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diff --git a/6148.txt b/6148.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c5fae33 --- /dev/null +++ b/6148.txt @@ -0,0 +1,14598 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Narrative And Miscellaneous Papers, by Thomas De Quincey + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Narrative And Miscellaneous Papers + Volumes I and II, Complete + +Author: Thomas De Quincey + + +Release Date: July, 2004 [EBook #6148] +This file was first posted on November 19, 2002 +Last Updated: June 15, 2013 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NARRATIVE AND MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS *** + + + + +Produced by Anne Soulard, Charles Franks and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + + + + + + +NARRATIVE AND MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. + +By Thomas De Quincey. + + +Contents Of Volume I. + + The Household Wreck + The Spanish Nun + Flight Of A Tartar Tribe + + +Contents Of Volume II. + + System Of The Heavens As Revealed By Lord Rosse's Telescopes + Modern Superstition + Coleridge And Opium-Eating + Temperance Movement + On War + The Last Days Of Immanuel Kant + + + + + + +VOLUME I. + + + + +THE HOUSEHOLD WRECK. + + +'To be weak,' we need not the great archangel's voice to tell us, '_is +to be miserable_.' All weakness is suffering and humiliation, no matter +for its mode or its subject. Beyond all other weakness, therefore, and +by a sad prerogative, as more miserable than what is most miserable +in all, that capital weakness of man which regards the _tenure_ of his +enjoyments and his power to protect, even for a moment, the crown of +flowers--flowers, at the best, how frail and few!--which sometimes +settles upon his haughty brow. There is no end, there never will be +an end, of the lamentations which ascend from earth and the rebellious +heart of her children, upon this huge opprobrium of human pride--the +everlasting mutabilities of all which man can grasp by his power or +by his aspirations, the fragility of all which he inherits, and the +hollowness visible amid the very raptures of enjoyment to every eye +which looks for a moment underneath the draperies of the shadowy +_present_, the hollowness, the blank treachery of hollowness, upon which +all the pomps and vanities of life ultimately repose. This trite but +unwearying theme, this impassioned common-place of humanity, is the +subject in every age of variation without end, from the poet, +the rhetorician, the fabulist, the moralist, the divine, and the +philosopher. All, amidst the sad vanity of their sighs and groans, labor +to put on record and to establish this monotonous complaint, which needs +not other record or evidence than those very sighs and groans. What is +life? Darkness and formless vacancy for a beginning, or something beyond +all beginning--then next a dim lotos of human consciousness, finding +itself afloat upon the bosom of waters without a shore--then a few sunny +smiles and many tears--a little love and infinite strife--whisperings +from paradise and fierce mockeries from the anarchy of chaos--dust and +ashes--and once more darkness circling round, as if from the beginning, +and in this way rounding or making an island of our fantastic +existence,--_that_ is human life; _that_ the inevitable amount of man's +laughter and his tears--of what he suffers and he does--of his motions +this way and that way--to the right or to the left--backwards +or forwards--of all his seeming realities and all his absolute +negations--his shadowy pomps and his pompous shadows--of whatsoever he +thinks, finds, makes or mars, creates or animates, loves, hates, or in +dread hope anticipates;--so it is, so it has been, so it will be, for +ever and ever. + +Yet in the lowest deep there still yawns a lower deep; and in the vast +halls of man's frailty, there are separate and more gloomy chambers of +a frailty more exquisite and consummate. We account it frailty that +threescore years and ten make the upshot of man's pleasurable existence, +and that, far before that time is reached, his beauty and his power +have fallen among weeds and forgetfulness. But there is a frailty, by +comparison with which this ordinary flux of the human race seems to have +a vast duration. Cases there are, and those not rare, in which a +single week, a day, an hour sweeps away all vestiges and landmarks of +a memorable felicity; in which the ruin travels faster than the flying +showers upon the mountain-side, faster 'than a musician scatters +sounds;' in which 'it was' and 'it is not' are words of the self-same +tongue, in the self-same minute; in which the sun that at noon beheld +all sound and prosperous, long before its setting hour looks out upon +a total wreck, and sometimes upon the total abolition of any fugitive +memorial that there ever had been a vessel to be wrecked, or a wreck to +be obliterated. + +These cases, though here spoken of rhetorically, are of daily +occurrence; and, though they may seem few by comparison with the +infinite millions of the species, they are many indeed, if they be +reckoned absolutely for themselves; and throughout the limits of a whole +nation, not a day passes over us but many families are robbed of their +heads, or even swallowed up in ruin themselves, or their course turned +out of the sunny beams into a dark wilderness. Shipwrecks and nightly +conflagrations are sometimes, and especially among some nations, +wholesale calamities; battles yet more so; earthquakes, the famine, the +pestilence, though rarer, are visitations yet wider in their desolation. +Sickness and commercial ill-luck, if narrower, are more frequent +scourges. And most of all, or with most darkness in its train, comes the +sickness of the brain--lunacy--which, visiting nearly one thousand in +every million, must, in every populous nation, make many ruins in each +particular day. 'Babylon in ruins,' says a great author, 'is not so sad +a sight as a human soul overthrown by lunacy.' But there is a sadder +even than _that_,--the sight of a family-ruin wrought by crime is even +more appalling. Forgery, breaches of trust, embezzlement, of private +or public funds--(a crime sadly on the increase since the example of +Fauntleroy, and the suggestion of its great feasibility first made by +him)--these enormities, followed too often, and countersigned for their +final result to the future happiness of families, by the appalling +catastrophe of suicide, must naturally, in every wealthy nation, +or wherever property and the modes of property are much developed, +constitute the vast majority of all that come under the review of public +justice. Any of these is sufficient to make shipwreck of all peace and +comfort for a family; and often, indeed, it happens that the desolation +is accomplished within the course of one revolving sun; often the +whole dire catastrophe, together with its total consequences, is both +accomplished and made known to those whom it chiefly concerns within one +and the same hour. The mighty Juggernaut of social life, moving onwards +with its everlasting thunders, pauses not for a moment to spare--to +pity--to look aside, but rushes forward for ever, impassive as the +marble in the quarry--caring not for whom it destroys, for the how +many, or for the results, direct and indirect, whether many or few. +The increasing grandeur and magnitude of the social system, the more it +multiplies and extends its victims, the more it conceals them; and for +the very same reason: just as in the Roman amphitheatres, when they grew +to the magnitude of mighty cities, (in some instances accommodating +four hundred thousand spectators, in many a fifth part of that amount,) +births and deaths became ordinary events, which, in a small modern +theatre, are rare and memorable; and exactly as these prodigious +accidents multiplied, _pari passu_, they were disregarded and easily +concealed: for curiosity was no longer excited; the sensation attached +to them was little or none. + +From these terrific tragedies, which, like monsoons or tornadoes, +accomplish the work of years in an hour, not merely an impressive lesson +is derived, sometimes, perhaps, a warning, but also (and this is of +universal application) some consolation. Whatever may have been the +misfortunes or the sorrows of a man's life, he is still privileged to +regard himself and his friends as amongst the fortunate by comparison, +in so far as he has escaped these wholesale storms, either as an actor +in producing them, or a contributor to their violence--or even more +innocently, (though oftentimes not less miserably)--as a participator in +the instant ruin, or in the long arrears of suffering which they entail. + +The following story falls within the class of hasty tragedies, and +sudden desolations here described. The reader is assured that every +incident is strictly true: nothing, in that respect, has been altered; +nor, indeed, anywhere except in the conversations, of which, though +the results and general outline are known, the separate details have +necessarily been lost under the agitating circumstances which produced +them. It has been judged right and delicate to conceal the name of the +great city, and therefore of the nation in which these events occurred, +chiefly out of consideration for the descendants of one person concerned +in the narrative: otherwise, it might not have been requisite: for it +is proper to mention, that every person directly a party to the case has +been long laid in the grave: all of them, with one solitary exception, +upwards of fifty years. + + * * * * * + +It was early spring in the year 17--; the day was the 6th of April; and +the weather, which had been of a wintry fierceness for the preceding six +or seven weeks--cold indeed beyond anything known for many years, +gloomy for ever, and broken by continual storms--was now by a Swedish +transformation all at once bright, genial, heavenly. So sudden and so +early a prelusion of summer, it was generally feared, could not last. +But that only made every body the more eager to lose no hour of an +enjoyment that might prove so fleeting. It seemed as if the whole +population of the place, a population among the most numerous in +Christendom, had been composed of hybernating animals suddenly awakened +by the balmy sunshine from their long winter's torpor. Through every +hour of the golden morning the streets were resonant with female parties +of young and old, the timid and the bold, nay, even of the most delicate +valetudinarians, now first tempted to lay aside their wintry clothing +together with their fireside habits, whilst the whole rural environs of +our vast city, the woodlands, and the interminable meadows began daily +to re-echo the glad voices of the young and jovial awaking once again, +like the birds and the flowers, and universal nature, to the luxurious +happiness of this most delightful season. + +Happiness do I say? Yes, happiness; happiness to me above all others. +For I also in those days was among the young and the gay; I was healthy; +I was strong; I was prosperous in a worldly sense! I owed no man a +shilling; feared no man's face; shunned no man's presence. I held a +respectable station in society; I was myself, let me venture to say it, +respected generally for my personal qualities, apart from any advantages +I might draw from fortune or inheritance; I had reason to think myself +popular amongst the very slender circle of my acquaintance; and finally, +which perhaps was the crowning grace to all these elements of happiness, +I suffered not from the presence of _ennui_, nor ever feared to suffer: +for my temperament was constitutionally ardent; I had a powerful +animal sensibility; and I knew the one great secret for maintaining its +equipoise, viz., by powerful daily exercise; and thus I lived in +the light and presence, or, (if I should not be suspected of seeking +rhetorical expressions, I would say,) in one eternal solstice of +unclouded hope. + +These, you will say, were blessings; these were golden elements of +felicity. They were so; and yet, with the single exception of my +healthy frame and firm animal organization, I feel that I have mentioned +hitherto nothing but what by comparison might be thought of a vulgar +quality. All the other advantages that I have enumerated, had they been +yet wanting, might have been acquired; had they been forfeited, might +have been reconquered; had they been even irretrievably lost, might, by +a philosophic effort, have been dispensed with; compensations might have +been found for any of them, many equivalents, or if not, consolations at +least, for their absence. But now it remains to speak of other blessings +too mighty to be valued, not merely as transcending in rank and dignity +all other constituents of happiness, but for a reason far sadder than +that--because, once lost, they were incapable of restoration, and +because not to be dispensed with; blessings in which 'either we must +live or have no life:' lights to the darkness of our paths and to the +infirmity of our steps--which, once extinguished, never more on this +side the gates of Paradise can any man hope to see re-illumined for +himself. Amongst these I may mention an intellect, whether powerful or +not in itself, at any rate most elaborately cultivated; and, to say the +truth, I had little other business before me in this life than to pursue +this lofty and delightful task. I may add, as a blessing, not in the +same _positive_ sense as that which I have just mentioned, because not +of a nature to contribute so hourly to the employment of the thoughts, +but yet in this sense equal, that the absence of either would have been +an equal affliction,--namely, a conscience void of all offence. It +was little indeed that I, drawn by no necessities of situation into +temptations of that nature, had done no injury to any man. That was +fortunate; but I could not much value myself upon what was so much an +accident of my situation. Something, however, I might pretend to beyond +this _negative_ merit; for I had originally a benign nature; and, as I +advanced in years and thoughtfulness, the gratitude which possessed me +for my own exceeding happiness led me to do that by principle and system +which I had already done upon blind impulse; and thus upon a double +argument I was incapable of turning away from the prayer of the +afflicted, whatever had been the sacrifice to myself. Hardly, perhaps, +could it have been said in a sufficient sense at that time that I was +a religious man: yet, undoubtedly, I had all the foundations within me +upon which religion might hereafter have grown. My heart overflowed with +thankfulness to Providence: I had a natural tone of unaffected piety; +and thus far, at least, I might have been called a religious man, that +in the simplicity of truth I could have exclaimed, + + 'O, Abner, I fear God, and I fear none beside.' + +But wherefore seek to delay ascending by a natural climax to that final +consummation and perfect crown of my felicity--that almighty blessing +which ratified their value to all the rest? Wherefore, oh! wherefore +do I shrink in miserable weakness from--what? Is it from reviving, +from calling up again into fierce and insufferable light the images and +features of a long-buried happiness? That would be a natural shrinking +and a reasonable weakness. But how escape from reviving, whether I give +it utterance or not, that which is for ever vividly before me? What need +to call into artificial light that which, whether sleeping or waking, by +night or by day, for eight-and-thirty years has seemed by its miserable +splendor to scorch my brain? Wherefore shrink from giving language, +simple vocal utterance, to that burden of anguish which by so long an +endurance has lost no atom of its weight, nor can gain any most surely +by the loudest publication? Need there can be none, after this, to say +that the priceless blessing, which I have left to the final place in +this ascending review, was the companion of my life--my darling and +youthful wife. Oh! dovelike woman! fated in an hour the most +defenceless to meet with the ravening vulture,--lamb fallen amongst +wolves,--trembling--fluttering fawn, whose path was inevitably to be +crossed by the bloody tiger;--angel, whose most innocent heart fitted +thee for too early a flight from this impure planet; if indeed it were a +necessity that thou shouldst find no rest for thy footing except amidst +thy native heavens, if indeed to leave what was not worthy of thee were +a destiny not to be evaded--a summons not to be put by,--yet why, why, +again and again I demand--why was it also necessary that this, thy +departure, so full of wo to me, should also to thyself be heralded by +the pangs of martyrdom? Sainted love, if, like the ancient children +of the Hebrews, like Meshech and Abednego, thou wert called by divine +command, whilst yet almost a child, to walk, and to walk alone, through +the fiery furnace,--wherefore then couldst not thou, like that Meshech +and that Abednego, walk unsinged by the dreadful torment, and come forth +unharmed? Why, if the sacrifice were to be total, was it necessary to +reach it by so dire a struggle? and if the cup, the bitter cup, of final +separation from those that were the light of thy eyes and the pulse +of thy heart might not be put aside,--yet wherefore was it that thou +mightest not drink it up in the natural peace which belongs to a sinless +heart? + +But these are murmurings, you will say, rebellious murmurings against +the proclamations of God. Not so: I have long since submitted myself, +resigned myself, nay, even reconciled myself, perhaps, to the great +wreck of my life, in so far as it was the will of God, and according to +the weakness of my imperfect nature. But my wrath still rises, like a +towering flame, against all the earthly instruments of this ruin; I am +still at times as unresigned as ever to this tragedy, in so far as it +was the work of human malice. Vengeance, as a mission for _me_, as +a task for _my_ hands in particular, is no longer possible; the +thunderbolts of retribution have been long since launched by other +hands; and yet still it happens that at times I do--I must--I shall +perhaps to the hour of death, rise in maniac fury, and seek, in the +very impotence of vindictive madness, groping as it were in blindness of +heart, for that tiger from hell-gates that tore away my darling from my +heart. Let me pause, and interrupt this painful strain, to say a word +or two upon what she was--and how far worthy of a love more honorable +to her (that was possible) and deeper (but that was not possible) than +mine. When first I saw her, she--my Agnes--was merely a child, not much +(if anything) above sixteen. But, as in perfect womanhood she retained +a most childlike expression of countenance, so even then in absolute +childhood she put forward the blossoms and the dignity of a woman. Never +yet did my eye light upon creature that was born of woman, nor could it +enter my heart to conceive one, possessing a figure more matchless in +its proportions, more statuesque, and more deliberately and advisedly to +be characterized by no adequate word but the word _magnificent_, (a word +too often and lightly abused.) In reality, speaking of women, I have +seen many beautiful figures, but hardly one except Agnes that could, +without hyperbole, be styled truly and memorably magnificent. Though +in the first order of tall women, yet, being full in person, and with a +symmetry that was absolutely faultless, she seemed to the random sight +as little above the ordinary height. Possibly from the dignity of her +person, assisted by the dignity of her movements, a stranger would +have been disposed to call her at a distance a woman of _commanding_ +presence; but never, after he had approached near enough to behold her +face. Every thought of artifice, of practised effect, or of haughty +pretension, fled before the childlike innocence, the sweet feminine +timidity, and the more than cherub loveliness of that countenance, which +yet in its lineaments was noble, whilst its expression was purely gentle +and confiding. A shade of pensiveness there was about her; but _that_ +was in her manners, scarcely ever in her features; and the exquisite +fairness of her complexion, enriched by the very sweetest and most +delicate bloom that ever I have beheld, should rather have allied it +to a tone of cheerfulness. Looking at this noble creature, as I first +looked at her, when yet upon the early threshold of womanhood + + 'With household motions light and free, + And steps of virgin liberty' + +you might have supposed her some Hebe or young Aurora of the dawn. When +you saw only her superb figure, and its promise of womanly development, +with the measured dignity of her step, you might for a moment have +fancied her some imperial Medea of the Athenian stage--some Volumnia +from Rome, + + 'Or ruling bandit's wife amidst the Grecian isles.' + + But catch one glance from her angelic countenance--and then combining +the face and the person, you would have dismissed all such fancies, and +have pronounced her a Pandora or an Eve, expressly accomplished and held +forth by nature as an exemplary model or ideal pattern for the future +female sex:-- + + 'A perfect woman, nobly plann'd, + To warm, to comfort, to command: + And yet a spirit too, and bright + With something of an angel light.' + +To this superb young woman, such as I have here sketched her, I +surrendered my heart for ever, almost from my first opportunity of +seeing her: for so natural and without disguise was her character, and +so winning the simplicity of her manners, due in part to her own native +dignity of mind, and in part to the deep solitude in which she had been +reared, that little penetration was required to put me in possession of +all her thoughts; and to win her love, not very much more than to let +her see, as see she could not avoid, in connection with that chivalrous +homage which at any rate was due to her sex and her sexual perfections, +a love for herself on my part, which was in its nature as exalted a +passion and as profoundly rooted as any merely human affection can ever +yet have been. + +On the seventeenth birthday of Agnes we were married. Oh! calendar of +everlasting months--months that, like the mighty rivers, shall flow on +for ever, immortal as thou, Nile, or Danube, Euphrates, or St. Lawrence! +and ye, summer and winter, day and night, wherefore do you bring round +continually your signs, and seasons, and revolving hours, that still +point and barb the anguish of local recollections, telling me of this +and that celestial morning that never shall return, and of too blessed +expectations, travelling like yourselves through a heavenly zodiac of +changes, till at once and for ever they sank into the grave! Often do I +think of seeking for some quiet cell either in the Tropics or in +Arctic latitudes, where the changes of the year, and the external signs +corresponding to them, express themselves by no features like those in +which the same seasons are invested under our temperate climes: so that, +if knowing, we cannot at least feel the identity of their revolutions. +We were married, I have said, on the birthday--the seventeenth +birthday--of Agnes; and pretty nearly on her eighteenth it was that she +placed me at the summit of my happiness, whilst for herself she +thus completed the circle of her relations to this life's duties, +by presenting me with a son. Of this child, knowing how wearisome to +strangers is the fond exultation of parents, I shall simply say, that +he inherited his mother's beauty; the same touching loveliness and +innocence of expression, the same chiselled nose, mouth, and chin, +the same exquisite auburn hair. In many other features, not of person +merely, but also of mind and manners, as they gradually began to open +before me, this child deepened my love to him by recalling the image of +his mother; and what other image was there that I so much wished to +keep before me, whether waking or asleep? At the time to which I am now +coming but too rapidly, this child, still our only one, and unusually +premature, was within four months of completing his third year; +consequently Agnes was at that time in her twenty-first year; and I may +here add, with respect to myself, that I was in my twenty-sixth. + +But, before I come to that period of wo, let me say one word on the +temper of mind which so fluent and serene a current of prosperity may +be thought to have generated. Too common a course I know it is, when +the stream of life flows with absolute tranquillity, and ruffled by no +menace of a breeze--the azure overhead never dimmed by a passing cloud, +that in such circumstances the blood stagnates: life, from excess and +plethora of sweets, becomes insipid: the spirit of action droops: and +it is oftentimes found at such seasons that slight annoyances and +molestations, or even misfortunes in a lower key, are not wholly +undesirable, as means of stimulating the lazy energies, and disturbing a +slumber which is, or soon will be, morbid in its character. I have known +myself cases not a few, where, by the very nicest gradations, and by +steps too silent and insensible for daily notice, the utmost harmony and +reciprocal love had shaded down into fretfulness and petulance, purely +from too easy a life, and because all nobler agitations that might have +ruffled the sensations occasionally, and all distresses even on the +narrowest scale that might have re-awakened the solicitudes of love, by +opening necessities for sympathy, for counsel, or for mutual aid, had +been shut out by foresight too elaborate, or by prosperity too cloying. +But all this, had it otherwise been possible with my particular mind, +and at my early age, was utterly precluded by one remarkable peculiarity +in my temper. Whether it were that I derived from nature some jealousy +and suspicion of all happiness which seems too perfect and unalloyed--[a +spirit of restless distrust, which in ancient times often led men to +throw valuable gems into the sea, in the hope of thus propitiating the +dire deity of misfortune, by voluntarily breaking the fearful chain of +prosperity, and led some of them to weep and groan when the gems +thus sacrificed were afterwards brought back to their hand by simple +fishermen, who had recovered them in the intestines of fishes--a +portentous omen, which was interpreted into a sorrowful indication +that the deity thus answered the propitiatory appeal, and made solemn +proclamation that he had rejected it]--whether, I say, it were this +spirit of jealousy awaked in me by too steady and too profound a +felicity--or whether it were that great overthrows and calamities have +some mysterious power to send forward a dim misgiving of their advancing +footsteps, and really and indeed, + + 'That in to-day already walks to-morrow;' + +or whether it were partly, as I have already put the case in my first +supposition, a natural instinct of distrust, but irritated and enlivened +by a particular shock of superstitious alarm; which, or whether any of +these causes it were that kept me apprehensive, and on the watch for +disastrous change, I will not here undertake to determine. Too certain +it is that I was so. I never ridded myself of an over-mastering and +brooding sense, shadowy and vague, a dim abiding feeling (that sometimes +was and sometimes was not exalted into a conscious presentiment) of +some great calamity travelling towards me; not perhaps immediately +impending--perhaps even at a great distance; but already--dating from +some secret hour--already in motion upon some remote line of approach. +This feeling I could not assuage by sharing it with Agnes. No motive +could be strong enough for persuading me to communicate so gloomy a +thought with one who, considering her extreme healthiness, was but too +remarkably prone to pensive, if not to sorrowful, contemplations. And +thus the obligation which I felt to silence and reserve, strengthened +the morbid impression I had received; whilst the remarkable incident +I have adverted to served powerfully to rivet the superstitious chain +which was continually gathering round me. The incident was this--and +before I repeat it, let me pledge my word of honor, that I report to you +the bare facts of the case, without exaggeration, and in the simplicity +of truth:--There was at that time resident in the great city, which +is the scene of my narrative, a woman, from some part of Hungary, who +pretended to the gift of looking into futurity. She had made herself +known advantageously in several of the greatest cities of Europe, under +the designation of the Hungarian Prophetess; and very extraordinary +instances were cited amongst the highest circles of her success in the +art which she professed. So ample were the pecuniary tributes which +she levied upon the hopes and the fears, or the simple curiosity of +the aristocracy, that she was thus able to display not unfrequently +a disinterestedness and a generosity, which seemed native to her +disposition, amongst the humbler classes of her applicants; for she +rejected no addresses that were made to her, provided only they were +not expressed in levity or scorn, but with sincerity, and in a spirit of +confiding respect. It happened, on one occasion, when a nursery-servant +of ours was waiting in her anteroom for the purpose of taking her turn +in consulting the prophetess professionally, that she had witnessed a +scene of consternation and unaffected maternal grief in this Hungarian +lady upon the sudden seizure of her son, a child of four or five years +old, by a spasmodic inflammation of the throat (since called croup) +peculiar to children, and in those days not very well understood by +medical men. The poor Hungarian, who had lived chiefly in warm, or +at least not damp, climates, and had never so much as heard of this +complaint, was almost wild with alarm at the rapid increase of the +symptoms which attend the paroxysms, and especially of that loud and +distressing sound which marks the impeded respiration. Great, therefore, +was her joy and gratitude on finding from our servant that she had +herself been in attendance more than once upon cases of the same nature, +but very much more violent,--and that, consequently, she was well +qualified to suggest and to superintend all the measures of instant +necessity, such as the hot-bath, the peculiar medicines, &c., which are +almost sure of success when applied in an early stage. Staying to give +her assistance until a considerable improvement had taken place in the +child, our servant then hurried home to her mistress. Agnes, it may +be imagined, dispatched her back with such further and more precise +directions as in a very short time availed to re-establish the child in +convalescence. These practical services, and the messages of maternal +sympathy repeatedly conveyed from Agnes, had completely won the heart of +the grateful Hungarian, and she announced her intention of calling with +her little boy, to make her personal acknowledgments for the kindness +which had been shown to her. She did so, and we were as much impressed +by the sultana-like style of her Oriental beauty, as she, on her part, +was touched and captivated by the youthful loveliness of my angelic +wife. After sitting for above an hour, during which time she talked with +a simplicity and good feeling that struck us as remarkable in a person +professing an art usually connected with so much of conscious fraud, she +rose to take her leave. I must mention that she had previously had our +little boy sitting on her knee, and had at intervals thrown a hasty +glance upon the palms of his hands. On parting, Agnes, with her usual +frankness, held out her hand. The Hungarian took it with an air of sad +solemnity, pressed it fervently, and said:--'Lady, it is my part in +this life to look behind the curtain of fate; and oftentimes I see such +sights in futurity--some near, some far off--as willingly I would _not_ +see. For you, young and charming lady, looking like that angel which you +are, no destiny can be equal to your deserts. Yet sometimes, true it +is, God sees not as man sees; and he ordains, after his unfathomable +counsels, to the heavenly-minded a portion in heaven, and to the +children whom he loves a rest and a haven not built with hands. +Something that I have seen dimly warns me to look no farther. Yet, if +you desire it, I will do my office, and I will read for you with truth +the lines of fate as they are written upon your hands.' Agnes was a +little startled, or even shocked, by this solemn address; but, in a +minute or so, a mixed feeling--one half of which was curiosity, and +the other half a light-hearted mockery of her own mysterious awe in +the presence of what she had been taught to view as either fraud or +insanity--prompted her playfully to insist upon the fullest application +of the Hungarian's art to her own case; nay, she would have the hands +of our little Francis read and interpreted as well as her own, and +she desired to hear the full professional judgment delivered without +suppression or softening of its harshest awards. She laughed whilst she +said all this; but she also trembled a little. The Hungarian first +took the hand of our young child, and perused it with a long and steady +scrutiny. She said nothing, but sighed heavily as she resigned it. She +then took the hand of Agnes--looked bewildered and aghast--then gazed +piteously from Agnes to her child--and at last, bursting into tears, +began to move steadily out of the room. I followed her hastily, and +remonstrated upon this conduct, by pointing her attention to the obvious +truth--that these mysterious suppressions and insinuations, which +left all shadowy and indistinct, were far more alarming than the most +definite denunciations. Her answer yet rings in my ear:--'Why should I +make myself odious to you and to your innocent wife? Messenger of evil +I am, and have been to many; but evil I will not prophecy to her. Watch +and pray! Much may be done by effectual prayer. Human means, fleshly +arms, are vain. There is an enemy in the house of life,' [here she +quitted her palmistry for the language of astrology;] 'there is a +frightful danger at hand, both for your wife and your child. Already +on that dark ocean, over which we are all sailing, I can see dimly the +point at which the enemy's course shall cross your wife's. There is +but little interval remaining--not many hours. All is finished; all +is accomplished; and already he is almost up with the darlings of your +heart. Be vigilant, be vigilant, and yet look not to yourself, but to +Heaven, for deliverance.' + +This woman was not an impostor: she spoke and uttered her oracles +under a wild sense of possession by some superior being, and of mystic +compulsion to say what she would have willingly left unsaid; and never +yet, before or since, have I seen the light of sadness settle with so +solemn an expression into human eyes as when she dropped my wife's +hand, and refused to deliver that burden of prophetic wo with which she +believed herself to be inspired. + +The prophetess departed; and what mood of mind did she leave behind her +in Agnes and myself? Naturally there was a little drooping of spirits +at first; the solemnity and the heart-felt sincerity of fear and grief +which marked her demeanor, made it impossible, at the moment when we +were just fresh from their natural influences, that we should recoil +into our ordinary spirits. But with the inevitable elasticity of youth +and youthful gaiety we soon did so; we could not attempt to persuade +ourselves that there had been any conscious fraud or any attempt at +scenical effect in the Hungarian's conduct. She had no motive for +deceiving us; she had refused all offerings of money, and her whole +visit had evidently been made under an overflow of the most grateful +feelings for the attentions shown to her child. We acquitted her, +therefore, of sinister intentions; and with our feelings of jealousy, +feelings in which we had been educated, towards everything that tended +to superstition, we soon agreed to think her some gentle maniac or sad +enthusiast, suffering under some form of morbid melancholy. Forty-eight +hours, with two nights' sleep, sufficed to restore the wonted +equilibrium of our spirits; and that interval brought us onwards to +the 6th of April--the day on which, as I have already said, my story +properly commences. + + On that day, on that lovely 6th of April, such as I have described it, +that 6th of April, about nine o'clock in the morning, we were seated at +breakfast near the open window--we, that is, Agnes, myself, and little +Francis; the freshness of morning spirits rested upon us; the golden +light of the morning sun illuminated the room; incense was floating +through the air from the gorgeous flowers within and without the house; +there in youthful happiness we sat gathered together, a family of +love, and there we never sat again. Never again were we three gathered +together, nor ever shall be, so long as the sun and its golden +light--the morning and the evening--the earth and its flowers endure. + +Often have I occupied myself in recalling every circumstance the most +trivial of this the final morning of what merits to be called my life. +Eleven o'clock, I remember, was striking when Agnes came into my study, +and said that she would go into the city, (for we lived in a quite rural +suburb,) that she would execute some trifling commissions which she +had received from a friend in the country, and would be at home again +between one and two for a stroll which we had agreed to take in the +neighboring meadows. About twenty minutes after this she again came into +my study dressed for going abroad; for such was my admiration of her, +that I had a fancy--fancy it must have been, and yet still I felt it to +be real--that under every change she looked best; if she put on a shawl, +then a shawl became the most feminine of ornaments; if she laid +aside her shawl and her bonnet, then how nymph-like she seemed in her +undisguised and unadorned beauty! Full-dress seemed for the time to be +best, as bringing forward into relief the splendor of her person, and +allowing the exposure of her arms; a simple morning-dress, again, seemed +better still, as fitted to call out the childlike innocence of her face, +by confining the attention to that. But all these are feelings of fond +and blind affection, hanging with rapture over the object of something +too like idolatry. God knows, if that be a sin, I was but too profound +a sinner; yet sin it never was, sin it could not be, to adore a beauty +such as thine, my Agnes. Neither was it her beauty by itself, and that +only, which I sought at such times to admire; there was a peculiar +sort of double relation in which she stood at moments of pleasurable +expectation and excitement, since our little Francis had become of an +age to join our party, which made some aspects of her character trebly +interesting. She was a wife--and wife to one whom she looked up to +as her superior in understanding and in knowledge of the world, whom, +therefore, she leaned to for protection. On the other hand, she was also +a mother. Whilst, therefore, to her child she supported the matronly +part of guide, and the air of an experienced person; to me she wore, +ingenuously and without disguise, the part of a child herself, with all +the giddy hopes and unchastised imaginings of that buoyant age. This +double character, one aspect of which looks towards her husband and one +to her children, sits most gracefully upon many a young wife whose heart +is pure and innocent; and the collision between the two separate parts +imposed by duty on the one hand, by extreme youth on the other, the +one telling her that she is a responsible head of a family and the +depository of her husband's honor in its tenderest and most vital +interests, the other telling her, through the liveliest language of +animal sensibility, and through the very pulses of her blood, that she +is herself a child; this collision gives an inexpressible charm to +the whole demeanor of many a young married woman, making her other +fascinations more touching to her husband, and deepening the admiration +she excites; and the more so, as it is a collision which cannot exist +except among the very innocent. Years, at any rate, will irresistibly +remove this peculiar charm, and gradually replace it by the graces +of the matronly character. But in Agnes this change had not yet been +effected, partly from nature, and partly from the extreme seclusion of +her life. Hitherto she still retained the unaffected expression of her +childlike nature; and so lovely in my eyes was this perfect exhibition +of natural feminine character, that she rarely or never went out alone +upon any little errand to town which might require her to rely upon her +own good sense and courage, that she did not previously come to exhibit +herself before me. Partly this was desired by me in that lover-like +feeling of admiration already explained, which leads one to court the +sight of a beloved object under every change of dress, and under all +effects of novelty. Partly it was the interest I took in that exhibition +of sweet timidity, and almost childish apprehensiveness, half disguised +or imperfectly acknowledged by herself, which (in the way I have just +explained) so touchingly contrasted with (and for that very reason so +touchingly drew forth) her matronly character. But I hear some objector +say at this point, ought not this very timidity, founded (as in part +at least it was) upon inexperience and conscious inability to face the +dangers of the world, to have suggested reasons for not leaving her to +her own protection? And does it not argue, on my part, an arrogant or +too blind a confidence in the durability of my happiness, as though +charmed against assaults, and liable to no shocks of sudden revolution? +I reply that, from the very constitution of society, and the tone of +manners in the city which we inhabited, there seemed to be a moral +impossibility that any dangers of consequence should meet her in the +course of those brief absences from my protection, which only +were possible; that even to herself any dangers, of a nature to be +anticipated under the known circumstances of the case, seemed almost +imaginary; that even _she_ acknowledged a propriety in being trained, by +slight and brief separations from my guardianship, to face more boldly +those cases of longer separation and of more absolute consignment to her +own resources which circumstances might arise to create necessarily, and +perhaps abruptly. And it is evident that, had she been the wife of any +man engaged in the duties of a profession, she might have been summoned +from the very first, and without the possibility of any such gradual +training, to the necessity of relying almost singly upon her own courage +and discretion. For the other question, whether I did not depend too +blindly and presumptuously upon my good luck in not at least affording +her my protection so long as nothing occurred to make it impossible? I +may reply, most truly, that all my feelings ran naturally in the very +opposite channel. So far from confiding too much in my luck, in the +present instance I was engaged in a task of writing upon some points +of business which could not admit of further delay; but now, and at all +times, I had a secret aversion to seeing so gentle a creature thrown +even for an hour upon her own resources, though in situations which +scarcely seemed to admit of any occasion for taxing those resources; +and often I have felt anger towards myself for what appeared to be an +irrational or effeminate timidity, and have struggled with my own mind +upon occasions like the present, when I knew that I could not have +acknowledged my tremors to a friend without something like shame, and +a fear to excite his ridicule. No; if in anything I ran into excess, +it was in this very point of anxiety as to all that regarded my wife's +security. Her good sense, her prudence, her courage, (for courage she +had in the midst of her timidity,) her dignity of manner, the more +impressive from the childlike character of her countenance, all should +have combined to reassure me, and yet they did not. I was still anxious +for her safety to an irrational extent; and to sum up the whole in a +most weighty line of Shakspeare, I lived under the constant presence of +a feeling which only that great observer of human nature (so far as I +am aware) has ever noticed, viz., that merely the excess of my happiness +made me jealous of its ability to last, and in that extent less capable +of enjoying it; that in fact the prelibation of my tears, as a homage to +its fragility, was drawn forth by my very sense that my felicity was too +exquisite; or, in the words of the great master + + 'I wept to have' [absolutely, by anticipation, shed tears in + possessing] 'what I so feared to lose.' + +Thus end my explanations, and I now pursue my narrative: Agnes, as +I have said, came into my room again before leaving the house--we +conversed for five minutes--we parted--she went out--her last words +being that she would return at half-past one o'clock; and not long +after that time, if ever mimic bells--bells of rejoicing, or bells of +mourning, are heard in desert spaces of the air, and (as some have said) +in unreal worlds, that mock our own, and repeat, for ridicule, the vain +and unprofitable motions of man, then too surely, about this hour, began +to toll the funeral knell of my earthly happiness--its final hour had +sounded. + + * * * * * + +One o'clock had arrived; fifteen minutes after, I strolled into the +garden, and began to look over the little garden-gate in expectation of +every moment descrying Agnes in the distance. Half an hour passed, +and for ten minutes more I was tolerably quiet. From this time till +half-past two I became constantly more agitated--_agitated,_ perhaps, is +too strong a word--but I was restless and anxious beyond what I should +have chosen to acknowledge. Still I kept arguing, What is half an hour? +what is an hour? A thousand things might have occurred to cause that +delay, without needing to suppose any accident; or, if an accident, why +not a very trifling one? She may have slightly hurt her foot--she +may have slightly sprained her ankle. 'Oh, doubtless,' I exclaimed to +myself, 'it will be a mere trifle, or perhaps nothing at all.' But I +remember that, even whilst I was saying this, I took my hat and walked +with nervous haste into the little quiet lane upon which our garden-gate +opened. The lane led by a few turnings, and after a course of about five +hundred yards, into a broad high-road, which even at that day had begun +to assume the character of a street, and allowed an unobstructed +range of view in the direction of the city for at least a mile. Here +I stationed myself, for the air was so clear that I could distinguish +dress and figure to a much greater distance than usual. Even on such a +day, however, the remote distance was hazy and indistinct, and at any +other season I should have been diverted with the various mistakes +I made. From occasional combinations of color, modified by light and +shade, and of course powerfully assisted by the creative state of the +eye under this nervous apprehensiveness, I continued to shape into +images of Agnes forms without end, that upon nearer approach presented +the most grotesque contrasts to her impressive appearance. But I +had ceased even to comprehend the ludicrous; my agitation was now so +overruling and engrossing that I lost even my intellectual sense of it; +and now first I understood practically and feelingly the anguish of hope +alternating with disappointment, as it may be supposed to act upon the +poor shipwrecked seaman, alone and upon a desolate coast, straining his +sight for ever to the fickle element which has betrayed him, but +which only can deliver him, and with his eyes still tracing in the far +distance, + + 'Ships, dim-discover'd, dropping from the clouds,'-- + +which a brief interval of suspense still for ever disperses into hollow +pageants of air or vapor. One deception melted away only to be succeeded +by another; still I fancied that at last to a certainty I could descry +the tall figure of Agnes, her gipsy hat, and even the peculiar elegance +of her walk. Often I went so far as to laugh at myself, and even to tax +my recent fears with unmanliness and effeminacy, on recollecting the +audible throbbings of my heart, and the nervous palpitations which had +besieged me; but these symptoms, whether effeminate or not, began to +come back tumultuously under the gloomy doubts that succeeded almost +before I had uttered this self-reproach. Still I found myself mocked +and deluded with false hopes; yet still I renewed my quick walk, and the +intensity of my watch for that radiant form that was fated never more to +be seen returning from the cruel city. + +It was nearly half-past three, and therefore close upon two hours +beyond the time fixed by Agnes for her return, when I became absolutely +incapable of supporting the further torture of suspense, and I suddenly +took the resolution of returning home and concerting with my female +servants some energetic measures, though _what_ I could hardly say, on +behalf of their mistress. On entering the garden-gate I met our little +child Francis, who unconsciously inflicted a pang upon me which he +neither could have meditated nor have understood. I passed him at his +play, perhaps even unaware of his presence, but he recalled me to that +perception by crying aloud that he had just seen his mamma. + +'When--where?' I asked convulsively. + +'Up stairs in her bedroom,' was his instantaneous answer. + +His manner was such as forbade me to suppose that he could be joking; +and, as it was barely possible (though, for reasons well known to me, +in the highest degree improbable) that Agnes might have returned by a +by-path, which, leading through a dangerous and disreputable suburb, +would not have coincided at any one point with the public road where I +had been keeping my station. I sprang forward into the house, up stairs, +and in rapid succession into every room where it was likely that she +might be found; but everywhere there was a dead silence, disturbed only +by myself, for, in my growing confusion of thought, I believe that +I rang the bell violently in every room I entered. No such summons, +however, was needed, for the servants, two of whom at the least were +most faithful creatures, and devotedly attached to their young mistress, +stood ready of themselves to come and make inquiries of me as soon as +they became aware of the alarming fact, that I had returned without her. + +Until this moment, though having some private reasons for surprise that +she should have failed to come into the house for a minute or two at the +hour prefixed, in order to make some promised domestic arrangements for +the day, they had taken it for granted that she must have met with me at +some distance from home--and that either the extreme beauty of the +day had beguiled her of all petty household recollections, or (as a +conjecture more in harmony with past experiences) that my impatience +and solicitations had persuaded her to lay aside her own plans for the +moment at the risk of some little domestic inconvenience. Now, however, +in a single instant vanished _every_ mode of accounting for their +mistress's absence; and the consternation of our looks communicated +contagiously, by the most unerring of all languages, from each to the +other what thoughts were uppermost in our panic-stricken hearts. If +to any person it should seem that our alarm was disproportioned to the +occasion, and not justified at least by anything as yet made known to +us, let that person consider the weight due to the two following facts: +First, that from the recency of our settlement in this neighborhood, and +from the extreme seclusion of my wife's previous life at a vast distance +from the metropolis, she had positively no friends on her list of +visitors who resided in this great capital; secondly, and far above +all beside, let him remember the awful denunciations, so unexpectedly +tallying with this alarming and mysterious absence, of the Hungarian +prophetess; these had been slighted--almost dismissed from our thoughts; +but now in sudden reaction they came back upon us with a frightful power +to lacerate and to sting--the shadowy outline of a spiritual agency, +such as that which could at all predict the events, combining in one +mysterious effect, with the shadowy outline of those very predictions. +The power, that could have predicted, was as dim and as hard to grasp as +was the precise nature of the evil that had been predicted. + +An icy terror froze my blood at this moment when I looked at the +significant glances, too easily understood by me, that were exchanged +between the servants. My mouth had been for the last two hours growing +more and more parched, so that at present, from mere want of moisture, +I could not separate my lips to speak. One of the women saw the vain +efforts I was making, and hastily brought me a glass of water. With the +first recovery of speech, I asked them what little Francis had meant by +saying that he had seen his mother in her bedroom. Their reply was, that +they were as much at a loss to discover his meaning as I was; that he +had made the same assertion to them, and with so much earnestness, that +they had, all in succession, gone up stairs to look for her, and +with the fullest expectation of finding her. This was a mystery which +remained such to the very last; there was no doubt whatsoever that the +child believed himself to have seen his mother; that he could not have +seen her in her human bodily presence, there is as little doubt as there +is, alas! that in this world he never _did_ see her again. The poor +child constantly adhered to his story, and with a circumstantiality +far beyond all power of invention that could be presumed in an +artless infant. Every attempt at puzzling him or entangling him in +contradictions by means of cross-examination was but labor thrown away; +though indeed, it is true enough that for those attempts, as will soon +be seen, there was but a brief interval allowed. + +Not dwelling upon this subject at present, I turned to Hannah--a woman +who held the nominal office of cook in our little establishment, but +whose real duties had been much more about her mistress's person--and +with a searching look of appeal I asked her whether, in this moment of +trial, when (as she might see) I was not so perfectly master of myself +as perhaps always to depend upon seeing what was best to be done, she +would consent to accompany me into the city, and take upon herself those +obvious considerations of policy or prudence which might but too easily +escape my mind, darkened, and likely to be darkened, as to its power of +discernment by the hurricane of affliction now too probably at hand. She +answered my appeal with the fervor I expected from what I had already +known of her character. She was a woman of a strong, fiery, perhaps I +might say of heroic mind, supported by a courage that was absolutely +indomitable, and by a strength of bodily frame very unusual in a woman, +and beyond the promise even of her person. She had suffered as deep a +wrench in her own affections as a human being can suffer; she had +lost her one sole child, a fair-haired boy of most striking beauty and +interesting disposition, at the age of seventeen, and by the worst +of all possible fates; he lived (as we did at that time) in a large +commercial city overflowing with profligacy, and with temptations of +every order; he had been led astray; culpable he had been, but by very +much the least culpable of the set into which accident had thrown him, +as regarded acts and probable intentions; and as regarded palliations +from childish years, from total inexperience, or any other alleviating +circumstances that could be urged, having everything to plead--and of +all his accomplices the only one who had anything to plead. Interest, +however, he had little or none; and whilst some hoary villains of the +party, who happened to be more powerfully befriended, were finally +allowed to escape with a punishment little more than nominal, he and two +others were selected as sacrifices to the offended laws. They suffered +capitally. All three behaved well; but the poor boy in particular, with +a courage, a resignation, and a meekness, so distinguished and beyond +his years as to attract the admiration and the liveliest sympathy of +the public universally. If strangers could feel in that way, if the +mere hardened executioner could be melted at the final scene,--it may be +judged to what a fierce and terrific height would ascend the affliction +of a doating mother, constitutionally too fervid in her affections. +I have heard an official person declare, that the spectacle of her +desolation and frantic anguish was the most frightful thing he had ever +witnessed, and so harrowing to the feelings, that all who could by their +rank venture upon such an irregularity, absented themselves during the +critical period from the office which corresponded with the government; +for, as I have said, the affair took place in a large provincial city, +at a great distance from the capital. All who knew this woman, or who +were witnesses to the alteration which one fortnight had wrought in her +person as well as her demeanor, fancied it impossible that she could +continue to live; or that, if she did, it must be through the giving way +of her reason. They proved, however, to be mistaken; or, at least, if +(as some thought) her reason did suffer in some degree, this result +showed itself in the inequality of her temper, in moody fits of +abstraction, and the morbid energy of her manner at times under the +absence of all adequate external excitement, rather than in any positive +and apparent hallucinations of thought. The charm which had mainly +carried off the instant danger to her faculties, was doubtless the +intense sympathy which she met with. And in these offices of consolation +my wife stood foremost. For, and that was fortunate, she had found +herself able, without violence to her own sincerest opinions in the +case, to offer precisely that form of sympathy which was most soothing +to the angry irritation of the poor mother; not only had she shown a +_direct_ interest in the boy, and not a mere interest of _reflection_ +from that which she took in the mother, and had expressed it by visits +to his dungeon, and by every sort of attention to his comforts which +his case called for, or the prison regulations allowed; not only had +she wept with the distracted woman as if for a brother of her own; but, +which went farther than all the rest in softening the mother's heart, +she had loudly and indignantly proclaimed her belief in the boy's +innocence, and in the same tone her sense of the crying injustice +committed as to the selection of the victims, and the proportion of the +punishment awarded. Others, in the language of a great poet, + + 'Had pitied _her,_ and not her grief;' + +they had either not been able to see, or, from carelessness, had +neglected to see, any peculiar wrong done to her in the matter which +occasioned her grief,--but had simply felt compassion for her as for one +summoned, in a regular course of providential and human dispensation, +to face an affliction, heavy in itself, but not heavy from any special +defect of equity. Consequently their very sympathy, being so much +built upon the assumption that an only child had offended to the extent +implied in his sentence, oftentimes clothed itself in expressions which +she felt to be not consolations but insults, and, in fact, so many +justifications of those whom it relieved her overcharged heart to regard +as the very worst of enemies. Agnes, on the other hand, took the very +same view of the case as herself; and, though otherwise the gentlest +of all gentle creatures, yet here, from the generous fervor of her +reverence for justice, and her abhorrence of oppression, she gave +herself no trouble to moderate the energy of her language: nor did I, +on my part, feeling that substantially she was in the right, think it of +importance to dispute about the exact degrees of the wrong done or the +indignation due to it. In this way it happened naturally enough that +at one and the same time, though little contemplating either of these +results, Agnes had done a prodigious service to the poor desolate mother +by breaking the force of her misery, as well as by arming the active +agencies of indignation against the depressing ones of solitary grief, +and for herself had won a most grateful and devoted friend, who would +have gone through fire and water to serve her, and was thenceforwards +most anxious for some opportunity to testify how deep had been her +sense of the goodness shown to her by her benign young mistress, and +how incapable of suffering abatement by time. It remains to add, which +I have slightly noticed before, that this woman was of unusual personal +strength: her bodily frame matched with her intellectual: and I notice +this _now_ with the more emphasis, because I am coming rapidly upon +ground where it will be seen that this one qualification was of more +summary importance to us--did us more 'yeoman's service' at a crisis +the most awful--than other qualities of greater name and pretension. +_Hannah_ was this woman's Christian name; and her name and her memory +are to me amongst the most hallowed of my earthly recollections. + +One of her two fellow-servants, known technically amongst us as the +'parlor maid,' was also, but not equally, attached to her mistress; and +merely because her nature, less powerfully formed and endowed, did not +allow her to entertain or to comprehend any service equally fervid of +passion or of impassioned action. She, however, was good, affectionate, +and worthy to be trusted. But a third there was, a nursery maid, and +therefore more naturally and more immediately standing within the +confidence of her mistress--her I could not trust: her I suspected. But +of that hereafter. Meantime, Hannah, she upon whom I leaned as upon a +staff in all which respected her mistress, ran up stairs, after I had +spoken and received her answer, in order hastily to dress and prepare +herself for going out along with me to the city. I did not ask her to +be quick in her movements: I knew there was no need: and, whilst she was +absent, I took up, in one of my fretful movements of nervousness, a book +which was lying upon a side-table: the book fell open of itself at a +particular page; and in that, perhaps, there was nothing extraordinary, +for it was a little portable edition of _Paradise Lost_; and the page +was one which I must naturally have turned to many a time: for to Agnes +I had read all the great masters of literature, especially those of +modern times; so that few people knew the high classics more familiarly: +and as to the passage in question, from its divine beauty I had read it +aloud to her, perhaps, on fifty separate occasions. All this I mention +to take away any appearance of a vulgar attempt to create omens; +but still, in the very act of confessing the simple truth, and thus +weakening the marvellous character of the anecdote, I must notice it as +a strange instance of the '_Sortes Miltonianae_,'--that precisely at such +a moment as this I should find thrown in my way, should feel tempted +to take up, and should open, a volume containing such a passage as the +following: and observe, moreover, that although the volume, _once being +taken up_, would naturally open where it had been most frequently +read, there were, however, many passages which had been read _as_ +frequently--or more so. The particular passage upon which I opened +at this moment was that most beautiful one in which the fatal morning +separation is described between Adam and his bride--that separation so +pregnant with wo, which eventually proved the occasion of the mortal +transgression--the last scene between our first parents at which both +were innocent and both were happy--although the superior intellect +already felt, and, in the slight altercation preceding this separation, +had already expressed a dim misgiving of some coming change: these are +the words, and in depth of pathos they have rarely been approached:-- + + 'Oft he to her his charge of quick return + Repeated; she to him as oft engag'd + To be returned by noon amid the bow'r, + And all things in best order to invite + Noon-tide repast, or afternoon's repose. + Oh much deceived, much failing, hapless Eve! + Of thy presumed return, event perverse! + Thou never from that hour in Paradise + Found'st either sweet repast, or sound repose.' + +'_My_ Eve!' I exclaimed, 'partner in _my_ paradise, where art thou? +_Much failing_ thou wilt not be found, nor _much deceived_; innocent in +any case thou art; but, alas! too surely by this time _hapless_, and the +victim of some diabolic wickedness.' Thus I murmured to myself; thus I +ejaculated; thus I apostrophized my Agnes; then again came a stormier +mood. I could not sit still; I could not stand in quiet; I threw the +book from me with violence against the wall; I began to hurry backwards +and forwards in a short uneasy walk, when suddenly a sound, a step; it +was the sound of the garden-gate opening, followed by a hasty tread. +Whose tread? Not for a moment could it be fancied the oread step which +belonged to that daughter of the hills--my wife, my Agnes; no, it was +the dull massy tread of a man: and immediately there came a loud blow +upon the door, and in the next moment, the bell having been found, a +furious peal of ringing. Oh coward heart! not for a lease of immortality +could I have gone forwards myself. My breath failed me; an interval +came in which respiration seemed to be stifled--the blood to halt in its +current; and then and there I recognised in myself the force and living +truth of that Scriptural description of a heart consciously beset by +evil without escape: 'Susannah _sighed_.' Yes, a long, long sigh--a +deep, deep sigh--that is, the natural language by which the over-charged +heart utters forth the wo that else would break it. I sighed--oh how +profoundly! But that did not give me power to move. Who will go to the +door? I whispered audibly. Who is at the door? was the inaudible whisper +of my heart. Then might be seen the characteristic differences of the +three women. That one, whom I suspected, I heard raising an upper window +to look out and reconnoitre. The affectionate Rachael, on the other +hand, ran eagerly down stairs; but Hannah, half dressed, even her +bosom exposed, passed her like a storm; and before I heard any sound of +opening a door, I saw from the spot where I stood the door already wide +open, and a man in the costume of a policeman. All that he said I could +not hear; but this I heard--that I was wanted at the police office, and +had better come off without delay. He seemed then to get a glimpse of +me, and to make an effort towards coming nearer; but I slunk away, and +left to Hannah the task of drawing from him any circumstances which he +might know. But apparently there was not much to tell, or rather, said +I, there is too much, the _much_ absorbs the _many_; some one mighty +evil transcends and quells all particulars. At length the door was +closed, and the man was gone. Hannah crept slowly along the passage, and +looked in hesitatingly. Her very movements and stealthy pace testified +that she had heard nothing which, even by comparison, she could think +good news. 'Tell me not now, Hannah,' I said; 'wait till we are in the +open air.' She went up stairs again. How short seemed the time till she +descended! how I longed for further respite! 'Hannah!' I said at length +when we were fairly moving upon the road, 'Hannah! I am too sure you +have nothing good to tell. But now tell me the worst, and let that be in +the fewest words possible.' + +'Sir,' she said, 'we had better wait until we reach the office; for +really I could not understand the man. He says that my mistress is +detained upon some charge; but _what_, I could not at all make out. He +was a man that knew something of you, Sir, I believe, and he wished to +be civil, and kept saying, "Oh! I dare say it will turn out nothing +at all, many such charges are made idly and carelessly, and some +maliciously." "But what charges?" I cried, and then he wanted to speak +privately to you. But I told him that of all persons he must not speak +to you, if he had anything painful to tell; for that you were too much +disturbed already, and had been for some hours, out of anxiety and +terror about my mistress, to bear much more. So, when he heard that, he +was less willing to speak freely than before. He might prove wrong, he +said; he might give offence; things might turn out far otherwise than +according to first appearances; for his part, he could not believe +anything amiss of so sweet a lady. And after all, it would be better to +wait till we reached the office.' + +Thus much then was clear--Agnes was under some accusation. This was +already worse than the worst I had anticipated. 'And then,' said I, +thinking aloud to Hannah, 'one of two things is apparent to me; either +the accusation is one of pure hellish malice, without a color of +probability or the shadow of a foundation, and that way, alas! I am +driven in my fears by that Hungarian woman's prophecy; or, which but for +my desponding heart I should be more inclined to think, the charge +has grown out of my poor wife's rustic ignorance as to the usages then +recently established by law with regard to the kind of money that could +be legally tendered. This, however, was a suggestion that did not tend +to alleviate my anxiety; and my nervousness had mounted to a painful, +almost to a disabling degree, by the time we reached the office. Already +on our road thither some parties had passed us who were conversing with +eagerness upon the case: so much we collected from the many and ardent +expressions about 'the lady's beauty,' though the rest of such words as +we could catch were ill calculated to relieve my suspense. This, +then, at least, was certain--that my poor timid Agnes had already been +exhibited before a tumultuous crowd; that her name and reputation had +gone forth as a subject of discussion for the public; and that the +domestic seclusion and privacy within which it was her matronly +privilege to move had already undergone a rude violation. + +The office, and all the purlieus of the office, were occupied by a dense +crowd. That, perhaps, was always the case, more or less, at this time +of day; but at present the crowd was manifestly possessed by a more than +ordinary interest; and there was a unity in this possessing interest; +all were talking on the same subject, the case in which Agnes had so +recently appeared in some character or other; and by this time it became +but too certain in the character of an accused person. Pity was the +prevailing sentiment amongst the mob; but the opinions varied much as to +the probable criminality of the prisoner. I made my way into the office. +The presiding magistrates had all retired for the afternoon, and would +not reassemble until eight o'clock in the evening. Some clerks only +or officers of the court remained, who were too much harassed by +applications for various forms and papers connected with the routine of +public business, and by other official duties which required signatures +or attestations, to find much leisure for answering individual +questions. Some, however, listened with a marked air of attention to my +earnest request for the circumstantial details of the case, but finally +referred me to a vast folio volume, in which were entered all the +charges, of whatever nature, involving any serious tendency--in fact, +all that exceeded a misdemeanor--in the regular chronological succession +according to which they came before the magistrate. Here, in this vast +calendar of guilt and misery, amidst the _aliases_ or cant designations +of ruffians, prostitutes, felons, stood the description, at full length, +Christian and surnames all properly registered, of my Agnes--of her +whose very name had always sounded to my ears like the very echo of +mountain innocence, purity, and pastoral simplicity. Here in another +column stood the name and residence of her accuser. I shall call him +_Barratt_, for that was amongst his names, and a name by which he had at +one period of his infamous life been known to the public, though not his +principal name, or the one which he had thought fit to assume at +this era. James Barratt, then, as I shall here call him, was a +haberdasher--keeping a large and conspicuous shop in a very crowded and +what was then considered a fashionable part of the city. The charge was +plain and short. Did I live to read it? It accused Agnes M---- of having +on that morning secreted in her muff, and feloniously carried away, a +valuable piece of Mechlin lace, the property of James Barratt. And the +result of the first examination was thus communicated in a separate +column, written in red ink--'Remanded to the second day after to-morrow +for final examination.' Everything in this sin-polluted register was +in manuscript; but at night the records of each day were regularly +transferred to a printed journal, enlarged by comments and explanatory +descriptions from some one of the clerks, whose province it was to +furnish this intelligence to the public journals. On that same night, +therefore, would go forth to the world such an account of the case, and +such a description of my wife's person, as would inevitably summon +to the next exhibition of her misery, as by special invitation and +advertisement, the whole world of this vast metropolis--the idle, the +curious, the brutal, the hardened amateur in spectacles of wo, and the +benign philanthropist who frequents such scenes with the purpose of +carrying alleviation to their afflictions. All alike, whatever might +be their motives or the spirit of their actions, would rush (as to +some grand festival of curiosity and sentimental luxury) to this public +martyrdom of my innocent wife. + +Meantime, what was the first thing to be done? Manifestly, to see Agnes: +her account of the affair might suggest the steps to be taken. Prudence, +therefore, at any rate, prescribed this course; and my heart would not +have tolerated any other. I applied, therefore, at once, for information +as to the proper mode of effecting this purpose without delay. What +was my horror at learning that, by a recent regulation of all the +police-offices, under the direction of the public minister who presided +over that department of the national administration, no person could be +admitted to an interview with any accused party during the progress of +the official examinations; or, in fact, until the final committal of +the prisoner for trial. This rule was supposed to be attended by great +public advantages, and had rarely been relaxed--never, indeed, without a +special interposition of the police minister authorizing its suspension. +But was the exclusion absolute and universal? Might not, at least, +a female servant, simply as the bearer of such articles as were +indispensable to female delicacy and comfort, have access to her +mistress? No; the exclusion was total and unconditional. To argue the +point was manifestly idle; the subordinate officers had no discretion in +the matter; nor, in fact, had any other official person, whatever were +his rank, except the supreme one; and to him I neither had any obvious +means of introduction, nor (in case of obtaining such an introduction) +any chance of success; for the spirit of the rule, I foresaw it would be +answered, applied with especial force to cases like the present. + +Mere human feelings of pity, sympathy with my too visible agitation, +superadded to something of perhaps reverence for the blighting misery +that was now opening its artillery upon me--for misery has a privilege, +and everywhere is felt to be a holy thing--had combined to procure for +me some attention and some indulgence hitherto. Answers had been given +with precision, explanations made at length, and anxiety shown +to satisfy my inquiries. But this could not last; the inexorable +necessities of public business coming back in a torrent upon the +official people after this momentary interruption, forbade them to +indulge any further consideration for an individual case, and I saw that +I must not stay any longer. I was rapidly coming to be regarded as a +hinderance to the movement of public affairs; and the recollection +that I might again have occasion for some appeal to these men in their +official characters, admonished me not to abuse my privilege of the +moment. After returning thanks, therefore, for the disposition shown to +oblige me, I retired. + +Slowly did I and Hannah retrace our steps. Hannah sustained, in the tone +of her spirits, by the extremity of her anger, a mood of feeling which +I did not share. Indignation was to her in the stead of consolation and +hope. I, for my part, could not seek even a momentary shelter from my +tempestuous affliction in that temper of mind. The man who could accuse +my Agnes, and accuse her of such a crime, I felt to be a monster; and +in my thoughts he was already doomed to a bloody atonement (atonement! +alas! what atonement!) whenever the time arrived that _her_ cause would +not be prejudiced, or the current of public feeling made to turn in his +favor by investing him with the semblance of an injured or suffering +person. So much was settled in my thoughts with the stern serenity of a +decree issuing from a judgment-seat. But that gave no relief, no shadow +of relief, to the misery which was now consuming me. Here was an end, in +one hour, to the happiness of a life. In one hour it had given way, root +and branch--had melted like so much frost-work, or a pageant of vapory +exhalations. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, and yet for ever +and ever, I comprehended the total ruin of my situation. The case, as +others might think, was yet in suspense; and there was room enough for +very rational hopes, especially where there was an absolute certainty of +innocence. Total freedom from all doubt on that point seemed to justify +almost more than hopes. This might be said, and most people would have +been more or less consoled by it. I was not. I felt as certain, as +irredeemably, as hopelessly certain of the final results as though I +had seen the record in the books of Heaven. 'Hope nothing,' I said to +myself; 'think not of hope in this world, but think only how best to +walk steadily, and not to reel like a creature wanting discourse of +reason, or incapable of religious hopes under the burden which it has +pleased God to impose, and which in this life cannot be shaken off. The +countenance of man is made to look upward and to the skies. Thither also +point henceforwards your heart and your thoughts. Never again let your +thoughts travel earthwards. Settle them on the heavens, to which your +Agnes is already summoned. The call is clear, and not to be mistaken. +Little in _her_ fate now depends upon you, or upon anything that man +can do. Look, therefore, to yourself; see that you make not shipwreck +of your heavenly freight because your earthly freight is lost; and miss +not, by any acts of wild and presumptuous despair, that final reunion +with your Agnes, which can only be descried through vistas that open +through the heavens.' + +Such were the thoughts, thoughts often made audible, which came +spontaneously like oracles from afar, as I strode homewards with Hannah +by my side. Her, meantime, I seemed to hear; for at times I seemed and +I intended to answer her. But answer her I did not; for not ten words of +all that she said did I really and consciously hear. How I went through +that night is more entirely a blank in my memory, more entirely a +chapter of chaos and the confusion of chaos, than any other passage +the most impressive in my life. If I even slumbered for a moment, as at +intervals I did sometimes, though never sitting down, but standing +or pacing about throughout the night, and if in this way I attained a +momentary respite from self-consciousness, no sooner had I reached this +enviable state of oblivion, than some internal sting of irritation +_as_ rapidly dispersed the whole fickle fabric of sleep; and as if the +momentary trance--this fugitive beguilement of my wo--had been conceded +by a demon's subtle malice only with the purpose of barbing the pang, +by thus forcing it into a stronger relief through the insidious peace +preceding it. It is a well known and most familiar experience to all +the sons and daughters of affliction, that under no circumstances is the +piercing, lancinating torment of a recent calamity felt so keenly as in +the first moments of awaking in the morning from the night's slumbers. +Just at the very instant when the clouds of sleep, and the whole +fantastic illusions of dreaminess are dispersing, just as the +realities of life are re-assuming their steadfast forms--re-shaping +themselves--and settling anew into those fixed relations which they are +to preserve throughout the waking hours; in that particular crisis of +transition from the unreal to the real, the wo which besieges the brain +and the life-springs at the heart rushes in afresh amongst the other +crowd of realities, and has at the moment of restoration literally the +force and liveliness of a new birth--the very same pang, and no whit +feebler, as that which belonged to it when it was first made known. From +the total hush of oblivion which had buried it and sealed it up, as it +were, during the sleeping hours, it starts into sudden life on our +first awaking, and is to all intents and purposes a new and not an +old affliction--one which brings with it the old original shock which +attended its first annunciation. + +That night--that first night of separation from my wife--_how_ it +passed, I know not; I know only _that_ it passed, I being in our common +bed-chamber, that holiest of all temples that are consecrated to human +attachments, whenever the heart is pure of man and woman, and the love +is strong--I being in that bedchamber, once the temple now the sepulchre +of our happiness,--I there, and my wife--my innocent wife--in a dungeon. +As the morning light began to break, somebody knocked at the door; it +was Hannah: she took my hand--misery levels all feeble distinctions of +station, sex, age--she noticed my excessive feverishness, and gravely +remonstrated with me upon the necessity there was that I should maintain +as much health as possible for the sake of 'others,' if not for myself. +She then brought me some tea, which refreshed me greatly; for I +had tasted nothing at all beyond a little water since the preceding +morning's breakfast. This refreshment seemed to relax and thaw the stiff +frozen state of cheerless, rayless despair in which I had passed the +night; I became susceptible of consolation--that consolation which lies +involved in kindness and gentleness of manner--if not susceptible more +than before of any positive hope. I sat down; and, having no witnesses +to my weakness but this kind and faithful woman, I wept, and I found a +relief in tears; and she, with the ready sympathy of woman, wept along +with me. All at once she ventured upon the circumstances (so far as she +had been able to collect them from the reports of those who had been +present at the examination) of our calamity. There was little indeed +either to excite or to gratify any interest or curiosity separate from +the _personal_ interest inevitably connected with a case to which there +were two such parties as a brutal, sensual, degraded ruffian, on one +side in character of accuser, and on the other as defendant, a meek +angel of a woman, timid and fainting from the horrors of her situation, +and under the licentious gaze of the crowd--yet, at the same time, bold +in conscious innocence, and in the very teeth of the suspicions which +beset her, winning the good opinion, as well as the good wishes of all +who saw her. There had been at this first examination little for her to +say beyond the assigning her name, age, and place of abode; and here +it was fortunate that her own excellent good sense concurred with +her perfect integrity and intuitive hatred of all indirect or crooked +courses in prompting her to an undisguised statement of the simple +truth, without a momentary hesitation or attempt either at evasion or +suppression. With equally good intentions in similar situations many a +woman has seriously injured her cause by slight evasions of the entire +truth, where nevertheless her only purpose has been the natural and +ingenuous one of seeking to save the reputation untainted of a name +which she felt to have been confided to her keeping. The purpose was an +honorable one, but erroneously pursued. Agnes fell into no such error. +She answered calmly, simply, and truly, to every question put by the +magistrates; and beyond _that_ there was little opportunity for her to +speak; the whole business of this preliminary examination being confined +to the deposition of the accuser as to the circumstances under which he +alleged the act of felonious appropriation to have taken place. These +circumstances were perfectly uninteresting, considered in themselves; +but amongst them was one which to us had the most shocking interest, +from the absolute proof thus furnished of a deep-laid plot against +Agnes. But for this one circumstance there would have been a possibility +that the whole had originated in error--error growing out of and +acting upon a nature originally suspicious, and confirmed perhaps by +an unfortunate experience. And in proportion as that was possible, the +chances increased that the accuser might, as the examinations advanced, +and the winning character of the accused party began to develop itself, +begin to see his error, and to retract his own over-hasty suspicions. +But now we saw at a glance that for this hope there was no countenance +whatever, since one solitary circumstance sufficed to establish a +conspiracy. The deposition bore--that the lace had been secreted and +afterwards detected in a muff; now it was a fact as well known to both +of us as the fact of Agnes having gone out at all--that she had laid +aside her winter's dress for the first time on this genial sunny day. +Muff she had not at the time, nor could have had appropriately from the +style of her costume in other respects. What was the effect upon us of +this remarkable discovery! Of course there died at once the hope of any +abandonment by the prosecutor of his purpose; because here was proof of +a predetermined plot. This hope died at once; but then, as it was one +which never had presented itself to my mind, I lost nothing by which I +had ever been solaced. On the other hand, it will be obvious that a new +hope at the same time arose to take its place, viz., the reasonable one +that by this single detection, if once established, we might raise a +strong presumption of conspiracy, and moreover that, as a leading fact +or clue, it might serve to guide us in detecting others. Hannah +was sanguine in this expectation; and for a moment her hopes were +contagiously exciting to mine. But the hideous despondency which in +my mind had settled upon the whole affair from the very first, the +superstitious presentiment I had of a total blight brooding over the +entire harvest of my life and its promises, (tracing itself originally, +I am almost ashamed to own, up to that prediction of the Hungarian +woman)--denied me steady light, anything--all in short but a wandering +ray of hope. It was right, of course, nay, indispensable, that the +circumstance of the muff should be strongly insisted upon at the +next examination, pressed against the prosecutor, and sifted to the +uttermost. An able lawyer would turn this to a triumphant account; and +it would be admirable as a means of pre-engaging the good opinion as +well as the sympathies of the public in behalf of the prisoner. But, +for its final effect--my conviction remained, not to be shaken, that all +would be useless; that our doom had gone forth, and was irrevocable. + +Let me not linger too much over those sad times. Morning came on as +usual; for it is strange, but true, that to the very wretched it seems +wonderful that times and seasons should keep their appointed courses +in the midst of such mighty overthrows, and such interruption to the +courses of their own wonted happiness and their habitual expectations. +Why should morning and night, why should all movements in the natural +world be so regular, whilst in the moral world all is so irregular +and anomalous? Yet the sun and the moon rise and set as usual upon the +mightiest revolutions of empire and of worldly fortune that this planet +ever beholds; and it is sometimes even a comfort to know that this will +be the case. A great criminal, sentenced to an agonizing punishment, +has derived a fortitude and a consolation from recollecting that the +day would run its inevitable course--that a day after all was _but_ +a day--that the mighty wheel of alternate light and darkness must and +would revolve--and that the evening star would rise as usual, and shine +with its untroubled lustre upon the dust and ashes of what _had_ indeed +suffered, and so recently, the most bitter pangs, but would then have +ceased to suffer. 'La Journee,' said Damien, + + 'La journee sera dure, mais elle se passera.' + +'----_Se passera_:' yes, that is true, I whispered to myself; my day +also, my season of trial will be hard to bear; but that also will have +an end; that also '_se passera_.' Thus I talked or thought so long as I +thought at all; for the hour was now rapidly approaching, when thinking +in any shape would for some time be at an end for me. + +That day, as the morning advanced, I went again, accompanied by Hannah, +to the police court and to the prison--a vast, ancient, in parts +ruinous, and most gloomy pile of building. In those days the +administration of justice was, if not more corrupt, certainly in its +inferior departments by far more careless than it is at present, and +liable to thousands of interruptions and mal-practices, supporting +themselves upon old traditionary usages which required at least half +a century, and the shattering everywhere given to old systems by the +French Revolution, together with the universal energy of mind applied +to those subjects over the whole length and breadth of Christendom, to +approach with any effectual reforms. Knowing this, and having myself had +direct personal cognisance of various cases in which bribery had been +applied with success, I was not without considerable hope that perhaps +Hannah and myself might avail ourselves of this irregular passport +through the gates of the prison. And, had the new regulation been of +somewhat longer standing, there is little doubt that I should have been +found right; unfortunately, as yet it had all the freshness of newborn +vigor, and kept itself in remembrance by the singular irritation it +excited. Besides this, it was a pet novelty of one particular minister, +new to the possession of power, anxious to distinguish himself, proud +of his creative functions within the range of his office, and very +sensitively jealous on the point of opposition to his mandates. Vain, +therefore, on this day were all my efforts to corrupt the jailers; and, +in fact, anticipating a time when I might have occasion to corrupt some +of them for a more important purpose and on a larger scale, I did not +think it prudent to proclaim my character beforehand as one who tampered +with such means, and thus to arm against myself those jealousies in +official people, which it was so peculiarly important that I should keep +asleep. + +All that day, however, I lingered about the avenues and vast courts +in the precincts of the prison, and near one particular wing of the +building, which had been pointed out to me by a jailer as the section +allotted to those who were in the situation of Agnes; that is, waiting +their final commitment for trial. The building generally he could +indicate with certainty, but he professed himself unable to indicate +the particular part of it which 'the young woman brought in on the day +previous' would be likely to occupy; consequently he could not point +out the window from which her cell (her '_cell_!' what a word!) would be +lighted. 'But, master,' he went on to say, 'I would advise nobody to try +that game.' He looked with an air so significant, and at the same time +used a gesture so indicative of private understanding, that I at +once apprehended his meaning, and assured him that he had altogether +misconstrued my drift; that, as to attempts at escape, or at any mode of +communicating with the prisoner from the outside, I trusted all _that_ +was perfectly needless; and that at any rate in my eyes it was perfectly +hopeless. 'Well, master,' he replied, 'that's neither here nor there. +You've come down handsomely, that I _will_ say; and where a gentleman +acts like a gentleman, and behaves himself as such, I'm not the man to +go and split upon him for a word. To be sure it's quite nat'ral that a +gentleman--put case that a young woman is his fancy woman--it's nothing +but nat'ral that he should want to get her out of such an old rat-hole +as this, where many's the fine-timbered creature, both he and she, that +has lain to rot, and has never got out of the old trap at all, first +or last'----'How so?' I interrupted him; 'surely they don't detain the +corpses of prisoners?' 'Ay, but mind you--put case that he or that she +should die in this rat-trap before sentence is past, why then the prison +counts them as its own children, and buries them in its own chapel--that +old stack of pigeon-holes that you see up yonder to the right hand.' So +then, after all, thought I, if my poor Agnes should, in her desolation +and solitary confinement to these wretched walls, find her frail +strength give way--should the moral horrors of her situation work their +natural effect upon her health, and she should chance to die within this +dungeon, here within this same dungeon will she lie to the resurrection, +and in that case her prison-doors have already closed upon her for +ever. The man, who perhaps had some rough kindness in his nature, +though tainted by the mercenary feelings too inevitably belonging to +his situation, seemed to guess at the character of my ruminations by the +change of my countenance, for he expressed some pity for my being 'in +so much trouble;' and it seemed to increase his respect for me that this +trouble should be directed to the case of a woman, for he appeared +to have a manly sense of the peculiar appeal made to the honor and +gallantry of man, by the mere general fact of the feebleness and the +dependence of woman. I looked at him more attentively in consequence of +the feeling tone in which he now spoke, and was surprised that I had not +more particularly noticed him before; he was a fine looking, youngish +man, with a bold Robin-hood style of figure and appearance; and, morally +speaking, he was absolutely transfigured to my eyes by the effect worked +upon him for the moment, through the simple calling up of his better +nature. However, he recurred to his cautions about the peril in a legal +sense of tampering with the windows, bolts, and bars of the old decaying +prison; which, in fact, precisely according to the degree in which its +absolute power over its prisoners was annually growing less and less, +grew more and more jealous of its own reputation, and punished the +attempts to break loose with the more severity, in exact proportion as +they were the more tempting by the chances of success. I persisted in +disowning any schemes of the sort, and especially upon the ground of +their hopelessness. But this, on the other hand, was a ground that in +his inner thoughts he treated with scorn; and I could easily see that, +with a little skilful management of opportunity, I might, upon occasion, +draw from him all the secrets he knew as to the special points of +infirmity in this old ruinous building. For the present, and until it +should certainly appear that there was some use to be derived from +this species of knowledge, I forbore to raise superfluous suspicions +by availing myself further of his communicative disposition. Taking, +however, the precaution of securing his name, together with his +particular office and designation in the prison, I parted from him as +if to go home, but in fact to resume my sad roamings up and down the +precincts of the jail. + +What made these precincts much larger than otherwise they would have +been, was the circumstance that, by a usage derived from older days, +both criminal prisoners and those who were prisoners for debt, equally +fell under the custody of this huge caravanserai for the indifferent +reception of crime, of misdemeanor, and of misfortune. And those who +came under the two first titles, were lodged here through all stages of +their connection with public justice; alike when mere objects of vague +suspicion to the police, when under examination upon a specific charge, +when fully committed for trial, when convicted and under sentence, +awaiting the execution of that sentence, and, in a large proportion of +cases, even through their final stage of punishment, when it happened +to be of any nature compatible with in-door confinement. Hence it arose +that the number of those who haunted the prison gates, with or without +a title to admission, was enormous; all the relatives, or more properly +the acquaintances and connections of the criminal population within +the prison, being swelled by all the families of needy debtors who came +daily, either to offer the consolation of their society, or to diminish +their common expenditure by uniting their slender establishments. One +of the rules applied to the management of this vast multitude that were +every day candidates for admission was, that to save the endless trouble +as well as risk, perhaps, of opening and shutting the main gates +to every successive arrival, periodic intervals were fixed for the +admission by wholesale; and as these periods came round every two hours, +it would happen at many parts of the day that vast crowds accumulated +waiting for the next opening of the gate. These crowds were assembled +in two or three large outer courts, in which also were many stalls and +booths, kept there upon some local privilege of ancient inheritance, +or upon some other plea made good by gifts or bribes--some by Jews +and others by Christians, perhaps equally Jewish. Superadded to these +stationary elements of this miscellaneous population, were others drawn +thither by pure motives of curiosity, so that altogether an almost +permanent mob was gathered together in these courts; and amid this mob +it was,--from I know not what definite motive, partly because I thought +it probable that amongst these people I should hear the cause of Agnes +peculiarly the subject of conversation; and so, in fact, it did really +happen,--but partly, and even more, I believe, because I now awfully +began to shrink from solitude. Tumult I must have, and distraction of +thought. Amid this mob, I say, it was that I passed two days. Feverish I +had been from the first--and from bad to worse, in such a case, was, at +any rate, a natural progress; but, perhaps, also amongst this crowd of +the poor, the abjectly wretched, the ill-fed, the desponding, and the +dissolute, there might be very naturally a larger body of contagion +lurking than according to their mere numerical expectations. There was +at that season a very extensive depopulation going on in some quarters +of this great metropolis, and in other cities of the same empire, by +means of a very malignant typhus. This fever is supposed to be the +peculiar product of jails; and though it had not as yet been felt as +a scourge and devastator of this particular jail, or at least the +consequent mortality had been hitherto kept down to a moderate amount, +yet it was highly probable that a certain quantity of contagion, much +beyond the proportion of other popular assemblages less uniformly +wretched in their composition, was here to be found all day long; and +doubtless my excited state, and irritable habit of body, had offered +a peculiar predisposition that favored the rapid development of this +contagion. However this might be, the result was, that on the evening +of the second day which I spent in haunting the purlieus of the prison, +(consequently the night preceding the second public examination of +Agnes,) I was attacked by ardent fever in such unmitigated fury, that +before morning I had lost all command of my intellectual faculties. For +some weeks I became a pitiable maniac, and in every sense the wreck of +my former self; and seven entire weeks, together with the better half of +an eighth week, had passed over my head whilst I lay unconscious of time +and its dreadful freight of events, excepting in so far as my disordered +brain, by its fantastic coinages, created endless mimicries and +mockeries of these events--less substantial, but oftentimes less +afflicting, or less agitating. It would have been well for me had my +destiny decided that I was not to be recalled to this world of wo. But +I had no such happiness in store. I recovered, and through twenty and +eight years my groans have recorded the sorrow I feel that I did. + + * * * * * + +I shall not rehearse circumstantially, and point by point, the sad +unfolding, as it proceeded through successive revelations to me, of all +which had happened during my state of physical incapacity. When I first +became aware that my wandering senses had returned to me, and knew, by +the cessation of all throbbings, and the unutterable pains that had +so long possessed my brain, that I was now returning from the gates of +death, a sad confusion assailed me as to some indefinite cloud of evil +that had been hovering over me at the time when I first fell into a +state of insensibility. For a time I struggled vainly to recover the +lost connection of my thoughts, and I endeavored ineffectually to +address myself to sleep. I opened my eyes, but found the glare of light +painful beyond measure. Strength, however, it seemed to me that I had, +and more than enough, to raise myself out of bed. I made the attempt, +but fell back, almost giddy with the effort. At the sound of the +disturbance which I had thus made, a woman whom I did not know came from +behind a curtain, and spoke to me. Shrinking from any communication +with a stranger, especially one whose discretion I could not estimate in +making discoveries to me with the requisite caution, I asked her simply +what o'clock it was. + +'Eleven in the forenoon,' she replied. + +'And what day of the month?' + +'The second,' was her brief answer. + +I felt almost a sense of shame in adding--; 'The second! but of what +month?' + +'Of June,' was the startling rejoinder. + +On the 8th of April I had fallen ill, and it was now actually the 2d +of June. Oh! sickening calculation! revolting register of hours! for in +that same moment which brought back this one recollection, perhaps by +steadying my brain, rushed back in a torrent all the other dreadful +remembrances of the period, and now the more so, because, though the +event was still uncertain as regarded my knowledge, it must have become +dreadfully certain as regarded the facts of the case, and the happiness +of all who were concerned. Alas! one little circumstance too painfully +assured me that this event had not been a happy one. Had Agnes been +restored to her liberty and her home, where would she have been +found but watching at my bed-side? That too certainly I knew, and the +inference was too bitter to support. + +On this same day, some hours afterwards, upon Hannah's return from the +city, I received from her, and heard with perfect calmness, the whole +sum of evil which awaited me. Little Francis--she took up her tale at +that point--'was with God:' so she expressed herself. He had died of the +same fever which had attacked me--had died and been buried nearly +five weeks before. Too probably he had caught the infection from me. +Almost--such are the caprices of human feeling--almost I could have +rejoiced that this young memorial of my vanished happiness had vanished +also. It gave me a pang, nevertheless, that the grave should thus have +closed upon him before I had seen his fair little face again. But I +steeled my heart to hear worse things than this. Next she went on to +inform me that already, on the first or second day of our calamity, she +had taken upon herself, without waiting for authority, on observing the +rapid approaches of illness in me, and arguing the state of helplessness +which would follow, to write off at once a summons in the most urgent +terms to the brother of my wife. This gentleman, whom I shall call +Pierpoint, was a high-spirited, generous young man as I have ever known. +When I say that he was a sportsman, that at one season of the year he +did little else than pursue his darling amusement of fox-hunting, for +which indeed he had almost a maniacal passion--saying this, I shall +already have prejudged him in the opinions of many, who fancy all such +persons the slaves of corporeal enjoyments. But, with submission, the +truth lies the other way. According to my experience, people of these +habits have their bodies more than usually under their command, as being +subdued by severe exercise; and their minds, neither better nor worse on +an average than those of their neighbors, are more available from being +so much more rarely clogged by morbid habits in that uneasy yoke-fellow +of the intellectual part--the body. He at all events was a man to +justify in his own person this way of thinking; for he was a man not +only of sound, but even of bold and energetic intellect, and in all +moral respects one whom any man might feel proud to call his friend. +This young man, Pierpoint, without delay obeyed the summons; and on +being made acquainted with what had already passed, the first step he +took was to call upon Barratt, and without further question than what +might ascertain his identity, he proceeded to inflict upon him a severe +horsewhipping. A worse step on his sister's account he could not have +taken. Previously to this the popular feeling had run strongly against +Barratt, but now its unity was broken. A new element was introduced +into the question: Democratic feelings were armed against this outrage; +gentlemen and nobles, it was said, thought themselves not amenable +to justice; and again, the majesty of the law was offended at this +intrusion upon an affair already under solemn course of adjudication. +Everything, however, passes away under the healing hand of time, and +this also faded from the public mind. People remembered also that he +was a brother, and in that character, at any rate, had a right to some +allowances for his intemperance; and what quickened the oblivion of the +affair was, which in itself was sufficiently strange, that Barratt did +not revive the case in the public mind by seeking legal reparation for +his injuries. It was, however, still matter of regret that Pierpoint +should have indulged himself in this movement of passion, since +undoubtedly it broke and disturbed the else uniform stream of public +indignation, by investing the original aggressor with something like the +character of an injured person; and therefore with some set-off to plead +against his own wantonness of malice;--his malice might now assume the +nobler aspect of revenge. + +Thus far, in reporting the circumstances, Hannah had dallied--thus far +I had rejoiced that she dallied, with the main burden of the wo; but now +there remained nothing to dally with any longer--and she rushed along in +her narrative, hurrying to tell--I hurrying to hear. A second, a third +examination had ensued, then a final committal--all this within a week. +By that time all the world was agitated with the case; literally not +the city only, vast as that city was, but the nation was convulsed and +divided into parties upon the question, Whether the prosecution were one +of mere malice or not? The very government of the land was reported to +be equally interested, and almost equally divided in opinion. In this +state of public feeling came the trial. Image to yourself, oh reader, +whosoever you are, the intensity of the excitement which by that time +had arisen in all people to be spectators of the scene--then image to +yourself the effect of all this, a perfect consciousness that in +herself as a centre was settled the whole mighty interest of +the exhibition--that interest again of so dubious and mixed a +character--sympathy in some with mere misfortune--sympathy in others +with female frailty and guilt, not perhaps founded upon an absolute +unwavering belief in her innocence, even amongst those who were most +loud and positive as partisans in affirming it,--and then remember that +all this hideous scenical display and notoriety settled upon one whose +very nature, constitutionally timid, recoiled with the triple agony of +womanly shame--of matronly dignity--of insulted innocence, from every +mode and shape of public display. Combine all these circumstances and +elements of the case, and you may faintly enter into the situation of my +poor Agnes. Perhaps the best way to express it at once is by recurring +to the case of a young female Christian martyr, in the early ages of +Christianity, exposed in the bloody amphitheatre of Rome or Verona, to +'fight with wild beasts,' as it was expressed in mockery--she to fight +the lamb to fight with lions! But in reality the young martyr _had_ +a fight to maintain, and a fight (in contempt of that cruel mockery) +fiercer than the fiercest of her persecutors could have faced +perhaps--the combat with the instincts of her own shrinking, trembling, +fainting nature. Such a fight had my Agnes to maintain; and at that time +there was a large party of gentlemen in whom the gentlemanly instinct +was predominant, and who felt so powerfully the cruel indignities of her +situation, that they made a public appeal in her behalf. One thing, and +a strong one, which they said, was this:--'We all talk and move in this +case as if, because the question appears doubtful to some people, and +the accused party to some people wears a doubtful character, it would +follow that she therefore had in reality a mixed character composed in +joint proportions of the best and the worst that is imputed to her. But +let us not forget that this mixed character belongs not to her, but +to the infirmity of our human judgments--_they_ are mixed--_they_ are +dubious--but she is not--she is, or she is not, guilty--there is no +middle case--and let us consider for a single moment, that if this young +lady (as many among us heartily believe) _is_ innocent, then and upon +that supposition let us consider how cruel we should all think the +public exposure which aggravates the other injuries (as in that case +they must be thought) to which her situation exposes her.' They went on +to make some suggestions for the officers of the court in preparing +the arrangements for the trial, and some also for the guidance of +the audience, which showed the same generous anxiety for sparing the +feelings of the prisoner. If these did not wholly succeed in repressing +the open avowal of coarse and brutal curiosity amongst the intensely +vulgar, at least they availed to diffuse amongst the neutral and +indifferent part of the public a sentiment of respect and forbearance +which, emanating from high quarters, had a very extensive influence upon +most of what met the eye or the ear of my poor wife. She, on the day of +trial, was supported by her brother; and by that time she needed support +indeed. I was reported to be dying; her little son was dead; neither had +she been allowed to see him. Perhaps these things, by weaning her from +all further care about life, might have found their natural effect in +making her indifferent to the course of the trial, or even to its issue. +And so, perhaps, in the main, they did. But at times some lingering +sense of outraged dignity, some fitful gleams of old sympathies, +'the hectic of a moment,' came back upon her, and prevailed over the +deadening stupor of her grief. Then she shone for a moment into a starry +light--sweet and woful to remember. Then----but why linger? I hurry to +the close: she was pronounced guilty; whether by a jury or a bench of +judges, I do not say--having determined, from the beginning, to give no +hint of the land in which all these events happened; neither is that of +the slightest consequence. Guilty she was pronounced: but sentence at +that time was deferred. Ask me not, I beseech you, about the muff +or other circumstances inconsistent with the hostile evidence. These +circumstances had the testimony, you will observe, of my own servants +only; nay, as it turned out, of one servant exclusively: _that_ +naturally diminished their value. And, on the other side, evidence was +arrayed, perjury was suborned, that would have wrecked a wilderness of +simple truth trusting to its own unaided forces. What followed? Did this +judgment of the court settle the opinion of the public? Opinion of +the public! Did it settle the winds? Did it settle the motion of the +Atlantic? Wilder, fiercer, and louder grew the cry against the wretched +accuser: mighty had been the power over the vast audience of the +dignity, the affliction, the perfect simplicity, and the Madonna beauty +of the prisoner. That beauty so childlike, and at the same time so +saintly, made, besides, so touching in its pathos by means of the +abandonment--the careless abandonment and the infinite desolation of her +air and manner--would of itself, and without further aid, have made many +converts. Much more was done by the simplicity of her statements, and +the indifference with which she neglected to improve any strong points +in her own favor--the indifference, as every heart perceived, of +despairing grief. Then came the manners on the hostile side--the haggard +consciousness of guilt, the drooping tone, the bravado and fierce strut +which sought to dissemble all this. Not one amongst all the witnesses, +assembled on that side, had (by all agreement) the bold natural tone of +conscious uprightness. Hence it could not be surprising that the storm +of popular opinion made itself heard with a louder and a louder sound. +The government itself began to be disturbed; the ministers of the +sovereign were agitated; and, had no menaces been thrown out, it was +generally understood that they would have given way to the popular +voice, now continually more distinct and clamorous. In the midst of all +this tumult, obscure murmurs began to arise that Barratt had practised +the same or similar villanies in former instances. One case in +particular was beginning to be whispered about, which at once threw +a light upon the whole affair: it was the case of a young and very +beautiful married woman, who had been on the very brink of a catastrophe +such as had befallen my own wife, when some seasonable interference, of +what nature was not known, had critically delivered her. This case +arose 'like a little cloud no bigger than a man's hand,' then spread and +threatened to burst in tempest upon the public mind, when all at once, +more suddenly even than it had arisen, it was hushed up, or in some way +disappeared. But a trifling circumstance made it possible to trace +this case:--in after times, when means offered, but unfortunately no +particular purpose of good, nor any purpose, in fact, beyond that of +curiosity, it _was_ traced; and enough was soon ascertained to have +blown to fragments any possible conspiracy emanating from this Barratt, +had that been of any further importance. However, in spite of all that +money or art could effect, a sullen growl continued to be heard amongst +the populace of villanies many and profound that had been effected or +attempted by this Barratt; and accordingly, much in the same way as +was many years afterwards practised in London, when a hosier had caused +several young people to be prosecuted to death for passing forged +bank-notes, the wrath of the people showed itself in marking the shop +for vengeance upon any favorable occasion offering through fire or +riots, and in the mean time in deserting it. These things had been going +on for some time when I awoke from my long delirium; but the effect they +had produced upon a weak and obstinate and haughty government, or at +least upon the weak and obstinate and haughty member of the government +who presided in the police administration, was, to confirm and rivet the +line of conduct which had been made the object of popular denunciation. +More energetically, more scornfully, to express that determination of +flying in the face of public opinion and censure, four days before my +awakening, Agnes had been brought up to receive her sentence. On +that same day (nay, it was said in that same hour,) petitions, very +numerously signed, and various petitions from different ranks, different +ages, different sexes, were carried up to the throne, praying, upon +manifold grounds, but all noticing the extreme doubtfulness of the +case, for an unconditional pardon. By whose advice or influence, it was +guessed easily, though never exactly ascertained, these petitions were +unanimously, almost contemptuously rejected. And to express the contempt +of public opinion as powerfully as possible, Agnes was sentenced by the +court, reassembled in full pomp, order, and ceremonial costume, to a +punishment the severest that the laws allowed--viz. hard labor for ten +years. The people raged more than ever; threats public and private +were conveyed to the ears of the minister chiefly concerned in the +responsibility, and who had indeed, by empty and ostentatious talking, +assumed that responsibility to himself in a way that was perfectly +needless. + +Thus stood matters when I awoke to consciousness: and this was the +fatal journal of the interval--interval so long as measured by my fierce +calendar of delirium--so brief measured by the huge circuit of +events which it embraced, and their mightiness for evil. Wrath, wrath +immeasurable, unimaginable, unmitigable, burned at my heart like +a cancer. The worst had come. And the thing which kills a man for +action--the living in two climates at once--a torrid and a frigid +zone--of hope and fear--that was past. Weak--suppose I were for the +moment: I felt that a day or two might bring back my strength. No +miserable tremors of hope _now_ shook my nerves: if they shook from that +inevitable rocking of the waters that follows a storm, so much might +be pardoned to the infirmity of a nature that could not lay aside its +fleshly necessities, nor altogether forego its homage to 'these frail +elements,' but which by inspiration already lived within a region +where no voices were heard but the spiritual voices of transcendent +passions--of + + 'Wrongs unrevenged, and insults unredress'd.' + +Six days from that time I was well--well and strong. I rose from bed; I +bathed; I dressed; dressed as if I were a bridegroom. And that _was_ in +fact a great day in my life. I was to see Agnes. Oh! yes: permission had +been obtained from the lordly minister that I should see my wife. Is it +possible? Can such condescensions exist? Yes: solicitations from +ladies, eloquent notes wet with ducal tears, these had won from the +thrice-radiant secretary, redolent of roseate attar, a countersign to +some order or other, by which I--yes I--under license of a fop, and +supervision of a jailer--was to see and for a time to converse with my +own wife. + +The hour appointed for the first day's interview was eight o'clock +in the evening. On the outside of the jail all was summer light and +animation. The sports of children in the streets of mighty cities are +but sad, and too painfully recall the circumstances of freedom and +breezy nature that are not there. But still the pomp of glorious summer, +and the presence, 'not to be put by,' of the everlasting light, that +is either always present, or always dawning--these potent elements +impregnate the very city life, and the dim reflex of nature which is +found at the bottom of well-like streets, with more solemn powers to +move and to soothe in summer. I struck upon the prison gates, the first +among multitudes waiting to strike. Not because we struck, but because +the hour had sounded, suddenly the gate opened; and in we streamed. I, +as a visitor for the first time, was immediately distinguished by the +jailers, whose glance of the eye is fatally unerring. 