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Webber,—A Project Gutenberg eBook - </title> - <link rel="icon" href="images/cover.jpg" type="image/x-cover" /> - <style> /* <![CDATA[ */ - -body { - margin-left: 10%; - margin-right: 10%; -} - - h1,h2,h3 { - text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ - clear: both; -} -.half-title { - margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em; - text-align: center; - font-size: x-large; - font-weight: normal; - line-height: 1.6; - } - -p { text-indent: 1em; - margin-top: .51em; - text-align: justify; - margin-bottom: .49em; -} -.nindent {text-indent: 0em;} -.p4 {margin-top: 4em;} -.psig {text-align: right; margin-right: 2em;} - -hr { - width: 33%; - margin-top: 2em; - margin-bottom: 2em; - margin-left: 33.5%; - margin-right: 33.5%; - clear: both; -} - -hr.tb {width: 45%; margin-left: 27.5%; margin-right: 27.5%;} -hr.chap {width: 65%; margin-left: 17.5%; margin-right: 17.5%;} -@media print { hr.chap {display: none; visibility: hidden;} } -hr.full {width: 95%; margin-left: 2.5%; margin-right: 2.5%;} - -hr.small {width: 5%; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 47.5%; margin-right: 47.5%;} - -div.chapter {page-break-before: always;} -h2.nobreak {page-break-before: avoid;} - - -.pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ - /* visibility: hidden; */ - position: absolute; - left: 92%; - font-size: smaller; - text-align: right; - font-style: normal; - font-weight: normal; - font-variant: normal; - text-indent: 0; -} /* page numbers */ - - -.blockquot { - margin-left: 5%; - margin-right: 10%; -} - -.gap4 {padding-left: 4em;} - -.center {text-align: center;} - -.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} - -.allsmcap {font-variant: small-caps; text-transform: lowercase;} - -.fs1 {font-size: 0.7em;} -.fs2 {font-size: 0.8em;} -.fs4 {font-size: 1.2em;} - - -/* Images */ - -img { - max-width: 100%; - height: auto; -} -img.w100 {width: 100%;} - - -.figcenter { - margin: auto; - text-align: center; - page-break-inside: avoid; - max-width: 100%; -} - - -/* Footnotes */ -.footnotes {border: 1px dashed;} - -.footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} - -.footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} - -.fnanchor { - vertical-align: super; - font-size: .8em; - text-decoration: - none; -} - -/* Poetry */ -.poetry-container {text-align: center;} -.poetry {text-align: left; margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 5%;} -/* uncomment the next line for centered poetry in browsers */ - .poetry {display: inline-block;} -.poetry .stanza {margin: 1em auto;} -.poetry .verse {text-indent: -3em; padding-left: 3em;} -/* large inline blocks don't split well on paged devices */ -@media print { .poetry {display: block;} } -.x-ebookmaker .poetry {display: block;} - -/* Transcriber's notes */ -.transnote {background-color: #E6E6FA; - color: black; - font-size:smaller; - padding:0.5em; - margin-bottom:5em; - font-family:sans-serif, serif; } - -/* Poetry indents */ -.poetry .indent0 {text-indent: -3em;} -.poetry .indent14 {text-indent: 4em;} -.poetry .indent2 {text-indent: -2em;} -.poetry .indent20 {text-indent: 8em;} -.poetry .indent24 {text-indent: 10em;} -.poetry .indent28 {text-indent: 12em;} -.poetry .indent4 {text-indent: -1em;} -.poetry .indent8 {text-indent: 1em;} -.poetry .indent10 {text-indent: 2em;} - -/* Illustration classes */ -.illowp80 {width: 80%;} - - - /* ]]> */ </style> -</head> -<body> -<p style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Spiritual vampirism, by Charles Wilkins Webber</p> -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world 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 <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you -are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the -country where you are located before using this eBook. -</div> - -<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: Spiritual vampirism</p> -<p style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:0; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:1em;'>The history of Etherial Softdown, and her friends of the "New Light"</p> -<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Charles Wilkins Webber</p> -<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: October 21, 2022 [eBook #69201]</p> -<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</p> - <p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em; text-align:left'>Produced by: Tim Lindell, Les Galloway and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)</p> -<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SPIRITUAL VAMPIRISM ***</div> - -<div class="transnote"> -<h3>Transcriber’s Notes</h3> - -<p>Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected. Variations -in hyphenation have been standardised but all other spelling and -punctuation remains unchanged.</p> - -<p>The table of contents was added by the transcriber.</p> - -<p>The cover was prepared by the transcriber and is placed in the public -domain.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="figcenter illowp80" id="i_title" style="max-width: 62.5em;"> - <img class="w100" src="images/i_title.png" alt="Title Page" /> -</div> - - -<p class="center">YIEGER’S CABINET.</p> -<hr class="small" /> - -<h1>SPIRITUAL VAMPIRISM:</h1> - -<p class="center">THE HISTORY</p> - -<p class="center fs1">OF</p> - -<p class="center fs4">ETHERIAL SOFTDOWN,</p> - -<p class="center fs1">AND</p> - -<p class="center">Her Friends of the “New Light.”</p> - - -<p class="center">BY C. W. WEBBER,<br /> - -<span class="fs1">AUTHOR OF<br /> - -“OLD HICKS THE GUIDE,” “CHARLES WINTERFIELD PAPERS,” “THE HUNTER-NATURALIST,” -“TALES OF THE SOUTHERN BORDER,” ETC.</span></p> - -<hr class="small" /> -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">A heavy, hell-like paleness loads her cheeks,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Unknown to a clear heaven.</div> - <div class="verse indent28"><span class="smcap">John Marston.</span></div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">O vulture-witch, hast never heard of mercy?</div> - <div class="verse indent28"><span class="smcap">Endymion.</span></div> -</div></div></div> - -<p class="center">PHILADELPHIA:<br /> -LIPPINCOTT, GRAMBO & CO.<br /> -1853.</p> - - - - -<p class="center fs2 p4"> -Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1853, by<br /> -LIPPINCOTT, GRAMBO & CO.,<br /> -in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States, in and for<br /> -the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.</p> - -<p class="center fs2">STEREOTYPED BY J. FAGAN. <span class="gap4"> T. K. AND P. G. COLLINS, PRINTERS.</span> -</p> -<div class="chapter"> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<p class ="center fs5">Contents.</p> - -<ul> -<li><a href="#INTRODUCTION">INTRODUCTION.</a></li> -<li><a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I.</a></li> -<li><a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II.</a></li> -<li><a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III.</a></li> -<li><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV.</a></li> -<li><a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V.</a></li> -<li><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI.</a></li> -<li><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII.</a></li> -<li><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VIII.</a></li> -<li><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX.</a></li> -<li><a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X.</a></li> -<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI.</a></li> -<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII.</a></li> -<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII.</a></li> -<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV.</a></li> -<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV.</a></li> -<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI.</a></li> -<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER XVII.</a></li> -<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">CHAPTER XVIII.</a></li> -<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">CHAPTER XIX.</a></li> -<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XX">CHAPTER XX.</a></li> -<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">CHAPTER XXI.</a></li> -<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">CHAPTER XXII.</a></li> -<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII">CHAPTER XXIII.</a></li> -<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV">CHAPTER XXIV.</a></li> -<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XXV">CHAPTER XXV.</a></li> -<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVI">CHAPTER XXVI.</a></li> -<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVII">CHAPTER XXVII.</a></li> -<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVIII">CHAPTER XXVIII.</a></li> -<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIX">CHAPTER XXIX.</a></li> -<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XXX">CHAPTER XXX.</a></li> -</ul> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="INTRODUCTION">INTRODUCTION.</h2> -</div> - - -<p>On page 392 of the concluding sketch of a late series, the -“Tales of the Southern Border,” occurs the following passage:—</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> -<p class="center">“THE ESCRITOIRE.</p> - -<p>“The author, being a resident of New York during the period -of the leading incidents narrated as occurring in that city, had -formed the acquaintance of the principal personage. Himself -a Southerner, he had, from the natural affinities of origin, inevitably -been attracted toward Carter. The intercourse between -them, at first reserved, had imperceptibly warmed into a degree -of intimacy, which, however, had by no means been such as to -render him at all cognisant, beyond the merest generalities, of -the progress of his private affairs. He was not a little surprised, -therefore, at finding, one day, an elegant escritoire or cabinet, -of dark, rich wood, heavily banded in the old-fashioned style -with silver, which had been placed, in his absence, on the table -of his sanctum. A note, in a sealed envelope, lay upon it. He -instantly recognised the handwriting of the address as that of -Mr. Carter, and broke the seal.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_4">[Pg ]</span></p> - -<p>“It was evidently written in great haste, but without any sign -of trepidation. It ran thus:—</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> -<p> -“<span class="smcap">My dear Friend</span>:<br /> -</p> - -<p>“I have no time for explanations, as I am in the midst of -hurried preparations for an unexpected yacht-voyage—upon -which I set sail in a few minutes. I send you an escritoire, -which was left in my charge by a highly valued friend. He -was an extraordinary man; and its contents will be, I doubt -not, of great value to the world.</p> - -<p>“It was given me, with the injunction that it should not be -opened until six months after his death. The six months were -up some weeks since, but I have lately been too much otherwise -absorbed to think of making use of the privilege of the key. -I now therefore transfer to you this bequest in full, with the -proviso that you will not open it for six months. If at the end -of that time I have not been heard from, please open, and without -reserve make what use of it your excellent sense may justify. -Please take charge of whatever correspondence may arrive to -my address for the same length of time, at the expiration of -which you will also please to consider yourself as my executor—open -my correspondence and proceed as you may -think best. Pardon this unceremonious intrusion of responsibilities -upon an intimacy, the terms of which I hardly feel would -strictly justify me; but the plea that I know no one else whom -I can trust, and have no time for further explanation, will I am -sure justify me in the eyes of a brother Southron.</p> - -<p class="psig"> -“Yours truly,<br /> -“<span class="smcap">Frank Carter</span>.</p> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</span></p> - -<p>“Six months having elapsed, and still no news of my singular -friend Carter, the fulfilment of the important duties of executor, -thus unexpectedly devolved upon him, were deferred by the -narrator as long as his sense of duty would possibly admit. At -last, when longer delay would have seemed to assume almost -the aspect of criminality, the duty of opening the cabinet was -unwillingly entered upon.”</p> -</div> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>On my next meeting with my friend Carter, who proved still -to be in the land of the living, I spoke to him of the cabinet -and its remarkable contents, which had so unexpectedly been -left in my charge; offering to resign to him my trusteeship. -To this, however, he would by no means consent, but continued -to insist, as in his original letter, that I should without reserve -make what use of it my sense of propriety might dictate. I -was finally overruled into undertaking the mere arrangement -and editorship of its contents—for the revelations there made are -in many respects so strangely horrifying and unusual, that I fear -the world will be little disposed to pardon my agency in giving -them publicity. However, as I believe them to be, in every -respect, genuine life-experiences, I have determined to make -the venture, come what will of it. We shall therefore give, as -proper introduction to the singular narrative which we have -selected from beneath the blood-stained seals of the cabinet it -has been our fate to open, the following singular paper, which -we found lying separately above the folds of the MS. which -constitutes the History of Etherial Softdown.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</span></p> - - -<h2>THE PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERIC IMPOSITION.</h2> - -<p class="center">TO BE READ BY PHILOSOPHERS ONLY.<a id="FNanchor_1" href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_1" href="#FNanchor_1" class="label">[1]</a> The Story begins at Chapter I.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> - -</div> - -<p>The existence of what may be called the nervous or Odic -fluid—the sympathetic element—has been partially known to all -ages. The knowledge of this powerful secret, in moving and -controlling mankind, has been professionally and almost exclusively -confined to the adepts of all sects, religions, and periods; -though it has occasionally, in various ways, leaked out of the -penetralia, principally through its forms, accompanied with -little or no apprehension of their vital meaning. It is in -this way that a series of scientific phenomena, the discovery -of which probably originated with a remote priestcraft, and -had been made to subserve exclusive ends, has gradually been -fragmented among the people, and in many imperfect, ignorant, -and vitiated forms has now become the common property of -science.</p> - -<p>When it is understood that this nervous fluid is nothing more -nor less than that force—whether electrical, magnetic, odic, or -otherwise named—which, lubricating the nervous system in -man, produces all vital phenomena—is, in a word, the vital -force—the active principle of life—it will not be difficult to -comprehend how important a knowledge of its laws may be -rendered to even those relations of life not exclusively physical.</p> - -<p>Mesmer promulgated, under his own name, as a new and -astounding discovery in science, something of the sympathetic -laws to which this nervous or Odic fluid is subject, and by</p> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</span></p> -<p>which the vital and spiritual relations of man to the external -universe are in a great measure modified, and even controlled. -This was no discovery of his, but had been the mainly -exclusive secret of the ancient priesthood; employed alike in -the ceremonies of the novitiate in the Thibetian temples of -Buddha, in the Egyptian Initiation, and in Grecian Pythism. -But the particular reason why his announcements caused such -prodigious excitement, in 1784, as to run all Paris mad, even -including the court of the wary Louis XVI., and still continue -to excite and madden mankind, is, that, as the sympathetic -ecstacies and furors, superinduced by the mummeries of his -famous “vat,” were called by a new name, the people failed to -recognise them, although they had been familiarised with, and -even acting habitually under their influence, while surrounded -by accessories of a more sacred character. The immediate -success of Mesmer’s experiments amazed men. He, in fact, -little knew what he was doing himself; the effects he understood -how to produce, because accident had furnished him with -the formulas. Having gone through these, which, though most -grotesque and preposterous, later experience has shown, really -included all the “passes” and other conditions necessary to -establish sympathy through the nervous fluid with the victims -of his delusion, he proceeded to produce exhibitions the most -extraordinary the world ever saw, except in the hideous and -frantic orgies of some wild, barbaric creed, and the parallels to -which, in this country, are to be found in the shrieks and bellowings -of a fanatic camp-meeting, Miller ascension-tent, Mormon -rite, or hard-cider political mass-meeting.</p> - -<p>Beginning with the postulate that “Nature abhors a vacuum,” -it does not seem difficult to understand something, at least, of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</span> -the rationale of this sympathetic influence of one man over -another. The laws of the distribution of this Odic force seem -to bear a somewhat general affinity to those of electricity. The -surcharged cloud discharges its superfluous fluid into the cloud -more negatively charged. The man holding a superfluous -amount of vital or Odic force, can dismiss a portion of this—along -the course of its proper lightning-rods, or conveyers, the -nerves—into the organisation of a being more negatively -charged, or, in other words, of a weaker man. As electricity -can only act upon inert matter through its proper media, the -elements, so the Odic fluid can only act upon organised matter -normally through its proper medium, the nerves of vitality. -This communication of the Odic fluid, by which sympathy between -the two beings has been established, can be, to a certain -degree, regulated and controlled by manipulations which bring -the thumbs and fingers of the hand, which are properly Odic -poles, in contact with certain great nerves, or centres of nerves, -along which the influence can be readily communicated. These -manipulations, the vital and original meanings of which these -Mesmer agitators have betrayed, may be traced very clearly -through the most important ceremonies of religion, and the -secret orders of fraternisation in the world. From this point of -view, how significant the “laying-on of hands” in ordination, -the “joining of hands” in the marriage ceremony, &c.</p> - -<p>Here let us remark, that we would no more be understood -as accusing a Christian Priesthood, in modern times, of having -made an improper use, either inside or out of their profession, -of the manipulations mentioned above, than we would think of -accusing them of having, as a class, any special knowledge of -their significance beyond that of ceremonial forms, set down in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</span> -the discipline. It has been to the Heathen Priesthood that we -have consistently attributed a knowledge of the psychological -meaning of these ceremonials, which have descended through -the Hebrew and Christian churches as avowedly divested of vital -significance, and intended, in their arbitrary exaction, as, to a -certain degree, ordained tests of Christian faith and obedience.</p> - -<p>But it is by no means indispensable to the exhibition of the -Odic phenomena, that the processes of manipulation should -have been literally gone through with in all cases—nor, indeed, -in the majority even—for some of the most apparently inexplicable -and extraordinary of them all are brought about without -such intervention. Take, as comparatively “modern instances,” -such effects as those produced by the preaching of Peter the -Hermit, when not only vast armies of men were moved like -flights of locusts toward the Desert, on the breeze of his fiery -breath, to disappear, too, as they, within its bosom, and never -be heard from again, but even great armies of children rushed -in migratory hordes to the sea-ports, to ship for the Holy Land!—and -those produced by the crusade of Father Mathew against -intemperance, in our time, when all Ireland lay wailing at his -feet. These great furors were precisely identical with those -already enumerated, so far as the sympathetic or motive power -went. So with the story of the rise of Mahomet, Joe Smith, -Miller, and all such agitators. They are usually men of prodigious -vital power, and of course surcharged with the Odic -fluid, who begin these great movements; and they possess, beside, -vast patience and endurance. They begin by filling the -individuals in immediate contact with them, as Mahomet did -his own family, with the superfluity of the Odic force in themselves, -and having thus obtained a single medium by this immediate<span class="pagenum" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</span> -contact—which, although it may not imply the formal -manipulations with preconceived design, implies the accidental -equivalents—the circle gradually enlarges through each fresh -accession, in much the same way that it began, until, after a few -patient years of unshaken endurance, the apostle finds himself -surrounded by thousands and thousands of human beings, -whose volition is swayed through this Odic force—this sympathetic -medium—by his own central, resolute, and self-poised -will, as if they were but one man. His moveless volition has -been, from the beginning, the base and axis of the vast sympathetic -movement going on around him, and upon the single -strength of the Odic force within him, all depends, until, -through a thorough organisation of ceremonial laws and observances, -the system of which he was the vital centre assumes a -corporate existence, and can stand alone.</p> - -<p>This is about the method in which all such organisations, -radiating from the <i>one man</i> power or centre, widen their circles -to an extreme circumference, until the force of the pebble thrown -into the great lake is exhausted. So it is with all sympathetic -excitements—from the Dancing Dervishes, the Shaking Quakers, -or the Barking Brothers, to the vast Empire of France, led frenzied -over the world in the will-o’-the-wisp chase of universal -sovereignty, by the fantastic will of a Napoleon. These -are some of the general phenomena of sympathy, and there are -many quite as extraordinary, if not as broad in what are called -atmospheric or epidemic conditions, which go to prove the universality -of this sympathetic law.</p> - -<p>The distinctions between Od and Heat, Od and Electricity, -as well as Od and Magnetism, have been so clearly demonstrated -by the investigations of Baron Reichenbach as to leave<span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</span> -at present no choice between the terms. Od expresses that -force which, differing in many essential properties from the other -two, can alone through its phenomena be reconciled with what -we know of the Sympathetic or Nervous Fluid. It is therefore -used as a synonym of this mysterious agency, and as conveying -a far higher definition and significance than either the term -Electricity or Mesmerism.</p> - -<p>The worst and the best that the agitation begun by Mesmer -has accomplished, is, to have stripped old Necromancy of its -mysterious spells, by revealing something of the rationale of -them, while at the same time, in unveiling its processes to the -sharp eyes of modern knaves, they have been enabled to appropriate -and practise them again with even more than the old -success, under the new christening of “scientific experiment.” -It is, I think, easily enough shown, by a minute and circumstantial -comparison of the cotemporary history of the dark age -of black art ascendancy in Europe, which was literally the dark -age of chivalry, with that of Cotton Mather witch-burning enlightenment -in New England, that the arts practised by the -accused in both these countries, and at all other such periods -in all other countries, were nearly identical with each -other; and those familiarised to us through the doings of mesmeric -manipulation, revelation, clairvoyance, spiritual knockings, -&c., &c., are generally the very same, though assuming slight -shades of difference, indicating some progressive development. -A partial knowledge of psychological laws, which was formerly, -and with great plausibility, considered altogether too dangerous -pabulum for the vulgar mind, has been sown broadcast by the -empiricism of this mesmeric movement, the principal oracles -and expounders of which have been clearly as ignorant of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</span> -causes with which they agitated, as ever wrinkled crone of peat-smoked -hovel was of the true laws of that occult palmistry, -through the practice, or vague traditions of which, she finally -prophesied herself into the martyrdom of the “red-hot ploughshares,” -or the warm resting-place of the pot of boiling pitch. -They only know that certain formulas produce certain results, -and as they are blundering entirely in the dark, they mix those -which have a basis in science with the crude and meaningless -forms which ignorance, with its abject cunning, easily supplies. -From such amalgamations have arisen the mummeries of conjuration -in whatever form, and by the imprudent use of which, -the credulous, simple and superstitious, are so easily “frightened -from their propriety,” and thus made easy victims of more -dangerous arts.</p> - -<p>But it is a study of the fearful uses which have been made by -the evil-disposed, of this <i>partial</i> knowledge of the laws of relation -of soul to the body, that is more interesting now than these -olden disguises of the same evil in more helpless forms; as now, -through the mesmeric agitation, it has really attained to some -gleam of causes—has now something of scientific illumination -to steady and give direction to its reckless and deadly aim. In -the radius of its hurtful circumference, the vicious power of the -witch, fortune-teller or conjuror, was as much more circumscribed -than that of the semi-scientific charlatan of clairvoyance, -as the vision of the mole is less than that of the viper, which, -at least, looks out into the sunshine though every cloud may -impede its malignant gaze.</p> - -<p>The relative degrees in which the Odic or sympathetic fluid -may be found exhibited in the different individuals of our race, -have been previously remarked in general terms. In the sexes,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</span> -we most usually find the positive pole in man, who gives out, -and the negative in woman, who receives and absorbs from him, -the dispenser. Though this be the general rule so far as the -sexes are concerned, it is by no means the universal rule for the -race—since there are among men but few positive poles, or fixed -centres of Odic radiation; and where such are found, they are -observed to possess much of what we commonly call “influence” -with or upon others. All the parties, therefore, within -the circle of this sympathetic radiation, or “magnetic attraction,” -as it is popularly termed, must necessarily be, relatively to this -positive pole, negative poles, without regard to sex—while each of -these comparatively negative poles may in turn be a positive pole, -or Odic centre, to those below or of weaker nature than himself.</p> - -<p>Those men who have been known to all humanity as prophets, -poets, law-givers, discoverers, reformers, &c., are, and have -been, what we mean by positive Odic poles; for while they -have seemed to stand in immediate and direct communion with -the spiritual source of all wisdom, they have at the same time -given out the impulse thus granted, to the people by whom they -are surrounded, thus acting as the chosen media of divine revelation, -and from the cloudy summits of Sinais handing down -the tables of the law to all the tribes.</p> - -<p>Now there is a mighty radiation of the Odic force from these -men, through which the love, wisdom, or rather will in them—or -sent through them—is made operative upon the great masses -of mankind; and this same radiation, in the greater or less degrees, -is found emanating from a thousand different sources at -the same time, affecting man for evil as well as for good; for, -when we comprehend that this Odic or sympathetic force is the -sole medium of communication with the spiritual and invisible<span class="pagenum" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</span> -world, as well as with the visible and material world, it -can then be easily understood how what are called “evil” -and “good spirits” should through it affect mankind. This -will be fully illustrated when we observe the common conditions -of health and disease. Health is good and disease is -evil; and these are the two eternally antagonistic chemical forces -in the universe. Health is that normal condition of the body -which enables it to resist evil and maintain the proper balance -of the spiritual and material elements. Disease is that abnormal -condition of the body in which the integrity of the spiritual -and organic functions has been destroyed through the sympathetic -media by evil, and good overcome.</p> - -<p>In either case, the balance is destroyed, and the immediate -consequence may be, in the one, sudden paroxysms of fearful -insanity, or in the other, sudden death, as in common apoplexy.</p> - -<p>Thus the popular fallacy, that all things having a source in -the spiritual, or rather the invisible, must of necessity be good, -is in a very simple way exposed. We see there may be what -are called evil, as well as good spirits, which hold communion -with us; and the safest and only true general rule with regard to -such matters is, that, while the good spirits are those propitious -chemical forces which make themselves known to us in love, and -joy, and peace, through the unbounded happiness of the normal -conditions of health, the evil spirits are those vicious chemical -forces, morbid delusions, and malign revelations, which are -made known to us through all other diseased conditions as well -as that of Clairvoyance. Remember that no such being has yet -been known throughout the whole range of Mesmeric experiment -as a healthy Clairvoyant, or a “subject” who has attained to the -super-eminence of Clairvoyance, who was not what they fancifully<span class="pagenum" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</span> -term “delicate”—that is, liable to those diseases which -are well known to supervene upon nervous weakness, exhaustion, -or emasculation. This condition of nervous exhaustion -renders them, of course, the very negation of the negative pole -of sympathy, and the first person approaching them, who possesses -the ordinary Odic conditions of health, is clutched hold of -by their famine-struck vitality, in the agonised plea for life! life!</p> - -<p>“Give! give!” is still the insatiable cry. They must have -the Odic fluid restored, and that, in taking from your “enough,” -they exhaust and undermine the holy purposes of your life to -make up that deficit in their own—which loathsome vice has -brought about—the “hideous selfishness of weakness” rather -rejoices. The sympathetic <i>rapporte</i> being once established, -they can at least, through this dangerous medium, live in the -integrities of your life, and enjoy, both physically and spiritually, -a surreptitious vitality, which, while it reflects the prevailing -phenomena of your own mind and spiritual being, has, -in addition, some approximation even to the physical exaltation -of your higher health.</p> - -<p>These human vampires or sponges may be, therefore, as well -absorbents of the spiritual as animal vitality. Their parasitical -roots may strike into the very centres of life, and their hungry -suckers remorselessly draw away the virility of manhood, or the -spiritual strength.</p> - -<p>They seem to be mainly divided into two classes, one of -which, born, seemingly, with but a rudimentary soul, attains to -its apparent spiritual though merely mental development, by -absorption of the spiritual life in others, through the Odic -medium. Another class, born with a predominating spirituality -based upon a feeble physique, is ravenous of animal<span class="pagenum" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</span> -strength, and can only live by its sympathetic absorption of the -same from others, through the same pervading medium. Of -the two, the first is the evil type; for, born in the gross sphere -of the passions, with a vigorous organisation, but faintly illuminated -at the beginning with that golden light of love which -is spiritual life, the fierce half-monkey being is propelled onwards, -and even upwards, by the basest of the purely animal -instincts, appetites, and lusts. If such beings strive towards -the light of the harmonious and the beautiful, it is not because -they yearn for either the holy or the good, but because it lends -a lurid charm to appetite and glorifies a lust.</p> - -<p>The other character, in whom the spiritual predominates, -whether from a natal inequality, as is very frequently the case, -or from the sheer exhaustion of the physical powers, through -emasculating vices, is yet, in itself, good, so far as its morbid -conditions leave it an unaccountable being; but, as its revelations -and utterings depend entirely upon the Odic characters -and will of those from whom its strength may be derived, it can -only be regarded, whether used for evil or good, as a medium. -This character is the common Clairvoyant, to whom we are -indebted for those strangely-mingled gleams of remote truth, -with errors the most grave and injurious, which have so tended -to confuse the judgment of mankind in regard to the phenomena -of Clairvoyance. Such persons can be made as readily -the medium of any falsehood which the knavish passions of -their “Mesmerisers” may dictate, as they can be caused to -announce, by a will as strong, but soul more pure, the disconnected -myths of science and of history, which have so surprised -the world in what are called the “Revelations” of -Andrew Jackson Davis. This man belongs to our second<span class="pagenum" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</span> -class, and is purely “a medium” of the sympathetic fluid. -His organisation is most sensibly sympathetic and delicately -responsive, but is too feeble to balance his spiritual development. -His case stands, therefore, as the most remarkable -modern instance of what the ancients termed “<i>vaticination</i>;” -but, as has been the case with other false prophets, his “gifts” -have proved of no value, except to knaves. He was undoubtedly -practised upon by a choice set of such characters; and, -now that he has found in marriage a sympathetic restoration, -through the physical, of its needed balance with the spiritual, -he has lost his “lying gift” of prophecy.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>We have examined this man carefully, and are convinced -that the whole mystery of his revelations and character may be -contained in a nut-shell. He is to the sphere of intellectual -and spiritual sympathy, and in a lower sense, precisely an -analogous case with that of Mozart in the sphere of the musical -and spiritual. When the great soul of humanity has been long—say -one generation—in travail with a great thought in art, -science, music, or mechanics, there is sure to be somebody born -in the succeeding generation who is physically, mentally, and -spiritually, the impersonation and embodiment of this thought, -of which the age is in labor, and who must of necessity become, -solely and singly, the expression and embodiment thereof. -Thus Mozart, the infant prodigy in music, who at five years old -was the pet of monarchs and the miracle of his age, continued, -with no signs of precociousness, a steady and consistent development, -which showed him to be indeed the embodiment of the -musical inspirations of his age. His revelations in music were -just as prodigious as even the rabid worshippers of the Davis<span class="pagenum" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</span> -revelations would imagine those to be; yet there are some most -essential differences between the results of the two.</p> - -<p>Davis, born amidst the travail of this new Mesmeric agitation, -became the most sensitive organ of the sympathetic fluid -in intellect, as the other had been in music; but as, in the case -of Mozart, the exciting cause came from Nature, and constituted -her purest and most sacred inspirations, so the inspiration -of Davis came from man, with all his imperfections -and subjective tendencies. The sequel has been, the -inspirations of Mozart are considered now by mankind as only -second to the Divine, while those of Davis are justly regarded -as morbid, fragmentary, incomplete, and worthless.</p> - -<p>The organisation of Mozart was equally sympathetic with -that of Davis; but it was of that healthy tone which could only -respond to nature and the natural; while the organisation of -Davis belongs to that much inferior type, which, from its morbid -and unbalanced conditions, can respond only to the human -as the representative of nature. Such persons receive nothing -direct from nature, but only through its representative, man.</p> - -<p>It would seem as if the world were absolutely divided into -two classes—the radiating and the absorbing; the first receiving -from nature, and the second from man. In the first, are the -holy brotherhood of prophets and the poets, and in the second, -the poor slaves of sympathy—the knaves and fools—the impostors -who play upon its well-known laws, and, deceiving themselves -as well as others, may well be said to “know not what -they do.”</p> - -<p>We are convinced that no man, who has kept himself informed -of the psychological history and progress of his race, -can by any means fail to recognise at once, in the pretended<span class="pagenum" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</span> -“Revelations” of Davis, the mere <i>disjecta membra</i> of the systems -so extensively promulgated by Fourier and Swedenborg. -When you come to compare this fact with the additional one, -that Davis, during the whole period of his “utterings,” was -surrounded by groups, consisting of the disciples of Fourier -and Swedenborg; as, for instance, the leading Fourierite of -America was, for a time, a constant attendant upon those mysterious -meetings, at which the myths of innocent Davis were -formally announced from the condition of Clairvoyance, and -transcribed by his <i>keeper</i> for the press, while the chief exponent -and minister of Swedenborgianism in New York was often -seated side by side with him.</p> - -<p>Can it be possible that these men failed to comprehend, as -thought after thought, principle after principle, was enunciated -in their presence, which they had previously supposed to belong -exclusively to their own schools, that the “revelation” was -merely a sympathetic reflex of their own derived systems? It -was no accident; for, as often as Fourierism predominated in -“the evening lecture,” it was sure that the prime representative -of Fourier was present; and when the peculiar views of Swedenborg -prevailed, it was equally certain that he was forcibly -represented in the conclave. Sometimes both schools were -present; and on that identical occasion we have a composite -metaphysics promulgated, which exhibited, most consistently, -doctrines of Swedenborg and Fourier, jumbled in liberal -and extraordinary confusion. This is, in epitome, about the -whole history of such agitations. The weak Clairvoyant falls -naturally into the hands of knaves who are superior to him in -physical vitality. He becomes, first, the medium of their -vague and feeble intellection; and then, as attention is attracted<span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</span> -by the notoriety they know well how to produce, the -“<i>medium</i>” becomes gradually surrounded by the enthusiasts -of every school; and as he is brought into their various Odic -spheres, he pronounces the creed of each in his morbidly illuminated -language, and it sounds to the mob like inspiration.</p> - -<p>There is no greater nonsense; men are inspired through -natural laws. But this comparatively innocuous character, -which we have thus far stepped aside to indicate, is nothing -compared to the first specimen of this Clairvoyant type which -we have classified. This, it will be remembered, is the animal -born with feeble spirituality, but vigorous physique, which is, -at the same time, intensely sympathetic. These, as we have -said, are the infernal natures; for, possessing no life outside the -lower animal passions, self is to them the close centre of all -being, and their Odic sensitiveness a vampire-absorption, the -horrible craving of which, not content with the mere exhaustion -of the animal life of the victim, by wanton provocations, drinks -up soul and mind to fill the beastly void of their own. These -worse than ghouls, that live upon the dying rather than the -dead, possess some fearfully dangerous and extraordinary -powers.</p> - -<p>Vampirism, as a superstition, prevailed, not many years ago, -like a general pestilence, throughout the countries of Servia and -Wallachia. Whole districts, infected by this horrible disease, -were desolated; people grew wild with terror, and, in their -savage ignorance, committed monstrous sacrilege upon the -sanctities of burial. Bodies that had rested quietly in their -graves for ten, twenty, and even eighty days, were dragged -forth, to have stakes driven through their chests; and if any -blood was found, they were burned to ashes.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</span></p> - -<p>The belief was, that the deceased, when living, had been -bitten by a human vampire, which, coming forth from its grave -by night, had sunk its white teeth in his throat, and drunk his -blood, thereby causing a lingering death; in which he was also -doomed to the hideous fate of becoming a vampire, after his -burial.</p> - -<p>The bodies of vampires, when dug up, presented a perfectly -natural appearance; and, even in those cases where the scarfskin -peeled off, a new skin was found underneath, and new -nails formed on the fingers. The vital blood was found in the -heart, lungs, and viscera, exhibiting the conditions of perfect -health. How the vampire got out of his grave, without -scratching a hole, does not appear.</p> - -<p>Thus we find, in modern vampirism, a strange compound of -ancient superstition with well-known scientific truths. The -vampire is the counterpart of the ancient ghoul, with the simple -transfer of the habits of the vampire-bat to its identity. These -are then connected with the fact, well known to the medical -profession, that persons have been buried, supposed to be dead, -who, in reality, had only fallen into what is called the death-trance; -and who, had they been left above ground for a sufficient -period, would have probably resuscitated of themselves. -That they have done so after burial, is a familiar fact; since -bodies exhumed, long after, have been found to have changed -their position in the coffin. How long bodies, thus inconsiderately -buried, retain a resemblance to the normal conditions of -life, has not been fully ascertained.</p> - -<p>We have here the historical origin of what is called vampirism; -but there are certain phenomena of this fearful infection,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</span> -closely resembling those which we have attributed to the -Spiritual Vampire.</p> - -<p>Vampirism is clearly a disease of the nervous system; it -being first excited through the imagination of ignorance and -superstition. The nerves, then affected through the odic medium, -lose their balance, and the mind constantly playing -within the circle of the one thought of horror, a rapid and premature -decline is the immediate consequence.</p> - -<p>The infection of which the victim died remaining still within -the odic medium of the sphere it occupied, passes into the -nerves of others, who die also; and thus the disease spreads like -any other epidemic. But mark—whence the true origin of this -superstition of the ghoul and the vampire, so universal in the -world? Is it not that mankind, everywhere, has felt, with an -unconscious shuddering, the presence of the spiritual vampire? -The instincts of the masses have, in their superstitions, foreshadowed -all the great discoveries of science. Has it not been, -that they have felt the hideous incubus always; but not being -able, through any connected series of observations, to discover -the real cause of their dread and suffering, have given its -nearly identical attributes a “local habitation and a name” -among their superstitions?</p> - -<p>What we have termed the Spiritual Vampire, is a scientific -fact—we believe as much so as the bat-vampire; and that it -feeds, not alone upon the living, but upon the spiritually dead; -that originally, so far as its spiritual entity is concerned, it too -comes forth from its sensual charnal to feed upon the soul-blood -of mankind. This may seem a horrible picture, but we -cannot consent to withdraw it. These records were made under -a sense of duty to mankind; and if they should ever see the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</span> -light, it must be as they have been written. We dare not reveal -all that we know of this thing—we can only venture to say -enough to arouse men in amazement, at the realisation of what -they have always known and felt to exist, without having expressed -it. No mortal mind could have conceived such possibilities, -even in hell, much less in actual life.</p> - -<p>Amidst the profound securities of the best-ordered households -in the world, unless a strict eye be had to such facts and -phenomena as we have adverted to and shall describe, the most -insidious and fatal corruptions of the bodies and souls of your -children, your wives, and your sisters, may creep in, while -there is no dream of wrong or danger. If we shock you, it is -to put you somewhat upon your guard against the many evils, -concealed under the apparent harmless approaches of the -viciously-purposed manipulator, or the covert practiser upon -the odic or sympathetic vitality of the pure and unsuspecting.—We -will abide the issue.</p> - -<p>Milton clearly had vampirism in his thought when he wrote—</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse">“Clotted by contagion,</div> - <div class="verse">Imbodied and imbruited, till quite lost</div> - <div class="verse">The divine property of their first being—</div> - <div class="verse">Such are those thick and gloomy shadows damp,</div> - <div class="verse">Oft seen, in charnal-vaults and sepulchres,</div> - <div class="verse">Lingering and sitting by a new-made grave.”</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</span></p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</span></p> - -<p class="half-title">SPIRITUAL VAMPIRISM;<br /> - -<small>OR,<br /> - -THE HISTORY OF ETHERIAL SOFTDOWN.</small></p> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I.<br /> - - -<small>THE GIRLHOOD OF ETHERIAL.</small></h2> -</div> - - -<p class="center">“Be thou a spirit of health, or goblin damned?”</p> - - -<p>In a mean and sterile district of Vermont, which shall be -nameless, but which exhibits on every side stretches of bare -land, with here and there the variety of clumps of gnarled and -stunted oaks, Etherial Softdown was born. If mountains give -birth to heroes, what ought to have been the product of a low-lying -land like this, on whose dreary basins the summer’s sun -wilted the feeble vegetation, and the bleak winds of winter -wrestled fiercely with the scrubby oaks, whose crooked and -claw-like limbs seemed talons of some hideous, gaunt and -reptile growth?</p> - -<p>On the edge of one of the most desolate of these stretches, -and beneath the shelter of the most ugly of these demonised -oaks, were scattered the storm-blackened sheds of a miserable -hamlet, in one of which, for there were no degrees in their -comfortless dilapidation, the family of our heroine, the Softdowns, -resided, and another yet smaller and at some distance apart from -the rest, was occupied by her father, who was a shoemaker, as<span class="pagenum" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</span> -a workshop. This was one of those strange, out-of-the-way, -starved and dismal looking places that you sometimes stumble -upon in our prosperous land—which ought long since to have -been deserted with the vanished cause of the temporary prosperity -which had given it birth—but in which the people seem -to be petrified into a morbid serenity of endurance, and look as -if under the spell of some great Enchanter they awaited his -awakening touch.</p> - -<p>The child, which was the birth of a coarsely organised -mother, was as drolly deformed with its squint eye and stooping -shoulders as fancy could depict the elfin genius of such -a scene. Dirty, bedraggled and neglected, with unkempt locks -tangled and writhing like snakes about her face, and sharp, gray -animal eyes gleaming from beneath, the ill-conditioned creature -darted impishly hither and yon amidst the hamlet hovels, or -peering from some thicket of weird oaks, started the stolid -neighbors with the dread that apparitions bring.</p> - -<p>Indeed, so wilful, unexpected and eccentric were her movements, -that the people, in addition to regarding the oaf-like child -with a half feeling of dread, gave her the credit of being half-witted -as well. There was a hungry sharpness in her eye that -made them shrink; a furious, raging, craving lust for something, -they could not understand what, which startled them beyond -measure; for, as in their stagnant lives, they had never been -much troubled with souls themselves, they could not understand -this soul-famine that so whetted those fierce eager eyes.</p> - -<p>The father, Softdown, who appears to have been something -more developed than the mother, and to have possessed a grotesque -and rugged wit, more remarkable for its directness than -its delicacy, became the sole instructor and companion of the -distraught child, who readily acquired from him an uncouth -method of enouncing trite truisms unexpectedly, which was to -constitute in after life one of her chief, because most successful -weapons.</p> - -<p>Etherial early displayed a passion for acquiring not knowledge,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</span> -but a facility of gibberish, which proved exhausting -enough to the shallow receptacles around her, especially as her -mode of getting at the names and properties of things so closely -resembled the monkey’s method of studying physical laws. -She had first to burn her fingers before she could be made to -comprehend that fire was hot, but that was enough about fire -for this wise child; she remembered it ever after as a physical -sensation, and therefore it had ever after a name for her; and so -with all other experiences, they were to her sensational, not spiritual -or intellectual. The name of a truth could come to her -with great vividness through a blow or pain of whatever character -that might be purely physical, but through no higher -senses, for these she did not yet possess. Of a moral sense she -seemed now to develop no more consciousness than any other -wild animal, but in her the <i>memory of sensation</i> took the place -of mind and soul.</p> - -<p>Thus passed the girlhood of our slattern oaf—shy and sullen—avoiding -others herself, and gladly avoided by them, with -the single exception of her father, from whom her strong imitative -or sympathetic faculty was daily acquiring a rough, keen -readiness of repartee, in the use of which she found abundant -home-practice in defending herself against the smarting malignity -of the matron Softdown, who charmingly combined in her -person and habits all and singly the cleanly graces of the fishwife.</p> - -<p>At sixteen, with no advance in personal loveliness, with passions -fiercely developed, a mind nearly utterly blank, a taste for -tawdry finery quite as drolly crude as that displayed by the -plantation negresses of the South, and manners so fantastically -awkward and eccentric as to leave the general impression that -she was underwitted, Etherial suddenly married a lusty and -good-looking young Quaker, threw off her bedraggled plumes, -and became a member of that prim order.</p> - -<p>Now her career commences in earnest, for this was the first -great step in her life in which she seems to have attained to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</span> -some gleams of the knowledge of that extraordinary power of -Odic irradiation and absorption which was afterwards to be exercised -with such remarkable results.</p> - -<p>She did not make her great discovery without comprehending -its meaning quickly. She first perceived that, day by day, she -grew more comely to look upon—that her figure was becoming -erect, and losing its harsh angularities—the pitiless obliquity -of her features growing more reconciled to harmonious lines—and -last, and most astounding, that the immediate result of the -contact of marriage had been a rapid increase of her own spiritual -and mental illumination, accompanied as well by a corresponding -decline on the part of the husband in both these -respects.</p> - -<p>Here was a secret for you with a vengeance! Like an -electric flash, a new light burst upon Etherial; and, as there -was only one feeling of which her being was capable towards -man, she chuckled over the delicious secret which now opened -out before her with a terrible gloating.</p> - -<p>Glorious discovery! Hah! the spiritual vampire might feed -on his strength—might grow strong on this cannibalism of the -soul! and what of him if she dragged him down into idiocy? -Served him right! Did Etherial care that his spiritual death -must be her life? She laughed and screamed with the joy of -unutterable ferocity! Eureka! Eureka! They shall all be my -slaves! They taunt me with being born without a soul, with -being underwitted! I shall devour souls hereafter by the hundreds! -I shall grow fat upon them! We shall see who has -the wit! Their thoughts shall be my thoughts, their brains shall -work for me, their spirits shall inform my frame! Ah, glorious! -glorious! I shall live on souls hereafter! I shall go up and -down in the land, seeking whom I may devour! Delicious! -Delectable Etherial!</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II.<br /> - - -<small>SCENES IN THE GOTHAM CARAVANSARIE.</small></h2> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse">And all around her, shapes, wizard and brute,</div> - <div class="verse">Laughing and wailing, grovelling, serpentine,</div> - <div class="verse">Showing tooth, tusk, and venom-bag, and sting!</div> - <div class="verse">O, such deformities!</div> - <div class="verse indent28"><span class="smcap">Endymion.</span></div> -</div></div></div> - - -<p>In Barclay Street, New York, years ago, flourished, at No. 63, -that famous caravansarie of all the most rabid wild animals on -the Continent, who styled themselves Reformers and New-light -People, Come-outers, Vegetarians, Abolitionists, Amalgamationists, -&c. &c., well known to fame as the “Graham House.” -Here, any fine morning, at the breakfast-table, you might meet -a dozen or so of the most boisterous of the then existing or -embryo Reform notorieties of the day. Mark, we say <i>notorieties</i>, -for that is the word.</p> - -<p>From the Meglatherium Oracle, whose monstrous head, covered -with a mouldy excrescence, answering for hair, which -gave it most the seeming of a huge swamp-born fungus of a -night—who sat bolting his hard-boiled eggs by the dozen, with -bran-bread in proportion, washing them down with pints of -diluted parched-corn coffee—even to the most meagre, hungry-eyed, -and talon-fingered of the soul-starved World-Reformers, -that stooped forward amidst the babble, and, between huge -gulps of hot meal mush, croaked forth his orphic words—they -were all one and alike—the mutterers of myths made yet more -misty by their parrot-mouthings of them!</p> - -<p>Here every crude, ungainly crotchet that ever possessed ignorant -and presumptuous brains; here every wild and unbroken -hobby that ever driveller or madman rode, was urged together, -pell-mell, in a loud-voiced gabbling chaos. Here the negro -squared his uncouth and musky-ebon personalities beside the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</span> -fair, frail form of some lean, rectangular-figured spinster-devotee -of amalgamation from New England.</p> - -<p>Here the hollow-eyed bony spectre of an old bran-bread disciple -stared, in the grim ecstacy of anticipation, at the ruddy -cheeks of the new convert opposite, whose lymphatic, well-conditioned -corporation shivered with affright, as he met those -ravin-lit eyes, and a vague sense of their awful meaning first -possessed him, as his furtive glance took in the sterile “spread” -upon the table, to which he had been ostentatiously summoned -for “a feast.”</p> - -<p>Here some Come-outer Quaker, with what had been, at best, -cropped hair, might be seen with the crop now shaven yet more -close to his bullet-head, in sign of his greater accession in spiritual -strength beyond the heathen he had left behind, sitting -side by side with some New-light or Phalanxterian apostle, with -his long, sandy, carroty, or rather <i>golden</i> locks, as he chooses to -style them, cultivated down his back in a ludicrously impious -emulation of the revered “Christ Head” of the old Italian -painters.</p> - -<p>Here the blustering peace-man and professed non-resistant, -railed with a noisy insolence, rendered more insufferably insulting -in the precise ratio of exemption from personal accountability -claimed by his pusillanimous doctrines. Here too, a notorious -Abolitionist, with his tallow-skinned and generally-disgusting -face, roared through gross lips his vulgar anathemas against the -South, which had foolishly canonised this soulless and meddlesome -<i>non-resistant</i> ruffian, in expressing their readiness to hang -him, should he be caught within their territory.</p> - -<p>Here the weak and puling sectary of some milk-and-water -creed rolled up his rheumy eyes amidst the din, and sighed for -horror of a “sad, wicked world.” Here the sharp animal eyes, -the cool effrontery and hard-faced impudence of ignoramus Professors -of all sorts of occult sciences, ologies, and isms, met -you, with hungry glances that seemed searching for “the green” -in your eye; and mingled with the whole, a sufficiently spicy<span class="pagenum" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</span> -sprinkle of feminine “Professors,” of the same class, whose bold -looks and sensual faces were quite sufficient offsets to the extreme -etherialisation of their spiritualized doctrines.</p> - -<p>Here, in a word, the blank and ever-shocking glare of harmless -and positive idiocy absolutely would escape notice at all, or -be mistaken for the solid repose of common sense, in contrast -with the unnatural sultry wildness of the prevailing and predominating -expression!</p> - -<p>But this menagerie of mad people held caged, in one of its -upper rooms, the object of immediate interest. On entering -the apartment, which was an ordinary boarding-house bedchamber, -a scene at once shocking and startling was presented. -A female, seemingly about thirty-three, was stretched upon a -low cot-bed, near the middle of the floor, while on the bed and -upon the floor were scattered napkins, which appeared deeply -saturated with blood, with which the pillow-case and sheet were -also stained. A napkin was pressed with a convulsive clutch -of the hands to her mouth, into which, with a low, suffocating -cough, which now and then broke the silence, she seemed to be -throwing up quantities of blood from what appeared an alarming -hemorrhage.</p> - -<p>A gentleman, whose neat apparel and fresh benevolent face -somehow spoke “physician!” leaned over the woman, with an -expression of anxiety, which appeared to be subdued by great -effort of a trained will. He bent lower, and in an almost whispered -voice, said:</p> - -<p>“My dear madam, you <i>must</i> restrain yourself. This hemorrhage -continues beyond the reach of any remedies, so long as -you permit this violent excitement of your maternal feelings to -continue. Let me exhort you to patience—to bear the necessary -evils of your unfortunate condition with more patience!”</p> - -<p>The only answer was a slow despairing shake of the head, -accompanied by a deep hysterical groan, which seemed to flood -the napkin at her mouth with a fresh effusion of blood, which -now trickled between her fingers and down upon her breast.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</span> -The humane physician turned, with an uncontrollable expression -of horrified sympathy and alarm upon his face, and snatching a -clean napkin from the table, gently removed the saturated cloth -from the clutching pressure of her fingers, and tenderly wiping -the blood from her mouth and person, left the clean one in her -grasp.</p> - -<p>“Be calm! be calm—I pray you! you must some day -escape his persecutions. You have friends; they will assist -you to obtain a divorce yet, and rescue your child from his -clutches. Do, pray now, be calm!” The voice of the good -man trembled with emotion while he spoke, and the perspiration -started from his forehead.</p> - -<p>At this instant the door was suddenly thrown open, and a tall, -gaunt man, with a very small round head, leaden eyes, and a -wide ungainly mouth, with a projecting under jaw, singularly -expressive of animal stolidity, paused on the threshold and -coolly looked around the room. The woman sprang forward -at the sight, as if to rise, while a fresh gush of blood poured -from her mouth, bedabbling her fingers and the sheet. The -physician instinctively seized her to prevent her rising, but, resisting -the pressure by which he gently strove to restore her -head to the pillow, she retained her half-erect position, and with -eyes that had suddenly become strangely distorted, or awry in -their sockets, she glared towards the intruder for an instant, and -then slowly raising her flickering hand, which dripped with her -own blood, she pointed at him, and muttered, in a sepulchral -voice, that, besides, seemed choking:</p> - -<p>“That is he! see him! see him! There stands the monster -who would rob me of my babe, as he daily robs me of money.” -Here the blood gushed up again, and she was for a moment -suffocated into silence, as the object of her denunciation -stood perfectly unmoved, while a cold smile half lit his leaden -eyes. This seemed to fill the apparently dying woman with -renewed and hysterical life. She raised herself yet more erect, -and still pointing with her bloody, quivering finger, while her<span class="pagenum" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</span> -head tossed to and fro, and the distorted eyes glared staringly -out before her, she spoke in a gasping, uncertain way, as if -communing with herself. “The wretch taunts me! my murderer -dares to sneer! O God! must this always continue? -must that brute always follow me up and down in the land, to -rob me of the money that I earn—to be my tyrant, my jailor! -He will not give me money to pay postage even, out of that I -earn abundantly, while he is earning nothing. He will not give -me clothes to keep me decent, while I earn enough. He will -not give my child shoes to wear, though he is trying to take her -from me!”</p> - -<p>“That is a lie, Etherial! you know I gave the child a new -pair yesterday!” gruffly interposed the man at this stage of the -deeply tragic soliloquy, while he stepped forward towards the -bed. A choking scream followed, and the blood was spattered -over the spread as she fell back screaming—</p> - -<p>“Take him away! take him away! He is killing me with -his brutality!” and then her head sank in sudden collapse upon -the pillow, and the face, which had heretofore looked singularly -natural in color, for one in such a dreadful strait from hemorrhage, -turned livid pale, while the blood continued to pour upon -the pillow from the corners of the relaxed mouth.</p> - -<p>The poor physician, whose frame had been shivering with -intense excitement during this interview, sprang erect, as the -form of what he supposed to be a corpse fell heavily from his -arms, and with the natural indignation of a feeling man, fully -roused at what he considered the murderous brutality of the husband, -rushed forward, and seizing him furiously by the collar, -shook and choked him in a perfect ecstacy of rage, shouting, at -the same time—</p> - -<p>“Unnatural beast! monster! You have killed that poor -child at last! murdered your own wife, whom you swore to -nourish and protect! Infernal villain! you ought to be drawn -and quartered—hanging is too good for you! You saw the -terrible condition of the poor victim of your brutalities when -you came, yet you persisted! In the name of humanity, I send<span class="pagenum" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</span> -you hence! Death is too light punishment for you!” and he -hurled the unresisting wretch—who, by this time, had grown -perfectly black in the face under the rough handling of this -roused and indeed infuriate humanity—staggering out of the -door—and closing it upon him, he proceeded to apply such -restoratives as on an examination the real condition of the -patient suggested.