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diff --git a/8947.txt b/8947.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8437556 --- /dev/null +++ b/8947.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9175 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. I., No. 3, +January 1858, by Various + +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 Atlantic Monthly, Vol. I., No. 3, January 1858 + A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics + +Author: Various + +Posting Date: November 4, 2012 [EBook #8947] +Release Date: September, 2005 +First Posted: August 28, 2003 +Last Updated: May 4, 2005 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ATLANTIC MONTHLY, JANUARY 1858 *** + + + + +Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, Robert Prince and Distributed +Proofreaders + + + + + + + + + + + +THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY + +A MAGAZINE OF LITERATURE, ART, AND POLITICS + +VOL. I--JANUARY, 1858.--NO. III. + + + + +NOTES ON DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE. + +If building many houses could teach us to build them well, surely we +ought to excel in this matter. Never was there such a house-building +people. In other countries the laws interfere,--or customs, +traditions, and circumstances as strong as laws; either capital is +wanting, or the possession of land, or there are already houses +enough. If a man inherit a house, he is not likely to build another,-- +nor if he inherit nothing but a place in an inevitable line of +lifelong hand-to-mouth toil. In such countries houses are built +wholesale by capitalists, and only by a small minority for themselves. + +And where the man inherits no house, he at least inherits the +traditional pattern of one, or the nature of the soil decides the +main points; as you cannot build of brick where there is no clay, +nor of wood where there are no forests. But here every man builds a +house for himself, and every one freely according to his whims. Many +materials are nearly equally cheap, and all styles and ways of +building equally open to us; at least the general appearance of most +should be known to us, for we have tried nearly all. Our public +opinion is singularly impartial and cosmopolitan, or perhaps we +should rather say knowing and unscrupulous. All that is demanded of +a house is, that it should be of an "improved style," or at least +"something different." Nothing will excuse it, if old-fashioned,-- +and hardly anything condemn it, if it have novelty enough. + +And this latitude is not confined to the owner's scheme of his house, +but extends also to the executive department. In other countries, +however extravagant your fancy, you are brought within some bounds +when you come to carry it out; for the architect and the builder have +been trained to certain rules and forms, and these will enter into +all they do. But here every man is an architect who can handle a +T-square, and every man a builder who can use a plane or a trowel; +and the chances are that the owner thinks he can do all as well as +either of them. For if every man in England thinks he can write a +leading article, much more every Yankee thinks he can build a house. +Never was such freedom from the rule of tradition. A fair field and +no favor; whatever that can accomplish we shall have. + +The result, it must be confessed, is not gratifying. For if you +sometimes find a man who is satisfied with his own house, yet his +neighbors sneer at it, and he at his neighbors' houses. And even with +himself it does not usually wear well. The common case is that even +he accepts it as a confessed failure, or at best a compromise. And +if he does not confess the failure, (for association, pride, +use-and-wont reconcile one to much), the house confesses it. For +what else but self-confessed failures are these thin wooden or cheap +brick walls, temporarily disguised as massive stone,--this roof, +leaking from the snow-bank retained by the Gothic parapet, or the +insufficient slope which the "Italian style" demands? + +There is no lack of endeavor to make the house look well. People +will sacrifice almost anything to that. They will strive their +chambers into the roof,--they will have windows where they do not +want them, or leave them out where they do,--in our tropical summers +they will endure the glare and heat of the sun, rather than that +blinds should interfere with the moulded window-caps, or with the +style generally,--they will break up the outline with useless and +expensive irregularity,--they will have brackets that support nothing, +and balconies and look-outs upon which no one ever steps after the +carpenter leaves them,--all for the sake of pleasing the eye. And +all this without any real and lasting success,--with a success, +indeed, that seems often in an inverse ratio to the effort. If a man +have a pig-stye to build, or a log-house in the woods, he may hit +upon an agreeable outline; but let him set out freely and with all +deliberation to build something that shall be beautiful, and he fails. + +Not that the failure is peculiar at all to us. In Europe there may, +perhaps, be less bad taste,--though I am not sure of that; but there, +and everywhere, I think, the memorable houses, among those of recent +date, are not those carefully elaborated for effect,--the +premeditated irregularity of the English Gothic, the trig regularity +of the French Pseudo-Classic, or the studied rusticity of Germany,-- +but such as seem to have grown of themselves out of the place where +they stand,--Swiss _chalets_, Mexican or Manila plantation-houses, +Italian farm-houses, built, nobody knows when or by whom, and built +without any thought of attracting attention. And here I think we get +a hint as to the reason of their success. For a house is not a +monument, that it should seek to draw attention to itself,--but the +dwelling-place of men upon the earth; and it must show itself to be +wholly secondary to its purpose. + +We have had a good deal of exhortation lately, now getting rather +wearisome, about avoiding pretence in architecture, and that we +should let things show for what they are. The avoidance of pretence +should begin farther back. If the house is _all_ pretence, we shall +not help it by "frankness of treatment" in details. + +The house is the sign of man's entering into possession of the earth. +A houseless savage, living on wild game and accidental fruits, is an +alien in nature, or a minor not yet come to his estate. As soon as +he begins to cultivate the soil he builds him a house,--no longer a +hut or a cave but the work of his own hands, and as permanent as his +tenure of the cultivated field. If that is to descend to his children, +the house must be so built as to endure accordingly. It is the +material expression of the _status_ of the family,--such people in +such a place. Hence the two-fold requirement of fitness for its use +and of harmony with its surroundings. A log-house is the appropriate +dwelling of the lumberer in the woods; but transplant it to a +suburban lawn and it becomes an absurdity, and a double absurdity. +It is not in harmony with the place, nor fit for the use of the +citizen. Nothing more satisfactory in their place than the old +English parish-churches; but transfer one of them from its natural +atmosphere and surroundings to the midst of one of our raw villages +or bustling cities, exposed to the sudden and violent changes of our +climate,--the open timber roof admitting the heat and the cold, and +the stone walls bedewed with condensed moisture,--and after the first +pleasant impression of the moment is over, there is left only a +painful feeling of mimicry, not to be removed by any precision of +copying, nor by the feeble attempts at ivy in the corners. + +This is all evident enough, and in principle generally admitted; but +we dodge the application of the principle, because we are not ready +to admit to ourselves, what history, apart from any reasoning, would +show us, that those importations are failures, and that not +accidentally in these particular cases, leaving the hope of better +success for the next trial, but necessarily, and because they are +importations. + +All good architecture must be the gradual growth of its country and +its age,--the accumulation of men's experience, adding and leaving +out from generation to generation. The air of permanence and stability +that we admire in it must be gained by a slow and solid growth. +It is the product, not of any one man's skill, but of a nation's; +and its type, accordingly, must be gradually formed. + +But in this, as in everything else, there must be an aim, and one +persisted in, else no experience is gained. A mere succession of +generations will do nothing, if for each of them the whole problem +is changed. The man of to-day cannot profit by his father's +experience in the building of his house, if his culture, his habits, +his associates, are different from his father's,--much less if they +have changed since his own youth, and are changing from year to year. +He will not imitate, he will not forbear to alter. On such shifting +sands no enduring structure is possible, but only a tent for the +night. + +We talk of the laws of architecture; but the fundamental law of all, +and one that is sure to be obeyed, is, that the dwelling shall +typify man's appropriation of the earth and its products,--what we +call property. A man's house is naturally just as fixed a quantity +as the kind and the amount of his possessions, and no more so. The +style of it, depending on the inherited ideas of the class to +which he belongs, will be as formed and as fixed as that class. +Then where there is no fixed class, and where the property of +every man is constantly varying, our quantity will be just so +variable, and the true type of our architecture will be the +tent,--of the frame-and-clapboard variety suited to the climate. + +For good architecture, then, we need castes in society, and fixed +ways of living. We see the effect in the old parsonages in England, +where from year to year have dwelt men of the same class, education, +income, tastes, and circumstances generally, and so bringing from +generation to generation nearly the same requirements, with the +unessential changes brought in from time to time by new wants or +individual fancies, here and there putting out a bay-window or +adding a wing, but always in the spirit of the original building, +and the whole getting each year more weather-stained and ivy-grown, +and so toned into more complete harmony with the landscape, yet +still living and expansive. + +It may be said that the result is here a partly accidental one, and +not a matter of art. But domestic architecture is only half-way a +fine art. It does not aim at a beauty of the monumental kind, as a +statue, a triumphal arch, or even a temple does. Its primary aim is +shelter, to house man in nature,--and it forms, as it were, the +connecting link between him and the outward world. Its results, +therefore, are partly the free artistic production, and partly +retain unmodified their material character. In the image carved by +the sculptor, the stone or wood used derive little of their effect +from the original material; the important character is that imparted +to them by his skill. Still more the canvas and pigments of the +painter. But in architecture the wood and stone still fulfil the +offices of covering, connecting, and supporting, as they did in the +tree and the quarry, and their physical properties play an essential +part in the work. The house, therefore, is a work of art only half +emancipated from nature, and must depend on nature for much of its +beauty also. It must not be isolated, as something merely to be +looked at, apart from its position and its material use. + +The common mistake in our houses is, that they are designed, as +inexperienced persons choose their paper-hangings, to be something +of themselves, and not as mere background, as they should be. Thus +it is that people seek to beautify their houses by ornamenting them, +as a vulgar person sticks himself over with jewelry. A man's house +is only a wider kind of dress; and as we do not call a man +well-dressed when we are forced to see his dress before we see him, +so a house cannot be satisfactory when it isolates itself from its +inmates and from the landscape. In such houses, the more _effort_ +the worse they are; they may cheat us for the moment, but the oftener +we see them the less we like them. Does not the uncomfortable +sensation with which fine houses so often oppress us arise from the +vague feeling that the owner has built himself out of his house, and +his house out of the landscape? + +Hence it is mostly the novices that build the fine houses. A man of +sense, I think, will generally build his second house plainer than +his first. Not that he desires, perhaps, any the less what he +desired before, but he is more alive to the difficulties and to the +cost, and takes refuge in the safety of a lower scale. His +experience has taught him that where he succeeded best he was really +farthest from the end he sought. The fine house requires that its +accessories should be in kind. All things within and without, the +approach, the grounds, the furniture, must be brought up to the same +pitch, and kept there. And when all is done, it is not done, but +forever demands retouching. What is got in this kind cannot be paid +for with money, nor finished once for all, but is a never-sated +absorbent of time, thought, life. And it attacks the owner, too; he +must conform, in his dress, his equipage, and his habits generally; +he must be as fine as his house. The nicer his taste the more any +incongruity will offend him, and the greater the danger of his +becoming more or less an appendage to his house. + +Much of that chronic ailment of our society, the "trials of +housekeeping," is traceable to this source. This is a complicated +trouble, and probably other causes have their share in it. But we +cannot fail to recognize in these seemingly accidental obstructions +a stern, but beneficent adjustment of our circumstances to enforce a +simplicity which we should else neglect. One cannot greatly +deprecate the terrors of high rents and long bills, and the +sufferings from clumsy and careless domestics, if they help to keep +down senseless profusion and display. + +Our problem is, in truth, one of greater difficulty than at first +appears. For we are each of us striving to do, by the skill and +forethought of one man, what naturally accomplishes itself in a +succession of generations and with the aid of circumstances. It is +from our freedom that the trouble arises. Were our society composed +of few classes, widely and permanently distinct, a fitting style for +each would naturally arise and become established and perfected. +There would be fewer occasions for new houses, and the new house +would be less novel in style, and so two difficulties would be +overcome. For novelty of style is a drawback to effect, as tending +to isolate the house; and a new house is always at a disadvantage. +Nature, in any case, is slow to adopt our handiwork into the +landscape; sometimes the assimilation is so difficult that it must +be ruined for its original purpose before it will be accepted. +Sooner or later, indeed, it will be accepted. For though most of our +buildings seem even in decay to resist the harmonizing hand of Nature, +and to grow only ghastly and not venerable in dilapidation, yet +leave them long enough and what of beauty was possible to them will +appear, though it be only a crumbling heap of bricks where the +chimney stood, or the grassy slope where the cellar-wall has fallen +in. + +It is for this reason that persons of taste have taken pains to face +their houses with weather-stained and lichen-crusted stone, or +invent proper names for them, in imitation of the English +manor-houses. But Nature is jealous of this helping, and neither the +lichens nor the names will stick, for the reason that they never +grew there. They cannot be naturalized without naturalizing their +conditions. The gray ancestral houses of England are the beautiful +symbols of the permanence of family and of caste. They are the +embodiments of traditional institutions and culture. When we speak +of the House of Stanley or of Howard, the expression is not wholly +figurative. We do not mean simply the men and women of these families, +but the whole complex of this manifold environment which has +descended to them and in the midst of which they have grown up,--no +more to be separated from it than the polyp from the coral stem. +All this is centralized and has its expression in the House. + +Now as these conditions are not our conditions, the attempt to build +fine houses is an attempt to import an effect where the cause has +not existed. Our position is that of a perpetually shifting +population,--the mass shifting and the individuals shifting, in place, +circumstances, requirements. The movement is inevitable, and, +whether desirable or not, we must conform to it. So we naturally +build cheaply and slightly, that the house be not an incumbrance +rather than a furtherance to our life. It is agreeable to the +feelings to be well rooted and established, and the results in +outward appearance are agreeable. But it is not desirable to be so +niched into the rock, that a change of fortune, or even a change in +the direction of a town-road, shall leave us high and dry, like the +fossils of the Norwegian cliffs, but rather, like the shell-fish of +our beaches, free to travel up and down with the tide. + +The imitating of foreign examples comes from no real, heart-felt +demand, but only from a fancied or simulated demand,--from tradition, +association; at second-hand in one shape or another. It is at bottom +something of the same flunkeyism that in a more exaggerated form +assumes heraldic bearings and puts its servants into livery. + +It may well reconcile us to our deprivation to remember at what cost +these things we admire are established and kept up. The imagination +is pleased with this stability; but it is bought too dear, if +progress is to be sacrificed to it, if the freedom and the true +lives of the members are to be merged in the family, and if they are +to be the stones of which the house is built. It is not desirable to +be _adscriptus glebes_, whether the bonds be physical or only moral +ones. We may well be content to have our limits free, even though +our architecture suffer for it. It is better that houses should +belong to men, and not men to houses. + +But whether we are content or not, it is evident that all hope of +improvement lies in the tendency, somewhat noticeable of late, to +the abnegation of exotic styles and graces. We have survived the +Parthenon pattern, and there seems to be a prospect that we shall +outlive the Gothic cottage. Even the Anglo-Italian bracketed villa +has seen its palmiest days apparently, and exhausted most of its +variations. We are in an extremely chaotic state just now; but there +seems to be an inclination towards more rational ways, at least in +the plans and general arrangement of houses. + +Of course mere negation cannot carry us far. We sometimes hear it +said that it is as easy for a house to look well as to look ill, and +those who say this seem to think that the failure is due solely to +want of due consideration of the problem on the part of our builders, +and that we have but to leave out their blunders to get at a +satisfactory result. But if we look at the facts of the case, we +find the builders have some reason on their side. + +Nothing can be more unsightly than the stalky, staring houses of our +villages, with their plain gable-roofs, of a pitch neither high +enough nor low enough for beauty, and disfigured, moreover, by mere +excrescences of attic windows, and over the whole structure the +awkward angularity, and the look of barren, mindless conformity and +uniformity in the general outlines, and the meagre, frittered effect +inherent in the material. But when we come to build, we find that +the blockheads who invented this style, or no-style, have got at the +cheapest way of supplying the first imperative demands of the people +for whom they build,--namely, to be walled in and roofed +weather-tight, and with a decent neatness, but without much care +that the house should be solid and enduring,--for it cannot well be +so flimsy as not to outlast the owner's needs. He does not look to +it as the habitation of his children,--hardly as his own for his +lifetime,--but as a present shelter, easily and quickly got ready, +and as easily plucked up and carried off again. The common-law of +England looks upon a house as real estate, as part of the soil; but +with us it is hardly a fixture. + +Surely nothing can be more simple and common-sense than an ordinary +New England house, but at the same time nothing can be uglier. The +outline, the material, the color and texture of the surface are at +all points opposed to breadth of effect or harmony with the +surroundings. There is neither mass nor elegance; there are no lines +of union with the ground; the meagre monotony of the lines of +shingles and clapboards making subdivisions too small to be +impressive, and too large to be overlooked,--and finally, the paint, +of which the outside really consists, thrusting forward its chalky +blankness, as it were a standing defiance of all possibility of +assimilation,--all combine to form something that shall forever +remain a blot in the landscape. + +Evidently it is not merely a more common-sense treatment that we want; +for here is sufficient simplicity, but a simplicity barren of all +satisfaction. And singularly enough, it seems, with all its +meagreness, to pass easily into an ostentatious display. In these +houses there is no thought of "architecture"; that is considered as +something quite apart, and not essential to the well-building of the +house. But for this very reason matters are not much changed when +the owner determines to spend something for looks. The house remains +at bottom the same rude mass, with the "architecture" tacked on. It +is not that the owner has any deeper or different sentiment towards +his dwelling, but merely that he has a desire to make a flourish +before the eyes of beholders. There is no heartfelt interest in all +this on his part; it gives him no pleasure; how, then, should it +please the spectator? + +The case is the same, whether it be the coarse ornamentation of the +cheap cottage, or the work of the fashionable architect; we feel +that the decoration is superficial and may be dispensed with, and +then, however skillful, it becomes superfluous. The more elaborate +the worse, for attention is the more drawn to the failure. + +What is wanted for any real progress is not so much a greater skill +in our house-builders, as more thoughtful consideration on the part +of the house-owners of what truly interests them in the house. We do +not stop to examine what really weighs with us, but on some fancied +necessity hasten to do superfluous things. What is it that we really +care for in the building of our houses? Is it not, that, like dress, +or manners, they should facilitate, and not impede the business +of life? We do not wish to be compelled to think of them by +themselves either as good or bad, but to get rid of any obstruction +from them. They are to be lived in, not looked at; and their beauty +must grow as naturally from their use as the flower from its stem, +so that it shall not be possible to say where the one ends and +the other begins. Not that beauty will come of itself; there must be +the feeling to be satisfied before any satisfaction will come. +But we shall not help it by pretending the feeling, nor by trying +to persuade others or ourselves that we are pleased with what has +been pleasing to other nations and under other circumstances. +Our poverty, if poverty it be, is not disgraceful, until we attempt +to conceal it by our affectation of foreign airs and graces. + + + + +MAYA, THE PRINCESS. + +The sea floated its foam-caps upon the gray shore, and murmured its +inarticulate love-stories all day to the dumb rocks above; the blue +sky was bordered with saffron sunrises, pink sunsets, silver +moon-fringes, or spangled with careless stars; the air was full of +south-winds that had fluttered the hearts of a thousand roses and a +million violets with long, deep kisses, and then flung the delicate +odors abroad to tell their exploits, and set the butterflies mad +with jealousy, and the bees crazy with avarice. And all this bloom +was upon the country of Larrierepensee, when Queen Lura's little +daughter came to life in the Topaz Palace that stood on Sunrise Hills, +and was King Joconde's summer pavilion. + +Now there was no searching far and wide for godfathers, godmothers, +and a name, as there is when the princesses of this world are born: +for, in the first place, Larrierepensee was a country of pious +heathen, and full of fairies; the people worshipped an Idea, and +invited the fairy folk to all their parties, as we who are proper +here invite the clergy; only the fairy folk did not get behind the +door, or leave the room, when dancing commenced. + +And the reason why this princess was born to a name, as well as to a +kingdom, was, that, long ago, the people who kept records in +Larrierepensee were much troubled by the ladies of that land never +growing old: they staid at thirty for ten years; at forty, for twenty; +and all died before fifty, which made much confusion in dates,-- +especially when some women were called upon to tell traditions, the +only sort of history endured in that kingdom; because it was against +the law to write either lies or romances, though you might hear and +tell them, if you would, and some people would; although to call a +man a historian there was the same thing as to say, "You lie!" here. + +But as I was saying, this evergreen way into which the women fell +caused much trouble, and the Twelve Sages made a law that for six +hundred years every female child born in any month of the +seventy-two hundred following should be named by the name ordained +for that month; and then they made a long list, containing +seventy-two hundred names of women, and locked it up in the box of +Great Designs, which stood always under the king's throne; and +thenceforward, at the beginning of every month, the Twelve Sages +unlocked the box, consulted the paper, and sent a herald through the +town to proclaim the girl-name for that month. So this saved a world +of trouble; for if some wrinkled old maid should say, "And that +happened long ago, some time before I was born," all her gossips +laughed, and cried out, "Ho! ho! there's a historian! do we not all +know you were a born Allia, ten years before that date?"--and then +the old maid was put to shame. + +Now it happened well for Queen Lura's lovely daughter, that on her +birth-month was written the gracious name of Maya, for it seemed +well to fit her grace and delicacy, while but few in that country +knew its sad Oriental depth, or that it had any meaning at all. + +It was all one flush of dawn upon Sunrise Hills, when the +maids-of-honor, in curls and white frocks, began to strew the great +Hall of Amethyst with geranium leaves, and arrange light tripods of +gold for the fairies, who were that day gathered from all +Larrierepensee to see and gift the new princess. The Queen had +written notes to them on spicy magnolia-petals, and now the +head-nurse and the grand-equerry wheeled her couch of state into the +Hall of Amethyst, that she might receive the tender wishes of the +good fairies, while yet the sweet languor of her motherhood kept her +from the fresh wind and bright dew out of doors. + +The couch of state was fashioned like a great rose of crimson velvet; +only where there should have been the gold anthers of the flower lay +the lovely Queen, wrapped in a mantle of canary-birds' down, and +nested on one arm slept the Child of the Kingdom, Maya. Presently a +cloud of honey-bees swept through the wide windows, and settling +upon the ceiling began a murmurous song, when, one by one, the +flower-fairies entered, and flitting to their tripods, each garlanded +with her own blossom, awaited the coming of their Head,--the Fairy +Cordis. + +As the Queen perceived their delay, a sudden pang crossed her pale +and tranquil brow. + +"Ah!" said she, to the nurse-in-chief, Mrs. Lita, "my poor baby, Maya! +What have I done? I have neglected to ask the Fairy Anima, and now +she will come in anger, and give my child an evil gift, unless +Cordis hastens!" + +"Do not fear, Madam!" said Mrs. Lita, "your nerves are weak,--take a +little cordial." + +So she gave the Queen a red glass full of honeybell whiskey; but she +called it a fine name, like Rose-dew, or Tears-of-Flax, and then +Queen Lura drank it down nicely;--so much depends on names, even in +Larrierepensee! + +But as Mrs. Lita set away the glass, the bees upon the ceiling began +to buzz in a most angry manner, and rally about the queen-bee; the +south-wind cried round the palace corner; and a strange light, like +the sun shining when it rains, threw a lurid glow over the graceful +fairy forms. Then the door of the hall flung open, and a beautiful, +wrathful shape crossed the threshold;--it was the Fairy Anima. Where +she gathered the gauzes that made her rainbow vest, or the +water-diamonds that gemmed her night-black hair, or the sun-fringed +cloud of purple that was her robe, no fay or mortal knew; but they +knew well the power of her presence, and grew pale at her anger. + +With swift feet she neared the couch of state, but her steps +lingered as she saw within those crimson leaves the delicate, +fear-pale face of the Queen, and her sleeping child. + +"Always rose-folded!" she murmured, "and I tread the winds abroad! A +fair bud, and I am but a stately stem! You were foolish and frail, +Queen Lura, that you sent me no word of your harvest-time; now I +come angry. Show me the child!" + +Mrs. Lita, with awed steps, drew near, and lifted the baby in her +arms, and the child's soft hazel eyes looked with grave innocence at +Anima. Truly, the Princess was a lovely piece of nature: her hair, +like fine silk, fell in dark, yet gilded tresses from her snow-white +brow; her eyes were thoughtless, tender, serene; her lips red as the +heart of a peach; her skin so fair that it seemed stained with +violets where the blue veins crept lovingly beneath; and her dimpled +cheeks were flushed with sleep like the sunset sky. + +Anima looked at the baby.--"Ah! too much, too much!" said she. +"Queen Lura, a butterfly can eat honey only; let us have a higher +life for the Princess of Larrierepensee. Maya, I give thee for a +birth-gift another crown. Receive the Spark!" + +Queen Lura shrieked; but Anima stretching out her wand, a snake of +black diamonds, with a blood-red head, touched the child's eyes, and +from the serpent's rapid tongue a spark of fire darted into either +eye, and sunk deeper and deeper,--for two tears flowed above, and +hung on Maya's silky lashes, as she looked with a preternatural +expression of reproach at the Fairy. + +Now all was confusion. Queen Lura tried to faint,--she knew it was +proper,--and the grand-equerry rang all the palace bells in a row. +Anima gave no glance at the little Princess, who still sat upright +in Mrs. Lita's petrified arms, but went proudly from the hall alone. + +The flower-fairies dropped their wands with one sonorous clang upon +the floor, and with bitter sighs and wringing hands flitted one +after another to the portal, bewailing, as they went, their wasted +gifts and powers. + +"Why should I give her beauty?" cried the Fairy Rose; "all eyes will +be dazzled with the Spark; who will know on what form it shines?" + +So the red rose dropped and died. + +"Why should I bring her innocence?" said the Fairy Lily; "the Spark +will burn all evil from her, thought and deed!" + +Then the white lily dropped and died. + +"Is there any use to her in grace?" wept the Fairy Eglantine; +"the Spark will melt away all mortal grossness, till she is light +and graceful as the clouds above." + +And the eglantine wreaths dropped and died. + +"She will never want humility," said the Fairy Violet; "for she will +find too soon that the Spark is a curse as well as a crown!" + +So the violet dropped and died. + +Then the Sun-dew denied her pity; the blue Forget-me not, constancy; +the Iris, pride; the Butter-cup, gold; the Passion-flower, love; the +Amaranth, hope: all because the Spark should gift her with every one +of these, and burn the gift in deeply. So they all dropped and died; +and she could never know the flowers of life,--only its fires. + +But in the end of all this flight came a ray of consolation, like +the star that heralds dawn, springing upward on the skirt of night's +blackest hour. The raging bees that had swarmed upon the golden +chandelier returned to the ceiling and their song; the scattered +flowers revived and scented the air: for the Fairy Cordis came,--too +late, but welcome; her face bright with flushes of vivid, but +uncertain rose,--her deep gray eyes brimming with motherhood, a +sister's fondness, and the ardor of a child. The tenderest +garden-spider-webs made her a robe, full of little common blue-eyed +flowers, and in her gold-brown hair rested a light circle of such +blooms as beguile the winter days of the poor and the desolate, and +put forth their sweetest buds by the garret window, or the bedside +of a sick man. + +Mrs. Lita nearly dropped the baby, in her great relief of mind; but +Cordis caught it, and looked at its brilliant face with tears. + +"Ah, Head of the Fairies, help me!" murmured Queen Lura, extending +her arms toward Cordis; for she had kept one eye open wide enough to +see what would happen while she fainted away. + +"All I can, I will," said the kindly fairy, speaking in the same key +that a lark sings in. So she sat down upon a white velvet mushroom +and fell to thinking, while Maya, the Princess, looked at her from +the rose where she lay, and the Queen, having pushed her down robe +safely out of the way, leaned her head on her hand, and very +properly cried as much as six tears. + +Soon, like a sunbeam, Cordis looked up. "I can give the Princess a +counter-charm, Queen Lura," said she,--"but it is not sure. Look you! +she will have a lonely life,--for the Spark burns, as well as shines, +and the only way to mend that matter is to give the fire better fuel +than herself. For some long years yet, she must keep herself in +peace and the shade; but when she is a woman, and the Spark can no +more be hidden,--since to be a woman is to have power and pain,-- +then let her veil herself, and with a staff and scrip go abroad into +the world, for her time is come. Now in this kingdom of +Larrierepensee there stand many houses, all empty, but swept and +garnished, and a fire laid ready on the hearth for the hand of the +Coming to kindle. But sometimes, nay, often, this fire is a cheat: +for there be men who carve the semblance of it in stone, and are so +content to have the chill for the blaze all their lives; and on some +hearths the logs are green wood, set up before their time; and on +some they are but ashes, for the fire has burned and died, and left +the ghostly shape of boughs behind; and sometimes, again, they are +but icicles clothed in bark, to save the shame of the possessor. But +there are some hearths laid with dry and goodly timber; and if the +Princess Maya does not fail, but chooses a real and honest heap of +wood, and kindles it from the Spark within her, then will she have a +most perfect life; for the fire that consumes her shall leave its +evil work, and make the light and warmth of a household, and rescue +her forever from the accursed crown of the Spark. But I grieve to +tell you, yet one of my name cannot lie--if the Princess mistake the +false for the true, if she flashes her fire upon stone, or ice, or +embers, either the Spark will recoil and burn her to ashes, or it +will die where she placed it and turn her to stone, or--worst fate +of all, yet likeliest to befall the tenderest and best--it will +reenter her at her lips, and turn her whole nature to the bitterness +of gall, so that neither food shall refresh her, sleep rest her, +water quench her thirst, nor fire warm her body. Is it worth the +trial? or shall she live and burn slowly to her death, with the +unquenchable fire of the Spark?" + +"Ah! let her, at the least, try for that perfect life," said Queen +Lura. + +Then the Fairy Cordis drew from her delicate finger a ring of +twisted gold, in which was set an opal wrought into the shape of a +heart, and in it palpitated, like throbbing blood, one scarlet flash +of flame. + +"Let her keep this always on her hand," said Cordis. "It will serve +to test the truth of the fire she strives to kindle; for if it be +not true wood, this heart will grow cold, the throb cease, the glow +become dim. The talisman may, will, save her, unless in the madness +of joy she forget to ask its aid, or the Spark flashing upon its +surface seems to create anew the fire within, and thus deceives her." + +So the Fairy put the ring upon Queen Lura's hand, and kissed Maya's +fair brow, already shaded with sleep. The bees upon the ceiling +followed her, dropping honey as they went; the maids-of-honor +wheeled away the couch of state; the castle-maids swept up the fading +leaves and blossoms, drew the tulip-tree curtains down, fastened the +great door with a sandal-wood bar, sprinkled the corridors with +rosewater; and by moonrise, when the nightingales sung loud from the +laurel thickets, all the country slept,--even Maya; but the Spark +burned bright, and she dreamed. + +So the night came on, and many another night, and many a new day,-- +till Maya, grown a girl, looked onward to the life before her with +strange foreboding, for still the Spark burned. + +Hitherto it had been but a glad light on all things, except men and +women; for into their souls the Spark looked too far, and Maya's +open brow was shadowed deeply and often with sorrows not her own, +and her heart ached many a day for pains she could not or dared not +relieve; but if she were left alone, the illumination of the Spark +filled everything about her with glory. The sky's rapturous blue, +the vivid tints of grass and leaves, the dismaying splendor of +blood-red roses, the milky strawberry-flower, the brilliant +whiteness of the lily, the turquoise eyes of water-plants,--all +these gave her a pleasure intense as pain; and the songs of the winds, +the love-whispers of June midnights, the gathering roar of autumn +tempests, the rattle of thunder, the breathless and lurid pause +before a tropic storm,--all these the Spark enhanced and vivified; +till, seeing how blest in herself and the company of Nature the +Child of the Kingdom grew, Queen Lura deliberated silently and long +whether she should return the gift of the Fairy Cordis, and let Maya +live so tranquil and ignorant forever, or whether she should awaken +her from her dreams, and set her on her way through the world. + +But now the Princess Maya began to grow pale and listless. Her eyes +shone brighter than ever, but she was consumed with a feverish +longing to see new and strange things. On her knees, and weeping, +she implored her mother to release her from the court routine, and +let her wander in the woods and watch the village children play. + +So Queen Lura, having now another little daughter, named Maddala, +who was just like all other children, and a great comfort to her +mother, was the more inclined to grant Maya's prayer. She therefore +told Maya all that was before her, and having put upon her tiny +finger the fairy-ring, bade the tiring-woman take off her velvet robe, +and the gold circlet in her hair, and clothe her in a russet suit of +serge, with a gray kirtle and hood. King Joconde was gone to the wars. +Queen Lura cried a little, the Princess Maddala laughed, and Maya +went out alone,--not lonely, for the Spark burned high and clear, +and showed all the legends written on the world everywhere, and Maya +read them as she went. + +Out on the wide plain she passed many little houses; but through all +their low casements the red gleam of a fire shone, and on the +door-steps clustered happy children, or a peasant bride with warm +blushes on her cheek sat spinning, or a young mother with pensive +eyes lulled her baby to its twilight sleep and sheltered it with +still prayers. + +One of these kindly cottages harbored Maya for the night; and then +her way at dawn lay through a vast forest, where the dim tree-trunks +stretched far away till they grew undefined as a gray cloud, and +only here and there the sunshine strewed its elf-gold on ferns and +mosses, feathery and soft as strange plumage and costly velvet. +Sometimes a little brook with bubbling laughter crept across her +path and slid over the black rocks, gurgling and dimpling in the +shadow or sparkling in the sun, while fish, red and gold-speckled, +swam noiseless as dreams, and darting water-spiders, poised a moment +on the surface, cast a glittering diamond reflection on the yellow +sand beneath. + +The way grew long, and Maya weary. The new leaves of opalescent tint +shed odors of faint and passionate sweetness; the birds sang +love-songs that smote the sense like a caress; a warm wind yearned +and complained in the pine boughs far above her; yet her heart grew +heavy, and her eyes dim; she was sick for home;--not for the palace +and the court; not for her mother and Maddala; but for home;--she +knew her exile, and wept to return. + +That night, and for many nights, she slept in the forest; and when +at length she came out upon the plain beyond, she was pale and wan, +her dark eyes drooped, her slender figure was bowed and languid, and +only the mark upon her brow, where the coronet had fretted its +whiteness, betrayed that Maya was a princess born. + +And now dwellings began to dot the country: brown cottages, with +clinging vines; villas, aerial and cloud-tinted, with pointed roofs +and capricious windows; huts, in which some poor wretch from his bed +of straw looked out upon the wasteful luxury of his neighbor, and, +loathing his bitter crust and turbid water, saw feasts spread in the +open air, where tropic fruits and beaded wine mocked his feverish +thirst; and palaces of stainless marble, rising tower upon tower, and +turret over turret, like the pearly heaps of cloud before a storm, +while the wind swept from their gilded lattices bursts of festal +music, the chorus that receives a bride, or the triumphal notes of a +warrior's return. + +All these Maya passed by, for no door was open, and no fireless +hearth revealed; but before night dropped her starry veil, she had +travelled to a mansion whose door was set wide, and, within, a cold +hearth was piled with boughs of oak and beech. The opal upon Maya's +finger grew dim, but she moved toward the unlit wood, and at her +approach the false pretence betrayed itself; the ice glared before +her, and chilled her to the soul, as its shroud of bark fell off. +She fled over the threshold, and the house-spirit laughed with +bitter mirth; but the Spark was safe. + +Now came thronging streets, and many an open portal wooed Maya, but +wooed in vain. Once, upon the steps of a quaint and picturesque +cottage stood an artist, with eyes that flashed heaven's own azure, +and lit his waving curls with a gleam of gold. His pleading look +tempted the Child of the Kingdom with potent affinities of land and +likeness; his fair cottage called her from wall and casement, with +the spiritual eyes of ideal faces looking down upon her, forever +changeless and forever pure; but when, from purest pity, kindness, +and beauty-love, she would have drawn near the hearth, a sigh like +the passing of a soul shivered by her, and before its breath the +shapely embers fell to dust, the hearth beneath was heaped with ashes, +and with tearful lids Maya turned away, and the house-spirit, weeping, +closed the door behind her. + +Long days and nights passed ere she essayed again; and then, weary +and faint with home-woe, she lingered on the steps of a lofty house +whose carved door was swung open, whose jasper hearthstone was +heaped with goodly logs, and beside it, on the soft flower-strewn +skin of a panther, slept a youth beautiful as Adonis, and in his +sleep ever murmuring, "Mother!" Maya's heart yearned with a kindred +pang. She, too, was orphaned in her soul, and she would gladly have +lit the fire upon this lonely hearth, and companioned the solitude +of the sleeper; but, alas! the boughs still wore their summer garland, +and from each severed end slow tears of dryad-life distilled +honeyedly upon the stone beneath. Of such withes and saplings comes +no living fire! Maya, smiling, set a kiss upon the boy-sleeper's brow, +but the Spark lay quiet, and the house-spirit flung a blooming +cherry-bough after its departing guest. + +The year was now wellnigh run. The Princess Maya despaired of home. +The earth seemed a harsh stepmother, and its children rather stones +than clay. A vague sense of some fearful barrier between herself and +her kind haunted the woman's soul within her, and the unquenchable +flames of the Spark seemed to girdle her with a defence that drove +away even friendly ingress. Night and day she wept, oppressed with +loneliness. She knew not how to speak the tongues of men, though +well she understood their significance. Only little children mated +rightly with her divine infancy; only the mute glories of nature +satisfied for a moment her brooding soul. The celestial impulses +within her beat their wings in futile longing for freedom, and with +inexpressible anguish she uttered her griefs aloud, or sung them to +such plaintive strains that all who heard wept in sympathy. Yet she +had no home. + +After many days she came upon a broad, champaign, fertile land, where, +on a gentle knoll, among budding orchards, and fields green with +winter grains, stood a low, wide-eaved house, with gay parterres and +clipped hedges around it, all ordered with artistic harmony, while +over chimney and cornice crept wreaths of glossy ivy, every deep +green leaf veined with streaks of light, and its graceful sprays +clasping and clinging wherever they touched the chiselled stone +beneath. Upon the lawn opened a broad, low door, and the southern sun +streamed inward, showing the carved panels of the fireplace and its +red hearth, where heavy boughs of wood and splinters from the heart +of the pine lay ready for the hand of the Coming to kindle. Upon the +threshold, plucking out the dead leaves of the ivy, stood one from +whose face strength, and beauty, and guile that the guileless knew +not, shone sunlike upon Maya; and as she faltered and paused, he +spoke a welcome to her in her own language, and held toward her the +clasping hand of help. A thrill of mad joy cleft the heart of the +Princess, a glow of incarnate summer dyed with rose her cheek and lip, +the Spark blazed through her brimming eyes, weariness vanished. +"Home! home!" sung her rapt lips; and in the delirious ecstasy of +the hour she pressed toward the hearth, laid down her scrip and +staff upon the heaped wood, flung herself on the red stone, and, +heedless of the opal talisman, flashed outward from her joyful eyes +the Spark,--the Crown, the Curse! So a forked tongue of lightning +speeds from its rain-fringed cloud, and cleaves the oak to its centre; +so the blaze of a meteor rushes through mid-heaven, and--is gone! +The Spark lit, quivered, sunk, and flashed again; but the wood lay +unlighted beneath it. Maya gasped for breath, and with the long +respiration the Spark returned, lit upon her lips, seared them like +a hot iron, and entered into her heart,--the blighting canker of her +fate, a bitterness in flesh and spirit forevermore. + +Writhing with anguish and contempt, she turned away from the wrought +stone whose semblance had beguiled her to her mortal loss; and as +she passed from the step, another hand lit a consuming blaze beneath +her staff and scrip, sending a sword of flame after her to the +threshold, and the house-spirit shrieked aloud, "Only stones +together strike fire, Maya!"--while from the casement above looked +forth two faces, false and fair, with eyes of azure ice, and +disdainful smiles, and bound together by a curling serpent, that +ringed itself in portentous symbol about their waists. + +With star-like eyes, proud lips, and erect head, Maya went out. Her +laugh rang loud; her song soared in wild and mocking cadence to the +stars; her rigid brow wore scorn like a coronal of flame; and with a +scathed nature she trod the streets of the city, mixed with its +wondering crowds, made the Spark a blaze and a marvel in all lands,-- +but hid the opal in her bosom; for its scarlet spot of life-blood +had dropped away, and the jewel was broken across. + +So the wide world heard of Maya, the Child of the Kingdom, and from +land to land men carried the stinging arrows of her wit, or +signalled the beacon-fires of her scorn, while seas and shores +unknown echoed her mad and rapt music, or answered the veiled agony +that derided itself with choruses of laughter, from every mystic +whisper of the wave, or roar of falling headlands. + +And then she fled away, lest, in the turbulent whirl of life, the +Curse should craze, and not slay her. For sleep had vanished with +wordless moans and frighted aspect from her pillow,--or if it dared, +standing afar off, to cast its pallid shadow there, still there was +neither rest nor refreshing in the troubled spell. Nor could the +thirst that consumed her quench itself with red wine or crystal water, +translucent grapes or the crimson fruits that summer kisses into +sweetness with her heats; forever longing, and forever unsated, it +parched her lips and burnt her gasping mouth, but there was no +draught to allay it. And even so food failed of its office. Kindly +hands brought to her, whose queenliness asserted itself to their +souls with an innocent loftiness, careless of pomp or insignia, all +delicate dates and exquisite viands; but neither the keen and +stimulating odors of savory meat, the crisp whiteness of freshest +bread, nor the slow-dropping gold of honeycomb could tempt her to eat. +The simplest peasant's fare, in measure too scanty for a linnet, +sustained her life; but the Curse lit even upon her food, and those +lips of fire burned all things in their touch to tasteless ashes. + +So she fled away; for the forest was cool and lonely, and even as +she learned the lies and treacheries of men, so she longed to leave +them behind her and die in bitterness less bitter for its solitude. +But Maya fled not from herself: the winds wailed like the crying of +despair in her harp-voiced pines; the shining oak-leaves rustled +hisses upon her unstrung ear; the timid forest-creatures, who own no +rule but patient love and caresses, hid from her defiant step and +dazzling eye; and when she knew herself in no wise healed by the +ministries of Nature, in the very apathy of desperation she flung +herself by the clear fountain that had already fallen upon her lips +and cooled them with bitter water, and hiding her head under the +broad, fresh leaves of a calla that bent its marble cups above her +knitted brow and loosened hair, she lay in deathlike trance, till the +Fairy Anima swept her feet with fringed garments, and cast the +serpent wand writhing and glittering upon her breast. + +"Wake, Maya!" said the organ-tones of the Spark-Bringer; and Maya +awoke. + +"So! the Spark galls thee?" resumed those deep, bitter-sweet tones; +and for answer the Princess Maya held toward her, with accusing eyes, +the broken, bloodless opal. + +"Cordis's folly!" retorted Anima. "Thou hadst done best without it, +Maya; the Spark abides no other fate but shining. Yet there is a +little hope for thee. Wilt thou die of the bitter fire, or wilt thou +turn beggar-maid? The sleep that charity lends to its couch shall +rest thee; the draught a child brings shall slake thy thirst; the +food pity offers shall strengthen and renew. But these are not the +gifts a Princess receives; she who gathers them must veil the Crown, +shroud the Spark, conceal the Curse, and in torn robes, with bare +and bleeding feet, beg the crumbs of life from door to door. Wilt +thou take up this trade?" + +Maya rose up from the leaves of the cool lily, and put aside the +veiling masses of her hair. + +"I will go!" she whispered, flutelike, for hope beat a living pulse +in her brain. + +So with scrip and hood she went out of the forest and begged of the +world's bounty such life as a beggar-maid may endure. + +Long ago the King and Queen died in Larrierepensee, and there the +Princess Maddala reigns with a goodly Prince beside her, nor cares +for her lost sister; but songless, discrowned, desolate, Maya walks +the earth. + +All ye whose fires burn bright on the hearth, whose dwellings ring +with child-laughter, or are hushed with love-whispers and the peace +of home, pity the Princess Maya! Give her food and shelter; charm +away the bitter flames that consume her life and soul; drop tears +and alms together into the little wasted hand that pleads with dumb +eloquence for its possessor; and even while ye pity and protect, +revere that fretted mark of the Crown that still consecrates to the +awful solitude of sorrow Maya, the Child of the Kingdom! + + * * * * * + + + + + CATAWBA WINE. + + This song of mine + Is a Song of the Vine, + To be sung by the glowing embers + Of wayside inns, + When the rain begins + To darken the drear Novembers. + + It is not a song + Of the Scuppernong, + From warm Carolinian valleys,-- + Nor the Isabel + And the Muscatel + That bask in our garden alleys,-- + + Nor the red Mustang, + Whose clusters hang + O'er the waves of the Colorado, + And the fiery flood + Of whose purple blood + Has a dash of Spanish bravado. + + For richest and best + Is the wine of the West, + That grows by the Beautiful River; + Whose sweet perfume + Fills all the room + With a benison on the giver. + + And as hollow trees + Are the haunts of bees + Forever going and coming, + So this crystal hive + Is all alive + With a swarming and buzzing and humming. + + Very good in their way + Are the Verzenay, + And the Sillery soft and creamy; + But Catawba wine + Has a taste more divine, + More dulcet, delicious, and dreamy. + + There grows no vine + By the haunted Rhine, + By Danube or Guadalquivir, + Nor on island or cape, + That bears such a grape + As grows by the Beautiful River. + + Drugged is their juice + For foreign use, + When shipped o'er the reeling Atlantic, + To rack our brains + With the fever pains + That have driven the Old World frantic. + + To the sewers and sinks + With all such drinks, + And after them tumble the mixer! + For a poison malign + Is such Borgia wine, + Or at best but a Devil's Elixir. + + While pure as a spring + Is the wine I sing, + And to praise it, one needs but name it; + For Catawba wine + Has need of no sign, + No tavern-bush to proclaim it. + + And this Song of the Vine, + This greeting of mine, + The winds and the birds shall deliver + To the Queen of the West, + In her garlands dressed, + On the banks of the Beautiful River. + + * * * * * + + + + +THE WINDS AND THE WEATHER. + + + _The Physical Geography of the Sea_. By M. F. MAURY. New York: + Harper & Brothers. 1857. + + _Climatology of the United States and of the Temperate Latitudes + of the North American Continent_. By LORIN BLODGET. Philadelphia: J. + B. Lippincott & Co. 1857. + + _Proceedings of the British Association for the Advancement of + Science_. 