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+Project Gutenberg EBook, A Virtuoso's Collection, by Nathaniel Hawthorne
+From "Mosses From An Old Manse"
+#62 in our series by Nathaniel Hawthorne
+
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+Title: A Virtuoso's Collection (From "Mosses From An Old Manse")
+
+Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne
+
+Release Date: Nov, 2005  [EBook #9235]
+[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, VIRTUOSO'S COLLECTION ***
+
+
+
+
+This eBook was produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+                     MOSSES FROM AN OLD MANSE
+
+                      By Nathaniel Hawthorne
+
+                      A VIRTUOSO'S COLLECTION
+
+
+
+The other day, having a leisure hour at my disposal, I stepped into
+a new museum, to which my notice was casually drawn by a small and
+unobtrusive sign: "TO BE SEEN HERE, A VIRTUOSO'S COLLECTION."  Such
+was the simple yet not altogether unpromising announcement that
+turned my steps aside for a little while from the sunny sidewalk of
+our principal thoroughfare.  Mounting a sombre staircase, I pushed
+open a door at its summit, and found myself in the presence of a
+person, who mentioned the moderate sum that would entitle me to
+admittance.
+
+"Three shillings, Massachusetts tenor," said he.  "No, I mean half a
+dollar, as you reckon in these days."
+
+While searching my pocket for the coin I glanced at the doorkeeper,
+the marked character and individuality of whose aspect encouraged me
+to expect something not quite in the ordinary way.  He wore an
+old-fashioned great-coat, much faded, within which his meagre person
+was so completely enveloped that the rest of his attire was
+undistinguishable.  But his visage was remarkably wind-flushed,
+sunburnt, and weather-worn, and had a most, unquiet, nervous, and
+apprehensive expression.  It seemed as if this man had some
+all-important object in view, some point of deepest interest to be
+decided, some momentous question to ask, might he but hope for a
+reply.  As it was evident, however, that I could have nothing to do
+with his private affairs, I passed through an open doorway, which
+admitted me into the extensive hall of the museum.
+
+Directly in front of the portal was the bronze statue of a youth
+with winged feet.  He was represented in the act of flitting away
+from earth, yet wore such a look of earnest invitation that it
+impressed me like a summons to enter the hall.
+
+"It is the original statue of Opportunity, by the ancient sculptor
+Lysippus," said a gentleman who now approached me.  "I place it at
+the entrance of my museum, because it is not at all times that one
+can gain admittance to such a collection."
+
+The speaker was a middle-aged person, of whom it was not easy to
+determine whether he had spent his life as a scholar or as a man of
+action; in truth, all outward and obvious peculiarities had been
+worn away by an extensive and promiscuous intercourse with the
+world.  There was no mark about him of profession, individual
+habits, or scarcely of country; although his dark complexion and
+high features made me conjecture that he was a native of some
+southern clime of Europe. At all events, he was evidently the
+virtuoso in person.
+
+"With your permission," said he, "as we have no descriptive
+catalogue, I will accompany you through the museum and point out
+whatever may be most worthy of attention.  In the first place, here
+is a choice collection of stuffed animals."
+
+Nearest the door stood the outward semblance of a wolf, exquisitely
+prepared, it is true, and showing a very wolfish fierceness in the
+large glass eyes which were inserted into its wild and crafty head.
+Still it was merely the skin of a wolf, with nothing to distinguish
+it from other individuals of that unlovely breed.
+
+"How does this animal deserve a place in your collection?" inquired
+I.
+
+"It is the wolf that devoured Little Red Riding Hood," answered the
+virtuoso; "and by his side--with a milder and more matronly look, as
+you perceive--stands the she-wolf that suckled Romulus and Remus."
+
+"Ah, indeed!" exclaimed I.  "And what lovely lamb is this with the
+snow-white fleece, which seems to be of as delicate a texture as
+innocence itself?"
+
+"Methinks you have but carelessly read Spenser," replied my guide,
+"or you would at once recognize the 'milk-white lamb' which Una led.
+But I set no great value upon the lamb.  The next specimen is better
+worth our notice."
+
+"What!" cried I, "this strange animal, with the black head of an ox
+upon the body of a white horse?  Were it possible to suppose it, I
+should say that this was Alexander's steed Bucephalus."
+
+"The same," said the virtuoso.  "And can you likewise give a name to
+the famous charger that stands beside him?"
