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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/9222-0.txt b/9222-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5d17b23 --- /dev/null +++ b/9222-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,914 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook of A Select Party, by Nathaniel Hawthorne + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and +most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms +of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at +www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you +will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before +using this eBook. + +Title: A Select Party + +Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne + +Release Date: September 6, 2003 [eBook #9222] +[Most recently updated: November 9, 2022] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +Produced by: David Widger and Al Haines + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A SELECT PARTY *** + + + + +A Select Party + +by Nathaniel Hawthorne + + + + +The man of fancy made an entertainment at one of his castles in the +air, and invited a select number of distinguished personages to favor +him with their presence. The mansion, though less splendid than many +that have been situated in the same region, was nevertheless of a +magnificence such as is seldom witnessed by those acquainted only with +terrestrial architecture. Its strong foundations and massive walls were +quarried out of a ledge of heavy and sombre clouds which had hung +brooding over the earth, apparently as dense and ponderous as its own +granite, throughout a whole autumnal day. Perceiving that the general +effect was gloomy,—so that the airy castle looked like a feudal +fortress, or a monastery of the Middle Ages, or a state prison of our +own times, rather than the home of pleasure and repose which he +intended it to be,—the owner, regardless of expense, resolved to gild +the exterior from top to bottom. Fortunately, there was just then a +flood of evening sunshine in the air. This being gathered up and poured +abundantly upon the roof and walls, imbued them with a kind of solemn +cheerfulness; while the cupolas and pinnacles were made to glitter with +the purest gold, and all the hundred windows gleamed with a glad light, +as if the edifice itself were rejoicing in its heart. + +And now, if the people of the lower world chanced to be looking upward +out of the turmoil of their petty perplexities, they probably mistook +the castle in the air for a heap of sunset clouds, to which the magic +of light and shade had imparted the aspect of a fantastically +constructed mansion. To such beholders it was unreal, because they +lacked the imaginative faith. Had they been worthy to pass within its +portal, they would have recognized the truth, that the dominions which +the spirit conquers for itself among unrealities become a thousand +times more real than the earth whereon they stamp their feet, saying, +“This is solid and substantial; this may be called a fact.” + +At the appointed hour, the host stood in his great saloon to receive +the company. It was a vast and noble room, the vaulted ceiling of which +was supported by double rows of gigantic pillars that had been hewn +entire out of masses of variegated clouds. So brilliantly were they +polished, and so exquisitely wrought by the sculptor’s skill, as to +resemble the finest specimens of emerald, porphyry, opal, and +chrysolite, thus producing a delicate richness of effect which their +immense size rendered not incompatible with grandeur. To each of these +pillars a meteor was suspended. Thousands of these ethereal lustres are +continually wandering about the firmament, burning out to waste, yet +capable of imparting a useful radiance to any person who has the art of +converting them to domestic purposes. As managed in the saloon, they +are far more economical than ordinary lamplight. Such, however, was the +intensity of their blaze that it had been found expedient to cover each +meteor with a globe of evening mist, thereby muffling the too potent +glow and soothing it into a mild and comfortable splendor. It was like +the brilliancy of a powerful yet chastened imagination,—a light which +seemed to hide whatever was unworthy to be noticed and give effect to +every beautiful and noble attribute. The guests, therefore, as they +advanced up the centre of the saloon, appeared to better advantage than +ever before in their lives. + +The first that entered, with old-fashioned punctuality, was a venerable +figure in the costume of bygone days, with his white hair flowing down +over his shoulders and a reverend beard upon his breast. He leaned upon +a staff, the tremulous stroke of which, as he set it carefully upon the +floor, re-echoed through the saloon at every footstep. Recognizing at +once this celebrated personage, whom it had cost him a vast deal of +trouble and research to discover, the host advanced nearly three +fourths of the distance down between the pillars to meet and welcome +him. + +“Venerable sir,” said the Man of Fancy, bending to the floor, “the +honor of this visit would never be forgotten were my term of existence +to be as happily prolonged as your own.” + +The old gentleman received the compliment with gracious condescension. +He then thrust up his spectacles over his forehead and appeared to take +a critical survey of the saloon. + +“Never within my recollection,” observed he, “have I entered a more +spacious and noble hall. But are you sure that it is built of solid +materials and that the structure will be permanent?” + +“O, never fear, my venerable friend,” replied the host. “In reference +to a lifetime like your own, it is true my castle may well be called a +temporary edifice. But it will endure long enough to answer all the +purposes for which it was erected.” + +But we forget that the reader has not yet been made acquainted with the +guest. It was no other than that universally accredited character so +constantly referred to in all seasons of intense cold or heat; he that, +remembers the hot Sunday and the cold Friday; the witness of a past age +whose negative reminiscences find their way into every newspaper, yet +whose antiquated and dusky abode is so overshadowed by accumulated +years and crowded back by modern edifices that none but the Man of +Fancy could have discovered it; it was, in short, that twin brother of +Time, and great-grandsire of mankind, and hand-and-glove associate of +all forgotten men and things,—the Oldest Inhabitant. The host would +willingly have drawn him into conversation, but succeeded only in +eliciting a few remarks as to the oppressive atmosphere of this present +summer evening compared with one which the guest had experienced about +fourscore years ago. The old gentleman, in fact, was a good deal +overcome by his journey among the clouds, which, to a frame so +earth-incrusted by long continuance in a lower region, was unavoidably +more fatiguing than to younger spirits. He was therefore conducted to +an easy-chair, well cushioned and stuffed with vaporous softness, and +left to take a little repose. + +The Man of Fancy now discerned another guest, who stood so quietly in +the shadow of one of the pillars that he might easily have been +overlooked. + +“My dear sir,” exclaimed the host, grasping him warmly by the hand, +“allow me to greet you as the hero of the evening. Pray do not take it +as an empty compliment; for, if there were not another guest in my +castle, it would be entirely pervaded with your presence.” + +“I thank you,” answered the unpretending stranger; “but, though you +happened to overlook me, I have not just arrived. I came very early; +and, with your permission, shall remain after the rest of the company +have retired.” + +And who does the reader imagine was this unobtrusive guest? It was the +famous performer of acknowledged impossibilities,—a character of +superhuman capacity and virtue, and, if his enemies are to be credited, +of no less remarkable weaknesses and defects. With a generosity with +which he alone sets us an example, we will glance merely at his nobler +attributes. He it is, then, who prefers the interests of others to his +own and a humble station to an exalted one. Careless of fashion, +custom, the opinions of men, and the influence of the press, he +assimilates his life to the standard of ideal rectitude, and thus +proves himself the one independent citizen of our free country. In +point of ability, many people declare him to be the only mathematician +capable of squaring the circle; the only mechanic acquainted with the +principle of perpetual motion; the only scientific philosopher who can +compel water to run up hill; the only writer of the age whose genius is +equal to the production of an epic poem; and, finally, so various are +his accomplishments, the only professor of gymnastics who has succeeded +in jumping down his own throat. With all these talents, however, he is +so far from being considered a member of good society, that it is the +severest censure of any fashionable assemblage to affirm that this +remarkable individual was present. Public orators, lecturers, and +theatrical performers particularly eschew his company. For especial +reasons, we are not at liberty to disclose his name, and shall mention +only one other trait,—a most singular phenomenon in natural +philosophy,—that, when he happens to cast his eyes upon a +looking-glass, he beholds Nobody reflected there! + +Several other guests now made their appearance; and among them, +chattering with immense volubility, a brisk little gentleman of +universal vogue in private society, and not unknown in the public +journals under the title of Monsieur On-Dit. The name would seem to +indicate a Frenchman; but, whatever be his country, he is thoroughly +versed in all the languages of the day, and can express himself quite +as much to the purpose in English as in any other tongue. No sooner +were the ceremonies of salutation over than this talkative little +person put his mouth to the host’s ear and whispered three secrets of +state, an important piece of commercial intelligence, and a rich item +of fashionable scandal. He then assured the Man of Fancy that he would +not fail to circulate in the society of the lower world a minute +description of this magnificent castle in the air and of the +festivities at which he had the honor to be a guest. So saying, +Monsieur On-Dit made his bow and hurried from one to another of the +company, with all of whom he seemed to be acquainted and to possess +some topic of interest or amusement for every individual. Coming at +last to the Oldest Inhabitant, who was slumbering comfortably in the +easy-chair, he applied his mouth to that venerable ear. + +“What do you say?” cried the old gentleman, starting from his nap and +putting up his hand to serve the purpose of an ear-trumpet. + +Monsieur On-Dit bent forward again and repeated his communication. + +“Never within my memory,” exclaimed the Oldest Inhabitant, lifting his +hands in astonishment, “has so remarkable an incident been heard of.” + +Now came in the Clerk of the Weather, who had been invited out of +deference to his official station, although the host was well aware +that his conversation was likely to contribute but little to the +general enjoyment. He soon, indeed, got into a corner with his +acquaintance of long ago, the Oldest Inhabitant, and began to compare +notes with him in reference to the great storms, gales of wind, and +other atmospherical facts that had occurred during a century past. It +rejoiced the Man of Fancy that his venerable and much-respected guest +had met with so congenial an associate. Entreating them both to make +themselves perfectly at home, he now turned to receive the Wandering +Jew. This personage, however, had latterly grown so common, by mingling +in all sorts of society and appearing at the beck of every entertainer, +that he could hardly be deemed a proper guest in a very exclusive +circle. Besides, being covered with dust from his continual wanderings +along the highways of the world, he really looked out of place in a +dress party; so that the host felt relieved of an incommodity when the +restless individual in question, after a brief stay, took his departure +on a ramble towards Oregon. + +The portal was now thronged by a crowd of shadowy people with whom the +Man of Fancy had been acquainted in his visionary youth. He had invited +them hither for the sake of observing how they would compare, whether +advantageously or otherwise, with the real characters to whom his +maturer life had introduced him. They were beings of crude imagination, +such as glide before a young man’s eye and pretend to be actual +inhabitants of the earth; the wise and witty with whom he would +hereafter hold intercourse; the generous and heroic friends whose +devotion would be requited with his own; the beautiful dream-woman who +would become the helpmate of his human toils and sorrows and at once +the source and partaker of his happiness. Alas! it is not good for the +full-grown man to look too closely at these old acquaintances, but +rather to reverence them at a distance through the medium of years that +have gathered duskily between. There was something laughably untrue in +their pompous stride and exaggerated sentiment; they were neither human +nor tolerable likenesses of humanity, but fantastic maskers, rendering +heroism and nature alike ridiculous by the grave absurdity of their +pretensions to such attributes; and as for the peerless dream-lady, +behold! there advanced up the saloon, with a movement like a jointed +doll, a sort of wax-figure of an angel, a creature as cold as +moonshine, an artifice in petticoats, with an intellect of pretty +phrases and only the semblance of a heart, yet in all these particulars +the true type of a young man’s imaginary mistress. Hardly could the +host’s punctilious courtesy restrain a smile as he paid his respects to +this unreality and met the sentimental glance with which the Dream +sought to remind him of their former love passages. + +“No, no, fair lady,” murmured he betwixt sighing and smiling; “my taste +is changed; I have learned to love what Nature makes better than my own +creations in the guise of womanhood.” + +“Ah, false one,” shrieked the dream-lady, pretending to faint, but +dissolving into thin air, out of which came the deplorable murmur of +her voice, “your inconstancy has annihilated me.” + +“So be it,” said the cruel Man of Fancy to himself; “and a good +riddance too.” + +Together with these shadows, and from the same region, there came an +uninvited multitude of shapes which at any time during his life had +tormented the Man of Fancy in his moods of morbid melancholy or had +haunted him in the delirium of fever. The walls of his castle in the +air were not dense enough to keep them out, nor would the strongest of +earthly architecture have availed to their exclusion. Here were those +forms of dim terror which had beset him at the entrance of life, waging +warfare with his hopes; here were strange uglinesses of earlier date, +such as haunt children in the night-time. He was particularly startled +by the vision of a deformed old black woman whom he imagined as lurking +in the garret of his native home, and who, when he was an infant, had +once come to his bedside and grinned at him in the crisis of a scarlet +fever. This same black shadow, with others almost as hideous, now +glided among the pillars of the magnificent saloon, grinning +recognition, until the man shuddered anew at the forgotten terrors of +his childhood. It amused him, however, to observe the black woman, with +the mischievous caprice peculiar to such beings, steal up to the chair +of the Oldest Inhabitant and peep into his half-dreamy mind. + +“Never within my memory,” muttered that venerable personage, aghast, +“did I see such a face.” + +Almost immediately after the unrealities just described, arrived a +number of guests whom incredulous readers may be inclined to rank +equally among creatures of imagination. The most noteworthy were an +incorruptible Patriot; a Scholar without pedantry; a Priest without +worldly ambition; and a Beautiful Woman without pride or coquetry; a +Married Pair whose life had never been disturbed by incongruity of +feeling; a Reformer untrammelled by his theory; and a Poet who felt no +jealousy towards other votaries of the lyre. In truth, however, the +host was not one of the cynics who consider these patterns of +excellence, without the fatal flaw, such rarities in the world; and he +had invited them to his select party chiefly out of humble deference to +the judgment of society, which pronounces them almost impossible to be +met with. + +“In my younger days,” observed the Oldest Inhabitant, “such characters +might be seen at the corner of every street.” + +Be that as it might, these specimens of perfection proved to be not +half so entertaining companions as people with the ordinary allowance +of faults. + +But now appeared a stranger, whom the host had no sooner recognized +than, with an abundance of courtesy unlavished on any other, he +hastened down the whole length of the saloon in order to pay him +emphatic honor. Yet he was a young man in poor attire, with no insignia +of rank or acknowledged eminence, nor anything to distinguish him among +the crowd except a high, white forehead, beneath which a pair of +deep-set eyes were glowing with warm light. It was such a light as +never illuminates the earth save when a great heart burns as the +household fire of a grand intellect. And who was he?