</p> - -<p>A short and anxious investigation proved it to be rather a -state of syncope than actual death; and, with a full return of -all his professional caution, skill and coolness, he applied himself -to the restoration of his patient, with a heart greatly relieved -by the discovery that the result he so much dreaded was -not yet, and hugging to his kindly breast the consolation -“while there is life there is hope!” He paid no attention to -clamorous knocks for admission and loud-talking excitement, -which the violence of the preceding scene had no doubt caused -in alarming the house. In a short time the good doctor cautiously -unbolted the door and came forth from the room, treading -as though on egg-shells. After leaving careful instructions -with the landlady that his patient, who now slept, should under -no pretence be disturbed, most especially by the husband, until -his return, as her present repose might prove a matter of life -and death, he left the house, promising to call again in two -hours.</p> - -<p>For one hour the woman lay calm and motionless on her gory -bed, as if in catalepsy, when to a low, peculiar knock at the -door, she sprang up, wide awake, and in the apparent full possession -of her faculties.</p> - -<p>“Who?” she asked, in a quick, firm tone, as she threw the -hair back from her eyes.</p> - -<p>To the low response, “I, love!” she stepped quickly from the -bed and snatched a shawl from the back of a chair, and by -several rapid sideway movements of her feet at the same time, -thrust the bloody napkins which strewed the floor beneath the -bed, where they would be out of sight, and by a movement<span class="pagenum" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</span> -almost as swift, threw a clean “spread” over the blood-stained -pillows and sheet, then drawing her large shawl closely over -the stained dressing-gown in which she had risen, she rushed -first to the glass, and smoothed her hair with an activity that -was positively amazing, and then to the door, which she unbolted -on the inside—showing that she must have risen to bolt -it immediately as the doctor passed out—and admitted a man -who was in waiting.</p> - -<p>“Ah, my soul’s sister! my Heaven-bride! how is thy -spiritual strength this evening?” and at the same time, as her -yielding form sank into his outspread arms, he pressed her lips -with his, adding, “I salute thy chaste spirit!”</p> - -<p>“Brother of my soul, I was weary, but now I am at rest. I -was wounded and fainting by the way, but the good Samaritan -has come!” and she turned her eyes upward to his with a -melting expression of confiding abandon.</p> - -<p>“Angel!” accompanied by a closer and convulsive clasp, -was the response.</p> - -<p>“What do they say of poor me again, to-day, those cruel -wicked people outside?” she asked, with eyes still reverentially -upraised to his, as they moved slowly with clasped arms towards -the cot, on the side of which they sat, she still leaning against -his bosom.</p> - -<p>“My good sister, they say what evil spirits always prompt -men to say of the good, who, like the Prophets, are sent to be -stoned and persecuted on earth. You should not regard such. -There are those who know you in the spirit, to whom it has -been revealed through the spiritual sense, that you are good and -true, as well as in the right, and through such, you will find -strength of the Father.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, you are so strong in spiritual mightiness that you do not -sympathise with the weaknesses of we humbler mortals! I -wonder, indeed, how you can forgive them?” and her downcast -eyes were furtively raised to his. The man wore his hair thrown -back over his head and behind his ears. He drew himself up<span class="pagenum" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</span> -slightly at this, and stroked back his locks, then placing his -hand with patriarchal solemnity upon her bowed head, proceeded -in a somewhat louder tone. “My simple child—my soul-sister, -I should say, you are hardly upon the threshold of the true wisdom. -Your knowledge of the law of spiritual correspondence -is yet too incomplete for you to understand how entirely good -has been mistaken for evil, and evil confounded with good in -the world. For instance—it is called evil by the ignorant -world, for a brother man to caress thee in the spirit as I have -caressed thee but now. The imaginations of a world that lieth -in evil are impure. ‘Evil to him who evil thinks!’ The great -doctrine of correspondence teaches that there are two lives—the -spiritual and the animal. The passions of the animal are in the -fleshly lusts; those of the spiritual are in no wise such, they -are in the Heavenly sphere, they are of love and wisdom. -Thus, my caress in this Heavenly sphere is of no sin to thee, -for by and through it I convey to you, my spiritual sister, the -strength of love and wisdom for which your heart yearns. -Thus—”</p> - -<p>As he stooped his head to renew the unresisted caress, the -door flew open again, and the man with the wide mouth, the -hideous chin and the leaden eye, stood again upon the threshold, -and as the affrighted pair looked up they saw he was backed by -the curious faces of half-a-dozen chambermaids, jealous of the -honor of the <i>house</i>, flanked by the indignant landlady and a -score of prying, curious, sharp-eyed faces, which might be -recognised at a glance as belonging to those pickled seraphs of -reform, known as “free-spoken” spinsters in New England.</p> - -<p>“There, they are at it!” shouted the man with the gaping -mouth. “I told you so! I told you that Professor was always -kissing her!”</p> - -<p>“Yes!”</p> - -<p>“There they are, sure enough!”</p> - -<p>“I always thought so!”</p> - -<p>“The honor of my house!” bristled the landlady, striding -forward. “I did not expect this of you, Professor!”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</span></p> - -<p>“Madam!” said the gentleman with his hair behind his ears, -striding forward as he released the suddenly collapsed and -seemingly lifeless form he had just held within his embrace, and -which fell back now heavily upon the pillow-spread, which was -instantly discolored by a new gush of blood from the mouth. -“I was administering, with all my zeal, spiritual comfort to this -poor, sick and dying sister, when you burst in! See her condition -now!”</p> - -<p>He waved his hand towards the tragic figure. “The Professor” -occupied a parlor on the first floor, beside two bed-rooms -adjoining this, and being on the palmy heights of his renown -and plenitude of purse, it was not convenient for the landlady -to quarrel with him at present. “Ah, if that is the case, Professor, -I beg you to pardon us. The husband of this woman -has misrepresented you and your beneficent motives, and -accuses you of all sorts of improprieties. We came up, at his -urgency, to see for ourselves, and the shocking condition in -which we find her now, proves that the ravings of the husband -are, as she has always represented them, insane.”</p> - -<p>“I’ve seen you kissing her before!” roared the husband, -advancing threateningly upon the Professor, who, however -spiritual in creed, did not now appear particularly spirited, as -he turned very pale, retreated backwards, and holding up his -two trembling hands imploringly, exclaimed—“Hold! hold! -my dear brother! It was a spiritual kiss! I meant you no -harm, nor that angel who lies there dying! Our kiss was pure -and holy as the new snow. Hold him! hold him! Don’t let -him hurt me! I am a non-resistant! I am for peace!”</p> - -<p>“Your holy kisses! I don’t believe in your holy kisses!” -gnashed the enraged husband, still following him up with warlike -demonstrations; but here the easily appeased landlady -interposed once more, to save the honor of her house in preventing -a fight.</p> - -<p>“No blows in my house!” she shrieked, as she threw herself -between the parties. “The Professor is a man of God,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</span> -and shall not be abused here; shame on you, Aminadab, with -your poor, persecuted wife there, dying before your face! Everybody -will believe what she says about your persecutions now!”</p> - -<p>“Bah, you don’t know that woman! she’s no more dying -than you are!” grunted the fellow, whose wrath fortunately -seemed to be of that kind that a straw might turn it aside. All -the women rolled up their eyes and lifted their two hands at this -speech.</p> - -<p>“What a brute!”</p> - -<p>“The horrid, murdering wretch! and she bleeding at the -mouth, and from the lungs, too!”</p> - -<p>“Lord save the poor woman’s soul, with a husband like -that!”</p> - -<p>And other speeches of like character were ejaculated by all -the women present.</p> - -<p>At this moment a fresh effusion of blood, accompanied by a -low groan, from the mouth of the suffering patient, flooded the -clean spread with its purple current, and the horrified females -rushed from the room, screaming—</p> - -<p>“He’s killed her at last, poor thing!”</p> - -<p>“Where’s the doctor?”</p> - -<p>“She’s dying of his brutality—run for the doctor!” At this -moment, with a hasty and heavy step, that gentleman was heard -advancing along the passage, followed by a crowd of pale, -frightened-looking women. He strode into the room.</p> - -<p>“What now?—what’s to pay?” and his eye fell on the trembling -form of the brutal husband, who had by no means forgotten -the rough handling he had received, and now skulked -and quailed like a whipped cur, as his eye saw the instant -thunder darken on the brow of the doughty doctor.</p> - -<p>“You here again—you brutal fellow? I shall instantly bind -you over to keep the peace toward this unfortunate woman, -whose life you are daily endangering by your brutalities. Take -yourself off, sir!” Aminadab waited for no second invitation, -but availed himself of the open doorway.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</span></p> - -<p>Without noticing the spiritual professor, who had drawn himself -into as small space as possible in one corner, the good man -advanced to the side of his patient with an anxious, flurried -manner.</p> - -<p>“What can that besotted wretch have been doing to her -again?” and he gently placed his fingers upon her pulse, and -shook his head gravely as he did so.</p> - -<p>“Very low! very low, indeed!—nearly absolute syncope -again! This is horrible! How sorry I am that I was compelled -to leave her for a moment.”</p> - -<p>“Is she really in danger, doctor?” asked the spiritual professor, -advancing with recovered assurance.</p> - -<p>“Who are you, sir?” he said, looking up sharply. “One -of these officious fools, I suppose?” Then glancing his eye -around at the crowded doorway, he straightened himself hastily, -and exclaimed—</p> - -<p>“Leave the room, all of you—she must be quiet—I wish to -be alone with my patient! Leave the room, sir, I say!” in a -sterner voice, as the spiritual professor hesitated on his backward -retreat.</p> - -<p>“I—I—I p-pro-test against the impropriety!” he stammered -forth, looking back at the women, with a very pale face, as he -accelerated his backward movement before the steady stride of -the resolute doctor.</p> - -<p>“Out with you, sir—I will answer for the proprieties in this -case!”</p> - -<p>The door was slammed in the ashy face of the spiritual professor, -and securely doubled-locked before the doctor returned -to the bedside of his patient.</p> - -<p>The bleeding from the mouth had now ceased. All the -usual remedies in such cases having so far entirely failed, the -puzzled doctor had come to the final conclusion that the hemorrhage—be -its seat where it might—was only to be subdued by -a restoration of the patient to the most perfect repose. Sleep, -calm, unbroken sleep, to his sagacious judgment and sensibilities,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</span> -seemed to offer the sole alternative to death. He had -been impressed by his patient that her constitutional tendencies -were, by a sad inheritance, towards consumption, and the loss -from the lungs, of such quantities of blood as he had witnessed, -was well calculated to fill his professional mind with horror and -dread. The case had thus appeared to him a fearfully uncertain -and delicate one, and this sense may fully account for the stern -and unusual procedure of turning even the husband out of the -room on the two occasions we have mentioned.</p> - -<p>As her physician, he felt himself bound to protect his helpless -patient against those moral causes of irritation which he had -been led to believe existed, not only from her reluctant disclosures, -but from what he had himself witnessed. Believing that -her beastly husband was the chief and immediate cause of this -fatal irritation, he had felt himself justified in his rough course -towards him, and was now fully and resolutely determined to -protect what he considered a death-bed—providentially thrown -into his charge—inviolate from farther annoyance, from whatever -quarter, at least so long as he held the professional responsibility. -In this resolute feeling, and as the day was warm, he -threw off his coat, raised all the windows, and sat himself quietly -down beside his patient to watch for results.</p> - -<p>The eyes of the kind man very naturally rested upon the -object of his solicitude, and after the first excitement of anxiety -was over, and he had settled calmly into a contemplative -mood, he first became conscious that there was something -strangely fascinating in the position of the nearly inanimate -figure. He had never before thought of the being before him -as other than a very plain, but much-afflicted woman, by whose -evident physical calamities, no less than her private sufferings, -he had been strongly interested.</p> - -<p>She had told him her own story, and he had believed her, -thinking he saw confirmation enough in the conduct of those -she accused of ill-treatment; but the idea of regarding her as -attractive in any material sense, had never for an instant crossed<span class="pagenum" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</span> -his pure soul. Now there was an indescribable something in -her attitude, so expressive of passion, that, in the pulseless -silence, he felt himself blush to have recognised it.</p> - -<p>Her arms, which he now remembered to have been <i>bare</i> in -all his late interviews with her, were exquisitely rounded and -beautifully white, and he could not but wonder that he had not -before observed the strange contrast between them and the plain -weather-beaten face. They looked startlingly voluptuous now, -contrasted with the pallid cheek which rested on them, and the -glossy folds of dark hair in which they were entangled. So -strikingly indeed was this expression conveyed, that even the -purple stains of blood upon the spread beneath would not -divest him of the dangerous illusion. The good doctor felt the -blood mount to his forehead in the shame of deep humiliation -as he recognised in himself this wandering of thought.</p> - -<p>What! could it be that one so habitually pure in feeling as he, -could permit the intrusion at such an hour of impure associations? -Such things were unknown to his life, so disinterested, -so spotless, so humane. What could it be that had caused -such feelings to possess him thus unusually? It could not be -possible she was conscious of the position in which her body -was thrown. Was there some strange spell about this woman—some -mysterious power of sphere emanating from that still -form, that crept into his blood and brain with the evil glow of -these unnatural fires?</p> - -<p>The poor doctor shuddered as he turned aside from the bed, -and, with a soft step, glided to the window, and there seating -himself, strove to recover the command of his thoughts by distracting -them with other objects in the busy street.</p> - -<p>The good man was on grievous terms with himself, as he -continued to beat the devil’s tattoo on the window-sill with his -heavy fingers. He felt alarmed, nay, even guilty. He knew -not why. We shall see!</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III.<br /> - - -<small>THE SYREN AND THE MOB.</small></h2> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">And after all the raskal many ran,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Heaped together in rude rabblement.</div> - <div class="verse indent28"><span class="smcap">Spenser.</span></div> -</div></div></div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">What intricate impeach is this?—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">I think you all have drunk of Circe’s cup!</div> - <div class="verse indent28"><span class="smcap">Shakspeare.</span></div> -</div></div></div> - - -<p>The woman continued, with calm, regular breathings, to -sleep for several hours. The dusk of evening had now closed -in, and yet her patient guardian sat silently watching her motionless -figure. A long and serene self-communion had gradually -restored the excellent doctor to his ordinary equanimity, and he -now, with untiring vigilance, awaited the changes that might -supervene in the condition of the patient.</p> - -<p>After all his thinking on the subject, he found himself now -no nearer comprehending the cause of the late unwonted disturbance -of his habitual serenity than at the beginning. He -had dealt harshly with himself, in endeavoring to account for it, -and never dreamed of reproaching the feeble and wretched -being before him, as in any degree the conscious agent of what -he considered a weakness unpardonable in himself.</p> - -<p>With the natural proclivity of generous souls towards the extremes, -he had, in the plenitude of his self-reproach, proceeded -to exalt the sleeping woman into an earth-visiting angel with -wounded wings, the spotless purity of which the breath of his -darkened thought had soiled. The poor, good-hearted doctor!</p> - -<p>The silence of the room was now broken by a low exclamation -of fright, accompanied by a slight movement of the patient. -The doctor sprang forward softly to the bedside.</p> - -<p>“Who?—what?—where am I? What has been happening?”<span class="pagenum" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</span> -asked the woman, with an expression of bewilderment and -alarm.</p> - -<p>“Nothing! nothing, my dear madam! I am here—you are -safe—but you must not talk.”</p> - -<p>“Where is he? is he gone?” she persisted in a wild, terrified -manner.</p> - -<p>“Yes, he is gone. He shall not come back to disturb you -again. You must be quiet now, and get well. Please be calm, -and trust in me.”</p> - -<p>“Trust in thee?” said the patient, in a voice which had instantly -lost its vague tone. “Trust in thee, thou minister of -light, who hast come to my darkened pillow, to my bloody -death-bed, to console me!” and here she clutched his hand. -“Trust thee—I would trust thee as I trust God!” and she -pressed his hand to her heart.</p> - -<p>“You must be silent, madam,” urged the physician, endeavoring -to extricate his imprisoned hand, for he felt strange tinglings -along his veins, which alarmed his now penitent and -vigilant spirit. She only shook her head, and clung with yet -greater tenacity to his hand, and then, first raising it to her lips -with a reverential kiss, she placed it upon the top of her head, -with the palm outstretched, and signified her desire that he -should keep it there, with a smile of entire beatitude. The -doctor barely knew enough of mesmeric manipulations, to understand -that this laying-on of hands was commonly resorted to -among the believers in the science, as a remedy for nervous -headache. He could see no harm in the innocent formula, if it -assisted the imagination in throwing off pain, and he very -willingly humored his poor patient, in permitting his hand to -remain there.</p> - -<p>In a moment or two a singular change came over the face and -general physical expression of the woman, and the doctor, who -had witnessed something of mesmeric phenomena, instantly recognised -this as clearly presenting all the symptoms of such a -case. He had mesmerised her by a touch, and it was not without<span class="pagenum" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</span> -a thrill of vague wonder that he awaited further developments.</p> - -<p>There was a perfect silence of ten minutes’ duration, when -the mesmerised patient began moving her lips as if in the effort -to articulate. The curiosity of the doctor was now fully -aroused—his <i>will</i> became concentrated—he desired to hear her -speak; in his unconscious eagerness, he <i>willed</i> that she should -do so with all the energy of his firm nature; and speak she did.</p> - -<p>“Happy! happy! Ah, I am content in this pure sphere! -My soul can rest here!” a long pause, then suddenly a shudder -vibrated through her frame, and she shrank back as one appalled -by some spectral horror.</p> - -<p>“Ha! it is all dark now! I see! I see! his hand is red! -red! red! red! There is murder on this soul!”</p> - -<p>The doctor sprang up and back as if he had been shot. His -face grew livid pale, and he trembled in every joint, while with -chattering teeth he stammered—</p> - -<p>“Woman! Woman, how know you this?”</p> - -<p>“I see it there—that huge red hand! Now all is red! -There! there! I felt it must be so! The pale and golden light -breaks through! It spreads! It fills and covers everything! -His heart did no murder—it was his hand! He can be redeemed! -This soul is pure!”</p> - -<p>The poor doctor sank upon his chair and groaned heavily, -while he covered his face with his hands. He spoke, in a few -moments, in an almost inaudible tone, to himself, while the woman, -who had suddenly opened her eyes, turned her head -slightly, and watched him with a sharp attention.</p> - -<p>“Alas! alas! how came this strange being in possession of -the fatal secret of my life? I believed it buried in the oblivion -of thirty years. My life of dedication to humanity, since, I -thought might have atoned for that quick sad deed! Yes! I -struck him! O, my God—I struck him! but the provocation -was most fearful! Woman, who and what are you, that you -should know this thing?” and with a vehement gesture he jerked<span class="pagenum" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</span> -his hands from before his eyes, and turning swiftly upon her, he -met the keen, still glance of those watchful eyes, which shone -through the subdued light of the room, steadily upon him. -The doctor was astounded! He sprang to his feet again, exclaiming -angrily—</p> - -<p>“What shallow trick is this? You seemed but now in the -mesmeric sleep, and mouthed to me concerning my past life, -and here you are, wide awake! How came you with the secrets -of my life?”</p> - -<p>The woman answered feebly, and with a sob that at once -touched the gentle-hearted doctor, and turned aside his wrath—</p> - -<p>“You took your hand away—you would not let me speak. -Place your hand upon my head again, and I will tell you all.”</p> - -<p>The troubled doctor re-seated himself with a shuddering -reluctance, and renewed the manipulation.</p> - -<p>In a few moments she appeared again to have sank into the -sleep, and commenced in that slow, fragmentary manner supposed -to be peculiar to such conditions:</p> - -<p>“I see! The dark shadow is on this soul again! It is of -anger and suspicion—they are both evil spirits! They strive to -make it wrong the innocent! It is too holy and pure to yield! -I see the golden light fill all again! The bloody hand is gone. -No stain of crime remains upon this soul. It will be pardoned -of God. This soul needs only human love. Through love it -can be made free before God! All the past will be forgiven -then—the red stains will fade! A sudden anger made it sin. -Love can only intercede for this sin. Love will intercede! It -will be saved!”</p> - -<p>Here her voice became subdued into indistinct mutterings, -and the doctor drew a long breath as he withdrew his hand—</p> - -<p>“Singular woman! How could all this have been revealed -to her? She must commune with spirits in this state. My story -is not known to any here. I never saw or heard of her, until sent -for as a physician, to visit her in this house. Strange that this -fearfully passionate and repented deed should thus rise up in my<span class="pagenum" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</span> -path, thousands of miles away, amidst strangers, who can know -nothing of me! Oh, my God! my God! Thou art indeed -vengeful and just!” and the miserable man clasped his hands -before his eyes and moaned. “It was my first draught of love -and life. He dashed it! I was delirious in my joy, while the -beams rained from her eyes into my hungry soul—hungry of -beauty and of bliss. He dashed it all, and in the hot blood of -my darkened madness I slew him! Oh, I slew him! His -shadow, that can never be appeased, though I have given body, -and soul, and substance, to relieving the sufferings of my race -since that unhappy hour—it rises here again! It haunts me! -Yes! yes! I feel that love alone can make me strong once more, to -bear such tortures! But have I not denied myself such dreams? -Have I not with dedicated heart walked humbly since in self-denying -ways? Have I not clothed the orphan, fed the poor -and nursed the sick? Have I not ministered amidst pestilence, -and held my life as of none account that I might bring good to -others? Can I be forgiven? No! no! The Pharisee recounts -his holy deeds and thanks God that his life is not sinful as another -man! I am not to be forgiven! I shall never know those -dreams of love!”</p> - -<p>The strong man bowed his frame and shook with agony. -Could he but have looked up, a keen, quick gleam from the eyes -which had been so steadily fixed upon him during this painful -soliloquy, would have struck him as conveying the ecstacy of a -sainted spirit over a soul repentant—or of some other feeling -quite as exultant.</p> - -<p>This curious scene was, however, most unexpectedly interrupted -at this moment, by a loud yelling from the street below. -The clamor was so sudden, and yet so angrily harsh, that both -parties sprang forward in the alarm it caused—the woman, -springing up into a sitting posture on the bed, and the doctor to -go to the window.</p> - -<p>“What is it?” she exclaimed wildly, as she tossed back her -hair. “What do these cruel people want to do to me now?”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</span></p> - -<p>The doctor, who saw at a glance the meaning of what was -going on below, and the necessity of keeping his patient cool, -turned to her, with a very quiet expression—</p> - -<p>“Do not be alarmed, madam. It is merely some disorderly -gathering of rowdies, in the street below. There is no danger -to you—only do not get excited, or you will bleed again. I am -here to protect you.”</p> - -<p>“Then I am safe!” was the fervid response, which, however, -was followed by a roar so sullen and portentous, from the infuriated -mob underneath, as to leave some doubt of its truth even -upon the mind of the doctor.</p> - -<p>“Down with the amalgamation den!”</p> - -<p>“Down with the saw-dust palace!”</p> - -<p>“Tear it down!”</p> - -<p>“Let’s lynch the wretches!”</p> - -<p>The response to speeches of this sort, from single voices, -would be a simultaneous burst of approbation from the great -crowd, and a trampling and rush to get nearer the building. It -seemed a formidable sight, indeed, to the doctor, as he looked -down upon this living mass of men, surging like huge waves -tossed against some cliff, while the torches, that many of them -bore, glared fitfully upon the upturned, angry faces.</p> - -<p>A powerful voice, which rose above all the tumult, exclaimed -with a hoarse oath, as the speaker turned for an instant towards -the crowd, from the top of the front steps—</p> - -<p>“Let us burst open the door and lynch every white person -found with a negro. Here goes for the door!” and he threw -himself furiously against it, while a perfect thunder-crash of -roars attested the approbation of the dangerous mob. The door -resisted for a moment, when there was a sudden yell from the -outside of the mob, nearly a square distant—</p> - -<p>“Here! here’s what’ll do it! pass ’em on!” and the alarmed -doctor saw immediately the portentous gleam of fire-axes, which -were being passed over the heads of the crowd towards the -door, and in another instant the crash of the cutting would<span class="pagenum" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</span> -commence. The doctor, as we have seen, was a very prompt -man. He thrust his head out of the window, and in a loud, -commanding voice, shouted—</p> - -<p>“Stop!”</p> - -<p>The man at the door, who had just received the axe, and was -in the act of wielding it, paused for an instant, to look up, while -the whole sea of faces was raised toward the window, amidst a -moment’s silence, of which the doctor instantly availed himself—</p> - -<p>“Gentlemen, do you war upon women? I have a female -patient here, in this room, at the point of death! If you proceed, -you will kill her!”</p> - -<p>“Who is she?” shouted some one, while another voice, in a -derisive tone, yelled out amidst screams of laughter—</p> - -<p>“Is she Rose? Rose? de coal-brack Rose? I wish I may be -shot if I don’t lub Rose!”</p> - -<p>Amidst the thunders which followed, some one shouted from -a distant part of the mob, to the man with the axe—</p> - -<p>“Go on, Jim! It’s all pretence with their sick women!”</p> - -<p>“Down with the door—they don’t escape us that way! Look -out for your bones, old covey, when we catch you!”</p> - -<p>The axe was again swung back, but the doughty doctor still -persisted—</p> - -<p>“Stop!” he shouted again, in a tone so startling for energy -of command, that the axe was again lowered.</p> - -<p>“Are you Americans? Have you mothers and sisters?”</p> - -<p>“Yes, but they ain’t black gals!” gibed one of the mob, and -set the rest into a roar once again.</p> - -<p>“I appeal to you as men—as brothers and fathers, do not -murder my poor patient!”</p> - -<p>“Who is that noisy fellow?” bellowed a brutal voice below.</p> - -<p>“I am a physician! I have nothing to do with this house -or its principles; I only beg to be permitted to save my patient!”</p> - -<p>“What is your name, I say?” bellowed the hoarse man again. -“Out with it! We’ll know you—some of us!”</p> - -<p>The name was mentioned. There was a momentary pause,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</span> -and a low murmur ran through the crowd; then shout after shout -of applauding huzzas.</p> - -<p>“We know you!”</p> - -<p>“Just like him!”</p> - -<p>“Noble fellow!”</p> - -<p>“The good doctor! Huzza! huzza!”</p> - -<p>And so the cry went up on all sides, for the doctor’s reputation -for benevolence was as wide as that of John Jacob Astor -for the opposite trait.</p> - -<p>There seemed to be a vehement consultation among what -appeared the leaders of the mob, which lasted but for a moment -or two, when one who stood upon the top step looked up, and -in a firm, respectful voice, said to the doctor—</p> - -<p>“It’s all right, sir, about you! We shall let the women pass -out! But you must clear the house of them!”</p> - -<p>“But it is dangerous to move my patient.”</p> - -<p>“We cannot help that, doctor; we do this for your sake, not -theirs, for they ought every one of them to be burned, and we -are determined to abate the nuisance of this house. So hurry -them along here quick, for the boys will not keep quiet long.”</p> - -<p>“Yes, hurry them women along; we’ll let them go this -time.”</p> - -<p>“All but that lecturing <i>lady</i> (?), who says that she would as -soon marry a negro as a white man!”</p> - -<p>“Yes, all but her; we want to be rid of such creatures; let’s -duck her in the Hudson.”</p> - -<p>“No, boys, we will make no distinction. We have promised—let -the woman go.”</p> - -<p>“Down with the lecturing women and their black lovers!”</p> - -<p>“Duck the hag! we’ll wash off the scent for her!”</p> - -<p>Cries such as these convinced the doctor that indeed no time -was to be lost, particularly as the sound of the axe was now -heard below in good earnest. Approaching the bed hastily, -he took the shivering form of the panic-stricken woman, who -had heard distinctly these last ominous cries, into his arms.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</span> -She clutched him with a desperate grip, while he hurried down -the stairs.</p> - -<p>On the way, he met the Spiritual Professor in the passage, -surrounded by the women of the house, who were clustered -about him, in the seemingly vain hope of obtaining from him -something of that ethereal consolation and strength, of which -he was the so much vaunted Professor. Indeed, he himself -now seemed the most woful, of all the whimpering, terrified -group, in want of any kind of strength, whether spiritual or -otherwise; and his teeth literally chattered, as he clutched at -the doctor’s passing arm.</p> - -<p>“Wh—wh—what shall we do? They mean to burn the -house, don’t they?”</p> - -<p>“Do?” said the doctor, sternly, shaking off his grasp. -“Try and be a man, if you’ve got it in you! Get these -women out of the house, and take yourself off on your spiritual -legs as fast as you can, or you may make some ugly acquaintances.”</p> - -<p>The Professor still clung to his skirts.</p> - -<p>“Oh Lord! the doctrine of correspondences does not sanction—”</p> - -<p>“Go to the devil, with your correspondence, or I shall kick -you out of my path!” roared the angry doctor, while the snivelling -Professor, more alarmed than ever, slunk aside to let him -pass. The crash and clatter from below now announced that -the mob had effected an entrance from the street, and leaving -the women, all screaming at the top of their lungs, around their -doughty spiritual guide, he rushed on with his burden towards -the front entrance, which had thus been taken by storm, and -was now rapidly filling with excited men. Some were seizing -the furniture, which they began to demolish, while others hurried -forward to intercept him.</p> - -<p>“It is the sick woman. Remember your promise; let me -pass.”</p> - -<p>“Yes, that’s the good doctor; let him pass, boys.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</span></p> - -<p>“No, not yet!” roared a burly-looking ruffian, pressing -through the throng. “We must see who it is he has got there. -Who is she?” and he roughly dragged aside the shawl that partially -covered her face.</p> - -<p>“Monster!” shouted the excited doctor, “the woman is -dying! Make way! Let me pass!”</p> - -<p>“Not so fast!” said the ruffian, resisting his forward rush. -“I shall see! I shall see! Boys, here she is! By G—d, this -is she, that lecture-woman; she wants to marry a nigger, hah! -We won’t let her go.”</p> - -<p>“But you will!” said the doctor, releasing one arm, with -which he struck the ruffian directly in the mouth, and with a -force that sent him reeling backwards.</p> - -<p>“Good! good!” shouted twenty voices; “served him right, -doctor.”</p> - -<p>The fellow had rallied instantly, and was rushing, like a wild -bull, headlong upon the doctor, when several powerful men -threw themselves between the two, seizing the ruffian at the -same time.</p> - -<p>“No, Jim, you stand back!” said one of them, brandishing -a heavy axe before his eyes. “You touch that gentleman again, -and I’ll brain you!”</p> - -<p>“It’s a shame!” interposed others. “It’s the good doctor -who nurses the poor for nothing. Doubt if he gets a cent for -that creature.”</p> - -<p>“Yes, if she was the devil’s dam herself, we promised the -good man to let her go. Stand back, boys, and let the doctor -pass.”</p> - -<p>An opening was accordingly formed, through which the -doctor hastened to make his way. When he made his appearance -at the door, he was greeted with three wild, hearty cheers -for himself, and as many groans and hisses for the character of -the woman whom he bore, the news of the identification of -whom had instantly found its way to the outside.</p> - -<p>Regardless of all this, and only congratulating himself upon<span class="pagenum" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</span> -the prospect of getting his patient off alive, he pressed rapidly -through the crowd, with the purpose of bearing her to the -shelter of his own bachelor home.</p> - -<p>The mob now instantly occupied the building, which was -gutted by them, and the shattered contents, along with its occupants, -men and women, roughly hurled into the street. Some -of the former were very severely handled, and among the rest, -the Spiritual Professor had his share of <i>material</i> chastening. -The mob found him under a cot-bed, with three or four feminine -disciples of his spiritual correspondences piled over him, -or clinging distractedly to his nerveless limbs.</p> - -<p>They dragged him out by the heels, with his squalling cortege -trailing after him, and finding that the occult professor of -spiritualities had gone into a state of obliviousness, or rather -fainted, they proceeded, in their solicitude for his recovery, to -deluge his person with sundry convenient slops, which shall be -nameless, and afterwards kicked him headlong into the street -below, where the screaming boys pelted him with gutter-mud -and rotten eggs, until, finding his <i>spiritual</i> legs, as he had been -advised—it is to be supposed—of a sudden, he made himself -scarce, down Barclay Street, in an inappreciable twinkle.</p> - -<p>In a word, the people, in this instance, as in many others, -when they have found it necessary to take the laws of decency -and common sense into their own sovereign hands, did the work -of ridding themselves of this most detestable nuisance effectually. -The Graham House was broken up, and although the -pestilent nest of knaves and fools who most delighted there to -congregate, have endeavored, in subsequent years, to reassemble, -and renew the ancient character of the place as their -head-quarters, yet the attempt has only been attended with partial -success.</p> - -<p>The blow was too decisive on this night; for, although the -walls were left standing, the proprietor was given clearly to -understand, that the unnatural orgies of amalgamation would -not be tolerated again by the community, under the decisive<span class="pagenum" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</span> -penalty of no one stone left standing upon the other, of the -building.</p> - -<p>He took the hint, and it was about time! It has been fairly -conjectured by this time, from the glimpses we have taken of -the interior, that the house was the scene of other vices than -those implied in amalgamation merely. It will be seen in yet -other words and years how much there was of real danger to the -well-being of society, in the doctrines taught and practised within -its unhallowed walls. No one lesson could ever prove sufficient -for these people; they enjoy a fatal impunity even now, -and we shall endeavor that men shall know them as they are!</p> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV.<br /> - - -<small>BOANERGES PHOSPHER, THE SPIRITUAL PROFESSOR.</small></h2> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">He strikes no coin, ’tis true, but coins new phrases,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And vends them forth as knaves vend gilded counters,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Which wise men scorn, and fools accept in payment.</div> - <div class="verse indent28"><span class="allsmcap">SHAKESPEARE.</span></div> -</div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">None of these rogues and cowards, but Ajax is their fool!</div> - <div class="verse indent28"><i>Idem.</i></div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>That the world has dealt hardly by its heroes, is a truism we -need not insist upon at this late day. But whether the world -knows who its heroes are, is another question, and one more -open to controversy. Now I insist that the world does not -know, or else Boanerges Phospher, the Spiritual Professor, -would long since have been stoned and persecuted into one of -the holy company of saints and martyrs!</p> - -<p>There are several kinds of heroism heretofore known among -men. There is the fierce, aggressive heroism of the soldier and -conqueror—there is the “glib and oily” heroism of the politician—the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</span> -calm, enduring heroism of the saint—the lofty, death-defying -heroism of the patriot; but it remains for modern times -to record the brazen heroism of impudence. Impudence, too, -has its grades and degrees—its ancient types and its more modern -ones—but as they all veil their brassy splendors, merging -their separate rays in the central effulgence of our spiritual Colossus, -we shall waive their particular enumeration in favor of -the individualised impersonation of them all.</p> - -<p>Ah, verily—and this is he!—our Spiritual Professor! Born -in Yankee-land, of course, the earliest feat of Boanerges Phospher—literally, -according to his own account of it—was to pry -up a huge stone upon one of the sterile paternal acres: for what -purpose, would you suppose? To place his feet upon the soil -beneath, because the foot of no other man could have pressed it!</p> - -<p>A laudable ambition, truly, but one which, somehow, unluckily, -suggests that</p> - -<p class="center"> -“Fools may walk where angels fear to tread!”<br /> -</p> - -<p>It was a necessary sequence to the career of this modern Columbus -of untrodden discovery, that we find his “first appearance -upon any stage” to have been, while so pitiably ignorant -as to be barely able to read his own language by spelling the -words, and write his own name execrably, as <span class="smcap">Professor of -Elocution</span>!</p> - -<p>Admirable! admirable! Why make two bites of a cherry? -Why not step at once where no foot of <i>such</i> man ever trod -before?</p> - -<p>Shade of Blair! Look ye not askance at this daring intruder -upon your classic company! He intends you no harm; he only -means to re-fuse his brass back into copper s!</p> - -<p>In lecturing on Elocution, our <i>Professor</i>, of necessity, gradually -learned to read—with fluency, we mean—that is, he could -“talk right eout,” like the head boy in a class, though it was -in a nasal sing-song, more remarkable for its pietistic intonation -than its rhythm. This was, no doubt, in a great measure owing<span class="pagenum" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</span> -to the facility of whining he had acquired, in his more juvenile -experience, as a preacher of some three or four different <i>liberal</i> -sects. We class these as mere experiments, as purely preliminary -trials of strength, before he entered the true arena of his -professorship.</p> - -<p>The professorship, to be sure, was self-instituted—self-ordained—and -why not self-asserted? There were professors -of hair-invigorating oils, professors of dancing, professors of rat-catching, -professors of hair-eradication, professors of cough-candy, -professors of commercial book-keeping and running-hand -writing, professors of flea-powder and bug-extermination—and -why not a professor of elocution? The very gutter-mud -germinates professors in this free country! They grow like -fungi out of wallowing reptiles’ heads; and who need be surprised, -in America, at receiving the card of his boot-black, -inscribed Professor Brush; his chimney-sweep, Professor Soot; -or be appalled by the bloody apparition of a missive from his -butcher, emblazoned, “Professor Keyser, Killer!”</p> - -<p>No disrespect, mark you, is intended to be either understood -or implied, for the gentlemen of the various professions above -enumerated, for they are all respectable in their way, and to be -respected, outside of their professorships. But that is rather a -serious name, as we understand it—one that the world has been -accustomed to look up to with veneration—proportioned, until -these “modern instances,” to the vast and profound learning -which had made it, in the old world, the synonyme of almost -patriarchal inspiration—the grand, firm, and stable bulwark of -human progress, and its lofty future; of infinite science, and its -clear, glorious myths!</p> - -<p>This thing of learning seems so easy, that your starveling -Yankee perceives no difficulties in the way, and glides into its -penetralia “like a book,”—only that he never reads it! He is -at once at home in all topography, as much as if he were in -Kamtschatka, or the “Tropic Isles.” Furred cloaks or breadfruit -leaves are all the same to him; he was born knowing, and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</span> -of course could not do less than know a great deal more about -Kamtschatka and the “Tropic Isles” than their furred and fig-leaved -denizens. Brass is the Yankee’s capital, and no wonder -they made the great discoveries of copper on Lake Superior, so -extensively patronised by New-light sages. It is the offset to -California gold; for, while one promises an infinite supply of -the substantial basis of commerce and all trade, the other promises -to furnish, in perpetuity, the crude material of impudence.</p> - -<p>We mean no insinuation in regard to the Spiritual Professor, -however much he may have had to do, by “spherical influence,” -in precipitating the discovery of this great mine of the -metal so much in favor with the sages above mentioned—and the -remainder of the sect to which the Professor belonged—the -motto of which is, that, “Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings -shall ye be confounded.” Yet we can freely venture to -assert, that he had no connection whatever with those unfortunate -commercial results, which, in the first place, nearly, -if not entirely, swamped the great Patron of the enterprise. -The mind of our Professor was necessarily not of that vast reach -and generalising comprehension, which could lead to the Behemoth -stride and wizard calculation of results, which had enabled -his master thus confidently to speculate in so subtle a material.</p> - -<p>The operations of our Professor were essentially minified; -that is, their sphere and scope had been particularly narrow. -He was heroic enough, Heaven knows; but then his heroism -was of that dashing character which only required a patron to -illustrate and make it known.</p> - -<p>Having published a book upon this occult (in his hands) -science of elocution, which was, of course, written for him by -another party, he suddenly felt himself inspired with a new -inspiration.</p> - -<p>He had already taught men how to talk, and it now became -necessary, and indeed spiritually incumbent upon him, to teach -them how to live. He accordingly announced himself, forthwith, -as Revelator-in-Chief of the spiritual mysteries of the universe.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</span> -Every reader will probably remember those flaming programmes -of lectures which appeared, by the half column, in a -New York paper, for a long period, daily, between ’43 and -’45. Mendacious impudence never vaulted higher! Our Spiritual -Professor was in his glory now.</p> - -<p>An illustrious man lived once in Sweden. He was humble, -pure and firm. His astonishing works on scientific subjects left -the mind of his period far behind him, utterly confounded by -his direct and stringent elucidation of the most subtle of the -purely physical laws. It seemed a miracle to them; they found -their professional accuracy so far surpassed, that they durst not -do more than wonder. Work after work of this amazing intellect -came forth, dressed in a language, while handling such -themes, common to the world of science.</p> - -<p>Then came a sudden change, and this vast mind, which heretofore -had dealt in simple <i>demonstration</i> with mankind, threw -down its compass and its squares, and, in the language of humility, -proclaimed itself a Medium. The God of Jacob and -humanity had revealed himself to him, not in the burning bush -of mystery, but in the lustrous quiet of a calm repose. He had -talked scientific truth before, but now he spoke of spiritual -things—a chosen Medium between God and man! His theme -was far beyond all science. We have nothing to do with his -wide postulate; his name was too sublime and venerable among -the patriarchs of mankind, for me to speak of it otherwise in -this connection, than in disgust and loathing of the profanation -to which it has been subjected, in our country, by monkeyish -and parrot-tongued ignoramuses.</p> - -<p>Our learned and sagacious Professor of Elocution, happening -to stumble upon some of the earlier translations of the works of -Swedenborg, seized upon them with great avidity, and, as he -had now learned to read without spelling the words out loud, he -managed to get them by heart with most surprising facility, and, -to the astonishment of Jew and Gentile, suddenly proclaimed -himself an apostle of the new church.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</span></p> - -<p>To be sure, when one considers this undertaking in the abstract, -it was rather a serious one; one indeed that would have -appalled most men, as the works of Swedenborg really consisted -of some forty-odd huge volumes, written in Latin, not a -line of which the Professor could translate; and the hand-books -he had fallen upon were merely translations of introductory -compends. What though the field was one of the most prodigious -in human learning—what though the themes were the -highest that could occupy mortal contemplation—what though -the patient diligence of an ordinary lifetime would scarce suffice -intelligent persons for the studious comprehension of the truths -taught by this wonderful man? it was all the same to the Professor; -and, indeed, instead of being discouraged, he was -rather encouraged, by the magnitude of the undertaking! An -exponent of Swedenborg! Well, why not? He could spell -words in three syllables!</p> - -<p>Big with the prodigious discovery of his own capabilities and -the new mine of doctrinal science, the learned Professor rushed -precipitately into the ever-extended arms of his Patron saint, -the nourisher and cherisher of empirics and empiricism. And -why should he not be so, forsooth? It was <i>cheap</i>, not “too -much learning,” that had made <i>him</i> “mad” as well! <i>He</i> too -had found it to his account to scorn the decencies of a thorough -education, and from a printer’s devil, with a mind that had fed -upon scraps and paragraphs, had doggedly risen, through the -help of the familiar demon of labor, which possessed him, into -this position of Patron to all new-comers—provided they bore -“new-lights” and <i>coppers</i>!</p> - -<p>It mattered little to this self-constituted and unscrupulous dignitary -whether the theme was new to the world, or only to himself; -the latter was most likely to be the case with one who -had probably never read a dozen books consecutively through -in his life, and who, from gross physique, dress, habits, and -mental idiosyncrasies, was necessarily incapacitated for comprehending -the fine and subtle relations of truth; who, even with<span class="pagenum" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</span> -the sovereign aid of the new-light Panacea, bran-bread, had -seemed to be capable of digesting but a fragment of truth at a -time, and that fragment, too, gobbled without the slightest regard -for its relations to other truths.</p> - -<p>Here was a happy appreciation with a vengeance!—was it -knave of fool, or fool of knave—which? The question is interesting! -At all events, the results were the same, so far as the -public were concerned. It was forthwith announced that the -Patron Saint, like some patient and watchful astronomer, sweeping -the blue abyss of heaven with ever-constant glass, had suddenly -discovered a new luminary—it certainly had a fiery tail, -but whether it was going to prove a genuine comet or not, let -the following announcement bear witness:</p> - -<p>“Professor Boanerges Phospher lectures to-night in the Tabernacle, -which it is thought may possibly contain some small portion, -at least, of the enormous crowd which will of course assemble -to hear his profound and luminous exposition of the mysteries -of the universe. The doctrine of correspondences, as propounded -by the learned Professor, reveals the true solution of -all problems which affect the relations of mankind to the spiritual -world. Indeed, his enormous research and unappreciable -profundity have at length enabled him to <i>solve the problem of -the universe</i>, which he, with the most luminous demonstration, -will educate even the infant mind to comprehend with sufficient -clearness, in five easy lessons, or lectures on every other night, -at one dollar each. The whole subject of man, in his eternal -relations to God, to the spiritual world, and to the earth, will -be mathematically expounded to the full comprehension of all.”</p> - -<p>Here follows the programme:</p> - -<p>“Professor Boanerges Phospher undertakes to show in the -lecture of to-night, That in the universe there are these three -things: end, cause, and effect; that infinite things in the infinite -are one; that they constitute a triune existence—they are three -in one; that the universe is a work cohering from firsts to lasts.</p> - -<p>“That <i>Good</i> is from a twofold origin, and thence adscititious.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</span> -That celestial good is good in essence, and spiritual good is -good in form. That the good of the inmost Heaven is called -celestial; of the middle Heaven, spiritual; and of the ultimate -Heaven, spiritual, natural. That good is called lord, and truth -servant, before they are conjoined, but afterwards they are called -brethren. That he who is good is in the faculty of seeing truth, -which flows from general truths, and this in a continual series. -That good is actually spiritual fire, from which spiritual heat, -which makes alone, is derived.</p> - -<p>“That all <i>Evil</i> has its rise from the sensual principle, and also -from the scientific. There is an evil derived from the false, and -a false from evil.</p> - -<p>“That gold sig. the good of love. When twice mentioned, -sig. the good of love, and the good of faith originating in love.</p> - -<p>“That influx from the Lord is through the internal into the -external. Spiritual influx is founded on the nature of things, -which is spirit acting on matter.</p> - -<p>“That physical influx, or natural, originates from the fallacy -of the senses that the body acts on spirit.</p> - -<p>“That harmonious influx is founded on a false conclusion, -viz.: that the soul acts jointly and at the same instant with the -body. That there is a common influx; and this influx passes -into the life of animals, and also into the subjects of the vegetable -kingdom. That influx passes from the Lord to man -through the forehead—for the forehead corresponds to love, and -the face to the interior of the mind.”</p> - -<p>To be followed by questions in the correspondences by any -of the audience who may choose to ask them, such as, To what -does “horse” correspond?—To what does “table,” “chair,” or -“soap-stone” correspond?—To what does “hog,” “goose,” -“butter-milk,” or “jackass” correspond? &c., &c. To all of -which questions the learned lecturer will give edifying answers -from the stand. Admittance, one dollar—Children, half-price.</p> - -<p>This is a long programme, to be sure, and somewhat overwhelming -to we common people, who have been in the habit<span class="pagenum" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</span> -of regarding certain subjects with the profoundest veneration, -and our modest and capable teachers with reverence. But the -very length of this programme, and the enormous stretch of the -themes, only go, I suppose, to illustrate the hardihood of our -“admirable Crichton,” the professor of the occult—and the -genial and the generous—to call it by its lightest name—gullibility, -of his gaping audience.</p> - -<p>Forth went these flaming announcements day by day, on -thousand hot-pressed sheets, until New York became all agog, -and the great mass conceived that they had found a new prophet. -All its spectacled and thin-bearded women forthwith were in -arms; the Professor wore his hair behind his ears, and, of -course, was the soft and honey-sucking seraph of their dreams.</p> - -<p>He could be indeed nothing short of seraphim-revealed, for -he discoursed with them in winning tones of mists and mysteries. -He told them bald tales of angels with whom he had been on -terms of intimacy; for he sagaciously kept his master, Swedenborg, -mainly in the background throughout.</p> - -<p>Representing himself as the individual recipient of these -revelations, from the spherical ladies who wear wings, and who -are habitually designated as angels by both the sexes, on our -little clod of earth, our champion became, of course, the hero -of all such semi-whiskered maidens or matrons, who, though -essentially “pard-like spirits,” were yet, to reverse the words -of Shelley, more “swift,” alias “fast,” than “beautiful!” It -is, of course, to be comprehended that beauty is comparative as -well as wit, and we would no more be understood as insinuating -that these thinly-hirsute virgins and dames, who at once constituted -the principal audience of the mighty Professor, were -themselves in any degree deficient in sympathy either with the -man and his profound doctrines, or the man <i>per se</i>, than that -we would assert they understood one word of what he mouthed -to them, with his hair behind his ears.</p> - -<p>Boanerges Phospher, the Spiritual Professor, was successful, -and never was there anything so professionally brilliant as the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</span> -crowded houses that he nightly drew. The immense Tabernacle -seemed a mere nut-shell; he could have filled half-a-dozen such -houses nightly. The mob had grown excited by the novelty. -The paper of the Patron Saint, at so many pennies a line, day -by day, continued to prostitute its columns to this vulgar trap -of silly servant-maids and profound clerks.</p> - -<p>The Professor’s lectures were attended by countless swarms -of inquirers after truth, who, as they were willing to accept a -spoken for a written language of which they knew nothing, permitted -him to stumble through propositions, which, in themselves, -were so ridiculously absurd as even to disarm contempt -in the wise, and make denunciation harmless as superfluous.</p> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V.<br /> - - -<small>BOANERGES AND THE YOUNG MATHEMATICIAN.</small></h2> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent10">Famine is in thy cheeks,</div> -<div class="verse indent0">Need and oppression stareth in thy eyes,</div> -<div class="verse indent0">Upon thy back hangs ragged misery.</div> -<div class="verse indent28"><span class="smcap">Shakspeare.</span></div> -</div></div></div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent20">There’s no more</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Mercy in him than there’s milk in the male tiger.</div> - <div class="verse indent28"><i>Idem.</i></div> -</div></div></div> - - -<p>The bowels of Boanerges Phospher, the Spiritual Professor, -were possessed of such extraordinary capacity for yearning over -the fallen and lost condition of his brothers of mankind, that, -not content with saving them by wholesale, and nightly, in those -marvellously spiritualized lectures, his indomitable energies took -up the trade of “<i>saving</i>” men individually and by detail.</p> - -<p>This, let it be understood, was done between times, by way -of recreation, just to keep his hand in. Let us follow him on -one of these errands of mercy.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</span></p> - -<p>In a poor garret of Ann Street, New York, might have been -seen, about these days, a young man, seated in a rickety chair, -beside a dirty pine table, which was plentifully strewn with -manuscripts covered with many a tedious column of figures and -mysterious-looking diagrams.</p> - -<p>You saw at once, from the disproportionate size of the broad, -white, bulging brow, which brooded heavily over large mournful -eyes, and thin, emaciated features, that he was a mathematician; -possessing one of those precocious and enormous developments -of the organs of calculation, which are so apt, when -not diverted by other occupations and excitements, to consume -rapidly the feeble fuel of life in their consecrated fires.</p> - -<p>A wretched cot-bed occupied one corner of the room, which -was likewise strewn with papers and books on mathematical -subjects, while on the mantel lay scattered little heaps of dried -cheese and crusts, which seemed so hardened, that no tooth of -predatory mouse had left its mark thereon.</p> - -<p>The young man was dressed in entire conformity with the -miserable appearance of the room. His thin and silky hair -hung in lank, clammy locks about his shockingly pallid features, -as he leaned forward on his elbow, his forehead resting heavily -on his thin hand, as he pored over the papers before him.</p> - -<p>“Ah me,” muttered he, “this horrid poverty!” and he threw -down his pen and sank back with a faint, despairing movement.</p> - -<p>“My brain is giddy with this dizzy round of figures, figures. -My weary calculation is nearly done, but my over-tasked brain -sickens. Ah, but for just one good meal, to strengthen me for -a few hours, and I could finish it—finish my glorious work!”</p> - -<p>At this moment a rapid step was heard ascending the creaking -stairs; the door flew open rudely, and, without any announcement, -the Spiritual Professor, with his hair all nice -behind his ears, came bustling forward toward the table, beside -the fainting young student. Rubbing his hands at the same -time in prodigious glee of anticipation, he exclaimed—</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</span></p> - -<p>“Ha! my son! my spiritual child! how is it with you? -Have you finished? Is it done?”</p> - -<p>The poor student shook his head slightly, and muttered -feebly—</p> - -<p>“No, no; I cannot finish it.”</p> - -<p>The eager face of the Professor turned suddenly very blank -and very white at the same time, as, straightening himself, he -stammered out—</p> - -<p>“Wh-what! c-cannot finish it! You <i>must</i> finish it! you <i>shall</i> -finish it!” and then continuing with greater vehemence, without -apparently noticing that the weary head of the poor being before -him was slowly drooping yet lower—</p> - -<p>“Here’s a pretty business, to be sure! This is the reward I -am to get for all I have done for you—for all my efforts to advance -you in the world—for all the heavy expenses I have -incurred in bringing you on from Cincinnati, and supporting -you here! The evil spirits must have re-entered the boy! -Have I not striven for these six months faithfully, with all my -spiritual strength, to drive them forth, that I might <i>save</i> him? -The boy must be born again—he must be regenerated once -more. <i>Cannot</i> finish it! He must be chastened, to rebuke -this evil spirit in him; he must be reduced to bread and water. -I must recall my liberal allowance for his food; he has been -living too high. The evil demon has probably entered him -through a meal of fat pork!” and the spiritually outraged Professor -sniffed with an indignant and eager sniffle, that he might -detect the presence of the forbidden food.</p> - -<p>The poor youth, in the mean time, had been slowly sliding -from his chair, and, as the Professor turned aside with the air -of an injured cherub, the body lost its balance, and the fainting -youth fell to the floor.</p> - -<p>“Ha! what now?” shouted our cherub with the hair behind -his ears, springing into the air with a nervous agility, as if he in -reality wore wings. He placed himself on the opposite side of -the room in a twinkling, and then turning his face, ghastly with<span class="pagenum" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</span> -fright, exclaimed, “I thought the house was coming down!” -and seeing the prostrate body, he walked around it as cautiously -as a cat crouches, and, with a stealthy inspection, peered into the -half-open eyelids, at the upturned eyes, but without touching -the body.</p> - -<p>“Wh-why, the fellow’s gone and died! There goes my -great speculation!” and springing back suddenly, he rushed -towards the table, and seizing convulsively the papers, ran his -eye eagerly over them, while his hands trembled violently; and -his lips turned as ashy blue as those of the poor victim at his -feet, while, with an expression of despair, too unutterable for -words to paint, he groaned out in frantic exclamations—“No, -no, no, it is not finished; nobody else can do it but him! I’m -ruined! I’m ruined! Oh, my money’s gone—my money’s -gone! To think that he should die, after all I’ve done for him—after -all my liberality! O! O! O! booh! booh! hoo!”