'Who was it that I +wanted?' At the name a stir of emotion was manifest, even there: the dry +bones stirred and moved: the passions outside had long ago passed to the +interior of this gloomy prison: and not a man but had his hypothesis on +the case; not a man but had almost fought with some comrade (many had +literally fought) about the merits of their several opinions. + +If any man had expected a scene at this reunion, he would have been +disappointed. Exhaustion, and the ravages of sorrow, had left to dear +Agnes so little power of animation or of action, that her emotions were +rather to be guessed at, both for kind and for degree, than directly +to have been perceived. She was in fact a sick patient, far gone in an +illness that should properly have confined her to bed; and was as much +past the power of replying to my frenzied exclamations, as a dying +victim of fever of entering upon a strife of argument. In bed, however, +she was not. When the door opened she was discovered sitting at a table +placed against the opposite wall, her head pillowed upon her arms, and +these resting upon the table. Her beautiful long auburn hair had escaped +from its confinement, and was floating over the table and her own +person. She took no notice of the disturbance made by our entrance, did +not turn, did not raise her head, nor make an effort to do so, nor by +any sign whatever intimate that she was conscious of our presence, until +the turnkey in a respectful tone announced me. Upon that a low groan, or +rather a feeble moan, showed that she had become aware of my presence, +and relieved me from all apprehension of causing too sudden a shock by +taking her in my arms. The turnkey had now retired; we were alone. I +knelt by her side, threw my arms about her, and pressed her to my heart. +She drooped her head upon my shoulder, and lay for some time like one +who slumbered; but, alas! not as she had used to slumber. Her breathing, +which had been like that of sinless infancy, was now frightfully short +and quick; she seemed not properly to breathe, but to gasp. This, +thought I, may be sudden agitation, and in that case she will gradually +recover; half an hour will restore her. Wo is me! she did _not_ recover; +and internally I said--she never _will_ recover. The arrows have gone +too deep for a frame so exquisite in its sensibility, and already her +hours are numbered. + +At this first visit I said nothing to her about the past; _that_, and +the whole extent to which our communications should go, I left rather +to her own choice. At the second visit, however, upon some word or other +arising which furnished an occasion for touching on this hateful topic, +I pressed her, contrary to my own previous intention, for as full an +account of the fatal event as she could without a distressing effort +communicate. To my surprise she was silent--gloomily--almost it might +have seemed obstinately silent. A horrid thought came into my mind; +could it, might it have been possible that my noble-minded wife, such +she had ever seemed to me, was open to temptations of this nature? Could +it have been that in some moment of infirmity, when her better angel was +away from her side, she had yielded to a sudden impulse of frailty, +such as a second moment for consideration would have resisted, but which +unhappily had been followed by no such opportunity of retrieval? I +had heard of such things. Cases there were in our own times (and not +confined to one nation), when irregular impulses of this sort were known +to have haunted and besieged natures not otherwise ignoble and base. +I ran over some of the names amongst those which were taxed with this +propensity. More than one were the names of people in a technical sense +held noble. That, nor any other consideration abated my horror. Better, +I said, better, (because more compatible with elevation of mind,) better +to have committed some bloody act--some murderous act. Dreadful was the +panic I underwent. God pardon the wrong I did; and even now I pray +to him--as though the past thing were a future thing and capable +of change--that he would forbid her for ever to know what was the +derogatory thought I had admitted. I sometimes think, by recollecting a +momentary blush that suffused her marble countenance,--I think--I fear +that she might have read what was fighting in my mind. Yet that would +admit of another explanation. If she did read the very worst, meek +saint! she suffered no complaint or sense of that injury to escape her. +It might, however, be that perception, or it might be that fear which +roused her to an effort that otherwise had seemed too revolting to +undertake. She now rehearsed the whole steps of the affair from first to +last; but the only material addition, which her narrative made to that +which the trial itself had involved, was the following:--On two separate +occasions previous to the last and fatal one, when she had happened to +walk unaccompanied by me in the city, the monster Barratt had met her +in the street. He had probably--and this was, indeed, subsequently +ascertained--at first, and for some time afterwards, mistaken her rank, +and had addressed some proposals to her, which, from the suppressed +tone of his speaking, or from her own terror and surprise, she had not +clearly understood; but enough had reached her alarmed ear to satisfy +her that they were of a nature in the last degree licentious and +insulting. Terrified and shocked rather than indignant, for she too +easily presumed the man to be a maniac, she hurried homewards; and was +rejoiced, on first venturing to look round when close to her own gate, +to perceive that the man was not following. There, however, she was +mistaken; for either on this occasion, or on some other, he had traced +her homewards. The last of these rencontres had occurred just three +months before the fatal 6th of April; and if, in any one instance, Agnes +had departed from the strict line of her duty as a wife, or had shown +a defect of judgment, it was at this point--in not having frankly and +fully reported the circumstances to me. On the last of these occasions +I had met her at the garden-gate, and had particularly remarked that she +seemed agitated; and now, at recalling these incidents, Agnes reminded +me that I had noticed that circumstance to herself, and that she had +answered me faithfully as to the main fact. It was true she had done so; +for she had said that she had just met a lunatic who had alarmed her +by fixing his attention upon herself, and speaking to her in a ruffian +manner; and it was also true that she did sincerely regard him in that +light. This led me at the time to construe the whole affair into a +casual collision with some poor maniac escaping from his keepers, and of +no future moment, having passed by without present consequences. But had +she, instead of thus reporting her own erroneous impression, reported +the entire circumstances of the case, I should have given them a +very different interpretation. Affection for me, and fear to throw me +needlessly into a quarrel with a man of apparently brutal and violent +nature--these considerations, as too often they do with the most upright +wives, had operated to check Agnes in the perfect sincerity of her +communications. She had told nothing _but_ the truth--only, and fatally +it turned out for us both, she had not told the _whole_ truth. The very +suppression, to which she had reconciled herself, under the belief that +thus she was providing for my safety and her own consequent happiness, +had been the indirect occasion of ruin to both. It was impossible to +show displeasure under such circumstances, or under any circumstances, +to one whose self-reproaches were at any rate too bitter; but certainly, +as a general rule, every conscientious woman should resolve to consider +her husband's honor in the first case, and far before all other regards +whatsoever; to make this the first, the second, the third law of her +conduct, and his personal safety but the fourth or fifth. Yet women, +and especially when the interests of children are at stake upon their +husbands' safety, rarely indeed are able to take this Roman view of +their duties. + +To return to the narrative. Agnes had not, nor could have, the most +remote suspicion of this Barratt's connection with the shop which he had +not accidentally entered; and the sudden appearance of this wretch it +was, at the very moment of finding herself charged with so vile and +degrading an offence, that contributed most of all to rob her of her +natural firmness, by suddenly revealing to her terrified heart the depth +of the conspiracy which thus yawned like a gulf below her. And not only +had this sudden horror, upon discovering a guilty design in what before +had seemed accident, and links uniting remote incidents which else +seemed casual and disconnected, greatly disturbed and confused her +manner, which confusion again had become more intense upon her own +consciousness that she _was_ confused, and that her manner was greatly +to her disadvantage; but--which was the worst effect of all, because the +rest could not operate against her, except upon those who were present +to witness it, whereas this was noted down and recorded--so utterly +did her confusion strip her of all presence of mind, that she did not +consciously notice (and consequently could not protest against at +the moment when it was most important to do so, and most natural) the +important circumstance of the muff. This capital objection, therefore, +though dwelt upon and improved to the utmost at the trial, was looked +upon by the judges as an after-thought; and merely because it had not +been seized upon by herself, and urged in the first moments of her +almost incapacitating terror on finding this amongst the circumstances +of the charge against her--as if an ingenuous nature, in the very act of +recoiling with horror from a criminal charge the most degrading, and in +the very instant of discovering, with a perfect rapture of alarm, the +too plausible appearance of probability amongst the circumstances, would +be likely to pause, and with attorney-like dexterity, to pick out the +particular circumstance that might admit of being _proved_ to be false, +when the conscience proclaimed, though in despondence for the result, +that all the circumstances were, as to the use made of them, one tissue +of falsehoods. Agnes, who had made a powerful effort in speaking of the +case at all, found her calmness increase as she advanced; and she now +told me, that in reality there were two discoveries which she made in +the same instant, and not one only, which had disarmed her firmness and +ordinary presence of mind. One I have mentioned--the fact of Barratt, +the proprietor of the shop, being the same person who had in former +instances persecuted her in the street; but the other was even more +alarming--it has been said already that it was _not_ a pure matter of +accident that she had visited this particular shop. In reality, that +nursery-maid, of whom some mention has been made above, and in terms +expressing the suspicion with which even then I regarded her, had +persuaded her into going thither by some representations which Agnes +had already ascertained to be altogether unwarranted. Other presumptions +against this girl's fidelity crowded dimly upon my wife's mind at the +very moment of finding her eyes thus suddenly opened. And it was not +five minutes after her first examination, and in fact five minutes +after it had ceased to be of use to her, that she remembered another +circumstance which now, when combined with the sequel, told its own +tale,--the muff had been missed some little time before the 6th of +April. Search had been made for it; but, the particular occasion which +required it having passed off, this search was laid aside for the +present, in the expectation that it would soon reappear in some corner +of the house before it was wanted: then came the sunny day, which made +it no longer useful, and would perhaps have dismissed it entirely from +the recollection of all parties, until it was now brought back in this +memorable way. The name of my wife was embroidered within, upon the +lining, and it thus became a serviceable link to the hellish cabal +against her. Upon reviewing the circumstances from first to last, upon +recalling the manner of the girl at the time when the muff was missed, +and upon combining the whole with her recent deception, by which she had +misled her poor mistress into visiting this shop, Agnes began to see the +entire truth as to this servant's wicked collusion with Barratt, though, +perhaps, it might be too much to suppose her aware of the unhappy result +to which her collusion tended. All this she saw at a glance when it was +too late, for her first examination was over. This girl, I must add, had +left our house during my illness, and she had afterwards a melancholy +end. + +One thing surprised me in all this. Barratt's purpose must manifestly +have been to create merely a terror in my poor wife's mind, and to stop +short of any legal consequences, in order to profit of that panic and +confusion for extorting compliances with his hideous pretensions. It +perplexed me, therefore, that he did not appear to have pursued this +manifestly his primary purpose, the other being merely a mask to conceal +his true ends, and also (as he fancied) a means for effecting them. In +this, however, I had soon occasion to find that I was deceived. He had, +but without the knowledge of Agnes, taken such steps as were then open +to him, for making overtures to her with regard to the terms upon which +he would agree to defeat the charge against her by failing to appear. +But the law had travelled too fast for him, and too determinately; so +that, by the time he supposed terror to have operated sufficiently in +favor of his views, it had already become unsafe to venture upon such +explicit proposals as he would otherwise have tried. His own safety was +now at stake, and would have been compromised by any open or written +avowal of the motives on which he had been all along acting. In fact, at +this time he was foiled by the agent in whom he confided; but much +more he had been confounded upon another point--the prodigious interest +manifested by the public. Thus it seems--that, whilst he meditated only +a snare for my poor Agnes, he had prepared one for himself; and finally, +to evade the suspicions which began to arise powerfully as to his true +motives, and thus to stave off his own ruin, had found himself in a +manner obliged to go forward and consummate the ruin of another. + + * * * * * + +The state of Agnes, as to health and bodily strength, was now becoming +such that I was forcibly warned--whatsoever I meditated doing, to do +quickly. There was this urgent reason for alarm: once conveyed into +that region of the prison in which sentences like hers were executed, it +became hopeless that I could communicate with her again. All intercourse +whatsoever, and with whomsoever, was then placed under the most rigorous +interdict; and the alarming circumstance was, that this transfer was +governed by no settled rules, but might take place at any hour, and +would certainly be precipitated by the slightest violence on my part, +the slightest indiscretion, or the slightest argument for suspicion. +Hard indeed was the part I had to play, for it was indispensable that +I should appear calm and tranquil, in order to disarm suspicions around +me, whilst continually contemplating the possibility that I myself might +be summoned to extremities which I could not so much as trust myself to +name or distinctly to conceive. But thus stood the case: the Government, +it was understood, angered by the public opposition, resolute for the +triumph of what they called 'principle,' had settled finally that the +sentence should be carried into execution. Now that she, that my Agnes, +being the frail wreck that she had become, could have stood one week of +this sentence practically and literally enforced--was a mere chimera. A +few hours probably of the experiment would have settled that question +by dismissing her to the death she longed for; but because the suffering +would be short, was I to stand by and to witness the degradation--the +pollution--attempted to be fastened upon her. What! to know that her +beautiful tresses would be shorn ignominiously--a felon's dress forced +upon her--a vile taskmaster with authority to----; blistered be the +tongue that could go on to utter, in connection with her innocent name, +the vile dishonors which were to settle upon her person! I, however, and +her brother had taken such resolutions that this result was one barely +possible; and yet I sickened (yes, literally I many times experienced +the effect of physical sickness) at contemplating our own utter childish +helplessness, and recollecting that every night during our seclusion +from the prison the last irreversible step might be taken--and in the +morning we might find a solitary cell, and the angel form that had +illuminated it gone where we could not follow, and leaving behind her +the certainty that we should see her no more. Every night, at the hour +of locking up, _she_, at least, manifestly had a fear that she saw +us for the last time; she put her arms feebly about my neck, sobbed +convulsively, and, I believe, guessed--but, if really so, did not much +reprove or quarrel with the desperate purposes which I struggled with in +regard to her own life. One thing was quite evident--that to the peace +of her latter days, now hurrying to their close, it was indispensable +that she should pass them undivided from me; and possibly, as was +afterwards alleged, when it became easy to allege any thing, some +relenting did take place in high quarters at this time; for upon some +medical reports made just now, a most seasonable indulgence was granted, +viz. that Hannah was permitted to attend her mistress constantly; and +it was also felt as a great alleviation of the horrors belonging to this +prison, that candles were now allowed throughout the nights. But I was +warned privately that these indulgences were with no consent from +the police minister; and that circumstances might soon withdraw the +momentary intercession by which we profited. With this knowledge, we +could not linger in our preparations; we had resolved upon accomplishing +an escape for Agnes, at whatever risk or price; the main difficulty was +her own extreme feebleness, which might forbid her to co-operate with us +in any degree at the critical moment; and the main danger was--delay. We +pushed forward, therefore, in our attempts with prodigious energy, and I +for my part with an energy like that of insanity. + + * * * * * + +The first attempt we made was upon the fidelity to his trust of the +chief jailer. He was a coarse, vulgar man, brutal in his manners, but +with vestiges of generosity in his character--though damaged a good deal +by his daily associates. Him we invited to a meeting at a tavern in +the neighborhood of the prison, disguising our names as too certain to +betray our objects, and baiting our invitation with some hints which +we had ascertained were likely to prove temptations under his immediate +circumstances. He had a graceless young son whom he was most anxious to +wean from his dissolute connections, and to steady, by placing him in +some office of no great responsibility. Upon this knowledge we framed +the terms of our invitation. + +These proved to be effectual, as regarded our immediate object of +obtaining an interview of persuasion. The night was wet; and at seven +o'clock, the hour fixed for the interview, we were seated in readiness, +much perplexed to know whether he would take any notice of our +invitation. We had waited three quarters of an hour, when we heard a +heavy lumbering step ascending the stair. The door was thrown open +to its widest extent, and in the centre of the door-way stood a short +stout-built man, and the very broadest I ever beheld--staring at us with +bold inquiring eyes. His salutation was something to this effect. + +'What the hell do you gay fellows want with me? What the blazes is this +humbugging letter about? My son, and be hanged! What do you know of my +son?' + +Upon this overture we ventured to request that he would come in and +suffer us to shut the door, which we also locked. Next we produced the +official paper nominating his son to a small place in the customs,--not +yielding much, it was true, in the way of salary, but fortunately, and +in accordance with the known wishes of the father, unburdened with any +dangerous trust. + +'Well, I suppose I must say thank ye: but what comes next? What am I to +do to pay the damages?' We informed him that for this particular little +service we asked no return. + +'No, no,' said he, 'that'll not go down: that cat'll not jump. I'm +not green enough for that. So, say away--what's the damage?' We then +explained that we had certainly a favor and a great one to ask: ['Ay, +I'll be bound you have,' was his parenthesis:] but that for this we were +prepared to offer a separate remuneration; repeating that with respect +to the little place procured for his son, it had not cost us anything, +and therefore we did really and sincerely decline to receive anything +in return; satisfied that, by this little offering, we had procured +the opportunity of this present interview. At this point we withdrew a +covering from the table upon which we had previously arranged a heap of +gold coins, amounting in value to twelve hundred English guineas: this +being the entire sum which circumstances allowed us to raise on so +sudden a warning: for some landed property that we both had was so +settled and limited, that we could not convert it into money either +by way of sale, loan, or mortgage. This sum, stating to him its exact +amount, we offered to his acceptance, upon the single condition that he +would look aside, or wink hard, or (in whatever way he chose to express +it) would make, or suffer to be made, such facilities for our liberating +a female prisoner as we would point out. He mused: full five minutes he +sat deliberating without opening his lips. At length he shocked us by +saying, in a firm, decisive tone, that left us little hope of altering +his resolution,--'No: gentlemen, it's a very fair offer, and a good deal +of money for a single prisoner. I think I can guess at the person. It's +a fair offer--fair enough. But, bless your heart! if I were to do the +thing you want--why perhaps another case might be overlooked: but this +prisoner, no: there's too much depending. No, they would turn me out of +my place. Now the place is worth more to me in the long run than what +you offer: though you bid fair enough, if it were only for my time in +it. But look here: in case I can get my son to come into harness, I'm +expecting to get the office for him after I've retired. So I can't do +it. But I'll tell you what: you've been kind to my son: and therefore +I'll not say a word about it. You're safe for me. And so good-night +to you.' Saying which, and standing no further question, he walked +resolutely out of the room and down stairs. + +Two days we mourned over this failure, and scarcely knew which way +to turn for another ray of hope;--on the third morning we received +intelligence that this very jailer had been attacked by the fever, +which, after long desolating the city, had at length made its way into +the prison. In a very few days the jailer was lying without hope of +recovery: and of necessity another person was appointed to fill his +station for the present. This person I had seen, and I liked him less +by much than the one he succeeded: he had an Italian appearance, and he +wore an air of Italian subtlety and dissimulation. I was surprised to +find, on proposing the same service to him, and on the same terms, that +he made no objection whatever, but closed instantly with my offers. In +prudence, however, I had made this change in the articles: a sum equal +to two hundred English guineas, or one-sixth part of the whole money, he +was to receive beforehand as a retaining fee; but the remainder was to +be paid only to himself, or to anybody of his appointing, at the very +moment of our finding the prison gates thrown open to us. He spoke +fairly enough, and seemed to meditate no treachery; nor was there any +obvious or known interest to serve by treachery; and yet I doubted him +grievously. + +The night came: it was chosen as a gala night, one of two nights +throughout the year in which the prisoners were allowed to celebrate a +great national event: and in those days of relaxed prison management +the utmost license was allowed to the rejoicing. This indulgence was +extended to prisoners of all classes, though, of course, under more +restrictions with regard to the criminal class. Ten o'clock came--the +hour at which we had been instructed to hold ourselves in readiness. +We had been long prepared. Agnes had been dressed by Hannah in such a +costume externally (a man's hat and cloak, &c.) that, from her height, +she might easily have passed amongst a mob of masquerading figures in +the debtors' halls and galleries for a young stripling. Pierpoint and +myself were also to a certain degree disguised; so far, at least, that +we should not have been recognized at any hurried glance by those of the +prison officers who had become acquainted with our persons. We were all +more or less disguised about the face; and in that age when masks were +commonly used at all hours by people of a certain rank, there would have +been nothing suspicious in any possible costume of the kind in a night +like this, if we could succeed in passing for friends of debtors. + +I am impatient of these details, and I hasten over the ground. One +entire hour passed away, and no jailer appeared. We began to despond +heavily; and Agnes, poor thing! was now the most agitated of us all. +At length eleven struck in the harsh tones of the prison-clock. A +few minutes after, we heard the sound of bolts drawing, and bars +unfastening. The jailer entered--drunk, and much disposed to be +insolent. I thought it advisable to give him another bribe, and he +resumed the fawning insinuation of his manner. He now directed us, by +passages which he pointed out, to gain the other side of the prison. +There we were to mix with the debtors and their mob of friends, and +to await his joining us, which in that crowd he could do without much +suspicion. He wished us to traverse the passages separately; but this +was impossible, for it was necessary that one of us should support Agnes +on each side. I previously persuaded her to take a small quantity +of brandy, which we rejoiced to see had given her, at this moment of +starting, a most seasonable strength and animation. The gloomy passages +were more than usually empty, for all the turnkeys were employed in a +vigilant custody of the gates, and examination of the parties going out. +So the jailer had told us, and the news alarmed us. We came at length to +a turning which brought us in sight of a strong iron gate, that divided +the two main quarters of the prison. For this we had not been prepared. +The man, however, opened the gate without a word spoken, only putting +out his hand for a fee; and in my joy, perhaps, I gave him one +imprudently large. After passing this gate, the distant uproar of the +debtors guided us to the scene of their merriment; and when there, such +was the tumult and the vast multitude assembled, that we now hoped in +good earnest to accomplish our purpose without accident. Just at this +moment the jailer appeared in the distance; he seemed looking towards +us, and at length one of our party could distinguish that he was +beckoning to us. We went forward, and found him in some agitation, real +or counterfeit. He muttered a word or two quite unintelligible about the +man at the wicket, told us we must wait a while, and he would then see +what could be done for us. We were beginning to demur, and to express +the suspicions which now too seriously arose, when he, seeing, or +affecting to see some object of alarm, pushed us with a hurried movement +into a cell opening upon the part of the gallery at which we were now +standing. Not knowing whether we really might not be retreating from +some danger, we could do no otherwise than comply with his signals; but +we were troubled at finding ourselves immediately locked in from the +outside, and thus apparently all our motions had only sufficed to +exchange one prison for another. + +We were now completely in the dark, and found, by a hard breathing from +one corner of the little dormitory, that it was not unoccupied. Having +taken care to provide ourselves separately with means for striking a +light, we soon had more than one torch burning. The brilliant light +falling upon the eyes of a man who lay stretched on the iron bedstead, +woke him. It proved to be my friend the under-jailer, Ratcliffe, but +no longer holding any office in the prison. He sprang up, and a rapid +explanation took place. He had become a prisoner for debt; and on this +evening, after having caroused through the day with some friends +from the country, had retired at an early hour to sleep away +his intoxication. I on my part thought it prudent to intrust him +unreservedly with our situation and purposes, not omitting our gloomy +suspicions. Ratcliffe looked, with a pity that won my love, upon the +poor wasted Agnes. He had seen her on her first entrance into the +prison, had spoken to her, and therefore knew _from_ what she had +fallen, _to_ what. Even then he had felt for her; how much more at this +time, when he beheld, by the fierce light of the torches, her wo-worn +features! + +'Who was it,' he asked eagerly, 'you made the bargain with? Manasseh?' + +'The same.' + +'Then I can tell you this--not a greater villain walks the earth. He is +a Jew from Portugal; he has betrayed many a man, and will many another, +unless he gets his own neck stretched, which might happen, if I told all +I know.' + +'But what was it probable that this man meditated? Or how could it +profit him to betray us?' + +'That's more than I can tell. He wants to get your money, and that he +doesn't know how to bring about without doing his part. But that's what +he never _will_ do, take my word for it. That would cut him out of all +chance for the head-jailer's place.' He mused a little, and then told us +that he could himself put us outside the prison walls, and _would_ do it +without fee or reward. 'But we must be quiet, or that devil will bethink +him of me. I'll wager something he thought that I was out merry-making +like the rest; and if he should chance to light upon the truth, he'll be +back in no time.' Ratcliffe then removed an old fire-grate, at the back +of which was an iron plate, that swung round into a similar fire-place +in the contiguous cell. From that, by a removal of a few slight +obstacles, we passed, by a long avenue, into the chapel. Then he left +us, whilst he went out alone to reconnoitre his ground. Agnes was now +in so pitiable a condition of weakness, as we stood on the very brink of +our final effort, that we placed her in a pew, where she could rest as +upon a sofa. Previously we had stood upon graves, and with monuments +more or less conspicuous all around us: some raised by friends to +the memory of friends--some by subscriptions in the prison--some by +children, who had risen into prosperity, to the memory of a father, +brother, or other relative, who had died in captivity. I was grieved +that these sad memorials should meet the eye of my wife at this moment +of awe and terrific anxiety. Pierpoint and I were well armed, and all +of us determined not to suffer a recapture, now that we were free of the +crowds that made resistance hopeless. This Agnes easily perceived; +and _that_, by suggesting a bloody arbitration, did not lessen her +agitation. I hoped therefore, that, by placing her in the pew, I might +at least liberate her for the moment from the besetting memorials of +sorrow and calamity. But, as if in the very teeth of my purpose, one of +the large columns which supported the roof of the chapel, had its basis +and lower part of the shaft in this very pew. On the side of it, and +just facing her as she lay reclining on the cushions, appeared a +mural tablet, with a bas-relief in white marble, to the memory of two +children, twins, who had lived and died at the same time, and in +this prison--children who had never breathed another air than that of +captivity, their parents having passed many years within these walls, +under confinement for debt. The sculptures were not remarkable, being a +trite, but not the less affecting, representation of angels descending +to receive the infants; but the hallowed words of the inscription, +distinct and legible--'Suffer little children to come unto me, and +forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of God'--met her eye, +and, by the thoughts they awakened, made me fear that she would become +unequal to the exertions which yet awaited her. At this moment Ratcliffe +returned, and informed us that all was right; and that, from the ruinous +state of all the buildings which surrounded the chapel, no difficulty +remained for us, who were, in fact, beyond the strong part of the +prison, excepting at a single door, which we should be obliged to break +down. But had we any means arranged for pursuing our flight, and turning +this escape to account when out of confinement? All that, I assured him, +was provided for long ago. We proceeded, and soon reached the door. We +had one crow-bar amongst us, but beyond that had no better weapons +than the loose stones found about some new-made graves in the chapel. +Ratcliffe and Pierpoint, both powerful men, applied themselves by turns +to the door, whilst Hannah and I supported Agnes. The door did not +yield, being of enormous strength; but the wall did, and a large mass +of stone-work fell outwards, twisting the door aside; so that, by +afterwards working with our hands, we removed stones many enough to +admit of our egress. Unfortunately this aperture was high above the +ground, and it was necessary to climb over a huge heap of loose rubbish +in order to profit by it. My brother-in-law passed first in order to +receive my wife, quite helpless at surmounting the obstacle by her own +efforts, out of my arms. He had gone through the opening, and, turning +round so as to face me, he naturally could see something that I did +_not_ see. 'Look behind!' he called out rapidly. I did so, and saw the +murderous villain Manasseh with his arm uplifted, and in the act of +cutting at my wife, nearly insensible as she was, with a cutlass. The +blow was not for me, but for her, as the fugitive prisoner; and the law +would have borne him out in the act. I saw, I comprehended the whole. I +groped, as far as I could without letting my wife drop, for my pistols; +but all that I could do would have been unavailing, and too late--she +would have been murdered in my arms. But--and that was what none of us +saw--neither I, nor Pierpoint, nor the hound Manasseh--one person stood +back in the shade; one person had seen, but had not uttered a word +on seeing Manasseh advancing through the shades; one person only +had forecast the exact succession of all that was coming; me she saw +embarrassed and my hands preoccupied--Pierpoint and Ratcliffe useless +by position--and the gleam of the dog's eye directed her to his aim. The +crow-bar was leaning against the shattered wall. This she had silently +seized. One blow knocked up the sword; a second laid the villain +prostrate. At this moment appeared another of the turnkeys advancing +from the rear, for the noise of our assault upon the door had drawn +attention in the interior of the prison, from which, however, no great +number of assistants could on this dangerous night venture to absent +themselves. What followed for the next few minutes hurried onwards, +incident crowding upon incident, like the motions of a dream:--Manasseh, +lying on the ground, yelled out, 'The bell! the bell!' to him who +followed. The man understood, and made for the belfry-door attached +to the chapel; upon which Pierpoint drew a pistol, and sent the bullet +whizzing past his ear so truly, that fear made the man obedient to the +counter-orders of Pierpoint for the moment. He paused and awaited the +issue. In a moment had all cleared the wall, traversed the waste ground +beyond it, lifted Agnes over the low railing, shaken hands with our +benefactor Ratcliffe, and pushed onwards as rapidly as we were able +to the little dark lane, a quarter of a mile distant, where had stood +waiting for the last two hours a chaise-and-four. + +[Ratcliffe, before my story closes, I will pursue to the last of my +acquaintance with him, according to the just claims of his services. He +had privately whispered to me, as we went along, that he could speak to +the innocence of that lady, pointing to my wife, better than anybody. +He was the person whom (as then holding an office in the prison) Barratt +had attempted to employ as agent in conveying any messages that he found +it safe to send--obscurely hinting the terms on which he would desist +from prosecution. Ratcliffe had at first undertaken the negotiation from +mere levity of character. But when the story and the public interest +spread, and after himself becoming deeply struck by the prisoner's +affliction, beauty, and reputed innocence, he had pursued it only as a +means of entrapping Barratt into such written communications and such +private confessions of the truth as might have served Agnes effectually. +He wanted the art, however, to disguise his purposes: Barratt came to +suspect him violently, and feared his evidence so far, even for those +imperfect and merely oral overtures which he had really sent through +Ratcliffe--that on the very day of the trial, he, as was believed, +though by another nominally, contrived that Ratcliffe should be arrested +for debt; and, after harassing him with intricate forms of business, had +finally caused him to be conveyed to prison. Ratcliffe was thus involved +in his own troubles at the time; and afterwards supposed that, without +written documents to support his evidence, he could not be of much +service to the re-establisment of my wife's reputation. Six months after +his services in the night-escape from the prison, I saw him, and pressed +him to take the money so justly forfeited to him by Manasseh's perfidy. +He would, however, be persuaded to take no more than paid his debts. A +second and a third time his debts were paid by myself and Pierpoint. +But the same habits of intemperance and dissolute pleasure which led him +into these debts, finally ruined his constitution; and he died, though +otherwise of a fine generous manly nature, a martyr to dissipation at +the early age of twenty-nine. With respect to his prison confinement, it +was so frequently recurring in his life, and was alleviated by so many +indulgences, that he scarcely viewed it as a hardship: having once been +an officer of the prison, and having thus formed connections with the +whole official establishment, and done services to many of them, and +being of so convivial a turn, he was, even as a prisoner, treated with +distinction, and considered as a privileged son of the house.] + +It was just striking twelve o'clock as we entered the lane where the +carriage was drawn up. Rain, about the profoundest I had ever witnessed, +was falling. Though near to midsummer, the night had been unusually dark +to begin with, and from the increasing rain had become much more so. We +could see nothing; and at first we feared that some mistake had occurred +as to the station of the carriage--in which case we might have sought +for it vainly through the intricate labyrinth of the streets in +that quarter. I first descried it by the light of a torch, reflected +powerfully from the large eyes of the leaders. All was ready. +Horse-keepers were at the horses' heads. The postilions were mounted; +each door had the steps let down: Agnes was lifted in: Hannah and I +followed: Pierpoint mounted his horse; and at the word--Oh! how strange +a word!--'_All's right_,' the horses sprang off like leopards, a manner +ill-suited to the slippery pavement of a narrow street. At that moment, +but we valued it little indeed, we heard the prison-bell ringing out +loud and clear. Thrice within the first three minutes we had to pull up +suddenly, on the brink of formidable accidents, from the dangerous +speed we maintained, and which, nevertheless, the driver had orders to +maintain, as essential to our plan. All the stoppages and hinderances +of every kind along the road had been anticipated previously, and met by +contrivance, of one kind or other; and Pierpoint was constantly a +little ahead of us to attend to anything that had been neglected. The +consequence of these arrangements was--that no person along the road +could possibly have assisted to trace us by any thing in our appearance: +for we passed all objects at too flying a pace, and through darkness too +profound, to allow of any one feature in our equipage being distinctly +noticed. Ten miles out of town, a space which we traversed in forty-four +minutes, a second relay of horses was ready; but we carried on the same +postilions throughout. Six miles ahead of this distance we had a second +relay; and with this set of horses, after pushing two miles further +along the road, we crossed by a miserable lane five miles long, scarcely +even a bridge road, into another of the great roads from the capital; +and by thus crossing the country, we came back upon the city at a point +far distant from that at which we left it. We had performed a distance +of forty-two miles in three hours, and lost a fourth hour upon the +wretched five miles of cross-road. It was, therefore, four o'clock, and +broad daylight, when we drew near the suburbs of the city; but a most +happy accident now favored us; a fog the most intense now prevailed; +nobody could see an object six feet distant; we alighted in an +uninhabited new-built street, plunged into the fog, thus confounding our +traces to any observer. We then stepped into a hackney-coach which had +been stationed at a little distance. Thence, according to our plan, we +drove to a miserable quarter of the town, whither the poor only and the +wretched resorted; mounted a gloomy dirty staircase, and, befriended by +the fog, still growing thicker and thicker, and by the early hour of the +morning, reached a house previously hired, which, if shocking to the eye +and the imagination from its squalid appearance and its gloom, still +was a home--a sanctuary--an asylum from treachery, from captivity, from +persecution. Here Pierpoint for the present quitted us: and once more +Agnes, Hannah, and I, the shattered members of a shattered family, were +thus gathered together in a house of our own. + +Yes: once again, daughter of the hills, thou sleptst as heretofore in my +encircling arms; but not again in that peace which crowned thy innocence +in those days, and should have crowned it now. Through the whole of our +flying journey, in some circumstances at its outset strikingly recalling +to me that blessed one which followed our marriage, Agnes slept away +unconscious of our movements. She slept through all that day and the +following night; and I watched over her with as much jealousy of all +that might disturb her, as a mother watches over her new-born baby; for +I hoped, I fancied, that a long--long rest, a rest, a halcyon calm, a +deep, deep Sabbath of security, might prove healing and medicinal. I +thought wrong; her breathing became more disturbed, and sleep was now +haunted by dreams; all of us, indeed, were agitated by dreams; the past +pursued me, and the present, for high rewards had been advertised by +Government to those who traced us; and though for the moment we were +secure, because we never went abroad, and could not have been naturally +sought in such a neighborhood, still that very circumstance would +eventually operate against us. At length, every night I dreamed of +our insecurity under a thousand forms; but more often by far my dreams +turned upon our wrongs; wrath moved me rather than fear. Every night, +for the greater part, I lay painfully and elaborately involved, by deep +sense of wrong, + + '--in long orations, which I pleaded + Before unjust tribunals.' + [Footnote: From a MS. poem of a great living Poet.] + +And for poor Agnes, her also did the remembrance of mighty wrongs occupy +through vast worlds of sleep in the same way--though colored by +that tenderness which belonged to her gentler nature. One dream in +particular--a dream of sublime circumstances--she repeated to me so +movingly, with a pathos so thrilling, that by some profound sympathy +it transplanted itself to my own sleep, settled itself there, and is to +this hour a part of the fixed dream scenery which revolves at intervals +through my sleeping life. This it was:--She would hear a trumpet +sound--though perhaps as having been the prelude to the solemn entry of +the judges at a town which she had once visited in her childhood; other +preparations would follow, and at last all the solemnities of a great +trial would shape themselves and fall into settled images. The audience +was assembled, the judges were arrayed, the court was set. The prisoner +was cited. Inquest was made, witnesses were called; and false witnesses +came tumultuously to the bar. Then again a trumpet was heard, but the +trumpet of a mighty archangel; and then would roll away thick clouds and +vapors. Again the audience, but another audience, was assembled; again +the tribunal was established; again the court was set; but a tribunal +and a court--how different to her! _That_ had been composed of men +seeking indeed for truth, but themselves erring and fallible creatures; +the witnesses had been full of lies, the judges of darkness. But +here was a court composed of heavenly witnesses--here was a righteous +tribunal--and then at last a judge that could not be deceived. The judge +smote with his eye a person who sought to hide himself in the crowd; +the guilty man stepped forward; the poor prisoner was called up to the +presence of the mighty judge; suddenly the voice of a little child was +heard ascending before her. Then the trumpet sounded once again; and +then there were new heavens and a new earth; and her tears and +her agitation (for she had seen her little Francis) awoke the poor +palpitating dreamer. + + * * * * * + +Two months passed on: nothing could possibly be done materially to raise +the standard of those wretched accommodations which the house +offered. The dilapidated walls, the mouldering plaster, the blackened +mantel-pieces, the stained and polluted wainscots--what could be +attempted to hide or to repair all this by those who durst not venture +abroad? Yet whatever could be done, Hannah did; and, in the mean time, +very soon indeed my Agnes ceased to see or to be offended by these +objects. First of all her sight went from her; and nothing which +appealed to that sense could ever more offend her. It is to me the one +only consolation I have, that my presence and that of Hannah, with such +innocent frauds as we concerted together, made her latter days pass in +a heavenly calm, by persuading her that our security was absolute, +and that all search after us had ceased, under a belief on the part of +Government that we had gained the shelter of a foreign land. All this +was a delusion; but it was a delusion--blessed be Heaven! which +lasted exactly as long as her life, and was just commensurate with its +necessity. I hurry over the final circumstances. + +There was fortunately now, even for me, no fear that the hand of any +policeman or emissary of justice could effectually disturb the latter +days of my wife; for, besides pistols always lying loaded in an inner +room, there happened to be a long narrow passage on entering the house, +which, by means of a blunderbuss, I could have swept effectually, and +cleared many times over; and I know what to do in a last extremity. +Just two months it was, to a day, since we had entered the house; and +it happened that the medical attendant upon Agnes, who awakened no +suspicion by his visits, had prescribed some opiate or anodyne which had +not come; being dark early, for it was now September, I had ventured out +to fetch it. In this I conceived there could be no danger. On my return +I saw a man examining the fastenings of the door. He made no opposition +to my entrance, nor seemed much to observe it--but I was disturbed. Two +hours after, both Hannah and I heard a noise about the door, and voices +in low conversation. It is remarkable that Agnes heard this also--so +quick had grown her hearing. She was agitated, but was easily calmed; +and at ten o'clock we were all in bed. The hand of Agnes was in mine; +so only she felt herself in security. She had been restless for an hour, +and talking at intervals in sleep. Once she certainly wakened, for she +pressed her lips to mine. Two minutes after, I heard something in +her breathing which did not please me. I rose hastily--brought a +light--raised her head--two long, long gentle sighs, that scarcely moved +the lips, were all that could be perceived. At that moment, at that very +moment, Hannah called out to me that the door was surrounded. 'Open it!' +I said; six men entered; Agnes it was they sought; I pointed to the bed; +they advanced, gazed, and walked away in silence. + +After this I wandered about, caring little for life or its affairs, and +roused only at times to think of vengeance upon all who had contributed +to lay waste my happiness. In this pursuit, however, I was confounded +as much by my own thoughts as by the difficulties of accomplishing my +purpose. To assault and murder either of the two principal agents in +this tragedy, what would it be, what other effect could it have, than to +invest them with the character of injured and suffering people, and thus +to attract a pity or a forgiveness at least to their persons which never +otherwise could have illustrated their deaths? I remembered, indeed, the +words of a sea-captain who had taken such vengeance as had offered at +the moment upon his bitter enemy and persecutor (a young passenger on +board his ship), who had informed against him at the Custom-house on his +arrival in port, and had thus effected the confiscation of his ship, +and the ruin of the captain's family. The vengeance, and it was all +that circumstances allowed, consisted in coming behind the young man +clandestinely and pushing him into the deep waters of the dock, when, +being unable to swim, he perished by drowning. 'And the like,' said the +captain, when musing on his trivial vengeance, 'and the like happens +to many an honest sailor.' Yes, thought I, the captain was right. The +momentary shock of a pistol-bullet--what is it? Perhaps it may save +the wretch after all from the pangs of some lingering disease; and then +again I shall have the character of a murderer, if known to have shot +him; he will with many people have no such character, but at worst the +character of a man too harsh (they will say), and possibly mistaken in +protecting his property. And then, if not known as the man who shot +him, where is the shadow even of vengeance? Strange it seemed to me, and +passing strange, that I should be the person to urge arguments in behalf +of letting this man escape. For at one time I had as certainly, as +inexorably, doomed him as ever I took any resolution in my life. But the +fact is, and I began to see it upon closer view, it is not easy by any +means to take an adequate vengeance for any injury beyond a very trivial +standard; and that with common magnanimity one does not care to avenge. +Whilst I was in this mood of mind, still debating with myself whether +I should or should not contaminate my hands with the blood of this +monster, and still unable to shut my eyes upon one fact, viz. that my +buried Agnes could above all things have urged me to abstain from such +acts of violence, too evidently useless, listlessly and scarcely knowing +what I was in quest of, I strayed by accident into a church where a +venerable old man was preaching at the very moment I entered; he was +either delivering as a text, or repeating in the course of his sermon, +these words--'Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord.' By +some accident also he fixed his eyes upon me at the moment; and +this concurrence with the subject then occupying my thoughts so much +impressed me, that I determined very seriously to review my half-formed +purposes of revenge; and well it was that I did so: for in that same +week an explosion of popular fury brought the life of this wretched +Barratt to a shocking termination, pretty much resembling the fate of +the De Witts in Holland. And the consequences to me were such, and so +full of all the consolation and indemnification which this world could +give me, that I have often shuddered since then at the narrow escape +I had had from myself intercepting this remarkable retribution. The +villain had again been attempting to play off the same hellish scheme +with a beautiful young rustic which had succeeded in the case of my +ill-fated Agnes. But the young woman in this instance had a high, and, +in fact, termagant spirit. Rustic as she was, she had been warned of the +character of the man; everybody, in fact, was familiar with the recent +tragedy. Either her lover or her brother happened to be waiting for +her outside the window. He saw in part the very tricks in the act of +perpetration by which some article or other, meant to be claimed as +stolen property, was conveyed into a parcel she had incautiously laid +down. He heard the charge against her made by Barratt, and seconded by +his creatures--heard her appeal--sprang to her aid--dragged the ruffian +into the street, when in less time than the tale could be told, and +before the police (though tolerably alert) could effectually interpose +for his rescue, the mob had so used or so abused the opportunity they +had long wished for, that he remained the mere disfigured wreck of what +had once been a man, rather than a creature with any resemblance to +humanity. I myself heard the uproar at a distance, and the shouts and +yells of savage exultation; they were sounds I shall never forget, +though I did not at that time know them for what they were, or +understood their meaning. The result, however, to me was something +beyond this, and worthy to have been purchased with my heart's blood. +Barratt still breathed; spite of his mutilations he could speak; he was +rational. One only thing he demanded--it was that his dying confession +might be taken. Two magistrates and a clergyman attended. He gave a +list of those whom he had trepanned, and had failed to trepan, by his +artifices and threats, into the sacrifice of their honor. He expired +before the record was closed, but not before he had placed my wife's +name in the latter list as the one whose injuries in his dying moments +most appalled him. This confession on the following day went into the +hands of the hostile minister, and my revenge was perfect. + + + + +THE SPANISH NUN. + + +Why is it that _Adventures_ are so generally repulsive to people of +meditative minds? It is for the same reason that any other want of law, +that any other anarchy is repulsive. Floating passively from action to +action, as helplessly as a withered leaf surrendered to the breath +of winds, the human spirit (out of which comes all grandeur of human +motions) is exhibited in mere _Adventures_, as either entirely laid +asleep, or as acting only by lower organs that regulate the _means_, +whilst the _ends_ are derived from alien sources, and are imperiously +predetermined. It is a case of exception, however, when even amongst +such adventures the agent reacts upon his own difficulties and +necessities by a temper of extraordinary courage, and a mind of +premature decision. Further strength arises to such an exception, if the +very moulding accidents of the life, if the very external coercions are +themselves unusually romantic. They may thus gain a separate interest of +their own. And, lastly, the whole is locked into validity of interest, +even for the psychological philosopher, by complete authentication +of its truth. In the case now brought before him, the reader must not +doubt; for no memoir exists, or personal biography, that is so trebly +authenticated by proofs and attestations direct and collateral. From the +archives of the Royal Marine at Seville, from the autobiography or the +heroine, from contemporary chronicles, and from several official sources +scattered in and out of Spain, some of them ecclesiastical, the +amplest proofs have been drawn, and may yet be greatly extended, of the +extraordinary events here recorded. M. de Ferrer, a Spaniard of much +research, and originally incredulous as to the facts, published about +seventeen years ago a selection from the leading documents, accompanied +by his _palinode_ as to their accuracy. His materials have been since +used for the basis of more than one narrative, not inaccurate, in +French, German and Spanish journals of high authority. It is seldom the +case that French writers err by prolixity. They _have_ done so in this +case. The present narrative, which contains no sentence derived from any +foreign one, has the great advantage of close compression; my own pages, +after equating the size, being as 1 to 3 of the shortest continental +form. In the mode of narration, I am vain enough to flatter myself +that the reader will find little reason to hesitate between us. Mine +at least, weary nobody; which is more than can be always said for the +continental versions. + +On a night in the year 1592, (but which night is a secret liable to 365 +answers,) a Spanish '_son of somebody_,' [Footnote: _i.e._ 'Hidalgo'] +in the fortified town of St. Sebastian, received the disagreeable +intelligence from a nurse, that his wife had just presented him with a +daughter. No present that the poor misjudging lady could possibly have +made him was so entirely useless for any purpose of his. He had three +daughters already, which happened to be more by 2+1 than _his_ reckoning +assumed as a reasonable allowance of daughters. A supernumerary son +might have been stowed away; but daughters in excess were the very +nuisance of Spain. He did, therefore, what in such cases every proud +and lazy Spanish gentleman was apt to do--he wrapped the new little +daughter, odious to his paternal eyes, in a pocket handkerchief; and +then, wrapping up his own throat with a good deal more care, off he +bolted to the neighboring convent of St. Sebastian, not merely of that +city, but also (amongst several convents) the one dedicated to that +saint. It is well that in this quarrelsome world we quarrel furiously +about tastes; since agreeing too closely about the objects to be +liked and appropriated would breed much more fighting than is bred by +disagreeing. That little human tadpole, which the old toad of a father +would not suffer to stay ten minutes in his house, proved as welcome at +the nunnery of St. Sebastian as she was odious elsewhere. The superior +of the convent was aunt, by the mother's side, to the new-born stranger. +She, therefore, kissed and blessed the little lady. The poor nuns, who +were never to have any babies of their own, and were languishing for +some amusement, perfectly doated on this prospect of a wee pet. The +superior thanked the hidalgo for his very splendid present. The nuns +thanked him each and all; until the old crocodile actually began to +cry and whimper sentimentally at what he now perceived to be excess of +munificence in himself. Munificence, indeed, he remarked, was his foible +next after parental tenderness. + +What a luxury it is sometimes to a cynic that there go two words to a +bargain. In the convent of St. Sebastian all was gratitude; gratitude +(as aforesaid) to the hidalgo from all the convent for his present, +until at last the hidalgo began to express gratitude to _them_ for their +gratitude to _him_. Then came a rolling fire of thanks to St. Sebastian; +from the superior, for sending a future saint; from the nuns, for +sending such a love of a plaything; and, finally, from papa, for sending +such substantial board and well-bolted lodgings, 'from which,' said the +malicious old fellow, 'my pussy will never find her way out to a thorny +and dangerous world.' Won't she? I suspect, son of somebody, that the +next time you see 'pussy,' which may happen to be also the last, +will not be in a convent of any kind. At present, whilst this general +rendering of thanks was going on, one person only took no part in them. +That person was 'pussy,' whose little figure lay quietly stretched out +in the arms of a smiling young nun, with eyes nearly shut, yet peering +a little at the candles. Pussy said nothing. It's of no great use to +say much, when all the world is against you. But if St. Sebastian had +enabled her to speak out the whole truth, pussy _would_ have said: 'So, +Mr. Hidalgo, you have been engaging lodgings for me; lodgings for life. +Wait a little. We'll try that question, when my claws are grown a little +longer.' + +Disappointment, therefore, was gathering ahead. But for the present +there was nothing of the kind. That noble old crocodile, papa, was not +in the least disappointed as regarded _his_ expectation of having +no anxiety to waste, and no money to pay, on account of his youngest +daughter. He insisted on his right to forget her; and in a week _had_ +forgotten her, never to think of her again but once. The lady superior, +as regarded _her_ demands, was equally content, and through a course of +several years; for, as often as she asked pussy if she would be a +saint, pussy replied that she would, if saints were allowed plenty of +sweetmeats. But least of all were the nuns disappointed. Everything that +they had fancied possible in a human plaything fell short of what pussy +realized in racketing, racing, and eternal plots against the peace of +the elder nuns. No fox ever kept a hen-roost in such alarm as pussy kept +the dormitory of the senior sisters; whilst the younger ladies were +run off their legs by the eternal wiles, and had their chapel gravity +discomposed, even in chapel, by the eternal antics of this privileged +little kitten. + +The kitten had long ago received a baptismal name, which was Kitty; this +is Catharine, or Kate, or _Hispanice_ Catalina. It was a good name, as +it recalled her original name of pussy. And, by the way, she had also an +ancient and honorable surname, viz., _De Erauso_, which is to this day a +name rooted in Biscay. Her father, the _hidalgo_, was a military officer +in the Spanish service, and had little care whether his kitten should +turn out a wolf or a lamb, having made over the fee simple of his own +interest in the little Kate to St. Sebastian, 'to have and to hold,' +so long as Kate should keep her hold of this present life. Kate had +no apparent intention to let slip that hold, for she was blooming as +a rose-bush in June, tall and strong as a young cedar. Yet, +notwithstanding this robust health and the strength of the convent +walls, the time was drawing near when St. Sebastian's lease in Kate +must, in legal phrase, 'determine;' and any _chateaux en Espagne_, +that the Saint might have built on the cloisteral fidelity of his pet +Catalina, must suddenly give way in one hour, like many other vanities +in our own days of Spanish bonds and promises. After reaching her tenth +year, Catalina became thoughtful, and not very docile. At times she +was even headstrong and turbulent, so that the gentle sisterhood of St. +Sebastian, who had no other pet or plaything in the world, began to weep +in secret--fearing that they might have been rearing by mistake some +future tigress--for as to infancy, _that_, you know, is playful and +innocent even in the cubs of a tigress. But _there_ the ladies were +going too far. Catalina was impetuous and aspiring, but not cruel. She +was gentle, if people would let her be so. But woe to those that +took liberties with _her_! A female servant of the convent, in some +authority, one day, in passing up the aisle to matins, _wilfully_ gave +Kate a push; and in return, Kate, who never left her debts in arrear, +gave the servant for a keepsake a look which that servant carried with +her in fearful remembrance to her grave. It seemed as if Kate had tropic +blood in her veins, that continually called her away to the tropics. It +was all the fault of that 'blue rejoicing sky,' of those purple Biscayan +mountains, of that tumultuous ocean, which she beheld daily from the +nunnery gardens. Or, if only half of it was _their_ fault, the other +half lay in those golden tales, streaming upwards even into the +sanctuaries of convents, like morning mists touched by earliest +sunlight, of kingdoms overshadowing a new world which had been founded +by her kinsmen with the simple aid of a horse and a lance. The reader is +to remember that this is no romance, or at least no fiction, that he +is reading; and it is proper to remind the reader of real romances in +Ariosto or our own Spenser, that such martial ladies as the _Marfisa_, +or _Bradamant_ of the first, and _Britomart_ of the other, were really +not the improbabilities that modern society imagines. Many a stout man, +as you will soon see, found that Kate, with a sabre in hand, and well +mounted, was but too serious a fact. + +The day is come--the evening is come--when our poor Kate, that had for +fifteen years been so tenderly rocked in the arms of St. Sebastian and +his daughters, and that henceforth shall hardly find a breathing space +between eternal storms, must see her peaceful cell, must see the holy +chapel, for the last time. It was at vespers, it was during the chanting +of the vesper service, that she finally read the secret signal for her +departure, which long she had been looking for. It happened that her +aunt, the Lady Principal, had forgotten her breviary. As this was in +a private 'scrutoire, she did not choose to send a servant for it, but +gave the key to her niece. The niece, on opening the 'scrutoire, saw, +with that rapidity of eye-glance for the one thing needed in any great +emergency, which ever attended her through life, that _now_ was the +moment for an attempt which, if neglected, might never return. There lay +the total keys, in one massive _trousseau_, of that fortress impregnable +even to armies from without. Saint Sebastian! do you see what your +pet is going to do? And do it she will, as sure as your name is St. +Sebastian. Kate went back to her aunt with the breviary and the key; but +taking good care to leave that awful door, on whose hinge revolved her +whole life, unlocked. Delivering the two articles to the Superior, she +complained of a headache--[Ah, Kate! what did you know of headaches, +except now and then afterwards from a stray bullet, or so?]--upon which +her aunt, kissing her forehead, dismissed her to bed. Now, then, through +three-fourths of an hour Kate will have free elbow-room for unanchoring +her boat, for unshipping her oars, and for pulling ahead right out of +St. Sebastian's cove into the main ocean of life. + +Catalina, the reader is to understand, does not belong to the class of +persons in whom chiefly I pretend to an interest. But everywhere one +loves energy and indomitable courage. I, for my part, admire not, by +preference, anything that points to this world. It is the child of +reverie and profounder sensibility who turns _away_ from the world as +hateful and insufficient, that engages _my_ interest: whereas Catalina +was the very model of the class fitted for facing this world, and who +express their love to it by fighting with it and kicking it from year to +year. But, always, what is best in its kind one admires, even though the +kind be disagreeable. Kate's advantages for her _role_ in this life lay +in four things, viz., in a well-built person, and a particularly strong +wrist; 2d, in a heart that nothing could appal; 3d, in a sagacious head, +never drawn aside from the _hoc age_ [from the instant question of life] +by any weakness of imagination; 4th, in a tolerably thick skin--not +literally, for she was fair and blooming, and decidedly handsome, having +such a skin as became a young woman of family in northernmost Spain. +But her sensibilities were obtuse as regarded _some_ modes of delicacy, +_some_ modes of equity, _some_ modes of the world's opinion, and +_all_ modes whatever of personal hardship. Lay a stress on that word +_some_--for, as to delicacy, she never lost sight of the kind which +peculiarly concerns her sex. Long afterwards she told the Pope himself, +when confessing without disguise her sad and infinite wanderings to the +paternal old man (and I feel convinced of her veracity), that in this +respect, even then, at middle age, she was as pure as is a child. And, +as to equity, it was only that she substituted the equity of camps for +the polished (but often more iniquitous) equity of courts and towns. As +to the third item--the world's opinion--I don't know that you need lay +a stress on _some_; for, generally speaking, _all_ that the world did, +said, or thought, was alike contemptible in her eyes, in which, perhaps, +she was not so _very_ far wrong. I must add, though at the cost of +interrupting the story by two or three more sentences, that Catalina had +also a fifth advantage, which sounds humbly, but is really of use in a +world, where even to fold and seal a letter adroitly is not the least +of accomplishments. She was a _handy_ girl. She could turn her hand to +anything, of which I will give you two memorable instances. Was there +ever a girl in this world but herself that cheated and snapped her +fingers at that awful Inquisition, which brooded over the convents of +Spain, that did this without collusion from outside, trusting to nobody, +but to herself, and what? to one needle, two hanks of thread, and a very +inferior pair of scissors? For, that the scissors were bad, though Kate +does not say so in her memoirs, I knew by an _a priori_ argument, viz., +because _all_ scissors were bad in the year 1607. Now, say all decent +logicians, from a universal to a particular _valet consequentia_, _all_ +scissors were bad: _ergo_, _some_ scissors were bad. The second instance +of her handiness will surprise you even more:--She once stood upon a +scaffold, under sentence of death--[but, understand, on the evidence +of false witnesses]. Jack Ketch was absolutely tying the knot under her +ear, and the shameful man of ropes fumbled so deplorably, that Kate (who +by much nautical experience had learned from another sort of 'Jack' +how a knot _should_ be tied in this world,) lost all patience with the +contemptible artist, told him she was ashamed of him, took the rope out +of his hand, and tied the knot irreproachably herself. The crowd saluted +her with a festal roll, long and loud, of _vivas_; and this word _viva_ +of good augury--but stop; let me not anticipate. + +From this sketch of Catalina's character, the reader is prepared to +understand the decision of her present proceeding. She had no time to +lose: the twilight favored her; but she must get under hiding before +pursuit commenced. Consequently she lost not one of her forty-five +minutes in picking and choosing. No _shilly-shally_ in Kate. She saw +with the eyeball of an eagle what was indispensable. Some little money +perhaps to pay the first toll-bar of life: so, out of four shillings in +Aunty's purse, she took one. You can't say _that_ was exorbitant. Which +of us wouldn't subscribe a shilling for poor Katy to put into the first +trouser pockets that ever she will wear? I remember even yet, as a +personal experience, that when first arrayed, at four years old, in +nankeen trousers, though still so far retaining hermaphrodite relations +of dress as to wear a petticoat above my trousers, all my female friends +(because they pitied me, as one that had suffered from years of ague) +filled my pockets with half-crowns, of which I can render no account at +this day. But what were my poor pretensions by the side of Kate's? Kate +was a fine blooming girl of fifteen, with no touch of ague, and, before +the next sun rises, Kate shall draw on her first trousers, and made by +her own hand; and, that she may do so, of all the valuables in Aunty's +repository she takes nothing beside the shilling, _quantum sufficit_ of +thread, one stout needle, and (as I told you before, if you would please +to remember things) one bad pair of scissors. Now she was ready; ready +to cast off St. Sebastian's towing-rope; ready to cut and run for port +anywhere. The finishing touch of her preparations was to pick out the +proper keys: even there she showed the same discretion. She did do no +gratuitous mischief. She did not take the wine-cellar key, which would +have irritated the good father confessor; she took those keys only that +belonged to _her_, if ever keys did; for they were the keys that locked +her out from her natural birthright of liberty. 'Show me,' says the +Romish Casuist, 'her right in law to let herself out of that nunnery.' +'Show us,' we reply, '_your_ right to lock her in.' + +Right or wrong, however, in strict casuistry, Kate was resolved to let +herself out; and _did_ so; and, for fear any man should creep in whilst +vespers lasted, and steal the kitchen grate, she locked her old friends +_in_. Then she sought a shelter. The air was not cold. She hurried into +a chestnut wood, and upon withered leaves slept till dawn. Spanish diet +and youth leaves the digestion undisordered, and the slumbers light. +When the lark rose, up rose Catalina. No time to lose, for she was still +in the dress of a nun, and liable to be arrested by any man in Spain. +With her _armed_ finger, [aye, by the way, I forgot the thimble; but +Kate did _not_]--she set to work upon her amply-embroidered petticoat. +She turned it wrong side out; and with the magic that only female hands +possess, she had soon sketched and finished a dashing pair of Wellington +trousers. All other changes were made according to the materials she +possessed, and quite sufficiently to disguise the two main perils--her +sex, and her monastic dedication. What was she to do next. Speaking of +Wellington trousers would remind _us_, but could hardly remind _her_, +of Vittoria, where she dimly had heard of some maternal relative. +To Vittoria, therefore, she bent her course; and, like the Duke of +Wellington, but arriving more than two centuries earlier, [though _he_ +too is an early riser,] she gained a great victory at that place. She +had made a two days' march, baggage far in the rear, and no provisions +but wild berries; she depended for anything better, as light-heartedly +as the Duke, upon attacking, sword in hand, storming her dear friend's +entrenchments, and effecting a lodgment in his breakfast-room, should he +happen to have one. This amiable relative, an elderly man, had but +one foible, or perhaps one virtue in this world; but _that_ he had in +perfection,--it was pedantry. On that hint Catalina spoke: she knew +by heart, from the services of the convent, a few Latin phrases. +Latin!--Oh, but _that_ was charming; and in one so young! The grave Don +owned the soft impeachment; relented at once, and clasped the hopeful +young gentleman in the Wellington trousers to his _uncular_ and rather +angular breast. In this house the yarn of life was of a mingled quality. +The table was good, but that was exactly what Kate cared little about. +The amusement was of the worst kind. It consisted chiefly in conjugating +Latin verbs, especially such as were obstinately irregular. To show +him a withered frost-bitten verb, that wanted its preterite, wanted its +supines, wanted, in fact, everything in this world, fruits or blossoms, +that make a verb desirable, was to earn the Don's gratitude for life. +All day long he was marching and countermarching his favorite +brigades of verbs--verbs frequentative, verbs inceptive, verbs +desiderative--horse, foot, and artillery; changing front, advancing from +the rear, throwing out skirmishing parties, until Kate, not given to +faint, must have thought of such a resource, as once in her life she had +thought so seasonably of a vesper headache. This was really worse than +St. Sebastian's. It reminds one of a French gayety in Thiebault or +some such author, who describes a rustic party, under equal despair, as +employing themselves in conjugating the verb _s'ennuyer,--Je m'ennuie, +tu t'ennuies, il s'ennuit; nous nous ennuyons_, &c.; thence to +the imperfect--_Je m'ennuyois, tu t'ennuyois_, &c.; thence to the +imperative--_Qu'il s'ennuye_, &c.; and so on through the whole +melancholy conjugation. Now, you know, when the time comes that, _nous +nous ennuyons_, the best course is, to part. Kate saw _that_; and she +walked off from the Don's [of whose amorous passion for defective +verbs one would have wished to know the catastrophe], and took from his +mantel-piece rather move silver than she had levied on her aunt. But the +Don also was a relative; and really he owed her a small cheque on his +banker for turning out on his field-days. A man, if he _is_ a kinsman, +has no right to bore one _gratis_. + +From Vittoria, Kate was guided by a carrier to Valladolid. Luckily, as +it seemed at first, but it made little difference in the end, here, at +Valladolid, were the King and his Court. Consequently, there was plenty +of regiments and plenty of regimental bands. Attracted by one of these, +Catalina was quietly listening to the music, when some street +ruffians, in derision of the gay colors and the form of her forest-made +costume--[rascals! one would like to have seen what sort of trousers +_they_ would have made with no better scissors!]--began to pelt her with +stones. Ah, my friends, of the genus _blackguard_, you little know who +it is that you are selecting for experiments. This is the one creature +of fifteen in all Spain, be the other male or female, whom nature, and +temper, and provocation have qualified for taking the conceit out of +you. This she very soon did, laying open a head or two with a sharp +stone, and letting out rather too little than too much of bad +Valladolid blood. But mark the constant villany of this world. +Certain Alguazils--very like some other Alguazils that I know nearer +home--having stood by quietly to see the friendless stranger insulted +and assaulted, now felt it their duty to apprehend the poor nun for +murderous violence: and had there been such a thing as a treadmill in +Valladolid, Kate was booked for a place on it without further inquiry. +Luckily, injustice does not _always_ prosper. A gallant young cavalier, +who had witnessed from his windows the whole affair, had seen the +provocation, and admired Catalina's behavior--equally patient at first +and bold at last--hastened into the street, pursued the officers, forced +them to release their prisoner, upon stating the circumstances of the +case, and instantly offered Catalina a situation amongst his retinue. +He was a man of birth and fortune; and the place offered, that of +an honorary page, not being at all degrading even to a 'daughter of +somebody,' was cheerfully accepted. Here Catalina spent a happy month. +She was now splendidly dressed in dark blue velvet, by a tailor that +did not work within the gloom of a chestnut forest. She and the young +cavalier, Don Francisco de Cardenas, were mutually pleased, and had +mutual confidence. All went well--when one evening, but, luckily, not +until the sun had been set so long as to make all things indistinct, who +should march into the ante-chamber of the cavalier but that sublime of +crocodiles, _Papa_, that we lost sight of fifteen years ago, and shall +never see again after this night. He had his crocodile tears all ready +for use, in working order, like a good industrious fire-engine. It was +absolutely to Catalina herself that he advanced; whom, for many reasons, +he could not be supposed to recognise--lapse of years, male attire, +twilight, were all against him. Still, she might have the family +countenance; and Kate thought he looked with a suspicious scrutiny into +her face, as he inquired for the young Don. To avert her own face, to +announce him to Don Francisco, to wish him on the shores of that ancient +river for crocodiles, the Nile, furnished but one moment's work to the +active Catalina. She lingered, however, as her place entitled her to +do, at the door of the audience chamber. She guessed already, but in a +moment she _heard_ from papa's lips what was the nature of his errand. +His daughter Catharine, he informed the Don, had eloped from the +convent of St. Sebastian, a place rich in delight. Then he laid open the +unparalleled ingratitude of such a step. Oh, the unseen treasure that +had been spent upon that girl! Oh, the untold sums of money that he had +sunk in that unhappy speculation! The nights of sleeplessness suffered +during her infancy! The fifteen years of solicitude thrown away in +schemes for her improvement! It would have moved the heart of a stone. +The _hidalgo_ wept copiously at his own pathos. And to such a height +of grandeur had he carried his Spanish sense of the sublime, that he +disdained to mention the pocket-handkerchief which he had left at St. +Sebastian's fifteen years ago, by way of envelope for 'pussy,' and +which, to the best of pussy's knowledge, was the one sole memorandum +of papa ever heard of at St. Sebastian's. Pussy, however, saw no use in +revising and correcting the text of papa's remembrances. She showed her +usual prudence, and her usual incomparable decision. It did not appear, +as yet, that she would be reclaimed, or was at all suspected for the +fugitive by her father. For it is an instance of that singular fatality +which pursued Catalina through life, that, to her own astonishment, (as +she now collected from her father's conference,) nobody had traced her +to Valladolid, nor had her father's visit any connection with suspicious +travelling in that direction. The case was quite different. Strangely +enough, her street row had thrown her into the one sole household in all +Spain that had an official connection with St. Sebastian's. That convent +had been founded by the young cavalier's family; and, according to the +usage of Spain, the young man (as present representative of his house) +was the responsible protector of the establishment. It was not to +the Don, as harborer of his daughter, but to the Don, as _ex officio_ +visitor of the convent, that the hidalgo was appealing. Probably Kate +might have staid safely some time longer. Yet, again, this would but +have multiplied the clues for tracing her; and, finally, she would +too probably have been discovered; after which, with all his youthful +generosity, the poor Don could not have protected her. Too terrific was +the vengeance that awaited an abettor of any fugitive nun; but, above +all, if such a crime were perpetrated by an official mandatory of the +church. Yet, again, so far it was the more hazardous course to abscond, +that it almost revealed her to the young Don as the missing daughter. +Still, if it really _had_ that effect, nothing at present obliged him to +pursue her, as might have been the case a few weeks later. Kate +argued (I dare say) rightly, as she always did. Her prudence whispered +eternally, that safety there was none for her, until she had laid the +Atlantic between herself and St. Sebastian's. Life was to be for _her_ +a Bay of Biscay; and it was odds but she had first embarked upon this +billowy life from the literal Bay of Biscay. Chance ordered otherwise. +Or, as a Frenchman says with eloquent ingenuity, in connection with this +story, 'Chance is but the _pseudonyme_ of God for those particular cases +which he does not subscribe openly with his own sign manual.' She crept +up stairs to her bed-room. Simple are the travelling preparations of +those that, possessing nothing, have no imperials to pack. She had +Juvenal's qualification for carolling gaily through a forest full of +robbers; for she had nothing to lose but a change of linen, that rode +easily enough under her left arm, leaving the right free for answering +any questions of impertinent customers. As she crept down stairs, she +heard the Crocodile still weeping forth his sorrows to the pensive ear +of twilight, and to the sympathetic Don Francisco. Now, it would not +have been filial or lady-like for Kate to do what I am going to suggest; +but what a pity that some gay brother page had not been there to +turn aside into the room, armed with a roasted potato, and, taking a +sportsman's aim, to have lodged it in the Crocodile's abominable mouth. +Yet, what an anachronism! There _were_ no roasted potatoes in Spain +at that date, and very few in England. But anger drives a man to say +anything. + +Catalina had seen her last of friends and enemies in Valladolid. Short +was her time there; but she had improved it so far as to make a few of +both. There was an eye or two in Valladolid that would have glared with +malice upon her, had she been seen by _all_ eyes in that city, as she +tripped through the streets in the dusk; and eyes there were that would +have softened into tears, had they seen the desolate condition of the +child, or in vision had seen the struggles that were before her. But +what's the use of wasting tears upon our Kate? Wait till to-morrow +morning at sunrise, and see if she is particularly in need of pity. +What now should a young lady do--I propose it as a subject for a prize +essay--that finds herself in Valladolid at nighfall, having no letters +of introduction, not aware of any reason great or small for preferring +any street in general, except so far as she knows of some reason for +avoiding one or two streets in particular? The great problem I have +stated, Kate investigated as she went along; and she solved it with +the accuracy with which she ever applied to _practical_ exigencies. Her +conclusion was--that the best door to knock at in such a case was the +door where there was no need to knock at all, as being unfastened, and +open to all comers. For she argued that within such a door there would +be nothing to steal, so that, at least, you could not be mistaken in the +ark for a thief. Then, as to stealing from _her_, they might do that if +they could. + +Upon these principles, which hostile critics will in vain endeavor to +undermine, she laid her hand upon what seemed a rude stable door. Such +it proved. There was an empty cart inside, certainly there was, but you +couldn't take _that_ away in your pocket; and there were five loads of +straw, but then of those a lady could take no more than her _reticule_ +would carry, which perhaps was allowed by the courtesy of Spain. So Kate +was right as to the difficulty of being challenged for a thief. Closing +the door as gently as she had opened it, she dropped her person, dressed +as she was, upon the nearest heap of straw. Some ten feet further were +lying two muleteers, honest and happy enough, as compared with the lords +of the bed-chamber then in Valladolid: but still gross men, carnally +deaf from eating garlic and onions, and other horrible substances. +Accordingly, they never heard her, nor were aware, until dawn, that such +a blooming person existed. But she was aware of _them_, and of their +conversation. They were talking of an expedition for America, on the +point of sailing under Don Ferdinand de Cordova. It was to sail from +some Andalusian port. That was the very thing for _her_. At daylight she +woke, and jumped up, needing no more toilet than the birds that already +were singing in the gardens, or than the two muleteers, who, good, +honest fellows, saluted the handsome boy kindly--thinking no ill at his +making free with _their_ straw, though no leave had been asked. + +With these philo-garlic men Kate took her departure. The morning was +divine: and leaving Valladolid with the transports that befitted such +a golden dawn, feeling also already, in the very obscurity of her exit, +the pledge of her escape; she cared no longer for the Crocodile, or +for St. Sebastian, or (in the way of fear) for the protector of St. +Sebastian, though of _him_ she thought with some tenderness; so deep is +the remembrance of kindness mixed with justice. Andalusia she reached +rather slowly; but many months before she was sixteen years old, and +quite in time for the expedition. St. Lucar being the port of rendezvous +for the Peruvian expedition, thither she went. All comers were welcome +on board the fleet; much more a fine young fellow like Kate. She was at +once engaged as a mate; and _her_ ship, in particular, after doubling +Cape Horn without loss, made the coast of Peru. Paita was the port of +her destination. Very near to this port they were, when a storm threw +them upon a coral reef. There was little hope of the ship from the +first, for she was unmanageable, and was not expected to hold together +for twenty-four hours. In this condition, with death before their faces, +mark what Kate did; and please to remember it for her benefit, when +she does any other little thing that angers you. The crew lowered the +long-boat. Vainly the captain protested against this disloyal desertion +of a king's ship, which might yet perhaps be run on shore, so as to save +the stores. All the crew, to a man, deserted the captain. You may say +_that_ literally; for the single exception was _not_ a man, being our +bold-hearted Kate. She was the only sailor that refused to leave her +captain, or the king of Spain's ship. The rest pulled away for the +shore, and with fair hopes of reaching it. But one half-hour told +another tale: just about that time came a broad sheet of lightning, +which, through the darkness of evening, revealed the boat in the very +act of mounting like a horse upon an inner reef, instantly filling, +and throwing out the crew, every man of whom disappeared amongst +the breakers. The night which succeeded was gloomy for both the +representatives of his Catholic Majesty. It cannot be denied by the +greatest of philosophers, that the muleteer's stable at Valladolid was +worth twenty such ships, though the stable was _not_ insured against +fire, and the ship _was_ insured against the sea and the wind by some +fellow that thought very little of his engagements. But what's the +use of sitting down to cry? That was never any trick of Catalina's. By +daybreak, she was at work with an axe in her hand. I knew it, before +ever I came to this place, in her memoirs. I felt, as sure as if I had +read it, that when day broke, we should find Kate hard at work. Thimble +or axe, trousers or raft, all one to _her_. + +The Captain, though true to his duty, seems to have desponded. He gave +no help towards the raft. Signs were speaking, however, pretty loudly +that he must do something; for notice to quit was now served pretty +liberally. Kate's raft was ready; and she encouraged the captain to +think that it would give both of them something to hold by in swimming, +if not even carry double. At this moment, when all was waiting for +a start, and the ship herself was waiting for a final lurch, to say +_Good-bye_ to the King of Spain, Kate went and did a thing which some +misjudging people will object to. She knew of a box laden with gold +coins, reputed to be the King of Spain's, and meant for contingencies in +the voyage out. This she smashed open with her axe, and took a sum +equal to one hundred guineas English; which, having well secured in a +pillow-case, she then lashed firmly to the raft. Now this, you know, +though not _flotsam_, because it would not float, was certainly, by +maritime law, '_jetsom_.' It would be the idlest of scruples to fancy +that the sea or a shark had a better right to it than a philosopher, or +a splendid girl who showed herself capable of writing a very fair 8vo, +to say nothing of her decapitating in battle several of the king's +enemies, and recovering the king's banner. No sane moralist would +hesitate to do the same thing under the same circumstances, on board an +English vessel, though the First Lord of the Admiralty should be looking +on. The raft was now thrown into the sea. Kate jumped after it, and then +entreated the captain to follow her. He attempted it; but, wanting her +youthful agility, he struck his head against a spar, and sank like lead, +giving notice below that his ship was coming. Kate mounted the raft, +and was gradually washed ashore, but so exhausted, as to have lost all +recollection. She lay for hours until the warmth of the sun revived her. +On sitting up, she saw a desolate shore stretching both ways--nothing to +eat, nothing to drink, but fortunately the raft and the money had been +thrown near her; none of the lashings having given way--only what is the +use of a guinea amongst tangle and sea-gulls? The money she distributed +amongst her pockets, and soon found strength to rise and march +forward. But which _was_ forward? and which backward? She knew by the +conversation of the sailors that Paita must be in the neighborhood; and +Paita, being a port, could not be in the inside of Peru, but, of course, +somewhere on its outside--and the outside of a maritime land must be the +shore; so that, if she kept the shore, and went far enough, she could +not fail of hitting her foot against Paita at last, in the very darkest +night, provided only she could first find out which was _up_ and which +was _down_; else she might walk her shoes off, and find herself six +thousand miles in the wrong. Here was an awkward case, all for want of a +guide-post. Still, when one thinks of Kate's prosperous horoscope, that +after so long a voyage, _she_ only, out of the total crew, was thrown +on the American shore, with one hundred and five pounds in her purse of +clear gain on the voyage, a conviction arises that she _could_ not guess +wrongly. She might have tossed up, having coins in her pocket, _heads +or tails_? but this kind of sortilege was then coming to be thought +irreligious in Christendom, as a Jewish and a Heathen mode of +questioning the dark future. She simply guessed, therefore; and very +soon a thing happened which, though adding nothing to strengthen her +guess as a true one, did much to sweeten it if it should prove a false +one. On turning a point of the shore, she came upon a barrel of biscuit +washed ashore from the ship. Biscuit is about the best thing I know, +but it is the soonest spoiled; and one would like to hear counsel on one +puzzling point, why it is that a touch of water utterly ruins it, taking +its life, and leaving a _caput mortuum_ corpse! Upon this _caput_ Kate +breakfasted, though _her_ case was worse than mine; for any water that +ever plagued _me_ was always fresh; now _hers_ was a present from the +Pacific ocean. She, that was always prudent, packed up some of the +Catholic king's biscuit, as she had previously packed up far too little +of his gold. But in such cases a most delicate question occurs, pressing +equally on medicine and algebra. It is this: if you pack up too much, +then, by this extra burthen of salt provisions, you may retard for days +your arrival at fresh provisions; on the other hand, if you pack up too +little, you may never arrive at all. Catalina hit the _juste milieu;_ +and about twilight on the second day, she found herself entering Paita, +without having had to swim any river in her walk. + +The first thing, in such a case of distress, which a young lady does, +even if she happens to be a young gentleman, is to beautify her dress. +Kate always attended to _that_, as we know, having overlooked her in the +chestnut wood. The man she sent for was not properly a tailor, but one +who employed tailors, he himself furnishing the materials. His name was +Urquiza, a fact of very little importance to us in 1847, if it had stood +only at the head and foot of Kate's little account. But unhappily for +Kate's _debut_ on this vast American stage, the case was otherwise. Mr. +Urquiza had the misfortune (equally common in the old world and the +new) of being a knave; and also a showy specious knave. Kate, who +had prospered under sea allowances of biscuit and hardship, was now +expanding in proportions. With very little vanity or consciousness on +that head, she now displayed a really fine person; and, when drest +anew in the way that became a young officer in the Spanish service, she +looked [Footnote: _'She looked,' etc_. If ever the reader should visit +Aix-la-Chapelle, he will probably feel interest enough in the poor, wild +impassioned girl, to look out for a picture of her in that city, and the +only one known _certainly_ to be authentic. It is in the collection of +Mr. Sempeller. For some time it was supposed that the best (if not the +only) portrait of her lurked somewhere in Italy. Since the discovery +of the picture at Aix-la-Chapelle, that notion has been abandoned. But +there is great reason to believe that, both in Madrid and Rome, many +portraits of her must have been painted to meet the intense interest +which arose in her history subsequently amongst all the men of rank, +military or ecclesiastical, whether in Italy or Spain. The date of these +would range between sixteen and twenty-two years from, the period which +we have now reached (1608.)] the representative picture of a Spanish +_caballador_. It is strange that such an appearance, and such a rank, +should have suggested to Urquiza the presumptuous idea of wishing that +Kate might become his clerk. He _did_, however wish it; for Kate wrote +a beautiful hand; and a stranger thing is, that Kate accepted his +proposal. This might arise from the difficulty of moving in those days +to any distance in Peru. The ship had been merely bringing stores to +the station of Paita; and no corps of the royal armies was readily to be +reached, whilst something must be done at once for a livelihood. Urquiza +had two mercantile establishments, one at Trujillo, to which he repaired +in person, on Kate's agreeing to undertake the management of the other +in Paita. Like the sensible girl, that we have always found her, she +demanded specific instructions for her guidance in duties so new. +Certainly she was in a fair way for seeing life. Telling her beads at +St. Sebastian's, manoeuvreing irregular verbs at Vittoria, acting as +gentleman-usher at Valladolid, serving his Spanish Majesty round Cape +Horn, fighting with storms and sharks off the coast of Peru, and now +commencing as book-keeper or _commis_ to a draper at Paita, does she not +justify the character that I myself gave her, just before dismissing +her from St. Sebastian's, of being a 'handy' girl? Mr. Urquiza's +instructions were short, easy to be understood, but rather comic; and +yet, which is odd, they led to tragic results. There were two debtors of +the shop, (_many_, it is to be hoped, but two meriting his affectionate +notice,) with respect to whom he left the most opposite directions. The +one was a very handsome lady; and the rule as to _her_ was, that she was +to have credit unlimited, strictly unlimited. That was plain. The other +customer, favored by Mr. Urquiza's valedictory thoughts, was a young +man, cousin to the handsome lady, and bearing the name of Reyes. This +youth occupied in Mr. Urquiza's estimate the same hyperbolical rank as +the handsome lady, but on the opposite side of the equation. The rule +as to _him_ was--that he was to have _no_ credit; strictly none. In this +case, also, Kate saw no difficulty; and when she came to know Mr. Reyes +a little, she found the path of pleasure coinciding with the path of +duty. Mr. Urquiza could not be more precise in laying down the rule +than Kate was in enforcing it. But in the other case a scruple arose. +_Unlimited_ might be a word, not of Spanish law, but of Spanish +rhetoric; such as '_Live a thousand years_,' which even annuity offices +hear, and perhaps utter, without a pang. Kate, therefore, wrote to +Trujillo, expressing her honest fears, and desiring to have more +definite instructions. These were positive. If the lady chose to send +for the entire shop, her account was to be debited instantly with +_that_. She had, however, as yet, not sent for the shop, but she +began to manifest strong signs of sending for the shop _man_. Upon the +blooming young Biscayan had her roving eye settled; and she was in a +course of making up her mind to take Kate for a sweetheart. Poor Kate +saw this with a heavy heart. And, at the same time that she had a +prospect of a tender friend more than she wanted, she had become certain +of an extra enemy that she wanted quite as little. What she had done to +offend Mr. Reyes, Kate could not guess, except as to the matter of the +credit; but then, in that, she only executed her instructions. Still Mr. +Reyes was of opinion that there were two ways of executing orders: but +the main offence was unintentional on Kate's part. Reyes, though as yet +she did not know it, had himself been a candidate for the situation of +clerk; and intended probably to keep the equation precisely as it was +with respect to the allowance of credit, only to change places with +the handsome lady--keeping _her_ on the negative side, himself on the +affirmative--an arrangement that you know could have made no sort of +pecuniary difference to Urquiza. + +Thus stood matters, when a party of strolling players strolled into +Paita. Kate, as a Spaniard, being one held of the Paita aristocracy, was +expected to attend. She did so; and there also was the malignant Reyes. +He came and seated himself purposely so as to shut out Kate from all +view of the stage. She, who had nothing of the bully in her nature, and +was a gentle creature when her wild Biscayan blood had not been kindled +by insult, courteously requested him to move a little; upon which Reyes +remarked that it was not in his power to oblige the clerk as to that, +but that he _could_ oblige him by cutting his throat. The tiger that +slept in Catalina wakened at once. She seized him, and would have +executed vengeance on the spot, but that a party of young men interposed +to part them. The next day, when Kate (always ready to forget and +forgive) was thinking no more of the row, Reyes passed; by spitting at +the window, and other gestures insulting to Kate, again he roused +her Spanish blood. Out she rushed, sword in hand--a duel began in the +street, and very soon Kate's sword had passed into the heart of Reyes. +Now that the mischief was done, the police were, as usual, all alive +for the pleasure of avenging it. Kate found herself suddenly in a strong +prison, and with small hopes of leaving it, except for execution. +The relations of the dead man were potent in Paita, and clamorous for +justice, so that the _corregidor_, in a case where he saw a very poor +chance of being corrupted by bribes, felt it his duty to be sublimely +incorruptible. The reader knows, however, that, amongst the relatives +of the deceased bully, was that handsome lady, who differed as much from +her cousin in her sentiments as to Kate, as she did in the extent of her +credit with Mr. Urquiza. To _her_ Kate wrote a note; and, using one +of the Spanish King's gold coins for bribing the jailor, got it safely +delivered. That, perhaps, was unnecessary; for the lady had been already +on the alert, and had summoned Urquiza from Trujillo. By some means, not +very luminously stated, and by paying proper fees in proper quarters, +Kate was smuggled out of the prison at nightfall, and smuggled into a +pretty house in the suburbs. Had she known exactly the footing she +stood on as to the law, she would have been decided. As it was, she +was uneasy, and jealous of mischief abroad; and, before supper, she +understood it all. Urquiza briefly informed his clerk, that it would +be requisite for him to marry the handsome lady. But why? Because, said +Urquiza, after talking for hours with the _corregidor_, who was infamous +for obstinacy, he had found it impossible to make him 'hear reason,' and +release the prisoner, until this compromise of marriage was suggested. +But how could public justice be pacified for the clerk's unfortunate +homicide of Reyes, by a female cousin of the deceased man engaging to +love, honor, and obey the clerk for life? Kate could not see her way +through this logic. 'Nonsense, my friend,' said Urquiza, 'you don't +comprehend. As it stands, the affair is a murder, and hanging the +penalty. But, if you marry into the murdered man's house, then it +becomes a little family murder, all quiet and comfortable amongst +ourselves. What has the _corregidor_ to do with that? or the public +either? Now, let me introduce the bride.' Supper entered at that moment, +and the bride immediately after. The thoughtfulness of Kate was narrowly +observed, and even alluded to, but politely ascribed to the natural +anxieties of a prisoner, and the very imperfect state of liberation +even yet from prison _surveillance_. Kate had, indeed, never been in so +trying a situation before. The anxieties of the farewell night at St. +Sebastian were nothing to this; because, even if she had failed _then_, +a failure might not have been always irreparable. It was but to watch +and wait. But now, at this supper table, she was not more alive to the +nature of the peril than she was to the fact, that if, before the night +closed, she did not by some means escape from it, she never _would_ +escape with life. The deception as to her sex, though resting on no +motive that pointed to these people, or at all concerned them, would be +resented as if it had. The lady would resent the case as a mockery; +and Urquiza would lose his opportunity of delivering himself from an +imperious mistress. According to the usages of the times and country, +Kate knew that in twelve hours she would be assassinated. + +People of infirmer resolution would have lingered at the supper table, +for the sake of putting off the evil moment of final crisis. Not so +Kate. She had revolved the case on all its sides in a few minutes, and +had formed her resolution. This done, she was as ready for the trial at +one moment as another; and, when the lady suggested that the hardships +of a prison must have made repose desirable, Kate assented, and +instantly rose. A sort of procession formed, for the purpose of doing +honor to the interesting guest, and escorting him in pomp to his +bedroom. Kate viewed it much in the same light as the procession to +which for some days she had been expecting an invitation from the +_corregidor_. Far ahead ran the servant-woman as a sort of outrider. +Then came Urquiza, like a Pasha of two tails, who granted two sorts of +credit, viz. unlimited and none at all, bearing two wax-lights, one +in each hand, and wanting only cymbals and kettle-drums to express +emphatically the pathos of his Castilian strut. Next came the bride, a +little in advance of the clerk, but still turning obliquely towards him, +and smiling graciously into his face. Lastly, bringing up the rear, +came the prisoner--our Kate--the nun, the page, the mate, the clerk, the +homicide, the convict; and, for this day only, by particular desire, the +bridegroom elect. + +It was Kate's fixed opinion, that, if for a moment she entered any +bedroom having obviously no outlet, her fate would be that of an ox once +driven within the shambles. Outside, the bullock might make some defence +with his horns; but once in, with no space for turning, he is muffled +and gagged. She carried her eye, therefore, like a hawk's, steady, +though restless, for vigilant examination of every angle she turned. +Before she entered any bedroom, she was resolved to reconnoiter it +from the doorway, and, in case of necessity, show fight at once, before +entering--as the best chance, after all, where all chances were bad. +Everything ends; and at last the procession reached the bedroom door, +the outrider having filed off to the rear. One glance sufficed to +satisfy Kate that windows there were none, and, therefore, no outlet +for escape. Treachery appeared even in _that_; and Kate, though +unfortunately without arms, was now fixed for resistance. Mr. Urquiza +entered first--'Sound the trumpets! Beat the drums!' There were, as we +know already, no windows; but a slight interruption to Mr. Urquiza's +pompous tread showed that there were steps downwards into the room. +Those, thought Kate, will suit me even better. She had watched the +unlocking of the bedroom door--she had lost nothing--she had marked that +the key was left in the lock. At this moment, the beautiful lady, as +one acquainted with the details of the house, turning with the air of +a gracious monitress, held out her fair hand to guide Kate in careful +descent of the steps. This had the air of taking out Kate to dance; and +Kate, at that same moment, answering to it by the gesture of a modern +waltzer, threw her arm behind the lady's waist, hurled her headlong down +the steps right against Mr. Urquiza, draper and haberdasher; and +then, with the speed of lightning, throwing the door _home_ within its +architrave, doubly locked the creditor and debtor into the rat-trap +which they had prepared for herself. + +The affrighted out-rider fled with horror: she already knew that the +clerk had committed one homicide; a second would cost him still less +thought; and thus it happened that egress was left easy. But, when out +and free once more in the bright starry night, which way should Kate +turn? The whole city would prove but a rat-trap for her, as bad as +Mr. Urquiza's, if she was not off before morning. At a glance she +comprehended that the sea was her only chance. To the port she fled. All +was silent. Watchmen there were none. She jumped into a boat. To use +the oars was dangerous, for she had no means of muffling them. But she +contrived to hoist a sail, pushed off with a boat-hook, and was soon +stretching across the water for the mouth of the harbor before a breeze +light but favorable. Having cleared the difficulties of exit she lay +down, and unintentionally fell asleep. When she awoke the sun had been +up three or four hours; all was right otherwise; but had she not served +as a sailor, Kate would have trembled upon finding that, during her long +sleep of perhaps seven or eight hours, she had lost sight of land; by +what distance she could only guess; and in what direction, was to some +degree doubtful. All this, however, seemed a great advantage to the bold +girl, throwing her thoughts back on the enemies she had left behind. +The disadvantage was--having no breakfast, not even damaged biscuit; and +some anxiety naturally arose as to ulterior prospects a little beyond +the horizon of breakfast. But who's afraid? As sailors whistle for a +wind, Catalina really had but to whistle for anything with energy, and +it was sure to come. Like Caesar to the pilot of Dyrrhachium, she might +have said, for the comfort of her poor timorous boat, (though destined +soon to perish,) '_Catalinam vehis, et fortunas ejus_.' Meantime, being +very doubtful as to the best course for sailing, and content if her +course did but lie offshore, she 'carried on,' as sailors say, under +easy sail, going, in fact, just whither and just how the Pacific breezes +suggested in the gentlest of whispers. _All right behind_, was Kate's +opinion; and, what was better, very soon she might say, _all right +ahead:_ for some hour or two before sunset, when dinner was for once +becoming, even to Kate, the most interesting of subjects for meditation, +suddenly a large ship began to swell upon the brilliant atmosphere. +In those latitudes, and in those years, any ship was pretty sure to +be Spanish: sixty years later the odds were in favor of its being an +English buccaneer; which would have given a new direction to Kate's +energy. Kate continued to make signals with a handkerchief whiter +than the crocodile's of Ann. Dom. 1592, else it would hardly have been +noticed. Perhaps, after all, it would not, but that the ship's course +carried her very nearly across Kate's. The stranger lay-to for her. It +was dark by the time Kate steered herself under the ship's quarter; +and _then_ was seen an instance of this girl's eternal wakefulness. +Something was painted on the stern of her boat, she could not see +_what;_ but she judged that it would express some connection with the +port that she had just quitted. Now it was her wish to break the chain +of traces connecting her with such a scamp as Urquiza; since else, +through his commercial correspondence, he might disperse over Peru a +portrait of herself by no means flattering. How should she accomplish +this? It was dark; and she stood, as you may see an Etonian do at times, +rocking her little boat from side to side, until it had taken in +water as much as might be agreeable. Too much it proved for the boat's +constitution, and the boat perished of dropsy--Kate declining to tap it. +She got a ducking herself; but what cared she? Up the ship's side she +went, as gaily as ever, in those years when she was called pussy, she +had raced after the nuns of St. Sebastian; jumped upon deck, and told +the first lieutenant, when he questioned her about her adventures, quite +as much truth as any man, under the rank of admiral, had a right to +expect. + +This ship was full of recruits for the Spanish army, and bound to +Concepcion. Even in that destiny was an iteration, or repeating memorial +of the significance that ran through Catalina's most casual adventures. +She had enlisted amongst the soldiers; and, on reaching port, the +very first person who came off from shore was a dashing young military +officer, whom at once by his name and rank, (though she had never +consciously seen him,) she identified as her own brother. He was +splendidly situated in the service, being the Governor-General's +secretary, besides his rank as a cavalry officer; and, his errand on +board being to inspect the recruits, naturally, on reading in the roll +one of them described as a Biscayan, the ardent young man came up with +high-bred courtesy to Catalina, took the young recruit's hand with +kindness, feeling that to be a compatriot at so great a distance was +to be a sort of relative, and asked with emotion after old boyish +remembrances. There was a scriptural pathos in what followed, as if it +were some scene of domestic re-union, opening itself from patriarchal +ages. The young officer was the eldest son of the house, and had left +Spain when Catalina was only three years old. But, singularly enough, +Catalina it was, the little wild cat that he yet remembered seeing at +St. Sebastian's, upon whom his earliest inquiries settled. 