1857. + +An eloquent philosopher, depicting the deplorable results that would +follow, if some future materialist were "to succeed in displaying to +us a mechanical system of the human mind, as comprehensive, +intelligible, and satisfactory as the Newtonian mechanism of the +heavens," exclaims, "Fallen from their elevation, Art and Science +and Virtue would no longer be to man the objects of a genuine and +reflective adoration." We are led, in reflecting upon the far more +probable success of the meteorologist, to similar forebodings upon +the dulness and sameness to which social intercourse will be reduced +when the weather philosophers shall succeed in subjecting the changes +of the atmosphere to rules and predictions,--when the rain shall +fall where it is expected, the wind blow no longer "where it listeth," +and wayward man no longer find his counterpart in nature. But we +console ourselves by contemplating the difficulties of the problem, +and the improbability, that, in our generation at least, we shall be +deprived of these subjects of general news and universal interest. + +During the last half-century, the progress of experimental +philosophy in the direction of the weather, though its results are +for the most part of a negative character, has yet been sufficient +to excite the apprehensions of the philanthropist. We have unlearned +many fables and false theories, and have made great advancement in +that knowledge of our ignorance, which is the only true foundation +of positive science. + +The moon has been deposed from the executive chair, though she still +has her supporters and advocates; and an innumerable host of minor +causes are found to constitute, upon strictly republican principles, +the ruling power of the winds and the rain. That regularity, however +complicated, which reason still demands, and expects even from the +weather, is not found to be so simple as our rules and signs of the +weather indicate; for the operation of these innumerable causes is +so complicated, that the repetition of similar phenomena or similar +combinations of causes, to any great extent, is the most improbable +of events. Perhaps the meteorologist will ultimately find that +Nature has succeeded, in what seems, indeed, to be her aim, in +completely retracing her steps, and reducing the operation of that +simple and regular system of causes, which she brought out of chaos, +back to a confusion of detail, from which all law and regularity are +obliterated. + +Meteorological observations have, however, determined many regular +and constant causes and a few regular phenomena. The method pursued +in these investigations is, for the most part, the elimination, by +general averages, of limited and temporary changes in the elements +of the weather, and the determination of those changes which depend +upon the constant influences of locality, of season, and of constant +or slowly varying causes. These constant influences constitute the +climate; and the study of climates is thus the first step towards +the solution of the problem of the weather. Climates, in their +changes and distribution, are very important elements in the +determination of the movements of the weather, and are to the +meteorologist what the elements of the planetary orbits are to the +astronomer; but, unlike planetary perturbations, the weather makes +the most reckless excursions from its averages, and obscures them by +a most inconsequent and incalculable fickleness. + +Whether mechanical science will hereafter succeed in calculating +these perturbations of climate, as we may style the weather, or will +find the problem beyond its capacity, it will yet, doubtless, account +for much that is now obscure, as observation brings the facts more +distinctly to view. We propose to give a brief general survey of the +mechanics of the atmosphere in its present state, and to indicate +the nature and limits of our knowledge on this subject. + +Among the first noticed and most remarkable features of regularity +in atmospheric changes are constant, periodic, and prevailing winds. +The most remarkable instances of these are the trade-winds of the +torrid zone, the monsoons of the Indian Ocean, and the prevailing +southwest wind of our northern temperate latitudes. Of these, the +trade-winds are the most important to science, as furnishing the key +to that general explanation of the winds which was first advanced by +the distinguished Halley. + +In Halley's celebrated theory, the trade-winds are explained as the +effects of the unequal distribution of the sun's heat in different +latitudes. The air of the equator, heated more than the northern or +southern air, expands more, and overflows, moving in the upper +regions of the atmosphere toward the poles; while the lower, colder +air on both sides moves toward the equator to preserve equilibrium. +Thus an extensive circulation is carried on. The air that moves from +the equator in the upper atmosphere, gradually sinking to the surface +of the earth, finally ceases to move toward the poles, and returns +as an undercurrent to the equator, where it again rises and moves +toward the poles. + +Now the air of the equator, moving with the earth's rotary motion, +has a greater velocity than the earth itself at high northern or +southern latitudes, and consequently appears to gain an eastward +motion in its progress toward the poles. Without friction, this +relative eastward motion would increase as the air moves toward the +poles, and diminish at the same rate as the air returns, till at the +equator the velocity of the earth and of the air would again be equal; +but friction reduces the motion of the returning air to that of the +earth, at or near the calms of the tropics; so that the air, passing +the tropics, gains a relative westward motion in its further +progress through the torrid zone. The southwestward motion thus +produced between the tropic of Cancer and the equator is the +well-known trade-wind. + +Now, according to this theory, the prevailing winds of our temperate +latitudes ought to have a southeastward motion as far as the calms +of Cancer or "the horse latitudes." Moreover, instead of these calms, +there should still be a southward motion. But observation has shown, +that though the prevailing lower winds of our latitude move eastward, +still their motion is toward the north rather than the south; so +that they appear to contradict the theory by which the trade-winds +are explained. + +To account for these anomalies, Lieut. Maury has invented a very +ingenious hypothesis, which is published in his "Physical Geography +of the Sea." He supposes that the air, which passes from the equator +toward the poles in the upper regions of the atmosphere, is brought +down to the surface of the earth beyond the calms of the tropics, +and that it thence proceeds with an increasing eastward motion, +appearing in our northern hemisphere as the prevailing northeastward +winds. Approaching the poles with a spiral motion, the air there +rises, according to this hypothesis, in a vortex, and returns toward +the equator in the upper atmosphere, gradually acquiring a westward +motion; till, returning to the tropics, it is again brought down to +the earth, and thence proceeds, with a still increasing westward +motion, as the trade-winds. At the equator the air rises again, and, +according to Lieut. Maury, crosses to the other side, and proceeds +through a similar course in the other hemisphere. + +The rising of the air at the equator is supposed to cause the +equatorial rains; and the drought of the tropics is also explained +by that descent of the air, in these latitudes, which this +hypothesis supposes. + +Now although this hypothesis explains the phenomena, it has still +met with great opposition. The motions which Lieut. Maury supposes +can hardly be accounted for without resorting, as is usual in such +cases, to electricity or magnetism,--to some occult cause, or some +occult operation of a known cause. Moreover, it has been difficult +for the mechanical philosopher to understand how the winds manage to +cross each other, as Lieut. Maury supposes them to do, at the +equator and the tropics, without getting into "entangling alliances." +If this hypothesis were advanced, not as a physical explanation of +the phenomena, but, like the epicycles and eccentrics of Ptolemy, +"to save the appearances," its ingenuity would be greatly to its +author's credit; but, like the epicycles and eccentrics, though it +represents the phenomena well enough, it contradicts laws of motion, +now well known, which ought to be familiar to every physical +philosopher. But these speculations of Lieut. Maury will now be +superseded by a new theory of atmospheric movements, an account of +which was presented by its author, Mr. J. Thompson, at the recent +meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. [1] + +[Footnote 1: A fuller discussion of this theory the author +reserved for the Royal Society. The _London Athenaeum_ gives a brief +abstract of his paper, in its report of the proceedings of the +Association.] + +Mr. Thompson's theory takes account of forces, hitherto unnoticed, +which are generated by the eastward circulation of the atmosphere in +high latitudes. He shows that these forces cause the prevailing +northeastward under-current of our latitudes, while above this, yet +below the highest northeastward current, the air ought still to move +southward according to Halley's theory. + +This under-current is not the immediate effect of differences of +temperature, but a secondary effect induced by the friction of the +earth's surface and the continual deflection of the air's eastward +motion from a great circle, (in which the air tends to move,) into +the small circle of the latitude, in which the air actually does move. +The force of this deflection, measured by the centrifugal force of +the air as it circulates around the pole, retards the movement from +the equator, and finally wholly suspends it; so that the upper air +circulates around in the higher latitudes as water may be made to +circulate in a pail; and the air is drawn away from the polar +regions as this circulatory motion is communicated to it, and tends +to accumulate in the middle latitudes, as the circulating water is +heaped up around the sides of the pail. Hence, in the middle +latitudes there is a greater weight of air than at the poles, and +this tends to press the lower air to higher latitudes. Centrifugal +force, however, balances this pressure, so long as the lower air +moves with the velocity of the upper strata; but as the friction of +the earth retards its motion and diminishes its centrifugal force, +it gradually yields to the pressure of the air above it, and moves +toward the poles. Near the polar circles it is again retarded by its +increasing centrifugal force, and it returns through the middle +regions of the atmosphere. + +Thus there are two systems of atmospheric circulation in each +hemisphere. The principal one extends from the equator to high +middle latitudes and partly overlies the other, which extends from +the tropical calms to the polar circles. These two circulations move +in opposite directions; like two wheels, when one communicates its +motion to the other by the contact of their circumferences. + +In the middle latitudes the lower current of the principal +circulation lies upon the upper current of the secondary circulation, +and both move together toward the equator. This principal lower +current first touches the earth's surface beyond the tropical calms, +and having lost its relative eastward motion and now tending westward, +it appears as the trade-wind, very regular and constant; while the +upper secondary current returns, without reaching the tropics, as an +undercurrent, and in our latitude appears as the prevailing +northeastward wind,--a very feeble motion, usually lost in the +weather winds and other disturbances, and only appearing distinctly +in the general average. + +Mr. Thompson illustrates the effect of the friction of the earth's +surface on the eastward circulation of the air by a very simple +experiment with a pail of water. If we put into the pail grains of +any material a little heavier than water, and then give the water a +rotatory motion by stirring it, the grains ought, by the centrifugal +force imparted to them, to collect around the sides of the pail; but, +sinking to the bottom, they do in fact tend to collect at the centre, +carried inward by those currents which the friction of the sides and +bottom indirectly produces. + +Thus Mr. Thompson's beautiful and philosophical theory completes +that of Halley, and explains all those apparent anomalies which have +hitherto seemed irreconcilable with the only rational account of the +trade-winds. The rainless calms of the tropics are explained by this +theory without that crossing and interference of winds which Lieut. +Maury supposes; for the secondary circulation returns as an +under-current toward the poles without reaching the tropics, and the +dry lower current of the principal circulation passes over the +tropical latitudes, in its gradual descent, before it reaches the +earth as the trade-winds. + +These trade-winds, absorbing moisture from the sea, precipitate it +as they rise again, and produce the constant equatorial rains; and +these rains, doubtless, tend much more powerfully than the mere +unequal distribution of heat to direct the wind toward the equator; +for the fall of rain rapidly diminishes the pressure of the air and +disturbs its equilibrium, so that violent winds are frequently +observed to blow toward rainy districts. Thus, primarily, the unequal +distribution of heat, and, more immediately, the equatorial rains +cause the principal circulation of our atmosphere; and this +indirectly produces the secondary circulation of Mr. Thompson's +theory. Both these regular movements are, however, greatly disturbed, +and especially the latter, by winds which are occasioned by local +and irregular rains. + +In these movements and their causes we have the general outline of +our subject, within which we must now sketch the weather. The causes +of atmospheric movement, which we have thus far considered, are the +unequal distribution of the sun's heat, the absorption and +precipitation of moisture, the direct and the inductive action of +the earth's rotation and friction. If to these we should add the +tidal action of the sun's and moon's attractions, we should perhaps +complete the list of _vera causae_ which are certainly known to +exert a more or less general influence upon the atmosphere. But this +short list is long enough, as we shall soon see. + +If the earth were wholly covered with water of a uniform depth, its +climates would be distributed with greater regularity, and the +perturbations of climate would be comparatively small and regular; +though even under such circumstances there would still exist a +tendency to discontinuity and complexity of movements from that +influence of rain, the peculiar character of which we shall soon +consider. + +The irregular distribution of land and water, and the peculiar +action of each in imparting the heat of the sun to the incumbent air,-- +the irregular distribution of plains and mountains, and their various +effects in different positions and at different altitudes,--the +distribution of heat effected by ocean currents,--all these tend to +produce permanent derangements of climate and great irregularities +in the weather. To these we must add what the astronomer calls +disturbing actions of the second order,--effects of the disturbances +themselves upon the action of the disturbing agencies,--effects of +the irregular winds upon the distribution of heat and rain, and upon +the action of lands and seas, mountains and plains. Though such +disturbances are comparatively insignificant in the motions of the +planets, yet in the weather they are often more important than the +primary causes. + +The aggregate and permanent effect of all these disturbing causes, +primary and secondary, is seen in that irregular distribution of +climates, which the tortuous isothermal lines and the mottled +raincharts illustrate. The isothermal lines may be regarded as the +topographical delineations of that bed of temperatures down which +the upper atmosphere flows from the equator toward the poles, till +its downward tendency is balanced by the centrifugal force of its +eastward motion. This irregular bed shifts from month to month, from +day to day, and even from hour to hour; and the lines that are drawn +on the maps are only averages for the year or the season. + +In the midst of these irregular, but continuous agencies, the rain +introduces a peculiar discontinuity, and turns irregularity into +discord. We have shown that the rain is an immediate cause of wind; +but how is the rain itself produced? For so marked an effect we +naturally seek a special cause; but no adequate single cause has +ever been discovered. The combination of many conditions, probably, +is necessary, such as a peculiar distribution of heat and moisture +and atmospheric movements; though the immediate cause of the fall of +rain is doubtless the rising, and consequent expansion and cooling, +of the saturated air. + +The winds that blow hither and thither, vainly striving to restore +equilibrium to the atmosphere, burden themselves with the moisture +they absorb from the seas; and this moisture absorbs their heat, +retards their motion, and slowly modifies the forces which impel them. +Now when the saturated air, extending far above the surface of the +earth, and carried in its movements still higher, is relieved of an +incumbent weight of air, it becomes rarefied, and its temperature +and capacity for moisture are simultaneously diminished; its moisture, +suddenly precipitated, appears as a cloud, the particles of which +collect into rain-drops and fall to the earth. Thus the air suddenly +loses much of its weight, and instead of restoring equilibrium to +the troubled atmosphere, it introduces a new source of disturbance. +Though the weight of the air is diminished by the fall of rain, yet +the bulk is increased by the expansive force of the latent heat +which the condensed vapors set free. Thus the rainy air expands +upwards and flows outwards, and no longer able to balance the +pressure of the surrounding air, it is carried still higher by +inblowing winds, which rise in turn and continue the process, often +extending the storm over vast areas. The force of these movements is +measured partly by the force of latent heat set free, and partly by +the mechanical power of the rain-fall, a very small fraction of +which constitutes the water-power of all our rivers. Such a fruitful +source of disturbance, generated by so slight an accident as the +upward movement of the saturated air, expanded by its own agency to +so great an extent, so sudden and discontinuous in its action, so +obscure in its origin, and so distinct in its effects,--such a +phenomenon defies the powers of mathematical prediction, and rouses +all the winds to sedition. + +A storm not only disturbs the lower winds, but its influences reach +even to the upper movements. The sudden expansion and rising of the +rainy air delay these movements, which afterwards react as violent +winds. + +The forces stored away by the gradual rise of vapor and its +absorption of heat, and then suddenly exhibited in a mechanical form +by the effects of rain, afford an illustration of that principle of +conservation and economy of power, of which there are so many +examples in modern science. No power is ever destroyed. Whether +exhibited as heat or mechanical force, in the products and forces of +chemical or of vital action, in movement or in altered conditions of +motion,--whether changed by the growth of plants into fuel or into +food, and converted again to heat by combustion or by vital processes, +and brought out as mechanical power in the steam-engine or in the +horse,--it is still the same power, and is measured in each of its +forms by an invariable standard. It first appears as the heat of the +sun, and a portion escapes at once back into space, while the rest +passes first through a series of transformations. A part is changed +into moving winds or into suspended vapor, and a part into fuel or +food. From conditions of motion it is changed into motion; from +motion it is changed by friction or resistance into heat, electric +force, molecular vibrations, or into new conditions of motion, and +passing through its course of changes, it remains embroiled in its +permanent effects or escapes into space as heat. + +Though mechanical science will probably never be able to predict the +beginning or duration of storms, it will yet, doubtless, be able to +account for all their general features, and for such distinct local +peculiarities as observation may determine. Great advancement has +already been made in the determination of prevailing winds and in +the study of storms. Two theories have been brought forward upon the +general movements of storms; both have been proved, to the entire +satisfaction of their advocates, by the storms themselves; and +probably both are, with some limitations, true. The first of these +theories we have already described. According to it, the winds move +inward toward the centre of the storm; according to the other theory, +they blow in a circumference around the centre. + +Observations upon storms of small extent, such as thunder-storms or +tornadoes, show very clearly that the winds blow toward the stormy +district. But when observations are made upon the winds within the +district of such extensive storms as sometimes visit the United +States, the directions of the wind are found to be so various, that +the advocates of either theory, making due allowance for local +disturbances, can triumphantly refute their adversaries. In such +storms there are doubtless many centres or maxima of rain, and +whether the wind move around or toward these centres, it would +inevitably get confused. + +The opinion, that the winds move around the central point or line of +the storm, was strenuously maintained by the late Mr. Redfield, +whose activity in his favorite pursuit has connected his name +inseparably with meteorology. Others have maintained the same opinion, +and the rotatory motion of the tropical hurricanes is offered as a +principal proof. It is obvious from the causes of motion already +considered, that, if the air is carried far, by its tendency toward a +rainy district, it will acquire a secondary relative motion from its +change of latitude; and this, in our hemisphere, if the air move +toward the south, will be westward,--if toward the north, eastward. +Hence the motion of the air from both directions toward a stormy +district is deflected to the right side of the storm; and this gives +rise to that motion from right to left which is observed in the +hurricanes of the northern hemisphere. + +To suppose, as many do, that regular winds, arising from constant +and extensive causes, can come into bodily conflict and preserve +their identity and original impetus for days, without immediate and +strongly impelling forces to sustain their motion, implies a +profound ignorance of mechanical science, and is little better than +those ancient superstitions which gave a personal identity to the +winds. The momentum of ordinary winds is a feeble force in +comparison with those forces of pressure and friction which +continually modify it. Hence sudden changes in the direction and +intensity of winds must primarily arise from similar changes in +these forces. But there are no known forces which change so suddenly, +except the pressure and latent heat of suspended vapor; and therefore +the fall of rain is the only adequate known cause of those +storm-winds which, interpolated among the gentler winds, keep the +atmosphere in perpetual commotion. + +Storms have, however, certain habits and peculiarities, more or less +regular and distinct, which depend upon locality and season. And +this is what ought to be expected; for, though the storms themselves +are essentially anomalous, yet many of the causes which cooperate to +induce them are constant or periodic, while others are subject to +but slight perturbations. It is obvious that no more moisture can be +precipitated than has been evaporated, and that the winds only gain +suddenly by the fall of rain the forces which they have lost at their +leisure in the absorption of moisture. Thus the rage of the storm is +kept within bounds, and though the exact period at which the winds +are set free cannot be determined, yet their force and frequency +must be subject to certain limitations. The study of the habits and +peculiarities of storms is of the greatest importance to navigation +and agriculture, and these arts have already been benefited by the +labors of the meteorologist. + +The lawlessness of the weather, within certain limitations, though +discouraging to the physical philosopher, has yet its bright side +for the student of final causes. The uses of the weather and its +adaptation to organic life are subjects of untiring interest. The +progression of the seasons, varied by differences of latitude, is +also diversified and adapted to a fuller development of organic +variety by irregularities of climate. + +The regular alternations of day and night, summer and winter, dry +seasons and wet, are adapted to those alternations of organic +functions which belong to the economy of life. The vital forces of +plants and of the lower orders of animals have not that +self-determining capacity of change which is necessary to the +complete development of life; but they persist in their present mode +of action, and, when they are not modified by outward changes, +reduce life to its simplest phases. Changes of growth are effected +by those apparent hardships to which life is subject; and progression +in new directions is effected by retrogression in previous modes of +growth. The old leaves and branches must fall, the wood must be +frost-bitten or dried, the substance of seeds must wither and then +decay, the action of leaves must every night be reversed, vines and +branches must be shaken by the winds, that the energies and the +materials of new forms of life may be rendered active and available. + +Some of the outward changes of nature are regular and periodic, while +others, without law or method, are apparently adapted by their +diversity to draw out the unlimited capacities and varieties of life; +so that as inorganic nature approaches a regulated confusion, the +more it tends to bring forth that perfect order, of which fragments +appear in the incomplete system of actual organic life. + +The classification of organic forms presents to the naturalist, not +the structure of a regular though incomplete development, but the +broken and fragmentary form of a ruin. We may suppose, then, with a +recent physiological writer, that the creation of those organic +forms which constitute this fragmentary system was effected in the +midst of an elemental storm, a regulated confusion, uniting all the +external conditions which the highest capacities and the greatest +varieties of organized life require for their fullest development; +and that as the storm subsided into a simpler, but less genial +diversity,--into the weather,--whole orders and genera and species +sank with it from the ranks of possible organic forms. The weather, +fallen from its high estate, no longer able to develope, much less to +create new forms, can only sustain those that are left to its care. + +Man finds himself everywhere mirrored in nature. Wayward, inconstant, +always seeking rest, always impelled by new evils, the greatest of +which he himself creates,--protecting and cherishing or blighting and +destroying the fragmentary life of a fallen nature,--incapable +himself of creating new capacities, but nourishing in prosperity and +quickening in adversity those that are left,--he sees the workings of +his own life in the strife of the elements. His powers and activities +are related to his spiritual capacities, as inorganic movements are +related to an organizing life. The resurrection of his higher nature +is like a new creation, secret, sudden, inconsequent. "The wind +bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but +canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth; so is every +one that is born of the Spirit." + + * * * * * + + + + +AKIN BY MARRIAGE [Continued] + + +CHAPTER IV. + +The designs of Mr. Elam Hunt upon the hand of Laura Stebbins have +already been mentioned, in a former chapter of this history, as well +as the fact that his hopes were encouraged by Mrs. Jaynes who +(to make no secret of the matter) had pledged her word to the +enamored Elam, that when he should be settled in a parish of his own, +Laura should be added to complete the sum of his felicity. + +To this agreement Laura herself was not a party; nay, her consent +had never been so much as asked; for though Elam knew that marriage +by proxy was impossible, and, indeed, would doubtless have preferred +to be the bridegroom at his own wedding, he had no objection +whatever to a vicarious courtship; for he was not a forward suitor, +delighting to prattle of his pains to his fair tormentor, as the way +of many is. But touching all the terms and conditions of this +contract Laura was informed by Mrs. Jaynes, who, when the other +protested with tears and sobs against this disposition of her person +without even asking her leave thereto, replied, with a quiet voice +and manner, that she had the right to make the promise in Laura's +name, and had done so upon due consideration. + +This ominous reserve frightened Laura far more than an angry reply +would have done; for when her sister spoke with such brief decision, +it was a sign that her mind was made up; and Laura knew full well +the resolute purpose with which Mrs. Jaynes was wont to pursue any +design that she had once formed. She distrusted her own ability to +withstand her sister's inflexible will, and felt a secret misgiving, +that, in spite of herself, she would by some means be forced or +persuaded to yield at last. This very lack of faith in her own power +of resistance caused her more distress and terror than all her other +fears. Sometimes she almost fancied a spell of enchantment had been +put upon her, which would render all her efforts to escape her fate +as unavailing as the struggles of a gnat in a spider's web. + +A friend in time of trouble is like a staff to one that is lame or +weary. But when Laura, in these straits, leaned upon her dearest +friend, Cornelia, for aid and comfort, she found but a broken reed; +for, instead of words of consolation and encouragement, Cornelia +uttered only dismal prophecies that Laura was surely doomed to be +the young parson's bride. + +"If you only had another lover to run away with, now," said she, +"why, then it would be delightful to have your sister act as she does; +but, as it is, I'm sure I don't see any way to avoid it." + +"Nor I," cried Laura, sinking still deeper in despair. "Oh, dear! +what shall I do?" + +"In novels, you know," pursued Cornelia, "where there's a cruel, +tyrannical father, like your sister, there's always a hero in love +with the heroine----" + +"I'm sure I wish there was a hero in love with me," said Laura, +thinking of her own hero in regimentals. "I'd run away with him," +she added, with animation, "if--if both his legs were shot off,"--not +considering duly, I dare say, how greatly such a dreadful mutilation, +however glorious in itself, would conflict with the rapid locomotion +essential to her plan of elopement. + +But when Tira Blake came to be told of Laura's trouble, and the +reasons of it, that sage and prudent friend gave counsel that +cheered her like a cordial, telling her it would be sinful to marry +a man whom she disliked so heartily, and that in such a matter no +one had the right to demand or enforce obedience. + +"It's bad enough to be married when you're willin'," said she; +"but when you a'n't willin', there's no law nor no gospel to make you." + +"But if Maria should compel me, what should I do?" cried Laura, to +whom her sister's will seemed more mighty than both law and gospel. + +"She can't," replied Statira, sententiously; "she can't. Her 'yes,' +in such a case, is only good for herself; it can't make you any +man's wife.--What shall you do? Why, nothin',--nothin' in the world. +If they should bring bridegroom and parson, and stand you up side of +him by main force, (which of course is foolish to think of their +doing so, only I suppose it just to show you what I mean,) even in +such a case you needn't do anything. Keep your mouth shut and your +head from bobbin', and there a'n't lawyers, nor squires, nor parsons, +nor parsons' wives either for that matter, enough in all Connecticut +to marry you to a mouse, let alone a man. Humph!" added Miss Blake, +with scornful accent, "I should like to see 'em set out to marry me +to anybody I didn't want to have!" + +There was nothing in all that Tira said which Laura did not know +before; but it was uttered in such a way that it sounded in her ears +like a new revelation, filling her heart with peace and comfort, and +inspiring her with hope and courage. The magic spell that had +enthralled her spirit was broken by the power of a few cheery, +confident, assuring words. A heavy weight seemed lifted from her +heart, and, relieved from the pressure, her spirits rose, joyous and +elastic. The shadow was dispelled which had darkened her future, and +the sun seemed to shine brighter and the birds to sing more sweetly. +She herself was changed,--or at least it was hard to believe she was +the same Laura Stebbins who, the night before, had cried herself to +sleep, and whose doleful visage, that very morning, had looked out +at her from the mirror. She flew at Tira in a transport, and, +without asking her leave, kissed her twenty times in less than a +minute, after a fashion that (I say it with reverence) would have +tantalized even a deacon. She clapped her hands, she laughed, she +danced, she went swaying on tiptoe around the room with a jaunty step, +singing and keeping time to a waltz tune; and finally, pausing near +the window, she doubled a tiny fist, as white as a snowball, +bringing it down into the rosy palm of her other hand with a gesture +of resolute determination, at the same time uttering, through closed +teeth and with compressed and puckered lips, an oft-repeated vow, +that, never, _never_, the longest day she lived, would she marry +Elam Hunt, to please anybody,--as her sister Maria (said she, with a +saucy toss of the head) would find, if she tried to make her! + +I doubt greatly, whether, if Laura had known what I am now going to +tell my reader, she would have indulged in such vivacious pranks, +and bold, defiant words: namely, that Mrs. Jaynes was hearing +everything she said, and, in fact, had listened to and taken special +heed of nearly the whole conversation, a part of which has been set +forth above. Coming through the wicket in the garden fence, on an +errand to the Bugbee kitchen, the sound of her own name, in Laura's +excited tones, struck Mrs. Jaynes's ear and excited her curiosity. +Walking nearer to the house, and concealing herself behind a little +thicket of lilac bushes, near the open window of Statira's bedroom, +she was enabled to hear with distinctness almost every word uttered +by the unconscious conspirators, who were plotting against the +fulfilment of her cherished project. + +There is good reason for believing that what Mrs. Jaynes overheard, +while lying in ambush, as has been related, excited in her heart +emotions of indignation and resentment. Be that as it may, no trace +of displeasure was visible upon her face or in her voice or manner, +when, a few minutes afterwards, she stood by the side of the +unsuspicious Tira, in the back veranda of the house, holding in her +hand a plate containing a pat of butter she had just borrowed from +the Doctor's housekeeper, while the latter, peeping through the +curtain of vine-leaves, gazed at as pretty a spectacle as just then +could have been seen anywhere in Belfield. On the grassplot, in the +shade of a great cherry-tree, Laura and Helen were playing at graces. +Both were full of frolicsome glee; the former, with spirits in their +first glad rebound from recent despondency, being wild with gayety, +enjoying the sport no less than the merry child, her playmate. +Laura's glowing face was fairly radiant with beauty, and her figure +was unconsciously displayed in such a variety of bewitching +attitudes and dainty postures, that even a pair of frisky kittens, +that had been chasing each other round the grassplot and up and down +the stems of the cherry-trees, ceased their gambols and lay still, +crouching in the grass, and watching her graceful motions, as if +taking heed for future imitation. If Kit and Tabby really did regard +Laura with admiration and complacency, it was more than I can say +for Mrs. Jaynes, in whose heart a secret rage was burning, though +her aspect and demeanor were as placid and demure as if the butter +she held in her hand would not have melted in her pursed-up mouth. + +Mrs. Jaynes, for reasons of her own, thought proper to keep +her temper in control, abstaining from any manifestation of +displeasure for a much longer time than while she remained +standing in the back veranda of Doctor Bugbee's house. She did not +think it prudent to apprise Laura that her rebellious conference +with Statira had been discovered, nor to forbid her from holding +further communication with her evil counsellors; but contented +herself, for the present, with keeping a stricter watch over her +sister's conduct, by practising with increased rigor and vigilance +that efficient system of tactics hereinbefore commemorated, by which +the ardor of Laura's chance admirers was repressed and their +advances repelled, and by alluding, from time to time, to Laura's +prospective nuptials, as to an event predestined and inevitable, or, +at least, no less sure to come to pass than if Laura herself had +engaged her hand to Mr. Hunt of her own free will and accord, and +was only waiting to be asked to name the wedding-day. + +It was many months after Elam left the shady height of East Windsor +Hill before he received a call to settle; for though he preached in +different parts on trial, before many congregations that were +destitute of pastors, none of these fastidious flocks would listen +to his voice a second time, or agree to choose him for its shepherd. +At last, however, the people of Walbury, a town in Windham County, +lying nearly twenty miles from Belfield, made choice of Mr. Hunt to +be their spiritual guide, and accordingly extended to him an +invitation to be ordained and installed as the settled minister over +their ancient parish. Upon receiving this proposal, Elam at once +despatched a letter to his friend and ally, Mrs. Jaynes, informing +her of his good fortune, and suggesting that Laura should at once +bestir herself in preparations for their wedding, in order that this +blissful event might precede his ordination. Then, after waiting for +the lapse of that period of decorous delay which immemorial usage +has prescribed in such cases, he indited an epistle to the church in +Walbury, stating, in proper and accustomed form, that his native +humility inclined him to refuse their request; but that, after a +wrestle with his inclinations, he had got the better of them, and +had resolved to sacrifice his own wishes and feelings, and to enter +the field of labor to which the Israel in Walbury had invited him. + +A year and more had elapsed since Laura, encouraged by Tira Blake's +assuring words, had begun to hope that a better fate was in store +for her than to become the wife of a man she detested. Meanwhile, +Elam had often come to Belfield, sometimes preaching a sermon for +Mr. Jaynes, and going away again, after a brief sojourn, without +having opened his mouth to Laura to speak of love or marriage. At +his later visits it was evident that he was inclined to despond +about his prospects of getting a settlement, and Laura began to +entertain strong hopes that he never would be successful; for she +would have given up all the chances of beholding her military hero +in person, and would have been content to live a maid forever, +continually waiting for Elam, if she could have been assured the +time would never come for him to claim her. + +But, one morning, after breakfast, having made her bed and arranged +her chamber, singing blithely all the while, she was just going to +sit down by the window with her sewing, when Mrs. Jaynes came in +with a letter in her hand. Laura guessed at once that the letter was +from Elam, and that it contained the news of which the reader has +been apprised already. Though she did not need to read the letter in +order to inform herself of its contents, she took it in her hand, +when her sister bade her read it, and made a pretence of obedience, +shuddering, meanwhile, with disgust and terror. At last she came to +the conclusion of the epistle, where Elam had mentioned his desire +to be married before being ordained, and had subscribed himself as +united in gospel bonds to the worthy lady to whom the letter was +addressed. Then, folding up the paper with trembling hands, she held +it towards her sister, without daring to look up, or to say a word. + +"Now, Laura," asked Mrs. Jaynes, in a quiet tone, "when can you be +ready to be married?" + +Laura tried to speak, and looked up, with a pale, frightened face, +into her sister's impassive countenance. Her white lips failed to +form the words she strove to utter. + +"When shall the wedding be?" said Mrs. Jaynes, with a smile of +affected sportiveness. "Name the happy day, my love." + +"Happy day!" repeated poor Laura. "Oh, Maria!" + +"Why, what's the matter, child?" said Mrs. Jaynes; "what are you +crying for?" + +"Oh, dear, dear sister!" sobbed Laura, falling on her knees at +Mrs. Jaynes's feet, "do hear me! You are my mother, for you fill her +place." + +"I have endeavored to do so," said Mrs. Jaynes. + +"Then, for God's sake, don't make me marry this horrid man!" pursued +Laura. "Don't tell me that I must! Don't force me to such a fate!" +And with many passionate words like these, Laura implored her +sister not to lay any command upon her to marry Elam Hunt. + +"Hush, Laura! hush, my dear child!" said Mrs. Jaynes, who had +anticipated this scene, and was well prepared with her replies. +"Be calm; you behave absurdly. I have no power to force you to marry +any man. I don't expect to compel you to accept Mr. Hunt for a +husband. For at least two years past I had supposed, however, that +it was your intention to do so. If you have changed your mind, and +if you wish to break an engagement that has subsisted so long, +whether for or without cause, I cannot prevent it. You have read so +many foolish romances, that your head is turned, and you fancy +yourself a heroine in distress. But let me tell you, my dear, that +in real life, here, in New England, a woman cannot be forced to marry. +So calm your transports, wipe your eyes, and get up from your knees. +I'm not to be kneeled to, pray remember." + +Laura did as she was told,--so much abashed that she dared not look +up. To increase her confusion, her sister began to laugh. + +"I beg your pardon, dear," said she, "but, ha, ha, ha! it was so +funny!--like a scene in a play, I should think." + +"I know I've been silly, Maria," said Laura, weeping again,--with +shame, this time. + +"Never mind, dear," said her sister, in a kind tone, "we're all +silly sometimes. You'll never be guilty of the folly again, at any +rate, of supposing that girls can be married, in spite of themselves, +by cruel sisters; eh, Laura?" + +"Oh, Maria, do forgive me!" cried Laura, blushing crimson. "I was so +very silly!" + +"Well, let it all go," said Mrs. Jaynes, kissing her. "Now we'll +talk about this letter. Tell me why you don't wish to marry Mr. Hunt. +If you have any good reason against it, I'm sure I don't desire it; +though, I confess, having supposed so long it was a settled thing, I +had set my heart upon it. Perhaps this disappointment has been sent +to me for some wise purpose," added Mrs. Jaynes, with a pious sigh. + +Thus encouraged, Laura opened her heart and began to talk, saying +that she didn't like Mr. Hunt, that she didn't love him, that she +disliked him, and hated him, and that he was hateful, and horrid, and +awful, and dreadful, and so homely, and pale, and pimpled, and, ugh! +she should never like him, nor love him, but always dislike him, and +hate him. And on she went in this manner, till her fervor was cooled, +and she had exhausted, by frequent repetition, every form of speech +capable of expressing her great repugnance to a union with Elam Hunt. +In conclusion, she said she was willing never to marry, but would +remain with her sister and work for her and the children all her life. + +"Thank you, dear," said Mrs. Jaynes. "We'll talk of your kind offer +presently; and you will see, I think, that I have no desire that you +should live and die an old maid, even in case you do not marry +Mr. Hunt." + +"I'm sure I'd rather than not," said Laura, with a twinge of +conscience at the thought of her hero. + +"Have you said all that you've got to say?" asked Mrs. Jaynes, very +quietly. + +Laura looked up into her sister's grave, sober face, and felt a +chill of vague apprehension begin to take the place of the hopeful +glow in her heart. + +"Eh?" said Mrs. Jaynes, inquiringly. + +"Y--yes," faltered Laura, "only this,--I don't like him, and he's +such a horrid, disgusting man,--and--and--that's all, I believe, +except that I don't like him, and think he's so disagreeable,--and-- +oh, yes! there's another thing,--he wears blue spectacles,--ugh! +_blue_ spectacles!" + +"Is there anything more?" said Mrs. Jaynes, still speaking with the +same even, quiet voice. + +"N--no," said Laura, "only I--" and here she paused. + +"Don't like him," added Mrs. Jaynes, supplying the words. + +"Yes, that's it," said Laura. "I know I'm foolish, but--" + +"It's much to confess it," said Mrs. Jaynes. "Now that I've +patiently heard all that you have to say, I wish to be heard a few +words in favor of a dear and worthy friend of mine, against whom you +appear to entertain a groundless antipathy." + +"No, not groundless," interposed Laura. + +"Well, I'll agree that a pale, studious face and blue spectacles are +good reasons for hating a man. Now let me say a word or two in his +favor, notwithstanding, and also in favor of a plan which I had +supposed was agreed upon, and which I dislike extremely to see +abandoned. You have reasons against it, which you have stated. I +have reasons for it, which I will state. But first answer me two or +three simple questions, 'yes' or 'no,'--will you, dear?" + +And Laura assenting, she went on to ask if Mr. Hunt was not good, +and pious, and of blameless life and reputation; extorting from +Laura an affirmative reply to each separate inquiry. + +"He's all these good qualities, then, to offset the complexion of +his face and spectacles," resumed Mrs. Jaynes. "Now let us look at +the matter in a worldly point of view. He is able to give you not +only a place, but the very highest position in society; he can offer +you, not wealth, but competence, which is better than either poverty +or riches. Why, my dear, there are a hundred girls in this town, +many of whom excel you in everything which men think desirable in a +wife, except, perhaps, the poor, perishable quality of beauty,-- +girls of good family, rich, or likely to be so, intelligent, well +educated, some of them, to say the least, almost as pretty as you, +any one of whom would think herself honored by this offer which you +despise; for most people are aware that to be a minister's wife, in +New England, is, my dear, to occupy, as I have just said, the very +summit of the social structure." + +Here Mrs. Jaynes made a period, and watched the effect of her words. +After a pause she resumed by alluding to Laura's offer to remain +with her always, without marrying; and while poor Laura listened +with a feeling as if the very earth was sinking beneath her feet, +Mrs. Jaynes reminded her that she was a penniless orphan, who had +been maintained for years by the bounty of one upon whom she had no +claim, except that she was the sister of his wife. + +"I have no right, you know, my dear," continued Mrs. Jaynes, +"to tell you that you may stay here longer. Jabez, doubtless, would +bid you remain and welcome, as he told you to come and welcome. But +young women are usually expected to marry, at or near your age. It +is probable, indeed I know, that, at the time you came, this event +was thought of, and taken into account. Mr. Jaynes is Mr. Hunt's +warm friend and admirer. He expects that you are going to marry this +good friend. What will be his reflections when he learns that you +prefer to remain here, a pensioner upon his income, rather than to +marry such a man as Mr. Hunt, whose only demerits are his blue +spectacles and pale complexion?" + +Here Laura turned so white, and looked so woful, that her tormentor +paused, in apprehension that the poor girl was going to swoon. + +"Oh, my God! what shall I do?" cried Laura, beating her palms +together, in sore distress. + +"You know," resumed Mrs. Jaynes, watching her sister carefully, and +speaking softly, "you know that Mr. Jaynes's salary is not large. It +used to be more than sufficient for our wants, but the children are +getting to be more expensive every year. Their clothes cost more, +and the boys, at least, ought soon to go away to school, and Jabez +has set his heart upon sending Newton to college. If--well, never +mind, dear, I'll say no more; but when I think of this offer of +Mr. Hunt,--such a good offer, especially to one in your circumstances, +from such a worthy, talented, pious young clergyman, whose +preference Julia Bramhall or Cornelia Bugbee, with their thousands, +would be glad to win,--who is going to be settled in a good old +parish, like Walbury, and receive at once a salary almost as large, +I dare say, as Mr. Jaynes's,--I _do_ say, Laura, that you ought to +give better reasons for refusing him, nay, for jilting him, after a +two-years' engagement, than that his cheeks are pale and his +spectacles blue. We love you, Laura, and are willing to give you a +home and the best we can afford to eat and drink and wear, but +Mr. Hunt loves you as well, or better, and offers you more than we +have it in our power to bestow. Take the day for reflection. +To-morrow Mr. Hunt will be here. Think, my child, whether you will +be justified in rejecting this offer. Your refusal, bear in mind, +imposes upon others a sacrifice of something more than childish +whims and silly prejudices. In order that you may have time and +opportunity to give this important matter due consideration, you had +better remain in your chamber. But don't fancy yourself a prisoner. +If you choose to see any one that calls, you can do so. But, my dear, +I cannot permit you to go and seek those who, from spite and malice +against me, would take delight in giving you evil counsel." + +With this sharp innuendo against Tira Blake, in which she thought +she might now safely indulge, Mrs. Jaynes concluded her speech and +went out softly, leaving poor Laura in a stupor of despair, sitting +with her hands clasped in her lap and her head drooping on her bosom. + +At last, looking up with a glance so woful that one would scarcely +have known her, Laura perceived she was alone. She rose, went to the +door and locked it, standing for a moment trembling, until of a +sudden she fell a-crying piteously, and began to walk to and fro +across her chamber, wringing her hands like one distraught, and +sometimes throwing herself upon the bed, wailing and moaning all the +while as if her heart would break indeed. And, truly, she had some +reason for the violence of her grief. Not being a thoughtful person, +nor given to meditation, she had never before duly considered that +her maintenance was a matter of cost and calculation to those who +provided it, nor reflected that she had no rightful claim upon those +who gave her shelter, food, and clothing. She had been thankful to +her protectors for their kindness, but the sentiment she entertained +for them was more like filial love than gratitude. For the first +time she realized that she was a pensioner on another's bounty, and +felt the sharp sting of conscious dependence. + +At length, growing more calm after the first passionate outbreak of +frantic sorrow had subsided, she dried her eyes and sat down on +purpose to think. Poor child! Serious deliberation was a new +exercise to her mind. Besides, her head ached, her brain seemed in a +whirl, and her heart was so full and heavy she wanted to do nothing +but cry with all her might till the burden was gone. But think she +must, and knitting her brows and stilling her sobs, she tried to +think. What could she do? Oh, if she could but ask Tira! But what +good could Tira do? What could she tell her? It was not her sister +that was forcing her, but Fate itself! All that her sister had told +her was true, every word. The tone of her voice, her manner, had +been unusually kind and gentle. There was nothing she had said that +she could be blamed for saying. Tira herself must admit that it was +all true and reasonable,--but, oh, how very dreadful! Then she +conjured up to view the image of Elam Hunt,--his lank, slim figure, +arrayed in sombre black,--his pale, cadaverous visage, spotted with +pimples and blue blotches of close-shaven beard,--his spectral +glance of admiration through those detestable blue spectacles. She +imagined that she felt the clammy touch of his long, skinny fingers, +and cold, flabby palm. She reflected upon the probability, nay, the +certainty, that she must marry this man, for whom she felt such an +invincible repugnance, and in a frenzy of dismay and terror she +screamed aloud and started up as if to fly. Then, recollecting +herself, she sank down moaning.--Oh, heavens! she thought, there was +no escape, no help! How wretched she was! how utterly miserable! all +alone, alone, in such a dreary, lonesome world, with no home, nor +father, nor mother, nor brother,--with only a sister who had a +husband and children, whom she loved, as she ought, far better than +she did her. There was nobody to whom she was the dearest of all,-- +nobody, except Elam Hunt, whom she hated and loathed with all her +heart, and the very thought of whose love made her shudder. What +could she do? To stay and be a burden for her friends to support was +worse than anything. That, at least, she was resolved to do no longer. +If she were only strong enough, she would go where nobody knew her +and work at housework, or in a factory, or anywhere. Oh, if she only +knew enough to teach school! She should like that. It would be so +pleasant to have the children love her, and bring her flowers to put +upon her desk! But, oh, dear! she didn't know enough, she feared. +For all that she had graduated at the Academy, she never dared to +write a letter without looking up all the hard words of it in the +dictionary, to see how they were spelt;--and parsing! and doing sums!-- +oh, gracious! she never could teach school,--that was out of the +question! + +At last, after a long fit of silent musing, during which she had bit +her lips, and frowned, and gazed abstractedly at the wall, a gleam +of hope lit up her face, soon brightening into a smile. She had hit +upon a plan! She could learn the milliner's trade! She had always +been handy with her needle, and liked nothing better than to arrange +laces and ribbons and flowers. She could easily learn to make and +trim a bonnet, she thought; at least, she could try. At first it +would come hard to sit cooped up in those little back shops, sewing +and stitching from morning till night; but it was better than +marrying Elam Hunt, or than eating other people's bread. Then she +began to build castles in the air, as her custom was. She fancied +herself a milliner's apprentice, working away at bonnets and caps, +among a group of other girls,--sometimes rising to attend upon a +customer, or peeping out between the folds of a curtain at people in +the front shop. She wondered whether Cornelia and Helen would be +ashamed of knowing a milliner's apprentice, if they should chance to +see her in Hartford. + +What would her schoolmates say? and would her hero despise a girl +that worked for a livelihood? Then she whimpered a little, thinking +how lonesome she would be, for a while, among strangers; but it was +a kind of lamentation that differed widely from the frantic weeping +of the morning. Then, all at once, a doubt began to depress her +new-born hopes. Could she get a place? She was a stranger in Hartford, +and beyond that city she dared not send her thoughts. Could Tira get +a place for her? She feared not, for Tira herself seldom went to the +city. But there was Doctor Bugbee, who knew a great many people there, +and who was so rich and powerful, that even in Hartford, though it +was a city, his word must have great influence. Besides, the firm of +Bugbee Brothers purchased large quantities of goods at some of the +great millinery shops. The Doctor's own private custom was not small, +for Cornelia dressed as became her condition, and even little Helen +scorned to wear a bonnet unless it came from Hartford. Doctor Bugbee +could help her to find a place. Doubtless he would be willing, nay, +even glad, to assist her in her trouble. At any rate, she would ask +him. But how was she to see him? He was not likely to call upon her, +unless she feigned sickness, and sent for him; for her sister would +not permit her to go to his house, where she would be sure to see +Tira. Besides, the Doctor's manner had of late grown so distant and +forbidding, that she was a little fearful of obtruding herself upon +his notice. Though sorry for this change, she had never laid it so +much to heart as to be grieved or affronted; for even his children +complained of his altered behavior, and all his friends had noticed +the gloomy expression which his face sometimes wore. But now she +troubled herself with wondering whether she had given him any cause +to be offended with her. Perhaps her giddy nonsense and thoughtless +gayety, which when he himself was cheerful and happy he had listened +to without displeasure, had vexed and annoyed him in his moods of +sadness and dejection. But what else could she do than solicit his +aid? The favor, though small for him to grant, would be of immense +benefit to her, and the good-hearted Doctor would not be likely to +refuse. She would tell him how friendless she was, and beg him to +help the fatherless in her distress. She knew that he would not turn +her away. At all events, she could try. + +Coming at last to this conclusion, and wonderfully cheered and +strengthened by the purpose she had formed, she washed her face, +arranged her dishevelled hair, and smoothed her rumpled dress. Then +sitting down behind the window-curtain, she began to watch for +Cornelia, hoping her friend would not long delay her accustomed +visit to the parsonage. But it happened that Cornelia had that very +day begun a novel, in three volumes, the heroine of which was +represented to be a young lady whose extreme beauty and amiable +temper made her deserving of better treatment than she received at +the hands of the hard-hearted author, who suffered her to be cheated +and bullied by a scheming and brutal guardian, to be slandered by +his envious daughter, persecuted by a dissolute nobleman, haunted by +a spectre, shut up in a tower, exposed to manifold dangers, beset by +robbers, abducted, assaulted, barely rescued, and, finally, even +teased and tormented by the chosen lover of her heart, a +jealous-pated fellow, who was always making her miserable and +himself ridiculous by his absurd suspicions and fractious behavior. + +Sympathizing deeply with this distressed young woman, whose +unexampled misfortunes and troubles would have touched the heart of +even a marble statue, Cornelia was weeping dolefully over a page +near the end of the second volume, where the lady's lover, in a fit +of senseless jealousy, tears her miniature from his bosom, renounces +her affection, and leaves her swooning upon the floor. Just then +Helen rushed into her chamber, with a summons from Laura to hasten +at once to her side. For Laura, after long watching, had caught +sight of Helen jumping the rope on the grassplot, and by means of +coughing and waving her handkerchief from the window had attracted +the notice of the child, who, coming to the paling, had received the +message she forthwith bore to Cornelia, adding to it the information +that Laura's eyes appeared to be almost as red as Cornelia's own. + +Staying only to finish the volume, Cornelia repaired to comfort and +console her friend, to whose chamber she found ready access in spite +of some vague misgivings in Mrs. Jaynes's mind. But, shrewd as this +lady was by nature, and apprehensive as she felt that some untoward +accident would prevent the accomplishment of her cherished plans, she +never dreamed of the momentous results that were to follow this +interview, apparently so harmless, between Laura and her friend; nor +would it be fitting to suffer an account of so important a conference +to appear at the end of a chapter. + +[To be continued in the next Number.] + + * * * * * + + + + +SPARTACUS. + +The Romans had many virtues, and conspicuous amongst these was the +virtue of impartiality. They treated everybody with equal inhumanity. +They were as pitiless towards the humble as towards the proud. The +quality of mercy was utterly unknown to them. Their motto, + + "Parcere subjectis, et debellare superbos," + +Powell Buxton has happily translated, "They murdered all who +resisted them, and enslaved the rest." + +But it was as slaveholders that the Romans most clearly exhibited +their impartiality. They were above those miserable subterfuges that +are so common with Americans. They made slaves of all, of the high +as well as the low,--of Thracians as well as Sardinians, of Greeks +and Syrians as readily as of Scythians and Cappadocians. + +The consequence of the modes by which the Romans obtained their +bondmen,--by war, by purchase, and by kidnapping,--affecting as they +did the most cultivated and the bravest races, necessarily made +slavery a very dangerous institution. Greeks and Gauls, Thracians +and Syrians, Germans and Spaniards were not likely to submit their +necks readily to the yoke. They rose several times in great masses, +and contended for years on equal terms with the legions. Some of +their number exhibited the talents of statesmen and soldiers, at the +head of armies more numerous than both those which fought at Cannae. +One of them showed himself to be a born soldier, and caused the +greatest terror to be felt at Rome that had been known there since +that day on which Hannibal rode up to the Colline Gate, and cast his +javelin defiantly into that city which he himself never could enter. + +The treatment of their slaves by the Romans was not unlike that +which slaves now experience. Some masters were kind, and there are +many facts which show that the relations between master and slave +were occasionally of the most amiable nature. But these were +exceptional cases, the general rule being cruelty, as it must be +where so much power is lodged in the hands of one class of men, and +the other has only a nominal protection from the law. Even where +cruelty takes no other form than that involved in hard labor, the +slave must experience intolerable oppression. Now the Romans were +the most avaricious people that ever lived. They had a hearty love +of money for money's sake. They would do anything for gold. Such men +were not likely to let their slaves grow fat from light tasks and +abundant food; their food was light, and their tasks were heavy. So +ill-fed were they that they were compelled to rob on the highway, +and were encouraged to do so by their owners. Indeed, much of the +private economy of the Romans was founded on cruelty to their slaves. +Some, who have come down to us as model men, were infamous for their +maltreatment of their bondmen. The life of any foreigner was of but +little account with any Roman, but enslaved foreigners were regarded +as on a level with brutes. Many anecdotes are related of the +ferocious disregard of all humanity which the world's masters +manifested towards the servile classes. There is a story told by +Cicero, in one of the Verrine Orations, which peculiarly illustrates +this feature of the Roman character. The praetorian edicts forbade +slaves to carry arms. There were no exceptions. A boar of great size +was once given to Lucius Domitius, who was a Sicilian Praetor. Its +size caused him to ask by whom it was slain; and on being informed +that the hunter was a shepherd and slave, he sent for him. The slave, +not doubting that he should be rewarded for his bravery, hastened to +present himself before the Praetor, who asked him what he killed the +animal with. "With a spear," was the answer; whereupon the Praetor +ordered that he should be immediately crucified. This was but one of +thousands of similar acts that were perpetrated by Romans through +many generations. + +The slaves, as we have remarked, occasionally revolted, and the +efforts that were found necessary to subdue them rose sometimes to +the dignity of wars. The first Servile War of the Romans occurred in +Sicily. There were various reasons why this fine island should +become the scene of servile wars sooner than other portions of the +Roman dominions. Upon the final expulsion of the Carthaginians, +about the middle of the second Punic War, great changes of property +ensued. Speculators from Italy rushed into the island, "who," says +Arnold, "in the general distress of the Sicilians, bought up large +tracts of land at a low price, or became the occupiers of estates +which had belonged to Sicilians of the Carthaginian party, and had +been forfeited to Rome after the execution or flight of their owners. +The Sicilians of the Roman party followed the example, and became +rich out of the distress of their countrymen. Slaves were to be had +cheap; and corn was likely to find a sure market whilst Italy was +suffering from the ravages of war. Accordingly, Sicily was crowded +with slaves, employed to grow corn for the great landed proprietors, +whether Sicilian or Italian, and so ill-fed by their masters that +they soon began to provide for themselves by robbery. The poorer +Sicilians were the sufferers from this evil; and as the masters were +well content that their slaves should be maintained at the expense of +others, they were at no pains to restrain their outrages. Thus, +although nominally at peace, though full of wealthy proprietors, and +though exporting corn largely every year, yet Sicily was teeming with +evils, which, seventy or eighty years after, broke out in the +horrible atrocities of the Servile War." [2] + +[Footnote 2: Arnold, _History of Rome_, Vol. III. pp. 317-318, +London edition.] + +The Sicilian Servile War began B.C. 133, only a few years after the +destruction of Carthage and Corinth, and when the military power of +the republic was probably at its height, though military discipline +may have been somewhat relaxed from the old standard. It lasted two +or three years. The chief of the slaves had at one time two hundred +thousand followers, inclusive, probably, of women and children. He +was a Syrian of Apamea, named Eunus, and had been a prophet and +conjurer among the slaves. To his prophecies and tricks he owed his +elevation when the rebellion broke out. According to some accounts, +he was rather a cunning than an able man; but it should be +recollected that his enemies only have drawn his portrait. The +victories he so often won over the Roman forces are placed to the +credit of his lieutenant, a Cilician of the name of Cleon; but he +must have been a man of considerable ability to have maintained his +position so long, and to have commanded the services of those said +to have been his superiors. Cleon's superiority was probably only +that of the soldier. He fell in battle, and Eunus was made prisoner, +but died before he could be brought to punishment,--no doubt, to the +vast regret of his savage captors. + +In the year B.C. 103, another Servile War broke out in Sicily, and +was not brought to an end until after four years of hard fighting. +The leaders were Salvius, or Tryphon, an Italian, and Athenion, a +Cilician, or Greek. Both showed considerable talent, but owed their +leadership, Salvius to his knowledge of divination, and Athenion to +his pretensions to astrology. They were often successful, and it was +not until a Consul had taken the field against them that the slaves +were subdued, the chiefs having successively fallen, and no one +arising to make their place good. + +The next great Servile War was on a grander scale, though briefer, +than either of the Sicilian contests. Its scene was Italy, and it +was conducted, on the part of the rebels, by the profoundest military +genius ever encountered by the Romans, with the exception, perhaps, +of Hannibal. We speak of SPARTACUS, who defeated many Roman armies, +and disputed with the all-conquering republic the dominion of the +Italian Peninsula, and with it that of the civilized world. This war +took place B.C. 73-71, while Rome was engaged in hostilities with +Sertorius and Mithridates; and it was brought to an end only by the +exertions of the ablest generals the republic then had,--the great +Pompeius having been summoned from Spain, and it being in +contemplation to order home Lucullus from the East. In the war with +Hannibal the Romans showed their fearlessness by sending troops to +Spain while the Carthaginian with his army was lying under their +walls; but they called troops and generals from Spain to their +assistance against the Thracian gladiator. He must have been a man +of extraordinary powers to have accomplished so much with the means +at his disposal. It has been regarded as a proof of the astonishing +powers of Hannibal as a commander, that he could keep together, and +in effective condition, an army composed of the outcasts, as it were, +of many nations, and win with it great victories, scattered over a +long period of time; yet this was less than was done by Spartacus. +The Carthaginian, like Alexander, succeeded to an army formed by his +father, next after himself the ablest man of the age. The Thracian, +without country or home, and an outlaw from the beginning of his +enterprise, had to create an army, and that out of the most +heterogeneous and apparently the most unpromising materials. The +palm must be aligned to the latter. + +To what race did Spartacus belong? We are told that he was a +Thracian, his family being shepherds. The Thracians were a brave +people, but by no means remarkable for the highest intellectual +superiority; yet Spartacus was eminently a man of mind, with large +views, and an original genius for organization and war. Plutarch +pays him the highest compliment in his power, by admitting that he +deserved to be regarded as belonging to the Hellenic race. He was, +says the old Lifemaker, "a man not only of great courage and strength, +but, in judgment and mildness of character, superior to his condition, +and more like a Greek than one would expect from his nation." +It is not impossible that he had Greek blood in his veins. Thrace +was hard by Greece, had many Greek cities, and its full proportion +of those Greek adventurers, military and civil, who were to be found +in every country and city, from Spain to Persia, from Gades to +Ecbatana. What more probable than that among his ancestors were +Greeks? At the same time it must be admitted that the Thracians +themselves were capable of producing eminent men, being a superior +physical race, and prevented only by the force of circumstances from +attaining to a respectable position. They were renowned for +soldierlike qualities, which caused the Romans to give them the +preference as gladiators,--a dubious honor, to say the best of it. + +How, and under what circumstances, Spartacus became a gladiator, is +a point by no means clear. We cannot trust the Roman accounts, as it +was a meritorious thing, in the opinion of a Roman, for a man to lie +for his country, as well as to die for it. Florus states, that he was +first a Thracian mercenary, then a Roman soldier, then a deserter +and robber, and then, because of his strength, a gladiator from +choice. But, to say nothing of the national prejudices of Florus, he +writes like a man who felt it to be a particular grievance that +Romans should have been compelled to fight slaves, and particularly +gladiators. This is in striking contrast with Plutarch, who was a +contemporary of Florus, but whose patriotic pride was not wounded by +the victories which the Thracian gladiator won over Roman generals. +Indeed, as he was willing to admit that Spartacus ought to have been +a Greek, we may suppose that he was pleased to read of his victories,-- +a not unnatural thing in a provincial, and particularly in a Greek, +who knew so well what his country had once been. Plutarch says not a +word about the Thracian having been a soldier and a thief, but +introduces him with one of his good stories. "They say," he tells us, +"that when Spartacus was first taken to Rome to be sold, a snake was +seen folded over his face while he was sleeping, and a woman, of the +same tribe with Spartacus, who was skilled in divination, and +possessed by the mysterious rites of Dionysus, declared that this +was a sign of a great and formidable power, which would attend him +to a happy termination." She was the Thracian's wife, or mistress, +being connected with him by some tender tie, and was with him when +he subsequently escaped from Capua. In the bloody drama of the War +of Spartacus hers is the sole relieving figure, and we would fain +know more of her, for it could have been no ordinary woman who was +loved by such a man. + +The passion of the Romans for gladiatorial combats is well known. +Not a few persons followed the calling of gladiator-trainers, and +had whole corps of these doomed men, whom they let to those who +wished to get up such shows. There were several schools of gladiators, +the chief of which were at Ravenna and Capua, where garrisons were +maintained to keep the pupils in subjection. According to one account, +Spartacus, while on a predatory incursion, was made prisoner, and +afterwards sold to Cneius Lentulus Batiatus, a trainer of gladiators, +who sent him to his school at Capua. He was to have fought at Rome. +But he had higher thoughts than of submitting to so degrading a +destiny as the being "butchered to make a Roman holiday." Most of +his companions were Gauls and Thracians, the bravest of men, who +bore confinement with small patience. They conspired to make their +escape,--the chief conspirators being Spartacus and two others, who +were subsequently made his lieutenants,--Crixus, a Gaul, and Oenomaus, +a Greek. Some two hundred persons were in the conspiracy, but only a +portion of them succeeded in breaking the school bounds. Florus says +that not more than thirty got out, while Velleius makes the number +to have been sixty-four, and Plutarch seventy-eight. Having armed +themselves with spits, knives, and cleavers, from a cook's shop, +they hastened out of Capua. Passing along the Appian Way, they fell +in with a number of wagons loaded with gladiators' weapons, which +they seized, and were thus placed in good fighting condition. +Shortly after this they encountered a small body of soldiers, whom +they routed, and whose arms they substituted for the gladiatorial, +deeming these no longer worthy of them. + +They were now joined by a few others, fugitives and mountaineers, +with whom they took refuge in the crater of Vesuvius, then, as from +time immemorial, and for nearly a century and a half later, inactive. +Thence, under the leadership of Spartacus and his lieutenants, Crixus +and Oedomaus, they ravaged the country; but it is not probable that +they caused much alarm, their number being only two hundred, and +such collections of slaves being by no means uncommon. The Romans +little dreamed that they were on the eve of one of the most terrible +of their many wars. Claudius Pulcher, one of the Praetors, was sent +against the "robbers," as they were considered to be. He found them +so advantageously posted on the mountain, that, though superior to +them in numbers in the ratio of fifteen to one, he resolved to +blockade them, and so compel them to descend to the plain and fight +at disadvantage, or starve. But he was contending with a man of +genius, against whom even Rome's military system could not then +succeed. He despised his enemy,--a sort of gratification which to +those indulging in it generally costs very dear. Spartacus caused +ropes to be made of vine branches, with the aid of which he and his +followers lowered themselves to the base of the mountain, at a point +which had been left unguarded by the Romans because considered +inaccessible by the red-tapist who commanded them, and consequently +affording a capital outlet for bold men under a daring leader. In +the dead of night the gladiators stole round to the rear of the +Roman camp, and assailed it. Taken by surprise and heavy with sleep, +the Romans were routed like sheep, and their arms and baggage passed +into the hands of the despised enemy. + +Spartacus saw now that it was time for him and his comrades to +assume a higher character than had hitherto belonged to them. +Instead of a leader of outlaws, he aspired to be the liberator of +the servile population of Italy. He issued a proclamation, in which, +while calling upon his followers to remember the multitudes who +groaned in chains, he urged the slaves to rise, pointing out how +strong they were and how weak were their oppressors, maintaining +that the strength of the masters lay in the blind and disgraceful +submission of the slaves, at the same time declaring that the land +belonged of right to the bravest,--a sentiment as natural and proper +when uttered by a man in his situation as it is base when proceeding +from a modern buccaneer, who has taken up arms, not to obtain his +own freedom, but to enslave others. The whole address is +contemptuous towards the Romans, though somewhat too rhetorical for +a man in the situation of Spartacus. It is the composition of Sallust, +but we may believe that it expresses the sentiments of Spartacus, as +Sallust was not only his contemporary, but was too good an artist to +disregard keeping in what he wrote. + +Italy was at this time full of slaves, many of whom must have been +men of quite as much intelligence as the Romans, having been made +captives in war. The free population of the Peninsula had almost +entirely disappeared. Two generations before, Tiberius Gracchus had +pointed to the miserable condition of Italy, and to the fact that +the increase of the slave population had caused the Italian yeomanry +to become almost extinct. In the years that had passed since his +murder the work of extinction had gone on at an accelerated rate, +the Social War and the Wars of Sulla and Marius having aided slavery +to do its perfect work. In this way had perished that splendid rural +population from which the Roman legionary infantry had been +conscribed, and which had enabled the aristocratical republic to +baffle the valor of Samnium, the skill of Pyrrhus, and the genius of +Hannibal. Even so early as in the first of the Eastern wars of the +Romans, immediately after the second defeat of Carthage, there were +indications that the supply of Roman soldiers was giving out. An +anecdote of the younger Scipio shows what must have been the +character of a large part of the Roman population more than sixty +years before the War of Spartacus. When he declared that Tiberius +Gracchus had rightly been put to death, and an angry shout at the +brutal speech came from the people, he turned to them and exclaimed, +"Peace, ye stepsons of Italy! Remember who it was that brought you +in chains to Rome!" + +The country being full of slaves and the children of slaves, +Spartacus had little difficulty in obtaining recruits. Apulia was +particularly fruitful of insurgents. In that country the vices of +Roman slavery were displayed in all their naked hideousness, and the +Apulian shepherds and herdsmen had a reputation for lawlessness +that has never been surpassed. Yet this was the consequence, not the +cause, of their bondage. It is related that some of them having +asked their master for clothing, he exclaimed, "What! are there no +travellers with clothes on?" "The atrocious hint," says Liddell, +"was soon taken; the shepherd slaves of Lower Italy became banditti, +and to travel through Apulia without an armed retinue was a perilous +adventure. From assailing travellers, the marauders began to plunder +the smaller country-houses; and all but the rich were obliged +to desert the country, and flock into the towns. So early as the +year 185 B.C., seven thousand slaves in Apulia were condemned for +brigandage by a Praetor sent specially to restore order in that land +of pasturage. When they were not employed upon the hills, they were +shut up in large, prison-like buildings, (_ergastula_) where they +talked over their wrongs, and formed schemes of vengeance." [3] The +century and more between this date and the appearance of Spartacus +had not improved the condition of the Apulian slaves. He found them +ripe for revolt, and was soon joined by thousands of their number, +men whose modes of life rendered them the very best possible +material for soldiers, provided they could be induced to submit to +the restraints of discipline. They were strong, hardy, athletic, and +active, and full of hatred of their masters. It shows the superiority +of the Thracian that he could prevail upon them to act in a regular +manner. He formed them into an army, the chief officers being the +men who had escaped from Capua in his company. This army had some +discipline, which was the more easily acquired because many of the +men were originally soldiers, captives of the Roman sword. But the +hatred of all in it to the Romans, and their knowledge that they had +to choose between victory and the crudest forms of death known to +the crudest of conquerors, made them the most reliable military +force then to be found in the world. + +[Footnote 3: Liddell, _History of Rome_, Vol. II, p. 144] + +With such an army, thus composed, thus animated, and thus led, +Spartacus commenced that war to which he has given his name. +Bursting upon Lower Italy, the most horrible atrocities were +perpetrated, the rich landholders being subjected to every species +of indignity and cruelty, in accordance with that law of retaliation +which was accepted and recognized by all the ancient world, and +which the modern has not entirely abrogated. Towns were captured and +destroyed, [4] and the slaves everywhere liberated to swell the +conquering force. Spartacus is said to have sought to moderate the +fury of his followers, and we can believe that he did so without +supposing that he was much above his age in humane sentiment. He saw +that excesses were likely to demoralize his army, and so render it +unfit to meet the legions which it must sooner or later encounter. + +[Footnote 4: These ravages seem to have made a great impression on +the Romans, and were by them long remembered. Forty years later +Horace alludes to them, in that Ode which he wrote on the return of +Augustus from Spain (Carm. III. xiv. 19). He calls to his young +slave to fetch him a jar of wine that had seen the Marsiaii War, +"If there could be found one that had escaped the vagabond Spartacus." +The manner in which he, the son of a _libertinus_, speaks of +Spartacus, is not only amusing as an instance of foolish pride, but +is curious as illustrating a change in Roman ideas that was working +out more important results than could have followed from all the +acts of the first two Caesars, though, perhaps it was in some sense +connected with, if not dependent upon, their legislation.] + +Much as Spartacus had done, and signal as had been his successes, it +was not yet the opinion at Rome that he was a formidable foe. The +government despatched Publius Varinius Glaber to act against him, at +the head of ten thousand men. This seems a small force, yet it was +not much smaller than the army with which, three or four years later, +Lucullus overthrew the whole military power of the Armenian monarchy; +and it was half as large as that with which Caesar changed the fate +of the world at Pharsalia. The Romans probably thought it strong +enough to subdue all the slaves in Italy, and Varinius sufficiently +skilful to defeat their leaders and send them to Rome in chains. But +they were to have a rough awakening from their dreams of +invincibility, though some early successes of Varinius for a time +apparently justified their confidence. + +The army of Spartacus numbered forty thousand men, but it was poorly +armed, and its discipline was very imperfect. It still lacked, to +use a modern term, "the baptism of fire,"--never yet having been +matched in the open field against a regular force. Its arms were +chiefly agricultural implements, and wooden pikes that had been made +by hardening the points of stakes with fire. Spartacus resolved upon +retreating into Lucania; but the Gauls in his army, headed by his +lieutenant Crixus, pronounced this decision cowardly, separated +themselves from the main body, attacked the Romans, and were utterly +routed. The retreat to Lucania was then made in perfect safety, and +even with glory, apart from the skill with which it was conducted. +Watching his opportunity, and showing that he understood the military +principle of cutting up an enemy in detail, Spartacus fell upon a +Roman detachment, two thousand strong, and destroyed it. Shortly +after this, the Roman general succeeded, as he thought, in getting +him into a trap. The servile encampment was upon a piece of ground +hemmed in on one side by mountains, on the other by impassable waters, +and the Romans were about to close up the only outlets with some of +those grand works to which they owed so many of their conquests, when, +one night, Spartacus silently retreated, leaving his camp in such a +state as completely deceived the enemy, who did not discover what had +happened until the next morning, when the gladiators were beyond +their reach. + +This masterly retreat was followed up by a brilliant surprise of a +division of the Roman army under the command of Cossinius. The night +was just getting in, and the soldiers were resting from their day's +march and from the labors of forming the encampment, when the +Thracian fell upon them. Thus suddenly attacked, they fled, without +making any show of resistance,--abandoning everything to the +assailants. Cossinius himself, who was bathing, had time only to +escape with his life. The Romans rallied, a battle ensued, and they +were routed, Cossinius being among the slain. This action took place +not far from the Aufidus, which had witnessed the slaughter of Cannae. + +Spartacus now considered his army fairly "blooded." It had routed a +Roman detachment, and defeated a small army. Two Roman camps had +fallen into its hands, under circumstances that gave indications of +superior generalship, and several towns had been stormed. Though +still deficient in arms, he resolved to attack Varinius. Sallust +represents him as addressing his army before the battle, and telling +them that they were about to enter, not upon a single action, but +upon a long war,--that from success, then, would follow a series of +victories,--and that therein lay their only salvation from a death +at once excruciating and infamous. They must, he said, live upon +victory after victory,--an expression that showed he had a clear +comprehension of the nature of his situation. In the battle that +followed, Varinius was beaten, unhorsed, and compelled to fly for +his life. All his personal goods fell into the hands of Spartacus. +His lictors, with the _fasces_, shared the same fate. Spartacus +assumed the dress of the Roman, and all the ensigns of authority. He +has been censured for this; but a little reflection ought to convince +every one that he did not act from vanity, but from a profound +appreciation of the state of things in Italy. The slaves, of which +his army was composed, were accustomed to see the emblems of +authority with which he was now clothed and surrounded in the +possession of their masters alone; and when they beheld them on and +about their chief, they were not only reminded of the governing power, +but also of the overthrow of those who had therefore monopolized it. +Spartacus was a statesman; and knew how to operate on the minds of +the rude masses who followed him and obeyed his orders. + +The defeat of Varinius left the whole of Lower Lucania at the mercy +of the gladiators. Spartacus now established posts at Metapontum and +at Thurii. Here he labored, with unceasing energy and industry, to +organize and discipline his men. Adopting various measures to +prevent them from becoming enervated through the abundance in which +they were revelling, he prohibited the use of money among them, and +gave all that he himself had to relieve those who had suffered from +the war. Some of his officers are said to have followed his example +in making so great a sacrifice for the common good. + +Towards the close of the year Varinius had succeeded in getting +another army on foot. With this he resolved to watch the enemy,-- +repeated defeats having made the Romans cautious, though they were +not even yet seriously alarmed. He formed and fortified a camp, +whence he kept a look-out. There was some skirmishing, but no +fighting on a large scale. This did not suit Spartacus, who had +become confident in himself and his men. He desired battle, but +wished the Romans should take the initiative, and was convinced that +the near approach of winter would compel them soon to fight or to +retreat. To encourage them, he feigned fear, and commenced a +retrograde movement; but no sooner had the elated Romans advanced in +pursuit than he turned upon them, and they were compelled to fight +under circumstances that made defeat certain. This second rout of +Varinius was total, and we hear no more of him. + +Never had there been a more successful campaign than that which +Spartacus had just closed. His force had been increased from less +than one hundred men to nearly one hundred thousand. He had proved +himself more than the equal of the generals who had been sent +against him, both in strategy and in arms. He had fought three great +battles, and numerous lesser actions, and had been uniformly +successful. Like Carnot, he had "organized victory." A large part of +Italy was at his command, and, under any other circumstances than +those which existed, or against any other foe than Rome, he would +probably have found little difficulty in establishing a powerful +state, the origin of which would have been far more respectable than +of that with which he was contending. But he was a statesman, and +knew, that, brilliant as were his successes, he had no chance of +accomplishing anything permanent within the Peninsula. He was +fighting, too, for freedom, not for dominion. His plan was to get +out of Italy. Two courses were open to him. He might retreat to the +extremity of the Peninsula, cross the strait that separates it from +Sicily, and renew the servile wars of that island; or he might march +north, force his way out of Italy, and so with most of his followers +reach their homes in Gaul and Thrace. The latter course was +determined upon; but the more hot-headed portion of his men, the +Gauls, were opposed to it, and resolved to march upon Rome. A +division of the victorious army ensued. The larger number, under +Spartacus, proceeded to carry out the wise plan of their leader, but +the minority refused to obey him. We have seen, that, at the very +outset of his enterprise, Spartacus encountered opposition from the +Gauls in his army, who were ever for rash measures, and that, +separating themselves from their associates, under the lead of Crixus, +they had been defeated. Crixus rejoined his old chieftain, and did +good service; but he and his countrymen, untaught by experience, and +inflated with a notion of invincibility,--on what founded, it would +be hard to say,--would not aid Spartacus in his prudent attempt to +lead his followers out of Italy. Rome was their object, and, to the +number of thirty thousand, they separated themselves from the main +army. At first, the event seemed to justify their decision. Meeting +a Roman army, commanded by the Praetor Arrius, on the borders of +Samnium, the Gauls put it to rout, and the victory of Crixus was not +less decisive than any of those which had been won by Spartacus. But +this splendid dawn was soon overcast. Crixus was a drunkard, and, +while sleeping off one of his fits of intoxication, he was set upon +by a Roman army under the Consul Gellius. He was killed, and his +followers either shared his fate or were totally dispersed. This was +the first great victory won by the Romans in the war. + +The defeat of Varinius aroused the Roman government to see that their +enemy was not to be despised, and, revolted slave though he was, +they were compelled to pay him the respect of making prodigious +efforts to effect his destruction. The Consuls Gellius and Lentulus +were charged with the conduct of the war. The former overthrew the +Gauls. The latter followed Spartacus, and came up with him in Etruria. +Here a contest of pure generalship took place. Lentulus was +determined not to fight until Gellius--whose victory he knew of-- +should have come up; and Spartacus was equally determined that fight +he should before the junction could be effected. He succeeded in +blocking up the road by which Gellius was advancing, unknown to +Lentulus, and then offered the latter battle. Supposing that his +colleague would join him in the course of the action, the Roman +accepted the challenge and was beaten. The victors then marched to +meet Gellius, who was served after the same manner as Lentulus. +Spartacus was the only general who ever defeated two great Roman +armies, each headed by a Consul, on the same day, and in different +battles. Hannibal's Austerlitz, Cannae, approaches nearest to this +exploit of the Thracian; but on that field the two consular armies +were united under the command of Varro. + +These great successes were soon followed by the defeat of two lesser +Roman armies, combined under the lead of the Praetor Manlius and the +Proconsul Cassius. This last victory not only left the whole open +country at the command of Spartacus, but also the road to Rome, upon +which city he now resolved to march. It would have been wiser, had +he persevered in his original plan, the execution of which his +victories must have made it easy to carry out. But perhaps success +had its usual effect, even on his mind, and blinded him to the +impossibility of permanent triumph in Italy. He winnowed his army, +dismissing all his soldiers except such as were distinguished by +their bravery, their strength, and their intelligence. In order that +his march might be swift, he caused all the superfluous baggage to be +destroyed. Every beast of burden that could be dispensed with was +slain. His prisoners were disposed of after the same fashion. In a +modern general such an act would be utterly without excuse. But it +was strictly in accordance with the laws of ancient warfare, and +Spartacus probably felt far more regret at sacrificing his beasts of +burden than he experienced in consenting to, if he did not order, +the butchery of some thousands of men whom he must have looked upon +as so many brutes. + +Proceeding to the south, Spartacus fell in with a great Roman army +led by Arrius, and a battle was fought near Ancona, in which victory +was true to the gladiator. The Romans were not only beaten, their +army was utterly destroyed; a result which they seem to have felt to +be so shameful, that they made no apologies for it. Why, after this +signal victory, Spartacus did not forthwith carry out his grand +design of attacking Rome,--a design every way so worthy of his +genius, and which alone could give him a chance of achieving +permanent success after he had abandoned the idea of forcing his way +out of Italy by a northern march,--can never be known. It is +supposed to have been in consequence of information that +circumstances had now placed it in his power to effect a passage +into Sicily, a project which he had regarded with favor at an +earlier period. + +At this time the Cilician pirates had the command of the +Mediterranean, which they held until they were conquered, some years +later, by Pompeius. It was by the aid of these men that Spartacus +expected to carry his army into Sicily. They had shipping in +abundance, and in a few days they could have conveyed a hundred +thousand men across the narrow strait that separates Sicily from +Italy. This they agreed to do, and were paid in advance by Spartacus, +though it is probable that he relied less upon that payment for +their assistance than upon the palpable fact that their interests +were the same as his own. The pirates were on the sea what the +gladiatorial army was on land. They were the victims of Roman +oppression, and had become outlaws because the world's law was +against them. A union of their fleets, which numbered more than a +thousand vessels, with the army of Spartacus, in the harbors and on +the fields of Sicily, would perhaps have been more than a match for +the whole power of Rome, contending as the republic then was with +Mithridates, and bleeding still from the wounds inflicted by Marius +and Sulla, as well as from the blows of Spartacus. Sicily, too, was +then in a state which promised well for the design of the Thracian. +Verres was ruling over the island,--and how he ruled it Cicero has +told us. Had the victorious Thracian entered the island, both the +free population and the slaves would have risen against the Romans. +A new state might have been formed, strong both in fleets and in +armies, and compelled from the very nature of its origin to contend +to the death with its old oppressors. Whatever the result, it is +certain that a long Sicilian war, like that which the Romans had +been compelled to wage with the Carthaginians, would have changed +the course of history, by directing the attention and the energies +of such men as Crassus, Pompeius, and Caesar to very different fields +from those on which their fame and power were won. + +But it was not to be. There was work for Rome to do, which could be +done by no other nation. The power that had been found superior to +Hannibal was not to fall before Spartacus, or even to have its +course stayed materially by his victories. He marched to the foot of +Italy, on the shore of the strait, where he expected to find his +supposed naval allies. He was disappointed. They, impolitic no less +than faithless, broke their engagement after they had pocketed the +sum agreed upon for their services. It was impossible for Spartacus +to carry out his design; for not only had he no vessels, but his +followers were, it is altogether probable, incapable of building them. +The Romans, too, must have had ships in the strait, and a very few +would have been found enough to keep it clear of the unskilful +gladiators, even had the latter had the time and the means to +construct boats. + +After the defeat of the Romans under Arrius, the Senate had called +Crassus to the chief command, resolving to make an herculean effort +to destroy their terrible enemy. The accounts are somewhat confused, +but, according to Plutarch, Crassus commenced operations against +Spartacus before the latter marched for Sicily. He sent one of his +lieutenants, Mummius, to follow and harass the gladiators, but with +orders to avoid a general engagement. The lieutenant disobeyed his +orders, fought a battle, and was defeated. Not a few of his men threw +away their arms, and fled,--an uncommon thing with a Roman army. The +victors continued their march, but, as we have seen, failed in their +main object. Spartacus then took up a position in the territory of +Rhegium, which is over against Sicily. He must have been convinced +by this time that the crisis of his fortune had arrived, and though +he would not even then entirely give up all idea of crossing over +into the island that lay within sight of his camp, he prepared to +meet the coming storm, which had been for some time gathering in his +rear. Accordingly he faced about, and commenced a game of +generalship with Crassus, who was now in person at the head of the +Roman army. [5] + +[Footnote 5: It is probable that justice has never been done to +Crassus as a military man. Roman writers were not likely to deal +fairly with a man who closed his career so fatally to himself, and +so disgracefully in every way to his country. It was his misfortune-- +a misfortune of his own creating--to lead the finest Roman army that +had ever been seen in the East to destruction, in an unjust attack on +the Parthians. Had he succeeded, the injustice of his course would +have been overlooked by his countrymen; but they never could forgive +his defeat. Yet it is certain that this man, who has come down to us +as a contemptible creature, having small claim to consideration +beyond what he derived from his enormous possessions, not only +exhibited eminent military ability in the War of Spartacus, but, +when a young man, won that great battle which takes its name from +the Colline Gate, and which laid the Roman world at the feet of Sulla. +Pontius Telesious had marched upon Rome, with the intention of +"destroying the den of the wolves of Italy," and Sulla arrived to +the city's rescue but just in time. In the battle that immediately +followed, Sulla, at the head of the left wing of his army, was +completely defeated, while the right wing, commanded by Crassus, was +as completely victorious. Talent must have had something to do with +Crassus's success, which enabled Sulla to retrieve his fortunes, and +to triumph over the Marius party. One hundred thousand men are said +to have fallen in this battle. The avarice of Crassus and his want +of popular manners were fatal to him in life, and his defeat left +him no friends in death.] + +Of all men then living, Crassus was best entitled to command an army +employed in fighting revolted slaves. If not the greatest +slaveholder in Rome, he was the most systematic of the class of +owners, and knew best how to turn the industry of slaves to account. +He was the wealthiest citizen of the republic. One can understand +how indignant such a person must have felt at the audacity of the +gladiator and his followers. As a slaveholder, as a man of property, +as a lover of law and order, he was concerned at so very disorderly +a spectacle as that of slaves subverting all the laws of the republic; +as a Roman, he felt that abhorrence for slaves which was common to +the character. Here were motives enough to bring out the powers of +any man, if powers he had in him; and it does not follow that +because Crassus was very rich he was therefore a fool. He was a man +of consummate talents, and at this particular time was probably the +most influential citizen of Rome. The Romans had confidence in him, +as the embodiment of the spirit of supremacy by which they were so +completely animated. The event showed that their confidence was not +misplaced. + +The army of Crassus was two hundred thousand strong, and having +restored its discipline by examples of great severity, he marched to +meet Spartacus; but on arriving in front of the latter's position, +he would not attack it, while Spartacus showed an equal +unwillingness to fight. The Roman determined to blockade the enemy. +As they had the sea on one side, and that was held by a fleet, he +commenced a line of works, the completion of which would have +rendered it impossible for the gladiators to escape. These works +were on the usual Roman scale, and consisted principally of walls and +ditches, a hundred thousand men being employed in their construction. +So cleverly did Crassus conceal what he was about, that it was not +until he had almost accomplished his design that Spartacus +discovered the intention of his foe. The emergency was suited to his +genius, and he was not unequal to it. He began a series of attacks +on the Romans, harassing them perpetually, retarding their labors, +and drawing their attention from that point of their line by which he +purposed to extricate his army. At last, on a night when a terrible +snow-storm was raging, he led his men to a place where the Roman +works were yet incomplete, the snow enabling them to march +noiselessly. When they reached the line, the immense ditches seemed +to bar their further advance; but they set resolutely at work to +fill them. Earth, snow, fagots, and dead bodies of men and beasts +were hastily thrown into them; and across this singular bridge the +whole army poured into the country, leaving the Roman camp behind, +and having rendered nugatory all the laborious digging and +trenching of the legions. + +It was not until the next morning that Crassus discovered what had +been done, and how thoroughly he had been out-generalled by Spartacus. +But he had no room for vexation in his mind. He was so frightened as +a Roman citizen, that he could not feel mortified as a Roman soldier. +He took counsel of his fears, and did that which he had cause both +to be ashamed of and to regret in after days. He wrote to the Senate, +stating that in his opinion not only should Pompeius be summoned home +from Spain, but Lucullus also from the East, to aid in putting down +an enemy who was unconquerable by ordinary means. A short time +sufficed to show how indiscreetly for his own fame he had acted; for +Spartacus was unable to follow up his success, in consequence of +mutinies in his army. The Gauls again rebelled against his authority, +and left him. Crassus concentrated his whole force in an attack on +the seceders, and a battle followed which Plutarch says was the most +severely contested of the war. The Romans remained masters of the +field, more than twelve thousand of the Gauls being slain, of whom +only two were wounded in the back, the rest falling in the ranks. +Spartacus retreated to the mountains of Petelia, closely followed by +Roman detachments. Turning upon them, he drove them back; but this +last gleam of success led to his destruction. His policy was to +avoid a battle, but his men would not listen to his prudent counsels, +and compelled him to face about and march against Crassus. This was +what the Roman desired; for Pompeius was bringing up an army from +Spain, and would be sure to reap all the honors of the war, were it +to be prolonged. + +Some accounts represent Spartacus as anxious for battle. Whether he +was so or not, he made every preparation that became a good general. +The armies met on the Silarus, in the northern part of Lucania; and +the battle which followed, and which was to finish this remarkable +war, was fought not far from where the traveller now sees the noble +ruins of Paestum. Spartacus made his last speech to his soldiers, +warning them of what they would have to expect, if they should fall +alive into the hands of their old masters. By way of practical +commentary on his text, he caused a cross to be erected on a height, +and to that cross was nailed a living Roman, whose agonies were +visible to the whole army. Spartacus then ordered his horse to be +brought to him in front of the army, and slew the animal with his own +hands. "I am determined," he said to his men, "to share all your +dangers. Our positions shall be the same. If we are victorious, I +shall get horses enough from the foe. If we are beaten, I shall need +a horse no more." [6] + +[Footnote 6: When the Earl of Warwick, the King-maker, killed his +horse in front of the Yorkist army, at the battle of Towton, +(fought on Palm Sunday, 1461,) he little knew that he was imitating +the action of a general of revolted slaves, more than fifteen +centuries earlier. Warwick is said to have done the same thing at +the battle of Barnet, the last of his fields, where he was defeated +and slain, fighting for the House of Lancaster.] + +The battle that followed was the most severely contested action of +that warlike period, which, extending through two generations, saw +the victories of Marius over the Northern barbarians at its +commencement, and Pharsalia and Munda and Philippi at its close. The +insurgents attacked with great fury, but with method, Spartacus +leading the way at the head of a band of select followers, thus +acting the part of a soldier as well as of a general. The Romans +steadily resisted,--and the slaughter was great on both sides. At +last, victory began to incline towards the gladiators, when +Spartacus fell, and the fortune of the day was changed. He had made a +fierce charge on the Romans, with the intention of cutting his way +to Crassus. Two centurions had fallen by his sword, and a number of +inferior men, when he was himself wounded in one of his thighs. +Falling upon one knee, he still continued to fight, until he was +overpowered and slain. The battle was maintained for some time longer, +and ended only with the destruction of the insurgents, thirty +thousand of whom were killed;--Livy puts their killed at forty +thousand. The Roman slain numbered twenty thousand, and they had as +many more wounded. Only six thousand prisoners fell into the hands +of Crassus, who caused the whole of them to be crucified,--the +crosses being placed at intervals on both sides of the Appian Way, +between Capua and Rome, and the whole Roman army being marched +through the horrible lines. A body of five thousand fugitives, who +sought refuge in the north, were intercepted by Pompeius on his +homeward march from Spain, and slaughtered to a man. + +Thus fell Spartacus, and far more nobly than either of the great +republican chiefs whose deaths were so soon to follow. Pompeius, who +boasted that he had cut up the war by the roots, ran away from +Pharsalia, without an effort to retrieve his fortunes, though the +force opposed to him in the battle was only half as large as his own, +and he had still abundant resources for future operations. Crassus, +who claimed to have conquered Spartacus, and who not unreasonably +resented the pretensions of Pompeius, fell miserably in Parthia, +after having led the Romans to the most fatal of their fields except +Cannae. Wanting the nerve to die sword in hand in the midst of his +foes, like Spartacus, he consented to adorn the triumph of those foes, +and perished as ignominiously as the great gladiator gloriously. + + * * * * * + + + + +WHO PAID FOR THE PRIMA DONNA? + + +I. + +"If anything could make a man forgive himself for being sixty years +old," said the Consul, holding up his wine-glass between his eye and +the setting sun,--for it was summer-time, "it would be that he can +remember M. ---- in her divine sixteenity at the Park Theatre, thirty +odd years ago. Egad, Sir, one couldn't help making great allowances +for _Don Giovanni_, after seeing her in _Zerlina_. She was beyond +imagination _piquante_ and delicious." + +The Consul, as my readers may have partly inferred, was not a Roman +Consul, nor yet a French one. He had had the honor of representing +this great republic at one of the Hanse Towns,--I forget which,--in +President Monroe's time. I don't recollect how long he held the +office, but it was long enough to make the title stick to him for +the rest of his life with the tenacity of a militia colonelcy or +village diaconate. The country people round about used to call him +"the _Counsel_" which, I believe,--for I am not very fresh from my +school-books,--was etymologically correct enough, however +orthoepically erroneous. He had not limited his European life, +however, within the precinct of his Hanseatic consulship, but had +dispersed himself very promiscuously over the Continent, and had +seen many cities, and the manners of many men--and of some women,-- +singing-women, I mean, in their public character; for the Consul, +correct of life as of ear, never sought to undeify his divinities by +pursuing them from the heaven of the stage to the purgatorial +intermediacy of the _coulisses_, still less to the lower depth of +disenchantment into which too many of them sunk in their private life. + +"Yes, Sir," he went on, "I have seen and heard them all,--Catalani, +Pasta, Pezzaroni, Grisi, and all the rest of them, even Sonntag,-- +though not in her very best estate; but I give you my word there is +none that has taken lodgings here," tapping his forehead, "so +permanently as the Signorina G----, or that I can see and hear so +distinctly, when I am in the mood of it, by myself. _Rosina, +Desdemona, Cinderella_, and, as I said just now, _Zerlina_,--she is +as fresh in them all to my mind's eye and ear, as if the Park +Theatre had not given way to a cursed shoe-shop, and I had been +hearing her there only last night. Let's drink her memory," the +Consul added, half in mirth and half in melancholy,--a mood to which +he was not unused, and which did not ill become him. + +Now no intelligent person, who knew the excellence of the Consul's +wine, could refuse to pay this posthumous honor to the harmonious +shade of the lost Muse. The Consul was an old-fashioned man in his +tastes, to be sure, and held to the old religion of Madeira which +divided the faith of our fathers with the Cambridge Platform, and +had never given in to the later heresies which have crept into the +communion of good-fellowship from the South of France and the Rhine. + +"A glass of Champagne," he would say, "is all well enough at the end +of dinner, just to take the grease out of one's throat, and get the +palate ready for the more serious vintages ordained for the solemn +and deliberate drinking by which man justifies his creation; but +Madeira, Sir, Madeira is the only stand-by that never fails a man +and can always be depended upon as something sure and steadfast." + +I confess to having fallen away myself from the gracious doctrine +and works to which he had held so fast; but I am no bigot,--which +for a heretic is something remarkable,--and had no scruple about +uniting with him in the service he proposed, without demur or +protestation as to form or substance. Indeed, he disarmed fanaticism +by the curious care he bestowed on making his works conformable to +the faith that was in him; for, partly by inheritance and partly by +industrious pains, his old house was undermined by a cellar of wine +such as is seldom seen in these days of modern degeneracy. He is the +last gentleman, that I know of, of that old school that used to +import their own wine and lay it down annually themselves,--their +bins forming a kind of vinous calendar suggestive of great events. +Their degenerate sons are content to be furnished, as they want it, +from the dubious stores of the vintner, by retail. + +"I suppose it was her youth and beauty, Sir," I suggested, "that +made her so rememberable to you. You know she was barely turned +seventeen when she sung in this country." + +"Partly that, no doubt," replied the Consul, "but not altogether, +nor chiefly. No, Sir, it was her genius which made her beauty so +glorious. She was wonderfully handsome, though. She was a phantom of +delight, as that Lake fellow says,"--it was thus profanely that the +Consul designated the poet Wordsworth, whom he could not abide,-- +"and the best thing he ever said, by Jove!" + +"And did you never see her again?" I inquired. + +"Once, only," he answered,--"eight or nine years afterwards, a year +or two before she died. It was at Venice, and in _Norma_. She was +different, and yet not changed for the worse. There was an +indescribable look of sadness out of her eyes, that touched one +oddly and fixed itself in the memory. But she was something apart +and by herself, and stamped herself on one's mind as Rachel did in +_Camille_ or _Phedre_. It was true genius, and no imitation, that +made both of them what they were. But she actually had the physical +beauty which Rachel only compelled you to think she had by the force +of her genius and consummate dramatic skill, while she was on the +scene before you." + +"But do you rank M. ---- with Rachel as a dramatic artist?" I asked. + +"I cannot tell," he answered; "but if she had not the studied +perfection of Rachel, which was always the same and could not be +altered without harm, she had at least a capacity of impulsive +self-adaptation about her which made her for the time the character +she personated,--not always the same, but such as the woman she +represented might have been in the shifting phases of the passion +that possessed her. And to think that she died at eight-and-twenty! +What might not ten years more have made her!" + +"It is odd," I observed, "that her fame should be forever connected +with the name she got by her first unlucky marriage in New York. For +it was unlucky enough, I believe,--was it not?" + +"You may say that," responded the Consul, "without fear of denial or +qualification. It was disgraceful in its beginning and in its ending. +It was a swindle on a large scale; and poor Maria G---- was the one +who suffered the most by the operation." + +"I have always heard," said I, "that old G---- was cheated out of +the price for which he had sold his daughter, and that M. M. ---- +got his wife on false pretences." + +"Not altogether so," returned the Consul. "I happen to know all +about that matter from the best authority. She was obtained on false +pretences, to be sure, but it was not G---- that suffered by them. +M. M. ----, moreover, never paid the price agreed upon, and yet G---- +got it for all that." + +"Indeed!" I exclaimed, "it must have been a neat operation. I cannot +exactly see how the thing was done; but I have no doubt a tale hangs +thereby, and a good one. Is it tellable?" + +"I see no reason why not," said the Consul; "the sufferer made no +secret of it, and I know of no reason why I should. Mynheer Van +Holland told me the story himself, in Amsterdam, in the year +'Thirty-five." + +"And who was he?" I inquired, "and what had he to do with it?" + +"I'll tell you," responded the Consul, filling his glass and passing +the bottle, "if you will have the goodness to shut the window behind +you and ring for candles; for it gets chilly here among the +mountains as soon as the sun is down." + +I beg your pardon,--did you make a remark?