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diff --git a/old/9236.txt b/old/9236.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c8e9773 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/9236.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1430 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Main Street, 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: Main Street + +Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne + +Posting Date: December 20, 2010 [EBook #9236] +Release Date: November, 2005 +First Posted: September 18, 2003 +Last Updated: February 6, 2007 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MAIN STREET *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger. HTML version by Al Haines + + + + + + + + + + THE SNOW-IMAGE + + AND + + OTHER TWICE-TOLD TALES + + + MAIN STREET + + By + + Nathaniel Hawthorne + + + + +Respectable-looking individual makes his bow and addresses the public. +In my daily walks along the principal street of my native town, it has +often occurred to me, that, if its growth from infancy upward, and the +vicissitude of characteristic scenes that have passed along this +thoroughfare during the more than two centuries of its existence, could +be presented to the eye in a shifting panorama, it would bean exceedingly +effective method of illustrating the march of time. Acting on this idea, +I have contrived a certain pictorial exhibition, somewhat in the nature +of a puppet-show, by means of which I propose to call up the multiform +and many-colored Past before the spectator, and show him the ghosts of +his forefathers, amid a succession of historic incidents, with no greater +trouble than the turning of a crank. Be pleased, therefore, my indulgent +patrons, to walk into the show-room, and take your seats before yonder +mysterious curtain. The little wheels and springs of my machinery have +been well oiled; a multitude of puppets are dressed in character, +representing all varieties of fashion, from the Puritan cloak and jerkin +to the latest Oak Hall coat; the lamps are trimmed, and shall brighten +into noontide sunshine, or fade away in moonlight, or muffle their +brilliancy in a November cloud, as the nature of the scene may require; +and, in short, the exhibition is just ready to commence. Unless +something should go wrong,--as, for instance, the misplacing of a +picture, whereby the people and events of one century might be thrust +into the middle of another; or the breaking of a wire, which would bring +the course of time to a sudden period,--barring, I say, the casualties to +which such a complicated piece of mechanism is liable,--I flatter myself, +ladies and gentlemen,--that the performance will elicit your generous +approbation. + +Ting-a-ting-ting! goes the bell; the curtain rises; and we behold-not, +indeed, the Main Street--but the track of leaf-strewn forest-land over +which its dusty pavement is hereafter to extend. + +You perceive, at a glance, that this is the ancient and primitive +wood,--the ever-youthful and venerably old,--verdant with new twigs, yet +hoary, as it were, with the snowfall of innumerable years, that have +accumulated upon its intermingled branches. The white man's axe has never +smitten a single tree; his footstep has never crumpled a single one of the +withered leaves, which all the autumns since the flood have been harvesting +beneath. Yet, see! along through the vista of impending boughs, there is +already a faintly traced path, running nearly east and west, as if a +prophecy or foreboding of the future street had stolen into the heart of +the solemn old wood. Onward goes this hardly perceptible track, now +ascending over a natural swell of land, now subsiding gently into a +hollow; traversed here by a little streamlet, which glitters like a snake +through the gleam of sunshine, and quickly hides itself among the +underbrush, in its quest for the neighboring cove; and impeded there by +the massy corpse of a giant of the forest, which had lived out its +incalculable term of life, and been overthrown by mere old age, and lies +buried in the new vegetation that is born of its decay. What footsteps +can have worn this half-seen path? Hark! Do we not hear them now +rustling softly over the leaves? We discern an Indian woman,--a majestic +and queenly woman, or else her spectral image does not represent her +truly,--for this is the great Squaw Sachem, whose rule, with that of her +sons, extends from Mystic to Agawam. That red chief, who stalks by her +side, is Wappacowet, her second husband, the priest and magician, whose +incantations shall hereafter affright the pale-faced settlers with grisly +phantoms, dancing and shrieking in the woods, at midnight. But greater +would be the affright of the Indian necromancer, if, mirrored in the pool +of water at his feet, he could catch a prophetic glimpse of the noonday +marvels which the white man is destined to achieve; if he could see, as +in a dream, the stone front of the stately hall, which will cast its +shadow over this very spot; if he could be aware that the future edifice +will contain a noble Museum, where, among countless curiosities of earth +and sea, a few Indian arrow-heads shall be treasured up as memorials of a +vanished race! + +No such forebodings disturb the Squaw Sachem and Wappacowet. They pass +on, beneath the tangled shade, holding high talk on matters of state and +religion, and imagine, doubtless, that their own system of affairs will +endure forever. Meanwhile, how full of its own proper life is the scene +that lies around them! The gray squirrel runs up the trees, and rustles +among the upper branches. Was not that the leap of a deer? And there is +the whirr of a partridge! Methinks, too, I catch the cruel and stealthy +eye of a wolf, as he draws back into yonder impervious density of +underbrush. So, there, amid the murmur of boughs, go the Indian queen +and the Indian priest; while the gloom of the broad wilderness impends +over them, and its sombre mystery invests them as with something +preternatural; and only momentary streaks of quivering sunlight, once in +a great while, find their way down, and glimmer among the feathers in +their dusky hair. Can it be that the thronged street of a city will ever +pass into this twilight solitude,--over those soft heaps of the decaying +tree-trunks, and through the swampy places, green with water-moss, and +penetrate that hopeless entanglement of great trees, which have been +uprooted and tossed together by a whirlwind? It has been a wilderness +from the creation. Must it not be a wilderness forever? + +Here an acidulous-looking gentleman in blue glasses, with bows of Berlin +steel, who has taken a seat at the extremity of the front row, begins, at +this early stage of the exhibition, to criticise. + +"The whole affair is a manifest catchpenny!" observes he, scarcely under +his breath. "The trees look more like weeds in a garden than a primitive +forest; the Squaw Sachem and Wappacowet are stiff in their pasteboard +joints; and the squirrels, the deer, and the wolf move with all the +grace of a child's wooden monkey, sliding up and down a stick." + +"I am obliged to you, sir, for the candor of your remarks," replies the +showman, with a bow. "Perhaps they are just. Human art has its limits, +and we must now and then ask a little aid from the spectator's +imagination." + +"You will get no such aid from mine," responds the critic. "I make it a +point to see things precisely as they are. But come! go ahead! the stage +is waiting!" + +The showman proceeds. + +Casting our eyes again over the scene, we perceive that strangers have +found their way into the solitary place. In more than one spot, among +the trees, an upheaved axe is glittering in the sunshine. Roger Conant, +the first settler in Naumkeag, has built his dwelling, months ago, on the +border of the forest-path; and at this moment he comes eastward through +the vista of woods, with his gun over his shoulder, bringing home the +choice portions of a deer. His stalwart figure, clad in a leathern +jerkin and breeches of the same, strides sturdily onward, with such an +air of physical force and energy that we might almost expect the very +trees to stand aside, and give him room to pass. And so, indeed, they +must; for, humble as is his name in history, Roger