+
+Next to the renowned Bucephalus stood the mere skeleton of a horse,
+with the white bones peeping through his ill-conditioned hide; but,
+if my heart had not warmed towards that pitiful anatomy, I might as
+well have quitted the museum at once.  Its rarities had not been
+collected with pain and toil from the four quarters of the earth,
+and from the depths of the sea, and from the palaces and sepulchres
+of ages, for those who could mistake this illustrious steed.
+
+"It, is Rosinante!" exclaimed I, with enthusiasm.
+
+And so it proved.  My admiration for the noble and gallant horse
+caused me to glance with less interest at the other animals,
+although many of them might have deserved the notice of Cuvier
+himself.  There was the donkey which Peter Bell cudgelled so
+soundly, and a brother of the same species who had suffered a
+similar infliction from the ancient prophet Balaam.  Some doubts
+were entertained, however, as to the authenticity of the latter
+beast.  My guide pointed out the venerable Argus, that faithful dog
+of Ulysses, and also another dog (for so the skin bespoke it),
+which, though imperfectly preserved, seemed once to have had three
+heads.  It was Cerberus.  I was considerably amused at detecting in
+an obscure corner the fox that became so famous by the loss of his
+tail.  There were several stuffed cats, which, as a dear lover of
+that comfortable beast, attracted my affectionate regards.  One was
+Dr. Johnson's cat Hodge; and in the same row stood the favorite cats
+of Mahomet, Gray, and Walter Scott, together with Puss in Boots, and
+a cat of very noble aspect--who had once been a deity of ancient
+Egypt.  Byron's tame bear came next.  I must not forget to mention
+the Eryruanthean boar, the skin of St. George's dragon, and that of
+the serpent Python; and another skin with beautifully variegated
+hues, supposed to have been the garment of the "spirited sly snake,"
+which tempted Eve. Against the walls were suspended the horns of the
+stag that Shakespeare shot; and on the floor lay the ponderous shell
+of the tortoise which fell upon the head of Aeschylus.  In one row,
+as natural as life, stood the sacred bull Apis, the "cow with the
+crumpled horn," and a very wild-looking young heifer, which I guessed
+to be the cow that jumped over the moon.  She was probably killed by
+the rapidity of her descent.  As I turned away, my eyes fell upon an
+indescribable monster, which proved to be a griffin.
+
+"I look in vain," observed I, "for the skin of an animal which might
+well deserve the closest study of a naturalist,--the winged horse,
+Pegasus."
+
+"He is not yet dead," replied the virtuoso; "but he is so hard
+ridden by many young gentlemen of the day that I hope soon to add
+his skin and skeleton to my collection."
+
+We now passed to the next alcove of the hall, in which was a
+multitude of stuffed birds.  They were very prettily arranged, some
+upon the branches of trees, others brooding upon nests, and others
+suspended by wires so artificially that they seemed in the very act
+of flight.  Among them was a white dove, with a withered branch of
+olive-leaves in her mouth.
+
+"Can this be the very dove," inquired I, "that brought the message
+of peace and hope to the tempest-beaten passengers of the ark?"
+
+"Even so," said my companion.
+
+"And this raven, I suppose," continued I, "is the same that fed
+Elijah in the wilderness."
+
+"The raven?  No," said the virtuoso; "it is a bird of modern date.
+He belonged to one Barnaby Rudge, and many people fancied that the
+Devil himself was disguised under his sable plumage. But poor Grip
+has drawn his last cork, and has been forced to 'say die' at last.
+This other raven, hardly less curious, is that in which the soul of
+King George I.  revisited his lady-love, the Duchess of Kendall."
+
+My guide next pointed out Minerva's owl and the vulture that preyed
+upon the liver of Prometheus.  There was likewise the sacred ibis of
+Egypt, and one of the Stymphalides which Hercules shot in his sixth
+labor.  Shelley's skylark, Bryant's water-fowl, and a pigeon from
+the belfry of the Old South Church, preserved by N. P. Willis, were
+placed on the same perch.  I could not but shudder on beholding
+Coleridge's albatross, transfixed with the Ancient Mariner's
+crossbow shaft.  Beside this bird of awful poesy stood a gray goose
+of very ordinary aspect.
+
+"Stuffed goose is no such rarity," observed I.  "Why do you preserve
+such a specimen in your museum?"
+
+"It is one of the flock whose cackling saved the Roman Capitol,"
+answered the virtuoso.  "Many geese have cackled and hissed both
+before and since; but none, like those, have clamored themselves
+into immortality."