</p> - -<p>At this melting crisis, a slight noise caused him to turn his -head; the apparent corpse was drawing up one foot, and making -some other feeble movements, which showed that life was -not entirely extinct.</p> - -<p>At this sight the eyes of Boanerges flew open as wide, in a -stare of ecstacy, as they had before been stretched in horror, -until their suffusion “with the briny,” as Mr. Richard Swiveller -would say, had caused them to momentarily wink.</p> - -<p>“Why, he ain’t dead yet! my speculation is safe. Some -water! Where’s some water? Get some water!” and he ran -peering and dodging around the room with an uncertain air, as -if the new influx of joy had bewildered his seraphic mind. -After some little delay he found the pitcher, which had been -standing all the time in full view, within three feet of him; he -wildly dashed more than half the contents into the face of the -victim, who instantly drew a long sobbing breath, and in a moment -or two opened his eyes.</p> - -<p>This so increased the ecstacy of the Professor, that he now -ventured to kneel beside him, and, in his eagerness, forgetting<span class="pagenum" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</span> -to use the tumbler that was standing near, he nearly crushed the -poor student’s teeth down his throat, in his awkward endeavors -to administer drink to him from the heavy pitcher—exclaiming, -during the process, “Drink! drink! my son. Don’t die, for -Heaven’s sake! Remember my liberality—my generous sacrifices -to advance you in the world. Remember our almanac—your -great work, that is to make your fortune. Remember how -you have been saved!”</p> - -<p>“Starved, you mean,” feebly whispered the young man, -whom a few draughts of the precious fluid had rapidly revived.</p> - -<p>“St-a-a-r-r-ved! does he say?” yelled Boanerges, shrinking -back as if horrified, and nearly dropping the body he was supporting -from his arms. Then, suddenly releasing one arm, he -smoothed back his hair gently; that radiant, angelic expression -of sweet humility, for which it was so famous among the female -part of his select and nightly audiences, overcame his face as -with a halo, and leaning down, so as to look into the eyes of -his victim, he asked, in a liquid voice, “My son, have I—have -I—thy spiritual father, starved thee?” and then tenderly he -gazed into his eyes. With a look of assured self-satisfaction -that those siren tones had done the business, he silently awaited -the answer to the gentle and rebukeful question. But no answer -came to the sweet, lingering look; the young man only -closed his eyes heavily, and shuddered.</p> - -<p>“My son, my son!” continued the Professor, in yet more -grieved and meek, and dulcet tones. “My spiritual son, have I -starved thee? have I not been generous to a fault, and even to -wronging the beloved child of my own loins? This room, -these writing materials, this tumbler, this pitcher, that delightful -bed, are they not all my free-will gifts to thee for thy own advancement, -to enable thee to glorify God in thy works? Have -I not rather saved thee from starving? You had nothing when -I took you up, to patronise your genius, and bring you before -the world; and now you have plenty! See, see, your mantel<span class="pagenum" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</span> -is even now crowded with bread and cheese, that you are -wasting here in the midst of such superlative abundance.”</p> - -<p>The young man, at the mention of the bread and cheese, -turned his head aside with an expression of bitter loathing and -disgust.</p> - -<p>“Pah!” he muttered; “the very name of it makes me sick; -I have tasted nothing else for the last six months. That is -what is killing me; my stomach can retain it no longer! Who -can keep body and soul together on thirty cents a week?”</p> - -<p>“Horror!” exclaimed the Professor, rolling up his eyes -meekly. “To think of such frantic extravagance! And besides, -my son, your spiritual strength should have sustained -you—the success of your great work, the prospect of future -glory! A <i>man</i> starve on bread and cheese! Why, who ever -heard of such a thing? Why, when I was a boy of ten years -of age, I started alone, on foot, to cross the Alleghanies, to -make my way to the North to school. My father had moved -West when I was very young. I started with only one loaf of -white bread in my bundle, when the whole country was wild -and full of bears and wolves. The wolves chased me, and I -climbed a tree; they surrounded it, barking and gnashing their -teeth, to get at me; there were five hundred wolves at least, -but I in my faith kept my strength, and remained cool as Daniel -in the lion’s den, until at last they kept me there so long, I fell -asleep, when the limb broke, and I fell down into the midst of -them; the wolves were so frightened, that they all took to their -heels and ran away, leaving me safe. <i>There</i> is a specimen of -the spiritual strength that faith gives, and should encourage you -never to give up and faint by the way. Had you possessed -more of such faith, my son, you would never have been -stretched here, upon this floor, in such a condition, and talking -about starving on bread and cheese. It is the soul, my son, the -regenerate soul, that sustains the heroic man on earth, as I have -so often endeavored to teach you.”</p> - -<p>“Yes,” groaned the poor youth, with a gesture of impatience.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</span> -“The body must live too, and life cannot be sustained so long -upon unvaried food.”</p> - -<p>“Listen, my son!” said the patient saint at his head—“listen, -and you shall hear what I accomplished on that single -loaf of bread. I travelled on with my little bundle on my -shoulder, containing the home-spun suit I was to wear when I -arrived at school, and my loaf of bread. I travelled on till my -clothes were all worn out, and my shoes full of holes, and my -feet were so sore and swollen that I was afraid to pull off my -shoes, for fear I should not be able to get them on again. So I -waded across all the brooks and mountain streams with my -clothes on, until, at last, one afternoon, when high up in the -mountains, my strength gave out, and I laid me down in the -howling wilderness, thinking I must die. The weather was -very cold, and my clothes, all wet from crossing the streams, -were freezing, and the dreaded sleepiness was coming over me, -when a good widow woman, who lived with her children on the -mountains, and was out gathering wood, accidentally found me. -She took me up in her arms, and carried me to her hut, and -laid me on her bed, where I slept all night. In the morning, -when I opened my eyes, I saw her breaking the hot Indian-corn -bread, and giving it to her children. I told her if she would -give me some of her corn bread, I would divide my loaf of -white bread with her and her children. She eagerly accepted -the offer, for such a luxury as white bread had been -long unknown to them, and that was my first speculation! -While they ravenously devoured my loaf, I feasted upon her -rich hot bread. My soul overflowed with delight as I witnessed -their intense enjoyment of the meal I had been thus instrumental -in bringing them, and I felt as if the Lord had thus -enabled me to fully repay them for their kindness. I rose to -depart, and the good woman, filling my bundle with a large -piece of her hot bread, sent me, with her blessing, on my way -rejoicing. Thus, you see, my dear son, how, through the spiritual -strength which faith imparts, and which you so much need,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</span> -I was enabled to cross the Alleghany mountains alone, at ten -years of age, with nothing but my loaf of white bread, and without -so much as a bit of cheese, or a cent in my pocket, and -attained to the great goal of my ambition, the school; and from -whence, by the aid of selling an occasional button from my -jacket, I have been able to rise to my present position as professor -and patron of struggling genius.”<a id="FNanchor_2" href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_2" href="#FNanchor_2" class="label">[2]</a> Incredible as it may seem, we pledge our personal veracity that this -bald and silly narration, which appears to be merely a foolish burlesque, -is a <i>bona fide</i>, <i>et literatim</i>, <i>et punctuatim</i>, transcript, as close as -it is possible for memory to furnish, of stories that were, at least as -often as five days out of the seven, related at the dinner-table at which -Boanerges presided, to long double lines of gaping women, who, obedient -to the irresistible spell he bore, had followed up this maudlin -Proteus of Professors, as disciples of water-cure, through his latest metamorphoses, -into physician of such an establishment in Boston. It was -<i>thus</i> he exhorted them to faith, and encouraged his backsliders.</p> -</div> - - -<p>“Ah!” said the young man, “words, words! Give me to -eat—I am starving!” and his head sank back once more.</p> - -<p>The Professor again deluged him with water, and, profoundly -surprised and alarmed that the honeyed eloquence of his sagacious -narrative had proved unavailing in convincing his victim -that he could and ought to live upon faith, came to the desperate -resolution of being guilty of the extravagance, for once, of a -<i>small</i> bowl of soup to resuscitate his victim, and depositing his -head upon some books, though the pillow was equally convenient, -he hurried off to the nearest eating-house, with his hands -upon his pockets, which were overflowing with gold, as he was -then in the meridian height of his prosperity.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The sequel to this particular story is a short one. The young -man revived with the change of a single nutritious meal, and -with it returned the courage of even the trodden worm; for he -now stoutly told the Spiritual Professor that, unless he furnished -him with ample means to support life, he would not touch an -another figure of the immense and complicated calculations on -which he had been so long engaged.</p> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</span></p> -<p>The Professor, of course, resisted to the last, and quoted the -correspondences upon him, with desperate fluency. But when -the young man coolly seized the manuscript on the table before -him, and held it over the flickering flame of the miserable dip -candle, which had now been of necessity lighted, the Professor -sprang forward to arrest his hand, shrieking—</p> - -<p>“I will! I will! for God’s sake, stop!—how much do you -want?”</p> - -<p>“Five dollars a week!” was the cold response, as the flame -caught the edges of the paper.</p> - -<p>“I’ll give it! I’ll give it! What fearful extravagance! My -God! put it out!”</p> - -<p>“Pay me five dollars at once,” said the other.</p> - -<p>“Here it is—here it is!” and he jerked, in his excitement, -from his pocket, a dozen gold-pieces of that value, and dashed -them upon the table.</p> - -<p>“Take your five dollars! put it out!”</p> - -<p>The young man quietly swept the pieces within his reach into -a drawer, which he at the same moment opened; and, extinguishing -the margin of the manuscript, which had burned slowly -from its thickness, he replied deliberately to the Professor, who -had shrieked out—</p> - -<p>“Do you mean to rob me?”</p> - -<p>“No, sir! but I mean to keep this money, and if you approach -me, I shall destroy this manuscript if it cost me my life. -You have starved and outraged me long enough; you expect -to make a fortune off my labors, and kill me with famine just -as my work is done. But with all my humility, abstraction and -patience, this is too much! I am roused at last, in self-defence, -and you shall find it so!”</p> - -<p>The Professor sank into a chair as if fainting, and for some -moments continued to mutter, with more than the magnanimity -of a sick kitten—</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</span></p> - -<p>“To think! Robbed! All my generosity! The ruffian! -Here, to my very face! What have I gained by saving -him?”</p> - -<p>This last expression was gasped out, as if the vital breath of -the speaker was passing in the final spasm.</p> - -<p>The scene need not be prolonged. The valorous Professor -crept away, cowed beneath the cold, firm, lustrous eye of the -now aggressive victim, whose enthusiasm for science and earnest -self-dedication, had heretofore kept him blinded to a full realisation -of all the monstrous iniquity which had so long been -practised upon his abstracted, meek, and uncomplaining nature. -He now determined to take his life into his own hands, and saw -clearly through all the shallow and ridiculous pretence of patronage -and “saving,” by which his single-hearted fervor had been -beguiled.</p> - -<p>In a few days it was announced to the Professor, whose faith -and spiritual strength—the same that had scared off the wolves -when he fell among them—had in the interval been restored to -their equilibrium, that the great work was now completed, and -the announcement was accompanied by a proposition on the -part of the young mathematician to sell out to him entire his -copyright share in the whole enterprise, at a price so comparatively -insignificant, when the Professor’s own florid anticipations -of future results were considered, that he sprang at the offer -eagerly, and thus possessed himself at once of the “golden -goose.”</p> - -<p>The young mathematician disappeared, and the Professor was -left exulting in the sole possession of what seemed to him, in -vision, the nearest representative of the gold of Ophir, not to -speak of California.</p> - -<p>The idea of the young mathematician was, in itself, a practical -one, and seemed rationally conceived.</p> - -<p>We have used the word almanac, by which it was designated, -but in reality it very poorly conveys the subtle and singular -combinations which were here brought to bear upon a circular,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</span> -rotary surface, the aim of which was, to so far simplify the calculations -of interest, wages, discounts, and a hundred other -tedious and difficult problems occurring in complicated business -affairs, that the merchant or banker had only to glance his eye -down a line of figures, to ascertain in a moment results which -would take him, by all the ordinary aids and processes, a long -calculation to arrive at.</p> - -<p>It was a brilliant conception, which must prove ultimately a -most successful discovery of the young mathematician, and one -which had cost him many years of careful analysis and profound -observation. But as he handed over the perfected copyright to -our astute Professor, who had just enough of button-trading cunning -to perceive the immense practical results of the enterprise, -without the slightest knowledge of the processes by which it had -been perfected, there might have been noticed upon the face -of his former victim, as he pocketed his paltry bonus, a slight -sneer, which would have alarmed any one less gifted with occasional -short-sightedness than our Professor has shown himself -to be.</p> - -<p>He made off with the documents in an ecstacy of triumph, -and forthwith began making round purchases of paper, pasteboard, -and other mechanical appliances necessary to his success, -to the amount of thousands of his easily-got gains; and then as -heavy sums were as rapidly expended upon the costly and difficult -copper-plate engraving, which was to set forth in full the -triumph, the undivided honors of which he now claimed, to the -world.</p> - -<p>There are few of the main printing-offices in the country -that had not, or have not, that famous circular almanac hanging -upon their walls. Unfortunately the Professor had been too -eager to promulgate his triumph, and powerfully illustrated in -this experiment the truth of the old aphorism, “The greater -haste the less speed;” for it turned out, upon a close examination -of the long and intricate series of calculations, by scientific -men, that the fatal error of a single numeral ran throughout its<span class="pagenum" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</span> -complex demonstration, and rendered its whole results utterly -futile, without the enormous expense of cancelling the costly -copper-plate, and the tremendous edition which had been -already issued. The incorrigible ignorance of the Spiritual -Professor had rendered him incapable of detecting the error -himself, and he had thereby swamped effectually not only his -magnanimous speculation in this particular case, but thoroughly -dissipated the abundant proceeds of his more successful speculation -in the spiritual correspondences.</p> - -<p>This little accident threw him upon his shifts, but we shall -surely find him upon his feet again hereafter.</p> - -<p>Had not his starving victim subtly worked out a sublime -revenge, in spite of the fact that he had been over and over -again so thoroughly <i>saved</i>? So much for Boanerges and the -young mathematician.</p> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI.<br /> - - -<small>THE NEW “SAVING GRACE.”</small></h2> -</div> -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent20">Thou hast thews</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Immortal, for thou art of heavenly race;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But such a love is mine, that here I chase</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Eternally away from thee all bloom</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Of youth, and destine thee towards a tomb.</div> - <div class="verse indent28"><span class="smcap">Endymion.</span></div> -</div></div></div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent24">Fierce, wan,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And tyrranizing was the lady’s look.</div> - <div class="verse indent28"><i>Idem.</i></div> -</div></div></div> - - -<p>A year, in the life of man, is a long time. Alas! what -changes may it not bring about to any, the strongest of us, the -most secure—those weary, dragging twelve months! Such a -period has elapsed in the chronology of our narrative, since the -scenes described as occurring at the Graham House.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</span></p> - -<p>It is late, on a dark stormy evening, and we will look into -the well-stocked half library and half office of a handsome private -residence in Beekman Street, New York.</p> - -<p>The cushioned appliances of the most fastidious luxury of -repose were strewed about the room in the strangest disorder of -heaped cushions, fallen chairs, and out-of-place lounges; while -books, surgical instruments, vials, dusty, crusty, broken, and -corkless, all mingled in the desolate confusion which seemed to -have usurped the place.</p> - -<p>A shaded lamp stood upon the table in the centre of this -chaos, and threw its light upon a large decanter of brandy and -a glass beneath. A deep-drawn moaning sigh disturbs the -deathlike silence of the room; and a broad, stout figure, which -had leaned back within the shadow of a huge cushioned chair -beside the table, reached suddenly forward and clutched the -brandy-bottle convulsively. He dashed a great gulp into the -glass, and then, with trembling hand, attempted to carry it to -his lips. After two or three efforts, which proved unavailing -from his excessive nervousness, he replaced the glass, muttering, -“Curse this nervousness! It will not even let me drink my -poison any more!” He shuddered as he turned his head away. -“No wonder! how horribly the hell-broth smells!” He fell back -into the deep chair again and was silent for some time, when, -uttering from the depths of his chest that strange moan, he -sprang to his feet.</p> - -<p>“I must drink!” he gnashed, as, seizing the decanter again, -he filled the tumbler to overflowing, splashing the dark fluid -over everything on the table. “I shall die if I do not drink! -I shall go crazy! I will not be baffled!”</p> - -<p>Without attempting to raise it again to his lips, he bowed -them to the brimming glass, and as the beast drinks, so drank -he. Oh, fearful degradation! Where now is the strong man? -that powerful frame would speak. After leaning the tumbler -with his lips and trembling hands in a long, deep draught, he<span class="pagenum" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</span> -straightened himself with an expression of loathing that distorted -his face hideously.</p> - -<p>“Paugh! Hell should mix more nectar with its chiefest -physic! This stuff is loathsome, and my revolting nerves seem -with a separate life to shudder as the new babe does to hear the -asp hiss amidst the flowers where it sports! Paugh! infernal! -that it should come to me in this short time, even as a second -nature, to learn to feed on poisons! It was not so once; nature -was sufficient, aye, sufficient, when the skies rained glory out -of day, and the stars came down in beamy strength through -night! But then! but then! Ah, yes! it had not become necessary -then, that I should be s-a-v-e-d by human love!” and -his features writhed as he prolonged the word.—“S-a-v-e-d! -no! no! no heavenly guise of horrid lust to s-a-v-e me! The -chaste and blushing spring came to the early winter of my sterile -life that bloomed beneath its radiant warmth, and gladdened -to grow green and odor-breathed and soft, and then! oh, horror! -horror! I am strong enough to drink again. My nerves are -numbed now; they dare not tremble.”</p> - -<p>He seized the decanter once more, and then, with unshaking -hand, conveyed the brimming glass to his lips, and after a deep -draught threw himself upon the chair again, and drawing at the -same time a glittering object from his breast, he leaned forward -within the circle of the lamp-light to regard it as it lay open upon -the table before him. This is the first time we have seen that -face clearly—that haggard, pallid face. Ha! can it be? Those -sunken, bloated cheeks! Those dimmed, hollow eyes, with -leaden, drooping lids! O, can it be? Have we known that -face before? God help us! The good Doctor! and only one -year!</p> - -<p>But see the change! His eye has rested upon that face before -him. A miniature, beautifully executed. In it a charmed art -has presided at a miracle! an arch seraphic brow all “sunnied -o’er” by the golden reflex from its tangled curls, broken in beam -and shadow, gracefully glanced a gay defiance in his eyes, from<span class="pagenum" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</span> -eyes—so lustrous innocent! You dare not say they could be -less than all divine, but that the sweet mouth spoke of earth, and -every weakness of it, “earthy.”</p> - -<p>See how the face of that sad and broken man is changing! -those shrunk and heavy features are re-lit with life, as some dead -waste with sunshine, suddenly. The bright, the tender past; -the mellowed, mournful past, have mounted to the eyes and -flushed those massive features once again. He seems as one -transfigured for a moment, while he gazes. The glory of old -innocence has compassed him about, alas! but for a moment! -The tears pour flooding from his eyes, and blot the face whereon -he gazes. A sob—that wild and piteous moan again—and the -palsied wreck of the strong man falls back once more into his -cushioned chair. A horrid, stertorous breathing, most like that -of a dying man, fills the gloomy air of that dim room, and with -ashy lips and fallen jaw, he sleeps! Ah, that seems a fearful -sleep, with the tears, warm tears, still pouring, pouring down -the rigid cheek!</p> - -<p>The shaded lamp burns on, and fitfully the chaos of that -room, here and there, is touched by its faint light. A slight -sound, a rustling tread is heard, and in a moment, a woman, -dressed in black, with a black veil about her face, and the umbrella -which had protected her from the storm in her hand, stood -beside the sleeper. She evidently had a pass-key, for she -walked forward as one accustomed to use it at all hours and -confidently.</p> - -<p>“The beast! Drunk, dead drunk again!” she muttered. -“I shan’t get the money I wanted to-night, that is plain! Curse -his obstinacy! After all my trouble to save him, this is my -reward! Worse and worse!”</p> - -<p>She sprang forward eagerly as her eye fell upon the jewelled -miniature that lay before him on the table, and snatched it up. -“Ha! this will save me some trouble!” She turned it eagerly -over in her hands, throwing back her veil at the same time, to -examine the valuable case with vivid glistening eyes, that did<span class="pagenum" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</span> -not seem to notice in the least degree the exquisite painting -within.</p> - -<p>“Ah, yes, this is great! Wonder the fool never let me know -of it before! I should have had it in Chatham Street before -this! Never mind, ‘never too late,’ I see! It saves me the -trouble of exploring his pockets and table-drawers to-night, for -what is getting to be a scarce commodity. Bah! what silly -school-girl face is this? He is falling back to whine about the -past. O, that’s all right. I’ll fill his decanter for him! He has -done enough. He has fed me for a year. I’ll let the poor -wretch off! Yes, I’ve <i>saved</i> him! <i>I have feasted on him!</i>” -And she drew herself erect with a triumphant swelling of the -whole frame, which seemed to emit, for the moment, from its -outline, a keen quick exhalation most like the heat-lightning of -a sultry summer sky.</p> - -<p>She fills the decanter rapidly from a demijohn she drags from -a closet in the room, and places it by his side. She pushes the -water-pitcher far beyond his reach, and then steps forward for a -moment into the light.</p> - -<p>Have we ever seen that face before? No! no! It might -have been—there is some resemblance—but this form and face -are too full of arrogant abounding strength to be the same faint -bleeding victim of ruthless persecution that we saw at first! -No! no! It cannot be she! Ha! as she thrusts that jewelled -miniature into her bosom and turns to glide away, I can detect -that infernal obliquity of the left eye! O, dainty Etherial!</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII.<br /> - - -<small>THE CONVENTICLE OF THE STRONG-MINDED.</small></h2> -</div> - -<p class="center">Her strong toils of grace.</p> - - -<p class="psig"><span class="smcap">Shakspeare.</span></p> - - -<p>Take we a glimpse now of another interior scene in the -strange, mingled life of the great metropolis. In a bare and -meanly-furnished but roomy parlor of a house in Tenth Street, -near Tompkins Square, we find assembled, on one summer’s -afternoon, a group of females. There are perhaps ten of them -in all. The characteristic which first strikes the eye, on glancing -around this group, is the strange angularity of lines presented -everywhere, in faces, figures, and attitudes, except when contrasted -with an uncouth and squabby <i>embonpoint</i>, which seemed -equally at variance with the physical harmonies, supposed to be -characteristic of the sex. What all this meant, you could -not comprehend at first glance; but the impression was, of -something “out of joint.” Where, or what, it was impossible -to conjecture. Some sat with their bonnets on, which had a -Quakerish cut about them, though not strictly orthodox. Some, -conscious of fine hair, had tossed their bonnets on the floor or -chairs, as the case might be. There was, in a word, a prevailing -atmosphere of steadfast and devil-may-care belligerence—a -seeming, on brow, in hand, and foot, that, demurely restrained, -as it certainly was, unconsciously led you to feel that a slow -and simultaneous unbuttoning of the cuffs of sleeves, a deliberate -rolling up of the same, and a dazzling development of -lean, taut tendons, corrugated muscles, and swollen veins, -would be the most natural movement conceivable. Not that -this bellicose sentiment, by any means, seemed to have found -its proper antagonism in the forms and personalities then and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</span> -there presented; but that you felt, in the vacant reach and persistent -abstraction of the expression, that the foe, at whom they -gazed through the infinite of space, was not an Individuality, -but an Essence,—a world-devouring element of Evil, with -which they warred.</p> - -<p>And warriors indeed they seemed—we should say Amazons—wielding, -not the weapons of carnal strife, but those mightier -arms with which the Spirit doth, at times, endow our race. As -for the war they waged, whatever might be the power with -whom they were engaged, it seemed to have been a protracted -and a desperate one; for, verily, judging from the harsh lines -that seamed the faces of those present, one would imagine them -to be “rich only in large hurts!”</p> - -<p>There were young women present who were clearly under -twenty; whose foreheads, when they elevated their eyebrows, -were wrinkled and parchment-like as any</p> - -<p class="center"> -“Painful warrior famoused for fight.”</p> - -<p>Why this unnatural wilting? would be the certain question -of the cool observer. What fearful wrongs have these women -suffered? What “contagious blastments?” Is the wicked -world arraigned against them for no just cause? Has it combined -its respiring masses into one large, simultaneous breath -of volcanic cursings, to be wreaked upon their unoffending -heads alone? To be sure,</p> - -<p class="center"> -“Some innocents ’scape not the thunderbolt;”</p> - -<p class="nindent">and can it be that these, too, are “innocents?” It is true, physiology -teaches that, when women wither prematurely, acquire -an unnatural sharpness of feature, become</p> - -<p class="center"> -“Beated and chapped with tanned antiquity,” -</p> - -<p class="nindent">before they have seen years enough for the bloom of the life of -true maturity to have freshened on their cheeks and foreheads, -there must be some cause for it. Common sense teaches, too, -that that cause is most likely to be, originally, rather a physical<span class="pagenum" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</span> -than a spiritual one—that mental aberration, dogged and sullen -moods, one-ideaed abstractions, a general peevishness and fretful -discontent, a suspicious unbelief in the warm-blooded genialities, -and much enduring sympathies of those around them, -whose lives are intact—or, in other words, who have held themselves, -in health, through nature, near to God—must have its -source in some evil not entirely foreign to themselves.</p> - -<p>Ask the wise physician why are these things so? He will -answer, God has so ordered this material universe, that, while -we live in it, we must conform to its laws; that, however powerful -our spiritual entity, our relations to this life must, to be -happy, be normal.</p> - -<p>But this is prosing. It may, or it may not, account, in part, -for the combative and generally corrugated aspect of this conventicle -of the “strong-minded,” to which we have been introduced. -Now let us listen!</p> - -<p>She to whom the place of presiding Pythoness seemed to -have been, by general understanding, assigned, now solemnly -arose, amidst a sudden pause of shrill-tongued clatter. She -was very tall—nearly six feet. Her straight figure would have -seemed voluptuously rounded, but that the loose-folded and -wilted oval of her face suggested that the plump bust, with its -close, manly jacket of black velvet, buttoned down in front, -might owe something of its elastic seeming roundness to those -conventionalities, <i>à la modiste</i>, and otherwise, against which -her principles most vehemently protested. Her flaxen hair -emulated the classic tie of any Venus of them all, on the back -part of the head; while the effulgence of sunny curls flooded -the very crow’s-feet in the corners of her great, cold, dead, -grey eyes.</p> - -<p>She shook her curls slightly, and spoke:—</p> - -<p>“My sisters, we have come together this afternoon, not to talk -about abstractions of right and wrong to our sex; for, upon all -these elementary subjects, our minds are fully made up—all -those inductive processes of which the human intellect is capable,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</span> -our minds have already passed through. Our opinions are irrevocably -formed, our conclusions absolute! Woman is oppressed -by man. She is denied her just rights. She is taxed, yet denied -the privilege of representation. She is a slave, without -the privileges of slavery! for, in the old slave-states, the possession -of twenty, or thirty, or forty slaves gives to their master -the faintly-representative privilege of an additional vote, while, -to our tyrants, though each may hold, in reality, a dozen wives, -the law grants nothing! Leaving us, in fact, not even the -‘shadow of a shade’ of a social or civil existence! We are -thus reduced to a condition of insignificance, in relation to the -active affairs of life and the world, that we have determined to -be, both incongruous and insufferable.</p> - -<p>“Man, our time-out-of-mind despot, has determined to -reduce us to, and hold us within, the sphere of mere wet-nurses -to his insolent and bifurcate progeny;—we must, forsooth, -spawn for him, and then dedicate our lives to educating his procreative -vices into what he calls manhood! We are wearied -with the dull, stale, commonplace of nursery-slops, and of the -fractious squallings of our embryo tyrants! Man must learn to -nurse his own monsters, and we will nurse ours! We have declared -our independence of his tyranny; our great object is to -displace him from his seat of power! For six thousand years -he has been our despot—our ruthless and unscrupulous tyrant! -We have therefore a settlement to make with him—a long -arrearage of accounts to be rendered.</p> - -<p>“But we are weak, while he is strong! He possesses the -physical force, and all the guarantees of precedence since time -began, while we have only our own weaknesses to fall back -upon—what they, in their surfeited rhythm, style ‘witching -graces,’ and ‘nameless charms!’</p> - -<p>“Well, we must use these against our obese foe as best we -may. We must clip the claws and teeth of the lion, at any -rate; and, in consideration that the whole World of Past and -Present is arraigned against us, we must accept as our motto,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</span> -that of the only man who ever deserved to be a woman, Loyola, -the founder of the Jesuits,</p> - -<p class="center"> -“‘The end justifies the means.’”</p> - -<p>A small noise—a scarcely sensible “teetering” of pedal extremities -upon the thin carpet, followed this “stern demonstration” -of “woman’s rights,” from the accepted Priestess of the -conventicle; when various exclamations arose from different -parts of the room, such as—</p> - -<p>“Right! right! End justifies the means, in dealing with the -brutes!”</p> - -<p>“They give us no quarter, and we will give them none!”</p> - -<p>“Nurse their brats, forsooth!”</p> - -<p>“We must circumvent them as we can, to obtain our -‘rights!’”</p> - -<p>“Yes! yes! All stratagems are fair in love and war!”</p> - -<p>Suddenly sprang to her feet a very emphatic, stout woman, -straight and thick-set, with soiled cap, coarse, stubby, grayish -hair, sparse, silvery bristles on her chin, gray, savage eyes, and -large fists, which she brought down with a crash upon the frail -chair-back which constituted the bulwark of her position. In -a voice of creaking bass, she exclaimed—</p> - -<p>“The sister is right—they are our oppressors; but it is because -we have been cowards enough to yield them the supremacy; -it is nothing but our own cowardice that is to blame. -Man knows, as well as any other animal, on which side his bread -is buttered; we have only got to learn him what and where his -place is, and he will keep it. When I first married, I had some -trouble with my Jonas; but I soon taught him that he had better -be back again in the whale’s belly, than employed in trenching -upon my ‘woman’s rights!’ (A general disposition to laugh, -which was, however, frowned down by the dignified Priestess.)</p> - -<p>“It is true, my sisters; we have only to assert our rights, -and take them! Man will never dare to rebel, if we are resolute. -Overwhelm him with our strength—make him feel his<span class="pagenum" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</span> -littleness beside us, and he will slink into any hole to hide. I -am myself in creed a non-resistant—(suppressed laughter.) -I do not believe in pummelling truth into man; forced conversions -do not last, and should not. But I will tell you what -sort of conversions I do believe in; they are spiritual. Bow, -bend, aye, break his spirit to your will, and then he is yours; -instead of being slave to him, he is your slave. This is what -we want. When he can be reduced to obedience, then he will -be happy; for when he has accepted us as his spiritual guides, -and no longer dreams of lifting his thoughts in rebellion, then -will he always go right. They themselves are for ever confessing, -that without us, as mothers, they would never—the greatest -of them—arrive at any thing; that they owe it all to us—all -their greatness, all their goodness. Let us take the hint, and -hold the spiritual birch over them always, and they will ever -remain obedient, for their own good.”</p> - -<p>This speech was received with very general approbation; -though, that all did not recognise it as orthodox, became immediately -apparent. A tall, thin, cadaverous-looking lady, with -excessively black hair, and eyes that literally glistered as she -rose—the huge ear-rings and multifarious trinkets about her -person quivering with excitement—exclaimed, in a shrill -voice—</p> - -<p>“It is false! it is not true that we desire to make slaves of -man. We are opposed to slavery—to slavery of all sorts; and, -although man deserves, on account of his oppressions of the -poor negro, to be made a slave of, if human slavery were to be -tolerated, yet we desire rather to return good for evil; and all -we ask is equality in the Senate, in the Presidential chair, on the -bench of justice, in the counting-house and workshop. We -want our rights; our right to marriage as a mere civil contract—our -right to choose with whom we shall enter into that contract, -whether colored or white man, and our right to annul that -contract when it pleases us. What kind of freedom is it, when, -if I choose to marry a man of color, no matter how noble he<span class="pagenum" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</span> -may be, I am to be mobbed and driven out of the society of my -race; while, if I am so unfortunate as to marry a white man, -who turns out to be a brute and tyrant, as he is most like to do, -and attempt to rid myself of the horrid incubus, by leaving him, -or by suing him for a divorce, I am equally mobbed by the -hue-and-cry, and banished from society as an outlaw? We -want our rights in marriage—we want equality. I can—”</p> - -<p>Here the speaker was interrupted by a voice marvellously -flute-like and lingering in its intonations:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“‘At which, like unbacked colts, they pricked their ears,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Advanced their eyelids, lifted up their noses,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">As they smelt music.’”</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p class="nindent">And cold shoulders were simultaneously turned upon the dark-haired -and be-jewelled orator of amalgamation.</p> - -<p>The dulcet-toned interrogator, who, to the surprise of all -eyes, appeared a squabby, cottony, pale-eyed, thick-lipped, -lymphatic-looking personage, who wore a wig clumsily, and had -no vestige of hair upon brow or violet eyelids, proceeded, in -mellifluous phrase—</p> - -<p>“We did not come here to talk about private grievances. -The sister who speaks so fiercely of our rights, in regard to -marriage, had better have had a little experience on the subject. -She is, I should judge, considerably the rise of forty, and has -never yet been married; not even to one of the dark-browed -children of Ham, towards whom she exhibits so decided a leaning. -Now, I have been married six times already—(great sensation,)—and -to white men, and gentlemen, at that; and consider -myself, therefore, qualified to speak of marriage. Marriage -is a great blessing; let her try it when she gets a chance, -and she will find it so! (much bristling and fidgeting, the dark-haired -woman looking daggers.) It isn’t marriage that is the -great evil, against which we have to fight—nor it isn’t the -slavery of the colored race, either. It is the slavery of our own -race, of our own kith and kin, of our own blood and complexion.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</span> -It is the emancipation of our own fathers, sons, and brothers, -from the barbarous penalties of the penal code. Our -erring fathers, sons, and brothers; it is their cause, my sisters, -it is their cause we are called upon to vindicate. According to -our brutal laws, one little frailty, to which we all may be subject,—one -little slip, which any, the purest of us may make—subjects -man to solitary incarceration for life, in which he is cut -off from all loving communion with our sex; or to the horrible -penalty of death by the rope! This, my beloved sisters, is the -crying evil of the day; and man, cruel man, is in favor of such -inflictions. We must soften his flinty heart, through our charms. -It is our duty, it is our mission, to effect amelioration in favor -of the erring classes. We are all erring; and in how much are -we better than they?—except, that through our cunning, and -in our cowardice, we have as yet escaped penalties which, under -the same measure of justice, might as well have been visited -upon us. I have visited the penitentiaries and prisons of many -States, that I might carry consolation to the shorn and manacled -children of oppression. I tell you that I have seen among them -gods, whose shattered armor gleamed in light! I have seen -Apollo, with his winged heel chained to a round-shot! I have -witnessed more glorious effulg—”</p> - -<p>“Hiss-s-s-s!” “Nonsense!”</p> - -<p>“It was Mercury, the god of thieves, you saw with the -round-shot at his heels!” said an oily voice; and, as all eyes -turned in that direction, the forehead of the speaker flushed -crimson while she proceeded—</p> - -<p>“It is not man at all; it is we who shut ourselves up in tight -frocks, who make hooks-and-eyes our jailors, and ribs of whalebone -our strait-jackets! Let us first free ourselves physically, -give our lungs and hearts room to play, and then we may talk -about open battle with man for our rights. But, as it is, to speak -thus, is nonsense. We are weak, while man is strong; we must -fight him with other weapons than open force. While he laughs -at our pretensions, let us, too, laugh at his foibles, and govern<span class="pagenum" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</span> -him through them. It was to consult, as to some consistent and -uniform system, by which we should be enabled to accomplish -this result, that we came together this afternoon. It has been -well said, that our motto should be, ‘The end justifies the -means.’ To the weak and the determined, this is a sacred -creed, and we should go forth with it in our hearts, and act -upon it in all our relations towards men. It should be our -business to get possession of them, body and soul. We need -their influence, to advance our views, to obtain our rights. We -should be all things to all men; should believe in the Bible, in -Fourier, in Swedenborg, in Joe Smith, or Mahomet, if necessary, -so that the influence be gained. We must seek out everywhere -men who hold places of power and public influence, and -win them—not to our cause, for that would be hopeless—but -to ourselves; and through ourselves to our cause. We must -not scruple as to the means; for ‘the end justifies the means.’ -We must find, by whatever stratagem, art, or intrigue, that -may be available, the assailable points in the characters of those -who may be of use to us, and secure them, at whatever risk of -reputation; for, as we will secretly sustain each other, we will -at once dignify ourselves and our cause into the position of -martyrdom, and be able to take shelter behind the omnipotent -cry of persecution. There we are safe.”</p> - -<p>“Good!” “Good!” “Right!” “Right!” “Just the -thing!” burst from all sides of the room; while the weather-beaten -face,—that is, the forehead,—of the lithe, glib speaker -flushed with momentary exultation, while she continued, with -still greater emphasis—</p> - -<p>“Thus banded, my sisters, if we are firm, faithful, and enduring, -we may conquer the world. There is never a period -when there is more than a dozen men who wield its destinies. -There are nearly a dozen of us here present, and there are other -spirits that I know, resolute and strong enough, to be our associates; -let us resolve, then, to govern those who govern; and -the romantic fragments of the life of a Lola Montes will have been<span class="pagenum" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</span> -firmly conjoined in the fact of a governing dynasty, the sceptre -of which shall be upheld by woman.”</p> - -<p>Storms of applause, during which the plain, Quakerish-looking -speaker subsided into her seat. As she did so, there might -have been observed, under the flush of exultation which mantled -her brow, a singular obliquity of the left eye! Ha! -Etherial!</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII.<br /> - - -<small>INTRUSION.</small></h2> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">’Tis he! I ken the manner of his gait—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">He rises on the toe; that spirit of his</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In aspiration lifts him from the earth.</div> - <div class="verse indent28"><span class="smcap">Shakspeare.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">A barren-spirited fellow! one that feeds</div> - <div class="verse indent0">On objects, arts, and imitations.</div> - <div class="verse indent28"><i>Idem.</i></div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">This is a slight, unmeritable man,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Meet to be sent on errands.</div> - <div class="verse indent28"><i>Idem.</i></div> -</div></div></div> - - -<p>We will now enter one of the upper rooms of the notorious -Graham House, with the interior of which we have before been -familiarised, and which had been reopened, on a modified -basis. A single glance at the confused piles of manuscripts, -books, and papers, scattered about the room and on the table, -mingled with stumps of pens and cigars, and a long-tubed -meerschaum, showed that it could be no other than the characteristic -den of a literary bachelor, who, with chair and table -drawn close to the stove, sat there to show for himself, earnestly -engaged in what seemed to be the business of his life—writing.</p> - -<p>You saw in a moment that this was not a Northern man, for -in addition to the long, black, and wavy hair, the dark, bronzed, -and vaulting features indicated clearly a Southern origin. He -was evidently young—certainly not more than twenty-seven, -judging, as one instinctively does, by contour of person and -features, and not by the expression of the face. But that expression, -when you saw it, as he lifted his head, at once left you -in doubt whether it could possibly belong to so immature a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</span> -period of life. Although the brow was broad, and mild as that -of a child, yet there was a solemn and unnatural fixedness in -the whole face, which, united with the cold stillness of the great, -gray, hollow eyes, told at once a dreary tale of suffering, which -sent an involuntary shudder through your soul. Where the expression -rested most, it was impossible for you to tell; but the -feeling it conveyed was one of absolute horror. That a face, -which seemed so young, should be one that never smiled!—And -could the story that it told be true? Could it be that for -years that face had never smiled?</p> - -<p>A light tap was heard at the door, and, with a momentary -frown of vexation at the interruption, he turned his head, and -a young man entered the room, with somewhat hesitating step, -which showed that he was by no means certain of his ground.</p> - -<p>He was slight and thin, something below the average height, -with even a darker complexion than that of the face we have -just described; his black hair, and preternaturally black and -vivid eyes, glittered beneath straight, heavy brows, which nearly -met. His nose was prominent and partly arched; and there -was, in the whole bowed bearing and cat-like gait of this person, -an inexplicably strange and foreign look, which, alike in -all countries, characterises that fated race which is yet an outcast -among the nations.</p> - -<p>His greeting was singularly expressive of eager appreciation, -while that of his host to him was cold, distant, and merely -polite. Pushing aside his writing materials, as he handed him -a chair, Manton—for such was the name of our young writer—turned -upon his visitor a frigid look of inquiry, and said, with -a formality almost drawling—</p> - -<p>“Doctor E. Willamot Weasel, I hope it is well with you this -evening?”</p> - -<p>His visitor, in rather a confused manner, commenced—“Ye-es, -yes—I—I fear I am intruding on your seclusion; but -p-pardon me, I cannot bear any longer to see you thus seclude -yourself from all the amenities of social life. You need relaxation;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</span> -your stern isolation here with the pen, and pen alone, is -playing wild work with your fine faculties. Pardon me, if I -insist upon it, that you must and should accept the sympathies -of the men and women around you. In the doctrine of unity -in diversity, Fourier demonstrates that there is nothing more -fatal to consistent development of both body and mind, than -entire pre-occupation in a single object or pursuit.”</p> - -<p>Detecting a shade of vexation, at this juncture, crossing the -open brow of Manton, Doctor Ebenezer Willamot Weasel hastily -reiterated his apologies.</p> - -<p>“I beg of you not to mistake my zeal for impertinence. I -have already received much good and many valuable truths -from conversation with you, and I conceive myself under strong -personal obligations of gratitude to you, that I hope may plead -for me in extenuation of what you, no doubt, consider an impertinent -intrusion. I would, as some measure of acknowledgment -for such obligations, beg to be permitted to protest with -you against this dangerous and obstinate isolation from all -human sympathies, in which your life, dedicated to literary -ambition, seems to be here fixed.”</p> - -<p>“My good friend, Doctor Weasel, my life is my own, and -my purposes are fixed. I need no sympathisers, since I am -sufficient unto myself. They would only distract and minify -the higher aims of my life. You may call it literary ambition, -but I call it a settled and sacred purpose to achieve good in my -day and generation. I am content, sir! Do not attempt to -disturb that contentment!”</p> - -<p>This reply was somewhat curtly delivered, and seemed to discompose -the Doctor, who, however, hesitatingly persisted—</p> - -<p>“Ah! ah! ah! yes! I expected to hear something of the sort -from you, of course, but I beg you to consider that, under the -harmonic law of reciprocation or mutual support and benefits, -discovered by Fourier, and which lies at the base of all true organisation, -you have no more right, as an individual, to hold -yourself aloof, intellectually and socially, from the great body<span class="pagenum" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</span> -of mankind who are working for your benefit as well as for their -own, than a rich man has to lock up his hoards of gold, and -bury it where future generations may not reach it! The social -state can only exist by individual concessions in favour of the -whole.”</p> - -<p>“Your argument,” was the cold response, “like all generalising -postulates aimed at particular cases, overleaps its mark. -I consider that I shall effect more earnest good by persisting in -this isolation against which you protest. For as I do not ask or -require the individual sympathies of my race, but rather choose -the still-life of undisturbed sympathy and communion with -nature, I feel that I shall accomplish more, far more, for -humanity, in thus dedicating myself to her interpretation. -Through me, as a medium, my fellow men may thus learn far -loftier truths than they themselves might ever impart reciprocally -amidst the babble of what you call social intercourse.”</p> - -<p>“But you do not exclude women, surely? That would be -unnatural; for you know that the life of man cannot be completely -balanced, without the ameliorating presence and subduing -contact of woman. He becomes a savage without her; -his passions are brutalised, and the man is spiritually and socially -degraded.”</p> - -<p>“An admirable truism, Doctor! I honor and revere woman; -in her high place she is to us, emphatically—angel! But this -very reverence in which I hold her, prompts me to avoid contacts -that may despoil me of my ideal. I am prepared to worship -her, but not to degrade or look upon her degraded. There -is nothing, in the range of human possibilities, so hideous to me -as such contact—for I would hold my mother’s image always -uncontaminated. I am a stranger, sir. I make no female acquaintances -at present here.”</p> - -<p>“Sorry,” said the Doctor, “very sorry, sir; for my special -mission in this case was to persuade you to give up your isolation, -in favor of an acquaintance with a most noble and charming -woman, a friend of mine, who, having met with your papers<span class="pagenum" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</span> -in the journal you are now editing, is exceedingly anxious for -an introduction, which I, in plain terms, have come to request. -She is a woman of masculine and daring mind, and is taking -the initial in most of the reform movements of the day, and -particularly the most important of them all, the science of physiology -as applicable to her own sex. She has taken the lead -as the first lecturer on such subjects, and is accomplishing a vast -amount of good. I am sure you will be much struck with her, -and I never met two people whom I was more anxious to see -brought together. You will appreciate each other, as physiology -is one of your favorite subjects.”</p> - -<p>“Bah! a lecture-woman! But I don’t mean to be disrespectful, -Doctor. You could have told me nothing that would -have more firmly fixed my resolution neither to be introduced -to or know the person of whom you speak, on any terms whatever! -Your manly-minded women are both my disgust and -abhorrence!—as what they choose to call manliness is most -usually a coarse and sensual impudence, based on inherent -immodesty, which renders them incapable of recognising the -delicate unities of propriety, either in thought or deed. I fully -concede a woman’s capacity for displaying the great and even -loftier processes of intellection; but the moment she unsexes -herself, she and her thoughts become vulgarised. Such people -are universally adventuresses, and of the most unscrupulous -sort. I, as a stranger here, wish to run no risk of becoming -entangled in their plausibilities. I am working for a full, free -and frank recognition, by the social world, of my right to choose -the place, the social circle rather, that I shall enter and become -a part of. I do not wish to be dragged into such contacts, but -to command them at my will!”</p> - -<p>“But, sir,” persisted the Doctor, “she admires your papers -so fervently, and pities the cruel and self-inflicted isolation in -which you live, with such ardent, disinterested and motherly -warmth, that you can scarcely, in your heart, be so obdurate as -to reject her genial overture—the sole object of which is, to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</span> -draw you forth into some participation with the milder humanities—to -make you feel that New York is not really the savage, -base and flowerless waste which we are led to presume you -consider it, from the attitude you have assumed toward its -social conditions. You are killing yourself here with tobacco, -wine and labour, while she would show that even self-immolated -genius may find a warm place to nestle, in distant lands, -and near the matronly bosom, in spite of cold and sullen self-reliance!”</p> - -<p>“The fact of her being a matron,” frigidly responded Manton, -“considerably modifies the general character of the proposition -which she has done me the honor, through you, to communicate. -But, Doctor, I must finally and definitively state to you that I -do not, at present, wish to cultivate any female acquaintance -whatever in the city of New York. I propose to wait until I -can select instead of being selected.” And rising at the same -time with an impatient movement, which might or might not, -be mistaken for a desire to be left alone, Mr. Manton politely -showed Doctor E. Willamot Weasel, who had now taken the -hint, to the door.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Almost the same moment after his discomfited visitor left, -Manton hastily gathered up the scattered leaves of manuscript -on his table, and muttering, as he thrust the roll into his pocket, -“Curse the intrusion! this ought to have been in the printers’ -hands an hour ago, and yet it is not finished!” and snatching -up his cap, he passed from the room, and left the house.</p> - -<p>Not long after, there came a sharp ring at the door of the -Graham House, and the female servant, who hurriedly hastened -to open it, was quite as sharply interrogated by a woman on the -outside, who was closely veiled, and wore a sort of Quaker -garb—</p> - -<p>“Is Mr. Manton in?”</p> - -<p>“No, ma’am, he has just gone out.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</span></p> - -<p>“Where is his room? I have a letter for him, which I wish -to deposit in a safe place with my own hands. What is the -<i>number</i> of his room?” she asked, in an imperative manner.</p> - -<p>“Ma’am, the gentleman is out. Can’t you leave the letter -with me or the mistress? We will give it to him when he -comes.”</p> - -<p>“No, I choose to place it myself. What is his <i>number</i>?” -And as she spoke, she slightly unveiled herself. The servant -seemed to recognise her face even through the dusk, and said, -though rather sullenly, as she gave way for her to pass—</p> - -<p>“Yes, ma’am, walk in. His room is No. 26, on the third -floor.” The female glided rapidly past, and as the servant attempted -to follow her, exclaiming, “Ma’am, I will show you -the number,” she answered hastily, “Never mind, I know where -the room is now!” and darted up the stairs.</p> - -<p>The servant muttered some droll commentaries on this procedure, -which it is not necessary to repeat, and seeming to be -afraid to complain to her superiors, dragged herself surlily back -towards her subterranean home.</p> - -<p>In the meantime our light-footed and unceremonious caller -had reached the third floor, and walked straight forward to the -door of the room just left by Manton. She troubled herself -with no idle ceremony of knocking, but walked confidently in.</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX.<br /> - - -<small>BESIEGED.</small></h2> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Such forces met not, nor so wide a camp,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">When Agrican, with all his northern powers,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Besieged Albracca, as romances tell.</div> - <div class="verse indent28"><span class="smcap">Paradise Regained.</span></div> -</div></div></div> - - -<p>An hour after the last scene, Manton returned to his room, -and, seeming greatly hurried, lit his lamp, and throwing himself -into a chair, seized his pen, muttering between his teeth, -“It must be finished to-night! a <i>man</i> has no right to be tired!” -He was drawing his writing materials towards him, to proceed -with his work, when a something of strange disorder among his -papers caught his quick eye.</p> - -<p>“Ah! who has been disturbing my papers?” and as a flash of -suspicion shot through him, he sprang to his feet, exclaiming, -“my trunks, no doubt, have shared the inquisition!” and stepping -quickly to them, he threw up the lids.</p> - -<p>“By Heaven, it is so! what accursed carelessness this is of -mine, leaving everything unlocked in this fashion!”</p> - -<p>His first glance had shown him that the trunks had been disturbed, -and a cautious effort been made to replace the contents -as they were before. Uttering some energetic expletives of -wrath, he knelt beside one to ascertain how far the examination -had been carried, when, reaching the packages of letters and -papers at the bottom, he saw there, too, unmistakable evidence -of a pretty thorough examination having been held of their -contents.</p> - -<p>If he had been enraged before, this filled him with uncontrollable -fury. He stamped his foot heavily upon the floor, and -his whole frame shook violently, while with gnashing teeth he -called down a fearful imprecation upon the head of this wretched<span class="pagenum" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</span> -violator, whoever it might be, of the sad and mournful secrets -of his past life, which he had held sealed in his own bosom, so -sternly, so long, and, alas! so vainly. Those letters revealed -all. Some prying reptile had thus slimed the holy penetralia -of his proud life!</p> - -<p>The very thought was horror—loathing! A shudder of unutterable -disgust crept through him; an uncontrollable fury -blazed through his soul; his eyes glittered with almost demoniac -fire; his face turned deathly white, and his teeth ground and -clattered like the clamp of a wild boar’s tusks, and yet he -made no tragic start; he stood still, with his arms clutching -each other across his breast, and his eyes looking out into the -blank distance, through which their concentrated light seemed -to pierce to some far object. He at length pronounced slowly—</p> - -<p>“Yes, my curse shall follow you; be you man or woman, it -shall overtake you in terror! I feel the prophecy in me! The -wretch who has thus contaminated those chaste and loved mementoes, -shall yet feel my curse! My consciousness is filled -with it! I know not how, or when, or where! my curse shall -reach and blast the author of this sacrilege!—bah!” and his -face writhed into the devilish mockery of a smile; “it is -almost sufficient vengeance, one would think, that the wretch -found no money!”</p> - -<p>Starting suddenly forward, he commenced pacing to and fro -with long strides, with knitted brows, compressed lips, and -eyes bent upon the floor.—For more than an hour he thus -silently communed with himself, without the change of a muscle -in expression, when drawing a long sigh, he threw off this -frigid look in a degree, merely saying in a low voice, “My -curse is good!” and returned to the table to resume his seat and -his labors.</p> - -<p>As he did so, his eye fell upon a note directed to himself, -which, as it had been placed in no very conspicuous position -among the objects on the table, had, till now, escaped his attention. -He reached it, and the dainty crow-quilled hand of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</span> -superscription, the snowy envelope, and the pure white seal, -disclosed at once the woman.—He regarded it for a moment, -coldly, and without any expression of interest or surprise, and -with a slight sneer upon his face, broke the seal, when out -slipped a gilt-edged note, which he opened and read aloud with -a jeering tone:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p><span class="smcap">Friend</span>—May I not claim to be thy friend in common with -the whole world, who have learned to love thee, through thy -beautiful thoughts? Stricken, sad, and suicidal child of genius, -may I not steal into the tiger’s lair of thy savage isolation, to -bring one single ray of blessing, to tell thee how, at least, one -human soul has throbbed to the seraphic eloquence of powers, -that, alas!—I appeal to your inmost consciousness!—are being -rapidly destroyed by your obstinate seclusion in labor, and by -the vices of wine and tobacco, which are its necessary attendants. -You have it in you to be saved; your soul is tall and -strong as an archangel; your vices are the withes of grass -that bind you; and love, social love, the calm and genial reciprocation -of domestic sympathies, can alone redeem you.</p> - -<p>You are proud—I know it! but pride will yield to gentleness, -and in a distant land among strangers, the tearless, motherless -boy, will not reject a mother’s proffer of a mother’s yearnings. -You naughty, haughty child, we must save you from yourself, -in spite of yourself!</p> - -<p class="psig"> -Yours spiritually,<br /> -<span class="smcap">Marie</span>.