Conant still is of +that class of men who do not merely find, but make, their place in the +system of human affairs; a man of thoughtful strength, he has planted the +germ of a city. There stands his habitation, showing in its rough +architecture some features of the Indian wigwam, and some of the +log-cabin, and somewhat, too, of the straw-thatched cottage in Old England, +where this good yeoman had his birth and breeding. The dwelling is +surrounded by a cleared space of a few acres, where Indian corn grows +thrivingly among the stumps of the trees; while the dark forest hems it +in, and scenes to gaze silently and solemnly, as if wondering at the +breadth of sunshine which the white man spreads around him. An Indian, +half hidden in the dusky shade, is gazing and wondering too. + +Within the door of the cottage you discern the wife, with her ruddy +English cheek. She is singing, doubtless, a psalm tune, at her household +work; or, perhaps she sighs at the remembrance of the cheerful gossip, +and all the merry social life, of her native village beyond the vast and +melancholy sea. Yet the next moment she laughs, with sympathetic glee, +at the sports of her little tribe of children; and soon turns round, with +the home-look in her face, as her husband's foot is heard approaching the +rough-hewn threshold. How sweet must it be for those who have an Eden in +their hearts, like Roger Conant and his wife, to find a new world to +project it into, as they have, instead of dwelling among old haunts of +men, where so many household fires have been kindled and burnt out, that +the very glow of happiness has something dreary in it! Not that this +pair are alone in their wild Eden, for here comes Goodwife Massey, the +young spouse of Jeffrey Massey, from her home hard by, with an infant at +her breast. Dame Conant has another of like age; and it shall hereafter +be one of the disputed points of history which of these two babies was +the first town-born child. + +But see! Roger Conant has other neighbors within view. Peter Palfrey +likewise has built himself a house, and so has Balch, and Norman, and +Woodbury. Their dwellings, indeed,--such is the ingenious contrivance of +this piece of pictorial mechanism,--seem to have arisen, at various +points of the scene, even while we have been looking at it. The +forest-track, trodden more and more by the hobnailed shoes of these sturdy +and ponderous Englishmen, has now a distinctness which it never could have +acquired from the light tread of a hundred times as many Indian +moccasins. It will be a street, anon! As we observe it now, it goes +onward from one clearing to another, here plunging into a shadowy strip +of woods, there open to the sunshine, but everywhere showing a decided +line, along which human interests have begun to hold their career. Over +yonder swampy spot, two trees have been felled, and laid side by side to +make a causeway. In another place, the axe has cleared away a confused +intricacy of fallen trees and clustered boughs, which had been tossed +together by a hurricane. So now the little children, just beginning to +run alone, may trip along the path, and not often stumble over an +impediment, unless they stray from it to gather wood-berries beneath the +trees. And, besides the feet of grown people and children, there are the +cloven hoofs of a small herd of cows, who seek their subsistence from the +native grasses, and help to deepen the track of the future thoroughfare. +Goats also browse along it, and nibble at the twigs that thrust +themselves across the way. Not seldom, in its more secluded portions, +where the black shadow of the forest strives to hide the trace of +human-footsteps, stalks a gaunt wolf, on the watch for a kid or a young +calf; or fixes his hungry gaze on the group of children gathering berries, +and can hardly forbear to rush upon them. And the Indians, coming from +their distant wigwams to view the white man's settlement, marvel at the +deep track which he makes, and perhaps are saddened by a flitting +presentiment that this heavy tread will find its way over all the land; +and that the wild-woods, the wild wolf, and the wild Indian will alike be +trampled beneath it. Even so shall it be. The pavements of the Main +Street must be laid over the red man's grave. + +Behold! here is a spectacle which should be ushered in by the peal of +trumpets, if Naumkeag had ever yet heard that cheery music, and by the +roar of cannon, echoing among the woods. A procession,--for, by its +dignity, as marking an epoch in the history of the street, it deserves +that name,--a procession advances along the pathway. The good ship +Abigail has arrived from England, bringing wares and merchandise, for the +comfort of the inhabitants, and traffic with the Indians; bringing +passengers too, and, more important than all, a governor for the new +settlement. Roger Conant and Peter Palfrey, with their companions, have +been to the shore to welcome him; and now, with such honor and triumph as +their rude way of life permits, are escorting the sea-flushed voyagers to +their habitations. At the point where Endicott enters upon the scene, +two venerable trees unite their branches high above his head; thus +forming a triumphal arch of living verdure, beneath which he pauses, with +his wife leaning on his arm, to catch the first impression of their +new-found home. The old settlers gaze not less earnestly at him, than he +at the hoary woods and the rough surface of the clearings. They like his +bearded face, under the shadow of the broad-brimmed and steeple-crowned +Puritan hat;--a visage resolute, grave, and thoughtful, yet apt to kindle +with that glow of a cheerful spirit by which men of strong character are +enabled to go joyfully on their proper tasks. His form, too, as you see +it, in a doublet and hose of sad-colored cloth, is of a manly make, fit +for toil and hardship, and fit to wield the heavy sword that hangs from +his leathern belt. His aspect is a better warrant for the ruler's office +than the parchment commission which he bears, however fortified it may be +with the broad seal of the London council. Peter Palfrey nods to Roger +Conant. "The worshipful Court of Assistants have done wisely," say they +between themselves. "They have chosen for our governor a man out of a +thousand." Then they toss up their hats,--they, and all the uncouth +figures of their company, most of whom are clad in skins, inasmuch as +their old kersey and linsey-woolsey garments have been torn and tattered +by many a long month's wear,--they all toss up their hats, and salute +their new governor and captain with a hearty English shout of welcome. +We seem to hear it with our own ears, so perfectly is the action +represented in this life-like, this almost magic picture! But have you +observed the lady who leans upon the arm of Endicott?---a rose of beauty +from an English garden, now to be transplanted to a fresher soil. It may +be that, long years--centuries indeed--after this fair flower shall have +decayed, other flowers of the same race will appear in the same soil, and +gladden other generations with hereditary beauty. Does not the vision +haunt us yet? Has not Nature kept the mould unbroken, deeming it a pity +that the idea should vanish from mortal sight forever, after only once +assuming earthly substance? Do we not recognize, in that fair woman's +face, a model of features which still beam, at happy meets, on what was +then the woodland pathway, but has out since grown into a busy street? + +"This is too ridiculous!