+
+There seemed to be little else that demanded notice in this
+department of the museum, unless we except Robinson Crusoe's parrot,
+a live phoenix, a footless bird of paradise, and a splendid peacock,
+supposed to be the same that once contained the soul of Pythagoras.
+I therefore passed to the next alcove, the shelves of which were
+covered with a miscellaneous collection of curiosities such as are
+usually found in similar establishments. One of the first things
+that took my eye was a strange-looking cap, woven of some substance
+that appeared to be neither woollen, cotton, nor linen.
+
+"Is this a magician's cap?" I asked.
+
+"No," replied the virtuoso; "it is merely Dr. Franklin's cap of
+asbestos.  But here is one which, perhaps, may suit you better. It
+is the wishing-cap of Fortunatus.  Will you try it on?"
+
+"By no means," answered I, putting it aside with my hand.  "The day
+of wild wishes is past with me.  I desire nothing that may not come
+in the ordinary course of Providence."
+
+"Then probably," returned the virtuoso, "you will not be tempted to
+rub this lamp?"
+
+While speaking, he took from the shelf an antique brass lamp,
+curiously wrought with embossed figures, but so covered with
+verdigris that the sculpture was almost eaten away.
+
+"It is a thousand years," said he, "since the genius of this lamp
+constructed Aladdin's palace in a single night.  But he still
+retains his power; and the man who rubs Aladdin's lamp has but to
+desire either a palace or a cottage."
+
+"I might desire a cottage," replied I; "but I would have it founded
+on sure and stable truth, not on dreams and fantasies.  I have
+learned to look for the real and the true."
+
+My guide next showed me Prospero's magic wand, broken into three
+fragments by the hand of its mighty master.  On the same shelf lay
+the gold ring of ancient Gyges, which enabled the wearer to walk
+invisible.  On the other side of the alcove was a tall looking-glass
+in a frame of ebony, but veiled with a curtain of purple silk,
+through the rents of which the gleam of the mirror was perceptible.
+
+"This is Cornelius Agrippa's magic glass," observed the virtuoso.
+"Draw aside the curtain, and picture any human form within your
+mind, and it will be reflected in the mirror."
+
+"It is enough if I can picture it within my mind," answered I. "Why
+should I wish it to be repeated in the mirror?  But, indeed, these
+works of magic have grown wearisome to me.  There are so many
+greater wonders in the world, to those who keep their eyes open and
+their sight undimmed by custom, that all the delusions of the old
+sorcerers seem flat and stale.  Unless you can show me something
+really curious, I care not to look further into your museum."
+
+"Ah, well, then," said the virtuoso, composedly, "perhaps you may
+deem some of my antiquarian rarities deserving of a glance."
+
+He pointed out the iron mask, now corroded with rust; and my heart
+grew sick at the sight of this dreadful relic, which had shut out a
+human being from sympathy with his race.  There was nothing half so
+terrible in the axe that beheaded King Charles, nor in the dagger
+that slew Henry of Navarre, nor in the arrow that pierced the heart
+of William Rufus,--all of which were shown to me.  Many of the
+articles derived their interest, such as it was, from having been
+formerly in the possession of royalty.  For instance, here was
+Charlemagne's sheepskin cloak, the flowing wig of Louis Quatorze,
+the spinning-wheel of Sardanapalus, and King Stephen's famous
+breeches which cost him but a crown.  The heart of the Bloody Mary,
+with the word "Calais" worn into its diseased substance, was
+preserved in a bottle of spirits; and near it lay the golden case in
+which the queen of Gustavus Adolphus treasured up that hero's heart.
+Among these relics and heirlooms of kings I must not forget the
+long, hairy ears of Midas, and a piece of bread which had been
+changed to gold by the touch of that unlucky monarch.  And as
+Grecian Helen was a queen, it may here be mentioned that I was
+permitted to take into my hand a lock of her golden hair and the
+bowl which a sculptor modelled from the curve of her perfect breast.
+Here, likewise, was the robe that smothered Agamemnon, Nero's
+fiddle, the Czar Peter's brandy-bottle, the crown of Semiramis, and
+Canute's sceptre which he extended over the sea.  That my own land
+may not deem itself neglected, let me add that I was favored with a
+sight of the skull of King Philip, the famous Indian chief, whose
+head the Puritans smote off and exhibited upon a pole.
+
+"Show me something else," said I to the virtuoso.  "Kings are in
+such an artificial position that people in the ordinary walks of
+life cannot feel an interest in their relics.  If you could show me
+the straw hat of sweet little Nell, I would far rather see it than a
+king's golden crown."