'Did the +recruit know his family, the De Erausos?' O yes, every body knew _them_. +'Did the recruit know little Catalina?' Catalina smiled, as she replied +that she did; and gave such an animated description of the little fiery +wretch, as made the officer's eye flash with gratified tenderness, and +with certainty that the recruit was no counterfeit Biscayan. Indeed, you +know, if Kate couldn't give a good description of 'Pussy,' who could? +The issue of the interview was--that the officer insisted on Kate's +making a home of his quarters. He did other services for his unknown +sister. He placed her as a trooper in his own regiment, and favored +her in many a way that is open to one having authority. But the person, +after all, that did most to serve our Kate, was Kate. War was then +raging with Indians, both from Chili and Peru. Kate had always done her +duty in action; but at length, in the decisive battle of Puren, there +was an opening for doing something more. Havoc had been made of her own +squadron: most of the officers were killed, and the standard was carried +off. Kate gathered around her a small party--galloped after the Indian +column that was carrying away the trophy--charged--saw all her own party +killed--but (in spite of wounds on her face and shoulder) succeeded in +bearing away the recovered standard. She rode up to the general and his +staff; she dismounted; she rendered up her prize; and fainted away, much +less from the blinding blood, than from the tears of joy which dimmed +her eyes, as the general, waving his sword in admiration over her head, +pronounced our Kate on the spot an _Alferez_, [Footnote: _Alferez_. +This rank in the Spanish army is, or was, on a level with the modern +_sous-lieutenant_ of France.] or standard-bearer, with a commission from +the King of Spain and the Indies. Bonny Kate! Noble Kate! I would +there were not two centuries laid between us, so that I might have the +pleasure of kissing thy fair hand. + +Kate had the good sense to see the danger of revealing her sex, or her +relationship, even to her own brother. The grasp of the Church never +relaxed, never 'prescribed,' unless freely and by choice. The nun, if +discovered, would have been taken out of the horse-barracks, or the +dragoon-saddle. She had the firmness, therefore, for many years, to +resist the sisterly impulses that sometimes suggested such a confidence. +For years, and those years the most important of her life--the years +that developed her character--she lived undetected as a brilliant +cavalry officer under her brother's patronage. And the bitterest grief +in poor Kate's whole life, was the tragical (and, were it not fully +attested, one might say the ultra-scenical,) event that dissolved their +long connection. Let me spend a word of apology on poor Kate's errors. +We all commit many; both you and I, reader. No, stop; that's not civil. +You, reader, I know, are a saint; I am _not_, though very near it. I +_do_ err at long intervals; and then I think with indulgence of the many +circumstances that plead for this poor girl. The Spanish armies of that +day inherited, from the days of Cortez and Pizarro, shining remembrances +of martial prowess, and the very worst of ethics. To think little of +bloodshed, to quarrel, to fight, to gamble, to plunder, belonged to the +very atmosphere of a camp, to its indolence, to its ancient traditions. +In your own defence, you were obliged to do such things. Besides +all these grounds of evil, the Spanish army had just there an extra +demoralization from a war with savages--faithless and bloody. Do not +think, I beseech you, too much, reader, of killing a man. That word +'_kill_' is sprinkled over every page of Kate's own autobiography. It +ought not to be read by the light of these days. Yet, how if a man that +she killed were----? Hush! It was sad; but is better hurried over in a +few words. Years after this period, a young officer one day dining with +Kate, entreated her to become his second in a duel. Such things were +every-day affairs. However, Kate had reasons for declining the service, +and did so. But the officer, as he was sullenly departing, said--that, +if he were killed, (as he thought he _should_ be,) his death would lie +at Kate's door. I do not take _his_ view of the case, and am not moved +by his rhetoric or his logic. Kate _was_, and relented. The duel was +fixed for eleven at night, under the walls of a monastery. Unhappily the +night proved unusually dark, so that the two principals had to tie white +handkerchiefs round their elbows, in order to descry each other. In the +confusion they wounded each other mortally. Upon that, according to a +usage not peculiar to Spaniards, but extending (as doubtless the reader +knows) for a century longer to our own countrymen, the two seconds were +obliged in honor to do something towards avenging their principals. Kate +had her usual fatal luck. Her sword passed sheer through the body of her +opponent: this unknown opponent falling dead, had just breath left +to cry out, 'Ah, villain, you have killed me,' in a voice of horrific +reproach; and the voice was the voice of her brother! + +The monks of the monastery, under whose silent shadows this murderous +duel had taken place, roused by the clashing of swords and the angry +shouts of combatants, issued out with torches to find one only of the +four officers surviving. Every convent and altar had a right of asylum +for a short period. According to the custom, the monks carried Kate, +insensible with anguish of mind, to the sanctuary of their chapel. There +for some days they detained her; but then, having furnished her with a +horse and some provisions, they turned her adrift. Which way should the +unhappy fugitive turn? In blindness of heart she turned towards the sea. +It was the sea that had brought her to Peru; it was the sea that would +perhaps carry her away. It was the sea that had first showed her this +land and its golden hopes; it was the sea that ought to hide from her +its fearful remembrances. The sea it was that had twice spared her life +in extremities; the sea it was that might now if it chose, take back the +bauble that it had spared in vain. + + +KATE'S PASSAGE OVER THE ANDES. + +Three days our poor heroine followed the coast. Her horse was then +almost unable to move; and on _his_ account, she turned inland to +a thicket for grass and shelter. As she drew near to it, a voice +challenged--'_Who goes there_?' Kate answered, '_Spain_.' '_What +people_?' '_A friend_.' It was two soldiers, deserters, and almost +starving. Kate shared her provisions with these men: and, on hearing +their plan, which was to go over the Cordilleras, she agreed to join the +party. _Their_ object was the wild one of seeking the river _Dorado_, +whose waters rolled along golden sands, and whose pebbles were emeralds. +_Hers_ was to throw herself upon a line the least liable to pursuit, and +the readiest for a new chapter of life in which oblivion might be found +for the past. After a few days of incessant climbing and fatigue, they +found themselves in the regions of perpetual snow. Summer would come as +vainly to this kingdom of frost as to the grave of her brother. No +fire, but the fire of human blood in youthful veins, could ever be kept +burning in these aerial solitudes. Fuel was rarely to be found, and +kindling a secret hardly known except to Indians. However, our Kate can +do everything, and she's the girl, if ever girl _did_ such a thing, or +ever girl did _not_ such a thing, that I back at any odds for crossing +the Cordilleras. I would bet you something now, reader, if I thought +you would deposit your stakes by return of post, (as they play at chess +through the post-office,) that Kate does the trick, that she gets down +to the other side; that the soldiers do _not_: and that the horse, if +preserved at all, is preserved in a way that will leave him very little +to boast of. + +The party had gathered wild berries and esculent roots at the foot of +the mountains, and the horse was of very great use in carrying them. But +this larder was soon emptied. There was nothing then to carry; so that +the horse's value, as a beast of burthen, fell cent per cent. In fact, +very soon he could not carry himself, and it became easy to calculate +when he would reach the bottom on the wrong side the Cordilleras. He +took three steps back for one upwards. A council of war being held, the +small army resolved to slaughter their horse. He, though a member of the +expedition, had no vote, and if he had the votes would have stood three +to one--majority, two against him. He was cut into quarters; which +surprises me; for, unless _one_ quarter was considered his own share, +it reminds one too much of this amongst the many _facetiae_ of English +midshipmen, who ask (on any one of their number looking sulky) 'if it is +his intention to marry and retire from the service upon a superannuation +of L4 4s. 4 1/2d. a year, paid quarterly by way of bothering the +purser.' The purser can't do it with the help of farthings. And +as respects aliquot parts, four shares among three persons are as +incommensurable as a guinea is against any attempt at giving change +in half-crowns. However, this was all the preservation that the horse +found. No saltpetre or sugar could be had: but the frost was antiseptic. +And the horse was preserved in as useful a sense as ever apricots were +preserved or strawberries. + +On a fire, painfully devised out of broom and withered leaves, a +horse-steak was dressed, for drink, snow as allowed _a discretion_. This +ought to have revived the party, and Kate, perhaps, it _did_. But the +poor deserters were thinly clad, and they had not the boiling heart of +Catalina. More and more they drooped. Kate did her best to cheer them. +But the march was nearly at an end for _them_, and they were going +in one half hour to receive their last billet. Yet, before this +consummation, they have a strange spectacle to see; such as few places +could show, but the upper chambers of the Cordilleras. They had reached +a billowy scene of rocky masses, large and small, looking shockingly +black on their perpendicular sides as they rose out of the vast snowy +expanse. Upon the highest of these, that was accessible, Kate mounted +to look around her, and she saw--oh, rapture at such an hour!--a man +sitting on a shelf of rock with a gun by his side. She shouted with joy +to her comrades, and ran down to communicate the joyful news. Here was +a sportsman, watching, perhaps, for an eagle; and now they would have +relief. One man's cheek kindled with the hectic of sudden joy, and he +rose eagerly to march. The other was fast sinking under the fatal sleep +that frost sends before herself as her merciful minister of death; but +hearing in his dream the tidings of relief, and assisted by his friends, +he also staggeringly arose. It could not be three minutes' walk, Kate +thought, to the station of the sportsman. That thought supported them +all. Under Kate's guidance, who had taken a sailor's glance at the +bearings, they soon unthreaded the labyrinth of rocks so far as to bring +the man within view. He had not left his resting-place; their steps on +the soundless snow, naturally, he could not hear; and, as their road +brought them upon him from the rear, still less could he see them. Kate +hailed him; but so keenly was he absorbed in some speculation, or in the +object of his watching, that he took no notice of them, not even moving +his head. Kate began to think there would be another man to rouse from +sleep. Coming close behind him, she touched his shoulder, and said, 'My +friend, are you sleeping?' Yes, he _was_ sleeping; sleeping the sleep +from which there is no awaking; and the slight touch of Kate having +disturbed the equilibrium of the corpse, down it rolled on the snow: +the frozen body rang like a hollow iron cylinder; the face uppermost and +blue with mould, mouth open, teeth ghastly and bleaching in the frost, +and a frightful grin upon the lips. This dreadful spectacle finished the +struggles of the weaker man, who sank and died at once. The other made +an effort with so much spirit, that, in Kate's opinion, horror had acted +upon him beneficially as a stimulant. But it was not really so. It was +a spasm of morbid strength; a collapse succeeded; his blood began to +freeze; he sat down in spite of Kate, and _he_ also died without further +struggle. Gone are the poor suffering deserters; stretched and bleaching +upon the snow; and insulted discipline is avenged. Great kings have long +arms; and sycophants are ever at hand for the errand of the potent. What +had frost and snow to do with the quarrel? Yet _they_ made themselves +sycophantic servants of the King of Spain; and _they_ dogged his +deserters up to the summit of the Cordilleras, more surely than any +Spanish bloodhound, or any Spanish tirailleur's bullet. + +Now is our Kate standing alone on the summits of the Andes, in solitude +that is shocking, for she is alone with her own afflicted conscience. +Twice before she had stood in solitude as deep upon the wild--wild +waters of the Pacific; but her conscience had been then untroubled. Now, +is there nobody left that can help; her horse is dead--the soldiers are +dead. There is nobody that she can speak to except God; and very soon +you will find that she _does_ speak to him; for already on these vast +aerial deserts He has been whispering to _her_. The condition of Kate is +exactly that of Coleridge's '_Ancient Mariner_.' But possibly, reader, +you may be amongst the many careless readers that have never fully +understood what that condition was. Suffer me to enlighten you, else you +ruin the story of the mariner; and by losing all its pathos, lose half +the jewels of its beauty. + +There are three readers of the 'Ancient Mariner.' The first is gross +enough to fancy all the imagery of the mariner's visions delivered by +the poet for actual facts of experience; which being impossible, the +whole pulverizes, for that reader, into a baseless fairy tale. The +second reader is wiser than _that_; he knows that the imagery is _not_ +baseless; it is the imagery of febrile delirium; really seen, but not +seen as an external reality. The mariner had caught the pestilential +fever, which carried off all his mates; he only had survived--the +delirium had vanished; but the visions that had haunted the delirium +remained. 'Yes,' says the third reader, 'they remained; naturally they +did, being scorched by fever into his brain; but how did they happen to +remain on his belief as gospel truths? The delirium had vanished: +why had not the painted scenery of the delirium vanished, except as +visionary memorials of a sorrow that was cancelled? Why was it that +craziness settled upon this mariner's brain, driving him, as if he were +a Cain, or another Wandering Jew, to 'pass like night--from land +to land;' and, at uncertain intervals, wrenching him until he made +rehearsal of his errors, even at the hard price of 'holding children +from their play, and old men from the chimney corner?' [Footnote: The +beautiful words of Sir Philip Sidney, in his '_Defense of Poesie_.'] +That craziness, as the _third reader_ deciphers, rose out of a deeper +soil than any bodily affection. It had its root in penitential sorrow. +Oh, bitter is the sorrow to a conscientious heart, when, too late, it +discovers the depth of a love that has been trampled under foot! This +mariner had slain the creature that, on all the earth, loved him best. +In the darkness of his cruel superstition he had done it, to save his +human brothers from a fancied inconvenience; and yet, by that very act +of cruelty, he had himself called destruction upon their heads. The +Nemesis that followed punished _him_ through _them_--him, that wronged, +through those that wrongfully he sought to benefit. That spirit who +watches over the sanctities of love is a strong angel--is a jealous +angel; and this angel it was + + 'That lov'd the bird, that lov'd the man, + That shot him with his bow.' + +He it was that followed the cruel archer into silent and slumbering +seas; + + 'Nine fathom deep he had follow'd him + Through the realms of mist and snow.' + +This jealous angel it was that pursued the man into noon-day darkness, +and the vision of dying oceans, into delirium, and finally, (when +recovered from disease) into an unsettled mind. + +Such, also, had been the offence of Kate; such, also was the punishment +that now is dogging her steps. She, like the mariner, had slain the one +sole creature that loved her upon the whole wide earth; she, like the +mariner, for this offence, had been hunted into frost and snow--very +soon will be hunted into delirium; and from _that_ (if she escapes with +life) will be hunted into the trouble of a heart that cannot rest. +There was the excuse of one darkness for _her_; there was the excuse of +another darkness for the mariner. But, with all the excuses that earth, +and the darkness of earth, can furnish, bitter it would be for you or +me, reader, through every hour of life, waking or dreaming, to look back +upon one fatal moment when we had pierced the heart that would have died +for us. In this only the darkness had been merciful to Kate--that it had +hidden for ever from her victim the hand that slew him. But now in such +utter solitude, her thoughts ran back to their earliest interview. She +remembered with anguish, how, on first touching the shores of America, +almost the very first word that met her ear had been from _him_, the +brother whom she had killed, about the 'Pussy' of times long past; how +the gallant young man had hung upon her words, as in her native Basque +she described her own mischievous little self, of twelve years back; how +his color went and came, whilst his loving memory of the little sister +was revived by her own descriptive traits, giving back, as in a mirror, +the fawn-like grace, the squirrel-like restlessness, that once had +kindled his own delighted laughter; how he would take no denial, but +showed on the spot, that, simply to have touched--to have kissed--to +have played with the little wild thing, that glorified, by her +innocence, the gloom of St. Sebastian's cloisters, gave a _right_ to his +hospitality; how, through _him_ only, she had found a welcome in camps; +how, through _him_, she had found the avenue to honor and distinction. +And yet this brother, so loving and generous, it was that she had +dismissed from life. She paused; she turned round, as if looking back +for his grave; she saw the dreadful wildernesses of snow which already +she had traversed. + +Silent they were at this season, even as in the panting heats of noon, +the Zaarrahs of the torrid zone are oftentimes silent. Dreadful was the +silence; it was the nearest thing to the silence of the grave. Graves +were at the foot of the Andes, _that_ she knew too well; graves were at +the summit of the Andes, _that_ she saw too well. And, as she gazed, a +sudden thought flashed upon her, when her eyes settled upon the corpses +of the poor deserters--could she, like _them_, have been all this while +unconsciously executing judgment upon herself? Running from a wrath that +was doubtful, into the very jaws of a wrath that was inexorable? Flying +in panic--and behold! there was no man that pursued? For the first time +in her life, Kate trembled. _Not_ for the first time, Kate wept. Far +less for the first time was it, that Kate bent her knee--that Kate +clasped her hands--that Kate prayed. But it _was_ the first time that +she prayed as _they_ pray, for whom no more hope is left but in prayer. + +Here let me pause a moment for the sake of making somebody angry. A +Frenchman, who sadly misjudges Kate, looking at her through a Parisian +opera-glass, gives it as _his_ opinion--that, because Kate first +_records_ her prayer on this occasion, therefore, now first of all she +prayed. _I_ think not so. _I_ love this Kate, blood-stained as she is; +and I could not love a woman that never bent her knee in thankfulness or +in supplication. However, we have all a right to our own little opinion; +and it is not you, '_mon cher_,' you Frenchman, that I am angry with, +but somebody else that stands behind you. You, Frenchman, and your +compatriots, I love oftentimes for your festal gaiety of heart; and I +quarrel only with your levity and that eternal worldliness that freezes +too fiercely--that absolutely blisters with its frost--like the upper +air of the Andes. _You_ speak of Kate only as too readily you speak of +all women; the instinct of a natural scepticism being to scoff at all +hidden depths of truth. Else you are civil enough to Kate; and your +'_homage_' (such as it may happen to be) is always at the service of a +woman on the shortest notice. But behind _you_, I see a worse fellow; +a gloomy fanatic; a religious sycophant that seeks to propitiate his +circle by bitterness against the offences that are most unlike his own. +And against him, I must say one word for Kate to the too hasty reader. +This villain, whom I mark for a shot if he does not get out of the +way, opens his fire on our Kate under shelter of a lie. For there is a +standing lie in the very constitution of civil society, a _necessity_ +of error, misleading us as to the proportions of crime. Mere necessity +obliges man to create many acts into felonies, and to punish them as the +heaviest offences, which his better sense teaches him secretly to regard +as perhaps among the lightest. Those poor deserters, for instance, were +they necessarily without excuse? They might have been oppressively used; +but in critical times of war, no matter for the individual palliations, +the deserter from his colors _must_ be shot: there is no help for it: +as in extremities of general famine, we shoot the man (alas! we are +_obliged_ to shoot him) that is found robbing the common stores in order +to feed his own perishing children, though the offence is hardly visible +in the sight of God. Only blockheads adjust their scale of guilt to +the scale of human punishments. Now, our wicked friend the fanatic, who +calumniates Kate, abuses the advantage which, for such a purpose, he +derives from the exaggerated social estimate of all violence. Personal +security being so main an object of social union, we are obliged to +frown upon all modes of violence as hostile to the central principle +of that union. We are _obliged_ to rate it, according to the universal +results towards which it tends, and scarcely at all, according to the +special condition of circumstances, in which it may originate. Hence +a horror arises for that class of offences, which is (philosophically +speaking) exaggerated; and by daily use, the ethics of a police-office +translate themselves, insensibly, into the ethics even of religious +people. But I tell that sycophantish fanatic--not this only, viz., that +he abuses unfairly, against Kate, the advantage which he has from the +_inevitably_ distorted bias of society; but also, I tell him this second +little thing, viz., that upon turning away the glass from that one +obvious aspect of Kate's character, her too fiery disposition to +vindicate all rights by violence, and viewing her in relation +to _general_ religious capacities, she was a thousand times more +promisingly endowed than himself. It is impossible to be noble in many +things, without having many points of contact with true religion. If you +deny _that_ you it is that calumniate religion. Kate _was_ noble in many +things. Her worst errors never took a shape of self-interest or deceit. +She was brave, she was generous, she was forgiving, she bore no malice, +she was full of truth--qualities that God loves either in man or woman. +She hated sycophants and dissemblers. _I_ hate them; and more than ever +at this moment on her behalf. I wish she were but here--to give a punch +on the head to that fellow who traduces her. And, coming round again +to the occasion from which this short digression has started, viz., the +question raised by the Frenchman--whether Kate were a person likely to +_pray_ under other circumstances than those of extreme danger? I offer +it as _my_ opinion that she was. Violent people are not always such from +choice, but perhaps from situation. And, though the circumstances of +Kate's position allowed her little means for realizing her own wishes, +it is certain that those wishes pointed continually to peace and an +unworldly happiness, if _that_ were possible. The stormy clouds that +enveloped her in camps, opened overhead at intervals--showing her a far +distant blue serene. She yearned, at many times, for the rest which is +not in camps or armies; and it is certain, that she ever combined with +any plans or day-dreams of tranquillity, as their most essential ally, +some aid derived from that dovelike religion which, at St. Sebastian's, +as an infant and through girlhood, she had been taught so profoundly to +adore. + +Now, let us rise from this discussion of Kate against libellers, as Kate +herself is rising from prayer, and consider, in conjunction with _her_, +the character and promise of that dreadful ground which lies immediately +before her. What is to be thought of it? I could wish we had a +theodolite here, and a spirit-level, and other instruments, for settling +some important questions. Yet no: on consideration, if one _had_ a wish +allowed by that kind fairy, without whose assistance it would be quite +impossible to send, even for the spirit-level, nobody would throw away +the wish upon things so paltry. I would not put the fairy upon any such +errand: I would order the good creature to bring no spirit-level, but a +stiff glass of spirits for Kate--a palanquin, and relays of fifty stout +bearers--all drunk, in order that they might not feel the cold. The +main interest at this moment, and the main difficulty--indeed, the 'open +question' of the case--was, to ascertain whether the ascent were yet +accomplished or not; and when would the descent commence? or had it, +perhaps, long commenced? The character of the ground, in those immediate +successions that could be connected by the eye, decided nothing; for the +undulations of the level had been so continual for miles, as to perplex +any eye but an engineer's, in attempting to judge whether, upon the +whole, the tendency were upwards or downwards. Possibly it was yet +neither way; it is, indeed, probable, that Kate had been for some time +travelling along a series of terraces, that traversed the whole breadth +of the topmost area at that point of crossing the Cordilleras, and which +perhaps, but not certainly, compensated any casual tendencies downwards +by corresponding reascents. Then came the question--how long would these +terraces yet continue? and had the ascending parts _really_ balanced +the descending?--upon _that_ seemed to rest the final chance for Kate. +Because, unless she very soon reached a lower level, and a warmer +atmosphere, mere weariness would oblige her to lie down, under a +fierceness of cold, that would not suffer her to rise after once losing +the warmth of motion; or, inversely, if she even continued in motion, +mere extremity of cold would, of itself, speedily absorb the little +surplus energy for moving, which yet remained unexhausted by weariness. + +At this stage of her progress, and whilst the agonizing question seemed +yet as indeterminate as ever, Kate's struggle with despair, which had +been greatly soothed by the fervor of her prayer, revolved upon her in +deadlier blackness. All turned, she saw, upon a race against time, and +the arrears of the road; and she, poor thing! how little qualified could +_she_ be, in such a condition, for a race of any kind; and against two +such obstinate brutes as time and space! This hour of the progress, +this noontide of Kate's struggle, must have been the very crisis of +the whole. Despair was rapidly tending to ratify itself. Hope, in any +degree, would be a cordial for sustaining her efforts. But to flounder +along a dreadful chaos of snow-drifts, or snow-chasms, towards a point +of rock, which, being turned, should expose only another interminable +succession of the same character--might _that_ be endured by ebbing +spirits, by stiffening limbs, by the ghastly darkness that was now +beginning to gather upon the inner eye? And, if once despair became +triumphant, all the little arrear of physical strength would collapse at +once. + +Oh! verdure of human fields, cottages of men and women, (that now +suddenly seemed all brothers and sisters,) cottages with children around +them at play, that are so far below--oh! summer and spring, flowers +and blossoms, to which, as to _his_ symbols, God has given the gorgeous +privilege of rehearsing for ever upon earth his most mysterious +perfection--Life, and the resurrections of Life--is it indeed true, that +poor Kate must never see you more? Mutteringly she put that question +to herself. But strange are the caprices of ebb and flow in the deep +fountains of human sensibilities. At this very moment, when the utter +incapacitation of despair was gathering fast at Kate's heart, a sudden +lightening shot far into her spirit, a reflux almost supernatural, from +the earliest effects of her prayer. A thought had struck her all at +once, and this thought prompted her immediately to turn round. Perhaps +it was in some blind yearning after the only memorials of life in this +frightful region, that she fixed her eye upon a point of hilly ground by +which she identified the spot near which the three corpses were lying. +The silence seemed deeper than ever. Neither was there any phantom +memorial of life for the eye or for the ear, nor wing of bird, nor echo, +nor green leaf, nor creeping thing, that moved or stirred, upon the +soundless waste. Oh, what a relief to this burthen of silence would be a +human groan! Here seemed a motive for still darker despair. And yet, at +that very moment, a pulse of joy began to thaw the ice at her heart. It +struck her, as she reviewed the ground, that undoubtedly it had been for +some time slowly descending. Her senses were much dulled by suffering; +but this thought it was, suggested by a sudden apprehension of a +continued descending movement, which had caused her to turn round. +Sight had confirmed the suggestion first derived from her own steps. The +distance attained was now sufficient to establish the tendency. Oh, yes, +yes, to a certainty she had been descending for some time. Frightful was +the spasm of joy which whispered that the worst was over. It was as when +the shadow of midnight, that murderers had relied on, is passing away +from your beleagured shelter, and dawn will soon be manifest. It was +as when a flood, that all day long has raved against the walls of your +house, has ceased (you suddenly think) to rise; yes! measured by a +golden plummet, it _is_ sinking beyond a doubt, and the darlings of +your household are saved. Kate faced round in agitation to her proper +direction. She saw, what previously, in her stunning confusion, she had +_not_ seen, that, hardly two stones' throw in advance, lay a mass +of rock, split as into a gateway. Through that opening it now became +probable that the road was lying. Hurrying forward, she passed within +the natural gates. Gates of paradise they were. Ah, what a vista +did that gateway expose before her dazzled eye? what a revelation of +heavenly promise? Full two miles long, stretched a long narrow glen, +everywhere descending, and in many parts rapidly. All was now placed +beyond a doubt. She _was_ descending--for hours, perhaps, _had_ been +descending insensibly, the mighty staircase. Yes, Kate is leaving behind +her the kingdom of frost and the victories of death. Two miles farther +there may be rest, if there is not shelter. And very soon, as the crest +of her new-born happiness, she distinguished at the other end of that +rocky vista, a pavilion-shaped mass of dark green foliage--a belt of +trees, such as we see in the lovely parks of England, but islanded by +a screen (though not everywhere occupied by the usurpations) of a thick +bushy undergrowth. Oh, verdure of dark olive foliage, offered suddenly +to fainting eyes, as if by some winged patriarchal herald of wrath +relenting--solitary Arab's tent, rising with saintly signals of peace, +in the dreadful desert, must Kate indeed die even yet, whilst she +sees but cannot reach you? Outpost on the frontier of man's dominions, +standing within life, but looking out upon everlasting death, wilt thou +hold up the anguish of thy mocking invitation, only to betray? Never, +perhaps, in this world was the line so exquisitely grazed, that parts +salvation and ruin. As the dove to her dove-cot from the swooping +hawk--as the Christian pinnace to Christian batteries, from the bloody +Mahometan corsair, so flew--so tried to fly towards the anchoring +thickets, that, alas! could not weigh their anchors and make sail to +meet her--the poor exhausted Kate from the vengeance of pursuing frost. + +And she reached them; staggering, fainting, reeling, she entered beneath +the canopy of umbrageous trees. But, as oftentimes, the Hebrew fugitive +to a city of refuge, flying for his life before the avenger of blood, +was pressed so hotly that, on entering the archway of what seemed to +_him_ the heavenly city-gate, as he kneeled in deep thankfulness to kiss +its holy merciful shadow, he could not rise again, but sank instantly +with infant weakness into sleep--sometimes to wake no more; so sank, so +collapsed upon the ground, without power to choose her couch, and with +little prospect of ever rising again to her feet, the martial nun. She +lay as luck had ordered it, with her head screened by the undergrowth +of bushes, from any gales that might arise; she lay exactly as she sank, +with her eyes up to heaven; and thus it was that the nun saw, before +falling asleep, the two sights that upon earth are fittest for the +closing eyes of a nun, whether destined to open again, or to close for +ever. She saw the interlacing of boughs overhead forming a dome, that +seemed like the dome of a cathedral. She saw through the fretwork of the +foliage, another dome, far beyond, the dome of an evening sky, the dome +of some heavenly cathedral, not built with hands. She saw upon this +upper dome the vesper lights, all alive with pathetic grandeur of +coloring from a sunset that had just been rolling down like a chorus. +She had not, till now, consciously observed the time of day; whether it +were morning, or whether it were afternoon, in her confusion she had not +distinctly known. But now she whispered to herself--'_It is evening_:' +and what lurked half unconsciously in these words might be--'The sun, +that rejoices, has finished his daily toil; man, that labors, has +finished _his_; I, that suffer, have finished mine.' That might be what +she thought, but what she _said_ was--'It is evening; and the hour is +come when the _Angelus_ is sounding through St. Sebastian.' What made +her think of St. Sebastian, so far away in depths of space and time? Her +brain was wandering, now that her feet were _not_; and, because her eyes +had descended from the heavenly to the earthly dome, _that_ made +her think of earthly cathedrals, and of cathedral choirs, and of St. +Sebastian's chapel, with its silvery bells that carried the _Angelus_ +far into mountain recesses. Perhaps, as her wanderings increased, she +thought herself back in childhood; became 'pussy' once again; fancied +that all since then was a frightful dream; that she was not upon the +dreadful Andes, but still kneeling in the holy chapel at vespers; still +innocent as then; loved as then she had been loved; and that all men +were liars, who said her hand was ever stained with blood. Little enough +is mentioned of the delusions which possessed her; but that little gives +a key to the impulse which her palpitating heart obeyed, and which her +rambling brain for ever reproduced in multiplying mirrors. Restlessness +kept her in waking dreams for a brief half hour. But then, fever and +delirium would wait no longer; the killing exhaustion would no longer be +refused; the fever, the delirium, and the exhaustion, swept in together +with power like an army with banners; and the nun ceased through the +gathering twilight any more to watch the cathedrals of earth, or the +more solemn cathedrals that rose in the heavens above. + +All night long she slept in her verdurous St. Bernard's hospice without +awaking, and whether she would _ever_ awake seemed to depend upon +an accident. The slumber that towered above her brain was like that +fluctuating silvery column which stands in scientific tubes sinking, +rising, deepening, lightening, contracting, expanding; or like the mist +that sits, through sultry afternoons, upon the river of the American +St. Peter, sometimes rarefying for minutes into sunny gauze, sometimes +condensing for hours into palls of funeral darkness. You fancy that, +after twelve hours of _any_ sleep, she must have been refreshed; better +at least than she was last night. Ah! but sleep is not always sent upon +missions of refreshment. Sleep is sometimes the secret chamber in which +death arranges his machinery. Sleep is sometimes that deep mysterious +atmosphere, in which the human spirit is slowly unsettling its wings for +flight from earthly tenements. It is now eight o'clock in the morning; +and, to all appearance, if Kate should receive no aid before noon, when +next the sun is departing to his rest, Kate will be departing to hers; +when next the sun is holding out his golden Christian signal to man, +that the hour is come for letting his anger go down, Kate will be +sleeping away for ever into the arms of brotherly forgiveness. + +What is wanted just now for Kate, supposing Kate herself to be wanted +by this world, is, that this world would be kind enough to send her a +little brandy before it is too late. The simple truth was, and a truth +which I have known to take place in more ladies than Kate, who died +or did _not_ die, accordingly, as they had or had not an adviser like +myself, capable of giving so sound an opinion, that the jewelly star of +life had descended too far down the arch towards setting, for any chance +of re-ascending by _spontaneous_ effort. The fire was still burning +in secret, but needed to be rekindled by potent artificial breath. It +lingered, and _might_ linger, but would never culminate again without +some stimulus from earthly vineyards. [Footnote: Though not exactly in +the same circumstances as Kate, or sleeping, _a la belle etoile_, on +a declivity of the Andes, I have known (or heard circumstantially +reported) the cases of many ladies besides Kate, who were in precisely +the same critical danger of perishing for want of a little brandy. +A dessert spoonful or two would have saved them. Avaunt! you wicked +'Temperance' medallist! repent as fast as ever you can, or, perhaps the +next time we hear of you, _anasarca_ and _hydro-thorax_ will be running +after you to punish your shocking excesses in water. Seriously, the +case is one of constant recurrence, and constantly ending fatally from +_unseasonable_ and pedantic rigor of temperance. The fact is, that the +medical profession composes the most generous and liberal body of +men amongst us; taken generally, by much the most enlightened; but +professionally, the most timid. Want of boldness in the administration +of opium, &c., though they can be bold enough with mercury, is their +besetting infirmity. And from this infirmity females suffer most. +One instance I need hardly mention, the fatal case of an august lady, +mourned by nations, with respect to whom it was, and is, the belief of +multitudes to this hour (well able to judge), that she would have been +saved by a glass of brandy; and her attendant, who shot himself, came to +think so too late--too late for _her_, and too late for himself. Amongst +many cases of the same nature, which personally I have been acquainted +with, twenty years ago, a man, illustrious for his intellectual +accomplishments, mentioned to me that his own wife, during her first or +second confinement, was suddenly reported to him, by one of her female +attendants, (who slipped away unobserved by the medical people,) as +undoubtedly sinking fast. He hurried to her chamber, and _saw_ that it +was so. The presiding medical authority, however, was inexorable. 'Oh, +by no means,' shaking his ambrosial wig, 'any stimulant at this +crisis would be fatal.' But no authority could overrule the concurrent +testimony of all symptoms, and of all unprofessional opinions. By some +pious falsehood my friend smuggled the doctor out of the room, and +immediately smuggled a glass of brandy into the poor lady's lips. She +recovered with magical power. The doctor is now dead, and went to his +grave under the delusive persuasion--that not any vile glass of brandy, +but the stern refusal of all brandy, was the thing that saved his +collapsing patient. The patient herself, who might naturally know +something of the matter, was of a different opinion. She sided with the +factious body around her bed, (comprehending all beside the doctor,) who +felt sure that death was rapidly approaching, _barring_ that brandy. +The same result in the same appalling crisis, I have known repeatedly +produced by twenty-five drops of laudanum. An obstinate man will +say--'Oh, never listen to a non-medical man like this writer. Consult in +such a case your medical adviser.' You will, will you? Then let me tell +you, that you are missing the very logic of all I have been saying for +the improvement of blockheads, which is--that you should consult any man +_but_ a medical man, since no other man has any obstinate prejudice of +professional timidity. N. B.--I prescribe for Kate _gratis_, because +she, poor thing! has so little to give. But from other ladies, who may +have the happiness to benefit by my advice, I expect a fee--not so large +a one considering the service--a flowering plant, suppose the _second_ +best in their collection. I know it would be of no use to ask for the +_very_ best, (which else I could wish to do,) because that would only be +leading them into little fibs. I don't insist on a _Yucca gloriosa_, or +a _Magnolia speciosissima_, (I hope there _is_ such a plant)--a rose or +a violet will do. I am sure there is such a plant as that. And if they +settle their debts justly, I shall very soon be master of the prettiest +little conservatory in England. For, treat it not as a jest, reader; +no case of timid practice is so fatally frequent.] Kate was ever lucky, +though ever unfortunate; and the world, being of my opinion that Kate +was worth saving, made up its mind about half-past eight o'clock in the +morning to save her. Just at that time, when the night was over, and its +sufferings were hidden--in one of those intermitting gleams that for +a moment or two lightened the clouds of her slumber, Kate's dull ear +caught a sound that for years had spoken a familiar language to _her_. +What was it? It was the sound, though muffled and deadened, like the +ear that heard it, of horsemen advancing. Interpreted by the tumultuous +dreams of Kate, was it the cavalry of Spain, at whose head so often she +had charged the bloody Indian scalpers? Was it, according to the legend +of ancient days, cavalry that had been sown by her brother's blood, +cavalry that rose from the ground on an inquest of retribution, and were +racing up the Andes to seize her? Her dreams that had opened sullenly to +the sound waited for no answer, but closed again into pompous darkness. +Happily, the horsemen had caught the glimpse of some bright ornament, +clasp, or aiguillette, on Kate's dress. They were hunters and foresters +from below; servants in the household of a beneficent lady; and in some +pursuit of flying game had wandered beyond their ordinary limits. Struck +by the sudden scintillation from Kate's dress played upon by the morning +sun, they rode up to the thicket. Great was their surprise, great their +pity, to see a young officer in uniform stretched within the bushes upon +the ground, and perhaps dying. Borderers from childhood on this dreadful +frontier, sacred to winter and death, they understood the case at once. +They dismounted: and with the tenderness of women, raising the poor +frozen cornet in their arms, washed her temples with brandy, whilst one, +at intervals, suffered a few drops to trickle within her lips. As the +restoration of a warm bed was now most likely to be successful, they +lifted the helpless stranger upon a horse, walking on each side with +supporting arms. Once again our Kate is in the saddle; once again a +Spanish Caballador. But Kate's bridle-hand is deadly cold. And her +spurs, that she had never unfastened since leaving the monastic asylum, +hung as idle as the flapping sail that fills unsteadily with the breeze +upon a stranded ship. + +This procession had some miles to go, and over difficult ground; but at +length it reached the forest-like park and the chateau of the wealthy +proprietress. Kate was still half-frozen and speechless, except at +intervals. Heavens! can this corpse-like, languishing young woman, be +the Kate that once, in her radiant girlhood, rode with a handful of +comrades into a column of two thousand enemies, that saw her comrades +die, that persisted when all were dead, that tore from the heart of +all resistance the banner of her native Spain? Chance and change have +'written strange defeatures in her face.' Much is changed; but some +things are not changed: there is still kindness that overflows with +pity: there is still helplessness that asks for this pity without a +voice: she is now received by a Senora, not less kind than that maternal +aunt, who, on the night of her birth, first welcomed her to a loving +home; and she, the heroine of Spain, is herself as helpless now as that +little lady who, then at ten minutes of age, was kissed and blessed by +all the household of St. Sebastian. + +Let us suppose Kate placed in a warm bed. Let us suppose her in a few +hours recovering steady consciousness; in a few days recovering some +power of self-support; in a fortnight able to seek the gay saloon, +where the Senora was sitting alone, and rendering thanks, with that +deep sincerity which ever characterized our wild-hearted Kate, for the +critical services received from that lady and her establishment. + +This lady, a widow, was what the French call a _metisse_, the Spaniards +a _mestizza_; that is, the daughter of a genuine Spaniard, and an Indian +mother. I shall call her simply a _creole_, [Footnote: 'Creole.'--At +that time the infusion of negro or African blood was small. +Consequently none of the negro hideousness was diffused. After these +intercomplexities had arisen between all complications of descent from +three original strands, European, American, African, the distinctions +of social consideration founded on them bred names so many, that a +court calendar was necessary to keep you from blundering. As yet, +the varieties were few. Meantime, the word _creole_ has always been +misapplied in our English colonies to a person (though of strictly +European blood,) simply because _born_ in the West Indies. In this +English use, it expresses the same difference as the Romans indicated by +_Hispanus_ and _Hispanicus_. The first meant a person of Spanish blood, +a native of Spain; the second, a Roman born in Spain. So of _Germanus_ +and _Germanicus_, _Italus_ and _Italicus_, _Anglus_ and _Anglicus_, &c.; +an important distinction, on which see Casaubon _apud Scriptores. +Hist. Augustan._] which will indicate her want of pure Spanish blood +sufficiently to explain her deference for those who had it. She was a +kind, liberal woman; rich rather more than needed where there were no +opera boxes to rent--a widow about fifty years old in the wicked world's +account, some forty-four in her own; and happy, above all, in the +possession of a most lovely daughter, whom even the wicked world did +not accuse of more than sixteen years. This daughter, Juana, was--But +stop--let her open the door of the saloon in which the Senora and the +cornet are conversing, and speak for herself. She did so, after an hour +had passed; which length of time, to _her_ that never had any business +whatever in her innocent life, seemed sufficient to settle the business +of the old world and the new. Had Pietro Diaz (as Catalina now called +herself) been really a Peter, and not a sham Peter, what a vision of +loveliness would have rushed upon his sensibilities as the door +opened! Do not expect me to describe her, for which, however, there are +materials extant, sleeping in archives, where they have slept for two +hundred and twenty years. It is enough that she is reported to +have united the stately tread of Andalusian women with the innocent +voluptuousness of Peruvian eyes. As to her complexion and figure, be it +known that Juana's father was a gentleman from Grenada, having in his +veins the grandest blood of all this earth, blood of Goths and Vandals, +tainted (for which Heaven be thanked!) twice over with blood of +Arabs--once through Moors, once through Jews; [Footnote: It is well +known, that the very reason why the Spanish of all nations became the +most gloomily jealous of a Jewish cross in the pedigree, was because, +until the vigilance of the Church rose into ferocity, in no nation was +such a cross so common. The hatred of fear is ever the deepest. And men +hated the Jewish taint, as once in Jerusalem they hated the leprosy, +because even whilst they raved against it, the secret proofs of it might +be detected amongst their own kindred, even as in the Temple, whilst +once a king rose in mutiny against the priesthood, (2 Chron. xxvi +16-20,) suddenly the leprosy that dethroned him, blazed out upon his +forehead.] whilst from her grandmother, Juana drew the deep subtle +melancholy and the beautiful contours of limb which belong to the Indian +race--a race destined silently and slowly to fade from the earth. No +awkwardness was or could be in this antelope, when gliding with forest +grace into the room--no town-bred shame--nothing but the unaffected +pleasure of one who wishes to speak a fervent welcome, but knows not if +she ought--the astonishment of a Miranda, bred in utter solitude, when +first beholding a princely Ferdinand--and just so much reserve as to +remind you, that if Catalina thought fit to dissemble her sex, she +did _not_. And consider, reader, if you look back and are a great +arithmetician, that whilst the Senora had only fifty per cent of Spanish +blood, Juana had seventy-five; so that her Indian melancholy after all +was swallowed up for the present by her Vandal, by her Arab, by her +Spanish fire. + +Catalina, seared as she was by the world, has left it evident in her +memoirs that she was touched more than she wished to be by this +innocent child. Juana formed a brief lull for Catalina in her too stormy +existence. And if for _her_ in this life the sweet reality of a sister +had been possible, here was the sister she would have chosen. On the +other hand, what might Juana think of the cornet? To have been thrown +upon the kind hospitalities of her native home, to have been rescued +by her mother's servants from that fearful death which, lying but a few +miles off, had filled her nursery with traditionary tragedies,--_that_ +was sufficient to create an interest in the stranger. But his bold +martial demeanor, his yet youthful style of beauty, his frank manners, +his animated conversation that reported a hundred contests with +suffering and peril, wakened for the first time her admiration. Men she +had never seen before, except menial servants, or a casual priest. But +here was a gentleman, young like herself, that rode in the cavalry of +Spain--that carried the banner of the only potentate whom Peruvians knew +of--the King of the Spains and the Indies--that had doubled Cape Horn, +that had crossed the Andes, that had suffered shipwreck, that had rocked +upon fifty storms, and had wrestled for life through fifty battles. + +The reader knows all that followed. The sisterly love which Catalina +did really feel for this young mountaineer was inevitably misconstrued. +Embarrassed, but not able, from sincere affection, or almost in bare +propriety, to refuse such expressions of feeling as corresponded to the +artless and involuntary kindnesses of the ingenuous Juana, one day the +cornet was surprised by mamma in the act of encircling her daughter's +waist with his martial arm, although waltzing was premature by at least +two centuries in Peru. She taxed him instantly with dishonorably abusing +her confidence. The cornet made but a bad defence. He muttered something +about '_fraternal affection_,' about 'esteem,' and a great deal of +metaphysical words that are destined to remain untranslated in their +original Spanish. The good Senora, though she could boast only of +forty-four years' experience, was not altogether to be '_had_' in that +fashion--she was as learned as if she had been fifty, and she brought +matters to a speedy crisis. 'You are a Spaniard,' she said, 'a +gentleman, therefore; _remember_ that you are a gentleman. This very +night, if your intentions are not serious, quit my house. Go to Tucuman; +you shall command my horses and servants; but stay no longer to increase +the sorrow that already you will have left behind you. My daughter loves +you. That is sorrow enough, if you are trifling with us. But, if not, +and you also love _her_, and can be happy in our solitary mode of life, +stay with us--stay for ever. Marry Juana with my free consent. I ask not +for wealth. Mine is sufficient for you both.' The cornet protested +that the honor was one never contemplated by _him_--that it was too +great--that--. But, of course, reader, you know that 'gammon' flourishes +in Peru, amongst the silver mines, as well as in some more boreal lands +that produce little better than copper and tin. 'Tin,' however, has its +uses. The delighted Senora overruled all objections, great and small; +and she confirmed Juana's notion that the business of two worlds could +be transacted in an hour, by settling her daughter's future happiness in +exactly twenty minutes. The poor, weak Catalina, not acting now in any +spirit of recklessness, grieving sincerely for the gulf that was opening +before her, and yet shrinking effeminately from the momentary shock +that would be inflicted by a firm adherence to her duty, clinging to the +anodyne of a short delay, allowed herself to be installed as the +lover of Juana. Considerations of convenience, however, postponed the +marriage. It was requisite to make various purchases; and for this, it +was requisite to visit Tucuman, where, also, the marriage ceremony could +be performed with more circumstantial splendor. To Tucuman, therefore, +after some weeks' interval, the whole party repaired. And at Tucuman it +was that the tragical events arose, which, whilst interrupting such a +mockery for ever, left the poor Juana still happily deceived, and never +believing for a moment that hers was a rejected or a deluded heart. + +One reporter of Mr. De Ferrer's narrative forgets his usual generosity, +when he says that the Senora's gift of her daughter to the Alferez was +not quite so disinterested as it seemed to be. Certainly it was not so +disinterested as European ignorance might fancy it: but it was quite as +much so as it ought to have been, in balancing the interests of a child. +Very true it is--that, being a genuine Spaniard, who was still a rare +creature in so vast a world as Peru, being a Spartan amongst Helots, an +Englishman amongst Savages, an Alferez would in those days have been +a natural noble. His alliance created honor for his wife and for his +descendants. Something, therefore, the cornet would add to the family +consideration. But, instead of selfishness, it argued just regard for +her daughter's interest to build upon this, as some sort of equipoise to +the wealth which her daughter would bring. + +Spaniard, however, as he was, our Alferez on reaching Tucuman found no +Spaniards to mix with, but instead twelve Portuguese. + +Catalina remembered the Spanish proverb--'Subtract from a Spaniard all +his good qualities, and the remainder makes a pretty fair Portuguese;' +but, as there was nobody else to gamble with, she entered freely into +their society. Very soon she suspected that there was foul play: +all modes of doctoring dice had been made familiar to _her_ by the +experience of camps. She watched; and, by the time she had lost her +final coin, she was satisfied that she had been plundered. In her first +anger she would have been glad to switch the whole dozen across the +eyes; but, as twelve to one were too great odds, she determined on +limiting her vengeance to the immediate culprit. Him she followed into +the street; and coming near enough to distinguish his profile reflected +on a wall, she continued to keep him in view from a short distance. The +light-hearted young cavalier whistled, as he went, an old Portuguese +ballad of romance; and in a quarter of an hour came up to an house, the +front door of which he began to open with a pass-key. This operation +was the signal for Catalina that the hour of vengeance had struck; +and, stepping hastily up, she tapped the Portuguese on the shoulder, +saying--'Senor, you are a robber!' The Portuguese turned coolly round, +and, seeing his gaming antagonist, replied--'Possibly, Sir; but I have +no particular fancy for being told so,' at the same time drawing his +sword. Catalina had not designed to take any advantage; and the touching +him on the shoulder, with the interchange of speeches, and the known +character of Kate, sufficiently imply it. But it is too probable in such +cases, that the party whose intention has been regularly settled from +the first, will, and must have an advantage unconsciously over a man +so abruptly thrown on his defence. However this might be, they had not +fought a minute before Catalina passed her sword through her opponent's +body; and without a groan or a sigh, the Portuguese cavalier fell dead +at his own door. Kate searched the street with her ears, and (as far as +the indistinctness of night allowed) with her eyes. All was profoundly +silent; and she was satisfied that no human figure was in motion. What +should be done with the body? A glance at the door of the house settled +_that_: Fernando had himself opened it at the very moment when +he received the summons to turn round. She dragged the corpse in, +therefore, to the foot of the staircase, put the key by the dead man's +side, and then issuing softly into the street, drew the door close with +as little noise as possible. Catalina again paused to listen and to +watch, went home to the hospitable Senora's house, retired to bed, fell +asleep, and early the next morning was awakened by the Corregidor and +four alguazils. + +The lawlessness of all that followed strikingly exposes the frightful +state of criminal justice at that time, wherever Spanish law prevailed. +No evidence appeared to connect Catalina in any way with the death of +Fernando Acosta. The Portuguese gamblers, besides that perhaps they +thought lightly of such an accident, might have reasons of their own for +drawing off public attention from their pursuits in Tucuman: not one +of these men came forward openly; else the circumstances at the gaming +table, and the departure of Catalina so closely on the heels of her +opponent, would have suggested reasonable grounds for detaining her +until some further light should be obtained. As it was, her imprisonment +rested upon no colorable ground whatever, unless the magistrate had +received some anonymous information, which, however, he never alleged. +One comfort there was, meantime, in Spanish injustice: it did not +loiter. Full gallop it went over the ground: one week often sufficed +for informations--for trial--for execution; and the only bad consequence +was, that a second or a third week sometimes exposed the disagreeable +fact that everything had been 'premature;' a solemn sacrifice had +been made to offended justice, in which all was right except as to the +victim; it was the wrong man; and _that_ gave extra trouble; for then +all was to do over again, another man to be executed, and, possibly, +still to be caught. + +Justice moved at her usual Spanish rate in the present case. Kate was +obliged to rise instantly; not suffered to speak to anybody in the +house, though, in going out, a door opened, and she saw the young Juana +looking out with saddest Indian expression. In one day the trial was all +finished. Catalina said (which was true) that she hardly knew Acosta; +and that people of her rank were used to attack their enemies face to +face, not by murderous surprises. The magistrates were impressed with +Catalina's answers (yet answered to _what_?) Things were beginning to +look well, when all was suddenly upset by two witnesses, whom the reader +(who is a sort of accomplice after the fact, having been privately let +into the truths of the case, and having concealed his knowledge), will +know at once to be false witnesses, but whom the old Spanish buzwigs +doated on as models of all that could be looked for in the best. Both +were very ill-looking fellows, as it was their duty to be. And the first +deposed as follows:--That through his quarter of Tucuman, the fact was +notorious of Acosta's wife being the object of a criminal pursuit on the +part of the Alferez (Catalina): that, _doubtless_, the injured husband +had surprised the prisoner, which, of course, had led to the murder, +to the staircase, to the key--to everything, in short, that could be +wished; no--stop! what am I saying?--to everything that ought to be +abominated. Finally--for he had now settled the main question--that +he had a friend who would take up the case where he himself, from +short-sightedness, was obliged to lay it down.' This friend, the Pythias +of this short-sighted Damon started up in a frenzy of virtue at this +summons, and, rushing to the front of the alguazils, said, 'That since +his friend had proved sufficiently the fact of the Alferez having been +lurking in the house, and having murdered a man, all that rested upon +_him_ to show was, how that murderer got out of the house; which he +could do satisfactorily; for there was a balcony running along the +windows on the second floor, one of which windows he himself, lurking +in a corner of the street, saw the Alferez throw up, and from the said +balcony take a flying leap into the said street.' Evidence like this was +conclusive; no defence was listened to, nor indeed had the prisoner +any to produce. The Alferez could deny neither the staircase nor the +balcony: the street is there to this day, like the bricks in Jack Cade's +Chimney, testifying all that may be required; and, as to our friend who +saw the leap, there he was; nobody could deny _him_. The prisoner might +indeed have suggested that she never heard of Acosta's wife, nor had +the existence of such a wife been ripened even into a suspicion. But +the bench were satisfied; chopping logic was of no use; and sentence was +pronounced--that on the eighth day from the day of arrest, the Alferez +should be executed in the public square. + +It was not amongst the weaknesses of Catalina--who had so often +inflicted death, and, by her own journal, thought so lightly of +inflicting it (if not under cowardly advantages)--to shrink from facing +death in her own person. Many incidents in her career show the coolness +and even gaiety with which, in any case where death was apparently +inevitable, she would have gone to meet it. But in this case she _had_ +a temptation for escaping it, which was probably in her power. She had +only to reveal the secret of her sex, and the ridiculous witnesses, +beyond whose testimony there was nothing at all against her, must at +once be covered with derision. Catalina had some liking for fun; and a +main inducement to this course was, that it would enable her to say to +the judges, 'Now you see what old fools you've made of yourselves; +every woman and child in Peru will soon be laughing at you.' I must +acknowledge my own weakness; this last temptation I could _not_ have +withstood; flesh is weak, and fun is strong. But Catalina _did_. On +consideration she fancied, that although the particular motive for +murdering Acosta would be dismissed with laughter, still this might not +clear her of the murder, which on some _other_ motive she might have +committed. But supposing that she were cleared altogether, what most of +all she feared was, that the publication of her sex would throw a reflex +light upon many past transactions in her life--would instantly find +its way to Spain--and would probably soon bring her within the tender +attentions of the Inquisition. She kept firm to the resolution of not +saving her life by this discovery. And so far as her fate lay in her own +hands, she would (as the reader will perceive from a little incident at +the scaffold) have perished to a certainty. But even at this point, how +strange a case! A woman _falsely_ accused of an act which she really +_did_ commit! And falsely accused of a true offence upon a motive that +was impossible! + +As the sun set upon the seventh day, when the hours were numbered +for the prisoner, there filed into her cell four persons in religious +habits. They came on the charitable mission of preparing the poor +convict for death. Catalina, however, watching all things narrowly, +remarked something earnest and significant in the eye of the leader, as +of one who had some secret communication to make. She contrived to clasp +this man's hands, as if in the energy of internal struggles, and _he_ +contrived to slip into hers the very smallest of billets from poor +Juana. It contained, for indeed it _could_ contain, only these three +words--'Do not confess. J.' This one caution, so simple and so brief, +was a talisman. It did not refer to any confession of the crime; _that_ +would have been assuming what Juana was neither entitled nor disposed +to assume, but, in the technical sense of the Church, to the act of +devotional confession. Catalina found a single moment for a glance at +it--understood the whole--resolutely refused to confess, as a person +unsettled in her religious opinions, that needed spiritual instructions, +and the four monks withdrew to make their report. The principal judge, +upon hearing of the prisoner's impenitence, granted another day. At the +end of _that_, no change having occurred either in the prisoner's +mind, or in the circumstances, he issued his warrant for the execution. +Accordingly, as the sun went down, the sad procession formed within the +prison. Into the great square of Tucuman it moved, where the scaffold +had been built, and the whole city had assembled for the spectacle. +Catalina steadily ascended the ladder of the scaffold; even then she +resolved not to benefit by revealing her sex; even then it was that she +expressed her scorn for the lubberly executioner's mode of tying a knot; +did it herself in a 'ship-shape,' orthodox manner; received in return +the enthusiastic plaudits of the crowd, and so far ran the risk of +precipitating her fate; for the timid magistrates, fearing a rescue from +the impetuous mob, angrily ordered the executioner to finish the scene. +The clatter of a galloping horse, however, at this instant forced them +to pause. The crowd opened a road for the agitated horseman, who was +the bearer of an order from the President of La Plata to suspend the +execution until two prisoners could be examined. The whole was the +work of the Senora and her daughter. The elder lady, having gathered +informations against the witnesses, had pursued them to La Plata. There, +by her influence with the Governor, they were arrested; recognised as +old malefactors; and in their terror had partly confessed their perjury. +Catalina was removed to La Plata; solemnly acquitted; and, by the advice +of the President, for the present the connection with the Senora's +family was postponed indefinitely. + +Now was the last adventure approaching that ever Catalina should see in +the new world. Some fine sights she may yet see in Europe, but nothing +after this (_which she has recorded_) in America. Europe, if it had +ever heard of her name (which very shortly it _shall_), Kings, Pope, +Cardinals, if they were but aware of her existence (which in six months +they _shall_ be), would thirst for an introduction to our Catalina. +You hardly thought now, reader, that she was such a great person, or +anybody's pet but yours and mine. Bless you, Sir, she would scorn to +look at _us_. I tell you, royalties are languishing to see her, or soon +_will_ be. But how can this come to pass, if she is to continue in her +present obscurity? Certainly it cannot without some great _peripetteia_ +or vertiginous whirl of fortune; which, therefore, you shall now behold +taking place in one turn of her next adventure. _That_ shall let in +a light, _that_ shall throw back a Claude Lorraine gleam over all +the past, able to make Kings, that would have cared not for her under +Peruvian daylight, come to glorify her setting beams. + +The Senora--and, observe, whatever kindness she does to Catalina speaks +secretly from two hearts, her own and Juana's--had, by the advice of +Mr. President Mendonia, given sufficient money for Catalina's travelling +expenses. So far well. But Mr. M. chose to add a little codicil to this +bequest of the Senora's, never suggested by her or by her daughter. +'Pray,' said this inquisitive President, who surely might have found +business enough in La Plata, 'Pray, Senor Pietro Diaz, did you ever live +at Concepcion? And were you ever acquainted there with Senor Miguel de +Erauso? That man, Sir, was my friend.' What a pity that on this occasion +Catalina could not venture to be candid! What a capital speech it +would have made to say--'_Friend_ were you? I think you could hardly +be _that_, with seven hundred miles between you. But that man was _my_ +friend also; and, secondly, my brother. True it is I killed him. But if +you happen to know that this was by pure mistake in the dark, what +an old rogue you must be to throw _that_ in my teeth, which is the +affliction of my life!' Again, however, as so often in the same +circumstances, Catalina thought that it would cause more ruin than it +could heal to be candid; and, indeed, if she were really _P. Diaz, Esq. +_, how came she to be brother to the late Mr. Erauso? On consideration, +also, if she could not tell _all_, merely to have professed a fraternal +connection which never was avowed by either whilst living together, +would not have brightened the reputation of Catalina, which too surely +required a scouring. Still, from my kindness for poor Kate, I feel +uncharitably towards the president for advising Senor Pietro 'to travel +for his health.' What had _he_ to do with people's health? However, Mr. +Peter, as he had pocketed the Senora's money, thought it right to pocket +also the advice that accompanied its payment. That he might be in a +condition to do so, he went off to buy a horse. He was in luck to-day. +For beside money and advice, he obtained, at a low rate, a horse both +beautiful and serviceable for a journey. To Paz it was, a city of +prosperous name, that the cornet first moved. But Paz did not fulfil the +promise of its name. For it laid the grounds of a feud that drove our +Kate out of America. + +Her first adventure was a bagatelle, and fitter for a jest-book than a +history; yet it proved no jest either, since it led to the tragedy that +followed. Riding into Paz, our gallant standard-bearer and her bonny +black horse drew all eyes, _comme de raison_, upon their separate +charms. This was inevitable amongst the indolent population of a Spanish +town; and Kate was used to it. But, having recently had a little too +much of the public attention, she felt nervous on remarking two soldiers +eyeing the handsome horse and the handsome rider, with an attention that +seemed too solemn for mere _aesthetics_. However, Kate was not the kind +of person to let anything dwell on her spirits, especially if it +took the shape of impudence; and, whistling gaily, she was riding +forward--when, who should cross her path but the Alcalde! Ah! Alcalde, +you see a person now that has a mission against you, though quite +unknown to herself. He looked so sternly, that Kate asked if his worship +had any commands. 'These men,' said the Alcalde, 'these two soldiers, +say that this horse is stolen.' To one who had so narrowly and so lately +escaped the balcony witness and his friend, it was really no laughing +matter to hear of new affidavits in preparation. Kate was nervous, but +never disconcerted. In a moment she had twitched off a saddle-cloth on +which she sat; and throwing it over the horse's head, so as to cover up +all between the ears and the mouth, she replied, 'that she had bought +and paid for the horse at La Plata. But now, your worship, if this horse +has really been stolen from these men, they must know well of which eye +it is blind; for it _can_ be only in the right eye or the left.' One +of the soldiers cried out instantly, that it was the left eye; but +the other said, 'No, no, you forget, it's the right.' Kate maliciously +called attention to this little schism. But the men said, 'Ah, _that_ +was nothing--they were hurried; but now, on recollecting themselves, +they were agreed that it was the left eye.' Did they stand to that? 'Oh +yes, positive they were, left eye, left.' + +Upon which our Kate, twitching off the horse-cloth, said gaily to the +magistrate, 'Now, Sir, please to observe that this horse has nothing +the matter with either eye.' And in fact it _was_ so. Then his worship +ordered his alguazils to apprehend the two witnesses, who posted off to +bread and water, with other reversionary advantages, whilst Kate rode in +quest of the best dinner that Paz could furnish. + +This Alcalde's acquaintance, however, was not destined to drop here. +Something had appeared in the young _caballero's_ bearing, which made +it painful to have addressed him with harshness, or for a moment to +have entertained such a charge against such a person. He despatched his +cousin, therefore, Don Antonio Calderon, to offer his apologies, and at +the same time to request that the stranger, whose rank and quality he +regretted not to have known, would do him the honor to come and dine +with him. This explanation, and the fact that Don Antonio had already +proclaimed his own position as cousin to the magistrate and nephew +to the Bishop of Cuzco, obliged Catalina to say, after thanking the +gentlemen for their obliging attentions, 'I myself hold the rank of +Alferez in the service of his Catholic Majesty. I am a native of Biscay, +and I am now repairing to Cuzco on private business.' 'To Cuzco!' +exclaimed Don Antonio, 'how very fortunate! My cousin is a Basque like +you; and, like you, he starts for Cuzco to-morrow morning; so that, if +it is agreeable to you, Senor Alferez, we will travel together.' It was +settled that they should. To travel--amongst 'balcony witnesses,' and +anglers for 'blind horses'--not merely with a just man, but with the +very abstract idea and riding allegory of justice, was too delightful to +the storm-wearied cornet; and he cheerfully accompanied Don Antonio +to the house of the magistrate, called Don Pedro de Chavarria. +Distinguished was his reception; the Alcalde personally renewed his +regrets for the ridiculous scene of the two scampish oculists, and +presented him to his wife, a splendid Andalusian beauty, to whom he had +been married about a year. + +This lady there is a reason for describing; and the French reporter +of Catalina's memoirs dwells upon the theme. She united, he says, +the sweetness of the German lady with the energy of the Arabian, a +combination hard to judge of. As to her feet, he adds, I say nothing; +for she had scarcely any at all. '_Je ne parle point de ses pieds, elle +n'en avait presque pas_.' 'Poor lady!' says a compassionate rustic: 'no +feet! What a shocking thing that so fine a woman should have been so +sadly mutilated!' Oh, my dear rustic, you're quite in the wrong box. The +Frenchman means this as the very highest compliment. Beautiful, however, +she must have been; and a Cinderella, I hope, not a Cinderellula, +considering that she had the inimitable walk and step of the +Andalusians, which cannot be accomplished without something of a +proportionate basis to stand upon. + +The reason which there is (as I have said) for describing this lady, +arises out of her relation to the tragic events which followed. She, +by her criminal levity, was the cause of all. And I must here warn the +moralizing blunderer of two errors that he is too likely to make: 1st, +That he is invited to read some extract from a licentious amour, as if +for its own interest; 2d, Or on account of Donna Catalina's memoirs, +with a view to relieve their too martial character. I have the pleasure +to assure him of his being so utterly in the darkness of error, that any +possible change he can make in his opinions, right or left, must be +for the better: he cannot stir, but he will mend, which is a delightful +thought for the moral and blundering mind. As to the first point, +what little glimpse he obtains of a licentious amour is, as a court +of justice will sometimes show him such a glimpse, simply to make +intelligible the subsequent facts which depend upon it. Secondly, As to +the conceit, that Catalina wished to embellish her memoirs, understand +that no such practice then existed; certainly not in Spanish literature. +Her memoirs are electrifying by their facts; else, in the manner of +telling these facts, they are systematically dry. + +Don Antonio Calderon was a handsome, accomplished cavalier. And in the +course of dinner, Catalina was led to judge, from the behavior to each +other of this gentleman and the lady, the Alcalde's beautiful wife, +that they had an improper understanding. This also she inferred from the +furtive language of their eyes. Her wonder was, that the Alcalde should +be so blind; though upon that point she saw reason in a day or two +to change her opinion. Some people see everything by affecting to see +nothing. The whole affair, however, was nothing at all to _her_, and +she would have dismissed it from her thoughts altogether, but for what +happened on the journey. + +From the miserable roads, eight hours a day of travelling was found +quite enough for man and beast; the product of which eight hours was +from ten to twelve leagues. On the last day but one of the journey, the +travelling party, which was precisely the original dinner party, reached +a little town ten leagues short of Cuzco. The Corregidor of this place +was a friend of the Alcalde; and through _his_ influence the party +obtained better accommodations than those which they had usually had in +a hovel calling itself a _venta_, or in the sheltered corner of a +barn. The Alcalde was to sleep at the Corregidor's house; the two young +cavaliers, Calderon and our Kate, had sleeping rooms at the public +_locanda_; but for the lady was reserved a little pleasure-house in an +enclosed garden. This was a plaything of a house; but the season +being summer, and the house surrounded with tropical flowers, the lady +preferred it (in spite of its loneliness) to the damp mansion of the +official grandee, who, in her humble opinion, was quite as fusty as his +mansion, and his mansion not much less so than himself. + +After dining gaily together at the _locanda_, and possibly taking a +'rise' out of his worship the Corregidor, as a repeating echo of Don +Quixote, (then growing popular in Spanish America,) the young man +who was no young officer, and the young officer who was no young man, +lounged down together to the little pavilion in the flower-garden, with +the purpose of paying their respects to the presiding belle. They were +graciously received, and had the honor of meeting there his Mustiness +the Alcalde, and his Fustiness the Corregidor; whose conversation was +surely improving, but not equally brilliant. How they got on under the +weight of two such muffs, has been a mystery for two centuries. But they +_did_ to a certainty, for the party did not break up till eleven. _Tea +and turn out_ you could not call it; for there was the _turn out_ in +rigor, but not the _tea_. One thing, however, Catalina by mere accident +had an opportunity of observing, and observed with pain. The two +official gentlemen had gone down the steps into the garden. Catalina, +having forgot her hat, went back into the little vestibule to look for +it. There stood the lady and Don Antonio, exchanging a few final +words (they _were_ final) and a few final signs. Amongst the last +Kate observed distinctly this, and distinctly she understood it. First +drawing Calderon's attention to the gesture, as one of significant +pantomime, by raising her forefinger, the lady snuffed out one of the +candles. The young man answered it by a look of intelligence, and all +three passed down the steps together. The lady was disposed to take the +cool air, and accompanied them to the garden-gate; but, in passing down +the walk, Catalina noticed a second ill-omened sign that all was not +right. Two glaring eyes she distinguished amongst the shrubs for a +moment, and a rustling immediately after. 'What's that?' said the lady, +and Don Antonio answered carelessly, 'A bird flying out of the bushes.' + +Catalina, as usual, had read everything. Not a wrinkle or a rustle was +lost upon _her_. And, therefore, when she reached the _locanda_, knowing +to an iota all that was coming, she did not retire to bed, but paced +before the house. She had not long to wait: in fifteen minutes the door +opened softly, and out stepped Calderon. Kate walked forward, and faced +him immediately; telling him laughingly that it was not good for his +health to go abroad on this night. The young man showed some impatience; +upon which, very seriously, Kate acquainted him with her suspicions, and +with the certainty that the Alcalde was not so blind as he had seemed. +Calderon thanked her for the information; would be upon his guard; but, +to prevent further expostulation, he wheeled round instantly into the +darkness. Catalina was too well convinced, however, of the mischief on +foot, to leave him thus. She followed rapidly, and passed silently +into the garden, almost at the same time with Calderon. Both took +their stations behind trees; Calderon watching nothing but the burning +candles, Catalina watching circumstances to direct her movements. +The candles burned brightly in the little pavilion. Presently one was +extinguished. Upon this, Calderon pressed forward to the steps, hastily +ascended them, and passed into the vestibule. Catalina followed on his +traces. What succeeded was all one scene of continued, dreadful dumb +show; different passions of panic, or deadly struggle, or hellish malice +absolutely suffocated all articulate words. + +In a moment a gurgling sound was heard, as of a wild beast attempting +vainly to yell over some creature that it was strangling. Next came a +tumbling out at the door of one black mass, which heaved and parted at +intervals into two figures, which closed, which parted again, which at +last fell down the steps together. Then appeared a figure in white. It +was the unhappy Andalusian; and she seeing the outline of Catalina's +person, ran up to her, unable to utter one syllable. Pitying the agony +of her horror, Catalina took her within her own cloak, and carried her +out at the garden gate. Calderon had by this time died; and the maniacal +Alcalde had risen up to pursue his wife. But Kate, foreseeing what he +would do, had stepped silently within the shadow of the garden wall. +Looking down the road to the town, and seeing nobody moving, the maniac, +for some purpose, went back to the house. This moment Kate used to +recover the _locanda_ with the lady still panting in horror. What was +to be done? To think of concealment in this little place was out of the +question. The Alcalde was a man of local power, and it was certain that +he would kill his wife on the spot. Kate's generosity would not allow +her to have any collusion with this murderous purpose. At Cuzco, the +principal convent was ruled by a near relative of the Andalusian; +and there she would find shelter. Kate, therefore, saddled her horse +rapidly, placed the lady behind, and rode off in the darkness. About +five miles out of the town their road was crossed by a torrent, over +which they could not hit the bridge. 'Forward!' cried the lady; and Kate +repeating the word to the horse, the docile creature leaped down into +the water. They were all sinking at first; but having its head free, +the horse swam clear of all obstacles through the midnight darkness, and +scrambled out on the opposite bank. The two riders were dripping from +the shoulders downward. But, seeing a light twinkling from a cottage +window, Kate rode up; obtained a little refreshment, and the benefit of +a fire, from a poor laboring man. From this man she also bought a warm +mantle for the lady, who, besides her torrent bath, was dressed in a +light evening robe, so that but for the horseman's cloak of Kate she +would have perished. But there was no time to lose. They had already +lost two hours from the consequences of their cold bath. Cuzco was +still eighteen miles distant; and the Alcalde's shrewdness would at once +divine this to be his wife's mark. They remounted: very soon the silent +night echoed the hoofs of a pursuing rider; and now commenced the most +frantic race, in which each party rode as if the whole game of life were +staked upon the issue. The pace was killing: and Kate has delivered it +as her opinion, in the memoirs which she wrote, that the Alcalde was the +better mounted. This may be doubted. And certainly Kate had ridden too +many years in the Spanish cavalry to have any fear of his worship's +horsemanship; but it was a prodigious disadvantage that _her_ horse had +to carry double; while the horse ridden by her opponent was one of those +belonging to the murdered Don Antonio, and known to Kate as a powerful +animal. At length they had come within three miles at Cuzco. The road +after this descended the whole way to the city, and in some places +rapidly, so as to require a cool rider. Suddenly a deep trench appeared +traversing the whole extent of a broad heath. It was useless to evade +it. To have hesitated was to be lost. Kate saw the necessity of clearing +it, but doubted much whether her poor exhausted horse, after twenty-one +miles of work so severe, had strength for the effort. Kate's maxim, +however, which never yet had failed, both figuratively for life, and +literally for the saddle, was--to ride at everything that showed a front +of resistance. She did so now. Having come upon the trench rather too +suddenly, she wheeled round for the advantage of coming down upon it +more determinately, rode resolutely at it, and gained the opposite bank. +The hind feet of her horse were sinking back from the rottenness of +the ground; but the strong supporting bridle-hand of Kate carried him +forward; and in ten minutes more they would be in Cuzco. This being +seen by the vicious Alcalde, who had built great hopes on the trench, +he unslung his carbine, pulled up, and fired after the bonny black +horse and its bonny fair riders. But this manoeuvre would have lost +his worship any bet that he might have had depending on this admirable +steeple-chase. Had I been stakeholder, what a pleasure it would have +been, in fifteen minutes from this very vicious shot, to pay into +Kate's hands every shilling of the deposits. I would have listened to +no nonsense about referees or protests. The bullets, says Kate, whistled +round the poor clinging lady _en croupe_--luckily none struck her; +but one wounded the horse. And that settled the odds. Kate now planted +herself well in her stirrups to enter Cuzco, almost dangerously a +winner; for the horse was so maddened by the wound, and the road so +steep, that he went like blazes; and it really became difficult for +Kate to guide him with any precision through narrow episcopal paths. +Henceforwards the wounded horse required Kate's continued attention; and +yet, in the mere luxury of strife, it was impossible for Kate to avoid +turning a little in her saddle to see the Alcalde's performance on +this tight rope of the trench. His worship's horsemanship being perhaps +rather rusty, and he not perfectly acquainted with his horse, it +would have been agreeable to compromise the case by riding round, or +dismounting. But all _that_ was impossible. The job must be done. And I +am happy to report, for the reader's satisfaction, the sequel--so far +as Kate could attend the performance. Gathering himself up for mischief, +the Alcalde took a sweep, as if ploughing out the line of some vast +encampment, or tracing the _pomaerium_ for some future Rome; then, like +thunder and lightning, with arms flying aloft in the air, down he came +upon the trembling trench. + +But the horse refused the leap; and, as the only compromise that _his_ +unlearned brain could suggest, he threw his worship right over his ears, +lodging him safely in a sand-heap that rose with clouds of dust and +screams of birds into the morning air. Kate had now no time to send back +her compliments in a musical halloo. The Alcalde missed breaking his +neck on this occasion very narrowly; but his neck was of no use to him +in twenty minutes more, as the reader will soon find. Kate rode right +onwards; and, coming in with a lady behind her, horse bloody, and pace +such as no hounds could have lived with, she ought to have made a great +sensation in Cuzco. But, unhappily, the people were all in bed. + +The steeple-chase into Cuzco had been a fine headlong thing, considering +the torrent, the trench, the wounded horse, the lovely lady, with her +agonizing fears, mounted behind Kate, together with the meek dove-like +dawn: but the finale crowded together the quickest succession of changes +that out of a melodrama can ever have been witnessed. Kate reached the +convent in safety; carried into the cloisters, and delivered like a +parcel the fair Andalusian. But to rouse the servants caused delay; and +on returning to the street through the broad gateway of the convent, +whom should she face but the Alcalde! How he escaped the trench, who can +tell? He had no time to write memoirs; his horse was too illiterate. But +he _had_ escaped; temper not at all improved by that adventure, and now +raised to a hell of malignity by seeing that he had lost his prey. In +the morning light he now saw how to use his sword. He attacked Kate with +fury. Both were exhausted; and Kate, besides that she had no personal +quarrel with the Alcalde, having now accomplished her sole object +in saving the lady, would have been glad of a truce. She could with +difficulty wield her sword: and the Alcalde had so far the advantage, +that he wounded Kate severely. That roused her ancient blood. She turned +on him now with determination. At that moment in rode two servants of +the Alcalde, who took part with their master. These odds strengthened +Kate's resolution, but weakened her chances. Just then, however, rode +in, and ranged himself on Kate's side, the servant of the murdered Don +Calderon. In an instant, Kate had pushed her sword through the Alcalde, +who died upon the spot. In an instant the servant of Calderon had fled. +In an instant the Alguazils had come up. They and the servants of the +Alcalde pressed furiously on Kate, who now again was fighting for life. +Against such odds, she was rapidly losing ground; when, in an instant, +on the opposite side of the street, the great gates of the Episcopal +palace rolled open. Thither it was that Calderon's servant had fled. The +bishop and his attendants hurried across. 'Senor Caballador,' said +the bishop, 'in the name of the Virgin, I enjoin you to surrender your +sword.' 'My lord,' said Kate, 'I dare not do it with so many enemies +about me.' 'But I,' replied the bishop, 'become answerable to the law +for your safe keeping.' Upon which, with filial reverence, all parties +dropped their swords. Kate being severely wounded, the bishop led her +into his palace. In an instant came the catastrophe; Kate's discovery +could no longer be delayed; the blood flowed too rapidly; the wound was +in her bosom. She requested a private interview with the bishop; all was +known in a moment; for surgeons and attendants were summoned hastily, +and Kate had fainted. The good bishop pitied her, and had her attended +in his palace; then removed to a convent; then to a second at Lima; and, +after many months had passed, his report to the Spanish Government at +home of all the particulars, drew from the King of Spain and from the +Pope an order that the Nun should be transferred to Spain. + +Yes, at length the warrior lady, the blooming cornet, this nun that is +so martial, this dragoon that is so lovely, must visit again the home +of her childhood, which now for seventeen years she has not seen. All +Spain, Portugal, Italy, rang with her adventures. Spain, from north to +south, was frantic with desire to behold her fiery child, whose girlish +romance, whose patriotic heroism electrified the national imagination. +The King of Spain must kiss his _faithful_ daughter, that would not +suffer his banner to see dishonor. The Pope must kiss his _wandering_ +daughter, that henceforwards will be a lamb travelling back into the +Christian fold. Potentates so great as these, when _they_ speak words +of love, do not speak in vain. All was forgiven; the sacrilege, the +bloodshed, the flight and the scorn of St. Peter's keys; the pardons +were made out, were signed, were sealed, and the chanceries of earth +were satisfied. + +Ah! what a day of sorrow and of joy was _that_ one day, in the first +week of November, 1624, when the returning Kate drew near to the shore +of Andalusia--when, descending into the ship's barge, she was rowed to +the piers of Cadiz by bargemen in the royal liveries--when she saw every +ship, street, house, convent, church, crowded, like a day of judgment, +with human faces, with men, with women, with children, all bending +the lights of their flashing and their loving eyes upon herself. Forty +myriads of people had gathered in Cadiz alone. All Andalusia had turned +out to receive her. Ah! what joy, if she had not looked back to the +Andes, to their dreadful summits, and their more dreadful feet. Ah! what +sorrow, if she had not been forced by music, and endless banners, and +triumphant clamors, to turn away from the Andes to the joyous shore +which she approached! + +Upon this shore stood, ready to receive her, in front of all this mighty +crowd, the Prime Minister of Spain, the same Conde Olivarez, who but +one year before had been so haughty and so defying to our haughty and +defying Duke of Buckingham. But a year ago the Prince of Wales was in +Spain, and he also was welcomed with triumph and great joy, but not with +the hundredth part of that enthusiasm which now met the returning nun. +And Olivarez, that had spoken so roughly to the English Duke, to +_her_ 'was sweet as summer.' [Footnote: Griffith in Shakspeare, when +vindicating, in that immortal scene with Queen Catherine, Cardinal +Wolsey.] Through endless crowds of festive compatriots he conducted +her to the King. The King folded her in his arms, and could never be +satisfied with listening to her. He sent for her continually to his +presence--he delighted in her conversation, so new, so natural, so +spirited--he settled a pension upon her at that time, of unprecedented +amount, in the case of a subaltern officer; and by _his_ desire, because +the year 1625 was a year of jubilee, she departed in a few months +from Madrid to Rome. She went through Barcelona; there and everywhere +welcomed as the lady whom the King delighted to honor. She travelled to +Rome, and all doors flew open to receive her. She was presented to his +Holiness, with letters from his most Catholic majesty. But letters there +needed none. The Pope admired her as much as all before had done. He +caused her to recite all her adventures; and what he loved most in her +account, was the sincere and sorrowing spirit in which she described +herself as neither better nor worse than she had been. Neither proud +was Kate, nor sycophantishly and falsely humble. Urban VIII. it was +that then filled the chair of St. Peter. He did not neglect to raise +his daughter's thoughts from earthly things--he pointed her eyes to the +clouds that were above the dome of St. Peter's cathedral--he told her +what the cathedral had told her in the gorgeous clouds of the Andes +and the vesper lights, how sweet a thing, how divine a thing it was for +Christ's sake to forgive all injuries, and how he trusted that no more +she would think of bloodshed. He also said two words to her in Latin, +which, if I had time to repeat a Spanish bishop's remark to Kate some +time afterwards upon those two mysterious words, with Kate's most +natural and ingenuous answer to the Bishop upon what she supposed to +be their meaning, would make the reader smile not less than they made +myself. You know that Kate _did_ understand a little Latin, which, +probably, had not been much improved by riding in the Light Dragoons. I +must find time, however, whether the press and the compositors are in a +fury or not, to mention that the Pope, in his farewell audience to his +dear daughter, whom he was to see no more, gave her a general license +to wear henceforth in all countries--even _in partibus Infidelium_--a +cavalry officer's dress--boots, spurs, sabre, and sabretache; in fact, +anything that she and the Horse Guards might agree upon. Consequently, +reader, remember for your life never to say one word, nor suffer any +tailor to say one word, against those Wellington trousers made in the +chestnut forest; for, understand that the Papal indulgence, as to this +point, runs backwards as well as forwards; it is equally shocking and +heretical to murmur against trousers in the forgotten rear or against +trousers yet to come. + +From Rome, Kate returned to Spain. She even went to St. Sebastian's--to +the city, but--whether it was that her heart failed her or not--never +to the convent. She roamed up and down; everywhere she was +welcome--everywhere an honored guest; but everywhere restless. The poor +and humble never ceased from their admiration of her; and amongst the +rich and aristocratic of Spain, with the King at their head, Kate found +especial love from two classes of men. The Cardinals and Bishops all +doated upon her--as their daughter that was returning. The military men +all doated upon her--as their sister that was retiring. + +Some time or other, when I am allowed more elbow-room, I will tell you +why it is that I myself love this Kate. Now, at this moment, when it +is necessary for me to close, if I allow you one question before laying +down my pen--if I say, 'Come now, be quick, ask anything you _have_ +to ask, for, in one minute, I am going to write _Finis_, after which +(unless the Queen wished it) I could not add a syllable'--twenty to +one, I guess what your question will be. You will ask me, What became of +Kate? What was her end? + +Ah, reader! but, if I answer that question, you will say I have _not_ +answered it. If I tell you that secret, you will say that the secret +is still hidden. Yet, because I have promised, and because you will be +angry if I do not, let me do my best; and bad is the best. After ten +years of restlessness in Spain, with thoughts always turning back to the +Andes, Kate heard of an expedition on the point of sailing to Spanish +America. All soldiers knew _her_, so that she had information of +everything that stirred in camps. Men of the highest military rank were +going out with the expedition; but they all loved Kate as a sister, and +were delighted to hear that she would join their mess on board ship. +This ship, with others, sailed, whither finally bound, I really forget. +But, on reaching America, all the expedition touched at _Vera Cruz_. +Thither a great crowd of the military went on shore. The leading +officers made a separate party for the same purpose. Their intention +was, to have a gay happy dinner, after their long confinement to a ship, +at the chief hotel; and happy in perfection it could not be, unless Kate +would consent to join it. She, that was ever kind to brother soldiers, +agreed to do so. She descended into the boat along with them, and in +twenty minutes the boat touched the shore. All the bevy of gay laughing +officers, junior and senior, like schoolboys escaping from school, +jumped on shore, and walked hastily, as their time was limited, up to +the hotel. Arriving there, all turned round in eagerness, saying, 'Where +is our dear Kate?' Ah, yes, my dear Kate, at that solemn moment, where, +indeed, were _you_? She had _certainly_ taken her seat in the boat: that +was sure. Nobody, in the general confusion, was certain of having seen +her on coming ashore. The sea was searched for her--the forests were +ransacked. The sea made no answer--the forests gave up no sign. I have +a conjecture of my own; but her brother soldiers were lost in sorrow and +confusion, and could never arrive even at a conjecture. + +That happened two hundred and fourteen years ago! Here is the brief sum +of all:--This nun sailed from Spain to Peru, and she found no rest for +the sole of her foot. This nun sailed back from Peru to Spain, and she +found no rest for the agitations of her heart. This nun sailed again +from Spain to America, and she found--the rest which all of us find. But +where it was, could never be made known to the father of Spanish camps, +that sat in Madrid; nor to Kate's spiritual father, that sat in Rome. +Known it is to the great Father that once whispered to Kate on the +Andes; but else it has been a secret for two centuries; and to man it +remains a secret for ever and ever! + + + + +FLIGHT OF A TARTAR TRIBE. + + +There is no great event in modern history, or perhaps it may be said +more broadly, none in all history, from its earliest records, less +generally known, or more striking to the imagination, than the flight +eastwards of a principal Tartar nation across the boundless _steppes_ +of Asia in the latter half of the last century. The _terminus a quo_ of +this flight, and the _terminus ad quem_, are equally magnificent; the +mightiest of Christian thrones being the one, the mightiest of Pagan the +other. And the grandeur of these two terminal objects, is harmoniously +supported by the romantic circumstances of the flight. In the abruptness +of its commencement, and the fierce velocity of its execution, we read +an expression of the wild barbaric character of the agents. In the +unity of purpose connecting this myriad of wills, and in the blind but +unerring aim at a mark so remote, there is something which recalls to +the mind those Almighty instincts that propel the migrations of the +swallow, or the life-withering marches of the locust. Then again, in the +gloomy vengeance of Russia and her vast artillery, which hung upon the +rear and the skirts of the fugitive vassals, we are reminded of Miltonic +images--such, for instance, as that of the solitary hand pursuing +through desert spaces and through ancient chaos a rebellious host, and +overtaking with volleying thunders those who believed themselves already +within the security of darkness and of distance. + +We shall have occasion farther on to compare this event with other great +national catastrophes as to the magnitude of the suffering. But it may +also challenge a comparison with similar events under another relation, +viz., as to its dramatic capabilities. Few cases, perhaps, in romance or +history, can sustain a close collation with this as to the complexity +of its separate interests. The great outline of the enterprise, taken +in connection with the operative motives, hidden or avowed, and the +religious sanctions under which it was pursued, give to the case a +triple character: 1st, That of a conspiracy, with as close a unity +in the incidents, and as much of a personal interest in the moving +characters, with fine dramatic contrasts, as belongs to Venice +Preserved, or to the Fiesco of Schiller. 2dly, That of a great military +expedition offering the same romantic features of vast distances to +be traversed, vast reverses to be sustained, untried routes, enemies +obscurely ascertained, and hardships too vaguely prefigured, which mark +the Egyptian expedition of Cambyses--the anabasis of the younger Cyrus, +and the subsequent retreat of the ten thousand to the Black Sea--the +Parthian expeditions of the Romans, especially those of Crassus and +Julian--or (as more disastrous than any of them, and in point of space +as well as in amount of forces, more extensive,) the Russian anabasis +and katabasis of Napoleon. 