--positively insufferable!" mutters the same +critic who had before expressed his disapprobation. "Here is a +pasteboard figure, such as a child would cut out of a card, with a pair +of very dull scissors; and the fellow modestly requests us to see in it +the prototype of hereditary beauty!" + +"But, sir, you have not the proper point of view," remarks the showman. +"You sit altogether too near to get the best effect of my pictorial +exhibition. Pray, oblige me by removing to this other bench, and I +venture assure you the proper light and shadow will transform the +spectacle into quite another thing." + +"Pshaw!" replies the critic; "I want no other light and shade. I have +already told you that it is my business to see things just as they are." + +"I would suggest to the author of this ingenious exhibition," observes a +gentlemanly person, who has shown signs of being much interested,--"I +would suggest that Anna Gower, the first wife of Governor Endicott, and +who came with him from England, left no posterity; and that, +consequently, we cannot be indebted to that honorable lady for any +specimens of feminine loveliness now extant among us." + +Having nothing to allege against this genealogical objection, the showman +points again to the scene. + +During this little interruption, you perceive that the Anglo-Saxon +energy--as the phrase now goes--has been at work in the spectacle before +us. So many chimneys now send up their smoke, that it begins to have the +aspect of a village street; although everything is so inartificial and +inceptive, that it seems as if one returning wave of the wild nature +might overwhelm it all. But the one edifice which gives the pledge of +permanence to this bold enterprise is seen at the central point of the +picture. There stands the meeting-house, a small structure, low-roofed, +without a spire, and built of rough timber, newly hewn, with the sap +still in the logs, and here and there a strip of bark adhering to them. +A meaner temple was never consecrated to the worship of the Deity. With +the alternative of kneeling beneath the awful vault of the firmament, it +is strange that men should creep into this pent-up nook, and expect God's +presence there. Such, at least, one would imagine, might be the feeling +of these forest-settlers, accustomed, as they had been, to stand under +the dim arches of vast cathedrals, and to offer up their hereditary +worship in the old ivy-covered churches of rural England, around which +lay the bones of many generations of their forefathers. How could they +dispense with the carved altar-work?--how, with the pictured windows, +where the light of common day was hallowed by being transmitted through +the glorified figures of saints?--how, with the lofty roof, imbued, as it +must have been, with the prayers that had gone upward for centuries?--how, +with the rich peal of the solemn organ, rolling along the aisles, +pervading the whole church, and sweeping the soul away on a flood of +audible religion? They needed nothing of all this. Their house of +worship, like their ceremonial, was naked, simple, and severe. But the +zeal of a recovered faith burned like a lamp within their hearts, +enriching everything around them with its radiance; making of these new +walls, and this narrow compass, its own cathedral; and being, in itself, +that spiritual mystery and experience, of which sacred architecture, +pictured windows, and the organ's grand solemnity are remote and +imperfect symbols. All was well, so long as their lamps were freshly +kindled at heavenly flame. After a while, however, whether in their time +or their children's, these lamps began to burn more dimly, or with a less +genuine lustre; and then it might be seen how hard, cold, and confined +was their system,--how like an iron cage was that which they called +Liberty. + +Too much of this. Look again at the picture, and observe how the +aforesaid Anglo-Saxon energy is now trampling along the street, and +raising a positive cloud of dust beneath its sturdy footsteps. For there +the carpenters are building a new house, the frame of which was hewn and +fitted in England, of English oak, and sent hither on shipboard; and here +a blacksmith makes huge slang and clatter on his anvil, shaping out tools +and weapons; and yonder a wheelwright, who boasts himself a London +workman, regularly bred to his handicraft, is fashioning a set of +wagon-wheels, the track of which Wall soon be visible. The wild forest is +shrinking back; the street has lost the aromatic odor of the pine-trees, +and of the sweet-fern that grew beneath them. The tender and modest +wild-flowers, those gentle children of savage nature that grew pale +beneath the ever-brooding shade, have shrank away and disappeared, like +stars that vanish in the breadth of light. Gardens are fenced in, and +display pumpkin-beds and rows of cabbages and beans; and, though the +governor and the minister both view them with a disapproving eye, plants +of broad-leaved tobacco, which the cultivators are enjoined to use +privily, or not at all. No wolf, for a year past, has been heard to +bark, or known to range among the dwellings, except that single one, +whose grisly head, with a plash of blood beneath it, is now affixed to +the portal of the meeting-house. The partridge has ceased to run across +the too-frequented path. Of all the wild life that used to throng here, +only the Indians still come into the settlement, bringing the skins of +beaver and otter, bear and elk, which they sell to Endicott for the wares +of England. And there is little John Massey, the son of Jeffrey Massey +and first-born of Naumkeag, playing beside his father's threshold, a +child of six or seven years old. Which is the better-grown infant,--the +town or the boy? + +The red men have become aware that the street is no longer free to them, +save by the sufferance and permission of the settlers. Often, to impress +them with an awe of English power, there is a muster and training of the +town-forces, and a stately march of the mail-clad band, like this which +we now see advancing up the street. There they come, fifty of them, or +more; all with their iron breastplates and steel caps well burnished, and +glimmering bravely against the sun; their ponderous muskets on their +shoulders, their bandaliers about their waists, their lighted matches in +their hands, and the drum and fife playing cheerily before them. See! do +they not step like martial men? Do they not manoeuvre like soldiers who +have seen stricken fields? And well they may; for this band is composed +of precisely such materials as those with which Cromwell is preparing to +beat down the strength of a kingdom; and his famous regiment of Ironsides +might be recruited from just such men. In everything, at this period, +New England was the essential spirit and flower of that which was about +to become uppermost in the mother-country. Many a bold and wise man lost +the fame which would have accrued to him in English history, by crossing +the Atlantic with our forefathers. Many a valiant captain, who might +have been foremost at Marston Moor or Naseby, exhausted his martial ardor +in the command of a log-built fortress, like that which you observe on +the gently rising ground at the right of the pathway,--its banner +fluttering in the breeze, and the culverins and sakers showing their +deadly muzzles over the rampart. + +A multitude of people were now thronging to New England: some, because +the ancient and ponderous framework of Church and State threatened to +crumble down upon their heads; others, because they despaired of such a +downfall. Among those who came to Naumkeag were men of history and +legend, whose feet leave a track of brightness along any pathway which +they have trodden. You shall behold their life-like images--their +spectres, if you choose so to call them--passing, encountering with a +familiar nod, stopping to converse together, praying, bearing weapons, +laboring or resting from their labors, in the Main Street. Here, now, +comes Hugh Peters, an earnest, restless man, walking swiftly, as being +impelled by that fiery activity of nature which shall hereafter thrust +him into the conflict of dangerous affairs, make him the chaplain and +counsellor of Cromwell, and finally bring him to a bloody end. He +pauses, by the meetinghouse, to exchange a greeting with Roger Williams, +whose face indicates, methinks, a gentler spirit, kinder and more +expansive, than that of Peters; yet not less active for what he discerns +to be the will of God, or the welfare of mankind. And look! here is a +guest for Endicott, coming forth out of the forest, through which he has +been journeying from Boston, and which, with its rude branches, has +caught hold of his attire, and has wet his feet with its swamps and +streams. Still there is something in his mild and venerable, though not +aged presence--a propriety, an equilibrium, in Governor Winthrop's +nature--that causes the disarray of his costume to be unnoticed, and +gives us the same impression as if he were clad in such rave and rich +attire as we may suppose