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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Life and Genius of Nathaniel Hawthorne, by
+Frank Preston Stearns
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Life and Genius of Nathaniel Hawthorne
+
+Author: Frank Preston Stearns
+
+
+Release Date: December, 2004 [EBook #7170]
+This file was first posted on March 20, 2003
+Last Updated: June 12, 2013
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE OF NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Michelle Shephard, Eric Eldred, Charles Franks
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE
+
+
+By Frank Preston Stearns
+
+Author Of "The Real And Ideal In Literature," "Life Of Tintoretto,"
+"Life Of Bismarck," "True Republicanism," "Cambridge Sketches," Etc.
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Nathaniel Hawthorne. The Frances Osborne Portrait: by
+permission of the Essex Institute.]
+
+
+INSCRIBED
+
+TO
+
+EMILIA MACIEL STEARNS
+
+                       "In the elder days of art
+                        Builders wrought with greatest care
+                        Each minute and unseen part,--
+                        For the gods see everywhere."
+                                           --_Longfellow_
+
+               "Oh, happy dreams of such a soul have I,
+                And softly to myself of him I sing,
+                Whose seraph pride all pride doth overwing;
+                Who stoops to greatness, matches low with high,
+                And as in grand equalities of sky,
+                Stands level with the beggar and the king."
+                                           --_Wasson_
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+The simple events of Nathaniel Hawthorne's life have long been before
+the public. From 1835 onward they may easily be traced in the various
+Note-books, which have been edited from his diary, and previous to that
+time we are indebted for them chiefly to the recollections of his two
+faithful friends, Horatio Bridge and Elizabeth Peabody. These were first
+systematised and published by George P. Lathrop in 1872, but a more
+complete and authoritative biography was issued by Julian Hawthorne
+twelve years later, in which, however, the writer has modestly refrained
+from expressing an opinion as to the quality of his father's genius, or
+from attempting any critical examination of his father's literary work.
+It is in order to supply in some measure this deficiency, that the
+present volume has been written. At the same time, I trust to have given
+credit where it was due to my predecessors, in the good work of making
+known the true character of so rare a genius and so exceptional a
+personality.
+
+The publication of Horatio Bridge's memoirs and of Elizabeth Manning's
+account of the boyhood of Hawthorne have placed before the world much
+that is new and valuable concerning the earlier portion of Hawthorne's
+life, of which previous biographers could not very well reap the
+advantage. I have made thorough researches in regard to Hawthorne's
+American ancestry, but have been able to find no ground for the
+statements of Conway and Lathrop, that William Hathorne, their first
+ancestor on this side of the ocean, was directly connected with the
+Quaker persecution. Some other mistakes, like Hawthorne's supposed
+connection with the duel between Cilley and Graves, have also been
+corrected.
+
+F. P. S.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+   CHAPTER
+
+      I. SALEM AND THE HATHORNES: 1630-1800
+     II. BOYHOOD OF HAWTHORNE: 1804-1821
+    III. BOWDOIN COLLEGE: 1821-1825
+     IV. LITTLE MISERY: 1825-1835
+      V. EOS AND EROS: 1835-1839
+     VI. PEGASUS AT THE CART: 1839-1841
+    VII. HAWTHORNE AS A SOCIALIST: 1841-1842
+   VIII. CONCORD AND THE OLD MANSE: 1842-1845
+     IX. "MOSSES FROM AN OLD MANSE": 1845
+      X. FROM CONCORD TO LENOX: 1845-1849
+     XI. PEGASUS IS FREE: 1850-1852
+    XII. THE LIVERPOOL CONSULATE: 1852-1854
+   XIII. HAWTHORNE IN ENGLAND: 1854-1858
+    XIV. ITALY
+     XV. HAWTHORNE AS ART CRITIC: 1858
+    XVI. "THE MARBLE FAUN": 1859-1860
+   XVII. HOMEWARD BOUND: 1860-1862
+  XVIII. IMMORTALITY
+
+         PORTRAITS OF HAWTHORNE
+         EDITIONS OF HAWTHORNE'S BOOKS PUBLISHED UNDER HIS OWN DIRECTION.
+         MRS. EMERSON AND MRS. HAWTHORNE
+         APPENDICES
+
+
+List of Illustrations
+
+  PORTRAIT OF HAWTHORNE, BY FRANCES OSBORNE IN 1893
+  HAWTHORNE'S BIRTHPLACE
+  HORATIO BRIDGE, FROM THE PORTRAIT BY EASTMAN JOHNSON
+  HAWTHORNE, FROM THE PORTRAIT BY CHARLES OSGOOD IN 1840
+  THE OLD MANSE, RESIDENCE OF DR. RIPLEY
+  THE CUSTOM HOUSE, SALEM, MASS
+  THE WAYSIDE
+  GUIDO RENI'S PORTRAIT OF BEATRICE CENCI
+  STATUE OF PRAXITELES' RESTING FAUN
+  TORRE MEDIAVALLE DELLA SCIMMIA (HILDA'S TOWER) IN ROME
+
+
+
+
+
+THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+SALEM AND THE HATHORNES: 1630-1800
+
+
+The three earliest settlements on the New England coast were Plymouth,
+Boston, and Salem; but Boston soon proved its superior advantages to the
+two others, not only from its more capacious harbor, but also from the
+convenient waterway which the Charles River afforded to the interior of
+the Colony. We find that a number of English families, and among them
+the ancestors of Gen. Joseph Warren and Wendell Phillips, who crossed
+the ocean in 1640 in the "good ship Arbella," soon afterward migrated to
+Watertown on Charles River for the sake of the excellent farming lands
+which they found there. Salem, however, maintained its ascendency over
+Plymouth and other neighboring harbors on the coast, and soon grew to
+be the second city of importance in the Colony during the eighteenth
+century, when the only sources of wealth were fishing, shipbuilding,
+and commerce. Salem nourished remarkably. Its leading citizens became
+wealthy and developed a social aristocracy as cultivated, as well
+educated, and, it may also be added, as fastidious as that of Boston
+itself. In this respect it differed widely from the other small cities
+of New England, and the exclusiveness of its first families was more
+strongly marked on account of the limited size of the place. Thus it
+continued down to the middle of the last century, when railroads and the
+tendency to centralization began to draw away its financial
+prosperity, and left the city to small manufactures and its traditional
+respectability.
+
+The finest examples of American eighteenth century architecture are
+supposed to exist in and about the city of Salem, and they have the
+advantage, which American architecture lacks so painfully at the present
+time, of possessing a definite style and character--edifices which
+are not of a single type, like most of the houses in Fifth Avenue,
+but which, while differing in many respects, have a certain general
+resemblance, that places them all in the same category. The small old
+country churches of Essex County are not distinguished for fine carving
+or other ornamentation, and still less by the costliness of their
+material, for they are mostly built of white pine, but they have an
+indefinable air of pleasantness about them, as if they graced the ground
+they stand on, and their steeples seem to float in the air above us.
+If we enter them on a Sunday forenoon--for on week-days they are like
+a sheepfold without its occupants--we meet with much the same kind of
+pleasantness in the assemblage there. We do not find the deep religious
+twilight of past ages, or the noonday glare of a fashionable synagogue,
+but a neatly attired congregation of weather-beaten farmers and
+mariners, and their sensible looking wives, with something of the
+original Puritan hardness in their faces, much ameliorated by the
+liberalism and free thinking of the past fifty years. Among them too you
+will see some remarkably pretty young women; and young men like those
+who dug the trenches on Breed's Hill in the afternoon of June 16,
+1775. There may be veterans in the audience who helped Grant to go to
+Richmond. Withal there is much of the spirit of the early Christians
+among them, and virtue enough to save their country in any emergency.
+
+These old churches have mostly disappeared from Salem city and have been
+replaced by more aristocratic edifices, whose square or octagonal
+towers are typical of their leading parishioners,--a dignified class,
+if somewhat haughty and reserved; but they too will soon belong to the
+past, drawn off to the great social centres in and about Boston. In the
+midst of Salem there is a triangular common, "with its never-failing
+elms," where the boys large and small formerly played cricket--married
+men too--as they do still on the village greens of good old England,
+and around this enclosure the successful merchants and navigators of
+the city built their mansion houses; not half houses like those in the
+larger cities, but with spacious halls and rooms on either side going
+up three stories. It is in the gracefully ornamented doorways and the
+delicate interior wood-work, the carving of wainscots, mantels and
+cornices, the skilful adaptations of classic forms to a soft and
+delicate material that the charm of this architecture chiefly
+consists,--especially in the staircases, with their carved spiral posts
+and slender railings, rising upward in the centre of the front hall,
+and turning right and left on the story above. It is said that after the
+year eighteen hundred the quality of this decoration sensibly declined;
+it was soon replaced by more prosaic forms, and now the tools no longer
+exist that can make it. Sir Christopher Wren and Inigo Jones would
+have admired it. America, excepting in New York City, escaped the false
+rococo taste of the eighteenth century.
+
+The Salem sea-captains of old times were among the boldest of our early
+navigators; sailing among the pirates of the Persian Gulf and trading
+with the cannibals of Polynesia, and the trophies which they brought
+home from those strange regions, savage implements of war and domestic
+use, clubs, spears, boomerangs, various cooking utensils, all carved
+with infinite pains from stone, ebony and iron-wood, cloth from the bark
+of the tapa tree, are now deposited in the Peabody Academy, where
+they form one of the largest collections of the kind extant. Even
+more interesting is the sword of a sword-fish, pierced through the oak
+planking of a Salem vessel for six inches or more. No human force could
+do that even with a spear of the sharpest steel. Was the sword-fish
+roused to anger when the ship came upon him sleeping in the water; or
+did he mistake it for a strange species of whale?
+
+There is a court-house on Federal Street, built in Webster's time, of
+hard cold granite in the Grecian fashion of the day, not of the white
+translucent marble with which the Greeks would have built it. Is it
+the court-house where Webster made his celebrated argument in the White
+murder case, or was that court-house torn down and a plough run through
+the ground where it stood, as Webster affirmed that it ought to be?
+Salem people were curiously reticent in regard to that trial, and
+fashionable society there did not like Webster the better for having the
+two Knapps convicted.
+
+Much more valuable than such associations is William Hunt's full-length
+portrait of Chief Justice Shaw, which hangs over the judge's bench in
+the front court-room. "When I look at your honor I see that you are
+homely, but when I think of you I know that you are great." it is
+this combination of an unprepossessing physique with rare dignity of
+character which Hunt has represented in what many consider the best
+of American portraits. It is perhaps too much in the sketchy style of
+Velasquez, but admirable for all that.
+
+Time has dealt kindly with Salem, in effacing all memorials of the
+witchcraft persecution, except a picturesque old house at the corner of
+North and Essex Streets, where there are said to have been preliminary
+examinations for witchcraft,--a matter which concerns us now but
+slightly. The youthful associations of a genius are valuable to us on
+account of the influence which they may be supposed to have had on his
+early life, but associations which have no determining consequences may
+as well be neglected. The hill where those poor martyrs to superstition
+were executed may be easily seen on the left of the city, as you roll in
+on the train from Boston. It is part of a ridge which rises between the
+Concord and Charles Rivers and extends to Cape Ann, where it dives into
+the ocean, to reappear again like a school of krakens, or other marine
+monsters, in the Isles of Shoals.
+
+New England has not the fertile soil of many sections of the United
+States, and its racking climate is proverbial, but it is blessed with
+the two decided advantages of pure water and fine scenery. There is no
+more beautiful section of its coast than that between Salem Harbor and
+Salisbury Beach, long stretches of smooth sand alternating with bold
+rocky promontories. A summer drive from Swampscott to Marblehead reminds
+one even of the Bay of Naples (without Vesuvius), and the wilder coast
+of Cape Ann, with its dark pines, red-roofed cottages, and sparkling
+surf, is quite as delightful. William Hunt went there in the last sad
+years of his life to paint "sunshine," as he said; and Whittier has
+given us poetic touches of the inland scenery in elevated verse:
+
+                "Fleecy clouds casting their shadows
+                 Over uplands and meadows;
+                 And country roads winding as roads will,
+                 Here to a ferry, there to a mill."
+
+Poets arise where there is poetic nourishment, internal and external,
+for them to feed on; and it is not surprising that a Whittier and a
+Hawthorne should have been evolved from the environment in which they
+grew to manhood.
+
+It is a common saying with old Boston families that their ancestors came
+to America in the "Arbella" with Governor Winthrop, but as a matter
+of fact there were at least fifteen vessels that brought colonists to
+Massachusetts in 1630, and I cannot discover that any lists of their
+passengers have been preserved. The statement that certain persons
+came over at the same time with Governor Winthrop might soon become a
+tradition that they came in the same ship with him; but all that we know
+certainly is that Governor Winthrop landed about the middle of June,
+1630, and that his son arrived two weeks later in the "Talbot," and
+was drowned July 2, while attempting to cross one of the tide rivers at
+Salem. Who arrived in the thirteen other vessels that year we know not.
+Ten years later Sir Richard Saltonstall emigrated to Boston with the
+Phillips and Warren families in the "Arbella" (or "Arabella"), and there
+is no telling how much longer she sailed the ocean.
+
+Hawthorne himself states that his ancestors came from Wig Castle in
+Wigton in Warwickshire, [Footnote: Diary, August 22, 1837.] but no such
+castle has been discovered, and the only Wigton in England appears to be
+located in Cumberland. [Footnote: Lathrop's "Study of Hawthorne," 46.]
+He does not tell us where he obtained this information, and it certainly
+could not have been from authentic documents,--more likely from
+conversation with an English traveller. Hawthorne never troubled himself
+much concerning his ancestry, English or American; while he was consul
+at Liverpool, he had exceptional advantages for investigating the
+subject, but whatever attempt he made there resulted in nothing. It
+is only recently that Mr. Henry F. Waters, who spent fifteen years in
+England searching out the records of old New England families, succeeded
+in discovering the connecting link between the first American Hawthornes
+and their relatives in the old country. It was a bill of exchange for
+one hundred pounds drawn by William Hathorne, of Salem, payable to
+Robert Hathorne in London, and dated October 19, 1651, which first
+gave Mr. Waters the clue to his discovery. Robert not only accepted his
+brother's draft, but wrote him this simple and business-like but truly
+affectionate epistle in return:
+
+
+"GOOD BROTHER: Remember my love to my sister, my brother John and
+sister, my brother Davenport and sister and the rest of our friends.
+
+"In haste I rest
+
+"Your loving brother,
+
+"From Bray this 1 April, 1653.
+
+"ROBERT HATHORNE."
+
+
+From this it appears that Major William Hathorne not only had a brother
+John, who established himself in Lynn, but a sister Elizabeth, who
+married Richard Davenport, of Salem. Concerning Robert Hathorne we
+only know further that he died in 1689; but in the probate records
+of Berkshire, England, there is a will proved May 2, 1651, of William
+Hathorne, of Binfield, who left all his lands, buildings and tenements
+in that county to his son Robert, on condition that Robert should pay
+to his father's eldest son, William, one hundred pounds, and to his son
+John twenty pounds sterling. He also left to another son, Edmund, thirty
+acres of land in Bray, and there are other legacies; but it cannot be
+doubted that the hundred pounds mentioned in this will is the same that
+Major William Hathorne drew for five months later, and that we have
+identified here the last English ancestor of Nathaniel Hawthorne. His
+wife's given name was Sarah, but her maiden name still remains unknown.
+The family resided chiefly at Binfield, on the borders of Windsor Park,
+and evidently were in comfortable circumstances at that time. From
+William Hathorne, senior, their genealogy has been traced back to John
+Hathorne (spelled at that time Hothorne), who died in 1520, but little
+is known of their affairs, or how they sustained themselves during
+the strenuous vicissitudes of the Reformation. [Footnote: "Hawthorne
+Centenary at Salem," 81.]
+
+Emmerton and Waters [Footnote: "English Records about New England
+Families."] state that William Hathorne came to Massachusetts Bay in
+1630, and this is probable enough, though by no means certain, for
+they give no authority for it. We first hear of him definitely as a
+freeholder in the settlement of Dorchester in 1634, but his name is not
+on the list of the first twenty-four Dorchester citizens, dated October
+19, 1630. All accounts agree that he moved to Salem in 1636, or the year
+following, and Nathaniel Hawthorne believed that he came to America at
+that time. Upham, the historian of Salem witchcraft, who has made the
+most thorough researches in the archives of old Salem families, says of
+William Hathorne:
+
+"William Hathorne appears on the church records as early as 1636. He
+died in June, 1681, seventy-four years of age. No one in our annals
+fills a larger space. As soldier, commanding important and difficult
+expeditions, as counsel in cases before the courts, as judge on
+the bench, and innumerable other positions requiring talent and
+intelligence, he was constantly called to serve the public. He was
+distinguished as a public speaker, and is the only person, I believe, of
+that period, whose reputation as an orator has come down to us. He was
+an Assistant, that is, in the upper branch of the Legislature, seventeen
+years. He was a deputy twenty years. When the deputies, who before sat
+with the assistants, were separated into a distinct body, and the House
+of Representatives thus came into existence, in 1644, Hathorne was their
+first Speaker. He occupied the chair, with intermediate services on
+the floor from time to time, until raised to the other House. He was
+an inhabitant of Salem Village, having his farm there, and a
+dwelling-house, in which he resided when his legislative, military, and
+other official duties permitted. His son John, who succeeded him in all
+his public honors, also lived on his own farm in the village a great
+part of the time." [Footnote: "Salem Witchcraft," i. 99.]
+
+Evidently he was the most important person in the colony, next to
+Governor Winthrop, and unequalled by any of his descendants, except
+Nathaniel Hawthorne, and by him in a wholly different manner; for it is
+in vain that we seek for traits similar to those of the great romance
+writer among his ancestors. We can only say that they both possessed
+exceptional mental ability, and there the comparison ends.
+
+The attempt has been made to connect William Hathorne with the
+persecution of the Quakers, [Footnote: Conway's "Life of Hawthorne,"
+15.] and it is true that he was a member of the Colonial Assembly during
+the period of the persecution; it is likely that his vote supported the
+measures in favor of it, but this is not absolutely certain. We do not
+learn that he acted at any time in the capacity of sheriff; the most
+diligent researches in the archives of the State House at Boston have
+failed to discover any direct connection on the part of William Hathorne
+with that movement; and the best authorities in regard to the events of
+that time make no mention of him. [Footnote: Sewel, Hallowell, Ellis.]
+It was the clergy who aroused public opinion and instigated the
+prosecutions against both the Quakers and the supposed witches of Salem,
+and the civil authorities were little more than passive instruments
+in their hands. Hathorne's work was essentially a legislative one,--a
+highly important work in that wild, unsettled country,--to adapt English
+statutes and legal procedures to new and strange conditions. He was
+twice Speaker of the House between 1660 and 1671, and as presiding
+officer he could exert less influence on measures of expediency than any
+other person present, as he could not argue either for or against them.
+And yet, after Charles II. had interfered in behalf of the Quakers,
+William Hathorne wrote an elaborate and rather circuitous letter to the
+British Ministry, arguing for non-intervention in the affairs of the
+colony, which might have possessed greater efficacy if he had not
+signed it with an assumed name. [Footnote: J. Hawthorne's "Nathaniel
+Hawthorne," i. 24.] However strong a Puritan he may have been, William
+Hathorne evidently had no intention of becoming a martyr to the cause of
+colonial independence. Yet it may be stated in his favor, and in that of
+the colonists generally, that the fault was not wholly on one side, for
+the Quakers evidently sought persecution, and would have it, cost what
+it might. [Footnote: Hallowell's "Quaker Invasion of New England."]
+Much the same may be affirmed of his son John, who had the singular
+misfortune to be judge in Salem at the time of the witchcraft epidemic.
+The belief in witchcraft has always had its stronghold among the fogs
+and gloomy fiords of the North. James I. brought it with him from
+Scotland to England, and in due course it was transplanted to America.
+Judge Hathorne appears to have been at the top of affairs at Salem in
+his time, and it is more than probable that another in his place would
+have found himself obliged to act as he did. Law is, after all, in
+exceptional cases little more than a reflex of public opinion. "The
+common law," said Webster, "is common-sense," which simply means the
+common opinion of the most influential people. Much more to blame than
+John Hathorne were those infatuated persons who deceived themselves into
+thinking that the pains of rheumatism, neuralgia, or some similar malady
+were caused by the malevolent influence of a neighbor against whom they
+had perhaps long harbored a grudge. _They_ were the true witches and
+goblins of that epoch, and the only ones, if any, who ought to have been
+hanged for it.
+
+What never has been reasoned up cannot be reasoned down. It seems
+incredible in this enlightened era, as the newspapers call it, that any
+woman should be at once so inhuman and so frivolous as to swear away the
+life of a fellow-creature upon an idle fancy; and yet, even in regard
+to this, there were slightly mitigating conditions. Consider only the
+position of that handful of Europeans in this vast wilderness, as it
+then was. The forests came down to the sea-shore, and brought with them
+all the weird fancies, terrors and awful forebodings which the human
+mind could conjure up. They feared the Indians, the wild beasts, and
+most of all one another, for society was not yet sufficiently organized
+to afford that repose and contentment of spirit which they had left
+behind in the Old World. They had come to America to escape despotism,
+but they had brought despotism in their own hearts. They could escape
+from the Stuarts, but there was no escape from human nature.
+
+It is likely that their immediate progenitors would not have carried
+the witchcraft craze to such an extreme. The emigrating Puritans were a
+fairly well-educated class of men and women, but their children did
+not enjoy equal opportunities. The new continent had to be subdued
+physically and reorganized before any mental growth could be raised
+there. Levelling the forest was a small matter beside clearing the land
+of stumps and stones. All hands were obliged to work hard, and there was
+little opportunity for intellectual development or social culture. As a
+logical consequence, an era ensued not unlike the dark ages of Europe.
+But this was essential to the evolution of a new type of man, and for
+the foundation of American nationality; and it was thus that the various
+nationalities of Europe arose out of the ruins of the Roman Empire.
+
+The scenes that took place in Judge Hathorne's court-room have never
+been equalled since in American jurisprudence. Powerful forces came into
+play there, and the reports that have been preserved read like scenes
+from Shakespeare. In the case of Rebecca Nurse, the Judge said to the
+defendant:
+
+"'You do know whether you are guilty, and have familiarity with the
+Devil; and now when you are here present to see such a thing as these
+testify,--and a black man whispering in your ear, and devils about
+you,--what do you say to it?'"
+
+To which she replied:
+
+"'It is all false. I am clear.' Whereupon Mrs. Pope, one of the
+witnesses, fell into a grievous fit." [Footnote: Upham's "Salem
+Witchcraft," ii. 64.]
+
+Alas, poor beleaguered soul! And one may well say, "What imaginations
+those women had!" Tituba, the West Indian Aztec who appears in this
+social-religious explosion as the chief and original incendiary,--verily
+the root of all evil,--gave the following testimony:
+
+"Q. 'Did you not pinch Elizabeth Hubbard this morning?'
+
+"A. 'The man brought her to me, and made me pinch her.'
+
+"Q. 'Why did you go to Thomas Putnam's last night and hurt his child?'
+
+"A. 'They pull and haul me, and make me go.'
+
+"Q. 'And what would they have you do?'
+
+"A. 'Kill her with a knife.'
+
+"(Lieutenant Fuller and others said at this time, when the child saw
+these persons, and was tormented by them, that she did complain of a
+knife,--that they would have her cut her head off with a knife.)
+
+"Q. 'How did you go?'
+
+"A. 'We ride upon sticks, and are there presently.'
+
+"Q. 'Do you go through the trees or over them?'
+
+"A. 'We see nothing, but are there presently.'
+
+"Q. 'Why did you not tell your master?'
+
+"A. 'I was afraid. They said they would cut off my head if I told.'
+
+"Q. 'Would you not have hurt others, if you could?'
+
+"A. 'They said they would hurt others, but they could not.'
+
+"Q. 'What attendants hath Sarah Good?'
+
+"A. 'A yellow-bird, and she would have given me one.'
+
+"Q. 'What meat did she give it?'
+
+"A. 'It did suck her between her fingers.'".
+
+This might serve as an epilogue to "Macbeth," and the wonder is that an
+unlettered Indian should have had the wit to make such apt and subtle
+replies. It is also noteworthy that these strange proceedings took
+place after the expulsion of the royal governor, and previous to the
+provincial government of William III. If Sir Edmund Andros had remained,
+the tragedy might have been changed into a farce.
+
+After all, it appears that John Hathorne was not a lawyer, for he
+describes himself in his last will, dated June 27, 1717, as a merchant,
+and it is quite possible that his legal education was no better than
+that of the average English squire in Fielding's time. It is evident,
+however, from the testimony given above, that he was a strong believer
+in the supernatural, and here if anywhere we find a relationship between
+him and his more celebrated descendant. Nathaniel Hawthorne was too
+clear-sighted to place confidence in the pretended revelations of
+trance mediums, and he was not in the least superstitious; but he
+was remarkably fond of reading ghost stories, and would have liked to
+believe them, if he could have done so in all sincerity. He sometimes
+felt as if he were a ghost himself, gliding noiselessly in the walks of
+men, and wondered that the sun should cast a shadow from him. However,
+we cannot imagine him as seated in jurisdiction at a criminal tribunal.
+His gentle nature would have recoiled from that, as it might from a
+serpent.
+
+In the Charter Street burial-ground there is a slate gravestone,
+artistically carved about its edges, with the name, "Col. John Hathorne
+Esq.," upon it. It is somewhat sunken into the earth, and leans forward
+as if wishing to hide the inscription upon it from the gaze of mankind.
+The grass about it and the moss upon the stone assist in doing this,
+although repeatedly cut and cleaned away. It seems as if Nature wished
+to draw a kind of veil over the memory of the witch's judge, himself the
+sorrowful victim of a theocratic oligarchy. The lesson we learn from his
+errors is, to trust our own hearts and not to believe too fixedly in the
+doctrines of Church and State. It must be a dull sensibility that can
+look on this old slate-stone without a feeling of pathos and a larger
+charity for the errors of human nature.
+
+It is said that one of the convicted witches cursed Judge
+Hathorne,--himself and his descendants forever; but it is more than
+likely that they all cursed him bitterly enough, and this curse took
+effect in a very natural and direct manner. Every extravagant political
+or social movement is followed by a corresponding reaction, even if the
+movement be on the whole a salutary one, and retribution is sure to
+fall in one shape or another on the leaders of it. After this time the
+Hathornes ceased to be conspicuous in Salem affairs. The family was not
+in favor, and the avenues of prosperity were closed to them, as commonly
+happens in such cases. Neither does the family appear to have multiplied
+and extended itself like most of the old New England families, who can
+now count from a dozen to twenty branches in various places. Of John
+Hathorne's three sons only one appears to have left children. The name
+has wholly disappeared from among Salem families, and thus in a manner
+has the witch's curse been fulfilled.
+
+Joseph Hathorne, the son of the Judge, was mostly a farmer, and that
+is all that we now know of him. His son Daniel, however, showed a more
+adventurous spirit, becoming a shipmaster quite early in life. It has
+also been intimated that he was something of a smuggler, which was no
+great discredit to him in a time when the unfair and even prohibitory
+measures of the British Parliament in regard to American commerce
+made smuggling a practical necessity. Even as the captain of a trading
+vessel, however, Daniel Hathorne was not likely to advance the social
+interests of his family. It is significant that he should have left the
+central portion of Salem, where his ancestors had lived, and have built
+a house for himself close to the city wharves,--a house well built and
+commodious enough, but not in a fashionable location.
+
+But Daniel Hathorne had the advantage over fashionable society in Salem,
+in being a thorough patriot. Boston and Salem were the two strongholds
+of Toryism during the war for Independence, which was natural enough, as
+their wealthy citizens were in close mercantile relations with English
+houses, and sent their children to England to be educated. Daniel
+Hathorne, however, as soon as hostilities had begun, fitted out his
+bark as a privateer, and spent the following six years in preying upon
+British merchantmen. How successful he was in this line of business
+we have not been informed, but he certainly did not grow rich by it;
+although he is credited with one engagement with the enemy, in which his
+ship came off with honor, though perhaps not with a decisive victory.
+This exploit was celebrated in a rude ballad of the time, which has been
+preserved in "Griswold's Curiosities of American Literature," and has
+at least the merit of plain unvarnished language. [Footnote: Also in
+Lathrop's "Hawthorne."]
+
+There is a miniature portrait of Daniel Hathorne, such as was common in
+Copley's time, still in the possession of the Hawthorne family, and
+it represents him as rather a bullet-headed man, with a bright, open,
+cheery face, a broad English chin and strongly marked brows,--an
+excellent physiognomy for a sea-captain. He appears besides to have had
+light brown or sandy hair, a ruddy complexion and bright blue eyes;
+but we cannot determine how truthful the miniature may be in respect
+to coloring. At all events, he was of a very different appearance from
+Nathaniel Hawthorne, and if he resembled his grandson in any external
+respect, it was in his large eyes and their overshadowing brows. He has
+not the look of a dare-devil. One might suppose that he was a person of
+rather an obstinate disposition, but it is always difficult to draw the
+line between obstinacy and determination.
+
+A similar miniature of his son Nathaniel, born in 1775, and who died at
+Surinam in his thirty-fourth year, gives us the impression of a person
+somewhat like his father, and also somewhat like his son Nathaniel.
+He has a long face instead of a round one, and his features are more
+delicate and refined than those of the bold Daniel. The expression is
+gentle, dreamy and pensive, and unless the portrait belies him, he
+could not have been the stern, domineering captain that he has been
+represented. He had rather a slender figure, and was probably much more
+like his mother, who was a Miss Phelps, than the race of Judge Hathorne.
+He may have been a reticent man, but never a bold one, and we find in
+him a new departure. His face is more amiable and attractive than his
+father's, but not so strong. In 1799 he was married to Miss Elizabeth
+Clarke Manning, the daughter of Richard Manning, and then only nineteen
+years of age. She appears to have been an exceptionally sensitive and
+rather shy young woman--such as would be likely to attract the attention
+of a chivalrous young mariner--but with fine traits of intellect and
+character.
+
+The maternal ancestry of a distinguished man is quite as important as
+the paternal, but in the present instance it is much more difficult to
+obtain information concerning it. The increasing fame of Hawthorne
+has been like a calcium-light, illuminating for the past fifty years
+everything to which that name attaches, and leaving the Manning family
+in a shadow so much the deeper. All we can learn of them now is, that
+they were descended from Richard Manning, of Dartmouth in Devonshire,
+England, whose son Thomas emigrated to Salem with his widowed mother in
+1679, but afterwards removed to Ipswich, ten miles to the north, whence
+the family has since extended itself far and wide,--the Reverend Jacob
+M. Manning, of the Old South Church, the fearless champion of practical
+anti-slaveryism, having been among them. It appears that Thomas's
+grandson Richard started in life as a blacksmith, which was no strange
+thing in those primitive times; but, being a thrifty and enterprising
+man, he lived to establish a line of stage-coaches between Salem and
+Boston, and this continued in the possession of his family until it
+was superseded by the Eastern Railway. After this catastrophe, Robert
+Manning, the son of Richard and brother of Mrs. Nathaniel Hathorne,
+became noted as a fruit-grower (a business in which Essex County people
+have always taken an active interest), and was one of the founders
+of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. The Mannings were always
+respected in Salem, although they never came to affluent circumstances,
+nor did they own a house about the city common. Robert Manning, Jr.,
+was Secretary of the Horticultural Society in Boston for a long term
+of years, a pleasant, kindly man, with an aspect of general culture.
+Hawthorne's maternal grandmother was Miriam Lord, of Ipswich, and his
+paternal grandmother was Rachel Phelps, of Salem. His father was only
+thirty-three when he died at Surinam.
+
+In regard to the family name, there are at present Hawthornes and
+Hathornes in England, and although the two names may have been identical
+originally, they have long since become as distinct as Smith and Smythe.
+I have discovered only two instances in which the first William Hathorne
+wrote his own name, and in the various documents at the State House in
+which it appears written by others, it is variously spelled Hathorn,
+Hathorne, Hawthorn, Haythorne, and Harthorne,--from which we can only
+conclude that the a was pronounced broadly. It was not until the reign
+of Queen Anne, when books first became cheap and popular, that there was
+any decided spelling of either proper or common names. Then the printers
+took the matter into their own hands and made witch-work enough of it.
+The word "sovereign," for instance, which is derived from the old French
+_souvrain_, and which Milton spelled "sovran," they tortured into its
+present form,--much as the clerks of Massachusetts Colony tortured the
+name of William Hathorne. This, however, was spelled Hathorne oftener
+than in other ways, and it was so spelled in the two signatures above
+referred to, one of which was attached as witness to a deed for the
+settlement of the boundary between Lynn and Salem, [Footnote: Also in
+Lathrop's "Hawthorne."] and the other to a report of the commissioners
+for the investigation of the French vessels coming to Salem and Boston
+in 1651, the two other commissioners being Samuel Bradstreet and
+David Denison. [Footnote: Massachusetts Archives, x. 171.]The name
+was undoubtedly Hathorne, and so it continued with one or two slight
+variations during the eighteenth century down to the time of Nathaniel
+Hathorne, Jr., who entered and graduated at Bowdoin College under that
+name, but who soon afterward changed it to Hawthorne, for reasons that
+have never been explained.
+
+All cognomens would seem to have been derived originally from some
+personal peculiarity, although it is no longer possible to trace this
+back to its source, which probably lies far away in the Dark Ages,--the
+formative period of languages and of families. Sometimes, however, we
+meet with individuals whose peculiarities suggest the origin of their
+names: a tall, slender, long-necked man named Crane; or a timid,
+retiring student named Leverett; or an over-confident, supercilious
+person called Godkin In the name of Hawthorne also we may imagine a
+curious significance: "When the may is on the thorn," says Tennyson. The
+English country people call the flowering of the hawthorn "the may." It
+is a beautiful tree when in full bloom. How sweet-scented and delicately
+colored are its blossoms! But it seems to say to us, "Do not come too
+close to me."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+BOYHOOD OF HAWTHORNE: 1804-1821
+
+
+Salem treasures the memory of Hawthorne, and preserves everything
+tangible relating to him. The house in which he was born, No. 27 Union
+Street, is in much the same style and probably of the same age as the
+Old Manse at Concord, but somewhat smaller, with only a single window on
+either side of the doorway--five windows in all on the front, one large
+chimney in the centre, and the roof not exactly a gambrel, for the true
+gambrel has a curve first inward and then outward, but something like
+it. A modest, cosy and rather picturesque dwelling, which if placed on
+a green knoll with a few trees about it might become a subject for a
+sketching class. It did not belong to Hawthorne's father, after all, but
+to the widow of the bold Daniel, It was the cradle of genius, and is
+now a shrine for many pilgrims. Long may it survive, so that our
+grandchildren may gaze upon it.
+
+Here Nathaniel Hawthorne first saw daylight one hundred years ago
+[Footnote: 1804.] on the Fourth of July, as if to make a protest against
+Chauvinistic patriotism; here his mother sat at the window to see her
+husband's bark sail out of the harbor on his last voyage; and here she
+watched day after day for its return, only to bring a life-long sorrow
+with it. The life of a sea-captain's wife is always a half-widowhood,
+but Mrs. Hathorne was left at twenty-eight with three small children,
+including a daughter, Elizabeth, older than Nathaniel, and another,
+Louisa, the youngest. The shadow of a heavy misfortune had come upon
+them, and from this shadow they never wholly escaped.
+
+Lowell criticised a letter which John Brown wrote concerning his
+boyhood to Henry L. Stearns, as the finest bit of autobiography of the
+nineteenth century.[Footnote: _North American Review_, April 1860.] It
+is in fact almost the only literature of the kind that we possess. A
+frequent difficulty that parents find in dealing with their children is,
+that they have wholly forgotten the sensations and impressions of their
+own childhood. The instructor cannot place himself in the position of
+the pupil. A naturalist will spend years with a microscope studying
+the development of a plant from the seed, but no one has ever applied a
+similar process to the budding of genius or even of ordinary intellect.
+We have the autobiography of one of the greatest geniuses, written in
+the calm and stillness of old age, when youthful memories come back to
+us involuntarily; yet he barely lifts the veil from his own childhood,
+and has much more to say of external events and older people than of
+himself and his young companions. How valuable is the story of George
+Washington and his hatchet, hackneyed as it has become! What do we know
+of the boyhood of Franklin, Webster, Seward and Longfellow? Nothing, or
+next to nothing.
+
+[Illustration: WINDOW OF THIS CHAMBER]
+
+Goethe says that the admirable woman is she who, when her husband dies,
+becomes a father to his children; but in the case of Hawthorne's mother,
+this did not happen to be necessary. Her brother, Robert Manning, a
+thrifty and fairly prosperous young man, immediately took Mrs. Hathorne
+and her three children into his house on Herbert Street, and made it
+essentially a home for them afterward. To the fatherless boy he was more
+than his own father, away from home ten months of the year, ever could
+have been; and though young Nathaniel must have missed that tenderness
+of feeling which a man can only entertain toward his own child, there
+was no lack of kindness or consideration on Robert Manning's part, to
+either the boy or his sisters.
+
+It was Mrs. Hathorne who chiefly suffered from this change of domicile.
+She would seem to have been always on good terms with her brother's
+wife, and on the whole they formed a remarkably harmonious family,--at
+least we hear nothing to the contrary,--but she was no longer mistress
+of her own household. She had her daughters to instruct, and to train up
+in domestic ways, and she could be helpful in various matters, large
+and small; but the mental occupation which comes from the oversight and
+direction of household affairs, and which might have served to divert
+her mind from sorrowful memories, was now gone from her. Her widowhood
+separated her from the outside world and from all society, excepting
+a few devoted friends, [Footnote: _Wide Awake_, xxxiii. 502.] so
+that under these conditions it is not surprising that her life became
+continually more secluded and reserved. It is probable that her
+temperament was very similar to her son's; but the impression which
+has gone forth, that she indulged her melancholy to an excess, is by
+no means a just one. The circumstances of her case should be taken into
+consideration.
+
+Rebecca Manning says:
+
+"I remember aunt Hawthorne as busy about the house, attending to various
+matters. Her cooking was excellent, and she was noted for a certain kind
+of sauce, which nobody else knew how to make. We always enjoyed going to
+see her when we were children, for she took great pains to please us and
+to give us nice things to eat. Her daughter Elizabeth resembled her in
+that respect. In old letters and in the journal of another aunt, which
+has come into our possession, we read of her going about making visits,
+taking drives, and sometimes going on a journey. In later years she was
+not well, and I do not remember that she ever came here, but her friends
+always received a cordial welcome when they visited her."
+
+This refers to a late period of Madam Hathorne's life, and if she
+absented herself from the table, as Elizabeth Peabody states, [Footnote:
+Lathrop's "Study of Hawthorne."] there was good reason for it.
+
+Hawthorne himself has left no word concerning his mother, of favorable
+or unfavorable import, but it seems probable that he owed his genius to
+her, if he can be said to have owed it to any of his ancestors. In after
+life he affirmed that his sister Elizabeth, who appears to have been her
+mother over again, could have written as well as he did, and although
+we have no palpable evidence of this--and the letter which she wrote
+Elizabeth Peabody does not indicate it,--we are willing to take his word
+for it. With the shyness and proud reserve which he inherited from his
+mother, there also came that exquisite refinement and feminine grace of
+style which forms the chief charm of his writing. The same refinement
+of feeling is noticeable in the letters of other members of the
+Manning family. Where his imagination came from, it would be useless to
+speculate; but there is no good art without delicacy.
+
+Doctor Nathaniel Peabody lived near the house on Herbert Street, and his
+daughter Elizabeth (who afterward became a woman of prodigious learning)
+soon made acquaintance with the Hathorne children. She remembers the boy
+Nathaniel jumping about his uncle's yard, and this is the first picture
+that we have of him. When we consider what a beautiful boy he must have
+been, with his wavy brown hair, large wistful eyes and vigorous figure,
+without doubt he was a pleasure to look upon. We do not hear of him
+again until November 10, 1813, when he injured his foot in some unknown
+manner while at play, and was made lame by it more or less for the
+three years succeeding. After being laid up for a month, he wrote this
+pathetic little letter to his uncle, Robert Manning, then in Maine,
+which I have punctuated properly so that the excellence of its
+composition may appeal more plainly to the reader.
+
+                                     "SALEM, Thursday, December, 1813.
+
+      "DEAR UNCLE:
+
+"I hope you are well, and I hope Richard is too. My foot is no better.
+Louisa has got so well that she has begun to go to school, but she did
+not go this forenoon because it snowed. Mama is going to send for Doctor
+Kitridge to-day, when William Cross comes home at 12 o'clock, and maybe
+he will do some good, for Doctor Barstow has not, and I don't know as
+Doctor Kitridge will. It is about 4 weeks yesterday since I have been
+to school, and I don't know but it will be 4 weeks longer before I go
+again. I have been out of the office two or three times and have set
+down on the step of the door, and once I hopped out into the street.
+Yesterday I went out in the office and had 4 cakes. Hannah carried me
+out once, but not then. Elizabeth and Louisa send their love to you.
+I hope you will write to me soon, but I have nothing more to write; so
+good-bye, dear Uncle.
+
+"Your affectionate Nephew,
+
+"NATHANIEL HATHORNE."
+
+[Footnote: Elizabeth Manning in _Wide Awake_, Nov. 1891.]
+
+This is not so precocious as Mozart's musical compositions at the same
+age, but how could the boy Hawthorne have given a clearer account of
+himself and his situation at the time, without one word of complaint?
+It is worth noting also that his prediction in regard to Doctor Kitridge
+proved to be correct and even more.
+
+It is evident that neither of his doctors treated him in a
+physio-logical manner. Kitridge was a water-cure physician, and his
+method of treatment deserves to be recorded for its novelty. He directed
+Nathaniel to project his naked foot out of a sitting-room window, while
+he poured cold water on it from the story above. This, however, does not
+appear to have helped the case, and the infirmity continued so long that
+it was generally feared that his lameness would be permanent.
+
+Horatio Bridge considered this a fortunate accident for Nathaniel, since
+it prevented him from being spoiled by his female relatives, as there is
+always danger that an only son with two or more sisters will be spoiled.
+But it was an advantage to the boy in a different manner from this. He
+learned from it the lesson of suffering and endurance, which we all have
+to learn sooner or later; and it compelled him, perhaps too young, to
+seek the comfort of life from internal sources. There were excellent
+books in the house,--Shakespeare and Milton, of course, but also Pope's
+"Iliad," Thomson's "Seasons," the "Spectator," "Pilgrim's Progress,"
+and the "Faerie Queene," and the time had now come when these would be
+serviceable to him. He was not the only boy that has enjoyed Shakespeare
+at the age of ten, but that he should have found interest in Spenser's
+"Faerie Queene" is somewhat exceptional. Even among professed
+_litterateurs_ there are few that read that long allegory, and still
+fewer who enjoy it; and yet Miss Manning assures us that Hawthorne would
+muse over it for hours. Its influence may be perceptible in some of his
+shorter stories, but "Pilgrim's Progress" evidently had an effect upon
+him; and so had Scott's novels, as we may judge from the first romance
+that he published.
+
+At the age of twelve years and seven months he composed a short poem, so
+perfect in form and mature in judgment that it is difficult to believe
+that so young a person could have written it. Not so poetic as it is
+philosophical, it is valuable as indicating that the boy had already
+formed a moral axis for himself,--a life principle from which he never
+afterward deviated; and it is given herewith: [Footnote: A facsimile of
+the original can be found in _Wide Awake_, November, 1891.]
+
+
+                           "MODERATE VIEWS.
+
+                 "With passions unruffled, untainted by pride,
+                    By reason my life let me square;
+                  The wants of my nature are cheaply supplied,
+                    And the rest are but folly and care.
+                  How vainly through infinite trouble and strife,
+                    The many their labours employ,
+                  Since all, that is truly delightful in life,
+                     Is what all if they please may enjoy.
+
+                                          "NATHANIEL HATHORNE.
+
+                  "SALEM, February 13, 1817."
+
+He wrote this with the greatest nicety, framing it in broad black lines,
+and ornamenting the capitals in a manner that recalls the decoration of
+John Hathorne's gravestone. He composed a number of poems between his
+thirteenth and seventeenth years, quite as good as those of Longfellow
+at the same age; but after he entered Bowdoin College he dropped the
+practice altogether and never resumed it, although one would suppose
+that Longfellow's example would have stimulated him to better efforts.
+Neither does he appear to have tried his hand in writing tales, as boys
+who have no thought of literary distinction frequently do. During the
+years of his lameness he sometimes invented extemporaneous stories,
+which invariably commenced with a voyage to some foreign country, from
+which his hero never returned. This shows how continually his father's
+fate was in his mind, although he said nothing of it.
+
+Robert Manning's interest in the stage-company afforded the boy fine
+opportunities for free rides, and he probably also frequented the
+stables; although neither as youth nor as man did he take much interest
+in driving or riding. He was more fond of playing upon the wharves,
+a good healthy place,--and watching the great ships sailing forth to
+far-off lands, and returning with their strange cargoes,--enough to
+stimulate any boy's imagination, if he has it in him. It is likely that
+if Nathaniel's father had lived, he would also have followed a seafaring
+life, and would never have become useful to the world in the way that he
+did.
+
+Somewhere about the close of the eighteenth century, Richard Manning,
+the father of Mrs. Hathorne, purchased a large tract of land in
+Cumberland County, Maine, between Lake Sebago and the town of Casco; and
+in 1813 Robert Manning built a house near the lake, in the township of
+Raymond, and his brother Richard, who had become much of an invalid,
+went to live there, partly for his health and partly to keep an
+oversight on the property. In 1817 Mrs. Hathorne also went there, taking
+her children with her, and remaining, with some intermissions, until
+1822. Meanwhile the Mannings sold some thousands of acres of land,
+although not, as we may suppose, at very good prices, and the name of
+Elizabeth Hathorne was repeatedly attached to the deeds of conveyance.
+The house that Robert built was the plainest sort of structure, of only
+two stories, and with no appearance of having been painted; but the
+farmers in the vicinity criticised it as "Manning's folly,"--exactly
+why, does not appear clearly, unless they foresaw what actually
+happened, that the house could be neither sold nor rented after the
+Mannings had left it. For many years, it served as a meeting-house,--one
+could not call it a church,--and now it has become a Hawthorne museum,
+the town of Raymond very laudably keeping it in repair.
+
+Although none of the events in the early life of Hawthorne ought to be
+considered positive misfortunes, as they all contributed to make him
+what he was, yet upon general principles it is much to be regretted
+that he should have passed the best years of his boyhood in this
+out-of-the-way place. His good uncle supplied him with a boat and a gun,
+and he enjoyed the small shooting, fishing, sailing and skating that the
+place afforded; but in later years he wrote to Bridge, "It was at
+Sebago that I learned my cursed habit of solitude," and this pursued
+him through life like an evil genius, placing him continually at a
+disadvantage with his fellow-men. It has been supposed that this mode
+of life assisted in developing his individuality, but quite as strong
+individualities have been developed in the midst of large cities.
+"Speech is more refreshing than light."
+
+When will parents learn wisdom in regard to their children? A
+conscientious, tender-hearted boy will be sent to a rough country
+school, to be scoffed at and maltreated there, before he is twelve years
+old; while another of a coarser and harder nature will be kept at home,
+to be petted and pampered until all the vigor and manliness are sapped
+out of him. Parents who prefer to live in a modest, humble manner,
+in order that their children may have better advantages, deserve the
+highest commendation, but in this respect good instruction is less
+important than favorable associations. From fourteen to twenty-one
+is the formative period of character, and the influences which may be
+brought to bear on the growing mind are of the highest importance. Lake
+Sebago served as an excellent gymnasium for young Hawthorne, and may
+have helped to develop his sense of the beautiful, but he found few
+companions there, and those not of the most suitable kind. He was
+exceedingly fond of skating--so much so that when the ice was smooth he
+sometimes remained on the lake far into the night. This we can envy him,
+for skating is the poetry of motion.
+
+The captain of the "Hawthorne," which plies back and forth across the
+lake in summer, regularly points out to his passengers the house where
+the Hathornes lived. It is easily seen from the steamer,--a severely
+plain, unpainted building, in appearance much like the Manning house on
+Herbert Street. Nearly in line with it a great cliff-like rock juts out
+from the centre of the lake, on which the Indians centuries ago etched
+and painted great warlike figures, whose significance is now known to
+no one. It is said that Hawthorne frequently sailed or rowed to Indian
+Rock, and to a sort of grotto there which was large enough for his
+boat to enter. Both the rock and the Manning house are now difficult
+of access. Longfellow wrote a pretty descriptive poem of a voyage on
+Sebago, and it is remarkable how he has made use of every feature of the
+landscape, every incident of the excursion, to fill his verses. The lake
+has much the shape of an hour-glass, the northern and southern portions
+being connected by a winding strait, so crooked that it requires the
+constant effort of the pilot to prevent the little steamer from running
+aground. There used to be fine fishing in it,--large perch, bass, and a
+species of fresh-water salmon often weighing from six to eight pounds.
+
+Strangely enough, one of Hawthorne's acquaintances on the shores of
+Sebago was a mulatto boy named William Symmes, the son of a Virginia
+slave, foisted by his father upon a Maine sea-captain named Britton, who
+lived in the half-wilderness around Raymond. Symmes afterwards became a
+sailor, and continued in that vocation until the Civil War, when he
+went to live in Alexandria, Va. In 1870 he published in the Portland
+_Transcript_ what pretended to be a series of extracts from a diary
+which young Hawthorne had kept while at Raymond, and which was found
+there, after the departure of the Manning family, by a man named Small,
+while moving a load of furniture which had been sold to another party.
+Small preserved it until 1864, and then made a present of it to Symmes.
+
+Doubts have been cast on the genuineness of this diary, as was natural
+enough under the circumstances; for the original manuscript was never
+produced by Symmes, who died the following year, and no one knows what
+has become of it. It may also be asked, why should Small have disposed
+so readily of this manuscript to Symmes after preserving it sedulously
+for more than forty years? Why did he not return it to its rightful
+owner; or, if he felt ashamed of his original abstraction, why did not
+Symmes restore it to the Hawthorne family after Hawthorne's death, when
+every newspaper in the country was celebrating Hawthorne's genius? It
+also might have occurred to one of them that such property would have
+a marketable value, and could be disposed of at a high price to some
+collector of literary curiosities; but Symmes did not even ask to
+be remunerated for the portion that he contributed to the Portland
+Transcript. Neither did he harbor the slightest ill feeling toward
+Hawthorne, whom he claimed to have met several times in the course of
+his wanderings,--once at Salem, and again at Liverpool,--and was always
+treated by him with exceptional kindness and civility.
+
+The only answer that can be made to these queries is, that men in
+Symmes's position in life do not act according to any method that can
+be previously calculated. In a case like the present, there could be
+no predicting it; and it is possible that this mulatto valued the diary
+above all price, as a souvenir of the one white man who had ever been
+kind and good to him. Who knows what a heart there may have been in
+William Symmes?
+
+The internal evidence of this diary is so strongly in its favor as to be
+almost conclusive. Lathrop, who made a special study of it, says:
+
+"The fabrication of the journal by a person possessed of some literary
+skill and familiar with the localities mentioned, at dates so long ago
+as 1816 to 1819, might not be an impossible feat, but it is an extremely
+improbable one."
+
+To which it might be added, that it could be only a Hawthorne that
+could accomplish such a fabrication. Few things in literature are more
+difficult than to make a boy talk _like_ a boy, and the tone of this
+Sebago journal is not only boyish, but sweet and pleasant to the ear,
+such as we might imagine the talk of the youthful Hawthorne. Not only
+this, but there is a gradated improvement of intelligence in the course
+of it,--rather too much so for entire credibility. It is quite possible
+that there is more of it than Hawthorne ever wrote, but that does not
+prevent us from having faith in the larger portion of it. The purity of
+its diction, the nice adaptation of each word to its purpose, and the
+accuracy of detail are much in its favor; besides which, the personal
+reflections in it are exactly like Hawthorne. The published portion of
+the diary in Mr. Pickard's book makes about fifty rather small pages,
+but no dates are given except at the close, and that is August, 1818;
+and as Hawthorne went to Sebago for the first time the preceding year,
+we may presume that this note-book represents a winter and summer
+vacation, during which he would seem to have enjoyed himself in a
+healthy boyish fashion. We have only space for a few extracts from this
+publication, which serve both to exemplify Hawthorne's mode of life at
+Raymond and to illustrate the preceding statement concerning the book.
+
+The first observation in the diary is quoted by Lathrop, and has a
+decidedly youthful tone.
+
+"Two kingbirds have built their nest between our house and the
+mill-pond. The male is more courageous than any creature that I know
+about. He seems to have taken possession of the territory from the great
+pond to the small one, and goes out to war with every fish-hawk that
+flies from one to the other over his dominion. The fish-hawks must be
+miserable cowards to be driven by such a speck of a bird. I have not yet
+seen one turn to defend himself."
+
+Kingbirds are the knights-errant of the feathered tribes. They never
+attack another bird unless it is three times their own size; but when a
+few years older, the boy Hawthorne would probably have noticed that the
+kingbirds' powers of flight are so superior that all other birds are
+practically at their mercy. This fixes the date of the entry in the
+early summer of 1817, for kingbirds are not belligerent except during
+the nesting season. Somewhat later in the year he writes:
+
+"Went yesterday in a sail-boat on the Great Pond with Mr. Peter White,
+of Windham. He sailed up here from White's Bridge to see Captain
+Dingley, and invited Joseph Dingley and Mr. Ring to take a boat-ride out
+to the Dingley Islands and to the Images. He was also kind enough to
+say that I might go, with my mother's consent, which she gave after
+much coaxing. Since the loss of my father, she dreads to have any one
+belonging to her go upon the water. It is strange that this beautiful
+body of water is called a 'pond.' The geography tells of many in
+Scotland and Ireland, not near so large, that are called 'Lakes.'"
+
+Notice his objection to bad nomenclature, and his school-boy argument
+against it. In his account of this excursion he says further:
+
+"After we got ashore, Mr. White allowed me to fire his long gun at a
+mark. I did not hit the mark, and am not sure that I saw it at the time
+the gun went off, but believe rather that I was watching for the noise
+that I was about to make.
+
+"Mr. Ring said that with practice I could be a gunner, and that now,
+with a very heavy charge, he thought I could kill a horse at eight
+paces!"
+
+Here or nowhere do we recognize the budding of Hawthorne's genius. This
+clear introspective analysis is the foundation of all true mental power,
+and Hawthorne might have become a Platonic philosopher, if he had not
+preferred to be a story-teller.
+
+These sports came to an end in the autumn when he was sent to study with
+the Reverend Caleb Bradley, a somewhat eccentric graduate of Harvard,
+who resided at Stroudwater, Maine, and with whom he remained during the
+winter. [Footnote: S. T. Pickard's "Hawthorne's First Diary."]He refers
+to this period of tuition in the short story of "The Vision of the
+Fountain," and whether or no any such vision appeared to him, we can
+fairly believe that the tale was suggested by some pretty school-girl
+who made an impression on him, only to disappear in a tantalizing
+manner. It is to be presumed that he returned to his mother at Raymond,
+for Christmas; and at that time he heard a story of how an Otisfield
+man named Henry Turner had killed three hibernating bears which he
+discovered in a cave near Moose Pond, not a difficult feat when one
+comes upon them in that torpid condition. This would place the killing
+of the bears at about the first of December, which would be probable
+enough, and the fact itself has been substantiated by Samuel Pickard.
+The next succeeding entry relates to the drowning of a boy while
+swimming, which could only have happened the following June. Mrs.
+Hathorne was greatly alarmed, and objected to Nathaniel's going in
+bathing with the other boys. He did not like the restriction, but writes
+that he shall obey his mother.
+
+There is a ghost story in the diary, quite original, and told with an
+air of excellent credibility; and also a short anthropomorphic romance
+concerning a badly treated horse, full of genuine pathos and kindly
+sympathy,--more sympathetic, in fact, than Hawthorne's later stories, in
+which he is sometimes almost too reserved and unemotional:
+
+"'Good morning, Mr. Horse, how are you to-day?' 'Good morning,
+youngster,' said he, just as plain as a horse can speak, and then said,
+'I am almost dead, and I wish I was quite. I am hungry, have had no
+breakfast and stand here tied by the head while they are grinding the
+corn, and until master drinks two or three glasses of rum at the store,
+and then drag him and the meal up the Ben Ham hill, and home, and am now
+so weak that I can hardly stand. Oh, dear, I am in a bad way,' and the
+old creature cried,--I almost cried myself."
+
+The only difficulty in believing this diary to be genuine is the
+question: If Hawthorne could write with such perspicuity at fourteen,
+why are there no evidences of it during his college years? But it
+sometimes happens so.
+
+We cannot refrain from quoting one more extract from the last entry in
+the Sebago diary, so beautifully tender and considerate as it is of his
+mother's position toward her only son. He had been invited by a party
+of their neighbors to go on an all-day excursion, and though his mother
+grants his request to be allowed to join them, he feels the reluctance
+with which she does so and he writes:
+
+"She said 'Yes,' but I was almost sorry, knowing that my day's pleasure
+would cost _her_ one of anxiety. However, I gathered up my hooks and
+lines, with some white salted pork for bait, and with a fabulous
+number of biscuit, split in the middle, the insides well buttered, then
+skilfully put together again, and all stowed in sister's large work-bag,
+and slung over my shoulder, I started, making a wager with Enoch White,
+as we walked down to the boat, as to which could catch the largest
+number of fish." [Footnote: Appendix A.]
+
+This is the only entry that is dated (August, 1818), and as it was on
+this same occasion that the black ducks were shot, it must have been on
+one of the last days of August. We may presume that Nathaniel returned
+to his studies at Stroudwater the following month, for we do not hear
+of him again at Raymond--or in Salem, either--until March 24, when he
+writes to his uncle, Robert Manning, who has evidently just returned
+from Raymond to Salem, and speaks of expecting to go to Portland with
+a Mr. Linch for the day. On May 16, 1819, he writes to his uncle Robert
+again:
+
+"The grass and trees are green, the fences finished and the garden
+planted. Two of the goats are on the island and the other kept for the
+milk. I have shot a partridge and a hen-hawk and caught eighteen large
+trout [probably Sebago salmon]. I am sorry that my uncle intends sending
+me to school again, for my mother can hardly spare me."
+
+From which it is easy to infer that he had not attended school very
+regularly of late, and Uncle Robert would seem to have concluded that
+it would be better to have his fine nephew where he could personally
+supervise his goings and comings. Accordingly, on July 26 we find
+Nathaniel attending school in Salem,--a most unusual season for it,--and
+although his mother remained at Raymond two years longer, he was not
+permitted to return there again, except possibly for short periods.
+
+Emerson once pointed out to me on Sudbury Street, Boston, an extremely
+old man with long white locks and the face of a devoted scholar,
+advancing toward us with slow and cautious steps. "That," said he,
+"is Doctor Worcester, the lexicographer." Hawthorne's early education
+remains much of a mystery. In 1819 he complains in a letter to his
+mother that he has to go to a cheap school,--a good indication that he
+did not intend to trust to fortune for his future welfare; soon after
+this we hear that dictionary Worcester is his chief instructor. He could
+not have found a more amiable or painstaking pedagogue; nor is it likely
+that the fine qualities of his teacher were ever better appreciated.
+Hawthorne himself says nothing of this, for it was not his way to
+express admiration for man or woman, but we can believe that he felt
+the same affection for the doctor that well-behaved boys commonly do for
+their old masters. It was from Worcester that he derived his excellent
+knowledge of Latin, the single study of which he was fond; and it is
+his preference for words derived from the Latin which gives grace and
+flexibility to Hawthorne's style, as the force and severity of Emerson's
+style come from his partiality for Saxon words. During his last year
+at school, Hawthorne took private lessons of a Salem lawyer, Benjamin
+Oliver, and perhaps studied with him altogether at the finish.
+
+Hawthorne's life had been so irregular for years that it is creditable
+to him that he should have succeeded in entering college at all. We hear
+of him at Sebago in winter and at Salem in July. He writes to his Uncle
+Robert to look out for the shot-gun which he left in a closet at Sebago,
+and which has a rather heavy charge of powder in it. He appears to
+have found as little companionship in Salem as he did in that
+wilderness,--the natural effect of such a life. He may have been
+acquainted with half the boys in Salem, but he did not make any warm
+friends among them. His sister Louisa, who was a more vivacious person
+than Elizabeth, was his chief companion and comfort. Seated at the
+window with her on summer evenings, he elaborated the plan of an
+imaginary society, a club of two, called the "Pin Society," to which all
+fees, assessments and fines were paid in pins,--then made by hand and
+much more expensive than now. He constituted himself its secretary,
+and wrote imaginary reports of its proceedings, in which Louisa is
+frequently fined for absence from meetings. We do not hear of their
+going to parties or dances with other children.
+
+In August, 1820, he started an imaginary newspaper called the
+_Spectator_, which he wrote himself with some help from Louisa, and of
+which there was only one copy of each number. He continued this through
+five successive issues, and we trace in its pages the commencement of
+Hawthorne's peculiar humor,--too quiet and gentle to make us laugh, but
+with a penetrating tinge of pathos. Take for instance the following:
+
+"There is no situation in life more irksome than that of an editor who
+is obliged to find amusement for his Readers, from a head which is
+too often (as is the present predicament with our own) filled
+with emptiness. Since commencing this paper, we have received no
+communication of any kind, so that the whole weight of the business
+devolves upon our own shoulders, a load far too great for them to bear.
+We hope the Public will reflect on these grievances."
+
+This is true fiction, and Nathaniel was not the first or the last editor
+to whom the statement has applied. His difficulties are imaginary, but
+he realizes what they might be in reality.
+
+In another number he says:
+
+"We know of no news, either domestic or foreign, and we hope our readers
+will excuse our not inserting any. The law which prohibits paying debts
+when a person has no money will apply in this case."
+
+Then he makes this quiet hit against the people of Maine for having
+separated themselves and their territory from Massachusetts:
+
+"By a gentleman in the state of Maine, we learn that a famine is
+seriously apprehended owing to the want of rain. Potatoes could not be
+procured in some places. When children break their leading strings,
+and run away from their Parent, (as Maine has done) they may expect
+sometimes to suffer hunger." [Footnote: _Wide Awake_, xxxiii. 512.]
+
+Of his religious instruction we hear nothing; but church-going in New
+England during the first forty years of the nineteenth century was
+wellnigh universal, and it makes little difference now to which of the
+various forms of Calvinistic worship the Manning family subscribed. That
+young Hawthorne was seriously impressed in this way is evident from
+the following ode, which he may have composed as early as his fifteenth
+year:
+
+                 "Oh, I have roamed in rapture wild
+                  Where the majestic rocks are piled
+                  In lonely, stern, magnificence around
+                  The troubled ocean's steadfast bound;
+                  And I have seen the storms arise
+                  And darkness veil from mortal eyes
+                  The Heavens that shine so fair and bright,
+                  And all was solemn, silent night.
+                  Then I have seen the storm disperse,
+                  And Mercy hush the whirlwind fierce,
+                  And all my soul in transport owned
+                  There is a God, in Heaven enthroned."
+
+There is more of a rhetorical flourish than of serious religious feeling
+in this; but genuine piety is hardly to be expected, and not greatly
+to be desired, in a boy of that age. It represents the desire to be
+religious, and to express something, he knows not what.
+
+Nathaniel Hawthorne had already decided on his vocation in life before
+he entered Bowdoin College,--a decision which he afterwards adhered
+to with inflexible determination, in spite of the most discouraging
+obstacles. In a memorable letter to his mother, written March 13, 1821,
+he says:
+
+"I am quite reconciled to going to college, since I am to spend my
+vacations with you. Yet four years of the best part of my life is a
+great deal to throw away. I have not yet concluded what profession I
+shall have. The being a minister is of course out of the question. I
+shall not think that even you could desire me to choose so dull a way of
+life. Oh, no, mother, I was not born to vegetate forever in one place,
+and to live and die as tranquil as--a puddle of water. As to lawyers,
+there are so many of them already that one-half of them (upon a moderate
+calculation) are in a state of actual starvation. A physician, then,
+seems to be 'Hobson's choice'; but yet I should not like to live by the
+diseases and infirmities of my fellow-creatures. And it would weigh
+very hardly on my conscience, in the course of my practice, if I
+should chance to send any unlucky patient '_ad infernum_,' which, being
+interpreted, is 'to the realms below.' Oh that I was rich enough to
+live without profession! What do you think of my becoming an author, and
+relying for support upon my pen? Indeed, I think the illegibility of my
+hand is very author-like." [Footnote: Conway, 24.]
+
+Such were the Ides of March for Hawthorne. It was no boyish ambition
+for public distinction, nor a vain grasping at the laurel wreath, but a
+calmly considered and clear-sighted judgment.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+BOWDOIN COLLEGE: 1821-1825.
+
+
+The life of man is not like a game of chess, in which the two players
+start upon equal terms and can deliberate sufficiently over every move;
+but more like whist, in which the cards we hold represent our fortunes
+at the beginning, but the result of the game depends also on the skill
+with which we play it. Life also resembles whist in this, that we are
+obliged to follow suit in a general way to those who happen to have the
+lead.
+
+Why Hawthorne should have entered Bowdoin College instead of Harvard
+has not been explained, nor is it easily explained. The standard of
+scholarship maintained at Harvard and Yale has always been higher than
+that at what Doctor Holmes designated as the "freshwater colleges," and
+this may have proved an unfavorable difference to the mind of a young
+man who was not greatly inclined to his studies; but Harvard College is
+only eighteen miles from Salem, and he could have returned to his home
+once a week if he had chosen to do so, and this is a decided moral and
+social advantage to a young man in those risky years. If Hawthorne had
+entered Harvard in the next class to Emerson, he could not well have
+escaped the latter's attention, and would have come in contact with
+other vigorous and stimulating minds; but it is of little use to
+speculate on what might have been.
+
+Boys are encouraged to study for college by accounts of the rare
+enjoyment of university life, but they commonly find the first term of
+Freshman year both dismal and discouraging. Their class is a medley of
+strangers, their studies are a dry routine, and if they are not hazed by
+the Sophomores, they are at least treated by them with haughtiness and
+contempt. It is still summer when they arrive, but the leaves soon fall
+from the trees, and their spirits fall with them.
+
+Hawthorne may have felt this more acutely than any other member of his
+class, and in addition to the prevailing sense of discomfort he was
+seized early in November with that disgusting malady, the measles, which
+boys usually go through with before they are old enough to realize how
+disagreeable it is. It appears to have been a light attack, however,
+and in three weeks he was able to attend recitations again. He made no
+complaint of it, only writing to his uncle for ten dollars with which
+to pay the doctor. He likes his chum, Mason, of Portsmouth, and does not
+find his studies so arduous as at Salem before entering. Neither are the
+college laws so strict as he anticipated.
+
+In the following May he received the present of his first watch,
+presumably from Uncle Robert, and he writes to his mother, who is still
+at Sebago, that he is mightily pleased with it, and that it enables him
+"to cut a great dash" at college. His letters to his relatives are not
+brilliant, but they indicate a healthful and contented mind.
+
+We will now consider some of the distinguished personages who were
+Hawthorne's friends and associates during these four years of his
+apprenticeship to actual life; and there were rare characters among
+them.
+
+In the same coach in which Hawthorne left Portland for Brunswick, in
+the summer of 1821, were Franklin Pierce and Jonathan Cilley. [Footnote:
+Bridge's Memoir of Hawthorne, 3.] Two men seated together in a modern
+railway-carriage will often become better acquainted in three hours than
+they might as next-door neighbors in three years; and this was still
+more likely to happen in the old days of coach journeys, when the very
+tedium of the occasion served as an inducement to frank and friendly
+conversation. Pierce was the right man to bring Hawthorne out of his
+hard shell of Sebago seclusion. He had already been one year at Bowdoin,
+and at that time there was not the same caste feeling between Sophomores
+and Freshmen--or at least very little of it--that has since arisen in
+American colleges. He was amiable and kindly, and possessed the rare
+gift of personal magnetism. Nature sometimes endows men and women with
+this quality in lieu of all other advantages, and such would seem to
+have been the case with Franklin Pierce. He was not much above the
+average in intellect, and, as Hawthorne afterward confessed, not
+particularly attractive in appearance; with a stiff military neck,
+features strong but small, and opaque gray eyes,--a rather unimpressive
+face, and one hardly capable of a decided expression. Yet with such
+abilities as he had, aided by personal magnetism and the lack of
+conspicuous faults, he became United States Senator at the age of
+thirty-five, and President fifteen years later. The best we can say of
+him is, that he was always Hawthorne's friend. From the first day that
+they met he became Hawthorne's patron and protector--so far as he may
+have required the latter. There must have been some fine quality in
+the man which is not easily discernible from his outward acts; a
+narrow-minded man, but of a refined nature.