+
+"There it is," said my guide, pointing carelessly with his staff to
+the straw hat in question.  "But, indeed, you are hard to please.
+Here are the seven-league boots.  Will you try them on?"
+
+"Our modern railroads have superseded their use," answered I; "and
+as to these cowhide boots, I could show you quite as curious a pair
+at the Transcendental community in Roxbury."
+
+We next examined a collection of swords and other weapons, belonging
+to different epochs, but thrown together without much attempt at
+arrangement.  Here Was Arthur's sword Excalibar, and that of the Cid
+Campeader, and the sword of Brutus rusted with Caesar's blood and
+his own, and the sword of Joan of Arc, and that of Horatius, and
+that with which Virginius slew his daughter, and the one which
+Dionysius suspended over the head of Damocles. Here also was Arria's
+sword, which she plunged into her own breast, in order to taste of
+death before her husband.  The crooked blade of Saladin's cimeter
+next attracted my notice.  I know not by what chance, but so it
+happened, that the sword of one of our own militia generals was
+suspended between Don Quixote's lance and the brown blade of
+Hudibras.  My heart throbbed high at the sight of the helmet of
+Miltiades and the spear that was broken in the breast of
+Epaminondas.  I recognized the shield of Achilles by its resemblance
+to the admirable cast in the possession of Professor Felton.
+Nothing in this apartment interested me more than Major Pitcairn's
+pistol, the discharge of which, at Lexington, began the war of the
+Revolution, and was reverberated in thunder around the land for
+seven long years. The bow of Ulysses, though unstrung for ages, was
+placed against the wall, together with a sheaf of Robin Hood's
+arrows and the rifle of Daniel Boone.
+
+"Enough of weapons," said I, at length; "although I would gladly
+have seen the sacred shield which fell from heaven in the time of
+Numa.  And surely you should obtain the sword which Washington
+unsheathed at Cambridge.  But the collection does you much credit.
+Let us pass on."
+
+In the next alcove we saw the golden thigh of Pythagoras, which had
+so divine a meaning; and, by one of the queer analogies to which the
+virtuoso seemed to be addicted, this ancient emblem lay on the same
+shelf with Peter Stuyvesant's wooden leg, that was fabled to be of
+silver.  Here was a remnant of the Golden Fleece, and a sprig of
+yellow leaves that resembled the foliage of a frost-bitten elm, but
+was duly authenticated as a portion of the golden branch by which
+AEneas gained admittance to the realm of Pluto.  Atalanta's golden
+apple and one of the apples of discord were wrapped in the napkin of
+gold which Rampsinitus brought from Hades; and the whole were
+deposited in the golden vase of Bias, with its inscription: "TO THE
+WISEST."
+
+"And how did you obtain this vase?" said I to the virtuoso.
+
+"It was given me long ago," replied he, with a scornful expression
+in his eye, "because I had learned to despise all things."
+
+It had not escaped me that, though the virtuoso was evidently a man
+of high cultivation, yet he seemed to lack sympathy with the
+spiritual, the sublime, and the tender.  Apart from the whim that
+had led him to devote so much time, pains, and expense to the
+collection of this museum, he impressed me as one of the hardest and
+coldest men of the world whom I had ever met.
+
+"To despise all things!" repeated I.  "This, at best, is the wisdom
+of the understanding.  It is the creed of a man whose soul, whose
+better and diviner part, has never been awakened, or has died out of
+him."
+
+"I did not think that you were still so young," said the virtuoso.
+"Should you live to my years, you will acknowledge that the vase of
+Bias was not ill bestowed."
+
+Without further discussion of the point, he directed my attention to
+other curiosities.  I examined Cinderella's little glass slipper,
+and compared it with one of Diana's sandals, and with Fanny
+Elssler's shoe, which bore testimony to the muscular character of
+her illustrious foot.  On the same shelf were Thomas the Rhymer's
+green velvet shoes, and the brazen shoe of Empedocles which was
+thrown out of Mount AEtna.  Anacreon's drinking-cup was placed in
+apt juxtaposition with one of Tom Moore's wine-glasses and Circe's
+magic bowl.  These were symbols of luxury and riot; but near them
+stood the cup whence Socrates drank his hemlock, and that which Sir
+Philip Sidney put from his death-parched lips to bestow the draught
+upon a dying soldier. Next appeared a cluster of tobacco-pipes,
+consisting of Sir Walter Raleigh's, the earliest on record, Dr.