him to have worn in the Council Chamber of the +colony. Is not this characteristic wonderfully perceptible in our +spectral representative of his person? But what dignitary is this +crossing from the other side to greet the governor? A stately personage, +in a dark velvet cloak, with a hoary beard, and a gold chain across his +breast; he has the authoritative port of one who has filled the highest +civic station in the first of cities. Of all men in the world, we should +least expect to meet the Lord Mayor of London--as Sir Richard Saltonstall +has been, once and again--in a forest-bordered settlement of the western +wilderness. + +Farther down the street, we see Emanuel Downing, a grave and worthy +citizen, with his son George, a stripling who has a career before him; +his shrewd and quick capacity and pliant conscience shall not only exalt +him high, but secure him from a downfall. Here is another figure, on +whose characteristic make and expressive action I will stake the credit +of my pictorial puppet-show. + +Have you not already detected a quaint, sly humor in that face,--an +eccentricity in the manner,--a certain indescribable waywardness,--all +the marks, in short, of an original man, unmistakably impressed, yet kept +down by a sense of clerical restraint? That is Nathaniel Ward, the +minister of Ipswich, but better remembered as the simple cobbler of +Agawam. He hammered his sole so faithfully, and stitched his +upper-leather so well, that the shoe is hardly yet worn out, though thrown +aside for some two centuries past. And next, among these Puritans and +Roundheads, we observe the very model of a Cavalier, with the curling +lovelock, the fantastically trimmed beard, the embroidery, the ornamented +rapier, the gilded dagger, and all other foppishnesses that distinguished +the wild gallants who rode headlong to their overthrow in the cause of +King Charles. This is Morton of Merry Mount, who has come hither to hold +a council with Endicott, but will shortly be his prisoner. Yonder pale, +decaying figure of a white-robed woman, who glides slowly along the +street, is the Lady Arabella, looking for her own grave in the virgin +soil. That other female form, who seems to be talking--we might almost +say preaching or expounding--in the centre of a group of profoundly +attentive auditors, is Ann Hutchinson. And here comes Vane-- + +"But, my dear sir," interrupts the same gentleman who before questioned +the showman's genealogical accuracy, "allow me to observe that these +historical personages could not possibly have met together in the Main +Street. They might, and probably did, all visit our old town, at one +time or another, but not simultaneously; and you have fallen into +anachronisms that I positively shudder to think of!" + +"The fellow," adds the scarcely civil critic, "has learned a bead-roll of +historic names, whom he lugs into his pictorial puppet-show, as he calls +it, helter-skelter, without caring whether they were contemporaries or +not,--and sets them all by the ears together. But was there ever such a +fund of impudence? To hear his running commentary, you would suppose +that these miserable slips of painted pasteboard, with hardly the +remotest outlines of the human figure, had all the character and +expression of Michael Angele's pictures. Well! go on, sir!" + +"Sir, you break the illusion of the scene," mildly remonstrates the +showman. + +"Illusion! What illusion?" rejoins the critic, with a contemptuous +snort. "On the word of a gentleman, I see nothing illusive in the +wretchedly bedaubed sheet of canvas that forms your background, or in +these pasteboard slips that hitch and jerk along the front. The only +illusion, permit me to say, is in the puppet-showman's tongue,--and that +but a wretched one, into the bargain!" + +"We public men," replies the showman, meekly, "must lay our account, +sometimes, to meet an uncandid severity of criticism. But--merely for +your own pleasure, sir--let me entreat you to take another point of view. +Sit farther back, by that young lady, in whose face I have watched the +reflection of every changing scene; only oblige me by sitting there; and, +take my word for it, the slips of pasteboard shall assume spiritual life, +and the bedaubed canvas become an airy and changeable reflex of what it +purports to represent." + +"I know better," retorts the critic, settling himself in his seat, with +sullen but self-complacent immovableness. "And, as for my own pleasure, +I shall best consult it by remaining precisely where I am." + +The showman bows, and waves his hand; and, at the signal, as if time and +vicissitude had been awaiting his permission to move onward, the mimic +street becomes alive again. + +Years have rolled over our scene, and converted the forest-track into a +dusty thoroughfare, which, being intersected with lanes and cross-paths, +may fairly be designated as the Main Street. On the ground-sites of many +of the log-built sheds, into which the first settlers crept for shelter, +houses of quaint architecture have now risen. These later edifices are +built, as you see, in one generally accordant style, though with such +subordinate variety as keeps the beholder's curiosity excited, and causes +each structure, like its owner's character, to produce its own peculiar +impression. Most of them have a huge chimney in the centre, with flues +so vast that it must have been easy for the witches to fly out of them as +they were wont to do, when bound on an aerial visit to the Black Man in +the forest. Around this great chimney the wooden house clusters itself, +in a whole community of gable-ends, each ascending into its own karate +peak; the second story, with its lattice-windows, projecting over the +first; and the door, which is perhaps arched, provided on the outside +with an iron hammer, wherewith the visitor's hand may give a thundering +rat-a-tat. + +The timber framework of these houses, as compared with those of recent +date, is like the skeleton of an old giant, beside the frail bones of a +modern man of fashion. Many of them, by the vast strength and soundness +of their oaken substance, have been preserved through a length of time +which would have tried the stability of brick and stone; so that, in all +the progressive decay and continual reconstruction of the street, down +our own days, we shall still behold these old edifices occupying their +long-accustomed sites. For instance, on the upper corner of that green +lane which shall hereafter be North Street, we see the Curwen House, +newly built, with the carpenters still at work on the roof nailing down +the last sheaf of shingles. On the lower corner stands another +dwelling,--destined, at some period of its existence, to be the abode of +an unsuccessful alchemist,--which shall likewise survive to our own +generation, and perhaps long outlive it. Thus, through the medium of +these patriarchal edifices, we have now established a sort of kindred and +hereditary acquaintance with the Main Street. + +Great as is the transformation produced by a short term of years, each +single day creeps through the Puritan settlement sluggishly enough. It +shall pass before your eyes, condensed into the space of a few moments. +The gray light of early morning is slowly diffusing itself over the +scene; and the bellman, whose office it is to cry the hour at the +street-corners, rings the last peal upon his hand bell, and goes wearily +homewards, with the owls, the bats, and other creatures of the night. +Lattices are thrust back on their hinges, as if the town were opening its +eyes, in the summer morning. Forth stumbles the still drowsy cowherd, +with his horn; putting which to his lips, it emits a bellowing bray, +impossible to be represented in the picture, but which reaches the +pricked-up ears of every cow in the settlement, and tells her that the +dewy pasture-hour is come. House after house awakes, and sends the smoke +up curling from its chimney, like frosty breath from living nostrils; and +as those white wreaths of smoke, though impregnated with earthy +admixtures, climb skyward, so, from each dwelling, does the morning +worship--its spiritual essence, bearing up its human imperfection--find +its way to the heavenly Father's throne. + +The breakfast-hour being passed, the inhabitants do not, as usual, go to +their fields