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diff --git a/old/7qncc10.txt b/old/7qncc10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1b0a09f --- /dev/null +++ b/old/7qncc10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,14833 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Narrative And Miscellaneous Papers +by Thomas De Quincey +#4 in our series by Thomas De Quincey + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Narrative And Miscellaneous Papers + +Author: Thomas De Quincey + +Release Date: July, 2004 [EBook #6148] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on November 19, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DE QUINCY'S 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 + + + + + +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 Thomas De Quincey + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DE QUINCY'S PAPERS *** + +This file should be named 7qncc10.txt or 7qncc10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 7qncc11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 7qncc10a.txt + +Produced by Anne Soulard, Charles Franks +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Narrative And Miscellaneous Papers + +Author: Thomas De Quincey + +Release Date: July, 2004 [EBook #6148] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on November 19, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DE QUINCY'S 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 + + + + + +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 Miltonianć_,'--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 Journée,' said Damien, + + 'La journée 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 _début_ 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 _facetić_ 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 Ł4 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, _ŕ la +belle étoile_, 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 _métisse_, 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 _pomćrium_ 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 Ł15 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 _cortčge_ 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 +ŕ Ily, toute _delabree_, n'ayant ni de quoi vivre, ni de quoi se vętir. +Je l'avais prévu; et j'avais ordonné de faire en tout genre les +provisions nécessaires pour pouvoir les secourir promptement; c'est ce +qui a été exécuté. On a fait la division des terres; et on a assigné ŕ +chaque famille une portion suffisante pour pouvoir servir ŕ son +entretien, soit en la cultivant, soit en y nourissant des bestiaux. On +a donne a chaque particulier des étoffes pour l'habiller, des grains +pour se nourrir pendant l'espace d'une année, des ustensiles pour le +ménage et d'autres choses nécessaires: et outre cela plusieurs onces +d'argent, pour se pourvoir de ce qu'on aurait pu oublier. On a désigné +des lieux particuliers, fertiles en pâturages; et on leur a donné des +boeufs, moutons, &c. pour qu'ils pussent dans la suite travailler par +euxmęmes a leur entretien et ŕ leur bienętre." + +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 +arrivčrent sur nos frontičres (au nombre de plusieurs centaines de +mille), quoique la fatigue extręme, la faim, la soif, et toutes les +autres incommodités inséparables d'une trčs-longue et trčs pénible +route en eussent fait périr presque autant, ils étaient réduits a la +derničre misčre: ils manquaient de tout. Il" (viz. l'Empereur, Kien +Long) "leur fit préparer des logemens conformes a leur maničre 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 +état de former des troupeaux et de cultiver la terre, _et tout cela ŕ +ses propres frais_, qui se sont montés ŕ des sommes immenses, sans +compter l'argent qu'il a donné ŕ chaque chef-de-famille, pour pourvoir +ŕ 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 _espičglerie_ 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 +_tréteau_ 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 Cćsar 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 ćrial 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 _nebulć_,--'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 _nebulć_, 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 'medićval' full-blown rose. + +This point settled, let it now be remarked, that Herschel's resources +enabled him to unmask many of these _nebulć_: 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 +_nebulć_ spangled with stars; these are the _stellar nebulć_; +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 _nebulć_; 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 _nebulć_, +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 ćrial 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 _nebulć_ 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 _ćon_, 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, quć ramis (arbor!) miserabile corpus + Nunc tegis unius, mox es tectura duorum, + Signa tene cćdis:--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 ćrial, 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 Biblicć_, 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 Virgilianć_. + +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 Virgilianć_ 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 études et d'une vie innocente autant qu'on la puisse +mener, et malgré tout ce qu'on m'avoit pu dire, la peur de l'Enfer +m'agitoit encore. Souvent je me demandois--En quel état suis-je? Si je +mourrois ŕ l'instant męme, _serois-je damné_? Selon mes Jansénistes, +[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 expédients les plus risibles, et +pour lesquels je ferois volontiers enfermer un homme si je lui en +voyois faire autant. ... Un jour, ręvant ŕ ce triste sujet, je +m'exerçois machinalement ŕ lancer les pierres contre les troncs des +arbres; et cela avec mon addresse ordinaire, c'est-ŕ-dire sans presque +jamais en toucher aucun. Tout au milieu de ce bel exercise, je m'avisai +de faire une espčce de pronostic pour calmer mon inquiétude. Je me dis +--je m'en vais jeter cette pierre contre l'arbre qui est vis-ŕ-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 +véritablement n'étoit pas difficile: car j'avois eu soin de le choisir +fort gros et fort prčs. _Depuis lors je n'ai plus doubté de mon +salut._ Je ne sais, en me rappelant ce trait, si je dois rire ou +gémir sur moimęme.'--_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 prčs'--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 Cćsar 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 Cćsarea. 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 Cćsar, at Strato's +Tower, otherwise called Cćsarea, 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 Ł200, 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 _doppelgänger_ 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 Probabilités_,) 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 ćrial 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, _ŕ 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 Cćsars 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 ćra 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 puellć 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 _revętement_. 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 +_trutinć 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 Manichćans: all of us yield a cordial assent to +that Manichćan 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 Lapithć, 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 Grćca_, 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 Lćrtius, in Plutarch, or +in Athenćus. 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 Königsberg, 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 Michćlmas, he entered the +University of Königsberg. 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 Königsberg, 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 Königsberg; 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'hôte_. 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 Königsberg 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 _ŕ 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 Königsberg 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 +Königsberg, 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 naďveté 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 +Königsberg 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 Königsberg, 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 _ŕ 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 _naďveté_ +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 Königsberg 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 Königsberg, +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 Königsberg 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. 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