3dly, That of a religious Exodus, authorized +by an oracle venerated throughout many nations of Asia, an Exodus, +therefore, in so far resembling the great Scriptural Exodus of the +Israelites, under Moses and Joshua, as well as in the very peculiar +distinction of carrying along with them their entire families, women, +children, slaves, their herds of cattle and of sheep, their horses and +their camels. + +This triple character of the enterprise naturally invests it with a more +comprehensive interest. But the dramatic interest, which we ascribed to +it, or its fitness for a stage representation, depends partly upon the +marked variety and the strength of the personal agencies concerned, and +partly upon the succession of scenical situations. Even the _steppes_, +the camels, the tents, the snowy and the sandy deserts, are not beyond +the scale of our modern representative powers, as often called into +action in the theatres both of Paris and London; and the series of +situations unfolded, beginning with the general conflagration on the +Wolga--passing thence to the disastrous scenes of the flight (as it +literally was in its commencement)--to the Tartar siege of the Russian +fortress Koulagina--the bloody engagement with the Cossacks in the +mountain passes at Ouchim--the surprisal by the Bashkirs and the +advanced posts of the Russian army at Torgau--the private conspiracy at +this point against the Khan--the long succession of running fights--the +parting massacres at the lake of Tengis under the eyes of the +Chinese--and finally, the tragical retribution to Zebek-Dorchi at the +hunting-lodge of the Chinese emperor;--all these situations communicate +a _scenical_ animation to the wild romance, if treated dramatically; +whilst a higher and a philosophic interest belongs to it as a case of +authentic history, commemorating a great revolution for good and for +evil, in the fortunes of a whole people--a people semi-barbarous, but +simple-hearted, and of ancient descent. + +On the 2lst of January, 1761, the young Prince Oubacha assumed the +sceptre of the Kalmucks upon the death of his father. Some part of +the power attached to this dignity he had already wielded since his +fourteenth year, in quality of Vice-Khan, by the express appointment, +and with the avowed support of the Russian Government. He was now +about eighteen years of age, amiable in his personal character, and not +without titles to respect in his public character as a sovereign prince. +In times more peaceable, and amongst a people more entirely civilized, +or more humanized by religion, it is even probable that he might have +discharged his high duties with considerable distinction. But his +lot was thrown upon stormy times, and a most difficult crisis amongst +tribes, whose native ferocity was exasperated by debasing forms of +superstition, and by a nationality as well as an inflated conceit of +their own merit absolutely unparalleled, whilst the circumstances of +their hard and trying position under the jealous _surveillance_ of an +irresistible lord paramount, in the person of the Russian Czar, gave a +fiercer edge to the natural unamiableness of the Kalmuck disposition, +and irritated its gloomier qualities into action under the restless +impulses of suspicion and permanent distrust. No prince could hope for +a cordial allegiance from his subjects, or a peaceful reign under the +circumstances of the case; for the dilemma in which a Kalmuck ruler +stood at present was of this nature; _wanting_ the sanction and +support of the Czar, he was inevitably too weak from without to command +confidence from his subjects, or resistance to his competitors: on the +other hand, _with_ this kind of support, and deriving his title in any +degree from the favor of the Imperial Court, he became almost in that +extent an object of hatred at home, and within the whole compass of his +own territory. He was at once an object of hatred for the past, being a +living monument of national independence, ignominiously surrendered, and +an object of jealousy for the future, as one who had already advertised +himself to be a fitting tool for the ultimate purposes (whatsoever those +might prove to be) of the Russian Court. Coming himself to the Kalmuck +sceptre under the heaviest weight of prejudice from the unfortunate +circumstances of his position, it might have been expected that Oubacha +would have been pre-eminently an object of detestation; for besides his +known dependence upon the Cabinet of St. Petersburg, the direct line +of succession had been set aside, and the principle of inheritance +violently suspended, in favor of his own father, so recently as nineteen +years before the era of his own accession, consequently within the +lively remembrance of the existing generation. He therefore, almost +equally with his father, stood within the full current of the national +prejudices, and might have anticipated the most pointed hostility. But +it was not so: such are the caprices in human affairs, that he was even, +in a moderate sense, popular,--a benefit which wore the more cheering +aspect, and the promises of permanence, inasmuch as he owed it +exclusively to his personal qualities of kindness and affability, as +well as to the beneficence of his government. On the other hand, to +balance this unlooked-for prosperity at the outset of his reign, he met +with a rival in popular favor--almost a competitor--in the person of +Zebek-Dorchi, a prince with considerable pretensions to the throne, and, +perhaps it might be said, with equal pretensions. Zebek-Dorchi was +a direct descendant of the same royal house as himself, through a +different branch. On public grounds, his claim stood, perhaps, on +a footing equally good with that of Oubacha, whilst his personal +qualities, even in those aspects which seemed to a philosophical +observer most odious and repulsive, promised the most effectual aid to +the dark purposes of an intriguer or a conspirator, and were generally +fitted to win a popular support precisely in those points where +_Oubacha_ was most defective. He was much superior in external +appearance to his rival on the throne, and so far better qualified +to win the good opinion of a semi-barbarous people; whilst his +dark intellectual qualities of Machiavelian dissimulation, profound +hypocrisy, and perfidy which knew no touch of remorse, were admirably +calculated to sustain any ground which he might win from the +simple-hearted people with whom he had to deal--and from the frank +carelessness of his unconscious competitor. + +At the very outset of his treacherous career, Zebek-Dorchi was sagacious +enough to perceive that nothing could be gained by open declaration of +hostility to the reigning prince: the choice had been a deliberate act +on the part of Russia, and Elizabeth Petrowna was not the person to +recall her own favors with levity or upon slight grounds. Openly, +therefore, to have declared his enmity towards his relative on the +throne, could have had no effect but that of arming suspicions against +his own ulterior purposes in a quarter where it was most essential to +his interest that, for the present, all suspicion should be hoodwinked. +Accordingly, after much meditation, the course he took for opening his +snares was this:--He raised a rumor that his own life was in danger from +the plots of several _Saissang_, (that is, Kalmuck nobles,) who were +leagued together, under an oath to assassinate him; and immediately +after, assuming a well-counterfeited alarm, he fled to Tcherkask, +followed by sixty-five tents. From this place he kept up a +correspondence with the Imperial Court; and, by way of soliciting his +cause more effectually, he soon repaired in person to St. Petersburg. +Once admitted to personal conferences with the Cabinet, he found no +difficulty in winning over the Russian counsels to a concurrence with +some of his political views, and thus covertly introducing the point of +that wedge which was finally to accomplish his purposes. In particular, +he persuaded the Russian Government to make a very important alteration +in the constitution of the Kalmuck State Council, which in effect +reorganized the whole political condition of the state, and disturbed +the balance of power as previously adjusted. Of this Council--in the +Kalmuck language called _Sarga_--there were eight members, called +_Sargatchi;_ and hitherto it had been the custom that these eight +members should be entirely subordinate to the Khan; holding, in fact, +the ministerial character of secretaries and assistants, but in no +respect ranking as co-ordinate authorities. That had produced some +inconveniences in former reigns; and it was easy for Zebek-Dorchi to +point the jealousy of the Russian Court to others more serious which +might arise in future circumstances of war or other contingencies. +It was resolved, therefore, to place the Sargatchi henceforward on +a footing of perfect independence, and therefore (as regarded +responsibility) on a footing of equality with the Khan. Their +independence, however, had respect only to their own sovereign; for +towards Russia they were placed in a new attitude of direct duty and +accountability, by the creation in their favor of small pensions (300 +roubles a year), which, however, to a Kalmuck of that day were more +considerable than might be supposed, and had a further value as marks +of honorary distinction emanating from a great Empress. Thus far the +purposes of Zebek-Dorchi were served effectually for the moment: +but, apparently, it was only for the moment; since, in the further +development of his plots, this very dependency upon Russian influence +would be the most serious obstacle in his way. There was, however, +another point carried which outweighed all inferior considerations, as +it gave him a power of setting aside discretionally whatsoever should +arise to disturb his plots: he was himself appointed President and +Controller of the _Sargatchi_. The Russian Court had been aware of his +high pretensions by birth, and hoped by this promotion to satisfy the +ambition which, in some degree, was acknowledged to be a reasonable +passion for any man occupying his situation. + +Having thus completely blindfolded the Cabinet of Russia, Zebek-Dorchi +proceeded in his new character to fulfil his political mission with +the Khan of the Kalmucks. So artfully did he prepare the road for his +favorable reception at the court of this Prince, that he was at once +and universally welcomed as a public benefactor. The pensions of the +counsellors were so much additional wealth poured into the Tartar +exchequer; as to the ties of dependency thus created, experience had +not yet enlightened these simple tribes as to that result. And that he +himself should be the chief of these mercenary counsellors, was so far +from being charged upon Zebek as any offence or any ground of suspicion, +that his relative the Khan returned him hearty thanks for his services, +under the belief that he could have accepted this appointment only with +a view to keep out other and more unwelcome pretenders, who would not +have had the same motives of consanguinity or friendship for executing +its duties in a spirit of kindness to the Kalmucks. The first use which +he made of his new functions about the Khan's person was to attack the +Court of Russia, by a romantic villany not easy to be credited, for +those very acts of interference with the council which he himself had +prompted. This was a dangerous step: but it was indispensable to +his further advance upon the gloomy path which he had traced out for +himself. A triple vengeance was what he meditated--1, Upon the Russian +Cabinet for having undervalued his own pretensions to the throne--2, +upon his amiable rival for having supplanted him--and 3, upon all those +of the nobility who had manifested their sense of his weakness by their +neglect, or their sense of his perfidious character by their suspicions. +Here was a colossal outline of wickedness; and by one in his situation, +feeble (as it might seem) for the accomplishment of its humblest parts, +how was the total edifice to be reared in its comprehensive grandeur? +He, a worm as he was, could he venture to assail the mighty behemoth of +Muscovy, the potentate who counted three hundred languages around the +footsteps of his throne, and from whose 'lion ramp' recoiled alike +'baptized and infidel'--Christendom on the one side, strong by her +intellect and her organization, and the `Barbaric East' on the other, +with her unnumbered numbers? The match was a monstrous one; but in its +very monstrosity there lay this germ of encouragement, that it could not +be suspected. The very hopelessness of the scheme grounded his hope, and +he resolved to execute a vengeance which should involve as it were, +in the unity of a well-laid tragic fable, all whom he judged to be his +enemies. That vengeance lay in detaching from the Russian empire the +whole Kalmuck nation, and breaking up that system of intercourse which +had thus far been beneficial to both. This last was a consideration +which moved him but little. True it was that Russia to the Kalmucks had +secured lands and extensive pasturage; true it was that the Kalmucks +reciprocally to Russia had furnished a powerful cavalry. But the latter +loss would be part of his triumph, and the former might be more than +compensated in other climates under other sovereigns. Here was a scheme +which, in its final accomplishment, would avenge him bitterly on the +Czarina, and in the course of its accomplishment might furnish him +with ample occasions for removing his other enemies. It may be readily +supposed indeed that he, who could deliberately raise his eyes to the +Russian autocrat as an antagonist in single duel with himself, was not +likely to feel much anxiety about Kalmuck enemies of whatever rank. He +took his resolution, therefore, sternly and irrevocably to effect this +astonishing translation of an ancient people across the pathless +deserts of Central Asia, intersected continually by rapid rivers, rarely +furnished with bridges, and of which the fords were known only to those +who might think it for their interest to conceal them, through many +nations inhospitable or hostile; frost and snow around them, (from the +necessity of commencing their flight in the winter,) famine in their +front, and the sabre, or even the artillery of an offended and mighty +empress, hanging upon their rear for thousands of miles. But what was +to be their final mark, the port of shelter after so fearful a course +of wandering? Two things were evident: it must be some power at a great +distance from Russia, so as to make return even in that view hopeless; +and it must be a power of sufficient rank to ensure them protection from +any hostile efforts on the part of the Czarina for reclaiming them, or +for chastising their revolt. Both conditions were united obviously in +the person of Kien Long, the reigning Emperor of China, who was farther +recommended to them by his respect for the head of their religion. To +China, therefore, and as their first rendezvous to the shadow of the +great Chinese Wall, it was settled by Zebek that they should direct +their flight. + +Next came the question of time; _when_ should the flight commence:--and +finally, the more delicate question as to the choice of accomplices. +To extend the knowledge of the conspiracy too far, was to insure +its betrayal to the Russian Government. Yet at some stage of the +preparations it was evident that a very extensive confidence must be +made, because in no other way could the mass of the Kalmuck population +be persuaded to furnish their families with the requisite equipments +for so long a migration. This critical step, however, it was resolved to +defer up to the latest possible moment, and, at all events, to make no +general communication on the subject until the time of departure should +be definitely settled. In the meantime, Zebek admitted only three +persons to his confidence; of whom Oubacha, the reigning prince, was +almost necessarily one; but him, from his yielding and somewhat feeble +character, he viewed rather in the light of a tool than as one of his +active accomplices. Those whom (if anybody) he admitted to an unreserved +participation in his counsels, were two only, the great _Lama_ among the +Kalmucks, and his own father-in-law, Erempel, a ruling prince of some +tribe in the neighborhood of the Caspian sea, recommended to his favor +not so much by any strength of talent corresponding to the occasion, as +by his blind devotion to himself, and his passionate anxiety to promote +the elevation of his daughter and his son-in-law to the throne of a +sovereign prince. A titular prince Zebek already was: but this dignity, +without the substantial accompaniment of a sceptre, seemed but an empty +sound to both of these ambitious rivals. The other accomplice, whose +name was Loosang-Dchaltzan, and whose rank was that of Lama, or Kalmuck +pontiff, was a person of far more distinguished pretensions; he had +something of the same gloomy and terrific pride which marked the +character of Zebek himself, manifesting also the same energy, +accompanied by the same unfaltering cruelty, and a natural facility +of dissimulation even more profound. It was by this man that the other +question was settled as to the time for giving effect to their designs. +His own pontifical character had suggested to him, that in order to +strengthen their influence with the vast mob of simple-minded men whom +they were to lead into a howling wilderness, after persuading them to +lay desolate their own ancient hearths, it was indispensable that they +should be able, in cases of extremity, to plead the express sanction of +God for their entire enterprise. This could only be done by addressing +themselves to the great head of their religion, the Dalai-Lama of Tibet. +Him they easily persuaded to countenance their schemes: and an oracle +was delivered solemnly at Tibet, to the effect that no ultimate +prosperity would attend this great Exodus unless it were pursued through +the years of the _tiger_ and the _hare_. Now, the Kalmuck custom is to +distinguish their years by attaching to each a denomination taken from +one of twelve animals, the exact order of succession being absolutely +fixed, so that the cycle revolves of course through a period of a +dozen years. Consequently, if the approaching year of the _tiger_ were +suffered to escape them, in that case the expedition must be delayed for +twelve years more, within which period, even were no other unfavorable +changes to arise, it was pretty well foreseen that the Russian +Government would take the most effectual means for bridling their +vagrant propensities by a ring fence of forts or military posts; to say +nothing of the still readier plan for securing their fidelity (a plan +already talked of in all quarters), by exacting a large body of hostages +selected from the families of the most influential nobles. On these +cogent considerations, it was solemnly determined that this terrific +experiment should be made in the next year of the _tiger_, which +happened to fall upon the Christian year 1771. With respect to the +month, there was, unhappily for the Kalmucks, even less latitude +allowed to their choice than with respect to the year. It was absolutely +necessary, or it was thought so, that the different divisions of the +nation, which pastured their flocks on both banks of the Wolga, should +have the means of effecting an instantaneous junction; because the +danger of being intercepted by flying columns of the Imperial armies was +precisely the greatest at the outset. Now, from the want of bridges, or +sufficient river craft for transporting so vast a body of men, the sole +means which could be depended upon (especially where so many women, +children, and camels were concerned,) was _ice_: and this, in a state +of sufficient firmness, could not be absolutely counted upon before the +month of January. Hence it happened that this astonishing Exodus of a +whole nation, before so much as a whisper of the design had begun to +circulate amongst those whom it most interested, before it was even +suspected that any man's wishes pointed in that direction, had been +definitively appointed for January of the year 1771. And almost up +to the Christmas of 1770, the poor simple Kalmuck herdsmen and their +families were going nightly to their peaceful beds without even dreaming +that the _fiat_ had already gone forth from their rulers which consigned +those quiet abodes, together with the peace and comfort which reigned +within them, to a withering desolation, now close at hand. + +Meantime war raged on a great scale between Russia and the Sultan. +And, until the time arrived for throwing off their vassalage, it was +necessary that Oubacha should contribute his usual contingent of martial +aid. Nay, it had unfortunately become prudent that he should contribute +much more than his usual aid. Human experience gives ample evidence +that in some mysterious and unaccountable way no great design is ever +agitated, no matter how few or how faithful may be the participators, +but that some presentiment--some dim misgiving--is kindled amongst +those whom it is chiefly important to blind. And, however it might have +happened, certain it is, that already, when as yet no syllable of the +conspiracy had been breathed to any man whose very existence was +not staked upon its concealment, nevertheless, some vague and uneasy +jealousy had arisen in the Russian Cabinet as to the future schemes of +the Kalmuck Khan: and very probable it is--that, but for the war then +raging, and the consequent prudence of conciliating a very important +vassal, or, at least, of abstaining from what would powerfully alienate +him, even at that moment such measures would have been adopted as +must for ever have intercepted the Kalmuck schemes. Slight as were the +jealousies of the Imperial Court, they had not escaped the Machiavelian +eyes of Zebek and the Lama. And under their guidance, Oubacha, bending +to the circumstances of the moment, and meeting the jealousy of the +Russian Court with a policy corresponding to their own, strove by +unusual zeal to efface the Czarina's unfavorable impressions. He +enlarged the scale of his contributions; and _that_ so prodigiously, +that he absolutely carried to head-quarters a force of 35,000 cavalry +fully equipped; some go further, and rate the amount beyond 40,000: but +the smaller estimate is, at all events, _within_ the truth. + +With this magnificent array of cavalry, heavy as well as light, the Khan +went into the field under great expectations; and these he more than +realized. Having the good fortune to be concerned with so ill-organized +and disorderly a description of force as that which at all times +composed the bulk of a Turkish army, he carried victory along with +his banners; gained many partial successes; and at last, in a pitched +battle, overthrew the Turkish force opposed to him with a loss of 5000 +men left upon the field. + +These splendid achievements seemed likely to operate in various ways +against the impending revolt. Oubacha had now a strong motive, in the +martial glory acquired, for continuing his connection with the empire +in whose service he had won it, and by whom only it could be fully +appreciated. He was now a great marshal of a great empire, one of the +Paladins around the imperial throne; in China he would be nobody, +or (worse than that) a mendicant-alien, prostrate at the feet, +and soliciting the precarious alms of a prince with whom he had no +connection. Besides, it might reasonably be expected that the Czarina, +grateful for the really efficient aid given by the Tartar prince, would +confer upon him such eminent rewards as might be sufficient to anchor +his hopes upon Russia, and to wean him from every possible seduction. +These were the obvious suggestions of prudence and good sense to every +man who stood neutral in the case. But they were disappointed. The +Czarina knew her obligations to the Khan, but she did not acknowledge +them. Wherefore? That is a mystery, perhaps never to be explained. So +it was, however. The Khan went unhonored; no _ukase_ ever proclaimed his +merits; and, perhaps, had he even been abundantly recompensed by +Russia, there were others who would have defeated these tendencies +to reconciliation. Erempel, Zebek, and Loosang the Lama, were pledged +life-deep to prevent any accommodation; and their efforts were +unfortunately seconded by those of their deadliest enemies. In the +Russian Court there were at that time some great nobles pre-occupied +with feelings of hatred and blind malice towards the Kalmucks, quite as +strong as any which the Kalmucks could harbor towards Russia, and not, +perhaps, so well-founded. Just as much as the Kalmucks hated the Russian +yoke, their galling assumption of authority, the marked air of disdain, +as towards a nation of ugly, stupid, and filthy barbarians, which too +generally marked the Russian bearing and language; but above all, the +insolent contempt, or even outrages which the Russian governors or great +military commandants tolerated in their followers towards the +barbarous religion and superstitious mummeries of the Kalmuck +priesthood--precisely in that extent did the ferocity of the Russian +resentment, and their wrath at seeing the trampled worm turn or attempt +a feeble retaliation, re-act upon the unfortunate Kalmucks. At this +crisis it is probable that envy and wounded pride, upon witnessing +the splendid victories of Oubacha and Momotbacha over the Turks and +Bashkirs, contributed strength to the Russian irritation. And it must +have been through the intrigues of those nobles about her person, who +chiefly smarted under these feelings, that the Czarina could ever +have lent herself to the unwise and ungrateful policy pursued at this +critical period towards the Kalmuck Khan. That Czarina was no longer +Elizabeth Petrowna, it was Catharine the Second; a princess who did not +often err so injuriously (injuriously for herself as much as for +others) in the measures of her government. She had soon ample reason +for repenting of her false policy. Meantime, how much it must have +co-operated with the other motives previously acting upon Oubacha in +sustaining his determination to revolt; and how powerfully it must have +assisted the efforts of all the Tartar chieftains in preparing the minds +of their people to feel the necessity of this difficult enterprise, by +arming their pride and their suspicions against the Russian Government, +through the keenness of their sympathy with the wrongs of their insulted +prince, may be readily imagined. It is a fact, and it has been +confessed by candid Russians themselves, when treating of this great +dismemberment, that the conduct of the Russian Cabinet throughout the +period of suspense, and during the crisis of hesitation in the Kalmuck +Council, was exactly such as was most desirable for the purposes of +the conspirators; it was such, in fact, as to set the seal to all their +machinations, by supplying distinct evidences and official vouchers for +what could otherwise have been at the most matters of doubtful suspicion +and indirect presumption. + +Nevertheless, in the face of all these arguments, and even allowing +their weight so far as not at all to deny the injustice or the impolicy +of the Imperial Ministers, it is contended by many persons who have +reviewed the affair with a command of all the documents bearing on the +case, more especially the letters or minutes of Council subsequently +discovered, in the handwriting of Zebek-Dorchi, and the important +evidence of the Russian captive Weseloff, who was carried off by the +Kalmucks in their flight, that beyond all doubt Oubacha was powerless +for any purpose of impeding, or even of delaying the revolt. He himself, +indeed, was under religious obligations of the most terrific solemnity +never to flinch from the enterprise, or even to slacken in his zeal; +for Zebek-Dorchi, distrusting the firmness of his resolution under any +unusual pressure of alarm or difficulty, had, in the very earliest +stage of the conspiracy, availed himself of the Khan's well known +superstition, to engage him, by means of previous concert with the +priests and their head the Lama, in some dark and mysterious rites of +consecration, terminating in oaths under such terrific sanctions as no +Kalmuck would have courage to violate. As far, therefore, as regarded +the personal share of the Khan in what was to come, Zebek was entirely +at his ease: he knew him to be so deeply pledged by religious terrors to +the prosecution of the conspiracy, that no honors within the Czarina's +gift could have possibly shaken his adhesion: and then, as to threats +from the same quarter, he knew him to be sealed against those fears +by others of a gloomier character, and better adapted to his peculiar +temperament. For Oubacha was a brave man, as respected all bodily +enemies or the dangers of human warfare, but was as sensitive and timid +as the most superstitious of old women in facing the frowns of a priest, +or under the vague anticipations of ghostly retributions. But had it +been otherwise, and had there been any reason to apprehend an unsteady +demeanor on the part of this Prince at the approach of the critical +moment, such were the changes already effected in the state of their +domestic politics amongst the Tartars by the undermining arts of +Zebek-Dorchi, and his ally the Lama, that very little importance would +have attached to that doubt. All power was now effectually lodged in +the hands of Zebek-Dorchi. He was the true and absolute wielder of +the Kalmuck sceptre: all measures of importance were submitted to his +discretion; and nothing was finally resolved but under his dictation. +This result he had brought about in a year or two by means sufficiently +simple; first of all, by availing himself of the prejudice in his favor, +so largely diffused amongst the lowest of the Kalmucks, that his own +title to the throne, in quality of great-grandson in a direct line from +Ajouka, the most illustrious of all the Kalmuck Khans, stood upon a +better basis than that of Oubacha, who derived from a collateral branch: +secondly, with respect to that sole advantage which Oubacha possessed +above himself in the ratification of his title, by improving this +difference between their situations to the disadvantage of his +competitor, as one who had not scrupled to accept that triumph from an +alien power at the price of his independence, which he himself (as +he would have it understood) disdained to court: thirdly, by his own +talents and address, coupled with the ferocious energy of his moral +character: fourthly--and perhaps in an equal degree--by the criminal +facility and good-nature of Oubacha: finally, (which is remarkable +enough, as illustrating the character of the man,) by that very +new modelling of the Sarga or Privy Council, which he had used as a +principal topic of abuse and malicious insinuation against the Russian +Government, whilst in reality he first had suggested the alteration to +the Empress, and he chiefly appropriated the political advantages which +it was fitted to yield. For, as he was himself appointed the chief of +the Sargatchi, and as the pensions of the inferior Sargatchi passed +through his hands, whilst in effect they owed their appointments to his +nomination, it may be easily supposed that whatever power existed in the +state capable of controlling the Khan, being held by the Sarga under its +new organization, and this body being completely under his influence, +the final result was to throw all the functions of the state, whether +nominally in the Prince or in the council, substantially into the hands +of this one man: whilst, at the same time, from the strict league which +he maintained with the Lama, all the thunders of the spiritual power +were always ready to come in aid of the magistrate, or to supply his +incapacity in cases which he could not reach. + +But the time was now rapidly approaching for the mighty experiment. The +day was drawing near on which the signal was to be given for raising +the standard of revolt, and by a combined movement on both sides of the +Wolga for spreading the smoke of one vast conflagration, that should +wrap in a common blaze their own huts and the stately cities of their +enemies, over the breadth and length of those great provinces in which +their flocks were dispersed. The year of the _tiger_ was now within one +little month of its commencement; the fifth morning of that year was +fixed for the fatal day, when the fortunes and happiness of a whole +nation were to be put upon the hazard of a dicer's throw; and as yet +that nation was in profound ignorance of the whole plan. The Khan, such +was the kindness of his nature, could not bring himself to make the +revelation so urgently required. It was clear, however, that this could +not be delayed; and Zebek-Dorchi took the task willingly upon himself. +But where or how should this notification be made, so as to exclude +Russian hearers? After some deliberation, the following plan was +adopted:--Couriers, it was contrived, should arrive in furious haste, +one upon the heels of another, reporting a sudden inroad of the +Kirghises and Bashkirs upon the Kalmuck lands, at a point distant +about one hundred and twenty miles. Thither all the Kalmuck families, +according to immemorial custom, were required to send a separate +representative; and there, accordingly, within three days, all appeared. +The distance, the solitary ground appointed for the rendezvous, the +rapidity of the march, all tended to make it almost certain that no +Russian could be present. Zebek-Dorchi then came forward. He did +not waste many words upon rhetoric. He unfurled an immense sheet of +parchment, visible from the outermost distance at which any of this vast +crowd could stand; the total number amounted to eighty thousand; all +saw, and many heard. They were told of the oppressions of Russia; of her +pride and haughty disdain, evidenced towards them by a thousand acts; of +her contempt for their religion; of her determination to reduce them to +absolute slavery; of the preliminary measures she had already taken by +erecting forts upon many of the great rivers of their neighborhood; +of the ulterior intentions she thus announced to circumscribe their +pastoral lands, until they would all be obliged to renounce their +flocks, and to collect in towns like Sarepta, there to pursue mechanical +and servile trades of shoemaker, tailor, and weaver, such as the +freeborn Tartar had always disdained. 'Then again,' said the subtle +prince, 'she increases her military levies upon our population every +year; we pour out our blood as young men in her defence, or more often +in support of her insolent aggressions; and as old men, we reap nothing +from our sufferings, nor benefit by our survivorship where so many +are sacrificed.' At this point of his harangue, Zebek produced several +papers, (forged, as it is generally believed, by himself and the Lama,) +containing projects of the Russian court for a general transfer of the +eldest sons, taken _en masse_ from the greatest Kalmuck families, to +the Imperial court. 'Now let this be once accomplished,' he argued, +'and there is an end of all useful resistance from that day forwards. +Petitions we might make, or even remonstrances; as men of words, we +might play a bold part; but for deeds, for that sort of language by +which our ancestors were used to speak; holding us by such a chain, +Russia would make a jest of our wishes,--knowing full well that we +should not dare to make any effectual movement.' + +Having thus sufficiently roused the angry passions of his vast audience, +and having alarmed their fears by this pretended scheme against their +first-born, (an artifice which was indispensable to his purpose, because +it met beforehand _every_ form of amendment to his proposal coming from +the more moderate nobles, who would not otherwise have failed to +insist upon trying the effect of bold addresses to the Empress, before +resorting to any desperate extremity,) Zebek-Dorchi opened his scheme of +revolt, and, if so, of instant revolt; since any preparations reported +at St. Petersburg would be a signal for the armies of Russia to cross +into such positions from all parts of Asia, as would effectually +intercept their march. It is remarkable, however, that, with all his +audacity and his reliance upon the momentary excitement of the Kalmucks, +the subtle prince did not venture, at this stage of his seduction, to +make so startling a proposal as that of a flight to China. All that he +held out for the present was a rapid march to the Temba or some other +great river, which they were to cross, and to take up a strong position +on the further bank, from which, as from a post of conscious security, +they could hold a bolder language to the Czarina, and one which would +have a better chance of winning a favorable audience. + +These things, in the irritated condition of the simple Tartars, passed +by acclamation; and all returned homewards, to push forward with the +most furious speed the preparations for their awful undertaking. Rapid +and energetic these of necessity were; and in that degree they became +noticeable and manifest to the Russians who happened to be intermingled +with the different hordes, either on commercial errands, or as agents +officially from the Russian Government, some in a financial, others in a +diplomatic character. + +Amongst these last (indeed at the head of them) was a Russian of some +distinction, by name Kichinskoi, a man memorable for his vanity, and +memorable also as one of the many victims to the Tartar revolution. This +Kichinskoi had been sent by the Empress as her envoy to overlook the +conduct of the Kalmucks; he was styled the _Grand Pristaw_, or Great +Commissioner, and was universally known amongst the Tartar tribes +by this title. His mixed character of ambassador and of political +_surveillant_, combined with the dependent state of the Kalmucks, gave +him a real weight in the Tartar councils, and might have given him a +far greater, had not his outrageous self-conceit, and his arrogant +confidence in his own authority, as due chiefly to his personal +qualities for command, led him into such harsh displays of power, and +menaces so odious to the Tartar pride, as very soon made him an object +of their profoundest malice. He had publicly insulted the Khan; and upon +making a communication to him to the effect that some reports began to +circulate, and even to reach the Empress, of a design in agitation to +fly from the Imperial dominions, he had ventured to say,--'But this you +dare not attempt; I laugh at such rumors; yes, Khan, I laugh at them to +the Empress; for you are a chained bear, and that you know.' The Khan +turned away on his heel with marked disdain; and the Pristaw, foaming +at the mouth, continued to utter, amongst those of the Khan's attendants +who staid behind, to catch his real sentiments in a moment of unguarded +passion, all that the blindest frenzy of rage could suggest to the most +presumptuous of fools. It was now ascertained that suspicions _had_ +arisen; but at the same time it was ascertained that the Pristaw spoke +no more than the truth in representing himself to have discredited these +suspicions. The fact was, that the mere infatuation of vanity made +him believe that nothing could go on undetected by his all-piercing +sagacity, and that no rebellion could prosper when rebuked by his +commanding presence. The Tartars, therefore, pursued their preparations, +confiding in the obstinate blindness of the Grand Pristaw as in their +perfect safeguard; and such it proved--to his own ruin, as well as that +of myriads beside. + +Christmas arrived; and, a little before that time, courier upon courier +came dropping in, one upon the very heels of another, to St. Petersburg, +assuring the Czarina that beyond all doubt the Kalmucks were in the +very crisis of departure. These despatches came from the Governor of +Astrachan, and copies were instantly forwarded to Kichinskoi. Now, it +happened that between this governor--a Russian named Beketoff--and the +Pristaw had been an ancient feud. The very name of Beketoff inflamed +his resentment; and no sooner did he see that hated name attached to +the despatch, than he felt himself confirmed in his former views with +tenfold bigotry, and wrote instantly, in terms of the most pointed +ridicule, against the new alarmist, pledging his own head upon the +visionariness of his alarms. Beketoff, however, was not to be put down +by a few hard words, or by ridicule: he persisted in his statements: the +Russian Ministry were confounded by the obstinacy of the disputants; and +some were beginning even to treat the Governor of Astrachan as a bore, +and as the dupe of his own nervous terrors, when the memorable day +arrived, the fatal 5th of January, which for ever terminated the +dispute, and put a seal upon the earthly hopes and fortunes of +unnumbered myriads. The Governor of Astrachan was the first to hear the +news. Stung by the mixed furies of jealousy, of triumphant vengeance, +and of anxious ambition, he sprang into his sledge, and, at the rate of +three hundred miles a day, pursued his route to St. Petersburg, rushed +into the Imperial presence,--announced the total realization of his +worst predictions,--and upon the confirmation of this intelligence +by subsequent despatches from many different posts on the Wolga, he +received an imperial commission to seize the person of his deluded +enemy, and to keep him in strict captivity. These orders were eagerly +fulfilled, and the unfortunate Kichinskoi soon afterwards expired of +grief and mortification in the gloomy solitude of a dungeon; a victim +to his own immeasurable vanity, and the blinding self-delusions of a +presumption that refused all warning. + +The Governor of Astrachan had been but too faithful a prophet. Perhaps +even _he_ was surprised at the suddenness with which the verification +followed his reports. Precisely on the 5th of January, the day so +solemnly appointed under religious sanctions by the Lama, the Kalmucks +on the east bank of the Wolga were seen at the earliest dawn of day +assembling by troops and squadrons, and in the tumultuous movement of +some great morning of battle. Tens of thousands continued moving off the +ground at every half-hour's interval. Women and children, to the amount +of two hundred thousand and upwards, were placed upon wagons, or upon +camels, and drew off by masses of twenty thousand at once--placed under +suitable escorts, and continually swelled in numbers by other outlying +bodies of the horde who kept falling in at various distances upon the +first and second day's march. From sixty to eighty thousand of those +who were the best mounted stayed behind the rest of the tribes, +with purposes of devastation and plunder more violent than prudence +justified, or the amiable character of the Khan could be supposed to +approve. But in this, as in other instances, he was completely overruled +by the malignant counsels of Zebek-Dorchi. The first tempest of +the desolating fury of the Tartars discharged itself upon their own +habitations. But this, as cutting off all infirm looking backward from +the hardships of their march, had been thought so necessary a measure by +all the chieftains, that even Oubacha himself was the first to authorize +the act by his own example. He seized a torch previously prepared with +materials the most durable as well as combustible, and steadily applied +it to the timbers of his own palace. Nothing was saved from the general +wreck except the portable part of the domestic utensils, and that part +of the woodwork which could be applied to the manufacture of the +long Tartar lances. This chapter in their memorable day's work being +finished, and the whole of their villages throughout a district of ten +thousand square miles in one simultaneous blaze, the Tartars waited for +further orders. + +These, it was intended, should have taken a character of valedictory +vengeance, and thus have left behind to the Czarina a dreadful +commentary upon the main motives of their flight. It was the purpose +of Zebek-Dorchi that all the Russian towns, churches, and buildings of +every description, should be given up to pillage and destruction, and +such treatment applied to the defenceless inhabitants as might naturally +be expected from a fierce people already infuriated by the spectacle +of their own outrages, and by the bloody retaliations which they must +necessarily have provoked. This part of the tragedy, however, was +happily intercepted by a providential disappointment at the very +crisis of departure. It has been mentioned already that the motive for +selecting the depth of winter as the season of flight (which otherwise +was obviously the very worst possible) had been the impossibility of +effecting a junction sufficiently rapid with the tribes on the west of +the Wolga, in the absence of bridges, unless by a natural bridge of ice. +For this one advantage the Kalmuck leaders had consented to aggravate +by a thousandfold the calamities inevitable to a rapid flight over +boundless tracts of country with women, children, and herds of +cattle--for this one single advantage; and yet, after all, it was lost. +The reason never has been explained satisfactorily, but the fact was +such. Some have said that the signals were not properly concerted +for marking the moment of absolute departure; that is, for signifying +whether the settled intention of the Eastern Kalmucks might not have +been suddenly interrupted by adverse intelligence. Others have supposed +that the ice might not be equally strong on both sides of the river, +and might even be generally insecure for the treading of heavy and +heavily-laden animals such as camels. But the prevailing notion is, that +some accidental movements on the 3d and 4th of January of Russian troops +in the neighborhood of the Western Kalmucks, though really having no +reference to them or their plans, had been construed into certain +signs that all was discovered; and that the prudence of the Western +chieftains, who, from situation, had never been exposed to those +intrigues by which Zebek-Dorchi had practised upon the pride of the +Eastern tribes, now stepped in to save their people from ruin. Be the +cause what it might, it is certain that the Western Kalmucks were +in some way prevented from forming the intended junction with their +brethren of the opposite bank; and the result was, that at least one +hundred thousand of these Tartars were left behind in Russia. This +accident it was which saved their Russian neighbors universally from +the desolation which else awaited them. One general massacre and +conflagration would assuredly have surprised them, to the utter +extermination of their property, their houses, and themselves, had it +not been for this disappointment. But the Eastern chieftains did not +dare to put to hazard the safety of their brethren under the first +impulse of the Czarina's vengeance for so dreadful a tragedy; for +as they were well aware of too many circumstances by which she might +discover the concurrence of the Western people in the general scheme of +revolt, they justly feared that she would thence infer their concurrence +also in the bloody events which marked its outset. + +Little did the Western Kalmucks guess what reasons they also had for +gratitude on account of an interposition so unexpected, and which at +the moment they so generally deplored. Could they but have witnessed the +thousandth part of the sufferings which overtook their Eastern brethren +in the first month of their sad flight, they would have blessed Heaven +for their own narrow escape; and yet these sufferings of the first month +were but a prelude or foretaste comparatively slight of those which +afterwards succeeded. + +For now began to unroll the most awful series of calamities, and the +most extensive, which is anywhere recorded to have visited the sons and +daughters of men. It is possible that the sudden inroads of destroying +nations, such as the Huns, or the Avars, or the Mongol Tartars, may have +inflicted misery as extensive; but there the misery and the desolation +would be sudden--like the flight of volleying lightning. Those who were +spared at first would generally be spared to the end; those who perished +would perish instantly. It is possible that the French retreat from +Moscow may have made some nearer approach to this calamity in duration, +though still a feeble and miniature approach; for the French sufferings +did not commence in good earnest until about one month from the time of +leaving Moscow; and though it is true that afterwards the vials of wrath +were emptied upon the devoted army for six or seven weeks in succession, +yet what is that to this Kalmuck tragedy, which lasted for more than as +many months? But the main feature of horror, by which the Tartar march +was distinguished from the French, lies in the accompaniment of women +[Footnote: Singular it is, and not generally known, that Grecian women +accompanied the _Anabasis_ of the younger Cyrus and the subsequent +Retreat of the Ten Thousand. Xenophon affirms that there were 'many' +women in the Greek army--pollai aesun etairai en tosratenaeazi; and in +a late stage of that trying expedition it is evident that women were +amongst the survivors.] and children. There were both, it is true, with +the French army, but so few as to bear no visible proportion to the +total numbers concerned. The French, in short, were merely an army--a +host of professional destroyers, whose regular trade was bloodshed, and +whose regular element was danger and suffering. But the Tartars were a +nation carrying along with them more than two hundred and fifty thousand +women and children, utterly unequal, for the most part, to any contest +with the calamities before them. The Children of Israel were in the same +circumstances as to the accompaniment of their families; but they were +released from the pursuit of their enemies in a very early stage of +their flight; and their subsequent residence in the Desert was not a +march, but a continued halt, and under a continued interposition of +Heaven for their comfortable support. Earthquakes, again, however +comprehensive in their ravages, are shocks of a moment's duration. A +much nearer approach made to the wide range and the long duration of the +Kalmuck tragedy may have been in a pestilence such as that which visited +Athens in the Peloponnesian war, or London in the reign of Charles II. +There also the martyrs were counted by myriads, and the period of the +desolation was counted by months. But, after all, the total amount +of destruction was on a smaller scale; and there was this feature of +alleviation to the _conscious_ pressure of the calamity--that the misery +was withdrawn from public notice into private chambers and hospitals. +The siege of Jerusalem by Vespasian and his son, taken in its entire +circumstances, comes nearest of all--for breadth and depth of suffering, +for duration, for the exasperation of the suffering from without by +internal feuds, and, finally, for that last most appalling expression of +the furnace-heat of the anguish in its power to extinguish the natural +affections even of maternal love. But, after all, each case had +circumstances of romantic misery peculiar to itself--circumstances +without precedent, and (wherever human nature is ennobled by +Christianity) it may be confidently hoped--never to be repeated. + +The first point to be reached, before any hope of repose could be +encouraged, was the river Jaik. This was not above three hundred miles +from the main point of departure on the Wolga; and if the march thither +was to be a forced one, and a severe one, it was alleged on the other +hand that the suffering would be the more brief and transient; one +summary exertion, not to be repeated, and all was achieved. Forced +the march was, and severe beyond example: there the forewarning +proved correct; but the promised rest proved a mere phantom of the +wilderness--a visionary rainbow, which fled before their hope-sick eyes, +across these interminable solitudes, for seven months of hardship and +calamity, without a pause. These sufferings, by their very nature, and +the circumstances under which they arose, were (like the scenery of the +_Steppes_) somewhat monotonous in their coloring and external features: +what variety, however, there was, will be most naturally exhibited +by tracing historically the successive stages of the general misery, +exactly as it unfolded itself under the double agency of weakness still +increasing from within, and hostile pressure from without. Viewed in +this manner, under the real order of development, it is remarkable that +these sufferings of the Tartars, though under the moulding hands of +accident, arrange themselves almost with a scenical propriety. They seem +combined, as with the skill of an artist; the intensity of the misery +advancing regularly with the advances of the march, and the stages of +the calamity corresponding to the stages of the route; so that, upon +raising the curtain which veils the great catastrophe, we behold one +vast climax of anguish, towering upwards by regular gradations, as if +constructed artificially for picturesque effect:--a result which might +not have been surprising, had it been reasonable to anticipate the same +rate of speed, and even an accelerated rate, as prevailing through the +later stages of the expedition. But it seemed, on the contrary, most +reasonable to calculate upon a continual decrement in the rate of motion +according to the increasing distance from the head-quarters of +the pursuing enemy. This calculation, however, was defeated by the +extraordinary circumstance, that the Russian armies did not begin +to close in very fiercely upon the Kalmucks until after they had +accomplished a distance of full two thousand miles; one thousand miles +further on the assaults became even more tumultuous and murderous; and +already the great shadows of the Chinese Wall were dimly descried, when +the frenzy and _acharnement_ of the pursuers, and the bloody desperation +of the miserable fugitives had reached its uttermost extremity. Let us +briefly rehearse the main stages of the misery, and trace the ascending +steps of the tragedy, according to the great divisions of the route +marked out by the central rivers of Asia. + +The first stage, we have already said, was from the Wolga to the Jaik; +the distance about three hundred miles; the time allowed seven days. +For the first week, therefore, the rate of marching averaged about +forty-three English miles a day. The weather was cold, but bracing; +and, at a more moderate pace, this part of the journey might have been +accomplished without much distress by a people as hardy as the Kalmucks: +as it was, the cattle suffered greatly from overdriving: milk began to +fail even for the children: the sheep perished by wholesale: and the +children themselves were saved only by the innumerable camels. + +The Cossacks, who dwelt upon the banks of the Jaik, were the first among +the subjects of Russia to come into collision with the Kalmucks. Great +was their surprise at the suddenness of the irruption, and great also +their consternation: for, according to their settled custom, by far the +greater part of their number was absent during the winter months at the +fisheries upon the Caspian. Some who were liable to surprise at the most +exposed points, fled in crowds to the fortress of Koulagina, which was +immediately invested, and summoned by Oubacha. He had, however, in his +train only a few light pieces of artillery; and the Russian commandant +at Koulagina, being aware of the hurried circumstances in which the +Khan was placed, and that he stood upon the very edge, as it were, of +a renewed flight, felt encouraged by these considerations to a more +obstinate resistance than might else have been advisable, with an enemy +so little disposed to observe the usages of civilized warfare. The +period of his anxiety was not long: on the fifth day of the siege, he +descried from the walls a succession of Tartar couriers, mounted upon +fleet Bactrian camels, crossing the vast plains around the fortress at a +furious pace, and riding into the Kalmuck encampment at various points. +Great agitation appeared immediately to follow; orders were soon after +despatched in all directions: and it became speedily known that upon a +distant flank of the Kalmuck movement a bloody and exterminating battle +had been fought the day before, in which one entire tribe of the Khan's +dependents, numbering not less than nine thousand fighting men, had +perished to the last man. This was the _ouloss_, or clan, called +_Feka-Zechorr_, between whom and the Cossacks there was a feud of +ancient standing. In selecting, therefore, the points of attack, on +occasion of the present hasty inroad, the Cossack chiefs were naturally +eager so to direct their efforts as to combine with the service of the +Empress some gratification to their own party hatreds; more especially +as the present was likely to be their final opportunity for revenge if +the Kalmuck evasion should prosper. Having, therefore, concentrated as +large a body of Cossack cavalry as circumstances allowed, they attacked +the hostile _ouloss_ with a precipitation which denied to it all means +for communicating with Oubacha; for the necessity of commanding an ample +range of pasturage, to meet the necessities of their vast flocks and +herds, had separated this _ouloss_ from the Khan's head-quarters by an +interval of eighty miles: and thus it was, and not from oversight, that +it came to be thrown entirely upon its own resources. These had proved +insufficient; retreat, from the exhausted state of their horses and +camels, no less than from the prodigious encumbrances of their live +stock, was absolutely out of the question: quarter was disdained on the +one side, and would not have been granted on the other; and thus it had +happened that the setting sun of that one day (the 13th from the first +opening of the revolt) threw his parting rays upon the final agonies of +an ancient _ouloss_, stretched upon a bloody field, who on that day's +dawning had held and styled themselves an independent nation. + +Universal consternation was diffused through the wide borders of the +Khan's encampment by this disastrous intelligence; not so much on +account of the numbers slain, or the total extinction of a powerful +ally, as because the position of the Cossack force was likely to put to +hazard the future advances of the Kalmucks, or at least to retard, and +hold them in check, until the heavier columns of the Russian army should +arrive upon their flanks. The siege of Koulagina was instantly raised; +and that signal, so fatal to the happiness of the women and their +children, once again resounded through the tents--the signal for flight, +and this time for a flight more rapid than ever. About one hundred and +fifty miles ahead of their present position, there arose a tract of +hilly country, forming a sort of margin to the vast, sea-like expanse +of champaign savannas, steppes, and occasionally of sandy deserts, which +stretched away on each side of this margin both eastwards and westwards. +Pretty nearly in the centre of this hilly range, lay a narrow defile, +through which passed the nearest and the most practicable route to the +river Torgai (the further bank of which river offered the next great +station of security for a general halt.) It was the more essential to +gain this pass before the Cossacks, inasmuch as not only would the +delay in forcing the pass give time to the Russian pursuing columns for +combining their attacks and for bringing up their artillery, but also +because (even if all enemies in pursuit were thrown out of the question) +it was held by those best acquainted with the difficult and obscure +geography of these pathless steppes--that the loss of this one narrow +strait amongst the hills would have the effect of throwing them (as +their only alternative in a case where so wide a sweep of pasturage was +required) upon a circuit of at least five hundred miles extra; besides +that, after all, this circuitous route would carry them to the Torgai at +a point ill fitted for the passage of their heavy baggage. The defile +in the hills, therefore, it was resolved to gain; and yet, unless they +moved upon it with the velocity of light cavalry, there was little +chance but it would be found pre-occupied by the Cossacks. They, it is +true, had suffered greatly in the recent sanguinary action with their +enemies; but the excitement of victory, and the intense sympathy with +their unexampled triumph, had again swelled their ranks--and would +probably act with the force of a vortex to draw in their simple +countrymen from the Caspian. The question, therefore, of pre-occupation +was reduced to a race. The Cossacks were marching upon an oblique line +not above fifty miles longer than that which led to the same point from +the Kalmuck head-quarters before Koulagina: and therefore without the +most furious haste on the part of the Kalmucks, there was not a chance +for them, burdened and 'trashed' [Footnote: _'Trashed'_--This is an +expressive word used by Beaumont and Fletcher in their Bonduca, etc., to +describe the case of a person retarded and embarrassed in flight, or in +pursuit, by some encumbrance, whether thing or person, too valuable to +be left behind.] as they were, to anticipate so agile a light cavalry as +the Cossacks in seizing this important pass. + +Dreadful were the feelings of the poor women on hearing this exposition +of the case. For they easily understood that too capital an interest +(the _summa rerum_) was now at stake to allow of any regard to +minor interests, or what would be considered such in their present +circumstances. The dreadful week already passed,--their inauguration in +misery,--was yet fresh in their remembrance. The scars of suffering were +impressed not only upon their memories, but upon their very persons and +the persons of their children. And they knew that where no speed had +much chance of meeting the cravings of the chieftains, no test would +be accepted, short of absolute exhaustion, that as much had been +accomplished as could be accomplished. Weseloff, the Russian captive, +has recorded the silent wretchedness with which the women and elder boys +assisted in drawing the tent-ropes. On the 5th of January all had been +animation, and the joyousness of indefinite expectation: now, on the +contrary, a brief but bitter experience had taught them to take an +amended calculation of what it was that lay before them. + +One whole day and far into the succeeding night had the renewed flight +continued: the sufferings had been greater than before: for the cold had +been more intense: and many perished out of the living creatures through +every class, except only the camels--whose powers of endurance seemed +equally adapted to cold and heat. The second morning, however, brought +an alleviation to the distress. Snow had begun to fall: and though not +deep at present, it was easily foreseen that it soon would be so; and +that, as a halt would in that case become unavoidable, no plan could +be better than that of staying where they were: especially as the same +cause would check the advance of the Cossacks. Here then was the last +interval of comfort which gleamed upon the unhappy nation during their +whole migration. For ten days the snow continued to fall with little +intermission. At the end of that time keen bright frosty weather +succeeded: the drifting had ceased: in three days the smooth expanse +became firm enough to support the treading of the camels, and the flight +was recommenced. But during the halt much domestic comfort had been +enjoyed: and for the last time universal plenty. The cows and oxen had +perished in such vast numbers on the previous marches, that an order was +now issued to turn what remained to account by slaughtering the whole, +and salting whatever part should be found to exceed the immediate +consumption. This measure led to a scene of general banqueting and even +of festivity amongst all who were not incapacitated for joyous emotions +by distress of mind, by grief for the unhappy experience of the few last +days, and by anxiety for the too gloomy future. Seventy thousand persons +of all ages had already perished; exclusively of the many thousand +allies who had been cut down by the Cossack sabre. And the losses in +reversion were likely to be many more. For rumors began now to arrive +from all quarters, by the mounted couriers whom the Khan had despatched +to the rear and to each flank as well as in advance, that large masses +of the Imperial troops were converging from all parts of Central Asia +to the fords of the river Torgai as the most convenient point for +intercepting the flying tribes: and it was already well known that a +powerful division was close in their rear, and was retarded only by +the numerous artillery which had been judged necessary to support their +operations. New motives were thus daily arising for quickening the +motions of the wretched Kalmucks, and for exhausting those who were +previously but too much exhausted. + +It was not until the 2d day of February that the Khan's advanced guard +came in sight of Ouchim, the defile among the hills of Moulgaldchares, +in which they anticipated so bloody an opposition from the Cossacks. A +pretty large body of these light cavalry had, in fact, pre-occupied the +pass by some hours; but the Khan having too great advantages, namely, +a strong body of infantry, who had been conveyed by sections of five on +about two hundred camels, and some pieces of light artillery which +he had not yet been forced to abandon, soon began to make a serious +impression upon this unsupported detachment; and they would probably at +any rate have retired; but at the very moment when they were making some +dispositions in that view, Zebek-Dorchi appeared upon their rear with +a body of trained riflemen, who had distinguished themselves in the war +with Turkey. These men had contrived to crawl unobserved over the cliffs +which skirted the ravine, availing themselves of the dry beds of the +summer torrents, and other inequalities of the ground, to conceal their +movement. Disorder and trepidation ensued instantly in the Cossack +files; the Khan, who had been waiting with the _elite_ of his heavy +cavalry, charged furiously upon them; total overthrow followed to the +Cossacks, and a slaughter such as in some measure avenged the +recent bloody extermination of their allies, the ancient _ouloss_ of +Feka-Zechorr. The slight horses of the Cossacks were unable to support +the weight of heavy Polish dragoons and a body of trained _cameleers_ +(that is, cuirassiers mounted on camels); hardy they were, but +not strong, nor a match for their antagonists in weight; and their +extraordinary efforts through the last few days to gain their present +position, had greatly diminished their powers for effecting an escape. +Very few, in fact, _did_ escape; and the bloody day of Ouchim became as +memorable amongst the Cossacks as that which, about twenty days before, +had signalized the complete annihilation of the Faka-Zechorr. [Footnote: +There was another _ouloss_ equally strong with that of _Feka-Zechorr_, +viz., that of Erketunn, under the government of Assarcho and Machi, whom +some obligations of treaty or other hidden motives drew into the general +conspiracy of revolt. But fortunately the two chieftains found means +to assure the Governor of Astrachan, on the first outbreak of the +insurrection, that their real wishes were for maintaining the old +connection with Russia. The Cossacks, therefore, to whom the pursuit +was intrusted, had instructions to act cautiously and according to +circumstances on coming up with them. The result was, through the +prudent management of Assarcho, that the clan, without compromising +their pride or independence, made such moderate submissions as satisfied +the Cossacks; and eventually both chiefs and people received from the +Czarina the rewards and honors of exemplary fidelity.] + +The road was now open to the river Igritch, and as yet even far beyond +it to the Torgau; but how long this state of things would continue, was +every day more doubtful. Certain intelligence was now received that a +large Russian army, well appointed in every arm, was advancing upon the +Torgau, under the command of General Traubenberg. This officer was to be +joined on his route by ten thousand Bashkirs, and pretty nearly the +same amount of Kirghises--both hereditary enemies of the Kalmucks--both +exasperated to a point of madness by the bloody trophies which Oubacha +and Momotbacha had, in late years, won from such of their compatriots as +served under the Sultan. The Czarina's yoke these wild nations bore with +submissive patience, but not the hands by which it had been imposed; +and, accordingly, catching with eagerness at the present occasion +offered to their vengeance, they sent an assurance to the Czarina of +their perfect obedience to her commands, and at the same time a message +significantly declaring in what spirit they meant to execute them, viz., +'That they would not trouble her Majesty with prisoners.' + +Here then arose, as before with the Cossacks, a race for the Kalmucks +with the regular armies of Russia, and concurrently with nations as +fierce and semi-humanized as themselves, besides that they were stung +into threefold activity by the furies of mortified pride and military +abasement, under the eyes of the Turkish Sultan. The forces, and more +especially the artillery, of Russia, were far too overwhelming to permit +the thought of a regular opposition in pitched battles, even with a less +dilapidated state of their resources than they could reasonably expect +at the period of their arrival on the Torgau. In their speed lay their +only hope--in strength of foot, as before, and not in strength of arm. +Onward, therefore, the Kalmucks pressed, marking the lines of their +wide-extending march over the sad solitudes of the steppes by a +never-ending chain of corpses. The old and the young, the sick man on +his couch, the mother with her baby--all were left behind. Sights such +as these, with the many rueful aggravations incident to the helpless +condition of infancy--of disease and of female weakness abandoned to +the wolves amidst a howling wilderness, continued to track their course +through a space of full two thousand miles; for so much at the least, +it was likely to prove, including the circuits to which they were often +compelled by rivers or hostile tribes, from the point of starting on the +Wolga until they could reach their destined halting-ground on the +east bank of the Torgau. For the first seven weeks of this march their +sufferings had been embittered by the excessive severity of the cold; +and every night--so long as wood was to be had for fires, either from +the lading of the camels, or from the desperate sacrifice of their +baggage-wagons, or (as occasionally happened) from the forests which +skirted the banks of the many rivers which crossed their path--no +spectacle was more frequent than that of a circle, composed of men, +women, and children, gathered by hundreds round a central fire, all dead +and stiff at the return of morning light. Myriads were left behind from +pure exhaustion of whom none had a chance, under the combined evils +which beset them, of surviving through the next twenty-four hours. +Frost, however, and snow at length ceased to persecute; the vast extent +of the march at length brought them into more genial latitudes, and the +unusual duration of the march was gradually bringing them into the +more genial seasons of the year: Two thousand miles had at least been +traversed; February, March, April were gone; the balmy month of May had +opened; vernal sights and sounds came from every side to comfort the +heart-weary travellers; and at last, in the latter end of May, they +crossed the Torgau, and took up a position where they hoped to find +liberty to repose themselves for many weeks in comfort as well as in +security, and to draw such supplies from the fertile neighborhood as +might restore their shattered forces to a condition for executing, with +less of wreck and ruin, the large remainder of the journey. + +Yes; it was true that two thousand miles of wandering had been +completed, but in a period of nearly five months, and with the terrific +sacrifice of at least two hundred and fifty thousand souls, to say +nothing of herds and flocks past all reckoning. These had all perished: +ox, cow, horse, mule, ass, sheep, or goat, not one survived--only the +camels. These arid and adust creatures, looking like the mummies of some +antediluvian animals, without the affections or sensibilities of flesh +and blood--these only still erected their speaking eyes to the eastern +heavens, and had to all appearance come out from this long tempest +of trial unscathed and unharmed. The Khan, knowing how much he was +individually answerable for the misery which had been sustained, must +have wept tears even more bitter than those of Xerxes when he threw his +eyes over the myriads whom he had assembled: for the tears of Xerxes +were unmingled with compunction. Whatever amends were in his power +he resolved to make by sacrifices to the general good of all personal +regards; and accordingly, even at this point of their advance, he once +more deliberately brought under review the whole question of the revolt. +The question was formally debated before the Council, whether, even at +this point, they should untread their steps, and, throwing themselves +upon the Czarina's mercy, return to their old allegiance? In that +case, Oubacha professed himself willing to become the scapegoat for the +general transgression. This, he argued, was no fantastic scheme, but +even easy of accomplishment; for the unlimited and sacred power of the +Khan, so well known to the Empress, made it absolutely iniquitous to +attribute any separate responsibility to the people--upon the Khan +rested the guilt, upon the Khan would descend the Imperial vengeance. +This proposal was applauded for its generosity, but was energetically +opposed by Zebek-Dorchi. Were they to lose the whole journey of two +thousand miles? Was their misery to perish without fruit; true it was +that they had yet reached only the half-way house; but, in that respect, +the motives were evenly balanced for retreat or for advance. Either way +they would have pretty nearly the same distance to traverse, but +with this difference--that, forwards, their rout lay through lands +comparatively fertile--backwards, through a blasted wilderness, rich +only in memorials of their sorrow, and hideous to Kalmuck eyes by the +trophies of their calamity. Besides, though the Empress might accept +an excuse for the past, would she the less forbear to suspect for the +future? The Czarina's _pardon_ they might obtain, but could they +ever hope to recover her _confidence_? Doubtless there would now be a +standing presumption against them, an immortal ground of jealousy; and +a jealous government would be but another name for a harsh one. Finally, +whatever motives there ever had been for the revolt surely remained +unimpaired by anything that had occurred. In reality the revolt was, +after all, no revolt, but (strictly speaking) a return to their old +allegiance, since, not above one hundred and fifty years ago (viz., in +the year 1616,) their ancestors had revolted from the Emperor of China. +They had now tried both governments; and for them China was the land of +promise, and Russia the house of bondage. + +Spite, however, of all that Zebek could say or do, the yearning of the +people was strongly in behalf of the Khan's proposal; the pardon of +their prince, they persuaded themselves, would be readily conceded by +the Empress; and there is little doubt that they would at this time have +thrown themselves gladly upon the Imperial mercy; when suddenly all was +defeated by the arrival of two envoys from Traubenberg. This general had +reached the fortress of Orsk, after a very painful march, on the 12th of +April; thence he set forwards towards Oriembourg, which he reached +upon the 1st of June, having been joined on his route at various times +through the month of May by the Kirghises and a corps of ten thousand +Bashkirs. From Oriembourg he sent forward his official offer to +the Khan, which were harsh and peremptory, holding out no specific +stipulations as to pardon or impunity, and exacting unconditional +submission as the preliminary price of any cessation from military +operations. The personal character of Traubenberg, which was anything +but energetic, and the condition of his army, disorganized in a great +measure by the length and severity of the march, made it probable that, +with a little time for negotiation, a more conciliatory tone would have +been assumed. But, unhappily for all parties, sinister events occurred +in the meantime, such as effectually put an end to every hope of the +kind. + +The two envoys sent forward by Traubenberg had reported to this +officer that a distance of only ten days' march lay between his own +head-quarters and those of the Khan. Upon this fact transpiring, the +Kirghises, by their prince Nourali, and the Bashkirs, entreated the +Russian general to advance without delay. Once having placed his cannon +in position, so as to command the Kalmuck camp, the fate of the rebel +Khan and his people would be in his own hands; and they would themselves +form his advanced guard. Traubenberg, however, _why_ has not been +certainly explained, refused to march, grounding his refusal upon the +condition of his army, and their absolute need of refreshment. Long +and fierce was the altercation; but at length, seeing no chance of +prevailing, and dreading above all other events the escape of their +detested enemy, the ferocious Bashkirs went off in a body by forced +marches. In six days they reached the Torgau, crossed by swimming their +horses, and fell upon the Kalmucks, who were dispersed for many a league +in search of food or provender for their camels. The first day's action +was one vast succession of independent skirmishes, diffused over a field +of thirty to forty miles in extent; one party often breaking up into +three or four, and again (according to the accidents of ground) three or +four blending into one; flight and pursuit, rescue and total overthrow, +going on simultaneously, under all varieties of form, in all quarters of +the plain. The Bashkirs had found themselves obliged, by the scattered +state of the Kalmucks, to split up into innumerable sections; and thus, +for some hours, it had been impossible for the most practised eye to +collect the general tendency of the day's fortune. Both the Khan and +Zebek-Dorchi were at one moment made prisoners, and more than once in +imminent danger of being cut down; but at length Zebek succeeded in +rallying a strong column of infantry, which, with the support of the +camel-corps on each flank, compelled the Bashkirs to retreat. Clouds, +however, of these wild cavalry continued to arrive through the next two +days and nights, followed or accompanied by the Kirghises. These being +viewed as the advanced parties of Traubenberg's army, the Kalmuck +chieftains saw no hope of safety but in flight; and in this way it +happened that a retreat, which had so recently been brought to a +pause, was resumed at the very moment when the unhappy fugitives were +anticipating a deep repose without further molestation, the whole summer +through. + +It seemed as though every variety of wretchedness were predestined to +the Kalmucks; and as if their sufferings were incomplete unless they +were rounded and matured by all that the most dreadful agencies of +summer's heat could superadd to those of frost and winter. To this +sequel of their story we shall immediately revert, after first noticing +a little romantic episode which occurred at this point between Oubacha +and his unprincipled cousin Zebek-Dorchi. + +There was at the time of the Kalmuck flight from the Wolga, a Russian +gentleman of some rank at the court of the Khan, whom, for political +reasons, it was thought necessary to carry along with them as a captive. +For some weeks his confinement had been very strict, and in one or +two instances cruel. But, as the increasing distance was continually +diminishing the chances of escape, and perhaps, also, as the misery of +the guards gradually withdrew their attention from all minor interests +to their own personal sufferings, the vigilance of the custody grew +more and more relaxed; until at length, upon a petition to the Khan, Mr. +Weseloff was formally restored to liberty; and it was understood that +he might use his liberty in whatever way he chose, even for returning +to Russia, if that should be his wish. Accordingly, he was making active +preparations for his journey to St. Petersburg, when it occurred to +Zebek-Dorchi that, not improbably, in some of the battles which were +then anticipated with Traubenberg, it might happen to them to lose some +prisoner of rank, in which case the Russian Weseloff would be a pledge +in their hands for negotiating an exchange. Upon this plea, to his own +severe affliction, the Russian was detained until the further pleasure +of the Khan. The Khan's name, indeed, was used through the whole affair, +but, as it seemed, with so little concurrence on his part, that, when +Weseloff in a private audience humbly remonstrated upon the injustice +done him, and the cruelty of thus sporting with his feelings by setting +him at liberty, and, as it were, tempting him into dreams of home +and restored happiness only for the purpose of blighting them, the +good-natured prince disclaimed all participation in the affair, and went +so far in proving his sincerity as even to give him permission to effect +his escape; and, as a ready means of commencing it without raising +suspicion, the Khan mentioned to Mr. Weseloff that he had just then +received a message from the Hetman of the Bashkirs, soliciting a +private interview on the banks of the Torgau at a spot pointed out; that +interview was arranged for the coming night; and Mr. Weseloff might +go in the Khan's _suite_, which on either side was not to exceed three +persons. Weseloff was a prudent man, acquainted with the world, and +he read treachery in the very outline of this scheme, as stated by the +Khan--treachery against the Khan's person. He mused a little, and then +communicated so much of his suspicions to the Khan as might put him on +his guard; but, upon further consideration, he begged leave to decline +the honor of accompanying the Khan. The fact was, that three Kalmucks, +who had strong motives for returning to their countrymen on the west +bank of the Wolga, guessing the intentions of Weseloff, had offered to +join him in his escape. These men the Khan would probably find himself +obliged to countenance in their project; so that it became a point +of honor with Weseloff to conceal their intentions, and therefore to +accomplish the evasion from the camp, (of which the first steps only +would be hazardous,) without risking the notice of the Khan. + +The district in which they were now encamped abounded, through many +hundred miles, with wild horses of a docile and beautiful breed. Each +of the four fugitives had caught from seven to ten of these spirited +creatures in the course of the last few days; this raised no suspicion; +for the rest of the Kalmucks had been making the same sort of provision +against the coming toils of their remaining route to China. These horses +were secured by halters, and hidden about dusk in the thickets which +lined the margin of the river. To these thickets, about ten at night, +the four fugitives repaired; they took a circuitous path, which drew +them as little as possible within danger of challenge from any of the +outposts or of the patrols which had been established on the quarters +where the Bashkirs lay; and in three quarters of an hour they reached +the rendezvous. The moon had now risen, the horses were unfastened, and +they were in the act of mounting, when the deep silence of the woods +was disturbed by a violent uproar, and the clashing of arms. Weseloff +fancied that he heard the voice of the Khan shouting for assistance. +He remembered the communication made by that prince in the morning; and +requesting his companions to support him, he rode off in the direction +of the sound. A very short distance brought him to an open glade in the +wood, where he beheld four men contending with a party of at least +nine or ten. Two of the four were dismounted at the very instant of +Weseloff's arrival; one of these he recognized almost certainly as the +Khan, who was fighting hand to hand, but at great disadvantage, with two +of the adverse horsemen. Seeing that no time was to be lost, Weseloff +fired, and brought down one of the two. His companions discharged their +carbines at the same moment, and then all rushed simultaneously into +the little open area. The thundering sound of about thirty horses, all +rushing at once into a narrow space, gave the impression that a whole +troop of cavalry was coming down upon the assailants; who, accordingly, +wheeled about and fled with one impulse. Weseloff advanced to the +dismounted cavalier, who, as he expected, proved to be the Khan. The +man whom Weseloff had shot was lying dead; and both were shocked, though +Weseloff at least was not surprised, on stooping down and scrutinizing +his features, to recognize a well known confidential servant of +Zebek-Dorchi. Nothing was said by either party. The Khan rode off, +escorted by Weseloff and his companions, and for some time a dead +silence prevailed. The situation of Weseloff was delicate and critical; +to leave the Khan at this point was probably to cancel their recent +services; for he might be again crossed on his path, and again attacked +by the very party from whom he had just been delivered. Yet, on the +other hand, to return to the camp was to endanger the chances of +accomplishing the escape. The Khan also was apparently revolving +all this in his mind, for at length he broke silence, and said--'I +comprehend your situation; and, under other circumstances, I might feel +it my duty to detain your companions. But it would ill become me to do +so after the important service you have just rendered me. Let us turn a +little to the left. There, where you see the watchfire, is an outpost. +Attend me so far. I am then safe. You may turn and pursue your +enterprise; for the circumstances under which you will appear, as my +escort, are sufficient to shield you from all suspicion for the present. +I regret having no better means at my disposal for testifying my +gratitude. But tell me, before we part, was it accident only which led +you to my rescue? Or had you acquired any knowledge of the plot by which +I was decoyed into this snare?' Weseloff answered very candidly that +mere accident had brought him to the spot at which he heard the +uproar, but that _having_ heard it, and connecting it with the Khan's +communication of the morning, he had then designedly gone after the +sound in a way which he certainly should not have done at so critical +a moment, unless in the expectation of finding the Khan assaulted by +assassins. A few minutes after they reached the outpost at which it +became safe to leave the Tartar chieftain; and immediately the four +fugitives commenced a flight which is perhaps without a parallel in the +annals of travelling. Each of them led six or seven horses besides the +one he rode; and by shifting from one to the other (like the ancient +_Desultors_ of the Roman circus,) so as never to burden the same horse +for more than half an hour at a time, they continued to advance at +the rate of two hundred miles in the twenty-four hours for three days +consecutively. After that time, considering themselves beyond pursuit, +they proceeded less rapidly; though still with a velocity which +staggered the belief of Weseloff's friends in after years. He was, +however, a man of high principle, and always adhered firmly to the +details of his printed report. One of the circumstances there stated is, +that they continued to pursue the route by which the Kalmucks had +fled, never for an instant finding any difficulty in tracing it by the +skeletons and other memorials of their calamities. In particular, he +mentions vast heaps of money as part of the valuable property which +it had been necessary to sacrifice. These heaps were found lying still +untouched in the deserts. From these, Weseloff and his companions took +as much as they could conveniently carry; and this it was, with the +price of their beautiful horses, which they afterwards sold at one of +the Russian military settlements for about L15 a-piece, which eventually +enabled them to pursue their journey in Russia. This journey, as +regarded Weseloff in particular, was closed by a tragical catastrophe. +He was at that time young, and the only child of a doating mother. Her +affliction under the violent abduction of her son had been excessive, +and probably had undermined her constitution. Still she had supported +it. Weseloff, giving way to the natural impulses of his filial +affection, had imprudently posted through Russia, to his mother's +house without warning of his approach. He rushed precipitately into her +presense; and she, who had stood the shocks of sorrow, was found unequal +to the shock of joy too sudden and too acute. She died upon the spot. + +We now revert to the final scenes of the Kalmuck flight. These it would +be useless to pursue circumstantially through the whole two thousand +miles of suffering which remained; for the character of that suffering +was even more monotonous than on the former half of the flight, but +also more severe. Its main elements were excessive heat, with the +accompaniments of famine and thirst, but aggravated at every step by +the murderous attacks of their cruel enemies, the Bashkirs and the +Kirghises. + +These people, 'more fell than anguish, hunger, or the sea,' stuck to the +unhappy Kalmucks like a swarm of enraged hornets. And very often whilst +_they_ were attacking them in the rear, their advanced parties and +flanks were attacked with almost equal fury by the people of the country +which they were traversing; and with good reason, since the law of +self-preservation had now obliged the fugitive Tartars to plunder +provisions, and to forage wherever they passed. In this respect their +condition was a constant oscillation of wretchedness; for, sometimes, +pressed by grinding famine, they took a circuit of perhaps a hundred +miles, in order to strike into a land rich in the comforts of life; but +in such a land they were sure to find a crowded population, of which +every arm was raised in unrelenting hostility, with all the advantages +of local knowledge, and with constant preoccupation of all the +defensible positions, mountain passes, or bridges. Sometimes, again, +wearied out with this mode of suffering, they took a circuit of +perhaps a hundred miles, in order to strike into a land with few or +no inhabitants. But in such a land they were sure to meet absolute +starvation. Then, again, whether with or without this plague of +starvation, whether with or without this plague of hostility in front, +whatever might he the 'fierce varieties' of their misery in this +respect, no rest ever came to their unhappy rear; _post equitem sedet +atra cura_; it was a torment like the undying worm of conscience. And, +upon the whole, it presented a spectacle altogether unprecedented in the +history of mankind. Private and personal malignity is not unfrequently +immortal; but rare indeed is it to find the same pertinacity of malice +in a nation. And what embittered the interest was, that the malice was +reciprocal. Thus far the parties met upon equal terms; but that +equality only sharpened the sense of their dire inequality as to other +circumstances. The Bashkirs were ready to fight 'from morn to dewy eve.' +The Kalmucks, on the contrary, were always obliged to run; was it _from_ +their enemies, as creatures whom they feared? No; but _towards_ their +friends--towards that final haven of China--as what was hourly implored +by their wives, and the tears of their children. But though they fled +unwillingly, too often they fled in vain--being unwillingly recalled. +There lay the torment. Every day the Bashkirs fell upon them; every day +the same unprofitable battle was renewed; as a matter of course, the +Kalmucks recalled part of their advanced guard to fight them; every day +the battle raged for hours, and uniformly with the same result. For, no +sooner did the Bashkirs find themselves too heavily pressed, and that +the Kalmuck march had been retarded by some hours, than they retired +into the boundless deserts where all pursuit was hopeless. But if the +Kalmucks resolved to press forward, regardless of their enemies, in that +case their attacks became so fierce and overwhelming, that the general +safety seemed likely to be brought into question; nor could any +effectual remedy be applied to the case, even for each separate day, +except by a most embarrassing halt, and by countermarches, that, to men +in their circumstances, were almost worse than death. It will not +be surprising, that the irritation of such a systematic persecution, +superadded to a previous and hereditary hatred, and accompanied by the +stinging consciousness of utter impotence as regarded all effectual +vengeance, should gradually have inflamed the Kalmuck animosity into the +wildest expression of downright madness and frenzy. Indeed, long before +the frontiers of China were approached, the hostility of both sides had +assumed the appearance much more of a warfare amongst wild beasts than +amongst creatures acknowledging the restraints of reason or the claims +of a common nature. The spectacle became too atrocious; it was that of a +host of lunatics pursued by a host of fiends. + +On a fine morning in early autumn of the year 1771, Kien Long, the +Emperor of China, was pursuing his amusements in a wild frontier +district lying on the outside of the Great Wall. For many hundred square +leagues the country was desolate of inhabitants, but rich in woods of +ancient growth, and overrun with game of every description. In a +central spot of this solitary region, the Emperor had built a gorgeous +hunting-lodge, to which he resorted annually for recreation and relief +from the cares of government. Led onwards in pursuit of game, he had +rambled to a distance of two hundred miles or more from this lodge, +followed at a little distance by a sufficient military escort, and every +night pitching his tent in a different situation, until at length he +had arrived on the very margin of the vast central deserts of Asia. +[Footnote: All the circumstances are learned from a long state paper +upon the subject of this Kalmuck migration, drawn up in the Chinese +language by the Emperor himself. Parts of this paper have been +translated by the Jesuit missionaries. The Emperor states the whole +motives of his conduct and the chief incidents at great length.] Here he +was standing, by accident, at an opening of his pavilion, enjoying +the morning sunshine, when suddenly to the westward there arose a vast +cloudy vapor, which by degrees expanded, mounted, and seemed to be +slowly diffusing itself over the whole face of the heavens. By-and-by +this vast sheet of mist began to thicken towards the horizon, and to +roll forward in billowy volumes. The Emperor's suite assembled from all +quarters. The silver trumpets were sounded in the rear, and from all the +glades and forest avenues began to trot forward towards the pavilion the +yagers, half cavalry, half huntsmen, who composed the Imperial escort. +Conjecture was on the stretch to divine the cause of this phenomenon, +and the interest continually increased, in proportion as simple +curiosity gradually deepened into the anxiety of uncertain danger. At +first it had been imagined that some vast troops of deer, or other wild +animals of the chase, had been disturbed in their forest haunts by the +Emperor's movements, or possibly by wild beasts prowling for prey, and +might be fetching a compass by way of re-entering the forest grounds +at some remoter points secure from molestation. But this conjecture was +dissipated by the slow increase of the cloud, and the steadiness of its +motion. In the course of two hours the vast phenomenon had advanced to a +point which was judged to be within five miles of the spectators, though +all calculations of distance were difficult, and often fallacious, when +applied to the endless expanses of the Tartar deserts. Through the next +hour, during which the gentle morning breeze had a little freshened, +the dusty vapor had developed itself far and wide into the appearance +of huge aerial draperies, hanging in mighty volumes from the sky to the +earth; and at particular points, where the eddies of the breeze acted +upon the pendulous skirts of these aerial curtains rents were perceived, +sometimes taking the form of regular arches, portals, and windows, +through which began dimly to gleam the heads of camels 'indorsed' +[Footnote: _Camels 'indorsed;'_--'And elephants indorsed with towers.' +MILTON in _Paradise Regained_.] with human beings--and at intervals the +moving of men and horses, in tumultuous array--and then, through other +openings or vistas, at far distant points, the flashing of polished +arms. But sometimes, as the wind slackened or died away, all those +openings, of whatever form, in the cloudy pall, would slowly close, and +for a time the whole pageant was shut up from view; although the growing +din, the clamors, the shrieks and groans, ascending from infuriated +myriads, reported, in a language not to be misunderstood, what was going +on behind the cloudy screen. + +It was in fact the Kalmuck host, now in the last extremities of their +exhaustion, and very fast approaching to that final stage of privation +and intense misery, beyond which few or none could have lived, but also, +happily for themselves, fast approaching (in a literal sense) that final +stage of their long pilgrimage, at which they would meet hospitality on +a scale of royal magnificence, and full protection from their enemies. +These enemies, however, as yet still were hanging on their rear as +fiercely as ever, though this day was destined to be the last of their +hideous persecution. The Khan had, in fact, sent forward couriers with +all the requisite statements and petitions, addressed to the Emperor +of China. These had been duly received, and preparations made in +consequence to welcome the Kalmucks with the most paternal benevolence. +But as these couriers had been despatched from the Torgau at the moment +of arrival thither, and before the advance of Traubenberg had made +it necessary for the Khan to order a hasty renewal of the flight, the +Emperor had not looked for their arrival on their frontier until full +three months after the present time. The Khan had indeed expressly +notified his intention to pass the summer heats on the banks of the +Torgau, and to recommence his retreat about the beginning of September. +The subsequent change of plan being unknown to Kien Long, left him for +some time in doubt as to the true interpretation to be put upon this +mighty apparition in the desert; but at length the savage clamors of +hostile fury, and the clangor of weapons, unveiled to the Emperor the +true nature of those unexpected calamities which had so prematurely +precipitated the Kalmuck measure. + +Apprehending the real state of affairs, the Emperor instantly perceived +that the first act of his fatherly care for these erring children (as +he esteemed them) now returning to their ancient obedience, must be--to +deliver them from their pursuers. And this was less difficult than +might have been supposed. Not many miles in the rear was a body of well +appointed cavalry, with a strong detachment of artillery, who always +attended the Emperor's motions. These were hastily summoned. Meantime it +occurred to the train of courtiers that some danger might arise to the +Emperor's person from the proximity of a lawless enemy; and accordingly +he was induced to retire a little to the rear. It soon appeared, +however, to those who watched the vapory shroud in the desert, that +its motion was not such as would argue the direction of the march to +be exactly upon the pavilion, but rather in a diagonal line, making an +angle of full forty-five degrees with that line in which the Imperial +_cortege_ had been standing, and therefore with a distance continually +increasing. Those who knew the country judged that the Kalmucks were +making for a large fresh-water lake about seven or eight miles distant; +they were right; and to that point the Imperial cavalry was ordered up; +and it was precisely in that spot, and about three hours after and at +noon-day on the 8th of September, that the great Exodus of the Kalmuck +Tartars was brought to a final close, and with a scene of such memorable +and hellish fury, as formed an appropriate winding-up to an expedition +in all its parts and details so awfully disastrous. The Emperor was not +personally present, or at least he saw whatever he _did_ see from too +great a distance to discriminate its individual features; but he records +in his written memorial the report made to him of this scene by some of +his own officers. + +The lake of Tengis, near the frightful desert of Kobi, lay in a hollow +amongst hills of a moderate height, ranging generally from two to three +thousand feet high. About eleven o'clock in the forenoon, the Chinese +cavalry reached the summit of a road which led through a cradle-like dip +in the mountains right down upon the margin of the lake. From this pass, +elevated about two thousand feet above the level of the water, they +continued to descend, by a very winding and difficult road, for an hour +and a half; and during the whole of this descent they were compelled to +be inactive spectators of the fiendish spectacle below. The Kalmucks, +reduced by this time from about six hundred thousand souls to two +hundred thousand, and after enduring for two months and a half the +miseries we have previously described--outrageous heat, famine, and the +destroying scimitar of the Kirghises and the Bashkirs, had for the last +ten days been traversing a hideous desert, where no vestiges were seen +of vegetation, and no drop of water could be found. Camels and men were +already so overladen, that it was a mere impossibility that they +should carry a tolerable sufficiency for the passage of this frightful +wilderness. On the eighth day the wretched daily allowance, which had +been continually diminishing, failed entirely; and thus for two days +of insupportable fatigue, the horrors of thirst had been carried to the +fiercest extremity. Upon this last morning, at the sight of the hills +and the forest scenery, which announced to those who acted as guides +the neighborhood of the lake of Tengis, all the people rushed along with +maddening eagerness to the anticipated solace. The day grew hotter +and hotter, the people more and more exhausted, and gradually, in the +general rush forwards to the lake, all discipline and command were +lost--all attempts to preserve a rear-guard were neglected--the wild +Bashkirs rode in amongst the encumbered people, and slaughtered them by +wholesale, and almost without resistance. Screams and tumultuous shouts +proclaimed the progress of the massacre; but none heeded--none halted; +all alike, pauper or noble, continued to rush on with maniacal haste to +the waters--all with faces blackened by the heat preying upon the liver, +and with tongue drooping from the mouth. The cruel Bashkir was affected +by the same misery, and manifested the same symptoms of his misery as +the wretched Kalmuck; the murderer was oftentimes in the same frantic +misery as his murdered victim--many indeed (an ordinary effect of +thirst) in both nations had become lunatic--and in this state, whilst +mere multitude and condensation of bodies alone opposed any check to the +destroying scimitar and the trampling hoof, the lake was reached; and +to that the whole vast body of enemies rushed, and together continued +to rush, forgetful of all things at that moment but of one almighty +instinct. This absorption of the thoughts in one maddening appetite +lasted for a single minute; but in the next arose the final scene of +parting vengeance. Far and wide the waters of the solitary lake were +instantly dyed red with blood and gore; here rode a party of savage +Bashkirs, hewing off heads as fast as the swathes fall before the +mower's scythe; there stood unarmed Kalmucks in a death-grapple with +their detested foes, both up to the middle in water, and oftentimes both +sinking together below the surface, from weakness, or from struggles, +and perishing in each other's arms. Did the Bashkirs at any point +collect into a cluster for the sake of giving impetus to the assault? +Thither were the camels driven in fiercely by those who rode them, +generally women or boys; and even these quiet creatures were forced into +a share in this carnival of murder, by trampling down as many as they +could strike prostrate with the lash of their fore-legs. Every moment +the water grew more polluted: and yet every moment fresh myriads came up +to the lake and rushed in, not able to resist their frantic thirst, and +swallowing large draughts of water, visibly contaminated with the blood +of their slaughtered compatriots. Wheresoever the lake was shallow +enough to allow of men raising their heads above the water, there for +scores of acres were to be seen all forms of ghastly fear, of agonizing +struggle, of spasm, of convulsion, of mortal conflict, death, and the +fear of death--revenge, and the lunacy of revenge--hatred, and the +frenzy of hatred--until the neutral spectators, of whom there were not +a few, now descending the eastern side of the lake, at length averted +their eyes in horror. This horror, which seemed incapable of further +addition, was, however, increased by an unexpected incident. The +Bashkirs, beginning to perceive here and there the approach of the +Chinese cavalry, felt it prudent--wheresoever they were sufficiently at +leisure from the passions of the murderous scene--to gather into bodies. +This was noticed by the governor of a small Chinese fort, built upon an +eminence above the lake; and immediately he threw in a broadside, +which spread havoc amongst the Bashkir tribe. As often as the Bashkirs +collected into 'globes' and 'turms' as their only means of meeting +the long line of descending Chinese cavalry--so often did the Chinese +governor of the fort pour in his exterminating broadside; until at +length the lake at the lower end, became one vast seething cauldron of +human bloodshed and carnage. The Chinese cavalry had reached the foot +of the hills: the Bashkirs, attentive to their movements, had formed; +skirmishes had been fought: and, with a quick sense that the contest +was henceforwards rapidly becoming hopeless, the Bashkirs and Kirghises +began to retire. The pursuit was not as vigorous as the Kalmuck hatred +would have desired. But, at the same time, the very gloomiest hatred +could not but find, in their own dreadful experience of the Asiatic +deserts, and in the certainty that these wretched Bashkirs had to repeat +that same experience a second time, for thousands of miles, as the price +exacted by a retributary Providence for their vindictive cruelty--not +the very gloomiest of the Kalmucks, or the least reflecting, but found +in all this a retaliatory chastisement more complete and absolute +than any which their swords and lances could have obtained, or human +vengeance could have devised. + +Here ends the tale of the Kalmuck wanderings in the Desert; for any +subsequent marches which awaited them, were neither long nor painful. +Every possible alleviation and refreshment for their exhausted +bodies had been already provided by Kien Long with the most princely +munificence; and lands of great fertility were immediately assigned to +them in ample extent along the river Ily, not very far from the point +at which they had first emerged from the wilderness of Kobi. But the +beneficent attention of the Chinese Emperor may be best stated in +his own words, as translated into French by one of the Jesuit +missionaries:--"La nation des Torgotes (_savoir les Kalmuques_) arriva a +Ily, toute _delabree_, n'ayant ni de quoi vivre, ni de quoi se vetir. Je +l'avais prevu; et j'avais ordonne de faire en tout genre les provisions +necessaires pour pouvoir les secourir promptement; c'est ce qui a ete +execute. On a fait la division des terres; et on a assigne a chaque +famille une portion suffisante pour pouvoir servir a son entretien, soit +en la cultivant, soit en y nourissant des bestiaux. On a donne a chaque +particulier des etoffes pour l'habiller, des grains pour se nourrir +pendant l'espace d'une annee, des ustensiles pour le menage et d'autres +choses necessaires: et outre cela plusieurs onces d'argent, pour +se pourvoir de ce qu'on aurait pu oublier. On a designe des lieux +particuliers, fertiles en paturages; et on leur a donne des boeufs, +moutons, &c. pour qu'ils pussent dans la suite travailler par euxmemes a +leur entretien et a leur bienetre." + +These are the words of the Emperor himself, speaking in his own person +of his own paternal cares; but another Chinese, treating the same +subject, records the munificence of this prince in terms which proclaim +still more forcibly the disinterested generosity which prompted, and the +delicate considerateness which conducted this extensive bounty. He +has been speaking of the Kalmucks, and he goes on thus:--"Lorsqu'ils +arriverent sur nos frontieres (au nombre de plusieurs centaines de +mille), quoique la fatigue extreme, la faim, la soif, et toutes les +autres incommodites inseparables d'une tres-longue et tres penible route +en eussent fait perir presque autant, ils etaient reduits a la derniere +misere: ils manquaient de tout. Il" (viz. l'Empereur, Kien Long) "leur +fit preparer des logemens conformes a leur maniere de vivre; il leur fit +distribuer des aliments et des habits; il leur fit donner des boeufs, +des moutons, et des ustensiles, pour les mettre en etat de former des +troupeaux et de cultiver la terre, _et tout cela a ses propres frais_, +qui se sont montes a des sommes immenses, sans compter l'argent qu'il +a donne a chaque chef-de-famille, pour pourvoir a la subsistance de sa +femme et de ses enfans." + +Thus, after their memorable year of misery, the Kalmucks were replaced +in territorial possessions, and in comfort equal perhaps, or even +superior, to that which they had enjoyed in Russia, and with superior +political advantages. But, if equal or superior, their condition was no +longer the same; if not in degree, their social prosperity had altered +in quality; for instead of being a purely pastoral and vagrant people, +they were now in circumstances which obliged them to become essentially +dependent upon agriculture; and thus far raised in social rank, that by +the natural course of their habits and the necessities of life they were +effectually reclaimed from roving, and from the savage customs connected +with so unsettled a life. They gained also in political privileges, +chiefly through the immunity from military service which their new +relations enabled them to obtain. These were circumstances of advantage +and gain. But one great disadvantage there was, amply to overbalance +all other possible gain; the chances were lost or were removed to an +incalculable distance for their conversion to Christianity, without +which in these times there is no absolute advance possible on the path +of true civilization. + +One word remains to be said upon the _personal_ interests concerned in +this great drama. The catastrophe in this respect was remarkable and +complete. Oubacha, with all his goodness and incapacity of suspecting, +had, since the mysterious affair on the banks of the Torgau, felt his +mind alienated from his cousin; he revolted from the man that would have +murdered him; and he had displayed his caution so visibly as to provoke +a reaction in the bearing of Zebek-Dorchi, and a displeasure which all +his dissimulation could not hide. This had produced a feud, which, by +keeping them aloof, had probably saved the life of Oubacha; for the +friendship of Zebek-Dorchi was more fatal than his open enmity. After +the settlement on the Ily this feud continued to advance, until it came +under the notice of the Emperor, on occasion of a visit which all the +Tartar chieftains made to his Majesty at his hunting-lodge in 1772. The +Emperor informed himself accurately of all the particulars connected +with the transaction--of all the rights and claims put forward--and +of the way in which they would severally affect the interests of the +Kalmuck people. The consequence was, that he adopted the cause of +Oubacha, and repressed the pretensions of Zebek-Dorchi, who, on his +part, so deeply resented this discountenance to his ambitious projects, +that in conjunction with other chiefs he had the presumption even to +weave nets of treason against the Emperor himself. Plots were laid--were +detected--were baffled--counterplots were constructed upon the same +basis, and with the benefit of the opportunities thus offered. + +Finally, Zebek-Dorchi was invited to the imperial lodge, together with +all his accomplices; and under the skilful management of the Chinese +nobles in the Emperor's establishment, the murderous artifices of these +Tartar chieftains were made to recoil upon themselves; and the whole +of them perished by assassination at a great imperial banquet. For the +Chinese morality is exactly of that kind which approves in everything +the _lex talionis:_-- + + ----'lex nec justior ulla est (as _they_ think) + Quam necis artifices arte perire sua.' + +So perished Zebek-Dorchi, the author and originator of the great Tartar +_Exodus_. Oubacha, meantime, and his people, were gradually recovering +from the effects of their misery, and repairing their losses. Peace +and prosperity, under the gentle rule of a fatherly lord paramount, +re-dawned upon the tribes; their household _lares_, after so harsh a +translation to distant climates, found again a happy reinstatement in +what had in fact been their primitive abodes; they found themselves +settled in quiet sylvan scenes, rich in all the luxuries of life, and +endowed with the perfect loveliness of Arcadian beauty. But from the +hills of this favored land and even from the level grounds as they +approach its western border, they still look out upon that fearful +wilderness which once beheld a nation in agony--the utter extirpation of +nearly half a million from amongst its numbers, and, for the remainder, +a storm of misery so fierce, that in the end (as happened also at Athens +during the Peloponnesian war from a different form of misery) very many +lost their memory; all records of their past life were wiped out as +with a sponge--utterly erased and cancelled; and many others lost their +reason; some in a gentle form of pensive melancholy, some in a more +restless form of feverish delirium and nervous agitation, and others in +the fixed forms of tempestuous mania, raving frenzy, or moping idiocy. +Two great commemorative monuments arose in after years to mark the depth +and permanence of the awe--the sacred and reverential grief with which +all persons looked back upon the dread calamities attached to the year +of the Tiger--all who had either personally shared in those calamities, +and had themselves drunk from that cup of sorrow, or who had effectually +been made witnesses to their results, and associated with their +relief; two great monuments, we say; first of all, one in the religious +solemnity, enjoined by the Dalai Lama, called in the Tartar language a +_Romanang_, that is, a national commemoration, with music the most rich +and solemn, of all the souls who departed to the rest of Paradise from +the afflictions of the Desert: this took place about six years after the +arrival in China. Secondly, another more durable and more commensurate +to the scale of the calamity and to the grandeur of this national +Exodus, in the mighty columns of granite and brass, erected by the +Emperor Kien Long, near the banks of the Ily: these columns stand upon +the very margin of the _steppes_; and they bear a short but emphatic +inscription [Footnote: This inscription has been slightly altered in one +or two phrases, and particularly in adapting to the Christian era the +Emperor's expressions for the year of the original Exodus from China and +the retrogressive Exodus from Russia. With respect to the designation +adopted for the Russian Emperor, either it is built upon some confusion +between him and the Byzantine Caesars, as though the former, being +of the same religion with the latter (and occupying in part the same +longitudes, though in different latitudes) might be considered as +his modern successor; or else it refers simply to the Greek form of +Christianity professed by the Russian Emperor and Church.] to the +following effect:-- + +By the Will of God Here, upon the Brink of these Deserts, Which from +this Point begin and stretch away Pathless, treeless, waterless, For +thousands of miles--and along the margins of many mighty Nations, Rested +from their labors and from great afflictions Under the shadow of the +Chinese Wall, And by the favor of KIEN LONG, God's Lieutenant upon +Earth, The ancient Children of the Wilderness--the Torgote Tartars +Flying before the wrath of the Grecian Czar, Wandering Sheep who had +strayed away from the Celestial Empire in the year 1616, But are now +mercifully gathered again, after infinite sorrow, Into the fold of their +forgiving Shepherd. Hallowed be the spot for ever, and Hallowed be the +day--September 8, 1771! Amen. + +END OF VOLUME I. + + + + +VOLUME II + + + + +SYSTEM OF THE HEAVENS AS REVEALED BY LORD ROSSE'S TELESCOPES. + + +[Footnote: Thoughts on Some Important Points relating to the System of +the World. By J. P. Nichol, LL.D., Professor of Astronomy in the +University of Glasgow. William Tait, Edinburgh. 1846.] + +Some years ago, some person or other, [in fact I believe it was myself,] +published a paper from the German of Kant, on a very interesting +question, viz., the age of our own little Earth. Those who have never +seen that paper, a class of unfortunate people whom I suspect to form +_rather_ the majority in our present perverse generation, will be likely +to misconceive its object. Kant's purpose was, not to ascertain how many +years the Earth had lived: a million of years, more or less, made very +little difference to _him_. What he wished to settle was no such barren +conundrum. For, had there even been any means of coercing the Earth into +an honest answer, on such a delicate point, which the Sicilian canon, +Recupero, fancied that there was; [Footnote: _Recupero_. See Brydone's +Travels, some sixty or seventy years ago. The canon, being a beneficed +clergyman in the Papal church, was naturally an infidel. He wished +exceedingly to refute Moses: and he fancied that he really had done so +by means of some collusive assistance from the layers of lava on Mount +Etna. But there survives, at this day, very little to remind us of the +canon, except an unpleasant guffaw that rises, at times, in solitary +valleys of Etna.] but which, in my own opinion, there neither is, nor +ought to be,--(since a man deserves to be cudgelled who could put such +improper questions to a _lady_ planet,)--still what would it amount +to? What good would it do us to have a certificate of our dear little +mother's birth and baptism? Other people--people in Jupiter, or +the Uranians--may amuse themselves with her pretended foibles or +infirmities: it is quite safe to do so at _their_ distance; and, in +a female planet like Venus, it might be natural, (though, strictly +speaking, not quite correct,) to scatter abroad malicious insinuations, +as though our excellent little mamma had begun to wear false hair, or +had lost some of her front teeth. But all this, we men of sense know +to be gammon. Our mother Tellus, beyond all doubt, is a lovely little +thing. I am satisfied that she is very much admired throughout the Solar +System: and, in clear seasons, when she is seen to advantage, with her +bonny wee pet of a Moon tripping round her like a lamb, I should be +thankful to any gentleman who will mention where he has happened to +observe--either he or his telescope--will he only have the goodness +to say, in what part of the heavens he has discovered a more elegant +turn-out. I wish to make no personal reflections. I name no names. Only +this I say, that, though some people have the gift of seeing things that +other people never could see, and though some other people, or other +some people are born with a silver spoon in their mouths, so that, +generally, their geese count for swans, yet, after all, swans or geese, +it would be a pleasure to me, and really a curiosity, to see the planet +that could fancy herself entitled to sneeze at our Earth. And then, if +she (viz., our Earth,) keeps but one Moon, even _that_ (you know) is +an advantage as regards some people that keep none. There are people, +pretty well known to you and me, that can't make it convenient to keep +even one Moon. And so I come to my moral; which is this, that, to all +appearance, it is mere justice; but, supposing it were not, still it is +_our_ duty, (as children of the Earth,) right or wrong, to stand up for +our bonny young mamma, if she _is_ young; or for our dear old mother, if +she _is_ old; whether young or old, to take her part against all comers; +and to argue through thick and thin, which (sober or not) I always +attempt to do, that she is the most respectable member of the Copernican +System. + +Meantime, what Kant understood by being old, is something that still +remains to be explained. If one stumbled, in the steppes of Tartary, +on the grave of a Megalonyx, and, after long study, had deciphered from +some pre-Adamite heiro-pothooks, the following epitaph:--'_Hic jacet_ +a Megalonyx, or _Hic jacet_ a Mammoth, (as the case might be,) who +departed this life, to the grief of his numerous acquaintance in the +seventeen thousandth year of his age,'--of course, one would be sorry +for him; because it must be disagreeable at _any_ age to be torn away +from life, and from all one's little megalonychal comforts; that's not +pleasant, you know, even if one _is_ seventeen thousand years old. But +it would make all the difference possible in your grief, whether the +record indicated a premature death, that he had been cut off, in fact, +whilst just stepping into life, or had kicked the bucket when full +of honors, and been followed to the grave by a train of weeping +grandchildren. He had died 'in his teens,' that's past denying. But +still we must know to what stage of life in a man, had corresponded +seventeen thousand years in a Mammoth. Now exactly this was what Kant +desired to know about our planet. Let her have lived any number of +years that you suggest, (shall we say if you please, that she is in her +billionth year?) still that tells us nothing about the _period_ of life, +the _stage_, which she may be supposed to have reached. Is she a child, +in fact, or is she an adult? And, _if_ an adult, and that you gave a +ball to the Solar System, is she that kind of person, that you would +introduce to a waltzing partner, some fiery young gentlemen like Mars, +or would you rather suggest to her the sort of partnership which takes +place at a whist-table? On this, as on so many other questions, Kant was +perfectly sensible that people, of the finest understandings, may and +do take the most opposite views. Some think that our planet is in that +stage of her life, which corresponds to the playful period of twelve +or thirteen in a spirited girl. Such a girl, were it not that she is +checked by a sweet natural sense of feminine grace, you might call a +romp; but not a hoyden, observe; no horse-play; oh, no, nothing of that +sort. And these people fancy that earthquakes, volcanoes, and all such +little _escapades_ will be over, they will, in lawyer's phrase, 'cease +and determine,' as soon as our Earth reaches the age of maidenly +bashfulness. Poor thing! It's quite natural, you know, in a healthy +growing girl. A little overflow of vivacity, a _pirouette_ more or less, +what harm should _that_ do to any of us? Nobody takes more delight than +I in the fawn-like sportiveness of an innocent girl, at this period of +life: even a shade of _espieglerie_ does not annoy me. But still my own +impressions incline me rather to represent the Earth as a fine noble +young woman, full of the pride which is so becoming to her sex, and well +able to take her own part, in case that, at any solitary point of +the heavens, she should come across one of those vulgar fussy Comets, +disposed to be rude and take improper liberties. These Comets, by the +way, are public nuisances, very much like the mounted messengers of +butchers in great cities, who are always at full gallop, and moving upon +such an infinity of angles to human shinbones, that the final purpose of +such boys (one of whom lately had the audacity nearly to ride down the +Duke of Wellington) seems to be--not the translation of mutton, which +would certainly find its way into human mouths even if riding boys were +not,--but the improved geometry of transcendental curves. They ought to +be numbered, ought these boys, and to wear badges--X 10, &c. And exactly +the same evil, asking therefore by implication for exactly the same +remedy, affects the Comets. A respectable planet is known everywhere, +and responsible for any mischief that he does. But if a cry should +arise, 'Stop that wretch, who was rude to the Earth: who is he?' twenty +voices will answer, perhaps, 'It's Encke's Comet; he is always doing +mischief;' well, what can you say? it _may_ be Encke's, it may be some +other man's Comet; there are so many abroad and on so many roads, that +you might as well ask upon a night of fog, such fog as may be opened +with an oyster knife, whose cab that was (whose, viz., out of 27,000 in +London) that floored you into the kennel. + +These are constructive ideas upon the Earth's stage of evolution, which +Kant was aware of, and which will always find toleration, even where +they do not find patronage. But others there are, a class whom I +perfectly abominate, that place our Earth in the category of decaying +women, nay of decayed women, going, going, and all but gone. 