon a matter specially investigated by myself, that all
+dealers in anecdotes are tainted with mendacity. Where is the Scotchman,
+said Dr. Johnson, who does not prefer Scotland to truth? but, however
+this may be, rarer than such a Scotchman, rarer than the phoenix, is
+that virtuous man, a monster he is, nay, he is an impossible man, who
+will consent to lose a prosperous anecdote on the consideration that
+it happens to be a lie. All history, therefore, being built partly, and
+some of it altogether, upon anecdotage, must be a tissue of lies. Such,
+for the most part, is the history of Suetonius, who may be esteemed the
+father of anecdotage; and being such, he (and not Herodotus) should
+have been honored with the title, _Father of Lies_. Such is the Augustan
+history, which is all that remains of the Roman empire; such is the vast
+series of French memoirs, now stretching through more than three entire
+centuries. Are these works, then, to be held cheap, because their truths
+to their falsehoods are in the ratio of one to five hundred? On the
+contrary, they are better, and more to be esteemed on that account;
+because, _now_ they are admirable reading on a winter's night; whereas,
+written on the principle of sticking to the truth, they would have been
+as dull as ditch water. Generally, therefore, the dealers in anecdotage
+are to be viewed with admiration, as patriotic citizens, willing to
+sacrifice their own characters, lest their countrymen should find
+themselves short of amusement. I esteem them as equal to Codrus,
+Timoleon, William Tell, or to Milton, as regards the liberty of
+unlicensed printing. And I object to them only in the exceptional case
+of their being cited as authorities for an inference, or as vouchers
+for a fact. Universally, it may be received as a rule of unlimited
+application,--that when an anecdote involves a stinging repartee, or
+collision of ideas, fancifully and brilliantly related to each other
+by resemblance or contrast, then you may challenge it as false to
+a certainty. One illustration of which is--that pretty nearly every
+memorable _propos_, or pointed repartee, or striking _mot_, circulating
+at this moment in Paris or London, as the undoubted property of
+Talleyrand, (that eminent knave,) was ascribed at Vienna, ninety years
+ago, to the Prince de Ligne, and thirty years previously, to Voltaire,
+and so on, regressively, to many other wits (knaves or not); until, at
+length, if you persist in backing far enough, you find yourself amongst
+Pagans, with the very same repartee, &c., doing duty in pretty good
+Greek; [Footnote: This is _literally_ true, more frequently than would
+be supposed. For instance, a jest often ascribed to Voltaire, and of
+late pointedly reclaimed for him by Lord Brougham, as being one that
+he (Lord B.) could swear to for _his_, so characteristic seemed the
+impression of Voltaire's mind upon the _tournure_ of the sarcasm,
+unhappily for this waste of sagacity, may be found recorded by Fabricius
+in the _Bibliotheca Graeca_, as the jest of a Greek who has been dead for
+about seventeen centuries. The man certainly _did_ utter the jest;
+and 1750 years ago. But who it was that he stole it from is another
+question. To all appearance, and according to Lord Brougham's opinion,
+the party robbed must have been M. de Voltaire. I notice the case,
+however, of the Greek thefts and frauds committed upon so many of our
+excellent wits belonging to the 18th and 19th centuries, chiefly with a
+view to M. de Talleyrand--that rather middling bishop, but very eminent
+knave. He also has been extensively robbed by the Greeks of the 2d and
+3d centuries. How else can you account for so many of his sayings being
+found amongst _their_ pages? A thing you may ascertain in a moment, at
+any police office, by having the Greeks searched: for surely you would
+never think of searching a bishop. Most of the Talleyrand jewels will be
+found concealed amongst the goods of these unprincipled Greeks. But one,
+and the most famous in the whole jewel-case, sorry am I to confess,
+was nearly stolen from the Bishop, not by any Greek, but by an English
+writer, viz., Goldsmith, who must have been dying about the time that
+his Excellency, the diplomatist, had the goodness to be born. That
+famous _mot_ about language, as a gift made to man for the purpose of
+_concealing_ his thoughts, is lurking in Goldsmith's Essays. Think of
+_that!_ Already, in his innocent childhood, whilst the Bishop was in
+petticoats, and almost before he had begun to curse and to swear plainly
+in French, an Irish vagabond had attempted to swindle him out of that
+famous witticism which has since been as good as a life-annuity to the
+venerable knave's literary fame.] sometimes, for instance in Hierocles,
+sometimes in Diogenes Laertius, in Plutarch, or in Athenaeus. Now the
+thing you know claimed by so many people, could not belong to all of
+them: _all_ of them could not be the inventors. Logic and common sense
+unite in showing us that it must have belonged to the moderns, who had
+clearly been hustled and robbed by the ancients, so much more
+likely to commit a robbery than Christians, they being all
+Gentiles--Pagans--Heathen dogs. What do I infer from this? Why, that
+upon _any_ solution of the case, hardly one worthy saying can be
+mentioned, hardly one jest, pun, or sarcasm, which has not been the
+occasion and subject of many falsehoods--as having been _au-(and
+men)-daciously_ transferred from generation to generation, sworn to in
+every age as this man's property, or that man's, by people that must
+have known they were lying, until you retire from the investigation with
+a conviction, that under any system of chronology, the science of lying
+is the only one that has never drooped. Date from _Anno Domini_, or
+from the Julian era, patronize Olympiads, or patronize (as _I_ do, from
+misanthropy, because nobody else _will_) the era of Nabonassar,--no
+matter, upon every road, thicker than mile-stones, you see records
+of human mendacity, or (which is much worse, in my opinion,) of human
+sympathy with other people's mendacity.
+
+This digression, now, on anecdotes,[Footnote: The word 'Anecdotes,'
+first, I believe, came into currency about the middle of the 6th
+century, from the use made of it by Procopius. _Literally_ it indicated
+nothing that could interest either public malice or public favor; it
+promised only _unpublished_ notices of the Emperor Justinian, his wife
+Theodora, Narses, Belisarius, &c. But _why_ had they been unpublished?
+Simply because scandalous and defamatory: and hence, from the interest
+which invested the case of an imperial court so remarkable, this
+oblique, secondary and purely accidental modification of the word came
+to influence its _general_ acceptation. Simply to have been previously
+unpublished, no longer raised any statement into an anecdote: it
+now received a new integration it must be some fresh publication of
+_personal_ memorabilia; and these having reference to _human_ creatures,
+must always be presumed to involve more evil than good--much defamation
+true or false--much doubtful insinuation--much suggestion of things
+worse than could be openly affirmed. So arose the word: but the _thing_
+arose with Suetonius, that dear, excellent and hard-working 'father of
+lies.'] is what the learned call an _excursus_, and, I am afraid, too
+long by half; not strictly in proportion. But don't mind _that_. I'll
+make it all right by being too short upon something else, at the next
+opportunity; and then nobody can complain. Meantime, I argue, that as
+all brilliant or epigrammatic anecdotes are probably false, (a thing
+that hereafter I shall have much pleasure in making out to the angry
+reader's satisfaction,) but to a dead certainty those anecdotes, in
+particular, which bear marks in their construction that a rhetorical
+effect of art had been contemplated by the narrator,--we may take for
+granted, that the current stories ascribing modern wars (French and
+English) to accidents the most inconsiderable, are false even in
+a literal sense; but at all events they are so when valued
+philosophically, and brought out into their circumstantial relations.
+For instance, we have a French anecdote, from the latter part of the
+seventeenth century, which ascribes one bloody war to the accident of a
+little 'miff,' arising between the king and his minister upon some such
+trifle as the situation of a palace window. Again, from the early
+part of the eighteenth century, we have an English anecdote, ascribing
+consequences no less bloody to a sudden feud between two ladies, and
+that feud, (if I remember,) tracing itself up to a pair of gloves;
+so that, in effect, the war and the gloves form the two poles of
+the transaction. Harlequin throws a pair of Limerick gloves into a
+corn-mill; and the spectator is astonished to see the gloves immediately
+issuing from the hopper, well ground into seven armies of one hundred
+thousand men each, and with parks of artillery to correspond. In these
+two anecdotes, we recognize at once the able and industrious artist
+arranging his materials with a pious regard to theatrical effect. This
+man knows how to group his figures; well he understands where to plant
+his masses of light and shade; and what impertinence it would be in us
+spectators, the reader suppose and myself, to go behind the scenes for
+critical inquiry into daylight realities. All reasonable men see that,
+the less of such realities our artist had to work with, the more was his
+merit. I am one of those that detest all insidious attempts to rob
+men situated as this artist of their fair fame, by going about and
+whispering that perhaps the thing is true. Far from it! I sympathize
+with the poor trembling artist, and agree most cordially that the whole
+story is a lie; and he may rely upon my support at all times to
+the extent of denying that any vestige of truth probably lay at the
+foundations of his ingenious apologue. And what I say of the English
+fable, I am willing to say of the French one. Both, I dare say, were the
+rankest fictions. But next, what, after all, if they were _not?_ For, in
+the rear of all discussion upon anecdotes, considered simply as true
+or _not_ true, comes finally a _valuation_ of those anecdotes in their
+moral relation, and as to the inferences which they will sustain. The
+story, for example, of the French minister Louvois, and the adroitness
+with which he fastened upon great foreign potentates, in the shape of
+war, that irritability of temper in his royal master which threatened
+to consume himself; the diplomatic address with which he transmuted
+suddenly a task so delicate as that of skirmishing daily in a
+Council Chamber with his own sovereign, into that far jollier mode of
+disputation where one replies to all objections of the very keenest
+logician, either with round shot or with grape; here is an anecdote,
+which (for my own part) I am inclined to view as pure gasconade. But
+suppose the story true, still it may happen that a better valuation
+of it may disturb the whole edifice of logical inferences by which it
+seemed to favor the speculations of the war abolitionists. Let us see.
+What _was_ the logic through which such a tale as this could lend any
+countenance to the schemes of these abolitionists? That logic travelled
+in the following channel. Such a tale, or the English tale of the
+gloves, being supposed true, it would seem to follow, that war and the
+purposes of war were phenomena of chance growth, not attached to any
+instinct so ancient, and apparently so grooved into the dark necessities
+of our nature, as we had all taken for granted. Usually, we rank war
+with hunger, with cold, with sorrow, with death, afflictions of our
+human state that spring up as inevitably without separate culture and
+in defiance of all hostile culture, as verdure, as weeds, and as flowers
+that overspread in spring time a fertile soil without needing to be
+sown or watered--awful is the necessity, as it seems, of all such
+afflictions. Yet, again, if (as these anecdote simply) war could by
+possibility depend frequently on accidents of personal temperament,
+irritability in a sensual king, wounded sensibilities of pride between
+two sensitive ladies, there in a moment shone forth a light of hope upon
+the crusade against war.
+
+If _personal_ accidents could, to any serious extent, be amongst the
+causes of war, then it would become a hopeful duty to combine personal
+influences that should take an opposite direction. If casual causes
+could be supposed chiefly to have promoted war, how easy for a nation to
+arrange permanent and determinate causes against it! The logic of these
+anecdotes seemed to argue that the whole fountains of war were left to
+the government of chance and the windiest of levities; that war was not
+in reality roused into activity by the evil that resides in the human
+will, but on the contrary, by the simple defect of any will energetic
+enough or steady enough to merit that name. Multitudes of evils exist in
+our social system, simply because no steadiness of attention, nor action
+of combined will, has been converged upon them. War, by the silent
+evidence of these anecdotes, seemed to lie amongst that class of evils.
+A new era might be expected to commence in new views upon war; and the
+evil would be half conquered from the moment that it should be traced to
+a trivial or a personal origin.
+
+All this was plausible, but false. The anecdotes, and all similar
+anecdotes, might be true, but were delusive. The logical vice in them
+was--that they substituted an occasion for a cause. The king's ill
+temper for instance, acting through the levity and impatience of the
+minister, might be the _causa occasionalis_ of the war, but not its true
+_causa efficiens_. What _was?_ Where do the true permanent causes
+of war, as distinguished from its proximate excitements, find their
+lodgment and abiding ground? They lie in the system of national
+competitions; in the common political system to which all individual
+nations are unavoidably parties; in the system of public forces
+distributed amongst a number of adjacent nations, with no internal
+principle for adjusting the equilibrium of these forces, and no supreme
+_Areopagus_, or court of appeal, for deciding disputes. Here lies the
+_matrix_ of war, because an eternal _matrix_ of disputes lies in a
+system of interests that are continually the same, and therefore the
+parents of rivalships too close, that are continually different, and
+so far the parents of alienation too wide. All war is an instinctive
+_nisus_ for redressing the errors of equilibrium in the relative
+position of nations amongst nations. Every nation's duty, first, midst,
+and last, is to itself. No nation can be safe from continual (because
+insensible) losses of ground, but by continual jealousies, watchings,
+and ambitious strivings to mend its own position. Civilities and
+high-bred courtesies pass and ought to pass between nations; that is
+the graceful drapery which shrouds their natural, fierce, and tiger-like
+relations to each other. But the glaring eyes, which express this
+deep and inalienable ferocity, look out at intervals from below these
+gorgeous draperies; and sad it is to think that at intervals the acts
+and the temper suitable to those glaring eyes _must_ come forward. Mr.
+Carter was on terms of the most exquisite dissimulation with his lions
+and tigers; but, as often as he trusted his person amongst them, if,
+in the midst of infinite politeness exchanged on all sides, he saw a
+certain portentous expression of mutiny kindling in the eyeball of any
+discontented tiger, all was lost, unless he came down instantly
+upon that tiger's skull with a blow from an iron bar, that suggested
+something like apoplexy. On such terms do nations meet in diplomacy;
+high consideration for each other does not conceal the basis of enmity
+on which they rest; not an enmity that belongs to their feelings, but to
+the necessities of their position. Every nation in negotiating has
+its right hand upon the hilt of its sword, and at intervals playfully
+unsheaths a little of its gleaming blade. As things stand at present,
+war and peace are bound together like the vicissitudes of day and night,
+of Castor and Pollux. It matters little which bucket of the two is
+going up at the moment, which going down. Both are steadfastly tied by a
+system of alternations to a revolving wheel; and a new war as certainly
+becomes due during the evolutions of a tedious peace, as a new peace
+may be relied on during the throes of a bloody war, to tranquillize its
+wounds. Consequently, when the arrogant Louvois carried a war to the
+credit of his own little account on the national leger of France,
+this coxcomb well knew that a war was at any rate due about that
+time. Really, says he, I must find out some little war to exhaust the
+_surplus_ irritability of this person, or he'll be the death of me. But
+irritable or not irritable, with a puppy for his minister or not, the
+French king would naturally have been carried headlong into war by the
+mere system of Europe, within a very few months. So much had the causes
+of complaint reciprocally accumulated. The account must be cleansed, the
+court roll of grievances must be purged. With respect to the two English
+ladies again, it is still more evident that they could not have _caused_
+a war by pulling caps with each other, since the grounds of every war,
+what had caused it, and prolonged it, was sure to be angrily reviewed by
+Parliament at each annual exposition of the Finance Minister's Budget.
+These ladies, and the French coxcomb, could at the utmost have claimed a
+distinction--such as that which belonged to a particular Turkish gunner,
+the captain of a gun at Navarino, viz., that he, by firing the first
+shot without orders, did (as a matter of fact) let loose and unmuzzle
+the whole of that dreadful iron hurricane from four nations which
+instantly followed, but which (be it known to the gunner) could not
+have been delayed for fifty minutes longer, whether he had fired the
+unauthorized gun or not.
+
+But now, let me speak to the second proposition of my two-headed thesis,
+viz., that war _ought_ not to be abolished, if such an abolition were
+even possible. _Prima facie_, it seems a dreadful doctrine to claim
+a place for war as amongst the evils that are salutary to man; but
+conscientiously I hold it to be such. I hold with Wordsworth, but
+for reasons which may or may not be the same, since he has not stated
+_his_--
+
+  'That God's most dreaded instrument,
+  In working out a pure intent,
+  Is man--array'd for mutual slaughter:
+  Yea, Carnage is his daughter.'
+
+I am obliged to hold, that supposing so romantic a condition realized
+as the cessation of war, this change, unless other evils were previously
+abolished, or neutralized in a way still more romantic to suppose, would
+not be for the welfare of human nature, but would tend to its rapid
+degradation.
+
+One, in fact, of the earliest aspects under which this moral necessity
+for war forces itself upon our notice, is its physical necessity. I mean
+to say that one of the earliest reasons why war _ought_ to exist, is
+because under any mode of suppressing war, virtually it _will_ exist.