+
+Jonathan Cilley was an abler man than Pierce, and a bold party-leader,
+but not so attractive personally. He always remained Hawthorne's friend,
+but the latter saw little of him and rarely heard from him after they
+had graduated. The one letter of his which has been published gives
+the impression of an impulsive, rough-and-tumble sort of person, always
+ready to take a hand in whatever might turn up.
+
+On the same day, Horatio Bridge, who lived at Augusta, was coming down
+the Kennebec River to Brunswick. Hawthorne did not make his acquaintance
+until some weeks later, but he proved to be the best friend of them
+all, and Hawthorne's most constant companion during the four years they
+remained together. Pierce, Cilley and Bridge were all born politicians,
+and it was this class of men with whom it would seem that Hawthorne
+naturally assimilated.
+
+On the same day, or the one previous, another boy set out from Portland
+for Brunswick, only fourteen years old, named Henry W. Longfellow,--a
+name that is now known to thousands who never heard of Franklin Pierce.
+Would it have made a difference in the warp and woof of Hawthorne's
+life, if he had happened to ride that day in the same coach with
+Longfellow? Who can tell? Was there any one in the breadth of the land
+with whom he might have felt an equal sympathy, with whom he could have
+matured a more enduring fellowship? It might have been a friendship like
+that of Beaumont and Fletcher, or, better still, like that of Goethe and
+Schiller,--but it was not written in the book of Fate. Longfellow also
+had tried his hand on the Sebago region, and was fond of the woods and
+of a gun; but he was too precocious to adapt himself easily to persons
+of his own age, or even somewhat older. He had no sooner arrived at
+Bowdoin than he became the associate and favorite of the professors. In
+this way he missed altogether the storm-and-stress period of youthful
+life, which is a useful experience of its kind; and if we notice in his
+poetry a certain lack, the absence of a close contact with reality,--as
+if he looked at his subject through a glass casement,--this may be
+assigned as the reason for it.
+
+[Illustration: HORATIO BRIDGE. FROM THE PORTRAIT BY EASTMAN JOHNSON]
+
+During the four years they went back and forth to their instruction
+together, Hawthorne and Longfellow never became cordially acquainted.
+They also belonged to rival societies. There were only two principal
+societies at Bowdoin, which continued through the college course--the
+Peucinian and the Athenaean, and the difference between them might be
+described by the words "citified" and "countrified," without taking
+either of those terms in an objectionable sense. Pierce was already
+a leading character in the Athenaean, and was soon followed by Cilley,
+Bridge and Hawthorne. The Peucinian suffered from the disadvantage of
+having members of the college faculty on its active list, and this must
+have given a rather constrained and academic character to its meetings.
+There was much more of the true college spirit and classmate feeling in
+the Athenaean.
+
+Horatio Bridge is our single authority in regard to Bowdoin College at
+this time, and his off-hand sketches of Hawthorne, Pierce and Longfellow
+are invaluable. Never has such a group of distinguished young men been
+gathered together at an American college. He says of Hawthorne:
+
+"Hawthorne was a slender lad, having a massive head, with dark,
+brilliant, and most expressive eyes, heavy eyebrows, and a profusion
+of dark hair. For his appearance at that time the inquirers must rely
+wholly upon the testimony of friends; for, I think, no portrait of him
+as a lad is extant. On one occasion, in our senior years, the class
+wished to have their profiles cut in silhouette by a wandering artist
+of the scissors, and interchanged by all the thirty-eight. Hawthorne
+disapproved the proposed plan, and steadily refused to go into the
+Class Golgotha, as he styled the dismal collection. I joined him in this
+freak, and so our places were left vacant. I now regret the whim, since
+even a moderately correct outline of his features as a youth would, at
+this day, be interesting.
+
+"Hawthorne's figure was somewhat singular, owing to his carrying his
+head a little on one side; but his walk was square and firm, and his
+manner self-respecting and reserved. A fashionable boy of the present
+day might have seen something to amuse him in the new student's
+appearance; but had he indicated this he would have rued it, for
+Hawthorne's clear appreciation of the social proprieties and his
+great physical courage would have made it as unsafe to treat him with
+discourtesy then as at any later time.
+
+"Though quiet and most amiable, he had great pluck and determination. I
+remember that in one of our convivial meetings we had the laugh upon him
+for some cause, an occurrence so rare that the bantering was carried too
+far. After bearing it awhile, Hawthorne singled out the one among us
+who had the reputation of being the best pugilist, and in a few words
+quietly told him that he would not permit the rallying to go farther.
+His bearing was so resolute, and there was so much of danger in his eye,
+that no one afterward alluded to the offensive subject in his presence."
+[Footnote: Horatio Bridge, 5.]
+
+Horatio Bridge is a veracious witness, but we have to consider that he
+was nearly ninety years of age at the time his memoirs were given to the
+public. It is difficult to imagine Hawthorne as a slender youth, for his
+whole figure was in keeping with the structure of his head. It is more
+likely that he had a spare figure. Persons of a lively imagination have
+always been apt to hold their heads on one side, but not commonly while
+they are walking. It is for this reason that phrenologists have supposed
+that the organ of ideality is located on the side of the head,--if there
+really is any such organ.
+
+Bridge says of Longfellow precisely what one might expect:
+
+"He had decided personal beauty and most attractive manners. He was
+frank, courteous, and affable, while morally he was proof against the
+temptations that beset lads on first leaving the salutary restraints
+of home. He was diligent, conscientious, and most attentive to all his
+college duties, whether in the recitation-room, the lecture-hall, or the
+chapel. The word 'student' best expresses his literary habit, and in his
+intercourse with all he was conspicuously the gentleman."
+
+In addition to those already mentioned, James W. Bradbury of Portland,
+afterwards United States Senator, and the Reverend Dr. George B.
+Cheever, the vigorous anti-slavery preacher, were members of this class.
+Three others, Cilley, Benson and Sawtelle, were afterward members of
+the United States House of Representatives. Surely there must have been
+quite a fermentation of youthful intellect at Bowdoin between 1821 and
+1825.
+
+Franklin Pierce was so deeply interested in military affairs that it was
+a pity he should not have had a West Point cadetship. He was captain of
+the college militia company, in which Hawthorne and Bridge drilled and
+marched; a healthy and profitable exercise, and better than a gymnasium,
+if rather monotonous. Pierce was the popular hero and _magnus Apollo_ of
+his class, as distinguished foot-ball players are now; but just at this
+time he was neglecting his studies so badly that at the close of his
+second year he found himself at the very foot of the rank list. The fact
+became known through the college, and Pierce was so chagrined that he
+concluded to withdraw from Bowdoin altogether, and it was only by the
+urgent persuasion of his friends that he was induced to continue his
+course. "If I remain, however," he said, "you will witness a change in
+me." For months together he burned midnight oil in order to recover
+lost ground. During his last two years at college, he only missed
+two recitations, both for sufficient reasons. His conduct was
+unexceptionable, he incurred no deductions, and finally graduated third
+in his class. It is an uncommon character that can play fast-and-loose
+with itself in this manner. The boy Franklin had departed, and Pierce
+the man had taken his place. [Footnote: Professor Packard's "History of
+Bowdoin College."] Horatio Bridge gives a rather more idealized portrait
+of him than he does of Hawthorne. He says:
+
+"In person Pierce was slender, of medium height, with fair complexion
+and light hair, erect, with a military bearing, active, and always
+bright and cheerful. In character he was impulsive, not rash; generous,
+not lavish; chivalric, courteous, manly, and warm-hearted,--and he was
+one of the most popular students in the whole college."
+
+The instruction in American colleges during the first half of
+the nineteenth century was excellent for Greek, Latin and
+mathematics,--always the groundwork of a good education,--but the modern
+languages were indifferently taught by French and German exiles, and
+other subjects were treated still more indifferently. The two noble
+studies of history and philosophy were presented to the young aspiring
+soul in narrow, prejudiced text-books, which have long since been
+consigned to that bourn from which no literary work ever returns.
+As already stated, Hawthorne's best study was Latin, and in that he
+acquired good proficiency; but he was slow in mathematics, as artistic
+minds usually are, and in his other studies he only exerted himself
+sufficiently to pass his examinations in a creditable manner. We may
+presume that he took the juice and left the rind; which was the sensible
+thing to do. As might be expected, his themes and forensics were
+beautifully written, although the arguments in them were not always
+logical; but it is significant that he never could be prevailed upon
+to make a declamation. There have been sensitive men, like Sumner and
+George W. Curtis, who were not at all afraid of the platform, but they
+were not, like Hawthorne, bashful men. The college faculty would seem
+to have realized the true difficulty in his case, and treated him in a
+kindly and lenient manner. No doubt he suffered enough in his own mind
+on account of this deficiency, and it may have occurred to him what
+difficulties he might have to encounter in after-life by reason of it.
+If a student at college cannot bring himself to make a declamation, how
+can the mature man face an audience in a lecture-room, command a ship,
+or administer any important office? Such thoughts must have caused
+Hawthorne no slight anxiety, at that sensitive age.
+
+The out-door sports of the students did not attract Hawthorne greatly.
+He was a fast runner and a good leaper, but seemed to dislike violent
+exercise. He much preferred walking in the woods with a single
+companion, or by the banks of the great river on which Brunswick is
+situated. There were fine trout-brooks in the neighborhood, and formerly
+the woods of Maine were traversed by vast flocks of passenger pigeons,
+which with the large gray squirrels afforded excellent shooting.
+How skilful Hawthorne became with his fowling-piece we have not been
+informed, but it is evident from passages in "Fanshawe" that he learned
+something of trout-fishing; and on the whole he enjoyed advantages at
+Bowdoin which the present student at Harvard or Oxford might well envy,
+him. The fish we catch in the streams and lakes of Maine only represent
+a portion of our enjoyment there. Horatio Bridge says:
+
+"There was one favorite spot in a little ravine, where a copious spring
+of clear, cold water gushed out from the sandy bank, and joined the
+larger stream. This was the Paradise Spring, which deserves much more
+than its present celebrity for the absolute purity of its waters. Of
+late years the brook has been better known as a favorite haunt of the
+great romance writer, and it is now often called the Hawthorne Brook.
+
+"Another locality, above the bridge, afforded an occasional stroll
+through the fields and by the river. There, in spring, we used to linger
+for hours to watch the giant pine-logs (for there were giants in those
+days) from the far-off forests, floating by hundreds in the stream until
+they came to the falls; then, balancing for a moment on the brink, they
+plunged into the foamy pool below."
+
+At the lower end of the town there was an old weather-beaten cot, where
+the railroad track now runs, inhabited by a lone woman nearly as old and
+time-worn as the dwelling itself. She pretended to be a fortune-teller,
+and to her Hawthorne and Bridge sometimes had recourse, to lift the veil
+of their future prospects; which she always succeeded in doing to their
+good entertainment. The old crone knew her business well, especially the
+art of giving sufficient variety of detail to the same old story. For a
+nine-pence she would predict a beautiful blond wife for Hawthorne, and
+an equally handsome dark-complexioned one for Bridge. Riches were of
+course thrown in by the handful; and Bridge remarks that although these
+never came to pass they both happened to be blessed with excellent
+wives. It is not surprising that the handsome Hawthorne and his tall,
+elegant-looking companion should have stimulated the old woman's
+imagination in a favorable manner. The small coin they gave her may have
+been the least happiness that their visits brought into her life.
+
+Close by the college grounds there was a miserable little inn, which
+went by the name of Ward's Tavern, and thither the more uproarious class
+of students consorted at intervals for the purpose of keeping care at a
+distance, and singing, "Landlord, fill your flowing bowls." Strange
+to say, the reserved, thoughtful Hawthorne was often to be found
+among them. It does not seem quite consistent with the gravity of his
+customary demeanor, but youth has its period of reckless ebullition.
+Punch-bowl societies exist in all our colleges, and many who disapprove
+of them join them for the sake of popularity. Hawthorne may have been as
+grave and well-behaved on these occasions as he was customarily. We have
+Bridge's word for this; and the matter would hardly be worth mentioning
+if it had not led to more serious proceedings. May 29, 1822, President
+Allen wrote to Mrs. Hathorne at Salem that her son had been fined fifty
+cents for gaming at cards. [Footnote: In 1864 a Harvard student
+was fined three dollars for writing on the woodwork with a
+lead-pencil--erased with a sponge.] Certainly this was not very severe
+treatment; and if the Bowdoin faculty, being on the spot, concluded that
+young Hawthorne had only injured his moral nature fifty cents' worth,
+I think we shall do well to agree with their decision. At the same time
+Nathaniel wrote his mother the following manly letter:
+
+
+                                       "BRUNSWICK, May 30th, 1822.
+
+"MY DEAR MOTHER:--I hope you have safely arrived in Salem. I have
+nothing particular to inform you of, except that all the card-players in
+college have been found out, and my unfortunate self among the number.
+One has been dismissed from college, two suspended, and the rest,
+with myself, have been fined fifty cents each. I believe the President
+intends to write to the friends of all the delinquents. Should that be
+the case, you must show the letter to nobody. If I am again detected, I
+shall have the honor of being suspended. When the President asked what
+we played for, I thought it proper to inform him it was fifty cents,
+although it happened to be a quart of wine; but if I had told him of
+that, he would probably have fined me for having a blow. There was no
+untruth in the case, as the wine cost fifty cents. I have not played at
+all this term. I have not drank any kind of spirits or wine this term,
+and shall not till the last week." [Footnote: Horatio Bridge, 118.]
+
+
+The clemency with which the college authorities treated Bridge and
+Hawthorne is a plain indication of the confidence which they felt in
+them, and speaks more highly for their respective characters than if
+they had been patterns of good behavior. Some of the others were not so
+fortunate. One young man, whose name is properly withheld from us,
+was expelled from the institution. He was supposed to have been the
+ringleader in this dubious business, but Hawthorne manfully resented
+the supposition that any one could have influenced him, or did influence
+him, in this matter. It is more likely that he was influenced by the
+spirit of investigation, and wished to know what the sensation was like
+from personal experience.
+
+"Letters home" from college are not commonly interesting to the general
+public, and those which Hawthorne wrote to his mother and sisters do
+not differ essentially from such as other young men write under similar
+conditions. At the age when it is so difficult to decide whether we
+have become men or are still boys, all our actions partake of a similar
+uncertainty, and the result of what we do and say is likely to be a
+rather confused impression. Though college students appear different
+enough to one another, they all seem alike to the outside world.
+
+University towns always contain more or less cultivated society, and
+young Hawthorne might have been welcome to the best of it if he had felt
+so inclined; but he was as shy of the fair sex as Goldsmith's bashful
+lover. M. D. Conway, who knew him, doubts if he ever became well
+acquainted with a young lady until his engagement to Miss Peabody.
+Considering this, it seems as if Jonathan Cilley made rather a hazardous
+wager with Hawthorne, before leaving Bowdoin,--a wager of a cask of
+Madeira, that Hawthorne would become a married man within the next
+twelve years. Papers to that effect were duly signed by the respective
+parties, sealed, and delivered for safe-keeping to Horatio Bridge,
+who preserved them faithfully until the appointed time arrived. Under
+ordinary conditions the chances of this bet were in Cilley's favor, for
+in those primitive days it was much easier for educated young men to
+obtain a start in life than it is at present, and early marriages were
+in consequence much more common.[Footnote: Horatio Bridge, 47. The
+contract was dated November 14, 1824.]
+
+The year 1824 was a serious one in American politics. The
+Republican-Democratic party, having become omnipotent, broke to pieces
+of its own weight. The eastern interest nominated John Quincy Adams
+for the Presidency; the western interest nominated Henry Clay; and the
+frontier interest nominated Andrew Jackson. Unfortunately the frontier
+interest included all the unsettled and continually shifting elements in
+the country, so that Jackson had nearly as strong a support in the East
+as in the West. Bridge says, "We were all enthusiastic supporters of old
+Hickory." It was evidently Pierce who led them into this, and although
+it proved in a material sense for Hawthorne's benefit, it separated
+him permanently from the class to which he properly belonged--the
+enlightened men of culture of his time; and Cilley's tragical fate can
+be directly traced to it. The Jackson movement was in its essence a
+revolt against _civility_,--and it seems as if Hawthorne and Bridge
+might have recognized this.
+
+Hawthorne was well liked in his class in spite of his reserved manners,
+but he held no class offices that we hear of, except a place on a
+committee of the Athenaean Society with Franklin Pierce. Class days
+and class suppers, so prolific of small honors, were not introduced at
+Bowdoin until some years later. He graduated eighteenth in a class of
+thirty-eight, but this was not sufficient to give him a part in the
+commencement exercises. [Footnote: The President informed him that his
+rank in the class would have entitled him to a part if it had not been
+for his neglect of declamations; and Hawthorne wrote to his mother that
+he was perfectly satisfied with this, for it saved him the mortification
+of appearing in public.] Accordingly Hawthorne, Bridge, and others who
+were in a like predicament, organized a mock Commencement celebration
+at Ward's Tavern, where they elected officers of a comical sort, such
+as boatswain and sea-cook, and concluded their celebration in a manner
+suitable to the occasion.
+
+Hawthorne was commonly known among his classmates, as "Hath," and his
+friends addressed him in this manner long after he had graduated. His
+degree was made out in the name of Nathaniel Hathorne, above which he
+subsequently wrote "Hawthorne," in bold letters.
+
+The question may well be raised here, how it happened that America
+produced so many men of remarkable intellect with such slight
+opportunities for education in former times, while our greatly improved
+universities have not graduated an orator like Webster, a poet like
+Longfellow, or a prose-writer equal to Hawthorne during the past forty
+years. There have been few enough who have risen above mediocrity.
+
+It is the same, more or less, all over the civilized world. We have
+entered into a mechanical age, which is natural enough considering the
+rapid advances of science and the numerous mechanical inventions, but
+which is decidedly unfavorable to the development of art and literature.
+Everything now goes by machinery, from Harvard University to Ohio
+politics and the gigantic United States Steel Company; and every man has
+to find his place in some machine or other, or he is thrown out of line.
+Individual effort, as well as independence of thought and action, is
+everywhere frowned upon; but without freedom of thought and action there
+can be no great individualities, which is the same as saying that there
+can be no poets like Longfellow, or writers like Hawthorne and Emerson.
+Spontaneity is the life of the true artist, and in a mechanical
+civilization there can be neither spontaneity nor the poetic material
+which is essential to artistic work of a high order. There can be no
+great orators, for masses of men are no longer influenced by oratory,
+but by newspapers. Genius is like a plant of slow growth, which requires
+sunshine and Mother Earth to nourish it, not chemicals and electric
+lights.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+LITTLE MISERY: 1825-1835
+
+
+During the War of the American Revolution, the officers of the French
+fleet, which was stationed at Newport, invented a game of cards, called
+"Boston," of which one peculiarity was, that under certain conditions,
+whoever held the lowest hand would win the count. This was called
+"Little Misery," and this was the kind of hand which Nathaniel Hawthorne
+had to play for fifteen years after leaving Bowdoin College. Only his
+indomitable will could have carried him through it.
+
+A college graduate who lacks the means to study a profession, and who
+has no influential relative to make a place for him in the world,
+finds himself in a most discouraging position. The only thing that his
+education has fitted him to do is, to teach school, and he may not be
+adapted to this, on account of some personal peculiarity. There was,
+and I suppose is still, a prejudice among mercantile men against college
+graduates, as a class of proud, indolent, neglectful persons, very
+difficult to instruct. Undoubtedly there are many such, but the innocent
+have to suffer with the guilty. It is natural that a man who has not had
+a liberal education should object to employing a subordinate who knows
+Latin and Greek. Whether Hawthorne's Uncle Robert, who had thus
+far proved to be his guardian genius, would have educated him for a
+profession, we have no means of knowing. This would mean of course a
+partial support for years afterward, and it is quite possible that Mr.
+Manning considered his duties to his own children paramount to it. What
+he did for Nathaniel may have been the best he could, to give him
+the position of book-keeper for the stage-company. This was of course
+Pegasus in harness (or rather at the hitching-post), but it is excellent
+experience for every young man; although the compensation in Hawthorne's
+case was small and there could be no expectation of future advancement.
+
+In this dilemma he decided to do the one thing for which Nature
+intended him,--to become a writer of fiction,--and he held fast to this
+determination in the face of most discouraging obstacles. He composed
+a series of short stories,--echoes of his academic years,--which he
+proposed to publish under the title of Wordsworth's popular poem, "We
+Are Seven." One of these is said to have been based on the witchcraft
+delusion, and it is a pity that it should not have been preserved,
+but their feminine titles afford no indication of their character. He
+carried them to a publisher, who received him politely and promised to
+examine them, but one month passed after another without Hawthorne's
+hearing from him, so that he concluded at length to make inquiries.
+[Footnote: J. Hawthorne, i. 124.] The publisher confessed that he had
+not even undertaken to read them, and Nathaniel carried them back,
+with a sinking heart, to his little chamber in the house on Herbert
+Street,--where he may have had melancholy thoughts enough for the next
+few weeks.
+
+Youth, however, soon outgrows its chagrins. In less than two years
+Hawthorne was prepared to enter the literary lists, equipped with a
+novelette, called "Fanshawe"; but here again he was destined to meet
+with a rebuff. After tendering it to a number of publishers without
+encouragement, he concluded to take the risk of publishing it
+himself. This only cost him a few hundred dollars, but the result was
+unsatisfactory, and he afterward destroyed all the copies that he could
+regain possession of.
+
+Hawthorne's genius was of slow development. He was only twenty-four when
+he published this rather immature work, and it might have been better if
+he had waited longer. It was to him what the "Sorrows of Werther" was
+to Goethe, but while the "Sorrows of Werther" made Goethe famous in many
+countries, "Fanshawe" fell still-born. The latter was not more imitative
+of Scott than the "Sorrows of Werther" is of Rousseau, and now that
+we consider it in the cool critical light of the twentieth century,
+we cannot but wonder that the "Sorrows of Werther" ever produced such
+enthusiasm. It is quite as difficult to see why "Fanshawe" should not
+have proved a success. It lacks the grace and dignity of Hawthorne's
+mature style, but it has an ingenious plot, a lively action, and is
+written in sufficiently good English. One would suppose that its faults
+would have helped to make it popular, for portions of it are so exciting
+as to border closely on the sensational. It may be affirmed that when
+a novel becomes so exciting that we wish to turn over the pages and
+anticipate the conclusion, either the action of the story is too heated
+or its incidents are too highly colored. The introduction of pirates in
+a work of fiction is decidely sensational, from Walter Scott downward,
+and, though Hawthorne never fell into this error, he approaches closely
+to it in "Fanshawe." There is some dark secret between the two villains
+of the piece, which he leaves to the reader as an exercise for the
+imagination. This is a characteristic of all his longer stories. There
+is an unknown quantity, an insoluble point, in them, which tantalizes
+the reader.
+
+What we especially feel in "Fanshawe" is the author's lack of social
+experience. His heroine at times behaves in a truly feminine manner, and
+at others her performances make us shiver. Her leaving her guardian's
+house at midnight to go off with an unknown man, whom her maidenly
+instinct should have taught her to distrust, even if Fanshawe had not
+warned her against him, might have been characteristic of the Middle
+Ages, but is certainly not of modern life. Bowdoin College evidently
+served Hawthorne as a background to his plot, although removed some
+distance into the country, and it is likely that the portrait of the
+kindly professor might have been recognized there. Ward's Tavern serves
+for the public-house where the various characters congregate, and
+there is a high rocky ledge in the woods, or what used to be woods at
+Brunswick, where the students often tried their skill in climbing, and
+which Hawthorne has idealized into the cliff where the would-be abductor
+met his timely fate. The trout-brook where Bridge and Hawthorne used to
+fish is also introduced.
+
+Fanshawe himself seems like a house of which only two sides have been
+built. There are such persons, and it is no wonder if they prove to be
+short-lived. Yet the scene in which he makes his noble renunciation of
+the woman who is devoted to him, purely from a sense of gratitude, is
+finely and tenderly drawn, and worthy of Hawthorne in his best years.
+The story was republished after its author's death, and fully deserves
+its position in his works.
+
+It was about this time (1827) that Nathaniel Hathorne changed his name
+to Hawthorne. No reason has ever been assigned for his doing so, and he
+had no legal right to do it without an act of the Legislature, but
+he took a revolutionary right, and as his family and fellow-citizens
+acquiesced in this, it became an established fact. His living relatives
+in the Manning family are unable to explain his reason for it. It may
+have been for the sake of euphony, or he may have had a fanciful notion,
+that such a change would break the spell which seemed to be dragging his
+family down with him. Conway's theory that it was intended to serve him
+as an incognito is quite untenable. His name first appears with a _w_ in
+the Bowdoin Triennial Catalogue of 1828.
+
+There are very few data existing as to Hawthorne's life during his first
+ten years of manhood, but it must have been a hard, dreary period for
+him. The Manning children, Robert, Elizabeth and Rebecca, were now
+growing up, and must have been a source of entertainment in their way,
+and his sister Louisa was always a comfort; but Horatio Bridge, who made
+a number of flying visits to him, states that he never saw the
+elder sister, even at table,--a fact from which we may draw our own
+conclusions. Hawthorne had no friends at this time, except his college
+associates, and they were all at a distance,--Pierce and Cilley both
+flourishing young lawyers, one at Concord, New Hampshire, and the other
+at Thomaston, Maine,--while Longfellow was teaching modern languages at
+Bowdoin. He had no lady friends to brighten his evenings for him, and
+if he went into society, it was only to be stared at for his personal
+beauty, like a jaguar in a menagerie. He had no fund of the small
+conversation which serves like oil to make the social machinery run
+smoothly. Like all deep natures, he found it difficult to adapt himself
+to minds of a different calibre. Salem people noticed this, and his
+apparent lack of an object in life,--for he maintained a profound
+secrecy in regard to his literary efforts,--and concluded that he was
+an indolent young man without any faculty for business, and would never
+come to good in this world. No doubt elderly females admonished him for
+neglecting his opportunities, and small wits buzzed about him as they
+have about many another under similar conditions. It was Hans Andersen's
+story of the ugly duck that proved to be a swan.
+
+No wonder that Hawthorne betook himself to the solitude of his own
+chamber, and consoled himself like the philosopher who said, "When I am
+alone, then I am least alone." He had an internal life with which only
+his most intimate friends were acquainted, and he could people his room
+with forms from his own fancy, much more real to him than the palpable
+_ignota_ whom he passed in the street. Beautiful visions came to him,
+instead of sermonizing ladies, patronizing money-changers, aggressive
+upstarts, grimacing wiseacres, and that large class of amiable,
+well-meaning persons that makes up the bulk of society. We should not be
+surprised if angels sometimes came to hover round him, for to the pure
+in heart heaven descends upon earth.
+
+There is a passage in Hawthorne's diary under date of October 4, 1840,
+which has often been quoted; but it will have to be quoted again, for
+it cannot be read too often, and no biography of him would be adequate
+without it. He says:
+
+"Here I sit in my old accustomed chamber where I used to sit in days
+gone by....This claims to be called a haunted chamber, for thousands
+upon thousands of visions have appeared to me in it; and some few
+of them have become visible to the world. If ever I should have a
+biographer, he ought to make great mention of this chamber in my
+memoirs, because so much of my lonely youth was wasted here, and here my
+mind and character were formed; and here I have been glad and hopeful,
+and here I have been despondent. And here I sat a long, long time,
+waiting patiently for the world to know me, and sometimes wondering why
+it did not know me sooner, or whether it would ever know me at all,--at
+least, till I were in my grave. And sometimes it seemed as if I were
+already in the grave, with only life enough to be chilled and benumbed.
+But oftener I was happy,--at least as happy as I then knew how to be, or
+was aware of the possibility of being. By and by, the world found me out
+in my lonely chamber, and called me forth,--not indeed, with a loud roar
+of acclamation, but rather with a still, small voice,--and forth I went,
+but found nothing in the world that I thought preferable to my solitude
+till now ... and now I begin to understand why I was imprisoned so many
+years in this lonely chamber, and why I could never break through the
+viewless bolts and bars; for if I had sooner made my escape into the
+world, I should have grown hard and rough, and been covered with earthly
+dust, and my heart might have become callous by rude encounters with the
+multitude.... But living in solitude till the fulness of time was come,
+I still kept the dew of my youth, and the freshness of my heart."
+
+During these dismal years Horatio Bridge was Hawthorne's good genius.
+The letters that Hawthorne wrote to him have not been preserved, but we
+may judge of their character by Bridge's replies to him--always frank,
+manly, sympathetic and encouraging. Hawthorne evidently confided his
+troubles and difficulties to Bridge, as he would to an elder brother.
+Bridge finally destroyed Hawthorne's letters, not so much on account
+of their complaining tone as for the personalities they contained;
+[Footnote: Horatio Bridge, 69.] and this suggests to us that there was
+still another side to Hawthorne's life at this epoch concerning which
+we shall never be enlightened. A man could not have had a better friend
+than Horatio Bridge. He was to Hawthorne what Edward Irving was to
+Carlyle; and the world is more indebted to them both than it often
+realizes.
+
+There is in fact a decided similarity between the lives of Carlyle and
+Hawthorne, in spite of radical differences in their work and characters.
+Both started at the foot of the ladder, and met with a hard, long
+struggle for recognition; both found it equally difficult to earn their
+living by their pens; both were assisted by most devoted friends, and
+both finally achieved a reputation among the highest in their own time.
+If there is sometimes a melancholy tinge in their writings, may we
+wonder at it? Pericles said, "We need the theatre to chase away the
+sadness of life," and it might have benefited the whole Hawthorne
+family to have gone to the theatre once a fortnight; but there were few
+entertainments in Salem, except of the stiff conventional sort, or
+in the shape of public dances open to firemen and shop-girls. Long
+afterward, Elizabeth Hawthorne wrote of her brother:
+
+"His habits were as regular as possible. In the evening after tea he
+went out for about an hour, whatever the weather was; and in winter,
+after his return, he ate a pint bowl of thick chocolate--(not cocoa, but
+the old-fashioned chocolate) crumbed full of bread: eating never
+hurt him then, and he liked good things. In summer he ate something
+equivalent, finishing with fruit in the season of it. In the evening we
+discussed political affairs, upon which we differed in opinion; he being
+a Democrat, and I of the opposite party. In reality, his interest in
+such things was so slight that I think nothing would have kept it
+alive but my contentious spirit. Sometimes, when he had a book that he
+particularly liked, he would not talk. He read a great many novels."
+[Footnote: J. Hawthorne, i. 125.]
+
+If Elizabeth possessed the genius which her brother supposed, she
+certainly does not indicate it in this letter; but genius in the ore is
+very different from genius smelted and refined by effort and experience.
+The one important fact in her statement is that Hawthorne was in the
+habit of taking solitary rambles after dark,--an owlish practice,
+but very attractive to romantic minds. Human nature appears in a more
+pictorial guise by lamplight, after the day's work is over. The groups
+at the street corners, the glittering display in the watchmaker's
+windows, the carriages flashing by and disappearing in the darkness, the
+mysterious errands of foot-passengers, all served as object-lessons for
+this student of his own kind.
+
+Jonathan Cilley once said:
+
+"I love Hawthorne; I admire him; but I do not know him. He lives in a
+mysterious world of thought and imagination which he never permits me to
+enter." [Footnote: Packard's "Bowdoin College," 306.]
+
+Long-continued thinking is sure to take effect at last, either in words
+or in action, and Hawthorne's mind had to disburden itself in some
+manner. So, after the failure of "Fanshawe," he returned to his original
+plan of writing short stories, and this time with success. In January,
+1830, the well-known tale of "The Gentle Boy" was accepted by S. G.
+Goodrich, the editor of a Boston publication called the _Token_, who was
+himself better known in those days under the _nom de plume_ of "Peter
+Parley." "The Wives of the Dead," "Roger Malvin's Burial," and "Major
+Molineaux" soon followed. In 1833 he published the "Seven Vagabonds,"
+and some others. The New York _Knickerbocker_ published the "Fountain of
+Youth" and "Edward Fayne's Rosebud." After 1833 the _Token_ and the
+_New England Magazine_ [Footnote: J. Hawthorne, i. 175.] stood ready to
+accept all the short pieces that Hawthorne could give them, but they
+did not encourage him to write serial stories. However, it was not the
+custom then for writers to sign their names to magazine articles,
+so that Hawthorne gained nothing in reputation by this. Some of his
+earliest pieces were printed over the signature of "Oberon."
+
+An autumn expedition to the White Mountains, Lake Champlain and Lake
+Ontario, and Niagara Falls, in 1832, raised Hawthorne's spirits and
+stimulated his ambition. He wrote to his mother from Burlington,
+Vermont, September 16:
+
+"I have arrived in safety, having passed through the White Hills,
+stopping at Ethan Crawford's house, and climbing Mt. Washington. I have
+not decided as to my future course. I have no intention of going into
+Canada. I have heard that cholera is prevalent in Boston."
+
+It was something to have stood on the highest summit east of the Rocky
+Mountains, and to have seen all New England lying at his feet. A hard
+wind in the Crawford Notch, which he describes in his story of "The
+Ambitious Guest," must have been in his own experience, and as he passed
+the monument of the ill-fated Willey family he may have thought that
+he too might become celebrated after his death, even as they were
+from their poetic catastrophe. This expedition provided him with the
+materials for a number of small plots.
+
+The ice was now broken; but a new class of difficulties arose before
+him. American literature was then in the bud and promised a beautiful
+blossoming, but the public was not prepared for it. Monthly magazines
+had a precarious existence, and their uncertainty of remuneration
+reacted on the contributors. Hawthorne was poorly paid, often obliged to
+wait a long time for his pay, and occasionally lost it altogether. For
+his story of "The Gentle Boy," one of the gems of literature, which
+ought to be read aloud every year in the public schools, he received the
+paltry sum of thirty-five dollars. Evidently he could not earn even a
+modest maintenance on such terms, and his letters to Bridge became more
+despondent than ever.
+
+Goodrich, who was a writer of the Andrews Norton class, soon perceived
+that Hawthorne could make better sentences than his own, and engaged him
+to write historical abstracts for his pitiful Peter Parley books, paying
+him a hundred dollars for the whole work, and securing for himself all
+the credit that appertained to it. Everybody knew who Peter Parley was,
+but it has only recently been discovered that much of the literature
+which passed under his name was the work of Nathaniel Hawthorne.
+
+The editor of a New York magazine to which Hawthorne contributed a
+number of sketches repeatedly deferred the payment for them, and finally
+confessed his inability to make it,--which he probably knew or intended
+beforehand. Then, with true metropolitan assurance, he begged of
+Hawthorne the use of certain unpublished manuscripts, which he still
+had in his possession. Hawthorne with unlimited contempt told the fellow
+that he might keep them, and then wrote to Bridge:
+
+"Thus has this man, who would be considered a Maecenas, taken from a
+penniless writer material incomparably better than any his own brain can
+supply." [Footnote: Horatio Bridge, 68, 69.]
+
+Whether this New York periodical was the _Knickerbocker_ or some
+other, we are not informed; neither do we know what Bridge replied
+to Hawthorne, who had closed his letter with a malediction, on the
+aforesaid editor, but elsewhere in his memoirs he remarks:
+
+"Hawthorne received but small compensation for any of this literary
+work, for he lacked the knowledge of business and the self-assertion
+necessary to obtain even the moderate remuneration vouchsafed to writers
+fifty years ago." [Footnote: Horatio Bridge, 77.]
+
+If Horatio Bridge had been an author himself, he would not have written
+this statement concerning his friend. Magazine editors are like men in
+other professions: some of them are honorable and others are less so;
+but an author who offers a manuscript to the editor of a magazine
+is wholly at his mercy, so far as that small piece of property is
+concerned. The author cannot make a bargain with the editor as he can
+with the publisher of his book, and is obliged to accept whatever the
+latter chooses to give him. Instances have been known where an editor
+has destroyed a valuable manuscript, without compensation or explanation
+of any kind. Hawthorne was doing the best that a human being could under
+the conditions that were given him. Above all things, he was true to
+himself; no man could be more so.
+
+Yet Bridge wrote to him on Christmas Day, 1836:
+
+"The bane of your life has been self-distrust. This has kept you back
+for many years; which, if you had improved by publishing, would long ago
+have given you what you must now wait a long time for. It may be for the
+best, but I doubt it."
+
+Nothing is more trying in misfortune than the ill-judged advice of
+well-meaning friends. There is no nettle that stings like it. To expect
+Hawthorne to become a literary genius, and at the same time to develop
+the peculiar faculties of a commercial traveller or a curb-stone broker,
+was unreasonable. In the phraseology of Sir William Hamilton, the
+two vocations are "non-compossible." Bridge himself was undertaking
+a grandly unpractical project about this time: nothing less than an
+attempt to dam the Androscoggin, a river liable to devastating floods;
+and in this enterprise he was obliged to trust to a class of men who
+were much more uncertain in their ways and methods than those with whom
+Hawthorne dealt. Horatio Bridge had not studied civil engineering,
+and the result was that before two years had elapsed the floods on the
+Androscoggin swept the dam away, and his fortune with it.
+
+In the same letter we also notice this paragraph concerning another
+Bowdoin friend:
+
+"And so Frank Pierce is elected Senator. There is an instance of what a
+man can do by trying. With no very remarkable talents, he at the age
+of thirty-four fills one of the highest stations in the nation. He is a
+good fellow, and I rejoice at his success." [Footnote: J. Hawthorne, i.
+148.]
+
+Pierce certainly possessed the cap of Fortunatus, and it seems as if
+there must have been some magic faculty in the man, which enabled him to
+win high positions so easily; and he continued to do this, although he
+had not distinguished himself particularly as a member of Congress, and
+he appeared to still less advantage among the great party leaders in the
+United States Senate. He illustrated the faculty for "getting elected."
+
+In October, 1836, the time arrived for settling the matrimonial wager
+between Hawthorne and Jonathan Cilley, which they had made at college
+twelve years before. Bridge accordingly examined the documents which
+they had deposited with him, and notified Cilley that he was under
+obligation to provide Hawthorne with an octavo of Madeira.
+
+Cilley's letter to Hawthorne on this occasion does not impress one
+favorably. [Footnote: J. Hawthorne, i. 144.] It is familiar and jocose,
+without being either witty or friendly, and he gives no intimation in
+it of an intention to fulfil his promise. Hawthorne appears to have sent
+the letter to Bridge, who replied:
+
+"I doubt whether you ever get your wine from Cilley. His inquiring of
+you whether he had really lost the bet is suspicious; and he has written
+me in a manner inconsistent with an intention of paying promptly; and if
+a bet grows old it grows cold. He wished me to propose to you to have
+it paid at Brunswick next Commencement, and to have as many of our
+classmates as could be mustered to drink it. It may be Cilley's idea to
+pay over the balance after taking a strong pull at it; if so, it is well
+enough. But still it should be tendered within the month."
+
+In short, Cilley behaved in this matter much in the style of a tricky
+Van Buren politician, making a great bluster of words, and privately
+intending to do nothing. He was running for Congress at the time on
+the Van Buren ticket, and it is quite likely that the expenses of the
+campaign had exhausted his funds. That he should never have paid the bet
+was less to Hawthorne's disadvantage than his own.
+
+It was now that Horatio Bridge proved himself a true friend, and equally
+a man. In the spring of 1836 Goodrich had obtained for Hawthorne
+the editorship of the _American Magazine of Useful and Entertaining
+Knowledge_, with a salary of five hundred dollars; [Footnote: Conway,
+45.]but he soon discovered that he had embarked on a ship with a rotten
+hulk. He started off heroically, writing the whole of the first number
+with the help of his sister Elizabeth; but by midsummer the concern was
+bankrupt, and he retired to his lonely cell, more gloomy and despondent
+than before. There are few sadder spectacles then that of a man seeking
+work without being able to obtain it; and this applies to the man of
+genius as well as to the day laborer.
+
+Horatio Bridge now realized that the time had come for him to interfere.
+He recognized that Hawthorne was gradually lapsing into a hypochondria
+that might terminate fatally; that he was Goethe's oak planted in a
+flowerpot, and that unless the flower-pot could be broken, the oak
+would die. He also saw that Hawthorne would never receive the public
+recognition that was due to his ability, so long as he published
+magazine articles under an assumed name. He accordingly wrote to
+Goodrich--fortunately before his mill-dam gave way--suggesting the
+publication of a volume of Hawthorne's stories, and offered to guarantee
+the publisher against loss. This proposition was readily accepted, but
+Bridge might have made a much better bargain. What it amounted to was,
+the half-profit system without the half-profit. The necessary papers
+were exchanged and Hawthorne gladly acceded to Goodrich's terms. Bridge,
+however, had cautioned Goodrich not to inform Hawthorne of his share in
+the enterprise, and the consequence of this was that he shortly received
+a letter from Hawthorne, informing him of the good news--which he knew
+already--and praising Goodrich, to whom he proposed to dedicate his new
+volume. Bridge's generosity had come back to him, dried and salted,--as
+it has to many another.
+
+What could Bridge do, in the premises? Goodrich had written to Hawthorne
+that the publisher, Mr. Howes, was confident of making a favorable
+arrangement _with a man of capital who would edit the book_; but Bridge
+did not know this, and he suspected Goodrich of sailing into Hawthorne's
+favor under a false flag. He therefore wrote to Hawthorne, November 17,
+1836:
+
+"I fear you will hurt yourself by puffing Goodrich _undeservedly_,--for
+there is no doubt in my mind of his selfishness in regard to your work
+and yourself. I am perfectly aware that he has taken a good deal of
+interest in you, but when did he ever do anything for you without a
+_quid pro quo_? The magazine was given to you for $100 less than it
+should have been. The _Token_ was saved by your writing. Unless you
+are already committed, do not mar the prospects of your _first_ book by
+hoisting Goodrich into favor."
+
+This prevented the dedication, for which Hawthorne was afterward
+thankful enough. The book, which was the first volume of "Twice Told
+Tales" came from the press the following spring, and proved an immediate
+success, although not a highly lucrative one for its author. With
+the help of Longfellow's cordial review of it in the _North American_
+it established Hawthorne's reputation on a firm and irrefragable basis.
+All honor to Horatio.
+
+As if Hawthorne had not seen a sufficiently long "winter of discontent"
+already, his friends now proposed to obtain the position of secretary
+and chronicler for him on Commodore Jones's exploring expedition to the
+South Pole! Franklin Pierce was the first to think of this, but Bridge
+interceded with Cilley to give it his support, and there can be no doubt
+that they would have succeeded in obtaining the position for Hawthorne,
+but the expedition itself failed, for lack of a Congressional
+appropriation. The following year, 1838, the project was again brought
+forward by the administration, and Congress being in a more amiable
+frame of mind granted the requisite funds; but Hawthorne had now
+contracted new ties in his native city, bound, as it were, by an
+inseparable cord stronger than a Manila hawser, and Doctor Nathaniel
+Peabody's hospitable parlors were more attractive to him than anything
+the Antarctic regions could offer.
+
+We have now entered upon the period where Hawthorne's own diary
+commences, the autobiography of a pure-minded, closely observing man;
+an invaluable record, which began apparently in 1835, and was continued
+nearly until the close of his life; now published in a succession of
+American, English and Italian note-books. In it we find records of what
+he saw and thought; descriptive passages, afterward made serviceable
+in his works of fiction, and perhaps written with that object in view;
+fanciful notions, jotted down on the impulse of the moment; records
+of his social life; but little critical writing or personal
+confessions,--although the latter may have been reserved; from
+publication by his different editors. It is known that much of his diary
+has not yet been given to the public, and perhaps never will be.
+
+In July, 1837, Hawthorne went to Augusta, to spend a month with his
+friend Horatio Bridge; went fishing with him, for what they called
+white perch, probably the saibling; [Footnote: The American saibling, or
+golden trout, is only indigenous to Lake Sunapee, New Hampshire, and
+to a small lake near Augusta.] and was greatly entertained with the
+peculiarities of an idiomatic Frenchman, an itinerant teacher of that
+language, whom Bridge, in the kindness of his heart, had taken into his
+own house. The last of July, Cilley also made his appearance, but did
+not bring the Madeira with him, and Hawthorne has left this rather
+critical portrait of him in his diary:
+
+"Friday, July 28th.--Saw my classmate and formerly intimate friend,
+----, for the first time since we graduated. He has met with good
+success in life, in spite of circumstances, having struggled upward
+against bitter opposition, by the force of his abilities, to be a member
+of Congress, after having been for some time the leader of his party in
+the State Legislature. We met like old friends, and conversed almost as
+freely as we used to do in college days, twelve years ago and more. He
+is a singular person, shrewd, crafty, insinuating, with wonderful tact,
+seizing on each man by his manageable point, and using him for his own
+purpose, often without the man's suspecting that he is made a tool of;
+and yet, artificial as his character would seem to be, his conversation,
+at least to myself, was full of natural feeling, the expression of which
+can hardly be mistaken, and his revelations with regard to himself had
+really a great deal of frankness. A man of the most open nature might
+well have been more reserved to a friend, after twelve years separation,
+than ---- was to me. Nevertheless, he is really a crafty man,
+concealing, like a murder-secret, anything that it is not good for him
+to have known. He by no means feigns the good feeling that he professes,
+nor is there anything affected in the frankness of his conversation; and
+it is this that makes him so fascinating. There is such a quantity of
+truth and kindliness and warm affections, that a man's heart opens
+to him, in spite of himself. He deceives by truth. And not only is
+he crafty, but, when occasion demands, bold and fierce like a tiger,
+determined, and even straightforward and undisguised in his measures,--a
+daring fellow as well as a sly one."
+
+This can be no other than Jonathan Cilley; like many of his class, a
+man of great good humor but not over-scrupulous, so far as the means he
+might make use of were concerned. He did not, however, prove to be as
+skilful a diplomat as Hawthorne seems to have supposed him. The
+duel between Cilley and Graves, of Kentucky, has been so variously
+misrepresented that the present occasion would seem a fitting
+opportunity to tell the plain truth concerning it.
+
+President Jackson was an honest man, in the customary sense of the term,
+and he would have scorned to take a dollar that was not his own; but he
+suffered greatly from parasites, who pilfered the nation's money,--the
+natural consequence of the spoils-of-office system. The exposure of
+these peculations gave the Whigs a decided advantage, and Cilley, who
+had quickly proved his ability in debate, attempted to set a back-fire
+by accusing Watson Webb, the editor of the _Courier and Enquirer_, of
+having been bribed to change the politics of his paper. The true facts
+of the case were, that the paper had been purchased by the Whigs, and
+Webb, of course, had a right to change his politics if he chose to;
+and the net result of Cilley's attack was a challenge to mortal combat,
+carried by Representative Graves, of Kentucky. Cilley, although a man of
+courage, declined this, on the ground that members of Congress ought
+not to be called to account outside of the Capitol, for words spoken in
+debate. "Then," said Graves, "you will at least admit that my friend is
+a gentleman."
+
+This was a fair offer toward conciliation, and if Cilley had been
+peaceably inclined he would certainly have accepted it; but he
+obstinately refused to acknowledge that General Webb was a gentleman,
+and in consequence of this he received a second challenge the next day
+from Graves, brought by Henry A. Wise, afterward Governor of Virginia.
+Cilley still objected to fighting, but members of his party urged him
+into it: the duel took place, and Cilley was killed.
+
+It may be said in favor of the "code of honor" that it discourages
+blackguardism and instructs a man to keep a civil tongue; but it is
+not always possible to prevent outbursts of temper, especially in hot
+climates, and a man's wife and children should also be considered.
+Andrew Jackson said at the close of his life, that there was nothing he
+regretted so much as having killed a human being in a duel. Man rises by
+humility, and angels fall from pride.
+
+Hawthorne wrote a kindly and regretful notice of the death of his old
+acquaintance, which was published in the _Democratic Review_, and which
+closed with this significant passage:
+
+"Alas, that over the grave of a dear friend, my sorrow for the
+bereavement must be mingled with another grief--that he threw away such
+a life in so miserable a cause! Why, as he was true to the Northern
+character in all things else, did he swerve from his Northern principles
+in this final scene?" [Footnote: Conway, 63.]
+
+It will be well to bear this in mind in connection with a somewhat
+similar incident, which we have now to consider.
+
+An anecdote has been repeated in all the books about Hawthorne published
+since 1880, which would do him little credit if it could be proved,--a
+story that he challenged one of his friends to a duel, at the
+instigation of a vulgar and unprincipled young woman. Horatio Bridge
+says in reference to it:
+
+"This characteristic was notably displayed several years later, when a
+lady incited him to quarrel with one of his best friends on account of
+a groundless pique of hers. He went to Washington for the purpose of
+challenging the gentleman, and it was only after ample explanation had
+been made, showing that his friend had behaved with entire honor, that
+Pierce and Cilley, who were his advisers, could persuade him to be
+satisfied without a fight." [Footnote: Bridge, 5.]
+
+How the good Horatio could have fallen into this pit is unimaginable,
+for a double contradiction is contained in his statement. "Some time
+after this," that is after leaving college, would give the impression
+that the affair took place about 1830, whereas Pierce and Cilley were
+not in Washington together till five or six years later--probably seven
+years later. Moreover, Hawthorne states in a letter to Pierce's friend
+O'Sullivan, on April 1, 1853, that he had never been in Washington up to
+that time. The Manning family and Mrs. Hawthorne's relatives never heard
+of the story previous to its publication.
+
+The internal evidence is equally strong against it. What New England
+girl would behave in the manner that Hawthorne's son represents this
+one to have done? What young gentleman would have listened to such a
+communication as he supposes, and especially the reserved and modest
+Hawthorne? One can even imagine the aspect of horror on his face at such
+an unlady-like proceeding. The story would be an ignominious one
+for Hawthorne, if it were credible, but there is no occasion for our
+believing it until some tangible evidence is adduced in its support.
+There was no element of Quixotism in his composition, and it is quite
+as impossible to locate the identity of the person whom Hawthorne is
+supposed to have challenged.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+EOS AND EROS: 1835-1839
+
+
+It was fortunate for Hawthorne that there was at this time a periodical
+in the United States, the _North American Review_, which was generally
+looked upon as an authority in literature, and which in most instances
+deserved the confidence that was placed in it, for its reviews were
+written by men of distinguished ability. It was the _North American
+Review_ which made the reputation of L. Maria Child, and which enrolled
+Hawthorne in the order of geniuses.
+
+There is not much literary criticism in Longfellow's review, and he does
+not "rise to the level of the accomplished essayist" of our own time,
+[Footnote: Who writes so correctly and says so little to the purpose.]
+but he goes to the main point with the single-mindness of the true
+poet. "A new star," he says, "has appeared in the skies"--a veritable
+prediction. "Others will gaze at it with telescopes, and decide whether
+it is in the constellation of Orion or the Great Bear. It is enough for
+us to gaze at it, to admire it, and welcome it."
+
+"Although Hawthorne writes in prose, he belongs among the poets. To
+every subject he touches he gives a poetic personality which emanates
+from the man himself. His sympathies extend to all things living, and
+even to the inanimates. Another characteristic is the exceeding beauty
+of his style. It is as clear as running waters are. Indeed he uses words
+as mere stepping-stones, upon which, with a free and youthful bound, his
+spirit crosses and re-crosses the bright and rushing stream of thought."
+
+Again he says:
+
+"A calm, thoughtful face seems to be looking at you from every page;
+with now a pleasant smile, and now a shade of sadness stealing over its
+features. Sometimes, though not often, it glares wildly at you, with a
+strange and painful expression, as, in the German romance, the bronze
+knocker of the Archivarius Lindhorst makes up faces at the Student
+Anselmus."
+
+Here we have a portrait of Hawthorne, by one who knew him, in a few
+simple words; and behind a calm thoughtful face there is that mysterious
+unknown quantity which puzzles Longfellow here, and always perplexed
+Hawthorne's friends. It may have been the nucleus or tap-root of his
+genius.
+
+Longfellow seems to have felt it as a dividing line between them. He
+probably felt so at college; and this brings us back to an old subject.
+Hawthorne's superiority to Longfellow as an artist consisted essentially
+in this, that he was never an optimist. Puritanism looked upon human
+nature with a hostile eye, and was inclined to see evil in it where none
+existed; and Doctor Channing, who inaugurated the great moral movement
+which swept Puritanism away in this country, tended, as all reformers
+do, to the opposite extreme,--to that scepticism of evil which, as
+George Brandes says, is greatly to the advantage of hypocrites and
+sharpers. This was justifiable in Doctor Channing, but among his
+followers it has often degenerated into an inverted or homoeopathic
+kind of Puritanism,--a habit of excusing the faults of others, or
+of themselves, on the score of good intentions--a habit of
+self-justification, and even to the perverse belief that, as everything
+is for the best, whatever we do in this world must be for good. To
+this class of sentimentalists the most serious evil is truth-seeing and
+truth-speaking. It is an excellent plan to look upon the bright side of
+things, but one should not do this to the extent of blinding oneself
+to facts. Doctor Johnson once said to Boswell, "Beware, my friend, of
+mixing up virtue and vice;" but there is something worse than that,
+and it is, to stigmatize a writer as a pessimist or a hypochondriac for
+refusing to take rainbow-colored views. This, however, would never apply
+to Longfellow.
+
+Hawthorne, with his eye ever on the mark, pursued a middle course. He
+separated himself from the Puritans without joining their opponents, and
+thus attained the most independent stand-point of any American writer
+of his time; and if this alienated him from the various humanitarian
+movements that were going forward, it was nevertheless a decided
+advantage for the work he was intended to do. In this respect he
+resembled Scott, Thackeray and George Eliot.
+
+What we call evil or sin is merely the negative of civilization,--a
+tendency to return to the original savage condition. In the light of
+history, there is always progress or improvement, but in individual
+cases there is often the reverse, and so far as the individual is
+concerned evil is no imaginary metaphor, but as real and absolute as
+what we call good. The Bulgarian massacres of 1877 were a historical
+necessity, and we console ourselves in thinking of them by the fact that
+they may have assisted the Bulgarians in obtaining their independence;
+but this was no consolation to the twenty or thirty thousand human
+beings who were ground to powder there. To them there was no comfort, no
+hope,--only the terrible reality. Neither can we cast the responsibility
+of such events on the mysterious ways of Providence. The ways of
+Providence are not so mysterious to those who have eyes to read with.
+Take for instance one of the most notable cases of depravity, that of
+Nero. If we consider the conditions under which he was born and brought
+up, the necessity of that form of government to hold a vast empire
+together, and the course of history for a hundred years previous, it is
+not difficult to trace the genesis of Nero's crimes to the greed of the
+Roman people (especially of its merchants) for conquest and plunder; and
+Nero was the price which they were finally called on to pay for this.
+Marcus Aurelius, a noble nature reared under favorable conditions for
+its development, became the Washington of his time.
+
+It is the same in private life. In many families there are evil
+tendencies, which if they are permitted to increase will take permanent
+hold, like a bad demon, of some weak individual, and make of him a
+terror and a torment to his relatives--fortunate if he is not in a
+position of authority. He may serve as a warning to the general public,
+but in the domestic circle he is an unmitigated evil,--he or she, though
+it is not so likely to be a woman. When a crime is committed within the
+precincts of good society, we are greatly shocked; but we do not often
+notice the debasement of character which leads down to it, and still
+more rarely notice the instances in which fear or some other motive
+arrests demoralization before the final step, and leaves the delinquent
+as it were in a condition of moral suspense.
+
+It was in such tragic situations that Hawthorne found the material which
+was best suited to the bent of his genius.
+
+In the two volumes, however, of "Twice Told Tales,"--the second
+published two years later,--the tragical element only appears as an
+undercurrent of pathos in such stories as "The Gentle Boy," "Wakefield,"
+"The Maypole of Merry-mount," and "The Haunted Mind," but reaches a
+climax in "The Ambitious Guest" and "Lady Eleanor's Mantle." There are
+others, like "Lights from a Steeple," and "Little Annie's Ramble," that
+are of a more cheerful cast, but are also much less serious in their
+composition. "The Minister's Black Veil," "The Great Carbuncle," and
+"The Ambitious Guest," are Dantean allegories. We notice that each
+volume begins with a highly patriotic tale, the "Gray Champion," and
+"Howe's Masquerade," but the patriotism is genuine and almost fervid.
+
+When I first looked upon the house in which Hawthorne lived at Sebago, I
+was immediately reminded of these earlier studies in human nature, which
+are of so simple and quiet a diction, so wholly devoid of rhetoric,
+that Elizabeth Peabody thought they must be the work of his sister, and
+others supposed them to have been written by a Quaker. They resemble
+Duerer's wood-cuts,--gentle and tender in line, but unswerving in their
+fidelity. We sometimes wish that they were not so quiet and evenly
+composed, and then repent of our wish that anything so perfect should be
+different from what it is. His "Twice Told Tales" are a picture-gallery
+that may be owned in any house-hold. They stand alone in English, and
+there is not their like in any other language.
+
+Yet Hawthorne is not a word-painter like Browning and Carlyle, but
+obtains his pictorial effect by simple accuracy of description, a more
+difficult process than the other, but also more satisfactory. His eyes
+penetrate the masks and wrappings which cover human nature, as the
+Roentgen rays penetrate the human body. He sees a man's heart through
+the flesh and bones, and knows what is concealed in it. He ascends a
+church-steeple, and looking down from the belfry the whole life of the
+town is spread out before him. Men and women come and go--Hawthorne
+knows the errands they are on. He sees a militia company parading
+below, and they remind him from that elevation of the toy soldiers in a
+shop-window,--which they turned out to be, pretty much, at Bull Run. A
+fashionable young man comes along the street escorting two young ladies,
+and suddenly at a crossing encounters their father, who takes them away
+from him; but one of them gives him a sweet parting look, which amply
+compensates him in its presage of future opportunities. How plainly that
+consolatory look appears between our eyes and the printed page!
+Then Hawthorne describes the grand march of a thunder-storm,--as in
+Rembrandt's "Three Trees,"--with its rolling masses of dark vapor,
+preceded by a skirmish-line of white feathery clouds. The militia
+company is defeated at the first onset of this, its meteoric enemy, and
+driven under cover. The artillery of the skies booms and flashes about
+Hawthorne himself, until finally: "A little speck of azure has widened
+in the western heavens; the sunbeams find a passage and go rejoicing
+through the tempest, and on yonder darkest cloud, born like hallowed
+hopes of the glory of another world and the trouble and tears of this,
+brightens forth the rainbow." All this may have happened just as it is
+set down.
+
+"Lady Eleanor's Mantle" exemplifies the old proverb, "Pride goeth before
+destruction," in almost too severe a manner, but the tale is said to
+have a legendary foundation; and "The Minister's Black Veil" is an
+equally awful symbolism for that barrier between man and man, which we
+construct through suspicion and our lack of frankness in our dealings
+with one another. We all hide ourselves behind veils, and, as Emerson
+says, "Man crouches and blushes, absconds and conceals."
+
+"The Ambitious Guest" allegorizes a vain imagination, and is the
+most important of these three. A young man suffers from a craving for
+distinction, which he believes will only come to him after this life is
+ended. He is walking through the White Mountains, and stops overnight at
+the house of the ill-fated Willey family. He talks freely on the subject
+of his vain expectations, when Destiny, in the shape of an avalanche,
+suddenly overtakes him, and buries him so deeply that neither his body
+nor his name has ever been recovered. Hawthorne might have drawn another
+allegory from the same source, for if the Willey family had trusted to
+Providence, and remained in their house, instead of rushing out into the
+dark, they would not have lost their lives.
+
+In the _Democratic Review_ for 1834, Hawthorne published the account of
+a visit to Niagara Falls, one of the fruits of his expedition thither
+in September, 1832, by way of the White Mountains and Burlington, the
+journey from Salem to Niagara in those days being fully equal to
+going from New York to the cataracts of the Nile in our own time. "The
+Ambitious Guest" was published in the same volume with it, and "The
+Ontario Steamboat" first appeared in the _American Magazine of Useful
+and Entertaining Knowledge_, in 1836. Hawthorne may have made other
+expeditions to the White Mountains, but we do not hear of them.
+
+In addition to the three studies already mentioned, Hawthorne drew from
+this source the two finest of his allegories, "The Great Carbuncle" and
+"The Great Stone Face."
+
+"The Great Carbuncle" is not only one of the most beautiful of
+Hawthorne's tales, but the most far-reaching in its significance. The
+idea of it must have originated in the Alpine glow, an effect of the
+rising or setting sun on the icy peaks of a mountain, which looks at a
+distance like a burning coal; an appearance only visible in the White
+Mountains during the winter, and there is no reason why Hawthorne should
+not have seen it at that season from Lake Sebago. At a distance of
+twenty miles or more it blazes wonderfully, but on a nearer approach it
+entirely disappears. Hawthorne could not have found a more fascinating
+subject, and he imagines it for us as a great carbuncle located in the
+upper recesses of the mountains.
+
+A number of explorers for this wonderful gem meet together at the foot
+of the mountain beyond the confines of civilization, and build a hut
+in which to pass the night. They are recognizable, from Hawthorne's
+description, as the man of one idea, who has spent his whole life
+seeking the gem; a scientific experimenter who wishes to grind it up for
+the benefit of his crucible; a cynical sceptic who has come to disprove
+the existence of the great gem; a greedy speculator who seeks the
+carbuncle as he would prospect for a silver-mine; an English lord who
+wishes to add it to his hereditary possessions; and finally a young
+married couple who want to obtain it for an ornament to their new
+cottage. The interest of the reader immediately centres on these last
+two, and we care much more concerning their fortunes and adventures than
+we do about the carbuncle.
+
+The conversation that evening between these ill-assorted companions is
+in Hawthorne's most subtle vein of irony, and would have delighted old
+Socrates himself. Meanwhile the young bride weaves a screen of twigs and
+leaves, to protect herself and her husband from the gaze of the curious.
+
+The following morning they all set out by different paths in search of
+the carbuncle; but our thoughts accompany the steps of the young bride,
+as she makes one toilsome ascent after another until she feels ready to
+sink to the ground with fatigue and discouragement. They have already
+decided to return, when the rosy light of the carbuncle bursts upon them
+from beneath the lifting clouds; but they now feel instinctively that it
+is too great a prize for their possession. The man of one idea also sees
+it, and his life goes out in the exultation over his final success. The
+skeptic appears, but cannot discover it, although his face is illumined
+by its light, until he takes off his large spectacles; whereupon,
+he instantly becomes blind. The English nobleman and the American
+speculator fail to discover it; the former returns to his ancestral
+halls, as wise as he was before; and the latter is captured by a party
+of Indians and obliged to pay a heavy ransom to regain freedom. The
+scientific pedant finds a rare specimen of primeval granite, which
+serves his purpose quite as well as the carbuncle; and the two young
+doves return to their cot, having learned the lesson of contentment.
+
+How fortunate was Hawthorne at the age of thirty thus to anatomize the
+chief illusions of life, which so many others follow until old age!
+
+It is an erroneous notion that Hawthorne found the chief material
+for his work in old New England traditions. There are some half-dozen
+sketches of this sort, but they are more formally written than the
+others, and remind one of those portraits by Titian which were painted
+from other portraits,--better than the originals, but not equal to those
+which he painted from Nature.
+
+In the "Sights from a Steeple" Hawthorne exposes his methods of study
+and betrays the active principle of his existence. He says:
+
+"The most desirable mode of existence might be that of a spiritualized
+Paul Pry hovering invisible round man and woman, witnessing their deeds,
+searching into their hearths, borrowing brightness from their felicity
+and shade from their sorrow, and retaining no emotion peculiar to
+himself."
+
+There are those who would dislike this busybody occupation, and
+others, such as Emerson perhaps, might not consider it justifiable; but
+Hawthorne is not to be censured for it, for his motive was an elevated
+one, and without this close scrutiny of human nature we should have
+had neither a Hawthorne nor a Shakespeare. There is no quality more
+conspicuous in "Twice Told Tales" than the calm, evenly balanced mental
+condition of the author, who seems to look down on human life not so
+much from a church steeple as from the blue firmament itself.
+
+Such was the _Eos_ or dawn of Hawthorne's literary art.
+
+Hawthorne returned thanks to Longfellow in a gracefully humorous letter,
+to which Longfellow replied with a cordial wish to see Hawthorne in
+Cambridge, and by advising him to dive into deeper water and write
+a history of the Acadians before and after their expulsion from Nova
+Scotia; but this was not practicable for minds like Hawthorne's,
+surcharged with poetic images, and the attempt might have proved a
+disturbing influence for him. He had already contributed the substance
+to Longfellow of "Evangeline," and he now wrote a eulogium on the
+poem for a Salem newspaper, which it must be confessed did not differ
+essentially from other reviews of the same order. He does not give us
+any clear idea of how the poem actually impressed him, which is after
+all the best that one can do in such cases. Poetry is not like a problem
+in mathematics, which can be marked right or wrong according to its
+solution.
+
+When a young man obtains a substantial footing in his profession or
+business, he looks about him for a wife--unless he happens to be already
+pledged in that particular; and Hawthorne was not an exception to this
+rule. He was not obliged to look very far, and yet the chance came
+to him in such an exceptional manner that it seems as if some special
+providence were connected with it. His position in this respect was a
+peculiar one. He does not appear to have been much acquainted in Salem
+even now; and the only son of a widow with two unmarried sisters may be
+said to have rather a slim chance for escaping from those strong ties
+which have grown up between them from childhood. Many a mother has
+prevented her son from getting married until it has become too late for
+him to change his bachelor habits. His mother and his sisters realize
+that he ought to be married, and that he has a right to a home of
+his own; but in their heart of hearts they combat the idea, and their
+opposition takes the form of an unsparing criticism of any young lady
+whom he follows with his eyes. This frequently happens also in a family
+of girls: they all remain unmarried because, if one of them shows an
+inclination in that direction, the others unite in a conspiracy against
+her. On the other hand, a family of four or five boys will marry early,
+if they can obtain the means of doing so, simply from the need of
+feminine cheer and sympathy. A devoted female friend will sometimes
+prevent a young woman from being married. Love affairs are soft earth
+for an intriguing and unprincipled woman to work in, but, fortunately,
+Mrs. Hawthorne did not belong in that category.
+
+It was stout, large-hearted Elizabeth Peabody who broke the spell of the
+enchanted castle in which Hawthorne was confined. The Peabodys were a
+cultivated family in Salem, who lived pretty much by themselves, as the
+Hawthornes and Mannings did. Doctor Nathaniel Peabody was a respectable
+practitioner, but he had not succeeded in curing the headaches of his
+daughter Sophia, which came upon her at the close of her girlhood and
+still continued intermittently until this time. The Graces had not
+been bountiful the Peabody family, so, to compensate for this, they all
+cultivated the Muses, in whose society they ascended no little distance
+on the way to Parnassus. Elizabeth Peabody was quite a feminine pundit.
+She learned French and German, and studied history and archaeology; she
+taught history on a large scale at Sanborn's Concord School and at many
+others; she had a method of painting dates on squares, which fixed them
+indelibly in the minds of her pupils; she talked at Margaret Fuller's
+transcendental club, and was an active member of the Radical or Chestnut
+Street Club, thirty years later; but her chief distinction was the
+introduction of Froebel's Kindergarten teaching, by which she
+well-nigh revolutionized primary instruction in America. She was a most
+self-forgetful person, and her scholars became devotedly attached to
+her.
+
+Her sister Mary was as much like Elizabeth mentally as she differed
+from her in figure and general appearance, but soon after this she was
+married to Horace Mann and her public activity became merged in that of
+her husband, who was the first educator of his time. Sophia Peabody
+read poetry and other fine writings, and acquired a fair proficiency in
+drawing and painting. They lived what was then called the "higher life,"
+and it certainly led them to excellent results.
+
+Shortly before the publication of "Twice Told Tales," Elizabeth Peabody
+learned that the author of "The Gentle Boy," and other stories which
+she had enjoyed in the _Token_, lived in Salem, and that the name was
+Hawthorne. She immediately jumped to the conclusion that they were the
+work of Miss Elizabeth Hawthorne, whom she had known somewhat in earlier
+days, and she concluded to call upon her and offer her congratulations.
+When informed by Louisa Hawthorne, who came to her in the parlor,
+instead of the elder sister, that "The Gentle Boy" was written by
+Nathaniel, Miss Peabody made the significant remark, "If your brother
+can do work like that, he has no right to be idle" [Footnote: Lathrop,
+168. Miss Peabody would seem to have narrated this to him.]--to which
+Miss Louisa retorted, it is to be hoped with some indignation, that her
+brother never was idle.
+
+It is only too evident from this that public opinion in Salem had
+already decided that Hawthorne was an idle fellow, who was living on his
+female relatives. That is the way the world judges--from external facts
+without any consideration of internal causes or conditions. It gratifies
+the vanity of those who are fortunate and prosperous, to believe that
+all men have an equal chance in the race of life. Emerson once blamed
+two young men for idleness, who were struggling against obstacles such
+as he could have had no conception of. Those who have been fortunate
+from the cradle never learn what life is really like.
+
+The spell, however, was broken and the friendliness of Elizabeth
+Peabody found a deeply sympathetic response in the Hawthorne household.