or workshops, but remain within doors; or perhaps walk the +street, with a grave sobriety, yet a disengaged and unburdened aspect, +that belongs neither to a holiday nor a Sabbath. And, indeed, this +passing day is neither, nor is it a common week-day, although partaking +of all the three. It is the Thursday Lecture; an institution which New +England has long ago relinquished, and almost forgotten, yet which it +would have been better to retain, as bearing relations to both the +spiritual and ordinary life, and bringing each acquainted with the other. +The tokens of its observance, however, which here meet our eyes, are of +rather a questionable cast. It is, in one sense, a day of public shame; +the day on which transgressors, who have made themselves liable to the +minor severities of the Puritan law receive their reward of ignominy. At +this very moment, this constable has bound an idle fellow to the +whipping-post, and is giving him his deserts with a cat-o'-nine tails. +Ever since sunrise, Daniel Fairfield has been standing on the steps of +the meeting-house, with a halter about his neck, which he is condemned to +wear visibly throughout his lifetime; Dorothy Talby is chained to a post +at the corner of Prison Lane, with the hot sun blazing on her matronly +face, and all for no other offence than lifting her hand against her +husband; while, through the bars of that great wooden cage, in the centre +of the scene, we discern either a human being or a wild beast, or both in +one, whom this public infamy causes to roar, and gnash his teeth, and +shake the strong oaken bars, as if he would breakforth, and tear in +pieces the little children who have been peeping at him. Such are the +profitable sights that serve the good people to while away the earlier +part of lecture-day. Betimes in the forenoon, a traveller--the first +traveller that has come hitherward this morning-rides slowly into the +street on his patient steed. He seems a clergyman; and, as he draws +near, we recognize the minister of Lynn, who was pre-engaged to lecture +here, and has been revolving his discourse, as he rode through the hoary +wilderness. Behold, now, the whole town thronging into the meeting-house, +mostly with such sombre visages that the sunshine becomes little +better than a shadow when it falls upon them. There go the Thirteen Men, +grim rulers of a grim community! There goes John Massey, the first +town-born child, now a youth of twenty, whose eye wanders with peculiar +interest towards that buxom damsel who comes up the steps at the same +instant. There hobbles Goody Foster, a sour and bitter old beldam, +looking as if she went to curse, and not to pray, and whom many of her +neighbors suspect of taking an occasional airing on a broomstick. There, +too, slinking shamefacedly in, you observe that same poor do-nothing and +good-for-nothing whom we saw castigated just now at the whipping-post. +Last of all, there goes the tithing-man, lugging in a couple of small +boys, whom he has caught at play beneath God's blessed sunshine, in a +back lane. What native of Naumkeag, whose recollections go back more +than thirty years, does not still shudder at that dark ogre of his +infancy, who perhaps had long ceased to have an actual existence, but +still lived in his childish belief, in a horrible idea, and in the +nurse's threat, as the Tidy Man! + +It will be hardly worth our while to wait two, or it may be three, +turnings of the hour-glass, for the conclusion of the lecture. +Therefore, by my control over light and darkness, I cause the dusk, and +then the starless night, to brood over the street; and summon forth again +the bellman, with his lantern casting a gleam about his footsteps, to +pace wearily from corner to corner, and shout drowsily the hour to drowsy +or dreaming ears. Happy are we, if for nothing else, yet because we did +not live in those days. In truth, when the first novelty and stir of +spirit had subsided,--when the new settlement, between the forest-border +and the sea, had become actually a little town,--its daily life must have +trudged onward with hardly anything to diversify and enliven it, while +also its rigidity could not fail to cause miserable distortions of the +moral nature. Such a life was sinister to the intellect, and sinister to +the heart; especially when one generation had bequeathed its religious +gloom, and the counterfeit of its religious ardor, to the next; for these +characteristics, as was inevitable, assumed the form both of hypocrisy +and exaggeration, by being inherited from the example and precept of +other human beings, and not from an original and spiritual source. The +sons and grandchildren of the first settlers were a race of lower and +narrower souls than their progenitors had been. The latter were stern, +severe, intolerant, but not superstitious, not even fanatical; and +endowed, if any men of that age were, with a far-seeing worldly sagacity. +But it was impossible for the succeeding race to grow up, in heaven's +freedom, beneath the discipline which their gloomy energy of character +had established; nor, it may be, have we even yet thrown off all the +unfavorable influences which, among many good ones, were bequeathed to us +by our Puritan forefathers. Let us thank God for having given us such +ancestors; and let each successive generation thank him, not less +fervently, for being one step further from them in the march of ages. + +"What is all this?" cries the critic. "A sermon? If so, it is not in +the bill." + +"Very true," replies the showman; "and I ask pardon of the audience." + +Look now at the street, and observe a strange people entering it. Their +garments are torn and disordered, their faces haggard, their figures +emaciated; for they have made their way hither through pathless deserts, +suffering hunger and hardship, with no other shelter thin a hollow tree, +the lair of a wild beast, or an Indian wigwam. Nor, in the most +inhospitable and dangerous of such lodging-places, was there half the +peril that awaits them in this thoroughfare of Christian men, with those +secure dwellings and warm hearths on either side of it, and yonder +meeting-house as the central object of the scene. These wanderers have +received from Heaven a gift that, in all epochs of the world, has brought +with it the penalties of mortal suffering and persecution, scorn, enmity, +and death itself;--a gift that, thus terrible to its possessors, has ever +been most hateful to all other men, since its very existence seems to +threaten the overthrow of whatever else the toilsome ages have built +up;--the gift of a new idea. You can discern it in them, illuminating +their faces--their whole persons, indeed, however earthly and +cloddish--with a light that inevitably shines through, and makes the +startled community aware that these men are not as they themselves +are,--not brethren nor neighbors of their thought. Forthwith, it is as +if an earthquake rumbled through the town, making its vibrations felt at +every hearthstone, and especially causing the spire of the meeting-house +to totter. The Quakers have come. We are in peril! See! they trample +upon our wise and well-established laws in the person of our chief +magistrate; for Governor Endicott is passing, now an aged man, and +dignified with long habits of authority,--and not one of the irreverent +vagabonds has moved his bat. Did you note the ominous frown of the +white-bearded Puritan governor, as he turned himself about, and, in his +anger, half uplifted the staff that has become a needful support to his +old age? Here comes old Mr. Norris, our venerable minister. Will they +doff their hats, and pay reverence to him? No: their hats stick fast +to their ungracious heads, as if they grew there; and--impious varlets +that they are, and worse than the heathen Indians!