'Hair like +arctic snows, failure of vital heat, palsy that shakes the head as in +the porcelain toys on our mantel-pieces, asthma that shakes the whole +fabric--these they absolutely fancy themselves to _see_. They absolutely +_hear_ the tellurian lungs wheezing, panting, crying, 'Bellows to mend!' +periodically as the Earth approaches her aphelion. + +But suddenly at this point a demur arises upon the total question. +Kant's very problem explodes, bursts, as poison in Venetian wine-glass +of old shivered the glass into fragments. For is there, after all, any +stationary meaning in the question? Perhaps in reality the Earth is both +young and old. Young? If she is not young at present, perhaps she _will_ +be so in future. Old? if she is not old at this moment, perhaps she +_has_ been old, and has a fair chance of becoming so again. In fact, +she is a Phoenix that is known to have secret processes for rebuilding +herself out of her own ashes. Little doubt there is but she has +seen many a birthday, many a funeral night, and many a morning of +resurrection. Where now the mightiest of oceans rolls in pacific beauty, +once were anchored continents and boundless forests. Where the south +pole now shuts her frozen gates inhospitably against the intrusions +of flesh, once were probably accumulated the ribs of empires; man's +imperial forehead, woman's roseate lips, gleamed upon ten thousand +hills; and there were innumerable contributions to antarctic journals +almost as good (but not quite) as our own. Even within our domestic +limits, even where little England, in her south-eastern quarter now +devolves so quietly to the sea her sweet pastoral rivulets, once +came roaring down, in pomp of waters, a regal Ganges [Footnote: +_'Ganges:'_--Dr. Nichol calls it by this name for the purpose of +expressing its grandeur; and certainly in breadth, in diffusion at all +times, but especially in the rainy season, the Ganges is the cock of +the walk in our British orient. Else, as regards the body of water +discharged, the absolute payments made into the sea's exchequer, and the +majesty of column riding downwards from the Himalaya, I believe that, +since Sir Alexander Burnes's measurements, the Indus ranks foremost by +a long chalk.], that drained some hyperbolical continent, some Quinbus +Flestrin of Asiatic proportions, long since gone to the dogs. All things +pass away. Generations wax old as does a garment: but eternally God +says:--'Come again, ye children of men.' Wildernesses of fruit, and +worlds of flowers, are annually gathered in solitary South America to +ancestral graves: yet still the Pomona of Earth, yet still the Flora of +Earth, does not become superannuated, but blossoms in everlasting youth. +Not otherwise by secular periods, known to us geologically as facts, +though obscure as durations, _Tellus_ herself, the planet, as a whole, +is for ever working by golden balances of change and compensation, +of ruin and restoration. She recasts her glorious habitations in +decomposing them; she lies down for death, which perhaps a thousand +times she has suffered; she rises for a new birth, which perhaps for +the thousandth time has glorified her disc. Hers is the wedding garment, +hers is the shroud, that eternally is being woven in the loom. And God +imposes upon her the awful necessity of working for ever at her +own grave, yet of listening for ever to his far-off trumpet of +_palingenesis_. + +If this account of the matter be just, and were it not treasonable +to insinuate the possibility of an error against so great a swell as +Immanuel Kant, one would be inclined to fancy that Mr. Kant had +really been dozing a little on this occasion; or, agreeably to his own +illustration elsewhere, that he had realized the pleasant picture of one +learned doctor trying to milk a he-goat, whilst another doctor, equally +learned, holds the milk-pail below. [Footnote: Kant applied this +illustration to the case where one worshipful scholar proposes some +impossible problem, (as the squaring of the circle, or the perpetual +motion,) which another worshipful scholar sits down to solve. The +reference was of course to Virgil's line,--'Atque idem jungat vulpes, et +_mulgeat hircos_.'] And there is apparently this two-edged embarrassment +pressing upon the case--that, if our dear excellent mother the Earth +could be persuaded to tell us her exact age in Julian years, still +_that_ would leave us all as much in the dark as ever: since, if the +answer were, 'Why, children, at my next birth-day I shall count a matter +of some million centuries,' we should still be at a loss to _value_ her +age: would it mean that she was a mere chicken, or that she was 'getting +up in years?' On the other hand, if (declining to state any odious +circumstantialities,) she were to reply,--'No matter, children, for my +precise years, which are disagreeable remembrances; I confess generally +to being a lady of a certain age,'--here, in the inverse order, +given the _valuation_ of the age, we should yet be at a loss for the +_absolute_ years numerically: would a 'certain age,' mean that 'mamma' +was a million, be the same more or less, or perhaps not much above +seventy thousand? + +Every way, you see, reader, there are difficulties. But two things +used to strike me, as unaccountably overlooked by Kant; who, to say the +truth, was profound--yet at no time very agile--in the character of his +understanding. First, what age now might we take our brother and +sister planets to be? For _that_ determination as to a point in _their_ +constitution, will do something to illustrate our own. We are as good +as they, I hope, any day: perhaps in a growl, one might modestly +insinuate--_better_. It's not at all likely that there can be any +great disproportion of age amongst children of the same household: and +therefore, since Kant always countenanced the idea that Jupiter had +not quite finished the upholstery of his extensive premises, as a +comfortable residence for a man, Jupiter having, in fact, a fine family +of mammoths, but no family at all of 'humans,' (as brother Jonathan +calls them,) Kant was bound, _ex analogo_, to hold that any little +precedency in the trade of living, on the part of our own mother Earth, +could not count for much in the long run. At Newmarket, or Doncaster, +the start is seldom mathematically true: trifling advantages will +survive all human trials after abstract equity; and the logic of this +case argues, that any few thousands of years by which Tellus may have +got ahead of Jupiter, such as the having finished her Roman Empire, +finished her Crusades, and finished her French Revolution, virtually +amounts to little or nothing; indicates no higher proportion to the +total scale upon which she has to run, than the few tickings of a watch +by which one horse at the start for the Leger is in advance of another. +When checked in our chronology by each other, it transpires that, in +effect, we are but executing the nice manoeuvre of a start; and that the +small matter of six thousand years, by which we may have advanced +our own position beyond some of our planetary rivals, is but the +outstretched neck of an uneasy horse at Doncaster. This is _one_ of the +data overlooked by Kant; and the less excusably overlooked, because +it was his own peculiar doctrine,--that uncle Jupiter ought to be +considered a greenhorn. Jupiter may be a younger brother of our mamma; +but, if he is a brother at all, he cannot be so very wide of our own +chronology; and therefore the first _datum_ overlooked by Kant was--the +analogy of our whole planetary system. A second datum, as it always +occurred to myself, might reasonably enough be derived from the +intellectual vigor of us men. If our mother could, with any show of +reason, be considered an old decayed lady, snoring stentorously in +her arm-chair, there would naturally be some _aroma_ of phthisis, or +apoplexy, beginning to form about _us_, that are her children. But _is_ +there? If ever Dr. Johnson said a true word, it was when he replied to +the Scottish judge Burnett, so well known to the world as Lord Monboddo. +The judge, a learned man, but obstinate as a mule in certain prejudices, +had said plaintively, querulously, piteously,--'Ah, Doctor, we are poor +creatures, we men of the eighteenth century, by comparison with our +forefathers!' 'Oh, no, my Lord,' said Johnson, 'we are quite as strong +as our ancestors, and a great deal wiser.' Yes; our kick is, at least, +as dangerous, and our logic does three times as much execution. This +would be a complex topic to treat effectively; and I wish merely to +indicate the opening which it offers for a most decisive order of +arguments in such a controversy. If the Earth were on her last legs, we +her children could not be very strong or healthy. Whereas, if there were +less pedantry amongst us, less malice, less falsehood, and less darkness +of prejudice, easy it would be to show, that in almost every mode of +intellectual power, we are more than a match for the most conceited +of elder generations, and that in some modes we have energies or arts +absolutely and exclusively our own. Amongst a thousand indications of +strength and budding youth, I will mention two:--Is it likely, is +it plausible, that our Earth should just begin to find out effective +methods of traversing land and sea, when she had a summons to leave +both? Is it not, on the contrary, a clear presumption that the great +career of earthly nations is but on the point of opening, that life +is but just beginning to kindle, when the great obstacles to effectual +locomotion, and therefore to extensive human intercourse, are first of +all beginning to give way? Secondly, I ask peremptorily,--Does it +stand with good sense, is it reasonable that Earth is waning, science +drooping, man looking downward, precisely in that epoch when, first of +all, man's eye is arming itself for looking effectively into the mighty +depths of space? A new era for the human intellect, upon a path that +lies amongst its most aspiring, is promised, is inaugurated, by Lord +Rosse's almost awful telescope. + +What is it then that Lord Rosse has accomplished? If a man were aiming +at dazzling by effects of rhetoric, he might reply: He has accomplished +that which once the condition of the telescope not only refused its +permission to hope for, but expressly bade man to despair of. What is it +that Lord Rosse has revealed? Answer: he has revealed more by far than +he found. The theatre to which he has introduced us, is _immeasurably_ +beyond the old one which he found. To say that he found, in the visible +universe, a little wooden theatre of Thespis, a _treteau_ or shed of +vagrants, and that he presented us, at a price of toil and of _anxiety_ +that cannot be measured, with a Roman colosseum,--_that_ is to say +nothing. It is to undertake the measurement of the tropics with the +pocket-tape of an upholsterer. Columbus, when he introduced the Old +World to the New, after all that can be said in his praise, did in +fact only introduce the majority to the minority; but Lord Rosse has +introduced the minority to the majority. There are two worlds, one +called Ante-Rosse, and the other Post-Rosse; and, if it should come to +voting, the latter would shockingly outvote the other. Augustus Caesar +made it his boast when dying, that he had found the city of Rome built +of brick, and that he left it built of marble: _lateritiam invenit, +marmoream reliquit_. Lord Rosse may say, even if to-day he should die, +'I found God's universe represented for human convenience, even after +all the sublime discoveries of Herschel, upon a globe or spherical chart +having a radius of one hundred and fifty feet; and I left it sketched +upon a similar chart, keeping exactly the same scale of proportions, but +now elongating its radius into one thousand feet.' The reader of course +understands that this expression, founded on absolute calculations of +Dr. Nichol, is simply meant to exhibit the _relative_ dimensions of the +_mundus Ante-Rosseanus_ and the _mundus Post-Rosseanus;_ for as to +the _absolute_ dimensions, when stated in miles, leagues or any units +familiar to the human experience, they are too stunning and confounding. +If, again, they are stated in larger units, as for instance diameters of +the earth's orbit, the unit itself that should facilitate the grasping +of the result, and which really _is_ more manageable numerically, +becomes itself elusive of the mental grasp: it comes in as an +interpreter; and (as in some other cases) the interpreter is hardest to +be understood of the two. If, finally, TIME be assumed as the exponent +of the dreadful magnitudes, time combining itself with motion, as in the +flight of cannon-balls or the flight of swallows, the sublimity +becomes greater; but horror seizes upon the reflecting intellect, and +incredulity upon the irreflective. Even a railroad generation, that +_should_ have faith in the miracles of velocity, lifts up its hands with +an '_Incredulus odi_!' we know that Dr. Nichol speaks the truth; but he +_seems_ to speak falsehood. And the ignorant by-stander prays that the +doctor may have grace given him and time for repentance; whilst his +more liberal companion reproves his want of charity, observing that +travellers into far countries have always had a license for lying, as +a sort of tax or fine levied for remunerating their own risks; and +that great astronomers, as necessarily far travellers into space, are +entitled to a double per centage of the same Munchausen privilege. + +Great is the mystery of Space, greater is the mystery of Time; either +mystery grows upon man, as man himself grows; and either seems to be a +function of the godlike which is in man. In reality the depths and the +heights which are in man, the depths by which he searches, the heights +by which he aspires, are but projected and made objective externally in +the three dimensions of space which are outside of him. He trembles at +the abyss into which his bodily eyes look down, or look up; not knowing +that abyss to be, not always consciously suspecting it to be, but by an +instinct written in his prophetic heart feeling it to be, boding it to +be, fearing it to be, and sometimes hoping it to be, the mirror to a +mightier abyss that will one day be expanded in himself. Even as to +the sense of space, which is the lesser mystery than time, I know not +whether the reader has remarked that it is one which swells upon man +with the expansion of his mind, and that it is probably peculiar to the +mind of man. An infant of a year old, or oftentimes even older, takes no +notice of a sound, however loud, which is a quarter of a mile removed, +or even in a distant chamber. And brutes, even of the most enlarged +capacities, seem not to have any commerce with distance: distance is +probably not revealed to them except by a _presence_, viz., by some +shadow of their own animality, which, if perceived at all, is perceived +as a thing _present_ to their organs. An animal desire, or a deep +animal hostility, may render sensible a distance which else would not be +sensible; but not render it sensible _as_ a distance. Hence perhaps is +explained, and not out of any self-oblivion from higher enthusiasm, a +fact that often has occurred, of deer, or hares, or foxes, and the +pack of hounds in pursuit, chaser and chased, all going headlong over a +precipice together. Depth or height does not readily manifest itself to +_them_; so that any _strong_ motive is sufficient to overpower the sense +of it. Man only has a natural function for expanding on an illimitable +sensorium, the illimitable growths of space. Man, coming to the +precipice, reads his danger; the brute perishes: man is saved; and the +horse is saved by his rider. + +But, if this sounds in the ear of some a doubtful refinement, the doubt +applies only to the lowest degrees of space. For the highest, it is +certain that brutes have no perception. To man is as much reserved +the prerogative of perceiving space in its higher extensions, as of +geometrically constructing the relations of space. And the brute is no +more capable of apprehending abysses through his eye, than he can build +upwards or can analyze downwards the aerial synthesis of Geometry. Such, +therefore, as is space for the grandeur of man's perceptions, such as is +space for the benefit of man's towering mathematic speculations, such is +the nature of our debt to Lord Rosse--as being the philosopher who has +most pushed back the frontiers of our conquests upon this _exclusive_ +inheritance of man. We have all heard of a king that, sitting on the +sea-shore, bade the waves, as they began to lave his feet, upon their +allegiance to retire. _That_ was said not vainly or presumptuously, +but in reproof of sycophantic courtiers. Now, however, we see in good +earnest another man, wielding another kind of sceptre, and sitting upon +the shores of infinity, that says to the ice which had frozen up our +progress,--'Melt thou before my breath!' that says to the rebellious +_nebulae_,--'Submit, and burst into blazing worlds!' that says to the +gates of darkness,--'Roll back, ye barriers, and no longer hide from us +the infinities of God!' + + 'Come, and I will show you what is beautiful.' + +From the days of infancy still lingers in my ears this opening of +a prose hymn by a lady, then very celebrated, viz., the late Mrs. +Barbauld. The hymn began by enticing some solitary infant into some +silent garden, I believe, or some forest lawn; and the opening words +were, 'Come, and I will show you what is beautiful!' Well, and what +beside? There is nothing beside; oh, disappointed and therefore enraged +reader; positively this is the sum-total of what I can recall from the +wreck of years; and certainly it is not much. Even of Sappho, though +time has made mere ducks and drakes of her lyrics, we have rather more +spared to us than this. And yet this trifle, simple as you think it, +this shred of a fragment, if the reader will believe me, still +echoes with luxurious sweetness in my ears, from some unaccountable +hide-and-seek of fugitive childish memories; just as a marine shell, +if applied steadily to the ear, awakens (according to the fine image +of Landor [Footnote: 'Of Landor,' viz., in his 'Gebir;' but also of +Wordsworth in 'The Excursion.' And I must tell the reader, that a +contest raged at one time as to the _original property_ in this image, +not much less keen than that between Neptune and Minerva, for the +chancellorship of Athens.]) the great vision of the sea; places the +listener + + 'In the sun's palace-porch, + And murmurs as the ocean murmurs there.' + +Now, on some moonless night, in some fitting condition of the +atmosphere, if Lord Rosse would permit the reader and myself to walk +into the front drawing-room of his telescope, then, in Mrs. Barbauld's +words, slightly varied, I might say to him,--Come, and I will show you +what is sublime! In fact, what I am going to lay before him, from Dr. +Nichol's work, is, or at least _would_ be, (when translated into Hebrew +grandeur by the mighty telescope,) a step above even that object which +some four-and-twenty years ago in the British Museum struck me as simply +the sublimest sight which in this sight-seeing world I had seen. It was +the Memnon's head, then recently brought from Egypt. I looked at it, as +the reader must suppose, in order to understand the depth which I have +here ascribed to the impression, not as a human but as a symbolic +head; and what it symbolized to me were: 1. The peace which passeth all +understanding. 2. The eternity which baffles and confounds all faculty +of computation; the eternity which _had_ been, the eternity which _was_ +to be. 3. The diffusive love, not such as rises and falls upon waves of +life and mortality, not such as sinks and swells by undulations of time, +but a procession--an emanation from some mystery of endless dawn. You +durst not call it a smile that radiated from the lips; the radiation was +too awful to clothe itself in adumbrations or memorials of flesh. + +In _that mode_ of sublimity, perhaps, I still adhere to my first +opinion, that nothing so great was ever beheld. The atmosphere for +_this_, for the Memnon, was the breathlessness which belongs to a +saintly trance; the holy thing seemed to live by silence. But there _is_ +a picture, the pendant of the Memnon, there _is_ a dreadful cartoon, +from the gallery which has begun to open upon Lord Rosse's telescope, +where the appropriate atmosphere for investing it must be drawn from +another silence, from the frost and from the eternities of death. It +is the famous _nebula_ in the constellation of Orion; famous for the +unexampled defiance with which it resisted all approaches from the most +potent of former telescopes; famous for its frightful magnitude and for +the frightful depth to which it is sunk in the abysses of the heavenly +wilderness; famous just now for the submission with which it has begun +to render up its secrets to the all-conquering telescope; and famous +in all time coming for the horror of the regal phantasma which it has +perfected to eyes of flesh. Had Milton's 'incestuous mother,' with her +fleshless son, and with the warrior angel, his father, that led the +rebellions of heaven, been suddenly unmasked by Lord Rosse's instrument, +in these dreadful distances before which, simply as expressions of +resistance, the mind of man shudders and recoils, there would have been +nothing more appalling in the exposure; in fact, it would have been +essentially the same exposure: the same expression of power in the +detestable phantom, the same rebellion in the attitude, the same pomp of +malice in the features to a universe seasoned for its assaults. + +The reader must look to Dr. Nichol's book, at page 51, for the picture +of this abominable apparition. But then, in order to see what _I_ see, +the obedient reader must do what I tell him to do. Let him therefore +view the wretch upside down. If he neglects that simple direction, of +course I don't answer for anything that follows: without any fault of +mine, my description will be unintelligible. This inversion being made, +the following is the dreadful creature that will then reveal itself. + +_Description of the Nebula in Orion, as forced to show out by Lord +Rosse._--You see a head thrown back, and raising its face, (or eyes, if +eyes it had,) in the very anguish of hatred, to some unknown heavens. +What _should_ be its skull wears what _might_ be an Assyrian tiara, only +ending behind in a floating train. This head rests upon a beautifully +developed neck and throat. All power being given to the awful enemy, he +is beautiful where he pleases, in order to point and envenom his ghostly +ugliness. The mouth, in that stage of the apocalypse which Sir John +Herschel was able to arrest in his eighteen-inch mirror, is amply +developed. Brutalities unspeakable sit upon the upper lip, which is +confluent with a snout; for separate nostrils there are none. Were it +not for this one defect of nostrils; and, even in spite of this defect, +(since, in so mysterious a mixture of the angelic and the brutal, we may +suppose the sense of odor to work by some compensatory organ,) one is +reminded by the phantom's attitude of a passage, ever memorable, in +Milton: that passage, I mean, where Death first becomes aware, soon +after the original trespass, of his own future empire over man. The +'meagre shadow' even smiles (for the first time and the last) on +apprehending his own abominable bliss, by apprehending from afar the +savor 'of mortal change on earth.' + + ----'Such a scent,' (he says,) 'I draw + Of carnage, prey innumerable.' + +As illustrating the attitude of the phantom in Orion, let the reader +allow me to quote the tremendous passage:-- + + 'So saying, with delight he snuff'd the smell + Of mortal change on earth. As when a flock + Of ravenous fowl, though many a league remote, + Against the day of battle, to a field, + Where armies lie encamp'd, come flying, lured + With scent of living carcasses design'd + For death, the following day, in bloody fight; + So scented the grim feature, + +[Footnote: 'So scented the grim feature,' [_feature_ is the old word for +_form or outline that is shadowy_; and also for form (shadowy or not) +which abstracts from the _matter_.] By the way, I have never seen it +noticed, that Milton was indebted for the hint of this immortal passage +to a superb line-and-a-half, in Lucan's Pharsalia.] + + and upturn'd + His nostril wide into the murky air, + Sagacious of his quarry from so far.' + +But the lower lip, which is drawn inwards with the curve of a conch +shell,--oh what a convolute of cruelty and revenge is _there_! +Cruelty!--to whom? Revenge!--for what? Ask not, whisper not. Look +upwards to other mysteries. In the very region of his temples, driving +itself downwards into his cruel brain, and breaking the continuity of +his diadem, is a horrid chasm, a ravine, a shaft, that many centuries +would not traverse; and it is serrated on its posterior wall with a +harrow that perhaps is partly hidden. From the anterior wall of this +chasm rise, in vertical directions, two processes; one perpendicular, +and rigid as a horn, the other streaming forward before some portentous +breath. What these could be, seemed doubtful; but now, when further +examinations by Sir John Herschel, at the Cape of Good Hope, have filled +up the scattered outline with a rich umbrageous growth, one is inclined +to regard them as the plumes of a sultan. Dressed he is, therefore, as +well as armed. And finally comes Lord Rosse, that glorifies him with +the jewellery [Footnote: _The jewellery of Stars_. And one thing is +very remarkable, viz., that not only the stars justify this name of +jewellery, as usual, by the life of their splendor, but also, in this +case, by their arrangement. No jeweller could have set, or disposed with +more art, the magnificent quadrille of stars which is placed immediately +below the upright plume. There is also another, a truncated quadrille, +wanting only the left hand star (or you might call it a bisected +lozenge) placed on the diadem, but obliquely placed as regards the curve +of that diadem. Two or three other arrangements are striking, though +not equally so, both from their regularity and from their repeating each +other, as the forms in a kaleidoscope.] of stars: he is now a vision 'to +dream of, not to tell:' he is ready for the worship of those that +are tormented in sleep: and the stages of his solemn uncovering by +astronomy, first by Sir W. Herschel, secondly, by his son, and finally +by Lord Rosse, is like the reversing of some heavenly doom, like +the raising of the seals that had been sealed by the angel, in the +Revelations. But the reader naturally asks, How does all this concern +Lord Rosse's telescope on the one side, or general astronomy on the +other? This _nebula_, he will say, seems a bad kind of fellow by your +account; and of course it will not break my heart to hear, that he has +had the conceit taken out of him. But in what way can _that_ affect the +pretensions of this new instrument; or, if it did, how can the character +of the instrument affect the general condition of a science? Besides, is +not the science a growth from very ancient times? With great respect for +the Earl of Rosse, is it conceivable that he, or any man, by one hour's +working the tackle of his new instrument, can have carried any stunning +revolutionary effect into the heart of a section so ancient in our +mathematical physics? But the reader is to consider, that the ruins made +by Lord Rosse, are in _sidereal_ astronomy, which is almost wholly a +growth of modern times; and the particular part of it demolished by the +new telescope, is almost exclusively the creation of the two Herschels, +father and son. Laplace, it is true, adopted their views; and he +transferred them to the particular service of our own planetary system. +But he gave to them no new sanction, except what arises from showing +that they would account for the appearances, as they present themselves +to our experience at this day. That was a _negative_ confirmation; by +which I mean, that, had their views failed in the hands of Laplace, +then they were proved to be false; but, _not_ failing, they were not +therefore proved to be true. It was like proving a gun; if the charge is +insufficient, or if, in trying the strength of cast iron, timber, ropes, +&c., the strain is not up to the rigor of the demand, you go away with +perhaps a favorable impression as to the promises of the article; it has +stood a moderate trial; it has stood all the trial that offered, which +is always something; but you are still obliged to feel that, when the +ultimate test is applied, smash may go the whole concern. Lord Rosse +applied an ultimate test; and smash went the whole concern. Really I +must have laughed, though all the world had been angry, when the shrieks +and yells of expiring systems began to reverberate all the way from the +belt of Orion; and positively at the very first broadside delivered from +this huge four-decker of a telescope. + +But what was it then that went to wreck? That is a thing more easy to +ask than to answer. At least, for my own part, I complain that some +vagueness hangs over all the accounts of the nebular hypothesis. +However, in this place a brief sketch will suffice. + +Herschel the elder, having greatly improved the telescope, began to +observe with special attention a class of remarkable phenomena in the +starry world hitherto unstudied, viz.: milky spots in various stages of +diffusion. The nature of these appearances soon cleared itself up thus +far, that generally they were found to be starry worlds, separated from +ours by inconceivable distances, and in that way concealing at first +their real nature. The whitish gleam was the mask conferred by the +enormity of their remotion. This being so, it might have been supposed +that, as was the faintness of these cloudy spots or _nebulae_, such was +the distance. But _that_ did not follow: for in the treasury of nature +it turned out that there were other resources for modifying the powers +of distance, for muffling and unmuffling the voice of stars. Suppose +a world at the distance _x_, which distance is so great as to make the +manifestation of that world weak, milky, nebular. Now let the secret +power that wields these awful orbs, push this world back to a double +distance! _that_ should naturally make it paler and more dilute than +ever: and yet by _compression_, by deeper centralization, this effect +shall be defeated; by forcing into far closer neighborhood the stars +which compose this world, again it shall gleam out brighter when at 2_x_ +than when at _x_. At this point of compression, let the great moulding +power a second time push it back; and a second time it will grow faint. +But once more let this world be tortured into closer compression, again +let the screw be put upon it, and once again it shall shake off the +oppression of distance as the dew-drops are shaken from a lion's mane. +And thus in fact the mysterious architect plays at hide-and-seek with +his worlds. 'I will hide it,' he says, 'and it shall be found again by +man; I will withdraw it into distances that shall seem fabulous, and +again it shall apparel itself in glorious light; a third time I will +plunge it into aboriginal darkness, and upon the vision of man a third +time it shall rise with a new epiphany.' + +But, says the objector, there is no such world; there is no world that +has thus been driven back, and depressed from one deep to a lower +deep. Granted: but the same effect, an illustration of the same law, +is produced equally, whether you take four worlds, all of the same +magnitude, and plunge them _simultaneously_ into four different abysses, +sinking by graduated distances one below another, or take one world and +plunge it to the same distances _successively_. So in Geology, when men +talk of substances in different stages, or of transitional states, they +do not mean that they have watched the same individual _stratum_ or +_phenomenon_, exhibiting states removed from each other by depths of +many thousand years; how could they? but they have seen one stage in +the case A, another stage in the case B. They take, for instance, three +objects, the same (to use the technical language of logic) generically, +though numerically different, under separate circumstances, or in +different stages of advance. They are one object for logic, they are +three for human convenience. So again it might seem impossible to give +the history of a rose tree from infancy to age: how could the same rose +tree, at the same time, be young and old? Yet by taking the different +developments of its flowers, even as they hang on the same tree, from +the earliest bud to the full-blown rose, you may in effect pursue this +vegetable growth through all its stages: you have before you the bony +blushing little rose-bud, and the respectable 'mediaeval' full-blown +rose. + +This point settled, let it now be remarked, that Herschel's resources +enabled him to unmask many of these _nebulae_: stars they were, and stars +he forced them to own themselves. Why should any decent world wear +an _alias_? There was nothing, you know, to be ashamed of in being an +honest cluster of stars. Indeed, they seemed to be sensible of this +themselves, and they now yielded to the force of Herschel's arguments so +far as to show themselves in the new character of _nebulae_ spangled with +stars; these are the _stellar nebulae_; quite as much as you could expect +in so short a time: Rome was not built in a day: and one must have +some respect to stellar feelings. It was noticed, however, that where a +bright haze, and not a weak milk-and-water haze, had revealed itself +to the telescope, this, arising from a case of _compression_, (as +previously explained,) required very little increase of telescopic power +to force him into a fuller confession. He made a clean breast of it. +But at length came a dreadful anomaly. A 'nebula' in the constellation +_Andromeda_ turned restive: another in _Orion_, I grieve to say it, +still more so. I confine myself to the latter. A very low power sufficed +to bring him to a slight confession, which in fact amounted to nothing; +the very highest would not persuade him to show a star. 'Just one,' +said some coaxing person; 'we'll be satisfied with only one.' But no: +he would _not_. He was hardened, 'he wouldn't _split_.' And Herschel +was thus led, after waiting as long as flesh and blood _could_ wait, +to infer two classes of _nebulae_; one that were stars; and another +that were _not_ stars, nor ever were meant to be stars. Yet _that_ was +premature: he found at last, that, though not raised to the peerage of +stars, finally they would be so: they were the matter of stars; and by +gradual condensation would become suns, whose atmosphere, by a similar +process of condensing, would become planets, capable of brilliant +literati and philosophers, in several volumes octavo. So stood the case +for a long time; it was settled to the satisfaction of Europe that there +were two classes of _nebulae_, one that _were_ worlds, one that were +_not_, but only the pabulum of future worlds. Silence arose. A voice was +heard, 'Let there be Lord Rosse!' and immediately his telescope walked +into Orion; destroyed the supposed matter of stars; but, in return, +created immeasurable worlds. + +As a hint for apprehending the delicacy and difficulty of the process in +sidereal astronomy, let the inexperienced reader figure to himself these +separate cases of perplexity: 1st, A perplexity where the dilemma arises +from the collision between magnitude and distance:--is the size less, or +the distance greater? 2dly, Where the dilemma arises between motions, a +motion in ourselves doubtfully confounded with a motion in some external +body; or, 3dly, Where it arises between possible positions of an object: +is it a real proximity that we see between two stars, or simply an +apparent proximity from lying in the same visual line, though in far +other depths of space? As regards the first dilemma, we may suppose two +laws, A and B, absolutely in contradiction, laid down at starting: A, +that all fixed stars are precisely at the same _distance_; in this case +every difference in the apparent magnitude will indicate a corresponding +difference in the real magnitude, and will measure that difference. B, +that all the fixed stars are precisely of the same _magnitude_; in which +case, every variety in the size will indicate a corresponding difference +in the distance, and will measure that difference. Nor could we imagine +any exception to these inferences from A or from B, whichever of the two +were assumed, unless through optical laws that might not equally affect +objects under different circumstances; I mean, for instance, that might +suffer a disturbance as applied under hypoth. B, to different depths in +space, or under hypoth. A, to different arrangements of structure in the +star. But thirdly, it is certain, that neither A nor B is the abiding +law: and next it becomes an object by science and by instruments to +distinguish more readily and more certainly between the cases where +the distance has degraded the size, and the cases where the size being +_really_ less, has caused an exaggeration of the distance: or again, +where the size being really less, yet co-operating with a distance +really greater, may degrade the estimate, (though travelling in a right +direction,) below the truth; or again where the size being really less, +yet counteracted by a distance also less, may equally disturb the truth +of human measurements, and so on. + +A second large order of equivocating appearances will arise,--not as to +magnitude, but as to motion. If it could be a safe assumption, that +the system to which our planet is attached were absolutely fixed and +motionless, except as regards its own _internal_ relations of movement, +then every change outside of us, every motion that the registers of +astronomy had established, would be objective and not subjective. It +would be safe to pronounce at once that it was a motion in the object +contemplated, _not_ in the subject contemplating. Or, reversely, if it +were safe to assume as a universal law, that no motion was possible in +the starry heavens, then every change of relations in space, between +ourselves and them, would indicate and would measure a progress, or +regress, on the part of our solar system, in certain known directions. +But now, because it is not safe to rest in either assumption, the range +of possibilities for which science has to provide, is enlarged; the +immediate difficulties are multiplied; but with the result (as in the +former case) of reversionally expanding the powers, and consequently the +facilities, lodged both in the science and in the arts ministerial +to the science. Thus, in the constellation _Cygnus_, there is a star +gradually changing its relation to our system, whose distance from +ourselves (as Dr. Nichol tells us) is ascertained to be about six +hundred and seventy thousand times our own distance from the sun: that +is, neglecting minute accuracy, about six hundred and seventy thousand +stages of one hundred million miles each. This point being known, it +falls within the _arts_ of astronomy to translate this apparent angular +motion into miles; and presuming this change of relation to be not in +the star, but really in ourselves, we may deduce the velocity of our +course, we may enter into our _log_ daily the rate at which our whole +solar system is running. Bessel, it seems, the eminent astronomer who +died lately, computed this velocity to be such (viz., three times that +of our own earth in its proper orbit) as would carry us to the star in +forty-one thousand years. But, in the mean time, the astronomer is to +hold in reserve some small share of his attention, some trifle of a +side-glance, now and then, to the possibility of an error, after all, in +the main assumption: he must watch the indications, if any such should +arise, that not ourselves, but the star in _Cygnus_, is the real party +concerned, in drifting at this shocking rate, with no prospect of coming +to an anchorage. [Footnote: It is worth adding at this point, whilst the +reader remembers without effort the numbers, viz., forty-one thousand +years, for the time, (the space being our own distance from the sun +repeated six hundred and seventy thousand times,) what would be the +time required for reaching, in the _body_, that distance to which Lord +Rosse's six feet mirror has so recently extended our _vision_. The time +would be, as Dr. Nichol computes, about two hundred and fifty millions +of years, supposing that our rate of travelling was about three times +that of our earth in its orbit. Now, as the velocity is assumed to +be the same in both cases, the ratio between the distance (already so +tremendous) of Bessel's 61 _Cygni_, and that of Lord Rosse's farthest +frontier, is as forty-one thousand to two hundred and fifty millions. +This is a simple rule-of-three problem for a child. And the answer to +it will, perhaps, convey the simplest expression of the superhuman power +lodged in the new telescope:--as is the ratio of forty-one thousand to +two hundred and fifty million, so is the ratio of our own distance from +the sun multiplied by six hundred and seventy thousand, to the outermost +limit of Lord Rosse's sidereal vision.] + +Another class, and a frequent one, of equivocal phenomena, phenomena +that are reconcilable indifferently with either of two assumptions, +though less plausibly reconciled with the one than with the other, +concerns the position of stars that seem connected with each other by +systematic relations, and which yet _may_ lie in very different depths +of space, being brought into seeming connection only by the human eye. +There have been, and there are, cases where two stars dissemble an +interconnection which they really _have_, and other cases where they +simulate an interconnection which they have not. All these cases of +simulation and dissimulation torment the astronomer by multiplying his +perplexities, and deepening the difficulty of escaping them. He cannot +get at the truth: in many cases, magnitude and distance are in collusion +with each other to deceive him: motion subjective is in collusion with +motion objective; duplex systems are in collusion with fraudulent stars, +having no real partnership whatever, but mimicking such a partnership by +means of the limitations or errors affecting the human eye, where it can +apply no other sense to aid or to correct itself. So that the business +of astronomy, in these days, is no sinecure, as the reader perceives. +And by another evidence, it is continually becoming less of a sinecure. +Formerly, one or two men,--Tycho, suppose, or, in a later age, Cassini +and Horrox, and Bradley, had observatories: one man, suppose, observed +the stars for all Christendom; and the rest of Europe observed _him_. +But now, up and down Europe, from the deep blue of Italian skies to the +cold frosty atmospheres of St. Petersburg and Glasgow, the stars are +conscious of being watched everywhere; and if all astronomers do not +publish their observations, all use them in their speculations. New and +brilliantly appointed observatories are rising in every latitude, or +risen; and none, by the way, of these new-born observatories, is +more interesting from the circumstances of its position, or more +_picturesque_ to a higher organ than the eye--viz., to the human +heart--than the New Observatory raised by the university of +Glasgow.[Footnote: It has been reported, ever since the autumn of 1845, +and the report is now, (August, 1846,) gathering strength, that some +railway potentate, having taken a fancy for the ancient college of +Glasgow, as a bauble to hang about his wife's neck, (no accounting for +tastes,) has offered, (or _will_ offer,) such a price, that the good +old academic lady in this her moss-grown antiquity, seriously thinks +of taking him at his word, packing up her traps, and being off. When a +spirit of galavanting comes across an aged lady, it is always difficult +to know where it will stop: so, in fact, you know, she may choose to +steam for Texas. But the present impression is, that she will +settle down by the side of what you may call her married or settled +daughter--the Observatory; which one would be glad to have confirmed, +as indicating that no purpose of pleasure-seeking had been working in +elderly minds, but the instinct of religious rest and aspiration. The +Observatory would thus remind one of those early Christian anchorites, +and self-exiled visionaries, that being led by almost a necessity of +nature to take up their residence in deserts, sometimes drew after +themselves the whole of their own neighborhood.] + +The New Observatory of Glasgow is now, I believe, finished; and the +only fact connected with its history that was painful, as embodying and +recording that Vandal alienation from science, literature, and all their +interests, which has ever marked our too haughty and Caliph-Omar-like +British government, lay in the circumstance that the glasses of the +apparatus, the whole mounting of the establishment, in so far as it +was a scientific establishment, and even the workmen for putting up +the machinery, were imported from Bavaria. We, that once bade the world +stand aside when the question arose about glasses, or the graduation of +instruments, were now literally obliged to stand cap in hand, bowing to +Mr. Somebody, successor of Frauenhofer or Frauendevil, in Munich! +Who caused _that_, we should all be glad to know, if not the wicked +Treasury, that killed the hen that laid the golden eggs by taxing her +until her spine broke? It is to be hoped that, at this moment, and +specifically for this offence, some scores of Exchequer men, chancellors +and other rubbish, are in purgatory, and perhaps working, with +shirt-sleeves tucked up, in purgatorial glass-houses, with very small +allowances of beer, to defray the cost of perspiration. But why trouble +a festal remembrance with commemorations of crimes or criminals? +What makes the Glasgow Observatory so peculiarly interesting, is its +position, connected with and overlooking so vast a city, having more +than three hundred thousand inhabitants, (in spite of an American +sceptic,) nearly all children of toil; and a city, too, which, from the +necessities of its circumstances, draws so deeply upon that fountain of +misery and guilt which some ordinance, as ancient as 'our father Jacob,' +with his patriarchal well for Samaria, has bequeathed to manufacturing +towns,--to Ninevehs, to Babylons, to Tyres. How tarnished with eternal +canopies of smoke, and of sorrow; how dark with agitations of many +orders, is the mighty town below! How serene, how quiet, how lifted +above the confusion and the roar, how liberated from the strifes of +earth, is the solemn Observatory that crowns the grounds above! And +duly, at night, just when the toil of over-wrought Glasgow is mercifully +relaxing, then comes the summons to the laboring astronomer. _He_ speaks +not of the night, but of the day and the flaunting day-light, as the +hours 'in which no man can work.' And the least reflecting of men +must be impressed by the idea, that at wide intervals, but intervals +scattered over Europe, whilst 'all that mighty heart' is, by sleep, +resting from its labors, secret eyes are lifted up to heaven in +astronomical watch-towers; eyes that keep watch and ward over spaces +that make us dizzy to remember, eyes that register the promises of +comets, and disentangle the labyrinths of worlds. + +Another feature of interest, connected with the Glasgow Observatory, is +personal, and founded on the intellectual characteristics of the present +professor, Dr. Nichol; in the deep meditative style of his mind seeking +for rest, yet placed in conflict for ever with the tumultuous necessity +in _him_ for travelling along the line of revolutionary thought, and +following it loyally, wearied or not, to its natural home. + +In a sonnet of Milton, one of three connected with his own blindness, +he distinguishes between two classes of servants that minister to +the purposes of God. '_His_ state,' says he, meaning God's state, the +arrangement of his regular service, 'is kingly;' that is to say, it +resembles the mode of service established in the courts of kings; +and, in this, it resembles that service, that there are two classes of +ministers attending on his pleasure. For, as in the trains of kings +are some that run without resting, night or day, to carry the royal +messages, and also others--great lords in waiting--that move not from +the royal gates; so of the divine retinues, some are for action only, +some for contemplation. 'Thousands' there are that + + ----'at his bidding speed, + And post o'er land and ocean without rest.' + +Others, on the contrary, motionless as statues, that share not in the +agitations of their times, that tremble not in sympathy with the +storms around them, but that listen--that watch--that wait--for secret +indications to be fulfilled, or secret signs to be deciphered. And, +of this latter class, he adds-that they, not less than the others, are +accepted by God; or, as it is so exquisitely expressed in the closing +line, + + '_They_ also serve, that only stand and wait.' + +Something analogous to this one may see in the distributions of +literature and science. Many popularize and diffuse: some reap and +gather on their own account. Many translate, into languages fit for the +multitude, messages which they receive from human voices: some listen, +like Kubla Khan, far down in caverns or hanging over subterranean +rivers, for secret whispers that mingle and confuse themselves with the +general uproar of torrents, but which can be detected and kept apart +by the obstinate prophetic ear, which spells into words and ominous +sentences the distracted syllables of aerial voices. Dr. Nichol is one +of those who pass to and fro between these classes; and has the rare +function of keeping open their vital communications. As a popularizing +astronomer, he has done more for the benefit of his great science than +all the rest of Europe combined: and now, when he notices, without +murmur, the fact that his office of popular teacher is almost taken out +of his hands, (so many are they who have trained of late for the duty,) +that change has, in fact, been accomplished through knowledge, through +explanations, through suggestions, dispersed and prompted by himself. + +For my own part, as one belonging to the laity, and not to the _clerus_, +in the science of astronomy, I could scarcely have presumed to report +minutely, or to sit in the character of dissector upon the separate +details of Dr. Nichol's works, either this, or those which have preceded +it, had there even been room left disposable for such a task. But in +this view it is sufficient to have made the general acknowledgment which +already _has_ been made, that Dr. Nichol's works, and his oral lectures +upon astronomy, are to be considered as the _fundus_ of the knowledge on +that science now working in this generation. More important it is, and +more in reconciliation with the tenor of my own ordinary studies, to +notice the philosophic spirit in which Dr. Nichol's works are framed; +the breadth of his views, the eternal tendency of his steps in advance, +or (if advance on that quarter, or at that point, happens to +be absolutely walled out for the present,) the vigor of the +_reconnoissances_ by which he examines the hostile intrenchments. +Another feature challenges notice. In reading astronomical works, there +arises (from old experience of what is usually most faulty) a wish +either for the naked severities of science, with a total abstinence from +all display of enthusiasm; or else, if the cravings of human sensibility +are to be met and gratified, that it shall be by an enthusiasm +unaffected and grand as its subject. Of that kind is the enthusiasm +of Dr. Nichol. The grandeurs of astronomy are such to him who has a +capacity for being grandly moved. They are none at all to him who has +not. To the mean they become meannesses. Space, for example, has no +grandeur to him who has no space in the theatre of his own brain. I know +writers who report the marvels of velocity, &c., in such a way that +they become insults to yourself. It is obvious that in _their_ way of +insisting on our earth's speed in her annual orbit, they do not seek +to exalt _her_, but to mortify _you_. And, besides, these fellows are +answerable for provoking people into fibs:--for I remember one day, that +reading a statement of this nature, about how many things the Earth +had done that we could never hope to do, and about the number of cannon +balls, harnessed as a _tandem_, which the Earth would fly past, without +leaving time to say, _How are you off for soap?_ in vexation of heart I +could not help exclaiming--'That's nothing: I've done a great deal more +myself;' though, when one turns it in one's mind, you know there must be +some inaccuracy _there_. How different is Dr. Nichol's enthusiasm from +this hypocritical and vulgar wonderment! It shows itself not merely in +reflecting the grandeurs of his theme, and by the sure test of detecting +and allying itself with all the indirect grandeurs that arrange +themselves from any distance, upon or about that centre, but by the +manifest promptness with which Dr. Nichol's enthusiasm awakens itself +upon _every_ road that leads to things elevating for man; or to things +promising for knowledge; or to things which, like dubious theories +or imperfect attempts at systematizing, though neutral as regards +knowledge, minister to what is greater than knowledge, viz., to +intellectual _power_, to the augmented power of handling your materials, +though with no more materials than before. In his geological and +cosmological inquiries, in his casual speculations, the same quality of +intellect betrays itself; the intellect that labors in sympathy with the +laboring _nisus_ of these gladiatorial times; that works (and sees the +necessity of working) the apparatus of many sciences towards a composite +result; the intellect that retires in one direction only to make head in +another; and that already is prefiguring the route beyond the barriers, +whilst yet the gates are locked. + +There was a man in the last century, and an eminent man too, who used +to say, that whereas people in general pretended to admire astronomy as +being essentially sublime, he for _his_ part looked upon all that sort +of thing as a swindle; and, on the contrary, he regarded the solar +system as decidedly vulgar; because the planets were all of them so +infernally punctual, they kept time with such horrible precision, +that they forced him, whether he would or no, to think of nothing but +post-office clocks, mail-coaches, and book-keepers. Regularity may be +beautiful, but it excludes the sublime. What he wished for was something +like Lloyd's list. + +_Comets_--due 3; arrived 1. _Mercury_, when last seen, appeared to be +distressed; but made no signals. _Pallas_ and _Vesta_, not heard of for +some time; supposed to have foundered. _Moon_, spoken last night through +a heavy bank of clouds; out sixteen days: all right. + +Now this poor man's misfortune was, to have lived in the days of mere +planetary astronomy. At present, when our own little system, with all +its grandeurs, has dwindled by comparison to a subordinate province, if +any man is bold enough to say so, a poor shivering unit amongst myriads +that are brighter, we ought no longer to talk of astronomy, but of +_the astronomies_. There is the planetary, the cometary, the sidereal, +perhaps also others; as, for instance, even yet the nebular; because, +though Lord Rosse has smitten it with the son of Amram's rod, has +made it open, and cloven a path through it, yet other and more fearful +_nebulae_ may loom in sight, (if further improvements should be effected +in the telescope,) that may puzzle even Lord Rosse. And when he tells +his _famulus_--'Fire a shot at that strange fellow, and make him show +his colors,' possibly the mighty stranger may disdain the summons. That +would be vexatious: we should all be incensed at _that_. But no matter. +What's a _nebula_, what's a world, more or less? In the spiritual +heavens are many mansions: in the starry heavens, that are now unfolding +and preparing to unfold before us, are many vacant areas upon which the +astronomer may pitch his secret pavilion. He may dedicate himself to the +service of the _Double Suns_; he has my license to devote his whole time +to the quadruple system of suns in _Lyra_. Swammerdam spent his life in +a ditch watching frogs and tadpoles; why may not an astronomer give +nine lives, if he had them, to the watching of that awful appearance +in _Hercules_, which pretends to some rights over our own unoffending +system? Why may he not mount guard with public approbation, for the +next fifty years, upon the zodiacal light, the interplanetary ether, +and other rarities, which the professional body of astronomers would +naturally keep (if they could) for their own private enjoyment? There +is no want of variety now, nor in fact of irregularity: for the most +exquisite clock-work, which from enormous distance _seems_ to go +wrong, virtually for us _does_ go wrong; so that our friend of the last +century, who complained of the solar system, would not need to do so any +longer. There are anomalies enough to keep him cheerful. There are now +even things to alarm us; for anything in the starry worlds that look +suspicious, anything that ought _not_ to be there, is, for all purposes +of frightening us, as good as a ghost. + +But of all the novelties that excite my own interest in the expanding +astronomy of recent times, the most delightful and promising are +those charming little pyrotechnic planetoids,[Footnote: _'Pyrotechnic +Planetoids:'_--The reader will understand me as alluding to the periodic +shooting stars. It is now well known, that as, upon our own poor little +earthly ocean, we fall in with certain phenomena as we approach certain +latitudes; so also upon the great ocean navigated by our Earth, we +fall in with prodigious showers of these meteors at periods no longer +uncertain, but fixed as jail-deliveries. 'These remarkable showers of +meteors,' says Dr. Nichol, 'observed at different periods in August and +November, seem to demonstrate the fact, that, at these periods, we have +come in contact with two streams of such planetoids then intersecting +the earth's orbit.' If they intermit, it is only because they are +shifting their nodes, or points of intersection.] that variegate our +annual course. It always struck me as most disgusting, that, in going +round the sun, we must be passing continually over old roads, and yet +we had no means of establishing an acquaintance with them: they might +as well be new for every trip. Those chambers of ether, through which we +are tearing along night and day, (for _our_ train stops at no stations,) +doubtless, if we could put some mark upon them, must be old fellows +perfectly liable to recognition. I suppose, _they_ never have notice to +quit. And yet, for want of such a mark, though all our lives flying past +them and through them, we can never challenge them as known. The same +thing happens in the desert: one monotonous iteration of sand, sand, +sand, unless where some miserable fountain stagnates, forbids all +approach to familiarity: nothing is circumstantiated or differenced: +travel it for three generations, and you are no nearer to identification +of its parts: so that it amounts to travelling through an abstract idea. +For the desert, really I suspect the thing is hopeless: but, as regards +our planetary orbit, matters are mending: for the last six or seven +years I have heard of these fiery showers, but indeed I cannot say how +much earlier they were first noticed,[Footnote: Somewhere I have seen it +remarked, that if, on a public road, you meet a party of four women, +it is at least fifty to one that they are all laughing; whereas, if you +meet an equal party of my own unhappy sex, you may wager safely that +they are talking gravely, and that one of them is uttering the word +_money_. Hence it must be, viz, because our sisters are too much +occupied with the playful things of this earth, and our brothers with +its gravities, that neither party sufficiently watches the skies. And +_that_ accounts for a fact which often has struck myself, viz., that, in +cities, on bright moonless nights, when some brilliant skirmishings of +the Aurora are exhibiting, or even a luminous arch, which is a broad +ribbon of snowy light that spans the skies, positively unless I myself +say to people--'Eyes upwards!' not one in a hundred, male or female, but +fails to see the show, though it may be seen _gratis_, simply because +their eyes are too uniformly reading the earth. This downward direction +of the eyes, however, must have been worse in former ages: because else +it never _could_ have happened that, until Queen Anne's days, nobody +ever hinted in a book that there _was_ such a thing, or _could_ be such +a thing, as the Aurora Borealis; and in fact Halley had the credit of +discovering it.] as celebrating two annual festivals--one in August, one +in November. You are a little too late, reader, for seeing this year's +summer festival; but that's no reason why you should not engage a good +seat for the November meeting; which, if I recollect, is about the +9th, or the Lord Mayor's day, and on the whole better worth seeing. +For anything _we_ know, this may be a great day in the earth's earlier +history; she may have put forth her original rose on this day, or tried +her hand at a primitive specimen of wheat; or she may, in fact, have +survived some gunpowder plot about this time; so that the meteoric +appearance may be a kind congratulating _feu-de-joye_, on the +anniversary of the happy event. What it is that the 'cosmogony man' in +the 'Vicar of Wakefield' would have thought of such novelties, whether +he would have favored us with his usual opinion upon such topics, viz., +that _anarchon ara kai ateleutaion to pan_, or have sported a new +one exclusively for this occasion, may be doubtful. What it is that +astronomers think, who are a kind of 'cosmogony men,' the reader may +learn from Dr. Nichol, Note B, (p. 139, 140.) + +In taking leave of a book and a subject so well fitted to draw out +the highest mode of that grandeur, which _can_ connect itself with +the external, (a grandeur capable of drawing down a spiritual being to +earth, but not of raising an earthly being to heaven,) I would wish to +contribute my own brief word of homage to this grandeur by recalling +from a fading remembrance of twenty-five years back a short _bravura_ +of John Paul Richter. I call it a _bravura_, as being intentionally a +passage of display and elaborate execution; and in this sense I may +call it partly 'my own,' that at twenty-five years' distance, (after one +single reading,) it would not have been possible for any man to report +a passage of this length without greatly disturbing [Footnote: +_'Disturbing;'_--neither perhaps should I much have sought to avoid +alterations if the original had been lying before me: for it takes the +shape of a dream; and this most brilliant of all German writers wanted +in that field the severe simplicity, that horror of the _too much_, +belonging to Grecian architecture, which is essential to the perfection +of a dream considered as a work of art. He was too elaborate, to +realize the grandeur of the shadowy.] the texture of the composition: +by altering, one makes it partly one's own; but it is right to mention, +that the sublime turn at the end belongs entirely to John Paul. + +'God called up from dreams a man into the vestibule of heaven, +saying,--"Come thou hither, and see the glory of my house." And to the +servants that stood around his throne he said,--"Take him, and undress +him from his robes of flesh: cleanse his vision, and put a new breath +into his nostrils: only touch not with any change his human heart--the +heart that weeps and trembles." It was done; and, with a mighty angel +for his guide, the man stood ready for his infinite voyage; and from the +terraces of heaven, without sound or farewell, at once they wheeled away +into endless space. Sometimes with the solemn flight of angel wing they +fled through Zaarrahs of darkness, through wildernesses of death, that +divided the worlds of life: sometimes they swept over frontiers, that +were quickening under prophetic motions from God. Then, from a distance +that is counted only in heaven, light dawned for a time through a sleepy +film: by unutterable pace the light swept to _them_, they by unutterable +pace to the light: in a moment the rushing of planets was upon them: in +a moment the blazing of suns was around them. Then came eternities of +twilight, that revealed, but were not revealed. To the right hand and +to the left towered mighty constellations, that by self-repetitions and +answers from afar, that by counter-positions, built up triumphal gates, +whose architraves, whose archways--horizontal, upright--rested, rose--at +altitudes, by spans--that seemed ghostly from infinitude. Without +measure were the architraves, past number were the archways, beyond +memory the gates. Within were stairs that scaled the eternities above, +that descended to the eternities below: above was below, below was +above, to the man stripped of gravitating body: depth was swallowed up +in height insurmountable, height was swallowed up in depth unfathomable. +Suddenly as thus they rode from infinite to infinite, suddenly as thus +they tilted over abysmal worlds, a mighty cry arose--that systems +more mysterious, that worlds more billowy,--other heights, and other +depths,--were coming, were nearing, were at hand. Then the man sighed, +and stopped, shuddered and wept. His over-laden heart uttered itself in +tears; and he said,--"Angel, I will go no farther. For the spirit of man +aches with this infinity. Insufferable is the glory of God. Let me lie +down in the grave from the persecutions of the infinite; for end, I +see, there is none." And from all the listening stars that shone around +issued a choral voice, "The man speaks truly: end there is none, that +ever yet we heard of." "End is there none?" the angel solemnly demanded: +"Is there indeed no end? And is this the sorrow that kills you?" But no +voice answered, that he might answer himself. Then the angel threw up +his glorious hands to the heaven of heavens; saying, "End is there none +to the universe of God? Lo! also there is no Beginning."' + + +NOTE.--On throwing his eyes hastily over the preceding paper, the writer +becomes afraid that some readers may give such an interpretation to a +few playful expressions upon the age of our earth, &c., as to class him +with those who use geology, cosmology, &c., for purposes of attack, +or insinuation against the Scriptures. Upon this point, therefore, he +wishes to make a firm explanation of his own opinions, which, (whether +right or wrong,) will liberate him, once and for all, from any such +jealousy. + +It is sometimes said, that the revealer of a true religion, does +not come amongst men for the sake of teaching truths in science, or +correcting errors in science. Most justly is this said: but often in +terms far too feeble. For generally these terms are such as to +imply, that, although no function of his mission, it was yet open to +him--although not pressing with the force of an obligation upon the +revealer, it was yet at his discretion--if not to correct other +men's errors, yet at least in his own person to speak with scientific +precision. I contend that it was _not_. I contend, that to have uttered +the truths of astronomy, of geology, &c., at the era of new-born +Christianity, was not only _below_ the purposes of a religion, but would +have been _against_ them. Even upon errors of a far more important class +than any errors in science can ever be,--superstitions, for instance, +that degraded the very idea of God; prejudices and false usages, that +laid waste human happiness, (such as slavery and many hundreds of other +abuses that might be mentioned,) the rule evidently acted upon by +the Founder of Christianity was this--Given the purification of the +fountain, once assumed that the fountains of truth are cleansed, all +these derivative currents of evil will cleanse themselves. And the only +exceptions, which I remember, to this rule, are two cases in which, from +the personal appeal made to his decision, Christ would have made himself +a party to wretched delusions, if he had not condescended to expose +their folly. But, as a general rule, the branches of error were +disregarded, and the roots only attacked. If, then, so lofty a station +was taken with regard even to such errors as had moral and spiritual +relations, how much more with regard to the comparative trifles, (as +in the ultimate relations of human nature they are,) of merely human +science! But, for my part, I go further, and assert, that upon three +reasons it was impossible for any messenger from God, (or offering +himself in that character,) for a moment to have descended into the +communication of truth merely scientific, or economic, or worldly. +And the reasons are these: _First_, Because it would have degraded his +mission, by lowering it to the base level of a collision with human +curiosity, or with petty and transitory interests. _Secondly_, Because +it would have ruined his mission; would utterly have prostrated the free +agency and the proper agency of that mission. He that, in those days, +should have proclaimed the true theory of the Solar System and the +heavenly forces, would have been shut up at once--as a lunatic likely +to become dangerous. But suppose him to have escaped _that_; still, as +a divine teacher, he has no liberty of caprice. He must stand to the +promises of his own acts. Uttering the first truth of a science, he +is pledged to the second: taking the main step, he is committed to all +which follow. He is thrown at once upon the endless controversies which +science in every stage provokes, and in none more than in the +earliest. Or, if he retires as from a scene of contest that he had not +anticipated, he retires as one confessing a human precipitance and +a human oversight, weaknesses, venial in others, but fatal to the +pretensions of a divine teacher. Starting besides from such pretensions, +he could not (as others might) have the privilege of selecting +arbitrarily or partially. If upon one science, then upon all,--if upon +science, then upon, art,--if upon art and science, then upon _every_ +branch of social economy, upon _every_ organ of civilization, his +reformations and advances are equally due; due as to all, if due as to +any. To move in one direction, is constructively to undertake for all. +Without power to retreat, he has thus thrown the intellectual interests +of his followers into a channel utterly alien to the purposes of a +spiritual mission. + +Thus far he has simply failed: but next comes a worse result; an evil, +not negative but positive. Because, _thirdly_, to apply the light of a +revelation for the benefit of a merely human science, which is virtually +done by so applying the illumination of an _inspired_ teacher, is--to +assault capitally the scheme of God's discipline and training for man. +To improve by _heavenly_ means, if but in one solitary science--to +lighten, if but in one solitary section, the condition of difficulty +which had been designed for the strengthening and training of human +faculties, is _pro tanto_ to disturb--to cancel--to contradict a +previous purpose of God, made known by silent indications from the +beginning of the world. Wherefore did God give to man the powers for +contending with scientific difficulties? Wherefore did he lay a secret +train of continual occasions, that should rise, by intervals, through +thousands of generations, for provoking and developing those activities +in man's intellect, if, after all, he is to send a messenger of his own, +more than human, to intercept and strangle all these great purposes? +When, therefore, the persecutors of Galileo, alleged that Jupiter, for +instance, could not move in the way alleged, because then the Bible +would have proclaimed it,--as they thus threw back upon God the burthen +of discovery, which he had thrown upon Galileo, why did they not, +by following out their own logic, throw upon the Bible the duty of +discovering the telescope, or discovering the satellites of Jupiter? +And, as no such discoveries were there, why did they not, by parity of +logic, and for mere consistency, deny the telescope as a fact, deny the +Jovian planets as facts? But this it is to mistake the very meaning and +purposes of a revelation. A revelation is not made for the purpose of +showing to idle men that which they may show to themselves, by faculties +already given to them, if only they will exert those faculties, but for +the purpose of showing _that_ which the moral darkness of man will +not, without supernatural light, allow him to perceive. With disdain, +therefore, must every considerate person regard the notion,--that God +could wilfully interfere with his own plans, by accrediting ambassadors +to reveal astronomy, or any other science, which he has commanded men +to cultivate _without_ revelation, by endowing them with all the natural +powers for doing so. + +Even as regards astronomy, a science so nearly allying itself to +religion by the loftiness and by the purity of its contemplations, +Scripture is nowhere the _parent_ of any doctrine, nor so much as the +silent sanctioner of any doctrine. Scripture cannot become the author +of falsehood,--though it were as to a trifle, cannot become a party to +falsehood. And it is made impossible for Scripture to teach falsely, by +the simple fact that Scripture, on such subjects, will not condescend to +teach at all. The Bible adopts the erroneous language of men, (which at +any rate it must do, in order to make itself understood,) not by way +of sanctioning a theory, but by way of using a fact. The Bible _uses_ +(postulates) the phenomena of day and night, of summer and winter, and +expresses them, in relation to their causes, as _men_ express them, men, +even, that are scientific astronomers. But the results, which are all +that concern Scripture, are equally true, whether accounted for by one +hypothesis which is philosophically just, or by another which is popular +and erring. + +Now, on the other hand, in geology and cosmology, the case is still +stronger. _Here_ there is no opening for a compliance even with popular +language. _Here_, where there is no such stream of apparent phenomena +running counter (as in astronomy) to the real phenomena, neither is +there any popular language opposed to the scientific. The whole are +abstruse speculations, even as regards their objects, not dreamed of as +possibilities, either in their true aspects or their false aspects, +till modern times. The Scriptures, therefore, nowhere allude to such +sciences, either under the shape of histories, applied to processes +current and in movement, or under the shape of theories applied to +processes past and accomplished. The Mosaic cosmogony, indeed, gives the +succession of natural births; and that succession will doubtless be more +and more confirmed and illustrated as geology advances. But as to the +time, the duration, of this cosmogony, it is the idlest of notions that +the Scriptures either have or could have condescended to human curiosity +upon so awful a prologue to the drama of this world. Genesis would no +more have indulged so mean a passion with respect to the mysterious +inauguration of the world, than the Apocalypse with respect to its +mysterious close. 'Yet the six _days_ of Moses!' Days! But is any man +so little versed in biblical language as not to know that (except in the +merely historical parts of the Jewish records) every section of time +has a secret and separate acceptation in the Scriptures? Does an _aeon_, +though a Grecian word, bear scripturally [either in Daniel or in Saint +John] any sense known to Grecian ears? Do the seventy _weeks_ of the +prophet mean weeks in the sense of human calendars? Already the Psalms, +(xc) already St. Peter, (2d Epist.) warn us of a peculiar sense +attached to the word _day_ in divine ears? And who of the innumerable +interpreters understands the twelve hundred and odd days in Daniel, +or his two thousand and odd days, to mean, by possibility, periods of +twenty-four hours? Surely the theme of Moses was as mystical, and +as much entitled to the benefit of mystical language, as that of the +prophets. + +The sum of the matter is this:--God, by a Hebrew prophet, is sublimely +described as _the Revealer_; and, in variation of his own expression, +the same prophet describes him as the Being 'that knoweth the darkness.' +Under no idea can the relations of God to man be more grandly expressed. +But of what is he the revealer? Not surely of those things which he has +enabled man to reveal for himself, and which he has commanded him so +to reveal, but of those things which, were it not through special +light from heaven, must eternally remain sealed up in the inaccessible +darkness. On this principle we should all laugh at a revealed cookery. +But essentially the same ridicule applies to a revealed astronomy, or a +revealed geology. As a fact, there _is_ no such astronomy or geology: as +a possibility, by the _a priori_ argument which I have used, (viz., that +a revelation on such fields, would contradict _other_ machineries of +providence,) there _can_ be no such astronomy or geology. Consequently +there _can_ be none such in the Bible. Consequently there _is_ none. +Consequently there can be no schism or feud upon _these_ subjects +between the Bible and the philosophies outside. Geology is a field left +open, with the amplest permission from above, to the widest and wildest +speculations of man. + + + + +MODERN SUPERSTITION + + +It is said continually--that the age of miracles is past. We deny that +it is so in any sense which implies this age to differ from all other +generations of man except one. It is neither past, nor ought we to wish +it past. Superstition is no vice in the constitution of man: it is +not true that, in any philosophic view, _primus in orbe deos fecit +timor_--meaning by _fecit_ even so much as _raised into light_. As Burke +remarked, the _timor_ at least must be presumed to preexist, and must +be accounted for, if not the gods. If the fear created the gods, what +created the fear? Far more true, and more just to the grandeur of man, +it would have been to say--_Primus in orbe deos fecit sensus infiniti_. +Even in the lowest Caffre, more goes to the sense of a divine being than +simply his wrath or his power. Superstition, indeed, or the sympathy +with the invisible, is the great test of man's nature, as an earthly +combining with a celestial. In superstition lies the possibility +of religion. And though superstition is often injurious, degrading, +demoralizing, it is so, not as a form of corruption or degradation, +but as a form of non-development. The crab is harsh, and for itself +worthless. But it is the germinal form of innumerable finer fruits: not +apples only the most exquisite, and pears; the peach and the nectarine +are said to have radiated from this austere stock when cultured, +developed, and transferred to all varieties of climate. Superstition +will finally pass into pure forms of religion as man advances. It would +be matter of lamentation to hear that superstition had at all decayed +until man had made corresponding steps in the purification and +development of his intellect as applicable to religious faith. Let us +hope that this is not so. And, by way of judging, let us throw a hasty +eye over the modes of popular superstition. If these manifest their +vitality, it will prove that the popular intellect does not go along +with the bookish or the worldly (philosophic we cannot call it) in +pronouncing the miraculous extinct. The popular feeling is all in all. + +This function of miraculous power, which is most widely diffused through +Pagan and Christian ages alike, but which has the least root in the +solemnities of the imagination, we may call the _Ovidian_. By way of +distinction, it may be so called; and with some justice, since Ovid in +his _Metamorphoses_ gave the first elaborate record of such a tendency +in human superstition. It is a movement of superstition under the +domination of human affections; a mode of spiritual awe which seeks +to reconcile itself with human tenderness or admiration; and which +represents supernatural power as expressing itself by a sympathy with +human distress or passion concurrently with human sympathies, and as +supporting that blended sympathy by a symbol incarnated with the fixed +agencies of nature. For instance, a pair of youthful lovers perish by a +double suicide originating in a fatal mistake, and a mistake operating +in each case through a noble self-oblivion. The tree under which their +meeting has been concerted, and which witnesses their tragedy, is +supposed ever afterwards to express the divine sympathy with this +catastrophe in the gloomy color of its fruit:-- + + 'At tu, quae ramis (arbor!) miserabile corpus + Nunc tegis unius, mox es tectura duorum, + Signa tene caedis:--pullosque et luctibus aptos + Semper habe fructus--gemini monumenta cruoris:' + +Such is the dying adjuration of the lady to the tree. And the fruit +becomes from that time a monument of a double sympathy--sympathy from +man, sympathy from a dark power standing behind the agencies of nature, +and speaking through them. Meantime the object of this sympathy is +understood to be not the individual catastrophe, but the universal +case of unfortunate love exemplified in this particular romance. The +inimitable grace with which Ovid has delivered these early traditions +of human tenderness, blending with human superstition, is notorious; the +artfulness of the pervading connection, by which every tale in the long +succession is made to arise spontaneously out of that which precedes, is +absolutely unrivalled; and this it was, with his luxuriant gayety, which +procured for him a preference, even with Milton, a poet so opposite by +intellectual constitution. It is but reasonable, therefore, that this +function of the miraculous should bear the name of _Ovidian_. Pagan it +was in its birth; and to paganism its titles ultimately ascend. Yet we +know that in the transitional state through the centuries succeeding to +Christ, during which paganism and Christianity were slowly descending +and ascending, as if from two different strata of the atmosphere, the +two powers interchanged whatsoever they could. (See Conyer's Middleton; +and see Blount of our own days.) It marked the earthly nature of +paganism, that it could borrow little or nothing by organization: it +was fitted to no expansion. But the true faith, from its vast and +comprehensive adaptation to the nature of man, lent itself to many +corruptions--some deadly in their tendencies, some harmless. Amongst +these last was the Ovidian form of connecting the unseen powers moving +in nature with human sympathies of love or reverence. The legends of +this kind are universal and endless. No land, the most austere in its +Protestantism, but has adopted these superstitions: and everywhere by +those even who reject them they are entertained with some degree of +affectionate respect. That the ass, which in its very degradation still +retains an under-power of sublimity, [Footnote: '_An under-power of +sublimity_.'--Everybody knows that Homer compared the Telamonian Ajax, +in a moment of heroic endurance, to an ass. This, however, was only +under a momentary glance from a peculiar angle of the case. But the +Mahometan, too solemn, and also perhaps too stupid to catch the fanciful +colors of things, absolutely by choice, under the Bagdad Caliphate, +decorated a most favorite hero with the title of the _Ass_--which title +is repeated with veneration to this day. The wild ass is one of the few +animals which has the reputation of never flying from an enemy.] or of +sublime suggestion through its ancient connection with the wilderness, +with the Orient, with Jerusalem, should have been honored amongst +all animals, by the visible impression upon its back of Christian +symbols--seems reasonable even to the infantine understanding when made +acquainted with its meekness, its patience, its suffering life, and +its association with the founder of Christianity in one great triumphal +solemnity. The very man who brutally abuses it, and feels a hardhearted +contempt for its misery and its submission, has a semi-conscious feeling +that the same qualities were possibly those which recommended it to a +distinction, [Footnote: '_Which recommended it to a distinction_.'--It +might be objected that the Oriental ass was often a superb animal; that +it is spoken of prophetically as such; and that historically the Syrian +ass is made known to us as having been used in the prosperous ages +of Judea for the riding of princes. But this is no objection. Those +circumstances in the history of the ass were requisite to establish its +symbolic propriety in a great symbolic pageant of triumph. Whilst, on +the other hand, the individual animal, there is good reason to think, +was marked by all the qualities of the general race as a suffering and +unoffending tribe in the animal creation. The asses on which princes +rode were of a separate color, of a peculiar breed, and improved, like +the English racer, by continual care.] when all things were valued +upon a scale inverse to that of the world. Certain it is, that in all +Christian lands the legend about the ass is current amongst the rural +population. The haddock, again, amongst marine animals, is supposed, +throughout all maritime Europe, to be a privileged fish; even in austere +Scotland, every child can point out the impression of St. Peter's +thumb, by which from age to age it is distinguished from fishes having +otherwise an external resemblance. All domesticated cattle, having the +benefit of man's guardianship and care, are believed throughout England +and Germany to go down upon their knees at one particular moment of +Christmas eve, when the fields are covered with darkness, when no eye +looks down but that of God, and when the exact anniversary hour +revolves of the angelic song, once rolling over the fields and flocks +of Palestine. [Footnote: Mahometanism, which everywhere pillages +Christianity, cannot but have its own face at times glorified by its +stolen jewels. This solemn hour of jubilation, gathering even the brutal +natures into its fold, recalls accordingly the Mahometan legend (which +the reader may remember is one of those incorporated into Southey's +_Thalaba_) of a great hour revolving once in every year, during which +the gates of Paradise were thrown open to their utmost extent, and gales +of happiness issued forth upon the total family of man.] The Glastonbury +Thorn is a more local superstition; but at one time the legend was as +widely diffused as that of Loretto, with the angelic translation of +its sanctities: on Christmas morning, it was devoutly believed by all +Christendom, that this holy thorn put forth its annual blossoms. And +with respect to the aspen tree, which Mrs. Hemans very naturally mistook +for a Welsh legend, having first heard it in Denbighshire, the popular +faith is universal--that it shivers mystically in sympathy with the +horror of that mother tree in Palestine which was compelled to furnish +materials for the cross. Neither would it in this case be any objection, +if a passage were produced from Solinus or Theophrastus, implying that +the aspen tree had always shivered--for the tree might presumably be +penetrated by remote presentiments, as well as by remote remembrances. +In so vast a case the obscure sympathy should stretch, Janus-like, each +way. And an objection of the same kind to the rainbow, considered as +the sign or seal by which God attested his covenant in bar of all future +deluges, may be parried in something of the same way. It was not then +first created--true: but it was then first selected by preference, +amongst a multitude of natural signs as yet unappropriated, and then +first charged with the new function of a message and a ratification to +man. Pretty much the same theory, that is, the same way of accounting +for the natural existence without disturbing the supernatural functions, +may be applied to the great constellation of the other hemisphere, +called the Southern Cross. It is viewed popularly in South America, and +the southern parts of our northern hemisphere, as the great banner, or +gonfalon, held aloft by Heaven before the Spanish heralds of the true +faith in 1492. To that superstitious and ignorant race it costs not an +effort to suppose, that by some synchronizing miracle, the constellation +had been then specially called into existence at the very moment when +the first Christian procession, bearing a cross in their arms, solemnly +stepped on shore from the vessels of Christendom. We Protestants know +better: we understand the impossibility of supposing such a narrow and +local reference in orbs, so transcendently vast as those composing the +constellation--orbs removed from each other by such unvoyageable worlds +of space, and having, in fact, no real reference to each other more +than to any other heavenly bodies whatsoever. The unity of synthesis, by +which they are composed into one figure of a cross, we know to be a mere +accidental result from an arbitrary synthesis of human fancy. Take such +and such stars, compose them into letters, and they will spell such a +word. But still it was our own choice--a synthesis of our own fancy, +originally to combine them in this way. They might be divided from +each other, and otherwise combined. All this is true: and yet, as +the combination does spontaneously offer itself [Footnote: '_Does +spontaneously offer itself._'--Heber (Bishop of Calcutta) complains that +this constellation is not composed of stars answering his expectation in +point of magnitude. But he admits that the dark barren space around it +gives to this inferior magnitude a very advantageous relief.] to every +eye, as the glorious cross does really glitter for ever through the +silent hours of a vast hemisphere, even they who are not superstitious, +may willingly yield to the belief--that, as the rainbow was laid in +the very elements and necessities of nature, yet still bearing a +pre-dedication to a service which would not be called for until many +ages had passed, so also the mysterious cipher of man's imperishable +hopes may have been entwined and enwreathed with the starry heavens from +their earliest creation, as a prefiguration--as a silent heraldry of +hope through one period, and as a heraldry of gratitude through the +other. + +All these cases which we have been rehearsing, taking them in the +fullest literality, agree in this general point of union--they are all +silent incarnations of miraculous power--miracles, supposing them to +have been such originally, locked up and embodied in the regular +course of nature, just as we see lineaments of faces and of forms in +petrifactions, in variegated marbles, in spars, or in rocky strata, +which our fancy interprets as once having been real human existences; +but which are now confounded with the substance of a mineral product. +Even those who are most superstitious, therefore, look upon cases of +this order as occupying a midway station between the physical and the +hyperphysical, between the regular course of nature and the providential +interruption of that course. The stream of the miraculous is here +confluent with the stream of the natural. By such legends the credulous +man finds his superstition but little nursed; the incredulous finds his +philosophy but little revolted. Both alike will be willing to admit, for +instance, that the apparent act of reverential thanksgiving, in certain +birds, when drinking, is caused and supported by a physiological +arrangement; and yet, perhaps, both alike would bend so far to the +legendary faith as to allow a child to believe, and would perceive a +pure childlike beauty in believing, that the bird was thus rendering a +homage of deep thankfulness to the universal Father, who watches for +the safety of sparrows, and sends his rain upon the just and upon the +unjust. In short, the faith in this order of the physico-miraculous +is open alike to the sceptical and the non-sceptical: it is touched +superficially with the coloring of superstition, with its tenderness, +its humility, its thankfulness, its awe; but, on the other hand, it is +not therefore tainted with the coarseness, with the silliness, with the +credulity of superstition. Such a faith reposes upon the universal +signs diffused through nature, and blends with the mysterious of natural +grandeurs wherever found--with the mysterious of the starry heavens, +with the mysterious of music, and with that infinite form of the +mysterious for man's dimmest misgivings-- + + 'Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns.' + +But, from this earliest note in the ascending scale of superstitious +faith, let us pass to a more alarming key. This first, which we have +styled (in equity as well as for distinction) the _Ovidian_, is too +aerial, too allegoric, almost to be susceptible of much terror. It is the +mere _fancy_, in a mood half-playful, half-tender, which submits to the +belief. It is the feeling, the sentiment, which creates the faith; not +the faith which creates the feeling. And thus far we see that modern +feeling and Christian feeling has been to the full as operative as any +that is peculiar to paganism; judging by the Romish _Legenda_, very +much more so. The Ovidian illustrations, under a false superstition, are +entitled to give the designation, as being the first, the earliest, but +not at all as the richest. Besides that, Ovid's illustrations emanated +often from himself individually, not from the popular mind of his +country; ours of the same classification uniformly repose on large +popular traditions from the whole of Christian antiquity. These again +are agencies of the supernatural which can never have a private or +personal application; they belong to all mankind and to all generations. +But the next in order are more solemn; they become terrific by becoming +personal. These comprehend all that vast body of the marvellous which is +expressed by the word _Ominous_. On this head, as dividing itself into +the ancient and modern, we will speak next. + +Everybody is aware of the deep emphasis which the Pagans laid upon words +and upon names, under this aspect of the ominous. The name of several +places was formally changed by the Roman government, solely with a view +to that contagion of evil which was thought to lurk in the syllables, +if taken significantly. Thus, the town of Maleventum, (Ill-come, as one +might render it,) had its name changed by the Romans to Beneventum, (or +Welcome.) _Epidamnum_ again, the Grecian Calais, corresponding to the +Roman Dover of Brundusium, was a name that would have startled the +stoutest-hearted Roman 'from his propriety.' Had he suffered this name +to escape him inadvertently, his spirits would have forsaken him--he +would have pined away under a certainty of misfortune, like a poor +Negro of Koromantyn who is the victim of Obi.[Footnote: '_The victim +of Obi._'--It seems worthy of notice, that this magical fascination is +generally called Obi, and the magicians Obeah men, throughout Guinea, +Negroland, &c.; whilst the Hebrew or Syriac word for the rites +of necromancy, was _Ob_ or _Obh_, at least when ventriloquism was +concerned.] As a Greek word, which it was, the name imported no ill; but +for a Roman to say _Ibo Epidamnum_, was in effect saying, though in a +hybrid dialect, half-Greek half-Roman, 'I will go to ruin.' The name +was therefore changed to Dyrrachium; a substitution which quieted more +anxieties in Roman hearts than the erection of a light-house or the +deepening of the harbor mouth. A case equally strong, to take one out of +many hundreds that have come down to us, is reported by Livy. There was +an officer in a Roman legion, at some period of the Republic, who bore +the name either of Atrius Umber or Umbrius Ater: and this man being +ordered on some expedition, the soldiers refused to follow him. They +did right. We remember that Mr. Coleridge used facetiously to call +the well-known sister of Dr. Aikin, Mrs. Barbauld, 'that pleonasm of +nakedness'--the idea of nakedness being reduplicated and reverberated +in the _bare_ and the _bald_. This Atrius Umber might be called 'that +pleonasm of darkness;' and one might say to him, in the words of +Othello, 'What needs this iteration?' To serve under the Gloomy was +enough to darken the spirit of hope; but to serve under the Black Gloomy +was really rushing upon destruction. Yet it will be alleged that Captain +Death was a most favorite and heroic leader in the English navy; and +that in our own times, Admiral Coffin, though an American by birth, has +not been unpopular in the same service. This is true: and all that can +be said is, that these names were two-edged swords, which might be made +to tell against the enemy as well as against friends. And possibly the +Roman centurion might have turned his name to the same account, had he +possessed the great Dictator's presence of mind; for he, when landing in +Africa, having happened to stumble--an omen of the worst character, in +Roman estimation--took out its sting by following up his own oversight, +as if it had been intentional, falling to the ground, kissing it, and +ejaculating that in this way he appropriated the soil. + +Omens of every class were certainly regarded, in ancient Rome, with a +reverence that can hardly be surpassed. But yet, with respect to these +omens derived from names, it is certain that our modern times have more +memorable examples on record. Out of a large number which occur to us, +we will cite two:--The present King of the French bore in his boyish +days a title which he would not have borne, but for an omen of bad +augury attached to his proper title. He was called the Duc de Chartres +before the Revolution, whereas his proper title was Duc de Valois. And +the origin of the change was this:--The Regent's father had been the +sole brother of Louis Quatorze. He married for his first wife our +English princess Henrietta, the sister of Charles II., (and through her +daughter, by the way, it is that the house of Savoy, _i.e._ of Sardinia, +has pretensions to the English throne.) This unhappy lady, it is too +well established, was poisoned. Voltaire, amongst many others, has +affected to doubt the fact; for which in his time there might be some +excuse. But since then better evidences have placed the matter beyond +all question. We now know both the fact, and the how, and the why. The +Duke, who probably was no party to the murder of his young wife, though +otherwise on bad terms with her, married for his second wife a coarse +German princess, homely in every sense, and a singular contrast to the +elegant creature whom he had lost. She was a daughter of the Bavarian +Elector; ill-tempered by her own confession, self-willed, and a plain +speaker to excess; but otherwise a woman of honest German principles. +Unhappy she was through a long life; unhappy through the monotony as +well as the malicious intrigues of the French court; and so much so, +that she did her best (though without effect) to prevent her Bavarian +niece from becoming dauphiness. She acquits her husband, however, in +the memoirs which she left behind, of any intentional share in her +unhappiness; she describes him constantly as a well-disposed prince. +But whether it were, that often walking in the dusk through the numerous +apartments of that vast mansion which her husband had so much enlarged, +naturally she turned her thoughts to the injured lady who had presided +there before herself; or whether it arose from the inevitable gloom +which broods continually over mighty palaces, so much is known for +certain, that one evening, in the twilight, she met, at a remote quarter +of the reception-rooms, something that she conceived to be a spectre. +What she fancied to have passed on that occasion, was never known except +to her nearest friends; and if she made any explanations in her memoirs, +the editor has thought fit to suppress them. She mentions only, that +in consequence of some ominous circumstances relating to the title of +_Valois_, which was the proper second title of the Orleans family, her +son, the Regent, had assumed in his boyhood that of Duc de Chartres. His +elder brother was dead, so that the superior title was open to him; but, +in consequence of those mysterious omens, whatever they might be, which +occasioned much whispering at the time, the great title of Valois was +laid aside for ever as of bad augury; nor has it ever been resumed +through a century and a half that have followed that mysterious warning; +nor will it be resumed unless the numerous children of the present +Orleans branch should find themselves distressed for ancient titles; +which is not likely, since they enjoy the honors of the elder house, and +are now the _children of France_ in a technical sense. + +Here we have a great European case of state omens in the eldest of +Christian houses. The next which we shall cite is equally a state case, +and carries its public verification along with itself. In the spring of +1799, when Napoleon was lying before Acre, he became anxious for news +from Upper Egypt, whither he had despatched Dessaix in pursuit of a +distinguished Mameluke leader. This was in the middle of May. Not many +days after, a courier arrived with favorable despatches--favorable in +the main, but reporting one tragical occurrence on a small scale +that, to Napoleon, for a superstitious reason, outweighed the public +prosperity. A _djerme_, or Nile boat of the largest class, having on +board a large party of troops and of wounded men, together with most +of a regimental band, had run ashore at the village of Benouth. No +case could be more hopeless. The neighboring Arabs were of the Yambo +tribe--of all Arabs the most ferocious. These Arabs and the Fellahs +(whom, by the way, many of our countrymen are so ready to represent +as friendly to the French and hostile to ourselves,) had taken the +opportunity of attacking the vessel. The engagement was obstinate; but +at length the inevitable catastrophe could be delayed no longer. The +commander, an Italian named Morandi, was a brave man; any fate appeared +better than that which awaited him from an enemy so malignant. He set +fire to the powder magazine; the vessel blew up; Morandi perished in +the Nile; and all of less nerve, who had previously reached the shore in +safety, were put to death to the very last man, with cruelties the +most detestable, by their inhuman enemies. For all this Napoleon cared +little; but one solitary fact there was in the report which struck him +with consternation. This ill-fated _djerme_--what was it called? It was +called _L'Italie_; and in the name of the vessel Napoleon read an augury +of the fate which had befallen the Italian territory. Considered as a +dependency of France, he felt certain that Italy was lost; and Napoleon +was inconsolable. But what possible connection, it was asked, can exist +between this vessel on the Nile and a remote peninsula of Southern +Europe? 'No matter,' replied Napoleon; 'my presentiments never deceive +me. You will see that all is ruined. I am satisfied that my Italy, my +conquest, is lost to France!' So, indeed, it was. All European news had +long been intercepted by the English cruisers; but immediately after the +battle with the Vizier in July 1799, an English admiral first informed +the French army of Egypt that Massena and others had lost all that +Bonaparte had won in 1796. But it is a strange illustration of human +blindness, that this very subject of Napoleon's lamentation--this very +campaign of 1799--it was, with its blunders and its long equipage of +disasters, that paved the way for his own elevation to the Consulship, +just seven calendar months from the receipt of that Egyptian despatch; +since most certainly, in the struggle of Brumaire 1799, doubtful and +critical through every stage, it was the pointed contrast between _his_ +Italian campaigns and those of his successors which gave effect to +Napoleon's pretensions with the political combatants, and which procured +them a ratification amongst the people. The loss of Italy was essential +to the full effect of Napoleon's previous conquest. That and the +imbecile characters of Napoleon's chief military opponents were the true +keys to the great revolution of Brumaire. The stone which he rejected +became the keystone of the arch. So that, after all, he valued the omen +falsely; though the very next news from Europe, courteously communicated +by his English enemies, showed that he had interpreted its meaning +rightly. + +These omens, derived from names, are therefore common to the ancient and +the modern world. But perhaps, in strict logic, they ought to have been +classed as one subdivision or variety under a much larger head, viz. +words generally, no matter whether proper names or appellatives, as +operative powers and agencies, having, that is to say, a charmed power +against some party concerned from the moment that they leave the lips. + +Homer describes prayers as having a separate life, rising buoyantly upon +wings, and making their way upwards to the throne of Jove. Such, but in +a sense gloomy and terrific, is the force ascribed under a widespread +superstition, ancient and modern, to words uttered on critical +occasions; or to words uttered at any time, which point to critical +occasions. Hence the doctrine of _euphaemismos_, the necessity of +abstaining from strong words or direct words in expressing fatal +contingencies. It was shocking, at all times of paganism, to say of a +third person--'If he should die;' or to suppose the case that he might +be murdered. The very word _death_ was consecrated and forbidden. +_Si quiddam humanum passus fuerit_ was the extreme form to which men +advanced in such cases. And this scrupulous feeling, originally founded +on the supposed efficacy of words, prevails to this day. It is a feeling +undoubtedly supported by good taste, which strongly impresses upon us +all the discordant tone of all impassioned subjects, (death, religion, +&c.,) with the common key of ordinary conversation. But good taste is +not in itself sufficient to account for a scrupulousness so general and +so austere. In the lowest classes there is a shuddering recoil still +felt from uttering coarsely and roundly the anticipation of a +person's death. Suppose a child, heir to some estate, the subject of +conversation--the hypothesis of his death is put cautiously, under such +forms as, 'If anything but good should happen;' 'if any change should +occur;' 'if any of us should chance to miscarry;' and so forth. Always a +modified expression is sought--always an indirect one. And this timidity +arises under the old superstition still lingering amongst men, like +that ancient awe, alluded to by Wordsworth, for the sea and its deep +secrets--feelings that have not, no, nor ever will, utterly decay. No +excess of nautical skill will ever perfectly disenchant the great abyss +from its terrors--no progressive knowledge will ever medicine that dread +misgiving of a mysterious and pathless power given to words of a certain +import, or uttered in certain situations, by a parent, to persecuting or +insulting children; by the victim of horrible oppression, when laboring +in final agonies; and by others, whether cursing or blessing, who stand +central to great passions, to great interests, or to great perplexities. + +And here, by way of parenthesis, we may stop to explain the force of +that expression, so common in Scripture, '_Thou hast said it._' It is an +answer often adopted by our Saviour; and the meaning we hold to be this: +Many forms in eastern idioms, as well as in the Greek occasionally, +though meant _interrogatively_, are of a nature to convey a direct +categorical _affirmation_, unless as their meaning is modified by +the cadence and intonation. _Art thou_, detached from this vocal and +accentual modification, is equivalent to _thou art_. Nay, even apart +from this accident, the popular belief authorized the notion, that +simply to have uttered any great thesis, though unconsciously--simply to +have united verbally any two great ideas, though for a purpose the most +different or even opposite, had the mysterious power of realizing them +in act. An exclamation, though in the purest spirit of sport, to a +boy, '_You shall be our imperator_,' was many times supposed to be +the forerunner and fatal mandate for the boy's elevation. Such words +executed themselves. To connect, though but for denial or for mockery, +the ideas of Jesus and the Messiah, furnished an augury that eventually +they would be found to coincide, and to have their coincidence admitted. +It was an _argumentum ad hominem_, and drawn from a popular faith. + +But a modern reader will object the want of an accompanying design or +serious meaning on the part of him who utters the words--he never meant +his words to be taken seriously--nay, his purpose was the very opposite. +True: and precisely that is the reason why his words are likely to +operate effectually, and why they should be feared. Here lies the +critical point which most of all distinguishes this faith. Words +took effect, not merely in default of a serious use, but exactly in +consequence of that default. It was the chance word, the stray word, +the word uttered in jest, or in trifling, or in scorn, or unconsciously, +which took effect; whilst ten thousand words, uttered with purpose +and deliberation, were sure to prove inert. One case will illustrate +this:--Alexander of Macedon, in the outset of his great expedition, +consulted the oracle at Delphi. For the sake of his army, had he +been even without personal faith, he desired to have his enterprise +consecrated. No persuasions, however, would move the priestess to enter +upon her painful and agitating duties for the sake of obtaining the +regular answer of the god. Wearied with this, Alexander seized the great +lady by the arm, and using as much violence as was becoming to the two +characters--of a great prince acting and a great priestess suffering--he +pushed her gently backwards to the tripod on which, in her professional +character, she was to seat herself. Upon this, in the hurry and +excitement of the moment, the priestess exclaimed, _O pai, anixaitos +ei--O son, thou art irresistible_; never adverting for an instant to his +martial purposes, but simply to his personal importunities. The person +whom she thought of as incapable of resistance, was herself, and all she +meant _consciously_ was--O son, I can refuse nothing to one so earnest. +But mark what followed: Alexander desisted at once--he asked for no +further oracle--he refused it, and exclaimed joyously:--'Now then, noble +priestess, farewell; I have the oracle--I have your answer, and better +than any which you could deliver from the tripod. I am invincible--so +you have declared, you cannot revoke it. True, you thought not of +Persia--you thought only of my importunity. But that very fact is what +ratifies your answer. In its blindness I recognise its truth. An oracle +from a god might be distorted by political ministers of the god, as +in time past too often has been suspected. The oracle has been said to +_Medize_, and in my own father's time to _Philippize_. But an oracle +delivered unconsciously, indirectly, blindly, that is the oracle +which cannot deceive.' Such was the all-famous oracle which Alexander +accepted--such was the oracle on which he and his army reposing went +forth 'conquering and to conquer.' + +Exactly on this principle do the Turks act, in putting so high a value +on the words of idiots. Enlightened Christians have often wondered at +their allowing any weight to people bereft of understanding. But that is +the very reason for allowing them weight: that very defect it is which +makes them capable of being organs for conveying words from higher +intelligences. A fine human intelligence cannot be a passive +instrument--it cannot be a mere tube for conveying the words of +inspiration: such an intelligence will intermingle ideas of its own, or +otherwise modify what is given, and pollute what is sacred. + +It is also on this principle that the whole practice and doctrine of +Sortilegy rest. Let us confine ourselves to that mode of sortilegy which +is conducted by throwing open privileged books at random, leaving to +chance the page and the particular line on which the oracular functions +are thrown. The books used have varied with the caprice or the error of +ages. Once the Hebrew Scriptures had the preference. Probably they were +laid aside, not because the reverence for their authority decayed, +but because it increased. In later times Virgil has been the favorite. +Considering the very limited range of ideas to which Virgil was tied +by his theme--a colonizing expedition in a barbarous age, no worse book +could have been selected: [Footnote: '_No worse book could have been +selected._'--The probable reason for making so unhappy a choice seems +to have been that Virgil, in the middle ages, had the character of +a necromancer, a diviner, &c. This we all know from Dante. Now, the +original reason for this strange translation of character and functions +we hold to have arisen from the circumstance of his maternal grandfather +having borne the name of _Magus_. People in those ages held that a +powerful enchanter, exorciser, &c., must have a magician amongst his +_cognati_; the power must run in the blood, which on the maternal side +could be undeniably ascertained. Under this preconception, they took +Magus not for a proper name, but for a professional designation. Amongst +many illustrations of the magical character sustained by Virgil in the +middle ages, we may mention that a writer, about the year 1200, or the +era of our Robin Hood, published by Montfaucon, and cited by Gibbon in +his last volume, says of Virgil,--that '_Captus a Romanis invisibiliter +exiit, ivitque Neapopolim_.'] so little indeed does the AEneid exhibit +of human life in its multiformity, that much tampering with the text +is required to bring real cases of human interest and real situations +within the scope of any Virgilian sentence, though aided by the utmost +latitude of accommodation. A king, a soldier, a sailor, &c., might look +for correspondences to their own circumstances; but not many others. +Accordingly, everybody remembers the remarkable answer which Charles I. +received at Oxford from this Virgilian oracle, about the opening of the +Parliamentary war. But from this limitation in the range of ideas it was +that others, and very pious people too, have not thought it profane to +resume the old reliance on the Scriptures. No case, indeed, can try +so severely, or put upon record so conspicuously, this indestructible +propensity for seeking light out of darkness--this thirst for looking +into the future by the aid of dice, real or figurative, as the fact +of men eminent for piety having yielded to the temptation. We give one +instance--the instance of a person who, in _practical_ theology, has +been, perhaps, more popular than any other in any church. Dr. Doddridge, +in his earlier days, was in a dilemma both of conscience and of taste +as to the election he should make between two situations, one in +possession, both at his command. He was settled at Harborough, +in Leicestershire, and was 'pleasing himself with the view of a +continuance' in that situation. True, he had received an invitation to +Northampton; but the reasons against complying seemed so strong, that +nothing was wanting but the civility of going over to Northampton, and +making an apologetic farewell. On the last Sunday in November of the +year 1729, the doctor went and preached a sermon in conformity with +those purposes. 'But,' says he, 'on the morning of that day an incident +happened, which affected me greatly.' On the night previous, it seems, +he had been urged very importunately by his Northampton friends to +undertake the vacant office. Much personal kindness had concurred with +this public importunity: the good doctor was affected; he had prayed +fervently, alleging in his prayer, as the reason which chiefly weighed +with him to reject the offer, that it was far beyond his forces, +and chiefly because he was too young [Footnote: '_Because he was too +young_'--Dr. Doddridge was born in the summer of 1702; consequently +he was at this era of his life about twenty-seven years old, and +consequently not so obviously entitled to the excuse of youth. But he +pleaded his youth, not with a view to the exertions required, but to +the _auctoritas_ and responsibilities of the situation.] and had no +assistant. He goes on thus:--'As soon as ever this address' (meaning +the prayer) 'was ended, I passed through a room of the house in which +I lodged, where a child was reading to his mother, and the only words +I heard distinctly were these, _And as thy days, so shall thy strength +be_.' This singular coincidence between his own difficulty and a +scriptural line caught at random in passing hastily through a room, (but +observe, a line insulated from the context, and placed in high relief +to his ear,) shook his resolution. Accident co-operated; a promise to +be fulfilled at Northampton, in a certain contingency, fell due at the +instant; the doctor was detained, this detention gave time for further +representations; new motives arose, old difficulties were removed, and +finally the doctor saw, in all this succession of steps, the first of +which, however, lay in the _Sortes Biblicae_, clear indications of a +providential guidance. With that conviction he took up his abode at +Northampton, and remained there for the next thirty-one years, until he +left it for his grave at Lisbon; in fact, he passed at Northampton the +whole of his public life. It must, therefore, be allowed to stand upon +the records of sortilegy, that in the main direction of his life--not, +indeed, as to its spirit, but as to its form and local connections--a +Protestant divine of much merit, and chiefly in what regards practice, +and of the class most opposed to superstition, took his determining +impulse from a variety of the _Sortes Virgilianae_. + +This variety was known in early times to the Jews--as early, indeed, as +the era of the Grecian Pericles, if we are to believe the Talmud. It +is known familiarly to this day amongst Polish Jews, and is called +_Bathcol_, or the _daughter of a voice_; the meaning of which +appellation is this:--The _Urim and Thummim_, or oracle in the +breast-plate of the high priest, spoke directly from God. It was, +therefore, the original or mother-voice. But about the time of Pericles, +that is, exactly one hundred years before the time of Alexander the +Great, the light of prophecy was quenched in Malachi or Haggai; and +the oracular jewels in the breast-plate became simultaneously dim. +Henceforwards the mother-voice was heard no longer: but to this +succeeded an imperfect or daughter-voice, (_Bathcol_,) which lay in the +first words happening to arrest the attention at a moment of perplexity. +An illustration, which has been often quoted from the Talmud, is to the +following effect:--Rabbi Tochanan, and Rabbi Simeon Ben Lachish, were +anxious about a friend, Rabbi Samuel, six hundred miles distant on +the Euphrates. Whilst talking earnestly together on this subject in +Palestine, they passed a school; they paused to listen: it was a child +reading the first book of Samuel; and the words which they caught were +these--_And Samuel died_. These words they received as a _Bath-col_: and +the next horseman from the Euphrates brought word accordingly that +Rabbi Samuel had been gathered to his fathers at some station on the +Euphrates. + +Here is the very same case, the same _Bath-col_ substantially, which +we have cited from Orton's _Life of Doddridge_. And Du Cange himself +notices, in his Glossary, the relation which this bore to the Pagan +_Sortes_. 