+Nathaniel at last found a person who expressed a genuine and heartfelt
+appreciation of his work, and it was like the return of the sun to the
+Arctic explorer after his long winter night. Rather to Miss Peabody's
+surprise he and his sisters soon returned her call, and visits between
+the two families thereafter became frequent.
+
+Sophia Peabody belonged to the class of young women for whom
+Shakespeare's Ophelia serves as a typical example. She was gentle,
+affectionate, refined, and amiable to a fault,--much too tender-hearted
+for this rough world, if her sister Elizabeth had not always stood like
+a barrier between her and it.
+
+How Hawthorne might have acted in Hamlet's place it is useless
+to surmise, but in his true nature he was quite the opposite of
+Hamlet,--slow and cautious, but driven onward by an inexorable will. If
+Hamlet had possessed half of Hawthorne's determination, he might have
+broken through the network of evil conditions which surrounded him, and
+lived to make Ophelia a happy woman. It was only necessary to come into
+Hawthorne's presence in order to recognize the force that was in him.
+
+Sophia Amelia Peabody was born September 21, 1811, so that at the time
+of which we are now writing she was twenty-five years of age. Hawthorne
+was then thirty-two, when a man is more attractive to the fair sex than
+at any other time of life, for then he unites the freshness and vigor
+of youth with sufficient maturity of judgment to inspire confidence and
+trust. Yet her sister Elizabeth found it difficult to persuade her to
+come into the parlor and meet the handsomest man in Salem. When she
+did come she evidently attracted Nathaniel Hawthorne's attention, for,
+although she said little, he looked at her repeatedly while conversing
+with her sister. It may not have been an instance of love at first
+sight,--which may happen to any young man at a dancing party, and be
+forgotten two days later,--but it was something more than a casual
+interest. On his second or third call she showed him a sketch she had
+made of "the gentle boy," according to her idea of him, and the subdued
+tone with which he received it plainly indicated that he was already
+somewhat under her influence. Julian Hawthorne writes of this:
+[Footnote: J. Hawthorne, i. 179.]
+
+"It may be remarked here, that Mrs. Hawthorne in telling her children,
+many years afterwards, of these first meetings with their father, used
+to say that his presence, from the very beginning, exercised so strong a
+magnetic attraction upon her, that instinctively, and in self-defence as
+it were, she drew back and repelled him. The power which she felt in him
+alarmed her; she did not understand what it meant, and was only able to
+feel that she must resist."
+
+Every true woman feels this reluctance at first toward a suitor for
+her hand, but a sensitive young lady might well have a sense of awe
+on finding that she had attracted to herself such a mundane force
+as Hawthorne, and it is no wonder that this first impression was
+recollected throughout her life. There are many who would have refused
+Hawthorne's suit, because they felt that he was too great and strong
+for them, and it is to the honor of Sophia Peabody that she was not only
+attracted by the magnetism of Hawthorne, but finally had the courage to
+unite herself to such an enigmatical person.
+
+We also obtain a glimpse of Hawthorne's side of this courtship from a
+letter which he wrote to Longfellow in June, 1837, and in which he says,
+"I have now, or shall soon have a sharper spur to exertion, which I
+lacked at an earlier period;" [Footnote: Conway, 75.] and this is
+all the information he has vouchsafed us on the subject. If there is
+anything more in his diary, it has not been given to the public, and
+probably never will be. A number of letters which he wrote to Miss
+Sophia from Boston, or Brook Farm, have been published by his son, but
+it would be neither right nor judicious to introduce them here.
+
+It is, however, evident from the above that Hawthorne was already
+engaged in June, 1837, but his engagement long remained a secret,
+for three excellent reasons; viz., his slender means of support, the
+delicate health of his betrothed, and the disturbance which it might
+create in the Hawthorne family. The last did not prove so serious a
+difficulty as he seems to have imagined; but his apprehensiveness
+on that point many another could justify from personal experience.
+[Footnote: J. Hawthorne, i. 196.]
+
+From this time also the health of Sophia Peabody steadily improved, nor
+is it necessary to account for it by any magical influence on the part
+of her lover. Her trouble was plainly some recondite difficulty of the
+circulation. The heart is supposed to be the seat of the affections
+because mental emotion stimulates the nervous system and acts upon
+the heart as the centre of all organic functions. A healthy natural
+excitement will cause the heart to vibrate more firmly and evenly; but
+an unhealthy excitement, like fear or anger, will cause it to beat in a
+rapid and uneven manner. Contrarily, despondency, or a lethargic state
+of mind, causes the movement of the blood to slacken. The happiness of
+love is thus the best of all stimulants and correctives for a torpid
+circulation, and it expands the whole being of a woman like the
+blossoming of a flower in the sunshine. From the time of her betrothal,
+Sophia Peabody's headaches became less and less frequent, until they
+ceased altogether. The true seat of the affections is in the mind. The
+first consideration proved to be a more serious matter. If Hawthorne had
+not succeeded in earning his own livelihood by literature so far, what
+prospect was there of supporting a wife and family in that manner? What
+should he do; whither should he turn? He continually turned the subject
+over in his mind, without, however, reaching any definite conclusion.
+Nor is this to be wondered at. If the ordinary avenues of human
+industry were not available to him as a college graduate, they were now
+permanently closed. A man in his predicament at the present time might
+obtain the position of librarian in one of our inland cities; but
+such places are few and the applications are many. Bronson Alcott once
+offered his services as teacher of a primary school, a position he might
+have filled better than most, for its one requisite is kindliness, but
+the Concord school committee would not hear of it. If Hawthorne had
+attempted to turn pedagogue he might have met with a similar experience.
+
+Conway remarks very justly that an American author could not be expected
+to earn his own living in a country where foreign books could be pirated
+as they were in the United States until 1890, and this was especially
+true during the popularity of Dickens and George Eliot. Dickens was the
+great humanitarian writer of the nineteenth century, but he was also
+a caricaturist and a bohemian. He did not represent life as it is, but
+with a certain comical oddity. As an author he is to Hawthorne what a
+peony is to a rose, or a garnet is to a ruby; but ten, persons would
+purchase a novel of Dickens when one would select the "Twice Told
+Tales." Scott and Tennyson are exceptional instances of a high order
+of literary work which also proved fairly remunerative; but they do
+not equal Hawthorne in grace of diction and in the rare quality of
+his thought,--whatever advantages they may possess in other respects.
+Thackeray earned his living by his pen, but it was only in England that
+he could have done this.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+PEGASUS AT THE CART: 1839-1841
+
+
+Horatio Bridge's dam was washed away in the spring of 1837, by a
+sudden and unprecedented rising of the Androscoggin River. Bridge was
+financially ruined, but like a brave and generous young man he did not
+permit this stroke of evil fortune, severe as it was, to oppress him
+heavily, and Hawthorne seems to have felt no shadow of it during his
+visit to Augusta the following summer. He returned to Salem in August
+with pleasanter anticipations than ever before,--to enjoy the society of
+his _fiancee_, and to prepare the second volume of "Twice Told Tales."
+
+The course of Hawthorne's life during the next twenty months is mostly
+a blank to us. He would seem to have exerted himself to escape from
+the monotone in which he had been living so long, but of his efforts,
+disappointments, and struggles against the giant coils of Fate, there is
+no report. He wrote the four Province House tales as a send-off to his
+second volume, as well as "The Toll-Gatherer's Day," "Footprints on the
+Seashore," "Snow-Flakes," and "Chippings with a Chisel," which are to
+be found in it. [Footnote: J. Hawthorne, 176.] There is a long blank in
+Hawthorne's diary during the winter of 1837-38 which may be owing to his
+indifference to the outer world at that time, but more likely because
+its contents have not yet been revealed to us. It was the period of
+Cilley's duel, and what Hawthorne's reflections were on that subject,
+aside from the account which he wrote for the _Democratic Review_, would
+be highly interesting now, but the absence of any reference to it
+is significant, and there is no published entry in his diary between
+December 6, 1837, and May 11, 1838.
+
+Horatio Bridge obtained the position of paymaster on the United States
+warship "Cyane," which arrived at Boston early in June, and on the 16th
+of the month Hawthorne went to call on his friend in his new quarters,
+which he found to be pleasant enough in their narrow and limited way.
+Bridge returned with him to Boston, and they dined together at the
+Tremont House, drinking iced champagne and claret in pitchers,--which
+latter would seem to have been a fashion of the place. Hawthorne's
+description of the day is purely external, and he tells us nothing of
+his friend,--concerning whom we were anxious to hear,--or of the new
+life on which he had entered.
+
+On July 4, his thirty-fifth birthday, he wrote a microscopic account
+of the proceedings on Salem Common, which is interesting now, but will
+become more valuable as time goes on and the customs of the American
+people change with it. The object of these detailed pictorial studies,
+which not only remind one of Duerer's drawings but of Carlyle's local
+descriptions (when he uses simple English and does not fly off into
+recondite comparisons), is not clearly apparent; but the artist has
+instincts of his own, like a vine which swings in the wind and seizes
+upon the first tree that its tendrils come into contact with. We
+sometimes wish that, as in the case of Bridge and his warship, they were
+not so objective and external, and that, like Carlyle, he would throw
+more of himself into them.
+
+On July 27, Hawthorne started on an expedition to the Berkshire Hills,
+by way of Worcester, remaining there nearly till the first of September,
+and describing the scenery, the people he met by the way, and the
+commencement at Williams College, which then took place in the middle
+of August, in his customary accurate manner. He has given a full and
+connected account of his travels; so full that we wonder how he found
+time to write to Miss Sophia Peabody. He would seem to have been
+entirely alone, and to have travelled mainly by stage. On the route from
+Pittsfield to North Adams he notices the sunset, and describes it in
+these simple terms: [Footnote: American Note-book, 130.]
+
+"After or about sunset there was a heavy shower, the thunder rumbling
+round and round the mountain wall, and the clouds stretching from
+rampart to rampart. When it abated the clouds in all parts of the
+visible heavens were tinged with glory from the west; some that hung
+low being purple and gold, while the higher ones were gray. The slender
+curve of the new moon was also visible, brightening amidst the fading
+brightness of the sunny part of the sky."
+
+At North Adams he takes notice of one of the Select-men, and gives this
+account of him: [Footnote: American Note-book, 153.]
+
+"One of the most sensible men in this village is a plain, tall, elderly
+person, who is overseeing the mending of a road,--humorous, intelligent,
+with much thought about matters and things; and while at work he had a
+sort of dignity in handling the hoe or crow-bar, which shows him to be
+the chief. In the evening he sits under the stoop, silent and observant
+from under the brim of his hat; but, occasion suiting, he holds an
+argument about the benefit or otherwise of manufactories or other
+things. A simplicity characterizes him more than appertains to most
+Yankees."
+
+He did not return to Salem until September 24. A month later he was at
+the Tremont House in Boston, looking out of the windows toward Beacon
+Street, which may have served him for an idea in "The Blithedale
+Romance." After this there are no entries published from his diary till
+the following spring, so that the manner in which he occupied himself
+during the winter of 1838-39 will have to be left to the imagination. On
+April 27, 1839, he wrote a letter to Miss Sophia Peabody from Boston, in
+which he says:
+
+"I feel pretty secure against intruders, for the bad weather will defend
+me from foreign invasion; and as to Cousin Haley, he and I had a bitter
+political dispute last evening, at the close of which he went to bed in
+high dudgeon, and probably will not speak to me these three days. Thus
+you perceive that strife and wrangling, as well as east winds and rain,
+are the methods of a kind Providence to promote my comfort,--which would
+not have been so well secured in any other way. Six or seven hours of
+cheerful solitude! But I will not be alone. I invite your spirit to be
+with me,--at any hour and as many hours as you please, but especially at
+the twilight hour before I light my lamp. I bid you at that particular
+time, because I can see visions more vividly in the dusky glow of
+firelight than either by daylight or lamplight. Come, and let me renew
+my spell against headache and other direful effects of the east wind.
+How I wish I could give you a portion of my insensibility! and yet
+I should be almost afraid of some radical transformation, were I to
+produce a change in that respect. If you cannot grow plump and rosy and
+tough and vigorous without being changed into another nature, then I
+do think, for this short life, you had better remain just what you are.
+Yes; but you will be the same to me, because we have met in eternity,
+and there our intimacy was formed. So get well as soon as you possibly
+can."
+
+This statement deserves consideration under two headings; and the last
+shall be first, and the first shall be last.
+
+It will be noticed that the accounts in Hawthorne's diary are for the
+most part of a dispassionate objective character, as if he had come down
+from the moon to take an observation of mundane affairs. His letters to
+Miss Peabody were also dispassionate, but strongly subjective, and, like
+the one just quoted, mainly evolved from his imagination, like orchids
+living in the air. It was also about this time that Carlyle wrote to
+Emerson concerning the _Dial_ that it seemed "like an unborn human
+soul." The orchid imagination was an influence of the time, penetrating
+everywhere like an ether.
+
+In the opening sentences in this letter, Hawthorne comes within an inch
+of disclosing his political opinions, and yet provokingly fails to do
+so. There is nothing about the man concerning which we are so much in
+the dark, and which we should so much like to know, as this; and it is
+certain from this letter that he held very decided opinions on political
+subjects and could defend them with a good deal of energy. On one
+occasion when Hawthorne was asked why he was a Democrat, he replied,
+"Because I live in a democratic country," which was, of course, simply
+an evasion; and such were the answers which he commonly gave to all
+interrogatories. His proclivities were certainly not democratic; but
+the greater the tenacity with which a man holds his opinions, the less
+inclined he feels to discuss them with others. The Boston aristocracy
+now vote the Democratic ticket out of opposition to the dominant party
+in Massachusetts, and Hawthorne may have done so for a similar reason.
+
+Hawthorne was now a weigher and gauger in the Boston Custom House,
+one of the most laborious positions in the government service. The
+defalcation of Swartwout with over a million dollars from the New York
+customs' receipts had forced upon President Van Buren the importance of
+filling such posts with honorable men, instead of political shysters,
+and Bancroft, though a rather narrow historian, was a gentleman and a
+scholar. He was the right man to appreciate Hawthorne, but whether he
+bestowed this place upon him of his own accord, or through the ulterior
+agency of Franklin Pierce, we are not informed. It is quite possible
+that Elizabeth Peabody had a hand in the case, for she was always
+an indefatigable petitioner for the benefit of the needy, and had
+opportunities for meeting Bancroft in Boston society. His kindness to
+Hawthorne was at least some compensation for having originated the most
+ill-favored looking public building in the city. [Footnote: The present
+Boston Custom House. George S. Hillard called it an architectural
+monstrosity.]
+
+Hawthorne's salary was twelve hundred dollars a year,--fully equal to
+eighteen hundred at the present time,--and his position appears to have
+been what is now called a store-keeper. He fully earned his salary. He
+had charge and oversight of all the dutiable imports that came to
+Long Wharf, the most important in the city, and was obliged to keep an
+account of all dutiable articles which were received there. He had to
+superintend personally the unloading of vessels, and although in some
+instances this was not unpleasant, he was constantly receiving shiploads
+of soft coal,--Sidney or Pictou coal,--which is the dirtiest stuff in
+the world; it cannot be touched without raising a dusty vapor which
+settles in the eyes, nose, and mouth, and inside the shirt-collar. He
+counted every basketful that was brought ashore, and his position on
+such occasions was to be envied only by the sooty laborers who handled
+that commodity. We wonder what the frequenters of Long Wharf thought of
+this handsome, poetic-looking man occupied in such a business.
+
+Yet he appreciated the value of this Spartan discipline,--the
+inestimable value of being for once in his life brought down to hard-pan
+and the plain necessities of life. The juice of wormwood is bitter, but
+it is also strengthening. On July 3, 1839, he wrote: [Footnote: American
+Note-book.]
+
+"I do not mean to imply that I am unhappy or discontented, for this is
+not the case. My life only is a burden in the same way that it is to
+every toilsome man, and mine is a healthy weariness, such as needs only
+a night's sleep to remove it. But from henceforth forever I shall be
+entitled to call the sons of toil my brethren, and shall know how to
+sympathize with them, seeing that I likewise have risen at the dawn,
+and borne the fervor of the midday sun, nor turned my heavy footsteps
+homeward till eventide. Years hence, perhaps, the experience that my
+heart is acquiring now will flow out in truth and wisdom."
+
+This is one of the noblest passages in his writings.
+
+On August 27 he notices the intense heat in the centre of the city,
+although it is somewhat cooler on the wharves. At this time Emerson
+may have been composing his "Wood Notes" or "Threnody" in the cool pine
+groves of Concord. Such is the difference between inheriting twenty
+thousand dollars and two thousand. Hawthorne lived in Boston at such
+a boarding-place as Doctor Holmes describes in the "Autocrat of the
+Breakfast Table," and for all we know it may have been the same one. He
+lived economically, reading and writing to Miss Peabody in the evening,
+and rarely going to the theatre or other entertainments,--a life like
+that of a store clerk whose salary only suffices for his board and
+clothing. George Bancroft was kindly disposed toward him, and would
+have introduced Hawthorne into any society that he could have wished
+to enter; but Hawthorne, then and always, declined to be lionized.
+Hawthorne made but one friend in Boston during this time, and that one,
+George S. Hillard, a most faithful and serviceable friend,--not only to
+Hawthorne during his life, but afterwards as a trustee for his family,
+and equally kind and helpful to them in their bereavement, which is more
+than could be said of all his friends,--especially of Pierce. Hillard
+belonged to the brilliant coterie of Cambridge literary men, which
+included Longfellow, Sumner and Felton. He was a lawyer, politician,
+editor, orator and author; at this time, or shortly afterward, Sumner's
+law partner; one of the most kindly sympathetic men, with a keen
+appreciation of all that is finest in art and literature, but somewhat
+lacking in firmness and independence of character. His "Six Months in
+Italy," written in the purest English, long served as a standard work
+for American travellers in that ideal land, and his rather unsymmetrical
+figure only made the graces of his oratory more conspicuous.
+
+Hawthorne kept at his work through summer's heat and winter's cold. On
+February 11, 1840, he wrote to his fiancee:
+
+"I have been measuring coal all day, on board of a black little British
+schooner, in a dismal dock at the north end of the city. Most of the
+time I paced the deck to keep myself warm....
+
+"... Sometimes I descended into the dirty little cabin of the schooner,
+and warmed myself by a red-hot stove among biscuit barrels, pots
+and kettles, sea chests, and innumerable lumber of all sorts,--my
+olfactories, meanwhile, being greatly refreshed by the odor of a pipe,
+which the captain or some of his crew was smoking."
+
+[Illustration: HAWTHORNE. FROM THE PORTRAIT BY CHARLES OSGOOD IN 1840.
+IN THE POSSESSION OF MRS. RICHARD C. MANNING, SALEM, MASS. FROM NEGATIVE
+IN POSSESSION OF AND OWNED BY FRANK COUSIN, SALEM]
+
+One would have to go to Dante's "Inferno" to realize a situation more
+thoroughly disagreeable; yet the very pathos of Hawthorne's employment
+served to inspire him with elevated thoughts and beautiful reflections.
+His letters are full of aerial fancies. He notices what a beautiful day
+it was on April 18, 1840, and regrets that he cannot "fling himself on
+a gentle breeze and be blown away into the country." April 30 is
+another beautiful day,--"a real happiness to live; if he had been a mere
+vegetable, a hawthorn bush, he would have felt its influence." He goes
+to a picture gallery in the Athenaeum, but only mentions seeing two
+paintings by Sarah Clarke. He returns to Salem in October, and writes
+in his own chamber the passage already quoted, in which he mourns the
+lonely years of his youth, and the long, long waiting for appreciation,
+"while he felt the life chilling in his veins and sometimes it seemed as
+if he were already in the grave;" but an early return to his post gives
+him brighter thoughts. He takes notice of the magnificent black and
+yellow butterflies that have strangely come to Long Wharf, as if seeking
+to sail to other climes since the last flower had faded. Mr. Bancroft
+has appointed him to suppress an insurrection among the government
+laborers, and he writes to Miss Sophia Peabody:
+
+"I was not at the end of Long Wharf to-day, but in a distant region,--my
+authority having been put in requisition to quell a rebellion of the
+captain and 'gang' of shovellers aboard a coal-vessel. I would you
+could have beheld the awful sternness of my visage and demeanor in the
+execution of this momentous duty. Well,--I have conquered the rebels,
+and proclaimed an amnesty; so to-morrow I shall return to that paradise
+of measurers, the end of Long Wharf,--not to my former salt-ship, she
+being now discharged, but to another, which will probably employ me
+well-nigh a fortnight longer."
+
+A month later we meet with this ominous remark in his diary:
+
+"I was invited to dine at Mr. Bancroft's yesterday with Miss Margaret
+Fuller; but Providence had given me some business to do, for which I was
+very thankful."
+
+Had Hawthorne already encountered this remarkable woman with the
+feminine heart and masculine mind, and had he already conceived that
+aversion for her which is almost painfully apparent in his Italian
+diary? Certainly in many respects they were antipodes.
+
+The Whig party came into power on March 4, 1841, with "Tippecanoe" for
+a figure-head and Daniel Webster as its conductor of the "grand
+orchestra." A month later Bancroft was removed, and Hawthorne went with
+him, not at all regretful to depart. In fact, he had come to feel that
+he could not endure the Custom House, or at least his particular share
+of it, any longer. One object he had in view in accepting the position
+was, to obtain practical experience, and this he certainly did in
+a rough and unpleasant manner. The experience of a routine office,
+however, is not like that of a broker who has goods to sell and who must
+dispose of them to the best advantage, in order to keep his reputation
+at high-water mark; nor is it like the experience of a young doctor or a
+lawyer struggling to obtain a practice. Those are the men who know what
+life actually is; and it is this thoroughness of experience which makes
+the chief difference between a Dante and a Tennyson.
+
+These reflections lead directly to Hawthorne's casual and oft-repeated
+commentary on American politicians. He wrote March 15:
+
+"I do detest all offices--all, at least, that are held on a political
+tenure. And I want nothing to do with politicians. Their hearts wither
+away, and die out of their bodies. Their consciences are turned to
+india-rubber, or to some substance as black as that, and which will
+stretch as much. One thing, if no more, I have gained by my custom-house
+experience,--to know a politician." [Footnote: American Notebook, i.
+220.]
+
+This seems rather severe, but at the time when Hawthorne wrote it,
+American politics were on the lowest plane of demagogism. It was the
+inevitable result of the spoils-of-office system, and the meanest
+species of the class were the ward politicians who received small
+government offices in return for services in canvassing ignorant foreign
+voters. They were naturally coarse, hardened adventurers, and it
+was such that Hawthorne chiefly came in contact with in his official
+business. Cleon, the brawling tanner of Athens, has reappeared in every
+representative government since his time, and plays his clownish part
+with multifarious variations; but it is to little purpose that we deride
+the men who govern us, for they are what we and our institutions have
+made them. If we want better representatives, we must mend our own
+ways and especially purge ourselves of political cant and national
+vanity,--which is the food that ward politicians grow fat on. The
+profession of a politician is based on instability, and he cannot
+acquire, as matters now stand, the solidity of character that we look
+for in other professions.
+
+So far, however, was Hawthorne at this juncture from considering men and
+things critically, that he closes the account of his first government
+experience in this rather optimistic manner:
+
+"Old Father Time has gone onward somewhat less heavily than is his wont
+when I am imprisoned within the walls of the Custom-house. My breath had
+never belonged to anybody but me. It came fresh from the ocean....
+
+"... It was exhilarating to see the vessels, how they bounded over the
+waves, while a sheet of foam broke out around them. I found a good deal
+of enjoyment, too, in the busy scene around me. It pleased me to think
+that I also had a part to act in the material and tangible business of
+this life, and that a portion of all this industry could not have gone
+on without my presence." [Footnote: American Note-book, i. 230.]
+
+When Hawthorne philosophizes it is not in old threadbare proverbs or
+Orphic generalities, but always specifically and to the point.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+HAWTHORNE AS A SOCIALIST: 1841-1842
+
+
+Who can compute the amount of mischief that Fourier has done, and those
+well-meaning but inexperienced dreamers who have followed after him? A
+Fourth-of-July firecracker once consumed the half of a large city. The
+boy who exploded it had no evil intentions; neither did Fourier and
+other speculators in philanthropy contemplate what might be the effect
+of their doctrines on minds actuated by the lowest and most inevitable
+wants. Wendell Phillips, in the most brilliant of his orations, said:
+"The track of God's lightning is a straight line from justice to
+iniquity," and one might have said to Phillips, in his later years,
+that there is in the affairs of men a straight line from infatuation to
+destruction. In what degree Fourier was responsible for the effusion of
+blood in Paris in the spring of 1871 it is not possible to determine;
+but the relation of Rousseau to the first French revolution is not more
+certain. _Fate_ is the spoken word which cannot be recalled, and who can
+tell the good and evil consequences that lie hidden in it? The proper
+cure for socialism, in educated minds, would be a study of the law.
+There we discover what a wonderful mechanism is the present organization
+of society, and how difficult it would be to reconstruct this, if it
+once were overturned.
+
+As society is constituted at present, the honest and industrious are
+always more or less at the mercy of the vicious and indolent, and the
+only protection against this lies in the right of individual ownership.
+In a general community of goods, there might be some means of preventing
+or punishing flagrant misdemeanors, but what protection could there be
+against indolence? Those who were ready and willing to work would have
+to bear all the burdens of society.
+
+In order that an idea should take external or concrete form it has to
+be married, as it were, to some desire or tendency in the individual.
+Reverend George Ripley had become imbued with Fourierism through his
+studies of French philosophy, but he had also been brought up on a farm,
+and preferred the fresh air and vigorous exercise of that mode of
+life to city preaching. He was endowed with a strong constitution and
+possessed of an independent fortune, and his aristocratic wife, more
+devoted than women of that class are usually, sympathized with his
+plans, and was prepared to follow him to the ends of the earth. He not
+only felt great enthusiasm for the project but was capable of inspiring
+others with it. There were many socialistic experiments undertaken about
+that time, but George Ripley's was the only one that has acquired a
+historical value. It is much to his credit that he gave the scheme a
+thorough trial, and by carrying it out to a logical conclusion proved
+its radical impracticability.
+
+Such a failure is more valuable than the successes of a hundred men who
+merely make their own fortunes and leave no legacy of experience that
+can benefit the human race.
+
+It must have been Elizabeth Peabody who persuaded Hawthorne to enlist in
+the Brook Farm enterprise. She wrote a paper for the _Dial_ [Footnote:
+_Dial_, ii. 361.] on the subject, explaining the object of the West
+Roxbury community and holding forth the prospect of the "higher
+life" which could be enjoyed there. Hawthorne was in himself the very
+antipodes of socialism, and it was part of the irony of his life that he
+should have embarked in such an experiment; but he invested a thousand
+dollars in it, which he had saved from his Custom House salary, and was
+one of the first on the ground. What he really hoped for from it--as we
+learn by his letters to Miss Sophia Peabody--was a means of gaining his
+daily bread, with leisure to accomplish a fair amount of writing, and
+at the same time to enter into such society as might be congenial to his
+future consort. It seemed reasonable to presume this, and yet the result
+did not correspond to it. He went to West Roxbury on April 12, 1841,
+and as it happened in a driving northeast snowstorm,--an unpropitious
+beginning, of which he has given a graphic account in "The Blithedale
+Romance."
+
+At first he liked his work at the Farm. The novelty of it proved
+attractive to him. On May 3 he wrote a letter to his sister Louisa,
+which reflects the practical nature of his new surroundings; and it
+must be confessed that this is a refreshing change from the sublunary
+considerations at his Boston boarding-house. He has already "learned to
+plant potatoes, to milk cows, and to cut straw and hay for the
+cattle, and does various other mighty works." He has gained
+strength wonderfully, and can do a day's work without the slightest
+inconvenience; wears a tremendous pair of cowhide boots. He goes to bed
+at nine, and gets up at half-past four to sound the rising-horn,--much
+too early for a socialistic paradise, where human nature is supposed
+to find a pleasant as well as a salutary existence. George Ripley
+would seem to be driving the wedge in by the larger end. Hawthorne is
+delighted with the topographical aspect, and writes:
+
+"This is one of the most beautiful places I ever saw in my life, and as
+secluded as if it were a hundred miles from any city or village. There
+are woods, in which we can ramble all day without meeting anybody or
+scarcely seeing a house. Our house stands apart from the main road, so
+that we are not troubled even with passengers looking at us. Once in
+a while we have a transcendental visitor, such as Mr. Alcott; but
+generally we pass whole days without seeing a single face save those of
+the brethren. The whole fraternity eat together; and such a delectable
+way of life has never been seen on earth since the days of the early
+Christians." [Footnote: J. Hawthorne, i. 228.]
+
+From Louisa Hawthorne's reply, it may be surmised that his family did
+not altogether approve of the Brook Farm venture, perhaps because it
+withdrew him from his own home at a time when they had looked with
+fond expectation for his return; and here we have a glimpse into the
+beautiful soul of this younger sister, otherwise so little known to us.
+Elizabeth is skeptical of its ultimate success, but Louisa is fearful
+that he may work too hard and wants him to take good care of himself.
+She is delighted with the miniature of him, which they have lately
+received: "It has one advantage over the original,--I can make it go
+with me where I choose!"
+
+Louisa wrote another warm and beautiful letter on June 11, recalling the
+days when they used to go fishing together on Lake Sebago, and adds:
+
+"Elizabeth Cleveland says she saw Mr. George Bradford in Lowell last
+winter, and he told her he was going to be associated with you; but they
+say his mind misgave him terribly when the time came for him to go to
+Roxbury, and whether to make such a desperate step or not he could not
+tell." [Footnote: J. Hawthorne, i. 232.]
+
+George P. Bradford was the masculine complement to Elizabeth
+Peabody--flitting across the paths of Emerson and Hawthorne throughout
+their lives. His name appears continually in the biographies of that
+time, but future generations would never know the sort of man he was,
+but for Louisa's amiable commentary. He appeared at Brook Farm a
+few days later, and became one of George Ripley's strongest and most
+faithful adherents. He is the historian of the West Roxbury community,
+and late in life the editor of the _Century_ asked him to write a
+special account of it for that periodical. Bradford did so, and received
+one hundred dollars in return for his manuscript; but it never was
+published, presumably because it was too original for the editor's
+purpose.
+
+Is it possible that Hawthorne put on a good face for this letter to
+his sister, in order to keep up appearances; or was it like the common
+experience of music and drawing teachers that the first lessons are the
+best performed; or did he really have some disagreement with Ripley,
+like that which he represents in "The Blithedale Romance"? The last is
+the more probable, although we do not hear of it otherwise. Spring
+is the least agreeable season for farming, with its muddy soil, its
+dressing the ground, its weeds to be kept down and its insects to
+be kept off. After the first week of June, the work becomes much
+pleasanter; and the harvesting is delightful,--stacking the grain,
+picking the fruit,--with the cheery wood fires, so restful to mind and
+body. Yet we find on August 12 that Hawthorne had become thoroughly
+disenchanted with his Arcadian life, although he admits that the labors
+of the farm were not so pressing as they had been. Ten days later,
+he refers to having spent the better part of a night with one of his
+co-workers, "who was quite out of his wits" and left the community next
+day. He then continues in his diary: [Footnote: American Notebook, ii.
+15.]
+
+"It is extremely doubtful whether Mr. Ripley will succeed in locating
+his community on the farm. He can bring Mr. E---- to no terms, and the
+more they talk about the matter, the further they appear to be from a
+settlement. We must form other plans for ourselves; for I can see few
+or no signs that Providence purposes to give us a home here. I am weary,
+weary, thrice weary, of waiting so many ages. Whatever may be my gifts,
+I have not hitherto shown a single one that may avail to gather gold."
+
+Here are already three disaffected personages, desirous of escaping from
+an earthly paradise. Mr. Ripley has by no means an easy row to hoe.
+Yet he keeps on ploughing steadily through his difficulties, as he
+did through the soil of his meadows. In September we find Hawthorne at
+Salem, and on the third he writes: [Footnote: American Notebook, ii.
+16.]
+
+"But really I should judge it to be twenty years since I left Brook
+Farm; and I take this to be one proof that my life there was unnatural
+and unsuitable, and therefore an unreal one. It already looks like a
+dream behind me. The real Me was never an associate of the community:
+there has been a spectral appearance there, sounding the horn at
+daybreak, and milking the cows, and hoeing potatoes, and raking hay,
+toiling in the sun, and doing me the honor to assume my name. But this
+spectre was not myself."
+
+This idea of himself as a spectre seems to have accompanied him much in
+the way that the daemon did Socrates, and to have served in a similar
+manner as a warning to him. He left Brook Farm almost exactly as he
+describes himself doing, in "The Blithedale Romance," and he returned
+again on the twenty-second, but the brilliant woodland carnival which he
+describes, both in his "Note-book" and in "The Blithedale Romance," did
+not take place there until September 28. It was a masquerade in which
+Margaret Fuller and Emerson appeared as invited guests, and held a
+meeting of the Transcendental club "_sub tegmine fagi_." As Hawthorne
+remarks, "Much conversation followed,"--in which he evidently found
+little to interest him. Margaret Fuller also made a present of a heifer
+to the live-stock of the Farm, of whose unruly gambols Hawthorne seems
+to have taken more particular notice. He would seem in fact to have
+attributed the same characteristics to the animal and its owner.
+
+Having more time at his own disposal, he now attempted to write another
+volume of history for Peter Parley's library, but, although this was
+rather a childish affair, he found himself unequal to it. "I have not,"
+he said, "the sense of perfect seclusion here, which has always been
+essential to my power of producing anything. It is true, nobody intrudes
+into my room; but still I cannot be quiet. Nothing here is settled; and
+my mind will not be abstracted." During the whole of October he went
+on long woodland walks, sometimes alone and at others with a single
+companion. He tried, like Emerson, courting Nature in her solitudes, and
+made the acquaintance of her denizens as if he were the original Adam
+taking an account of his animal kingdom. He picks up a terrapin, the
+_Emys picta_, which attempts to hide itself from him in a stone wall,
+and carries it considerately to a pond of water; but there is not much
+to be found in the woods, and one can travel a whole day in the forest
+primeval without coming across anything better than a few squirrels and
+small birds. In fact, two young sportsmen once rode on horseback with
+their guns from the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean without meeting
+any larger game than prairie-chickens.
+
+It was all in vain. Hawthorne's nature was not like Emerson's, and what
+stimulated the latter mentally made comparatively little impression on
+the former. Hawthorne found, then as always, that in order to practice
+his art, he must devote himself to it, wholly and completely, leaving
+side issues to go astern. In order to create an ideal world of his own,
+he was obliged to separate himself from all existing conditions, as
+Beethoven did when composing his symphonies. Composition for Hawthorne
+meant a severe mental strain. Those sentences, pellucid as a mountain
+spring, were not clarified without an effort. The faculty on which
+Hawthorne depended for this, as every artist does, was his imagination,
+and imagination is as easily disturbed as the electric needle. There is
+no fine art without sensitiveness. We see it in the portrait of Leonardo
+da Vinci, a man who could bend horseshoes in his hands; and Bismarck,
+who was also an artist in his way, confessed to the same mental
+disturbance from noise and general conversation, which Hawthorne felt
+at Brook Farm. It was the mental sensitiveness of Carlyle and Bismarck
+which caused their insomnia, and much other suffering besides.
+
+George Ripley published an essay in the _Dial_, in which he heralded
+Fourier as the great man who was destined to regenerate society; but
+Fourier has passed away, and society continues in its old course. What
+he left out of his calculations, or perhaps did not understand, was the
+principle of population. If food and raiment were as common as air and
+water, mankind would double its numbers every twelve or fifteen years,
+and the tendency to do so produces a pressure on poor human nature,
+which is almost like the scourge of a whip, driving it into all kinds
+of ways and means in order to obtain sufficient sustenance. Most notable
+among the methods thus employed is, and always has been, the division
+of labor, and it will be readily seen that a community like Brook Farm,
+where skilled labor, properly speaking, was unknown, and all men
+were all things by turns, could never sustain so large a population
+relatively as a community where a strict division of industries existed.
+If a nation like France, for instance, where the population is nearly
+stationary, were to adopt Fourier's plan of social organization, it
+would prove a more severe restriction on human life than the wars
+of Napoleon. This is the reason why the attempt to plant a colony of
+Englishmen in Tennessee failed so badly. There was a kind of division of
+labor among them, but it was purely a local and a foreign division and
+not adapted to the region about them. Ripley's method of allowing work
+to be counted by the hour instead of by the day or half-day, was of
+itself sufficient to prevent the enterprise from being a financial
+success. Farming everywhere except on the Western prairies requires the
+closest thrift and economy, and all hands have to work hard.
+
+Neither could such an experiment prove a success from a moral point of
+view. Emerson said of it: "The women did not object so much to a common
+table as they did to a common nursery." In truth one might expect that a
+common nursery would finally result in a free fight. The tendency of all
+such institutions would be to destroy the sanctity of family life; and
+it would also include a tendency to the deterioration of manliness. One
+of the professed objects of the Brook Farm association was, to escape
+from the evils of the great world,--from the trickery of trade,
+the pedantry of colleges, the flunkyism of office, and the arrogant
+pretensions of wealth. Every honest man must feel a sympathy with this;
+there are times when we all feel that the struggle of life is an unequal
+conflict, from which it would be a permanent blessing to escape; yet
+he who turns his back upon it, is like a soldier who runs away from the
+battle-field. It is the conflict with evil in the great world, and in
+ourselves, that constitutes virtue and develops character. It is _good_
+to learn the trickery of knaves and to expose it, to contend against
+pedantry and set a better example, to administer offices with a modest
+impartiality, and to treat the gilded fool with a dignified contempt.
+But if the wings of the archangel are torn and soiled in his conflict
+with sin, does it not add to the honor of the victory? The man who left
+his wife and children, because he found that he could not live with them
+without occasionally losing his temper, committed a grievous wrong; and
+it is equally true that hypocrisy, the meanest of vices, may sometimes
+become a virtue.
+
+George P. Bradford, and a few others, enjoyed the life at Brook Farm,
+and would have liked to remain there longer. John S. Dwight, the
+translator of Goethe's and Schiller's ballads, [Footnote: One of the
+most musical translations in any language.] said in his old age that if
+he were a young man, he would be only too glad to return there; and it
+is undeniable that such a place is suited to a certain class of persons,
+both men and women. It cannot be repeated too often, however, that the
+true object of life is not happiness, but development. It is our special
+business on this planet, to improve the human race as our progenitors
+improved it, and developed it out of we know not what. By doing this, we
+also improve ourselves and happiness comes to us incidentally; but if
+we pursue happiness directly, we soon become pleasure-seekers, and,
+like Faust, join company with Mephistopheles. Happiness comes to a
+philosopher, perhaps while he is picking berries; to a judge, watching
+the approach of a thunder-storm; to a merchant, teaching his boy to
+skate. It came to Napoleon listening to a prayer-bell, and to Hawthorne
+playing games with his children. [Footnote: Perhaps also in his
+kindliness to the terrapin.] Happiness flies when we seek it, and steals
+upon us unawares.
+
+George P. Bradford's account of Brook Farm in the "Memorial History of
+Boston" [Footnote: Vol. iv. 330.] is not so satisfactory as it might
+have been if he had given more specific details in regard to its
+management. The general supposition has been that there was an annual
+deficit in the accounts of the association, which could only be met
+by Mr. Ripley himself, who ultimately lost the larger portion of his
+investment. It is difficult to imagine how such an experiment could end
+otherwise, and the final conflagration of the principal building, or
+"The Hive," as it was called, served as a fitting consummation of the
+whole enterprise,--a truly dramatic climax. George Ripley went to
+New York to become literary editor of the _Tribune_, and was as
+distinguished there for the excellence of his reviews, and the elegance
+of his turnout in Central Park as he had been for the use of the spade
+and pitchfork at West Roxbury.
+
+Mr. Bradford returned to the instruction of young ladies in French and
+Latin; and John S. Dwight became one of the civilizing forces of his
+time, by editing the Boston _Journal of Music_. None of them were the
+worse for their agrarian experiment.
+
+Even if the West Roxbury _commune_ had proved a success for two or three
+generations, it would not have sufficed for a test of Fourier's theory
+for it would have been a republic within a republic, protected by the
+laws and government of the United States, without being subjected to the
+inconvenience of its own political machinery. The only fair trial
+for such a system would be to introduce it in some tract of country
+especially set apart and made independent for the purpose; but the
+chances are ten to one that a community organized in this manner would
+soon be driven into the same process of formation that other colonies
+have passed through under similar conditions. The true socialism is the
+present organization of society, and although it might be improved in
+detail, to revolutionize it would be dangerous. Yet the interest that
+has been aroused at various times by discussions of the Brook Farm
+project, shows how strong the undercurrent is setting against the
+present order of things; and this is my chief excuse for making such a
+long digression on the subject.
+
+During these last months of his bachelorhood, Hawthorne appears to us
+somewhat in the light of a hibernating bear; for we hear nothing of
+him at that season at all. Between the last of October, 1841, and July,
+1842, there are a large number of odd fancies, themes for romances,
+and the like, published from his diary, but no entries of a personal
+character. We hear incidentally that he was at Brook Farm during a
+portion of the spring, which is not surprising in view of the fact that
+Doctor Nathaniel Peabody had removed from Salem to Boston in the mean
+time. One conclusion Hawthorne had evidently arrived at during the
+winter months, and it was that his engagement to Miss Sophia Peabody
+ought to be terminated in the way all such affairs should be; viz.,
+by matrimony. Their prospects in life were not brilliant, but it was
+difficult to foresee any advantage in waiting longer, and there were
+decided disadvantages in doing so. It was accordingly agreed that they
+should be married at, or near, the summer solstice, the most suitable
+of all times for weddings--or engagements. On June 20, he wrote to his
+_fiancee_ from Salem, reminding her that within ten days they were to
+become man and wife, and added this significant reflection: "Nothing
+can part us now; for God himself hath ordained that we shall be one. So
+nothing remains but to reconcile yourself to your destiny. Year by year
+we shall grow closer to each other; and a thousand years hence, we shall
+be only in the honeymoon of our marriage."
+
+Yet we find him writing again the tenderest and most graceful of
+love-letters on June 30. [Footnote: J. Hawthorne, i. 241.] The wedding
+has evidently been postponed; but two days later he is in Boston, and
+finds a pleasant recreation watching the boys sail their toy boats on
+the Frog Pond. The ceremony finally was performed on July 9, and it was
+only the day previous that Hawthorne wrote the following letter, which
+is dated from 54 Pinckney Street:
+
+
+"MY DEAR SIR:
+
+"Though personally a stranger to you, I am about to request of you the
+greatest favor which I can receive from any man. I am to be married
+to Miss Sophia Peabody to-morrow, and it is our mutual desire that you
+should perform the ceremony. Unless it should be decidedly a rainy
+day, a carriage will call for you at half-past eleven o'clock in the
+forenoon.
+
+"Very respectfully yours,
+
+"NATH. HAWTHORNE.
+
+"REV. JAMES F. CLARKE,
+
+"Chestnut St."
+
+
+George S. Hillard lived on Pinckney Street, and Hawthorne may have
+been visiting him at the moment. The Peabodys attended service at Mr.
+Clarke's church in Indiana Place, where Hawthorne may also have
+gone with them. He could not have made a more judicious choice; but,
+singularly enough, although Mr. Clarke became Elizabeth Peabody's
+life-long friend, and even went to Concord to lecture, he and Hawthorne
+never met again after this occasion.
+
+The ceremony was performed at the house of Sophia Peabody's father,
+No. 13 West Street, a building of which not one stone now rests upon
+another. It was a quiet family wedding (such as oftenest leads to future
+happiness), and most deeply impressive to those concerned in it. What
+must it have been to Hawthorne, who had known so much loneliness, and
+had waited so long for the comfort and sympathy which only a devoted
+wife can give?
+
+Time has drawn a veil over Hawthorne's honeymoon, but exactly four weeks
+after the wedding, we find him and his wife installed in the house at
+Concord, owned by the descendants of Reverend Dr. Ripley. It will be
+remembered that Hawthorne had invested his only thousand dollars in the
+West Roxbury Utopia, whence it was no longer possible to recover it. He
+had, however, an unsubstantial Utopian sort of claim for it, against
+the Association, which he placed in the hands of George S. Hillard, and
+subsequent negotiation would seem to have resulted in giving Hawthorne
+a lease of the Ripley house, or "Old Manse," in return for it. It was
+already classic ground, for Emerson had occupied the house for a time
+and had written his first book there; and thither Hawthorne went to
+locate himself, determined to try once more if he could earn his living
+by his pen.
+
+[Illustration: THE OLD MANSE, RESIDENCE OF DR. RIPLEY]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+CONCORD AND THE OLD MANSE: 1842-1845
+
+
+The Ripley house dates back to the times of Captain Daniel Hathorne, or
+even before him, and at Concord Fight the British left wing must have
+extended close to it. Old and unpainted as it is, it gives a distinct
+impression of refinement and good taste. Alone, I believe, among the
+Concord houses of former times, it is set back far enough from the
+country-road to have an avenue leading to it, lined with balm of Gilead
+trees, and guarded at the entrance by two tall granite posts somewhat
+like obelisks. On the further side of the house, Dr. Ripley had planted
+an apple orchard, which included some rare varieties, especially the
+blue pearmain, a dark-red autumn apple with a purple bloom upon it like
+the bloom upon the rye. A high rounded hill on the northeast partially
+shelters the house from the storms in that direction; and on the
+opposite side the river sweeps by in a magnificent curve, with broad
+meadows and rugged hills, leading up to the pale-blue outline of Mount
+Wachusett on the western horizon. The Musketequid or Concord River has
+not been praised too highly. Its clear, gently flowing current,
+margined by bulrushes and grassy banks, produces an effect of mental
+peacefulness, very different from the rushing turbulent waters and
+rocky banks of Maine and New Hampshire rivers. From whatever point you
+approach the Old Manse, it becomes the central object in a charming
+country scene, and it does not require the peculiar effect of mouldering
+walls to make it picturesque. It has stood there long, and may it long
+remain.
+
+There was formerly an Indian encampment on the same ground,--a
+well-chosen position both strategically and for its southern
+exposure. Old Mrs. Ripley had a large collection of stone arrow-heads,
+corn-mortars, and other relics of the aborigines, which she used to show
+to the young people who came to call on her grandchildren; and there
+were among them pieces of a dark-bluish porphyry which she said was not
+to be found in Massachusetts, but must have been brought from northern
+New England. There was no reason why they should not have been. The
+Indians could go from Concord in their canoes to the White Mountains
+or the Maine lakes, and shoot the deer that came down to drink from the
+banks of the river; but the deer disappeared before the advance of the
+American farmer, and the Indians went with them. Now a grandson of Madam
+Ripley, in the bronze likeness of a minuteman of 1775, stands sentinel
+at "The Old North Bridge."
+
+Hawthorne ascended the hill opposite his house and wrote of the view
+from it:
+
+"The scenery of Concord, as I beheld it from the summit of the hill, has
+no very marked characteristics, but has a great deal of quiet beauty, in
+keeping with the river. There are broad and peaceful meadows, which,
+I think, are among the most satisfying objects in natural scenery. The
+heart reposes on them with a feeling that few things else can give,
+because almost all other objects are abrupt and clearly defined; but a
+meadow stretches out like a small infinity, yet with a secure homeliness
+which we do not find either in an expanse of water or air."
+
+The great cranberry meadows below the north bridge are sometimes a
+wonderful place in winter, when the river overflows its banks and they
+become a broad sheet of ice extending for miles. There one can have a
+little skating, an exercise of which Hawthorne was always fond.
+
+It was now, and not at Brook Farm, that he found his true Arcadia, and
+we have his wife's testimony that for the first eighteen months or
+more at the Old Manse, they were supremely happy. Every morning after
+breakfast he donned the blue frock, which he had worn at West
+Roxbury, and went to the woodshed to saw and split wood for the daily
+consumption. After that he ascended to his study in the second story,
+where he wrote and pondered until dinner-time. It appears also that he
+sometimes assisted in washing the dishes--like a helpful mate. After
+dinner he usually walked to the post-office and to a reading-room in the
+centre of the town, where he looked over the Boston _Post_ for half an
+hour. Later in the afternoon, he went rowing or fishing on the river,
+but his wife does not seem to have accompanied him in these excursions,
+for Judge Keyes, who often met him in his boat, does not mention seeing
+her with him. In the evenings he read Shakespeare with Mrs. Hawthorne,
+commencing with the first volume, and going straight through to the end,
+"Titus Andronicus" and all,--and this must have occupied them a large
+portion of the winter. How can a man fail to be happy in such a mode of
+life!
+
+Hawthorne also went swimming in the river when the weather
+suited--rather exceptional in Concord for a middle-aged gentleman; but
+there were two very attractive bathing places near the Old Manse, one,
+a little above on the opposite side of the river, and the other,
+afterwards known as Simmons's Landing, where there was a row of tall
+elms a short distance below the bridge. It is probable that Hawthorne
+frequented the latter place, as being more remote from human
+habitations. He did not take to his gun again, although he could see the
+wild ducks in autumn, flying past his house. There were grouse and quail
+in the woods, and woodcock were to be found along the brook which
+ran through Emerson's pasture; but perhaps Hawthorne had become too
+tenderhearted for field-sports.
+
+If Boston is the hub of the universe, Concord might be considered as the
+linchpin which holds it on. Its population was originally derived
+from Boston, and it must be admitted that it retains more Bostonian
+peculiarities than most other New England towns. It does not assimilate
+readily to the outside world. Nor is it surprising that few local
+visitors called upon the Hawthornes at the Old Manse. Emerson, always
+hospitable and public-spirited, went to call on them at once; and
+John Keyes, also a liberal-minded man, introduced Hawthorne at the
+reading-club. Margaret Fuller came and left a book for Hawthorne to
+read, which may have annoyed him more than anything she could have said.
+Elizabeth Hoar, a woman of exalted character, to whose judgment Emerson
+sometimes applied for a criticism of his verses, also came sometimes;
+but the Old Manse was nearly a mile away from Emerson's house, and
+also from what might be called the "court end" of the town. Hawthorne's
+nearest neighbor was a milk-farmer named George L. Prescott, afterward
+Colonel of the Thirty-second Massachusetts Volunteers. He not only
+brought them milk, but also occasionally a bouquet culled out of his
+own fine nature, as a tribute to genius. A slightly educated man, he was
+nevertheless one of Nature's gentlemen, and his death in Grant's advance
+on Richmond was a universal cause of mourning at a time when so many
+brave lives were lost.
+
+Hawthorne, as usual, was on the lookout for ghosts, and there could not
+have been a more suitable abode for those airy nothings, than the Old
+Manse. Mysterious sounds were heard in it repeatedly, especially in the
+nighttime, when the change of temperature produces a kind of settlement
+in the affairs of old woodwork. Under date of August 8 he writes in his
+diary:
+
+"We have seen no apparitions as yet,--but we hear strange noises,
+especially in the kitchen, and last night, while sitting in the parlor,
+we heard a thumping and pounding as of somebody at work in my study.
+Nay, if I mistake not (for I was half asleep), there was a sound as of
+some person crumpling paper in his hand in our very bedchamber. This
+must have been old Dr. Ripley with one of his sermons."
+
+Evidently he would have preferred seeing a ghost to receiving an
+honorary degree from Bowdoin College, and if the shade of Doctor Ripley
+had appeared to him in a dissolving light, like the Roentgen rays,
+Hawthorne would certainly have welcomed him as a kindred spirit and have
+expressed his pleasure at the manifestation.
+
+Another idiosyncrasy of his, which seems like the idiom in a language,
+was his total indifference to distinguished persons, simply as such.
+It was not that he considered all men on a level, for no one recognized
+more clearly the profound inequalities of human nature; but he was quite
+as likely to take an interest in a store clerk as in a famous writer. It
+is not necessary to suppose that a man is a parasite of fame because he
+goes to a President's reception, or wishes to meet a celebrated English
+lecturer. It is natural that we should desire to know how such people
+appear--their expression, their tone of voice, their general behavior;
+but Hawthorne did not care for this. At the time of which we write,
+Doctor Samuel G. Howe, the hero of Greek independence and the mental
+liberator of Laura Bridgman, was a more famous man than Emerson or
+Longfellow. He came to Concord with his brilliant wife, and they called
+at the Old Manse, where Mrs. Hawthorne received them very cordially, but
+they saw nothing of her husband, except a dark figure gliding through
+the entry with his hat over his eyes. One can only explain this by
+one of those fits of exceeding bashfulness that sometimes overtake
+supersensitive natures. School-girls just budding into womanhood often
+behave in a similar manner; and they are no more to be censured for
+it than Hawthorne,--to whom it may have caused moments of poignant
+self-reproach in his daily reflections. But Doctor Howe was the man
+of all men whom Hawthorne ought to have known, and half an hour's
+conversation might have made them friends for life.
+
+George William Curtis was a remarkably brilliant young man, and gave
+even better promise for the future than he afterwards fulfilled,--as the
+editor of a weekly newspaper. He was at Brook Farm with Hawthorne, and
+afterward followed him to Concord, but is only referred to by Hawthorne
+once, and then in the briefest manner. Neither has Hawthorne much to
+say of Emerson; but Thoreau and Ellery Channing evidently attracted his
+attention, for he refers to them repeatedly in his diary, and he
+has left the one life-like portrait of Thoreau--better than a
+photograph--that now exists. He surveys them both in rather a critical
+manner, and takes note that Thoreau is the more substantial and original
+of the two; and he is also rather sceptical as to Channing's poetry,
+which Emerson valued at a high rate; yet he narrowly missed making a
+friend of Channing, with whom he afterward corresponded in a desultory
+way.
+
+We should not have known of Hawthorne's skating at Concord, but for Mrs.
+Hawthorne's "Memoirs," from which we learn that he frequently skated on
+the overflowed meadows, where the Lowell railway station now stands.
+She writes: "Wrapped in his cloak, he moved like a self-impelled Greek
+statue, stately and grave." This is the manner in which we should
+imagine Hawthorne to have skated; but all others were a foil to her
+husband in the eyes of his wife. [Footnote: "Memories of Hawthorne,"
+52.] He was evidently a fine skater, gliding over the ice in long
+sweeping curves. Emerson was also a dignified skater, but with a shorter
+stroke, and stopping occasionally to take breath, or look about him,
+as he did in his lectures. Thoreau came sometimes and performed rare
+glacial exploits, interesting to watch, but rather in the line of the
+professional acrobat. What a transfiguration of Hawthorne, to think of
+him skating alone amid the reflections of a brilliant winter sunset!
+
+When winter came Emerson arranged a course of evening receptions at
+his house for the intellectual people of Concord, with apples and
+gingerbread for refreshments. Curtis attended these, and has told us how
+Hawthorne always sat apart with an expression on his face like a distant
+thunder-cloud, saying little, and not only listening to but watching the
+others. Curtis noticed a certain external and internal resemblance in
+him to Webster, who was at times a thunderous-looking person--denoting,
+I suppose, the electric concentration in his cranium. Emerson also
+watched Hawthorne, and the whole company felt his silent presence, and
+missed him greatly once or twice when he failed to come. Miss Elizabeth
+Hoar said:
+
+"The people about Emerson, Channing, Thoreau and the rest, echo his
+manner so much that it is a relief to him to meet a man like Hawthorne,
+on whom his own personality makes no impression." Neither did Mrs.
+Emerson echo her husband.
+
+The greater a man is, intellectually, the more distinct his difference
+from a general type and also from other men of genius. No two
+personalities could be more unlike than Hawthorne and Emerson.
+
+It would seem to be part of the irony of Fate that they should have
+lived on the same street, and, have been obliged to meet and speak
+with each other. One was like sunshine, the other shadow. Emerson was
+transparent, and wished to be so; he had nothing to conceal from friend
+or enemy. Hawthorne was simply impenetrable. Emerson was cordial and
+moderately sympathetic. Hawthorne was reserved, but his sympathies were
+as profound as the human soul itself. To study human nature as Hawthorne
+and Shakespeare did, and to make models of their acquaintances for works
+of fiction, Emerson would have considered a sin; while the evolution of
+sin and its effect on character was the principal study of Hawthorne's
+life. One was an optimist, and the other what is sometimes unjustly
+called a pessimist; that is, one who looks facts in the face and sees
+people as they are.
+
+[Footnote: "Sketches from Concord and Appledore."]
+
+While Emerson's mind was essentially analytic, Hawthorne's was
+synthetic, and, as Conway says, he did not receive the world into his
+intellect, but into his heart, or soul, where it was mirrored in a
+magical completeness. The notion that the artist requires merely an
+observing eye is a superficial delusion. Observation is worth little
+without reflection, and everything depends on the manner in which
+the observer deals with his facts. Emerson looked at life in order to
+penetrate it; Hawthorne, in order to comprehend it, and assimilate it to
+his own nature. The one talked heroism and the other lived it. Not but
+that Emerson's life was a stoical one, but Hawthorne's was still more
+so, and only his wife and children knew what a heart there was in him.
+
+The world will never know what these two great men thought of one
+another. Hawthorne has left some fragmentary sentences concerning
+Emerson, such as, "that everlasting rejecter of all that is, and seeker
+for he knows not what," and "Emerson the mystic, stretching his hand out
+of cloud-land in vain search for something real;" but he likes Emerson's
+ingenuous way of interrogating people, "as if every man had something to
+give him." However, he makes no attempt at a general estimate; although
+this expression should also be remembered: "Clergymen, whose creed had
+become like an iron band about their brows, came to Emerson to obtain
+relief,"--a sincere recognition of his spiritual influence.
+
+Several witnesses have testified that Emerson had no high opinion of
+Hawthorne's writing,--that he preferred Reade's "Christie Johnstone" to
+"The Scarlet Letter," but Emerson never manifested much interest in art,
+simply for its own sake. Like Bismarck, whom he also resembled in his
+enormous self-confidence, he cared little for anything that had not a
+practical value. He read Shakespeare and Goethe, not so much for the
+poetry as for the "fine thoughts" he found in them. George Bradford
+stated more than once that Emerson showed little interest in the
+pictorial art; and after walking through the sculpture-gallery of the
+Vatican, he remarked that the statues seemed to him like toys. His essay
+on Michel Angelo is little more than a catalogue of great achievements;
+he recognizes the moral impressiveness of the man, but not the value of
+his sublime conceptions. Music, neither he nor Hawthorne cared for, for
+it belongs to emotional natures.
+
+In his "Society and Solitude" Emerson has drawn a picture of Hawthorne
+as the lover of a hermitical life; a picture only representing that side
+of his character, and developed after Emerson's fashion to an artistic
+extreme. "Whilst he suffered at being seen where he was, he consoled
+himself with the delicious thought of the inconceivable number of places
+where he was not," and "He had a remorse running to despair, of his
+social _gaucheries_, and walked miles and miles to get the twitching out
+of his face, the starts and shrugs out of his shoulders."
+
+[Footnote: "Society and Solitude," 4, 5.]
+
+There is a touch of arrogance in this, and it merely marks the
+difference between the modest author of the "Essays," and the proud,
+censorious Emerson of 1870; but his love of absolute statements ofttimes
+led him into strange contradictions, and the injustice which results
+from judging our fellow-mortals by an inflexible standard was the final
+outcome of his optimism. Hawthorne was more charitable when he remarked
+that without Byron's faults we should not have had his virtues; but the
+truth lies between the two.
+
+There have been many instances of genius as sensitive as Hawthorne's
+in various branches of art: Shelley and Southey, Schubert and Chopin,
+Correggio and Corot. Southey not only blushed red but blushed blue--as
+if the life were going out of him; and in Chopin and Correggio at
+least we feel that they could not have been what they were without it.
+Napoleon, whose nerves were like steel wires, suffered nevertheless from
+a peculiar kind of physical sensitiveness. He could not take medicines
+like other men,--a small dose had a terrible effect on him,--and it was
+much the same with respect to changes of food, climate, and the like.
+
+What Hawthorne required was sympathetic company. Do not we all require
+it? The hypercritical morality of the Emersonians, especially in
+Concord, could not have been favorable to his mental ease and comfort.
+How could a man in a happily married condition feel anything but
+repugnance to Thoreau's idea of marriage as a necessary evil; or
+Alcott's theory that eating animal food tended directly to the
+commission of crime?
+
+On the first anniversary of Hawthorne's wedding, a tragical drama was
+enacted in Concord, in which he was called upon to perform a subordinate
+part. One Miss Hunt, a school-teacher and the daughter of a Concord
+farmer, drowned herself in the river nearly opposite the place where
+Hawthorne was accustomed to bathe. The cause of her suicide has never
+been adequately explained, but as she was a transcendentalist, or
+considered herself so, there were those who believed that in some
+occult way that was the occasion of it. However, as one of her sisters
+afterward followed her example, it would seem more likely to have come
+from the development of some family trait. She was seen walking upon
+the bank for a long time, before she took the final plunge; but the
+catastrophe was not discovered until near evening.
+
+Ellery Channing came with a man named Buttrick to borrow Hawthorne's
+boat for the search, and Hawthorne went with them. As it happened, they
+were the ones who found the corpse, and Hawthorne's account in his diary
+of its recovery is a terribly accurate description,--softened down and
+poetized in the rewritten statement of "The Blithedale Romance."
+There is in fact no description of a death in Homer or Shakespeare so
+appalling as this literal transcript of the veritable fact.
+
+[Footnote: J. Hawthorne, i. 300.]
+
+What concerns us here, however, are the comments he set down on the
+dolorous event. Concerning her appearance, he says:
+
+"If she could have foreseen while she stood, at five o'clock that
+morning on the bank of the river, how her maiden corpse would have
+looked eighteen hours afterwards, and how coarse men would strive with
+hand and foot to reduce it to a decent aspect, and all in vain,--it
+would surely have saved her from the deed."
+
+And again:
+
+"I suppose one friend would have saved her; but she died for want of
+sympathy--a severe penalty for having cultivated and refined herself out
+of the sphere of her natural connections."
+
+The first remark has often been misunderstood. It is not the vanity
+of women, which is after all only a reflection (or the reflective
+consequence) of the admiration of man, which Hawthorne intends, but
+that delicacy of feeling which Nature requires of woman for her own
+protection; and he may not have been far wrong in supposing that if Miss
+Hunt had foreseen the exact consequences of her fatal act she would not
+have committed it. Hawthorne's remark that her death was a consequence
+of having refined and cultivated herself beyond the reach of her
+relatives, seems a rather hard judgment. The latter often happens in
+American life, and although it commonly results in more or less family
+discord, are we to condemn it for that reason? If she died as Hawthorne
+imagines, from the lack of intellectual sympathy, we may well inquire if
+there was no one in Concord who might have given aid and encouragement
+to this young aspiring soul.
+
+                       "Take her up tenderly;
+                        Lift her with care,
+                        Fashioned so slenderly,
+                        Young and so fair."
+
+And one is also tempted to add:
+
+                       "Alas! for the rarity
+                        Of Christian charity."
+
+Hawthorne's earthly paradise only endured until the autumn of 1843. When
+cool weather arrived, want and care came also. On November 26 he wrote
+to George S. Hillard:
+
+"I wish at some leisure moment you would give yourself the trouble
+to call into Munroe's book-store and inquire about the state of my
+'Twice-told Tales.' At the last accounts (now about a year since) the
+sales had not been enough to pay expenses; but it may be otherwise
+now--else I shall be forced to consider myself a writer for posterity;
+or at all events not for the present generation. Surely the book was
+puffed enough to meet with a sale."
+
+[Footnote: London Athenaeum, August 10, 1889.]
+
+The interpretation of this is that Longfellow, Hillard and Bridge could
+appreciate Hawthorne's art, but the solid men of Boston (with some
+rare exceptions) could not. Even Webster preferred the grotesque art of
+Dickens to Hawthorne's "wells of English undefiled." Recently, one of
+the few surviving original copies of "Fanshawe" was sold at auction
+for six hundred dollars. Such is the difference between genius and
+celebrity.
+
+The trouble then and now is that wealthy Americans as a class feel
+no genuine interest in art or literature. They do not form a true
+aristocracy, but a plutocracy, and are for the most part very poorly
+educated. It was formerly the brag of the Winthrops and Otises that they
+could go through college and learn their lessons in the recitation-room.
+Now they go to row, and play foot-ball, and after they graduate, they
+leave the best portion of their lives behind them. Then if they have a
+talent for business they become absorbed in commercial affairs; or if
+not, they travel from one country to another, picking up a smattering
+of everything, but not resting long enough in any one place for their
+impressions to develop and bear good fruit. They are not like the
+aristocratic classes of England, France and Germany, who become
+cultivated men and women, and serve to maintain a high standard of art
+and literature in those countries.
+
+The captain of a Cunard steamship, who owned quite a library, said in
+1869: "I have bought some very interesting books in New York, especially
+by a writer named Hawthorne, but the type and paper are so poor that
+they are not worth binding." The reason why American publishers do not
+bring out books in such good form as foreign publishers--is that there
+is no demand for a first-rate article. Thus do the fine arts languish.
+When rich young Americans take as much interest in painting and
+sculpture as they do in foot-ball and yachting, we shall have our
+Vandycks and Murillos,--if nothing better.
+
+Discouraged with the ill success of "Fanshawe," Hawthorne had limited
+himself since then to the writing of short sketches, such as would be
+acceptable to the magazine editors, and now that he had formed this
+habit, he found it difficult to escape from it. He informs us in the
+preface to "Mosses from an Old Manse" that he had hoped a more serious
+and extended plot would come to him on the banks of Concord River, but
+his imagination did not prove equal to the occasion. Most of the stories
+in "Mosses" must have been composed at Concord, but "Mrs. Bull-Frog'"
+and "Monsieur du Miroir" must have been written previously, for he
+refers to them in a letter at Brook Farm. A few were published in
+the _Democratic Review_, and others may have been elsewhere; but the
+proceeds he derived from them would not have supported a day-laborer,
+and toward the close of his second year at the Manse, Hawthorne found
+himself running in debt for the necessaries of life. He endured this
+with his usual stoical reticence, although there is nothing like debt to
+sicken a man's heart,--unless he be a decidedly light-minded man. Better
+fortune, however, was on its way to him in the shape of a political
+revolution.
+
+On March 3, 1844, a daughter was born to the Hawthornes, whom they named
+Una, in spite of Hillard's objection that the name was too poetic or too
+fanciful for the prosaic practicalities of real life. The name was an
+excellent one for a poet's daughter, and did not seem out of place in
+Arcadian Concord. Miss Una grew up into a graceful, fair and poetic
+young lady,--in all respects worthy of her name. She had an uncommonly
+fine figure, and, as often happens with first-born children, resembled
+her father much more than her mother. Her name also suggests the early
+influence of Spenser in her father's style and mode of thought.
+
+Soon after this fortunate event Hawthorne wrote a letter to Hillard, in
+which he said:
+
+"I find it a very sober and serious kind of happiness that springs from
+the birth of a child. It ought not come too early in a man's life--not
+till he has fully enjoyed his youth--for methinks the spirit can never
+be thoroughly gay and careless again, after this great event. We gain
+infinitely by the exchange; but we do give up something nevertheless.
+As for myself who have been a trifler preposterously long, I find it
+necessary to come out of my cloud-region, and allow myself to be woven
+into the sombre texture of humanity."
+
+It seems then that his conscience sometimes reproached him, but this
+only proves that his moral nature was in a healthy normal condition.
+There was a certain kind of indolence in him, a love of the _dolce far
+niente_, and an inclination to general inactivity which he may have
+inherited from his seafaring ancestors. Much better so, than to suffer
+from the nervous restlessness, which is the rule rather than the
+exception in New England life.
+
+In the same letter he mentions having forwarded a story to _Graham's
+Magazine_, which was accepted but not yet published after many months.
+He also anticipates an amelioration of his affairs from a Democratic
+victory in the fall elections.
+
+Meanwhile, Horatio Bridge had been traversing the high seas in the
+"Cyane," which was finally detailed to watch for slavers and to protect
+American commerce on the African coast. He had kept a journal of his
+various experiences and observations, which he sent to Hawthorne with
+a rather diffident interrogation as to whether it might be worth
+publishing. Hawthorne was decidedly of the opinion that it ought to be
+published,--in which we cordially agree with him,--and was well pleased
+to edit it for his friend; and, although it has now shared the fate of
+most of the books of its class, it is excellent reading for those who
+chance to find a copy of it. Bridge was a good observer, and a candid
+writer.
+
+The election of 1844 was the most momentous that had yet taken place
+in American history. It decided the annexation of Texas, and the
+acquisition of California, with a coast-line on the Pacific Ocean nearly
+equal to that on the Atlantic; but it also brought with it an unjust
+war of greed and spoliation, and other evil consequences of which we are
+only now begining to reach the end. The slaveholders and the Democratic
+leaders desired Texas in order to perpetuate their control of the
+government, and it was precisely through this measure that they lost
+it,--as happens so often in human affairs. It was the gold discoveries
+in California that upset their calculations. California would _not_ come
+into the Union as a slave state. Enraged at this failure, the Southern
+politicians made a desperate attempt to recover lost ground, by seizing
+on the fertile prairies in the Northwest; but there they came into
+conflict with the industrial classes of the North, who fought them on
+their own ground and abolished slavery. Never had public injustice been
+followed by so swift and terrible a retribution.