</p> -</div> - -<p>Manton, whose face had, during this reading, writhed with -almost every conceivable expression, tossed the letter from him -as he finished it, with the exclamation—“Pah! this must be -Doctor E. Willamot Weasel’s lecture-woman! Impudent adventuress -in every line, as I expected!” And he resumed his -pen and his labors, continuing in a low voice as he commenced -his writing—“Unfortunate allusion, by the way, to the withes -of grass—we cannot help being reminded of a certain Mr. Samson, -and a Miss or Mrs. Delilah. Curse her! how came<span class="pagenum" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</span> -she to speak of my mother?” and grinding his teeth heavily, he -proceeded with the work before him, without paying any further -attention to the circumstance.</p> - -<p>The greater portion of the night was spent in intense labor; -but, when, after a very late bath and breakfast, the next morning, -Manton went out to the office of the Journal for an hour, -and returned, he was not a little surprised to find another missive, -as neat and snowy as the first, awaiting him, on the table.</p> - -<p>He thought it must surely be the first, that he had, in some -unconscious mood, re-enclosed in the envelope; but, glancing -around, he saw it lying open, where he had tossed it.</p> - -<p>“Gramercy! but she fires fast!” he said, with a droll look -passing across his features, as he stooped down, his hands cautiously -clasped behind his back, to survey more closely the delicate -superscription—<i>Mr. Stewart Manton, Graham House, -Present</i>.</p> - -<p>“Present! present! but this sounds rather ominous! Can it -be that my spiritual correspondent of last night is an inmate -too? My correspondent is evidently both in earnest and in a -hurry! What shall I do? By my faith, I have a great mind -to throw it upon the centre-table of the common parlor below, -and let this benevolent lady reclaim her own, or else leave it to -the irresistible access of curiosity, common to the sex, and peculiar -to this queer house, to explore its unclaimed sweets. -The first taste has quite sickened me. I have something other -to do than listen to such inane twattle.”</p> - -<p>He continued for some moments to gaze upon the letter, -while a half-sneering smile played upon his grave and melancholy -features. “Well, but this must be a quaint specimen of -a feminine, to say the least of it! I have heard of these spiritual -ladies before! The character must be worth studying, -though it seems to be transparent enough, too. Well! we’ll -see what she has to say this time, at any rate! It can hardly -be richer than the first! Here it is!”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</span></p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p><span class="smcap">Friend</span>—I know your heart. That proud heart of yours is -at this moment filled with scorn for my poor words and humble -proffers. But it does not affect me much, for well I know that -this pride is the evil which ever strives in the unregenerate soul, -to fence against the approaches of good. As yet this demon -possesses thee, and, until conquered and humbled by love, you -can never be saved. Thy physical life is poisoned—is poisoned -with tobacco—and it is through such poisons that this -evil spirit of pride enters into thy soul. Thy spiritual vision is -thus obscured, that you may not perceive the truth. I shall -pray for you. My spirit shall wrestle with thine when you -know it not, and God will help his humble instrument. May -He soon move that obdurate heart of thine, proud boy!</p> - -<p class="psig"> -<span class="smcap">Marie</span><br /> -</p> -</div> - -<p>“Well! but this is cool! decidedly refreshing! This pertinacious -creature is surely some mad woman confessed, as she -certainly is a most raging and impertinent fanatic! Boy, forsooth! -patronising. I should almost be provoked, were not -the thing so egregiously ludicrous! Well, well! it is consoling, -at least, that I have found my good Samaritan at last. I shall -preserve these precious epistles, as decidedly curious memoranda -of this original type of the Yankee adventuress, for Yankee she -must be, who has set out thus boldly on a speculation in the -spiritualities. I think I have had enough of this trash now, as I -intend to take no notice either of it or of the writer. I should -suppose she might get discouraged.”</p> - -<p>The letters were thrown carelessly into a drawer, and Manton -sat down to his work.</p> - -<p>The next morning, when Manton returned from the office, at -the usual hour, what should meet his eye, the first thing on entering -the room, but a <i>third</i> snowy missive, placed now more -conspicuously, on the very centre of the table. The poor man -stopped, frowned, then gradually his eyes distended into a wild<span class="pagenum" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</span> -stare, and lifting his hands at the same moment, he shouted -out—</p> - -<p>“Good God! What, another?” and then, with a sudden -revulsion of feeling, he burst into a loud, unnatural laugh. -“This is patience for you! By heaven! she dies game to the -last! Well! let’s see what now, for I am beginning to be -charmed with the progress of this thing. There’s an absolute -fascination in such daring.”</p> - -<p>He snatched up the note, and opening it, read it <i>sotto voce</i>, -with an indescribable intonation of contempt:—</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p><span class="smcap">Friend</span>—Ah, glorious soul, that I might call thee so indeed! -I have just read your poem in the Journal. Read it, did I say? -My soul has devoured it! Again and again have I returned to -the feast unsated. Ah me, that mighty rhythm! It has filled me -with new strength and light! On its harmonious flow the universe -of beauty, love and life has been brought closer to me—has -been revealed in splendor and unutterable music, until I -have sobbed for joy thereof, and prayed and wrestled for thee, -with my Father above, that thou mightest be saved. It is terrible -to think that a soul so god-like as thine should be unregenerate. -I bless thee! I bless thee, my son! I pray for thee! -I am praying for thee! I shall pray for thee always, until thou -art saved!</p> - -<p class="psig"> -<span class="smcap">Marie.</span> -</p> -</div> - -<p>“Good! I am in a fair way for salvation now, one would -think! This seems a strange character—such a mixture of -fanaticism, cant, and, withal, appreciation! That poem of mine -was certainly an extraordinary one. I hardly expected to find -any one that would appreciate it at first. But see! she has -already caught its subtle reach and meaning. Pooh! what a -fool I am! This is perfectly on a par with all the other hysterical -cant which I have received from this person. The probability -is, if the lines had been written by Mr. Julian Augustus -Maximilian Dieaway, upon whose soft sconce she desired to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</span> -make an impression (in the way of speculation), the same extravagant -tropes and metaphors would have found their way to -the snowy surface of this gilt-edged paper, through the delicately-handled -crow-quill! Curse it! I shall order the chambermaid -to stop the nuisance of these missives!”</p> - -<p>This letter was impatiently tossed into the drawer with the -others, and Manton threw himself into his chair; when, after -sitting with his head leaning on his hands, moody and motionless, -for some time, he suddenly straightened himself, and drew -from the heap of magazines and books before him a fresh-looking -copy of the —— Journal. Turning over its leaves eagerly -to that which contained his new poem, he perused it and re-perused -it over and over again, with an expression of restlessness -and intense inquiry in his manner during the time. -At last he drew a long breath, and threw the book back upon -the table, exclaiming in a firm voice, “No! I am satisfied. -This is no namby-pamby die-away rhyming—there is genuine -stuff there; that is true poetry, or I have it not in my nature to -produce it. That cursed meddlesome woman has made me -distrust myself for the moment; by her extravagant praises, has -made me doubt the genuineness of my own inspiration. Her -letter is so evidently disjointed ranting, that it has shaken my -self-reliance to have even read it. Curse her silly and impertinent -legends, I shall read no more of them!”</p> - -<p>Poor Manton was evidently troubled now, at length; and can -the reader conjecture why this last letter had so excited him? -Had a subtle arrow found its mark? Was there any thing in -the poem really to justify the high-flown and ecstatic panegyrics -of missive No. 3, in the snow-white envelope? You shall see—you -shall judge. Here is a true copy of the poem:—</p> - - -<p class="center">NO REST.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">O soul, dream not of rest on earth!</div> - <div class="verse indent2">On! forth on! It is thy doom!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Too stern for pain, too high for mirth,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">On! thou must, through light and gloom.</div> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</span></p> </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Would’st thou rest when thou hast strength</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Mated with the seraphim?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Time outlasting, all whose length</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Fades, within thine ages, dim?</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">O strong traveller, can’st thou tire,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">When, but touching at the grave,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Thy worn feet, re-shod, aspire,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Winged, to cleave as Uriel<a id="FNanchor_3" href="#Footnote_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> clave?</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent4">Rest! ah, rest then! be alone—</div> - <div class="verse indent4">God the Worker, thou the Drone!</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Soon yon atom, swiftly driving</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Past thee, in the upward race,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Braver for the perfect striving,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Shall assume the higher place.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent4">God, the Worker, knows no rest—</div> - <div class="verse indent4">Pause, and be of Him unblest.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Lo! how by thee all is flying!</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Even matter outspeeds thee!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Stronger thou, yet thou seem’st dying—</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Fading down immensity.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent4">Rouse the quickened life to know!</div> - <div class="verse indent4">God works subtly, work thou so!</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Thou art subtler than the wind,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Than the waters, than the light,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Than old Chaos, whom these bind,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Beautiful, on axle bright.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent4">Yet thou sleepest, while they speed—</div> - <div class="verse indent4">God, of sleepers has no need!</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Waiteth cloud, or stream, or flower,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Robing meadows and the wood?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Waiteth swallow past its hour,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Chasing spring beyond the flood?</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent4">Yet thou waitest, weak, untrue—</div> - <div class="verse indent4">God rebuketh sloth in you!</div> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</span></p> </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Sing the stars wearily,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Old though and gray?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Spin they not cheerily</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Cycles to-day?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Look they like failing,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Pause they for wailing,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Since none may stay?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Systems are falling—</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Autumns have they;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Stars yet are calling</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Life from decay.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Dead worlds but gild them</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Dusted in light;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Dead times have filled them</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Fuller of might.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Brightening, still brightening,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Round, round, they go—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Eternity lightening</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The way and the wo!</div> - <div class="verse indent28"><span class="smcap">De Noto.</span></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - - - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_3" href="#FNanchor_3" class="label">[3]</a> - -<p>“Thither came Uriel, gliding through the even.”</p> - -<p> -<span class="psig smcap">Paradise Lost.</span> -</p> -</div> - - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X.<br /> - - -<small>“ONCE MORE TO THE BREACH.”</small></h2> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">——Once more to the breach, my friends!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Once more!</div> - <div class="verse indent28"><span class="smcap">Old Play.</span></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - - -<p>Poor Manton was not permitted to remain in peace at his -labors long. On the afternoon of the same day, Doctor E. -Willamot Weasel, scarcely taking time to announce himself by -a sharp knock, bolted into the room, exclaiming—</p> - -<p>“Ah! my dear friend, pardon me; but the lady concerning -whom I spoke to you, is now in the parlor below, and requests -the pleasure of an interview.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</span></p> - -<p>A frown instantly darkened the brow of Manton, and he answered -angrily—</p> - -<p>“Sir! you will remember that I expressed to you, most distinctly, -a disinclination for such an introduction. I told you I -did not wish to know this woman, then, and I feel still less -inclination to know her now.”</p> - -<p>“But, a-ah! my dear sir, you would not surely be unkind -enough to refuse to see the lady now, when she waits in the -parlor, in momentary expectation of seeing you—for the servant -told her you were in? It certainly can do you no harm to -be courteous.”</p> - -<p>“That’s a strong appeal to make to a Southerner, Doctor -Weasel, it must be confessed.”</p> - -<p>“Yes,” said he, rubbing his hands, “I thought you could -not disregard it. I am so anxious to bring you together! Do -come. I shall be delighted. Come! pray come! she is -waiting.”</p> - -<p>“Doctor Weasel, I do this thing with great reluctance,” said -Manton, rising. “I suppose I must go; but rest assured, I do -not feel particularly obliged to you for forcing me into this position.”</p> - -<p>This was said in a very cold, measured tone; but the Doctor’s -delight at the prospect of accomplishing his favorite and benevolent -scheme, was so great, that his excitement prevented him -from observing it.</p> - -<p>“Never mind, come along; you will thank me for it, on the -contrary, as long as you live.”</p> - -<p>Manton left the room with him, and when they reached the -parlor, he was rapidly introduced to Mrs. Orne and her daughter, -who sat upon a lounge awaiting him. The Doctor instantly -darted out of the room; and Manton was left <i>vis-a-vis</i> with his -ecstatic correspondent.</p> - -<p>As the woman rose to meet him, the blood mounted to her -very plain face, and square, compact, masculine forehead. The -child, which was an ugly, impish-looking girl, with a mean forehead,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</span> -wide mouth and projecting chin, nevertheless arrested the -eye of Manton, as he sat down, by a mournful expression of -suffering in her light gray eye.</p> - -<p>The woman was evidently embarrassed for a moment, by the -studied coldness of Manton’s manner, whose eye continued to -dwell upon the half-quaker, and half-tawdry dress, rather than -upon the face that had at the first glance impressed him so -disagreeably.</p> - -<p>“I have found you out, at last!” said the lady visitor, in a -low, pleasing voice. “Now I have ventured into the tiger’s -den, I hope he will not eat me!”</p> - -<p>“You are perfectly safe, madam!” was the stiff response to -this sally. “But to what may I owe the honor of this visit? -Is there anything I can do for you?”</p> - -<p>The blood mounted quickly to the woman’s forehead as she -answered hastily, “Yes, I wanted to know if you can furnish -me with a copy of all your works! I have admired with so -much intensity what I have seen—but I am afraid you are very -much of a naughty boy—you look so cold and cross! I am -almost afraid to ask you!”</p> - -<p>“I am very sorry, madam, I have written no works, as you -are pleased to call them. What I have done is entirely fragmentary, -and I have not collected those fragments even for myself,” -was the unbending reply.</p> - -<p>“Oh, yes, you have! I have seen many of them, and you -need not be ashamed to own them, for there is nothing of the -kind in literature to surpass them. Why, there’s ——,” and -she ran on with a ready list of what she termed works, not a -little to the surprise of Manton, who only listened with a cold -stare, and bowed profoundly, as she concluded with a high-wrought -panegyric.</p> - -<p>“I am sorry I have no such <i>works</i> in my possession, nor can -I tell you where they can be obtained!”</p> - -<p>The woman grew very red in the face again, and bit her lips -in vexation, while Manton remained silent. She soon rallied,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</span> -however, and commenced a conversation upon the general literature -of the day, in which Manton, in spite of himself, was -gradually interested, by a certain sharp epigrammatic method -of uttering heresies, and bold paradoxes, which seemed to be -peculiar to her mind, and which could not but prove refreshing -to one, who, like Manton, most heartily detested commonplace.</p> - -<p>He, however, did not unbend in the slightest, and the woman, -who finally, in despair of “getting at him,” rose to depart, said, -yet perseveringly, with winning badinage—</p> - -<p>“I find you in a naughty humor to-day. You are as cold as -an iceberg and sharp as a nor’wester. When you get to be a -good boy, you may come and see me!”</p> - -<p>“When I <i>do</i>, madam, I shall surely come!” was the response, -accompanied by a very low bow, and delivered in a tone that -would have frost-bitten the ear of a polar bear.</p> - -<p>The discomfited woman hurried from the parlor with the -blood almost bursting from her face, while Manton, turning on -his heel, muttered—</p> - -<p>“Well! if that does not freeze her off, she ought to be -canonised!”</p> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI.<br /> - - -<small>CARRIED BY STORM.</small></h2> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">You call it an ill angel—it may be so;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But sure am I, among the ranks that fell</div> - <div class="verse indent0">’Tis the first <i>fiend</i> e’er counselled man to rise!</div> - <div class="verse indent28"><span class="smcap">Anon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - - -<p>Manton had reckoned without his host, in supposing that his -self-constituted patroness had any idea whatever of being frozen -off: on the contrary, her benevolent ardor had been only warmed -still more, as he had abundant evidence, when, on returning<span class="pagenum" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</span> -from his office next morning, he found yet another snowy missive -crowning the centre of his table.</p> - -<p>“Monsieur Tonson, come again!” he exclaimed, as he seized -the note, and opened it this time without hesitation, “what can -the incredible woman have to say now? Well, here it is!”</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p><span class="smcap">My Friend</span>—You heaped ice upon my heart yesterday. -To-day, I feel chilled and stiffened, as if my very soul-wings -had been frosted through your lips! Why did you do so? It -was not magnanimous in you. <i>You</i> are proud, and beautiful, -and strong, while I am plain, and weak, and lowly. Was it -worthy of a noble soul to treat with such harsh and cutting coldness -a poor, feeble, and wayworn daughter of sorrow like myself, -who had come merely in the meek and matronly overflow -of tenderness and appreciation for a poisoned, sick and erring -child of genius, to offer him her sympathy in his dreary and -unrelieved immolation of glorious powers at the unholy altar of -ambition? Was it not unkind of you? Can you suppose that -had you not been poisoned, body and soul, the demon pride -would have thus overruled your better and your angel nature to -such harsh rejection of the comforter, the Father had sent you -in his mercy? What have I asked of you, but that you should -unbend this fatal pride, and accept of mortal genialities? That -you should spare yourself from yourself, and give something to -others. Ah! you will not always thus repulse the sympathies -of your race—naughty, naughty boy! hasten to be good and -come to see me!</p> - -<p class="psig"> -<span class="smcap">Marie.</span> -</p> -</div> - -<p>“Well! well! by heaven, the audacity of this thing soars to -the sublime! and yet there is some truth as well as pathos in it, -too! Now, I come to think of it, it was unmanly of me to treat -the poor woman so, just as if I expected she carried stilettoes or -revolvers under her petticoats, or wore aromatic poison in her -bosom, with a foul and treacherous design upon my life! The -fact is, I have made a bugbear of this creature in my imagination, -when she is nothing, in fact, but fool and fanatic combined,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</span> -with a little disjointed mother-wit. Curse the whole affair! -I wish she and her endless letters were in the bottom of the sea! -By these persistent impertinences she disturbs me in my work; -these distractions are unendurable! I wish she were only safe -in heaven.</p> - -<p>It is useless to give <i>all</i> the letters which poor Manton received -within the next four or five days, but it is sufficient to say that -at last, in a fit of veritable desperation, spleen and humor, he -answered one of the last in a tone of hyperbolical exaggeration -that would have put to shame, not Mercutio only, but the veritable -Bombastes Furioso himself. The effect was coldly studied, -and behold the result.</p> - -<p>The next morning a servant informed him that a lady desired -to see him in the parlor.</p> - -<p>Terror-stricken by the announcement, he nevertheless knew, -in his conscience, that he had brought down the judgment upon -his own head. He therefore felt it to be his duty to abide the -consequences of his own imprudence, and went down to wait -upon his caller, who, of course, was no other than his correspondent.</p> - -<p>She received him with a flushing face, as seemed to be usual -to her shrinking nature. She was this time without her -daughter. There were other persons in the parlor, and this -seemed to disconcert her somewhat, for she had evidently come -full of some important disclosure. Although it was the latter -part of winter, and a heavy snow had just commenced breaking -up, which rendered the streets of New York almost impassable, -she nevertheless proposed that they should go out for a long -walk. Manton looked through the window into the sloppy -street, opened his eyes a little, and assented.</p> - -<p>There was something wonderfully rare in the idea of a woman’s -proposing a long walk on such a day, and Manton -relished the hardiness and originality of the thing.</p> - -<p>“Well!” said he to himself, “I like her spunk, anyhow! -She has shown herself in every way to be in earnest in what she<span class="pagenum" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</span> -undertakes. Phew! I shall enjoy it! a woman in long petticoats, -wading a mile or two through a cold slush such as this! -After this, what is it that Madame won’t do? I’ll lead her -something of a round, at any rate, before she gets back.”</p> - -<p>These thoughts passed through his mind as he ran up-stairs -for his cap. She met him as he came down, in the passage-way, -and they passed out at the front door.</p> - -<p>“You are a droll person,” said Manton, as they reached the -street.</p> - -<p>“Why?” asked she, with a covert gleam in her eye.</p> - -<p>“Why? Because few women would have thought of choosing -such a day as this for a walk.”</p> - -<p>“I care nothing for trifles! Misfortune has taught me to disregard -them. Suffering makes us hardy.”</p> - -<p>Manton looked down at her with surprise; for, of all things -on earth, the most disagreeable to him, was that commonplace -timidity, and shrinking from trifles, which is so ludicrously characteristic -of American women. He did not wish to see woman -unsexed, but contemned her puerile and unnecessary cowardice.</p> - -<p>His companion now proceeded with great animation to follow -up the favorable opening thus effected, with a rapid and pathetic -sketch, in outline, of her sad and suffering life.</p> - -<p>She had been married by her parents to a sordid lout of a -Quaker, in New England, whose horrid barbarities and persecutions -had finally compelled the weak and hitherto unresisting -woman to seek a separation, the scandal of which had roused -against her the relentless animosity of the whole body of New -England Quakers, who finally carried their brutal persecution to -the extreme of assisting her yet more brutal husband, in robbing -her of her dear and only child, under the plea that she was -neither a suitable nor capable person to have charge of it. That, -after a long period, spent by the distracted mother in roaming -up and down the land, in search of aid and comfort, she had at -length succeeded in enlisting some noble and benevolent souls<span class="pagenum" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</span> -in her cause, who finally rescued the child, by strategy or force, -and restored it to its weeping mother’s arms.</p> - -<p>In addition to this sad tale of suffering connected with her -private history, which was most skilfully and artistically worked -up, she had another, of public martyrdom, which was, to Manton, -far more impressive.</p> - -<p>Through obscurity and poverty, this resolute and daring woman -had dedicated herself to the amelioration of the physical -evils of her helpless sex. She had, with unflagging ardor, studied -the books of anatomical science, the diseases of her sex, -and the wisest means of cure. And thus, in addition to having -been the first woman in New England to publicly assert that -there is no true marriage but in love, she had also led the way -in announcing to women their sanitary duties to themselves; -that they must learn to heal their bodies, and leave the other sex -to take care of their own diseases; that delicacy as well as -utility prompted this course.</p> - -<p>This idea at once met the approbation of Manton, to whom -its assertion was comparatively novel, but who had always -deeply felt the lamentable helplessness of woman, and the unnatural -relation of the male members of the profession to them.</p> - -<p>The brave and hearty manner in which this singular woman -had evidently breasted alone the popular prejudice, in a cause -which he saw, at a glance, to be so just and nobly utilitarian, -for the first time moved his sympathies somewhat in her -favor, in spite of his contempt and disgust for women who ventured -beyond their sphere.</p> - -<p>The vocation of a learned nurse to diseased persons of her -own sex, was clearly to him <i>not</i> beyond the proper sphere of -woman, but a most important, legitimate, and—however little -recognised, conventionally—the most honorable and useful. -He could not but respect the woman, whatever her eccentricities -might be, who could be brave and true enough to assert effectively -to her sex, the natural and inevitable mandate, “Know -thyself!”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</span></p> - -<p>There was something chivalrous in the thought—a generous -daring, a martyr spirit, that could not fail to arrest a nature in -itself, rashly scornful of all that was merely conventional, and -whose untamed, half-savage soul rejoiced in all novelties that -expressed to him a higher utility than mere forms conveyed.</p> - -<p>The walk was continued for hours; and still further to try her -nerves, during this long conversation, Manton turned through -many intricacies into the most darkened labyrinths of the vice-profaned -metropolis.</p> - -<p>The woman never flinched; nothing seemed to appal her, -and, as they threaded rapidly the dingy alleys of the “Five -Points,” she had an acute theory or a daring speculation for -each evil, the external form of which they successively encountered.</p> - -<p>There was a vigor and originality in all this, as coming from -a woman, that interested Manton in spite of himself. Plain, -uncouth, and eccentric as was this scorned “lecture-woman,” -he could not but confess to himself, as they returned mud-bedraggled -and tired enough from that long walk, that his respect -for her had very much increased.</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII.<br /> - - -<small>SPIRITUAL CONFIDENCES.</small></h2> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">And under fair pretence of friendly ends,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And well-placed words of glozing courtesy,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Baited with reasons not unplausible,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Wind me into easy-hearted man,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And hug him into snares.</div> - <div class="verse indent28"><span class="smcap">Mask of Comus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - - -<p>We shall follow the bedraggled heroine of the last chapter, -begging leave of the reader to “see her home.”</p> - -<p>Mark with what an elate and vigorous step she trips it up -Barclay Street into Broadway, after taking leave of Manton at -the door of the Graham House. One would think that she -should surely be tired, after that tremendous morning’s work, -trudging and splashing through the dirtiest mire of three-fourths -of the great city. But no—she springs in her gait, and her -strange, animal eye, glitters fairly with a devilish obliquity, -which has for the moment usurped its expression. She does -not mind that people turn and stare after her dragging and bespattered -skirts—not she!—her very soul is possessed with the -pre-occupation of an ecstatic gloating over some great conquest -achieved, or closely perceived already in the prospective future -into which she glares.</p> - -<p>We shall see what we shall see—only follow, still follow. -She has turned up Broadway, and threads the great throng there -with rapid glide, as street after street is passed. Ah, now we -have it! She crosses—this is Eighth Street! There, in Broadway, -near the corner, stands a great house, with wide-open -door; the smeared and dirty lintels, the greasy latch, the wide, -uncarpeted hall of which, at once reveals it to be one of those -miscellaneous and incomprehensible edifices, which are not<span class="pagenum" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</span> -unfrequently met with on the great thoroughfare, and the uses -of which are not generally more specifically known, than that -they are fashionable boarding-houses.</p> - -<p>Into this ever-gaping entrance she wheeled, and darted up -the broad, uncarpeted stairway, which she continued to ascend -with almost incredible ease and swiftness to the fifth story. When -near the end of a long and narrow passage, she paused before -one of the doors, and tapping it slightly, entered without farther -ceremony.</p> - -<p>A handsome and well-dressed woman, who was engaged in -writing at a small escritoire, looked up indifferently as she -entered, but the moment she caught the expression of the newcomer’s -face, she sprang to her feet, throwing down the pen, -and with a strangely shrill and unmusical laugh, screamed out -in a most inconceivably voluble style—</p> - -<p>“Why, I declare! Marie, what’s the matter? Your eyes -are almost bursting out of your head! You look as if you had -found a bag of gold, and meant to give me half! Why, bless -the woman, how she looks! Have you caught him at last? -Well, we’re in luck! I’ve caught my man for sure! He’s been -here all the morning, he’s just left! Why, how the woman -looks! She keeps staring so! You haven’t gone crazy for joy, -have you? Now, do tell! how have you managed to catch -that insolent baby, you seemed to have set your heart on so? -Why, how muddy the woman is!” she shrieked, looking down -at the condition of her dress. “Ha! ha! ha! ha! Do tell, -what sort of a game have you been playing? Did you have to -hunt him through a pig-sty?”</p> - -<p>The woman had been standing motionless, in the meantime, -with distended eyes and compressed mouth, stretched in a rigid -smile of supernaturally savage exultation. She gazed towards -the face of the speaker, but did not seem to listen to her, or see -her features. She looked the abstracted embodiment of -triumphing evil. Very soon her stiffened lips quivered slightly,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</span> -while the voluble lady stepping forward, shook her sharply by -the shoulder, shrilling out again—</p> - -<p>“Do look at the woman! Why, what can be the matter? -Can’t you talk? The cat’s got the woman’s tongue surely! I -did not think you were so much in earnest about that green boy! -Why, I could twist him about my finger like a tow-string! I -have achieved something in conquering <i>my</i> man!”</p> - -<p>“Y-your man!” said the woman slowly, interrupting her. -But these words were accompanied by a look of such strange -and taunting significance, that the other turned instantly pale and -sprang back, as if she had received an electric shock from those -singular eyes, that fell upon her for a moment with their evil -obliquity, and then returned instantly to their natural expression. -“Wh-why, what do you mean?” stammered the other angrily.</p> - -<p>The woman only answered with a pleasant smile—“Now -don’t be a jealous fool, Jeannette Shrewell—I shall never interfere -with your schemes if you don’t with mine.”</p> - -<p>“Yes! but because you knew Edmond long ago,” continued -the other in a fierce and shrewish voice, “you dare to insinuate -to me that he too has passed through your hands!”</p> - -<p>The woman broke out into a loud laugh—“Why, what a -child you are! You know what my relations to Edmond are, -perfectly. Spiritual—purely and spotlessly spiritual. I should -no more think of him than of my grandfather.”</p> - -<p>“Spiritual!” shrieked the other, springing forward; “do -you dare to use that stupid cant to me? Keep it for the sap-headed -boys and senile drivellers that you decoy with such bait, -to plunder. You shan’t insult me to my teeth with it.”</p> - -<p>The speaker, whose physical energies were far more vehement -and overbearing than the other, seemed to have entirely awed -her. She sank meekly into a chair, turned very pale, and lifting -her eyes with an humble look, she said, in a low imploring -voice, “Now, Jeannette, please don’t be so violent. I did not -mean to taunt or insult you. You have altogether mistaken me, -dear friend. Now, please be calm.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</span></p> - -<p>But the other, whose long black curls still writhed and quivered, -like the snakes of the Gorgon head, with rage, stood -towering before the suppliant, as if she meant to crush her; and -as she thus stood, she really looked superb.</p> - -<p>Her profile was delicately chiselled and Roman, with large, -dark gray eyes, thin lips, and fine chin; and now that every -feature was inspired with anger, the eye ceased to be offended -by their habitual expression of selfish, cold, and sharp intellection. -She continued, quite as vehemently—</p> - -<p>“You have sown the wind, and you must reap. I have -heard this vile insinuation before of something between you and -Edmond at B.”</p> - -<p>“Jeannette! Jeannette! it is false! every word of it. It is -a vile slander of my enemies. Ask Edmond himself—he will -tell you it is so.”</p> - -<p>“Yes! yes! I know it is false. But who gave circulation to -these reports? Hey? Your enemies, were they? Your enemies -must have a great deal to do, that they keep themselves -busy with these manifold stories of your adventures. Who was -it aspired to the eclat of any affair with the rich, generous, -learned, and travelled Edmond? Who was it dragged him, -through his unsuspecting recklessness of conventional usages, -into conditions which rendered him liable to such an imputation? -Who boasted of it, and attempted to place him in the -same category with the dupes and gulls and fools she had -already ruined and plundered? Hey? Who was it? Marie ——, -I know you,” and she stretched herself to her full height; -but, had her vision not been blinded by passion, she might have -perceived a cold and scarcely perceptible smile of scornful incredulity -pass over the face at which she pointed her sharp -finger. “I know you, woman! Beware! beware how you -cross my track with Edmond! You had better rouse the sleeping -tigress with her young in your arms. He shall be mine! I -have sworn it! One year ago, when I heard of his return from -Europe, and left everything, mother, sisters, friends, and came<span class="pagenum" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</span> -on to this city, a thousand miles, alone and unprotected, that I -might throw myself in his way, I swore that he should be mine. -I had watched his career for years, from a distance, and he had -grown to be my ideal. When he became, first the pupil and -then the expounder of the new philosophy in France, I too became -its student; with unwearied labor I mastered its prodigious -science, for I divined the purpose of the man. I knew -he must return to his own country, and become its exponent -here, and that then my time would come.</p> - -<p>“I studied the German, the French, and the Italian; with all -which languages I knew him to be familiar. I acquainted myself -with the literature of each, that I might be able always to -speak with him in the tongues and of the themes of which his -long residence in Europe had made the associations most -pleasant. Armed thus, cap-a-pie, I have met him at last, as I -felt it was my destiny to do.</p> - -<p>“I have attracted him; I have all but conquered him. That -man shall be my lover! Ay, woman, he shall be my lawful -husband! Cross my track in any way, if you d-a-a-r-e! I know -your arts; I will render them for ever unavailing to you; I will -explain them, and expose them. Cross my track, then, if you -d-a-a-r-e!” and, as she hissed out the words between her teeth, -she stooped forward and shook her finger in the face of the now -actually trembling woman. “Remember! our compact is, you -let me alone, and I will let you alone; you help me, I’ll help -you; cross me, I destroy you!”</p> - -<p>“Is that all?” murmured the woman, in a soft voice, opening -her eyes, which had been closed during the greater part of -this tirade, while, at the same time, the old obliquity became -for a moment apparent.</p> - -<p>“Why, Jeannette, I never dreamed of any thing else. I -would sooner cut off my right hand than interfere with you, in -any respect. Our two courses are entirely different. You have -one object and one species of game to hunt down, while I have -another. We shall not clash!” and seeing the features of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</span> -other relax from exhausted passion, she leaned forward with a -pleasing smile.</p> - -<p>“Just to think, you stormy child! I had hastened home to -tell you of my good fortune, and you so overpower me as to -make me forget all I had to tell. You have frightened me -sadly, Jeannette, and all about nothing. But I’ve got him—I -think he’s booked at last!”</p> - -<p>“Pooh!” said the other, sinking into a chair. “Well, I -asked you ever so long ago; how did you manage it? You -seem to have had a great deal more trouble this time than usual. -He does not seem to have been very civil to you heretofore, I -should think.”</p> - -<p>“No!” said the other, in a low, hoarsened tone, while the -blood mounted in crimson flush to her <i>forehead</i>, <i>not</i> to her -cheeks. This nice discrimination is very necessary to a true -apprehension of such a character. “No, he has acted like a -sullen cub, heretofore, a perfect young white bear, with his insolent -pride, and clumsy haughtiness! He is the most insulting -and impracticable boor I ever took hold of!”</p> - -<p>“Ah! I perceive you are splenetic!”</p> - -<p>“No! It is simply annoying, that the insufferable fellow -should give me so much trouble. Why, only think, he positively -refused to be introduced to me—said I was a shallow adventuress, -and that he did not wish to know me—even when -our Doctor Weasel went to him, with a special request on my -part for such an introduction!”</p> - -<p>“Oh, yes! but our Doctor is proverbially awkward in such -matters. No doubt he spoiled it all in the manner of the -request.”</p> - -<p>“Well, but you know, if the Doctor is awkward, he’s got -money, and as long as he believes in Fourier and Swedenborg -as devotedly as he does now, we can use his purse. But to -proceed: That sullen Southerner not only refused to be introduced -to me, in the most insulting terms, but when I wrote him -three or four of my most irresistible billet-doux, that never<span class="pagenum" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</span> -failed before, he treated them with what I suppose he meant to -be silent contempt, for he did not answer one of them, though -I had taken the pains to place them all upon his table with my -own hands, during his absence, and find out all I could concerning -him at the same time.</p> - -<p>“I found the key-note, however; the boy loved his mother, -and has been playing hyæna with the rest of the world ever -since she died, and been endeavoring to imagine himself a misanthrope, -with a life dedicated since solely to the ambition of -achieving, in her name, good for mankind. This discovery, -privately made, put me fully in possession of all I wanted to -know of his weakness. I saw he was earnest and chivalrous, as -his origin implies, and proudly secretive, so far as the privacies -of his life were concerned. So I at once felt that this incrustation -of reserve with which he had fenced about his life, could -only be broken down by a <i>coup de main</i>.</p> - -<p>“I determined to come down upon him, by surprise, in spite -of everything. I called on him, and sent our trusty Doctor up -to bring him to the parlor <i>per force</i>. The <i>ruse</i> succeeded so -far as to effect an introduction; but, to tell you the truth,” and -her forehead fairly blazed while she spoke, “I never was treated -with such insolent and frozen hauteur in my life before! I went -away with my ears tingling and blood on fire, but I cursed him -in my very heart, and swore to have a woman’s vengeance! -You remember how sick I was that night. Oh, God! such -furies as tortured me! I scarcely slept; but a happy thought -came to me just about morning.</p> - -<p>“He was a poet—his brow revealed that—but with characteristic -sternness he had yet published nothing which could be -accounted the highest expression of his inmost life. He had -made his way in literature rapidly and brilliantly through a novel -combination of style, in which the essential elements of prose -and poetry were combined; but had never yet ventured to associate -his proper name with anything bearing the forms of poetry.</p> - -<p>“Now, the Doctor had told me that the poem, under the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</span> -soubriquet of ‘De Noto,’ in the last number of the Journal, -was his, and it at once flashed across me—appreciation! appreciation! -The young poet has stolen timidly forth, under -disguise, with this myth clear from his soul! He does not -expect to be understood at once, and any prompt appreciation -will overwhelm him from the very suddenness of the thing; and -in his delighted surprise he would yearn towards the acknowledged -devil himself.</p> - -<p>“I sent him another note expressing that intense appreciation -for which I knew he was craving. He treated it with the neglect -that he had the others; but I somehow felt that I had made my -mark. I called this morning, and as I knew his contempt for -mere conventional forms, I ventured upon a dashing <i>ruse de -guerre</i>.</p> - -<p>“I challenged him, for I knew his own personal hardiness, to -take a long walk through all the slop of the thaw. With a stare -of surprise he accepted it. I felt even then that my point was -half gained. There were people in the parlor, and my object -was to get him alone with myself. I felt that I had already -touched one weakness, and my object now was to arrest his -chivalrous sympathies in behalf of my forlorn and unprotected -martyrdom to the cause of woman in her resistance to the -brutalities of the marital law, and her right of proclaiming to -her sisterhood the sanitary laws of health, in which they have -been kept in profound ignorance by the ‘profession.’</p> - -<p>“At first, I arrested his attention by the daring of the position -which I had assumed, and then aroused his sympathies by a -fervent relation of the wrongs inflicted on me by my brutal -husband. The story was old, but I managed to throw into it a -great deal of feeling, for there is nothing like a tale of persecution -to arrest chivalrous minds all over the world. <i>We</i> understand -all these propositions as scientific! When I parted with -him he smiled upon me, for the first time, genially. I am sure -of him now!”</p> - -<p>“I should think you might be!”</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII.<br /> - - -<small>CLAIRVOYANT REVELATIONS.</small></h2> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent20">What see you there,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">That has so cowarded and chased your blood</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Out of appearance?</div> - <div class="verse indent28"><span class="smcap">Shakspeare.</span></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - - -<p>In a good-sized, neatly-furnished apartment, of a large house -in Bond Street, about two weeks after the incidents which were -related in the last chapters, a group was assembled, about nine -o’clock in the evening, which consisted of Manton, the woman -Marie Orne, her daughter, and Dr. E. Willamot Weasel, of -whom we have before spoken.</p> - -<p>The dark eye of Doctor Weasel glistened with benevolent -delight as he gazed upon the group, from which he sat somewhat -apart. Manton was seated on a chair near the glowing -fire, with the mother on a low stool on one side of him, and the -daughter kneeling on the other, while both with upturned reverential -eyes drank in eagerly each word that fell from his lips. -They seemed to be enchained, enchanted, while he spoke; and -the mother, in the almost total speechlessness of her rapt appreciation, -could only venture to trust her trembling voice in low, -whispered exclamations; while the sad eyes of the impish-looking -daughter imitatively stared unutterable things.</p> - -<p>The woman’s subtle suggestiveness had roused the brain of -Manton, and fully drawn him out on his favorite themes; whatever -of natural eloquence he possessed, and he possessed much, -flowed smoothly now, for, in spite of himself, his frozen heart -had been warmed by the unwearying deference which he met -with from these people.</p> - -<p>The lamps burned brightly, the hearth glowed, and the eyes -of all were bent upon him with genial warmth and admiring<span class="pagenum" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</span> -earnestness. The north wind howled cold without, to remind -him of the long, harsh “winter of his discontent,” which had -for ten weary years been unrelieved by any approximation to a -scene thus flushed with the sanctities of domestic quiet. Manton -always idealised woman—he idealised everything. He was a -poet. The very presence of woman was hallowed to his imagination. -There was a thrill of sweet fancies and gentle memories -conveyed to him, in the very rustle of a silken gown. He -adored, he worshipped woman, as she lived in his memory—the -holy attributes with which he invested her, penetrated and -held him enchained in peaceful awe. He could not, he dare -not believe evil of her, if she bore the semblance of good, in -thought, or deed, or life.</p> - -<p>He had shrunk thus long from contact with her, not because -this interval of self-inflicted separation had been other than -a weary penance of yearning, but that his fastidious nature -dreaded the common contact, which might degrade or mar that -ideal of love, which woman personated to him, and in the worship -of which he had found the strength for brave deeds.</p> - -<p>It was the weakness, the petty flippancy, the commonplaceisms -of woman, from which he shrank. He believed that her -spiritual strength should equalise her with man’s physical strength -in disregarding common fears, paltry conventionalities, and contemptible -topics. The miserable skeleton of soul and body, -which the world calls “woman of society,” was more horrible -to him, by far, than the actual contact with her dry bones in a -prepared skeleton would have been—for where one was a comparatively -pleasing object to his eye as a philosopher, the other -was but the painted, dim-eyed, ghastly spectre of a living death.</p> - -<p>There was in this woman, at least so far as he could judge, -a total abandon to her natural impulses, which seemed to utterly -repudiate those restrictions which are merely commonplace. This -was refreshing to him, from its novelty, at any rate, in contrast -with the insipidities he so much dreaded, although his taste had -from the first been constantly offended.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</span></p> - -<p>Yet she seemed so utterly lawless and quietly defiant of what -the world, that works in harness, might say, he could not help -respecting her for it. It was a new thing in his life, to meet -with a woman, sufficiently heroic, to face the martyrdom that -she was daring, for so elevated and noble an aim as the emancipation -of her own sex from the conditions of utter helplessness, -into which their ignorance of the laws of life had sunk them.</p> - -<p>Besides, she had shown so much earnest patience with his -rude pride, had followed up its aberrations with such a matronly -tenderness, exhorting him only, and unceasingly, to be at rest—a -rest, the need of which his proud and fainting soul had confessed -so often to his inward consciousness. And then this fine -appreciation—ah, where is the young poet who can withstand -appreciation? And then such delicate deference in trifles!</p> - -<p>He had spoken incidentally of his taste in dress; and now -the mother and daughter were dressed in the most graceful and -faultless simplicity! The heart of Manton was touched. He -felt grateful and pleased with these strange Samaritans to him -in a strange land.</p> - -<p>On a slight pause in the conversation, the woman, still gazing -up timidly into the face of Manton, changed the theme suddenly, -by asking him,</p> - -<p>“What do you think of Clairvoyance?”</p> - -<p>“The world is not old enough yet, by twenty years, I think, -to answer that question.”</p> - -<p>“My reason for asking the question, was, that I have some -strange premonitions myself, which I cannot explain. You will, -no doubt, be able to explain the mystery at once—”</p> - -<p>“Yes!” interrupted Doctor Weasel, eagerly, “do let us have -you examine the matter! Facts have come within my own -knowledge, concerning revelations which have been made by -her, that are the most extraordinary I ever knew. For instance, -when she has been brought into clairvoyant rapport with individuals -whom she has never seen or heard of before, she has -revealed to them the whole history of their lives.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</span></p> - -<p>“This unexpected enunciation of their life-secrets to men, -must of course be productive of strange scenes occasionally,” -said Manton, in a tone which had suddenly become cold.</p> - -<p>“Oh, very curious and interesting! very curious!” exclaimed -the Doctor, quickly. “Marie, do relate to him that incident -of the bloody hand, that you have so often told me.”</p> - -<p>“Well,” said she, “it has been some years since that a -number of my friends, who knew of this gift of mine, were in -the habit of inviting me to their respective houses, to meet -friends of distinction, who were curious to observe the experiments, -either upon themselves or upon others.</p> - -<p>“On one occasion I was invited to meet a celebrated physician -of this city, whose reputation for purity of character and -life was very high. There were no parties present but my -friend, this physician, and myself. Such an arrangement, I -afterwards understood, had been made at the particular request -of the physician himself, who desired that there should be no -other person present but his host at the interview.</p> - -<p>“When the physician placed his hand upon my head, as is -the necessary formula to bring me into spiritual communion -with my interrogator, I relapsed almost immediately into the -syncope of the clairvoyant state, and of course became entirely -unconscious of what I uttered in that condition. But our host, -who was his most intimate friend, has given me many times the -following explanation of the scene:—</p> - -<p>“He says that when the physician placed his hand upon my -head, I first said from the sleep, ‘I am content! All is pure -here—this is a holy soul—one that is regenerate and will be -saved!’ and then that while I was recounting his many deeds -of kindness to the poor and friendless, and the rich, I suddenly -shrank back, exclaiming, ‘Blood! blood! blood! There is blood -upon this hand! This soul is darkened now with blood! Here -is some fearful crime! Murder has been committed by this -hand; everything seems red beneath it!’ My friend says the -doctor staggered back as if he had been shot, on hearing this,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</span> -turned pale as death, and swooned on the floor; and after he -recovered, acknowledged that he had committed murder and fled -from the consequences; the name by which he was now known -was an assumed one, and he implored his host not to expose -him to the penalty of the gallows by revealing these terrible -facts.</p> - -<p>“My friend, of course, did everything he could to relieve -him on that point, and assured him that he would never breathe -the fact where it could injure him; that the purity of his life -for so many years had cancelled the enormity of the crime, so -far as society was concerned.</p> - -<p>“But in spite of all this, the wretched and guilty man left -the house in overwhelming despair, and the last I have heard of -him was that he had locked himself in his own house, and was -killing himself with the most unheard-of excesses in drinking -brandy, to which vice he never before had been addicted.</p> - -<p>“When I realised the tragic results of this fearful insight, -with which I seem to have been mysteriously endowed, my very -soul was shaken with sorrow; and since that time my spirit has -wrestled in agonies of prayer with God, that this poor child of -crime and headlong vices might be ‘<i>saved</i>!’”</p> - -<p>As the woman uttered these last words, Manton recognised, -for the first time, and with a shudder, a peculiar obliquity of -the left eye. His soul was chilled within him; and for the moment, -the light of the glowing room was darkened as if the -shadow of drear winter had passed over and through it.</p> - -<p>Doctor Weasel exclaimed gaily, “Is not that extraordinary? -I assure you, I have myself witnessed things in connection with -this power of hers, quite as inexplicable, though happily not so -tragic.”</p> - -<p>“It sounds strangely enough,” said Manton, shortly.</p> - -<p>“I assure you I have no means of accounting for these -things,” said the woman in a meek, deprecatory tone.</p> - -<p>“Suppose you demonstrate it, madam, in my case;” and a -slight sneer, which crossed the face of Manton, whose manner<span class="pagenum" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</span> -had entirely changed, did not escape the hawk-like quickness -of the woman’s eye. “My life, I am willing to submit to the -scrutiny of your inscrutable sense.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, by all means!” exclaimed Doctor Weasel, springing to -his feet in a paroxysm of delight. “Let us have the experiment, -by all means! Do please place your hand on the top of -her head!”</p> - -<p>Manton turned, and with a bow most studiously deferential, -seemed to ask of the lady her permission to do so.</p> - -<p>“Oh, yes, yes,” and her head was bowed forward to meet -his upraised hand; while the daughter, who seemed to understand -the thing, either from previous experience, or from some -private signal, rose from her clinging position about his knee, -and stepped back, leaving the two alone, without other contact.</p> - -<p>In a few moments after the hand of Manton had rested upon -the meek, submissive head of the woman before him, she commenced -exhibiting the common and preliminary attitudes, -muscular retchings of the throat, nervous twitchings of the lips -and limbs, accompanied by the apparently palpable, organic -changes, which are recognised to be symptomatic with well-known -conditions of the mesmeric sleep.</p> - -<p>Manton watched all these phenomena with the sharpest attention, -and then, as the lips began to move as if in inarticulate -enunciation, he leant forward over her, and asked—</p> - -<p>“What can you tell us of the soul, with which you are now -in communication?”</p> - -<p>After several preluding and spasmodic efforts to articulate -sounds, the Clairvoyant at length said, in a voice only distinct -above a whisper—</p> - -<p>“I see light! all light!—pure, holy light. It fills the universe -with a mild radiance! I can see no blurs, no clouds in the foreground. -I can see only angels, seraphs, and seraphim, and all -forms of light revolving in the sphere of this mighty soul!”</p> - -<p>“Is there no evil there?” said Manton.</p> - -<p>“No, I see none; I see only white light.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</span></p> - -<p>“But look close—perhaps you might find something dark. -Look long and steadily into the world you visit—see if there -be not clouds there.”</p> - -<p>There was a pause. The lips moved without articulation -again; and again Manton asked—“What do you see now?”</p> - -<p>“I see, I see, the light is parting on either side; out in the -far distance, between those walls of light, a giant form uprears -itself in shadow. Down the long vista stands this darkened -giant. He is fierce and stern, and wears a cold, hard front, with -flaming eyes, that scare the ministering angels all away. He -strikes around him with the imperious sway of his huge, knotted -club, and all the bright forms flee. He seems the savage Hercules -of pride!”</p> - -<p>There is a pause; and after a stillness of some moments, -Manton asked again—</p> - -<p>“What now is the vision, to your sense?—is the giant gone?”</p> - -<p>“No, he is humbled but not subdued; and from afar behind -him, down this darkened vista, a light has grown up, like a -rising star. It advances slowly, rising over his head. The -splendor increases as it comes. Now, the dark and wrathful -giant has fallen on his knees—the flood of glory overcomes -him. His club is dropped. His eyes, upturned in awe, seem -dimmed by the sudden glory of an angel’s presence. Ha! I -see! the features of that angel are like his whose soul I see! -The giant is subdued! His pride has bowed its forehead in the -dust, before the angel radiance of a visiting mother!”</p> - -<p>Manton felt his flesh creep as this was spoken, and as the -Clairvoyant paused for some moments, he asked: “What does -this spirit of the mother say?”</p> - -<p>The slow answer was—</p> - -<p>“She seems to rebuke this pride even more with her effulgence, -and to say, My son, I am with thee in the spirit, but I -cannot be with thee through the medium of the flesh which thou -hast so poisoned and corrupted, since I passed from thee into -this higher sphere. Make thy body clean and purify thy life,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</span> -and I shall be always with thee present, in the spirit. It is -necessary for your usefulness in your present life that you should -accept of human sympathies. It is only through such that you -can establish a true community with the material world of which -you form a part. Accept human love—accept a moral representative -of myself—believe in the possibility of its chasteness -as well as utility, and you will yet be strong, powerful of good, -and happy.”</p> - -<p>Here Manton, who had become intensely excited during the -progress of this scene, removed his hand with a vehement gesture -from the head of the woman, and springing to his feet, -seized his cap, and with scarce the ordinary adieus, hastily left -the room. He rushed hurriedly through the dark storm, which -careered along the street, muttering as he went:—</p> - -<p>“Eternal curses on this infernal woman! What can it mean? -She dares to speak of my mother again. Hah! does not this -account for the inexplicable disturbance of my papers in my -trunk? Is it possible that this can be the accursed and despicable -wretch who has stolen into the privacies of my life? But -think, think! I may have been hasty. This whole subject of -Clairvoyance is an impenetrable mystery. That strange story -of the bloody hand has impressed me. For all we know, as -yet, such things may be within the possibilities of Clairvoyance. -That myth she uttered as if she were in a dream, was strangely -significant to me—supposing her to be ignorant of all my past -life; and then she seemed so patient, so disinterested, so gentle -and so kind, so matronly, so tender, and so heroic, too. I cannot -altogether distrust her, nor can I believe; I can only wait. -I must see more; I must know more; I must comprehend -the whole. There is a something here I cannot understand—a -something betwixt heaven and hell, which I must bide my time -to fathom. Curses on all mysteries!” and, rushing onward -through the storm, like one hag-ridden, or pursued by stern, -accusing ghosts, the bewildered Manton soon reached his cheerless -room, all storm-drenched and depressed.</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV.<br /> - - -<small>THE PROUD MAN BOWED.</small></h2> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Dim burns the once bright star of Avenel;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">There is an influence sorrowful and fearful,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">That dogs its downward course.</div> - <div class="verse indent28"><span class="smcap">Scott.</span></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - - -<p>Transparent as is the meaning of the foregoing scene, it -conveyed to Manton, who knew none of these things which -have been revealed to the reader, a tremendous shock. Mind -and soul were thrown into chaotic convulsions; he knew not -what to think, or which way to turn for truth.</p> - -<p>Had the incident occurred but a short time previous, before -his nature had begun to be moved by generous sympathy and -honest respect for this loyal, persecuted, and indomitable woman; -had it occurred before that eventful walk through the -slush of New York, he would have at once turned upon her in -freezing wrath, with the deliberate accusation of having entered -his room in his absence, and searched his private papers, or else -have merely sneered at it, as the accidental hit of a reckless -adventuress.</p> - -<p>But he had admitted her to his respect as a noble and unprotected -devotee. In a word, he had, as was usual with him -wherever women were concerned, idealised her into a heroine. -Could he suspect her after this? He rejected the weakness of -such suspicion almost with terror.</p> - -<p>Had he known any thing of New York life; had he formed -any relations except those of a strictly business character; had -he cultivated acquaintances at all, who belonged to the city, and -knew it, a few inquiries might have settled all his doubts. But,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</span> -alas! pride, pride, that fatal pride! He knew nobody, he cared -not for what any one said of another.