'It was,' says he, 'a fantastical way of divination, invented +by the Jews, not unlike the _Sortes Virgilianae_ of the heathens. For, as +with them the first words they happened to dip into in the works of that +poet were a kind of oracle whereby they predicted future events,--so, +with the Jews, when they appealed to _Bath-col_, the first words they +heard from any one's mouth were looked upon as a voice from Heaven +directing them in the matter they inquired about.' + +If the reader imagines that this ancient form of the practical +miraculous is at all gone out of use, even the example of Dr. Doddridge +may satisfy him to the contrary. Such an example was sure to authorize a +large imitation. But, even apart from that, the superstition is common. +The records of conversion amongst felons and other ignorant persons +might be cited by hundreds upon hundreds to prove that no practice is +more common than that of trying the spiritual fate, and abiding by the +import of any passage in the Scriptures which may first present itself +to the eye. Cowper, the poet, has recorded a case of this sort in his +own experience. It is one to which all the unhappy are prone. But a mode +of questioning the oracles of darkness, far more childish, and, under +some shape or other, equally common amongst those who are prompted by +mere vacancy of mind, without that determination to sacred fountains +which is impressed by misery, may be found in the following extravagant +silliness of Rousseau, which we give in his own words--a case for which +he admits that he himself would have _shut up_ any other man (meaning in +a lunatic hospital) whom he had seen practising the same absurdities:-- + +'Au milieu de mes etudes et d'une vie innocente autant qu'on la puisse +mener, et malgre tout ce qu'on m'avoit pu dire, la peur de l'Enfer +m'agitoit encore. Souvent je me demandois--En quel etat suis-je? Si je +mourrois a l'instant meme, _serois-je damne_? Selon mes Jansenistes, [he +had been reading the books of the Port Royal,] la chose est indubitable: +mais, selon ma conscience, il me paroissoit que non. Toujours craintif +et flottant dans cette cruelle incertitude, j'avois recours (pour en +sortir) aux expedients les plus risibles, et pour lesquels je ferois +volontiers enfermer un homme si je lui en voyois faire autant. ... Un +jour, revant a ce triste sujet, je m'exercois machinalement a lancer +les pierres contre les troncs des arbres; et cela avec mon addresse +ordinaire, c'est-a-dire sans presque jamais en toucher aucun. Tout au +milieu de ce bel exercise, je m'avisai de faire une espece de pronostic +pour calmer mon inquietude. Je me dis--je m'en vais jeter cette pierre +contre l'arbre qui est vis-a-vis de moi: si je le touche, signe de +salut: si je le manque, signe de damnation. Tout en disant ainsi, je +jette ma pierre d'une main tremblante, et avec un horrible battement +de coeur, mais si heureusement qu'elle va frapper au beau-milieu de +l'arbre: ce qui veritablement n'etoit pas difficile: car j'avois eu soin +de le choisir fort gros et fort pres. _Depuis lors je n'ai plus doubte +de mon salut._ Je ne sais, en me rappelant ce trait, si je dois rire ou +gemir sur moimeme.'--_Les Confessions, Partie I. Livre VI._ + +Now, really, if Rousseau thought fit to try such tremendous appeals +by taking 'a shy' at any random object, he should have governed his +sortilegy (for such it may be called) with something more like equity. +Fair play is a jewel: and in such a case, a man is supposed to play +against an adverse party hid in darkness. To shy at a cow within six +feet distance gives no chance at all to his dark antagonist. A pigeon +rising from a trap at a suitable distance might be thought a _sincere_ +staking of the interest at issue: but, as to the massy stem of a tree +'fort gros et fort pres'--the sarcasm of a Roman emperor applies, that +to miss under such conditions implied an original genius for stupidity, +and to hit was no trial of the case. After all, the sentimentalist had +youth to plead in apology for this extravagance. He was hypochondriacal; +he was in solitude; and he was possessed by gloomy imaginations from the +works of a society in the highest public credit. But most readers will +be aware of similar appeals to the mysteries of Providence, made in +public by illustrious sectarians, speaking from the solemn station of a +pulpit. We forbear to quote cases of this nature, though really existing +in print, because we feel that the blasphemy of such anecdotes is more +revolting and more painful to pious minds than the absurdity is amusing. +Meantime it must not be forgotten, that the principle concerned, +though it may happen to disgust men when associated with ludicrous +circumstances, is, after all, the very same which has latently governed +very many modes of ordeal, or judicial inquiry; and which has been +adopted, blindly, as a moral rule, or canon, equally by the blindest of +the Pagans, the most fanatical of the Jews, and the most enlightened of +the Christians. It proceeds upon the assumption that man by his actions +puts a question to Heaven; and that Heaven answers by the event. Lucan, +in a well known passage, takes it for granted that the cause of Caesar +had the approbation of the gods. And why? Simply from the event. It was +notoriously the triumphant cause. It was victorious, (_victrix_ causa +Deis placuit; sed _victa_ Catoni.) It was the '_victrix_ causa;' and, +_as_ such, simply because it was 'victrix,' it had a right in his eyes +to postulate the divine favor as mere matter of necessary interference: +whilst, on the other hand, the _victa causa_, though it seemed to Lucan +sanctioned by human virtue in the person of Cato, stood unappealably +condemned. This mode of reasoning may strike the reader as merely Pagan. +Not at all. In England, at the close of the Parliamentary war, it was +generally argued--that Providence had decided the question against the +Royalists by the mere fact of the issue. Milton himself, with all his +high-toned morality, uses this argument as irrefragable: which is odd, +were it only on this account--that the issue ought necessarily to have +been held for a time as merely hypothetic, and liable to be set aside +by possible counter-issues through one generation at the least. But +the capital argument against such doctrine is to be found in the +New Testament. Strange that Milton should overlook, and strange that +moralists in general have overlooked, the sudden arrest given to this +dangerous but most prevalent mode of reasoning by the Founder of our +faith. He first, he last, taught to his astonished disciples the new +truth--at that time the astounding truth--that no relation exists +between the immediate practical events of things on the one side, and +divine sentences on the other. There was no presumption, he teaches +them, against a man's favor with God, or that of his parents, because he +happened to be afflicted to extremity with bodily disease. There was no +shadow of an argument for believing a party of men criminal objects +of heavenly wrath because upon them, by fatal preference, a tower had +fallen, and because _their_ bodies were exclusively mangled. How little +can it be said that Christianity has yet developed the fulness of its +power, when kings and senates so recently acted under a total oblivion +of this great though novel Christian doctrine, and would do so still, +were it not that religious arguments have been banished by the progress +of manners from the field of political discussion. + +But, quitting this province of the ominous, where it is made the object +of a direct personal inquest, whether by private or by national trials, +or the sortilegy of events, let us throw our eyes over the broader field +of omens, as they offer themselves spontaneously to those who do not +seek, or would even willingly evade them. There are few of these, +perhaps none, which are not universal in their authority, though every +land in turn fancies them (like its proverbs) of local prescription and +origin. The death-watch extends from England to Cashmere, and across +India diagonally to the remotest nook of Bengal, over a three thousand +miles' distance from the entrance of the Indian Punjaub. A hare crossing +a man's path on starting in the morning, has been held in all countries +alike to prognosticate evil in the course of that day. Thus, in the +_Confessions of a Thug_, (which is partially built on a real judicial +document, and everywhere conforms to the usages of Hindostan,) the +hero of the horrid narrative [Footnote: '_The hero of the horrid +narrative_.'--Horrid it certainly is; and one incident in every case +gives a demoniacal air of coolness to the hellish atrocities, viz the +regular forwarding of the _bheels_, or grave-diggers. But else the tale +tends too much to monotony; and for a reason which ought to have checked +the author in carrying on the work to three volumes, namely, that +although there is much dramatic variety in the circumstances of the +several cases, there is none in the catastrophes. The brave man and the +coward, the erect spirit fighting to the last, and the poor +creature that despairs from the first,--all are confounded in one +undistinguishing end by sudden strangulation. This was the original +defect of the plan. The sudden surprise, and the scientific noosing as +with a Chilian _lasso_, constituted in fact a main feature of Thuggee. +But still, the gradual theatrical arrangement of each Thug severally by +the side of a victim, must often have roused violent suspicion, and that +in time to intercept the suddenness of the murder. Now, for the sake +of the dramatic effect, this interception ought more often to have been +introduced, else the murders are but so many blind surprises as if in +sleep.] charges some disaster of his own upon having neglected such an +omen of the morning. The same belief operated in Pagan Italy. The same +omen announced to Lord Lindsay's Arab attendants in the desert the +approach of some disaster, which partially happened in the morning. And +a Highlander of the 42d Regiment, in his printed memoirs, notices +the same harbinger of evil as having crossed his own path on a day of +personal disaster in Spain. + +Birds are even more familiarly associated with such ominous warnings. +This chapter in the great volume of superstition was indeed cultivated +with unusual solicitude amongst the Pagans--_ornithomancy_ grew into an +elaborate science. But if every rule and distinction upon the number +and the position of birds, whether to the right or the left, had been +collected from our own village matrons amongst ourselves, it would +appear that no more of this Pagan science had gone to wreck than must +naturally follow the difference between a believing and a disbelieving +government. Magpies are still of awful authority in village life, +according to their number, &c.; for a striking illustration of which we +may refer the reader to Sir Walter Scott's _Demonology_, reported not +at second-hand, but from Sir Walter's personal communication with some +seafaring fellow-traveller in a stage-coach. + +Among the ancient stories of the same class is one which we shall +repeat--having reference to that Herod Agrippa, grandson of Herod the +Great, before whom St. Paul made his famous apology at Caesarea. This +Agrippa, overwhelmed by debts, had fled from Palestine to Rome in +the latter years of Tiberius. His mother's interest with the widow of +Germanicus procured him a special recommendation to her son Caligula. +Viewing this child and heir of the popular Germanicus as the rising sun, +Agrippa had been too free in his language. True, the uncle of Germanicus +was the reigning prince; but he was old, and breaking up. True, the +son of Germanicus was not yet on the throne; but he soon would be; +and Agrippa was rash enough to call the Emperor a _superannuated old +fellow_, and even to wish for his death. Sejanus was now dead and gone; +but there was no want of spies: and a certain Macro reported his words +to Tiberius. Agrippa was in consequence arrested; the Emperor himself +condescending to point out the noble Jew to the officer on duty. The +case was a gloomy one, if Tiberius should happen to survive much longer: +and the story of the omen proceeds thus:--'Now Agrippa stood in his +bonds before the Imperial palace, and in his affliction leaned against +a certain tree, upon the boughs of which it happened that a bird +had alighted which the Romans call _bubo_, or the owl. All this was +steadfastly observed by a German prisoner, who asked a soldier what +might be the name and offence of that man habited in purple. Being told +that the man's name was Agrippa, and that he was a Jew of high rank, who +had given a personal offence to the Emperor, the German asked permission +to go near and address him; which being granted, he spoke thus:--"This +disaster, I doubt not, young man, is trying to your heart; and +perhaps you will not believe me when I announce to you beforehand the +providential deliverance which is impending. However, this much I will +say--and for my sincerity let me appeal to my native gods, as well as +to the gods of this Rome, who have brought us both into trouble--that +no selfish objects prompt me to this revelation--for a revelation it +is--and to the following effect:--It is fated that you shall not long +remain in chains. Your deliverance will be speedy; you shall be raised +to the very highest rank and power; you shall be the object of as much +envy as now you are of pity; you shall retain your prosperity till +death; and you shall transmit that prosperity to your children. +But"--and there the German paused. Agrippa was agitated; the bystanders +were attentive; and after a time, the German, pointing solemnly to the +bird, proceeded thus:--"But this remember heedfully--that, when next you +see the bird which now perches above your head, you will have only five +days longer to live! This event will be surely accomplished by that same +mysterious god who has thought fit to send the bird as a warning sign; +and you, when you come to your glory, do not forget me that foreshadowed +it in your humiliation."' The story adds, that Agrippa affected to laugh +when the German concluded; after which it goes on to say, that in a few +weeks, being delivered by the death of Tiberius; being released from +prison by the very prince on whose account he had incurred the risk; +being raised to a tetrarchy, and afterwards to the kingdom of all Judea; +coming into all the prosperity which had been promised to him by the +German; and not losing any part of his interest at Rome through the +assassination of his patron Caligula--he began to look back respectfully +to the words of the German, and forwards with anxiety to the second +coming of the bird. Seven years of sunshine had now slipped away as +silently as a dream. A great festival, shows and vows, was on the point +of being celebrated in honor of Claudius Caesar, at Strato's Tower, +otherwise called Caesarea, the Roman metropolis of Palestine. Duty and +policy alike required that the king of the land should go down and unite +in this mode of religious homage to the emperor. He did so; and on the +second morning of the festival, by way of doing more conspicuous honor +to the great solemnity, he assumed a very sumptuous attire of silver +armor, burnished so highly as to throw back a dazzling glare from the +sun's morning beams upon the upturned eyes of the vast multitude around +him. Immediately from the sycophantish part of the crowd, of whom a +vast majority were Pagans, ascended a cry of glorification as to some +manifestation of Deity. Agrippa, gratified by this success of his new +apparel, and by this flattery, not unusual in the case of kings, had not +the firmness (though a Jew, and conscious of the wickedness, greater in +himself than in the heathen crowd,) to reject the blasphemous homage. +Voices of adoration continued to ascend; when suddenly, looking upward +to the vast awnings prepared for screening the audience from the noonday +heats, the king perceived the same ominous bird which he had seen at +Rome in the day of his affliction, seated quietly, and looking down upon +himself. In that same moment an icy pang shot through his intestines. +He was removed into the palace; and at the end of five days, completely +worn out by pain, Agrippa expired in the 54th year of his age, and the +seventh of his sovereign power. + +Whether the bird, here described as an owl, was really such, may be +doubted, considering the narrow nomenclature of the Romans for all +zoological purposes, and the total indifference of the Roman mind to +all distinctions in natural history which are not upon the very largest +scale. We should much suspect that the bird was a magpie. Meantime, +speaking of ornithoscopy in relation to Jews, we remember another +story in that subdivision of the subject which it may be worth while +repeating; not merely on its own account, as wearing a fine oriental +air, but also for the correction which it suggests to a very common +error. + +In some period of Syrian warfare, a large military detachment was +entering at some point of Syria from the desert of the Euphrates. At +the head of the whole array rode two men of some distinction: one was an +augur of high reputation, the other was a Jew called Mosollam, a man +of admirable beauty, a matchless horseman, an unerring archer, and +accomplished in all martial arts. As they were now first coming within +enclosed grounds, after a long march in the wilderness, the augur was +most anxious to inaugurate the expedition by some considerable omen. +Watching anxiously, therefore, he soon saw a bird of splendid plumage +perching on a low wall. 'Halt!' he said to the advanced guard: and all +drew up in a line. At that moment of silence and expectation, Mosollam, +slightly turning himself in his saddle, drew his bow-string to his ear; +his Jewish hatred of Pagan auguries burned within him; his inevitable +shaft went right to its mark, and the beautiful bird fell dead. The +augur turned round in fury. But the Jew laughed at him. 'This bird, you +say, should have furnished us with omens of our future fortunes. But had +he known anything of his own, he would never have perched where he did, +or have come within the range of Mosollam's archery. How should that +bird know our destiny, who did not know that it was his own to be shot +by Mosollam the Jew?' + +Now, this is a most common but a most erroneous way of arguing. In +a case of this kind, the bird was not supposed to have any conscious +acquaintance with futurity, either for his own benefit or that of +others. But even where such a consciousness may be supposed, as in the +case of oneiromancy, or prophecy by means of dreams, it must be +supposed limited, and the more limited in a personal sense as they are +illimitable in a sublime one. Who imagines that, because a Daniel or +Ezekiel foresaw the grand revolutions of the earth, therefore they must +or could have foreseen the little details of their own ordinary life? +And even descending from that perfect inspiration to the more doubtful +power of augury amongst the Pagans, (concerning which the most eminent +of theologians have held very opposite theories,) one thing is certain, +that, so long as we entertain such pretensions, or discuss them at all, +we must take them with the principle of those who professed such arts, +not with principles of our own arbitrary invention. + +One example will make this clear:--There are in England [Footnote: +'_There are in England_'--Especially in Somersetshire, and for twenty +miles round Wrington, the birthplace of Locke. Nobody sinks for wells +without their advice. We ourselves knew an amiable and accomplished +Scottish family, who, at an estate called Belmadrothie, in memory of +a similar property in Ross shire, built a house in Somersetshire, and +resolved to find water without help from the jowser. But after sinking +to a greater depth than ever had been known before, and spending nearly +L200, they were finally obliged to consult the jowser, who found water +at once.] a class of men who practise the Pagan rhabdomancy in a limited +sense. They carry a rod or rhabdos (_rhabdos_) of willow: this they +hold horizontally; and by the bending of the rod towards the ground +they discover the favorable places for sinking wells; a matter of +considerable importance in a province so ill-watered as the northern +district of Somersetshire, &c. These people are locally called +_jowsers_; and it is probable, that from the suspicion with which their +art has been usually regarded amongst people of education, as a mere +legerdemain trick of Dousterswivel's, is derived the slang word to +_chouse_ for _swindle_. Meantime, the experimental evidences of a real +practical skill in these men, and the enlarged compass of speculation +in these days, have led many enlightened people to a Stoic _epochey_, or +suspension of judgment, on the reality of this somewhat mysterious art. +Now, in the East, there are men who make the same pretensions in a +more showy branch of the art. It is not water, but treasures which they +profess to find by some hidden kind of rhabdomancy. The very existence +of treasures with us is reasonably considered a thing of improbable +occurrence. But in the unsettled East, and with the low valuation of +human life wherever Mahometanism prevails, insecurity and other causes +must have caused millions of such deposits in every century to have +perished as to any knowledge of survivors. The sword has been moving +backwards and forwards, for instance, like a weaver's shuttle, since +the time of Mahmoud the Ghaznevide, [Footnote: Mahmood of Ghizni, which, +under the European name of Ghaznee, was so recently taken in one hour by +our Indian army under Lord Keane Mahmood was the first Mahometan invader +of Hindostan.] in Anno Domini 1000, in the vast regions between the +Tigris, the Oxus, and the Indus. Regularly as it approached, gold and +jewels must have sunk by whole harvests into the ground. A certain +per centage has been doubtless recovered: a larger per centage has +disappeared for ever. Hence naturally the jealousy of barbarous +Orientals that we Europeans, in groping amongst pyramids, sphynxes, and +tombs, are looking for buried treasures. The wretches are not so wide +astray in what they believe as in what they disbelieve. The treasures do +really exist which they fancy; but then also the other treasures in the +glorious antiquities have that existence for our sense of beauty which +to their brutality is inconceivable. In these circumstances, why should +it surprise us that men will pursue the science of discovery as +a regular trade? Many discoveries of treasure are doubtless made +continually, which, for obvious reasons, are communicated to nobody. +Some proportion there must be between the sowing of such grain as +diamonds or emeralds, and the subsequent reaping, whether by accident or +by art. For, with regard to the last, it is no more impossible, _prima +fronte_, that a substance may exist having an occult sympathy with +subterraneous water or subterraneous gold, than that the magnet should +have a sympathy (as yet occult) with the northern pole of our planet. + +The first flash of careless thought applied to such a case will suggest, +that men holding powers of this nature need not offer their services for +hire to others. And this, in fact, is the objection universally urged by +us Europeans as decisive against their pretensions. Their knavery, it +is fancied, stands self-recorded; since, assuredly, they would not be +willing to divide their subterranean treasures, if they knew of any. +But the men are not in such self-contradiction as may seem. Lady +Hester Stanhope, from the better knowledge she had acquired of Oriental +opinions, set Dr. Madden right on this point. The Oriental belief is +that a fatality attends the appropriator of a treasure in any case where +he happens also to be the discoverer. Such a person, it is held, will +die soon, and suddenly--so that he is compelled to seek his remuneration +from the wages or fees of his employers, not from the treasure itself. + +Many more secret laws are held sacred amongst the professors of that art +than that which was explained by Lady Hester Stanhope. These we shall +not enter upon at present: but generally we may remark, that the same +practices of subterranean deposits, during our troubled periods in +Europe, led to the same superstitions. And it may be added, that the +same error has arisen in both cases as to some of these superstitions. +How often must it have struck people of liberal feelings, as a +scandalous proof of the preposterous value set upon riches by poor men, +that ghosts should popularly be supposed to rise and wander for the sake +of revealing the situations of buried treasures. For ourselves, we have +been accustomed to view this popular belief in the light of an argument +for pity rather than for contempt towards poor men, as indicating the +extreme pressure of that necessity which could so have demoralized their +natural sense of truth. But certainly, in whatever feelings originating, +such popular superstitions as to motives of ghostly missions did seem to +argue a deplorable misconception of the relation subsisting between the +spiritual world and the perishable treasures of this perishable world. +Yet, when we look into the Eastern explanations of this case, we find +that it is meant to express, not any overvaluation of riches, but +the direct contrary passion. A human spirit is punished--such is the +notion--punished in the spiritual world for excessive attachment to +gold, by degradation to the office of its guardian; and from this office +the tortured spirit can release itself only by revealing the treasure +and transferring the custody. It is a penal martyrdom, not an elective +passion for gold, which is thus exemplified in the wanderings of a +treasure-ghost. + +But, in a field where of necessity we are so much limited, we willingly +pass from the consideration of these treasure or _khasne_ phantoms +(which alone sufficiently ensure a swarm of ghostly terrors for all +Oriental ruins of cities,) to the same marvellous apparitions, as they +haunt other solitudes even more awful than those of ruined cities. In +this world there are two mighty forms of perfect solitude--the ocean and +the desert: the wilderness of the barren sands, and the wilderness of +the barren waters. Both are the parents of inevitable superstitions--of +terrors, solemn, ineradicable, eternal. Sailors and the children of the +desert are alike overrun with spiritual hauntings, from accidents of +peril essentially connected with those modes of life, and from the +eternal spectacle of the infinite. Voices seem to blend with the raving +of the sea, which will for ever impress the feeling of beings more than +human: and every chamber of the great wilderness which, with little +interruption, stretches from the Euphrates to the western shores of +Africa, has its own peculiar terrors both as to sights and sounds. In +the wilderness of Zin, between Palestine and the Red Sea, a section of +the desert well known in these days to our own countrymen, bells are +heard daily pealing for matins, or for vespers, from some phantom +convent that no search of Christian or of Bedouin Arab has ever been +able to discover. These bells have sounded since the Crusades. Other +sounds, trumpets, the _Alala_ of armies, &c., are heard in other regions +of the Desert. Forms, also, are seen of more people than have any +right to be walking in human paths: sometimes forms of avowed terror; +sometimes, which is a case of far more danger, appearances that mimic +the shapes of men, and even of friends or comrades. This is a case +much dwelt on by the old travellers, and which throws a gloom over the +spirits of all Bedouins, and of every cafila or caravan. We all know +what a sensation of loneliness or 'eeriness' (to use an expressive term +of the ballad poetry) arises to any small party assembling in a +single room of a vast desolate mansion: how the timid among them fancy +continually that they hear some remote door opening, or trace the sound +of suppressed footsteps from some distant staircase. Such is the feeling +in the desert, even in the midst of the caravan. The mighty solitude is +seen: the dread silence is anticipated which will succeed to this brief +transit of men, camels, and horses. Awe prevails even in the midst of +society: but, if the traveller should loiter behind from fatigue, or +be so imprudent as to ramble aside--should he from any cause once lose +sight of his party, it is held that his chance is small of recovering +their traces. And why? Not chiefly from the want of footmarks where the +wind effaces all impressions in half an hour, or of eyemarks where all +is one blank ocean of sand, but much more from the sounds or the visual +appearances which are supposed to beset and to seduce all insulated +wanderers. + +Everybody knows the superstitions of the ancients about the +_Nympholeptoi_, or those who had seen Pan. But far more awful and gloomy +are the existing superstitions, throughout Asia and Africa, as to the +perils of those who are phantom-haunted in the wilderness. The old +Venetian traveller Marco Polo states them well: he speaks, indeed, of +the Eastern or Tartar deserts; the steppes which stretch from European +Russia to the footsteps of the Chinese throne; but exactly the same +creed prevails amongst the Arabs, from Bagdad to Suez and Cairo--from +Rosetta to Tunis--Tunis to Timbuctoo or Mequinez. 'If, during the +daytime,' says he, 'any person should remain behind until the caravan is +no longer in sight, he hears himself unexpectedly called to by name, +and in a voice with which he is familiar. Not doubting that the voice +proceeds from some of his comrades, the unhappy man is beguiled from the +right direction; and soon finding himself utterly confounded as to the +path, he roams about in distraction until he perishes miserably. If, +on the other hand, this perilous separation of himself from the caravan +should happen at night, he is sure to hear the uproar of a great +cavalcade a mile or two to the right or left of the true track. He is +thus seduced on one side: and at break of day finds himself far removed +from man. Nay, even at noon-day, it is well known that grave and +respectable men to all appearance will come up to a particular +traveller, will bear the look of a friend, and will gradually lure him +by earnest conversation to a distance from the caravan; after which the +sounds of men and camels will be heard continually at all points but the +true one; whilst an insensible turning by the tenth of an inch at each +separate step from the true direction will very soon suffice to set the +traveller's face to the opposite point of the compass from that which +his safety requires, and which his fancy represents to him as his +real direction. Marvellous, indeed, and almost passing belief, are the +stories reported of these desert phantoms, which are said at times +to fill the air with choral music from all kinds of instruments, from +drums, and the clash of arms: so that oftentimes a whole caravan are +obliged to close up their open ranks, and to proceed in a compact line +of march.' + +Lord Lindsay, in his very interesting travels in Egypt, Edom, &c., +agrees with Warton in supposing (and probably enough) that from this +account of the desert traditions in Marco Polo was derived Milton's fine +passage in Comus:-- + + 'Of calling shapes, and beckoning shadows dire, + And aery tongues that syllable men's names + On sands, and shores, and desert wildernesses.' + +But the most remarkable of these desert superstitions, as suggested by +the mention of Lord Lindsay, is one which that young nobleman, in some +place which we cannot immediately find, has noticed, but which he only +was destined by a severe personal loss immediately to illustrate. Lord +L. quotes from Vincent le Blanc an anecdote of a man in his own caravan, +the companion of an Arab merchant, who disappeared in a mysterious +manner. Four Moors, with a retaining fee of 100 ducats, were sent in +quest of him, but came back _re infecta_. 'And 'tis uncertain,' adds Le +Blanc, 'whether he was swallowed up in the sands, or met his death by +any other misfortune; as it often happens, by the relation of a merchant +then in our company, who told us, that two years before, traversing the +same journey, a comrade of his, going a little aside from the company, +saw three men who called him by his name; and one of them, to his +thinking, favored very much his companion; and, as he was about to +follow them, his real companion calling him to come back to his company, +he found himself deceived by the others, and thus was saved. And all +travellers in these parts hold, that in the deserts are many such +phantasms seen, that strive to seduce the traveller.' Thus far it is +the traveller's own fault, warned as he is continually by the extreme +anxiety of the Arab leaders or guides, with respect to all who stray to +any distance, if he is duped or enticed by these pseudo-men: though, +in the case of Lapland dogs, who ought to have a surer instinct of +detection for counterfeits, we know from Sir Capel de Broke and others, +that they are continually wiled away by the wolves who roam about the +nightly encampments of travellers. But there is a secondary disaster, +according to the Arab superstition, awaiting those whose eyes are once +opened to the discernment of these phantoms. To see them, or to hear +them, even where the traveller is careful to refuse their lures, entails +the certainty of death in no long time. This is another form of that +universal faith which made it impossible for any man to survive a bodily +commerce, by whatever sense, with a spiritual being. We find it in the +Old Testament, where the expression, 'I have seen God and shall die,' +means simply a supernatural being; since no Hebrew believed it possible +for a nature purely human to sustain for a moment the sight of the +Infinite Being. We find the same faith amongst ourselves, in case +of _doppelgaenger_ becoming apparent to the sight of those whom they +counterfeit; and in many other varieties. We modern Europeans, of +course, laugh at these superstitions; though, as La Place remarks, +(_Essai sur les Probabilites_,) any case, however apparently incredible, +if it is a recurrent case, is as much entitled to a fair valuation as if +it had been more probable beforehand.[Footnote: _'Is as much entitled +to a fair valuation, under the lans of induction, as if it had been +more probable beforehand'_--One of the cases which La Place notices as +entitled to a grave consideration, but which would most assuredly be +treated as a trivial phenomenon, unworthy of attention, by commonplace +spectators, is--when a run of success, with no apparent cause, takes +place on heads or tails, (_pile ou croix_) Most people dismiss such a +case as pure accident. But La Place insists on its being duly valued +as a fact, however unaccountable as an effect. So again, if in a large +majority of experiences like those of Lord Lindsay's party in the +desert, death should follow, such a phenomenon is as well entitled +to its separate valuation as any other.] This being premised, we who +connect superstition with the personal result, are more impressed by the +disaster which happened to Lord Lindsay, than his lordship, who either +failed to notice the _nexus_ between the events, or possibly declined to +put the case too forward in his reader's eye, from the solemnity of the +circumstances, and the private interest to himself and his own family, +of the subsequent event. The case was this:--Mr. William Wardlaw Ramsay, +the companion (and we believe relative) of Lord Lindsay, a man whose +honorable character, and whose intellectual accomplishments speak for +themselves, in the posthumus memorabilia of his travels published +by Lord L., had seen an array of objects in the desert, which facts +immediately succeeding demonstrated to have been a mere ocular _lusus_, +or (according to Arab notions) phantoms. During the absence from home of +an Arab sheikh, who had been hired as conductor of Lord Lindsay's party, +a hostile tribe (bearing the name of Tellaheens) had assaulted and +pillaged his tents. Report of this had reached the English travelling +party; it was known that the Tellaheens were still in motion, and a +hostile rencounter was looked for for some days. At length, in crossing +the well known valley of the _Wady Araba_, that most ancient channel of +communication between the Red Sea and Judea, &c., Mr. Ramsay saw, to his +own entire conviction, a party of horse moving amongst some sand-hills. +Afterwards it became certain, from accurate information, that this must +have been a delusion. It was established, that no horseman _could_ have +been in that neighborhood at that time. Lord Lindsay records the case +as an illustration of 'that spiritualized tone the imagination naturally +assumes, in scenes presenting so little sympathy with the ordinary +feelings of humanity;' and he reports the case in these pointed +terms:--'Mr. Ramsay, a man of remarkably strong sight, and by no means +disposed to superstitious credulity, distinctly saw a party of horse +moving among the sand-hills; and I do not believe he was ever able +to divest himself of that impression.' No--and, according to Arab +interpretation, very naturally so; for, according to their faith, he +really _had_ seen the horsemen; phantom horseman certainly, but +still objects of sight. The sequel remains to be told--by the Arabian +hypothesis, Mr. Ramsay had but a short time to live--he was under a +secret summons to the next world. And accordingly, in a few weeks after +this, whilst Lord Lindsay had gone to visit Palmyra, Mr. Ramsay died at +Damascus. + +This was a case exactly corresponding to the Pagan _nympholepsis_--he +had seen the beings whom it is not lawful to see and live. Another case +of Eastern superstition, not less determined, and not less remarkably +fulfilled, occurred some years before to Dr. Madden, who travelled +pretty much in the same route as Lord Lindsay. The doctor, as a +phrenologist, had been struck with the very singular conformation of +a skull which he saw amongst many others on an altar in some Syrian +convent. He offered a considerable sum in gold for it; but it was by +repute the skull of a saint; and the monk with whom Dr. M. attempted to +negotiate, not only refused his offers, but protested that even for the +doctor's sake, apart from the interests of the convent, he could not +venture on such a transfer: for that, by the tradition attached to it, +the skull would endanger any vessel carrying it from the Syrian shore: +the vessel might escape; but it would never succeed in reaching any but +a Syrian harbor. After this, for the credit of our country, which +stands so high in the East, and should be so punctiliously tended by all +Englishmen, we are sorry to record that Dr. Madden (though otherwise a +man of scrupulous honor) yielded to the temptation of substituting for +the saint's skull another less remarkable from his own collection. With +this saintly relic he embarked on board a Grecian ship; was alternately +pursued and met by storms the most violent; larboard and starboard, on +every quarter, he was buffeted; the wind blew from every point of the +compass; the doctor honestly confesses that he often wished this baleful +skull back in safety on the quiet altar from which he took it; and +finally, after many days of anxiety, he was too happy in finding himself +again restored to some oriental port, from which he secretly vowed +never again to sail with a saint's skull, or with any skull, however +remarkable phrenologically, not purchased in an open market. + +Thus we have pursued, through many of its most memorable sections, +the spirit of the miraculous as it moulded and gathered itself in +the superstitions of Paganism; and we have shown that, in the modern +superstitions of Christianity, or of Mahometanism, (often enough +borrowed from Christian sources,) there is a pretty regular +correspondence. Speaking with a reference to the strictly popular +belief, it cannot be pretended for a moment, that miraculous agencies +are slumbering in modern ages. For one superstition of that nature which +the Pagans had, we can produce twenty. And if, from the collation of +numbers, we should pass to that of quality, it is a matter of notoriety, +that from the very philosophy of Paganism, and its slight root in the +terrors or profounder mysteries of spiritual nature, no comparison +could be sustained for a moment between the true religion and any mode +whatever of the false. Ghosts we have purposely omitted, because that +idea is so peculiarly Christian [Footnote: '_Because that idea is so +peculiarly Christian_'--One reason, additional to the main one, why the +idea of a ghost could not be conceived or reproduced by Paganism, +lies in the fourfold resolution of the human nature at death, viz.--1. +_corpus_; 2. _manes_; 3. _spiritus_; 4. _anima_. No reversionary +consciousness, no restitution of the total nature, sentient and active, +was thus possible. Pliny has a story which looks like a ghost story; but +it is all moonshine--a mere _simulacrum_.] as to reject all counterparts +or affinities from other modes of the supernatural. The Christian ghost +is too awful a presence, and with too large a substratum of the real, +the impassioned, the human, for our present purposes. We deal chiefly +with the wilder and more aerial forms of superstition; not so far off +from fleshly nature as the purely allegoric--not so near as the penal, +the purgatorial, the penitential. In this middle class, 'Gabriel's +hounds'--the 'phantom ship'--the gloomy legends of the charcoal burners +in the German forests--and the local or epichorial superstitions from +every district of Europe, come forward by thousands, attesting the high +activity of the miraculous and the hyperphysical instincts, even in this +generation, wheresoever the voice of the people makes itself heard. + +But in Pagan times, it will be objected, the popular superstitions +blended themselves with the highest political functions, gave a sanction +to national counsels, and oftentimes gave their starting point to the +very primary movements of the state. Prophecies, omens, miracles, all +worked concurrently with senates or princes. Whereas in our days, +says Charles Lamb, the witch who takes her pleasure with the moon, and +summons Beelzebub to her sabbaths, nevertheless trembles before the +beadle, and hides herself from the overseer. Now, as to the witch, even +the horrid Canidia of Horace, or the more dreadful Erichtho of Lucan, +seems hardly to have been much respected in any era. But for the +other modes of the supernatural, they have entered into more frequent +combinations with state functions and state movements in our modern ages +than in the classical age of Paganism. Look at prophecies, for example: +the Romans had a few obscure oracles afloat, and they had the Sibylline +books under the state seal. These books, in fact, had been kept so long, +that, like port wine superannuated, they had lost their flavor and body. +[Footnote: '_Like port wine superannuated, the Sibylline books had lost +their flavor and their body_.'--There is an allegoric description in +verse, by Mr. Rogers, of an ice-house, in which winter is described as +a captive, &c., which is memorable on this account, that a brother +poet, on reading the passage, mistook it, (from not understanding +the allegorical expressions,) either sincerely or maliciously, for a +description of the house-dog. Now, this little anecdote seems to embody +the poor Sibyl's history,--from a stern icy sovereign, with a petrific +mace, she lapsed into an old toothless mastiff. She continued to snore +in her ancient kennel for above a thousand years. The last person who +attempted to stir her up with a long pole, and to extract from her +paralytic dreaming some growls or snarls against Christianity, was +Aurelian, in a moment of public panic. But the thing was past all +tampering. The poor creature could neither be kicked nor coaxed into +vitality.] On the other hand, look at France. Henry the historian, +speaking of the fifteenth century, describes it as a national infirmity +of the English to be prophecy-ridden. Perhaps there never was any +foundation for this as an exclusive remark; but assuredly not in the +next century. There had been with us British, from the twelfth century, +Thomas of Ercildoune in the north, and many monkish local prophets for +every part of the island; but latterly England had no terrific prophet, +unless, indeed Nixon of the Vale Royal in Cheshire, who uttered his +dark oracles sometimes with a merely Cestrian, sometimes with a national +reference. Whereas in France, throughout the sixteenth century, every +principal event was foretold successively, with an accuracy that still +shocks and confounds us. Francis the First, who opens the century, (and +by many is held to open the book of _modern history_, as distinguished +from the middle or _feudal_ history,) had the battle of Pavia +foreshown to him, not by name, but in its results--by his own Spanish +captivity--by the exchange for his own children upon a frontier river +of Spain--finally, by his own disgraceful death, through an infamous +disease conveyed to him under a deadly circuit of revenge. This king's +son, Henry the Second, read some years _before_ the event a description +of that tournament, on the marriage of the Scottish Queen with his +eldest son, Francis II., which proved fatal to himself, through the +awkwardness of the Compte de Montgomery and his own obstinacy. After +this, and we believe a little after the brief reign of Francis II., +arose Nostradamus, the great prophet of the age. All the children of +Henry II. and of Catharine de Medici, one after the other, died in +circumstances of suffering and horror, and Nostradamus pursued the +whole with ominous allusions. Charles IX., though the authorizer of the +Bartholomew massacre, was the least guilty of his party, and the only +one who manifested a dreadful remorse. Henry III., the last of the +brothers, died, as the reader will remember, by assassination. And all +these tragic successions of events are still to be read more or less +dimly prefigured in verses of which we will not here discuss the dates. +Suffice it, that many authentic historians attest the good faith of the +prophets; and finally, with respect to the first of the Bourbon dynasty, +Henry IV., who succeeded upon the assassination of his brother-in-law, +we have the peremptory assurance of Sully and other Protestants, +countersigned by writers both historical and controversial, that not +only was he prepared, by many warnings, for his own tragical death--not +only was the day, the hour prefixed--not only was an almanac sent to +him, in which the bloody summer's day of 1610 was pointed out to his +attention in bloody colors; but the mere record of the king's last +afternoon shows beyond a doubt the extent and the punctual limitation of +his anxieties. In fact, it is to this attitude of listening expectation +in the king, and breathless waiting for the blow, that Schiller alludes +in that fine speech of Wallenstein to his sister, where he notices the +funeral knells that sounded continually in Henry's ears, and, above all, +his prophetic instinct, that caught the sound from a far distance of his +murderer's motions, and could distinguish, amidst all the tumult of a +mighty capital, those stealthy steps + + ----'Which even then were seeking him + Throughout the streets of Paris.' + +We profess not to admire Henry the Fourth of France, whose secret +character we shall, on some other occasion, attempt to expose. But his +resignation to the appointments of Heaven, in dismissing his guards, as +feeling that against a danger so domestic and so mysterious, all fleshly +arms were vain, has always struck us as the most like magnanimity of +anything in his very theatrical life. + +Passing to our own country, and to the times immediately in succession, +we fall upon some striking prophecies, not verbal but symbolic, if we +turn from the broad highway of public histories, to the by-paths of +private memories. Either Clarendon it is, in his Life (not his public +history), or else Laud, who mentions an anecdote connected with the +coronation of Charles I., (the son-in-law of the murdered Bourbon,) +which threw a gloom upon the spirits of the royal friends, already +saddened by the dreadful pestilence which inaugurated the reign of this +ill-fated prince, levying a tribute of one life in sixteen from the +population of the English metropolis. At the coronation of Charles, it +was discovered that all London would not furnish the quantity of purple +velvet required for the royal robes and the furniture of the throne. +What was to be done? Decorum required that the furniture should be +all _en suite_. Nearer than Genoa no considerable addition could +be expected. That would impose a delay of 150 days. Upon mature +consideration, and chiefly of the many private interests that would +suffer amongst the multitudes whom such a solemnity had called up from +the country, it was resolved to robe the King in _white_ velvet. But +this, as it afterwards occurred, was the color in which victims were +arrayed. And thus, it was alleged, did the King's council establish an +augury of evil. Three other ill omens, of some celebrity, occurred to +Charles I., viz., on occasion of creating his son Charles a knight of +the Bath, at Oxford some years after; and at the bar of that tribunal +which sat in judgment upon him. + +The reign of his second son, James II., the next reign that could be +considered an unfortunate reign, was inaugurated by the same evil omens. +The day selected for the coronation (in 1685) was a day memorable for +England--it was St. George's day, the 23d of April, and entitled, +even on a separate account, to be held a sacred day as the birthday of +Shakspeare in 1564, and his deathday in 1616. The King saved a sum of +sixty thousand pounds by cutting off the ordinary cavalcade from the +Tower of London to Westminster. Even this was imprudent. It is well +known that, amongst the lowest class of the English, there is an +obstinate prejudice (though unsanctioned by law) with respect to the +obligation imposed by the ceremony of coronation. So long as this +ceremony is delayed, or mutilated, they fancy that their obedience is +a matter of mere prudence, liable to be enforced by arms, but not +consecrated either by law or by religion. The change made by James was, +therefore, highly imprudent; shorn of its antique traditionary usages, +the yoke of conscience was lightened at a moment when it required a +double ratification. Neither was it called for on motives of economy, +for James was unusually rich. This voluntary arrangement was, therefore, +a bad beginning; but the accidental omens were worse. They are thus +reported by Blennerhassett, (History of England to the end of George +I., Vol. iv., p. 1760, printed at Newcastle-upon-Tyne: 1751.) 'The +crown being too little for the King's head, was often in a tottering +condition, and like to fall off.' Even this was observed attentively +by spectators of the most opposite feelings. But there was another +simultaneous omen, which affected the Protestant enthusiasts, and the +superstitious, whether Catholic or Protestant, still more alarmingly. +'The same day the king's arms, pompously painted in the great altar +window of a London church, suddenly fell down without apparent cause, +and broke to pieces, whilst the rest of the window remained standing. +Blennerhassett mutters the dark terrors which possessed himself and +others.' 'These,' says he, 'were reckoned ill omens to the king.' + +In France, as the dreadful criminality of the French sovereigns through +the 17th century began to tell powerfully, and reproduce itself in the +miseries and tumults of the French populace through the 18th century, it +is interesting to note the omens which unfolded themselves at intervals. +A volume might be written upon them. The French Bourbons renewed the +picture of that fatal house which in Thebes offered to the Grecian +observers the spectacle of dire auguries, emerging from darkness through +three generations, _a plusieurs reprises_. Everybody knows the fatal +pollution of the marriage pomps on the reception of Marie Antoinette in +Paris; the numbers who perished are still spoken of obscurely as to the +amount, and with shuddering awe for the unparalleled horrors standing in +the background of the fatal reign--horrors + + 'That hush'd in grim repose, await their evening prey.' + +But in the life of Goethe is mentioned a still more portentous (though +more shadowy) omen in the pictorial decorations of the arras which +adorned the pavilion on the French frontier; the first objects which met +the Austrian Archduchess on being hailed as Dauphiness, was a succession +of the most tragic groups from the most awful section of the Grecian +theatre. The next alliance of the same kind between the same great +empires, in the persons of Napoleon and the Archduchess Marie Louisa, +was overshadowed by the same unhappy omens, and, as we all remember, +with the same unhappy results, within a brief period of five years. + +Or, if we should resort to the fixed and monumental rather than to these +auguries of great nations--such, for instance, as were embodied in those +_Palladia_, or protesting talismans, which capital cities, whether Pagan +or Christian, glorified through a period of twenty-five hundred years, +we shall find a long succession of these enchanted pledges, from the +earliest precedent of Troy (whose palladium was undoubtedly a talisman) +down to that equally memorable, and bearing the same name, at Western +Rome. We may pass, by a vast transition of two and a half millennia, +to that great talisman of Constantinople, the triple serpent, (having +perhaps an original reference to the Mosaic serpent of the wilderness, +which healed the infected by the simple act of looking upon it, as the +symbol of the Redeemer, held aloft upon the Cross for the deliverance +from moral contagion.) This great consecrated talisman, venerated +equally by Christian, by Pagan, and by Mahometan, was struck on the head +by Mahomet the Second, on that same day, May 29th of 1453, in which +he mastered by storm this glorious city, the bulwark of eastern +Christendom, and the immediate rival of his own European throne at +Adrianople. But mark the superfetation of omens--omen supervening +upon omen, augury engrafted upon augury. The hour was a sad one for +Christianity; just 720 years before the western horn of Islam had been +rebutted in France by the Germans, chiefly under Charles Martel. But now +it seemed as though another horn, even more vigorous, was preparing +to assault Christendom and its hopes from the eastern quarter. At this +epoch, in the very hour of triumph, when the last of the Caesars had +glorified his station, and sealed his testimony by martyrdom, the +fanatical Sultan, riding to his stirrups in blood, and wielding that +iron mace which had been his sole weapon, as well as cognizance, through +the battle, advanced to the column, round which the triple serpent +roared spirally upwards. He smote the brazen talisman; he shattered one +head; he left it mutilated as the record of his great revolution; but +crush it, destroy it, he did not--as a symbol prefiguring the fortunes +of Mahometanism, his people noticed, that in the critical hour of fate, +which stamped the Sultan's acts with efficacy through ages, he had been +prompted by his secret genius only to 'scotch the snake,' not to crush +it. Afterwards the fatal hour was gone by; and this imperfect augury has +since concurred traditionally with the Mahometan prophecies about the +Adrianople gate of Constantinople, to depress the ultimate hopes of +Islam in the midst of all its insolence. The very haughtiest of the +Mussulmans believe that the gate is already in existence, through which +the red Giaours (the _Russi_) shall pass to the conquest of Stamboul; +and that everywhere, in Europe at least, the hat of Frangistan is +destined to surmount the turban--the crescent must go down before the +cross. + + + + +COLERIDGE AND OPIUM-EATING. + + +What is the deadest of things earthly? It is, says the world, ever +forward and rash--'a door-nail!' But the world is wrong. There is a +thing deader than a door-nail, viz., Gillman's Coleridge, Vol. I. Dead, +more dead, most dead, is Gillman's Coleridge, Vol. I.; and this +upon more arguments than one. The book has clearly not completed its +elementary act of respiration; the _systole_ of Vol. I. is absolutely +useless and lost without the _diastole_ of that Vol. II., which is never +to exist. That is one argument, and perhaps this second argument is +stronger. Gillman's Coleridge, Vol. I., deals rashly, unjustly, and +almost maliciously, with some of our own particular friends; and yet, +until late in this summer, _Anno Domini_ 1844, we--that is, neither +ourselves nor our friends--ever heard of its existence. Now a sloth, +even without the benefit of Mr. Waterton's evidence to his character, +will travel faster than that. But malice, which travels fastest of +all things, must be dead and cold at starting, when it can thus have +lingered in the rear for six years; and therefore, though the world +was so far right, that people _do_ say, 'Dead as a door-nail,' yet, +henceforward, the weakest of these people will see the propriety of +saying--'Dead as Gillman's Coleridge.' + +The reader of experience, on sliding over the surface of this opening +paragraph, begins to think there's mischief singing in the upper air. +'No, reader, not at all. We never were cooler in our days. And this we +protest, that, were it not for the excellence of the subject, _Coleridge +and Opium-Eating_, Mr. Gillman would have been dismissed by us +unnoticed. Indeed, we not only forgive Mr. Gillman, but we have +a kindness for him; and on this account, that he was good, he was +generous, he was most forbearing, through twenty years, to poor +Coleridge, when thrown upon his hospitality. An excellent thing _that_, +Mr. Gillman, till, noticing the theme suggested by this unhappy Vol. +I., we are forced at times to notice its author, Nor is this to be +regretted. We remember a line of Horace never yet properly translated, +viz:-- + + 'Nec scutica dignum horribili sectere flagello.' + +The true translation of which, as we assure the unlearned reader, +is--'Nor must you pursue with the horrid knout of Christopher that man +who merits only a switching.' Very true. We protest against all attempts +to invoke the exterminating knout; for _that_ sends a man to the +hospital for two months; but you see that the same judicious poet, who +dissuades an appeal to the knout, indirectly recommends the switch, +which, indeed, is rather pleasant than otherwise, amiably playful +in some of its little caprices, and in its worst, suggesting only a +pennyworth of diachylon. + +We begin by professing, with hearty sincerity, our fervent admiration +of the extraordinary man who furnishes the theme for Mr. Gillman's +_coup-d'essai_ in biography. He was, in a literary sense, our +brother--for he also was amongst the contributors to _Blackwood_--and +will, we presume, take his station in that Blackwood gallery of +portraits, which, in a century hence, will possess more interest for +intellectual Europe than any merely martial series of portraits, or any +gallery of statesmen assembled in congress, except as regards one or two +leaders; for defunct major-generals, and secondary diplomatists, +when their date is past, awake no more emotion than last year's +advertisements, or obsolete directories; whereas those who, in a stormy +age, have swept the harps of passion, of genial wit, or of the wrestling +and gladiatorial reason, become more interesting to men when they can no +longer be seen as bodily agents, than even in the middle chorus of that +intellectual music over which, living, they presided. + +Of this great camp Coleridge was a leader, and fought amongst the +_primipili_; yet, comparatively, he is still unknown. Heavy, indeed, are +the arrears still due to philosophic curiosity on the real merits, +and on the separate merits, of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Coleridge as a +poet--Coleridge as a philosopher! How extensive are those questions, +if those were all! and upon neither question have we yet any +investigation--such as, by compass of views, by research, or even by +earnestness of sympathy with the subject, can, or ought to satisfy, a +philosophic demand. Blind is that man who can persuade himself that the +interest in Coleridge, taken as a total object, is becoming an obsolete +interest. We are of opinion that even Milton, now viewed from a distance +of two centuries, is still inadequately judged or appreciated in +his character of poet, of patriot and partisan, or, finally, in his +character of accomplished scholar. But, if so, how much less can it +be pretended that satisfaction has been rendered to the claims of +Coleridge? for, upon Milton, libraries have been written. There has been +time for the malice of men, for the jealousy of men, for the enthusiasm, +the scepticism, the adoring admiration of men, to expand themselves! +There has been room for a Bentley, for an Addison, for a Johnson, for a +wicked Lauder, for an avenging Douglas, for an idolizing Chateaubriand; +and yet, after all, little enough has been done towards any +comprehensive estimate of the mighty being concerned. Piles of materials +have been gathered to the ground; but, for the monument which should +have risen from these materials, neither the first stone has been laid, +nor has a qualified architect yet presented his credentials. On the +other hand, upon Coleridge little, comparatively, has yet been written, +whilst the separate characters on which the judgment is awaited, are +more by one than those which Milton sustained. Coleridge, also, is a +poet; Coleridge, also, was mixed up with the fervent politics of his +age--an age how memorably reflecting the revolutionary agitations of +Milton's age. Coleridge, also, was an extensive and brilliant scholar. +Whatever might be the separate proportions of the two men in each +particular department of the three here noticed, think as the reader +will upon that point, sure we are that either subject is ample enough to +make a strain upon the amplest faculties. How alarming, therefore, +for any _honest_ critic, who should undertake this later subject of +Coleridge, to recollect that, after pursuing him through a zodiac of +splendors corresponding to those of Milton in kind, however different in +degree--after weighing him as a poet, as a philosophic politician, as +a scholar, he will have to wheel after him into another orbit, into +the unfathomable _nimbus_ of transcendental metaphysics. Weigh him the +critic must in the golden balance of philosophy the most abstruse--a +balance which even itself requires weighing previously, or he will +have done nothing that can be received for an estimate of the composite +Coleridge. This astonishing man, be it again remembered, besides being +an exquisite poet, a profound political speculator, a philosophic +student of literature through all its chambers and recesses, was also +a circumnavigator on the most pathless waters of scholasticism and +metaphysics. He had sounded, without guiding charts, the secret deeps +of Proclus and Plotinus; he had laid down buoys on the twilight, or +moonlight, ocean of Jacob Boehmen; [Footnote: 'JACOB BOEHMEN.' We +ourselves had the honor of presenting to Mr. Coleridge, Law's English +version of Jacob--a set of huge quartos. Some months afterwards we saw +this work lying open, and one volume at least overflowing, in parts, +with the commentaries and the _corollaries_ of Coleridge. Whither has +this work, and so many others swathed about with Coleridge's MS. notes, +vanished from the world?] he had cruised over the broad Atlantic of Kant +and Schelling, of Fichte and Oken. Where is the man who shall be equal +to these things? We at least make no such adventurous effort; or, if +ever we should presume to do so, not at present. Here we design only +to make a coasting voyage of survey round the headlands and most +conspicuous seamarks of our subject, as they are brought forward by +Mr. Gillman, or collaterally suggested by our own reflections; and +especially we wish to say a word or two on Coleridge as an opium-eater. + +Naturally the first point to which we direct our attention, is the +history and personal relations of Coleridge. Living with Mr. Gillman for +nineteen years as a domesticated friend, Coleridge ought to have +been known intimately. And it is reasonable to expect, from so much +intercourse, some additions to our slender knowledge of Coleridge's +adventures, (if we may use so coarse a word,) and of the secret springs +at work in those early struggles of Coleridge at Cambridge, London, +Bristol, which have been rudely told to the world, and repeatedly told, +as showy romances, but never rationally explained. + +The anecdotes, however, which Mr. Gillman has added to the personal +history of Coleridge, are as little advantageous to the effect of his +own book as they are to the interest of the memorable character which he +seeks to illustrate. Always they are told without grace, and generally +are suspicious in their details. Mr. Gillman we believe to be too +upright a man for countenancing any untruth. He has been deceived. For +example, will any man believe this? A certain 'excellent equestrian' +falling in with Coleridge on horseback, thus accosted him--'Pray, Sir, +did you meet a tailor along the road?' '_A tailor_!' answered Coleridge; +'_I did meet a person answering such a description, who told me he had +dropped his goose; that if I rode a little further I should find it; and +I guess he must have meant you._' In Joe Miller this story would +read, perhaps, sufferably. Joe has a privilege; and we do not look too +narrowly into the mouth of a Joe-Millerism. But Mr. Gillman, writing +the life of a philosopher, and no jest-book, is under a different law of +decorum. That retort, however, which silences the jester, it may seem, +must be a good one. And we are desired to believe that, in this case, +the baffled assailant rode off in a spirit of benign candor, saying +aloud to himself, like the excellent philosopher that he evidently was, +'Caught a Tartar!' + +But another story of a sporting baronet, who was besides a Member of +Parliament, is much worse, and altogether degrading to Coleridge. +This gentleman, by way of showing off before a party of ladies, is +represented as insulting Coleridge by putting questions to him on the +qualities of his horse, so as to draw the animal's miserable defects +into public notice, and then closing his display by demanding what he +would take for the horse 'including the rider.' The supposed reply +of Coleridge might seem good to those who understand nothing of true +dignity; for, as an _impromptu_, it was smart and even caustic. The +baronet, it seems, was reputed to have been bought by the minister; and +the reader will at once divine that the retort took advantage of that +current belief, so as to throw back the sarcasm, by proclaiming that +neither horse nor rider had a price placarded in the market at which any +man could become their purchaser. But this was not the temper in which +Coleridge either did reply, or could have replied. Coleridge showed, in +the _spirit_ of his manner, a profound sensibility to the nature of +a gentleman; and he felt too justly what it became a self-respecting +person to say, ever to have aped the sort of flashy fencing which might +seem fine to a theatrical blood. + +Another story is self-refuted: 'A hired partisan' had come to one of +Coleridge's political lectures with the express purpose of bringing the +lecturer into trouble; and most preposterously he laid himself open +to his own snare by refusing to pay for admission. Spies must be poor +artists who proceed thus. Upon which Coleridge remarked--'That, before +the gentleman kicked up a dust, surely he would down with the dust.' +So far the story will not do. But what follows is possible enough. +The _same_ 'hired' gentleman, by way of giving unity to the tale, is +described as having hissed. Upon this a cry arose of 'Turn him out!' But +Coleridge interfered to protect him; he insisted on the man's right to +hiss if he thought fit; it was legal to hiss; it was natural to hiss; +'for what is to be expected, gentlemen, when the cool waters of reason +come in contact with red-hot aristocracy, but a hiss?' _Euge!_ + +Amongst all the anecdotes, however of this splendid man, often trivial, +often incoherent, often unauthenticated, there is one which strikes us +as both true and interesting; and we are grateful to Mr. Gillman for +preserving it. We find it introduced, and partially authenticated, by +the following sentence from Coleridge himself:--'From eight to fourteen +I was a playless day-dreamer, a _helluo librorum_; my appetite for which +was indulged by a singular incident. A stranger, who was struck by my +conversation, made me free of a circulating library in King's Street, +Cheapside.' The more circumstantial explanation of Mr. Gillman is this: +`The incident indeed was singular. Going down the Strand, in one of his +day-dreams, fancying himself swimming across the Hellespont, thrusting +his hands before him as in the act of swimming, his hand came in contact +with a gentleman's pocket. The gentleman seized his hand, turning round, +and looking at him with some anger--"What! so young, and yet so wicked?" +at the same time accused him of an attempt to pick his pocket. The +frightened boy sobbed out his denial of the intention, and explained to +him how he thought himself Leander swimming across the Hellespont. The +gentleman was so struck and delighted with the novelty of the thing, and +with the simplicity and intelligence of the boy, that he subscribed, +as before stated, to the library; in consequence of which Coleridge was +further enabled to indulge his love of reading.' + +We fear that this slovenly narrative is the very perfection of bad +story-telling. But the story itself is striking, and, by the very +oddness of the incidents, not likely to have been invented. The effect, +from the position of the two parties--on the one side, a simple child +from Devonshire, dreaming in the Strand that he was swimming over from +Sestos to Abydos, and, on the other, the experienced man, dreaming +only of this world, its knaves and its thieves, but still kind and +generous--is beautiful and picturesque. _Oh! si sic omnia!_ + +But the most interesting to us of the _personalities_ connected with +Coleridge are his feuds and his personal dislikes. Incomprehensible to +us is the war of extermination which Coleridge made upon the political +economists. Did Sir James Steuart, in speaking of vine-dressers, (not +_as_ vine-dressers, but generally as cultivators,) tell his readers, +that, if such a man simply replaced his own consumption, having no +surplus whatever or increment for the public capital, he could not be +considered a useful citizen? Not the beast in the Revelation is held up +by Coleridge as more hateful to the spirit of truth than the Jacobite +baronet. And yet we know of an author--viz., one S. T. Coleridge--who +repeated that same doctrine without finding any evil in it. Look at the +first part of the _Wallenstein_, where Count Isolani having said, 'Pooh! +we are _all_ his subjects,' _i. e._, soldiers, (though unproductive +laborers,) not less than productive peasants, the emperor's envoy +replies--'Yet with a difference, general;' and the difference implies +Sir James's scale, his vine-dresser being the equatorial case between +the two extremes of the envoy. Malthus again, in his population-book, +contends for a mathematic difference between animal and vegetable life, +in respect to the law of increase, as though the first increased by +geometrical ratios, the last by arithmetical! No proposition more +worthy of laughter; since both, when permitted to expand, increase +by geometrical ratios, and the latter by much higher ratios. Whereas, +Malthus persuaded himself of his crotchet simply by refusing the +requisite condition in the vegetable case, and granting it in the +other. If you take a few grains of wheat, and are required to plant all +successive generations of their produce in the same flower-pot for ever, +of course you neutralize its expansion by your own act of arbitrary +limitation. [Footnote: Malthus would have rejoined by saying--that the +flowerpot limitation was the actual limitation of nature in our present +circumstances. In America it is otherwise, he would say, but England +is the very flowerpot you suppose; she is a flowerpot which cannot be +multiplied, and cannot even be enlarged. Very well, so be it (which we +say in order to waive irrelevant disputes). But then the true inference +will be--not that vegetable increase proceeds under a different law from +that which governs animal increase, but that, through an accident of +position, the experiment cannot be tried in England. Surely the levers +of Archimedes, with submission to Sir Edward B. Lytton, were not the +less levers because he wanted the _locum standi_. It is proper, by the +way, that we should inform the reader of this generation where to look +for Coleridge's skirmishings with Malthus. They are to be found chiefly +in the late Mr. William Hazlitt's work on that subject: a work which +Coleridge so far claimed as to assert that it had been substantially +made up from his own conversation.] But so you would do, if you tried +the case of _animal_ increase by still exterminating all but one +replacing couple of parents. This is not to try, but merely a pretence +of trying, one order of powers against another. That was folly. But +Coleridge combated this idea in a manner so obscure, that nobody +understood it. And leaving these speculative conundrums, in coming to +the great practical interests afloat in the Poor Laws, Coleridge did so +little real work, that he left, as a _res integra_, to Dr. Alison, +the capital argument that legal and _adequate_ provision for the poor, +whether impotent poor or poor accidentally out of work, does not extend +pauperism--no, but is the one great resource for putting it down. Dr. +Alison's overwhelming and _experimental_ manifestations of that truth +have prostrated Malthus and his generation for ever. This comes of not +attending to the Latin maxim--'_Hoc_ age'--mind the object before you. +Dr. Alison, a wise man, '_hoc_ egit:' Coleridge '_aliud_ egit.' And we +see the result. In a case which suited him, by interesting his peculiar +feeling, Coleridge could command + + 'Attention full ten times as much as there needs.' + +But search documents, value evidence, or thresh out bushels of +statistical tables, Coleridge could not, any more than he could ride +with Elliot's dragoons. + +Another instance of Coleridge's inaptitude for such studies as political +economy is found in his fancy, by no means 'rich and rare,' but meagre +and trite, that taxes can never injure public prosperity by mere excess +of quantity; if they injure, we are to conclude that it must be by their +quality and mode of operation, or by their false appropriation, (as, +for instance, if they are sent out of the country and spent abroad.) +Because, says Coleridge, if the taxes are exhaled from the country as +vapors, back they come in drenching showers. Twenty pounds ascend in a +Scotch mist to the Chancellor of the Exchequer from Leeds; but does it +evaporate? Not at all: By return of post down comes an order for twenty +pounds' worth of Leeds cloth, on account of Government, seeing that +the poor men of the ----th regiment want new gaiters. True; but of this +return twenty pounds, not more than four will be profit, _i.e._, surplus +accruing to the public capital; whereas, of the original twenty pounds, +every shilling was surplus. The same unsound fancy has been many times +brought forward; often in England, often in France. But it is curious, +that its first appearance upon any stage was precisely two centuries +ago, when as yet political economy slept with the pre-Adamites, viz., in +the Long Parliament. In a quarto volume of the debates during 1644-45, +printed as an independent work, will be found the same identical +doctrine, supported very sonorously by the same little love of an +illustration from the see-saw of mist and rain. + +Political economy was not Coleridge's forte. In politics he was happier. +In mere personal politics, he (like every man when reviewed from a +station distant by forty years) will often appear to have erred; nay, +he will be detected and nailed in error. But this is the necessity of us +all. Keen are the refutations of time. And absolute results to posterity +are the fatal touchstone of opinions in the past. It is undeniable, +besides, that Coleridge had strong personal antipathies, for instance, +to Messrs. Pitt and Dundas. Yet _why_, we never could understand. We +once heard him tell a story upon Windermere, to the late Mr. Curwen, +then M. P. for Workington, which was meant, apparently, to account +for this feeling. The story amounted to this; that, when a freshman at +Cambridge, Mr. Pitt had wantonly amused himself at a dinner party +in Trinity, in smashing with filberts (discharged in showers like +grape-shot) a most costly dessert set of cut glass, from which +Samuel Taylor Coleridge argued a principle of destructiveness in his +_cerebellum_. Now, if this dessert set belonged to some poor suffering +Trinitarian, and not to himself, we are of opinion that he was faulty, +and ought, upon his own great subsequent maxim, to have been coerced +into 'indemnity for the past, and security for the future.' But, besides +that this glassy _mythus_ belongs to an aera fifteen years earlier than +Coleridge's so as to justify a shadow of scepticism, we really cannot +find, in such an _escapade_ under the boiling blood of youth, any +sufficient justification of that withering malignity towards the name +of Pitt, which runs through Coleridge's famous _Fire, Famine, +and Slaughter_. As this little viperous _jeu-d'esprit_ (published +anonymously) subsequently became the subject of a celebrated +after-dinner discussion in London, at which Coleridge (_comme de +raison_) was the chief speaker, the reader of this generation may wish +to know the question at issue; and in order to judge of _that_, he must +know the outline of this devil's squib. The writer brings upon the scene +three pleasant young ladies, viz., Miss Fire, Miss Famine, and Miss +Slaughter. 'What are you up to? What's the row?'--we may suppose to +be the introductory question of the poet. And the answer of the ladies +makes us aware that they are fresh from larking in Ireland, and +in France. A glorious spree they had; lots of fun; and laughter _a +discretion_. At all times _gratus puellae risus ab angulo_; so that we +listen to their little gossip with interest. They had been setting +men, it seems, by the ears; and the drollest little atrocities they do +certainly report. Not but we have seen better in the Nenagh paper, so +far as Ireland is concerned. But the pet little joke was in La Vendee. +Miss Famine, who is the girl for our money, raises the question--whether +any of them can tell the name of the leader and prompter to these high +jinks of hell--if so, let her whisper it. + + 'Whisper it, sister, so and so, + In a dark hint--distinct and low.' + +Upon which the playful Miss Slaughter replies:-- + + 'Letters _four_ do form his name. + * * * * * + He came by stealth and unlock'd my den; + And I have drunk the blood since then + Of thrice three hundred thousand men.' + +Good: but the sting of the hornet lies in the conclusion. If this +quadriliteral man had done so much for _them_, (though really, we think, +6s. 8d. might have settled his claim,) what, says Fire, setting her arms +a-kimbo, would they do for _him_? Slaughter replies, rather crustily, +that, as far as a good kicking would go--or (says Famine) a little +matter of tearing to pieces by the mob--they would be glad to take +tickets at his benefit. 'How, you bitches!' says Fire, 'is that all? + + 'I alone am faithful; I + _Cling to him everlastingly_.' + +The sentiment is diabolical. And the question argued at the London +dinner-table was--Could the writer have been other than a devil? The +dinner was at the late excellent Mr. Sotheby's, known advantageously in +those days as the translator of Wieland's _Oberon_. Several of the great +guns amongst the literary body were present; in particular, Sir +Walter Scott; and he, we believe, with his usual good-nature, took the +apologetic side of the dispute. In fact, he was in the secret. Nobody +else, barring the author, knew at first whose good name was at stake. +The scene must have been high. The company kicked about the poor +diabolic writer's head as if it had been a tennis-ball. Coleridge, the +yet unknown criminal, absolutely perspired and fumed in pleading for the +defendant; the company demurred; the orator grew urgent; wits began to +_smoke_ the case, as active verbs; the advocate to _smoke_, as a neuter +verb; the 'fun grew fast and furious;' until at length _delinquent +arose_, burning tears in his eyes, and confessed to an audience, (now +bursting with stifled laughter, but whom he supposed to be bursting with +fiery indignation,) 'Lo! I am he that wrote it.' + +For our own parts, we side with Coleridge. Malice is not always of the +heart. There is a malice of the understanding and the fancy. Neither do +we think the worse of a man for having invented the most horrible and +old-woman-troubling curse that demons ever listened to. We are too apt +to swear horribly ourselves; and often have we frightened the cat, to +say nothing of the kettle, by our shocking [far too shocking!] oaths. + +There were other celebrated men whom Coleridge detested, or seemed +to detest--Paley, Sir Sidney Smith, Lord Hutchinson, (the last Lord +Donoughmore,) and Cuvier. To Paley it might seem as if his antipathy had +been purely philosophic; but we believe that partly it was personal; +and it tallies with this belief, that, in his earliest political tracts, +Coleridge charged the archdeacon repeatedly with his own joke, as if +it had been a serious saying, viz.--'That he could not afford to keep +a conscience;' such luxuries, like a carriage, for instance, being +obviously beyond the finances of poor men. + +With respect to the philosophic question between the parties, as to the +grounds of moral election, we hope it is no treason to suggest that both +were perhaps in error. Against Paley, it occurs at once that he himself +would not have made consequences the _practical_ test in valuing the +morality of an act, since these can very seldom be traced at all up to +the final stages, and in the earliest stages are exceedingly different +under different circumstances; so that the same act, tried by its +consequences, would bear a fluctuating appreciation. This could not have +been Paley's _revised_ meaning. Consequently, had he been pressed +by opposition, it would have come out, that by _test_ he meant only +_speculative_ test: a very harmless doctrine certainly, but useless +and impertinent to any purpose of his system. The reader may catch our +meaning in the following illustration. It is a matter of general belief, +that happiness, upon the whole, follows in a higher degree from constant +integrity, than from the closest attention to self-interest. Now +happiness is one of those consequences which Paley meant by final or +remotest. But we could never use this idea as an exponent of integrity, +or interchangeable criterion, because happiness cannot be ascertained or +appreciated except upon long tracts of time, whereas the particular act +of integrity depends continually upon the election of the moment. No +man, therefore, could venture to lay down as a rule, Do what makes you +happy; use this as your test of actions, satisfied that in that case +always you will do the thing which is right. For he cannot discern +independently what _will_ make him happy; and he must decide on the +spot. The use of the _nexus_ between morality and happiness must +therefore be inverted; it is not practical or prospective, but simply +retrospective; and in that form it says no more than the good old rules +hallowed in every cottage. But this furnishes no practical guide for +moral election which a man had not, before he ever thought of this +_nexus_. In the sense in which it is true, we need not go to the +professor's chair for this maxim; in the sense in which it would serve +Paley, it is absolutely false. + +On the other hand, as against Coleridge, it is certain that many acts +could be mentioned which are judged to be good or bad only because their +consequences are known to be so, whilst the great catholic acts of life +are entirely (and, if we may so phrase it, haughtily) independent of +consequences. For instance, fidelity to a trust is a law of immutable +morality subject to no casuistry whatever. You have been left executor +to a friend--you are to pay over his last legacy to X, though a +dissolute scoundrel; and you are to give no shilling of it to the +poor brother of X, though a good man, and a wise man, struggling +with adversity. You are absolutely excluded from all contemplation of +results. It was your deceased friend's right to make the will; it is +yours simply to see it executed. Now, in opposition to this primary +class of actions stands another, such as the habit of intoxication, +which are known to be wrong only by observing the consequences. If +drunkenness did not terminate, after some years, in producing bodily +weakness, irritability in the temper, and so forth, it would _not_ be a +vicious act. And accordingly, if a transcendent motive should arise in +favor of drunkenness, as that it would enable you to face a degree of +cold, or contagion, else menacing to life, a duty would arise, _pro hac +vice_, of getting drunk. We had an amiable friend who suffered under +the infirmity of cowardice; an awful coward he was when sober; but, +when very drunk, he had courage enough for the Seven Champions of +Christendom, Therefore, in an emergency, where he knew himself suddenly +loaded with the responsibility of defending a family, we approved highly +of his getting drunk. But to violate a trust could never become right +under any change of circumstances. Coleridge, however, altogether +overlooked this distinction: which, on the other hand, stirring in +Paley's mind, but never brought out to distinct consciousness, nor ever +investigated, nor limited, has undermined his system. Perhaps it is not +very important how a man _theorizes_ upon morality; happily for us all, +God has left no man in such questions practically to the guidance of his +understanding; but still, considering that academic bodies _are_ +partly instituted for the support of speculative truth as well as truth +practical, we must think it a blot upon the splendor of Oxford and +Cambridge that both of them, in a Christian land, make Paley the +foundation of their ethics; the alternative being Aristotle. And, in +our mind, though far inferior as a moralist to the Stoics, Aristotle is +often less of a pagan than Paley. + +Coleridge's dislike to Sir Sidney Smith and the Egyptian Lord Hutchinson +fell under the category of Martial's case. + + 'Non amo te, Sabidi, nec possum dicere quare, + Hoc solum novi--non amo te, Sabidi.' + +Against Lord Hutchinson, we never heard him plead anything of moment, +except that he was finically Frenchified in his diction; of which he +gave this instance--that having occasion to notice a brick wall, (which +was literally _that_, not more and not less,) when reconnoitring the +French defences, he called it a _revetement_. And we ourselves remember +his using the French word _gloriole_ rather ostentatiously; that is, +when no particular emphasis attached to the case. But every man has his +foibles; and few, perhaps, are less conspicuously annoying than this of +Lord Hutchinson's. Sir Sidney's crimes were less distinctly revealed +to our mind. As to Cuvier, Coleridge's hatred of _him_ was more to our +taste; for (though quite unreasonable, we fear) it took the shape of +patriotism. He insisted on it, that our British John Hunter was the +genuine article, and that Cuvier was a humbug. Now, speaking privately +to the public, we cannot go quite so far as _that_. But, when publicly +we address that most respectable character, _en grand costume_, +we always mean to back Coleridge. For we are a horrible John Bull +ourselves. As Joseph Hume observes, it makes no difference to us--right +or wrong, black or white--when our countrymen are concerned. And John +Hunter, notwithstanding he had a bee in his bonnet, [Footnote: _Vide_, +in particular, for the most exquisite specimen of pigheadedness that the +world can furnish, his perverse evidence on the once famous case at the +Warwick assizes, of Captain Donelan for poisoning his brother-in-law, +Sir Theodosius Boughton.] was really a great man; though it will not +follow that Cuvier must, therefore, have been a little one. We do not +pretend to be acquainted with the tenth part of Cuvier's performances; +but we suspect that Coleridge's range in that respect was not much +greater than our own. + +Other cases of monomaniac antipathy we might revive from our +recollections of Coleridge, had we a sufficient motive. But in +compensation, and by way of redressing the balance, he had many strange +likings--equally monomaniac--and, unaccountably, he chose to exhibit his +whimsical partialities by dressing up, as it were, in his own clothes, +such a set of scarecrows as eye has not beheld. Heavens! what an ark +of unclean beasts would have been Coleridge's private _menagerie_ +of departed philosophers, could they all have been trotted out in +succession! But did the reader feel them to be the awful bores which, +in fact, they were? No; because Coleridge had blown upon these withered +anatomies, through the blowpipe of his own creative genius, a stream of +gas that swelled the tissue of their antediluvian wrinkles, forced color +upon their cheeks, and splendor upon their sodden eyes. Such a process +of ventriloquism never _has_ existed. He spoke by their organs. They +were the tubes; and he forced through their wooden machinery his own +Beethoven harmonies. + +First came Dr. Andrew Bell. We knew him. Was he dull? Is a wooden spoon +dull? Fishy were his eyes; torpedinous was his manner; and his main +idea, out of two which he really had, related to the moon--from which +you infer, perhaps, that he was lunatic. By no means. It was no craze, +under the influence of the moon, which possessed him; it was an idea of +mere hostility to the moon. The Madras people, like many others, had an +idea that she influenced the weather. Subsequently the Herschels, +senior and junior, systematized this idea; and then the wrath of Andrew, +previously in a crescent state, actually dilated to a plenilunar orb. +The Westmoreland people (for at the lakes it was we knew him) expounded +his condition to us by saying that he was 'maffled;' which word means +'perplexed in the extreme.' His wrath did not pass into lunacy; it +produced simple distraction; an uneasy fumbling with the idea; like that +of an old superannuated dog who longs to worry, but cannot for want of +teeth. In this condition you will judge that he was rather tedious. And +in this condition Coleridge took him up. Andrew's other idea, because he +_had_ two, related to education. Perhaps six-sevenths of that also came +from Madras. No matter, Coleridge took _that_ up; Southey also; but +Southey with his usual temperate fervor. Coleridge, on the other +hand, found celestial marvels both in the scheme and in the man. Then +commenced the apotheosis of Andrew Bell: and because it happened that +his opponent, Lancaster, between ourselves, really _had_ stolen his +ideas from Bell, what between the sad wickedness of Lancaster and the +celestial transfiguration of Bell, gradually Coleridge heated himself to +such an extent, that people, when referring to that subject, asked each +other, 'Have you heard Coleridge lecture on _Bel and the Dragon_?' + +The next man glorified by Coleridge was John Woolman, the Quaker. Him, +though we once possessed his works, it cannot be truly affirmed that +we ever read. Try to read John, we often did; but read John we did not. +This, however, you say, might be our fault, and not John's. Very likely. +And we have a notion that now, with our wiser thoughts, we _should_ read +John, if he were here on this table. It is certain that he was a good +man, and one of the earliest in America, if not in Christendom, who +lifted up his hand to protest against the slave-trade. But still, we +suspect, that had John been all that Coleridge represented, he would +not have repelled us from reading his travels in the fearful way that he +did. But, again, we beg pardon, and entreat the earth of Virginia to lie +light upon the remains of John Woolman; for he was an Israelite, indeed, +in whom there was no guile. + +The third person raised to divine honors by Coleridge was Bowyer, the +master of Christ's Hospital, London--a man whose name rises into +the nostrils of all who knew him with the gracious odor of a +tallow-chandler's melting-house upon melting day, and whose memory +is embalmed in the hearty detestation of all his pupils. Coleridge +describes this man as a profound critic. Our idea of him is different. +We are of opinion that Bowyer was the greatest villain of the eighteenth +century. We may be wrong; but we cannot be _far_ wrong. Talk of +knouting indeed! which we did at the beginning of this paper in the +mere playfulness of our hearts--and which the great master of the knout, +Christopher, who visited men's trespasses like the Eumenides, never +resorted to but in love for some great idea which had been outraged; +why, this man knouted his way through life, from bloody youth up to +truculent old age. Grim idol! whose altars reeked with children's blood, +and whose dreadful eyes never smiled except as the stern goddess of the +Thugs smiles, when the sound of human lamentations inhabits her ears. +So much had the monster fed upon this great idea of 'flogging,' and +transmuted it into the very nutriment of his heart, that he seems to +have conceived the gigantic project of flogging all mankind; nay +worse, for Mr. Gillman, on Coleridge's authority, tells us (p. 24) the +following anecdote:--'"_Sirrah, I'll flog you_," were words so familiar +to him, that on one occasion some _female_ friend of one of the boys,' +(who had come on an errand of intercession,) 'still lingering at the +door, after having been abruptly told to go, Bowyer exclaimed--"Bring +that woman here, and I'll flog her."' + +To this horrid incarnation of whips and scourges, Coleridge, in his +_Biographia Literaria_, ascribes ideas upon criticism and taste, which +every man will recognise as the intense peculiarities of Coleridge. +Could these notions really have belonged to Bowyer, then how do we know +but he wrote _The Ancient Mariner_? Yet, on consideration, no. For even +Coleridge admitted that, spite of his fine theorizing upon composition, +Mr. Bowyer did not prosper in the practice. Of which he gave us this +illustration; and as it is supposed to be the only specimen of the +Bowyeriana which now survives in this sublunary world, we are glad to +extend its glory. It is the most curious example extant of the melodious +in sound:-- + + ''Twas thou that smooth'd'st the rough-rugg'd bed of pain.' + +'Smooth'd'st!' Would the teeth of a crocodile not splinter under that +word? It seems to us as if Mr. Bowyer's verses ought to be boiled before +they can be read. And when he says, 'Twas thou, what is the wretch +talking to? Can he be apostrophizing the knout? We very much fear it. +If so, then, you see (reader!) that, even when incapacitated by illness +from operating, he still adores the image of his holy scourge, and +invokes it as alone able to smooth 'his rough-rugg'd bed.' Oh, +thou infernal Bowyer! upon whom even Trollope (_History of Christ's +Hospital_) charges 'a discipline _tinctured_ with more than due +severity;'--can there be any partners found for thee in a quadrille, +except Draco, the bloody lawgiver, Bishop Bonner, and Mrs. Brownrigg? + +The next pet was Sir Alexander Ball. Concerning Bowyer, Coleridge did +not talk much, but chiefly wrote; concerning Bell, he did not write +much, but chiefly talked. Concerning Ball, however, he both wrote +and talked. It was in vain to muse upon any plan for having Ball +blackballed, or for rebelling against Bell. Think of a man, who had +fallen into one pit called Bell; secondly, falling into another pit +called Ball. This was too much. We were obliged to quote poetry against +them:-- + + 'Letters four do form his name; + He came by stealth and unlock'd my den; + And the nightmare I have felt since then + Of thrice three hundred thousand men.' + +Not that we insinuate any disrespect to Sir Alexander Ball. He was +about the foremost, we believe, in all good qualities, amongst Nelson's +admirable captains at the Nile. He commanded a seventy-four most +effectually in that battle; he governed Malta as well as Sancho governed +Barataria; and he was a true practical philosopher--as, indeed, was +Sancho. But still, by all that we could ever learn, Sir Alexander had +no taste for the abstract upon any subject; and would have read, as +mere delirious wanderings, those philosophic opinions which Coleridge +fastened like wings upon his respectable, but astounded, shoulders. + +We really beg pardon for having laughed a little at these crazes of +Coleridge. But laugh we did, of mere necessity, in those days, at +Bell and Ball, whenever we did not groan. And, as the same precise +alternative offered itself now, viz., that, in recalling the case, we +must reverberate either the groaning or the laughter, we presumed the +reader would vote for the last. Coleridge, we are well convinced, owed +all these wandering and exaggerated estimates of men--these diseased +impulses, that, like the _mirage_, showed lakes and fountains where +in reality there were only arid deserts, to the derangements worked by +opium. But now, for the sake of change, let us pass to another topic. +Suppose we say a word or two on Coleridge's accomplishments as a +scholar. We are not going to enter on so large a field as that of his +scholarship in connection with his philosophic labors, scholarship in +the result; not this, but scholarship in the means and machinery, range +of _verbal_ scholarship, is what we propose for a moment's review. + +For instance, what sort of a German scholar was Coleridge? We dare +say that, because in his version of the _Wallenstein_ there are some +inaccuracies, those who may have noticed them will hold him cheap in +this particular pretension. But, to a certain degree, they will be +wrong. Coleridge was not _very_ accurate in anything but in the use of +logic. All his philological attainments were imperfect. He did not +talk German; or so obscurely--and, if he attempted to speak fast, so +erroneously--that in his second sentence, when conversing with a German +lady of rank, he contrived to assure her that in his humble opinion she +was a ----. Hard it is to fill up the hiatus decorously; but, in fact, +the word very coarsely expressed that she was no better than she should +be. Which reminds us of a parallel misadventure to a German, whose +colloquial English had been equally neglected. Having obtained an +interview with an English lady, he opened his business (whatever it +might be) thus--'High-born madam, since your husband have kicked de +bucket'----'Sir!' interrupted the lady, astonished and displeased. 'Oh, +pardon!--nine, ten thousand pardon! Now, I make new beginning--quite +oder beginning. Madam, since your husband have cut his stick'----It may +be supposed that this did not mend matters; and, reading that in the +lady's countenance, the German drew out an octavo dictionary, and said, +perspiring with shame at having a second time missed fire,--'Madam, +since your husband have gone to kingdom come'----This he said +beseechingly; but the lady was past propitiation by this time, and +rapidly moved towards the door. Things had now reached a crisis; and, if +something were not done quickly, the game was up. Now, therefore, taking +a last hurried look at his dictionary, the German flew after the lady, +crying out in a voice of despair--'Madam, since your husband, your most +respected husband, have hopped de twig'----This was his sheet-anchor; +and, as this also _came home_, of course the poor man was totally +wrecked. It turned out that the dictionary he had used (Arnold's, we +think,)--a work of a hundred years back, and, from mere ignorance, +giving slang translations from Tom Brown, L'Estrange, and other jocular +writers--had put down the verb _sterben (to die)_ with the following +worshipful series of equivalents--1. To kick the bucket; 2. To cut one's +stick; 3. To go to kingdom come; 4. To hop the twig. + +But, though Coleridge did not pretend to any fluent command of +conversational German, he read it with great ease. His knowledge +of German literature was, indeed, too much limited by his rare +opportunities for commanding anything like a well-mounted library. And +particularly it surprised us that Coleridge knew little or nothing of +John Paul (Richter). But his acquaintance with the German philosophic +masters was extensive. And his valuation of many individual German words +or phrases was delicate and sometimes profound. + +As a Grecian, Coleridge must be estimated with a reference to the state +and standard of Greek literature at that time and in this country. +Porson had not yet raised our ideal. The earliest laurels of Coleridge +were gathered, however, in that field. Yet no man will, at this day, +pretend that the Greek of his prize ode is sufferable. Neither did +Coleridge ever become an accurate Grecian in later times, when better +models of scholarship, and better aids to scholarship, had begun +to multiply. But still we must assert this point of superiority for +Coleridge, that, whilst he never was what may be called a well-mounted +scholar in any department of verbal scholarship, he yet displayed +sometimes a brilliancy of conjectural sagacity, and a felicity of +philosophic investigation, even in this path, such as better scholars do +not often attain, and of a kind which cannot be learned from books. But, +as respects his accuracy, again we must recall to the reader the state +of Greek literature in England during Coleridge's youth; and, in all +equity, as a means of placing Coleridge in the balances, specifically we +must recall the state of Greek metrical composition at that period. + +To measure the condition of Greek literature even in Cambridge, about +the initial period of Coleridge, we need only look back to the several +translations of Gray's _Elegy_ by three (if not four) of the reverend +gentlemen at that time attached to Eton College. Mathias, no very great +scholar himself in this particular field, made himself merry, in his +_Pursuits of Literature_, with these Eton translations. In that he was +right. But he was _not_ right in praising a contemporary translation by +Cook, who (we believe) was the immediate predecessor of Porson in +the Greek chair. As a specimen of this translation, [Footnote: It was +printed at the end of Aristotle's _Poetics_, which Dr. Cook edited.] we +cite one stanza; and we cannot be supposed to select unfairly, because +it is the stanza which Mathias praises in extravagant terms. "Here," +says he, "Gray, Cook, and Nature, do seem to contend for the mastery." +The English quatrain must be familiar to every body:-- + + "The boast of heraldry, the pomp of pow'r, + And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave, + Await alike the inevitable hour: + The paths of glory lead but to the grave." + +And the following, we believe, though quoting from a thirty-three years' +recollection of it, is the exact Greek version of Cook:-- + + 'A charis eugenon, charis a basilaeidos achas + Lora tuchaes chryseaes, Aphroditaes kala ta dora, + Paith ama tauta tethiake, kai eiden morsimon amar + Proon kle olole, kai ocheto xunon es Adaen.' + +Now really these verses, by force of a little mosaic tesselation from +genuine Greek sources, pass fluently over the tongue; but can they be +considered other than a _cento_? Swarms of English schoolboys, at this +day, would not feel very proud to adopt them. In fact, we remember (at a +period say twelve years later than this) some iambic verses, which were +really composed by a boy, viz., a son of Dr. Prettyman, (afterwards +Tomline,) Bishop of Winchester, and, in earlier times, private tutor to +Mr. Pitt; they were published by Middleton, first Bishop of Calcutta, +in the preface to his work on the Greek article; and for racy idiomatic +Greek, self-originated, and not a mere mocking-bird's iteration of alien +notes, are so much superior to all the attempts of these sexagenarian +doctors, as distinctly to mark the growth of a new era and a new +generation in this difficult accomplishment, within the first decennium +of this century. It is singular that only one blemish is suggested by +any of the contemporary critics in Dr. Cook's verses, viz., in the +word _xunon_, for which this critic proposes to substitute _ooinon_, +to prevent, as he observes, the last syllable of _ocheto_ from being +lengthened by the _x_. Such considerations as these are necessary to the +_trutinae castigatio_, before we can value Coleridge's place on the scale +of his own day; which day, _quoad hoc_, be it remembered, was 1790. + +As to French, Coleridge read it with too little freedom to find pleasure +in French literature. Accordingly, we never recollect his referring for +any purpose, either of argument or illustration, to a French classic. +Latin, from his regular scholastic training, naturally he read with a +scholar's fluency; and indeed, he read constantly in authors, such as +Petrarch, Erasmus, Calvin, &c., whom he could not then have found in +translations. But Coleridge had not cultivated an acquaintance with the +delicacies of classic Latinity. And it is remarkable that Wordsworth, +educated most negligently at Hawkshead school, subsequently by reading +the lyric poetry of Horace, simply for his own delight as a student of +composition, made himself a master of Latinity in its most difficult +form; whilst Coleridge, trained regularly in a great Southern school, +never carried his Latin to any classical polish. + +There is another accomplishment of Coleridge's, less broadly open to +the judgment of this generation, and not at all of the next--viz., his +splendid art of conversation, on which it will be interesting to say a +word. Ten years ago, when the music of this rare performance had not yet +ceased to vibrate in men's ears, what a sensation was gathering amongst +the educated classes on this particular subject! What a tumult of +anxiety prevailed to 'hear Mr. Coleridge'--or even to talk with a man +who _had_ heard him! Had he lived till this day, not Paganini would have +been so much sought after. That sensation is now decaying; because a new +generation has emerged during the ten years since his death. But many +still remain whose sympathy (whether of curiosity in those who did _not_ +know him, or of admiration in those who _did_) still reflects as in a +mirror the great stir upon this subject which then was moving in the +world. To these, if they should inquire for the great distinguishing +principle of Coleridge's conversation, we might say that it was the +power of vast combination 'in linked sweetness long drawn out.' +He gathered into focal concentration the largest body of objects, +_apparently_ disconnected, that any man ever yet, by any magic, could +assemble, or, _having_ assembled, could manage. His great fault was, +that, by not opening sufficient spaces for reply or suggestion, or +collateral notice, he not only narrowed his own field, but he grievously +injured the final impression. For when men's minds are purely passive, +when they are not allowed to re-act, then it is that they collapse most, +and that their sense of what is said must ever be feeblest. Doubtless +there must have been great conversational masters elsewhere, and at many +periods; but in this lay Coleridge's characteristic advantage, that he +was a great natural power, and also a great artist. He was a power in +the art, and he carried a new art into the power. + +But now, finally--having left ourselves little room for more--one or two +words on Coleridge as an opium-eater. + +We have not often read a sentence falling from a wise man with +astonishment so profound, as that particular one in a letter of +Coleridge's to Mr. Gillman, which speaks of the effort to wean +one's-self from opium as a trivial task. There are, we believe, several +such passages. But we refer to that one in particular which assumes +that a single 'week' will suffice for the whole process of so mighty a +revolution. Is indeed leviathan _so_ tamed? In that case the quarantine +of the opium-eater might be finished within Coleridge's time, and +with Coleridge's romantic ease. But mark the contradictions of this +extraordinary man. Not long ago we were domesticated with a venerable +rustic, strong-headed, but incurably obstinate in his prejudices, who +treated the whole body of medical men as ignorant pretenders, knowing +absolutely nothing of the system which they professed to superintend. +This, you will remark, is no very singular case. No; nor, as we believe, +is the antagonist case of ascribing to such men magical powers. Nor, +what is worse still, the co-existence of both cases in the same mind, +as in fact happened here. For this same obstinate friend of ours, who +treated all medical pretensions as the mere jest of the universe, every +'third day was exacting from his own medical attendants some exquisite +_tour-de-force_, as that they should know or should do something, +which, if they _had_ known or done, all men would have suspected them +reasonably of magic. He rated the whole medical body as infants; and +yet what he exacted from them every third day as a matter of course, +virtually presumed them to be the only giants within the whole range of +science. Parallel and equal is the contradiction of Coleridge. He speaks +of opium excess, his own excess, we mean--the excess of twenty-five +years--as a thing to be laid aside easily and for ever within seven +days; and yet, on the other hand, he describes it pathetically, +sometimes with a frantic pathos, as the scourge, the curse, the one +almighty blight which had desolated his life. + +This shocking contradiction we need not press. All readers will see +_that_. But some will ask--Was Mr. Coleridge right in either view? +Being so atrociously wrong in the first notion, (viz., that the opium +of twenty-five years was a thing easily to be forsworn,) where a child +could know that he was wrong, was he even altogether right, secondly, +in believing that his own life, root and branch, had been withered by +opium? For it will not follow, because, with a relation to happiness and +tranquillity, a man may have found opium his curse, that therefore, as +a creature of energies and great purposes, he must have been the wreck +which he seems to suppose. Opium gives and takes away. It defeats the +_steady_ habit of exertion, but it creates spasms of irregular exertion; +it ruins the natural power of life, but it develops preternatural +paroxysms of intermitting power. Let us ask of any man who holds that +not Coleridge himself but the world, as interested in Coleridge's +usefulness, has suffered by his addiction to opium; whether he is aware +of the way in which opium affected Coleridge; and secondly, whether +he is aware of the actual contributions to literature--how large they +were--which Coleridge made _in spite_ of opium. All who were intimate +with Coleridge must remember the fits of genial animation which were +created continually in his manner and in his buoyancy of thought by a +recent or by an _extra_ dose of the omnipotent drug. A lady, who knew +nothing experimentally of opium, once told us, that she 'could tell when +Mr. Coleridge had taken too much opium by his shining countenance.' She +was right; we know that mark of opium excesses well, and the cause of +it; or at least we believe the cause to lie in the quickening of the +insensible perspiration which accumulates and glistens on the face. Be +that as it may, a criterion it was that could not deceive us as to the +condition of Coleridge. And uniformly in that condition he made his most +effective intellectual displays. It is true that he might not be happy +under this fiery animation, and we fully believe that he was not. Nobody +is happy under laudanum except for a very short term of years. But in +what way did that operate upon his exertions as a writer? We are of +opinion that it killed Coleridge as a poet. 'The harp of Quantock' was +silenced for ever by the torment of opium. But proportionably it roused +and stung by misery his metaphysical instincts into more spasmodic life. +Poetry can flourish only in the atmosphere of happiness. But subtle and +perplexed investigations of difficult problems are amongst the commonest +resources for beguiling the sense of misery. And for this we have the +direct authority of Coleridge himself speculating on his own case. +In the beautiful though unequal ode entitled _Dejection_, stanza six, +occurs the following passage: + + 'For not to think of what I needs must feel, + But to be still and patient all I can; + _And haply by abstruse research to steal + From my own nature all the natural man_-- + This was my sole resource, my only plan; + Till that, which suits a part, infects the whole, + And now is almost grown the habit of my soul.' + +Considering the exquisite quality of some poems which Coleridge has +composed, nobody can grieve (or _has_ grieved) more than ourselves, at +seeing so beautiful a fountain choked up with weeds. But had Coleridge +been a happier man, it is our fixed belief that we should have had far +less of his philosophy, and perhaps, but not certainly, might have +had more of his general literature. In the estimate of the public, +doubtless, _that_ will seem a bad exchange. Every man to his taste. +Meantime, what we wish to show is, that the loss was not absolute, +but merely relative. + +It is urged, however, that, even on his philosophic speculations, opium +operated unfavorably in one respect, by often causing him to leave them +unfinished. This is true. Whenever Coleridge (being highly charged, +or saturated, with opium) had written with distempered vigor upon any +question, there occurred soon after a recoil of intense disgust, not +from his own paper only, but even from the subject. All opium-eaters are +tainted with the infirmity of leaving works unfinished, and suffering +reactions of disgust. But Coleridge taxed himself with that infirmity in +verse before he could at all have commenced opium-eating. Besides, it is +too much assumed by Coleridge and by his biographer, that to leave off +opium was of course to regain juvenile health. But all opium-eaters make +the mistake of supposing every pain or irritation which they suffer to +be the product of opium. Whereas a wise man will say, suppose you _do_ +leave off opium, that will not deliver you from the load of years (say +sixty-three) which you carry on your back. Charles Lamb, another man of +true genius, and another head belonging to the Blackwood Gallery, made +that mistake in his _Confessions of a Drunkard_. 