+
+In regard to the candidates of 1844, it was hardly possible to
+compare them. Polk possessed the ability to preside over the House of
+Representatives, but he did not rise above this; while Clay could be
+fairly compared on some points with Washington himself, and united with
+this a persuasive eloquence second only to Webster's. He was practically
+defeated by fifteen or twenty thousand abolitionists who preferred to
+throw away their votes rather than to cast them for a slave-holder.
+
+Hawthorne, in the quiet seclusion of his country home, did not realize
+this danger to the Republic. He only knew that his friends were
+victorious, and was happy in the expectation of escaping from his debts,
+and of providing more favorably for his little family.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+"MOSSES PROM AN OLD MANSE": 1845
+
+
+There is no evidence in the Hawthorne documents or publications to show
+exactly when the first edition of "Mosses from an Old Manse" made its
+appearance, and copies of it are now exceedingly rare, but we find the
+Hawthorne family in Salem reading the book in the autumn of 1845, so
+that it was probably brought out at that time and helped to maintain its
+author during his last days at Concord.
+
+There must have been some magical influence in the Old Manse or in its
+surrounding scenery, to have stimulated both Emerson's and Hawthorne's
+love of Nature to such a degree. Emerson's eye dilates as he looks
+upon the sunshine gilding the trunks of the balm of Gilead trees on his
+avenue; and Hawthorne dwells with equal delight on the luxuriant squash
+vines which spread over his vegetable garden. Discoursing on this he
+says:
+
+"Speaking of summer squashes, I must say a word of their beautiful and
+varied forms. They presented an endless diversity of urns and vases,
+shallow or deep, scalloped or plain, molded in patterns which a sculptor
+would do well to copy, since art has never invented anything more
+graceful."
+
+And again:
+
+"A cabbage, too--especially the early Dutch cabbage, which swells to
+a monstrous circumference, until its ambitious heart often bursts
+asunder--is a matter to be proud of when we can claim a share with the
+earth and sky in producing it."
+
+It would seem as if no one before Hawthorne had rightly observed these
+common vegetables, whose external appearance is always before our eyes.
+He not only humanizes whatever attracts his attention, but he looks
+through a refining medium of his own personality. He has the gift of
+Midas to bring back the Golden Age for us. Who besides Homer has been
+able to describe a chariot-race, and who but Hawthorne could extract
+such poetry from a farmer's garden?
+
+If we compare this introductory chapter with such earlier sketches as
+"The Vision at the Fountain" and "The Toll-Gatherer's Day," we recognize
+the progress that Hawthorne has made since the first volume of "Twice
+Told Tales." We are no longer reminded of the plain unpainted house
+on Lake Sebago. His style is not only more graceful, but has acquired
+greater fulness of expression, and he is evidently working in a deeper
+and richer vein of thought. Purity of expression is still his polar
+star, and his writing is nowhere overloaded, but it has a warmer tone,
+a deeper perspective, and an atmospheric quality which painters call
+_chi-aroscuro_. He charms with pleasing fancies, while he penetrates to
+the soul.
+
+Hawthorne rarely repeats himself in details, and never in designs.
+Two of Dickens's most interesting novels, "Oliver Twist" and "David
+Copperfield," are constructed on the same theme, but each of the studies
+in this collection has a distinct individuality which appeals to
+the reader after a fashion of its own. Each has its moral, or rather
+central, idea to which all its component parts are related, and teaches
+a lesson of its own, so unobtrusively that we become possessed of it
+almost unawares. Some are intensely, even tragically, serious; others so
+light and airy that they seem as if woven out of gossamer.
+
+There are a few, however, that do not harmonize with the general tone
+and character of the rest,--especially "Mrs. Bull-Frog," which Hawthorne
+himself confessed to having been an experiment, and which strangely
+enough is much more in the style of his son Julian. "Monsieur du Miroir"
+and "Sketches from Memory" are relics of his earlier writings; perhaps
+also "Feather-Top" and "The Procession of Life." It would have been
+better perhaps if "Young Goodman Brown" had been used to light a fire at
+the Old Manse.
+
+"Monsieur du Miroir" is chiefly interesting as an example of Hawthorne's
+faculty for elaborating the most simple subject until every possible
+phase of it has been exhausted. It may also throw some light
+scientifically on the origin of consciousness. We see ourselves
+reflected not only in the mirror, but on the blade of a knife, or a
+puddle in the road; and, if we look sharply enough, in the eyes of other
+men--even in the expression of their faces. In such manner does Nature
+force upon us a recognition of our various personalities--the nucleus of
+self-knowledge, and self-respect.
+
+Whittier once spoke of "Young Goodman Brown" as indicating a mental
+peculiarity in Hawthorne, which like the cuttle-fish rarely rises to the
+surface. The plot is cynical, and largely enigmatical. The very name
+of it (in the way Hawthorne develops the story) is a fearful satire
+on human nature. He may have intended this for an exposure of the
+inconsistency, and consequent hypocrisy, of Puritanism; but the name
+of Goodman Brown's wife is Faith, and this suggests that Brown may have
+been himself intended for an incarnation of _doubt_, or _disbelief_
+carried to a logical extreme. Whatever may have been Hawthorne's design,
+the effect is decidedly unpleasant.
+
+Emerson talked in proverbs, and Hawthorne in parables. The finest
+sketches in this collection are parables. "The Birth Mark," "Rappacini's
+Daughter," "A Select Party," "Egotism," and "The Artist of the
+Beautiful." "The Celestial Railroad" is an allegory, a variation on
+"Pilgrim's Progress."
+
+"The Birth Mark" and "Rappacini's Daughter" are like divergent lines,
+which originate at an single point; and that point is the radical
+viciousness of trying experiments on human beings. It is bad enough,
+although excusable, to vivisect dogs and rabbits; but why should we
+attempt the same course of procedure with those that are nearest and
+dearest to us? Such parables were not required in the time of Tiberius
+Caesar and men and women grew up in a natural, vigorous manner; but now
+we have become so scientific that we continually attempt to improve
+on Nature,--like the artist who left the rainbow out of his picture of
+Niagara because its colors did not harmonize with the background.
+
+The line of divergence in "The Birth Mark" is indicated by its name. We
+all have our birth-marks,--traits of character, which may be temporarily
+suppressed, or relegated to the background, but which cannot be
+eradicated and are certain to reappear at unguarded moments, or on
+exceptional occasions. Education and culture can do much to soften and
+temper the disposition, but the original material remains the same.
+The father who attempts to force his son into a mode of life for
+which Nature did not intend him, or the mother who quarrels with her
+daughter's friends, commits an error similar to that of Hawthorne's
+alchemist, who endeavors to remove the birthmark from the otherwise
+beautiful face of his wife, but only succeeds in effecting this together
+with her death. The tragical termination of the alchemist's experiments,
+the pathetic yielding up of life by his sweet "Clytie," is described
+with an impressive tenderness. She sinks to her last sleep without a
+murmur of reproach.
+
+"Rappacini's Daughter" might serve as a protest against bringing up
+children in an exceptional and abnormal manner. I once knew an excellent
+lady, who, with the best possible intentions, brought up her daughter
+to be different from all other girls. As a consequence, she _was_
+different,--could not assimilate herself to others. She had no admirers,
+or young friends of her own sex, for there were few points of contact
+between herself and general society. Her mother was her only friend. She
+aged rapidly and died early. Similarly, a boy brought up in a secluded
+condition of purity and ignorance, finally developed into one of the
+most vicious of men.
+
+Hawthorne has prefigured this by a bright colored flower which sparkles
+like a gem, very attractive at a distance, but exhaling a deadly
+perfume. He may not have been aware that the opium poppy has so
+brilliant a flower that it can be seen at a distance from which all
+other flowers are invisible. The scene of his story is placed in
+Italy,--the land of beauty, but also the country of poisoners.
+Rappacini, an old botanist and necromancer, has trained up his daughter
+in the solitary companionship of this flower, from which she has
+acquired its peculiar properties. A handsome young student is induced
+to enter the garden, partly from curiosity and partly through the
+legerdemain of Rappacini. The student soon falls under the daughter's
+influence and finds himself being gradually poisoned. A watchful
+apothecary, who has penetrated the necromancer's secret, provides the
+young man with an antidote which saves him, but deprives the maiden
+of life. She crosses the barrier which separated her from a healthy
+existence, and the poison reacts upon her system and kills her. The old
+apothecary looks out from his window, and cries, "O Rappacini! Is this
+the consummation of your experiment?"
+
+The underlying agreement between this story and "The Birth Mark"
+becomes apparent when we observe that the termination of one is simply a
+variation upon the last scene of the other. In one instance a beautiful
+daughter is sacrificed by her father, and in the other a lovely wife is
+victimized by her husband. There have been thousands, if not millions,
+of such cases.
+
+There is no other writer but Shakespeare who has portrayed the absolute
+devotion of a woman's love with such delicacy of feeling and depth of
+sympathy as Hawthorne. In the two stories we have just considered, and
+also in "The Bosom Serpent," this element serves, like the refrain of a
+Greek chorus, to give a sweet, penetrating undertone which reconciles
+us to much that would otherwise seem intolerable. The heroines in these
+pieces have such a close spiritual relationship that one suspects them
+of having been studied from the same model, and who could this have been
+so likely as Hawthorne's own wife. [Footnote: Notice also the similar
+character of Sophia in J. Hawthorne's "Bressant."]
+
+The theme of "The Bosom Serpent" is a husband's jealousy; and it is the
+self-forgetful devotion of his wife that finally cures his malady and
+relieves him of his unpleasant companion. The tale ends with one of
+those mystifying passages which Hawthorne weaves so skilfully, so that
+it is difficult to determine from the text whether there was a real
+serpent secreted under the man's clothing, or only an imaginary
+one,--although we presume the latter. Francis of Verulam says, "the best
+fortune for a husband is for his wife to consider him wise, which she
+will never do if she find him jealous"; and with good reason, for if he
+is unreasonably jealous, it shows a lack of confidence in her; but mutal
+confidence is the well-spring from which love flows, and if the well
+dries up, there is an end of it.
+
+"The Select Party" is quite a relief, after this tragical trilogy. It is
+easy to believe that Hawthorne imagined this dream of a summer evening,
+while watching the great cumulus clouds, tinted with rose and lavender
+like aerial snow-mountains, floating toward the horizon. Here were true
+castles in the air, which he could people with shapes according to his
+fancy; but he chose the most common abstract conceptions, such as, the
+Clerk of the Weather, the Beau Ideal, Mr. So-they-say, the Coming Man,
+and other ubiquitous personages, whom we continually hear of, but never
+see. The Man of Fancy invites these and many others to a banquet in
+his cloud-castle, where they all converse and behave according to their
+special characters. A ripple of delicate humor, like the ripple made by
+a light summer breeze upon the calm surface of a lake, runs through the
+piece from the first sentence to the last; and the scene is brought to
+a close by the approach of a thunder-storm, which spreads consternation
+among these unsubstantial guests, much like that which takes place at
+a picnic under similar circumstances; and Hawthorne, with his customary
+mystification, leaves us in doubt as to whether they ever reached _terra
+firma_ again.
+
+There is one proverbial character, however, whom Hawthorne has omitted
+from this account; namely, Mr. Everybody. "What Everybody says, must be
+true;" but unfortunately Everybody's information is none of the
+best, and his judgment does not rise above his information. His
+self-confidence, however, is enormous. He understands law better than
+the lawyer, and medicine better than the physicians. He is never tired
+of settling the affairs of the country, and of proposing constitutional
+amendments. Is it not perfectly natural that Everybody should
+understand Everybody's business as well as or better than his own? He is
+continually predicting future events, and if they fail to take place
+he predicts them again. He is omnipresent, but if you seek him he is
+nowhere to be found,--which we may presume to be the reason why he did
+not appear at the entertainment given by the Man of Fancy.
+
+That which gives the elevated character to Raphael's faces--as in the
+"Sistine Madonna" and other paintings--is not their drawing, though that
+is always refined, but the expression of the eyes, which are truly the
+windows of the soul. It was the same in Hawthorne's face, and may be
+observed in all good portraits of him. An immutable calmness overspread
+his features, but in and about his eyes there was a spring-like
+mirthfulness; while down in the shadowy depth of those luminous orbs was
+concealed the pathos that formed the undercurrent of his life. So it
+is that high comedy, as Plato long ago observed, lies very close to
+tragedy.
+
+A well-known French writer compares English humor, in a general way,
+to beer-drinking, and this is more particularly applicable to Dickens's
+characters. The very name of Mark Tapley suggests ale bottles.
+Thackeray's humor is of a more refined quality, but a trifle sharp and
+satirical. It is, however, pure and healthful and might be compared
+to Rhine-wine. Hawthorne's humor at its best is more refined than
+Thackeray's, as well as of a more amiable quality, and reminds one
+(on Taine's principle) of those delicate Italian wines which have very
+little body, but a delightful bouquet. As a humorist, however, Hawthorne
+varies in different times and places more than in any other respect.
+He adapts himself to his subject; is light and playful in "The Select
+Party"; takes on a more serious vein in "The Celestial Railroad"; in
+his resuscitation of Byron, in the letter from a lunatic called "P's
+Correspondence" he is simply sardonic; and "The Virtuoso's Collection"
+has all the effect, although he does not anywhere descend to low comedy,
+of a roaring farce. In "Mrs. Bull-Frog," as the title intimates, he
+approaches closely to the grotesque.
+
+In "The Virtuoso's Collection" we have the humor of impossibility.
+Nothing is more common than this, but Hawthorne gives it a peculiar
+value of his own. A procession of mythological objects, strange
+historical relics, and the odd creations of fiction passes before our
+eyes. The abruptness of their juxtaposition excites continuous laughter
+in us. It would be an extremely phlegmatic person who could read it with
+a serious face. Don Quixote's Rosinante, Doctor Johnson's cat, Shelley's
+skylark, a live phoenix, Prospero's magic wand, the hard-ridden Pegasus,
+the dove which brought the olive branch, and many others appear in
+such rapid succession that the reader has no time to take breath, or to
+consider what will turn up next. Like an accomplished showman, Hawthorne
+enlivens the performance here and there with original reflections on
+life, which are perfectly dignified, but become humorous from contrast
+with their surroundings. In spite of its comical effect, the piece has
+a very genteel air, for its material is taken from that general stock of
+information that passes current in cultivated families. The young man
+of fashion who had never heard of Elijah, or of Poe's "Raven," would not
+have understood it.
+
+In "The Hall of Fantasy," we catch some glimpses of Hawthorne's favorite
+authors:
+
+"The grand old countenance of Homer, the shrunken and decrepit form,
+but vivid face, of AEsop, the dark presence of Dante, the wild Ariosto,
+Rabelais's smile of deep-wrought mirth, the profound, pathetic humor
+of Cervantes, the all glorious Shakespeare, Spenser, meet guest for an
+allegoric structure, the severe divinity of Milton and Bunyan, molded
+of the homeliest clay, but instinct with celestial fire--were those
+that chiefly attracted my eye. Fielding, Richardson, and Scott occupied
+conspicuous pedestals."
+
+He also adds Goethe and Swedenborg, and remarks of them:
+
+"Were ever two men of transcendent imagination more unlike?"
+
+It is evident that Byron was not a favorite with Hawthorne. In addition
+to his severe treatment of that poet, in "P's Correspondence," he says
+in "Earth's Holocaust," where he imagines the works of various authors
+to be consumed in a bonfire:
+
+"Speaking of the properties of flame, me-thought Shelley's poetry
+emitted a purer light than almost any other productions of his day,
+contrasting beautifully with the fitful and lurid gleams and gushes of
+black vapor that flashed and eddied from the volumes of Lord Byron."
+
+This seems like rather puritanical treatment. If there are false lines
+in Byron, there are quite as many weak lines in Shelley. If sincerity
+were to give out a pure flame, Byron would stand that test equal to any.
+His real fault is to be found in his somewhat glaring diction, like the
+_voix blanc_ in singing, and in an occasional stroke of _persiflage_.
+This increases his attractiveness to youthful minds, but to a nature
+like Hawthorne's anything of an exhibitory character must always be
+unpleasant.
+
+Emerson and Hawthorne only knew Goethe through the translations of
+Dwight, Carlyle and Margaret Fuller, and yet his poetry made a deeper
+impression on them than on Lowell and Longfellow, who read it in the
+original. Hawthorne appears to have taken lessons in German while at
+Brook Farm, for we find him studying a German book at the Old Manse,
+with a grammar and lexicon; but, as he confesses in his diary, without
+making satisfactory progress.
+
+"The Artist of the Beautiful" is a Dantean allegory, and a poetic gem.
+A young watchmaker, imbued with a spirit above his calling, neglects
+the profits of his business in order to construct an artificial
+butterfly,--at once the type of useless beauty and the symbol of
+immortality, and he perseveres in spite of the difficulties of the
+undertaking and the contemptuous opposition of his acquaintances. He
+finally succeeds in making one which seems to be almost endowed with
+life, but only to be informed that it is no better than a toy, and that
+he has wasted his time on a thing which has no practical value. A child
+(who represents the thoughtlessness of the great world) crushes the
+exquisite piece of workmanship in his little hand; but the watch-maker
+does not repine at this, for he realizes that after having achieved the
+beautiful, in his own spirit, the outward symbol of it has comparatively
+little value. The Artist of the Beautiful is Hawthorne himself; and in
+this exquisite fable he has not only unfolded the secret of all high
+art, but his own life-secret as well.
+
+
+HAWTHORNE AND TRANSCENDENTALISM
+
+The French and English scepticism of the eighteenth century, produced a
+reaction in the more contemplative German nature, which took the form
+of a strong assertion of spirit or mind as an entity in itself, and
+distinct from matter. This movement was more like a national impulse
+than the proselytism of a sect, but the individual in whom this
+spiritual impulse of the German people manifested itself at that time
+was Immanuel Kant. Without discrediting the revelations of Hebrew
+tradition, he taught the doctrine that instead of looking for evidence
+of a Supreme Being in the external world, we should seek him in our
+own hearts; that every man could find a revelation in his own
+conscience,--in the consciousness of good and evil, by which man
+improves his condition on earth; that the ideas of a Supreme Being, or
+of immortality and freedom of will, are inherent in the human mind, and
+are not to be acquired from experience; but that, as the finite mind
+cannot comprehend the infinite, we cannot know God in the same sense
+that we know our own earthly fathers, or as Goethe afterwards expressed
+it,---
+
+                     "Who can say I know Him;
+                      Who can say, I know Him not;"
+
+and that it is in this aspiration for the unattainable, in this
+reverence for absolute purity, wisdom and love, that the spirit of true
+religion consists.
+
+The new philosophy was named "Transcendentalism" by Kant's followers,
+because it included ideas which were beyond the range of experience. It
+became popular in Germany, as Platonism, to which it is closely related,
+became popular in ancient Greece. It has never been accepted in France,
+where scepticism still predominates, though we hear of it in Taine and
+a few other writers; but in Great Britain, although the English
+universities repudiated it, Transcendentalism became so influential
+that Gladstone has spoken of it, in his Romanes lecture, as the dominant
+philosophy of the nineteenth century. Every notable English writer of
+that period, with the exception of Macaulay, Mill, and Spencer, became
+largely imbued with it. In America its influence did not extend much
+beyond New England, but in that section at least its proselytes were
+numbered by thousands, and it effected an intellectual revolution which
+has since influenced the whole country.
+
+The Concord group of transcendentalists did not accept the teaching
+of Kant in its original purity; but mixed with it a number of other
+imported products, that in no way appertain to it. Thoreau was an
+American _sansculotte_, a believer in the natural man; Ripley was mainly
+a socialist; Margaret Fuller was one of the earliest leaders in woman's
+rights; Alcott was a Neo-Platonist, a vegetarian, and a non-resistant;
+while Emerson sympathized largely with Thoreau, and from his poetic
+exaltation of Nature was looked upon as a pantheist by those who
+were not accustomed to nice discriminations. Thus it happened that
+Transcendentalism came to be associated in the public mind with any
+exceptional mode or theory of life. Its best representatives in America,
+like Professor Hedge of Harvard, Reverend David A. Wasson and Doctor
+William T. Harris (so long Chief of the National Bureau of Education),
+were much abler men than Emerson's followers, but did not attract so
+much attention, simply because they lived according to the customs of
+good society.
+
+Sleepy Hollow, before it was converted into a cemetery, was one of the
+most attractive sylvan resorts in the environs of Concord. It was a sort
+of natural amphitheatre, a small oval plane, more than half surrounded
+by a low wooded ridge; a sheltered and sequestered spot, cool in summer,
+but also warm and sunny in spring, where the wild flowers bloomed and
+the birds sang earlier than in other places.
+
+There, on August 22, 1842, a notable meeting took place, between
+Hawthorne, Emerson, and Margaret Fuller, who came that afternoon to
+enjoy the inspiration of the place, without preconcerted agreement.
+Margaret Fuller was first on the ground, and Hawthorne found her seated
+on the hill-side--his gravestone now overlooks the spot--reading a
+book with a peculiar name, which he "did not understand, and could not
+afterward recollect." Such a description could only apply to Kant's
+"Critique of Pure Reason," the original fountain-head and gospel of
+Transcendentalism.
+
+It does not appear that Nathaniel Hawthorne ever studied "The Critique
+of Pure Reason." His mind was wholly of the artistic order,--the most
+perfect type of an artist, one might say, living at that time,--and
+a scientific analysis of the mental faculties would have been as
+distasteful to him as the dissection of a human body. History,
+biography, fiction, did not appear to him as a logical chain of cause
+and effect, but as a succession of pictures illustrating an ideal
+determination of the human race. He could not even look at a group of
+turkeys without seeing a dramatic situation in them. In addition
+to this, as a true artist, he was possessed of a strong dislike for
+everything eccentric and abnormal; he wished for symmetry in all things,
+and above all in human actions; and those restless, unbalanced
+spirits, who attached themselves to the transcendental movement and the
+anti-slavery cause, were particularly objectionable to him. It has been
+rightly affirmed that no revolutionary movement could be carried through
+without the support of that ill-regulated class of persons who are
+always seeking they know not what, and they have their value in the
+community, like the rest of us; but Hawthorne was not a revolutionary
+character, and to his mind they appeared like so many obstacles to the
+peaceable enjoyment of life. His motto was, "Live and let live." There
+are passages in his Concord diary in which he refers to the itinerant
+transcendentalist in no very sympathetic manner.
+
+His experience at Brook Farm may have helped to deepen this feeling.
+There is no necessary connection between such an idyllic-socialistic
+experiment and a belief in the direct perception of a great First
+Clause; but Brook Farm was popularly supposed at that time to be an
+emanation of Transcendentalism, and is still largely so considered. He
+was wearied at Brook Farm by the philosophical discussions of George
+Ripley and his friends, and took to walking in the country lanes, where
+he could contemplate and philosophize in his own fashion,--which
+after all proved to be more fruitful than theirs. Having exchanged his
+interest in the West Roxbury Association for the Old Manse at Concord
+(truly a poetic bargain), he wrote the most keenly humorous of his
+shorter sketches, his "The Celestial Railroad," and in it represented
+the dismal cavern where Bunyan located the two great enemies of true
+religion, the Pope and the Pagan, as now occupied by a German giant,
+the Transcendentalist, who "makes it his business to seize upon honest
+travellers and fat them for his table with plentiful meals of smoke,
+mist, moonshine, raw potatoes, and sawdust."
+
+That Transcendentalism was largely associated in Hawthorne's mind with
+the unnecessary discomforts and hardships of his West Roxbury life is
+evident from a remark which he lets fall in "The Virtuoso's Collection."
+The Virtuoso calls his attention to the seven-league boots of childhood
+mythology, and Hawthorne replies, "I could show you quite as curious a
+pair of cowhide boots at the transcendental community of Brook Farm."
+Yet there could have been no malice in his satire, for Mrs. Hawthorne's
+two sisters, Mrs. Mann and Miss Peabody, were both transcendentalists;
+and so was Horace Mann himself, so far as we know definitely in regard
+to his metaphysical creed. Do not we all feel at times that the search
+for abstract truth is like a diet of sawdust or Scotch mist,--a "chimera
+buzzing in a vacuum"?
+
+James Russell Lowell similarly attacked Emerson in his Class Day poem,
+and afterward became converted to Emerson's views through the influence
+of Maria White. It is possible that a similar change took place in
+Hawthorne's consciousness; although his consciousness was so profound
+and his nature so reticent that what happened in the depths of it
+was never indicated by more than a few bubbles at the surface. He was
+emphatically an idealist, as every truly great artist must be,
+and Transcendentalism was the local costume which ideality wore in
+Hawthorne's time. He was a philosopher after a way of his own, and his
+reflections on life and manners often have the highest value. It was
+inevitable that he should feel and assimilate something from the wave
+of German thought which was sweeping over England and America, and if he
+did this unconsciously it was so much the better for the quality of his
+art.
+
+There are evidences of this even among his earliest sketches. In his
+account of "Sunday at Home" he says: "Time--where a man lives not--what
+is it but Eternity?" Does he not recognize in this condensed statement
+Kant's theorem that time is a mental condition, which only exists in
+man, and for man, and has no place in the external world? In fact,
+it only exists by divisions of time, and it is _man_ who makes the
+divisions. The rising of the sun does not constitute time; for the sun
+is always rising--somewhere. The positivists and Herbert Spencer deny
+this, and argue to prove that time is an external entity--independent
+of man--like electricity; but Hawthorne did not agree with them. He
+evidently trusted the validity of his consciousness. In that exquisite
+pastoral, "The Vision at the Fountain," he says:
+
+"We were aware of each other's presence, not by sight or sound or touch,
+but by an inward consciousness. Would it not be so among the dead?"
+
+You have probably heard of the German who attempted to evolve a camel
+out of his inner consciousness. That and similar jibes are common among
+those persons of whom the Scriptures tell us that they are in the habit
+of straining at gnats; but Hawthorne believed consciousness to be a
+trustworthy guide. Why should he not? It was the consciousness of _self_
+that raised man above the level of the brute. This was the rock from
+which Moses struck forth the fountain of everlasting life.
+
+Again, in "Fancy's Show-Box" we meet with the following:
+
+"Or, while none but crimes perpetrated are cognizable before an earthly
+tribunal, will guilty thoughts,--of which guilty deeds are no more than
+shadows,--will these draw down the full weight of a condemning sentence
+in the supreme court of eternity?"
+
+Is this not an induction from or corollary to the preceding? If it is
+not Kantian philosophy, it is certainly Goethean. Margaret Fuller was
+the first American critic, if not the first of all critics, to point out
+that Goethe in writing "Elective Affinities" designed to show that an
+evil thought may have consequences as serious and irremediable as an
+evil action--in addition to the well-known homily that evil thoughts
+lead to evil actions. In his "Hall of Fantasy" Hawthorne mentions Goethe
+and Swedenborg as two literary idols of the present time who may be
+expected to endure through all time. Emerson makes the same prediction
+in one of his poems.
+
+In "Rappacini's Daughter" Hawthorne says: "There is something truer and
+more real than what we can see with the eyes and touch with the finger."
+
+And in "The Select Party" he remarks: "To such beholders it was unreal
+because they lacked the imaginative faith. Had they been worthy to
+pass within its portals, they would have recognized the truth that the
+dominions which the spirit conquers for itself among unrealities become
+a thousand times more real than the earth whereon they stamp their feet,
+saying, 'This is solid and substantial! This may be called a fact!'"
+
+The essence of Transcendentalism is the assertion of the
+indestructibility of spirit, that mind is more real than matter, and the
+unseen than the seen. "The visible has value only," says Carlyle, "when
+it is based on the invisible." No writer of the nineteenth century
+affirms this more persistently than Hawthorne, and in none of his
+romances is the principle so conspicuous as in "The House of the Seven
+Gables." It is a sister's love which, like a cord stronger than steel,
+binds together the various incidents of the story, while the avaricious
+Judge Pyncheon, "with his landed estate, public honors, offices of trust
+and other solid _un_realities," has after all only succeeded in building
+a card castle for himself, which may be dissipated by a single
+breath. Holgrave, the daguerreotypist, who serves as a contrast to the
+factitious judge, is a genuine character, and may stand for a type of
+the young New England liberal of 1850: a freethinker, and so much of a
+transcendentalist that we suspect Hawthorne's model for him to have
+been one of the younger associates of the Brook Farm experiment. He is
+evidently studied from life, and Hawthorne says of him:
+
+"Altogether, in his culture and want of culture, in his crude, wild, and
+misty philosophy, and the practical experience that counteracted some
+of its tendencies; in his magnanimous zeal for man's welfare, and his
+recklessness of whatever the ages had established in man's behalf; in
+his faith, and in his infidelity; in what he had, and in what he lacked,
+the artist might fitly enough stand forth as the representative of many
+compeers in his native land."
+
+This is a fairly sympathetic portrait, and it largely represents the
+class of young men who went to hear Emerson and supported Charles
+Sumner. In the story, Holgrave achieves the reward of a veracious nature
+by winning the heart of the purest and loveliest young woman in American
+fiction.
+
+If Hawthorne were still living he might object to the foregoing argument
+as a misrepresentation; nor could he be blamed for this, for Ripley,
+Thoreau, Alcott and other like visionary spirits have so vitiated the
+significance of Transcendentalism that it ought now to be classed among
+words of doubtful and uncertain meaning.
+
+Students of German philosophy are now chiefly known as Kantists or
+Hegelians, and outside of the universities they are commonly classed as
+Emersonians.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+FROM CONCORD TO LENOX: 1845-1849
+
+
+In May, 1845, Paymaster Bridge found himself again on the American
+coast. Meeting with Franklin Pierce in Boston, they agreed to go
+to Concord together, and look into Hawthorne's affairs. Soon after
+breakfast, Mrs. Hawthorne espied them coming through the gateway. She
+had never met Pierce, but she recognized Bridge's tall, elegant figure,
+when he waved his hat to her in the distance. Hawthorne himself was
+sawing and splitting in the wood-shed, and thither she directed his
+friends--to his no slight astonishment when they appeared before
+him. Pierce had his arm across Hawthorne's broad shoulders when they
+reappeared. There is one pleasure, indeed, which young people cannot
+know, and that is, the meeting of old friends. Mrs. Hawthorne was
+favorably impressed with Franklin Pierce's personality; while Horatio
+Bridge danced about and acted an impromptu pantomime, making up faces
+like an owl. They assured Hawthorne that something should be done to
+relieve his financial embarrassment.[Footnote: J. Hawthorne, 281.]
+
+All those whose attention Hawthorne attracted out of the rush and hurry
+of the world were sure to become interested in his welfare. O'Sullivan,
+the editor of the _Democratic Review_, had already exerted himself
+in Hawthorne's behalf; but President Polk evidently did not know who
+Hawthorne was, so that O'Sullivan was obliged to have a puff inserted in
+his review for the President's better information. George Bancroft was
+now in the Cabinet, and could easily have obtained a lucrative post for
+Hawthorne, but it is plain that Bancroft was not over-friendly to him
+and that Hawthorne was fully aware of this. Hawthorne had suggested
+the Salem postmastership, but when O'Sullivan mentioned this, Bancroft
+objected on the ground that the present incumbent was too good a man to
+be displaced, and proposed the consulates of Genoa and Marseilles, two
+deplorable positions and quite out of the question for Hawthorne, in the
+condition of his family at that time. Perhaps it would have been better
+for him in a material sense, if he had accepted the invitation to dine
+with Margaret Fuller.
+
+The summer wore away, but nothing was acomplished; and late in the
+autumn Hawthorne left the Old Manse to return to his Uncle Robert
+Manning's house in Salem, where he could always count on a warm welcome.
+There he spent the winter with his wife and child, until suddenly, in
+March, 1846, he was appointed Surveyor of the Port, or, as it is now
+more properly called, Collector of Customs.
+
+This was, in truth, worth waiting for. The salary was not large, but it
+was a dignified position and allowed Hawthorne sufficient leisure
+for other pursuits,--the leisure of the merchant or banker. Salem
+had already begun to lose its foreign trade, and for days together
+it sometimes happened that there was nothing to do. Hawthorne's chief
+business was to prevent the government from being cheated, either by the
+importers or by his own subordinates; and it required a pretty sharp eye
+to do this. All the appointments, even to his own clerks, were made by
+outside politicians, and when a reduction of employees was necessary,
+Hawthorne consulted with the local Democratic Committee, and followed
+their advice. Such a method was not to the advantage of the public
+service, but it saved Hawthorne from an annoying responsibility. His
+strictness and impartiality, however, soon brought him into conflict
+with his more self-important subordinates, who were by no means
+accustomed to exactness in their dealings, and this finally produced a
+good deal of official unpleasantness; and the unfavorable reports
+which were afterward circulated concerning Hawthorne's life during this
+period, probably originated in that quarter.
+
+[Illustration: THE CUSTOM HOUSE, SALEM, MASS., WHERE HAWTHORNE WAS
+EMPLOYED AS SURVEYOR OF THE FORT OF SALEM, AT THE TIME OF HIS WRITING
+"THE SCARLET LETTER"]
+
+All the poetry that Hawthorne could extract from his occupation at the
+Custom House is to be found in his preface to "The Scarlet Letter," but
+he withholds from us the prosaic side of it,--as he well might. At times
+he comes close to caricature, especially in his descriptions of "those
+venerable incumbents who hibernated during the winter season, and then
+crawled out during the warm days of spring to draw their pay and
+perform those pretended duties, for which they were engaged." There were
+formerly large numbers of moss-grown loafers in the government service,
+with whiskey-reddened noses and greasy old clothing, who would sun
+themselves on the door-steps, and tell anecdotes of General Jackson,
+Senator Benton, and other popular heroes, with whom they would intimate
+a good acquaintance at some remote period of their lives. If removed
+from office, they were quite as likely to turn up in a neighboring jail
+as in any other location. This is no satire, but serious truth; and
+instances of it can be given.
+
+Hawthorne's life during the next three years was essentially domestic.
+In June, 1846, his son Julian was born--a remarkably vigorous baby--at
+Doctor Peabody's house in West Street, Boston; Mrs. Hawthorne wisely
+preferring to be with her own mother during her confinement. [Footnote:
+At the age of thirty-five, Julian resembled his father so closely that
+Nathaniel Hawthorne's old friends were sometimes startled by him, as if
+they had seen an apparition. He was, however, of a stouter build, and
+his eyes were different.] With two small children on her hands, Mrs.
+Hawthorne had slight opportunity to enjoy general society, fashionable
+or otherwise. Rebecca Manning says, however:
+
+"Neither Hawthorne nor his wife could be said to be 'in society' in the
+technical sense. When the Peabody family lived in Salem, they were,
+I have been told, somewhat straitened pecuniarily. After Hawthorne's
+marriage, I think I remember hearing of his wife going to parties and
+dinners occasionally. Dr. Loring's wife was her cousin. Other friends
+were the Misses Howes, one of whom is now Mrs. Cabot of Boston. Mrs.
+Foote, who was a daughter of Judge White, was a friend, and I remember
+some Silsbees who were also her friends. Hawthorne's wife knew how to
+cultivate her friends and make the most of them far better than either
+Hawthorne or his sisters did. I have been told that when Hawthorne was a
+young man, before his marriage, if he had chosen to enter Salem's 'first
+circle' he would have been welcome there."
+
+During this last sojourn in his native city Hawthorne was chosen on
+the committee for the lyceum lecture course, and proved instrumental
+in bringing Webster to Salem,--where he had not been popular since the
+trial of the two Knapps,--to deliver an oration on the Constitution; of
+which Mrs. Hawthorne has given a graphic description in a letter to her
+mother on November 19, 1848:
+
+"The old Lion walked the stage with a sort of repressed rage, when he
+referred to those persons who cried out, 'Down with the Constitution!'
+'Madmen! Or most wicked if not mad!' said he with a glare of fire."
+
+A pure piece of acting. The national Constitution was not even
+endangered by the Southern rebellion,--much less by the small band of
+original abolitionists; and Webster was too sensible not to be aware of
+this.
+
+While Hawthorne was at the Salem Custom House, he made at least two
+valuable friends: Doctor George B. Loring, who had married a cousin of
+Mrs. Hawthorne, and William B. Pike, who occupied a subordinate
+position in the Custom House, but whom Hawthorne valued for moral and
+intellectual qualities of which he would seem to have been the first
+discoverer. They were not friends who would be likely to affect
+Hawthorne's political views, except to encourage him in the direction to
+which he had always tended. Four years earlier, Doctor Loring had
+been on cordial terms with Longfellow and Sumner, being a refined and
+intellectual sort of man, but like Hillard, had withdrawn from them on
+account of political differences. He was an able public speaker, and
+became a Democratic politician, until 1862, when he went over to the
+Republicans; but after that he was looked upon with a good deal of
+suspicion by both parties. The governorship was supposed to have been
+the object of his ambition, but he never could obtain the nomination.
+Late in life he was appointed Commissioner of Agriculture, a post for
+which he was eminently fitted, and finally went to Portugal as United
+States Minister.
+
+William B. Pike either lacked the opportunity or the necessary
+concentration to develop his genius in the larger world, but Hawthorne
+continued to communicate with him irregularly until the close of his
+life. He invited him to Lenox when he resided there, and Mrs. Lathrop
+recollects seeing him at the Wayside in Concord, after Hawthorne's
+return from Europe. She discribes him as a "short, sturdy, phlegmatic
+and plebeian looking man," but with a gentle step and a finely
+modulated voice. It may have been as well for him that he never became
+distinguished. [Footnote: Mrs. Lathrop, "Memories of Hawthorne," 154.]
+
+The war with Mexico was now fairly afield, and Franklin Pierce, who left
+the United States Senate on account of his wife's health, was organizing
+a regiment of New Hampshire volunteers, as a "patriotic duty." Salem
+people thought differently, and party feeling there soon rose to the
+boiling-point. There is no other community where political excitement is
+so likely to become virulent as in a small city. In a country town, like
+Concord, every man feels the necessity for conciliating his neighbor,
+but the moneyed class in Salem was sufficient for its own purposes,
+and was opposed to the war in a solid body. The Whigs looked upon the
+invasion of Mexico as a piratical attempt of the Democratic leaders to
+secure the permanent ascendency of their party, and this was probably
+the true reason for Franklin Pierce's joining it. In their eyes,
+Hawthorne was the representative of a corrupt administration, and they
+would have been more than human if they had not wished him to feel this.
+The Salem gentry could not draw him into an argument very well, but
+they could look daggers at him on the street and exhibit their coldness
+toward him when they went on business to the Custom House. It is evident
+that he was made to suffer in some such manner, and to a tenderhearted
+man with a clear conscience, it must have seemed unkind and unjust.
+[Footnote: When the engagement between the "Chesapeake" and the
+"Shannon" took place off Salem harbor in August, 1813, and Captain
+Lawrence was killed in the action, the anti-war sentiment ran so high
+that it was difficult to find a respectable mansion where his funeral
+would be permitted.] In his Custom House preface, Hawthorne compares
+the Whigs rather unfavorably with the Democrats, and this is not to be
+wondered at; but he should have remembered that it was his own party
+which first introduced the spoils-of-office system.
+
+The first use that Hawthorne made of his government salary was to cancel
+his obligations to the Concord tradespeople, and the next was to provide
+a home for his wife and mother. They first moved to 18 Chestnut
+Street, in June, 1846; and thence to a larger house, 14 Mall Street, in
+September, 1847, in which "The Snow Image" was prepared for publication,
+and "The Scarlet Letter" was written. Hawthorne's study or workshop was
+the front room in the third story, an apartment of some width but with a
+ceiling in direct contradiction to the elevated thoughts of the writer.
+There is an ominous silence in the American Note-book between 1846 and
+1850, which is rather increased than diminished by the publication from
+his diary of a number of extracts concerning the children. The babies of
+geniuses do not differ essentially from those of other people, and it
+is not supposable that Hawthorne's reflections during this period
+were wholly confined to his own family. It is to be hoped that fuller
+information will yet be given to the public concerning their affairs in
+Salem; for the truth deserves to be told.
+
+In January, 1846, Mrs. Hawthorne wrote to her mother:
+
+"No one, I think, has a right to break the will of a child, but God;
+and if the child is taught to submit to Him through love, all other
+submission will follow with heavenly effect upon the character. God
+never drives even the most desperate sinner, but only invites or
+suggests through the events of His providence."
+
+Nothing is more unfortunate than to break the will of a child, for
+all manliness and womanliness is grounded in the will; but it is often
+necessary to control the desires and humors of children for their
+self-preservation. Hawthorne himself was not troubled with such fancies.
+Alcott, who was his nearest neighbor at the Wayside, once remarked
+that there was only one will in the Hawthorne family, and that was
+Nathaniel's. His will was law and no one thought of disputing it.
+Yet what he writes concerning children is always sweet, tender, and
+beautiful, with the single exception of a criticism of his own daughter,
+which was published long after his death and could not have been
+intended for the public eye.
+
+The war with Mexico was wonderfully successful from a military point
+of view, but its political effects were equally confounding to the
+politicians who projected it. The American people resemble the French,
+quite as much perhaps as they do the English, and the admiration of
+military glory is one of their Gallic traits. It happened that the two
+highest positions in the army were both held by Whig generals, and the
+victory of Buena Vista carried Zachary Taylor into the White House,
+in spite of the opposition of Webster and Clay, as well as that of
+the Democrats and the Free Soilers. Polk, Bancroft, and Pierce had
+all contributed to the defeat of their own party. The war proved their
+political terminus to the two former; but, _mirabile dictu_, it became
+the cap of Fortunatus to Pierce and Hawthorne.
+
+This, however, could not have been foreseen at the time, and the
+election of Taylor in November, 1848, had a sufficiently chilling effect
+on the little family in Mall Street. Hawthorne entertained the hope that
+he might be spared in the general out-turning, as a distinguished writer
+and an inoffensive partisan, and this indicates how loath he was to
+relinquish his comfortable position. Let us place ourselves in his
+situation and we shall not wonder at it. He was now forty-five, with a
+wife and two children, and destitution was staring him in the face. For
+ten years he had struggled bravely, and this was the net result of all
+his endeavors. Never had the future looked so gloomy to him.
+
+The railroad had superseded his Uncle Manning's business, as it had that
+of half the mercantile class in the city, and his father-in-law was in a
+somewhat similar predicament. At this time Elizabeth Peabody was keeping
+a small foreign book-store in a room of her father's house on West
+Street. One has to realize these conditions, in order to appreciate the
+mood in which Hawthorne's Custom House preface was written.
+
+There is one passage in it, however, that is always likely to be
+misunderstood. It is where he says:
+
+"I thought my own prospects of retaining office, to be better than those
+of my Democratic brethren; but who can see an inch into futurity, beyond
+his nose? My own head was the first that fell!"
+
+It is clear that some kind of an effort was made to prevent his removal,
+presumably by George S. Hillard, who was a Whig in good favor; but the
+conclusion which one would naturally draw from the above, that Hawthorne
+was turned out of office in a summary and ungracious manner, is not
+justified by the evidence. He was not relieved from duty until June 14,
+1849; that is, he was given a hundred days of grace, which is much more
+than officeholders commonly are favored with, in such cases. We
+may consider it morally certain that Hillard did what he could
+in Hawthorne's behalf. He was well acquainted with Webster, but
+unfortunately Webster had opposed the nomination of General Taylor, and
+was so imprudent as to characterize it as a nomination not fit to be
+made. This was echoed all over the country, and left Webster without
+influence at Washington. For the time being Seward was everything, and
+Webster was nothing.
+
+In a letter to Horace Mann, shortly after his removal, Hawthorne refers
+to two distinct calumnies which had been circulated concerning him in
+Salem, and only too widely credited. The most important of these--for
+it has seriously compromised a number of Salem gentlemen--was never
+explained until the publication of Mrs. Lathrop's "Memories of
+Hawthorne" in 1897; where we find a letter from Mrs. Hawthorne to her
+mother, dated June 10, 1849, and containing the following passage:
+
+"Here is a pretty business, discovered in an unexpected manner to Mr.
+Hawthorne by a friendly and honorable Whig. Perhaps you know that the
+President said before he took the chair that he should make no removals
+except for dishonesty and unfaithfulness. It is very plain that neither
+of these charges could be brought against Mr. Hawthorne. Therefore
+a most base and incredible falsehood has been told--written down and
+signed and sent to the Cabinet in secret. This infamous paper certifies
+among other things (of which we have not heard)--that Mr. Hawthorne
+has been in the habit of writing political articles in magazines and
+newspapers!" So it appears that the gutta-percha formula [Footnote: By
+which eighty-eight per cent, of the classified service were removed.]
+of President Cleveland in regard to "offensive partisanship" was really
+invented forty years before his time, and had as much value in one case
+as in the other. It is possible that such a document as Mrs. Hawthorne
+describes was circulated, signed, and sent to Washington, to make the
+way easy for President Taylor's advisers, and if so it was a highly
+contemptible proceeding; but the statement rests wholly on the
+affirmation of a single witness, whose name has always been withheld,
+and even if it were true that Hawthorne had written political articles
+for Democratic papers the fact would have in no wise been injurious to
+his reputation. The result must have been the same in any case. General
+Taylor was an honorable man, and no doubt intended to keep his word,
+as other Presidents have intended since; but what could even a brave
+general effect against the army of hungry office-seekers who were
+besieging the White House,--a more formidable army than the Mexicans
+whom he had defeated at Buena Vista? In all probability he knew nothing
+of Hawthorne and never heard of his case.
+
+The second calumny which Hawthorne refers to was decidedly second-rate,
+and closely resembles a servant's intrigue. The Department at
+Washington, in a temporary fit of economy, had requested him to
+discharge two of his supervisors. He did not like to take the men's
+bread away from them, and made a mild protest against the order. At the
+same time he consulted his chief clerk as to what it might be best to
+do, and they agreed upon suspending two of the supervisors who might
+suffer less from it than some others. As it happened, the Department
+considered Hawthorne's report favorably, and no suspension took place;
+but his clerk betrayed the secret to the two men concerned, who hated
+Hawthorne in consequence, and afterward circulated a report that he had
+threatened to discharge them unless they contributed to the Democratic
+campaign fund. This return of evil for good appears to have been a
+new experience for Hawthorne, but those who are much concerned in
+the affairs of the world soon become accustomed to it, and pay little
+attention to either the malice or the mendacity of mankind.
+
+Twenty years later one of Hawthorne's clerks, who had prudently shifted
+from the Democratic to the Republican ranks, held a small office in the
+Boston Navy Yard, and was much given to bragging of his intimacy with
+"Nat," and of the sprees they went on together; but the style and
+description of the man were sufficient to discredit his statements
+without further evidence. There were, however, several old shipmasters
+in the Salem Custom House who had seen Calcutta, Canton, and even a
+hurricane or two; men who had lived close to reality, with a vein
+of true heroism in them, moreover; and if Hawthorne preferred their
+conversation to that of the shipowners, who had spent their lives in
+calculating the profits of commercial adventures, there are many among
+the well educated who would agree with him. He refers particularly to
+one aged inspector of imports, whose remarkable adventures by flood and
+field were an almost daily recreation to him; and if the narratives
+of this ancient mariner were somewhat mixed with romance, assuredly
+Hawthorne should have been the last person to complain of them on that
+account.
+
+At first he was wholly unnerved by his dismissal. He returned to Mall
+Street and said to his wife: "I have lost my place. What shall we now do
+for bread?" But Mrs. Hawthorne replied: "Never fear. You will now have
+leisure to finish your novel. Meanwhile, I will earn bread for us with
+my pencil and paint-brush." [Footnote: Mrs. George S. Hillard.] Besides
+this, she brought forward two or three hundred dollars, which she had
+saved from his salary unbeknown to him; but who would not have been
+encouraged by such a brave wife? Fortunately her pencil and paint-brush
+were not put to the test; at least so far as we know. Already on June 8,
+her husband had written a long letter to Hillard, explaining the state
+of his affairs and containing this pathetic appeal:
+
+"If you could do anything in the way of procuring me some stated
+literary employment, in connection with a newspaper, or as corrector of
+the press to some printing establishment, etc., it could not come at a
+better time. Perhaps Epes Sargent, who is a friend of mine, would know
+of something. I shall not stand upon my dignity; that must take care of
+itself. Perhaps there may be some subordinate office connected with
+the Boston Athenaeum (Literary). Do not think anything too humble to be
+mentioned to me." [Footnote: Conway, 113.]
+
+There have been many tragical episodes in the history of literature,
+but since "Paradise Lost" was sold for five pounds and a contingent
+interest, there has been nothing more simply pathetic than this,--that
+an immortal writer should feel obliged to apply for a subordinate
+position in a counting-room, a description of work which nobody likes
+too well, and which to Hawthorne would have been little less than a
+death in life. "Do not think anything too humble to be mentioned to me"!
+
+What Hillard attempted to do at this time is uncertain, but he was not
+the man to allow the shrine of genius to be converted into a gas-burner,
+if he could possibly prevent it. We may presume that he went to Salem
+and encouraged Hawthorne in his amiable, half-eloquent manner. But we do
+not hear of him again until the new year. Meanwhile Madam Hawthorne fell
+into her last illness and departed this life on July 31; a solemn event
+even to a hard-hearted son--how much more to such a man as she had
+brought into the world. Three days before her death, he writes in his
+diary of "her heart beating its funeral march," and diverts his mind
+from the awful _finale_ by an accurate description of his two children
+playing a serio-comic game of doctor and patient, in the adjoining room.
+
+It was under such tragical conditions, well suited to the subject,
+that he continued his work on "The Scarlet Letter," and his painfully
+contracted brow seemed to indicate that he suffered as much in
+imagination, as the characters in that romance are represented to have
+suffered. In addition he wrote "The Great Stone Pace," one of the most
+impressive of his shorter pieces (published, alas! in a Washington
+newspaper), and the sketch called "Main Street," both afterward included
+in the volume of "The Snow Image." On January 17, 1850, he was greatly
+surprised to receive a letter from George S. Hillard with a large check
+in it,--more than half-way to a thousand dollars,--which the writer
+with all possible delicacy begged him to accept from a few of his Boston
+admirers. It was only from such a good friend as Hillard that Hawthorne
+would have accepted assistance in this form; but he always considered it
+in the character of a loan, and afterward insisted on repaying it to
+the original subscribers,--Professor Ticknor, Judge Curtis, and others.
+Hillard also persuaded James T. Fields, the younger partner of Ticknor
+& Company, to take an interest in Hawthorne as an author who required
+to be encouraged, and perhaps coaxed a little, in order to bring out the
+best that was in him. Fields accordingly went to Salem soon afterward,
+and has given an account of his first interview with Hawthorne in
+"Yesterdays with Authors," which seems rather melodramatic: "found him
+cowering over a stove," and altogether in a woe-begone condition. The
+main point of discussion between them, however, was whether "The Scarlet
+Letter" should be published separately or in conjunction with other
+subjects. Hawthorne feared that such a serious plot, continued with so
+little diversity of motive, would not be likely to produce a favorable
+impression unless it were leavened with material of a different kind.
+Fields, on the contrary, thought it better that the work should stand by
+itself, in solitary grandeur, and feared that it would only be dwarfed
+by any additions of a different kind. He predicted a good sale for the
+book, and succeeded in disillusionizing Hawthorne from the notions he
+had acquired from the failure of "Fanshawe."
+
+As it was late in the season, Fields would not even wait for the romance
+to be finished, but sent it to the press at once; and on February 4,
+Hawthorne wrote to Horatio Bridge:
+
+"I finished my book only yesterday; one end being in the press at
+Boston, while the other was in my head here at Salem; so that, as you
+see, the story is at least fourteen miles long."
+
+The time of publication was a propitious one: the gold was flowing in
+from California, and every man and woman had a dollar to spend. The
+first edition of five thousand copies was taken up within a month, and
+after this Hawthorne suffered no more financial embarrassments. The
+succeeding twelve years of his life were as prosperous and cheerful as
+his friends and readers could desire for him; although the sombre past
+still seemed to cast a ghostly shadow across his way, which even the
+sunshine of Italy could not entirely dissipate.
+
+
+"THE SCARLET LETTER"
+
+The germ of this romance is to be found in the tale of "Endicott and the
+Red Cross," published in the _Token_ in 1838, so that it must have been
+at least ten years sprouting and developing in Hawthorne's mind. In
+that story he gives a tragically comic description of the Puritan
+penitentiary,--in the public square,--where, among others, a
+good-looking young woman was exposed with a red letter A on her breast,
+which she had embroidered herself, so elegantly that it seemed as if it
+was rather intended for a badge of distinction than as a mark of infamy.
+Hawthorne did not conjure this up wholly out of his imagination, for in
+1704 the General Court of Massachusetts Bay passed the following law,
+which he was no doubt aware of:
+
+"Convicted before the Justice of Assize,--both Man and Woman to be set
+on the Gallows an Hour with a Rope about their Necks and the other end
+cast over the Gallowses. And in the way from thence to the common Gaol,
+to be Scourged not exceeding Forty Stripes. And forever after to wear
+a Capital A of two inches long, of a contrary colour to their cloathes,
+sewed on their upper Garments, on the Back or Arm, in open view. And as
+often as they appear without it, openly to be Scourged, not exceeding
+Fifteen Stripes." [Footnote: Boston, Timothy Green, 1704.]
+
+The most diligent investigation, however, has failed to discover an
+instance in which punishment was inflicted under this law, so that we
+must conclude that Hawthorne invented that portion of his statement. In
+fact, nothing that Hawthorne published himself is to be considered of
+historical or biographical value. It is all fiction. He sported with
+historical facts and traditions, as poets and painters always have done,
+and the manuscript which he pretends to have discovered in his office at
+the Custom House, written by one of his predecessors there, is a piece
+of pure imagination, which serves to give additional credibility to his
+narrative. He knew well enough how large a portion of what is called
+history is fiction after all, and the extent to which professed
+historians deal in romance. He felt that he was justified so long as he
+did not depart from the truth of human nature. We may thank him that he
+did not dispel the illusion of his poetic imagery by the introduction of
+well-known historical characters. This is permissible in a certain class
+of novels, but its effect is always more or less prosaic.
+
+Our Puritan ancestors evidently did not realize the evil effects
+of their law against faithless wives,--its glaring indelicacy, and
+brutalizing influence on the minds of the young; but it was of a
+piece with their exclusion of church-music and other amenities of
+civilization. Was it through a natural attraction for the primeval
+granite that they landed on the New England coast? Their severe
+self-discipline was certainly well adapted to their situation, but,
+while it built up their social edifice on an enduring foundation, its
+tendency was to crush out the gentler and more sympathetic qualities
+in human nature. In no other community would the story of Hester Prynne
+acquire an equal cogency and significance. A German might, perhaps,
+understand it; but a Frenchman or an Italian not at all.
+
+The same subject has been treated in its most venial form by Shakespeare
+in "Measure for Measure," and in its most condemnable form in Goethe's
+"Faust." "The Scarlet Letter" lies midway between these two. Hester
+Prynne has married a man of morose, vindictive disposition, such as no
+woman could be happy with. He is, moreover, much older than herself,
+and has gone off on a wild expedition in pursuit of objects which he
+evidently cares for, more than for his wife. She has not heard from him
+for over a year, and knows not whether he has deserted her, or if he
+is no longer living. She is alone in a strange wild country, and it is
+natural that she should seek counsel and encouragement from the young
+clergyman, who is worthy of her love, but, unfortunately, not a strong
+character. Lightning is not swifter than the transition in our minds
+from good to evil, and in an unguarded moment he brings ruin upon
+himself, and a life-long penance on Hester Prynne. Hawthorne tells this
+story with such purity and delicacy of feeling that a maiden of sixteen
+can read it without offence.
+
+"The Scarlet Letter" is at once the most poetic and the most powerful
+of Hawthorne's larger works, much more powerful than "The Vicar of
+Wakefield," which has been accepted as the type of a romance in all
+languages. Goldsmith's tale will always be more popular than "The
+Scarlet Letter," owing to its blithesome spirit, its amusing incidents
+and bright effects of light and shade; but "The Scarlet Letter" strikes
+a more penetrating chord in the human breast, and adheres more closely
+to the truth of life. There are certain highly improbable circumstances
+woven in the tissue of "The Vicar of Wakefield," which a prudent,
+reflective reader finds it difficult to surmount. It is rather
+surprising that the Vicar should not have discovered the true social
+position of his friend Mr. Burchell, which must have been known to every
+farmer in the vicinity; and still more so that Mr. Burchell should have
+permitted the father of a young woman in whom he was deeply interested,
+to be carried to prison for debt without making an inquiry into his
+case. "The Scarlet Letter" is, as Hawthorne noticed, a continual
+variation on a single theme, and that a decidedly solemn one; but its
+different incidents form a dynamic sequence, leading onward to the final
+catastrophe, and if its progress is slow--the narrative extends over a
+period of seven years--this is as inevitable as the march of Fate.
+From the first scene in the drama, we are lifted above ourselves, and
+sustained so by Hawthorne's genius, until the close.
+
+This sense of power arises from dealing with a subject which demanded
+the whole force and intensity of Hawthorne's nature. Hester Prynne
+herself is a strong character, and her errors are those of strength and
+independence rather than of weakness. She says to Mr. Dimmesdale that
+what they did "had a consecration of its own," and it is this belief
+which supports her under a weight of obloquy that would have crushed
+a more fragile spirit. She does not collapse into a pitiful nonentity,
+like Scott's Effie Deans, nor is she maddened to crime like George
+Eliot's "Hetty Sorrel"; [Footnote: A name apparently compounded from
+Hester Prynne and Schiller's Agnes Sorrel.] but from the outset she
+forms definite resolutions,--first to rehabilitate her own character,
+and next to protect the partner of her shame. This last may seem to be a
+mistaken devotion, and contrary to his true interest, for the first
+step in the regeneration from sin is to acknowledge manfully the
+responsibility of it; but to give the repentance even the appearance
+of sincerity, the confession must be a voluntary one, and not be forced
+upon the delinquent person by external pressure. We cannot withhold our
+admiration for Hester's unswerving fidelity to this twofold purpose.
+We may condemn her in our minds, but we cannot refuse her a measure of
+sympathy in our hearts.
+
+I believe this to be the explanation of her apparent inconsistency
+at the close of the book. Many of Hawthorne's commentators have been
+puzzled by the fact that Hester, after so many years of contrition,
+should advise Dimmesdale to fly to England, and even offered to
+accompany him. Women have not the same idea of law that men have. In
+their ideas of right and wrong they depend chiefly on their sense of
+purity; and it is very difficult to persuade a woman that she could be
+wrong in obeying the dictates of her heart. Hester perceives that
+her former lover is being tortured to death by the silent tyranny of
+Chillingworth; the tide of affection so long restrained flows back into
+her soul; and her own reputation is as nothing compared with the life of
+the man she hopes to save. There is no other passage in American fiction
+so pathetic as that woodland meeting, at which their mutual hopes of
+happiness blaze up like the momentary brightness of a dying flame.
+Hester's innocent child, however, representing the spirit of
+truthfulness, is suddenly seized with an aversion to her father and
+refuses to join their company,--an unfavorable omen and dark presage of
+the minister's doom.
+
+Pearl's behavior, on this occasion, may be supposed to represent
+the author's own judgment. How far shall we agree with him? The past
+generation witnessed one of the noblest of women uniting herself, for
+life and death, to a man whom she could not marry on account of purely
+legal objections. Whether Hester's position in the last act of this
+drama is comparable with that of Marian Evans every one must decide
+according to his or her conscience.
+
+Hawthorne certainly proves himself a good Puritan when he says, "And be
+the stern and sad truth spoken that the breach which guilt has once
+made into the human soul, is never in this mortal state repaired." The
+magnitude of the evil of course makes a difference; but do we not all
+live in a continual state of sinning, and self-correction? That is
+the road to self-improvement, and those who adhere most closely to
+inflexible rules of conduct discover at length that the rules themselves
+have become an evil. Mankind has not yet fully decided as to what things
+are evil, and what are good; and neither Hawthorne nor the Puritan
+lawmakers would seem to have remembered Christ's admonition on a similar
+occasion: "Let him who is without sin among you, cast the first stone."
+
+A writer in the _Andover Review_, some twenty years ago, criticised the
+impersonation of Pearl as a fable--"a golden wreck." He quoted Emerson
+to the effect that in all the ages that man has been upon the earth, no
+communication has been established between him and the lower animals,
+and he affirmed that we know quite as little of the thoughts and motives
+of our own children. Both conclusions are wide of the mark. There
+is much more communication between man and the domestic animals than
+between animals of the same species. The understanding between an Arab
+and his horse is almost perfect, and so is that between a sportsman and
+his setters. Even the sluggish ox knows the word of command. Then what
+shall we say of the sympathetic relation between a mother and her child?
+Who can describe it--that clairvoyant sensibility, intangible, too swift
+for words? Who has depicted it, except Hawthorne and Raphael? Pearl is
+like a pure spirit in "The Scarlet Letter," reconciling us to its gloomy
+scenes. She is like the sunshine in a dark forest, breaking through
+the tree-tops and dancing in our pathway. It is true that Hawthorne has
+carried her clairvoyant insight to its furthest limits, but this is in
+accordance with the ideal character of his work. She has no rival except
+Goethe's Mignon.
+
+Hawthorne's method of developing his stories resembled closely that
+of the historical painter; and it was only in this way that he could
+produce such vivid effects. He selected models for his principal
+characters and studied them as his work progressed. The original of
+Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale was quickly recognized in Salem as an amiable
+inoffensive person, of whom no one suspected any evil,--and that was, no
+doubt, the reason why Hawthorne selected him for his purpose. It was no
+discredit to the man himself, although tongues were not wanting to blame
+Hawthorne for it. Who Hester may have been still remains a mystery;
+but it was evidently some one with whom the author was well
+acquainted,--perhaps his younger sister. So Rubens painted his own wife
+at one time an angel, and at another in the likeness of Herodias. It is
+still more probable that Pearl is a picture of Hawthorne's own daughter,
+who was of the right age for such a study, and whose sprightly, fitful,
+and impulsive actions correspond to those of Hester's child. This would
+also explain why her father gave Una so much space in his Note-book. He
+may have noticed the antagonism between her and the Whig children of
+the neighborhood and have applied it to Pearl's case. It was also his
+custom, as appears from his last unfinished work, to leave blank spaces
+in his manuscript while in the heat of composition, which, like a
+painter's background, were afterwards filled in with descriptions of
+scenery or some subsidiary narrative.
+
+The models of the novelist cannot be hired for the purpose, like those
+used by the painter or sculptor, but have to be studied when and where
+they can be found, for the least self-consciousness spoils the effect.
+Hawthorne in this only followed the example of the best authors and
+dramatists; and those who think that good fiction or dramatic poetry can
+be written wholly out of a man's or a woman's imagination, would do well
+to make the experiment themselves.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+PEGASUS IS FREE: 1850-1852
+
+
+Frederick W. Loring, that bright young poet who was so soon lost to
+us, once remarked: "Appreciation is to the artist what sunshine is
+to flowers. He cannot expand without it." The success of "The Scarlet
+Letter" proved that all Hawthorne's genius required was a little
+moderate encouragement,--not industry but opportunity. His pen, no
+longer slow and hesitating, moved freer and easier; the long pent-up
+flood of thoughts, emotions, and experiences had at length found an
+outlet; and the next three years were the most productive of his life.
+
+His first impulse, however, was to escape from Salem. Although his
+removal from office had been a foregone conclusion, Hawthorne felt a
+certain degree of chagrin connected with it, and also imagined a certain
+amount of animosity toward himself which made the place uncomfortable
+to him. He was informed that the old Sparhawk mansion, close to the
+Portsmouth Navy Yard, was for sale or to rent, and the first of May,
+Hawthorne went thither to consider whether it would serve him for
+a home. [Footnote: Lathrop, 225.] One would suppose that sedate old
+Portsmouth, with its courteous society and its dash of military life,
+would have suited Hawthorne even better than Concord; but he decided
+differently, and he returned to meet his family in Boston, where he
+made the acquaintance of Professor Ticknor, who introduced him at
+the Athenaeum Library. He saw Hildreth at the Athenaeum working on his
+history of the United States; sat for his portrait to C. E. Thompson;
+went to the theatre; studied human nature in the smoking-room at
+Parker's; and relaxed himself generally. He must have stayed with
+his family at Doctor Peabody's on West Street, for he speaks of the
+incessant noise from Washington Street, and of looking out from the back
+windows on Temple Place. This locates the house very nearly.
+
+Two months later, July 5, 1850, he was at Lenox, in the Berkshire
+Mountains. Mrs. Caroline Sturgis Tappan, a brilliant Boston lady,
+equally poetic and sensible, owned a small red cottage there, which she
+was ready to lease to Hawthorne for a nominal rent. Lowell was going
+there on account of his wife, a delicate flower-like nature already
+beginning to droop. Doctor Holmes was going on account of Lowell, and
+perhaps with the expectation of seeing a rattlesnake; Fields was going
+on account of Lowell and Holmes. Mrs. Frances Kemble, already the most
+distinguished of Shakespearian readers, had a summer cottage there;
+and it was hoped that in such company Hawthorne would at last find the
+element to which he properly belonged.
+
+Unfortunately Hawthorne took to raising chickens, and that seems to have
+interested him more than anything else at Lenox. He fell in cordially
+with the plans of his friends; ascended Monument Mountain, and went
+on other excursions with them; but it may be more than suspected that
+Lowell and Holmes did most of the talking. He assimilated himself more
+to Holmes perhaps than to any of the others. His meeting with
+Mrs. Kemble must have been like a collision of the centrifugal and
+centripetal forces; and for once, Hawthorne may be said to have met
+his antipodes. They could sincerely admire one another as we all do,
+in their respective spheres; but such a chasm as yawned between them in
+difference of temperament, character, and mode of living, could not have
+been bridged over by Captain Eads.
+
+Fannie Kemble, as she was universally called, had by long and
+sympathetic reading of Shakespeare transformed herself into a woman
+of the Elizabethan era, and could barely be said to belong to the
+nineteenth century. Among other Elizabethan traits she had acquired an
+unconsciousness of self, together with an enormous self-confidence, and
+no idea of what people thought of her in polite society ever seems to
+have occurred to her. She had the heart of a woman, but mentally she was
+like a composite picture of Shakespeare's _dramatis personae_, and that
+Emerson should have spoken of her as "a great exaggerated creature" is
+not to be wondered at. In her own department she was marvellous.
+
+The severity of a mountain winter and the disagreeableness of its
+thawing out in spring, is atoned for by its summer,--that fine
+exhilarating ether, which seems to bring elevated thoughts, by virtue
+of its own nature. Hawthorne enjoyed this with his children and his
+chickens; and his wife enjoyed it with him. It is evident from her
+letters that she had not been so happy since their first year at the
+Old Manse. She had now an opportunity to indulge her love of artistic
+decoration, in adorning the walls of their little red cottage, which has
+since unfortunately been destroyed by fire. She even began to give her
+daughter, who was only six years old, some instruction in drawing. The
+following extract concerning her husband, from a letter written to her
+mother, is charmingly significant of her state of mind at this time.
+
+"Beauty and the love of it, in him, are the true culmination of the
+good and true, and there is no beauty to him without these bases. He
+has perfect dominion over himself in every respect, so that to do the
+highest, wisest, loveliest thing is not the least effort to him, any
+more than it is to a baby to be innocent. It is his spontaneous act,
+and a baby is not more unconscious in its innocence. I never knew such
+loftiness, so simply borne. I have never known him to stoop from it in
+the most trivial household matter, any more than in a larger or more
+public one." [Footnote: J. Hawthorne, i. 373.]
+
+Truly this gives us a beautiful insight into their home-life, and
+Hawthorne himself could not have written a more accurate eulogium.
+As intimated in the last chapter, we all make our way through life by
+correcting our daily trespasses, and Hawthorne was no exception to
+it; but as a mental analysis of this man at his best Mrs. Hawthorne's
+statement deserves a lasting recognition.
+
+
+"THE HOUSE OF THE SEVEN GABLES"
+
+It was not until early frosts and shortening days drove Hawthorne within
+doors that he again took up his writing, but who can tell how long he
+had been dreaming over his subject? Within five months, or by the last
+week of January, "The House of the Seven Gables" was ready for the
+press. There is no such house in Salem, exactly as he describes it; but
+an odd, antiquated-looking structure at No. 54 Turner Street is supposed
+to have served him for the suggestion of it. The name is picturesque and
+well suited to introduce the reader to a homely suburban romance.
+
+The subject of the story goes back to the witchcraft period, and its
+active principle is a wizard's curse, which descends from one generation
+to another, until it is finally removed by the marriage of a descendant
+of the injured party to a descendant of the guilty one. Woven together
+with this, there is an exposition of mesmerism, or, as it is now called,
+Christian Science, with its good and evil features.