--Oh, _what mountains_? You +must really pardon me; I cannot give you such a clue as that to the +identity of my dear Consul, just now, for excellent and sufficient +reasons. But if you have paid your money for the sight of this Number, +you may take your choice of all the mountain ranges on the continent, +from the Rocky to the White, and settle him just where you like. Only +you must leave a gap to the westward, through which the river--also +anonymous for the present distress--breaks its way, and which gives +him half an hour's more sunshine than he would otherwise be entitled +to, and slope the fields down to its margin near a mile off, with +their native timber thinned so skilfully as to have the effect of +the best landscape-gardening. It is a grand and lovely scene; and +when I look at it, I do not wonder at one of the Consul's apophthegms, +namely, that the chief advantage of foreign travel is, that it +teaches you that one place is just as good to live in as another. +Imagine that the one place he had in his mind at the time was just +this one. But that is neither here nor there. When candles came, we +drew our chairs together, and he told me in substance the following +story. I will tell it in my own words,--not that they are so good as +his, but because they come more readily to the nib of my pen. + + +II. + +New York has grown considerably since she was New Amsterdam, and has +almost forgotten her whilom dependence on her first godmother. Indeed, +had it not been for the historic industry of the erudite Diedrich +Knickerbocker, very few of her sons would know much about the +obligations of their nursing mother to their old grandame beyond sea, +in the days of the Dutch dynasty. Still, though the old monopoly has +been dead these two hundred years, or thereabout, there is I know +not how many fold more traffic with her than in the days when it was +in full life and force. Doth not that benefactor of his species, +Mr. Udolpho Wolfe, derive thence his immortal, or immortalizing, +Schiedam Schnapps, the virtues whereof, according to his +advertisements, are fast transferring dram-drinking from the domain +of pleasure to that of positive duty? Tobacco-pipes, too, and toys, +such as the friendly saint, whom Protestant children have been +taught by Dutch tradition to invoke, delights to drop into the +votive stocking,--they come from the mother city, where she sits +upon the waters, quite as much a Sea-Cybele as Venice herself. And +linens, too, fair and fresh and pure as the maidens that weave them, +come forth from Dutch looms ready to grace our tables or to deck our +beds. And the mention of these brings me back to my story,--though +the immediate connection between Holland linen and M. ----'s marriage +may not at first view be palpable to sight. Still, it is a fact that +the web of this part of her variegated destiny was spun and woven +out of threads of flax that took the substantial shape of fine +Hollands;--and this is the way in which it came to pass. + +Mynheer Van Holland, of whom the Consul spoke just now, you must +understand to have been one of the chief merchants of Amsterdam, a +city whose merchants are princes and have been kings. His +transactions extended to all parts of the Old World and did not skip +over the New. His ships visited the harbor of New York as well as of +London; and as he died two or three years ago a very rich man, his +adventures in general must have been more remunerative than the one +I am going to relate. In the autumn of the year 1825, it seemed good +to this worthy merchant to despatch a vessel with a cargo chiefly +made up of linens to the market of New York. The honest man little +dreamed with what a fate his ship was fraught, wrapped up in those +flaxen folds. He happened to be in London the Winter before, and was +present at the _debut_ of Maria G---- at the King's Theatre. He must +have admired the beauty, grace, and promise of the youthful _Rosina_, +had he been ten times a Dutchman; and if he heard of her intended +emigration to America, as he possibly might have done, it most likely +excited no particular emotion in his phlegmatic bosom. He could not +have imagined that the exportation of a little singing-girl to New +York should interfere with a potential venture of his own in fair +linen. The gods kindly hid the future from his eyes, so that he might +enjoy the comic vexation her lively sallies caused to _Doctor Bartolo_ +in the play, unknowing that she would be the innocent cause of a +more serious provocation to himself, in downright earnest. He +thought of this, himself, after it had all happened. + +Well, the good ship _Steenbok_ had prosperous gales and fair weather +across the ocean, and dropped anchor off the Battery with some days +to spare from the amount due to the voyage. The consignee came off +and took possession of the cargo, and duly transferred it to his own +warehouse. Though the advantages of advertising were not as fully +understood in those days of comparative ignorance as they have been +since, he duly announced the goods which he had received, and waited +for a customer. He did not have to wait long. It was but a day or +two after the appearance of the advertisement in the newspapers that +he had prime Holland linens on hand, just received from Amsterdam, +when he was waited upon by a gentleman of good address and evidently +of French extraction, who inquired of the consignee, whom we will +call Mr. Schulemberg for the nonce, "whether he had the linens he +had advertised yet on hand." + +"They are still on hand and on sale," said Mr. Schulemberg. + +"What is the price of the entire consignment?" inquired the customer. + +"Fifty thousand dollars," responded Mr. Schulemberg. + +"And the terms?" + +"Cash, on delivery." + +"Very good," replied the obliging buyer, "if they be of the quality +you describe in your advertisement, I will take them on those terms. +Send them down to my warehouse, No. 118 Pearl Street, tomorrow +morning, and I will send you the money." + +"And your name?" inquired Mr. Schulemberg. + +"Is M. ----," responded the courteous purchaser. + +The two merchants bowed politely, the one to the other, mutually +well pleased with the morning's work, and bade each other good day. + +Mr. Schulemberg knew but little, if anything, about his new customer; +but as the transaction was to be a cash one, he did not mind that. +He calculated his commissions, gave orders to his head clerk to see +the goods duly delivered the next morning, and went on change and +thence to dinner in the enjoyment of a complacent mind and a good +appetite. + +It is to be supposed that M. M. ---- did the same. At any rate, he +had the most reason,--at least, according to his probable notions of +mercantile morality and success. + + +III. + +The next day came, and with it came, betimes, the packages of linens +to M. M. ----'s warehouse in Pearl Street; but the price for the +same did not come as punctually to Mr. Schulemberg's counting-room, +according to the contract under which they were delivered. In point +of fact, M. M. ---- was not in at the time; but there was no doubt +that he would attend to the matter without delay, as soon as he came +in. A cash transaction does not necessarily imply so much the instant +presence of coin as the unequivocal absence of credit. A day or two +more or less is of no material consequence, only there is to be no +delay for sales and returns before payment. So Mr. Schulemberg gave +himself no uneasiness about the matter when two, three, and even five +and six days had slid away without producing the apparition of the +current money of the merchant. A man who transacted affairs on so +large a scale as M. M. ----, and conducted them on the sound basis +of ready money, might safely be trusted for so short a time. But when +a week had elapsed and no tidings had been received either of +purchaser or purchase-money, Mr. Schulemberg thought it time for +himself to interfere in his own proper person. Accordingly, he +incontinently proceeded to the counting-house of M. M. ---- to +receive the promised price or to know the reason why. If he failed +to obtain the one satisfaction, he at least could not complain of +being disappointed of the other. Matters seemed to be in some +little unbusiness-like confusion, and the clerks in a high state +of gleeful excitement. Addressing himself to the chief among them, +Mr. Schulemberg asked the pertinent question,-- + +"Is M. M. ---- in?" + +"No, Sir," was the answer, "he is not; and he will not be just at +present." + +"But when will he be in? for I must see him on some pressing +business of importance." + +"Not to-day, Sir," replied the clerk, smiling expressively; +"he cannot be interrupted to-day on any business of any kind whatever." + +"The deuce he can't!" returned Mr. Schulemberg. "I'll see about that +very soon, I can tell you. He promised to pay me cash for fifty +thousand dollars' worth of Holland linens a week ago; I have not +seen the color of his money yet, and I mean to wait no longer. Where +does he live? for if he be alive, I will see him and hear what he +has to say for himself, and that speedily." + +"Indeed, Sir," pleasantly expostulated the clerk, "I think when you +understand the circumstances of the case, you will forbear +disturbing M. M. ---- this day of all others in his life." + +"Why, what the devil ails this day above all others," said +Mr. Schulemberg, somewhat testily, "that he can't see his +creditors and pay his debts on it?" + +"Why, Sir, the fact is," the clerk replied, with an air of interest +and importance, "it is M. M. ----'s wedding-day. He marries this +morning the Signorina G----, and I am sure you would not molest him +with business on such an occasion as that." + +"But my fifty thousand dollars!" persisted the consignee, "and why +have they not been paid?" + +"Oh, give yourself no uneasiness at all about that, Sir," replied +the clerk, with the air of one to whom the handling of such trifles +was a daily occurrence; "M. M. ---- will, of course, attend to that +matter the moment he is a little at leisure. In fact, I imagine, that, +in the hurry and bustle inseparable from an event of this nature, +the circumstance has entirely escaped his mind; but as soon as he +returns to business again, I will recall it to his recollection, and +you will hear from him without delay." + +The clerk was right in his augury as to the effect his intelligence +would have upon the creditor. It was not a clerical error on his +part when he supposed that Mr. Schulemberg would not choose to enact +the part of skeleton at the wedding breakfast of the young _Prima +Donna_. There is something about the great events of life, which +cannot happen a great many times to anybody,-- + + "A wedding or a funeral, + A mourning or a festival,--" + +that touches the strings of the one human heart of us all and makes +it return no uncertain sound. _Shylock_ himself would hardly have +demanded his pound of flesh on the wedding-day, had it been _Antonio_ +that was to espouse the fair _Portia_. Even he would have allowed +three days of grace before demanding the specific performance of his +bond. Now Mr. Schulemberg was very far from being a Shylock, and he +was also a constant attendant upon the opera, and a devoted admirer +of the lovely G----. So he could not wonder that a man on the eve of +marriage with that divine creature should forget every other +consideration in the immediate contemplation of his happiness,--even +if it were the consideration for a cargo of prime linens, and one to +the tune of fifty thousand dollars. And it is altogether likely that +the mundane reflection occurred to him, and made him easier in his +mind under the delay, that old G---- was by no means the kind of man +to give away a daughter who dropped gold and silver from her sweet +lips whenever she opened them in public, as the princess in the +fairy-tale did pearls and diamonds, to any man who could not give +him a solid equivalent in return. So that, in fact, he regarded the +notes of the Signorina G---- as so much collateral security for his +debt. + +So Mr. Schulemberg was content to bide his reasonable time for the +discharge of M. M. ----'s indebtedness to his principal. He had +advised Mynheer Van Holland of the speedy sale of his consignment, +and given him hopes of a quick return of the proceeds. But as days +wore away, it seemed to him that the time he was called on to bide +was growing into an unreasonable one. I cannot state with precision +exactly how long he waited. Whether he disturbed the sweet +influences of the honey-moon by his intrusive presence, or permitted +that nectareous satellite to fill her horns and wax and wane in +peace before he sought to bring the bridegroom down to the things of +earth, are questions which I must leave to the discretion of my +readers to settle, each for himself or herself, according to their +own notions of the proprieties of the case. But at the proper time, +after patience had thrown up in disgust the office of a virtue, he +took his hat and cane one fine morning and walked down to No. 118, +Pearl Street, for the double purpose of wishing M. M. ---- joy of +his marriage and of receiving the price, promised long and long +withheld, of the linens which form the tissue of my story. + + "The gods gave ear and granted half his prayer; + The rest the winds dispersed in empty air." + +There was not the slightest difficulty about his imparting +his epithalamic congratulation,--but as to his receiving the +numismatic consideration for which he hoped in return, that was +an entirely different affair. He found matters in the Pearl-Street +counting-house again apparently something out of joint, but with a +less smiling and sunny atmosphere pervading them than he had remarked +on his last visit. He was received by M. M. ---- with courtesy, a +little over-strained, perhaps, and not as flowing and gracious as at +their first interview. Preliminaries over, Mr. Schulemberg, plunging +with epic energy into the midst of things, said, "I have called, +M. M. ----, to receive the fifty thousand dollars, which, you will +remember, you engaged to pay down for the linens I sold you on such +a day. I can make allowance for the interruption which has prevented +your attending to this business sooner, but it is now high time that +it were settled." + +"I consent to it all, Monsieur," replied M. M. ----, with a +deprecatory gesture; "you have reason, and I am desolated that it is +the impossible that you ask of me to do." + +"How, Sir!" demanded the creditor; "what do you mean by the +impossible? You do not mean to deny that you agreed to pay cash for +the goods?" + +"My faith, no, Monsieur," shruggingly responded M. M. ----; +"I avow it; you have reason; I promised to pay the money, as you say +it; but if I have not the money to pay you, how can I pay you the +money? What to do?" + +"I don't understand you, Sir," returned Mr. Schulemberg. "You have +not the money? And you do not mean to pay me according to agreement?" + +"But, Monsieur, how can I when I have not money? Have you not heard +that I have made--what you call it?--failure, yesterday? I am +grieved of it, thrice sensibly; but if it went of my life, I could +not pay you for your fine linens, which were of a good market at the +price." + +"Indeed, sir," replied Mr. Schulemberg, "I had not heard of your +misfortunes; and I am heartily sorry for them, on my own account and +yours, but still more on account of your charming wife. But there is +no great harm done, after all. Send the linens back to me and +accounts shall be square between us, and I will submit to the loss +of the interest." + +"Ah, but, Monsieur, you are too good, and Madame will be recognizant +to you forever for your gracious politeness. But, my God, it is +impossible that I return to you the linen. I have sold it, Monsieur, +I have sold it all!" + +"Sold it?" reiterated Mr. Schulemberg, regardless of the rules of +etiquette, "Sold it? And to whom, pray? And when?" + +"To M. G----, my father-in-the-law," answered the catechumen, blandly; +"and it is a week that he has received it." + +"Then I must bid you a good morning, Sir," said Mr. Schulemberg, +rising hastily and collecting his hat and gloves, "for I must lose +no time in taking measures to recover the goods before they have +changed hands again." + +"Pardon, Monsieur," interrupted the poor, but honest M. ----, +"but it is too late! One cannot regain them. M. G---- embarked +himself for Mexico yesterday morning, and carried them all with him!" + +Imagine the consternation and rage of poor Mr. Schulemberg at +finding that he was sold, though the goods were not! I decline +reporting the conversation any farther, lest its strength of +expression and force of expletive might be too much for the more +queasy of my readers. Suffice it to say, that the _swindlee_, if I +may be allowed the royalty of coining a word, at once freed his own +mind and imprisoned the body of M. M. ----; for in those days +imprisonment for debt was a recognized institution, and I think few +of its strongest opponents will deny that this was a case to which +it was no abuse to apply it. + + +IV. + +I regret that I am compelled to leave this exemplary merchant in +captivity; but the exigencies of my story, the moral of which +beckons me away to the distant coast of Mexico, require it at my +hands. The reader may be consoled, however, by the knowledge that he +obtained his liberation in due time, his Dutch creditor being +entirely satisfied that nothing whatsoever could be squeezed out of +him by passing him between the bars of the debtor's prison, though +that was all the satisfaction he ever did get. How he accompanied his +young wife to Europe and there lived by the coining of her voice +into drachmas, as her father had done before him, needs not to be +told here; nor yet how she was divorced from him, and made another +matrimonial venture in partnership with De B----. I have nothing to +do with him or her, after the bargain and sale of which she was the +object, and the consequences which immediately resulted from it; and +here, accordingly, I take my leave of them. But my story is not +quite done yet; it must now pursue the fortunes of the enterprising +_impresario_, Signor G----, who had so deftly turned his daughter +into a ship-load of fine linens. + +This excellent person sailed, as M. M. ---- told Mr. Schulemberg, for +Vera Cruz, with an assorted cargo, consisting of singers, fiddlers, +and, as aforesaid, of Mynheer Van Holland's fine linens. The voyage +was as prosperous as was due to such an argosy. If a single Amphion +could not be drowned by the utmost malice of gods and men, so long as +he kept his voice in order, what possible mishap could befall a +whole ship-load of them? The vessel arrived safely under the shadow +of San Juan de Ulua, and her precious freight in all its varieties +was welcomed with a tropical enthusiasm. The market was bare of +linen and of song, and it was hard to say which found the readiest +sale. Competition raised the price of both articles to a fabulous +height. So the good G---- had the benevolent satisfaction of clothing +the naked and making the ears that heard him to bless him at the +same time. After selling his linens at a great advance on the cost +price, considering he had only paid his daughter for them, and +having given a series of the most successful concerts ever known in +those latitudes, Signor G---- set forth for the Aztec City. As the +relations of _meum_ and _tuum_ were not upon the most satisfactory +footing just then at Vera Cruz, he thought it most prudent to carry +his well-won treasure with him to the capital. His progress thither +was a triumphal procession. Not Cortes, not General Scott, himself, +marched more gloriously along the steep and rugged road that leads +from the sea-coast to the table-land, than did this son of song. +Every city on his line of march was the monument of a victory, and +from each one he levied tribute and bore spoils away. And the +vanquished thanked him for this spoiling of their goods. + +Arrived at the splendid city, at that time the largest and most +populous on the North American continent, he speedily made himself +master of it, a welcome conqueror. The Mexicans, with the genuine +love for song of their Southern ancestors, had had but few +opportunities for gratifying it such as that now offered to them. G---- +was a tenor of great compass, and a most skilful and accomplished +singer. The artists who accompanied him were of a high order of merit, +if not of the very first class. Mexico had never heard the like, and, +though a hard-money country, was glad to take their notes and give +them gold in return. They were feasted and flattered in the +intervals of the concerts, and the bright eyes of Senoras and +Senoritas rained influence upon them on the off nights, as their +fair hands rained flowers upon the _on_ ones. And they have a very +pleasant way, in those golden realms, of giving ornaments of diamonds +and other precious stones to virtuous singers, as we give +pencil-cases and gold watches to meritorious railway conductors and +hotel clerks, as a testimonial of the sense we entertain of their +private characters and public services. The gorgeous East herself +never showered on her kings barbaric pearl and gold with a richer +hand than the city of Mexico poured out the glittering rain over the +portly person of the happy G----. Saturated at length with the +golden flood and its foam of pearl and diamond,--if, indeed, singer +were ever capable of such saturation, and were not rather permeable +forever like a sieve of the Danaides,--saturated, or satisfied that +it was all run out, he prepared to take up his line of march back +again to the City of the True Cross. Mexico mourned over his going, +and sent him forth upon his way with blessings and prayers for his +safe return. + +But, alas! the blessings and the prayers were alike vain. The saints +were either deaf or busy, or had gone a journey, and either did not +hear or did not mind the vows that were sent up to them. At any rate, +they did not take that care of the worthy G---- which their devotees +had a right to expect of them. Turning his back on the Halls of the +Montezumas, where he had revelled so sumptuously, he proceeded on +his way towards the Atlantic coast, as fast as his mules thought fit +to carry him and his beloved treasure. With the proceeds of his +linens and his lungs, he was rich enough to retire from the +vicissitudes of operatic life, to some safe retreat in his native +Spain or his adoptive Italy. Filled with happy imaginings, he fared +onward, the bells of his mules keeping time with the melodious joy +of his heart, until he had descended from the _tierra caliente_ to +the wilder region on the hither side of Jalapa. As the narrow road +turned sharply, at the foot of a steeper descent than common, into a +dreary valley, made yet more gloomy by the shadow of the hill behind +intercepting the sun, though the afternoon was not far advanced, the +_impresario_ was made unpleasantly aware of the transitory nature +of man's hopes and the vanity of his joys. When his train wound into +the rough open space, it found itself surrounded by a troop of men +whose looks and gestures bespoke their function without the +intermediation of an interpreter. But no interpreter was needed in +this case, as Signor G---- was a Spaniard by birth, and their +expressive pantomime was a sufficiently eloquent substitute for +speech. In plain English, he had fallen among thieves, with very +little chance of any good Samaritan coming by to help him. + +Now Signor G---- had had dealings with brigands and banditti all his +operatic life. Indeed, he had often drilled them till they were +perfect in their exercises, and got them up regardless of expense. +Under his direction they had often rushed forward to the footlights, +pouring into the helpless mass before them repeated volleys of +explosive crotchets. But this was a very different chorus that now +saluted his eyes. It was the real thing, instead of the make-believe, +and, in the opinion of Signor G----, at least, very much inferior to +it. Instead of the steeple-crowned hat, jauntily feathered and looped, +these irregulars wore huge _sombreros_, much the worse for time and +weather, flapped over their faces. For the velvet jacket with the +two-inch tail, which had nearly broken up the friendship between +Mr. Pickwick and Mr. Tupman, when the latter gentleman proposed +induing himself with one, on the occasion of Mrs. Leo Hunter's +fancy-dress breakfast,--for this integument, I say, these minions of +the moon had blankets round their shoulders, thrown back in +preparation for actual service. Instead of those authentic +cross-garterings in which your true bandit rejoices, like a new +Malvolio, to tie up his legs, perhaps to keep them from running away, +these false knaves wore, some of them, ragged boots up to their +thighs, while others had no crural coverings at all, and only rough +sandals, such as the Indians there use, between their feet and the +ground. They were picturesque, perhaps, but not attractive to wealthy +travellers. But the wealthy travellers were attractive to them; so +they came together, all the same. Such as they were, however, there +they were, fierce, sad, and sallow, with vicious-looking knives in +their belts, and guns of various parentage in their hands, while +their Captain bade our good man stand and deliver. + +There was no room for choice. He had an escort, to be sure; but it +was entirely unequal to the emergency,--even if it were not, as was +afterwards shrewdly suspected, in league with the robbers. The enemy +had the advantage of arms, position, and numbers; and there was +nothing for him to do but to disgorge his hoarded gains at once, or +to have his breath stripped first and his estate summarily +administered upon afterwards by these his casual heirs,--as the King +of France, by virtue of his _Droit d'Aubaine_, would have +confiscated Yorick's six shirts and pair of black silk breeches, in +spite of his eloquent protest against such injustice, had he chanced +to die in his Most Christian Majesty's dominions. As Signor G---- +had an estate in his breath, from which he could draw a larger yearly +rent than the rolls of many a Spanish grandee could boast, he wisely +chose the part of discretion and surrendered at the same. His new +acquaintances showed themselves expert practitioners in the breaking +open of trunks and the rifling of treasure-boxes. All his beloved +doubloons, all his cherished dollars, for the which no Yankee ever +felt a stronger passion, took swift wings and flew from his coffers +to alight in the hands of the adversary. The sacred recesses of his +pockets, and those of his companions, were sacred no longer from the +sacrilegious hands of the spoilers. The breast-pins were ravished +from the shirt-frills,--for in those days studs were not,--and the +rings snatched from the reluctant fingers. All the shining +testimonials of Mexican admiration were transferred with the +celerity of magic into the possession of the chivalry of the road. +Not Faulconbridge himself could have been more resolved to come on +at the beckoning of gold and silver than were they, and, good +Catholics though they were, it is most likely that Bell, Book, and +Candle would have had as little restraining influence over them as +he professed to feel. + +At last they rested from their labors. To the victors belonged the +spoils, as they discovered with instinctive sagacity that they +should do, though the apophthegm had not yet received the authentic +seal of American statesmanship. Science and skill had done their +utmost, and poor G---- and his companions in misery stood in the +centre of the ring stripped of everything but the clothes on their +backs. The duty of the day being satisfactorily performed, the +victors felt that they had a right to some relaxation after their +toils. And now a change came over them which might have reminded +Signor G---- of the banditti of the green-room, with whose habits he +had been so long familiar and whose operations he had himself +directed. Some one of the troop, who, however fit for stratagems and +spoils, had yet music in his soul, called aloud for a song. The idea +was hailed with acclamations. Not satisfied with the capitalized +results of his voice to which they had helped themselves, they were +unwilling to let their prey go until they had also ravished from him +some specimens of the airy mintage whence they had issued. +Accordingly the Catholic vagabonds seated themselves on the ground, +a fuliginous parterre to look upon, and called upon G---- for a song. +A rock which projected itself from the side of the hill served for a +stage as well as the "green plat" in the wood near Athens did for +the company of Manager Quince, and there was no need of "a +tyring-room," as poor G---- had no clothes to change for those he +stood in. Not the Hebrews by the waters of Babylon, when their +captors demanded of them a song of Zion, had less stomach for the +task. But the prime tenor was now before an audience that would +brook neither denial nor excuse. Nor hoarseness, nor catarrh, nor +sudden illness, certified unto by the friendly physician, would +avail him now. The demand was irresistible; for when he hesitated, +the persuasive though stern mouth of a musket hinted to him in +expressive silence that he had better prevent its speech with song. + +So he had to make his first appearance upon that "unworthy scaffold," +before an audience which, multifold as his experience had been, was +one such as he had never sung to yet. As the shadows of evening +began to fall, rough torches of pine wood were lighted and shed a +glare such as Salvator Rosa loved to kindle, upon a scene such as he +delighted to paint. The rascals had taste,--that the tenor himself +could not deny. They knew the choice bits of the operas which held +the stage forty years ago, and they called for them wisely and +applauded his efforts vociferously. Nay, more, in the height of +their enthusiasm, they would toss him one of his own doubloons or +dollars, instead of the bouquets usually hurled at well-deserving +singers. They well judged that these flowers that never fade would +be the tribute he would value most, and so they rewarded his +meritorious strains out of his own stores, as Claude Du Val or +Richard Tarpin, in the golden days of highway robbery, would +sometimes generously return a guinea to a traveller he had just +lightened of his purse, to enable him to continue his journey. It +was lucky for the unfortunate G---- that their approbation took this +solid shape, or he would have been badly off indeed; for it was all +he had to begin the world with over again. After his appreciating +audience had exhausted their musical repertory and had as many +encores as they thought good, they broke up the concert and betook +themselves to their fastnesses among the mountains, leaving their +patient to find his way to the coast as best he might, with a pocket +as light as his soul was heavy. At Vera Cruz a concert or two +furnished him with the means of embarking himself and his troupe for +Europe, and leaving the New World forever behind him. + +And here I must leave him, for my story is done. The reader hungering +for a moral may discern, that, though Signor G---- received the +price he asked for his lovely daughter, it advantaged him nothing, +and that he not only lost it all, but it was the occasion of his +losing everything else he had. This is very well as far as it goes; +but then it is equally true that M. M. ---- actually obtained his +wife, and that Mynheer Van Holland paid for her. I dare say all this +can be reconciled with the eternal fitness of things; but I protest +I don't see how it is to be done. It is "all a muddle," in my mind. +I cannot even affirm that the banditti were ever hanged; and I am +quite sure that the unlucky Dutch merchant, whose goods were so +comically mixed up with this whole history, never had any poetical +or material justice for his loss of them. But it is as much the +reader's business as mine to settle these casuistries. I only +undertook to tell him who it was that paid for the _Prima Donna_,-- +and I have done it. + + +V. + +"I consider that a good story," said the Consul, when he had +finished the narration out of which I have compounded the foregoing,-- +"and, what is not always the case with a good story, it is a true one." + +I cordially concurred with my honored friend in this opinion, and if +the reader should unfortunately differ from me on this point, I beg +him to believe that it is entirely my fault. As the Consul told it +to me, it was an excellent good story. + +"Poor Mynheer Van Holland," he added, laughing, "never got over that +adventure. Not that the loss was material to him; he was too rich +for that; but the provocation of his fifty thousand dollars going to +a parcel of Mexican _ladrones_, after buying an opera-singer for a +Frenchman on its way, was enough to rouse even Dutch human-nature to +the swearing-point. He could not abide either Frenchmen or +opera-singers, all the rest of his life. And, by Jove, I don't +wonder at it!" + +Nor I, neither, for the matter of that. + + * * * * * + + + + +TWO RIVERS. + + Thy summer voice, Musketaquit, + Repeats the music of the rain; + But sweeter rivers pulsing flit + Through thee, as thou through Concord Plain. + + Thou in thy narrow banks art pent: + The stream I love unbounded goes + Through flood and sea and firmament; + Through light, through life, it forward flows. + + I see the inundation sweet, + I hear the spending of the stream + Through years, through men, through nature fleet, + Through passion, thought, through power and dream. + + Musketaquit, a goblin strong, + Of shard and flint makes jewels gay; + They lose their grief who hear his song, + And where he winds is the day of day. + + So forth and brighter fares my stream,-- + Who drink it shall not thirst again; + No darkness stains its equal gleam, + And ages drop in it like rain. + + + + +THE AUTOCRAT OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. + + +EVERY MAN HIS OWN BOSWELL. + + [The "Atlantic" obeys the moon, and its LUNIVERSARY has come round + again. I have gathered up some hasty notes of my remarks made since + the last high tides, which I respectfully submit. Please to remember + this is _talk_; just as easy and just as formal as I choose to make + it.] + +--I never saw an author in my life--saving, perhaps, one--that did +not purr as audibly as a full-grown domestic cat, (_Felis Catus_, +LINN.,) on having his fur smoothed in the right way by a skilful hand. + +But let me give you a caution. Be very careful how you tell an +author he is _droll_. Ten to one he will hate you; and if he does, +be sure he can do you a mischief, and very probably will. Say you +_cried_ over his romance or his verses, and he will love you and +send you a copy. You can laugh over that as much as you like--in +private. + +--Wonder why authors and actors are ashamed of being funny?-- +Why, there are obvious reasons, and deep philosophical ones. The +clown knows very well that the women are not in love with him, but +with Hamlet, the fellow in the black cloak and plumed hat. Passion +never laughs. The wit knows that his place is at the tail of a +procession. + +If you want the deep underlying reason, I must take more time to +tell it. There is a perfect consciousness in every form of wit-- +using that term in its general sense--that its essence consists in a +partial and incomplete view of whatever it touches. It throws a +single ray, separated from the rest,--red, yellow, blue, or any +intermediate shade,--upon an object; never white light; that is the +province of wisdom. We get beautiful effects from wit,--all the +prismatic colors,--but never the object as it is in fair daylight. A +pun, which is a kind of wit, is a different and much shallower trick +in mental optics; throwing the _shadows_ of two objects so that one +overlies the other. Poetry uses the rainbow tints for special effects, +but always keeps its essential object in the purest white light of +truth.--Will you allow me to pursue this subject a little further? + +[They didn't allow me at that time, for somebody happened to scrape +the floor with his chair just then; which accidental sound, as all +must have noticed, has the instantaneous effect that Proserpina's +cutting the yellow hair had upon infelix Dido. It broke the charm, +and that breakfast was over.] + +--Don't flatter yourselves that friendship authorizes you to say +disagreeable things to your intimates. On the contrary, the nearer +you come into relation with a person, the more necessary do tact and +courtesy become. Except in cases of necessity, which are rare, leave +your friend to learn unpleasant truths from his enemies; they are +ready enough to tell them. Good-breeding _never_ forgets that +_amour-propre_ is universal. When you read the story of the +Archbishop and Gil Blas, you may laugh, if you will, at the poor old +man's delusion; but don't forget that the youth was the greater fool +of the two, and that his master served such a booby rightly in +turning him out of doors. + +--You need not get up a rebellion against what I say, if you find +everything in my sayings is not exactly new. You can't possibly +mistake a man who means to be honest for a literary pickpocket. I +once read an introductory lecture that looked to me too learned for +its latitude. On examination, I found all its erudition was taken +ready-made from D'Israeli. If I had been ill-natured, I should have +shown up the Professor, who had once belabored me in his feeble way, +but one can generally tell these wholesale thieves easily enough, +and they are not worth the trouble of putting them in the pillory. I +doubt the entire novelty of my remarks just made on telling +unpleasant truths, yet I am not conscious of any larceny. + +Neither make too much of flaws and occasional overstatements. Some +persons seem to think that absolute truth, in the form of rigidly +stated propositions, is all that conversation admits. This is +precisely as if a musician should insist on having nothing but +perfect chords and simple melodies,--no diminished fifths, no flat +sevenths, no flourishes, on any account. Now it is fair to say, that, +just as music must have all these, so conversation must have its +partial truths, its embellished truths, its exaggerated truths. It +is in its higher forms an artistic product, and admits the ideal +element as much as pictures or statues. One man who is a little too +literal can spoil the talk of a whole tableful of men of _esprit_.-- +"Yes," you say, "but who wants to hear fanciful people's nonsense? +Put the facts to it, and then see where it is!"--Certainly, if a man +is too fond of paradox,--if he is flighty and empty,--if, instead +of striking those fifths and sevenths, those harmonious discords, +often so much better than the twinned octaves, in the music of +thought,--if, instead of striking these, he jangles the chords, +stick a fact into him like a stiletto. But remember that talking is +one of the fine arts,--the noblest, the most important, and the most +difficult,--and that its fluent harmonies may be spoiled by the +intrusion of a single harsh note. Therefore conversation which is +suggestive rather than argumentative, which lets out the most of +each talker's results of thought, is commonly the pleasantest and +the most profitable. It is not easy, at the best, for two persons +talking together to make the most of each other's thoughts, there +are so many of them. + +[The company looked as if they wanted an explanation.] + +When John and Thomas, for instance, are talking together, it is +natural enough that among the six there should be more or less +confusion and misapprehension. + +[Our landlady turned pale;--no doubt she thought there was a screw +loose in my intellects,--and that involved the probable loss of a +boarder. A severe-looking person, who wears a Spanish cloak and a +sad cheek, fluted by the passions of the melodrama, whom I understand +to be the professional ruffian of the neighboring theatre, alluded, +with a certain lifting of the brow, drawing down of the corners of +the mouth, and somewhat rasping _voce di petto_, to Falstaff's nine +men in buckram. Everybody looked up. I believe the old gentleman +opposite was afraid I should seize the carving-knife; at any rate, +he slid it to one side, as it were carelessly.] + +I think, I said, I can make it plain to Benjamin Franklin here, that +there are at least six personalities distinctly to be recognized as +taking part in that dialogue between John and Thomas. + + {1. The real John; known only + { to his Maker. + { + {2. John's ideal John; never the + Three Johns { real one, and often very unlike him. + { + {3. Thomas's ideal John; never + { the real John, nor John's + { John, but often very unlike + { either. + + {1. The real Thomas. + Three Thomases. {2. Thomas's ideal Thomas. + {3. John's ideal Thomas + + +Only one of the three Johns is taxed; only one can be weighed on a +platform-balance; but the other two are just as important in the +conversation. Let us suppose the real John to be old, dull, and +ill-looking. But as the Higher Powers have not conferred on men the +gift of seeing themselves in the true light, John very possibly +conceives himself to be youthful, witty, and fascinating, and talks +from the point of view of this ideal. Thomas, again, believes him to +be an artful rogue, we will say; therefore he _is_, so far as +Thomas's attitude in the conversation is concerned, an artful rogue, +though really simple and stupid. The same conditions apply to the +three Thomases. It follows, that, until a man can be found who knows +himself as his Maker knows him, or who sees himself as others see him, +there must be at least six persons engaged in every dialogue between +two. Of these, the least important, philosophically speaking, is the +one that we have called the real person. No wonder two disputants +often get angry, when there are six of them talking and listening +all at the same time. + +[A very unphilosophical application of the above remarks was made by +a young fellow, answering to the name of John, who sits near me at +table. A certain basket of peaches, a rare vegetable, little known +to boarding-houses, was on its way to me _via_ this unlettered +Johannes. He appropriated the three that remained in the basket, +remarking that there was just one apiece for him. I convinced him +that his practical inference was hasty and illogical, but in the +mean time he had eaten the peaches.] + +--The opinions of relatives as to a man's powers are very commonly +of little value; not merely because they overrate their own flesh +and blood, as some may suppose; on the contrary, they are quite as +likely to underrate those whom they have grown into the habit of +considering like themselves. The advent of genius is like what +florists style the _breaking_ of a seedling tulip into what we may +call high-caste colors,--ten thousand dingy flowers, then one with +the divine streak; or, if you prefer it, like the coming up in old +Jacob's garden of that most gentlemanly little fruit, the seckel pear, +which I have sometimes seen in shop-windows. It is a surprise,-- +there is nothing to account for it. All at once we find that twice +two make _five_. Nature is fond of what are called "gift-enterprises." +This little book of life which she has given into the hands of its +joint possessors is commonly one of the old story-books bound over +again. Only once in a great while there is a stately poem in it, or +its leaves are illuminated with the glories of art, or they enfold a +draft for untold values signed by the millionfold millionnaire old +mother herself. But strangers are commonly the first to find the +"gift" that came with the little book. + +It may be questioned whether anything can be conscious of its own +flavor. Whether the musk-deer, or the civet-cat, or even a still +more eloquently silent animal that might be mentioned, is aware of +any personal peculiarity, may well be doubted. No man knows his +own voice; many men do not know their own profiles. Every one +remembers Carlyle's famous "Characteristics" article; allow for +exaggerations, and there is a great deal in his doctrine of the +self-unconsciousness of genius. It comes under the great law just +stated. This incapacity of knowing its own traits is often found in +the family as well as in the individual. So never mind what your +cousins, brothers, sister, uncles, aunts, and the rest, say about +the fine poem you have written, but send it (postage paid) to the +editors, if there are any, of the "Atlantic,"--which, by the way, is +not so called because it is a _notion_, as some dull wits wish they +had said, but are too late. + +--Scientific knowledge, even in the most modest persons, has mingled +with it a something which partakes of insolence. Absolute, +peremptory facts are bullies, and those who keep company with them +are apt to get a bullying habit of mind;--not of manners, perhaps; +they may be soft and smooth, but the smile they carry has a quiet +assertion in it, such as the Champion of the Heavy Weights, commonly +the best-natured, but not the most diffident of men, wears upon what +he very inelegantly calls his "mug." Take the man, for instance, who +deals in the mathematical sciences. There is no elasticity in a +mathematical fact; if you bring up against it, it never yields a +hair's breadth; everything must go to pieces that comes in collision +with it. What the mathematician knows being absolute, unconditional, +incapable of suffering question, it should tend, in the nature of +things, to breed a despotic way of thinking. So of those who deal +with the palpable and often unmistakable facts of external nature; +only in a less degree. Every probability--and most of our common, +working beliefs are probabilities--is provided with _buffers_ at +both ends, which break the force of opposite opinions clashing +against it; but scientific certainty has no spring in it, no courtesy, +no possibility of yielding. All this must react on the minds that +handle these forms of truth. + +--Oh, you need not tell me that Messrs. A. and B. are the most +gracious, unassuming people in the world, and yet preeminent in the +ranges of science I am referring to. I know that as well as you. But +mark this which I am going to say once for all: If I had not force +enough to project a principle full in the face of the half dozen +most obvious facts which seem to contradict it, I would think only +in single file from this day forward. A rash man, once visiting a +certain noted institution at South Boston, ventured to express the +sentiment, that man is a rational being. An old woman who was an +attendant in the Idiot School contradicted the statement, and +appealed to the facts before the speaker to disprove it. The rash +man stuck to his hasty generalization, notwithstanding. + +[--It is my desire to be useful to those with whom I am associated +in my daily relations. I not unfrequently practise the divine art of +music in company with our landlady's daughter, who, as I mentioned +before, is the owner of an accordion. Having myself a well-marked +barytone voice of more than half an octave in compass, I sometimes +add my vocal powers to her execution of: + + "Thou, thou reign'st in this bosom,"-- + +not, however, unless her mother or some other discreet female is +present, to prevent misinterpretation or remark. I have also taken a +good deal of interest in Benjamin Franklin, before referred to, +sometimes called B.F. or more frequently Frank, in imitation of that +felicitous abbreviation, combining dignity and convenience, adopted +by some of his betters. My acquaintance with the French language is +very imperfect, I having never studied it anywhere but in Paris, +which is awkward, as B.F. devoted himself to it with the peculiar +advantage of an Alsacian teacher. The boy, I think, is doing well, +between us, notwithstanding. The following is an _uncorrected_ French +exercise, written by this young gentleman. His mother thinks it very +creditable to his abilities; though, being unacquainted with the +French language, her judgment cannot be considered final. + + LE RAT DES SALONS A LECTURE. + + Ce rat ci est un animal fort singulier. Il a deux pattes de derriere + sur lesquelles il marche, et deux pattes de devant dont il fait + usage pour tenir les journaux. Cet animal a le peau noir pour le + plupart, et porte un cercle blanchatre autour de son cou. On le + trouve tous les jours aux dits salons, ou il demeure, digere, s'il y + a de quoi dans son interieur, respire, tousse, eternue, dort, et + ronfle quelquefois, ayant toujours le semblance de lire. On ne sait + pas s'il a une autre gite que cela. Il a l'air d'une bete tres + stupide, mais il est d'une sagacite et d'une vitesse extraordinaire + quand il s'agit de saisir un journal nouveau. On ne sait pas + pourquoi il lit, parcequ'il ne parait pas avoir des idees. Il + vocalise rarement, mais en revanche, il fait des bruits nasaux divers. + Il porte un crayon dans une de ses poches pectorales, avec lequel + il fait des marques sur les bords des journaux et des livres, + semblable aux suivans: !!!--Bah! Pooh! Il ne faut pas cependant les + prendre pour des signes d'intelligence. Il ne vole pas, ordinairement; + il fait rarement meme des echanges de parapluie, et jamais de chapeau, + parceque son chapeau a toujours un caractere specifique. On ne sait + pas au juste ce dont il se nourrit. Feu Cuvier etait d'avis que + c'etait de l'odeur du cuir des reliures; ce qu'on dit d'etre une + nourriture animale fort saine, et peu chere. Il vit bien longtems. + Enfin il meure, en laissant a ses heritiers une carte du Salon a + Lecture ou il avait existe pendant sa vie. On pretend qu'il revient + toutes les nuits, apres la mort, visiter le Salon. On peut le voir, + dit on, a minuit, dans sa place habituelle, tenant le journal du soir, + et ayant a sa main un crayon de charbon. Le lendemain on trouve des + caracteres inconnus sur les bords du journal. Ce qui prouve que le + spiritulisme est vrai, et que Messieurs les Professors de Cambridge + sont des imbeciles qui ne savent rien du tout, du tout. + +I think this exercise, which I have not corrected, or allowed to be +touched in any way, is very creditable to B.F. You observe that he +is acquiring a knowledge of zooelogy at the same time that he is +learning French. Fathers of families who take this periodical will +find it profitable to their children, and an economical mode of +instruction, to set them to revising and amending this boy's exercise. +The passage was originally taken from the "Histoire Naturelle des +Betes Ruminans et Rougeurs, Bipedes et Autres," lately published in +Paris. This was translated into English and published in London. It +was republished at Great Pedlington, with notes and additions by the +American editor. The notes consist of an interrogation-mark on page +53d, and a reference (p. 127th) to another book "edited" by the +same hand. The additions consist of the editor's name on the +title-page and back, with a complete and authentic list of said +editor's honorary titles in the first of these localities. Our boy +translated the translation back into French. This may be compared +with the original, to be found on Shelf 13, Division X, of the +Public Library of this metropolis.] + +--Some of you boarders ask me from time to time why I don't write a +story, or a novel, or something of that kind. Instead of answering +each one of you separately, I will thank you to step up into the +wholesale department for a few moments, where I deal in answers by +the piece and by the bale. + +That every articulately-speaking human being has in him stuff for +one novel in three volumes duodecimo has long been with me a +cherished belief. It has been maintained, on the other hand, that +many persons cannot write more than one novel,--that all after that +are likely to be failures.--Life is so much more tremendous a thing +in its heights and depths than any transcript of it can be, that all +records of human experience are as so many bound _herbaria_ to the +innumerable glowing, glistening, rustling, breathing, fragrance-laden, +poison-sucking, life-giving, death-distilling leaves and flowers of +the forest and the prairies. All we can do with books of human +experience is to make them alive again with something borrowed from +our own lives. We can make a book alive for us just in proportion to +its resemblance in essence or in form to our own experience. Now an +author's first novel is naturally drawn, to a great extent, from his +personal experiences; that is, is a literal copy of nature under +various slight disguises. But the moment the author gets out of his +personality, he must have the creative power, as well as the +narrative art and the sentiment, in order to tell a living story; +and this is rare. + +Besides, there is great danger that a man's first life-story shall +clean him out, so to speak, of his best thoughts. Most lives, though +their stream is loaded with sand and turbid with alluvial waste, drop +a few golden grains of wisdom as they flow along. Oftentimes a +single _cradling_ gets them all, and after that the poor man's labor +is only rewarded by mud and worn pebbles. All which proves that I, +as an individual of the human family, could write one novel or story +at any rate, if I would. + +--Why don't I, then?--Well, there are several reasons against it. In +the first place, I should tell all my secrets, and I maintain that +verse is the proper medium for such revelations. Rhythm and rhyme +and the harmonies of musical language, the play of fancy, the fire of +imagination, the flashes of passion, so hide the nakedness of a +heart laid open, that hardly any confession, transfigured in the +luminous halo of poetry, is reproached as self-exposure. A beauty +shows herself under the chandeliers, protected by the glitter of her +diamonds, with such a broad snowdrift of white arms and shoulders +laid bare, that, were she unadorned and in plain calico, she would +be unendurable--in the opinion of the ladies. + +Again, I am terribly afraid I should show up all my friends. I +should like to know if all story-tellers do not do this? Now I am +afraid all my friends would not bear showing up very well; for they +have an average share of the common weakness of humanity, which I am +pretty certain would come out. Of all that have told stories among us +there is hardly one I can recall that has not drawn too faithfully +some living portrait that might better have been spared. + +Once more, I have sometimes thought it possible I might be too dull +to write such a story as I should wish to write. + +And finally, I think it very likely I _shall_ write a story one of +these days. Don't be surprised at anytime, if you see me coming out +with "The Schoolmistress," or "The Old Gentleman Opposite." + +[_Our_ schoolmistress and _our_ old gentleman that sits opposite +had left the table before I said this.] I want my glory for writing +the same discounted now, on the spot, if you please. I will write +when I get ready. How many people live on the reputation of the +reputation they might have made! + +----I saw you smiled when I spoke about the possibility of my being +too dull to write a good story. I don't pretend to know what you +meant by it, but I take occasion to make a remark that may hereafter +prove of value to some among you.--When one of us who has been led +by native vanity or senseless flattery to think himself or herself +possessed of talent arrives at the full and final conclusion that he +or she is really dull, it is one of the most tranquillizing and +blessed convictions that can enter a mortal's mind. All our failures, +our short-comings, our strange disappointments in the effect of our +efforts are lifted from our bruised shoulders, and fall, like +Christian's pack, at the feet of that Omnipotence which has seen fit +to deny us the pleasant gift of high intelligence, with which one +look may overflow us in some wider sphere of being. + +----How sweetly and honestly one said to me the other day, "I hate +books!" A gentleman,--singularly free from affectations,--not learned, +of course, but of perfect breeding, which is often so much better +than learning,--by no means dull, in the sense of knowledge of the +world and society, but certainly not clever either in the arts or +sciences,--his company is pleasing to all who know him. I did not +recognize in him inferiority of literary taste half so distinctly as +I did simplicity of character and fearless acknowledgment of his +inaptitude for scholarship. In fact, I think there are a great many +gentlemen and others, who read with a mark to keep their place, that +really "hate books," but never had the wit to find it out, or the +manliness to own it. + +[_Entre nous_, I always read with a mark.] + +We get into a way of thinking as if what we call an "intellectual man" +was, as a matter of course, made up of nine-tenths, or thereabouts, +of book-learning, and one-tenth himself. But even if he is actually +so compounded, he need not read much. Society is a strong solution +of books. It draws the virtue out of what is best worth reading, as +hot water draws the strength of tea-leaves. If I were a prince, I +would hire or buy a private literary tea-pot, in which I would steep +all the leaves of new books that promised well. The infusion would do +for me without the vegetable fibre. You understand me; I would have +a person whose sole business should be to read day and night, and +talk to me whenever I wanted him to. I know the man I would have: a +quick-witted, out-spoken, incisive fellow; knows history, or at any +rate has a shelf full of books about it, which he can use handily, +and the same of all useful arts and sciences; knows all the common +plots of plays and novels, and the stock company of characters that +are continually coming on in new costume; can give you a criticism +of an octavo in an epithet and a wink, and you can depend on it; +cares for nobody except for the virtue there is in what he says; +delights in taking off big wigs and professional gowns, and in the +disembalming and unbandaging of all literary mummies. Yet he is as +tender and reverential to all that bears the mark of genius,--that is; +of a new influx of truth or beauty,--as a nun over her missal. In +short, he is one of those men that know everything except how to +make a living. Him would I keep on the square next my own royal +compartment on life's chessboard. To him I would push up another pawn, +in the shape of a comely and wise young woman, whom he would of +course take--to wife. For all contingencies I would liberally provide. +In a word, I would, in the plebeian, but expressive phrase, +"put him through" all the material part of life; see him sheltered, +warmed, fed, button-mended, and all that, just to be able to lay on +his talk when I liked,--with the privilege of shutting it off at will. + +A Club is the next best thing to this, strung like a harp, with +about a dozen ringing intelligences, each answering to some chord of +the macrocosm. They do well to dine together once in a while. A +dinner-party made up of such elements is the last triumph of +civilization over barbarism. Nature and art combine to charm the +senses; the equatorial zone of the system is soothed by well-studied +artifices; the faculties are off duty, and fall into their natural +attitudes; you see wisdom in slippers and science in a short jacket. + +The whole force of conversation depends on how much you can take for +granted. Vulgar chess-players have to play their game out; nothing +short of the brutality of an actual checkmate satisfies their dull +apprehensions. But look at two masters of that noble game! White +stands well enough, so far as you can see; but Red says, Mate in six +moves;--White looks,--nods;--the game is over. Just so in talking +with first-rate men; especially when they are good-natured and +expansive, as they are apt to be at table. That blessed clairvoyance +which sees into things without opening them,--that glorious license, +which, having shut the door and driven the reporter from its key-hole, +calls upon Truth, majestic virgin! to get off from her pedestal and +drop her academic poses, and take a festive garland and the vacant +place on the _medius lectus_,--that carnival-shower of questions and +replies and comments, large axioms bowled over the mahogany like +bomb-shells from professional mortars, and explosive wit dropping +its trains of many-colored fire, and the mischief-making rain of +_bon-bons_ pelting everybody that shows himself,--the picture of a +truly intellectual banquet is one that the old Divinities might well +have attempted to reproduce in their---- + +----"Oh, oh, oh!" cried the young fellow whom they call John,-- +"that is from one of your lectures!" + +I know it, I replied,--I concede it, I confess it, I proclaim it. + + "The trail of the serpent is over them all!" + +All lecturers, all professors, all school-masters, have ruts and +grooves in their minds into which their conversation is perpetually +sliding. Did you never, in riding through the woods of a still June +evening, suddenly feel that you had passed into a warm stratum of air, +and in a minute or two strike the chill layer of atmosphere beyond? +Did you never, in cleaving the green waters of the Back Bay,--where +the Provincial blue-noses are in the habit of beating the "Metropolitan" +boat-clubs,--find yourself in a tepid streak, a narrow, local +gulf-stream, a gratuitous warm-bath a little underdone, through +which your glistening shoulders soon flashed, to bring you back +to the cold realities of full-sea temperature? Just so, in talking +with any of the characters above referred to, one not unfrequently +finds a sudden change in the style of the conversation. The +lack-lustre eye, rayless as a Beacon-Street door-plate in August, +all at once fills with light; the face flings itself wide open like +the church-portals when the bride and bridegroom enter; the little +man grows in stature before your eyes, like the small prisoner with +hair on end, beloved yet dreaded of early childhood; you were +talking with a dwarf and an imbecile,--you have a giant and a +trumpet-tongued angel before you!----Nothing but a streak out of a +fifty-dollar lecture.----As when, at some unlooked-for moment, the +mighty fountain-column springs into the air before the astonished +passer-by,--silver-footed, diamond-crowned, rainbow-scarfed,--from +the bosom of that fair sheet, sacred to the hymns of quiet +batrachians at home, and the epigrams of a less amiable and less +elevated order of _reptilia_ in other latitudes. + +----Who was that person that was so abused some time since for +saying that in the conflict of two races our sympathies naturally go +with the higher? No matter who he was. Now look at what is going on +in India,--a white, superior "Caucasian" race, against a dark-skinned, +inferior, but still "Caucasian" race,--and where are English and +American sympathies? We can't stop to settle all the doubtful +questions; all we know is, that the brute nature is sure to come out +most strongly in the lower race, and it is the general law that the +human side of humanity should treat the brutal side as it does the +same nature in the inferior animals,--tame it or crush it. The India +mail brings stories of women and children outraged and murdered; the +royal stronghold is in the hands of the babe-killers. England takes +down the Map of the World, which she has girdled with empire, and +makes a correction thus: + +[Strike-out: DELHI]. _Dele_. + +The civilized world says, Amen. + +----Do not think, because I talk to you of many subjects briefly, +that I should not find it much lazier work to take each one of them +and dilute it down to an essay. Borrow some of my old college themes +and water my remarks to suit yourselves, as the Homeric heroes did +with their _melas oinos_,--that black, sweet, syrupy wine (?) which +they used to alloy with three parts or more of the flowing stream. + +[Could it have been _melasses_, as Webster and his provincials +spell it,--or _Molossa's_, as dear old smattering, chattering, +would-be-College-President, Cotton Mather, has it in the "Magnalia"? +Ponder thereon, ye small antiquaries, who make barn-door-fowl flights +of learning in "Notes and Queries"!--ye Historical Societies, in one +of whose venerable triremes I, too, ascend the stream of time, while +other hands tug at the oars!--ye Amines of parasitical literature, +who pick up your grains of native-grown food with a bodkin, having +gorged upon less honest fare, until, like the great minds Goethe +speaks of, you have "made a Golgotha" of your pages!--ponder thereon!] + +----Before you go, this morning, I want to read you a copy of verses. +You will understand by the title that they are written in an +imaginary character. I don't doubt they will fit some family-man +well enough. I send it forth as "Oak Hall" projects a coat, on +_a priori_ grounds of conviction that it will suit somebody. There +is no loftier illustration of faith than this. It believes that a +soul has been clad in flesh; that tender parents have fed and +nurtured it; that its mysterious _compages_ or frame-work has +survived its myriad exposures and reached the stature of maturity; +that the Man, now self-determining, has given in his adhesion to the +traditions and habits of the race in favor of artificial clothing; +that he will, having all the world to choose from, select the very +locality where this audacious generalization has been acted upon. It +builds a garment cut to the pattern of an Idea, and trusts that +Nature will model a material shape to fit it. There is a prophecy in +every seam, and its pockets are full of inspiration.