—who but the Master +Genius for whom our country is looking anxiously into the mist of Time, +as destined to fulfil the great mission of creating an American +literature, hewing it, as it were, out of the unwrought granite of our +intellectual quarries? From him, whether moulded in the form of an epic +poem or assuming a guise altogether new as the spirit itself may +determine, we are to receive our first great original work, which shall +do all that remains to be achieved for our glory among the nations. How +this child of a mighty destiny had been discovered by the Man of Fancy +it is of little consequence to mention. Suffice it that he dwells as +yet unhonored among men, unrecognized by those who have known him from +his cradle; the noble countenance which should be distinguished by a +halo diffused around it passes daily amid the throng of people toiling +and troubling themselves about the trifles of a moment, and none pay +reverence to the worker of immortality. Nor does it matter much to him, +in his triumph over all the ages, though a generation or two of his own +times shall do themselves the wrong to disregard him. + +By this time Monsieur On-Dit had caught up the stranger’s name and +destiny and was busily whispering the intelligence among the other +guests. + +“Pshaw!” said one. “There can never be an American genius.” + +“Pish!” cried another. “We have already as good poets as any in the +world. For my part, I desire to see no better.” + +And the Oldest Inhabitant, when it was proposed to introduce him to the +Master Genius, begged to be excused, observing that a man who had been +honored with the acquaintance of Dwight, and Freneau, and Joel Barlow, +might be allowed a little austerity of taste. + +The saloon was now fast filling up by the arrival of other remarkable +characters, among whom were noticed Davy Jones, the distinguished +nautical personage, and a rude, carelessly dressed, harum-scarum sort +of elderly fellow, known by the nickname of Old Harry. The latter, +however, after being shown to a dressing-room, reappeared with his gray +hair nicely combed, his clothes brushed, a clean dicky on his neck, and +altogether so changed in aspect as to merit the more respectful +appellation of Venerable Henry. Joel Doe and Richard Roe came arm in +arm, accompanied by a Man of Straw, a fictitious indorser, and several +persons who had no existence except as voters in closely contested +elections. The celebrated Seatsfield, who now entered, was at first +supposed to belong to the same brotherhood, until he made it apparent +that he was a real man of flesh and blood and had his earthly domicile +in Germany. Among the latest comers, as might reasonably be expected, +arrived a guest from the far future. + +“Do you know him? do you know him?” whispered Monsieur On-Dit, who +seemed to be acquainted with everybody. “He is the representative of +Posterity,—the man of an age to come.” + +“And how came he here?” asked a figure who was evidently the prototype +of the fashion-plate in a magazine, and might be taken to represent the +vanities of the passing moment. “The fellow infringes upon our rights +by coming before his time.” + +“But you forget where we are,” answered the Man of Fancy, who overheard +the remark. “The lower earth, it is true, will be forbidden ground to +him for many long years hence; but a castle in the air is a sort of +no-man’s-land, where Posterity may make acquaintance with us on equal +terms.” + +No sooner was his identity known than a throng of guests gathered about +Posterity, all expressing the most generous interest in his welfare, +and many boasting of the sacrifices which they had made, or were +willing to make, in his behalf. Some, with as much secrecy as possible, +desired his judgment upon certain copies of verses or great manuscript +rolls of prose; others accosted him with the familiarity of old +friends, taking it for granted that he was perfectly cognizant of their +names and characters. At length, finding himself thus beset, Posterity +was put quite beside his patience. + +“Gentlemen, my good friends,” cried he, breaking loose from a misty +poet who strove to hold him by the button, “I pray you to attend to +your own business, and leave me to take care of mine! I expect to owe +you nothing, unless it be certain national debts, and other +encumbrances and impediments, physical and moral, which I shall find it +troublesome enough to remove from my path. As to your verses, pray read +them to your contemporaries. Your names are as strange to me as your +faces; and even were it otherwise,—let me whisper you a secret,—the +cold, icy memory which one generation may retain of another is but a +poor recompense to barter life for. Yet, if your heart is set on being +known to me, the surest, the only method is, to live truly and wisely +for your own age, whereby, if the native force be in you, you may +likewise live for posterity.” + +“It is nonsense,” murmured the Oldest Inhabitant, who, as a man of the +past, felt jealous that all notice should be withdrawn from himself to +be lavished on the future, “sheer nonsense, to waste so much thought on +what only is to be.” + +To divert the minds of his guests, who were considerably abashed by +this little incident, the Man of Fancy led them through several +apartments of the castle, receiving their compliments upon the taste +and varied magnificence that were displayed in each. One of these rooms +was filled with moonlight, which did not enter through the window, but +was the aggregate of all the moonshine that is scattered around the +earth on a summer night while no eyes are awake to enjoy its beauty. +Airy spirits had gathered it up, wherever they found it gleaming on the +broad bosom of a lake, or silvering the meanders of a stream, or +glimmering among the wind-stirred boughs of a wood, and had garnered it +in this one spacious hall. Along the walls, illuminated by the mild +intensity of the moonshine, stood a multitude of ideal statues, the +original conceptions of the great works of ancient or modern art, which +the sculptors did but imperfectly succeed in putting into marble; for +it is not to be supposed that the pure idea of an immortal creation +ceases to exist; it is only necessary to know where they are deposited +in order to obtain possession of them.—In the alcoves of another vast +apartment was arranged a splendid library, the volumes of which were +inestimable, because they consisted, not of actual performances, but of +the works which the authors only planned, without ever finding the +happy season to achieve them. To take familiar instances, here were the +untold tales of Chaucer’s Canterbury Pilgrims; the unwritten cantos of +the Fairy Queen; the conclusion of Coleridge’s Christabel; and the +whole of Dryden’s projected epic on the subject of King Arthur. The +shelves were crowded; for it would not be too much to affirm that every +author has imagined and shaped out in his thought more and far better +works than those which actually proceeded from his pen. And here, +likewise, where the unrealized conceptions of youthful poets who died +of the very strength of their own genius before the world had caught +one inspired murmur from their lips. + +When the peculiarities of the library and statue-gallery were explained +to the Oldest Inhabitant, he appeared infinitely perplexed, and +exclaimed, with more energy than usual, that he had never heard of such +a thing within his memory, and, moreover, did not at all understand how +it could be. + +“But my brain, I think,” said the good old gentleman, “is getting not +so clear as it used to be. You young folks, I suppose, can see your way +through these strange matters. For my part, I give it up.” + +“And so do I,” muttered the Old Harry. “It is enough to puzzle +the—Ahem!” + +Making as little reply as possible to these observations, the Man of +Fancy preceded the company to another noble saloon, the pillars of +which were solid golden sunbeams taken out of the sky in the first hour +in the morning. Thus, as they retained all their living lustre, the +room was filled with the most cheerful radiance imaginable, yet not too +dazzling to be borne with comfort and delight. The windows were +beautifully adorned with curtains made of the many-colored clouds of +sunrise, all imbued with virgin light, and hanging in magnificent +festoons from the ceiling to the floor. Moreover, there were fragments +of rainbows scattered through the room; so that the guests, astonished +at one another, reciprocally saw their heads made glorious by the seven +primary hues; or, if they chose,—as who would not?—they could grasp a +rainbow in the air and convert it to their own apparel and adornment. +But the morning light and scattered rainbows were only a type and +symbol of the real wonders of the apartment. By an influence akin to +magic, yet perfectly natural, whatever means and opportunities of joy +are neglected in the lower world had been carefully gathered up and +deposited in the saloon of morning sunshine. As may well be conceived, +therefore, there was material enough to supply, not merely a joyous +evening, but also a happy lifetime, to more than as many people as that +spacious apartment could contain. The company seemed to renew their +youth; while that pattern and proverbial standard of innocence, the +Child Unborn, frolicked to and fro among them, communicating his own +unwrinkled gayety to all who had the good fortune to witness his +gambols. + +“My honored friends,” said the Man of Fancy, after they had enjoyed +themselves awhile, “I am now to request your presence in the +banqueting-hall, where a slight collation is awaiting you.” + +“Ah, well said!” ejaculated a cadaverous figure, who had been invited +for no other reason than that he was pretty constantly in the habit of +dining with Duke Humphrey. “I was beginning to wonder whether a castle +in the air were provided with a kitchen.” + +It was curious, in truth, to see how instantaneously the guests were +diverted from the high moral enjoyments which they had been tasting +with so much apparent zest by a suggestion of the more solid as well as +liquid delights of the festive board. They thronged eagerly in the rear +of the host, who now ushered them into a lofty and extensive hall, from +end to end of which was arranged a table, glittering all over with +innumerable dishes and drinking-vessels of gold. It is an uncertain +point whether these rich articles of plate were made for the occasion +out of molten sunbeams, or recovered from the wrecks of Spanish +galleons that had lain for ages at the bottom of the sea. The upper end +of the table was overshadowed by a canopy, beneath which was placed a +chair of elaborate magnificence, which the host himself declined to +occupy, and besought his guests to assign it to the worthiest among +them. As a suitable homage to his incalculable antiquity and eminent +distinction, the post of honor was at first tendered to the Oldest +Inhabitant. He, however, eschewed it, and requested the favor of a bowl +of gruel at a side table, where he could refresh himself with a quiet +nap. There was some little hesitation as to the next candidate, until +Posterity took the Master Genius of our country by the hand and led him +to the chair of state beneath the princely canopy. When once they +beheld him in his true place, the company acknowledged the justice of +the selection by a long thunder-roll of vehement applause. + +Then was served up a banquet, combining, if not all the delicacies of +the season, yet all the rarities which careful purveyors had met with +in the flesh, fish, and vegetable markets of the land of Nowhere. The +bill of fare being unfortunately lost, we can only mention a phoenix, +roasted in its own flames, cold potted birds of paradise, ice-creams +from the Milky-Way, and whip syllabubs and flummery from the Paradise +of Fools, whereof there was a very great consumption. As for +drinkables, the temperance people contented themselves with water as +usual; but it was the water of the Fountain of Youth; the ladies sipped +Nepenthe; the lovelorn, the careworn, and the sorrow-stricken were +supplied with brimming goblets of Lethe; and it was shrewdly +conjectured that a certain golden vase, from which only the more +distinguished guests were invited to partake, contained nectar that had +been mellowing ever since the days of classical mythology. The cloth +being removed, the company, as usual, grew eloquent over their liquor +and delivered themselves of a succession of brilliant speeches,—the +task of reporting which we resign to the more adequate ability of +Counsellor Gill, whose indispensable co-operation the Man of Fancy had +taken the precaution to secure. + +When the festivity of the banquet was at its most ethereal point, the +Clerk of the Weather was observed to steal from the table and thrust +his head between the purple and golden curtains of one of the windows. + +“My fellow-guests,” he remarked aloud, after carefully noting the signs +of the night, “I advise such of you as live at a distance to be going +as soon as possible; for a thunder-storm is certainly at hand.” + +“Mercy on me!” cried Mother Carey, who had left her brood of chickens +and come hither in gossamer drapery, with pink silk stockings. “How +shall I ever get home?” + +All now was confusion and hasty departure, with but little superfluous +leave-taking. The Oldest Inhabitant, however, true to the rule of those +long past days in which his courtesy had been studied, paused on the +threshold of the meteor-lighted hall to express his vast satisfaction +at the entertainment. + +“Never, within my memory,” observed the gracious old gentleman, “has it +been my good fortune to spend a pleasanter evening or in more select +society.” + +The wind here took his breath away, whirled his three-cornered hat into +infinite space, and drowned what further compliments it had been his +purpose to bestow. Many of the company had bespoken will-o’-the-wisps +to convoy them home; and the host, in his general beneficence, had +engaged the Man in the Moon, with an immense horn-lantern, to be the +guide of such desolate spinsters as could do no better for themselves. +But a blast of the rising tempest blew out all their lights in the +twinkling of an eye. How, in the darkness that ensued, the guests +contrived to get back to earth, or whether the greater part of them +contrived to get back at all, or are still wandering among clouds, +mists, and puffs of tempestuous wind, bruised by the beams and rafters +of the overthrown castle in the air, and deluded by all sorts of +unrealities, are points that concern themselves much more than the +writer or the public. People should think of these matters before they +trust themselves on a pleasure-party into the realm of Nowhere. + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A SELECT PARTY *** + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will +be renamed. + +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law 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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You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms +of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online +at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you +are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the +country where you are located before using this eBook. +</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: A Select Party</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: September 6, 2003 [eBook #9222]<br /> +[Most recently updated: November 9, 2022]</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: David Widger and Al Haines</div> +<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A SELECT PARTY ***</div> + +<h1>A Select Party</h1> + +<h2 class="no-break">by Nathaniel Hawthorne</h2> + +<hr /> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<p> +The man of fancy made an entertainment at one of his castles in the air, and +invited a select number of distinguished personages to favor him with their +presence. The mansion, though less splendid than many that have been situated +in the same region, was nevertheless of a magnificence such as is seldom +witnessed by those acquainted only with terrestrial architecture. Its strong +foundations and massive walls were quarried out of a ledge of heavy and sombre +clouds which had hung brooding over the earth, apparently as dense and +ponderous as its own granite, throughout a whole autumnal day. Perceiving that +the general effect was gloomy,—so that the airy castle looked like a +feudal fortress, or a monastery of the Middle Ages, or a state prison of our +own times, rather than the home of pleasure and repose which he intended it to +be,—the owner, regardless of expense, resolved to gild the exterior from +top to bottom. Fortunately, there was just then a flood of evening sunshine in +the air. This being gathered up and poured abundantly upon the roof and walls, +imbued them with a kind of solemn cheerfulness; while the cupolas and pinnacles +were made to glitter with the purest gold, and all the hundred windows gleamed +with a glad light, as if the edifice itself were rejoicing in its heart. +</p> + +<p> +And now, if the people of the lower world chanced to be looking upward out of +the turmoil of their petty perplexities, they probably mistook the castle in +the air for a heap of sunset clouds, to which the magic of light and shade had +imparted the aspect of a fantastically constructed mansion. To such beholders +it was unreal, because they lacked the imaginative faith. Had they been worthy +to pass within its portal, they would have recognized the truth, that the +dominions which the spirit conquers for itself among unrealities become a +thousand times more real than the earth whereon they stamp their feet, saying, +“This is solid and substantial; this may be called a fact.” +</p> + +<p> +At the appointed hour, the host stood in his great saloon to receive the +company. It was a vast and noble room, the vaulted ceiling of which was +supported by double rows of gigantic pillars that had been hewn entire out of +masses of variegated clouds. So brilliantly were they polished, and so +exquisitely wrought by the sculptor’s skill, as to resemble the finest +specimens of emerald, porphyry, opal, and chrysolite, thus producing a delicate +richness of effect which their immense size rendered not incompatible with +grandeur. To each of these pillars a meteor was suspended. Thousands of these +ethereal lustres are continually wandering about the firmament, burning out to +waste, yet capable of imparting a useful radiance to any person who has the art +of converting them to domestic purposes. As managed in the saloon, they are far +more economical than ordinary lamplight. Such, however, was the intensity of +their blaze that it had been found expedient to cover each meteor with a globe +of evening mist, thereby muffling the too potent glow and soothing it into a +mild and comfortable splendor. It was like the brilliancy of a powerful yet +chastened imagination,—a light which seemed to hide whatever was unworthy +to be noticed and give effect to every beautiful and noble attribute. The +guests, therefore, as they advanced up the centre of the saloon, appeared to +better advantage than ever before in their lives. +</p> + +<p> +The first that entered, with old-fashioned punctuality, was a venerable figure +in the costume of bygone days, with his white hair flowing down over his +shoulders and a reverend beard upon his breast. He leaned upon a staff, the +tremulous stroke of which, as he set it carefully upon the floor, re-echoed +through the saloon at every footstep. Recognizing at once this celebrated +personage, whom it had cost him a vast deal of trouble and research to +discover, the host advanced nearly three fourths of the distance down between +the pillars to meet and welcome him. +</p> + +<p> +“Venerable sir,” said the Man of Fancy, bending to the floor, “the honor of +this visit would never be forgotten were my term of existence to be as happily +prolonged as your own.” +</p> + +<p> +The old gentleman received the compliment with gracious condescension. He then +thrust up his spectacles over his forehead and appeared to take a critical +survey of the saloon. +</p> + +<p> +“Never within my recollection,” observed he, “have I entered a more spacious +and noble hall. But are you sure that it is built of solid materials and that +the structure will be permanent?” +</p> + +<p> +“O, never fear, my venerable friend,” replied the host. “In reference to a +lifetime like your own, it is true my castle may well be called a temporary +edifice. But it will endure long enough to answer all the purposes for which it +was erected.” +</p> + +<p> +But we forget that the reader has not yet been made acquainted with the guest. +It was no other than that universally accredited character so constantly +referred to in all seasons of intense cold or heat; he that, remembers the hot +Sunday and the cold Friday; the witness of a past age whose negative +reminiscences find their way into every newspaper, yet whose antiquated and +dusky abode is so overshadowed by accumulated years and crowded back by modern +edifices that none but the Man of Fancy could have discovered it; it was, in +short, that twin brother of Time, and great-grandsire of mankind, and +hand-and-glove associate of all forgotten men and things,—the Oldest +Inhabitant. The host would willingly have drawn him into conversation, but +succeeded only in eliciting a few remarks as to the oppressive atmosphere of +this present summer evening compared with one which the guest had experienced +about fourscore years ago. The old gentleman, in fact, was a good deal overcome +by his journey among the clouds, which, to a frame so earth-incrusted by long +continuance in a lower region, was unavoidably more fatiguing than to younger +spirits. He was therefore conducted to an easy-chair, well cushioned and +stuffed with vaporous softness, and left to take a little repose. +</p> + +<p> +The Man of Fancy now discerned another guest, who stood so quietly in the +shadow of one of the pillars that he might easily have been overlooked. +</p> + +<p> +“My dear sir,” exclaimed the host, grasping him warmly by the hand, “allow me +to greet you as the hero of the evening. Pray do not take it as an empty +compliment; for, if there were not another guest in my castle, it would be +entirely pervaded with your presence.” +</p> + +<p> +“I thank you,” answered the unpretending stranger; “but, though you happened to +overlook me, I have not just arrived. I came very early; and, with your +permission, shall remain after the rest of the company have retired.” +</p> + +<p> +And who does the reader imagine was this unobtrusive guest? It was the famous +performer of acknowledged impossibilities,—a character of superhuman +capacity and virtue, and, if his enemies are to be credited, of no less +remarkable weaknesses and defects. With a generosity with which he alone sets +us an example, we will glance merely at his nobler attributes. He it is, then, +who prefers the interests of others to his own and a humble station to an +exalted one. Careless of fashion, custom, the opinions of men, and the +influence of the press, he assimilates his life to the standard of ideal +rectitude, and thus proves himself the one independent citizen of our free +country. In point of ability, many people declare him to be the only +mathematician capable of squaring the circle; the only mechanic acquainted with +the principle of perpetual motion; the only scientific philosopher who can +compel water to run up hill; the only writer of the age whose genius is equal +to the production of an epic poem; and, finally, so various are his +accomplishments, the only professor of gymnastics who has succeeded in jumping +down his own throat. With all these talents, however, he is so far from being +considered a member of good society, that it is the severest censure of any +fashionable assemblage to affirm that this remarkable individual was present. +Public orators, lecturers, and theatrical performers particularly eschew his +company. For especial reasons, we are not at liberty to disclose his name, and +shall mention only one other trait,—a most singular phenomenon in natural +philosophy,—that, when he happens to cast his eyes upon a looking-glass, +he beholds Nobody reflected there! +</p> + +<p> +Several other guests now made their appearance; and among them, chattering with +immense volubility, a brisk little gentleman of universal vogue in private +society, and not unknown in the public journals under the title of Monsieur +On-Dit. The name would seem to indicate a Frenchman; but, whatever be his +country, he is thoroughly versed in all the languages of the day, and can +express himself quite as much to the purpose in English as in any other tongue. +No sooner were the ceremonies of salutation over than this talkative little +person put his mouth to the host’s ear and whispered three secrets of state, an +important piece of commercial intelligence, and a rich item of fashionable +scandal. He then assured the Man of Fancy that he would not fail to circulate +in the society of the lower world a minute description of this magnificent +castle in the air and of the festivities at which he had the honor to be a +guest. So saying, Monsieur On-Dit made his bow and hurried from one to another +of the company, with all of whom he seemed to be acquainted and to possess some +topic of interest or amusement for every individual. Coming at last to the +Oldest Inhabitant, who was slumbering comfortably in the easy-chair, he applied +his mouth to that venerable ear. +</p> + +<p> +“What do you say?” cried the old gentleman, starting from his nap and putting +up his hand to serve the purpose of an ear-trumpet. +</p> + +<p> +Monsieur On-Dit bent forward again and repeated his communication. +</p> + +<p> +“Never within my memory,” exclaimed the Oldest Inhabitant, lifting his hands in +astonishment, “has so remarkable an incident been heard of.” +</p> + +<p> +Now came in the Clerk of the Weather, who had been invited out of deference to +his official station, although the host was well aware that his conversation +was likely to contribute but little to the general enjoyment. He soon, indeed, +got into a corner with his acquaintance of long ago, the Oldest Inhabitant, and +began to compare notes with him in reference to the great storms, gales of +wind, and other atmospherical facts that had occurred during a century past. It +rejoiced the Man of Fancy that his venerable and much-respected guest had met +with so congenial an associate. Entreating them both to make themselves +perfectly at home, he now turned to receive the Wandering Jew. This personage, +however, had latterly grown so common, by mingling in all sorts of society and +appearing at the beck of every entertainer, that he could hardly be deemed a +proper guest in a very exclusive circle. Besides, being covered with dust from +his continual wanderings along the highways of the world, he really looked out +of place in a dress party; so that the host felt relieved of an incommodity +when the restless individual in question, after a brief stay, took his +departure on a ramble towards Oregon. +</p> + +<p> +The portal was now thronged by a crowd of shadowy people with whom the Man of +Fancy had been acquainted in his visionary youth. He had invited them hither +for the sake of observing how they would compare, whether advantageously or +otherwise, with the real characters to whom his maturer life had introduced +him. They were beings of crude imagination, such as glide before a young man’s +eye and pretend to be actual inhabitants of the earth; the wise and witty with +whom he would hereafter hold intercourse; the generous and heroic friends whose +devotion would be requited with his own; the beautiful dream-woman who would +become the helpmate of his human toils and sorrows and at once the source and +partaker of his happiness. Alas! it is not good for the full-grown man to look +too closely at these old acquaintances, but rather to reverence them at a +distance through the medium of years that have gathered duskily between. There +was something laughably untrue in their pompous stride and exaggerated +sentiment; they were neither human nor tolerable likenesses of humanity, but +fantastic maskers, rendering heroism and nature alike ridiculous by the grave +absurdity of their pretensions to such attributes; and as for the peerless +dream-lady, behold! there advanced up the saloon, with a movement like a +jointed doll, a sort of wax-figure of an angel, a creature as cold as +moonshine, an artifice in petticoats, with an intellect of pretty phrases and +only the semblance of a heart, yet in all these particulars the true type of a +young man’s imaginary mistress. Hardly could the host’s punctilious courtesy +restrain a smile as he paid his respects to this unreality and met the +sentimental glance with which the Dream sought to remind him of their former +love passages. +</p> + +<p> +“No, no, fair lady,” murmured he betwixt sighing and smiling; “my taste is +changed; I have learned to love what Nature makes better than my own creations +in the guise of womanhood.” +</p> + +<p> +“Ah, false one,” shrieked the dream-lady, pretending to faint, but dissolving +into thin air, out of which came the deplorable murmur of her voice, “your +inconstancy has annihilated me.” +</p> + +<p> +“So be it,” said the cruel Man of Fancy to himself; “and a good riddance too.” +</p> + +<p> +Together with these shadows, and from the same region, there came an uninvited +multitude of shapes which at any time during his life had tormented the Man of +Fancy in his moods of morbid melancholy or had haunted him in the delirium of +fever. The walls of his castle in the air were not dense enough to keep them +out, nor would the strongest of earthly architecture have availed to their +exclusion. Here were those forms of dim terror which had beset him at the +entrance of life, waging warfare with his hopes; here were strange uglinesses +of earlier date, such as haunt children in the night-time. He was particularly +startled by the vision of a deformed old black woman whom he imagined as +lurking in the garret of his native home, and who, when he was an infant, had +once come to his bedside and grinned at him in the crisis of a scarlet fever. +This same black shadow, with others almost as hideous, now glided among the +pillars of the magnificent saloon, grinning recognition, until the man +shuddered anew at the forgotten terrors of his childhood. It amused him, +however, to observe the black woman, with the mischievous caprice peculiar to +such beings, steal up to the chair of the Oldest Inhabitant and peep into his +half-dreamy mind. +</p> + +<p> +“Never within my memory,” muttered that venerable personage, aghast, “did I see +such a face.” +</p> + +<p> +Almost immediately after the unrealities just described, arrived a number of +guests whom incredulous readers may be inclined to rank equally among creatures +of imagination. The most noteworthy were an incorruptible Patriot; a Scholar +without pedantry; a Priest without worldly ambition; and a Beautiful Woman +without pride or coquetry; a Married Pair whose life had never been disturbed +by incongruity of feeling; a Reformer untrammelled by his theory; and a Poet +who felt no jealousy towards other votaries of the lyre. In truth, however, the +host was not one of the cynics who consider these patterns of excellence, +without the fatal flaw, such rarities in the world; and he had invited them to +his select party chiefly out of humble deference to the judgment of society, +which pronounces them almost impossible to be met with. +</p> + +<p> +“In my younger days,” observed the Oldest Inhabitant, “such characters might be +seen at the corner of every street.” +</p> + +<p> +Be that as it might, these specimens of perfection proved to be not half so +entertaining companions as people with the ordinary allowance of faults. +</p> + +<p> +But now appeared a stranger, whom the host had no sooner recognized than, with +an abundance of courtesy unlavished on any other, he hastened down the whole +length of the saloon in order to pay him emphatic honor. Yet he was a young man +in poor attire, with no insignia of rank or acknowledged eminence, nor anything +to distinguish him among the crowd except a high, white forehead, beneath which +a pair of deep-set eyes were glowing with warm light. It was such a light as +never illuminates the earth save when a great heart burns as the household fire +of a grand intellect. And who was he?