+
+Each of Hawthorne's larger romances has a distinct style and quality of
+its own, apart from the fine individualized style of the author. Lathrop
+makes an excellent remark in regard to "The House of the Seven Gables,"
+that the perfection of its art seems to stand between the reader and
+his subject. It resembles in this respect those Dutch paintings whose
+enamelled surface seems like a barrier to prevent the spectator from
+entering the scenes which they represent. It would be a mistake to
+consider this a fault, but one cannot help noticing the accuracy with
+which the subordinate details of the plot are elaborated. Is it possible
+that this is connected in a way with the rarefied atmosphere of Lenox,
+in which distant objects appear so sharply defined?
+
+"The House of the Seven Gables" might be symbolized by two paintings, in
+the first of which Hepzibah Pyncheon stands as the central figure, her
+face turned upward in a silent prayer for justice, her brother Clifford,
+with his head bowed helplessly, at one side, and the judge, with his
+chronic smile of satisfaction, behind Clifford; on the other side the
+keen-eyed Holgrave would appear, sympathetically watching the progress
+of events, with Phoebe Pyncheon at his left hand. Old Uncle Banner and
+little Ned Higgins might fill in the background. In the second picture
+the stricken judge would be found in a large old-fashioned arm-chair,
+with Clifford and Hepzibah flying through a doorway to the right, while
+Phoebe and Holgrave, the one happy and the other startled, enter on the
+left.
+
+Hepzibah, not Phoebe, is the true heroine of the romance,--or at least
+its central figure. Nowhere do we look more deeply into Hawthorne's
+nature than through this sympathetic portrait of the cross-looking old
+maid, whose only inheritance is the House of the Seven Gables, in which
+she has lived many years, poor, solitary, friendless, with a disgrace
+upon her family, only sustained by the hope that she may yet be a help
+and comfort to her unfortunate brother. The jury before whom Clifford
+was tried believed him to be guilty, but his sister never would believe
+it. She lives for him and suffers with him. Hawthorne does not mitigate
+the unpleasantness of her appearance, but he instructs us that there is
+a divine spark glowing within. Very pitiful is her attempt to support
+the enfeebled brother by keeping a candy store; but noble and heroic
+is her resistance to the designs of her tyrannical cousin. It is her
+intrepidity that effects the crisis of the drama.
+
+Both Hepzibah and Clifford Pyncheon are examples of what fine
+portraiture Hawthorne could accomplish in exceptional or abnormal
+personalities, without ever descending to caricature. Judge Pyncheon has
+been criticised as being too much of a stage villain, but the same might
+be alleged of Shakespeare's (or Fletcher's) Richard III. What is he, in
+effect, but a Richard III. reduced to private life? Moreover, his habit
+of smiling is an individual trait which gives him a certain distinction
+of his own. Usually,
+
+                     Faces ever blandly smiling
+                     Are victims of their own beguiling.
+
+But Judge Pyncheon is a candidate for the governorship, and among the
+more mercenary class of politicians smiling often becomes a habit for
+the sake of popularity. Hawthorne might have added something to the
+judge's _personale_ by representing him with a droll wit, like James
+Fiske, Jr., or some others that we have known, and he might have exposed
+more of his internal reflections; but he serves as a fair example of
+the hard, grasping, hypocritical type of Yankee. We see only one side of
+him, but there are men, and women too, who only have one side to their
+characters.
+
+It has been affirmed that Hawthorne made use of the Honorable Mr.
+Upham, the excellent historian of Salem witchcraft, as a model for Judge
+Pyncheon, and that this was done in revenge for Mr. Upham's inimical
+influence in regard to the Salem surveyorship. It is impossible, at this
+date, to disentangle the snarl of Hawthorne's political relations in
+regard to that office, but Upham had been a member of Congress and
+was perhaps as influential a Whig as any in the city. If Hawthorne was
+removed through his instrumentality, he performed our author a service,
+which neither of them could have realized at the time. Hawthorne,
+however, had a strong precedent in his favor in this instance; namely,
+Shakespeare's caricature of Sir Thomas Luce, as Justice Shallow in "The
+Merry Wives of Windsor"; but there is no reason why we should think
+better or worse of Mr. Upham on this account.
+
+Phoebe Pyncheon is an ideal character, the type of youthful New England
+womanhood, and the most charming of all Hawthorne's feminine creations.
+Protected by the shield of her own innocence, she leaves her country
+home from the same undefined impulse by which birds fly north in spring,
+and accomplishes her destiny where she might have least expected to meet
+with it. She fills the whole book with her sunny brightness, and like
+many a young woman at her age she seems more like a spirit than a
+character. Her maidenly dignity repels analysis, and Hawthorne himself
+extends a wise deference to his own creation.
+
+The future of a great nation depends more on its young women than upon
+its laws or its statesmen.
+
+In regard to Holgrave, we have already said somewhat; but he is so
+lifelike that it seems as if he must have been studied from one of the
+younger members of the Brook Farm association; perhaps the one of whom
+Emerson tells us, [Footnote: Lecture on Brook Farm.] that he spent his
+leisure hours in playing with the children, but had "so subtle a mind"
+that he was always consulted whenever important business was on foot.
+He is visible to our mental perspective as a rather slender man, above
+medium height, with keen hazel eyes, a long nose, and long legs, and
+quick and lively in his movements. Phoebe has a more symmetrical figure,
+bluish-gray eyes, a complexion slightly browned from going without her
+hat, luxuriant chestnut-brown hair, always quiet and graceful. We
+have no doubt that Holgrave made a worthy husband for her, and that he
+occasionally took a hand in public affairs.
+
+Judge Pyncheon's duplicity is revealed to Holgrave by the medium of a
+daguerreotype. Men or women who are actors in real life should avoid
+being photographed, for the camera is pretty sure to penetrate their
+hypocrisy, and expose them to the world as they actually are. Every
+photograph album is to a certain extent a rogues' gallery, in which our
+faults, peculiarities, and perhaps vices are ruthlessly portrayed
+for the student of human nature. If a merchant were to have all his
+customers photographed, he would soon learn to distinguish those who
+were not much to be trusted.
+
+Notice also Hawthorne's eye for color. When Clifford, Hepzibah, and
+Phoebe are about to leave the seven-gabled house for the last time, "A
+plain, but handsome dark-green barouche" is drawn to the door. This
+is evidently his idea of a fine equipage; and it happens that the
+background of Raphael's "Pope Julius" is of this same half-invisible
+green, and harmonizes so well with the Pope's figure that few realize
+its coloring.
+
+The plot of this picturesque story is the most ingenious of Hawthorne's
+life, but sufficiently probable throughout to answer the purpose of a
+romance, and it is the only one of Hawthorne's larger works which ends
+happily. It was brought out by Ticknor & Company at Easter 1850,--less
+than ten weeks after it was finished; but we think of the House of the
+Seven Gables as standing empty, deserted and forlorn.
+
+In December Emerson had written to Hawthorne concerning a new magazine
+in which he and Lowell were interested, and if Hawthorne would only
+give it his support its success could not be questioned. What Hawthorne
+replied to this invitation has never been discovered, but he had seen
+too many such periodicals go to wreck to feel much confidence in this
+enterprise. [Footnote: J. Hawthorne, i. 381.] It is of more importance
+now that Emerson should have addressed him as "My dear Hawthorne," for
+such cordial friendliness was rare in "the poet of the pines." Mrs.
+Alcott once remarked that Emerson never spoke to her husband otherwise
+than as "Mr. Alcott," and it is far from likely that he ever spoke to
+Hawthorne differently from this. The conventionalities of letter-writing
+run back to a period when gentlemen addressed one another--and perhaps
+felt so too--in a more friendly manner than they do at present.
+
+Works of fiction and sentimental poetry stir up a class of readers which
+no other literature seems to reach, and Hawthorne was soon inundated
+with letters from unknown, and perhaps unknowable, admirers; but the
+most remarkable came from a man named Pyncheon, who asserted that his
+grandfather had been a judge in Salem, and who was highly indignant at
+the use which Hawthorne had made of his name. [Footnote: Conway, 135.]
+This shows how difficult it is for a writer of fiction or a biographer
+to escape giving offence. The lightning is sure to strike somewhere.
+
+
+"THE SNOW IMAGE"
+
+
+The question now was, what next? As it happened, the next important
+event in the Hawthorne family was the advent of their younger daughter,
+born like Agassiz, "in the lovely month of May," and amid scenery as
+beautiful as the Pays de Vaud. Her father named her Rose, in defiance of
+Hillard's objection to idyllic nomenclature; and as a child she
+seemed much like the spirit of that almost fabulous flower, the wild
+orange-rose. Ten years later, she was the most graceful girl in the
+Concord dancing-school, and resembled her elder sister so closely that
+they could not have been mistaken for anything but sisters. As she grew
+older she came more and more to resemble her mother.
+
+It was said that Hawthorne's "Wonder Book" originated in his telling
+free versions of the Greek myths to his children on winter evenings; and
+also that Horace Mann's boys, who were almost exactly of the same age
+as Una and Julian, participated in the entertainment. This may have
+happened the following winter at Newton, but could hardly have taken
+place at Lenox; and otherwise it is quite impossible to identify all the
+children with botanical names in Hawthorne's introduction. Julian
+once remarked, at school, that he believed that he was the original of
+Squash-blossom, and that is as near as we can get to it. Some of them
+may have been as imaginary as the ingenious Mr. Eustace Bright, and
+might serve as well to represent one group of children as another.
+
+The book was written very rapidly, at an average of ten pages a day, and
+it has Hawthorne's grace and purity of style, but it does not belong
+to the legitimate series of his works. It is an excellent book for the
+young, for they learn from it much that every one ought to know; but
+to mature minds the original fables, even in a translation, are more
+satisfactory than these Anglo-Saxon versions in the "Wonder Book."
+
+The collection of tales which passes by the name of "The Snow Image" is
+a much more serious work. "The Great Stone Face" and one or two others
+in the collection were prepared at Salem for the same volume as "The
+Scarlet Letter," but judiciously excluded by Mr. Fields. "The Snow
+Image" itself, however, is plainly derived from Hawthorne's own
+experience during the winter at Lenox. The common-sensible farmer and
+his poetic wife could not be mistaken for Mr. and Mrs. Hawthorne, but
+the two sportive children are easily identified as Una and Julian. They
+are not only of the same age, but the "slight graceful girl" and "chubby
+red-cheeked boy" describes them exactly. The idea has been derived from
+the fable of the Greek sculptor Pygmalion whose statue came to life.
+That seems far enough off to be pleasantly credible, but to have such
+a transubstantiation take place in the front yard of a white-fenced
+American residence, is rather startling. Yet Hawthorne, with the help of
+the twilight, carries us through on the broad wings of his imagination,
+even to the melting of the little snow-sister before an airtight stove
+in a close New England parlor. The moral that Hawthorne draws from this
+fable might be summed up in the old adage, "What is one man's meat
+is another man's poison"; but it has a deeper significance, which the
+author does not seem to have perceived. The key-note of the fable is the
+same as that in Goethe's celebrated ballad, "The Erl King"; namely, that
+those things which children imagine, are as real to them as the facts of
+the external world. Nor do we altogether escape from this so long as we
+live.
+
+The origin of "The Great Stone Face" is readily traced to the profile
+face in the Franconia Mountains,--which has not only a strangely
+human appearance, but a grave dignified expression, and, as a natural
+phenomenon, ranks next to Niagara Falls. The value of the fable,
+however, has perhaps been over-estimated. It is an old story in a modern
+garb, the saying so often repeated in the Book of Isaiah: "The last
+shall be first, and the first shall be last." The man Ernest, who
+is much in his ways like Hawthorne himself, spends his leisure in
+contemplating the Great Stone Face, and thus acquires a similar
+expression in his own. The wealthy merchant, the famous general, the
+great party leader, and the popular poet, all come upon the scene; but
+not one of them appears to advantage before the tranquil countenance
+of the Great Stone Face. Finally, Ernest in his old age carries off
+the laurel; and in this Hawthorne hits the mark, for it is only through
+earnestness that man becomes immortal. Yet, one would suppose that
+constantly gazing at a face of stone, would give one a rather stony
+expression; as sculptors are liable to become statuesque from their
+occupation.
+
+Another Dantean allegory, and fully equal in power to any Canto in
+Dante's "Inferno," is the story of "Ethan Brandt," or "The Unpardonable
+Sin." We have a clew to its origin in the statement that it was part of
+an unfinished romance; presumably commenced at Concord, but afterward
+discarded, owing to the author's dissatisfaction with his work--an
+illustration of Hawthorne's severe criticism of his own writing.
+The scene is laid at a limekiln in a dark and gloomy wood, where a
+lime-burner, far from human habitations, is watching his fires at night.
+To him Ethan Brandt appears, a strange personage, long known for his
+quest after the unpardonable sin, and the solitude echoes back the
+gloominess of their conversation. Finally, the lime-burner fixes his
+fires for the night, rolls himself up in his blanket, and goes to sleep.
+When he awakes in the morning, the stranger is gone, but, on ascending
+the kiln to look at his caldron, he finds there the skeleton of a man,
+and between its ribs a heart of white marble. This is the unpardonable
+sin, for which there is neither dispensation nor repentance. Ethan
+Brandt has committed suicide because life had become intolerable on such
+conditions.
+
+The summer of 1851 in Lenox was by no means brilliant. It had not yet
+become the tip end of fashion, and Hawthorne's chief entertainment seems
+to have been the congratulatory letters he received from distinguished
+people. Mrs. Frances Kemble wrote to him from England, announcing the
+success of his book there, and offering him the use of her cottage, a
+more palatial affair than Mrs. Tappan's, for the ensuing winter. Mrs.
+Hawthorne, however, felt the distance between herself and her relatives,
+and perhaps they both felt it. Mrs. Hawthorne's sister Mary, now Mrs.
+Horace Mann, was living in West Newton, and the last of June Mrs.
+Hawthorne went to her for a long summer visit, taking her two daughters
+with her and leaving Julian in charge of his father, with whom it may be
+affirmed he was sufficiently safe. It rarely happens that a father and
+son are so much together as these two were, and they must have become
+very strongly attached.
+
+For older company he had Hermann Melville, and G. P. R. James, whose
+society he may have found as interesting as that of more distinguished
+writers, and also Mr. Tappan, whom Hawthorne had learned to respect for
+his good sense and conciliatory disposition--a true peace-maker among
+men and women. Burill Curtis, the amateur brother of George W. Curtis,
+came to sketch the lake from Hawthorne's porch, and Doctor Holmes turned
+up once or twice. On July 24 Hawthorne wrote to his friend Pike at
+Salem: [Footnote: Mrs. Lathrop, 151.]
+
+"By the way, if I continue to prosper as heretofore in the literary
+line, I shall soon be in a condition to buy a place; and if you should
+hear of one, say worth from $1500 to $2000, I wish you would keep your
+eye on it for me. I should wish it to be on the seacoast, or at all
+events with easy access to the sea."
+
+The evident meaning of this is that the Hawthornes had no desire to
+spend a second winter in the Berkshire hills. The world was large, but
+he knew not where to rest his head. Mrs. Hawthorne solved the problem
+on her return to Lenox, and it was decided to remove to West Newton when
+cold weather came. Thither they went November 21 in a driving storm
+of snow and sleet,--a parting salute from old Berkshire,--and reached
+Horace Mann's house the same evening.
+
+Nobody knows where the Hawthornes lived in Newton. The oldest survivors
+of both families were only five years of age at that time. Mrs.
+Hawthorne's father also resided in Newton that winter, and it is more
+than likely that they made their residence with him. Julian Hawthorne
+has a distinct recollection of the long freight-trains with their clouds
+of black smoke blowing across his father's ground during the winter; so
+they could not have lived very far from the Worcester railroad. Horace
+Mann's house is still standing, opposite a school-house on the road
+from the station, where a by-way meets it at an acute angle. The
+freight-trains and their anthracite smoke must have had a disturbing
+influence on Hawthorne's sensibility.
+
+The long-extended town of Newton, which is now a populous city, has much
+the best situation of any of the Boston suburbs--on a moderately
+high range of hills, skirted by the Charles River, both healthful and
+picturesque. It is not as hot in summer nor so chilly at other seasons
+as Concord, and enjoys the advantage of a closer proximity to the city.
+Its society is, and always has been, more liberal and progressive than
+Salem society in Hawthorne's time. Its citizens, mainly professional and
+mercantile men, are active, intelligent, and sensible, without being
+too fastidious. It was a healthful change for Hawthorne, and we are not
+surprised to find that his literary work was affected by it. Mrs. L.
+Maria Child lived there at the time, and so did Celia Thaxter, although
+not yet known to fame. The sound, penetrating intelligence of Horace
+Mann may have also had its salutary effect.
+
+
+"THE BLITHEDALE ROMANCE"
+
+Hawthorne's "Wonder Book" and "The Snow Image" were expressed to Ticknor
+& Company before leaving Lenox, and "The Blithedale Romance" may also
+have been commenced before that change of base. We only know, from his
+diary, that it was finished on the last day of April, 1852, and that he
+received the first proof-sheets of it two weeks later--which shows what
+expedition publishers can make, when they feel inclined.
+
+The name itself is somewhat satirical, for Hawthorne did not find the
+life at Brook Farm very blithesome, and in the story, with the exception
+of the sylvan masquerade, there is much more rue than heart's-ease, as
+commonly happens in his stories. The tale ends tragically, and without
+the gleam of distant happiness which lights up the last scenes of
+"The Scarlet Letter." It commences with a severe April snowstorm, an
+unfavorable omen; the same in which Hawthorne set out to join the West
+Roxbury community.
+
+And yet the name is not without a serious meaning--a stern, sad moral
+significance. The earth is not naturally beautiful, for rank Nature ever
+runs to an excess. It is only beautiful when man controls and remodels
+it; but what man makes physically, he can unmake spiritually. We pass
+by a handsome estate, a grand arcade of elms over its avenue, spacious
+lawns, an elegant mansion, a luxurious flower-garden; but we are
+informed that happiness does not dwell there, that its owner is a
+misanthropic person, whose nature has been perverted by the selfishness
+of luxury; that there are no pleasant parties on the lawn, no happy
+wooing in that garden, no marriage festivals in those halls; and those
+possessions, which might have proved a blessing to generations yet
+unborn, are no better than a curse and a whited sepulchre. How many such
+instances could be named.
+
+It may have occurred to Hawthorne, that, if George Ripley, instead of
+following after a will-o'-the-wisp notion, which could only lead him
+into a bog, had used the means at his disposal to cultivate Brook
+Farm in a rational manner, and had made it a hospitable rendezvous for
+intellectual and progressive people,--an oasis of culture amid the
+wide waste of commercialism,--the place might well have been called
+Blithedale, and Mr. Ripley would have inaugurated a movement as rare as
+it was beneficial. It was only at a city like Boston, whose suburbs were
+pleasant and easily accessible, that such a plan could be carried out;
+and it was only a man of Mr. Ripley's scholarship and intellectual
+acumen who could have drawn together the requisite elements for it. It
+looks as if he missed an opportunity.
+
+We should avoid, however, confounding George Ripley with Hawthorne's
+Hollingsworth. It is quite possible that Hawthorne made use of certain
+traits in Ripley's character for this purpose, and also that he may
+have had some slight collision with him, such as he represents in "The
+Blithedale Romance;" but Ripley was an essentially veracious nature,
+who, as already remarked, carried out his experiment to its logical
+conclusion. Hollingsworth, on the contrary, proposes to pervert
+the trust confided to him, in order to establish at Blithedale an
+institution for the reformation of criminals, by which proceeding he
+would, after a fashion, become a criminal himself. At the same time, he
+plays fast and loose with the affections of Zenobia and Priscilla, who
+are both in love with him, designing to marry the one who would make
+the most favorable match for his purpose. It is through the junction of
+these two streams of evil that the catastrophe is brought about.
+
+Priscilla is evidently taken from the little seamstress whom Hawthorne
+mentions in his diary for October 9, 1841, and if she ever discovered
+this, she could hardly have been displeased, for she is one of his most
+lovable creations; not so much of an ideal as Phoebe Pyncheon, for she
+is older and has already seen hard fortune. Her quiet, almost submissive
+ways at first excite pity rather than admiration, but at length we
+discover that there is a spirit within her, which shines through its
+earthly envelope, like the twinkling of a star.
+
+Zenobia has a larger nature and a more gifted mind than Priscilla, but
+also a more mixed character. Her name suggests a queenly presence and
+she is fully conscious of this. She does not acquire an equal influence
+over the other sex, for she is evidently in love with herself. She is
+described as handsome and attractive, but no sooner had "Blithedale"
+been published than people said, "Margaret Fuller" [Footnote: the name
+of Zenobia is not very remotely significant of Margaret Fuller. Palmyra
+was the centre of Greek philosophy in Zenobia's time, and she also
+resembled Margaret in her tragical fate.]--although Margaret Fuller was
+rather plain looking, and never joined the Brook Farm association.
+
+If this surmise be correct, it leads to a curious consideration. After
+painting a portrait of Zenobia in Chapter VI of "Blithedale," quite
+worthy of Rubens or Titian, he remarks, through the incognito of Miles
+Coverdale, in the first part of Chapter VII, that Priscilla reminds him
+of Margaret Fuller, and says this to Priscilla herself. Now it proves in
+the sequel that Priscilla and Zenobia are half-sisters, but it would
+be as difficult to imagine this from anything that is said in the
+story about them, as it is to understand how the shy, undemonstrative
+Priscilla could have reminded Coverdale of the brilliant and aggressive
+leader of the Transcendentalists.
+
+The introduction of Margaret Fuller's name in that place comes abruptly
+on the reader, and momentarily dispels the illusion of the tale. Was
+Hawthorne conscious of the undercurrent of relationship, which he had
+already formulated in his mind, between Priscilla and Zenobia; or what
+is more likely, did he make the comparison in order to lead his readers
+away from any conceptions they might have formed in regard to the
+original of his heroine? If the latter supposition be true, he certainly
+was not very successful, for in either case it is evident that Margaret
+Fuller was prominent in his thoughts at the time he wrote those two
+chapters.
+
+Hawthorne's idea of her, however, should not be accepted as a finality.
+What Emerson and other friends have said concerning her should also be
+considered in order to obtain a just impression of a woman who combined
+more varied qualities than perhaps any other person of that
+time. Hawthorne says of Zenobia, that she was naturally a stump
+oratoress,--rather an awkward expression for him--and that "her mind was
+full of weeds." Margaret Fuller was a natural orator, and her mind was
+full of many subjects in which Hawthorne could take little interest. She
+was a revolutionary character, a sort of female Garibaldi, who attacked
+old Puritan traditions with a two-edged sword; she won victories for
+liberalism, but left confusion behind her. Like all such characters, she
+made friends and enemies wherever she went. She sometimes gave offence
+by hasty impulsive utterances, but more frequently by keenly penetrating
+arguments for the various causes which she espoused. Only a woman could
+deliver such telling shots.
+
+Lowell, who was fond of an argument himself, did not like her better
+than Hawthorne did. There may be some truth in what he says in "The
+Fable for Critics," that the expression of her face seemed to suggest a
+life-long familiarity with the "infinite soul"; but Margaret Fuller was
+sound at heart, and when she talked on those subjects which interested
+her, no one could be more self-forgetful or thoroughly in earnest. At
+times, she seemed like an inspired prophetess, and if she had lived
+two thousand years earlier, she might have been remembered as a sibyl.
+[Footnote: See Appendix B.]
+
+"The Blithedale Romance" is written with a freer pen and less carefully
+than "The House of the Seven Gables," and is so much the better; for
+the author's state of mind in which he is writing will always affect the
+reader more or less, and if the former feels under a slight constraint
+the latter will also. A writer cannot be too exact in ascertaining the
+truth,--Macaulay to the contrary,--but he can trouble himself too much
+as to the expression of it. At the same time, "The Blithedale Romance"
+is the least poetic of Hawthorne's more serious works (which is the same
+as saying that it is more like a novel), for the reason that Hawthorne
+in this instance was closer to his subject. It is also more of a
+personal reminiscence, and less an effort of the imagination. He has
+included in it a number of descriptive passages taken from his Brook
+Farm diary; most notably the account of that sylvan masquerade, in
+which Coverdale finds his former associates engaged on his return to
+Blithedale in the autumn. Perhaps this is the reason why the book has so
+pleasant a flavor--a mellow after-thought of old associations.
+
+An air of mystery adds an enchantment to a work of art, whether in
+poetry, painting, or sculpture,--perhaps also in music; but there is a
+difference in kind between mystery and uncertainty. We do not like to
+be left half in the dark, in regard to things which we think we ought
+to know. There is a break in Hawthorne's chain of evidence against
+Hollingsworth and Zenobia, which might possibly have been filled to
+advantage. He would certainly have been non-suited, if his case had been
+carried into court. We are permitted to suppose that Zenobia, in
+order to clear her path of a successful rival, assists the mountebank,
+Westervelt, to entrap Priscilla, over whom he possesses a kind
+hypnotic power, and to carry her off for the benefit of his mountebank
+exhibitions; but it remains a supposition and nothing more. We cannot
+but feel rejoiced, when Hollingsworth steps onto the platform and
+releases Priscilla from the psychological net-work in which she is
+involved, and from which she has not sufficient will-power to free
+herself. He certainly deserves her hand and fortune; but, as to
+his condemnatory charges against Zenobia, which led directly to her
+suicide,--what could they have been? Was there nothing more than the
+trick she had attempted upon Priscilla? And if he accused her of that
+only, why should he suffer perpetual remorse on account of her death?
+Surely there was need of further explanation here, for the catastrophe
+and its consequences are out of all proportion to the apparent cause.
+
+His account of the recovery of Zenobia's body is a close transcript of
+the search for that unfortunate school-mistress, who drowned herself
+in Concord River; and it is possible that, if Hawthorne had not been
+present on that occasion, the plot might have terminated in some other
+manner.
+
+The story closes without a ray of hope for Hollingsworth; but the reader
+can perceive one in the generous devotion of his single-minded wife,
+even if Hawthorne did not.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+THE LIVERPOOL CONSULATE: 1852-1854
+
+
+Why Hawthorne returned to Concord in 1852 is more of a mystery than the
+suicide of Zenobia. Horace Mann also left Newton, to be President of
+Antioch College (and to die there in the cause of feminine education),
+in the autumn of that year; but this could hardly have been expected
+six months earlier. Hawthorne was not very favorably situated at Newton,
+being rather too near the railroad; but there was plenty of land on the
+top of the hill, where he might have built himself a house, and in the
+course of twelve years his property would have quadrupled in value.
+A poet will not be less of a poet, but more so, for understanding the
+practical affairs of life. Or he might have removed to Cambridge, where
+Longfellow, always foremost in kind offices, would have been like a
+guardian angel to him, and where he could have made friends like Felton
+and Agassiz, who would have been much more in harmony with his political
+views. Ellery Channing was the only friend he appears to have retained
+in Concord, and it was not altogether a favorable place to bring up his
+children; but the natural topography of Concord is unusually attractive,
+and it may be suspected that he was drawn thither more from the love of
+its pine solitudes and shimmering waters, than from any other motive.
+
+The house he purchased was nearly a mile from the centre of the
+town, and has ever since been known by the name of the Wayside. After
+Hawthorne's return from Europe in 1860, he remodelled it somewhat, so
+that it has a more dignified aspect than when he first took possession
+of it. Alcott, who occupied it for some years previously, had adorned it
+with that species of rustic architecture in which he was so skilful. The
+house was half surrounded by a group of locust trees, much in fashion
+seventy years ago, and had been set so close against the hill-side, that
+a thicket of stunted pines and other wild growth rose above the roof
+like a crest. Bronson Alcott was his next-door neighbor,--almost too
+strong a contrast to him,--and Emerson's house was half a mile away; so
+that these three families formed a group by themselves in that portion
+of Concord.
+
+Hawthorne wrote a letter to his sister Elizabeth, describing his new
+acquisition, and expressing satisfaction in it. It was the first house
+that he had ever owned; and it is no small comfort to a man to live
+under his own roof, even though it be a humble one. At this time,
+however, he did not remain at the Wayside but a single year. After that,
+the house stood empty until the untimely death of Horace Mann, August 2,
+1859, when Mrs. Mann came to Concord with her three boys, and occupied
+it until Hawthorne's return from Europe.
+
+[Illustration: THE WAYSIDE]
+
+It may as well be noticed here, that, during the eight years which
+Hawthorne spent altogether in Concord, he accomplished little literary
+work, and none of any real importance. It is impossible to account for
+this, except upon those psychological conditions which sometimes
+affect delicately balanced minds. Whether the trouble was in the
+social atmosphere of the place, or in its climatic conditions, perhaps
+Hawthorne himself could not have decided; but there must have been a
+reason for it of some description. Julian Hawthorne states that his
+father had a plan at this time of writing another romance, of a more
+cheerful tone than "The Blithedale Romance," but the full current of his
+poetic activity was suddenly brought to a standstill by an event that
+nobody would have dreamed of.
+
+Hawthorne had hardly established himself in his new abode, when Franklin
+Pierce was nominated for the presidency by the Democratic party. The
+whole country was astonished, for no such nomination had ever been made
+before, and it is probable that Pierce himself shared largely in this.
+The New Hampshire delegation had presented his name to the convention,
+in order to procure him distinction in his own State, but without
+expectation that he would become a serious candidate. Like the
+nomination of Hayes in 1876, it resulted from the jealousy of the great
+party leaders,--always an unfortunate position for a public man to be
+placed in. Theodore Parker said, "Any one is now in danger of becoming
+President."
+
+Hawthorne evidently felt this, for he wrote to Bridge, "I do not
+consider Pierce the brightest man in the country, for there are twenty
+more so." It would have been a mild statement if he had said two
+hundred. Pierce wanted him, of course, to write a campaign biography,
+and communicated with him to that effect; but Hawthorne disliked
+meddling in such matters, and at first declined to do it, although it
+was expected to be highly remunerative. Pierce, however, insisted, for
+Hawthorne's reputation was now much beyond his own, and he felt that
+a biography by so distinguished a writer would confer upon him great
+dignity in the eyes of the world; and as Hawthorne felt already much
+indebted to Pierce, he finally consented,--although a cheap spread-eagle
+affair would have served the purpose of his party quite as well. The
+book had to be written in haste, and just at the time when Hawthorne
+wished to take a little leisure. There were so few salient points
+in Pierce's life, that it was almost like making a biography out of
+nothing, and as for describing him as a hero, that was quite impossible.
+It was fortunate that he knew so much of Pierce's early life, and also
+that Pierce had kept a diary during the Mexican War, which formed a
+considerable portion of the biography.
+
+The book is worth reading, although written in this prosaic manner.
+Hawthorne states in the preface, frankly and manfully, that he objected
+to writing it, and this ought to be an excuse sufficient for his doing
+so--if excuse be needed. He does not attempt to represent his friend as
+a great statesman, but rather as a patriotic country gentleman, who is
+interested in public affairs, and who rises from one honorable position
+to another through a well-deserved popularity. This would seem to have
+been the truth; and yet there was a decided inconsistency in Franklin
+Pierce's life, which Hawthorne represents plainly enough, although he
+makes no comment thereon.
+
+Franklin Pierce's father was captain of a militia company in 1798,
+when war was declared against the French Directory, for seizing and
+confiscating American merchant ships, contrary to the law of nations.
+There could not have been a more just occasion for war, but Captain
+Pierce resigned his commission, because he considered it wrong to fight
+against a republic; and Hawthorne approves of him for this. Franklin
+Pierce, however, resigned his seat in the Senate in 1842, on account of
+the interests of his family, alleging that "he would never enter public
+life again, unless the needs of his country imperatively demanded
+it," yet four years later he organized a regiment for the invasion of
+Mexico,--not only for making war upon a republic, but an unjust and
+indefensible war. General Grant's opinion ought to be conclusive on this
+latter point, for he belonged to the same political party as Pierce
+and Hawthorne. Certainly, Pierce's services were not required for the
+defence of his native land.
+
+To do Hawthorne justice, there can be no doubt that in his heart he
+disapproved of this; for in one of his sketches written at the Old
+Manse, he speaks censoriously of "those adventurous spirits who leave
+their homes to emigrate to Texas." He evidently foresaw that trouble
+would arise in that direction, and perhaps Ellery Channing assisted him
+in penetrating the true inwardness of the movement.
+
+It will be remembered that in Franklin Pierce's youth, he was
+exceptionally interested in military manoeuvres, and this may have been
+one of the inducements which led him into the Mexican War; but young men
+who are fond of holiday epaulets do not, for obvious reasons, make the
+best fighters. Pierce's military career was not a distinguished one;
+for, whether he was thrown from his horse in his first engagement, or,
+as the Whigs alleged, fell from it as soon as he came under fire, it is
+certain that he did not cover himself with glory, as the phrase was at
+that time. But we can believe Hawthorne, when he tells us that Pierce
+took good charge of the troops under his command, and that he was kind
+and considerate to sick and wounded soldiers. That was in accordance
+with his natural character.
+
+It was impossible at that time to avoid the slavery question in dealing
+with political subjects, and what Hawthorne said on this point, in the
+life of General Pierce, attracted more attention than the book itself.
+Like Webster he considered slavery an evil, but he believed it to be
+one of those evils which the human race outgrows, by progress in
+civilization,--like the human sacrifices of the Gauls perhaps,--and
+he greatly deprecated the anti-slavery agitation, which only served to
+inflame men's minds and make them unreasonable.
+
+There were many sensible persons in the Northern States at that time,
+like Hawthorne and Hillard, who sincerely believed in this doctrine,
+but they do not seem to have been aware that there was a pro-slavery
+agitation at the South which antedated Garrison's _Liberator_ and which
+was much more aggressive and vehement than the anti-slavery movement,
+because there were large pecuniary interests connected with it. The
+desperate grasping of the slave-holders for new territory, first in the
+Northwest and then in the Southwest, was not because they were in any
+need of land, but because new slave States increased their political
+power. Horatio Bridge says, relatively to this subject:
+
+"No Northern man had better means for knowing the dangers impending,
+previous to the outbreak of the war, than had General Pierce. Intimately
+associated--as he was--with the strong men of the South, in his Cabinet
+and in Congress, he saw that the Southerners were determined, at all
+hazards, to defend their peculiar institution of slavery, which was
+imperilled by the abolitionists."
+
+If Franklin Pierce was desirous of preserving the Union, why did he
+give Jefferson Davis a place in his Cabinet, and take him for his chief
+adviser? Davis was already a pronounced secessionist, and had been
+defeated in his own State on that issue. In subserviency to Southern
+interests, no other Northern man ever went so far as Franklin Pierce,
+nor did Garrison himself accomplish so much toward the dissolution of
+the Union. He was an instance in real life of Goldsmith's "good-natured
+man," and the same qualities which assisted him to the position of
+President prevented his administration from being a success. Presidents
+ought to be made of firmer and sterner material.
+
+Hawthorne had barely finished with the proofs of this volume, when he
+received the saddest, most harrowing news that ever came to him. After
+her mother's death, in 1849, Louisa Hawthorne had gone to live with her
+aunt, Mrs. John Dike; and in July, 1852, Mr. Dike went with her on an
+excursion to Saratoga and New York City. On the morning of July 27,
+they left Albany on the steamboat "Henry Clay," which, as is well known,
+never reached its destination. When nearing Yonkers, a fire broke
+out near the engines, where the wood-work was saturated with oil, and
+instantly the centre of the vessel was in a bright blaze. Mr. Dike
+happened to be on the forward deck at the moment, but Louisa Hawthorne
+was in the ladies' cabin, and it was impossible to reach her. The
+captain of the Henry Clay immediately ran the vessel on shore, so that
+Mr. Dike and those who were with him escaped to land, but Louisa and
+more than seventy others, who threw themselves into the water, were
+drowned. It would seem to have been impossible to save her.
+
+The death of Hawthorne's mother may be said to have come in the course
+of Nature, and his mind was prepared for it; but Louisa had been the
+playmate of his childhood, and her death seemed as unnecessary as it
+was sharp and sudden. It happened almost on the third anniversary of
+his mother's death, and these were the only two occasions in Hawthorne's
+life, when the Dark Angel hovered about his door.
+
+Rebecca Manning says: "Louisa Hawthorne was a most delightful, lovable,
+interesting woman--not at all 'commonplace,' as has been stated. Her
+death was a great sorrow to all her friends. Her name was Maria Louisa,
+and she was often called Maria by her mother and sister and aunts."
+
+Depressed and unnerved, in the most trying season of the year, Hawthorne
+went in the latter part of August to visit Franklin Pierce at Concord,
+New Hampshire; but there a severe torrid wave came on, so that Pierce
+advised him to go at once to the Isles of Shoals, promising to follow in
+a few days, if his numerous engagements would permit him.
+
+The Isles of Shoals have the finest summer climate on the Atlantic
+Ocean; an atmosphere at once quieting and strengthening, and always at
+its best when it is hottest on the main-land. Hawthorne found a pair of
+friends ready-made there, and prepared to receive him,--Levi Thaxter,
+afterwards widely known as the apostle of Browning in America, and
+his wife, Celia, a poetess in the bud, only sixteen, but very bright,
+original, and pleasant. They admired Hawthorne above all living men, and
+his sudden advent on their barren island seemed, as Thaxter afterward
+expressed it, like a supernatural presence. They became good companions
+in the next two weeks; climbing the rocks, rowing from one island to
+another,--bald pieces of rock, like the summits of mountains rising
+above the surface of the sea,--visiting the light-house, the monument
+to Captain John Smith, Betty Moody's Cave, the graves of the Spanish
+sailors, the trap dikes of ancient lava, and much else. Every day
+Hawthorne wrote a minute account in his diary of his various proceedings
+there, including the observation of a live shark, which came into the
+cove by the hotel, a rare spectacle on that coast. General Pierce
+did not make his appearance, however, and on September 15, Hawthorne
+returned to his own home.
+
+The election of Pierce to the presidency was as remarkable as his
+nomination. In 1848, General Taylor, the victor of a single battle, but
+a man of little education, was nominated for the presidency over the
+heads of the finest orators and ablest statesmen in America, and was
+enthusiastically elected. General Scott, Franklin Pierce's opponent,
+defeated the Mexicans in four decisive battles, captured the capital of
+the country, and conducted one of the most skilful military expeditions
+of the past century. He was a man of rare administrative ability, and
+there is no substantial argument against his character. We have
+Grant's testimony that it was pleasant to serve under him. Yet he
+was overwhelmingly defeated at the polls by a militia general without
+distinction, military or civil.
+
+Hawthorne was naturally delighted at the result of the election;
+unfortunate as it afterwards proved for his country. He derived a
+threefold satisfaction from it, in the success of his friend, in the
+defeat of the Whigs, and in the happy prospects which it opened for
+himself. He could now return to the Salem Custom House in triumph,--as
+the wisest man might be tempted to do,--but he looked forward to
+something that would be more advantageous to his family. He had already
+written on October 18 to Horatio Bridge:
+
+"Before undertaking it [the biography] I made an inward resolution,
+that I should accept no office from him; but, to say the truth, I doubt
+whether it would not be rather folly than heroism to adhere to this
+purpose, in case he should offer me anything particularly good. We shall
+see. A foreign mission I could not afford to take. The consulship at
+Liverpool, I might." [Footnote: Bridge 130]
+
+We may conclude from this, that Pierce had already intimated the
+Liverpool consulate, which at that time was supposed to be worth
+twenty-five thousand dollars a year in fees. It was an excellent plan
+for the President of the United States to have such a gift at his
+disposal, to reward some individual like Hawthorne, to whom the whole
+nation was indebted to an extent that could never be repaid; but it is
+a question whether it would not have been as well, in this particular
+case, for Hawthorne to have remained in his own country. If he could
+have written five or six romances more, this would have secured him
+a good competency, and would have assured a sufficient income for his
+family after his death. As it happened, the Liverpool consulate did not
+prove so profitable as was anticipated.
+
+With such "great expectations" before him, Hawthorne could do no serious
+work that winter, so he occupied himself leisurely enough, with writing
+a sequel to his "Wonder Book," which he called "Tanglewood Tales,"
+apparently after the thicket which surmounted the hill above his
+residence. This was finished early in March, and given to Ticknor &
+Company to publish when they saw fit. As it is a book intended for
+children, the consideration of it need not detain us.
+
+Early in April, 1853, Hawthorne was appointed and confirmed to the
+Liverpool consulate, and on the 14th he went to Washington, as he tells
+us, for the first time, to thank the President in person. Otherwise
+he has divulged nothing concerning this journey, except that he was
+introduced to a larger number of persons than he could remember the
+names or faces of, and received ten times as many invitations as he
+could accept. If Charles V. honored himself with posterity by picking up
+the paint-brush which Titian had dropped on the floor, President Pierce
+might have done himself equal credit by making Hawthorne his guest
+at the White House; but if he did not go so far as this, it cannot
+be doubted that he treated Hawthorne handsomely. There were giants at
+Washington in those days. Webster and Clay were gone, but Seward was the
+Charles Fox and Sumner the Edmund Burke of America; Chase and Marcy were
+not much less in intellectual stature. Hawthorne must have met them, but
+we hear nothing of them from him.
+
+Hawthorne delayed his departure for England, until the most favorable
+season arrived, for his fragile wife and infant children to cross the
+"rolling forties." At length, on July 6, two days after his forty-ninth
+birthday, he sailed from Boston in the "Niagara," and with _placida
+onda prospero il vento_, in about twelve days they all arrived safely at
+their destination.
+
+The great stone docks of Liverpool, extending along its whole
+water-front, give one a strong impression of the power and solidity of
+England. Otherwise the city is almost devoid of interest, and travellers
+customarily pass through it, to take the next train for Oxford or
+London, without further observation, unless it be to give a look at the
+conventional statue of Prince Albert on an Arab horse. Liverpool is
+not so foggy a place as London, but it has a damper and less pleasant
+climate, without those varied attractions and substantial enjoyments
+which make London one of the most pleasant residences and most
+interesting of cities.
+
+London fog is composed of soft-coal smoke, which, ascending from
+innumerable chimneys, is filtered in the upper skies, and then, mixed
+with vapor, is cast back upon the city by every change of wind. It
+is not unpleasant to the taste, and seems to be rather healthful than
+otherwise; but all the vapors which sail down the Gulf Stream, and which
+are not condensed on the Irish coast in the form of rain, collect
+about the mouth of the Mersey, so that the adjacent country is the best
+watered portion of all England, Cornwall possibly excepted. There is
+plenty of wealth in Liverpool, and all kinds of private entertainments,
+but in no other city of its size are there so few public entertainments,
+and the only interesting occupation that a stranger might find there,
+would be to watch the strange and curious characters in the lower
+classes, faces and figures that cannot be caricatured, emerging from
+cellar-ways or disappearing through side-doors. Go into an alehouse in
+the evening and, beside the pretty barmaid, who deserves consideration
+as much for her good behavior as for her looks, you will see plainly
+enough where Dickens obtained his _dramatis personae_ for "Barnaby
+Rudge" and "The Old Curiosity Shop." Either in Liverpool or in London
+you can see more grotesque comedy characters in a day, than you could
+meet with in a year in America. These poor creatures are pressed down,
+and squeezed out into what they are, under the superincumbent weight of
+an enormous leisure class.
+
+Such was the environment in which Hawthorne was obliged to spend the
+ensuing four years. He soon, however, discovered a means to escape
+from the monotonous and labyrinthine streets of the city, by renting an
+imitation castle at Rock Ferry,--a very pretty place, much like Dobbs
+Ferry, on the Hudson, although the river is not so fine,--where his
+wife and children enjoyed fresh air, green grass, and all the sunshine
+attainable, and whence he could reach the consulate every morning by the
+Mersey boat. We find them located there before September 1.
+
+Of the consulate itself, Hawthorne has given a minute pictorial
+description in "Our Old Home," from which the following extract is
+especially pertinent to our present inquiry:
+
+"The Consulate of the United States in my day, was located in Washington
+Buildings (a shabby and smoke-stained edifice of four stories high,
+thus illustriously named in honor of our national establishment), at the
+lower corner of Brunswick Street, contiguous to the Goree Arcade, and
+in the neighborhood of some of the oldest docks. This was by no means a
+polite or elegant portion of England's great commercial city, nor were
+the apartments of the American official so splendid as to indicate the
+assumption of much consular pomp on his part. A narrow and ill-lighted
+staircase gave access to an equally narrow and ill-lighted passage-way
+on the first floor, at the extremity of which, surmounting a door frame,
+appeared an exceedingly stiff pictorial representation of the Goose
+and Gridiron, according to the English idea of those ever-to-be-honored
+symbols. The staircase and passage-way were often thronged of a morning,
+with a set of beggarly and piratical-looking scoundrels (I do no wrong
+to our countrymen in styling them so, for not one in twenty was a
+genuine American), purporting to belong to our mercantile marine,
+and chiefly composed of Liverpool Blackballers, and the scum of every
+maritime nation on earth; such being the seamen by whose assistance we
+then disputed the navigation of the world with England. These specimens
+of a most unfortunate class of people were shipwrecked crews in quest
+of bed, board, and clothing, invalids asking permits for the hospital,
+bruised and bloody wretches complaining of ill-treatment by their
+officers, drunkards, desperadoes, vagabonds, and cheats, perplexingly
+intermingled with an uncertain proportion of reasonably honest men. All
+of them (save here and there a poor devil of a kidnapped landsman in his
+shore-going rags) wore red flannel shirts, in which they had sweltered
+or shivered throughout the voyage, and all required consular assistance
+in one form or another."
+
+The position of an American consul in a large foreign seaport,
+especially at Liverpool, is anything but a sinecure, and in fact
+requires a continual exercise of judgment much beyond the average duties
+of a foreign minister. The difficulty also of being continually
+obliged to distinguish between true and false applications for charity,
+especially when the false are greatly in excess of the true, and among a
+class of persons notably given to mendacious tricks, is one of the most
+unpleasant conditions in which a tender-hearted man can find himself. As
+curious studies in low life, the rascality of these nautical mendicants
+may often have been interesting, and even amusing, to Hawthorne, but as
+a steady pull they must have worn hard on his nerves, even though his
+experienced clerk served as a breakwater to a considerable portion.
+It has already been noticed that Hawthorne was a conscientious
+office-holder, and he never trusted to others any duties which he was
+able to attend to in person. Moreover, although he was a man of reserved
+manners, there was an exceptionally tender, sympathetic heart behind
+this impenetrable exterior, and it may be suspected that he relieved
+many instances of actual distress, which could not be brought within the
+government regulations. He may have suffered like the ghost in Dickens's
+"Haunted Man," on account of those whom he could not assist. It is
+certain that he aged more, in appearance at least, during these four
+years, than at any similar period of his life.
+
+It is no wonder, therefore, that, after a visit to the English lakes,
+the following summer, Hawthorne wrote to his friend, Henry Bright, from
+Liverpool:
+
+"I have come back only for a day or two to this black and miserable
+hole. I do not mean to apply these two adjectives to my consulate, but
+to the whole of Liverpool."
+
+Yet it should be recollected that there were nearly a million of persons
+in Liverpool, who were obliged to spend their lives there, for good and
+evil fortune; and, as Emerson says, we can never think too lightly of
+our own difficulties.
+
+Neither did Hawthorne find the news from America particularly
+interesting. On March 30, 1854, he wrote to Bridge:
+
+"I like my office well enough, but my official duties and obligations
+are irksome to me beyond expression. Nevertheless, the emoluments will
+be a sufficient inducement to keep me here, though they are not above a
+quarter part what some people suppose them.
+
+"It sickens me to look back to America. I am sick to death of the
+continual fuss and tumult and excitement and bad blood which we keep
+up about political topics. If it were not for my children, I should
+probably never return, but--after quitting office--should go to Italy,
+and live and die there. If Mrs. Bridge and you would go too, we might
+form a little colony amongst ourselves, and see our children grow up
+together. But it will never do to deprive them of their native land,
+which I hope will be a more comfortable and happy residence in their day
+than it has been in ours."
+
+[Footnote: J. Hawthorne, ii. 65.]
+
+The last sentence in this ought to be printed in italics, for it is the
+essence of patriotism. The "fuss and tumult" in America were due, for
+the time being, to the apple of discord which Douglas had cast into
+the Senate, by his Kansas-Nebraska bill. Hawthorne was too far away to
+distinguish the full force and insidious character of that measure, but
+if he had been in Concord, we believe he would have recognized (as so
+many did who never had before) the imminent danger to the Union,
+from the repeated concessions to the slave power. After he had become
+disenthralled from his allegiance to party, we find him in his letters
+to Bridge, taking broad views on political subjects.
+
+An event was soon to happen, well calculated to disenthrall him. The
+Congress of 1854, after passing the Kansas-Nebraska bill, resolved, in
+order to prove its democratic spirit, to economize in the representation
+of our government to foreign powers. On April 14, the good-hearted,
+theoretical O'Sullivan arrived in Liverpool, on his way to be minister
+to Portugal, and warned Hawthorne that there was a bill before Congress
+to reduce the consulate there to a salaried position. This was a
+terrible damper on Hawthorne's great expectations, and on April 17 he
+wrote again to Bridge, protesting against the change: [Footnote: Bridge,
+135, 136.]
+
+"I trust, in Heaven's mercy, that no change will be made as regards the
+emoluments of the Liverpool consulate--unless indeed a salary is to be
+given in addition to the fees, in which case I should receive it very
+thankfully. This, however, is not to be expected; and if Liverpool
+is touched at all, it will be to limit its emoluments by a fixed
+salary--which will render the office not worth any man's holding. It is
+impossible (especially for a man with a family and keeping any kind of
+an establishment) not to spend a vast deal of money here. The office,
+unfortunately, is regarded as one of great dignity, and puts the holder
+on a level with the highest society, and compels him to associate on
+equal terms with men who spend more than my whole income on the mere
+entertainments and other trimmings and embroidery of their lives. Then
+I feel bound to exercise some hospitality towards my own countrymen. I
+keep out of society as much as I decently can, and really practice as
+stern an economy as I ever did in my life; but, nevertheless, I have
+spent many thousands of dollars in the few months of my residence here,
+and cannot reasonably hope to spend less than six thousand per annum,
+even after all the expenditure of setting up an establishment is
+defrayed."
+
+In addition to this, he states that his predecessor in office, John J.
+Crittenden, never received above fifteen thousand dollars in fees, of
+which he saved less than half.
+
+We can trust this to be the plain truth in regard to the Liverpool
+consulate, and if twenty-five thousand a year was ever obtained from
+it, there must have been some kind of deviltry in the business. Congress
+proved inexorable,--as it might not have been, had Hawthorne possessed
+the influence of a prominent politician like Crittenden. It was a direct
+affront to the President from his own party, and Pierce did not dare to
+veto the bill.
+
+What O'Sullivan said to Hawthorne on other subjects may be readily
+inferred from Hawthorne's next letter to Bridge, in which he begs him to
+remain in Washington for Pierce's sake, and says:
+
+"I feel a sorrowful sympathy for the poor fellow (for God's sake don't
+show him this), and hate to have him left without one true friend, or
+one man, who will speak a single honest word to him."
+
+It is not very clear how Horatio Bridge could counteract the influence
+of Jefferson Davis and Caleb Cushing, but this shows that Franklin
+Pierce's weakness as an administrator was already painfully apparent
+to his friends, and that even Hawthorne could no longer disguise it to
+himself.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+HAWTHORNE IN ENGLAND: 1854-1858
+
+
+Hawthorne's life in England was too generally monotonous to afford many
+salient points to his biographer. It was monotonous in his official
+duties, in his pleasure-trips, and in his social experiences. He found
+one good friend in Liverpool, Mr. Henry Bright, to whom he had already
+been introduced in America, and he soon made another in Mr. Francis
+Bennoch, who lived near the same city. They were both excellent men,
+and belonged to that fine class of Englishmen who possess a comfortable
+income, but live moderately, and prefer cultivating their minds and the
+society of their friends, to clubs, yachting, horse-racing, and other
+forms of external show. They were not distinguished, and were too
+sensible to desire distinction. Henry Bright may have been the more
+highly favored in Hawthorne's esteem, but they both possessed that tact
+and delicacy of feeling which is rare among Englishmen, and by accepting
+Hawthorne simply as a man like themselves, instead of as a celebrity,
+they won that place in his confidence from which so many had been
+excluded.
+
+Otherwise, Hawthorne contracted no friendships among distinguished
+Englishmen of letters, like that between Emerson and Carlyle; and from
+first to last he saw little of them. He had no sooner landed than he was
+greeted with a number of epistles from sentimental ladies, or authors of
+a single publication, who claimed a spiritual kinship with him, because
+of their admiration for his writings. One of them even addressed him as
+"My dear brother." These he filed away with a mental reservation to
+give the writers as wide a circuit as he possibly could. He attended a
+respectable number of dinner parties in both Liverpool and London, at
+which he remained for the most part a silent and unobtrusive guest. He
+was not favored with an invitation to Holland House, although he met
+Lady Holland on one occasion, and has left a description of her, not
+more flattering than others that have been preserved for us. He also
+met Macaulay and the Brownings at Lord Houghton's; but for once Macaulay
+would not talk. Mrs. Browning evidently pleased Hawthorne very much.
+[Footnote: J. Hawthorne, ii. 129.]
+
+The great lights of English literature besides these,--Tennyson,
+Carlyle, Ruskin, Thackeray, Dickens,--he was never introduced to,
+although he saw Tennyson in a picture-gallery at Manchester, and has
+left a description of him, such as might endure to the end of time.
+Neither did he make the acquaintance of those three luminaries, Froude,
+Marian Evans, and Max Muller, who rose above the horizon, previous to
+his return to America. That he was not presented at Court was a matter
+of course. There was nothing which he could have cared for less.
+
+After his return he published a volume of English sketches, which he
+entitled "Our Old Home," but he seems to have felt actually less at home
+in England than in any other country that he visited. In that book, and
+also in his diary, the even tenor of his discourse is interrupted here
+and there by fits of irritability which disclose themselves in the use
+of epithets such as one would hardly expect from the pen of Hawthorne.
+If we apply to him the well-known proverb with respect to the Russians,
+we can imagine that under similar conditions an inherited sailor-like
+tendency in him came to the surface. We only remember one such instance
+in his American Note-book, that in which he speaks of Thoreau's having a
+face "as homely as sin."
+
+[Footnote: The general effect of Thoreau's face was by no means
+unpleasant.]
+
+Hawthorne did not carry with him to Europe that narrow provincialism,
+which asserts itself in either condemning or ridiculing everything that
+differs essentially from American ways and methods. On the contrary,
+when he compares the old country with the new,--for instance, the
+English scenery with that of New England,--Hawthorne is usually as fair,
+discriminating, and dispassionate as any one could wish, and perhaps
+more so than some would desire. His judgment cannot be questioned in
+preferring the American elm, with its wine-glass shape, to the rotund
+European species; but he admires the English lake country above anything
+that he has seen like it in his own land. "Centuries of cultivation have
+given the English oak a domestic character," while American trees are
+still to be classed with the wild flowers which bloom beneath their
+outstretched arms.
+
+Matthew Arnold spoke of his commentaries on England as the writing of
+a man chagrined; but what could have chagrined Hawthorne there? The
+socially ambitious man may become chagrined, if he finds that doors
+are closed to him, and so may an unappreciated would-be genius. But
+Hawthorne's position as an author was already more firmly established
+than Matthew Arnold's ever could be; and as for social ambition,
+no writer since Shakespeare has been so free from it. It seems more
+probable that the difficulty with Hawthorne in this respect was due to
+his old position on the slavery question, which now began to bear
+bitter fruit for him. All Englishmen at that time, with the exception of
+Carlyle, Froude, and the nobility, were very strongly anti-slavery,--the
+more so, as it cost them nothing to have other men's slaves
+liberated,--and the English are particularly blunt, not to say _gauche_,
+in introducing topics of conversation which are liable to become a
+matter of controversy. At the first dinner-party I attended in London
+some thirty-odd years ago, I had scarcely tasted the soup, before a
+gentleman opposite asked me: "What progress are you making in the United
+States toward free trade? Can you tell me, sir?" He might as well have
+asked me what progress we were making in the direction of monarchy.
+Fortunately for Hawthorne, his good taste prevented him from introducing
+the slavery question in his publications, excepting in the life of
+Pierce, but for this same reason his English acquaintances in various
+places were obliged to discover his opinions at first hand, nor is it
+very likely that they were slow to do this. Phillips and Garrison had
+been to England and through England, and their dignified speeches had
+made an excellent impression. Longfellow, Emerson, Lowell and Whittier
+had spoken with no uncertain sound, protesting against what they
+considered a great national evil. How did it happen that Hawthorne was
+an exception?
+
+Through his kind friend Mr. Bennoch, he fell in with a worthy whom it
+would have been just as well to have avoided--the proverbial-philosophy
+poet, Martin Farquhar Tupper; not a genuine poet, nor considered as such
+by trustworthy critics, but such a good imitation, that he persuaded
+himself and a large portion of the British public, including Queen
+Victoria, that he was one. Hawthorne has given an account of his visit
+to this man, [Footnote: J. Hawthorne, ii. 114.] second only in value
+to his description of Tennyson; for it is quite as important for us
+to recognize the deficiencies of the one, as it is to know the true
+appearance of the other. It is an unsparing study of human nature, but
+if a man places himself on a pedestal for all people to gaze at, it is
+just this and nothing more that he has to expect. Hawthorne represents
+him as a kindly, domestic, affectionate, bustling little man, who kept
+on bustling with his hands and tongue, even while he was seated--a man
+of no dignity of character or perception of his deficiency of it. This
+all does well enough, but when Hawthorne says, "I liked him, and laughed
+in my sleeve at him, and was utterly weary of him; for certainly he is
+the ass of asses," we feel that he has gone too far, and suspect that
+there was some unpleasantness connected with the occasion, of which we
+are not informed. The word "ass," as applied to a human being, is
+not current in good literature, unless low comedy be entitled to that
+position, and coming from Hawthorne, of all writers, it seems like
+an oath from the mouth of a woman. Tupper, who was quite proud of his
+philanthropy, was also much of an abolitionist, and he may have trodden
+on Hawthorne's metaphysical toes half a dozen times, without being aware
+of what he was doing. Altogether, it seems like rather an ill return
+for Tupper's hospitality; but Hawthorne himself did not intend it for
+publication, and on the whole one does not regret that it has been given
+to the public. We have been, however, anticipating the order of events.
+
+During the summer of 1854, the Hawthorne family made a number of
+unimportant expeditions, visiting mediaeval abbeys and ruinous
+castles,--especially one to Chester and Eton Hall, which was not quite
+worth the fees they paid to the janitors. An ancient walled city is much
+of a novelty to an American for the first time, but, having seen one,
+you have seen them all, and Chester Cathedral does not stand high in
+English architecture. On September 14, O'Sullivan appeared again, and
+they all went into the Welsh mountains, where they examined the old
+fortresses of Rhyl and Conway, which were built by Edward Longshanks to
+hold the Welshmen in check. Those relics of the feudal system are very
+impressive, not only on account of their solidity and the great human
+forces which they represent, but from a peculiar beauty of their own,
+which modern fortifications do not possess at all. They seem to belong
+to the ground they stand on, and the people who live about them look
+upon them as cherished landmarks. They are the monuments of an heroic
+age, and Hawthorne's interest in them was characteristic of his nature.
+
+O'Sullivan returned to Lisbon early in October, and on the 5th of
+that month, Hawthorne found himself obliged to make a speech at an
+entertainment on board a merchant vessel called the "James Barnes,"
+which had been built in Boston for a Liverpool firm of ship-owners.
+He considered this the most serious portion of his official duty,--the
+necessity of making after-dinner speeches at the Mayor's or other
+public tables. He writes several pages on the subject in a humorously
+complainant tone, congratulating himself that on the present occasion
+he has succeeded admirably, for he has really said nothing, and that
+is precisely what he intended to do. After-dinner speeches are like
+soap-bubbles: they are made of nothing, signify nothing, float for a
+moment in the air, attract a momentary attention, and then disappear.
+But the difficulty is, to make an apparent something out of nothing, to
+say nothing that will offend anybody, and to say something that will be
+different from what others say. It is truly a hard situation in which to
+place even a very talented man, and, as Longfellow once remarked, those
+were most fortunate who made their speeches first, and could then enjoy
+their dinner, while their successors were writhing in agony. However,
+there are those who like it, and having practised it to perfection,
+can do it better than anything else. Hawthorne analyzes his sensations,
+after finishing his speech, with rare self-perception. "After sitting
+down, I was conscious of an enjoyment in speaking to a public assembly,
+and felt as if I should like to rise again. It is something like being
+under fire,--a sort of excitement, not exactly pleasure, but more
+piquant than most pleasures." Was it President Jackson, or Senator
+Benton, who said that fighting a duel was very much like making one's
+maiden speech?
+
+Mrs. Hawthorne thus describes the residence of the President of the
+Chamber of Commerce at Liverpool: [Footnote: Mrs. Lathrop, 238.] "We
+were ushered into the drawing-room, which looked more like a brilliant
+apartment in Versailles than what I had expected to see. The panels were
+richly gilt, with mirrors in the centre, and hangings of gilded
+paper; and the broad windows were hung with golden-colored damask; the
+furniture was all of the same hue; with a carpet of superb flowers;
+and vases of living flowers standing everywhere; and a chandelier of
+diamonds (as to indefatigable and vivid shining), and candlesticks
+of the same,--not the long prisms like those on Mary's astral, but a
+network of crystals diamond-cut."
+
+This was the coarse commercial taste of the time, previous to the
+reforms of Ruskin and Eastlake. The same might be said of Versailles.
+There is no true elegance in gilding and glass-work, including mirrors,
+unless they be sparingly used.
+
+The Hawthornes were equally overpowered by a dinner-party given by a
+millionaire and country squire of Liscard Vale; "two enormous silver
+dish-covers, with the gleam of Damascus blades, putting out all the
+rest of the light;" and after the fish, these were replaced by two other
+enormous dishes of equal brilliancy. The table was shortly covered
+with an array of silver dishes, reflecting the lights above in dazzling
+splendor. At one end of the table was a roast goose and at the other
+a boiled turkey; while "cutlets, fricassees, ragouts, tongue,
+chicken-pies," and much else, filled the intermediate spaces, and the
+sideboard groaned under a round of beef "like the dome of St. Peter's."
+It was fortunate that the American consul came to this Herculean repast
+with an excellent appetite.
+
+Henry Bright was their chief refuge from this flummery, as Hawthorne
+called it; "an extremely interesting, sincere, earnest, independent,
+warm and generous hearted man; not at all dogmatic; full of questions,
+and with ready answers. He is highly cultivated, and writes for the
+_Westminster_,"--a man who respected formalities and could preserve
+decorum in his own household, but liked a simple, unostentatious mode
+of living--in brief, he was a true English gentleman. Mrs. Hawthorne has
+drawn his portrait with only less skill than her husband:
+
+"His eyes are large, bright, and prominent, rather indicating great
+facility of language, which he has. He is an Oxford scholar, and
+has decided literary tastes. He is delicately strung, and is as
+transparent-minded and pure-hearted as a child, with great enthusiasm
+and earnestness of character; and, though a Liberal, very loyal to his
+Queen and very admiring of the aristocracy."
+
+He appears to have been engaged in the Australian carrying trade, and
+owned the largest sailing vessel afloat.
+
+Hawthorne went to an exhibition of English landscape paintings, and
+he remarked that Turner's seemed too ethereal to have been painted by
+mortal hands,--the finest compliment that Turner could have received,
+for in delicate effects of light and shade,--in painting the atmosphere
+itself,--he has no rival.
+
+In January, James Buchanan, who was then minister to England, came to
+visit Hawthorne, and talked with him about the presidency,--for which he
+considered himself altogether too old; but at the same time he did not
+suggest the renomination of Franklin Pierce. This, of course, disclosed
+his own ambition, and as Hawthorne's impartial pen-and-ink sketch of him
+may not be recognized by many readers, on account of the form in which
+it appears in the note-books, we append it here, with the regret that
+Hawthorne could not have treated his friend Pierce in an equally candid
+manner.
+
+"I like Mr.--. He cannot exactly be called gentlemanly in his manners,
+there being a sort of rusticity about him; moreover, he has a habit of
+squinting one eye, and an awkward carriage of his head; but, withal, a
+dignity in his large person, and a consciousness of high position and
+importance, which give him ease and freedom. Very simple and frank in
+his address, he may be as crafty as other diplomatists are said to be;
+but I see only good sense and plainness of speech,--appreciative, too,
+and genial enough to make himself conversable. He talked very freely of
+himself and of other public people, and of American and English affairs.
+He returns to America, he says, next October, and then retires forever
+from public life."
+
+A certain amount of rusticity would seem to have been essential to a
+presidential candidate during the middle of the past century.
+
+During this dismal winter Hawthorne was beset more than ever, by
+nautical mendicants of all countries,--Hungarians, Poles, Cubans,
+Spanish Americans, and French Republicans, who, unhappily for him, had
+discovered that the American consul was a tender-hearted man. He had,
+beside, to deal with a number of difficult cases of maltreated American
+sailors,--the more difficult, because both parties to the suits were
+greatly given to lying, even on occasions when it would have been more
+expedient for them to tell the truth. He has recorded one such in his
+diary, that deserves more than a superficial consideration.
+
+An American bark was on the point of sailing, when the captain cast
+ashore a bruised and battered-looking man, who made his way painfully
+to the consulate, and begged Hawthorne for a permit to be placed in
+the hospital. He called himself the son of a South Carolina farmer,
+and stated that he had gone on board this vessel with a load of farm
+products, but had been impressed by the captain for the voyage, and had
+been so maltreated, that he thought he would die,--and so he did,
+not long afterward, at the hospital. Letters were found upon him,
+substantiating the statement concerning his father, but it was
+discovered, from the same source, that he was a jail-bird, and the
+tattooed figures upon his arms showed that he had been a sailor of many
+years' standing, although he had denied this to the consul. Hawthorne
+speaks of him as an innocent man, the victim of criminal brutality
+little less than murder; it is certainly difficult to account for such
+severe ill-treatment, but the man was clearly a bad character, and it
+is also true that sea-captains do not interfere with their deck-hands
+without some kind of provocation. The man clung desperately to life up
+to the last moment, and the letters he carried with him indicated that
+he was more intelligent than the average of the nautical fraternity.
+
+In June, Hawthorne went with his family to Leamington, of which he
+afterward published an account in the _Atlantic Monthly_, criticised
+at the time for the manner in which he referred to English ladies, as
+"covering a large area of Nature's foot-stool"; but this element in
+Hawthorne's English writing has already been considered. From Leamington
+he went, early in July, to the English lakes, especially Windermere,
+and fortunately found time to thoroughly enjoy them. He enjoyed them not
+only for their scenery, which he preferred to that of New England,
+but also as illustrations to many descriptive passages in Wordsworth's
+poetry, which serves the same purpose in the guidebook of that region,
+as "Childe Harold" serves in the guidebooks for Italy and Greece.
+Hawthorne also was interested in such places for the sake of their
+associations. He describes Wordsworth's house, the grounds about it, and
+the cemetery where he lies, with the accuracy of a scientific report.
+He finds the grass growing too high about the head-stone of Wordsworth's
+grave, and plucks it away with his own hands, reflecting that it may
+have drawn its nourishment from his mortal remains. We may suppose
+that he preserved this grass, and it is only from such incidental
+circumstances that we discover who were Hawthorne's favorites among
+poets and other distinguished writers. He twice visited Wordsworth's
+grave.
+
+Their first two winters in Liverpool had not proved favorable to Mrs.
+Hawthorne's health She had contracted a disorder in her throat from the
+prevailing dampness, which threatened to become chronic, and her husband
+felt that it would not be prudent for her to remain there another
+winter. He thought of resigning and returning to America. Then he
+thought of exchanging his consulship for one in southern Europe,
+although the salaries of the more southern consulates were hardly
+sufficient to support a married man. Then he thought of exchanging
+places with O'Sullivan, but he hardly knew languages well enough for an
+ambassador. The doctors, however, had advised Mrs. Hawthorne to spend a
+winter at Madeira, and she courageously solved the problem by proposing
+to go there alone with her daughters, for which Lisbon and O'Sullivan
+would serve as a stepping-stone by the way. There are wives who would
+prefer such an expedition to spending a winter in England with their
+husbands, but Mrs. Hawthorne was not of that mould, and in her case it
+was a brave thing to do.
+
+Accordingly, on the second Monday in October, Mrs. Hawthorne and her
+two daughters sailed for Lisbon. She was presented at court there;
+concerning which occasion she wrote a lengthy and very interesting
+account to her husband, published in her son's biography. The King of
+Portugal held a long conversation with her and Minister O'Sullivan, and
+she describes him as dressed in a flamboyant manner,--a scarlet uniform,
+lavishly ornamented with diamonds. With how much better taste did the
+Empress of Austria receive the President of the French Republic,--in
+a simple robe of black velvet, fastened at her throat with a diamond
+brooch. One can envy Mrs. Hawthorne a winter at Madeira, for there is
+no place in Europe pleasanter for that purpose, unless it be Rome.