</p> - -<p>He had heard this woman violently abused at the dinner-table -below, to be sure; but then the character of the persons -who had joined in this cowardly vituperation was, to his mind, -evidently such as to prejudice him in her favor; for he had a -proud way with him, which never permitted him to judge of the -absent by what was said of them, but by <i>who</i> said it. Taking -these things together, he would have felt ashamed to have asked -any questions concerning the woman, of those whose opinion -and opportunities of knowledge he respected.</p> - -<p>If she had thrown herself upon him, it had been with perfect -frankness, and without any attempt at concealments. She had -told him how she was persecuted and slandered by ignorant -women, because she had been bold enough to tell them the truth -about themselves. He had already heard something of this, and -the stories told were of precisely such character as envious, vulgar, -and malignant gossip circulates about females who make -themselves conspicuous by their virtues or their talents. Besides, -had he not, before he knew more of her, been violently -prejudiced, too? What more natural than that others should be -so, including these ignorant women?</p> - -<p>And then this wonderful Clairvoyance! Who can dare to say -that he believes nothing of its claims? He held its marvels and -miracles in great contempt, and firmly believed, that whatever -of truth there was would soon be unveiled of its apparent mystery -by the close analysis of science, and shown to proceed from -purely natural laws, the exact relations of which had not been -heretofore understood.</p> - -<p>And then it might have been accident. Ah! and then it -might have been—what his thought had long struggled with, as -the solution of all such phenomena—it might have been sympathetic! -a mere result of the unconscious projection of his -stronger vitality through a magnetic or odic medium of sympathy, -which had been instantly established through the contact<span class="pagenum" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</span> -of his hand with the thin and sensitive region on the top of her -head.</p> - -<p>She might thus have been made to feel him intellectually, if -not spiritually; to <i>see</i>, through this sympathetic sense, those -images with which his brain was most full, and thus express -this startling outline of his life.</p> - -<p>Be those things as they may, he was restless and excited; his -imagination was aroused, his memory profoundly stirred. He -was thus fast hurried past the point where a cool analysis could -well avail to rescue him. Tossed to and fro by doubts and -dark suspicions, which a generous confidence strove hard to -banish with its magnanimous suggestions, backed by self-reliant -pride; confounded with the fear of acting with injustice towards -a helpless female; with the fear, too, of the soft pluckings at his -heart, from those tender memories which she had thus aroused by -her offers of maternal sympathy—together with the penetrating -light and warmth of that genial and unlucky evening spent with -her, amidst the quiet of domestic surroundings—he could form no -conclusions, discriminate no clearly definite purpose—could -only wander to and fro, restless, in troubled, sad irresolution.</p> - -<p>A vague dread of evil in advance afforded apprehension of -he knew not what, that always, when the gloaming darkened -most, seemed parted to a tremulous, dim light, like summer -coming through the morn, and made his pulse go quicker, while -those yearning memories faintly glimmered, as if within a shaded -reflex of the glowing day.</p> - -<p>He kept himself strictly secluded; yet, day by day, those -dainty missives crept in upon him by some mysterious agency. -At first they were read mechanically, and, amidst his troubled -doubts, produced no apparent effect; but, by and by, they grew -more chaste, more delicately worded, and more sweetly toned.</p> - -<p>Was it that they were really advanced upon the blundering -specimens we have seen? or could it be that his fancy had become -excited with regard to them—that he was merely idealising -unconsciously? or was it that those awkward first attempts at<span class="pagenum" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</span> -producing imitations of the rhapsodical style peculiar to himself, -which had so excited his contempt, as obviously taken from the -study of his writings, had now been cunningly improved upon, -since personal intercourse had afforded his correspondent a -closer insight of his purer and more simple forms of expression?</p> - -<p>Had his haughty egotism been touched at last, by a skilful -reflex of himself, thrown shrewdly into his eyes, from the dazzling -surface of this snowy crow-quilled page?</p> - -<p>We shall see, perhaps. Here is the last that he received -from her:—</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>“<span class="smcap">My poor Friend</span>—My heart yearns over you; I am oppressed -with your suffering, for I feel how you suffer yet—how -you are struggling, by day and by night, with those twin fiends -of Doubt and Pride. I know my letters soothe you, though -they cannot heal. Had you not informed me so, in your note, -I should yet have been conscious of it. Had you never written -to me again, I should yet have known that the great deep of -your soul had been stirred at last, and that, though pride had -triumphed in the struggle, love, genial, human love, had yet -found, beneath the dark shadow of his wing, a warm resting-place -once more beside thy heart.</p> - -<p>No human aid can save thee now—that stiff neck must be -bowed—you must be humbled! Then will come the full influx -of the light from heaven. Then you will know joy and peace -again—the pure raptures of a holy rest will calm this dark, bewildering -struggle. I pray for you without ceasing—weary the -throne with supplication that you may be humbled! Your little -sister sends you her tearful greetings—she weeps for you with -me always—for she dearly loves her tiger-brother. She says -that, like all terrible creatures, he is <i>so</i> beautiful—oh, that he -were only good!</p> - -<p class="psig"> -<span class="smcap">Marie.</span>”</p> -</div> - -<p>This letter strangely thrilled upon the already over-wrought -sensibilities of Manton, whose nervous organisation had been<span class="pagenum" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</span> -rendered intensely susceptible by the protracted excitement -under which he had been laboring. He read it over and over -again, with increasing agitation, until it seemed, while his eyes -suffused, as if the accusing angel of his own conscience spoke -to him in mild rebuke.</p> - -<p>Long he moaned and tossed—the dim moisture struggling -all the while to brim over those parched lids, that for years before -had never known a freshening. Those tearless lids—how rigid -they had been! how bleak! Like some oasis fountain where -the hot simoon had drank!—Dry! dry!</p> - -<p>Suddenly, with a deep groan, the young man bowed his head -upon his hands, while the tears gushed between his fingers in a -flood, that seemed the more violent from its long restraint. His -body shook and rocked, while he gasped aloud—</p> - -<p>“It is true! It is true! This woman tells what is true! This -sullen pride has been the cause of all—I feel its crushing judgment -on my shoulders now! Great God! deliver us from this -thraldom! Let me but know my race once more! let me but -weep when others weep, and smile when others smile, and it -will be to me for a sign that thou hast received the outcast into -the family of thy love, once more! Forgive, oh, forgive me, -that have so long held thy goodly gifts of earthly consolation in -despite! The worm’s presumptuous arrogance has but moved -thy pity, oh, thou Infinite One! Forgive! forgive! oh, let me -feel that countenance reconciled once more! Give back to my -weary soul the holy communion of thy creatures! Pity! Pity! -Pity! Ah, there is a paradise somewhere on the earth, for the -most wayworn of her darkened children—a rift in the sunless sky, -a glittering point above the darkened waters! Men are not all -and totally accursed by their defiant passions. Pity sends star-beams -through the port-holes of the dungeon. Mercy comes -down on holy light of visions, where stars cannot get in. Oh, -love, Infinite Love! Thou art so powerful of penetration—come -to me now!”</p> - -<p>For a long time he sat thus, while his frame shivered in -voiceless throes; when suddenly straightening himself, with a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</span> -powerful effort, and while the tears yet rained like an April -shower, he drew towards him his paper, and wrote—</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p><span class="smcap">Woman</span>—I know not what to call you—you have strangely -moved me! In my most desperate and sullen pride have I not -struggled long with this great blessing, which thou hast brought -me! I would have driven the good angel from me in wrath -and scorn—but it would not be offended. In patience and long -suffering it has abided near, hovering on white wings, until now, -at last, the fountain has been troubled. Ah! woman, its depths -have been broken up, indeed—and the dark, long, unnatural -winter of my life, has felt the glowing breath of spring; and in -one mighty crash, the hideous ice-crusts that had gathered, -heaping over it, have burst away before the flashing leap of unchained -waters. Once more my soul is free—once more I -smile back love for love into the sunlight, and weep for joy—that -God is good. Once more I feel as if the earth were a holy -earth, and its flowers, too, might grow for me. Thou hast conquered! -Thou hast conquered, woman! Thy pure and chastened -sympathies, thy gentle and unwearied pleadings, thy meek -compassion for the harsh and wayward boy, have conquered. -The stiff neck is bowed even now before God, and thee, his -minister of good. Ah! forgive and pity me! My eyes are -raining so, I can scarcely see to write. I am shaken as in a -great tempest, body and soul. I could weep at your feet in -penitence, and pray to be forgiven and for pity! Ah, that, I -know you have! I am blinded with these tears—I know not -what I say! Oh, be to me what I have lost! I faint by the -wayside; my soul dies within me for that holy rest that I have -lost—for the sweet, calm and tender peace, all the holy memories -your loving gentleness has thus recalled. Ah, be to me all -that you have thus filled me with, anew! Receive me as your -adopted child, that I may rest my throbbing head once more in -peace and joy, upon a sacred bosom. Be to me, forever, -“Marie, mother!”</p> - -<p class="psig"> -<span class="smcap">Manton.</span></p> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV.<br /> - - -<small>DELECTABLE GLIMPSES BEHIND THE CURTAIN.</small></h2> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Now, with a bitter smile, whose light did shine</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Like a fiend’s hope upon her lips and eyne.</div> - <div class="verse indent28"><span class="smcap">Shelley</span></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - - -<p>Turn we now to that large and mysterious house, to which -we have before referred, near the corner of Broadway and -Eighth Street. We will pass the greasy lintels, into the wide and -dirty entry, climb those five flights of stairs, turn down the long, -dark passage, and pause before a door, just one beyond that -which we have had occasion to remember in the course of this -narrative.</p> - -<p>We will take the liberty to enter. The scene presents the -woman, Marie, reclining on a lounge, holding a note in her -hand, which she seems to have read and re-read with a peculiar -look of puzzled inquiry.</p> - -<p>The impish-looking daughter, to whom we have before referred, -was seated in a chair, behind the woman’s head, and out -of her sight. The creature seemed to have much ado to keep -from laughing outright, for her face was screwed into all sorts -of contortions in the effort to subdue it, as she peeped over her -mother’s shoulder, and watched her puzzled looks and bewildered -gestures.</p> - -<p>“Well!” said the mother, as if speaking to herself, “if one -could only comprehend how he came to write this to me—it -seems to contain a great deal. Upon my word, it appears a -beautiful snatch of rhyme, and to convey quite a confession—only -I don’t understand—it reads as if it were an answer to -something that had gone before.” She reads—</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</span></p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Angels a subtler <i>name</i> may know,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But not a subtler <i>thought</i> of joy</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Could thrilling through a seraph go,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Than that your presence brought to cloy</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And weigh my life down into calm,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With an unutterable sense—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Like music perfumed with the balm</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Of dews star-shed—all too intense!</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>“Most too high-strung for my purposes, it must be confessed! -He never expresses any flesh and blood in his correspondence. -Ah, well, I’ll soon bring him out of that! But this really does -puzzle me! This is all the note contains.” She turns the note -to examine it. “It is certainly in his hand, yet he makes no -explanation.”</p> - -<p>Here the child, whose blood seemed ready to burst through -her face in the continued effort to restrain her laughter, tittered -aloud. The mother sprang erect, and, turning upon her with -an expression of rage and surprise upon her face—</p> - -<p>“What! Why, what are you laughing about? What business -is this of yours, pray?”</p> - -<p>The child, although evidently a little frightened, had so entirely -lost her self-control as to be unable to restrain the bursts -of laughter which now followed each other, peal upon peal, as -she danced about the room in a perfect ecstacy of glee.</p> - -<p>The mother’s face turned first pale and then red, as she followed -the motions of the child with her eye, until at last, with -the expression of an infuriate tigress, she sprang to seize her. -The child was too quick for her, and with the agility of a monkey, -darted from beneath her grasp; and still shrieking with -laughter, was pursued around the room—leaping the furniture -with an airiness that defied pursuit—which her strange, wild -laugh yet taunted.</p> - -<p>The woman, after exhausting herself in vain attempts at catching -her, sank upon the lounge—and at once, in a whining, fretful -voice, commenced to pour upon the head of the child, the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</span> -most inconceivable and galling epithets. So long as this tone -was held, the child held out in defiant spirit, either of sulking -obstinacy, or of harsh and irritating laughter, and to every reiterated -question from the angry mother—“What are you laughing -at? What do you mean?”—she only clapped her hands -and danced more wildly to her elfin mirth.</p> - -<p>The mother now changed her tone of a sudden, in seeming -hopelessness of carrying her point by storm. She began to sob -violently, and turning with streaming eyes towards the child—</p> - -<p>“You—you tre-treat your poor mother very cruelly to-day; -I am dying to know what it is you mean; but you will not tell -me! Please, dear, come and tell poor mother why you laugh, -what it is you mean, and what you know about this letter?—for -I am sure you know something—do tell poor mother, and -she will forgive you all! Come, dear child!” and she reached -out her hand as if to clasp her to her bosom.</p> - -<p>The child, who seemed to have no intellectual comprehension -of the meaning of all this, but to have taken a purely impish -delight in watching the confusion and puzzle of her mother, in -regard to the letter at first, and then instantly, when she flew -into a rage, to have answered in a monkeyish and hysterical -rage, on her own part; now at once, with equal promptness, and -with the common instinct of young animals, responded to the -tender inflections of the maternal voice.</p> - -<p>Dropping her whole previous manner, she instantly sprang -forward and knelt at her mother’s side. The mother did not -speak for some moments, but silently caressed her, placing her -hand frequently on her head, the top of which she fondly stroked -with a tenderness that seemed to linger there. She drew the -child’s face to hers too; and although she seemed to kiss it frequently, -it might have been observed that she breathed deep -and heavy exhalations upon different portions of it, which she -only touched with her lips.</p> - -<p>The effect was magical beyond any power of expression. -The hard, ugly, animal lines of that child’s face, which had<span class="pagenum" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</span> -been writhed and curled but a few moments before, in every -conceivable expression of most ignoble passions, at once subsided -into the meek and suppliant confiding of that inexplicable -and most tender of all the relations known to the animal -world, mother and child!</p> - -<p>“Dear, why did you not tell me what you knew about this -letter before?” said the mother, in a tone as musically reproachful -as if she dallied with her suckling babe. The child buried -her head in her mother’s bosom, and after a silence of some -time, during which her mother industriously stroked the top of -her head, she looked up, and in a sly, bashful tone exclaimed—</p> - -<p>“I did it just for fun, to try how writing love-letters went—I -copied the verses from a book, in your hand, and sent them -to him as yours!”</p> - -<p>Scarcely were these words uttered, than the languishing and -tender-seeming mother hurled the child from her, backwards, -upon the floor, with a violence that left her stunned and -prostrate, and springing to her feet, raged round and round the -room, as only a feminine demon infuriate could be imagined to -do, spurning now and then with her foot, as she passed, the -still senseless form of her own child!</p> - -<p>Hell might find an equal to this whole scene, but hell has -always been too civil! It is enough! This is jealousy! That -woman is jealous of her own child! and <i>she</i> only thirteen years -old!</p> - -<p>How long she might have raged and raved, and to what consequences -it might have led, heaven can only judge. Providentially, -perhaps, a knock at her door announced the postman. -She clutched the letter she received convulsively, and tearing it -open, the instant he closed the door, read—what? The letter -of Manton, which we saw in the last chapter!</p> - -<p>She read it through, standing where she had received it—her -eyes dilating, and her whole form changing. She literally -screamed with joy as she finished the letter, and clapped her -hands like one bewildered with a sudden triumph.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</span></p> - -<p>“Ah, ha! I have him! I have him! He is mine henceforth! -He cannot escape me now!” and her oblique eyes fell -upon the motionless child upon the floor. “The little fool!—she -catches my arts too soon—she is not hurt—but I must help -her.” She moved towards the child, but the demoniac triumph -which possessed her seemed irrepressible. She bounded suddenly -into the air, and almost shrieking aloud as she did so—</p> - -<p>“I have conquered—I have conquered him at last!” came -down like a statuesque Apollyon transfixed in exultation. It -was a horrible glimpse of unnatural triumph! It lasted but for -a moment; for, with a sudden drooping of the usually stooped -shoulders, as she turned towards the letter again, she said, -thoughtfully,</p> - -<p>“This will not do—he perseveres even here in talking about -mother! mother! and chaste! and holy! and all that sort of -thing. The foolish boy is too much in earnest. I have used -this stuff about long enough. I must find the means of bringing -him gradually around. Such a relation as the silly fellow -desires won’t do between <i>us</i>—we are both too full of life! Oh, -I’ll write him a note at once that will prepare the way—will -break up the ice, as he calls it, still more about his life!”</p> - -<p>She raised the child, which had been stunned by the fall, and -sprinkling some water upon her face, which caused the first long -breathing of recovery, she laid her upon the lounge, muttering, -as she did so, “The meddlesome little fool! She must do -everything she sees me do! She must imagine herself in love -with every one whom she sees me pretend to love. She must -write love-letters when she sees me write them, and heaven only -knows what she won’t do next with her monkeyish imitation! -But I can’t be crossed by a child so, if she is my own. Lie -there until you get over the sulks—you are not much hurt!”</p> - -<p>She turned away from the child and seated herself at the -table, exclaiming, as she seized her pen, “Ah! this letter! I -feel that I shall need all my skill and wit to word this properly, -so as not to alarm him. In his present excited and hysterical<span class="pagenum" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</span> -mood, the veriest trifle would have the effect of driving him off, -at a tangent, forever beyond my reach. And yet it will not do -to let things go on in this way; for I see that that idea of the -motherly relation, if once permitted to become settled in his -mind now, will remain a fixed barrier, which I shall never be -able to pass on earth. I must see him to-night, and take advantage -of his present over-wrought, ecstatic, and bewildered -condition, to break down this boyish dream of his! Bah! to -think that he should have taken me to be so much in earnest in all -that first twattle about motherly relations, which I found necessary -to use in order to get at him at all! Pity my correspondence -hasn’t warmed him up a little by this time! I’ve tried -hard enough, to be sure, but the queer fellow will persist in -etherealising everything!”</p> - -<p>During this soliloquy, the child, who had entirely recovered, -lay perfectly still, with sharpened attention, catching every -word that was spoken. There was an eagerness in her eye -which showed her to be, if not an apt scholar of such teachings, -at least a very attentive one. The woman wrote:—</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>“’Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name! -thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in -Heaven!’ My soul is deeply moved for thee in this thy time -of trial. The good God chasteneth thee now—now is the hour -of thy great tribulation come; now thy life-demons wrestle -in thee, with the love, the good the Father has sent to -redeem thee. Be strong! Ah, be strong even now, thou -child of many sorrows, and thou shalt yet find grace and peace -in acceptance with Him. Meanwhile I can but pray for thee -and with thee. I weary Heaven with supplications, that out of -this travail a great and glorious soul may be born in the humility -of love, for light, eternal light.</p> - -<p>“Come to me this evening, that I may take that throbbing -heart upon my bosom. I may soothe and calm you, but I cannot -give you rest—rest comes only from the Father! You ask me<span class="pagenum" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</span> -to be for you, forever, ‘Marie, mother!’ I can be to you, -forever, your <i>friend</i></p> - -<p class="psig"> -<span class="smcap">Marie</span>.”</p> -</div> - -<p>“Ah! ha! that will do it!” she said in a low chuckling tone, -as she rapidly folded and directed the letter; “though he might -take the alarm at this if he were cool, yet there’s no danger -now! It will no doubt shock him a little, but he has learned to -believe in me, and in his present excited state he has deified me -almost into an object of worship; and any suspicion he might -feel he would only blame himself for. Ah! this will do! it -shall go instantly! Here!” she said, turning sharply to the -child, “Here! get up there, put on your bonnet, and take this -letter! You know how to deliver it, and where! Come, up -with you!”</p> - -<p>“But, mother,” said the child, as she slowly lifted herself -half-erect, “I don’t feel like it—I’m not well! You hurt me!”</p> - -<p>“Nonsense!” said the mother, harshly; “go take a bath, and -do it quickly too! You’ll feel well enough! This letter must -go, and shall go! Get along, I say, and do what I tell you!”</p> - -<p>The child dragged herself slowly out of the room.</p> - -<p>“That little wretch will torment me to death!”</p> - -<p>The letter was despatched and reached its destination.</p> - -<p>Manton, whose excitement had continued, without the -slightest diminution, to return upon him, in paroxysm after -paroxysm, seized upon this last letter with the famishing eagerness -of a man who looks for strength—for spiritual consoling. -He read it with suffused and swollen eyes; he scarcely saw -what he read, so much had his vision been dizzied and obscured -by weeping. But those last words did indeed shock and thrill -him. He was strangely startled, and for a moment they seemed -to open to him an appalling and terrific gulf of falsehood, more -hideous than yawning hell.</p> - -<p>We say, it was but for a moment; but in that little space the -blackness of darkness overcame his soul. A shuddering of -dread, of doubt, of fear, and all that horrid brood, the birth of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</span> -rayless and unutterable gloom, passed over him convulsively, and -then the whole was gone. He had been too intensely wrought -upon by the ecstacies of Faith. He shook off, by one great -throe, the giant shadow of its natural enemy, this Doubt, which -he now conceived had so long made his life accursed; and the -rebound, by a necessary law, carried him to a yet greater and -more unreasoning extreme of trust, and unquestioning confidence -in this woman, as under God the instrument and medium -for restoring him once more to life and the world.</p> - -<p>He at once determined to visit her, and prove to his own soul -the falsehood of these dark suspicions of the being who had -thus moved and spoken his inmost life for good.</p> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI.<br /> - - -<small>REMORSE.</small></h2> -</div> - -<p>The evening was closing in when Manton made his way -through a heavy, drifting snow-storm, to the number of the new -address, near the corner of Broadway and Eighth Street, which -had appeared upon the last notes of his correspondent. He was -only made aware, thereby, that she had changed her residence -from the rooms where he had visited her in Bond Street, and had -thought no more about the matter; for it would have somewhat -damped his enthusiasm, or rather have made him furiously indignant, -to have been told that the woman he was visiting, with -such sublimated sentiment, usually found means to adapt her -rooms to the purpose and business in hand.</p> - -<p>He was too much excited and pre-occupied to notice the significant -appearance of the entry, further than to feel its dreariness, -as he rang the bell and waited an unreasonable time for -admission. The door was wide enough open to be sure, but he -was not sufficiently initiated into the mystery of such places to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</span> -understand the meaning of this exactly, even if it had been -possible for it to have excited his attention, in the then absorbed -and abstracted condition of his whole faculties.</p> - -<p>A negro servant at length made his appearance, and approaching -him closely, answered his inquiries in a tone so insolently -confidential that under other circumstances he would surely have -been in danger of a flooring at the hands of Manton, who, however, -only passed on up the stairs with a feeling of annoyance, the -cause of which he made no attempt at apprehending. He ascended -three steps at a bound, and in a moment tapped lightly -at the door.</p> - -<p>A soft voice, “Come!” was the response. The door flew -open.</p> - -<p>“Yes! yes! I come! Ah, Marie, mother, it must be so!” -And dropping his cloak and hat upon the floor, he sprang forward -to the woman, who, with her pale face beaming with unnatural -light, was seated upon a lounge, where she seemed to -have been awaiting him.</p> - -<p>“My poor friend!” and she stretched forth her arms towards -him. He laid his head upon her bosom, while his whole frame -shivered violently, and he sobbed forth—</p> - -<p>“Ah, blessed mother, let me rest here! My brain is bursting! -I am become as a little child again! Ah, I am so weak! A -wisp of straw would bind me! My own vaunted strength is -gone—all gone! I have no pride, no scorn, no defiance now! -My lips are in the dust! Ah, I am humble, humble, humble, -now! Do thou, incarnation of that angel mother who has passed -from earth, adopt me for thine own! Thine own, poor, lost, -bewildered, panting child!”</p> - -<p>“My poor friend, be calm!” and she caressed his wet cheek -lightly with her fingers. “Only be calm, and God will give -you strength to pass through this valley and shadow of trial.”</p> - -<p>“God gave me strength!” said he, with a sharp and sudden -change of tone, raising his head slightly to look in her face. -“Woman, he gave me strength when he gave me life! I have<span class="pagenum" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</span> -strength enough, as men call it, to move the world, aye, to wield -Fate itself. It was not for such strength I came to you. It -was not for such strength I would condescend to plead to mortal. -It is for that soft and beautiful presence that liveth in immortal -freshness, the spring-flower of the heart, beneath the moveless -outstretched wing of Faith. Faith in our own kind. Faith in -what is true and chaste in the purposes and charities, which, -widely separate from the sensuous and the passionate, constitute -all the blest amenities of intercourse between the sexes. ’Tis -not that I would ask you to be <i>all</i> my mother, for that could not -be; but that you should impersonate to me that calm joy, that -serenity of repose in which I lived so long, upon a troubled -earth, through her. It was she to whom I turned when the -world buffeted and baffled me, to renew upon her bosom my -faith in my fellows, and it was upon that sacred resting-place -that I alone found soothing. She reconciled me to endure. -She subdued my rebellious heart. She saved me from actual -madness; aye, from the strait-waistcoat and the chain, when -my brain was like to burst from throbbings that sounded like a -thousand wild steeds thundering frantic over echoing plains; for -the conflict was most fearful, when my young soul first arose to -grapple with the world and its huge evils. In my impotent -wrath I should have dashed myself to atoms against its moveless -battlements of wrong, but that a low, sweet voice would quell -and hold me back.</p> - -<p>“I was the child of much travail, and years of weary and -desponding watchfulness. I alone, of all her children, bore her -features—she loved me unutterably, and shielded me always; -it was not like the common love of mother for her child. In -all things concerning me she seemed to be filled with a strange -prescience—she read my inmost thought as if it were her own—as -if it were a scroll made legible by illuminated letters. She -seldom asked me questions, but simply told me what had happened. -It was useless to attempt disguises with her; ministering -in the flesh, she was my present angel, reconciling me to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</span> -life; and when she passed from me and the world, I first realised -what darkness, death, and separation meant.</p> - -<p>I was delirious I know not how long—for they seemed slowly -tearing my heart out by the roots, chord by chord, with a heavy -drag, until the last one snapped, and then I went into deep -oblivion, from which I awoke a man of stone, so far as sensation -went; and if stone could walk, with no more heart than it—or -rather if you can imagine this walking statue moulded of the -red lava, and only cooled upon the surface, you can better conceive -the smouldering, heart-devouring chaos in which my life -now moved among my fellows. I did not stop to curse and -battle with my old foes, I only hated them with a liquid flame -of scorn that found its level in me and was still. I would not -harm them—no, not I—I wanted them to live for companionship -in suffering. I gloried in their perversions—they filled me -with ecstasy. I could not but add to them, and in ferocious -delight threw myself into all the excesses and extremes that demonise -the world.</p> - -<p>“But ambition came to rescue my dignity at last, and of its -iron despotism you have seen the worst. From its hard and -meagre thraldom you have released me for the time, but it remains -with you to hold me free. The wings that have borne -me thus far on this bold upward flight must feel the soft freshening -of the breeze and the glad welcoming of sunlight, to the -purer realm they try, or flagging soon of the unwonted effort, -they will sink again to seek the old accustomed sullen perch. -The strength I need now is a subtler thing than any power of -will within myself—purer than the breath of angels, it is chaste -and mild as star-beams.</p> - -<p>“It is you who have filled me with these yearnings—’tis to -you that I look for their realisation, and yet you have not accepted -that pure and holy relation conveyed in the ‘Marie, -mother,’ I have named you, and plead with you to recognise.”</p> - -<p>During all this time the face of the woman had been bowed -so close to that of Manton that she seemed almost to touch with<span class="pagenum" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</span> -her lips, first his temples and then his cheek. A close observer -would have perceived, in her long and deep inspirations, her -slightly parted lips and the slow creeping movement of the head, -that she was steadily breathing upon certain well-known and -highly sensitive nerves. The brain of Manton was too full to -notice this strange manœuvre; but while he talked, that hot -breath had been sending soft thrillings through his frame, which, -at first unobserved, had gradually grown more palpably delicious, -until, as he ceased to speak, he found his whole frame -literally quivering with passion.</p> - -<p>He was silent for a moment, that he might fully realise the -sensation, and then, with a shudder of horror, sprang away -from contact with the woman, exclaiming—</p> - -<p>“My God! what is this? What an unnatural monster am -I! or”—as a sudden gleam of suspicion shot through his brain—“Woman, -is it you who have done this?” His face darkened -in an expression of rage and ferocity which was absolutely -hideous, as his eye glanced coldly on her.</p> - -<p>“I ask you, woman, was it some infernal art of yours? -Answer me!—for, by the Eternal God, you shall never thus -tamper with the sacrednesses of a true man’s heart again!” -and, grinding his teeth, he approached her menacingly, as if, in -his blind rage, he would rend her to atoms.</p> - -<p>The woman had taken but one glimpse of the terrible face -before her, and then shrunk bowed and crouching into the -corner of the lounge. Her neck and forehead flushed crimson, -spasmodic retchings of the throat commenced, and when Manton -stretched forth his hands, as if to clutch her, there was a deep -suffocating cough, and the red, warm blood gushed in an appalling -current from her mouth, bedabbling his fingers and her -clothing.</p> - -<p>The man was startled from his rage into immeasurable terror, -as he shrank back with upraised hands—</p> - -<p>“My God! I have killed—I have killed her by my brutal -violence! I am accursed! I am accursed for ever! I have<span class="pagenum" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</span> -slain the white dove of peace they sent to me from Heaven!” -Snatching a towel, he was on his knees by her side in an instant; -and placing it within her bloody hands, which were -clutched upon her mouth, as if to stay the fatal tide, he burst -into an agony of tears, praying in frantic accents to be forgiven; -for he could see nothing but immediate death in a hemorrhage -so violent as this seemed, and he remembered now, but too -vividly, how often she had told him of her melancholy predisposition -to such attacks from the lungs, by which she was kept -constantly in expectation of being carried off.</p> - -<p>Ah, with what fierce remorse, what agonised penitence, all -these things came up to him now, as gush after gush of crimson -saturated the towel! In answer to his prayers for forgiveness, -she at last reached one cold, bloody hand to his, pressing it -gently.</p> - -<p>And now his self-possession was immediately restored. His -only thought, at first, had been forgiveness before she died; -now he thought alone how to save her. Strange, he did not once -think of giving the alarm, and sending for medical aid; for he -instantly felt the case was one beyond the reach of ordinary -remedies, and one in which the most perfect restoration of both -the moral and physical natures to absolute repose could alone -avail.</p> - -<p>He reached another towel from the toilet-table, on which he -found, by the way, abundant supply, which, innocently enough, -seemed to him remarkably <i>apropos</i>; then, seating himself by -her side, he endeavored, by the use of all tender epithets which -could be applied, to soothe and calm her. She suddenly seized -his right hand and placed it upon the top of her head, and from -that moment he thought he could faintly perceive an increase -of his control over the more violent symptoms of the case.</p> - -<p>More than half an hour of harrowing suspense had passed, -before the paroxysm of bleeding had so far subsided as to enable -him to breathe more freely; but even when the bleeding had at -length entirely ceased, a long period of coma, or deathlike sleep,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</span> -induced by exhaustion, and suspended sensation, supervened, -during which he continued to watch her with the most painful -anxiety, still holding his right hand upon her head, while, with -the other, he clasped the fingers of her left hand as she had -requested. As she immediately showed signs of restlessness on -his attempting to remove either hand, he felt himself compelled -to sit thus, without change of position, for several hours, awaiting -whatever might occur.</p> - -<p>And, finally, after a slight stirring of the limbs, she suddenly -opened her eyes upon his, and smiled with a clear, sweet smile, -rather of pity and affection than of forgiveness or reproach. He -felt his heart bound within him, and he could only utter, in a -low tone, “The good God be blessed! I have not killed you! -Oh, I will never be ugly and cruel again! I will be your good -boy now, always!”</p> - -<p>“Yes, yes,” she said in a clear, firm voice, “you were very -naughty; but I am strong again now. You will never speak -harshly to me again, will you? Lean here, my beautiful tiger; -let me feel that fierce cheek upon my bosom once more. You -have suffered, too; I must soothe you.”</p> - -<p>Manton, who, by this time, had become thoroughly exhausted, -bowed his head lightly towards her, in obedience; but he leaned -it rather upon the cushion than her person.</p> - -<p>It was now near twelve o’clock, and the man was literally -worn out by the long and violent excitements which we -have traced. Body, soul, and sense, utterly collapsed, the moment -his head found a resting-place, into a deep sleep.</p> - -<p>The lamp burnt low; there was not another sound to disturb -the dimmed silence of that room, but the heavy breathings of -Manton. But even that murky light was sufficient to disclose -the figure of the woman stooping, as before, close to the face -of the sleeper. Slowly her lips crept over, without touching -it, lingering here and there, while her chest heaved with deep -inspirations. You could not see, had you been a looker-on, -the slight parting of the lips, nor could you have felt the heated<span class="pagenum" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</span> -furnace of her breath play along the helpless surface of those -prostrate nerves; but you might have seen an eager, oblique -glitter in her eye, that grew the stronger while the darkness -thickened, as ghouls look sharper out of graves they have uncovered. -But then, had you been patient, you would have -seen, as the hours went by, a gradual twitching of the nerves -possess that deathlike frame—a restless motion, a moan, an all-unconscious -smile of ecstatic delight; and then, if your sense -was not frightened and appalled by the fierce, swift blaze from -those still eyes above, a fiend’s triumph would be all familiar to -you.</p> - -<p>Alas! alas! will that young man wake sane? The owner of -those glittering eyes seems to know; for hark! in her exceeding -joy she whispers aloud, “He is mine now! See how his -nerves vibrate. I was right in choosing this time of great prostration. -I am scudding along those nerves like a sea-bird on -currents of the sea; all that is animal in him is mine now. He -is mine at last—the insolent tyro! I shall drag him down from -his vaulting self-esteem; I shall humble him; I shall degrade -him. Ah, ha! I shall feed upon him!”</p> - -<p>There may be retribution on earth or in heaven. We will let -that dark night’s history rest!</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER XVII.<br /> - - -<small>“TO-MORROW.”</small></h2> -</div> - -<p>It would be well for sinners were there no to-morrow. At -least it would be well for them so far as impunity in the enjoyment -of sin was concerned. But it may not be; the inevitable -time of reaction must follow that of excess, the wages of which -are remorse.</p> - -<p>The effect of that to-morrow upon poor Manton was fearfully -crushing. At first he dared not think—the horrid realisation -would have slain him. He dared not look up, lest he should -see the great height from which he had fallen. He dared not -hear the voices within him, or above him, lest they should blast -his sense. He shrank from the sunlight, as though each ray -were a fiery arrow, to cleave hissing through his brain. He -dared not look his fellow-man in the face, lest he should see the -mark upon his brow, call him accursed, and spit upon him. -The innocent eye of childhood was the most dreaded basilisk -to him; and the face of a pure woman made him shrink and -shudder in affrighted awe. His shadow seemed a spectral -mockery to him, for it no longer glided with him, straight and -firm, but was bowed, and crept sneaking after.</p> - -<p>The burden of a hundred years had fallen upon the young -man’s shoulders in one fatal night—a ghastly, loathsome burthen -of self-contempt—his face had grown old; his eyes lost their -proud fire; his lips, their firm expression; there was no longer -any “aspiration in his heel.” The haughty, bounding self-reliance, -the unflinching, upward look, were gone! gone! Manton -had lost his self-respect.</p> - -<p>Ah, fearful, fearful loss, that it is! There was a leaden desperation -in the man’s whole air that was shocking, even to those -who had never seen him before. There was no bravado in it—it<span class="pagenum" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</span> -was sultry, slow and self-consuming—shrank from observation, -and burned inward.</p> - -<p>He neither sought nor found any palliation for himself. He -blamed no one else; his pride would not permit him to confess -to himself that he had been unduly influenced, or that any unfair -advantage had or could have been taken of him. No, it -was his own fall. His own grossness had profaned those associations -which he had stupidly deluded himself, for years, into -supposing to be really sacred things in his life. He had rendered -himself, thereby, unfit for Heaven, unworthy Earth, too -base for even Hell.</p> - -<p>His first sullen recourse was to the wine-cup, that he might -numb the unendurable agonies. He drank to monstrous excess; -but, no, it would not do; that cold burning, as of an ice-bolt -through his heart and brain, lay there still, in the two centres. -He sought and found men like himself, with great thoughts -and stricken hearts; like himself, brain-workers; and in the -fiercest orgies of desperation, hours and hours were spent without -attaining to one moment of the coveted oblivion.</p> - -<p>The evening had long set in among such scenes, when a note -was suddenly thrust into his hand from behind, and as he turned -his head, he saw a boy hastily making his way through the -thronged room. This movement had not been observed by -his noisy companions—he hastily concealed the note.</p> - -<p>He had recognised the superscription with a feeling of deathly -sickness, for which he could not clearly account. It was as if -the fresh wounds were all to be torn open again.</p> - -<p>He soon after found an opportunity to withdraw beyond -observation, and opened the note, which contained only these -words:—</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p><span class="smcap">My Friend</span>:—why have you left me all day? come to me—I -am dying.</p> - -<p class="psig"> -<span class="smcap">Marie.</span><br /> -</p> -</div> - -<p>The sheet was bespattered with blood. Manton nearly -fainted. Recovering himself in a moment, he muttered, “Infernal<span class="pagenum" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</span> -brute that I am! to have neglected the poor, frail creature -thus—after last night, too! May God forgive me, for I shall -never forgive myself!” He hurried from the room.</p> - -<p>The scene, on reaching her apartment, was, as may by this -time be expected, ghastly enough. But as we have seen a -little more of these horrid bleeding scenes than Manton has, we -will refrain from another description of one, since we have -found that they only differed in the intensity of effect and degree -in the precise ratio of the results to be attained. In this -instance she had not reckoned without her host.</p> - -<p>Manton, who never dreamed of suspecting her, and had been -fully impressed with the belief that these attacks were fearfully -dangerous, and that the magnetism of his touch, whether imaginary -or otherwise, could alone suffice to restore her to the -calmness necessary for the arrest of the hemorrhage, felt as if an -awful responsibility had been suddenly devolved upon him, as -he thus apparently held the very life of this singular woman in -his own hands.</p> - -<p>This impression had been consummately fixed upon the mind -of Manton by her obstinate refusal to permit the presence, at their -interviews, of any third person, not even that of her own child. -She could thus, through his generous humanity, most effectually -draw him to her side; and, when once in her reach, he was -again in the power of those fearful arts, of which we have seen -something.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The life of Manton became now a succession of the “to-morrows” -of remorse. Each new sun arose upon its succeeding -scene of wilful, self-degrading excess, such as we have witnessed. -He never permitted himself to grow fully sober, but -drank incessantly—morning, noon and night. But that the -wines he chose were comparatively light, and less rapidly fatal -than the heavier and more dangerous drinks of our country, he -must have, undoubtedly, destroyed his life, as he did his business -reputation.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</span></p> - -<p>He still wrote brilliantly—nay, even with a fierce and poetic -dazzle of style that surprised men greatly, and added much to -the notoriety, if not to the solidity of his reputation. But everything -went wrong with him. His purse was regularly drained -by a remorseless hand; his wardrobe fell into neglect, and the -marks of excess upon his fine, proud features, were at once -rendered conspicuous by their association with almost seedy habiliments.</p> - -<p>Before one year had passed he had begun to exhibit himself -before men, in the pitiable light of one who had more pride left -than self-respect. In a word, he had fallen fully into the toils -of the hellish Jezabel.</p> - -<p>Remember, in judging of poor Manton, that while he is hoodwinked, -through much that is most noble in him, <i>we</i> see this -woman through the strong light of day. He looks upon her as -a devotee of science, in the holy cause of human progress and -social amelioration. A poet and enthusiast, his life is dedicate to -both. He regards her as a frail being, whose life hangs by a -thread, and that thread held in his own hand—degraded into -a false relation to himself—a relation which he loathes, to be -sure, and which he feels to be heavily and swiftly dragging him -downward, every instant, while it lasts, but which he dare not -utterly break, for the fear that that frail thread of life, of which -he has so strangely become the holder, should be snapped. He -has only seen her, through her representations of herself; and -therefore, all that is chivalrous and tender in him has been -aroused in her defence, as the white roe, hunted into his strong -protection for defence against the demon hounds of New England -bigotry, jealousy, and fear. Apart from all other considerations, -these were sufficient to compel an utter negation of -self, in all that related to her, as well as a hasty dismissal of -those suspicions that might thrust themselves upon him.</p> - -<p>A house, in the meantime, had been taken for her in Tenth -Street, for the rent of which Manton and the benevolent Doctor -Weasel were to become jointly responsible. But the woman<span class="pagenum" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</span> -was far too astute to permit any such entanglements as might -lead, prospectively, to mutual explanations between her victims. -The Doctor alone ultimately became her endorser for the rent. -She had other designs upon the less plethoric purse of Manton.</p> - -<p>In entering upon this arrangement, Manton had been induced -to believe, by her own representations, that for ten years before -the name of Preissnitz had been heard of on this continent, this -woman had been practising water-cure among her women patients. -Manton had been sufficiently educated in the profession, -to understand that its general pretensions were essentially empirical. -He was too much an Indian, indeed, and had lived too -much among Indians, to regard anything beyond the simplest -natural agents as efficiently curative. He therefore recognized -what Preissnitz had discovered, as simply confirmatory of his -experience of the usages of savage life, and his own observation -so far as it went. It contained not to him any more than any -other pathy, the essential <i>vis medicatrix</i> of nature; but it seemed -good to him, because it was new to the popular sense, and was -well worthy to be urged upon its recognition, and thus to find -its proper place among the other systems.</p> - -<p>He entered upon the project with the fullest enthusiasm, for -this woman seemed to him, from her personal habits and untiring -energy, to be specially set apart to preach the crusade of -physical cleanliness to her sex. The house was therefore occupied -by her as proprietress and female physician, while Manton, -Doctor Weasel, the fiery Jeannette, and victimised Edmond, of -a former scene, occupied respective chambers as boarders, and -patrons of the new enterprise.</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XVIII">CHAPTER XVIII.<br /> - - -<small>A DIVERSION.</small></h2> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Never did moon so ebb, or seas so wane,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But they left Hope-seed to fill up again.</div> - <div class="verse indent28"><span class="smcap">Herrick.</span></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - - -<p>But even in the black abysses of the hell down which he had -fallen, a flower could grow to the eye of Manton. It was the -strange birth of a wizard evil place; yet, as it spread beneath -his nourishing eye and hand, it daily grew more beautiful to him. -It may have been the unconscious contrast of a something young, -living, and blooming in an unnatural sphere like this, where he, -with the sudden weight of centuries upon him, breathed with -such heavy gasping. He could not tell what it was that thickened -this drear air; he only felt the oppression on his lungs, -and shuddered when sleep had partly sobered him, and he could -realise it for the hour. His sympathies had been first touched -for that ugly, impish, persecuted child, to which we have frequently -referred, because he saw, at once, that the mother’s -querulous jealousy was forever subjecting it to a species of covert -torture, which kept it always haggard and wretched. Had it -been a sick and neglected kitten on the hearth, he would have -felt for it the same kind of sympathy. He accordingly noticed -and caressed the child, and endeavoured to rouse its low, ignoble -frontal region into activity. The response of a hungry and -vivid animality, surprised him with its aptitude of apparent intelligence. -He did not understand that marvellous faculty of -imitation which, in all the animal tribes approximating man, or -which, in other words, are born with embryo souls, assumes the -external semblances of intelligent expression. The faculty -of music is below man, and common both to bird and beast; and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</span> -he had yet to learn, to his heavy cost, how a perception and detection -of the physical harmonies of sound may be utterly distinct -from the spiritual comprehension of their meaning. He had yet to -fearfully realise how this insensate aptitude of harmony, which -enables the monkey of the organ-grinder to dance in perfect -time the most wild and rapid strathspey that ever Highland pibroch -rung, or a stupid parrot to whistle the divinest strains of -Mozart, could yet bestow upon the combined parrot and monkey -of our own race that semblant mockery of the “gift of tongues,” -the use of the soul’s higher language. In a word, he would -have been greatly shocked to hear the affiliated Poll and Jocko -talk down Shelley in his own etherealisms, and appal Byron with -the mad bravado of forgotten lines from his own reckless and -besotted misanthropy.</p> - -<p>Poll and Jocko are easy enough to detect through all the human -disguises of their combined powers, if the man of common -sense and society meets the impersonation for the first time, -when developed, or in most of the latter stages of development. -But it was a very different thing with poor Manton, who only -saw an undeveloped, abject animal, from which he expected -little but the gratitude of the brute for protection, and from which -anything like a vivid response was as surprising as it was unconsciously -gratifying to his egotism, for the reason that all that -was really pleasurable in it was owing to the fact of its constituting -a close reflection of his own mind.</p> - -<p>Gradually the feeling took possession of him, as he observed -in her an excessive sensibility, that could weep at a moment’s -warning, and laugh like April through the glistening storm in -the next instant, that he would make amends for the great sin -of his life, in working upon this sensitive organisation for good. -The fine delicate chords of this frail instrument might be made -to respond to the divinest notes; and this creature, with developed -brain and expanding soul, become a medium of the loftiest -intelligence—aye, be even to him the consoler of after years.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</span> -The idea was a strange one, but it suited the intellectual audacity -of Manton for that very reason.</p> - -<p>It seemed to his darkened hopelessness, that here, through the -innocence of childhood, he might renew that broken chain of -living light which held him in communion with the upper world, -until its blackened, severed links, falling about him, had left his -manacled soul in hopeless bondage. He dreamed that if he -guarded it with holy zeal, his prayers might rise upon the first -odors that went up from this strange young flower to Heaven, -and bring its light down too, in forgiveness, to him.</p> - -<p>He did not know—for he had fed on poisons until it had become -a kind of second nature to him, as to that old Pontiac king—that -the pure light of spheres could never reach him through this -lurid glare, which he had now come to think the natural day—that -the odor of no flower could rise through its thickened air -to meet the keen, grey stars. The man became bewildered with -the gorgeous dream he nourished; and, day by day, without -knowing why, he threw himself between the child and the baleful -shadow of its mother. He spread his hands above her in -blessing; he watched that he might shield her.</p> - -<p>From the moment when his attention had been first attracted -to her, she seemed to become illuminated; her ungainly body -appeared assuming the lines of beauty; her mean, harsh features, -softened, as the gnarled shrub assumes, in slow unfolding, the -graceful mellowed drapery of spring. The coarse, elfin locks, -grew tamed and smooth; a dark blue, in soft and gradual displacement, -entered the sharp, greenish, animal eyes. The low, -ape-like forehead, swelled above meekly-curved brows that had -lost their hirsute squareness. Indeed, so rapid was the expansion -of the frontal region, that it absolutely startled and affrighted -the devout experimenter, when he placed his hand upon it, -and felt it almost lifted by the wild throbbings beneath. The -work was progressing <i>too</i> fast; he feared that the general health -of the subject might fail; but how to check and remedy this -powerful reaction, so as to control it from fatal results, now so<span class="pagenum" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</span> -fully occupied the spiritual subtilty of the man, as to leave him -little time to think of himself.</p> - -<p>The loathsome contact of the reptile mother daily grew more -abhorrent to him; and her characteristic cunning soon discovered -that she had no real hold upon him herself, and at once -encouraged this growing interest in the daughter, with the same -assiduous art that she had before displayed in tormenting her -with jealous gibes. Through this help she hoped he might be -held within her reach. She had already, by her malapert, silly, -malignant interference, so far completed his ruin as to have -brought about a desperate, and finally fatal collision, between -himself and his business associate in the Journal, which his -genius had built up; and now he was thrown again to struggle -hap-hazard with the world, he had become more reckless and -desperate than before, so that she feared he might, at any time, -break away from his bondage, and that, too, while he was still -of use to her, and before she had gloated fully upon his ruin. -She had studiously taught the child the process of those infernal -arts, of which we have seen something; and, although the creature -understood nothing of the <i>rationale</i> involved, yet her imitative -cunning made her a most sharp pupil and practitioner.</p> - -<p>By saying that the child did not understand, we mean to convey, -that she could not have explained to herself, or to others, -what effect certain manipulations would produce specifically; -yet she had a feeling of them, a vicious intuition, that answered -with her all the purposes of intellection. To look at her -through the eyes of Manton, the uncouth and grotesque girl -had become a fond and graceful plaything, that clung about him -in soft caresses, that kept his heart warmed towards her, and -caused him to regard the mother even with a modified sense of -the growing disgust which was possessing him, and of which -her shrewd insight made her fully aware.</p> - -<p>Her child had become necessary as a bait—and her child let -it be—for, in her hideous creed, nothing was sacred. She was -filled towards her victim with fierce yearnings, and, had she<span class="pagenum" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</span> -possessed the actual entity of soul, would have loved him -madly—but no, she hated him, as the slave hates the despotic -master to whom he hourly cringes for each favor. In a word, -she hated him as a man—or in his double capacity of a spiritual -being, rather; and, as even her hate was secondary, her appetites -towards him were those of the weir-wolf for mankind. -She would devour him body and soul, but she meant to feast -alone.</p> - -<p>Fearing lest the tenderness of his nature might be too -strongly moved towards the child, if not diverted in other directions, -she at once set her subtle wits to work to furnish her -“Tiger,” as she called him, with sufficient toys of the same -kind to keep him quiet, and avert the chances of his leaning -more towards one than another. Some letters were hastily -despatched to New England, and the result was the appearance -of a fair and gentle child, about the age of her own.</p> - -<p>Elna and the stranger, Moione, sprang into each other’s arms -when they met, as if their very heart were one. They were fast -friends, it seemed, and a thousand times had Elna said how -dearly she loved the gentle Moione; and so jealous were the -children of their first meeting, that Manton saw little of either -for several days. A glance at the broad, serene brow, great, -clear eyes, and delicate mouth of the new-comer, filled him -with a strange, inexplicable sense of confidence, and even -relief; which he could not well explain, to be sure, because it -was too undefined to himself. He could only wonder how that -white-browed creature came in such a place. It seemed as -though it were a promise, answering to his prayer for the elfish -Elna, that this calm spirit should have descended in their midst.</p> - -<p>The vehement and headstrong petulance of her nature promised -to find here a balance that would sober it within the -bounds of reason; and strangely, although he saw hope for her, -and for his own yet undefined purpose in her development, he -saw nothing definitely in the stranger, but a good angel sent to aid -him. His soul went out to greet her, but was it yet his heart?</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</span></p> - -<p>These children were both dedicate to art; and Manton found -it now by far the most pleasing occupation, to watch and give -direction to the rapid unfolding of this instinct for the creative. -The newly-aroused intellect of Elna here displayed many impish -and brilliant characteristics of the imitative faculty, that might -easily have been mistaken, by a less partial observer than Manton, -for genius. These peculiarities were strikingly contrasted -with the placid, but vigorous style of Moione, to a degree that -one formed the exact offset to the other, not alone in art, but -in all physical and mental, as well as spiritual idiosyncrasies. -As these children grew upon him, there seemed something -strangely familiar in them to Manton. He often tried to account -for this to himself. Had he seen them before in dreams? -Had he known them in some different world, and in a previous -stage of being? Why was it that the vehement eccentricities -of temper, the elfin wildness of motion, and light, mocking -spirit of this child Elna, all seemed to him so familiar? Why -was it that the coming of the fair-browed Moione had surprised -him so little? There was that in her pure, calm face to startle -most observers; yet, from the first, he had looked upon it as a -matter of course, and as if he had unconsciously waited for her -to arrive. Why was it that he had felt comforted since she -came? What was it, in that name of hers, that sounded to -him so much like a half-forgotten music-note?</p> - -<p>So he had questioned himself a thousand times, becoming -each day more puzzled than the last, until accident furnished -him with the curious solution of this mystery. One day, in -looking over a pile of old manuscripts, he found one, upon -which he seized, with an unaccountable thrill. In an instant -the whole thing flashed upon him—</p> - -<p>“I have it! I have it! Here the mystery is solved at last! -Strange, that I should so utterly have forgotten this manuscript! -Two years ago, before I ever saw these people, this strange -foreshadowing of what seems now a reality in my life, came to -me in a summer’s day-dream; and I wrote it off, to be thrown<span class="pagenum" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</span> -aside and forgotten until this moment. It seems the most wonderful -coincidence. I am no believer in miracles, but this appears -a marvellous reach of the soul into the future; I was conscious -of nothing when I wrote, but the pleasure of embodying -in words what seemed to me a beautiful thought; strange, it -should have been thus thrown aside and so utterly forgotten, -until the increasing coincidences of my present relation have -gradually forced me back to find it! What blind instinct, -struggling in me, sent me here to look through these old manuscripts, -with no definite purpose? What vague struggle of -consciousness and memory is this, that has been moving me for -weeks to understand why it is those children seem so familiar to -me? Strange! strange! strange!”