—who but the Master Genius for whom +our country is looking anxiously into the mist of Time, as destined to fulfil +the great mission of creating an American literature, hewing it, as it were, +out of the unwrought granite of our intellectual quarries? From him, whether +moulded in the form of an epic poem or assuming a guise altogether new as the +spirit itself may determine, we are to receive our first great original work, +which shall do all that remains to be achieved for our glory among the nations. +How this child of a mighty destiny had been discovered by the Man of Fancy it +is of little consequence to mention. Suffice it that he dwells as yet unhonored +among men, unrecognized by those who have known him from his cradle; the noble +countenance which should be distinguished by a halo diffused around it passes +daily amid the throng of people toiling and troubling themselves about the +trifles of a moment, and none pay reverence to the worker of immortality. Nor +does it matter much to him, in his triumph over all the ages, though a +generation or two of his own times shall do themselves the wrong to disregard +him. +</p> + +<p> +By this time Monsieur On-Dit had caught up the stranger’s name and destiny and +was busily whispering the intelligence among the other guests. +</p> + +<p> +“Pshaw!” said one. “There can never be an American genius.” +</p> + +<p> +“Pish!” cried another. “We have already as good poets as any in the world. For +my part, I desire to see no better.” +</p> + +<p> +And the Oldest Inhabitant, when it was proposed to introduce him to the Master +Genius, begged to be excused, observing that a man who had been honored with +the acquaintance of Dwight, and Freneau, and Joel Barlow, might be allowed a +little austerity of taste. +</p> + +<p> +The saloon was now fast filling up by the arrival of other remarkable +characters, among whom were noticed Davy Jones, the distinguished nautical +personage, and a rude, carelessly dressed, harum-scarum sort of elderly fellow, +known by the nickname of Old Harry. The latter, however, after being shown to a +dressing-room, reappeared with his gray hair nicely combed, his clothes +brushed, a clean dicky on his neck, and altogether so changed in aspect as to +merit the more respectful appellation of Venerable Henry. Joel Doe and Richard +Roe came arm in arm, accompanied by a Man of Straw, a fictitious indorser, and +several persons who had no existence except as voters in closely contested +elections. The celebrated Seatsfield, who now entered, was at first supposed to +belong to the same brotherhood, until he made it apparent that he was a real +man of flesh and blood and had his earthly domicile in Germany. Among the +latest comers, as might reasonably be expected, arrived a guest from the far +future. +</p> + +<p> +“Do you know him? do you know him?” whispered Monsieur On-Dit, who seemed to be +acquainted with everybody. “He is the representative of Posterity,—the +man of an age to come.” +</p> + +<p> +“And how came he here?” asked a figure who was evidently the prototype of the +fashion-plate in a magazine, and might be taken to represent the vanities of +the passing moment. “The fellow infringes upon our rights by coming before his +time.” +</p> + +<p> +“But you forget where we are,” answered the Man of Fancy, who overheard the +remark. “The lower earth, it is true, will be forbidden ground to him for many +long years hence; but a castle in the air is a sort of no-man’s-land, where +Posterity may make acquaintance with us on equal terms.” +</p> + +<p> +No sooner was his identity known than a throng of guests gathered about +Posterity, all expressing the most generous interest in his welfare, and many +boasting of the sacrifices which they had made, or were willing to make, in his +behalf. Some, with as much secrecy as possible, desired his judgment upon +certain copies of verses or great manuscript rolls of prose; others accosted +him with the familiarity of old friends, taking it for granted that he was +perfectly cognizant of their names and characters. At length, finding himself +thus beset, Posterity was put quite beside his patience. +</p> + +<p> +“Gentlemen, my good friends,” cried he, breaking loose from a misty poet who +strove to hold him by the button, “I pray you to attend to your own business, +and leave me to take care of mine! I expect to owe you nothing, unless it be +certain national debts, and other encumbrances and impediments, physical and +moral, which I shall find it troublesome enough to remove from my path. As to +your verses, pray read them to your contemporaries. Your names are as strange +to me as your faces; and even were it otherwise,—let me whisper you a +secret,—the cold, icy memory which one generation may retain of another +is but a poor recompense to barter life for. Yet, if your heart is set on being +known to me, the surest, the only method is, to live truly and wisely for your +own age, whereby, if the native force be in you, you may likewise live for +posterity.” +</p> + +<p> +“It is nonsense,” murmured the Oldest Inhabitant, who, as a man of the past, +felt jealous that all notice should be withdrawn from himself to be lavished on +the future, “sheer nonsense, to waste so much thought on what only is to be.” +</p> + +<p> +To divert the minds of his guests, who were considerably abashed by this little +incident, the Man of Fancy led them through several apartments of the castle, +receiving their compliments upon the taste and varied magnificence that were +displayed in each. One of these rooms was filled with moonlight, which did not +enter through the window, but was the aggregate of all the moonshine that is +scattered around the earth on a summer night while no eyes are awake to enjoy +its beauty. Airy spirits had gathered it up, wherever they found it gleaming on +the broad bosom of a lake, or silvering the meanders of a stream, or glimmering +among the wind-stirred boughs of a wood, and had garnered it in this one +spacious hall. Along the walls, illuminated by the mild intensity of the +moonshine, stood a multitude of ideal statues, the original conceptions of the +great works of ancient or modern art, which the sculptors did but imperfectly +succeed in putting into marble; for it is not to be supposed that the pure idea +of an immortal creation ceases to exist; it is only necessary to know where +they are deposited in order to obtain possession of them.—In the alcoves +of another vast apartment was arranged a splendid library, the volumes of which +were inestimable, because they consisted, not of actual performances, but of +the works which the authors only planned, without ever finding the happy season +to achieve them. To take familiar instances, here were the untold tales of +Chaucer’s Canterbury Pilgrims; the unwritten cantos of the Fairy Queen; the +conclusion of Coleridge’s Christabel; and the whole of Dryden’s projected epic +on the subject of King Arthur. The shelves were crowded; for it would not be +too much to affirm that every author has imagined and shaped out in his thought +more and far better works than those which actually proceeded from his pen. And +here, likewise, where the unrealized conceptions of youthful poets who died of +the very strength of their own genius before the world had caught one inspired +murmur from their lips. +</p> + +<p> +When the peculiarities of the library and statue-gallery were explained to the +Oldest Inhabitant, he appeared infinitely perplexed, and exclaimed, with more +energy than usual, that he had never heard of such a thing within his memory, +and, moreover, did not at all understand how it could be. +</p> + +<p> +“But my brain, I think,” said the good old gentleman, “is getting not so clear +as it used to be. You young folks, I suppose, can see your way through these +strange matters. For my part, I give it up.” +</p> + +<p> +“And so do I,” muttered the Old Harry. “It is enough to puzzle the—Ahem!” +</p> + +<p> +Making as little reply as possible to these observations, the Man of Fancy +preceded the company to another noble saloon, the pillars of which were solid +golden sunbeams taken out of the sky in the first hour in the morning. Thus, as +they retained all their living lustre, the room was filled with the most +cheerful radiance imaginable, yet not too dazzling to be borne with comfort and +delight. The windows were beautifully adorned with curtains made of the +many-colored clouds of sunrise, all imbued with virgin light, and hanging in +magnificent festoons from the ceiling to the floor. Moreover, there were +fragments of rainbows scattered through the room; so that the guests, +astonished at one another, reciprocally saw their heads made glorious by the +seven primary hues; or, if they chose,—as who would not?—they could +grasp a rainbow in the air and convert it to their own apparel and adornment. +But the morning light and scattered rainbows were only a type and symbol of the +real wonders of the apartment. By an influence akin to magic, yet perfectly +natural, whatever means and opportunities of joy are neglected in the lower +world had been carefully gathered up and deposited in the saloon of morning +sunshine. As may well be conceived, therefore, there was material enough to +supply, not merely a joyous evening, but also a happy lifetime, to more than as +many people as that spacious apartment could contain. The company seemed to +renew their youth; while that pattern and proverbial standard of innocence, the +Child Unborn, frolicked to and fro among them, communicating his own unwrinkled +gayety to all who had the good fortune to witness his gambols. +</p> + +<p> +“My honored friends,” said the Man of Fancy, after they had enjoyed themselves +awhile, “I am now to request your presence in the banqueting-hall, where a +slight collation is awaiting you.” +</p> + +<p> +“Ah, well said!” ejaculated a cadaverous figure, who had been invited for no +other reason than that he was pretty constantly in the habit of dining with +Duke Humphrey. “I was beginning to wonder whether a castle in the air were +provided with a kitchen.” +</p> + +<p> +It was curious, in truth, to see how instantaneously the guests were diverted +from the high moral enjoyments which they had been tasting with so much +apparent zest by a suggestion of the more solid as well as liquid delights of +the festive board. They thronged eagerly in the rear of the host, who now +ushered them into a lofty and extensive hall, from end to end of which was +arranged a table, glittering all over with innumerable dishes and +drinking-vessels of gold. It is an uncertain point whether these rich articles +of plate were made for the occasion out of molten sunbeams, or recovered from +the wrecks of Spanish galleons that had lain for ages at the bottom of the sea. +The upper end of the table was overshadowed by a canopy, beneath which was +placed a chair of elaborate magnificence, which the host himself declined to +occupy, and besought his guests to assign it to the worthiest among them. As a +suitable homage to his incalculable antiquity and eminent distinction, the post +of honor was at first tendered to the Oldest Inhabitant. He, however, eschewed +it, and requested the favor of a bowl of gruel at a side table, where he could +refresh himself with a quiet nap. There was some little hesitation as to the +next candidate, until Posterity took the Master Genius of our country by the +hand and led him to the chair of state beneath the princely canopy. When once +they beheld him in his true place, the company acknowledged the justice of the +selection by a long thunder-roll of vehement applause. +</p> + +<p> +Then was served up a banquet, combining, if not all the delicacies of the +season, yet all the rarities which careful purveyors had met with in the flesh, +fish, and vegetable markets of the land of Nowhere. The bill of fare being +unfortunately lost, we can only mention a phoenix, roasted in its own flames, +cold potted birds of paradise, ice-creams from the Milky-Way, and whip +syllabubs and flummery from the Paradise of Fools, whereof there was a very +great consumption. As for drinkables, the temperance people contented +themselves with water as usual; but it was the water of the Fountain of Youth; +the ladies sipped Nepenthe; the lovelorn, the careworn, and the sorrow-stricken +were supplied with brimming goblets of Lethe; and it was shrewdly conjectured +that a certain golden vase, from which only the more distinguished guests were +invited to partake, contained nectar that had been mellowing ever since the +days of classical mythology. The cloth being removed, the company, as usual, +grew eloquent over their liquor and delivered themselves of a succession of +brilliant speeches,—the task of reporting which we resign to the more +adequate ability of Counsellor Gill, whose indispensable co-operation the Man +of Fancy had taken the precaution to secure. +</p> + +<p> +When the festivity of the banquet was at its most ethereal point, the Clerk of +the Weather was observed to steal from the table and thrust his head between +the purple and golden curtains of one of the windows. +</p> + +<p> +“My fellow-guests,” he remarked aloud, after carefully noting the signs of the +night, “I advise such of you as live at a distance to be going as soon as +possible; for a thunder-storm is certainly at hand.” +</p> + +<p> +“Mercy on me!” cried Mother Carey, who had left her brood of chickens and come +hither in gossamer drapery, with pink silk stockings. “How shall I ever get +home?” +</p> + +<p> +All now was confusion and hasty departure, with but little superfluous +leave-taking. The Oldest Inhabitant, however, true to the rule of those long +past days in which his courtesy had been studied, paused on the threshold of +the meteor-lighted hall to express his vast satisfaction at the entertainment. +</p> + +<p> +“Never, within my memory,” observed the gracious old gentleman, “has it been my +good fortune to spend a pleasanter evening or in more select society.” +</p> + +<p> +The wind here took his breath away, whirled his three-cornered hat into +infinite space, and drowned what further compliments it had been his purpose to +bestow. Many of the company had bespoken will-o’-the-wisps to convoy them home; +and the host, in his general beneficence, had engaged the Man in the Moon, with +an immense horn-lantern, to be the guide of such desolate spinsters as could do +no better for themselves. But a blast of the rising tempest blew out all their +lights in the twinkling of an eye. How, in the darkness that ensued, the guests +contrived to get back to earth, or whether the greater part of them contrived +to get back at all, or are still wandering among clouds, mists, and puffs of +tempestuous wind, bruised by the beams and rafters of the overthrown castle in +the air, and deluded by all sorts of unrealities, are points that concern +themselves much more than the writer or the public. People should think of +these matters before they trust themselves on a pleasure-party into the realm +of Nowhere. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A SELECT PARTY ***</div> +<div style='text-align:left'> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will +be renamed. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law 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. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part +of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project +Gutenberg™ electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG™ +concept and trademark. 