+Meanwhile, her husband spent the winter with his son (who was now old
+enough to be trusted safely about the streets), at a sea-captains'
+boarding-house in Liverpool. There, as in Salem, he felt himself most
+companionable in such company, as he had been accustomed to it from
+boyhood; and it appears that at this time he was in the habit of
+composing fables for the entertainment of Julian, not unlike the yarns
+which sailors often spin to beguile landsmen. [Footnote: J. Hawthorne,
+ii. 75.]
+
+Hawthorne found his third winter in Liverpool dismal enough without
+his wife and the two little girls, and this feeling was considerably
+increased by his dislike for the sea-captains' boarding-house keeper,
+[Footnote: English Note-book, November 28, 1855.]with whom he was
+living, and concerning whom he remarks, that a woman in England "is
+either decidedly a lady or decidedly not." She would not have annoyed
+him so much, had it not been for "her bustle, affectation, intensity,
+and pretension of literary taste." The race of landladies contains
+curious specimens, although we have met with some who were real ladies
+nevertheless. Thackeray's description of a French boarding-house keeper
+in "The Adventures of Philip" goes to every heart. Hawthorne writes
+much in his diary, at this juncture, of his friend Francis Bennoch,
+who clearly did the best he could, as a man and a brother, to make
+life cheerful for his American friend; a true, sturdy, warm-hearted
+Englishman.
+
+Christmas was celebrated at Mrs. Blodgett's, after the fashion of a
+second-rate English house of entertainment. The servants hung mistletoe
+about in various places, and woe to the unlucky wight that was caught
+under it. Hawthorne presents an amusing picture of his boy Julian, nine
+years old, struggling against the endearments of a chamber-maid, and
+believes that he himself was the only male person in the house that
+escaped. [Footnote: English Note-book, December, 1855.]If any man would
+be sure to escape that benediction, he would have been the one; for no
+one could be more averse to public demonstrations of affection.
+
+Hawthorne was witness to a curious strategic manoeuvre between President
+Pierce and Minister Buchanan, which, however, he was not sufficiently
+familiar with practical politics to perceive the full meaning of. On the
+way to Southampton with his wife in October, they called on Buchanan in
+London, and were not only civilly but kindly received. Mrs. Hawthorne
+wished to view the Houses of Parliament while they were in session,
+and the ambassador made a knot in his handkerchief, so as to be sure to
+remember his promise to her. He informed Hawthorne at that time of his
+desire to return to America, but stated that the President had just
+written to him, requesting him to remain until April, although he was
+determined not to do so. He excused himself on the plea of old age, and
+Hawthorne seems to have had a suspicion of the insincerity of this,
+but concluded on reflection not to harbor it. Pierce knew already that
+Buchanan was his most dangerous rival for renomination, and desired that
+he should remain as far off as possible; while Buchanan was aware that,
+if he intended to be on the ground, he must not return so late as to
+attract public attention. There were so many presidential aspirants that
+Pierce may have found it difficult to supply Buchanan's place, for the
+time being.
+
+Buchanan delayed a respectful length of time, and then handed in his
+resignation. His successor, George M. Dallas, arrived at Liverpool
+during the second week of March, and Hawthorne who does not mention him
+by name, called upon him at once, and gives us this valuable portrait of
+him.
+
+"The ambassador is a venerable old gentleman, with a full head of
+perfectly white hair, looking not unlike an old-fashioned wig; and this,
+together with his collarless white neckcloth and his brown coat, gave
+him precisely such an aspect as one would expect in a respectable person
+of pre-revolutionary days. There was a formal simplicity, too, in his
+manners, that might have belonged to the same era. He must have been a
+very handsome man in his youthful days, and is now comely, very erect,
+moderately tall, not overburdened with flesh; of benign and agreeable
+address, with a pleasant smile; but his eyes, which are not very large,
+impressed me as sharp and cold. He did not at all stamp himself upon me
+as a man of much intellectual or characteristic vigor. I found no such
+matter in his conversation, nor did I feel it in the indefinable way
+by which strength always makes itself acknowledged. Buchanan, though
+somehow plain and uncouth, yet vindicates himself as a large man of the
+world, able, experienced, fit to handle difficult circumstances of life,
+dignified, too, and able to hold his own in any society." [Footnote:
+English Note-book, March, 1856.]
+
+Morton McMichael, whose statue now stands in Fairmount Park,
+once related this incident concerning Dallas, at a meeting of the
+Philadelphia Hock Club. Somewhere about 1850 Dallas was invited to
+deliver a 4th of July oration at Harrisburg, where McMichael was also
+requested to read the Declaration of Independence. McMichael performed
+his part of the ceremony, and sat down; then Dallas arose and thanked
+the assembly for honoring him with such an invitation, but confessed to
+some difficulty in considering what he should say, for an occasion which
+had been celebrated by so many famous orators; but that a few nights
+since, while he was lying awake, it occurred to him what he should say
+to them. After this he proceeded to read his address from a newspaper
+printed in 1841, which the audience could not see, but which McMichael,
+from his position on the platform, could see perfectly well.
+
+Hawthorne's description suggests a man somewhat like this; but the
+opinion of the Hock Club was that Dallas was not greatly to blame; for
+how could any man make two distinct and original 4th of July orations?
+
+The 1st of April 1856, Hawthorne and Bennoch set off on a bachelor
+expedition of their own, first to visit Tupper at Albany, as has been
+already related, and then going to view a muster of British troops at
+Aldershot; thence to Battle Abbey, which Hawthorne greatly admired, and
+the field of Hastings, where England's greatness began in defeat.
+He does not mention the battle, however, in his diary, and it may be
+remarked that, generally, Hawthorne felt little interest in historical
+subjects. After this, they went to London, where Bennoch introduced
+Hawthorne at the Milton Club and the Reform Club. At the former, he
+again encountered Martin F. Tupper, and became acquainted with Tom
+Taylor, the editor of _Punch_, as well as other writers and editors, of
+whom he had not previously heard. The Club was by no means Miltonic,
+and one would suppose not exactly the place where Hawthorne would find
+himself much at home. Neither were the proceedings altogether in good
+taste. Bennoch opened the ball with a highly eulogistic speech about
+Hawthorne, and was followed by some fifty others in a similar strain,
+so that the unfortunate incumbent must have wished that the earth would
+open and let him down to the shades of night below. On such an occasion,
+even a feather weight becomes a burden. Oh, for a boy, with a tin horn!
+
+Neither did Hawthorne apparently find his peers at the Reform Club.
+Douglas Jerrold, who reminded him somewhat of Ellery Channing, was
+the most notable writer he met there. There was, however, very little
+speech-making, and plenty of good conversation. Unfortunately, he
+offended Jerrold, by using the word "acrid" as applied to his writing,
+instead of some other word, which he could not think of at the moment.
+The difficulty, however, was made up over a fresh bottle of Burgundy,
+and with the help of Hawthorne's unlimited good-will, so that they
+parted excellent friends, and much the better for having known each
+other. Either Jerrold or some other present told Hawthorne that the
+English aristocracy, for the most part hated, despised, and feared men
+of literary genius. Is it not much the same in America?
+
+After these two celebrations, and attending the Lord Mayor's banquet,
+where he admired the beautiful Jewess whom he has described as Miriam
+in "The Marble Faun," Hawthorne returned to Liverpool; and early in
+May took another recess, with a Mr. Bowman, to York, Edinburgh, the
+Trossachs, Abbotsford, and all the haunts of Scott and Burns; with
+his account of which a large portion of the second volume of English
+Note-books is filled; so that, if Scotland should sink into the sea, as
+a portion is already supposed to have done in antediluvian times, all
+those places could be reconstructed through Hawthorne's description of
+them.
+
+This expedition lasted nearly three weeks, and on June 12 Hawthorne
+received word that his wife, with Una and Rose, had already landed at
+Southampton. He hastened at once to meet them, greatly rejoiced to find
+Mrs. Hawthorne entirely restored to health. They had been separated for
+more than seven months.
+
+They first proceeded to Salisbury, to see the cathedral and
+Stonehenge,--the former, very impressive externally, but not so
+satisfactory within; and the latter, a work of man emerging out of
+Nature. Then they went to London, to enjoy the June season, and see
+the regular course of sights in that huge metropolis. They visited St.
+Paul's, the Tower, Guildhall, the National Gallery, the British Museum,
+Westminster Abbey, and the Houses of Parliament, apparently finding as
+much satisfaction in this conventional occupation as they did in the
+social entertainments of London. At the house of Mr. S. C. Hall, a noted
+entertainer of those days, Hawthorne became acquainted with the most
+celebrated singer of her time, or perhaps of all time; namely, Jenny
+Lind. No modern orator has held such a sway over the hearts of men and
+women, as that Swedish nightingale,--for the purity of her voice seemed
+no more than the emanation of her lofty nature. Hawthorne describes her
+as a frank, sincere person, rather tall,--certainly no beauty, but with
+sense and self-reliance in her aspect and manners. She immediately
+gave Hawthorne an illustration of her frankness by complaining of the
+unhealthy manner in which Americans, and especially American women,
+lived. This seems like a prosaic subject for such a person, but it was
+natural enough; for a concert singer has to live like a race-horse, and
+this would be what would constantly strike her attention in a foreign
+country. Hawthorne rallied to the support of his countrywomen, and
+believed that they were, on the whole, as healthy and long-lived as
+Europeans. This may be so now, but there has been great improvement in
+the American mode of living, during the past fifty years, and we can
+imagine that Jenny Lind often found it difficult to obtain such food as
+she required.
+
+That she should have requested an introduction to Hawthorne is
+significant of her interest in American literature, and suggests a taste
+as refined and elevated as her music.
+
+It was on Hawthorne's wedding-day this happened, and a few days later
+he was invited to a select company at Monckton Milnes's, which included
+Macaulay, the Brownings, and Professor Ticknor. He found both the
+Brownings exceedingly pleasant and accessible, but was somewhat startled
+to find that Mrs. Browning was a believer in spiritism--not such a sound
+and healthy intelligence as the author of "Middle-march," and he might
+have been still more so, if he had known that she and her husband were
+ardent admirers of Louis Napoleon. That was something which an American
+in those days could not quite understand. However, he found her an
+exceedingly pleasant companion. After dinner they looked over several
+volumes of autographs, in which Oliver Cromwell's was the only one that
+would to-day be more valuable than Hawthorne's own.
+
+A breakfast at Monckton Milnes's usually included the reading of a copy
+of verses of his own composition, but perhaps he had not yet reached
+that stage on the present occasion.
+
+Hawthorne heard such varied and conflicting accounts of Charles Dickens
+that he hardly knew whether he would like to meet him or not. He wanted
+to see Tennyson when he was at the Isle of Wight, but feared that his
+visit might be looked on as an intrusion, by a person who lived so
+retired a life,--judging perhaps from his own experience. While at
+Windermere he paused for a moment in front of Harriet Martineau's
+cottage, but on second thought he concluded to leave the good deaf lady
+in peace.
+
+Conway speaks of Hawthorne's social life in England as a failure; but
+failure suggests an effort in some direction or other, and Hawthorne
+made no social efforts. Being lionized was not his business. He had seen
+enough of it during the London season of 1856, and after that he retired
+into his domestic shell, cultivating the acquaintance of his wife and
+children more assiduously than ever, so that even his two faithful
+allies, Bright and Bennoch, found it difficult to withdraw him from it.
+Watching the development of a fine child is much more satisfactory than
+any course of fashionable entertainments--even than Lowell's twenty-nine
+dinner-parties in the month of June. Nothing becomes more tedious than
+long-continued pleasure-seeking, with post-prandial speeches and a
+constant effort to be agreeable.
+
+Hawthorne remained in England fully seventeen months after this, and
+made a number of excursions; especially one to Oxford, where he and his
+family were dined by a former mayor of the city, and where he greatly
+admired the broad verdant grounds and Gothic architecture of the
+colleges; and also a second journey to Edinburgh and the Trossachs,
+undertaken for the benefit of Mrs. Hawthorne and Una. But we hear no
+more of him in London society, and it only remains for us to chronicle
+his exceptional kindness to an unfortunate American woman.
+
+It seems strange that the first doubt in regard to the authorship of
+Shakespeare should have originated on this side of the Atlantic.
+If Dante was a self-educated poet, there seems no good reason why
+Shakespeare should not have been; and if the greatest of French writers
+earned his living as an actor, why should not the greatest of English
+writers have done the same? That would seem to be much more in
+harmony with the central idea of American life--the principle of
+self-helpfulness; but this is a skeptical epoch, and the tendency of our
+political institutions is toward skepticism of character and distrust of
+tradition. Hence we have Delia Bacon, Holmes, and Donnelly.
+
+Hawthorne has given future generations an account of Delia Bacon, which
+will endure as the portrait of a gifted and interesting woman, diverted
+from the normal channels of feminine activity by the force of a single
+idea; but he makes no mention of his efforts in her behalf. He found her
+in the lodgings of a London tradesman, and although she received him in
+a pleasant and lady-like manner, he quickly perceived that her mind
+was in an abnormal condition, and that it was positively dangerous to
+discuss her favorite topic in a rational manner. He had a feeling that
+the least opposition on his part to the Baconian theory would result in
+his expulsion from the room, yet he found her conversation interesting,
+and recognized that if her conclusions were erroneous she had
+nevertheless unearthed valuable historic material, which ought to be
+given to the world. He loaned her money, which he did not expect to be
+repaid, and exerted himself to find a publisher for her, recollecting
+perhaps the vows he had made to the gods in the days of his own
+obscurity. He mentions in his diary calling on the Rutledges for this
+purpose--where he saw Charles Reade, a tall, strong-looking man, just
+leaving the office. He also wrote to Ticknor & Fields, and finally did
+get Miss Bacon's volume brought out in London. The critics treated it
+in a contemptuous manner, as a desecration of Shakespeare's memory;
+and Hawthorne was prepared for this, but it opened a new era in English
+bibliography. Shortly after the publication of her book Miss Bacon
+became insane.
+
+To many this appeared like a Quixotic adventure, but now we can see that
+it was not, and that it was necessary in its way to prove the generosity
+of Hawthorne. We can readily infer from it what he might have done with
+ampler means, and what he must often have wished to do. To be sure,
+the truest kindness to Delia Bacon would have been to have purchased a
+ticket on a Cunard steamer for her, after her own funds had given out,
+and to have persuaded her to return to her own country; but those who
+have dealt with persons whose whole vitality is absorbed in a single
+idea, can testify how difficult, if not impossible, this would have
+been. It redounds the more to Hawthorne's credit that although Elizabeth
+Peabody was converted to Delia Bacon's theory, Hawthorne himself never
+entertained misgivings as to the reality of Shakespeare as a poet and a
+dramatist.
+
+He had doubts, however, and I felt the same in regard to the
+authenticity of the verses on Shakespeare's marble slab. It is fortunate
+that Miss Bacon's purpose of opening the tomb at Stratford was not
+carried out, but that is no reason why it should not be opened in a
+properly conducted manner, for scientific purposes--in order to
+discover all that is possible concerning so remarkable and mysterious
+a personality. Raphael's tomb has been opened, and why should not
+Shakespeare's be also?
+
+At the Democratic convention in 1856 the Southern delegates wished to
+renominate Franklin Pierce, but the Northern delegates refused their
+agreement to this, because they knew that in such a case they would be
+liable to defeat in their own districts. James Buchanan was accordingly
+nominated, and Pierce's fears in regard to him were fully realized. He
+was elected in November, and the following June appointed Beverly Tucker
+to succeed Hawthorne as consul at Liverpool. Hawthorne resigned his
+office on July 1, 1857, and went with his family on a long tour in
+Scotland. Two weeks earlier he had written a memorial to the Secretary
+of State concerning the maltreatment of a special class of seamen, which
+deserved more consideration than it received from the government at
+Washington.
+
+The gold discoveries in California had induced a large immigration to
+America from the British Isles, and many who went thither in hopes of
+bettering their fortunes became destitute from lack of employment, and
+attempted to work their passage back to Liverpool in American sailing
+vessels. It is likely that they often represented themselves as more
+experienced mariners than they actually were, and there were also a good
+many stowaways who might expect little mercy; but there was no court in
+England that could take cognizance of their wrongs,--in order to obtain
+justice they would have to return to America,--and it cannot be doubted
+that the more brutal sort of officers took advantage of this fact.
+The evil became so notorious that the British minister at Washington
+requested Pierce's administration to have legislation enacted that would
+cover this class of cases, but the President declined to interfere. This
+may have been prudent policy, but Hawthorne felt for the sufferers, and
+the memorial that he submitted to our government on their account has a
+dignity, a clearness and cogency of statement, worthy of Blackstone or
+Marshall. It is in marked contrast to the evasive reply of Secretary
+Cass, both for its fine English and for the directness of its logic. It
+is published at length in Julian Hawthorne's biography of his father,
+and is unique for the insight which it affords as to Hawthorne's mental
+ability in this direction. We may infer from it that if he had made a
+study of jurisprudence, he might have risen to the highest position as a
+writer on law.
+
+Hawthorne's English Note-books are the least interesting of that series,
+on account of the literal descriptions of castles, abbeys, scenery and
+palaces, with which they abound. The perfectly cultivated condition of
+England and Scotland, so far as he went in the latter country, is not
+stimulating to the imagination; for, as he says somewhere, even the
+trees seemed to be thoroughly domesticated. They are excellent reading
+for Americans who have never been to England, or for those who wish to
+renew their memories in regard to certain places there--perhaps better
+for the latter than for the former; and there are fine passages in them,
+especially his descriptions of the old abbeys and Gothic cathedrals,
+which seem to have delighted him more than the gardens at Blenheim and
+Eton, and to have brought to the surface a rare quality in his nature,
+or otherwise hidden in its depths,--his enthusiasm. Never before did
+words fail him until he attempted to describe the effect of a Gothic
+cathedral,--the time-honored mystery of its arches, the sober radiance
+of its stained windows, and the solemn aspiration of its lofty vault. As
+Schiller says, they are the monuments of a mighty civilization of which
+we know only too little.
+
+Hawthorne's object in writing these detailed accounts of his various
+expeditions becomes apparent from a passage in his Note-book, of the
+date of August 21, 1856, in which he says: "In my English romance,
+an American might bring a certain tradition from over the sea, and so
+discover the cross which had been long since forgotten." It may have
+been his intention from the first to write a romance based on English
+soil, but that soil was no longer productive of such intellectual fruit,
+except in the form in which Dickens dug it up, like peat, out of the
+lower classes. We find Francis Bennoch writing to Hawthorne after his
+return to America, [Footnote: Mrs. Lathrop, 310.] hoping to encourage
+him in this direction, but without apparent effect. Instead of a
+romance, he made a collection of essays from those portions of his diary
+which were most closely connected together, enlarging them and rounding
+them out, which he published after his return to America, in the volume
+we have often referred to as "Our Old Home." But as truthful studies
+of English life and manners Mrs. Hawthorne's letters, though not always
+sensible, are much more interesting than her husband's diary.
+
+When Doctor Johnson was inquired of by a lady why he defined "pastern"
+in his Dictionary as the knee of a horse, he replied, "Ignorance, madam,
+pure ignorance;" and if Hawthorne had been asked a year afterwards why
+he went to Scotland in the summer of 1857, instead of to the Rhine and
+Switzerland, he might have given a similar excuse. In this way he missed
+the grandest and some of the most beautiful scenery in Europe. He could
+not, however, have been ignorant of the attractions of Paris, and yet he
+lingered in England until the following January, and then went over to
+that metropolis of fashion at a most unseasonable time. He had, indeed,
+planned to leave England in October, [Footnote: English Note-book,
+December, 1857.] and does not explain why he remained longer. He made
+a last visit to London in November, where he became reconciled to his
+fellow-townsmen of Salem, in the person of Edward Silsbee, of whom he
+writes as "a man of great intelligence and true feeling, absolutely
+brimming over with ideas." Mr. Silsbee was an amateur art critic and
+connoisseur, who often made himself serviceable to American travellers
+in the way of a gentleman-cicerone. He went with the Hawthorne family to
+the Crystal Palace, where there were casts of all famous statues, models
+of architecture, and the like, and gave Hawthorne his first lesson in
+art criticism. Hawthorne indicated a preference for Michel Angelo's
+statue of Giuliano de Medici, called "Il Pensero;" also for the
+"Perseus" of Cellini, and the Gates of the Florentine Baptistery by
+Lorenzo Ghiberti. If we except the other statues of Michel Angelo, these
+are the most distinguished works in sculpture of the modern world.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+ITALY
+
+
+Hawthorne went to Italy as naturally as the salmon ascends the rivers in
+spring. His artistic instinct drew him thither as the original home of
+modern art and literature, and perhaps also his interest in the Latin
+language, the single study which he cared for in boyhood. Does not
+romance come originally from Roma,--as well as Romulus? He wished to
+stand where Caesar stood, to behold the snowy Soracte of Horace, and to
+read Virgil's description of an Italian night on Italian ground. It is
+noticeable that he cared little or nothing for the splendors of Paris,
+the glittering peaks of Switzerland, medical-musical Vienna, or the
+grand scholarship and homely sweetness of old Germany.
+
+Of all the Anglo-Saxon writers who have celebrated Italy, Byron,
+Shelley, Rogers, Ruskin and the two Brownings, none were more admirably
+equipped for it than Hawthorne. We cannot read "The Romance of
+Monte Beni" without recognizing a decidedly Italian element in his
+composition,--not the light-hearted, subtle, elastic, fiery Italian,
+such as we are accustomed to think them, but the tenderly feeling,
+terribly earnest Tuscan, like Dante and Savonarola. The myrtle and the
+cypress are both emblematic of Italian character, and there was more of
+the latter than the former, though something of either, in Hawthorne's
+own make-up.
+
+The Hawthornes left London on January 6, and, reaching Paris the
+following day, they made themselves comfortable at the Hotel du Louvre.
+However, they only remained there one week, during which it was so cold
+that they saw little and enjoyed little. They went to Notre Dame, the
+Louvre, the Madeleine, and the Champs Elysees, but without being greatly
+impressed by what they beheld. Hawthorne does not mention a single
+painting or statue among the art treasures of the Louvre, which if
+rivalled elsewhere are certainly unsurpassed; but Hawthorne began
+his studies in this line by an examination of the drawings of the
+old masters, and confesses that he was afterward too much fatigued to
+appreciate their finished paintings.
+
+On January 19 they reached Marseilles, and two days later they embarked
+on that dreary winter voyage, so pleasant at an earlier season, for
+Civita Vecchia; and on the 20th they rolled into the Eternal City, with
+such sensations as one may imagine. On the 24th they located themselves
+for the season in the Palazzo Larazani, Via Porta Pinciana. [Footnote.
+Italian Note-book.]
+
+_Nemo similis Homeri_.--There is nothing like the charm of a first visit
+to Rome. The first sight of the Forum, with its single pathetic column,
+brings us back to our school-days, to the study of Caesar and the reading
+of Plutarch; and the intervening period drops out of our lives, taking
+all our care and anxiety with it. In England, France, Germany, we feel
+the weight of the present, but in Rome the present is like a glass
+window through which we view the grand procession of past events. What
+_is_, becomes of less importance than what was, and for the first time
+we feel the true sense of our indebtedness to the ages that have gone
+before. We bathe deep in the spirit of classical antiquity, and we come
+out refreshed, enlarged and purified. We return to the actualities of
+to-day with a clearer understanding, and better prepared to act our part
+in them.
+
+Hawthorne did not feel this at first. He arrived in inclement weather,
+and it was some weeks before he became accustomed to the climatic
+conditions--so different from any northern atmosphere. He hated the
+filth of the much-neglected city, the squalor of its lower classes, the
+narrowness of its streets, and the peculiar pavement, which, as he says
+makes walking in Rome a penitential pilgrimage. He goes to the carnival,
+and his penetrating glance proves it to be a sham entertainment.
+
+But in due course he emerges from this mood; he rejoices in the
+atmospheric immensity of St. Peter's; he looks out from the Pincian
+hill, and sees _Nivea Soracte_ as Horace beheld it; and he is overawed
+(if Hawthorne could be) by the Forum of Trajan and the Column of
+Antoninus. He makes a great discovery, or rediscovery, that Phidias's
+colossal statues of Castor and Pollux on the Monte Cavallo are the
+finest figures in Rome. They are late Roman copies, but probably from
+Phidias,--not by Lysippus or Praxiteles; and he felt the presence of
+Michel Angelo in the Baths of Diocletian. It is not long before he goes
+to the Pincian in the afternoon to play at jack-stones with his youngest
+daughter.
+
+William W. Story, the American sculptor, would seem to have been a
+former acquaintance. His father, the famous law lecturer, lived in Salem
+during Hawthorne's youth, but afterward removed to Cambridge, where the
+younger Story was educated, and there married an intimate friend of Mrs.
+James Russell Lowell. This brought him into close relations with Lowell,
+Longfellow, and their most intimate friends. He was something of a
+poet, and more of a sculptor, but, inheriting an independent fortune
+and living in the Barberini Palace, he soon became more of an Englishman
+than an American, a tendency which was visibly increased by a patent of
+nobility bestowed on him by the King of Naples.
+
+Hawthorne soon renewed William Story's acquaintance, and found him
+modelling the statue of Cleopatra, of which Hawthorne has given a
+somewhat idealized description in "The Marble Faun." This may have
+interested him the more from the fact that he witnessed its development
+under the sculptor's hands, and saw that distinguished historical person
+emerge as it were out of the clay, like a second Eve; but he makes
+a mental reservation that it would be better if English and American
+sculptors would make a freer use of their chisels--of which more
+hereafter. Story was a light-hearted, discursive person, with a large
+amount of bric-a-brac information, who could appreciate Hawthorne
+either as a genius or as a celebrity. He soon became Hawthorne's chief
+companion and social mainstay in Rome, literally a _vade mecum_, and we
+may believe that he exercised more or less influence over Hawthorne's
+judgment in matters of art.
+
+Hawthorne listened to Story, and read Mrs. Jameson, although Edward
+Silsbee had warned him against her as an uncertain authority; but
+Hawthorne depended chiefly on his own investigations. He and his wife
+declined an invitation to Mrs. Story's masquerade, and lived very
+quietly during this first winter in Rome, making few acquaintances, but
+seeing a good deal of the city. They went together to all the principal
+churches and the princely galleries; and beside this Hawthorne traversed
+Rome from one end to the other, and across in every direction, sometimes
+alone, or in company with Julian, investigating everything from the
+Mamartine prison, in which Jugurtha was starved, to the catacombs of St.
+Calixtus and the buffaloes on the Campagna. The impression which Conway
+gives, that he went about sight-seeing and drinking sour wine with Story
+and Lothrop Motley, is not quite correct, for Motley did not come to
+Rome until the following December, and then only met Hawthorne a few
+times, according to his own confession. [Footnote: Mrs. Lathrop, 406.]
+We must not forget, however, that excellent lady and skilful astronomer,
+Miss Maria Mitchell, who joined the Hawthorne party in Paris, and became
+an indispensable accompaniment to them the rest of the winter.
+
+Hawthorne also became acquainted with Buchanan Read, who afterward
+painted that stirring picture of General Sheridan galloping to the
+battle of Cedar Run; and on March 12 Mr. Read gave a party, at his Roman
+dwelling, of painters and sculptors, which Hawthorne attended, and has
+entered in full, with the moonlight excursion afterward, in "The
+Marble Faun." There Hawthorne met Gibson, to whom he refers as the most
+distinguished sculptor of the time. So he was, in England, but
+there were much better sculptors in France and in Germany. Gibson's
+personality interested Hawthorne, as it well might, but he saw clearly
+that Gibson was merely a skilful imitator of the antique, or, as he
+calls him, a pagan idealist. He also made acquaintance with two American
+sculptors, a Yankee and a girlish young woman, whose names are prudently
+withheld; for he afterward visited their studios, and readily discovered
+that they had no real talent for their profession.
+
+If we feel inclined to quarrel with Hawthorne anywhere, it is in his
+disparagement of Crawford. There might be two opinions in regard to the
+slavery question, but there never has been but one as to the greatest of
+American artists. It was a pity that his friend Hillard could not have
+been with Hawthorne at this time to counteract the jealous influences to
+which he was exposed. He writes no word of regret at the untimely death
+of Crawford, but goes into his studio after that sad event and condemns
+his work. Only the _genre_ figure of a boy playing marbles, gives him
+any satisfaction there; although a plea of extenuation might be entered
+in Hawthorne's favor, for statues of heroic size could not be seen to
+greater disadvantage than when packed together in a studio. The immense
+buttons on the waistcoats of our revolutionary heroes seem to have
+startled him on his first entrance, and this may be accepted as an
+indication of the rest. Yet the tone of his criticism, both in the
+"Note-book" and in "The Marble Faun," is far from friendly to Crawford.
+He does not refer to the statue of Beethoven, which was Crawford's
+masterpiece, nor to the statue of Liberty, which now poses on the
+lantern of the Capitol at Washington,--much too beautiful, as Hartmann
+says, for its elevated position, and superior in every respect to the
+French statue of Liberty in New York harbor.
+
+Hawthorne had already come to the conclusion that there was a certain
+degree of poison in the Roman atmosphere, and in April he found the
+climate decidedly languid, but he had fallen in love with this pagan
+capital and he hated to leave it. Mrs. Anna Jameson arrived late in
+April; a sturdy, warm-hearted Englishwoman greatly devoted to art,
+for which her books served as elementary treatises and pioneers to
+the English and Americans of those days. She was so anxious to meet
+Hawthorne that she persuaded William Story to bring him and his wife
+to her lodgings when she was too ill to go forth. They had read each
+other's writings and could compliment each other in all sincerity, for
+Mrs. Jameson had also an excellent narrative style; but Hawthorne found
+her rather didactic, and although she professed to be able "to read a
+picture like a book," her conversation was by no means brilliant. She
+had contracted an unhappy marriage early in life, and found an escape
+from her sorrows and regrets in this elevated interest.
+
+It was just before leaving Rome that Hawthorne conceived the idea of a
+romance in which the "Faun" of Praxiteles should come to life, and play
+a characteristic part in the modern world; the catastrophe naturally
+resulting from his coming into conflict with a social organization for
+which he was unfitted. This portion of Hawthorne's diary is intensely
+interesting to those who have walked on classic ground.
+
+On May 24 Hawthorne commenced his journey to Florence with a _vetturino_
+by easy stages, and one can cordially envy him this portion of his
+Italian sojourn; with his devoted wife and three happy children;
+travelling through some of the most beautiful scenery in the
+world,--nearly if not quite equal to the Rhineland--without even the
+smallest cloud of care and anxiety upon his sky, his mind stored with
+mighty memories, and looking forward with equal expectations to the
+prospect before him,--_bella Firenze_, the treasure-house of Italian
+cities; through sunny valleys, with their streams and hill-sides winding
+seaward; up the precipitous spurs of the Apennines, with their old
+baronial castles perched like vultures' nests on inaccessible crags;
+passing through gloomy, tortuous defiles, guarded by Roman strongholds;
+and then drawn up by white bullocks over Monte Somma, and to the
+mountain cities of Assisi and Perugia, older than Rome itself; by Lake
+Trasimenus, still ominous of the name of Hannibal; over hill-sides
+silver-gray with olive orchards; always a fresh view and a new panorama,
+bounded by the purple peaks on the horizon; and over all, the tender
+blue of the Italian sky. Hawthorne may have felt that his whole
+previous life, all he had struggled, lived and suffered for, was but a
+preparation for this one week of perfectly harmonious existence. Such
+vacations from earthly troubles come but rarely in the most fortunate
+lives, and are never of long duration.
+
+When they reached Florence, they found it, as Rose Hawthorne says,
+very hot--much too hot to enjoy the city as it should be enjoyed. Her
+reminiscences of their life at Florence, and especially of the Villa
+Manteueto, have a charming freshness and virginal simplicity, although
+written in a somewhat high-flown manner. She succeeds, in spite of her
+peculiar style, in giving a distinct impression of the old chateau, its
+surroundings, the life her family led there, and of the wonderful view
+from Bellosguardo. One feels that beneath the disguise of a fashionable
+dress there is an innocent, sympathetic, and pure-spirited nature.
+
+The Hawthornes arrived in Florence on the afternoon of June 3, and spent
+the first night at the Albergo della Fontano, and the next day obtained
+apartments in the Casa del Bello, opposite Hiram Powers' studio,
+and just outside of the Porta Romana. Hawthorne made Mr. Powers'
+acquaintance even before he entered the city, and Powers soon became
+to him what Story had been in Rome. The Brownings were already at Casa
+Guidi,--still noted in the annals of English poesy,--and called upon the
+Hawthornes at the first notice of their arrival. Alacrity or
+readiness would seem to have been one of Robert Browning's prominent
+characteristics. Elizabeth Browning's mind was as much occupied with
+spiritism as when Hawthorne met her two years previously at Monckton
+Milnes's breakfast; an unfortunate proclivity for a person of frail
+physique and delicate nerves. Neither did she live very long after this.
+Her husband and Hawthorne both cordially disapproved of these mesmeric
+practices; but Mrs. Browning could not be prevented from talking on the
+subject, and this evidently produced an ecstatic and febrile condition
+of mind in her, very wearing to a poetic temperament. Hawthorne heartily
+liked Browning himself, and always speaks well of him; but there must
+also have been an undercurrent of disagreement between him and so ardent
+an admirer of Louis Napoleon, and he recalls little or nothing of what
+Browning said to him. This continued till the last of June, when Robert
+and Elizabeth left Florence for cooler regions.
+
+Meanwhile Hawthorne occupied himself seriously with seeing Florence and
+studying art, like a man who intends to get at the root of the matter.
+Florence afforded better advantages than Rome for the study of art,
+not only from the superiority of its collections, but because there the
+development of mediaeval art can be traced to its fountain-source. He
+had no textbooks to guide him,--at least he does not refer to any,--and
+his investigations were consequently of rather an irregular kind, but it
+was evidently the subject which interested him most deeply at this time.
+His Note-book is full of it, and also of discussions on sculpture
+with Hiram Powers, in which Hawthorne has frequently the best of the
+argument.
+
+In fact Powers looked upon his art from much too literal a stand-point.
+He agreed with Hawthorne as to the fine expression of the face of Michel
+Angelo's "Giuliano de Medici," [Footnote: As Hawthorne did not prepare
+his diary for publication, it would not be fair to hold him responsible
+for the many instances of bad Italian in the Note-book, which ought to
+have been edited by some one who knew the language.] but affirmed that
+it was owing to a trick of overshadowing the face by the projecting
+visor of Giuliano's helmet. Hawthorne did not see why such a device did
+not come within the range of legitimate art, the truth of the matter
+being that Michel Angelo left the face unfinished; but the expression of
+the statue is not in its face, but in the inclination of the head, the
+position of the arms, the heavy droop of the armor, and in fact in the
+whole figure. Powers' "Greek Slave," on the contrary, though finely
+modelled and sufficiently modern in type, has no definite expression
+whatever.
+
+Hawthorne found an exceptional interest in the "Venus de Medici," now
+supposed to have been the work of one of the sons of Praxiteles, and
+its wonderful symmetry gives it a radiance like that of the sun behind a
+summer cloud; but Powers cooled down his enthusiasm by objecting to the
+position of the ears, the vacancy of the face, the misrepresentation
+of the inner surface of the lips, and by condemning particularly the
+structure of the eyes, which he declared were such as no human being
+could see with. [Footnote: Italian Note-book, June 13, 1858.] Hawthorne
+was somewhat puzzled by these subtleties of criticism, which he did not
+know very well how to answer, but he still held fast to the opinion that
+he was fundamentally right, and retaliated by criticising Powers' own
+statues in his diary.
+
+The Greeks, in the best period of their favorite art, never attempted
+a literal reproduction of the human figure. Certain features, like the
+nostrils, were merely indicated; others, like the eyelashes, often so
+expressive in woman, were omitted altogether; hair and drapery were
+treated in a schematic manner. In order to give an expression to the
+eyes, various devices were resorted to. The eyelids of the bust of
+Pericles on the Acropolis had bevelled edges, and the eyeballs of the
+"Apollo Belvedere" are exceptionally convex, to produce the effect
+of looking to a distance, although the human eye when gazing afar off
+becomes slightly contracted. The head of the "Venus de Medici" is finely
+shaped, but small, and her features are pretty, rather than beautiful;
+but her eyes are exceptional among all feminine statues for their
+tenderness of expression--swimming, as it were, with love; and it is
+the manner in which this effect is produced that Powers mistook for bad
+sculpture. Hiram Powers' most exceptional proposition was to the effect
+that the busts of the Roman emperors were not characteristic portraits.
+Hawthorne strongly dissented from this; and he was in the right, for
+if the character of a man can be read from marble, it is from those old
+blocks. Hawthorne has some admirable remarks on this point.
+
+Such was Hawthorne's internal life during his first month at Florence.
+He was full of admiration for the cathedral, the equestrian statue of
+Cosmo de Medici, the "David" of Michel Angelo, the Loggia de Lanzi,
+Raphael's portrait of Julius II., the "Fates" of Michel Angelo, and many
+others; yet he confesses that the Dutch, French, and English paintings
+gave him a more simple, natural pleasure,--probably because their
+subjects came closer to his own experience.
+
+A strange figure of an old man, with "a Palmer-like beard," continually
+crossed Hawthorne's path, both in Rome and in Florence, where he dines
+with him at the Brownings'. His name is withheld, but Hawthorne informs
+us that he is an American editor, a poet; that he voted for Buchanan,
+and was rejoicing in the defeat of the Free-soilers,--"a man to whom
+the world lacks substance because he has not sufficiently cultivated his
+emotional nature;" and "his personal intercourse, though kindly, does
+not stir one's blood in the least." Yet Hawthorne finds him to be
+good-hearted, intelligent, and sensible. This can be no other than
+William Cullen Bryant. [Footnote: Italian Note-book, ii. 15.]
+
+In the evening of June 27 the Hawthornes went to call on a Miss Blagden,
+who occupied a villa on Bellosguardo, and where they met the Brownings,
+and a Mr. Trollope, a brother of the novelist. It could not have been
+the Villa Manteueto, which Miss Blagden rented, for we hear of her at
+Bellosguardo again in August, when Hawthorne was living there himself;
+and after this we do not hear of the Brownings again.
+
+Hawthorne's remark on Browning's poetry is one of the rare instances in
+which he criticises a contemporary author:
+
+"I am rather surprised that Browning's conversation should be so clear,
+and so much to the purpose at the moment, since his poetry can seldom
+proceed far, without running into the high grass of latent meanings and
+obscure allusions."
+
+It is precisely this which has prevented Browning from achieving the
+reputation that his genius deserves. We wish that Hawthorne could have
+favored us with as much literary criticism as he has given us of
+art criticism, and we almost lose patience with him for his
+repeated canonization of General Jackson--St. Hickory--united with a
+disparagement of Washington and Sumner; but although Hawthorne's insight
+into human nature was wonderful in its way, it would seem to have been
+confined within narrow boundaries. At least he seems to have possessed
+little insight into grand characters and magnanimous natures. He wishes
+now that Raphael could have painted Jackson's portrait. So, conversely,
+Shakespeare belittles Caesar in order to suit the purpose of his play.
+Which of Shakespeare's male characters can be measured beside George
+Washington? There is not one of them, unless Kent in "King Lear."
+Strong, resolute natures, like Washington, Hamilton, Sumner, are not
+adapted to dramatic fiction, either in prose or in verse.
+
+A Florentine summer is about equal to one in South Carolina, and
+now, when Switzerland can be reached by rail in twenty-four hours, no
+American or Englishman thinks of spending July and August there; but in
+Hawthorne's time it was a long and expensive journey over the Pennine
+Alps; Hawthorne's physique was as well attempered to heat as to cold;
+and he continued to frequent the picture-galleries and museums after all
+others had ceased to do so; although he complains in his diary that he
+had never known it so hot before, and that the flagstones in the street
+reflect the sun's rays upon him like the open doors of a furnace.
+
+At length, in an entry of July 27, he says:
+
+"I seldom go out nowadays, having already seen Florence tolerably
+well, and the streets being very hot, and myself having been engaged in
+sketching out a romance, [Footnote: "The Marble Faun."] which whether it
+will ever come to anything is a point yet to be decided. At any rate, it
+leaves me little heart for journalizing, and describing new things; and
+six months of uninterrupted monotony would be more valuable to me just
+now, than the most brilliant succession of novelties."
+
+This is the second instance in which we hear of a romance based on the
+"Faun" of Praxiteles, and now at last he appears to be in earnest.
+
+It may be suspected that his entertaining friend, Hiram Powers, was the
+chief obstacle to the progress of his new plot, and it is rather amusing
+to believe that it was through the agency of Mr. Powers, who cared
+for nothing so much as Hawthorne's welfare, that this impediment was
+removed. Five days later, Hawthorne and his household gods, which were
+chiefly his wife and children, left the Casa del Bello for the Villa
+Manteueto where they remained in peaceful retirement until the first of
+October.
+
+On the tower of the Villa he could enjoy whatever enlivening breezes
+came across to Florence from the mountains to the north and east. When
+the _tramontana_ blew, he was comfortable enough. Thunder-storms also
+came frequently, with the roar of heaven's artillery reverberating from
+peak to peak, and enveloping Bellosguardo in a dense vapor, like the
+smoke from Napoleon's cannon; after which they would career down the
+valley of the Arno to Pisa, flashing and cannonading like a victorious
+army in pursuit of the enemy.
+
+The beauty of the summer nights at Florence amply compensates for the
+sultriness of the days,--especially if they be moonlight nights,--and
+the bright starlight of the Mediterranean is little less beautiful.
+Travellers who only see Italy in winter, know not what they miss.
+Hawthorne noticed that the Italian sky had a softer blue than that of
+England and America, and that there was a peculiar luminous quality in
+the atmosphere, as well as a more decided difference between sunshine
+and shadow, than in countries north of the Alps. The atmosphere
+of Italy, Spain, and Greece is not like any American air that I am
+acquainted with. During the summer season, all Italians whose occupation
+will permit them, sleep at noon,--the laborers in the shadows of the
+walls,--and sit up late at night, enjoying the fine air and the pleasant
+conversation which it inspires. Hawthorne found the atmosphere of
+Tuscany favorable for literary work, even in August.
+
+On the 4th of that month he looked out from his castle wall late at
+night and noticed the brilliancy of the stars,--also that the Great
+Dipper exactly overhung the valley of the Arno. At that same hour the
+astronomer Donati was sweeping the heavens with his telescope at the
+Florentine observatory, and it may have been ten days later that he
+discovered in the handle of the Dipper the great comet which will
+always bear his name,--the most magnificent comet of modern times, only
+excepting that of 1680, which could be seen at noonday. It first became
+visible to the naked eye during the last week of August, as a small star
+with a smaller tail, near the second star from the end of the handle of
+the Dipper; after which it grew apace until it extended nearly from the
+horizon to the zenith, with a tail millions of miles in length. This,
+however, did not take place until near the time of Hawthorne's departure
+from Florence. In his case it proved sorrowfully enough a harbinger of
+calamity.
+
+Hawthorne blocked out his sketch of "The Romance of Monte Beni" in a
+single month, and then returned to the churches and picture-galleries.
+He could not expect to revisit Italy in this life, and prudently
+concluded to make the most of it while the opportunity lasted. He
+notices the peculiar fatigue which sight-seeing causes in deep natures,
+and becomes unspeakably weary of it, yet returns to it again next day
+with an interest as fresh as before.
+
+Neither did he lack for society. William Story came over to see him from
+Siena, where he was spending the summer, exactly as Hawthorne describes
+the visit of Kenyon to Donatello in his romance. Mr. and Mrs. Powers
+came frequently up the hill in the cool of the evening, and Miss Blagden
+also proved an excellent neighbor. Early in September the "spirits"
+appeared again in great force. Mrs. Hawthorne discovered a medium in her
+English governess; table-rappings and table-tippings were the order of
+the evening; and some rather surprising results were obtained through
+Miss Shepard's fingers. [Footnote: J. Hawthorne, i. 31.] Powers related
+a still more surprising performance [Footnote: Italian Note-book.]
+that he had witnessed, which was conducted by D. D. Home, an American
+mountebank, who hoaxed more crowned heads, princes, princesses, and
+especially English duchesses than Cagliostro himself. Hawthorne felt the
+repugnance of the true artist to this uncanny business, and his thorough
+detestation of the subject commends itself to every sensible reader.
+He came to the conclusion that the supposed revelations of spirits
+were nothing more than the mental vagaries of persons in the same
+room, conveyed in some occult manner to the brain of the medium. The
+governess, Miss Shepard, agreed with him in this, but she could give no
+explanation as to the manner in which the response came to her. Twenty
+years of scientific investigations have added little or nothing to this
+diagnosis of Hawthorne's, nor are we any nearer to an explanation of the
+simple fact; which is wonderful enough in its way. Hawthorne compares
+the revelations of mediums to dreams, but they are not exactly like
+them, for they are at the same time more rational and less original or
+spontaneous than dreams. In my dreams my old friends often come back
+to me and speak in their characteristic manner,--more characteristic
+perhaps than I could represent them when awake,--but the responses
+of mediums are either evasive or too highly generalized to be of any
+particular value. The story of Mary Runnel, or Rondel, which Julian
+Hawthorne narrates, is an excellent case in point. Hawthorne had
+probably heard of that flirtation of his grandfather some time in his
+youth, and the fact was unconsciously latent in his mind; but nothing
+that Mary divulged at Bellosguardo was of real interest to him or to
+the others concerned. The practice of spiritism, hypnotism, or Christian
+Science opens a wide door for superstition and imposture to walk in and
+seat themselves by our firesides.
+
+About a year before this, Congress had given Hiram Powers a commission
+to model a colossal statue of _America_ for the Capitol at
+Washington. This he had done, and the committee in charge accepted
+his design,--Hawthorne also writes admiringly of it,--but it was also
+necessary to receive the approval of the President, and this Buchanan
+with his peculiar obstinacy refused to give. Powers was left without
+compensation for a whole year of arduous labor, and Hawthorne for once
+was thoroughly indignant. He wrote in his diary:
+
+"I wish our great Republic had the spirit to do as much, according to
+its vast means, as Florence did for sculpture and architecture when it
+was a republic.... And yet the less we attempt to do for art the better,
+if our future attempts are to have no better result than such brazen
+troopers as the equestrian statue of General Jackson, or even such naked
+respectabilities as Greeneough's Washington."
+
+Perhaps Powers' "America" was a fortunate escape, and yet it does not
+seem right that any enlightened government should set such a pitfall
+for honest men to stumble into. There certainly ought to be some
+compensation in such cases. The experience of history hitherto has been
+that, whereas painting and literature have nourished under all forms
+of government, sculpture has only attained its highest excellence in
+republics like Athens, Rhodes, Florence, and Nuremberg; so that upon
+this line of argument there is good hope for America in the future.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+HAWTHORNE AS ART CRITIC: 1858
+
+
+Nearly one-third of the Italian Note-book is devoted to the criticisms
+or descriptions of paintings, statues, and architecture, for which we
+can be only too thankful as coming from such a bright, penetrating, and
+ingenious intelligence. It is much in their favor that Hawthorne had not
+previously undertaken a course of instruction in art; that he wrote for
+his own benefit, and not for publication; and that he was not biased
+by preconceived opinions. It cannot be doubted that he was sometimes
+influenced by the opinions of Story, Powers, and other artists with
+whom he came in contact; but this could have happened only in particular
+cases, and more especially in respect to modern works of art. When
+Hawthorne visited the galleries he usually went alone, or only
+accompanied by his wife.
+
+The only opportunities for the study of aesthetics or art criticism,
+fifty years ago, were to be found in German universities. Kugler's
+handbook of painting was the chief authority in use, rather academic,
+but correct enough in a general way. Ruskin, a more eloquent and
+discriminating writer, had devoted himself chiefly to celebrating the
+merits of Turner and Tintoretto, but was never quite just to Florentine
+art. Mrs. Jameson followed closely after Kugler, and was the only one of
+these that Hawthorne appears to have consulted. Winckelmann's history
+of Greek sculpture, which was not a history in the proper sense of the
+word, had been translated by Lodge, but Hawthorne does not mention it,
+and it would not have been much assistance to him if he had read it.
+Like Winckelmann and Lessing, however, he admired the "Laocooen,"--an
+admiration now somewhat out of fashion.
+
+There can be no final authority in art, for the most experienced critics
+still continue to differ in their estimates of the same painting or
+statue. More than this, it is safe to affirm that any one writer who
+makes a statement concerning a certain work of art at a given time,
+would have made a somewhat different statement at another time. In fact,
+this not unfrequently happens in actual practice; for all that any of
+us can do is, to reproduce the impression made on us at the moment, and
+this depends as much on our own state of mind, and on our peculiarities,
+as on the peculiarities of the picture or statue that we criticise.
+It is the same in art itself. If Raphael had not painted the "Sistine
+Madonna" at the time he did, he would have produced a different work. It
+was the concentration of that particular occasion, and if any accident
+had happened to prevent it, that pious and beautiful vision would have
+been lost to the world.
+
+It requires years of study and observation of the best masters to become
+a trustworthy art critic, and then everything depends of course upon the
+genius of the individual. It has happened more than once that a wealthy
+American, with a certain kind of enthusiasm for art, has prepared
+himself at a German university, has studied the science of
+connoisseurship, and has become associate member of a number of foreign
+societies, only to discover at length that he had no talent for the
+profession. Hawthorne enjoyed no such advantages, nor did he even think
+of becoming a connoisseur. His whole experience in the art of design
+might be included within twelve months, and his original basis was
+nothing better than his wife's water-color painting and the mediocre
+pictures in the Boston Athenaeum; but he brought to his subject an
+eye that was trained to the closest observation of Nature and a mind
+experienced beyond all others [Footnote: At least at that time.] in the
+mysteries of human life. He begins tentatively, and as might be expected
+makes a number of errors, but quite as often he hits the nail, where
+others have missed it. He learns by his mistakes, and steadily improves
+in critical faculty. Hawthorne's Italian Note-book is a unique record,
+in which the development of a highly organized mind has advanced from
+small beginnings to exceptional skill in a fresh department of activity.
+
+Hawthorne brought with him to Italy the Yankee preference for newness
+and nicety, which our forefathers themselves derived from their
+residence in Holland, and there is no city in Europe where this
+sentiment could have troubled him so much as in Rome. He disliked the
+dingy picture-frames, the uncleanly canvases, the earth-stains and
+broken noses of the antique statues, the smoked-up walls of the Sistine
+Chapel, and the cracks in Raphael's frescos. He condemns everything as
+rubbish which has not an external perfection; forgetting that, as in
+human nature, the most precious treasures are sometimes allied with
+an ungainly exterior. Yet in this he only echoes the impressions
+of thousands of others who have gone to the Vatican and returned
+disconsolate, because amid a perplexing multitude of objects they knew
+not where to look for consummate art. One can imagine if an experienced
+friend had accompanied Hawthorne to the Raphael stanza, and had pointed
+out the figures of the Pope, the cardinal, and the angelic boys in the
+"Mass at Bolsena," he would have admired them without limitation. He
+quickly discovered Raphael's "Transfiguration," and considered it the
+greatest painting that the world contains.
+
+The paintings in the princely collections in Rome are, with the
+exception of those in the Borghese gallery, far removed from princely. A
+large proportion of their best paintings had long since been sold to the
+royal collections of northern Europe, and had been replaced either by
+copies or by works of inferior masters. In the Barberini palace there
+are not more than three or four paintings such as might reasonably
+detain a traveller, and it is about the same in the Ludovisi gallery.
+There was not a grain of affectation in Hawthorne; he never pretended
+to admire what he did not like, nor did he strain himself into liking
+anything that his inner nature rebelled against.
+
+Hawthorne's taste in art was much in advance of his time. His quick
+appreciation of the colossal statues of Castor and Pollux on the
+Quirinal is the best proof of this. Ten years later it was the fashion
+in Rome to deride those statues, as a late work of the empire and
+greatly lacking in artistic style. Brunn, in his history of ancient
+sculpture, attributes them to the school of Lysippus, a contemporary of
+Alexander, which Brunn certainly would not have done if he had possessed
+a good eye for form. Vasari, on the contrary, a surer critic, considered
+them worthy to be placed beside Michel Angelo's "David"; but it remained
+for Furtwaengler to restore them to their true position as a work of the
+Periclean age, although copied by Italian sculptors. They must have been
+the product of a single mind, [Footnote: On the base of one is _Opus
+Phidiae_, and on that of the other, _Opus Praxitelis._] either Phidias,
+Alcameres, or the elder Praxiteles--if there ever was such a person; and
+they have the finest figures of any statues in Rome (much finer than the
+dandified "Apollo Belvedere") and also the most spirited action.
+
+Hawthorne went to the Villa Ludovisi to see the much-vaunted bas-relief
+of Antinous, which fifty years ago was considered one of the art
+treasures of the city; but a more refined taste has since discovered
+that in spite of the rare technical skill, its hard glassy finish
+gives it a cold and conventional effect. Hawthorne returned from it
+disappointed, and wrote in his diary:
+
+"This Antinous is said to be the finest relic of antiquity next to the
+Apollo and the Laocooen; but I could not feel it to be so, partly, I
+suppose, because the features of Antinous do not seem to me beautiful
+in themselves; and that heavy, downward look is repeated till I am more
+weary of it than of anything else in sculpture."
+
+The Greek artist of Adrian's time attempted to give the face a pensive
+expression, but only succeeded in this heavy downward look.
+
+Hawthorne felt the same disappointment after his first visit to the
+sculpture-gallery of the Vatican. "I must confess," he wrote, "taking
+such transient glimpses as I did, I was more impressed with the extent
+of the Vatican, and the beautiful order in which it is kept and its
+great sunny, open courts, with fountains, grass, and shrubs ... than
+with the statuary." The Vatican collection has great archaeological
+value, but, with the exception of the "Laocooen," the "Meleager," the
+"Apollo," and a few others, little or no artistic value. The vast
+majority of the statues there are either late Roman works or cheap Roman
+copies of second-rate Hellenic statues. Some of them are positively
+bad and others are archaic, and Hawthorne was fully justified in his
+disatisfaction with them. He noticed, however, a decided difference
+between the original "Apollo" and the casts of it with which he was
+familiar. On a subsequent visit he fails to observe the numerous faults
+in Canova's "Perseus," and afterwards writes this original statement
+concerning the "Laocooen":
+
+"I felt the Laocooen very powerfully, though very quietly; an immortal
+agony with a strange calmness diffused through it, so that it resembles
+the vast age of the sea, calm on account of its immensity; as the tumult
+of Niagara, which does not seem to be tumult, because it keeps pouring
+on forever and ever."
+
+Professor E. A. Gardner and the more fastidious school of critics have
+recently decided that the action of the "Laocooen" is too violent to
+be contained within the proper boundaries of sculpture; but Hawthorne
+controverts this view in a single sentence. The action is violent, it
+is true, but the _impression_ which the statue makes on him is not a
+violent one; for the greatness of the art sublimates the motive. It is
+a tragedy in marble, and Pliny, who had seen the works of Phidias and
+Praxiteles, placed Agesander's "Laocooen" above them all. This, however,
+is a Roman view. What Hawthorne wrote in his diary should not always
+be taken literally. When he declares that he would like to have every
+artist that perpetrates an allegory put to death, he merely expresses
+the puzzling effects which such compositions frequently exercise on
+the weary-minded traveller; and when he wishes that all the frescos
+on Italian walls could be obliterated, he only repeats a sentiment of
+similar strain. Perhaps we should class in the same category Hawthorne's
+remark concerning the Elgin marbles in the British Museum, that "it
+would be well if they were converted into paving-stones." There are
+no grander monuments of ancient art than those battered and headless
+statues from the pediment of the Parthenon (the figures of the so-called
+"Three Fates" surpass the "Venus of Melos"), and archaeologists
+are still in dispute as to what they may have represented; but the
+significance of the subject before him was always the point in which
+Hawthorne was interested. Julian Hawthorne says of his father, in regard
+to a similar instance:
+
+"Of technicalities,--difficulties overcome, harmony of lines, and so
+forth,--he had no explicit knowledge; they produced their effect upon
+him of course, but without his recognizing the manner of it. All that
+concerned him was the sentiment which the artist had meant to express;
+the means and method were comparatively unimportant." [Footnote: J.
+Hawthorne, ii. 193.]
+
+The technicalities of art differ with every clime and every generation.
+They belong chiefly to the connoisseur, and have their value, but the
+less a critic thinks of them in making a general estimate of a painting
+or statue, the more likely he is to render an impartial judgment.
+Hawthorne's analysis of Praxiteles's "Faun," in his "Romance of Monte
+Beni," being a subject in which he was particularly interested, is
+almost without a rival in the literature of its kind; and this is
+the more remarkable since the copy of the "Faun" in the museum of the
+Capitol is not one of the best, at least it is inferior to the one in
+the Glyptothek at Munich. It seems as if Hawthorne had penetrated to the
+first conception of it in the mind of Praxiteles.
+
+The Sistine Chapel, like the Italian scenery, only unfolds its beauties
+on a bright day, and Hawthorne happened to go there when the sky was
+full of drifting clouds, a time when it is difficult to see any object
+as it really is. It may have been on this account that he entirely
+mistook the action of the Saviour in Michel Angelo's "Last Judgment."
+Christ has raised his arm above his head in order to display the mark
+where he was nailed to the cross, and Hawthorne presumed this, as many
+others have done, to be an angry threatening gesture of condemnation,
+which would not accord with his merciful spirit. He appreciated the
+symmetrical figure of Adam, and the majestic forms of the prophets
+and sibyls encircling the ceiling, and if he had seen the face of the
+Saviour in a fair light, he might have recognized that such divine
+calmness of expression could not coexist with a vindictive motive. This,
+however, can be seen to better advantage in a Braun photograph than in
+the painting itself.
+
+Hawthorne goes to the Church of San Pietro in Vincolo to see Michel
+Angelo's "Moses," but he does not moralize before it, like a certain
+Concord artist, on "the weakness of exaggeration;" nor does he consider,
+like Ruskin, that its conventional horns are a serious detriment. On the
+contrary he finds it "grand and sublime, with a beard flowing down
+like a cataract; a truly majestic figure, but not so benign as it
+were desirable that such strength should hold." An Englishman present
+remarked that the "Moses" had very fine features,--"a compliment,"
+says Hawthorne, "for which the colossal Hebrew ought to have made the
+Englishman a bow."
+
+[Footnote: Italian Note-book, p. 164.]
+
+Perhaps the Englishman really meant that the face had a noble
+expression. The somewhat satyr-like features of the "Moses" would seem
+to have been unconsciously adopted, together with the horns, from a
+statue of the god Pan, which thus serves as an intermediate link between
+the "Moses" and the "Faun" of Praxiteles; but he who cannot appreciate
+Michel Angelo's "Moses" in spite of this, knows nothing of the Alpine
+heights of human nature.
+
+Of all the paintings that Hawthorne saw in Rome none impressed him so
+deeply as Guido's portrait of Beatrice Cenci, and none more justly.
+If the "Laocooen" is the type of an old Greek tragedy, a strong man
+strangled in the coils of Fate, the portrait of Beatrice represents the
+tragedy of mediaeval Italy, a beautiful woman crushed by the downfall of
+a splendid civilization. The fate of Joan of Arc or of Madame Roland was
+merciful compared to that of poor Beatrice. Religion is no consolation
+to her, for it is the Pope himself who signs her death-warrant. She
+is massacred to gratify the avarice of the Holy See. Yet in this last
+evening of her tragical life, she does find strength and consolation in
+her dignity as a woman. Never was art consecrated to a higher purpose;
+Guido rose above himself; and, as Hawthorne says, it seems as if mortal
+man could not have wrought such an effect. It has always been the most
+popular painting in Rome, but Hawthorne was the first to celebrate its
+unique superiority in writing, and his discourse upon it in various
+places leaves little for those that follow.
+
+It may have been long since discovered that Hawthorne's single weakness
+was a weakness for his friends; certainly an amiable weakness, but
+nevertheless that is the proper name for it. When Phocion was Archon of
+Athens, he said that a chief magistrate should know no friends; and the
+same should be true of an authoritative writer. Hawthorne has not gone
+so far in this direction as many others have who had less reason to
+speak with authority than he; but he has indicated his partiality for
+Franklin Pierce plainly enough, and his over-praise of Hiram Powers and
+William Story, as well as his under-praise of Crawford, will go down to
+future generations as something of an injustice to those three artists.
+
+[Illustration: GUIDO RENI'S PORTRAIT OF BEATRICE CENCI, PAINTED WHILE
+SHE WAS IN PRISON, WHICH SUGGESTED TO HAWTHORNE THE PLOT OF "THE MARBLE
+FAUN"]
+
+It is not necessary to repeat here what Hawthorne wrote concerning
+Powers' Webster. The statue stands in front of the State House at
+Boston, and serves as a good likeness of the famous orator, but more
+than that one cannot say for it. The face has no definable expression,
+and those who have looked for a central motive in the figure will be
+pleased to learn what it is by reading Hawthorne's description of it, as
+he saw it in Powers' studio at Florence. A sculptor of the present day
+can find no better study for his art than the attitudes and changes of
+countenance in an eloquent speaker; but which of them can be said to
+have taken advantage of this? Story made an attempt in his statue of
+Everett, but even his most indulgent friends did not consider it a
+success. His "George Peabody," opposite the Bank of England, could not
+perhaps have been altogether different from what it is.
+
+What chiefly interested Story in his profession seems to have been the
+modelling of unhappy women in various attitudes of reflection. He made a
+number of these, of which his "Cleopatra" is the only one known to
+fame, and in the expression of her face he has certainly achieved a high
+degree of excellence. Neither has Hawthorne valued it too highly,--the
+expression of worldly splendor incarnated in a beautiful woman on
+the tragical verge of an abyss. If she only were beautiful! Here the
+limitations of the statue commence. Hawthorne says, "The sculptor had
+not shunned to give the full, Nubian lips and other characteristics of
+the Egyptian physiognomy."
+
+Here he follows the sculptor himself, and it is remarkable that a
+college graduate like William Story should have made so transparent
+a mistake. Cleopatra was not an Egyptian at all. The Ptolemies were
+Greeks, and it is simply impossible to believe that they would have
+allied themselves with a subject and alien race. This kind of small
+pedantry has often led artists astray, and was peculiarly virulent
+during the middle of the past century. The whole figure of Story's
+"Cleopatra" suffers from it. Hawthorne says again, "She was draped from
+head to foot in a costume minutely and scrupulously studied from that of
+ancient Egypt." In fact, the body and limbs of the statue are so closely
+shrouded as to deprive the work of that sense of freedom of action
+and royal abandon which greets us in Shakespeare's and Plutarch's
+"Cleopatra." Story might have taken a lesson from Titian's matchless
+"Cleopatra" in the Cassel gallery, or from Marc Antonio's small woodcut
+of Raphael's "Cleopatra."
+
+Perhaps it is not too much to say of Crawford that he was the finest
+plastic genius of the Anglo-Saxon race. His technique may not have
+been equal to Flaxman's or St. Gaudens', but his designs have more of
+grandeur than the former, and he is more original than the latter. There
+are faults of modelling in his "Orpheus," and its attitude resembles
+that of the eldest son of Niobe in the Florentine gallery,--although
+the Niobe youth looks upward and Orpheus is peering into darkness,--its
+features are rather too pretty; but the statue has exactly what
+Powers' "Greek Slave" lacks, a definite motive,--that of an earnest
+seeker,--which pervades it from head to foot; and it is no imaginary
+pathos that we feel in its presence. There is, at least, no imitation of
+the antique in Crawford's "Beethoven," for its conception, the listening
+to internal harmonies, would never have occurred to a Greek or a Roman.
+Even Hawthorne admits Crawford's skill in the treatment of drapery; and
+this is very important, for it is in his drapery quite as much as in the
+nude that we recognize the superiority of Michel Angelo to Raphael; and
+the folds of Beethoven's mantle are as rhythmical as his own harmonies.
+The features lack something of firmness, but it is altogether a statue
+in the grand manner.
+
+Hawthorne is rather too exacting in his requirements of modern
+sculptors. Warrington Wood, who commenced life as a marble-worker,
+always employed Italian workmen to carve his statues, although he
+was perfectly able to do it himself, and always put on the finishing
+touches,--as I presume they all do. Bronze statues are finished with a
+file, and of course do not require any knowledge of the chisel.
+
+In regard to the imitation of antique attitudes, there has certainly
+been too much of it, as Hawthorne supposes; but the Greeks themselves
+were given to this form of plagiarism, and even Praxiteles sometimes
+adopted the motives of his predecessors; but Hawthorne praises Powers,
+Story, and Harriet Hosmer above their merits.
+
+The whole brotherhood of artists and their critical friends might rise
+up against me, if I were to support Hawthorne's condemnation of modern
+Venuses, and "the guilty glimpses stolen at hired models." They are
+not necessarily guilty glimpses. To an experienced artist the customary
+study from a naked figure, male or female, is little more than what a
+low-necked dress at a party would be to many others. Yet the instinct of
+the age shrinks from this exposure. We can make pretty good Venuses, but
+we cannot look at them through the same mental and moral atmosphere as
+the contemporaries of Scopas, or even with the same eyes that Michel
+Angelo saw them. We feel the difference between a modern Venus and an
+ancient one. There is a statue in the Vatican of a Roman emperor, of
+which every one says that it ought to wear clothes; and the reason is
+because the face has such a modern look. A raving Bacchante may be a
+good acquisition to an art museum, but it is out of place in a public
+library. A female statue requires more or less drapery to set off the
+outlines of the figure and to give it dignity. We feel this even in the
+finest Greek work--like the "Venus of Cnidos."
+
+In this matter Hawthorne certainly exposes his Puritanic education,
+and he also places too high a value on the carving of button-holes
+and shoestrings by Italian workmen. Such things are the fag-ends of
+statuary.
+
+His judgment, however, is clear and convincing in regard to the tinted
+Eves and Venuses of Gibson. Whatever may have been the ancient practice
+in this respect, Gibson's experiment proved a failure. Nobody likes
+those statues; and no other sculptor has since followed Gibson's
+example. The tinting of statues by the Greeks did not commence until the
+time of Aristotle, and does not seem to have been very general. Their
+object evidently was, not so much to imitate flesh as to tone down the
+crystalline glare of the new marble. Pausanias speaks of a statue in
+Arcadia, the drapery of which was painted with vermilion, "so as to look
+very gay." This was of course the consequence of a late and degraded
+taste. That traces of paint should have been discovered on Greek temples
+is no evidence that the marble was painted when they were first built.
+
+It may be suspected that Hawthorne was one of the very few who have
+seen the "Venus de Medici" and recognized the true significance of the
+statue. The vast majority of visitors to the Uffizi only see in it the
+type of a perfectly symmetrical woman bashfully posing for her likeness
+in marble, but Hawthorne's perception in it went much beyond that, and
+the fact that he attempts no explanation of its motive is in accordance
+with the present theory. He also noticed that statues had sometimes
+exercised a potent spell over him, and at others a very slight
+influence.
+
+Froude says that a man's modesty is the best part of him. Notice that,
+ye strugglers for preferment, and how beautifully modest Hawthorne is,
+when he writes in his Florentine diary:
+
+"In a year's time, with the advantage of access to this magnificent
+gallery, I think I might come to have some little knowledge of pictures.
+At present I still know nothing; but am glad to find myself capable,
+at least, of loving one picture better than another. I am sensible,
+however, that a process is going on, and has been ever since I came to
+Italy, that puts me in a state to see pictures with less toil, and more
+pleasure, and makes me more fastidious, yet more sensible of beauty
+where I saw none before."
+
+Hawthorne belongs to the same class of amateur critics as Shelley and
+Goethe, who, even if their opinions cannot always be accepted as final,
+illuminate the subject with the radiance of genius and have an equal
+value with the most experienced connoisseurs.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The return of the Hawthornes to Rome through Tuscany was even more
+interesting than their journey to Florence in the spring, and they
+enjoyed the inestimable advantage of a _vetturino_ who would seem to
+have been the Sir Philip Sidney of his profession, a compendium of human
+excellences. There are such men, though rarely met with, and we may
+trust Hawthorne's word that Constantino Bacci was one of them; not only
+a skilful driver, but a generous provider, honest, courteous, kindly,
+and agreeable. They went first to Siena, where they were entertained for
+a week or more by the versatile Mr. Story, and where Hawthorne wrote an
+eloquent description of the cathedral; then over the mountain pass where
+Radicofani nestles among the iron-browed crags above the clouds; past
+the malarious Lake of Bolsena, scene of the miracle which Raphael has
+commemorated in the Vatican; through Viterbo and _Sette Vene_; and
+finally, on October 16, into Rome, through the Porta' del Popolo,
+designed by Michel Angelo in his massive style,--Donati's comet flaming
+before them every night. Thompson, the portrait painter, had already
+secured a furnished house, No. 68 Piazza Poli, for the Hawthornes, to
+which they went immediately.