--they eye our reverend +pastor with a peculiar scorn, distrust, unbelief, and utter denial of his +sanctified pretensions, of which he himself immediately becomes conscious; +the more bitterly conscious, as he never knew nor dreamed of the like +before. + +But look yonder! Can we believe our eyes? A Quaker woman, clad in +sackcloth, and with ashes on her head, has mounted the steps of the +meeting-house. She addresses the people in a wild, shrill voice,--wild +and shrill it must be to suit such a figure,--which makes them tremble +and turn pale, although they crowd open-mouthed to hear her. She is bold +against established authority; she denounces the priest and his +steeple-house. Many of her hearers are appalled; some weep; and others +listen with a rapt attention, as if a living truth had now, for the first +time, forced its way through the crust of habit, reached their hearts, and +awakened them to life. This matter must be looked to; else we have +brought our faith across the seas with us in vain; and it had been better +that the old forest were still standing here, waving its tangled boughs +and murmuring to the sky out of its desolate recesses, instead of this +goodly street, if such blasphemies be spoken in it. + +So thought the old Puritans. What was their mode of action may be partly +judged from the spectacles which now pass before your eyes. Joshua +Buffum is standing in the pillory. Cassandra Southwick is led to prison. +And there a woman, it is Ann Coleman,--naked from the waist upward, and +bound to the tail of a cart, is dragged through the Main Street at the +pace of a brisk walk, while the constable follows with a whip of knotted +cords. A strong-armed fellow is that constable; and each time that he +flourishes his lash in the air, you see a frown wrinkling and twisting +his brow, and, at the same instant, a smile upon his lips. He loves his +business, faithful officer that he is, and puts his soul into every +stroke, zealous to fulfil the injunction of Major Hawthorne's warrant, in +the spirit and to the letter. There came down a stroke that has drawn +blood! Ten such stripes are to be given in Salem, ten in Boston, and ten +in Dedham; and, with those thirty stripes of blood upon her, she is to be +driven into the forest. The crimson trail goes wavering along the Main +Street; but Heaven grant that, as the rain of so many years has wept upon +it, time after time, and washed it all away, so there may have been a dew +of mercy, to cleanse this cruel blood-stain out of the record of the +persecutor's life! + +Pass on, thou spectral constable, and betake thee to thine own place of +torment. Meanwhile, by the silent operation of the mechanism behind the +scenes, a considerable space of time would seem to have lapsed over the +street. The older dwellings now begin to look weather-beaten, through +the effect of the many eastern storms that have moistened their unpainted +shingles and clapboards, for not less than forty years. Such is the age +we would assign to the town, judging by the aspect of John Massey, the +first town-born child, whom his neighbors now call Goodman Massey, and +whom we see yonder, a grave, almost autumnal-looking man, with children +of his own about him. To the patriarchs of the settlement, no doubt, the +Main Street is still but an affair of yesterday, hardly more antique, +even if destined to be more permanent, than a path shovelled through the +snow. But to the middle-aged and elderly men who came hither in +childhood or early youth, it presents the aspect of a long and +well-established work, on which they have expended the strength and ardor +of their life. And the younger people, native to the street, whose +earliest recollections are of creeping over the paternal threshold, and +rolling on the grassy margin of the track, look at it as one of the +perdurable things of our mortal state,--as old as the hills of the great +pasture, or the headland at the harbor's mouth. Their fathers and +grandsires tell them how, within a few years past, the forest stood here, +with but a lonely track beneath its tangled shade. Vain legend! They +cannot make it true and real to their conceptions. With them, moreover, +the Main Street is a street indeed, worthy to hold its way with the +thronged and stately avenues of cities beyond the sea. The old Puritans +tell them of the crowds that hurry along Cheapside and Fleet Street and +the Strand, and of the rush of tumultuous life at Temple Bar. They +describe London Bridge, itself a street, with a row of houses on each side. +They speak of the vast structure of the Tower, and the solemn grandeur of +Westminster Abbey. The children listen, and still inquire if the streets +of London are longer and broader than the one before their father's door; +if the Tower is bigger than the jail in Prison Lane; if the old Abbey +will hold a larger congregation than our meeting-house. Nothing +impresses them, except their own experience. + +It seems all a fable, too, that wolves have ever prowled here; and not +less so, that the Squaw Sachem, and the Sagamore her son, once ruled over +this region, and treated as sovereign potentates with the English +settlers, then so few and storm-beaten, now so powerful. There stand +some school-boys, you observe, in a little group around a drunken Indian, +himself a prince of the Squaw Sachem's lineage. He brought hither some +beaver-skins for sale, and has already swallowed the larger portion of +their price, in deadly draughts of firewater. Is there not a touch of +pathos in that picture? and does it not go far towards telling the whole +story of the vast growth and prosperity of one race, and the fated decay +of another?--the children of the stranger making game of the great Squaw +Sachem's grandson! + +But the whole race of red men have not vanished with that wild princess +and her posterity. This march of soldiers along the street betokens the +breaking out of King Philip's war; and these young men, the flower of +Essex, are on their way to defend the villages on the Connecticut; where, +at Bloody Brook, a terrible blow shall be smitten, and hardly one of that +gallant band be left alive. And there, at that stately mansion, with its +three peaks in front, and its two little peaked towers, one on either +side of the door, we see brave Captain Gardner issuing forth, clad in his +embroidered buff-coat, and his plumed cap upon his head. His trusty +sword, in its steel scabbard, strikes clanking on the doorstep. See how +the people throng to their doors and windows, as the cavalier rides past, +reining his mettled steed so gallantly, and looking so like the very soul +and emblem of martial achievement,--destined, too, to meet a warrior's +fate, at the desperate assault on the fortress of the Narragansetts! + +"The mettled steed looks like a pig," interrupts the critic, "and Captain +Gardner himself like the Devil, though a very tame one, and +on a most diminutive scale." + +"Sir, sir!" cries the persecuted showman, losing all patience,--for, +indeed, he had particularly prided himself on these figures of Captain +Gardner and his horse,--"I see that there is no hope of pleasing you. +Pray, sir, do me the favor to take back your money, and withdraw!" + +"Not I!" answers the unconscionable critic. "I am just beginning to get +interested in the matter. Come! turn your crank, and grind out a few +more of these fooleries!" + +The showman rubs his brow impulsively, whisks the little rod with which +he points out the notabilities of the scene, but, finally, with the +inevitable acquiescence of all public servants, resumes his composure and +goes on. + +Pass onward, onward, Time! Build up new houses here, and tear down thy +works of yesterday, that have already the rusty moss upon them! Summon +forth the minister to the abode of the young maiden, and bid him unite +her to the joyful bridegroom! Let the youthful parents carry their +first-born to the meeting-house, to receive the baptismal rite! Knock at +the door, whence the sable line of the funeral is next to issue! Provide +other successive generations of men, to trade, talk, quarrel, or walk in +friendly intercourse along the street, as their fathers did before them! +Do all thy daily and accustomed business, Father Time, in this +thoroughfare, which thy footsteps, for so many years, have now made +dusty! But here, at last, thou leadest along a procession which, once +witnessed, shall appear no more, and be remembered only as a hideous +dream of thine, or a frenzy of thy old brain. + +"Turn your crank, I say," bellows the remorseless critic, "and grind it +out, whatever it be, without further preface!" + +The showman deems it best to comply. + +Then, here comes the worshipful Captain Curwen, sheriff of Essex, on +horseback, at the head of an armed guard, escorting a company of +condemned