</p> - -<p>Manton now proceeded to read this curious manuscript, the -contents of which we shall also place before you:—</p> - - -<h3>THE LEGEND OF THE MOCKING-BIRD.</h3> - -<p>Friend, do you know the Mocking-Bird? I warrant, if he is -a familiar of your childhood, you have a thousand times wondered -at the strange malignant intelligence which characterises -his tyrannical supremacy over all the feathered singers. Not -only is he “accepted king of song,” but he is the pest and -terror of the groves and meadows. Spiteful and subtle, he -conquers in battle, or by manœuvre, all in reach of him; and -you may easily detect his favourite haunts, by the incessant din -and clatter of wrath and fear he keeps up by his malicious -mockery among his neighbors. From my earliest childhood, I -can remember having been singularly impressed by the weird -and curious humors of this creature. Since those times of innocent -wonder, I have been a wide wanderer. The prepossessions -of my fancy were irresistibly attracted by the wild legend -I give below. It was told me by an old Wako warrior.</p> - -<p>On a hill-side, above an ancient village of his tribe, while we -were stretched upon the grass beneath a moss-hung live-oak, he<span class="pagenum" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</span> -related it. The moon was out, gilding with silver alchemy the -shrub-crowned crests of prairie undulations—piled, as we may -conceive the waves of the ocean would be—stayed by a word -from heaven, while on the leap before a tempest. It was a -fitting scene for such a story. Out from the dark gorges on -every side ascended the night-song of the mocking-bird. The -old man had listened to the rapid gushing symphonies for some -time in silence, then drawing a long breath he remarked—“That -is an evil bird!” I begged him for an explanation, and he proceeded.</p> - -<p>Those peculiarities, indeed, of the Indian’s phraseology—those -broken-pointed expressions, so condensed and meaning, -and eked out continually by significant gestures, I could hardly -hope to convey, were I fully able to remember them. The -wild and fanciful methods of the Indian mind, believing what -it dwells upon, yet half conscious that it is dreaming, are difficult -to remember or repeat. We can only do the best we may -to preserve the idiosyncracies.</p> - -<p>“Yahshan, the Sun,” said the old chief, pausing reverently -as he uttered the name, “in his great wigwam beyond the big -waters, made the first Wako! He laid him in his fire-canoe -and oared his way up through the thick mists that hung everywhere. -When his arm tired of pulling, he took him out and -stretched him upon his back on a wide dark bank, and then -rowed on his path and left him. The Wako lay like the stem -of an oak, still and cold. Before Yahshan entered his night-lodge -in the west, a dim hazy light had hung over the figure, -but this only made its broad couch look blacker—for nothing -that had form could be seen. Yahshau, the Moon—the pale -bride of Yahshan—came forth when he had gone in, and rowed -her silver bark through the ugly shadows above the Wako, to -watch lest the spirits that hated Yahshan should do harm to his -work, which it had taken him many long ages to finish. He -was very proud of it, and the evil spirits hated him that he had -made a thing so goodly to look upon; and they drifted hideous<span class="pagenum" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</span> -phantom shapes across the way of Yahshau, and tried to overwhelm -her light canoe, but its keen shining prow cut through -them all, and left them torn and ragged behind her. At last -they fled, for when her eye was on the mute form of the Wako, -they feared to do it any harm. When all were gone, and -nothing that looked like mischief was to be seen, she too went -in. And then they flocked out from the deep places where -they had been hid, and gathered with hot fingers and red eyes -about the quiet Wako. He did not stir, for his senses had not -yet been waked. Quick they pried open his clenched teeth, and -poured a green smoking fluid down his throat. Just then the -prow of the fire-canoe appeared parting the eastern mists, and -they all fled.</p> - -<p>“Yahshan came on. He looked upon his work and smiled—for -he did not know that evil had been wrought—and came -now in glory, riding on golden billows, scattering the chill mists -that clung around the icy form, for it was time to waken it up -with life. He rolled the yellow flood upon it, and the figure -shivered; again the glowing waves pass over it—the figure was -convulsed—tossed its limbs about, and rocked to and fro. Its -eyes were open, but it saw not; its ears were open, but it heard -not; it was tasteless and dumb; it smelt not, nor did it feel. -Life had gone into it, and the heart beat, the pulses throbbed, -the blood coursed fast, and it was monstrous strong. But what -was this? Being, self-fed and self-consumed, hung upon the -void of midnight, hurried and driven from its own still gathering -impulse through a chaos of crude matter. That green -liquid of the evil one now rushed in burning currents through -the veins, and it dashed away, crawling, leaping, tumbling, like -a mad torrent, over piled-up rocks across the dark plains, -striking against hard, formless things, and rebounding to rush -on more swiftly, till it had left the fire-canoe and Yahshan all -astounded, far behind, and the terror of darkness was beneath -and above it. But what was this to it? On! on! the green -fire still burned within, and it must go—chasms and cliffs, with<span class="pagenum" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</span> -jagged rocks—into them, over them all. What were rough -points and bruises, and crashing down steeps, and midnight to -it? There was no feeling, yet the heart leaped, the blood -careered, the limbs must follow. Motion, blind motion—no -control, no guide—but through and over everything, move it -must.</p> - -<p>“The bad spirits thronged after it, grating and clanging their -scaly pinions against each other, and creaking their pleasant -gibes, when suddenly there was no footing, and the headlong -form pitched down, downward, whirling through the empty -gloom, while all the herd of ill things laughed and flapped themselves -in the prone wake behind it.</p> - -<p>“At once, with a sigh of wings, like a sharp moan of tree-harps, -a shape of light shot arrowy down amidst them. They -scattered, howling with affright. It bore up the falling Wako -on strong, shining vans an instant, then stretching them out, -subsided slowly, and laid it on a soft, dark couch again. This -was Ah-i-wee-o, the soul of harmonies, the good spirit of sweet -sounds. She is the great queen of spirit-land. Yahshan and -Yahshau are her slaves; and all the lesser fire-canoes that skim -in Yahshau’s train obey her. She gives all life its outer being; -to know and feel beyond itself—without her, life is only motion. -There is no form, no law, no existence beside, for she holds -and grants them each sense, and in them reveals all these. -Yahshan could give life—but not content with this, he was ambitious. -The formless chaos his fire-canoe sailed over must be -a world of beauty! A soul dwelt in it, but that world was passionless -and barren. Yahshan had given life to many shapes, -but the cold spirit had scorned them all; and yet she must be -wooed to wed herself to life, that, out of the glow of that embrace, -might spring the eternal round of thoughts made vital, -clothed out of shapeless matter with symmetry. He planned -an impious scheme. He would not pray the good Ah-i-wee-o -for aid, but would act alone, and be the great Medicine Spirit. -He would frame a creature from out the subtlest elements within<span class="pagenum" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</span> -this chaos, so exquisite that, when it came to live, confusion -would be harmonised in it, and the order of its being go forth -the law of beauty and of form to all. Then that coy spirit of -desolation would be won at last, and passing into its life, a royal -lineage would spring forth, and procreation wake insensate -matter in myriad living things, gorgeous ideals, harmoniously -wrought, and self-producing forever. All these would be his -subjects, and he would rule, with Yahshau, this most excellent -show himself! So he labored on, in the deep chambers of his -night-lodge, through many cycles. The work was finished. It -lay in state, within his golden wigwam at the east, that Yahshau -and her glittering train might look upon it and wonder. Then -he carried it forth; but evil spirits are wise, and, though it was -a mighty work, they knew that it was too daring, and that Ah-i-wee-o -would punish its presumption, and would not let the -senses wake with life; so they poured that fearful fluid in, -that fires the blood, and makes life slay itself. They say the -white man has dealt with them, has learned from them the spell -of that bad magic, and makes his “fire-water” by it. So when -Yahshan waked up life, its power waked too; for he knew not -of the craft, and it tore the glorious work from out his hands, -while they flew behind and mocked him.</p> - -<p>“Ah-i-wee-o bent over the swooning Wako; for the life that -had been so tumultuous scarcely now stirred his pulse. She -was a thing of beams, silvery and clear; a warm, lustrous light -clung around her limbs and showed their delicate outline. She -floated on the air, her wings and figure waving with its eddies, -like the shadows of a Lee-ka-loo bird upon the sea. Her eyes, -deep as the fathomless blue heaven, looked down on him with -pity and unutterable gentleness. It was a marvellous work the -overdaring Yahshan had accomplished. Beautiful, exceedingly, -was that mute form, and rarely exquisite its finish. Must that -glorious mechanism be destroyed, and all the noble purpose of -its framing be lost? No! She moves her tiny, flower-like -hand above it, and every blotch and all the bruises disappear,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</span> -and it was fair to view, and perfect as when Yahshan had given -it the last touch. Now she stooped beside and touched him, -white sparks flew up, and she sang a low song. At the first -note, the dark, formless masses round them quivered and rocked: -the Wako smiled; for feeling now first thrilled along his nerves. -The song rose; the dumb things shook and stirred the more. -She touched his nostrils and his lips; the sparks played between -her small fingers and danced up. Yet a louder note swelled -out, and the thick mists swayed and curled, and a cool wind -rushed through them, and dashed a stream of odor on his face. -He drew long breaths, and sighed with the burden of delight, -and moved his lips to inarticulate joy; and now that wondrous -song pealed out clear, ringing bursts that shook the blue arch -and swung the fire-boats, cadent with its gushes; and through -the dim mists great shapes, like rocks and trees, leaped to the -measure, marshalling in lines and order. Now she pressed his -eyelids with her fingers; the silver sparks sprung in exulting -showers, snapping and bursting with sweet smells. Once more, -pealing triumphant, a keen, shining flood, that symphony poured -wilder forth; his eyes fly open, and that heavy mist, like a great -curtain, slowly rises. First the green grass and the flowers, -bending beneath the gentle breeze, turn their deep eyes and -spotted cups towards him in salutation, and all the creeping -things and birds, that love the low herbs, dew-besprent, are -there: and as the mist goes up, majestically slow, other forms -of bird and beast are seen, and dark trunks of trees, and great -stems beside them, looking like trees, until his eyes have traced -them up to the great moose, the big-horned stag, the grizzly -bear, and the vast-moving mammoth. But then it has drunk -the harmony of grades; for all are there. And, side by side, -he marks how, from the crawler, every step ascends, in beautiful -gradation; the last linked to the first in one all-perfect chain. -Then came the knotted limbs, with all their burden of green -leaves; and, underneath, the round, yellow fruits, or purple -flushing of rich clusters and gay forms, that flutter through them<span class="pagenum" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</span> -on wings of amethyst, or flame, or gold, their every movement -a music-note, although all was dumb to him as yet. Still -higher the mist-curtain goes; and the grey cliffs, with shining -peaks, and a proud, fierce-eyed bird perched on them, meet his -gaze; and then the mists float far away, and scatter into clouds, -and all the splendor and the pomp of the thronged earth is -spread, a gorgeous, but voiceless, revelation to his new being. -With every touch of the enchantress, Ah-i-wee-o, the soul of -chaos had passed into a sense; and all the pleasant harmonies -the Wako felt, and all the scented harmonies the Wako tasted -and inhaled—all the thoughts of harmony in grand or graceful -forms the Wako saw—that blissful interpenetration gave conception -to, and the magic of that powerful song brought forth. -One more act, and his high marriage to eternity is consummated: -ecstacy has found a voice, and all these harmonies articulation, -yet his ears were sealed; and though music flowed -in through every other sense, his dumb lips strove in vain to -wake its language.</p> - -<p>“But this was the supremest gift of all. This was the charm -that had drawn beauty out of chaos—the magic by which Ah-i-wee-o -ruled in spirit-land, and chained the powers of evil. It -were death to spirits less than she, to hear the fierce crashing of -those awful symphonies she knew. His nature could not bear -the revelation. Besides, what had he to do with that celestial -minstrelsy which led the heaven-fires on their rounds? There -was ambition, full enough, up there; and Yahshan had been -playing far too rashly on those burning keys. She would not -curse this perfect being with a gift too high, and add another -daring rebel to her realm! No! he must be ruler here, as she -ruled everything. From all those harmonies he must extract -the tone, and on it weave his song of power to lead them captive. -This divine music is the voice of all the beautiful, the -higher language of every sense; and not until the soul is -brimmed to overflowing with sparkling thoughts of it, drank in -through each of them, will the beamy current run, as streams do<span class="pagenum" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</span> -in the skies. He must lead the choir of all this being—yet, this -infinite sense would overbear his nature, if suddenly revealed; -it can only wake in other creatures, as its birth matures in him—and -he shall go forth into silence—every living thing shall be -mute—and from the low preluding of the waters and the winds -the first notes of his exulting powers shall be learned, and they -shall learn of him—until all the air is one harmony—all breath -takes music on, and echoes bear the twice-told glee—until fainter, -more faint, it is gone!</p> - -<p>“She touched his ears—the sparks leaped up—she pressed his -lips with one entrancing kiss and sprang away. The quick -moan of her pinions cleaving the air is the first sound that steals -on the new sense, and stirs the dead vast of silence that weighs -upon his being. And now myriad soft wavelets of the infinite -ocean follow—breaking gently over him—the whisper of quivering -leaves to the caressing zephyr, the low tremble of the forest-chords, -and the deep booming of great waves afar off; the ring -and dash of cascades nearer, the tinkling of clear drops in caves, -the gush and ripple of cold springs, the beat of pulses, the purr -of breathings, and the hum of wings, in gentlest ravishment possess -his soul—for now is the bridal of his immortality consummate -in a delirium of bliss, and lulled upon his couch he sweetly -sinks into the first sleep.</p> - -<p>“The Wako is roused next morning by a warm flood from the -fire-canoe—for Yahshan had come forth right royally, and though -Ah-i-wee-o had humbled his presumption and would not permit -him to be sole lord as he had hoped, yet all he had dared attempt -had been accomplished, and he believed it to be in full -his own work, and thus wore all his panoply of splendor in honor -of his glorious creation. The Wako rose, and lo! around him -as far as the eye could reach, a mighty multitude of all the animals -of the earth were rising too. They waited for their king, -and it was he. They came flocking around him to caress him -in obeisance—a gentle, eager throng!</p> - -<p>“The panther stroked his sleek glossy fur against his legs and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</span> -rolled and gambolled like a kitten at his feet. The great bear -of the north rubbed his jaws against his hand and begged to be -caressed. Big mountain (the mammoth) thrust his huge tusks -in for a touch; and the white-horned moose bowed his smooth-bristled -neck and plead with meek black eyes for notice. All -the huge grotesque things pressed around, and the smaller -creatures, pied, flecked, and dotted, crowded beneath their -heavy limbs, unhurt—all, full of confidence and love, gracefully -sporting to win one glance.</p> - -<p>“Above him the air was thick with wings, and the whirr and -winnowing of soft plumes made pleasant music, and the play -of brilliant hues was like a thousand rainbows arched and waving -over him; and the little flame-like things would flutter near -his face, and gleam their sharp brown eyes into his, and strive, -in vain, to warble out their joy, for their sweet pipes were not -yet tuned.</p> - -<p>“All were there, great and small; and the wide-winged eagle -came from its high perch and circled round his head, and -brushed its strong plumes with light caressing, through his hair. -He went with them into the forest burdened with rich fruits, and -ate, then shook the heavy clusters down for them. Then he -passed forth to look upon the land, the first shepherd, with that -countless flock thronging about his steps.</p> - -<p>“It was, indeed, a lovely land! Here a rolling meadow, there -a heavy wood; the trees all bearing fruits, or hung with vines -and bloom. A still, deep river, doubled sky and trees in its -clear mirror, and he gazed, in a half-waking wonder, when the -ripples the swan-trains made, shivered it to glancing fragments.</p> - -<p>“But wander which way he might, he came to tall gray cliffs, -with small streams, that pitched from their cloudy summits, and -bounding off from the rough crags below, filled all the valley -with cool spray.</p> - -<p>“He found his lovely world was fenced about with square -towering rocks, that nothing without wings could scale. But<span class="pagenum" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</span> -there was room enough for all, and profuse plenty the fruitful -earth supplied.</p> - -<p>“At noon, he went beneath a grove of sycamores, where a -great stream gushed out, and laid him down beside its brink, -while his subjects stretched and perched around him, in the -shade, to rest. His sleep was broken by strange new melodies -that crept in. He opened his eyes; near him were two maidens, -and all the birds and beasts were gathered around them, and -they were singing gay, delicious airs, teaching the birds to -warble.</p> - -<p>“One of them was fair—white as the milk-white fawn that -licked her hand and gazed up at her musical lips; but her hair -was dark and a strong light gleamed in her small black eye. -This was Ki-ke-wee. She sung and laughed and kissed the -song-bird that perched upon her finger, and when it tried to -follow her wild carol, she mocked its blunders and stamped her -tiny foot, and frowned and laughed and warbled yet a wilder -symphony to puzzle it the more.</p> - -<p>“The other was a darker maiden with large, gentle eyes. -This was Mnemoia; her voice was soft and low—and she sang -sweet songs and looked full of love and patience. The Wako -half rose in joy and wonder. They bounded towards him—sang -a rapturous roundelay to a giddy, whirling dance, then -threw their arms about his neck and kissed him. They became -his squaws, and Yahshau smiled upon them as she sailed by that -night.</p> - -<p>“The Wako was very happy and Ki-ke-wee was his favorite. -She grew very lovely and full of curious whims that each day -became more odd. She loved the blue jay most among the -birds, and taught him all his antics; and the magpie was a pet; -and the passionate, bright hummer lived about her lips.</p> - -<p>“As yet nothing but sounds and scenes of love were in that -little world; and the strong, terrible brutes knew not that they -had fierce passions or the taste for blood; but Ki-ke-wee would -stand before the grizzly bear and pluck his jaws and switch his<span class="pagenum" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</span> -fierce eyeballs until he learned to growl with pain, and then -she would mock him; and when he growled louder she would -mock him still, until at last he roared with rage and sprang upon -the panther—for he feared Ki-ke-wee’s eye!—and the panther -tasted blood and sprang to the battle fiercely. And now the -tempest broke, and everything with claws and fangs howled in -the savage discord. Ki-ke-wee clapped her hands and laughed. -Mnemoia raised the enchantment of her song above it all, and -it was stilled. Then Ki-ke-wee would tease the eagle and mock -him till he screamed and dashed at the great vulture in his rage; -and she would dance and shout for joy; and Mnemoia would -quell it, then go aside and weep.</p> - -<p>“The Wako loved the beautiful witch, and when he plead -with her she would mock even him, and every day and every -hour this mocking elf stirred some new passion, until at last -even Mnemoia’s song had lost its charm, and the bear skulked -in the deep thickets and shook them with his growl, and the -panther moaned from out the forest, and the gaunt wolves -snapped their white teeth and howled, and all the timid things -fled away from these fierce voices; and battle, and blood, and -death, were rife where love and peace had been. The birds -scattered in affright and sung their new songs in snatches only; -and hateful sounds of deadly passions, and the screams and -wails of fear, resounded everywhere.</p> - -<p>“Ki-ke-wee made a bow and poisoned the barbed arrow, and -mocked the death-bleat of the milk-white fawn when the Wako -shot it at her tempting. This was too much! Ah-i-wee-o -cursed her and she fell. The Wako knelt over her and wept; -and when the dissolving spasm seemed upon her, he covered his -face with his hands and wailed aloud. A voice just above him -wailed too! He looked up surprised; a strange bird with -graceful form and sharp black spiteful eyes was mocking him! -He looked down—Ki-ke-wee was gone; and the strange bird -gaped its long bill hissing at him; and when it spread its wings<span class="pagenum" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</span> -to bound up from the twig in an ecstacy of passion, he knew by -the broad white stripes across them that it was Ki-ke-wee!</p> - -<p>“He found the neglected Mnemoia weeping in the forest; and -soon after they scaled the cliffs and fled from that fair land to -hide from Ki-ke-wee. But she has followed them and mocks -their children yet, and we dare not slay her, for the wise men -think she was the daughter of the Evil Spirit that poured the -green fluid down the Wako’s throat, and that the same bad fire -burns yet in our veins. Our hunters chasing the mountain-goat -sometimes look from the bluffs into that lovely vale that lies -in the bosom of the Rocky Mountain chain, but they never -venture to go down!”</p> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XIX">CHAPTER XIX.<br /> - - -<small>SOME SELECT SCENES.</small></h2> -</div> - -<p>Some short glimpses of daily scenes may convey, perhaps, a -clearer idea of how life sped now with Manton, amidst the new -charms which it had gained. The whole man was rapidly -changed; his habits of excess in wine-drinking were, in a great -measure, thrown aside, and the hours he had thus wasted -in stupifying madness, were given to the society and development -of these fair children, that had thus come to him in blessing. -He now knew no difference in his thought of them; they -had grown to be twin-flowers to him, transfused with a most -tender light of spring-dawn in his darkened heart. Yes, there -it was—that little spot of light—he felt it warm, and slowly -spread and waken in soft beams, tremulous and faint, along the -ice-bound chaos where the life-floods met within him.</p> - -<p>His brow would grow serene and lose its painful tension, as, -hour by hour, he watched beside them, guiding their wayward<span class="pagenum" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</span> -pencils with his sure eye, to teach their yet irresolute wills and -unaccustomed fingers to act together with that consciousness -that always triumphs; and then, with the long evenings, came -lessons in botany, or the eloquent discourse, half poetical, -half rhapsodical, and all inspired, which led their young spirits -forth, amidst the mysteries and beauties of the other kingdoms -of the natural world. Or, when the stars came out, and their -calm inspiration slid into his soul, he communed with them -of higher themes—of aspirations holy, wise, and pure—of the -heroic souls of art—of their pale, unmoved dedication, through -dark, saddened years of neglect, obloquy, and want—of their -glorious triumphs, their immortal bays, that time can never -wither—until, with trembling lips and glistening eyes, they hung -upon his words.</p> - -<p>It was wonderful to see how quickly Elna wept, like an April -shower, at any tender word or thought; but the great eyes -of Moione only trembled like dark violets brimming with heavy -dew. All the truth, the religion of Manton’s soul, was poured -out at such times.</p> - -<p>The door would sharply open—“Elna! Moione! go to -bed!” This would be spoken in a low tone, evidently half-choked -with rage, by the woman. Her bent form looming -within the shadow of the entry, looks ghastly enough in her -white gown, loose dark hair, and the greenish glitter of her -oblique eye. The poor children rise, with a deep sigh from -Moione over her broken dream, and a quick exclamation of -petulant wrath from Elna—while Manton mutters an involuntary -curse on the unwelcome intruder; and, as the light forms -of the children recede before his vision and disappear in the -dark passage, he shudders, unconsciously, as if a ghoul had -disturbed him at a feast with angels.</p> - -<p>Now, again, had he fallen back to hell. With a fierce outbreak -of jealous fury, she would spring into the room, as -if literally to devour him with talons and teeth; and, when -but a few paces off, catching his cold, concentrated eye,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</span> -she would stagger backwards, as if shot through the heart, toss -her white arms wildly into the air, and, with head thrown back, -utter, in a strange, choking, guttural screech—</p> - -<p>“Auh! auh! auh!—yaugh!—you kill!—you kill me!” and -pitch forward convulsively, with the blood bursting in torrents -from her mouth. Then came the long, harrowing, and oft-described -scene of terror, remorse, pity, on the part of Manton, -and the plea for forgiveness, the slow recovery, and—and -so on.</p> - -<p>Or else, with some modification of tactics, the lioness changed -to the lamb, the Gorgon-head to that of Circe, she would throw -herself upon him, with tender expostulations, call him “cherubim,” -and stroke his “hyacinthian curls;” and, when that -failed, cling about his knees, and weep and pray, and then, as -the desperate resort, suddenly swoon, with a tremendous crash, -upon the floor, and lie there for an hour, if need be, in a condition -of syncope, so absolute, that Manton—who had now witnessed -this comparatively harmless phenomenon so many times, -as to be relieved from any apprehensions of immediate results—had -lately felt the curiosity of the philosopher irresistibly aroused -in him, and would frequently leave her for a considerable length -of time, in order to watch the symptoms, before he proceeded -to apply the very simple remedy for recalling her to consciousness, -with which, by the way, she had furnished him long ago, -in advance, through certain adroit hints and indirections. When -he had satisfied his more analytical moods, in this way, he would -proceed with the restorative process, as <i>per prescription</i>.</p> - -<p>This mysterious operation consisted in placing the pillows of -the sofa, or the rounds of a chair, under her feet, so as to elevate -them at a slight angle higher than the head. As he was -led to understand the result, the blood, by the laws of capillary -attraction, was instantly carried up, from her head to her feet, -thereby relieving the oppression of the brain; when lo! to this -new “open sesame,” the rigid lids flew wide apart, disclosing -eyes as vivid with life as ever.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</span></p> - -<p>The strangest part of this scene consisted in the fact, that -while the fit lasted, it was impossible to perceive the slightest -symptoms of breathing or pulsation, any more than in the most -broadly-defined case of catalepsy, or of absolute death itself. -It was, therefore, clear enough to his mind, that such conditions -could not be entirely counterfeit; though the suggestion had -now become frequent, that they might, after long training, become, -in a great measure, voluntary.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Another scene. The mother reclines upon her bed, and the -child Elna by her side, with arms around her neck and face -against her bosom. Moione stands leaning over the foot-board, -with folded arms, her pale face expressing mingled grief, anger, -and pain, while she looks with a cold, steadfast glance into the -oblique eye of the woman, who addresses her rapidly, in bitter -tones—</p> - -<p>“You love that bad man, Moione?”</p> - -<p>“Yes, I do!” said the young girl, curtly and coldly.</p> - -<p>“Ha! you acknowledge it, do you, ungrateful girl? Acknowledge -that, at your age, you love a profligate wretch like -this? a man utterly without principle, where our sex is concerned. -A villain, who has already attempted the ruin of my -own daughter, under my very eyes!”</p> - -<p>Moione turned paler still at this, and looked inquiringly towards -her friend Elna, who, however, gave no sign, either by -word or movement, of dissent to this vile insinuation. Instantly -the blood mounted to Moione’s brow, and her gentle eye -shot fire, her thin lips curled with scorn—</p> - -<p>“It is false! It is false! You know it to be so! He has -taught us nothing but what is pure and high! He never -breathed a thought of evil to either of us, and Elna <i>dares</i> not -say so! I love him as our lofty, noble brother, and shall continue -to do so so long as he shows himself only to me, and to -her, as he has done! Pray, madam, why do you permit him to -remain in the house, if he be so wicked? You tell me you<span class="pagenum" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</span> -have the power to turn him out at any minute. Why not do it? -Why do you trust your child with him, at all hours, and under -all circumstances? Why do you so constantly seek his society -yourself? If he were the fiend you represented, one would -think you would have reason to fear for yourself, if not for Elna. -What he has done once he will do again! How do you reconcile -all this?”</p> - -<p>The flashing look and withering tone in which this unexpected -outburst of indignation, on the part of the usually quiet -Moione, had been delivered, cowed the craven nature to which -it was addressed. It was but for an instant, though; her subtle -cunning returned to the charge, in a lower tone, and on another -tack. She reached out her hand, affectionately, towards her—</p> - -<p>“Come, Moione, dear! come, kiss me!”</p> - -<p>The child did not move, but merely answered in a low, contemptuous -“No!”</p> - -<p>The woman continued, in a wheedling tone, “Hear! my -naughty Moione! She will not come to kiss me, when I love -her so! Moione does not understand everything she sees, or -she would not have spoken thus sharply to her friend. She does -not understand that I am striving to save this poor youth from -his frightful vices! his wine-drinking, his tobacco, his meat-eating, -and all those ugly sins which so deface, what I hope one -day to see a beautiful spirit! She does not know I must endure -this evil that good may come! She does not realise how much -pain it costs me to have the purity of my household thus desecrated -by his poisoned sphere! She does not remember that -God has placed us here, on this earth, to bear and forbear towards -his erring children; that they may, through us, become -regenerate and redeemed! I know his eloquence, I know his -subtlety, therefore I have warned you against him; he cannot -be dealt with as other men, for he is but a foolish, headstrong -boy, with a great soul, if he were only free; but while his vices -hold him in bondage, he is not to be trusted. Though I have -lifted him out of the very gutters of debasement—given him a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</span> -home in my house—I have no confidence, at this moment, that -he would not deliberately ruin either you or Elna to-morrow, if -he could! You should, therefore, rather pity me than be angry -with me, dearest Moione!”</p> - -<p>“So I perceive!” said the young girl, with a cold sneer, as -she turned and walked haughtily from the room, slamming the -door emphatically behind her. The woman sprang to her feet, -with an expression of ungovernable fury in her face. “The -insolent, ungrateful wretch! This is what I get for all my -trouble to make something out of her—to render her of some -value to me! To sa-a-ve her!” and she hissed out the words -with a horrible writhing of her features, while the pupil of her -oblique eye was wrung aside, until nothing but the white, -ghastly blank of the ball was to be seen.</p> - -<p>“Yes, I’ll save you! I’ll use you, you insolent beggar! I -have not brought you here, alone, as the ant carries off the -aphide, to give spiritual milk to my own offspring! I brought -you to use, too, and use you I will! I will <i>coin</i> you into profit! -I’ll humble your insolent airs! I’ve got a market for you -already, and a bidder! Dare to cross my path, ha?—with -your supercilious insolence? I’ll bow that white forehead! I’ll -fill those blue eyes with ashes! until, bleared and rheumy with -premature decay, you crawl to kiss my foot for favors!”</p> - -<p>During this horrid apostrophe, the woman had stood stiffened -where she had first planted her feet upon the carpet, staring -blankly at the door through which the young girl had passed, -and throwing her arms out in wild gesticulations after her.</p> - -<p>The girl Elna lay, in the meantime, with her face half concealed -in the pillow, closely watching, with one sharp eye -uncovered, the whole scene. The woman, who had forgotten -herself in her fury, turned suddenly and saw her. Her manner -instantly changed. She threw herself by her side, took her -caressingly into her arms, drew her face close to hers, breathed -upon it long and steadily, and then commenced in low, confidential<span class="pagenum" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</span> -tones, a conversation between them, the purport of -which we must leave to conjecture.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Another scene. About this time, Manton had effected the -advantageous sale of a new work, which placed him suddenly -in the possession of a larger sum of money than he had been -able to command, at one time, for a long period. His first -thought was for his young <i>proteges</i>, and, although his own wardrobe -was sufficiently dilapidated, he expended a portion of the -sum for their comfort and gratification before he thought at all -of his own necessities. Unluckily for him, however, it was -evening when the money was received, and the purchases intended -to surprise them were the only ones made on the way to -the house.</p> - -<p>In almost boyish eagerness, and all breathless with the delight -of giving joy to these gentle ones he loved so much, he -hastened home and threw his presents down before them, to be -greeted with rapturous expressions and gleeful merriment, the -silvery and most musical clamoring of which, soon brought the -woman, Marie, to the scene. Her eyes danced and glistened -as she saw them; her infallible instinct scented the money in an -instant.</p> - -<p>“Beautiful! beautiful!” she exclaimed, clapping her hands -with childlike artlessness. “How lovely! How sweet! How -noble! How generous of you to think of these dear girls first, -when you need so much yourself!” and she looked up with bewitching -candor into the face of Manton, though it might have -been noticed by more careful observers that one eye turned obliquely -towards his pockets. She sprang suddenly to his side, -and leant affectionately against his arm, which she clasped with -both her hands.</p> - -<p>“Ah, my gentle Tiger! How shall I ever thank you for your -unwearying kindness to these my tender blossoms? My precious -‘Monies!’ You are too good! We shall never know how to -thank you enough!”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</span></p> - -<p>And leaning still closer and in a more confidential manner -towards his ear, while her forehead flushed and her voice sank,</p> - -<p>“You sold the book, did you?”</p> - -<p>“Yes.”</p> - -<p>“For how much?”</p> - -<p>“The receipts in my pocket will show!”</p> - -<p>“Ah, let us see them then!” said she playfully, as she thrust -her hand into his pocket. “I want to see if those evil and -stupid publishers have understood the value of the precious -genius they were purchasing! Oh, dear, why what a treasure! -Here are fifties, twenties, ever so many!” while she, with eager -and trembling hands, fumbled the notes that she had snatched -from the vest-pocket where he had, with his characteristic carelessness -of money, thrust them loosely. “Ah, I must take time -to count all this treasure for you, for I don’t believe you know -how much you’ve got, you careless boy!” And as she said -this she hastily deposited the money in the bottom of her pocket.</p> - -<p>Manton looked at her a moment with a very hard, cold -glance, while a flush of indignation gleamed across his brow; -for he had a sure presentiment that he should never see this -money again. The great misfortune of his organisation was his -recklessness in regard to money, and the absolute inability of his -nature to comprehend the sterile meannesses of its abject worshippers. -For the first time the impulse to strike this woman -to the earth came across him, but in an instant this angry feeling -was dissipated amidst the gay and laughing caresses of his petted -favorites.</p> - -<p>When, on the next day, Manton demanded of the woman an -account of the money, she turned pale and red, looked upwards -and downwards, and finally askance, while she faintly told him -that she had spent the whole; but, for his good, as well as that -of the dear girls and herself, “for,” she said, “you know you -are <i>so</i> careless about money, <i>so</i> generous, <i>so</i> liberal, that you -would have thrown it all away without accomplishing any of the -good you so much desire. Pray, forgive me, for my anxiety to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</span> -do the best for us all!” and as she saw the brow of Manton, -who had not uttered a word, settling darker and darker above -his cold dilated eyes, she sank upon her knees at his feet, and -clasping his in her arms, she plaintively plead—</p> - -<p>“Ah, forgive me! forgive me! I acted for the best! For -God’s sake do not look so, you will kill me!”</p> - -<p>He spurned her contemptuously from him with his foot, and -retreating, as she crawled abjectly back again, he said in a -measured, deliberate tone—</p> - -<p>“Keep away from me, woman! You may retain your ill-gotten -plunder once more, but, mark you, if ever you dare to -put your hands into my pockets again I will strike you to the -earth, woman as you are, and trample you beneath my feet, as -I would another reptile! I have had enough of this remorseless -fleecing!” And spurning yet more contemptuously her persistent -attempts to clutch his knees again, he left her <i>swooning</i> upon -the floor. He went forth with the scales falling from his eyes -regarding this woman, in some particulars at least.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The sequel to the last scene is too rich to be passed over. -Since that wholesale and impudent robbery, Manton had maintained -his ground firmly, in regard to money. All her arts were -brought to bear, in vain; he steadily and sternly refused to be -plundered any farther; until finally, his feminine “saviour” -being driven to the extreme verge of desperation, tried a new -and dashing game.</p> - -<p>She had just been reading Zschokke’s charming tale, “Illumination, -or the Sleep-Walker.” The reader will remember how -the Sleep-Walker, the heroine of the tale, instructs Emanuel, -while in the clairvoyant state, as to how he should proceed in -her own case, which he had been elected to restore to health -again, through the nervous, or sympathetic medium, by re-establishing -the balance of the lost physical with the spiritual life. -That, in addition, the Sleep-Walker revealed to him the -thoughts of his own soul, and counselled him as an angel would<span class="pagenum" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</span> -have done, against the evil she saw in him—tells him too, that -he must not regard her weakness, or the petulance of her words -towards him in her waking state.</p> - -<p>Well, our clairvoyant, after reading this book herself, exhibited -an unusual degree of restlessness to have it read by Manton, -too; nothing would content her until he had fairly commenced -it, when she knew there was no probability of his -pausing until he got through. She watched him during the -reading, with great curiosity, frequently interrupting him to draw -out his opinion as he progressed.</p> - -<p>Everybody knows the fascination of the tale, and confesses -the fine skill with which its wonderful details are wrought up. -Manton could do no less; he was charmed, of course, as millions -of other readers have been. A few hours after finishing -the book, while sitting at his table, engaged in writing, the door, -which was unbolted, flew open wide, and there stood Madame, -dressed in pure white—the eyes nearly closed, and features pale -and rigid, the outstretched hands reaching vaguely forward, after -the manner of the somnambulist.</p> - -<p>She paused for a moment thus—while the whole meaning of -the scene flashed through the mind of Manton in an instant; and, -although he felt a very great inclination to laugh, he restrained -himself, and determined to encourage the thing, and see how -far it would go. The new Sleep-Walker now advanced slowly -towards him; and as she crossed the room, a slight movement -of her fingers beat the air before her, as if through the guidance -of these magnetic poles her soul sought its centre of attraction; -with a slow, gliding movement she thus approached, until within -a few inches of him, when her hand leaped, as the magnet does -to the stone, to meet his, and then a certain painful rigidity that -had marked her brow at first, was displaced and gave way to -a serene expression of content, as if she had now found rest.</p> - -<p>That peculiar action of the muscles of the throat, as if in the -effort to swallow, now followed immediately, and was sufficient<span class="pagenum" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</span> -intimation to Manton that she desired to speak. He accordingly -asked her, solemnly—</p> - -<p>“Why are you here?”</p> - -<p>But there was evidently something of mockery in the tone in -which this question was asked, for the Sleep-Walker only -frowned and shook her head impatiently. Manton now changed -his voice, and with real curiosity, proceeded.</p> - -<p>“Speak: why have you come to me thus? What would you -say to me?”</p> - -<p>After some four or five efforts to produce sound, she articulated—</p> - -<p>“For your good.”</p> - -<p>“Tell me then, what is for my good?”</p> - -<p>She again frowned and shook her head and muttered—</p> - -<p>“You are naughty.”</p> - -<p>“Why?”</p> - -<p>“You have no faith.”</p> - -<p>“Faith in what?”</p> - -<p>“Faith in me—in my mission—in my truth.”</p> - -<p>“I have faith in you—tell me what is for my good.”</p> - -<p>“You must be more humble; your pride and your suspicion -will never let you be saved. You must have some hard lessons -yet to bring you down—to humiliate you—to purify.”</p> - -<p>Here there was a long pause, when Manton, growing impatient, -finally asked—</p> - -<p>“Is this all you have to say to me? Is this all you see now?”</p> - -<p>“No.”</p> - -<p>“Well, what is it?”</p> - -<p>After considerable hesitation, she at length said—</p> - -<p>“You do not treat me right!—you hold my life in your -hands—yet you are cold—you do not come near me—you are -leaving me to die!”</p> - -<p>Here then was another long pause.</p> - -<p>“What more is there?” at length asked Manton; “this is -not all.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</span></p> - -<p>This time the choking and hesitation, before pronouncing the -words, seemed greater than ever. At length, however, out -they came.</p> - -<p>“They complain of you in Heaven, that you let me suffer—that -you do not care for my necessities—that—that you do not—not—give -me money now.”</p> - -<p>This was too much—Manton literally roared with scornful -laughter, as he spurned her from him—</p> - -<p>“Ha! ha! ha! here is illumination for you with a vengeance! -Alas! poor Zschokke! ‘to what base uses do we come!’ The -divine inspiration of the Sleep-Walker raising the wind! Vive -la bagatelle! Hurrah! hurrah!” He fairly danced about the -floor, in an ecstacy of enjoyment—the scene seemed to him so -irresistibly ludicrous.</p> - -<p>During this time, the woman, who had staggered towards the -bed, and fallen across it, lay perfectly immovable and white, -without the change of a muscle, or the quiver of a nerve. -Manton, however, paid no attention to her, and half an hour -afterwards, taking his hat, left the room, without again approaching -her. But what was his astonishment on returning, two -hours afterwards, to meet the sobbing Elna, and the pale, -troubled face of Moione, in the passage. Elna, at the sight of -him, seemed wild with grief, and sprang, with her arms about -his neck, screaming—</p> - -<p>“Oh, mother is dead! mother is dead! My dear mother is -dead!”</p> - -<p>“Why, Moione,” said Manton quickly, taking her hand, -as he shook Elna off, “what is the matter? what is all this?”</p> - -<p>“She seems to be in a fit of some sort. We missed her, and -after looking all over the house, found her lying on the bed in -your room, without motion or breath. We have not been able -to wake her since, and did not know what to do until you came.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, come! do come!” screamed the horrified Elna. “Save -my poor mother! save her! save her! You must save her! I -shall die!”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</span></p> - -<p>Manton, who immediately felt his conscience sting him, -assured the girls that it was merely a mesmeric sleep, from which -he would relieve her in a few minutes. He then rushed up-stairs, -accompanied by them, and found her, indeed, in precisely -the same attitude and apparent condition in which he had -left her. After a few of the usual reverse passes for removing -the magnetic influence, she slowly opened her eyes, while the -blood returned to her face. Starting up and staring about with -a bewildered look, she uttered merely an exclamation of surprise, -and then, after rubbing her eyes, quickly asked the poor child, -Elna, who had thrown herself sobbing wildly on her breast—</p> - -<p>“Why, you foolish girl, what’s the matter now?”</p> - -<p>“Mother, dear mother, we thought you were dead!”</p> - -<p>And now came an explanation, so far as the thoroughly repentant -Manton was disposed to make it, of the scene we have -just described; the amount of which was, that she had come -into his room in a clairvoyant state, and, being called out suddenly, -he had left it for an hour or two, forgetting to make any -explanation to the family, and without having relieved her, as -he should have done, before going, by using the necessary -reverse passes.</p> - -<p>The incredulity of Manton had never before received so -severe a shock; and it was a long time before his conscience -would forgive him, for what now seemed his brutal suspicion. -Alas, poor Manton! had he only possessed, for a little while -after he left that room, the invisible cap of the “Devil on two -sticks,” he would have been most essentially enlightened as to -something of the art and mystery of Clairvoyance.</p> - -<p>As soon as the front-door had slammed behind him, he would -have seen that woman spring to her feet, and, with lips and -whole frame quivering with rage, glide from the room, muttering -to herself; and when she entered her own room, which -could be reached through an empty bath-room, he would have -heard several low, peculiar raps upon the partition-wall which -separated her own from the room of her daughter. These raps<span class="pagenum" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</span> -were repeated, at intervals, until a single tap at her door responded, -and in another moment the girl Elna glided in on tiptoe. -The conference between them was carried on in a low, -rapid, business-like tone, while every half-minute the girl thrust -her head from the window, to watch as for some one coming.</p> - -<p>After a few moments thus spent, the child left the room, with -an intelligent nod, in answer to the repeated injunction not to -leave the window of her own room until she saw him coming, -far up the street—and then—!</p> - -<p>After this, he would have seen the woman quietly seat herself -at the table, after locking her door, and write a long letter; -when, on hearing three low taps in succession, she sprang to -her feet, rushed through the bath-room into the room of Manton, -and threw herself across the bed, in the precise position in -which he left her, and, after three or four violent retchings of the -whole muscular system, her face collapsed—grew ashen-white—her -lids drooped—her muscles became rigid, and she exhibited -all the outward resemblances of suspended vitality. Then the -wild Elna rushed in, accompanied by the deluded Moione, and, -the moment she looked at the condition of the mother, burst -into the most extravagant demonstrations of helpless grief; -while Moione, with perfect presence of mind, sprinkled water -upon the face and endeavored to restore animation. Soon the -street door-bell rings with a peculiar energetic pull, and the -frantic Elna at once exclaims, “Manton! dear Manton! he can -save my mother; let us run for him.” She seizes the hand of -Moione, and—we know the rest!</p> - -<p>Shocking, ludicrous, and monstrous as all this may appear to -the reader, from his point of view, its only effect upon Manton -was necessarily to rebuke the feeling of harsh incredulity which -was beginning to become so strong in him, with regard to this -inexplicable woman. He was now more troubled and confounded -than he had ever been; for it was impossible that a -nature like his could ever have voluntarily suspected the unimaginable -trickery and collusion which we have traced in this<span class="pagenum" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</span> -scene; while his common sense was too strong to be in any -degree shaken by what was simply unexplained. His magnanimity -would not permit him to suspect the full degree of -knavery, or his conscientiousness to run such risks, again, of -doing grievous injustice, as it now seemed to him he had clearly -done in this case. He felt it utterly impossible to treat these phenomena -with entire disrespect hereafter, however little influence -he might permit them to exert upon his fixed purposes and will.</p> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XX">CHAPTER XX.<br /> - - -<small>SELECT SCENES CONTINUED.</small></h2> -</div> - - -<p>We have lost sight of the other characters in our narrative, -and it is now time that we return to them. The reader will remember, -in the dark-eyed, sharp-tongued Jeannette of a past -scene, the contrasted type of another class of adventuress, -whose schemes seemed to have been rapidly culminating. Her -success, indeed, seemed now to be absolutely assured; the -coveted conquest had been achieved—Edmond was daily at -her feet. They were, as it was understood, soon to be publicly -married. In the meanwhile, she occupied the best room in the -house, and became daily more and more imperious and overbearing -towards the woman Marie, as she believed the time to -be approaching when she would no longer need her services.</p> - -<p>In common with her type the world over, she was incredibly -selfish and ungrateful, where she had once fawned and cringed. -This little weakness of arrogance she had begun to make some -slight exhibitions of, even towards Edmond himself; while, as -for the woman Marie, she hectored her on all occasions with the -pitiless volubility of a most caustic wit. In this, however, she -made a most fatal mistake; she little dreamed of the dark and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</span> -terrible subtlety of the reptile she thus hourly trampled with her -ruthless scorn. She, too, was doomed to feel the fearful poison -of the hidden sting she carried, and writhe beneath its hideous -tortures.</p> - -<p>There had been a more than usually bitter scene between -them, in which Jeannette had loftily taunted her with the abjectness -of the game she was now playing, in putting forward -her own daughter, as the attraction, by which to hold Manton -any longer near her. It was not that Madame Jeannette was so -much shocked at any villany in the act itself, but that her lofty -pride was revolted at the inconceivable meanness it displayed; -for, as among thieves and robbers, there is among adventuresses -a certain <i>esprit du corps</i>,—and the haughty Jeannette aspired to -be a sort of banditti chieftainess in sentiment, and was really a -person of refined cultivation, so far as mere intellect was concerned,—it -is little wonder, that at such a time of unbounded -confidence in the security of her own position, and independence, -as she supposed, of any farther aid from the woman, that -she should have given way to a natural feeling of disgust and -abhorrence, in a moment of irritation. But that taunt proved -to her the most deadly error of her life.</p> - -<p>The woman, who feared her presence mortally, left the room -hurriedly and in silence, shivering in an ague-fit of rage. In -another moment she left the house, without speaking a word to -any one. Indeed, she seemed incapable of speaking. Her eyes -looked bloodshot and hideously awry; the veins of her face -swollen as if to bursting, and the skin absolutely livid.</p> - -<p>It was a long walk she had set out upon, and gradually the -headlong rapidity of her gait subsided into a more measured -tread. Her face became pale, as it had before suffused, and a -sort of ghastly calmness succeeded. At length, in White Street, -she rang the bell of an old-fashioned, but respectable-looking -mansion, and shot past the servant in the passage, when, instead -of turning into the parlor, she hurried up-stairs to the chamber -of the lady.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</span></p> - -<p>A somewhat masculine voice answered her tap, and she passed -in. A woman of stout symmetrical figure, imperious bearing, -whose somewhat coarse features were relieved by the animal -splendor of her large black eyes, the luxuriance of her jetty hair, -and voluptuous <i>embonpoint</i> of person, greeted her in a short, -abrupt style, as she looked up with a cold glance from some lacework -over which she was bending.</p> - -<p>“What is it, Marie? You look flurried.”</p> - -<p>“No, no,” said she, throwing off her bonnet and sinking into -a chair. “I’m only tired! It’s a long walk from my place -here; and then it is very hot to-day. But, Eugenie,” she said -abruptly, changing her tone, “I came this morning to tell you -about Edmond.”</p> - -<p>“What of him?” said the other sharply, turning full upon -her.</p> - -<p>“Dear Eugenie, the fact is, I could not restrain myself -longer—I should not be acting truly by you or him, if I did so. -You know you love him still.”</p> - -<p>The face of the French-woman flushed slightly; her head was -thrown back with a haughty curve of the neck.</p> - -<p>“Ah, no,” said the woman, interrupting her quickly as she -was about to speak.</p> - -<p>“No nonsense, Eugenie; you remember that proud as you -are, you loved him well enough to risk the loss of your social -position for him. You never loved any one as well since, and -never will again; and <i>I</i> know that he loves you, and you only, -to this hour. It was your pride caused the separation, it is your -pride that has reduced him so low as to become, in sheer despair, -the victim of such a sapless, bodiless, dry and sharp-set -speculator, as this Jeannette! Why, would you believe -it, she has tormented him at last into a promise to marry her!”</p> - -<p>“What!” said the other, springing to her feet; “what! marry -that starvling! Edmond marry that pauper adventuress, after -having loved me! Pshaw! Marie, you are mistaken. He only -tells her this to get rid of her importunities. He’s trifling with<span class="pagenum" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</span> -her: he’s not in earnest—he can’t be—he’s too proud: and besides, -his father would disinherit him!”</p> - -<p>“Sit down and keep cool, Eugenie. I am not mistaken; so -far from it, that every day he comes to me, grievously bewailing -his hard fate, in having so far committed himself to Jeannette, -whom he curses, while he mourns over this obdurate pride of -yours, in refusing to see him again. He says if he could only -see you once more he would be strong enough to break with -Jeannette forever. I’ve shown him how he could easily buy her -off, in case of reconciliation with you—that her object, from the -first, had been simply money, and the <i>eclat</i> of the position it -would give her abroad—and that when she had become convinced -that a separation must take place, she would soon be -brought to compromise her claims. Beside, the marriage is impossible; -I have seen his father and his brother, and have given -them some seasonable hints in regard to her; and the testy old -man now swears that he will disinherit him, if he dares to marry -what he considers to be little better than a common adventuress. -And the brother, whom you know is the most influential -of the two with the old man, is equally violent about it. -So you see, my dear Eugenie, I have been working for you -faithfully all the while, while you considered me as co-operating -with Jeannette.”</p> - -<p>“Yes,” said the other, who had resumed her seat quite -calmly, “I dare say I did you injustice, for I had conceived all -the time, that it was through you that this affair, between Jeannette -and Edmond, had been brought about; that you had had -some interest in it you have not thought proper to explain to -me; and an explanation of which I have not chosen to ask of -you. It is quite sufficient for me to know that you now desire -to supplant Jeannette, and thereby undo your own work. Now, -if you choose to explain to me what the object you wish to accomplish -is, so that I can understand your motive, then, perhaps, -we may come together in this matter—for I know you, -Marie, that you never do things without a motive for yourself.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</span> -Come, out with it! Has Jeannette crossed your track in any way? -Has she foiled you? In a word, do you hate her now?”</p> - -<p>“Of course I hate her now,” said the woman, “or why this -visit? Why the deliberate care I have taken to prepare the way -to foil her dearest schemes? She has outraged me beyond endurance -by her insolent superiority. She frightens, bullies and -taunts me. She has insulted me beyond the possibility of woman’s -forgiveness to another! I hate her as deeply as I love -revenge!”</p> - -<p>“All this may be very true, Marie,” said the other, with a -cool smile, “but knowing you as I do, I should prefer to be informed -specifically in what this insult consisted. Tell me what -she said and did, give me all the circumstances in detail, and -then I shall understand your motive and know how far we can -act together!”</p> - -<p>The woman paused an instant as if in hesitation, her eye grew -hideously askance once more, her forehead blazed, and her lips -quivered, as glancing furtively around the room, with a stealthy -movement, she glided closely to the side of the French-woman, -and whispered in her ear, with purple lips, a rapid, eager communication -for a few moments, and then sank back into her -chair again, pale as death and seemingly exhausted.</p> - -<p>The French-woman bent her ear to listen, with her needle -suspended in her hand, and as the other finished, a fierce, -electric gleam darted from her eye, and with untrembling fingers -she finished her stitch, while she said in a low tone—</p> - -<p>“That will do, Marie; that’s enough to secure your faith. -We will punish her. Edmond shall come back to my feet!”</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The results of the last scene may be rapidly traced. Very -soon there commenced a series of mysterious calls by a dark-veiled -lady, whom Manton was induced to suppose was a patient -who was desirous to retain her incognito. She came and went -always at unusual hours, and though a vague suspicion once or -twice forced itself upon his mind that there was something unusual<span class="pagenum" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</span> -going on, yet in his pre-occupation it created but little -attention. But we, who have undertaken from the first to be -somewhat closer and more widely-awakened observers than he, -can see something more significant than met his eye in all this.</p> - -<p>An <i>accidental</i> meeting in one of the rooms of the house soon -occurred between Edmond and Eugenie, upon the privacy of -which we are not disposed to intrude. Let the consequences -suffice.</p> - -<p>In a few weeks the imperious tone of Jeannette, who, too, -had been kept entirely ignorant of what was going on, was -lowered, though the covert and sardonic vindictiveness of her -wit had clearly lost nothing of its directness and ferocity even; -because, as she daily became less exultant, the moroseness of -her temper increased.</p> - -<p>It would be anything but a pleasant picture to unveil the harrowing -struggles of such a woman to regain an ascendency, -which she felt was daily driven by some malign and invisible -power beyond the breath of her heretofore ascendant will. She -only felt its devastation amidst her towering hopes, and the -moon-stone battlements of regal schemes that she had nourished -in daring fancies. She only felt the shadow of desolation on -her soul, but her vision was not strong enough to see the demon -wing that threw it.</p> - -<p>She was passing through the valley and the shadow, yet knew -not where to aim the lightning of her curse. She sank at last, -bewildered, stunned, and utterly humiliated; for she had crawled -upon her very knees to Edmond to plead for mercy, but he was -inexorable. The old passion had been restored to his life, and -her proud, voluptuous rival held the sensual philosopher a -prisoner, “rescue or no rescue,” once more.</p> - -<p>For days and days after the tremendous realisation of her loss -had been forced upon her, she lay upon her bed, tossing in dumb -and tearless torture: then her concentrated madness took a new -and sudden turn; she shrieked and wailed, she cursed heaven, -and earth, and men, and even Edmond, with the lurid curses<span class="pagenum" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</span> -of madness, while she kissed the hand and blessed the ministerings -of the soft-gliding genius of her ruin, who hung with a -cunning science about her suffering bed.</p> - -<p>But Jeannette was clearly not the stuff to die of any one passion -less intense than her love of self. She came through at last, -haggard and broken, and humble enough, but she received her -pension nevertheless, and soon after sailed for England, leaving -the field to her stronger rival, to whom Edmond was soon afterwards -married.</p> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXI">CHAPTER XXI.<br /> - - -<small>SELECT SCENES CONTINUED.