--Now hear the +verses. + + + + +THE OLD MAN DREAMS. + + O for one hour of youthful joy! + Give back my twentieth spring! + I'd rather laugh a bright-haired boy + Than reign a gray-beard king! + + Off with the wrinkled spoils of age! + Away with learning's crown! + Tear out life's wisdom-written page, + And dash its trophies down! + + One moment let my life-blood stream + From boyhood's fount of flame! + Give me one giddy, reeling dream + Of life all love and fame! + + --My listening angel heard the prayer, + And calmly smiling, said, + "If I but touch thy silvered hair, + Thy hasty wish hath sped." + + "But is there nothing in thy track + To bid thee fondly stay, + While the swift seasons hurry back + To find the wished-for day?" + + --Ah, truest soul of womankind! + Without thee, what were life? + One bliss I cannot leave behind: + I'll take--my--precious--wife! + + --The angel took a sapphire pen + And wrote in rainbow dew, + "The man would be a boy again, + And be a husband too!" + + --"And is there nothing yet unsaid + Before the change appears? + Remember, all their gifts have fled + With those dissolving years!" + + Why, yes; for memory would recall + My fond paternal joys; + I could not bear to leave them all: + I'll take--my--girl--and--boys! + + The smiling angel dropped his pen,-- + "Why this will never do; + The man would be a boy again, + And be a father too!" + + And so I laughed,--my laughter woke + The household with its noise,-- + And wrote my dream, when morning broke, + To please the gray-haired boys. + + + + +AGASSIZ'S NATURAL HISTORY. + + _Contributions to the Natural History of the United States of + America_. By LOUIS AGASSIZ. Vols. I. and II. Boston: Little, + Brown & Co. London: Truebner & Co. 1857. + +The Great Professor has given the first Monograph of his _Magnum Opus_ +to the Great Republic and the wider realm of Science. The learned +world resolves itself into committees to consider every important +work; claiming leave to sit for as long a time as they choose,--for +years, or for a whole generation. Every alleged fact is to be +verified or cancelled or qualified, every inference to be measured +over and over again by its premises, every proposition to be tried +by all the tests that can prove its strength or weakness, and the +whole to be marshalled to the place it may claim in the alcoves of +the universal library. No hasty opinion can anticipate this final +and peremptory judgment. Its elements must of necessity be gathered +slowly from many and scattered sources. The accumulated learning of +the great centres of civilization, the patient investigation of +plodding observers, the keen insight of subtile analysts, the +jealous clairvoyance of dissentient theorists, the oblique glances +of suspicious sister-sciences, the random flashes that skepticism +throws from her faithless mirror to dazzle all eyes that seek for +truth; through such a varied and protracted ordeal must every record +that embodies long and profound observation, large and lofty thought, +reach the golden _Imprimatur_ which is its warrant for immortality. + +The work of Mr. Agassiz, if we may judge it by the portion now +before us, has a right to challenge such a matured opinion, and to +wait for it. Not the less does a certain duty belong to us as +literary journalists with reference to these stately volumes, which +are in the hands of thousands, learned and unlearned, and of which +there are scores of thousands waiting to hear. Our duty we consider +to be four-fold: first, that of recognition in terms of fitting +courtesy; secondly, of analysis for the general reader; thirdly, of +accentuation, so to speak, of what seems most widely applicable or +interesting; and lastly, of making such comments as so pregnant a +text may suggest. + +And first, of recognition. Here are the fruits of ten years of +patient labor, taken out of the heart of life, in the age of vigor, +which is that of ambition,--to use the phrase of another great +observer,--by a man of large endowments and of vast knowledge, +assisted by skilful collaborators, by finished artists, by the +counsels and liberality of the learned few, and the generous +countenance of the intelligent many. Before analysis, before +criticism, there should be uttered a welcome; not grudging, not +envious of an overshadowing reputation, not over-curious in +searching for qualifications to abate its warmth, not carefully +taming down its enthusiasm to tepid formalisms; but full-souled and +free-spoken, such as all noble works and deeds should claim. + +The learned men of past centuries have left us an example of this +treatment of authors, in those gratulatory verses with which they +were wont to hail every considerable literary or scientific +performance. They knew human nature well. They knew that the author, +when he quenches the lamp over which he has grown haggard and pale, +and steps from his cell into daylight and the chill outside air, +longs, longs unutterably, for kind words, and the cheering +fellowship of kindred souls; and with instinctive grace they chose +the poetical form of expression, simply because this alone gives +full license to the lips of friendship. + +This old folio which stands by us is not precious only because it +contains the quaint wisdom and manifold experience of Ambroise Pare, +mingled with his credulous gossip, and again sweetened by his simple +reverence; not precious alone because it contains the noblest words +ever uttered by one of his profession,--_Ie le pensay et Dieu le +guarit_; but also because PIERRE RONSARD, the "Poet of France," has +left his deathless name thrice inscribed in its earlier pages at the +foot of tributes to its author. + +And here in the next century comes Schenck of Grafenberg, staggering +under his monstrous volume of "Casus Rariores,"--ready to fall +fainting by the wayside, when lo! the shining ones meet him too, and +lift him and lighten him with the utterance of these _fifty-one_ +distinct poems which we see hung up on so many votive tablets at the +entrance of this miniature Babel of Science. + +Even so late as the last century the genial custom survived; for our +worthy Stalpart van der Wiel, whose little pair of volumes was +published in 1727, can boast of twenty-two pages of well-ordered +commendatory verse, much of it in his native Dutch,--a little of +which goes a good way with all except Batavian readers. + +But as the "Arundines Cami," musical as they are, have lent no +prelude to these harmonies of science, we must say in a few plain +words of prose our own first thought as to the work the commencement +of which lies before us. We believe, that, if completed according to +its promise, it is to be one of the monumental labors of our century. +Comparisons are not to be lightly instituted, and especially under +circumstances that do not allow a fair survey of the whole field +from which the objects to be compared are to be taken. We suppose, +however, it will be conceded that the sunset continent has never +witnessed anything like the inception of this mighty task in the way +of systematic natural science. And if, since Cuvier, the greatest of +naturalists, as Mr. Agassiz considers him, slept with the fossils to +which he had given life, there has been any other student of Nature +who has attempted a task so immense, with the same union of observing, +reflecting, analyzing, and cooerdinating power, we cannot name him. +Our civilization has a right to be proud of such an accession to its +thinking and laboring constituency; it is also bound to be grateful +for it, and to express its gratitude. + +It is just one hundred years since another Swiss, the magnificent +Albert von Haller, gave to the world the first volume of the +"Elementa Physiologiae Corporis Humani." Nine years afterwards, in +1766, the last of the eight volumes appeared; and the vast structure, +which embodied his untiring study of Nature, his world-wide erudition, +his deepest thought, his highest imaginings, his holiest aspirations, +stood, like the Alps whose shadow fell upon its birthplace, the +lovely Lausaune, pride of the Pays de Vaud. The clepsydrae that +measure the centuries as they drop from the dizzy cliffs--the +glaciers, by the descent of which "time is marked out, as by a +shadow on a dial," and which thunder out the high noon of each +revolving year with their frozen tongues, as they crack beneath the +summer's sun--have registered a new centennial circle, and at the +very hour of its completion, Switzerland vindicates her ancient +renown in these fair pages, at once pledge and performance, of +another of her honored children. May the auspicious omen lead to as +happy a conclusion! + +Lovingly, then, we lay open the generous quarto and look upon its +broad, bright title-page. It tells us that we have here the first of +a series of "Contributions to the Natural History of the United +States of America." We see that one of its three parts embraces the +largest generalities of Natural Science, under the head of an +"Essay on Classification." We see that the other two parts are +devoted to the description and delineation of a single order of +Reptilia,--the Testudinata, or "Turtles." + +If Mr. Agassiz had intentionally chosen the simplest way of proving +that he had naturalized himself in New England, he could not have +selected more fortunately than he has done by adopting our word +_Turtle_ to cover all the Testudinates. To an Englishman a turtle +is a sea-monster, that for a brief space lies on his back and fights +the air with his useless paddles in the bow-window of a +provision-shop, bound eventually to Guildhall, there to feed Gog and +Magog, or his worshippers, known as aldermen. For him a +land-testudinate is a _tortoise_. When his poets and romancers speak +of turtles, again, they commonly mean turtle-_doves_. + + "Not half so swift the sailing falcon flies + That drives a turtle through the liquid skies." + +The only flight of a testudinate which we remember is that downward +one of the unfortunate tortoise that cracked the bald crown of +Aeschylus. But turtle, as embracing all chelonians, or, as liberal +shepherds call it, "turkle," is unquestionably Cisatlantic. The +distinguished naturalist has made himself an American citizen by +adopting our own expression, and should have the freedom of all our +cities presented to him in the shell of a box-TURTLE. + +It is singular to recall the honors which have been bestowed on the +testudinates from all antiquity. It was the sun-dried and +sinew-strung shell of a tortoise that suggested the lyre to Mercury, +as he walked by the shore of Nilus. It was on the back of a tortoise +that the Indian sage placed his elephant which upheld the world. +Under the _testudo_ the Roman legions swarmed into the walled cities +of the _orbis terrarum_. And in that wise old fable which childhood +learns, and age too often remembers, sorrowing, it was the tortoise +that won the race against the swiftest of the smaller tribes, his +competitor. + +And here once more we have his shell strung with vibrating thoughts +that repeat the harmonies of nature. Once more his broad back stoops +to the weighty problems which the planet proposes to its children. +Once more the great cities are stormed--by science--beneath his coat +of mail. Once more he has run the race, not against the hare only, +but the whole animal kingdom, and won it, and with it the new fame +which awaits him, as he leads in the long array of his fellows that +are to come up, one by one, in these enduring records. And so we +turn the leaf, and come to the DEDICATION. + +The Dedication of a work like this, destined to preserve all the +names it enrols in the sculpture-like immortality of science, +naturally delays us for a moment. Of the foreign teacher and friend +to whom the author owes some of his earliest lessons, and of that +group of our own citizens, most of them still living, who lent their +united efforts to the enterprise of publication after it was +commenced, we need not speak individually. But we cannot pass over +the name of FRANCIS CALLEY GRAY without a word of grateful +remembrance for one who was the friend and adviser of the author +in planning the publication of the work before us. We who remember +his varied culture, his large and fluent discourse, with its +formidable accuracy of knowledge and gracious suavity of utterance, +his taste in literature and art, which made his home a suite of +princely cabinets, his generous and elegant hospitality, which +scholars and artists knew so well,--counting him as the peer, and in +many points the more than peer of such as the wide world of letters +is proud to claim,--are pleased to see that his cherished name will +be read by the students of unborn generations on the first leaf of +this noble record of the science of our own. + +The PREFACE which follows the Dedication is full of grateful +acknowledgments to the many friends of science, in all parts of the +country, who came forward to lend their aid in various forms, +especially in collecting and transmitting specimens from the +most widely remote sections of the continent. The pious zeal of +Mr. Winthrop Sargent, who brought a cargo of living turtles more +than a thousand miles to the head-quarters of testudinous learning +at Cambridge, is only paralleled by the memorable act of the Pisans +in transporting ship-loads of holy soil from Palestine to fill their +Campo Santo. Genius is marked by nothing more distinctly than that +it makes the world its tributary. He from whose lips it speaks has +but to look calmly into the eyes of dull routine, of jaded toil, of +fickle childhood, and utter the words, "Follow me." Custom-house +officials close their books, tired fishermen leave their nets, +riotous boys forsake their play, to do the master's bidding. Is he +making collections for some great purpose of study? Piece by piece +the fragmentary spoils flow in upon him, of all sizes, shapes, and +hues; a chaos of confused riches, perhaps only a wealth of rubbish, +as they lie at his feet. One by one they fall into harmonious +relations, until the meaningless heap has become a vast mosaic, +where nothing is too minute to fill some interstice, nothing too +angular to fit some corner, nothing so dull or brilliant of tint +that it will not furnish its fraction of light or shadow. Such has +been the history of those years of labor the results of which these +volumes present to us. Whatever may have been said of the devotion +of our countrymen to material interests, the wise and winning lips +had only to speak, and such a currency of _plastrons_ and _carapaces_ +was set in circulation, that the contemplative stranger who saw the +mighty coinage of Chelonia flowing in upon Cambridge might well have +thought that the national idea was not the Almighty Dollar, but the +Almighty Turtle. + +Mr. Agassiz places a high estimate on the intelligence as well as +the kind spirit of his adopted countrymen. "There is not a class of +learned men here," he says, "distinct from the other cultivated +members of the community. On the contrary, so general is the desire +for knowledge, that I expect to see my book read by operatives, by +fishermen, by farmers, quite as extensively as by the students of +our colleges, or by the learned professions; and it is but proper +that I should endeavor to make myself understood by all." + +The deficiencies of our scientific libraries, and the want of a +class of elementary works upon Natural History, such as are widely +circulated in Europe, are adverted to and alleged as a reason for +entering into details which the professional naturalist might think +misplaced. + +We quote one paragraph entire from the Preface, as not susceptible +of being abridged, and as briefly stating those general facts with +regard to the work which all our readers must desire to know. + + "I have a few words more to say respecting the two first volumes, + now ready for publication. Considering the uncertainty of human life, + I have wished to bring out at once a work that would exemplify the + nature of the investigations I have been tracing during the last ten + years, and show what is likely to be the character of the whole + series. I have aimed, therefore, in preparing these two volumes, to + combine them in such a manner as that they should form a whole. The + First Part contains an exposition of the general views I have + arrived at thus far, in my studies of Natural History. The Second + Part shows how I have attempted to apply these results to the + special study of Zoology, taking the order of Testudinata as an + example. I believe, that, in America, where turtles are everywhere + common, and greatly diversified, a student could not make a better + beginning than by a careful perusal of this part, specimens in hand, + with constant reference to the second chapter of the First Part. The + Third Part exemplifies the bearing of Embryology upon these general + questions, while it contains the fullest illustration of the + embryonic growth of the Testudinata." + +The Preface closes with honorable mention of the gentlemen who have +furnished direct assistance in the preparation of the work, and +especially of Mr. Clark in microscopic observation and illustration, +and of Mr. Sonrel in drawing the zoological figures. + +The LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS is not without its special meaning and +interest. If, as has been said, the grade of civilization in any +community can be estimated by the amount of sulphuric acid it +consumes, the extent to which a work like this has been called for +in different sections of the country may to some extent be +considered an index of its intellectual aspirations, if not of its +actual progress. This is especially true of those remoter regions +where personal motives would exercise least influence. But without +instituting any comparisons, we may well be proud of this ample list +of twenty-five hundred subscribers, most of them citizens of the +republic,--"a support such as was never before offered to any +scientific man for purely scientific ends, without any reference to +government objects or direct practical aims." + +Our analysis must confine itself mainly to the first of the three +parts into which these two volumes are divided. This first part it +is that contains those large results which every thinker must desire +to learn from one whose life has been devoted to the searching and +contemplative study of Nature. It is in the realm of thought here +explored, that Natural Science, whose figure we are wont to look +down upon, crouching to her task, like him of the muck-rake, as he +painfully gathers together his sticks and straws, rises erect, and +lifts her forehead into the upper atmosphere of philosophy, where +the clouds are indeed thickest, but the stars are nearest. The +second and third parts belong more exclusively to the professed +students of Natural History in its different special departments. +Our notice of these divisions of the work must therefore be +comparatively brief. + +The first chapter of the first part has for its title, "The +fundamental relations of animals to one another and to the world in +which they live, as the basis of the natural system of animals." + +Certain general doctrines, the spirit of which runs through all the +scientific works of Mr. Agassiz, are distinctly laid down in the +first section of this chapter. It is headed with the statement, +"The leading features of a natural zoological system are all founded +in nature." The systems named from the great leaders of science are +but translations of the Creator's thoughts into human language. +"If it can be proved that man has not invented, but only traced this +systematic arrangement in nature,--that these relations and +proportions which exist throughout the animal and vegetable world +have an intellectual, an ideal connection in the mind of the Creator,-- +that this plan of creation, which so commends itself to our highest +wisdom, has not grown out of the necessary action of physical laws, +but was the free conception of the Almighty Intellect, matured in +his thought, before it was manifested in tangible, external forms,-- +if, in short, we can prove premeditation prior to the act of creation, +we have done, once and forever, with the desolate theory which +refers us to the laws of matter as accounting for all the wonders of +the universe, and leaves us with no God but the monotonous, unvarying +action of physical forces, binding all things to their inevitable +destiny." + +One more extract must be given from this section, for it is the key +to the general argument which follows. + +"I disclaim every intention of introducing in this work any evidence +irrelevant to my subject, or of supporting any conclusions not +immediately flowing from it; but I cannot overlook nor disregard +here the close connection there is between the facts ascertained by +scientific investigations, and the discussions now carried on +respecting the origin of organized beings. And though I know those +who hold it to be very unscientific to believe that thinking is not +something inherent in matter, and that there is an essential +difference between inorganic and living and thinking beings, I shall +not be prevented by any such pretensions of a false philosophy from +expressing my conviction, that, as long as it cannot be shown that +matter or physical forces do actually reason, I shall consider any +manifestation of thought as evidence of the existence of a thinking +being as the author of such thought, and shall look upon an +intelligent and intelligible connection between the facts of nature +as direct proof of the existence of a thinking God, as certainly as +man exhibits the power of thinking when he recognizes their natural +relations." + +We must content ourselves with the most general statement of the +nature and bearing of the series of propositions which follow. They +are illustrated by a large survey of the material universe in its +manifestations of life, and of the relations between the various +forms of life to each other and to the inorganic world. These +propositions, thirty-one in number, might be called an analysis of +the qualities of the Infinite Mind exhibited in the realm of +organized and especially of animal being. Nothing but want of space +prevents our reproducing at full length the very careful +recapitulation to be found at the close of the chapter, or the +analysis to be found in the Table of Contents. With something more +of labor than the task of copying would have been, we have attempted +to compress the truths already crowded in these brief and pregnant +sentences into the still narrower compass of a few lines in our +straitened pages. + +The harmony of the universe is a manifestation of illimitable +intellect, displaying itself in various modes of thought, as these +are shown in the characters and relations of organized beings: unity +of thought, manifesting itself independently of space, of time, of +known material agencies, of special form,--illustrated by repetition +of similar types in different circumstances, by identities, or +partial resemblances, or serial connections, found under varying +conditions of being; power of expressing the same idea in innumerable +forms, as in those instances of essential identity of parts in the +midst of formal differences known as _special homologies_; power of +combination, as in the adjustment of organized beings to each other +and to the inorganic world, or in the harmonious allotment of the +most varied gifts to different beings; definite recognition of time +and space, as in the life of individuals, of species, in the stages +of growth, in the geographical limitation of types; prescience and +omniscience, as shown in the _prophetic_ types of earlier geological +ages; omnipresence, by the adjustment of the whole series of animal +organisms to the various parts of the planet they inhabit. + +The final _resume_ of Mr. Agassiz is as follows:-- + +"We may sum up the results of this discussion, up to this point, in +still fewer words. + +"All organized beings exhibit in themselves all those categories of +structure and of existence upon which a natural system may be founded, +in such a manner, that, in tracing it, the human mind is only +translating into human language the Divine thoughts expressed in +Nature in living realities. + +"All these beings do not exist in consequence of the continued +agency of physical causes, but have made their successive appearance +upon earth by the immediate intervention of the Creator. As proof, I +may sum up my argument in the following manner:-- + +"The products of what are commonly called physical agents are +everywhere the same, (that is, upon the whole surface of the globe,) +and have always been the same (that is, during all geological periods); +while organized beings are everywhere different, and have differed +in all ages. Between two such series of phenomena there can be no +causal or genetic connection. + +"The combination in time and space of all these thoughtful +conceptions exhibits not only thought, it shows also premeditation, +power, wisdom, greatness, prescience, omniscience, providence. In +one word, all these facts in their natural connection proclaim aloud +the One God, whom man may know, adore, and love; and Natural History +must, in good time, become the analysis of the thoughts of the +Creator of the Universe, as manifested in the animal and vegetable +kingdoms." + +To this statement we must add two paragraphs from the pages just +preceding, (pp. 130, 131.) + + "If I have succeeded, even very imperfectly, in showing that the + various relations observed between animals and the physical world, + as well as between themselves, exhibit thought, it follows that the + whole has an Intelligent Author; and it may not be out of place to + attempt to point out, as far as possible, the difference there may + be between Divine thinking and human thought." + + "Taking nature as exhibiting thought for my guide, it appears to me, + that, while human thought is consecutive, Divine thought is + simultaneous, embracing at the same time and forever, in the past, + the present, and the future, the most diversified relations among + hundreds of thousands of organized beings, each of which may present + complications, again, which to study and understand even imperfectly, + as, for instance, man himself, mankind has already spent thousands of + years. And yet, all this has been done by one Mind, must be the work + of one Mind only, of Him before whom man can only bow in grateful + acknowledgment of the prerogatives he is allowed to enjoy in this + world, not to speak of the promises of a future life." + +Chapter Second is entitled, "Leading Groups of the existing systems +of animals." + +Its nine sections treat successively of the great types or branches +of the animal kingdom, of classes, orders, families, genera, species, +other natural divisions, successive development of characters, and +close with some very significant conclusions on the importance of +the study of classification. + +Mr. Agassiz has attempted to give definiteness to the terms above +enumerated, which have been used with various significance, by +limiting each one of them to covering a single category of natural +relationship. Thus:-- + + _Branches_ or _types_ are characterized by their plan of structure. + + _Classes_, by the manner in which that plan is executed, so far as + ways and means are concerned. + + _Orders_, by the degrees of complication of that structure. + + _Families_, by their form, so far as determined by structure. + + _Genera_, by the details of the execution in special parts. + + _Species_, by the relations of individuals to one another and to + the world in which they live, as well as by the proportions of their + parts, their ornamentation, etc. + + "And yet there are other natural divisions which must be acknowledged + in a natural zooelogical system; but these are not to be traced so + uniformly in all classes as the former,--they are, in reality, only + limitations of the other kinds of divisions." + +This chapter must be studied in the original text, the arguments by +which its conclusions are supported hardly admitting of brief analysis. +The most superficial reader will be interested in Mr. Agassiz's +account of the mode in which he sought for the natural boundaries +of the various divisions, by observing the special point of view +in which various eminent naturalists have considered their subject; +as, for instance, Audubon, among the biographers of species,-- +Latreille, among the students of genera,--and Cuvier, at the head +of those who have contemplated the higher groups, such as classes +and types. The most indifferent reader will be arrested by the +opinions boldly promulgated with reference to species. + + "The evidence that all animals have originated in large numbers is + growing so strong, that the idea that every species existed in the + beginning in single pairs may be said to be given up almost entirely + by naturalists." "If we are led to admit as the beginning of each + species the simultaneous origin of a large number of individuals, if + the same species may originate at the same time in different + localities, these first representatives of each species, at least, + were not connected by sexual derivation; and as this applies equally + to any first pair, this fancied test criterion of specific identity + must at all events be given up, and with it goes also the pretended + real existence of the species, in contradistinction from the mode of + existence of genera, families, orders, classes and types; for what + really exists are individuals, not species." (pp. 166-167.) + +Chapter Third is headed, "Notice of the principal systems of Zoology." +It is divided into the six following sections: General remarks upon +modern systems; Early attempts to classify animals; Period of Linnaeus; +Period of Cuvier, and Anatomical systems; Physiophilosophical systems; +Embryological systems. + +This chapter is invaluable to the general student, as giving him in +a single view not only a _conspectus_, of the most important +attempts at classification in Zoology, but an examination of the +principles involved in each, by the one among all living men most +fitted to perform the task. No cultivated person who desires to know +anything of Natural Science can pass over this portion of the work +without careful study. Those who are not prepared to follow the +author through the details of the Second Part will yet consider +these volumes as indispensable companions for reference, as +containing this brief but comprehensive encyclopedia and commentary, +covering the whole philosophical machinery of zoological science. + +For the first section of this chapter Mr. Agassiz adopts the +fundamental divisions (branches) of Cuvier, introducing such changes +among the classes and orders as the progress of science demands. The +second section gives a short account of the early attempts to +classify animals, more particularly of the divisions established by +Aristotle. The third section embraces the period of Linnaeus, and +gives his classification. The fourth, that of Cuvier, and Anatomical +systems, with the classifications of Cuvier, Lamark, De Blainville, +Ehrenberg, Burmeister, Owen, Milne-Edwards, Von Siebold and Stannius, +Leuckart. The fifth section includes the Physiophilosophical systems, +with diagrams of Oken's and Fitzinger's classifications, and a +special article for the circular groups of McLeay. The sixth and last +section is devoted to Embryological systems, and presents diagrams +of the classifications of Von Baer, Van Beneden, Koelliker, and Vogt. + +The second part of the Monograph introduces us to the consideration +of a special subject of Natural History,--the North American +Testudinata. Its three chapters treat successively of this order of +Reptiles,--of its families,--of its North American genera and species. + +The THIRD PART, contained in the second volume, is entitled, +"Embryology of the Turtle." It consists of two chapters: "Development +of the Egg, from its first appearance to the formation of the embryo." +"Development of the Embryo, from the time the egg leaves the ovary +to that of the hatching of the young." Then follow the explanation +of the plates and the plates themselves, thirty-four in number. + +We need not attempt to give any account of the parts devoted to the +development of these particular subjects. This we must necessarily +leave to the journals devoted to scientific matters, and the class +of students most intimate with these departments of Natural Science. + +Yet the American who asks for a model to work by in his +investigations will find a great deal more than the "North American +Testudinata" in the part to which that title is prefixed. The +principles of classification exemplified, the methods of description +illustrated, the rules of nomenclature tested,--what matter is it +whether the _gran maestro_ has chosen this or that string to play +the air upon, when each has compass enough for all its melody? + +Still more forcibly does this comment apply to the elaborate and +ample division of the work embracing the Embryology of the Turtle. +He who has mastered the details of this section has at his feet the +whole broad realm of which this province holds one of the +key-fortresses. _Ex testudine naturam_. + +We are unwilling to speak of the illustrations comparatively +without more extended means of judgment than we have at hand. But +that they are of superlative excellence, brilliant, delicate, +accurate, life-like, and nature-like, is what none will dispute. +Look at these turtles, models of real-estate owners as they are, +Observe No. 13, Plate IV.,--"Chelydra Serpentina,"--"snapper", +or "snappin' turtle," in the vernacular. He is out collecting +rents from the naked-skinned reptiles, his brethren; in default +thereof, taking the bodies of the aforesaid. Or behold No. 5, Plate +VI., bewailing the wretchedness of those who have no roofs to cover +them. Or No. 2, of the same plate, bestowing an archiepiscopal +benediction on the houseless multitudes, before he retires for the +night to slumber between his tessellated floor and his frescoed +ceiling. + +Of the smooth, white eggs, with their rounded reliefs and tenderly +graduated light and shadow, all eyes are judges. But of the +exquisite figures showing the various stages of development and the +details of structural arrangement, the uninitiated must take the +opinions of a microscopic expert: and if they will accept our +testimony as that of one not unfamiliar with the instrument and the +mysteries it reveals, we can assure them that these figures are of +supreme excellence. The hazy semitransparency of the embryonic +tissues, the halos, the granules, the globules, the cell-walls, the +delicate membranous expansions, the vascular webs, are expressed +with purity, softness, freedom, and a conscientiousness which +reminds us of Donne's microscopic daguerreotypes, while in many +points the views are literally truer to nature,--just as a +sculptor's bust of a living person is often more really like him in +character than a cast moulded on his features. + +We have attempted to give a slight idea of the contents of these two +volumes, in the compass of a few pages. We have called the reader's +attention to various points of special interest, as we were going +along. It remains to make such comments as suggest themselves to us, +either in our character of "the scholiast," or in our own right as a +freed citizen of the intellectual as well as the political republic. + +WHENCE? WHY? WHITHER? These are the three great questions that arise +in the soul of every race and of every thinking being. He who looks +at either of them with the least new light, though he whisper what +he sees ever so softly, has the world to listen to him. No matter +how he got his knowledge nor what he calls it; it belongs to mankind. +But "Science" has been mainly engaged with another question, in +itself of very inferior interest, namely, _How?_ + +We must be permitted to speak of "Science" in our freest capacity, +and will endeavor not to abuse our liberty. The study of natural +phenomena for the sake of the pleasing variety of aspects they +present, for the delight of collecting curious specimens, for the +exercise of ingenuity in detecting the secret methods of Nature, for +the gratification of arranging facts or objects in regular series, is +an innocent and not a fruitless pursuit. Many persons are born with +a natural instinct for it, and with special aptitudes which may even +constitute a kind of genius. We should do honor to such power +wherever we find it; honor according to its kind and its degree; but +not affix the wrong label to it. Those who possess it acquire +knowledge sometimes so extensive and uncommon that we regard them +with a certain admiration. But knowledge is not wisdom. Unless these +narrow trains of ideas are brought into relation with other and +wider ranges of thought, or with the conduct of life, they cannot +aspire to that loftier name. + +We must go farther than this. The study of the _How?_ in Nature, or +the simple observation of phenomena, is often used as an opiate to +quiet the higher faculties. There can be no question of the fact +that many persons pass much of their lives working in the in-door or +out-door laboratories of science, just as old women knit, just as +prisoners carve quaintly elaborate toys in their dungeons. The +product is not absolutely useless in either case; the fingers of the +body or of the mind become swift and cunning, but the soul does not +grow under such culture. We are willing to allow that many of those +who browse in the sleepy meadows of aimless observation,--loving to +keep their heads down as they gaze at and gather their narcotic herbs, +rather than lift them to the horizon beyond or the heaven above,-- +act in obedience to the law of their limited natures. Still, let us +recognize the limitation, and not forget that the pursuit which may +be fitting and praiseworthy toil for one class of minds may be +ignoble indolence for another. We must remember, on the other hand, +that, however humble may be the intellectual position of the man of +science or knowledge, in distinction from wisdom, the results of his +labors may be of the highest importance. The most ignorant laborer +may get a stone out of the quarry, and the poorest slave unearth a +diamond. These intellectual artisans come to their daily task with +hypertrophied special organs, fitted to their peculiar craft. Some +of them are all eyes; some, all hands; some are self-recording +microscopes; others, self-registering balances. If a man would watch +a thermometer every hour of the day and night for ten years, and +give a table of his observations, the result would be of interest +and value. But the bulbous extremity of the instrument would +probably contain as much thought at the end of the ten years as that +of the observer. + +Clearly, then, "Science" does not properly belong to "scientific" men, +unless they happen also to be wise ones; not more to them than honey +to bees, or books to printers. The bee _may_, certainly, feed on the +honey he has made, and the printer read the books he has put in type. +But _Vos non vobis_ is the rule. "Science" is knowledge, it is true, +but knowledge disarticulated and parcelled out among certain +specialists, like Truth in Milton's glorious comparison. He who can +restore each part to its true position, and orient the lesser whole +in its relations to the universe, he it is to whom science belongs. +He must range through all time and follow Nature to her farthest +bounds. Then he can dissect beetles like Straus Derekheim, without +becoming a myope. But even this is not enough. Let us see what +qualities would go to make up the ideal model of the truly wise +student of Nature. + +He must have, in the first place, as the substratum of his faculties, +the power of observation, with the passion that keeps it active and +the skilful hand to serve its needs. Secondly, a quick eye for +resemblances and differences. Thirdly, a wide range of mental vision. +Fourthly, the coordinating or systematizing faculty. Fifthly, a +large scholarship. Lastly, and without which all these gifts fall +short of their ultimate aim, an instinct for the highest forms of +truth,--a centripetal tendency, always seeking the idea behind the +form, the Deity in his manifestations, and thence working outward +again to solve those infinite problems of life and its destinies +which are, in reality, all that the thinking soul most lives for. + +It is as easy to find all these qualities separate as it is to turn +beneath the finger one of the letters of a revolving padlock. But +they must all be brought together in line before the grand portals +of Nature's hypaethral temple will open to her chosen student. How +incomplete the man of science is with only one or two of these +endowments may be seen by a few examples. + +The power and instinct of observation combined with the most +consummate skill do not necessarily make a great philosophical +naturalist. Leeuwenhoek had all these. They bore admirable fruits, +too. We cannot but read the old man's letters to the Royal Society, +written, if we remember right, after the age of eighty, with delight +and admiration. Those little lenses in their silver mountings, all +ground and set and fashioned by his own hand, showed him the +blood-globules, and the "pipes" of the teeth, which Purkinje and +Retzius found with their achromatic microscopes a century later. We +honor his skill and sagacity as they deserve; but a little trick of +Mr. Dollond's, applied to the microscopic object-glass, has left all +his achievements a mere matter of curious history. + +Few have been more remarkable for perceiving resemblances and +differences than Oken. This is the poetical side of the scientific +mind; and he shares with Goethe the honor of that startling and +far-reaching discovery, the vertebral character of the bones of the +cranium. At this very time the four vertebral cranial bones +recognized by Owen are the same Oken has described. But +notwithstanding the generous tribute of Mr. Agassiz to his great +merits, the writer who assigns special colors to the persons in the +Trinity, (red, blue, and green,) and then allots to Satan a +constituent of one of these, (yellow,) has drifted away from the +solid anchorage of observation into the shoreless waste of the inane, +if not amidst the dark abysses of the profane. + +If the widest range of mental vision, joined, too, with great +learning, could make a successful student of Nature, Lord Bacon +should have stood by the side of Linnaeus. But open the "Sylva +Sylvarum" anywhere and see what Bacon was as a naturalist. "It was +observed in the _Great Plague_ of the last yeare, that there were +scene in divers _Ditches_ and low _Grounds_ about _London_, many +_Toads_ that had _Tailes_, two or three inches long, at the least: +Whereas _Toads_ (usually) have no Tailes at all. Which argueth a +great disposition to _Putrefaction_ in the _Soile_ and _Aire_." This +in that "great birth of time," the "Instauration of the Sciences"! + +The systematizing or coordinating power is worse than nothing, +unless it be supported by the other qualities already mentioned. +Darwin had it, and something of what is called genius with it; but +where is now the "Zooenomia"? + +And what is erudition without the power to correct errors by +appealing to Nature, to arrange methodically, to use wisely? It +would be a shame to mention any name in illustration of its +insignificance. Our shelves bend and crack under the load of unwise +and learned authorship. There are two stages in every student's life. +In the first he is afraid of books; in the second books are afraid +of him. For they are a great community of thieves, and one finds the +same stolen patterns in all their pockets. Though often dressed in +sheep's clothing, they have the maw of wolves. When the student has +once found them out, he laughs at the pretensions of erudition, and +strides gayly up and down great libraries, feeling that the most +blustering folio of them all will turn as pale as if it were bound +in law-calf, if he only lay his hand on its shoulder. + +Nor, lastly, can any elevation of aim, any thirst for the divine +springs of knowledge, enable a man to dispense with the sober habits +of observation and the positive acquirements that must give him the +stamina to attempt the higher flights of thought. The eagle's wings +are nothing without his pectoral muscles. It is not Swedenborg and +his disciples that legislate for the scientific world; they may +suggest truth, but they rarely prove it, and never bring it into +such systematic forms as narrow-minded Nature will insist on laying +down. + +That all these qualities which go to make up our ideal should exist +in absolute perfection in any single man of mortal birth is not to +be expected. But there are names in the history of Science which +recall so imposing a combination of these several gifts, that, +comparing the men who bore them with the civilization of their time, +we can hardly conceive that uninspired intellect should come nearer +the imaginary standard. Such a man was Aristotle. The slender and +close-shaven fop, with the showy mantle on his ungraceful person and +the costly rings on his fingers, who hung on the lips of Plato for +twenty years, and trained the boy of Macedon to whatever wisdom he +possessed,--whose life was set by destiny between the greatest of +thinkers and the greatest of conquerors,--seems to have borrowed the +intellect of the one and the universal aspirations of the other. But +because he invaded every realm of knowledge, it must not be thought +he dealt with Nature at second-hand. He was a collector and a +dissector. He could display the anatomical structure of a fish as +well as write a treatise on the universe or on rhetoric, or +government or logic, or music or mathematics. Dethroned we call him; +and yet Mr. Agassiz quotes his descriptions with respect, and +confesses that the systematic classification of animals makes but +one stride from Aristotle to Linnaeus. + +Cuvier was such a man. Alone, and unapproached in his own spheres of +knowledge, his "Report on the Progress of the Natural Sciences" is +only an index to the wide range of his intellect. In one point, +however, we must own that he seems slow of apprehension or limited +by preconceived opinions,--in his reception of the homologies pointed +out by Oken and the Physiophilosophical observers. + +In the same range of intellects we should reckon Linnaeus and +Humboldt, and should have reckoned Goethe, had he given himself to +science. + +We do not assume to say where in the category of fully equipped +intelligences Mr. Agassiz belongs. But if the union of the most +extraordinary observing powers with an almost poetic perception of +analogies, with a wide compass of thought, the classifying instinct +and habit, large knowledge of books, and personal intimacy with the +leaders in various departments of knowledge, and with this the +upward-looking aspect of mind and heart, which is the crowning gift +of all,--if the union of these qualities can give to the man of +science a claim to the nobler name of wisdom, it is not flattery, +but justice, to award this distinction to Mr. Agassiz. + +To him, then, we listen, when, after having sounded every note in +the wide gamut of Nature, after reading the story of life as it +stands written in the long series of records reaching from Cambrian +fossils to ovarian germs, after tracing the divine principle of +order from the starlike flower at his feet to the flower-like circle +of planets which spreads its fiery corolla, in obedience to the same +simple law that disposes the leaves of the growing plant,--as our +eminent mathematician tells us,--he relates in simple and +reverential accents the highest truths he has learned in traversing +God's mighty universe. For him, and such as him,--for us, too, if we +read wisely,--the toiling slaves of science, often working with +little consciousness of the full proportions of the edifice they are +helping to construct, have spent their busy lives. All knowledge +asserts its true dignity when once brought into relation with the +grand end of knowledge,--a wider and deeper view of the significance +of conscious and unconscious created being, and the character of its +Creator. + +We shall close this article with some remarks upon the great +doctrines that dominate all the manifold subordinate thoughts which +fill these crowded pages. The plan of creation, Mr. Agassiz maintains, +"has not grown out of the necessary action of physical laws, but was +the free conception of the Almighty Intellect, matured in his +thought before it was manifested in tangible, external forms." +Before Mr. Agassiz, before Linnaeus, before Aristotle, before Plato, +Timaeus the Locrian spake; the original, together with the version +we cite, is given with the Plato of Ficinus:--"Duas esse rerum +omnium causas: mentem quidem, earum quae ratione quadam nascuntur, et +necessitatem, earum quae existunt vi quadam, secundum corporum +potentias et faculitates. Harrum rerum, id est, Natunae bonorum, +optimum esse quoddam rerum optimarum principium, et Deum vocari.... +Esse praeterea in hac Naturae universitate quiddam quod maneat et +intelligible sit, rerum genitarum, quae quidem in perpetuo quodam +mutationum fluxu versantur, exemplar, Ideam dici et mente comprehendi.... +Permanet igitur mundus constanter talis qualis est creatus a Deo ... +proponente sibi non exemplaria quaedam manuum opificio edita, sed +illam Ideam intelligibilemque essentiam."--So taught the +half-inspired pagan philosopher whom Plato took as his guide in his +contemplations of Nature. + +We trace the thought again in Dante, amidst the various fragments of +ancient wisdom which he has embodied in the "Divina Commedia": + + Cio che non muore e cio che puo morire + Non e se non splendor cli quella idea + Che partorisco, amando, il nosfro Sire. + ----_Paradiso_, XIII. 52-54. + +Two thousand years after the old Greek had written, the Christian +philosopher, Sir Thomas Browne, repeats the same doctrine in a new +phraseology:--"_Before Abraham was, I am_, is the saying of Christ; +yet it is true in some sense, if I say it of myself; for I was not +only before myself, but _Adam_, that is, in the idea of God, and the +decree of that Synod held from all eternity. And in this sense, I say, +the World was before the Creation, and at an end before it had a +beginning; and thus was I dead before I was alive; though my grave be +_England_, my dying place was Paradise; and Eve miscarried of me +before she conceived of Cain." + +The slender reed through which Philosophy breathed her first musical +whisperings is laid by, and the sacred lyre of Theology is silent or +little heeded. But the mighty organ of Modern Science with its +hundred stops, each answering to some voice of Nature, takes up the +pausing strain, and as we listen we recognize through all its +mingling harmonies the simple, sublime, eternal melody that came +from the lips of Timaeus the Locrian! The same doctrine reappears in +various forms: in the popular works of Derham and Paloy and the +Bridgewater Treatises; in the learned and thoughtful pages of Burdach, +and in the mystical rhapsodies of Oken. But never, we believe, was +it before enforced and illustrated by so imperial a survey of the +whole domain of Natural Science as in the volumes before us. + +We are not disposed to discuss at any length the opinion maintained +by Mr. Agassiz, that life has not grown out of the necessary action +of the physical laws. If we accept the customary definitions of the +physical laws, we accede most cordially to his proposition. As +opposed to the fancies of Epicurus and his poet, Lucretius, or to +modern atheistic doctrines of similar character, we have no +qualification or condition to suggest which might change its force +or significance. When we remember that the genius of such a man as +Laplace shared the farthest flight of star-eyed science only to +"waft us back the tidings of despair," we are thankful that so +profound a student of Nature as Mr. Agassiz has tracked the warm +foot-prints of Divinity throughout all the vestiges of creation. + +There is danger, however, that, in accepting this doctrine as a truth, +we may be led into an inexact conception of the so-called physical +laws, unless we closely examine the sense in which we use the +expression. The forces which act according to these laws, and the +various forms of the so-called _matter_, or concrete forces, are +often spoken of as if they were blind agencies and existences, acting +by an inherent fate-like power of their own. But if everything +outside of our consciousness resolves itself, in the last analysis, +into force, or something capable of producing change, and if force +existing by the will of an omniscient and omnipresent Being, to whom +time has no absolute significance, is simply God himself in action, +then we shall find it impossible to limit the causal agency of the +physical forces. All we can say is, that commonly they appear to +move in certain rectilinear paths, in which they manifest a degree +of uniformity and precision so amazing that we are lost in the +infinite intelligence they display,--unless we become perfectly +stupid to it, and think, as in the old fable, there is no music in +it because we are made deaf by its continued harmony. No single leaf +ever made a mistake in falling, though in so doing it solved more +problems than were ever held in all the libraries that have changed +or are changing into dust or ashes. + +We are willing to accept the belief of Mr. Agassiz, "that matter +does not exist as such, but is everywhere and always a specific thing, +as are all finite beings." But we must extend the same idea to the +physical forces, and believe them to be specific agencies, and their +acts specific acts,--in other words, each one of them a Divine +manifestation. Theology is close upon us in these speculations. +"Perhaps," says Mr. Robertson, in the volume of admirable sermons +just republished, "even the Eternal himself is more closely bound to +his works than our philosophical systems have conceived. Perhaps +matter is only a mode of thought." Looking, then, at our recognized +forms of matter and physical force as expressions of a self-limiting +omnipotence, we concede that the uniform lines of action in which +human observation has hitherto traced them do not, and, so far as we +can see, cannot, shape the curves of the simplest organism. + +It is time for us to close these volumes, to which we cannot even +hope to have done justice, and leave them to those graver tribunals +that will in due season award their well-weighed decisions. We have +taken the Master's hand, and followed Nature through all her paths of +life. We have trod with him the shores of old oceans that roll no +more, and traced the Providence that orders the creation of to-day +engraved in every stony feature of their obsolete organisms. We have +broken into that mysterious chamber, the chosen studio of the +Infinite Artist, where, beneath its marble or crystalline dome, he +fashions the embryo from its formless fluids. And as we turn +reluctantly away, the accents we have once already heard linger with +us: "In one word, all these facts in their natural connection +proclaim aloud the One God, whom man may know, adore, and love; and +Natural History must, in good time, become the analysis of the +thoughts of the Creator of the Universe, as manifested in the animal +and vegetable kingdoms." + + + + +TACKING SHIP OFF SHORE + + + I. + + The weather leech of the topsail shivers, + The bowlines strain and the lee shrouds slacken, + The braces are taut, the lithe boom quivers, + And the waves with the coming squall-cloud blacken. + + + II. + + Open one point on the weather bow + Is the light-house tall on Fire Island head; + There's a shade of doubt on the captain's brow, + And the pilot watches the heaving lead. + + + III. + + I stand at the wheel and with eager eye + To sea and to sky and to shore I gaze, + Till the muttered order of "FULL AND BY!" + Is suddenly changed to "FULL FOR STAYS!" + + + IV. + + The ship bends lower before the breeze, + As her broadside fair to the blast she lays; + And she swifter springs to the rising seas, + As the pilot calls, "STAND BY FOR STAYS!" + + + V. + + It is silence all, as each in his place, + With the gathered coils in his hardened hands, + By tack and bowline, by sheet and brace, + Waiting the watchword impatient stands. + + + VI. + + And the light on Fire Island head draws near, + As, trumpet-winged, the pilot's shout + From his post on the bowsprit's heel I hear, + With the welcome call of "READY! ABOUT!" + + + VII. + + No time to spare! It is touch and go, + And the captain growls, "DOWN HELM! HARD DOWN!" + As my weight on the whirling spokes I throw, + While heaven grows black with the storm-cloud's frown. + + + VIII. + + High o'er the knight-heads flies the spray, + As we meet the shock of the plunging sea; + And my shoulder stiff to the wheel I lay, + As I answer, "AYE, AYE, SIR! HA-A-R-D A-LEE!" + + + IX. + + With the swerving leap of a startled steed + The ship flies fast in the eye of the wind, + The dangerous shoals on the lee recede, + And the headland white we have left behind. + + + X. + + The topsails flutter, the jibs collapse + And belly and tug at the groaning cleats, + The spanker slats, and the mainsail flaps, + And thunders the order, "TACKS AND SHEETS!" + + + XI. + + 'Mid the rattle of blocks and the tramp of the crew, + Hisses the rain of the rushing squall; + The sails are aback from clew to clew, + And now is the moment for "MAINSAIL, HAUL!" + + + XII. + + And the heavy yards like a baby's toy + By fifty strong arms are swiftly swung; + She holds her way, and I look with joy + For the first white spray o'er the bulwarks flung. + + + XIII. + + "LET GO AND HAUL!" 