+Banish war as now administered, and it will revolve upon us in a worse
+shape, that is, in a shape of predatory and ruffian war, more and more
+licentious, as it enjoys no privilege or sufferance, by the supposition,
+under the national laws. Will the causes of war die away because war is
+forbidden? Certainly not; and the only result of the prohibition would
+be to throw back the exercise of war from national into private and
+mercenary hands; and _that_ is precisely the retrograde or inverse
+course of civilization; for, in the natural order of civilization, war
+passes from the hands of knights, barons, insulated cities, into those
+of the universal community. If, again, it is attempted to put down this
+lawless _guerilla_ state by national forces, then the result will be to
+have established an interminable warfare of a mixed character, private
+and public, civil and foreign, infesting the frontiers of all states
+like a fever, and in substitution for the occasional and intermitting
+wars of high national police, administered with the dignified
+responsibility that belongs to supreme rank, with the humanity that
+belongs to conscious power, and with the diminishing havoc that belongs
+to increasing skill in the arts of destruction. Even as to this last
+feature in warfare, which in the war of brigands and _condottieri_ would
+for many reasons instantly decay, no reader can fail to be aware of the
+marvels effected by the forces of inventive science that run along
+side by side with the advances of civilization; look back even to the
+grandest period of the humane Roman warfare, listen to the noblest and
+most merciful of all Roman captains, saying on the day of Pharsalia,
+(and saying of necessity,) 'Strike at their faces, cavalry,'--yes,
+absolutely directing his own troopers to plough up with their sabres the
+blooming faces of the young Roman nobility; and then pass to a modern
+field of battle, where all is finished by musquetry and artillery amidst
+clouds of smoke, no soldier recognizing his own desolations, or the
+ghastly ruin of his own right arm, so that war, by losing all its
+brutality, is losing half of its demoralization.
+
+War, so far from ending, because war was forbidden and nationally
+renounced, on the contrary would transmigrate into a more fearful
+shape. As things are at present, (and, observe, they are always growing
+better,) what numbers of noble-minded men, in the persons of our
+officers (yes, and often of non-commissioned officers,) do we British,
+for example, disperse over battle-fields, that could not dishonor their
+glorious uniform by any countenance to an act of cruelty! They are eyes
+delegated from the charities of our domestic life, to overlook and
+curb the license of war. I remember, in Xenophon, some passage where
+he describes a class of Persian gentlemen, who were called the
+_ophthalmoi_, or _eyes_ of the king; but for a very different purpose.
+These British officers may be called the _opthalmoi_, or eyes of
+our Sovereign Lady, that into every corner of the battle carry their
+scrutiny, lest any cruelty should be committed on the helpless, or any
+advantage taken of a dying enemy. But mark, such officers would be rare
+in the irregular troops succeeding to the official armies. And through
+this channel, amongst others, war, when cried down by act of Parliament,
+and precisely _because_ it was cried down, would become more perilously
+effective for the degradation of human nature. Being itself dishonored,
+war would become the more effective as an instrument for the dishonoring
+of its agents. However, at length, we will suppose the impossible
+problem solved--war, we will assume, is at last put down.
+
+At length there is no more war. Though by the way, let me whisper in
+your ear, (supposing you to be a Christian,) this would be a prelibation
+drawn prematurely from the cup of millennial happiness; and, strictly
+speaking, there is no great homage to religion, even thus far--in
+figuring _that_ to be the purchase of man for himself, and through his
+own efforts, which is viewed by Scripture as a glory removed to the
+infinite and starry distance of a millennium, and as the _teleutaion
+epigeinaema_, the last crowning attainment of Christian truth, no
+longer _militant_ on earth. Christianity it is, but Christianity when
+_triumphant_, and no longer in conflict with adverse, or thwarting, or
+limiting influences, which only can be equal to a revolution so mighty.
+But all this, for the sake of pursuing the assumption, let us agree to
+waive. In reality, there are two separate stations taken up by the war
+denouncers. One class hold, that an influence derived from political
+economy is quite equal to the flying leap by which man is to clear this
+unfathomable gulph of war, and to land his race for ever on the opposite
+shore of a self-sustaining peace. Simply, the contemplation of national
+debts, (as a burthen which never would have existed without war,) and
+a computation of the waste, havoc, unproductive labor, &c., attached to
+any single campaign--these, they imagine, might suffice, _per se_,
+for the extinction of war. But the other class cannot go along with
+a speculation so infirm. Reasons there are, in the opposite scale,
+tempting man into war,--which are far mightier than any motives
+addressed to his self-interest. Even straining her energies to the
+utmost, they regard all policy of the _purse_ as adequate: anything
+short of religion, they are satisfied, must be incommensurate to a
+result so vast.
+
+I myself certainly agree with this last class; but upon this arises
+a delusion, which I shall have some trouble in making the reader
+understand: and of this I am confident-that a majority, perhaps, in
+every given amount of readers, will share in the delusion; will part
+from me in the persuasion that the error I attempt to expose is no error
+at all, but that it is myself who am in the wrong. The delusion which
+I challenge as such, respects the very meaning and value of a sacrifice
+made to Christianity. What is it? what do we properly mean, by
+a concession or a sacrifice made to a spiritual power, such as
+Christianity? If a king and his people, impressed by the unchristian
+character of war, were to say, in some solemn act--'We, the parties
+undersigned, for the reasons stated in the body of this document,
+proclaim to all nations, that from and after Midsummer eve of the year
+1850, this being the eve of St. John the Baptist, (who was the herald of
+Christ,) we will no more prosecute any interest of ours, unless the one
+sole interest of national defence, by means of war,--and this sacrifice
+we make as a concession and act of homage to Christianity,--would
+_that_ vow, I ask, sincerely offered, and steadily observed, really be a
+sacrifice made to Christianity? Not at all. A sacrifice, that was truly
+such, to a spiritual religion, must be a sacrifice not verbally (though
+sincerely) dedicating itself to the religion, but a sacrifice wrought
+and accomplished by that religion, through and by its own spirit.
+Midsummer eve of 1850 could clearly make no spiritual change in the king
+or his people--such they would be on the morning after St. John's day,
+as on the morning before it--_i. e._, filled with all elements (though
+possibly undeveloped) of strife, feud, pernicious ambition.
+
+The delusion, therefore, which I charge upon this religious class of
+war denouncers is, that whilst they see and recognize this infinite
+imperfection of any influence which Christianity yet exercises upon
+the world, they nevertheless rely upon that acknowledged shadow for the
+accomplishment of what would, in such circumstances, be a real miracle;
+they rely upon that shadow, as truly and entirely as if it were already
+that substance which, in a vast revolution of ages, it will finally
+become. And they rely upon this mockery in _two_ senses; first, for the
+_endurance_ of the frail human resolution that would thaw in an hour
+before a great outrage, or provocation suited to the nobler infirmities
+of man. Secondly, which is the point I mainly aim at, assuming, for a
+moment, that the resolution _could_ endure, amongst all mankind, we are
+all equally convinced, that an evil so vast is not likely to be checked
+or controlled, except by some very extraordinary power. Well, where
+_is_ it? Show me that power. I know of none but Christianity. _There_,
+undoubtedly, is hope. But, in order that the hope may become rational,
+the power must become practical. And practical it is not in the extent
+required, until this Christianity, from being dimly appreciated by a
+section [Footnote _What_ section, if you please? I, for my part, do not
+agree with those that geographically degrade Christianity as occupying
+but a trifle on the area of our earth. Mark this; all Eastern
+populations have dwindled upon better acquaintance. Persia that _ought_
+to have, at least, two hundred and fifty millions of people, and _would_
+have them under English government, and once was supposed to have at
+least one hundred millions, how many millions has she? _Eight!_ This
+was ascertained by Napoleon's emissary in 1808, General Gardanne.
+Afghanistan has very little more, though some falsely count fourteen
+millions. There go two vast chambers of Mahometanism; not twenty
+millions between them. Hindostan may _really_ have one hundred and
+twenty millions claimed for her. As to the Burman Empire, I, nor anybody
+else knows the truth. But, as to China, I have never for a moment been
+moved by those ridiculous estimates of the flowery people, which our
+simple countrymen copy. Instead of three hundred and fifty millions, a
+third of the human race upon the most exaggerated estimate, read eighty
+or one hundred millions at most. Africa, as it regards religion, counts
+for a cipher. Europe, America, and the half of Asia, as to space, are
+Christian. Consequently, the total _facit_, as regards Christianity, is
+not what many amiable infidels make it to be. My dears, your wish was
+father to that thought.] of this world, shall have been the law that
+overrides the whole. That consummation is not immeasurably distant. Even
+now, from considerations connected with China, with New Zealand, Borneo,
+Australia, we may say, that already the fields are white for harvest.
+But alas! the interval is brief between Christianity small, and
+Christianity great, as regards space or terraqueous importance, compared
+with that interval which separates Christianity formally professed,
+from Christianity thankfully acknowledged by universal man in beauty and
+power.
+
+Here, therefore, is one spoke in the wheel for so vast a change as war
+dethroned, viz., that you see no cause, though you should travel round
+the whole horizon, adequate to so prodigious an effect. What could
+do it? Why, Christianity could do it. Aye, true; but man disarms
+Christianity. And no mock Christianity, no lip homage to Christianity,
+will answer.
+
+But is war, then, to go on for ever? Are we never to improve? Are
+nations to conduct their intercourse eternally under the secret
+understanding that an unchristian solution of all irreconcileable feuds
+stands in the rear as the ultimate appeal? I answer that war, going on
+even for ever, may still be for ever amending its modes and its results
+upon human happiness; secondly, that we not only are under no fatal
+arrest in our process of improvement, but that, as regards war, history
+shows how steadily we _have_ been improving; and, thirdly, that although
+war may be irreversible as the last resource, this last resource may
+constantly be retiring further into the rear. Let us speak to this
+last point. War is the last resource only, because other and more
+intellectual resources for solving disputes are not available. And
+_why_ are they not? Simply, because the knowledge, and the logic, which
+ultimately will govern the case, and the very circumstances of the case
+itself in its details, as the basis on which this knowledge and logic
+are to operate, happen not to have been sufficiently developed. A code
+of law is not a spasmodic effort of gigantic talent in any one man
+or any one generation; it is a slow growth of accidents and occasions
+expanding with civilization; dependent upon time as a multiform element
+in its development; and presupposing often a concurrent growth of
+_analogous_ cases towards the completion of its system. For instance,
+the law which regulates the rights of shipping, seafaring men, and
+maritime commerce--how slow was its development! Before such works as
+the _Consolato del Mare_ had been matured, how wide must have been the
+experience, and how slow its accumulation! During that long period of
+infancy for law, how many must have been the openings for ignorant
+and unintentional injustice! How differently, again, will the several
+parties to any transaction construe the rights of the case! Discussion,
+without rules for guiding it, will but embitter the dispute. And in the
+absence of all guidance from the intellect, gradually weaving a _common_
+standard of international appeal, it is clear that nations _must_ fight,
+and _ought_ to fight. Not being convinced, it is base to pretend that
+you _are_ convinced; and failing to be convinced by your neighbor's
+arguments, you confess yourself a poltroon (and moreover you _invite_
+injuries from every neighbor) if you pocket your wrongs. The only course
+in such a case is to thump your neighbor, and to thump him soundly
+for the present. This treatment is very serviceable to your neighbor's
+optics; he sees things in a new light after a sufficient course of so
+distressing a regimen. But mark, even in this case, war has no tendency
+to propagate war, but tends to the very opposite result. To thump is as
+costly, and in other ways as painful, as to _be_ thumped. The evil to
+both sides arises in an undeveloped state of law. If rights were defined
+by a well considered code growing out of long experience, each party
+sees that this scourge of war would continually tend to limit itself.
+Consequently the very necessity of war becomes the strongest invitation
+to that system of judicial logic which forms its sole limitation. But
+all war whatsoever stands in these circumstances. It follows that all
+war whatever, unless on the brutal principle of a Spartan warfare, that
+made war its own sufficient object and self-justification, operates as
+a perpetual bounty offered to men upon the investigation and final
+adjudication of those disputed cases through which war prospers. Hence
+it is, viz., because the true boundaries of reciprocal rights are for
+ever ascertaining themselves more clearly, that war is growing less
+frequent. The fields open to injustice (which originally from pure
+ignorance are so vast) continually (through deeper and more expansive
+surveys by man's intellect--searching--reflecting--comparing) are
+narrowing themselves; narrowing themselves in this sense, that all
+nations under a common centre of religious civilization, as Christendom
+suppose, or Islamism, would not fight--no, and would not (by the
+national sense of wrong and right) be permitted to fight--in a cause
+_confessedly_ condemned by equity as now developed. The causes of war
+that still remain, are causes on which international law is silent--that
+large arrear of cases as yet unsettled; or else they are cases in which
+though law speaks with an authentic voice, it speaks in vain, because
+the circumstances are doubtful; so that, if the law is fixed as a lamp
+nailed to a wall, yet the _incidence_ of the law on the particular
+circumstances, becomes as doubtful as the light of the lamp upon objects
+that are capriciously moving. We see all this illustrated in a class of
+cases that powerfully illustrate the good and the bad in war, the why
+and the wherefore, as likewise the why _not_, and therefore I presume
+the wherefore _not_; and this class of cases belongs to the _lex
+vicinitatis_. In the Roman law this section makes a great figure. And
+speaking accurately, it makes a greater in our own. But the reason why
+this _law of neighborhood_ seems to fill so much smaller a section in
+ours, is because in English law, being _positively_ a longer section,
+_negatively_ to the whole compass of our law, it is less. The Roman law
+would have paved a road to the moon. And what is _that_ expressed in
+time? Let us see: a railway train, worked at the speed of the Great
+Western Express, accomplishes easily a thousand miles in twenty-four
+hours; consequently in two hundred and forty days or eight months it
+would run into the moon with its buffers, and break up the quarters of
+that Robinson Crusoe who (and without any Friday) is the only policeman
+that parades that little pensive appendage or tender to our fuming
+engine of an earth. But the English law--oh frightful reader, don't even
+think of such a question as its relation in space and time to the Roman
+law. That it would stretch to the fixed stars is plain, but to which
+of them,--don't now, dear persecuting reader, unsettle our brains by
+asking. Enough it is that both in Roman and English law the rights of
+neighborhood are past measuring. Has a man a right to play the German
+flute, where the partitions are slender, all day long in the house
+adjoining to yours? Or, supposing a beneficent jury (beneficent to
+_him_) finds this to be no legal nuisance, has he a right to play it
+ill? Or, because juries, when tipsy, will wink at anything, does the
+privilege extend to the jew's-harp? to the poker and tongs? to the
+marrowbones and cleavers? Or, without ranging through the whole of the
+_Spectator's_ culinary music, will the bagpipes be found within benefit
+of jury law? _War to the knife_ I say, before we'll submit to _that_.
+And if the law won't protect us against it, then we'll turn rebels.
+
+Now this law of neighborhood, this _lex vicinitatis_, amongst the
+Romans, righted itself and settled itself, as amongst ourselves it
+continues to do, by means of actions or legal suits. If a man poisons us
+with smoke, we compel him by an action to eat his own smoke, or (if he
+chooses) to make his chimneys eat it. Here you see is a transmuted war;
+in a barbarous state, fire and sword would have avenged this invasion of
+smoke; but amongst civilized men, paper bullets in the form of _Qui
+tam_ and _Scire facias_, beat off the enemy. And on the same principle,
+exactly as the law of international rights clears up its dark places,
+war gradually narrows its grounds, and the _jus gentium_ defines itself
+through national attorneys, _i. e._, diplomatists.
+
+For instance, now I have myself seen a case where a man cultivating a
+flower-garden, and distressed for some deliverance from his rubbish of
+dead leaves, litter, straw, stones, took the desperate resolution of
+projecting the whole upon his neighbor's flower-garden. I, a chance
+spectator of the outrage, knew too much of this world to lodge any
+protest against it, on the principle of mere abstract justice; so it
+would have passed unnoticed, but for the accident that his injured
+neighbor unexpectedly raised up his head above the dividing wall, and
+reproached the aggressor with his unprincipled conduct. This aggressor,
+adding evil to evil, suggested as the natural remedy for his own wrong,
+that the sufferer should pass the nuisance onwards to the garden next
+beyond him; from which it might be posted forward on the same principle.
+The aggrieved man, however, preferred passing it back, without any
+discount to the original proprietor. Here now, is a ripe case, a _causa
+teterrima_, for war between the parties, and for a national war had
+the parties been nations. In fact, the very same injury, in a more
+aggravated shape, is perpetrated from time to time by Jersey upon
+ourselves, and would, upon a larger scale, right itself by war. Convicts
+are costly to maintain; and Jersey, whose national revenue is limited,
+being too well aware of this, does us the favor to land upon the coasts
+of Hampshire, Dorset, &c., all the criminals whom she cannot summarily
+send back to self-support, at each jail-delivery. 'What are we to do in
+England?' is the natural question propounded by the injured scoundrels,
+when taking leave of their Jersey escort. 'Anything you please,' is
+the answer: 'rise if you can, to be dukes: only never come back hither;
+since, dukes or _no_ dukes, to the rest of Christendom, to _us_ of
+the Channel Islands you will always be transported felons.' There is
+therefore a good right of action, _i.e._, a good ground of war, against
+Jersey, on the part of Great Britain, since, besides the atrocious
+injury inflicted, this unprincipled little island has the audacity to
+regard our England, (all Europe looking on,) as existing only for the
+purposes of a sewer or cess-pool to receive _her_ impurities. Some time
+back I remember a Scottish newspaper holding up the case as a newly
+discovered horror in the social system. But, in a quiet way Jersey has
+always been engaged in this branch of exportation, and rarely fails to
+'run' a cargo of rogues upon our shore, once or so in the season. What
+amuses one besides, in this Scottish denunciation of the villany, is,
+that Scotland [Footnote: To banish them 'forth of the kingdom,' was the
+_euphuismus_; but the reality understood was--to carry the knaves, like
+foxes in a bag, to the English soil, and there unbag them for English
+use.] of old, pursued the very same mode of jail-delivery as to knaves
+that were not thought ripe enough for hanging: she carted them to
+the English border, unchained them, and hurried them adrift into the
+wilderness, saying--Now, boys, shift for yourselves, and henceforth
+plunder none but Englishmen.