prisoners from the jail to their place of execution on Gallows +Hill. The witches! There is no mistaking them! The witches! As they +approach up Prison Lane, and turn into the Main Street, let us watch +their faces, as if we made a part of the pale crowd that presses so +eagerly about them, yet shrinks back with such shuddering dread, leaving +an open passage betwixt a dense throng on either side. Listen to what +the people say. + +There is old George Jacobs, known hereabouts, these sixty years, as a man +whom we thought upright in all his way of life, quiet, blameless, +a good husband before his pious wife was summoned from the evil to come, +and a good father to the children whom she left him. Ah! but when that +blessed woman went to heaven, George Jacobs's heart was empty, his hearth +lonely, his life broken tip; his children were married, and betook +themselves to habitations of their own; and Satan, in his wanderings up +and down, beheld this forlorn old man, to whom life was a sameness and a +weariness, and found the way to tempt him. So the miserable sinner was +prevailed with to mount into the air, and career among the clouds; and he +is proved to have been present at a witch-meeting as far off as Falmouth, +on the very same night that his next neighbors saw him, with his +rheumatic stoop, going in at his own door. There is John Willard, too; +an honest man we thought him, and so shrewd and active in his business, +so practical, so intent on every-day affairs, so constant at his little +place of trade, where he bartered English goods for Indian corn and all +kinds of country produce! How could such a man find time, or what could +put it into his mind, to leave his proper calling, and become a wizard? +It is a mystery, unless the Black Man tempted him with great heaps of +gold. See that aged couple,--a sad sight, truly,--John Proctor, and his +wife Elizabeth. If there were two old people in all the county of Essex +who seemed to have led a true Christian life, and to be treading +hopefully the little remnant of their earthly path, it was this very +pair. Yet have we heard it sworn, to the satisfaction of the worshipful +Chief-Justice Sewell, and all the court and jury, that Proctor and his +wife have shown their withered faces at children's bedsides, mocking, +making mouths, and affrighting the poor little innocents in the +night-time. They, or their spectral appearances, have stuck pins into the +Afflicted Ones, and thrown them into deadly fainting-fits with a touch, +or but a look. And, while we supposed the old man to be reading the +Bible to his old wife,--she meanwhile knitting in the chimney-corner,--the +pair of hoary reprobates have whisked up the chimney, both on one +broomstick, and flown away to a witch-communion, far into the depths of +the chill, dark forest. How foolish! Were it only for fear of rheumatic +pains in their old bones, they had better have stayed at home. But away +they went; and the laughter of their decayed, cackling voices has been +heard at midnight, aloft in the air. Now, in the sunny noontide, as they +go tottering to the gallows, it is the Devil's turn to laugh. + +Behind these two,--who help another along, and seem to be comforting and +encouraging each other, in a manner truly pitiful, if it were not a sin +to pity the old witch and wizard,--behind them comes a woman, with a dark +proud face that has been beautiful, and a figure that is still majestic. +Do you know her? It is Martha Carrier, whom the Devil found in a humble +cottage, and looked into her discontented heart, and saw pride there, and +tempted her with his promise that she should be Queen of Hell. And now, +with that lofty demeanor, she is passing to her kingdom, and, by her +unquenchable pride, transforms this escort of shame into a triumphal +procession, that shall attend her to the gates of her infernal palace, +and seat her upon the fiery throne. Within this hour, she shall assume +her royal dignity. + +Last of the miserable train comes a man clad in black, of small stature +and a dark complexion, with a clerical band about his neck. Many a time, +in the years gone by, that face has been uplifted heavenward from the +pulpit of the East Meeting-House, when the Rev. Mr. Burroughs seemed to +worship God. What!--he? The holy man!--the learned!--the wise! How has +the Devil tempted him? His fellow-criminals, for the most part, are +obtuse, uncultivated creatures, some of them scarcely half-witted by +nature, and others greatly decayed in their intellects through age. They +were an easy prey for the destroyer. Not so with this George Burroughs, +as we judge by the inward light which glows through his dark countenance, +and, we might almost say, glorifies his figure, in spite of the soil and +haggardness of long imprisonment,--in spite of the heavy shadow that must +fall on him, while death is walking by his side. What bribe could Satan +offer, rich enough to tempt and overcome this mail? Alas! it may have +been in the very strength of his high and searching intellect, that the +Tempter found the weakness which betrayed him. He yearned for knowledge +he went groping onward into a world of mystery; at first, as the +witnesses have sworn, he summoned up the ghosts of his two dead wives, +and talked with them of matters beyond the grave; and, when their +responses failed to satisfy the intense and sinful craving of his spirit, +he called on Satan, and was heard. Yet--to look at him--who, that had +not known the proof, could believe him guilty? Who would not say, while +we see him offering comfort to the weak and aged partners of his horrible +crime,--while we hear his ejaculations of prayer, that seem to bubble up +out of the depths of his heart, and fly heavenward, unawares,--while we +behold a radiance brightening on his features as from the other world, +which is but a few steps off,--who would not say, that, over the dusty +track of the Main Street, a Christian saint is now going to a martyr's +death? May not the Arch-Fiend have been too subtle for the court and +jury, and betrayed them--laughing in his sleeve, the while--into the +awful error of pouring out sanctified blood as an acceptable sacrifice +upon God's altar? Ah! no; for listen to wise Cotton Mather, who, as he +sits there on his horse, speaks comfortably to the perplexed multitude, +and tells them that all has been religiously and justly done, and that +Satan's power shall this day receive its death-blow in New England. + +Heaven grant it be so!--the great scholar must be right; so lead the poor +creatures to their death! Do you see that group of children and +half-grown girls, and, among them, an old, hag-like Indian woman, Tituba by +me? Those are the Afflicted Ones. Behold, at this very instant, a proof +of Satan's power and malice! Mercy Parris, the minister's daughter, has +been smitten by a flash of Martha Carrier's eye, and falls down in the +street, writhing with horrible spasms and foaming at the mouth, like the +possessed one spoken of in Scripture. Hurry on the accursed witches to +the gallows, ere they do more mischief!--ere they fling out their +withered aims, and scatter pestilence by handfuls among the crowd!