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Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7f08e92 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #9222 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/9222) diff --git a/old/9222.txt b/old/9222.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..16cc3cc --- /dev/null +++ b/old/9222.txt @@ -0,0 +1,966 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Select Party (From "Mosses From An Old +Manse"), by Nathaniel Hawthorne + +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: A Select Party (From "Mosses From An Old Manse") + +Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne + +Posting Date: December 8, 2010 [EBook #9222] +Release Date: November, 2005 +First Posted: September 6, 2003 +Last Updated: February 6, 2007 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A SELECT PARTY *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger. HTML version by Al Haines. + + + + + + + + + + MOSSES FROM AN OLD MANSE + + By Nathaniel Hawthorne + + A SELECT PARTY + + + +The man of fancy made an entertainment at one of his castles in the +air, and invited a select number of distinguished personages to +favor him with their presence. The mansion, though less splendid +than many that have been situated in the same region, was +nevertheless of a magnificence such as is seldom witnessed by those +acquainted only with terrestrial architecture. Its strong +foundations and massive walls were quarried out of a ledge of heavy +and sombre clouds which had hung brooding over the earth, apparently +as dense and ponderous as its own granite, throughout a whole +autumnal day. Perceiving that the general effect was gloomy,--so +that the airy castle looked like a feudal fortress, or a monastery +of the Middle Ages, or a state prison of our own times, rather than +the home of pleasure and repose which he intended it to be,--the +owner, regardless of expense, resolved to gild the exterior from top +to bottom. Fortunately, there was just then a flood of evening +sunshine in the air. This being gathered up and poured abundantly +upon the roof and walls, imbued them with a kind of solemn +cheerfulness; while the cupolas and pinnacles were made to glitter +with the purest gold, and all the hundred windows gleamed with a +glad light, as if the edifice itself were rejoicing in its heart. + +And now, if the people of the lower world chanced to be looking +upward out of the turmoil of their petty perplexities, they probably +mistook the castle in the air for a heap of sunset clouds, to which +the magic of light and shade had imparted the aspect of a +fantastically constructed mansion. To such beholders it was unreal, +because they lacked the imaginative faith. Had they been worthy to +pass within its portal, they would have recognized the truth, that +the dominions which the spirit conquers for itself among unrealities +become a thousand times more real than the earth whereon they stamp +their feet, saying, "This is solid and substantial; this may be +called a fact." + +At the appointed hour, the host stood in his great saloon to receive +the company. It was a vast and noble room, the vaulted ceiling of +which was supported by double rows of gigantic pillars that had been +hewn entire out of masses of variegated clouds. So brilliantly were +they polished, and so exquisitely wrought by the sculptor's skill, +as to resemble the finest specimens of emerald, porphyry, opal, and +chrysolite, thus producing a delicate richness of effect which their +immense size rendered not incompatible with grandeur. To each of +these pillars a meteor was suspended. Thousands of these ethereal +lustres are continually wandering about the firmament, burning out +to waste, yet capable of imparting a useful radiance to any person +who has the art of converting them to domestic purposes. As managed +in the saloon, they are far more economical than ordinary lamplight. +Such, however, was the intensity of their blaze that it had been +found expedient to cover each meteor with a globe of evening mist, +thereby muffling the too potent glow and soothing it into a mild and +comfortable splendor. It was like the brilliancy of a powerful yet +chastened imagination,--a light which seemed to hide whatever was +unworthy to be noticed and give effect to every beautiful and noble +attribute. The guests, therefore, as they advanced up the centre of +the saloon, appeared to better advantage than ever before in their +lives. + +The first that entered, with old-fashioned punctuality, was a +venerable figure in the costume of bygone days, with his white hair +flowing down over his shoulders and a reverend beard upon his +breast. He leaned upon a staff, the tremulous stroke of which, as +he set it carefully upon the floor, re-echoed through the saloon at +every footstep. Recognizing at once this celebrated personage, whom +it had cost him a vast deal of trouble and research to discover, the +host advanced nearly three fourths of the distance down between the +pillars to meet and welcome him. + +"Venerable sir," said the Man of Fancy, bending to the floor, "the +honor of this visit would never be forgotten were my term of +existence to be as happily prolonged as your own." + +The old gentleman received the compliment with gracious +condescension. He then thrust up his spectacles over his forehead +and appeared to take a critical survey of the saloon. + +"Never within my recollection," observed he, "have I entered a more +spacious and noble hall. But are you sure that it is built of solid +materials and that the structure will be permanent?" + +"O, never fear, my venerable friend," replied the host. "In +reference to a lifetime like your own, it is true my castle may well +be called a temporary edifice. But it will endure long enough to +answer all the purposes for which it was erected." + +But we forget that the reader has not yet been made acquainted with +the guest. It was no other than that universally accredited +character so constantly referred to in all seasons of intense cold +or heat; he that, remembers the hot Sunday and the cold Friday; the +witness of a past age whose negative reminiscences find their way +into every newspaper, yet whose antiquated and dusky abode is so +overshadowed by accumulated years and crowded back by modern +edifices that none but the Man of Fancy could have discovered it; +it was, in short, that twin brother of Time, and great-grandsire of +mankind, and hand-and-glove associate of all forgotten men and +things,--the Oldest Inhabitant. The host would willingly have drawn +him into conversation, but succeeded only in eliciting a few remarks +as to the oppressive atmosphere of this present summer evening +compared with one which the guest had experienced about fourscore +years ago. The old gentleman, in fact, was a good deal overcome by +his journey among the clouds, which, to a frame so earth-incrusted +by long continuance in a lower region, was unavoidably more +fatiguing than to younger spirits. He was therefore conducted to an +easy-chair, well cushioned and stuffed with vaporous softness, and +left to take a little repose. + +The Man of Fancy now discerned another guest, who stood so quietly +in the shadow of one of the pillars that he might easily have been +overlooked. + +"My dear sir," exclaimed the host, grasping him warmly by the hand, +"allow me to greet you as the hero of the evening. Pray do not take +it as an empty compliment; for, if there were not another guest in +my castle, it would be entirely pervaded with your presence." + +"I thank you," answered the unpretending stranger; "but, though you +happened to overlook me, I have not just arrived. I came very +early; and, with your permission, shall remain after the rest of the +company have retired." + +And who does the reader imagine was this unobtrusive guest? It was +the famous performer of acknowledged impossibilities,--a character +of superhuman capacity and virtue, and, if his enemies are to be +credited, of no less remarkable weaknesses and defects. With a +generosity with which he alone sets us an example, we will glance +merely at his nobler attributes. He it is, then, who prefers the +interests of others to his own and a humble station to an exalted +one. Careless of fashion, custom, the opinions of men, and the +influence of the press, he assimilates his life to the standard of +ideal rectitude, and thus proves himself the one independent citizen +of our free country. In point of ability, many people declare him +to be the only mathematician capable of squaring the circle; the +only mechanic acquainted with the principle of perpetual motion; the +only scientific philosopher who can compel water to run up hill; the +only writer of the age whose genius is equal to the production of an +epic poem; and, finally, so various are his accomplishments, the +only professor of gymnastics who has succeeded in jumping down his +own throat. With all these talents, however, he is so far from being +considered a member of good society, that it is the severest censure +of any fashionable assemblage to affirm that this remarkable +individual was present. Public orators, lecturers, and theatrical +performers particularly eschew his company. For especial reasons, +we are not at liberty to disclose his name, and shall mention only +one other trait,--a most singular phenomenon in natural +philosophy,--that, when he happens to cast his eyes upon a +looking-glass, he beholds Nobody reflected there! + +Several other guests now made their appearance; and among them, +chattering with immense volubility, a brisk little gentleman of +universal vogue in private society, and not unknown in the public +journals under the title of Monsieur On-Dit. The name would seem to +indicate a Frenchman; but, whatever be his country, he is thoroughly +versed in all the languages of the day, and can express himself +quite as much to the purpose in English as in any other tongue. No +sooner were the ceremonies of salutation over than this talkative +little person put his mouth to the host's ear and whispered three +secrets of state, an important piece of commercial intelligence, and +a rich item of fashionable scandal. He then assured the Man of Fancy +that he would not fail to circulate in the society of the lower +world a minute description of this magnificent castle in the air and +of the festivities at which he had the honor to be a guest. So +saying, Monsieur On-Dit made his bow and hurried from one to another +of the company, with all of whom he seemed to be acquainted and to +possess some topic of interest or amusement for every individual. +Coming at last to the Oldest Inhabitant, who was slumbering +comfortably in the easy-chair, he applied his mouth to that +venerable ear. + +"What do you say?" cried the old gentleman, starting from his nap +and putting up his hand to serve the purpose of an ear-trumpet. + +Monsieur On-Dit bent forward again and repeated his communication. + +"Never within my memory," exclaimed the Oldest Inhabitant, lifting +his hands in astonishment, "has so remarkable an incident been heard +of." + +Now came in the Clerk of the Weather, who had been invited out of +deference to his official station, although the host was well aware +that his conversation was likely to contribute but little to the +general enjoyment. He soon, indeed, got into a corner with his +acquaintance of long ago, the Oldest Inhabitant, and began to +compare notes with him in reference to the great storms, gales of +wind, and other atmospherical facts that had occurred during a +century past. It rejoiced the Man of Fancy that his venerable and +much-respected guest had met with so congenial an associate. +Entreating them both to make themselves perfectly at home, he now +turned to receive the Wandering Jew. This personage, however, had +latterly grown so common, by mingling in all sorts of society and +appearing at the beck of every entertainer, that he could hardly be +deemed a proper guest in a very exclusive circle. Besides, being +covered with dust from his continual wanderings along the highways +of the world, he really looked out of place in a dress party; so +that the host felt relieved of an incommodity when the restless +individual in question, after a brief stay, took his departure on a +ramble towards Oregon. + +The portal was now thronged by a crowd of shadowy people with whom +the Man of Fancy had been acquainted in his visionary youth. He had +invited them hither for the sake of observing how they would +compare, whether advantageously or otherwise, with the real +characters to whom his maturer life had introduced him. They were +beings of crude imagination, such as glide before a young man's eye +and pretend to be actual inhabitants of the earth; the wise and +witty with whom he would hereafter hold intercourse; the generous +and heroic friends whose devotion would be requited with his own; +the beautiful dream-woman who would become the helpmate of his human +toils and sorrows and at once the source and partaker of his +happiness. Alas! it is not good for the full-grown man to look too +closely at these old acquaintances, but rather to reverence them at +a distance through the medium of years that have gathered duskily +between. There was something laughably untrue in their pompous +stride and exaggerated sentiment; they were neither human nor +tolerable likenesses of humanity, but fantastic maskers, rendering +heroism and nature alike ridiculous by the grave absurdity of their +pretensions to such attributes; and as for the peerless dream-lady, +behold! there advanced up the saloon, with a movement like a jointed +doll, a sort of wax-figure of an angel, a creature as cold as +moonshine, an artifice in petticoats, with an intellect of pretty +phrases and only the semblance of a heart, yet in all these +particulars the true type of a young man's imaginary mistress. +Hardly could the host's punctilious courtesy restrain a smile as he +paid his respects to this unreality and met the sentimental glance +with which the Dream sought to remind him of their former love +passages. + +"No, no, fair lady," murmured he betwixt sighing and smiling; "my +taste is changed; I have learned to love what Nature makes better +than my own creations in the guise of womanhood." + +"Ah, false one," shrieked the dream-lady, pretending to faint, but +dissolving into thin air, out of which came the deplorable murmur of +her voice, "your inconstancy has annihilated me." + +"So be it," said the cruel Man of Fancy to himself; "and a good +riddance too." + +Together with these shadows, and from the same region, there came an +uninvited multitude of shapes which at any time during his life had +tormented the Man of Fancy in his moods of morbid melancholy or had +haunted him in the delirium of fever. The walls of his castle in +the air were not dense enough to keep them out, nor would the +strongest of earthly architecture have availed to their exclusion. +Here were those forms of dim terror which had beset him at the +entrance of life, waging warfare with his hopes; here were strange +uglinesses of earlier date, such as haunt children in the night-time. +He was particularly startled by the vision of a deformed old +black woman whom he imagined as lurking in the garret of his native +home, and who, when he was an infant, had once come to his bedside +and grinned at him in the crisis of a scarlet fever. This same +black shadow, with others almost as hideous, now glided among the +pillars of the magnificent saloon, grinning recognition, until the +man shuddered anew at the forgotten terrors of his childhood. It +amused him, however, to observe the black woman, with the +mischievous caprice peculiar to such beings, steal up to the chair +of the Oldest Inhabitant and peep into his half-dreamy mind. + +"Never within my memory," muttered that venerable personage, aghast, +"did I see such a face." + +Almost immediately after the unrealities just described, arrived a +number of guests whom incredulous readers may be inclined to rank +equally among creatures of imagination. The most noteworthy were an +incorruptible Patriot; a Scholar without pedantry; a Priest without +worldly ambition; and a Beautiful Woman without pride or coquetry; a +Married Pair whose life had never been disturbed by incongruity of +feeling; a Reformer untrammelled by his theory; and a Poet who felt +no jealousy towards other votaries of the lyre. In truth, however, +the host was not one of the cynics who consider these patterns of +excellence, without the fatal flaw, such rarities in the world; and +he had invited them to his select party chiefly out of humble +deference to the judgment of society, which pronounces them almost +impossible to be met with. + +"In my younger days," observed the Oldest Inhabitant, "such +characters might be seen at the corner of every street." + +Be that as it might, these specimens of perfection proved to be not +half so entertaining companions as people with the ordinary +allowance of faults. + +But now appeared a stranger, whom the host had no sooner recognized +than, with an abundance of courtesy unlavished on any other, he +hastened down the whole length of the saloon in order to pay him +emphatic honor. Yet he was a young man in poor attire, with no +insignia of rank or acknowledged eminence, nor anything to +distinguish him among the crowd except a high, white forehead, +beneath which a pair of deep-set eyes were glowing with warm light. +It was such a light as never illuminates the earth save when a great +heart burns as the household fire of a grand intellect. And who was +he?