+
+What I deduce from all this is, that as the feuds arising between
+individuals under the relation of neighbors, are so far from tending to
+a hostile result, that, on the contrary, as coming under a rule of
+law already ascertained, or furnishing the basis for a new rule, they
+gradually tighten the cords which exclude all opening for quarrel; not
+otherwise is the result, and therefore the usefulness, of war amongst
+nations. All the causes of war, the occasions upon which it is likely to
+arise, the true and the ostensible motives, are gradually evolved, are
+examined, searched, valued, by publicists; and by such means, in the
+further progress of men, a comprehensive law of nations will finally be
+accumulated, not such as now passes for international law, (a worthless
+code that _has_ no weight in the practice of nations, nor deserves any,)
+but one which will exhaust the great body of cases under which wars have
+arisen under the Christian era, and gradually collect a public opinion
+of Christendom upon the nature of each particular case. The causes that
+_have_ existed for war are the causes that _will_ exist; or, at least,
+they are the same under modifications that will simply vary the rule,
+as our law cases in the courts are every day circumstantiating the
+particular statute concerned. At this stage of advance, and when a true
+European opinion has been created, a '_sensus communis_,' or community
+of feeling on the main classifications of wars, it will become possible
+to erect a real Areopagus, or central congress for all Christendom, not
+with any commission to suppress wars,--a policy which would neutralize
+itself by reacting as a fresh cause of war, since high-spirited nations
+would arm for the purpose of resisting such decrees; but with the
+purpose and the effect of oftentimes healing local or momentary
+animosities, and also by publishing the opinion of Europe, assembled in
+council, with the effect of taking away the shadow of dishonor from the
+act of retiring from war. Not to mention that the mere delay, involved
+in the waiting for the solemn opinion of congress, would always be
+friendly to pacific councils. But _would_ the belligerents wait? That
+concession might be secured by general exchange of treaties, in the
+same way that the cooperation of so many nations has been secured to the
+suppression of the trade in slaves. And one thing is clear, that when
+all the causes of war, involving _manifest_ injustice, are banished by
+the force of European opinion, focally converged upon the subject, the
+range of war will be prodigiously circumscribed. The costliness of war,
+which, for various reasons has been continually increasing since the
+feudal period, will operate as another limitation upon its field,
+concurring powerfully with the public declaration from a council of
+collective Christendom.
+
+There is, besides, a distinct and separate cause of war, more fatal to
+the possibilities of peace in Europe than open injustice; and this cause
+being certainly in the hands of nations to deal with as they please,
+there is a tolerable certainty that a congress _sincerely_ pacific would
+cut it up by the roots. It is a cause noticed by Kant in his Essay on
+Perpetual Peace, and with great sagacity, though otherwise that little
+work is not free from visionary self-delusions: and this cause lies in
+the diplomacy of Europe. Treaties of peace are so constructed, as almost
+always to sow the seeds of future wars. This seems to the inexperienced
+reader a matter of carelessness or laxity in the choice of expression;
+and sometimes it may have been so; but more often it has been done under
+the secret dictation of powerful courts--making peaces only as truces,
+anxious only for time to nurse their energies, and to keep open some
+plausible call for war. This is not only amongst the most extensive
+causes of war, but the very worst: because it gives a colorable air of
+justice, and almost of necessity to a war, which is, in fact, the most
+outrageously unjust, as being derived from a pretext silently prepared
+in former years, with mere subtlety of malice: it is a war growing out
+of occasions, forged beforehand, lest no occasions should spontaneously
+arise. Now, this cause of war could and would be healed by a congress,
+and through an easy reform in European diplomacy.[Footnote: One great
+_nidus_ of this insidious preparation for war under the very masque of
+peace, which Kant, from brevity, has failed to particularize, lies in
+the neglecting to make any provision for cases that are likely enough to
+arise. A, B, C, D, are all equally possible, but the treaty provides a
+specific course of action only for A, suppose. Then upon B or C arising,
+the high contracting parties, though desperately and equally pacific,
+find themselves committed to war actually by a treaty of lasting peace.
+Their pacific majesties sigh, and say--Alas! that it should be so, but
+really fight we must, for what says the treaty?]
+
+It is the strongest confirmation of the power inherent in growing
+civilization, to amend war, and to narrow the field of war, if we look
+back for the records of the changes in this direction which have already
+arisen in generations before our own.
+
+The most careless reviewer of history can hardly fail to read a rude
+outline of progress made by men in the rights, and consequently in the
+duties of war through the last twenty-five centuries. It is a happy
+circumstance for man--that oftentimes he is led by pure selfishness into
+reforms, the very same as high principle would have prompted; and in the
+next stage of his advance, when once habituated to an improved code of
+usages, he begins to find a gratification to his sensibilities, (partly
+luxurious sensibilities, but partly moral,) in what originally had been
+a mere movement of self-interest. Then comes a third stage, in which
+having thoroughly reconciled himself to a better order of things, and
+made it even necessary to his own comfort, at length he begins in
+his reflecting moments to perceive a moral beauty and a fitness in
+arrangements that had emanated from accidents of convenience, so that
+finally he generates a sublime pleasure of conscientiousness out of
+that which originally commenced in the meanest forms of mercenary
+convenience. A Roman lady of rank, out of mere voluptuous regard to her
+own comfort, revolted from the harsh clamors of eternal chastisements
+inflicted on her numerous slaves; she forbade them; the grateful slaves
+showed their love for her; gradually and unintentionally she trained
+her feelings, when thus liberated from a continual temptation to the
+sympathies with cruelty, into a demand for gentler and purer excitement.
+Her purpose had been one of luxury; but, by the benignity of nature
+still watching for ennobling opportunities, the actual result was a
+development given to the higher capacities of her heart. In the same
+way, when the brutal right (and in many circumstances the brutal duty)
+of inflicting death upon prisoners taken in battle, had exchanged
+itself for the profits of ransom or slavery, this relaxation of ferocity
+(though commencing in selfishness) gradually exalted itself into a habit
+of mildness, and some dim perception of a sanctity in human life. The
+very vice of avarice ministered to the purification of barbarism;
+and the very evil of slavery in its earliest form was applied to the
+mitigation of another evil--war conducted in the spirit of piratical
+outrage. The commercial instincts of men having worked one set of
+changes in war, a second set of changes was prompted by instincts
+derived from the arts of ornament and pomp. Splendor of arms, of
+banners, of equipages, of ceremonies, and the elaborate forms of
+intercourse with enemies through conferences, armistices, treaties of
+peace, &c., having tamed the savagery of war into connection with
+modes of intellectual grandeur, and with the endless restraints of
+superstition or scrupulous religion,--a permanent light of civilization
+began to steal over the bloody shambles of buccaneering warfare. Other
+modes of harmonizing influences arose more directly from the bosom of
+war itself. Gradually the mere practice of war, and the culture of
+war though merely viewed as a rude trade of bloodshed, ripened into an
+intellectual art. Were it merely with a view to more effectual carnage,
+this art (however simple and gross at first) opened at length into wide
+scientific arts, into strategies, into tactics, into castrametation,
+into poliorcetics, and all the processes through which the first rude
+efforts of martial cunning finally connect themselves with the exquisite
+resources of science. War, being a game in which each side forces the
+other into the instant adoption of all improvements through the mere
+necessities of self-preservation, became continually more intellectual.
+
+It is interesting to observe the steps by which, were it only through
+impulses of self-conservation, and when searching with a view to more
+effectual destructiveness, war did and must refine itself from a horrid
+trade of butchery into a magnificent and enlightened science. Starting
+from no higher impulse or question than how to cut throats most rapidly,
+most safely, and on the largest scale, it has issued even at our own
+stage of advance into a science, magnificent, oftentimes ennobling, and
+cleansed from all horrors except those which (not being within man's
+power utterly to divorce from it) no longer stand out as reproaches to
+his humanity.
+
+Meantime a more circumstantial review of war, in relation to its motives
+and the causes assigned for its justification, would expose a series
+of changes greater perhaps than the reader is aware of. Such a review,
+which would too much lengthen a single paper, may or may not form the
+subject of a second. And I will content myself with saying, as a closing
+remark, that this review will detect a principle of steady advance in
+the purification and elevation of war--such as must offer hope to those
+who believe in the possibility of its absolute extermination, and must
+offer consolation to those who (like myself) deny it.
+
+
+
+
+THE LAST DAYS OF IMMANUEL KANT.
+
+
+I take it for granted that every person of education will acknowledge
+some interest in the personal history of Immanuel Kant. A great man,
+though in an unpopular path, must always be an object of liberal
+curiosity. To suppose a reader thoroughly indifferent to Kant, is to
+suppose him thoroughly unintellectual; and, therefore, though in reality
+he should happen _not_ to regard him with interest, it is one of the
+fictions of courtesy to presume that he does. On this principle I make
+no apology to the reader for detaining him upon a short sketch of
+Kant's life and domestic habits, drawn from the authentic records of his
+friends and pupils. It is true, that, without any illiberality on the
+part of the public in this country, the _works_ of Kant are not regarded
+with the same interest which has gathered about his _name_; and this may
+be attributed to three causes--first, to the language in which they are
+written; secondly, to the supposed obscurity of the philosophy which
+they teach, whether intrinsic or due to Kant's particular mode
+of expounding it; thirdly, to the unpopularity of all speculative
+philosophy, no matter how treated, in a country where the structure and
+tendency of society impress upon the whole activities of the nation
+a direction exclusively practical. But, whatever may be the immediate
+fortunes of his writings, no man of enlightened curiosity will regard
+the author himself without something of a profounder interest. Measured
+by one test of power, viz., by the number of books written directly
+for or against himself, to say nothing of those which he has indirectly
+modified, there is no philosophic writer whatsoever, if we except
+Aristotle, who can pretend to approach Kant in the extent of the
+influence which he has exercised over the minds of men. Such being his
+claims upon our notice, I repeat that it is no more than a reasonable
+act of respect to the reader--to presume in him so much interest about
+Kant as will justify a sketch of his life.
+
+Immanuel Kant, [Footnote: By the paternal side, the family of Kant was
+of Scotch derivation; and hence it is that the name was written by Kant
+the father--_Cant_, that being a Scotch name, and still to be found in
+Scotland. But Immanuel, though he always cherished his Scotch descent,
+substituted a _K_ for a _C_, in order to adapt it better to the
+analogies of the German language.] the second of six children, was born
+at Koenigsberg, in Prussia, a city at that time containing about fifty
+thousand inhabitants, on the 22d of April, 1724. His parents were people
+of humble rank, and not rich even for their own station, but able (with
+some assistance from a near relative, and a trifle in addition from a
+gentleman, who esteemed them for their piety and domestic virtues,) to
+give their son Immanuel a liberal education. He was sent when a child
+to a charity school; and, in the year 1732, removed to the Royal (or
+Frederician) Academy. Here he studied the Greek and Latin classics,
+and formed an intimacy with one of his schoolfellows, David Ruhnken,
+(afterwards so well known to scholars under his Latin name of
+Ruhn-kenius,) which lasted until the death of the latter. In 1737, Kant
+lost his mother, a woman of excellent character, and of accomplishments
+and knowledge beyond her rank, who contributed to the future eminence
+of her illustrious son by the direction which she gave to his youthful
+thoughts, and by the elevated morals to which she trained him. Kant
+never spoke of her to the end of his life without the utmost tenderness,
+and acknowledgment of his great obligations to her maternal care. In
+1740, at Michaelmas, he entered the University of Koenigsberg. In 1746,
+when about twenty-two years old, he printed his first work, upon a
+question partly mathematical and partly philosophic, viz., the valuation
+of living forces. The question had been first moved by Leibnitz, in
+opposition to the Cartesians, and was here finally settled, after having
+occupied most of the great mathematicians of Europe for more than half
+a century. It was dedicated to the King of Prussia, but never reached
+him--having, in fact, never been published. [Footnote: To this
+circumstance we must attribute its being so little known amongst the
+philosophers and mathematicians of foreign countries, and also the fact
+that D'Alembert, whose philosophy was miserably below his mathematics,
+many years afterwards still continued to represent the dispute as
+a verbal one.] From this time until 1770, he supported himself as a
+private tutor in different families, or by giving private lectures in
+Koenigsberg, especially to military men on the art of fortification. In
+1770, he was appointed to the Chair of Mathematics, which he exchanged
+soon after for that of Logic and Metaphysics. On this occasion,
+he delivered an inaugural disputation--[_De Mundi Sensibilis atque
+Intelligibilis Forma et Principiis_]--which is remarkable for containing
+the first germs of the Transcendental Philosophy. In 1781, he published
+his great work, the _Critik der Reinen Vernunft,_ or _Investigation of
+the Pure Reason_. On February 12, 1804, he died.
+
+These are the great epochs of Kant's life. But his was a life remarkable
+not so much for its incidents, as for the purity and philosophic dignity
+of its daily tenor; and of this the best impression will be obtained
+from Wasianski's account of his last years, checked and supported by
+the collateral testimonies of Jachmann, Rink, Borowski, and other
+biographers. We see him here struggling with the misery of decaying
+faculties, and with the pain, depression, and agitation of two different
+complaints, one affecting his stomach, and the other his head; over
+all which the benignity and nobility of his mind are seen victoriously
+eminent to the last. The principal defect of this and all other
+memoirs of Kant is, that they report too little of his conversation and
+opinions. And perhaps the reader will be disposed to complain, that some
+of the notices are too minute and circumstantial, so as to be at one
+time undignified, and at another unfeeling. As to the first objection,
+it may be answered, that biographical gossip of this sort, and
+ungentlemanly scrutiny into a man's private life, though not what a man
+of honor would choose to write, may be read without blame; and, where a
+great man is the subject, sometimes with advantage. With respect to the
+other objection, I know not how to excuse Mr. Wasianski for kneeling
+at the bed-side of his dying friend, to record, with the accuracy of a
+short-hand reporter, the last flutter of his pulse and the struggles of
+expiring nature, except by supposing that the idea of Kant, as a person
+belonging to all ages, in his mind transcended and extinguished
+the ordinary restraints of human sensibility, and that, under this
+impression, he gave _that_ to his sense of a public duty which, it may
+be hoped, he would willingly have declined on the impulse of his private
+affections.
+
+_The following paper on The Last Days of Kant, is gathered from the
+German of Wasianski, Jachmann, Borowski, and others._
+
+My knowledge of Professor Kant began long before the period to which
+this little memorial of him chiefly refers. In the year 1773, or 1774,
+I cannot exactly remember which, I attended his lectures. Afterwards, I
+acted as his amanuensis; and in that office was naturally brought into
+a closer connection with him than any other of his pupils; so that,
+without any request on my part, he granted me a general privilege of
+free admission to his class-room. In 1780 I took orders, and withdrew
+myself from all connection with the university. I still continued,
+however, to reside in Koenigsberg; but wholly forgotten, or wholly
+unnoticed at least, by Kant. Ten years afterwards, (that is to say,
+in 1790,) I met him by accident at a party given on occasion of the
+marriage of one of the professors. At table, Kant distributed
+his conversation and attentions pretty generally; but after the
+entertainment, when the company broke up into parties, he came and
+seated himself very obligingly by my side. I was at that time a
+florist--an amateur, I mean, from the passion I had for flowers;
+upon learning which, he talked of my favorite pursuit, and with
+very extensive information. In the course of our conversation, I
+was surprised to find that he was perfectly acquainted with all
+the circumstances of my situation. He reminded me of our previous
+connection; expressed his satisfaction at finding that I was happy; and
+was so good as to desire that, if my engagements allowed me, I would now
+and then come and dine with him. Soon after this, he rose to take his
+leave; and, as our road lay the same way, he proposed to me that I
+should accompany him home. I did so, and received an invitation for
+the next week, with a general invitation for every week after, and
+permission to name my own day. At first I was unable to explain the
+distinction with which Kant had treated me; and I conjectured that
+some obliging friend had spoken of me in his hearing, somewhat more
+advantageously than I could pretend to deserve; but more intimate
+experience has convinced me that he was in the habit of making continual
+inquiries after the welfare of his former pupils, and was heartily
+rejoiced to hear of their prosperity. So that it appeared I was wrong in
+thinking he had forgotten me.