+
+Since the death of Julius Caesar, comets have always been looked upon as
+the forerunners of pestilence and war, but wars are sometimes blessings,
+and Donati's discovery proved a harbinger of good to Italy,--but to the
+Hawthornes, a prediction of evil. Continually in Hawthorne's Italian
+journal we meet with references to the Roman malaria, as if it were a
+subject that occupied his thoughts, and nowhere is this more common than
+during the return-journey from Florence. Did it occur to him that the
+lightning might strike in his own house? No sensible American now would
+take his children to Rome unless for a very brief visit; and yet William
+Story brought up his family there with excellent success, so far as
+health was concerned.
+
+We can believe that Hawthorne took every possible precaution, so far
+as he knew, but in spite of that on November 1 his eldest daughter was
+seized with Roman fever, and for six weeks thereafter lay trembling
+between life and death, so that it seemed as if a feather might turn the
+balance.
+
+She does not appear to have been imprudent. Her father believed that
+the "old hag" breathed upon her while she was with her mother, who was
+sketching in the Palace of the Caesars; but the Palatine Hill is on high
+ground, with a foundation of solid masonry, and was guarded by French
+soldiers, and it would have been difficult to find a more cleanly spot
+in the city. A German count, who lived in a villa on the Caelian Hill,
+close by, considered his residence one of the most healthful in Rome.
+Miss Una had a passionate attachment for the capital of the ancient
+world; and it seems as if the evil spirit of the place had seized upon
+her, as the Ice Maiden is supposed to entrap chamois hunters in the
+Alps.
+
+One of the evils attendant on sickness in a foreign country is, the
+uncertainty in regard to a doctor, and this naturally leads to a
+distrust and suspicion of the one that is employed. Even so shrewd a
+man as Bismarck fell into the hands of a charlatan at St. Petersburg
+and suffered severely in consequence. Hawthorne either had a similar
+experience, or, what came to the same thing, believed that he did. He
+considered himself obliged to change doctors for his daughter, and this
+added to his care and anxiety. During the next four months he wrote not
+a word in his journal (or elsewhere, so far as we know), and he visibly
+aged before his wife's eyes. He went to walk on occasion with Story or
+Thompson, but it was merely for the preservation of his own health. His
+thoughts were always in his daughter's chamber, and this was so strongly
+marked upon his face that any one could read it. Toward the Ides of
+March, Miss Una was sufficiently improved to take a short look at the
+carnival, but it was two months later before she was in a condition to
+travel, and neither she nor her father ever wholly recovered from the
+effects of this sad experience.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+"THE MARBLE FAUN": 1859-1860
+
+
+What the Roman carnival was a hundred and fifty years ago, when the
+Italian princes poured out their wealth upon it, and when it served as
+a medium for the communication of lovers as well as for social and
+political intrigue, which sometimes resulted in conflicts like those of
+the Montagues and Capulets, can only be imagined. Goethe witnessed it
+from a balcony in the Corso, and his carnival in the second part of
+"Faust" was worked up from notes taken on that occasion; but it is
+so highly poetized that little can be determined from it, except as a
+portion of the drama. By Hawthorne's time the aristocratic Italians
+had long since given up their favorite holiday to English and American
+travellers,--crowded out, as it were, by the superiority of money;
+and since the advent of Victor Emmanuel, the carnival has become
+so democratic that you are more likely to encounter your landlady's
+daughter there than any more distinguished person. Hawthorne's
+description of it in "The Marble Faun" is not overdrawn, and is one of
+the happiest passages in the book.
+
+The carnival of 1859 was an exceptionally brilliant one. The Prince
+of Wales attended it with a suite of young English nobles, who, always
+decorous and polite on public occasions, nevertheless infused great
+spirit into the proceedings. Sumner and Motley were there, and Motley
+rented a balcony in a palace, to which the Hawthornes received general
+and repeated invitations. On March 7, Miss Una was driven through
+the Corso in a barouche, and the Prince of Wales threw her a bouquet,
+probably recognizing her father, who was with her; and to prove his good
+intentions he threw her another, when her carriage returned from the
+Piazza, del Popolo. The present English sovereign has always been
+noted for a sort of journalistic interest in prominent men of letters,
+science, and public affairs, and it is likely that he was better
+informed in regard to the Hawthornes than they imagined. Hawthorne
+himself was too much subdued by his recent trial to enter into the
+spirit of the carnival, even with a heart much relieved from anxiety,
+but he sometimes appeared in the Motleys' balcony, and sometimes went
+along the narrow sidewalk of the Corso, "for an hour or so among the
+people, just on the edges of the fun." Sumner invited Mrs. Hawthorne
+to take a stroll and see pictures with him, from which she returned
+delighted with his criticisms and erudition.
+
+A few days later Franklin Pierce suddenly appeared at No. 68 Piazza
+Poli, with that shadow on his face which was never wholly to leave it.
+The man who fears God and keeps his commandments will never feel quite
+alone in the world; but for the man who lives on popularity, what will
+there be left when that forsakes him? Hawthorne was almost shocked at
+the change in his friend's appearance; not only at his gray hair and
+wrinkled brow, but at the change in his voice, and at a certain lack
+of substance in him, as if the personal magnetism had gone out of
+him. Hawthorne went to walk with him, and tried to encourage him by
+suggesting another term of the presidency, but this did not help much,
+for even Pierce's own State had deserted him,--a fact of which Hawthorne
+may not have been aware. The companionship of his old friend,
+however, and the manifold novelty of Rome itself, somewhat revived the
+ex-President, as may be imagined; and a month later he left for Venice,
+in better spirits than he came.
+
+They celebrated the Ides of March by going to see Harriet Hosmer's
+statue of Zenobia, which was afterward exhibited in America. Hawthorne
+immediately detected its resemblance to the antique,--the figure was
+in fact a pure plagiarism from the smaller statue of Ceres in the
+Vatican,--but Miss Hosmer succeeded in giving the face an expression
+of injured and sorrowing majesty, which Hawthorne was equally ready to
+appreciate.
+
+On this second visit to Rome he became acquainted with a sculptor,
+whose name is not given, but who criticised Hiram Powers with a rather
+suspicious severity. He would not allow Powers "to be an artist at all,
+or to know anything of the laws of art," although acknowledging him to
+be a great bust-maker, and to have put together the "Greek Slave" and
+the "Fisher-Boy" very ingeniously. "The latter, however (he says), is
+copied from the Spinario in the _Tribune_ of the Uffizi; and the former
+made up of beauties that had no reference to one another; and he affirms
+that Powers is ready to sell, and has actually sold, the 'Greek Slave,'
+limb by limb, dismembering it by reversing the process of putting it
+together. Powers knows nothing scientifically of the human frame, and
+only succeeds in representing it, as a natural bone-doctor succeeds in
+setting a dislocated limb, by a happy accident or special providence."
+[Footnote: Italian Note-book, 483.]
+
+We may judge, from "the style, the matter, and the drift" of this
+discourse, that it emanated from the same sculptor who is mentioned, in
+"Nathaniel Hawthorne and His Wife," as having traduced Margaret Fuller
+and her husband Count Ossoli. As Tennyson says, "A lie that is half a
+truth is ever the blackest of lies," and this fellow would seem to
+have been an adept in unveracious exaggeration. It is remarkable that
+Hawthorne should have given serious attention to such a man; but an
+English critic said in regard to this same incident that if Hawthorne
+had been a more communicative person, if he had talked freely to a
+larger number of people, he would not have been so easily prejudiced by
+those few with whom he was chiefly intimate. To which it could be added,
+that he might also have taken broader views in regard to public affairs.
+
+Hawthorne was fortunate to have been present at the discovery of the St.
+Petersburg "Venus," the twin sister of the "Venus de Medici," which was
+dug up in a vineyard outside the Porta Portese. The proprietor of the
+vineyard, who made his fortune at a stroke by the discovery, happened to
+select the site for a new building over the buried ruins of an ancient
+villa, and the "Venus" was discovered in what appeared to Hawthorne as
+an old Roman bath-room. The statue was in more perfect preservation
+than the "Venus de Medici," both of whose arms have been restored,
+and Hawthorne noticed that the head was larger and the face more
+characteristic, with wide-open eyes and a more confident expression.
+He was one of the very few who saw it before it was transported to St.
+Petersburg, and a thorough artistic analysis of it is still one of the
+_desiderata_. The difference in expression, however, would seem to be
+in favor of the "Venus de Medici," as more in accordance with the ruling
+motive of the figure.
+
+Miss Una Hawthorne had not sufficiently recovered to travel until the
+last of May, when they all set forth northward by way of Genoa and
+Marseilles, in which latter place we find them on the 28th, enjoying the
+comfort and elegance of a good French hotel. Thence they proceeded to
+Avignon, but did not find much to admire there except the Rhone; so
+they continued to Geneva, the most pleasant, homelike resting place in
+Europe, but quite deficient in other attractions.
+
+It seems as if Hawthorne's Roman friends were somewhat remiss in not
+giving him better advice in regard to European travelling. At Geneva he
+was within a stone's throw of Chamounix, and hardly more than that of
+Strasburg Cathedral, and yet he visited neither. Why did he go out of
+his way to see so little and to miss so much? He went across the lake
+to visit Lausanne and the Castle of Chillon, and he was more than
+astonished at the view of the Pennine Alps from the deck of the steamer.
+He had never imagined anything like it; and he might have said the
+same if he had visited Cologne Cathedral. Instead of that, however, he
+hurried through France again, with the intention of sailing for America
+the middle of July; but after reaching London he concluded to remain
+another year in England, to write his "Romance of Monte Beni," and
+obtain an English copyright for it.
+
+He left Geneva on June 15, and as he turned his face northward, he felt
+that Henry Bright and Francis Bennoch were his only real friends in
+Great Britain. There could hardly have been a stronger contrast than
+these two. Bright was tall, slender, rather pale for an Englishman,
+grave and philosophical. Bennoch was short, plump, lively and jovial,
+with a ready fund of humor much in the style of Dickens, with whom he
+was personally acquainted. Yet Hawthorne recognized that Bright and
+Bennoch liked him for what he was, in and of himself, and not for his
+celebrity alone.
+
+Bright was in London when Hawthorne reached there, and proposed that
+they should go together to call on Sumner, [Footnote: J. Hawthorne,
+ii. 223.] who had been cured from the effects of Brooks's assault by an
+equally heroic treatment; but Hawthorne objected that as neither of
+them was Lord Chancellor, Sumner would not be likely to pay them much
+attention; to which Bright replied, that Sumner had been very kind
+to him in America, and they accordingly went. Sumner was kind to
+thousands,--the kindest as well as the most upright man of his
+time,--and no one in America, except Longfellow, appreciated Hawthorne
+so well; but he was the champion of the anti-slavery movement and the
+inveterate opponent of President Pierce. I suppose a man's mind cannot
+help being colored somewhat by such conditions and influences.
+
+Hawthorne wished for a quiet, healthful place, where he could write his
+romance without the disturbances that are incident to celebrity, and his
+friends recommended Redcar, on the eastern coast of Yorkshire, a town
+that otherwise Americans would not have heard of. He went there about
+the middle of July, remaining until the 5th of October, but of his life
+there we know nothing except that he must have worked assiduously, for
+in that space of time he nearly finished a book containing almost
+twice as many pages as "The Scarlet Letter." Meanwhile Mrs. Hawthorne
+entertained the children and kept them from interfering with their
+father (in his small cottage), by making a collection of sea-mosses,
+which Una and Julian gathered at low tides, and which their mother
+afterward dried and preserved on paper. On October 4th Una Hawthorne
+wrote to her aunt, Elizabeth Peabody:
+
+"Our last day in Redcar, and a most lovely one it is. The sea seems to
+reproach us for leaving it. But I am glad we are going, for I feel
+so homesick that I want constant change to divert my thoughts. How
+troublesome feelings and affections are."
+
+[Footnote: Mrs. Lathrop, 35 a.]
+
+One can see that it was a pleasant place even after the days had begun
+to shorten, which they do very rapidly in northern England. From Redcar,
+Hawthorne went to Leamington, where he finished his romance about the
+first of December, and remained until some time in March, living quietly
+and making occasional pedestrian tours to neighboring towns. He was
+particularly fond of the walk to Warwick Castle, and of standing on the
+bridge which crosses the Avon, and gazing at the walls of the Castle, as
+they rise above the trees--"as fine a piece of English scenery as exists
+anywhere; the gray towers and long line of windows of the lordly castle,
+with a picturesquely varied outline; ancient strength, a little softened
+by decay." It is a view that has often been sketched, painted and
+engraved.
+
+The romance was written, but had to be revised, the least pleasant
+portion of an author's duties,--unless he chooses to make the index
+himself. This required five or six weeks longer, after which Hawthorne
+went to London and arranged for its publication with Smith & Elder, who
+agreed to bring it out in three volumes--although two would have been
+quite sufficient; but according to English ideas, the length of a work
+of fiction adds to its importance. Unfortunately, Smith & Elder also
+desired to cater to the more prosaic class of readers by changing the
+name of the romance from "The Marble Faun" to "Transformation," and they
+appear to have done this without consulting Hawthorne's wishes in the
+matter. It was simply squeezing the title dry of all poetic suggestions;
+and it would have been quite as appropriate to change the name of "The
+Scarlet Letter" to "The Clergyman's Penance," or to call "The Blithedale
+Romance" "The Suicide of a Jilt." If Smith & Elder considered "The
+Marble Faun" too recondite a title for the English public, what better
+name could they have hit upon than "The Romance of Monte Beni"? Would
+not the Count of Monte Beni be a cousin Italian, as it were, to the
+Count of Monte Cristo? We are thankful to observe that when Hawthorne
+published the book in America, he had his own way in regard to this
+point.
+
+It was now that a new star was rising in the literary firmament, not
+of the "shooting" or transitory species, and the genius of Marian Evans
+(George Eliot) was casting its genial penetrating radiance over Great
+Britain and the United States. She was as difficult a person to meet
+with as Hawthorne himself, and they never saw one another; but a friend
+of Mr. Bennoch, who lived at Coventry, invited the Hawthornes there in
+the first week of February to meet Bennoch and others, and Marian Evans
+would seem to have been the chief subject of conversation at the table
+that evening. What Hawthorne gathered concerning her on that occasion he
+has preserved in this compact and discriminating statement:
+
+"Miss Evans (who wrote 'Adam Bede') was the daughter of a steward, and
+gained her exact knowledge of English rural life by the connection
+with which this origin brought her with the farmers. She was entirely
+self-educated, and has made herself an admirable scholar in classical
+as well as in modern languages. Those who knew her had always recognized
+her wonderful endowments, and only watched to see in what way they
+would develop themselves. She is a person of the simplest manners and
+character, amiable and unpretending, and Mrs. B---- spoke of her with
+great affection and respect."
+
+There is actually more of the real George Eliot in this summary than in
+the three volumes of her biography by Mr. Cross.
+
+Thorwaldsen's well-known simile in regard to the three stages of
+sculpture, the life, the death and the resurrection, also has its
+application to literature. The manuscript is the birth of an author's
+work, and its revision always seems like taking the life out of it; but
+when the proof comes, it is like a new birth, and he sees his design
+for the first time in its true proportions. Then he goes over it as
+the sculptor does his newly-cast bronze, smoothing the rough places
+and giving it those final touches which serve to make its expression
+clearer. Hawthorne was never more to be envied than while correcting
+the proof of "The Marble Faun" at Leamington. The book was given to the
+public at Easter-time; and there seems to have been only one person in
+England that appreciated it, even as a work of art--John Lothrop Motley.
+The most distinguished reviewers wholly failed to catch the significance
+of it; and even Henry Bright, while warmly admiring the story, expressed
+a dissatisfaction at the conclusion of it,--although he could have
+found a notable precedent for that in Goethe's "Wilhelm Meister."
+The _Saturday Review_, a publication similar in tone to the New York
+_Nation_, said of "Transformation:"
+
+[Footnote: J. Hawthorne, ii. 250.]
+
+"A mystery is set before us to unriddle; at the end the author turns
+round and asks us what is the good of solving it. That the impression of
+emptiness and un-meaningness thus produced is in itself a blemish to the
+work no one can deny. Mr. Hawthorne really trades upon the honesty of
+other writers. We feel a sort of interest in the story, slightly and
+sketchily as it is told, because our experience of other novels leads us
+to assume that, when an author pretends to have a plot, he has one."
+
+The _Art Journal_ said of it: [Footnote: J. Hawthorne, ii. 249.]
+
+"We are not to accept this book as a story; in that respect it is
+grievously deficient. The characters are utterly untrue to nature and
+to fact; they speak, all and always, the sentiments of the author; their
+words also are his; there is no one of them for which the world has
+furnished a model."
+
+And the London _Athenaeum_ said: [Footnote: Ibid., ii. 244.]
+
+"To Mr. Hawthorne truth always seems to arrive through the medium of
+the imagination.... His hero, the Count of Monte Beni, would never have
+lived had not the Faun of Praxiteles stirred the author's admiration....
+The other characters, Mr. Hawthorne must bear to be told, are not new to
+a tale of his. Miriam, the mysterious, with her hideous tormentor, was
+indicated in the Zenobia of 'The Blithedale Romance.' Hilda, the
+pure and innocent, is own cousin to Phoebe in 'The House of the Seven
+Gables'."
+
+If the reviewer is to be reviewed, it is not too much to designate these
+criticisms as miserable failures. They are not even well written. Henry
+Bright seemed to be thankful that they were no worse, for he wrote to
+Hawthorne: "I am glad that sulky _Athenaeum_ was so civil; for they
+are equally powerful and unprincipled." The writer in the _Athenaeum_
+evidently belonged to that class of domineering critics who have no
+literary standing, but who, like bankers' clerks, arrogate to themselves
+all the importance of the establishment with which they are connected.
+Fortunately, there are few such in America. No keen-witted reader
+would ever confound the active, rosy, domestic Phoebe Pyncheon with the
+dreamy, sensitive, and strongly subjective Hilda of "The Marble Faun;"
+and Hawthorne might have sent a communication to the _Athenaeum_ to
+refresh the reviewer's memory, for it was not Zenobia in "The
+Blithedale Romance" who was dogged by a mysterious persecutor, but her
+half-sister--Priscilla. Shakespeare's Beatrice and his Rosalind are more
+alike (for Brandes supposes them to have been taken from the same model)
+than Zenobia and Miriam; and the difference between the persecutors
+of Priscilla and Miriam, as well as their respective methods, is
+world-wide; but there are none so blind as those who are enveloped in
+the turbid medium of their self-conceit.
+
+The pure-hearted, chivalrous Motley read these reviews, and wrote to
+Hawthorne a vindication of his work, which must have seemed to him like
+a broad belt of New England sunshine in the midst of the London fog. In
+reference to its disparagement by so-called authorities, Motley said:
+[Footnote: Mrs. Lathrop, 408.]
+
+"I have said a dozen times that nobody can write English but you. With
+regard to the story which has been slightingly criticised, I can only
+say that to me it is quite satisfactory. I like those shadowy, weird,
+fantastic, Hawthornesque shapes flitting through the golden gloom which
+is the atmosphere of the book. I like the misty way in which the story
+is indicated rather than revealed. The outlines are quite definite
+enough, from the beginning to the end, to those who have imagination
+enough to follow you in your airy flights; and to those who complain---
+
+"I beg your pardon for such profanation, but it really moves my spleen
+that people should wish to bring down the volatile figures of your
+romance to the level of an everyday novel. It is exactly the romantic
+atmosphere of the book in which I revel."
+
+The calm face of Motley, with his classic features, rises before us as
+we read this, illumined as it were by "the mild radiance of a hidden
+sun." He also had known what it was to be disparaged by English
+periodicals; and if it had not been for Froude's spirited assertion in
+his behalf, his history of the Dutch Republic might not have met with
+the celebrity it deserved. He was aware of the difference between a
+Hawthorne and a Reade or a Trollope, and knew how unfair it would be
+to judge Hawthorne even by the same standard as Thackeray. He does
+not touch in this letter on the philosophical character of the work,
+although that must have been evident to him, for he had said enough
+without it; but one could wish that he had printed the above statement
+over his own name, in some English journal.
+
+American reviewers were equally puzzled by "The Marble Faun," and,
+although it was generally praised here, the literary critics treated it
+in rather a cautious manner, as if it contained material of a dangerous
+nature. The _North American_, which should have devoted five or six
+pages to it, gave it less than one; praising it in a conventional and
+rather unsympathetic tone. Longfellow read it, and wrote in his diary,
+"A wonderful book; but with the old, dull pain in it that runs through
+all Hawthorne's writings." There was always something of this dull pain
+in the expression of Hawthorne's face.
+
+
+ANALYSIS OF "THE MARBLE FAUN"
+
+It is like a picture, or a succession of pictures, painted in what the
+Italians call the _sfumato_, or "smoky" manner. The book is pervaded
+with the spirit of a dreamy pathos, such as constitutes the mental
+atmosphere of modern Rome; not unlike the haze of an Indian summer day,
+which we only half enjoy from a foreboding of the approach of winter.
+All outlines are softened and partially blurred in it, as time and decay
+have softened the outlines of the old Roman ruins. We recognize the same
+style with which we are familiar in "The Scarlet Letter," but influenced
+by a change in Hawthorne's external impressions.
+
+It is a rare opportunity when the work of a great writer can be traced
+back to its first nebulous conception, as we trace the design of a
+pictorial artist to the first drawing that he made for his subject.
+Although we cannot witness the development of the plot of this romance
+in Hawthorne's mind, it is much to see in what manner the different
+elements of which it is composed, first presented themselves to him, and
+how he adapted them to his purpose.
+
+The first of these in order of time was the beautiful Jewess, whom he
+met at the Lord Mayor's banquet in London; who attracted him by her
+_tout ensemble_, but at the same time repelled him by an indefinable
+impression, a mysterious something, that he could not analyze. There
+would seem, however, to have been another Jewess connected with the
+character of Miriam; for I once heard Mrs. Hawthorne narrating a story
+in which she stated that she and her husband were driving through London
+in a cab, and passing close to the sidewalk in a crowded street they saw
+a beautiful woman, with black hair and a ruddy complexion, walking
+with the most ill-favored and disagreeable looking Jew that could
+be imagined; and on the woman's face there was an expression of such
+deep-seated unhappiness that Hawthorne and his wife turned to each
+other, and he said, "I think that woman's face will always haunt me."
+I did not hear the beginning of Mrs. Hawthorne's tale, but I always
+supposed that it related to "The Marble Faun," and it would seem as
+if the character of Miriam was a composite of these two daughters of
+Israel, uniting the enigmatical quality of one with the unfortunate
+companionship of the other, and the beauty of both.
+
+As previously noticed, the portrait of Beatrice Cenci excited a deeply
+penetrating interest in Hawthorne, and his reflections on it day after
+day would naturally lead him to a similar design in regard to the
+romance which he was contemplating. The attribution of a catastrophe
+like Beatrice's to either of the two Jewesses, would of course be
+adventitious, and should be considered in the light of an artistic
+privilege.
+
+The "Faun" of Praxiteles in the museum of the Capitol next attracted his
+attention. This is but a poor copy of the original; but he penetrated
+the motive of the sculptor with those deep-seeing eyes of his, and there
+is no analysis of an ancient statue by Brunn or Furtwaengler that equals
+Hawthorne's description of this one. It seems as if he must have looked
+backward across the centuries into the very mind of Praxiteles, and he
+was, in fact, the first critic to appreciate its high value. The perfect
+ease and simple beauty of the figure belong to a higher grade of art
+than the Apollo Belvedere, and Hawthorne discovered what Winckelmann had
+overlooked. He immediately conceived the idea of bringing the faun to
+life, and seeing how he would behave and comport himself in the modern
+world--in brief, to use the design of Praxiteles as the mainspring of a
+romance. In the evening of April 22, 1858, he wrote in his journal:
+
+[Illustration: STATUE OF PRAXITELES' RESTING FAUN, WHICH HAWTHORNE HAS
+DESCRIBED AND BROUGHT TO LIFE IN THE CHARACTER OF DONATELLO]
+
+"I looked at the Faun of Praxiteles, and was sensible of a peculiar
+charm in it; a sylvan beauty and homeliness, friendly and wild at once.
+It seems to me that a story, with all sorts of fun and pathos in
+it, might be contrived on the idea of their species having become
+intermingled with the human race; a family with the faun blood in them,
+having prolonged itself from the classic era till our own days. The tail
+might have disappeared, by dint of constant intermarriages with ordinary
+mortals; but the pretty hairy ears should occasionally reappear
+in members of the family; and the moral instincts and intellectual
+characteristics of the faun might be most picturesquely brought out,
+without detriment to the human interest of the story."
+
+This statue served to concentrate the various speculative objects which
+had been hovering before Hawthorne's imagination during the past winter,
+and when he reached Florence six weeks later, the chief details of the
+plot were already developed in his mind.
+
+Hilda and Kenyon are, of course, subordinate characters, like the first
+walking lady and the first walking gentleman on the stage. They are the
+sympathetic friends who watch the progress of the drama, continually
+hoping to be of service, but still finding themselves powerless to
+prevent the catastrophe. It was perhaps their unselfish interest in
+their mutual friends that at length taught them to know each other's
+worth, so that they finally became more than friends to one another.
+True love, to be firmly based, requires such a mutual interest or common
+ground on which the parties can meet,--something in addition to the
+usual attraction of the sexes. Mrs. Hawthorne has been supposed by some
+to have been the original of Hilda; and by others her daughter Una.
+
+Conway holds an exceptional opinion, that Hilda was the feminine
+counterpart of Hawthorne himself; but Hilda is only too transparent a
+character, while Hawthorne always was, and still remains, impenetrable;
+and there was enough of her father in Miss Una, to render the same
+objection applicable in her case. Hilda seems to me very much like Mrs.
+Hawthorne, as one may imagine her in her younger days; like her in her
+mental purity, her conscientiousness, her devotion to her art,--which
+we trust afterwards was transformed into a devotion to her husband,--her
+tendency to self-seclusion, her sensitiveness and her lack of decisive
+resolution. She is essentially what they call on the stage an _ingenue_
+character; that is, one that remains inexperienced in the midst of
+experience; and it is in this character that she contributes to the
+catastrophe of the drama.
+
+If Hawthorne appears anywhere in his own fiction, it is not in "The
+Blithedale Romance," but in the role of Kenyon. Although Kenyon's
+profession is that of a sculptor, he is not to be confounded with
+the gay and versatile Story. Neither is he statuesque, as the English
+reviewer criticised him. He is rather a shadowy character, as Hawthorne
+himself was shadowy, and as an author always must be shadowy to his
+readers; but Kenyon is to Hawthorne what Prospero is to Shakespeare,
+and if he does not make use of magic arts, it is because they no
+longer serve their purpose in human affairs. He is a wise, all-seeing,
+sympathetic mind, and his active influence in the play is less
+conspicuous because it is always so quiet, and so correct.
+
+It will be noticed that the first chapter and the last chapter of this
+romance have the same title: "Miriam, Hilda, Kenyon, Donatello." This is
+according to their respective ages and sexes; but it is also the terms
+of a proportion,--as Miriam is to Hilda, so is Kenyon to Donatello.
+As the experienced woman is to the inexperienced woman, so is the
+experienced man to the inexperienced man. This seems simple enough, but
+it has momentous consequences in the story. Donatello, who is a type of
+natural but untried virtue, falls in love with Miriam, not only for her
+beauty, but because she has acquired that worldly experience which he
+lacks. Hilda, suddenly aroused to a sense of her danger in the isolated
+life she is leading, accepts Kenyon as a protector. The means in this
+proportion come together and unite, because they are the mean terms, and
+pursue a medium course. The extremes fly apart and are separated, simply
+because they are extremes. But there is a spiritual bond between them,
+invisible, but stronger than steel, which will bring them together
+again--at the Day of Judgment, if not sooner.
+
+All tragedy is an investigation or exemplification of that form of human
+error which we call sin; a catastrophe of nature or a simple error of
+judgment may be tragical, but will not constitute a tragedy without the
+moral or poetic element.
+
+In "The Scarlet Letter," we have the sin of concealment and its
+consequences. The first step toward reformation is confession, and
+without that, repentance is little more than a good intention.
+
+In "The House of the Seven Gables," Hawthorne has treated the sin of
+hypocrisy--a smiling politician who courts popularity and pretends to
+be everybody's friend, and agrees with everybody,--only with a slight
+reservation. There may be occasions on which hypocrisy is a virtue; but
+the habit of hypocrisy for personal ends is like a dry rot in the heart
+of man.
+
+In "The Blithedale Romance," we find the sin of moral affectation.
+Neither Hollingsworth nor Zenobia is really what they pretend themselves
+to be. Their morality is a hollow shell, and gives way to the first
+effective temptation. Zenobia betrays Priscilla; and is betrayed in turn
+by Hollingsworth,--as well as the interests of the association which had
+been committed to his charge.
+
+The kernel of "The Marble Faun" is _original sin_. It is a story of
+the fall of man, told again in the light of modern science. It is a
+wonderful coincidence that almost in the same months that Hawthorne was
+writing this romance, Charles Darwin was also finishing his work on
+the "Origin of Species;" for one is the moral counterpart of the other.
+Hawthorne did not read scientific and philosophical books, but he may
+have heard something of Darwin's undertaking in England, as well as
+Napoleon's prophetic statement at St. Helena, that all the animals form
+an ascending series, leading up to man. [Footnote: Dr. O'Meara's "A
+Voice from St. Helena."] The skeleton of a prehistoric man discovered
+in the Neanderthal cave, which was supposed to have proved the Darwinian
+theory, does not suggest a figure similar to the "Faun" of Praxiteles,
+but the followers of Darwin have frequently adverted to the Hellenic
+traditions of fauns and satyrs in support of their theory. Hawthorne,
+however, has made a long stride beyond Darwin, for he has endeavored to
+reconcile this view of creation with the Mosaic cosmogony; and it
+must be admitted that he has been fairly successful. The lesson that
+Hawthorne teaches is, that evil does not reside in error, but in
+neglecting to be instructed by our errors. It is this which makes the
+difference between a St. Paul and a Nero. The fall of man was only
+apparent; it was really a rise in life. The Garden of Eden prefigures
+the childhood of the human race. Do we not all go through this idyllic
+moral condition in childhood, learning through our errors that the only
+true happiness consists in self-control? Do not all judicious parents
+protect their children from a knowledge of the world's wickedness, so
+long as it is possible to prevent it,--and yet not too long, for then
+they would become unfitted for their struggle with the world, and in
+order to avoid the pitfalls of mature life they must know where the
+pitfalls are. It is no longer essential for the individual to pass
+through the Cain and Abel experience--that has been accomplished by
+the race as a whole; but it is quite possible to imagine an incipient
+condition of society in which the distinction of justifiable homicide in
+self-defence (which is really the justification of war between nations)
+has not yet obtained.
+
+Hawthorne's Donatello is supposed to belong, in theory at least, to
+that primitive era; but it is not necessary to go back further than the
+feudal period to look for a man who never has known a will above his
+own. Donatello seizes Miriam's tormentor and casts him down the Tarpeian
+Rock,--from the same instinct, or clairvoyant perception, that a hound
+springs at the throat of his master's enemy. When the deed is done
+he recognizes that the punishment is out of all proportion to the
+offence,--which is in itself the primary recognition of a penal
+code,--and more especially that the judgment of man is against him. He
+realizes for the first time the fearful possibilities of his nature, and
+begins to reflect. He is a changed person; and if not changed for the
+better yet with a possibility of great improvement in the future. His
+act was at least an unselfish one, and it might serve as the argument
+for a debate, whether Donatello did not do society a service in ridding
+the earth of such a human monstrosity. Hawthorne has adjusted the moral
+balance of his case so nicely, that a single scruple would turn the
+scales.
+
+The tradition among the Greeks and Romans, of a Golden Age, corresponds
+in a manner to the Garden of Eden of Semitic belief. There may be some
+truth in it. Captain Speke, while exploring the sources of the Nile,
+discovered in central Africa a negro tribe uncontaminated by European
+traders, and as innocent of guile as the antelopes upon their own
+plains; and this suggests to us that all families and races of men may
+have passed through the Donatello stage of existence.
+
+Hawthorne's master-stroke in the romance is his description or analysis
+of the effect produced by this homicide on the different members of the
+group to which he has introduced us. The experienced and worldly-wise
+Kenyon is not informed of the deed until his engagement to Hilda, but
+he has sufficient reason to suspect something of the kind from the
+simultaneous disappearance of Donatello and the model, as well as from
+the sudden change in Miriam's behavior. Yet he does not treat Donatello
+with any lack of confidence. He visits him at his castle of Monte Beni,
+which is simply the Villa Manteuto somewhat idealized and removed into
+the recesses of the Apennines; he consoles him in his melancholy humor;
+tries to divert him from gloomy thoughts; and meanwhile watches with a
+keen eye and friendly solicitude for the _denouement_ of this mysterious
+drama. If he had seen what Hilda saw, he would probably have left Rome
+as quickly as possible, never to return; and Donatello's fate might have
+been different.
+
+The effect on the sensitive and inexperienced Hilda was like a horrible
+nightmare. She cannot believe her senses, and yet she has to believe
+them. It seems to her as if the fiery pit has yawned between her and the
+rest of the human race. Her position is much like that of Hamlet, and
+the effect on her is somewhat similar. She thrusts Miriam from her with
+bitterness; yet forms no definite resolutions, and does she knows not
+what; until, overburdened by the consciousness of her fatal secret, she
+discloses the affair to an unknown priest in the church of St.
+Peter. Neither does she seem to be aware at any time of the serious
+consequences of this action.
+
+Miriam, more experienced even than Kenyon, is not affected by the
+death of her tormentor so much directly as she is by its influence on
+Donatello. Hitherto she had been indifferently pleased by his admiration
+for her; now the tables are turned and she conceives the very strongest
+attachment for him. She follows him to his castle in disguise, dogs his
+footsteps on the excursion which he and Kenyon make together, shadows
+his presence again in Rome, and is with him at the moment of his arrest.
+This is all that we know of her from the time of her last unhappy
+interview with Hilda. Her crime consisted merely in a look,--the
+expression of her eyes,--and the whole world is free to her; but her
+heart is imprisoned in the same cell with Donatello. There is not a more
+powerful ethical effect in Dante or Sophocles.
+
+A certain French writer [Footnote: Name forgotten, but the fact is
+indelible.] blames Hilda severely for her betrayal of Miriam (who was
+at least her best friend in Rome), and furthermore designates her as an
+immoral character. This, we may suppose, is intended for a hit at New
+England Puritanism; and from the French stand-point, it is not unfair.
+Hilda represents Puritanism in its weakness and in its strength. It is
+true, what Hamlet says, that "conscience makes cowards of us all," but
+only true under conditions like those of Hamlet,--desperate emergencies,
+which require exceptional expedients. On the contrary, in carrying out a
+great reform like the abolition of slavery, the education of the blind,
+or the foundation of national unity, a man's conscience becomes a tower
+of strength to him. As already intimated, what Hilda ought to have done
+was, to leave Rome at once, and forever; but she is no more capable of
+forming such a resolution, than Hamlet was of organizing a conspiracy
+against his usurping uncle. When, however, the priest steps out from
+the confessional-box and attempts to make a convert of Hilda,--for which
+indeed she has given him a fair opening,--she asserts herself and
+her New England training, with true feminine dignity, and in fact has
+decidedly the best of the argument. It is a trying situation, in which
+she develops unexpected resources. Hawthorne's genius never shone forth
+more brilliantly than in this scene at St. Peter's. It is Shakespearian.
+
+Much dissatisfaction was expressed when "The Marble Faun" was first
+published, at the general vagueness of its conclusion. Hawthorne's
+admirers wished especially for some clearer explanation of Miriam's
+earlier life, and of her relation to the strange apparition of the
+catacombs. He answered these interrogatories in a supplementary chapter
+which practically left the subject where it was before--an additional
+piece of mystification. In a letter to Henry Bright he admitted that he
+had no very definite scheme in his mind in regard to Miriam's previous
+history, and this is probably the reason why his readers feel this vague
+sense of dissatisfaction with the plot. I have myself often tried to
+think out a prelude to the story, but without any definite result.
+Miriam's persecuting model was evidently a husband who had been forced
+upon her by her parents, and would not that be sufficient to account for
+her moods of gloom and despondency? Yet Hawthorne repeatedly intimates
+that there was something more than this. Let us not think of it. If the
+tale was not framed in mystery, Donatello would not seem so real to us.
+Do not the characters in "Don Quixote" and "Wilhelm Meister" spring up
+as it were out of the ground? They come we know not whence, and they go
+we know not whither. It is with these that "The Marble Faun" should be
+classed and compared, and not with "Middle-march," "Henry Esmond," or
+"The Heart of Midlothian."
+
+[Illustration: TORRE MEDIAVALLE DELLA SCIMMIA (HILDA'S TOWER), OF THE
+VIA PORTOGHESE AT ROME, WHERE HAWTHORNE REPRESENTS HILDA TO HAVE LIVED
+AND TENDED THE LAMP AT THE VIRGIN'S SHRINE ON THE TOP OF THE TOWER]
+
+Goethe said, while looking at the group of the "Laocooen," "I think
+that young fellow on the right will escape the serpents." This was not
+according to the story Virgil tells, but it is true to natural history.
+Similarly, it is pleasant to think that the Pope's mercy may ultimately
+have been extended to Donatello. We can imagine an aged couple living a
+serious, retired life in the castle of Monte Beni, childless, and to a
+certain extent joyless, but taking comfort in their mutual affection,
+and in acts of kindness to their fellow-mortals.
+
+In order to see Hilda's tower in Rome, go straight down from the Spanish
+Steps to the Corso, turn to the right, and you will soon come to the Via
+Portoghese (on the opposite side), where you will easily recognize the
+tower on the right hand. The tower is five stories in height, set in the
+front of the palace, and would seem to be older than the building about
+it; the relic, perhaps, of some distinguished mediaeval structure. The
+odd little shrine to the Virgin, a toy-like affair, still surmounts
+it; but its lamp is no longer burning. It was fine imagination to place
+Hilda in this lofty abode.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+HOMEWARD BOUND: 1860-1862
+
+
+There is no portion of Hawthorne's life concerning which we know less
+than the four years after his return from England to his native land. He
+was so celebrated that every eye was upon him; boys stopped their games
+to see him pass by, and farmers stood still in the road to stare at him.
+He was Hawthorne the famous, and every movement he made was remembered,
+every word spoken by him was recorded or related, and yet altogether it
+amounts to little enough. Letters have been preserved in number,--many
+of his own and others from his English friends, and those from his
+wife to her relatives; but they do not add much to the picture we have
+already formed in our minds of the man. As he said somewhere, fame had
+come too late to be a satisfaction to him, but on the contrary more
+of an annoyance. Hawthorne left Leamington the last of March, and
+transferred his family to Bath, which he soon discovered to be the
+pleasantest English city he had lived in yet,--symmetrically laid out,
+like a Continental city, and built for the most part of a yellowish
+sandstone; not unlike in appearance the travertine of which St. Peter's
+at Rome is built. The older portion of the city lies in a hollow among
+the hills, like an amphitheatre, and the more recent additions rise upon
+the hill-sides above it to a considerable height. This is the last note
+of enthusiasm in his writings; and in the next entry in his diary, which
+was written at Lothrop Motley's house, Hertford Street, London, May 16,
+he makes this ominous confession: "I would gladly journalize some of
+my proceedings, and describe things and people, but I find the same
+coldness and stiffness in my pen as always since our return to England."
+It is only too evident that from this time literary composition, which
+had been the chief recreation of his youth, and in which he had always
+found satisfaction until now, was no longer a pleasure to him. It is
+the last entry in his journal, at least for more than two years, and
+whatever writing he accomplished in the mean time was done for the sake
+of his wife and children. Dickens had a similar experience the last year
+of his life. Clearly, Hawthorne's nervous force was waning.
+
+On May 15, Hawthorne and Motley were invited to dine by Earl Dufferin,
+that admirable diplomat and one of the pleasantest of men. In fact, if
+there was a person living who could make Hawthorne feel perfectly at his
+ease, it was Dufferin. Motley provided some entertainment or other for
+his guest every day, and Hawthorne confessed that the stir and activity
+of London life were doing him "a wonderful deal of good." What he seems
+to have needed at this time was a vigorous, objective employment that
+would give his circulation a start in the right direction; but how was
+he to obtain that?
+
+He enjoyed one last stroll with Henry Bright through Hyde Park and along
+the Strand, and found time to say a long farewell to Francis Bennoch:
+the last time he was to meet either of them on this side of eternity.
+
+He returned to Bath the 1st of June, and ten days later they all
+embarked for Boston,--as it happened, by a pleasant coincidence, with
+the same captain with whom they had left America seven years before.
+Mrs. Hawthorne's sister, Mrs. Horace Mann, prepared their house at
+Concord for their reception, and there they arrived at the summer
+solstice.
+
+The good people of Concord had been mightily stirred up that spring,
+by an attempt to arrest Frank B. Sanborn and carry him forcibly to
+Washington,--contrary to law, as the Supreme Court of the State decided
+the following day. The marshal who arrested him certainly proceeded more
+after the manner of a burglar than of a civil officer, hiding himself
+with his _posse comitatus_ in a barn close to Sanborn's school-house,
+watching his proceedings through the cracks in the boards, and finally
+arresting him at night, just as he was going to bed; but the alarm was
+quickly sounded, and the whole male population of the place, including
+Emerson, turned out like a swarm of angry hornets, and the marshal and
+his posse were soon thankful to escape with their bones in a normal
+condition. A few nights later, the barn, which was owned by a prominent
+official in the Boston Custom House, was burned to the ground (the
+fire-company assisting), as a sacrifice on the altar of personal
+liberty.
+
+The excitement of this event had not yet subsided when the arrival of
+the Hawthorne family produced a milder and more amiable, but no less
+profound, sensation in the old settlement; and this was considerably
+increased by the fact that for the first month nothing was seen of
+them, except a sturdy-looking boy fishing from a rock in Concord River,
+opposite the spot where his father and Channing had discovered the
+unfortunate school-mistress. Old friends made their calls and were
+cordially received, but Hawthorne himself did not appear in public
+places; and it was soon noticed that he did not take the long walks
+which formerly carried him to the outer limits of the town. He was
+sometimes met on the way to Walden Pond, either alone or in company with
+his son; but Bronson Alcott more frequently noticed him gliding along
+in a ghost-like manner by the rustic fence which separated their two
+estates, or on the way to Sleepy Hollow. When the weather became cooler
+he formed a habit of walking back and forth on the hill-side above his
+house, where the bank descends sharply like a railroad-cut, with dwarf
+pines and shrub oaks on the further side of it. He wore a path there,
+which is described in "Septimius Felton," and it is quite possible that
+the first inception of that story entered his mind while looking down
+upon the Lexington road beneath him, and imagining how it appeared while
+filled with marching British soldiers.
+
+About July 10, 1860, the scholars of Mr. Sanborn's school, male and
+female, gave an entertainment in the Town Hall, not unlike Harvard Class
+Day. Mrs. Hawthorne and her eldest daughter appeared among the guests,
+and attracted much attention from the quiet grace and dignity of their
+manners; but there was an expression of weariness on Miss Una's face,
+which contrasted strangely with the happy, blithesome looks of the
+school-girls. Some idea of the occasion may be derived from a passing
+remark of Mrs. Hawthorne to a Harvard student present: "My daughter will
+be happy to dance with you, sir, if I can only find her."
+
+In September Hawthorne wrote to James T. Fields: [Footnote: Mrs. J. T.
+Fields, 118.]
+
+"We are in great trouble on account of our poor Una, in whom the bitter
+dregs of that Roman fever are still rankling, and have now developed
+themselves in a way which the physicians foreboded. I do not like to
+write about it, but will tell you when we meet. Say nothing."
+
+Miss Una was evidently far from well, and her father's anxiety for her
+sensibly affected his mental tone.
+
+He was invited at once to join the Saturday Club, popularly known at
+that time as the Atlantic Club, because its most conspicuous members
+were contributors to that periodical. Hawthorne did not return in season
+to take part in the Club's expedition to the Adirondack Mountains,
+concerning which Doctor Holmes remarked that, considering the number of
+rifles they carried, it was fortunate that they all returned alive. The
+meetings of the Club came but once a month, and as the last train to
+Concord was not a very late one, Judge Hoar had his carryall taken down
+to Waltham on such occasions, and thence he, with Hawthorne and Emerson,
+drove back to Concord through the woods in the darkness or moonlight;
+and Hawthorne may have enjoyed this as much as any portion of the
+entertainment.
+
+A club whose membership is based upon celebrity reminds one rather of a
+congregation of stags, all with antlers of seven tines. There was every
+shade of opinion, political, philosophical and religious, represented
+in the Saturday Club, and if they never fought over such subjects it was
+certainly much to their credit. Very little has been divulged of what
+took place at their meetings; but it is generally known that in the
+winter of 1861 Longfellow was obliged to warn his associates that if
+they persisted in abusing Sumner he should be obliged to leave their
+company; Sumner being looked upon by the Democrats and more timid
+Republicans as the chief obstacle to pacification; as if any one man
+could prop a house up when it was about to fall. After the War began,
+this naturally came to an end, and Sumner was afterwards invited to join
+the Club, with what satisfaction to Hoar, Lowell, and Holmes it might be
+considering rather curiously to inquire. We can at least feel confident
+that Hawthorne had no share in this. He did not believe in fighting
+shadows, and he at least respected Sumner for his frankness and
+disinterestedness.
+
+Such differences of opinion, however, are not conducive to freedom of
+discussion. Henry James, Sr., lifts the veil for a moment in a letter to
+Emerson, written about this time, [Footnote: Memoir of Bronson Alcott;
+also the "Hawthorne Centenary."] and affords us a picture of
+Hawthorne at the Saturday Club, which might bear the designation of a
+highly-flavored caricature. According to Mr. James, John M. Forbes, the
+Canton millionaire, preserved the balance at one end of the table, while
+Hawthorne, an oasis in a desert, served as the nearest approach to a
+human being, at the other. "How he buried his eyes in his plate and ate
+with such a voracity! that no one should dare to ask him a question."
+
+We do not realize the caricaturist in Henry James, Jr., so readily,
+on account of his elastic power of expression; but the relationship is
+plain and apparent. Both father and son ought to have been baptized in
+the Castalian Fount. There are those who have been at table with both
+Hawthorne and the elder James, and without the slightest reflection on
+Mr. James, have confessed their preference for the quiet composure and
+simple dignity of Hawthorne. In truth Hawthorne's manners were above
+those of the polished courtier or the accomplished man of fashion:
+they were poetic manners, and in this respect Longfellow most nearly
+resembled him of all members of the Club; although Emerson also had
+admirable manners and they were largely the cause of his success. It
+would have done no harm if Emerson had burned this letter after its
+first perusal, but since it is out of the bag we must even consider it
+as it deserves.
+
+Hawthorne must have enjoyed the meetings of the Club or he would not
+have attended them so regularly. He wrote an account of the first
+occasion on which he was present, giving an accurate description of the
+dinner itself and enclosing a diagram of the manner in which the guests
+were seated, but without any commentary on the proceedings of the day.
+It was, after all, one of the nerve-centres of the great world, and an
+agreeable change from the domestic monotony of the Wayside. Thackeray
+would have descried rich material for his pen in it, but Hawthorne's
+studies lay in another direction. Great men were not his line in
+literature.
+
+Meanwhile Mrs. Hawthorne and her daughter were transforming their
+Concord home into a small repository of the fine arts. Without much
+that would pass by the title of elegance, they succeeded in giving it
+an unpretentious air of refinement, and one could not enter it without
+realizing that the materials of a world-wide culture had been brought
+together there. Hawthorne soon found the dimensions of the house too
+narrow for the enlarged views which he had brought with him from abroad,
+and he designed a tower to be constructed at one corner of it, similar
+to, if not so lofty as that of the Villa Manteuto. This occupied him
+and the dilatory Concord carpenter for nearly half a year; and meanwhile
+chaos and confusion reigned supreme. There was no one whose ears could
+be more severely offended by the music of the carpenter's box and the
+mason's trowel than Hawthorne, and he knew not whether to fly his home
+or remain in it. Not until all this was over could he think seriously of
+a new romance.
+
+He made his study in the upper room of the tower; a room exactly twenty
+feet square, with a square vaulted ceiling and five windows,--too many,
+one would suppose, to produce a pleasant effect of light,--and walls
+papered light yellow. There he could be as quiet and retired as in the
+attic of his Uncle Robert Manning's house in Salem. Conway states that
+he wrote at a high desk, like Longfellow, and walked back and forth in
+the room while thinking out what he was going to say. The view from his
+windows extended across the meadows to Walden woods and the Fitchburg
+railroad track, and it also commanded the Alcott house and the road
+to Concord village. It was in this work-shop that he prepared "Our Old
+Home" for the press and wrote the greater part of "Septimius Felton" and
+"The Dolliver Romance."
+
+The War was a new source of distraction. It broke out before the tower
+was finished, stimulating Hawthorne's nerves, but disturbing that
+delicate mental equilibrium upon which satisfactory procedure of his
+writing depended. On May 26, 1861, he wrote to Horatio Bridge:
+
+"The war, strange to say, has had a beneficial effect upon my spirits,
+which were flagging wofully before it broke out. But it was delightful
+to share in the heroic sentiment of the time, and to feel that I had a
+country,--a consciousness which seemed to make me young again. One
+thing as regards this matter I regret, and one thing I am glad of. The
+regrettable thing is that I am too old to shoulder a musket myself, and
+the joyful thing is that Julian is too young." [Footnote: J. Hawthorne,
+ii. 276.]
+
+Hawthorne's patriotism was genuine and deep-seated. He was not the only
+American whom the bombardment of Fort Sumter had awakened to the fact
+that he had a country. What we have always enjoyed, we do not think of
+until there is danger of losing it. In the same letter, he confesses
+that he does not quite understand "what we are fighting for, or what
+definite result can be expected. If we pummel the South ever so hard,
+they will love us none the better for it; and even if we subjugate them,
+our next step should be to cut them adrift."
+
+There were many in those times who thought and felt as Hawthorne did.
+Douglas said in the Senate, "Even if you coerce the Southern States and
+bring them back by force, it will not be the same Union." A _people_
+does not necessarily mean a _nation_; for the idea of nationality is of
+slow growth, and is in a manner opposed to the idea of democracy; for
+if the right of government depends on the consent of the governed,
+the primary right of the governed must be to abrogate that government
+whenever they choose to do so. Hawthorne was simply a consistent
+democrat; but time has proved the fallacy of Douglas's statement, and
+that a forcible restoration of the Union was entirely compatible with
+friendliness and mutal good-will between the different sections of the
+country,--after slavery, which was the real obstacle to this, had been
+eliminated. If the States east of the Alleghanies should attempt to
+separate from the rest of the nation, it would inevitably produce a war
+similar to that of 1861.
+
+Hawthorne even went to the length at this time of proposing to arm the
+negroes, and preparing them "for future citizenship by allowing them
+to fight for their own liberties, and educating them through heroic
+influences." [Footnote: The "Hawthorne Centenary," 197.] When George
+L. Stearns was organizing the colored regiments in Tennessee in 1863
+he wrote concerning his work, in almost exactly these terms; and the
+inference is plain that Hawthorne might have been more of a humanitarian
+if his early associations had been different.
+
+Such an original character as Bronson Alcott for a next-door neighbor
+could not long escape Hawthorne's penetrating glance. Alcott was
+an interesting personality, perfectly genuine, frank, kindly and
+imperturbably good-humored. He had a benevolent aspect, and in general
+appearance so much resembled the portraits of Benjamin Franklin that his
+ingenious daughters made use of him in charades and theatricals for that
+purpose. Hawthorne had known him many years earlier, and had spoken very
+pleasantly of him in his first publication of "The Hall of Fantasy." He
+even said, "So calm and gentle was he, so quiet in the utterance of
+what his soul brooded upon, that one might readily conceive his Orphic
+Sayings to well up from a fountain in his breast, which communicated
+with the infinite abyss of thought,"--rather an optimistic view for
+Hawthorne. Alcott's philosophy had the decided merit, which Herbert
+Spencer's has not, of a strong affirmation of a Great First Cause, and
+our direct responsibility thereto: but it was chiefly the philosophy of
+Plotinus; and his constant reiteration of a "lapse" in human nature from
+divine perfection (which was simply the Donatello phase expressed in
+logic), with the various corollaries deduced from it, finally became
+as wearisome as the harp with a single string. Whether he troubled
+Hawthorne in that way, is rather doubtful, for even as a hobby-rider,
+Alcott was a man of Yankee shrewdness and considerable tact. Rose
+Hawthorne says that "he once brought a particularly long poem to read,
+aloud to my mother and father; a seemingly harmless thing from which
+they never recovered." What poem this could have been I have no idea,
+but in his later years Alcott wrote some excellent poetry, and those who
+ought to know do not think that he bored Hawthorne very severely. They
+frequently went to walk together, taking Julian for a make-weight, and
+Hawthorne could easily have avoided this if he had chosen. There are
+times for all of us when our next-door neighbors prove a burden; and it
+cannot be doubted that in most instances this is reciprocal. [Footnote:
+Rose Hawthorne, however, writes charmingly of the Alcotts. Take this
+swift sketch, among others: "I imagine his slightly stooping, yet tall
+and well-grown figure, clothed in black, and with a picturesque straw
+hat, twining itself in and out of forest aisles, or craftily returning
+home with gargoyle-like stems over his shoulders."]
+
+Alcott was a romance character of exceptional value, and Hawthorne
+recognized this, but did not succeed in inventing a plot that would suit
+the subject. The only one of Hawthorne's preparatory sketches given
+to the public--in which we see his genius in the "midmost heat
+of composition"--supposes a household in which an old man keeps a
+crab-spider for a pet, a deadly poisonous creature; and in the same
+family there is a boy whose fortunes will be mysteriously affected in
+some manner by this dangerous insect. He did not proceed sufficiently to
+indicate for us how this would turn out, but he closes the sketch with
+the significant remark, "In person and figure Mr. Alcott"; from which it
+may be inferred that the crab-spider was intended to symbolize Alcott's
+philosophy, and the catastrophe of the romance would naturally result
+from the unhealthy mental atmosphere in which the boy grew up,--a
+catastrophe which in Alcott's family was averted by the practical
+sagacity of his daughters. The idea, however, became modified in its
+application.
+
+It is with regret that we do not allot a larger space to this important
+sketch, for it is clearly an original study (like an artist's drawing)
+of the unfinished romance which was published in 1883 under the title
+of "Doctor Grimshawe's Secret." Long lost sight of in the mass of
+Hawthorne's manuscripts, this last of his posthumous works was reviewed
+by the critics with some incredulity, and Lathrop had the hardihood to
+publicly assert that no such romance by Hawthorne's pen existed, thereby
+casting a gratuitous slander on his own brother-in-law. We may have our
+doubts in regard to the authorship of Shakespeare's plays, for we have
+no absolute standard by which to judge of Shakespeare's style, but the
+"style, the matter, and the drift" of "Doctor Grimshawe's Secret" are
+so essentially Hawthornish that a person experienced in judging of such
+matters should not hesitate long in deciding that it belongs in the same
+category with "Fanshawe" and "The Dolliver Romance." It is even possible
+to determine, from certain peculiarities in its style, the exact period
+at which it was written; which must have been shortly after Hawthorne's
+return from Europe. In addition to this, if further evidence were
+required, its close relationship to the aforementioned sketch is a fact
+which no sophistry can reason away. [Footnote: This sketch was published
+in the _Century_, January, 1883.]
+
+The bloody footstep suggested to Hawthorne by the antediluvian print in
+the stone step at Smithell's Hall, in Lancashire, serves as the key-note
+of this romance; but the eccentric recluse, the big crab-spider, the
+orphaned grandchild, and even Bronson Alcott also appear in it. Alcott,
+however,--and his identity cannot be mistaken,--does not play the
+leading part in the piece, but comes in at the fifth chapter, only to
+disappear mysteriously in the eighth; the orphan boy is companioned by
+a girl of equal age, and these two bright spirits, mutually sustaining
+each other, cast a radiance over the old Doctor in his dusty, frowsy,
+cobwebby study, which brings out the external appearance and internal
+peculiarities of the man, in the most vivid manner. The dispositions and
+appearances of the two children are also contrasted, as Raphael might
+have drawn and contrasted them, if he had painted a picture on a similar
+subject.
+
+The crab-spider is one of the most horrible of Nature's creations.
+Hawthorne saw one in the British Museum and it seems to have haunted his
+imagination ever afterward. Why the creature should have been introduced
+into this romance is not very clear, for it plays no part in the
+development of the plot. The spider hangs suspended over the old
+Doctor's head like the sword of Damocles, and one would expect it to
+descend at the proper moment in the narrative, and make an end of him
+with its nippers; but Doctor Grimshawe dies a comparatively natural
+death, and the desiccated body of the spider is found still clinging to
+the web above him. The man and the insect were too closely akin in the
+modes and purposes of their lives for either to outlast the other. There
+is nothing abnormal in the fact of Doctor Grimshawe's possessing this
+dangerous pet; for all kinds of poisonous creatures have a well-known
+fascination for the medical profession. Doctor Holmes amused himself
+with a rattlesnake.
+
+In spite of its unpleasant associations with spiders and blood-stains,
+"Doctor Grimshawe's Secret" is one of the most interesting of
+Hawthorne's works, containing much of his finest thought and most
+characteristic description. The portrait of the grouty old Doctor
+himself has a solidity of impast like Shakespeare's Falstaff, and the
+grave-digger, who has survived from colonial times, carries us back
+involuntarily to the burial scene in "Hamlet." Alcott, whose name is
+changed to Colcord, is not treated realistically, but rather idealized
+in such kindly sympathetic manner as might prevent all possibility of
+offence at the artistic theft of his personality. The plot, too, is a
+most ingenious one, turning and winding like a hare, and even diving out
+of sight for a time; but only to reappear again, as the school-master
+Colcord does, with a full and satisfactory explanation of its mysterious
+course. To judge from the appearance of the manuscript, this romance was
+written very rapidly, and there are places in the text which intimate
+this; but it vies in power with "The Scarlet Letter," and why Hawthorne
+should have become dissatisfied with it,--why he should have failed
+to complete, revise, and publish it--can only be accounted for by the
+mental or nervous depression which was now fastening itself upon him.
+
+It is noticeable, however, that where the plot is transferred to English
+ground Hawthorne's writing has much the same tone and quality that we
+find in "Our Old Home." External appearances seem to impede his insight
+there; but this is additional proof of the authenticity of the work.
+[Footnote: There are many other evidences; such as, "after-dinner
+speeches on the necessity of friendly relations between England and
+the United States," and "the whistling of the railway train, _two_ or
+_three_ times a day."]
+
+Shortly after the battle of Bull Run Hawthorne went with his boy to
+recuperate at Beverly Farms, leaving his wife and daughters at the
+Wayside, and the letters which passed between these two divisions of
+the family, during his absence, give some very pretty glimpses of their
+idyllic summer life. Mrs. Hawthorne "cultivated her garden," and gave
+drawing lessons to the neighbors' children, while her husband, forty
+miles away, was fishing and bathing. The Beverly shore has not a
+stimulating climate, but is very attractive in summer to those who do
+not mind a few sultry nights from land breezes. It was near enough to
+Salem for Hawthorne to revive the reminiscences of his youth (which
+become more and more precious after the age of fifty), without obtruding
+himself on the gaze of his former townsmen or of the young lady "who
+wished she could poison him." [Footnote: W. D. Howells' Memoirs.] It
+is to be hoped that he saw something of his sister Elizabeth again, the
+last remnant of his mother's household, who for some inscrutable reason
+had never visited him at Concord.
+
+We note here a curious circumstance; namely, that Hawthorne appears to
+have lost the art of writing short sketches. It will be recollected that
+twenty years earlier he did not feel equal to anything beyond this, and
+that it cost him a strenuous effort to escape from the habit. Now when
+he would have liked to return to that class of composition he could not
+do so. Fields would have welcomed anything from his pen (so severe a
+critic he was of himself), but his name does not appear in the _Atlantic
+Monthly_ from July, 1861, to June, 1862, and it cannot be doubted that
+with the education of his son before him, the remuneration would have
+been welcome. It was not until nearly a year later that he conceived the
+idea of cutting his English Note-book into sections, and publishing them
+as magazine articles.
+
+From this time forth, one discouragement followed another. In the
+autumn of 1861 the illness of his daughter, which he had expected and
+predicted, came to pass in a violent form. The old Roman virus, kept
+under in her blood, for a time, by continual changes of air and climate,
+at last gained the mastery, and brought her once more in danger of her
+life. She had to be removed to the house of her aunt, Mrs. Mann, who
+lived in the centre of the town, on account of her father's nerves, so
+that the Concord doctor could attend her at night when necessary. It was
+the severest and most protracted case of fever that the physician had
+ever known to be followed by a recovery. Miss Una did recover, but the
+mental strain upon her father was even more exhausting than that which
+her previous illness had caused, and he was not in an equal condition to
+bear it.
+
+"Septimius Felton" may have been written about this time (perhaps during
+his daughter's convalescence), but his family knew nothing of it, until
+they discovered the manuscript after his death. When it was published
+ten years later, the poet Whittier spoke of it as a failure, and
+Hawthorne would seem to have considered it so; for he left it in an
+unfinished condition, and immediately began a different story on the
+same theme,--the elixir of life. It has no connection with the sketch
+already mentioned, in which Alcott's personality becomes the mainspring,
+but with another abortive romance, called "The Ancestral Footstep,"
+which Hawthorne commenced while he was in England. It is invaluable for
+the light it throws on his method of working. Descriptive passages
+are mentioned in it "to be inserted" at a later time, meanwhile
+concentrating his energy on more important portions of the narrative.
+Half way through the story he changed his original plan, transforming
+the young woman who previously had been Septimius's sweetheart to
+Septimius's sister; and it may have been the difficulty of adjusting
+this change to the portion previously written, that discouraged
+Hawthorne from completing the romance. But the work suffers also from a
+tendency to exaggeration. The name of Hagburn is unpleasantly realistic,
+and Doctor Portsoaken, with his canopy of spider-webs hanging in noisome
+festoons above his head, is closely akin to the repulsive. The amateur
+critic who averred that he could not read Hawthorne without feeling
+a sensation as if cobwebs were drawn across his face, must have had
+"Septimius Felton" in mind. Yet there are refreshing passages in it, and
+the youthful English officer who kisses Septimius's sweetheart before
+his eyes, and afterward fights an impromptu duel with him, dying as
+cheerfully as he had lived, is an original and charming character. The
+scene of the story has a peculiar interest, from the fact that it is
+laid at Hawthorne's own door; the Feltons are supposed to have lived at
+the Wayside and the Hagburns in the Alcott house.
+
+The firm of Ticknor & Fields now began to feel anxious on Hawthorne's
+account, and the last of the winter the senior partner proposed a
+journey to Washington, which was accordingly accomplished in the second
+week of March. Horatio Bridge was now chief of a bureau in the Navy
+Department, and was well qualified to obtain for his veteran friend an
+inside position for whatever happened to be going on. In the midst of
+the turmoil and excitement of war, Hawthorne attracted as much attention
+as the arrival of a new ambassador from Great Britain. Secretary Stanton
+appointed him on a civil commission to report concerning the condition
+of the Army of the Potomac. He was introduced to President Lincoln,
+and made excursions to Harper's Ferry and Fortress Monroe. Concerning
+General McClellan, he wrote to his daughter on March 16:
+
+"The outcry opened against Gen. McClellan, since the enemy's retreat
+from Manassas, is really terrible, and almost universal; because it is
+found that we might have taken their fortifications with perfect ease
+six months ago, they being defended chiefly by wooden guns. Unless he
+achieves something wonderful within a week, he will be removed from
+command, at least I hope so; I never did more than half believe in him.
+By a message from the State Department, I have reason to think that
+there is money enough due me from the government to pay the expenses of
+my journey. I think the public buildings are as fine, if not finer, than
+anything we saw in Europe." [Footnote: J. Hawthorne, ii. 309.]
+
+General McClellan was not a great man, and Hawthorne's opinion of him is
+more significant from the fact that at that time McClellan was expected
+to be the Joshua who would lead the Democratic party out of its
+wilderness. On his return to Concord, Hawthorne prepared a commentary
+on what he had seen and heard at the seat of war, and sent it to the
+_Atlantic Monthly_; but, although patriotic enough, his melancholy
+humor was prominent in it, and Fields particularly protested against his
+referring to President Lincoln as "Old Abe," although the President was
+almost universally called so in Washington; and the consequence of
+this was that Hawthorne eliminated everything that he had written about
+Lincoln in his account,--which might be called "dehamletizing" the
+subject. In addition to this he wrote a number of foot-notes purporting
+to come from the editor, but really intended to counteract the
+unpopularity of certain statements in the text. This was not done with
+any intention to deceive, but, with the exception of Emerson and a few
+others who could always recognize Hawthorne's style, the readers of the
+_Atlantic_ supposed that these foot-notes were written by either James
+T. Fields or James Russell Lowell, who had been until recently the
+editor of the Magazine,--a practical joke which Hawthorne enjoyed
+immensely when it was discovered to him.
+
+This contribution, essay, or whatever it may be called, had only a
+temporary value, but it contained a prediction, which has been often
+recollected in Hawthorne's favor; namely, that after the war was
+over "one bullet-headed general after another would succeed to the
+presidential chair." In fact, five generals, whether bullet-headed or
+not, followed after Lincoln and Johnson; and then the sequence came
+to an end apparently because the supply of politician generals was
+exhausted. Certainly the Anglo-Saxon race yields to no other in
+admiration for military glory.
+
+Fields afterward published Hawthorne's monograph on President Lincoln,
+and, although it is rather an unsympathetic statement of the man, it
+remains the only authentic pen-and-ink sketch that we have of him. Most
+important is his recognition of Lincoln as "essentially a Yankee" in
+appearance and character; for it has only recently been discovered
+that Lincoln was descended from an old New England family, and that
+his ancestors first emigrated to Virginia and afterward to Kentucky.
+[Footnote: Essay on Lincoln in "True Republicanism."] Hawthorne says of
+him:
+
+"If put to guess his calling and livelihood, I should have taken him for
+a country schoolmaster as soon as anything else. [Footnote: The country
+school-master of that time.--Ed.] He was dressed in a rusty black
+frock-coat and pantaloons, unbrushed, and worn so faithfully that the
+suit had adapted itself to the curves and angularities of his figure,
+and had grown to be the outer skin of the man. He had shabby slippers on
+his feet. His hair was black, still unmixed with gray, stiff, somewhat
+bushy, and had apparently been acquainted with neither brush nor comb
+that morning, after the disarrangement of the pillow; and as to a
+nightcap, Uncle Abe probably knows nothing of such effeminacies. His
+complexion is dark and sallow, betokening, I fear, an insalubrious
+atmosphere around the White House; he has thick black eyebrows and
+impending brow; his nose is large, and the lines about his mouth are
+very strongly denned.
+
+"The whole physiognomy is as coarse a one as you would meet anywhere
+in the length and breadth of the States; but, withal, it is redeemed,
+illuminated, softened, and brightened by a kindly though serious look
+out of his eyes, and an expression of homely sagacity, that seems
+weighted with rich results of village experience. A great deal of native
+sense; no bookish cultivation, no refinement; honest at heart, and
+thoroughly so, and yet, in some sort, sly,--at least, endowed with a
+sort of tact and wisdom that are akin to craft.... But on the whole,
+I liked this sallow, queer, sagacious visage, with the homely human
+sympathies that warmed it; and, for my small share in the matter, would
+as lief have Uncle Abe for a ruler as any man whom it would have been
+practicable to put in his place." [Footnote: "Yesterdays with Authors,"
+99.]
+
+This is not a flattered portrait, like those by Lincoln's political
+biographers; neither is it an idealized likeness, such as we may
+imagine him delivering his Gettysburg Address. It is rather an external
+description of the man, but it is, after all, Lincoln as he appeared in
+the White House to the innumerable visitors, who, as sovereign American
+citizens, believed they had a right to an interview with the people's
+distinguished servant.
+
+Hawthorne's European letter-bag in 1862 is chiefly interesting for Henry
+Bright's statement that the English people might have more sympathy with
+the Union cause in the War if they could understand clearly what the
+national government was fighting for; and that Lord Houghton and Thomas
+Hughes were the only two men he had met who heartily supported the
+Northern side. Perhaps Mr. Bright would have found it equally as
+difficult to explain why the British Government should have made war
+upon Napoleon for twelve consecutive years.