'I looked back,' says +he, 'to the time when always, on waking in the morning, I had a song +rising to my lips.' At present, it seems, being a drunkard, he has no +such song. Ay, dear Lamb, but note this, that the drunkard was fifty-six +years old, the songster was twenty-three. Take twenty-three from +fifty-six, and we have some reason to believe that thirty-three will +remain; which period of thirty-three years is a pretty good reason for +not singing in the morning, even if brandy has been out of the question. + +It is singular, as respects Coleridge, that Mr. Gillman never says one +word upon the event of the great Highgate experiment for leaving off +laudanum, though Coleridge came to Mr. Gillman's for no other purpose; +and in a week, this vast creation of new earth, sea, and all that in +them is, was to have been accomplished. We _rayther_ think, as Bayley +junior observes, that the explosion must have hung fire. But _that_ is +a trifle. We have another pleasing hypothesis on the subject. Mr. +Wordsworth, in his exquisite lines written on a fly-leaf of his own +_Castle of Indolence_, having described Coleridge as 'a noticeable man +with large grey eyes,' goes on to say, 'He' (viz., Coleridge) 'did that +other man entice' to view his imagery. Now we are sadly afraid that 'the +noticeable man with large grey eyes' did entice 'that other man,' viz., +Gillman, to commence opium-eating. This is droll; and it makes us laugh +horribly. Gillman should have reformed _him_; and lo! _he_ corrupts +Gillman. S. T. Coleridge visited Highgate by way of being converted +from the heresy of opium; and the issue is--that, in two months' time, +various grave men, amongst whom our friend Gillman marches first in +great pomp, are found to have faces shining and glorious as that of +AEsculapius; a fact of which we have already explained the secret +meaning. And scandal says (but then what will not scandal say?) that +a hogshead of opium goes up daily through Highgate tunnel. Surely one +corroboration of our hypothesis may be found in the fact, that Vol. I. +of Gillman's Coleridge is for ever to stand unpropped by Vol. II. For we +have already observed, that opium-eaters, though good fellows upon the +whole, never finish anything. + +What then? A man has a right never to finish anything. Certainly he has; +and by Magna Charta. But he has no right, by Magna Charta or by Parva +Charta, to slander decent men, like ourselves and our friend the author +of the _Opium Confessions_. Here it is that our complaint arises against +Mr. Gillman. If he has taken to opium-eating, can we help _that_? If +_his_ face shines, must our faces be blackened? He has very improperly +published some intemperate passages from Coleridge's letters, which +ought to have been considered confidential, unless Coleridge had +left them for publication, charging upon the author of the _Opium +Confessions_ a reckless disregard of the temptations which, in that +work, he was scattering abroad amongst men. Now this author is connected +with ourselves, and we cannot neglect his defence, unless in the case +that he undertakes it himself. + +We complain, also, that Coleridge raises (and is backed by Mr. Gillman +in raising) a distinction perfectly perplexing to us, between himself +and the author of the _Opium Confessions_ upon the question--Why they +severally began the practice of opium-eating? In himself, it seems, this +motive was to relieve pain, whereas the Confessor was surreptitiously +seeking for pleasure. Ay, indeed--where did he learn _that_? We have no +copy of the _Confessions_ here, so we cannot quote chapter and verse; +but we distinctly remember, that toothache is recorded in that book +as the particular occasion which first introduced the author to the +knowledge of opium. Whether afterwards, having been thus initiated +by the demon of pain, the opium confessor did not apply powers thus +discovered to purposes of mere pleasure, is a question for himself; and +the same question applies with the same cogency to Coleridge. Coleridge +began in rheumatic pains. What then? This is no proof that he did not +end in voluptuousness. For our parts, we are slow to believe that ever +any man did, or could, learn the somewhat awful truth, that in a certain +ruby-colored elixir, there lurked a divine power to chase away the +genius of ennui, without subsequently abusing this power. To taste but +once from the tree of knowledge, is fatal to the subsequent power +of abstinence. True it is, that generations have used laudanum as an +anodyne, (for instance, hospital patients,) who have not afterwards +courted its powers as a voluptuous stimulant; but that, be sure, has +arisen from no abstinence in _them_. There are, in fact, two classes of +temperaments as to this terrific drug--those which are, and those which +are not, preconformed to its power; those which genially expand to its +temptations, and those which frostily exclude them. Not in the energies +of the will, but in the qualities of the nervous organization, lies +the dread arbitration of--Fall or stand: doomed thou art to yield; or, +strengthened constitutionally, to resist. Most of those who have but a +low sense of the spells lying couchant in opium, have practically none +at all. For the initial fascination is for _them_ effectually defeated +by the sickness which nature has associated with the first stages of +opium-eating. But to that other class, whose nervous sensibilities +vibrate to their profoundest depths under the first touch of the angelic +poison, even as a lover's ear thrills on hearing unexpectedly the voice +of her whom he loves, opium is the Amreeta cup of beatitude. You know +the _Paradise Lost_? and you remember, from the eleventh book, in its +earlier part, that laudanum already existed in Eden--nay, that it was +used medicinally by an archangel; for, after Michael had 'purged with +euphrasy and rue' the eyes of Adam, lest he should be unequal to the +mere _sight_ of the great visions about to unfold their draperies before +him, next he fortifies his fleshly spirits against the _affliction_ of +these visions, of which visions the first was death. And how? + + 'He from the well of life three drops instill'd.' + +What was their operation? + + 'So deep the power of these ingredients pierced, + _Even to the inmost seat of mental sight_, + That Adam, now enforced to close his eyes, + Sank down, and all his spirits became entranced. + But him the gentle angel by the hand + Soon raised'---- + +The second of these lines it is which betrays the presence of laudanum. +It is in the faculty of mental vision, it is in the increased power of +dealing with the shadowy and the dark, that the characteristic virtue +of opium lies. Now, in the original higher sensibility is found some +palliation for the _practice_ of opium-eating; in the greater temptation +is a greater excuse. And in this faculty of self-revelation is found +some palliation for _reporting_ the case to the world, which both +Coleridge and his biographer have overlooked. + + + + +TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT. + + +The most remarkable instance of a combined movement in society, which +history, perhaps, will be summoned to notice, is that which, in our own +days, has applied itself to the abatement of intemperance. Naturally, +or by any _direct_ process, the machinery set in motion would seem +irrelevant to the object: if one hundred men unite to elevate +the standard of temperance, they can do this with effect only by +improvements in their own separate cases: each individual, for such an +effort of self-conquest, can draw upon no resources but his own. One +member in a combination of one hundred, when running a race, can hope +for no cooperation from his ninety-nine associates. And yet, by a +secondary action, such combinations are found eminently successful. +Having obtained from every confederate a pledge, in some shape or +other, that he will give them his support, thenceforwards they bring the +passions of shame and self-esteem to bear upon each member's personal +perseverance. Not only they keep alive and continually refresh in his +thoughts the general purpose, which else might fade; but they also point +the action of public contempt and of self-contempt at any defaulter much +more potently, and with more acknowledged right to do so, when they use +this influence under a license, volunteered, and signed, and sealed, by +the man's own hand. They first conciliate his countenance through his +intellectual perceptions of what is right; and next they sustain it +through his conscience, (the strongest of his internal forces,) and +even through the weakest of his human sensibilities. That revolution, +therefore, which no combination of men can further by abating the +original impulse of temptations, they often accomplish happily by +maturing the secondary energies of resistance. + +Already in their earliest stage, these temperance movements had +obtained, both at home and abroad, a _national_ range of grandeur. More +than ten years ago, when M. de Tocqueville was resident in the United +States, the principal American society counted two hundred and seventy +thousand members: and in one single state (Pennsylvania) the annual +diminution in the use of spirits had very soon reached half a million of +gallons. Now a machinery must be so far good which accomplishes its end: +the means are meritorious for so much as they effect. Even to strengthen +a feeble resolution by the aid of other infirmities, such as shame or +the very servility and cowardice of deference to public opinion, becomes +prudent and laudable in the service of so great a cause. Nay, sometimes +to make public profession of self-distrust by assuming the coercion of +public pledges, may become an expression of frank courage, or even of +noble principle, not fearing the shame of confession when it can aid the +powers of victorious resistance. Yet still, so far as it is possible, +every man sighs for a still higher victory over himself: a victory not +tainted by bribes, and won from no impulses but those inspired by his +own higher nature, and his own mysterious force of will; powers that in +no man were fully developed. + +This being so, it is well that from time to time every man should throw +out any hints that have occurred to his experience,--suggesting such as +may be new, renewing such as may be old, towards the encouragement +or the information of persons engaged in so great a struggle. My own +experience had never travelled in that course which could much instruct +me in the miseries from wine, or in the resources for struggling with +it. I had repeatedly been obliged indeed to lay it aside altogether; but +in this I never found room for more than seven or ten days' struggle: +excesses I had never practised in the use of wine; simply the habit of +using it, and the collateral habits formed by excessive use of opium, +had produced any difficulty at all in resigning it even on an hour's +notice. From opium I derive my right of offering hints at all upon the +subjects of abstinence in other forms. But the modes of suffering +from the evil, and the separate modes of suffering from the effort of +self-conquest, together with errors of judgment incident to such states +of transitional torment, are all nearly allied, practically analogous +as regards the remedies, even if characteristically distinguished to the +inner consciousness. I make no scruple, therefore, of speaking as from +a station of high experience and of most watchful attention, which never +remitted even under sufferings that were at times absolutely frantic. + +I. The first hint is one that has been often offered; viz., the +diminution of the particular liquor used, by the introduction into +each glass of some inert substance, ascertained in bulk, and equally +increasing in amount from day to day. But this plan has often been +intercepted by an accident: shot, or sometimes bullets, were the +substances nearest at hand; an objection arose from too scrupulous a +caution of chemistry as to the action upon lead of the vinous acid. Yet +all objection of this kind might be removed at once, by using beads in a +case where small decrements were wanted, and marbles, if it were thought +advisable to use larger. Once for all, however, in cases deeply rooted, +no advances ought ever to be made but by small stages: for the effect, +which is insensible at first, by the tenth, twelfth, or fifteenth day, +generally accumulates unendurably under any bolder deductions. I must +not stop to illustrate this point; but certain it is, that by an error +of this nature at the outset, most natural to human impatience under +exquisite suffering, too generally the trial is abruptly brought to an +end through the crisis of a passionate relapse. + +II. Another object, and one to which the gladiator matched in single +duel with intemperance, must direct a religious vigilance, is the +_digestibility_ of his food: it must be digestible not only by its +original qualities, but also by its culinary preparation. In this last +point we are all of us Manichaeans: all of us yield a cordial assent to +that Manichaean proverb, which refers the meats and the cooks of this +world to two opposite fountains of light and of darkness. Oromasdes it +is, or the good principle, that sends the food; Ahrimanes, or the evil +principle, that everywhere sends the cooks. Man has been repeatedly +described or even defined, as by differential privilege of his nature, +'A cooking animal.' Brutes, it is said, have faces,--man only has a +countenance; brutes are as well able to eat as man,--man only is able +to cook what he eats. Such are the romances of self-flattery. I, on the +contrary, maintain, that six thousand years have not availed, in this +point, to raise our race generally to the level of ingenious savages. +The natives of the Society and the Friendly Isles, or of New Zealand, +and other favored spots, had, and still have, an _art_ of cookery, +though very limited in its range: the French [Footnote: But judge not, +reader, of French skill by the attempts of fourth-rate artists; and +understand me to speak with respect of this skill, not as it is the tool +of luxury, but as it is the handmaid of health.] have an art, and +more extensive; but we English are about upon a level (as regards this +science) with the ape, to whom an instinct whispers that chestnuts may +be roasted; or with the aboriginal Chinese of Charles Lamb's story, to +whom the experience of many centuries had revealed thus much, viz., that +a dish very much beyond the raw flesh of their ancestors, might be had +by burning down the family mansion, and thus roasting the pig-stye. +Rudest of barbarous devices is English cookery, and not much in advance +of this primitive Chinese step; a fact which it would not be worth while +to lament, were it not for the sake of the poor trembling deserter from +the banners of intoxication, who is thus, and by no other cause, so +often thrown back beneath the yoke which he had abjured. Past counting +are the victims of alcohol, that, having by vast efforts emancipated +themselves for a season, are violently forced into relapsing by the +nervous irritations of demoniac cookery. Unhappily for _them_, the +horrors of indigestion are relieved for the moment, however ultimately +strengthened, by strong liquors; the relief is immediate, and cannot +fail to be perceived; but the aggravation, being removed to a distance, +is not always referred to its proper cause. This is the capital rock and +stumbling-block in the path of him who is hurrying back to the camps of +temperance; and many a reader is likely to misapprehend the case through +the habit he has acquired of supposing indigestion to lurk chiefly +amongst _luxurious_ dishes. But, on the contrary, it is amongst the +plainest, simplest, and commonest dishes that such misery lurks, in +England. Let us glance at three articles of diet, beyond all comparison +of most ordinary occurrence, viz., potatoes, bread, and butcher's meat. +The art of preparing potatoes for _human_ use is utterly unknown, except +in certain provinces of our empire, and amongst certain sections of the +laboring class. In our great cities,--London, Edinburgh, &c.--the sort +of things which you see offered at table under the name and reputation +of potatoes, are such that, if you could suppose the company to be +composed of Centaurs and Lapithae, or any other quarrelsome people, it +would become necessary for the police to interfere. The potato of cities +is a very dangerous missile; and, if thrown with an accurate aim by an +angry hand, will fracture any known skull. In volume and consistency, it +is very like a paving-stone; only that, I should say, the paving-stone +had the advantage in point of tenderness. And upon this horrid basis, +which youthful ostriches would repent of swallowing, the trembling, +palpitating invalid, fresh from the scourging of alcohol, is requested +to build the superstructure of his dinner. The proverb says, that three +flittings are as bad as a fire; and on that model I conceive that three +potatoes, as they are found at many British dinner-tables, would be +equal, in principle of ruin, to two glasses of vitriol. The same savage +ignorance appears, and only not so often, in the bread of this island. +Myriads of families eat it in that early stage of sponge which bread +assumes during the process of baking; but less than sixty hours will not +fit this dangerous article of human diet to be eaten. And those who are +acquainted with the works of Parmentier, or other learned investigators +of bread and of the baker's art, must be aware that this quality of +sponginess (though quite equal to the ruin of the digestive organs) is +but one in a legion of vices to which the article is liable. A German of +much research wrote a book on the conceivable faults in a pair of shoes, +which he found to be about six hundred and sixty-six, many of them, as +he observed, requiring a very delicate process of study to find out; +whereas the possible faults in bread, which are not less in number, +require no study at all for the defection; they publish themselves +through all varieties of misery. But the perfection of barbarism, as +regards our island cookery, is reserved for animal food; and the two +poles of Oromasdes and Ahrimanes are nowhere so conspicuously exhibited. +Our insular sheep, for instance, are so far superior to any which the +continent produces, that the present Prussian minister at our court is +in the habit of questioning a man's right to talk of mutton as anything +beyond a great idea, unless he can prove a residence in Great Britain. +One sole case he cites of a dinner on the Elbe, when a particular leg of +mutton really struck him as rivalling any which he had known in England. +The mystery seemed inexplicable; but, upon inquiry, it turned out to +be an importation from Leith. Yet this incomparable article, to produce +which the skill of the feeder must co-operate with the peculiar bounty +of nature, calls forth the most dangerous refinements of barbarism in +its cookery. A Frenchman requires, as the primary qualification of flesh +meat, that it should be tender. We English universally, but especially +the Scots, treat that quality with indifference, or with bare +toleration. What we require is, that it should be fresh, that is, +recently killed, (in which state it cannot be digestible except by a +crocodile;) and we present it at table in a transition state of leather, +demanding the teeth of a tiger to rend it in pieces, and the stomach of +a tiger to digest it. + +With these habits amongst our countrymen, exemplified daily in +the articles of widest use, it is evident that the sufferer from +intemperance has a harder quarantine, in this island, to support +during the effort of restoration, than he could have anywhere else in +Christendom. In Persia, and, perhaps, there only on this terraqueous +planet, matters might be even worse: for, whilst we English neglect the +machinery of digestion, as a matter entitled to little consideration, +the people of Teheran seem unaware that there _is_ any such machinery. +So, at least, one might presume, from cases on record, and especially +from the reckless folly, under severe illness, from indigestion, of +the three Persian princes, who visited this country, as stated by their +official _mehmander_, Mr. Fraser. With us, the excess of ignorance, upon +this subject, betrays itself oftenest in that vain-glorious answer made +by the people, who at any time are admonished of the sufferings which +they are preparing for themselves by these outrages upon the most +delicate of human organs. They, for _their_ parts, 'know not if they +_have_ a stomach; they know not what it is that dyspepsy means;' +forgetting that, in thus vaunting their _strength_ of stomach, they are, +at the same time, proclaiming its coarseness; and showing themselves +unaware that precisely those, whom such coarseness of organization +reprieves from immediate and seasonable reaction of suffering, are the +favorite subjects of that heavier reaction which takes the shape of +_delirium tremens_, of palsy, and of lunacy. It is but a fanciful +advantage which _they_ enjoy, for whom the immediate impunity avails +only to hide the final horrors which are gathering upon them from the +gloomy rear. Better, by far, that more of immediate discomfort had +guaranteed to them less of reversionary anguish. It may be safely +asserted, that few, indeed, are the suicides amongst us to which the +miseries of indigestion have not been a large concurring cause; and even +where nothing so dreadful as _that_ occurs, always these miseries are +the chief hinderance of the self-reforming drunkard, and the commonest +cause of his relapse. It is certain, also, that misanthropic gloom +and bad temper besiege that class, by preference, to whom peculiar +coarseness or obtuse sensibility of organization has denied the salutary +warnings and early prelibations of punishment which, happily for most +men, besiege the more direct and obvious frailties of the digestive +apparatus. + +The whole process and elaborate machinery of digestion are felt to be +mean and humiliating when viewed in relation to our mere animal economy. +But they rise into dignity, and assert their own supreme importance, +when they arc studied from another station, viz., in relation to the +intellect and temper; no man dares, _then_, to despise them: it is then +seen that these functions of the human system form the essential basis +upon which the strength and health of our higher nature repose; and +that upon these functions, chiefly, the general happiness of life is +dependent. All the rules of prudence, or gifts of experience that life +can accumulate, will never do as much for human comfort and welfare as +would be done by a stricter attention, and a wiser science, directed +to the digestive system; in this attention lies the key to any perfect +restoration for the victim of intemperance: and, considering the +peculiar hostility to the digestive health which exists in the dietetic +habits of our own country, it may be feared that nowhere upon earth has +the reclaimed martyr to intemperance so difficult a combat to sustain; +nowhere, therefore, is it so important to direct the attention upon +an _artificial_ culture of those resources which naturally, and by the +established habits of the land, are surest to be neglected. The sheet +anchor for the storm-beaten sufferer, who is laboring to recover a haven +of rest from the agonies of intemperance, and who has had the fortitude +to abjure the poison which ruined, but which also, for brief intervals, +offered him his only consolation, lies, beyond all doubt, in a most +anxious regard to everything connected with this supreme function of +our animal economy. And, as few men that are not regularly trained to +medical studies can have the complex knowledge requisite for such a +duty, some printed guide should be sought of a regular professional +order. Twenty years ago, Dr. Wilson Philip published a valuable book of +this class, which united a wide range of practical directions as to the +choice of diet, and as to the qualities and tendencies of all esculent +articles likely to be found at British tables, with some ingenious +speculations upon the still mysterious theory of digestion. These were +derived from experiments made upon rabbits, and had originally been +communicated by him to the Royal Society of London, who judged them +worthy of publication in their Transactions. I notice them chiefly +for the sake of remarking, that the rationale of digestion, as here +suggested, explains the reason of a fact, which merely _as_ a fact, had +not been known until modern times, viz., the injuriousness to enfeebled +stomachs of all fluid. Fifty years ago--and still lingering inveterately +amongst nurses, and other ignorant persons--there prevailed a notion +that 'slops' must be the proper resource of the valetudinarian; and +the same erroneous notion appears in the common expression of ignorant +wonder at the sort of breakfasts usual amongst women of rank in the +times of Queen Elizabeth. 'What robust stomachs they must have had, +to support such solid meals!' As to the question of fact, whether the +stomachs were more or less robust in those days than at the present, +there is no need to offer an opinion. But the question of principle +concerned in scientific dietetics points in the very opposite direction. +By how much the organs of digestion are feebler, by so much is it the +more indispensable that solid food and animal food should be adopted. +A robust stomach may be equal to the trying task of supporting a fluid, +such as tea for breakfast; but for a feeble stomach, and still more for +a stomach _enfeebled_ by bad habits, broiled beef, or something equally +solid and animal, but not too much subjected to the action of fire, is +the only tolerable diet. This, indeed, is the one capital rule for a +sufferer from habitual intoxication, who must inevitably labor under +an impaired digestion; that as little as possible he should use of any +liquid diet, and as little as possible of vegetable diet. Beef, and a +little bread, (at the least sixty hours old,) compose the privileged +bill of fare for his breakfast. But precisely it is, by the way, in +relation to this earliest meal, that human folly has in one or two +instances shown itself most ruinously inventive. The less variety there +is at that meal, the more is the danger from any single luxury; and +there is one, known by the name of 'muffins,' which has repeatedly +manifested itself to be a plain and direct bounty upon suicide. Darwin, +in his 'Zoonomia,' reports a case where an officer, holding the rank of +lieutenant-colonel, could not tolerate a breakfast in which this odious +article was wanting; but, as a savage retribution invariably supervened +within an hour or two upon this act of insane sensuality, he came to +a resolution that life was intolerable _with_ muffins, but still more +intolerable _without_ muffins. He would stand the nuisance no longer; +but yet, being a just man, he would give nature one final chance of +reforming her dyspeptic atrocities. Muffins, therefore, being laid at +one angle of the breakfast-table, and loaded pistols at another, with +rigid equity the Colonel awaited the result. This was naturally pretty +much as usual: and then, the poor man, incapable of retreating from his +word of honor, committed suicide,--having previously left a line for +posterity to the effect (though I forget the expression), 'That a +muffinless world was no world for him: better no life at all than a life +dismantled of muffins.'--Dr. Darwin was a showy philosopher, and fond of +producing effect, so that some allowance must be made in construing the +affair. Strictly speaking, it is probable that not the especial want +of muffins, but the general torment of indigestion, was the curse from +which the unhappy sufferer sought relief by suicide. And the Colonel was +not the first by many a million, that has fled from the very same form +of wretchedness, or from its effects upon the genial spirits, to the +same gloomy refuge. It should never be forgotten that, although some +other more overt vexation is generally assigned as the proximate cause +of suicide, and often may be so as regards the immediate occasion, too +generally this vexation borrowed its whole power to annoy, from the +habitual atmosphere of irritation in which the system had been kept by +indigestion. So that indirectly, and virtually, perhaps, all suicides +may be traced to mismanaged digestion. Meantime, in alluding at all to +so dreadful a subject as suicide, I do so only by way of giving deeper +effect to the opinion expressed above, upon the chief cause of relapse +into habits of intemperance amongst those who have once accomplished +their deliverance. Errors of digestion, either from impaired powers, or +from powers not so much enfeebled as deranged, is the one immeasurable +source both of disease and of secret wretchedness to the human race. +Life is laid waste by the eternal fretting of the vital forces, +emanating from this one cause. And it may well be conceived, that if +cases so endless, even of suicide, in every generation, are virtually +traceable to this main root, much more must it be able to shake +and undermine the yet palpitating frame of the poor fugitive from +intemperance; since indigestion in every mode and variety of its changes +irresistibly upholds the temptation to that form of excitement which, +though one foremost cause of indigestion, is yet unhappily its sole +immediate palliation. + +III. Next, after the most vigorous attention, and a scientific attention +to the digestive system, in power of operation, stands _exercise_. Here, +however, most people have their own separate habits, with respect to +the time of exercise, the duration, and the particular mode, on which a +stranger cannot venture to intrude with his advice. Some will not endure +the steady patience required for walking exercise; many benefit most by +riding on horseback; and in days when roads were more rugged, and the +springs of carriages less improved, I have known people who found +most advantage in the vibrations communicated to the frame by a heavy +rumbling carriage. For myself, under the ravages of opium, I have found +walking the most beneficial exercise; besides that, it requires no +previous notice or preparation of any kind; and this is a capital +advantage in a state of drooping energies, or of impatient and unresting +agitation. I may mention, as possibly an accident of my individual +temperament, but possibly, also, no accident at all, that the relief +obtained by walking was always most sensibly brought home to my +consciousness, when some part of it (at least a mile and a half) has +been performed before breakfast. In this there soon ceased to be any +difficulty; for, whilst under the full oppression of opium, it was +impossible for me to rise at any hour that could, by the most indulgent +courtesy, be described as within the pale of morning, no sooner had +there been established any considerable relief from this oppression, +than the tendency was in the opposite direction; the difficulty became +continually greater of sleeping even to a reasonable hour. Having once +accomplished the feat of walking at nine A. M., I backed, in a space of +seven or eight months, to eight o'clock, to seven, to six, five, four, +three; until at this point a metaphysical fear fell upon me that I was +actually backing into 'yesterday,' and should soon have no sleep at all. +Below three, however, I did not descend; and, for a couple of years, +three and a half hours' sleep was all that I could obtain in the +twenty-four hours. From this no particular suffering arose, except +the nervous impatience of lying in bed for one moment after awaking. +Consequently, the habit of walking before breakfast became at length +troublesome no longer as a most odious duty, but, on the contrary, as a +temptation that could hardly be resisted on the wettest mornings. As to +the quantity of the exercise, I found that six miles a day formed the +_minimum_ which would support permanently a particular standard of +animal spirits, evidenced to myself by certain apparent symptoms. I +averaged about nine and a half miles a day; but ascended on particular +days to fifteen or sixteen, and more rarely to twenty-three or +twenty-four; a quantity which did not produce fatigue, on the contrary +it spread a sense of improvement through almost the whole week that +followed; but usually, in the night immediately succeeding to such +an exertion, I lost much of my sleep; a privation that, under the +circumstances explained, deterred me from trying the experiment too +often. For one or two years, I accomplished more than I have here +claimed, viz., from six to seven thousand miles in the twelve months. +Let me add to this slight abstract of my own experience, in a point +where it is really difficult to offer any useful advice, (the tastes +and habits of men varying so much in this chapter of exercise,) that +one caution seems applicable to the case of all persons suffering from +nervous irritability, viz., that a secluded space should be measured off +accurately, in some private grounds not liable to the interruption or +notice of chance intruders; for these annoyances are unendurable to the +restless invalid; to be questioned upon trivial things is death to +him; and the perpetual anticipation of such annoyances is little less +distressing. Some plan must also be adopted for registering the number +of rounds performed. I once walked for eighteen months in a circuit so +confined that forty revolutions were needed to complete a mile. These +I counted, at one time, by a rosary of beads; every tenth round being +marked by drawing a blue bead, the other nine by drawing white beads. +But this plan, I found in practice, more troublesome and inaccurate than +that of using ten detached counters, stones, or anything else that was +large enough and solid. These were applied to the separate bars of a +garden chair; the first bar indicating of itself the first decade, the +second bar the second decade, and so on. In fact, I used the chair in +some measure as a Roman abacus, but on a still simpler plan; and as the +chair offered sixteen bars, it followed, that on covering the last bar +of the series with the ten markers, I perceived without any trouble of +calculation the accomplishment of my fourth mile. + +A necessity, more painful to me by far than that of taking continued +exercise, arose out of a cause which applies, perhaps, with the same +intensity only to opium cases, but must also apply in some degree to all +cases of debilitation from morbid stimulation of the nerves, whether +by means of wine, or opium, or distilled liquors. In travelling on the +outside of mails, during my youthful days, for I could not endure the +inside, occasionally, during the night-time, I suffered naturally from +cold: no cloaks, &c. were always sufficient to relieve this; and I then +made the discovery that opium, after an hour or so, diffuses a warmth +deeper and far more permanent than could be had from any other known +source. I mention this, to explain, in some measure, the awful passion +of cold which for some years haunted the inverse process of laying aside +the opium. It was a perfect frenzy of misery; cold was a sensation which +then first, as a mode of torment, seemed to have been revealed. In +the months of July and August, and not at all the less during the very +middle watch of the day, I sate in the closest proximity to a blazing +fire; cloaks, blankets, counterpanes, hearthrugs, horse-cloths, were +piled upon my shoulders, but with hardly a glimmering of relief. At +night, and after taking coffee, I felt a little warmer, and could +sometimes afford to smile at the resemblance of my own case to that of +Harry Gill. [Footnote: 'Harry Gill:'--Many readers, in this generation, +may not be aware of this ballad as one amongst the early poems of +Wordsworth. Thirty or forty years ago, it was the object of some insipid +ridicule, which ought, perhaps, in another place, to be noticed. And, +doubtless, this ridicule was heightened by the false impression that +the story had been some old woman's superstitious fiction, meant to +illustrate a supernatural judgment on hard-heartedness. But the story +was a physiologic fact; and, originally, it had been brought forward in +a philosophic work, by Darwin, who had the reputation of an irreligious +man, and even of an infidel. A bold freethinker he certainly was: a +Deist, and, by public repute, something more.] But, secretly, I was +struck with awe at the revelation of powers so unsearchably new, lurking +within old affections so familiarly known as cold. Upon the analogy of +this case, it might be thought that nothing whatever had yet been +truly and seriously felt by man; nothing searched or probed by human +sensibilities, to a depth below the surface. If cold could give out +mysteries of suffering so novel, all things in the world might be yet +unvisited by the truth of human sensations. All experience, worthy of +the name, was yet to begin. Meantime, the external phenomenon, by which +the cold expressed itself, was a sense (but with little reality) of +eternal freezing perspiration. From this I was never free; and at +length, from finding one general ablution sufficient for one day, I was +thrown upon the irritating necessity of repeating it more frequently +than would seem credible, if stated. At this time, I used always hot +water; and a thought occurred to me very seriously that it would be best +to live constantly, and, perhaps, to sleep in a bath. What caused me to +renounce this plan, was an accident that compelled me for one day to use +cold water. This, first of all, communicated any lasting warmth; so that +ever afterwards I used none _but_ cold water. Now, to live in a _cold_ +bath, in our climate, and in my own state of preternatural sensibility +to cold, was not an idea to dally with. I wish to mention, however, for +the information of other sufferers in the same way, one change in the +mode of applying the water, which led to a considerable and a sudden +improvement in the condition of my feelings. I had endeavored to procure +a child's battledore, as an easy means (when clothed with sponge) of +reaching the interspace between the shoulders; which interspace, by the +way, is a sort of Bokhara, so provokingly situated, that it will neither +suffer itself to be reached from the north, in which direction even the +Czar, with his long arms, has only singed his own fingers, and lost six +thousand camels; nor at all better from the south, upon which line +of approach the greatest potentate in Southern Asia, viz., No.--, in +Leadenhall Street, has found it the best policy to pocket the little +Khan's murderous defiances and persevering insults. There is no +battledore long enough to reach him in either way. In my own difficulty, +I felt almost as perplexed as the Honorable East India Company, when I +found that no battledore was to be had; for no town was near at hand. +In default of a battledore, therefore, my necessity threw my experiment +upon a long hair-brush; and this, eventually, proved of much greater +service than any sponge or any battledore; for, the friction of the +brush caused an irritation on the surface of the skin, which, more than +anything else, has gradually diminished the once continual misery of +unrelenting frost; although even yet it renews itself most distressingly +at uncertain intervals. + +IV. I counsel the patient not to make the mistake of supposing that his +amendment will necessarily proceed continuously, or by equal increments; +because this, which is a common notion, will certainly lead to dangerous +disappointments. How frequently I have heard people encouraging a +self-reformer by such language as this:--'When you have got over the +fourth day of abstinence, which suppose to be Sunday, then Monday will +find you a trifle better; Tuesday better still,--though still it should +be only by a trifle; and so on. You may, at least, rely on never going +back; you may assure yourself of having seen the worst; and the positive +improvements, if trifles separately, must soon gather into a sensible +magnitude.' This may be true in a case of short standing: but, as a +general rule, it is perilously delusive. On the contrary, the line of +progress, if exhibited in a geometrical construction, would describe +an ascending path upon the whole, but with frequent retrocessions into +descending curves, which, compared with the point of ascent that had +been previously gained and so vexatiously interrupted, would sometimes +seem deeper than the original point of starting. This mortifying +tendency I can report from experience many times repeated with regard +to opium; and so unaccountably, as regarded all the previous grounds of +expectation, that I am compelled to suppose it a tendency inherent in +the very nature of all self-restorations for animal systems. They +move perhaps necessarily _per saltum_, by, intermitting spasms, and +pulsations of unequal energy. + +V. I counsel the patient frequently to call back before his +thoughts--when suffering sorrowful collapses, that seem unmerited by +anything done or neglected--that such, and far worse, perhaps, must +have been his experience, and with no reversion of hope behind, had he +persisted in his intemperate indulgencies; _these_ also suffer their own +collapses, and (so far as things not co-present can be compared) by many +degrees more shocking to the genial instincts. + +VI. I exhort him to believe, that no movement on his own part, not the +smallest conceivable, towards the restoration of his healthy state, can +by possibility perish. Nothing in this direction is finally lost; but +often it disappears and hides itself; suddenly, however, to reappear, +and in unexpected strength, and much more hopefully; because such +minute elements of improvement, by reappearing at a remoter stage, show +themselves to have combined with other elements of the same kind: so +that equally by their gathering tendency and their duration through +intervals of apparent darkness, and below the current of what seemed +absolute interruption, they argue themselves to be settled in the +system. There is no good gift that does not come from God: almost his +greatest is health, with the peace which it inherits; and man must reap +_this_ on the same terms as he was told to reap God's earliest gift, the +fruits of the earth, viz.: 'in the sweat of his brow,' through labor, +often through sorrow, through disappointment, but still through +imperishable perseverance, and hoping under clouds, when all hope seems +darkened. + +VII. It is difficult, in selecting from many memoranda of warning and +encouragement, to know which to prefer when the space disposable is +limited. But it seems to me important not to omit this particular +caution: The patient will be naturally anxious, as he goes on, +frequently to test the amount of his advance, and its rate, if that +were possible. But this he will see no mode of doing, except through +tentative balancings of his feelings, and generally of the moral +atmosphere around him, as to pleasure and hope, against the +corresponding states, so far as he can recall them from his periods of +intemperance. But these comparisons, I warn him, are fallacious, when +made in this way; the two states are incommensurable on any plan of +_direct_ comparison. Some common measure must be found, and, _out of +himself_; some positive fact, that will not bend to his own delusive +feeling at the moment; as, for instance, in what degree he finds +tolerable what heretofore was _not_ so--the effort of writing letters, +or transacting business, or undertaking a journey, or overtaking the +arrears of labor, that had been once thrown off to a distance. If +in these things he finds himself improved, by tests that cannot be +disputed, he may safely disregard any sceptical whispers from a wayward +sensibility which cannot yet, perhaps, have recovered its normal health, +however much improved. His inner feelings may not yet point steadily +to the truth, though they may vibrate in that direction. Besides, it is +certain that sometimes very manifest advances, such as any medical man +would perceive at a glance, carry a man through stages of agitation and +discomfort. A far worse condition might happen to be less agitated, +and so far more bearable. Now, when a man is positively suffering +discomfort, when he is below the line of pleasurable feeling, he is +no proper judge of his own condition, which he neither will nor can +appreciate. Tooth-ache extorts more groans than dropsy. + +VIII. Another important caution is, not to confound with the effects of +intemperance any other natural effects of debility from advanced years. +Many a man, having begun to be intemperate at thirty, enters at sixty +or upwards upon a career of self-restoration. And by self-restoration he +understands a renewal of that state in which he was when first swerving +from temperance. But that state, for his memory, is coincident with his +state of youth. The two states are coadunated. In his recollections they +are intertwisted too closely. But life, without any intemperance at +all, would soon have untwisted them. Charles Lamb, for instance, at +forty-five, and Coleridge at sixty, measured their several conditions +by such tests as the loss of all disposition to involuntary murmuring of +musical airs or fragments when rising from bed. Once they had sung +when rising in the morning light; now they sang no more. The _vocal_ +utterance of joy, for _them_, was silenced for ever. But these are +amongst the changes that life, stern power, inflicts at any rate; +these would have happened, and above all, to men worn by the unequal +irritations of too much thinking, and by those modes of care + + That kill the bloom before its time, + And blanch without the owner's crime + The most resplendent hair, + +not at all the less had the one drunk no brandy, nor the other any +laudanum. A man must submit to the conditions of humanity, and not +quarrel with a cure as incomplete, because in his climacteric year of +sixty-three, he cannot recover, entirely, the vivacities of thirty-five. +If, by dipping seven times in Jordan, he had cleansed his whole leprosy +of intemperance; if, by going down into Bethesda, he were able to mount +again upon the pinions of his youth,--even then he might querulously +say,--'But, after all these marvels in my favor, I suppose that one +of these fine mornings I, like other people, shall have to bespeak +a coffin.' Why, yes, undoubtedly he will, or somebody _for_ him. But +privileges so especial were not promised even by the mysterious waters +of Palestine. Die he must. And counsels tendered to the intemperate do +not hope to accomplish what might have been beyond the baths of Jordan +or Bethesda. They do enough, if, being executed by efforts in the spirit +of earnest sincerity, they make a life of _growing_ misery moderately +happy for the patient; and, through that great change, perhaps, more +than moderately useful for others. + +IX. One final remark I will make:--pointed to the case, not of the yet +struggling patient, but of him who is fully re-established; and the more +so, because I (who am no hypocrite, but, rather, frank to an infirmity) +acknowledge, in myself, the trembling tendency at intervals, which +would, if permitted, sweep round into currents that might be hard to +overrule. After the absolute restoration to health, a man is very apt to +say,--'Now, then, how shall I use my health? To what delightful purpose +shall I apply it? Surely it is idle to carry a fine jewel in one's +watch-pocket, and never to astonish the weak minds of this world, +by wearing it and flashing it in their eyes.' 'But how?' retorts his +philosophic friend; 'my good fellow, are you not using it at this +moment? Breathing, for instance, talking to me, (though rather +absurdly,) and airing your legs at a glowing fire?' 'Why, yes,' the +other confesses, 'that is all true; but I am dull; and, if you will +pardon my rudeness, even in spite of your too philosophic presence. It +is painful to say so, but sincerely, if I had the power, at this moment, +to turn you, by magic, into a bottle of old port wine, so corrupt is +my nature, that really I fear lest the exchange might, for the moment, +strike me as agreeable.' Such a mood, I apprehend, is apt to revolve +upon many of us, at intervals, however firmly married to temperance. And +the propensity to it has a root in certain analogies running through +our nature. If the reader will permit me for a moment the use of what, +without such an apology, might seem pedantic, I would call it the +instinct of _focalizing_, which prompts such random desires. Feeling is +diffused over the whole surface of the body; but light is focalized in +the eye; sound in the ear. The organization of a sense or a pleasure +seems diluted and imperfect, unless it is gathered by some machinery +into one focus, or local centre. And thus it is that a general state of +pleasurable feeling sometimes seems too superficially diffused, and one +has a craving to intensify or brighten it by concentration through some +sufficient stimulant. I, for my part, have tried every thing in this +world except '_bang_,' which, I believe, is obtained from hemp. There +are other preparations of hemp which have been found to give great +relief from _ennui_; not ropes, but something lately introduced, which +acts upon the system as the laughing gas (nitrous oxide) acts at times. +One farmer in Mid-Lothian was mentioned to me, eight months ago, as +having taken it, and ever since annoyed his neighbors by immoderate +fits of laughter; so that in January it was agreed to present him to the +sheriff as a nuisance. But, for some reason, the plan was laid aside; +and now, eight months later, I hear that the farmer is laughing more +rapturously than ever, continues in the happiest frame of mind, the +kindest of creatures, and the general torment of his neighborhood. Now, +I confess to having had a lurking interest in this extract of hemp, when +first I heard of it: and at intervals a desire will continue to make +itself felt for some deeper compression or centralization of the genial +feelings than ordinary life affords. But old things will not avail, and +new things I am now able to resist. Still, as the occasional craving +does really arise in most men, it is well to notice it; and chiefly for +the purpose of saying, that this dangerous feeling wears off by degrees; +and oftentimes for long periods it intermits so entirely as to be even +displaced by a profound disgust to all modes of artificial stimulation. +At those times I have remarked that the pleasurable condition of health +does _not_ seem weakened by its want of centralization. It seems to form +a thousand centres. This it is well to know; because there are many who +would resist effectually, if they were aware of any natural change going +on silently in favor of their own efforts, such as would finally ratify +the success. Towards such a result they would gladly contribute by +waiting and forbearing; whilst, under despondency as to this result, +they might more easily yield to some chance temptation. + +Finally, there is something to interest us in the _time_ at which this +temperance movement has begun to stir. Let me close with a slight notice +of what chiefly impresses myself in the relation between this time and +the other circumstances of the case. In reviewing history, we may see +something more than mere convenience in distributing it into three +chambers; ancient history, ending in the space between the Western +Empire falling and Mahomet arising; modern history, from that time to +this; and a new modern history arising at present, or from the +French Revolution. Two great races of men, our own in a two-headed +form--British and American, and secondly, the Russian, are those which, +like rising deluges, already reveal their mission to overflow the earth. +Both these races, partly through climate, or through derivation of +blood, and partly through the contagion of habits inevitable to brothers +of the same nation, are tainted carnally with the appetite for brandy, +for slings, for juleps. And no fire racing through the forests of Nova +Scotia for three hundred miles in the direction of some doomed city, +ever moved so fiercely as the infection of habits amongst the dense and +fiery populations of republican North America. + +But it is remarkable, that the whole _ancient_ system of civilization, +all the miracles of Greece and Rome, Persia and Egypt, moved by the +machinery of races that were _not_ tainted with any such popular +_marasmus_. The taste was slightly sowed, as an _artificial_ taste, +amongst luxurious individuals, but never ran through the laboring +classes, through armies, through cities The blood and the climate +forbade it. In this earliest era of history, all the great races, +consequently all the great empires, threw themselves, by accumulation, +upon the genial climates of the south,--having, in fact, the magnificent +lake of the Mediterranean for their general centre of evolutions. Round +this lake, in a zone of varying depth, towered the whole grandeurs of +the Pagan earth. But, in such climates, man is naturally temperate. +He is so by physical coercion, and for the necessities of rest and +coolness. The Spaniard, the Moor, or the Arab, has no merit in his +temperance. The effort, for _him_, would be to form the taste for +alcohol. He has a vast foreground of disgust to traverse before he can +reach a taste so remote and alien. No need for resistance in his will +where nature resists on his behalf. Sherbet, shaddocks, grapes, +these were innocent applications to thirst. And the great republic of +antiquity said to her legionary sons:--'Soldier, if you thirst, there +is the river;--Nile, suppose, or Ebro. Better drink there cannot be. +Of this you may take "at discretion." Or, if you wait till the +_impedimenta_ come up, you may draw your ration of _Posca_' What was +_posca_? It was, in fact, acidulated water; three parts of superfine +water to one part of the very best vinegar. Nothing stronger did Rome, +that awful mother, allow to her dearest children, _i. e._, her legions. +Truest of blessings, that veiling itself in seeming sternness, drove +away the wicked phantoms that haunt the couches of yet greater nations. +'The blessings of the evil genii,' says an Eastern proverb, 'these are +curses.' And the stern refusals of wisely loving mothers,--these are the +mightiest of gifts. + +Now, on the other hand, our northern climates have universally the +taste, latent if not developed, for powerful liquors. And through their +blood, as also through the natural tendency of the imitative principle +amongst compatriots, from these high latitudes the greatest of our +modern nations propagate the contagion to their brothers, though +colonizing warm climates. And it is remarkable that our modern +preparations of liquors, even when harmless in their earliest stages, +are fitted, like stepping-stones, for making the transition to higher +stages that are _not_ harmless. The weakest preparations from malt, +lead, by graduated steps, to the strongest; until we arrive at +the intoxicating porter of London, which, under its local name (so +insidiously delusive) of '_beer_,' diffuses the most extensive ravages. + +Under these marked circumstances of difference between the ruling races +of antiquity and of our modern times, it now happens that the greatest +era by far of human expansion is opening upon us. Two vast movements are +hurrying into action by velocities continually accelerated--the great +revolutionary movement from political causes concurring with the +great physical movement in locomotion and social intercourse, from the +gigantic (though still infant) powers of steam. No such Titan resources +for modifying each other were ever before dreamed of by nations: and +the next hundred years will have changed the face of the world. At the +opening of such a crisis, had no third movement arisen of resistance to +intemperate habits, there would have been ground for despondency as to +the amelioration of the human race. But, as the case stands, the new +principle of resistance nationally to bad habits, has arisen almost +concurrently with the new powers of national intercourse; and +henceforward by a change equally sudden and unlooked for, that new +machinery, which would else most surely have multiplied the ruins +of intoxication, has become the strongest agency for hastening its +extirpation. + + + + +ON WAR. + + +Few people need to be told--that associations exist up and down +Christendom, having the ambitious object of abolishing war. Some go so +far as to believe that this evil of war, so ubiquitous, so ancient and +apparently so inalienable from man's position upon earth, is already +doomed; that not the private associations only, but the prevailing +voice of races the most highly civilized, may be looked on as tending to +confederation against it; that sentence of extermination has virtually +gone forth, and that all which remains is gradually to execute that +sentence. Conscientiously I find myself unable to join in these views. +The project seems to me the most romantic of all romances in the course +of publication. Consequently, when asked to become a member in any such +association, I have always thought it most respectful, because most +sincere, to decline. Yet, as it is painful to refuse all marks of +sympathy with persons whose motives one honors, I design at my death to +bequeath half-a-crown to the chief association for extinguishing war; +the said half-crown to be improved in all time coming for the benefit of +the association, under the trusteeship of Europe, Asia, and America, +but not of Africa. I really dare not trust Africa with money, she is not +able as yet to take care of herself. This half-crown, a fund that will +overshadow the earth before it comes to be wanted under the provisions +of my will, is to be improved at any interest whatever--no matter what; +for the vast period of the accumulations will easily make good any +tardiness of advance, long before the time comes for its commencing +payment; a point which will be soon understood from the following +explanation, by any gentleman that hopes to draw upon it. + +There is in Ceylon a granite _cippus_, or monumental pillar, of +immemorial antiquity; and to this pillar a remarkable legend is +attached. The pillar measures six feet by six, _i. e._ thirty-six +square feet, on the flat tablet of its horizontal surface; and in height +several _riyanas_, (which arc Ceylonese cubits of eighteen inches each,) +but of these cubits, there are either eight or twelve; excuse me for +having forgotten which. At first, perhaps, you will be angry, viz., +when you hear that this simple difference of four cubits, or six feet, +measures a difference for your expectations, whether you count your +expectations in kicks or halfpence, that absolutely strikes horror into +arithmetic. The singularity of the case is, that the very solemnity of +the legend and the wealth of the human race in time, depend upon the +cubical contents of the monument, so that a loss of one granite chip is +a loss of a frightful infinity; yet, again, for that very reason, the +loss of all _but_ a chip, leaves behind riches so appallingly too rich, +that everybody is careless about the four cubits. Enough is as good as +a feast. Two bottomless abysses take as much time for the diver as ten; +and five eternities are as frightful to look down as four-and-twenty. In +the Ceylon legend all turns upon the inexhaustible series of ages which +this pillar guarantees. But, as one inexhaustible is quite enough for +one race of men, and you are sure of more by ineffable excess than you +can use in any private consumption of your own, you become generous; +'and between friends,' you say, in accepting my apologies for the +doubtful error as to the four cubits, 'what signifies an infinity more +or less?' + +For the Ceylonese legend is this, that once in every hundred years +an angel visits this granite pillar. He is dressed in a robe of +white muslin, muslin of that kind which the Romans called _aura +textilis_--woven, as might seem, from zephyrs or from pulses of the air, +such in its transparency, such in its gossamer lightness. Does the angel +touch the pillar with his foot? Oh no! Even _that_ would be something, +but even _that_ is not allowed. In his soundless flight across it, he +suffers the hem of his impalpable robe to sweep the surface as softly +as a moon-beam. So much and no more of pollution he endures from contact +with earthly objects. The lowest extremity of his dress, but with the +delicacy of light, grazes the granite surface. And _that_ is all the +attrition which the sacred granite receives in the course of any one +century, and this is all the progress which we, the poor children of +earth, in any one century make towards the exhaustion of our earthly +imprisonment. But, argues the subtle legend, even _that_ attrition, +when weighed in metaphysical scales, cannot be denied its value; it +has detached from the pillar an atom (no matter that it is an invisible +atom) of granite dust, the ratio of which atom to a grain avoirdupois, +if expressed as a fraction of unity, would by its denominator stretch +from the Accountant-General's office in London to the Milky Way. Now +the total mass of the granite represents, on this scheme of payment, the +total funded debt of man's race to Father Time and earthly corruption; +all this intolerable score, chalked up to our debit, we by ourselves and +our representatives have to rub off, before the granite will be rubbed +away by the muslin robe of the proud flying angel, (who, if he were a +good fellow, might just as well give a sly kick with his heel to +the granite,) before time will be at an end, and the burden of flesh +accomplished. But you hear it expressed in terms that will astonish +Baron Rothschild, what is the progress in liquidation which we make +for each particular century. A billion of centuries pays off a quantity +equal to a pinch of snuff. Despair seizes a man in contemplating a +single _coupon_, no bigger than a visiting card, of such a stock as +this; and behold we have to keep on paying away until the total granite +is reduced to a level with a grain of mustard-seed. But when that is +accomplished, thank heaven, our last generation of descendants will +be entitled to leave at Master Time's door a visiting card, which the +meagre shadow cannot refuse to take, though he will sicken at seeing it; +viz., a P. P. C. card, upon seeing which, the old thief is bound to give +receipt in full for all debts and pretended arrears. + +The reader perhaps knows of debts on both sides the Atlantic that have +no great prospect of being paid off sooner than this in Ceylon. + +And naturally, to match this order of debts, moving off so slowly, there +are funds that accumulate as slowly. My own funded half-crown is an +illustration. The half-crown will travel in the inverse order of the +granite pillar. The pillar and the half-crown move upon opposite tacks; +and there _is_ a point of time (which it is for Algebra to investigate) +when they will cross each other in the exact moment of their several +bisections--my aspiring half-crown tending gradually towards the fixed +stars, so that perhaps it might be right to make the man in the moon +trustee for that part of the accumulations which rises above the optics +of sublunary bankers; whilst the Ceylon pillar is constantly unweaving +its own granite texture, and dwindling earthwards. It is probable that +each of the parties will have reached its consummation about the same +time. What is to be done with the mustard-seed, Ceylon has forgotten to +say. But what is to be done with the half-crown and its surplus, nobody +can doubt after reading my last will and testament. After reciting a few +inconsiderable legacies to the three continents, and to the man in the +moon, for any trouble they may have had in managing the hyperbolical +accumulations, I go on to observe, that, when war is reported to have +taken itself off for ever, 'and no mistake,' (because I foresee many +false alarms of a perpetual peace,) a variety of inconveniences will +arise to all branches of the United Service, including the Horse +Marines. Clearly there can be no more half-pay; and even more clearly, +there is an end to full-pay. Pensions are at an end for 'good service.' +Allowances for wounds cannot be thought of, when all wounds shall have +ceased except those from female eyes--for which the Horse Guards is too +little advanced in civilization to make any allowance at all. Bargains +there will be no more amongst auctions of old Government stores. +Birmingham will be ruined, or so much of it as depended on rifles. And +the great Scotch works on the river Carron will be hungering for beef, +so far as Carron depended for beef upon carronades. Other arrears of +evil will stretch after the extinction of war. + +Now upon my half-crown fund (which will be equal to anything by the time +it is wanted) I charge once and for ever the general relief of all these +arrears--of the poverty, the loss, the bankruptcy, arising by reason +of this _quietus_ of final extinction applied to war. I charge the fund +with a perpetual allowance of half-pay to all the armies of earth; +or indeed, whilst my hand is in, I charge it with _full_ pay. And I +strictly enjoin upon my trustees and executors, but especially upon +the man in the moon, if his unsocial lip has left him one spark +of gentlemanly feeling, that he and they shall construe all claims +liberally; nay, with that riotous liberality which is safe and becoming, +when applied to a fund so inexhaustible. Yes, reader, my fund will be +inexhaustible, because the period of its growth will be measured by the +concurrent deposition of the Ceylon mustard-seed from the everlasting +pillar. + +Yet why, or on what principle? It is because I see, or imagine that +I see, a twofold necessity for war--necessity in two different +senses--1st, a physical necessity arising out of man's nature when +combined with man's situation; a necessity under which war may be +regarded, if you please, as a nuisance, but as a nuisance inalienable +from circumstances essential to human frailty. 2dly, a moral necessity +connected with benefits of compensation, such as continually lurk in +evils acknowledged to be such--a necessity under which it becomes lawful +to say, that war _ought_ to exist as a balance to opposite tendencies of +a still more evil character. War is the mother of wrong and spoliation: +war is a scourge of God--granted; but, like other scourges in the +divine economy, war purifies and redeems itself in its character of a +counterforce to greater evils that could not otherwise be intercepted or +redressed. In two different meanings we say that a thing is necessary; +either in that case where it is inexorably forced on by some sad +overruling principle which it is vain to fight against, though all good +men mourn over its existence and view it as an unconditional evil; or +secondly, in that case, where an instrument of sorrowful consequences +to man is nevertheless invoked and postulated by man's highest moral +interests, is nevertheless clamorously indicated as a blessing when +looked at in relation to some antagonist cause of evil for which it +offers the one only remedy or principle of palliation. The very evil +and woe of man's condition upon earth may be oftentimes detected in +the necessity of looking to some other woe as the pledge of its +purification; so that what separately would have been hateful for +itself, passes mysteriously into an object of toleration, of hope, or +even of prayer, as a counter-venom to the taint of some more mortal +poison. Poverty, for instance, is in both senses necessary for man. +It is necessary in the same sense as thirst is necessary (_i. e._ +inevitable) in a fever--necessary as one corollary amongst many others, +from the eternal hollowness of all human efforts for organizing any +perfect model of society--a corollary which, how gladly would all of us +unite to cancel, but which our hearts suggest, which Scripture solemnly +proclaims, to be ineradicable from the land. In this sense, poverty is a +necessity over which we _mourn_,--as one of the dark phases that +sadden the vision of human life. But far differently, and with a stern +gratitude, we recognize another mode of necessity for this gloomy +distinction--a call for poverty, when seen in relation to the manifold +agencies by which it developes human energies, in relation to the trials +by which it searches the power of patience and religion, in relation to +the struggles by which it evokes the nobilities of fortitude; or again, +amongst those who are not sharers in these trials and struggles, but +sympathizing spectators, in relation to the stimulation by which it +quickens wisdom that watches over the causes of this evil, or by which +it vivifies the spirit of love that labors for its mitigation. War +stands, or seems to stand, upon the same double basis of necessity; a +primary necessity that belongs to our human degradations, a secondary +one that towers by means of its moral relations into the region of our +impassioned exaltations. The two propositions on which I take my stand +are these. _First_, that there are nowhere latent in society any powers +by which it can effectually operate on war for its extermination. The +machinery is not there. The game is not within the compass of the cards. +_Secondly_, that this defect of power is, though sincerely I grieve in +avowing such a sentiment, and perhaps (if an infirm reader had his eye +upon me) I might seem, in sympathy with his weakness, to blush--not +a curse, no not at all, but on the whole a blessing from century to +century, if it is an inconvenience from year to year. The Abolition +Committees, it is to be feared, will be very angry at both propositions. +Yet, Gentlemen, hear me--strike, but hear me. I believe that's a sort of +plagiarism from Themistocles. But never mind. I have as good a right to +the words, until translated back into Greek, as that most classical of +yellow admirals. '_Pereant qui ante nos nostra dixerunt!_' + +The first proposition is, that war _cannot_ be abolished. The second, +and more offensive--that war ought not to be abolished. First, +therefore, concerning the first. One at a time. Sufficient for the page +is the evil thereof! How came it into any man's heart, first of all, +to conceive so audacious an idea as that of a conspiracy against war? +Whence could he draw any vapor of hope to sustain his preliminary steps? +And in framing his plot, which way did he set his face to look out +for accomplices? Revolving this question in times past, I came to the +conclusion--that, perhaps, this colossal project of a war against war, +had been first put in motion under a misconception (natural enough, and +countenanced by innumerable books) as to the true historical origin +of wars in many notorious instances. If these had arisen on trivial +impulses, a trivial resistance might have intercepted them. If a man has +once persuaded himself, that long, costly, and bloody wars had arisen +upon a point of ceremony, upon a personal pique, upon a hasty word, upon +some explosion of momentary caprice; it is a natural inference, that +strength of national will and public combinations for resistance, +supposing such forces to have been trained, organized, and, from the +circumstances of the particular nation, to be permanently disposable for +action, might prove redundantly effective, when pointed against a few +personal authors of war, so presumably weak, and so flexible to any +stern counter-volition as those _must_ be supposed, whose wars argued +so much of vicious levity. The inference is unexceptionable: it is the +premises that are unsound. Anecdotes of war as having emanated from a +lady's tea-table or toilette, would authorize such inference as to the +facilities of controlling them. But the anecdotes themselves are false, +or false substantially. _All_ anecdotes, I fear, are false. I am sorry +to say so, but my duty to the reader extorts from me the disagreeable +confession, as upon a matter specially investigated by myself, that all +dealers in anecdotes are tainted with mendacity. Where is the Scotchman, +said Dr. Johnson, who does not prefer Scotland to truth? but, however +this may be, rarer than such a Scotchman, rarer than the phoenix, is +that virtuous man, a monster he is, nay, he is an impossible man, who +will consent to lose a prosperous anecdote on the consideration that +it happens to be a lie. All history, therefore, being built partly, and +some of it altogether, upon anecdotage, must be a tissue of lies. Such, +for the most part, is the history of Suetonius, who may be esteemed the +father of anecdotage; and being such, he (and not Herodotus) should +have been honored with the title, _Father of Lies_. Such is the Augustan +history, which is all that remains of the Roman empire; such is the vast +series of French memoirs, now stretching through more than three entire +centuries. Are these works, then, to be held cheap, because their truths +to their falsehoods are in the ratio of one to five hundred? On the +contrary, they are better, and more to be esteemed on that account; +because, _now_ they are admirable reading on a winter's night; whereas, +written on the principle of sticking to the truth, they would have been +as dull as ditch water. Generally, therefore, the dealers in anecdotage +are to be viewed with admiration, as patriotic citizens, willing to +sacrifice their own characters, lest their countrymen should find +themselves short of amusement. I esteem them as equal to Codrus, +Timoleon, William Tell, or to Milton, as regards the liberty of +unlicensed printing. And I object to them only in the exceptional case +of their being cited as authorities for an inference, or as vouchers +for a fact. Universally, it may be received as a rule of unlimited +application,--that when an anecdote involves a stinging repartee, or +collision of ideas, fancifully and brilliantly related to each other +by resemblance or contrast, then you may challenge it as false to +a certainty. One illustration of which is--that pretty nearly every +memorable _propos_, or pointed repartee, or striking _mot_, circulating +at this moment in Paris or London, as the undoubted property of +Talleyrand, (that eminent knave,) was ascribed at Vienna, ninety years +ago, to the Prince de Ligne, and thirty years previously, to Voltaire, +and so on, regressively, to many other wits (knaves or not); until, at +length, if you persist in backing far enough, you find yourself amongst +Pagans, with the very same repartee, &c., doing duty in pretty good +Greek; [Footnote: This is _literally_ true, more frequently than would +be supposed. For instance, a jest often ascribed to Voltaire, and of +late pointedly reclaimed for him by Lord Brougham, as being one that +he (Lord B.) could swear to for _his_, so characteristic seemed the +impression of Voltaire's mind upon the _tournure_ of the sarcasm, +unhappily for this waste of sagacity, may be found recorded by Fabricius +in the _Bibliotheca Graeca_, as the jest of a Greek who has been dead for +about seventeen centuries. The man certainly _did_ utter the jest; +and 1750 years ago. But who it was that he stole it from is another +question. To all appearance, and according to Lord Brougham's opinion, +the party robbed must have been M. de Voltaire. I notice the case, +however, of the Greek thefts and frauds committed upon so many of our +excellent wits belonging to the 18th and 19th centuries, chiefly with a +view to M. de Talleyrand--that rather middling bishop, but very eminent +knave. He also has been extensively robbed by the Greeks of the 2d and +3d centuries. How else can you account for so many of his sayings being +found amongst _their_ pages? A thing you may ascertain in a moment, at +any police office, by having the Greeks searched: for surely you would +never think of searching a bishop. Most of the Talleyrand jewels will be +found concealed amongst the goods of these unprincipled Greeks. But one, +and the most famous in the whole jewel-case, sorry am I to confess, +was nearly stolen from the Bishop, not by any Greek, but by an English +writer, viz., Goldsmith, who must have been dying about the time that +his Excellency, the diplomatist, had the goodness to be born. That +famous _mot_ about language, as a gift made to man for the purpose of +_concealing_ his thoughts, is lurking in Goldsmith's Essays. Think of +_that!_ Already, in his innocent childhood, whilst the Bishop was in +petticoats, and almost before he had begun to curse and to swear plainly +in French, an Irish vagabond had attempted to swindle him out of that +famous witticism which has since been as good as a life-annuity to the +venerable knave's literary fame.] sometimes, for instance in Hierocles, +sometimes in Diogenes Laertius, in Plutarch, or in Athenaeus. Now the +thing you know claimed by so many people, could not belong to all of +them: _all_ of them could not be the inventors. Logic and common sense +unite in showing us that it must have belonged to the moderns, who had +clearly been hustled and robbed by the ancients, so much more +likely to commit a robbery than Christians, they being all +Gentiles--Pagans--Heathen dogs. What do I infer from this? Why, that +upon _any_ solution of the case, hardly one worthy saying can be +mentioned, hardly one jest, pun, or sarcasm, which has not been the +occasion and subject of many falsehoods--as having been _au-(and +men)-daciously_ transferred from generation to generation, sworn to in +every age as this man's property, or that man's, by people that must +have known they were lying, until you retire from the investigation with +a conviction, that under any system of chronology, the science of lying +is the only one that has never drooped. Date from _Anno Domini_, or +from the Julian era, patronize Olympiads, or patronize (as _I_ do, from +misanthropy, because nobody else _will_) the era of Nabonassar,--no +matter, upon every road, thicker than mile-stones, you see records +of human mendacity, or (which is much worse, in my opinion,) of human +sympathy with other people's mendacity. + +This digression, now, on anecdotes,[Footnote: The word 'Anecdotes,' +first, I believe, came into currency about the middle of the 6th +century, from the use made of it by Procopius. _Literally_ it indicated +nothing that could interest either public malice or public favor; it +promised only _unpublished_ notices of the Emperor Justinian, his wife +Theodora, Narses, Belisarius, &c. But _why_ had they been unpublished? +Simply because scandalous and defamatory: and hence, from the interest +which invested the case of an imperial court so remarkable, this +oblique, secondary and purely accidental modification of the word came +to influence its _general_ acceptation. Simply to have been previously +unpublished, no longer raised any statement into an anecdote: it +now received a new integration it must be some fresh publication of +_personal_ memorabilia; and these having reference to _human_ creatures, +must always be presumed to involve more evil than good--much defamation +true or false--much doubtful insinuation--much suggestion of things +worse than could be openly affirmed. So arose the word: but the _thing_ +arose with Suetonius, that dear, excellent and hard-working 'father of +lies.'] is what the learned call an _excursus_, and, I am afraid, too +long by half; not strictly in proportion. But don't mind _that_. I'll +make it all right by being too short upon something else, at the next +opportunity; and then nobody can complain. Meantime, I argue, that as +all brilliant or epigrammatic anecdotes are probably false, (a thing +that hereafter I shall have much pleasure in making out to the angry +reader's satisfaction,) but to a dead certainty those anecdotes, in +particular, which bear marks in their construction that a rhetorical +effect of art had been contemplated by the narrator,--we may take for +granted, that the current stories ascribing modern wars (French and +English) to accidents the most inconsiderable, are false even in +a literal sense; but at all events they are so when valued +philosophically, and brought out into their circumstantial relations. +For instance, we have a French anecdote, from the latter part of the +seventeenth century, which ascribes one bloody war to the accident of a +little 'miff,' arising between the king and his minister upon some such +trifle as the situation of a palace window. Again, from the early +part of the eighteenth century, we have an English anecdote, ascribing +consequences no less bloody to a sudden feud between two ladies, and +that feud, (if I remember,) tracing itself up to a pair of gloves; +so that, in effect, the war and the gloves form the two poles of +the transaction. Harlequin throws a pair of Limerick gloves into a +corn-mill; and the spectator is astonished to see the gloves immediately +issuing from the hopper, well ground into seven armies of one hundred +thousand men each, and with parks of artillery to correspond. In these +two anecdotes, we recognize at once the able and industrious artist +arranging his materials with a pious regard to theatrical effect. This +man knows how to group his figures; well he understands where to plant +his masses of light and shade; and what impertinence it would be in us +spectators, the reader suppose and myself, to go behind the scenes for +critical inquiry into daylight realities. All reasonable men see that, +the less of such realities our artist had to work with, the more was his +merit. I am one of those that detest all insidious attempts to rob +men situated as this artist of their fair fame, by going about and +whispering that perhaps the thing is true. Far from it! I sympathize +with the poor trembling artist, and agree most cordially that the whole +story is a lie; and he may rely upon my support at all times to +the extent of denying that any vestige of truth probably lay at the +foundations of his ingenious apologue. And what I say of the English +fable, I am willing to say of the French one. Both, I dare say, were the +rankest fictions. But next, what, after all, if they were _not?_ For, in +the rear of all discussion upon anecdotes, considered simply as true +or _not_ true, comes finally a _valuation_ of those anecdotes in their +moral relation, and as to the inferences which they will sustain. The +story, for example, of the French minister Louvois, and the adroitness +with which he fastened upon great foreign potentates, in the shape of +war, that irritability of temper in his royal master which threatened +to consume himself; the diplomatic address with which he transmuted +suddenly a task so delicate as that of skirmishing daily in a +Council Chamber with his own sovereign, into that far jollier mode of +disputation where one replies to all objections of the very keenest +logician, either with round shot or with grape; here is an anecdote, +which (for my own part) I am inclined to view as pure gasconade. But +suppose the story true, still it may happen that a better valuation +of it may disturb the whole edifice of logical inferences by which it +seemed to favor the speculations of the war abolitionists. Let us see. +What _was_ the logic through which such a tale as this could lend any +countenance to the schemes of these abolitionists? That logic travelled +in the following channel. Such a tale, or the English tale of the +gloves, being supposed true, it would seem to follow, that war and the +purposes of war were phenomena of chance growth, not attached to any +instinct so ancient, and apparently so grooved into the dark necessities +of our nature, as we had all taken for granted. Usually, we rank war +with hunger, with cold, with sorrow, with death, afflictions of our +human state that spring up as inevitably without separate culture and +in defiance of all hostile culture, as verdure, as weeds, and as flowers +that overspread in spring time a fertile soil without needing to be +sown or watered--awful is the necessity, as it seems, of all such +afflictions. Yet, again, if (as these anecdote simply) war could by +possibility depend frequently on accidents of personal temperament, +irritability in a sensual king, wounded sensibilities of pride between +two sensitive ladies, there in a moment shone forth a light of hope upon +the crusade against war. + +If _personal_ accidents could, to any serious extent, be amongst the +causes of war, then it would become a hopeful duty to combine personal +influences that should take an opposite direction. If casual causes +could be supposed chiefly to have promoted war, how easy for a nation to +arrange permanent and determinate causes against it! The logic of these +anecdotes seemed to argue that the whole fountains of war were left to +the government of chance and the windiest of levities; that war was not +in reality roused into activity by the evil that resides in the human +will, but on the contrary, by the simple defect of any will energetic +enough or steady enough to merit that name. Multitudes of evils exist in +our social system, simply because no steadiness of attention, nor action +of combined will, has been converged upon them. War, by the silent +evidence of these anecdotes, seemed to lie amongst that class of evils. +A new era might be expected to commence in new views upon war; and the +evil would be half conquered from the moment that it should be traced to +a trivial or a personal origin. + +All this was plausible, but false. The anecdotes, and all similar +anecdotes, might be true, but were delusive. The logical vice in them +was--that they substituted an occasion for a cause. The king's ill +temper for instance, acting through the levity and impatience of the +minister, might be the _causa occasionalis_ of the war, but not its true +_causa efficiens_. What _was?_ Where do the true permanent causes +of war, as distinguished from its proximate excitements, find their +lodgment and abiding ground? They lie in the system of national +competitions; in the common political system to which all individual +nations are unavoidably parties; in the system of public forces +distributed amongst a number of adjacent nations, with no internal +principle for adjusting the equilibrium of these forces, and no supreme +_Areopagus_, or court of appeal, for deciding disputes. Here lies the +_matrix_ of war, because an eternal _matrix_ of disputes lies in a +system of interests that are continually the same, and therefore the +parents of rivalships too close, that are continually different, and +so far the parents of alienation too wide. All war is an instinctive +_nisus_ for redressing the errors of equilibrium in the relative +position of nations amongst nations. Every nation's duty, first, midst, +and last, is to itself. No nation can be safe from continual (because +insensible) losses of ground, but by continual jealousies, watchings, +and ambitious strivings to mend its own position. Civilities and +high-bred courtesies pass and ought to pass between nations; that is +the graceful drapery which shrouds their natural, fierce, and tiger-like +relations to each other. But the glaring eyes, which express this +deep and inalienable ferocity, look out at intervals from below these +gorgeous draperies; and sad it is to think that at intervals the acts +and the temper suitable to those glaring eyes _must_ come forward. Mr. +Carter was on terms of the most exquisite dissimulation with his lions +and tigers; but, as often as he trusted his person amongst them, if, +in the midst of infinite politeness exchanged on all sides, he saw a +certain portentous expression of mutiny kindling in the eyeball of any +discontented tiger, all was lost, unless he came down instantly +upon that tiger's skull with a blow from an iron bar, that suggested +something like apoplexy. On such terms do nations meet in diplomacy; +high consideration for each other does not conceal the basis of enmity +on which they rest; not an enmity that belongs to their feelings, but to +the necessities of their position. Every nation in negotiating has +its right hand upon the hilt of its sword, and at intervals playfully +unsheaths a little of its gleaming blade. As things stand at present, +war and peace are bound together like the vicissitudes of day and night, +of Castor and Pollux. It matters little which bucket of the two is +going up at the moment, which going down. Both are steadfastly tied by a +system of alternations to a revolving wheel; and a new war as certainly +becomes due during the evolutions of a tedious peace, as a new peace +may be relied on during the throes of a bloody war, to tranquillize its +wounds. Consequently, when the arrogant Louvois carried a war to the +credit of his own little account on the national leger of France, +this coxcomb well knew that a war was at any rate due about that +time. Really, says he, I must find out some little war to exhaust the +_surplus_ irritability of this person, or he'll be the death of me. But +irritable or not irritable, with a puppy for his minister or not, the +French king would naturally have been carried headlong into war by the +mere system of Europe, within a very few months. So much had the causes +of complaint reciprocally accumulated. The account must be cleansed, the +court roll of grievances must be purged. With respect to the two English +ladies again, it is still more evident that they could not have _caused_ +a war by pulling caps with each other, since the grounds of every war, +what had caused it, and prolonged it, was sure to be angrily reviewed by +Parliament at each annual exposition of the Finance Minister's Budget. +These ladies, and the French coxcomb, could at the utmost have claimed a +distinction--such as that which belonged to a particular Turkish gunner, +the captain of a gun at Navarino, viz., that he, by firing the first +shot without orders, did (as a matter of fact) let loose and unmuzzle +the whole of that dreadful iron hurricane from four nations which +instantly followed, but which (be it known to the gunner) could not +have been delayed for fifty minutes longer, whether he had fired the +unauthorized gun or not. + +But now, let me speak to the second proposition of my two-headed thesis, +viz., that war _ought_ not to be abolished, if such an abolition were +even possible. _Prima facie_, it seems a dreadful doctrine to claim +a place for war as amongst the evils that are salutary to man; but +conscientiously I hold it to be such. I hold with Wordsworth, but +for reasons which may or may not be the same, since he has not stated +_his_-- + + 'That God's most dreaded instrument, + In working out a pure intent, + Is man--array'd for mutual slaughter: + Yea, Carnage is his daughter.' + +I am obliged to hold, that supposing so romantic a condition realized +as the cessation of war, this change, unless other evils were previously +abolished, or neutralized in a way still more romantic to suppose, would +not be for the welfare of human nature, but would tend to its rapid +degradation. + +One, in fact, of the earliest aspects under which this moral necessity +for war forces itself upon our notice, is its physical necessity. I mean +to say that one of the earliest reasons why war _ought_ to exist, is +because under any mode of suppressing war, virtually it _will_ exist. +Banish war as now administered, and it will revolve upon us in a worse +shape, that is, in a shape of predatory and ruffian war, more and more +licentious, as it enjoys no privilege or sufferance, by the supposition, +under the national laws. Will the causes of war die away because war is +forbidden? Certainly not; and the only result of the prohibition would +be to throw back the exercise of war from national into private and +mercenary hands; and _that_ is precisely the retrograde or inverse +course of civilization; for, in the natural order of civilization, war +passes from the hands of knights, barons, insulated cities, into those +of the universal community. If, again, it is attempted to put down this +lawless _guerilla_ state by national forces, then the result will be to +have established an interminable warfare of a mixed character, private +and public, civil and foreign, infesting the frontiers of all states +like a fever, and in substitution for the occasional and intermitting +wars of high national police, administered with the dignified +responsibility that belongs to supreme rank, with the humanity that +belongs to conscious power, and with the diminishing havoc that belongs +to increasing skill in the arts of destruction. Even as to this last +feature in warfare, which in the war of brigands and _condottieri_ would +for many reasons instantly decay, no reader can fail to be aware of the +marvels effected by the forces of inventive science that run along +side by side with the advances of civilization; look back even to the +grandest period of the humane Roman warfare, listen to the noblest and +most merciful of all Roman captains, saying on the day of Pharsalia, +(and saying of necessity,) 'Strike at their faces, cavalry,'--yes, +absolutely directing his own troopers to plough up with their sabres the +blooming faces of the young Roman nobility; and then pass to a modern +field of battle, where all is finished by musquetry and artillery amidst +clouds of smoke, no soldier recognizing his own desolations, or the +ghastly ruin of his own right arm, so that war, by losing all its +brutality, is losing half of its demoralization. + +War, so far from ending, because war was forbidden and nationally +renounced, on the contrary would transmigrate into a more fearful +shape. As things are at present, (and, observe, they are always growing +better,) what numbers of noble-minded men, in the persons of our +officers (yes, and often of non-commissioned officers,) do we British, +for example, disperse over battle-fields, that could not dishonor their +glorious uniform by any countenance to an act of cruelty! They are eyes +delegated from the charities of our domestic life, to overlook and +curb the license of war. I remember, in Xenophon, some passage where +he describes a class of Persian gentlemen, who were called the +_ophthalmoi_, or _eyes_ of the king; but for a very different purpose. +These British officers may be called the _opthalmoi_, or eyes of +our Sovereign Lady, that into every corner of the battle carry their +scrutiny, lest any cruelty should be committed on the helpless, or any +advantage taken of a dying enemy. But mark, such officers would be rare +in the irregular troops succeeding to the official armies. And through +this channel, amongst others, war, when cried down by act of Parliament, +and precisely _because_ it was cried down, would become more perilously +effective for the degradation of human nature. Being itself dishonored, +war would become the more effective as an instrument for the dishonoring +of its agents. However, at length, we will suppose the impossible +problem solved--war, we will assume, is at last put down. + +At length there is no more war. Though by the way, let me whisper in +your ear, (supposing you to be a Christian,) this would be a prelibation +drawn prematurely from the cup of millennial happiness; and, strictly +speaking, there is no great homage to religion, even thus far--in +figuring _that_ to be the purchase of man for himself, and through his +own efforts, which is viewed by Scripture as a glory removed to the +infinite and starry distance of a millennium, and as the _teleutaion +epigeinaema_, the last crowning attainment of Christian truth, no +longer _militant_ on earth. Christianity it is, but Christianity when +_triumphant_, and no longer in conflict with adverse, or thwarting, or +limiting influences, which only can be equal to a revolution so mighty. +But all this, for the sake of pursuing the assumption, let us agree to +waive. In reality, there are two separate stations taken up by the war +denouncers. One class hold, that an influence derived from political +economy is quite equal to the flying leap by which man is to clear this +unfathomable gulph of war, and to land his race for ever on the opposite +shore of a self-sustaining peace. Simply, the contemplation of national +debts, (as a burthen which never would have existed without war,) and +a computation of the waste, havoc, unproductive labor, &c., attached to +any single campaign--these, they imagine, might suffice, _per se_, +for the extinction of war. But the other class cannot go along with +a speculation so infirm. Reasons there are, in the opposite scale, +tempting man into war,--which are far mightier than any motives +addressed to his self-interest. Even straining her energies to the +utmost, they regard all policy of the _purse_ as adequate: anything +short of religion, they are satisfied, must be incommensurate to a +result so vast. + +I myself certainly agree with this last class; but upon this arises +a delusion, which I shall have some trouble in making the reader +understand: and of this I am confident-that a majority, perhaps, in +every given amount of readers, will share in the delusion; will part +from me in the persuasion that the error I attempt to expose is no error +at all, but that it is myself who am in the wrong. The delusion which +I challenge as such, respects the very meaning and value of a sacrifice +made to Christianity. What is it? what do we properly mean, by +a concession or a sacrifice made to a spiritual power, such as +Christianity? If a king and his people, impressed by the unchristian +character of war, were to say, in some solemn act--'We, the parties +undersigned, for the reasons stated in the body of this document, +proclaim to all nations, that from and after Midsummer eve of the year +1850, this being the eve of St. John the Baptist, (who was the herald of +Christ,) we will no more prosecute any interest of ours, unless the one +sole interest of national defence, by means of war,--and this sacrifice +we make as a concession and act of homage to Christianity,--would +_that_ vow, I ask, sincerely offered, and steadily observed, really be a +sacrifice made to Christianity? Not at all. A sacrifice, that was truly +such, to a spiritual religion, must be a sacrifice not verbally (though +sincerely) dedicating itself to the religion, but a sacrifice wrought +and accomplished by that religion, through and by its own spirit. +Midsummer eve of 1850 could clearly make no spiritual change in the king +or his people--such they would be on the morning after St. John's day, +as on the morning before it--_i. e._, filled with all elements (though +possibly undeveloped) of strife, feud, pernicious ambition. + +The delusion, therefore, which I charge upon this religious class of +war denouncers is, that whilst they see and recognize this infinite +imperfection of any influence which Christianity yet exercises upon +the world, they nevertheless rely upon that acknowledged shadow for the +accomplishment of what would, in such circumstances, be a real miracle; +they rely upon that shadow, as truly and entirely as if it were already +that substance which, in a vast revolution of ages, it will finally +become. And they rely upon this mockery in _two_ senses; first, for the +_endurance_ of the frail human resolution that would thaw in an hour +before a great outrage, or provocation suited to the nobler infirmities +of man. Secondly, which is the point I mainly aim at, assuming, for a +moment, that the resolution _could_ endure, amongst all mankind, we are +all equally convinced, that an evil so vast is not likely to be checked +or controlled, except by some very extraordinary power. Well, where +_is_ it? Show me that power. I know of none but Christianity. _There_, +undoubtedly, is hope. But, in order that the hope may become rational, +the power must become practical. And practical it is not in the extent +required, until this Christianity, from being dimly appreciated by a +section [Footnote _What_ section, if you please? I, for my part, do not +agree with those that geographically degrade Christianity as occupying +but a trifle on the area of our earth. Mark this; all Eastern +populations have dwindled upon better acquaintance. Persia that _ought_ +to have, at least, two hundred and fifty millions of people, and _would_ +have them under English government, and once was supposed to have at +least one hundred millions, how many millions has she? _Eight!_ This +was ascertained by Napoleon's emissary in 1808, General Gardanne. +Afghanistan has very little more, though some falsely count fourteen +millions. There go two vast chambers of Mahometanism; not twenty +millions between them. Hindostan may _really_ have one hundred and +twenty millions claimed for her. As to the Burman Empire, I, nor anybody +else knows the truth. But, as to China, I have never for a moment been +moved by those ridiculous estimates of the flowery people, which our +simple countrymen copy. Instead of three hundred and fifty millions, a +third of the human race upon the most exaggerated estimate, read eighty +or one hundred millions at most. Africa, as it regards religion, counts +for a cipher. Europe, America, and the half of Asia, as to space, are +Christian. Consequently, the total _facit_, as regards Christianity, is +not what many amiable infidels make it to be. My dears, your wish was +father to that thought.] of this world, shall have been the law that +overrides the whole. That consummation is not immeasurably distant. Even +now, from considerations connected with China, with New Zealand, Borneo, +Australia, we may say, that already the fields are white for harvest. +But alas! the interval is brief between Christianity small, and +Christianity great, as regards space or terraqueous importance, compared +with that interval which separates Christianity formally professed, +from Christianity thankfully acknowledged by universal man in beauty and +power. + +Here, therefore, is one spoke in the wheel for so vast a change as war +dethroned, viz., that you see no cause, though you should travel round +the whole horizon, adequate to so prodigious an effect. What could +do it? Why, Christianity could do it. Aye, true; but man disarms +Christianity. And no mock Christianity, no lip homage to Christianity, +will answer. + +But is war, then, to go on for ever? Are we never to improve? Are +nations to conduct their intercourse eternally under the secret +understanding that an unchristian solution of all irreconcileable feuds +stands in the rear as the ultimate appeal? I answer that war, going on +even for ever, may still be for ever amending its modes and its results +upon human happiness; secondly, that we not only are under no fatal +arrest in our process of improvement, but that, as regards war, history +shows how steadily we _have_ been improving; and, thirdly, that although +war may be irreversible as the last resource, this last resource may +constantly be retiring further into the rear. Let us speak to this +last point. War is the last resource only, because other and more +intellectual resources for solving disputes are not available. And +_why_ are they not? Simply, because the knowledge, and the logic, which +ultimately will govern the case, and the very circumstances of the case +itself in its details, as the basis on which this knowledge and logic +are to operate, happen not to have been sufficiently developed. A code +of law is not a spasmodic effort of gigantic talent in any one man +or any one generation; it is a slow growth of accidents and occasions +expanding with civilization; dependent upon time as a multiform element +in its development; and presupposing often a concurrent growth of +_analogous_ cases towards the completion of its system. For instance, +the law which regulates the rights of shipping, seafaring men, and +maritime commerce--how slow was its development! Before such works as +the _Consolato del Mare_ had been matured, how wide must have been the +experience, and how slow its accumulation! During that long period of +infancy for law, how many must have been the openings for ignorant +and unintentional injustice! How differently, again, will the several +parties to any transaction construe the rights of the case! Discussion, +without rules for guiding it, will but embitter the dispute. And in the +absence of all guidance from the intellect, gradually weaving a _common_ +standard of international appeal, it is clear that nations _must_ fight, +and _ought_ to fight. Not being convinced, it is base to pretend that +you _are_ convinced; and failing to be convinced by your neighbor's +arguments, you confess yourself a poltroon (and moreover you _invite_ +injuries from every neighbor) if you pocket your wrongs. The only course +in such a case is to thump your neighbor, and to thump him soundly +for the present. This treatment is very serviceable to your neighbor's +optics; he sees things in a new light after a sufficient course of so +distressing a regimen. But mark, even in this case, war has no tendency +to propagate war, but tends to the very opposite result. To thump is as +costly, and in other ways as painful, as to _be_ thumped. The evil to +both sides arises in an undeveloped state of law. If rights were defined +by a well considered code growing out of long experience, each party +sees that this scourge of war would continually tend to limit itself. +Consequently the very necessity of war becomes the strongest invitation +to that system of judicial logic which forms its sole limitation. But +all war whatsoever stands in these circumstances. It follows that all +war whatever, unless on the brutal principle of a Spartan warfare, that +made war its own sufficient object and self-justification, operates as +a perpetual bounty offered to men upon the investigation and final +adjudication of those disputed cases through which war prospers. Hence +it is, viz., because the true boundaries of reciprocal rights are for +ever ascertaining themselves more clearly, that war is growing less +frequent. The fields open to injustice (which originally from pure +ignorance are so vast) continually (through deeper and more expansive +surveys by man's intellect--searching--reflecting--comparing) are +narrowing themselves; narrowing themselves in this sense, that all +nations under a common centre of religious civilization, as Christendom +suppose, or Islamism, would not fight--no, and would not (by the +national sense of wrong and right) be permitted to fight--in a cause +_confessedly_ condemned by equity as now developed. The causes of war +that still remain, are causes on which international law is silent--that +large arrear of cases as yet unsettled; or else they are cases in which +though law speaks with an authentic voice, it speaks in vain, because +the circumstances are doubtful; so that, if the law is fixed as a lamp +nailed to a wall, yet the _incidence_ of the law on the particular +circumstances, becomes as doubtful as the light of the lamp upon objects +that are capriciously moving. We see all this illustrated in a class of +cases that powerfully illustrate the good and the bad in war, the why +and the wherefore, as likewise the why _not_, and therefore I presume +the wherefore _not_; and this class of cases belongs to the _lex +vicinitatis_. In the Roman law this section makes a great figure. And +speaking accurately, it makes a greater in our own. But the reason why +this _law of neighborhood_ seems to fill so much smaller a section in +ours, is because in English law, being _positively_ a longer section, +_negatively_ to the whole compass of our law, it is less. The Roman law +would have paved a road to the moon. And what is _that_ expressed in +time? Let us see: a railway train, worked at the speed of the Great +Western Express, accomplishes easily a thousand miles in twenty-four +hours; consequently in two hundred and forty days or eight months it +would run into the moon with its buffers, and break up the quarters of +that Robinson Crusoe who (and without any Friday) is the only policeman +that parades that little pensive appendage or tender to our fuming +engine of an earth. But the English law--oh frightful reader, don't even +think of such a question as its relation in space and time to the Roman +law. That it would stretch to the fixed stars is plain, but to which +of them,--don't now, dear persecuting reader, unsettle our brains by +asking. Enough it is that both in Roman and English law the rights of +neighborhood are past measuring. Has a man a right to play the German +flute, where the partitions are slender, all day long in the house +adjoining to yours? Or, supposing a beneficent jury (beneficent to +_him_) finds this to be no legal nuisance, has he a right to play it +ill? Or, because juries, when tipsy, will wink at anything, does the +privilege extend to the jew's-harp? to the poker and tongs? to the +marrowbones and cleavers? Or, without ranging through the whole of the +_Spectator's_ culinary music, will the bagpipes be found within benefit +of jury law? _War to the knife_ I say, before we'll submit to _that_. +And if the law won't protect us against it, then we'll turn rebels. + +Now this law of neighborhood, this _lex vicinitatis_, amongst the +Romans, righted itself and settled itself, as amongst ourselves it +continues to do, by means of actions or legal suits. If a man poisons us +with smoke, we compel him by an action to eat his own smoke, or (if he +chooses) to make his chimneys eat it. Here you see is a transmuted war; +in a barbarous state, fire and sword would have avenged this invasion of +smoke; but amongst civilized men, paper bullets in the form of _Qui +tam_ and _Scire facias_, beat off the enemy. And on the same principle, +exactly as the law of international rights clears up its dark places, +war gradually narrows its grounds, and the _jus gentium_ defines itself +through national attorneys, _i. e._, diplomatists. + +For instance, now I have myself seen a case where a man cultivating a +flower-garden, and distressed for some deliverance from his rubbish of +dead leaves, litter, straw, stones, took the desperate resolution of +projecting the whole upon his neighbor's flower-garden. I, a chance +spectator of the outrage, knew too much of this world to lodge any +protest against it, on the principle of mere abstract justice; so it +would have passed unnoticed, but for the accident that his injured +neighbor unexpectedly raised up his head above the dividing wall, and +reproached the aggressor with his unprincipled conduct. This aggressor, +adding evil to evil, suggested as the natural remedy for his own wrong, +that the sufferer should pass the nuisance onwards to the garden next +beyond him; from which it might be posted forward on the same principle. +The aggrieved man, however, preferred passing it back, without any +discount to the original proprietor. Here now, is a ripe case, a _causa +teterrima_, for war between the parties, and for a national war had +the parties been nations. In fact, the very same injury, in a more +aggravated shape, is perpetrated from time to time by Jersey upon +ourselves, and would, upon a larger scale, right itself by war. Convicts +are costly to maintain; and Jersey, whose national revenue is limited, +being too well aware of this, does us the favor to land upon the coasts +of Hampshire, Dorset, &c., all the criminals whom she cannot summarily +send back to self-support, at each jail-delivery. 'What are we to do in +England?' is the natural question propounded by the injured scoundrels, +when taking leave of their Jersey escort. 'Anything you please,' is +the answer: 'rise if you can, to be dukes: only never come back hither; +since, dukes or _no_ dukes, to the rest of Christendom, to _us_ of +the Channel Islands you will always be transported felons.' There is +therefore a good right of action, _i.e._, a good ground of war, against +Jersey, on the part of Great Britain, since, besides the atrocious +injury inflicted, this unprincipled little island has the audacity to +regard our England, (all Europe looking on,) as existing only for the +purposes of a sewer or cess-pool to receive _her_ impurities. Some time +back I remember a Scottish newspaper holding up the case as a newly +discovered horror in the social system. But, in a quiet way Jersey has +always been engaged in this branch of exportation, and rarely fails to +'run' a cargo of rogues upon our shore, once or so in the season. What +amuses one besides, in this Scottish denunciation of the villany, is, +that Scotland [Footnote: To banish them 'forth of the kingdom,' was the +_euphuismus_; but the reality understood was--to carry the knaves, like +foxes in a bag, to the English soil, and there unbag them for English +use.] of old, pursued the very same mode of jail-delivery as to knaves +that were not thought ripe enough for hanging: she carted them to +the English border, unchained them, and hurried them adrift into the +wilderness, saying--Now, boys, shift for yourselves, and henceforth +plunder none but Englishmen. + +What I deduce from all this is, that as the feuds arising between +individuals under the relation of neighbors, are so far from tending to +a hostile result, that, on the contrary, as coming under a rule of +law already ascertained, or furnishing the basis for a new rule, they +gradually tighten the cords which exclude all opening for quarrel; not +otherwise is the result, and therefore the usefulness, of war amongst +nations. All the causes of war, the occasions upon which it is likely to +arise, the true and the ostensible motives, are gradually evolved, are +examined, searched, valued, by publicists; and by such means, in the +further progress of men, a comprehensive law of nations will finally be +accumulated, not such as now passes for international law, (a worthless +code that _has_ no weight in the practice of nations, nor deserves any,) +but one which will exhaust the great body of cases under which wars have +arisen under the Christian era, and gradually collect a public opinion +of Christendom upon the nature of each particular case. The causes that +_have_ existed for war are the causes that _will_ exist; or, at least, +they are the same under modifications that will simply vary the rule, +as our law cases in the courts are every day circumstantiating the +particular statute concerned. At this stage of advance, and when a true +European opinion has been created, a '_sensus communis_,' or community +of feeling on the main classifications of wars, it will become possible +to erect a real Areopagus, or central congress for all Christendom, not +with any commission to suppress wars,--a policy which would neutralize +itself by reacting as a fresh cause of war, since high-spirited nations +would arm for the purpose of resisting such decrees; but with the +purpose and the effect of oftentimes healing local or momentary +animosities, and also by publishing the opinion of Europe, assembled in +council, with the effect of taking away the shadow of dishonor from the +act of retiring from war. Not to mention that the mere delay, involved +in the waiting for the solemn opinion of congress, would always be +friendly to pacific councils. But _would_ the belligerents wait? That +concession might be secured by general exchange of treaties, in the +same way that the cooperation of so many nations has been secured to the +suppression of the trade in slaves. And one thing is clear, that when +all the causes of war, involving _manifest_ injustice, are banished by +the force of European opinion, focally converged upon the subject, the +range of war will be prodigiously circumscribed. The costliness of war, +which, for various reasons has been continually increasing since the +feudal period, will operate as another limitation upon its field, +concurring powerfully with the public declaration from a council of +collective Christendom. + +There is, besides, a distinct and separate cause of war, more fatal to +the possibilities of peace in Europe than open injustice; and this cause +being certainly in the hands of nations to deal with as they please, +there is a tolerable certainty that a congress _sincerely_ pacific would +cut it up by the roots. It is a cause noticed by Kant in his Essay on +Perpetual Peace, and with great sagacity, though otherwise that little +work is not free from visionary self-delusions: and this cause lies in +the diplomacy of Europe. Treaties of peace are so constructed, as almost +always to sow the seeds of future wars. This seems to the inexperienced +reader a matter of carelessness or laxity in the choice of expression; +and sometimes it may have been so; but more often it has been done under +the secret dictation of powerful courts--making peaces only as truces, +anxious only for time to nurse their energies, and to keep open some +plausible call for war. This is not only amongst the most extensive +causes of war, but the very worst: because it gives a colorable air of +justice, and almost of necessity to a war, which is, in fact, the most +outrageously unjust, as being derived from a pretext silently prepared +in former years, with mere subtlety of malice: it is a war growing out +of occasions, forged beforehand, lest no occasions should spontaneously +arise. Now, this cause of war could and would be healed by a congress, +and through an easy reform in European diplomacy.