'Tis the last command, + And the head-sails fill to the blast once more; + Astern and to leeward lies the land, + With its breakers white on the shingly shore. + + + XIV. + + What matters the reef, or the rain, or the squall? + I steady the helm for the open sea; + The first mate clamors, "BELAY THERE, ALL!" + And the captain's breath once more comes free. + + + XV. + + And so off shore let the good ship fly; + Little care I how the gusts may blow, + In my fo'castle-bunk in a jacket dry,-- + Eight bells have struck, and my watch is below. + + + + +MAMOUL. + + +THROUGH THE COSSITOLLAH KALEIDOSCOPE. + +Under my window, in the street called Cossitollah, flows all the +motliness of a Calcutta thoroughfare in two counter-setting currents;-- +one Chowriagee-ward, in the direction of Nabob magnificence and grace; +the other toward the Cooly squalor and deformity of the Radda Bazaar;-- +and as, in the glare of the early forenoon sun, the shadows of the +hither or thither passing throngs fall straight across the way, from +the Parsee's _godown_, over against me, to the gate of the _pucca_ +house wherein my look-out is, I watch with interest the frequent +eddies occasioned by the clear-steerings of caste,--Brahmin, Warrior, +and Merchant keeping severely to the Parsee side, so that the foul +shadow of Soodra or Pariah may not pollute their sacred persons. It +is as though my window were a tower of Allahabad, and below me, in +Cossitollah, were the shy meeting of the waters. Thus, looking up or +down, I mark how the limpid Jumna of high caste holds its way in a +common bed, but never mingling with the turbid Ganges of an unclean +rabble. + +Reader, should you ever "do" the City of Palaces, permit me to +commend with especial emphasis to your consideration this same +Cossitollah, as a representative street, wherein the European and +Asiatic elements of the Calcutta panorama are mingled in the most +picturesque proportions; for Cossitollah is the link that most +directly joins the pitiful benightedness of the Black Town to the +imposing splendors of Kumpnee Bahadoor,--the short, but stubborn +chain of responsibility, as it were, whereby the ball of helpless +and infatuated stock-and-stone-worship is fastened to the leg of +British enlightenment and accountability. + +From the Midaun, or Parade Ground, with its long-drawn arrays of +Sepoy chivalry, its grand reviews before the _Burra Lard Sahib_, +(as in domestic Bengalee we designate the Governor-General,) its +solemn sham battles, and its welkin-rending regimental bands, by +whose brass and sheepskin God saves the Queen twice a day; from +Government House, with its historic pride, pomp, and circumstance, +and its red tape, its aides-de-camp, and its adjutant-birds, its +stirring associations, and its stupid architecture; from the +pensioned aristocracy of Chowringhee the Magnificent; from the +carnival concourse of the Esplanade, with its kaleidoscopic surprises; +from the grim patronage of Fort William, with its in-every-department +well-regulated fee-faw-fum; in fine, from Clive, and Hastings, and +Wellington, and Gough, and Hardinge, and Napier, and Bentinck, and +Ellenborough, and Dalhousie, and all the John Company that has come +of them; from the tremendous and overwhelming SAHIB, to that most +profoundly abject of human objects, the Hindoo PARIAH, (who +approaches thee, O Awful Being! O Benign Protector of the Poor! O +Writer in the Salt-and-Opium Office! on his hands and knees, and +with a wisp of grass in his mouth, to denote that he is thy beast,)-- +from all those to this, the shortest cut is through Cossitollah. + +And so, in the current of its passengers, partaking the +characteristics of its contrasted extremities, fantastically blending +the purple and fine linen of Chowringhee with the breech-cloths of +the Black Town, Cossitollah is, as I have said, preeminently the +type street of Calcutta. Other localities have their peculiar throngs, +and certain classes and castes are proper to certain thoroughfares;-- +Sepoys and dogboys to the Midaun; _circars_ or clerks, and +_ chowkeydars_ or private police, to Tank Square; a world of +pampered women, fat civil servants, coachmen, _ayahs_ or nurses, +_durwans_ or doorkeepers, _cha-prasseys_ or messengers, _kitmudgars_ +or waiters, to Garden Reach; palanquin-bearers, the smaller fry of +_banyans_ or shopkeepers, and _dandees_ or boatmen, to the Ghauts; +together with no end of coolies, and _bheestees_ or water-carriers, +horse-dealers, and _syces_ or grooms, to Durumtollah; sailors, +British and American, Malay and Lascar, to Flag Street, the quarter +of punch-houses;--but in Cossitollah all castes and vocations are met, +whether their talk be of gold mohurs or cowries; here the Sahib gives +the horrid leper a wide berth, and the Baboo walks carefully round the +shadow of Mehtur, the sweeper. Therefore, reader, Cossitollah is by +all means the street for you to draw profound conclusions from. + +Come, let us sit in the window and observe; it is but forty puffs of +a No. 3 cheroot, in a lazy palanquin, from one end of Cossitollah to +the other; and from our window, though not exactly midway, but +nearer the Bazaar, we can see from Flag Street wellnigh to the Midaun. + +What is this? A close _palkee_, with a passenger; the bearers, with +elbows sharply crooked, and calves all varicose, trotting to a +monotonous, jerking ditty, which the _sirdar_, or leader, is +impudently improvising, to the refrain of _Putterum_, ("Easy now!") +at the expense of their fare's _amour-propre_. + + "Out of the way there! + _Putterum_. + This is a Rajah! + _Putterum_. + Very small Rajah! + _Putterum_. + Sixpenny Rajah! + _Putterum_. + Holes in his elbows! + _Putterum_. + Capitan Slipshod! + _Putterum_. + Son of a sea-cook! + _Putterum_. + Hush! he will beat us! + _Putterum_. + Hush! he will kick us! + _Putterum_. + Kick us and curse us! + _Putterum_. + Not he, the greenhorn! + _Putterum_. + Don't understand us! + _Putterum_. + Don't know the lingo! + _Putterum_. + Let's shake the palkee! + _Putterum_. + Rattle the pig's bones! + _Putterum_. + Set down the palkee! + _Putterum_. + Call him a great lord! + _Putterum_. + Ask him for buksheesh! + _Putterum_." + +And the four consummate knaves do set down the palkee, and shift the +pads on their shoulders; while the sirdar slips round to the +sliding-door, and timidly intruding his sweaty phiz, at an opening +sufficiently narrow to guard his nose against assault from within, +but wide enough to give us a glimpse, through an out-bursting cloud +of cheroot-smoke, of a pair of stout legs encased in white duck, +with the neatest of light pumps at the end of them, says:-- + +"_Buksheesh do, Sahib! buksheesh do_! O favorite slave of the Lord! +O tender shepherd of the poor! O sublime and beautiful Being, upon +whose turban Prosperity dances and Peace makes her bed! Whose mother +is twin-sister to the Sacred Cow, and whose grandmother is the Lotos +of Seven Virtues! _O Khodabund! buksheesh do_! Bestow upon thy +abject and self-despising slave wherewithal to commemorate the +golden hour when, by a blessed dispensation, he was permitted to lay +his trembling forehead against thy victorious feet!" + +"_Jou-jehennum, toom sooa_!--Go to Gehenna, you pig! What are you +bothering about, with your 'boxes,' 'boxes,' nothing but 'boxes'? +Insatiable brutes! _Jou_! I tell you,--_jeldie jou_! or by Doorga, +the goddess of awful rows, I'll smash the palkee and outrage all +your religious prejudices! _Jou_!" + +Evidently our varicose friends imagine they have caught a Tartar, +and that the white ducks are not so recent an importation as they at +first supposed; for now they catch up the pole of the palkee nimbly, +and _jou jeldie_ (that is, trot up smartly) to quite another song. + + "_Jeldie jou, jeldie_!" + _Putterum_. + Carry him softly! + _Putterum_. + Swiftly and smoothly! + _Putterum_. + He is a Rajah! + _Putterum_. + Rich little Rajah! + _Putterum_. + Fierce little Rajah! + _Putterum_. + See how his eyes flash! + _Putterum_. + Hear how his voice roars! + _Putterum_. + He is a Tippoo! + _Putterum_. + Capitan Tippoo! + _Putterum_. + Tremble before him! + _Putterum_. + Serve him and please him! + _Putterum_. + Please him and serve him! + _Putterum_. + He will reward us! + _Putterum_. + He will protect us! + _Putterum_. + He will enrich us! + _Putterum_. + Charity Lord Sa'b! + _Putterum._ + Out of the way there! + _Putterum_. + Way for the great ... + _Putterum_. + Rajah of ten crores! + _Putter_.... + .... Ten crores!.. + _Putter_.... + Rajah.... .... + _Put...._ + .... Lard.... .. + _Putter...._ + .... ... Sa'b! + _.... rum_. + +And so they have turned down Flag Street. + +But what now? Here is something more imposing,--a chariot-and-four,-- +four spanking Arabs in gold-mounted trappings,--a fat and elaborate +coachman, very solemn,--two tall _hurkarus_, or avant-couriers, +supporting the box, one on either side, with studied symmetry, like +Siva and Vishnu upholding the throne of Brahma,--four _syces_ running +at the horses' heads, each with his _chowree_, or fly-flapper, made +from the tail of the Thibet cow,--a fifth before, to clear the way,-- +a basket of _Simpkin_, which is as though one should say Champagne, +behind, and our own _banyan_, our man of contracts and ready lakhs, +that shrewd broker and substantial banker, the Baboo Kalidas Ramaya +Mullick, on the back seat. + +"_Hi! Cliattak-wallah! Bheestee!--Hi! hi_!--You chap with the +umbrella, you fellow with the water, clear the way! This Baboo comes, +this Baboo rides,--he stops not, he stays not,--he is rich, he is +honored. Shall a pig impede him? Shall a pig delay him? Jump, +_sooa_. Jump!" + +And thus, amid much vociferation, and unceremonious dispersing of the +common herd, who dodge with practised agility right and left, the +fat and elaborate coachman pulls up the spanking Arabs at our +_godown_ gate, and the Baboo alights with the air of a gentleman +of thirty lachs, to the manner born; to him all this outcry is but +_Mamoul_,--usage, custom,--and _Mamoul_ is to him as air. + +As the Baboo steps through the wide swinging gate and enters the +place that owns him master, let us mark his reception. The _durwan_ +first,--our grenadier doorkeeper, the man of proud port and +commanding presence, to whom that portal is a post of honor,--our +Athos, Porthos, and Aramis, in one, of courage, strength, and +address enlisted with fidelity. The loyalty of Ramee Durwan is +threefold, in this order: first, to his caste, next, to his beard, +and then to his post; only for the two first would he abandon the +last; his life he holds of less account than either. + +As the Baboo passes, Ramee Durwan, you think, will be ready with +profound and obsequious salaam. Not so; he draws himself up to the +very last of his extraordinary inches, and touches his forehead +lightly with the fingers of his right hand, only slightly inclining +his head,--a not more than affable salute,--almost with a quality +of concession,--gracious as well as graceful; he would do as much +for any puppy of a cadet who might drop in on the Sahib. On the +other hand, lowly louteth the Baboo, with eyes downcast and palm +applied reverentially to his sleek forehead. + +How now? This Baboo is a banyan of solid substance, and the Mullicks +all are citizens of credit and renown; while Ramee Durwan gets five +rupees a month, and makes his bed at the gate. Last year, they say, +when little Dwarkanath Mullick, the Baboo's adopted son, nine years +old, was married to the tender child Vinda, old Lulla Seal's darling, +on her fifth birthday, the Baboo Kalidas Raniaya Mullick made the +occasion famous by liberating fifty prisoners-for-debt, of the +Soodra sort, with as many flourishes of his illustrious signature. +Ramee Durwan has not a change of turbans. + +And now the Baboo passes into the godown, and receives from a score +of servile _cicars_, glibbest of clerks, their several reports of +the day's business. Presently, from his low desk, in the lowliest +corner, uprises, and comes forward quietly, Mutty Loll Roy, the head +circar, venerable, placid, pensive, every way interesting; but he is +only the Baboo's head circar, an humble accountant, on fifteen +rupees a month. Do you perceive that fact in the style of his +salutation? Hardly; for the Baboo piously raises his joined hands +high above his head, and, louting lower than before, murmurs the +Orthodox salutation, _Namaskarum_! Yet the Baboo contributed two +thousand rupees in fireworks to the last Doorga Fooja, and sent a +hundred goats to the altar; while only with many and trying shifts +of saving could Mutty Loll afford gold leaf for one image, besides +two tomtoms and a horn to march before it in procession. But behold +the lordly beneficence in Mutty Loll's attitude and gesture, +as with outstretched hands, palms upward, he greets the Baboo +condescendingly with a gift of goodwill! + +"_Idhur ano, Sirdar, idhur ano_!--Come hither, Karlee, my gentle +bearer, thou of the good heart and gray moustache! Come hither, and +enlighten this Sahib's ignorance; tell him why the Durwan is +disdainful, as toward the Baboo, and the Circar solemn." + +"_Man, Sahib_! That Durwan _Ksutriye_, Soldier caste, Rider caste,-- +feest-i-rat-i-man (first-rate man); that Durwan have got Rajpoot +blood, ver-iproud, all same Sahib. Baboo, Merchant caste,-- +ver-i-good caste, plenty rich, but not so proud Durwan caste; Baboo +not have Rajpoot blood, not have i-sharp i-sword, not have musiket. +Durwan arm all same tiger; Durwan beard all same lion; Durwan plenty +i-strong, plenty proud. + +"That Circar,--ah! that Mutty Loll, too, high caste; that Circar +Brahmin,--Kooleen Brahmin,--all same _Swamy_ (god); that Circar +foot all same Baboo head; that Circar shoe all same Baboo turban. +'Spose Baboo not make that Circar _bhote-btote salaam_, that Circar +say curse, that Circar ispeak _jou-jehannam_ (go to hell). Master +und-istand i-me? I ispeak Master so Master know?" + +"Very clear, Karlee,--and wholesome expounding. But here comes the +Baboo to speak for himself.--Good-day, Baboo! Whither so fast with +the spanking Arabs and the Simpkin?--to the garden-house?" + +"To the garden-house, Sahib; and the Simpkin is for two young +English friends of mine, who will do the garden-house the honor to +make it their own for a day or two." + +"Take care, Baboo! take care! I have my doubts as to the Simpkin. +They do say the orthodoxy of 'Young Bengal' men is none the better +for beefsteaks and Heidseck; such diet does not become the son of a +strict and straightgoing heathen. Well may the Brahmins groan for +the glaring scandals of the new lights; you'll be marrying widows +next, and dining at clubs with fast ensigns." + +"Sahib, Caste is God, and Mamoul is his prophet. The church of the +Churruck post and the orgies of Hooly are in no danger from beef or +Simpkin so long as steak or bottle costs a man his inheritance; and +we of Young Bengal know too well how hard are the ways of the Pariah +to try them for fun. Caste is God, and Mamoul is his prophet. The +'glad tidings of great joy' your missionaries bring fall upon ears +stopped with family pride and the family jewels: you know that +appropriate old saw in our proverbial philosophy, 'What is the news +of the day to a frog in a well?'--_Salaam, Sahib_! I have but a few +minutes to spare, and the supercargo is waiting with the indigo +samples." + +Presently, as the Cossitollah panorama flows on beneath our window, +with all its bizarreness from the bazaars,--its boxwallahs, and its +pawn-makers, its peddlers of toys, its money-changers and shopmen, +its basket-makers and mat-weavers and chattah-menders, its +perambulating cobblers and tailors, its jugglers, gymnasts, and +match-girls,--its fellows who feed on glass bottles for the +astonishment and delectation of the Sahibs, or who, if you have such +a thing as a sheep about you, will undertake to slaughter and skin +it with their teeth and devour it on the spot,--its conjure-wallahs, +who, for a few pice, will run sharp foils through each other's bodies +without for a moment disturbing either health or cheerfulness, or +will make mangoes grow under table-cloths, "all fair and proper," +while Master waits,--as the Brahmin still dodges the shadow of the +Soodra, and the Soodra spits upon the footprint of the Pariah, the +Baboo returns to his chariot; the fat and solemn coachman gathers up +the reins, the burkarus assume their symmetrical attitudes on the box, +the syces bawl, and the socas jump. + +Just now a _palkee-gharree_, cheapest of one-horse vehicles, with +but one half-naked syce running at the pony's head, and never a +footman near, passes the spanking Arabs; the plain turban of a +respectable accountant in the Honorable Company's coal office at +Garden Reach shows between the Venetian slats of the little window, +and lo! our fine Baboo steps out of his slippers, and standing +barefoot in the common dust of Cossitollah,--dust that has been +churned by all the pigs'-feet that ply that promiscuous thoroughfare,-- +humbly touches first the vulgar ground and then his elegant turban, +murmuring a pious _Namaskarum_; for the respectable accountant in the +Honorable Company's coal office is, like Mutty Loll, a Kooleen +Brahmin,--only a little more so. Caste is God, and Mamoul is his +prophet! + +At the gate-lodge of the Baboo's garden-house on the Durumtollah +Road, a gray and withered hag, all crippled and leprosied, sits +_durhna_. + +What may that be? + +Be patient; you shall know. + +When the Baboo was as yet a youth, his uncle Rajinda, the pride of +the Mullicks, died of cholera, and the administration of the estate +devolved upon our free-thinking Kalidas. Of course there were +mortgages to foreclose, and delinquent debtors to stir up. A certain +small shopkeeper of the China Bazaar was responsible to the concern +for a few thousand rupees, wherewith he had been accommodated by +Uncle Rajinda as a basis for certain operations in seersuckers and +castor-oil, that had yielded no returns. So our Baboo, in a curt +_chit_, (that is, note, or _sheet_ of paper, as near as a Bengalee +can come to the word,) bade the small speculator of China Bazaar +come down forthwith with the rupees. + +But, behold you now, "he had paid," he said. "By the Holy Ganges and +the Blessed Cow! by the turban of his father and the veil of his +mother! restitution had been made long ago," the old man said; +"and the soul of Uncle Rajinda, the pride of the Mullicks, had no +reason to be disquieted for the rupees, though the seersuckers had +been but vanity, and the castor-oil vexation of spirit." + +"Produce the documents," said the Baboo, with a business-like +impassibility that in Wall Street would have made him a great bear;-- +"where are the receipts?" + +"My Lord, I know not. Prostrating my unworthy turban beneath the +lovely lilies of your feet, I swear to my _gureeb purwar_, the +destitute-and-humble-protecting lord, by the Holy Water and the +Blessed Cow, by the beard of my father and the veil of my mother, +that I settled the little account long ago!" + +That unhappy speculator in seersuckers and castor-oil died in prison, +and a _gooroo_ (that is, a spiritual teacher) feed by the Baboo, +desolated his last hour with the assurance that he should +transmigrate into the bodies of seven generations of _gharree_-horses, +and drag _feringhee_ sailormen, in a state of beer, from the ghauts +to the punch-houses, all his miserable lives. + +Now whether or not the unlucky little speculator had in good faith +discharged the debt will, in all the probabilities of human rights +and wrongs, never appear this side of the last trump; for the Holy +Water and the Sacred Cow, his father's beard and his mother's veil, +were not good in law, the documents not forthcoming. + +But it is certain that his widow had faith in his integrity; for at +once, with all her sorrows on her head, she sallied forth in quest +of justice; and from Brahmin post to Sahib pillar she went crying, +"See me righted! Against this hard and arrogant Baboo let my wrongs +be redressed, or fear the evil eye of Dookhee the Sorrowful, of +Haranu the Lost!" + +But utterly in vain; for the clamor of the Hindoo widow, however +bitterly aggrieved, is but a nuisance, and her accusation insolence. +So in her pitiful outcasting, in all the forlorn loathsomeness of +leprosy, and the shunned squalor of a cripple, she sat down at the +Baboo's gate, to wait for justice till the gods should bestow it,-- +till Siva, the Avenger, should behold her, and ask, "Who has done +this?" + +And who shall challenge her? Who shall bid her move on? Mamoul has +crowned her Queen of Tears, and her sublime patience and appealing +have made a throne of the wayside stone on which she sits; there is +no power so audacious that it would give the word to depose her; her +matted gray locks and her furrowed cheeks, her sunken eyes and her +hungry lips, are her "sacred ashes" of the high caste of Sorrow. + +The Brahmin averts his face as he passes, and mutters, "She is as +the flower which is out of reach,--she is dedicated to God." That +insolent official, the Baboo's pampered durwan, sees in her only +Mamoul; he would as soon think of shaving himself as of driving her +away. So, as the Baboo passes in or out through the great gate, the +solemn coachman whips up the spanking Arabs, and the syces bawl +louder than ever, and Kalidas Ramaya Mullick turns away his eyes. +But for all that, the durhna woman heaps dust upon her head, which +he sees, and mutters a weird warning, which he hears; and though the +lawn is wide, and the banian topes are leafy, and a gilded temple, +the family shrine, stands between, and the marble veranda is spacious, +and the state apartments are remote, they do say the shadow of the +durhna woman falls on the iced Simpkin and the steaks, in spite of +Young Bengal. + + _Mootrib i koosh nuwa bigo, + Tazu bu tazu, nou bu nou! + Badue dil koosha bidoh, + Tazu bu tazu, nou bu nou! + Koosh biu sheen bu kilwule + Chung nuwaz-a sa-ute, + Bosu sitan bu kam uz o, + Tazu bu tazu, nou bu nou!_ + + "Songster sweet, begin the lay, + Ever sweet and ever gay! + Bring the joy-inspiring wine, + Ever fresh and ever fine! + With a heart-alluring lass + Gayly let the moments pass, + Kisses stealing while you may, + Ever fresh and ever gay!" + +Now surely she who thus sings should be beautiful, after the Hindoo +type;--that is, she should have the complexion of chocolate and cream; +"her face should be as the full moon, her nose smooth as a flute; +she should have eyes like unto lotuses, and a neck like a pigeon's; +her voice should be soft as the cuckoo's, and her step as the gait +of a young elephant of pure blood." Let us see. + +Alas, no! She entertains a set of lazy bearers, smoking the +hubble-bubble around a palanquin as they wait for a fare; and her +buksheesh may be a cowry or two. By no means is she of the +_nautch_-maidens of Lucknow, who were wont to lighten the hours of +debauched majesty between the tiger-fights and the games of leap-frog; +by no means is she ringed as to her fingers or belled as to her toes; +and though she carries her music wherever she goes, she also carries +a shiny brown baby, slung in a canvas tray between her shoulders. + +No excessively voluminous folds of gold-embroidered drapery encumber +her supple limbs; but her skirts are of the scantiest, (what Miss Flora +MacFlimsey would call _skimped_,) and pitifully mean as to quality. +By no means have the imperial looms of Benares contributed to her +professional costume a veil of wondrous fineness and a Nabob's price; +but a narrow red strip of some poor cotton stuff crosses her bosom +like a scarf, and leaves exposed too much of the ruins of once +daintier beauties. A string of glass beads, black and red alternate, +are all her jewels,--save one silver bodkin, all forlorn, in her hair, +and a ring of thin gold wire piercing the right nostril, and, with +an effect completely deforming, encircling the lips. Her teeth and +nails are deeply stained, and the darkness of her eyes is enhanced +by artificial shadows. + +And so, while that baby-Tantalus, catching glimpses, over the +unveiled shoulder, of the Micawberian fount he cannot reach, +stretches his little brown arms, bites, kicks, and squalls,--while a +small female apprentice, by way of chorus, in costume and gesture +absurdly caricaturing her _prima donna_, (a sort of Cossitollah +marchioness, indeed, for some Dick Swiveller of the Sahibs,) shuffles +rheumatically with her feet, or impotently dislocates her slender +arms, or pounds insanely on a cracked tomtom, or jangles her clumsy +cymbals, while the squatting bearers cry, "_Wah wah!_" and clap +their sweaty hands,--our poor old glee-maiden of Cossitollah strums +her two-stringed guitar, letting the baby slide, and creaks +corkscrewishly her _Chota, chota natchelee_:-- + + _Badi suba choo boog zuree, + Bar suri kove an puree, + Qassue Hufiz ush bigo + Tazu bu tazu, nou bu nou!_ + + "Zephyrs, while you gently move + By the mansion of my love, + Softly Hafiz' strains repeat, + Ever new and ever sweet!" + +Heaven save the key! + +"_Ka munkta_, Bearer?--What is it, my gentle Karlee?" + +"_Chittee, Sahib!--chittee_ for Master." + +"Note, hey? from whom? let us see!" + +Pink paper,--scented with sandal-wood, pah!--embossed, too, with +cornucopias in the corners,--seal motto, _Qui hi?_ ("Who waits?")-- +denoting that the bearer is to bring an answer. Now for the inside: + + "DEVOTED AND RESPECTFUL SIR:--" + + "Insured of your pitiful conduct, your obsequious suppliant, an + eleemosynary lady of decrepit widowhood, throws herself at your + Excellency's mercy feet with two imbecile childrens of various + denominations. For our Heavenly Father's sake, if not inconvenient,-- + which we have been beneficently bereaved of other paternal + description,--we humbly present our implorations to your munificent + Excellency, if any small change, to bestow the same, winch it will + be eternally acceptable to said eleemosynary widow of late Colonel + with distinguished medal in Honorable Service, deceased of cholera, + which it was suddenly attacks, and as pretty near destitute. Therefore, + hoping your munificent and respectable Excellency will not order, + being scornful, your pitiful Excellency's durwan to disperse us; but + five rupees, which nothing to Excellency's regards, and our tenacious + gratitude never forget; but kissing Excellency's hands on + indifferent occasions, and throwing at mercy feet with two imbecile, + offsprings of different denominations, I shall ever pray, &c." + + "MRS. DIANA, THEODOSIA, COMFORT, GREEN." + + "P.S. If not five rupees, two rupees five annas, in name of + Excellency's exalted mother, if quite convenient." + +There now! for an imposing structure in the florid style of +half-caste begging-letters, Mrs. Diana Theodosia Comfort Green +flatters herself that is hard to beat. + +"'_Qui hi_?'--Karlee, who is at the gate?" + +"_Mem Sahib_! one chee-chee woman wanch look see Master, ispeakee +Master buksheesh give; _paunch butcha_ have got." + +"_Paunch butcha!--five_ children! why, Karlee, there are but two here. +But remembering, I suppose, that my Excellency has but two 'mercy +feet,' and with an eye to symmetry in the arrangement of the grand +tableau of which she proposes to make me the central figure, she has +made it two 'imbecile offsprings' for the looks of the thing. Do you +know her, Karlee?" + +"_Man, Sahib_! too much quentence have got that chee-chee woman; that +chee-chee woman all same dam iscamp; paunch butcha not have got,-- +one butcha not have got. Master not give buksheesh; no good that +woman, Karlee think." + +"Very well, old man; send her away; tell the durwan to disperse +Mrs. Diana Theodosia Comfort Green; but let him not insult her +decrepit widowhood, nor alarm her imbecile offsprings of various +denominations. For the 'Eurasian' is a great institution, without +which polkas at Coolee Bazaar were not, nor pic-nics _dansantes_ at +Chandernagore." + +But now to tiffin. I smell a smell of curried prawns, and the first +mangoes of the season are fragrant. Buxsoo, the _khansaman_, has +cooled the _isherry-shrob_, as he calls the "green seal," and the +_kilmudgars_ are crying, "_Tiffin, Sahib_!" The Mamoul of meal-time +knows no caste or country. + + _Bur zi hyat ky kooree! + Gur nu moodum, mi kooree! + Badu bi koor bu yadi o, + Tazu bu tazu, nou bu nou_! + + "Gentle boy, whose silver feet + Nimbly move to cadence sweet, + Fill us quick the generous wine, + Ever fresh and ever fine!" + + * * * * * + + + + +BOOKS. + +It is easy to accuse books, and bad ones are easily found, and the +best are but records, and not the things recorded; and certainly +there is dilettanteism enough, and books that are merely neutral and +do nothing for us. In Plato's "Gorgias," Socrates says, "The +ship-master walks in a modest garb near the sea, after bringing his +passengers from Aegina or from Pontus, not thinking he has done +anything extraordinary, and certainly knowing that his passengers are +the same, and in no respect better than when he took them on board." +So is it with books, for the most part; they work no redemption in us. +The bookseller might certainly know that his customers are in no +respect better for the purchase and consumption of his wares. The +volume is dear at a dollar, and, after reading to weariness the +lettered backs, we leave the shop with a sigh, and learn, as I did, +without surprise, of a surly bank-director, that in bank parlors +they estimate all stocks of this kind as rubbish. + +But it is not less true that there are books which are of that +importance in a man's private experience, as to verify for him the +fables of Cornelius Agrippa, of Michael Scott, or of the old Orpheus +of Thrace; books which take rank in our life with parents and lovers +and passionate experiences, so medicinal, so stringent, so +revolutionary, so authoritative; books which are the work and the +proof of faculties so comprehensive, so nearly equal to the world +which they paint, that, though one shuts them with meaner ones, he +feels his exclusion from them to accuse his way of living. + +Consider what you have in the smallest chosen library. A company of +the wisest and wittiest men that could be picked out of all civil +countries, in a thousand years, have set in best order the results +of their learning and wisdom. The men themselves were hid and +inaccessible, solitary, impatient of interruption, fenced by +etiquette; but the thought which they did not uncover to their bosom +friend is here written out in transparent words to us, the strangers +of another age. + +We owe to books those general benefits which come from high +intellectual action. Thus, I think, we often owe to them the +perception of immortality. They impart sympathetic activity to the +moral power. Go with mean people, and you think life is mean. Then +read Plutarch, and the world is a proud place, peopled with men of +positive quality, with heroes and demigods standing around us who +will not let us sleep. Then, they address the imagination; only +poetry inspires poetry. They become the organic culture of the time. +College education is the reading of certain books which the common +sense of all scholars agrees will represent the science already +accumulated. If you know that,--for instance, in geometry, if you +have read Euclid and Laplace,--your opinion has some value; if you +do not know these, you are not entitled to give any opinion on the +subject. Whenever any skeptic or bigot claims to be heard on the +questions of intellect and morals, we ask if he is familiar with the +books of Plato, where all his pert objections have once for all been +disposed of. If not, he has no right to our time. Let him go and +find himself answered there. + +Meantime, the colleges, whilst they provide us with libraries, +furnish no professor of books; and, I think, no chair is so much +wanted. In a library we are surrounded by many hundreds of dear +friends, but they are imprisoned by an enchanter in these paper and +leathern boxes; and though they know us, and have been waiting two, +ten, or twenty centuries for us,--some of them,--and are eager to +give us a sign, and unbosom themselves, it is the law of their limbo +that they must not speak until spoken to; and as the enchanter has +dressed them like battalions of infantry in coat and jacket of one +cut, by the thousand and ten thousand, your chance of hitting on the +right one is to be computed by the arithmetical rule of Permutation +and Combination,--not a choice out of three caskets, but out of half +a million caskets, all alike. But it happens in our experience, that +in this lottery there are at least fifty or a hundred blanks to a +prize. It seems, then, as if some charitable soul, after losing a +great deal of time among the false books, and alighting upon a few +true ones which made him happy and wise, would do a right act in +naming those which have been bridges or ships to carry him safely +over dark morasses and barren oceans, into the heart of sacred cities, +into palaces and temples. This would be best done by those great +masters of books who from time to time appear,--the Fabricii, the +Seldens, Magliabecchis, Scaligers, Mirandolas, Bayles, Johnsons, +whose eyes sweep the whole horizon of learning. But private readers, +reading purely for love of the book, would serve us by leaving each +the shortest note of what he found. + +There are books, and it is practicable to read them, because they +are so few. We look over with a sigh the monumental libraries of +Paris, of the Vatican, and the British Museum. In the Imperial +Library at Paris, it is commonly said, there are six hundred +thousand volumes, and nearly as many manuscripts; and perhaps the +number of extant printed books may be as many as these numbers united, +or exceeding a million. It is easy to count the number of pages +which a diligent man can read in a day, and the number of years +which human life in favorable circumstances allows to reading; and +to demonstrate, that, though he should read from dawn till dark, for +sixty years, he must die in the first alcoves. But nothing can be +more deceptive than this arithmetic, where none but a natural method +is really pertinent. I visit occasionally the Cambridge Library, and +I can seldom go there without renewing the conviction that the best +of it all is already within the four walls of my study at home. The +inspection of the catalogue brings me continually back to the few +standard writers who are on every private shelf; and to these it can +afford only the most slight and casual additions. The crowds and +centuries of books are only commentary and elucidation, echoes and +weakeners of these few great voices of Time. + +The best rule of reading will be a method from nature, and not a +mechanical one of hours and pages. It holds each student to a +pursuit of his native aim, instead of a desultory miscellany. Let +him read what is proper to him, and not waste his memory on a crowd +of mediocrities. As whole nations have derived their culture from a +single book,--as the Bible has been the literature as well as the +religion of large portions of Europe,--as Hafiz was the eminent +genius of the Persians, Confucius of the Chinese, Cervantes of the +Spaniards; so, perhaps, the human mind would be a gainer, if all the +secondary writers were lost,--say, in England, all but Shakspeare, +Milton, and Bacon, through the profounder study so drawn to those +wonderful minds. With this pilot of his own genius, let the +student read one, or let him read many, he will read advantageously. +Dr. Johnson said, "Whilst you stand deliberating which book your son +shall read first, another boy has read both: read anything five +hours a day, and you will soon be learned." + +Nature is much our friend in this matter. Nature is always +clarifying her water and her wine. No filtration can be so perfect. +She does the same thing by books as by her gases and plants. There +is always a selection in writers, and then a selection from the +selection. In the first place, all books that get fairly into the +vital air of the world were written by the successful class, by the +affirming and advancing class, who utter what tens of thousands feel, +though they cannot say. There has already been a scrutiny and choice +from many hundreds of young pens, before the pamphlet or political +chapter which you read in a fugitive journal comes to your eye. All +these are young adventurers, who produce their performance to the +wise ear of Time, who sits and weighs, and ten years hence out of a +million of pages reprints one. Again it is judged, it is winnowed by +all the winds of opinion, and what terrific selection has not passed +on it, before it can be reprinted after twenty years, and reprinted +after a century!--it is as if Minos and Rhadamanthus had indorsed +the writing. 'Tis therefore an economy of time to read old and famed +books. Nothing can be preserved which is not good; and I know +beforehand that Pindar, Martial, Terence, Galen, Kepler, Galileo, +Bacon, Erasmus, More, will be superior to the average intellect. In +contemporaries, it is not so easy to distinguish betwixt notoriety +and fame. + +Be sure, then, to read no mean books. Shun the spawn of the press on +the gossip of the hour. Do not read what you shall learn without +asking, in the street and the train. Dr. Johnson said, "he always +went into stately shops"; and good travellers stop at the best hotels; +for, though they cost more, they do not cost much more, and there is +the good company and the best information. In like manner, the +scholar knows that the famed books contain, first and last, the best +thoughts and facts. Now and then, by rarest luck, in some foolish +Grub Street is the gem we want. But in the best circles is the best +information. If you should transfer the amount of your reading day +by day in the newspaper to the standard authors,--but who dare speak +of such a thing? + +The three practical rules, then, which I have to offer, are, + +1. Never read any book that is not a year old. +2. Never read any but famed books. +3. Never read any but what you like; or, in Shakespeare's phrase, + + "No profit goes where is no pleasure ta'en; + In brief, Sir, study what you most affect." + +Montaigne says, "Books are a languid pleasure"; but I find certain +books vital and spermatic, not leaving the reader what he was; he +shuts the book a richer man. I would never willingly read any others +than such. And I will venture, at the risk of inditing a list of old +primers and grammars, to count the few books which a superficial +reader must thankfully use. + +Of the old Greek books, I think there are five which we cannot spare:-- +1. Homer, who, in spite of Pope, and all the learned uproar of +centuries, has really the true fire, and is good for simple minds, +is the true and adequate germ of Greece, and occupies that place as +history, which nothing can supply. It holds through all literature, +that our best history is still poetry. It is so in Hebrew, in +Sanscrit, and in Greek. English history is best known through +Shakspeare; how much through Merlin, Robin Hood, and the Scottish +ballads! the German, through the Nibelungen Lied; the Spanish, +through the Cid. Of Homer, George Chapman's is the heroic translation, +though the most literal prose version is the best of all.--2. +Herodotus, whose history contains inestimable anecdotes, which +brought it with the learned into a sort of disesteem; but in these +days, when it is found that what is most memorable of history is a +few anecdotes, and that we need not be alarmed, though we should +find it not dull, it is regaining credit.--3. Aeschylus, the +grandest of the three tragedians, who has given us under a thin veil +the first plantation of Europe. The "Prometheus" is a poem of the +like dignity and scope as the book of Job, or the Norse "Edda."--4. +Of Plato I hesitate to speak, lest there should be no end. You find +in him that which you have already found in Homer, now ripened to +thought,--the poet converted to a philosopher, with loftier strains +of musical wisdom than Homer reached, as if Homer were the youth, +and Plato the finished man; yet with no less security of bold and +perfect song, when he cares to use it, and with some harpstrings +fetched from a higher heaven. He contains the future, as he came out +of the past. In Plato, you explore modern Europe in its causes and +seed,--all that in thought, which the history of Europe embodies or +has yet to embody. The well-informed man finds himself anticipated. +Plato is up with him, too. Nothing has escaped him. Every new crop +in the fertile harvest of reform, every fresh suggestion of modern +humanity is there. If the student wish to see both sides, and +justice done to the man of the world, pitiless exposure of pedants, +and the supremacy of truth and the religious sentiment, he shall be +contented also. Why should not young men be educated on this book? +It would suffice for the tuition of the race,--to test their +understanding, and to express their reason. Here is that which is so +attractive to all men,--the literature of aristocracy shall I call it?-- +the picture of the best persons, sentiments, and manners, by the +first master, in the best times,--portraits of Pericles, Alcibiades, +Crito, Prodicus, Protagoras, Anaxagoras, and Socrates, with the +lovely background of the Athenian and suburban landscape. Or who can +overestimate the images with which he has enriched the minds of men, +and which pass like bullion in the currency of all nations? Read the +"Phaedo," the "Protagoras," the "Phaedrus," the "Timaeus," the +"Republic," and the "Apology of Socrates." 5. Plutarch cannot be +spared from the smallest library: first, because he is so readable, +which is much; then, that he is medicinal and invigorating. The +Lives of Cimon, Lycurgus, Alexander, Demosthenes, Phocion, Marcellus +and the rest, are what history has of best. But this book has taken +care of itself, and the opinion of the world is expressed in the +innumerable cheap editions, which make it as accessible as a +newspaper. But Plutarch's "Morals" is less known, and seldom +reprinted. Yet such a reader as I am writing to can as ill spare it +as the "Lives." He will read in it the essays "On the Daemon of +Socrates," "On Isis and Osiris," "On Progress in Virtue," "On +Garrulity," "On Love," and thank anew the art of printing, and the +cheerful domain of ancient thinking. Plutarch charms by the facility +of his associations; so that it signifies little where you open his +book, you find yourself at the Olympian tables. His memory is like +the Isthmian Games, where all that was excellent in Greece was +assembled, and you are stimulated and recruited by lyric verses, by +philosophic sentiments, by the forms and behavior of heroes, by the +worship of the gods, and by the passing of fillets, parsley and +laurel wreaths, chariots, armor, sacred cups, and utensils of +sacrifice. An inestimable trilogy of ancient social pictures are the +three "Banquets" respectively of Plato, Xenophon, and Plutarch. +Plutarch's has the least claim to historical accuracy; but the +meeting of the Seven Wise Masters is a charming portraiture of +ancient manners and discourse, and is as dear as the voice of a fife, +and entertaining as a French novel. Xenophon's delineation of +Athenian manners is an accessory to Plato, and supplies traits of +Socrates; whilst Plato's has merits of every kind,--being a +repertory of the wisdom of the ancients on the subject of love,--a +picture of a feast of wits, not less descriptive than Aristophanes,-- +and, lastly, containing that ironical eulogy of Socrates which is +the source from which all the portraits of that head current in +Europe have been drawn. + +Of course, a certain outline should be obtained of Greek history, in +which the important moments and persons can be rightly set down; but +the shortest is the best, and, if one lacks stomach for Mr. Grote's +voluminous annals, the old slight and popular summary of Goldsmith +or Gillies will serve. The valuable part is the age of Pericles, and +the next generation. And here we must read the "Clouds" of +Aristophanes, and what more of that master we gain appetite for, to +learn our way in the streets of Athens, and to know the tyranny of +Aristophanes, requiring more genius and sometimes not less cruelty +than belonged to the official commanders. Aristophanes is now very +accessible, with much valuable commentary, through the labors of +Mitchell and Cartwright. An excellent popular book is J. A. St. +John's "Ancient Greece"; the "Life and Letters" of Niebuhr, even +more than his Lectures, furnish leading views; and Winckelmann, a +Greek born out of due time, has become essential to an intimate +knowledge of the Attic genius. The secret of the recent histories in +German and in English is the discovery, owed first to Wolff, and +later to Boeckh, that the sincere Greek history of that period must +be drawn from Demosthenes, specially from the business orations, and +from the comic poets. + +If we come down a little by natural steps from the master to the +disciples, we have, six or seven centuries later, the Platonists,-- +who also cannot be skipped,--Plotinus, Porphyry, Proclus, Synesius, +Jamblichus. Of Jamblichus the Emperor Julian said, "that he was +posterior to Plato in time, not in genius." Of Plotinus, we have +eulogies by Porphyry and Longinus, and the favor of the Emperor +Gallienus,--indicating the respect he inspired among his +contemporaries. If any one who had read with interest the "Isis and +Osiris" of Plutarch should then read a chapter called "Providence," +by Synesius, translated into English by Thomas Taylor, he will find +it one of the majestic remains of literature, and, like one walking +in the noblest of temples, will conceive new gratitude to his +fellowmen, and a new estimate of their nobility. The imaginative +scholar will find few stimulants to his brain like these writers. He +has entered the Elysian Fields; and the grand and pleasing figures +of gods and daemons and demoniacal men, of the "azonic" and the +"aquatic gods," daemons with fulgid eyes, and all the rest of the +Platonic rhetoric, exalted a little under the African sun, sail +before his eyes. The acolyte has mounted the tripod over the cave at +Delphi; his heart dances, his sight is quickened. These guides speak +of the gods with such depth and with such pictorial details, as if +they had been bodily present at the Olympian feasts. The reader of +these books makes new acquaintance with his own mind; new regions of +thought are opened. Jamblichus's "Life of Pythagoras" works more +directly on the will than the others; since Pythagoras was eminently +a practical person, the founder of a school of ascetics and +socialists, a planter of colonies, and nowise a man of abstract +studies alone. + +The respectable and sometimes excellent translations of Bohn's +Library have done for literature what railroads have done for +internal intercourse. I do not hesitate to read all the books I have +named, and all good books, in translations. What is really best in +any book is translatable,--any real insight or broad human sentiment. +Nay, I observe, that, in our Bible, and other books of lofty moral +tone, it seems easy and inevitable to render the rhythm and music of +the original into phrases of equal melody. The Italians have a fling +at translators, _i traditori traduttori_, but I thank them. I rarely +read any Latin, Greek, German, Italian, sometimes not a French book +in the original, which I can procure in a good version. I like to be +beholden to the great metropolitan English speech, the sea which +receives tributaries from every region under heaven. I should as +soon think of swimming across Charles River, when I wish to go to +Boston, as of reading all my books in originals, when I have them +rendered for me in my mother tongue. + +For history, there is great choice of ways to bring the student +through early Rome. If he can read Livy, he has a good book; but one +of the short English compends, some Goldsmith or Ferguson, should be +used, that will place in the cycle the bright stars of Plutarch. The +poet Horace is the eye of the Augustan age; Tacitus, the wisest of +historians; and Martial will give him Roman manners, and some very +bad ones, in the early days of the Empire: but Martial must be read, +if read at all, in his own tongue. These will bring him to Gibbon, +who will take him in charge, and convey him with abundant +entertainment down--with notice of all remarkable objects on the way-- +through fourteen hundred years of time. He cannot spare Gibbon, with +his vast reading, with such wit and continuity of mind, that, though +never profound, his book is one of the conveniences of civilization, +like the proposed railroad from New York to the Pacific,--and, I +think, will be sure to send the reader to his "Memoirs of Himself," +and the "Extracts from my Journal," and "Abstracts of my Readings," +which will spur the laziest scholar to emulation of his prodigious +performance. + +Now having our idler safe down as far as the fall of Constantinople +in 1453, he is in very good courses; for here are trusty hands +waiting for him. The cardinal facts of European history are soon +learned. There is Dante's poem, to open the Italian Republics of the +Middle Age; Dante's "Vita Nuova," to explain Dante and Beatrice; and +Boccaccio's "Life of Dante,"--a great man to describe a greater. To +help us, perhaps a volume or two of M. Sismondi's "Italian Republics" +will be as good as the entire sixteen. When we come to Michel Angelo, +his Sonnets and Letters must be read, with his Life by Vasari, or, +in our day, by Mr. Duppa. For the Church, and the Feudal Institution, +Mr. Hallam's "Middle Ages" will furnish, if superficial, yet +readable and conceivable outlines. + +The "Life of the Emperor Charles V.," by the useful Robertson, is +still the key of the following age. Ximenes, Columbus, Loyola, Luther, +Erasmus, Melancthon, Francis I., Henry VIII., Elizabeth, and Henry IV. +of France, are his contemporaries. It is a time of seeds and +expansions, whereof our recent civilization is the fruit. + +If now the relations of England to European affairs bring him to +British ground, he is arrived at the very moment when modern history +takes new proportions. He can look back for the legends and +mythology to the "Younger Edda" and the "Heimrskringla" of Snorro +Sturleson, to Mallet's "Northern Antiquities," to Ellis's "Metrical +Romances," to Asser's "Life of Alfred," and Venerable Bede, and to +the researches of Sharon Turner and Palgrave. Hume will serve him +for an intelligent guide, and in the Elizabethan era he is at the +richest period of the English mind, with the chief men of action and +of thought which that nation has produced, and with a pregnant +future before him. Here he has Shakspeare, Spenser, Sidney, Raleigh, +Bacon, Chapman, Jonson, Ford, Beaumont and Fletcher, Herbert, Donne, +Herrick; and Milton, Marvell, and Dryden, not long after. + +In reading history, he is to prefer the history of individuals. He +will not repent the time he gives to Bacon,--not if he read the +"Advancement of Learning," the "Essays," the "Novum Organon," the +"History of Henry VII.," and then all the "Letters," (especially +those to the Earl of Devonshire, explaining the Essex business,) and +all but his "Apophthegms." + +The task is aided by the strong mutual light which these men shed on +each other. Thus, the Works of Ben Jonson are a sort of hoop to bind +all these fine persons together, and to the land to which they belong. +He has written verses to or on all his notable contemporaries; and +what with so many occasional poems, and the portrait sketches in his +"Discoveries," and the gossiping record of his opinions in his +conversations with Drummond of Hawthornden, has really illustrated +the England of his time, if not to the same extent, yet much in the +same way, as Walter Scott has celebrated the persons and places of +Scotland. Walton, Chapman, Herrick, and Sir Henry Wotton write also +to the times. + +Among the best books are certain _Autobiographies_: as, St. +Augustine's Confessions; Benvenuto Cellini's Life; Montaigne's Essays; +Lord Herbert of Cherbury's Memoirs; Memoirs of the Cardinal de Retz; +Rousseau's Confessions; Linnaeus's Diary; Gibbon's, Hume's, Franklin's, +Burns's, Alfieri's, Goethe's, and Haydon's Autobiographies. + +Another class of books closely allied to these, and of like interest, +are those which may be called _Table-Talks_; of which the best are +Saadi's Gulistan; Luther's Table-Talk; Aubrey's Lives; Spence's +Anecdotes; Selden's Table-Talk; Boswell's Life of Johnson; +Eckermann's Conversations with Goethe; Coleridge's Table-Talk; and +Hazlitt's Life of Northcote. + +There is a class whose value I should designate as favorites; such +as Froissart's Chronicles; Southey's Chronicle of the Cid; Cervantes; +Sully's Memoirs; Rabelais; Montaigne; Izaak Walton; Evelyn; Sir +Thomas Browne; Aubrey; Sterne; Horace Walpole; Lord Clarendon; +Doctor Johnson; Burke, shedding floods of light on his times; Lamb; +Landor; and De Quincey;--a list, of course, that may easily be +swelled, as dependent on individual caprice. Many men are as tender +and irritable as lovers in reference to these predilections. Indeed, +a man's library is a sort of harem, and I observe that tender +readers have a great prudencey in showing their books to a stranger. + +The annals of bibliography afford many examples of the delirious +extent to which book-fancying can go, when the legitimate delight in +a book is transferred to a rare edition or to a manuscript. This +mania reached its height about the beginning of the present century. +For an autograph of Shakspeare one hundred and fifty-five guineas +were given. In May, 1812, the library of the Duke of Roxburgh was +sold. The sale lasted forty-two days,--we abridge the story from +Dibdin,--and among the many curiosities was a copy of Boccaccio +published by Valdarfer, at Venice, in 1471; the only perfect copy of +this edition. Among the distinguished company which attended the +sale were the Duke of Devonshire, Earl Spencer, and the Duke of +Marlborough, then Marquis of Blandford. The bid stood at five hundred +guineas. "A thousand guineas," said Earl Spencer: "And ten," added +the Marquis. You might hear a pin drop. All eyes were bent on the +bidders. Now they talked apart, now ate a biscuit, now made a bet, +but without the least thought of yielding one to the other. +"Two thousand pounds," said the Marquis. The Earl Spencer bethought +him like a prudent general of useless bloodshed and waste of powder, +and had paused a quarter of a minute, when Lord Althorp with long +steps came to his side, as if to bring his father a fresh lance to +renew the fight. Father and son whispered together, and Earl Spencer +exclaimed, "Two thousand two hundred and fifty pounds!" An electric +shock went through the assembly. "And ten," quietly added the Marquis. +There ended the strife. Ere Evans let the hammer fall, he paused; +the ivory instrument swept the air; the spectators stood dumb, when +the hammer fell. The stroke of its fall sounded on the farthest +shores of Italy. The tap of that hammer was heard in the libraries +of Rome, Milan, and Venice. Boccaccio stirred in his sleep of five +hundred years, and M. Van Praet groped in vain amidst the royal +alcoves in Paris, to detect a copy of the famed Valdarfer Boccaccio. + +Another class I distinguish by the term _Vocabularies_. Burton's +"Anatomy of Melancholy" is a book of great learning. To read it is +like reading in a dictionary. 'Tis an inventory to remind us how +many classes and species of facts exist, and, in observing into what +strange and multiplex by-ways learning has strayed, to infer our +opulence. Neither is a dictionary a bad book to read. There is no +cant in it, no excess of explanation, and it is full of suggestion,-- +the raw material of possible poems and histories. Nothing is wanting +but a little shuffling, sorting, ligature, and cartilage. Out of a +hundred examples, Cornelius Agrippa "On the Vanity of Arts and +Sciences" is a specimen of that scribatious-ness which grew to be +the habit of the gluttonous readers of his time. Like the modern +Germans, they read a literature, whilst other mortals read a few +books. They read voraciously, and must disburden themselves; so they +take any general topic, as, Melancholy, or Praise of Science, or +Praise of Folly, and write and quote without method or end. Now and +then out of that affluence of their learning comes a fine sentence +from Theophrastus, or Seneca, or Boethius, but no high method, no +inspiring efflux. But one cannot afford to read for a few sentences; +they are good only as strings of suggestive words. + +There is another class more needful to the present age, because the +currents of custom run now in another direction, and leave us dry on +this side;--I mean the _Imaginative_. A right metaphysics should do +justice to the cooerdinate powers of Imagination, Insight, +Understanding, and Will. Poetry, with its aids of Mythology and +Romance, must be well allowed for an imaginative creature. Men are +ever lapsing into a beggarly habit, wherein everything that is not +ciphering, that is, which does not serve the tyrannical animal, is +hustled out of sight. Our orators and writers are of the same poverty, +and, in this rag-fair, neither the Imagination, the great awakening +power, nor the Morals, creative of genius and of men, are addressed. +But though orator and poet are of this hunger party, the capacities +remain. We must have symbols. The child asks you for a story, and is +thankful for the poorest. It is not poor to him, but radiant with +meaning. The man asks for a novel,--that is, asks leave, for a few +hours, to be a poet, and to paint things as they ought to be. The +youth asks for a poem. The very dunces wish to go to the theatre. +What private heavens can we not open, by yielding to all the +suggestion of rich music! We must have idolatries, mythologies, some +swing and verge for the creative power lying coiled and cramped here, +driving ardent natures to insanity and crime, if it do not find vent. +Without the great and beautiful arts which speak to the sense of +beauty, a man seems to me a poor, naked, shivering creature. These +are his becoming draperies, which warm and adorn him. Whilst the +prudential and economical tone of society starves the imagination, +affronted Nature gets such indemnity as she may. The novel is that +allowance and frolic the imagination finds. Everything else pins it +down, and men flee for redress to Byron, Scott, Disraeli, Dumas, Sand, +Balzac, Dickens, Thackeray, and Reade. Their education is neglected; +but the circulating library and the theatre, as well as the +trout-fishing, the Notch Mountains, the Adirondac country, the tour +to Mont Blanc, to the White Hills, and the Ghauts, make such amends +as they can. + +The imagination infuses a certain volatility and intoxication. It +has a flute which sets the atoms of our frame in a dance, like +planets, and, once so liberated, the whole man reeling drunk to the +music, they never quite subside to their old stony state. But what +is the Imagination? Only an arm or weapon of the interior energy; +only the precursor of the Reason. And books that treat the old +pedantries of the world, our times, places, professions, customs, +opinions, histories, with a certain freedom, and distribute things, +not after the usages of America and Europe, but after the laws of +right reason, and with as daring a freedom as we use in dreams, put +us on our feet again, enable us to form an original judgment of our +duties, and suggest new thoughts for to-morrow. + +"Lucrezia Floriani," "Le Peche de M. Antoine," "Jeanne," of George +Sand, are great steps from the novel of one termination, which we +all read twenty years ago. Yet how far off from life and manners and +motives the novel still is! Life lies about us dumb; the day, as we +know it, has not yet found a tongue. These stories are to the plots +of real life what the figures in "La Belle Assemblee," which +represent the fashion of the month, are to portraits. But the novel +will find the way to our interiors one day, and will not always be +the novel of costume merely. I do not think them inoperative now. So +much novel-reading cannot leave the young men and maidens untouched; +and doubtless it gives some ideal dignity to the day. The young +study noble behavior; and as the player in "Consuelo" insists that +he and his colleagues on the boards have taught princes the fine +etiquette and strokes of grace and dignity which they practise with +so much effect in their villas and among their dependents, so I +often see traces of the Scotch or the French novel in the courtesy +and brilliancy of young midshipmen, collegians, and clerks. Indeed, +when one observes how ill and ugly people make their loves and +quarrels, 'tis pity they should not read novels a little more, to +import the fine generosities, and the clear, firm conduct, which are +as becoming in the unions and separations which love effects under +shingle roofs as in palaces and among illustrious personages. + +In novels the most serious questions are really beginning to be +discussed. What made the popularity of "Jane Eyre," but that a +central question was answered in some sort? The question there +answered in regard to a vicious marriage will always be treated +according to the habit of the party. A person of commanding +individualism will answer it as Rochester does,--as Cleopatra, as +Milton, as George Sand do,--magnifying the exception into a rule, +dwarfing the world into an exception. A person of less courage, that +is, of less constitution, will answer as the heroine does,--giving +way to fate, to conventionalism, to the actual state and doings of +men and women. + +For the most part, our novel-reading is a passion for results. We +admire parks, and high-born beauties, and the homage of drawing-rooms, +and parliaments. They make us skeptical, by giving prominence to +wealth and social position. + +I remember when some peering eyes of boys discovered that the +oranges hanging on the boughs of an orange-tree in a gay piazza were +tied to the twigs by thread. I fear 'tis so with the novelist's +prosperities. Nature has a magic by which she fits the man to his +fortunes, by making them the fruit of his character. But the novelist +plucks this event here, and that fortune there, and ties them rashly +to his figures, to tickle the fancy of his readers with a cloying +success, or scare them with shocks of tragedy. And so, on the whole, +'tis a juggle. We are cheated into laughter or wonder by feats which +only oddly combine acts that we do every day. There is no new element, +no power, no furtherance. 