+
+Henry Bright, moreover, seemed to be quite as much interested in a new
+American poet, named J. G. Holland, and his poem called "Bitter-Sweet."
+Lord Houghton agreed with him that it was a very remarkable poem, and
+they wished to know what Hawthorne could tell them about its author. As
+Holland was not recognized as a poet by the Saturday Club, Hawthorne's
+answer on this point would be very valuable if we could only obtain a
+sight of it. Holland was in certain respects the counterpart of Martin
+F. Tupper.
+
+In the summer of this year Hawthorne went to West Goldsboro', Maine, an
+unimportant place opposite Mount Desert Island, taking Julian with him;
+a place with a stimulating climate but a rather foggy atmosphere. He
+must have gone there for his health, and it is pathetic to see how
+the change of climate braced him up at first, so that he even made the
+commencement of a new diary, and then, as always happens in such cases,
+it let him down again to where he was before. He did not complain, but
+he felt that something was wrong with him and he could not tell what it
+was.
+
+Wherever he went in passing through the civilized portion of Maine, he
+found the country astir with recruits who had volunteered for the war,
+so that it seemed as if that were the only subject which occupied men's
+minds. He says of this in his journal:
+
+"I doubt whether any people was ever actuated by a more genuine and
+disinterested public spirit; though, of course, it is not unalloyed with
+baser motives and tendencies. We met a train of cars with a regiment
+or two just starting for the South, and apparently in high spirits.
+Everywhere some insignia of soldiership were to be seen,--bright
+buttons, a red stripe down the trousers, a military cap, and sometimes
+a round-shouldered bumpkin in the entire uniform. They require a great
+deal to give them the aspect of soldiers; indeed, it seems as if they
+needed to have a good deal taken away and added, like the rough clay of
+a sculptor as it grows to be a model."
+
+Such is the last entry in his journal. Hawthorne was not carried off his
+feet by the excitement of the time, but looked calmly on while others
+expended their patriotism in hurrahing for the Union. What he remarks
+concerning the volunteers was perfectly true Men cannot change their
+profession in a day, and soldiers are not to be made out of farmers'
+boys and store clerks simply by clothing them in uniform, no matter how
+much courage they may have. War is a profession like other professions,
+and requires the severest training of them all.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+IMMORTALITY
+
+
+In the autumn of 1862 there was great excitement in Massachusetts.
+President Lincoln had issued his premonitory proclamation of
+emancipation, and Harvard College was stirred to its academic depths.
+Professor Joel Parker, of the Law School, pronounced Lincoln's action
+unconstitutional, subversive of the rights of property, and a most
+dangerous precedent. With Charles Eliot Norton and other American
+Tories, Parker headed a movement for the organization of a People's
+Party, which had for its immediate object the defeat of Andrew for
+Governor and the relegation of Sumner to private life. The first they
+could hardly expect to accomplish, but it was hoped that a sufficient
+number of conservative representatives would be elected to the
+Legislature to replace Sumner by a Republican, who would be more to
+their own minds; and they would be willing to compromise on such a
+candidate as Honorable E. R. Hoar,--although Judge Hoar was innocent
+of this himself and was quite as strongly anti-slavery as Sumner. The
+movement came to nothing, as commonly happens with political movements
+that originate in universities, but for the time being it caused a great
+commotion and nowhere more so than in the town of Concord. Emerson was
+never more emphatic than in demanding the re-election of Andrew and
+Sumner.
+
+How Hawthorne felt about this and how he voted in November, can only be
+conjectured by certain indications, slight, it is true, but all pointing
+in one direction. As long since explained, he entertained no very
+friendly feeling toward the Cotton Whigs; his letter to his daughter
+concerning Gen. McClellan, who set himself against the proclamation
+and was removed in consequence, should be taken into consideration;
+and still more significant is the letter to Horatio Bridge, in which
+Hawthorne proposed the enlistment of negro soldiers. Doctor George B.
+Loring, of Salem, always a loyal friend to the Hawthorne family, came
+to Concord in September to deliver an address at the annual cattle-show,
+and visited at the Wayside. He had left the Democratic party and become
+a member of the Bird Club, which was then the centre of political
+influence in the State. As a matter of course he explained his new
+position to Hawthorne. He had long felt attracted to the Republican
+party, and but for his influential position among his fellow-Democrats,
+he would have joined it sooner. Parties were being reconstructed. Half
+the Democrats had become Republicans; and a considerable portion of the
+Whigs had joined the Democratic party. The interests of the Republic
+were in the hands of the Republican party and it ought to be supported.
+We can believe that Hawthorne listened to him with close attention.
+
+It was in the spring of 1862 that I first became well acquainted with
+the Hawthorne family, which seemed to exist in an atmosphere of purity
+and refinement derived from the man's own genius. Julian visited me at
+our house in Medford during the early summer, where he made great havoc
+among the small fruits of the season. We boxed, fenced, skated, played
+cricket and studied Cicero together. As my father was one of the most
+revolutionary of the Free-Soilers, this may have amused Hawthorne as an
+instance of the Montagues and Capulets; but I found much sympathy with
+my political notions in his household. When the first of January came
+there was a grand celebration of the Emancipation in Boston Music Hall.
+Mrs. Hawthorne and Una were very desirous to attend it, and I believe
+they both did so--Miss Una at all events. If Mrs. Hawthorne's opinions
+could be taken in any sense as a reflection of her husband's mind, he
+was certainly drifting away from his old associations.
+
+In October, 1862, Hawthorne published the first of a series of studies
+from English life and scenery, taken chiefly from his Note-book, and he
+continued this at intervals until the following summer, when Ticknor
+& Fields brought them out with some additions in book form as "Our Old
+Home;" a volume which has already been considered in these pages. It was
+not a favorable time for the publication of classic literature, for the
+whole population of the United States was in a ferment; and moreover the
+unfriendly attitude of the English educated classes toward the cause of
+the Union, was beginning to have its effect with us. In truth it seemed
+rather inconsistent that the philanthropic Gladstone, who had always
+professed himself the friend of freedom, should glorify Jefferson Davis
+as the founder of a new nation--a republic of slaveholders. In addition
+to this, Hawthorne insisted on dedicating the volume to President
+Pierce, and when his publishers protested that this would tend to make
+the book unpopular, he replied in a spirited manner, that if that was
+the case it was all the more reason why Pierce's friends should signify
+their continued confidence in him. This may have made little difference,
+however, for comparatively few readers notice the dedication of a
+book until after they have purchased it; and we like Hawthorne for his
+firmness in this instance.
+
+In England the book produced a sensation of the unfavorable sort.
+Hawthorne's attack on the rotundity of the English ladies, whatever may
+have been his reason for it, was, to speak reservedly, somewhat lacking
+in delicacy. It stirred up a swarm of newspaper enemies against him;
+and proved a severe strain to the attachment of his friends there. Henry
+Bright wrote to him:
+
+"It really was too bad, some of the things you say. You talk like a
+cannibal. Mrs. Heywood says to my mother, 'I really believe you and
+I were the only ladies he knew in Liverpool, and we are not like
+beefsteaks.' So all the ladies are furious." [Footnote: J. Hawthorne,
+ii. 280. Good Mrs. Alcott also objected stoutly to the reflections on
+her sex.]
+
+But Hawthorne was no longer what he had been, and allowance should be
+made for this.
+
+Hawthorne's chief interest at this time, however, lay in the preparation
+of his son for Harvard College. Julian was sixteen in August and,
+considering the itinerant life he had lived, well advanced in his
+studies. He was the best-behaved boy in Concord, in school or out, and
+an industrious though not ambitious scholar. He was strong, vigorous
+and manly; and his parents had sufficient reason to be proud of him. To
+expect him, however, to enter Harvard College at the age of seventeen
+was somewhat unreasonable. His father had entered Bowdoin at that age,
+but the requirements at Harvard were much more severe than at Bowdoin;
+enough to make a difference of at least one year in the age of the
+applicant. For a boy to enter college in a half-fitted condition is
+simply to make a false start in life, for he is only too likely to
+become discouraged, and either to drag along at the foot of the class or
+to lose his place in it altogether. Hawthorne may have felt that the end
+of earthly affairs was close upon him, and wished to see his son started
+on the right road before that came; but Emerson also had an interest in
+having Julian go to college at exactly this time; namely, to obtain him
+as a chum for his wife's nephew, with the advantage of a tutor's room
+thrown in as an extra inducement. He advised Hawthorne to place
+Julian in charge of a Harvard professor who was supposed to have a
+sleight-of-hand faculty for getting his pupils through the examinations.
+Julian worked bravely, and succeeded in entering Harvard the following
+July; but he was nine months (or a good school year), younger than the
+average of his class.
+
+Hawthorne did not leave home this summer (1863), and the only letter we
+have of his was the one to James T. Fields concerning the dedication of
+"Our Old Home," which was published in the autumn. Julian states that
+his father spent much of his time standing or walking in his narrow
+garden before the house, and looking wistfully across the meadows to
+Walden woods. His strength was evidently failing him, yet he could not
+explain why--nor has it ever been explained.
+
+One bright day in November two of us walked up from Cambridge with
+Julian and lunched at his father's. Mr. Hawthorne received us cordially,
+but in a tremulous manner that betrayed the weakness of his nerves. As
+soon as Julian had left the room, he said to us, "I suppose it would be
+of little use to ask you young gentlemen what sort of a scholar Julian
+is." H---- replied to this, that we were neither of us in the division
+with him, but that he had heard nothing unfavorable in regard to his
+recitations; and I told him that Julian went to the gymnasium with me
+every evening, and appeared to live a very regular kind of life.
+This seemed to please Mr. Hawthorne very much, and he soon produced a
+decanter of port, and, his son having entered the room again, he said,
+"I want to teach Julian the taste of good wine, so that he will learn to
+avoid those horrible punches, which I am told you have at Harvard." We
+all laughed greatly at this, which was afterward increased by Julian's
+saying that the only punches he had yet seen were those which the
+sophomores gave us in the foot-ball fight,--or some such statement. It
+was a bright occasion for all of us, and when Mrs. Hawthorne and her
+daughters entered the room, such a beautiful group as they all formed
+together! And Hawthorne himself seemed ten years younger than when he
+first greeted us.
+
+He was the most distinguished-looking man that I ever beheld, and
+no sensible person could meet him without instantly recognizing his
+superior mental endowment. His features were not only classic
+but grandly classic; and his eyes large, dark, luminous,
+unfathomable--looking into them was like looking into a deep well. His
+face seemed to give a pictorial reflection of whatever was taking place
+about him; and again became like a transparency through which one could
+see dim vistas of beautiful objects. The changes of expression on it
+were like the sunshine and clouds of a summer day--perhaps thunder
+clouds sometimes, with flashes of lightning, which his son may still
+remember; for where there is a great heart there will always be great
+heat.
+
+
+"THE DOLLIVER ROMANCE"
+
+According to James T. Fields, the ground-plan of this work was laid
+the preceding winter, but Hawthorne became dissatisfied with the way in
+which the subject developed itself and so set the manuscript aside until
+he could come to it again with fresh inspiration. With the more bracing
+weather of September he commenced on it again, and wrote during the next
+two months that portion which we now have. On December 1 he forwarded
+two chapters to Ticknor & Fields, requesting to have them set up so that
+he could see them in print and obtain a retrospective view of his work
+before he proceeded further. Yet on December 15 he wrote again, saying
+that he had not yet found courage to attack the proofs, and that all
+mental exertion had become hateful to him. [Footnote: "Yesterdays with
+Authors," 115.] He was evidently feeling badly, and for the first time
+Mrs. Hawthorne was seriously anxious for him. Four days later she wrote
+to Una, who was visiting in Beverly:
+
+"Papa is comfortable to-day, but very thin and pale and weak. I give him
+oysters now. Hitherto he has had only toasted crackers and lamb and
+beef tea. I am very impatient that he should see Dr. Vanderseude, but he
+wants to go to him himself, and he cannot go till it be good weather....
+The splendor and pride of strength in him have succumbed; but they can
+be restored, I am sure. Meanwhile he is very nervous and delicate; he
+cannot bear anything, and he must be handled like the airiest Venetian
+glass." [Footnote: J. Hawthorne, ii. 333.]
+
+He divided his time between lying on a sofa and sitting in an arm-chair;
+and he did not seem very comfortable in either position. It was long
+since he had attended meetings of the Saturday Club.
+
+It is clear from this that Hawthorne had not recently consulted a doctor
+concerning his condition, and perhaps not at all. He may have been right
+enough in supposing that no common practitioner could give him help, but
+there was at that time one of the finest of physiologists in Boston,
+Dr. Edward H. Clark, who cured hundreds of sick people every year, as
+quietly and unostentatiously as Dame Nature herself. He was a graduate
+of the University of Pennsylvania, and as such not generally looked upon
+with favor by the Boston medical profession, but when Agassiz's large
+brain gave way in 1868, Dr. Brown-Sequard telegraphed to him from Europe
+to consult Edward Clark, and Doctor Clark so improved his health that
+Agassiz afterward enjoyed a number of years of useful work. Perhaps he
+might have accomplished as much for Hawthorne; but how was Hawthorne in
+his retired and uncommunicative life to know of him? There are decided
+advantages in living in the great world, and in knowing what goes on
+there,--if one only can.
+
+It is doubtful if Hawthorne ever opened the proof of "The Dolliver
+Romance." In February he wrote to Fields that he could not possibly
+go on with it, and as it had already been advertised for the _Atlantic
+Monthly_, a notification had to be published concerning the matter,
+which startled Longfellow, Whittier and other old friends of Hawthorne,
+who were not in the way of knowing much about him. The fragment that we
+now have of it was printed in the _Atlantic_ many years after his death.
+
+It was the last expiring ember of Hawthorne's genius, blazing up
+fitfully and momentarily with the same brightness as of old, and then
+disappearing like Hawthorne himself into the unknown and the unknowable.
+It is a fragment, and yet it seems complete, for it is impossible to
+imagine how the story could have been continued beyond its present
+limits; and Hawthorne left no word from which we can conjecture his
+further intentions in regard to it.
+
+There was an old apothecary in Concord, named Reynolds, a similar man
+to, but not so aged as, Hawthorne's Doctor Dolliver; and he also had a
+son, a bright enterprising boy,--too bright and spirited to suit Boston
+commercialism,--who went westward in 1858 to seek his fortune, nor
+have I ever heard of his return. The child Pansie, frisking with her
+kitten--a more simple, ingenuous, and self-centred, but also less
+sympathetic nature than the Pearl of Hester Prynne--may have been
+studied from Hawthorne's daughter Rose. There also lived at Concord
+in Hawthorne's time a man with the title of Colonel, a pretentious,
+self-satisfied person, who corresponded fairly to his description of
+Colonel Dabney, in "The Dolliver Romance." Neither is it singular that
+the apothecary's garden should have bordered on a grave-yard, for there
+are two old cemeteries in Concord in the very centre of the town.
+
+I know of no such portrait of an old man as Doctor Dolliver in art or
+literature,--except perhaps Tintoretto's portrait of his aged self, in
+the Louvre. We not only see the customary marks of age upon him, but we
+feel them so that it seems as if we grew old and stiff and infirm as we
+read of him; and the internal life of old age is revealed to us, not by
+confessions of the man himself, but by every word he speaks and every
+act he does as if the writer were a skilful tragedian upon the stage.
+It seems as if Hawthorne must have felt all this himself during the last
+year of his life, to describe it so vividly; but he ascends by these
+infirm steps to loftier heights than ever before, and the scene in which
+he represents Doctor Dolliver seated at night before the fire in his
+chamber after Pansie had been put to bed, is the noblest passage in the
+whole cycle of Hawthorne's art; one of those rare passages written in
+moments of gifted insight, when it seems as if a higher power guided the
+writer's hand. It is given here entire, for to subtract a word from it
+would be an irreparable injury.
+
+"While that music lasted, the old man was alive and happy. And there
+were seasons, it might be, happier than even these, when Pansie had been
+kissed and put to bed, and Grandsir Dolliver sat by his fireside
+gazing in among the massive coals, and absorbing their glow into those
+cavernous abysses with which all men communicate. Hence come angels or
+fiends into our twilight musings, according as we may have peopled them
+in by-gone years. Over our friend's face, in the rosy flicker of the
+fire-gleam, stole an expression of repose and perfect trust that made
+him as beautiful to look at, in his high-backed chair, as the child
+Pansie on her pillow; and sometimes the spirits that were watching him
+beheld a calm surprise draw slowly over his features and brighten into
+joy, yet not so vividly as to break his evening quietude. The gate of
+heaven had been kindly left ajar, that this forlorn old creature
+might catch a glimpse within. All the night afterwards, he would be
+semi-conscious of an intangible bliss diffused through the fitful lapses
+of an old man's slumber, and would awake, at early dawn, with a faint
+thrilling of the heart-strings, as if there had been music just now
+wandering over them."
+
+So Jacob in the desert saw angels descending and ascending on a ladder
+from Heaven. Discouraged, depressed, the door closed upon his earthly
+hopes, not only for himself, but for those whom he loves much better
+than himself, so far as he could ever be a help and a providence to
+them, Hawthorne finds a purer joy and a higher hope in the depths of his
+own spirit.
+
+In the second chapter, or fragment, of this romance, Doctor Dolliver,
+followed by Pansie, goes out into the garden one frosty October morning,
+and while the apothecary is digging at his herbs, the imitative child,
+with an instinctive repulsion for everything strange and morbid, pulls
+up the fatal plant from which the elixir of life was distilled, and
+frightened at her grandfather's chiding, runs with it into the cemetery
+where it is lost among the graves and never seen again. This account
+stands by itself, having no direct connection with what precedes or
+follows; but the delineation is so vivid, the poetic element in it so
+strong, that it may be said to stand without assistance, and does not
+require the name of Hawthorne to give it value.
+
+In the conclusion, the elixir of life proves to be an elixir of death;
+extremes meet and are reconciled. As he says in "The Marble Faun," joy
+changes to sorrow and sorrow is laughed away; the experience of both
+being that which is really valuable. Doctor Dolliver and Pansie are
+figures for the end and the beginning of life; the Old Year and the
+New. Such is the sum of Hawthorne's philosophy--the ultimate goal of his
+thought. There could have been no more fitting consummation of his work.
+The cycle of his art is complete, and death binds the laurel round his
+brow.
+
+
+A HERO'S END
+
+After Hawthorne's letter of February 25, Fields felt that he ought to
+make an effort in his behalf. Fields's partner, W. D. Ticknor, was also
+ailing, and it was arranged that he and Hawthorne should go on a journey
+southward as soon as the weather permitted. Doctor Holmes was consulted,
+and the last of March Hawthorne came to Boston and met Holmes at
+Fields's house. Holmes made an examination, which was anything but
+satisfactory to his own mind; in fact, he was appalled at the condition
+in which he found his former companion of the Saturday Club. "He was
+very gentle," Holmes says; "very willing to answer questions, very
+docile to such counsel as I offered him, but evidently had no hope of
+recovering his health. He spoke as if his work were done, and he should
+write no more." [Footnote: _Atlantic Monthly_, July, 1864.] The doctor,
+however, must have been mistaken in supposing that Hawthorne was
+suffering from the same malady that carried off General Grant, for no
+human being could die in that manner without suffering greater pain
+than Hawthorne gave any indication of; and the sedatives which Holmes
+prescribed for him could only have resulted in a weakening of
+the nerves. He even warned Hawthorne against the use of alcoholic
+stimulants, to which for some time he had been more or less accustomed.
+
+Hawthorne and Ticknor went to New York, and two days later Ticknor was
+able to write to Mrs. Hawthorne that her husband appeared to be much
+improved. How cruelly disappointing to meet him at their own door four
+days later, haggard, weary and more dispirited than when he had left the
+Wayside on March 26! He had proceeded to Philadelphia with Ticknor, and
+there at the Continental Hotel Ticknor was suddenly seized with a mortal
+malady and died almost in Hawthorne's arms, before the latter could
+notify his family in Boston that he was ill. What a severe ordeal for a
+man who was strong and well, but to a person in Hawthorne's condition it
+was like a thunderbolt. Ticknor's son came to him at once, and together
+they performed the necessary duties of the occasion, and made their
+melancholy way homeward. Nothing, perhaps, except a death in his
+own family, could have had so unfavorable an effect upon Hawthorne's
+condition.
+
+Some good angel now notified Franklin Pierce of the serious posture
+of affairs, and he came at once to Concord to offer his services in
+Hawthorne's behalf. However, he could propose nothing more hopeful than
+a journey in the uplands of New Hampshire, and for this it would be
+necessary to wait for settled weather. So Hawthorne remained at home for
+the next month without his condition becoming apparently either better
+or worse. At length, on May 13, the ex-President returned and they went
+together the following day.
+
+We will not linger over that leave-taking on the porch of the Wayside;
+so pathetic, so full of tenderness, even of despair, and yet with a
+slender ray of hope beneath the leaden cloud of anxiety. To Hawthorne it
+must have seemed even more discouraging than to his wife and children,
+though none of them could have suspected that the end would be so soon.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+On the morning of May 20, I had just returned from my first recitation
+when Julian Hawthorne appeared at my room in the Massachusetts
+dormitory, and said, like a man gasping for breath, "My father is
+dead, and I want you to come with me." Fields had sent him word
+through Professor Gurney, who knew how to deliver such a message in the
+kindliest manner. We went at once to Fields's house on Charles Street,
+where Mrs. Fields gave Julian the little information already known to
+them through a dispatch from Franklin Pierce,--that his father died
+during his sleep in the night of May 18, at the Pemmigewasset House,
+Plymouth, New Hampshire. After this we wandered about Boston, silent and
+aimless, until the afternoon train carried him to Concord. He greatly
+dreaded meeting the gaze of his fellow-townsmen, and confessed that he
+wanted to hide himself in the woods like a wounded deer. [Footnote:
+The passage in "A Fool of Nature," in which he describes Murgatroyd's
+discovery of his father's death, must have been a reminiscence of this
+time--a passage of the finest genius.]
+
+On Wednesday, May 18, Hawthorne and Pierce drove from Centre Harbor to
+Plymouth, a long and rather rough journey to be taken in a carriage.
+Hawthorne, however, did not make much complaint of this, nor did he
+seem to be unusually fatigued. He retired to his room soon after
+nine o'clock, and was sleeping comfortably an hour later. Pierce was
+evidently nervous about him, for he went in to look at him at two in the
+morning, and again at four; and the last time he discovered that life
+was extinct. Hawthorne had died in his sleep as quietly and peacefully
+as he had lived. There is the same mystery in his death that there was
+in his life, and it is difficult to assign either an immediate or a
+proximate cause for it. With such a physique, and his simple, regular
+habits of life, he ought to have reached the age of ninety. General
+Pierce believed that he died of paralysis, and that is the most probable
+explanation; but it was not like the usual cases of paralysis at
+Hawthorne's age; for, as we have seen, the process of disintegration and
+failure of his powers had been going on for years. Nor did this follow,
+as commonly happens, a protracted period of adversity, but it came upon
+him during the most prosperous portion of his life. The first ten years
+following upon his marriage were years of anxiety, self-denial and even
+hardship; but other men, Alcott, for example, have suffered as much and
+yet lived to a good old age. It may have been "the old dull pain" which
+Longfellow associated with him, filing perpetually on the vital cord. It
+was part of the enigmatic side of his nature.
+
+The last ceremonies of respect to the earthly remains of Hawthorne
+were performed at Concord on May 23, 1864, in the Unitarian Church, a
+commodious building, [Footnote: In 1899 this building was burned to
+the ground, and a new church has been erected on the same spot.] well
+adapted to the great concourse of mourners who gathered there on this
+occasion. Reverend James Freeman Clarke, who had united Hawthorne and
+Sophia Peabody in marriage twenty-two years before, was now called upon
+to preside over the last act in their married life. The simple eloquence
+of his address penetrated to the heart of every person present.
+"Hawthorne had achieved a twofold immortality,--and his immortality on
+earth would be a comforting presence to all who mourned him. The noblest
+men of the age had gathered there, to testify to his worth as a man
+as well as to his genius as a writer." Faces were to be seen in that
+assembly that were never beheld in Concord before. Among these was the
+soldierly figure and flashing eye of the poet Whittier. Longfellow,
+Emerson, Lowell, Agassiz, Alcott and Hillard were present; and
+ex-President Pierce shook hands with Judge Hoar over Hawthorne's bier.
+After the services the assembly of mourners proceeded to Sleepy Hollow
+cemetery, and there the mortal remains of Hawthorne were buried under
+the pine trees on the same hill-side where he and Emerson and Margaret
+Fuller conversed together on the summer afternoon twenty years before.
+He needs no monument, for he has found a place in the universal pantheon
+of art and literature.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It would seem advisable at this parting of the ways to say something of
+Hawthorne's religious convictions. He went as a boy with his mother and
+sisters to the East Church in Salem, a society of liberal tendencies
+and then on the verge of Unitarianism. All the Manning family attended
+service there, but at a later time Robert Manning separated from it and
+joined an orthodox society. Hawthorne's mother and his sister Louisa
+became Unitarians, and at Madam Hawthorne's death in 1848 the funeral
+services were conducted by Reverend Thomas T. Stone, of the First
+Salem Church. It is presumable that Nathaniel Hawthorne also became
+a Unitarian, so far as he can be considered a sectarian at all; but
+certain elements of the older faith still remained in his mental
+composition. It cannot be questioned that the strong optimism in
+Emerson's philosophy was derived from Doctor Channing's instruction, and
+it is equally certain that Hawthorne could never agree to this. Whatever
+might be the origin of evil or its abstract value, he found it too
+potent an element in human affairs to be quietly reasoned out of
+existence. Whatever might be the ultimate purpose of Divine Providence,
+the witchcraft prosecutions were an awful calamity to those who were
+concerned in them. In this respect he resembled David A. Wasson, one of
+the most devout religious minds, who left the church of Calvin (as it
+was in his time), without ever becoming a Unitarian or a radical. Miss
+Rebecca Manning says:
+
+"I never knew of Hawthorne's going to church at all, after I remember
+about him, and do not think he was ever in the habit of going. I think
+he may have gone sometimes when he was in England, but I do not know
+about it. Somewhere in Julian or Rose Hawthorne's reminiscences, there
+is mention made of his reading family prayers, when he was in England.
+He, as also his mother and sisters were people of deeply religious
+natures, though not always showing it by outward observances."
+
+A Concord judge and an old Free-Soil politician once attended a
+religious convention, and after the business of the day was over they
+went to walk together. The politician confessed to the judge that he had
+no very definite religious belief, for which the judge thought he
+did himself great injustice; but is not that the most advanced and
+intelligent condition of a man's religious faith? How can we possess
+clear and definite ideas of the grand mystery of Creation? Consider only
+this simple metaphysical fact, that space has no limit, and that we
+can neither conceive a beginning of time nor imagine time without a
+beginning. What is there outside of the universe? The brain reels as
+we think of it. The time has gone by when a man can say to himself
+definitely, I believe this or I believe that; but we know at least that
+we, "the creature of a day," cannot be the highest form of intelligence
+in this wonderful world. We thought that we lived in solid bodies, but
+electric rays have been discovered by which the skeletons inside of us
+become visible. The correlation and conservation of forces brings us
+very close to the origin of all force; and yet in another sense we are
+as far off as ever from the perception of it.
+
+This would seem to have been also Hawthorne's position in regard to
+religious faith. What do we know of the religious belief of Michel
+Angelo, of Shakespeare, or of Beethoven? We cannot doubt that they
+were sincerely and purely religious men; but neither of them made any
+confession of their faith. Vittoria Colonna may have known something of
+Michel Angelo's belief, but Vasari does not mention it; and Beethoven
+confessed it was a subject that he did not like to talk about. The
+deeper a man's sense of the awe and mystery which underlies Nature, the
+less he feels inclined to expose it to the public gaze. Hawthorne's own
+family did not know what his religious opinions were--only that he was
+religious. One may imagine that the reticent man would be more reticent
+on this subject than on any other; but we can feel confident that at
+least he was not a sceptic, for the confirmed sceptic inevitably becomes
+a chatterer. He walks to Walden Pond with Hillard and Emerson on
+Sunday, and confesses his doubts as to the utility of the Church (in its
+condition at that time), for spiritual enlightenment; but in regard to
+the great omnipresent fact of spirituality he has no doubt. In "The Snow
+Image" he makes a statue come to life, and says in conclusion that if a
+new miracle is ever wrought in this world it will be in some such simple
+manner as he has described.
+
+To the poetic mind, which is after all the highest form of intellect,
+the grand fact of existence is a sufficient miracle. The rising of
+the sun, the changes of the seasons, the blooming of flowers and the
+ripening of the grain, were all miracles to Hawthorne, and none the less
+so because they are continually being repeated. The scientists tell us
+that all these happen according to natural laws: perfectly true, but WHO
+was it that made those laws? WHO is it that keeps the universe running?
+Laws made for the regulation of human affairs by the wisest of men often
+prove ineffective, and inadequate to the purpose for which they were
+intended; but the laws of Nature work with unfailing accuracy. The boy
+solves his problem in algebra, finding out the unknown quantity by those
+values which are given him; and can we not also infer something of the
+_unknown_ from the great panorama that passes unceasingly before us? The
+one thing that Hawthorne could not have understood was, how gifted minds
+like Lucretius and Auguste Comte could recognize only the evidence of
+their senses, and deliberately blind themselves to the evidence of their
+intellects. He who denies the existence of mind as a reality resembles
+a person looking for his spectacles when they are on his nose; but it is
+the imagination of the poet that leads civilization onward to its goal.
+
+College life is rather generally followed by a period of scepticism,
+partly owing in former times to the enforced attendance at morning
+prayers, and still more perhaps to the study of Greek and Latin authors.
+During what might be called Hawthorne's period of despair, he could not
+very well have obtained consolation from the traditional forms of divine
+worship; at least, such has been the experience of all those who have
+passed through the Wertherian stage, so far as we know of them. It is a
+time when every man has to strike the fountain of spiritual life out of
+the hard rock of his own existence; and those are fortunate who, like
+Moses and Hawthorne, strike forcibly enough to accomplish this. It is
+the "new birth from above," in the light of which religious forms seem
+of least importance.
+
+One effect of matrimony is commonly a deepening of religious feeling,
+but it is not surprising that Hawthorne should not have attended church
+after his marriage. His wife had not been accustomed to church-going,
+on account of the uncertainty of her health; the Old Manse was a long
+distance from the Concord tabernacle; Hawthorne's associates in Concord,
+with the exception of Judge Keyes, were not in the habit of going to
+church; and the officiating minister, both at that time and during
+his later sojourn, was not a person who could have been intellectually
+attractive to him. Somewhat similar reasons may have interfered with his
+attendance after his return to Salem; and during the last fifteen years
+of his life, he was too much of a wanderer to take a serious interest
+in the local affairs of the various places he inhabited; but he was
+desirous that his children should go to church and should be brought up
+in honest Christian ways.
+
+Little more need to be said concerning Hawthorne's character as a
+man. It was not so perfect as Longfellow's, to whom all other American
+authors should bow the head in this respect--the Washington of poets;
+and yet it was a rare example of purity, refinement, and patient
+endurance. His faults were insignificant in comparison with his virtues,
+and the most conspicuous of them, his tendency to revenge himself for
+real or fancied injuries, is but a part of the natural instinct in us
+to return the blows we receive in self-defence. Wantonly, and of his own
+accord, he never injured human being. His domestic life was as pure and
+innocent as that which appeared before the world; and Mrs. Hawthorne
+once said of him in my presence that she did not believe he ever
+committed an act that could properly be considered wrong. It was like
+his writing, and his "wells of English undefiled" were but as a synonym
+for the clear current of his daily existence.
+
+The ideality in Hawthorne's face was so conspicuous that it is
+recognizable in every portrait of him. It was not the cold visionary
+expression of the abstract thinker, but a human poetic intelligence,
+which resolved all things into a spiritual alembic of its own. It is
+this which elevates him above all writers who only deal with the outer
+world as they find it, and add nothing to it from their own natures.
+
+George Brandes, the Danish critic and essayist, speaks of Hawthorne
+somewhere as "the baby poet;" but we suspect that if he had ever met the
+living Hawthorne, he would have stood very much in awe of him. It would
+not have been like meeting Ernest Renan or John Stuart Mill. Although
+Hawthorne was not splenetic or rash, there was an occasional look in his
+eye which a prudent person might beware of. He was emphatically a man of
+courage.
+
+The wide and liberal interest which German scholars and writers have so
+long taken in the literature of other nations, has resulted in founding
+an informal literary tribunal in Germany, to which the rest of the world
+is accustomed to appeal. A. E. Schoenbach, one of the most recent German
+writers on universal literature, gives his impression of Hawthorne in
+the following statement:
+
+"I find the distinguishing excellence of Hawthorne's imaginative
+writings in the union of profound, keen, psychological development of
+characters and problems with the most lucid objectivity and a joyous
+modern realism. Occasionally there appears a light and delicate humor,
+sometimes hidden in a mere adjective, or little phrase which lights up
+the gloomiest situation with a gentle ray of hope. Far from unimportant
+do I rate the charm of his language, its purity, its melody, its
+graceful flexibility, the wealth of vocabulary, the polish which rarely
+betrays the touch of the file. After, or with George Eliot, Hawthorne
+is the first English prose writer of our century. At the same time he
+sacrifices nothing of his peculiar American quality. Not only does he
+penetrate into the most secret inner movements of the old colonial life,
+as no one else has done, and reproduces the spirit of his forefathers
+with a power of intuition which no historical work could equal; but
+in all his other works, from the biography of General Pierce, to the
+'Marble Faun,' Hawthorne shows the freshness and keenness, the precision
+and lucidity, and other qualities not easy to describe, which belong
+to American literature. He is its chief representative." [Footnote:
+"Gesammelte Aufsatze zur neueren Litteratur," p. 346.]
+
+Hawthorne has always been accorded a high position in literature, and as
+time goes on I believe this will be increased rather than diminished. In
+beauty of diction he is the first of American writers, and there are few
+that equal him in this respect in other languages. It is a pleasure to
+read him, simply for his form of expression, and apart from the meaning
+which he conveys in his sentences. It is like the grace of the Latin
+races,--like Dante and Chateaubriand; and the adaptation of his words is
+so perfect that we never have to think twice for his meaning. In
+those editions called the Elzevirs, which are so much prized by book
+collectors, the clearness and legibility of the type result from such a
+fine proportion of space and line that no other printer has succeeded in
+imitating it; and there is something similar to this in the construction
+of Hawthorne's sentences.
+
+He is the romance writer of the English language; and there is no form
+of literature which the human race prizes more. How many translations
+there have been of "The Vicar of Wakefield," and of "The Sorrows of
+Werther"! The latter is not one of Goethe's best, and yet it made him
+famous at the age of twenty-eight. The novel deals with what is new and
+surprising; the romance with what is old and universal. In "The Vicar of
+Wakefield" we have the old story of virtue outwitted by evil, which is
+in its turn outwitted by wisdom. There is nothing new in it except the
+charming exposition which Goldsmith's genius has given to the subject.
+Thackeray ridiculed "The Sorrows of Werther," and in the light of
+matured judgment the tale appears ridiculous; but it strikes home to the
+heart, because we all learn wisdom through such experiences, of which
+young Werther's is an extreme instance. It was only another example of
+the close relation that subsists between comedy and tragedy.
+
+It cannot be questioned that "The Scarlet Letter" ranks above "The
+Sorrows of Werther;" nor is it less evident that "The Marble Faun" falls
+short of "Wilhelm Meister" and "Don Quixote." [Footnote: See "Cervantes"
+in _North American Review_, May, 1905] Hawthorne's position, therefore,
+lies between these two--nearer perhaps to "Werther" than to "Wilhelm
+Meister." In certain respects he is surpassed by the great English
+novelists: Fielding, Scott, Thackeray, Dickens and Marian Evans; but he
+in turn surpasses them all in the perfection and poetic quality of
+his art. There is much poetry in Scott and Dickens, a little also
+in Thackeray and Miss Evans, but Hawthorne's poetic vein has a more
+penetrating tone, and appeals more deeply than Scott's verses. If power
+and versatility of characterization were to be the test of imaginative
+writing, Dickens would push closely on to Shakespeare; but we do not go
+to Shakespeare to read about Hamlet or Falstaff, or for the sake of
+the story, or even for his wisdom, but for the _tout ensemble_--to
+read Shakespeare. Raphael painted a dozen or more pictures on the same
+subject, but they are all original, interesting and valuable, because
+Raphael painted them. If it were not for the odd characters and variety
+of incident in Dickens's novels they would hardly be worth reading.
+Hawthorne's _dramatis personae_ is not a long one, for his plots do not
+admit of it, but his characters are finely drawn, and the fact that
+they have not become popular types is rather in their favor. There
+are Dombeys and Shylocks in plenty, but who has ever met a Hamlet or a
+Rosalind in real life?
+
+A certain English writer promulgated a list of the hundred superior
+authors of all times and countries. There were no Americans in his
+catalogue, but he admitted that if the number was increased to one
+hundred and eighteen Hawthorne and Emerson might be included in it.
+Doubtless he had not heard of Webster or Alexander Hamilton, and many of
+his countrymen would be inclined to place Longfellow before Emerson.
+
+I have myself frequently counted over the great writers of all times and
+languages, weighing their respective values carefully in my mind, but I
+have never been able to discover more than thirty-five authors who seem
+to me decidedly superior to Hawthorne, nor above forty others who might
+be placed on an equality with him. [Footnote: Appendix C.] This, of
+course, is only an individual opinion, and should be accepted for what
+it is worth; but there are many ancient writers, like Hesiod, Xenophon,
+and Catullus, whose chief value resides in their antiquity, and a much
+larger number of modern authors, such as Balzac, Victor Hugo, Freytag,
+and Ruskin, who have been over-estimated in their own time. Petrarch,
+and the author of "Gil Bias," might be placed on a level with Hawthorne,
+but certainly not above him. Those whom he most closely resembles in
+style and subject matter are Goldsmith, Manzoni, and Auerbach.
+
+Yet Hawthorne is essentially a domestic writer,--a poetizer of the
+hearth-stone. Social life is always the proper subject for works of
+fiction, and political life should never enter into them, except as
+a subordinate element; but there is a border-land between the two, in
+which politics and society act and react on each other, and it is from
+this field that the great subjects for epic and dramatic poetry have
+always been reaped. Hawthorne only knew of this by hearsay. Of the
+strenuous conflict that continually goes on in political centres like
+London and New York, a struggle for wealth, for honor, and
+precedence; of plots and counterplots, of foiled ambition and ruined
+reputations,--with all this Hawthorne had but slight acquaintance. We
+miss in him the masculine vigor of Fielding, the humanity of Dickens,
+and the trenchant criticism of Thackeray; but he knew that the true
+poetry of life (at the present time) was to be found in quiet nooks and
+in places far off from the turbulent maelstrom of humanity, and in his
+own line he remains unrivalled.
+
+
+PORTRAITS OF HAWTHORNE
+
+Hawthorne had no more vanity in his nature than is requisite to preserve
+a good appearance in public, but he always sat for his portrait when
+asked to do so, and this was undoubtedly the most sensible way. He was
+first painted by Charles Osgood in 1840, a portrait which has at least
+the merit of a fine poetic expression. He was afterward painted by
+Thompson, Healy, and Emanuel Leutze, and drawn in crayon by Rowse and
+Eastman Johnson. Frances Osborne also painted a portrait of him from
+photographs in 1893, an excellent likeness, and notable especially for
+its far-off gaze. Of all these, Rowse's portrait is the finest work of
+art, for Rowse was a man of genius, but there is a slight tendency to
+exaggeration in it, and it does not afford so clear an idea of Hawthorne
+as he was, as the Osborne portrait. Healy was not very successful with
+Hawthorne, and Miss Lander's bust has no merit whatever. The following
+list contains most of the portraits and photographs of Hawthorne now
+known to exist, with their respective ownerships and locations.
+
+Oil portrait painted by Charles Osgood, in 1840. Owned by Mrs. Richard
+C. Manning.
+
+Crayon portrait drawn by Eastman H. Johnson, in 1846. Owned by Miss
+Alice M. Longfellow.
+
+Oil portrait painted by George P. A. Healy, in 1850. Now in the
+possession of Kirk Pierce, Esq.
+
+Oil portrait by Miss H. Frances Osborne, after a photograph by Silsbee,
+Case & Co., Boston.
+
+Crayon portrait drawn by Samuel W. Rowse, in 1866. Owned by Mrs. Annie
+Fields.
+
+Engraving after the portrait painted in 1850 by Cephas G. Thompson.
+Owned by Hon. Henry C. Leach.
+
+The Grolier Club bronze medallion, made in 1892, by Ringel d'Illzach.
+Owned by B. W. Pierson.
+
+Cabinet photograph, bust, by Elliott & Fry, London. Owned by Mrs.
+Richard C. Manning.
+
+Card photograph, full length, seated, with book in right hand, by Black
+& Case, Boston.
+
+Cabinet photograph, three-quarter length, standing beside a pillar, copy
+by Mackintire of the original photograph.
+
+Card photograph, three-quarter length, seated, from Warren's
+Photographic Studio, Boston.
+
+Card photograph, bust, by Brady, New York, with autographic signature.
+Owned by Hon. Henry C. Leach.
+
+Bust in the Concord (Massachusetts) Public Library, by Miss Louise
+Lander.
+
+Card photograph, bust, from Warren's Photographic Studio, Boston. Owned
+by Mrs. Richard C. Manning.
+
+Oil portrait by Emanuel Leutze, painted in April, 1852. Owned by Julian
+Hawthorne.
+
+Photograph by Mayall, London. The so-called "Motley photograph."
+
+Two photographs by Brady, full length; one seated, the other standing.
+
+Photograph showing Hawthorne, Ticknor and Fields standing together.
+
+
+
+
+_Editions of Nathaniel Hawthorne's Books published under his own
+Direction_
+
+Fanshawe: A Tale, Boston, 1828. Twice-Told Tales, Boston, 1837.
+Another edition, Boston, 1842.
+
+Peter Parley's Universal History, Boston, 1837. The Gentle Boy: A
+Thrice-Told Tale, Boston, 1839. Grandfather's Chair: A History for
+Youth, Boston, 1841. Famous Old People: or Grandfather's Chair II,
+Boston, 1841. Liberty Tree: The Last Words of Grandfather's Chair,
+Boston, 1841. Biographical Stories for Children, Boston, 1842.
+Historical Tales for Youth, Boston, 1842. The Celestial Railroad,
+Boston, 1843. Mosses from an Old Manse, New York, 1846, 1851. The
+Scarlet Letter, Boston, 1850. True Stories from History and Biography,
+Boston, 1851. The House of the Seven Gables, Boston, 1852. A Wonder-Book
+for Girls and Boys, Boston, 1851.   Another edition, Boston, 1857.
+The Snow-Image and Other Tales, Boston, 1852.   Another edition, Boston
+ The Blithedale Romance, Boston, 1852. Life of Franklin Pierce, Boston,
+1852. Tanglewood Tales for Girls and Boys, Boston, 1853. Transformation,
+or the Romance of Monte Beni, Smith & Elder, London, 1860. The Marble
+Faun, or the Romance of Monte Beni, Boston, 1860. Our Old Home, Boston,
+1863.
+
+_A complete list of Hawthorne's contributions to American magazines will
+be found in the appendix to Conway's "Life of Hawthorne."_
+
+
+Mrs. Emerson and Mrs. Hawthorne [Footnote: Read at the Emerson Club, at
+Boston, January 2, 1906]
+
+In 1892, when I was constructing the volume known as "Sketches from
+Concord and Appledore," I said in comparing Emerson with Hawthorne that
+one was like _day_, and the other like _night_. I was not aware that
+four years earlier M. D. Conway had made a similar statement in his
+Life of Hawthorne, which was published in London. Miss Rebecca Manning,
+Hawthorne's own cousin, still living at the age of eighty and an
+admirable old lady, distinctly confirms my statement, that "wherever
+Hawthorne went he carried twilight with him." Emerson, on the contrary,
+was of a sanguine temperament and an essentially sunny nature. His
+writings are full of good cheer, and the opening of his Divinity School
+Address is as full of summer sunshine as the finest July day. It was
+only necessary to see him look at the sunshine from his own porch to
+recognize how it penetrated into the depths of his nature.
+
+It would seem consistent with the rational order of things, that _day_
+should be supplemented by _night_, and _night_ again by _day_; and here
+we are almost startled by the completeness of our allegory. We sometimes
+come across faces in the streets of a large city, which show by their
+expression that they are more accustomed to artificial light than to the
+light of the sun. Mrs. Emerson was one of these. She never seemed to
+be fully herself, until the lamps were lighted. Her pale face seemed to
+give forth moonlight, and its habitual expression was much like that
+of a Sister of Charity. It was said of her that she was the last in
+the house to retire at night, always reading or busying herself with
+household affairs, until twelve or one o'clock; but this mode of life
+would appear to have been suited to her organization, for in spite of
+her colorless look she lived to be over ninety.
+
+So far I can tread upon firm earth, without drawing upon my imagination,
+but in regard to Mrs. Hawthorne I cannot speak with the same assurance,
+for I only became acquainted with her after her husband's health had
+begun to fail, and the anxiety in her face was strongly marked; yet I
+have reason to believe that her temperament was originally sanguine and
+optimistic, and that she alternated from dreamy, pensive moods to bright
+vivacious ones. She certainly was very different from her husband. Her
+sister, Elizabeth Peabody, was the most sanguine person of her time,
+and her introduction of the kindergarten into America was accomplished
+through her unbounded hopefulness. The Wayside, where Mrs. Hawthorne
+lived, has an extended southern exposure. The house was always full of
+light, which is not often the case with New England country houses; and
+when she lived at Liverpool, where sunshine is a rare commodity, she
+became unwell, so that Mr. Hawthorne was obliged to send her to Madeira
+in order to avert a dangerous illness.
+
+These two estimable ladies were alike in the excellence of their
+housekeeping, the purity of their manners, their universal kindliness,
+and their devotion to the welfare of their husbands and children. It was
+a pleasure to pass them on the road-side; the fare at their tables was
+always of the nicest, even if it happened to be frugal; and people of
+all classes could have testified to their helpful liberality. In these
+respects they might almost have served as models, but otherwise they
+were as different as possible. Mrs. Emerson was of a tall, slender, and
+somewhat angular figure (like her husband), but she presided at table
+with a grace and dignity that quite justified his favorite epithet of
+"Queenie." There was even more of the Puritan left in her than there was
+in him, and although she encouraged the liberal movements and tendencies
+of her time, one always felt in her mental attitude the inflexibility of
+the moral law. To her mind there was no shady border-land between right
+and wrong, but the two were separated by a sharply defined line, which
+was never to be crossed, and she lived up to this herself, and, in
+theory at least, she had but little mercy for sinners. On one occasion I
+was telling Mr. Emerson of a fraudulent manufacturing company, which had
+failed, as it deserved to, and which was found on investigation to
+have kept two sets of books, one for themselves, and another for
+their creditors. Mrs. Emerson listened to this narrative with evident
+impatience, and at the close of it she exclaimed, "This world has become
+so wicked that if I were the maker of it, I should blow it up at once."
+Emerson himself did not like such stories; and although he once said
+that "all deaf children ought to be put in the water with their faces
+downward," he was not always willing to accept human nature for what it
+really is.
+
+Mrs. Emerson did not agree with her husband's religious views; neither
+did she adopt the transcendental faith, that the idea of God is innate
+in the human mind, so that we cannot be dispossessed of it. She
+belonged to the conservative branch of the Unitarian Church, which
+was represented by Reverend James Freeman Clarke and Doctor Andrew P.
+Peabody. The subject was one which was permitted to remain in abeyance
+between them, but Mrs. Emerson was naturally suspicious of those
+reverend gentlemen who called upon her husband, and this may have been
+the reason why he did not encourage the visits of clergymen like
+Samuel Johnson, Samuel Longfellow, and Professor Hedge, whom he
+greatly respected, and who should have been by good rights his chosen
+companions. I suppose all husbands are obliged to make these domestic
+compromises.
+
+Mrs. Emerson had also something of the spirit-militant in her. When
+David A. Wasson came to dine at Mr. Emerson's invitation, she said to
+him, by way of grace before meat: "I see you have been carrying on a
+controversy with Reverend Mr. Sears, of Wayland, and you will excuse me
+for expressing my opinion that Mr. Sears had the best of it." But
+after sounding this little nourish of trumpets, she was as kindly and
+hospitable as any one could desire. She was one of the earliest recruits
+to the anti-slavery cause,--not only a volunteer, but a recruiting
+officer as well,--and she made this decision entirely of her own mind,
+without any special encouragement from her husband or relatives. At the
+time of John Brown's execution she wanted to have the bells tolled in
+Concord, and urged her husband energetically to see that it was done.
+Mrs. Emerson was always thoroughly herself. There never was the
+shadow of an affectation upon her; nor more than a shadow of
+self-consciousness--very rare among conscientious persons. One of her
+fine traits was her fondness for flowers, which she cultivated in
+the little garden between her house and the mill-brook, with a loving
+assiduity. She is supposed to have inspired Emerson's poem, beginning:
+
+                 "O fair and stately maid, whose eyes
+                  Were kindled in the upper skies
+                    At the same torch that lighted mine:
+                  For so I must interpret still
+                  Thy sweet dominion o'er my will,
+                    A sympathy divine."
+
+There are other references to her in his published writings, which only
+those who were personally acquainted with her would recognize.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Mrs. Hawthorne belonged to the class of womankind which Shakespeare
+has typified in Ophelia, a tender-hearted, affectionate nature, too
+sensitive for the rough strains of life, and too innocent to recognize
+the guile in others. This was at once her strength and her weakness;
+but it was united, as often happens, with a fine artistic nature, and
+superior intelligence. Her face and manners both gave the impression of
+a wide and elevated culture. One could see that although she lived
+by the wayside, she had been accustomed to enter palaces. Her long
+residence in England, her Italian experience, her visit to the Court of
+Portugal, her enjoyment of fine pictures, poetry, and architecture, the
+acquaintance of distinguished men and women in different countries,
+had all left their impress upon her, combined in a quiet and lady-like
+harmony. Her conversation was cosmopolitan, and though she did not
+quite possess the narrative gift of her sister Elizabeth, it was often
+exceedingly interesting.
+
+Hawthorne has been looked upon as the necrologist of the Puritans, and
+yet a certain coloring of Puritanism adhered to him to the last. It was
+his wife who had entirely escaped from the old New England conventicle.
+Severity was at the opposite pole from her moral nature. Tolerant and
+charitable to the faults of others, her only fault was the lack of
+severity. She believed in the law of love, and when kind words did not
+serve her purpose she let matters take what course they would, trusting
+that good might fall, "At last far off at last to all."
+
+I suspect her pathway was by no means a flowery one. Mrs. Emerson's life
+had to be as stoical as her husband's, and Mrs. Hawthorne's, previous
+to the Liverpool consulate,--the consulship of Hawthorne,--was even more
+difficult. No one knew better than she the meaning of that heroism which
+each day requires. A writer in the _Atlantic Monthly_, reviewing Julian
+Hawthorne's biography of his father, emphasizes, "the dual selfishness
+of Mr. and Mrs. Hawthorne." Insensate words! There was no room for
+selfishness in the lives they led. In a certain sense they lived almost
+wholly for one another and for their children; but Hawthorne himself
+lived for all time and for all mankind, and his wife lived through him
+to the same purpose. The especial form of their material life was as
+essential to its spiritual outgrowth as the rose-bush is to the rose;
+and it would be a cankered selfishness to complain of them for it.
+
+
+
+
+Appendices
+
+APPENDIX A
+
+
+There is at least one error in the Symmes diary, which is however
+explainable, and need not vitiate the whole of it. It has been
+ascertained that the drowning of Henry Jackson in Songo River by being
+kicked in the mouth by another boy while swimming, took place in 1828,
+so that the statement to that effect in the diary, must have been
+interpolated. As it happened, however, another Henry Jackson was drowned
+in the Songo River, so Mr. Pickard says, more than twenty years before
+that, and it is quite possible that young Hawthorne overheard some talk
+about that catastrophe, and mistook it for a recent event; and that
+Symmes afterwards confounding the two Jacksons and the difference in
+time, amended Hawthorne's statement as we now have it. Mr. Pickard says
+in a recent letter:
+
+"This item alone led me to doubt. But I cannot doubt, the more I reflect
+upon it, that H. himself had a hand in most, if not all, the other
+items. Who but his uncle could have written that inscription? The negro
+Symmes could not have composed that--only a man of culture."... "The
+sketch of the sail on Sebago Lake surely was written by some one who
+was in that party. Symmes _might_ have been there, but he was a genius
+deserving the fame of a Chatterton if he really did this. Three of that
+party I personally knew--one (Sawyer) was a cousin of my grandfather.
+His sleight of hand, his skill with rifle, his being a 'votary of
+chance,' are traditions in my family."
+
+This does not differ essentially from the opinion I have already
+expressed in Chapter II. F. B. Sanborn, who is one of the best-informed
+of living men in regard to Hawthorne, takes a similar view.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX B
+
+
+In February, 1883, a review of "Nathaniel Hawthorne and his Wife" was
+published in the _Atlantic Monthly_, evidently written by a person with
+no good-will toward the family. Editors ought to beware of such reviews,
+for their character is easily recognized, and the effect they produce
+often reacts upon the publication that contains them. In the present
+instance, the ill-humor of the writer had evidently been bottled up for
+many years.
+
+To place typographical errors to the debit of an author's account--not
+very numerous for a work of eight hundred pages--suggests either
+an inexperienced or a strongly prejudiced critic. This is what the
+_Atlantic_ writer begins with, and he (or she) next proceeds to complain
+that the book does not contain a complete bibliography of Hawthorne's
+works; although many excellent biographies have been published without
+this, and it is quite possible that Hawthorne's son preferred not to
+insert it. No notice is taken of the many fine passages in the book,
+like the apostrophe upon Hawthorne's marriage, [Footnote: J. Hawthorne,
+i. 242,] and that excellent description of the performances of a
+trance medium at Florence, but continues in an ascending climax of
+fault-finding until he (or she) reaches the passage from Hawthorne's
+Roman diary concerning Margaret Fuller. [Footnote: J. Hawthorne, i.
+30-35.]
+
+If public opinion has any value, this passage concerning Margaret
+Fuller's marriage ought not to have been published; but what can
+Margaret Fuller's friends and admirers expect? Do they think that
+a young American woman can go to a foreign country, and live with a
+foreign gentleman, in defiance of the customs of modern society, without
+subjecting herself to the severest criticism? It is true that she
+married Count d'Ossoli before her child was born, and her friends, who
+were certainly an enlightened class, always believed that she acted
+throughout from the most honorable motives (my own opinion is, that she
+acted in imitation of Goethe), but how can they expect the great mass
+of mankind to think so? Hawthorne had a right to his opinion, as well
+as Emerson and Channing, and although it was certainly not a very
+charitable opinion, we cannot doubt that it was an honest one. In regard
+to the marriage tie, Hawthorne was always strict and conservative.
+
+This is the climax of the _Atlantic_ critique, and its anti-climax is
+an excoriation of Hawthorne's son for neglecting to do equal and exact
+justice to James T. Fields. This truly is a grievous accusation. Fields
+was Hawthorne's publisher and would seem to have taken a personal and
+friendly interest in him besides, but we cannot look on it as a wholly
+unselfish interest. It was not like Hillard's, Pierce's, and Bridge's
+interest in Hawthorne. If Fields had not been his publisher, it is not
+probable that Hawthorne would have made his acquaintance; and if his
+son has not enlarged on Fields's good offices in bringing "The Scarlet
+Letter" before the public, there is an excellent reason for it, in the
+fact that Fields had already done so for himself in his "Yesterdays with
+Authors." That Fields's name should have been omitted in the index to
+"Nathaniel Hawthorne and his Wife," may have been an oversight; but, at
+all events, it is too microscopic a matter to deserve consideration in a
+first-class review.
+
+Are we become such babies, that it is no longer possible for a writer to
+tell the plain, ostensible truth concerning human nature, without having
+a storm raised about his head for it? George P. Bradford and Martin F.
+Tupper are similar instances, and like Boswell have suffered the penalty
+which accrues to men of small stature for associating with giants.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX C
+
+
+The great poets and other writers of all nations whom I conceive to
+be superior to Hawthorne, may be found in the following list: Homer,
+AEschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Pindar, Thucydides, Plato, Aristotle,
+Demosthenes, Theocritus, Plutarch; Horace, Virgil, Cicero, Tacitus;
+Dante, Tasso, Petrarch; Cervantes, Calderon, Camoens; Moliere, Racine,
+Descartes, Voltaire; Lessing, Goethe, Schiller, Kant; Swedenborg;
+Chaucer, Shakespeare, Bacon, Milton, and perhaps Burns and Byron;
+Alexander Hamilton, Napoleon.
+
+These also may be placed more on an equality with Hawthorne, although
+there will of course always be wide differences of opinion on that
+point: Hesiod, Herodotus, Menander, Aristophases; Livy, Caesar,
+Lucretius, Juvenal; Ariosto, Macchiavelli, Manzoni, Lope de Vega, Buthas
+Pato; Corneille, Pascal, Rousseau; Wieland, Klopstock, Heine, Auerbach;
+Spenser, Ben Jonson, Fletcher, Fielding, Pope, Scott, Wordsworth,
+Shelley, Carlyle, Browning, Tennyson, Froude; Webster, Emerson, Wasson.
+Sappho, Bion, Moschus, and Cleanthes were certainly poets of a high
+order, but only some fragments of their poetry have survived. Gottfried
+of Strassburg, the Minnesinger, might be included, and some of the
+finest English poetry was written by unknown geniuses of the fourteenth
+and fifteenth centuries. Ballads like "Chevy Chace" and the "Child
+of Elle" deserve a high place in the rank of poetry; and the German
+"Reineke Fuchs" is in its way without a rival. There may be other
+French, German, and Spanish writers of exceptional excellence with whom
+I am unacquainted, but I do not feel that any French or German novelists
+of the last century ought to be placed on a level with Hawthorne--only
+excepting Auerbach. Victor Hugo is grandiloquent, and the others all
+have some serious fault or limitation. I suppose that not one in ten of
+Emerson's readers has ever heard of Wasson, but he was the better prose
+writer of the two, and little inferior as a poet. More elevated he could
+not be, but more profound, just, logical and humane--that is, more like
+Hawthorne. Emerson could not have filled his place on the _Atlantic
+Monthly_ and the _North American Review_.
+
+
+
+
+Index
+
+
+   Adams, John Quincy
+   After-dinner speeches
+   Alcott, A. Bronson
+   "Ambitious Guest, The,"
+   "Ancestral Footstep, The,"
+   _Antinous_ of the villa Ludovisi
+   "Arabella," the ship
+   Arnold, Matthew
+   "Artist of the Beautiful, The,"
+   Athenaean Society
+   Atlantic Club
+   Aurelius, Marcus
+
+   Bacon's, Miss, volume published
+   Balzac
+   Bancroft, George
+   Beethoven
+   Bennoch, Francis
+   "Blithedale Romance"
+   Blodgett's boarding-house
+   "Bloody Footstep"
+   "Birth Mark, The,"
+   "Bosom Serpent, The,"
+   Bradford, George P
+   Brandes, Danish critic
+   Bridge, Horatio,
+   Bright, Henry A.
+   Brook Farm
+   Brown, John
+   Browning and Carlyle
+   Browning, Mrs. Elizabeth Barrett
+   Browning, Robert
+   Buchanan, President
+
+   Carlyle and Hawthorne
+   Castor and Pollux, statues of
+   "Celestial Railroad, The"
+   Cenci, Beatrice, portrait of
+   Channing, Ellery
+   Channing, William H.
+   Cilley and Graves duel
+   Cilley, Jonathan
+     description of
+   Clarke, Edward H.
+   Clarke, Rev. Dr. James F.
+   "Code of Honor," the
+   College skepticism
+   Columbia, statue of
+   Concord River
+   Conway, Rev. M. D.
+   Crab spider, the
+   Crawford, sculptor
+   "Critique of Pure Reason, The"
+   Curtis, George William
+
+   Dallas, George M.
+   Dante's _Inferno_
+   Dickens
+   "Doctor Grimshawe's Secret"
+   Dolliver, Dr.
+   "Dolliver Romance, The"
+   Donatello's crime
+   Dwight, John S., musical critic
+
+   Elgin marbles
+   Eliot, George
+   Emerson
+     essays
+   Emerson, Mrs. R. W.
+     her figure
+     religious views
+   English lakes
+   "English Note-book"
+   English scenery
+   Essex County people
+   Evans, Marian
+
+   "Fancy's Show Box"
+   "Fanshawe"
+   "Faun of Praxiteles"
+   "Felton, Septimius,"
+   Fielding
+   Fields, James T
+   Florentine art
+   Fourier
+   Fuller, Margaret
+     as Zenobia
+     her marriage
+
+   Gardner, E. A., Prof
+   Genius, its growth
+   "Gentle Boy, The,"
+   Ghosts
+   Gibson, sculptor
+     his tinted Eves and Venuses
+   Gladstone, William E., on transcendentalism
+   Godkin, E. L.
+   Goethe
+   Golden Age, A
+   Goodrich, S. G., editor
+   "Great Carbuncle, The,"
+   "Great Stone Face, The,"
+   Guilty glimpses at hired models
+   Gurney, Prof. E. W.
+
+   "Hall of Fantasy, The,"
+   Harris, Dr. William T.
+   Harvard Law School
+   Hathorne, Daniel
+   Hathorne, John
+     witches' judge
+     his last will
+     his gravestone
+   Hathorne, Joseph
+   Hathorne, Nathaniel
+   Hathorne, William
+     Letter to British Ministry
+   Hawthorne, Elizabeth
+   Hawthorne, Julian
+   Hawthorne, Louisa
+     her death
+   Hawthorne, Mrs. Sophia Peabody
+     becomes engaged to Hawthorne
+     writes to her mother
+     encourages her husband
+     praises her husband
+     is out of health
+     goes to Madeira
+     is presented at court
+     the original of Hilda
+     at Concord
+     her opinions
+     character and style
+   Hawthorne, Nathaniel,
+     his English ancestors
+     family name
+     birthplace
+     his lameness
+     early poetry
+     life at Sebago
+     his first diary
+     the budding of his genius
+     fits for college
+     "Pin Society"
+     religious instruction
+     decides on his vocation
+     has the measles
+     his life at Bowdoin
+     outdoor sports
+     is fined for gambling
+     graduates at Bowdoin
+     decides his profession
+     publishes "Fanshawe"
+     changes his name
+     despondency
+     goes to Lake Champlain
+     wins his bet with Cilley
+     commences his diary
+     his supposed challenge
+     thanks Longfellow
+     goes to Berkshire Hills
+     character of his diary
+     his engagement
+     enters Custom House
+     goes to Brook Farm
+     his marriage
+     his true Arcadia
+     his skating
+     opinion of Emerson
+     birth of a daughter
+     his indolence
+     style as an author
+     returns to Robert Manning's house
+     is appointed Surveyor of the Port
+     son Julian is born
+     occupies house on Mall street
+     is removed from office
+     publishes "Scarlet Letter"
+     method of development
+     sits for his portrait; goes to Lenox
+     publishes "House of Seven Gables"
+     birth of his daughter Rose
+     leaves Lenox for Newton
+     returns to Concord
+     writes the "Life of Pierce"
+     the Liverpool consulate
+     sails for England
+     as an office-holder
+     his life in England
+     makes a speech
+     kindness to Delia Bacon
+     resigns the Consulate
+     as a law writer
+     goes to Paris
+     arrives at Rome
+     journeys to Florence
+     goes to the Vatican
+     on modern sculpture
+     returns to Rome
+     visits Geneva
+     summer at Redcar
+     publishes the "Marble Faun
+     Hawthorne the famous
+     begins to dislike writing
+     returns to Concord
+     method of writing
+     patriotism
+     proposes to arm negroes
+     preparatory sketches
+     sojourns at Beverly Farms
+     last entry in his journal
+     dedicates book to President Pierce
+     at home
+     personal appearance
+     seriously ill
+     Hawthorne's philosophy
+     his death
+     his funeral
+     religious convictions
+     his position in literature
+   Hawthorne, Rose, her birth
+     her memoirs
+   Hawthorne's mother
+     her character
+     her death
+   Hawthorne, Una, her birth
+     severe illness of
+   Hilda, character of
+     her tower
+   Hillard, George S.
+   Hoar, Miss Elizabeth
+   Holiday epauletes
+   Holmes, Oliver Wendell
+   Hosmer, Harriet
+   Houghton, Lord
+   "House of the Seven Gables, The"
+   Howe, Dr. Samuel G.
+   Hunt, suicide of Miss
+
+   Italian Note-book
+
+   Jackson, Andrew
+   James, Henry, Jr.
+   James, Henry, Sr.
+   Jameson, Mrs. Anna
+   Jerrold, Douglas
+
+   Kansas-Nebraska Bill
+   Kant, Immanuel
+   Kemble, Frances
+   Kitridge, Doctor
+
+   "Lady Eleanor's Mantle"
+   _Laocooen_
+   Lathrop, George P.
+   Leamington
+   Lincoln, President
+   Liverpool Consulate
+   Longfellow, Henry W.
+     reviews Hawthorne
+   Loring, Frederick W.
+   Loring, Dr. George B.
+   Lowell, James Russell
+
+   Mann, Horace
+   Mann, Mrs. Horace
+   Manning family
+   Manning, Rebecca
+   Manning, Richard
+   Manning, Robert
+   "Marble Faun, The," English reviews of
+     analysis of
+     its original
+   McClellan, General George B.
+   McMichael, Morton
+   Melville, Hermann
+   Mexican War
+   Michel Angelo
+     his _Last Judgment and Moses_
+   "Miroir, Monsieur du"
+   "Mosses from an Old Manse"
+   Motley's opinions
+   "Mrs. Bullfrog"
+
+   Niagara Falls, visit to
+   _North American Review_
+   Nurse, Rebecca, a witch
+
+   Offensive partisanship
+   "Old Manse," the
+   "Ontario Steamboat, The"
+   O'Sullivan, an editor
+   "Our Old Home"
+
+   Parker, Theodore
+   Peabody, Elizabeth
+   Peabody, Sophia Amelia
+   Philadelphia Hock Club
+   Pickard, Samuel T.
+   Pierce, Franklin
+     elected Senator
+     goes to the war
+     nominated for President
+     his father
+     various
+   Pike, William B.
+   Poetic mind, the
+   Politicians, opinion of
+   Portraits of Hawthorne by Osgood, Healy, Rowse, and
+     others
+   Positivists
+   Powers, Hiram
+     his _America_
+   Prescott, George L
+   Prince of Wales
+   Pyncheon, Clifford
+
+   Quakers, persecution of
+
+   Raphael's _Transfiguration_
+   "Rappacini's Daughter"
+   Reform Club of London
+   Ripley, George
+   Rock Ferry
+   Roman Carnival
+   Runnel, Mary, sweetheart of Daniel Hathorne
+   Ruskin
+
+   Sailors maltreated
+   Salem architecture
+   Salem, situation of
+   Salem society
+   Salem's sea-captains
+   Sanborn, Frank B., attempt to kidnap
+   "Scarlet Letter, The,"
+   Schoenbach, A. E., German critic
+   "Select Party, The,"
+   Shakespeare, authorship of
+     Epitaph
+   Shaw, Chief Justice
+   Shelley
+   Sheridan's Ride
+   "Sights from a Steeple"
+   Silsbee, Edward
+   Sistine Chapel
+   Skepticism of evil
+   Slavery Question
+   "Snow Image"
+   Spartan discipline
+   Story, William W.
+   St. Petersburg _Venus_
+   Sumner and Motley
+   Sumner, Charles
+   Swartwout's defalcation
+   Symms, William, a mulatto
+
+   "Tanglewood Tales"
+   Taylor, President
+   Thoreau
+     of marriage
+   Ticknor, W. D., death of
+   Tituba, the Aztec
+   Tragedy, character of
+   Trance medium, a
+   Transcendentalism
+     essence of
+   Tupper, Martin Farquhar
+   Turner, J. M. W.
+   "Twice Told Tales"
+
+   "Unpardonable Sin, The,"
+   Upham, the historian
+
+   Vanity of Women
+   Vasari
+   _Venus de Medici_
+   "Vicar of Wakefield"
+   Victor Hugo
+   Villa Manteueto
+   "Virtuoso's Collection, The,"
+   "Vision at the Fountain, The,"
+
+   Ward's Tavern
+   Warwick Castle
+   Wasson, David A
+   Waters, Henry F., researches of
+   Wayside, The
+   Webster, Daniel
+   West Roxbury commune
+   Whittier, the poet
+   Wig Castle in Wigton
+   Witchcraft persecution
+   Wood, Warrington
+   Worcester, Doctor, the lexicographer
+
+   "Young Goodman Brown"
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Life and Genius of Nathaniel
+Hawthorne, by Frank Preston Stearns
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