+Parr's, Charles Lamb's, and the first calumet of peace which was
+ever smoked between a European and an Indian.  Among other musical
+instruments, I noticed the lyre of Orpheus and those of Homer and
+Sappho, Dr. Franklin's famous whistle, the trumpet of Anthony Van
+Corlear, and the flute which Goldsmith played upon in his rambles
+through the French provinces.  The staff of Peter the Hermit stood
+in a corner with that of good old Bishop Jewel, and one of ivory,
+which had belonged to Papirius, the Roman senator.  The ponderous
+club of Hercules was close at hand.  The virtuoso showed me the
+chisel of Phidias, Claude's palette, and the brush of Apelles,
+observing that he intended to bestow the former either on Greenough,
+Crawford, or Powers, and the two latter upon Washington Allston.
+There was a small vase of oracular gas from Delphos, which I trust
+will be submitted to the scientific analysis of Professor Silliman.
+I was deeply moved on beholding a vial of the tears into which Niobe
+was dissolved; nor less so on learning that a shapeless fragment of
+salt was a relic of that victim of despondency and sinful regrets,--
+Lot's wife.  My companion appeared to set great value upon some
+Egyptian darkness in a blacking-jug.  Several of the shelves were
+covered by a collection of coins, among which, however, I remember
+none but the Splendid Shilling, celebrated by Phillips, and a
+dollar's worth of the iron money of Lycurgus, weighing about fifty
+pounds.
+
+Walking carelessly onward, I had nearly fallen over a huge bundle,
+like a peddler's pack, done up in sackcloth, and very securely
+strapped and corded.
+
+"It is Christian's burden of sin," said the virtuoso.
+
+"O, pray let us open it!" cried I.  "For many a year I have longed
+to know its contents."
+
+"Look into your own consciousness and memory," replied the virtuoso.
+"You will there find a list of whatever it contains."
+
+As this was all undeniable truth, I threw a melancholy look at the
+burden and passed on.  A collection of old garments, banging on
+pegs, was worthy of some attention, especially the shirt of Nessus,
+Caesar's mantle, Joseph's coat of many colors, the Vicar of Bray's
+cassock, Goldsmith's peach-bloom suit, a pair of President
+Jefferson's scarlet breeches, John Randolph's red baize
+hunting-shirt, the drab small-clothes of the Stout Gentleman, and the
+rags of the "man all tattered and torn."  George Fox's hat impressed
+me with deep reverence as a relic of perhaps the truest apostle that
+has appeared on earth for these eighteen hundred years.  My eye was
+next attracted by an old pair of shears, which I should have taken
+for a memorial of some famous tailor, only that the virtuoso pledged
+his veracity that they were the identical scissors of Atropos.  He
+also showed me a broken hourglass which had been thrown aside by
+Father Time, together with the old gentleman's gray forelock,
+tastefully braided into a brooch.  In the hour-glass was the handful
+of sand, the grains of which had numbered the years of the Cumeean
+sibyl.  I think it was in this alcove that I saw the inkstand which
+Luther threw at the Devil, and the ring which Essex, while under
+sentence of death, sent to Queen Elizabeth.  And here was the
+blood-incrusted pen of steel with which Faust signed away his
+salvation.
+
+The virtuoso now opened the door of a closet and showed me a lamp
+burning, while three others stood unlighted by its side.  One of the
+three was the lamp of Diogenes, another that of Guy Fawkes, and the
+third that which Hero set forth to the midnight breeze in the high
+tower of Ahydos.
+
+"See!" said the virtuoso, blowing with all his force at the lighted
+lamp.
+
+The flame quivered and shrank away from his breath, but clung to the
+wick, and resumed its brilliancy as soon as the blast was exhausted.
+
+"It is an undying lamp from the tomb of Charlemagne," observed my
+guide.  "That flame was kindled a thousand years ago."
+
+"How ridiculous to kindle an unnatural light in tombs!" exclaimed I.
+"We should seek to behold the dead in the light of heaven. But what
+is the meaning of this chafing-dish of glowing coals?"
+
+"That," answered the virtuoso, "is the original fire which
+Prometheus stole from heaven.  Look steadfastly into it, and you
+will discern another curiosity."
+
+I gazed into that fire,--which, symbolically, was the origin of all
+that was bright and glorious in the soul of man,--and in the midst
+of it, behold a little reptile, sporting with evident enjoyment of
+the fervid heat!  It was a salamander.
+
+"What a sacrilege!" cried I, with inexpressible disgust.  "Can you
+find no better use for this ethereal fire than to cherish a
+loathsome reptile in it?  Yet there are men who abuse the sacred fire
+of their own souls to as foul and guilty a purpose."