+
+This revival of my intimacy with Professor Kant, coincided pretty
+nearly, in point of time, with a complete change in his domestic
+arrangements. Up to this period it had been his custom to eat at a
+_table d'hote_. But he now began to keep house himself, and every day
+invited two friends to dine with him, and upon any little festival from
+five to eight; for he was a punctual observer of Lord Chesterfield's
+rule--that his dinner party, himself included, should not fall below the
+number of the Graces--nor exceed that of the Muses. In the whole economy
+of his household arrangements, and especially of his dinner parties,
+there was something peculiar and amusingly opposed to the usual
+conventional restraints of society; not, however, that there was any
+neglect of decorum, such as sometimes occurs in houses where there are
+no ladies to impress a better tone upon the manners. The invariable
+routine was this: The moment that dinner was ready, Lampe, the
+professor's old footman, stepped into the study with a certain measured
+air, and announced it. This summons was obeyed at the pace of double
+quick time--Kant talking all the way to the eating-room about the state
+of the weather [Footnote: His reason for which was, that he considered
+the weather one of the principal forces which act upon the health;
+and his own frame was exquisitely sensible to all atmospheric
+influences.]--a subject which he usually pursued during the earlier part
+of the dinner. Graver themes, such as the political events of the day,
+were never introduced before dinner, or at all in his study. The moment
+that Kant had taken his seat, and unfolded his napkin, he opened the
+business of dinner with a particular formula--'_Now, then, gentlemen!_'
+and the tone and air with which he uttered these words, proclaimed, in
+a way which nobody could mistake, relaxation from the toils of the
+morning, and determinate abandonment of himself to social enjoyment.
+The table was hospitably spread; three dishes, wine, &c., with a small
+second course, composed the dinner. Every person helped himself; and all
+delays of ceremony were so disagreeable to Kant, that he seldom failed
+to express his displeasure with anything of that sort, though not
+angrily. He was displeased also if people ate little; and treated it as
+affectation. The first man to help himself was in his eyes the politest
+guest; for so much the sooner came his own turn. For this hatred of
+delay, Kant had a special excuse, having always worked hard from an
+early hour in the morning, and eaten nothing until dinner. Hence it was,
+that in the latter period of his life, though less perhaps from actual
+hunger than from some uneasy sensation of habit or periodical irritation
+of stomach, he could hardly wait with patience for the arrival of the
+last person invited.
+
+There was no friend of Kant's but considered the day on which he was to
+dine with him as a day of pleasure. Without giving himself the air of
+an instructor, Kant really was so in the very highest degree. The whole
+entertainment was seasoned with the overflow of his enlightened mind,
+poured out naturally and unaffectedly upon every topic, as the chances
+of conversation suggested it; and the time flew rapidly away, from one
+o'clock to four, five, or even later, profitably and delightfully. Kant
+tolerated no _calms_, which was the name he gave to the momentary pauses
+in conversation, or periods when its animation languished. Some means or
+other he always devised for restoring its tone of interest, in which he
+was much assisted by the tact with which he drew from every guest his
+peculiar tastes, or the particular direction of his pursuits; and on
+these, be they what they might, he was never unprepared to speak with
+knowledge, and the interest of an original observer. The local affairs
+of Koenigsberg must have been interesting indeed, before they could be
+allowed to occupy the attention at _his_ table. And, what may seem still
+more singular, it was rarely or never that he directed the conversation
+to any branch of the philosophy founded by himself. Indeed he was
+perfectly free from the fault which besets so many _savans_ and
+_literati_, of intolerance towards those whose pursuits had disqualified
+them for any particular sympathy with his own. His style of conversation
+was popular in the highest degree, and unscholastic; so much so, that
+any stranger who should have studied his works, and been unacquainted
+with his person, would have found it difficult to believe, that in this
+delightful companion he saw the profound author of the Transcendental
+Philosophy.
+
+The subjects of conversation at Kant's table were drawn chiefly from
+natural philosophy, chemistry, meteorology, natural history, and above
+all, from politics. The news of the day, as reported in the public
+journals, was discussed with a peculiar vigilance of examination. With
+regard to any narrative that wanted dates of time and place, however
+otherwise plausible, he was uniformly an inexorable sceptic, and held it
+unworthy of repetition. So keen was his penetration into the interior of
+political events, and the secret policy under which they moved, that he
+talked rather with the authority of a diplomatic person who had access
+to cabinet intelligence, than as a simple spectator of the great scenes
+which were unfolding in Europe. At the time of the French Revolution,
+he threw out many conjectures, and what were then accounted paradoxical
+anticipations, especially in regard to military operations, which were
+as punctually fulfilled as his own memorable conjecture in regard to the
+hiatus in the planetary system between Mars and Jupiter,[Footnote: To
+which the author should have added--and in regard to the hiatus between
+the planetary and cometary systems, which was pointed out by Kant
+several years before his conjecture was established by the good
+telescope of Dr. Herschel. Vesta and Juno, further confirmations of
+Kant's conjecture, were discovered in June 1804, when Wasianski wrote.]
+the entire confirmation of which he lived to witness on the discovery
+of Ceres by Piazzi, in Palermo, and of Pallas, by Dr. Olbers, at
+Bremen. These two discoveries, by the way, impressed him much; and
+they furnished a topic on which he always talked with pleasure; though,
+according to his usual modesty, he never said a word of his own
+sagacity in having upon _a priori_ grounds shown the probability of such
+discoveries many years before.
+
+It was not only in the character of a companion that Kant shone, but
+also as a most courteous and liberal host, who had no greater pleasure
+than in seeing his guests happy and jovial, and rising with exhilarated
+spirits from the mixed pleasures--intellectual and liberally sensual--of
+his Platonic banquets. Chiefly, perhaps, with a view to the sustaining
+of this tone of genial hilarity, he showed himself somewhat of an artist
+in the composition of his dinner parties. Two rules there were which he
+obviously observed, and I may say invariably: the first was, that
+the company should be miscellaneous; this for the sake of securing
+sufficient variety to the conversation: and accordingly his parties
+presented as much variety as the world of Koenigsberg afforded, being
+drawn from all the modes of life, men in office, professors, physicians,
+clergymen, and enlightened merchants. His second rule was, to have a due
+balance of _young_ men, frequently of _very_ young men, selected from
+the students of the university, in order to impress a movement of gaiety
+and juvenile playfulness on the conversation; an additional motive for
+which, as I have reason to believe, was, that in this way he withdrew
+his mind from the sadness which sometimes overshadowed it, for the early
+deaths of some young friends whom he loved.
+
+And this leads me to mention a singular feature in Kant's way of
+expressing his sympathy with his friends in sickness. So long as the
+danger was imminent, he testified a restless anxiety, made perpetual
+inquiries, waited with patience for the crisis, and sometimes could not
+pursue his customary labors from agitation of mind. But no sooner was
+the patient's death announced, than he recovered his composure, and
+assumed an air of stern tranquillity--almost of indifference. The reason
+was, that he viewed life in general, and therefore, that particular
+affection of life which we call sickness, as a state of oscillation and
+perpetual change, between which and the fluctuating sympathies of hope
+and fear, there was a natural proportion that justified them to the
+reason; whereas death, as a permanent state that admitted of no _more_
+or _less_, that terminated all anxiety, and for ever extinguished the
+agitation of suspense, he would not allow to be fitted to any state of
+feeling, but one of the same enduring and unchanging character. However,
+all this philosophic heroism gave way on one occasion; for many persons
+will remember the tumultuous grief which he manifested upon the death
+of Mr. Ehrenboth, a young man of very fine understanding and extensive
+attainments, for whom he had the greatest affection. And naturally it
+happened, in so long a life as his, in spite of his provident rule for
+selecting his social companions as much as possible amongst the young,
+that he had to mourn for many a heavy loss that could never be supplied
+to him.
+
+To return, however, to the course of his day, immediately after the
+termination of his dinner party, Kant walked out for exercise; but on
+this occasion he never took any companion, partly, perhaps, because he
+thought it right, after so much convivial and colloquial relaxation, to
+pursue his meditations,[Footnote: Mr. Wasianski is wrong. To pursue his
+meditations under these circumstances, might perhaps be an inclination
+of Kant's to which he yielded, but not one which he would justify or
+erect into a maxim. He disapproved of eating alone, or _solipsismus
+convictorii_, as he calls it, on the principle, that a man would be apt,
+if not called off by the business and pleasure of a social party, to
+think too much or too closely, an exercise which he considered very
+injurious to the stomach during the first process of digestion. On the
+same principle he disapproved of walking or riding alone; the double
+exercise of thinking and bodily agitation, carried on at the same time,
+being likely, as he conceived, to press too hard upon the stomach.] and
+partly (as I happen to know) for a very peculiar reason, viz., that he
+wished to breathe exclusively through his nostrils, which he could not
+do if he were obliged continually to open his mouth in conversation. His
+reason for this was, that the atmospheric air, being thus carried round
+by a longer circuit, and reaching the lungs, therefore, in a state of
+less rawness, and at a temperature somewhat higher, would be less apt
+to irritate them. By a steady perseverance in this practice, which he
+constantly recommended to his friends, he flattered himself with a long
+immunity from coughs, colds, hoarseness, and every mode of defluxion;
+and the fact really was, that these troublesome affections attacked him
+very rarely. Indeed I myself, by only occasionally adopting his rule,
+have found my chest not so liable as formerly to such attacks.
+
+At six o'clock he sat down to his library table, which was a plain
+ordinary piece of furniture, and read till dusk. During this period of
+dubious light, so friendly to thought, he rested in tranquil meditation
+on what he had been reading, provided the book were worth it; if not, he
+sketched his lecture for the next day, or some part of any book he
+might then be composing. During this state of repose he took his station
+winter and summer by the stove, looking through the window at the old
+tower of Lobenicht; not that he could be said properly to see it, but
+the tower rested upon his eye,--obscurely, or but half revealed to his
+consciousness. No words seemed forcible enough to express his sense of
+the gratification which he derived from this old tower, when seen under
+these circumstances of twilight and quiet reverie. The sequel, indeed,
+showed how important it was to his comfort; for at length some poplars
+in a neighboring garden shot up to such a height as to obscure the
+tower, upon which Kant became very uneasy and restless, and at length
+found himself positively unable to pursue his evening meditations.
+Fortunately, the proprietor of the garden was a very considerate
+and obliging person, who had, besides, a high regard for Kant; and,
+accordingly, upon a representation of the case being made to him, he
+gave orders that the poplars should be cropped. This was done, the
+old tower of Lobenicht was again unveiled, and Kant recovered his
+equanimity, and pursued his twilight meditations as before.
+
+After the candles were brought, Kant prosecuted his studies till nearly
+ten o'clock. A quarter of an hour before retiring for the night, he
+withdrew his mind as much as possible from every class of thoughts which
+demanded any exertion or energy of attention, on the principle, that
+by stimulating and exciting him too much, such thoughts would be apt
+to cause wakefulness; and the slightest interference with his customary
+hour of falling asleep, was in the highest degree unpleasant to him.
+Happily, this was with him a very rare occurrence. He undressed himself
+without his servant's assistance, but in such an order, and with such a
+Roman regard to decorum and the _to prepon_, that he was always ready
+at a moment's warning to make his appearance without embarrassment to
+himself or to others. This done, he lay down on a mattress, and wrapped
+himself up in a quilt, which in summer was always of cotton,--in autumn,
+of wool; at the setting-in of winter he used both--and against very
+severe cold, he protected himself by one of eider-down, of which the
+part which covered his shoulders was not stuffed with feathers, but
+padded, or rather wadded closely with layers of wool. Long practice had
+taught him a very dexterous mode of _nesting_ himself, as it were, in
+the bed-clothes. First of all, he sat down on the bedside; then with an
+agile motion he vaulted obliquely into his lair; next he drew one corner
+of the bedclothes under his left shoulder, and passing it below his
+back, brought it round so as to rest under his right shoulder; fourthly,
+by a particular _tour d'adresse_, he treated the other corner in the
+same way, and finally contrived to roll it round his whole person. Thus
+swathed like a mummy, or (as I used to tell him) self-involved like
+the silk-worm in its cocoon, he awaited the approach of sleep, which
+generally came on immediately. For Kant's health was exquisite; not
+mere negative health, or the absence of pain, but a state of positive
+pleasurable sensation, and a genial sense of the entire possession of
+all his activities. Accordingly, when packed up for the night in the
+way I have described, he would often ejaculate to himself (as he used to
+tell us at dinner)--'Is it possible to conceive a human being with more
+perfect health than myself?' In fact, such was the innocence of his
+life, and such the happy condition of his situation, that no uneasy
+passion ever arose to excite him--nor care to harass--nor pain to awake
+him. Even in the severest winter his sleeping-room was without a fire;
+only in his latter years he yielded so far to the entreaties of his
+friends as to allow of a very small one. All nursing or self-indulgence
+found no quarter with Kant. In fact, five minutes, in the coldest
+weather, sufficed to supersede the first chill of the bed, by the
+diffusion of a general glow over his person. If he had any occasion to
+leave his room in the night-time, (for it was always kept dark day and
+night, summer and winter,) he guided himself by a rope, which was duly
+attached to his bed-post every night, and carried into the adjoining
+apartment.
+
+Kant never perspired, [Footnote: This appears less extraordinary,
+considering the description of Kant's person, given originally by
+Reichardt, about eight years after his death. 'Kant,' says this writer,
+'was drier than dust both in body and mind. His person was small; and
+possibly a more meagre, arid, parched anatomy of a man, has not appeared
+upon this earth. The upper part of his face was grand; forehead lofty
+and serene, nose elegantly turned, eyes brilliant and penetrating; but
+below it expressed powerfully the coarsest sensuality, which in him
+displayed itself by immoderate addiction to eating and drinking.' This
+last feature of his temperament is here expressed much too harshly.]
+night or day. Yet it was astonishing how much heat he supported
+habitually in his study, and in fact was not easy if it wanted but
+one degree of this heat. Seventy-five degrees of Fahrenheit was the
+invariable temperature of this room in which he chiefly lived; and if it
+fell below that point, no matter at what season of the year, he had it
+raised artificially to the usual standard. In the heats of summer he
+went thinly dressed, and invariably in silk stockings; yet, as even this
+dress could not always secure him against perspiring when engaged in
+active exercise, he had a singular remedy in reserve. Retiring to some
+shady place, he stood still and motionless--with the air and attitude
+of a person listening, or in suspense--until his usual _aridity_ was
+restored. Even in the most sultry summer night, if the slightest
+trace of perspiration had sullied his night-dress, he spoke of it with
+emphasis, as of an accident that perfectly shocked him.
+
+On this occasion, whilst illustrating Kant's notions of the animal
+economy, it may be as well to add one other particular, which is, that
+for fear of obstructing the circulation of the blood, he never would
+wear garters; yet, as he found it difficult to keep up his stockings
+without them, he had invented for himself a most elaborate substitute,
+which I shall describe. In a little pocket, somewhat smaller than
+a watch-pocket, but occupying pretty nearly the same situation as a
+watch-pocket on each thigh, there was placed a small box, something like
+a watch-case, but smaller; into this box was introduced a watch-spring
+in a wheel, round about which wheel was wound an elastic cord, for
+regulating the force of which there was a separate contrivance. To the
+two ends of this cord were attached hooks, which hooks were carried
+through a small aperture in the pockets, and so passing down the inner
+and the outer side of the thigh, caught hold of two loops which were
+fixed on the off side and the near side of each stocking. As might be
+expected, so complex an apparatus was liable, like the Ptolemaic system
+of the heavens, to occasional derangements; however, by good luck, I
+was able to apply an easy remedy to these disorders which sometimes
+threatened to disturb the comfort, and even the serenity, of the great
+man.
+
+Precisely at five minutes before five o'clock, winter or summer, Lampe,
+Kant's servant, who had formerly served in the army, marched into his
+master's room with the air of a sentinel on duty, and cried aloud in
+a military tone,--'Mr. Professor, the time is come.' This summons Kant
+invariably obeyed without one moment's delay, as a soldier does the word
+of command--never, under any circumstances, allowing himself a respite,
+not even under the rare accident of having passed a sleepless night. As
+the clock struck five, Kant was seated at the breakfast-table, where he
+drank what he called _one_ cup of tea; and no doubt he thought it such;
+but the fact was, that in part from his habit of reverie, and in part
+also for the purpose of refreshing its warmth, he filled up his cup so
+often, that in general he is supposed to have drunk two, three, or some
+unknown number. Immediately after he smoked a pipe of tobacco, (the only
+one which he allowed himself through the entire day,) but so rapidly,
+that a pile of glowing embers remained unsmoked. During this operation
+he thought over his arrangements for the day, as he had done the
+evening before during the twilight. About seven he usually went to his
+lecture-room, and from that he returned to his writing-table. Precisely
+at three quarters before one he rose from his chair, and called aloud to
+the cook,--'It has struck three quarters.' The meaning of which summons
+was this:--Immediately after taking soup, it was his constant practice
+to swallow what he called a dram, which consisted either of Hungarian
+wine, of Rhenish, of a cordial, or (in default of these) of Bishop.