--who but the Master Genius for whom our country is looking +anxiously into the mist of Time, as destined to fulfil the great +mission of creating an American literature, hewing it, as it were, +out of the unwrought granite of our intellectual quarries? From +him, whether moulded in the form of an epic poem or assuming a guise +altogether new as the spirit itself may determine, we are to receive +our first great original work, which shall do all that remains to be +achieved for our glory among the nations. How this child of a +mighty destiny had been discovered by the Man of Fancy it is of +little consequence to mention. Suffice it that he dwells as yet +unhonored among men, unrecognized by those who have known him from +his cradle; the noble countenance which should be distinguished by a +halo diffused around it passes daily amid the throng of people +toiling and troubling themselves about the trifles of a moment, and +none pay reverence to the worker of immortality. Nor does it matter +much to him, in his triumph over all the ages, though a generation +or two of his own times shall do themselves the wrong to disregard +him. + +By this time Monsieur On-Dit had caught up the stranger's name and +destiny and was busily whispering the intelligence among the other +guests. + +"Pshaw!" said one. "There can never be an American genius." + +"Pish!" cried another. "We have already as good poets as any in the +world. For my part, I desire to see no better." + +And the Oldest Inhabitant, when it was proposed to introduce him to +the Master Genius, begged to be excused, observing that a man who +had been honored with the acquaintance of Dwight, and Freneau, and +Joel Barlow, might be allowed a little austerity of taste. + +The saloon was now fast filling up by the arrival of other +remarkable characters, among whom were noticed Davy Jones, the +distinguished nautical personage, and a rude, carelessly dressed, +harum-scarum sort of elderly fellow, known by the nickname of Old +Harry. The latter, however, after being shown to a dressing-room, +reappeared with his gray hair nicely combed, his clothes brushed, a +clean dicky on his neck, and altogether so changed in aspect as to +merit the more respectful appellation of Venerable Henry. Joel Doe +and Richard Roe came arm in arm, accompanied by a Man of Straw, a +fictitious indorser, and several persons who had no existence except +as voters in closely contested elections. The celebrated Seatsfield, +who now entered, was at first supposed to belong to the same +brotherhood, until he made it apparent that he was a real man of +flesh and blood and had his earthly domicile in Germany. Among the +latest comers, as might reasonably be expected, arrived a guest from +the far future. + +"Do you know him? do you know him?" whispered Monsieur On-Dit, who +seemed to be acquainted with everybody. "He is the representative +of Posterity,--the man of an age to come." + +"And how came he here?" asked a figure who was evidently the +prototype of the fashion-plate in a magazine, and might be taken to +represent the vanities of the passing moment. "The fellow infringes +upon our rights by coming before his time." + +"But you forget where we are," answered the Man of Fancy, who +overheard the remark. "The lower earth, it is true, will be +forbidden ground to him for many long years hence; but a castle in +the air is a sort of no-man's-land, where Posterity may make +acquaintance with us on equal terms." + +No sooner was his identity known than a throng of guests gathered +about Posterity, all expressing the most generous interest in his +welfare, and many boasting of the sacrifices which they had made, or +were willing to make, in his behalf. Some, with as much secrecy as +possible, desired his judgment upon certain copies of verses or +great manuscript rolls of prose; others accosted him with the +familiarity of old friends, taking it for granted that he was +perfectly cognizant of their names and characters. At length, +finding himself thus beset, Posterity was put quite beside his +patience. + +"Gentlemen, my good friends," cried he, breaking loose from a misty +poet who strove to hold him by the button, "I pray you to attend to +your own business, and leave me to take care of mine! I expect to +owe you nothing, unless it be certain national debts, and other +encumbrances and impediments, physical and moral, which I shall find +it troublesome enough to remove from my path. As to your verses, +pray read them to your contemporaries. Your names are as strange to +me as your faces; and even were it otherwise,--let me whisper you a +secret,--the cold, icy memory which one generation may retain of +another is but a poor recompense to barter life for. Yet, if your +heart is set on being known to me, the surest, the only method is, +to live truly and wisely for your own age, whereby, if the native +force be in you, you may likewise live for posterity." + +"It is nonsense," murmured the Oldest Inhabitant, who, as a man of +the past, felt jealous that all notice should be withdrawn from +himself to be lavished on the future, "sheer nonsense, to waste so +much thought on what only is to be." + +To divert the minds of his guests, who were considerably abashed by +this little incident, the Man of Fancy led them through several +apartments of the castle, receiving their compliments upon the taste +and varied magnificence that were displayed in each. One of these +rooms was filled with moonlight, which did not enter through the +window, but was the aggregate of all the moonshine that is scattered +around the earth on a summer night while no eyes are awake to enjoy +its beauty. Airy spirits had gathered it up, wherever they found it +gleaming on the broad bosom of a lake, or silvering the meanders of +a stream, or glimmering among the wind-stirred boughs of a wood, and +had garnered it in this one spacious hall. Along the walls, +illuminated by the mild intensity of the moonshine, stood a +multitude of ideal statues, the original conceptions of the great +works of ancient or modern art, which the sculptors did but +imperfectly succeed in putting into marble; for it is not to be +supposed that the pure idea of an immortal creation ceases to exist; +it is only necessary to know where they are deposited in order to +obtain possession of them.--In the alcoves of another vast apartment +was arranged a splendid library, the volumes of which were +inestimable, because they consisted, not of actual performances, but +of the works which the authors only planned, without ever finding +the happy season to achieve them. To take familiar instances, here +were the untold tales of Chaucer's Canterbury Pilgrims; the +unwritten cantos of the Fairy Queen; the conclusion of Coleridge's +Christabel; and the whole of Dryden's projected epic on the subject +of King Arthur. The shelves were crowded; for it would not be too +much to affirm that every author has imagined and shaped out in his +thought more and far better works than those which actually +proceeded from his pen. And here, likewise, where the unrealized +conceptions of youthful poets who died of the very strength of their +own genius before the world had caught one inspired murmur from +their lips. + +When the peculiarities of the library and statue-gallery were +explained to the Oldest Inhabitant, he appeared infinitely +perplexed, and exclaimed, with more energy than usual, that he had +never heard of such a thing within his memory, and, moreover, did +not at all understand how it could be. + +"But my brain, I think," said the good old gentleman, "is getting +not so clear as it used to be. You young folks, I suppose, can see +your way through these strange matters. For my part, I give it up." + +"And so do I," muttered the Old Harry. "It is enough to puzzle +the--Ahem!" + +Making as little reply as possible to these observations, the Man of +Fancy preceded the company to another noble saloon, the pillars of +which were solid golden sunbeams taken out of the sky in the first +hour in the morning. Thus, as they retained all their living +lustre, the room was filled with the most cheerful radiance +imaginable, yet not too dazzling to be borne with comfort and +delight. The windows were beautifully adorned with curtains made of +the many-colored clouds of sunrise, all imbued with virgin light, +and hanging in magnificent festoons from the ceiling to the floor. +Moreover, there were fragments of rainbows scattered through the +room; so that the guests, astonished at one another, reciprocally +saw their heads made glorious by the seven primary hues; or, if they +chose,--as who would not?--they could grasp a rainbow in the air and +convert it to their own apparel and adornment. But the morning +light and scattered rainbows were only a type and symbol of the real +wonders of the apartment. By an influence akin to magic, yet +perfectly natural, whatever means and opportunities of joy are +neglected in the lower world had been carefully gathered up and +deposited in the saloon of morning sunshine. As may well be +conceived, therefore, there was material enough to supply, not +merely a joyous evening, but also a happy lifetime, to more than as +many people as that spacious apartment could contain. The company +seemed to renew their youth; while that pattern and proverbial +standard of innocence, the Child Unborn, frolicked to and fro among +them, communicating his own unwrinkled gayety to all who had the +good fortune to witness his gambols. + +"My honored friends," said the Man of Fancy, after they had enjoyed +themselves awhile, "I am now to request your presence in the +banqueting-hall, where a slight collation is awaiting you." + +"Ah, well said!" ejaculated a cadaverous figure, who had been +invited for no other reason than that he was pretty constantly in +the habit of dining with Duke Humphrey. "I was beginning to wonder +whether a castle in the air were provided with a kitchen." + +It was curious, in truth, to see how instantaneously the guests were +diverted from the high moral enjoyments which they had been tasting +with so much apparent zest by a suggestion of the more solid as well +as liquid delights of the festive board. They thronged eagerly in +the rear of the host, who now ushered them into a lofty and +extensive hall, from end to end of which was arranged a table, +glittering all over with innumerable dishes and drinking-vessels of +gold. It is an uncertain point whether these rich articles of plate +were made for the occasion out of molten sunbeams, or recovered from +the wrecks of Spanish galleons that had lain for ages at the bottom +of the sea. The upper end of the table was overshadowed by a +canopy, beneath which was placed a chair of elaborate magnificence, +which the host himself declined to occupy, and besought his guests +to assign it to the worthiest among them. As a suitable homage to +his incalculable antiquity and eminent distinction, the post of +honor was at first tendered to the Oldest Inhabitant. He, however, +eschewed it, and requested the favor of a bowl of gruel at a side +table, where he could refresh himself with a quiet nap. There was +some little hesitation as to the next candidate, until Posterity +took the Master Genius of our country by the hand and led him to the +chair of state beneath the princely canopy. When once they beheld +him in his true place, the company acknowledged the justice of the +selection by a long thunder-roll of vehement applause. + +Then was served up a banquet, combining, if not all the delicacies +of the season, yet all the rarities which careful purveyors had met +with in the flesh, fish, and vegetable markets of the land of +Nowhere. The bill of fare being unfortunately lost, we can only +mention a phoenix, roasted in its own flames, cold potted birds of +paradise, ice-creams from the Milky-Way, and whip syllabubs and +flummery from the Paradise of Fools, whereof there was a very great +consumption. As for drinkables, the temperance people contented +themselves with water as usual; but it was the water of the Fountain +of Youth; the ladies sipped Nepenthe; the lovelorn, the careworn, +and the sorrow-stricken were supplied with brimming goblets of Lethe; +and it was shrewdly conjectured that a certain golden vase, from +which only the more distinguished guests were invited to partake, +contained nectar that had been mellowing ever since the days of +classical mythology. The cloth being removed, the company, as +usual, grew eloquent over their liquor and delivered themselves of a +succession of brilliant speeches,--the task of reporting which we +resign to the more adequate ability of Counsellor Gill, whose +indispensable co-operation the Man of Fancy had taken the precaution +to secure. + +When the festivity of the banquet was at its most ethereal point, +the Clerk of the Weather was observed to steal from the table and +thrust his head between the purple and golden curtains of one of the +windows. + +"My fellow-guests," he remarked aloud, after carefully noting the +signs of the night, "I advise such of you as live at a distance to +be going as soon as possible; for a thunder-storm is certainly at +hand." + +"Mercy on me!" cried Mother Carey, who had left her brood of +chickens and come hither in gossamer drapery, with pink silk +stockings. "How shall I ever get home?" + +All now was confusion and hasty departure, with but little +superfluous leave-taking. The Oldest Inhabitant, however, true to +the rule of those long past days in which his courtesy had been +studied, paused on the threshold of the meteor-lighted hall to +express his vast satisfaction at the entertainment. + +"Never, within my memory," observed the gracious old gentleman, "has +it been my good fortune to spend a pleasanter evening or in more +select society." + +The wind here took his breath away, whirled his three-cornered hat +into infinite space, and drowned what further compliments it had +been his purpose to bestow. Many of the company had bespoken +will-o'-the-wisps to convoy them home; and the host, in his general +beneficence, had engaged the Man in the Moon, with an immense +horn-lantern, to be the guide of such desolate spinsters as could do +no better for themselves. But a blast of the rising tempest blew out +all their lights in the twinkling of an eye. How, in the darkness +that ensued, the guests contrived to get back to earth, or whether +the greater part of them contrived to get back at all, or are still +wandering among clouds, mists, and puffs of tempestuous wind, +bruised by the beams and rafters of the overthrown castle in the +air, and deluded by all sorts of unrealities, are points that +concern themselves much more than the writer or the public. People +should think of these matters before they trust themselves on a +pleasure-party into the realm of Nowhere. + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Select Party (From "Mosses From An +Old Manse"), by Nathaniel Hawthorne + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A SELECT PARTY *** + +***** This file should be named 9222.txt or 9222.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/9/2/2/9222/ + +Produced by David Widger. HTML version by Al Haines. + +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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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/old/9222.zip b/old/9222.