+
+The virtuoso made no answer except by a dry laugh and an assurance
+that the salamander was the very same which Benvenuto Cellini had
+seen in his father's household fire.  He then proceeded to show me
+other rarities; for this closet appeared to be the receptacle of
+what he considered most valuable in his collection.
+
+"There," said he, "is the Great Carbuncle of the White Mountains."
+
+I gazed with no little interest at this mighty gem, which it had
+been one of the wild projects of my youth to discover.  Possibly it
+might have looked brighter to me in those days than now; at all
+events, it had not such brilliancy as to detain me long from the
+other articles of the museum.  The virtuoso pointed out to me a
+crystalline stone which hung by a gold chain against the wall.
+
+"That is the philosopher's stone," said he.
+
+"And have you the elixir vita which generally accompanies it?"
+inquired I.
+
+"Even so; this urn is filled with it," he replied.  "A draught would
+refresh you.  Here is Hebe's cup; will you quaff a health from it?"
+
+My heart thrilled within me at the idea of such a reviving draught;
+for methought I had great need of it after travelling so far on the
+dusty road of life.  But I know not whether it were a peculiar
+glance in the virtuoso's eye, or the circumstance that this most
+precious liquid was contained in an antique sepulchral urn, that
+made me pause.  Then came many a thought with which, in the calmer
+and better hours of life, I had strengthened myself to feel that
+Death is the very friend whom, in his due season, even the happiest
+mortal should be willing to embrace.
+
+"No; I desire not an earthly immortality," said I.
+
+"Were man to live longer on the earth, the spiritual would die out of
+him.  The spark of ethereal fire would be choked by the material,
+the sensual.  There is a celestial something within us that
+requires, after a certain time, the atmosphere of heaven to preserve
+it from decay and ruin.  I will have none of this liquid.  You do
+well to keep it in a sepulchral urn; for it would produce death
+while bestowing the shadow of life."
+
+"All this is unintelligible to me," responded my guide, with
+indifference.  "Life--earthly life--is the only good.  But you
+refuse the draught?  Well, it is not likely to be offered twice
+within one man's experience.  Probably you have griefs which you
+seek to forget in death.  I can enable you to forget them in life.
+Will you take a draught of Lethe?"
+
+As he spoke, the virtuoso took from the shelf a crystal vase
+containing a sable liquor, which caught no reflected image from the
+objects around.
+
+"Not for the world!" exclaimed I, shrinking back.  "I can spare none
+of my recollections, not even those of error or sorrow. They are all
+alike the food of my spirit.  As well never to have lived as to lose
+them now."
+
+Without further parley we passed to the next alcove, the shelves of
+which were burdened with ancient volumes and with those rolls of
+papyrus in which was treasured up the eldest wisdom of the earth.
+Perhaps the most valuable work in the collection, to a bibliomaniac,
+was the Book of Hermes.  For my part, however, I would have given a
+higher price for those six of the Sibyl's books which Tarquin
+refused to purchase, and which the virtuoso informed me he had
+himself found in the cave of Trophonius. Doubtless these old volumes
+contain prophecies of the fate of Rome, both as respects the decline
+and fall of her temporal empire and the rise of her spiritual one.
+Not without value, likewise, was the work of Anaxagoras on Nature,
+hitherto supposed to be irrecoverably lost, and the missing
+treatises of Longinus, by which modern criticism might profit, and
+those books of Livy for which the classic student has so long
+sorrowed without hope. Among these precious tomes I observed the
+original manuscript of the Koran, and also that of the Mormon Bible
+in Joe Smith's authentic autograph.  Alexander's copy of the Iliad
+was also there, enclosed in the jewelled casket of Darius, still
+fragrant of the perfumes which the Persian kept in it.
+
+Opening an iron-clasped volume, bound in black leather, I discovered
+it to be Cornelius Agrippa's book of magic; and it was rendered
+still more interesting by the fact that many flowers, ancient and
+modern, were pressed between its leaves.  Here was a rose from Eve's
+bridal bower, and all those red and white roses which were plucked
+in the garden of the Temple by the partisans of York and Lancaster.