'Tis only confectionery, not the raising +of new corn. Great is the poverty of their inventions. _She was +beautiful, and he fell in love_. Money, and killing, and the +Wandering Jew, and persuading the lover that his mistress is +betrothed to another,--these are the mainsprings; new names, but no +new qualities in the men and women. Hence the vain endeavor to keep +any bit of this fairy gold, which has rolled like a brook through +our hands. A thousand thoughts awoke; great rainbows seemed to span +the sky; a morning among the mountains;--but we close the book, and +not a ray remains in the memory of evening. But this passion for +romance, and this disappointment, show how much we need real +elevations and pure poetry; that which shall show us, in morning and +night, in stars and mountains, and in all the plight and +circumstance of men, the analogons of our own thoughts, and a like +impression made by a just book and by the face of Nature. + +If our times are sterile in genius, we must cheer us with books of +rich and believing men who had atmosphere and amplitude about them. +Every good fable, every mythology, every biography out of a +religious age, every passage of love, and even philosophy and science, +when they proceed from an intellectual integrity, and are not +detached and critical, have the imaginative element. The Greek fables, +the Persian history, (Firdousi,) the "Younger Edda" of the +Scandinavians, the "Chronicle of the Cid," the poem of Dante, the +Sonnets of Michel Angelo, the English drama of Shakspeare, Beaumont +and Fletcher, and Ford, and even the prose of Bacon and Milton,--in +our time, the ode of Wordsworth, and the poems and the prose of +Goethe, have this richness, and leave room for hope and for generous +attempts. + +There is no room left,--and yet I might as well not have begun as +to leave out a class of books which are the best: I mean the Bibles +of the world, or the sacred books of each nation, which express for +each the supreme result of their experience. After the Hebrew and +Greek Scriptures, which constitute the sacred books of Christendom, +these are, the Desatir of the Persians, and the Zoroastrian Oracles; +the Vedas and Laws of Menu; the Upanishads, the Vishnu Purana, the +Bhagvat Geeta, of the Hindoos; the books of the Buddhists; the +"Chinese Classic," of four books, containing the wisdom of Confucius +and Mencius. Also such other books as have acquired a semi-canonical +authority in the world, as expressing the highest sentiment and hope +of nations. Such are the "Hermes Trismegistus," pretending to be +Egyptian remains; the "Sentences" of Epictetus; of Marcus Antoninus; +the "Vishnu Sarma" of the Hindoos; the "Gulistan" of Saadi; the +"Imitation of Christ," of Thomas a Kempis; and the "Thoughts" of +Pascal. + +All these books are the majestic expressions of the universal +conscience, and are more to our daily purpose than this year's +almanac or this day's newspaper. But they are for the closet, and to +be read on the bended knee. Their communications are not to be given +or taken with the lips and the end of the tongue, but out of the +glow of the cheek, and with the throbbing heart. Friendship should +give and take, solitude and time brood and ripen, heroes absorb and +enact them. They are not to be held by letters printed on a page, but +are living characters translatable into every tongue and form of life. +I read them on lichens and bark; I watch them on waves on the beach; +they fly in birds, they creep in worms; I detect them in laughter +and blushes and eye-sparkles of men and women. These are Scriptures +which the missionary might well carry over prairie, desert, and ocean, +to Siberia, Japan, Timbuctoo. Yet he will find that the spirit which +is in them journeys faster than he, and greets him on his arrival,-- +was there already long before him. The missionary must be carried by +it, and find it there, or he goes in vain. Is there any geography in +these things? We call them Asiatic, we call them primeval; but +perhaps that is only optical; for Nature is always equal to herself, +and there are as good pairs of eyes and ears now in the planet as +ever were. Only these ejaculations of the soul are uttered one or a +few at a time, at long intervals, and it takes millenniums to make a +Bible. + +These are a few of the books which the old and the later times have +yielded us, which will reward the time spent on them. In comparing +the number of good books with the shortness of life, many might well +be read by proxy, if we had good proxies; and it would be well for +sincere young men to borrow a hint from the French Institute and the +British Association, and, as they divide the whole body into sections, +each of which sit upon and report of certain matters confided to them, +so let each scholar associate himself to such persons as he can rely +on, in a literary club, in which each shall undertake a single work +or series for which he is qualified. For example, how attractive is +the whole literature of the "Roman de la Rose," the "Fabliaux," and +the _gai science_ of the French Troubadours! Yet who in Boston has +time for that? But one of our company shall undertake it, shall +study and master it, and shall report on it, as under oath; shall +give us the sincere result, as it lies in his mind, adding nothing, +keeping nothing back. Another member, meantime, shall as honestly +search, sift, and as truly report on British mythology, the Round +Table, the histories of Brut, Merlin, and Welsh poetry; a third, on +the Saxon Chronicles, Robert of Gloucester, and William of Malmesbury; +a fourth, on Mysteries, Early Drama, "Gesta Romanorum," Collier, and +Dyce, and the Camden Society. Each shall give us his grains of gold, +after the washing; and every other shall then decide whether this is +a book indispensable to him also. + + + + +THE DIAMOND LENS. + + +I. + +THE BENDING OF THE TWIG. + +From a very early period of my life the entire bent of my +inclinations had been towards microscopic investigations. When I was +not more than ten years old, a distant relative of our family, +hoping to astonish my inexperience, constructed a simple microscope +for me, by drilling in a disk of copper a small hole, in which a +drop of pure water was sustained by capillary attraction. This very +primitive apparatus, magnifying some fifty diameters, presented, it +is true, only indistinct and imperfect forms, but still sufficiently +wonderful to work up my imagination to a preternatural state of +excitement. + +Seeing me so interested in this rude instrument, my cousin explained +to me all that he knew about the principles of the microscope, +related to me a few of the wonders which had been accomplished +through its agency, and ended by promising to send me one regularly +constructed, immediately on his return to the city. I counted the +days, the hours, the minutes, that intervened between that promise +and his departure. + +Meantime I was not idle. Every transparent substance that bore the +remotest semblance to a lens I eagerly seized upon and employed in +vain attempts to realize that instrument, the theory of whose +construction I as yet only vaguely comprehended. All panes of glass +containing these oblate spheroidal knots familiarly known as +"bull's eyes" were ruthlessly destroyed, in the hope of obtaining +lenses of marvellous power. I even went so far as to extract the +crystalline humor from the eyes of fishes and animals, and +endeavored to press it into the microscopic service. I plead guilty +to having stolen the glasses from my Aunt Agatha's spectacles, with +a dim idea, of grinding them into lenses of wondrous magnifying +properties,--in which attempt it is scarcely necessary to say that I +totally failed. + +At last the promised instrument came. It was of that order known as +Field's simple microscope, and had cost perhaps about fifteen +dollars. As far as educational purposes went, a better apparatus +could not have been selected. Accompanying it was a small treatise +on the microscope,--its history, uses, and discoveries. I +comprehended then for the first time the "Arabian Nights' +Entertainments." The dull veil of ordinary existence that hung +across the world seemed suddenly to roll away, and to lay bare a +land of enchantments. I felt towards my companions as the seer might +feel towards the ordinary masters of men. I held conversations with +Xanure in a tongue which they could not understand. I was in daily +communication with living wonders, such as they never imagined in +their wildest visions. I penetrated beyond the external portal of +things, and roamed through the sanctuaries. Where they beheld only a +drop of rain slowly rolling down the window-glass, I saw a universe +of beings animated with all the passions common to physical life, +and convulsing their minute sphere with struggles as fierce and +protracted as those of men. In the common spots of mould, which my +mother, good housekeeper that she was, fiercely scooped away from +her jam pots, there abode for me, under the name of mildew, +enchanted gardens, filled with dells and avenues of the densest +foliage and most astonishing verdure, while from the fantastic +boughs of these microscopic forests hung strange fruits glittering +with green and silver and gold. + +It was no scientific thirst that at this time filled my mind. It was +the pure enjoyment of a poet to whom a world of wonders has been +disclosed. I talked of my solitary pleasures to none. Alone with my +microscope, I dimmed my sight, day after day and night after night +poring over the marvels which it unfolded to me. I was like one who, +having discovered the ancient Eden still existing in all its +primitive glory, should resolve to enjoy it in solitude, and never +betray to mortal the secret of its locality. The rod of my life was +bent at this moment. I destined myself to be a microscopist. + +Of course, like every novice, I fancied myself a discoverer. I was +ignorant at the time of the thousands of acute intellects engaged in +the same pursuit as myself, and with the advantages of instruments a +thousand times more powerful than mine. The names of Leeuwenhoek, +Williamson, Spencer, Ehrenberg, Schultz, Dujardin, Schact, and +Schleiden were then entirely unknown to me, or if known, I was +ignorant of their patient and wonderful researches. In every fresh +specimen of Cryptogamia which I placed beneath my instrument I +believed that I discovered wonders of which the world was as yet +ignorant. I remember well the thrill of delight and admiration that +shot through me the first time that I discovered the common wheel +animalcule (_Rotifera vulgaris_) expanding and contracting its +flexible spokes, and seemingly rotating through the water. Alas! as +I grew older, and obtained some works treating of my favorite study, +I found that I was only on the threshold of a science to the +investigation of which some of the greatest men of the age were +devoting their lives and intellects. + +As I grew up, my parents, who saw but little likelihood of anything +practical resulting from the examination of bits of moss and drops +of water through a brass tube and a piece of glass, were anxious +that I should choose a profession. It was their desire that I should +enter the counting-house of my uncle, Ethan Blake, a prosperous +merchant, who carried on business in New York. This suggestion I +decisively combated. I had no taste for trade; I should only make a +failure; in short, I refused to become a merchant. + +But it was necessary for me to select some pursuit. My parents were +staid New England people, who insisted on the necessity of labor; +and therefore, although, thanks to the bequest of my poor Aunt Agatha, +I should, on coming of age, inherit a small fortune sufficient to +place me above want, it was decided, that, instead of waiting for +this, I should act the nobler part, and employ the intervening years +in rendering myself independent. + +After much cogitation I complied with the wishes of my family, and +selected a profession. I determined to study medicine at the New +York Academy. This disposition of my future suited me. A removal +from my relatives would enable me to dispose of my time as I pleased, +without fear of detection. As long as I paid my Academy fees, I +might shirk attending the lectures, if I chose; and as I never had +the remotest intention of standing an examination, there was no +danger of my being "plucked." Besides, a metropolis was the place +for me. There I could obtain excellent instruments, the newest +publications, intimacy with men of pursuits kindred to my own,--in +short, all things necessary to insure a profitable devotion of my +life to my beloved science. I had an abundance of money, few desires +that were not bounded by my illuminating mirror on one side and my +object-glass on the other; what, therefore, was to prevent my +becoming an illustrious investigator of the veiled worlds? It was +with the most buoyant hopes that I left my New England home and +established myself in New York. + + + + +II. + + +THE LONGING OF A MAN OF SCIENCE. + +My first step, of course, was to find suitable apartments. These I +obtained, after a couple of days' search, in Fourth Avenue; a very +pretty second-floor unfurnished, containing sitting-room, bedroom, +and a smaller apartment which I intended to fit up as a laboratory. I +furnished my lodgings simply, but rather elegantly, and then devoted +all my energies to the adornment of the temple of my worship. I +visited Pike, the celebrated optician, and passed in review his +splendid collection of microscopes,--Field's Compound, Higham's, +Spencer's, Nachet's Binocular, (that founded on the principles of +the stereoscope,) and at length fixed upon that form known as +Spencer's Trunnion Microscope, as combining the greatest number of +improvements with an almost perfect freedom from tremor. Along with +this I purchased every possible accessory,--drawtubes, micrometers, +a _camera-lucida_, lever-stage, achromatic condensers, white cloud +illuminators, prisms, parabolic condensers, polarizing apparatus, +forceps, aquatic boxes, fishing-tubes, with a host of other articles, +all of which would have been useful in the hands of an experienced +microscopist, but, as I afterwards discovered, were not of the +slightest present value to me. It takes years of practice to know +how to use a complicated microscope. The optician looked +suspiciously at me as I made these wholesale purchases. He evidently +was uncertain whether to set me down as some scientific celebrity or +a madman. I think he inclined to the latter belief. I suppose I was +mad. Every great genius is mad upon the subject in which he is +greatest. The unsuccessful madman is disgraced, and called a lunatic. + +Mad or not, I set myself to work with a zeal which few scientific +students have ever equalled. I had everything to learn relative to +the delicate study upon which I had embarked,--a study involving the +most earnest patience, the most rigid analytic powers, the steadiest +hand, the most untiring eye, the most refined and subtile +manipulation. + +For a long time half my apparatus lay inactively on the shelves of +my laboratory, which was now most amply furnished with every +possible contrivance for facilitating my investigations. The fact was +that I did not know how to use some of my scientific accessories,-- +never having been taught microscopies,--and those whose use I +understood theoretically were of little avail, until by practice I +could attain the necessary delicacy of handling. Still, such was the +fury of my ambition, such the untiring perseverance of my experiments, +that, difficult of credit as it may be, in the course of one year I +became theoretically and practically an accomplished microscopist. + +During this period of my labors, in which I submitted specimens of +every substance that came under my observation to the action of my +lenses, I became a discoverer,--in a small way, it is true, for I +was very young, but still a discoverer. It was I who destroyed +Ehrenberg's theory that the _Volcox globator_ was an animal, and +proved that his "monads" with stomachs and eyes were merely phases +of the formation of a vegetable cell, and were, when they reached +their mature state, incapable of the act of conjugation, or any true +generative act, without which no organism rising to any stage of life +higher than vegetable can be said to be complete. It was I who +resolved the singular problem of rotation in the cells and hairs of +plants into ciliary attraction, in spite of the assertions of +Mr. Wenham and others, that my explanation was the result of an +optical illusion. + +But notwithstanding these discoveries, laboriously and painfully +made as they were, I felt horribly dissatisfied. At every step I +found myself stopped by the imperfections of my instruments. Like +all active microscopists, I gave my imagination full play. Indeed, +it is a common complaint against many such, that they supply the +defects of their instruments with the creations of their brains. I +imagined depths beyond depths in Nature which the limited power of +my lenses prohibited me from exploring. I lay awake at night +constructing imaginary microscopes of immeasurable power, with which +I seemed to pierce through all the envelopes of matter down to its +original atom. How I cursed those imperfect mediums which necessity +through ignorance compelled me to use! How I longed to discover the +secret of some perfect lens whose magnifying power should be limited +only by the resolvability of the object, and which at the same time +should be free from spherical and chromatic aberrations, in short +from all the obstacles over which the poor microscopist finds +himself continually stumbling! I felt convinced that the simple +microscope, composed of a single lens of such vast yet perfect power, +was possible of construction. To attempt to bring the compound +microscope up to such a pitch would have been commencing at the +wrong end; this latter being simply a partially successful endeavor +to remedy those very defects of the simple instrument, which, if +conquered, would leave nothing to be desired. + +It was in this mood of mind that I became a constructive microscopist. +After another year passed in this new pursuit, experimenting on +every imaginable substance,--glass, gems, flints, crystals, +artificial crystals formed of the alloy of various vitreous materials,-- +in short, having constructed as many varieties of lenses as Argus +had eyes, I found myself precisely where I started, with nothing +gained save an extensive knowledge of glass-making. I was almost +dead with despair. My parents were surprised at my apparent want of +progress in my medical studies, (I had not attended one lecture +since my arrival in the city,) and the expenses of my mad pursuit +had been so great as to embarrass me very seriously. + +I was in this frame of mind one day, experimenting in my laboratory +on a small diamond,--that stone, from its great refracting power, +having always occupied my attention more than any other,--when a +young Frenchman, who lived on the floor above me, and who was in the +habit of occasionally visiting me, entered the room. + +I think that Jules Simon was a Jew. He had many traits of the Hebrew +character: a love of jewelry, of dress, and of good living. There +was something mysterious about him. He always had something to sell, +and yet went into excellent society. When I say sell, I should +perhaps have said peddle; for his operations were generally confined +to the disposal of single articles,--a picture, for instance, or a +rare carving in ivory, or a pair of duelling-pistols, or the dress +of a Mexican _caballero_. When I was first furnishing my rooms, he +paid me a visit, which ended in my purchasing an antique silver lamp, +which he assured me was a Cellini,--it was handsome enough even for +that,--and some other knick-knacks for my sitting-room. Why Simon +should pursue this petty trade I never could imagine. He apparently +had plenty of money, and had the _entree_ of the best houses in the +city,--taking care, however, I suppose, to drive no bargains within +the enchanted circle of the Upper Ten. I came at length to the +conclusion that this peddling was but a mask to cover some greater +object, and even went so far as to believe my young acquaintance to +be implicated in the slave-trade. That, however, was none of my +affair. + +On the present occasion, Simon entered my room in a state of +considerable excitement. + +"_Ah! mon ami_!" he cried, before I could even offer him the +ordinary salutation, "it has occurred to me to be the witness of the +most astonishing things in the world. I promenade myself to the +house of Madame -----. How does the little animal--_le renard_--name +himself in the Latin?" + +"Vulpes," I answered. + +"Ah! yes, Vulpes. I promenade myself to the house of Madame Vulpes." + +"The spirit medium?" + +"Yes, the great medium. Great Heavens! what a woman! I write on a +slip of paper many of questions concerning affairs the most secret,-- +affairs that conceal themselves in the abysses of my heart the most +profound; and behold! by example! what occurs? This devil of a woman +makes me replies the most truthful to all of them. She talks to me +of things that I do not love to talk of to myself. What am I to think? +I am fixed to the earth!" + +"Am I to understand you, M. Simon, that this Mrs. Vulpes replied to +questions secretly written by you, which questions related to events +known only to yourself?" + +"Ah! more than that, more than that," he answered, with an air of +some alarm. "She related to me things----But," he added, after a +pause, and suddenly changing his manner, "why occupy ourselves with +these follies? It was all the Biology, without doubt. It goes without +saying that it has not my credence.--But why are we here, _mon ami_? +It has occurred to me to discover the most beautiful thing as you +can imagine.--a vase with green lizards on it composed by the great +Bernard Palissy. It is in my apartment; let us mount. I go to show +it to you." + +I followed Simon mechanically; but my thoughts were far from Palissy +and his enamelled ware, although I, like him, was seeking in the +dark after a great discovery. This casual mention of the spiritualist, +Madame Vulpes, set me on a new track. What if this spiritualism +should be really a great fact? What if, through communication with +subtiler organisms than my own, I could reach at a single bound the +goal, which perhaps a life of agonizing mental toil would never +enable me to attain? + +While purchasing the Palissy vase from my friend Simon, I was +mentally arranging a visit to Madame Vulpes. + + + + +III. + + +THE SPIRIT OF LEEUWENHOEK. + +Two evenings after this, thanks to an arrangement by letter and the +promise of an ample fee, I found Madame Vulpes awaiting me at her +residence alone. She was a coarse-featured woman, with a keen and +rather cruel dark eye, and an exceedingly sensual expression about +her mouth and under jaw. She received me in perfect silence, in an +apartment on the ground floor, very sparely furnished. In the centre +of the room, close to where Mrs. Vulpes sat, there was a common +round mahogany table. If I had come for the purpose of sweeping her +chimney, the woman could not have looked more indifferent to my +appearance. There was no attempt to inspire the visitor with any awe. +Everything bore a simple and practical aspect. This intercourse with +the spiritual world was evidently as familiar an occupation with +Mrs. Vulpes as eating her dinner or riding in an omnibus. + +"You come for a communication, Mr. Linley?" said the medium, in a dry, +business-like tone of voice. + +"By appointment,--yes." + +"What sort of communication do you want?--a written one?" + +"Yes,--I wish for a written one." + +"From any particular spirit?" + +"Yes." + +"Have you ever known this spirit on this earth?" + +"Never. He died long before I was born. I wish merely to obtain from +him some information which he ought to be able to give better than +any other." + +"Will you seat yourself at the table, Mr. Linley," said the medium, +"and place your hands upon it?" + +I obeyed,--Mrs. Vulpes being seated opposite me, with her hands also +on the table. We remained thus for about a minute and a half, when a +violent succession of raps came on the table, on the back of my chair, +on the floor immediately under my feet, and even on the window panes. +Mrs. Vulpes smiled composedly. + +"They are very strong to-night," she remarked. "You are fortunate." +She then continued, "Will the spirits communicate with this gentleman?" + +Vigorous affirmative. + +"Will the particular spirit he desires to speak with communicate?" + +A very confused rapping followed this question. + +"I know what they mean," said Mrs. Vulpes, addressing herself to me; +"they wish you to write down the name of the particular spirit that +you desire to converse with. Is that so?" she added, speaking to her +invisible guests. + +That it was so was evident from the numerous affirmatory responses. +While this was going on, I tore a slip from my pocket-book, and +scribbled a name under the table. + +"Will this spirit communicate in writing with this gentleman?" asked +the medium once more. + +After a moment's pause her hand seemed to be seized with a violent +tremor, shaking so forcibly that the table vibrated. She said that a +spirit had seized her hand and would write. I handed her some sheets +of paper that were on the table, and a pencil. The latter she held +loosely in her hand, which presently began to move over the paper +with a singular and seemingly involuntary motion. After a few +moments had elapsed she handed me the paper, on which I found written, +in a large, uncultivated hand, the words, "He is not here, but has +been sent for." A pause of a minute or so now ensued, during which +Mrs. Vulpes remained perfectly silent, but the raps continued at +regular intervals. When the short period I mention had elapsed, the +hand of the medium was again seized with its convulsive tremor, and +she wrote, under this strange influence, a few words on the paper, +which she handed to me. They were as follows: + +"I am here. Question me. + +"LEEUWENHOEK." + +I was, astounded. The name was identical with that I had written +beneath the table, and carefully kept concealed. Neither was it at +all probable that an uncultivated woman like Mrs. Vulpes should know +even the name of the great father of microscopies. It may have been +Biology; but this theory was soon doomed to be destroyed. I wrote on +my slip--still concealing it from Mrs. Vulpes--a series of +questions, which, to avoid tediousness, I shall place with the +responses in the order in which they occurred. + +I.--Can the microscope be brought to perfection? + +SPIRIT.--Yes. + +I.--Am I destined to accomplish this great task? + +SPIRIT.--You are. + +I.--I wish to know how to proceed to attain this end. For the love +which you bear to science, help me! + +SPIRIT.--A diamond of one hundred and forty carats, submitted to +electro-magnetic currents for a long period, will experience a +rearrangement of its atoms _inter se_, and from that stone you will +form the universal lens. + +I.--Will great discoveries result from the use of such a lens? + +SPIRIT.--So great, that all that has gone before is as nothing. + +I.--But the refractive power of the diamond is so immense, that the +image will be formed within the lens. How is that difficulty to be +surmounted? + +SPIRIT.--Pierce the lens through its axis, and the difficulty is +obviated. The image will be formed in the pierced space, which will +itself serve as a tube to look through. Now I am called. Good night! + +I cannot at all describe the effect that these extraordinary +communications had upon me. I felt completely bewildered. No +biological theory could account for the _discovery_ of the lens. The +medium might, by means of biological _rapport_ with my mind, have +gone so far as to read my questions, and reply to them coherently. +But Biology could not enable her to discover that magnetic currents +would so alter the crystals of the diamond as to remedy its previous +defects, and admit of its being polished into a perfect lens. Some +such theory may have passed through my head, it is true, but if so, +I had forgotten it. In my excited condition of mind there was no +course left but to become a convert, and it was in a state of the +most painful nervous exultation that I left the medium's house that +evening. She accompanied me to the door, hoping that I was satisfied. +The raps followed us as we went through the hall, sounding on the +balusters, the flooring, and even the lintels of the door. I hastily +expressed my satisfaction, and escaped hurriedly into the cool night +air. I walked home with but one thought possessing me,--how to +obtain a diamond of the immense size required. My entire means +multiplied a hundred times over would have been inadequate to its +purchase. Besides, such stones are rare, and become historical. I +could find such only in the regalia of Eastern or European monarchs. + + + + +IV. + + +THE EYE OF MORNING. + +There was a light in Simon's room as I entered my house. A vague +impulse urged me to visit him. As I opened the door of his +sitting-room unannounced, he was bending, with his back toward me, +over a carcel lamp, apparently engaged in minutely examining some +object which he held in his hands. As I entered, he started suddenly, +thrust his hand into his breast pocket, and turned to me with a face +crimson with confusion. + +"What!" I cried, "poring over the miniature of some fair lady? Well, +don't blush so much; I won't ask to see it." + +Simon laughed awkwardly enough, but made none of the negative +protestations usual on such occasions. He asked me to take a seat. + +"Simon," said I, "I have just come from Madame Vulpes." + +This time Simon turned as white as a sheet, and seemed stupefied, as +if a sudden electric shock had smitten him. He babbled some +incoherent words, and went hastily to a small closet where he usually +kept his liquors. Although astonished at his emotion, I was too +preoccupied with my own idea to pay much attention to anything else. + +"You say truly when you call Madame Vulpes a devil of a woman," I +continued, "Simon, she told me wonderful things tonight, or rather +was the means of telling me wonderful things. Ah! if I could only +get a diamond that weighed one hundred and forty carats!" + +Scarcely had the sigh with which I uttered this desire died upon my +lips, when Simon, with the aspect of a wild beast, glared at me +savagely, and rushing to the mantel-piece, where some foreign weapons +hung on the wall, caught up a Malay creese, and brandished it +furiously before him. + +"No!" he cried in French, into which he always broke when excited. +"No! you shall not have it! You are perfidious! You have consulted +with that demon, and desire my treasure! But I will die first! Me! I +am brave! You cannot make me fear!" + +All this, uttered in a loud voice trembling with excitement, +astounded me. I saw at a glance that I had accidentally trodden upon +the edges of Simon's secret, whatever it was. It was necessary to +reassure him. + +"My dear Simon," I said, "I am entirely at a loss to know what you +mean. I went to Madame Vulpes to consult with her on a scientific +problem, to the solution of which I discovered that a diamond of the +size I just mentioned was necessary. You were never alluded to during +the evening, nor, so far as I was concerned, even thought of. What +can be the meaning of this outburst? If you happen to have a set of +valuable diamonds in your possession, you need fear nothing from me. +The diamond which I require you could not possess; or if you did +possess it, you would not be living here." + +Something in my tone must have completely reassured him; for his +expression immediately changed to a sort of constrained merriment, +combined, however, with a certain suspicious attention to my +movements. He laughed, and said that I must bear with him; that he +was at certain moments subject to a species of vertigo, which +betrayed itself in incoherent speeches, and that the attacks passed +off as rapidly as they came. He put his weapon aside while making +this explanation, and endeavored, with some success, to assume a +more cheerful air. + +All this did not impose on me in the least. I was too much +accustomed to analytical labors to be baffled by so flimsy a veil. I +determined to probe the mystery to the bottom. + +"Simon," I said, gayly, "let us forget all this over a bottle of +Burgundy. I have a case of Lausseure's _Clos Vongeot_ down-stairs, +fragrant with the odors and ruddy with the sunlight of the Cote d'Or. +Let us have up a couple of bottles. What say you?" + +"With all my heart," answered Simon, smilingly. + +I produced the wine and we seated ourselves to drink. It was of a +famous vintage, that of 1818, a year when war and wine throve +together, and its pure, but powerful juice seemed to impart renewed +vitality to the system. By the time we had half finished the second +bottle, Simon's head, which I knew was a weak one, had begun to yield, +while I remained calm as ever, only that every draught seemed to +send a flush of vigor through my limbs. Simon's utterance became +more and more indistinct. He took to singing French _chansons_ of a +not very moral tendency. I rose suddenly from the table just at the +conclusion of one of those incoherent verses, and fixing my eyes on +him with a quiet smile, said: + +"Simon, I have deceived you. I learned your secret this evening. You +may as well be frank with me. Mrs. Vulpes, or rather, one of her +spirits, told me all." + +He started with horror. His intoxication seemed for the moment to +fade away, and he made a movement towards the weapon that he had a +short time before laid down. I stopped him with my hand. + +"Monster!" he cried, passionately, "I am ruined! What shall I do? You +shall never have it! I swear by my mother!" + +"I don't want it," I said; "rest secure, but be frank with me. Tell +me all about it." + +The drunkenness began to return. He protested with maudlin +earnestness that I was entirely mistaken,--that I was intoxicated; +then asked me to swear eternal secrecy, and promised to disclose the +mystery to me. I pledged myself, of course, to all. With an uneasy +look in his eyes, and hands unsteady with drink and nervousness, he +drew a small case from his breast and opened it. Heavens! How the +mild lamp-light was shivered into a thousand prismatic arrows, as it +fell upon a vast rose-diamond that glittered in the case! I was no +judge of diamonds, but I saw at a glance that this was a gem of rare +size and purity. I looked at Simon with wonder, and--must I confess +it?--with envy. How could he have obtained this treasure? In reply +to my questions, I could just gather from his drunken statements +(of which, I fancy, half the incoherence was affected) that he had +been superintending a gang of slaves engaged in diamond-washing in +Brazil; that he had seen one of them secrete a diamond, but, instead +of informing his employers, had quietly watched the negro until he +saw him bury his treasure; that he had dug it up, and fled with it, +but that as yet he was afraid to attempt to dispose of it publicly,-- +so valuable a gem being almost certain to attract too much attention +to its owner's antecedents,--and he had not been able to discover +any of those obscure channels by which such matters are conveyed +away safely. He added, that, in accordance with Oriental practice, +he had named his diamond by the fanciful title of "The Eye of Morning." + +While Simon was relating this to me, I regarded the great diamond +attentively. Never had I beheld anything so beautiful. All the +glories of light, ever imagined or described, seemed to pulsate in +its crystalline chambers. Its weight, as I learned from Simon, was +exactly one hundred and forty carats. Here was an amazing coincidence. +The hand of Destiny seemed in it. On the very evening when the +spirit of Leeuwenhoek communicates to me the great secret of the +microscope, the priceless means which he directs me to employ start +up within my easy reach! I determined, with the most perfect +deliberation, to possess myself of Simon's diamond. + +I sat opposite him while he nodded over his glass, and calmly +revolved the whole affair. I did not for an instant contemplate so +foolish an act as a common theft, which would of course be discovered, +or at least necessitate flight and concealment, all of which must +interfere with my scientific plans. There was but one step to be +taken,--to kill Simon. After all, what was the life of a hide +peddling Jew, in comparison with the interests of science? Human +beings are taken every day from the condemned prisons to be +experimented on by surgeons. This man, Simon, was by his own +confession a criminal, a robber, and I believed on my soul a murderer. +He deserved death quite as much as any felon condemned by the laws; +why should I not, like government, contrive that his punishment +should contribute to the progress of human knowledge? + +The means for accomplishing everything I desired lay within my reach. +There stood upon the mantel-piece a bottle half full of French +laudanum. Simon was so occupied with his diamond, which I had just +restored to him, that it was an affair of no difficulty to drug his +glass. In a quarter of an hour he was in a profound sleep. + +I now opened his waistcoat, took the diamond from the inner pocket +in which he had placed it, and removed him to the bed, on which I +laid him so that his feet hung down over the edge. I had possessed +myself of the Malay creese, which I held in my right hand, while +with the other I discovered as accurately as I could by pulsation +the exact locality of the heart. It was essential that all the +aspects of his death should lead to the surmise of self-murder. I +calculated the exact angle at which it was probable that the weapon, +if levelled by Simon's own hand, would enter his breast; then with +one powerful blow I thrust it up to the hilt in the very spot which +I desired to penetrate. A convulsive thrill ran through Simon's limbs. +I heard a smothered sound issue from his throat, precisely like the +bursting of a large air-bubble, sent up by a diver, when it reaches +the surface of the water; he turned half round on his side, and as if +to assist my plans more effectually, his right hand, moved by some +more spasmodic impulse, clasped the handle of the creese, which it +remained holding with extraordinary muscular tenacity. Beyond this +there was no apparent struggle. The laudanum, I presume, paralyzed +the usual nervous action. He must have died instantaneously. + +There was yet something to be done. To make it certain that all +suspicion of the act should be diverted from any inhabitant of the +house to Simon himself, it was necessary that the door should be +found in the morning _locked on the inside_. How to do this, and +afterwards escape myself? Not by the window; that was a physical +impossibility. Besides, I was determined that the windows also +should he found bolted. The solution was simple enough. I descended +softly to my own room for a peculiar instrument which I had used for +holding small slippery substances, such as minute spheres of glass, +etc. This instrument was nothing more than a long slender hand-vice, +with a very powerful grip, and a considerable leverage, which last +was accidentally owing to the shape of the handle. Nothing was +simpler than, when the key was in the lock, to seize the end of its +stem in this vice, through the keyhole, from the outside, and so lock +the door. Previously, however, to doing this, I burned a number of +papers on Simon's hearth. Suicides almost always burn papers before +they destroy themselves. I also emptied some more laudanum into +Simon's glass,--having first removed from it all traces of wine,-- +cleaned the other wine-glass, and brought the bottles away with me. +If traces of two persons drinking had been found in the room, the +question naturally would have arisen, Who was the second? Besides, +the wine-bottles might have been identified as belonging to me. The +laudanum I poured out to account for its presence in his stomach, in +case of _post-mortem_ examination. The theory naturally would be +that he first intended to poison himself, but, after swallowing a +little of the drug, was either disgusted with its taste, or changed +his mind from other motives, and chose the dagger. These +arrangements made, I walked out, leaving the gas burning, locked the +door with my vice, and went to bed. + +Simon's death was not discovered until nearly three in the afternoon. +The servant, astonished at seeing the gas burning,--the light +streaming on the dark landing from under the door, peeped through +the keyhole and saw Simon on the bed. She gave the alarm. The door +was burst open, and the neighborhood was in a fever of excitement. + +Every one in the house was arrested, myself included. There was an +inquest; but no clue to his death, beyond that of suicide, could be +obtained. Curiously enough, he had made several speeches to his +friends the preceding week, that seemed to point to self-destruction. +One gentleman swore that Simon had said in his presence that +"he was tired of life." His landlord affirmed, that Simon, when +paying him his last month's rent, remarked that "he would not pay +him rent much longer." All the other evidence corresponded, the door +locked inside, the position of the corpse, the burnt papers. As I +anticipated, no one knew of the possession of the diamond by Simon, +so that no motive was suggested for his murder. The jury, after a +prolonged examination, brought in the usual verdict, and the +neighborhood once more settled down into its accustomed quiet. + + + + +V. + + +ANIMULA + +The three months succeeding Simon's catastrophe I devoted night and +day to my diamond lens. I had constructed a vast, galvanic battery, +composed of nearly two thousand pairs of plates,--a higher power I +dared not use, lest the diamond should be calcined. By means of this +enormous engine I was enabled to send a powerful current of +electricity continually through my great diamond, which it seemed to +me gained in lustre every day. At the expiration of a month I +commenced the grinding and polishing of the lens, a work of intense +toil and exquisite delicacy. The great density of the stone, and the +care required to be taken with the curvatures of the surfaces of the +lens, rendered the labor the severest and most harassing that I had +yet undergone. + +At last the eventful moment came; the lens was completed. I stood +trembling on the threshold of new worlds. I had the realization of +Alexander's famous wish before me. The lens lay on the table, ready +to be placed upon its platform, my hand fairly shook as I enveloped +a drop of water with a thin coating of oil of turpentine, preparatory +to its examination--a process necessary in order to prevent the +rapid evaporation of the water. I now placed the drop on a thin slip +of glass under the lens, and throwing upon it, by the combined aid +of a prism and a mirror, a powerful stream of light, I approached my +eye to the minute hole drilled through the axis of the lens. For an +instant I saw nothing save what seemed to be an illuminated chaos, a +vast luminous abyss. A pure white light, cloudless and serene, and +seemingly limitless as space itself, was my first impression. Gently, +and with the greatest care, I depressed the lens a few hairs' +breadths. The wondrous illumination still continued, but as the lens +approached the object, a scene of indescribable beauty was unfolded +to my view. + +I seemed to gaze upon a vast space, the limits of which extended far +beyond my vision. An atmosphere of magical luminousness permeated +the entire field of view. I was amazed to see no trace of +animalculous life. Not a living thing, apparently, inhabited that +dazzling expanse. I comprehended instantly, that, by the wondrous +power of my lens, I had penetrated beyond the grosser particles of +aqueous matter, beyond the realms of Infusoria and Protozoa, down to +the original gaseous globule, into whose luminous interior I was +gazing, as into an almost boundless dome filled with a supernatural +radiance. + +It was, however, no brilliant void into which I looked. On every +side I beheld beautiful inorganic forms, of unknown texture, and +colored with the most enchanting hues. These forms presented the +appearance of what might be called, for want of a more specific +definition, foliated clouds of the highest rarity; that is, they +undulated and broke into vegetable formations, and were tinged with +splendors compared with which the gilding of our autumn woodlands is +as dross compared with gold. Far away into the illimitable distance +stretched long avenues of these gaseous forests, dimly transparent, +and painted with prismatic hues of unimaginable brilliancy. The +pendent branches waved along the fluid glades until every vista +seemed to break through half-lucent ranks of many-colored drooping +silken pennons. What seemed to be either fruits or flowers, pied +with a thousand hues lustrous and ever varying, bubbled from the +crowns of this fairy foliage. No hills, no lakes, no rivers, no +forms animate or inanimate were to be seen, save those vast auroral +copses that floated serenely in the luminous stillness, with leaves +and fruits and flowers gleaming with unknown fires, unrealizable by +mere imagination. + +How strange, I thought, that this sphere should be thus condemned to +solitude! I had hoped, at least, to discover some new form of animal +life,--perhaps of a lower class than any with which we are at +present acquainted,--but still, some living organism. I find my +newly discovered world, if I may so speak, a beautiful chromatic +desert. + +While I was speculating on the singular arrangements of the internal +economy of Nature, with which she so frequently splinters into atoms +our most compact theories, I thought I beheld a form moving slowly +through the glades of one of the prismatic forests. I looked more at +tentively, and found that I was not mistaken. Words cannot depict +the anxiety with which I awaited the nearer approach of this +mysterious object. Was it merely some inanimate substance, held in +suspense in the attenuated atmosphere of the globule? or was it an +animal endowed with vitality and motion? It approached, flitting +behind the gauzy, colored veils of cloud-foliage, for seconds dimly +revealed, then vanishing. At last the violet pennons that trailed +nearest to me vibrated; they were gently pushed aside, and the form +floated out into the broad light. + +It was a female human shape. When I say "human," I mean it possessed +the outlines of humanity,--but there the analogy ends. Its adorable +beauty lifted it inimitable heights beyond the loveliest daughter of +Adam. + +I cannot, I dare not, attempt to inventory the charms of this divine +revelation of perfect beauty. Those eyes of mystic violet, dewy and +serene, evade my words. Her long lustrous hair following her +glorious head in a golden wake, like the track sown in heaven by a +falling star, seems to quench my most burning phrases with its +splendors. If all the bees of Hybla nestled upon my lips, they would +still sing but hoarsely the wondrous harmonies of outline that +enclosed her form. + +She swept out from between the rainbow-curtains of the cloud-trees +into the broad sea of light that lay beyond. Her motions were those +of some graceful Naiad, cleaving, by a mere effort of her will, the +clear, unruffled waters that fill the chambers of the sea. She +floated forth with the serene grace of a frail bubble ascending +through the still atmosphere of a June day. The perfect roundness of +her limbs formed suave and enchanting curves. It was like listening +to the most spiritual symphony of Beethoven the divine, to watch the +harmonious flow of lines. This, indeed, was a pleasure cheaply +purchased at any price. What cared I, if I had waded to the portal +of this wonder through another's blood? I would have given my own to +enjoy one such moment of intoxication and delight. + +Breathless with gazing on this lovely wonder, and forgetful for an +instant of everything save her presence, I withdrew my eye from the +microscope eagerly,--alas! As my gaze fell on the thin slide that +lay beneath my instrument, the bright light from mirror and from +prism sparkled on a colorless drop of water! There, in that tiny +bead of dew, this beautiful being was forever imprisoned. The planet +Neptune was not more distant from me than she. I hastened once more +to apply my eye to the microscope. + +Animula (let me now call her by that dear name which I subsequently +bestowed on her) had changed her position. She had again approached +the wondrous forest, and was gazing earnestly upwards. Presently one +of the trees--as I must call them--unfolded a long ciliary process, +with which it seized one of the gleaming fruits that glittered on +its summit, and sweeping slowly down, held it within reach of Animula. +The sylph took it in her delicate hand, and began to eat. My +attention was so entirely absorbed by her, that I could not apply +myself to the task of determining whether this singular plant was or +was not instinct with volition. + +I watched her, as she made her repast, with the most profound +attention. The suppleness of her motions sent a thrill of delight +through my frame; my heart beat madly as she turned her beautiful +eyes in the direction of the spot in which I stood. What would I not +have given to have had the power to precipitate myself into that +luminous ocean, and float with her through those groves of purple +and gold! While I was thus breathlessly following her every movement, +she suddenly started, seemed to listen for a moment, and then +cleaving the brilliant ether in which she was floating, like a flash +of light, pierced through the opaline forest, and disappeared. + +Instantly a series of the most singular sensations attacked me. It +seemed as if I had suddenly gone blind. The luminous sphere was +still before me, but my daylight had vanished. What caused this +sudden disappearance? Had she a lover, or a husband? Yes, that was +the solution! Some signal from a happy fellow-being had vibrated +through the avenues of the forest, and she had obeyed the summons. + +The agony of my sensations, as I arrived at this conclusion, +startled me. I tried to reject the conviction that my reason forced +upon me. I battled against the fatal conclusion--but in vain. It was +so. I had no escape from it. I loved an animalcule! + +It is true, that, thanks to the marvellous power of my microscope, +she appeared of human proportions. Instead of presenting the +revolting aspect of the coarser creatures, that live and struggle +and die, in the more easily resolvable portions of the water-drop, +she was fair and delicate and of surpassing beauty. But of what +account was all that? Every time that my eye was withdrawn from the +instrument, it fell on a miserable drop of water, within which, I +must be content to know, dwelt all that could make my life lovely. + +Could she but see me once! Could I for one moment pierce the +mystical walls that so inexorably rose to separate us, and whisper +all that filled my soul, I might consent to be satisfied for the rest +of my life with the knowledge of her remote sympathy. It would be +something to have established even the faintest personal link to +bind us together--to know that at times, when roaming through those +enchanted glades, she might think of the wonderful stranger, who had +broken the monotony of her life with his presence, and left a gentle +memory in her heart! + +But it could not be. No invention, of which human intellect was +capable, could break down the barriers that Nature had erected. I +might feast my soul upon her wondrous beauty, yet she must always +remain ignorant of the adoring eyes that day and night gazed upon her, +and, even when closed, beheld her in dreams. With a bitter cry of +anguish I fled from the room, and, flinging myself on my bed, sobbed +myself to sleep like a child. + + + + +VI. + + +THE SPILLING OF THE CUP. + +I arose the next morning almost at daybreak, and rushed to my +microscope. I trembled as I sought the luminous world in miniature +that contained my all. Animula was there. I had left the gas-lamp, +surrounded by its moderator's, burning, when I went to bed the night +before. I found the sylph bathing, as it were, with an expression of +pleasure animating her features, in the brilliant light which +surrounded her. She tossed her lustrous golden hair over her +shoulders with innocent coquetry. She lay at full length in the +transparent medium, in which she supported herself with ease, and +gambolled with the enchanting grace that the Nymph Salmacis might +have exhibited when she sought to conquer the modest Hermaphroditus. +I tried an experiment to satisfy myself if her powers of reflection +were developed. I lessened the lamp-light considerably. By the dim +light that remained, I could see an expression of pain flit across +her face. She looked upward suddenly, and her brows contracted. I +flooded the stage of the microscope again with a full stream of light, +and her whole expression changed. She sprang forward like some +substance deprived of all weight. Her eyes sparkled, and her lips +moved. Ah! if science had only the means of conducting and +reduplicating sounds, as it does the rays of light, what carols of +happiness would then have entranced my ears! What jubilant hymns to +Adonais would have thrilled the illumined air! + +I now comprehended how it was that the Count de Gabalis peopled his +mystic world with sylphs,--beautiful beings whose breath of life was +lambent fire, and who sported forever in regions of purest ether and +purest light. The Rosicrucian had anticipated the wonder that I had +practically realized. + +How long this worship of my strange divinity went on thus I scarcely +know. I lost all note of time. All day from early dawn, and far into +the night, I was to be found peering through that wonderful lens. I +saw no one, went nowhere, and scarce allowed myself sufficient time +for my meals. My whole life was absorbed in contemplation as rapt as +that of any of the Romish saints. Every hour that I gazed upon the +divine form strengthened my passion,--a passion that was always +overshadowed by the maddening conviction, that, although I could +gaze on her at will, she never, never could behold me! + +At length I grew so pale and emaciated, from want of rest, and +continual brooding over my insane love and its cruel conditions, +that I determined to make some effort to wean myself from it. +"Come," I said, "this is at best but a fantasy. Your imagination has +bestowed on Animula charms which in reality she does not possess. +Seclusion from female society has produced this morbid condition of +mind. Compare her with the beautiful women of your own world, and +this false enchantment will vanish." + +I looked over the newspapers by chance. There I beheld the +advertisement of a celebrated danseuse who appeared nightly at +Niblo's. The Signorina Caradolce had the reputation of being the +most beautiful as well as the most graceful woman in the world. I +instantly dressed and went to the theatre. + +The curtain drew up. The usual semi-circle of fairies in white +muslin were standing on the right toe around the enamelled +flower-bank, of green canvas, on which the belated prince was +sleeping. Suddenly a flute is heard. The fairies start. The trees +open, the fairies all stand on the left toe, and the queen enters. +It was the Signorina. She bounded forward amid thunders of applause, +and lighting on one foot remained poised in air. Heavens! was this +the great enchantress that had drawn monarchs at her chariot-wheels? +Those heavy muscular limbs, those thick ankles, those cavernous eyes, +that stereotyped smile, those crudely painted checks! Where were the +vermeil blooms, the liquid expressive eyes, the harmonious limbs of +Animula? + +The Signorina danced. What gross, discordant movements! The play of +her limbs was all false and artificial. Her bounds were painful +athletic efforts; her poses were angular and distressed the eye. I +could bear it no longer; with an exclamation of disgust that drew +every eye upon me, I rose from my seat in the very middle of the +Signorina's _pas-de-fascination_ and abruptly quitted the house. + +I hastened home to feast my eyes once more on the lovely form of my +sylph. I felt that henceforth to combat this passion would be +impossible. I applied my eye to the lens. Aninula was there,--but +what could have happened? Some terrible change seemed to have taken +place during my absence. Some secret grief seemed to cloud the +lovely features of her I gazed upon. Her face had grown thin and +haggard; her limbs trailed heavily; the wondrous lustre of her +golden hair had faded. She was ill!