+A flask of this was brought up by the cook on the proclamation of the
+three quarters. Kant hurried with it to the eating-room, poured out his
+_quantum_, left it standing in readiness, covered, however, with paper,
+to prevent its becoming vapid, and then went back to his study, and
+awaited the arrival of his guests, whom to the latest period of his life
+he never received but in full dress.
+
+Thus we come round again to dinner, and the reader has now an accurate
+picture of the course of Kant's day; the rigid monotony of which was not
+burthensome to him; and probably contributed, with the uniformity of his
+diet, and other habits of the same regularity, to lengthen his life. On
+this consideration, indeed, he had come to regard his health and his old
+age as in a great measure the product of his own exertions. He spoke of
+himself often under the figure of a gymnastic artist, who had continued
+for nearly fourscore years to support his balance upon the slack-rope
+of life, without once swerving to the right or to the left. In spite of
+every illness to which his constitutional tendencies had exposed him,
+he still kept his position in life triumphantly. However, he would
+sometimes observe sportively, that it was really absurd, and a sort of
+insult to the next generation for a man to live so long, because he thus
+interfered with the prospects of younger people.
+
+This anxious attention to his health accounts for the great interest
+which he attached to all new discoveries in medicine, or to new ways
+of theorizing on the old ones. As a work of great pretension in
+both classes, he set the highest value upon the theory of the Scotch
+physician Brown, or (as it is usually called, from the Latin name of its
+author,) the Brunonian Theory. No sooner had Weikard adopted [Footnote:
+This theory was afterwards greatly modified in Germany; and, judging
+from the random glances which I throw on these subjects, I believe that
+in this recast it still keeps its ground in that country.] and made it
+known in Germany, than Kant became familiar with it. He considered it
+not only as a great step taken for medicine, but even for the general
+interests of man, and fancied that in this he saw something analogous
+to the course which human nature has held in still more important
+inquiries, viz.: first of all, a continual ascent towards the more and
+more elaborately complex, and then a treading back, on its own steps,
+towards the simple and elementary. Dr. Beddoes's Essays, also, for
+producing by art and curing pulmonary consumption, and the method of
+Reich for curing fevers, made a powerful impression upon him; which,
+however, declined as those novelties (especially the last) began to
+sink in credit. As to Dr. Jenner's discovery of vaccination, he was less
+favorably disposed to it; he apprehended dangerous consequences from the
+absorption of a brutal miasma into the human blood, or at least into
+the lymph; and at any rate he thought, that, as a guarantee against the
+variolous infection, it required a much longer probation. Groundless
+as all these views were, it was exceedingly entertaining to hear the
+fertility of argument and analogy which he brought forward to support
+them. One of the subjects which occupied him at the latter end of his
+life, was the theory and phenomena of galvanism, which, however, he
+never satisfactorily mastered. Augustin's book upon this subject was
+about the last that he read, and his copy still retains on the margin
+his, pencil-marks of doubts, queries and suggestions.
+
+The infirmities of age now began to steal upon Kant, and betrayed
+themselves in more shapes than one. Connected with Kant's prodigious
+memory for all things that had any intellectual bearings, he had from
+youth labored under an unusual weakness of this faculty in relation to
+the common affairs of daily life. Some remarkable instances of this
+are on record, from the period of his childish days; and now, when his
+second childhood was commencing, this infirmity increased upon him very
+sensibly. One of the first signs was, that he began to repeat the same
+stories more than once on the same day. Indeed, the decay of his memory
+was too palpable to escape his own notice; and, to provide against it,
+and secure himself from all apprehension of inflicting tedium upon his
+guests, he began to write a syllabus, or list of themes, for each day's
+conversation, on cards, or the covers of letters, or any chance scrap
+of paper. But these memoranda accumulated so fast upon him, and were so
+easily lost, or not forthcoming at the proper moment, that I prevailed
+on him to substitute a blank-paper book, which I had directed to be
+made, and which still remains, with some affecting memorials of his own
+conscious weakness. As often happens, however, in such cases, he had a
+perfect memory for the remote events of his life, and could repeat with
+great readiness, and without once stumbling, very long passages from
+German or Latin poems, especially from the AEneid, whilst the very
+words that had been uttered but a moment before dropped away from his
+remembrance. The past came forward with the distinctness and liveliness
+of an immediate existence, whilst the present faded away into the
+obscurity of infinite distance.
+
+Another sign of his mental decay was the weakness with which he now
+began to theorize. He accounted for everything by electricity. A
+singular mortality at this time prevailed amongst the cats of Vienna,
+Basle, Copenhagen, and other places. Cats being so eminently an electric
+animal, of course he attributed this epizootic to electricity. During
+the same period, he persuaded himself that a peculiar configuration of
+clouds prevailed; this he took as a collateral proof of his electrical
+hypothesis. His own headaches, too, which in all probability were a mere
+remote effect of old age, and a direct one of an inability [Footnote:
+Mr. Wasianski is quite in the wrong here. If the hindrances which nature
+presented to the act of thinking were now on the increase, on the other
+hand, the disposition to think, by his own acknowledgment, was on the
+wane. The power and the habit altering in proportion, there is no case
+made out of that disturbed equilibrium to which apparently he would
+attribute the headaches. But the fact is, that, if he had been as well
+acquainted with Kant's writings as with Kant personally, he would
+have known, that some affection of the head of a spasmodic kind was
+complained of by Kant at a time when nobody could suspect him of being
+in a decaying state.] to think as easily and as severely as formerly,
+he explained upon the same principle. And this was a notion of which his
+friends were not anxious to disabuse him, because, as something of
+the same character of weather (and therefore probably the same general
+tendency of the electric power) is found to prevail for whole cycles
+of years, entrance upon another cycle held out to him some prospect of
+relief. A delusion which secured the comforts of hope was the next best
+thing to an actual remedy; and a man who, in such circumstances, is
+cured of his delusion, '_cui demptus per vim mentis gratissimus error_,'
+might reasonably have exclaimed, '_Pol, me occidistis, amici._'
+
+Possibly the reader may suppose, that, in this particular instance
+of charging his own decays upon the state of the atmosphere, Kant was
+actuated by the weakness of vanity, or some unwillingness to face the
+real fact that his powers were decaying. But this was not the case.
+He was perfectly aware of his own condition, and, as early as 1799, he
+said, in my presence, to a party of his friends--'Gentlemen, I am old,
+and weak, and childish, and you must treat me as a child.' Or perhaps it
+may be thought that he shrank from the contemplation of death, which,
+as apoplexy seemed to be threatened by the pains in his head, might
+have happened any day. But neither was this the case. He now lived in a
+continual state of resignation, and prepared to meet any dispensation of
+Providence. 'Gentlemen,' said he one day to his guests, 'I do not fear
+to die. I assure you, as in the presence of God, that if I were this
+night to be made suddenly aware that I was on the point of being
+summoned, I would raise my hands to heaven, fold them, and say, Blessed
+be God! If indeed it were possible that a whisper such as this could
+reach my ear--Fourscore years thou hast lived, in which time thou hast
+inflicted much evil upon thy fellow-men, the case would be otherwise.'
+Whosoever has heard Kant speak of his own death, will bear witness
+to the tone of earnest sincerity which, on such occasions, marked his
+manner and utterance.
+
+A third sign of his decaying faculties was, that he now lost all
+accurate measure of time. One minute, nay, without exaggeration, a much
+less space of time, stretched out in his apprehension of things to a
+wearisome duration. Of this I can give one rather amusing instance,
+which was of constant recurrence. At the beginning of the last year of
+his life, he fell into a custom of taking immediately after dinner a cup
+of coffee, especially on those days when it happened that I was of his
+party. And such was the importance he attached to this little pleasure,
+that he would even make a memorandum beforehand, in the blank-paper
+book I had given him, that on the next day I was to dine with him, and
+consequently that there was to be coffee. Sometimes it would happen,
+that the interest of conversation carried him past the time at which
+he felt the craving for it; and this I was not sorry to observe, as I
+feared that coffee, which he had never been accustomed to, [Footnote:
+How this happened to be the case in Germany, Mr. Wasianski has not
+explained. Perhaps the English merchants at Koenigsberg, being amongst
+Kant's oldest and most intimate friends, had early familiarized him
+to the practice of drinking tea, and to other English tastes. However,
+Jachmann tells us, (p. 164,) that Kant was extravagantly fond of coffee,
+but forced himself to abstain from it under a notion that it was very
+unwholesome.] might disturb his rest at night. But, if this did not
+happen, then commenced a scene of some interest. Coffee must be brought
+'upon the spot,' (a word he had constantly in his mouth during his
+latter days,) 'in a moment.' And the expressions of his impatience,
+though from old habit still gentle, were so lively, and had so much of
+infantine naivete about them, that none of us could forbear smiling.
+Knowing what would happen, I had taken care that all the preparations
+should be made beforehand; the coffee was ground; the water was boiling;
+and the very moment the word was given, his servant shot in like
+an arrow, and plunged the coffee into the water. All that remained,
+therefore, was to give it time to boil up. But this trifling delay
+seemed unendurable to Kant. All consolations were thrown away upon him:
+vary the formula as we might, he was never at a loss for a reply. If
+it was said--'Dear Professor, the coffee will be brought up in a
+moment.'--'_Will_ be!' he would say, 'but there's the rub, that it only
+_will_ be:
+
+  Man never _is_, but always _to be_ blest.'
+
+If another cried out--'The coffee is coming immediately.'--'Yes,' he
+would retort, 'and so is the next hour: and, by the way, it's about that
+length of time that I have waited for it.' Then he would collect himself
+with a stoical air, and say--'Well, one can die after all: it is but
+dying; and in the next world, thank God! there is no drinking of coffee,
+and consequently no--waiting for it.' Sometimes he would rise from his
+chair, open the door, and cry out with a feeble querulousness--'Coffee!
+coffee!' And when at length he heard the servant's step upon the stairs,
+he would turn round to us, and, as joyfully as ever sailor from the
+mast-head, he would call out--'Land, land! my dear friends, I see land.'
+
+This general decline in Kant's powers, active and passive, gradually
+brought about a revolution in his habits of life. Heretofore, as I have
+already mentioned, he went to bed at ten, and rose a little before five.
+The latter practice he still observed, but not the other. In 1802 he
+retired as early as nine, and afterwards still earlier. He found himself
+so much refreshed by this addition to his rest, that at first he was
+disposed to utter a _Euraeka_, as over some great discovery in the
+art of restoring exhausted nature: but afterwards, on pushing it still
+farther, he did not find the success answer his expectations. His walks
+he now limited to a few turns in the King's gardens, which were at no
+great distance from his own house. In order to walk more firmly, he
+adopted a peculiar method of stepping; he carried his foot to the
+ground, not forward, and obliquely, but perpendicularly, and with a kind
+of stamp, so as to secure a larger basis, by setting down the entire
+sole at once. Notwithstanding this precaution, upon one occasion he
+fell in the street. He was quite unable to raise himself; and two young
+ladies, who saw the accident, ran to his assistance. With his usual
+graciousness of manner he thanked them fervently for their assistance,
+and presented one of them with a rose which he happened to have in his
+hand. This lady was not personally known to Kant; but she was greatly
+delighted with his little present, and still keeps the rose as a frail
+memorial of her transitory interview with the great philosopher.
+
+This accident, as I have reason to think, was the cause of his
+henceforth renouncing exercise altogether. All labors, even that of
+reading, were now performed slowly, and with manifest effort; and those
+which cost him any bodily exertion became very exhausting to him. His
+feet refused to do their office more and more; he fell continually, both
+when moving across the room, and even when standing still: yet he
+seldom suffered from these falls; and he constantly laughed at them,
+maintaining that it was impossible he could hurt himself, from the
+extreme lightness of his person, which was indeed by this time the
+merest skeleton. Very often, especially in the morning, he dropped
+asleep in his chair from pure weariness: on these occasions he fell
+forward upon the floor, and lay there unable to raise himself up, until
+accident brought one of his servants or his friends into the room.
+Afterwards these falls were prevented, by substituting a chair with
+circular supports, that met and clasped in front.
+
+These unseasonable dozings exposed him to another danger. He fell
+repeatedly, whilst reading, with his head into the candles; a cotton
+night-cap which he wore was instantly in a blaze, and flaming about his
+head. Whenever this happened, Kant behaved with great presence of mind.
+Disregarding the pain, he seized the blazing cap, drew it from his head,
+laid it quietly on the floor, and trod out the flames with his feet.
+Yet, as this last act brought his dressing-gown into a dangerous
+neighborhood to the flames, I changed the form of his cap, persuaded him
+to arrange the candles differently, and had a decanter of water placed
+constantly by his side; and in this way I applied a remedy to a danger,
+which would else probably have been fatal to him.
+
+From the sallies of impatience, which I have described in the case
+of the coffee, there was reason to fear that, with the increasing
+infirmities of Kant, would grow up a general waywardness and obstinacy
+of temper. For my own sake, therefore, and not less for his, I now laid
+down one rule for my future conduct in his house; which was, that I
+would, on no occasion, allow my reverence for him to interfere with the
+firmest expression of my opinion on subjects relating to his own health;
+and in cases of great importance, that I would make no compromise with
+his particular humors, but insist, not only on my view of the case, but
+also on the practical adoption of my views; or, if this were refused me,
+that I would take my departure at once, and not be made responsible
+for the comfort of a person whom I had no power to influence. And this
+behavior on my part it was that won Kant's confidence; for there was
+nothing which disgusted him so much as any approach to fawning or
+sycophancy. As his imbecility increased, he became daily more liable
+to mental delusions; and, in particular, he fell into many fantastic
+notions about the conduct of his servants, and, in consequence, into a
+peevish mode of treating them. Upon these occasions I generally observed
+a deep silence. But sometimes he would ask me for my opinion; and
+when this happened, I did not scruple to say, 'Ingenuously, then, Mr.
+Professor, I think that you are in the wrong.'--'You think so?' he would
+reply calmly, at the same time asking for my reasons, which he would
+listen to with great patience, and openness to conviction. Indeed,
+it was evident that the firmest opposition, so long as it rested upon
+assignable grounds and principles, won upon his regard; whilst his own
+nobleness of character still moved him to habitual contempt for timorous
+and partial acquiescence in his opinions, even when his infirmities made
+him most anxious for such acquiescence.
+
+Earlier in life Kant had been little used to contradiction. His superb
+understanding, his brilliancy in conversation, founded in part upon his
+ready and sometimes rather caustic wit, and in part upon his prodigious
+command of knowledge--the air of noble self-confidence which the
+consciousness of these advantages impressed upon his manners--and the
+general knowledge of the severe innocence of his life--all combined to
+give him a station of superiority to others, which generally secured
+him from open contradiction. And if it sometimes happened that he met a
+noisy and intemperate opposition, supported by any pretences to wit, he
+usually withdrew himself from that sort of unprofitable altercation with
+dignity, by contriving to give such a turn to the conversation as won
+the general favor of the company to himself, and impressed, silence, or
+modesty at least, upon the boldest disputant. From a person so little
+familiar with opposition, it could scarcely have been anticipated that
+he should daily surrender his wishes to mine--if not without discussion,
+yet always without displeasure. So, however, it was. No habit, of
+whatever long standing, could be objected to as injurious to his health,
+but he would generally renounce it. And he had this excellent custom in
+such cases, that either he would resolutely and at once decide for his
+own opinion, or, if he professed to follow his friend's, he would follow
+it sincerely, and not try it unfairly by trying it imperfectly. Any
+plan, however trifling, which he had once consented to adopt on the
+suggestion of another, was never afterwards defeated or embarrassed
+by unseasonable interposition from his own humors. And thus, the
+very period of his decay drew forth so many fresh expressions of his
+character, in its amiable or noble features, as daily increased my
+affection and reverence for his person.
+
+Having mentioned his servants, I shall here take occasion to give some
+account of his man-servant Lampe. It was a great misfortune for Kant, in
+his old age and infirmities, that this man also became old, and subject
+to a different sort of infirmities. This Lampe had originally served in
+the Prussian army; on quitting which he entered the service of Kant. In
+this situation he had lived about forty years; and, though always dull
+and stupid, had, in the early part of this period, discharged his
+duties with tolerable fidelity. But latterly, presuming upon his own
+indispensableness, from his perfect knowledge of all the domestic
+arrangements, and upon his master's weakness, he had fallen into
+great irregularities and neglect of his duties. Kant had been obliged,
+therefore, of late, to threaten repeatedly that he would discharge him.
+I, who knew that Kant, though one of the kindest-hearted men, was also
+one of the firmest, foresaw that this discharge, once given, would be
+irrevocable: for the word of Kant was as sacred as other men's oaths.