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..cd9461a --- /dev/null +++ b/old/9222.zip diff --git a/old/haw4910.txt b/old/haw4910.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..78257de --- /dev/null +++ b/old/haw4910.txt @@ -0,0 +1,938 @@ +Project Gutenberg EBook, A Select Party, by Nathaniel Hawthorne +From "Mosses From An Old Manse" +#49 in our series by Nathaniel Hawthorne + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**EBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These EBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers***** + + + +Title: A Select Party (From "Mosses From An Old Manse") + +Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne + +Release Date: Nov, 2005 [EBook #9222] +[This file was first posted on September 6, 2003] +[Last updated on February 6, 2007] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + + + + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, A SELECT PARTY *** + + + + +This eBook was produced by David Widger + + + + + + MOSSES FROM AN OLD MANSE + + By Nathaniel Hawthorne + + A SELECT PARTY + + + +The man of fancy made an entertainment at one of his castles in the +air, and invited a select number of distinguished personages to +favor him with their presence. The mansion, though less splendid +than many that have been situated in the same region, was +nevertheless of a magnificence such as is seldom witnessed by those +acquainted only with terrestrial architecture. Its strong +foundations and massive walls were quarried out of a ledge of heavy +and sombre clouds which had hung brooding over the earth, apparently +as dense and ponderous as its own granite, throughout a whole +autumnal day. Perceiving that the general effect was gloomy,--so +that the airy castle looked like a feudal fortress, or a monastery +of the Middle Ages, or a state prison of our own times, rather than +the home of pleasure and repose which he intended it to be,--the +owner, regardless of expense, resolved to gild the exterior from top +to bottom. Fortunately, there was just then a flood of evening +sunshine in the air. This being gathered up and poured abundantly +upon the roof and walls, imbued them with a kind of solemn +cheerfulness; while the cupolas and pinnacles were made to glitter +with the purest gold, and all the hundred windows gleamed with a +glad light, as if the edifice itself were rejoicing in its heart. + +And now, if the people of the lower world chanced to be looking +upward out of the turmoil of their petty perplexities, they probably +mistook the castle in the air for a heap of sunset clouds, to which +the magic of light and shade had imparted the aspect of a +fantastically constructed mansion. To such beholders it was unreal, +because they lacked the imaginative faith. Had they been worthy to +pass within its portal, they would have recognized the truth, that +the dominions which the spirit conquers for itself among unrealities +become a thousand times more real than the earth whereon they stamp +their feet, saying, "This is solid and substantial; this may be +called a fact." + +At the appointed hour, the host stood in his great saloon to receive +the company. It was a vast and noble room, the vaulted ceiling of +which was supported by double rows of gigantic pillars that had been +hewn entire out of masses of variegated clouds. So brilliantly were +they polished, and so exquisitely wrought by the sculptor's skill, +as to resemble the finest specimens of emerald, porphyry, opal, and +chrysolite, thus producing a delicate richness of effect which their +immense size rendered not incompatible with grandeur. To each of +these pillars a meteor was suspended. Thousands of these ethereal +lustres are continually wandering about the firmament, burning out +to waste, yet capable of imparting a useful radiance to any person +who has the art of converting them to domestic purposes. As managed +in the saloon, they are far more economical than ordinary lamplight. +Such, however, was the intensity of their blaze that it had been +found expedient to cover each meteor with a globe of evening mist, +thereby muffling the too potent glow and soothing it into a mild and +comfortable splendor. It was like the brilliancy of a powerful yet +chastened imagination,--a light which seemed to hide whatever was +unworthy to be noticed and give effect to every beautiful and noble +attribute. The guests, therefore, as they advanced up the centre of +the saloon, appeared to better advantage than ever before in their +lives. + +The first that entered, with old-fashioned punctuality, was a +venerable figure in the costume of bygone days, with his white hair +flowing down over his shoulders and a reverend beard upon his +breast. He leaned upon a staff, the tremulous stroke of which, as +he set it carefully upon the floor, re-echoed through the saloon at +every footstep. Recognizing at once this celebrated personage, whom +it had cost him a vast deal of trouble and research to discover, the +host advanced nearly three fourths of the distance down between the +pillars to meet and welcome him. + +"Venerable sir," said the Man of Fancy, bending to the floor, "the +honor of this visit would never be forgotten were my term of +existence to be as happily prolonged as your own." + +The old gentleman received the compliment with gracious +condescension. He then thrust up his spectacles over his forehead +and appeared to take a critical survey of the saloon. + +"Never within my recollection," observed he, "have I entered a more +spacious and noble hall. But are you sure that it is built of solid +materials and that the structure will be permanent?" + +"O, never fear, my venerable friend," replied the host. "In +reference to a lifetime like your own, it is true my castle may well +be called a temporary edifice. But it will endure long enough to +answer all the purposes for which it was erected." + +But we forget that the reader has not yet been made acquainted with +the guest. It was no other than that universally accredited +character so constantly referred to in all seasons of intense cold +or heat; he that, remembers the hot Sunday and the cold Friday; the +witness of a past age whose negative reminiscences find their way +into every newspaper, yet whose antiquated and dusky abode is so +overshadowed by accumulated years and crowded back by modern +edifices that none but the Man of Fancy could have discovered it; +it was, in short, that twin brother of Time, and great-grandsire of +mankind, and hand-and-glove associate of all forgotten men and +things,--the Oldest Inhabitant. The host would willingly have drawn +him into conversation, but succeeded only in eliciting a few remarks +as to the oppressive atmosphere of this present summer evening +compared with one which the guest had experienced about fourscore +years ago. The old gentleman, in fact, was a good deal overcome by +his journey among the clouds, which, to a frame so earth-incrusted +by long continuance in a lower region, was unavoidably more +fatiguing than to younger spirits. He was therefore conducted to an +easy-chair, well cushioned and stuffed with vaporous softness, and +left to take a little repose. + +The Man of Fancy now discerned another guest, who stood so quietly +in the shadow of one of the pillars that he might easily have been +overlooked. + +"My dear sir," exclaimed the host, grasping him warmly by the hand, +"allow me to greet you as the hero of the evening. Pray do not take +it as an empty compliment; for, if there were not another guest in +my castle, it would be entirely pervaded with your presence." + +"I thank you," answered the unpretending stranger; "but, though you +happened to overlook me, I have not just arrived. I came very +early; and, with your permission, shall remain after the rest of the +company have retired." + +And who does the reader imagine was this unobtrusive guest? It was +the famous performer of acknowledged impossibilities,--a character +of superhuman capacity and virtue, and, if his enemies are to be +credited, of no less remarkable weaknesses and defects. With a +generosity with which he alone sets us an example, we will glance +merely at his nobler attributes. He it is, then, who prefers the +interests of others to his own and a humble station to an exalted +one. Careless of fashion, custom, the opinions of men, and the +influence of the press, he assimilates his life to the standard of +ideal rectitude, and thus proves himself the one independent citizen +of our free country. In point of ability, many people declare him +to be the only mathematician capable of squaring the circle; the +only mechanic acquainted with the principle of perpetual motion; the +only scientific philosopher who can compel water to run up hill; the +only writer of the age whose genius is equal to the production of an +epic poem; and, finally, so various are his accomplishments, the +only professor of gymnastics who has succeeded in jumping down his +own throat. With all these talents, however, he is so far from being +considered a member of good society, that it is the severest censure +of any fashionable assemblage to affirm that this remarkable +individual was present. Public orators, lecturers, and theatrical +performers particularly eschew his company. For especial reasons, +we are not at liberty to disclose his name, and shall mention only +one other trait,--a most singular phenomenon in natural philosophy, +--that, when he happens to cast his eyes upon a looking-glass, he +beholds Nobody reflected there! + +Several other guests now made their appearance; and among them, +chattering with immense volubility, a brisk little gentleman of +universal vogue in private society, and not unknown in the public +journals under the title of Monsieur On-Dit. The name would seem to +indicate a Frenchman; but, whatever be his country, he is thoroughly +versed in all the languages of the day, and can express himself +quite as much to the purpose in English as in any other tongue. No +sooner were the ceremonies of salutation over than this talkative +little person put his mouth to the host's ear and whispered three +secrets of state, an important piece of commercial intelligence, and +a rich item of fashionable scandal. He then assured the Man of Fancy +that he would not fail to circulate in the society of the lower +world a minute description of this magnificent castle in the air and +of the festivities at which he had the honor to be a guest. So +saying, Monsieur On-Dit made his bow and hurried from one to another +of the company, with all of whom he seemed to be acquainted and to +possess some topic of interest or amusement for every individual. +Coming at last to the Oldest Inhabitant, who was slumbering +comfortably in the easy-chair, he applied his mouth to that +venerable ear. + +"What do you say?" cried the old gentleman, starting from his nap +and putting up his hand to serve the purpose of an ear-trumpet. + +Monsieur On-Dit bent forward again and repeated his communication. + +"Never within my memory," exclaimed the Oldest Inhabitant, lifting +his hands in astonishment, "has so remarkable an incident been heard +of." + +Now came in the Clerk of the Weather, who had been invited out of +deference to his official station, although the host was well aware +that his conversation was likely to contribute but little to the +general enjoyment. He soon, indeed, got into a corner with his +acquaintance of long ago, the Oldest Inhabitant, and began to +compare notes with him in reference to the great storms, gales of +wind, and other atmospherical facts that had occurred during a +century past. It rejoiced the Man of Fancy that his venerable and +much-respected guest had met with so congenial an associate. +Entreating them both to make themselves perfectly at home, he now +turned to receive the Wandering Jew. This personage, however, had +latterly grown so common, by mingling in all sorts of society and +appearing at the beck of every entertainer, that he could hardly be +deemed a proper guest in a very exclusive circle. Besides, being +covered with dust from his continual wanderings along the highways +of the world, he really looked out of place in a dress party; so +that the host felt relieved of an incommodity when the restless +individual in question, after a brief stay, took his departure on a +ramble towards Oregon. + +The portal was now thronged by a crowd of shadowy people with whom +the Man of Fancy had been acquainted in his visionary youth. He had +invited them hither for the sake of observing how they would +compare, whether advantageously or otherwise, with the real +characters to whom his maturer life had introduced him. They were +beings of crude imagination, such as glide before a young man's eye +and pretend to be actual inhabitants of the earth; the wise and +witty with whom he would hereafter hold intercourse; the generous +and heroic friends whose devotion would be requited with his own; +the beautiful dream-woman who would become the helpmate of his human +toils and sorrows and at once the source and partaker of his +happiness. Alas! it is not good for the full-grown man to look too +closely at these old acquaintances, but rather to reverence them at +a distance through the medium of years that have gathered duskily +between. There was something laughably untrue in their pompous +stride and exaggerated sentiment; they were neither human nor +tolerable likenesses of humanity, but fantastic maskers, rendering +heroism and nature alike ridiculous by the grave absurdity of their +pretensions to such attributes; and as for the peerless dream-lady, +behold! there advanced up the saloon, with a movement like a jointed +doll, a sort of wax-figure of an angel, a creature as cold as +moonshine, an artifice in petticoats, with an intellect of pretty +phrases and only the semblance of a heart, yet in all these +particulars the true type of a young man's imaginary mistress. +Hardly could the host's punctilious courtesy restrain a smile as he +paid his respects to this unreality and met the sentimental glance +with which the Dream sought to remind him of their former love +passages. + +"No, no, fair lady," murmured he betwixt sighing and smiling; "my +taste is changed; I have learned to love what Nature makes better +than my own creations in the guise of womanhood." + +"Ah, false one," shrieked the dream-lady, pretending to faint, but +dissolving into thin air, out of which came the deplorable murmur of +her voice, "your inconstancy has annihilated me." + +"So be it," said the cruel Man of Fancy to himself; "and a good +riddance too." + +Together with these shadows, and from the same region, there came an +uninvited multitude of shapes which at any time during his life had +tormented the Man of Fancy in his moods of morbid melancholy or had +haunted him in the delirium of fever. The walls of his castle in +the air were not dense enough to keep them out, nor would the +strongest of earthly architecture have availed to their exclusion. +Here were those forms of dim terror which had beset him at the +entrance of life, waging warfare with his hopes; here were strange +uglinesses of earlier date, such as haunt children in the night- +time. He was particularly startled by the vision of a deformed old +black woman whom he imagined as lurking in the garret of his native +home, and who, when he was an infant, had once come to his bedside +and grinned at him in the crisis of a scarlet fever. This same +black shadow, with others almost as hideous, now glided among the +pillars of the magnificent saloon, grinning recognition, until the +man shuddered anew at the forgotten terrors of his childhood. It +amused him, however, to observe the black woman, with the +mischievous caprice peculiar to such beings, steal up to the chair +of the Oldest Inhabitant and peep into his half-dreamy mind. + +"Never within my memory," muttered that venerable personage, aghast, +"did I see such a face." + +Almost immediately after the unrealities just described, arrived a +number of guests whom incredulous readers may be inclined to rank +equally among creatures of imagination. The most noteworthy were an +incorruptible Patriot; a Scholar without pedantry; a Priest without +worldly ambition; and a Beautiful Woman without pride or coquetry; a +Married Pair whose life had never been disturbed by incongruity of +feeling; a Reformer untrammelled by his theory; and a Poet who felt +no jealousy towards other votaries of the lyre. In truth, however, +the host was not one of the cynics who consider these patterns of +excellence, without the fatal flaw, such rarities in the world; and +he had invited them to his select party chiefly out of humble +deference to the judgment of society, which pronounces them almost +impossible to be met with. + +"In my younger days," observed the Oldest Inhabitant, "such +characters might be seen at the corner of every street." + +Be that as it might, these specimens of perfection proved to be not +half so entertaining companions as people with the ordinary +allowance of faults. + +But now appeared a stranger, whom the host had no sooner recognized +than, with an abundance of courtesy unlavished on any other, he +hastened down the whole length of the saloon in order to pay him +emphatic honor. Yet he was a young man in poor attire, with no +insignia of rank or acknowledged eminence, nor anything to +distinguish him among the crowd except a high, white forehead, +beneath which a pair of deep-set eyes were glowing with warm light. +It was such a light as never illuminates the earth save when a great +heart burns as the household fire of a grand intellect. And who was +he?