--ill, and I could not assist her! +I believe at that moment I would have gladly forfeited all claims to +my human birthright, if I could only have been dwarfed to the size +of an animalcule, and permitted to console her from whom fate had +forever divided me. + +I racked my brain for the solution of this mystery. What was it that +afflicted the sylph? She seemed to suffer intense pain. Her features +contracted, and she even writhed, as if with some internal agony. +The wondrous forests appeared also to have lost half their beauty. +Their hues were dim and in some places faded away altogether. I +watched Animula for hours with a breaking heart, and she seemed +absolutely to wither away under my very eye. Suddenly I remembered +that I had not looked at the water-drop for several days. In fact, I +hated to see it; for it reminded me of the natural barrier between +Animula and myself. I hurriedly looked down on the stage of the +microscope. The slide was still there,--but, great heavens! the +water-drop had vanished! The awful truth burst upon me; it had +evaporated, until it had become so minute as to be invisible to the +naked eye; I had been gazing on its last atom, the one that contained +Animula,--and she was dying! + +I rushed again to the front of the lens, and looked through. Alas! +the last agony had seized her. The rainbow-hued forests had all +melted away, and Animula lay struggling feebly in what seemed to be +a spot of dim light. Ah! the sight was horrible: the limbs once so +round and lovely shrivelling up into nothings; the eyes--those eyes +that shone like heaven--being quenched into black dust; the lustrous +golden hair now lank and discolored. The last throe came. I beheld +that final struggle of the blackening form--and I fainted. + +When I awoke out of a trance of many hours, I found myself lying amid +the wreck of my instrument, myself as shattered in mind and body as +it. I crawled feebly to my bed, from which I did not rise for months. + +They say now that I am mad; but they are mistaken. I am poor, for I +have neither the heart nor the will to work; all my money is spent, +and I live on charity. Young men's associations that love a joke +invite me to lecture on Optics before them, for which they pay me, +and laugh at me while I lecture. "Linley, the mad microscopist," is +the name I go by. I suppose that I talk incoherently while I lecture. +Who could talk sense when his brain is haunted by such ghastly +memories, while ever and anon among the shapes of death I behold the +radiant form of my lost Animula! + + + + +THE SCULPTOR'S FUNERAL. + + Amid the aisle, apart, there stood + A mourner like the rest; + And while the solemn rites were said, + He fashioned into verse his mood, + That would not be repressed. + + Why did they bring him home, + Bright jewel set in lead? + Oh, bear the sculptor back to Rome, + And lay him with the mighty dead,-- + With Adonais, and the rest + Of all the young and good and fair, + That drew the milk of English breast, + And their last sigh in Latian air! + + Lay him with Raphael, unto whom + Was granted Rome's most lasting tomb; + For many a lustre, many an aeon, + He might sleep well in the Pantheon, + Deep in the sacred city's womb, + The smoke and splendor and the stir of Rome. + + Lay him 'neath Diocletian's dome, + Blessed Saint Mary of the Angels, + Near to that house in which he dwelt,-- + House that to many seemed a home, + So much with him they loved and felt. + We were his guests a hundred times; + We loved him for his genial ways; + He gave me credit for my rhymes, + And made me blush with praise. + + Ah! there be many histories + That no historian writes, + And friendship hath its mysteries + And consecrated nights; + Amid the busy days of pain, + Wear of hand, and tear of brain, + Weary midnight, weary morn, + Years of struggle paid with scorn;-- + Yet oft amid all this despair, + Long rambles in the Autumn days + O'er Appian or Flaminian Ways, + Bright moments snatched from care, + + When loose as buffaloes on the wild Campagna + We roved and dined on crust and curds, + Olives, thin wine, and thinner birds, + And woke the echoes of divine Romagna; + And then returning late, + After long knocking at the Lateran gate, + Suppers and nights of gods; and then + Mornings that made us new-born men; + Rare nights at the Minerva tavern, + With Orvieto from the Cardinal's cavern; + Free nights, but fearless and without reproof,-- + For Bayard's word ruled Beppo's roof. + + O Rome! what memories awake, + When Crawford's name is said, + Of days and friends for whose dear sake + That path of Hades unto me + Will have no more of dread + Than his own Orpheus felt, seeking Eurydice! + O Crawford! husband, father, brother + Are in that name, that little word! + Let me no more my sorrow smother; + Grief stirs me, and I must be stirred. + + O Death, thou teacher true and rough! + Full oft I fear that we have erred, + And have not loved enough; + But oh, ye friends, this side of Acheron, + Who cling to me to-day, + I shall not know my love till ye are gone + And I am gray! + Fair women with your loving eyes, + Old men that once my footsteps led, + Sweet children,--much as all I prize, + Until the sacred dust of death be shed + Upon each dear and venerable head, + I cannot love you as I love the dead! + + But now, the natural man being sown, + We can more lucidly behold + The spiritual one; + For we, till time shall end, + Full visibly shall see our friend + In all his hand did mould,-- + That worn and patient hand that lies so cold! + + When on some blessed studious day + To my loved Library I wend my way, + Amid the forms that give the Gallery grace + His thought in that pale poet I shall trace,-- + Keen Orpheus with his eyes + Fixed deep in ruddy hell, + + Seeking amid those lurid skies + The wife he loved so well,-- + And feel that still therein I see + All that was in my Master's thought, + And, in that constant hand wherewith he wrought, + The eternal type of constancy. + Thou marble husband! might there be + More of flesh and blood like thee! + + Or if, in Music's festive hall, + I come to cheat me of my care, + Amid the swell, the dying fall, + His genius greets me there. + O man of bronze! thy solemn air-- + Best soother of a troubled brain-- + Floods me with memories, and again + As thou stand'st visibly to men, + Beloved musician! so once more + Crawford comes back that did thy form restore. + + * * * * * + + Well,--_requiescat_! let him pass! + + Good mourners, go your several ways! + He needs no further rite, nor mass, + Nor eulogy, who best could praise + Himself in marble and in brass; + Yet his best monument did raise, + Not in those perishable things + That men eternal deem,-- + The pride of palaces and kings,-- + But in such works as must avail him there, + With Him who, from the extreme + Love that was in his breast, + Said, "Come, all ye that heavy burdens bear, + And I will give you rest!" + + + + +THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE. + +As a mere literary production, the Message of Mr. Buchanan is so +superior to any of the Messages of his immediate predecessor, that +the reader naturally expects to find in it a corresponding +superiority of sentiment and aim. When we meet a man who is +well-dressed, and whose external demeanor is that of a gentleman, we +are prone to infer that he is also a man of upright principles and +honorable feelings. But we are very often mistaken in this inference; +the nice garment proves to be little better than a nice disguise; +and the robe of respectability may cover the heart of a very scurvy +fellow. + +Mr. Buchanan's sentences run smoothly enough; they are for the most +part grammatical; the tone throughout is sedate, if not dignified; +and the general spirit unambitious and moderate. But the doctrine, +in our estimation, is, on the most essential point, atrocious, and +the objects which are sought to be compassed are unworthy of the man, +the office, the country, and the age. We refer, of course, to what +is said of the one vital question with us now, the question of +Slavery in Kansas; but before proceeding to a discussion of that, +let us say a word or two of other parts of this important document. + +The President introduces, as the first of his topics, the prevailing +money pressure, which he treats at considerable length, with some +degree of truth, but without originality or comprehensiveness of view. +He profiles to inquire into the causes of the unfortunate disasters +of trade, and into the remedies which may be devised against their +recurrence; but on neither head is he remarkably profound or +instructive. It is merely reiterating the commonplaces of the +newspapers, to talk about "the excessive loans and issues of the +banks," and to ring changes of phraseology on the vices of +speculation, over-trading, and stock-jobbing. All the world is as +familiar with all that as the President can be, and scarcely needed +a reminder on either score; what we wanted of the head of the nation,-- +what a real statesman, who understood his subject, would have given +us,--that is, if he had pretended to go at all beyond the simple +statement of the fact of commercial revulsion, into a discussion of +it,--was a comprehensive and philosophic analysis of all the causes +of the phenomenon, a calm and careful review of all its circumstances, +and a rigid deduction of broad general principles from an adequate +study of the entire case. But this the President has not furnished. +In connecting our commercial derangements with the disorders of the +banking system he has unquestionably struck upon a great and +fundamental truth; but it is merely a single truth, and he strikes +it in rather a vague and random way. In considering these reverses, +there are many things to be taken into account besides the +constitution and customs, whether good or bad, of our American banks,-- +many things which do not even confine themselves to this continent, +but are spread over the greater part of the civilized world. + +Mr. Buchanan is still lamer in his suggestion of remedies than he is +in his inquiry after causes. The Federal Government, he thinks, can +do little or nothing in the premises,--a fatal admission at the +outset,--and we are coolly turned over to the most unsubstantial and +impracticable of all reliances, "the wisdom and patriotism of the +State legislatures"! Why cannot the Federal Government do anything +in the premises? The President tells us that the Constitution has +conferred upon Congress the exclusive right "to coin money _and +regulate the value thereof_," and that it has prohibited the States +from "issuing bills of credit,"--which phrase, if it mean anything, +means making paper-money; and the inference would seem to be +inevitable that Congress has a sovereign authority and power over +the whole matter. It may, moreover, touch the circulation of bills, +by means of its indisputable right to lay a stamp-tax upon paper; +and Mr. Gallatin long ago recommended the exercise of this power, as +an effectual method of restraining the emission of small notes. Upon +what principle, then, can the President assert so dictatorially as +he does, that the Federal Government is concluded from action? If +the excesses of the State Banks are so enormous as he represents, +and so perpetually and so widely disastrous, why should it not +interpose to avert the fearful evil? Why refer us for relief to the +proceedings of thirty-one different legislative bodies, no three of +which, probably, would agree upon any coherent system? We do not +ourselves say that Congress ought to interfere and undertake by main +force to regulate the currency, because we hold to other and, as we +think, better methods of arriving at a sound and stable currency; +but from the stand-point of the President, and with his views of the +efficiency of legislative restrictions upon banks, we do not see how +he could consistently avoid recommending the instant action of +Congress. On the heel of his grandiloquent description of the evils +of redundant paper money,--evils which are felt all over the country,-- +it is a lamentably impotent conclusion to say, "After all, we can't +do much to help it! Yes, let us confide piously in 'the wisdom and +patriotism of the State legislatures,'"--which are almost the last +places in the world, as things go, where we should look for either +quality. + +Not being able to do anything himself, however, what does he urge +upon the wise and patriotic State legislatures? Why, a series of +flimsy restrictions, which would have about as much effect in +preventing the tremendous abuses of banking which he himself depicts, +as a bit of filigree iron-work would have in restraining the +expansion of steam. Restrictions! restrictions! _toujours_ +restrictions!--as if that method of correcting the evil had not been +utterly exploded by nearly two centuries of experience! Mr. Buchanan +calls himself a Democrat; he is loud in his protestations of respect +for the sagacity, the good-sense, and the virtue of the people; his +political school takes for its motto the well-known adage, "That +government is best which governs least"; his party, if he does not, +purports to be a great advocate of the emancipation of trade from +all the old-fashioned restraints which take the names of protections, +tariffs, bounties, etc. etc.; and we wonder how it is, that, in his +presumed excursions over the entire domain of free-trade, he should +have got no inkling of a thought as to the benefits of free-trade in +banking. We wonder that so great a subject could be dismissed with +the suggestion of a few petty restraints. + +"If the State legislatures," remarks the President, summing up his +entire thought, "afford us a real specie basis for our circulation, +by increasing the denomination of bank-notes, first to twenty, and +afterwards to fifty dollars; if they will require that the banks +shall at all times keep on hand at least one dollar of gold and +silver for every three dollars of their circulation and deposits; +and if they will provide, by a self-executing enactment, which +nothing can arrest, that the moment they suspend they shall go into +liquidation; I believe that such provisions, with a weekly +publication by each bank of a statement of its condition, would go +far to secure us against future suspensions of specie payments." + +Singular blindness! Mr. Buchanan lived for several years, as +American ambassador, in England. It is to be presumed that while +there he used his eyes, and possibly his brains. He must have +noticed occasionally, at least, in his walks through "the city," the +immense marble structure in Threadneedle Street, known as the Bank +of England. It is certain that he has read the history of that bank, +inasmuch as it is twice or thrice alluded to in his Message; he +cannot be ignorant, therefore, that the "circulation" of England has +essentially "a specie basis"; that no bank-notes are issued there for +less than the amount of twenty-five dollars; that the banks at all +times keep on hand "one dollar of gold for every three dollars of +their circulation and deposits"; and that the laws of bankruptcy are +alike rigid in regard to institutions and individuals. These are +precisely the provisions which he commends to the adoption of wise +and patriotic State legislatures as an admirable corrective for +suspensions; yet he forgets to explain to us how it happens that the +Bank of England, to which they are all applied, has virtually +suspended payment six times in the course of its existence, having +been saved from open dishonor only by the timely assistance of the +government,--while the trade of England, in spite of the staid and +conservative habits of the people, is quite as liable to those +terrific tarantula-dances, called revulsions, as our own. Before +urging his "restraints," the President ought to have inquired a +little into the history of such restraints; and he would then have +saved himself from the absurdity of patronizing remedies which an +actual trial had proved ludicrously inapt and inefficacious. + +With regard to the second topic of the Message,--our foreign +relations,--it may be said that the positions assumed are frank, +manly, and explicit; unless we have reason to suspect, in the +slightly belligerent attitude towards Spain, a return, on the part +of the President, to one of his old and unlawful loves,--the +acquisition of Cuba. In that case, we should deplore his language, +and be inclined to doubt also the sincerity of his just +denunciations of Walker's infamous schemes of piracy and brigandage. +Until events, however, have developed the signs of a sinister policy +of this sort, we must bestow an earnest plaudit upon his decided +rebuke of the filibusters, coupling that praise with a wish that the +"vigilance" of his subordinates may hereafter prove of a more +wide-awake and energetic kind than has yet been manifested. + +But for the terms in which the President has disposed of his third +topic,--the Kansas difficulty,--we can scarcely characterize their +disingenuousness and meanings. We have already spoken of the object +of this part of the document as atrocious,--and we repeat the word, +as the most befitting that could be used. That object is nothing +less than an attempt to cover the enormous frauds which have marked +the proceedings of the Pro-Slavery agents in Kansas, from their +initiation, with a varnish of smooth and plausible pretexts. +Adroitly taking up the question at the point which it had reached +when his own administration began, he leaves out of view all the +antecedent crimes, treacheries, and tricks by which the people of +the Territory had been led into civil war, and thus assumes that the +late Lecompton Convention was a legitimate Convention, and that the +Constitution framed by it (or said to have been framed by it,--for +there is no official report of the instrument as yet) was framed in +pursuance of proper authority or law. He does not tell us that the +Territorial legislature which called this Convention was a usurping +legislature, brought together, as the Congressional records show, by +an invading horde from a neighboring State; he does not tell us, that, +even if it had been a properly constituted body in itself, it had no +right to call a Convention for the purpose of superseding the +Territorial organization; he does not tell us that the Convention, +as assembled, represented but one-tenth of the legal voters of the +Territory; nor does he seem to regard the fact, that the other +nine-tenths of the people were virtually disfranchised by that +Convention, so far as their right to determine the provisions of +their organic law is concerned, as at all a vital and important fact. +By a miserable juggle, worthy of the frequenters of the +gambling-house or the race-course, the people of Kansas have been +nominally allowed to decide the question of Slavery, and that +permission, according to Mr. Buchanan, fulfils and completes all that +he ever meant, or his associates ever meant, by the promise of +popular sovereignty! + +Now this may be all that the President and his party ever meant by +that phrase, but it is not all that their words expressed or the +country expected. In the course of the last three or four years, and +by a series of high-handed measures, the established principles of +the Federal Government, in regard to its management of the +Territories,--principles sanctioned by every administration from +Washington's down to Fillmore's,--have been overruled for the sake +of a new doctrine, which goes by the name of Popular Sovereignty. +The most sacred and binding compacts of former years were annulled +to make way for it; and the judicial department of the government +was violently hauled from its sacred retreat, into the political +arena, to give a gratuitous _coup-de-grace_ to the old opinions and +the apparent sanction of law to the new dogma, so that Popular +Sovereignty might reign triumphant in the Territories. At the +convention of the party which nominated Mr. Buchanan as a candidate +for his present office,--"a celebrated occasion," as he calls it,-- +the members affirmed in the most emphatic manner the right of the +people of all the Territories, including Kansas, to form their own +Constitutions as they pleased, under the single condition that it +should be republican. Mr. Buchanan reiterated that assertion in his +Inaugural address, and in subsequent communications. When he +appointed Mr. Robert J. Walker Governor of the Territory, he +instructed him to assure the people that they should be guarantied +against all "fraud or violence" when they should be called upon +"to vote for or against the Constitution which would be submitted to +them," so that there might be "a fair expression of the popular will." +Nothing, in short, could have been clearer, more direct, more +frequently repeated, than the asseverations of the "Democratic Party," +made through its official representatives, its newspapers, and its +orators,--to the effect, that its only object, in its Kansas policy, +was to secure "the great principle of Popular Sovereignty." On the +strength of these assurances alone, it was enabled to achieve its +hard-won victory in the last Presidential campaign. Mr. Buchanan +owes his position to them, as is repeatedly admitted by Mr. Douglas +in his speech of December 9th last,--and the whole nation, having +discussed and battled and voted on the principle, acquiesced, as it +is accustomed to do after an election, in the ascendency of the +victors. It prepared itself to see the application of the principle +which had been announced and defended as so important and wise. + +Under these pledges and promises, what has been the performance? A +Convention, for which, inasmuch as it was illegally called by an +illegal body, a large proportion of the citizens of Kansas refused +to vote, frames a Constitution, in the interest and according to the +convictions of the slenderest minority of the people; it +incorporates in that Constitution a recognition of old Territorial +laws to the last degree offensive to the majority of the people; it +incorporates in it a clause establishing slavery in perpetuity; it +connects with it a Schedule perpetuating the existing slavery, +whatever it may be, against all future remedy which has not the +sanction of the slave-master; and then, by a miserable chicane, it +submits the Constitution to a vote of the people, but it submits it +under such terms, that the people, if they vote at all, must vote +_for_ it, whether they like it or not, while the only part in +which they can exercise any choice is the _clause_ which relates to +future slavery. The other parts, especially the Schedule, which +recognizes the existing slavery, and that almost irremediably, the +people are not allowed to pronounce upon. They are not allowed to +pronounce upon the thousand-and-one details of the State organization; +they are fobbed off with a transparent cheat of "heads I win,--tails +you lose";--and the whole game is denominated, Popular Sovereignty. + +What is worse, the President of the United States argues that this +would be a fair settlement of the question, and that in the exercise +of such a choice, the glorious doctrine of Popular Sovereignty is +amply applied and vindicated. He admits that "the correct principle," +as in the case of Minnesota, is to refer the Constitution "to the +approval and ratification of the people"; he admits that the only +mode in which the will of the people can be "authentically +ascertained is by a direct vote"; he admits that the "friends and +supporters of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, when struggling to sustain +its provisions before the great tribunal of the American people," +"everywhere, throughout the Union, publicly pledged their faith and +honor" to submit the question of their domestic institutions +"to the decision of the _bona-fide_ people of Kansas, without any +qualification or restriction whatever"; but then,--and here is the +subterfuge,--"domestic institutions" means only the single +institution of slavery; and the Convention, in consenting to yield +_that_ (and this only in appearance) to the arbitrament of the +people, has fully satisfied all the demands of the principle of +Popular Sovereignty! Their other questions are all "political"; the +questions as to the organization of their executive, legislative, +and judicial departments, as to their elective franchise, their +distribution of districts, their banks, their rates and modes of +taxation, etc., etc., are not domestic questions, but political; and +provided the people are suffered to vote on the future (not the +existing) condition of slaves, faith has been sufficiently kept. +Popular Sovereignty means "pertaining to negroes,"--not the negroes +already in the Territory, but those who may be hereafter introduced; +for the monopoly of that branch of trade and merchandise, which is +already established, and the future growth and increase of it, must +not be interfered with, even by Popular Sovereignty, because that +would be "an act of gross injustice." In other words, Popular +Sovereignty is merely designed to cover the right of the people to +vote on a single question, specially presented by an illegal body, +under electoral arrangements made by its new officers,--which +officers not only receive, but count the votes, and make the returns,-- +while all the rest is merely unimportant and trivial. It is just the +sort of sovereignty for which Louis Napoleon provided when he wished +to procure a popular sanction for the numberless atrocities of the +_coup-d'etat_ of the 2d December. + +An old authority tells us that "it is hard to kick against the pricks"; +and the President appears to have experienced the difficulty, in +kicking against the pricks of his conscience. He had committed +himself to a principle which he is now compelled by the policy of +his Southern masters to evade, and is painfully embarrassed as to +how he shall hide his tracks. He knows, as all the world knows, that +this jugglery in Kansas has been performed for no other purpose than +to secure a foothold for Slavery there, against the demonstrated +opinion of nine-tenths of the people; he knows, as all the world +knows, that if the Convention had had the least desire to arrive at +a fair expression of the popular will, on the question of Slavery or +any other question, it was easy to make a candid and honorable +submission of it to an election to be held honestly under the +recognized officers of the Territory; but he knows, also, that under +such circumstances the case would have been carried overwhelmingly +against the "domestic institution," and thus have rebuked, with all +the emphasis that an outraged community could give to the expression +of its will, the nefarious conduct which "the party" has pursued +from the beginning,--and this was a consummation not to be wished. +He therefore wriggles and shuffles, with an absurd and transparent +inconsistency, to defeat the popular will, and yet mouth it bravely +about "the great principle of Popular Sovereignty." + +The President thinks that it is time that these troubles in Kansas +were at an end, and we cordially agree with him in the sentiment; +but he needs scarcely to be reminded that they never will be at an +end, until the wicked schemes, which have been so long persisted in, +to override the convictions and hopes and interests of a large +majority of the Kansas settlers, are utterly abandoned by those who +are in power. + +Of the remaining and mostly routine topics of the Message we have no +occasion to speak; and we only regret that the deficiencies of the +most important parts are so glaring as to oblige us to treat them +with undisguised severity. + + * * * * * + + + + +THE WEDDING VEIL. + + Dear Anna, when I brought her veil, + Her white veil, on her wedding-night, + Threw o'er my thin brown hair its folds, + And, laughing, turned me to the light. + + "See, Bessie, see! you wear for once + The bridal veil, forsworn for years!" + She saw my face,--her laugh was hushed, + Her happy eyes were filled with tears. + + With kindly haste and trembling hand + She drew away the gauzy mist; + "Forgive, dear heart!"--her sweet voice said; + Her loving lips my forehead kissed. + + We passed from out the searching light; + The summer night was calm and fair: + I did not see her pitying eyes, + I felt her soft hand smooth my hair. + + Her tender love unlocked my heart; + 'Mid falling tears, at last I said, + "Forsworn indeed to me that veil, + Because I only love the dead!" + + She stood one moment statue-still, + And, musing, spake in under-tone, + "The living love may colder grow; + The dead is safe with God alone!" + + + + +LITERARY NOTICES. + + _The Spanish Conquest in America, and its Relation to the History + of Slavery and to the Government of Colonies_. By ARTHUR HELPS. Vols. + I. and II. London, 1855. Vol. III. London, 1857. + +This work has a double claim to attention in America;--first, on +account of its great intrinsic merit as a narrative of the +beginnings of the European settlement of this continent; secondly, +as containing a thorough and exceedingly able account of the +planting of Slavery in America, and the origin of that system which +has been and is the great blight of the civilization of the New World. + +Mr. Helps is endowed in large measure with the qualities of an +historian of the highest order. A clear and comprehensive vision, a +wide knowledge and careful study of human nature, free and generous +sympathies are united in him with a penetrative imagination which +vivifies the life of past times, with a reverence for truth which +excludes prejudice and prepossession, and with a profoundly +religious spirit. The tone of his thought is manly and vigorous, and +his style, with the beauty of which the readers of his essays have +long been familiar, is marked by quiet grace and unpretending +strength. There are many passages in these volumes of wise +reflection and of pleasant humor. In the drawing of character and in +the narration of events Mr. Helps is equally happy. The pages of his +book are full of lifelike portraits of the great soldiers and great +priests of the time, and of animated pictures of the scenes in which +they were engaged. + +Mr. Helps has investigated his subject with zeal, industry, and +patience. He has sought out the original authorities, has brought to +light many important facts, has redeemed some great memories from +unjust oblivion, and has presented a new view of several of the +chief features of the history. In a graceful advertisement to the +third volume he says, "The reader will observe that there is +scarcely any allusion in this work to the kindred works of modern +writers on the same subject. This is not from any want of respect for +the able historians who have written upon the discovery or the +conquest of America. I felt, however, from the first, that my object +in investigating this portion of history was different from theirs; +and I wished to keep my mind clear from the influence which these +eminent persons might have exercised upon it." + +A considerable space in these volumes is devoted to an investigation +of the character and condition of the native races of the continent +at the period of the Spanish Conquest. This subject is treated with +peculiar skill and learning, and with unusual power of sympathetic +analysis and appreciation of remote and obscure developments of +society. Another portion of the history, which his plan has led +Mr. Helps to treat at length and with exhaustive thoroughness, is +the early relations between the conquerors and the conquered, +embracing the method of settlement of the different countries, the +whole disastrous system of _ripartimientos_ and _encomiendas_, which, +in its full development, led to the destruction of the native +population of Hispaniola, and to the introduction of negroes into +this and the other West India islands to supply the demand for +laborers. + +Another most interesting portion of his subject, and one which has +never till now been fairly exhibited, relates to the labors of the +Dominican and Franciscan monks, and their admirable and unwearied +efforts to counteract and to remedy some of the bitterest evils of +the conquest. Theirs were the first protests that were raised +against slavery in America, and their ranks afforded the first +martyrs in the cause of the Indian and the Negro. Las Casas has +found an eloquent and just biographer, and Mr. Helps has the +satisfaction of having securely placed his name among the few that +deserve the lasting honor and remembrance of the world. The +narrative of Las Casas's life is one of strong dramatic interest. +His life was a varied and remarkable one, even for those times of +striking contrasts and varieties in the fortunes of men; and in +Mr. Helps's pages one sees the man himself, with his simplicity and +elevation of purpose, his honesty of motive, his energy, his +impetuosity, his courage, and his faith. + +The three volumes already published embrace the progress of Spanish +conquest from the first discoveries of Columbus to Pizarro's +incursion into Peru. It is sincerely to be hoped that Mr. Helps may +continue his work, at least to the period when the Spanish conquest +and colonization were met and limited by the conquest and the +colonization of the other European nations. Its importance, as a wise, +thoughtful, unpolemic investigation of the origin and the results of +Slavery, is hardly to be overestimated. The space allowed to a +critical notice does not permit us to render it full justice. We can +do little more than recommend it warmly to the readers of history +and to the students of the most difficult and the darkest social +problem of the age. + + + + _Handbook of Railroad Construction, for the Use of American + Engineers. Containing the Necessary Rules, Tables, and Formulae for + the Location, Construction, Equipment, and Management of Railroads, + as built in the United States_. With 158 Illustrations. By GEORGE L. + VOSE, Civil Engineer. Boston: James Munroe & Co. 1857. 12 mo. pp. 480. + +All who trust their persons to railroad cars, or their estates to +railroad stocks, will welcome every effort to enlighten that +irresponsible body of railroad builders and managers in whose wits +we put our faith. + +The work which we here notice is intended for uneducated American +engineers, of whom there are unfortunately too many. The rapidity +with which our railroads have been built, and the experimental +character of this new branch of engineering, have obliged us to +resort to such native ability and mother wit as our people could +afford. The great body of our railroad engineers have had no training +but the experience they have blundered through; and even our +railroad financiers are men more distinguished for courage and +energy than for experimental skill. Mr. Vose's book will doubtless +be of great service in remedying these evils, by bringing within the +reach of every intelligent man a valuable and very carefully +prepared summary of such rules, formulas, and statistics as our +railroad experiences have furnished and proved. + +Railroad engineering and management have united almost every branch +of mechanical and financial science, and have developed several new +and peculiar arts; so that the successful construction, equipment, +and management of a railroad require a rare combination of +accomplishments. Managers hitherto have been too little acquainted +with their business to settle many questions of economy, but they +are now beginning to look upon their enterprises with cooler +judgments. + +The "Handbook" discusses several questions of economy, but seeks, +especially in its rules and formulas, to avoid those risks by which +economy has often been turned into the most ruinous extravagance. On +the question of fuel, our author advocates the use of coke as the +most economical and convenient, and every way preferable where it +can be readily obtained. He also urges, on economical grounds, a +more moderate rate of speed in railroad travel; thus showing that we +may save our forests, our lives, and a considerable expense all at +the same time. + +The style is clear, and, for a work not professing to be a complete +treatise, but only a manual of useful facts, the arrangement is +admirable. The book is thoroughly practical, and touches upon such +matters, and for the most part upon such matters only, as are likely +to be of service to the practical man; yet it is quite elementary in +its character, and free from unnecessary technicalities. + +The book has, however, one great fault. It is full of errata. No +carefully prepared table of corrections can make amends for such a +fault in a book in which typographical correctness is of the +greatest importance. To insert in their places with a pen more than +two hundred published corrections is a labor which no reader would +willingly undertake. We hope, therefore, that a new and correct +edition will soon be published. + + + + _The Life of Handel_. By VICTOR SCHOELCHER. Reprinted from the + London Edition. New York: Mason, Brothers. + +It is a remarkable fact, and one not very creditable to the musical +public of England, that the works of Mainwaring, Hawkins, Barney, +and Coxe should remain for almost an entire century after the death +of Handel our main sources of information concerning his career, and +that the first attempt to write a complete biography of that great +composer, correcting the errors, reconciling the contradictions, and +supplying the deficiencies of those authors, should be from the pen +of a French exile. And yet during all this time materials have been +accumulating, the fame of the composer has been extending, the demand +for such a work increasing, and the number of intelligent and +elegant English writers upon music growing greater. + +M. Schoelcher's work, though perhaps the most valuable contribution +to musical historical literature which has for many years appeared +from the English press, leaves much to be desired. Excepting a +correction of the chronology of Handel's visit to Italy, very little, +if anything, of importance is added to what we already possessed in +regard to the early history of the composer. We look in vain for the +means of tracing the development of his genius. The impression left +upon the mind of the reader is, that his powers showed themselves +suddenly in full splendor, and that at a single bound he placed +himself at the head of the dramatic composers of his age. This was +not true of Hasse, Mozart, Gluck, Cherubini, Weber, in dramatic +composition; nor of Bach, Haydn, Beethoven, in other branches of the +musical art. However great a man's genius may be, he must live and +learn. To attain the highest excellence, long continued study is +necessary; and Handel, as we believe, was no exception to the +general law. + +The list of works consulted by M. Schoelcher, prefixed to the +biography, shows that he has by no means exhausted the German +authorities which may be profitably used in writing upon the early +history of Handel: indeed, the author, though of German descent, is +unacquainted with the German language. We can learn from them the +state of dramatic music at that time in Berlin, Leipsic, Brunswick, +Hanover, Koethen; we can form from them some correct idea of the +powers of Keiser, Steffani, Graupner, Schieferdecker, Telemann, +Gruenwald, and others, then in possession of the lyric stage; we can +thus estimate the influences which led Handel from the path that +Bach so successfully followed, into that which he pursued with equal +success; and though the amount of matter relating to him personally +be small, much that throws light upon his early life still remains +inaccessible to the English reader. + +The biography of a great creative artist must in great measure +consist of a history of his works; and the great value of the +book before us arises from the searching examination to which +M. Schoelcher has subjected the several collections of Handel's +manuscripts which are preserved in England, one of which, in some +respects the most valuable, has fallen into his own possession. This +examination, for the first time made, together with the first careful +and thorough search for whatever might afford a ray of light in the +various periodicals of Handel's time, has enabled the author to +correct innumerable errors in previous writers, and trace step by +step the rapid succession of opera, anthem, serenata, and oratorio, +which filled the years of the composer's manhood. For the general +reader, perhaps, M. Schoelcher has been drawn too far into detail, +and some passages of his work might have been better reserved for +his "Catalogue of Handel's Works"; but these details are of the +highest value to the student of musical literature, and, indeed, +form for him the principal charm of the work. The importance of the +author's labors can be duly appreciated only by those who have had +occasion to study somewhat extensively the musical history of the +last century. For them the results of those labors as here presented +are invaluable. + + + + _Sermons of the_ REV. C. H. SPURGEON, of London. Third Series. + New York: Sheldon, Blakeman & Co. + +There can be no doubt of the merit of these sermons, considered as +examples of method and embodiments of character. Whatever elements +of Christianity may be left unexpressed in them, it is certain that +Mr. Spurgeon has succeeded in expressing himself. His discourses at +least give us Christianity as he understands, feels, and lives it. +They should be studied by all clergymen who desire to master the +secret of influencing masses of men. They will afford valuable hints +in respect to method, even when their spirit, tone, and teaching +present no proper model for imitation. Mr. Spurgeon, we suppose, +would be classed among Calvinists, but he is not merely that. +Without any force, depth, amplitude, or originality of thought, he +has considerable force and originality of nature. He detaches from +their relations certain doctrines of Calvinism which especially +interest him, and so emphasizes and intensifies them, so blends them +with his personal being and experience, that the impression he +stamps upon the mind is rather of Spurgeonism than Calvinism. He +gives vivid reality to his doctrines, because they are incorporated +with his nature,--and not merely with his spiritual, but with his +animal nature. He is thoroughly in earnest from the fact that he +preaches himself. His converts, therefore, are likely to mistake +being Spurgeonized for being Christianized; for the Christianity he +preaches is not so much vital Christianity as it is Christianity +passed through the vitalities of his own nature, and essentially +modified and lowered in the process. To understand, then, the kind +of influence he exerts, we have simply to inquire, What kind of man +is Mr. Spurgeon? + +The answer to this question is given on every page of his sermons. +He has no reserves, but lets his character transpire in every +sentence. He is a bold, eager, earnest, devout, passionate, +well-intentioned man, with considerable experience in the sphere of +the religious emotions, full of sympathy with rough natures, full of +mother wit and practical sagacity, but, as a theologian, coarse, +ignorant, narrow-minded, and strikingly deficient in fine spiritual +perceptions. These qualities inhere in a nature of singular vigor, +intensity, and directness, that sends out words like bullets. Warmth +of feeling combined with narrowness of mind makes him a bigot; but +his bigotry is not the sour assertion of an opinion, but the racy +utterance of a nature. He believes in Spurgeonism so thoroughly and +so simply that toleration is out of the question, and doctrines +opposed to his own he refers, with instantaneous and ingenuous +dogmatism, to folly or wickedness. "I think," he says, in one of his +sermons, "I have none here so profoundly stupid as to be Puseyites. +I can scarcely believe that I have been the means of attracting one +person here so utterly devoid of one remnant of brain as to believe +the doctrine of baptismal regeneration." The doctrine, indeed, is so +nonsensical to him, that, after some caricatures of it, he asserts +that it would discredit Scripture with all sensible men, if it were +taught in Scripture. God himself could not make Mr. Spurgeon believe +it; and doubtless there are many High Churchmen who would retort, +that nothing short of a miracle could make them assent to some of +the dogmas of their assailant. Indeed, the incapacity of our +preacher to discern, or mentally to reproduce, a religious character +differing in creed from his own, makes him the most amusingly +intolerant of Popes, not because he is malignant, but because he is +Spurgeon. If he had learning or largeness of mind, he would probably +lose the greater portion of his power. He gets his hearers into a +corner, limits the range of their vision to the doctrine he is +expounding, refuses to listen to any excuses or palliations, and +then screams out to them, "Believe or be damned!" In his own mind he +is sure they will be damned, if they do not believe. So far as +regards his influence over those minds whose religious emotions are +strong, but whose religious principles are weak, every limitation of +his mind is an increase of his force. + +This theological narrowness is unaccompanied with theological rancor. +A rough but genuine benevolence is at the heart of Mr. Spurgeon's +system. He wishes his opponents to be converted, not condemned. He +very properly feels, that, with his ideas of the Divine Government, +he would be the basest of criminals, if he spared himself, or spared +either entreaty or denunciation, in the great work of saving souls. +He throws himself with such passionate earnestness into his business, +that his sermons boil over with the excitement of his feelings. +Indeed, it is difficult to say whether our impressions of him, +derived from the written page, come to us more from the eye than the +ear. His very style foams, rages, prays, entreats, adjures, weeps, +screams, warns, and execrates. His words are words that everybody +understands,--bold, blunt, homely, quaint, level to his nature, all +alive with passion, and directed with the single purpose of carrying +the fortresses of sin by assault. The reader who contrives to +preserve his calmness amid this storm of words cannot but be vexed +that rhetoric so efficient should frequently be combined with notions +so narrow, with bigotry so besotted, with religious principles so +materialized; that the man who is loudly proclaimed as the greatest +living orator of the pulpit should have so little of that Christian +spirit which refines when it inflames, which exalts, enlarges, and +purifies the natures it moves. For Mr. Spurgeon is, after all, +little more than a theological stump-orator, a Protestant Dominican, +easy of comprehension because he leaves out the higher elements of +his themes, and not hesitating to vulgarize Christianity, if he may +thereby extend it among the vulgar. It has been attempted to justify +him by the examples of Luther and Bunyan, to neither of whom does +he bear more than the most superficial resemblance. He is, to be sure, +as natural as Luther, but then his nature happens to be a puny +nature as compared with that of the great Reformer; and, not to +insist on specific differences, it is certain that Luther, if alive, +would have the same objection to Mr. Spurgeon's bringing down the +doctrines of Christianity to the supposed mental condition of his +hearers, as he had to the Romanists of his day, who corrupted +religion in order that the public "might be more generally +accommodated." Bunyan's phraseology is homely, but Bunyan's +celestializing imagination kept his "familiar grasp of things divine" +from being an irreverent pawing of things divine. Mr. Spurgeon's +nature works on a low level of influence. Deficient in imagination, +and with a mind coarse and unspiritualized, though religiously +impressed, he animalizes his creed in attempting to give it +sensuous reality and impressiveness. If it be said that by this +process he feels his way into hearts which could not be affected by +more spiritual means, the answer is, that the multitude who listened +to the Sermon on the Mount were not of a more elevated cast of mind +than the multitude who listened to Mr. Spurgeon's sermon on +"Regeneration." But the truth is, that Mr. Spurgeon's preaching is +liked, not simply because it rouses sinners to repentance, but +because it gives sinners a certain enjoyment. It is racy, original, +exciting, and comes directly from the character of the preacher. It +is relished, as Mr. Spurgeon tells us in his Preface, by "princes of +every nation and nobles of every rank," as well as by humbler people. +But we doubt whether Christianity should be vulgarized to give jaded +nobles a new "sensation," or in order to be made a fit "gospel for +the poor." + + * * * * * + + + + _Roumania: the Border Land of the Christian and the Turk. + Comprising Adventures of Travel in Eastern Europe and Western Asia_. + By JAMES O. NOYES, M. D. Surgeon in the Ottoman Army. New York: Rudd & + Carleton, 310 Broadway. 1857. + +Dr. James Oscar Noyes, the author of this book, is an American all +over. He has the rapidity and eagerness of mind that the champagny +atmosphere of our northern hills gives to those who are stout enough +not to be wilted by our hot summers. For briskness, thriftiness, +energy, and alacrity, it is hard to find his match. He has made a +book of travels, and will make a hundred, unless somebody finds him +a place at home where he will have an indefinite number of +labors-of-Hercules to keep him busy,--or unless some African prince +cuts his head off, or he happens to call upon the Battas about their +Thanksgiving-time. + +Here he has been streaming through Eastern Europe and Western Asia, +so hilarious and good-tempered all the time, so intensely wide-awake, +so perfectly at home everywhere, so quick at making friends, so +perfectly convinced that the world was made for American travellers, +and so apt at proving it by his own example, that his friends who +missed him for a while not only were not astonished to find that he +had been a Surgeon in the Ottoman Army, during this brief interval, +but only wondered he had not been Grand Vizier. + +In this instance the book is the man, if we may so far change +Monsieur de Buffon's saying. It is full of fresh observations and +lively descriptions,--perhaps a little too overlarded and +oversprigged with prose and verse quotations,--but as lively as a +golden carp just landed. It describes scenes not familiar to most +readers, tells stories they have never heard, introduces them to new +costumes and faces, and helps itself by the aid of pictures to make +its vivacious narrative real. We are much pleased to learn that the +work has met with a very good reception; for we consider it as the +card of introduction of a gentleman whom the American people will +very probably know pretty well before he has done with them, and be +the better for the acquaintance. + + * * * * * + + + + _Dante's Hell_. Cantos I. to X. A Literal Metrical Translation. + By J. C. Peabody. Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1857. + +A man must be either conscious of poetic gifts and possessed of real +learning, or very presumptuous and ignorant, who undertakes at the +present day a _new_ translation of Dante. Mr. J. C. Peabody might +claim exemption from this _dictum_, on the ground that his +translation is not a _new_ one; but he himself does not put in this +plea, and we cannot grant to him the possession of poetic power, or +declare that he is not ignorant and presumptuous. He says in his +Preface, with a modesty, the worth of which will soon become apparent, +"The present is on a different plan from all other translations, and +must be judged accordingly. While I disclaim all intention of +disputing the palm as a poet or scholar with the least of those who +have walked with Dante before me, yet, by such labor and plodding as +their genius would not allow them to descend to, have I made a more +literal, and perhaps, therefore, a better translation than they all." +Mr. J. C. Peabody is right in supposing that none of the previous +translations of Dante could descend to _such_ labor and plodding as +his. In 1849, Dr. Carlyle published his literal prose translation of +the "Inferno." It was in many respects admirably done, and it has +afforded great assistance to the students of the poet in their first +progress. Mr. Peabody does not acknowledge any obligations to it, or +refer to it in any way. Let us, however, compare a passage or two of +the two versions. We open at line 78 of the First Canto. We do not +divide Mr. Peabody's into the lines of verse. + +CARLYLE. + + "Art thou, then, that Virgil and that fountain + which pours abroad so rich a stream of + speech? I answered him with bashful front. + O glory and light of other poets! May the + long zeal avail me and the great love which + made me search thy volume. Thou art my + master and my author." + +PEABODY. + + "Art thou that Virgil and that fountain, + then, which pours abroad so rich a stream of + speech? With bashful forehead him I gave + reply. O light and glory of the other bards! + May the long zeal and the great love avail me + that hath caused me thy volume to explore. + Thou art my master, thou my author art." + +Opening again at random, we take the two translations at the +beginning of the Eighth Canto. + +CARLYLE. + + "I say, continuing, that long before we + reached the foot of the high tower our eyes + went upward to the summit, because of two + flamelets that we saw put there; and another + from far gave signal back,--so far that the + eye could scarcely catch it. And I, turning + to the Sea of all knowledge, said: What says + this? and what replies yon other light? And + who are they that made it?" + +PEABODY. + + "I say, continuing, that long before unto + the foot of that high tower we came, our eyes + unto its summit upward went, cause of two + flamelets that we saw there placed; while + signal back another gave from far; so far the + eye a glimpse could hardly catch. Then I to + the Sea of all wisdom turned, and said: What + sayeth this and what replies that other fire? + And who are they that made it?" + +We open again in Cantos Nine and Ten, and find a like resemblance +between Dr. Carlyle's prose and Mr. Peabody's metre; but we have +perhaps quoted enough to enable our readers to form a just idea of +the latter person's "labor and plodding." It is not, however, in the +text alone that the resemblance exists. J. C. Peabody's notes bear a +striking conformity to Dr. Carlyle's. There are fourteen notes to the +Second Canto in Mr. Peabody's book,--_all_ taken, with more or less +unimportant alteration and addition, from Dr. Carlyle, without +acknowledgment. Of the twelve notes to Canto Eight, nine are, with +little change, from Dr. Carlyle. We have compared no farther; +_ex uno omnes_. Now and then Mr. Peabody gives us a note of his own. +In the First Canto, for instance; he explains the allegorical +greyhound as "A looked for reformer. 'The Coming Man.'" The +appropriateness and elegance of which commentary will be manifest to +all readers familiar with the allusion. In the Fourth Canto, where +Virgil speaks of the condition of the souls in limbo, our professed +translator says: "Dante says this in bitter irony. He ill brooks the +narrow bigotry of the Church," etc. etc., showing an utter ignorance +of Dante's real adherence to the doctrine of the Church. He has here +read Dr. Carlyle's note with less attention than usual; for a +quotation contained in it from the "De Monarchia" would have set him +right. The quotation is, however, in Latin, and though Mr. Peabody +has transferred many quotations from the "Aeneid" (through Dr. Carlyle) +to his own notes, they are often so printed as not to impress one +with a strong sense of his familiarity with the Latin language. We +give one instance for the sake of illustration. On page 40 appear +the following lines:-- + + Terribili squarlore Charon eni plurina mento + Canities inculta jucet; staut lumina flaurina + +Nor is he happier in his quotations from Italian, or in his other +displays of learning. Having occasion to quote one of Dante's most +familiar lines, he gives it in this way:-- + + Lasciatte ogni speranzi, voi ch'entrate. + +Anacreon is with him "Anachreon"; Vallombrosa is "Vallambroso"; +Aristotelian is "Aristotleian." Five times (all the instances in +which the name occurs) the Ghibelline appears as the "Ghiberlines"; +and Montaperti is transformed into "Montapesti." + +Nor is J.C. Peabody's poetic capacity superior to his honesty or his +learning; witness such lines as these:-- + + "My parents natives of Lombardy were." + "They'll come to blood and then the savage party." + "Like as at Palo near the Quarnaro." + "I am not Aeneas; I am not Paul." + +We have exhibited sufficiently the merits of what its author +declares to be "perhaps a better translation" than any other. He +says that "the whole Divine Comedy of which these ten cantos are a +specimen will appear in due time." If the specimen be a fair one, +the translation of the "Purgatory" and the "Paradise" will not appear +until after the publication of Dr. Carlyle's prose version, for +which we may yet have to wait some time. + +We are confident that so honorable a publishing house as that of +Messrs. Ticknor and Fields must have been unaware of the character +of a book so full of false pretences, when they allowed their name +to be put on the title-page. But to make up for even unconscious +participation in such a literary imposition, we trust that they will +soon put to press the remainder of Dr. Parsons's excellent +translation of Dante's poem, a specimen of which appeared so long +since, bearing their imprint. + + + * * * * * + + + + _City Poems_. By ALEXANDER SMITH, Author of "A Life Drama, and + other Poems." Boston: Ticknor & Fields. + +On the first appearance of Alexander Smith, criticism became +light-headed, and fairly exhausted its whole vocabulary of panegyric +in giving him welcome. "There is not a page in this volume on which +we cannot find some novel image, _some Shakspearian felicity_ of +expression, or some striking simile," said the critic of the +"Westminster Review." "Having read these extracts," said another +exponent of public opinion, "turn _to any poet you will_, and +compare the texture of the composition,--it is a severe test, but +you will find that Alexander Smith bears it well." It was observable, +however, that all this praise was lavished on what were styled +"beauties." Passages and single lines, bricks from the edifice, were +extravagantly eulogized; but on turning to the poems, it was found +that the poetical lines and passages were not parts of a whole, that +the bricks formed no edifice at all. There were no indications of +creative genius, no shaping or constructive power, no substance and +fibre of individuality, no signs of a great poetical nature, but a +splendid anarchy of sensations and faculties. The separate beauties, +as the author had heaped and huddled them together, presented a +total result of deformity. It was also found, that, striking as some +of the images, metaphors, and similes were, they gave little poetic +satisfaction or delight. A certain thinness of sentiment, poverty of +idea, and shallowness of experience, were not hidden from view, to +one who looked sharply through the gorgeous wrappings of words. A +small, but sensitive and facile nature, capable of fully expressing +itself by the grace of a singularly fluent fancy, with an appetite +for beauty rather than a passion for it, with no essential +imagination and opulence of soul,--this was the mortifying result to +which we were conducted by analysis. Still, it was asserted that the +luxuriance of the young poet's mind promised much; let a few years +pass, and Tennyson and Browning and Elizabeth Barrett would be at +his feet. A few years have passed, and here is his second volume. It +has less richness of fancy than the first, but its merits and +demerits are the same. The man has not yet grown into a poet,--has +not yet learned that the foliage, flowers, and fruits of the mind +should be connected with primal roots in its individual being. These +are still tied on, in his old manner, to a succession of thoughts +and emotions, which have themselves little vital connection with +each other. The "hey-day in his blood," which gave an appearance of +exulting and abounding life to his first poems, has somewhat +subsided now, and the effect is, that "The City Poems," as a whole, +are leaner in spirit, and more morbid and despondent in tone, than +the "Life Drama." Yet there is still so much that is superficially +striking in the volume, such a waste of imagery and emotion, and so +many occasional lines and epithets of real power and beauty, that we +close the volume with some vexation and pain at our inability to +award it the praise which many readers will think it deserves. + + * * * * * + + + +FOREIGN. + + + _Der Reichspostreiter in Ludwigsburg, Novelle auf geschichtlichem + Hintergrunde_. Von Robert Heller. 1858. + +A very interesting novel indeed, sketching life at the little court +of the Duke of Wurtemberg at the beginning of the eighteenth century, +and the overthrow of the government of a famous mistress of the Duke, +the Countess Wuerben. The main points of interest in the story are +historical, and the tissue of fiction interwoven with these is +remarkably well arranged. Herr Heller belongs to the school of +German novelists who, like Hermann Kurz, and others of minor mark, +make a copious and comprehensive use of historical facts in Art. +Their object and aim seem to be rather to illustrate and embody the +historical facts in the flesh and blood of tangible reality, than +merely to amuse by transforming history into a material for poetical +entertainment. With all that, the abovenamed little volume is amply +worth reading. + + + + _Une Ete dans le Sahara_, par Eugene Fromentin. Paris. 1857. + +A painter describes here a summer journey through the Desert of +Sahara, as far south from Algiers as El Aghouat, in the year 1853. +There is not much that is new in this book, considering the many +later and far more comprehensive and extensive illustrations of life +in the Great Desert, since published by Bayard Taylor, Barth, and +others; but it is a very interesting picture of this life, as seen +and drawn by a painter. His descriptions contain many landscape and +_genre_ pictures, by means of which a vivid idea of the scenery +and life are conveyed to the imagination of the reader. + + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. I., No. 3, +January 1858, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ATLANTIC MONTHLY, JANUARY 1858 *** + +***** This file should be named 8947.txt or 8947.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/8/9/4/8947/ + +Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, Robert Prince and Distributed +Proofreaders + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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