+Consequently, upon every opportunity, I remonstrated with Lampe on the
+folly of his conduct, and his wife joined me on these occasions. Indeed,
+it was high time that a change should be made in some quarter; for it
+now became dangerous to leave Kant, who was constantly falling from
+weakness, to the care of an old ruffian, who was himself apt to fall
+from intoxication. The fact was, that from the moment I undertook the
+management of Kant's affairs, Lampe saw there was an end to his old
+system of abusing his master's confidence in pecuniary affairs, and the
+other advantages which he took of his helpless situation. This made
+him desperate, and he behaved worse and worse; until one morning,
+in January, 1802, Kant told me, that, humiliating as he felt such a
+confession, the fact was, that Lampe had just treated him in a way which
+he was ashamed to repeat. I was too much shocked to distress him by
+inquiring into the particulars. But the result was, that Kant now
+insisted, temperately but firmly, on Lampe's dismissal. Accordingly, a
+new servant, of the name of Kaufmann, was immediately engaged; and on
+the next day Lampe was discharged with a handsome pension for life.
+
+Here I must mention a little circumstance which does honor to Kant's
+benevolence. In his last will, on the assumption that Lampe would
+continue with him to his death, he had made a very liberal provision
+for him; but upon this new arrangement of the pension, which was to take
+effect immediately, it became necessary to revoke that part of his will,
+which he did in a separate codicil, that began thus:--'In consequence of
+the ill behavior of my servant Lampe, I think fit,' &c. But soon after,
+considering that such a record of Lampe's misconduct might be seriously
+injurious to his interests, he cancelled the passage, and expressed it
+in such a way, that no trace remained behind of his just displeasure.
+And his benign nature was gratified with knowing, that, this one
+sentence blotted out, there remained no other in all his numerous
+writings, published or confidential, which spoke the language of anger,
+or could leave any ground for doubting that he died in charity with all
+the world. Upon Lampe's calling to demand a written character, he was,
+however, a good deal embarrassed; his stern reverence for truth being,
+in this instance, armed against the first impulses of his kindness. Long
+and anxiously he sat, with the certificate lying before him, debating
+how he should fill up the blanks. I was present, but in such a matter I
+did not take the liberty of suggesting any advice. At last, he took
+his pen, and filled up the blank as follows:--'--has served me long and
+faithfully,'--(for Kant was not aware that he had robbed him,)--'but did
+not display those particular qualifications which fitted him for waiting
+on an old and infirm man like myself.'
+
+This scene of disturbance over, which to Kant, a lover of peace and
+tranquillity, caused a shock that he would gladly have been spared; it
+was fortunate that no other of that nature occurred during the rest
+of his life. Kaufmann, the successor of Lampe, turned out to be a
+respectable and upright man, and soon conceived a great attachment to
+his master's person. Things now put on a new face in Kant's family: by
+the removal of one of the belligerents, peace was once more restored
+amongst his servants; for hitherto there had been eternal wars between
+Lampe and the cook. Sometimes it was Lampe that carried a war of
+aggression into the cook's territory of the kitchen; sometimes it was
+the cook that revenged these insults, by sallying out upon Lampe in the
+neutral ground of the hall, or invaded him even in his own sanctuary of
+the butler's pantry. The uproars were everlasting; and thus far it was
+fortunate for the peace of the philosopher, that his hearing had begun
+to fail; by which means he was spared many an exhibition of hateful
+passions and ruffian violence, which annoyed his guests and friends.
+But now all things had changed: deep silence reigned in the pantry; the
+kitchen rang no more with martial alarums; and the hall was unvexed with
+skirmish or pursuit. Yet it may be readily supposed that to Kant, at the
+age of seventy-eight, changes, even for the better, were not welcome: so
+intense had been the uniformity of his life and habits, that the least
+innovation in the arrangement of articles as trifling as a penknife, or
+a pair of scissors, disturbed him; and not merely if they were pushed
+two or three inches out of their customary position, but even if they
+were laid a little awry; and as to larger objects, such as chairs,
+&c., any dislocation of their usual arrangement, any trans position, or
+addition to their number, perfectly confounded him; and his eye appeared
+restlessly to haunt the seat of the mal-arrangement, until the ancient
+order was restored. With such habits the reader may conceive how
+distressing it must have been to him, at this period of decaying powers,
+to adapt himself to a new servant, a new voice, a new step, &c.
+
+Aware of this, I had on the day before he entered upon his duties,
+written down for the new servant upon a sheet of paper the entire
+routine of Kant's daily life, down to the minutest and most trivial
+circumstances; all which he mastered with the greatest rapidity. To
+make sure, however, we went through a rehearsal of the whole ritual;
+he performing the manoeuvres, I looking on and giving the word. Still I
+felt uneasy at the idea of his being left entirely to his own discretion
+on his first _debut_ in good earnest, and therefore I made a point of
+attending on this important day; and in the few instances where the new
+recruit missed the accurate manoeuvre, a glance or a nod from me easily
+made him comprehend his failure.
+
+One part only there was of the daily ceremonial, where all of us were
+at a loss, as it was a part which no mortal eyes had ever witnessed but
+those of Lampe: this was breakfast. However, that we might do all in
+our power, I myself attended at four o'clock in the morning. The day
+happened, as I remember, to be the 1st of February, 1802. Precisely at
+five, Kant made his appearance; and nothing could equal his astonishment
+on finding me in the room. Fresh from the confusion of dreaming, and
+bewildered alike by the sight of his new servant, by Lampe's absence,
+and by my presence, he could with difficulty be made to comprehend the
+purpose of my visit. A friend in need is a friend indeed; and we
+would now have given any money to that learned person who could have
+instructed us in the arrangement of the breakfast table. But this was a
+mystery revealed to none but Lampe. At length Kant took this task upon
+himself; and apparently all was now settled to his satisfaction. Yet
+still it struck me that he was under some embarrassment or constraint.
+Upon this I said--that, with his permission, I would take a cup of tea,
+and afterwards smoke a pipe with him. He accepted my offer with his
+usual courteous demeanor; but seemed unable to familiarize himself
+with the novelty of his situation. I was at this time sitting directly
+opposite to him; and at last he frankly told me, but with the kindest
+and most apologetic air, that he was really under the necessity of
+begging that I would sit out of his sight; for that, having sat alone at
+the breakfast table for considerably more than half a century, he could
+not abruptly adapt his mind to a change in this respect; and he found
+his thoughts very sensibly disturbed. I did as he desired; the servant
+retired into an antiroom, where he waited within call; and Kant
+recovered his wonted composure. Just the same scene passed over again,
+when I called at the same hour on a fine summer morning some months
+after.
+
+Henceforth all went right: or, if occasionally some little mistake
+occurred, Kant showed himself very considerate and indulgent, and would
+remark of his own accord, that a new servant could not be expected to
+know all his peculiar ways and humors. In one respect, indeed, this man
+adapted himself to Kant's scholarlike taste, in a way which Lampe
+was incapable of doing. Kant was somewhat fastidious in matters of
+pronunciation; and this man had a great facility in catching the true
+sound of Latin words, the titles of books, and the names or designations
+of Kant's friends: not one of which accomplishments could Lampe, the
+most insufferable of blockheads, ever attain to. In particular, I have
+been told by Kant's old friends, that for the space of more than thirty
+years, during which he had been in the habit of reading the newspaper
+published by Hartung, Lampe delivered it with the same identical blunder
+on every day of publication.--'Mr. Professor, here is Hart_mann's_
+journal.' Upon which Kant would reply--'Eh! what?--What's that you say?
+Hartmann's journal? I tell you, it is not Hartmann, but Hartung: now,
+repeat it after me--not Hartmann, but Hartung.' Then Lampe, looking
+sulky, and drawing himself up with the stiff air of a soldier on guard,
+and in the very same monotonous tone with which he had been used to sing
+out his challenge of--_Who goes there?_ would roar--'not Hartmann, but
+Hartung.' 'Now again!' Kant would say: on which again Lampe roared--'not
+Hartmann, but Hartung.' 'Now a third time,' cried Kant: on which for
+a third time the unhappy Lampe would howl out--'not Hartmann, but
+Hartung.' And this whimsical scene of parade duty was continually
+repeated: duly as the day of publication came, the irreclaimable old
+dunce was put through the same manoeuvres, which were as invariably
+followed by the same blunder on the next. In spite, however, of this
+advantage, in the new servant, and his general superiority to his
+predecessor, Kant's nature was too kind and good, and too indulgent to
+all people's infirmities but his own, not to miss the voice and the 'old
+familiar face' that he had been accustomed to for forty years. And I met
+with what struck me as an affecting instance of Kant's yearning after
+his old good-for-nothing servant in his memorandum-book: other people
+record what they wish to remember; but Kant had here recorded what he
+was to forget. 'Mem.: February, 1802, the name of Lampe must now be
+remembered no more.'
+
+In the spring of this year, 1802, I advised Kant to take the air. It
+was very long since he had been out of doors, [Footnote: Wasianski here
+returns thanks to some unknown person, who, having observed that Kant in
+his latter walks took pleasure in leaning against a particular wall to
+view the prospect, had caused a seat to be fixed at that point for his
+use.] and walking was now out of the question. But I thought the motion
+of a carriage and the air would be likely to revive him. On the power of
+vernal sights and sounds I did not much rely; for these had long ceased
+to affect him. Of all the changes that spring brings with it, there
+was one only that now interested Kant; and he longed for it with an
+eagerness and intensity of expectation, that it was almost painful to
+witness: this was the return of a hedge sparrow that sang in his garden,
+and before his window. This bird, either the same, or one of the next
+generation, had sung for years in the same situation; and Kant grew
+uneasy when the cold weather, lasting longer than usual, retarded its
+return. Like Lord Bacon, indeed, he had a childlike love for birds in
+general, and in particular, took pains to encourage the sparrows to
+build above the windows of his study; and when this happened, (as it
+often did, from the silence which prevailed in his study,) he watched
+their proceedings with the delight and the tenderness which others give
+to a human interest. To return to the point I was speaking of, Kant was
+at first very unwilling to accede to my proposal of going abroad. 'I
+shall sink down in the carriage,' said he, 'and fall together like a
+heap of old rags.' But I persisted with a gentle importunity in urging
+him to the attempt, assuring him that we would return immediately if he
+found the effort too much for him. Accordingly, upon a tolerably warm
+day of early [Footnote: Mr. Wasianski says--_late_ in summer: but, as
+he elsewhere describes by the same expression of 'late in summer,' a day
+which was confessedly _before_ the longest day, and as the multitude
+of birds which continued to sing will not allow us to suppose that
+the summer could be very far advanced, I have translated accordingly.]
+summer, I, and an old friend of Kant's, accompanied him to a little
+place which I rented in the country. As we drove through the streets,
+Kant was delighted to find that he could sit upright, and bear the
+motion of the carriage, and seemed to draw youthful pleasure from the
+sight of the towers and other public buildings, which he had not seen
+for years. We reached the place of our destination in high spirits. Kant
+drank a cup of coffee, and attempted to smoke a little. After this, he
+sat and sunned himself, listening with delight to the warbling of birds,
+which congregated in great numbers about this spot. He distinguished
+every bird by its song, and called it by its right name. After staying
+about half an hour, we set off on our homeward journey, Kant still
+cheerful, but apparently satiated with his day's enjoyment.
+
+I had on this occasion purposely avoided taking him to any public
+gardens, that I might not disturb his pleasure by exposing him to
+the distressing gaze of public curiosity. However, it was known in
+Koenigsberg that Kant had gone out; and accordingly, as the carriage
+moved through the streets which led to his residence, there was a
+general rush from all quarters in that direction, and, when we turned
+into the street where the house stood, we found it already choked up
+with people. As we slowly drew up to the door, a lane was formed in the
+crowd, through which Kant was led, I and my friend supporting him on
+our arms. Looking at the crowd, I observed the faces of many persons
+of rank, and distinguished strangers, some of whom now saw Kant for the
+first time, and many of them for the last.
+
+As the winter of 1802-3 approached, he complained more than ever of
+an affection of the stomach, which no medical man had been able to
+mitigate, or even to explain. The winter passed over in a complaining
+way; he was weary of life, and longed for the hour of dismission. 'I
+can be of service to the world no more,' said he, 'and am a burden
+to myself.' Often I endeavored to cheer him by the anticipation of
+excursions that we would make together when summer came again. On these
+he calculated with so much earnestness, that he had made a regular scale
+or classification of them--l. Airings; 2. Journeys; 3. Travels. And
+nothing could equal the yearning impatience expressed for the coming of
+spring and summer, not so much for their own peculiar attractions, as
+because they were the seasons for travelling. In his memorandum-book,
+he made this note:--'The three summer months are June, July, and
+August'--meaning that they were the three months for travelling. And
+in conversation he expressed the feverish strength of his wishes so
+plaintively and affectingly, that everybody was drawn into powerful
+sympathy with him, and wished for some magical means of ante-dating the
+course of the seasons.
+
+In this winter his bed-room was often warmed. This was the room in which
+he kept his little collection of books, of about four hundred and fifty
+volumes, chiefly presentation-copies from the authors. It may seem
+singular that Kant, who read so extensively, should have no larger
+library; but he had less need of one than most scholars, having in his
+earlier years been librarian at the Royal Library of the Castle;
+and since then having enjoyed from the liberality of Hartknoch, his
+publisher, (who, in his turn, had profited by the liberal terms on which
+Kant had made over to him the copyright of his own works,) the first
+sight of every new book that appeared.
+
+At the close of this winter, that is in 1803, Kant first began to
+complain of unpleasant dreams, sometimes of very terrific ones, which
+awakened him in great agitation. Oftentimes melodies, which he had heard
+in earliest youth sung in the streets of Koenigsberg, resounded painfully
+in his ears, and dwelt upon them in a way from which no efforts of
+abstraction could release him. These kept him awake to unseasonable
+hours; and often when, after long watching, he had fallen asleep,
+however deep his sleep might be, it was suddenly broken up by terrific
+dreams, which alarmed him beyond description. Almost every night, the
+bell-rope, which communicated with a bell in the room above his own,
+where his servant slept, was pulled violently, and with the utmost
+agitation. No matter how fast the servant might hurry down, he was
+almost always too late, and was pretty sure to find his master out of
+bed, and often making his way in terror to some other part of the house.
+The weakness of his feet exposed him to such dreadful falls on these
+occasions, that at length (but with much difficulty) I persuaded him to
+let his servant sleep in the same room with himself.
+
+The morbid affection of the stomach began now to be more and more
+distressing; and he tried various applications, which he had formerly
+been loud in condemning, such as a few drops of rum upon a piece of
+sugar, naphtha, [Footnote: For Kant's particular complaint, as described
+by other biographers, a quarter of a grain of opium, every twelve hours,
+would have been the best remedy, perhaps a perfect remedy.] &c. But all
+these were only palliatives; for his advanced age precluded the hope of
+a radical cure. His dreadful dreams became continually more appalling:
+single scenes, or passages in these dreams, were sufficient to compose
+the whole course of mighty tragedies, the impression from which was
+so profound as to stretch far into his waking hours. Amongst other
+phantasmata more shocking and indescribable, his dreams constantly
+represented to him the forms of murderers advancing to his bedside; and
+so agitated was he by the awful trains of phantoms that swept past him
+nightly, that in the first confusion of awaking he generally mistook
+his servant, who was hastening to his assistance, for a murderer. In the
+day-time we often conversed upon these shadowy illusions; and Kant, with
+his usual spirit of stoical contempt for nervous weakness of every sort,
+laughed at them; and, to fortify his own resolution to contend against
+them, he wrote down in his memorandum-book, 'There must be no yielding
+to panics of darkness.' At my suggestion, however, he now burned a light
+in his chamber, so placed as that the rays might be shaded from his
+face. At first he was very averse to this, though gradually he became
+reconciled to it. But that he could bear it at all, was to me an
+expression of the great revolution accomplished by the terrific agency
+of his dreams. Heretofore, darkness and utter silence were the two
+pillars on which his sleep rested: no step must approach his room;
+and as to light, if he saw but a moonbeam penetrating a crevice of
+the shutters, it made him unhappy; and, in fact, the windows of his
+bed-chamber were barricadoed night and day. But now darkness was a
+terror to him, and silence an oppression. In addition to his lamp,
+therefore, he had now a repeater in his room; the sound was at first too
+loud, but, after muffling the hammer with cloth, both the ticking and
+the striking became companionable sounds to him.
+
+At this time (spring of 1803) his appetite began to fail, which I
+thought no good sign. Many persons insist that Kant was in the habit of
+eating too much for health. [Footnote: Who these worthy people were
+that criticised Kant's eating, is not mentioned. They could have had no
+opportunity of exercising their abilities on this question, except
+as hosts, guests, or fellow-guests; and in any of those characters, a
+gentleman, one would suppose, must feel himself degraded by directing
+his attention to a point of that nature. However, the merits of the
+case stand thus between the parlies: Kant, it is agreed by all his
+biographers, ate only once a day; for as to his breakfast, it was
+nothing more than a very weak infusion of tea, (vide Jachmann's Letters,
+p. 163,) with no bread, or eatable of any kind. Now, his critics, by
+general confession, ate their way, from 'morn to dewy eve,' through
+the following course of meals: 1. Breakfast early in the morning; 2.