+Here was Halleck's Wild Rose of Alloway. Cowper had contributed a
+Sensitive Plant, and Wordsworth an Eglantine, and Burns a Mountain
+Daisy, and Kirke White a Star of Bethlehem, and Longfellow a Sprig
+of Fennel, with its yellow flowers.  James Russell Lowell had given
+a Pressed Flower, but fragrant still, which had been shadowed in the
+Rhine.  There was also a sprig from Southey's Holly Tree.  One of
+the most beautiful specimens was a Fringed Gentian, which had been
+plucked and preserved for immortality by Bryant.  From Jones Very, a
+poet whose voice is scarcely heard among us by reason of its depth,
+there was a Wind Flower and a Columbine.
+
+As I closed Cornelius Agrippa's magic volume, an old, mildewed
+letter fell upon the floor.  It proved to be an autograph from the
+Flying Dutchman to his wife.  I could linger no longer among books;
+for the afternoon was waning, and there was yet much to see.  The
+bare mention of a few more curiosities must suffice. The immense
+skull of Polyphemus was recognizable by the cavernous hollow in the
+centre of the forehead where once had blazed the giant's single eye.
+The tub of Diogenes, Medea's caldron, and Psyche's vase of beauty
+were placed one within another. Pandora's box, without the lid,
+stood next, containing nothing but the girdle of Venus, which had
+been carelessly flung into it.  A bundle of birch-rods which had
+been used by Shenstone's schoolmistress were tied up with the
+Countess of Salisbury's garter.  I know not which to value most, a
+roc's egg as big as an ordinary hogshead, or the shell of the egg
+which Columbus set upon its end.  Perhaps the most delicate article
+in the whole museum was Queen Mab's chariot, which, to guard it from
+the touch of meddlesome fingers, was placed under a glass tumbler.
+
+Several of the shelves were occupied by specimens of entomology.
+Feeling but little interest in the science, I noticed only
+Anacreon's grasshopper, and a bumblebee which had been presented to
+the virtuoso by Ralph Waldo Emerson.
+
+In the part of the hall which we had now reached I observed a
+curtain, that descended from the ceiling to the floor in voluminous
+folds, of a depth, richness, and magnificence which I had never seen
+equalled.  It was not to be doubted that this splendid though dark
+and solemn veil concealed a portion of the museum even richer in
+wonders than that through which I had already passed; but, on my
+attempting to grasp the edge of the curtain and draw it aside, it
+proved to be an illusive picture.
+
+"You need not blush," remarked the virtuoso; "for that same curtain
+deceived Zeuxis.  It is the celebrated painting of Parrhasius."
+
+In a range with the curtain there were a number of other choice
+pictures by artists of ancient days.  Here was the famous cluster of
+grapes by Zeuxis, so admirably depicted that it seemed as if the
+ripe juice were bursting forth.  As to the picture of the old woman
+by the same illustrious painter, and which was so ludicrous that he
+himself died with laughing at it, I cannot say that it particularly
+moved my risibility.  Ancient humor seems to have little power over
+modern muscles.  Here, also, was the horse painted by Apelles which
+living horses neighed at; his first portrait of Alexander the Great,
+and his last unfinished picture of Venus asleep.  Each of these
+works of art, together with others by Parrhasius, Timanthes,
+Polygnotus, Apollodorus, Pausias, and Pamplulus, required more time
+and study than I could bestow for the adequate perception of their
+merits.  I shall therefore leave them undescribed and uncriticised,
+nor attempt to settle the question of superiority between ancient
+and modern art.
+
+For the same reason I shall pass lightly over the specimens of
+antique sculpture which this indefatigable and fortunate virtuoso
+had dug out of the dust of fallen empires.  Here was AEtion's cedar
+statue of AEsculapius, much decayed, and Alcon's iron statue of
+Hercules, lamentably rusted.  Here was the statue of Victory, six
+feet high, which the Jupiter Olympus of Phidias had held in his
+hand.  Here was a forefinger of the Colossus of Rhodes, seven feet
+in length.  Here was the Venus Urania of Phidias, and other images
+of male and female beauty or grandeur, wrought by sculptors who
+appeared never to have debased their souls by the sight of any
+meaner forms than those of gods or godlike mortals.  But the deep
+simplicity of these great works was not to be comprehended by a mind
+excited and disturbed, as mine was, by the various objects that had
+recently been presented to it.  I therefore turned away with merely
+a passing glance, resolving on some future occasion to brood over
+each individual statue and picture until my inmost spirit should
+feel their excellence.  In this department, again, I noticed the
+tendency to whimsical combinations and ludicrous analogies which
+seemed to influence many of the arrangements of the museum.  The
+wooden statue so well known as the Palladium of Troy was placed in
+close apposition with the wooden head of General Jackson, which was
+stolen a few years since from the bows of the frigate Constitution.