--who but the Master Genius for whom our country is looking +anxiously into the mist of Time, as destined to fulfil the great +mission of creating an American literature, hewing it, as it were, +out of the unwrought granite of our intellectual quarries? From +him, whether moulded in the form of an epic poem or assuming a guise +altogether new as the spirit itself may determine, we are to receive +our first great original work, which shall do all that remains to be +achieved for our glory among the nations. How this child of a +mighty destiny had been discovered by the Man of Fancy it is of +little consequence to mention. Suffice it that he dwells as yet +unhonored among men, unrecognized by those who have known him from +his cradle; the noble countenance which should be distinguished by a +halo diffused around it passes daily amid the throng of people +toiling and troubling themselves about the trifles of a moment, and +none pay reverence to the worker of immortality. Nor does it matter +much to him, in his triumph over all the ages, though a generation +or two of his own times shall do themselves the wrong to disregard +him. + +By this time Monsieur On-Dit had caught up the stranger's name and +destiny and was busily whispering the intelligence among the other +guests. + +"Pshaw!" said one. "There can never be an American genius." + +"Pish!" cried another. "We have already as good poets as any in the +world. For my part, I desire to see no better." + +And the Oldest Inhabitant, when it was proposed to introduce him to +the Master Genius, begged to be excused, observing that a man who +had been honored with the acquaintance of Dwight, and Freneau, and +Joel Barlow, might be allowed a little austerity of taste. + +The saloon was now fast filling up by the arrival of other +remarkable characters, among whom were noticed Davy Jones, the +distinguished nautical personage, and a rude, carelessly dressed, +harum-scarum sort of elderly fellow, known by the nickname of Old +Harry. The latter, however, after being shown to a dressing-room, +reappeared with his gray hair nicely combed, his clothes brushed, a +clean dicky on his neck, and altogether so changed in aspect as to +merit the more respectful appellation of Venerable Henry. Joel Doe +and Richard Roe came arm in arm, accompanied by a Man of Straw, a +fictitious indorser, and several persons who had no existence except +as voters in closely contested elections. The celebrated Seatsfield, +who now entered, was at first supposed to belong to the same +brotherhood, until he made it apparent that he was a real man of +flesh and blood and had his earthly domicile in Germany. Among the +latest comers, as might reasonably be expected, arrived a guest from +the far future. + +"Do you know him? do you know him?" whispered Monsieur On-Dit, who +seemed to be acquainted with everybody. "He is the representative +of Posterity,--the man of an age to come." + +"And how came he here?" asked a figure who was evidently the +prototype of the fashion-plate in a magazine, and might be taken to +represent the vanities of the passing moment. "The fellow infringes +upon our rights by coming before his time." + +"But you forget where we are," answered the Man of Fancy, who +overheard the remark. "The lower earth, it is true, will be +forbidden ground to him for many long years hence; but a castle in +the air is a sort of no-man's-land, where Posterity may make +acquaintance with us on equal terms." + +No sooner was his identity known than a throng of guests gathered +about Posterity, all expressing the most generous interest in his +welfare, and many boasting of the sacrifices which they had made, or +were willing to make, in his behalf. Some, with as much secrecy as +possible, desired his judgment upon certain copies of verses or +great manuscript rolls of prose; others accosted him with the +familiarity of old friends, taking it for granted that he was +perfectly cognizant of their names and characters. At length, +finding himself thus beset, Posterity was put quite beside his +patience. + +"Gentlemen, my good friends," cried he, breaking loose from a misty +poet who strove to hold him by the button, "I pray you to attend to +your own business, and leave me to take care of mine! I expect to +owe you nothing, unless it be certain national debts, and other +encumbrances and impediments, physical and moral, which I shall find +it troublesome enough to remove from my path. As to your verses, +pray read them to your contemporaries. Your names are as strange to +me as your faces; and even were it otherwise,--let me whisper you a +secret,--the cold, icy memory which one generation may retain of +another is but a poor recompense to barter life for. Yet, if your +heart is set on being known to me, the surest, the only method is, +to live truly and wisely for your own age, whereby, if the native +force be in you, you may likewise live for posterity." + +"It is nonsense," murmured the Oldest Inhabitant, who, as a man of +the past, felt jealous that all notice should be withdrawn from +himself to be lavished on the future, "sheer nonsense, to waste so +much thought on what only is to be." + +To divert the minds of his guests, who were considerably abashed by +this little incident, the Man of Fancy led them through several +apartments of the castle, receiving their compliments upon the taste +and varied magnificence that were displayed in each. One of these +rooms was filled with moonlight, which did not enter through the +window, but was the aggregate of all the moonshine that is scattered +around the earth on a summer night while no eyes are awake to enjoy +its beauty. Airy spirits had gathered it up, wherever they found it +gleaming on the broad bosom of a lake, or silvering the meanders of +a stream, or glimmering among the wind-stirred boughs of a wood, and +had garnered it in this one spacious hall. Along the walls, +illuminated by the mild intensity of the moonshine, stood a +multitude of ideal statues, the original conceptions of the great +works of ancient or modern art, which the sculptors did but +imperfectly succeed in putting into marble; for it is not to be +supposed that the pure idea of an immortal creation ceases to exist; +it is only necessary to know where they are deposited in order to +obtain possession of them.--In the alcoves of another vast apartment +was arranged a splendid library, the volumes of which were +inestimable, because they consisted, not of actual performances, but +of the works which the authors only planned, without ever finding +the happy season to achieve them. To take familiar instances, here +were the untold tales of Chaucer's Canterbury Pilgrims; the +unwritten cantos of the Fairy Queen; the conclusion of Coleridge's +Christabel; and the whole of Dryden's projected epic on the subject +of King Arthur. The shelves were crowded; for it would not be too +much to affirm that every author has imagined and shaped out in his +thought more and far better works than those which actually +proceeded from his pen. And here, likewise, where the unrealized +conceptions of youthful poets who died of the very strength of their +own genius before the world had caught one inspired murmur from +their lips. + +When the peculiarities of the library and statue-gallery were +explained to the Oldest Inhabitant, he appeared infinitely +perplexed, and exclaimed, with more energy than usual, that he had +never heard of such a thing within his memory, and, moreover, did +not at all understand how it could be. + +"But my brain, I think," said the good old gentleman, "is getting +not so clear as it used to be. You young folks, I suppose, can see +your way through these strange matters. For my part, I give it up." + +"And so do I," muttered the Old Harry. "It is enough to puzzle the +--Ahem!" + +Making as little reply as possible to these observations, the Man of +Fancy preceded the company to another noble saloon, the pillars of +which were solid golden sunbeams taken out of the sky in the first +hour in the morning. Thus, as they retained all their living +lustre, the room was filled with the most cheerful radiance +imaginable, yet not too dazzling to be borne with comfort and +delight. The windows were beautifully adorned with curtains made of +the many-colored clouds of sunrise, all imbued with virgin light, +and hanging in magnificent festoons from the ceiling to the floor. +Moreover, there were fragments of rainbows scattered through the +room; so that the guests, astonished at one another, reciprocally +saw their heads made glorious by the seven primary hues; or, if they +chose,--as who would not?--they could grasp a rainbow in the air and +convert it to their own apparel and adornment. But the morning +light and scattered rainbows were only a type and symbol of the real +wonders of the apartment. By an influence akin to magic, yet +perfectly natural, whatever means and opportunities of joy are +neglected in the lower world had been carefully gathered up and +deposited in the saloon of morning sunshine. As may well be +conceived, therefore, there was material enough to supply, not +merely a joyous evening, but also a happy lifetime, to more than as +many people as that spacious apartment could contain. The company +seemed to renew their youth; while that pattern and proverbial +standard of innocence, the Child Unborn, frolicked to and fro among +them, communicating his own unwrinkled gayety to all who had the +good fortune to witness his gambols. + +"My honored friends," said the Man of Fancy, after they had enjoyed +themselves awhile, "I am now to request your presence in the +banqueting-hall, where a slight collation is awaiting you." + +"Ah, well said!" ejaculated a cadaverous figure, who had been +invited for no other reason than that he was pretty constantly in +the habit of dining with Duke Humphrey. "I was beginning to wonder +whether a castle in the air were provided with a kitchen." + +It was curious, in truth, to see how instantaneously the guests were +diverted from the high moral enjoyments which they had been tasting +with so much apparent zest by a suggestion of the more solid as well +as liquid delights of the festive board. They thronged eagerly in +the rear of the host, who now ushered them into a lofty and +extensive hall, from end to end of which was arranged a table, +glittering all over with innumerable dishes and drinking-vessels of +gold. It is an uncertain point whether these rich articles of plate +were made for the occasion out of molten sunbeams, or recovered from +the wrecks of Spanish galleons that had lain for ages at the bottom +of the sea. The upper end of the table was overshadowed by a +canopy, beneath which was placed a chair of elaborate magnificence, +which the host himself declined to occupy, and besought his guests +to assign it to the worthiest among them. As a suitable homage to +his incalculable antiquity and eminent distinction, the post of +honor was at first tendered to the Oldest Inhabitant. He, however, +eschewed it, and requested the favor of a bowl of gruel at a side +table, where he could refresh himself with a quiet nap. There was +some little hesitation as to the next candidate, until Posterity +took the Master Genius of our country by the hand and led him to the +chair of state beneath the princely canopy. When once they beheld +him in his true place, the company acknowledged the justice of the +selection by a long thunder-roll of vehement applause. + +Then was served up a banquet, combining, if not all the delicacies +of the season, yet all the rarities which careful purveyors had met +with in the flesh, fish, and vegetable markets of the land of +Nowhere. The bill of fare being unfortunately lost, we can only +mention a phoenix, roasted in its own flames, cold potted birds of +paradise, ice-creams from the Milky-Way, and whip syllabubs and +flummery from the Paradise of Fools, whereof there was a very great +consumption. As for drinkables, the temperance people contented +themselves with water as usual; but it was the water of the Fountain +of Youth; the ladies sipped Nepenthe; the lovelorn, the careworn, +and the sorrow-stricken were supplied with brimming goblets of Lethe; +and it was shrewdly conjectured that a certain golden vase, from +which only the more distinguished guests were invited to partake, +contained nectar that had been mellowing ever since the days of +classical mythology. The cloth being removed, the company, as +usual, grew eloquent over their liquor and delivered themselves of a +succession of brilliant speeches,--the task of reporting which we +resign to the more adequate ability of Counsellor Gill, whose +indispensable co-operation the Man of Fancy had taken the precaution +to secure. + +When the festivity of the banquet was at its most ethereal point, +the Clerk of the Weather was observed to steal from the table and +thrust his head between the purple and golden curtains of one of the +windows. + +"My fellow-guests," he remarked aloud, after carefully noting the +signs of the night, "I advise such of you as live at a distance to +be going as soon as possible; for a thunder-storm is certainly at +hand." + +"Mercy on me!" cried Mother Carey, who had left her brood of +chickens and come hither in gossamer drapery, with pink silk +stockings. "How shall I ever get home?" + +All now was confusion and hasty departure, with but little +superfluous leave-taking. The Oldest Inhabitant, however, true to +the rule of those long past days in which his courtesy had been +studied, paused on the threshold of the meteor-lighted hall to +express his vast satisfaction at the entertainment. + +"Never, within my memory," observed the gracious old gentleman, "has +it been my good fortune to spend a pleasanter evening or in more +select society." + +The wind here took his breath away, whirled his three-cornered hat +into infinite space, and drowned what further compliments it had +been his purpose to bestow. Many of the company had bespoken will- +o'-the-wisps to convoy them home; and the host, in his general +beneficence, had engaged the Man in the Moon, with an immense horn- +lantern, to be the guide of such desolate spinsters as could do no +better for themselves. But a blast of the rising tempest blew out +all their lights in the twinkling of an eye. How, in the darkness +that ensued, the guests contrived to get back to earth, or whether +the greater part of them contrived to get back at all, or are still +wandering among clouds, mists, and puffs of tempestuous wind, +bruised by the beams and rafters of the overthrown castle in the +air, and deluded by all sorts of unrealities, are points that +concern themselves much more than the writer or the public. People +should think of these matters before they trust themselves on a +pleasure-party into the realm of Nowhere. + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, A SELECT PARTY *** +By Nathaniel Hawthorne + +* This file should be named haw4910.txt or haw4910.zip ** + +Corrected EDITIONS of our etexts get a new NUMBER, haw4911.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, haw4910a.txt + +This eBook was produced by David Widger [widger@cecomet.net] + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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