+Breakfast _a la fourchette_ about ten, A.M.; 3. Dinner at one or two;
+4. Vesper Brod; 5. Abend Brod; all which does really seem a very fair
+allowance for a man who means to lecture upon abstinence at night. But
+I shall cut this matter short by stating one plain fact; there were two
+things, and no more, for which Kant had an inordinate craving during
+his whole life; these were tobacco and coffee; and from both these
+he abstained almost altogether, merely under a sense of duty, resting
+probably upon erroneous grounds. Of the first he allowed himself a very
+small quantity, (and everybody knows that temperance is a more difficult
+virtue than abstinence;) of the other none at all, until the labors of
+his life were accomplished.] I, however, cannot assent to this opinion;
+for he ate but once a day, and drank no beer. Of this liquor, (I mean
+the strong black beer,) he was, indeed, the most determined enemy. If
+ever a man died prematurely, Kant would say--'He has been drinking beer,
+I presume.' Or, if another were indisposed, you might be sure he would
+ask, 'But does he drink beer?' And, according to the answer on this
+point, he regulated his anticipations for the patient. Strong beer, in
+short, he uniformly maintained to be a slow poison. Voltaire, by the
+way, had said to a young physician who denounced coffee under the same
+bad name of a 'slow poison,' 'You're right there, my friend, however;
+slow it is, and horribly slow; for I have been drinking it these seventy
+years, and it has not killed me yet;' but this was an answer which, in
+the case of beer, Kant would not allow of.
+
+On the 22d of April, 1803, his birth-day, the last which he lived to
+see, was celebrated in a full assembly of his friends. This festival he
+had long looked forward to with great expectation, and delighted even
+to hear the progress made in the preparations for it. But when the day
+came, the over-excitement and tension of expectation seemed to have
+defeated itself. He tried to appear happy; but the bustle of a numerous
+company confounded and distressed him; and his spirits were manifestly
+forced. He seemed first to revive to any real sense of pleasure at
+night, when the company had departed, and he was undressing in his
+study. He then talked with much pleasure about the presents which, as
+usual, would be made to his servants on this occasion; for Kant was
+never happy himself, unless he saw all around him happy. He was a great
+maker of presents; but at the same time he had no toleration for the
+studied theatrical effect, the accompaniment of formal congratulations,
+and the sentimental pathos with which birth-day presents are made in
+Germany. [Footnote: In this, as in many other things, the taste of Kant
+was entirely English and Roman; as, on the other hand, some eminent
+Englishmen, I am sorry to say, have, on this very point, shown the
+effeminacy and _falsetto_ taste of the Germans. In particular, Mr.
+Coleridge, describing, in The Friend, the custom amongst German children
+of making presents to their parents on Christmas Eve, (a custom which
+he unaccountably supposes to be peculiar to Ratzeburg,) represents the
+mother as 'weeping aloud for joy'--the old idiot of a father with 'tears
+running down his face,' &c. &c., and all for what? For a snuff-box, a
+pencil-case, or some article of jewellery. Now, we English agree with
+Kant on such maudlin display of stage sentimentality, and are prone to
+suspect that papa's tears are the product of rum-punch. Tenderness
+let us have by all means, and the deepest you can imagine, but upon
+proportionate occasions, and with causes fitted to justify it and
+sustain its dignity.] In all this, his masculine taste gave him a sense
+of something fade and ludicrous.
+
+The summer of 1803 was now come, and, visiting Kant one day, I was
+thunderstruck to hear him direct me, in the most serious tone, to
+provide the funds necessary for an extensive foreign tour. I made
+no opposition, but asked his reasons for such a plan; he alleged
+the miserable sensations he had in his stomach, which were no longer
+endurable. Knowing what power over Kant a quotation from a Roman poet
+had always had, I simply replied--'Post equitem sedet atra cura,'
+and for the present he said no more. But the touching and pathetic
+earnestness with which he was continually ejaculating prayers for warmer
+weather, made it doubtful to me whether his wishes on this point ought
+not, partially at least, to be gratified; and I therefore proposed to
+him a little excursion to the cottage we had visited the year before.
+'Anywhere,' said he, 'no matter whither, provided it be far enough.'
+Towards the latter end of June, therefore, we executed this scheme;
+on getting into the carriage, the order of the day with Kant was,
+'Distance, distance. Only let us go far enough,' said he: but scarcely
+had we reached the city-gates before the journey seemed already to have
+lasted too long. On reaching the cottage we found coffee waiting for
+us; but he would scarcely allow himself time for drinking it, before
+he ordered the carriage to the door; and the journey back seemed
+insupportably long to him, though it was performed in something less
+than twenty minutes. 'Is this never to have an end?' was his continual
+exclamation; and great was his joy when he found himself once more in
+his study, undressed, and in bed. And for this night he slept in peace,
+and once again was liberated from the persecution of dreams.
+
+Soon after he began again to talk of journeys, of travels in remote
+countries, &c., and, in consequence, we repeated our former excursion
+several times; and though the circumstances were pretty nearly the same
+on every occasion, and always terminating in disappointment as to the
+immediate pleasure anticipated, yet, undoubtedly, they were, on the
+whole, salutary to his spirits. In particular, the cottage itself,
+standing under the shelter of tall alders, with a valley stretched
+beneath it, through which a little brook meandered, broken by a
+water-fall, whose pealing sound dwelt pleasantly on the ear, sometimes,
+on a quiet sunny day, gave a lively delight to Kant: and once, under
+accidental circumstances of summer clouds and sun-lights, the little
+pastoral landscape suddenly awakened a lively remembrance which had been
+long laid asleep, of a heavenly summer morning in youth, which he had
+passed in a bower upon the banks of a rivulet that ran through the
+grounds of a dear and early friend, Gen. Von Lossow. The strength of
+the impression was such, that he seemed actually to be living over that
+morning again, thinking as he then thought, and conversing with those
+that were no more.
+
+His very last excursion was in August of this year, (1803,) not to my
+cottage, but to the garden of a friend. But on this day he manifested
+great impatience. It had been arranged that he was to meet an old
+friend at the gardens; and I, with two other gentlemen, attended him. It
+happened that _out_ party arrived first; and such was Kant's weakness,
+and total loss of power to estimate the duration of time, that, after
+waiting a few moments, he insisted that some hours had elapsed--that
+his friend could not be expected--and went away in great discomposure of
+mind. And so ended Kant's travelling in this world.
+
+In the beginning of autumn the sight of his right eye began to fail him;
+the left he had long lost the use of. This earliest of his losses,
+by the way, he discovered by mere accident, and without any previous
+warning. Sitting down one day to rest himself in the course of a walk,
+it occurred to him that he would try the comparative strength of his
+eyes; but on taking out a newspaper which he had in his pocket, he was
+surprised to find that with his left eye he could not distinguish a
+letter. In earlier life he had two remarkable affections of the eyes:
+once, on returning from a walk, he saw objects double for a long space
+of time; and twice he became stone-blind. Whether these accidents are to
+be considered as uncommon, I leave to the decision of oculists. Certain
+it is, they gave very little disturbance to Kant; who, until old age had
+reduced his powers, lived in a constant state of stoical preparation
+for the worst that could befall him. I was now shocked to think of the
+degree in which his burthensome sense of dependence would be aggravated,
+if he should totally lose the power of sight. As it was, he read and
+wrote with great difficulty: in fact, his writing was little better than
+that which most people can produce as a trial of skill with their eyes
+shut. From old habits of solitary study, he had no pleasure in
+hearing others read to him; and he daily distressed me by the pathetic
+earnestness of his entreaties that I would have a reading-glass devised
+for him. Whatever my own optical skill could suggest, I tried; and
+the best opticians were sent for to bring their glasses, and take his
+directions for altering them; but all was to no purpose.
+
+In this last year of his life Kant very unwillingly received the
+visits of strangers; and, unless under particular circumstances, wholly
+declined them. Yet, when travellers had come a very great way out of
+their road to see him, I confess that I was at a loss how to conduct
+myself. To have refused too pertinaciously, could not but give me the
+air of wishing to make myself of importance. And I must acknowledge,
+that, amongst some instances of importunity and coarse expressions of
+low-bred curiosity, I witnessed, on the part of many people of rank,
+a most delicate sensibility to the condition of the aged recluse. On
+sending in their cards, they would generally accompany them by some
+message, expressive of their unwillingness to gratify their wish to see
+him at any risk of distressing him. The fact was, that such visits _did_
+distress him much; for he felt it a degradation to be exhibited in his
+helpless state, when he was aware of his own incapacity to meet properly
+the attention that was paid to him. Some, however, were admitted,
+[Footnote: To whom it appears that Kant would generally reply, upon
+their expressing the pleasure it gave them to see him, 'In me you behold
+a poor superannuated, weak, old man.'] according to the circumstances of
+the case, and the state of Kant's spirits at the moment. Amongst these,
+I remember that we were particularly pleased with M. Otto, the same who
+signed the treaty of peace between France and England with the present
+Lord Liverpool, (then Lord Hawkesbury.) A young Russian also rises to my
+recollection at this moment, from the excessive (and I think unaffected)
+enthusiasm which he displayed. On being introduced to Kant, he advanced
+hastily, took both his hands, and kissed them. Kant, who, from living
+so much amongst his English friends, had a good deal of the English
+dignified reserve about him, and hated anything like _scenes_, appeared
+to shrink a little from this mode of salutation, and was rather
+embarrassed. However, the young man's manner, I believe, was not at all
+beyond his genuine feelings; for next day he called again, made some
+inquiries about Kant's health, was very anxious to know whether his old
+age were burthensome to him, and above all things entreated for some
+little memorial of the great man to carry away with him. By accident
+the servant had found a small cancelled fragment of the original MS. of
+Kant's 'Anthropologie:' this, with my sanction, he gave to the Russian;
+who received it with rapture, kissed it, and then gave him in return the
+only dollar he had about him; and, thinking that not enough, actually
+pulled off his coat and waistcoat and forced them upon the man. Kant,
+whose native simplicity of character very much indisposed him to
+sympathy with any extravagances of feeling, could not, however, forbear
+smiling good-humoredly on being made acquainted with this instance of
+_naivete_ and enthusiasm in his young admirer.
+
+I now come to an event in Kant's life, which ushered in its closing
+stage. On the 8th of October, 1803, for the first time since his youth,
+he was seriously ill. When a student at the University, he had once
+suffered from an ague, which, however, gave way to pedestrian exercise;
+and in later years, he had endured some pain from a contusion on his
+head; but, with these two exceptions, (if they can be considered such,)
+he had never (properly speaking) been ill. The cause of his illness was
+this: his appetite had latterly been irregular, or rather I should
+say depraved; and he no longer took pleasure in anything but bread
+and butter, and English cheese.[Footnote: Mr. W. here falls into the
+ordinary mistake of confounding the cause and the occasion, and would
+leave the impression, that Kant (who from his youth up had been a model
+of temperance) died of sensual indulgence. The cause of Kant's death
+was clearly the general decay of the vital powers, and in particular the
+atony of the digestive organs, which must soon have destroyed him under
+any care or abstinence whatever. This was the cause. The accidental
+occasion, which made that cause operative on the 7th of October, might
+or might not be what Mr. W. says. But in Kant's burthensome state of
+existence, it could not be a question of much importance whether his
+illness were to commence in an October or a November.] On the 7th of
+October, at dinner, he ate little else, in spite of everything that I
+and another friend then dining with him, could urge to dissuade him.
+And for the first time I fancied that he seemed displeased with my
+importunity, as though I were overstepping the just line of my duties.
+He insisted that the cheese never had done him any harm, nor would now.
+I had no course left me but to hold my tongue; and he did as he pleased.
+The consequence was what might have been anticipated--a restless night,
+succeeded by a day of memorable illness. The next morning all went on
+as usual, till nine o'clock, when Kant, who was then leaning on his
+sister's arm, suddenly fell senseless to the ground. A messenger was
+immediately despatched for me; and I hurried down to his house, where I
+found him lying in his bed, which had now been removed into his study,
+speechless and insensible. I had already summoned his physician; but,
+before he arrived, nature put forth efforts which brought Kant a little
+to himself. In about an hour he opened his eyes, and continued to mutter
+unintelligibly till towards the evening, when he rallied a little, and
+began to talk rationally. For the first time in his life, he was now,
+for a few days, confined to his bed, and ate nothing. On the 12th
+October, he again took some refreshment, and would have had his favorite
+food; but I was now resolved, at any risk of his displeasure, to oppose
+him firmly. I therefore stated to him the whole consequences of his last
+indulgence, of all which he manifestly had no recollection. He listened
+to what I said very attentively, and calmly expressed his conviction
+that I was perfectly in the wrong; but for the present he submitted.
+However, some days after, I found that he had offered a florin for a
+little bread and cheese, and then a dollar, and even more. Being again
+refused, he complained heavily; but gradually he weaned himself from
+asking for it, though at times he betrayed involuntarily how much he
+desired it.
+
+On the 13th of October, his usual dinner parties were resumed, and he
+was considered convalescent; but it was seldom indeed that he recovered
+the tone of tranquil spirits which he had preserved until his late
+attack. Hitherto he had always loved to prolong this meal, the only one
+he took--or, as he expressed it in classical phrase, 'coenam _ducere_;'
+but now it was difficult to hurry it over fast enough for his wishes.
+From dinner, which terminated about two o'clock, he went straight to
+bed, and at intervals fell into slumbers; from which, however, he was
+regularly awoke by phantasmata or terrific dreams. At seven in the
+evening came on duly a period of great agitation, which lasted till five
+or six in the morning--sometimes later; and he continued through the
+night alternately to walk about and lie down, occasionally tranquil,
+but more often in great distress. It now became necessary that somebody
+should sit up with him, his man-servant being wearied out with the toils
+of the day. No person seemed to be so proper for this office as his
+sister, both as having long received a very liberal pension from him,
+and also as his nearest relative, who would be the best witness to the
+fact that her illustrious brother had wanted no comforts or attention
+in his last hours, which his situation admitted of. Accordingly she was
+applied to, and undertook to watch him alternately with his footman--a
+separate table being kept for her, and a very handsome addition made
+to her allowance. She turned out to be a quiet gentle-minded woman, who
+raised no disturbances amongst the servants, and soon won her brother's
+regard by the modest and retiring style of her manners; I may add, also,
+by the truly sisterly affection which she displayed towards him to the
+last.
+
+The 8th of October had grievously affected Kant's faculties, but had
+not wholly destroyed them. For short intervals the clouds seemed to roll
+away that had settled upon his majestic intellect, and it shone forth
+as heretofore. During these moments of brief self-possession, his
+wonted benignity returned to him; and he expressed his gratitude for
+the exertions of those about him, and his sense of the trouble they
+underwent, in a very affecting way. With regard to his man-servant in
+particular, he was very anxious that he should be rewarded by liberal
+presents; and he pressed me earnestly on no account to be parsimonious.
+Indeed Kant was nothing less than princely in his use of money; and
+there was no occasion on which he was known to express the passion of
+scorn very powerfully, but when he was commenting on mean and penurious
+acts or habits. Those who knew him only in the streets, fancied that he
+was not liberal; for he steadily refused, upon principle, to relieve
+all common beggars. But, on the other hand, he was liberal to the public
+charitable institutions; he secretly assisted his own poor relations in
+a much ampler way than could reasonably have been expected of him; and
+it now appeared that he had many other deserving pensioners upon
+his bounty; a fact that was utterly unknown to any of us, until his
+increasing blindness and other infirmities devolved the duty of paying
+these pensions upon myself. It must be recollected, also, that Kant's
+whole fortune, which amounted to about twenty thousand dollars, was the
+product of his own honorable toils for nearly threescore years; and
+that he had himself suffered all the hardships of poverty in his youth,
+though he never once ran into any man's debt,--circumstances in his
+history, which, as they express how fully he must have been acquainted
+with the value of money, greatly enhance the merit of his munificence.
+
+In December, 1803, he became incapable of signing his name. His sight,
+indeed, had for some time failed him so much, that at dinner he could
+not find his spoon without assistance; and, when I happened to dine with
+him, I first cut in pieces whatever was on his plate, next put it into a
+spoon, and then guided his hand to find the spoon. But his inability to
+sign his name did not arise merely from blindness: the fact was, that,
+from irretention of memory, he could not recollect the letters which
+composed his name; and, when they were repeated to him, he could not
+represent the figure of the letters in his imagination. At the latter
+end of November, I had remarked that these incapacities were rapidly
+growing upon him, and in consequence I prevailed on him to sign
+beforehand all the receipts, &c., which would be wanted at the end
+of the year; and, afterwards, on my representation, to prevent all
+disputes, he gave me a regular legal power to sign on his behalf.
+
+Much as Kant was now reduced, yet he had occasionally moods of social
+hilarity. His birth-day was always an agreeable subject to him: some
+weeks before his death, I was calculating the time which it still
+wanted of that anniversary, and cheering him with the prospect of the
+rejoicings which would then take place: 'All your old friends,' said
+I, 'will meet together, and drink a glass of champagne to your health.'