</small></h2> -</div> - -<p>We have frequently mentioned the eccentric Dr. Weasel in -the course of this narrative. Another scene will enlighten the -reader somewhat in regard to the yet undefined character of his -relations towards the woman Marie. He had just entered her -room; and approaching with a quick, nervous step, he said to -her in an irritated and squeaking voice—</p> - -<p>“Marie Orne, I tell you I must have my money back again! -I did not give it to you, when I advanced it to get you started -in business. You were to have returned it to me, long since! -You have been doing well now for two years and more, and yet -instead of returning the money I first advanced to you, you have -been borrowing more than double as much! At this moment -you have more than five hundred dollars belonging to me, of -which you have never returned me a cent! Yet I have been -suffering for money, for months, and you know it! You know -I cannot receive remittances now, since the death of my grandmother, -till the settlement of our estate! I am tired of this treatment, -Madam! I will have my money!”</p> - -<p>The Doctor, who had been walking hurriedly up and down<span class="pagenum" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</span> -the room during this speech, now paused abruptly before the -woman, who had quietly continued her writing—</p> - -<p>“Do you hear me?” he said angrily, in a loud, sharp tone. -“Where is the money you have plundered me of?”</p> - -<p>The woman now looked up, staring at him with wide-open -eyes, that expressed the most unutterable astonishment, while, -at the same moment, a bland smile broke across her face, while -she exclaimed in a low, sweet, reproachful voice—</p> - -<p>“Why, Doctor E. Willamot Weasel! What can you mean? -My dear friend—<i>I</i> plunder you? You forget yourself! Remember -what a feeble child you were—how sad, how sick, how -despairing, when I took hold of you, as the tender nurse does -the dying foundling at her door—”</p> - -<p>“I believe you had no door, till I gave you one!” interrupted -the Doctor, while his sharp little eyes shot fire.</p> - -<p>“This were all very fine, if it were only true: I advanced -you my money, not to pay you for curing me, which you have -never accomplished, but that you might do good with it; because -I believed in your mission to your sex! But I am not -pleased with the use you—”</p> - -<p>“Does not that mission exist still?” said the woman, with -flushing brow, quickly interrupting him. “Has not the number -of my patients increased daily?—including the first ladies of the -land? Have not my lecture-classes become more full and -widely-attended every season? Have you not a thousand evidences, -in the extent of my correspondence, that women are -becoming awakened throughout the country? What more do -you ask? Do you expect me to perform miracles?”</p> - -<p>“No! unless the expectation that you will deal honestly with -those who have befriended you, be what you call a miracle. -Come, I know what all this amounts to, perfectly! I gave you -my money, as you know I dedicate all that I have, in trust, for -humanity! You seemed to be laboring in common cause with -myself, for the restoration of the Passional Harmonies; and as -you appeared to me capable of accomplishing much for the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</span> -great cause, I felt that I had no right to withhold my aid from -you when you needed it. I gave you my gold as freely as I -would have given you a drink of water, when athirst. But you -have not been just and true—you have used it selfishly—you -have surrendered yourself exclusively to the cabalistic sphere; -your life is wasted in a series of ignoble plottings; sensual intrigues -merely, in utter disregard of the harmonic relations. Do -not interrupt me! I have watched you closely; I know this to -be true! Instead of elevating that noble soul, Manton, whom I -thought, through you, to rescue from the dominion of his appetites, -and see set apart, with all his glorious powers, to the exalted -priesthood of the Harmonies, you have steadily dragged -him down from the beginning until now, when he is further -removed than ever beyond our reach, and regards with contempt -and disgust the very name of the system with which I had -yearned to see him identified. You have done this, and all for -your own individual and unworthy ends, and have defeated one -of my most treasured purposes!”</p> - -<p>“This is false!” shrieked the woman, as, with flushed face, -and with the aspect of a roused tigress, she sprang to her feet, -and placed herself directly across the track of the excited -Doctor.</p> - -<p>“You lie in your teeth, you ingrate! It is not so! His -own beastly passions have degraded him, in spite of me! Just -as I have failed to make a man out of <i>you</i>, through your own -weakness! For years I have patiently wrestled with your downward -tendencies, in the hope you, too, might be redeemed—might -be sa-a-ved from yourself! The money that you have -given me, I have earned twice over again, in these vain and -exhausting struggles to bring you back to the true health of -unity with God through nature! Your childish aberrations and -eccentricities have baffled all my spiritual strength! The proof -of it is, that you dare to taunt me in this way! I see that you -are incorrigible! You may go! Go from me forever! I am -hopeless! I will no longer expend myself upon you! Your<span class="pagenum" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</span> -money I shall keep until it is my convenience to restore it, if -ever! It is my due, and you may recover it if you can; I -own nothing here. The furniture of this house has all been -loaned me. Seize it, if you dare! Go, I say! Go! Leave -my house instantly!”</p> - -<p>And she stamped her foot, and, waving her hand in melodramatic -fashion towards the door, repeated the imperative -order to “begone!”</p> - -<p>We have mentioned, that the Doctor was a small man, and -the woman was, no doubt, fully conscious of her physical superiority -over him, before her coward and reptile nature could -have dared to have assumed such a tone. But she had mistaken -the metal with which she had to deal.</p> - -<p>The Doctor had listened to this tirade with a cold, sardonic -smile upon his face, while his keen little eyes fairly snapped -with scintillating fury.</p> - -<p>“You are a fool!” said he, in a low, smooth tone, “as well -as a thief and an impostor! I’ll put you in the Tombs to-morrow, -if you do not at once lower your tone! And what is -more, I will expose your practices, fully and publicly. I will -swear to the false pretences by which you have swindled me -out of my money. I will swear that you have made overtures -to me, time after time, as an equivalent for the money you are -dragging from me, to sell to me the chaste and gentle Moione, -whose unprotected poverty you have dared to think you could -traffic in! I will swear, too, that at one time you did not -scruple to suggest, by indirection, one much nearer to you; the -true scope of which suggestion, however artfully disguised, the -world will readily comprehend. Furthermore, I can now understand, -perfectly, the secret of all those physiological phenomena, -by which you have managed to delude and degrade -Manton, not forgetting the disgusting fact, which has become -too apparent to me, that you are endeavoring to play off Elna -upon him, and, through his generous susceptibilities, to retain -him within the reach of your damnable arts! You are becoming<span class="pagenum" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</span> -aware that he, too, is beginning to see through them, and -through you. I have never spoken a word, for I wished him to -work out the problem himself! I will secure even him from -your clutches!”</p> - -<p>The woman made no attempt to reply. Her face became, of -a sudden, as white and rigid as death, and, muttering a few -choked and guttural sounds, she pitched forward suddenly, like -a falling statue, against the bosom of the irritated Doctor Weasel; -who, not a little shocked by the unexpected concussion, -staggered backwards, for an instant, in the utmost confusion, -while her form fell upon the shaken floor. He recovered his -coolness, however, in another moment, and merely muttered, as -he left the room—</p> - -<p>“Pah! nonsense! The old trick—she’s purely in the subversive -sphere—and I can make nothing of her in the Passional -Harmonies! We require purity and singleness of purpose. She -may go to the dogs, hereafter, for me.”</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXII">CHAPTER XXII.<br /> - - -<small>FURTHER REVELATIONS.</small></h2> -</div> - - -<p>Another year had now passed, which, although it found -Manton not entirely released from his thrall, had yet left him a -calmer and a stronger man. One by one the manacles had fallen -off, unconsciously to himself. Hope was slowly filling his darkened -life once more with visions of an emancipated future, and -he now even dared to smile in dreams.</p> - -<p>Whence came these fairy visitors? Ah, he did not understand -yet, clearly, in his own heart. He only felt and welcomed them, -fresh-comers from he knew not what far Eden of God’s ministers -of grace. He did not question them—it was joy enough -to have had them come down to him in his hell. Perhaps they -were but airy counterparts of those sweet children he had watched -over with such fostering tenderness.</p> - -<p>But now at once a shadow fell upon his dream. Moione, the -wise, the resolute, and the gentle, seemed all at once to droop, -to become wavering and shy, while Elna grew more conscious -in her impish grace, and more exultant, more capriciously tender, -more caressingly electrical. Manton could not but observe -that although Moione shrank from him now, she held her pencil -with a heavy hand, and worked with a hopeless carelessness, -while her lids drooped low and trembled often with a furtive -moisture.</p> - -<p>Another might have observed what he could not see, how at -such times the eyes of Elna lit with glistening joy, and how her -spirit mounted in rollicking ecstacies; how she danced and sang -like some mad elf; or else her drawing-sheet was spoiled while -her pencil went riot over it, in all fantastic drolleries of form, -mocking characters, of every sentiment, and worst of all that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</span> -she mocked Moione, too, and made him see her heavy brow, -and covertly suggested painful questions.</p> - -<p>Manton would sometimes see enough of this to startle him -gravely, and make him question his own heart, long and painfully. -Elna seemed to watch these moods and dread them, and -would break in upon them with some wild antic or pouting -caress.</p> - -<p>Suddenly Moione went away, without any other explanation -than that she should return to her mother in New England. The -thing was done in a cold and resolute way that left no room for -explanation. She had been here—she was gone; and strangely -enough it was not until now that Manton realised how much of -light there had been from her presence. Deep shade filled the -places which had known her once, and it seemed as if his vision -had been filmed—as if the shadow of that shade filled Heaven -and darkened earth before him. He could not have explained -why this was so. It was a voiceless consciousness, through -which he felt a sense most indescribable, that made him first -aware of a great want. It seemed as if the moon and stars -were gone, with their calm inspirations of repose, their pure and -holy beamings, and that their place about him had been usurped -by a red and sultry light, more garish than perpetual day, and -clouded in brazen unnatural splendors, too thick for those star-pencillings -to break through, or that chaste moon to overcome.</p> - -<p>As the weeping Elna clung about him now, he shuddered -while he felt that strange, new thrillings crept along his veins. -Why had he not felt this before, when Moione was beside -them? Was he again given over to the evil one? and had the -white dove again been banished from his bosom? These vague -forebodings could never be entirely banished from the heart of -Manton, although the lavish tenderness of Elna, who, by some -strange instinct, seemed aware of the struggle, the shadow and -the cause, and wrought eagerly to dispel them.</p> - -<p>Elna was no longer a child, if, in reality, she ever had -been since Manton had known her. She became daily more<span class="pagenum" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</span> -and more lovely in his eyes, which soon grew again accustomed -to the unnatural atmosphere surrounding him, though he yearned -often for the calmer and the clearer sky he had lost; yet she -gave him little time to think of the past. The preternatural -activity into which her brain had been roused gave him full employment -in guiding its eccentric energies. And then the bud -had begun to unfold its petals, as well as give out its aroma. -Her sick and wilted frame seemed to have become suddenly -inspired with a tender and voluptuous sensuousness, which filled -out her graceful limbs in rounded, bounding vigor, and swelled -her fine bust with its elastic tension, and lit and deepened her -keen eyes with most lustrous and magnetic fires.</p> - -<p>He could not dream long among such conditions. One -morning, as he sat beside her at her drawing, she looked up -suddenly into his face, and with bewitching <i>naivete</i> remarked—</p> - -<p>“This is my birthday—do you know how old I am?”</p> - -<p>“No, I never thought.”</p> - -<p>“Well, I am seventeen to-day.”</p> - -<p>“Seventeen! Great God! is it possible?” And Manton -bowed his face, covering it with his hands, and for a long time -spoke not a word, though his frame trembled. That magical -word, “seventeen,” had revealed every thing to himself. He -had as yet always called her by the affectionate baby-name of -“Sis.” He had thought of her only as a child; for through these -four weary years he had kept no note of time. He supposed, up -to this moment, that he had been feeling towards her, too, as towards -a child—the same saddened, persecuted child which had -first attracted his sympathies by her mournful expression of constant -suffering. He had never once thought before that any -change had taken place in their relations; he had still fondled -her as a spoiled and petted playmate; he still attributed the -strange thrills her touch had lately produced in him to a thousand -other and innocent causes beside the real. He had not -dreamed of passion; he had only learned to dearly love her, as -he thought, because she had been developed beneath his hand,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</span> -and seemed, in some senses, almost a creation of his own—a -sort of feminine elaboration of the thought of Frankenstein -within him—the creature of his own daring mind and indomitable -will. Seventeen! seventeen! Now the whole truth was -flooded into his consciousness. She was no longer a child—she -was a woman. And he felt that he had indeed loved her -as a woman, while recognising her as a gay pet, a plaything. -He now understood how deep, how pure, was the unutterable -fondness that had grown thus unconsciously into his -life, for her, and how monstrous had been the relations into -which the mother strove to drag and hold him.</p> - -<p>With the first flash of this conviction of his real feeling towards -Elna, came the purpose, as stern as it was irrevocable. -He lifted his head and turned towards the young girl, with -moistened eyelids, and said to her solemnly, and with trembling -lips—</p> - -<p>“Sis!—Elna, do you know that you are no longer a child? -that you are now a woman?”</p> - -<p>The blood sprang to her forehead, and, with downcast eyes, -she said, in a faint voice—</p> - -<p>“I know I’m seventeen to-day.”</p> - -<p>“Do you know, too, Elna, that we cannot continue to be to -each other that we have been?”</p> - -<p>“Why, can’t you be my brother still?” said she, looking up -quickly, as if astonished.</p> - -<p>“Because you are a woman, dear; and I realise now, for the -first time, that I love you as a woman.”</p> - -<p>Her dilated eyes glistened, for a moment, with a strange expression -of exultation, and, in another instant, she threw her -arms about the neck of Manton, and burst into the wildest -expressions of mingled ecstacy and grief, in the midst of which -she sobbed out frequently.</p> - -<p>“My mother! my poor mother! what will she do? She will -never consent to this—it will kill her.”</p> - -<p>“Elna,” said Manton, calmly, disengaging her clasped hands<span class="pagenum" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</span> -from about his neck, “your mother is an evil woman; I know, -and you know, something of her terrible passions. But she -shall submit to this; my will is her fate—she cannot escape me, -now that it is thoroughly aroused. She must bear it—she shall -bear it, if it kills her. I shall hold no middle ground; and she -dare not stand before me, or openly cross my track. This expiation -is due from her to me. She has striven to hideously -wrong me, and wrong you, and she shall now reap the consequences. -I shall hold no terms with her; and you must make -your choice now, calmly, between us, for ever! I have not -guarded you thus for years, with sleepless vigilance, against -her demonising influence, to have you fall back at once into her -talons. I know it is a fearful thing to ask a child to do—to -sunder all instinctive ties, and go apart into the house of -strangers; but where implacable evil dwells, purity must look -to be grieved in every contact, and there are no human ties sufficiently -sacred to justify pollution of soul and body in continuing -such contacts. I love you, Elna—I feel it now—I have -loved you long, unconsciously; I would make you my true and -honored wife, within another year—say the birthnight eve of -eighteen. But mark me, you must be separate from this horrid -mother. Elna, which do you choose?”</p> - -<p>She threw herself hysterically upon his breast, sobbing—</p> - -<p>“You!—you! Ah, my poor mother! I see it all! there is -no choice! Yours! I am yours!—for ever yours! She is good -to me sometimes; but I know she is bad—you must shield -me from her. But we will not go away at once—it would kill -her. Oh, my poor mother! my dear mother! this is hard!” -and she shuddered, as she clasped him more closely in her -arms, and sobbed yet more wildly still.</p> - -<p>Manton spoke in tender soothing to the gentle trembler, who -continued, amidst bursts of hysteric laughter, and smiles of -stormy joy, to moan—“Poor mother! how will she bear it?”</p> - -<p>Manton, at length, gently released himself from her caress, -and placing her head upon the cushion of the sofa, whispered,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</span> -“Be calm, Elna! She must bear it—she will bear it; it is a -righteous retribution, that has overtaken her at last. I go now -to tell her every thing. Promise me to be quiet, and wait till I -return. She shall know her doom, in this same sacred hour in -which I have learned to know myself and you.”</p> - -<p>She buried her face in her hands and shivered as he turned -away.</p> - -<p>He mounted the stairs with calm, unhurried step, and, tapping -at the door of the woman’s room, it was opened instantly, -and she met him on the threshold. Her eyes sought his as he -entered, with a strange and troubled glare of inquiry. His -brow was fixed, and all his features seemed just cast in iron. -She reached out her hand to him, with a vague, quick gesture; -but he did not accept it. He stood up before her, erect, rigid, -and impassive. Her eye grew wilder, and a yet more furtive -and startled expression glanced across her face, as she gasped -out feebly—</p> - -<p>“What now! has it come?”</p> - -<p>“Yes!” answered Manton, with a cold, ringing, and metallic -tone; “it has come, woman! The same curse that your devilish -arts brought upon poor Jeannette, has now come home to -roost. We are for ever severed, and, on no pretence or artifice, -shall you ever again come near me. Know you, woman, that -I love your child with an honest love—have come to a realisation -of the fact, and told her so.”</p> - -<p>She reeled and staggered backwards, shrieking—</p> - -<p>“Ah! ah! it has come at last! I felt it would be so!”</p> - -<p>There was something in her gait and manner so like stunned -madness, that Manton involuntarily sprang forward, to catch her -wavering form in his arms. She thrust aside his clasp, and, -staggering towards the bed, fell across it—not in a swoon, not -in a bleeding-fit, but in a paroxysm of weeping; in which the -flood-gates of long years seemed suddenly opened. There was -no word, no sob, no gesture of impatience, but her eyes ran -always a clear flood of silent tears.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</span></p> - -<p>Ha! ha! Etherial! has it come to thee at last? Is it thou that -must in turn be s-a-v-e-d? Where now thy disguises? Where -thy unnatural triumphs? O, woman! art thou woman, Etherial?</p> - -<p>To Manton, the phenomenon seemed more moving and inexplicable -than any we have yet described. She did not sleep, -but always the tears poured forth; and for twenty-four hours she -did not change her posture, or utter any word, but these, which -sent a chill shiver through the frame of Manton, as he heard -them—</p> - -<p>“She will serve <i>you</i> so, too!”</p> - -<p>Those words he could never forget. It was a weary -watching beside that bed, that Manton had to pass through -before the incessant flow of tears began to be checked, and -the woman to recover something of her power of speech, at -intervals.</p> - -<p>The first thing now spoken was, “I must be content. It cannot -be escaped! She must be yours, if you can hold her!”</p> - -<p>A fearful “<i>if</i>” was that suggested to Manton; but he was -too happy after all this solemn travail, to notice its significance—</p> - -<p>“I shall try to reconcile myself to see you both made happy; -while I shall walk aside in the cold isolation of my duties to my -mission among women.”</p> - -<p>Manton, who had expected a much more sultry and formidable -climax to this critical scene, felt his heart bound with the -sense of relief, as, when after all this exhausting watch over that -dumb and sleepless flow of tears, the calm and unexpected -philosophy of this conclusion came to his consolation. He had -anticipated a frantic, obstinate collision; perhaps as savage as -it might prove tragical. And his grateful surprise may be conceived -at the result.</p> - -<p>So soon as this result had been attained, he hastened to impart -the news to Elna, whose approach to her mother, while in -this condition, had been studiously guarded against by Manton. -When he saw her, now, in her own room, to which he eagerly -hastened, she sprang about his neck, exclaiming—</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</span></p> - -<p>“Will she bear it? Can she live?”</p> - -<p>“My darling, she has passed through a terrible struggle, but -she has now awakened to a recognition of what is, and has -been, and must continue to be, the falsehood of her purposed -relation to me.”</p> - -<p>“Ah!” exclaimed the young girl rapturously, clasping his -neck still closer—“Now I may dare to love you as much as I -please!”</p> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXIII">CHAPTER XXIII.<br /> - - -<small>ANOTHER INTRIGUE.</small></h2> -</div> - - -<p>With all the apparent amount of suffering which we have -attempted to describe above, Manton was no little astonished, -not only at the promptness and completeness of the recovery of -the woman Marie, but at the shortness of the time which she -permitted to elapse before he found her again engaged deep in -a bold and characteristic intrigue.</p> - -<p>He had immediately determined that Elna should be separated -from him until the time of the proposed marriage had approached. -While she was to be sent to New England to prosecute -her studies under the charge of an artist friend, he himself -proposed to spend the greater part of the year in the northern -mountains, hunting, fishing and exploring.</p> - -<p>But before this prudent and proper step could be taken, a -week or so of preparation became necessary. It was only a -week since the woman had risen from her bed, a showery -Niobe, as we have seen, when Manton entered the house one -morning at an hour when he was not expected, he met the woman -gliding hastily through a passage, with one of the sleeves -of her dress gone. The meaning of this sign at once flashed -across him, for he remembered to have seen that fair and beautiful<span class="pagenum" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</span> -arm, by skilful accident, exposed to his own gaze during -her first attempts at diverting and exciting his passions, and he -shrewdly conceived that there must be some new victim on -hand, even already.</p> - -<p>“Ha!” said he maliciously, as she was hurrying past. -“Why, what’s become of your sleeve this morning?”</p> - -<p>The woman flushed very red, and her eye turned obliquely -upon him as she muttered confusedly—</p> - -<p>“I—I’ve lost it!”</p> - -<p>“Ah, well, come! Let us look for it! Let us find it! The -morning is too cold! I will help you! I fear you will suffer!”</p> - -<p>“No, no, never mind! I will find it myself!”</p> - -<p>“But I insist! We must find it at once, before you take -cold! Come, we will look in the parlor!” And he made a -movement of his outstretched hand as if to open the door.</p> - -<p>She clutched him nervously, saying in a low whisper—</p> - -<p>“Don’t go in there, I have a visitor!”</p> - -<p>But as Manton only smiled at this and showed no disposition -to desist, she continued in an imploring voice—</p> - -<p>“Don’t go in! Mr. Narcissus, the editor, is there! I will -get the sleeve and put it on immediately! Don’t disturb us -now; I am just reading to him the MS. of my new novel, which -I hope he will undertake to publish in his paper!”</p> - -<p>“Well,” said Manton, quietly stepping back, “it must be -confessed you are prompt in finding alternatives! I wish you -success in your new publishing enterprise! And I suppose this -bare arm is to have nothing to do with his anticipated commentary -upon your text!”</p> - -<p>Manton turned away with a light laugh, but the look which -was sent after him would have chilled his very soul could he -have met it. His sneering conjecture was only too true. She -had already fastened upon a new victim. But for once it -turned out that it was “file cut file.” She had at last met her -equal in all that was detestable—her peer in baseness, and only -an under-graduate to <i>her</i> in cunning.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</span></p> - -<p>She had selected him as she did all her victims, with reference -to social and pecuniary position. He was at the time a co-editor -and ostensible part-owner of one of the most brilliant and -successful weekly papers of New York. She had always aspired -to command an “organ.” And anything in that line, from a -review down to a thumb-paper, to her restless ambition, was -better than nothing. For by a process more hideous to the -world than anomalous in fact, she had come to reconcile any -degree of private intrigue, by balancing it with the value of abstract -teachings for the public good, under that liberal postulate -of the school to which she belonged, that the end justifies the -means.</p> - -<p>In setting herself down for a regular siege before this newspaper -establishment, she had first in her eye, all three of the -associate owners. It was a matter of entire indifference to her, -through which she succeeded in obtaining an entrance to its -columns, which might lead to her control of the future tone of -the paper. She opened the investment in the usual form; first, -by visiting them alone, in their offices; then by bombarding -them, from the distance of her own writing-table, with a constant -hail of those snow-white missives, with the sugared contents -of which we have before been made acquainted.</p> - -<p>They were each privately and successively pronounced in -their own ears, and under seal of those crow-quilled envelopes, -to be “naughty boys,” whose proud and wilful natures were -driving them headlong to ruin—to be sons of genius, who only -required to be saved from themselves and their own vices, by -her, to become the illustrious reformers of the age! One of -them smoked too much—was making a “chimney of his nose,” -through which he was exhaling spiritual mightiness, that might -equalise him with the cherubim, if only free! But this unhappily -did not tell; the shrewd and wary business-man, who knew -more about coppers than cherubim, and was by no means conscious -of the spiritual prowess she so pathetically attributed to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</span> -him, “smoked” her, or her motive at least, and threw the dainty -correspondence aside, with a jeering laugh.</p> - -<p>The other, who was really chief editor, and a handsome and -talented fellow, might not have got off so well, had he not been -pre-occupied, and predisposed to bestow the exalted attributes -which she had discovered in him, in another direction. -He was duly grateful to her, however, for the discovery that he -was a child of genius; and, though a little disposed to be suspicious, -could not, for some time, restrain the expression of his -delight at having met with a lady possessing such unquestionable -and extraordinary discrimination.</p> - -<p>He was a jovial and generous fellow, though very shrewd and -suspicious withal. She was not quite aware of the last two -attributes, and therefore expected a great deal from him, as he -proverbially drank too much. She therefore opened her batteries -mercilessly upon this weakness, which, as she affirmed, -combined with the horrible practice of chewing to excess, was -demonising an “Archangel! Dragging down the loftiest spirit -of his age! A spirit that might guide the destinies of the -human race, and rule it, whether for evil or for good.” She -particularly desired his salvation. She prayed for it, day -and night! She had a spiritual monition that he could -be saved; and the fact was, he would be saved, if he would -only listen to her counsel! Indeed, she might guarantee he -<i>should</i> be saved, if he would only give up his poisons, and -dedicate the columns of his paper to the great cause of progressive -hygiene and popular physiology. In a word, the fact -was, he <i>must</i> be saved, whether he wanted to be or not!</p> - -<p>But the trouble was, our editor was a person who would do -nothing on compulsion. And when he found that such a powerful -edict had gone forth, that he <i>must</i> be saved, he swore, in -his benighted obstinacy, that he would be —— if he would!</p> - -<p>This led, through his spleen, to an explanation between himself -and the business-man of the firm, and what was their mutual -astonishment, on privately comparing “notes,” to find that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</span> -one was absolutely a “Cherubim,” and the other an “Archangel!” -They looked at each other with a blank stare of surprise. -The tawney, lean, angular, iron-jawed face of the business-man -suggested anything but the plump and dimpled outlines -of that prolific progeny of winged infants, which Raphael -has rendered so illustrious. While, in contrast, the features of -the young editor were remarkable for their plump and childlike -freshness.</p> - -<p>“Why!” shouted the business-man, with a tremendous -guffaw, “there’s a great mistake here—she has clearly misdirected -the notes. You should be the cherub!”</p> - -<p>The breath of a simultaneous roar of laughter dissipated all -her fine-spun web, in these two directions at least. She was -more successful, however, with the third party.</p> - -<p>Manton had been deceived, egregiously, in regard to this -man’s past history, or he would never have permitted him to -pass the threshold of the house where he lived. He had -known him only as ostensibly associate editor of a highly-respectable -paper, and therefore had not felt himself called upon -to interfere in any way. Although he had, as we have perceived, -early indications of his having become a frequent visitor -at the house.</p> - -<p>To have gone any higher in her classification of him than she -had already gone in that of his associates, would have puzzled -any less versatile genius than hers. But as cherubim and archangel -had already been used up, she placed him among the -“principalities and powers in heavenly places,” and there he -decided to stick. It was certainly time for him to be pleased -with elevation of some sort, for, as it turned out afterwards, -when his history became better understood by Manton, he was -one of those slugs, or barnacles of the press, that cling about -and slime the keels of every noble and thought-freighted bark. -From the precarious and eminently honourable occupation of -writing obscene books for <i>private</i> circulation, “getting up” -quack advertisements, interpolating the pages of Paul De Kock<span class="pagenum" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</span> -with smearings of darker filth than ever his mousing vision had -yet discovered in the sinks and gutters of Paris, he had gradually -risen, through his facile availability, to the <i>sub rosa</i> -respectability of a well-paid “sub” in a respectable office—I -say <i>sub rosa</i>, for it seems to have been well understood, in New -York, that the appearance of his name, at the head of the -columns of any paper, would be sufficient to damn it, outright, -so linked had it become with sneaking infamy of every sort.</p> - -<p>However, <i>this</i> “child of genius” and Madame progressed -bravely towards a mutual understanding; and billets-doux flew -between them thick as snow-flakes. As for their contents, the -reader is, by this time, pretty well prepared to conjecture. Interviews, -from weekly to semi-weekly, crowded fast upon each -other’s heels; until, at last, Manton began to perceive that, not -only was the sleeve lost every day, but that the new novel, like -the pious labor of the needle of Penelope, “grew with its -growth.”</p> - -<p>About this time, however, it came to his knowledge, that this -highly respectable literary personage, Mr. Narcissus, had been -as notoriously abject in his private relations as he had been in -those to the press. However, as he had determined to drag -Elna from beneath the clutches of her mother, and to sever all -remote, or even possible connection between them, he did not -feel himself called upon to do more than announce the fact to -Madame that the fellow was even now an infamous stipendiary -to a party no less infamous than himself, who had privately furnished -him, out of her ill-gotten gains, the money to buy his -share in the weekly paper she was so ambitious of controlling, -through him. As he had now to expect, she received the news -with the most refreshing coolness, and merely remarked, that it -was no fault of hers that this bad woman had loved Mr. Narcissus; -that he possessed great talent in affairs; could be made -of much use in the cause of human progress and advancement—in -a word, deserved to be saved, and to save him she meant. -She should rescue him from such gross and debasing associations,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</span> -and give to his astonishing energies a nobler bent; that -his future life, under her inspiration and guidance, should be -made to atone for the past.</p> - -<p>This logic seemed so very conclusive and characteristic, that -Manton made no reply, but a shudder, at the thought of that -<i>saving</i> process, to which, despicable as he was, a new victim -was to be subjected. But it was no part of his plan to divert -her from her purpose; for he wished, by all means, to see her -active and dangerous energies employed in any direction, save -that of the subversion and counteraction of his own design in -regard to her daughter.</p> - -<p>Elna, in a few days after, was sent to New England, with the -understanding between Manton and herself, that she would by -no means consent to return to her mother, until he himself -should come back from his tour, and should send for her. He -did not dare to trust her for an hour beneath the accursed -shadow of this domestic Upas, that had given her birth; and -more particularly did he dread the hideous combination of influences -which were likely now to be brought to bear upon her, -as Madam had openly announced her intention, since she -had obtained a divorce from her former husband, to marry the -delectable Narcissus.</p> - -<p>We may as well dispose of this affair at once, by remarking, -that in a few months afterward she did marry him; that the unfortunate -woman, who had heretofore so long lived with and -loved Narcissus, instantly withdrew the support which her ill-gotten -gains furnished; and that, asserting her right to the share -which he had pretended to own in the property of the paper, -and disclosing the whole of his infamy to his former partners, -the cherubim and archangel indignantly kicked him out of -doors, and at once toppled about the astonished ears of Madame -all her castles in the air reared, with regard to “controlling a -powerful organ.”</p> - -<p>But Madame, as we have perceived, was possessed of one -of those elastic natures which always rebound from collisions,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</span> -or which, in a word, “never say die;” so that, instead of being -discouraged by this untoward conclusion of her ambitious -schemes, she set herself to work forthwith to make the best of a -bad bargain; and, as she had already exhibited her passion for -professional spouses, in immediately converting her first and -dear Ebenezer, into an M. D., she could not do less than make -a Doctor out of her beloved Narcissus.</p> - -<p>It did not matter to her that both of them were ludicrously -ignorant—that neither of them had probably ever read a book -clear through in their lives; parchments were dog-cheap in New -York, and could be had any day for an equivalent in hard coin. -She accordingly “put him through;” and in something less -than three months, one more legalised murderer was turned -loose upon society, under the cabalistic ægis of M. D.</p> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXIV">CHAPTER XXIV.<br /> - - -<small>REANIMATION.</small></h2> -</div> - - -<p>Amidst the green and savage solitude of pine-haired hills, -wild-bounding streams, and islet-fretted lakes, asleep, ’twixt -gleam and shadow, where the bellowing moose still roused the -echoes, and the light deer whistled to the brown bear’s growl, -and the trout leaped, flashing from its clear, still home, Manton -renewed his life once more, in refreshing communion with -nature.</p> - -<p>It was not till now that he realised how terribly he had -suffered during his long and hideous bondage. His physical -health had been shockingly impaired; the elasticity of his constitution -seemed to be gone forever; but it was only in the presence -of Nature, with whom there are no disguises, that he could -first comprehend, in all its ghastliness, the mental and spiritual -deterioration that had gradually supervened. He scarcely knew<span class="pagenum" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</span> -himself, now that he had found his way back to the only standard -of comparison. He was profoundly humiliated, but not -utterly despairing.</p> - -<p>He felt his chest already beginning to play more freely, and -a deadly sense, as if a thousand years of suffocating oppression -had lain upon his lungs, was beginning to be dissipated before the -pure air of the mountains, and the exciting pre-occupations of -angling and the chase, in the rough wilderness-life he now led; -and beside, there was the image of that wizard child, that had -so grown in beauty beneath his hand, that sat forever in his -heart, glowing and fair, to warm it with a new life of hope. -How studiously his fancy exalted her. Each fortnight brought -him a package of her daily letters; and though in spite of his -isolation, and his idealising enthusiasm, as he eagerly read and -re-read them all a thousand times, and carried them near his -heart, to keep the glow there all alive, he could not help -realising at times, with mournful presentiment, their hollowness, -the entire absence of ingenuousness and natural dignity which -mostly characterised them. He would feel his flesh creep -strangely too, as he recognised their close resemblance in artificiality -of sentiment and tone, to those first letters he had received -from her mother.</p> - -<p>But he earnestly strove to banish all such impressions; he felt -as if they were profane, as if they were a monstrous wrong to -her, as well as to himself. That she was too young as yet to -have developed into the full faculty of expression; that she was -timid, and dared not trust herself to speak freely out; that she -feared his sharp criticism, and did not say everything that her -soul moved her to speak; that she dreaded his analysis; and, in -a word, had not quite overcome, in her feelings towards him, -the instinctive apprehension of the master, the preceptor, which -so long lingers in a youthful mind; and this very timidity, of -all things, he was desirous of removing, as he felt that, so long -as it remained in her mind, the full and entire reciprocation of -confidence, which the jealous exclusiveness of passion demands,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</span> -could not take place. He felt that it was a most -hazardous experiment he had been unconsciously making, in -thus attempting to develope and educate a wife, especially under -circumstances so unusual and ill-omened. He therefore fatally -persisted in blaming himself for the self-evident shallowness of -Elna’s letters; and would not hear to the whispers of his common -sense, that the child was a mere chip of the old block.</p> - -<p>So that still, in spite of his determined idealisation of her, -while these evidences stared him in the face with each new, -yearned-for, and eagerly-welcomed budget of letters from her, -they only served to fill him, to a more sensitive degree, with the -dangers of this excessive timidity, and the necessity of greater -spiritual activity and tenderness of treatment on his part, that -might arouse her to a more full realisation of the sacred confidences -which love implies. His letters to her overflowed with -natural eloquence; and all that was chastening, ennobling, fair -and pure, in the inspirations surrounding him, were lavished in -the prodigality of an absorbing and overflowing affection upon -this fair, hollow idol, that his passion alone had rendered all -divine.</p> - -<p>This brooding, constantly and long, upon a single image, -amidst the solemn privacies, the wild and drear solemnities of -primeval nature, was quite sufficient to give, in time, to any nature -possessing the intensity of that of Manton, a sultry tinge -of monomania in reference to it. This was clearly the case -with him now. Her image, glorified through his imagination, -now filled all his life; he saw her everywhere—where the beautiful -might be, it took some shade of semblance to her—where -the wild-flowers gave out their odors to the breeze, it was to him -the aroma of her presence; when the wild berry tingled his -palate in a nameless ecstacy of flavor, the taste was of his sense -of her, when, in their last kiss, her lips were touched to his.</p> - -<p>But it is a strange thing that, with all the fervor of this passional -attraction, he never dreamed of her at all; she never -came to his soul when his senses were asleep. This single fact<span class="pagenum" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</span> -might have warned a man of imagination less excited than -Manton. This happy delusion had at least one good effect, as -it enabled him, by a single effort, to throw off all his dangerous -habits, and return from his tour, to New York, with a freshened -and invigorated frame, and a soul chastened indeed, but filled -with wild and eager hopes of the golden-hued Utopia he had -framed out in the wilderness.</p> - -<p>Elna had returned and met him. Alas! how his heart sank -as, on the meeting, he felt the rainbow-hues all melting from -out the visionary sky, and he took into his arms a cold, overacting, -artificial semblance of his passionate ideal! He felt as if -the sky had turned to lead, and fallen on him; and the first -image recalled to his mind, was of the sick and monkey-imp, -soulless and animal-eyed, that he had years ago rescued, in -compassion, from the demon-talons of the mother. He clutched -her desperately to his heart, endeavoring to recall the soul he -missed, and that she had lost, while he had been away. He -felt as if there were fire enough in his own veins to make a soul—to -fill that delicate and graceful organisation with a subtler -element, that might answer to the ravin of his sympathies.</p> - -<p>No such response as he yearned for came; but he felt instantly, -from the contact of her hand, that fierce and sultry -thrill, the memory of which had lingered so long with him, -tinging his imagination with a lurid light amidst the white clear -calm of nature’s inspirations. He would not give up now; he -had loved too long already—or, rather, the habit of confounding -passion with love, had become too confirmed with him, for it to -be readily possible that he should make the clear distinction between -images nurtured in his own mind and the objective reality. -It was his own mistake; he had expected too much of the -child—he must give her time to gain confidence and speak out -herself.</p> - -<p>Infatuated man! She only wanted a few hours’ contact to -speak out himself to himself, through the Odic medium!</p> - -<p>And so it proved. Her organisation soon took the key-note<span class="pagenum" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</span> -from his, and, in a few hours, responded as rapturously as he -could desire, to the most vehement expressions of his enthusiasm.</p> - -<p>First and foremost, she showed to him the drawings that she -had made during their long probation. Among them were -some, so characterised by a firm, exquisite delicacy of handling, -that Manton regarded them with delighted wonder,—more -especially as the defect in Elna’s pencilling, which he had always -noticed and lamented, had been precisely contrasted with the -excellences here displayed. Elna’s had, with all its gay and -mocking eccentricity, always been trembling and uncertain. -The want of smooth and poised directness in her harsh, rude -handling, had often been contrasted by him in his lessons to her, -upon art, with the clear, firm, and mathematical precision of the -lines of Moione. He could not but exclaim impulsively, on -examining them curiously—</p> - -<p>“Why, dearest, you have equalled the brightest excellence of -the style of Moione in these. Ah, how I love you for this! you -are deserving of all that I have dreamed and thought and felt -of you, since I have been away.”</p> - -<p>The blushing girl slid into his embrace; and that moment was -to Manton a sufficient compensation for all the self-degradation -and the humiliating conditions through which he had passed. -He was now to attain the coveted crown and glory of his life, -as he conceived. An artist-wife! Capable, inspired, true, and -a “help-mate” indeed, through whose assistance and tutored -skill he might embody in realisation those fleeting and majestic -creations which visited him, not alone in dreams, but in the real -impersonations of his habitual thought. It had been a dream -of such chaste beauty, that all these visionary forms might be -transfigured to him in the alembic of art, through love, and become, -in form and color, fireside realities of the canvass.</p> - -<p>We shall see how vague and empty was this fanciful dream, -as yet.</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXV">CHAPTER XXV.<br /> - - -<small>THE SEPARATION.</small></h2> -</div> - - -<p>Had it ever occurred to Manton to reason at all upon the -subject of his passion for this girl Elna, or had it been possible -for him, under the circumstances which had lately surrounded -his life, to reason concerning her, in any sense, he must and -would have felt how ominous such a passion in reality was. To -be sure, he did not feel that the relations into which it had been -attempted to drag him by the mother, had ever been voluntary -or accepted on his part; he had loathed and rebelled against -them from the first.</p> - -<p>But this did not, in reality, make the fact of his having continued -near her—to occupy the same house—any the less offensive -to the moral sense; for, taking the best aspects of the case, -the durance had not been a physical one, and he might, if he -had so willed, have walked himself bodily off, and thus escaped -this horrible entanglement; but he had not done so. Although -we have endeavored, as some extenuation, to trace the reasons -why he had not thus acted, yet we have found no excuse sufficient, -in all this, for the new sin he has committed, in daring to -love, and contemplating honorable marriage, even, with the -daughter of such a mother. But we have naught to extenuate, -naught to set down in malice, in this too fatally true narrative; -we have related it because it is true, and because we felt it to -be our duty to do so, that others might be warned of these -things, which may, perhaps, enlighten the reader somewhat, as -to the character of the new thraldom to which Manton has been -subjected.</p> - -<p>It must always be borne in mind, in speaking of Manton and -measuring his actions, that although the nervous sanguine temperament<span class="pagenum" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</span> -predominated to an extraordinary degree in this man’s -organisation, the tendencies of his mind were, nevertheless, unusually -conservative. This rendered him, necessarily, a man -of <i>habits</i>; and therefore, more than usually liable to suffer from -gradual and constant encroachment: for, if his quick sense has -not instantly detected the danger on its first presentation—if his -ear has not recognised the serpent’s hiss at once among the -flowers, his fearless hand would soon be caressing the shining -reptile, and bear it, it might be, even to his own bosom. It -was this tenacity of habits which had rendered him so easy to -be imposed upon. Nothing was so difficult for him to throw -off as a habit; for, from the intensity of his nature, it always -cost him the suffering of a strong excitement before its chains -could be broken.</p> - -<p>Manton found, very soon after his return, that what he most -dreaded now, was to be at once precipitated, which was a separation -between himself and Elna. Not that he did not fully -concede to the general propriety and prudence of such a step; -for he remembered that he had at once proposed the previous -separation, when he came to understand the nature of his feelings -towards her; but that had been when she was to be placed -beyond the reach of her mother, and they could be both out of -town at the same time; but now that his business made it imperative -for him to remain in New York, if he dreaded before -lest she be left with the mother one day even, were not the same -causes operating still, and with redoubled force, when, in addition -to her baleful contact, he had to contemplate that of the -creature she had married?</p> - -<p>The moral and spiritual grime of such a contact was enough -to blast an angel’s bloom—to sully the purest wing that ever -winnowed dream. He must be there to shield his fair treasure -always, till the time had come when he could snatch her for -ever beyond their reach. But the war had now fairly opened.</p> - -<p>On the very day of his return, Manton had been not a little -astonished to find the heretofore abject and cringing mother turn<span class="pagenum" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</span> -upon him, suddenly, with a lofty insolence, that seemed at first -incredible; but his surprise and anger rapidly gave way to -wonder and stunned amaze, at finding her exhibiting the most -unparalleled phenomena of brazen, grave, deliberate falsehood -that ever still imagination, in bottomless conceit, had conjured -as the thought of demons in dark hell. This was yet, strange -as it may seem, a most terrible realisation to have come upon -his life; though he had, up to this time, known that she was -unscrupulous, as far as the attainment of influential connexions, -for the dissemination of her theoretical views, was concerned—that -she was, in this respect, a dangerous and an evil woman—that -her influence would make her presence deadly to purity, in -her own or the other sex; yet, he had not learned to regard her -as utterly God-forsaken. The veil was now lifted. The scales -that had remained fell forever from his eyes. She now stood -revealed, not as he had heretofore striven to palliate his convictions -concerning her—the ferocious fanatic of one idea—the -cunning and detestable Jesuit of a “A cause”—but as the -incarnation of unnatural passions and a demonised selfishness. -He trembled to his heart’s core at the thought of that fair young -girl, whom he had learned to love, being left to the tender mercies -of a monster such as this. He saw at once the whole nefarious -scheme that had been concocted between herself and her -worthy coadjutor.</p> - -<p>This was but the initial step. This precipitation of a quarrel -with himself, which would bring about at least a partial -separation with Elna, and then their subsequent game would -slowly and surely accomplish the rest. Was it likely that a -wretch like this pink of delicacy, Narcissus, who had before, -for years, been steeped to the lips in that monstrous traffic, -the sale of bodies as well as souls, would quietly permit to slip -through his fingers a lovely and fascinating girl as Elna had now -grown to be, over who’s value, in dollars and cents, he had -gloated from the first? or was it likely that his worthy consort, -who had clearly learned to appreciate the convenience of such<span class="pagenum" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</span> -speculations, would not fully coincide with him in his view of -the policy of defeating Manton, who, in the event of success, -would be sure to separate her from them as far as the poles are -sundered?</p> - -<p>We shall now see how far the young lady herself was likely -to, or had already, become a party to such utilitarian views.</p> - -<p>Manton had left the house, and taken board elsewhere. The -same evening, he visited Elna, who received him alone, in the -warm, well-lighted, and neatly-arranged parlor. Manton had -come in the most hopeless mood, for all the results of this separation -had been most fully and painfully impressed upon him -since the first indication of the rupture that had led to his quitting -the house.</p> - -<p>The young girl sprang eagerly to meet him, and with a -bounding caress clasped his neck, exclaiming—</p> - -<p>“Dearest one, you must not look so sad! We are to have -the parlor thus every evening, when you shall come to see me; -when we shall be very stately and proper folk. I shall play the -dignified matron in anticipation, and you shall be my very wise -and solemn lord and master. Mother is not to permit any -interruption, and we shall have such nice and easy times. -Come, sit down here by my side, and let us begin to play -stately. And clear up that gloomy brow of yours, for I am determined -that we shall be happy!”</p> - -<p>Manton could only smile faintly, as he seated himself.</p> - -<p>“Ah, heedless child, you do not see in all this gay vision, the -black and deadly realities that couch within its shadows! I -understand your mother’s game fully. This will not last long; -and you are about to be sorely tried, my little love!”</p> - -<p>His head fell back heavily, and his eyelids drooped with an -expression of unutterable despondency. Elna, who had been -watching him eagerly, now flew to his side, and taking his -head gently on her shoulder, commenced caressing his face -in a peculiar manner. She did not absolutely touch it, but -her lips crept over certain portions with a slow snake-like motion,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</span> -while the deep heavings of her chest, disclosed that she -was breathing heavily upon them, and a certain greenish dilation -of the pupil of her eyes revealed—what? Ah, horror! and she -so young! What? what! is that the mother’s art? Let us see.</p> - -<p>The lines of the man’s face are sunken in the expression of -hopeless prostration. Soon a slight twitching of the nerves becomes -evident, then a faint smile breaks across its pallor; the -inspirations become deeper, and she breathes with almost convulsive -energy. The glowing air lingers and burns along the -sensitive temple, and now it pauses on the cheek, close beside -the ear—ha! her arm is about his neck; is it a wonder that the -blood mounts flushing to that man’s cheek and forehead, that -his eyes fly open filled with wild and vivid fires, that a shuddering -thrill is running through his frame, as he stretches forth his -arms to her, with a low, ecstatic laugh, of passionate yearning, -while she clings about him, and their lips meet, in a burning, -lingering kiss, and then, with a light laugh, she springs beyond -his reach, and dances in tantalising mockery about him, permitting -him but to touch her for a moment, eluding his grasp, -with yet more subtle sleight, until exhausted by morbid excitement -the unfortunate man sinks upon the sofa?</p> - -<p>This picture is only but too real. But why should Manton -have endured the repetition of a scene like this? He was a man -of habits, and for years, before a thought of passion had for -once intruded upon him, this young girl, under the sacred shield -of childhood, had been taught to approach him with fondling -caresses. There seemed no danger then, but when the real -time for danger came, he felt a vague and general monition of -it, yet failed to locate it where it really rested. These caresses -had become so dear and natural to him; they seemed so -harmless.</p> - -<p>He blamed only himself, cursed only the unetherialised grossness -of his own nature. There was to him far too much of -affection and accustomed tenderness in all this to arouse his suspicions -for a moment. He hated only himself, and strove on<span class="pagenum" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</span> -each of these now frequent occasions, to chasten, by the severest -self-inflicted penance, his own soul.</p> - -<p>In the meanwhile, this modern Tantalus grew thinner and -more pale each day; was wasting rapidly to a shadow, beneath -such scenes as we have witnessed.</p> - -<p>The girl, Elna, grew fairer and more strong each day—seeming -to have fed upon his slow consumption.</p> - -<p>We will not dwell upon such pictures farther. It was enough -that all the consequences dreaded by Manton followed, in slow, -but sure progression, and that the last blow the subtle couple -struck at him was fully characteristic and consummated the -separation.</p> - -<p>Elna had seen little, as yet, of public amusements, and her -strong imitative faculty had led her to express a passion for the -stage, which Manton greatly dreaded, and had particularly -wished to guard her against, until her mind should become more -fully developed, and until he, himself, should possess the legal -right to attend her, upon all such occasions. He had, therefore, -at all times resolutely opposed her going to any public place -of amusement, unless he could accompany her. But now -it happened that, being engaged in bringing out a new work, -with the press only twenty-four hours behind him, urging him -inexorably for a certain amount of daily matter, which left him no -leisure whatever, except a few moments, which he wrested from -the vortex, for the short evening re-union with her he so loved, -he had, therefore, no time left to accompany her to such places.</p> - -<p>Here the enterprising couple saw at once their advantage; -the mother understood what Manton did not, the extreme shallowness -of the character he had thus perseveringly idealised. -She at once laid siege to her passion for dress and display, as -well as novelty. They bought her fine and showy clothes, and -urged her first to accompany them to concerts, then to theatres, -and then to public balls.</p> - -<p>When the young girl first came to Manton, all flushed with -eagerness, to show him her finery, and ask him if she might not<span class="pagenum" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</span> -go with her dear mother and her new “papa,” he felt his heart -sink unutterably within him. He reasoned with her long and -earnestly, endeavoring to make her understand how impossible -it was for a woman, who was to become his wife, to appear at -any public assembly in the city of New York, with a person so -notorious as this, whom she had thus, suddenly, learned to style -“papa.”</p> - -<p>But he soon found it to be all in vain; for, when he told her -if she would only be content to wait a few weeks until his book -had been published, that he would himself dedicate any amount -of time she might require to visiting such places with her, she -still urged that she did not see why it was improper for her to -accompany the man whom her mother had married, to any -public place—that her new dresses were so beautiful—that she -wished to attend this magnificent concert.</p> - -<p>Manton sighed heavily and only answered in a mournful -voice to her repeated entreaties—</p> - -<p>“Alas! poor child, my dream is nearly over! I see they -have bought you with the tinsel of a fine dress and new ribbons!”</p> - -<p>The child wept and fondled and caressed; but all her arts -failed this time. His heart felt like lead within him; and he no -longer had nerves with life enough to be played upon. But she -went that night, nevertheless, and the great gulf had sunk impassably -between them.</p> - -<p>Manton was now again a madman. In the pride of his hopeful -love he had built magnificent schemes, which his singular -energies had rapidly placed upon the firm basis of realisation; -it only required the calm exercise of his own will to consummate -all and make his name illustrious. But he had not labored -for himself—and she, for whom all had been achieved, was no -longer his—she was gone—utterly gone! She had sold her -birthright, and was no longer his. The world became dark, its -honors and its ambitions as nothing. To recount the wild and -desperate extravagance by which he dashed to earth all that he -had achieved, as the heartless and hideous shallowness of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</span> -phantom soul he had been worshipping, became, with each day, -more apparent, would be only painful to the reader, who can -well understand what to expect from the recklessness of such a -madman. Suffice it that the separation was complete. He last -saw her, but for an instant, on her eighteenth birthnight, to -commemorate which, the mother, in pursuance of her schemes, -had assembled a large party at her house. This was to have -been their wedding-night; and Manton, though long since -hopelessly separated from her, could not resist the passionate -desire to see once more, upon this night, to which he had so long -looked forward with holy raptures, that face and form.</p> - -<p>He rang the bell, and, by a curious instinct, she recognised -the characteristic pull, and met him alone at the door. She was -lovely, radiant even, as she had sometimes come to him in his -wild imaginings. Dressed in pure white, with a wreath of -flowering myrtle resting lightly on her brow. There was a look -of exultation on her face which she had not been able to throw -off, as she came forth from the admiration of the crowded room. -Manton took her hand—</p> - -<p>“Ah, child, you are very lovely now—you look just as I -dreamed you would look on this night, when you were to have -been my bride. My eyes are filled with blood, now! I cannot -see you any more! Farewell! farewell!” and he rushed from the -door into the dark street, while she, who had spoken no word, -made no attempt to detain him, turned coldly back, and entered, -with a beaming face, the scene of her new triumph.</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXVI">CHAPTER XXVI.<br /> - - -<small>DESPAIR.</small></h2> -</div> - -<p class="center"> -“The white feet of angels yet upon the hills.”</p> - - -<p>Months and months had passed, and yet this wretched man -was staggering on, not this time drunk, literally, but, as though -blinded by red blood oozing from his brain, which had been -crushed by the weight of this blow. He was wandering vaguely -hither and yon, distracting his brain in ineffectual chimeras, the -very impossibilities of their success affording to him their greatest -attraction. But gradually all this maddened struggle had been -settling down into one sultry, close, inevitable conclusion of -sullen self-destruction, which must result from the continued -precipitation, upon conditions that promised death in one form -or other. He went to Boston while the cholera was raging -there at its worst. The pretence of the visit was some wild, distracting -scheme that he had seized upon, and in which he was -endeavoring to secure co-operation there.</p> - -<p>But unfortunately for his mad purpose, since that very separation -from daily contact with the girl Elna, which was working -so sadly upon his imagination now, his attenuated and exhausted -physique had rapidly recovered all its inherent vigor, and in -animal health and strength he had suddenly become, by an inexplicable -reaction, more prodigally abounding than ever for many -years. So that fate seemed to have closed up to him any ordinary -means of getting rid of himself, except the pistol and the -dagger, from the use of which his manliness unconquerably -revolted.