[Footnote: One great +_nidus_ of this insidious preparation for war under the very masque of +peace, which Kant, from brevity, has failed to particularize, lies in +the neglecting to make any provision for cases that are likely enough to +arise. A, B, C, D, are all equally possible, but the treaty provides a +specific course of action only for A, suppose. Then upon B or C arising, +the high contracting parties, though desperately and equally pacific, +find themselves committed to war actually by a treaty of lasting peace. +Their pacific majesties sigh, and say--Alas! that it should be so, but +really fight we must, for what says the treaty?] + +It is the strongest confirmation of the power inherent in growing +civilization, to amend war, and to narrow the field of war, if we look +back for the records of the changes in this direction which have already +arisen in generations before our own. + +The most careless reviewer of history can hardly fail to read a rude +outline of progress made by men in the rights, and consequently in the +duties of war through the last twenty-five centuries. It is a happy +circumstance for man--that oftentimes he is led by pure selfishness into +reforms, the very same as high principle would have prompted; and in the +next stage of his advance, when once habituated to an improved code of +usages, he begins to find a gratification to his sensibilities, (partly +luxurious sensibilities, but partly moral,) in what originally had been +a mere movement of self-interest. Then comes a third stage, in which +having thoroughly reconciled himself to a better order of things, and +made it even necessary to his own comfort, at length he begins in +his reflecting moments to perceive a moral beauty and a fitness in +arrangements that had emanated from accidents of convenience, so that +finally he generates a sublime pleasure of conscientiousness out of +that which originally commenced in the meanest forms of mercenary +convenience. A Roman lady of rank, out of mere voluptuous regard to her +own comfort, revolted from the harsh clamors of eternal chastisements +inflicted on her numerous slaves; she forbade them; the grateful slaves +showed their love for her; gradually and unintentionally she trained +her feelings, when thus liberated from a continual temptation to the +sympathies with cruelty, into a demand for gentler and purer excitement. +Her purpose had been one of luxury; but, by the benignity of nature +still watching for ennobling opportunities, the actual result was a +development given to the higher capacities of her heart. In the same +way, when the brutal right (and in many circumstances the brutal duty) +of inflicting death upon prisoners taken in battle, had exchanged +itself for the profits of ransom or slavery, this relaxation of ferocity +(though commencing in selfishness) gradually exalted itself into a habit +of mildness, and some dim perception of a sanctity in human life. The +very vice of avarice ministered to the purification of barbarism; +and the very evil of slavery in its earliest form was applied to the +mitigation of another evil--war conducted in the spirit of piratical +outrage. The commercial instincts of men having worked one set of +changes in war, a second set of changes was prompted by instincts +derived from the arts of ornament and pomp. Splendor of arms, of +banners, of equipages, of ceremonies, and the elaborate forms of +intercourse with enemies through conferences, armistices, treaties of +peace, &c., having tamed the savagery of war into connection with +modes of intellectual grandeur, and with the endless restraints of +superstition or scrupulous religion,--a permanent light of civilization +began to steal over the bloody shambles of buccaneering warfare. Other +modes of harmonizing influences arose more directly from the bosom of +war itself. Gradually the mere practice of war, and the culture of +war though merely viewed as a rude trade of bloodshed, ripened into an +intellectual art. Were it merely with a view to more effectual carnage, +this art (however simple and gross at first) opened at length into wide +scientific arts, into strategies, into tactics, into castrametation, +into poliorcetics, and all the processes through which the first rude +efforts of martial cunning finally connect themselves with the exquisite +resources of science. War, being a game in which each side forces the +other into the instant adoption of all improvements through the mere +necessities of self-preservation, became continually more intellectual. + +It is interesting to observe the steps by which, were it only through +impulses of self-conservation, and when searching with a view to more +effectual destructiveness, war did and must refine itself from a horrid +trade of butchery into a magnificent and enlightened science. Starting +from no higher impulse or question than how to cut throats most rapidly, +most safely, and on the largest scale, it has issued even at our own +stage of advance into a science, magnificent, oftentimes ennobling, and +cleansed from all horrors except those which (not being within man's +power utterly to divorce from it) no longer stand out as reproaches to +his humanity. + +Meantime a more circumstantial review of war, in relation to its motives +and the causes assigned for its justification, would expose a series +of changes greater perhaps than the reader is aware of. Such a review, +which would too much lengthen a single paper, may or may not form the +subject of a second. And I will content myself with saying, as a closing +remark, that this review will detect a principle of steady advance in +the purification and elevation of war--such as must offer hope to those +who believe in the possibility of its absolute extermination, and must +offer consolation to those who (like myself) deny it. + + + + +THE LAST DAYS OF IMMANUEL KANT. + + +I take it for granted that every person of education will acknowledge +some interest in the personal history of Immanuel Kant. A great man, +though in an unpopular path, must always be an object of liberal +curiosity. To suppose a reader thoroughly indifferent to Kant, is to +suppose him thoroughly unintellectual; and, therefore, though in reality +he should happen _not_ to regard him with interest, it is one of the +fictions of courtesy to presume that he does. On this principle I make +no apology to the reader for detaining him upon a short sketch of +Kant's life and domestic habits, drawn from the authentic records of his +friends and pupils. It is true, that, without any illiberality on the +part of the public in this country, the _works_ of Kant are not regarded +with the same interest which has gathered about his _name_; and this may +be attributed to three causes--first, to the language in which they are +written; secondly, to the supposed obscurity of the philosophy which +they teach, whether intrinsic or due to Kant's particular mode +of expounding it; thirdly, to the unpopularity of all speculative +philosophy, no matter how treated, in a country where the structure and +tendency of society impress upon the whole activities of the nation +a direction exclusively practical. But, whatever may be the immediate +fortunes of his writings, no man of enlightened curiosity will regard +the author himself without something of a profounder interest. Measured +by one test of power, viz., by the number of books written directly +for or against himself, to say nothing of those which he has indirectly +modified, there is no philosophic writer whatsoever, if we except +Aristotle, who can pretend to approach Kant in the extent of the +influence which he has exercised over the minds of men. Such being his +claims upon our notice, I repeat that it is no more than a reasonable +act of respect to the reader--to presume in him so much interest about +Kant as will justify a sketch of his life. + +Immanuel Kant, [Footnote: By the paternal side, the family of Kant was +of Scotch derivation; and hence it is that the name was written by Kant +the father--_Cant_, that being a Scotch name, and still to be found in +Scotland. But Immanuel, though he always cherished his Scotch descent, +substituted a _K_ for a _C_, in order to adapt it better to the +analogies of the German language.] the second of six children, was born +at Koenigsberg, in Prussia, a city at that time containing about fifty +thousand inhabitants, on the 22d of April, 1724. His parents were people +of humble rank, and not rich even for their own station, but able (with +some assistance from a near relative, and a trifle in addition from a +gentleman, who esteemed them for their piety and domestic virtues,) to +give their son Immanuel a liberal education. He was sent when a child +to a charity school; and, in the year 1732, removed to the Royal (or +Frederician) Academy. Here he studied the Greek and Latin classics, +and formed an intimacy with one of his schoolfellows, David Ruhnken, +(afterwards so well known to scholars under his Latin name of +Ruhn-kenius,) which lasted until the death of the latter. In 1737, Kant +lost his mother, a woman of excellent character, and of accomplishments +and knowledge beyond her rank, who contributed to the future eminence +of her illustrious son by the direction which she gave to his youthful +thoughts, and by the elevated morals to which she trained him. Kant +never spoke of her to the end of his life without the utmost tenderness, +and acknowledgment of his great obligations to her maternal care. In +1740, at Michaelmas, he entered the University of Koenigsberg. In 1746, +when about twenty-two years old, he printed his first work, upon a +question partly mathematical and partly philosophic, viz., the valuation +of living forces. The question had been first moved by Leibnitz, in +opposition to the Cartesians, and was here finally settled, after having +occupied most of the great mathematicians of Europe for more than half +a century. It was dedicated to the King of Prussia, but never reached +him--having, in fact, never been published. [Footnote: To this +circumstance we must attribute its being so little known amongst the +philosophers and mathematicians of foreign countries, and also the fact +that D'Alembert, whose philosophy was miserably below his mathematics, +many years afterwards still continued to represent the dispute as +a verbal one.] From this time until 1770, he supported himself as a +private tutor in different families, or by giving private lectures in +Koenigsberg, especially to military men on the art of fortification. In +1770, he was appointed to the Chair of Mathematics, which he exchanged +soon after for that of Logic and Metaphysics. On this occasion, +he delivered an inaugural disputation--[_De Mundi Sensibilis atque +Intelligibilis Forma et Principiis_]--which is remarkable for containing +the first germs of the Transcendental Philosophy. In 1781, he published +his great work, the _Critik der Reinen Vernunft,_ or _Investigation of +the Pure Reason_. On February 12, 1804, he died. + +These are the great epochs of Kant's life. But his was a life remarkable +not so much for its incidents, as for the purity and philosophic dignity +of its daily tenor; and of this the best impression will be obtained +from Wasianski's account of his last years, checked and supported by +the collateral testimonies of Jachmann, Rink, Borowski, and other +biographers. We see him here struggling with the misery of decaying +faculties, and with the pain, depression, and agitation of two different +complaints, one affecting his stomach, and the other his head; over +all which the benignity and nobility of his mind are seen victoriously +eminent to the last. The principal defect of this and all other +memoirs of Kant is, that they report too little of his conversation and +opinions. And perhaps the reader will be disposed to complain, that some +of the notices are too minute and circumstantial, so as to be at one +time undignified, and at another unfeeling. As to the first objection, +it may be answered, that biographical gossip of this sort, and +ungentlemanly scrutiny into a man's private life, though not what a man +of honor would choose to write, may be read without blame; and, where a +great man is the subject, sometimes with advantage. With respect to the +other objection, I know not how to excuse Mr. Wasianski for kneeling +at the bed-side of his dying friend, to record, with the accuracy of a +short-hand reporter, the last flutter of his pulse and the struggles of +expiring nature, except by supposing that the idea of Kant, as a person +belonging to all ages, in his mind transcended and extinguished +the ordinary restraints of human sensibility, and that, under this +impression, he gave _that_ to his sense of a public duty which, it may +be hoped, he would willingly have declined on the impulse of his private +affections. + +_The following paper on The Last Days of Kant, is gathered from the +German of Wasianski, Jachmann, Borowski, and others._ + +My knowledge of Professor Kant began long before the period to which +this little memorial of him chiefly refers. In the year 1773, or 1774, +I cannot exactly remember which, I attended his lectures. Afterwards, I +acted as his amanuensis; and in that office was naturally brought into +a closer connection with him than any other of his pupils; so that, +without any request on my part, he granted me a general privilege of +free admission to his class-room. In 1780 I took orders, and withdrew +myself from all connection with the university. I still continued, +however, to reside in Koenigsberg; but wholly forgotten, or wholly +unnoticed at least, by Kant. Ten years afterwards, (that is to say, +in 1790,) I met him by accident at a party given on occasion of the +marriage of one of the professors. At table, Kant distributed +his conversation and attentions pretty generally; but after the +entertainment, when the company broke up into parties, he came and +seated himself very obligingly by my side. I was at that time a +florist--an amateur, I mean, from the passion I had for flowers; +upon learning which, he talked of my favorite pursuit, and with +very extensive information. In the course of our conversation, I +was surprised to find that he was perfectly acquainted with all +the circumstances of my situation. He reminded me of our previous +connection; expressed his satisfaction at finding that I was happy; and +was so good as to desire that, if my engagements allowed me, I would now +and then come and dine with him. Soon after this, he rose to take his +leave; and, as our road lay the same way, he proposed to me that I +should accompany him home. I did so, and received an invitation for +the next week, with a general invitation for every week after, and +permission to name my own day. At first I was unable to explain the +distinction with which Kant had treated me; and I conjectured that +some obliging friend had spoken of me in his hearing, somewhat more +advantageously than I could pretend to deserve; but more intimate +experience has convinced me that he was in the habit of making continual +inquiries after the welfare of his former pupils, and was heartily +rejoiced to hear of their prosperity. So that it appeared I was wrong in +thinking he had forgotten me. + +This revival of my intimacy with Professor Kant, coincided pretty +nearly, in point of time, with a complete change in his domestic +arrangements. Up to this period it had been his custom to eat at a +_table d'hote_. But he now began to keep house himself, and every day +invited two friends to dine with him, and upon any little festival from +five to eight; for he was a punctual observer of Lord Chesterfield's +rule--that his dinner party, himself included, should not fall below the +number of the Graces--nor exceed that of the Muses. In the whole economy +of his household arrangements, and especially of his dinner parties, +there was something peculiar and amusingly opposed to the usual +conventional restraints of society; not, however, that there was any +neglect of decorum, such as sometimes occurs in houses where there are +no ladies to impress a better tone upon the manners. The invariable +routine was this: The moment that dinner was ready, Lampe, the +professor's old footman, stepped into the study with a certain measured +air, and announced it. This summons was obeyed at the pace of double +quick time--Kant talking all the way to the eating-room about the state +of the weather [Footnote: His reason for which was, that he considered +the weather one of the principal forces which act upon the health; +and his own frame was exquisitely sensible to all atmospheric +influences.]--a subject which he usually pursued during the earlier part +of the dinner. Graver themes, such as the political events of the day, +were never introduced before dinner, or at all in his study. The moment +that Kant had taken his seat, and unfolded his napkin, he opened the +business of dinner with a particular formula--'_Now, then, gentlemen!_' +and the tone and air with which he uttered these words, proclaimed, in +a way which nobody could mistake, relaxation from the toils of the +morning, and determinate abandonment of himself to social enjoyment. +The table was hospitably spread; three dishes, wine, &c., with a small +second course, composed the dinner. Every person helped himself; and all +delays of ceremony were so disagreeable to Kant, that he seldom failed +to express his displeasure with anything of that sort, though not +angrily. He was displeased also if people ate little; and treated it as +affectation. The first man to help himself was in his eyes the politest +guest; for so much the sooner came his own turn. For this hatred of +delay, Kant had a special excuse, having always worked hard from an +early hour in the morning, and eaten nothing until dinner. Hence it was, +that in the latter period of his life, though less perhaps from actual +hunger than from some uneasy sensation of habit or periodical irritation +of stomach, he could hardly wait with patience for the arrival of the +last person invited. + +There was no friend of Kant's but considered the day on which he was to +dine with him as a day of pleasure. Without giving himself the air of +an instructor, Kant really was so in the very highest degree. The whole +entertainment was seasoned with the overflow of his enlightened mind, +poured out naturally and unaffectedly upon every topic, as the chances +of conversation suggested it; and the time flew rapidly away, from one +o'clock to four, five, or even later, profitably and delightfully. Kant +tolerated no _calms_, which was the name he gave to the momentary pauses +in conversation, or periods when its animation languished. Some means or +other he always devised for restoring its tone of interest, in which he +was much assisted by the tact with which he drew from every guest his +peculiar tastes, or the particular direction of his pursuits; and on +these, be they what they might, he was never unprepared to speak with +knowledge, and the interest of an original observer. The local affairs +of Koenigsberg must have been interesting indeed, before they could be +allowed to occupy the attention at _his_ table. And, what may seem still +more singular, it was rarely or never that he directed the conversation +to any branch of the philosophy founded by himself. Indeed he was +perfectly free from the fault which besets so many _savans_ and +_literati_, of intolerance towards those whose pursuits had disqualified +them for any particular sympathy with his own. His style of conversation +was popular in the highest degree, and unscholastic; so much so, that +any stranger who should have studied his works, and been unacquainted +with his person, would have found it difficult to believe, that in this +delightful companion he saw the profound author of the Transcendental +Philosophy. + +The subjects of conversation at Kant's table were drawn chiefly from +natural philosophy, chemistry, meteorology, natural history, and above +all, from politics. The news of the day, as reported in the public +journals, was discussed with a peculiar vigilance of examination. With +regard to any narrative that wanted dates of time and place, however +otherwise plausible, he was uniformly an inexorable sceptic, and held it +unworthy of repetition. So keen was his penetration into the interior of +political events, and the secret policy under which they moved, that he +talked rather with the authority of a diplomatic person who had access +to cabinet intelligence, than as a simple spectator of the great scenes +which were unfolding in Europe. At the time of the French Revolution, +he threw out many conjectures, and what were then accounted paradoxical +anticipations, especially in regard to military operations, which were +as punctually fulfilled as his own memorable conjecture in regard to the +hiatus in the planetary system between Mars and Jupiter,[Footnote: To +which the author should have added--and in regard to the hiatus between +the planetary and cometary systems, which was pointed out by Kant +several years before his conjecture was established by the good +telescope of Dr. Herschel. Vesta and Juno, further confirmations of +Kant's conjecture, were discovered in June 1804, when Wasianski wrote.] +the entire confirmation of which he lived to witness on the discovery +of Ceres by Piazzi, in Palermo, and of Pallas, by Dr. Olbers, at +Bremen. These two discoveries, by the way, impressed him much; and +they furnished a topic on which he always talked with pleasure; though, +according to his usual modesty, he never said a word of his own +sagacity in having upon _a priori_ grounds shown the probability of such +discoveries many years before. + +It was not only in the character of a companion that Kant shone, but +also as a most courteous and liberal host, who had no greater pleasure +than in seeing his guests happy and jovial, and rising with exhilarated +spirits from the mixed pleasures--intellectual and liberally sensual--of +his Platonic banquets. Chiefly, perhaps, with a view to the sustaining +of this tone of genial hilarity, he showed himself somewhat of an artist +in the composition of his dinner parties. Two rules there were which he +obviously observed, and I may say invariably: the first was, that +the company should be miscellaneous; this for the sake of securing +sufficient variety to the conversation: and accordingly his parties +presented as much variety as the world of Koenigsberg afforded, being +drawn from all the modes of life, men in office, professors, physicians, +clergymen, and enlightened merchants. His second rule was, to have a due +balance of _young_ men, frequently of _very_ young men, selected from +the students of the university, in order to impress a movement of gaiety +and juvenile playfulness on the conversation; an additional motive for +which, as I have reason to believe, was, that in this way he withdrew +his mind from the sadness which sometimes overshadowed it, for the early +deaths of some young friends whom he loved. + +And this leads me to mention a singular feature in Kant's way of +expressing his sympathy with his friends in sickness. So long as the +danger was imminent, he testified a restless anxiety, made perpetual +inquiries, waited with patience for the crisis, and sometimes could not +pursue his customary labors from agitation of mind. But no sooner was +the patient's death announced, than he recovered his composure, and +assumed an air of stern tranquillity--almost of indifference. The reason +was, that he viewed life in general, and therefore, that particular +affection of life which we call sickness, as a state of oscillation and +perpetual change, between which and the fluctuating sympathies of hope +and fear, there was a natural proportion that justified them to the +reason; whereas death, as a permanent state that admitted of no _more_ +or _less_, that terminated all anxiety, and for ever extinguished the +agitation of suspense, he would not allow to be fitted to any state of +feeling, but one of the same enduring and unchanging character. However, +all this philosophic heroism gave way on one occasion; for many persons +will remember the tumultuous grief which he manifested upon the death +of Mr. Ehrenboth, a young man of very fine understanding and extensive +attainments, for whom he had the greatest affection. And naturally it +happened, in so long a life as his, in spite of his provident rule for +selecting his social companions as much as possible amongst the young, +that he had to mourn for many a heavy loss that could never be supplied +to him. + +To return, however, to the course of his day, immediately after the +termination of his dinner party, Kant walked out for exercise; but on +this occasion he never took any companion, partly, perhaps, because he +thought it right, after so much convivial and colloquial relaxation, to +pursue his meditations,[Footnote: Mr. Wasianski is wrong. To pursue his +meditations under these circumstances, might perhaps be an inclination +of Kant's to which he yielded, but not one which he would justify or +erect into a maxim. He disapproved of eating alone, or _solipsismus +convictorii_, as he calls it, on the principle, that a man would be apt, +if not called off by the business and pleasure of a social party, to +think too much or too closely, an exercise which he considered very +injurious to the stomach during the first process of digestion. On the +same principle he disapproved of walking or riding alone; the double +exercise of thinking and bodily agitation, carried on at the same time, +being likely, as he conceived, to press too hard upon the stomach.] and +partly (as I happen to know) for a very peculiar reason, viz., that he +wished to breathe exclusively through his nostrils, which he could not +do if he were obliged continually to open his mouth in conversation. His +reason for this was, that the atmospheric air, being thus carried round +by a longer circuit, and reaching the lungs, therefore, in a state of +less rawness, and at a temperature somewhat higher, would be less apt +to irritate them. By a steady perseverance in this practice, which he +constantly recommended to his friends, he flattered himself with a long +immunity from coughs, colds, hoarseness, and every mode of defluxion; +and the fact really was, that these troublesome affections attacked him +very rarely. Indeed I myself, by only occasionally adopting his rule, +have found my chest not so liable as formerly to such attacks. + +At six o'clock he sat down to his library table, which was a plain +ordinary piece of furniture, and read till dusk. During this period of +dubious light, so friendly to thought, he rested in tranquil meditation +on what he had been reading, provided the book were worth it; if not, he +sketched his lecture for the next day, or some part of any book he +might then be composing. During this state of repose he took his station +winter and summer by the stove, looking through the window at the old +tower of Lobenicht; not that he could be said properly to see it, but +the tower rested upon his eye,--obscurely, or but half revealed to his +consciousness. No words seemed forcible enough to express his sense of +the gratification which he derived from this old tower, when seen under +these circumstances of twilight and quiet reverie. The sequel, indeed, +showed how important it was to his comfort; for at length some poplars +in a neighboring garden shot up to such a height as to obscure the +tower, upon which Kant became very uneasy and restless, and at length +found himself positively unable to pursue his evening meditations. +Fortunately, the proprietor of the garden was a very considerate +and obliging person, who had, besides, a high regard for Kant; and, +accordingly, upon a representation of the case being made to him, he +gave orders that the poplars should be cropped. This was done, the +old tower of Lobenicht was again unveiled, and Kant recovered his +equanimity, and pursued his twilight meditations as before. + +After the candles were brought, Kant prosecuted his studies till nearly +ten o'clock. A quarter of an hour before retiring for the night, he +withdrew his mind as much as possible from every class of thoughts which +demanded any exertion or energy of attention, on the principle, that +by stimulating and exciting him too much, such thoughts would be apt +to cause wakefulness; and the slightest interference with his customary +hour of falling asleep, was in the highest degree unpleasant to him. +Happily, this was with him a very rare occurrence. He undressed himself +without his servant's assistance, but in such an order, and with such a +Roman regard to decorum and the _to prepon_, that he was always ready +at a moment's warning to make his appearance without embarrassment to +himself or to others. This done, he lay down on a mattress, and wrapped +himself up in a quilt, which in summer was always of cotton,--in autumn, +of wool; at the setting-in of winter he used both--and against very +severe cold, he protected himself by one of eider-down, of which the +part which covered his shoulders was not stuffed with feathers, but +padded, or rather wadded closely with layers of wool. Long practice had +taught him a very dexterous mode of _nesting_ himself, as it were, in +the bed-clothes. First of all, he sat down on the bedside; then with an +agile motion he vaulted obliquely into his lair; next he drew one corner +of the bedclothes under his left shoulder, and passing it below his +back, brought it round so as to rest under his right shoulder; fourthly, +by a particular _tour d'adresse_, he treated the other corner in the +same way, and finally contrived to roll it round his whole person. Thus +swathed like a mummy, or (as I used to tell him) self-involved like +the silk-worm in its cocoon, he awaited the approach of sleep, which +generally came on immediately. For Kant's health was exquisite; not +mere negative health, or the absence of pain, but a state of positive +pleasurable sensation, and a genial sense of the entire possession of +all his activities. Accordingly, when packed up for the night in the +way I have described, he would often ejaculate to himself (as he used to +tell us at dinner)--'Is it possible to conceive a human being with more +perfect health than myself?' In fact, such was the innocence of his +life, and such the happy condition of his situation, that no uneasy +passion ever arose to excite him--nor care to harass--nor pain to awake +him. Even in the severest winter his sleeping-room was without a fire; +only in his latter years he yielded so far to the entreaties of his +friends as to allow of a very small one. All nursing or self-indulgence +found no quarter with Kant. In fact, five minutes, in the coldest +weather, sufficed to supersede the first chill of the bed, by the +diffusion of a general glow over his person. If he had any occasion to +leave his room in the night-time, (for it was always kept dark day and +night, summer and winter,) he guided himself by a rope, which was duly +attached to his bed-post every night, and carried into the adjoining +apartment. + +Kant never perspired, [Footnote: This appears less extraordinary, +considering the description of Kant's person, given originally by +Reichardt, about eight years after his death. 'Kant,' says this writer, +'was drier than dust both in body and mind. His person was small; and +possibly a more meagre, arid, parched anatomy of a man, has not appeared +upon this earth. The upper part of his face was grand; forehead lofty +and serene, nose elegantly turned, eyes brilliant and penetrating; but +below it expressed powerfully the coarsest sensuality, which in him +displayed itself by immoderate addiction to eating and drinking.' This +last feature of his temperament is here expressed much too harshly.] +night or day. Yet it was astonishing how much heat he supported +habitually in his study, and in fact was not easy if it wanted but +one degree of this heat. Seventy-five degrees of Fahrenheit was the +invariable temperature of this room in which he chiefly lived; and if it +fell below that point, no matter at what season of the year, he had it +raised artificially to the usual standard. In the heats of summer he +went thinly dressed, and invariably in silk stockings; yet, as even this +dress could not always secure him against perspiring when engaged in +active exercise, he had a singular remedy in reserve. Retiring to some +shady place, he stood still and motionless--with the air and attitude +of a person listening, or in suspense--until his usual _aridity_ was +restored. Even in the most sultry summer night, if the slightest +trace of perspiration had sullied his night-dress, he spoke of it with +emphasis, as of an accident that perfectly shocked him. + +On this occasion, whilst illustrating Kant's notions of the animal +economy, it may be as well to add one other particular, which is, that +for fear of obstructing the circulation of the blood, he never would +wear garters; yet, as he found it difficult to keep up his stockings +without them, he had invented for himself a most elaborate substitute, +which I shall describe. In a little pocket, somewhat smaller than +a watch-pocket, but occupying pretty nearly the same situation as a +watch-pocket on each thigh, there was placed a small box, something like +a watch-case, but smaller; into this box was introduced a watch-spring +in a wheel, round about which wheel was wound an elastic cord, for +regulating the force of which there was a separate contrivance. To the +two ends of this cord were attached hooks, which hooks were carried +through a small aperture in the pockets, and so passing down the inner +and the outer side of the thigh, caught hold of two loops which were +fixed on the off side and the near side of each stocking. As might be +expected, so complex an apparatus was liable, like the Ptolemaic system +of the heavens, to occasional derangements; however, by good luck, I +was able to apply an easy remedy to these disorders which sometimes +threatened to disturb the comfort, and even the serenity, of the great +man. + +Precisely at five minutes before five o'clock, winter or summer, Lampe, +Kant's servant, who had formerly served in the army, marched into his +master's room with the air of a sentinel on duty, and cried aloud in +a military tone,--'Mr. Professor, the time is come.' This summons Kant +invariably obeyed without one moment's delay, as a soldier does the word +of command--never, under any circumstances, allowing himself a respite, +not even under the rare accident of having passed a sleepless night. As +the clock struck five, Kant was seated at the breakfast-table, where he +drank what he called _one_ cup of tea; and no doubt he thought it such; +but the fact was, that in part from his habit of reverie, and in part +also for the purpose of refreshing its warmth, he filled up his cup so +often, that in general he is supposed to have drunk two, three, or some +unknown number. Immediately after he smoked a pipe of tobacco, (the only +one which he allowed himself through the entire day,) but so rapidly, +that a pile of glowing embers remained unsmoked. During this operation +he thought over his arrangements for the day, as he had done the +evening before during the twilight. About seven he usually went to his +lecture-room, and from that he returned to his writing-table. Precisely +at three quarters before one he rose from his chair, and called aloud to +the cook,--'It has struck three quarters.' The meaning of which summons +was this:--Immediately after taking soup, it was his constant practice +to swallow what he called a dram, which consisted either of Hungarian +wine, of Rhenish, of a cordial, or (in default of these) of Bishop. +A flask of this was brought up by the cook on the proclamation of the +three quarters. Kant hurried with it to the eating-room, poured out his +_quantum_, left it standing in readiness, covered, however, with paper, +to prevent its becoming vapid, and then went back to his study, and +awaited the arrival of his guests, whom to the latest period of his life +he never received but in full dress. + +Thus we come round again to dinner, and the reader has now an accurate +picture of the course of Kant's day; the rigid monotony of which was not +burthensome to him; and probably contributed, with the uniformity of his +diet, and other habits of the same regularity, to lengthen his life. On +this consideration, indeed, he had come to regard his health and his old +age as in a great measure the product of his own exertions. He spoke of +himself often under the figure of a gymnastic artist, who had continued +for nearly fourscore years to support his balance upon the slack-rope +of life, without once swerving to the right or to the left. In spite of +every illness to which his constitutional tendencies had exposed him, +he still kept his position in life triumphantly. However, he would +sometimes observe sportively, that it was really absurd, and a sort of +insult to the next generation for a man to live so long, because he thus +interfered with the prospects of younger people. + +This anxious attention to his health accounts for the great interest +which he attached to all new discoveries in medicine, or to new ways +of theorizing on the old ones. As a work of great pretension in +both classes, he set the highest value upon the theory of the Scotch +physician Brown, or (as it is usually called, from the Latin name of its +author,) the Brunonian Theory. No sooner had Weikard adopted [Footnote: +This theory was afterwards greatly modified in Germany; and, judging +from the random glances which I throw on these subjects, I believe that +in this recast it still keeps its ground in that country.] and made it +known in Germany, than Kant became familiar with it. He considered it +not only as a great step taken for medicine, but even for the general +interests of man, and fancied that in this he saw something analogous +to the course which human nature has held in still more important +inquiries, viz.: first of all, a continual ascent towards the more and +more elaborately complex, and then a treading back, on its own steps, +towards the simple and elementary. Dr. Beddoes's Essays, also, for +producing by art and curing pulmonary consumption, and the method of +Reich for curing fevers, made a powerful impression upon him; which, +however, declined as those novelties (especially the last) began to +sink in credit. As to Dr. Jenner's discovery of vaccination, he was less +favorably disposed to it; he apprehended dangerous consequences from the +absorption of a brutal miasma into the human blood, or at least into +the lymph; and at any rate he thought, that, as a guarantee against the +variolous infection, it required a much longer probation. Groundless +as all these views were, it was exceedingly entertaining to hear the +fertility of argument and analogy which he brought forward to support +them. One of the subjects which occupied him at the latter end of his +life, was the theory and phenomena of galvanism, which, however, he +never satisfactorily mastered. Augustin's book upon this subject was +about the last that he read, and his copy still retains on the margin +his, pencil-marks of doubts, queries and suggestions. + +The infirmities of age now began to steal upon Kant, and betrayed +themselves in more shapes than one. Connected with Kant's prodigious +memory for all things that had any intellectual bearings, he had from +youth labored under an unusual weakness of this faculty in relation to +the common affairs of daily life. Some remarkable instances of this +are on record, from the period of his childish days; and now, when his +second childhood was commencing, this infirmity increased upon him very +sensibly. One of the first signs was, that he began to repeat the same +stories more than once on the same day. Indeed, the decay of his memory +was too palpable to escape his own notice; and, to provide against it, +and secure himself from all apprehension of inflicting tedium upon his +guests, he began to write a syllabus, or list of themes, for each day's +conversation, on cards, or the covers of letters, or any chance scrap +of paper. But these memoranda accumulated so fast upon him, and were so +easily lost, or not forthcoming at the proper moment, that I prevailed +on him to substitute a blank-paper book, which I had directed to be +made, and which still remains, with some affecting memorials of his own +conscious weakness. As often happens, however, in such cases, he had a +perfect memory for the remote events of his life, and could repeat with +great readiness, and without once stumbling, very long passages from +German or Latin poems, especially from the AEneid, whilst the very +words that had been uttered but a moment before dropped away from his +remembrance. The past came forward with the distinctness and liveliness +of an immediate existence, whilst the present faded away into the +obscurity of infinite distance. + +Another sign of his mental decay was the weakness with which he now +began to theorize. He accounted for everything by electricity. A +singular mortality at this time prevailed amongst the cats of Vienna, +Basle, Copenhagen, and other places. Cats being so eminently an electric +animal, of course he attributed this epizootic to electricity. During +the same period, he persuaded himself that a peculiar configuration of +clouds prevailed; this he took as a collateral proof of his electrical +hypothesis. His own headaches, too, which in all probability were a mere +remote effect of old age, and a direct one of an inability [Footnote: +Mr. Wasianski is quite in the wrong here. If the hindrances which nature +presented to the act of thinking were now on the increase, on the other +hand, the disposition to think, by his own acknowledgment, was on the +wane. The power and the habit altering in proportion, there is no case +made out of that disturbed equilibrium to which apparently he would +attribute the headaches. But the fact is, that, if he had been as well +acquainted with Kant's writings as with Kant personally, he would +have known, that some affection of the head of a spasmodic kind was +complained of by Kant at a time when nobody could suspect him of being +in a decaying state.] to think as easily and as severely as formerly, +he explained upon the same principle. And this was a notion of which his +friends were not anxious to disabuse him, because, as something of +the same character of weather (and therefore probably the same general +tendency of the electric power) is found to prevail for whole cycles +of years, entrance upon another cycle held out to him some prospect of +relief. A delusion which secured the comforts of hope was the next best +thing to an actual remedy; and a man who, in such circumstances, is +cured of his delusion, '_cui demptus per vim mentis gratissimus error_,' +might reasonably have exclaimed, '_Pol, me occidistis, amici._' + +Possibly the reader may suppose, that, in this particular instance +of charging his own decays upon the state of the atmosphere, Kant was +actuated by the weakness of vanity, or some unwillingness to face the +real fact that his powers were decaying. But this was not the case. +He was perfectly aware of his own condition, and, as early as 1799, he +said, in my presence, to a party of his friends--'Gentlemen, I am old, +and weak, and childish, and you must treat me as a child.' Or perhaps it +may be thought that he shrank from the contemplation of death, which, +as apoplexy seemed to be threatened by the pains in his head, might +have happened any day. But neither was this the case. He now lived in a +continual state of resignation, and prepared to meet any dispensation of +Providence. 'Gentlemen,' said he one day to his guests, 'I do not fear +to die. I assure you, as in the presence of God, that if I were this +night to be made suddenly aware that I was on the point of being +summoned, I would raise my hands to heaven, fold them, and say, Blessed +be God! If indeed it were possible that a whisper such as this could +reach my ear--Fourscore years thou hast lived, in which time thou hast +inflicted much evil upon thy fellow-men, the case would be otherwise.' +Whosoever has heard Kant speak of his own death, will bear witness +to the tone of earnest sincerity which, on such occasions, marked his +manner and utterance. + +A third sign of his decaying faculties was, that he now lost all +accurate measure of time. One minute, nay, without exaggeration, a much +less space of time, stretched out in his apprehension of things to a +wearisome duration. Of this I can give one rather amusing instance, +which was of constant recurrence. At the beginning of the last year of +his life, he fell into a custom of taking immediately after dinner a cup +of coffee, especially on those days when it happened that I was of his +party. And such was the importance he attached to this little pleasure, +that he would even make a memorandum beforehand, in the blank-paper +book I had given him, that on the next day I was to dine with him, and +consequently that there was to be coffee. Sometimes it would happen, +that the interest of conversation carried him past the time at which +he felt the craving for it; and this I was not sorry to observe, as I +feared that coffee, which he had never been accustomed to, [Footnote: +How this happened to be the case in Germany, Mr. Wasianski has not +explained. Perhaps the English merchants at Koenigsberg, being amongst +Kant's oldest and most intimate friends, had early familiarized him +to the practice of drinking tea, and to other English tastes. However, +Jachmann tells us, (p. 164,) that Kant was extravagantly fond of coffee, +but forced himself to abstain from it under a notion that it was very +unwholesome.] might disturb his rest at night. But, if this did not +happen, then commenced a scene of some interest. Coffee must be brought +'upon the spot,' (a word he had constantly in his mouth during his +latter days,) 'in a moment.' And the expressions of his impatience, +though from old habit still gentle, were so lively, and had so much of +infantine naivete about them, that none of us could forbear smiling. +Knowing what would happen, I had taken care that all the preparations +should be made beforehand; the coffee was ground; the water was boiling; +and the very moment the word was given, his servant shot in like +an arrow, and plunged the coffee into the water. All that remained, +therefore, was to give it time to boil up. But this trifling delay +seemed unendurable to Kant. All consolations were thrown away upon him: +vary the formula as we might, he was never at a loss for a reply. If +it was said--'Dear Professor, the coffee will be brought up in a +moment.'--'_Will_ be!' he would say, 'but there's the rub, that it only +_will_ be: + + Man never _is_, but always _to be_ blest.' + +If another cried out--'The coffee is coming immediately.'--'Yes,' he +would retort, 'and so is the next hour: and, by the way, it's about that +length of time that I have waited for it.' Then he would collect himself +with a stoical air, and say--'Well, one can die after all: it is but +dying; and in the next world, thank God! there is no drinking of coffee, +and consequently no--waiting for it.' Sometimes he would rise from his +chair, open the door, and cry out with a feeble querulousness--'Coffee! +coffee!' And when at length he heard the servant's step upon the stairs, +he would turn round to us, and, as joyfully as ever sailor from the +mast-head, he would call out--'Land, land! my dear friends, I see land.' + +This general decline in Kant's powers, active and passive, gradually +brought about a revolution in his habits of life. Heretofore, as I have +already mentioned, he went to bed at ten, and rose a little before five. +The latter practice he still observed, but not the other. In 1802 he +retired as early as nine, and afterwards still earlier. He found himself +so much refreshed by this addition to his rest, that at first he was +disposed to utter a _Euraeka_, as over some great discovery in the +art of restoring exhausted nature: but afterwards, on pushing it still +farther, he did not find the success answer his expectations. His walks +he now limited to a few turns in the King's gardens, which were at no +great distance from his own house. In order to walk more firmly, he +adopted a peculiar method of stepping; he carried his foot to the +ground, not forward, and obliquely, but perpendicularly, and with a kind +of stamp, so as to secure a larger basis, by setting down the entire +sole at once. Notwithstanding this precaution, upon one occasion he +fell in the street. He was quite unable to raise himself; and two young +ladies, who saw the accident, ran to his assistance. With his usual +graciousness of manner he thanked them fervently for their assistance, +and presented one of them with a rose which he happened to have in his +hand. This lady was not personally known to Kant; but she was greatly +delighted with his little present, and still keeps the rose as a frail +memorial of her transitory interview with the great philosopher. + +This accident, as I have reason to think, was the cause of his +henceforth renouncing exercise altogether. All labors, even that of +reading, were now performed slowly, and with manifest effort; and those +which cost him any bodily exertion became very exhausting to him. His +feet refused to do their office more and more; he fell continually, both +when moving across the room, and even when standing still: yet he +seldom suffered from these falls; and he constantly laughed at them, +maintaining that it was impossible he could hurt himself, from the +extreme lightness of his person, which was indeed by this time the +merest skeleton. Very often, especially in the morning, he dropped +asleep in his chair from pure weariness: on these occasions he fell +forward upon the floor, and lay there unable to raise himself up, until +accident brought one of his servants or his friends into the room. +Afterwards these falls were prevented, by substituting a chair with +circular supports, that met and clasped in front. + +These unseasonable dozings exposed him to another danger. He fell +repeatedly, whilst reading, with his head into the candles; a cotton +night-cap which he wore was instantly in a blaze, and flaming about his +head. Whenever this happened, Kant behaved with great presence of mind. +Disregarding the pain, he seized the blazing cap, drew it from his head, +laid it quietly on the floor, and trod out the flames with his feet. +Yet, as this last act brought his dressing-gown into a dangerous +neighborhood to the flames, I changed the form of his cap, persuaded him +to arrange the candles differently, and had a decanter of water placed +constantly by his side; and in this way I applied a remedy to a danger, +which would else probably have been fatal to him. + +From the sallies of impatience, which I have described in the case +of the coffee, there was reason to fear that, with the increasing +infirmities of Kant, would grow up a general waywardness and obstinacy +of temper. For my own sake, therefore, and not less for his, I now laid +down one rule for my future conduct in his house; which was, that I +would, on no occasion, allow my reverence for him to interfere with the +firmest expression of my opinion on subjects relating to his own health; +and in cases of great importance, that I would make no compromise with +his particular humors, but insist, not only on my view of the case, but +also on the practical adoption of my views; or, if this were refused me, +that I would take my departure at once, and not be made responsible +for the comfort of a person whom I had no power to influence. And this +behavior on my part it was that won Kant's confidence; for there was +nothing which disgusted him so much as any approach to fawning or +sycophancy. As his imbecility increased, he became daily more liable +to mental delusions; and, in particular, he fell into many fantastic +notions about the conduct of his servants, and, in consequence, into a +peevish mode of treating them. Upon these occasions I generally observed +a deep silence. But sometimes he would ask me for my opinion; and +when this happened, I did not scruple to say, 'Ingenuously, then, Mr. +Professor, I think that you are in the wrong.'--'You think so?' he would +reply calmly, at the same time asking for my reasons, which he would +listen to with great patience, and openness to conviction. Indeed, +it was evident that the firmest opposition, so long as it rested upon +assignable grounds and principles, won upon his regard; whilst his own +nobleness of character still moved him to habitual contempt for timorous +and partial acquiescence in his opinions, even when his infirmities made +him most anxious for such acquiescence. + +Earlier in life Kant had been little used to contradiction. His superb +understanding, his brilliancy in conversation, founded in part upon his +ready and sometimes rather caustic wit, and in part upon his prodigious +command of knowledge--the air of noble self-confidence which the +consciousness of these advantages impressed upon his manners--and the +general knowledge of the severe innocence of his life--all combined to +give him a station of superiority to others, which generally secured +him from open contradiction. And if it sometimes happened that he met a +noisy and intemperate opposition, supported by any pretences to wit, he +usually withdrew himself from that sort of unprofitable altercation with +dignity, by contriving to give such a turn to the conversation as won +the general favor of the company to himself, and impressed, silence, or +modesty at least, upon the boldest disputant. From a person so little +familiar with opposition, it could scarcely have been anticipated that +he should daily surrender his wishes to mine--if not without discussion, +yet always without displeasure. So, however, it was. No habit, of +whatever long standing, could be objected to as injurious to his health, +but he would generally renounce it. And he had this excellent custom in +such cases, that either he would resolutely and at once decide for his +own opinion, or, if he professed to follow his friend's, he would follow +it sincerely, and not try it unfairly by trying it imperfectly. Any +plan, however trifling, which he had once consented to adopt on the +suggestion of another, was never afterwards defeated or embarrassed +by unseasonable interposition from his own humors. And thus, the +very period of his decay drew forth so many fresh expressions of his +character, in its amiable or noble features, as daily increased my +affection and reverence for his person. + +Having mentioned his servants, I shall here take occasion to give some +account of his man-servant Lampe. It was a great misfortune for Kant, in +his old age and infirmities, that this man also became old, and subject +to a different sort of infirmities. This Lampe had originally served in +the Prussian army; on quitting which he entered the service of Kant. In +this situation he had lived about forty years; and, though always dull +and stupid, had, in the early part of this period, discharged his +duties with tolerable fidelity. But latterly, presuming upon his own +indispensableness, from his perfect knowledge of all the domestic +arrangements, and upon his master's weakness, he had fallen into +great irregularities and neglect of his duties. Kant had been obliged, +therefore, of late, to threaten repeatedly that he would discharge him. +I, who knew that Kant, though one of the kindest-hearted men, was also +one of the firmest, foresaw that this discharge, once given, would be +irrevocable: for the word of Kant was as sacred as other men's oaths. +Consequently, upon every opportunity, I remonstrated with Lampe on the +folly of his conduct, and his wife joined me on these occasions. Indeed, +it was high time that a change should be made in some quarter; for it +now became dangerous to leave Kant, who was constantly falling from +weakness, to the care of an old ruffian, who was himself apt to fall +from intoxication. The fact was, that from the moment I undertook the +management of Kant's affairs, Lampe saw there was an end to his old +system of abusing his master's confidence in pecuniary affairs, and the +other advantages which he took of his helpless situation. This made +him desperate, and he behaved worse and worse; until one morning, +in January, 1802, Kant told me, that, humiliating as he felt such a +confession, the fact was, that Lampe had just treated him in a way which +he was ashamed to repeat. I was too much shocked to distress him by +inquiring into the particulars. But the result was, that Kant now +insisted, temperately but firmly, on Lampe's dismissal. Accordingly, a +new servant, of the name of Kaufmann, was immediately engaged; and on +the next day Lampe was discharged with a handsome pension for life. + +Here I must mention a little circumstance which does honor to Kant's +benevolence. In his last will, on the assumption that Lampe would +continue with him to his death, he had made a very liberal provision +for him; but upon this new arrangement of the pension, which was to take +effect immediately, it became necessary to revoke that part of his will, +which he did in a separate codicil, that began thus:--'In consequence of +the ill behavior of my servant Lampe, I think fit,' &c. But soon after, +considering that such a record of Lampe's misconduct might be seriously +injurious to his interests, he cancelled the passage, and expressed it +in such a way, that no trace remained behind of his just displeasure. +And his benign nature was gratified with knowing, that, this one +sentence blotted out, there remained no other in all his numerous +writings, published or confidential, which spoke the language of anger, +or could leave any ground for doubting that he died in charity with all +the world. Upon Lampe's calling to demand a written character, he was, +however, a good deal embarrassed; his stern reverence for truth being, +in this instance, armed against the first impulses of his kindness. Long +and anxiously he sat, with the certificate lying before him, debating +how he should fill up the blanks. I was present, but in such a matter I +did not take the liberty of suggesting any advice. At last, he took +his pen, and filled up the blank as follows:--'--has served me long and +faithfully,'--(for Kant was not aware that he had robbed him,)--'but did +not display those particular qualifications which fitted him for waiting +on an old and infirm man like myself.' + +This scene of disturbance over, which to Kant, a lover of peace and +tranquillity, caused a shock that he would gladly have been spared; it +was fortunate that no other of that nature occurred during the rest +of his life. Kaufmann, the successor of Lampe, turned out to be a +respectable and upright man, and soon conceived a great attachment to +his master's person. Things now put on a new face in Kant's family: by +the removal of one of the belligerents, peace was once more restored +amongst his servants; for hitherto there had been eternal wars between +Lampe and the cook. Sometimes it was Lampe that carried a war of +aggression into the cook's territory of the kitchen; sometimes it was +the cook that revenged these insults, by sallying out upon Lampe in the +neutral ground of the hall, or invaded him even in his own sanctuary of +the butler's pantry. The uproars were everlasting; and thus far it was +fortunate for the peace of the philosopher, that his hearing had begun +to fail; by which means he was spared many an exhibition of hateful +passions and ruffian violence, which annoyed his guests and friends. +But now all things had changed: deep silence reigned in the pantry; the +kitchen rang no more with martial alarums; and the hall was unvexed with +skirmish or pursuit. Yet it may be readily supposed that to Kant, at the +age of seventy-eight, changes, even for the better, were not welcome: so +intense had been the uniformity of his life and habits, that the least +innovation in the arrangement of articles as trifling as a penknife, or +a pair of scissors, disturbed him; and not merely if they were pushed +two or three inches out of their customary position, but even if they +were laid a little awry; and as to larger objects, such as chairs, +&c., any dislocation of their usual arrangement, any trans position, or +addition to their number, perfectly confounded him; and his eye appeared +restlessly to haunt the seat of the mal-arrangement, until the ancient +order was restored. With such habits the reader may conceive how +distressing it must have been to him, at this period of decaying powers, +to adapt himself to a new servant, a new voice, a new step, &c. + +Aware of this, I had on the day before he entered upon his duties, +written down for the new servant upon a sheet of paper the entire +routine of Kant's daily life, down to the minutest and most trivial +circumstances; all which he mastered with the greatest rapidity. To +make sure, however, we went through a rehearsal of the whole ritual; +he performing the manoeuvres, I looking on and giving the word. Still I +felt uneasy at the idea of his being left entirely to his own discretion +on his first _debut_ in good earnest, and therefore I made a point of +attending on this important day; and in the few instances where the new +recruit missed the accurate manoeuvre, a glance or a nod from me easily +made him comprehend his failure. + +One part only there was of the daily ceremonial, where all of us were +at a loss, as it was a part which no mortal eyes had ever witnessed but +those of Lampe: this was breakfast. However, that we might do all in +our power, I myself attended at four o'clock in the morning. The day +happened, as I remember, to be the 1st of February, 1802. Precisely at +five, Kant made his appearance; and nothing could equal his astonishment +on finding me in the room. Fresh from the confusion of dreaming, and +bewildered alike by the sight of his new servant, by Lampe's absence, +and by my presence, he could with difficulty be made to comprehend the +purpose of my visit. A friend in need is a friend indeed; and we +would now have given any money to that learned person who could have +instructed us in the arrangement of the breakfast table. But this was a +mystery revealed to none but Lampe. At length Kant took this task upon +himself; and apparently all was now settled to his satisfaction. Yet +still it struck me that he was under some embarrassment or constraint. +Upon this I said--that, with his permission, I would take a cup of tea, +and afterwards smoke a pipe with him. He accepted my offer with his +usual courteous demeanor; but seemed unable to familiarize himself +with the novelty of his situation. I was at this time sitting directly +opposite to him; and at last he frankly told me, but with the kindest +and most apologetic air, that he was really under the necessity of +begging that I would sit out of his sight; for that, having sat alone at +the breakfast table for considerably more than half a century, he could +not abruptly adapt his mind to a change in this respect; and he found +his thoughts very sensibly disturbed. I did as he desired; the servant +retired into an antiroom, where he waited within call; and Kant +recovered his wonted composure. Just the same scene passed over again, +when I called at the same hour on a fine summer morning some months +after. + +Henceforth all went right: or, if occasionally some little mistake +occurred, Kant showed himself very considerate and indulgent, and would +remark of his own accord, that a new servant could not be expected to +know all his peculiar ways and humors. In one respect, indeed, this man +adapted himself to Kant's scholarlike taste, in a way which Lampe +was incapable of doing. Kant was somewhat fastidious in matters of +pronunciation; and this man had a great facility in catching the true +sound of Latin words, the titles of books, and the names or designations +of Kant's friends: not one of which accomplishments could Lampe, the +most insufferable of blockheads, ever attain to. In particular, I have +been told by Kant's old friends, that for the space of more than thirty +years, during which he had been in the habit of reading the newspaper +published by Hartung, Lampe delivered it with the same identical blunder +on every day of publication.--'Mr. Professor, here is Hart_mann's_ +journal.' Upon which Kant would reply--'Eh! what?--What's that you say? +Hartmann's journal? I tell you, it is not Hartmann, but Hartung: now, +repeat it after me--not Hartmann, but Hartung.' Then Lampe, looking +sulky, and drawing himself up with the stiff air of a soldier on guard, +and in the very same monotonous tone with which he had been used to sing +out his challenge of--_Who goes there?_ would roar--'not Hartmann, but +Hartung.' 'Now again!' Kant would say: on which again Lampe roared--'not +Hartmann, but Hartung.' 'Now a third time,' cried Kant: on which for +a third time the unhappy Lampe would howl out--'not Hartmann, but +Hartung.' And this whimsical scene of parade duty was continually +repeated: duly as the day of publication came, the irreclaimable old +dunce was put through the same manoeuvres, which were as invariably +followed by the same blunder on the next. In spite, however, of this +advantage, in the new servant, and his general superiority to his +predecessor, Kant's nature was too kind and good, and too indulgent to +all people's infirmities but his own, not to miss the voice and the 'old +familiar face' that he had been accustomed to for forty years. And I met +with what struck me as an affecting instance of Kant's yearning after +his old good-for-nothing servant in his memorandum-book: other people +record what they wish to remember; but Kant had here recorded what he +was to forget. 'Mem.: February, 1802, the name of Lampe must now be +remembered no more.' + +In the spring of this year, 1802, I advised Kant to take the air. It +was very long since he had been out of doors, [Footnote: Wasianski here +returns thanks to some unknown person, who, having observed that Kant in +his latter walks took pleasure in leaning against a particular wall to +view the prospect, had caused a seat to be fixed at that point for his +use.] and walking was now out of the question. But I thought the motion +of a carriage and the air would be likely to revive him. On the power of +vernal sights and sounds I did not much rely; for these had long ceased +to affect him. Of all the changes that spring brings with it, there +was one only that now interested Kant; and he longed for it with an +eagerness and intensity of expectation, that it was almost painful to +witness: this was the return of a hedge sparrow that sang in his garden, +and before his window. This bird, either the same, or one of the next +generation, had sung for years in the same situation; and Kant grew +uneasy when the cold weather, lasting longer than usual, retarded its +return. Like Lord Bacon, indeed, he had a childlike love for birds in +general, and in particular, took pains to encourage the sparrows to +build above the windows of his study; and when this happened, (as it +often did, from the silence which prevailed in his study,) he watched +their proceedings with the delight and the tenderness which others give +to a human interest. To return to the point I was speaking of, Kant was +at first very unwilling to accede to my proposal of going abroad. 'I +shall sink down in the carriage,' said he, 'and fall together like a +heap of old rags.' But I persisted with a gentle importunity in urging +him to the attempt, assuring him that we would return immediately if he +found the effort too much for him. Accordingly, upon a tolerably warm +day of early [Footnote: Mr. Wasianski says--_late_ in summer: but, as +he elsewhere describes by the same expression of 'late in summer,' a day +which was confessedly _before_ the longest day, and as the multitude +of birds which continued to sing will not allow us to suppose that +the summer could be very far advanced, I have translated accordingly.] +summer, I, and an old friend of Kant's, accompanied him to a little +place which I rented in the country. As we drove through the streets, +Kant was delighted to find that he could sit upright, and bear the +motion of the carriage, and seemed to draw youthful pleasure from the +sight of the towers and other public buildings, which he had not seen +for years. We reached the place of our destination in high spirits. Kant +drank a cup of coffee, and attempted to smoke a little. After this, he +sat and sunned himself, listening with delight to the warbling of birds, +which congregated in great numbers about this spot. He distinguished +every bird by its song, and called it by its right name. After staying +about half an hour, we set off on our homeward journey, Kant still +cheerful, but apparently satiated with his day's enjoyment. + +I had on this occasion purposely avoided taking him to any public +gardens, that I might not disturb his pleasure by exposing him to +the distressing gaze of public curiosity. However, it was known in +Koenigsberg that Kant had gone out; and accordingly, as the carriage +moved through the streets which led to his residence, there was a +general rush from all quarters in that direction, and, when we turned +into the street where the house stood, we found it already choked up +with people. As we slowly drew up to the door, a lane was formed in the +crowd, through which Kant was led, I and my friend supporting him on +our arms. Looking at the crowd, I observed the faces of many persons +of rank, and distinguished strangers, some of whom now saw Kant for the +first time, and many of them for the last. + +As the winter of 1802-3 approached, he complained more than ever of +an affection of the stomach, which no medical man had been able to +mitigate, or even to explain. The winter passed over in a complaining +way; he was weary of life, and longed for the hour of dismission. 'I +can be of service to the world no more,' said he, 'and am a burden +to myself.' Often I endeavored to cheer him by the anticipation of +excursions that we would make together when summer came again. On these +he calculated with so much earnestness, that he had made a regular scale +or classification of them--l. Airings; 2. Journeys; 3. Travels. And +nothing could equal the yearning impatience expressed for the coming of +spring and summer, not so much for their own peculiar attractions, as +because they were the seasons for travelling. In his memorandum-book, +he made this note:--'The three summer months are June, July, and +August'--meaning that they were the three months for travelling. And +in conversation he expressed the feverish strength of his wishes so +plaintively and affectingly, that everybody was drawn into powerful +sympathy with him, and wished for some magical means of ante-dating the +course of the seasons. + +In this winter his bed-room was often warmed. This was the room in which +he kept his little collection of books, of about four hundred and fifty +volumes, chiefly presentation-copies from the authors. It may seem +singular that Kant, who read so extensively, should have no larger +library; but he had less need of one than most scholars, having in his +earlier years been librarian at the Royal Library of the Castle; +and since then having enjoyed from the liberality of Hartknoch, his +publisher, (who, in his turn, had profited by the liberal terms on which +Kant had made over to him the copyright of his own works,) the first +sight of every new book that appeared. + +At the close of this winter, that is in 1803, Kant first began to +complain of unpleasant dreams, sometimes of very terrific ones, which +awakened him in great agitation. Oftentimes melodies, which he had heard +in earliest youth sung in the streets of Koenigsberg, resounded painfully +in his ears, and dwelt upon them in a way from which no efforts of +abstraction could release him. These kept him awake to unseasonable +hours; and often when, after long watching, he had fallen asleep, +however deep his sleep might be, it was suddenly broken up by terrific +dreams, which alarmed him beyond description. Almost every night, the +bell-rope, which communicated with a bell in the room above his own, +where his servant slept, was pulled violently, and with the utmost +agitation. No matter how fast the servant might hurry down, he was +almost always too late, and was pretty sure to find his master out of +bed, and often making his way in terror to some other part of the house. +The weakness of his feet exposed him to such dreadful falls on these +occasions, that at length (but with much difficulty) I persuaded him to +let his servant sleep in the same room with himself. + +The morbid affection of the stomach began now to be more and more +distressing; and he tried various applications, which he had formerly +been loud in condemning, such as a few drops of rum upon a piece of +sugar, naphtha, [Footnote: For Kant's particular complaint, as described +by other biographers, a quarter of a grain of opium, every twelve hours, +would have been the best remedy, perhaps a perfect remedy.] &c. But all +these were only palliatives; for his advanced age precluded the hope of +a radical cure. His dreadful dreams became continually more appalling: +single scenes, or passages in these dreams, were sufficient to compose +the whole course of mighty tragedies, the impression from which was +so profound as to stretch far into his waking hours. Amongst other +phantasmata more shocking and indescribable, his dreams constantly +represented to him the forms of murderers advancing to his bedside; and +so agitated was he by the awful trains of phantoms that swept past him +nightly, that in the first confusion of awaking he generally mistook +his servant, who was hastening to his assistance, for a murderer. In the +day-time we often conversed upon these shadowy illusions; and Kant, with +his usual spirit of stoical contempt for nervous weakness of every sort, +laughed at them; and, to fortify his own resolution to contend against +them, he wrote down in his memorandum-book, 'There must be no yielding +to panics of darkness.' At my suggestion, however, he now burned a light +in his chamber, so placed as that the rays might be shaded from his +face. At first he was very averse to this, though gradually he became +reconciled to it. But that he could bear it at all, was to me an +expression of the great revolution accomplished by the terrific agency +of his dreams. Heretofore, darkness and utter silence were the two +pillars on which his sleep rested: no step must approach his room; +and as to light, if he saw but a moonbeam penetrating a crevice of +the shutters, it made him unhappy; and, in fact, the windows of his +bed-chamber were barricadoed night and day. But now darkness was a +terror to him, and silence an oppression. In addition to his lamp, +therefore, he had now a repeater in his room; the sound was at first too +loud, but, after muffling the hammer with cloth, both the ticking and +the striking became companionable sounds to him. + +At this time (spring of 1803) his appetite began to fail, which I +thought no good sign. Many persons insist that Kant was in the habit of +eating too much for health. [Footnote: Who these worthy people were +that criticised Kant's eating, is not mentioned. They could have had no +opportunity of exercising their abilities on this question, except +as hosts, guests, or fellow-guests; and in any of those characters, a +gentleman, one would suppose, must feel himself degraded by directing +his attention to a point of that nature. However, the merits of the +case stand thus between the parlies: Kant, it is agreed by all his +biographers, ate only once a day; for as to his breakfast, it was +nothing more than a very weak infusion of tea, (vide Jachmann's Letters, +p. 163,) with no bread, or eatable of any kind. Now, his critics, by +general confession, ate their way, from 'morn to dewy eve,' through +the following course of meals: 1. Breakfast early in the morning; 2. +Breakfast _a la fourchette_ about ten, A.M.; 3. Dinner at one or two; +4. Vesper Brod; 5. Abend Brod; all which does really seem a very fair +allowance for a man who means to lecture upon abstinence at night. But +I shall cut this matter short by stating one plain fact; there were two +things, and no more, for which Kant had an inordinate craving during +his whole life; these were tobacco and coffee; and from both these +he abstained almost altogether, merely under a sense of duty, resting +probably upon erroneous grounds. Of the first he allowed himself a very +small quantity, (and everybody knows that temperance is a more difficult +virtue than abstinence;) of the other none at all, until the labors of +his life were accomplished.] I, however, cannot assent to this opinion; +for he ate but once a day, and drank no beer. Of this liquor, (I mean +the strong black beer,) he was, indeed, the most determined enemy. If +ever a man died prematurely, Kant would say--'He has been drinking beer, +I presume.' Or, if another were indisposed, you might be sure he would +ask, 'But does he drink beer?' And, according to the answer on this +point, he regulated his anticipations for the patient. Strong beer, in +short, he uniformly maintained to be a slow poison. Voltaire, by the +way, had said to a young physician who denounced coffee under the same +bad name of a 'slow poison,' 'You're right there, my friend, however; +slow it is, and horribly slow; for I have been drinking it these seventy +years, and it has not killed me yet;' but this was an answer which, in +the case of beer, Kant would not allow of. + +On the 22d of April, 1803, his birth-day, the last which he lived to +see, was celebrated in a full assembly of his friends. This festival he +had long looked forward to with great expectation, and delighted even +to hear the progress made in the preparations for it. But when the day +came, the over-excitement and tension of expectation seemed to have +defeated itself. He tried to appear happy; but the bustle of a numerous +company confounded and distressed him; and his spirits were manifestly +forced. He seemed first to revive to any real sense of pleasure at +night, when the company had departed, and he was undressing in his +study. He then talked with much pleasure about the presents which, as +usual, would be made to his servants on this occasion; for Kant was +never happy himself, unless he saw all around him happy. He was a great +maker of presents; but at the same time he had no toleration for the +studied theatrical effect, the accompaniment of formal congratulations, +and the sentimental pathos with which birth-day presents are made in +Germany. [Footnote: In this, as in many other things, the taste of Kant +was entirely English and Roman; as, on the other hand, some eminent +Englishmen, I am sorry to say, have, on this very point, shown the +effeminacy and _falsetto_ taste of the Germans. In particular, Mr. +Coleridge, describing, in The Friend, the custom amongst German children +of making presents to their parents on Christmas Eve, (a custom which +he unaccountably supposes to be peculiar to Ratzeburg,) represents the +mother as 'weeping aloud for joy'--the old idiot of a father with 'tears +running down his face,' &c. &c., and all for what? For a snuff-box, a +pencil-case, or some article of jewellery. Now, we English agree with +Kant on such maudlin display of stage sentimentality, and are prone to +suspect that papa's tears are the product of rum-punch. Tenderness +let us have by all means, and the deepest you can imagine, but upon +proportionate occasions, and with causes fitted to justify it and +sustain its dignity.] In all this, his masculine taste gave him a sense +of something fade and ludicrous. + +The summer of 1803 was now come, and, visiting Kant one day, I was +thunderstruck to hear him direct me, in the most serious tone, to +provide the funds necessary for an extensive foreign tour. I made +no opposition, but asked his reasons for such a plan; he alleged +the miserable sensations he had in his stomach, which were no longer +endurable. Knowing what power over Kant a quotation from a Roman poet +had always had, I simply replied--'Post equitem sedet atra cura,' +and for the present he said no more. But the touching and pathetic +earnestness with which he was continually ejaculating prayers for warmer +weather, made it doubtful to me whether his wishes on this point ought +not, partially at least, to be gratified; and I therefore proposed to +him a little excursion to the cottage we had visited the year before. +'Anywhere,' said he, 'no matter whither, provided it be far enough.' +Towards the latter end of June, therefore, we executed this scheme; +on getting into the carriage, the order of the day with Kant was, +'Distance, distance. Only let us go far enough,' said he: but scarcely +had we reached the city-gates before the journey seemed already to have +lasted too long. On reaching the cottage we found coffee waiting for +us; but he would scarcely allow himself time for drinking it, before +he ordered the carriage to the door; and the journey back seemed +insupportably long to him, though it was performed in something less +than twenty minutes. 'Is this never to have an end?' was his continual +exclamation; and great was his joy when he found himself once more in +his study, undressed, and in bed. And for this night he slept in peace, +and once again was liberated from the persecution of dreams. + +Soon after he began again to talk of journeys, of travels in remote +countries, &c., and, in consequence, we repeated our former excursion +several times; and though the circumstances were pretty nearly the same +on every occasion, and always terminating in disappointment as to the +immediate pleasure anticipated, yet, undoubtedly, they were, on the +whole, salutary to his spirits. In particular, the cottage itself, +standing under the shelter of tall alders, with a valley stretched +beneath it, through which a little brook meandered, broken by a +water-fall, whose pealing sound dwelt pleasantly on the ear, sometimes, +on a quiet sunny day, gave a lively delight to Kant: and once, under +accidental circumstances of summer clouds and sun-lights, the little +pastoral landscape suddenly awakened a lively remembrance which had been +long laid asleep, of a heavenly summer morning in youth, which he had +passed in a bower upon the banks of a rivulet that ran through the +grounds of a dear and early friend, Gen. Von Lossow. The strength of +the impression was such, that he seemed actually to be living over that +morning again, thinking as he then thought, and conversing with those +that were no more. + +His very last excursion was in August of this year, (1803,) not to my +cottage, but to the garden of a friend. But on this day he manifested +great impatience. It had been arranged that he was to meet an old +friend at the gardens; and I, with two other gentlemen, attended him. It +happened that _out_ party arrived first; and such was Kant's weakness, +and total loss of power to estimate the duration of time, that, after +waiting a few moments, he insisted that some hours had elapsed--that +his friend could not be expected--and went away in great discomposure of +mind. And so ended Kant's travelling in this world. + +In the beginning of autumn the sight of his right eye began to fail him; +the left he had long lost the use of. This earliest of his losses, +by the way, he discovered by mere accident, and without any previous +warning. Sitting down one day to rest himself in the course of a walk, +it occurred to him that he would try the comparative strength of his +eyes; but on taking out a newspaper which he had in his pocket, he was +surprised to find that with his left eye he could not distinguish a +letter. In earlier life he had two remarkable affections of the eyes: +once, on returning from a walk, he saw objects double for a long space +of time; and twice he became stone-blind. Whether these accidents are to +be considered as uncommon, I leave to the decision of oculists. Certain +it is, they gave very little disturbance to Kant; who, until old age had +reduced his powers, lived in a constant state of stoical preparation +for the worst that could befall him. I was now shocked to think of the +degree in which his burthensome sense of dependence would be aggravated, +if he should totally lose the power of sight. As it was, he read and +wrote with great difficulty: in fact, his writing was little better than +that which most people can produce as a trial of skill with their eyes +shut. From old habits of solitary study, he had no pleasure in +hearing others read to him; and he daily distressed me by the pathetic +earnestness of his entreaties that I would have a reading-glass devised +for him. Whatever my own optical skill could suggest, I tried; and +the best opticians were sent for to bring their glasses, and take his +directions for altering them; but all was to no purpose. + +In this last year of his life Kant very unwillingly received the +visits of strangers; and, unless under particular circumstances, wholly +declined them. Yet, when travellers had come a very great way out of +their road to see him, I confess that I was at a loss how to conduct +myself. To have refused too pertinaciously, could not but give me the +air of wishing to make myself of importance. And I must acknowledge, +that, amongst some instances of importunity and coarse expressions of +low-bred curiosity, I witnessed, on the part of many people of rank, +a most delicate sensibility to the condition of the aged recluse. On +sending in their cards, they would generally accompany them by some +message, expressive of their unwillingness to gratify their wish to see +him at any risk of distressing him. The fact was, that such visits _did_ +distress him much; for he felt it a degradation to be exhibited in his +helpless state, when he was aware of his own incapacity to meet properly +the attention that was paid to him. Some, however, were admitted, +[Footnote: To whom it appears that Kant would generally reply, upon +their expressing the pleasure it gave them to see him, 'In me you behold +a poor superannuated, weak, old man.'] according to the circumstances of +the case, and the state of Kant's spirits at the moment. Amongst these, +I remember that we were particularly pleased with M. Otto, the same who +signed the treaty of peace between France and England with the present +Lord Liverpool, (then Lord Hawkesbury.) A young Russian also rises to my +recollection at this moment, from the excessive (and I think unaffected) +enthusiasm which he displayed. On being introduced to Kant, he advanced +hastily, took both his hands, and kissed them. Kant, who, from living +so much amongst his English friends, had a good deal of the English +dignified reserve about him, and hated anything like _scenes_, appeared +to shrink a little from this mode of salutation, and was rather +embarrassed. However, the young man's manner, I believe, was not at all +beyond his genuine feelings; for next day he called again, made some +inquiries about Kant's health, was very anxious to know whether his old +age were burthensome to him, and above all things entreated for some +little memorial of the great man to carry away with him. By accident +the servant had found a small cancelled fragment of the original MS. of +Kant's 'Anthropologie:' this, with my sanction, he gave to the Russian; +who received it with rapture, kissed it, and then gave him in return the +only dollar he had about him; and, thinking that not enough, actually +pulled off his coat and waistcoat and forced them upon the man. Kant, +whose native simplicity of character very much indisposed him to +sympathy with any extravagances of feeling, could not, however, forbear +smiling good-humoredly on being made acquainted with this instance of +_naivete_ and enthusiasm in his young admirer. + +I now come to an event in Kant's life, which ushered in its closing +stage. On the 8th of October, 1803, for the first time since his youth, +he was seriously ill. When a student at the University, he had once +suffered from an ague, which, however, gave way to pedestrian exercise; +and in later years, he had endured some pain from a contusion on his +head; but, with these two exceptions, (if they can be considered such,) +he had never (properly speaking) been ill. The cause of his illness was +this: his appetite had latterly been irregular, or rather I should +say depraved; and he no longer took pleasure in anything but bread +and butter, and English cheese.[Footnote: Mr. W. here falls into the +ordinary mistake of confounding the cause and the occasion, and would +leave the impression, that Kant (who from his youth up had been a model +of temperance) died of sensual indulgence. The cause of Kant's death +was clearly the general decay of the vital powers, and in particular the +atony of the digestive organs, which must soon have destroyed him under +any care or abstinence whatever. This was the cause. The accidental +occasion, which made that cause operative on the 7th of October, might +or might not be what Mr. W. says. But in Kant's burthensome state of +existence, it could not be a question of much importance whether his +illness were to commence in an October or a November.] On the 7th of +October, at dinner, he ate little else, in spite of everything that I +and another friend then dining with him, could urge to dissuade him. +And for the first time I fancied that he seemed displeased with my +importunity, as though I were overstepping the just line of my duties. +He insisted that the cheese never had done him any harm, nor would now. +I had no course left me but to hold my tongue; and he did as he pleased. +The consequence was what might have been anticipated--a restless night, +succeeded by a day of memorable illness. The next morning all went on +as usual, till nine o'clock, when Kant, who was then leaning on his +sister's arm, suddenly fell senseless to the ground. A messenger was +immediately despatched for me; and I hurried down to his house, where I +found him lying in his bed, which had now been removed into his study, +speechless and insensible. I had already summoned his physician; but, +before he arrived, nature put forth efforts which brought Kant a little +to himself. In about an hour he opened his eyes, and continued to mutter +unintelligibly till towards the evening, when he rallied a little, and +began to talk rationally. For the first time in his life, he was now, +for a few days, confined to his bed, and ate nothing. On the 12th +October, he again took some refreshment, and would have had his favorite +food; but I was now resolved, at any risk of his displeasure, to oppose +him firmly. I therefore stated to him the whole consequences of his last +indulgence, of all which he manifestly had no recollection. He listened +to what I said very attentively, and calmly expressed his conviction +that I was perfectly in the wrong; but for the present he submitted. +However, some days after, I found that he had offered a florin for a +little bread and cheese, and then a dollar, and even more. Being again +refused, he complained heavily; but gradually he weaned himself from +asking for it, though at times he betrayed involuntarily how much he +desired it. + +On the 13th of October, his usual dinner parties were resumed, and he +was considered convalescent; but it was seldom indeed that he recovered +the tone of tranquil spirits which he had preserved until his late +attack. Hitherto he had always loved to prolong this meal, the only one +he took--or, as he expressed it in classical phrase, 'coenam _ducere_;' +but now it was difficult to hurry it over fast enough for his wishes. +From dinner, which terminated about two o'clock, he went straight to +bed, and at intervals fell into slumbers; from which, however, he was +regularly awoke by phantasmata or terrific dreams. At seven in the +evening came on duly a period of great agitation, which lasted till five +or six in the morning--sometimes later; and he continued through the +night alternately to walk about and lie down, occasionally tranquil, +but more often in great distress. It now became necessary that somebody +should sit up with him, his man-servant being wearied out with the toils +of the day. No person seemed to be so proper for this office as his +sister, both as having long received a very liberal pension from him, +and also as his nearest relative, who would be the best witness to the +fact that her illustrious brother had wanted no comforts or attention +in his last hours, which his situation admitted of. Accordingly she was +applied to, and undertook to watch him alternately with his footman--a +separate table being kept for her, and a very handsome addition made +to her allowance. She turned out to be a quiet gentle-minded woman, who +raised no disturbances amongst the servants, and soon won her brother's +regard by the modest and retiring style of her manners; I may add, also, +by the truly sisterly affection which she displayed towards him to the +last. + +The 8th of October had grievously affected Kant's faculties, but had +not wholly destroyed them. For short intervals the clouds seemed to roll +away that had settled upon his majestic intellect, and it shone forth +as heretofore. During these moments of brief self-possession, his +wonted benignity returned to him; and he expressed his gratitude for +the exertions of those about him, and his sense of the trouble they +underwent, in a very affecting way. With regard to his man-servant in +particular, he was very anxious that he should be rewarded by liberal +presents; and he pressed me earnestly on no account to be parsimonious. +Indeed Kant was nothing less than princely in his use of money; and +there was no occasion on which he was known to express the passion of +scorn very powerfully, but when he was commenting on mean and penurious +acts or habits. Those who knew him only in the streets, fancied that he +was not liberal; for he steadily refused, upon principle, to relieve +all common beggars. But, on the other hand, he was liberal to the public +charitable institutions; he secretly assisted his own poor relations in +a much ampler way than could reasonably have been expected of him; and +it now appeared that he had many other deserving pensioners upon +his bounty; a fact that was utterly unknown to any of us, until his +increasing blindness and other infirmities devolved the duty of paying +these pensions upon myself. It must be recollected, also, that Kant's +whole fortune, which amounted to about twenty thousand dollars, was the +product of his own honorable toils for nearly threescore years; and +that he had himself suffered all the hardships of poverty in his youth, +though he never once ran into any man's debt,--circumstances in his +history, which, as they express how fully he must have been acquainted +with the value of money, greatly enhance the merit of his munificence. + +In December, 1803, he became incapable of signing his name. His sight, +indeed, had for some time failed him so much, that at dinner he could +not find his spoon without assistance; and, when I happened to dine with +him, I first cut in pieces whatever was on his plate, next put it into a +spoon, and then guided his hand to find the spoon. But his inability to +sign his name did not arise merely from blindness: the fact was, that, +from irretention of memory, he could not recollect the letters which +composed his name; and, when they were repeated to him, he could not +represent the figure of the letters in his imagination. At the latter +end of November, I had remarked that these incapacities were rapidly +growing upon him, and in consequence I prevailed on him to sign +beforehand all the receipts, &c., which would be wanted at the end +of the year; and, afterwards, on my representation, to prevent all +disputes, he gave me a regular legal power to sign on his behalf. + +Much as Kant was now reduced, yet he had occasionally moods of social +hilarity. His birth-day was always an agreeable subject to him: some +weeks before his death, I was calculating the time which it still +wanted of that anniversary, and cheering him with the prospect of the +rejoicings which would then take place: 'All your old friends,' said +I, 'will meet together, and drink a glass of champagne to your health.' +'That,' said he, 'must be done upon the spot:' and he was not satisfied +till the party was actually assembled. He drank a glass of wine with +them, and with great elevation of spirits celebrated this birth-day +which he was destined never to see. + +In the latter weeks of his life, however, a great change took place in +the tone of his spirits. At his dinner-table, where heretofore such a +cloudless spirit of joviality had reigned, there was now a melancholy +silence. It disturbed him to see his two dinner companions conversing +privately together, whilst he himself sat like a mute on the stage with +no part to perform. Yet to have engaged him in the conversation +would have been still more distressing; for his hearing was now very +imperfect; the effort to hear was itself painful to him; and his +expressions, even when his thoughts were accurate enough, became nearly +unintelligible. It is remarkable, however, that at the very lowest point +of his depression, when he became perfectly incapable of conversing with +any rational meaning on the ordinary affairs of life, he was still +able to answer correctly and distinctly, in a degree that was perfectly +astonishing, upon any question of philosophy or of science, especially +of physical geography, [Footnote: _Physical_ Geography, in opposition to +_Political_.] chemistry, or natural history. He talked satisfactorily, +in his very worst state, of the gases, and stated very accurately +different propositions of Kepler's, especially the law of the planetary +motions. And I remember in particular, that upon the very last Monday +of his life, when the extremity of his weakness moved a circle of his +friends to tears, and he sat amongst us insensible to all we could say +to him, cowering down, or rather I might say collapsing into a shapeless +heap upon his chair, deaf, blind, torpid, motionless,--even then I +whispered to the others that I would engage that Kant should take his +part in conversation with propriety and animation. This they found it +difficult to believe. Upon which I drew close to his ear, and put a +question to him about the Moors of Barbary. To the surprise of everybody +but myself, he immediately gave us a summary account of their habits +and customs; and told us by the way, that in the word _Algiers_, the _g_ +ought to be pronounced hard (as in the English word _gear_). + +During the last fortnight of Kant's life, he busied himself unceasingly +in a way that seemed not merely purposeless but self-contradictory. +Twenty times in a minute he would unloose and tie his neck +handkerchief--so also with a sort of belt which he wore about his +dressing-gown, the moment it was clasped, he unclasped it with +impatience, and was then equally impatient to have it clasped again. +But no description can convey an adequate impression of the weary +restlessness with which from morning to night he pursued these labors of +Sisyphus--doing and undoing--fretting that he could not do it, fretting +that he had done it. + +By this time he seldom knew any of us who were about him, but took us +all for strangers. This happened first with his sister, then with me, +and finally with his servant. Such an alienation distressed me more than +any other instance of his decay: though I knew that he had not really +withdrawn his affection from me, yet his air and mode of addressing me +gave me constantly that feeling. So much the more affecting was it, when +the sanity of his perceptions and his remembrances returned; but these +intervals were of slower and slower occurrence. In this condition, +silent or babbling childishly, self-involved and torpidly abstracted, or +else busy with self-created phantoms and delusions, what a contrast did +he offer to _that_ Kant who had once been the brilliant centre of +the most brilliant circles for rank, wit, or knowledge, that Prussia +afforded! A distinguished person from Berlin, who had called upon him +during the preceding summer, was greatly shocked at his appearance, and +said, 'This is not Kant that I have seen, but the shell of Kant!' How +much more would he have said this, if he had seen him now! + +Now came February, 1804, which was the last month that Kant was destined +to see. It is remarkable that, in the memorandum book which I have +before mentioned, I found a fragment of an old song, (inserted by Kant, +and dated in the summer about six months before the time of his death,) +which expressed that February was the month in which people had the +least weight to carry, for the obvious reason that it was shorter by two +and by three days than the others; and the concluding sentiment was in +a tone of fanciful pathos to this effect--'Oh, happy February! in which +man has least to bear--least pain, least sorrow, least self-reproach!' +Even of this short month, however, Kant had not twelve entire days to +bear; for it was on the 12th that he died; and in fact he may be said to +have been dying from the 1st. He now barely vegetated; though there were +still transitory gleams flashing by fits from the embers of his ancient +intellect. + +On the 3d of February the springs of life seemed to be ceasing from +their play, for, from this day, strictly speaking, he ate nothing more. +His existence henceforward seemed to be the mere prolongation of an +impetus derived from an eighty years' life, after the moving power of +the mechanism was withdrawn. His physician visited him every day at a +particular hour; and it was settled that I should always be there to +meet him. Nine days before his death, on paying his usual visit, the +following little circumstance occurred, which affected us both, by +recalling forcibly to our minds the ineradicable courtesy and goodness +of Kant's nature. When the physician was announced, I went up to Kant +and said to him, 'Here is Dr. A----.' Kant rose from his chair, and, +offering his hand to the Doctor, murmured something in which the word +'posts' was frequently repeated, but with an air as though he wished +to be helped out with the rest of the sentence. Dr. A----, who thought +that, by _posts_, he meant the stations for relays of post-horses, and +therefore that his mind was wandering, replied that all the horses were +engaged, and begged him to compose himself. But Kant went on, with +great effort to himself, and added--'Many posts, heavy posts--then +much goodness--then much gratitude.' All this he said with apparent +incoherence, but with great warmth, and increasing self-possession. I +meantime perfectly divined what it was that Kant, under his cloud of +imbecility, wished to say, and I interpreted accordingly. 'What the +Professor wishes to say, Dr. A----, is this, that, considering the many +and weighty offices which you fill in the city and in the university, +it argues great goodness on your part to give up so much of your time to +him,' (for Dr. A---- would never take any fees from Kant;) 'and that he +has the deepest sense of this goodness.' 'Right,' said Kant, earnestly, +'right!' But he still continued to stand, and was nearly sinking to +the ground. Upon which I remarked to the physician, that I was so +well acquainted with Kant, that I was satisfied he would not sit down, +however much he suffered from standing, until he knew that his visitors +were seated. The Doctor seemed to doubt this--but Kant, who heard what +I said, by a prodigious effort confirmed my construction of his conduct, +and spoke distinctly these words--'God forbid I should be sunk so low as +to forget the offices of humanity.' + +When dinner was announced, Dr. A---- took his leave. Another guest had +now arrived, and I was in hopes, from the animation which Kant had so +recently displayed, that we should to-day have a pleasant party, but +my hopes were vain--Kant was more than usually exhausted, and though +he raised a spoon to his mouth, he swallowed nothing. For some time +everything had been tasteless to him; and I had endeavored, but with +little success, to stimulate the organs of taste by nutmeg, cinnamon, +&c. To-day all failed, and I could not even prevail upon him to taste a +biscuit, rusk, or anything of that sort. I had once heard him say that +several of his friends, who had died of _marasmus_, had closed their +illness by four or five days of entire freedom from pain, but totally +without appetite, and then slumbered tranquilly away. Through this state +I apprehended that he was himself now passing. + +Saturday, the 4th of February, I heard his guests loudly expressing +their fears that they should never meet him again; and I could not but +share these fears myself. However, on + +Sunday, the 5th, I dined at his table in company with his particular +friend Mr. R. R. V. Kant was still present, but so weak that his head +drooped upon his knees, and he sank down against the right side of the +chair. I went and arranged his pillows so as to raise and support his +head; and, having done this, I said--'Now, my dear Sir, you are again in +right order.' Great was our astonishment when he answered clearly and +audibly in the Roman military phrase--'Yes, _testudine et facie;_' and +immediately after added, 'Ready for the enemy, and in battle array.' His +powers of mind were (if I may be allowed that expression) smouldering +away in their ashes; but every now and then some lambent flame, or grand +emanation of light, shot forth to make it evident that the ancient fire +still slumbered below. + +Monday, the 6th, he was much weaker and more torpid: he spoke not +a word, except on the occasion of my question about the Moors, as +previously stated, and sate with sightless eyes, lost in himself, and +manifesting no sense of our presence, so that we had the feeling of some +mighty shade or phantom from some forgotten century being seated amongst +us. + +About this time, Kant had become much more tranquil and composed. In +the earlier periods of his illness, when his yet unbroken strength was +brought into active contest with the first attacks of decay, he was +apt to be peevish, and sometimes spoke roughly or even harshly to his +servants. This, though very opposite to his natural disposition, was +altogether excusable under the circumstances. He could not make himself +understood: things were therefore brought to him continually which he +had not asked for; and often it happened that what he really wanted +he could not obtain, because all his efforts to name it were +unintelligible. A violent nervous irritation, besides, affected him +from the unsettling of the equilibrium in the different functions of +his nature; weakness in one organ being made more palpable to him by +disproportionate strength in another. But now the strife was over; +the whole system was at length undermined, and in rapid and harmonious +progress to dissolution. And from this time forward, no movement of +impatience, or expression of fretfulness, ever escaped him. + +I now visited him three times a-day; and on + +Tuesday, Feb. 7th, going about dinner-time, I found the usual party of +friends sitting down alone; for Kant was in bed. This was a new scene +in his house, and increased our fears that his end was now at hand. +However, having seen him rally so often, I would not run the risk of +leaving him without a dinner-party for the next day; and accordingly, at +the customary hour of one, we assembled in his house on + +Wednesday, Feb. 8th. I paid my respects to him as cheerfully as +possible, and ordered dinner to be served up. Kant sat at the table with +us; and, taking a spoon with a little soup in it, put it to his lips; +but immediately put it down again, and retired to bed, from which he +never rose again, except during the few minutes when it was re-arranged. + +Thursday, the 9th, he had sunk into the weakness of a dying person, +and the corpse-like appearance had already taken possession of him. I +visited him frequently through the day; and, going at ten o'clock at +night, I found him in a state of insensibility. I could not draw any +sign from him that he knew me, and I left him to the care of his sister +and his servant. + +Friday, the 10th, I went to see him at six o'clock in the morning. It +was very stormy, and a deep snow had fallen in the night-time. And, by +the way, I remember that a gang of house-breakers had forced their way +through the premises in order to reach Kant's next neighbor, who was a +goldsmith. As I drew near to his bed-side, I said, 'Good morning.' He +returned my salutation by saying, 'Good morning,' but in so feeble and +faltering a voice that it was hardly articulate. I was rejoiced to find +him sensible, and I asked him if he knew me:--'Yes,' he replied; and, +stretching out his hand, touched me gently upon the cheek. Through the +rest of the day, whenever I visited him, he seemed to have relapsed into +a state of insensibility. + +Saturday, the 11th, he lay with fixed and rayless eyes; but to all +appearance in perfect peace. I asked him again, on this day, if he knew +me. He was speechless, but he turned his face towards me and made signs +that I should kiss him. Deep emotion thrilled me, as I stooped down to +kiss his pallid lips; for I knew that in this solemn act of tenderness +he meant to express his thankfulness for our long friendship, and to +signify his affection and his last farewell. I had never seen him confer +this mark of his love upon anybody, except once, and that was a few +weeks before his death, when he drew his sister to him and kissed her. +The kiss which he now gave to me was the last memorial that he knew me. + +Whatever fluid was now offered to him passed the oesophagus with a +rattling sound, as often happens with dying people; and there were all +the signs of death being close at hand. + +I wished to stay with him till all was over; and as I had been witness +of his life, to be witness also of his departure; and therefore I never +quitted him except when I was called off for a few minutes to attend +some private business. The whole of this night I spent at his bed-side. +Though he had passed the day in a state of insensibility, yet in the +evening he made intelligible signs that he wished to have his bed put in +order; he was therefore lifted out in our arms, and the bed-clothes and +pillows being hastily arranged, he was carried back again. He did not +sleep; and a spoonful of liquid, which was sometimes put to his lips, he +usually pushed aside; but about one o'clock in the night he himself made +a motion towards the spoon, from which I collected that he was thirsty; +and I gave him a small quantity of wine and water sweetened; but the +muscles of his mouth had not strength enough to retain it, so that to +prevent its flowing back he raised his hand to his lips, until with +a rattling sound it was swallowed. He seemed to wish for more; and I +continued to give him more, until he said, in a way that I was just +able to understand,--'It is enough.' And these were his last words. +At intervals he pushed away the bed-clothes, and exposed his person; I +constantly restored the clothes to their situation, and on one of these +occasions I found that the whole body and extremities were already +growing cold, and the pulse intermitting. + +At a quarter after three o'clock on Sunday morning, February 12, Kant +stretched himself out as if taking a position for his final act, and +settled into the precise posture which he preserved to the moment of +death. The pulse was now no longer perceptible to the touch in his +hands, feet or neck. I tried every part where a pulse beats, and found +none anywhere but in the left hip, where it beat with violence, but +often intermitted. + +About ten o'clock in the forenoon he suffered a remarkable change; his +eye was rigid and his face and lips became discolored by a cadaverous +pallor. Still, such was the effect of his previous habits, that no trace +appeared of the cold sweat which naturally accompanies the last mortal +agony. + +It was near eleven o'clock when the moment of dissolution approached. +His sister was standing at the foot of the bed, his sister's son at +the head. I, for the purpose of still observing the fluctuations of the +pulse in his hip, was kneeling at the bed-side; and I called his servant +to come and witness the death of his good master. Now began the last +agony, if to him it could be called an agony, where there seemed to be +no struggle. And precisely at this moment, his distinguished friend, Mr. +R. R. V., whom I had summoned by a messenger, entered the room. First of +all, the breath grew feebler; then it missed its regularity of return; +then it wholly intermitted, and the upper lip was slightly convulsed; +after this there followed one slight respiration or sigh; and after that +no more; but the pulse still beat for a few seconds--slower and fainter, +till it ceased altogether; the mechanism stopped; the last motion was at +an end; and exactly at that moment the clock struck eleven. + +Soon after his death the head of Kant was shaved; and, under the +direction of Professor Knorr, a plaster cast was taken, not a masque +merely, but a cast of the whole bead, designed (I believe) to enrich the +craniological collection of Dr. Gall. + +The corpse being laid out and properly attired, immense numbers of +people of every rank, from the highest to the lowest, flocked to see it. +Everybody was anxious to make use of the last opportunity he would have +for entitling himself to say--'I too have seen Kant.' This went on for +many days--during which, from morning to night, the house was thronged +with the public. Great was the astonishment of all people at the +meagreness of Kant's appearance; and it was universally agreed that a +corpse so wasted and fleshless had never been beheld. His head rested +upon the same cushion on which once the gentlemen of the university had +presented an address to him; and I thought that I could not apply it to +a more honorable purpose than by placing it in the coffin, as the final +pillow of that immortal head. + +Upon the style and mode of his funeral, Kant had expressed his wishes in +earlier years in a separate memorandum. He there desired that it should +take place early in the morning, with as little noise and disturbance +as possible, and attended only by a few of his most intimate friends. +Happening to meet with this memorandum, whilst I was engaged at his +request in arranging his papers, I very frankly gave him my opinion, +that such an injunction would lay me, as the executor of his will, under +great embarrassments; for that circumstances might very probably arise +under which it would be next to impossible to carry it into effect. Upon +this Kant tore the paper, and left the whole to my own discretion. The +fact was, I foresaw that the students of the University would never +allow themselves to be robbed of this occasion for expressing their +veneration by a public funeral. The event showed that I was right; for +a funeral such as Kant's, one so solemn and so magnificent, the city of +Koenigsberg has never witnessed before or since. The public journals, and +separate accounts in pamphlets, etc., have given so minute an account of +its details, that I shall here notice only the heads of the ceremony. + +On the 28th of February, at two o'clock in the afternoon, all the +dignitaries of church and state, not only those resident in Koenigsberg, +but from the remotest parts of Prussia, assembled in the church of the +Castle. Hence they were escorted by the whole body of the University, +splendidly dressed for the occasion, and by many military officers of +rank, with whom Kant had always been a great favorite, to the house +of the deceased Professor; from which the corpse was carried by +torch-light, the bells of every church in Koenigsberg tolling, to the +Cathedral which was lit up by innumerable wax-lights. A never-ending +train of many thousand persons followed it on foot. In the Cathedral, +after the usual burial rites, accompanied with every possible expression +of national veneration to the deceased, there was a grand musical +service, most admirably performed, at the close of which Kant's mortal +remains were lowered into the academic vault, where he now rests among +the ancient patriarchs of the University. PEACE BE TO HIS DUST, AND +EVERLASTING HONOR! + + +END OF VOLUME II + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Narrative And Miscellaneous Papers, by +Thomas De Quincey + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NARRATIVE AND MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS *** + +***** This file should be named 6148.txt or 6148.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/6/1/4/6148/ + +Produced by Anne Soulard, Charles Franks and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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