--ere, +as their parting legacy, they cast a blight over the land, so that +henceforth it may bear no fruit nor blade of grass, and be fit for +nothing but a sepulchre for their unhallowed carcasses! So, on they go; +and old George Jacobs has stumbled, by reason of his infirmity; but +Goodman Proctor and his wife lean on one another, and walk at a +reasonably steady pace, considering their age. Mr. Burroughs seems to +administer counsel to Martha Carrier, whose face and mien, methinks, are +milder and humbler than they were. Among the multitude, meanwhile, there +is horror, fear, and distrust; and friend looks askance at friend, and +the husband at his wife, and the wife at him, and even the mother at her +little child; as if, in every creature that God has made, they suspected +a witch, or dreaded an accuser. Never, never again, whether in this or +any other shape, may Universal Madness riot in the Main Street! + +I perceive in your eyes, my indulgent spectators, the criticism which you +are too kind to utter. These scenes, you think, are all too sombre. So, +indeed, they are; but the blame must rest on the sombre spirit of our +forefathers, who wove their web of life with hardly a single thread of +rose-color or gold, and not on me, who have a tropic-love of sunshine, +and would gladly gild all the world with it, if I knew where to find so +much. That you may believe me, I will exhibit one of the only class of +scenes, so far as my investigation has taught me, in which our ancestors +were wont to steep their tough old hearts in wine and strong drink, and +indulge an outbreak of grisly jollity. + +Here it comes, out of the same house whence we saw brave Captain Gardner +go forth to the wars. What! A coffin, borne on men's shoulders, and six +aged gentlemen as pall-bearers, and a long train of mourners, with +black gloves and black hat-bands, and everything black, save a white +handkerchief in each mourner's hand, to wipe away his tears withal. Now, +my kind patrons, you are angry with me. You were bidden to a bridal-dance, +and find yourselves walking in a funeral procession. Even so; but +look back through all the social customs of New England, in the first +century of her existence, and read all her traits of character; and if +you find one occasion, other than a funeral feast, where jollity was +sanctioned by universal practice, I will set fire to my puppet-show +without another word. These are the obsequies of old Governor +Bradstreet, the patriarch and survivor of the first settlers, who, having +intermarried with the Widow Gardner, is now resting from his labors, at +the great age of ninety-four. The white-bearded corpse, which was his +spirit's earthly garniture, now lies beneath yonder coffin-lid. Many a +cask of ale and cider is on tap, and many a draught of spiced wine and +aqua-vitae has been quaffed. Else why should the bearers stagger, as +they tremulously uphold the coffin?--and the aged pall-bearers, too, as +they strive to walk solemnly beside it?--and wherefore do the mourners +tread on one another's heels?--and why, if we may ask without offence, +should the nose of the Rev. Mr. Noyes, through which he has just been +delivering the funeral discourse, glow like a ruddy coal of fire? Well, +well, old friends! Pass on, with your burden of mortality, And lay it in +the tomb with jolly hearts. People should be permitted to enjoy +themselves in their own fashion; every man to his taste; but New England +must have been a dismal abode for the man of pleasure, when the only +boon-companion was Death! + +Under cover of a mist that has settled over the scene, a few years flit +by, and escape our notice. As the atmosphere becomes transparent, we +perceive a decrepit grandsire, hobbling along the street. Do you +recognize him? We saw him, first, as the baby in Goodwife Massey's arms, +when the primeval trees were flinging their shadow over Roger Conant's +cabin; we have seen him, as the boy, the youth, the man, bearing his +humble part in all the successive scenes, and forming the index-figure +whereby to note the age of his coeval town. And here he is, old Goodman +Massey, taking his last walk,--often pausing,--often leaning over his +staff,--and calling to mind whose dwelling stood at such and such a spot, +and whose field or garden occupied the site of those more recent houses. +He can render a reason for all the bends and deviations of the +thoroughfare, which, in its flexible and plastic infancy, was made to +swerve aside from a straight line, in order to visit every settler's +door. The Main Street is still youthful; the coeval man is in his latest +age. Soon he will be gone, a patriarch of fourscore, yet shall retain a +sort of infantine life in our local history, as the first town-born +child. + +Behold here a change, wrought in the twinkling of an eye, like an +incident in a tale of magic, even while your observation has been fixed +upon the scene. The Main Street has vanished out of sight. In its stead +appears a wintry waste of snow, with the sun just peeping over it, cold +and bright, and tingeing the white expanse with the faintest and most +ethereal rose-color. This is the Great Snow of 1717, famous for the +mountain-drifts in which it buried the whole country. It would seem as +if the street, the growth of which we have noted so attentively, +following it from its first phase, as an Indian track, until it reached +the dignity of sidewalks, were all at once obliterated, and resolved into +a drearier pathlessness than when the forest covered it. The gigantic +swells and billows of the snow have swept over each man's metes and +bounds, and annihilated all the visible distinctions of human property. +So that now the traces of former times and hitherto accomplished deeds +being done away, mankind should be at liberty to enter on new paths, and +guide themselves by other laws than heretofore; if, indeed, the race be +not extinct, and it be worth our while to go on with the march of life, +over the cold and desolate expanse that lies before us. It may be, +however, that matters are not so desperate as they appear. That vast +icicle, glittering so cheerlessly in the sunshine, must be the spire of +the meeting-house, incrusted with frozen sleet. Those great heaps, too, +which we mistook for drifts, are houses, buried up to their eaves, and +with their peaked roofs rounded by the depth of snow upon them. There, +now, comes a gush of smoke from what I judge to be the chimney of the +Ship Tavern;--and another--another--and another--from the chimneys of +other dwellings, where fireside comfort, domestic peace, the sports of +children, and the quietude of age are living yet, in spite of the frozen +crust above them. + +But it is time to change the scene. Its dreary monotony shall not test +your fortitude like one of our actual New England winters, which leaves +so large a blank--so melancholy a death-spot-in lives so brief that they +ought to be all summer-time. Here, at least, I may claim to be ruler of +the seasons. One turn of the crank shall melt away the snow from the +Main Street, and show the trees in their full foliage, the rose-bushes in +bloom, and a border of green grass along the sidewalk. There! But what! +How! The scene will not move. A wire is broken. The street continues +buried beneath the snow, and the fate of Herculaneum and Pompeii has its +parallel in this catastrophe. + +Alas! my kind and gentle audience, you know not the extent of your +misfortune. The scenes to come were far better than the past. The +street itself would have been more worthy of pictorial exhibition; the +deeds of its inhabitants not less so. And how would your interest have +deepened, as, passing out of the cold shadow of antiquity, in my long and +weary course, I should arrive within the limits of man's memory, and, +leading you at last into the sunshine of the present, should give a +reflex of the very life that is flitting past us! Your own beauty, my +fair townswomen, would have beamed upon you, out of my scene. Not a +gentleman that walks the street but should have beheld his own face and +figure, his gait, the peculiar swing of his arm, and the coat that he put +on yesterday. Then, too,--and it is what I chiefly regret,--I had +expended a vast deal of light and brilliancy on a representation of the +street in its whole length, from Buffum's Corner downward, on the night +of the grand illumination for General Taylor's triumph. Lastly, I should +have given the crank one other turn, and have brought out the future, +showing you who shall walk the Main Street to-morrow, and, perchance, +whose funeral shall pass through it! + +But these, like most other human purposes, lie unaccomplished; and I have +only further to say, that any lady or gentlemen who may feel dissatisfied +with the evening's entertainment shall receive back the admission fee at +the door. + +"Then give me mine," cries the critic, stretching out his palm. "I said +that your exhibition would prove a humbug, and so it has turned out. So, +hand over my quarter!" + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Main Street, by Nathaniel Hawthorne + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MAIN STREET *** + +***** This file should be named 9236.txt or 9236.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/9/2/3/9236/ + +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. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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