+'That,' said he, 'must be done upon the spot:' and he was not satisfied
+till the party was actually assembled. He drank a glass of wine with
+them, and with great elevation of spirits celebrated this birth-day
+which he was destined never to see.
+
+In the latter weeks of his life, however, a great change took place in
+the tone of his spirits. At his dinner-table, where heretofore such a
+cloudless spirit of joviality had reigned, there was now a melancholy
+silence. It disturbed him to see his two dinner companions conversing
+privately together, whilst he himself sat like a mute on the stage with
+no part to perform. Yet to have engaged him in the conversation
+would have been still more distressing; for his hearing was now very
+imperfect; the effort to hear was itself painful to him; and his
+expressions, even when his thoughts were accurate enough, became nearly
+unintelligible. It is remarkable, however, that at the very lowest point
+of his depression, when he became perfectly incapable of conversing with
+any rational meaning on the ordinary affairs of life, he was still
+able to answer correctly and distinctly, in a degree that was perfectly
+astonishing, upon any question of philosophy or of science, especially
+of physical geography, [Footnote: _Physical_ Geography, in opposition to
+_Political_.] chemistry, or natural history. He talked satisfactorily,
+in his very worst state, of the gases, and stated very accurately
+different propositions of Kepler's, especially the law of the planetary
+motions. And I remember in particular, that upon the very last Monday
+of his life, when the extremity of his weakness moved a circle of his
+friends to tears, and he sat amongst us insensible to all we could say
+to him, cowering down, or rather I might say collapsing into a shapeless
+heap upon his chair, deaf, blind, torpid, motionless,--even then I
+whispered to the others that I would engage that Kant should take his
+part in conversation with propriety and animation. This they found it
+difficult to believe. Upon which I drew close to his ear, and put a
+question to him about the Moors of Barbary. To the surprise of everybody
+but myself, he immediately gave us a summary account of their habits
+and customs; and told us by the way, that in the word _Algiers_, the _g_
+ought to be pronounced hard (as in the English word _gear_).
+
+During the last fortnight of Kant's life, he busied himself unceasingly
+in a way that seemed not merely purposeless but self-contradictory.
+Twenty times in a minute he would unloose and tie his neck
+handkerchief--so also with a sort of belt which he wore about his
+dressing-gown, the moment it was clasped, he unclasped it with
+impatience, and was then equally impatient to have it clasped again.
+But no description can convey an adequate impression of the weary
+restlessness with which from morning to night he pursued these labors of
+Sisyphus--doing and undoing--fretting that he could not do it, fretting
+that he had done it.
+
+By this time he seldom knew any of us who were about him, but took us
+all for strangers. This happened first with his sister, then with me,
+and finally with his servant. Such an alienation distressed me more than
+any other instance of his decay: though I knew that he had not really
+withdrawn his affection from me, yet his air and mode of addressing me
+gave me constantly that feeling. So much the more affecting was it, when
+the sanity of his perceptions and his remembrances returned; but these
+intervals were of slower and slower occurrence. In this condition,
+silent or babbling childishly, self-involved and torpidly abstracted, or
+else busy with self-created phantoms and delusions, what a contrast did
+he offer to _that_ Kant who had once been the brilliant centre of
+the most brilliant circles for rank, wit, or knowledge, that Prussia
+afforded! A distinguished person from Berlin, who had called upon him
+during the preceding summer, was greatly shocked at his appearance, and
+said, 'This is not Kant that I have seen, but the shell of Kant!' How
+much more would he have said this, if he had seen him now!
+
+Now came February, 1804, which was the last month that Kant was destined
+to see. It is remarkable that, in the memorandum book which I have
+before mentioned, I found a fragment of an old song, (inserted by Kant,
+and dated in the summer about six months before the time of his death,)
+which expressed that February was the month in which people had the
+least weight to carry, for the obvious reason that it was shorter by two
+and by three days than the others; and the concluding sentiment was in
+a tone of fanciful pathos to this effect--'Oh, happy February! in which
+man has least to bear--least pain, least sorrow, least self-reproach!'
+Even of this short month, however, Kant had not twelve entire days to
+bear; for it was on the 12th that he died; and in fact he may be said to
+have been dying from the 1st. He now barely vegetated; though there were
+still transitory gleams flashing by fits from the embers of his ancient
+intellect.
+
+On the 3d of February the springs of life seemed to be ceasing from
+their play, for, from this day, strictly speaking, he ate nothing more.
+His existence henceforward seemed to be the mere prolongation of an
+impetus derived from an eighty years' life, after the moving power of
+the mechanism was withdrawn. His physician visited him every day at a
+particular hour; and it was settled that I should always be there to
+meet him. Nine days before his death, on paying his usual visit, the
+following little circumstance occurred, which affected us both, by
+recalling forcibly to our minds the ineradicable courtesy and goodness
+of Kant's nature. When the physician was announced, I went up to Kant
+and said to him, 'Here is Dr. A----.' Kant rose from his chair, and,
+offering his hand to the Doctor, murmured something in which the word
+'posts' was frequently repeated, but with an air as though he wished
+to be helped out with the rest of the sentence. Dr. A----, who thought
+that, by _posts_, he meant the stations for relays of post-horses, and
+therefore that his mind was wandering, replied that all the horses were
+engaged, and begged him to compose himself. But Kant went on, with
+great effort to himself, and added--'Many posts, heavy posts--then
+much goodness--then much gratitude.' All this he said with apparent
+incoherence, but with great warmth, and increasing self-possession. I
+meantime perfectly divined what it was that Kant, under his cloud of
+imbecility, wished to say, and I interpreted accordingly. 'What the
+Professor wishes to say, Dr. A----, is this, that, considering the many
+and weighty offices which you fill in the city and in the university,
+it argues great goodness on your part to give up so much of your time to
+him,' (for Dr. A---- would never take any fees from Kant;) 'and that he
+has the deepest sense of this goodness.' 'Right,' said Kant, earnestly,
+'right!' But he still continued to stand, and was nearly sinking to
+the ground. Upon which I remarked to the physician, that I was so
+well acquainted with Kant, that I was satisfied he would not sit down,
+however much he suffered from standing, until he knew that his visitors
+were seated. The Doctor seemed to doubt this--but Kant, who heard what
+I said, by a prodigious effort confirmed my construction of his conduct,
+and spoke distinctly these words--'God forbid I should be sunk so low as
+to forget the offices of humanity.'
+
+When dinner was announced, Dr. A---- took his leave. Another guest had
+now arrived, and I was in hopes, from the animation which Kant had so
+recently displayed, that we should to-day have a pleasant party, but
+my hopes were vain--Kant was more than usually exhausted, and though
+he raised a spoon to his mouth, he swallowed nothing. For some time
+everything had been tasteless to him; and I had endeavored, but with
+little success, to stimulate the organs of taste by nutmeg, cinnamon,
+&c. To-day all failed, and I could not even prevail upon him to taste a
+biscuit, rusk, or anything of that sort. I had once heard him say that
+several of his friends, who had died of _marasmus_, had closed their
+illness by four or five days of entire freedom from pain, but totally
+without appetite, and then slumbered tranquilly away. Through this state
+I apprehended that he was himself now passing.
+
+Saturday, the 4th of February, I heard his guests loudly expressing
+their fears that they should never meet him again; and I could not but
+share these fears myself. However, on
+
+Sunday, the 5th, I dined at his table in company with his particular
+friend Mr. R. R. V. Kant was still present, but so weak that his head
+drooped upon his knees, and he sank down against the right side of the
+chair. I went and arranged his pillows so as to raise and support his
+head; and, having done this, I said--'Now, my dear Sir, you are again in
+right order.' Great was our astonishment when he answered clearly and
+audibly in the Roman military phrase--'Yes, _testudine et facie;_' and
+immediately after added, 'Ready for the enemy, and in battle array.' His
+powers of mind were (if I may be allowed that expression) smouldering
+away in their ashes; but every now and then some lambent flame, or grand
+emanation of light, shot forth to make it evident that the ancient fire
+still slumbered below.
+
+Monday, the 6th, he was much weaker and more torpid: he spoke not
+a word, except on the occasion of my question about the Moors, as
+previously stated, and sate with sightless eyes, lost in himself, and
+manifesting no sense of our presence, so that we had the feeling of some
+mighty shade or phantom from some forgotten century being seated amongst
+us.
+
+About this time, Kant had become much more tranquil and composed. In
+the earlier periods of his illness, when his yet unbroken strength was
+brought into active contest with the first attacks of decay, he was
+apt to be peevish, and sometimes spoke roughly or even harshly to his
+servants. This, though very opposite to his natural disposition, was
+altogether excusable under the circumstances. He could not make himself
+understood: things were therefore brought to him continually which he
+had not asked for; and often it happened that what he really wanted
+he could not obtain, because all his efforts to name it were
+unintelligible. A violent nervous irritation, besides, affected him
+from the unsettling of the equilibrium in the different functions of
+his nature; weakness in one organ being made more palpable to him by
+disproportionate strength in another. But now the strife was over;
+the whole system was at length undermined, and in rapid and harmonious
+progress to dissolution. And from this time forward, no movement of
+impatience, or expression of fretfulness, ever escaped him.
+
+I now visited him three times a-day; and on
+
+Tuesday, Feb. 7th, going about dinner-time, I found the usual party of
+friends sitting down alone; for Kant was in bed. This was a new scene
+in his house, and increased our fears that his end was now at hand.
+However, having seen him rally so often, I would not run the risk of
+leaving him without a dinner-party for the next day; and accordingly, at
+the customary hour of one, we assembled in his house on
+
+Wednesday, Feb. 8th. I paid my respects to him as cheerfully as
+possible, and ordered dinner to be served up. Kant sat at the table with
+us; and, taking a spoon with a little soup in it, put it to his lips;
+but immediately put it down again, and retired to bed, from which he
+never rose again, except during the few minutes when it was re-arranged.
+
+Thursday, the 9th, he had sunk into the weakness of a dying person,
+and the corpse-like appearance had already taken possession of him. I
+visited him frequently through the day; and, going at ten o'clock at
+night, I found him in a state of insensibility. I could not draw any
+sign from him that he knew me, and I left him to the care of his sister
+and his servant.
+
+Friday, the 10th, I went to see him at six o'clock in the morning. It
+was very stormy, and a deep snow had fallen in the night-time. And, by
+the way, I remember that a gang of house-breakers had forced their way
+through the premises in order to reach Kant's next neighbor, who was a
+goldsmith. As I drew near to his bed-side, I said, 'Good morning.' He
+returned my salutation by saying, 'Good morning,' but in so feeble and
+faltering a voice that it was hardly articulate. I was rejoiced to find
+him sensible, and I asked him if he knew me:--'Yes,' he replied; and,
+stretching out his hand, touched me gently upon the cheek. Through the
+rest of the day, whenever I visited him, he seemed to have relapsed into
+a state of insensibility.
+
+Saturday, the 11th, he lay with fixed and rayless eyes; but to all
+appearance in perfect peace. I asked him again, on this day, if he knew
+me. He was speechless, but he turned his face towards me and made signs
+that I should kiss him. Deep emotion thrilled me, as I stooped down to
+kiss his pallid lips; for I knew that in this solemn act of tenderness
+he meant to express his thankfulness for our long friendship, and to
+signify his affection and his last farewell. I had never seen him confer
+this mark of his love upon anybody, except once, and that was a few
+weeks before his death, when he drew his sister to him and kissed her.
+The kiss which he now gave to me was the last memorial that he knew me.
+
+Whatever fluid was now offered to him passed the oesophagus with a
+rattling sound, as often happens with dying people; and there were all
+the signs of death being close at hand.
+
+I wished to stay with him till all was over; and as I had been witness
+of his life, to be witness also of his departure; and therefore I never
+quitted him except when I was called off for a few minutes to attend
+some private business. The whole of this night I spent at his bed-side.
+Though he had passed the day in a state of insensibility, yet in the
+evening he made intelligible signs that he wished to have his bed put in
+order; he was therefore lifted out in our arms, and the bed-clothes and
+pillows being hastily arranged, he was carried back again. He did not
+sleep; and a spoonful of liquid, which was sometimes put to his lips, he
+usually pushed aside; but about one o'clock in the night he himself made
+a motion towards the spoon, from which I collected that he was thirsty;
+and I gave him a small quantity of wine and water sweetened; but the
+muscles of his mouth had not strength enough to retain it, so that to
+prevent its flowing back he raised his hand to his lips, until with
+a rattling sound it was swallowed. He seemed to wish for more; and I
+continued to give him more, until he said, in a way that I was just
+able to understand,--'It is enough.' And these were his last words.
+At intervals he pushed away the bed-clothes, and exposed his person; I
+constantly restored the clothes to their situation, and on one of these
+occasions I found that the whole body and extremities were already
+growing cold, and the pulse intermitting.
+
+At a quarter after three o'clock on Sunday morning, February 12, Kant
+stretched himself out as if taking a position for his final act, and
+settled into the precise posture which he preserved to the moment of
+death. The pulse was now no longer perceptible to the touch in his
+hands, feet or neck. I tried every part where a pulse beats, and found
+none anywhere but in the left hip, where it beat with violence, but
+often intermitted.
+
+About ten o'clock in the forenoon he suffered a remarkable change; his
+eye was rigid and his face and lips became discolored by a cadaverous
+pallor. Still, such was the effect of his previous habits, that no trace
+appeared of the cold sweat which naturally accompanies the last mortal
+agony.
+
+It was near eleven o'clock when the moment of dissolution approached.
+His sister was standing at the foot of the bed, his sister's son at
+the head. I, for the purpose of still observing the fluctuations of the
+pulse in his hip, was kneeling at the bed-side; and I called his servant
+to come and witness the death of his good master. Now began the last
+agony, if to him it could be called an agony, where there seemed to be
+no struggle. And precisely at this moment, his distinguished friend, Mr.
+R. R. V., whom I had summoned by a messenger, entered the room. First of
+all, the breath grew feebler; then it missed its regularity of return;
+then it wholly intermitted, and the upper lip was slightly convulsed;
+after this there followed one slight respiration or sigh; and after that
+no more; but the pulse still beat for a few seconds--slower and fainter,
+till it ceased altogether; the mechanism stopped; the last motion was at
+an end; and exactly at that moment the clock struck eleven.
+
+Soon after his death the head of Kant was shaved; and, under the
+direction of Professor Knorr, a plaster cast was taken, not a masque
+merely, but a cast of the whole bead, designed (I believe) to enrich the
+craniological collection of Dr. Gall.
+
+The corpse being laid out and properly attired, immense numbers of
+people of every rank, from the highest to the lowest, flocked to see it.
+Everybody was anxious to make use of the last opportunity he would have
+for entitling himself to say--'I too have seen Kant.' This went on for
+many days--during which, from morning to night, the house was thronged
+with the public. Great was the astonishment of all people at the
+meagreness of Kant's appearance; and it was universally agreed that a
+corpse so wasted and fleshless had never been beheld. His head rested
+upon the same cushion on which once the gentlemen of the university had
+presented an address to him; and I thought that I could not apply it to
+a more honorable purpose than by placing it in the coffin, as the final
+pillow of that immortal head.
+
+Upon the style and mode of his funeral, Kant had expressed his wishes in
+earlier years in a separate memorandum. He there desired that it should
+take place early in the morning, with as little noise and disturbance
+as possible, and attended only by a few of his most intimate friends.
+Happening to meet with this memorandum, whilst I was engaged at his
+request in arranging his papers, I very frankly gave him my opinion,
+that such an injunction would lay me, as the executor of his will, under
+great embarrassments; for that circumstances might very probably arise
+under which it would be next to impossible to carry it into effect. Upon
+this Kant tore the paper, and left the whole to my own discretion. The
+fact was, I foresaw that the students of the University would never
+allow themselves to be robbed of this occasion for expressing their
+veneration by a public funeral. The event showed that I was right; for
+a funeral such as Kant's, one so solemn and so magnificent, the city of
+Koenigsberg has never witnessed before or since. The public journals, and
+separate accounts in pamphlets, etc., have given so minute an account of
+its details, that I shall here notice only the heads of the ceremony.
+
+On the 28th of February, at two o'clock in the afternoon, all the
+dignitaries of church and state, not only those resident in Koenigsberg,
+but from the remotest parts of Prussia, assembled in the church of the
+Castle. Hence they were escorted by the whole body of the University,
+splendidly dressed for the occasion, and by many military officers of
+rank, with whom Kant had always been a great favorite, to the house
+of the deceased Professor; from which the corpse was carried by
+torch-light, the bells of every church in Koenigsberg tolling, to the
+Cathedral which was lit up by innumerable wax-lights. A never-ending
+train of many thousand persons followed it on foot. In the Cathedral,
+after the usual burial rites, accompanied with every possible expression
+of national veneration to the deceased, there was a grand musical
+service, most admirably performed, at the close of which Kant's mortal
+remains were lowered into the academic vault, where he now rests among
+the ancient patriarchs of the University. PEACE BE TO HIS DUST, AND
+EVERLASTING HONOR!
+
+
+END OF VOLUME II
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Narrative And Miscellaneous Papers, by
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