+
+We had now completed the circuit of the spacious hall, and found
+ourselves again near the door.  Feeling somewhat wearied with the
+survey of so many novelties and antiquities, I sat down upon
+Cowper's sofa, while the virtuoso threw himself carelessly into
+Rabelais's easychair.  Casting my eyes upon the opposite wall, I was
+surprised to perceive the shadow of a man flickering unsteadily
+across the wainscot, and looking as if it were stirred by some
+breath of air that found its way through the door or windows.  No
+substantial figure was visible from which this shadow might be
+thrown; nor, had there been such, was there any sunshine that would
+have caused it to darken upon the wall.
+
+"It is Peter Schlemihl's shadow," observed the virtuoso, "and one of
+the most valuable articles in my collection."
+
+"Methinks a shadow would have made a fitting doorkeeper to such a
+museum," said I; "although, indeed, yonder figure has something
+strange and fantastic about him, which suits well enough with many
+of the impressions which I have received here.  Pray, who is he?"
+
+While speaking, I gazed more scrutinizingly than before at the
+antiquated presence of the person who had admitted me, and who still
+sat on his bench with the same restless aspect, and dim, confused,
+questioning anxiety that I had noticed on my first entrance.  At
+this moment he looked eagerly towards us, and, half starting from
+his seat, addressed me.
+
+"I beseech you, kind sir," said he, in a cracked, melancholy tone,
+"have pity on the most unfortunate man in the world.  For Heaven's
+sake, answer me a single question!  Is this the town of Boston?"
+
+"You have recognized him now," said the virtuoso.  "It is Peter
+Rugg, the missing man.  I chanced to meet him the other day still in
+search of Boston, and conducted him hither; and, as he could not
+succeed in finding his friends, I have taken him into my service as
+doorkeeper.  He is somewhat too apt to ramble, but otherwise a man
+of trust and integrity."
+
+"And might I venture to ask," continued I, "to whom am I indebted
+for this afternoon's gratification?"
+
+The virtuoso, before replying, laid his hand upon an antique dart,
+or javelin, the rusty steel head of winch seemed to have been
+blunted, as if it had encountered the resistance of a tempered
+shield, or breastplate.
+
+"My name has not been without its distinction in the world for a
+longer period than that of any other man alive," answered he. "Yet
+many doubt of my existence; perhaps you will do so to-morrow.  This
+dart which I hold in my hand was once grim Death's own weapon.  It
+served him well for the space of four thousand years; but it fell
+blunted, as you see, when he directed it against my breast."
+
+These words were spoken with the calm and cold courtesy of manner
+that had characterized this singular personage throughout our
+interview.  I fancied, it is true, that there was a bitterness
+indefinably mingled with his tone, as of one cut off from natural
+sympathies and blasted with a doom that had been inflicted on no
+other human being, and by the results of which he had ceased to be
+human.  Yet, withal, it seemed one of the most terrible consequences
+of that doom that the victim no longer regarded it as a calamity,
+but had finally accepted it as the greatest good that could have
+befallen him.
+
+"You are the Wandering Jew!"  exclaimed I.
+
+The virtuoso bowed without emotion of any kind; for, by centuries of
+custom, he had almost lost the sense of strangeness in his fate, and
+was but imperfectly conscious of the astonishment and awe with which
+it affected such as are capable of death.
+
+"Your doom is indeed a fearful one!"  said I, with irrepressible
+feeling and a frankness that afterwards startled me; "yet perhaps
+the ethereal spirit is not entirely extinct under all this
+corrupted or frozen mass of earthly life.  Perhaps the immortal
+spark may yet be rekindled by a breath of heaven.  Perhaps you may
+yet be permitted to die before it is too late to live eternally.
+You have my prayers for such a consummation. Farewell."
+
+"Your prayers will be in vain," replied he, with a smile of cold
+triumph.  "My destiny is linked with the realities of earth.  You
+are welcome to your visions and shadows of a future state; but give
+me what I can see, and touch, and understand, and I ask no more."
+
+"It is indeed too late," thought I.  "The soul is dead within him."
+
+Struggling between pity and horror, I extended my hand, to which the
+virtuoso gave his own, still with the habitual courtesy of a man of
+the world, but without a single heart-throb of human brotherhood.
+The touch seemed like ice, yet I know not whether morally or
+physically.  As I departed, he bade me observe that the inner door
+of the hall was constructed with the ivory leaves of the gateway
+through which Aeneas and the Sibyl had been dismissed from Hades.
+
+
+
+
+
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