</p> - -<p>But by a strange process of self-delusion, he had managed to -confound himself into the idea that the abject cowardice of the -act of suicide might be avoided by a species of half unconscious -indirection. For instance, cholera was rife in the city, and he<span class="pagenum" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</span> -well knew that long warm baths, by relaxing the system, would -lay it more open to the attacks of any epidemical tendencies that -might be prevalent; and accordingly, without ever venturing to -explain to himself why, he continued, day after day, to take these -long hot baths, and then to eat and drink, in the quietest possible -way, everything that was specially to be avoided at such a -time.</p> - -<p>While this novel process was thus coolly progressing, he one -morning met, by the merest accident, on State Street, a person -whom he knew to have been long and intimately the friend of -the lost Moione and her family. Manton eagerly asked him -if he knew where she could now be found; for, strange enough, -her calm image had lately intruded often into the darkened -vistas of his thought, from whence he had supposed her banished -long ago.</p> - -<p>Her address was promptly given: it was in a remote and -humble district of the city; and, although Manton already felt -the seeds of the disease, which he had thus pertinaciously invited, -rioting within him, yet he vowed to himself that he would -at once seek her. His first visit failed; but the second found -her, thin and wan, stretched on a lounge, awaiting she knew -not whom.</p> - -<p>With a short cry of sudden joy, as she recognised his features, -she sprang to meet him, as of old, with a childish caress. -Ah, why was it that he felt such sullen cold, and yet saw light, -falling like star-beams upon the midnight of his soul, as his -arms met this fond and childish clasp? He did not understand -it—but we shall see!</p> - -<p>The physical results, which he had so assiduously courted, -could not be avoided. As he had walked about among his -friends already for several days, with the premonitory symptoms -of the fatal epidemic fully developed in his system, and as fully -understood by himself, yet without the adoption, on his own -part, of one single precautionary step, it was now sure to wreak -its worst. Some, who could not help observing his ghastly appearance,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</span> -thought him monstrously reckless, and others, hopelessly -insane.</p> - -<p>Regardless of every remonstrance, he still kept his feet, until, -at length, the third evening found him leaving his hotel, in a -hack, which he ordered to be driven to the home of Moione; -and from which he had to be carried, by the driver, into the -parlor, where he sank upon what he supposed to be the last -couch upon which he should recline in life. A strange, indestructible -feeling, that he must die beneath her eye, had urged -him to this last and desperate exertion of the feeble vitality remaining -in him. He had lain himself there to die; but why -the strange purpose that she should minister to his passing -breath? Was it only here that peace could be found for him?</p> - -<p>Moione was alone, with a timid, young, and undeveloped -sister. Their mother was accidentally away that night; having -been detained by the illness of a friend, joined with the inclemency -of the night, which set in in darkness and storm, in -terror, in thunder, and in blaze. In the meantime, the paroxysms -of cholera had commenced upon the enfeebled frame of -Manton; and the black fear of the night outside only corresponded -to the convulsed and writhing agonies which now -tossed him to and fro, in helpless, but most mortal agonies. -The thunder crashed, and the frail house shook, and the fierce -pangs shot along his quivering nerves, as vividly as any blinding -burst of lightning from without. The darkness which surrounded -him had been penetrated by a calm, pure light, that -dimmed not nor trembled before the blinding blast. A voice, -the soft, clear, cheerful tones of which vibrated not to the -quick rattling of thunder-crashes from without, told him of -strength and hope, of peace and a calm future, in the life yet -beyond him on the earth—that he could not die now, and should -not!—until his will became electrified with a new impulsion, and -was roused to cope with the fell demon that had thus, of his -own invitation, possessed him; and, illuminated with a sudden<span class="pagenum" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</span> -and rapid intellection, he directed her how to baffle every -paroxysm of cramp as it rose.</p> - -<p>It is sufficient, he was thus sustained by light applications of -cold-water, until the passing of the storm enabled her to summon -to his aid a physician, whose skilful application of the -same powerful remedy, even in the “blue-stage” of collapse -into which Manton had now fallen, sufficed to relieve him from -the disease, with the vital principle yet striving in his frame; -though many days must elapse before those starry eyes, that held -sleepless watch above him, could impart to his dimmed and incredulous -consciousness sufficient strength to enable him to lift -his hand, in vague and mournful wonder that he still possessed -a being.</p> - -<p>Ah, what an awakening was this! Deep, deep, beneath the -realms of shadow—dark and deep—he had lain in long and -dumb oblivion of consciousness. He knew not that he lived; -it was a blank of rayless rest—a peace without sunshine. How -profound! how unutterably still! What a contrast with the -ceaseless, dreadful tension of the moiling chaos of past years, -during which the passions had never slept, but, through his very -dreams, had moaned in the weariness of strife. Alas! the rebellious -heart, which struggleth in unyielding pride with life, -refusing to concede to its conditions, how it must suffer? The -world know little of the life-long horrors of that fight—the unidealizing -world, the conservative, the compromising world. It -little dreams what this self-immolating madman must endure—to -what nights of sleepless thought, to what days of bleak and -sullen isolation—walking apart from sympathies that are distrusted -and scorned, yet yearned for—hating nothing, yet loving -nothing which is warmed in the embrace of earth, because that -earth may be accursed in his sight: its barren bosom has not -yielded to his exacting soul the flowers and streams and echoing -groves of the Utopia it has framed within him.</p> - -<p>This is the unpardonable sin of pride! He dares to treat -with contempt a world that will not turn to his inspired voice,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</span> -and live as he has dreamed it might live. It is not to be wondered -at, that the bolts fall thick and fast about him; but when -we see his pale brow scathed and seamed with many a stunning -stroke, while his hollow eyes yet glitter with a deathless and -defiant fire—when we think of the mortal tension of his unsympathised -life—oh, should we not remember, that this painful -warrior has been battling, not for base lucre, not for selfish ends, -but for the beautiful, as it has been revealed to him—the true, -as he has felt it—for the ideal in him; and that, though -wretched and suffering and wan, it is, after all,</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent14">“Of such stuff as he,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The gods are made.”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>It is of his suffering that his prowess comes—of his experiences, -his themes—of his solitude, his reach and radiance of thought—of -his strong will, his conquering flight at last. Do not think to -pity him; may-be he is pitying you. Do not attempt to “save” -him; it may be, it is you who will be damned in the effort. -Only let him alone—do not persecute him. Let his pride pass—that -is what sustains him; but for that, he would be like you, a -mere “compromise.” Give him the same chance that you -give to others around you, and, although you may not understand -him now, only give him time, he will make you understand -him; it may be, in wonder and in joy.</p> - -<p>But this waking—but this waking of the weary man! Was -it a new birth—a new resurrection—or, a mere waking from -a light sleep, without a dream? The world upon which his -shrinking vision now opened was filled with sunshine—he was -blinded with the glory thereof. He closed his thin eyelids, and -the splendor came through them, all rosy-hued and dimmed, -that he could bear it; but there was a starlight for him too, -and he could bear its calm effulgence better.</p> - -<p>Yes, there were two stars, and they were tempered, that they -might neither freeze nor slay his feeble life. When they came -over him, as he lay in a half-trance of weakness, he could feel<span class="pagenum" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</span> -them through his eyelids and upon his heart; and they were -warm, and he felt his heart warm, as buds to the unfolding -spring. A dim-remembered music flowed into his soul, faint -and dim, but oh, sweetly mellowed, that he might not die!</p> - -<p>There was a rustling, too,—it was as of a tempered wind,—and -a soft touch; it sent no thrill, but it was of healing—it sunk -into his life in strength. A strange, balsamic tenderness, like a -new sense of peace and joy, pervaded all his being—and a new -growth set in apace, and a dim remembrance of ancient strength -flitted into his thought.</p> - -<p>Ah, ha! this wondrous presence, what was it? Moione, the -ministering Moione! It was she! Ever there, sleeping and -awake, she leaned over him. When he dreamed, he dreamed -of a fair spirit, that hung upon the air above him, on viewless -wings, and ever, with still eyes looking upon his, shedding their -soft radiance deep into his soul. No wonder that life, in swift, -light waves, came flooding in again; no wonder that the crushed -and much-enduring man became as a child once more, and -laughed out in the sunshine with a simple joy. The Present -was sufficient unto him; he remembered not the Past now—the -hideous, the spectre-haunted Past. What was it to him, when -serene hope thus smiled? Ah, it was a happy time, that period -of rapid convalescence. Yes, rapid, for his heart beat freely -again. The natural sun could reach him; no lurid delusion, like -miasmatic fog, hung over to intercept the rays.</p> - -<p>They talked of the future, and peopled it with wild dreams, -like children, until it all became as real to them as their own -being.</p> - -<p>There was a strange and mournful romance, connected with -the origin of Moione’s family, that pointed at possible realizations -in another country, through inheritance, that would be as -gorgeous as the creations of Aladdin’s lamp. They talked of -these prospects as of facts assumed, and of all the high-thoughted -enterprises of the day which promised to be of true -benefit to mankind, as already achieved, through their aid; and,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</span> -with magnanimous simplicity, were already distributing hoarded -and rusting millions to bless the world withal. These were -gay day-dreams; but they were innocent, and, although they -may never be realized, they gave them joy—inspired the yet -feeble Manton with a future.</p> - -<p>There could be but one result to all this. His health was -rapidly restored; and when Manton married Moione, which he -soon did, his soul now first found rest. The last that was -spoken between them concerning Elna was in a conversation -soon after, when she casually asked him—</p> - -<p>“Did Elna show you my drawings, when you came back -from the North?”</p> - -<p>“Your drawings? your drawings? She showed me some, -the delicacy and calm precision of which, I remember, vainly -intoxicated me with delight. But why do you ask, dear?”</p> - -<p>“Why, she carried off from me, about that time, certain -studies of human anatomy, which I had elaborated much, and -which I valued. As I have never been able to recover them, -after repeatedly requesting their return, I thought, perhaps, she -might have shown them to you, and then thrown them aside, -through forgetfulness.”</p> - -<p>“Ah! ha!” said Manton, “I remember now. They were -assiduously paraded before me by her as her own. In spite -of my recognition of the fact, that she did not possess originally, -and must have very suddenly acquired, the constitutional steadiness -and delicacy of touch necessary to accomplish drawings so -fine and exquisitely accurate, I never dreamed of imposition, of -course; and thus, with fatal credulity, set down to her credit, -from what she had stolen of you, a new and infinitely significant -attribute, which I had heretofore, specially and hopelessly, -in spite of my passion, denied to her.”</p> - -<p>“Let us forget it now,” was the quiet response. “She is -only harmful to either of us, as you may remember morbidly -the relations which have existed between you; the delusion is -over.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</span></p> - -<p>Such was the fact, indeed. Manton had at last found his -artist-wife, and a true and wondrous artist did she prove indeed, -realising his fond, high dream. Under this blessed and holy -guardianship, he had returned fully to the realities of a true -existence. He now saw, felt, and understood all that had occurred -in that long shuddering dream; and this reality he had -attained seemed only the more unutterably precious.</p> - -<p>When the calm Moione revealed to him all the secret of the -bleak and poverty-stricken desolation, in which he found her -living, he was not at all astonished to find that her mother, who -was a generous, trusting, noble-hearted zealot of Water-cure, -had been another of the many victims of Boanerges Phospher, -the “Spiritual Professor.” He had not only stripped her widowed -isolation of all the appliances of household comfort, which -years of devoted and self-sacrificing labor had enabled her to -collect and throw together, in respectable defence between her -helpless children and common want, but had absolutely turned -her out of doors, without even spoon, or knife, or fork left her, -of all this little property which she had thrown in rashly, perhaps, -but earnestly, and with a noble dedication of her widow’s -mite, towards furnishing a Water-cure establishment.</p> - -<p>The cause was one that she revered for the good that she -knew, practically, it might accomplish; and Boanerges, who -was in this case, as usual, profoundly ignorant of what he had -undertaken to do, had availed himself of her well-known experience -and knowledge of Water-cure, just so long as sufficed to -collect around him again a hirsute confederacy of faithful Amazons; -the strength of which he thought would be sufficient to -over-ride all opposition, and sustain him in the valorous assault -upon helpless widowhood intended. He then openly claimed -her property as his own, and the proud, uncomplaining mother -of Moione was, of course, plundered of her all—victimised!</p> - -<p>The sainted Boanerges soon met with a just retribution. The -partner, to whom he had assigned, in trust, to stave off his creditors, -all his claims upon this illustrious institution, and who,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</span> -from the late chrysalis of a vulgar tailor, had suddenly been -emancipated into an M. D. of Water-cure, at once sprung upon -him his legal rights, under the transfer, and he was reduced -again to beggary.</p> - -<p>Some method wrested from his puerile studies of Swedenborg, -has no doubt, by this time, and upon some other tack, -suggested to the “Spiritual Professor” just enough of wisdom -to enable him to persevere in “saving” the elderly New-Lights -of the land.</p> - -<p>We wish Boanerges happiness in his new enterprises; for, -certainly, his versatility at least commands respect.</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXVII">CHAPTER XXVII.<br /> - - -<small>THE “SECRET CONCLAVE.”</small></h2> -</div> - - -<p>The Editor finds that here the connected narrative of Etherial -Softdown breaks off. Though there are many fragmentary -notes, which he found in Yieger’s Cabinet, which bear a clear, -yet somewhat disconnected relation, to the past and future of -the scenes and actors already described; these he has thought -proper to collate, and throw together into something as nearly -approaching order as their desultory character will permit.</p> - -<p>This man Yieger seems to have been an enthusiast of a very -unusual stamp. He has, however, left so little concerning himself, -that we can only say, he appears to have made it his -business to follow up, in a quiet and unsuspected way, a certain -series of investigations, the purport and tendency of which was -to unveil a class of crimes, which, from being secret, were enabled -to work and worm their way nearest to the core of the -social state.</p> - -<p>Thus, in addition to the monstrous and unimagined vices described -by him in the preceding chapters, he seems to have discovered -secret combinations, the possibilities of which have -probably never entered before into human brains, but the results -of which were as prodigious as the causes were unsuspected. -These were composed of no mystic demagogues of humanitarianism, -who sheltered mere partisan and personal designs, -under the broad curtain of secret rituals symbolising philanthropic -aims; no bald enthusiasts, who softly sunk their individualities -in an Order, and sold their god-like birthrights of -universal benevolence, of world-wide charity, for the golden -shackles of a pretentious benevolence, the selfish code of which -was, mutual protection first, and—nobody else afterwards!</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</span></p> - -<p>These were wise, bold, hardened men—hardened in the -rough contests by the highways of life—who had seen all, felt -all, and known all, that life could give or take. They were prepared -for any of its extremes, but had outlived its sympathies. -They were incarnations of pure intellection; the accomplishment -of the object was their conscience—they despised allegories, -and they trampled upon symbols. Nothing was mysterious -to them, but an undigested purpose. For them there was -no law but that might be eluded—no sanctities, but as they -might be used—no religion but necessity, which was, to them, -achievement!</p> - -<p>When such men organised, they merely came together,—ten -or a dozen of them,—they required no oaths, no pledges—they -knew each other! “We hold such and such opinions upon -one point only; and that one point is, mutual interest, and under -that, 1st, that we can govern this nation; 2d, that to govern it, -we must subvert its institutions; and, 3d, subvert them we will! -It is our interest; this is our only bond. Capital must have expansion. -This hybrid republicanism saps the power of our great -agent by its obstinate competition. We must demoralise the -republic. We must make public virtue a by-word and a mockery, -and private infamy to be honor. Beginning with the people, -through our agents, we shall corrupt the State.</p> - -<p>“We must pamper superstition, and pension energetic fanaticism—as -on ‘Change we degrade commercial honor, and make -‘success’ the idol. We may fairly and reasonably calculate, -that within a succeeding generation, even our theoretical schemes -of republican subversion may be accomplished, and upon its ruins -be erected that noble Oligarchy of caste and wealth for which -we all conspire, as affording the only true protection to capital.</p> - -<p>“Beside these general views, we may in a thousand other ways -apply our combined capital to immediate advantage. We may -buy up, through our agents, claims upon litigated estates, upon -confiscated bonds, mortgages upon embarrassed property, -land-claims, Government contracts, that have fallen into weak<span class="pagenum" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</span> -hands, and all those floating operations, constantly within hail, -in which ready-money is eagerly grasped as the equivalent for -enormous prospective gains.</p> - -<p>“In addition, through our monopoly of the manufacturing interest, -by a rigorous and impartial system of discipline, we shall -soon be able to fill the masses of operators and producers with -such distrust of each other, and fear of us, as to disintegrate -their radical combinations, and bring them to our feet. Governing -on ‘Change, we rule in politics; governing in politics, we -are the despots in trade; ruling in trade, we subjugate production; -production conquered, we domineer over labor. This is -the common-sense view of our interests—of the interests of -capital, which we represent. In the promotion of this object, -we appoint and pension our secret agents, who are everywhere -on the lookout for our interests. We arrange correspondence, -in cipher, throughout the civilized world; we pension our -editors and our reporters; we bribe our legislators, and, last of -all, we establish and pay our secret police, local, and travelling, -whose business it is, not alone to report to us the conduct of -agents already employed, but to find and report to us others, -who may be useful in such capacity.</p> - -<p>“We punish treachery by death!”</p> - -<p>Such is a partial schedule of the terms of one of these terrible -confederacies, as furnished in a detached note by Yieger, -which held its secret sessions in New York city. He seems to -have obtained a sight of some of their records, but by what -means, the most daring could only conjecture. He appears to -have regarded this particular organisation as the most formidable -of all, and to have traced many of its ramifications, in their -covert results, with a singularly dogged tenacity.</p> - -<p>Among the extraordinary papers contained in the Cabinet -he has left, are to be found short notes, containing what are -clearly reports and proceedings of this formidable conclave. -Its mysterious signature, Regulus, seems to have been known -throughout the world; and even he, though clearly a fierce and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</span> -relentless foe, never writes it, but with the involuntary concession -of respect, which large, clear letters, underscored, would -seem to convey.</p> - -<p>Having now presented such an outline of the character and -designs of this secret conclave, as the means of information furnished -him have enabled him to do, the Editor will proceed -with the promised extracts from its proceedings, such as relate -to those in regard to whom the reader may be supposed to have -some curiosity.</p> - -<p>First, we have here</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> -<p class= "center">“A NOTE CONCERNING ETHERIAL SOFTDOWN.</p> - - -<p>“This woman, whose patronymic was Softdown, first married -a Quaker, named Orne; which name, after her separation, -and until after her divorce, she continued to bear, with the <i>alias</i> -of Marie. She began her public career, soon after her marriage, -as a Quaker preacher; but the straitness of this sect not conforming -at all to her latitudinarian principles, she recanted in disgust, -and left the society. She now plunged at once into Physiology, -and, after a miraculously short gestation, produced a few lectures, -with which she went the rounds of two or three New England -States, accompanied by her husband, whom she, <i>sans ceremonie</i>, -dubbed M. D., without putting him to the trouble of reading, -or ever having read, a book on any subject. He officiated as -her doorkeeper, and received the ‘shillings;’ but, refusing to -render any account of the proceeds, a furious feud grew up -between them, and soon the war waxed hot and fierce.</p> - -<p>“Finding this to be poor business on the whole, she deserted -him, taking her child with her. The next occupation in which -we find her versatile genius engaged, was that of teaching -French; a more humble employment, surely, but one for -which she was equally well fitted. This, however, soon disgusted -her, as her unreasonable patrons would insist upon -the vulgar necessity of her being able to speak French, as<span class="pagenum" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</span> -well as teach it. It was at best but a tame avocation, and one -entirely unsuited to her ambitious temper.</p> - -<p>“Having now fairly assayed her wings for flight, she soared -aloft at once, in full career, through mid-air. She became first -a preacher of Universalism; but meeting, about this time, with -the celebrated Boanerges Phospher, she, in a few weeks, turned -out full-plumed, as a lecturer on Elocution. To this she soon -added a knowledge of Phrenology, which, in her active zeal, -she took care to impart to the world, as fast as acquired, and in -the same public manner.</p> - -<p>“Then, as a natural consequence, came Mesmerism; then -Neurology. Of all these sciences she became the prompt expounder, -after a few days’ investigation.</p> - -<p>“From this point she immediately ascended a step higher, and -announced herself as a revelator in Clairvoyance; and, by an -inevitable progression, she at once found admission, along with -Andrew Jackson Davis and a host of other seers, into the Swedenborgian -Arcana, and held herself on terms of frequent intercourse -and positive intimacy with the angel Gabriel, and, indeed, -the whole heavenly host.</p> - -<p>“They revealed to her that the great and unpardonable sins -of humanity were, first, eating pork; second, using tobacco, -whether snuffing, smoking, or chewing; and, third, wine-drinking -in all its forms. They accordingly commissioned her, formally, -to go forth into the world as a missionary, to warn mankind -against the fearful consequences of these vices, and to ‘save’ -them therefrom.</p> - -<p>“The exposition of Grahamism and Bran-bread was now -added to the enlarged circle of her enlightened Professorships; -and, by this aid, and that of her spiritual commission, she -wrought wonders, in assailing the camps of the great foes of -humanity—Pork, Tobacco, and Wine!</p> - -<p>“Many were the brands plucked by her from the burning, or -rather ‘saved’—preachers, lawyers, editors, artists, and watery-eyed -young gentlemen, in particular. It was on this grand<span class="pagenum" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</span> -tour that she first assumed her most distinguished attribute, the -Patroness of Art—particularly of the Artists.</p> - -<p>“Returning to civilization once more, she again assumed her -cast-off Professorship of Physiology, and began lecturing to -classes of her own sex. Now, with the first gleam of light -from Græfenberg, she pronounced herself as having been, for -many years before, a practitioner of the system; and at once -proceeded to combine Grahamism, Mesmerism, Water-cure, -and Physiology.</p> - -<p>“While in the vein of Physiology, she also lectured on the -benefits of Amalgamation, Abolitionism, and Non-resistance. -About this time, having met with one of the chief expounders of -Fourierism, whom she also undertook to ‘save,’ she turned out in -a few weeks a Phalanxsterian lecturer. That bubble had barely -exploded, when she came forth a Communist. Shortly afterwards, -having one or two editors separately undergoing the -process of being ‘saved,’ she became authoress! She produced -several physiological novels, a number of essays, poems, -volumes of lectures, &c., &c.</p> - -<p>“The police which obey the mandates of the formidable -Regulus, have kept the changes of this feminine Proteus for -now upward of forty years, steadily in view; and the Council -of Disorganisation report, through their committee, that they -have ample reason to be pleased with this Etherial Softdown, as -the most indefatigable, active, unscrupulous, and energetic of -the agents of Demoralisation in the employment of the Secret -Conclave.</p> - -<p>“They congratulate themselves in the belief that, with an hundred -such employées devoted to their service, they could corrupt -the private faith and public virtue of the whole Union so -effectually, in a single generation, as to enable them to utterly -destroy its social organisation and subvert its Constitution.</p> - -<p>“This would, of course, secure the desired Oligarchy of caste -and wealth, and reduce the nation to serfdom.</p> - -<p>“She is to be encouraged, and placed upon the pension-list -of the ‘Secret Conclave.’</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</span></p> - -<p>“Since this report, the latest transformations of Etherial Softdown -have been, first, into rabid Bloomerism; in the height of -which madness, she possessed a sufficiency of the martyr-spirit -to parade herself, on all public occasions, though nearly fifty -years of age, in full costume.</p> - -<p>“By a necessary transition, the next step was into an apostleship -of the new school of ‘Woman’s Rights’ and Abolitionism; -which openly rejoices in the repudiation of the Bible from -among the sacred books of the world—accepting it merely as -the text-book of popular cant, to be used in working upon the -passions and superstitions of the mob.</p> - -<p>“This last metamorphosis of Etherial Softdown seems to be -the most promising of all those through which the police of the -‘Conclave’ have, thus far, been able to trace her.”<a id="FNanchor_4" href="#Footnote_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p> -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_4" href="#FNanchor_4" class="label">[4]</a> The following note was received, in answer to one addressed to -a distinguished surgeon of Philadelphia, in relation to the phenomenon -of voluntary bleeding, so frequently illustrated in the History of -Etherial Softdown.—<span class="smcap">Editor.</span></p> - -<div class="blockquot"> -<p> -“<span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>:<br /> -</p> - -<p>“The case which you presented to me, for an explanation of the causes -which may have produced voluntary discharges of blood from the mouth, -is certainly a very remarkable one, though by no means without parallel -in the records of <i>feigned diseases</i>. The power of the will, in persons of -peculiar formation or constitution, is seen, occasionally, to be extended -to various organs designed by nature to act without awakening consciousness -and in a manner altogether beyond the control of the individual. -To say nothing of many muscles of the scalp, the ears, the skin -of the neck, &c., which are used to great purpose by the inferior animals, -but are totally inactive in man, except in a few rare instances, it -is well known that many persons possess the power of voluntary vomiting. -About forty years ago, a man presented himself before a celebrated -surgeon of London, and proved that he possessed the ability to -check completely the flow of blood through the artery at the wrist, by -violently contracting a muscle of the arm above the elbow, which, in -his case, happened to overlap and press upon the main trunk of the -vessel. I am acquainted with a gentleman in this country, who can -perform the same feat. There is on record a well-authenticated history -of a man who could completely control, by will, the motions of his -heart; and who, eventually, committed accidental suicide, by arresting -the circulation so long that the heart never reacted. I am acquainted -with a gentleman who can voluntarily contract and dilate the pupil of -the eye to a certain extent; and have seen the same effect repeatedly, -and in a far greater degree, among the Hindoo jugglers. This action -is natural in the owl, but probably requires a peculiar nervous structure -in man. Some persons have a power of so completely simulating death, -that neither by respiration, the motion of the eye under light, nor the -pulse, could any unprofessional observer, or even an experienced physician, -detect the counterfeit. One of my servants in India, struck -another Hindoo with his open hand, for some impertinence. The man -instantly fell, apparently dead; and I happened to arrive just as the -friends were about to remove the body, no doubt for the purpose of extorting -money by concealment and false pretences. I could perceive no -respiration (the glass-test was not applied), no pulse at the wrist; the -pupil of the eye was fixed in all lights. There was, however, a slight -thrilling in the carotid artery, and I judged the case to be one of admirable -feigning. Severe pinching was borne without change of expression, -as was also the deep prick of a pin. For amusement, I -pronounced him dead, but assured the ignorant natives that I would -bring him to life. On my calling for a little pan of coals,—always ready -in a bachelor drawing-room in the East, for lighting cigars,—there came -over the countenance the slightest possible shade of anxiety. I ordered -the patient’s abdomen laid bare, and gently toppled a bright coal from -the pan upon it. The effect was magical. Instantly, the fellow gave -the most lively evidences of vitality; and, as he crossed the <i>Compound</i> -and darted through the gateway, he seemed solely bent upon rivalling -the mysterious industry of the ‘man with the cork-leg.’ -“By strong contraction of all the muscles of the chest, while those -of the neck are rigid and the lungs fully inflated, the vessels of the head -and neck can be distended almost to bursting. Actors sometimes use -this power to produce voluntary blushing, or the suffusion of anger, -though the practice endangers apoplexy. I take this to be the secret -of the voluntary bleeding, in the case described by you.</p> - -<p>“The tonsils, and the membrane of the throat behind the nose and -mouth, are full of innumerable blood-vessels, forming a net-work; and -very slight causes often produce great enlargement of these vessels. -By frequent temporary distension, they are not only permanently enlarged, -but made more susceptible of additional expansion from trivial -accidents. In this condition, they may be brought to resemble, in some -degree, what is termed, by anatomists, <i>the erectile tissue</i>, which structure -has sufficient contractility to prevent the admission of more than -an ordinary amount of blood on common occasions, but when excited -in any way, it yields with great ease, and admits of enormous dilatation. -Erectile tumors are dangerous, from their tendency, ultimately, -to bleed spontaneously. They are sometimes formed in the throat. The -party referred to may have one, or she may have simply enlarged the -vessels by habitual mechanical distension, by compressing the chest in the -manner just described. There is such a natural tendency, in all parts -about the throat and nose, to bleed from slight causes, particularly -after repeated inflammation, that it strikes me as by no means wonderful, -that a designing person should, by long-practised mechanical efforts, -aided, perhaps, by the consequences of former colds, reduce these parts -to a condition such that they would bleed from voluntary distension. -The only wonder in the case is the <i>quantity</i> discharged, while this person -does not appear to be subject to involuntary hemorrhage also. This -result will probably occur hereafter, and the impostor may share the -fate of the man who arrested the motion of his heart.</p> - -<p>“These cases of feigned diseases give great vexation to army surgeons -and almshouse physicians; and, in private life, are often resorted -to by the cunning and unprincipled, for the purpose of harrowing the -feelings of relatives, from some sinister intention. It might well be -wished, that the case you describe were one of the most difficult of detection, -but it is far from being so.</p> - -<p> -“Believe me, my dear sir,<br /> -<br /> -“Very truly, yours,” &c.<br /> -</p> -</div> - - -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</span></p> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXVIII">CHAPTER XXVIII.<br /> - - -<small>REPORTS OF THE “SECRET CONCLAVE.”</small></h2> -</div> - -<p>We continue our reports of the police of the “Conclave,” -so far as we find them relating to Etherial Softdown and her -friends.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</span></p> - -<p>This report says of Eusedora Polypheme:—“This woman -is between thirty and thirty-five years of age. She is of New -England birth, and commenced her education at what we consider -the female high-schools of demoralisation on the Continent—’the -factories.’</p> - -<p>“These establishments are especially patronised by the -‘Council of Disorganisation,’ who consider them of vast efficiency, -on account of the well-understood certainty with which -the results we aim at are achieved, under this system. So great -is this certainty, indeed, that we may always safely calculate -that eight-tenths of the females who seek employment in them -come forth, if they ever do alive, inoculated with just such -principles and habits as we desire to have spread among the -rural population to which the majority of them return. Corrupted -themselves, they act as admirable mediums and conductors -of corruption to the class from whom they went forth -innocent, and which receives them again without suspicion.</p> - -<p>“Besides the spinal diseases, affections of the lungs, twisted<span class="pagenum" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</span> -bodies, and deformed limbs, which the greater number of these -girls take home with them, all the foolish romanticism of girlhood -has been thoroughly crushed out of them, by the <i>morale</i> -which we have promoted in these institutions, and their minds -and tastes have become even more vitiated than their bodies.</p> - -<p>“It will thus be seen that this factory system is our <i>chef-d’œuvre</i> -of demoralisation of the simple agricultural classes.</p> - -<p>“But in yet another aspect the results, it will be perceived, -are still more brilliant. We soon found the necessity of creating -a public sentiment in favor of our system, which would put -a stop to officious investigation and interference with our plans. -We accordingly established a defensive literature, in the shape -of dainty serials, announced as being edited by the factory-girls -themselves. These were filled with sentimental effusions, written -principally to order, outside the factories, the general burden of -which consisted in poetico-rural pictures of the joys brought -home by the patient and industrious factory-girl, to some hipshotten -father or bedridden grand-papa. These little incidents<span class="pagenum" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</span> -were studiously invested with all that charming unexpectedness -and die-away bathos, which is so attractive to girlish imaginations, -and so satisfactory to elder philanthropists. Then there -was still another class of romances, cultivated with yet more -fervid unction. These consisted in stories of a lovely young -girl, who, all for ‘love of independence,’ gave up a home of -luxury, to come to the factories and make a living for herself, -independent of her natural guardians. How this stout-hearted -young lady one day attracted, by her beauty, the attention of a -handsome young gentleman of romantic appearance, who visited -the mills along with a party of other strangers. How the romantic -young gentleman was very much struck, while the -strong-minded Angelina was rendered nervous; how the -heart-stricken, after many trials, succeeded in moving upon -the heart of the ‘sleepless gryphon’ of morality with whom -Angelina boarded, to permit him to have an interview—at -least in said gryphon’s presence; how that then and there the -young gentleman, in the most ‘proper’ way declared himself, -sought Angelina’s hand, and was accepted; and how he turned -out to be the son of a Southern nabob, and Angelina, from a -poor factory-girl, became one of the foremost ladies of the land; -and how, though, she never forgot her dear and happy companions -of the factory. This same susceptible young Southerner -is the standing hero of four-fifths of these girls, and, as -he does not come every year to make them all rich, we may -congratulate ourselves upon the general morals consequent upon -such reasonable expectations.</p> - -<p>“Out of one or two thousand girls, there are usually a few -who exhibit some sprightliness. In the ratio of the ductility -of their characters, are they sure to be selected, and brought -forward by our managers; and in proportion as they exhibit -their availability, are they readily promoted to editorships. -They receive private salaries, and are released from any other -than nominal participation in the routine of factory labor. -From this distinguished caste of young ladies of the factory, -Eusedora Polypheme originated.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</span></p> - -<p>“We expect gratitude from all such favored parties; and -Eusedora proved the most grateful of the grateful. She as -readily took to the shallow limpidity of Mr. Little, <i>alias</i> Tommy -Moore, as ever did callow cygnet to the drains of a Holland flat.</p> - -<p>“She possessed, indeed, a marvellous gift of sentiment—a sacchariferous -faculty, that would have caused Cerberus himself to -have licked his jagged lips. She was accordingly encouraged -to cultivate transcendental tendencies, exchanged with the Dial, -and, after a few months’ exercise, she spoke like a veritable -Pythoness.</p> - -<p>“Considering that she had now made herself sufficiently -familiar with</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>‘The celestial syren’s harmony,’</p> -</div> - -<p class="nindent">to make her of value to us abroad, we placed her on our pension-list, -and turned her loose upon society.</p> - -<p>“This step the Committee have never had cause to regret. -She leaped upon the social stage, a specimen of what the factory -system could produce—achieved the lioness at once, and had -the honour of being hailed in all circles, a phenomenon, a <i>lusus -naturæ</i>—the world was undecided which, considering she was -nothing but a factory-girl. They must be eminent institutions -surely, since they could turn out young ladies who talked so -‘divinely,’ possessed ‘such’ command of language, and were -such favorites with the gentlemen!</p> - -<p>“There was a society, too, not very far off from this, into -which she had forced her way, and which haughtily called itself -‘the best,’ that held its court in houses with dingy outsides, that -lined the back-alleys; but, amidst garish and sickening splendors -within, the ‘highly intellectual’ character of the hollow-eyed -and painted queens who presided there, was equally owing -to the educations they had received at the same ‘eminent’ institutions—only -they had had more soul and less cunning than -Eusedora Polypheme, and would not, therefore, have been so -available to the Committee.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</span></p> - -<p>“When a class is already sunk as low as it can sink, it is not -our policy to go aside to interfere with them, for they are sure -to fecundate in degradation fast enough; our sole aim is to drag -the grades above down to their level, which we consider a safe -one.</p> - -<p>“There is nothing so dangerous to the designs of the Committee -of Disorganisation, as soul—what the world calls heart. -To an executive power, these are always considered intrusive -and distasteful superfluities; and it was because Eusedora has -managed, by some surprisingly efficient process, to rid herself -of both, that she is to be so trusted.</p> - -<p>“Besides parading her accomplishments everywhere, as -merely a fair average of the education of a factory-girl, she -very soon mapped out for herself a very peculiar field for operations. -She became the leader of a new school of Platonic -Sentimentalism, in New England. This was an achievement—a -decided triumph. She soon gathered around her a host of -feminine disciples—principally young and unmarried, with premature -wrinkles on their brows.</p> - -<p>“After years of close observation of the operations of this -sect, its police would beg to express to the Committee their -unqualified admiration of the results obtained. The increase -of the number of suicides has been gratifying. The number -of young men and girls rendered worthless for life; the number -of elderly men plundered and cajoled out of their means and -driven into dotage, is only equalled by the surprising rapidity -with which the fanaticism has spread; indeed, it would seem as -if the first step towards all the popular forms of fanaticism, is -through Platonic Sentimentalism.</p> - -<p>“It seems, that it is through the teachings of this school, of -which Eusedora Polypheme is now the acknowledged priestess, -that the hollowness and unsatisfactory character of all our natural -sentiments and passions is first perceived. This illumination -achieved, it becomes necessary that their place be supplied by -what the world would call morbid sentimentality and unnatural<span class="pagenum" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</span> -passions, but which Eusedora Polypheme aptly terms, ‘spherical -illuminations’ and ‘divine ecstacies.’ But since we know, as -well as Eusedora, that flesh is flesh, and blood is blood, we can -therefore calculate, with great precision, whither such mystifications -must lead.</p> - -<p>“Hardened and sharpened in mind and temper, by a graduation -in this school, its disciples pass, not from it, but through it, -into other, and, to us, not less important fields of activity. Hence -come the fiercest and most unscrupulous partisans of Infidelity, -Abolitionism, and Woman’s Rights. Having learned both theoretically -and practically to disbelieve in themselves, by the most -natural transition in the world, they become infidel of all other -truths, and scorn all other sacrednesses alike. They are then -prepared to be of use to us in a variety of ways. The spirit of -antagonism, the love of strife and notoriety, have assumed in -them the sense of duty, justice, and modesty; a spiritual <i>diablerie</i> -has possessed itself of the emasculated remains of womanhood -left in them. Only give them a chance for martyrdom—only -give them an excuse for the cry of persecution, and upon whatever -theme or theory, ology or ism, that may promise to afford -them such healthful and natural excitements, they will at once -seize, and, hugging the dear abstraction to their bosoms, do -battle for the same, with a cunning and unscrupulous ferocity -that has no parallel.</p> - -<p>“But for their thorough training under the teaching of Eusedora -Polypheme, they might, perhaps, be sometimes disposed -to pause, and inquire if there might not be two sides to every -question; whether they might not have made some slight mistake -in crying out ‘Eureka’ so soon. But, fortunately, they -are never troubled with this weakness; and, as their capacity -for mischief is not, therefore, liable to be impaired by any maudlin -conscientiousness, or feeble questioning of their own infallibility, -or that of their teachers, they are from the beginning as -valuable as trained veterans.</p> - -<p>“The jargon of the sect, which they acquire with wonderful<span class="pagenum" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</span> -facility, constitutes their logic; and their efficiency in the use -of this weapon, consists in the savage, waspish, and persevering -iteration of its phrases, at all times and on all occasions.</p> - -<p>“It is astonishing, the ease with which the majority of mankind -can be bullied, especially from within the bulwark of petticoats. -But when at once the terrible aspect is hid behind the -mask of Circe, as the followers of Polypheme know so well to -accomplish, the power becomes resistless indeed.</p> - -<p>“The principal weapons of offence used by the followers of -Polypheme, in all their subsequent metamorphoses, are, first and -foremost, what is technically termed the ‘electrical eye.’ This -is the most brilliant and effective of their weapons. It is not -by any means necessary that the spiritual Amazon should have -been gifted by Nature, in this respect; for the arts of Polypheme -were clearly inspired from</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent8">‘Some other deity than Nature,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">That shapes man better.’</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>“After long practice, the power is acquired of dilating or -straining the eyes wide open, and suffusing them at the same -time. The moisture gives them a marvellous effect of electrical -splendor. As this habitual tension can only be sustained for a -few seconds at a time, Polypheme happily offsets it by the -modest habit of dropping her eyes towards the floor, or a -flower or book in her hand; then up go the</p> - -<p class="center"> -‘Downy windows close,’<br /> -</p> - -<p class="nindent">and out leaps another humid flash, to electrify her audience.</p> - -<p class="nindent">“Great energy and activity of gesticulation is recommended, -in order to distract attention, as much as possible, from the fact, -that these cruelly-worked eyes sometimes run over with the -‘salt-rheum’—of any thing but ‘grief.’ A loud voice, too, is -especially recommended—as, without it, somebody else might -be heard in the room.</p> - -<p>“Secondly, a thorough knowledge of the minor dramatics of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</span> -emphasis is also suggested. Sneers should be thoroughly practised -before the glass, as well as interjections, exclamations, shrieks of -wonder and surprise. The grimaces of rage, worked up with great -ferocity, without the slightest regard to the poor victim. Scorn -should be lofty and incredibly superb; archness, irresistible, -taking care not to pucker the wrinkles in the brow too much; -sentiment, nothing short of the white rolling-up of two huge -spheres in spasm. Childlike simplicity requires great practice -in the dancing-room; it is very effective, when artistically done. -Favorite poets—Petrarch, Shelley, Mrs. Elizabeth Brownson, -and her husband, ‘poor Keats.’ Gods—Tom Moore, Byron, -and Author of Festus. High-priest of the Arcana—Emerson. -Priestess—Margaret Fuller Ossoli. Apocalypse—The Dial, -&c., &c.</p> - -<p>“Travelling should be studied as an art. The many correspondences -held in different portions of the country should be -made the dutiful occasion of sentimental visits, which, as they -may be protracted for a month or two, will, no doubt, result in -the effectual ‘saving’ of some half-dozen, at the very least, of -both sexes. Neither scrip nor money need be provided for the -journey; for is not the laborer worthy of his hire? Besides, who -ever heard of a lioness carrying a purse? The world owes all -its benefactors a living.</p> - -<p>“It is necessary to be an authoress—abundantly prolific and -intensely literary: to write dashing, slashing, graceful letters, -in which your own superb horsewomanship shall always figure -most prominently; next, your own disinterestedness; next, -your own amiability, and dangerous powers of attraction; and, -last, the dashing, slashing, graceful character of your own wit; -your romantic love-affairs, by brook and meadow, on highway -and in byway, by ocean-side or in greenwood.</p> - -<p>“These, with a lofty scorn of the commonplace, a darling -love of the arts—that is, you must know the names of the pictures, -and what they are all about, but most particularly the -names of the painters. And if somebody says the picture is a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</span> -good one, be on terms of intimacy with the painter, or at least -in close correspondence with him; and be sure he is a ‘noble -spirit,’ a ‘divine creature,’ one of the ‘elect of genius,’ whose -‘eyes have been unsealed to the touch of the Promethean fire.’</p> - -<p>“Must know French, Italian, German, and Spanish phrases, -out of the Pronouncing Dictionary. Quote these occasionally, -but very guardedly, when you are certain there are no apeish -foreigners or troublesome old fogy scholars present.</p> - -<p>“Thus panoplied, the novitiate will be, in every sense, the -equal of Eusedora Polypheme herself, and entitled to go upon -the pension-list of the Committee. Indeed, we are booking -them rapidly, and sending out missionaries in every direction.</p> - -<p>“The disciples of this school are among the chief favorites -of the ‘Committee of Disorganisation.’”</p> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXIX">CHAPTER XXIX.<br /> - - -<small>REPORTS CONTINUED—REGINA STRAIGHTBACK</small></h2> -</div> - - -<p>We have already obtained a glimpse of Regina Straightback, -in character. Her tall Indian-like figure, with her picturesque -and semi-manly costume, will not be readily forgotten.</p> - -<p>The faithful police of the ‘Committee of Disorganisation,’ -in course of a detailed report concerning this woman, says:</p> - -<p>“Regina Straightback is nearly as unbending in temper as in -figure, which peculiarity renders her of somewhat less avail to -us than such more ductile natures as her fast friend, Etherial -Softdown, and her soul’s sister, Eusedora Polypheme.</p> - -<p>“However, she possesses an availability of her own, which is -invaluable in its way. She is incontrovertibly the Amazonian -queen of the ‘New-Lights.’ Her commanding figure and her -dramatic carriage, together with her unanswerably positive and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</span> -imperious manner, have, as implying a natural gift of command, -won for her the universal suffrage of her sisters militant. So it -never fails that, by a species of spontaneous acclaim, she is -selected to preside over all convocations of the ‘faithful,’ -whether held in public or in private.</p> - -<p>“By tacit consent, she has, therefore, come to be regarded -as the actual figure-head of the bark of Progress; and, hence, -there is no movement, on the part of feminine schismatics, -worthy of attention, to which she has chosen to deny her presiding -countenance.</p> - -<p>“This renders her, of course, a very formidable and important -person, in all the ‘New-Light’ agitations of the day. Conscious -of supremacy, she exercises it without hesitation; and, -with a boldness that is startling to all parties, dares to assert -outright those opinions which, in reality, lie at the bottom of the -whole agitation in which they are engaged.</p> - -<p>“Indeed, not only does she defiantly assert them openly on -all occasions, but openly lives up to them in the face of society. -While her followers modestly say, they want woman’s civil -rights in marriage, she courageously asserts, that there is no marriage -except in love, and that the civil contract is like any other -partnership in which equivalents are exchanged; and, by way -of proof of her sincerity, she boasts, publicly and privately, of -the terms on which she married her present husband; who, by -the way, possessed considerable property. ‘I do not love you, -sir,’ said she; ‘I love another man, whom you know. If you -choose to take me on these conditions, I am ready to marry -you.’</p> - -<p>“The charming candor of this proposal won the day; and -the superannuated ‘New-Light’ was fain content to exchange -his hand and fortune for her <i>hand</i>, and to leave her heart to -settle its affairs in some other direction.</p> - -<p>“This is the sort of frankness in which the ‘Committee of -Disorganisation’ do most rejoice. They regard it as a highly -favourable omen, when a ‘distinguished female’ can take such<span class="pagenum" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</span> -grounds as this, and be publicly sustained by thousands of her -sex; for with whatever gravity they may pretend to repudiate -the doings of Regina Straightback, in this one particular, it is -very certain, that they must regard it with secret favor, and that -this is the principal cause of her universal and overwhelming -popularity.</p> - -<p>“They regard her with a species of covert adoration—as a -heroine, who has first, since Fanny Wright, dared, in living up -to principle, to do that which they are all, in reality, yearning -for courage to do themselves.</p> - -<p>“The chaos of social licentiousness, to which the general -acceptation of such doctrine as this must lead, may be regarded, -to say the least of it, as pleasantly melodramatic. When one -woman may go to the house of another, and say, ‘Though thou -hast been bound to this man, in the holy bonds of matrimony, yet -these bonds are of no moral force; though thou hast borne to this -man children from his loins, yet the fact that thou hast suffered -gives thee no claim upon him, for it is the penalty of thy sex; -and that they are bone of thy bone, and flesh of his flesh, gives -thee no just hold upon him, but rather upon the State. And if -thou hast nursed him in sickness, he has fed thee and clothed -thee, in ample equivalent; if thou hast loved him, he has loved -thee; if thou lovest him still, it is thy weakness. Get thee -gone! This man no longer loveth thee; he is mine. Thou -shalt surrender to me thy nuptial couch; there is no true marriage -but in love!’</p> - -<p>“Nor does the candor of Regina Straightback rest with -practical declarations such as these; she goes quite as far -in other directions. She does not hesitate to denounce the -Bible, as sanctioning all the oppressions of woman—as the mere -tool of the priesthood, the orthodox of whom are banded, to a -man, in mortal opposition to their rights. She recommends the -use of it, as a means—to those who are more disposed than she -is to Jesuitism—of conquering by indirections. They may -influence and control the masses, by invoking its sanction, to be<span class="pagenum" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</span> -sure; but she, for her own part, will have nothing to do with -subterfuges; she rejects the Bible system in toto, as false—false -in fact and tendency. God has made woman sufficient unto -herself in the universe. She can and ought to protect herself; -and if she does not, it’s her own fault.</p> - -<p>“The Bible might do for men; but women possess a higher -spirituality, and stronger intuitions; they do not need it. Man, -with his heavy logic, never gets beyond a truism or a self-evident -fact, of the mere physical world; while woman, with her -electrical inspiration, leaps the ‘large lengths’ of universal law, -and, like a conquering presence, glides within the spiritual, -supreme. It is thus that, scorning all bonds of sense, she -knoweth that she doth know!</p> - -<p>“The announcement of these tremendous propositions would, -of course, be calculated to have an overwhelming effect upon -the tender adolescence of thousands of bright spirits—to electrify -their hearts and souls with the novel consciousness of -claims and attributes, of which they had never dreamed themselves -or their sex to be possessors.</p> - -<p>“The result has been, of necessity, the institution of a feminine -order of ‘knight-errantry,’ of which the Quixote has yet to -be sung.</p> - -<p>“The Committee do not generally employ such agents as -Regina Straightback; but as the time seems to have practically -arrived, owing to the preparatory labors of Etherial Softdown -and Eusedora Polypheme, they seem to have conceded that -such pretensions may be safely risked, though, it is well known, -they usually do far more harm than good to any cause.</p> - -<p>“The fact that such a step may be safely ventured upon, -seems to be the most encouraging token of the progress already -achieved, and of the ultimate and triumphant success of the -exertions of the ‘Committee of Disorganisation.’”</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXX">CHAPTER XXX.<br /> - - -<small>HUMILITY BAREBONES STOUT.</small></h2> -</div> - - -<p>The report goes on to say—</p> - -<p>“But what the circumscribed wits of Etherial Softdown, the -divine languishments of Eusedora Polypheme, the defiant unscrupulousness -of Regina Straightback, failed to accomplish, -namely, the convulsing of all Christendom, by one dexterous -jugglery of cant, was left to be achieved by our at present -most honored agent, Humility Barebones Stout.</p> - -<p>“It will be seen, by her genealogical tree, as indicated in -her middle name, that she came, as it were, prepared, -through a long table of evangelical descent, for the work -before her. Nothing could be conceived more apropos: the -blood of the Covenanters in the veins of the modern ‘New-Light.’ -Sharpened in its passage through New England Puritanism, -it has now become as professionally capable of splitting -hairs, as it formerly was of splitting heads. And then there was -a time-honored nasal, in which it</p> - -<p class="center"> -‘Poured its dolors forth;’</p> - -<p class="nindent">the preservation of the exact intonations of which does marvellous -credit to the antiquarian proclivities of this distinguished -line. Then there is a characteristic command of doggerel -snatches, confessedly without rhythm, because they were inspired,—for -which the Fathers Barebones and Poundtext were -peculiarly noted in their day,—which seems to have been transmitted, -without the slightest deterioration of manner or emphasis. -And, in addition, there was an ecstaticism of textology, -to which these revered fathers uniformly resigned themselves, -about the time they had reached their ‘sixteenthlies,’<span class="pagenum" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</span> -the facilities of which seem to have been more than improved -upon by their modern representative. In a word, no reach of -nasal effect,</p> - -<p class="center"> -‘From coughing trombone down to hoarsened pipe’— -</p> - -<p class="nindent">no fecundant sprightliness of doggerel—no illuminated aptitude -of text, betwixt Daniel in the lion’s den, and Death on the pale -horse—no syllogistic or aphoristic touch of bedridden theology -that has been in vogue since the time of Luther, but is at the -tongue’s end of this Cyclopean daughter of the ‘Fathers of the -Covenant.’</p> - -<p>“Admirable! admirable! What was to prevent Humility -Barebones Stout from using these rightfully-derived and extraordinary -gifts for the good of humanity? Not that she had -thought anything more philosophically about it, than that the -good of humanity ought to consist with the claims of her inherited -renown, her caste, and her prescriptive rights. Not that -she cared particularly who suffered; but being of a hysterical -and exacting temperament, she had come to the conclusion that -her own, the white race, had conspired against her—that they -were jealous of her—would never yield to her ancestral claims -a fair precedence.</p> - -<p>“Her pride would not permit her to cry persecution for herself -and in her own name; for she had been, lo! these many -days! a tireless scribbler and notoriety-seeker, in appeals to -her own race, through the legitimate channels of current literature, -on the simple basis of her own individual experiences and -the inspirations proper to her sex and grade. These having -failed to attract any attention beyond the day’s notoriety, and -from the additional fact of the most labored of them having -been consigned to oblivion through the pages of silly annuals, -she turned herself about in wrath, to avenge her wrongs. Her -heart was filled with bitterness.</p> - -<p>“She had known Etherial Softdown, with jealous unction; -she had communed with Eusedora Polypheme, in hopeless<span class="pagenum" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</span> -emulation of spirit; she had shrunk before the lioness moods -of the triumphing Regina Straightback. She felt that she was -displaced—that she had been left behind. She saw that they -were all too proud, or too far advanced, to condescend to use the -rusty weapons which had fallen to her by inheritance; that they -had set their feet above her, on the platform of progress; that -they at least called the semblances of science and philosophy, -through their terminalogies, to aid them, while they left cant to -their menials.</p> - -<p>“She felt that she was as bold as they. In what, then, -consisted her weakness? Could the fault be in her ‘stars,’ that -she was still an ‘underling’? ‘Ha! ha! ha! Cant! cant! -cant!’ and she laughed out, with the exultation of Softdown’s -first ‘Eureka!’ ’Cant! cant! I have it! It descended -to me from Barebones, my illustrious ancestor. Insolent beldames! -I will show them! They affect to quote the pure -strains of philosophy—</p> - -<p class="center"> -“To imitate the graces of the gods.”</p> - -<p class="nindent">We shall see! we shall see! I hate my own race; it has not -appreciated me. What care I for white-slavery and its abuses—for -fairness, for truth? Cant! cant! By its magic, I shall</p> - -<p class="center"> -“Show as a snowy dove trooping with crows.”</p> - -<p class="nindent">Eureka! Eureka!’</p> - -<p>Etherial! ah, Etherial! the race hath not been to the swift, -nor the battle to the strong—thou hast been overshadowed!</p> - - -<p class="center">THE END.</p> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</span></p> - -<p class="center">LIPPINCOTT, GRAMBO & CO.’S PUBLICATIONS.</p> -<hr class="full" /> -</div> - -<p class="center"> -THE YOUNG DOMINICAN;<br /> -OR, THE MYSTERIES OF THE INQUISITION,<br /> -AND OTHER SECRET SOCIETIES OF SPAIN.<br /> -</p> - -<p class="center">BY M. V. DE FEREAL.</p> - -<p class="center">WITH HISTORICAL NOTES, BY M. 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